Running at full speed towards the trap, Jace could feel the ogre catching up to him. He turned the corner and then threw himself to the right just as he reached the tripwire. The ogre seemed to see the trap and skidded to a halt, its arms wind milling to keep its balance.
Jace stared in horror as it looked like the ogre would regain its balance and not fall into the trap. Then a familiar orange tabby cat, grown to giant size, slammed into the ogre’s head and tipped it over. Its arms still wind milling, the thing cried out as its immense body toppled over into the spikes. “Kitty!”
Your familiar has been banished.
Your Spike Trap damages Forest Ogre for 19 damage.
Your Trapsetting skill has increased by 1.
Your Spike Trap damages Forest Ogre for 20 damage.
Your Trapsetting skill has increased by 1.
Your Spike Trap damages Forest Ogre for 21 damage.
Your Trapsetting skill has increased by 1.
Your Spike Trap damages Forest Ogre for 17 damage.
Your Trapsetting skill has increased by 1.
Your Spike Trap damages Forest Ogre for 16 damage.
Your Trapsetting skill has increased by 1.
Luna had transformed into her giant form and knocked the ogre onto the spikes! The ogre roared again, but this time it was in pain. Unfortunately, it had missed some of the spikes and was still alive.
Wasting no time, Jace leaped onto its back and stabbed it.
You backstab Forest Ogre for 11 damage.
You backstab Forest Ogre for 3 damage.
Forest Ogre is Poisoned.
You backstab Forest Ogre for 12 damage.
You backstab Forest Ogre for 3 damage.
Forest Ogre is Poisoned.
The thing roared against and pushed itself off the spikes, throwing Jace to the ground. It scrambled to its knees. It turned towards Jace with murderous intent. Grabbing its club, it swung down at Jace who used another Evade and dodged the blow.
Poison hits Forest Ogre for 3 damage.
Turning his dodge into a roll, he came up behind the ogre again and struck out at the thing’s back.
Poison hits Forest Ogre for 3 damage.
You backstab Forest Ogre for 9 damage.
You backstab Forest Ogre for 2 damage.
Forest Ogre is Poisoned.
Forest Ogre dies.
You gain 150 experience.
The ogre stiffened and then slumped over, falling back onto the spikes. He’d done it. He couldn’t believe it, but his trap had actually worked. Jace had killed the ogre. He started to laugh at the absurdity of it and the fact that he wasn’t dead.
Chapter 51
He was still staring down at the ogre when he heard Charlena call out his name. “Jace? Is that you? Hello?”
Running over to her cage, he stopped in front. “Hey there.”
“Thank God it’s you! Is the ogre dead?” she exclaimed. Almost immediately her voice hardened. “Wait?! What the heck happened?! Why did I log back in a cage?”
Jace was looking at the cage to see how to open it but had no door. The cage was just a bunch of saplings driven into the ground. The ogre probably set her down into it. He looked back at her. “The ogre sucker punched me with some special Stamina draining attack. By the time I could move, you were gone and I had no idea what happened to you. We eventually found the trail, followed it, and here I am.”
She looked around. “We? Where’s Luna?”
Jace sighed. “She did her giant cat thing and knocked the ogre into the spike trap I had created.”
“Oh,” she interrupted. “And how am I level 5 now?!”
“Well,” he took a deep breath. “Did I mention the entire colony of giant spiders plus his huge spider queen I killed? We were still grouped, so you got experience too.”
“Spider colony? Spider queen?” she asked in concern. “And you killed them all?”
“A few might have gotten away,” he admitted.
Charlena shook her head, but he saw the corners of her mouth turning up in a smile. “I can’t leave you alone for even a minute, can I?”
Jace smiled and shook his head. “Nope.”
“Can you get me out of here?” she asked, gesturing at the cage.
Jace looked up and down the cage. “Can’t you just climb out?”
She smirked. “I tried, and the ogre caught me and smeared fat or grease or something on the top of the bars. Once I get halfway up, I lose my grip.”
Jace brought out his axe. “I’m a lumberjack…”
“And you’re okay?” she ventured.
Jace grinned. “Exactly so.”
By his estimate, it took him fifteen minutes to cut through two of the “bars” so she could squeeze through. When she finally got out she threw her arms around him and kissed him. “I was so scared. I didn’t know where I was or where you were. I thought I’d have to figure out some way to kill myself and respawn.”
“I’m sorry,” he told her. “I was in the same boat. I didn’t know where you were until we finally found the ogre’s trail.”
She clung to him and he returned the embrace for long minutes before she finally pulled away and punched him hard in the arm. “Never do that again! I didn’t know where you were or what I should do! I almost logged out a dozen times waiting for you!”
“Ow!” he said, rubbing his arm. “Full sensory input, remember?!”
She rolled her eyes. “You kill an ogre and an entire colony of giant spiders and you’re complaining about a girl punching you?”
Jace looked sheepish. “Well, when you put it like that.”
Her eyes suddenly brightened. “Do you think the ogre had loot?”
This time it was Jace’s turn to roll his eyes. “Only one way to find out.”
