Not a bad touch to the game world. If the gods were indeed alive and interacting with the populace, it was expected that they would not want people swearing by their name in vain.
However, Alia Soman, the woman in prison, had sworn by a god's name, and I hadn't received this message.
Maybe it doesn't count if someone is torturing you. Or maybe you have to impose a condition.
He stared at me for a long time to make a point. Then he looked to Daggers. "Just so you know, observer, the Arktov and the Basir are the most powerful vampire clans." He looked at all of us again. "As I was saying, you will go to the Great Maze. There, you will kill merchants who are traveling under the guidance of an earthbound. However, you will leave a single man alive and you, deathlord, will show your face to him. Any questions?"
"Tell us more of the Maze. And how can we pass through it, if only the deathlords can navigate the place?"
"Like I said, it divides Inner and Outer Dakar. It has exactly four entrances and four exits, at the four cardinal points, but the internal paths change daily. There is only a single place in each of the four ways that doesn't change and it must be traversed to get through the maze. It is the best spot for ambushes.
"As for getting there, I didn't say only the earthbound can navigate it; I stated that they are the only ones allowed to guide people through it. I have an enchanted map that shows the ever-changing ways, which Tardas will keep for the duration of the quest."
I waited a few seconds in silence before speaking, just to make sure I wasn't interrupting; for some reason, I wasn't in a dying mood. "Aren't maps illegal? And Tardas' is coming too?"
"They are, but it is a necessity in this case. Yes, he is."
There was a big hole in his explanation: the earthbound deathlords. If they were so strong, I wasn't interested in fighting them. "Is Tardas the one who's going to take care of the deathlords?"
"Yes. Surprisingly, this is an important question. Tardas is the only one who is allowed to interact with the earthbound deathlord in any way. Is it clear?"
"Sure is," I said, already thinking of how I would disobey that at my first chance. "At the palace, you said Eternal would be the one showing himself to the deathlords, and I would show myself to the vampires instead. But now you ordered me to show my face to those under the deathlords' protection. Does it mean I should wear the illusion ring?"
"No. The plans have changed." He extended his hands. "Give the ring back, while we are at it."
I frowned. "What do you mean the plans changed?"
"I meant what I said. The ring."
I understood it, then. "You are setting me up, aren't you?" I wish I was seated just so I could get up dramatically. "It was never your intention to make Eternal show himself. Hell, you even have this illusion ring. I was going to be a scapegoat all along. The unbound no one wants nor cares about; put all the blame on him and everything is solved."
The bastard actually smiled. "The ring, deathlord."
"Screw you. If you are going to use me, I'm taking the damn ring."
I thought about the leverage I had over him, the possibility of revealing the fake beating. But he had just put them out of my reach. He had even told me so: 'Sorina has no love lost for runaway slaves.' I'd be killed on sight.
It made me shake my head. I had been played alright. Valia was a game, but it also allowed the NPCs to move as they wished. I had to remember that, or I'd keep being played.
No use crying over the spilled milk, though.
"So, we go to the Maze, kill some people, I show my face, Tardas takes care of the deathlord, and we come back. In and out, easy-peasy." I tried to move the conversation away from the ring. It didn't work.
"Deathlord, listen carefully. I will allow you to keep the inferior quality illusion ring, but not the one you have now. Give it to me or I will take it by force."
The glow in his eyes was intensifying, and I could feel my vision narrow again, just like it had at the Resistance meeting. Only this time there was no Manhart to save me. Gulping, I took the ring off and gave it to him.
He put it away. "Anything else?"
"Why the Maze?" Daggers asked.
That was a valid question. There were probably easier ambush places than inside an ever-changing maze, using an illegal map and waiting for a guy to come. I was so immersed in thinking of ways to mess with his plans that I hadn't thought about it.
"Well observed," Marbareus said, and I had to use all my willpower not to say 'I see what you did there.' "As I said, the earthbound's power come in part from their exclusivity in guiding people through the Great Maze. Hitting them there, while they are conducting merchants, will be a great wound to their pride. Especially when it becomes known that an unbound is the one responsible."
