The Greystone Chronicles: Book One: Io Online

by Dave Willmarth

  “Well, I don’t remember you ever sitting on one before, either!” Sasha chortled. She raised a hand as if to heal the dwarf, but Alexander reached out his own hand to stop her. Shaking his head, he backed away slightly, motioning for his friends to do the same. He had a feeling about this.

  “Ye can’t make me leg bleed and get away with it!” Brick shouted at the bunny, drawing his belt knife and advancing. “Stand back! This wee bastard is mine!” The bunny was now foaming at the mouth, and its eyes were bloodshot. It also appeared to be growing larger. It let out a much louder battle cry. This one echoed through the meadow, and was quickly answered by echoing cries from several directions. Brick advanced. Alexander took another step back up the hill. The tall grass of the meadow was rustling ominously.

  Brick slashed his knife at the bunny, but it was quick to dodge, and he missed. He growled in frustration and dove at it, thinking to crush it under his body weight. The bunny hopped to one side, and Brick landed with grunt in the grass. Quickly rolling over, he got onto his back in time to see the white blur of rabid rabbit flying toward his face. The dwarf managed to punch the bunny in the face, stunning it for a few seconds.

  He jumped back to his feet and was about to stomp on it, when he heard Max. “Uhh… Brick?”

  He looked toward Max, who was staring behind Brick. Brick turned farther, looking behind him to find angry looking fluffy bunnies hopping out of the tall grass all around him, more than a dozen of them. “What in Durin’s braided ball hairs…?” the dwarf had time to say before his original foe recovered and leaped at him. Its teeth sunk into his bicep and remained there, the bunny hanging off Brick like some kind of fashion accessory. “Did that count as a prayer?” Max wondered out loud.

  Hollering like a madman, the dwarf began to dance around, frantically waving his arm trying to dislodge the attack bunny. In the process, he got within range of several of the other bunnies, who all jumped up and latched on to him in various places. Brick screamed and ran uphill, the only direction there were not more bloodthirsty bunnies waiting for him. As he passed his friends, none of them could keep from laughing as the angle exposed an angry bunny latched onto the dwarf’s right butt cheek, flopping up and down as he ran. Nearing the top of the hill, the dwarf staggered. Feeling light-headed from blood loss. He tripped and fell, once again rolling down the hill. This had the benefit of crushing several of the bunnies still latched onto him, and flinging away a few others. Unfortunately, the combined damage from the original bites, the bleed effects as he ran, and the additional hit points lost as chunks of his limbs were ripped away by flying bunnies were too much even for the tank’s health pool. Brick was dead before he reached the bottom.

  Lainey stared in shock at the dwarf’s dead and mutilated body. Then in shock and confusion at the rest of the group, who were howling with laughter. Sasha had actually fallen to the ground and kept saying “I might pee myself!” She looked back at the body, which had begun to fade away, leaving nothing but Brick’s small belt knife lying on the ground.

  Then she kicked Alexander, who had sat down, still laughing, and was wiping tears from his eyes. “How can you laugh at this? Your friend just died horribly!”

  Alexander made an effort to calm himself enough to speak. “He sure did, and I managed to record the whole thing!” At which point he just gave up and succumbed to his laughter. Max howled and fell down on his back, arms and legs spread wide in helpless laughter. Lainey shook her head. How could they be so callous?

  Finally, Sasha got herself together and pulled Lainey down to sit next to her. “Brick will respawn in a few minutes. He’s fine. You see, players die all the time in this game. Often in much more gruesome circumstances. When you die, you drop some of your gear and money, and lose experience. Then you respawn at your most recent bind point, which happens to be right here.” Sasha pointed to the spot where they had all just entered the realm. “Since we’re all level one, and have zero experience, he didn’t lose anything by dying here. We’re laughing because our bad-ass tough dwarf tank just died to a bunch of fuzzy bunnies on crack!” They all chuckled again. Even Lainey this time, beginning to understand. “And when he respawns, he is gonna be PISSED!” Max actually giggled. Which made Lainey giggle too.

