Spellcraft

by Andrew Beymer

  “If they off me then I’m going to lose a lot of shit,” I growled.

  “What could you possibly have that’s so important as a noob?”

  “Reagents,” I said.

  “Reagents?”

  “Stuff you use to make things in the game?”

  “I know what reagents are,” she said, her eyes scanning through the trees as though she was expecting an attack to come at any moment. “I’m just wondering what the hell you’re doing with so many.”

  “I’ve been gathering stuff since we first arrived in the game,” I said. “It’s sort of a thing I do.”

  “Whatever,” she said. “Right now a thing you’re going to do is get your ass under those logs over there and hold your breath.”

  “What?” I asked. “Why would I…”

  I didn’t have a chance to protest or ask any more questions before she shoved me towards a bunch of fallen trees. I didn’t have much time to think of the indignity of getting pushed around before I heard voices calling to one another in the distance and I was thinking less of indignity and more about not getting ganked.

  That was good for getting my balls to shrivel up into my body nice and good. I didn’t want to think about what those voices would do if they found me, so I dove for the trees and tried to get as far under them as I could.

  It wasn’t until I got under them that I noticed the smell. And it must’ve been a hell of a smell, because it was assaulting my nostrils and refusing to go away even though I’d already turned that particular sensory slider down as far as it would go.

  “What the fuck did you just push me into?” I hissed, even though there was no need to hiss since I was talking into party chat.

  I looked up at the trees, and as I looked at them I realized they weren’t quite as treelike as I’d first thought. No, they were definitely long and they were definitely hard, but the illusion of felled trees was only because they had moss and other stuff growing on them.

  At least I thought that was moss, though it was unlike any moss I’d ever seen.

  Also? There was something small and white sticking out of them. I peered closer, and realized I was looking at bones. Bones that looked like they’d belonged to humans once upon a time. Or other large creatures that should’ve been too big for something to eat whole. I’m pretty sure there were a few goblins in there too.

  And that’s when I realized what I was looking at.

  “You had me hide under shit?” I hissed, making sure it stayed in party chat. “What the fuck?”

  “Quiet,” Keia said, though it was clear she was trying to suppress a giggle. “Do you want them to find you or not?”

  The voices were getting louder. I looked out from under the massive crap Keia had shoved me under. I felt sort of like Schwarzenegger when he was covered in mud to avoid the Predator. Though in this case it wasn’t mud hiding me.

  I tried to hold my breath, but it didn’t help. The smell had already gotten into my nostrils and my mouth. I was tasting it even though I was holding my breath.

  I was about to give Keia a piece of my mind when some people burst through the trees. Sereh was with them, and there were a few other people wearing Horizon Dawn tabards.

  They were all stealthers.

  I could even see Keia, for all that she’d gone into stealth mode. I guess being in a party with a stealther revealed them to you when they were in stealth mode, which was a neat trick.

  Now if only I could figure out a way to see the stealthers who were sneaking up on me to kill my ass as easily as I could see Keia.

  “Are you sure they went this way?” someone asked.

  “I’m telling you they went off in this direction,” Sereh said.

  “Shit,” one of the stealthers said.

  Fuck. I knew that voice. I might not be able to see his face, they were all wearing masks that made them look like rent-a-ninjas, but that was clearly Gregor.

  “If they’d run towards the little surprise I had waiting for them this would’ve all been over!” he hissed

  I hit Keia with a significant look. She rolled her eyes. It was too bad I was too terrified to say anything, for all that I knew they wouldn’t be able to hear me, because I sure felt like a good old fashioned “I told you so” right about now.

  “Keep moving!” Gregor said.

  “What about those trees over there?” one of the stealthers asked.

  My blood froze in my veins. Damn it. If they came over here it’d all be over. Sure Keia and I had shared a couple of moments, but I didn’t see her coming to my rescue while I was getting gang ganked by a bunch of Horizon Dawn pricks who’d be more than happy to add her to the ganking.

  “Are you kidding me?” Gregor asked. “There’s no way someone would be stupid enough to hide under that shit.”

  The girl who’d made the suggestion eyed my shitty hiding place for another long moment. Like she was thinking a place no rational person would ever hide was actually the perfect spot for someone to disappear.

  She even took a step towards me. Then wheeled around as Gregor stared daggers at her.

  “What are you doing Lorel?” he growled.

  Lorel held Gregor’s gaze, then sighed. “You have the patrol, of course.”

  “You’re damn right I have the patrol.”

  They moved off through the forest, making a hell of a racket as they went. Lorel paused for another moment to stare at my hiding spot like she was seriously considering coming over and checking the giant semi-petrified dung pile I was hiding under regardless of what Gregor said, then sighed and moved on. But not before hitting Gregor’s back with the kind of look that said she’d much rather be planting a dagger in Gregor’s back than her eyes.

  Then they were gone.

  “Whew, that was close,” Keia said, moving towards me. She stopped a good fifteen feet short though. Her eyes were watering as she waved a hand in front of her face. “Holy shit that stuff is nasty!”

