BlackFlame Online Vol 1

by A P Gore

  “I’m Noah. Just Noah.” Noah jumped to his feet and extended his hand to the weird man who went by name KickTheAssX12. “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to call you by your real name. Now tell me, where are we?”

  “This one doesn’t know and was trying to find out. This one teleported here by accident and doesn't know where this place is. Even the map is showing a white circle in the middle of a black cloud, and this one can’t even zoom out in the map. This one was hoping you would have an answer, my friend.”

  Listening to him speak in third person was annoying, but it was his style. There was nothing Noah could do about it. “That's a bummer. I thought I landed near a human town. That would have been the happiest accident of my life. Anyway, we are near the demon town of Sumara. I know nothing other than that. I ended up here accidentally too.” The sadness in his voice was audible even to Noah.

  “This one is sorry to hear that, Mr. Noah.”

  “What will you do now? Where’s your respawn location? I hope it’s in a human town.”

  “Yes, this one is bound to the City of Ampethia. But this one doubts any demon in a ten mile radius is strong enough to kill a level 45 pathfinder.”

  Noah’s hand shook for a moment. H’d tried to cast perception on a level 45 character. No wonder the game had penalized him -1 intelligence. “That’s nice. But as far as I know, the nearest human city is like twenty days walk from here. Even that walk is filled with lots of demon towns in between.”

  “That’s not a matter of concern, human friend. This one has set a timer on the teleportation spell. This one will jump right out of here once the timer reaches zero, which is exactly after 20 minutes.”

  “That’s a nice spell to have.” Noah could only imagine the spells this man had access to. Level 45. “Anyway, have you seen a small demon girl around here? A level 3 girl.” Noah’s body shuddered with the next thought, but he spoke it anyway. “And please tell me that you didn’t kill her for the sake of it.”

  Shui took a step back, putting a hand to his chest. “No, my friend. This one doesn’t kill anyone below level 40. This one has a code of conduct, and a level 3 demon wouldn’t even scratch this one’s skin.”

  Noah’s shoulder blades relaxed. Shui hadn't killed Thia, and that was a relief, but she was still missing—which wasn't good at all. “Thank god. But did you see her anywhere? When I took a detour, I left her here, but now she is gone.”

  “This one might know where she is. This one sensed a few low level creatures when this one cast perception on the surroundings. Let’s go there and see if this one can help you somehow. This one is still sorry for hurting you before. And this one is interested in your story too. Maybe something from your story would turn useful for this one too.”

  Noah shrugged. “Okay. I'll tell you my story.” Except for the parts about him being in a coma and the pieces about the goddess and the glass-man, he told the stranger everything. There was no point in hiding when the stranger could be useful to him.

  In return, Shui told Noah a bit about himself. Shui was a perma-gamer too. He was from the capital of Gamisha, a gaming city in the real world. He’d been in the pod for about a year in real life, and he was planning to spend his next ten real-life years here. When Noah expressed surprise about this, Shui told him that there were hundreds of thousands of gamers who were using perma-pods, because they liked being in the game more than being in real life.

  “For most of us, real life sucks! Here we can do anything we want.” Shui flashed Noah a weak smile.

  “Did it really take you twelve years in game to reach level 45?” Noah asked.

  “No, this one was level 70, but then this one died repeatedly in a dungeon. That was the only way to escape it. But that’s fine. I also received my unique skill just after that, a skill of teleportation with unknown destinations. Once I received the skill, I changed my class to pathfinder and started my journey to discover unknown lands. So far, this one has discovered the world of the fae before they killed this one, and now this one has also discovered the world of demons.” A proud smile appeared on Shui's face. He had a reason to be in the game. Noah had one too, but right now his priority was to find Thia.

  “Trust me, friend. You don't want to be here. I was killed three times before I received the blessing of some goddess. And that experience was brutal.” Noah's skin crawled with the thought of the torture he had gone through back then.

