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Volume 1 - Chapter 8: Ghost fish hunt

Volume 1 - Chapter 8: Ghost fish hunt

The two entered the sewers through one of the many manholes located in the large ruins, the tunnels were large and round, with crumbling stone walkways, patched up with wood in certain places, light from cracks in the ceiling and the occasional torch or candle lit the tunnel.

The water was dark and murky with large chunks of what looked like moss and swarms of tiny lily pads littering the surface of the still water.

"JohnWillStab: I wonder why an abandoned tunnel had lights, lol."

"Bonifacius: That is indeed strange - I believe it may have been the work of some other players."

JohnWillStab took a second to think about what Bonifacius just said, he implied that players could place items down, the concept itself wasn’t all that foreign to John, but he wasn’t sure about how it could be implemented into a massively multiplayer environment.

"JohnWillStab: players can do that?"

"Bonifacius: Naturally, placeable items can be created with different professions, like carpentry or alchemy, however when they are left in the wild like this they take damage daily, that is to stop the world from becoming too cluttered."

"JohnWillStab: That's pretty cool, how do the professions work?"

The group walked down the tunnel until it joined into a larger one, with large waterfalls and rickety wooden bridges allowing people to walk from one side to the other.

"Bonifacius: At level twenty, thou will be asked to select one of many proffesions, there are more than twenty in total, when you master one of them you will be able to upgrade it and create even more advanced items!"

"JohnWillStab: Like the guy wearing chef's clothes back on the cart?"

"Bonifacius: Precisely, Pedecree is a master level chef, capable of creating the most advanced recipes in the server."

"JohnWillStab: Is there any actual use in eating food in the game?"

"Bonifacius: Well, for us non-undead, we have to worry about our stamina meters - you can think of it as a combination of hunger, thirst and exhaustion."

"JohnWillStab: Alright - so how does crafting actually work? I saw a few crafting systems in some FPS games, but they weren't really anything special..."

"Bonifacius: It would depend on the profession, for example, enchanters quite literally programme effects onto weapons with blocks of code, whilst alchemists use a vast list of recipes to create potions - or create their own..."

"JohnWillStab: Their own? Like they can make custom potions?"

"Bonifacius: I'm not really well informed on how it works... but a guild member of mine once explained it to me like this..."

"Bonifacius: There are one hundred and sixty-four unique potion effects, the technique of brewing a potion and preparing its ingredients can result in changes in the duration, strength and properties of the spell."

"JohnWillStab: Sounds like a lot to memorise..."

"Bonifacius: Well, low-level craftsmen can get by with just simple work - I think it's safe to say the same thing about the entire game."

"JohnWillStab =/"

"Bonifacius: The more time and effort you put into being part of this world, the more you can get back from it!"

The conversation was interrupted by a surprise attack from the back, JohnWillStab was attacked but he parried the attack - the attacker was a small bipedal creature that resembled a white-furred bat with bright red eyes and a spear, from its head stuck out two long antennas - its mouth a constant frown with shark-like teeth.

"Bonifacius: A cryptfiend!"

"JohnWillStab used kick which knocked the creature down to the ground."

"JohnWillStab: Since when can my attack do that?!"

"Bonifacius: A cryptfiend is part of the subclass of 'midgets' - essentially higher level attacks can knock them around."

JohnWillStab looked at the cryptfiend's health only to realise it was almost dead, it stood up and started limping away whilst playing the /cower emote.

"JohnWillStab: Heh - guess it's pretty smart."

"Bonifacius: Indeed - they do possess little health, however they fight in large numbers!"

"JohnWillStab: Numbers?"

JohnWillStab looked to the fleeing cryptfiend seeing that it started casting a spell - he rushed towards it, his finger was hovering over the '4' key which would cast Gut Punch

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Alarming Howl the ability caused their screens to shake as a dozen or so the creatures started running out from small cracks and pipes forming a horde which moved in towards John and Bonifacius.

"Bonifacius: LET US MAKE HASTE!"

Bonifacius used the command /carry JohnWillStab and unequipped his armour and replacing it with boar-leather giving him an incredible speed-boost.

"JohnWillStab: You can carry me?!"

"Bonifacius: It's only possible to carry incapacitated players or party members!"

JohnWillStab was being carried like a sack of potatoes over Bonifacius' shoulder.

"JohnWillStab: Huh... so you didn't have to kick my corpse out of the town earlier?"

"Bonifacius: I was not in your party so I had no choice."

"JohnWillStab: Alright... that aside - why are you so fast? and where are we going?"

"Bonifacius: Heavy armour slows down the user - so we raise our speed stat to even out the difference - without my heavy armour I am like a mighty steed!"

"Bonifacius: Also - as for where we are going... I have no clue!"

Suddenly the path under them turned to emptiness as they fell down into a massive water reservoir, their character switching to free-fall as they crashed into the water - JohnWillStab's screen went back and for a second, he thought he broke the game before he realised he was still alive - “undead don't need air” he remembered.

"Bonifacius: JohnWillStab!? Where are thou?!"

"JohnWillStab: I'm somewhere under the water in complete darkness..."

"Bonifacius: Thou must tap the space key - for the undead race does not passively float in the water."

Moments later JohnWillStab rose up from the dark abyss below them,

"JohnWillStab: Thought I broke the game for a second!"

"Bonifacius: This place is quite interesting, isn't it?"

