I climbed up a tall tree, scraping my skin on the bark. The virgin jungle opened up before me. Quiet and calm. The fact that there was no life on Kharinza wasn’t news, but even the ever-chirping cicadas were silent.
The strangeness didn’t stop there. A few parts of the interface had disappeared, including the date and time. A quick glance at my profile showed me no sign of the abilities given by Behemoth or the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague. All that remained were the class skills and the ones I’d learned myself: Unarmed Combat, Resilience, Ghastly Howl, Depths Teleportation…
I activated the last one and couldn’t find Kharinza, Kinema, Darant or Shak in the list for teleportation. Vermillion, Nivelle and the Lake District were gone too. The list of jump points was as scant as it had been half a year ago when I first got the ability: Gloomwood, the Mire, Tristad, the Olton Quarries…
The chat was empty. There was no clan tab. My friends list was clear. I tried to message Crawler, Infect, Bomber and Gvula, but the system said the same for each: No player with that name registered.
And the last straw—the Quit button was gone. Feeling my heart begin to race in real life, I scoured the altered menu, thinking that the button must be hidden somewhere, but I couldn’t find it.
There wasn’t even a link to tech support.
I walked all across Kharinza, but saw nothing. The Montosaurus was gone, or maybe had never even been here. “Here’ meaning this version of the island.
On the beach, I finally accepted that I wouldn’t find anyone there. Even the level-one crabs that were always scuttling across the sands were gone.
I don’t know how much time I wasted wandering around. The sun didn’t move in the cloudless sky, and I had no watch. I felt like no more than a day could have passed.
The only inhabited place I could teleport to was Tristad. I decided to try my luck there.
The familiar sandbox town greeted me with empty streets and lifeless buildings. The Bubbling Flagon was still there, and even the bench where Eve and I used to while away the hours. But the city was empty. No NPCs, no players.
The only difference between this and the Tristad I knew was that there was no temple to Nergal here. The spot it should have occupied was just an extension of the central square. Deserted, like the rest of the city.
Once I’d walked the length and breadth of it, a rising panic began to eat me inside. Then my stomach started to rumble and something literally rose in my throat. I threw up! In the game!
Right after that, I felt a terrible thirst. A strange kind of system message swam before me, uncharacteristic of Dis. Something like a window from an ancient computer program, black with flashing red text: You are dying of thirst!
-50% endurance.
-1% health every 5 minutes.
My throat felt like sandpaper and I couldn’t think of anything but water. Just in time, I remembered where to find Tristad’s well.
It was where it should be, a couple of blocks from the tavern. And the bucket was still there too. I filled it up and drank for a long time, greedily, paying no attention to the pain in my teeth from the icy water. Once my thirst was quenched, I felt hunger, but I could deal with that; it didn’t take away my health, just lowered my strength, endurance and regeneration speed. The debuffs told me where to focus my thoughts.
I sat down with my back to the well and tried to figure out what was happening.
When Disgardium was being created, there were many arguments among its founding fathers about how much realism should be added. Hunger and thirst were among the most serious points of contention, because including one in the game meant you had to include the other. If there was an input, you had to have an output. Not only did some of the developers vehemently vote against this, but so did the game community. Influences asked “why create a magical virtual world and make it just like the real one, with all the shit involved?’ In the end, they won; eating and drinking became optional in the game, and even if you did eat or drink something, you didn’t have to use the toilet. We ate in the tavern because it tasted good, not because we had to. And the bonuses from food and drink don’t hurt. Like Manny once said, alcohol in Dis is a great alternative to the real version. You drink and get drunk, but without the negative health consequences.
Alright, so Harnathea the Ravager had dragged me to the Nether. That was it, right? I was in the Nether?
