by Vic Connor
Erica’s lips, a single shade pinker than her skin, curled like a cat. “That’s how every girl likes them, Niko.” She turned to look over her shoulder at Hassan. “Isn’t this right, Hunk?”
Hassan turned a deep scarlet and laughed again, so quiet Niko barely heard him.
A new voice came from the gate, coarse and commanding. “Let him alone, ya nyaff, afore I pop me wee fist in that gob o’ yours!”
A girl was fast approaching, marching her oversized combat boots out from the ornate double doors. Long, sleek, black hair hung down over her shoulders like water, almost hiding her flinty eyes. She had a beaklike nose and dark skin; a grey, speckled leather jacket, and underneath it, what looked like one of the wetsuits from the Vat, only in bloody-black instead of the blue-rimmed charcoal grey Niko remembered.
“Ugh, her,” Erica rolled her big eyes.
“Jeny, it’s fine—” Hassan began, but the girl—Jeny, apparently—had already descended on Erica and given her a hard shove. Erica yelped, grabbed her shoulder, fell down onto the cobbles.
Niko moved fast, stood over her, moved into Jeny’s personal space to block her from getting any closer. “Hey!” he barked down into her face. “What do you think you’re doing?”
To her credit, despite being a full head shorter, Jeny didn’t budge an inch. “She’s harassin’ me friend, ya great tube!”
“She wasn’t harassing him,” Niko insisted, helping Erica to her feet. “She was complimenting, I mean…just being friendly, y’know?”
“Read the room, ya tit!” Jeny barked. “Just because you’re doaty enough to want her slimy claws all over you dunnae mean he does.”
“Then he should have asked her to stop, not sent some psycho to shove her around.”
Jeny brought her fist back to slug him, but Hassan put a hand on her shoulder, and she paused. He said something to her, too quiet for Niko to hear. Only then did she unclench her jaw and fist, and take a step back. “Fine.” Jeny brushed her hands, like she was cleaning away the whole situation. “He’s got orientation to run anyway. Have fun with her, new kid. I’m sure she’ll have plenty o’ fun with you. C’mon, Hunk.”
Jeny and Hassan—Hunk, as everyone kept calling him—shuffled past Niko and Erica, walking away down the cobblestone path. Hunk peered over his shoulder at Niko, wearing another tiny smile. This one, Niko couldn’t get a read on.
“You okay?” Niko asked as Erica brushed black dirt from her milk-white jeans.
“Ugh, I’m fine. It’ll take more than that little wench to take me out. She just surprised me, that’s all.” She shook, shoulders back, lashes pointed at the sky. “I can’t stand her, she totally babies Hunk. Doesn’t she know he’s a grown man? It’s like, he should be able to take care of himself, right?”
Niko smiled, breathing in the scent of the pines. “Yeah,” he said. “Exactly. She was out of line, shoving you like that.”
“Oh my God, you are so right, Niko, she is so annoying.” She said both “so” and “annoying” in a whisper, like it was a secret she was tired of keeping. “Isn’t the whole point of training at Ravenscroft to toughen up? If he can’t even tell a girl ‘no,’ how does he expect to survive the Hunt?”
The Hunt. It was the second or third time Niko had heard it referenced. Erica was walking now, her hips swaying like a hypnotist’s coin, and Niko followed her. “Not that I know why any red-blooded man would say no. I mean, am I ugly or something?” She looked expectantly at Niko, playing with the collar of her lavender button-up.
“N-no,” Niko said, failing to hide a smile. “Not at all.”
It took a long time for Erica to smile back, peering at him through her long lashes. Then, in a snap, she turned to speak to someone behind him. “What about you, Tim, do you think I’m ugly?”
Two boys were coming up the walkway. Niko hadn’t noticed them until Erica acknowledged their approach. One was broad-shouldered with rugged-good looks, soft eyes, and messy brown hair. His knitted pullover was flecked with grey and brown, and reminded Niko of sediment. The other boy had a temple fade, a tight goatee, and a pale hoodie rimmed with gold that almost glowed when the sun hit it. He looked familiar.
“Who thinks you’re ugly, Eri?” Tim asked with a knowing smile.
“Oh my God, Tim. Cal’s shabby fourstack.”