"JohnWillStab: Yeah - the water animations look awesome, like the waves and stuff."

They looked up seeing that the water level was at least ten meters too low for them to be able to climb back up.

JohnWillStab: Guess we aren't getting out of where this easily...

"Bonifacius: Fear not - I have a plan!

"JohnWillStab: Really?"

"Bonifacius: Yes - I shall pick you up and cast the master charge ability to reach those cryptfiends up there!"

"JohnWillStab: That's genius!"

They turned their characters to see the cryptfiends who came into view, still charging at them but much to their surprise they charged into the pit after them, falling into the water and playing the struggling animation and flailing around before going limp and floating around on the surface of the reservoir.

"JohnWillStab: ..."

"Bonifacius: It would appear I over-estimated our enemy's intelligence..."

JohnWillStab swam over to the pile of corpses and tried to stand atop them only for him to fall down into the water, he eventually selected one of them and used the /grab emote placing the corpse over his shoulder and making it work as a make-shift buoy.

"Bonifacius: What a clever idea! To use a corpse as a floatation device!"

"JohnWillStab: yeah, my thumb's going numb from mashing the space key to stay afloat."

They floated around there for a solid ten minutes before the bodies despawned and JohnWillStab sank down into the depths momentarily before swimming back up.

"JohnWillStab: This is starting to look kind of bad..."

"Bonifacius: Agreed... it would seem that we really are doomed to drown here..."

"JohnWillStab: ..."

"Bonifacius: Ah. my apologies - I forgot you can't drown..."

"JohnWillStab: Don't worry about it... now that I think about it... where were we supposed to find that ghost fish?"

"Bonifacius: Good question, I shall check the quest log..."

Bonifacius took a second to read over the quest once more.

"JohnWillStab: Well?"

"Bonifacius: It would seem like we are fortunate after all, it's in a massive reservoir!"

"JohnWillStab: I don't know, man... I don't see too many fish here..."

"Bonifacius: It's a ghost fish - It's most likely below us."

"JohnWillStab: I think I may have an idea..."

"Bonifacius: What does thou have in mind?"

"JohnWillStab: How do you summon pets?"

"Bonifacius: Thou must open the pet menu - it's the little paw-print shaped icon in the top right."

JohnWillStab opened the menu and saw plenty of empty boxes except for one, aracnophobia the undead cat.

He clicked on the icon summoning the cat which started flailing in the water until it swam over to JohnWillStab and sat on his head.

"Bonifacius: How would thy pet help us?"

"JohnWillStab: It's an undead cat - surely it can find undead fish!"

"Bonifacius: But don't cats despise water?"

"JohnWillStab: it's alright - we're both undead."

JohnWillStab targeted the cat and used /grab placing it over his shoulder, then he proceeded to let go of the space bar allowing his character to sink down into the black abyss.

In the water, the cat proceeded to start meowing.

"Aracnophobia: Meow... ... ... ... Meow... ... ... ..."

"JohnWillStab: I'm sorry about this, but we need that fish! I'll buy you some meat as soon as I can."

"Aracnophobia: Meow... ... ... ... Meow... ... ... ..."

JohnWillStab started walking around the bottom of the reservoir unsure of what it was he was looking for.

"Aracnophobia: Meow... ... ... Meow... ... ... Meow... ... ..."

JohnWillStab took a few steps back.

"Aracnophobia: Meow... ... ... ... Meow... ... ... ..."

JohnWillStab kept walking forward.

"Aracnophobia: Meow... ... ... Meow... ... ... Meow... ... ..."

"Aracnophobia: Meow... ... Meow... ... Meow... ... Meow... ..."

"Aracnophobia: Meow... Meow... Meow... Meow... Meow..."

"Aracnophobia: Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow"

"Aracnophobia: Meowmeowmeowmeowmeow"

"JohnWillStab: MY CAT IS LIKE A METAL-DETECTOR!"

"Bonifacius: How thou tracked it down?"

"JohnWillStab: Think so - but I can't target it..."

"Bonifacius: If you could get it out to the surface I could kill it and we could take it back!"

"JohnWillStab: ..."

JohnWillStab: ...

JohnWillStab cast Kick blindly into the darkness causing the ghost fish to be pushed away as evident by the "meow frequency" decreasing.

On the surface, Bonifacius could see the shape of a tiny, see-through green fish with a visible skeleton fly out of the water, quickly he cast Master Charge.

JohnWillStab emerged from the depths, cat in hand before turning to Bonifacius who was facing away from him.

"JohnWillStab: Did you get it?"

Bonifacius slowly tuned to face JohnWillStab revealing that the front of his character was covered in blood particles - he exploded the fish upon hitting it.

"Bonifacius: I broke the fish..."

JohnWillStab sighs.

JohnWillStab let go of the space key allowing his character to sink back down as Bonifacius could hear the meowing start again.

After about five minutes the fish respawned and they managed to get it successfully.

"JohnWillStab: Alright, we have the fish... how do we get out?"

"Bonifacius: ..."

JohnWillStab looked at the map, the skill list, even the inventory in search of anything that could help them.

"JohnWillStab: I'm starting to feel this quest is broken..."

"Bonifacius: ...tis possible..."

That's when JohnWillStab saw it, the "?" shaped icon in his bag, the cheater’s business card and quite possibly their only way out without dying.