  “Okay, how about this? This one can carry you back to the city of Ampethia. Consider it repayment for this one trying to kill you. Do you want to come, human friend Noah?”

  Noah’s jaw dropped practically to the ground. Before him was the opportunity of a lifetime. How could he say no?

  28. The Answer

  S hui looked like a guardian angel offering him the path to heaven. His offer was extremely generous and impossible to decline. All the struggle, the pain, the need of grinding would end once he reached the human town. He’d been working for this and only this for so long.

  Noah closed his eyes as a flood of happiness washed over his brain. But a pair of brown eyes popped up in his mind’s eye, reminding him he had another responsibility too, and the game wasn't just a piece of digital code anymore. It was frigging real for him, and Thia was waiting for him somewhere.

  No' I can't run away from my responsibility.

  “No.” Noah shook his head firmly. It wasn't an option. The word came out heavy. Something equally heavy settled at the bottom of his stomach and pained him more than anything. Saying no was impossible and terribly painful.

  “What? This one doesn’t understand your answer. This one thought you wanted to get out of here and go to a human town.”

  “That sums up my goal, but right now I have to find the little demon depending on me. I can't leave her alone like this.” The weight in his stomach got heavier, but there was a silver lining. Standing up for someone he cared about was its own kind of reward.

  Shui eyed him dubiously. “She is just an NPC, Mr. Noah. They don't have minds like us.”

  “Maybe you are right. But— I don’t know how to express it in words, but I can't leave her alone in trouble. If she was safe in town, I would have thought about it.”

  “But this one doesn’t have that much time. This one will be pulled back in less than five minutes.”

  Noah blew out a resigned sigh. “I know that, friend, and it sucks. Big time. Like the dark dimension stealing your magic sucks. But I can’t come with you. I'll have to find a way out of this myself. And I will. Someday, I will.” He had a goal: to get back with his daughter, and no matter what, he would achieve it in a year’s time.

  “Okay, listen Mr. Noah. This one thinks you should get your priorities straight and come back to town with me.” Shui’s voice turned impatient.

  “I said I can’t, Shui. I can’t leave the four-year-old girl alone. She might be in danger.”

  And she was. They were just around the corner from the goblin hideout. Five goblins were present near a small clearing between a few huge trees. It was a perfect spot to hide, and if not for Shui's tracking skill, Noah may not have found this place by himself.

  Noah's heart skipped two beats when he saw what was happening at the hideout: Thia was lashed to a pole with thick vines, and a cauldron was set up over a fire next to the pole. A couple of goblins were moving around, picking some herbs from the ground and dropping them in the boiling water.

  “What the heck are they doing with her?” Noah was about to jump in before Shui stopped him.

  “Don’t rush in there without checking their levels. They all are level 5+ and outnumber you 5 to 1. And there's one level 6 fat goblin commander too.”

  “I thought I had a level 45 friend who can help me by wiping out a bunch of goblins easily.” Noah was counting on Shui. Seeing four level 4 goblins didn’t scare him because he had a level 45 badass with him.

  “They are low levels so this one can’t. This one vowed to his deity that he would take care of t
he low level ones.”

  Noah watched Shui's face in horror. “And now you are being a dick.” Noah threw his hands in the air. What the heck was up with this man? He thought Shui was a generous friend who would help him. “You’ll let a level 3 girl die just because of a stupid promise to your god?”

  “You won’t understand it right now, but breaking a promise to a deity is a big no-no in this game. This one is allowed to hurt low levels only when their collective level is higher than 40.”

  That sucked big time for Noah. He cast his perception on Thia, since she was not in his party anymore. The glass-man zapping him to the white room had ended their party connection. She was at half life but wasn’t losing any. At least that was good. He looked up and cursed the glass-man for taking him away from the girl. If the bastard had waited for one more hour, Thia would have been safe in the inn.

  “Can you at least help me with something? Do you have anything I can use to kill these bastards?” Noah wasn’t sure how much longer he could mind his temper.