They searched the camp but found nothing. Then they searched the ogre’s cave. It was smaller than he’d expected, by ogre standards. It had just enough room for some sleeping furs and a pile of “treasure” it had collected. Unfortunately, most of the treasures still had body parts attached, and most of it was worthless junk.
“This is disgusting,” Charlena said, holding up a bracer. The bracer was still strapped to the previous owner’s arm from the elbow down.
Most of the items were like that but they did find a jeweled ring, still on the finger, that while not magical, was probably worth a hundred gold.
Charlena scrunched up her nose. “You can carry that.”
The most interesting find was what they thought was a helmet, still on the previous owner's head. When Jace removed it to examine it, the helmet transformed into a large floppy hat with a feather that looked like something one of the three musketeers might wear. At the same time, the shriveled face of the skull the hat had been on changed, morphing into that of a bearded dwarf.
“Did you see that?” he asked, nearly dropping the helmet turned hat.
Charlena looked up at him. “See what?”
Jace examined the hat in his HUD.
Infiltrator’s Hat
Type: Helmet
Level: 5
Wt: 1 lb
Special: On command, this hat allows the wearer to assume the general appearance of any humanoid race of approximately the same size. This effect lasts until the hat is removed.
Description: Created for the daring cat-kin spy, Malyi Praukkir, this hat is responsible for her unparalleled success until the day she was required to remove her hat in the presence of the Queen.
Restriction: This cannot be used to emulate the appearance of a specific player or NPC. The hat does not grant racial specific abilities.
“Cool!” Jace said aloud.
Charlena perked up. “What’s cool?”
Jace put the hat on his head and thought of an elf, focusing his thought at the hat. Almost immediately his body blurred. He didn’t feel any different, but he felt… shorter.
Charlena’s eyes went wide. “You turned into an elf! How did you do that?”
Jace re
moved the hat and felt his body returned to normal, including his height. “It’s the hat. It allows you to change your form.”
“That’s so cool!” she said. “Let me try!”
He gave the hat to Charlena, who spent the next several minutes changing into various forms. Each time she changed, she checked out her reflection in a somewhat reflective metal shield they had found.
Smiling at her whimsicalness, Jace went back to sorting through the treasure pile. He hadn’t gotten far before she called out to him. “Look at this!”
Jace turned to see Charlena in her normal body except with purple hair. “This is awesome! If you concentrate hard enough, you can change little things about your own body. And this…”
Charlena furrowed her brow in concentration and the hat changed into an ornamental hairpin, then it transformed into a tiara. “You can change the hat itself too!”
Remembering how the hat had originally been a helmet, Jace nodded. “Nice going. Do you want to keep it?”
She looked excited but then took off the tiara and watched it revert to the feathered hat. “No, you might need it more than me since you’re on all the time.” She brightened. “But I get to borrow it!”
Smiling, he took the offered hat and put it in his inventory. “Deal!”
Jace checked his mana and health levels and saw that he was back to normal. He sat down and re-summoned Luna.
“Ogre dead?” the cat asked when she appeared.
“Yes,” he told her. “The ogre is dead and Charlena is safe.”
The little cat went over to Charlena and rubbed back and forth against her leg while purring loudly. Charlena reached down and picked up the cat, hugging it to her. “I missed you too.”
Luna allowed Charlena to hold and pet her for several minutes before starting to squirm and hopping down. The cat began walking around the cave, sniffing.
It took them another fifteen minutes before they’d gone through the rest of the treasure. They found a longbow and quiver, but it wasn’t as good as the Crystalburrow bow Charlena carried. They also found another 103 gold in various pouches, a potion of mana and another potion of health. Since Jace already had a potion of healing, he told Charlena to keep it.
Once they were confident they’d found all the treasure there was to find, Jace led them back to the ogre’s body.
“Wow,” Charlena said. “You really did a number of it I can’t believe you killed it.”
Jace looked down at the huge body that lay impaled on the makeshift spikes. He could barely believe it he killed the ogre himself.
Idly, he wished he had access to the game forums to brag about it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option now. Plus, he didn’t have a recording of it happening. Without that, no one would believe him anyway.
Luna suddenly rubbed against his leg and looked up at him as if to remind him of the part she’d played. He bend down the stroke the cat.
“It was a team effort,” he replied, scratching Luna behind the ears. “If it hadn’t have been for Luna, I’d be dead.”
Luna returned his look with a smug one of her own. “Yes.”
Jace had almost forgotten he hadn’t looted the ogre’s corpse. He bent over and looted it.
You receive Bonk Stick.
You receive Necklace of Fangs.
You receive 97 gold.
Pulling up the items, he saw that they were both higher level items than they could use but they were powerful. Neither of them could use the Bonk Stick, but once Charlena reached level 11, the necklace would be very nice!
Bonk Stick
Type: Mace
Level: 15
Damage: 18
Wt: 20 lbs
Description: This oversized club, taken from a Forest Ogre, does twice the normal damage but also uses twice as much Stamina.
Restriction: Requires 12 Strength.
Necklace of Fangs
Type: Necklace
Level: 11
Wt: .2 lb
Special: Thrown or Missile attacks from the wearer of this necklace become Draining attacks, reducing the targets Stamina by twice the damage inflicted.
