Ritualist (The Completionist Chronicles Book 1)

by Dakota Krout

  Joe grinned at that as well. Having three quests that he actually had a chance to complete in a timely manner was exciting. Joe was getting close to level six, and the free characteristic points were calling to him like a siren song. Less than a thousand points to go, and the possible rewards for today would go a long way toward helping him work at his long-term goals. He looked at the three quests, hoping they could finish them all in one go.

  Quest: Scouring the Scouts. The Wolfman population has been growing quickly, and Scouts have begun marking targets for their people to attack. Reduce their numbers. Wolfman Scouts killed: 0/20. Reward: Exp: 500. 20 gold. Bonus available if enough are destroyed.

  Quest: Disarming the Warriors. The Wolfman population has grown fast enough that their fighters have begun using weapons and armor to gain an advantage. Unfortunately, their gear is stolen from the humans they kill before being modified to fit their larger forms. Reduce their numbers. Wolfman Warriors killed: 0/10. Reward: Exp: 1000. 30 gold. Bonus available if enough armor and weapons are reclaimed or destroyed.

  Quest: Witch hunt. The Wolfman population has advanced to a point where they are making connections with the deeper mysteries. Destroy any Wolfman Shamans you find. Wolfman Shamans killed: 0/5. Reward: Exp: 2000. 50 gold. Bonus available if their magical research is reclaimed or destroyed.

  Joe almost started dancing when he got the quests, and he wasn’t the only one. Thirty-five hundred experience, a hundred gold, and possibilities for bonuses? For the others, this was a chance to make a thousand dollars in one fell swoop. For Joe, this was a chance to be able to get his constitution and strength high enough that he could walk at a normal pace and distance for extended periods of time! He almost fainted in delight… or maybe exhaustion from walking so far.

  There was a small downside to Dylan’s new armor. Stealth was no longer an option. He didn’t yet have any heavy armor mastery, and he couldn’t get any extra bonuses such as noise reduction until he got the missing skill to at least beginner levels. He sounded like a forge, each step clanging and clattering. His shields also tended to bounce off his legs as he walked, causing Guess and Chad’s eyes to twitch every few seconds as the metal squealed. When they entered wolf territory, they began drawing attacks every few minutes.

  “I! Love! This! Armor!” Dylan bellowed as yet another wolf staggered backward from a concussive blow to the head. Two wolves used his apparent inattention to leap at him, but he only laughed and put the shields together, letting the animals bounce off the spiked surface. He had found that he had great abilities with stunning, staggering, and enraging enemies but dealt very little actual damage. He didn’t seem to mind and simply had great fun taunting his enemies and not feeling pain as they crashed into the wall of metal that was his body. “Dire wolf? More like dying wolf!”

  “Oh no,” Guess mechanically spoke as she dug her blades into a wolf’s neck. “He got his sense of humor back.”

  “That was a joke? I thought he had just taken a blow to the head,” Chad chipped in wryly.

  “A little of this, a little of that,” Tiona quipped with a smile at the Bulwark. He didn’t seem to mind their teasing and was usually quick to return any verbal barbs. Right now, he just seemed to be enjoying himself.

  “More! Let’s see what level they need to be to do damage to me under this gear!” Dylan clanked forward, deeper into unexplored territory.

  The others looked at Tiona, who shrugged and nodded. “You heard the man. Let’s knock out these quests!” The group cheered and strolled forward. Dylan hadn’t gotten too far, the weight of his armor allowing even Joe to keep pace without issue.

  When Chad made one joke too many about the slow pace, Dylan replied haughtily, “Pretty soon I’ll have heavy armor mastery, and I’ll be able to jog at your running speed.”

  “As if!” Chad sprinted forward, vanishing into the forest in an instant. “Think before you speak, ya tin can!”

  “I’ll get-” Dylan roared, but stopped suddenly as Chad came flying back with a worried expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”

  “I found a trail, there are Wolfmen patrolling it pretty heavily. There is a group coming now, three Scouts and two Warriors. From the look of things, we just missed another patrol. If this is the norm, we will only have a few minutes to off this group before another is here.”

  Dylan looked to Tiona. “Fight or flee?”

