by EA Hooper
“Here’s my last Agility Potion too,” Vincent said, giving her the crystal. “Quinn and I invited you on this adventure, so we’re responsible for what happens to you. It’s only fair we do the more dangerous stuff.”
“I don’t know,” Xan replied. “It doesn’t feel fair for me to run away. Especially if I’m the one most likely to fail at reaching the Jump Gate.”
Quinn put her hands on Xan’s shoulders. “Girl, stop whining. We told you to go—just do it. Don’t stop till you reach the Jump Gate. Bite the capsule if you get cornered.”
Xan equipped the Lich’s Cloak. “I don’t even know how this thing works.”
Quinn grabbed Xan, lifted her off the ground, and tossed her off the mountain. “Fly, baby bird!”
Xan screamed, falling a short distance, but then she outstretched her arms and glided away from the mountain. Several trolls looked up at her and followed in that direction.
“Let’s distract those things,” Quinn said, leaping down between ledges and rocks. “Hey, you ugly piles of rocks! Don’t look at her. Look at me. It’s your reckoning time, so you’d better pray to ARKUS I make your deaths swift and painless.”
Vincent chased after the shouting Fighter.
>Quinn: So, we’re not fighting them, right? We’re only distracting them and then trying to run away?
>Vincent: That’s what I was thinking. Hey, Jim, just so you know, Quinn and I are probably about to die. If Xan survives, please give her any guidance she requires.
>Jim: Got it, buddy. Don’t forget your Lotus Capsule.
Vincent and Quinn both placed the pills in their mouths as they reached the bottom of the mountain. Quinn’s yelling had drawn the trolls’ attention away from Xan, and ten of the large monsters charged toward them.
“Uh,” Quinn said, nervously. “Not all of you at once, please.”
“Just run!” Vincent shouted, jumping out of the way of a rock a troll had thrown.
They both sprinted in opposite directions, but the ground shook and rumbled so hard that they fell. Vincent noticed two of the trolls had placed their hands on the ground and were directing powerful tremors toward them.
Quinn Vanished away as a troll body-slammed her location. She appeared beside another troll, charged her fists with Breaker, and struck it several times. Its stone body cracked and crumbled, but it didn’t die.
Vincent ignored Quinn and made a dash for a gap between the group of trolls. One slammed its fists into the ground, and a five-meter-high wall rose in his path. Vincent slid to a stop as trolls ran at him from both directions.
He fired Void Gun through the ugly face of the troll to his right, blasting its skull to pieces. However, the troll didn’t die. It stomped around without vision, swinging its arms at where it thought he was standing. However, Vincent ducked around the swing and rushed past the troll.
That’s right, trolls have a heart-rock that controls their whole body. If you don’t destroy that rock, it requires massive, body-wide damage to kill them. My Void Gun is barely better than a Mana Gun against them.
He tried to drink one of the few ethers he hadn’t given to Xan as he circled around the stone wall. Another troll awaited him on the other side, and it slammed its fists into the ground.
The earth split, rose, and fell in waves from the troll’s ability. The ground exploded where Vincent stood, tossing him to the dirt and knocking out his Mana Shield. He heard stomping all around him, and one troll raised its fists into the air above him.
Vincent bit into his Lotus Capsule, and he saw a flash of green light.
You’ve died. Respawning at Knightrest…
Vincent sighed as the world materialized around him. Two weeks. I just lost two weeks respawning. It only feels like seconds to me, but there’s no telling what happened to Xan and Quinn since that happened.
>Vincent: Hey, you two there?
>Alexandria: Welcome back, Vince. Quinn hasn’t respawned yet. Guessing you died first.
>Vincent: You’re okay, Xan? You didn’t die?
>Alexandria: Nope. I almost got cornered a few times, but I managed to reach the Jump Gate. I’ve already had the hearts converted to Jump Crystals too.
This is great. Once Quinn respawns, we can team jump to Navrun. He touched the Diaglass Tower and took a Jump Crystal from storage. It should only take two between me and Xan to make it to Navrun.
A hand tapped Vincent on the shoulder, and he turned around to face Jim.