But what was the Nether? We all referred to it all the time, using it as a curse word. Behemoth had said more than once that the Nether is the greatest danger to the world, and the Destroying Plague feeds off its emanations. Could the Nether have been the first version of Dis, the one the beta testers played? They’d determined it unplayable, which had led to a review of the realism concept. I’d heard there was no quit button in the first version—to ensure total immersion. The beta testers apparently quit the game only when their character died or went to sleep. But I’d already died, and revived here…
Another puzzle: why were all my divine abilities gone? Why had I lost Immoi’tality? The logs showed that I died to Smoldering, which must have been Harnathea’s aura. My Destroying Plague ability had successfully protected me from it before—even during the battle with Ervigot. Only one explanation came to mind: the powers of the Destroying Plague had no sway here. And nor did that of the Sleepers. All the bonus stats of Unity had also disappeared.
Thoughts of the Ravagers reminded me of wiiat the gnome explorer girl Kitty had told me about them: the beasts of the Nether are the size of a kitten when they reach Disgardium. They grow to super-high levels by absorbing other creations of the Nether and local mobs. But how do they manage to deal with them? If Ervigot landed in the Lakharian Desert tiny, then how did he kill the local monsters?
Thoughts emerged and span in my head, but I couldn’t stay focused on them. Although my real body was fed with premium-quality life-support cartridges in my capsule, all the same, it felt hunger and fatigue. My tired brain refused to work. Apart from a little sleep before my parents left, I’d been on my feet for who knew how many days now…
Deciding to test wiiether falling asleep would close the game, I walked into the nearest house and collapsed on a bed. Only while I was falling asleep did I realize just how dead the silence was around me. The ocean’s surface on Kharinzas beach was like glass. The wind didn’t rustle in the trees. The few clouds in Tristad’s sky were as if painted on, unmoving. It was no world, just decor. Were there mobs here? There should be. After all, sometimes they broke through into the real Dis…
That was my last thought before I fell asleep.
I don’t know how long I slept, but I woke up where I’d laid down, not in real life. Then the real panic hit me. Everything I’d felt before was just vague worry in comparison.
Firstly, I hadn’t ordered extra nutrition cartridges for my capsule, and I’d already been using the ones installed for some time. Who knew how long they’d last? Maybe they were already empty? Was that why I felt sick with hunger? It wasn’t just a virtual hunger in the form of a debuff. It felt fully real.
Secondly, my parents were on the Moon. Sure, they’d call, but they wouldn’t worry right away—I was always in my capsule anyway. They’d raise the alarm only in a couple of days, and even then, first dad would tty to log into Dis through another capsule and contact me in the game. All my hope was on my friends—when they failed to get an answer from me in both virtuality and reality, they’d surely suspect something was amiss. They had plenty of reasons to worn, not the least of them the Triad. Ed would realize that he needed to contact Morales, and then Hairo would find a way to get into the apartment to inspect my capsule.
Phe-e-ew. That thought calmed me a little. By my estimations, it was already the next day in real life. We had a party planned that night at my place, so the boys would be trying to contact me soon, and then they’d raise the alarm.
My panic faded and my explorer’s spirit awoke. I was either in the Nether or in a beta version of Dis that had been somehow
preserved. I might have been the only player in history that made it here. Why shouldn’t I do something useful?
I checked my profile again and frowned in surprise: my death dropped me thirty levels! How did that work? Was this one of the hardcore features of the beta version?
Everything else was the same; I had my class abilities, my learned abilities, minus the ten divine and plague skills. All my equipment and inventory was still there. Maybe my chest still had its contents too?
I ran to the tavern, leaped up the stairs to the second floor and walked into my private room. At least, I walked into a room. Not the one I was expecting. Bare walls, a bedroll on the floor and an empty chest. The upgrade that I’d installed so long ago was gone, as were the contents. It was empty.
The mailbox outside the tavern’s entrance gave me the idea of trying to contact someone to help through in-game mail. I tried to write a letter to someone, anyone, but the system couldn’t find a soul; No player with that name registered.
