“What the hell?” Ethan asked angrily as Riley approached at a jog.
“I want him alive,” Riley responded shortly. Lucas and Emma approached cautiously from the roadway. As the pair in front of them argued, they decided to stay quiet.
“What for? These guys tried to kill us.” Ethan retorted.
“Aren’t you curious why?” Riley asked. “Besides, he poses no threat.” She motioned to the prone undead, who held his empty hands up defensively as he watched them bicker. His milky white eyes were wide with fear.
Riley turned to the man, her eyes pulsing with dark energy as she channeled her mana. She reveled in the sensation as it drove away her doubt and hesitation. “Who are you, and why did you attack us?”
“I-I’m nobody,” he answered with a stammer.
“Well, Mr. Nobody, you tried to kill our group and steal our equipment. My friend here wants to end your miserable life. You better start talking fast, or I just might let him.”
The zombie’s eyes darted between Ethan’s scowling face and Riley’s hard gaze. Then a look of resignation swept over his face. “We were raised by Jason after the battle between Grey Keep and the Twilight Throne. A few of us abandoned the city.” At a threatening gesture from Riley, he raised his hands again and added, “Jason himself offered to let us leave!”
“Did he also give you permission to waylay travelers along the road?” Riley asked menacingly. She inspected the man and saw that he was nearly level 80. His armor was also in good repair, and his weapons were high quality. He and his buddies must have ambushed quite a few players to be doing so well.
“What else were we to do?” the zombie spat. “Either we live under the thumb of a tyrant or live penniless and hated in the gutter. No city will take us in!”
Riley watched the man, shocked by his response. She hadn’t considered what kind of life the deserters would lead outside the city. This was a potential problem and needed to be reported to Jason. An idle thought crossed her mind. “Are there more of you?” she asked the zombie.
Emma glanced at her in surprise. “Why do we care? This isn’t a quest.”
Riley tried to think of a reasonable answer that didn’t reveal her position within the Twilight Throne’s hierarchy. “I’m bound to the undead city. I’d like to know if I’m going to be ambushed every time I travel outside of town,” Riley finally retorted. Emma seemed to accept this response.
“Answer my question,” Riley demanded, turning back to the zombie and prodding his injured leg with her bow.
The man glared at her before responding. “Yes, there are more of us. We grow every day. There are many who don’t wish to live under Jason’s banner.”
Now that’s much more problematic, Riley thought.
She made a mental note to discuss this with Jason the next time she saw him. They might need to rid the forest of these rebels quietly to avoid creating morale problems within the city. It was one thing to let the new undead leave, it was another to permit them to ambush players and NPCs. Their control of the city and this area was already tenuous.
“Thank you for your help,” Riley replied. Then she raised her bow and nocked an arrow.
“Wait! I answered your questions!” the man pleaded.
“I appreciate that, but I never promised that I wouldn’t kill you myself,” Riley said coldly. Her bow hummed and an arrow promptly embedded itself in the man’s eye. He slumped to the ground, his body unmoving.
Her teammates eyed Riley in shock. Then Ethan barked a short laugh. “Damn, girl. Remind me not to get on your bad side.” He smacked her on the back and started back through the forest to inspect the bodies for loot. Emma and Lucas simply shook their heads, their eyes full of conflicting emotions. Turning, they followed after Ethan.
She watched the group as they walked away, her obsidian eyes covered by the cowl of her hood and her mana still pulsing through her veins. She used to be like them – naïve and unaccustomed to the brutal existence of this world. Her time with Jason had shown her the error of her ways. To survive here, you needed to act without hesitation. She suspected they would learn that eventually.
Chapter 5 - Rural
The group walked in silence after the ambush. Riley had let the other players loot the corpses and keep the meager gear and coin. She certainly had no use for them, and she was still flush with cash after trading her extra loot back in the Twilight Throne. Riley had taken point after the attack, keeping a watchful eye on the forest around them. She wasn’t anxious to repeat the experience.
