Homeland: Ingame 2

by Kieron Uchee

  I suggested the guys gather some seaweed and crab meat while I worked on clearing the small rocks from the sand and building a pit for the fire. It had been a good day, but I was ready to eat and rest.

  Chapter 12 Kraken

  We had been up for a while, munching on the dry food bars and relaxing. I stretched and looked at the others. “Are you ready,” I asked? Seeing them both stand and stretch I began to pack up. It did not take long and we were soon off traveling down the tunnel.

  After several minutes, we arrived at the next cavern. It was larger than the others with deeper sea pools and rocky outcropping thrusting out from the water. The path threaded in between the pools and rocks then ended at the far wall. There was a huge shrine carved into the wall with a deep pool right in front of it.

  “Hey guys, what is that thing over there, can you make it out,” I asked? “It looks like a giant octopus or something. It blends in with the far wall so much I can’t make out all the details from here.”

  Komhether was looking over at the shrine and he suddenly swore. “That is not an octopus that is a Kraken.”

  Looking at me he said, “This is going to be really tough, the Kraken are the Kings of the sea. They are smart and tough; they have been known to damage and even sink ships.”

  I thought about what Komhether had just said, this creature was smart, tough and probably fast and strong also. What is the weakness, what can we exploit, I thought? “Everything has a weakness, some area that they are vulnerable at. The question is to find the weakness and then develop a plan that will help us to exploit the weakness?” I had whispered to myself but Sebastian answered.

  Looking over at the Kraken Sebastian said, “It is a water creature, and if we DPS it on land it will just enter the pool. Your Dragon fire would do the most damage but how can we deal with it under the water. Why don’t we start clearing and then when we get to the Kraken we will figure out something?”

  “That sounds like a plan,” I said. “Let’s get going, you guys take off and see what you can observe from the air. I am guessing that we are going to be attacked by something from the pools, and any advanced warning might just save our asses.”

  I began to walk down the pathway towards the first two pools. The pathway meandered between all the pools. I had a funny feeling that this might be a multiple ambush setting. Seeing that the guys were up in the air I began to walk between the first two pools.

  Once I was directly across from both pools I could see the water begin to bubble and suddenly the air was filled with fish. Flying fish, the sons of bitches were jumping between the two pools and they were aimed at me. I like fish, I mean I like to eat them but here and now that was reversed. These were not graceful fish gliding through the air. The fish that were coming at me had a jaw full of sharp teeth with a huge bite. If one of these fish were to bite me I would lose a huge chunk of flesh and probably receive a bleed effect debuff.

  I dropped to my back and with one hand I used the Ice bolt spell which froze the ten fish that were coming in my direction. With my other hand, I cast Dragon fire and toasted the other dozen fish that were coming in for an up and personal with me.

  Sebastian meanwhile was shouting something, but I had blocked him out in the midst of the action. It seemed like my vision had narrowed and my hearing had turned off. This had never happened to me before and I was somewhat surprised.

  Once I was sure that the fish attack was done I called the guys down. Taking a moment, I explained what had happened to me, how I had not heard or seen the guys in the midst of the attack. It was only when everything was done that my senses returned to normal.

  Sebastian said, “It is not uncommon for DPS types to experience something similar. All your focus is on the threats that you face and your body turns off anything that can be a distraction. The danger is in losing control of your situational awareness. You can become so focused on the threats in front of you that you do not see the threats behind you.”

  That made a lot of sense; the problem was in how to master this. I was not sure if it would be a useful ability or something that could cause me grief. Looking at the dead and frozen fish scattered around me I suddenly had an idea.

  “Guys,” I said, let’s get those frozen fish and have some breakfast, I am hungry those dried bars may be nutritious but the taste is lacking and I could use something better to eat.” We quickly grabbed several of the fish and the using the tridents we cleaned and skewered them. Casting a low heat dragon fire, I began to cook them. Using the last of the apple cider I gently poured it on the fish as they cooked.

  In about five minutes we were stuffing ourselves, the fish were tasty, and they helped to fill up the void I was feeling. Both Sebastian and Komhether complimented me on the taste of the fish and Sebastian asked if I had done a lot of cooking in my home realm and if I was going to master cooking here?

  “I helped out in the kitchen once in a while, I explained. But growing up in the orphanage we went from eating pre-packaged meals to having a cook come in and actually prepare food. Every couple of years the people in charge would decide which option was cheaper and then would implement that policy. Then a new manager would show up and try to fix things and save money by switching back.”

  Komhether said, “Your realm sounds like it has problems, I am not surprised that you came here. At least here you can still make your own choices about things like food. I feel sympathy for you, it sounds almost worse than what I have gone through. Having no choice in anything and being dictated to all the time about rules and what is allowed and not. It is no way to live a life.”

  I nodded, he was right both here and in the real world. Something had gone wrong about one hundred years ago, and it had just gotten worse and worse. Being in the game was so much better than my bleak world. I had done well in the real world but looking at where it was heading I did not have much hope for it. I thought about the battle I had just fought and remembered the fact that I had cast two spells at once.

