Spellcraft

by Andrew Beymer

  "Just remember that the moment I hear of you consorting with Horizon Dawn or hurting goblins is the moment you're going to be tortured and run out," I said. “The guards are on my side here, so there’s nothing to stop me from killing you in the middle of town if you cause trouble. The same fate waits for anyone else who’s thinking about sticking around and spying or harming goblins. We will find you, and the penalty is torture, death, and exile."

  I figured I had to add that last bit. After all, it's not like death was much of a threat in a game where death was merely a passing inconvenience for player characters.

  “Holy shit,” Keia said. "Did you really just gut Torian in front of everybody?"

  “He did what?” Kris asked.

  “So you saw my little show from your hiding spot?” I asked.

  “Forget my hiding spot!” she said. "This is being broadcast all over the Internet from multiple streams! You're the biggest news event in gaming. Again!"

  I looked out at the crowd gathered before me. Each and every one of them had the ability to record and live stream whatever they were doing in Lotus to the real world the same as I’d been able to do the same when I was killing the Blood King.

  I hadn’t been doing any streaming myself, though I had been recording everything to be released later. I didn't want to have a public Internet feed telling the world, and Torian by extension, what I was doing.

  Only now as I looked at the gathered gamers surrounding me I realized my actions were being streamed even if I wasn’t the one doing it.

  "Well how about that," I said.

  I clapped my hands. Everyone in the crowd jumped, as though they were afraid I was going to grab another dagger and come after them next. Which might be true. I hoped my grin looked just a touch unhinged as I stared at the crowd.

  "Well what the hell are you all waiting for? Either get the hell out of Horizon Dawn or get the hell out of my town!"

  That was good for kicking everyone's asses into gear. They all started moving at once, and the end result was a bunch of people bumping into one another all at once in a stampede to be the first out of the circle and, presumably, away from the murderous Duke who’d just seized control.

  I ignored the chaos I’d created. I was tired after everything we’d done, and I really needed a break. I figured exploring the brand new keep would go a long way towards lifting my spirits. So I headed for the building I’d stared at whenever I came through town, wondering exactly how the hell someone could take control of that place and, by extension, the town.

  Now I had my answer, and I couldn't help but chuckle and shake my head.

  I stepped through the gate and found myself in a large courtyard. Large enough that someone could easily land one of the airships here. Almost as though the people who designed the game knew those airships were lurking in a crafting menu somewhere if the right person came along and figured it out, and wanted to make sure they were usable to whoever was defending this keep.

  “The keep seems to be clear,” I said to Keia. "Why don't you come down and see what there is to see?"

  “That depends,” she said.

  “On?”

  “On whether or not the tour includes a nice huge over the top comfortable bed with lots of pillows,” she said. “Gotta break in your new digs.”

  I grinned as I realized exactly what she was saying.

  “Um, I’ll just be out here supervising kicking Horizon Dawn out of here while you two get a room if you don’t mind,” Kris said. “Have fun storming the castle!”

  82

  Back to School

  I was feeling pretty damn good about myself and my new life as a hero and in-game noble as I took the lift up to the school. Usually when I was walking through the slums and looked up at the distant pinpoint of light that was the school far above everything else I felt a sense of dread and anticipation.

  Dread because I knew I was going to be running into assholes like Trent, and anticipation because I knew I’d get to see Kara.

  Only now that anticipation turned to outright glee as the door opened and I saw none other than Kara standing there waiting for me. She'd been doing that for the past week, but it was still something I was getting used to. Like the idea that Kara would actually be interested in me…

  No. I wasn't going to think like that anymore. I’d been in a deep funk and I hadn't even realized it because of Diana’s death, and now that I was finally coming out of that, now that I’d finally gotten some measure of revenge against those assholes at Horizon, it was like I suddenly had permission to live my life again. Which was an odd sensation, but it was also a hell of a good sensation.

  Even better? Whenever I glanced at my account the balance was going up and up. Spellcraft Industries, my new guild I set up yesterday after deciding it was okay to skip school in the aftermath of that battle, was selling out of gear as fast as I could make it and put it up on the Auction House.

  Meanwhile all the Horizon stuff that had been selling like hotcakes was gathering digital dust. It served those motherfuckers right.

  "Hey there!" Kara said, wrapping her arms around me.

  She wrapped her legs around me too, which sent me spilling back. The only thing that stopped me from falling into the lift was the doors had hissed shut behind me.

  I enjoyed a moment of kissing Kara. I moved my hands down for some fun, but her backpack was in the way. Which was probably a good thing considering teachers tended to frown on the kind of things we’d gotten up to in the game world while we were exploring the keep.

  That had been a damn good time. There were a lot of empty rooms in that keep, a lot of modifications I could make to turn those empty rooms into something impressive, and it just so happened I was flush with cash so we’d been able to create some very interesting surroundings for our necking.

  A couple of people commented on us sucking face against the lift opening, but I didn't care. All I cared about was I got to feel Kara in the real world. Which felt about the same as getting to make out with her in the game world, it was that realistic, but there was something about knowing this was happening in the real world that gave it a little more oomph.

