You know what I wanted. A training montage. When you are required to do each and everything it is incredibly boring. I thought about dying and what I would do. That lasted for about ten seconds before the sheer horror began to overwhelm me. While I looked like a science experiment gone horribly wrong with my right foot being a tri-pronged scaled bug thing, left ear missing with matching facial scar, and puffs of demonic fire trailing behind me.
That didn’t take into consideration I was five feet tall, bald, and had red eyes. The problem was I had made a bad decision in character creation and now stood out like a sore thumb. The stupid bug foot was awesome, except for being impossible to hide, and clicking against hard surfaces.
Well I was definitely bathing myself in dragon entrails so I could get wings. This jogging was killing me. I was managing about 25 miles per day. It would have been more, but the terrain wasn’t flat. There were canyons, gorges, boulders, cliffs, and other features I had to go around. Going out on the desert just slowed me down even more with all the sand and even then it wasn’t clear of impasses.
I sent out a pulse of Fear Aura every hour as I traveled so I wouldn’t be bothered. After three hours I would hunt a monster down, something like a bear that had meat on it. I would kill it with a Power Slash and set up camp slightly away from the corpse. I then would cook enough food for two dinners and two breakfasts. That would allowed me to eat something just in case I didn’t find anything edible to kill.
Thankfully I only went hungry one day when all I came across were rock snakes. No poison but incredibly durable and tough. I did not use my flame sword. I wanted it to be repaired, and it was my trump card against stronger opponents.
In a way it was boring yet satisfying to be alone again. The lack of companionship and general discussion was a downer, but I enjoyed the silence as well. It let me work out priorities and thoughts on what I wanted to achieve. I had been rushing from disaster to disaster for a while and while I was still alive the consequences were becoming apparent.
There was no training montage, but it was a vacation. This game was the only outlet millions of people had, myself included. With the time dilation of the capsules and the VR environments cutting edge research was being done, but the real world was deserted. Four fifths of the population were in cities in tiny rooms inside their capsules while the remaining people maintained the infrastructure.
That one percent share in Omnitrek was just the nail in the coffin. The birth rates were plummeting as well. My first thought when I saw that piece of news while in my atrium was about who would service my capsule then. I wasn’t a genius and didn’t enjoy studying just to study. I only had a single skill set, killing and making videos. It was nice to step away from all of that.
With my planned super video in regards to the wedding, I had decided to cut off my usual broadcasts. I wouldn’t survive another ambush. With my bounty up to $50,000, I literally had hundreds of people after me. That wasn’t even counting the in game rewards being handed out for my death by Breckley.
After ten days of traveling I came upon a large campsite. I counted at least fifty players that had set up shop outside a tunnel into a cliff face. I was careful not to be seen and took the opportunity to observe them. Night was approaching and they actually had the foresight to set up five sentries about their camp.
This was clearly a dungeon and this group was power leveling off the monsters inside. I hadn’t heard anything about this place on the public forums so the group was probably trying to keep things quiet. The moon was only a sliver that night, which provided quite a bit of darkness. I carefully moved in making sure to keep obstructions between me and the sentries so they wouldn’t see the small puffs of flame. I then used Observe on one of the sentries. While I hated using my MP like this, I wanted to see if killing them was worthwhile.
Ralph NoretLvL: 97Strongest Stat: WisdomHP: 10512MP: 1487SP: 1241Strongest Skill: Meditate
I had hit the mother load. Finally things I could kill to get experience. Yes, players were things, most of all when they gave experience. If I killed everyone here, that would be around 200,000 experience at least. That would be about another six levels and eighteen stat points. That would be just the right amount to push my base dexterity up to 150 and get another bonus to my reaction time.
The downside was death. The people standing as sentries weren’t dosing off either. I could kill one, but not before the alarm was raised. Once that happened I would be in trouble. There was probably at least one player there with higher SP and have the intelligence on how to chase me down.
Using my flame sword to lure them out, wouldn’t work either if they were halfway intelligent. They would send a group out in force and wake up more people to cover the gap in the perimeter. I could try to descend the cliff face, but with a bug foot that was going to be difficult. It was great for stability, got good for climbing up and down cliffs.
