Unbound Deathlord: Challenge

by Edward Castle

  "Ted," he said. Then, he crossed his arms and looked at the zombie corpse with what I guessed was a sad face; because of the smoothness of his face, his facial features were immensely hard to distinguish.

  "So, where are you headed? I was going for Dakar, but some vampires blocked my path."

  He sighed a last time at the zombie corpse and looked at me. "It's not just you, the vampires sent a message to the merchants in the Catacombs, saying the path is closed until further notice."

  "Dickheads," I said.

  "I don't blame them. It seems like a merchant was involved in the kidnapping of an important vampire, who just came back to them and revealed it. They were enraged enough to start a war against the kidnappers and stop all trade."

  From the timing, I could assume he was talking about the vampire I had rescued. Just my luck: rescue a guy and it backfires.

  "Well, I'm too low level to get involved in a war anyway. Where are you going now?"

  "Catacombs." He crouched and took the two-handed sword from the zombie.

  "That's the second time you talk about this Catacombs place. What is it?"

  "The specters starting town."

  "Great. Let's go, then. I've no idea where to go, to tell the truth. I'm just wandering."

  "Yes, I guess this must be hard on you."

  "Huh?"

  "You know, being locked out of Dakar."

  "Why would it be?"

  I think I saw a frown in his face. "Isn't Dakar the deathlords country? Theirs, and the vampires'. Now you can't get there because of the war."

  Crap. Great, that was just what I needed, be struck outside my own country. Not that I expect a warm welcome there; both vampires and bound deathlords hate me.

  "Didn't know that."

  "For real? Didn't you spawn in there?" Spawn was gaming-talk to the appearance or creation of anything, from items to cities, from monsters to people.

  As much as Ted had been useful information-wise, I wasn't about to tell him about my starting point. I didn't know yet the implications of destroying the damn place. Time to deflect.

  "Not there." I smiled in what I hoped was a excited way. "But talking about spawn points, I just remembered the introduction cut-scene for my species! It was awesome! My character was a human, then he killed animals and drew magic runes on the ground, and there was this hurricane of death magic, and my character just woke undead from it!"

  "Hmm." He was nowhere as excited as I thought he'd be. "The specter movie is a big war, and I am a vengeful spirit who refused to let go of my old grudges. It took some centuries for me to gather energy, but here I am." He extended his hands and did a weirdly sensual turnover.

  "Well... You could have taken some extra decades. You look like crap."

  "Hey! Right, I know. But as I level up I will get my legs and my face back. From what understood, I'll be complete by level ten or so."

  "Really? How will you look?"

  "Like a translucent person who can float at will and pass through doors."

  "I bet you will be an impossibly handsome man nowhere near your actual looks."

  He smiled in a weird way. "You are one to talk. Those muscles are way too unrealistic. You look like a nerd who wanted to have muscles but was afraid to go too far from your real fatty body."

  I smiled back. My game body was exactly like my real one, except for the eyes. I worked out for strength, not gaining muscle mass. "Sorry for not fitting your beauty standards. I'll just log out, kill myself, become a real life ghost and join a ghost gym somewhere."

  "It would be a favor to humankind. What are you waiting for? I'm not going to miss you." His excitement was somewhat surprising. It seemed Ted liked small talk more than game-related conversations. Weird gamer.

  "I'm too lazy. But what about this going through doors thing? Isn't it a cheat-like ability?"

  "No. I take damage doing it. The better the material and its possible enchantments, more damage I take. I can't know if I will survive going through objects just by looking at them, so it's not that safe. Imagine how dumb it would be to die because I'm trying to go through an enchanted rock."

  "Still looks like an overpowered ability to me."

  He shrugged. "I didn't make the rules. And you can start over as a specter if you want to."

  It took me all of half a second to decide I didn't want to. I had two legendary items at level eight; who was I to complain about some ghosts going through doors? That reminded me of something.

  "No, thanks. Can I learn fire magic in your town?"