  “This one is sorry, but this one doesn’t usually carry items around. Right now, this one only has these potions.” Shui pulled out a bunch of potions.

  Noah grabbed a greater healing potion, but he couldn't lift it. He looked at Shui in silent question.

  “Yes, you are too low level to hold that one. But this one can feed it to you if you want.”

  “That's a damn bug.”

  Shui shrugged.

  Noah handled a couple more potions, but the only one he could pick up was the potion of reputation.

  Potion of Reputation

  Drink this potion to gain neutral reputation with any being for thirty minutes. Only works with 3 or fewer beings.

  While reading the description, an idea popped into his mind. “I'll take this. Thanks.” Noah picked it up and slid it into his bag of holding. It was too bad that he couldn't pick up the health potion. It would have proved useful.

  “This one has one more piece of advise. This one recognizes what the goblins are doing. It is called the ritual of taste in their culture. Boiling an enemy female and eating her increases their sex drive. At least they think it does. But the ritual is complex and time consuming. So, you have at least 30 minutes before they boil your friend there.” He paused and sighed. “This one is extremely sorry and will pray for your friend’s safety four hundred times in my deity’s temple. But this one has to leave now. Time is up, my friend. Farewell. If you come to my town, search for the Guild of Polaris and this one shall repay his debt to you.”

  A purple light appeared from the sky and wrapped around Shui. He waved his hand and vanished.

  Noah stared furiously at the now empty space. Shui could have helped him. If his one spell was enough to nearly obliterate Noah’s 370 life in a second, then he could have killed all five goblins. But no, he had to give some lame excuse about not killing lower level creatures. What a dick!

  Noah turned back to check on the goblins, who were adding more water to the cauldron. He didn’t have much time left, but he couldn’t rush in without a strategy. That would be suicide. For both of them. He would have chosen death if it would save Thia, but that wouldn’t cut it here. Strategy was his best option.

  Noah circled around the goblins, trying to find something that could help him. He had an idea of what he was looking for, an orc or a creature that would buy him some time to free Thia.

  He was moving around a tree when a notification popped up.

  Warning: -60% to fire resistance due to proximity to the Bones of Fire Dragon Expansion site.

  What the heck?

  Noah accessed his character sheet, but he saw no resistance value.

  Is it hidden? Damn!

  A crackling noise caught his attention. Seeing the creature who made that sound made his heart race. He took a step back as a pair of snakes revealed themselves in front of him. They weren’t any grass snakes. They were six-foot-tall and two-foot-wide snakes, and they were glaring at him. With every bad intention.

  29. Curse of the Boiling Blood

  T he snakes hissed, sending waves of fear inside Noah’s gut. They reminded him of the grass snakes he’d fought for the first time outside the town. Gray scales starting from the bottom of their mouths covered one third of their bodies and flared into larger scales that covered their remaining bodies. The gigantic snakes looked like five steroid injections were pumped into a grass snake to make it look enormous.

  He hated steroids.

  Noah cast perception on the snakes. Surprisingly, it resulted in some information.

  Guardian Snake of the Dragon Bones

  An overgrown snake due to corruption of the expansion site.

  Level 5

  Health 1000/1000

  Poison Resistance: 60%

  Fire Resistance: -60%

  “1000 life, are you kidding me?” He glared at the sky in frustration. Every wasted second moved Thia closer to death, and she wouldn’t come back from it. And yet, the challenge before him looked impossible to beat. His blood was near boiling, and the damn snakes had poison resistance, so he couldn’t even use his poison orb.

  The snakes gradually pressed forward, watching him.

  Noah hit them with everything he had. He cast all his spells, starting with a poison orb—which hit the snakes for 1 damage—and the curse of fire orb—which dealt 164 damage.

  This is odd. Is this because of the fire resistance?

  Noah cast his poison shield as one of the snakes charged him with its mouth open. Noah’s shield took the hit, yet he received 150 damage and a nasty debuff icon below his health. His blood felt like it had been set on fire. The pain was so intense that he dropped to all fours for a moment.

