“It’s – ” Daniel started, then gave up. Just like Merridack, the dwarf was programmed to interpret mentions of the outside world as incoherent babblings. “Never mind.”
“What do you mean, ‘never mind’? You want to go questing with an imbecile? Moreover, you want me to go questing with an imbecile?”
Mira came to the rescue – or tried to. “I’m talking about Dark Elf Time.”
The dwarf scoffed at her. “In over 900 years, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“You’re not a dark elf.”
While they started arguing, Daniel tried to do some quick math in his head.
An hour of real time equals four hours here in the game…
It’s 10 o’clock…
Morning in the Shattered Lands is about 12 hours away…
That’s three hours from now in real time…
“Crap, tomorrow morning here is going to be about 1 or 2 in the morning in the – in, uh, Dark Elf time,” he said to Mira.
“Oof… that’s a little late to start a quest.”
“No, guys, we cahn do this,” the barbarian insisted.
“You’re in Romania, dude,” Mira said. “You’re, like, nine hours ahead.”
“Row May Neeah?” Simik asked with a frown. “What strange land is this you speak of?”
“Uh, guys? I can’t do one in the morning,” Vlisil said, dropping the whole vicious goblin schtick. “My mom won’t let me.”
“What in Sondar’s name is this?” the dwarf roared. “Your mother decides whether you quest or not? What kind of goblin are you?!”
Vlisil went back to chewing the scenery. “Careful, dwarf,” he hissed, “or I will strip the flesh from your bones and – ”
Simik grabbed the nearest wooden sword and advanced threateningly. “You’ll what? WHAT?”
The goblin ran and hid behind the Romanian barbarian.
Fish-like Lotan spoke up. “I can do a quest starting at 1 in the morning, but I need it to be near a large body of water.”
“Yeah, we heard,” Daniel snapped, then turned to Mira. “If we start at 8 our time – Dark Elf Time – that would be what?”
Mira calculated. “About 11AM or noon here. Not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow.”
Daniel groaned inwardly. Losing a day was annoying, but they did have to go to sleep back in the real world.
He turned to Simik. “Can you have everything ready to go… not tomorrow morning, but the next day around noon?”
The dwarf snorted. “Oh, yes, please, let me bend over backwards to accommodate you since you can’t start questing because of a goblin’s mother.”
“Screw you, man,” the goblin said, then shrieked and ran away as Simik waved the sword in his direction.
Daniel had about had enough. “Day after tomorrow at noon – yes or no?”
“By Svragnar’s beard, did I truly agree to quest with this sorry lot?” the dwarf muttered.
“Yes or no?” Daniel repeated.
“YES,” Simik thundered. “But I warn you, do not waste my time. Have the money and be ready, or never show your face in the Court of Mercenaries again. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” Daniel agreed. “And thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” the dwarf grumbled, then asked, “Where are we going? That might be helpful information.”
“I don’t know yet – I’ll have to figure that out, but – ”
“Someplace with a large body of water,” Lotan interrupted. “A large body of water. Preferably freshwater.”
“Ye gods this is going to be an annoying quest,” Simik growled.
“You aren’t kidding,” Daniel sighed.
32
Eric
“There are certain objects,” Cythera said. “Those who possess these objects can add to their mana… and some objects can multiply it.”
“How do I get them?” Eric asked eagerly.
“Many simple objects can be bought in the Dark Market. Those are the – ”
“Dark Market? What’s that?”
“It is quite literally an underground exchange in Blackstone, where adherents of the Dark Arts can buy and sell artifacts. The market is located under the city streets. Its entrance is in an alleyway in Agomir Square, near the statue of King Arnos. I can give you a divining stone to show you the way there.”
Eric realized that the Dark Market was why Merridack had wanted him to rob Cythera in the first place: to steal from her and sell the spoils.
“What can you buy?” he asked.
“Objects imbued with dark mana, usually brought back from quests.”
“How will I know what’s got dark mana and what doesn’t?”
“You will be able to tell,” she smiled. “You will be able to feel it in the object.”
He figured stats would probably appear above any objects to tell him what he needed to know. “How much are they?”
“The price varies, but the more power, the more money the seller will require.”
Eric thought of his previous training from Merridack. “Could I steal things?”
“Unlikely. The shopkeepers are dark mages themselves, and have supernatural defenses to prevent such things.”
“I could summon an Asotidal,” Eric said, naming the bulldog-like horror. “After it starts attacking people, I could just steal stuff in the chaos.”
“It won’t work. Do you think that only fools and weaklings go there? No – dark wizards frequent its halls, and they would be skilled enough to stop any attack you sent their way. Even if you could kill a few, you can only summon creatures of the first order of power – and you can only summon one every few minutes. If they dispense with your first onslaught, you will be defenseless, and they will kill you. No… at this point, you are far better off slowly developing your skills here with me,” she said, seductively stroking his hair.
THAT’S not going to happen.
Eric racked his brains for a second – and then smiled. “All I need is money, right?”
