Her cheeks deflated. She regarded him with a semi-suspicious expression, then mumbled, "Kay… but are ya serious about the three-way? Cus ya better not."
Surprise whacked his forehead, tilting his head. How could she get so hung up over something so trivial? “You’re overreacting. It was a shapeshifting NPC, not a real girl.”
She smiled too sweetly, said in a syrupy voice, “Just an NPC huh? Does this mean you’ll be fine with sharing me with a bunch of NPC elf warriors?”
Okay, maybe she had a point. He had to push down a violent cough and scowl. “Go ahead, but just know if you do that, there’ll be consequences for you, not just inside this game.” He cupped the underside of her breast and rubbed in the implication. Perhaps that was too threatening, but it was needed. He wouldn’t actually wish harm upon her, of course.
Her tongue poked out. “Hah! Knew it. And just kiddin’ about the elf warriors.”
“You better be kidding.” His eyes tightened. She had to be right yet again. A primal part of Rowan deeply detested someone else touching her even if it was a lifeless piece of quantum coding. The NPCs were too lifelike for everyone’s good. It wouldn’t be a shock if some lonely players were dating them. Rowan massaged a pressure point below his eye and said exasperatedly, "Seriously though, I’d like it to be just us, no one else, including NPCs, and I want our first time to be memorable and lasting. In the real world. Tonight."
That fixed her mood—back to her typical aloofness with a childish grin. She quipped, "So you’re not defective down there?"
Rowan’s torso constricted, his nostrils flaring. What a little bitch. "I’m not defective," he growled, and with all his Strength points activated, he spanked her behind once as hard as he could, which didn’t do much at all. She held superior power over him.
"Hehehe. Kay!" Her giggled trickled on for quite a while. Rowan let himself soak in her cheeriness, in her uplifting quirkiness. Such an improvement over the mimic’s weird laughs. And when her mirth mellowed out, she asked, "So what happened next?"
"Not much. I killed her. It wasn’t much of a fight, and she turned out to be the boss. The Dungeon completed as her corpse melted—"
"Melted?"
"Yeah. Melted into black goo and imploded like the shadow elementals. She dropped a storage orb." He fetched it from his pouch, still unopened. A magnet for dark magic, the onyx sphere fogged in the mist laden with dark-ice mana.
"What are you waiting for?" another voice said from within the mist. Ambiguous. She’d been there the whole time. Nosy as ever.
Rowan wasn’t too bothered; Gabrielle wasn’t. She must’ve known of the peeper thanks to that Detection Ward. He mumbled, "I just wanted to ask if I should wait. In other games I played, loot containers like these have certain mechanics."
Gabrielle shook her head. "Nope. None in this game. Drops are all random, but for dungeon drops, there’s a chance for smart loot tailored for your class."
"What’s the chance?"
"Anywhere between zero and thirty, I think. The higher tier solo dungeon orbs are exponentially more likely to hit the thirty."
Better than nothing.
"Alright." He projected his intention, then mumbled, "Release items."
The onyx began rapidly blinking unlike that other orb had done back in Stonehurst’s jail yesterday morning. He’d come so, so far since then. A dialogue box appeared above the orb.
Smart loot triggered.
Well, what a lucky break. Maybe it’s a hidden bonus for my first solo dungeon to encourage new adventurers to keep playing. Gaming crops usually do stuff like this behind the scenes.
The onyx flashed a final time, bright enough to leave an afterimage, and in a miniature typhoon of darkness appeared two objects. Only two. One tiny, the other not much larger: a polished onyx square and a skill scroll. Eager, Rowan examined the gem first, savoring the surprise of the skill.
High-Quality Onyx Square
A highly valuable gem used in many powerful dark recipes
Superb. Exactly what he needed for a Lich. Maybe Draesear wasn’t so cruel.
"That skill is something else. I haven’t seen one like this before," Ambiguous breathed.
Gabrielle whistled, and Rowan consumed the papyrus without further delay. Sweet, sweet knowledge started flowing into his mind. It was better than he had thought. Far, far more exquisite than any scroll he’d eaten. His insides swirled with churning dark-ice mana, his ever-trusty amulet an anchor of chill in front of his rising heartbeat.
New Skill (Ultimate): Rowan’s Lament, First Movement
Within a fifty-meter radius, this skill marks two groups of targets, each target marked with either a phantom ice or bone ring, and counts down. Those marked with ice rings must spread out, any overlapping targets dealt full life damage upon the countdown’s end, others dealt half. Those with bone rings must stand together else each is dealt full damage. Can only target humanoid characters. Unable to target friendly or allied characters (dynamically determined as a smart mechanic).
Tier: 0
Level: 1
Base Cooldown: 20 minutes.
Channel: 5 seconds.
Effect: 0.3% cooldown reduction. 1 meter ring radius.
Tier Effect: 4 maximum targets for each group. 15 second countdown.
“It’s named after me.” Not only that, but finally, a skill with some mechanics involved came out of hiding. At last, he was becoming a true raid boss like in other MMOs.
Ambiguous chuckled. “Aren’t you special.”
"Wow, this one seems like oodles of fun!" Gabrielle chirped. “It’s so unique and complicated.”