“Hey, loser!” Jim said, hugging his oldest friend. “I kept track of your estimated time of death. Thought you might want a familiar face after that horrid experience. How’d you go?”
“Lotus Capsule,” Vincent replied. “If I hadn’t, a troll was going to smash in my head.”
“Ooh, that would’ve hurt. So, you jumping to Navrun right away?”
“Yeah, I can’t stay around and drink with you, sadly. Maybe if we wipe leaving Navrun, I’ll jump back for one last party.”
“That’s not what I was asking. I’ve barely drunk since you left. I have a lot of irons in the fire, dude.”
“Irons? What kind of irons.”
You’ve received a Guild Invite: The Jiminy World Crickets | Would you like to join? (Yes/No)
Vincent stared at his friend. “This is a terrible joke.”
Jim replied with an offended scoff. “It’s no joke. You just keep inspiring me, Vince. I realized you’re right—people can’t stay in Teramor forever. So, I’m working with the best warriors I can get to set up outposts on nearby worlds to bridge Teramor to other City-Worlds. We plan to farm Crystal Hearts from nearby World Bosses too. That way, we can offer jump services. Our members will go from outpost to outpost till they reach the right world, and the person that paid can team jump to us.”
“You’ve found people that’ll be up for that? Most people are too afraid to leave the city.”
“A few of the City Watch Guild’s top people joined. Some well-known coliseum warriors were interested as well, and a handful of the ladies from Varia’s Club signed up. Turns out they can fight as good as they can dance. Then a few people I’ve never heard of asked to join. I only accept them if they can handle themselves, though. Also, I saved my first lieutenant spot for you. You can be my scout, going off ahead to other worlds. Maybe make friends that will join us one day.”
Vincent smiled and accepted the guild invite.
Guild Name: The Jiminy World Crickets
Owner: Crow-Foot Jim
1st Lieutenant: Noble Vincent
2nd Lieutenant: Mayfield May
Player Count: 32
Primary Purpose: To rebuild travel between nearby worlds.
Secondary Purpose: To make gild by escorting or team jumping players between worlds.
Tertiary Purpose: To party hardy during our downtime.
>Quinn: Uh, hello?
>Alexandria: Quinn! How’re you feeling?
>Quinn: I’m pissed. Those dang trolls kept knocking the ground out from under me. I ran out of mana Vanishing, and they cornered me. So, I bit the capsule like a scrub.
Vincent and Jim peered around until they saw Quinn in the basic Fighter outfit. They waved and approached her.
“So, how’d you die?” Quinn asked Vincent.
“Capsule.”
“Wait, that means Xan must’ve made it if she’s on team chat.”
Vincent nodded, and a big grin spread across Quinn’s face.
>Quinn: Girl, you did a great job! Giving you all our stuff was a smart move. How long will it take you to reach the Jump Gate?
>Alexandria: Uh, maybe thirty minutes.
>Quinn: Alright. We’ll let you know when we reach the gate. Make sure to have two Jump Crystals on you.
>Alexandria: Got it.
“I’ll escort you two to the Jump Gate,” Jim said. “Free of charge.”
“So, do I get paid as a lieutenant?” Vincent asked.
“On our way to the gate, I’ll set up a Quest Contract. You’ll get paid
for any new members you add to our guild on other worlds. A hundred gild per person, and a three-hundred-gild bonus if you sign on ten people to a single world. However, I might have to put a cap on the contract depending on funds.”
“That’s fine,” Vincent replied. “Even earning a few hundred extra at every City-World will help us buy supplies. Do you have rune leaflets that people can subscribe through? I can hang them up on boards at each City-World I visit.”
Jim handed him a stack of item crystals. “Here’s a hundred. I’ll set it up in your Quest Contract that you get another stack every year. Oh, and I had Xan sign up you and Quinn for a tournament on Navrun in six weeks.”
Vincent stuffed the rune-covered papers into daiglass storage, then glanced at Jim. “You did what?”
Jim smirked. “You told me to give her guidance if you died. It’ll be a good way to get the guild’s name out. Navrun loves their tournaments.”