Emma finally broke the silence. “You clearly aren’t a low-level player,” she said in an accusing voice.
“I’m not,” Riley replied shortly. She glanced over her shoulder, meeting Emma’s gaze evenly. “I never said I was. You made that assumption when we first met.”
Ethan snorted. “I’m not certain I care. What you did back there was awesome. Where did you learn to fight like that?”
Riley’s thoughts drifted back to the battles she had fought with Jason and Frank. Those fights were usually heavily stacked against them. They required careful planning and lightning-fast reflexes. In contrast, fighting a few low-level deserters wasn’t much of a challenge. She hadn’t even leveled from the encounter.
“You’d be surprised what you can learn if you speak to the weapon masters in the major cities,” Riley dissembled. “The game puts a cap on how high you can raise your skills and stats through training, but it still provides a considerable bonus.”
“See,” Lucas exclaimed, gesturing at Riley. “I told you we needed to train more before we left the city, Ethan.” This earned him an eye roll from the burly warrior.
Lucas turned to Riley. “Well, we appreciate the help. We were bound to the Twilight Throne since we tried to do some leveling in this area. If those guys had killed us, we would have lost a ton of time walking back.”
Emma sniffed. “She just got the jump on a bunch of deserters. It wasn’t like she killed them all single-handedly.”
Riley wasn’t sure what Emma’s problem was, but she decided not to rock the boat. The other players were still useful to her, and a bit of diplomacy might shut Emma up. “You’re right, I only helped. I doubt I could have taken them out without the three of you.”
“Hey, look up ahead,” Ethan said, interrupting their conversation and pointing farther down the road. The sky had lightened considerably as they had continued onward and now streamers of smoke were visible through the thinning woods – evidence of a town ahead.
“That must be Sibald,” Ethan added, his hands dancing in the air in front of him as he checked his in-game map. “We passed through the town on the way here.”
Riley frowned. This was another one of the villages Jason was pledged to conquer on behalf of the Twilight Throne. As she remembered the poverty stricken and sickly residents of Peccavi, she wondered how Sibald had fared after the transformation of the surrounding forest.
Her question was soon answered as the village came into sight. The trees had been cleared closer to the town, creating an artificial meadow in the forest. Riley didn’t see any walls or obvious defenses, yet the buildings were made of much finer materials than in Peccavi. They were constructed of rough-hewn trunks and resembled log cabins. Wisps of smoke streamed from mortared chimneys attached to each structure. The roads were also in better repair, and the town sported cobblestones along its streets instead of merely dusty gray dirt.
Lanterns hung from posts lining the street, illuminating a bustling village. As they walked through the town, Riley noticed that the residents moved with energetic efficiency and their clothing was in decent repair. The human villagers also appeared to be well-fed and healthy. They waved amiably at the group as they walked past. This was quite a strange turn of events compared to Peccavi.
Wouldn’t they be affected by the same food supply problems as the other villages? Riley wondered. Or maybe it’s because they aren’t being attacked by were-beasts.
As they pass
ed between the buildings, the group soon entered a large square. Riley spotted a crowd that was gathered around a makeshift stage along one side of the open area. “What’s that?’ she asked, motioning to the gathered NPCs.
“I have no idea,” Lucas answered. “I don’t remember seeing this when we passed through a few days ago. I just remember this being a rather dumpy place.”
“The word you’re looking for is boring,” Ethan muttered. “There wasn’t a quest in sight the last time we were here.”
Riley’s frown deepened, and she approached the crowd, weaving her way between the townsfolk. Strangely, she noticed that many were well-dressed – sporting tunics made of velvet and silk. The guard presence was also substantial. Her Perception skill picked out several men that wore concealed weapons and mail beneath their tunics.
What’s going on here?
As she neared the front of the group, Riley could see that an overweight man stood on stage addressing the crowd. “Good afternoon! We have a fresh catch for you fine folks! These are the best creatures we’ve found in nearly a fortnight,” the man announced loudly. “Just look at their limbs. They’re all intact and in good condition. This lot is well-suited for menial labor or even much more challenging tasks.”
