by Sarah Lin
"Huh, you're smarter than you look." Meara's gaze went blank for a time, then she slowly nodded. "Yes, I do have something... outside the pass lies the city of Cresthaven. Its underworld is currently dominated by a man known as Daek the Knife. Rumor has it that he is looking for adventurers to deal with some sort of problem he has, and offering a hefty reward for those who can help him."
Though he considered demanding to know how she knew such a thing, there was likely no point. The knowledge had simply been given to her by the box gods, same as all the rest. It matched what the trio had said, so he believed it. That told him where he needed to go next clearly enough, or at least where the otherworldly entities wanted him to go. In case they were still suspicious, he would head there and see how things developed.
[New Quest!
Daek the Knife's Task
To accept the quest, travel to Cresthaven and find Daek the Knife.
Potential Rewards: High]
Ignoring the useless box, Bloodwraith realized with a start that they had left the pass and he hadn't noticed. When he tried to interrogate his memory for the exact moment, only hazy thoughts of traveling came to him. He turned back and saw a trail leading into a pass behind them... but even from there he could see that it did not lead to the pass they'd just traveled through.
Just like before, the way back had been removed. In this case, Bloodwraith welcomed it. He distantly remembered Cresthaven as a real city in the borderlands near the mountains, and he could feel that something had changed. This was the real world again.
When he turned away from the mountains, he found his gaze wandering over the rolling hills. He could see a farm in one direction, a dirt road in another, a cluster of stones that might lead to an underground cavern... adventure lay in every direction.
[Quest Complete!
Leave the Forest of Beginnings.
Optional Objective: Defeat the Alpha Wolf.
Optional Objective: Encounter Meara.
Optional Objective: Master the Fist of Rage.
Objectives 100% complete!
Global Reputation +100
EXP +1000]
[Congratulations! You gained a level!
Current Level: 5
Current EXP: 843/1600
Unassigned Stat Points: 5]
Though Bloodwraith eagerly welcomed the new potential power and marveled at the enormous reward he had gained simply for leaving the forest, he didn't have time to enjoy it. The first sour note was the fact that this "Fist of Rage" had apparently been planned from the start. But far worse than that was the next box that appeared before his gaze, refusing to disappear when he willed it aside.
[Tutorial complete. Your journey continues in the true world of Alliandelle.
All future injuries are covered by your waiver. After the next 24 hours, the option to recall will end.
You will no longer respawn upon death.
Health, mana, and stamina regeneration are no longer buffed.
Items and equipment can now lose durability.
All level caps have been lifted.]
Baffled by the different terms, Bloodwraith began to focus on them one at a time, interrogating the boxes to provide him with explanations. When he began to understand the line regarding death, he cursed violently under his breath.
Meara walked up beside him, staring at the spot that must look like empty air to her, then looked back to him. "What's wrong now?"
"I think..." Bloodwraith rubbed his forehead as he came to grips with it. "I think if I had died in the forest, I would have been resurrected automatically. Preposterous..."
"Oh..." That got through her blankness, real concern floating through her eyes. "Then if I had died back there... perhaps the same would have happened to me. I... I think it has before. One of the adventurers slit my throat once he was done... and they just placed me back in the cabin."
"Eh? What's this?" Bloodwraith turned on her, but Meara was shaking her head and beginning to wander away.
"Then death wouldn't have been the end, there... maybe it is now..."
"That's far enough!" He strode after her, grabbing her arm and pinning her in place. "You cannot just wander off!"
"I can, unless you force your will on me." Meara stared up at him flatly. "Is that what you're going to do, oh brave adventurer?"
"I... no." Bloodwraith scowled at her, stomach turning as he remembered all the terrible realizations that were tied up in his memories of her. "But you cannot just wander away. We are going to the city of Cresthaven to pursue this new quest."
"You are. I've had enough of quests." She pulled away and he let her leave his grip. Meara took another step back, then fixed her gaze on him. "Unless you're going to tell me who you really are, and what you're doing here?"
"My business is my own." As soon as he snapped the words, Bloodwraith wondered if he should have made a different decision. But the box gods might still be watching, or even using Meara against him, despite how it seemed. And if she knew his real identity, that could lead to further problems, No, that was not an option.
And it seemed that without it, he had no chance of retaining Meara. She gave him a final look, perhaps a hint of sadness in her eyes, then began to walk away toward one of the smaller paths. Bloodwraith watched her go, conflicted in a way he had not experienced in decades.
[Meara has departed. Remove her from the par-]
"Despicable boxes!" He slashed his hand through it, willing it to just go away. They had confused him for long enough. Now he wanted nothing more to do with them. Perhaps he would find some real answers in the city, or at least he could clear his mind.
Leaving Meara behind, Bloodwraith began running toward Cresthaven.
Chapter 5
Though it was quite some distance to Cresthaven, Bloodwraith made good time traveling along the main road. He had been afraid that he would be constantly attacked by wolves, but it seemed that the world obeyed normal rules now that he had left the Forest of Beginnings. In the body of a normal adventurer, he attracted little attention from any other travelers, so there was nothing to slow him down.
