Spectres & Skin: Exodus

by RJ Creed

  “I’m dead,” I whispered to her. She tilted her head. “You don’t understand that? I said I’m dead. I’m stuck here.”

  I leaned back and drew up my knees to my chin, wondering if I would still have come here knowing that I wouldn’t be able to leave, and that death was permanent.

  It was a tough call. I didn’t know the answer.

  But I still had freedom and agency. Like every other player who had just received that transmission, I still had a life that I could lead. Here, in this game. In Ilyria, or wherever else people had spawned initially.

  I was pretty lucky for a dead guy.

  What now? I figured that Luke might hurry up and try harder to find me now, after seeing that. If he was still alive, and if he was in the South. I didn’t know how likely that was.

  Also, this woman was going to make her way to Dawnspire as soon as she could, which meant that if I stuck out a couple more days with the Collective … maybe I could see her.

  The thought sent a jolt of something through me, but I tried to ignore it. There were plenty of beautiful women in S&S — I was sure of it. I had seen some pretty attractive non-players so far, like that pretty highborn in the gardens. Maybe I could have some fun of a different kind while I was here.

  I was dead anyway, might as well take more risks, right?

  I felt a surge of incredible hatred for the man she had talked about. Someone had killed me by sending me into this game. The thing I loved the most had killed me! Was that irony? I’d have to ask Luke when I found him.

  I got up and decided I needed to take my mind off of this news, so I nodded at Moro and made my way towards the door. “Let’s go see about that merchant,” I said to her. I considered, as I walked through the hallway, the notion of joining the Dawnspire Collective’s cleaning crew now that life was fleeting and the outside world was dangerous, but the thought just chilled me to my core. The world was so beautiful and rich here, and I refused to spend my newfound mortality staring into buckets of scummy water.

  I was going to level up, get better gear, and more spells and abilities. I was going to play it safe, but I was going to make sure that if something did happen, I was ready for it. That meant playing the game the way it was meant to be played. The way I had been playing it until now.

  I think I have already mentioned that I’m kind of an idiot, right?

  I needed to level up in combat skills. I couldn’t afford to fall short if my life was on the line. Skills like Speech could take a back burner for now. I was changing my unofficial goals.

  For now, becoming more of a force to be reckoned with in a fight was what I needed. I had a few days before I had to find and convince a merchant to send supplies to save the lives of all those refugees. I was going to spend them doing what I knew how to do from my time in RPGs in the past:

  Grinding.

  I slid Excision and the other dagger onto my waist on opposite sides, so that the stronger dagger was held in my dominant hand to maximise aim and damage. I made sure my armour was all on, and noted that it was a little scuffed. I had no money at all, definitely not enough to upgrade my armour, but I could assume that Roark’s prices might drop if I aligned myself more and more with his guild and did him some more favours.

  I headed outside the city gates, keeping my palm over the sheath of the stolen dagger. I hadn’t totally thought this through: Hrzog would go completely crazy if he caught me with it, and I was wandering around his city. Once I left the gates, with a smile at the guard who I now recognised from around the Collective, I felt a lot more confident that I wouldn’t be caught with it.

  “Let’s test out your new spell,” I told Moro, trotting beside me. It was maybe a shame that I had had to use up one of my limited pieces of stolen Spectral Quartz just to teach a wolf how to bite, but it couldn’t be helped: unless Moro was using a spell that made her corporeal, she couldn’t even so much as give a foe a friendly lick.

  As I came closer to the farmlands, I remembered that I had an open quest to talk to the Father about charging less to allow people to farm on unblighted lands. I had forgotten about it, pretty much, but even if I hadn’t I didn’t think I would have done it. The Father seemed like the type who really didn’t want to be questioned, especially not by someone ranked as low as me.

  Not willing to tell her I hadn’t done what she asked yet, even though I didn’t see the young woman, I veered around to explore the parts of the outskirts I hadn’t visited yet. To the northeast was the abandoned refugee camp I had encountered, and to the east was more farmland. I had no idea what was up to the north, or all the way around the city towards the west.