I would need to cover fifty feet of open ground to reach Ralph. That would take a bit over a second at max speed, which was around 31 miles per hour. Based on his SP I guessed he had around a reaction time of a third of a second. Enough time to block with his shield and let out a cry for help.
I checked my skills again and smiled. Apparently my stealth skill needed things to actually be stealthy from to actually level up. Thank you Culk.
Conceal Presence
Conceal Movement
I cursed in my head. Ten freaking MP per second. That was robbery. Highway robbery of the worst sort. I had 32 MP at the moment. It also referred to my presence, which was a bit vague. A risk either way I sliced it. I got ready from behind the boulder, I would have a single shot at this.
Just as I started to move I whispered out, “Conceal Movement, one second.” I held my breath as I raced forward. Ralph didn’t notice me and I cut off his head in a single attack. Despite his high level, he only had leather armor. The lack of civilization out here was literally a killer.
I grabbed his decapitated head with my free hand and lowered his body to the ground with my foot. With the way into the camp clear I worked my way clock wise around the perimeter killing the remaining four sentries from behind. If this had been my camp I would have had at least two roving sentries to prevent this sort of attack.
I made my way from tent to tent killing every single player in their sleep. As dawn rolled around I cleared the last tent and everyone was dead, all fifty three players had been killed in their sleep. I didn’t dare take anyone for questioning since I wanted to keep my involvement a secret.
The massacre netted me four levels and another twelve stat points. I went through the camp and pocketed the gold, food, and a leather harness with throwing knives. It felt good to have proper throwing weapons in easy reach. There were no horses in the camp which was unfortunate. I did grab a heavy cloak with a hood, that would conceal my appearance somewhat.
The biggest find was when I searched the chest in the center of the camp. There was a sword with etchings in it like Nus’ Awakening. An enchanted blade. I couldn’t resist, “Identify.”
Erif's SoulLvL: 112Requirements: 30 Strength, 20 Dexterity, 20 Wisdom
Thankfully I had just gained some stat points and dumped ten into wisdom to bring it up to the required amount. “Flame on.” The blade lit up. Thank you copy cats. A flame sword had so many secondary uses, the most useful one being a permanent torch.
I left the camp and continued on my way east, making sure to stay in the mountainous terrain so I wouldn’t be easily spotted. It was after half a day of travel that I saw another camp and cliff side entrance. The entire place was swarming. I was glad I had managed to get a glimpse of the campsite from a far off distance.
Probably a companion site, or a dungeon with two entrances. I got lucky once, no way was I going two for two. The way the place was stirred up it was clear they had realized the other camp site had been killed off. I detoured up into the mountains a bit and continued on my way past the group of players.
I had already gotten a second flame sword and leveled up a bit. No need to push my luck. I did have another 100 MP and change from dumping those ten points into wisdom. While tempting, I was not about to face a prepared enemy if I could help it. Also with only one campsite dead, the group might not leak word so these dungeons weren’t revealed.
I didn’t run into anyone, nor did I hear any word about a massacre. Whatever group those people were a part of, they were
keeping things hush hush. That was either good news, or they had they passed that information on to select groups so they could ambush me.
Ten days after passing by the campsites I started to see grassland instead of desert. It was a welcome relief. I started to come across farms and small settlements but completely bypassed them. I traveled at night and slept on roof tops during the day. After three days I reached the edge of Divide Lake. The lake rested between the two mountain chains that enclosed the Durrunian Desert. Osgoth lay on the north side of the lake across a river. Helsinn lay on the south side about a day and half up the lake.
The Palon River stretched from Divide Lake down to Palon, which was at the edge of the Sea of Salmir. All these cities were under the control of Galmore which lay further to the west. If I was going to get to Breckley I needed to get to Palon and get a ship to sail north up the coast.
I traveled along the shore line until I found a settlement with a fifteen foot sail boat. Large enough to travel down river, but small enough for one person. I stole the boat and set sail. I stayed towards to the middle of the Divide Lake in order to avoid the fishing fleets of both the cities.
The hard part was that the wind was against me. The hot air from the Durridian Desert was rising and escaping through the gap in the upper atmosphere, while the cooler air sailed towards the desert and was actively impeding my progress.
I had to tack back and forth to move across the lake and even took to rowing to help speed things up a bit. I slept at night and brought in the sail so I wouldn’t be spotted. I did note other ships out on the water but I made sure to keep my distance.
