Crystal Shards Online Omnibus 1

by Rick Scott

  “Ack,” Gilly says. “Sorry about that, Reece.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s not your fault. I just didn’t expect that to happen.”

  “I’ll get them this time, Val,” the same elven mage from before says. “I’ll use Mass Resurrection.”

  Val Helena’s eyes go wide, and she looks over her shoulder at the mage. “NO, DON’T!”

  But the spell goes off. Instantly, Gilly and I are surrounded by swirling white light.

  Gruzug immediately loses all interest in Val Helena and focuses on the mage who just raised us. A huge boulder appears in Gruzug’s hand. It hurls it at the elf girl. The thing explodes on impact, and the entire mage party falls down dead, Health bars depleted to zero.

  “No! Dammit!” Val Helena curses.

  Mass confusion ensues.

  “What happened?”

  “Silvi pulled hate by raising those noobs.”

  “I didn’t mean to!”

  “We’re gonna wipe!”

  “I can’t believe this, man! 15% left!”

  A battle of desperate attrition begins. Val Helena continues to fight on, healing herself between each hit. But there’s no way she can keep up. She’s down to 20% health when the dreaded words finally reappear.

  Gruzug readies Mountain Buster!

  And then it’s over.

  Val Helena, along with Zeke and the warrior party, flat lines, leaving Gruzug the ultimate champion. I see its name change from gray to white as its Health bar slowly starts to go up again.

  “It’s gone unclaimed!” Gilly says. “It’s going to reset and heal back up to max health.”

  Oh, man.

  *** Val Helena: One of you mages respawn and run back down here to raise us. If we’re fast enough, we can reclaim it before it heals back to 50%.

  *** Silvi: I’m on it!

  Silvi’s corpse disappears, replaced by a tombstone.

  A couple minutes go by, and then Silvi returns, dressed only in elven lingerie. She recovers her gear from her tombstone and immediately casts Mass Resurrection—on the other mages first, who then help her raise the rest of the team.

  I notice the spell Silvi cast on us earlier is still in effect, so I raise as well, along with Gilly. We both make a beeline for the mages as soon as we’re up, as do most people, clearing their distance from the LM who now stands in the center of the cavern.

  Val Helena gets a raise and stalks toward the remnants of her team, looking like she wants to murder someone. She stops next to Gilly and I and regards us with a scowl.

  “Damn noobs. We wiped out there thanks to you.”

  Gilly’s green eyes go fierce, and I can tell she wants to say something smart back to Val Helena as she meets the big woman’s stare, but the guilt of what she did to egg her on must be weighing on her conscience, because she holds back. Instead, she just looks to me. “Let’s get out of here, Reece.”

  I find myself torn. I know we’ve probably outstayed our welcome after what went down, but part of me feels responsible for that and I want try to make amends. I check Gruzug and see he’s already back up to 30%.

  “Can’t you just get back in there? It’s only at 30%.”

  “Can’t yet,” Val Helena says. “We’re all weakened. Need to wait five minutes for it to wear off.”

  I notice then that there’s a small buff that looks like a skull on my status bar, and my max HP, TP, and Stamina are all reduced by half.

  “It happens when you get a raise instead of just respawning. It’ll be back to half by the time we’re ready to go again.”

  “Well . . . I’m sorry about all this,” I say.

  Gilly shoots me a dirty look and messages me through the party chat. “What are you apologizing for? You don’t have to suck up to her!”

  “I dunno,” I say back sheepishly. “I just feel bad, I guess.”

  I see a shadow dash between Val Helena and us, and for a second, I think it’s some kind of glitch in my rig. But then I see Val Helena and Gilly react to it, as well.

  “What was that?” I say.

  A loud wail explodes through the cavern, and we all turn to see Gruzug keeling over in pain. Its name has turned gray again, and its Health bar is back down to 25%. Holy cow! What could have taken off 5% off of its health like that?

  The answer emerges in the form of a slender elf woman in black leather gear, twin katanas in her hands. The blades are moving so fast I can barely see them. Only the multiple grunts Gruzug makes with each hit keeps track of just how rapidly the woman attacks the LM. Gruzug swings, and the woman simply ducks under it, taking no damage at all.