  I picked south at random, and scanned for the sun before beginning to walk with a sure foot. The further I got away from Dawnspire, the more enemies there would be. But if I stayed nearby, I would get the desperate, starving creatures who were daring to come somewhere so populated, hoping for even a scrap of garbage to sustain them for one more day. Those were the kinds of animals I was comfortable fighting at my level. The rat fight had been precarious at best. If I hadn’t known Draw Strike, I realised, I would have died. The rat had only withdrawn because I had stuck a blade in its mouth within a split second. It would have bitten me to pieces before I managed to land a couple of normal hits, otherwise.

  The realisation was chilling — after all, that rat had been the same level as me, no higher.

  I had slowed down considerably and forced myself to keep walking, but more or less still hugged the city as I walked around. If worse came to worst I could run back towards the walls and scream for an archer to help me.

  When I rounded the corner for a clear view of south — which was mostly downhill, with tumbling hills leading to flat plains, then thick black rocks under an almost clear blue sky. To my right now was a large fenced off field with strangely shaking crops, and I couldn’t help but pause in my walk and stare for a moment as a farmer launched himself and his rusty sword into the field and shouted incoherently at something I couldn’t see.

  “Hey!” I yelled, changing my trajectory to walk towards him. “Is everything alright?”

  “Jackalopes!” I heard him scream. “Thieving overgrown rats!”

  “What?” I jogged towards him until I was leaning on the wooden gate to his fields, with his lovely cottage to my right. The farmer was red-faced, slashing at his own wheat with a mostly blunt sword and swearing as he did. The crops fell and I frowned. Was he mad? Succumbing to the Blight or something? What was I supposed to do? “I have bandages!” I called over to him. “Are you hurt?”

  He turned to me and narrowed his eyes. “When we moved here we were promised safe farmlands, but we’ve been plagued by these vermin since day one! Can you get your superiors out here? I need a rent decrease!”

  I backed off wide-eyed as what I can only describe as a dog-sized rabbit with uneven buck horns sprouting from its head leapt from the crops and chattered before scrambling to bite at the farmer.

  “Go, get your superiors! I insist!” the farmer yelled, hopping on one foot to avoid the snapping rodent teeth.

  “Wait, wait,” I said, “I’ll help you. I’ll kill some for you.” I quickly investigated to see if I was way in over my head.

  Young Jackalope

  Level 3 Beast

  Hostile

  Hostile, and lower than Level 4. That was all the invitation I needed. I drew Excision, feeling much more confident with it in my hands now that I met its Dex requirement — I wasn’t going to drop it this time.

  “You’d do that?” The farmer looked surprised. But then his face darkened again and he swung with his rusty sword, which the rabbit easily dodged. “For all my money, not to mention my first born son, I suppose?” He thrust it forward and the creature squeaked, and then rolled over, dead.

  “No,” I said. “For whatever you can spare. I’m just trying to get a little better at fighting, so this will be reward enough.” I figured that going with the truth was as good as anything else.


  He glared at me, but he must have accepted my terms, since the quest appeared in front of me.

  New Quest!

  Save Sweetdew Farm

  Sweetdew Farm has had a serious jackalope problem since they moved in. Dealing with it yourself will impress the farmers around here, and not bothering the Collective with it will make them happy, too. Kill five or more, and present their horns to Thadius Sweetdew for 5 gold each.

  Reward: Gold

  80 EXP

  Accept/Deny

  I accepted with a smile. This would work out great for me.

  “Get in the house,” I offered. “I’ll knock when I’m done, or scream if I’m dying.”

  He nodded, his facial expression grappling between respect and uncertainty, and he turned and marched up his steps and back into his pretty little farmhouse.

