Chapter 9
I found the option to log back into Hearth after selecting the gear icon in the bottom right of my vision. I pondered briefly just staying in the Soul Space where it was safe. We had a few silvers left, and it seemed like the food and water we could purchase with the transporter interface was decently cheap. If we wanted, we could stay there for quite some time before venturing back into Hearth. But I knew it wasn’t the right call.
Every minute we spent in the Soul Space was another minute someone else was working to grow in strength. Every minute here was a minute lost. A little over half a day was plenty of time to recover, and while I had gotten used to the reeking air, I was ready to get out of the tight confines. Greg had gotten a good amount of the garbage cleaned up and out of the space . . . and the air fresheners had canceled out some of the stench . . . some. But in any case, Mie was still level one. I was only level two. We needed to get back out there and continue to level. The plan was to meet Mie where she logged back in. Since she had died in the entry event, she wouldn’t appear next to me. I’d confirmed with Greg that I’d spawn back in right where I’d logged out.
I reappeared in the overgrown grass, and the perfect temperature enveloped me. It couldn’t have been north of sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit. It was mid-morning, and the sun was on its way up. It shone down on my pale elf face. I took a deep breath, enjoying the contrast from the Soul Space.
The troll had launched me four yards away from the path leading north to The Notch. I glanced around, staying low, not quite believing what Greg said after I had pressed him. His voice was still fresh in my mind. ‘The trolls won’t still be there. They are night creatures who despise the daylight. As a good rule of thumb, traveling by night is a bad idea. Spawn rates are much higher, and the mobs’ pathing is more random.’
I took a few steps back through the grass, guiding it away from me as I pushed forward back onto the dirt path. I relaxed slightly when nothing immediately tried to kill me. I noticed another inky black line of The Black Domain crossing the path in front of me. It trickled through the grass and onto the path from the east, and continued to travel off to the west and into the distance. The stuff gave me the creeps. I stepped over it carefully, making sure to not touch it.
I headed down the path, crunching some dead grass as I went. After talking to Greg . . . unfortunately, more—okay I will admit, he was our one good source of information, even if it was like pulling nails to get anything out of him—but anyways, after asking him more questions . . . I was beginning to get a basic understanding of how this reality worked. Our souls and the Soul Space resided in their own unique—for lack of a better term—reality. We were afforded what they called ‘player’ or ‘character’ bodies. The two terms seemed interchangeable, but I still wasn’t sure. Our souls, I thought, were transported into this Hearth character body when we logged in. But it was still unclear what happened to our bodies back in the Soul Space while we were logged into Hearth. Were they still there? Greg had hesitated before he shook his head. Mie confirmed that my body hadn’t been visible at least when she had returned to the Soul Space early . . . but she wasn’t convinced they weren’t still there.
I wasn’t sure either, and now that my consciousness was back on Hearth . . . I did have the vague sense of my Soul Space body being thirsty. But it was a muted sensation. It reminded me of seeing the options text and the inside of the Soul Space at the same time. So . . . where exactly was I? I didn’t really like the idea that my soul could be somewhere I wasn’t conscious. I wondered if our Hearth bodies could travel to our Soul Space. I knew the inventory items could, so it didn’t seem like a far stretch. I had no good reason for needing it to, I just wondered if we could travel to other realities? Who or what was transferring my soul and or conscious all over the place? I had so many damn questions. But all paled in comparison to the big one: Could I travel back to Earth somehow? My experience on Earth made that seem unlikely. When someone died on Earth . . . they were gone. For good. I let my questions and frustration continue to build as I drank in my surroundings.
My feet continued on the path until I saw a cluster of small buildings in the distance ahead of me. As I got closer and I reached the edge of some farm fields, massive bold white words filled my vision.
THE NOTCH
Tier: Village
I pulled up my map. It showed the boundary of the area, but it remained covered in black. I continued down the dirt path as it transitioned from crispy grass to a more well-traveled hard clay. I caught sight of some white nameplates. A few farmer NPCs were out and about, working the fields and going about their daily tasks.
I assumed white meant neutral, but I wasn’t sure, and no one stopped me as I walked. One even gave me a friendly wave. I uhh, waved back.
I noticed an oddly timed message in my local feed come out of nowhere.
EVENT: Resist Void King Recruitment
Rank: Uncommon
Your party discovered an event
Party led by AnythingButSquished joined event
What the hell? All I had done was cross into the village boundary. That constituted an Uncommon event? I looked back up toward the village, which was still at least a few hundred meters away, and that was when I realized it hadn’t been me. A tall, golden-skinned player was sprinting toward me along the dirt path . . . and close behind her followed three heavily armored guards.