  I focus on her to bring up her character stats.

  Name: Aiko

  Sex: Female

  Race: Elven

  Class: Ninja

  Level: 85

  Guild: None

  Everyone is watching now. The elven woman is hard to make out due to how fast she’s moving, but she has dark blue hair, as far as I can tell. It blends in nicely with her tight-fitting Ninja garb. I check that next.

  Dark Shinobi Mask: +30 Shadow Magic +30 TP

  Dark Shinobi Gi: +150 HP +30 Shadow Magic+30 AGL+30 Dodge

  Warrior’s Tekko: +75 HP +20 AGL +20 DEX +20 STR +20 VIT

  Ninja Hakama: +150 HP +30 Dodge +30 AGL

  Dark Shinobi Kyahan: +75 HP +30 Shadow Magic +20 Dodge

  Poison Kunai +5: +30 DEX +30 AGL +50 Poison Damage

  Lightning Kunai +5: +30 DEX +30 AGL +50 Lightning Damage

  I’m blown away by the stats, but even more so to see them in effect. Aiko slowly chips away at Gruzug’s health while taking absolutely no damage herself.

  A buzz starts throughout Val Helena’s team.

  “Is that the Aiko?”

  “It has to be.”

  “Is she going to solo it?”

  “No way!”

  “It’s an LM. You can’t solo a Legendary Monster,” Zeke says as he strolls over to us. “Sure, she can dodge its attacks. But she can’t do much damage to it without being able to backstab it. And she doesn’t have a healer with her, so her luck is bound to run out.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  “You can’t dodge an AOE attack. She’ll be dead soon enough, and then we’ll just reclaim it. She’s doing us a favor, really. She’s keeping its HP from regenning while we wait for our weakness to wear off.”

  I check the combat log, and all I see is:

  Gruzug misses Aiko.

  Gruzug misses Aiko.

  Aiko dodges Gruzug’s attack.

  Gruzug misses Aiko.

  Aiko dodges Gruzug’s attack.

  And then I see it.

  Gruzug readies Mountain Buster!

  “See?” Zeke laughs. “Say bye-bye, Ninja girl!”

  I look to Val Helena, but she doesn’t seem to find it funny at all. In fact, she looks more pissed off than ever.

  Aiko’s blurring image comes to a rapid halt as the elven woman stands completely still. I see her face for the first time, and am taken aback by how beautiful she is, even with her mouth and nose covered by her Ninja mask. In fact, the mask only seems to add to her allure.

  She closes her eyes, raising her hand to her forehead in a martial stance.

  Kanji-like runes swirl around her right before the Mountain Buster goes off.

  I expect to see her health drop to a sliver, or to see her just drop dead, period.

  But nothing happens.

  Her Health bar doesn’t move at all.

  What the heck?

  An unsettled murmur washes through Val Helena’s team as I check the combat log.

  Aiko casts Shadow Copy.

  Gruzug uses Mountain Buster!

  Aiko’s shadow absorbs the attack.

  I’m dumbfounded along with the rest of Val Helena’s crew, who raise their voices in disbelief.

  “That’s impossible!”

  “Nothing happened?”

  “She must be a hacker.”

  “Can she really solo that
thing?”

  “Of course, she can solo it!” Val Helena’s powerful voice cuts through the chatter. Her words drip with disdain. “She has Shadow Copy. The most OP ability in the whole damn game. She’s a freakin’ Dodge Tank.”

  Chapter 7: Highs and Lows

  I open my inventory to make sure I’m not dreaming, and that I heard Val Helena right.

  She did just say Shadow Copy, didn’t she?

  I look for the scroll I dug up earlier, and my heart begins to race as I read the description again with new eyes.

  Scroll of Shadow Copy

  Teaches the Ninja ability: Shadow Copy

  Level 12 Ninja Only

  Create a copy of yourself using Shadow Magic to absorb your next hit.

  Cast Time: 1 Second

  Recast: 15 seconds

  No way . . .

  This can’t be the same thing.

