The Destroying Plague

by Dan Sugralinov

  Creates an impenetrable stationery magic bubble with a set radius. The effectiveness of the defense drops in proportion to the size of the bubble.

  Fed by mana battery crystals. Ability to transform 10% of absorbed damage into mana to maintain shield.

  Requirements: level 3 clan fort.

  I smiled tiredly. Maybe not now, but in the future, the clan would be protected.

  Stone letters arose with a crash in the center of the hall.

  Glory to they who complete all 99 Steps!

  May they turn not from the Path of Courage!

  Achievement progress — Treasury of the First Mage: Path of Courage — 99/99.

  Reward: ability to make one achieved stat boost permanent for use outside of the Treasury.

  Choices available:

  +50% base damage

  +30% movement speed

  +20% dodge chance

  +20% parry chance

  +50% critical damage

  +10% critical hit chance

  +50% armor

  +5% chance to stun an enemy for 1 second when dealing any damage

  I collapsed the window, putting the choice aside for later. Only then did I realize how tired I was. It felt like my eyes were full of sand, my head was pounding and I desperately wanted sleep. It was a shame I wouldn’t have time — it was time to go to school. My eyes passed over another message:

  Achievement unlocked: First Completion — Treasury of the First Mage

  The path opens to the courageous!

  Reward: portal key to the Holdest continent.

  Holdest… The mere thought of that snowy continent in the South Pole gave me a chill. The key took its place in my backpack and I felt indifferent to it. To an item that all the top clans would kill for.

  Going through the loot, going through the rewards for the full achievement… Not today. I yawned and looked around. Flaygray, Ripta, Anf and Nega all held their eyes on me. I hoped I wasn’t wrong, that I really could get them out of there.

  In the same corridor with the entrance, a portal glimmered behind the shut gates. I nodded toward it and led my motley company there. Anf chittered in excitement at Iggy, Ripta snorted nearby and tried to convey some thought to me, Flaygray and Nega walked arm in arm and built plans to annihilate the wine supplies in the nearest tavern…

  My legs were barely holding me up, but I couldn’t suppress a broad smile. Artifacts, gifts to friends, the investment in the clan’s future, new allies — I felt immense joy and pleasure at what I’d done.

  I just hoped Aunt Steph and the workers didn’t have a heart attack when we appeared.

  It was a great company: a human, a giant fly, an insectoid, a satyr, a raptor and a succubus. The deep paths of the Sleeping Gods were inscrutable!

  Chapter 8. Patrick Again

  ON AN EARLY tropical morning, in the square in front of the temple of the Sleeping Gods, before the eyes of dozens of builders and miners, the six appeared: five intelligent creatures and one semi-intelligent (although who knew?) gigantic scorpion fly. Us.

  Having confirmed that all my newly acquired allies had successfully quit their previous place of service, and the class penalty on my inventory had broken its teeth on the divine nature of my Treasure Hunter’s Bag, I breathed a sigh of relief. Twice. Then my jaw dropped: the guards’ levels had changed. Flaygray the satyr was at level three hundred and fifty, Ripta the raptor — three hundred and seventy, the insectoid Anf — three hundred and ten, and the succubus Nega — three hundred and twenty.

  “How?” I said, unable to restrain my surprise.

  Nega chuckled and the satyr gave me a patient pat on the back.

  “The Rascal fooled himself. He was so afraid that someone too strong would come into the treasury that he put an Equalization spell on it. The treasure hunters were weakened to the point that they matched the guards, and the Rascal found some loophole that allowed him to make the guards always a little stronger than the thief. But the defensive spell had a reverse effect too, which is what happened in your case, Scyth. We all dropped to your level. Well, almost…”

  “You got lucky, kid.” Nega embraced me intimately and ran her tongue along her lips. “Now tell me, where can a classy lady whet her whistle around here?”

  “What?”

  “Where’s the drink at?” Flaygray said, joining his spouse.

  The succubus ran a long, sharp nail along my cheek and suddenly transformed into a woman of stunning beauty. A human. I felt my heart beating out of my chest and my trousers starting to get tight. This wasn’t the sandbox. It was all adult here! My Liberation reacted immediately.

  Control effect removed: Charm.

  The succubus turned back into a demon again. With an attractive figure and outstanding virtues, but still with the same grayish, scaly skin, legs on hooves and charming little horns that broke through her mop of bluish-black hair. With relief, I realized that my appetite was fading. I didn’t want to think about how ashamed I’d be to start stripping off in front of my workers…

  “I’m feeling jealous, Nega!” Flaygray declared. He nervously looking around and suddenly fell to his knees. “It’s him! He himself!”

  “I swear on Azmodan’s ass…” the succubus swore, turning after the satyr. “It’s the Sleeping God?”

  The raptor hissed something in awe, and the insectoid began to click his sharpened legs against the steps of the temple.

