“All of it,” Baby answered.
“What did you do?” I asked, not sure if I should be impressed, disgusted or, very, very afraid.
“Well, when I was training to learn the ‘Sage’s Ward’ I learned about hardening and layering mana. I did that . . . then I compressed it,” Baby explained. “On the bright side, I learned a new spell called ‘Force of Nature’.”
“I have a whole new respect for you, Baby,” said Heath, completely in awe. “So, you and this fiancé of yours, is it serious?”
“Heath, you want to be my test subject for my new spell that badly?” Baby asked.
“You could have just ‘yes’, there was no need to threaten me,” Heath said, pouting a little. “Though I do approve of this new ruthless Baby.”
“Guys, times burning, you can play later. Right now, the clock is ticking,” said Olaf, refocusing the group of us.
“Right, Bye-bye, that is the side door, you should be able to safely exit the building without being spotted by one of the players,” said Heath, pointing to the door the guards had been watching.
“Any guards outside?” I asked.
“Shouldn’t be,” said Heath. “There weren’t when I entered.”
“If you entered through here, then how did you get past the guards?” Rose asked.
“I used an illusion,” said Heath. “All the guards saw was a Stonebreaker maid.”
“Heath, we’re going to have a talk about your illusions later,” said Rose seriously. “For now, Jack, be safe and catch up as soon as you can. We’ll do our best to save the Duchess.”
“I know you will,” I said, deciding it was my turn to do something bold and maybe regain a little ground, I caressed Rose’s cheek then kissed her tenderly. When I pulled away, Rose was blushing bright red but smiling a silly little grin. Before she or anyone else could say anything, I activated my, albeit weak, ‘Stealth’.
“Now that, is how you make an exit,” said Baby, approvingly.
“You could learn a thing or two you know,” said Micaela, looking pointedly at Olaf.
A laugh now would have broken the effect. I closed the door behind me. I had to focus, and if I had to continue to listen to my friends joking around I would get distracted. Outside of the house . . . castle, it was a bloody big castle build into the side of a mountain which made me wonder just how far outside of Root City we were. This was a dwarven stronghold if I ever saw one. Anyway, outside of the stronghold was vacant. Not a single sign of the players remained aside from some discard junk and trampled grass. Trampled grass that my ‘Perception’ skill lit up with a multitude of tracks to follow.
Given I wasn’t sure how much time I had before the player killers attacked, I had to move fast. That meant not using ‘Stealth’. Instead, I used my ‘Body Control’ skill to push my stamina into my legs, helping to push me to run faster than I would have been able to otherwise.
Running like that also yielded an unexpected boon.
You have learned ‘Body Control’ subskill ‘Sprint’
Body Control
Level: 28
Experience: 91.41%
Subskill: Sprint
Run Speed Boost: Increase Running speed by 20% for 5-seconds.
Skill Stamina Cost: 20 per boost
A very good skill for me to have as I pursued the player army. They couldn’t have gotten too far, we hadn’t been in the dungeon very long after the Barber left. I checked the quest to save the Duchess and saw the timer reflected 32-minutes had already passed.
It wasn’t much longer before I heard the sounds of shouting and the occasional explosion. I was getting closer and it sounded like the fighting had already started.
As soon as I saw the battlefield I was overwhelmed, there was so much carnage as players and citizens alike died in mass. I shook my head, I couldn’t think about that right now. I had to find the guy Heath warned me about, Rick Roller. The battlefield was too big, and my spell radius was still too small to cover the entire area. I needed to find the highest concentration of players and hope that coincided with the highest-level players.
I scanned the field, looking for a barbarian wielding a massive axe. I spotted him, but I wished I hadn’t. He had stacked up the bodies of the citizens he killed, making an artificial high-ground for him to attack from. He was some kind of bearman, standing almost as large as Olaf was prior to becoming a minotaur. I watched as he leapt high into the air toward an oncoming rush of soldiers, his axe easily cleaved through the first soldier and continued into the ground where a shockwave devastated the terrain, throwing the rest of the soldiers off-balance, making it easier for Rick to reap them like fields of wheat.
I could see players had congregated around him, hoping for easy experience. Not far from him were two level 63 players, both elves, one wielding a bow and other dual swords, they were fast and efficient as they cut down anyone that got in their way, player or citizen didn’t seem to matter.
I had to target the space between them, catch them both at the same time. I knew there was one more higher-level player out there, but I couldn’t waste more time, hoping he would come in range.
I activated ‘Sprint’ again, charging through the battlefield, trying to avoid engaging anyone, player or NPC alike, I couldn’t be sure the guards would recognize me as a friendly after my loss of reputation due to the failed quest. When I was finally in sight of the point I wanted to strike from the twin elves had actually gotten closer to Rick, part of me wondered if they weren’t targeting Rick while he was distracted by his wholesale slaughter.
I glanced at Rick, he had just built another tier to his tower of bodies and looked to be preparing for another leap. I leapt first, clearing the last of the distance through the air, my spear ready to defend myself and my spell on my lips. I landed hard, driving my spear into the unsuspecting player that chose to occupy my landing zone.