I reached the Palon River and set sail down it. It was fairly smooth but there were spots with a rocks sticking up out of the water. No rapids thankfully. Sometimes I passed by a settlement and that was when I would stop downstream about a mile from the settlement and secure the boat. I would then back track through the forest and sleep on one of the roofs.
Overly complicated, but I had no one to watch my back now. I really needed someone to split watches with, this would be so much easier. The river was about 250 miles long to the coast and the city of Palon. It took five days of sailing until I spotted the city.
Breckley was around 900 miles away from Palon. While my little ship was great for a lake and a river, I didn’t hold out hope for it on the open ocean. One good wave and I would be fish bait.
I coasted past the city during the night and entered Palon with my cloak on and hood up. I made my way carefully through the city using Conceal Presence whenever I saw guards that would cross my path. I made my way to a building on the north side of the city with a red door with the trim painted green.
I knocked three times, paused, then knocked five times. A window slot opened in the door. “Password.”
“Make it rain.” The door swung open. “Conceal Movement, one second.” I then darted inside and saw that this wasn’t an ambush.
The young man at the door spun around and looked at me.
After getting over his surprise he shut the door. “Welcome, Rain of Blood, this is awesome.” He had a huge grin plastered over his face. “Sit, I have food prepared.” He went over to a stove and began ladling stew into two bowls.
“Here.” He held out a bowl and spoon towards me.
“You first.”
“Ah…of course.” He took a spoonful and ate it. I took the stew from him and slowly ate. “So, I managed to book passage on a transport ship headed to Breckley. It leaves two days from now.”
“Good. What about the barrels of oil?”
“That is a bit tougher. The stuff is really expensive at the moment. Fifty gold pieces a barrel. Inflation is killing the whole economy.” I thought back to all the lost wealth at the tower and sighed internally. I had a bit more than seven gold pieces on me from the campsite and the PvP group.
“Any chance of stealing them?”
“Not without kicking up a huge fuss. The warehouse area is locked down tight after a number of incidents.”
“About the transport, they understand no questions?”
“They think I am working for Galmore, which is the truth.” My fan base was good at providing useful contacts. I had hired this player since he was Galmore’s operative in the area to smoke out other players and prevent the city from going up in flames. Five thousand dollars was enough to arrange a safe house and transport. The money was being held by a third party transaction company at the moment and would be paid out after being safely out to sea for a set amount of days known only to me. Another five thousand if I got into Breckley safely from the ship.
There was also a penalty clause of fifty thousand dollars for betrayal either way. Trust, but have a lot of money to back it up.
I had to spend money to make money, but I was loathe to let any of my cash go. “Galmore isn’t interested in supporting me?”
“Deniability. They won’t hinder you, but they won’t help you. That is the official stance. I am off on my own on this.”
“Any one looking for me?”
“The Red Dawn is putting out feelers to all the southern cities on this continent, but no one is saying anything.”
“What about the She-Hulks?”
“She-Hulks?”
“Sparkly Rainbow Unicorn Princesses.”
“Oh them, nothing that you wouldn’t know about. They are still running around up north. The Order is pulling everyone in to cover the area around Breckley.”
“Really? I didn’t hear that.”
“Not common news, but they are positioning a lot of people. Galmore is as well. For some reason, people suspect that this wedding is going to be a cluster fuck and plan to take advantage.”
“Noted, thank you for the free information.”
“Your success is good for Galmore which is good for me. There is a rumor going around the Church of Eight may officially declare you a calamity.”
“What does that even mean?”
“No clue, but probably lots of drama and fighting. I am curious what you plan to do, any hints?”
“Something epic. Now the big question, the special package?”
“Ah yes, that.” The young man walked over to a small crate and lifted the lid up all the way. He then backed off. I went over and noted the bulb inside of it. “You really are going to try and set off another Swarm Bulb?”
“Possibly.” He shut the crate back up.
“I also managed to get the candle you requested. Two week candle. There is a small chamber of oil near the bottom. When the flame hits, it will go boom.”
“Perfect.” He reached up on a shelf and handed me a wood chest. I looked inside and saw a candle packed into a bunch of hay. There were a number of red lines down the side, probably to indicate days since there were fourteen. I closed up the chest.