"How would it benefit the Resistance?"
"If one of the most important deathlord factions is humiliated by an unbound and becomes perceived as weak, it will lead to internal disputes. These two factors, weakness and discord, will show the vampires that the deathlords can be beaten easier than it's believed. The war will intensify, and I already told you how this helps the Resistance."
It was a sound plan. Too sound. It was completely different from the 'kill deathlords while showing a vampire face and vice-versa' one.
The AI had evolved.
And I wasn't sure I liked an enemy getting smarter.
"Any more questions?" No one said anything. "Then leave."
* * *
Quest: Ambush in the Great Maze
[Obey the Resistance – Deception]
C rank
Follow Tardas to the static point in the Great Maze and raid anyone being led through the Maze by an earthbound deathlord.
Kill everyone but a single survivor, to whom you must show your face.
Conditions:
» Do not interact in any way with any earthbound deathlords
» Cannot be denied
» Disobeying will lead to unfavorable consequences
As we traveled, I kept reading the quest information to make sure I had read every detail. I already knew how I was going to mess with the First Lord's plans.
The Maze was almost a day's walk from Sorina. When Eternal asked for a lizard to ride, Marbareus said we were supposed to be covert and that people riding a lizard were more noticeable.
When the vampire slave and Daggers logged out, they revealed a new game feature to me: auto-following. They set their characters to follow someone and logged out. Instead of disappearing or staying still, the character kept walking until it died or the player logged back in.
I, on the other hand, had to enjoy the walk through uninhabited and mostly barren caves. There were some lakes and vegetation here and there, and some regular monsters, like tentacles and stuff, but Tardas just ordered me to keep moving.
The one time I tried to disobey, he killed the monster with a single arrow, which exploded making a huge mess.
"I respectfully suggest you stay clear of the body, Mister Thorn. It may still be alive and to protect you, I'd need to fire yet another arrow."
I took a look at the pieces of the monster everywhere. How the hell can it be alive?
"However," he continued, "one in a thousand times, I miss my shots. We don't want an accident to happen."
I stopped walking in the direction of the remains. "You are right, Tardas. Accidents are bad. And I don't want you to feel sad about it."
We also saw some merchants coming and going. They had catrons with them and walked on foot.
"Why don't they ride a lizard?" I asked.
"Giant lizards are reserved for the wealthy or the desperate, Mister Thorn. The beasts consume considerable quantities of rations when they leave their shelters."
A stone-walled city was in the center of a big cave chamber. Tardas made us walk far away from it. The entrance to the Maze was in that chamber, and it was disappointing: a rectangular opening in the wall, about three catrons wide and five tall.
The momen
t we walked through it, I felt magic all around me, even if I couldn't see it. It was oppressive, as if the air was heavy and applied extra pressure to my skin.
The walls were ten stories high, and the maze was full of straight lines as if it had been created on Earth to be published in a magazine. It probably had been. The corridors were twenty meters wide.
"It feels impressive, and it doesn't look half bad. But what prevents someone from just boring through the walls?"
"Try it, Mister Thorn." I looked suspiciously at him. "Worry not, nothing will happen to you."
Creating a fireball, I threw it at the wall. The moment they touched, the fireball disappeared.
"The walls are unbreakable, Mister. Trying to excavate above or below the Maze leads to the same result."
"So the god likes his toy, huh? What's his name?"
"No one knows, Mister. No one has ever seen the god of this place."
"Then how the hell do you know there is a god in here?"
"Only divine power could do this, Mister."
Primitive people, crediting everything they don't understand to gods.
His 'Mister' was more annoying than Daggers' 'sir.' Being respected was very upsetting. No wonder all the politicians Father and Mother brought home were anxious bastards.
Tardas kept leading us forward without faltering a step. "Where's the map?" I asked.
"Maps created by the Cartographers Guild are soul-resonating, Mister."
"Which means...?"
"They disappear on pick-up and stay on the edge of your vision, Mister. I can see it at all times and manipulate it at will."
It was 'NPC speak' for 'user interface' – all the things that I could see that were not part of the scenery, like HP bars and chat log.