I wasn’t too worried. Sooner or later, they’d pull me out. In the meantime, my hunger debuff had reached threatening levels and started to take away my health. It wouldn’t be long until I died of hunger! But where could I find food in an empty city? I hadn’t brought anything to eat with me. Why would I, with my abilities?
Then I stopped, slapped myself on the forehead. I was being an idiot—I had a bag full of ingredients! Returning to the tavern, I went into the kitchen, once the domain of head chef Arno. The stove was unlit, but I had everything I needed to light it. I found firewood in the backyard, where I’d won a tournament arranged by Tashot, late owner of the Bubbling Flagon.
I didn’t want to experiment, so I just made a couple of stacks of vulture egg omelets and ate them, removing my debuff. I grabbed a firestarter and some tinder to take with me, along with a pan. I found barrels of wine and ale in the tavern’s cellar and tossed them into my endless inventory. Next I went to the well and poured the wine out, glad that Flaygray and Patrick weren’t there to see it. I filled the empty barrel with water. That would have been far harder to accomplish in real life.
After checking all my things and making sure I was ready for a trip outside the city, I headed off in search of adventure.
I walked through the familiar city gates, saw a white rabbit and stopped, remembering when they’d been a danger to me. Seeing me, it hopped toward me in short jumps.
I smiled… and my jaw dropped.
Rabbit, level 14933 animal
I rubbed my eyes. It had to be tiredness; I was seeing things. The rabbit suddenly sped up, and when it got to me… Its maw stretched like a snake’s, baring gleaming metal teeth, and the creature bit my leg off at the knee!
Rabbit dealt you critical damage: 3,981,837,110!
Bleeding:—3% health every 5 seconds (1 minute).
Damage fully absorbed by Diamond Skin of Justice.
The rabbit failed to tear off my leg only thanks to Diamond Skin, but everything inside was mangled. Bones crunched, a horrific pain lanced through my knee and I lost my balance, falling onto my back. The fall winded me and tears came to my eyes. I shook my head, screamed. What the hell?! I was undead, there shouldn’t be effects like these! Or rabbits with that damage, that level! In the sandbox!
Through sheer force of will, repeating the mantra that this was just a game and my body was safe, I cut off the pain and found the strength to look through my logs:
Resilience (rank II) level increased: +39. Current level: 90.
You completely ignore penalties in battle against enemies at a higher level than you. 90% of damage taken is reflected and ricochets back at the enemy. Resistance to all types of damage increased by 90%. Pain sensation reduced by 90%. If your health drops below 10%, Diamond Skin of Justice activates.
90% of damage taken is reflected and ricochets back to the enemy.
Reached Resilience cap at current rank!
You have damaged Rabbit (Reflection): 198,253,870,774.
The nightmarish mob, powerful enough to conquer all Disgardium, squeaked in annoyance—he’d taken a big hit from Reflection… relatively speaking. Actually, the critter had only lost seven percent of its health. Unable to tear off my leg, it shook itself, throwing me through the grass this way and that. Then it dropped me and looked at me balefully with its gleaming button eyes. Probably figuring out what to try and bite off next.
Unfortunately, I was below level three hundred, so I didn’t have the next rank of Resilience unlocked. There was nothing I could level up, which meant it was best to run. Diamond Skin had half a minute left on it, and the mob still had over ninety percent health.
I tried to push the rabbit away with my good leg to retreat to the city where mobs couldn’t go, but it had other ideas. The bloodthirsty beast grabbed me by my healthy limb and pulled. The longeared monster was so strong that it pulled me several yards.
It didn’t even let me get to my feet. Jumping high, the little white critter squeaked triumphantly and dropped down on my chest like a sledgehammer, crushing my ribs. My dead heart was already not beating, but after that hit, there was nothing left to beat. The furry foe kicked its back legs, tearing open my stomach. I screamed in pain and realized with amazement that the bastard’s claws were adamantite with the characteristic purple gleam.