“Well as long as it is not near me that is all well and good. What is up with the flames and the bug foot? I wasn’t going to say anything but that is really creepy.”
“They were…accidents.” The young man shuddered and we were both silent for a bit.
“Well, your room is on the third floor. I will be out all day tomorrow running errands. Heat up the stew if you are hungry. There is actual indoor plumbing here that sends the shit to the sewers, thank god. No bath or shower, but there is a barrel of fresh water over there and some clean rags.”
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“Thank you.”
“Love your work, I can’t wait to watch the wedding.” I left the table and went up to my room. I barricaded the door and checked to confirm the only other entrance was the window. The ceiling and the floor were both solid. I moved the bed and slept in another corner. While I trusted this person, there was trust and there was Trust.
The following day was spent eating and relaxing. The young man stopped in again that evening and brought fresh bread which we had along with the rest of the stew.
“Before dawn, tomorrow morning I will take you to the ship. You are getting the first mate’s cabin. The captain will bring you two meals a day. Toss your waste out the window. Once he docks in Breckley he has a hidden compartment you will hide in. Once the ship passes inspection, you can get into the city at night.”
“The captain will hold his end?”
“Galmore pays him very well. Also his family is here in the city. I am paying him fifty gold pieces to make this happen. A literal fortune. As long as he upholds his end, he gets the money and everyone is happy. Win, win.”
I stared at the young man. “Good, a lot is resting on this.”
“I understand. So you know, we are not handling on getting you out of the city. Galmore will officially put up a small fee for your capture.”
“I understand.”
“I hope so.” Everything went as planned.
After meeting with Captain Gallgreen, I was put into the cabin and left there. He did show me the small room hidden behind one of the walls. It was incredibly tiny and I would just barely fit, but I could fit. I spent the boat ride making sure my MP was at maximum and working on my cerebral skills.
All the training I had been doing was finally paying off. I had unlocked a number of active skills. I made sure that all my bars were topped off a few days before arrival.
STATUSNameKenji ShadowenLevel90Constitution50*0.88=44Strength50*1.09=54.5Dexterity134*1.22=163.48Endurance50*0.82=41Wisdom20*1.04=20.8Intelligence10*1.11=11.1Charisma0*0.95=0Luck0*1.15=0Fate586*1.03=603.58Fire Resistance90%Physical Resistance25%HP (+25%)11656.25 / 11656.25SP (+31%)1876.444 / 1876.444MP (+6%)338.14 / 338.14Max Speed (Estimated)32 MpHJump Height (Estimated)2.75 FeetReaction Time (Estimated)0.1 Seconds
Quest EasyAstronomyLearn about the constellations+10 EXP
Quest MediumMonster HunterKill the forest guardian+100 EXP
Quest HardDefeat Sir DavosKill the mighty Sir Davos, Hero of Mendal+1000 EXP
+1 Stat Point
Quest LegendaryEnd the WarEnd the war between you and House Breckley+10000 EXP
+3 Stat Point
Quest LifetimeDragon SlayerSlay the green dragon Dlthinnir+100000 EXP
+5 Stat Point
Quest ImpossibleThe Fires of HellSlay the Greater Waking Demon+1000000 EXP
+10 Stat Point
Skill ListCombat SkillsBlunt Weapons-1Piercing Weapons-1Cutting Weapons-5 MAX+1% Constitution, +1% Strength
+1% Dexterity, +1% EndurancePower Slash
single attack with a cutting weapon
Cost: 500 SPBlade Projection
Cost: 1000 SP, 10 MPThrowing-5 MAX+1% Strength, +1% Dexterity
+1% EnduranceRapid Throwing-4+1% DexterityLight Archer-3Riding-1Trap Making-5 MAX+1% Constitution, +1% Strength
