Her words stopped me cold. If the skills she knew about were so much better than ours, why the hell didn’t we know about them? I’d remembered Crash talking about some skills from the notes that had never got implemented, but at the same time, aside from Mana Drain, I hadn’t seen him use any thus far. No, he mostly just kept using his normal Priest skills from TG.
“There’s no way either of those skills are in this game,” Crash said, shaking his head as he glared at Sabre. “They simply don’t exist. I’d know.”
I stared at Crash in shock as I replayed his words over in my mind because it had been repeatedly proven that most things you thought about, could be made real. I mean, hell, Freyr had gone out of his way to show me just that.
“You know nothing!” Sabre snapped, turning away and looking at me. “Can you believe this guy? We’re in a sandbox style game where the sky is literally the limit, and he’s telling me skills I have retired in my skill log don’t actually exist.” She sighed. “Please tell me you’re not as dumb as your friend because if you are, I’m going to just go off on my own. I don’t have time to babysit a bunch of children. Not with a chance at beating the Skeleton King.”
“If Sparkle Death is so good, why aren’t you using it?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her before she could continue berating us.
“Because I can only have four active skills at a time, genius,” she said, glaring at me. “I have Star Scream, Skull Shatter, Stun Shock, and Defying Guard.” She looked sheepishly at her feet. “I know, I shouldn’t be using Defying Guard because I don’t have the intelligence to make the backlash worth it, but I like the extra defense when I’m tanking.”
“Um… firstly, you can have ten skill slots,” I said, and before I could get to my secondly about how every time she’d used one of her skills the game practically broke, her mouth fell open.
“Seriously? When did they add that?” She swallowed as her eyes glazed over indicating she was looking at a menu.
A moment later, her body went into a weird animation that looked similar to the one I’d had when I’d switched skills. “You’re right, I have six empty skill slots.” She grinned. “Okay, newbs, next time we find a mob, I’ll show you the power of the Chaotic River, weaved into Dance Crush. Then I’ll finish with Sparkle Death. Hell, I’ll throw in Shadow Blade just for fun.” She clapped her hands together. “I mean, I have low intelligence so it won’t be as good as if you guys did them, but you’ll still be amazed.” She looked over at me. “Then you guys can learn them via the duplicate menu.”
“What the fuck does that even mean?” George asked, looking at me. “Is she going to start stripping because that sounds like a stripper routine.” The bunny smirked at the girl as he wiped his nose with the back of one paw. “By which I mean, your body is totally nice enough for you to make a living showing it off, and not to imply your love can be bought.”
“Aww, you’re cute,” Sabre said, glancing down at the bunny for a second. “I do look pretty damn good for being seventy.” She bounced a bit, but because she was wearing full plate mail, her breasts didn’t jiggle. “I don’t even need a bra. It’s great.”
“Um… what’s the duplicate menu?” Two’ Manchu asked, while making a point at not watching Sabre bounce, which seemed a touch odd for the barbarian.
Sabre turned her gaze upon him, and for a second, I thought he might actually combust under the intensity of her glare.
“Are you being serious right now?” she asked, and before he could respond, she huffed. Loudly. “Of course you are. Honestly, who the fuck is your handler?” She shook her head angrily. “Never mind. The duplicate menu lists all skills used in a previous encounter. If you have met the requisite requirements to learn the skill, you can do so by selecting the skill in that menu. It will automatically go into your required skill tab, but be careful, if I recall you can only have ten retired skills at a time.” She sighed. “Although now that I’m looking at my retired skills tab, I see one hundred slots, so that’s likely changed too.”
“That’s really freaking awesome,” I said, opening the Duplication Menu. As I did, I saw all three of the skills Sabre had used, Skull Shatter, Star Scream, and Stun Shock as well as all the ones my other party members had used. All of them were highlighted in blue, which I assumed meant I could learn them. I turned my eyes upon my skill window for a second, and confirming what she said about having a bunch of empty slots in my retired skill window, I selected all three of the skills she’d used.