  Behemoth, cutting a fine figure at the threshold to the temple, had taken on the same form he used for me. A nightmarish ten-foot creature: teeth, fangs, spines, tentacles and a multitude of steaming craters all over his body. This was no attractive and perfect god like Nergal the Radiant, no template of beauty and kindness, no, it was the image of terror and nightmares. It was no wonder that the rulers of the Underworld trembled so.

  Leave, I will deal with them, the Sleeping God’s voice whispered in my head.

  For an instant, it seemed as if his figure wavered slightly. Looking closer, I searched for sights of exhaustion on his face and saw, for a fraction of a second, unnoticed by the others, that Behemoth’s shadow disappeared. A couple of seconds later it blinked again.

  I had to hurry in all respects — with gathering more followers, with the second temple, and to school. I quickly went over to the workers nervously standing around nearby to explain the newcomers’ appearance.

  “Manny, Gyula…” I nodded to the familiar foremen. “Trixie, you’re here too? Aren’t you on the night shift? What about your uncle? You’re early today…”

  “We try not to leave here in general,” Manny said. “And old man Furtado sleeps most of the day. He gets insomnia at night, so I’ve moved Trixie to the day shift.”

  “Uncle is resting,” the dwarf confirmed. Knitting his brow, he pointed at the former treasury guards. They were bowing their heads before Behemoth while the god explained something to them. “Who’ve you brought? They look terrifying!”

  “They are, a little. But they’re with us now. These guys helped me a lot, be nice to them.”

  “Wouldn’t be anything else with those,” Gyula said quietly. “What do you think, can they handle our dinosaur?”

  “I doubt it. But they can protect us from the creatures from the mine. By the way, the insectoid and the raptor don’t speak our language. I don’t even know what they eat, but explain to them through Flaygray, that hoofed guy over there, that they can’t leave the fort. Take the satyr himself and the succubus to the tavern and try not to let Aunt Steph have a heart attack…”

  Once I finished speaking, I left Dis, shot out of my capsule, got dressed and rushed to school. Being even five minutes late would go on his personal record. Forever.

  My jaw ached in my lessons from constant yawning. I didn’t say anything specific in response to my friends’ hints that they wouldn’t mind hearing about the rewards for the Threat. I dreamt of one thing only — sleep.

  “At least say which artifacts you got; do you remember?” Tissa needled him
.

  “Nah,” I answered with a yawn. “All kinds.”

  “If he doesn’t remember, that means it’s definitely more than three,” Malik rubbed his hands.

  I didn’t tell them about the treasury, the Steps and the loot. Firstly, it wasn’t safe, and secondly, it could cause unnecessary fuss. I’d take inventory, discuss it with the guys and decide what to do with the spoils. But I couldn’t hold back my promising smile in anticipation of my friends’ surprise and joy, and that gave me away. All the same, I didn’t crack, and they didn’t push too hard, understanding my fears.

  I went home on autopilot, didn’t even bother eating, and mom didn’t insist. She shouted from my parents’ room that there was food in the oven, and that she was feeling ill and wanted to rest. She asked me if I’d bring her some red wine too. I couldn’t find any wine, just empty bottles.

  I went to see mom to talk, but she said she had a headache and was concentrating on a TV show. Seemed like something had gone wrong with her lover — either he didn’t want to keep the relationship going or he refused to marry after mom’s divorce, I didn’t know. Nobody told me anything, and everything I heard was from scraps of my parents’ arguments.

  But dad had found someone too — he was always feeling great now. He’d stopped drinking, was smooth-shaven and held his head up; he whistled, joked and didn’t even react to mom’s venomous taunts. Looks like he’s with someone who makes him happy now, I thought. My feelings were mixed. I was worried for my mom, angry at my dad and at the same time happy for him — he was moving on with life.

  Fighting sleep, I took a contrast shower, gulped down some coffee and climbed into my capsule. I didn’t waste any time eating, afraid that I wouldn’t be able to help but fall asleep after that, and time was running out to help Behemoth with followers. Tissa and Infect had combed the whole area around Tristad where I met the kobold renegades but didn’t find a trace of them. So the only hope was the sewer troggs. But they weren’t that easy to find either — first we had to find Patrick.

  Before jumping to Darant, I used Cloak Essence to hide not only all the information about myself, but my appearance too. Instead of me, people saw a blurry smoky silhouette.

  There were no suitable candidates for Imitation in our fort. Crag was unsuitable, and Crawler and Bomber were out of view — the guys had flown by airship the previous day to the intermediary points on their path to the dungeons. If everything went to plan, they’d clear a path for us to a couple of instances for levels thirty and forty. Not the best place for farming considering my progress in the treasury, but it was too late to change it now.

  I could have taken on the image of one of the non-citizens, but they wouldn’t be able to move freely in the capital, and a worker appearing at the town hall in the city center wouldn’t go unnoticed.

  There was nothing unique about hiding information on yourself. Those assassins had a similar talent, and scrolls for hiding your character were sold openly, so I wasn’t taking a risk by appearing in Darant incognito.

