Apostle of the Sleeping Gods

by Dan Sugralinov

  You have critically damaged Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers: 20011!

  All damage absorbed by Chuff’s Impenetrable Hide, effective damage: 0.

  Zero? Why? I launched another two plague arrows into Chuff’s body, saw that my plague energy bar was getting low, then realized what I was doing wrong.

  The guys meanwhile were not panicking: Crawler started giving orders as usual, exchanging commentary with Tissa and I at the same time:

  “She’s barely moving, we can kite her! Fan out! Scyth, get her and pull her to the far wall!”

  “Twenty-four tons of life!” Tissa shouted. “We need to find her weak point...”

  Chuff was two levels lower than the memorable Murkiss, and we took him down without any cheating. But the group was stronger then, so my clanmates’ damage would be symbolic and all hope was on me. They were just too much lower level.

  I ran at Chuff, deciding to test her invulnerability in close combat. A charged-up Combo went up in smoke. Zero damage yet again.

  Sh-sh-shoop! The queen shot out long purple tentacles in every direction, hitting each of us.

  “Larva!” Infect lamented. “I got two!”

  The others also said how much debuff they’d taken, but I could no longer hear them. Four stingers poked into me at the same time, each injecting a larva into my flesh.

  Unable to control my body, I fell to the ground a formless sack. I like I was being mutilated, torn apart from inside. Blood filled my eyes and, if not for my high Resilience, I would certainly have died from the nightmarish pain alone.

  Parasites inside — 100

  Integration! At the price of your own life, you have given life to a Swamp Needler!

  With a rending crunch, a mature level-nineteen needler tore its way out of my chest. Looking at it, I couldn’t believe this was happening. The only thing helping me keep my cool was a mantra I beat into my brain saying it was not real, just a projection of a virtual world in my head.

  The birth of the parasite was accompanied by damage ten times higher than my total health, and I would have died if not for the curse.

  Damage completely absorbed by Curse of the Undead.

  The severe pain ended just as suddenly as it came on. At the same time, my hearing, vision and control over my body came back. When I could finally move again, I exploded the hovering creature that had just crawled out of me with a plague Stunning Kick. It blasted into chunks, spraying hemolymph fluid.

  After that, I looked around at the battlefield. Chuff figured I was done for and turned to the one she deemed next most dangerous, Infect. The thief tried to run from combat, turning on Dodge and Disappearance, but a tentacle came confidently at where he was and knocked him out of Stealth. When he reappeared, the thief rolled aside and fled. The queen slowly crawled after him, periodically shooting stingers at the others. Well, everyone except me.

  Only then did I hear Crawler tearing his throat to howl at me:

  “Scyth, the tentacles! The tentacles! Take out the tentacles!”

  I looked at the combat logs and noticed that, although it was only single units, damage was getting through there. Crawler, Tissa and Bomber were thrashing the tentacles with their abils!

  “Got it!” I shouted, giving in to the adrenaline-fueled commotion.

  What was I looking at here? Six hundred health per tentacle. Easy-peasy!

  I turned the three closest to me into dust with normal punches charged up with plague energy. Then, getting excited, I started shooting the rest with my bow. Every time she lost an appendage, Chuff gave a juicy sob, shuddered and tried to change position as to cover the open wound where the torn-off tentacle had been.

  Distracted by the shooting, I didn’t notice how or when Infect died, having taken most of the larva during the last blast, then getting hit by a Throw from Chuff. The others meanwhile were all focusing on one tentacle. Bomber took the boss’s aggro, hanging on its appendages and trying to just about tear it out with his teeth while Tissa bombarded it with light and Crawler with fire. The three of them together had just barely managed to take half the one tentacle’s life. And there were lots of them still fluttering around.

  “Do we really have to get rid of all of them?” I thought, driving arrows into them.

  I shot a couple dozen in less than a minute and noticed that the section of Chuff’s body that had them all chopped off was now oozing a thick brown liquid. I pulled back my bowstring and loosed an arrow into an open wound with a Quickshot.

  You have damaged Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers: 7.

  Health points: 23993/24000.

  I chuckled and shot again in the same place, adding exactly twenty-four thousand points of plague energy. Just a li-i-itle extra.

  You have critically damaged Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers: 24006!

  Health points: 0/24000.

  Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers, is dead.

  Experience points received: 150.

  Experience points at present level (15): 50/14400.

  You are now level 15!

  5 free attribute points available!

  She simply stopped moving. The remaining tentacles drooped onto the ground. The guys lit up with golden flashes. They had each earned a level, except Infect, who had been penalized six hundred experience points for dying. Everything went quiet.

  In the silence, I could hear a soft hum from Tissa, who was casting to raise the unfortunate thief.