“Would you like to learn the following skills: Skull Shatter, Star Scream, and Stun Shock?” Elizabeth asked, and as she spoke, I nodded emphatically.
Blue light rippled around me, and as it faded, the skills appeared in my retired skill list like magic. Only, as I looked at them, my mouth fell open.
Skill: Skull Shatter
Cost: 2 Mana
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Range: 1
Effect: Stuns target for 2 seconds.
Effect: Deals 150% weapon damage.
Skill: Star Scream
Cost: 6 Mana
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Range: 6
Effect: Deals 350% weapon damage.
Skill: Stun Shock
Cost: 4 Mana
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Range: 1
Effect: Stuns target for 3 seconds.
“Oh my God, these skills are crazy strong,” I said, and as I spoke, Crash looked at me in horror.
“Dude, your synchronization went up,” he said gesturing at the party window. A quick glance told me he was correct. My synchronization had risen from 86% to 89%. Had that happened because I’d learned those three skills? It seemed crazy, but that was the only possible explanation. But why would it?
“Um… that’s not good,” I said, swallowing hard as I glanced at Sabre. “She said if I hit one hundred percent sync, my mind will get stuck here.”
“It will,” she said, nodding at me. “But I can’t see why learning skills would do that. It has to be from something else.”
“Well, you better figure it out then,” Two’ Manchu said as blue light surrounded him, and his sync rose from 54% to 57%.
“Did you learn the skills?” I asked Two’ Manchu, and as he stared at his stat window in disbelief, he nodded. “Uh, yeah. Why?”
“Cause your sync went up too. Not sure why, but they’re definitely the cause.” I took a deep breath because that was scary. Learning skills had never increased my synchronization rate at all. In fact, the only time it had changed was during weird encounters, and it’d always gone back to normal afterward. Maybe that would happen this time?
“Let me confirm,” Dark Heart said, and as blue light surrounded her, the same thing happened. Her synchronization rose from 67% to 70%. “I’d say that’s positive confirmation.” She sighed. “Guess we’ll have to be careful.” She looked pointedly at me. “You especially, Kahn.”
“I’ll pass on them,” Crash said as I nodded in agreement. The last thing I needed was to get my mind stuck here forever. If that happened, then finding the soulstones would be a moot point.
“Dude, your synchronization is only 24%. You could honestly stand to get a bit better,” Sabre said, looking him over. “At less than fifty percent, all your attacks will be weaker by a factor of ten.”
“It’s his choice,” Dark Heart said, shaking her head. “I won’t force him to learn them if he doesn’t want to learn them. Besides, it isn’t like he can’t learn them later.”
“Thanks,” Crash said, and as he said it, I couldn’t help but think he was a little dumb given his low sync. These skills were insanely good. I mean, we’d just seen Sabre own the boss so hard, it’d been a bit crazy. Once she had knocked it down, she’d managed to keep it stun-locked the whole time by alternating her Skull Shatter and Stun Shock skills. Even crazier, the diminishing returns of stuns didn’t seem to affect either skill at all, so each time she did either of them, the boss was down for the full two seconds.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Sabre nodded to Dark Heart as I took the three items that had dropped. “We need to go through the door and beat the Lord of Liches.” She pointed to the door that had opened in the back of the room as I identified the items, Dark Heart had given me. “Time’s a wasting.”
Necklace of Zombie King
Material: Gold
Durability: 100
Bonus: +1 Skill Damage
Crown of Zombie King
Material: Gold
Armor: 1
Durability: 150
Bonus: +1 summoned monster
Armor of Zombie King
Armor: 8
Magic Resistance: 6%
Material: Steel
Durability: 1200
“The necklace is nice, I guess, but mine is better.” Sabre glanced at the window and winced before marching forward, her huge sword in hand. “I don’t want any of that trash.”
“I’ll take the crown,” I said, and without waiting for a response, I took off my goblin helmet and placed the crown upon my head. Having an extra summoned monster would be sweet. “Honestly, I want the necklace too, but I feel bad taking two drops.”