  “Come and get me,” I called, hopping over the fence and into the fields. Once I entered, the wheat matched my height and the gaps between it ran only several feet, so I would have to be careful. Being swarmed by a bunch of horned bunnies wouldn’t be super funny, considering they were all Level 3 monsters and I was only Level 5 with a couple of daggers.

  The first rustle in the crops startled me, and I drew my other dagger and jabbed it at the wheat, prompting one of the things to leap out at me, teeth exposed. I slashed right at the head, knocking it off course and causing it to fall with a dull thud to the earthy ground. I rested my boot on it and bent over, slamming the blade into its throat once and then a second time for luck.

  You have defeated Young Jackalope (Level 3)

  You have gained 25 EXP!

  25? That was it? Dammit.

  I didn’t have time to think about it for long, because a pair of razor sharp fangs broke through the armour of my boot and sank into my ankle, and I cried out with the intensity of the pain. Who were these sadistic programmers? I kicked backwards, feeling the thunk of my heel against rabbit skull.

  I wheeled around as fast as I could and used Draw Strike with Excision to snatch it from my sheath and slam it with all my strength between my attacker’s eyes.

  You have defeated Young Jackalope (Level 3)

  You have gained 25 EXP!

  Now I had just over 65% stamina, and a good 85% HP left. But I had only been hit once, so I had to check myself and be more careful.

  Just as I thought that, another rabbit creature shot from the wheat, aiming straight for my eyes. I slashed with my left dagger and then with my right, managing to lop an ear off before I even realised what I was doing. The rabbit still latched on to my collarbone, missing my jugular by just inches and forcing me to grab it by the back legs and slash with Excision, gaining myself two lucky rabbit’s feet and proving just how badass this new blade really was.

  The beast unlatched from my neck to let out a screech, and I used that moment to tear it away from me and slam my dagger into its gut. My HP bar was down to 60% — that bite must have been critical. There was probably an option to make the numbers visible ‘on-screen’, but it was clearly off by default.

  Congratulations! Snickersnee has reached Level 4!

  You have defeated Young Jackalope (Level 3)

  You have gained 25 EXP!

  Just as the text flashed up I felt another blinding pain on my thigh and I punched manically with my powerful dagger clutched in my fingers, managing to land two good hits on the rabbit, and one on myself. The game seriously allowed that? My health was down to 40% and my stamina was at its heels at 50%.

  I needed to get out of the wheat field, and fast, before something really bad happened.

  I turned and sacrificed 15% of my stamina to sprint away from the wheat field and back towards the farmhouse, but the jackalope wasn’t done with me yet, and it gained on me without trouble before jumping up to latch onto the leather of my bracers. With a grunt I pulled up my left hand dagger and slammed it three times into the monster’s side before it dragged me down, and then I was out of the field and free.

  You have defeated Young Jackalope (Level 3)

  You have gained 25 EXP!

  I sucked in air like I was drowning, and fell to my butt. My HP was at 35% and my stamina was matching it, and I had felled really very few of the monsters. I wasn’t great at this. What I should have done was find a way to lure them out in the open, with my back to something.

  I took deep, steady breaths, and then remembered that I hadn’t picked up any of their stupid horns. I spent some time clumsily wrapping various parts of my body in bandages, and wondering at what point I would know if it was time to switch armour, before I stood up again, feeling like a new man.

  Congratulations! First Aid has reached Level 2!

  That was good, at least. My stamina crept back to 50% while I had rested, and my health was back up to 90% — and I felt good again — but I had completely run out of bandages.

  I considered not bothering with the horns and just escaping with my handful of experience points, but … that wasn’t how best to progress in a game, was it? I had to dive back in, get me some horns, and then complete the quest.

  So with a heavy sigh I wiped jackalope blood from my gloves and daggers onto the grass, and walked back into the field again. I grabbed the first one by the horns and sawed them off with my worse dagger, not wanting to dull Excision already. The horns snapped off fairly easily, after only thirty seconds each of work, so I popped them in my bag.