  "No. I can, but outsiders aren't allowed. We tried." He made a gesture at the dead zombie.

  "Damn. Well, I'll still go with you if that's okay. Nowhere to go and all." Plus, I wondered how much more information about the game a player who started in a city had.

  "Fine. Let me just rest a little. I'm under ten health to-" Ted suddenly stopped talking, realizing he had just told another player how easy it would be to kill him.

  I raised my hands in the universal gesture for peace and smiled. "Relax. Even if we are not best buddies yet, I already consider myself your friend or at least a colleague. I'm also under ten HP," I lied. "Wait, which magic element heals you? If it's death, I can take care of it."

  "These look like darkness magic, not death." He looked curiously at the darkness spheres.

  "Yep, this is darkness. Death magic is much slower to use and I have to close my eyes. Like this." I dissipated a dark sphere, closed my eyes and three seconds later a smoky dark gray sphere was floating in the middle of the two dark liquid ones.

  "You went for two magic skills? And want to learn a third? Isn't that a little..."

  "Stupid? I know the jack-of-all-trades theory about immersive reality RPGs. But I can punch people in real life, in Valia I want to magic the hell out of them."

  "Punch people in real life? Like a boxer?"

  I smiled. "Yeah, something like that. So, you want some healing?"

  "Yes, please!"

  I extended my arm and opened my palm at Ted. I didn't need to, but I thought it better to keep that a secret for now. RPG players were a bunch of envious people, so if I showed my powers I would soon be called a cheater, even though what I had done was perfectly within the game's limits. Plus, if Ted turned out to be an enemy, it'd be better if he didn't know much about my true power.

  The moment the death sphere touched the ghost, its gray smoke surrounded him and was absorbed.

  You have healed Ted by 70 HP

  I healed the ghost two more times and my MP was depleted. An exclamation point button appeared.

  Trait received: Healer

  Taking care of other people's injuries, without asking for anything in return, shows that you have a healer's heart.

  » +1% healing effectiveness

  » Minimum extra healing: +1 HP

  "That's all I can do for now; I'm out of MP. Let's rest," I sat and closed my eyes. In my mind's eye, I could see the ghost the same way I could see myself: pulsating light gray and opaque dark gray energy fighting and mixing with each other in a humanoid form. I figured that was the way all undead would look

  Is a ghost even an undead?

  "You are a little too trusting, you know? You gave me back my friend's money, healed me and even saved me without much HP yourself. Are you role-playing as a hero?"

  "Something like that," I answered without opening my eyes. Even if I had indeed been almost dead, I still doubted Ted would've been able to kill me; some shitty dogs had killed the zombie, and Ted would have followed suit, after all.

  "Thank you," he said in a heartfelt way. "I wanted to be a specter because I like ghosts, but I didn't expect to find much kindness in the Underworld. Not after all the NPCs in the Catacombs. God, even the players were hateful people. Bear and I came here to get away from them, and it all ended this way. I would have died if not for you, and I was really scared."

  "No problem," I saw the ghost touch his face while speaking. Was he crying? Weren't unde
ad species supposed only to be played by people of age? It was the second undead player I found and both of them acted like children. Well, to be fair I could understand Ted if he was a city guy raised in a bubble and not used to near death experiences. I would have punched him for it before my martial arts enlightenment experiences, but now I only pitied him for his overprotective parents.

  Half an hour later I created a third dark sphere and stood up. "Let's go. Lead the way."

  "Okay!" Ted answered, and we moved to one of the corridors in the small cave chamber. "To the ghost city!" He said excitedly.

  I sighed.

  Overexcited younglings.

