by Kyle Johnson
So, I stay in Stealth, use Camouflage, and keep a really good eye out, I guess, he mused silently. I wish I could travel on top of the buildings, but they’re way too deteriorated. His thoughts drove him to glance up, seeing the city overhead, and he wondered if there really were stairs to get up there. Not that he knew for certain that the creatures weren’t on the next level – in fact, It was possible they were more numerous the higher he climbed – but if that was true, his Tracking Skill would surely warn him. Now, I just have to get up there. So, how do I go up that high without stairs?
As the answer came to him, Jeff smacked his forehead in disgust. Seriously, dude, where is your head? He berated himself. He had a perfectly fine way to float already, one he’d been using in the city to travel. He quickly formed a disc that was almost 2 feet wide and a half-inch thick, thanks to his newly expanded SP pool, and stepped on it, willing it to rise. It still moved slowly, and as he was lifted clear of the lowest buildings, he realized that being up high made him very visible. I guess I just hope none of those things are nearby, he thought grimly.
The trip in his makeshift elevator was uneventful. As he rose, Jeff could see traces of movement on the ground, but his Perception wasn’t good enough to make out significant details. He assumed it was the creatures, either vainly seeking him out or continuing their search for whatever they were seeking in the ruined city. From his vantage, they reminded him of insects, milling about the debris aimlessly but with some greater, unknown purpose. The thing about insects, he reminded himself, is they swarm when you kill some of them. Maybe I’ll try to avoid killing any more of those things if I can help it.
As he ascended, he took a moment to glance through his last notifications, trying to get an idea of how many LP the creatures had:
So, they’ve got anywhere from 90 to 130 LP, he mused, running the numbers quickly through his head. I’d say level 2 or 3, then. That’s not terrible, but if they swarm me…
As his mana-forged platform approached the underside of the second level of the city, Jeff banished his notifications and began to guide the disc around the side of the massive branch serving as a road. It took him a few more minutes to mentally lead the floating circle around the border of shattered buildings and up onto the nearest roof that looked as if it would hold his weight and was tall enough to give him a decent view. He allowed the disc to settle on the crumbling structure, first, making sure it would support him. The wood groaned, creaked, and shifted, but it held him. Warily, Jeff dismissed the disc but immediately formed a donut-shaped ring, one large enough for him to comfortably grip, and held it securely in his left hand. If the roof goes, he reasoned, hopefully, I can grab this mentally, quickly enough to at least slow down my fall.
He stepped cautiously across the roof to the edge, lowering himself at the edge and peering out at the city spread below. His eyes searched for signs of movement, but nothing caught his attention. After several long minutes, he decided that either nothing was out there, or it was hiding too well for him to spot. Grimacing, he held tightly to his mana ring and stepped off the edge of the building, dangling from the ring by one hand as he mentally lowered himself to the street below.
It was a great idea, and it would have worked had his Str score been up to the task. As the ring slowly descended, though, he could feel his fingers sliding off as his aching grip refused to support his weight. A moment later, the ring vanished as his hand lost its grip entirely, and he plummeted to the floor below in a crash of dust and crumbling wood. His armor absorbed the falling damage, but he cursed as the noise echoed across the city. Well, if there’s anything out there, he berated himself, they know where you are, now. Stupid idea, dude!
He started to brush himself off but realized it was pointless: he’d be using the dust and bits of wood for his Camouflage Skill, anyway, so why bother cleaning himself? He wanted to search for tracks, but he realized that, considering the racket he just made, it would probably be smarter to move first and search later. He dropped into Stealth and began picking his way through the rubble, his eyes searching for signs of movement. He held off using his Tracking Skill until he was about 5 minutes from his crash-landing site. His Trackless Ability should keep anyone – or anything – from following him if they went to investigate the noise, and hopefully, his Stealth and Camouflage Skills would stop anything passing by from spotting him.
He settled into the rubble of what he thought might have been an abandoned storefront; at least, there were the remains of a counter running the length of the building that he slipped behind to catch his breath and exit Stealth for a bit. He coughed quietly as a dry sensation coated the back of his throat, and for the first time since being in-game, he felt a faint stirring of hunger. He pulled up his status and glanced at the “Effects” section:
Great, he muttered to himself. All I need right now are debuffs, especially ones I can’t do anything about. He focused on the Thirsty and Hungry debuffs and saw that Thirsty gave him a 10% penalty to LP regeneration, while Hungry gave him a similar penalty to Stamina regen. He examined his SP regen rate and saw that it was unchanged, though: he hadn’t thought about it, but he realized that while his Stamina added to his SP pool, his Stamina regen had not been added to his mana regeneration rate. That was probably another balance issue – by not inflating his SP regen, the AI’s forced him to be cautious about using Stamina-based Abilities – but now, he was kind of grateful. The feeling of hunger wasn’t pleasant, but the lack of a debuff effect was nice.
