by A P Gore
Thia was in danger, and he couldn’t do anything else but curse the bastard priest in his mind and feel the wetness of the blood under his fingers. At least his tattered armor wasn’t soaking up the blood. It was good for something, after all.
His life in the game replayed behind his closed eyes. It sucked big time. He was an insignificant man in this brutal world of demons and monsters. Virtual life had gifted him two loving women, and he couldn’t save either one. All his boasted self-talk vanished like the façade of a fake smile.
He tried free himself from the black tendrils, but nothing worked. His hands were bound, so he couldn’t even put himself on fire with his curse and die to respawn.
Why the heck am I so miserable and powerless?
Noah opened his eyes when the air stirred beside his head. The strong smell of ale caused an itching in his nostrils. It wasn’t the smell of ale from Mathial’s inn. It was bitter and bad. Turning his head, he found the blue pants demon standing beside him. Was he here for another pleasure kill? That would be great, actually. The blue pants demon raised his tail in the air, and it came down like a falling stone.
Noah closed his eyes, expecting a swift death. Instead, the tendrils around his hands eased. He opened his eyes. The demon’s tail was slicing the black tendrils around his hand. The tail was cutting through the black tendrils like a sharp knife slicing fruit. It slipped once and cut open Noah’s forearm. It was painful, and cost Noah 10 points of life, but he didn’t say a word. Thia was in danger, and he needed all the help he could get to save her.
The tail sped up as the tendrils gave way. “Xithala. Help. Human.” The demon in blue pants spoke for the first time. He had the same accent as Thia.
Noah replied with a thankful smile. He didn’t mind the pain. He just needed to be free and get Thia out of the town. He would save his little girl at any cost. A plan was forming in his mind.
As soon as Xithala, the blue pants demon, freed him, he an for the inn. He was going to pack his bags, gran Thia, and head for Rihala’s town. That bastard priest had said two days for the ritual. By that time, he would be in Rihala’s town and Thia would be safe. He could figure everything else out later.
What if the priest has taken Thia already?
No way. Mathial would protect her with his life.
Despite pumping all the spirit he could into his legs, it took him ten minutes to reach the inn. He received +1 to spirit run and +1 to spirit manipulation—increasing his speed by 1%—by the time he stopped at the inn’s gate. Sweat flowed down his neck and into his shirt, but he didn’t care. He barged inside the bar and went straight to his room. Thia wasn’t there. Nor was her bed, nor his bed. The room was back to being empty and dusty. He’d been gone for two days, but the room looked like it’d been empty for weeks.
He raced down stairs and sprinted for the smithy.
Mathial was pounding a silvery metal plate with his hammer.
Noah paused to take a breath. “Where is Thia?”
Mathial looked up, startled, then stepped back like he had seen a ghost. “Noah, what are you doing here?” A hint of fear leaked into his voice.
“She is…” he paused and looked at the back door of the house. “Sleeping in the cellar.”
Noah bit his lip. Another time, he would have fought with Mathial over putting her back in the cellar. He was only two days late on his rent, and the greedy blacksmith had already put his little girl in the tiny room.
“I’m leaving town with Thia. Do you know where I can find Roderich?” He needed the antidote. He might have a few days before Thia need it again, but it would be safer if he could keep a bunch of doses with him. “Come with us, friend. It might hurt your feelings, but trust me, this town is full of crazy people.”
Mathial tucked his hammer behind his belt. “What do you mean? Why do you want to leave town?” His right hand moved to his back.
Noah stepped forward, standing a step away from Mathial. “I’ve got news for you, man. The high priest is doing some ritual for which he needs a demon female sacrifice, and he is planning to sacrifice our Thia. Can you believe that? We need to get out of here before he finds out I escaped.”
“If you die, how much time will you spend in your evil place?”
“It’s called a respawn room, and it’s not evil.” Noah was taken aback for a moment by Mathial’s awkward belief. “But about a day. Why does it matter?”
“It does, my friend, it does matter. Thanks for the information. We might have to speed up our ritual and do it in four hours.”