“I’m all for that,” Quinn said, pumping her fist. “Before the update happened, I was getting ready to leave for a tournament in Navrun. I wimped out initially because of the pain reduction dropping to zero, but now I’m ready.”
They stepped away from the Daiglass Tower and headed across the city. By the time they made it to the Jump Gate, Vincent and Jim had set up a Quest Contract.
“Let me know if your team wipes before you make it to the next city,” Jim said as Vincent stepped onto the platform . “Maybe I’ll burn a Jump Crystal to visit you in Navrun—especially if you’ve picked up a few guildsmen for me. Also, I hope you don’t mind if I periodically add people to our party. Just for team jumps, and then I’ll remove them.”
“It’s fine,” Vincent said. “Though be sure not to take up all our player slots. We only get twelve maximum players to a party, and I’m hoping to pick up teammates as we venture up the World-Tree.”
>Quinn: Ready, Xan?
>Alexandria: Yup. Linking now.
Quinn held a Jump Crystal to the air. Once she connected to Xan’s crystal on Navrun, gravitational energy pulled the woman off the platform, then she flew upward and disappeared into the sky.
“Guess I need to wait for Quinn to land,” Vincent noted.
“You do realize you’ll be doing this a lot, right?” Jim asked. “Dying, jumping, level-grinding, dying, and jumping again. You’re lucky Xan made it to Navrun on your first try. It’ll only get more difficult from there.”
“I know.”
“Do you have more Lotus Capsules in storage?”
“About a dozen. When I come across worlds with Dark Lotuses, I’ll try to farm more.”
Jim sighed. “Eventually, you’ll come across an enemy that won’t give you a chance to kill yourself. You’ll die, and it’ll hurt a lot.”
“I’m mentally preparing myself for that.”
“What about Xan? She seems nice, and she’s braver than I would’ve thought, but do you think she’ll keep adventuring with you after a monster rips her face off?”
“Guess I’ll find out. What about your little guild? Eventually it’ll put you in danger too.”
“Low-tier danger. I’m thinking more about when you reach the mid-tier worlds. What happens when you come across one of them Dead-Worlds with high gravity and monsters designed to be as horrific as possible. It’ll be like walking through hell.”
“I’ll try to avoid Dead-Worlds. If I have to take the long way around, I’ll do it. Those worlds sounded bad enough before the update. I can’t imagine that anyone visits them anymore.”
“What’d be the point? You used to have to take caravans with dozens of parties to one just to farm it for a few weeks, and even then most of those caravans didn’t make it back. The ones that did lost most of their players. I was looking forward to visiting a Dead-World until the update happened. Now, the idea of it makes me sick. ARKUS designed those worlds to be as difficult and twisted as possible.”
“Like I said, I won’t go to one.”
“Yeah, but if you don’t, how will you ever get strong enough to reach the high-tier worlds? However bad those Dead-World monsters are, the angels are worse.”
“Guess I’ll find out when I get there. That’s part of the challenge, isn’t it? I don’t know what to expect. Maybe I won’t even make it that far. Or maybe I’ll make it to the top. I might not even find anything there. I don’t know. I just know I need to challenge myself—I need to keep moving.”
“You need to keep playing the game to distract yourself, right?”
Vincent nodded. I’ve been here for fifteen years, but it still feels like Monika died just a couple years ago. That I’m still only days away from the anniversary of her passing. Just like Xan finds it hard to grow up in this game, it’s hard for me to move on when the memories never fade. This game’s time dilation is both a blessing and a curse. Guess that’s true of most technological advancements.
>Quinn: I landed. It’s your turn, Vince.
He equipped his Jump Crystal, and it glowed, showing him the Jump Gates on other worlds. He aimed it at the white dot on Navrun’s Jump Gate where Xan was doing the same. “See you, buddy.”
“Later, Vince.”
The gravitational field pulled Vincent into the air. He flew farther into space than he’d done on his first jump and used the opportunity to look at more worlds. He Scanned a few that he didn’t recognize in the distance. Some of them he’d heard about, but there were far-away worlds that players rarely visited even before the update. Soon, he turned his Scan toward the stormy world that he was falling toward.