The man prodded at the limbs of the skeletons and zombies that had been lined up on stage like undead cattle. Their heads were bowed, and they didn’t make eye contact with the portly merchant or the townsfolk.
“As with all our merchandise, they have been outfitted with explosive collars to ensure obedience and reliability.” The man kicked one of the undead women in the back of her knee, causing her to crumple forward. She meekly rose to a kneeling position. “See! They’re as docile as they come.”
The man gestured broadly, pulling the fabric of his velvet tunic tight across his chest. “Of course, this merchandise comes with all of the same benefits as our other splendid offerings. They don’t eat or sleep, and their endurance is nigh inexhaustible. These will make fitting additions for any mine or lumber camp.”
Riley’s eyes widened as she watched the scene playing out in front of her – anger curling and coiling in her stomach. She inadvertently summoned her mana, the icy energy clawing its way up behind her eyes. This must be what the deserter in the woods was alluding to when he said they couldn’t join the nearby villages.
“We’ll start the bidding at one gold piece per head,” the man continued, oblivious to Riley’s growing anger. “Do I hear one gold piece?”
A gold apiece! Her eyes scanned the town around her from a different perspective. No wonder the people here were thriving. They were capturing and selling the undead that abandoned the Twilight Throne at a healthy profit. They could likely use the funds to buy food from neighboring cities.
A nobleman beside Riley raised his hand. “I have one gold piece to the gentlemen there,” the merchant rattled on, “and I have two gold pieces to the lady in the lovely green hat.”
Riley could feel her temper rising. As she watched the cowed slaves and the man on stage, all she wanted to do was pull her bow free and plug the fat merchant full of arrows. A hand rested on her arm, and Riley whirled. A dagger appeared in her hand and pressed against the offending person’s stomach.
“Whoa there, Riley,” Ethan said, his eyes wide in surprise. “I’m on your side, remember?” Riley’s cowl pushed back slightly, and Ethan could see her obsidian eyes. The burly warrior backed away slowly.
“I-I’m sorry,” Riley said, trying to get ahold of herself. She couldn’t create a scene here. This wasn’t the time or the place. She walked out of the crowd, trying to put some distance between herself and the gruesome spectacle on the stage. As they made their way out of the sea of townsfolk, she turned back to Ethan.
“How could they do that?” Riley hissed, motioning behind her.
Ethan shrugged. “It’s just a game. I’ve seen worse in the other stuff I’ve played.”
Sometimes, Riley wasn’t so certain that it was just a game. The longer she played, the harder it became to tell herself that this wasn’t real – that the lives of those men and women on the stage didn’t matter. The defeated look in their eyes was burned into her mind, and she just couldn’t shake the image.
“We have a winner,” the portly man shouted behind her. She turned and found him waving ecstatically at a robed figure near the stage. “This gentleman just purchased our whole inventory for fifty gold.”
Riley couldn’t see the man’s face, but his robes were a crimson red, and an orange flame was embroidered on his back. In his hand, the man carried an ornate wooden staff. Flames seemed to twist and turn inside the crystal embedded on the top.
“A fire guild Prefect,” Ethan muttered.
Lucas and Emma approached behind them, catching sight of the red-robed target of their attention. “A bunch of assholes is what they are,” he added.
“The fire guild?” Riley asked, confused.
“Have you never been to Vaerwald?” Emma asked, a hint of condescension in her voice. She leaped on the opportunity to flaunt her superior knowledge and began to explain. “The city is ruled by five mage guilds, each representing an elemental affinity and light magic. The guilds each elect a representative to the city’s council.”
“The fire guild members are the worst of the bunch,” Lucas added with a frown. “Most have short tempers, and their status in their guild is obtained by winning duels. They don’t respect anything but raw strength.”
