Was that their common thread? Had Damian built some sort of algorithm to target loners? It must look at social media presence for friends and then living relatives. If they fit that criteria and had over a certain amount of money, then they would be inserted into a monster when they died and their money somehow siphoned off to Damian.
But Jace didn’t have money. Except, Jace had information about the code he had found and if he were inserted into the game and talked to other players enough, word would eventually make its way back to WorldCog and there might be an investigation.
He cursed. Asking Damian about that code had been signing his own death warrant. There was no way his ex-coworker would risk losing all of his money and his lucrative money maker. So he’d tried to kill Jace over it. “Bastard!”
Startled, Mika looked over. “Who?”
“Damian,” he replied, trying to suppress the anger so he didn’t take it out on her. “I think I just figured out how he chose us, well you and the others, to be inserted into monsters.”
“Really?” she asked.
“He’s targeting loners and people with no family,” he retorted. “It makes sense. If someone has no friends or family, there will be no one looking for them online. Less chance of them creating a ruckus.”
Mika thought for a moment. “But Diana is famous, right?”
Jace smiled bitterly. “Her pen name is famous. My guess is, her real name probably has no social presence and she had been old enough that the rest of her family were dead. At least, she never mentioned any kids or grandkids.”
Mika’s face contorted into an angry mask. “He is a despicable person! Preying on lonely people! He is a monster!”
“Graverobber,” Jace muttered. He’d heard right from Damian what he thought of the people he robbed. To him they were dead. They had no rights and no right to the money they meant to transfer into the game.
Mika growled and pounded her fist on the railing. “We must make him pay!”
“I agree,” he told her. “But the best we can hope for is that WorldCog investigates him and that he gets arrested.”
“Bah,” she spat. “That is not bad enough for him!”
“Maybe,” Jace grimaced. He agreed with her but he was realistic. There was nothing they could do to him in the game that would affect him. Even if Mordred assassinated him, he’d just respawn. Other than imprisoning him, they couldn’t do anything that would affect him in any meaningful way.
They two of them drifted in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Tomorrow was a new day and they’d be able to find the next treasure cache. And whatever dangers protected it.
Chapter 41
They arrived at a large peninsula just before midday. According to the coordinates on his map, the treasure was somewhere to the east of the peninsula’s tip. Based on the map’s scale, it appeared the treasure was a day’s journey inland.
Jace gave instructions to Colette to sail back to Nynymmost if they didn’t return in a week. He explained that he had a teleportation ring and if they got into dire trouble, he would use it to return to them. He thought that was a better explanation than: If we don’t come back, we died and respawned.
Several sailors rowed Jace, Luna and the girls to the shore in one of the longboats. Diana hadn’t said much since the laughing incident and he didn’t press matters. Mika seemed to think she was okay, and that was good enough for him.
Once his companions were on the beach, Luna immediately resumed her larger form. The sailors pushed the small boat back into the water and began rowing back to the ship. Jace looked at the Wyvern’s Tail, anchored several hundred yards away. He hoped it would be there when they returned. He still didn’t quite trust the pirates, but considering they’d just gotten some more plunder, he hoped he’d bought some good will.
Turning from the ship, he brought their map and his compass. He tried to compare where he thought they were with where they needed to go.
“Were there any notes on the location?” Diana asked, speaking for the first time today.
“No,” he shook his head. “But judging from this map, it’s somewhere in the middle of this peninsula.”
Diana frowned. “That could be ten or twenty square miles.”
“That’s a lot of distance to cover,” Mika agreed. “In a week?”
“I figured if we haven’t found it in a few days,” he replied, “then we won’t find it. We’ll just head on back and go to the next one.”
“There’s also the chance that he came back for it,” Diana offered.
“True,” Jace agreed. “But we had to start somewhere, and this was the closest spot.”
“We’d better get moving then,” Mika said, looking at the sky. The sun was just starting to reach its zenith. That meant they had about eight hours of light left.
“Alight, let’s go,” he told them and motioned them to follow him into the forest.
The forest reminded him of the area around Sinking Springs, with large oaks and pines forming a canopy that nearly blocked out the sun. He kept his eyes open, but other than normal forest animals, he saw nothing that indicated any monsters.
They walked for several hours before taking a break and eating a salted fish they’d taken from the mess hall. They each had several of the fillets, in case they couldn’t find anything edible. Thus far, they’d seen nothing but birds high in the trees above them and tiny rodents that scoured through the foliage before they could get a good glance. What he wouldn’t give for a nice deer.
When they resumed their trek eastward, Jace continued to stop periodically to adjust their course. The hike was oddly peaceful but that just made him more and more anxious. No part of VEIL Online was uninhabited. He kept expecting something to jump out at them at any moment.
Just as the sun was beginning to disappear behind them, they reached a huge ravine. The ravine cut directly through their path like some great giant had sliced through the earth with an enormous axe. The jagged drop off was at least twenty feet wide and extended north and south as far as the eye could see.
