World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  Rose cursed and complained irritably. “Where is that idiot Dawson when you need him? I can’t explain, there is an NDA preventing me from telling you anything.”

  I sighed. “It doesn’t really matter now,” I said hollowly. “The damage is done. It knows who I associate with. It will take this as a personal insult.” I rubbed at my face. “Fine, if Epic wants to take issue, then let It,” I said, mentally accepting the Order invitation. “We made our deal. So long as we win, I don’t care what we call the Order. It can die in a fire for all I care.”

  “It?” Olaf questioned.

  “Epic?” Micaela questioned at the same time.

  “Like Rose said, we can’t explain. Let’s just say . . . you probably did just activate a sort of hard mode,” I answered, dreading the storm Epic would no doubt unleash upon us because of it.

  Rose sighed. Sagging her shoulders, she seemed to accept the Order Invitation as well, a small image of the coat of arms appearing next to her name. “If you’re in, then so am I.”

  “Really wish I understood what was going on here,” Heath commented.

  “You and me both, mate,” Olaf said.

  “Okay, you said we’re doing interviews tomorrow, yes?” I asked. “Who are we looking for and what are your requirements?”

  “Right,” Micaela said. “Okay, let’s start building the greatest Order in the history of the World Tree.”

  Chapter 20

  “Hold on now, Mic,” Olaf said. “Bye-bye and Rose have a lot of explaining to do. Just saying it’s a big secret and that they are in real danger isn’t good enough. They are our friends. If they are in real danger, then you can bet we’re going to do something about it.”

  “Olaf, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate how much you care. I really do. But I’m sorry, I really can’t tell you more,” I started. “We signed legally binding documentation. If we talk, we could be banned from the game.” I wanted very much to tell them what was going on. But I couldn’t do that without Dawson’s approval, never mind the danger it could put them in. “I promise. As soon as the month is done, I’ll see if I can get permission.”

  Olaf frowned. “Is that why you’ve been walking around like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders since the start of last dive?”

  I nodded reluctantly. “It’s been weighing on me,” I said, then added, “a lot.”

  Rose chose then to add, “If you really want to help us, then just . . . keep doing what you’re doing. Keep helping us win.”

  “And the stupid risks?” Olaf pressed.

  Before I could say anything, Micaela came to my defense. “Bye-bye has always taken risks. It’s why he’s been so good for us. No risk, no reward and all that. I told you before, Ollie. Bye-bye has us to back him up when he does something risky. I say just let him do what he does, and we’ll have his back when he needs us. Now, enough of that. I want to know how you gained five levels in one day.”

  Olaf looked like he wanted to protest but held back. With a heavy sigh, he said, “Fine, but I expect answers by the start of the next dive.”

  “I promise, I’ll do the best I can,” I said. I wished I could do more, but I wasn’t willing to put them in danger . . . more danger. With Epic’s threat of transforming more people, I knew Olaf and Micaela could have been next. Any of my friends could have been next for that matter.

  Not letting me off the hook, Micaela repeated herself, “Five levels, Bye-bye. How did you do it?”

  “Oh please,” Heath said with a snort. “We all saw the announcement about the new Demigod.”

  Pwn scoffed. “Figures, first he’s a justice freak, now he’s a Demigod. What’s next? Another new and unique class?”

  With all eyes on me, I just shrugged. If Heath figured it out that easily, the others probably weren’t far behind.

  “Ooh, that is so cool!” Arch gushed excitedly. “I knew that following Bye-bye Jacko on one of his adventures would lead to amazing things.”

  I rolled my eyes at that.

  “I know, right?” Micaela gushed right with the small Birdgirl. “And we’ve got him in our Order.”

  This time, Olaf and I shared a look and rolled our eyes in unison.

  “So, Jack, what exactly happened to you?” Rose asked. “Some Priestess showed up yesterday evening, said she was a Priestess of Ishtar and that you would be returned sometime today.”