  I grabbed the second of the four I had dispatched and, looking around nervously for more rustling in the crops, I sawed at the two horns and shoved them into my pack as well. I came to number three and had just snapped off its first horn when another one came at me again.

  “Moro,” I called, and the wolf phased through the field and blinked at me. “Take care of this one with your Lesser Bite.”

  The wolf looked like she had been waiting for her entire short life to hear this from somebody. Her lips curled back in a snarl and before the latest jackalope was able to scamper towards me with its sharp fangs out, Moro landed on it from a silent pounce and clamped her jaws around its furry neck, and shook hard.

  You have defeated Young Jackalope (Level 3)

  You have gained 25 EXP!

  Five lots of 25 EXP isn’t something to sneeze at, though. A quick sneak peek at my character sheet showed me I was 41% of the way through Level 5 already. If I had more bandages I would probably have stuck around and killed as many as I could, but my mana bar was at 50% exactly — which meant that at my mana level Moro only had two bites in her before having to completely recover.

  Also, my stamina was ebbing away very slowly at the exertion of sawing off jackalope horns. I finally filled my pack with ten horns, two for each, and crept out of the fields without any more trouble. I made my way to the farmhouse door and knocked, out of breath and bloody but ultimately fine.

  The farmer answered. “Already?” he cried.

  I wasn’t in the mood for anyone’s incredulity so I simply thrust my pack at him, filled with jackalope horns. He counted them, shrugged, and then counted out a few coins. “I hate paying the Collective for something I feel they should be helping to take care of for free,” he told me as he handed it over.

  “Well, you’re not,” I said grumpily, taking the coins. “You’re paying me for something the Collective would never have helped you with.”

  Quest Completed!

  Save Sweetdew Farm

  You have received 50 gold

  You have gained 80 EXP!

  The familiar weight of gold in my pack was a comfort — it meant I was closer to getting great armour. If I got a lot of gold and on Roark’s good side, I would maybe be able to grab the best leather armour he made.

  Another quick check showed that I was now 57% of the way towards Level 6, which was pretty damn quick considering I had just reached 5 a few hours ago.

  Looked like grinding was a more viable path than I thought for faster level gain, unless I had a few good quest leads. I would try to get some points into my Fortit
ude next level-up, and get more HP and defence as soon as possible.

  I strolled back into town feeling a little richer and a little lighter on my feet, making sure to pop Excision back into my pack. I wasn’t going to risk being an idiot and continue fighting now that I had completely run out of anything to heal myself with. I was going to go and regroup and think about my current quests for a little while. I still wanted to touch base with Roark at some point and see what there was to be done about restoring some power to the White Suns, and ensuring that they became a powerful ally to me. I also wanted to get a good night’s sleep.

  By the time I got back to the foot of the spire it was dusk, and I ran my hand down around my neck, surprised for maybe the twentieth time that there was still no stubble there, despite having neglected to shave for almost five days now.

  I was still thinking about the state of my own jaw when I heard a scuffle by the spire behind me.

  I turned around to see what was happening, and I noticed a young woman in the uniform of an Acolyte, and a couple of men I didn’t recognise who seemed to be Initiates from the Collective, like me. The men were tugging at her clothes and though I couldn’t hear what they were saying exactly, it sounded accusatory. The woman was looking pointedly away and simply shrugging, but seemed to me to be trying her hardest not to reveal how worried she was.

  I stepped over to them. “Hey,” I shouted, and the men turned around and regarded me lengthily. I felt the familiar wind tickling sensation as they inspected me.

  “This guy is a player too,” one of them said to the other, who nodded. More players within the Collective? Wouldn’t I recognise them? “Hey. Help us out. This is the girl whose boss killed us. We’re stuck here forever and she’s trying to be all pally with us, like she’s in the same damn boat.”

  He shoved her, and she staggered back and straightened out her Acolyte clothing, looking pink in the face. They could embarrass her and rough her up, but unless they challenged her to an official duel they wouldn’t be able to shave off any of her HP.