  “But I’m still confused. Sasha could have healed him. Why did you stop her?” She looked at Alexander, who had gotten up to loot all the bunny corpses around them.

  “He stopped me because if I’d healed Brick, it would have put me in combat as well, so the bunnies would have come after me too! As it is, once he was dead, they all just went back to their little bunny homes.” Sasha explained. “But it does bring up the question. How did you know there were more bunnies coming?” she eyed her friend suspiciously.

  “I didn’t KNOW…” he said. “But I suspected. I’d bet good money Odin was behind this. I sort of asked him to play a prank on Brick. He said Heimdall was looking to teach Brick a lesson for his lobby rampage the other day.” Thinking of that, he waved at nothing in particular, saying “Hiya Heimdall. Dad. Hope you guys saw all that!” There was a roll of thunder, though the sky was clear.

  “WHAT the actual FUCK!?” Brick roared as he spawned a few feet away.

  The four friends turned to him, holding their best poker faces. “You okay, buddy?” Alexander asked as sincerely as possible.

  “No! I be most certainly not okay! A herd of mutant hellspawn rabbits just ate me arse!” The dwarf stomped over and picked his belt knife up from the grass. When he stood up, he rubbed his right butt cheek, now fully healed, as if remembering the pain.

  This caused his friends, including Lainey, to lose it all over again. The dwarf looked hurt, his gaze moving to each of them as they laughed helplessly. Then Max managed to gasp out two words. “Monty… python…!” at which point Brick began to fight a grin of his own.

  “BWAHAHAHA! I got me ass beat by bunnies!” he laughed. Then quickly got serious. “Ye won’t tell nobody, will ye?” he asked quietly, as if already trying to keep a secret.

  “Not a word,” Alexander crossed his heart. “This is just between us. And Odin, and probably Durin. Oh and Dad and Heimdall. Who says hi, by the way.” At this, Lainey giggled even harder. “And you know, all the techs and nurses who are monitoring the feeds. Just us.” Alexander smiled and patted his crestfallen friend on the shoulder.

  “Ok guys, fun time’s over. Let’s get to the city and pick up our gear. Keep a steady eye out. Clearly the critters around here are more hostile than we remember!” Each of them instinctively checked to confirm they had their belt knives at their waists. As they walked, Alexander told everybody about the changes in the UI he’d discovered. Which led to a long tutorial for Lainey on how to access and use the UI. She was particularly impressed with the way the map filled in the area around them as they walked toward town. Each of them checked their ability menu to see what skills they began with. Sasha had her healing skills and her entangle skill, albeit all at a much lower level. Max was able to stealth. Brick could taunt, and had a new heal over time ability that only worked on himself. With a little help from Sasha, Lainey discovered she had a speed boost that would let her move nearly instantly up to 10 feet. She also had a shock spell that would shoot a lightning bolt that did minor damage at level 1. Alexander found he had an ability called ‘swift strike’ that was sort of a cross between a charge and an execute. He could instantly strike an opponent from up to 8 feet away and do double normal attack and weapon damage. He was about to tell them all to load their abilities into their hot bar. But there wasn’t one anymore; all they had to do was concentrate on the spell and it would activate. Alexander sent each of them a group invite, and then explained to Lainey about group chat, and about monitoring each other’s health in the UI during combat.

  After about 30 minutes of walking, the team paused, having been alerted by a rustling in the brush ahead. Max motioned for them all to be silent, and went into stealth mode. He crept forward toward the noise.

 
; Before he’d taken more than a few steps, a large grey wolf emerged from the brush and bared its teeth at the group. A low growl emanating from its throat. The wolf stood a solid 3 feet high at the shoulders.

  Forest Wolf

  Level 5

  Health 130/130

  Alexander reached for Lainey’s hand. “Ok Lainey, this is fine. Here’s how it’s going to work. Brick is going to taunt the wolf, so it will run right at him. When it gets close, I want you to hit it with your shock, ok? That should stun it for a second, while Sasha gets a grip on it with her vines to hold it down. As soon as it’s held, we’re all going to stab it as fast and as often as we can. Got it?” Lainey, eyes wide, took a deep breath, then nodded.