  I look back to where Aiko is still soloing Gruzug. She’s got him down to 12% now, and shows no signs of stopping. Miss, miss, dodge, miss, miss, dodge, Shadow Copy, poof! No damage!

  I’m still not believing it.

  This can’t be right. Stuff like this just doesn’t happen to me.

  Ever.

  “Hey, Ms. Val Helena?” I ask sheepishly.

  She doesn’t look down at me as she replies, her eyes fixed on the battle. “What?”

  “That ability, Shadow Copy . . . it’s Ninja only?”

  “Yes.”

  Check.

  “How do you get it?”

  “From a scroll. It’s a rare drop from any of the three Beast King boss monsters. The Nasgar world boss—Vulnar—drops it, too.”

  My elation takes a nose dive. I should have known. What Aiko’s using out there can’t be what I have. Maybe I have some low-level knock-off version of it, or something.

  “It can also be mined, but that’s the rarest chance of all.”

  Holy crap! Double check!

  I’m almost afraid to ask the next question. Because this thing in my possession just can’t be the same scroll Val Helena is talking about. “You must have to be pretty high level to use it though, right?”

  “No,” she says. “It’s a Level 12 ability.”

  Triple check! What the heck??

  I feel like I’m about to piss myself. I have one of the most powerful abilities in the whole game? And to think, I was about to junk it! Thank God, I didn’t or I’d be contemplating suicide right now!

  Still. It’s untradeable. And I can’t fight. So how am I supposed to use this?

  I’m starting to freak out. Gilly must notice, because she rests a hand on my shoulder and speaks to me in party chat. “You all right?”

  I don’t know what to say to her. I don’t know what to say to anybody.

  I link the item to her so she can see. “I dug this up earlier in the mines.”

  Her mouth hangs open for a moment.

  And then she bursts out loud for everyone to hear: “Holy crap, you guys! Reece has a Scroll of Shadow Copy!”

  “Gilly!”

  I didn’t mean for her to announce it to the whole world!

  Val Helena looks down at me like she’s just noticed me for the first time. “You what?”

  I turn beet red as the focus of everyone present shifts from Aiko to me. I’m bombarded with a hundred questions at once.

  “Where is it?”

  “How’d you get it?”

  “Link it! Link it!”

  “Okay, okay!” I say, and link it to the room so everyone can see.

  Everyone goes dead quiet as the description appears and they read it.

  A hushed silence descends, broken only when Gruzug’s death cry reverberates through the cavern and a message appears.

  Aiko has defeated Gruzug.

  But nobody seems to care anymore.

  They’re all just staring at me, like I’m some kind of freak or messiah.

  “Well, well,” a melodic voice says from behind me. “Looks like you’re the kid with the golden ticket.”

  Everyone jumps, startled to see Aiko suddenly standing in our midst. Everyone except Val Helena, that is. The huge woman eyes the elf like she wants to tear her face off. “You stole our kill, Aiko. Those drops are ours.”

  “Funny.” Aiko gives her a nasty grin. “Didn’t look like it was claimed to me.”

  “You’ve become a real troll, you know that?”

  Aiko laughs—a high-pitched cackle that instantly gives me the creeps. “Enjoy your sour grapes, Val. You should have picked a better team to back you up.”

  The blue-haired elf scans around the room, perhaps checking everyone’s level. “Slim pickings, I guess. Or are you farming yourself out to mid-level guilds now for rent money?”

  “You really need to stop with these games, Aiko,” Val Helena says. “If you want to have it out with me, then let’s just do it.”

  “You know where to find me if you want to do that.” She turns and looks right at me. “Hey you, with the pretty eyes. If you think that scroll is suddenly going to make you a Dodge Tank, think again. There’s a lot more to it than being a one-trick pony.”

  “I . . . ah . . .” I don’t know quite what to say. So instead, I blurt out, “I’m not even sure I can use it. I don’t have any other classes leveled.”

  Aiko pauses for a moment, then bursts out with her cackle again. “Talk about wasted potential. Too bad you can’t sell those things anymore.”

  “Sell?”

  “They used to be tradeable before the devs changed it,” Val Helena explains. “They used to go for around 8 million credits.”

