Unbound Deathlord: Challenge

by Edward Castle

  I chose not to defend myself unless an attack was coming for my head and I couldn't dodge, and pierced its eyes like a fencer. The sword came out with some yellow and white sticky substance into it.

  Critical hit for 2.0x damage!

  78 damage dealt to Black Giant Spider

  HP: 141 / 228 <?>

  Wow, that was easy. I hit it in the same spot again and it shrieked and spat poison. I used my shield to defend myself and took a lot less damage than the acid attack I had received to the head. Apparently, that had been a critical hit.

  I easily killed the spider with my next attack, now already used to the sound it made upon death.

  Resting and healing were in order, but first I had leg-sized eggs to crush. They were white and wrapped in webs on the corner. I stepped on them.

  It was disgusting. White and yellow sticky liquid covered half my legs and small light brown 'fetal spiders' came out. One fetus in ten even moved a little as it spilled onto the floor. I gave them all mercy with my sword.

  Giant Spitter Spider Pincer

  The pincer of a Giant Spitter Spider

  Young Giant Spider Pincer

  The pincer of a Young Giant Spider

  The spider pincers were glowing and I took them. Six of the spitter type, two of the young type. I loved finding the items for the simple reason that they told me the official name of the monsters. Was that bad design or an intended feature? Seeing how they had taken their time in designing the whole name and HP guessing system, I bet on the latter.

  Opening one spider of each type didn't reveal any glowing item inside their bodies.

  With my work done for now, I took the time to quickly search for lost items in the basement, but found nothing, only sacks of mushroom and spices.

  Back in the kitchen, this time the cook looked at me for a long time. With disgust. Her eyes traveled my body up and down, and suddenly I felt very self-aware. I left her kitchen before she killed me with fire.

  "It's done!" I yelled to the innkeeper over all the noise in the room.

  He frowned. "Did you find it? The nest?"

  "Yes, it was on the second room!"

  He closed his eyes and sighed. "They always try to extend their nest into my basement, but that is not the nest itself! A nest has a queen! Go back there and only return when you have the queen's head with you!"

  Quest Updated: Destroy the Spider Nest in the Basement

  B rank

  The owner of the White Spider inn has asked you to find and destroy the spider nest that is infesting his basement.

  He promises to tell you everything he knows about the Resistance if you succeed.

  After a misunderstanding, the owner of the White Spider inn decided to impose a condition on the quest.

  Condition:

  » Bring the Queen's Head as proof of your deed

  Oh. That had been stupid of me: killing those three spiders would hardly be considered a B rank task.

  But if things would get harder, I would need better equipment. I had taken some damage against only two spiders. What would have happened if there were three? Or four?

  "I need to buy stuff! Can I clear the basement after that?" I asked the innkeeper.

  He thought for a second. "Yes! But be back in the basement in twenty hours."

  Once again the quest conditions updated, now showing a countdown and telling me to be back at the basement before that.

  I left the inn under the scrutiny of multiple players and went hunting for an equipment store.

  * * *

  "Holy Moly!" I said aloud as I looked at myself on the mirror.

  All the parts of my body that weren't covered by clothes had vestiges of soot from the prison explosion – my face was almost black. My spiked black hair also had some soot but the ugliest bit of it was the green goo on the left side of my head; the circlet had likely only resisted destruction because of its legendary status. The acid didn't hurt anymore, but it was ugly and sticky.

  "I'll be right back," I told the man in the store and entered the first inn I found, where I paid ten silver for a shower. It was worth every penny.

  Back at the store and looking at the mirror, I smiled satisfied. Now I looked like a clean beggar. Much better.

  The salesperson's name was Lithir, an average drow in average white clothes. He was a good clerk. He had seen me in dirty leather armor before, and now in clean beggar clothes, and still showed me all the equipment I asked for, even a beautiful full plate armor. It was black and stylish, the shoulder was pointy and the helmet had a horn sprouting from it. Albeit unpractical, with those spike and horns, it made me feel like a badass warrior.

  "It's pure darksteel, sir" Lithir said in his melodic voice. "Sorin made and enchanted by a rare lich enchanter. It's one of the best sets in the store."

  "It's awesome," I agreed. "I'm sorry for my ignorance, but would you be so kind as to enlighten me to what the hell is darksteel and a sorin?"

  "Of course, sir. Darksteel is a black kind of steel that can be enchanted with darkness magic especially well. Some say that any of the negative magical elements can be more easily place on darksteel, but I have no such knowledge about magic to either confirm nor deny it. The sorins are, of course, the... Socially unaccepted dwarves."

  He meant evil dwarves, just like the drow were the evil elves. Sorins... I had heard this name before... Of course! The goddess had mentioned them in the unbound deathlord introductory video and my circlet had been perfected by them.

  About positivity and negativity, I guessed death and darkness would be negative magic elements, and that both light and life would be positive. Lithir also couldn't help me on that when I asked him.