  “Yeah, thanks for letting me hide under literal shit,” I said.

  “What can I say?” she said with a shrug. “It seemed like the best place for you to go where they wouldn’t go looking for you, and it turns out I was right.”

  “Only because Gregor’s a fucking idiot,” I said, pulling myself out from under the giant shit logs.

  “You can always count on Gregor, Kravos, and Torian to act like fucking idiots,” she said. Then she surprised me by pulling out a dagger and holding it in my general direction. “Don’t you dare come a step closer either. I don’t want to get any of that stink on me.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked, turning around to look at the giant shit logs.

  “Deadly serious,” she said.

  “What the hell made those giant logs, anyway?” I asked.

  “No one’s sure,” she said. “But it’s not the kind of thing I’d like to meet in person. So far the only thing anyone’s found are the remains. That or anyone who’s discovered whatever’s leaving behind those epic shits hasn’t lived to tell about it.”

  “But this is a game,” I said. “Anyone who got eaten by something would respawn and have a hell of a story.”

  “Which tells you nobody’s run into whatever’s leaving those little presents all over the forest,” Keia said. “Now come on. I know a hot spring nearby we can hit to get you cleaned off.”

  “Thank the maker,” I said.

  “Whatever, Threepio,” she said with a wink, further solidifying my opinion that this was a girl I wanted to get to know better, for all that she’d just saved my ass by shoving me under a literal pile of shit that clearly hadn’t left me smelling all that great to anyone who hadn’t turned down their smell slider.

  It was an odd way to fall for a girl, but I’d heard of weirder meet cutes.

  29

  New Plan

  “Are you sure it’s safe to step into this thing?” I asked.

  “Totally sure,” she said.

  I turned and eyed Keia where she stood at the edge
of the hot spring. She had a half smirk on her face that didn’t have me all that inclined to believe that she truly had my best interests at heart here.

  “Okay so maybe the hot springs flare up every once in awhile for no reason anyone can figure out and kill whoever’s in them, but I’m pretty sure it’s safe right now,” she said.

  I sighed. There were a lot of boiling pools around here. If I didn’t know any better I’d say this area was geologically active. I did know better, though, and figured it was far more likely that some game designer had been inspired by video of Yellowstone from back before the last major eruption destroyed everything.

  I dipped a toe into the pool and let out a sigh. For all that the thing was potentially deadly, it was also very comfy.

  Also? I was presented with a situation that was potentially a hell of a lot more worrying than any of the mortal danger I’d faced so far. If I was going to clean off I was going to have to get out of this starter gear, and given how realistic this game was that’d involve getting a little more undressed than I’d prefer around Keia.

  I mean it’s not that I wouldn’t mind getting undressed around her. It’s just that under the circumstances where I wasn’t sure whether or not she was interested in doing that sort of thing with me it was a touch embarrassing.

  “Um, could you turn around please?” I asked.

  “And miss the show?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

  I sighed. It’s not like I was a shrinking violet or anything. I wasn’t going to shut down because a girl wanted to not “miss the show,” as she’d put it. I was more frustrated than anything because I knew she wasn’t going to reciprocate.

  Whatever. I pulled my starting clothes off and tossed them into the pool, idly wondering why I got cloth crap when Kris got leather armor. There wasn’t a class selection at character creation, so it’s not like there was a way for the game to tell what the default was unless it was reading my brain to figure that out in which case I didn’t know whether to be insulted or impressed at getting cloth, and… I forgot all about that shit as I stepped into the warm water.

  I forced myself not to turn and see Keia’s reaction.

  If she wanted a show then I was going to give her a show. What I wasn’t going to give her was the upper hand because I was embarrassed at her checking me out.

  “That’s the stuff,” I said, sighing contentedly.

  “Hell yeah that’s the stuff,” Keia said. “And the good news is the sulfur smell around here masks your stink!”

  I hit her with a bit of the old stinkeye to go along with the stink that was wafting off of me. I also scooted lower in the hot spring so she wouldn’t be able to see anything without getting closer.

  There was a part of me that very much wanted her to get closer.

  “So what the hell was up with that merry band?” I said. “That Lorel girl said something about a patrol, but I thought they were coming out specifically to get us?”

  Keia walked over and sat on a big rock near the edge of the hot spring. It was a perch that gave her an unobstructed view of everything going on under the surface given how clear the water was. I forced myself to continue washing like she wasn’t obviously checking me out.

  I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction, damn it, even if her smile did seem pretty satisfied. The last thing I needed was for her to see that this was bothering me, or exciting me, so I turned around.

  “I imagine Gregor and some of his friends came out special to help Sereh when she got ganked,” Keia said. “And then they met up with a patrol that was already out and about making sure nobody gets to the Goblinsteel Mines without paying the price.”

  “Great,” I said. “The last thing we need is more Horizon Dawn people out here looking for us. I’m getting the feeling it’s going to be a huge pain in the ass trying to make a living in a town they control.”

  “But they don't have complete control of Nilbog,” Keia said.

  “You sure about that?” I asked. “Because they sure as hell seem to be in control of things from where I’m standing!”

