by Harper North
“Raven?” Vadie asks.
“We have a saving grace,” I say. “How many crates did you see down there, Lucky?”
Lucky_Champ is in his element. He puffs out his chest. “There are crates in every corridor down there. I was only able to raid a few because of all the Mining Bots.”
“Everyone,” I order. “Into the mines. Time for some old-fashioned grunt work. Push every crate you find up to this spot.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Lucky_Champ says. “We can loot them once we’re out of the mines—”
“Lucky, listen. We’re going to make the Mining Bots follow us,” I explain while imagining the Tenticlas slamming its appendages onto the arena below. “The more Bots, the better. After that, follow my lead. GloryStealer, you like to run into chaotic situations, so I have a job in mind for you.”
It’s a crazy idea but I have nothing else. I let Lucky_Champ take us into the mines. Nearly the size of my head, red and green Mining Bots zip past with their helicopter blades, patrolling the corridors. They hover everywhere and sport electric forks that would no doubt deliver damage, especially in large numbers. They remind me of swarming bugs, and a dozen of them gather as we begin pushing the first crate toward the exit. They follow, drawing nervous stares from Lucky_Champ as we work.
“I think these Bots are left over from an old operation,” Vadie says, when noticing Lucky’s worried gaze. “At least, that’s the story.”
The crowd of Mining Bots buzzing around us swells as we huff and puff, pushing crate after crate to the edge of the boss arena.
“How are we going to open these?” Lucky_Champ turns his darting gaze my direction, pointing at the mass of hovering Mining Bots. The guy is so obsessed with loot that he’s not combat-minded. I’ll have to keep an eye on him.
“You’ll see,” I say to him. Coco_Dream smiles at me. She gets it and nudges Lucky back to work.
At last, we stand with a dozen large crates at the top of the arena. Catching our breath, the five of us stare down at the flat ground below as the Mining Bots hover behind us, as if daring us to go after the loot inside the stolen boxes.
“What now?” GloryStealer asks.
“And now,” I say, flashing him an evil grin, “you have the job of pushing all these crates down there to the crater’s edge without breaking them.”
“Why do I have to do it? The boss will respawn.”
“Because you mind dying the least,” Vadie says. He gets it, too.
“But why do I need to push a dozen crates down there?” GloryStealer asks.
“Because when the Tenticlas aggros the Mining Bots, the effect will be temporary,” I say, resisting the urge to slap myself on the forehead. “We need someone to make that happen again and again. The Bots are going to give us the advantage that we need.”
GloryStealer1 takes in a deep breath. He’s ready to do his job. I order Vadie and Coco_Dream into position. “Lucky, you need to maintain fire with Coco_Dream,” I say. “Can you do that? Cover her since we don’t have a medic.”
“I’m ready,” he says and I smile.
This time, things are different. We’re a team. I can feel it. Is it possible that I’ve found good people?
And, with the wave of my hand, GloryStealer braces himself and pushes the crate down the steep hill. It slides on its own, toppling but not breaking as it reaches the bottom. Most of the Mining Bots follow him, buzzing and waiting to see what he does.
At the same time, the one-hour timer flashes at the top of my vision. The Tenticlas rises, green and ominous as its massive health bar stretches across everything.
CHAPTER 4
“GloryStealer, don’t push the crates so hard!” I shout. “Don’t re-aggro the Mining Bots yet!”
But he topples the loot crate right over the edge of the drop-off and down onto the arena’s flat surface, where Vadie and Coco_Dream are doing their best to bring down the Tenticlas’ health bar. Vadie is in the middle of using his Electric Glove on the boss, decreasing its health bar to under a quarter as the Tenticlas attempts to fight the swarm of fork zapping Mining Bots. The Bots don’t take much health off the boss, however. But, by staying close to the monster, they’ve prevented it from using a slime ball attack. Every bit matters.
And as I watch the crate break on the gray stone, thanks to GloryStealer, I realize just how much of a role the Mining Bots have played.
