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by R K Billiau

  We watched as Tim went back to the Tipi and Cora knelt down by the fire. It looked like she was consoling them, and soon enough they were talking to her and smiling. I frowned; she was up to something. I tried to Character Scan her, but she was too far away.

  “There, see? Cora is trying to help them!” he said.

  I ignored him and replied to Sarah. “The way I see it,” I said, “is we could stay here and watch, hoping there is an opening, or we go back to one of the other spawn points and find a way to draw the zombies away. I don’t know how many people are in the death trap, but the more we have to help take this camp, the better.”

  “How would we even do that?” Arnold asked.

  “These zombies are dumb, when we escaped them last time Kai and Cora just got their attention and they followed them off into the woods. We could do that again.”

  “Didn’t Kai get killed doing that? It seems like it would be trading people off, and we need to get everyone out of there if we are going to break the spawn points.”

  I kept my mouth shut about what I thought happened with Kai and Cora when they led off the zombies. “Maybe, but in order for you to create a Tribal spawn point, don’t you need everyone attuned? If we can get them all attuned it won’t matter if a few are in the death trap?”

  “That’s true, but it still doesn’t help us with the people here that aren’t in the death trap.”

  That shut me down. How were we going to free everyone?

  “Could we lead the zombies off from here?” Madison asked.

  “I don’t know, as long as Tim is here he can control them, or at least some of them….”

  “… Tim’s back!” Steve said. We turned and saw Tim wearing an additional fur and talking to Cora. He then left the circle of boulders, followed by five zombies. They trailed him to the woods toward the plains.

  “I bet he’s going to get more supplies, hunt more bison with his swarm of zombies,” I said.

  Arnold stood up. “With him gone, I bet I can get Cora to see reason. I’m sure he has a way to control her or is blackmailing her or something. I’m going to go talk to her.”

  “Are you serious right now?” I asked, incredulous. “How are you going to make it past those zombies? And what are you going to do, try to get her out? You’re being ridiculous.”

  “Hudson, I have put up with you talking bad about her, I understand how you feel and what the situation may have seemed like before, but I am the leader of this tribe. I’m telling you to stand down. Help me figure out a way to talk to her, she has to know something about Tim we can use.”

  I gritted my teeth. Cora had Arnold wrapped around her finger. Why? Maybe the only way to break that hold would be to have him see who she really was. “Fine,” I said. “I’ll stand down. But the point remains, how are we even going to get you in to talk to her?”

  He pointed to the path Tim had taken. “There’s a gap in the zombies where Tim took some with him.” I looked where he pointed and sure enough he was right.

  “If we do what you suggested earlier, and lead off a few more zombies, I might have a chance.”

  It was a stupid plan. But it was better than anything I had come up with. “You want to put someone at risk to do that?”

  “What’s the difference between someone taking a risk here or at one of the other spawn points? It’s the same risk, except that here we might get some valuable information.” I gave it some thought then opened my character sheet to review my skills and see if I had anything that could help. I palmed my forehead.

  “What is it?” Arnold asked.

  “Okay, I think I have an idea. I know how we can try your plan and not risk anyone else,” I said.

  “How?” Madison asked. “Now I’m curious.”

  “I have a skill, Core Manipulation, that I’ve never used before. It says it allows me to use cores to summon and control creatures.”

  “You can summon creatures? That’s awesome! Why didn’t you teach us?

  “I tried, but it’s an Advanced skill, and I guess my Teaching ability isn’t high enough yet.”

  “I didn’t even know there were levels of skills! How do you tell what’s Advanced or not?” Madison was grinning again, like she always did when talking about the game System, and most anything, really.

  “Is this important to talk about now?” Arnold said. “Can we get back to Cora?”

