“So, what do you intend to do with us?” I asked. This dwarf made me decidedly uncomfortable with way my skin was crawling just being this close to him.
“Do?” asked the Barber. “Why nothing. I intend to do nothing with you. Once the Duchess and Cap are married you are free to go. Assuming you can survive the army of adventurer murderers and thieves we have stationed out front. But who cares if you die, you will return, you adventurers always do. And once you die, once you are sent to the graveyard, you will have no idea how to get back here. So again, I do not have to do anything to you.”
“It’s downright diabolical,” said Olaf.
I’m pretty sure he was joking when he said it, but the truth of it was, his plan was diabolical.
“Another villain monologue,” yawned Olaf. “You’re all the same. Certain victory, blah, blah, blah, you can’t win, yadda, yadda, yadda, I’m invincible. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the good guys always win.”
The Barber laughed. “You really are far too confident. Have you not already failed your quest? Maybe you are too dumb to notice, but we have already won.”
“When I get out of here, I’m going to kill you,” promised Olaf.
“I’d like to see you try,” taunted the Barber. “Break out if you can, I dare you, try to rescue the Duchess. We’ll destroy you.”
Quest Alert: Jail Break and Rescue (Recommended Level 8-10)
Escape your prison and fight your way through the Stonebreaker Stronghold to rescue the Duchess. If you can, capture or kill ‘The Barber of Fitti’ and ‘Cap Alone’. Stop that wedding at all costs or it just might cost you everything. (00:02:00.00)
Reward: Experience, Mark of Hammerton, Restored Reputation
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes
No
“Challenge accepted,” I stated clearly, the timer starting to count down from 2-hours.
The Barber looked at me and cackled and laughed the laugh of an insane man. Only stopping when there were hurried steps rushing down the stairs.
“Sir, sir,” called the Jailer from earlier.
“I said to leave us,” said the Barber, glaring at the jailer.
“But sir, Vini the Plague sent me,” the jailer tried to defend his actions.
The Barber growled. “Fine, what does he want?”
“Sir, the Royal Guard and City Watch, they are coming,” the jailer answered.
“What!” the Barber yelled, grabbing a fistful of the jailors shirt and getting in his face.
“They are coming, sir,” repeated the dwarf.
“How many?” the Barber demanded.
“All of them, I think,” answered the Jailer.
Olaf started laughing.
“Stop that, stop that laughing,” said the Barber, shoving the jailer to the ground and turning on Olaf cage. “You are still in that cage and I have the only key,” he showed off the simple black key, tucking it into his belt.
“Sir, what do you want me to tell him . . . Vini the Plague, that is. What do you want me to tell him, sir?” the jailer asked.
“Tell him to give the adventurers a dose of Dragon Dust, then send the expendable cannon fodder to deal with the City Watch,” ordered the Barber. He paused for a moment looking at us. His frowned deepened. “Wait, stop, I will tell him myself. You go tell the boss to get dressed for his wedding and send Connie to dress the Duchess.”
“Looks like things are already falling apart for you,” Olaf taunted.
The Barber looked back one last time and snarled at him before rushing up the stairs and out of sight, the jailer scurrying after him.
With him gone, I railed against the cage, trying in vain to break it open. If I could get into my inventory, I could get out my lockpicking tools, but that was currently locked by whatever magic this cage used. I banged on for a bit but didn’t even dent the cage. I finally sat back, breathing heavily. “Goddess Issara, if you’re listening, we could really use some help right now,” I prayed softly. I didn’t really expect an answer.
“Nobody knows, the trouble I’ve seen,” sang a voice that I knew only too well. “Nobody knows my sorrow.”
Chapter 24
“Nobody knows, the trouble I’ve seen,” the voice continued to sing. “Glory, Hallelujah.”
“Heath!” Rose howled. “You dirty rotten . . . how dare you show up here.”
“So, you don’t want me to rescue you?” Heath asked, acting nonchalant.
“You left us to die,” shouted Olaf.
“Didn’t you see me wink?” Heath asked, ignoring the anger.
“No, I didn’t see a wink, I was focused on the horde of angry dwarves. All I heard was you saying it wasn’t worth dying over a failed quest, only then did I see you vanish,” snapped Olaf, shaking at his cage.
“Oh, well I winked,” said Heath. “Look, we failed the quest and the Duchess was captured. I figured at that point, it was best to hide and follow them. That led me to you guys here in the dungeon. A little ‘Stealth’ and pickpocketing yielded this here magic key,” he explained, ending by holding up the black key we had seen not so long ago on the Barber. “The way I figure it, we get you free, beat up the bad guys and rescue the princess. Sounds about right, yeah?”
“You’re a real bastard, Heath,” said Rose. “Every time I turn around, you do something that makes me question whether or not I can trust you. Then you do something like this and I wonder even more. So, you want my trust, you want any of us to trust you, then start talking.”