  “This isn’t making sense,” Tiona said with a growl. “We haven’t seen any Scouts yet today, and suddenly, we run into them and Warriors, which we only found for the first time yesterday?”

  “Tiona!”

  “Fine! We fight!” Tiona’s sword was instantly in her hand. “Battle formation, we’ll hit them as soon as they start to pass us. Guess, can you get across the trail and start backstabbing as soon as their eyes are on us?”

  “Heh.” They looked around but couldn’t see the source of the monotone chuckle.

  “That better be a yes!” Tiona hissed into the empty air, followed by a sullen mutter, “I hate rogues.”

  At this point, the Wolfmen patrol was reaching detection range, so everyone stopped speaking and moving. The Scouts seemed to be alerted already, their ears twitching in all directions as they padded forward on silent paws. When the first two were past the humans who were hiding just off the beaten path, Tiona exploded forward and aimed a brutal chop at the third Scout. As a testament to his reflexes, the beast wasn’t beheaded instantly, but still gained a deep gash across his chest and neck that promised a swift death nonetheless.

  As one of the Warrior’s began to howl, possibly attempting to bring reinforcements, Chad accurately placed an arrow in the unprotected muscle where his neck and shoulder joined. Instead of a howl, only a pained yelp sounded. The Scouts were using their javelins to fend off Tiona and the lumbering Dylan, but Dylan only laughed at their attempts as he barreled forward and let the thin weapons shatter on his thick gear. Tiona used the distraction to move forward with perfect form, her sword dancing through the air.

  The wounded Warrior shuddered and fell, revealing Guess and her blood-dripping daggers behind him. Two Scouts and a Warrior having fallen already, the final Scout turned and ran while the Warrior tried to keep the focus of the battle on himself. He was obviously playing for time, hoping for reinforcements. Joe was determined that no wolf would turn the battle against them, and he snarled as he directed his spell. The sprinting being was at the outer range of his spell, but his speed was his undoing as a spike appeared in his path. The Wolfman coughed blood as he impaled himself, and an instant later an arrow severed his brainstem as Chad landed a critical hit.

  The Warrior, seeing his chance for life vanishing, snarled and charged Dylan. He began to glow red, as a berserker rage overcame him. His sword whistled through the air, and Dylan struggled to keep up as the blows rained down. The others moved to help, but he stopped them. “Gotta! *Clang* Get. *Clang* Used to this! *Clang* *Clang*

  The Warrior grabbed his sword with both hands and swung in a heavy overhand chop. Dylan lunged forward and interrupted the attack with a shield bash to the abdomen. The Warrior fell to the ground, and Dylan nodded to Tiona. She stepped forward, sinking her sword into the prone target.

  Quests updated: Scouring the Scouts. Wolfman Scouts killed: 3/20. Disarming the Warriors. Wolfman Warriors killed: 2/10.

  Joe wondered where his experience notification was for a moment before remembering that he had set most notifications to only show in a safe zone or when he brought them up. He looked at the mess they had made on the path and made an ‘oops’ sound. “I don’t think the next patrol will miss this when they come along.”

  “Yeah, especially with their enhanced senses. I can smell the blood.” Tiona looked at the gore and made a decision. “Right. We did good work here. Let’s start going down the path, towards any patrols that are coming. Chad, Guess, which of you wants to scout ahead? I liked how our ambush went, let’s keep it up.”

  “I’ll go,” Chad vol
unteered easily. “I’m trying to get my tracking and spotting skill up anyway. Might as well get started here.” He waved and trotted down the path. “See you in a few.”

  “Alright team, from here on out it is going to be a heavy grind.” Tiona motioned for everyone to walk as she talked. “We expect the patrols to be about five minutes’ walk apart. Scouts use javelins and bows, the Warriors are armed and armored. If we can’t ambush them, make sure to focus on cutting down the Scouts first. They are using poisoned weapons, after all, and the Warriors will have a harder time escaping us.”

  As she finished her speech, Chad came bounding out of the tree line. “Next patrol five hundred feet out!”

  “Off the path!” Tiona hissed as she slid into the foliage. They all made it before the next patrol was in sight, though Dylan did have a hard time walking off the hard-packed dirt; his feet sunk into the earth with each step, and he wobbled as he moved. Falling silent, they waited for their foes to appear.