  Though finally, frustratingly, she pulled away from that kiss. She did smile as she wiped some of her smeared lipstick.

  “You kiss just as good in the real world as you do in the game," she said, pausing for a moment to get her breathing under control.

  I held out a hand and Kara took it. We walked deeper into the school together. There were plenty of people out and about since class hadn’t started yet, and most of them were looking at me with expressions ranging from awe to pure hatred.

  It was a weird experience. I hadn't gone public about who I was, for all that the whole world wanted to know now that the livestream of me winning the battle of the Goblinsteel Mine and the subsequent execution I held in the public circle in Nilbog had become big news even outside the game press.

  My original plan has been to keep some measure of anonymity in the real world. I’d figured that would keep us safe from Horizon and whatever they might try to do to fuck with me if my identity got out, but that’d all turned out to be a moot point.

  Because Torian a.k.a. Trent knew exactly who I was in the game world and in the real world, and Torian a.k.a. Trent was in a vengeful mood after getting his ass repeatedly handed to him in front of the whole world.

  So it hadn’t been long before my real identity had been leaked, and after that I’d gone ahead and revealed I was also the infamous Horizon troll who’d baited and killed a game master in a Horizon module where I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. I figured if I was already going to have the world breathing down my neck I might as well take credit for everything.

  That’d gotten even more talking heads blathering their inane nonsense, Hoovering up likes and subscribes by vapidly repeating the same nonsense about how I was going from game to game beating Horizon at their own game.

  "What are you thinking about?" Kara
asked.

  "What makes you think I’m thinking about anything?” I asked.

  "You have that look. The one you get when you're thinking about a problem and you’re about to do something stupid that I'm going to yell at you about but then you turn out to be okay when it's all said and done."

  That was enough to pull me out of my funk and thinking about Trent, Horizon, my sister, and what Horizon might try to do to me if they could figure out a way to get at me in the real world and make it look like an accident.

  If they were willing to kill people or turn them into vegetables using Lotus hardware in the real world then I had no doubt they also wouldn't be above sending a couple of burly goons to kneecap me with a crowbar or something to teach me a lesson about the darker side of market capitalism.

  "I was thinking about how things are so different now. Everything's changed, but everything still feels kind of the same."

  "Well almost the same," Kara said. "After all. You beat the bully. You got the girl. You saved the game world, sort of. You saved a lot of goblins, at least. You’re also getting rich off of all of that, which ain’t bad.”

  I frowned. Yeah, that was something, but it wasn’t enough. I was taking Horizon to the cleaners right now on the Auction House, but Horizon Dawn was far from the only guild Horizon had set up in Lotus. There were other sprawling kingdoms that’d been taken over by Horizon guilds, I’d learned about a good chunk of them after the ones nearest to Nilbog sent me formal declarations of war, and they’d have to be dealt with.

  I figured it was only a matter of time before they hit back at me on the Auction House. I wasn’t sure what their angle would be, but I knew I had to be ready for anything those bastards might throw at me.

  Still, I’d won a victory. I figured I should enjoy it while I could instead of worrying about the next problem too much. That would never stop me from thinking about the next problem, that wasn’t how I operated, but I figured I should bask in my triumph for a little while without remembering thou art mortal too much.

  “I saved the goblins and I have a shitload of money," I said. “That doesn’t hurt things at all.”

  I pulled out my tablet and thumbed to open up my in-game bank account. Sure enough there was the balance, bigger than anything I’d ever seen outside of maybe a high score I’d pulled in an ancient 2D video game where high scores were still a thing. And that balance was only going up faster and faster as we established supply routes between the Underground and Nilbog and really got the mass production going.

  Discovering I could foist off listing things on the Auction House to a goblin instead of doing it myself had been a relief. Otherwise I would’ve been spending all my time sitting at the Auction House listing items and collecting the money.

  Kara leaned over my shoulder and let out a low whistle when she saw the number.

  "Damn," she said. "You're rich! Good thing I got with you before you were loaded, right?"

  I rolled my eyes. That was something she'd mentioned a couple of times. Like she was terrified I was going to dump her because I had some crazy idea that she was in this for the money. I knew gold digging wasn't her style, though. If it was then she would’ve stuck with Trent and Horizon Dawn back when he was the one with the deep pockets.

  "You need to stop worrying about that," I said.

  "As soon as you stop being so insecure about getting with the pretty girl," she said with a wink.

  My mouth fell open. I couldn't believe she'd read my mind like that. Then again I’d heard of women doing that. I’d also heard it wasn't always a pleasant experience, and it was something I more than understood now.

  "It feels kind of weird to go to class now," I said. "I mean I have more money than most everybody at this school is ever going to see. Even the teachers and the principal. And we’re just getting started!”

  "Well graduation is only in a month or so," Keia said. "Might be a good idea for you to stick it out until then."