  The greenish blue eggs in the center of the cave suddenly started shivering, but nothing hatched out. The contents just streamed out and the shells even went pale, dead.

  “Yessss!” Infect filled the cave with a roar, now back to life.

  “Yesss...” Bomber drew out with no enthusiasm. “By the way, looks like the debuff completely went away together with the boss kill! But I got another one: ‘Dead parasite inside.’ Time is three days. All my stats are lowered by sixty percent. Does everyone have that?”

  “Looks like it,” Tissa answered. “I only have nine percent.”

  “I have nothing,” I said. “A needler hatched out of me and I didn’t get any more larva...”

  I walked up to the guys and high-fived their slumping, beat-up hands. For some time, no one said anything. Killing the boss hadn’t brought what we were all expecting.

  The confused silence drew on. No one even tried to see what dropped. The guys exchanged glances and spread their arms.

  “Where’s our First Kill?” Crawler asked, his voice overcoming the rest.

  “Maybe we’re not the first?” I suggested.

  “Yeah, how could that be? We are definitely the first!” he announced with confidence. “No one had ever even seen the boss before us, much less killed it...”

  Bomber crossed his arms behind his back and thoughtfully started pacing the cave. He reached the place where Chuff came from and froze for a few seconds, looking down. Then he lifted his heavy sword and swung it with all his might at the slime-soaked earth.

  “How about that?” he shouted with a grin. “There’s a cord here like an umbilical cord leading from the wall to the boss. Well, I already...”

  “Look, look at the boss!” Tissa howled, poking Chuff with a finger.

  We turned all at once and saw the queen’s body metamorphizing, turning into the shriveled carcass of a huge insect. It looked like we were watching a very high-speed video of her corpse left out under the scorching rays of the sun: the tentacles dried out, fell off and turned to dust. The body compressed, wrinkled, shrunk and... Also turned to dust!

  Ta-da! Boom! There was such a thundering sound in the cave that my ears started ringing. The audio and visual effects from the achievements were over, but the sound in the cave was only growing louder. The former Dementors eyes all bulged as they read the notification and, the longer they read, the louder they started screaming.

  It really had to be seen to be believed! I took a few shots for clan history: Malik, walking on his hands and pumping his legs, Hung dancing a
jig around Chuff’s body, Tissa squealing and Ed laughing.

  “An achieve! Another one! A pet! Needler!” Crawler shouted. He was usually reserved but now he couldn’t hold back. “Personal! Ahhh!”

  “I came, I saw, I conquered! I came, I saw, I conquered!” Infect chanted, standing on his head. “Seventy-five attribute points! I came, I saw, I conquered!”

  Unable to resist, I gave in to the general mirth. A few moments later, we were all hugging.

  Achievement unlocked: First kill: Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers!

  Of all the players in your sandbox, you were the first to kill this final boss: Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers, level 21! Steeped in the breath of the Nether, her nature was twisted, turning her offspring into some of the most dangerous creatures in all Disgardium.

  Reward: swamp needler egg.

  Swamp Needler Egg

  Epic

  Personal item.

  Pet.

  Swamp Needlers are gigantic swamp flies, altered by the outburst of the breath of the Nether. The mutation gave their young a new appearance and made them aggressive, ruthless and immeasurably loyal to the Nest. Your pet is one of the last five of its species. Its home Nest has been destroyed, so it will be loyal to you alone.

  Time to hatch: 0/1000 experience points.

  Scyth, set the percentage of experience points you’d like to go to your pet.

  Currently: 0%.

  Achievement unlocked: I Came, I Saw, I conquered – 2!

  You got another First Kill achievement on your first try! Verily, the gods of Disgardium must not only favor you, but also want you to stand out from all other heroes!

  Reward: +10% permanent bonus to the following secondary attributes: movement speed, accuracy, dodge chance, critical damage chance, spell power and damage bonus, ranged damage.

  “Yuck, a filthy needler!” Tissa chuckled, reading the reward for the achievement. “I’m not gonna hatch mine!”

  “Not so fast, buddy,” Crawler noted. “It’s a personal combat pet! Just imagine...”

  “What if he’s a sweetie-pie?” Bomber suggested. “I’m gonna give mine a hundred percent experience just to make it hatch faster! Then I’ll have to level it up!”

  I had dismissed the suggestion to set experience points for my pet, wanting to handle it later. My whole field of vision was filled with a notifications, despite being already crammed with other windows.

  Hunters’ camp leader Garr Alt’s mission complete.

  You have killed Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers, and destroyed her nest. It’s not known if she’ll resurrect but, for now, the locals in this area can catch their breath.

  Tell hunters’ camp leader Garr Alt about your success to receive your reward.

  Experience points received for completing Nest of the Swamp Needlers: 200.

  Experience points at present level (15): 250/14400.

  All hail the hero!