  Holy crap! I’ve got something worth 8 million credits?

  “That’s how you got yours, wasn’t it, Aiko?”

  She grins. “Can’t all be lucky now, can we? Some of us have to work hard for what we want. Speaking of which . . .” Aiko turns to me again. “Tell you what, pretty boy. Vulnar spawns next month. I’m putting together a world boss kill team to take her down. If you can manage to get yourself to 85 Ninja, and figure out how to tank halfway decent, I’ll give you a spot. Always safer to have a backup tank when you’re taking on a world boss. Ain’t that right, Val?”

  Val Helena sighs tiredly. “Are you done here, Aiko?”

  Aiko gives me a creepy wink. “See you in a month maybe, pretty boy.”

  She vanishes then, leaving behind a couple leaves to fall in her place.

  I’m still trying to piece together what just happened.

  My heart is racing, but I feel numb.

  I just got an invitation to kill a world boss . . .

  I look to Gilly and see she’s just as shocked. In fact, she’s not even moving.

  Actually . . . no one is.

  An error message pops up.

  You are disconnected . . .

  My vision goes black as I’m forcibly yanked from my rig.

  Suddenly, Mike is there. He’s shouting in my face, spit flying from his mouth. The rapid transition from VR bliss to harsh reality has my brain doing cartwheels, and it takes a second for what he’s saying to register.

  “I said, get up, man!” He looks furious. “What the hell have you been doing all day?”

  “I’ve been right here! Why? What is it?”

  “Mom’s at the hospital, you idiot!”

  What?

  “She went out on her own. While you were stuck in here, playing your stupid little game!”

  My blood freezes. “What?”

  “Come on. We need to go get her. Now!”

  Chapter 8: Gimp

  It takes me a couple of minutes to throw on some jeans and a jacket before we exit the container’s hatch and step into the dull light of our tunnel. I have Mutt and Jeff to assist me, of course, and I hobble as fast as I can to catch up to my brother; he’s walking at a pace he knows I can’t keep up with.

  I want to be mad at him. Pulling me out of my rig like that was uncalled for. But his reason for doing so has me more worried than angry at the moment. Why did
Mom leave like that? Where was she trying to go? And how did she end up at the hospital?

  “Hurry it up, man!” Mike shouts from ahead.

  I grit my teeth and suppress a curse I know my mom wouldn’t approve of. “I’m moving as fast as I can, okay!”

  Jerk.

  The tunnel is about as big as the ones I mine in—large enough for a couple of busses to fit side by side, not that I expect to ever see a bus down here—and all along the smooth walls of are hatches to the other habitats. That’s the proper word for the container-sized houses we live in: habitats. In between the hatches are huge yellow letters that read, L32C.

  That’s the address of my neighborhood. Level 32, Block C.

  The place I’ve lived most of my life.

  I don’t even know who lives next to us, really.

  With the rigs and nano-processors, there isn’t much need to leave your habitat at all. Which is why the tunnel’s deserted, and feels more like a place that’s been abandoned rather than a real neighborhood. There are usually more people—and things for them to do, outside of Crystal Shards Online, that is—at the hub level on L100.

  That’s where we’re headed. The hospital is there.

  Mike’s waiting for me at the door of the lift station by the time I finally catch up to him. Like my avatar, he looks like a slightly cooler version of me. He’s twenty-six and has a goatee. The sides of his head are shaved, and the top’s grown long and plaited into corn rows. He’s built like a linebacker, too, which sort of reminds me of that warrior guy I met earlier. Zeke.

  He looks annoyed when I approach him. The feeling is mutual.

  “About time.”

  I ignore him as we enter the elevator car and take a seat. It’s got seating enough for forty people, but we’re the only ones on here. Still, like idiots, we sit close to one another, although we do leave a couple of seats between us. Guess brothers will be brothers no matter what.

  “Main hub,” Mike calls out. The automated system closes the doors and we begin to descend. The elevator can go up, too, of course, higher even than the first floor, close to the surface, but you need special access for that; access like my mom had when she used to work up there. Just the thought of my mom has my stomach gnawing with worry again.