The billow of black gas caused Alfred to feel a little light headed, however, he found a man in the center and quickly struck forward with his dagger.
A body fell down as he reformed underneath the covering of black miasma. The two other men immediately swiped their blades towards his location as he did a back flip and landed gently against the sands.
The men on the other side of the lake were already hopping over towards his location and a few arrows whizzed through the smoke and cleared holes in the air. Alfred took this opportunity to send out a slash into one of the men’s intestines, kicking him forward into the lake before a series of rampant attacks sent him scurrying backwards.
He kicked upwards and sent a lithe blow into the third mercenary. With a well placed [double stab] into the heart, he got a vital bonus and ended the man’s life as another series of arrows whizzed past. Looking down at the ground, he picked up the bow and arrows on the floor and quickly sent out an arrow into one of the nearing mercenary’s chest.
The sun above seemed to be covered in a haze as Alfred fired a few more successive shots.
He remembered training with the bow in arrow when his father had sent him to China. He’d been in more than one dojo because his father had worked in many cities as a consultant for powerful men. He still didn’t know what his father did, even at the age of nineteen, but he had to thank him for allowing him to learn the skills he had.
You’ve learned a new passive skill: Archer Novice
Skill level: 1
Effect: With a bow in hand you will deal an extra 1% of damage.
“That’s good to know,” Alfred said, not sure how that would affect his real world training. The game seemed to add to his skills by making him more sure of his actions. He sent out another shot and this time the arrow went directly into the penultimate warriors heart. The last warrior hoped onto the sandy river’s edge before the cooldown for stealth Walk ended.
Alfred felt bad, but couldn’t feel sorry for NPCs when his life was on the line. He sent out a blaring kick at the edge of the water fall with stealth walk activated. The Mercenary dropped to the bottom of the cliff with his arms flailing in disbelief. When he crashed sixty feet down, Alfred ended up back inside of his room. He didn’t feel the need to throw up this time, and leaned back as a calming feeling traveled throughout his arms.
[Mission Complete!]
You’ve gained a status bonus for completing a hell mission!
+1 Agility
+3 Charisma
+ 3 Vitality
Your Stealth Walk skill has leveled up to level 2!
Effect: You can now hide in plain site for two minutes. Don’t you feel special?
You’ve gained 900 (+1350) experience for completing the quest!
3x level up! (15 Stat points auto assigned)!
you’ve completed 3 / 3 hell missions and got a boost of 100% experience! Your name has been added to a select list of idiots who have taken on this challenge and survived it!
Alfred tried to ignore the sarcastic remarks, and got a bottle of water to flush down the pain he felt coursing through his body. The Mission Center would heal the players who returned with an injury. For the first time, he’d almost lost a third of his health. Luckily, because of all the hell mission bonuses his health had just broken past the 400 mark. He took a deep breath before he looked at the time.
He had to meet Vera in an hour and the mission had only taken twenty minutes to complete. He contemplated going to Bird’s Pub to take a look real quick before he walked outside and noticed a large crowd standing in front of Vera’s little complex.
She stood in the middle of them shinning like a bright ball of fire as her hair glistened in the sunlight. For some reason, he thought about their two hypothetical kids he’d seen in the trial ground. He shook his head and walked passed her. Luckily, he didn’t hear her call his name as he snuck to town. The row of boxes disappeared before he ended up on the hillside with the old man in the white hat smiling at him.
He made it to the city ten minutes after that and spotted what looked like new players strolling into town. There were hundreds of shops, restaurants, and little markets emblazoned with signs for blacksmiths and other professions. He walked up to one of the guards and asked for the location of Bird’s Pub… They spit when he said that name… one of them going as far as to feign disgust as Alfred waited patiently.
“Don’t go there! It’s fifty blocks into the heart of poverty… You’re a player, and that’s the land of reprobate NPCs and no lifers…. However, if you go down enough shit covered streets, I’m sure you’ll find it.”
“IS it really that bad,” Alfred looked at the guard, his eyes looking almost human as he nodded in response.
“Yes, it’s like going into hell, but worse! The only players you’ll find over there became slaves or life style players to save their loved ones! GO at your own risk… I’ll sell you a map of the city for 10 experience… don’t blame me for trying to level up!”
Alfred did the trade immediately and found himself with a map. The city had been built around the center square and extended in four major directions. To the south, there was downtown, and in the center of downtown was a mark for Bird’s Pup just in front of a graveyard. A small warning sign was on the map in that location warning of potential attacks from thieves and rogues. He ignored it and began to walk forward. He still had thirty minutes before he had to meet his new guild.
Chapter 6: Shadow Walker
Bird’s Pub took Alfred roughly ten minutes to get to. His Agility had just reached 40 and when he sprinted he could reach Olympic level speeds. With the sun still high in the sky, almost as if noon lasted a few extra hours in Heaven’s Gate, he walked inside of the pub. Inside, he saw a bunch of ruffians and a set of waitresses that were all donned in tight sleeveless dresses with their breasts all pushed up like a midcentury hooters. They were all beautiful in a sort of back alley kind of way. Alfred sat down at a table and scouted the room as one of the waitresses dropped a glass of water on the table.