“You say that like you can pick it up in the streets,” she scoffed.
“Not the streets, but maybe the rooftops…”
Suddenly a text box appeared.
Note: you have spent four and a half hours of Real World Time in the Shattered Lands. This is your thirty-minute warning. You must log out soon for at least 30 minutes of Real World Time. Failure to log out will result in a mandatory lock-out of one hour of Real World Time.
“Crap,” he muttered. “I’m going to need that divining stone to get me there.”
“You’re leaving now?” she asked in surprise.
“First I have to go see a friend of mine… how late is it open?”
She smirked. “There will always be someone there. Darkness never sleeps.”
33
Daniel
Daniel came back to his real body in the spare bedroom of his house.
There was a moment of disorientation until he realized why it was so dark and silent: the helmet. He pulled it off.
His body felt stiff from not moving for so long, and his stomach was grumbling in a way it hadn’t while he was inside the game.
He looked over.
Eric was still hooked up to the machine and lying quietly on the other bed.
Huh… I wonder if I should wake him? Or I could just go downstairs and get something to eat…
Then Eric began to stir.
He pulled the helmet off, too, and looked over.
“Oh my GOD!” he said, then laughed.
“Amazing, right?” Daniel grinned.
“TOTALLY amazing.
“Oh, hey – we have a quest lined up!”
Eric’s face froze mid-laugh, the way someone’s does when you’ve surprised them – and not necessarily a pleasant surprise. “Really.”
“Yeah! Two days from now! Two days in the game, I mean. Or I guess it’s more like a day and a half. We start tomorrow at 8AM our time.”
“Huh! Okay…”<
br />
Daniel frowned. “Is that alright?”
“Yeah – sure, sure,” Eric said, waving the question away dismissively. “It’ll be great!”
Daniel suddenly figured it out. “It’s Merridack, isn’t it.”
Eric looked confused. “What?”
“Merridack. You’re not sure if you can slip away.”
“Ohhhhhhh… yeah, Merridack… no, I don’t think he’ll be too much of a problem.”
“Did you…” Daniel paused. “Did you steal more stuff?”
“What? Oh – no, unh-unh. I’m a mage now.”
“WHAT?! That’s AWESOME! Did you go back to the temple?!”
Eric froze again, like he’d been hit with another surprise. “Uh… yeah! Yeah, the temple…”
“That’s GREAT! We’ll really be able to use you on the quest!”
“Yeah…” Eric said, then frowned. “Um, since I’m a noob mage, what exactly would be a good idea to know?”
“Dude, you’ve done just as many dungeon crawls as me.”
Eric laughed nervously. “Right, right.” He began counting things off on his fingers. “Healing, obviously. Casting light – ”
“Some sort of defensive spell,” Daniel said. “And an offensive spell, too. Maybe a fire attack or something.” Then he frowned. “Did Merridack just let you go?”
“What? Oh – not officially, no. The maging is sort of a part-time thing. I, uh, I think I should probably go back in for a little while tonight.”
“But it’s, like, 10 o’clock!”
“I really only learned the basics of being a mage. If I’m going to go on the quest, I really need to learn a few more things.”
Daniel frowned. “By the time our break is over, it’s going to be after midnight in Blackstone. Are they really going to teach you at the temple in the middle of the night?”
“Oh yeah,” Eric reassured him. “They’re pretty much open 24/7.”
“Don’t you have to get home?”
“Could I sleep over? That way I could pack in a few more hours of training before the quest.”
Daniel shrugged. “Sure. And I guess I could go back with you for a couple of hours. I mean, it’s not that late…”
“I should probably just go back in alone,” Eric said hastily. “All I’m going to be doing is learning at the temple, and they won’t let anyone else in, so…”
“…okay…”
Daniel felt a little apprehensive without knowing why, exactly.
“Cool,” Eric said. “By the way, that money I took from the mansion – what’d you do with it?”
The uneasy feeling in Daniel’s gut intensified, though he chalked it up to guilt. “It’s hidden up on that roof where we were hiding. Why?”
“I need to pay some money to the mages for my training, that’s all. Where’s the money hidden?”
“In a crack in one of the corners, in a burlap bag,” Daniel said, then added in confusion, “They want money?”
“Yeah – you know. Just a few gold coins.”
“But… they’re a temple. Don’t they train you for free?”
“Dude, have you ever heard of any religion that doesn’t want your cash? It’s like a total televangelist set-up over there. Money, money, money. Anyway, I need some coins to pay for stuff, so I have to go back in for that, too.”
“…huh… weird.” Daniel shrugged. “But, okay, I guess.”
“Awesome,” Eric beamed. “How about we go get something to eat? I just realized I’m starving.”
“Sure… shouldn’t you call your parents and know you’re staying over?”
“Oh, yeah… yeah, that’s a good idea.”
As they headed downstairs, Eric asked what Daniel had been up to. Daniel filled him in on Simik and the sword training and the Court of Mercenaries. He also told him all about Mira and how hot she looked in the game.