  My first impression of the Commonwealth capital was fuzzy; I was only able to view the city from a bird’s-eye view. Darant stretched out for many miles around, dotted with idyllic gardens and poor slums, aristocratic palaces and mage towers, crafting districts, rows of merchants and stores for any wallet. At the city center, surrounded by a royal park, canals and walls, the castle of king Bastian towered. It was entirely impossible for an ordinary player to get in there.

  Bastian the First was the gloried offspring of Rant the Unifier, who bent all the human kingdoms to his will. Bastian went even further, uniting humans, elves, gnomes and dwarfs into the Commonwealth, not to mention another dozen or so smaller races. This happened just when the world of Disgardium was opened to players, and therefore everything that happened before Bastian could be considered legend and myth thought up by the game designers. However, the AIs themselves that played the important rulers of the world didn’t see it that way, perfectly ‘remembering’ everything that happened before the ‘undying’ appeared. That definition was no longer applicable to me. My character’s death could be its last.

  Appearing in the town hall square, I barely dodged out of the path of a mounted knight and knocked a high official off his feet. As soon as I’d apologized to him, I had to hide behind the corner of the building from some patrolling preventers.

  There I had a chance to look around. The square was still teeming with my enemies. Ed had searched on the secret forums and explained: they weren’t sure that an A-class Threat like Crag would emerge from the sandbox, but they hadn’t stopped checking newcomers.

  I hadn’t seen such a mob since the times of Glastonbury. Except in New York. Dozens of races, ranging in level from one to three hundred, players, locals, mounts and pets… My eyes darted around. Across the street were banks and guild buildings, with players constantly streaming in and out. I noted one of them that I considered a potential candidate.

  Shelestina, Elf, level 33 Hunter

  It was probably pointless to use the word ‘beautiful’ when talking about elvish girls, but Shelestina was certainly that. She had long legs clad in hunting trousers and knee-high boots. She wore light chainmail under her leather jacket and a silver diadem instead of a helmet. A white owl called Boo sat on the elf’s shoulder, apparently a battle pet.

  Imitate Shelestina, level 33 elvish hunter?

  I’d almost agreed, preparing to run from my spot far away from the original, when the system asked me another question:

  Your battle pet Iggy has an imitation available.

  Imitate the snowy owl Boo, Shelestina’s battle pet?

  Chuckling, I accepted the suggestion. Iggy had been seen in the Arena and was fundamentally linked to Scyth in the minds of fans. Until we finished with our business on the continent, the swamp needler would now be a snowy owl.

  * * *

  Being the first priest of the Sleeping Gods, our honorary citizen of Tristad wasn’t in the clan, and determining his location was problematic. Understanding this, I spoke to Behemoth before I jumped to Darant, and he placed his palm on my chest, imprinting me with Search of the Fellow Believer. That meant that an arrow in my interface constantly pointed out Patrick’s location. The map showed the first priest’s marker in a tavern on the edge of the capital. I paid ten gold for a cab to take me there to save some time. The prices in the capital were daylight robbery…

  Ping! The icon of a new message flashed in my interface. Who could that be? Damn! News from Snowstorm. I opened the message with a growing sense of unease.

  Dear Scyth!

  We are proud to invite you as the winner of the Junior Arena to the yearly Distival 2075 ball, which will take place next Saturday, on April 13, 2075.

  This year, the ball will take place in the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai. The event begins at 19:00.

  Outstanding players of Disgardium are presented with the honor of attending Distival. Congratulations, Scyth, you are among them!

  You will find information on your tickets, hotel and the event program in a separate message.

  Best regards,

  Amanda Royce, VIP Client Department Director,

  Snowstorm Incorporated.

  I hadn’t heard anything from Crawler and Bomber, so they must not have read the message yet. Or maybe they didn’t get one? There was still time. We could discuss it when we next met.

  Collapsing the window, I returned to the achievement given for completing the treasury to pick up my reward.

  I discarded the bonuses to armor, dodge and parry right away, considering the possibilities Sleeping Invulnerability. The movement speed bonus was good, but I ran twice as quickly as mobs even without it, and the extra thirty percent didn’t make a lot of difference. I thought about the pluses to basic and critical damage.

  In any case, I dealt well enough with mobs at the same level as me, and against those with superior strength, I could use vindication. It was good because it ignored the enemy’s defens
e stats and levels, but there was a downside to it too: the harm was equal to the energy put into the strike. And in this case, the critical damage chance approached zero. Vindication didn’t crit.

  So, discarding one after another, I ended up choosing +5% chance to stun an enemy for 1 second when dealing any damage. Even if it worked only once per battle, the stun might interrupt a spell being cast, open up the opponent and give me the chance to get the initiative.

  Imba dodge and critical damage stats, and extremely high accuracy were good only with enemies at an equal level or lower. The penalties when fighting against high levels, both players and mobs, would cut all these stats down for each level difference by ten percent.