“Oh . . . fuck.”
Sam: What did you do?!
Mie: I JUST CLICKED RESIST! THEY LOOKED MEAN!
As they neared, more detail came into view. The guards wore black plated armor with enclosed helmets that had slits for their mouths and eyes. The plate was covered in thick scratches or maybe cracks that I could see at a distance. The guards themselves seemed tall and thin, but still looked very much humanoid. One carried a sword and had a nice long black cloak, and two carried spears. I inspected their group as a whole.
Recruited Spearman Guard x2
Level 10, Landorian
Recruited Swordsman Guard
Level 10, Landorian
I debated logging out right then and there. Three level ten guards?! This . . . was not doable. But a thirty-second logout process was a long time, and I knew it wouldn’t be enough as Mie closed the distance between us. And even if it was enough time for me . . . I would be abandoning Mie, and if she died . . . it was still my life credits at stake. Ugh.
So, I stood my ground, trying to think. My stomach clenched as frustration flooded through me. We were level one and two. This wasn’t a fair fight at all. I watched Mie run from them. She was barely staying ahead, and they were slowly closing the distance.
When she’d come close, she popped a round glass bottle filled with something green into her hand. She thrust it against my chest as she passed and puffed “here!” as she did. I inspected it, and a little info box appeared next to it.
Weak Stamina Potion
Description: Restores 100 stamina.
Mie . . . kept running. I looked down at the green bottle, then back up at the guards, turned, and sprinted after her in a panic, storing the potion in my inventory as I went.
To my surprise, I easily caught up to her. She was huffing out, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. We’re dead.”
My Endurance or Agility or . . . whatever must have been higher than hers. I had to slow down to stay in step with her. My speed gave me an idea.
“What the hell happened?!” I asked again.
“I DON’T KNOW! I was just grabbing some supplies—”
She cut off as we both noticed the same thing in front of us. A dwarf with a flaming orange beard was suddenly sprinting past toward the guards. He had appeared out of thin air. Did he just log in? He was bare chested and still in the starter gear, just like us. Right before he passed us, a green spell came out of his starter staff. Both the dwarf and the green spell rushed past us, moving in the direction of the guards. As they moved, I thought I heard dice rolling on a wooden table. That didn’t make any sense. I shook my head.
I stopped running and turned to warn the dwarf of the danger he was about to run into, but . . . he was gone.
“What the hell was that?!” Mie said, also stopping.
I watched the green spell hit a small rock on the side of the path. The stone rolled in front of the first guard, who wielded a sword. His foot caught the rock, and he tripped and rolled. The second guard . . . tripped over the first, and the next part was one of the craziest accidents I had ever seen in my life. And again . . . as a firefighter . . . I had seen some wild shit. The second guard fell on top of the other’s sword and . . . impaled himself with a sickening crunch. It went right through his stomach and out the other side. His health bar dropped a crazy ninety percent.
“Hoooooly fuck!” I said as the armored men rolled to a stop a dozen meters away. The first guard stood back up and pulled his sword out of his buddy in shock. As it came out of him, it made a wet-sounding squelch. The third guard, who was lagging, reached the sword-wielding guard, and as he did . . . I made a split-second decision. Mie couldn’t outrun these guys forever. She was too slow. I however . . . could. And maybe if this divine orange haired dwarf was part of the event . . .?
I activated my Vaulting Strike ability, landing amongst them and driving my spear into the armpit of the low health guard. I gripped my spear—and my butt cheeks—hard, praying the other two behind me wouldn’t get in a hit. I quickly activated Sweeping Strike on them.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
I said, “Thank you, Jesus!” when they both went down with the rooted debuff. That gave me five seconds as I backpedaled and got out of range of the two rooted guards.
Mie was screaming, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” from behind me, and I could very much feel her panic in our shared connection.
I ignored her. My stamina was now super low, but I used every last one of those five seconds. I used my Basic Attack on the critically low guard, avoiding a weak spear thrust from him as I did. My spear was barely able to pierce into his flesh, and my damage seemed pitiful even though I was planting it into a crack of the breast plate. But he was low enough that my third Basic Attack after my initial Vaulting Strike finished him. His body flickered green, and I clicked ‘Loot All’ as fast as I could when inspecting his corpse.