“What, flannel goes well with dark elves?” Eric said sarcastically.
They laughed and chatted and joked all through their late-night meal of microwaved TV dinners – but later on, Daniel kept returning in his mind to the conversation they’d had right after they came out of the game.
He knew he was bothered by it, but he couldn’t really put his finger on why.
Oh well, he thought, it doesn’t matter. Tomorrow we’ll be back together and going on a quest.
It’s going to be EPIC.
Thirty minutes later they were back in the spare bedroom. Daniel looked at his friend dubiously. “You sure you don’t need me to go back in the game with you?”
“No, no – I just need to go get some basic training, that’s all,” Eric reassured him as he lay down on the bed. “It should be fine.”
“Okay… if you’re sure…”
“You can go to bed if you want.”
“No, I’ll stay up to see how it went.”
“Seriously dude, go to bed.”
“It’s cool, I’ll stay up.”
“…okay…” Eric said hesitantly, then picked up the helmet. “See you in an hour or so.”
“Okay – see you in an hour.”
34
Eric
Eric walked swiftly through the deserted streets of Blackstone, warily keeping to the shadows.
The entire time he thought about everything he’d told Daniel back at the house.
He felt bad about deceiving his friend, but he really didn’t have a choice.
He won’t understand.
If he freaked out about me killing an NPC, he’d lose his shit if he found out I’m learning to summon demons.
It’s only a game – why can’t he GET that?
He also thought grimly about everything he had to accomplish tonight. In all his excitement over the Demonomicon, he’d totally forgotten about the quest.
Great. Now I’m going to have to do a crash course with Cythera on basic maging.
He figured there was no way he could do that in the one hour of Real World Time / four hours of game time he had while Daniel was waiting for him, so he might have to sneak back into the game while his best friend was asleep.
Whatever. I’ll make it happen.
But first things first. He had something more important to take care of right now.
After retracing his steps from the previous night’s robbery, Eric found the right building and climbed up a trellis of vines. He had to poke around the roof for a couple of minutes, but he eventually found the burlap bags with the sword and the purse.
He ignored the sword, opened the purse, and took out a few gold coins and diamonds.
He hesitated.
Just to be on the safe side, he took out half of everything.
If I’ve got more mana, I can cast better regular spells, too, he rationalized.
Besides, I stole the damn money, not him.
After replacing the half-empty bag and climbing back down to street level, he checked his inventory and took out the divining stone Cythera had given him.
It was more of a marble than a stone, perfectly spherical and polished. He bent over and placed it on the ground –
It began to roll quickly, clattering over the cobblestones as it sped down the street.
He looked around nervously to see if the noise was attracting attention – either from thieves, or from irate townspeople trying to sleep.
Nobody appeared at the windows or in alleyways.
Truthfully, the noise wasn’t that bad – but in the otherwise near silence, the click click clicking sounded louder than it actually was.
The stone led him halfway across town to an open square. There was a life-size bronze statue of a man wearing a crown, on the back of a rearing horse, sword held high in the air.
Not nearly as big as the robed asshole in front of the temple, Eric thought.
The stone rolled across the square and clattered down an alleyway. Then it clack clack clacked down a set of stone steps that descended below street level.
Eric followed the stone into an undergro
und tunnel lit only by one torch.
When he’d first entered the game, he would have been scared of the dark passageway – but now he actually was hoping someone would jump out from the shadows.
Let ‘em try it and see what they get. He smiled darkly, recalling the demon and the deer earlier in the forest.
But there was no one in the tunnel – only an iron door at the end, much like the entrance to Merridack’s den.
The stone hit the door CLACK and stopped, quivering and straining as though it wanted to move on.
Eric picked up the stone and placed it back in his pocket, then knocked quietly.
A small viewport slid open, and an eye surrounded by warty green flesh stared at him.
“What do you want?” a gravelly voice demanded.
“I want to buy some things… things with dark mana,” Eric said.
The eyelids narrowed, then the owner barked, “I don’t know you. Go away.”
The viewport slammed shut with a CLANG.
Eric stood there in shock. Cythera hadn’t mentioned this as a possibility.
New Quest: Get guard to open door.
Challenge Level: Moderate
Reward: Access to the Dark Market
Punishment for Failure: Go home empty-handed.
He knocked again.
“Go AWAY,” the voice snarled on the other side, muffled now.
Now Eric was getting pissed.
“I have money,” he said, and jingled the contents of his pocket.
“Good for you. GO AWAY.”
Asshole!
Eric stood there at a loss, wondering what to do…
…and then he remembered this afternoon, and something Cythera had said:
The demons you can summon at this point are too weak to do more than merely influence and persuade… someone evil would be more easily swayed…
Eric looked at the iron door.
The bouncer for a place like this might qualify, he reasoned.
He stepped back, held up his hands, and whispered, “Xatho mylopik!”
Dark energy boiled from his fingertips and raced through the air.
Shattered Lands: A LitRPG Series Page 16