“Talk about what?” Heath asked a bit of venom in his voice and a complete lack of his false accent. “Want me to tell you the sob story about a successful and wealthy record executive who was happily married who lost everything? Want me to tell you about my wife? A woman I was madly, deeply in love with? Well fine, here’s the story. My wife and I had talked for years about quitting our jobs and traveling the world, maybe seeing some of the luxury planets, but mostly about settling down and having a kid. You’ve heard of ‘Jamie Westlake’ I’m sure.”
“The pop mega star, what about him?” Rose asked.
“I signed him. Made him the star he is today. In return, he made me rich beyond my wildest dreams. It made quitting a reality, so that was exactly what I did. I was excited about starting a new chapter in my life. Then the first flaw in the plan happened. Found out we couldn’t have kids, genetic incompatibility the doctors called it. Tried several other avenues but nothing worked and due to drug arrest in my wife’s youth, adoption wasn’t an option. One day, I come home and the wife hands me a brochure for the Seedpods. She says to me, ‘If we can’t make our dreams come true, then let’s live a life of fantasy and magic.’ I wasn’t against it, I always had fun playing games as a kid, I had no idea something like that would appeal to my wife though, she never seemed the type. I should have questioned it more then.”
“What happened?” I prompted him to continue.
“Betrayal,” Heath snarled. “The plan was simple, log in to the game, create our characters and meet at the World Tree in a few days depending on how long it took to get there. I waited for her for several days, but she never showed up. Worried that something was wrong I logged out. You know what I found?”
“She was gone, wasn’t she?” Olaf asked.
“Yes, she was, along with everything we owned. She drained all our accounts and boarded a passenger ship to Platinum 4,” Heath answered.
“Why didn’t you go after her?” Baby asked.
“Oh, I did, but not in the way you think. In my life as a record producer, I’ve made a lot of contacts, some of them of the disreputable sort. The kind that can make a sex video of young pop star and an underage girl disappear from hard drives and cloud storage, not my proudest moment but that was the job. Anyway, I got my money back, unfortunately the guitars were gone and never to return. I think I’m angrier about that than the money. I had a signed Keith Richards guitar, it was worth over a hundred mil at auction. Anyway, that is what happened to m
e,” said Heath. “Happy now?”
“What happened after that?” I asked.
“You sure you want to know? You seem to already be having trouble trusting me, this won’t make it any better,” Heath warned us.
“Tell us,” said Rose.
“I picked up an epithet, ‘Morte Afficitur,” Heath replied.
“You?” Olaf asked, staring at Heath wide-eyed.
The name sounded familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it.
“You were ‘Morte Afficitur’, the specter of death? The number one Player Killer said to have racked up over a million player kills?” Olaf asked.
Suddenly I remembered the article about the legendary murderer. No one could verify he was real or what his level really was. So, I didn’t give it any credence like I had with Titan Beast, he was a known quantity in gaming society even before World Tree Online and a name that could be trusted.
Heath nodded, his name plate blurred and was replaced with that very name
“How did you change your name?” Baby asked. It wasn’t the first question that came to mind but a worthy curiosity.
“I didn’t actually change my name,” Heath answered. “The other name was always an illusion. There are spells the less than reputable can purchase to hide their identity. I could appear as a citizen to other players if I wanted to, in fact I have a few times. You would be surprised how tempting a low-level citizen in a high-level zone can be to other player killers, it was a brilliant trap.”
“So why join us? Why not try to reclaim your levels or get revenge?” I asked, getting us back on target.
“When I was zeroed out like that, I didn’t care. It occurred to me that what I was doing to deal with my anger at that traitorous . . .” Heath paused to take a deep calming breath. “It wasn’t working. I wasn’t getting less angry, if anything I was getting angrier. Every time I killed someone, I was putting my ex-wife’s face on them. Anyway, I wandered listlessly around Hurligville for a few days when I came across an instrument shop and found a guitar. It was nothing special, just a plain old acoustic guitar. I strummed a few notes and was offered the quest to become a ‘Jack of All’. I honestly didn’t care about the quest. The guitar though, that mattered to me. Before I knew it, I was crooning an old country song about lost love then breaking down into tears. It was embarrassing to break down like that . . . it was also freeing. I’m still angry at my ex for what she did to me, for betraying me like that. But the last few weeks with you guys . . . have been some of the best times I’ve had since before . . . all that.”
“Thank you for telling us,” said Rose. “Now, get us out of these cages.”
“And you trust me now?” Heath asked, quirking an eyebrow at her. “How do you know I won’t really betray you?”
“Because you’ve been betrayed and don’t want to make anyone else feel what you did,” said Rose. “At least that is what I’m putting my trust into.”
“I’ll take it,” said Heath, unlocking her cage first.
“What happened to Vision?” Micaela asked.
“Don’t know, the little guy vanished when you did. I assumed he was with you,” said Heath.
“He’s not,” said Micaela worriedly, eagerly waiting for her cage to be unlocked. When it was she took out her axes and hugged them both. “Do you know where Vision went? So, he’s okay? He led the army to us? Okay, good work.”
I suppose that explained how the Royal Guard and City Watch found us. I owed that pup lots of petting.
Finally, Heath unlocked the last cage setting us all free. “So, what’s the plan?”
