Gleam of Darkness

by Elian Tars

  Quest complete: “Save the Heir of Nelburg”

  XP received: 9,414

  Level up.

  Current level: 16

  I flicked aside the system message, took out the map from my inventory and, after estimating the direction, started walking west. I couldn’t just stand still and wait until the cavalry unit from Trikuni came after me. I needed to get as far away as possible, keeping in mind that there were a lot of dangers hidden in the forest.

  And yet, could I think of it as once again being left to fend for myself? Perhaps I couldn’t. I had been paid generously for my help and they didn’t have to bother with me anymore. So it was time to get back to my business. Although I now had enough gold to buy a proper Bullkorg, I couldn’t go back into town. Of course, I could just wait for the caravaneer to pass by me. He should be leaving Trikuni tomorrow, but it was too risky.

  I could also go to Ekheim, the largest city in the area. As I understood it, that was where Una had run off to. Not that I was afraid of meeting her again, but who knew what she would do? What if we ran into each other on the street, and she started screaming at the top of her lungs that I was a sorcerer and that healing didn’t work on me? It wouldn’t take her long to prove her statement true. And then what? Would I be killed or just thrown in jail?

  All of this, of course, was unlikely to happen, but venturing into a big city at my current level, I thought, was just not worth it. As I had already seen, the guards and soldiers were about level 50. Higher ranked individuals were probably even stronger. Would such people even speak on equal terms with a gloomy, level 16 beggar? I doubted they would. Of course, I could remind the mayor that he had invited me to come speak to him. But then I would have to reveal myself. He knew that someone had dug something up in the basement of the chief’s house at the ruins of Listeri. If I approached him, he would know who it was, and obviously would not stop there, but instead try to find out what I had found, as well.

  Anyway, I wasn’t going to tell him that I had come at his invitation. I needed another reason, or at least a higher level. So, the meeting with the mayor would be postponed, no matter how much I wanted to take a look at the artifact that Tael had mentioned.

  In the end, I didn’t have that much of a choice; the dog breeder was my only real option for now. The day was already dawning. I wanted to eat and get some sleep.

  But three hours had passed before I allowed myself to rest. I had spent that time wandering through the woods. I slowly made progress toward my destination, “calming down” the wolves that crossed my path. Once, I came across a very large one, though it didn’t cause me much trouble, and I got almost one and a half times more experience from that predator than I usually did.

  I feared that the guards of Trikuni would start their investigation and come to Tayon, who would then tell them that he had sent me to the breeder, so I didn’t take the path or walk beside it.

  And so, when the sun was high enough and I had convinced myself that no one was tracking me, I choose a high tree and started my breakfast. After I filled the Food and Liquids bars, I looked at my current stats. They were displayed including the bonuses from my items:

  Level 16

  Vitality: 29

  Endurance: 30

  Strength: 33

  Agility: 35

  Intelligence: 34

  Quite unexpectedly, my agility was now in first place. Probably because of Tael’s gifts. Besides the set of lock picks, which were hanging on my belt and which gave me +3 to the stat, I also got quite a bit from Joy of the Acrobat, the climbing and rappelling device that was now on my wrist. It also added an additional +3 to acrobatics, so climbing trees became very easy with the device’s help. But, did I have to return it together with the lock picks to their legitimate owner or could I keep them for myself and still have a clear conscience? Meanwhile, before had I made a decision, I considered them a sort of additional payment for the job well done and left it at that.

  On the other hand, my everyday skills looked like this:

  “Acrobatics 5”

  “Lock picking 5”

  “Stealth 1”

  At the same time, I fought using magic and spent all the stat points I got from leveling on my intelligence. But, my main weapon was a pitchfork, and my strength was quite high. So, I was like some kind of all-rounder with an inclination toward stealth... In a normal MMORPG, I would’ve been called a scrub with such a build, but in here, I was able to complete even difficult quests with it. It was a crazy game, no doubt about it.