  Explaining it to the guys I asked if that was normal, I had never seen anyone else doing that in any game. Komhether spoke up and said, “There are some mortals who are gifted by birth to be able to use either hand with equal skill. I wonder if this is the same thing, I have never seen or heard of it but it is possible.”

  That was interesting information, I was not sure if it was true but still, it offered an explanation. Standing up I said, “I am going to try to dual cast as much as I can to see if I can develop this skill. Are you guys ready to keep going?

  Seeing them both agree I continued on the path as the guys took flight. Once at the next pool the same thing occurred, I was attacked by the flying fish from both sides, by dropping down and dual casting it was over in a couple of minutes, during the battle I could see my focus beginning to narrow down to the attacking fish, so I made an effort to remain aware of my surroundings.

  I waved at the guys to continue and I walked towards the next set of pools. As the day wore on the cavern slowly filled with the aroma of burnt fish. Eventually, we were at the final boss. He was an ugly bugger with long tentacles and a huge beak. One bite from that and it would be game over.

  Judging by the way he was staring at me that was the first thing on his agenda. As I stood and looked at him he seemed to draw into himself and then gave some kind of a squirt. The air suddenly began to darken as the cavern grew dim.

  Komhether suddenly took off and flying up near the roof started to radiate some kind of angelic light. It was so bright that it cut through the darkness and while things were hazy I could make out the Kraken still in the shrine. As I looked at the pool I saw a rock near me a few feet from the shore.

  I suddenly had an idea on how to deal with this bastard and quickly began to cast Dragon fire on the submerged rock, making it as hot as I could. Sebastian meanwhile was flying just out of the reach of the Kraken cursing it in Demonic and making rude gestures. The Kraken seeing me just standing near the shore was now ignoring me and giving Sebas
tian its one-eyed glare.

  As I poured out the Dragon fire from both hands I observed that the flames were a purple-black, the heat was so intense that the rocky underwater formation was actually starting to melt. We continued on for about thirty minutes with Komhether lighting up the inky darkness and Sebastian cursing out insults and thrusting his trident at the beast any time a tentacle came too close.

  I meanwhile was observing that the rock had now melted into a puddle at the bottom of the pool and the water was now boiling near the reddish glow. I continued on until I could see that the whole pool was steaming with heat and that the water was boiling all around the shore.

  I jumped to my feet and began to walk around the pool getting closer and closer to the Kraken. Sebastian had fallen silent seeing my approach and was waiting for what I was about to do. Once within range, I began to cast Dragon fire at the Kraken. As it hit him he focused on me and he then cast some kind of Water blast attack, I ducked and it missed, but the damn Kraken was like a fire hose on steroids squirting water at me.

  The Water blast attack just did not end and the Kraken was getting better with its aim. Suddenly Sebastian and Komhether both threw the tridents and scored direct hits. The Kraken did not stop spraying but for that one second, he shifted his eye to the guys flying above him. I managed to roll away from the powerful Water blast and cast Lightning with both hands at the Kraken. I gave it all I could and watched in amazement as the monster froze, his muscles locked into place. Suddenly he began to fall into the pool of boiling water below the shelf he was standing on.

  As he hit the boiling water his muscles released and he began to thrash frantically around the pool. The pain must have overwhelmed him and he actually dove deeper into the pool bringing him closer to the red-hot rock at the bottom. After a couple of minutes, the body floated to the surface and bobbed to the shore near me. The big bastard was dead.

  I ran over to the corpse and looted him for twenty gold, and a blue whip. I examined the whip and read,

  The Tentacle whip. With each successive hit, the whip will attach to the flesh and tear off large chunks. This enables a bleed effect that is multiplied by the number of whip hits. Capped at five bleed effects.

  That was a hell of a drop and it was not a boe weapon, in fact it had no level cap. I looked over at the guys and then called Sebastian over. Giving him the whip I said, “This is for you, I think out of all of us you will make the best use of it so thank you. This fight was successful due to us working as a team, that bastard could have been a lot more difficult.”

  They both nodded and then I walked over and jumped up on the ledge of the shrine. Calling out to the guys I stood and waited for them. Once we were all there I opened the chest I had seen earlier and saw it contained two items, one a blue and one a purple.

  Lifting the blue item, I saw it was a scroll, as I began to read I realized that this scroll conferred a permanent ability to be able to breathe without air. Another skill always is handy I thought as I finished reading the scroll and accepted the ability called Airless breathing.

  Seeing the scroll crumble to dust I glanced at the book, a purple haze surrounding it. Picking it up I read,

  The Big Book of Discord, or how to really piss off people.

  It was not a bind on equip item, but just a super rare book. I opened it and read the first page; it only had one sentence written on it.

  You are an Asshole.

  What the hell, I thought. Sebastian asked, “What does it say, Torn. You have been staring at the page for a few minutes now.” I looked at Sebastian and shrugged then read,

  “You are an Asshole.”

  After I finished reading Sebastian looked at me and said, “Hey where did that come from, why would you say that.”