"You two really haven’t seen a skill with mechanics before? It’s common in other online games."
"Nope. First MMO, remember?"
"Mine too." Ambiguous palmed her hip. "Wasn’t much of a gamer before this."
Rowan didn’t miss a hint of implication in her voice; however, whatever she was miffed over didn’t sound relevant. He grunted and dropped the onyx into his pouch for later; the Lich needed a few other rare crafting materials as well. "Maybe it was part of the patch. There’s many different mechanical archetypes. Stacking and spreading is just one."
Ambiguous asked, "And the others?"
Gabrielle hopped closer to Rowan. "Lemme guess. Hmmmmmmm. One that involves riddles?"
"That…" He was about to say such a mechanic was absurd beyond anything he had ever imagined, but on second thought, it could be possible even if he hadn’t ever encountered something like that. The only hitch would be how it’d severely slow down the pace of combat in a battle, so he shook his head. "Haven’t seen that before, but off the top of my head, there’s stuff involving tethers, passing flags, items, shaped areas that—"
The twins appeared with simultaneous static buzzes, Rowan on the brink of flinching. Lacking a Detection Ward was a debilitating gimp.
"The divine intervention is ready to go," SoSo said.
"All we need are the sacrifices." Edward.
Gabrielle spun around with her ballerina twirl. "Already? I thought Ambiguous said it was half done."
"My mistake. It’s hard to see through the fog."
Rowan asked, "Who are we sacrificing? Will we be enough? Do we have to revive Not Insane?"
Gabrielle spun back around. "Firstly, the loser can’t be resurrected, has to wait it out for a natural respawn. It’s part of his dueling ultimate." She paused, a creepy smile bursting forth. "Secondly, Ambiguous didn’t tell me that Divine Intervention got nerfed. Adventurers and Blessed count for less. Have ta use the Dark Humans.” She looked at the others. “Get them ready for the show! No more chit-chat!"
"Oh," was all Rowan could manage as the twins buzzed away along with Ambiguous in a purple flash. "You’re fine with that?"
"Yuppers." Gabrielle spread her arms wide.
"How many do we need?"
"It depends on what we request from Ione. It’s like a negotiation."
That actually sounded l
ike a well-designed system. "Alright. Cool. Let’s go round them up."
"Hehehe. Like delicious cattle."
Rowan smirked and followed her Puff toward the shore. Although he didn’t really care for the Dark Humans—he hadn’t met any except for the bozo ex-mayor—they were valuable for their future empire. Gabrielle did care about that. But if she was fine was offing a few to help a certain teddy, then fine by him. And she was unusually zealous. Rowan supposed they were just constructs in a quantum computer, lifeless.
* * *
As the town’s shield dipped below 30%, a joyless mood hung over a dirt clearing among buildings waiting to be demolished. The single Bone Drake circling overhead, a shrilling roar reverberating every now and then.
Herding the Dark Humans turned out to be an easier task than assumed; they still thought they weren’t the lambs of sacrifice, here as an audience for Ione. Perhaps the Goddess of Creation would like to meet them. Very optimistic of them—mostly children. Helpless.
As the last few came through at a brisk pace, Rowan gazed into a construct of plasma-like mana he did not have the words to fully describe. Black and white, a wheel within a wheel, a multifaceted distortion within reality itself, the portal for summoning a spiritual projection of Ione spun and undulated with equal volumes of pure light and dark mana. It pushed back a hemisphere within the mist. It alternated between pulsing heat and chill. Truly something not of this world and the real world. Something divine.
The last of the younglings arrived with heavy pants, palming their knees. Over a hundred pairs of intense crimson-yellow eyes were fixed on Rowan, shifting from him to the wheels to Gabrielle. And back to him. The bleak mood gave it away. Lots of suspicion—most of all from that girl whom Gabrielle had taken a liking.
Gabrielle whom he was doing this for—sacrificing some of these too life-like children and adults. Part of him entertained the thought of them being real children in the real world, and the more he did so, the more it dawned on him that he might still do it. It made almost no difference to Rowan. The only person he cared for was not standing among the Dark Humans; she stood at his side where she belonged.
Am I a terrible person for such indifference? Probably.
Derek Goodwill strode forth, pushed to make way through the congregation. The stocky guy still insisted on acting as a leader. He cleared his throat not impolitely. “My Lord and Lady, may I ask why we must be present for this calling to our god? I thought we have enough adventurer sacrifices.”
Gabrielle snickered, Redwing hugged to her chest. “We did…”
Rowan tried to not scowl at him, instead giving a mental signal to his air force and a message for the party.
Rowan Black (Party Chat): Surround the clearing. Don’t let them run.
Three Ice Drakes joined their bony sibling within a tide of Pigeons and Gargoyles. The twins moved without comment, and Ambiguous flashed him a sly smile before blinking off to the left. The five dotted out a crude pentagram encompassing the intervention site. What an appropriate shape.
The Dark Humans broke out with hushed alarm. Derek stepped back, eyes widened. “Lord Black, what’s happening?”
“Isn’t it obvious? This is the end for at least some of you.” The voice he spoke was surprisingly emotionless.
