by John Gold
Death realized that it might take years for me to complete my side of the deal, so he gave me an advance.
“I’ll resurrect one member of your family right now. You have five minutes to decide who will go with you.”
Tiamat is still sitting on his throne, but three people teleport into the room right then. They’re wearing the same clothes as the rest of the locals.
“Sagie!”
Do I really need that much to be happy? All it takes is to see my parents after they died eight years ago. For five whole minutes, I can enjoy being next to them, knowing that they’re all right. They weren’t thrown into hell. Father was able to get them through two trials. We just missed each other in one of the cities I passed through. Both of them say I should take Rosie with me which is actually what I was expecting—my little sister has no business being in the world of the dead.
I promise to come back for them as soon as I hold up my end of the deal with death. When my father hears these words, he hugs me and says what any son wants to hear.
“You’re so grown-up, my boy. You’re a man, taking responsibility for the whole family. I’m proud of you, what you’ve done, and everything you’ve accomplished.”
This isn’t just praise or a tight hug. Father is calling me a man, and it’s only now that I start feeling like one. I’m already twenty-three! It’s what you do and the recognition of the people you trust that tell you whether you’re a boy or a man. Today is the day I grew up. It’s a proud moment.
As soon as I pick up Rosie, I’m thrown through the portal. Tiamat strips me of my meeting deferred gift, figuring that it’s an equivalent deposit, though I get to keep my bone armor and everything else I’ve collected on my travels through the world of the dead.
I show up in Kurg, and the guards barely have time to catch a glimpse of me before I’m hidden under a lesser canopy of invisibility. Their perception isn’t high enough to see me, which is what I need to leave the field without killing anyone. I clutch my sister to my chest, the person I care about most in the world.
As I leap into the tree and climb the trunk, the canopy drops, and the one-minute recharge time starts. The guards raise the alarm as I scamper higher. But there should be a magic space portal near the top, and that’s how I’m going to get into the astral.
Rosie cries, though she doesn’t let go of me. Two teleports later, one into and one out of the astral, we’re on a remote island in the River of Life. That morning, eight hours after I arrived in the big world, I’m standing at the monster-hunter guild in Sural. There’s a different administrator there at night, so I’m able to grab Nela as she walks in. My old acquaintance steps up with the girl I saw the last time.
“Hi, Nela. I really need to talk with you.”
The girl smiles and looks down, her gaze falling on the boots I gave her.
“Every time you stop by, I have to deal with endless questions. The time you came with that red thing, I had a week straight of them. I almost got fired—the crowd scared away all the low-level players. But here you are again. What do you need this time?”
“In four hours at most, the whole world will be looking for me. And they’ll all be trying to hurt or kill me.” Rosie peeks out from where she’s been hiding behind my bone greaves to look at the strange lady. “This is my sister Rosie. She’s the person I care most about in the world—can you take care of her? If she stays with me, she’ll die again.”
“What do you mean by ‘again’?? And how do you think I’m supposed to take care of two small children? You wanderers may be immortal, but we have to be really strict with kids.”
I need to take care of the problem quickly.
“Nine years ago, I was part of the battle for Airis Castle. Leon, the god, kidnapped my whole family, and they were killed by Talamei during the fighting. I lost everything I cared about that day. But then, I was able to find my way to the Gray Lands and get Rosie back. She’s in huge danger right now, so I’ll give you anything you want—money, guards, a house, anything. Just please take care of her.”
I give my little sister to Nela, a life mage I can trust. She loves kids and her work, she’s a nice person, and Rosie will be relatively safe with her.
“I’ll come visit you, but make sure you listen to Miss Nela.”
I hand her half a million gold, and she tells me she’s going to move to another house in the next few days. She’ll be able to quietly take care of the two kids there. I don’t have to worry about them needing anything or attracting attention.
Femida still doesn’t know I’m back, and I have good reasons for not telling her. In the meantime, however, I need to stop by Bor the tattoo artist’s shop. No, there was a good reason why I let the archmage and Veresal go—the former mage patron paid a hefty price for his life.
Veresal showed me the seal for rainbow sunset, a spell he didn’t have time to use in his final battle. He’d developed it as a final strike weapon. The old god decided his secret would be useless to me, seeing as how he didn’t think I had access to divine energy. Only the gods, of which there are just seven young ones left and a bunch of pagan nonsense, can use it. He was only half right, however: I’m not a god, and I’ll never become one, though I can certainly gain access to divine energy.
I’ve done everything I can do to postpone my discovery. The guards at the tree recognized me, which means the gods have already begun pouring every resource they have into the search. With that in mind, I climb into Bor’s shop through the window. He’s smoking his pipe, sending smoke rings swirling upward.
“That smoking will kill you, my good man.”
He leaps to his feet, dropping his pipe before stepping on it accidentally. I haven’t heard so much cursing since the last time I heard Femida and Isaac argue.
“Seriously? You show up once every ten years, and now, you’re even crawling in through the window! And why are you wearing bones? Think you’re some kind of necromancer now?”
