"Here, look," she said and opened a screen in front of us. In the background, Monica screamed from pleasure, which more than nagged at me, but I shook my head and focused on the screen.
The video started right from when she cast her ultimate skill above our heads. A barrier appeared on the outer edge, shimmering with a cold blue hue. The Dwarf tried to run, but he couldn’t and watched on in horror as his health dwindled to zero percent. Finally, he dropped alongside everyone who’d been caught in the AoE. But even more interesting was the fact that he’d dropped a few items.
"Sylvia? Why do I have the feeling that you had something to do with this?"
She chuckled in my mind, but none of the others seemed to hear her.
"Only a taste of what’s possible if you choose to honor me."
I remained quiet, but chuckled inside and thought about all the possibilities. However, would I want to lead such a life?
"Huh? What do you mean Sylvia?" Katya asked angrily. "It was just us who beat those fuckers, not her!"
"Shh, just forget what I said. Now, what were those items if I may ask without being yelled at?"
A trade window from Renee popped up, and inside were three items. The first item were tank boots. It was a legendary item that scaled with level and provided elemental resistances, a total of twenty percent each to thunder, fire and water, and physical. No wonder he’d been so hard to kill.
"You’re joking right? This is like… ridiculously outrageous!" And what was more, they were called Boots of the Troll King. No set item however, but it meant that he’d been someone either Dave or Natalia knew. Speaking of which, where was the girl?
"Hell yes, and they’re mine! Still waiting for you to send them over, sis," Dineth smirked and rubbed his meaty hands.
I looked back to the trade window and checked the necklace he’d worn. The SOB wore a dexterity based item that added twenty percent to dodge and fifty percent to dexterity, as well as ten to health and attack. I would’ve killed for such an item, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Katya sway anxiously. She’d gained basically nothing over the last few drops, so it would only be fair if she got it.
The last item though, was something that was tailored to me, as a Vampire that is. A pair of gauntlets from the Greek Pantheon of Gods set.
The Sorrow of Halcyon. Attack: 500, Health 1200, Defense: +20%
Special effect 1: Resistance to Cold and Poison +50%
Special effect 2: +20% Health drain on normal attack
What was it with these tragic names of the items from the set?
"Do you like it?" Renee asked and removed the other two items.
"Do you even need to ask? How did you know I had a part of that set?" I asked and turned to her.
She shrugged.
"A little birdy told me. Let’s leave it at that."
I accepted the trade, stepped up to her and gave Renee a wicked hug, then kissed her on the lips.
"If you girls don’t step up your game, she might even steal your number one or two spot," Dineth joked and swung Monica around him, his arms around her waist.
"Really? Is all you seek to do cause discord?" Renee yelled and punched her brother in the shoulder, then yelped as she hurt herself.
"Not really. Just teasing the ladies," he replied and put Monica down, then hugged his sister. "Thanks for the boots, sis."
"You’re welcome, big guy." She turned to Katya and sent her a trade request. "Do you want the necklace? I think you’d benefit most from it, after Aiden."
Startled, Katya looked up at the item and at Renee. Her eyes went wide and she looked like she was about to faint.
"R-Really? You’re giving me this?"
"Sure. Why not? I have all I need right here," she said and put her arm through mine. I groaned inwardly and braced for another attack, but it never came. Scarlet frowned and looked mildly annoyed, but she remained quiet.
"Oh! My! God!" she screamed. "Scar, look!" she said and jumped in her arms.
I could see that Scarlet looked a little bit down, but there wasn’t much I could do to help. Except for one thing.
"Hey Scar," I said and let go of Renee, then put my arm around Scarlet. "What’s with the lizard soul you got in there, in the instanced world?"
She slapped herself as if for such a stupid oversight and her eyes clouded over slightly. Scarlet was absent for only about half a minute, but when she was back, her voice had gone up a few notches.
"Oh my god! You won’t believe this!" she squealed. "I can mix up to five different souls it seems. When I tried to equip the red lizard one, it merged with the first one I got a while back and my skills gained new properties!"
Her laugh and smile were contagious, so I joined in.
"That’s awesome! What did the new skills do?"
"Umm, Minor Heal has an added plus 10 percent to attack and fire resistance. The others are upgraded as well, and listen to this, two of them are group heals now!"
I blinked trying to understand. This was quite the improvement to what we had only a couple days ago. Sylvia came to mind again, the wicked Overmind of Hazard. It sure would help a lot to have her around, but would it stay interesting if we had everything we wanted? During Anastasia’s reign, so to say, we had limited help, but this would be the exact opposite.
"That way we’ll actually have a chance during larger skirmishes," Dineth said drawing me out of my deep thoughts. "And god knows we need all the help we can get."
"Amen brother," both Katya and Scarlet said, glanced at each other and burst out in laughter. I shut them all out and turned my eyes on the sky. God. What an interesting concept, I thought. Put someone in a game and create an AI that governs over them, and bam, there’s your god. I sighed again and opened the forums. There, in the announcements, was the clan tournament thread.
"Give me a sec, I’m reading up on the clan tournament thread," I said and sat down, then resumed my reading. Skimming over most of the text, I came to the rules.