  Would you like to make your name public? Doing so will give +150 reputation with the city of Tristad and +10 fame.

  “Let’s turn down the fame,” I suggested. “Okay?”

  “No question,” Crawler supported me. “We don’t need this kind of notoriety...”

  Attention all sandbox players!

  Anonymous players have completed the location Nest of the Swamp Needlers, which is near the Mire, and got First Kill of the final boss, Chuff, Queen of the Swamp Needlers! Residents and visitors of Tristad, hats off to the anonymous players! All hail the heroes! All hail the anonymous players!

  By that time, everyone was doing their own thing, digging in their interface and spending attribute points. My endurance was lagging behind, so I threw all five points there. Actively using the bow raised that skill and Quickshot by one more point. Both of them were now up to level seven. The time had come to pay trainer Conrad a visit for new moves.

  I tossed a link to I Came, I Saw, I Conquered – 2 in the clan chat. They had no idea this was my second such achievement.

  “So, what do you think?” I asked the guys.

  “Well god dang!” Bomber exclaimed. “Not too shabby!”

  “Badass! So this is your second? I hope we get one of those someday!” Crawler lit up. “When did you get the first one? Crusher?”

  “Evil from the Depths. But it gave me a hundred points. I didn’t get anything like that for Crusher or Murkiss. They just gave me a First Kill.”

  “Makes sense,” Tissa said. “Looks like they only hand them out for ins’s. They’re much harder than rare mobs.”

  “Yeah, there’s only an achieve for the first battle,” Infect confirmed. “I’ve heard of this before: you can only get it for a First Kill in your first battle with the final boss. One of my older brother’s friends got it. They gave him fifty points to place as he liked. Then he got lucky: the damager dropped out of his main static, and he took his place.”

  “And they gave us seventy-five, not fifty,” Tissa thought. “But Scyth got a whole hundred!”

  “Hm...” Ed scratched the back of his head. “That’s probably because he was very little compared to the boss back then. Like us now, but here the level difference is lower. The rewards for achieves are calculated by the AI dynamically and maybe it figured Scyth deserved double. And it gave us one and a half times more than normal.”

  “By the way, speaking of rewards!” Bomber bolted up and went over to the boss’s corpse. He stuck a hand into the loot and shouted: “Check your bags, especially you, Scyth!”

  I peeked into my bag and saw all three slots occupied. There was a Respawn Stone, a Swamp Needler Egg and a Fragment of the Seal of Shog’rassar. Approaching the boss’s corpse, I saw a quest item called Chuff’s Desiccated Stinger. I had to carry it in my hands.

  In the chat I saw a message about the loot:

  Chuff’s Hide Cape

  Epic

  Cloak.

  Armor: 5

  Gives a chance of completely reflecting damage dealt from behind.

  +14 Intelligence.

  +14 Endurance.

  +18% spell power bonus.

  +3% critical damage chance.

  Durability: 200/200.

  Requires level: 20.

  Sell price: 75 gold coins, 45 silver coins.

  Chance of losing after death reduced by 90%.

  “Nothing more?” Infect asked with furtive hope.

  “Na, that’s all,” Bomber answered.

  “Another epic rag!” Infect said woefully. “And is it gonna go to Tissa again?”

  “I wouldn’t refuse it in exchange for... The epic Axiom beat out of me,” Crawler grumbled. “But it’s more important to improve our heal! We’re already set for damage right now, as I said!”

  “Ed... Maybe you should take it?” she doubted.

  “He’s right,” I said, supporting Crawler in his difficult decision. “We can always get more gear, we have enough damage, but we need a strong heal right now. Especially in the Arena.”

  “Agreed,” Hung shot out. “Improving healing by eighteen percent will give us more than increasing Crawler’s damage. Tissa, take it...”

  We ported out of the instance right to the hunters’ camp. The thundering global notification might have aroused interest, and we didn’t want to lose the fame bonuses for nothing.

  When we laid out Chuff’s Desiccated Stinger before Garr Alt, he lost his mind for a moment. Studying the appendage in surprise for a long time, he gave it a sniff, turned his head, nodded in satisfaction then silently beckoned us to follow him.

  The hunter stopped in front of a suitcase, opened it and threw all the stingers inside. We got a message saying we’d completed the quest, increasing our reputation with the faction and city, and giving us three thousand experience points. Infect, by the way, had caught up with the rest and hit level thirteen. Then there was a material reward as well.

  “You are true heroes!” Garr Alt declared. “You young folk should consider a career in our guild! You have valor and an ability
to find solutions to the most complicated situations, and you have an implacable desire to serve for the good of society and fight dangerous monsters. All that commands a worthy price. I will send my best recommendations for each of you to Darant this very day! Whether you’re there or in any of our other camps, which there are dozens of the world over, you can always come to us without a second thought!”