When he reached a crossroads, he spent a moment looking at the sign. Still quite some distance to the city. Traveling by foot was frustratingly slow, making him long for magical transport. He would need to work his way there.
Before he could begin moving again, a large wagon led by two horses approached beside him. It contained nothing but a few feeble peasants, so he ignored them, but the old man who was driving leaned down toward him.
"Headed to Cresthaven, young man?"
Bloodwraith glanced up at him, barely remembering to hide his irritation. "That's right."
"So are we. Have all kinds of crops to sell. Just selling at the local towns, you can get by well enough, but we want to store up a little more. The city has a bottomless appetite, so prices are good, but-"
"Is there a point to this, old man?"
Though the old man seemed startled for a moment, he soon chuckled good-naturedly. "I see you're in a hurry. Very well, then. We would like to offer you a few copper pieces to come to the city along with us. An extra bit of protection, you see."
"What's the catch?" Bloodwraith narrowed his eyes, looking over the wagon. An average peasant family, carrying unremarkable bundles of grain. Could there be something more valuable hidden within? "You wouldn't be hiring protection if you didn't have concerns."
"Nothing so serious. But we've heard that there are bandits in these parts, preying on those who near Cresthaven. In my day, there were guards to stop them, but rumor has it the current leadership of the city won't patrol beyond the walls." The old man clucked his tongue and shook his head. "We can't afford to hire a full group of adventurers. But perhaps a strapping young man like yourself with such an impressive sword could make us seem like less of a soft target, hmm?"
It all made sense, then. Though Bloodwraith considered the possibility that he was being deceived, it seemed plausible that the peasants had be
gan traveling to the city naively, become scared of rumors, and so sought whatever protection they could afford. Fools, but potentially useful fools, depending on how the box gods felt about such things...
Bloodwraith straightened his shoulders and smiled at them. "I cannot leave a defenseless family in need! I would be happy to escort you to Cresthaven!"
[Quest Accepted!
Escort the wagon to Cresthaven.
Rewards: EXP, Money, Reputation, Alignment]
As they thanked him, Bloodwraith did his best not to grin eagerly. The measly few coppers they negotiated as his price were worthless, but he had been right that the boxes would declare this a quest. He didn't know how much EXP the quest would be worth, but this could be the first of many tests.
"Very good, young adventurer!" The old man chuckled and patted the wagon seat beside him as they began to move again. "Feel free to ride along, if you'd like to rest your feet!"
Resting his useless meat legs sounded like a good idea, but a few minutes of the peasants' chatter disavowed him of that notion. Bloodwraith soon made excuses and returned to walking ahead of the wagon just so he could have some space to think.
There was little doubt that the peasants were exactly what they appeared to be. Just a farmer and his wife, her father driving the wagon, and a few children sitting between the bundles of crops. Unless they were masters of acting, they were nothing but country bumpkins. No one would trust them with anything valuable without protection, so their story must be true.
As banal as it was, Bloodwraith found them slightly encouraging. The peasants cared only about the season's crops, the price of goods, local romantic rumors - nothing at all about boxes or mysterious points. Unlike Meara, they were just ordinary people leading mundane lives.
Thinking of the girl he'd left behind made Bloodwraith scowl. Best to forget about her as soon as possible. He'd gotten what he needed, so thinking of her further would only waste his time.
Though they would reach Cresthaven that day, first they needed to travel through a rocky region. The road dwindled in size as it had to wind around various rocks. Realizing that their visibility had decreased substantially, Bloodwraith hefted his sword into position on his shoulder, just in case.
Without warning, a man in filthy, ragged clothes came running toward them, screaming. "Bandits! Turn back! Turn back, before the-"
Bloodwraith's greatsword came down on his head, killing him instantly and smashing his head to the ground. Several things happened at the same time:
Bloodwraith stared at the corpse, realizing that he had acted on instinct.
The peasants on the wagon began to scream.
Something shifted at the edge of his vision, a glint of sunlight on steel.
And a box cheerfully declared:
[Victory! You received 82 EXP and 3 coppers.]
Though the box should have drawn his attention, Bloodwraith couldn't concentrate on it through the horror of the fact that he had blown his cover. When he had spotted a human running screaming toward him, his old instincts had viewed him as a threat. And his new instinct was to assume anything rushing at him was a wolf and kill it accordingly.
Now the peasants would think him a madman. He could always just kill them all, they were defenseless enough... but no, Bloodwraith realized that there was a much bigger threat.
There were two armed men standing atop one of the nearest rocks, staring in surprise. Armed, but poorly, with mismatched leather armor. Bandits. When they saw him look toward them, they cursed and began to run, scrambling for another crevice.
He rushed after them before they could escape. His sword cut down into the first bandit's back, dropping him bloodily.
The second turned on him, shockingly quickly, a short sword lashing out. It bit through the armor at his side and he felt blood gushing, but there was no time for that. Bloodwraith ignored the pain and released a burst of force, knocking the bandit away. As soon as he staggered, Bloodwraith moved in, cutting him down as well.