  I managed to get some sleep, lying at the base of a thick branch, and then I continued on my way. Yesterday, Tayon had marked a spot on one of my maps — it was my only guide. Now, in order not to stray from the path, I had to come out of the forest and onto the road from time to time. Wandering through unknown territory was quite difficult. Once again, I remembered the good old computer games, where it had been almost impossible to get lost, because your location was always indicated on the map.

  Later that evening, I managed to get lost. I tried moving in the direction of the main road but couldn’t find it. I cursed and climbed the nearest tree to wait for nightfall. I got lucky because the clouds would sail across the sky every now and then, and the system counted the road as “somewhat hidden in the dark”. Following a flickering marker, which would periodically move away from me, I eventually came out of the thicket and was rewarded with a few faith points. Given that I had received some of them for using Eye in the Dark in prison, I only -32 points.

  I looked around, then went back a little, chose a tree about seventy yards from the road, and spent the night in it.

  I spent the next day the same way; I went into the forest and returned to the road. If the route I took had been mapped, it would’ve looked like a tangled serpentine.

  I started coming across big Black Wolves more often, and when I went further west, I also encountered level 20 Black Bears. That was where my upgraded agility came in handy. Through all of this, I didn’t take off the Joy of the Acrobat from my wrist. Yes, the device was slightly uncomfortable, but the bonuses it gave allowed me to dodge the claws and teeth of the predators much more successfully. Unfortunately, I wasn’t always lucky. After two or three skirmishes, I had to climb up a tree and wait for my bars to fill back up.

  Forced upgrading had borne its fruits in the form of leveling up. After getting to level 17, I spent one point on my intelligence, as usual, and two skill points on upgrading Tranquility of Darkness. The chance of its effects working increased to 25%, but the MP cost also went up to 25.

  On the second day, I went to the road after lunch and decided to walk along it a little. I did not come to regret it, because, half an hour later, I noticed a settlement a little farther ahead. I checked my map and made sure I was moving in the right direction, then returned to the forest.

  The next morning, I walked along the road for a couple of hours, until I finally saw another village. If I had calculated everything correctly, then, judging by the map, from this settlement onward, I should move strictly north through the forest.

  So I did. And after spending an hour and a half among the trunks of tall pines, I saw a small meadow with a two-story wooden house, very similar to the one where I had been killed by the Old Bear Changed by Decay.

  I went around the meadow so I could get to the building from the opposite side. I moved with extreme caution, watching the windows, and listening for any noise. It made me nervous that there were no sounds except the birds singing and the chirping of the grasshoppers. Were the breeder and the dogs sleeping?

  When I got closer, I was finally able to see the meadow in detail. Initially, I didn’t understand what the black and red rocks that were scattered all around were. However, a moment later, I recognized the mutilated and bloodied bodies of Bullkorgs. I swore vehemently through my teeth and looked around in fear.

  Who did this to the whole kennel? I thought, panicking. What if they are still here?!

  But
no one was in a hurry to attack me, and I was quickly able to pull myself together. I waited several minutes, and then, looking around, left my hiding place and headed for the nearest corpse.

  Crumpling my face in disgust, I was still able to keep from gagging and examine the body of the dog. Its belly had been torn from groin to sternum, and the skin along the edges was covered in an acid green, disgusting slime.

  I instantly remembered the destroyed Selbera, where the Spiders Changed by Decay had ripped open the bellies of the dead villagers.

  So that meant that the creatures of Decay had been here? How ironic… Those beasts had come and devoured the Glozeysk Bullkorgs, the dogs that were bred specifically to fight against the creatures of Decay. And there were no attackers or people among the dead…

  I looked up at the house, wondering if the breeder’s remains where in there. Had he managed to escape?

  I was about to go and check when I heard a stifled groan to my left. I flinched and turned around quickly, snatching the pitchfork from the inventory.

  “Woof...” a bloodied dog gave a whine as it tried to rise.