  “Well yeah, but they’re just bullying people around with PVP,” Keia said.

  “As opposed to other methods of control?”

  “Well yeah. The goblin guards hate them, and Torian is constantly having to pay fines to keep his people out of jail,” she said.

  I leaned forward, suddenly interested in this conversation. “You’re saying someone could control the guards?”

  “Everyone’s pretty sure it’s possible. Whoever controlled them would have to get a Writ of Nobility though.”

  “What’s that?” I asked, even though I was pretty sure I knew exactly what it was from context.

  “Exactly what it sounds like,” she said. “Local royals rule the game world, but players can take that power from them. The game sort of goes from an RPG to a strategy game with RPG elements at that point. At least that’s what everyone’s guessing right now since no one’s actually done it and the devs are being frustratingly vague about what’s possible on the forums. The point is, actually seizing control of territory isn’t something anyone has figured out.”

  "What does someone have to do to get a Writ of Nobility?” I asked, scrubbing off my armor.

  "They have to spend a shitload of money, I think,” she said. “No one’s really clear on how it’s done. I know Torian has been trying for awhile, though, and considering the amount of money he has to throw around via Horizon I figure it must cost a hell of a lot to get a Writ. Lotus obviously didn’t want it to be easy."

  “So basically players taking territory isn’t something anyone will see for the first few weeks after launch,” I said.

  “Or during early access,” she said.

  "That's odd," I said.

  "How do you figure?" she asked.

  "I mean if these Horizon Dawn people really have a corporation like Horizon backing them you'd think they'd be able to throw enough money at the problem to take control, right? Like whatever the amount is, I’m sure it’s a drop in the bucket for those assholes. That’s probably less than the line item they have for coke and hookers. If Horizon is that intent on controlling territory in Lotus you’d think buying a Writ would be a no brainer if money was the only problem.”

  "Maybe," she said. “It doesn’t help that the only noble around here disappeared before the game went live, from a story point of view, and no one knows who to go to now.”

  “Weird,” I said, my mind racing. There was a problem here, and I loved a good problem. “What if there's some other requirements they have to fulfill, and they're not figuring it out?"

  "I suppose it's a possibility," Keia said. "Honestly it's not something I ever thought about since I'm never going to have enough money to afford a Writ.”

  She got a far off look in her eyes and sighed. "It’d be wonderful to be able to turn the town guards and other administrative stuff against them though. Can you imagine the looks on their faces as they get cut down by the guards they’re bribing to make it look like they’re running the place?”

  I could imagine, actually. It was a pretty vivid vision I was conjuring up. Almost as vivid as some of the visions I’d been having of Keia joining me in this hot spring.

  Taking control of territory sounded like the exact sort of “breaking the game within the confines of the game’s rules” sort of thing I loved pulling off. The wheels were already turning as I tried to think of ways I could make it happen, but I was coming up with a blank.

  Still, there was a mechanism there I could use to cause some mischief. I just had to figure out how.

  “So if they don’t have the Writ, how are they bossing the guards around?” I asked.

  “Like I said before: bribes,” she said. “The bribe system is completely separate from the Writ, and it has to be costing them a shitload to be using that system instead of installing a new noble to run things considering how many times they get on the wrong side of the local law.”

  “Whi
ch lends credence to my theory that they haven’t figured out how to get a Writ,” I said. “If it was just money then Horizon would own this world by now. There’s something else going on here.”

  “Like I said, maybe,” she said with a shrug. “It’s not something I ever worried about.”

  Her eyes went distant as she glanced at something on her heads up display. “I should probably get going, though. It's been fun, but I’ve got stuff to do. The ganking patrol has moved on, and you should have a clear path back to Nilbog.”

  I wasn't ready for her to go. Sure she’d killed my friend and sure she’d been sort of responsible for me getting a dagger to my arm, but she’d also saved my ass a couple of times now.

  I figured I owed her, and the fact that she looked so good standing there with her striking green eyes and that easy smile, not to mention that leather armor that formed to her body in all the right places, had me wanting to get to know her better. The way she kept stealing glances down into the clear bubbling water made me think she was interested in getting to know me better too.

  In short, I was suffering from the same affliction that happens to so many teenage boys. I was being led around by the brain between the legs, and once that brain started calling the shots there was no getting around it.

  I knew I was doing something stupid because I was interested in a girl, and I didn’t care. I wanted to spend more time with her. I wouldn’t be the first guy who did something stupid while under the influence of a hottie in a tight outfit that showed off everything.

  "What are you doing out here that's so important?" I asked.

  She smiled. It was one of those knowing smiles that said she knew I was trying to get her to spend more time with me, even if it was only a couple of minutes. She also went for the bait, pointedly glancing into the water as she took that bait, and I figured a transparent tactic that worked wasn’t anything to sneeze at.

  "I'm on a fetch quest," she said. "One that’s probably impossible now because of Horizon Dawn shutting down the Goblinsteel Mines. Especially now that Gregor and the asshole patrol are on heightened alert.”