Though to be fair he probably thought he was safe. That no one would dare attack him when their attack would clearly be followed by everyone in his group doing their best to hack his attacker down for daring to take on their fearless leader. I’m sure he’d never imagined a scenario where someone would use a crafting fail state to eliminate all his friends before they could exact any pesky vengeance.
Not that he’d be around either way. Not with his body busy erupting in a column of flame as his head flew off, that mixture of surprise and smug confidence frozen in place as his head sailed through the air. If there was any justice in the world the game would keep Gregor conscious in his flying head so he could see the full extent of his fuck up.
Some of Gregor’s toadies recoiled in horror at what Keia had done, while the other more pragmatic members of his merry band were in the process of pulling out their glowing Horizon Syndicate weapons in anticipation of getting some revenge.
I wasn't interested in any of them, though. Not the ones pulling out their weapons or the ones looking on in horror. No, the only one I was interested in was the lone Horizon Dawn member near the middle who leaned down and picked up the brightly glowing gem that’d landed in their midst with a plate armored hand that must’ve protected her from the heat.
She regarded the glowing gem curiously. Meanwhile I grabbed Keia, still standing there with her shoulders heaving as she stared down at Gregor with a mix of satisfaction and horror, and pulled her back and down to the ground.
“What the…”
I pointed to the gem. Keia’s eyes went wide and she buried her face in the ground even as some of the Horizon people started towards us, laughing and talking about all the unpleasant things they were going to do to us even though we were submitting.
I held my breath. If that idiot holding my gem tossed it the thing wouldn’t do nearly as much damage. The girl didn't try to toss it though. No, she merely regarded it with curiosity, and that curious look was still on her face when the thing exploded in a massive concussion that created a crater and sent little bits of Horizon Dawn assholes flying everywhere.
“Take that, fuckers!” I shouted, knowing they’d hear me since none of them had released and left little chests full of whatever they were carrying behind.
A bit of gunk that’d recently been a member of Horizon Dawn splatted on my head. A wave of nausea and disgust washed over me as I wiped it off. Sure I knew it wasn't actually a bit of someone else's body, but it felt pretty close to the real thing.
Yet at the same time I was also impressed. After all, the devs had taken the time to figure out what it would look like when someone was blown to tiny little bits and accurately simulate it, even though it didn't seem like that was the kind of thing that would happen in a medieval game.
Or maybe it was. Maybe they'd worked out the whole Spellcraft thing and the explosion animation was meant for the poor bastards who came to an unfortunate end as a result of daring to mess with forces that shouldn’t be.
I stared at the damage I’d wrought. Damage that was rendered in stomach-churning detail.
The crater I’d created was as big as the one that’d been created in the quarry. Maybe larger because this one had been created in the soft forest floor and not in solid rock.
"Damn," Keia breathed.
I looked at the disgusting blood and guts surrounding us. "That was the single most revolting thing I think I've ever seen happen in a video game, and I’ve been to a few starter zones in MMOs where people acted out their depraved fantasies with creepy asterisks in public chat where anyone can read their amateur erotica.”
"Clearly you haven't been playing this game long enough to see people acting that stuff out live and in person,” she said, hitting me with a wink that hinted at the possibility of us trying something like that. "Besides, it's not like they're going to be around for long."
Sure enough, the guts started to decompose. The bits and pieces slowly rotted away until there was nothing but little treasure chests in the forest floor where our wannabe attackers had been standing when they met their grisly but much deserved demise.
I was thankful the chests appeared where they’d been standing when they met their untimely end considering how far some of the Horizon Dawn bits had been flung in that explosion.
“That's one way to clean up the mess after you've killed someone," I said.
"Convenient, isn't it?" Keia asked.
I hit her with a sharp stare. She held her hands up. "Not that I know anything about disposing of a body in the real world."
I grinned and shook my head. I decided I really didn’t want to cross this girl if we ever met in the real world. Though she might be useful to have around while dodging tweakers and addicts on the way to school in the morning.
“Lots of chests,” Keia said.
“A shitload of loot,” I agreed.
I got the feeling it wouldn’t be long before those assholes respawned and came back here, so I started tapping treasure chests and emptying them as fast as I could go.
I needed that loot to get new spell infusions, damn it!
37
Encumbrance
"Hey!" Keia said. "We’re going to share this loot, right?"
"Of course we are," I said. "But I'm taking all the Horizon gear. At least I’m taking all the stuff with stat bonuses on it.”
"Going to do that little nifty disenchanting thing on them?" she asked.
"That's the idea," I said with a grin.
There were all kinds of nifty spell infusions on these weapons and armor. I held up a sword and concentrated until I felt the same warmth I got earlier doing the disenchant on Kris’s sword.
No tooltip popped up this time. The blade glowed, that spell mist appeared around it, and then I was the proud owner of a spell infusion that added a chance to do some ice damage every time the owner landed a hit.
"This is going to be fun,” I said.