“Justice Bringer,” I shouted, the wave of white energy bursting forth and leveling the playing field all around me, my charge spent. Thankfully, my charge counter was at one second since I didn’t get the chance to cast the spell this morning like I usually did to start my day. With another charge ready just in case, the timer had begun counting down again.
Justice Bringer
Level: 13
Experience: 13.24%
Spell Duration: 1 hour
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Charges: 1/1
Spell Mana Cost: 100
Recharge: 00:23:59.56 hours
Spell Effect (Active): All Adventurers and Citizens within 33 yards have their effective level lowered or raised to match your own. Does not work on enemy Citizens, Beasts or Monsters.
All around me, there was cursing from the players, shouting and accusations. Suddenly, the tide seemed to turn against the players.
I couldn’t afford to rest, Rick apparently spotted me, I barely rolled out of the way of his leaping devastation.
“So, you’re one those, uh, Justice Freaks, right?” Rick asked, giving me a measured look.
“So, it would seem,” I answered.
“He’s mine! Anyone interferes in this fight and I’ll cleave you in half then spawn camp you for the next month,” Rick yelled, warning the blood thirsty players away.
“And you are ours, Rick Roller,” shouted one of the twin elves, the dual wielder, leaping into battle, a hail of arrows followed behind him.
I was forced to flip out of the way and roll backwards to dodge the rain of arrow.
“You take, Rick, I will deal with the Justice Bringer,” said the other twin. Up close, I could now see they were male and female. The girl with the bow was
“Be quick, Rick is not to be taken lightly, sister,” said Zheng, ignoring me.
“You better not die to these two, Justice Freak,” said Rick, twirling his axe and rushing Zheng.
Seeing as I didn’t have any other choice I faced Li. I should have paid more attention
to her. She was already firing her bow. I hit her with a quick ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning her just as she released her arrow that had me bending backwards to dodge. I rolled with the backwards dive and up to my feet then using body control I leaped at my stunned target. My spear lancing out as I moved but I was too late. Being forced to dodge that arrow took too long, my stun had faded.
Lesser Holy Shock
Level: 29
Experience: 87.24%
Spell Damage: 39-44
Spell Cash Speed: Instant Cooldown: 30 seconds
Spell Mana Cost: 158
Spell Effect (Active): A shock of holy energy attacks the nervous system of your target stunning it and increasing physical damage received by 34 for 5 seconds.
I had to flip away from another shot. I cast ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ on her, adding my first stack of the damage over time spell.
Lesser Holy Fire
Level: 48
Experience: 74.22%
Spell Damage: 25-28 per second
Spell Cast Speed: Instant Cooldown: 10 seconds
Spell Mana Cost: 136
Spell Duration: 30 seconds
Spell Effect (Active): Burn a single target with Holy fire. (Stackable x3)
“You are skilled,” Li complimented me. “But I am more skilled.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re strong, I’m weak, blah, blah, blah,” I taunted her, trying to get her to make a stupid mistake but she didn’t so much as flinch. Seeing her body outlined in red with a massive murder counter by her name suggested she wasn’t the sort to get rattled by a little banter.
“Taunting is a tool of the weak minded,” Li replied, loosing another arrow.
I couldn’t keep fighting her at range, I needed to get in closer, it would be another 10-seconds before my ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ came off cooldown and as deadly as she had been with her arrow, I might not have that long.
I flipped over another arrow and added another stack of ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ adding a second stack, increasing the damage ticking away at her HP pool.
“If you kill me, I will come for you,” warned Li.
“I understand,” I said, I had to time my next attack.
As soon as she fired, I hit her with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning her. This time I leapt forward over the arrow, bringing my spear down as hard as I could, piercing her but not killing her. A final tick of damage from my ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ stack did that, immolating her body in a flash of holy fire.
I turned back to Zheng and Rick’s fight. The two were going toe to toe, trading damage for damage. I don’t care how un-sportsman like it was, I needed those two dead. I started channeling ‘Boar Charge’ letting the drove of spectral swine plow through the pair, knocking them down repeatedly for the 5-seconds the spell lasted, leaving both of them with barely a sliver of health.
Boar Charge
Level: 5
Experience: 0.00%
Spell Damage: 125-300 per second
Spell Cast Speed: 5.00 seconds channeled Cooldown: 30 minutes
Spell Mana Cost: 250
Spell Effect (Active): Summon a stampede of spectral boars that will charge a targeted area dealing damage and knocking down anyone in the area of effect.
Charm Earned Bonus (Passive): Blessing of the Boar Spirit - +10-Endurance, +10-Stamina.
I leapt again, letting my spear finish Zheng and a ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunned the shocked Rick. ‘Justice Strike’ finished him, taking out the biggest danger in this battle. I looked around for another fight and was about to start helping the guards when I heard laughing behind me.