  It took longer than they thought it would, because apparently the wolves had either heard something or were getting a bad feeling. One of the Scouts was lagging behind by almost fifteen feet, obviously poised to run if there was a problem. Tiona elbowed Joe, pointed at the Scout, and gave him a meaningful look. Joe nodded, stretched his hand toward the Scout, and started casting his attack spell. Tiona launched into the mass of Wolfmen just as the shadow spike impaled the trailing Scout through it’s calve. Leaping from soft ground wasn’t ideal for an ambush, but she still managed to inflict some light wounds on the Wolfmen before they could mount a proper defense.

  This group only had one Warrior in it, but he was well on his way to becoming an Elite if the amount of metal he carried was any indication. Dylan's eyes were locked on this enemy, and he strolled forward with a challenging shout at the beast. The Warrior was perfectly happy to have an opponent decided for him, and he rushed the Bulwark with his cleaver held high. Dylan blocked his blows–too heavy to dodge them–and punched out at the Warrior over and over with his shields.

  Joe’s first target had collapsed to the ground, falling dead from the accumulated damage of the rapidly cast spell. Thirty damage per use was no joke. Another Scout had gotten into an arrow battle with Chad, both of them dodging and spinning as they launched projectiles back and forth. Chad was the first to stumble, and an arrow slid into his gut, luckily heavily slowed by his thick leather armor. He grunted, and the Scout stopped moving to see if the fight was over. It was his last mistake, as Chad used the moment to launch a precision shot, and the resulting critical hit slew the anthropomorphic wolf.

  Guess dropped from a branch, landing on the shoulders of one of the Scouts who was using a javelin. As his knees buckled, Guess slammed her daggers into either side of his neck and severed both jugulars. She did a backflip off the Scout as a geyser of blood exploded into the air. “Woo. Hoo.” She paused for a moment. “That’s somewhat less fun to say when it is in a monotone.”

  Tiona had finished off her target and was standing and glaring at Dylan as he fought the Warrior. Dylan's new armor was gaining some fresh dents, but the two were fairly evenly matched. The human couldn’t deal much damage due to using a weapon designed for defending, and the Wolfman could do little damage due to Dylan's high defense. Joe looked at them, then Tiona. “Shouldn’t we help him?”

  “Shouldn’t he have listened when I told him to focus on the Scouts first?” She crossed her arms and waited to move until the Wolfman’s cleaver bounced off Dylan's helmet, causing him to stumble. Then she darted forward, sheathing her sword in the Warrior’s abdomen as he reared back for a finishing blow.

  As the last enemy fell, Tiona whirled on Dylan. “We are doing a grind here, Dylan. I know you are pissed off at the Warriors, but you need to follow my orders out here. We are going for efficient quest clearing, not a cathartic exchange of blows. If you need to hit something to work off your anger, take a job at a smithy and beat on metal! You good?”

  Dylan blearily nodded his head as Joe topped off his health. Joe hadn’t been neglecting his duties; Chad was already cured of his poisoning as well as being at full health. Dylan shrugged. “Sorry. I got a bit overexcited.”

  “Don't do it again! If we finish these quests today, that’s half of this month’s game pod fee! We don’t know how long these quests will be available; if some jerk goes and kills off the whole tribe, we’re gonna need to find a new income and set of quests.” She took a deep breath. “Sorry. Sorry. I’m already lagging behind on payment this month because the best score we found was the silver wolf hide. We need to step it up and really treat this as a new job. I’m not even making as much as I was at my old office-”

  Chad jumped in before she could get too worked up, “Well, let’s not stand around here and waste time then! Let’s get hunting! There is gold to be found and quests to complete!”

  ~ Chapter Twenty-six ~

  Quest complete: Scouring the Scouts. Wolfman Scouts killed: 20/20. Exp: 500. Continue destroying Scouts to gain a bonus or return to town for your monetary reward.

  Quest updated: Disarming the Warriors. Wolfman Warriors killed: 9/10.

  These notifications popped up as they finished slaying the most recent patrol. They had taken some injuries, but between Dylan's new class and Joe’s healing, they had been able to continue at a good pace. Looking at his experience from the quest and the three hundred seventy five gained from the creatures themselves, Joe smiled as he saw that he only needed one hundred and twelve points to reach the next level! Chad waved and ran off to find the next patrol, while the others slowly moved down the currently clear path.