I tapped any and every miniature chest I could find. It was pretty easy because, despite the fact that the Horizon Dawn people had been blown to bits, it seemed the game had decided their treasure chests would appear in the spot where they'd expired and not where the various bits of their bodies had landed which would’ve made for a much longer search.
Weapons weren’t the only thing I found. There was plenty of gold which went to Keia as thanks for being nice and letting me have all the weapons with enchants.
There was also the occasional bit of goblinsteel ore. I held onto that after promising Keia I’d make her something nice out of the stuff when I finally figured out how to do that.
All I really cared about were the weapons and armor with stat bonuses, though. I was going to have a field day disenchanting all of this. I’d just discovered Spellcrafting and now I’d been given a buffet of enchants to choose from. Talk about dumb luck!
Literally dumb luck, considering all those Horizon people had been dumb enough to stand in a nice cluster long enough for me to blow them to tiny meaty bits.
Not that there was much else we could do with Horizon weapons aside from disenchanting them. I wasn’t going to use them, and considering all I knew about Keia I figured she wasn’t going to use them either. I also assumed Horizon Dawn would take a dim view of anyone who tried selling their stuff to other players.
Actually that was an idea to consider. If selling their shit would really piss them off then that was something I was really interested in.
I was in the middle of disenchanting something and enjoying pleasant thoughts of pissing off Horizon Dawn when Keia looked up and cocked her head to the side in a now familiar gesture.
"What is it?" I asked. “Is little Timmy stuck in a well?”
She flipped me off. "I hear something coming this way. Though I should’ve let whoever it is come and kill you if you’re going to be a sarcastic ass.”
I listened, but I couldn't hear anything. Well I could hear the typical forest sounds all around us, but I didn’t hear anything in tha
t forest that sounded particularly dangerous to yours truly.
"I got nothing," I said.
She rolled her eyes. "Of course you've got nothing. You don't have the listening abilities I do."
"I figured you'd say something like that," I said. “If there’s something out there looking for us then I figure it’s time to get the hell out of here."
There was just one problem with that idea. I tried to burst into a run, that seemed like the right pace to get the fuck away from some assholes hellbent on killing my ass, but my movement was slow. Ridiculously slow. As though I was trying to walk through thick molasses or something.
I’d heard a story about a molasses tank exploding in a city once upon a time and people drowning in the slow moving death. I wondered if this was what it’d felt like as those poor old timey bastards suffered one of the most unpleasant and ridiculous deaths humanity had ever accidentally devised.
"What the fuck?”
"What's wrong?" Keia asked.
"I can't move!" I said. “I mean I could move from chest to chest in the little cluster of dead Horizon fucks here no problem, but when I try to break into a run it’s like running through invisible quicksand!”
She rolled her eyes, and she was obviously having trouble keeping it together from the way she grinned and covered her mouth.
"What?" I asked.
“Duh. You’re encumbered!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked. "Encumbered? They put encumbrance in this game?"
“You should’ve figured that one out on your own,” she said.
“I thought they were better than that,” I said. “Encumbrance isn’t a very realistic mechanic, thank you very much.
“Of course it is when you really think about it," Keia said. "Everything in this game is realistic. Is the idea of you being able to carry unlimited amounts of loot all that realistic?"
I sighed. “I guess being able to carry infinite stuff in some magic bag of holding isn’t realistic, but the idea that there’s some arbitrary point after which you suddenly can’t move always annoyed me.”
“Doesn’t work like that,” Keia said. “There’s a sliding scale of encumbrance. The more stuff you carry past your ability to carry the slower you move. It’s not a line you cross or anything.”
“Great. So what do I do about it?"
"Drop some stuff?" she asked.
"But if I do that we’re going to lose a lot of the ore we just found!" I said.
“Are you kidding?” she said. “You’re not dropping that ore. That stuff is too fucking valuable to leave lying around for those pricks to get for nothing. Drop that stupid Horizon Syndicate stuff.”
“But I’ll lose the spell infusions,” I said, a note of panic coming to my voice.
I wouldn’t have cared a whit thirty minutes ago if I had to leave a bunch of Horizon Syndicate crap behind. Now, though, that stuff was a valuable source of potential money and skill gains for this new ability I’d discovered. It could very well be as valuable as the goblinsteel ore. Maybe more valuable.
This was the ultimate crafting ability in this game, if I didn’t miss my guess. That meant something intangible like a spell infusion could easily be worth way more than more tangible stuff like goblinsteel ore.
Just like I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get back to a high level mine any time soon to get more goblinsteel ore, I also didn’t know when I’d find a treasure trove of stuff to disenchant like this again. Maybe not in a good long while considering all the help it’d taken to get out here in the first place and the clever improvising it took to make the big boom that converted these assholes from players to loot.
“Come on. I can hear them getting closer,” Keia said. “They know exactly where we are, and if we're stupid enough to stick around they’re gonna make us seriously regret it!”
"I have a feeling enchanted items like this are going to be a real pain in the ass to find without going through dungeons or something.”