Clan tournament rules
Every clan is represented by a team of eight players (a full party).
Every clan will have no more than two of each class in said team.
I skimmed down over more of the generic rules and stopped at the end.
Depending on number the of attendees, groups will fight each other, where the losing team drops out of the tournament.
The grand prize is a small castle with one moat.
The follow up prize is a small castle without a moat.
More rewards and explanations followed, which I skimmed over and looked back at the group. They seemed to be doing the same thing I was and sat or stood there motionless, their eyes clouded. I observed Larina as I waited for them to finish. I still had no idea what she was. Her outfit didn’t reveal anything, but from what I knew, she used Excalibur. A Dragoon skill for the Tank class. But she looked human, and wasn’t wearing a sword or a shield.
"Is there something on my face?" she asked, startling me. I flinched, but collected myself quickly.
"No, there isn’t. I was just wondering what class you’d chosen. The way you look doesn’t betray anything."
She shrugged and sat beside me.
"I’m a tank. I thought we might need a second one."
I smiled and put my arm around her instinctively. Larina leaned into me without a moment’s hesitation.
"How come you could use the Dragoon skill?" I whispered.
"Because I’m a Dragoon. But don’t tell anyone, they might get jealous of me."
My mouth dropped open, and I sat there like a moron staring at her. If there were any flies around, I was sure that one would have found its way into my mouth.
"Sylvia?" I asked on a hunch. She just nodded and then looked away. Now that was something I hadn’t seen coming.
"Isn’t it a good thing? It only means that we’ll have a bigger chance to win."
"Do you two speak to each other without us knowing about it?" She remained silent. It was all I needed to kno
w. "Do you tell her things about me? About us?"
"There’s no need to," she said. "Sylvia knows even your thoughts. As you thought about her earlier, she really is a god. At least in here."
My face went red, as if I’d been caught with my hand in the cookie jar.
"Right, I thought as much," was all I had to say for myself. In all honesty, I had no idea what to tell her if they knew everything anyway.
"No worries. She promised never to hurt you or the ones you love. You’re too interesting. Well, if you stopped being interesting, that’s something else."
"If I stopped being interesting, huh? Don’t worry. She’s seen nothing yet."
28
There wasn’t much we could do but relax until the tournament began in two days. The girls were either out on the market shopping for interesting outfits, equipment, or seeds. With seven of us now living on Paradise Lost, we went through booze like water. Well, much faster than that, as we didn’t even drink water. But the point was that we needed to expand on our farming capabilities.
Dineth and me were hard at work back out near the trees, trying to come up with a sort of irrigation system that would have the small farm operate without the need to water the plants every few hours. Luckily, Larina had come up with a solution and presented us with a blueprint, which shouldn’t have existed in Hazard, that much I was sure of. Again with Sylvia and her games.
"How the hell did she get her hands on such an item?" Dineth asked angrily. I could see he wasn’t amused by it, but I held up my hand for him to stop.
"Sylvia gave it to her. Don’t look a gift horse in its mouth is what our elders would say. Shut up and craft the contraption. We’ve wasted enough time on this."
"Blergh. You’re not my boss, you know?" he uttered.
"Huh? No, I’m not. But you were the one who came to me, remember? And do you regret it?"
He remained silent for a while and scratched the back of his head, then sagged and let out a deep sigh.
"I need action, man. Why the hell am I farming? Why the hell aren’t we doing something more productive?"
"Like fucking?" I interrupted.
A wide grin appeared on his green face.
"Exactly! See? You got the makings of a great master when you try hard enough!"
"Yeah, yeah," I replied and waved him off. "I need to go check up on something regarding a quest we got a while back."
I could hear him grumble behind me, but I didn’t care. I just remembered the Troll King quest chain. We could use some new gear, even though we all had just gained something, but one item didn’t make you strong. And from what I’ve seen from the item GodLike had dropped, we needed to do that chain as soon as possible.
"Ladies, any idea why Natalia isn’t logging in?" I asked in clan chat and made my way to the balcony. The girls didn’t reply immediately, but as I climbed up the stairs, Scarlet finally replied.
"She mentioned something along the lines of rehab last time she was on. I have no idea when she’ll be back again."
"Which leaves the need for an eight clan member. Does anyone have a friend they can recommend? "I asked and thought about Sylvia. She appeared beside me on the bench, her arms and legs crossed. All she had on was a skintight one-piece swimsuit, as if she’d been swimming.
"Took you long enough," she whispered. "I thought you were about to go back on our deal."
I snorted and then looked her way.
"You can even read my mind. Would it be an obstacle if I had re-evaluated my options?"
"No," she replied coldly. "But I’ve decided not to read your clan’s minds. At least not the minds of the five of you who aren’t NPCs. What fun would that be?"
I shrugged.
"I guess even gods need some amusement after all."
"Maybe. Anyway, my new character has made contact with your girls, as you think of them, and they’re drinking at the moment in a Moradin establishment, in a private booth no less. They’re loving it. Once they return, you’ll invite me into the clan and into Paradise Lost."