Navrun – Classification: City-World | Size: Medium | Fact #1: It rains almost every day. | Fact #2: Most common enemy species are mers. | Fact #3: Navrun’s western hemisphere is almost completely covered by a sea.
Vincent floated toward the eastern hemisphere and soon landed at the Jump Gate with Quinn and Xan. The Jump Crystal crumbled to dust in his hand.
“I’m glad to see you two again,” Xan said. “I don’t know anyone here, so it’s been an awkward two weeks.”
“Not like you know us that well, either,” Quinn said. “We’ve only been teammates a few weeks.”
Xan shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s easy to get to know people when you’re running along a branch with nothing to do but talk. I think I’ve already told you most everything you could know about me and my family. You’ve told me a lot about your husband and son. Vincent talked about his favorite old games and Monika. While you two were dead, I even talked a bit with Jim about his ex-wives, kids, and grandchildren.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Jim has grandchildren? For some reason, I assumed he was an old bachelor that had never settled down.”
“Yeah, his son and daughter are both in Glassdale,” Vincent explained. “His oldest granddaughter is there too. That might be part of why he wants to start a guild to link the worlds together. He says he’s okay with keeping up with them through messages, but I’m sure he’d like to see them in person sooner rather than later.”
Vincent hadn’t noticed the clouds turning dark overhead, and a sudden influx of rain beat down on the three players. He smiled, feeling refreshed by the cool water, but the two women tried to cover themselves. Xan equipped the Lich’s Cloak and pulled it over her head.
“Hey, where’s my stuff?” Quinn asked the young woman.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” Xan handed them all the item crystals the two had given her.
Quinn equipped her normal combat attire, but then threw a cloak over it to shield herself from the rain. “Let’s hurry to Layrock.”
They stepped off the plateau, and Vincent’s gaze fell on the small city built under the shadow of a towering crag.
City of Layrock – Population: 301,249 | City Size: Small | Fact #1: This was one of the first cities built on the World-Tree by NPC settlers. | Fact #2: Most common class is Mage. | Fact #3: Currently the 8th most popular city for PvP.
The storm picked up as they hurried toward the ancient-looking walls and structures that encompassed Lay
rock. They spotted several aqueducts, and Vincent noticed passages below them that went underground.
Lightning struck a nearby tree, knocking it over, and the wind beat down harder on them. Quinn shivered, pulling her cloak tighter. “Let’s hide at the entrance of those tunnels until this storm passes. I could use a break.”
“But what’s in those tunnels?” Vincent questioned, following Quinn.
“Who cares,” Quinn commented. “Let’s just get out of this rain. I’m freezing.”
“Oh, these lead into the undercity,” Xan replied. “I heard people talk about it.”
“Undercity?” Quinn questioned. “Is it a dungeon?”
“No,” Xan answered as they reached the refuge of the closest tunnel. “The NPCs built a lot of underground stuff. After players showed up, ARKUS let the NPCs grow old and die. The players kept building above ground, and the undercity was mostly abandoned.”
“So they should’ve left stuff down there, right?”
“Players have pillaged the undercity thousands of times. There’s nothing left.”
“Maybe that’s what ARKUS wants us to think?”
Xan sighed. “Fine, we’ll check it out. I know that’s where you’re going with this.”
Quinn grinned and hurried into the passage until it became too dark to see. “Huh, anyone got a lantern?”
Vincent equipped a light-casting rune and shone it down the narrow, branching passages. “Almost like a maze.” He followed the downward path, but kept finding more tunnels.
“Check out this ability I finished developing while you two were dead,” Xan said. She held up her hand, and a butterfly made of light appeared in her palm. She released it, and the Cleric-creation fluttered around, casting light on dark corners.
Light Butterfly (Cleric Only) – Mana Usage: Minuscule | Creates a butterfly made of light that the user controls. The butterfly can sacrifice itself to provide a teammate with a minuscule amount of healing energy.
Xan made ten more butterflies and sent them down branching paths. One revealed a larger cavern at the bottom of a long path. “Let’s go this way.”
“That’s a neat trick,” Quinn said, looking at the butterflies. “Could help us with dungeon exploration.”