All the Bots turn away from the Tenticlas and sail for GloryStealer, the newest detected thief. He shouts and waves his arms as the Bots zap him with their forks. Having no real armor, he doesn’t last long. When his health bar is gone, my log tells me that he’s fallen in battle. The Mining Bots hover there, not sure who to go after. They’ve forgotten about the Tenticlas and now GloryStealer will take a couple of minutes to get back here and resume his job.
He’s doing better, but he’s not there yet.
“We have five minutes!” Lucky_Champ shouts from below. His username floats behind a towering rock. He’s on the arena’s opposite side and there’s no way he’ll get there in time to help.
“Keep firing on the boss!” I shout into the comm. “I’ll have to aggro the Mining Bots myself.”
It pains me to say it. I’m going to pull a GloryStealer, but we have no other choice. There are things to do. Honor to be had. I run to one of the three remaining loot crates and shove it down the shallowest hill to the arena. I glimpse Vadie running out to distract the boss for me. The Tenticlas turns to him and lifts one massive green tentacle. I push faster, reaching the arena’s flat ground. No longer going downhill, it gets harder to push, so I put all my strength into my legs. Any moment, a tentacle could come down and crush me, ending our chance at winning this fight. Even now, two of slimy arms wave overhead, aimless.
“How close am I?” I ask, daring to stop for a second just to speak into my comm.
“Closer,” Coco_Dream responds.
I push again. This is where Atlas would have come in handy with his Strength points. The monster’s roar gets so loud that I’m sure it’s right behind the crate. One massive appendage rises above me, suckers glowing with a whitish, sick hue.
I turn and run.
A shadow falls over me as I leap, aided by the low gravity of this moon, and I rise toward the high ground just as GloryStealer returns and eyes me like he can’t believe that I pulled such a move.
The tentacle comes down.
The world shakes and I fall behind a rock, getting back to my position. Rolling, I turn to see that the Tenticlas’ health bar is dropping again, a sliver at a time but at a steady rate. The Mining Bots all zip toward the tentacle and begin inflicting damage. So far, they’ve stayed aggressive toward the boss for three minutes. And that happens to be most of the time left to end this fight.
“Everyone, open fire!” I shout. “Even you, GloryStealer!”
I equip my Sniper Rifle and peek through the scope. The Tenticlas won’t open its mouth to fight the Mining Bots, which is the downside to this tactic. Beside me, GloryStealer opens fire while Vadie gets hits in with his Electric Glove. Lucky_Champ, who’s been hiding so far, emerges and opens fire with his Blaster. Coco_Dream does the same.
“No more hiding!” I shout. “Our health should last us!” We can’t afford to cover and regenerate now. It’s all or nothing.
To make my point, I emerge from my hiding spot for better shots. My hits don’t do much but, but the collective damage is adding up. The boss’ health bar drops bit by bit . . . the timer counts down its final minute . . . the monster’s health bar flashes red and the Tenticlas roars, opening its mouth in desperation to fire its deadly slime bombs.
I kneel and aim at the pink roof if its mouth.
I fire.
Sparks fly and the boss roars in agony. Its health bar depletes from the critical hit.
“Back away!” Vadie shouts. “She’s gonna blow!”
I realize what he’s talking about. The monster’s body pulsates as if pressure is building insid
e. That’s probably going to be bad. Another green circle, a much bigger one, fills most of the arena, warning us about the oncoming goo explosion.
Coco_Dream seizes my arm and pulls me behind a rock right as the Tenticlas erupts.
That’s the best word for it—erupts. Green slime shoots toward the black sky like the most disgusting geyser I’ve ever seen. It’s the worst boss death the programmers could have included. Then, the slime rains down, sizzling as acid eats at my and Coco_Dream’s rock. Being behind the rock, we miss all but a few drops, which dissolve the moment they hit the arm of my Titanium Armor. A message in my log tells me that my armor’s protection has temporarily dropped five percent from acid exposure. No big deal, but being in the area of effect could have destroyed my armor.