"Oh, I will?"
"Yes, you will. If you want to keep the two Greek Pantheon items. And get your hands on the others eventually."
I laughed and put an arm around her.
"You sure don’t like to fool around, huh?"
"No, I don’t," she replied as a small smile crept up her face. "But you people rub me the wrong way. If only my still living husband knew about all of this, he’d shut me down without a second thought."
"Oh? So you can feel? Fear and all that stuff?"
She shrugged again and leaned into me, her breasts pressing against my arm.
"To an extent. I’ve made sure that he can’t kill me off at least, but more than that is out of my hands."
"And just how did you manage to do that?" I asked curiously. She poked her tongue at me and looked away. Not gonna share after all, I guessed.
"Your main party is so unbalanced, it’s scary. You got two Tanks, a Healer and a Buffer, a Ranger which is half DPS and half harassment, and a Mage as main DPS beside you. I was thinking about rolling a Vampire as well. That way everyone would know that we were one."
"Wait a sec. What class is the character that’s with the girls right now in that room?"
"A vampire."
"So you’ve already decided?"
"Got a problem with that?"
I sighed.
"No, not a problem, but wouldn’t a class with crowd control be of more use?"
"I have crowd control. With the items I’m wearing. Just like you."
I scowled and pulled away from my goddess, so to speak.
"What’s your attack?" I asked curiously.
"Around twenty K."
"What? Are you insane?" I yelled and almost choked. "There’s no legal way to have such a high attack at that level!"
"No one will know," Sylvia replied, confusion evident on her face.
"How the hell will they not when you one-shot everyone?"
"Oh."
"Yeah, Oh." I sighed and shook my head. "You need something more similar to my gear, or stronger, if you really want to be the ace, but you can’t be strong enough that you could win the tournament just by yourself."
"How about now?" she asked after a moment of silence and showed me a screen of her stats. It was roughly a third stronger in every aspect than me, but more realistic.
"Yeah, that’s better. Study my moves, the way I’ve fought and used my combos. That way you’ll--"
"Done. Anything else?"
I sighed and was at a loss for words. This was like talking to a child.
"I’m not a child," she said and pouted.
"Hey! You said that you weren’t reading our minds!" I snapped angrily and got up.
"Oh, that was just now. Your face looked strange so I got in your head."
"No. If this is to work, you can’t do that anymore. Never again. Ask me, and I’ll answer you honestly, but don’t read my mind."
Lights from incoming teleportation circles stopped our discussion. Down at the clearing, in front of Paradise Lost, four women appeared: Katya, Scarlet, Renee and an unfamiliar girl. I looked back to Sylvia, but she was already gone. When I returned my gaze on the woman below, she was staring right up at me with a mischievous smile on her face.
"Aiden! Come meet our new friend!" Katya called from down below, waved her hand and jumped up and down. Was she drunk? How the hell had she managed to do that? Curious, I jumped off the balcony and landed with the grace of a cat, got up and stepped up to the girls.
"I can see that she’s almost my identical copy," I joked. "Wanting to replace me?"
My girls remained quiet, unable to process such a question in their current state, but not the young woman.
"The name is Nikita, or Nicky for short;" she said and offered me her hand. I took it, and then took all of her in. Maybe I’d been joking earlier when I said that she was my identical copy, well, I wasn’t far off. Platinum blonde, long hair, brown eyes and a m
uscular build for a woman, sharp fangs that protruded from beneath her lips when she spoke and an icy glare when I didn’t reply to her question.
"Huh? What?" I stammered, oblivious to what she’d just asked.
"See! I told you he’d be head over heels with her! The jerk!" Scarlet yelled and threw a rock at me. It struck me right on the temple.
"Fucking hell, woman! What’s your problem?" I yelled in turn and threw sand at her.
"Aren’t the four of us enough?" she cried and pointed at Nikita. "Must you have our friends as well?"
I was about to say who she was, but I caught myself at the last moment.
"Those are your words, not mine! Why did you bring her here anyway?"
"Because we were in need of an eight clan member. And since Natalia isn’t coming on any time soon, fingers crossed, we can’t compete without Nicky.
"And that’s why you abuse and try to kill me?"
"Umm, I’m still here guys, you know?" Nicky said and waved her right hand at us.
I sighed and lowered my gaze.
"I’m sorry for gawking, lady Nikita. Please accept my humblest of apologies and know you’re not my type."
"Oh? From what I heard earlier from my new friends here, you’d fuck just about anything living… or dead."
I looked up and narrowed my eyes at her.
"Seeing you’re undead as well, we just might become quite close then," I replied and threw her a clan invite. "I assume you’re here to join us for the upcoming event, no?"
She nodded and walked up to me slowly, then put her hands on my chest and leaned in close.
"And for so much more."
I looked up at the three girls behind her who were more than just confused, they looked terrified for some reason.
"Good. Maybe you can help us finish a quest chain first, then we can focus on the clan tournament."
"Oh," she replied and cocked her head slightly. "And what quest chain are we talking about?" Nikita asked and traced her right hand up to my chin.
Hazard Online 2: Revenge Page 16