“Had a close encounter with the Sevens already, huh?”
“I was being totally nice to Hunk, which I didn’t have to be, by the way. And then that psycho Jeny ran up and body-slammed me into the dirt, look!” Erica turned and presented her dirty posterior to Tim, the guy with a messy hair. He looked at it unabashed, whistling.
“Is it really bad? Oh my God, I’m mortified.” Erica turned, biting her lip in Niko’s direction. “Niko, there’s a spot that I can’t reach, could you dust it off for me?”
Niko felt suddenly very warm and small. “Uh…s-sure,” he said, reaching forward and brushing a bit of blue-black dirt from the back of her thighs.
“Thanks, Niko,” she said, catching his eye. “What would a girl do without you?”
Niko opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He caught a conspiratorial look between Tim and the other guy in the white hoodie.
“So, uh, Erica,” Tim said with a smirk, “who’s your new, uh, friend?”
“This,” Erica said, hooking her arm with Niko’s, “is Nikolai. Niko.”
“Hey.” Niko extended his free hand.
Tim shook it with a firm politician’s handshake, introducing himself. The other kid was next, shooting him another knowing smile. “Jacob,” he said. Meeting him felt like déjà vu, but Niko couldn’t place why he looked so familiar.
“He was such a gentleman, you guys,” Erica said. “He came out of the building with Hunk so he saw the whole thing, and totally defended me.”
“What were you doing hanging around with Hunk?” Jacob asked, leering.
“He’s…he’s my roommate.” Niko rolled his shoulders, tugging at the collar of his coat. It was cold out, but his face felt warm. It must have been all of Erica’s flirting. “My first day. He just showed me out.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Tim said. “That kid’s dead weight. I don’t know why Cal doesn’t trade him out.”
“Who’s Cal?”
“His team captain,” Jacob added. “She’s good.”
“She’s okay,” Erica said. “If she was good, she’d be on our team.”
“We’ve tried,” Tim said. “We’re down a DPS this year. Graduated. He’s on a Phaeton team now, top 500, getting scouted for the pros, last I heard. We have to replace him, but Cal’s down one too, and she gets first pick.”
“Ugh, which is total BS,” Erica whined. “Tim and Cal had to duel to see who’d get first pick, right? But Cal is a DPS and Tim is a tank. So not fair.” Niko wasn’t sure what DPS or Tank meant, but before he could ask, Erica added, “Which Mythic are you again, Niko?”
“Uh…” Niko tried to remember the line of text he’d read in his closet, but now his whole head felt hot, like it was stuffed in a blanket. “Sorry, I’m…new to the game. I don’t really know.”
All three of them looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “What do you mean you don’t know your Mythic?” Tim asked.
“Look, I made my character less than an hour ago. I’d never heard of this game before.”
“What do you mean, ‘made’ your character?” Jacob asked, seemingly perplexed.
“Well…y’know…in the Vat. Before I loaded into the game.”
“The game?” Erica made a face. “You mean like a Hunt?”
“No,” Niko said. “Like, Territoria.”
Tim, Jacob, and Erica all looked at one another, obviously confused. Jacob coughed and reached up to scratch a diamond-shaped scar on his nose. In a flash, Niko remembered how he knew him. “Jacob. We have met before.”
Erica and Tim looked at Jacob, who looked even more confused. “Have we?”
“Yeah, in the van to Monroe Correc
tional, remember? Maybe…three months ago. You said, that is, I was the tough guy, remember? Told me I should’ve pleaded insanity?”
Jacob made a face. “Monroe correctional? That sounds like a prison, man.”
“W-well…yeah. We were both in the Queue. Don’t you remember?”
Jacob frowned, scratching the familiar scar again. “Listen, uh—Niko, was it? Niko, man, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
11
Wave of Heat
Niko followed Erica, Tim, and Jacob to orientation in a daze. He asked a few more questions about the world outside the game, and each one was met with either confusion or annoyance.
“Listen, Niko, I thought you were cool, but all this stuff you’re talking about is really weird,” Erica said at last. “If you want to be a space-case, go back and hang out with Hunk and Jeny.”
Worried by the prospect of chasing Erica off, Niko clammed up, asking the questions of himself instead. The biggest one was: Am I the only one who knows we’re in a game?