  Glozeysk Bullkorg

  Level 25

  HP: 2/794

  The dog sat up with difficulty, looking at me with bleary eyes. Amazingly, its belly was still whole. I turned my head again, hoping I could find other survivors, but it was no use. The other Bullkorgs were dead.

  “How did you get so lucky, huh?” I muttered, taking a step toward the dog.

  It tried to bark, but the muffled sound was more like gurgling.

  “Hush, hush,” I slowly held out my hands toward it, “I will help you now.”

  I felt the flow of energy within my body and released the black smoke from my right palm. The surprised dog tilted its head to the side. There was no effect.

  Three seconds later, I repeated the attempt, then again and again.

  You have used “Tranquility of Darkness” on “Glozeysk Bullkorg”. The “Glozeysk Bullkorg” has felt the “Tranquility of Darkness”. It loses the desire to fight you and your team.

  I received no experience points, probably because the dog hadn’t been planning on attacking me anyway. But that didn’t matter. The most important thing was that it had been affected by Tranquility and not Horror, which meant that the creature was loyal to the Darkness!

  Tranquility of Darkness.

  Tranquility of Darkness.

  ...The regeneration of all the “Glozeysk Bullkorg’s” stats has been returned to normal through the power of Darkness.

  What was this now? Whenever I used the spell on myself, my regeneration would increase! Although... Oh, of course! Out of all the Bullkorgs, the one I had come for had survived. The defective one, with the non-removable effect of Decay!

  It turned out that I was able to take off that effect. An effect even potions hadn’t managed to remove? Well…

  “Gr-r-r,” growled the dog and, lolling out its tongue, started breathing rapidly and faithfully looking me in the eyes. It was a strange sight: a huge, toothy monster that could’ve easily bitten my leg off was acting like a labrador.

  “If I heal you, will you come with me?” I asked the dog, not really expecting an answer.

  “Woof!” it said, confirming.

  “Alright... But how did you manage to survive?” I mused, casting Tranquility again.

  The only thing that came to mind and that seemed logical was this: they thought that the defected dog was one of their kind due to the non-removable effect of Decay, and that’s why they didn’t kill it. If I was right, then the dog wouldn’t be so lucky next time.

  The healing effect worked after the seventh attempt. And now everything was as it ought to have been — the regeneration of all the Bullkorg’s stats had increased.

  The rustle I heard spoiled the solemnity of the moment in an instant. I jerked my head toward it and saw a man in gray clothing among the trees. I couldn’t see his face from this distance.

  “Who is it?” I immediately asked the system, but received no response — the distance was too great.

  The man didn’t waste time. He turned around and started running away quickly, as though he had encountered death itself. But wait... If I couldn’t see his stats, then he couldn’t see mine, either. What had he seen then? A creature that was walking around the corpses in a dark cloak with a deep hood, and releasing black smoke from its hands? Um, in that case, my analogy had been more than appropriate.

  “Let’s go!” I shouted to the dog and marched decisively in the opposite direction. As much as I would’ve liked to search the breeder’s house, doing so was clearly not worth it. Who knew, maybe the man who had been spying on me had allies, who could all decide to return with him and see what kind of death without a scythe was walking around here.

  “Woof!” the dog replied happily and toddled next to me. When I looked at it, I remembered my neighbor’s labrador. What was its name? Vella…? Hmm… It’s a good name.

  Chapter 15

  The Stronghold

  Now that I had a weapon specifically designed to fight the creatures of Decay, I felt much more confident. So I decided to go check out Bon’s father’s hidden stash.

  The first step was to get to the hunter’s house and kill the damned bear. Not out of revenge, of course, there was no point in killing such a mindless creature, but to take the stronghold for myself. After all, the treasure was buried in that same direction, but I needed to go much farther north-east.