I didn’t have time to look at what I got as I frantically turned toward Mie to start heading her direction. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the remaining spear-wielding guard, just out of reach. He tossed his weapon into a throwing position and whipped it in my direction. I couldn’t react fast enough. The spear . . . went through my god damned chest, and my health dropped down an incredible eighty five percent. Pain slammed into me, and I gritted my teeth. I let out a silent shout as blood once again spilled into my lungs and out of my body. But . . . I had a thought, and immediately acted on it. I mentally stored the spear that was in my chest into my inventory. It vanished, and I slammed on my last health potion from the beginner’s chest. The pain vanished as the hole in my chest sealed shut. While this was happening, I had been scrambling as fast as I could toward Mie, who was now moving away . . . like a slow ass . . . turtle.
I shouted “RUN!” when I’d almost reached her.
“I AM! I’M JUST MASSIVE!” she shouted back.
I looked behind and saw the rooted debuff finally wear off the two remaining guards. They slowly started to catch us once more now that I was running at Mie’s pace. I scanned my logs as we went and watched my stamina fill back up at an incredibly slow rate.
You killed Recruited Spearman Guard!
You received 100 XP!
You gained multiple levels!
You reached Level 4!
You unlocked the ability {Spear Throw}
Active Ability: {Spear Throw}
Description: You throw your spear a short distance, causing a 50% increase in base damage on successful hits.
Maximum distance: 15 feet
Cost: 30 stamina. This scales with player level.
Cast Time: 1.5 seconds
Cooldown: 1 second
You received {Silver Coin} x2
You received {Copper Coin} x65
You received {Sturdy Spear}
You received {Gauntlets of The Black Domain}
You received {Sturdy Spear}
I registered briefly that I had looted the dead guard’s spear, in addition to the one that had impaled me.
“I got two new abilities! I leveled twice!” Mie said excitedly.
We had a few moments before the guards would catch us. If we couldn’t pull off something . . . we were dead. I needed to know all of our options.
“What are they?!”
The sword-wielding guard just a couple meters behind us now. I noticed the other guard had pulled a dagger now that I had his spear.
“Here! Check the party feed!”
I did. She had somehow shared her abilities there. I made a mental note to ask her how she did it.
Active Ability: {Flash Heal}
Description: You heal yourself or an ally for an amount based primarily on your Wisdom and Intelligence.
Maximum distance: 50 feet.
Cost: 35 mana. This scales with player level.
Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Active Ability: {Skin Hardening}
Description: Physical damage reduced by 50% for 3 seconds.
Cast Time: Instant
Cost: 40 mana. This scales with player level.
Cooldown: 30 seconds
My mind worked. If I could grab aggro . . .
“Okay, Mie, you can’t outrun these guys, but I can. If I can keep their attention, just heal me when my health drops okay? Stay at a distance! If we keep running, we are going to attract other mobs.”
Greg: Oh wow. A player who actually listened to something I said.
Sam: Shut the hell up Greg.
Mie: STOP MOLESTING OUR SOUL SPACE BODIES GREG.
Greg: :face-palm emoji: . . . for the last time. They are not here.
I stopped running, my stamina restored enough for a vault and a sweep again.
“Sam. THEY ARE LEVEL TEN!” Mie said with exasperation in her voice as she slowed to a jog as well.
I heard her. But it didn’t matter. She couldn’t outrun them. We had to try. I . . . had to try. No more letting life . . . just have me. I clenched my teeth as that feeling of red-hot liquid poured throughout my entire being once more. I popped my Broken Spear into my hand. I activated Spear Throw, and my body went into a throwing stance. I maneuvered the spear over my shoulder and hurled it toward the sword-wielding guard.
It pierced him through the thin slit on the face of his helm, and I was surprised to see a yellow number float up and his health drop by a solid thirty percent. He dropped his sword and clawed at the spear in his face . . . but he was still moving forward at a dead sprint and crashed right into me.
WHAM!
I was flattened onto my back, and the air was knocked out of me. The guard was now on top of me, I grabbed the spear sticking out of his face, twisted, and yanked it out. Then I activated Sweeping Strike as the other guard approached. On my back, the ability's radius seemed limited, but it worked . . . sort of. The guard got the rooted debuff, and the transparent chains appeared. He stumbled, but he stayed on his feet. Even though he was unable to move, I was still in his range. He planted his dagger into my thigh, pulled it out, and prepared to do so again. My health dropped by two thirds. Another hit, and I would be dead.
“GAH!” I roared.
I activated Vaulting Strike, targeting the guard on top of me. I had never used it on a target this close and thanked the heavens when my body seemed to know what to do. The ability didn’t seem to care where I was or what position I was in. My hand took the guard on top of me by the throat, and with unnatural strength, I pushed upward and got to my feet. Then, just like always, I jumped up. This time though, I had a dangling body along for the ride, held in an iron grip.
While I jumped up, the swordsman's cloak flapped in the wind, and I caught sight of a gold light flashing through me. My health spiked back up to eighty percent. That must be Mie’s Flash Heal.