As they followed the cobbled path, Niko noticed that it split off multiple times, and one diverging track lead down a hill and directly into a thick copse of the ghostly pine trees. He made a note of it in his mind. For later. They turned a sharp corner, then their pathway fed into a much larger one, filled with students. Banners heralding the new year of training hung from poles lining the walkway. They crested a ridge and came to a large amphitheater carved into a crater. A massive screen stretched down behind a lone, familiar figure in a crisp shirt and Oxford shoes, speaking to students with a pleasant accent and tiny smile. Orientation had already started.
Niko hoped Hunk would review something useful, like what a Hunt was, what it meant to be on a team, and what a Mythic was. Instead, Hunk went over the locations of the lunchroom, library, and the different training grounds. There were three: the quartz lake, for support-class Mythics; the dagger fields, for tank-class Mythics; and the spires, for DPS-class Mythics. When Niko asked Erica what “DPS” meant, she laughed like it was a bad joke.
“Most of our newbies are in the freshman class,” Hunk said, gesturing to one side of amphitheater, earning him a few cautious whoops. “But we have a few new students in the upper classes as well! Sophomores welcome Garbon Xer, whose Mythic is the Dryad. He’s transferring in after an internship with the Cygnus League landscaping department. Juniors, we’ve got two. The first is Alonso De Luca, wielding the Járngreipr Mythic. He’s a transfer from Kingsvale Academy, where he’s won the Kingsvale Dueler’s Cup two years running. Wow, haha!”
Erica scoffed, leaning in to talk to Tim. “Could he be more smug? It’s like he’s rubbing it in everyone’s face that Cal is going to use her first pick to nab him for her team.”
Heads turned toward someone standing up, arms crossing over his long, lightning-blue coat. Blond, tall, and broad, he looked like a smirking Adonis, with a massive, bronze gauntlet on one hand. It crackled with energy, visible even from a distance.
“Is that him?” Niko asked.
“Sure looks like it,” Erica said. “Cal is right next to him.”
On closer inspection, Niko saw a lean-muscled girl dressed all in black leather, her dreadlocks pulled back to show pointed, elven ears. She looked bored, cleaning her stubby nails with a curved dagger.
“And the second new addition to our Junior class, Nikolai Somov, who comes to us from Light’s Hope Preparatory.”
“What? No I don’t,” Niko objected. “I went to Jefferson.”
“Wait, Hunk got your school wrong?” Erica laughed behind her hand.
“Yeah,” Niko said, eager to regain some ground with her. “The closest I’ve been to a prep school student is giving one a black eye, y’know.”
That earned him another laugh and Erica’s sharp-nailed hand on his shoulder. He looked back to Hunk, waiting for another opportunity to show off. A lull had fallen over the class as Hunk studied the inside of his tome with a brow furrowed enough it could even be seen from Niko’s seat in the stands. Hunk seemed to realize it, because he looked back at the crowd and tittered. “W-well! This is actually pretty um, exciting? It looks like Niko’s Mythic is very rare. I’ve never heard of it before, in fact!”
A hiss of excitement fell over the crowd, and people craned their necks, searching for this new student. Erica pressed into his side. “Niko, is that true?”
“Uh…” Niko stuttered. “I guess?”
“Well, have you ever met anyone else with the same Mythic as you?”
“Well…no.” It was technically true.
“I’m not sure how this is pronounced,” Hunk said, his voice echoing over the crowd’s hushed whispering. “Mythic-underscore-zero-zero-zero?”
Another round of whispers washed over the crowd. Erica hooked her arm in Niko’s and nudged him. “Come on, stand up!”
“Oh…right.” Niko slid reluctantly out of Erica’s grasp and got to his feet. Hundreds of faces turned to stare at him. His head felt warm again, heartbeat thrumming in his temples. A few rows away, the other new kid, Alonso, sat glaring at him. Cal had put her dagger away, and now studied Niko with curious, cat-yellow eyes. He saw now too that Jeny was with her, sneering at him through her watery hair. Niko sank back into his seat.
“All right!” Hunk laughed, raising his voice, “Now that we’ve gone over the basics and introduced our new students, I’m going to pass it over to Headmaster Okonjo.”