Turning swiftly, I saw Rick standing up and laughing. Thankfully, still under the effects of ‘Divine Judgment of the Goddess Issara’. Unfortunately, he was back to full health.
Divine Judgement of the Goddess Issara – Earned by dishonorably killing the Citizens of the World Tree and its adventurers 20 or more levels below their own.
Only visible to the servants of Issara. Afflicted player takes +20% damage from the servants of Issara. Afflicted player deals -10% damage to the servants of Issara. Upon death all judgements are removed at the cost of 100,000 Experience per Judgement, will reduce levels until all experience penalties are removed.
“I have to say, I’m a little impressed. I didn’t think any of you Justice Freaks had a dishonorable bone in your bodies. And here we are, you killed me in the middle of a fight with another player,” said Rick, sounding impressed.
“Speaking of dying, why aren’t you . . . you know . . . dead?” I asked.
“I picked up a little charm a while back, gave me a skill called ‘Everliving’, if I die in combat, I can come back to life for 5-minutes at full health. As long as I kill the guy that killed me, I get to stay alive. If I don’t, then the death is restored,” Rick explained, surprising me that he would be so forthcoming. “I only tell you this, so you understand, you never really had a chance.”
“And if I kill you again?” I asked, watching my opponent carefully.
“Don’t know, never happened before,” said Rick, shrugging.
Now, it might have been smart to surprise him and start attacking. But if this guy only had five minutes to kill me, then I should probably milk that clock for all it was worth.
“You’re awfully confident you’re going to kill me,” I said, buying more time.
“And you’re no threat to me,” Rick replied. “I’m going to kill you in one hit,” the barbarian reared back ready to attack me when something else hit him, his body exploding into chunks of flesh.
“Oh man, you have no idea how good that felt,” said another player, appearing from ‘Stealth’,
“I’ve been stalking that guy for months. When I saw that light from your Justice Bringer spell, I knew I would finally have my chance. Thanks for that,” Djinn said, tipping his wide brimmed hat to me.
“Just to be clear, you’re not with the player killers?” I asked.
“Player killers, no, Player vs. Player, in clean honest combat sure,” Djinn glanced briefly at where Rick once stood. “Well, usually. He was an exception to the rule. And best of all, he gets to start all over again from level 1. If I was a noob hunter I would totally camp that sicko until he got tired of the game and quit playing forever. Still, good riddance to bad rubbish. I’m sorry, where are my manners. Djinn Hunts-at-night, nice to meet you,” he said, offering me his hand.
“Bye-bye Jacko,” I said, returning the handshake and feeling slightly bewildered.
“Anyway, I’ve done what I wanted here and should be on my way. If you ever feel like a good clean PvP fight, look me up and we’ll tussle a little . . . you know, if your level ever gets high enough,” said Djinn.
“Hey, Djinn, I’ve got a bit of a situation and I really need to get back to the stronghold to help my friends. Could I ask you to stick around and help the City Watch? There is supposed to be at least one more high-level player our here somewhere.”
“Not anymore,” said Djinn with a chuckle. “But sure, I don’t mind picking off a few more players. So long as they are within twenty levels of me that is, I do not particularly want to get one of those marks that lets you Justice Lords wipe out levels.”
“Thank you,” I said, truly grateful for the help.
“Right, well, I’m going hunting. Have fun with your PvE,” Djinn said jovially, waving good-bye and vanishing from sight.
I couldn’t help but feel relieved. I could get back to my friends and help them before it was too late. I turned and was about to run when someone called to me.
“Bye-bye, you are here!” a voice I recognized shouted.
“Vision, you alright little buddy?” I asked, giving the wolf pup a good scratch behind the ear as he nearly tackled me happily, licking my face a few times for good measure. “Micaela said you led the army to us.”
“I did,” Vision said proudly.
“He had help,” said another familiar voice with a familiar face. It was Vari. She had a dozen patrolmen with her, some of them I recognized. They all surged forward around us, attacking the player army.
“Hey, you made it, we were all worried,” I said, glad for the momentary safety. “What happened to you?”
“After the explosion sent me tumbling off the roof I landed rather painfully among some trash bins, they broke the fall and prevented my death, if only just, but still managed to knock me out. I guess Vision found me and carried me to the barracks,” Vari explained. “Then he led us here.”
“I saw the trail,” Vision added.
“Wait, how long ago was that fight? Wasn’t it just this morning?”
“That was three days ago,” said Vari.
“Three days? They kept us unconscious for three days?” I nearly screamed.
“It took us two of those days to march this far,” Vari explained. “Anyway, you should probably go, Papa and the Major are very unhappy with you for losing the Duchess.”
Right, the Duchess, my quest to save her and restore my reputation.
I took a quick look at my quest timer. “I have to run, only forty minutes left to save her,” I said, preparing to go.
“She’s still alive?” Vari asked, sounding surprised.
“Yes, and we have just forty minutes to save her,” I replied, trying to express how urgent it was that I got moving as soon as possible.
“I am coming with you,” Vari said adamantly.
“Me too,” said Vision.