“Your ritu—” A knife pierced Noah’s heart, scoring a crit, and then a hammer struck his head for another crit. His vision went red, and his health plummeted. He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t. He died in seconds, wondering why Mathial had killed him.
♦ ♦ ♦
Noah woke in the respawn room with a nasty pain in his head and heart. The knife had scored a double crit on him, dealing almost 350 damage. The next hit with the hammer had finished him off. The pain was brutal, but the agony in his heart overpowered any other effect the game put him through.
Noah ordered five cups of coffee and emptied them on the white table. If he had his armor, he would have destroyed it with his hand. Mathial, the bastard, had betrayed him. How could he? How could he betray Thia? How could he not love that small girl who called him uncle—especially when he’d lost his own little girl to a goblin raid?
Damn you all! This is so painful.
Noah grabbed his head and slumped in his chair when he couldn’t shred the coffee cup any further.
This is all a game, Noah. Just let it go. Start a fresh with a new deity.
“Yes, this is all a game. Thia, with her sweet innocent smile, is a piece of code. Her selflessness and love were digital. Rihala is another piece of code. Her taut ass is part of that code.” He paused, looking up. “Yes, everything is code, Sumara.”
He slammed his hand on the table, embracing the pain.
“Then why does it feel so real?” The pain was real. His feelings were real. He wanted to save both women, but he’d failed miserably. He’d failed to protect the ones he loved. He’d failed in real life, and now he was failing in virtual life too.
“Why is this happening to me, Sumara? Why?”
“I can give you a hint.” Sumara’s voice echoed in his mind.
“Why are you talking to me? Run away. Soon your existence will be wiped from the world.”
“No one can wipe me out of this pseudo-earth, Noah.”
“Aren’t you afraid of what the high priest is doing with the last bit of your followers?”
“No. But I don’t like someone spilling coffee for stupid reasons.” There was a hint of anger in her voice.
“Why do you even care? I’m just a player in your grand scheme—if there is one.”
“I won’t convince you of anything you don’t want to hear. I only helped you because… It had been a long fucking time since I met someone, human. A damn long time.” A hint of loneliness leaked into her voice.
“Can you send me back?” Noah asked, hopeful that she was trying to help him. “I’ll order you all my coffee quota for the next month.”
“Really?” she asked, sounding happy. “But I can’t send you back. That’s a fucking hardcore rule of the game. No goddess can directly help her follower. Plus, you haven’t done anything to earn my blessings, yet.”
“Please, Goddess Sumara, think about this. If the high priest succeeds, I’ll be assigned to a new god, and you won’t get the coffee you love.”
She sighed. “I can live with that. Don’t forget I lived without it for millions of years. It’s been a long journey to this point. I just don’t care about anything anymore.” She sounded tired. Not long day tired, but lifelong tired.
“Can you at least help my little girl? She is in danger.” All the hope and anger was gone from Noah’s voice. Only pure helplessness remained.
“I can only give you a hint about how you c
an defeat the high priest.”
“If I can’t go back in time, then what’s the use of going back at all?”
“You’ve got that other girl, don’t you?”
“Yes. She is pretty and has a heart of gold. But Thia…”
A notification interrupted their conversation. A timer appeared, reading 1 hour for respawn.
“Did you do something?” he asked, jumping to his feet and grinning. He was going back in one hour’s time after all.
“No, I didn’t. A mage did this. Interesting. I didn’t know he could do this with a player.”
“What did he do?”
“He resurrected you at the expense of his own life. That’s a standard resurrection spell intended to be used by player mages. NPCs do get it, but they never use it. Interesting. I’d love to observe the human coder when his supervisor sees this after going through the thousands of error lines. He is acting like a real human.”
“A real human?” Noah’s mind reeled. Something was off about the game. First the reputation glitch, and now an NPC mage giving his life to bring him back. “Who resurrected me?”
She paused for a moment. “Someone named Roderich.”
“Really?” Noah’s eyes almost jumped out of his eye sockets.