  I grunted something noncommittal. To be honest I wasn't sure what to do about my future. The future that’d been waiting for me after high school had always worried me. A few weeks ago I’d had no idea what I was going to do once I was kicked out of the shanty.

  Now I could afford whatever I wanted. I could even move away from this level, which was probably going to be a necessity now that my secret identity was getting around. It would only be a matter of time before someone tried to knock me over, not realizing that all of my fortune was digital.

  It was an odd feeling.

  "How about we don't worry about any of that for now?" Keia asked. "Besides. If you were to leave school now I'd be bored out of my mind."

  "I don't know," I said. "After all, I’m going to need somebody to help me run my new territory and Spellcraft Industries, and who knows what kind of stipend might be involved with that considering the kind of money I’m pulling in?

  Her eyes twinkled. She leaned up and kissed me again, and then pulled back. She was suddenly serious. I didn’t like serious. The twinkle had been a hell of a lot more fun. The promise behind the twinkle had been a hell of a lot more fun, for that matter.

  "Don't go making decisions like that with your dick," she said. "I like you. I really like you, and I don't want to fuck things up because you're trying to be my knight in shining armor or something."

  "I wasn't…"

  I was cut off by a familiar voice. A voice I’d gotten to know much better in the game world than in the real world recently, though I didn't care for either the in game or the real world incarnation.

  "What the fuck are you doing here, noob?” Trent said.

  We stopped. The crowds stopped like something out of a movie where there was about to be a fight and everyone wanted to see. Almost everyone, at least.

  Keia looked at me with the same worry she’d shown when I was riding an airship to its almost certain doom. Though the look she gave me now said she was well aware the consequences outside the game could be a hell of a lot more serious than anything happening inside the game.

  I wouldn’t respawn if Trent got carried away here in the real world and did too much damage, after all.

  "You don't have to do this," Keia said.

  "Do what?" I asked.

  I tried to give her my most innocent look and knew, deep down, that it wasn't going to work. She'd had enough time to deal with me and my sweet and innocent looks in the game world that she had to know I was up to something.

  Sure enough she slapped my chest. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to let me know she knew I was up to something.

  "You're planning something," she said. "Don't deny it. I know when you're up to something."

  "So what if I am?" I asked.

  "You've got a plan?" a familiar voice said from behind us. “I love it when your plans come together!”

  I didn't bother to turn to look at Kris. If there was trouble brewing then of course she’d appear.

  "There's no trouble at all," I said. “Kara is worried that Trent is going to try to beat me up."

  Kris looked at Trent who shoved his way through a rapidly gathering body of students. Kris seemed to analyze the situation for a moment, and finally shrugged.

  "I'm not as good at all of the analytical stuff as you are, I'll admit that, but it sure looks like he wants to beat the shit out of you."

  "Well we’ll just have to see what happens," I said. "He couldn't take me in the game, so I guess he's bringing the fight to the real world.”

  It occurred to me that this could be bad. Like I could truly be on the verge of getting my ass kicked. I didn't think that was the case, I’d put in some contingency plans while I was busy organizing my territory yesterday and debriefing Kravos and some of the other Horizon Dawn people who were acting like they were turncoats for all that I didn’t trust them, but there was always the chance the people who were a part of my contingency plan might not get here in time with the way the crowds had moved in.

  "What the fuck do you thi
nk you're doing showing your face here?" Trent spat once he’d reached me.

  I tried to act genuinely confused. After all, the one thing that’d served me well in all the fights I’d had with Torian a.k.a. Trent so far had been getting him good and riled up to the point that he did something monumentally stupid that I could take advantage of.

  "Um. I know I can't be totally sure, but I think I go to school here?" I said. “Seems like a pretty good reason to be here.”

  Trent rolled his eyes. Then he gave me a good shove. I stumbled back a couple of steps. It irritated me that I was stumbling back, but there wasn't much I could do. The asshole was strong.

  "You’d better watch that mouth of yours," Trent said. "You might be able to get away with that shit in the game, but you're not going to get out of trouble so easily here in the real world where I can pound your ass.”

  “Y’know you keep saying things like that, and it makes me think it’s more than a Freudian slip,” I said, winking and making a kissyface at him.

  Which had Trent’s face turning red as the crowd around him laughed. It’s not that I had anything against someone who made that choice, but Trent was the kind of asshole who still saw “gay” as an insult in this day and age, so I’d use it if it’d piss him off.

  “You’d better watch that mouth of yours,” Trent said, shoving me again.

  Kara cried out and took a step forward with her fists clenched. I hit her with a warning glance, and she stopped short of getting involved. The last thing I needed was her getting in the middle of this. I had visions of her getting hit with a rogue punch or something.

  "You don't have any of your goblin friends here asshole," Trent said. "You can't pull out a gem and blow me the fuck up either.”

  He balled his hand into a fist and held it up in front of my nose which left no doubt in my mind exactly what he was planning to do with that fist.

  You get punched here you're going to feel it," he said. "No game to make it hurt less. I've been looking forward to this.”