The Dragon's Revenge

by Conor Kostick

  Chapter 11

  Group Klyto

  Once in the game, I sent group invites to all my friends and almost at once my UI showed that Sapentia, Raitha and Grythiss had joined. Like old times. Good times.

  [Group] ‘Is that you, Tyro? Klytotoxos?’ The voice was that of Sapentia.

  [Group] ‘Yeah, sorry, I should have said I changed my name.’

  [Group] ‘I call you Tyro for while, until I get used to it.’

  [Group] ‘No worries.’

  [Group] ‘Listen up.’ Braja spoke in a whisper. ‘We have a problem.’

  [Group] ‘Go on,’ I replied.

  [Group] ‘I’ve entered the game in a temple on a hill in Safehaven. There’s nothing here but goblins. Some of them are roaming. Oh, sod it. They’re on to me. I’ll be dead in seconds.’

  [Group] ‘We’ll have to clear the spot, then unclip and tell you when to clip up. What level are the goblins?’

  No response.

  [Group] ‘Lizardman kill hated goblinsss sssoon.’

  [Group] ‘Hai, we’ve landed, maybe just fifteen minutes away from Safehaven.’

  [Group] ‘Raitha and I are headed that way, but if you can clear his spawn point then let me know and I’ll unclip and call Braja back in.’

  Far, far more quickly than when I’d first tried to walk it in half-elf form, Raitha and I were heading south-east near the coast. I wasn’t going to cross that river at the ford with the leeches though, I’d enter it further inland.

  Raitha wanted a private chat. [Channel Klytotoxos/Raitha] ‘My dear lupine friend, I think it would be best if I flew on to help Sapentia and Grythiss. Do you not agree?’

  [Channel Klytotoxos/Raitha] ‘Oh. You are right. Go for it. I’m safe enough, this is all newbie territory.’

  As I ran on, low to the ground, I once more appreciated the scents around me, a heavy musk from the forest bracken gave way to a fresher, salty breeze off the sea as I left the dense, tall trees behind me and ran through young, more spaced-out saplings. Nettles were everywhere but I didn’t need to deviate to find a path through them, I could charge through without feeling a sting.

  After about twenty minutes of this enjoying running at speed, Grythiss called out. [Group] ‘Goblins are weak. We killsssss.’

  [Group] ‘Specifically,’ added Sapentia, ‘level six to eight. You can ask Braja to log in now.’

  [Group] ‘Who is thissss eagle? A new familiar of someone’s?’

  [Group] ‘Hah! No, it’s me, Raitha.’

  [Group] ‘How on earth are you doing that at level six?’ I could hear the genuine respect in Sapentia’s voice. It was the last sound that reached me from the game, as I finished unclipping.

  Opposite me, Braja was swinging himself around as far as he could in the harness clockwise and then letting straps unwind, to whirl him back anti-clockwise, legs off the ground. When he saw me watching, he just smiled, not the least bit sheepish to have been caught messing around like a little child. ‘This gear is amazing isn’t it? Makes me want to be a ninja.’

  ‘They’ve cleared your spawn point.’

  ‘Already?’

  ‘That’s Sapentia for you. She doesn’t waste time.’

  ‘I’d better get clipped up then. Tell her she’ll have to wait. I’m going to create a new character. No point starting with that death penalty.’

  ‘I hear you. I was on negative exp for a while.’ Just before I lowered my helmet again, I looked across to where Braja was balancing on his tracker ball and was poised to do the same. Catching his eye, I saluted. ‘See you on the other side.’

  Woosh! Colour and sound battered my senses until resolving into a light forest where sunlight and shadow dappled the undergrowth. Nearby, a terrified rabbit flashed its tail as it disappeared into a thicket of nettles and brambles.

  [Group] ‘I’m back.’

  [Group] ‘Greetingsss,’ hissed Grythiss, in a very reptilian voice.

  [Group] ‘Braja’s spawn area is completely cleared,’ said Sapentia in her usual brusque way. Then, with a voice expressing rather more curiosity, she added, ‘So you’ve gotten Wolf Form?’

  [Channel Klytotoxos/Raitha] ‘I had to tell them,’ said Raitha apologetically in a private message.

  [Channel Klytotoxos/Raitha] ‘Of course; no worries. These are our comrades. We have no secrets from them.’