  Jack Thorn

  Unbound Deathlord

  Legendary Spotter, Dark Archmage

  Level 8

  Hit Points:235 / 235

  Mana Points:365 / 370

  Stamina:200 / 200

  Attributes:

  Strength:7

  Agility:7

  Dexterity:5

  Constitution:7

  Intelligence:10

  Perception:4 + 10 [Items]

  Willpower:9

  Charisma:3

  Traits:

  Adept Mage:11 + 10 [Items]

  Adept Controller:11

  Gold Digger:2

  Scavenger:2

  Antimage:1

  Crafter:1

  Energizer:1

  Healer:1

  Meditator:1

  Mind Seer:1

  Nitpicker:1

  Shadow:1

  7. Persona Non Grata

  'Trust no one, no matter the circumstances.'

  - Mother

  As we passed by the dead dogs, I noticed their bodies were glowing. I told Ted to wait and took my time to skin them. I had never done it and ended up damaging some of the pelts and leaving some meat on them in the first tries. Six dog pelts for free. Not bad. Ted puked white ectoplasm.

  "They are dogs. It's disgusting."

  "Well, I'm undead. There's no such thing as disgusting for me."

  "I'm an undead too, and I find it disgusting."

  "It's clear who's the alpha male, then."

  Ted didn't answer, but he didn't look upset, just out of words. Weird.

  "What about your friend's clothes? Are you going to leave them there?"

  "Yes! Yes, I am!" He said vehemently.

  "Can I take them, then?"

  "I guess." He crossed his arms and turned back. "Be quick about it."

  Why turn back? Weirdo.

  I took the zombie's leather clothes, which were as bad as my own. Thanks to the extra stuff, I had to change the way all my items were organized, unmaking the three small bags I was carrying and creating a bigger single one.

  I ended up having to carry it as if I was Santa on Christmas day. Or a cartoon burglar. I also found a way to tie the greatsword to my back, so I didn't need to use it as a walking stick anymore. After all the trouble holding it in one hand while I used the other to swing the corroded sword as I ran, I felt like an idiot. Everything ready, we resumed our travels.

  Time for real information gathering.

  "So, which skill-trees did you get? Dual-wielding is evident. Which is the other?"

  "Hmm... I..."

  "C'mon, you know mine, darkness and death magic."

  "If you need to know, it's stealth."

  "Sweet. Wait, why were you being bitten to death then? Couldn't you just run away while the dogs chewed the zombie?"

  "Of course not, he's my friend!"

  "Oh, I bet there is some logic in dying with him, I'll just keep thinking about it."

  Ted slapped my shoulder in such an unmanly way that made me suddenly understand his loss of words before: he was gay. The zombie was probably his boyfriend or something.

  "It looked wrong to let him die while I safely watched."

  "I'm just kidding; I know what you are talking about. It's something any gamer wouldn't have trouble doing in old computer games, but in the immersive ones it's harder just to let your pals die."

  "Yes! I just couldn't watch without doing something."

  "Yeah, I feel you. But tough up a little next time, if you both had died you'd be out of money and naked now."

  "Ouch. It hurts just thinking about it. Ecto-equipment is way too expensive and almost impossible to find in the wild." Specters were the only species with equipment restrictions in Valia: they had to use ectoplasm equipment. Anything else would just go through them after a few seconds. They could carry common items just fine, as proven by the zombie's sword in Ted's hands, but not use them in battle. "These daggers here cost me a liver each."

  "It's good you have no need for livers anymore, then," I laughed. "I think I have some spares too if you want."

  "No, I'm kind of serious. I had to use some money I was saving to buy a car. Each dagger cost me a thousand dollars."

  I stopped walking and looked at him dumbfounded.

  "What?" He asked.

  "You spent two grand on beginner items?"

  "Of course not, I'm not stupid. These daggers will last until level twenty or so."

  "Holy cow. You're aware that the items costs will drop by ridiculous amounts in a few months, right?"

  "No, they won't."

  "Yes, they will. People will start selling in-game money and items for real life money much cheaper than V-Soft. Next year your daggers will cost about ten dollars each."

  "Actually, no, they won't." He had his nose held high. "My dad works in V-Soft, and he told me they have some big guns pointed at the black market. You read the contract, right? Valia systems can read your mind to enhance your immersion experience."