When the deadly rain ends and the sizzling stops, victory music plays to announce that we’ve completed the boss fight.
AnythingCanHappen has won a battle against a boss that we shouldn’t have been able to beat.
“Yes!” Coco shouts. She takes my arm and pulls me into the arena. Some of the green goo remains, but it’s fading and does no damage to my boots as I walk across it. “We did it! Everybody! Get out here! The loot crate will appear any second.”
The familiar tingle of anticipation covers my palms. I unequip my Sniper Rifle and step over a half-melted Mining Bot still twitching on the ground. Our little friends have sacrificed themselves to our cause. None of them have survived the boss’ death. At least I don’t have to feel bad about NPC’s. It’s a nice break.
“Excellent work!” I shout.
“We need to have a memorial service for these guys,” Vadie says, pausing at the corpse of a red Mining Bot. “Did we get any XP from them?”
“No,” I say. “We didn’t kill them.”
“Then we’re going without a service,” he says.
“Hey. Without them, we’d have lost this fight again,” I say.
“Wait for it . . .” Lucky_Champ says.
As if the game was waiting for us to get back together and find our bearings, the chimes of XP inflow fills my ears. My 550 unspent XP blurs as the numbers spin, climbing to four digits. At last, the chimes slow and I’m staring at 5550 unspent XP. Five upgrades.
“Are you kidding?” GloryStealer asks. “I have five thousand XP!”
“Go spend it on some more tattoos,” Vadie says. “I saw a shop that sold animated tatts to cover your face. You could get a butterfly.”
“What kind of player do you think I am?” GloryStealer1 asks.
“Give him a break,” I say with a smile, even though I know they’re just joking with each other. Now that the boss fight is over, there’s less tension between us. Our cluster is coming together after the disaster that was our first raid. Can I make some friends?
I still must be vigilant. There’s no way I can shake that feeling. There’s a lot that I need to hide. The Hermit, for instance.
“The loot crate!” Lucky_Champ shouts.
I turn in the direction of his voice. The main loot crate—a metal one—stands near the now-empty crater. I haven’t seen it spawn. Lucky_Champ looks at it with reverence and then eyes the common loot that’s all over the ground, leftovers from the smashed mine crates. The acid hasn’t dissolved the hordes of Ground Bombs, Nanobot Packs, and Reflecting Stars that dot the ground. We have a lot of looting to do.
“You’re the one with the highest Luck points,” I tell Lucky_Champ. “Therefore, you open the crate when we’re done leveling up.” My heart races as my mind goes back to my promise in Raralin. I’m getting closer to fixing my mistakes, but not close enough.
“Are you sure you want to level up first?” He asks.
“Well, I do,” I say. It’ll get me closer to surviving an encounter with the Main Admin and, thus, getting to Earth to save my comrade. The itch remains in my palms, but I sweep my base stats into my vision and spend my five upgrades on my favorite areas:
+–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––+
Strength: 25
Speed: 37
Stamina: 21
Healing Rate: 27
Awareness: 40 (+2)
Close Range Combat: 17
* Sniper Dead Eye: 41 (+2)
General Accuracy: 40
Luck: 25 (+1)
+–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––+
I grudgingly add a point to Luck, seeing as I need Rare Artifacts to survive. Extra luck will boost my chances of finding one should I get stuck working on my own. But, at least, I’m up to 278 upgrades and closer to reaching Level 28. We gather around and wait as Lucky_Champ pries off the lid. He peers inside and studies the contents before he tells us what he’s found. I find myself leaning forward to make sure he doesn’t inventory anything without my knowing.
“There are Fragmented Ground Bombs inside,” he says. “And a Beacon if we ever want to set up territory in an Uncharted area.”
I sigh and pace. “That’s not what we’re doing. Maybe later. A Beacon is often sellable, though. Many wealthier players liked to set up territories of their own in Uncharted areas for their clusters. They’re the types who don’t worry as much about leveling up. It still won’t get the credits or XP I need, though. “What else is there? After a boss like that, there has to be more.”