  [Group] ‘Yeah, we got an amazing break. Did Raitha explain?’

  Sapentia replied, [Group] ‘Sort of. Your starting skill quest was broken by Goblin capture of Safehaven, so NPC, your mother, gave you those instead.’

  [Group] ‘Hah, that’s it, instead of some feeble crafting skills, we got these. It was all she could offer us. I think she kept the water form for herself and gave away the land one to me and the air to Raitha.’

  [Group] ‘Well,’ Sapentia sounded brusque, ‘let’s get together and make most of this best good luck.’

  [Group] ‘I’m running towards you now. I’m perhaps just an hour away,’ I said.

  [Channel Klytotoxos/Braja] ‘Group invite please.’

  [Group] ‘I’m in,’ announced Braja a moment after I’d sent him the invite.

  [Group] ‘Healer. I sssee you. Follow thisss path.’

  [Group] ‘You are the only one missing now, Klyto. Should we head north to meet you?’ asked Raitha.

  [Group] ‘Maybe stay there and level Braja up a while on Goblins?’

  [Group] ‘That seems best. Very well,’ said Raitha, ‘I’ll pull to you Grythiss.’

  [Group] ‘Bring three or four at time,’ added Sapentia, ‘at least until I’m low on spirit.’

  For the next thirty minutes, I ran over hillsides covered in heather and gorse, listening to my friends as they levelled Braja up to 4 in that time. And my twin, Raitha, hit 7, which I cheered. Unfortunately, I was too far away to get a share of the group experience.

  Mostly the chat was limited to calls like, ‘incoming, a Goblin Shaman’ and ‘slow up, seventeen spirit’. Then Sapentia asked an interesting question. [Group] ‘So, who else thinks set-up stinks?’

  [Group] ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. Did she mean our group? What was wrong with it?’

  [Group] ‘Yuno Industries are spending lot of money trying to fix problem they should have anticipated. I mean, dispersing code to crowdsourced hosts. And allowing it to evolve. Most extreme big risk. There’s something about whole operation we’re missing and I don’t like it.’

  [Group] ‘Why are you here then?’ asked Braja.

  [Group] ‘Honestly? Because Japanese boy gamers too lame for me. I wanted to meet Tyro in person and hear cool Irish accent - without headset on. I never think he’d be more young than schoolboy.’

  Jeez Louise. What was I supposed to say to that? Outside the game, I’d be blushing furiously and a little bit hurt too. There was a scornful rejection in those ungrammatical words, ‘more young’. Here, though, I was group leader and a wolf to boot. [Group] ‘Go back to your thought about missing something. Like what?’

  [Group] ‘I’ve no idea. And I’ve been thinking about it long time.’

  [Group] ‘Dear me. Please Sapentia, don’t spoil my happiness. This is my idea of paradise. Gaming all day, free food, good friends. And being paid for it!’ Raitha laughed.

  [Group] ‘And flying around as an eagle,’ I added.

  [Group] ‘That, indeed, is delightful too.’

  [Group] ‘I don’t have a problem with the set-up,’ said Braja, ‘do the math. Three hundred times four thousand is a hundred and twenty thousand a month. The total cost for this effort to clean up the game is going to be well below half a million. That’s nothing for these guys. If the game tanks, they will be out hundreds of millions, billions even.’

  [Group] ‘It’s an amazing game,’ I couldn’t help commenting. From scent alone, I could tell I was approaching a muddy estuary full of shore life and wader birds.

  [Group] ‘More Goblinsss needed for my axe.’ Grythiss’s mutter contained a strong, disapproving and im
patient tone. Grythiss loved to roleplay and immerse himself in the game and our conversations beyond our characters probably spoiled that for him.

  Raitha responded at once, [Group] ‘I’m flying around looking for more pulls. I believe, though, that we have cleared them all, apart from one commander, who is level twenty-seven.

  [Group] ‘They are not respawning,’ observed Braja.

  [Group] ‘Not here, at least,’ said Sapentia.

  After a pause, in which I tried to remember my levelling plan based on my study of the game on the flight across the Atlantic, I recalled the location that interested me most. The others might not like it though. [Group] ‘There’s an island near the town that should suit us. Mostly mobs twelve to fifteen. Some higher. And a vampire.’

  [Group] ‘Vampire?’ queried Grythiss, probably voicing the concern of everyone.