  I cringed a little. I wasn’t sure how to begin exactly. So, I started at the beginning, “I was not having a good day yesterday. After the argument with you and Olaf and the whole quarry thing, I was frustrated. I was letting the pressure of real-world problems get to me. I kind of came to the conclusion that I wasn’t really having fun playing World Tree Online anymore. That it had become an obligation. Sergeant Butters tried to help me get out of my head but that didn’t work, or it did but didn’t last long. On his advice, I went to talk to Trinico, but she was busy. In the end, I ended up at the altar of my Goddess. I complained and vented my frustrations, but she was unresponsive. Without a word of warning, I was someplace else. I found myself standing on some balcony overlooking the Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon.”

  “Gods can do that?” Olaf asked, suddenly interested in the conversation.

  “I guess so,” I said with a shrug. “Anyway, the Goddess Issara was there with her mother, the Goddess Ishtar. For the sake of making things easier on myself, Issara offered to take away my Warrior Priest class. In return, the Goddess Ishtar offered to make me an Immortal, some kind of super warrior of ancient Babylon.”

  “You didn’t take it, did you?” Micaela asked, then added with a small glare, “You better not have, or you can forget becoming our Cool Stuff Finder.”

  “Relax, I didn’t take it,” I answered, placating Micaela. “It was a test of sorts from the Goddess Ishtar. I guess Issara made a bet with her mother. When I declined giving up my class, Issara won the bet.”

  “And what did she win?” Heath asked.

  Pwn groaned and stated the obvious, “He became a Demigod, duh.”

  “Actually, I won an evolution of my class and race,” I corrected, grinning victoriously as Pwn’s head sagged dramatically. “You are looking at the first and only Holy Dragoon.”

  “Ooh, and what’s that?” Micaela asked.

  It took a bit to explain the details. The loss of skills and spells and the new skills and subskills

  “Overpowered-” Pwn started complaining only to cut himself off and start cursing under his breath.

  “Told you so,” Micaela said with a giant grin and looking right at Olaf.

  Olaf tried and failed to hold back a smile. “Yeah, yeah, you were right. Best to just let Bye-bye do his thing and support him as best we can.”

  “Anyway, that was my day,” I said.

  “And are you having fun now?” Rose asked seriously, completely changing the tone of the conversation.

  And there was the rub. Was I having fun now that I had a new class, and my character was stronger than ever? Just because the game got more interesting didn’t take away the real-world problems. I didn’t want to express my feelings in front of the others when they couldn’t possibly understand, so I did the only thing I could. I reassured them. “Sure, I’m more awesome than I already was. What’s not fun about that?” I asked with a laugh.

  I could instantly tell Rose saw right through me from the way she narrowed her eyes. I knew then that we would be talking in private soon enough.

  “Anyway, the Order of Epic Grinders, an Order of Service?” I asked, changing the subject. “I thought we were going for an Order of Adventure?”

  “Oh, we are,” Micaela said. “What that little book of Olaf’s didn’t say was that an Order can level up just like we can. If we complete a certain number of achievements, we can add a second specialization. Oh, and wouldn’t you know it, an achievement is one of those prestige things we’ve accumulated.”

  I nodded. “So, what did our achievements do for us?” I asked. I
hadn’t seen any kind of announcement or system message. There was nothing when I joined the Order about it either.

  “No idea,” Micaela said. “I don’t see anything in the Order Management system screen either. Well, there is a tab for it, but the tab is empty, like we don’t have any achievements yet.”

  “Maybe we need to physically go get them?” Rose asked.

  “Then we go see Barnum and Homer,” I said. “If I remember correctly, Barnum owes us something called the Lion King’s Pride, and Homer owes us the Majesty of the Condor.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Micaela asked excitedly, heading for the door.

  Olaf’s shoulders sagged. “Alright, you heard her, let’s go.”

  As soon as we got to the town hall just next door to the Order House, Micaela started banging on the locked door but got no response. She knocked loudly one more time, giving it a few moments. When no answer was forthcoming, she pulled a key out of her bag and deftly unlocked it. The key was familiar as I had one just like it. During our first trip to Hurligville, we defended the town from an invasion of player killers. As a reward, we were each given the ‘key’ to the city.