A small man, probably no larger than one and a half meters tall was sitting just across from him with a bird tattoo on his hand. Alfred contemplated whether he should go approach the man before the waitress came back with a menu.
“If you keep staring at Bird like that, he might get angry…. He’s an old warrior from the great separation war… You are a player, so you probably don’t know about it, but you don’t want to stare at a jarhead like him.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Alfred said, looking up at the girl with dark brown hair dripping down her sides. She had a smile on that seemed to be somewhere between forced and please give me a tip. He paused for a moment before staring up and seeing a small icon next to her name.
When an icon was next to an individual, it meant that they were a player. Alfred cleared his throat as the brunette sat down at the table with him. She pointed at the menu that had been set out and rubbed at the lobster crab soup as a recommendation.
“Anyways, you look new around here… You must be surprised to see that I’m a lifestyle player working in a dangerous place like this… However, with the major influx of players, I took it for the tips from handsome men like you.”
“So you get a percentage of experience we pay with right?” Alfred noted that even the most expensive item on the menu cost less than 5 experience. “Anyways, I’m really here for a quest… if you tell me anything about Bird, I’ll leave you quite a tip.”
“Oh, you mean the war hawk?” The waitress looked back at him and grinned. “He’s an old-style assassin. His class is barely around anymore… I think it was called a Shadow Walker, but all I know is he killed a lot of people in the war.”
“What war happened exactly?” Alfred knew nothing about the game besides you could complete dream dungeons and that there were two kingdoms in his starting region. “I thought this was just a game for us to be observed?”
“Not quite that simple… The NPCs kind of do their
own thing, and the Light Bringers, or Game Makers… whatever you want to call them… I heard started the first town in Heaven’s Gate with just 200 NPCs… They… they were able to fall in love and populate if you know what I mean… I’ve even seen a few hit on me… I think if they wanted to, they might be able to seal the deal…” The waitress continued,
“So apparently there was two brothers who wanted to make separate kingdoms as a friendly competition… one brother made Hermia Kingdom and the other Larimar… It’s been 1,000 years I heard in Heaven’s Gate since then… The players only showed up in the year 999….”
Alfred took a swig of his water, grasping the main concept of the two kingdoms. There was a major war, apparently, a few years before the players appeared. It was known as the Great separation War, and the highest level NPCs had taken part in it. Over 10,000 were killed that could never respawn. It was the reason why Old Bird, apparently, started a pub near a graveyard, because he wanted to be close to the people he lost.
However, since the players had emerged there had been new kingdoms appearing in the distant regions of Heaven’s Gate. The old NPCs either liked or hated the new players because of all the changes they had brought. Originally, there had only been two kingdoms, but now there had been over fifteen discovered. Old Bird, apparently, hated players which could’ve been why the difficulty was c and not an F. Alfred contemplated how to approach him before Terra, the waitress, called him over.
The small man grumbled in shinning black armor as he approached. Alfred stared at his armor with a bit of envy. It looked like it was at least rare or possibly higher graded armor. Bird sat down at the table after pulling up a chair. His wizened hands were contrasted by the bulging muscles in his arms.
“So…. You been staring at me enough Terra that I Got the hint… However, you aren’t going to level up sitting down at a table.”
“This man promised me some experience… I was hoping you could humor him… He apparently has some sort of quest with your name on it.” Terra said, rubbing her fingers together to indicate the exchange value of their meeting. “If you aren’t nice to him, remember, I can’t get payed.”
“I’m not the hallmark of evil, Terra… Just hate all the problems these players are causing… Now what do you want little brat! Hurry up and tell me before I cut you!”
Alfred gulped and began to surmise the mission request. After telling him that he’d taken the path of the Shadow Walker, the old man seemed nonplussed and enraged. His eyes boiled as he slammed his hand down into the table. It immediately splintered the floor causing the water jug to burst into pieces.
“They actually still have this class available… I thought the shadows would be left out of it… If you really want to know, follow me to the back boy… However, if you’re a little squeamish, don’t do it.”
“I only have a few minutes… Can you show it to me fast?” Alfred stretched and got off the table before making sure to leave Terra 50 experience. She reached level 2 and gasped before doing a little dance and thrumming with excitement. Bird gave Alfred a smile when he saw the look of jollity on Terra’s face.
“For you, since you were so nice to my favorite hand, I’ll give you the fast version….”
….
Alfred walked into the back of the bar.
Mixed in with a slew of alcohol kegs and salted meat was a series of books tossed along the corner of the establishment. The old man kicked aside the books and revealed a trap door that he activated with a simple kick to a nearby statue. Alfred followed him down the stairs and entered into a room full of blue torches and paintings. Old bird seemed to split into five as he walked towards each of the pictures.