For a moment he stood over the bodies, panting for breath. His side still hurt, and according to the warning from the box gods, he would heal more slowly than before. As easily as he had killed the two men, he was vulnerable as well. If that sword had hit a lung... his personal box said his health had been reduced to to 61. The fight had been riskier than he'd expected, but he'd still won, as he was sure a box would announce soon.
[Victory! You received 227 EXP and 19 coppers.]
Bloodwraith found himself grinning savagely. Murdering humans was worth far more power than killing mere wolves. The unarmed man had been worth 82, and the two armed bandits over 100 each. Even assuming their numbers declined as he improved, how much power could he gain via mass murder?
"That was amazing!" The farmer was only now coming up behind him, carrying his pitchfork nervously. His wife followed, eyes wide, but smiled at him.
"How did you know that the first man was with the bandits?"
Oh... that made sense. The bandits must have sent a scout to turn them aside from the main path, where they could ambush the wagon. It was a stroke of luck that the man had been pretending instead of an actual victim, but he would take it. Bloodwraith smiled broadly and turned to them. "Uh... I could see the malice in his eyes!"
Beneath his smile, however, he found himself looking over the peasants. Perhaps they would be worth less EXP than the bandits, but wasn't it worth the experiment? Out here in the middle of nowhere, he could kill them all, then take their goods and sell them for more coin.
"Oh, you're injured!" The farmer's wife gasped as she saw the blood on his armor. She immediately directed her children to bring bandages and herbs and set about trying to help.
Bloodwraith slowly let go of his visions of murdering the peasants. Maybe it was one of Raigar's instincts in his current body, or maybe just the effort of pretending to act like a proper adventurer. Besides, his injury wasn't healing as quickly as before, so their efforts had some use to him.
If it really was this body perverting his will, Bloodwraith considered defying it and killing them all anyway. Yet as he contemplated the thought, he retreated from it as well. He wasn't the Master Lich, pursuing an agenda of mindless destruction from the box gods. All he'd ever wanted was to rule the world, not to slaughter everyone in it. Mundane peasants had their place.
Setting aside such abstract concerns, Bloodwraith focused on the immediate question: which way should they go next? Clearly the bandits had a larger ambush in mind, yet he had no idea where it lay. It would have been better to leave one of them alive to interrogate - Bloodwraith cursed the fact that he needed to leave them alive to do that rather than just use necromancy. But as things stood, the bandits might be down any of the paths around them.
Before he could come to any conclusion, he saw an armed group heading toward them... but he didn't think they were the bandits.
The group of four was led by a tall, thin elf in ornate armor, carrying a pair of curved swords. Beside him walked a short woman, likely human, in heavy armor carrying a shield that looked much too large for her. By contrast, the taller woman beside her had elaborate form-fitting armor, though she carried a staff instead of a mace. Behind them lurked a drakekin mage with the usual robes and mystic orb of his kind, head spines unfurled.
Adventurers. Bloodwraith's lip curled in disgust before he remembered that he was an adventurer now too.
As soon as they got close, the elf raised a sword in his face. "Idiot! You ruined our counter-ambush!"
It took some effort for Bloodwraith to swallow his anger, but he barely managed it. "You're angry at me for not walking into an obvious ambush?"
"That reward was meant to be ours!" The elf didn't lower his sword and Bloodwraith seriously considered showing him his place, but at that moment the short armored woman spoke up.
"Umm... Rhil'lahan... he does have a point. It's just bad luck that there was another adventurer here..."
With a loud huff, the lead adventurer sourly
replaced his sword in its sheath. The others seemed to relax as well, the drakekin rolling his eyes and moving to sit on the wagon, while the human woman shook her head.
"Yet another bungled attempt. Even if we do collect the bounty, I am seriously reconsidering whether it is worth my time to work with this group."
The shortest adventurer shifted her feet nervously, not quite looking at the other woman. "But Herena... we need you to heal us. You have to let us at least get a few successes under our belt first before it starts paying out..."
"Hmph! I can hire better than you, if it comes to that!" The healer turned aside, leaving the heavily armored adventurer sagging in disappointment.
The adventurers fell in with the peasants, chatting of mundane local affairs. They spread out, but not to protect the wagon - to guard against the potential bandit attack. None of them spoke to him, so Bloodwraith decided that he needed to take the initiative to acquire more information himself.
Most likely the mage would be the most intelligent and reasonable of the group. Some mistrusted drakekin, but Bloodwraith had never found them particularly different from other living races, so he moved to walk next to the wagon.
"So you're traveling to Cresthaven?" He gave the mage a polite nod, but the drakekin responded by rolling his eyes.
"You think we look like an established group? No, we met up there to take on more difficult assignments. And putting up with these fools has been annoying me ever since."
"I can imagine. What's your name?"
The drakekin fixed him with a haughty gaze. "Shouldn't you be swinging that huge bar of iron at something? I have spells to study." With that, he turned away sharply.
Bloodwraith seethed with anger. He wanted to prove this fool wrong, but the only spell he had at his disposal was the brute "Fist of Rage" - that would not make the point he wanted, even if it would be satisfying. He walked a bit further away for a time, trying to decide if it would be effective to try again, when he heard a softer voice at his other side.