“But you said—”
“The gods have been most unfavorable. Divine Intervention was changed recently. We now require mortal sacrifices. That means you lot.” Rowan nipped the pandemonium in the bud, firing a narrow ice blast in front of them. A few were already glancing left and right for an escape. “Run and you will be bound and given as sacrifice.”
“How can you do this?” a man yelled. “We’ve pledged our loyalty! You promised us greatness!”
It was Edward who answered: “Is it not an honor to give your life for our great cause?”
“No!” a girl next to him shrieked. It was clear she was on the edge of tears.
The man grabbed the girl and pulled her behind his protective stance. “Not my daughter. You will have to send your ice and bone through me if—”
“Qui-et,” Gabrielle sang and smiled beautifully. “Or you’ll be the first two to go.”
Her favorite brunette teen ran forward. Viola, an Examine dialogue revealed. “Lady LeMort. Why not some regular humans? We can go raid some farmlands or another mining town.”
Not a terrible suggestion. Rowan was about to type a private message before Gabrielle chirped, “Nope! Since you lot are valuable to us, you’ll probably be worth way more per body. Ione can be super duper bitchy like that when she’s in a bad mood.”
Oh. No wonder. Of course, she would’ve already considered other possibilities. And how had she gotten so acquainted with the dark goddess? Rowan rushed out a message.
Rowan Black (To Gabby LeMort): You’ve done this many times?
Gabby LeMort: A few times. Once for free. Sometimes the gods feel like intervening on their own accord for free.
So that’s what Draesear’s intervention really was. How generous.
“And the shield’s getting low,” Ambiguous said. “Let’s not risk it.”
Viola deflated. "Fine. All I ask is to be spared."
Gabrielle said, "Your request has been noted. Now back in line with the rest."
Derek squirmed in his boots as Viola hurried back. “This doesn’t have to be now. Please reconsider.”
"We—"
Gabrielle interrupted Rowan again. “It does.” She clicked her fingers. “Now. No more talk. It’s time. Ambiguous. Activate it.”
A woman shrieked, "No! Please! We’ve done nothing wro—"
“Silence!” Rowan made the Bone Drake roar as loudly as it could to drown out their outbursts, deafening. He added a spray of ice bolts onto the exit points for extra measure. It set them straight. Many of the younger children were starting to break down, running behind the adults for cover.
"Whatcha waitin’ for?" Gabrielle’s fingers waved in Ambiguous’ direction.
"My bad. I was watching a sitcom." Ambiguous pointed with her staff and fired a single black and white bolt at the portal.
The two wheels turned ninety degrees and cut the faceted blob into two, dividing the dark from light with a metallic zing. The air rippled. A column of black and white light shot into the heavens above, gradually narrowing to reveal a sexy figure.
A transparent white dress, a figure of a gorgeous woman with waist-length ruby-orange hair, shimmered into view. Such beauty, she had a face and expression Rowan hadn’t seen before. Her proportions were indeed perfect, more perfect than Gabrielle’s. How could this girl be a dark god?
A frightened penguin, Derek waddled backward. "It’s her. It’s her! The traitor goddess who cursed the world." Most of the Dark Humans cowered similarly.
Meanwhile, Rowan’s gaze couldn’t leave the goddess, couldn’t stop ogling her voluptuous assets. He gulped and stowed his damning thoughts, stuffing his them in a mental-safe that Gabrielle would never find. He coughed. “You’re Ione?”
She looked at him curiously. She grinned. Her teeth were perfect. “No, I’m some lower goddess of light.”
He smirked. “Then fetch the real Ione for us.”
“Row!” Gabrielle shouted, laughing. “Don’t make her zap ya!” She beamed as though greeting an old friend. “Heya, Ione, by the way.”
Ione palmed her hip. Those soul-ensaring eyes closed for a moment. “Please. State your requests. I have much to do.”
“Okey Dokey!” She held Redwing’s teddy body high. “Red needs a new body— Wait, I thought ya can read our thoughts?"
Ione stepped closer to Gabrielle. "I’m just teasing you. Your request will cost one-third of your precious Dark Humans for an elite Undead minion that can be converted. Slightly less than a half for one that Rowan can mount."
Bloody hell! A fucking half. The price was much higher than he’d assumed. Would Gabrielle still go through with it?
"Lady LeMort! Please don’t!" many cried.
> "You can’t do this! They’re children!" Derek bellowed. "I won’t let you!"
Gabrielle hummed in consideration. "How much for the mount version and a charge on Rowan’s amulet as well?"
"Over nine-tenths."
Holy Draesear! A cough ripped up Rowan’s throat.
Gabrielle giggled venemously, then said in a small voice, "Do it. Sacrifice the weakest and least useful of the lot, whichever they are. Oh. Spare Viola. I like her. Derek too. He’s useful."
"Agreed."
The mentioned girl breathed a comical sigh of relief. She grabbed a teen boy’s wrist, then sprinted away into the mist.
"Heeey… I didn’t say she could take her boyfriend. Or was that her brother?" Gabrielle shrugged. "But maybe the brave girl’s earned that much. Alright, go ahead, ya pretty lady."
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