Still, it couldn’t tear through Diamond Skin. It did, however, damage the mob pretty badly. I launched a series of Combos at it, which was pointless for damage, but the lifesteal healed me.
The nightmarish mob finished itself off with Reflection after all in the few seconds before my invulnerability from Diamond Skin ended. Squeaking, the rabbit flipped over onto its back, its paws twitching, and stilled. Its claws and fangs retracted and now it looked like just an ordinary rabbit. Only its twisted bloody mouth signaled its true nature.
Fanfares trumpeted like a broken record, one after the other, and they didn’t stop for a long time. At the same time, notifications sped by:
Rabbit is dead.
You leveled up…!
You leveled up…!
You leveled up…!
• • •
You leveled up! Current level: 1178.
4495 free attribute points available!
I stood, struck dumb by the numbers, and three more rabbits appeared and attacked me. There was nothing to protect me, and I’d lost my chance to escape into the city. I hadn’t gotten any achievement for my jaw-dropping victory.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! Three sets of jaws closed at once: one rabbit latched onto my arm while the other two grabbed my legs.
My scream cut off and I watched with the colorless vision of a corpse as the longeared killers tore into my body, threw back their heads and swallowed chunks of flesh.
You are dead.
Reviving in 59:59— 59:58… 59:57-
In ordinary Dis, when you died for the second time that day (even though I slept, it was the same day here, right?) you didn’t have to spend an hour in the limbo of the afterlife; the player could quit. But in the game version I was in, there was no such option. I hung nowhere, in a great nothingness. The more time passed, the more I felt like I’d finally gone insane. I would have pinched myself awake, but I couldn’t feel my arms or legs. I just hung there for the whole hour. Only the numbers on the timer counting down the minutes and seconds until I revived kept me sane.
My third life in the Nether began on Kharinza, by the ruins of the Departed. From there, I teleported straight to Tristad.
The city was safe, with roofs, food and the opportunity to level up. The strategy was obvious: pull one rabbit at a time and kill it with Reflection before Diamond Skin ran out. In between, I could level up everything I’d unlocked, including rank three Resilience.
Resilience rank III reached!
Select a skill progression path:
Path of Equanimity
You completely ignore all damage for the first 3 seconds of battle.
Path of Life
You absorb 1% of damag
e taken, using it to automatically recover health, mana or your class resource.
Path of Stubbornness
A magical shield surrounds you at the start of the battle with a durability equal to 300% of your mana.
Path of Torment
By choosing the Path of Torment, you willingly refuse reduced pain and save up your experienced pain in a Vessel of Torments, to later transform the contents into free stat points.
Path of Sacrifice
At the start of each battle, you absorb the total health of all your group members, plus a bonus 1% of that total, in order to take all the damage dealt to any ally throughout the battle. However, if you die, the entire group dies.
The paths didn’t replace each other, they added to each other, and
I’d already completed two—Path of Justice and Path of Reflection. The choice was harder than it should be because I didn’t know what to prepare for. The Path of Torment was attractive, since I had to put up with pain in the Nether anyway. On the other hand, full invulnerability at the start of battle wouldn’t hurt against those rabbits. If I managed to quickly level up Resilience (easily done with a few bites from the furious rabbits!), that would give me three and a half minutes of god mode. A legion of flesheating beasts could kill themselves against me in that time—if they all attacked at once, of course. So I chose Path of Equanimity.
A bunch more time passed as I spent my attribute points, pressing pluses on sfrength, agility and endurance—these were the three physical stats I’d decided to level up, banking on survivability and damage. The only problem was that the game dropped me a hundred and eighteen levels for my second death. Logic told me that the penalty was ten percent of the current level. That was hardcore, but the exchange rate suited me; any rabbit would give me between five hundred and seven hundred levels, it was hard to say exactly.
When I was done, I headed to the city gates. I planned to throw my shield to pull rabbits and fight them on the threshold of Tristad.
Holy War Page 9