“Good to see you, too, Bor. I need a new tattoo. It’ll be about as complicated as the last one you did for me, though the scale and style are different.”
“Screw you! You know what…” Bor searches for the right words before giving up. “What are you still standing there for? Show me the sketch, get onto the couch. Do you have the ink?”
Back when I stopped by the shop the first time, I hid the ink in a sealed container I buried at the bottom of the bay. I can do without carrying it around with me, and it’s nearby when I need it. Anyway, after thinking for a good twenty minutes about how he wants to arrange the tattoo, the artist wipes off my old ones and traces the rainbow sunset on my chest. Any dark mage would turn green with envy if he saw my tattoos. I have two big ones, one each on my chest and back, and another twenty-three on my arms and legs. I’m a mage from head to toe!
It takes the artist eighteen hours to complete the work. The whole time, I stay busy monitoring local chats, the official Project Chrysalis site, Golden Hand’s guilds, and the headhunters. A double blockade has been set up around Kurg and my tree, and there’s an entire fortress being thrown up around the latter in case death decides to invade the Project Chrysalis world. The entire city is covered by a magic-negating pentagram operated by five saints. Information about how I climbed up into the tree and didn’t come back was posted on two dozen sites, and I’m sure the fact that it hasn’t hit everyone that I could be anywhere doesn’t mean that Leon hasn’t activated his network of spies. He presumably has a capture plan in place, too. In his shoes, I would have hired a profiler to put together a dossier on my opponent. I’d find out everything that he values, what he cares about, his habits, and his quirks. Then, I’d take control of the situation. Blackmail, kidnapping, wiping characters, murder in real life, bribery—I’m positive Leon has all of that in motion already. That means Femida’s about to catch some harshly worded personal messages. It’s been two years since she and I chatted using that particular communication channel.
Bor puts his tool down on the
table and walks over to the window. His emotions tell me he’s completely relaxed, satisfied, and at peace.
“Done!”
Tattoo received: Rainbow sunset seal [blocked]
Effect: [blocked]
Mana cost: Scalable [blocked]
Tattoo effect: +1% strenth, +1% stamina, +1% intellect, +1% agility, +1% survivability
Additional effect from the ink: +1000 mana, spell not destroyed when used
Bor is gathering his things and stuffing them hurriedly into a trunk. His emotions show alarm.
“Sagie…”
“Don’t use my name. Seeker spirits…”
“They can’t get in here. We’re protected from all of them from the first through the eighth layer. A regular client set that up. Anyway, don’t interrupt me.” Bor takes a pull on his pipe and sighs, letting out a cloud of smoke.
You are within the radius of a smoke canopy
…
“Don’t worry, you’re now the only one who can hear what I’m about to say. Thank you! I’m sincerely grateful to you for the challenges you’ve given me: the most complicated seals, tattoos, and ink in the world, hours and whole days of unforgettable work. Any master would consider you sent by the gods, though you’re probably more likely sent by the underworld with a soft spot for craftsmen. Today, I reached the pinnacle of my development as a tattoo artist. My crafting and tattoo artist skills have reached the maximum, and you have no idea how much that means to those of us who are from this world.”
Wow, a local maxed out a skill? That would have unlocked a new ability or spell for him, though the fact that he isn’t a mage must mean it’s the first. What would a local get for that?
“Is that why the tattoo had five effects? Could we redo the rest? That would be well worth the money.”
He shakes his head, looking scarily ghost-like, not to mention displeased, in the clouds of smoke.
“No need.”
I check and see that all my tattoos now have an additional two effects, which means he must have gotten an ability or gift that lets him change what his tattoos do. Huh! He didn’t even have to touch me.
“Bor, what’s with all the secrecy? You can be the richest man in Sural now!”
“Have you ever wondered why there aren’t any craftsmen with maximum skills in the world? Or where they all go?”
The artist’s figure starts glowing a slight silvery color. He continues as he slowly dematerializes.
“Sinners go to Hell, regular people go to the Gray Lands, the righteous go to Heaven. And I just found out where the world’s best masters go.”
The master is starting to evaporate, and I barely have time to ask another question.
“But where?”
“To the best world.” That’s the last thing Bor says, and there’s an enormous smile on his face. His body disappears without trace. All his clothes and the trunk he was putting together are still right where he left them.
If I were an ordinary player, I would be ecstatic after hearing these words. One of the great secrets of the world revealed, though I have to wonder why the archmage stayed here instead of dissolving away like Bor. Maybe, he declined the offer so he could stay with his teacher. But I don’t have time to think about that.
A second later, I’m in the water, a hundred meters away from Bor’s shop, and over the spot where I hide my ink. This is where I stuck the destination for my leap spell. A group of players gathered around the tattoo artist’s shop, and one of them walked in to find it empty. At least, they were there for his services rather than for my head.
The last place I have to go is the auction. After running to the next city over, I buy myself a mana storage made of blood malachite, a copy of the one I got during the quest from the Academy of Magic.
My bone armor attracts quite a bit of attention, though taking it off would reveal my tattoos to everyone around me. I’m forced to cover it up with some rags I found in a trash heap. It’s hot and uncomfortable, and the bone helmet makes me look like a lich.