  [Group] ‘We will need to leave before dark, obviously.’

  [Group] ‘Promising,’ Sapentia sounded positive, ‘how do we get there?’

  [Group] ‘Any boats in the harbour?’ I asked.

  [Group] ‘I believe so,’ answered Raitha and it seemed to me that I saw him, a darker, larger bird among the seagulls near the horizon. ‘Indeed, we have a wide choice.’

  [Group] ‘Pick one and row north to the muddy estuary to collect me. And did any of those Goblins drop bows?’

  [Group] ‘Dozenssss, oh wise leader.’

  [Group] ‘Good. Bring me the best please Grythiss and as many arrows as you can; I’ll revert to humanoid when I reach you.’

  Sending seabirds leaping fearfully into the air, I ran over the mud flats, near to where slow-moving waves were washing over the ground, with a strong sun turning the mud beneath from black to grey before the next wave. There was some group discussion about the best kind of boat and a realisation that none of us had sailing or even swimming skills. In Epic I had become an expert swimmer, thanks to levelling in the submerged cathedral Lake Fiackran. That was a level 30+ zone, by which stage various magic spells and items gave the players access to water breathing. In this situation, improving logistical skills like swimming and sailing was a low priority, probably, they wouldn’t be needed at all.

  Having listened as my group settled on a rowing boat with four oarlocks, I expected them to arrive soon. Raitha, of course, was able to come meet me very quickly and, no doubt terrifying all the birds nearby, circled above me, screeching cheerfully for a while, before flying off towards a headland to the south-east.

  At last, a green, slim-looking boat came into view and it did my heart good to know I’d soon be in the company of my friends. Whatever happened with the dragon and Watson and Blackridge, I’d always feel this trip to San Francisco was worth it. The pleasure of being a hunter in the immersive Epic 2 and of meeting my friends from the past four years was as sweet as anything I’d experienced before. In fact, I don’t think I’d felt this happy since my seventh birthday, when, too young to know any better and playing football on a real five-a-side pitch my mum had booked (instead of the usual tarmacked, glass-strewn playground), I thought I was the luckiest boy in the world.

  Time to resume my original, half-elf, form. With a slight sense of trepidation (how long until it reset and I could use it again?), I flicked away the icon on my UI that showed a howling wolf. I was tall again, my vision was different too, not quite as able to bring distant features into view, but I could detect the heat signature of the world around me as a yellow-to-red halo. And of course, the scents of the world faded.

  When the boat finally reached me, I leapt in and with some clumsy rocking about, got to the spare place at an oarlock, sharing the bench with Grythiss.

  ‘This go better now. Stroke…Stoke…Stroke…’ Sapentia called out the beats of our oars into the silver and blue surface of the water.

  Looking around as I rowed, I studied the new avatars of my old friends. All Lizardmen appeared pretty similar to me, so with his dark-green reptilian skin and long crocodile face, Grythiss seemed much the same as he did in Epic. What was different, of course, was his gear. Because we hadn’t much time or opportunity to trade or visit merchants, all of us were wearing only the armour that had dropped from defeated mobs. This meant for a very patchwork appearance. Grythiss wore a pair of iron greaves, a bronze Goblin breastplate and just one bronze Goblin armguard. His other slots were filled with leather armour, all sharing a similar design (patterns of circles and dots for decoration). This must have been the style of whatever mobs he had been fighting before joining us. On the ground beneath his feet was an iron longsword and a sturdy-looking circular shield, studded with metal bolts.

  Directly in front of me – her back to me as she rowed – was Sapentia; she was a human female wizard and while I couldn’t see her face, it would be plain enough. In fact, there was a good chance that she’d skipped all the customizable facial features and jumped straight into the game with whatever random looks she’d been given with the basic 11 Beauty. All Sapentia’s start up attribute points and the ten points from her levelling up would have gone into Intelligence. There really wasn’t much point spending them on another attribute. Unlike for clerics (and hunters) it was Intelligence, rather than Spirituality, that was proportional to the amount of spirit available to wizards for casting spells. And how effective she was basically came down to her spell set and the size of her spirit pool.