Riley’s dark mana coursed through her veins like an icy river as she watched the fire mage lead the undead off the stage. “What do these duels entail?” she asked with more calmness than she felt.
“It’s a regular in-game duel,” Ethan spoke up. “You know, a pair fights until someone hits about 5% health. You can’t technically kill the other person while the duel is in effect. I was skeptical it worked between the game’s NPCs until I saw one myself.”
Lucas looked at Riley nervously, her eyes were still riveted on the mage, and her mouth was pressed into a thin line. “You can’t confront them, Riley,” Lucas whispered, putting a hand on her arm.
Emma glared at him. “Let her embarrass herself if she wants to. This is none of our business. Why should we care about a bunch of walking corpses?”
Riley turned and eyed Emma coldly. “They are people, being enslaved and sold to the highest bidder. Does that really sit right with you?”
Emma flinched away slightly under her gaze. “I guess it’s not great, but what are we going to do? We’re in the middle of town, and there are guards everywhere. The fire guild isn’t renowned for their weakness in battle,” she added defensively.
Riley had to admit that Emma had a point. She was angry and not thinking clearly. Even Jason wouldn’t try to challenge or attack the mages in this situation. She shook her head and forced herself to release her dark mana. She needed to calm down.
“You’re right,” Riley finally said. She glanced at her in-game clock and saw that it was getting late. They had been traveling for quite a while. “Maybe it’s time for me to log off and get some stuff done in the real world. I bet it’s really late for you all.”
Ethan sighed, stretching his arms. “I do have to get up tomorrow and take an exam. We should probably call it a night. This is a good stopping point anyway since this is the last town before Vaerwald.” Emma and Lucas nodded in agreement.
With that, each of Riley’s teammates disappeared with a popping sound and a flash of multicolored light. As they logged off, her eyes turned back to the fire mage Prefect. He was gathering with a group of similarly attired mages, the undead lumbering sullenly behind him in a long line. There was nothing she could do to help them right now.
Chapter 6 - Depressed
The next day, Riley returned from school with heavy thoughts weighing on her mind. A driverless car stopped in her front drive, and she stepped out, grabbing her bag from the backseat. As the car drove away, she heard the crunch of the tires on the pavement, and
her eyes took in her home.
It was lovely – a testament to her father’s success. It was the type of picturesque Victorian home you would expect to see on the cover of a magazine. She half expected to see a ruddy-cheeked child streak across the lawn playing with a golden retriever to the smiling applause of his parents sitting on the porch swing.
She stood on the front lawn for a long moment, prolonging the inevitable conversation with her parents as she tugged at the sleeve of her sweater. Her thoughts spun in circles as she recalled her day at school. The girls had all snickered at her limp and her sullen demeanor. It was the same daily grind filled with whispered names and secret giggles. She could take it for a while, but there seemed to be no end to their spite or amusement at her suffering.
To make matters worse, it felt like her impotence in real life was being mirrored inside the game. She knew Jason would have come up with some clever scheme to free the undead slaves. He probably would have ended up sacking the whole town. She had tried all day to think of a way she could help those men and woman, but nothing came to her.
Riley shook herself and forced her feet to move. There was no point in standing in her front yard feeling sorry for herself. She limped up to the front door and waved her Core in front of the nearby panel. With an almost inaudible click, the door swung inward, and she stepped through. A soft chime could be heard as the house recognized the Core on her wrist and the hallway lit up automatically.
Riley made her way to the kitchen. Maybe she could ward off her dark thoughts with a cup of tea before she re-entered the game. As she walked toward the kitchen, she heard her parents’ voices drift down the hallway. She grimaced but forced herself to keep moving.
“Hey there, Riley,” her dad greeted as she entered the palatial kitchen. Her parents were seated at an island, coffee mugs resting on the marble countertop.
“Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom,” Riley replied, trying to muster some enthusiasm.
“We were just talking about my latest book,” her dad said. “It’s doing well. Hopefully, another bestseller,” he added with a grin.
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