  Darksteel Set of Ultimate Strength

  Rare

  » Prevents critical hits on the head

  » +25 Strength

  While wearing a complete set, you receive the same defenses to all your body:

  » +200 defense

  » +50% darkness resistance

  » +50% light resistance

  The armor was awesome, but so heavy that I received a level five encumbered status wearing it, even with the bonus strength.

  "So, how much does it cost?"

  "Why, sir, it is on sale. For only seven thousand gold pieces these incredible pieces of smithing can be yours."

  I almost choked. Seven thousand gold pieces? "Well, it's good to know, but I'm more of a mobile fighter myself. I'm sorry for the trouble." I started to remove it.

  "It's not a problem, sir. I must admit I have already put the armor on myself and I have no plans of ever leaving this store with it."

  I liked the damn drow. I wondered how he would cheat me.

  "I'll be sincere too, then. I wasn't planning on buying such expensive armor, only a little leather and slightly better weapon and sword than what I have."

  Good leather could be as good as chainmail, but it cost only a little more, was lighter and allowed more freedom of movement. Plus, with seven points in strength, I also received an encumbered status if I wore both chainmail armor and chainmail pants while holding a shield.

  "As you wish, sir. If I might be so blunt, would you mind telling me how much you plan on spending, so I can give you the best equipment in your price range?"

  "I'm planning on not going too far over thirty gold coins." His eyes popped for a second. "Anything wrong?"

  "No, sir. I was expecting your... Budget to be smaller. I'm sorry."

  "No harm done, man." This had been the second best store price-wise that I had found earlier. I had been to Tharnya's place, where I had sold my equipment, but she was nowhere to be seen and after waiting for half an hour, I decided to move on.

  I should have thought about buying equipment before, but it had simply slipped my mind.

  "I will bring some things I believe you will like."

  In the end thirty gold gave me a nice equipment upgrade. Nothing enchanted, but I was satisfied as I looked at myself in the mirror again.

/>   Over my new black cotton shirt, I was now wearing a dark gray leather jerkin with high collar. Over my black cotton pants, black leather pants. The old leather boots were replaced by well fitted and flexible brown leather ones. My shield was now a medium size kite one made of iron banded wood – the pure steel shields were too heavy for me to fight properly, as I discovered after a few swings – and my new sword, the costliest purchase, was made of darksteel. Between my ring and my hands, I now had thin dark brown leather gloves.

  Lithir also talked me into buying a painting kit for magical backpacks that cost one gold piece and made my backpack black. That guy could probably sell sand in the desert.

  I ended thirty-five gold and thirty-three silver pieces poorer, but a happy customer. "I must say, Lithir, even knowing that you cheated me somehow, I have no idea how you did it and I'm still satisfied with everything. Care to enlighten me?"

  He smiled and I noticed an attribute exclamation point appear on the edge of my vision. "I wouldn't call it cheating, sir, it's just business. But since you asked without anger, I'll tell you that everything I sold you is slightly more expensive than it should have been. Sincerely, I think it is a fair value for the high quality treatment I provide."

  "Ha, a drow full of himself, who would imagine," I said ironically. "But I think I agree with you on that; you did treat me well. I can't promise, but you might have gotten yourself a returning customer."

  'Never tell a clerk you are satisfied with him. He will pretend to be happy for it and try to rob you blind next time', my mother's teachings came to me and I mentally shooed them away.

  "Thank you, sir." He bowed slightly.

  "Thank you, Lithir. See ya." I left the store, checked my new stuff again like an overexcited boy with a new toy, and focused on the attribute exclamation point.

  Iron Kite Shield

  » Resistance: 60%

  Low Quality Darksteel Shortsword

  » 50 (+14 [Strength]) damage

  Low Quality Leather Jerkin

  » +20 defense

  Low Quality Leather Pants

  » +20 defense

  Low Quality Flexible Leather Boots

  » +10 defense

  » High flexibility

  Charisma increased to 5 (+1)

  Through flattery and using honeyed words you don't sound like an ape anymore.

  Having time to spare, I decided to stop by the drow child and pay my debt before he decided to charge interest.

  "I'm disappointed," he said as he took the money. "Hunting you with the Blackguard would have been fun."

  "I'm so very sorry," I smiled and left before he could charge me for breathing the air of the city.

  As the old saying goes, 'easy come, easy go.' All my money had been reduced to little less than six gold coins. Better than nothing, I supposed.

  For the second time in the city, I felt like a proper adventurer, instead of a desperate beggar without a clear picture of where he was going. I would do the spider quest, find the Resistance, and look good while doing it. That's the power of capitalism for you.

  I went back to the White Spider Inn and the look of surprise on the innkeeper was rewarding. Even the cook looked at me differently.

  After recovering my HP and MP and creating three death spheres yet again, I climbed down the basement.

  Everything was as I had left it. Now the difficult part began: finding the hidden passage to the spiders' nest.

  Looking around, I found nothing on the black metal walls. They were made of vertical rectangles, two meters by one, placed side by side; so were the ceiling and the floor. I was unable to identify any openings other than the tiny slits between the plates.