“The necklace is good. The armor isn’t bad, but I like my armor. It’s so much prettier.” Two’ Manchu shuffled. “But I guess none of you can really use magic resistance, huh?” He sighed, taking it from me, and as he swapped out his dark plate armor for the new stuff, I had to admit he looked a little silly in the bent, broken armor of the Zombie King. “The sacrifices I make for the team…”
“So do I get the necklace?” Crash asked, looking at me hopefully, and I sighed. I didn’t want to give it to him. Granted, he used a lot of skills, but he didn’t know the good skills. Still, maybe that’d change?
“No,” Dark Heart said, shaking her head as she came toward me. “Either I or Kahn gets it. You don’t get this since you didn’t learn the awesome skills.” She glanced at me. “And Kahn, honestly, we know you’re specced necromancer right now, and I’m not familiar enough to say if the bonus helps you.”
“You take it,” I said, giving it to her, and not just because she was the tank. No, it was because if she died, we all died. That was a fate I wanted to avoid at all costs. If it meant she got the choicest items, so be it.
Still, as I handed over the item, Two’ Manchu glared at me. While he hadn’t said anything about the necklace and had gotten the armor, I could tell he was pissed. Was it because I’d given it to Dark Heart or that Crash had been denied so summarily? I wasn’t sure, but either way I resolved to ask him later.
“Great, let’s get a move on. I want to finish this quest and drink a beer.” Sabre’s eyes twinkled as Dark Heart equipped the necklace.
“You seem awfully chipper for a lady who has been frozen for nearly three decades,” Crash said, trying to mask his disappointment over not getting the loot. Still, to his credit, he hadn’t said anything, which was good because honestly, I was with Dark Heart on this one.
“You’d be too.” She turned and beamed at him. “What’s the alternative? Freaking out?” She took a step forward and raised her sword. “No, I came here to save the goddamned world, and I’m going to do it.” She smacked her sword against her thigh. “Find the soulstones, save the world, get the girl. That’s how this works, right?”
“Yeah, basically,” I said, deciding to go with it. I wasn’t exactly sure what the deal with Sabre was, but she was clearly strong as fuck, and at least for the moment, she was on our side. Besides, with what I’d just seen her do, I was pretty sure she could teach me a few things.
“Well, let’s go then.” Her eyes flashed excitedly. “I’ve never actually beaten the Skeleton King, so I definitely wanna see what we can do with five people.”
“Six people,” George chimed in, and Sabre turned her infectious grin on him, causing the bunny to melt into a puddle of goo, which I’ll be honest, was sort of annoying. George never failed to be a smart ass, and yet, every time he talked to Sabre, he sort of just became putty in her hands. It was sickening, and made me more than a little jealous which was stupid because he was an NPC in a goddamned game.
“Excuse me. Six people.” Then she moved toward the door, big sword in hand.
“Well, I’m with Xena. Let’s kick some ass,” Two’ Manchu said, following behind her. Crash moved after them, but Dark Heart was still rooted in place.
“What’s up?” I asked, moving closer to the paladin.
“Something is off about her,” Dark Heart whispered. “I don’t remember her file because a lot of it was redacted, but I do remember she was one of the first to enter Ruul.” She took a deep breath. “That doesn’t mean we don’t trust her, but come on.” She waved her hand. “She seems off.”
I was about to respond because, honestly, I agreed with Dark Heart, but before I could, Sabre called to us.
“You two lovebirds coming?” Sabre asked, and as everyone turned to look at us, I blushed in spite of myself.
“Yeah, we’re coming,” Dark Heart called, and for some reason, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was right about Sabre. I mean, after all, if there was one thing a conniving bitch was good at, it was spotting another conniving bitch.
23
As we stepped into the next room, my eyes went wide with shock. I mean, okay, as far as rooms went, this one wasn’t spectacular because it was composed of flecked green stone with effervescent moss growing between the cracks.