Description: This simple necklace of bear fangs was blessed by Ghazark, god of the hunt.
“What?! What did you find?” she asked. Jace held out both items so she could examine them. Her eyes went glassy as she read the descriptions, and then she whistled. “That necklace looks pretty nice. Too bad it's level 11.”
“You’re almost halfway there,” he said. “And trust me, this is a very powerful item.” He remembered the complete helplessness he’d felt when he was drained of Stamina. “You can literally reduce a monster’s Stamina to nothing and they’ll be completely unable to move. You can do it to players in PvP as well.”
“PvP?” Charlena asked him quizzically.
“Player vs Player,” he told her. “In certain areas in the game you can kill other players, especially players of other factions.”
“That’s right!” she said. “I remember reading that. It supposed to be tough.”
Jace nodded, remembering his own experiences. “They have the same abilities we do but more strategy than a monster. Plus, PvP differs greatly from fighting monsters. People who do nothing but PvP get REALLY good at it.”
“I think I want to avoid that for a while,” she told him.
Nodding, he held out the necklace for her to take.
“For me?” she asked.
“You’re the one with the bow,” he told her.
“Thanks!” she said and took the offered necklace.
Charlena looked around and then up in the sky. The sun was sinking below the western horizon. “I’m going to have to go soon. I have to meet a study group for a test on Friday.”
Jace tried not to look disappointed even though he had been looking forward to spending more time with her, given that just a few hours ago he had no idea if he would see her again. But he understood. Real world things were more important than game things. She had a life - a real life. “I understand.”
“Well then, stop giving me those puppy dog eyes!” she teased.
“Sorry,” he told her. “I wasn’t sure I’d see you again. You’ll have to forgive me if I’m sad to see you go.”
Charlena moved in closer. “You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’d find you, eventually. After all, I know where you’re going! Remember, first pub from the main gate! Isn’t that where you told the others to meet us?”
Jace smiled and kissed her for a long time until she pushed away. “No more of that,” she said breathlessly. “Or I might just skip my study group.”
He chuckled and her eyes went glassy for a moment. “Okay, I’m auto-following you again. Try not to lose me this time!”
She winked and then her eyes went glassy. She had logged out.
Jace smiled. Even though Charlena was gone, he felt better knowing he would see her again tomorrow. Still smiling, he motioned to Luna and began hiking back towards the river.
Chapter 52
The walk back took all night. When he finally reached the river, he could see the morning sun peaking over the mountains to his east through breaks in the forest canopy. With no raft, and frankly no desire to build another raft, he would walk next to the river.
First, he needed to eat. He brought out his fishing gear and took the time to catch several trout. He gave Luna one and then fried the others in a pan. It was a risk, but after what he had been through, he wanted an enjoyable meal.
When they finished eating, Jace and Luna set off down the road, giving the spider nest another look when they came to it. The smaller spiders hadn’t been able to hurt him and he was hoping there might be some stragglers for him to kill and earn some additional experience. No such luck. They had either fled or died in the fire.
He kept walking through the day, encountering no monsters along the way. Part of him was happy about that. Another part of him wouldn’t have minded the experience. He had that Griffon necklace that he wanted t
o use, but he needed to be level 5.
The forest thinned out around noon. By late afternoon, the forest had turned into rolling green hills. Even better, off in the distance, he spotted a large bridge that had to be the crossroads bridge. They’d made it.
Jace spun around on the lush hilltop with arms outstretched and bellowed, “The hills are alive with the sound of music!”
When he saw the odd expression on Luna's face, he stopped quickly. Dropping his hands to his sides, he pretended nothing had happened and continued on towards the bridge. After a moment, Luna followed but eyed him warily.
It was another hour before Charlena suddenly jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms and legs around him. “We’re out of the forest!”
He laughed, and she giggled as he ran down the hill, giving her a piggyback ride. He reached the bottom of the hill with her still on his back. When he tried to go up the next hill, he lost his balance. One moment they were going up the hill and then his foot slipped and they were both tumbling on the ground laughing.
“That was fun!” she told him as she tried to control her laughing. “We should do that in real life.”
“You haven’t even met me in real life,” he told her. “You may not even like the real me.”
She turned over in the grass to face him. “This is the real you. I mean, the real you is your personality. When you wake up, you’ll still be the same person.”
Jace continued to smile, but inside he wasn’t so sure. He had met other girls in the game and then met them in real life. It wasn’t the same. Soon after meeting in the real world, they’d drifted apart in the game and then it was over. He hoped that wouldn’t happen with Charlena.
Plus, there was the fact that he still wasn’t even 100% sure he was alive. And if he was alive, what sort of shape was his real body in. There were so many factors.
She must have sensed his change in mood. “A penny for your thoughts. Or in game, I guess it would be a gold piece.”
Jace chuckled but wasn’t sure how to respond. He didn’t want to lay out his fears to her. Not yet. There were just too many unknowns. Instead, he forced a smile. “Just hoping we find my body soon.”
Veil Online - Book 1 (a LitRPG MMORPG Adventure Series) Page 34