  If she hadn’t gone the random route, then Sapentia had chosen to have a dull red-coloured hair, which was tied up in a ponytail, part way down her back. As for her gear, it was again a miscellaneous collection of items. A dirty-white tunic, pale green skirt and old leather sandals. Down at her feet, though, in the shallow layer of water swilling around the bottom of the boat was a useful, gnarled and sturdy-looking staff.

  At Sapentia’s side was Braja, who had an impressive appearance for someone who’d started just a couple of hours ago. A strong-looking human, with short, sandy-coloured hair similar to his own, he wore a shiny bronze Goblin breastplate and greaves, with rusty iron armour on his other slots. I was amused to glimpse a long moustache, like an iron-age Gaul. Was that what he’d love to grow in real life?

  ‘I don’t suppose we have any magic items yet?’ I wondered aloud.

  Interrupting her timekeeping, Sapentia said, ‘I had a Potion of Healing, but it’s gone now.’

  No one else spoke. Magic items were rare in Epic and were perhaps even rarer in Epic 2. It was with great fondness that I recalled looting my first magic sword in Epic. An orc chieftain deep in a burrow complex dropped it, about once per ten kills. Raitha and I had set up camp in the chieftain’s cave and farmed him and his elite guards for hours until we both had the +1 Longsword. My, we had felt good afterwards, strutting around in the town like hardcore veterans of the game.

  There was no talking now, not even Sapentia’s calls: she hadn’t resumed them after replying to me, as it was obvious that our rhythm remained steady even without her commands. Instead, we could listen to the cries of gulls, the creak of oars in rowlock and the slight grunt of Grythiss as he pulled hard.

  Once past the protection of the headland, the waves became much more powerful and it was with some anxiety I felt the boat rock upwards and then fall downwards, plunging into the dark sea and sending salty spray across us all. Soon there was a distinct sloshing around our feet. Nor did the island, which hadn’t seemed so far from the shore, appear to be drawing much closer. Could we all drown out here? That would set us back hours given how dispersed our respawn points were and there would be no question of retrieving the gear from the bodies (not a great loss, admittedly).

  If anyone shared my concern, they didn’t voice it and we continued to pull on through the sea, rising with each wave and falling heavily into the trough afterwards. It was enough to make you feel a bit queasy, even though the motion was only hinted at by the tracker pads and harness.

  [Group] ‘There’s a shingle beach on the landward facing side that should do you. No mobs there at the moment, though there
are some appealing dryads among the trees further up.’ Raitha, of course, was high above us, scouting ahead.

  Rowing on determinedly through the ups and downs of the sea, we reached a stack of scarred, grey sandstone, which marked the tip of the island and not long after passing it, the strength of the waves died away. We were in the lee of the wind now and it felt like we were dashing along as we rowed parallel to a rocky coastline. Even so, the sun was beginning to descend to the west (the celestial physics of Epic and Epic 2 were similar to those of Earth, except that the game worlds had two moons, which meant for much more variation in the tide) as we found the shallow water with the shingle beach.

  Having landed on a rock nearby, Raitha turned a fierce, yellow-ringed eye towards us. [Group] ‘Shall I pull those dryads? Two are level eight, one level nine.’

  [Group] ‘Please,’ I responded and we set up: Grythiss half way up the beach ready to catch the aggro, the rest of us back at the boat.

  [Group] ‘Half-elf hunterssss care nothing for creaturess of the woodsss?’

  [Group] ‘It’s all exp,’ I replied. Poor Grythiss, he tried so hard to role play, but all he achieved was to provoke the rest of us into being extra cynical.

  [Group] ‘Incoming! A dryad.’

  From the line of trees up ahead burst Raitha, swerving up into the skies above us. Not far behind her was a dryad, a tree spirit, dressed in bark-like armour, with wild silver hair and holding two long daggers; another one came up to join her and walking behind them, looking like the spirit of vengeance, came the third, unarmed but waving her hands around to cast a spell.

  With a blood-curdling roar, Grythiss sent a rusty axe spinning towards the first two and it certainly got their attention: daggers raised high they leapt swiftly and dextrously over the rocks towards him. It was the other, even more fierce-looking one that concerned me. If I could shoot her with my arrows, I might be able to interrupt whatever spell it was she was casting.

  You have fired an arrow at a Dryad Priestess and missed.

  Raising up her arms the priestess’s spell became a scream. ‘By the power of root, light and water, I bind you.’ And she threw her hands down in a gesture towards Grythiss.