The rooted guard recovered just enough to throw his dagger at me. It punctured between my ribs. My health dropped to under ten percent, and my vision strobed.
We were at the peak of my vault, and like always, I darted downward at an angle. I bellowed as we impacted. The spear in my right-hand thrusting forward. The guard in my grip smashed into the earth, quickly followed by my spear into the same face slit as before. Another yellow number floated up, and another solid thirty-five percent fell away from his bar. I was getting lucky with crits.
I left that spear in the original-sword-wielding guard’s face as he tried to remove it and popped one of the other spears out of my inventory. I slammed on the stamina potion Mie had given me, and activated Spear Throw just as the dagger-throwing guard rushed over to us. The spear stuck into his upper thigh in one of the large cracks in his damaged armor. It knocked off fifteen percent of his health. He stumbled, but quickly pulled the spear out and brandished it.
“Oh . . . right. Fuck,” I said. I had just given him a weapon.
A glint of metal caught my eye. I picked up the sword on the ground and attempted to slice the head off the guard still pulling at the spear in his face . . . but the weapon didn’t have any sort of impact. It felt like my grip lost all its strength. The sword hit the guard’s neck, but came flying out of my hand, which was now too weak to keep its grip. Right. I don’t have the Battle Art. What kind of dumb game—
The sword guard pulled out the spear in his face, picked up the sword, and looked at me questioningly.
God damn it. I had just given them both their weapons back.
So, I did the only thing that made any sense.
I ran.
Another Flash Heal fell over me. This time I had a split second to appreciate the circular pane of golden glass as it fell through me from above. It brought me back up to fifty percent health.
Mie: :shock emoji: I didn’t know we could use emojis! :wave emoji: :poop emoji: :plugs-nose emoji:
Mie: Oh cool. They have new ones!
Mie: Oh. Whoa . . . :sex emoji: :sex emoji: :sex emoji:
Greg: What have I done.
Mie: Greg is a :butt emoji: :hole emoji:
Ignoring that . . . I continued running in a large circle, Mie at its center. I ran over dirt, corn stalks, and over little rocks that dug into my feet. I really needed my boots.
Mie continued to heal, until I was back to full. The guards continued to follow but were unable to catch me in their heavy plate armor. They also thankfully ignored Mie, which told me that Threat was definitely a mechanic in this game. Still, I kept them close—staying just ahead, nervous they would turn on her. The sword-wielding guard had a third of his health remaining. The spear-wielding guard was barely touched at eighty-five health remaining.
I had a single spear, no armor, and no potions. But I had speed.
So, I used it.
The rest of the fight lasted a good thirty minutes as a pattern emerged. I would stay out of reach, until I was back to full health and stamina, then vault in and sweep. Most of the time I would take a terrible blow, but never enough to slow me down as I turned and began running once more. After a couple iterations of that strategy, the sword guard went down.
With one guard left, the number of hits I took dropped, but it still took another five or so iterations to defeat him—Mie healing me between engagements. If this had been a video game encounter, I would have been bored as hell, but I was exhausted, sweating, and constantly clenching my entire body as I took agonizing blows. Because of this, each time one of my Spear Throws missed it felt like a mental punch from God himself, and I would let out a little growl.
The timing didn’t quite work for Mie’s mana to regenerate, but I saw her mana spike back up as she downed a mana potion.
When the last guard was a couple hits from being dead, I made the mistake of thinking we had it in the bag. When I vaulted and did a sweep, he managed to land a gut-wrenching blow to my midsection. Then he flipped the spear over and whipped it forward. It buried itself into my thigh. I shouted in pain and surprise. That attack put my health in the single digits.
My blood drained from my face, and as I stumbled away, I saw the guard raising his secondary weapon—the dagger—for a throw. This time, I was dead for sure.
Mie dove in front of me, and the dagger pinned itself into her collarbone region. She cursed a long stream of profanity. I thought I heard my name mixed in there a couple times.
For the second time, she’d saved us.
After that, the guard had no weapons. He continued toward us, his fists raised. Mie healed us up, using the remnants of her mana, and I vaulted in once more, finally putting him down . . . but not before he clocked me across the face. “Gah!” Really? I hate this place.
I let out a massive exhale and looked over at Mie. Her face was in a wide-eyed state of disbelief. Blood covered her chest and sports bra. I’m sure I was also covered in red.
Jesus Christ.
We survived.
With the help of some half-naked, divine, orange-bearded. . . dwarf . . . but still. We had survived three level ten mobs.
And that wasn’t even the best part.
The best part . . . was the loot.