  “Brick,” he said.

  The dwarf instantly hollered at the wolf, “Hey, flea bag!” which caught its attention. The wolf leaped toward Brick, closing fast. Lainey’s lightning bolt shot out and actually knocked the wolf down. A bit early, but workable.

  “Good job, Lainey!” Sasha yelled as vines grew up from the ground to entangle the wolf. At that moment Alexander triggered his ability and was instantly at the wolf’s side, thrusting his knife into its chest. Max appeared behind the wolf and stabbed his own knife into the back of its neck. There was no need for the others to continue their attacks. Both hits were crits, and the wolf expired. Max looted a wolf pelt, some wolf meat, and teeth.

  Level Up! You have reached level 2!

  Your Wisdom has increased by +1. Your Intelligence has increased by +1

  Each of them received a similar message with increases to their appropriate attributes. Killing a mob 4 levels above them had given them significant XP. Lainey was excited about her level increase, and the others nodded and smiled at her noobtastic enthusiasm.

  During the remainder of their trek into town, they ran across 3 more wolves, which they used to improve their coordination of abilities. Each of the mobs died without anyone taking damage. And they were all level 3 by the time they walked out of the tree line and headed for the nearest city gates. As they crossed the open field around the city, they surprised a few sleeping squirrels and bunnies which Brick conspicuously avoided.

  The four veterans escorted Lainey through the city, pointing out various shops and vendors where loot could be sold, weapons bought, or good food could be purchased. They took her by their old guild house, which reminded Alexander to send Lainey a guild invite, which she accepted. They all gave her a minute to read all the prompts that popped up on her UI. Next stop was Gregor’s General Goods on the corner. They gave all the loot they’d gathered from the wolves to Lainey (Alexander kept the rabbit pelts), and let her haggle with Gregor over what they were worth. She proved to be surprisingly good, getting him to bump his offer by 10 coppers.

  Next stop was the Bloated Ogre! It was nearly noon, and none of them had eaten since entering the game that morning. The veteran four were excited to watch Lainey get her first taste of in-game food. There was no better chef than the innkeeper’s wife, except Lydia.

  They entered the tavern on the ground floor of the inn, Lainey still chuckling over the funny ogre on the sign. There were plenty of tables available as the lunch crowd hadn’t arrived yet. They chose a table near a window, and took seats.

  One of the waitresses was there almost instantly. “Ah, the Greystones. And one more! Have ya finally added to your little gang of hooligans?” she asked.

  “This is Lainey, she’s family. And more hooliganish than any of us!” Alexander grinned. “Lainey, this is Martha. Her father is Martin O’Malley, the innkeeper, and her mom is the chef.” Lainey reached out to shake Martha’s hand.

  “Nice t’meetcha Lainey. I already know what this bunch wants. What can I get for you?”

  Lainey looked started as a menu popped up on her interface. “Well. That’s handy,” she smiled and read through it for a moment. “I’d like the pot roast, please. And some sweet tea?”

  “Right! Good choice. Be right back with your drinks.” Martha sped away and returned in just a minute with their drinks.

  While they waited on their food, the group discussed the plan for the day. There were various noob quests available in the city. Fetch this, deliver that, gather me 10 of those. But none of them wanted to go through those again. They decided to gather any bounty quests they could find and head back into the forest to kill things. Alexander wanted to focus on team building, establishing everyone’s role in various combat situations and figuring out how their abilities best complimented each other, but first they would go back to their house and get some gear and some money to buy gear for Lainey if they didn’t have anything in the guild bank for her to use. Sasha wanted to check in with Lydia, and introduce Lainey.

  Their food arrived, and several stomachs audibly growled as they inhaled the wondrous scents. The others waited and watched Lainey take her first bite of the pot roast. “Oh. My. GAWD!” she exclaimed around her mouthful of food. Not even waiting to swallow it. “How is this so GOOD?” she quickly shoveled another bite into her mouth. The others all smiled and began to eat their own meals.