Disturbingly enough, the Maze was three dimensional. On some edges, the world perspective changed: one of the walls became the new ground, the floor and ceiling became walls. Only it wasn't them that shifted, but gravity itself.
It didn't take long for me to find myself at a loss as to where the up and down of the outside world was. More than once Tardas led us to what had been the floor just a second before, making us get close to a wall before taking a turn that would change the perspective.
There was no awkwardness or rushing of movement when going from an old-floor-new-wall to an old-wall-new-floor, no sensation of falling or anything. Everything seemed natural, normal walking, and the ghoul guaranteed me that one wouldn't fall if one was too far from the new floor when the world turned upside-down.
"The reason I insist on getting us near the wall when the perspective is about to change, Mister, is because it is highly disturbing to walk on walls."
I tried it once and found out he was unquestionably right.
The Maze was ridiculously difficult and I realized with unhappiness that if Tardas just left me there, I would be lost until I died.
After only two hours of extra walking, we reached the static point. It was a square cave chamber big enough for about two hundred people to camp comfortably. It was bare of anything at all.
"Here we are, Mister."
When Daggers and Eternal logged back in, Tardas changed from water to wine.
You have received a party invitation from Tardas.
Accept or refuse?
"I didn't know Valians could get in parties," I said.
"Come to our world," Tardas replied, "steal our things, sleep with our women, then tell us you didn't know we could use them. Typical Earthen."
His change of attitude shocked me so much that I just looked at him open-mouthed for a while.
"Yes, Thorn. Fun time is over. We are now in a combat zone. Accept the party."
"Well-" I tried to speak, but he held his hand up and pointed at his head.
Mind chat, I guess. Man, I couldn't have been more right about him and Daggers. Am I a prophet or what?
I accepted the party.
Douchebag! But he had a point.
He did.
Only when he said that did I notice that no HP bar was showing for him. Our ghoul was a secretive one.
Yes, politicians, I now understand you. Sorry for earlier.
With the pep talk concluded, I was finally able to put my chest armor on. Wearing it on the travel would have slowed us too much.
Daggers admitted, much to my delight, that even she got a little lost in the Maze.
After the non-fight with her, in which I hadn't got my ass handed to me, it was nice to discover she was human too.
We walked for about fifteen minutes, turning back every time she decided she couldn't memorize more of the path until we finally found our first monsters: a goblin band.
All eighteen of them were green and half my height, with big ears and noses. They wore leather armor and had weak looking small weapons.
Critical damage for 2.0x damage!
172 damage dealt to Goblin
HP: 0 / 172 <?>
The first four goblins died with my fireballs impacting their heads, just like that. Daggers advanced and started a ruthless blood dance in the middle of them.
To my surprise, a few of them created darkness morbs and threw them at me.
No damage received from darkness element (Immunity)
It was the first time my immunity kicked in, and I liked it a lot. The goblins had high pitched voices and kept screaming and speaking in an unknown language.
They were so weak that Daggers killed each of them with two strokes of her daggers. It gave me an idea.
The slaughter continued until only two goblins remained. They tried to run, but Daggers cut their retreat off.
Twenty percent of my agility amounted to a single point, and that was all I had after the eighth level encumbered status. It was very strange: while the attribute reduction only applied to agility, the way it affected me was that I had to make a significant effort to hold the sword, and that led me to swing it slower.
My slashes didn't connect. The goblins were armed with shitty small swords and while their attacks hit me, they barely did any damage at all.
And so we fought without end. Daggers liked the idea, borrowed some heavy equipment from me, and we took turns fighting the bastards.
Tardas called for us after some six hours, and we let the small guys go. Their equipment was bad enough that we didn't even bother to collect anything but coins from the bodies.
"See you later, little guys!" I waved at them. They were highly bruised and panting. I only had the bruises.
The ghoul faded away from view at one corner of the chamber and Daggers tried to follow suit.
the little vampire traitor said.
Tardas barged in.
Silence governed the mind chat for a few seconds until the ghoul spoke.
Unbound Deathlord: Challenge Page 37