  It took me a whole week to travel through the woods. I even had to make a big detour to make sure that Vella and I wouldn’t pass close to Trikuni. We were both grinding nonstop during the whole trip. “Calming” the predators down was quite a simple matter with the Bullkorg’s help. The dog did the fighting and I cast the spells, and the experience, of course, was divided in two.

  However, fighting the creatures of Decay was a lot more difficult. Luckily, all the ones we encountered were lower level than Vella, but they still brought my dog’s HP down quite a bit. She needed a long time to recover after such skirmishes. Unlike the usual wolves and bears, the creatures “Changed by Decay” had to be defeated in close combat by getting their HP down to zero.

  After defeating the fifth Spider Changed by Decay, I lost my temper and risked my streak of “no kills”, ordering Vella to kill the enemy. The Bullkorg gladly did it. Using her powerful jaws, she bit off a part of the creature’s head.

  My streak remained intact. I realized this fact during the next fight with a normal wolf, because I still experienced an aversion to my own element.

  As a result of our grinding, I leveled up twice and Vella was content with one level up gained on our way to the hunter’s house. Our campaign couldn’t be considered very productive in that sense, but we needed more powerful enemies if we wanted to level more quickly. On the other hand, nothing out of the ordinary happened to us during our trip, and we were thankful for that.

  One time, I risked going to a small village. Upon seeing me, people grabbed axes and pitchforks and ran to hide in their homes. I had to yell at the top of my lungs, screaming that I just needed some supplies. After I yelled the words: “I’ll pay you double”, the local chief plucked up his courage and came out of his shelter to see me. I ended up with a bag of crackers, a head of cheese, and some cured meat and fish. Also, I got one bag of potatoes, just in case, a kindling set to make a fire, and a little salt.

  Around noon, we reached the familiar clearing. When we got close, I slowed down and almost noiselessly climbed a pine tree to explore the surrounding area. The dog, accustomed to her tree-climbing master by now, sat quietly between the roots.

  Nothing had changed around the house. And the bear was nowhere to be seen. In general, everything looked the same as before, but it seemed to me like the border of Decay had moved forward a little. Yes, it certainly had…

  When I climbed down, I stepped cautiously into the clearing, holding my crossbow at the ready, and started walking around the building. L
ast time, the creatures of Decay had gotten into the house, probably through the back door. We couldn’t let that happen again.

  I kept the Bullkorg close by. I could, of course, have ordered her to go forward in search of her natural enemy. But where was my guarantee that the bear wouldn’t attack me from the side?

  We entered the backyard, but the beast still didn’t show up. Cautiously looking around, the dog entered the house through the broken door. Inside, it looked exactly like it had during my last visit. Only the bloody stain near the central entrance had gotten noticeably bigger.

  I shuddered as I looked at the place of my last death; the image of the angry, miasma-emitting predator appeared before my eyes. Damn, I wished he would hurry up and appear already.

  I went back to the living room to look at the remains of the former mistress of the house. During my trip, I had repeatedly thought about how to make a stronghold out of the abandoned house. I had come to the conclusion that, even though such a sonorous phrase had gotten stuck in my head, I only needed a place where I could return for the night. I didn’t know what was waiting for me in the territory of Decay, but I certainly shouldn’t sleep on the trees there. In a normal forest, I could protect the area with the help of Tranquility of Darkness, increasing the loyalty of its inhabitants. It wouldn’t work in the territory of Decay.

  I could sleep in the former owner’s bedroom. The bear hadn’t made a mess there, only I had. It would take too long to clean up. I could just ignore the first floor. However, it was unpleasant to live under the same roof as two corpses. Even if it was just a game, even if they were just NPCs, they didn’t disappear on their own, unlike us, the “Gleams”.

  I couldn’t burn them. Such a big fire would produce too much smoke. You never knew who might want to check the smoke out. I had to bury them.

  With a heavy sigh, I went out into the clearing carefully, through the main entrance. The bear didn’t show up. Choosing a place away from the house, I took my pitchfork and began to dig a grave.