There’s a magic space eddy ten kilometers away from the city. It takes me to my island in the astral, in the eighth layer, where time ticks by eight times slower.
Standing at the center of the island, I close my eyes and tune in to my senses. That thing in the astral is still watching me, though it isn’t actually doing anything. On the other hand, when I was in Bor’s shop and he cut loose his cloud of smoke, my consciousness instantly switched from emotions to fighting mode. That’s when I felt the creature in the astral instilling emotion in Bor. Euphoria is the strongest of emotions, and it generally lasts for a minute only before it gradually weakens. In Bor’s case, however, he was being given exact doses over the three minutes we talked, enough to keep him in that emotional state. That tells me that the thing in the astral can manipulate public opinion by instilling emotions. I’m a player, and Bor was local, so emotions can be instilled on both sets of characters in Project Chrysalis. What is that thing? And what do you want, my nameless enemy? Saying anything aloud or writing it in the chat would be folly. That thing is too powerful. It could harm me or my loved ones, and all it would take is the desire to do so.
Sagie, there’s a reason why I’m describing this exact moment out of everything that’s happened in the last two and a half years of our life. That thing in the astral is the world’s strongest creature. Neither death, nor the devil, nor all the gods can compare with it, not even if they all joined forces. Never underestimate it or its ability to affect the world around you.
Sitting down in my meditation pose, I press a piece of blood malachite against myself and activate a panacea spell. Then, I turn on my life aura and boost it eleven times. The air fills with the smell of woods, grass, damp moss, and even thunder. Life springs up all around me.
LJ takes up a spot in the back streets of my consciousness. He loves Life Magic and growing forests, so I let him take care of that while I do some reading in the infonet.
I can restore about 612000 mana with my modified mental body and meditation. My life aura takes 100000 a minute, leaving me with 512000. It’s going to take me three and a half hours to fill my mana storage, after which I’ll have to wait for it to grow into my tree and become a part of me.
LJ has been working on my new astral forest; I use my neuronet to log into the infospace. I need a plan, information, and time. And I need a way to break into the most guarded place on earth. The last time, three mermen almost sent me back to the respawn, and they were just the first Tanatosians I came across. And back when I was collecting information about the gods and their weaknesses, I found some scraps of notes about the mysterious continent. There are demons, dragons, and even a race of angels there. The magic field is so thick that portal spells and respawn points don’t work anywhere within it. Also, all the monsters around the world come from Tanatos, though I can only guess what kinds of beasts there are on the island itself. I do have something to work with, at least.
Before I can try Tanatos on for size, I have to invite Femida’s group, though I don’t trust her. The trials in the Gray Lands started by making me paranoid. After that, when I killed my emotions, I learned how to doubt everything and ask myself questions. Trust, love, optimism, loyalty, and hope are feelings I can’t experience anymore. My subconscious immediately eliminates any trace of them when they appear.
Femida, quick on the uptake, has already sent me a message.
I hear there’s an old monster back in the world. Would you happen to know who they could be talking about? Although, I guess you do if you’re reading this.
Oh, the horror! You didn’t go out in public without your makeup on, did you?
Idiot!
Fat idiot!
I’m glad you’re back.
Fem promises to fly over and congratulate me today, though they’re too busy fighting right now. Her crew was tracked down in one of Katain’s underground caverns, and they’re collapsing passageways as they fall back.
Time passes, and my
mana storage is already a third full. In the meantime, I’m able to take care of a bunch of problems having to do with my frontier ship. There’s the vengeance I’m going to wreak on Leon, as well, and I’m able to find out who the person hiding behind the mask is.
Leon is the chairman of the board of directors for Star Ship, a manufacturing concern. Over the last ten years, he’s been able to nearly double the company’s share in the spaceship production market. That isn’t easy to do without a good team, and he’s been unrivaled in his accomplishments. He even bought several blocks in a colony to house the managers of all the company and clan’s different ventures. By doing so, he’s able to change the mindsets of the people who work for him. Whether they associate their lives with work or the game, Leon is in charge in either case. The clan head refuses sycophancy and veneration outside the game. He focuses on developing the people around him, making them better managers, specialists, and individuals. Everything he does is aimed at building a team capable of helping him thrive.
The people I hired were able to list the names of those in Leon’s inner circle, and I’m surprised to recognize Rachel among them. The girl, who is currently Leon’s significant other, turns out to be eleven years older than me. All these years, she’s been beside him, performing the in-game role of his cult’s first saint, only her name is Rebecca Ruzh, and she isn’t from an orphanage at all.
Two people have done a good job hiding their social status, and my profilers aren’t able to compile any kind of concrete information about them at all. One of them is Nate, the head of Leon’s unofficial personal security unit. I have no idea who the second is.
Leon turns out to be a very good person who’s done quite a bit for society and the people around him. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to forgive him for what he did to me. For the second year in a row, I’m fighting a diversionary war against his company, the apple of his eye, and I’m going to do everything I can to destroy it.