Walking to the edge, Jace carefully peeked over. The sides of the ravine were sheer stone, worn bare by years of exposure to the elements. They dropped off at least a hundred feet and disappeared into the shadowed darkness.
Mika and Diana had come up next to him and looked down as well. Mika looked at him. “That looks like a very long drop.”
“Please tell me you have some sort of plan,” Diana said, still looking down.
Jace frowned and looked left and right again. To the north, far in the distance, he saw something. He pulled out one of the spyglasses he’d brought with him from the ship and looked towards the area that had attracted his attention.
A mile or so to the north, a large tree had fallen across the ravine. Even with the spyglass, he couldn’t make out much detail, but it could be a way across. “I see a tree lying across the ravine, up north.”
“A tree?” Mika asked, her eyes brightening. “Can we walk across it?”
“Walk across that ravine on a tree?” Diana grumbled in disbelief. “What do you think we are? Poor lost circus performers?”
“Let’s at least check it out,” Jace said and began walking north. Casting glances down the ravine, he couldn’t say he much liked the idea of walking across it on a narrow tree either. It was a long way down and even if he hit water, it would most certainly do enough damage to kill him.
According to his gnomish timepiece, it took them ten minutes to reach the tree he’d seen. Once they reached it, he realized how much larger it was up close. The tree was easily eight feet in diameter on their end and tapered down to six or seven feet on the far end.
There were no branches on the tree, just stubs where large branches had once been. The tree had sunk into the ground on both sides, either from time and elements or the regular foot traffic of creatures.
Jace stared at the smoothed trunk and then looked around near the base of the tree. He looked around the whole area a
nd then walked towards the forest.
“Okay,” Diana said, looking at the tree. “This isn’t quite as bad as I envisioned. It’s actually the size of some small bridges.”
Mika, who had been looking at a tree trunk, turned her head to follow Jace. “Are you looking for something?”
Jace didn’t answer right away but looked all over the tree line before turning around. “Where's the stump?”
“What?” Mika asked, clearly confused.
“There’s no stump that I can see,” he said and gestured around the area near the base of the tree.
“No stump?” Mika wrinkled her forehead and followed his gaze around the area. “What does that mean?”
Diana turned around, her lips a thin line. “It means, dear one, that this tree didn’t just fall here. It was put here.”
Mika turned around and looked at the gigantic tree. “Someone put here? But how? It must weigh more than a car, maybe more than several cars.”
“Probably,” Jace nodded. “Given how thick it is, it probably weights several tons. And I don’t see any stumps around here.”
“Could it have fallen from the side?” Mika asked.
“No, see the tapering?” he pointed out. “It’s thicker on this side, so the bottom would have been on this side.”
All three of them looked around, trying to find a stump, but there was nothing. Mika’s brow was still furrowed. “What does this mean?”
“I think it means,” Diana answered for Jace. “That someone or something brought this from somewhere and put it here… on purpose.”
“What could carry that?” Mika said, her eyes wide.
Jace took a deep breath and searched his memories for creatures that could move a tree trunk that large. “A dragon could do it. But I think we’d see more devastation. A couple of lesser giants could do it or a greater giant. Maybe a cyclops.”
“Many people or monsters,” Diana cut in, “working together could have done it too.”
“True,” Jace conceded. He’d been thinking of monsters that do it by themselves or in small groups but a dozen ogres might be able to lift it as well.
“So there’s something out here with us?” Mika asked.
Jace felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “Very possibly. The tree didn’t put itself here.”
As he was imagining what could be in the forest with them, he had a thought. Jace realized he could be both right and wrong. While the tree obviously couldn’t have gotten there on its own. There was another possibility.
It was possible this area had been tweaked by a developer and they had placed the log here specifically to allow players to access both sides of the area. But why would they have given special treatment to this area? This was really off the beaten path and for all he knew, they were the first players to ever see the area.
He pulled out his map and looked over the area they were in. There were no settlements for a half day’s journey by ship. So why would a developer take the time to put a giant log bridge across a ravine.
“What are you thinking, dear one,” Diana asked. “I know that look. You’re figured something out.”
Jace grinned despite himself. He wasn’t used to anyone spending so much time with him, let alone enough time to know his “looks.” He rubbed his chin. “It’s possible that this was put here by the developers.”
“They put a log here?” Mika asked. “Why?”
“That’s the question I was just asking myself,” he said aloud and looked over the tree again. Looking more closely, he could see that all of the bark had been worn off by age. He didn’t know how long that would take, but he guessed it would be more years than the game had been out. He pointed to the barkless tree. “See how old this tree looks. I think this was placed here when this area was designed.”
“But why?” Mika asked again.
“That’s the question,” he retorted, looking around again. Nothing else in the area looked disturbed or significant. Jace looked to Luna. “Do you smell anything weird?”
The cat sniffed the air and looked at him. “Nothing.”
“Luna doesn’t smell anything. What does that mean?” Diana asked.
“It means there was probably nothing here in a while,” he replied, “possibly ever. At least, nothing that was here within a few days. If it had been, Luna would be able to pick up its scent.”