  I thought he might have had his priorities a little wrong but kept my mouth shut. “Right. Sorry. I’m not sure how it works, hold on.” I dug into my pouch and pulled out a core for a rabbit and holding it, concentrated on activating my skill. My spirit dropped, and the core disintegrated in my hands, turning into motes of light that swirled around and jumped to the ground. As we watched, the motes took on a glowing outline of a small rabbit, then solidified into the shape of the thing that we had spent so much time killing on the way here.

  You have summoned a rabbit!

  In the party screen below all the players was another section subtitled ‘Summons’ with the HP bar of my rabbit appearing in it. “Okay, this is pretty cool,” I said.

  “Pretty cool!? That’s awesome!” Madison said, reaching down to stroke the rabbit. It stayed put and accepted her ministrations with aplomb. “What can you make it do?” she asked.

  “Uh… I’m not sure, let me see.” I concentrated on the rabbit, my brow furrowing, but nothing happened. “Huh. I can’t….”

  “Does it give you a screen to control it or do you do it mentally or what?” Sarah asked.

  That gave me an idea, thinking back to the loot windows I got with Lucky Find and Scavenging. Instead of trying to control the rabbit I concentrated on a control screen and up popped a window titled ‘Pet’. On the window was several buttons, ‘Follow’ ‘Roam’ ‘Attack’ and ‘Retreat’.

  “I’ve got it now. Not a lot of options, and it seems like clunky implementation.”

  Madison smirked. “It’s probably skill level related.”

  “I bet you’re right. Well, let’s see what happens.” I selected the ‘attack’ button and a small red reticle appeared in my vision. I moved my eyes around and watched as the reticle changed shape every time I hovered over any of the mobs or players.

  I selected a zombie close to the gap and the little critter zipped away towards it. We all watched as it got closer, letting out a screech and leaping at the zombie I had targeted. There was a ripple in the line of zombies as my target and several close to it turned and attacked the rabbit. Its health disappeared almost instantly as my target pulled the rabbit into its mouth and chomped down.

  “That… wasn’t much of a distraction,” Arnold said. “Do you plan on summoning a bunch of them or something? How will that help me get into Cora?”

  “I’ve got this.” I pulled out the core for the buck that I had recently picked up. “It’s a buck, if I send it to attack, then tell it to retreat right away, it should pull off enough zombies for you to Stealth over there.”

  Arnold considered this, then nodded. “Let’s do it.”

  “Okay, Stealth up, and head that way, I’ll summon the buck once you’re about halfway there.”

  Arnold agreed and moved through the trees towards the camp. We could see his dot on the mini-map and when he was halfway to the gap, I summoned the buck.

  The core burst into a million dots of light, and then like an intense magnetic attraction pulled them, they raced together into the shape of a buck and solidified. The majestic creature stood there in front of us and shook its huge head, dust and bits of hair flying off it. It was so close we could smell the earthy, musty scent of it. It was real. As real as anything in this world was, anyway. Its antlers towered above him looking sharp and ready to skewer anyone that got in its way.

  “Oh man…. I think I’ve got like, PTSD man, that thing is freaking me out!” Steve said. I chuckled, then targeted the zombie closest to the edge of the gap and sent the buck in to attack. It took off like a rocket, moving fast, its head lowered. It
made a terrifying bleat and slammed its antlers into the zombie, lifting it high and shaking violently. I commanded it to retreat, and it turned tail, running straight for me. No! NO! Why didn’t I think of that?

  I selected the ‘Roam’ function, and the buck stopped and looked around as if it was trying to find a direction to walk in, at which point the zombie in its antlers punched it, and the buck engaged in combat again. It stood there shaking its antlers while a large group of ten or more zombies shambled their way to it, intent on feasting on the creature. The buck leapt wildly, disengaging the zombie from its antlers and spinning around to kick it, caving in its skull. It lowered its head to charge into the approaching horde. I wanted to shout to Arnold but knew that would be a bad Idea. “Everyone stay back and prepare to run if things get nasty,” I said.