Sumara stepped into the room. “You don’t have enough time, man. Order me some coffee, and then we can talk about your plan to kill the priest. He is a level 13 mage, and you are just a level 9 Cursemancer. You don’t even have access to the high-level curses.”
“Shit! I only have…” He stared at the order menu. His quota had increased by three. Had it increased with his level?
Noah ordered three cups. Sumara didn’t look pleased with the numbers, but she went ahead and devoured the coffee.
“Okay, Goddess Sumara, bless me with your knowledge. How can I kill a level 13 demon?”
“Just look at your new skill, dude.” She winked and vanished.
Noah sighed and muttered, “What a bitch.”
“I can still hear you,” Sumara’s disembodied voice said. “Next time, don’t waste my coffee on the table and I’ll try to be friendlier.” A giggle echoed through the respawn room.
Noah opened his skill panel to check out his new skill.
Curse of Raise Zombie (Level 1): Raise a zombie with your spirit. No corpse required. Available charges: 50/50. Zombie deals 50 damage. Zombie time: 1 minute. Zombie Life: 200 Spirit. Cost: 100. Synergy detected. Synergies with native skill Raise Zombie. +1 to the number of zombies per 2 levels in the native skill. +1 minute to zombie time per 2 levels in native skill. +10 to damage per 2 levels in native skill. - 5 spirit cost per 2 levels in Raise Zombie. Spell Level can’t be increased by skill points.
Noah looked at his character sheet. He had 15 skill points left and his current Raise Zombie was at 5, giving him 2 spirit zombies at 90 spirit cost each.
“What the heck.” He dumped all his remaining points in the native Raise Zombie skill, bringing it to level 20.
Notifications once again flooded his vision.
Congratulations! You have brought one of your skills to Initiate level. +10% to zombie time, +10% zombie speed. +100 experience.
Congratulations! You have brought one of your skills to Apprentice level. +10% to zombie damage, +10% zombie speed. +500 experience.
Congratulations! You have gained -1 to intelligence for putting all your skill points in one skill. I sometimes wonder how much worse you can get, and if it’s the last level of foolishness. You beat me every time.
Congratulations! You have gained +2 to wisdom for believing in your goddess’s advice.
One more nasty comment from the game, but Noah didn’t mind it. He looked at his Raise Zombie skill.
Raise Zombie (Level 20, Apprentice): Raise 20 zombies (cap reached).
Zombie Life: 700
Zombie Damage: 117.65
Zombie Time: 242 minutes
Spirit cost: 125
Then he remembered about the off-hand weapon with +1 to zombie. His Raise Zombie reached level 21, but as it was an odd level it didn’t add much to the Curse of Raise Zombie.
That was a hefty spirit cost, and he wouldn’t be able to raise more than 4 zombies at a time, even with his huge spirit pool. He glanced at the Curse of Raise Zombie, which would help him today.
Curse of Raise Demon Zombies (Level 1): Raise 10 demon zombies (cap reached)
Zombie Life: 300
Zombie Damage: 165
Zombie Time: 12 minutes
Spirit Cost: 50
“Damn good.” This was his trump card. He didn’t need any corpses going forward and could summon cheap zombies. With his current pool of 520 spirit he could summon 10 zombies quickly enough.
He glanced at his latest stats and felt proud. He currently stood at 665 health, 80 mana (thanks to -1 intelligence), 520 spirit and 365 stamina.
He looked at the timer. Twenty minutes remained, so he thought of checking into the enhancer design mode. The two cores he had combined were due tonight, and he hoped for another miracle, for one more unique crystal.
He didn’t get one. The mold opened with a bright red light, and a heart-shaped crystal appeared on his palm.
“What the heck? Where is my spellgem?”
“Next time you do this, read the properties on the mold you are using.” Sumara’s divine voice echoed in his respawn room. He squinted at the molds.
Mold of Crystal Enhancement.
“Damn! Then where is my spellgem mold?” He couldn’t find it anywhere in his design mode.
“It was one-time use, duffer, and this one is multi-use. It’s written on it. Read the damn fucking thing!” Sumara shouted.