The Fatigued penalty, he knew, he could do something about, but he didn’t think spending two hours in his mindscape in a hostile environment when enemies might be hunting for him was a good idea. Maybe if he could find some place he could secure, he could get rid of the debuff, but for the moment it wasn’t a big deal. When he examined the effect, he saw that it only added a 5% penalty to Skills, which wasn’t the worst thing. However, he knew that the effect would probably increase quickly, so finding a place he could rest was now on the “to-do” list, along with something to drink. Food, he decided, could wait.
His first priority, though, was making sure it was even safe for him up on this level. He heaved himself to his feet, climbed back over the counter, and began to search for signs of the small, twisted creatures. It took him a few seconds to spot some faint traces of the creatures, but they were old and looked to have been made a long time ago. He moved out into the street, hugging the buildings in Stealth, expanding his search, but every trace he found of the small monsters was old.
There were some traces, though, that were relatively recent, and those gave him a chill. His Tracking Skill told him that something large with bony, clawed feet had moved through the street at a run. He tried to convince himself that the scuffed prints could have been made by anything, but his Tracking Skill was absolutely certain: the tracks had been made by a creature that was, at least, very similar to the skeleton he had defeated upon entering the city. He hoped that, perhaps, they came from the same creature, that maybe it wandered the city occasionally, but that hope, too was dashed. The creature that he spotted was obviously smaller and lighter than the one he had faced, and even more to the point, his Tracking Skill let him know that it was not only alive, but that it was somewhere off ahead of him…in the same direction he needed to go to check out the smaller creatures.
Maybe they work together? he mused. Maybe the skeletons act like guards for them, or even control them? After a moment’s thought, he realized that didn’t work out: he had seen no traces of the other skeletons on the first level, after all, and he wasn’t seeing recent traces of the small creatures here. Maybe the skeletons scared the little creatures away from here, then? he persisted. Maybe they won’t even bother me, if I don’t bother them?
That hope, he knew, was absolutely misplaced. The skeleton he had first met was hostile the moment it formed; he doubted other monsters of the same type would simply remain neutral. No, he needed to assume that these skeletons would attack him on sight. I
don’t even know if there’s more than one of them, really, he reminded himself, but I’d better assume there are several. If there turns out to be just one, hey, happy surprise for me. If I assume there’s one and run into three at once, though? Sad surprise for me.
He moved in Stealth toward the concentrations of creatures. As he traveled, he realized that he was steadily heading toward what looked to be the largest of the trees in his general area. The tree he was moving toward was at least 50% wider than any other he had seen in the city so far, and its crown rose into the black mists that swirled in the sky, the top lost to view. That makes sense, he told himself. I’ll bet the biggest tree is some kind of passage between levels. The monsters are probably congregated there so they can guard the path upward. That means I probably need to get to the top if I’m going to figure out what this Quest is all about.
He took his time moving toward the enormous trunk in the distance, his eyes searching the ground for more traces. He picked up the tracks of three more skeletons, and they all seemed to be in the same general location according to his Tracking Skill. He crept toward them, moving slowly, hoping to spot them before they could notice him and attack. He barely survived his first encounter with one of the creatures, he realized; a second – especially if there were more than one of them – could turn out very badly for him.
As he neared the giant bole, he slipped off the main road and began moving from house to tumbled house. The last skeleton had began as a pile of bone fragments heaped over what he guessed was the intact skull; he didn’t know if the other skeletons would be in the same state, though, or if they would already be fully assembled and waiting for him. Probably best to assume the latter, he decided.
When he was finally within sight of where the branch-road intersected the tree, he swore silently. The tree here was pierced with a giant arch that seemed to lead into the trunk – no doubt the passage up and down he had speculated about – and he saw not one but two piles of bone, one on each side of the archway. Guarding it, just like I guessed, he grumbled bitterly. I don’t think I can take two of those things, even if they are smaller than that first one.
Jeff lay on his stomach on a pile of tumbled debris, scanning the area for anything he could use to even the odds, when a thought occurred to him. Why am I even planning to fight them? he realized. I don’t need to use that passage. Heck, for all I know, it could be filled with enemies, or they could have some kind of barricade set up below, waiting for me. Why fight, when I can float?
He moved to the nearest building with an intact roof and formed a disc to float himself up to it. He walked carefully to the edge and lay down on his stomach to peer over. The level below was too distant for him to see much, but he could track movement below, especially near the base of the tree. If I just float down here, and they spot me, he realized, they could gather below me and rush me as I’m landing. First, I need to distract them: I need them all to run over by the tree. Then, I need to get down there in a hurry.
He relaxed his focus and let his mind chew on the problem. He needed something loud to gather the attention of the creatures, but his Mana Barrage wouldn’t work: it was too loud and flashy, and the creatures would probably follow the trail of projectiles right to him. Mana Arrows might work, but he’d need a few of them, which meant he’d need to shoot and move. The real questions was, how to get down quickly enough to not be noticed once the chaos started? He had an idea, but he wasn’t sure it was a great one. Still, it was the best he could come up with, so he settled himself and began to summon a Mana Arrow.
Once the arrow was formed, rather than releasing it, he held some of his focus on it and moved it off to the side, out of the way of the next arrow. Holding it was simple enough while the second arrow formed, but also holding it and forming a third arrow was much more difficult. His concentration almost slipped several times, and his teeth gritted with the effort of holding all three forms at once. Finally, the last arrow was formed, and with a sigh of relief, he released all three. As the arrows began to fly, he used his Multishot Ability to clone each of them, sending six arrows descending toward the arch he could just barely see piercing the tree.