  Arnold made it to the now much larger gap and removed Stealth. I watched as he stood up next to the boulder ring and called to Cora. The surprise on her face showed even from this distance and she walked over to him, drawing the attention of the others in the circle.

  He climbed over the boulder and ran to her sweeping her up in a hug, leaning in for a kiss. She seemed surprised but returned the kiss and pulled him by the hand to the group of tribe members. They all stood and greeted him and he said something and made a motion for them to sit and pulled Cora off to the side. They talked for a second while Cora made some wild gestures with her hands, pointing to the boulders, then leading him over to something I couldn’t see.

  I moved my attention back to my buck. The zombies were making short work of him. It wouldn’t last much longer and I glanced back at Arnold hoping he was done getting whatever info he could so he could make his way back. Preferably with some tribe members in tow since the gap was so large now. That should have been our plan all along now that I thought about it.

  Arnold made a gesture in our direction and I saw Cora look this way, her eyes narrowing at the sight of the buck fighting the zombies. Then, looking straight in our direction almost as if she could see us, she whipped out that same dagger she had used on me and slammed it into Arnold’s throat. Her smile turned into a malicious sneer as Arnold grasped at his neck as blood poured over his hands, and he stumbled towards the boulders. Cora shoved him hard, the waiting zombies on the other side wasted no time in grabbing him by the head, and pulled him over where he disappeared. I didn’t need to be able to see to know what happened to the poor fool.

  Rage boiled up within me. It was time to do something about Cora. I had no idea what though when a sudden thought struck me as the health bar to my buck disappeared from the party window. “Madison, Boost me and meet me at the first spawn point!” I shouted as I stood up and readied my run towards the zombies that were heading back to the circle of stones.

  “What are you doing Hudson?” she said, trepidation in her voice. The Boost dialog popped up, and I selected Strength. I spun to look her in the face, the concern on it making my heart skip a beat. Swallowing my hesitation, I moved to her, took her face in my hands and kissed her. Time slowed as my heart raced. I pulled back looking her straight in her surprised eyes. “Meet me at the first spawn point,” I repeated, and took off running. I thought that was smooth.

  “Train to zone bitch,” I whispered as I ran straight through the group of zombies, gathering up all their aggro and continued running, screaming and wildly flailing my arms to collect as many zombies as possible. I even opened my Illusory Map and made it as big as possible, waving it around like a glowing flag to draw attention. The zombies followed me, and I slammed my shoulder into the smallest boulder I could find in the circle, using my Boosted Strength to shove it out of the way and create a gap for the zombies to get in.

  “What are you doing you bastard?” Cora screamed at me, her voice shrill and angry. She tried to run, but I took aim with a rock I had in my pouch and threw as hard as I could right into her face. She screamed in pain, stopping to hold her wound, and I tackled her to hold her in place. She was surprisingly strong, and broke my hold a few times, but each time I would pull her back down. I had one thing going for me that she didn’t; I only had to keep her here long enough for my zombie friends to join our party.

  It didn’t take long for the horde of zombies streaming in to be attracted to the shrieking woman I was holding, and they descended upon us. I grinned as I saw them, mouths open, dive into us like a Sunday dinner. Just as my health bar was plummeting to zero, I gave Cora a Character Scan. What I found explained so much.

  Chapter 28

  I only got a glimpse of Cora’s scan before the menu closed as I died, but the skill that popped out at me was everything I needed to know. She lied about her carryover skill. She didn’t have Accounting, she had Manipulation.

  Manipulation - Using improper influence gained through mental distortion and emotional exploitation to your own ends. Used to control the victim to obtain benefits at their expense.

  Well that would explain how she had wrapped Arnold around her finger. And it certainly explained a lot about her romantic moves while she stole my bedroll. It made me wonder what she wanted to talk with me alone about so badly. I didn’t know the limitations of her abilities or anything about how it worked, but I suspected it was one reason I didn’t catch on to her machinations sooner. I wondered if it would be petty to tell the Chief “I told you so.” Probably. I might do it anyway.