+2% DexterityTrap Detection-2Ambidexterious-5 MAX+3% DexterityJuggling-3+1% DexterityTactics-5 MAX+3% IntelligenceCrafting SkillsWood Carving-1Survival SkillsRunning-5 MAX+2% Max Speed, +1% SPBurst Speed
Cost: 10 MPLight Conditioning-5 MAX+3% SPMedium Conditioning-5 MAX+2% SP, +1% Constitution
+1% Strength, +1% Dexterity
+1% EnduranceHard Conditioning-5 MAX+2% Constitution, +2% Strength
+2% Dexterity, +2% EnduranceIntense Conditioning-2Climbing-3+1% StrengthStealth-5 MAX+1% Dexterity, +1% Wisdom
+1% IntelligenceConceal Presence
while you are unmoving
Cost: 1 MP per Second
+1% DexterityConceal Movement
while you hold your breath
Cost: 10 MP per SecondBasic Biology-5 MAX+1% IntelligenceIntermediate Biology-4Torture-5 MAX-3% CharismaFear Aura
LvL 2: All LvL -10 will feel uncomfortable around you
LvL 3: All LvL -50 will flee from you
LvL 4: All LvL -10 will flee from you
Cost: 1 MP per Minute, 1 SP per MinuteDeception-5 MAX+3% IntelligenceMisdirection-3+1% IntelligencePoison Immunity-3LvL 2: Spore, Bug
LvL 3: PlantSpiritual SkillsMeditate
Cost: Cannot Move
+1% WisdomMental Defense
Cost: 10 MP per Minute
+6% MPHidden Mind-1LvL 1: +40 AP to mental defense
1/5 chance to avoid being sensedSilent Skills-1LvL 1: 1 silent skill slotIdentification
LvL 2: Learn the requirements of an item
LvL 3: Learn the stats of an item
Cost: 10 MPObserve
LvL 2: Learn strongest stat of target
LvL 3: Learn HP/SP/MP of target
LvL 4: Learn strongest skill of target
Cost: 10 MPLeadership-3+1% IntelligenceStatus EffectsMurderer-500 MAX+500 FateDepraved-16+16 FateArmy of One-10 MAX+10% Constitution, +10% LuckEnemy of the People-5 MAX-5% CharismaMassacre of Willhelm-1 MAX+10 Fate, +1% Constitution
+1% Dexteriy, +1% Wisdom
+1% IntelligenceBattle of Gloommore Forest-1 MAX+10 Fate, +1% Constitution
+1% Strenth, +1% Dexterity
+1% EnduranceBurning of Breckley-1 MAX+10 Fate, +10% Fire ResistanceRaid of North Salrin Mine-1 MAX+10 Fate, +2% Charisma, +2% LuckMurder of Merchants-1 MAX+10 Fate, +2% Constitution, +2% LuckSlayer of the Swarm Lord-1 MAX+10 Fate, +5% Constitution
+5% DexterityPvP Winner-3+3% ConstitutionPlayer Killer-10 MAX+10% ConstitutionCannibal-3+3% Constitution, +3% FateHoly War-1+10 Fate
+1% All 8 Primary StatsDemon Slayer-1+10% Fire ResistanceDemonic Blood Corruption-3-50% Constitution
+70% Fire Resistance
+10% Automatic Fire GenerationIchor Blood Corruption-5 MAX+10 Fate, -25% Endurance
+25% Physical ResistanceCurse of the Goddess Tafe-1???Constitution Focus-1+25% HPStrength Focus-1+25% Carry WeightDexterity Focus-2+50% Reaction TimeEndurance Focus-1+25% SP
I carefully reviewed all my stats, skills, and open quests. Blade Projection looked awesome, but the SP and MP cost meant I needed higher stats to make it useful in combat. Hidden Mind was concerning since it implied a chance to locate me somehow with the 1/5 chance to avoid being sensed.
Silent skill was perfect. I opened my interface and practiced with Meditation. It was activated by a clear mental command, where I thought of the skill command and nothing else. I would rotate out of my skills to keep using it as much as possible to level it up. I will probably use it with Burst Speed in combat.
Burst Speed was an amazing active skill allowing me to double my max speed for a couple of seconds. Unfortunately that would put my max speed at around 64 miles per hour. This translated into around 125 SP per second. With only 2122 SP, it was not something I could just spam.
The only gear I planned to take were the two flame swords, two normal swords, Cube of Etherion, and throwing dagger harness with daggers. I would be leaving everything else behind. I couldn’t afford anything hanging up or impeding me in combat. I wasn’t planning on this being a heavy combat operation there would be fighting.