There was a smattering of applause, and a man in a crisp, blue suit and covered in sleek, steel-grey fur strutted out on the stage, hands behind his back. He spread his arms, not quite smiling. “Ah, here you are, students, welcome…to our wonderful academy. Here at Ravenscroft, you’ll be trained by the finest instructors on…Cygnus. They will fully prepare you to enter the world as professional adventurers. And, for the, ah…elite, the best of the best, you may just move on to become a part of the greatest institution in the binary system: The vaunted…Phaeton League.”
“Niko?” Erica leaned in. “Are you really paying attention to this dumb speech? You’re squinting so hard your eyes are going to implode into your head.”
Niko didn’t look at her, too busy studying Okonjo’s face. He didn’t recognize the features, exactly, but something about the way Okonjo talked, the fur on his head slicked back to create a smooth dome, seemed familiar. But how could it be? He’d definitely never met this bigfoot-looking guy before.
“Is he a mortician?” Niko asked.
Erica emitted a small laugh. “Agogwe,” she said. “He’s of Phaeton’s heritage.”
“Certainly not every Ravenscroft graduate can go to the red planet,” Okonjo went on, “but the best, the brightest, the…strongest of you may go on to realize your…full potential, where Phaeton magic unlocks the evolved stage of your Mythics.”
Evolved stage? Niko glanced past the amphitheater’s backdrop out to the skyline, where Phaeton had risen to become a massive, red-orange backdrop, like a curtain.
“Ugh, everyone knows this stuff already,” Erica whined. Certainly, the students were all shifting in their seats, whispering among one another, largely ignoring the speaker. The information Okonjo was imparting seemed the be the baseline rules of the world that every student would know—except for Niko.
“And lastly, I want to give a…gracious welcome to our new students, especially our transfers, who don’t have the…benefit of being in a vast pool of new blood. It’s certainly exciting that one of these students seems to be a…novelty.” And now, Okonjo turned his deep-set eyes directly on Niko. When he did, a flash of heat boiled up in Niko’s head, making beads of sweat sprout on his brow and blurring his vision. “Indeed,” Okonjo went on, “I have never heard of this…Mythic Zero either. Very interesting, very, very interesting, indeed. I have no doubt that we…will learn as much from Mr. Somov as he…will learn from us.”
Niko’s vision swam, and he felt like his head had been stuck inside an oven. He gripped the bench beneath him, trying not to pass out. P
ain started to drum between his ears. Then, after a few rhythmic thuds, the moment passed, and with a wave of relief, his head cooled. Niko’s jaw and shoulders relaxed as Okonjo leaned back, clapping his hands. “Now then! Your…syllabi should be transferred to your UI now. Freshmen and Sophomores, you’ll catch to the end of your morning training. Juniors and Seniors—break for lunch! Let’s make this…the best year for Ravenscroft yet!”
QUEST COMPLETE: COMPLETE RAVENSCROFT ORIENTATION
100 EXPERIENCE GAINED
PASSIVE EFFECT: 100*1.5 = 150 XP
900/1000 XP
You have unlocked 1 new quest!
The students and their roar of new conversation rose up like a wave, and everyone started shuffling out toward the aisles. The press of people made Niko anxious, his head still not totally cleared from…whatever had happened to it earlier.
They, at last, exited out the top floor of the theater and onto to the main path again, lined with the holographic banners. There were signs for restrooms near the exit, and Niko wondered why they needed those in a video game. None of this made sense. He walked beside Erica in silence, trying to fit together everything he’d learned today. All he could deduce was that it made him uneasy.
This is all wrong, he thought, just as he had when Clark had put him in the Vat. As they passed a ridge and Niko looked out over the vast expanse of the ghostly-white pine trees, the scent of them called up an old instinct. Run.
After meeting Jacob, Niko knew at least some students were, indeed, players with real people behind them, but none of them knew this was just a game. It appeared their memories of the real world had been erased—unless they were all pulling a coordinated prank on him, or they were all NPCs, or non-player characters. And what about his weird Mythic? It had to have something to do with the glitch during his onboarding. There was something larger going on here.
Doesn’t matter. Run.
“Hey, Erica,” Niko said, “is there anywhere cool to go, uh, off-campus?”