  The other snake charged Noah. He rolled to his left and dodged the attack. The other snake circled around him, trying to get a clear shot.

  Fire resistance. I’ve seen it somewhere, but where?

  Noah tried to think, but the poison in his blood was dulling his senses.

  The curse of boiling blood! That’s it.

  Noah pulled up its description after dodging the next blow. His life was draining, one point every five seconds. It was the debuff icon he had spotted like five seconds ago.

  Curse of boiling blood: Boil the blood of target. Animosity toward caster increases by 50%. Chance to set blood on fire: 1%. Fire chance can be increased by negative fire resistance. Spirit Cost: 20. Cast Range: 3 feet.

  Noah dodged the next striking snake and spotted a hint of fire coming out of one the snake’s heads. It was the same snake he had hit with his fire orb curse.

  That's it.

  He had found his winner.

  Noah chanted his curse of boiling blood and targeted the same snake. The snake literally burst into flames. His life drained like a water from a floodgate. But despite being on fire, the snake’s eyes turned red, and it charged Noah. Noah took the hit for 100 damage, but at the same time the attacking snake turned into ash. Noah had 172 life remaining, less than half. But he wasn’t worried anymore. He had hit the jackpot.

  Noah quickly applied the curse of fire orb on the second snake, then followed it with the curse of boiling blood, setting it on fire. The second snake turned red-eyed and rushed him.

  Noah was careful this time; he dodged its attack and jumped a few feet away. The snake’s remaining life burned away, and it too turned to ash.

  Two notifications appeared. Noah opened one after downing one small healing potion, recovering almost all of his life back.

  You have been hit by a corrupted snake. Poison debuff applied. -40 life per five seconds for 30 minutes.

  “What?” But he was losing only 1 life. “Ah, yes.” Shui had proved to be useful after all. The 39 health regen he’d received from the greater healing potion was coming in handy.

  You have killed a corrupted guardian level 5 snake *2. You have received 600 experience.

  Your experience gain is negated by the unclaimed expansion site. Do you want to claim it? Yes/
No?

  Access the expansion site menu.

  Noah suppressed a cry of outrage and disbelief. The game was unfair. It took 600 experience away like it meant nothing. Suppressing the urge to shout at the game designer, he accessed unclaimed site menu. He couldn't risk a sound getting out and making goblins aware of his presence.

  Fire Dragon Bones Expansion Site.

  Claim the site to receive intended bonuses.

  Unclaimed site side effect: -60% fire resistance.

  Wait. This is it.

  The site, or whatever it was, provided a debuff of -60% fire resistance. That meant his boiling blood had a chance of 61% success. Wow. This was his trump card to kill the five goblins. Now he just had to get the goblins here, somehow.

  Despite his curiosity compelling him to go for it, he chose not to claim the site.

  He scanned the area, marking a boundary of the expansion site effect by dropping small stones at the border which would mean something only to him. If anyone else came by, the stones wouldn’t make any sense—or even be remarkable—to them. When finished, he realized it wasn't a large area. The area was few meters in diameter around a densely packed copse of trees—so dense that he couldn't get inside it and check the center of the expansion site. The center of the expansion site held a mystery to uncover, but he didn't have time for it. Once he had a complete boundary of stones placed around the dense area, he returned to the goblin hideout. It was time to put his plan into action.

  The remaining question was how to lure the goblins in the boundary, and he needed to lure only 2-3 of them, excluding the goblin commander. The commander had 400 life and might have an attack that would prove dangerous. And Noah didn't have enough life to pull that stunt off. “Okay what should I do now to pull only 2-3 goblins here?”

  Drinking the reputation potion, walking directly into the hide out, and making up some reason for them to follow him was one of the options. But the potion didn't work on more than three goblins, and there was a risk that one of them would attack and kill him even before he reached the leader. The other option that came to mind was throwing a stone at them and running back, but he wasn't sure of his own speed.