  "I know, but still..." As I began to answer, it suddenly came to me. "The immersion experience is whatever V-Soft says. I see. They can claim a black market of items and money would harm such experience, which wouldn't be a lie, and allow special AIs to use black merchants' thoughts against them."

  Ted clapped. "Yes! Isn't it brilliant?!"

  "I think scary is the right word for it. They have a perfectly controlled environment. They're gods in their own world."

  Well, I had just gone through some crazy shit with the Goddess and had people reading all my game-related thoughts. It wasn't as if it was news to me.

  "No, no! Dad would never allow that. There's a minimum interference policy," he said as if that would be an absolute rule everyone would follow. I didn't believe it for a second, but it seemed wise not to push it.

  "So, did you tell him about your purchases?"

  "Of course not, he would've killed me. Twice, once for each dagger."

  "I see. It must be nice to be that rich."

  "It is," he replied matter-of-factly. "Are you poor?" He said it in such an innocent way that it'd be cute if he weren't a dude.

  "No, but I don't work either and money isn't unlimited. And I do plan to start a family in the distant future; putting money in online gaming is not the best move."

  "Oh. That's so sweet of you."

  Yes, definitely gay.

  "Thanks, man," I stressed the last word.

  He frowned. "What?"

  "Don't worry; your secret is safe with me. I know gamers can be a bunch of savages. How long has it been since you knew?"

  His frown deepened. "Knew what?"

  "Well, you know... That you were... Born a woman inside?"

  "Since birth, I guess?"

  "Really? And your father was OK with that?"

  "Why wouldn't he be? He always wanted a girl anyway."

  "Wow, that's some open-mindedness, even for these days. I'm glad for you."

  "Hmm... Thanks?"

  "You're welcome."

  We walked silently for the next ten minutes, until the corridor ended in an cavernous chamber. It was so big that even with darkvision I couldn't completely see the ceiling or the other side. A big river flowed into the distance with lots of moss around it. Giant gray lobsters were walking and digging all around. I took my sword from my hip.

  "Do
n't attack! They are harmless, but if you attack one, all of them will attack you."

  Half doubtful, I kept my sword in my hand. "What are they?"

  "They are called logus. They dig looking for metals, which they eat. If you give them some metal you can even tame them, but they will eat you if you wear any chainmail or other large metal items, so they're not that desirable."

  "What about my sword?"

  "Swords are too small for them, but I'd hide it if I were you."

  "Oh." I put my sword back. "Do they always stay here?"

  "Yes."

  "But if they eat metal and are digging so much, how come they don't leave? I wouldn't think a place could have any metal left with this many lobsters in it for even a week."

  "No idea."

  "How long have they been here?

  "No idea."

  "So how do you know they always stay here?"

  "I saw them here before, and I see them now, so I just guessed."

  "Oh." Idiot. "Well, let's go then?"

  "Sure. The Catacombs are hidden a little ahead. I'm safe here. I'll take you to Serharn, and we can part ways."

  "Great!" After a moment, I continued. "What is Serharn?"

  Ted facepalmed. "It's the drow kingdom. They have a bunch of villages and a big city as their capital, called Ter'nodril, also known as the City of Darkness. I heard that any dark mage can get in there, so it should be alright for you."

  "Oh. Sounds good, then. By the way, do you know where I can find the Death Citadel? I have a quest there."

  He thought for a moment. "Isn't it the capital of Dakar?"

  "The deathlords kingdom?" He nodded. "Just great. I guess I'll not complete my quest anytime soon."

  After a twenty minutes walk, we arrived at an archway between the current chamber and another one of equal magnitude. I could see three villages not too far way.

  "Here we are," said Ted.

  "Thanks," I extended my hand, and the ghost shook it awkwardly.

  "Here, you can have this if you want," he said almost shyly as he extended a small blue crystal to me.

  "Thanks," I took it.