  “Holy shit!” Sasha exclaimed, actually spitting a bit of crust from her chicken pot pie at Max.

  “My god” said Max “this is…”

  “Amazing” Alexander agreed. They’d both ordered beef stew. Brick didn’t say a word. He was cutting pieces of wolf steak and shoving them into his mouth as quickly as he could. “Well, dad did tell us that the pods allowed for more realistic taste and smell. Guess he wasn’t kidding. This food has always been good, but never like this. This is…”

  “Orgasmic!” Lainey finished for him. Realizing she’d just shouted that out in a public space, she blushed furiously and hunched down in her seat, trying to hid behind Alexander.

  “Glad you like it, darlin” Martha walked over with a knowing smile on her face. Lainey blushed and even deeper red. “I’ll be sure’n let mum know how much you appreciate her cooking! Can I get you lot anything else?”

  “More steak!” Brick stopped stuffing his mouth long enough to blurt out.

  “Comin right up!” Martha headed for the kitchen.

  Lainey, having recovered from her embarrassment, took another enthusiastic mouthful of her roast. Then before she’d even swallowed that, she stole a forkful of Sasha’s pot pie. “OhmygodthatsSOgood!” she practically drooled the words. Following her lead, the friends began tasting each other’s meals. All except Brick’s steak, which he greedily defended with his fork and a threatening growl. They only persuaded him to share after his second steak arrived.

  The food consumed, they all leaned back in their chairs, groaning and patting full bellies. Just enjoying the afterglow of the amazing meal. Brick actually passed out. After Martha had cleared away their plates and offered them dessert (which they refused), she bid them a good day and departed, tugging the dwarf’s beard to wake him as she passed. They got up to leave, and Lainey left Martha the entire proceeds from the sale of their loot: 1 gold, 2 silver 23 copper, which was roughly three times the cost of the meal. No one argued. It was completely worth it.

  Sluggish and quiet from their massive meal, they headed toward their new home. The veterans raided their individual storage and equipped as much of their gear as they could while Lainey explored the house. As they were dressing, a cry rang out from Brick’s room. “Nooooo! Me shield!”. They all ran to his room to find him sitting on a chair, looked dejectedly at his shield.

  “Dammit Brick!” Max yelled at the dwarf, “I thought your shield didn’t transfer or something. But it’s right there. What’s the problem?”

  Brick looked up at his friends. “I canno’ carry it. I’ve not the strength yet.”

  Ah. Noob troubles. “How many points are you short, buddy?” Alexander asked.

  “Me strength stat is at 12 now. I need 15 to wear me armor and heft me sweet baby,” he said, petting the shield in his lap.

  “Ok cheer up buddy. We got you covered. We’ll grab two or three strength potions o
ut of the vault. Each one will give you +5 strength for 2 hours. Then we’ll go kill stuff. By the time the potions run out, we should have at least 3 more levels, and you can carry it on your own!”

  The dwarf looked up, much relieved.

  “Yeah, shortness. We can’t have you runnin around out there without your shield. I mean, did you SEE how many bunnies were out there?” Max grinned.

  Brick looked first horrified, then annoyed. “Shut it, pointy ears. Or I’ll tell Bethany about that rash you had a couple years back!” Now it was Max’s turn to look horrified.

  That settled, they accompanied Lainey to the guild vault. Alexander promoted her to “Officer” rank so she’d have full access anytime she needed it. Max, being the leather armor expert, helped Lainey find some armor pieces with appropriate stats, as well as a sword, shield, bow and arrows. They also found her a 100 slot “bag of holding” like the ones they carried. It reduced the weight of anything stored inside by 99%. Alexander was wearing his mithril shirt, but his other gear was all melee combat gear. He wanted to explore the caster side of his new toon, so he hunted down some random pieces of low level leather and chain that held intel and wisdom boosts. He also chose a rather plain one-handed sword with a +4 to wisdom, which he strapped to his hip. And a wooden staff with a +10 intel. The end result was that he looked like a gypsy wanderer with mismatched gear, but he was happy enough with the effects.