“So, there’s nothing to worry about?” Mika asked brightly.
Shaking his head, Jace looked across the log bridge to the forest on the other side of the ravine. “Quite to the contrary. The developers spent the time to put this bridge here. Why? Because they wanted people coming from the shore to be able to get across.”
“Why? Mika asked again. She was scratching her head and looking across the ravine too.
“Because,” Diana answered for them. “They made something they’re proud of and they want us to find it.”
Jace chuckled. “Bingo.”
“What do they want us to see?” Mika asked, her eyes growing wide.
“Probably nothing good,” Jace told her, looking across the ravine. “Probably nothing good.”
Chapter 42
Jace wasn’t completely confident in the bridge, despite its size and sturdiness. He envisioned it collapsing while they were in the middle and they’d all plummet to their deaths. Knowing he could resummon her, he sent Luna across first. The surefooted cat bounded across and then back again without an issue.
In her larger form, she probably weighed as much as either Mika or Diana, but Jace wasn’t taking any chances. He brought out his rope and tied it across Mika’s waist while wrapping the other end around his own waist to support her if she fell.
Mika walked cautiously over the log bridge with the rope tied onto her. Apparently, she had no fear of heights and practically skipped across the log. When she reached the far end, Mika turned and waved. She untied the rope and Jace pulled it back across the ravine.
“Your turn,” he told Diana and started to tie the rope around her shapely waist.
“Is this really necessary?” Diana asked, holding her arms up.
“Do you really want to be without it if the tree collapses?” he asked.
Diana cast a sidewards glance at the ravine and shuddered. “I guess not.”
Once he was finished tying the rope, she started across the bridge. In contrast to Mika’s almost cavalier approach to going across, Diana was slow and methodical. She was careful to stay as close to the middle of the fallen tree as possible. Finally, she was across and turned to started untying the rope.
“Keep it on you while I cross!” he yelled and started across.
He went across as quickly as possible, much less gracefully than Mika. As he did, he could feel the bridge move slightly beneath him. He could see small sprays of dirt from where the tree bridge met the sides of the ravine and felt glad he had a rope attached to him. As soon as he got within a few feet of the edge, he jumped the rest of the way.
“That doesn't seem very stable,” he said. Diana looked pale but Mika just shrugged.
“Will it hold on the way back?” Diana asked worriedly.
“Let’s hope so,” he said. “And let’s hope we have time to use the rope on the way back.”
Diana swallowed, glancing back at the dark ravine but Mika stratched her head. “Why wouldn’t we have time?”
“I think he believes we might be chased,” Diana supplied.
Mika looked wide eyed at Jace. “Really?”
“Who knows,” Jace said. “I’m just thinking about the kroakers and how they chased us back to the ship.”
“Oh,” Mika pursed her lips. Then she brightened again. “Now what?”
Jace glanced back to catch a fleeting glance at the last rays of sunshine as it sank below the western horizon, illuminating it in sky shades of red and orange. It would be dark soon, very dark. And while he could see fine, thanks to the Cat-Vision ability he gained from Luna, neither of the girls could see in the
dark.
He brought out Ardmore’s Bane, the longsword they’d acquired on a quest in Whitecliff and blinked against the bright light that burst forth from the magical weapon’s blade. He held out the blade to Mika.
“Can you carry this, so you and Diana have light?” he asked Mika. “Luna and I can scout ahead about 30 or 40 feet, just outside of the sword’s light.
Mika nodded and took the sword from Jace, giving him a dazzling smile. He smiled back but then turned and moved just outside of the sphere of light the magical sword created. “Follow me.”
The group walked on for another hour without incident. Jace stopped and walked back into the light every 10 minutes or so to look at the map and his compass. With the tree canopy, there was almost no light from the two moons or the stars. The only real illumination came from Ardmore’s Bane.
“I think we’re in the general area,” he said, looking at the map again. “It’s a little hard to guess how far we’ve travelled, but by my estimates, it should be around here somewhere - possibly to the north or south.”
“Do we know what we’re looking for?” Diana asked. “Is it a mound? Packed earth? A big X?”
Jace shrugged. “I have no idea. The journal didn’t mention anything of note. But the last treasure was in a cave, so let’s keep an eye out for a cave.”
“Preferably one without a dragon turtle,” Mika added.
“Yes, preferably one without a dragon turtle,” Jace agreed. “Unless it’s friendly.”
“I hope Bob is okay,” Mika said wistfully. “He was nice.”
“Poor man just wanted to be alone,” Diana said. “I can sympathize with that.”
Mika and Jace both looked at her and even in the pale light of the sword, they saw the older woman blush. “I didn’t mean it like that. But when I was sold this ‘adventure’ I was told I could live alone on a nice chateau somewhere with green meadows and a nice brook running through my estate. I had planned to live alone for some time and eventually start inviting people over.”
“You wanted to be alone like Bob?” Mika asked, her eyes sad.
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