  I had been expecting the menu to pop up offering me choices of where to spawn, instead I opened my eyes to the Adjudicators Temple. It wore an attractive dark-skinned female face now. “Ah Hudson, you have come for your first reincarnation,” it said.

  “I… er... what? What do you mean?” I stammered.

  “This is your hundred and first death, and so you must reincarnate to enter the world again. It should have happened on your last death, but something prevented me from bringing your spirit here.”

  “Oh that, I think that was the Archon of Death. It brought me to Limbo, yelled at me, gave me a Prime power and kicked me back out into the world.” I growled this out, still annoyed at the Archons abrasiveness.

  “I see. Well I will have to have words with it soon then. Due to its interference in my ability to offer you your reincarnation on your last death, I owe you a boon. Let us see.” It waved its hand and the huge stained-glass window turned into a viewport again, but this time instead of watching what was live, it showed my time in the cave teaching and learning new skills with the tribe.

  “You have been performing your duties as my vassal admirably, these Viators will surely be offered new classes upon their reincarnation. You too have learned much since you were last here. As a vassal of an archon you may choose not to reincarnate, for as long as you remain a vassal. Is this what you wish, or will you choose to reincarnate as something else?”

  This question threw me off. I had no time to do much of anything, let alone think about ditching my vassal-hood. “I will continue to be your vassal,” I said.

  It clapped its hands. “Excellent! Then I know just the boon to bestow upon you.”

  Before it could talk further, I interrupted. “How about one of those other chests that were here?” I asked.

  It laughed, its voice carrying a strange, beautiful melody. “Oh, you are a bold one. But no, I have not the ability to change that design. I can however do this.”

  Your unique Advanced class - Quaesitor: has been upgraded to rare! You now have access to 5 class skills.

  It was my turn to clap my hands. I thought it would take much longer for this upgrade to come, I must have been doing something right!

  “It is time for you to reincarnate now, since you choose to stay as my Quaesitor I will not give you class options, you may however now adjust your skills as you see fit.” It nodded at me and smiled, with a wave of its hand a screen popped up showing all the skills I knew. “Choose four skills to be your class skills now.”

  “Do I get any new skills for reincarnating?” I asked.

  It shook its head. “No, to earn
new skills you must choose a different class. Choose now.”

  So I had to select my class skills from skills I already knew. That would not make me much different than I was now, but at least I could change things up a little.

  “What happens if I change a skill out and don’t select it as a personal or secondary skill, does it lower to 0 or stay the same level?”

  It smiled at me. “A wise question, truly I have done well by choosing you as my vassal. Any skill that does not remain a class, personal, or secondary skill will retain its level but will be frozen and you will not be able to advance it.”

  My wheels were turning. “If I drop my skills that were Treasure Hunter class skills, like Illugraphy or Lucky Find, will I be able to teach them?”

  “Another good question! Those skills are still considered class skills and at your present Teaching level you cannot teach them.”

  Rats. It would have been great to teach everyone Lucky Find to give the tribe a good start after all this mess. “Wait, at my present ability? You mean if I get Teaching up high enough I’ll be able to teach class skills?” It remained silent, only staring at me. “Okay fine, that’s out of bounds. I can only pick new class skills when I reincarnate though, right? So every 100 deaths or 100 years?” It nodded at me. I had to be thoughtful about picking my skills then. Damn I wished I had learned a better skill for combat than Brawling. I had Spear Mastery and Throwing Mastery; I didn’t own a spear, and I hated getting close for combat. So that kind of limited what I could choose from. With a sigh I slotted in Throwing Mastery.

  “I sense you have some frustration,” the Adjudicator said.

  “Yeah, well. It’s not that big of a deal, I just don’t have much in the way of combat ability, and so far I have been doing way more fighting than I wanted.”

  “I see, I have something that might help you.”