“Shadow Walkers are not only assassins…. They are able to cast illusions and merge with the darkness… If I wanted to right now, I could turn my single dagger into a hundred and attack you from every direction…”
“It’s one of the classes that merges both a mages intelligence and an assassins agility. However, it also requires sacrifices of flesh and blood… If you are truly interested in pursuing it, there is no turning back.”
“I’m not afraid,” Alfred indicated with a smile. He didn’t feel bad about killing NPCs since they respawned. He also had always wanted to see the true potential of his martial arts. As a shadow walker, he could test them to their full potential.
Old Bird could sense his determination and clapped his hands. Immediately, a few shadows started to rise and form into what appeared to be wolves. The wolves circled around Alfred as he drew out his dagger. He had a look of confusion on his face. If he died here, he’d respawn, but he didn’t want to risk finding out what would happen to his experience.
He face turned pale as the wolves growled at him. Their eyes had turned gold and their bodies seemed to coagulate. They seemed to turn real as old bird walked towards him with his dagger brandishing from a small satchel on his waist
“This is the skill known as Shadow Whisperer… I’m guessing you didn’t know how to use it but it’s a very useful skill. They are very useful for scouting and can attack as long as you have enough mana… Make sure to find a beast that catches your eye and use the new skill I’m about to show you…”
“What skill is that?” Alfred reached out and touched one of the wolves, his hands seemed to travel through a warm smoke as he looked aghast. “This is definitely not a class I’ve seen in a regular RPg before…”
“Heh… hopefully, you will do well in it,” Old Bird said, beginning to chant in a mysterious language. Alfred covered his ears in angst before the wolves slowly began to growl at him. A moment later, the banging sound stopped and he let go of his head. A new skill had been learned along with a mission completed prompt.
Mission Complete!
You’ve successfully satisfied Old Bird’s expectation and have managed to be granted two new moves…. A second mission has been given to you by bird to find in Hermia Kingdom… Find his sister in the city in order to learn a special technique only shadow walkers can master!
You’ve completed an intense training session!
+ 3 Intelligence
+ 3 Agility
+ 5 Vitality
You’ve learned a new move, Shadow Trace
Skill level: 1
Required for Shadow Whisperer lvl2
Effect: You can now remember the vague forms of the foes you defeated and use illusions to summon them by your side! They will deal their previous damage divided by 5.
(Requirement to use Shadow Whisperer)
You’ve learned a new passive skill, perception
Skill level: 1
Effect: your overall senses are improved by 5 percent. It will be harder for foes to sneak up on you.
You’ve gained 500 (+250) experience for completing the quest! Old Bird now considers you an ally and will train you once a week if you provide his shop enough business… Stat bonuses, however, will decrease on each successive training session.
Alfred took note of the new additions before he winced and went up the stairs. For some reason, being in the presence of the wolves had startled him. He quickly shook it off and rushed back towards his Mission Center. He made it just on time as Vera waited outside underneath the green sun. over twenty people had gathered. She glared at him as he approached, seeming to have an irate fury that he didn’t expect.
Chapter 7: Grant
“You’re almost late!” Vera said, stomping her feet on the ground. “It’s hard enough to fit Five people in a box, but to make them wait for my next door neighbor… I don’t think they would’ve let you remain in the guild!”
“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be fashionably late or anything, but… aren’t you a little underdressed?” Alfred joked, referring to her set of shinning armor and the shield on her back. “You look like you’re about to go on a dungeon raid… What’s with the gear?”
“Very astute eyes you got there,” Vera snidely replied, grabbing his wrist and pulling him into her little room. The abode had got
ten bigger than the last he remembered and now looked like an actual apartment with a bed, a table, and a doorway to the bathroom.
A face he recognized happened to be sitting on the couch scrunched up into a ball. He recognized her from when he used to go to Juniper Beach. He believed her name was Cherry, but didn’t quite remember. She glanced at him before giving him a fist bump and closing her eyes. Alfred found her nonchalant response rather infuriating but followed Vera as she introduced him to the five other characters in the guild.
There was one Weapon’s Expert, one Grass Mage, one Healer, one extra Defender, and Cherry was an Assassin. The one with the highest level was the Weapon’s Expert, level 29, who also happened to be the tallest. Standing at six feet three, he reminded Alfred of Green. Apparently, Green had also made a guild called Green Everest. Judging by the fact he put his own name in the guild title, he seemed like the same revolting character no matter how much Vera tried to spin it otherwise.
“So I heard you’re a warrior,” The Weapon Expert said, his voice hoarse and powerful as his eyes flashed with a glitter of happiness. “I trained in weapons in my childhood, and noticed how much it helped in the game… You sure you want to join the guild?”
Heaven's Gate: Volume 1 (A LitRPG Adventure) Page 4