  “How do we get one of those?” Pwn asked before Micaela could open the door.

  Micaela grinned and winked at Pwn as she pulled the door open. Immediately we were hit with the most awful stench. It was like a wave of death and decay but perhaps worse.

  “That’s not good,” Pwn commented, forgetting about the key, and starting to form a dark ball of purplish-black fire in each hand, doing nothing to illuminate the inside of the town hall.

  “Something definitely died in there,” Heath added, waving a hand in front of his face in a vain attempt to ward off the smell.

  A rustling and a soft moan came from the direction of the closed office.

  “Rose, maybe you ought to take the lead,” Olaf suggested, sliding his hand-cannons free of their holsters with practiced ease.

  It wasn’t necessary though, Rose was already moving to the front of the group, both shields at the ready. I was glad to see her armor had been fully repaired, though her shields still looked a bit dinged up. I could only guess they were beyond Kirlan’s expertise to repair. Still, it was better than nothing.

  A loud thud and a shudder of the office door resounded as we got closer. Another step closer and another loud bang, though this one was followed by a cracking sound as the door bowed slightly outward.

  That’s when we heard Homer’s pleading voice through the door. “Please, Margie,” he begged. “Please, love, you must remember me. Please come back to me.”

  “Oh no,” Micaela said sadly.

  “No!” Homer’s voice shrieked and was suddenly cut off.

  I heard Micaela take a shuddering breath behind me. I was just as upset but I knew a fight was about to come our way.

  A few feet from the door, Rose halted and interlocked her shields. I assumed she thought something was about to burst through, a thought I shared as I readied my spear.

  With a final loud crack, the door burst, splitting open to reveal the recently deceased Mayor, his nameplate changed to . Homer appeared to be missing one eye and the other was already a milky white that showed no signs of life. His body seemed to be riddled with shards of black glass, the blood around the impact points already turned a dark black, such that it didn’t really look like blood anymore. The newly minted undead ran forward, slamming into Rose’s shield with enough force to send her sliding back a few feet. Homer followed with a loud noxious belch of dark green gas from his mouth that quickly enveloped us all. Most of us were caught unprepared and breathed some of it in, me included, even knowing it was probably toxic. The new debuff ‘Nausea’ that appeared in my interface confirmed it a moment later. The wave of dizziness that followed confirmed the effect was exactly as advertised.

  I cast ‘Holy Cleanse’ on myself then started casting quickly to clear the debuff from the others, an action mimicked by Arch.

  Rose was barely clear of the debuff when she quickly raised her shield-wall. It was just in time to block a large black shard of something shot from inside the office. I quickly looked for the source, fearing what I might see. Just inside the office a new figure floated out, . Unless I missed my guess, it was Margie, Homer’s wife, though she was barely recognizable. Her clothes were in tatters and her skin pale and torn. Her hair was pure white and hung limply around her face. The same milky white eyes that we had seen on the other undead stared back at us, except these eyes had a very slight black glow around them. And did I mention she was floating about six inches off the ground? Which I suppose made some kind of sense as her legs were missing just below the knees.

  “Oh, Homer . . . Margie,” Micaela said mournfully, preparing her axes. Regardless of who the two undead used to be, now they were enemies.

  Olaf quickly barked orders. “Focus damage on the Witch, interrupt any spells she tries to cast. Bye-bye, not sure if you can still taunt, but if you can, keep her attention. Rose, hold the mayor and move him out of the way. Arch, I know I’m asking for a lot here but do your best to keep everyone alive.”

  Rose grunted as she blocked another heavy blow from the Mayor. “Eh, why not,” she said with a small shrug as she began slowly moving away from the Witch and toward the bookshelves at the other end of the town hall.