He didn’t bother to aim the arrows, since it didn’t matter where they hit. All that mattered is that they impacted somewhat close to one another so that each of the six small explosions would mimic the noise and flash of one larger one. He held his breath as the arrows arced down, disappearing from his sight as they descended. He began to think that the Spell had failed, but suddenly six small claps of thunder and flashes of white light burst around the area near the giant trunk. Although he couldn’t see anything clearly, Jeff could make out a flurry of motion moving in the direction of the explosions. It looked like the distraction had worked; now, for the harder part of the plan.
Jeff concentrated and forged mana in a band around his chest, under his arms, 6 inches wide and snug against his ribcage. Taking as deep a breath as the band allowed, he swallowed hard, and stepped off the roof into the air. He immediately began to fall, the wind and dust rushing past his face. Panic threatened to overwhelm him, but he pushed it aside and gripped the mana band with his mind, using it to stabilize his fall. As he used the band to right himself, he focused on lifting himself, trying to slow his descent. He felt the band pulling on him, slowing him minutely but not enough to control his speed. He focused harder, shoving his will at the band, and he felt the band pulling him upward, dragging on his shoulders. His stomach lurched as his descent slowed rapidly, but the ground was still rushing up at him. He closed his eyes and resigned himself: his armor should take the brunt of the impact, but it was bound to be noisy!
He flinched and braced for the expected impact. When nothing happened, he peeked open one eye and saw that he was hanging in space, four feet above the nearest roof, curled up in a ball as if he were cannonballing into a pool. His momentum halted, and he started to rise before he caught himself and let himself land gently on the roof. He glanced over the edge and saw one of the creatures heading for him, clambering swiftly over the rubble despite its twisted stature. He loosed a Mana Arrow at the charging monster and used Multishot to clone it into 3 arrows, all of which struck it in the chest and exploded, killing it. Jeff jumped from the roof, again using the chest band to slow his descent enough that he landed with only a thump.
As the creature began to swirl into smoke, he ducked down a side branch and into a hole in a nearby building, slipping into Stealth. If the creature respawned, as he feared, it would alert the others to his presence, but he was hoping that a combination of Stealth, Camouflage, and Trackless would make it too hard for them to locate him. He crept through building after building, slowly making his way toward the giant trunk. He still needed to advance the Quest, and he was hoping that finding out what they were all doing in that place would be the key to moving the Quest forward.
He slipped silently through the ruins, his Skills muffling any sounds he was making as he pushed through debris and over fallen structures. Several times, he hid as groups of the small creatures rushed past, probably looking for him. His eyes scanned constantly, seeking something out of the ordinary.
His Tracking Skill suddenly drew his eyes to a series of scuffs in the dust ahead. He stopped and peered at them, confused for a moment, because the tracks he saw didn’t belong to one of the creatures, or to one of the skeletons. No, his Tracking Skill was yelling that these were the tracks of a pair of elves, apparently moving through the branches at a regular walk. No, not a regular walk, he thought as his Tracking Skill corrected him. One was walking, the other was walking…in some kind of chains? At least, their legs were bound somehow: the stride length is really short but also really irregular, and there are a bunch of scuffs where they stumbled and had to be caught.
There were also the tracks of a single skeleton creature that seemed to be walking behind the elves, from the way the tracks overlapped. More to the point, these tracks weren’t old: his Skill suggested they had been made within
the past couple of weeks. Why were there elves here in the last two weeks? he pondered silently. And why was one of them being restrained? Jeff was unsure what to do when a notification appeared in his vision. When he pulled it up, he sighed in relief:
Finally! he breathed, reassured at last. The freaking Quest updated. At least I know I’m on the right path!
He checked his Stealth and made sure he was well hidden before setting out to follow the tracks. The small monsters were still out searching, probably for him, and his progress was slowed as he had to move through buildings and side streets to avoid them. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to have great Perception; either that, or his Stealth had gone up. Yeah, I can check on that later, he told himself firmly. Survive this part, then take a look at your Stealth.
He paused as he noticed that the trail was starting to be overlaid by the tracks of many of the small creatures. The tracks all seemed to head both toward and away from a fairly substantial building he could just make out, a couple streets over. However, it looked like all the tracks had been made at different times, just two or three of the creatures at once, spread out over many days. Almost like they were bringing food and water to a prisoner, he realized, recalling that one elf had been restrained.
He crept toward the building, his eyes moving constantly, scanning for movement or danger. As he rounded a corner, he finally laid eyes on the building the trail led to. It seemed solid, at first, but as he looked more closely, he could see that it had been repaired and patched significantly to make it sound. Even so, the structure looked dilapidated, as if a strong wind might send it crashing down, and Jeff wondered if something about the place was constantly eroding the buildings. Does that mean that, one day, this whole place will be dust? he wondered pointlessly. If the Fallen Lands are like this, how do the Shadow-born races even live there?