It was, big, maybe the size of a large movie theatre, and had unlit torches lining the walls. The far wall, looking like it was covered in a tapestry that might have once been nice, but age and decay had rendered it into little more than a moth-holed pile of debris on the floor.
None of those things were what surprised me. No, what surprised me was the glass coffin in the center of the room. Blue, green, orange, and red lightning arced out from each of the four corners and danced across the coffins surface, throwing up sparks as they drew the colored electricity like a tesla coil.
“Woah,” I said, taking a step closer, and as I did, I could hear the buzzing of electricity in the air like I was standing near high-voltage power lines. The low thrum of energy zigzagged across my stomach, making bile rise in my throat as I turned to look at my companions.
“Is that the Lord of Liches?” Two’ Manchu asked, turning his gaze onto Sabre who stood a few feet in front of us, chewing on her lips.
“Honestly, it looks different.” She swallowed hard. “I mean, the lightning seems familiar, but we didn’t have graphics like this. It was mostly colored squares on a screen and lines of code.” She shook her head. “I think so?”
“Well, that’s helpful,” Crash muttered rolling his eyes. “So you’re not as great as you said.”
“I am plenty great,” she snapped, turning her eyes on him. “Just ask Michael Jackson.”
“Whatever, even if I believe you about the whole being stuck here forever thing, there’s no way you knew the King of Pop,” Crash said, moving beside her, and as she opened her mouth to respond to him, he cut her off with a wave. “This looks like a pretty standard voltage trap.” He turned to look at me before shifting his gaze to Two’ Manchu. “Like in the Ravages of Fear zone.”
“Oh yeah!” Two’ Manchu said, his face lighting up as he looked around the room, his gaze lingering on the colored electricity arcing from each of the four corners. “It does look similar.”
“So how do you beat that?” I asked, staring at the coffin. “I started playing way after that zone was introduced, and by the time I went back to try to farm the Ostrich Warrior mount, I sort of just blazed through it.
“Figures,” Crash said, shaking his head at me. “You’re a Kaos Kid, huh?”
“Yeah,” I said, resisting the urge to defend myself. Kaos Kid was the term people gave to players like me who had started during the Throne of
Kaos expansion. It had been the second expansion and had finally introduced Dagger Stevens from the lore as a boss. He’d been prominent in all the cinematics and story up till then, but had been curiously absent despite being mentioned constantly. Still, that wouldn’t have been cause enough for the nickname, but that expansion had done away with a lot of the tedious and silly parts of the game, and in some oldbies’ eyes, made the game too easy and too casual.
“Well,” Crash said, drawing the word out as he spoke. “Basically, the idea is there are four colors, and they counteract each other. By standing in one of the paths, you would absorb electricity of that color. Then, when you had enough stacks, you’d move in front of another one’s path. If it was the opposite color, the stacks would drop off.”
“So what?” Dark Heart asked, looking at him. “How’s that help?”
“Because, while you were standing there like a dumbass waiting for your stacks to drop, the lightning can’t flow through you, so the arc stops hitting the target, allowing other players to break through the barrier.” Crash shrugged. “Pretty standard.”
“Okay,” I said, rubbing my temples in an effort to reduce the tension I suddenly felt. The idea of standing in lightning and getting hurt while hoping it would work was a touch insane. Worse, it sounded like it was the only way to win, so we’d have to do it. Man, I was really starting to hate this game. “Let’s say that’s true, how many stacks do we need?”
“Forty-seven,” Sabre said, turning to look at us. “As you explained it, I remembered what happens here. We just didn’t have different colors. We called them Arc A, B, C, and D. It did one damage a second while you stood in the way, and 2 damage per second as the stacks fell off. So you need four people with at least a hundred fifty health.”
“Great, so that’s a non-plan then,” I said, sighing as I looked over our party’s stats. While Dark Heart had two-hundred-forty-three Health, Sabre had two-hundred-seventy-six Health, and I had two-hundred-seventy-nine Health, neither Two’ Manchu or Crash had over a hundred and fifty.
Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2) Page 16