“So what are you going to do about it?” Keia asked. “You wanna get away with some of it or try and take it all and get your ass killed?”
“I’m going to disenchant them, damn it!"
"We don't have time," she said. "Why don't you hand me some stuff?"
"You've been loaded down with ore and that stuff is pretty heavy," I said. "Do you have space to carry anything and still be able to skedaddle?”
She went glassy eyed. I figured that meant she was looking at her encumbrance. I thought of my own, and a number appeared in front of me. It looked like I was currently using 150% of my 100% encumbrance with all the weapons I was carrying.
Great. I hated it when games foisted realistic stuff like this on players. It was even more annoying seeing something realistic being translated into math by a game that’d otherwise been so hyperrealistic that the math felt like it was hidden so far.
I disenchanted another sword. I got a nice little strength enhancement spell infusion from the thing. I figured I could make some good money from something like that. Assuming I survived to use any of these infusions.
At least I could rest assured that any spell infusions I learned here would survive my death, unlike the ore and flower petals. I decided not to mention that to Keia. I figured she’d take a dim view of me willingly sacrificing us and our loot because I could get something out of this that’d survive getting ganked.
Also? Disenchanting that damned sword only took down my encumbrance by about two percent. Motherfucker!
"Toss some stuff on the ground," she said. “I’ll see how much I can carry."
I tossed a couple of pieces of armor to the ground with one hand as I disenchanted another sword with the other. I only had to hold the things in one hand to disenchant which was useful. That left my other hand free for tossing stuff to the forest floor.
It made a hell of a racket as it landed, but I figured I didn’t have to worry about drawing the wrong kind of attention when the wrong kind of attention already knew exactly where we were hiding.
The sword yielded a lightning infusion. That’d be useful. I found another one that was just another fire infusion and tossed it to the side. I didn’t need to waste time on spell infusions I already had.
That brought me down to 144% encumbrance. Not enough. Even I could hear someone crashing through the forest around us now. They were close. Close enough that I could almost feel the swords poking into me.
"This is going to be close," Keia said.
"I don't think it's going to be close," I said. “We’re not going to make it."
Another sword disappeared in a puff of digital magic. This one added a percentage to attack. Another thing that seemed like it would be frightfully useful. For other players. It’s not like I could get much use out of it considering I didn’t have much in the way of offensive ability.
"This is all I can carry," Keia said, staring down at a pile of loot she hadn’t picked up.
There must’ve been something in the look I gave her. She rolled her eyes and made a disgusted noise.
"You need these stupid spell infusions more than you need to live with all your stuff?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “If they kill your ass then you’re not going to have anything. Everything in your inventory will be in a little glowing chest on the forest floor next to those items.”
Again I decided it wouldn’t be prudent to mention I’d get away with the spell infusions. She looked frustrated enough to commit murder as it was, and I was the only convenient victim.
“Motherfucker,” I growled. “This shit would’ve been valuable, too.”
"Damn it," Keia said.
She held her hands out and a bow and arrow appeared with a little transporter effect like from an ancient Star Trek movie. No sooner had it appeared in that outstretched hand than she pulled the string back and let loose with an arrow that flew into the forest with a loud hiss.
The hiss was very quickly followed by a thunk and a loud scream.
“Wha
t are you doing?” I asked as another weapon, this time a bow and arrow, disappeared in a white puff of magical energy in my hands.
“That was me conceding the point that you need to get as many of these things disenchanted as possible,” she said. “And that sound was one of my former guildmates getting an arrow to the knee.”
She grinned. "Though hopefully I hit a far more critical piece of anatomy than the asshole’s knee. Hard to tell when I’m firing based on sound and not on what I can see.”
“Keep it up," I said. “But let me know when you can’t hold them off any longer.”
“Will do,” she said, loosing another arrow that was shortly followed by another thunk and another pained scream.
I pulled out weapons and disenchanted them as fast as I could, but it was still a race I knew we were going to lose. I could hear more and more people crashing through the underbrush, and I knew if I could hear them then they were too close. It sounded like they had a whole raiding party coming at us.
"We might have tonight's raid coming for our asses," Keia muttered. “You really pissed them off.”
“That happens a lot with me and Horizon.”
I held up an armored chest piece that was a lot heavier than anything else in my inventory. It was time to be strategic about the stuff I was getting rid of.
The piece gave the wearer a bonus to defense. I concentrated. It glowed, but there wasn't the usual puff of magic that made the thing disappear.
I bit back a couple of curses. Of all the times for the disenchant ability to suddenly get pissy because something I was trying to disenchant was beyond my ability, this was the worst. I didn’t even know how the damn game determined whether or not something was beyond my ability to disenchant.
I did know this thing was a big motherfucker. It’d probably been attached to a big motherfucker before that motherfucker turned into little bits and pieces of motherfucker. If I got rid of the thing it’d go a long way towards getting rid of my encumbrance.
Spellcraft Page 28