“I have an army to save,” I said, knowing where I had to go. I had to try to help the Royal Guard and City Watch against the players. If there were any high-level players in the bunch, it could spell doom, I know the guards had higher levels than me, most of them ranging from level 20 to 40, but players levels were all over the place and if the players were all player killers, there was a good chance they would be of a higher level.
Class Quest Alert: Saving Soldiers
The Goddess Issara is proud of your decision to try and save the soldiers who protect the World Tree. Your dedication to saving lives deserves to be rewarded.
Reward: 1-Sigil per Enemy of Justice you slay
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes
No
There was no question I was accepting the quest.
“Yeah, the guards are toast otherwise. I saw at least 4 level 60+ players when I was sneaking in. Worst of them was ‘Rick Roller’ a level 78. I used to pal around with the guy. He’s a barbarian, not very smart, but he doesn’t need to be with his axes, one hit and he’ll cleave one of those guards in half. Even Major Daws would have trouble with him. If you get your shot at him, kill him, you’ll be doing everyone a favor resetting his level,” said Heath, giving me just the intel I needed. “Not sure why he’s working for low-level toons like this Cap fellow, normally he would have just killed them. So, be careful.”
“I can do that, rescue the Duchess if you can. I’ll come right back once I’m sure the army is in good hands,” I promised.
I took a minute to put up buffs on everyone and myself.
“Okay, let’s clear Jack a path outside,” said Rose, clapping her shields together. I noticed it had become something of a habit for her, maybe a way of expelling nervous energy. Personally, I thought it just sounded and looked cool.
Rose led us up the stairs, ready to protect us from anyone or anything stupid enough to attack us.
At the top of the stairs we found the jailer slumped over in a chair, if I didn’t see his HP bar at zero I would have assumed he was napping.
“Your handy work?” Rose asked, looking at Heath.
“I might have thought there was a chance you would make a racket when I arrived. Didn’t want him or any of his friends interrupting,” Heath explained, reappearing momentarily before vanishing again.
“Which way out?” I asked, looking at my hidden friend.
Heath rolled his eyes and motioned for me to follow him. Heath guided us through a short maze of hallways until we arrived in a large open hall with four guards posted,
“Okay, Heath, you get one of the crossbowmen,” Rose whispered.
“I’ve got the other,” said Baby, glaring at the unaware guard.
“Baby, you need to heal us,” Rose tried to protest.
“No, he’s mine,” Baby hisses.
It occurred to me, Baby might want a little payback for her death. “I’ll heal you until Baby is done with him,” I offered.
Rose frowned but relented. “Everyone else, the swordsmen, just give me a second for agro.”
While I was curious about how Baby was going to handle the crossbowman, I had to focus on Rose. My healing spell wasn’t very strong, so I would probably need to chain cast it on her.
Lesser Heal
Level: 24
Experience: 97.32%
Spell Heal: 53-68
Spell Cast Speed: 2.00 seconds
Spell Mana Cost: 58
Spell Effect (Active): Heal a single target.
Rose blurred, her lowered shoulder slamming into the back of one of the guards, knocking him to floor. Her shield lashed out, the edge striking the other guard in the helmet with a resounding gong. She followed up by slamming the edge of her other shield on the back of the head of the guard she first knocked dow
n, knocking him back to the ground. Pulling back Rose, raised one of her shields to block the swing of the sword, despite blocking, I saw a -73-HP float up from her but no actual change in her health pool, then I remember Rose still had Baby’s ‘Sage’s Ward’ active. It meant I could do a little damage.
I zapped the guard that was starting to climb back to his feet with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ making him eat floor again. Then I dropped a stack of ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ on the other guard, followed by using the ‘Ligament Rip’ subskill to inflict a bleed effect and increase the damage he received by almost 30% in addition to slowing his attack and damage.
Two-Handed Polearms II
Level: 14
Experience: 99.17%
Current Damage Modifiers
Damage: +57.00
Critical Strike Chance: +5.70%
Subskill: Ligament Rip
Reduce Enemy Movement and Attack Speed: 50% Target Receives Increased Damage: +28.50% Duration: 15 Seconds Bleed Effect: 6 Damage per Second
Skill Stamina Cost: 144
Olaf finally blasted the guard, his shots cutting through the shield and armor like a hot knife through butter, wiping out his remaining HP completely.
Micaela’s axe howled a second later as Butch came down with crushing force on the guard I had stunned, severing his head in a single clean cut and instantly killing him.
I turned back to help Baby and Heath to find Heath staring wide-eyed at the hovering fairy. There were also no crossbowmen other than the one Heath clearly dispatched.
“Where’s the other crossbowman?” Rose asked.
Health pointed to a metal orb on the ground, his eyes still stuck on Baby.
I looked at the orb, not sure what Heath meant, then a drop of blood seeped from the orb. “Baby, is that the guard?”
“Yes,” Baby answered. “I might have used more mana than was necessary.”
“How much mana did you use, sis?” Rose asked, staring at the orb in disbelief.
World Tree Online: The Duchess of Hammers: 2nd Dive Begins Page 41