Noah slammed his hand on the table. There were so many things he was missing out by just not reading closely.
He focused on the crystal he had received.
Crystal of Skeleton Bone
Add this crystal to an item with the socket to enhance it.
Enhancement bonus: Blood Magic: Allows to cast spells with blood when wielded.
“Does that mean if I fit it into my gloves it would allow me to summon zombies with my blood?” He looked up.
“Yes, you moron. It’s written in the description clearly. And don’t disturb me again without bringing me some coffee first.”
“Okay.” Noah pulled his gloves out. The socket on the glove was heart-shaped too. “Wow! I’m so fortunate today.” He thanked his lucky stars and pushed the crystal inside the socket.
Do you want to enhance the gloves with the crystal? This process is un-recoverable. Crystal will be consumed. Yes/No?
He prayed to Goddess Sumara and pressed yes. The glove lifted itself in the air, and the crystal snapped into the socket, giving the gloves a red glow.
He looked at the marvelous looking gloves.
Enhanced Uncommon pair of leather gloves
Durability 15/15
Level required: 5
+5 to armor
+1 to attack speed
Socketed (1/1)
Blood Magic: Spells cast by you consume blood instead of Spirit/Mana. The spell has an enraged effect.
So, the enhancement added a level requirement too. It was below his level, so it didn’t matter. When he left designer mode, the respawn counter was almost over. Sitting down, he readied himself for the upcoming battle. He was going to zombify the shit out of Mathial and that nosy bastard high priest.
29. Sacrifice
The first thing Noah tried after emerging from the respawn room was to raise a spirit zombie. A demon in black pants and leather armor rose from the black circle of the curse. He had a small golden diadem clenched in his right hand. It resembled the diadem Noah had received from the Xamphala quest line. The demon looked decayed, sludgy, and not at all like the head demon Noah had consumed to form this curse. Oh well, he couldn’t expect to raise a high-level demon. Not yet.
Noah headed for the inn on the dusty path. The white rays of the blue moon were sufficient for maintaining a qu
ick pace. The zombie followed him mindlessly for a time and vanished when its timer ran out. A normal zombie would have lasted longer, but he didn’t have a corpse to raise one. At least that zombie had seemed faster than the zombies he had raised before.
The inn’s door was bolted from inside. It was the first time Noah had seen the big patchy wooden door. In all the time he’d spent at the inn, the door had always remained open, even at night. Mathial slept in a small room next to the bar, and he kept a close watch on outside. There was no lock on the outside of the door and pushing it didn’t do anything.
Even his spirit-strengthened hands were useless against the thick door. Noah traced his hand over the patchy wooden door, feeling the small gaps in it, trying to find a notch or something. But nothing was there. Noah even tried to get in from the backyard, but he was met with another thick door. This one had a metal lock.
Noah conjured a fire orb curse and hit the lock with it, to no avail. Upon closer inspection, Noah got a prompt next to the lock.
Enhanced metal lock.
Durability 10/10
Immune to fire damage.
“That’s it.” Noah prepared a dual poison orb and blasted the lock with four of them. The lock lost its durability and fell apart.
Noah stormed into the light-deprived interior, but Thia wasn’t there. He checked in the kitchen and found that all his preparations for coffee-making were intact, so at least there was that.
His momentary happiness vanished when he spotted Roderich lying on the floor, dead.
Roderich must have performed his last spell in that room. It was painful to see his lifeless body. Roderich had gifted him something precious before he departed for the afterlife. Noah had misunderstood the demon, and now he was paying the price.
“I won’t waste your sacrifice, Roderich.” He closed Roderich’s glassy eyes and walked out of the inn.
He knew where he would find Mathial.
With spirit run he dashed toward the sacrificial grounds. Today he wasn’t bothered by the shadows; he’d come prepared for anything.
The bright moonlight failed to reduce the grimy intensity of the sacrificial grounds. The smell of death dampened his heart, even though he was all set to wreak havoc on the blacksmith and his boss, the bastard priest. He stopped at the first sight of blood around the pole in the center of the grounds. Fear and doubt gripped his heart.