  I thrust him the book and said: “Read it for yourself, it is pretty weird.” I watched as he began to flip pages only stopping when Komhether asked, “What is written in the book?” Looking at Komhether he read aloud.

  “If I wanted to hear from an Asshole, I'd fart.”

  Looking shocked Komhether asked, “Hey, why would you say that, that is just mean, really mean.” Suddenly it all clicked together for me and I shouted, “Sebastian, close the book.” Giving me a look Sebastian shut the book, and all of a sudden all the irritation, rage and bad feelings that had ben growing stronger and stronger disappeared. I quickly grabbed the book and put it in my bag.

  “What just happened,” Sebastian asked? “I mean I thought you were being an ass when your read to me from the book, but then when I read it to Komhether it was like I really wanted to hurt him. That book it changes how you say stuff, it hurts people.”

  I nodded, it did indeed. “It really is the Big Book of Discord, a very powerful tool, no not a tool this is a weapon. I think I know where it belongs and when we get back to the city I will make sure it gets delivered.” I was beginning to smile at what I planned to do with the book.

  Looking at me, both of the guys waited for me to tell them what I was going to do with the book. “I think that the House of Pain would love to get a purple book, and knowing the leadership, I am sure that they will read from it all the time,” I said.

  Sebastian began to grin and said, “Oh my Prince, you are truly a devious Demon Prince. That book is going to really upset the members of that house. I cannot think of a better place for it.

  Komhether nodded and then said, “Those guys are the worst, and they bring new meaning to the word butthole.”

  “I agree,” I said. “Now let's look for the exit.” Looking at the far end of the shrine a small portal was visible at the side. We walked over towards it and I wondered out loud if this was the end of the dungeon. It did not have that many levels but it was for a group of level five players.

  Grasping the arms of my friends we all stepped into the portal and suddenly materialized next to the terminal building. A new window opened on my interface that stated,

  Congratulations, you have managed to finish the dungeon within the time allotted. Do you wish to take ownership of the dungeon or release it to the public?

  I looked at my friends and asked them what they thought. Komhether began by saying, “It is a rare thing to own your own dungeon, it can be farmed and be a great source of gear. The downside is this is an entry level dungeon and by the time you hit level seven or eight you will not be getting any xp or not enough to make it worthwhile.”

  Sebastian nodded and then spoke, “That is all true, but this place is more than just the dungeon. No one can come to this island anymore. This would be a perfect place to build a safe haven, and I think that sooner or later we are going to need one. The city is changing and not for the better.”

  I understood what Sebastian meant, with the Hammerytes controlling the lower levels, and Reona and Archon controlling the upper Ievels of the city I could see conflict coming. Plus, the King could not be happy about losing control, I don’t think it made for a happy situation. One that I hoped to exploit.

  I did need a place to live for the winter, and the island would make for a nice safe refuge. “Alright,” I declared, “I accept ownership of the dungeon, and with that, my item tab opened up and showed the Dungeon of the Deep.

  The day was fast ending and I wanted to get back to the mainland but we had a couple of hours to wait. Looking at the island with the small peak rising in the middle I asked if the guys knew anything about building, heating and supplying water to a house.

  Komhether shrugged no but Sebastian nodded and said, “In my youth, I spent a lot of time exploring the nether regions of Hell, I was in one place for quite a while so I built my first abode. It is not hard; it just takes some work.”

  I sniffed the fresh sea air and realized that I liked it here; this would be a great place to build a home. I suggested the guys go for a fly and explore the island looking for suitable sites to build on, I wanted a nap. Dungeon crawling was tiring.

  Chapter 13 PsychoBitch

  It had been a busy two weeks. I was wo
rking at Alaric’s Pub most evenings. During the two evenings that I did not work, I would be out grinding up my class skills. This involved grinding, basically breaking into the homes of the rich and helping myself to a little of the loot. During my nighttime forays, I had also discovered a home for children down at the lower city near the docks.

  It was an orphanage for the kids who had lost their dads at sea, and whose mothers could not or would not care for them anymore. I had not really been aware of the lower docks but it turns out that area held a sizeable population. They were mainly poor people with a few well to do merchants. Most of the merchants had their homes in the third or fourth tier of the city but a few also maintained a second residence near their warehouses.

  The orphanage I had found was run by a former monk I had met who years ago decided that the Gods were too fickle to be trusted. He believed real compassion was shown by actions not by the tithing of gold to maintain shrines and keep religious leaders in fancy clothing and an opulent lifestyle. I liked him a lot.

  When I would come across any gold, silver or copper I always made sure that I put a donation in the big bowl at the front of the orphanage. I was also interested in the fact that the Hammerytes had built two docks of their own along with two adjoining warehouses near the orphanage.

  I had been scouting out the buildings planning on doing a little break and enter work. My plans had changed when I came across a flyer on the side of a tavern. It had read ‘on the next Kings-Day the noted thief Kamasut will be publicly executed for crimes against the city and King. All citizens are encouraged to attend and be witness to the King’s justice.