  “I wouldn’t normally ask, but since we are both in pods…” Joe’s voice trailed off as Tiona raised an eyebrow. “What did you do for work before you started playing?”

  “Huh. I thought that was going a different direction.” Tiona winked at Joe, and a bit of color entered his cheeks. “You’re going to laugh.”

  “No, I won’t!” Joe promised as he thought of a way to tease her in return.

  “It’s ironic, but I was a party planner.” Tiona’s words made the others grin. “I left that behind because I didn’t like the outside stress. Other people changing their minds about massively expensive billable items, the drama… it just got to be too much.”

  “From a party planner to a party leader.” Guess smiled at her. “That is ironic.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Tiona stuck her tongue out at Guess. “Still, it was interesting. This is better for my sanity though.”

  “Getting chewed on by wolves and having poisoned arrows stuck in you is better for your sanity?” Dylan quipped in a serious tone.

  “Well, the game literally is better for my sanity.” Tiona chuckled, then looked around at the confused faces. “You all didn’t read the fine print? Maybe it is just the pods that have that function… no, I’m pretty sure…”

  “What are you talking about?” Dylan prodded her as she trailed off.

  “The pods balance your brain chemistry. Like, perfectly, over time. Why did you think this game is so expensive to play every month if you are in a pod? It’s been proven to essentially reset your brain. Depression? Gone in two months. No drugs needed ever again unless you let yourself go.” Tiona’s eyes were bright as she remembered the controversy this system had generated. “Autism? Well, that is caused by your brain chemistry being out of whack. The first patient was cured and reintroduced to society after a year during trials. No scientist can explain it, and since the game’s makers aren’t advertising this game as a cure for mental disorders, they don’t need to explain themselves or release their data to groups like the FDA.”

  “So that is why the pods are on backorder for a year?” Dylan sounded incredulous. “I was lucky to even get an updated helmet!”

  “Yup. The pods are getting filled up with sick people, and they are often getting preference. No one knows why, they just assume that President Musk is trying yet another way to save humanity. I know the helmet has a si
milar effect, I think it’s just slower. Oh, crap.” Tiona pointed ahead. “We talked too much. Patrol incoming! Where’s Chad?”

  “Chad!” No answering reply came as Dylan shouted. “Damn. I’ll draw their attention. Get ready!”

  The group coming toward them was significantly more dangerous than anything else they had fought today. There were four heavily armed and armored Warriors and one unknown Wolfman covered in bones and leather that Joe assumed to be a mage of some kind. A Shaman possibly? This is what they were looking for! Dylan bumped his fists together and did what he could to draw attention as Guess slipped into the shadow of some nearby trees. Tiona glanced at Joe. “Joe. Take out the unknown if you can.”

  Joe nodded and started making gestures. As the unit raised their weapons in the final charge, an inky black spike shot out of the ground toward the Shaman. *Dong!* The spike slammed into a field of energy that seemed to appear from nowhere. As the spike shattered, the Shaman’s eyes locked on Joe and he shouted. The other Wolfmen then turned their hard gaze on Joe, and their speed increased. Joe’s face paled. “Uh-oh.”

  Dylan didn’t take too well to being ignored by what he considered to be his rivals. With a bellow, he charged into the midst of the enemies, knocking one Warrior off his feet in the process. The others were on him in an instant, their blows aiming for weak points and joints. Dylan took on all challengers, and his shield mastery skill helped him redirect attacks as he shifted his stance and took the brunt of the damage on his dual shields. It wasn’t to last though, with three opponents and a fourth joining soon, he was beginning to take real damage.

  Tiona joined the fight, but her attempts to avoid the Warriors and cut down the Shaman were thwarted quickly as two Wolfmen broke off their attack on Dylan to protect their charge. Her ability was apparent in her movement; she was skillfully avoiding attacks and leaving shallow wounds in her foe. She barked, “Cleave!” and the shallow swipe of her longsword turned into a deadly arc of metal that bit deeply into her adversary. A spray of arterial blood covered her just before a fireball landed on her chest and exploded. She flipped backward from the concussive explosion, stunned into stillness as she landed on the packed dirt.