My main goal was to kill Lady Breckley. It had been confirmed that there was no clear line of succession after her and the nation would fragment. Sir Willos was a possibility as the head of Breckley’s military forces and a fixture in the government. The problem was there were other nobles who were closer in their ancestry to be next in line.
With the way things appeared, if the wedding was a disaster a number of groups were poised to invade. Galmore had a fleet on the transports tail and I wouldn’t be surprised if the captain and the sailors weren’t the tip of the spear. The Order was also converging all its members towards Breckley, but were more spread out. They would probably take most of the outlying areas while Galmore seized the city.
Therdossa, where the groom was from, had actually deployed a couple thousand soldiers to Breckley for the wedding to secure their position and hopefully prevent things from going tits up. It wasn’t clear what Angal was doing, but as the center for the Church of Eight they had sent a High Priest in to officiate the ceremony along with his entourage.
The only kingdom out of the five who seemed not to be moving in was Valentor, who had only sent a handful of representatives along with some other nations. All travelers were banned from the city with priests checking everyone who entered the city.
My second goal was to kill Ser Davos to free up my hard quest slot. I needed to start pumping out the hard quests in order to build up stat points since leveling was becoming more and more difficult. I had no hope of completing the lifetime or impossible quest any time soon. The key thing were the stat points. Those were what would make or break me as a player.
The worst part of this entire thing was all the magic that was being thrown around. My new skills gave me some hope, but I didn’t understand exactly how they worked which was frustrating. Digging around online didn’t turn up anything useful either. Everyone who had a clue was keeping their mouth shut.
The other big problem was that I had no one set up in Breckley to me. I would be on my own. I was going to keep it as simple as possible. Once I got to Breckley I would raid a warehouse for a couple of barrels of oil. I had managed to get that information before the city went into lockdown. I would place the barrels in the sewers near the keep and use the two week candle I had received from my contact in Palon.
The goal would be to set off the explosion to go off in the afternoon while the Swarm Bulb was attacking. The explosion and fire would be another distraction and hopefully cover my escape out of the keep.
I would use Burst Speed in combination with Concealed Movement to zoom past all the guards in the middle of the night. I would then set myself up on the roof of the keep in an out of the way corner and wait for the two weeks until the wedding date. I would hopefully be able to get one or two people to feed the bulb.
When the wedding was taking place and all the high level NPCs were engaged in the main hall I would sweep the keep for people and feed them to the bulb all at once. With a Swarm Bulb active in the keep it would become a disaster of epic proportions and I would use the chaos to kill Lady Breckley, her husband, and Sir Davos.
It was a crazy, hare-brained plan. I had a couple ideas on how to spice it up, but it would be a challenge. I was hoping that I once I got into the keep it would be smooth sailing. From what I understood the city and been swept a number of times and the defense was focused on the city as a whole rather than just the keep. This was due to the number of guests and how they couldn’t all be housed in the keep itself.
I heard shouts go up from the main deck. I went to the window and looked out. I saw a ship behind us. From the rough looking nature of the crew and their black sail, they were pirates. I wanted to curse everything. I was one day out from Breckley and pirates decided to attack the very ship I was on.
I was tempted to say fate had it out for me, but I didn’t want to tempt things any further. At least it wasn’t a Kraken or some sea beast. There was nothing I could do to assist the transport and conceal my presence. I walked into the hidden nook and waited there. If the pirates won, I would sneak out and kill them. If the crew won, then they would still be going on to Breckley.
***
MindMeld: I seeeeeeeeeeeeee you
Envy: Not much, I want videos
Worm: I predict a…..Blood Rain Wedding
UltimataSecret: With 20% more blood
GODHAXLOL: SNAKEY!!!!!
UltimataSecret: This is literally the event, it is going to be a disaster
6996: You think? Everyone half insane is heading towards Breckley
Tafe: It is your destiny
LordBreckley: Not my daughter!
PowerOfFaith: The Eight shall protect her
Guts: My crew is ready for some action, let the looting commence
UltimataSecret: Odds are 8 to 1 for Breckley being standing after this, 3 to 1 for Blood Rain actually pulling something off
***
Author’s Note: This chapter took forever. I normally don’t like to table spam, but it is getting to the point in the story where things will become more dependent on active skills rather than just bum rushing everything.
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