  “I can,” I volunteered, already closing the short distance between where I stood and where the Witch emerged from the office. That speed boost Issara said came with ‘Zephyr of the Open Field’ was no joke. I first struck the Witch as she stepped, or rather floated, through the door. My new ‘Burning Lance’ subskill hit perfectly against the slow moving undead and the new visual effects of the attack were kind of amazing. The tip of my spear glowed with golden flames as I slashed at the witches side. When I hit, the flames moved like liquid from my spear onto the witch’s body and sunk into the haggard flesh. All over the pale undead body, I could now see small golden flames emerge from the skin, only to sink back in and vanish from view. It was a big success in my book. The -1,172-HP damage that floated up from the walking corpse was a lot of damage. I could only imagine if it was a critical strike. That it wasn’t my most powerful attack either . . . well, let’s just say I was excited to see what kind of damage I could do. Not letting myself get distracted, I struck with a simple jabbing motion, piercing the Witch’s shoulder. The -1,222-HP damage that floated up from the body after such a simple attack . . . I really was very overpowered now. But still, I wanted to see what kind of damage my other subskills would do, especially the most damaging of the bunch.

  I looked around briefly to see where my allies were. I needed to make sure no one was behind the Witch. Seeing our resident Jack of All standing just opposite of me and chopping at the Witch from behind with his ax, I warned him, “Heath, get clear.”

  Heath didn’t hesitate, simply leaping backward and slightly to the side.

  With a grin and a clear shot, I struck again, this time with ‘Storm Lance’. My spear crackled with sparks of white electricity as I shifted forward. My spear pierced into the Witch’s center mass and unleashed a torrent of lightning through her body. The lightning crackled and sparked across her skin while lightning shot out of her back. It continued unabated for about ten yards then faded into nothingness. I couldn’t stop the grin that split my face as I saw the damage notification. I dealt -1,981 damage, and once again, that was not a critical strike.

  Heath moved right back in and resumed his attack from behind the Witch, swinging his ax and chopping into her shoulder. He asked, “What was that?”

  “Storm Lance,” I answered, then added. “Quite possibly my new favorite subskill.”

  The double boom of Olaf’s hand-cannons somewhere to the side of me, reminded me that he was still around and still trying his hardest to destroy the monster that had once been a friend. And based on the way the Witch’s HP bar dropped after his attack, he was still the top of the damage
meter. Sure, my two attacks took out about 6% of her total health, but that one attack from Olaf wiped out 8% and he was already reloading.

  That was about the time the Witch turned to face my Minotaur friend and began forming a black shard of ice or glass, I wasn’t sure which. Anyway, a black shard of something started forming over her head, clearly targeted at Olaf.

  “Oh no you don’t,” I said, activating my ‘Order: Taunt’ spell. I was trying to draw her attention back to me. I wasn’t as creative with my taunts as Rose, but I didn’t need to be. It just needed to work.

  Of course, she didn’t even spare me a glance as she continued casting her spell.

  “She ignored the taunt,” I warned, landing another simple attack. “Hey, over here!” I taunted again and was ignored again. “It’s not working,” I warned once again. It seemed she was immune to taunt.

  “Someone, silence her,” Olaf barked out. I could see from the corner of my eye he was still working on reloading his Hand-Cannons.

  “She’s immune,” Heath shouted back. “She can’t be silenced.”

  Olaf cursed. “Arch, do what you can to keep me alive please.”

  I hoped Arch could pull it off, just in case, I was ready to leap to his side and hit him with ‘Embrace of the Goddess’, my most overpowered heal . . . and my most expensive MP wise. Even still, I kept trying to taunt or strike her in a way that would interrupt the spell. In the end, I didn’t have a skill capable of stopping her and my ‘Storm Lance’ was still on cooldown. Not that I thought that would matter, I remembered clearly that she wasn’t stunned the first time I used ‘Storm Lance’. It suggested she was immune to that as well.

  The boom of Olaf’s hand-cannon sounded, hopefully succeeding where the rest of us failed. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the spell either.

  “Cold . . . death,” the Witch rasped, the shard suddenly shattered, exploding into dozens of needles shooting in every direction.

  I tried to dodge the few that came at me, but I only managed to dodge one of the needles. The other two needles hit. They dug into the flesh of my thigh and shoulder and froze, turning my armor a sickly black at each point of impact. I would have put money on it that the same happened to the skin underneath as well. The biggest problem was the new debuff, ‘Black Frostbite’.