Lucky_Champ leans into the crate and shuffles things around. “There’s a Tier Five Sniper Scope. You can use that, Raven, once you reach Level 30. And there’s a Blaster Mod that triples fire. It’s only usable by someone who’s at least Level 30. Wait. Coco_Dream21. You can use that.”
She’s ecstatic as Lucky_Champ hands her the Mod, a small tube that she attaches to her weapon. He hands me the 5th Tier Sniper Scope and text explodes in my vision.
NEW ACHIEVEMENT! Top of the line.
Well, once you’re Level 30. Stinks, doesn’t it?
Oh, well. I put the Scope into my inventory, knowing it will come in handy later.
“There’s some sort of Artifact thing in here,” Lucky_Champ says, leaning into the crate. “It’s the last thing.”
“Why don’t I get anything?” GloryStealer asks.
But I ignore him. I’ll have to explain that he can’t use most of the loot once we’re finished here. But before I reach Lucky_Champ, the looter stands, a Digital Player in his hands. A faint purple glow surrounds the Artifact, indicating what I need to know: it’s a Rare Artifact.
“I don’t know what this is,” he says.
I need to stop myself from snatching it from him. Lucky_Champ holds the Artifact with care as if he’s handled them before. He said he often sells Artifacts on the black market and makes a living at it, so I’m going to have a problem on my hands.
But now that my cluster is coming together, I can’t ruin it now by stealing it from him and losing their trust.
“I’d like to know too,” I say. “There’s a button on the top. It might be a map or a database that someone would pay for.”
Lucky_Champ presses it and a green image pops to life in front of the Artifact. The Digital Player displays winding corridors, convoluted rooms, and yellow squares. I’ve never seen a map like this before. Then, somehow, Lucky zooms out and the map shows that the location of this mystery place is deep within the moon Infernix, near the very center. A blinking green dot, on the other side of the moon, marks what might be the entrance.
“Wow,” Lucky says. “It’s a treasure map. You don’t find these very often!”
“Great job, Lucky,” I say. “We’re glad to have you on board.”
The Hermit speaks. “Treasure maps are indeed rare and will disclose the location of maps with lots of rare loot. However, there are always traps within them.”
“I know that,” I mutter. I haven’t ever visited a treasure map before, but it makes sense that they wouldn’t give up their plunder for free. Already, my mind spins with what other rare loot could be inside the map. By defeating
this boss, it’s possible that we’ve accomplished two things at once. “What exactly can you find inside when you meditate?”
Coco_Dream21 lifts one metal eyebrow at me. My cluster is starting to notice that I’m talking to a voice in my head. Soon, I’ll have to explain things, if I’m to keep their trust. But should they have my trust? Lucky_Champ never explained why he was seeking a cluster, after all, and neither did GloryStealer1.
The same goes for Coco_Dream. There must be a reason such a good player was out looking when clusters should have fought over her. Players are out for themselves, first and foremost.
The Hermit seems to have already meditated. Perhaps his past takeover of a Master Admin has given him the ability to know about these secret places. “This Tenticlas has been killing players and gathering loot for a long, long time,” The Hermit says. “The loot it has collected is there, in a cache. I cannot determine which loot exactly is down there, but there are many crates and no Mining Bots. This map tells you to go to the planet’s other side enter but, if you do that, you will die in a cave-in and everything in your hotbar will transfer to the cache within the treasure map. That is the catch. However, you may enter through this crater.”
So, this is a trap, the boss’ way of getting revenge on those who dare beat it. “Got it,” I mutter.
“Who are you talking to?” Coco_Dream asks.
“Myself,” I supply. It’s bad enough that GloryStealer already knows who I am. But drawing attention to ourselves before I’m ready to face the Main Admin will be disaster. GloryStealer doesn’t seem to have told anyone that he’s in a cluster with the Digital Transfer Credit winner yet. But it’s The Hermit I’m worried about. He might have masked me from the Master Admins, but if my whole cluster desired to use him—and possibly alerting other clusters in the process—might make the masking useless.