  Next I tried hitting all the walls, but for all I could tell they sounded the same and none of the walls was an illusion.

  Stepping forcefully on each meter of the floor also didn't show any discrepancy. I didn't try moving the sacks or the shelves: if the spiders were getting in somehow, they couldn't move what was inside before getting in and then move the stuff back into the original position.

  Unless they could. This was a magic world, after all, and I was far from aware of its inner workings.

  With a sigh and annoyed for being so good at arguing against myself, I moved everything. The room was packed and some sacks and shelves weighed a lot. It took me the better part of an hour to move everything only to find out that the places they had been occupied were as solid as everywhere else.

  The crushed eggs also held no clue. Removing them – using the sword, not my boots this time – revealed nothing.

  It was frustrating.

  I looked around one more time, completely lost. My best bet now was waiting for new spiders to appear.

  Sitting with my back to a wall, I closed my eyes out of habit. It was weird: being undead I didn't tire nor need to sleep, but doing something so human like resting felt damn good.

  As I closed my eyes, the gray sphere of the mind's eye appeared. The three dark gray spheres of the death magic were floating about my dark and light gray body. Small vermin, mostly ants eating the remains of the spiders, glowed in light gray light. So many small animals were glowing on the walls and floor that I remembered Christmas.

  There was an ant colony to the far edge behind me inside the wall.

  An ant colony.

  In a game.

  Damn amazing.

  How could the game be so realistic? How the hell had V-Soft even achieved the computing power necessary for all this? The capsule my real body was into only needed to talk to and listen to my brain. All the processing, all the world, was happening on what I guessed were multiple servers owned by V-Soft. Had they mastered quantum computing?

  A single AI, by itself, consumed a lot from a computer, and they had AIs running for each NPC I had found so far.

  Well, they had developed the new controversial technology to communicate directly with the brain, so bettering the existing AI technologies was not that surprising.

  I didn't expect the ants on the wall to have each their own AIs, but if they did-

  Wait, ants on the wall.

  If behind the wall there had been a big gap, I wouldn't have been able to see any ants in there. If that was the case, the lack of them would be an indicator of a false wall or floor section. A smile crept on my face and I got up.

  Eyes closed, I walked with my hands on the wall. It was a slow process, as I found out the gray sphere in my mind dissolved if I moved too fast.

  I had been seated in the second room, near the crushed eggs, opposite to the door. As typical, I found the hidden passage right next to the stairs, a whole hour after starting.

  All over the walls, except there, I found small animals. On that place, though, there were a few centimeters with such animals and then nothing, like a thin earth wall.

  Opening my eyes, I looked around but didn't find any clue on how to get to the other side. An idea popped up and I checked the stairs leading to the kitchen, but I also found nothing there.

  I proceeded, then, to touching the walls and the floor, both on the fake wall itself and around it, inch by inch. It worked.

  A small square, only large enough for a single finger to get through, was on a neighboring wall. The small hole was not visible; my finger went right through what I saw as metal. An illusion, then. I looked closer and when my head got only a few centimeters away I was able to see the small square vibrating a little.

  I tried touching it with my will but found nothing there. I used one of my death spheres there and when nothing happened, I tried creating and using a darkness one, still to no avail. Whatever was powering that illusion was not in the illusion itself.

  Leaving my finger inside the hole I closed my eyes. When the grey bubble appeared, I tried focusing my will at the area again. This time a very subtle light gray square – only slightly lighter than the gray of the mind's eye sphere itself – vibrated for half a second before disappearing.

  Smiling, I began experimenting a
nd applying my will around the square, but although I could will my invisible power to hit the whole wall, only when I applied it to an area the size of my fist, and such area touched the square, did the vibration appear.

  It meant I had no way of finding unknown illusions by applying my will to large areas, which was a little disappointing.

  Now, was the 'magic finding' thing something exclusive to illusions or could it be applied to all magic? I created a darkness sphere, which didn't appear in the mind's eye, and applied my will where I knew it was. Jackpot. The darkness sphere vibrated in a slightly dark gray light for half a second before disappearing again.

  It felt exhilarating. I had just found a way of detecting magic in places I suspected it to be! Never mind it could only be used in situations where I could stay still for a few seconds, it still felt damn good.

  Opening my eyes, I saw two exclamation points.

  Perception increased to 5 (+1)

  Noticing you were being cheated in stores, even without knowing how, finding hidden holes in walls and figuring a way of detecting magic is the way of a perceptive person.

  Trait received: Diviner

  You have uncovered the secrets of seeing the unseen.

  » Can feel any non-hidden magic

  » Can feel hidden magic the existence and location of which you have confirmed

  » Radius: 1 meter

  » Precision range: 180 degrees

  Diviner trait increased to 2 (+1)

  Being a Legendary Spotter, your traits related to spotting things, be it with your eyes or your mind, receive a bonus.

  » Radius: 2 meters

  » Precision range: 162 degrees

  Level up!