It turned out that the village boundary was much further than Morgan had anticipated, and after half an hour or so of walking he came across the house with the red door. It stood alone in the dip between two hills that were scattered with brush and trees, more of a shack than a house. As he walked through the gap in the hedgerow that separated it from the road and started down the path, the red door opened, and a depressed looking man dressed in farmer's attire stepped out.
"You here for the wasps?"
Morgan nodded.
The man's mood seemed to lighten a little. "Two of you at once, perhaps you might just do it after all. Thanks for coming. I'm Jeremy."
Morgan looked around him quickly before replying. "Good to meet you Jeremy, I'm Morgan. I'm afraid it's just the one of me though."
Jeremy almost smiled and gestured into the shack. "Please, follow me. Another outworlder showed up just a few minutes ago."
He followed the man in, and grinned when he saw the player waiting inside. "Angie!" he exclaimed. Angie grinned back at him. She wore the same homespun as he did but sported a leather jacket and a short sword on her hip. "Good to see you, Morgan. Hope you've been doing alright. Thinking about it, if you're here, with me, seriously thinking about dealing with wasps of all things, then you're probably as desperate as I am." He laughed at the comment, before Jeremy cut in. "Please, let me show you what we are dealing with here." The farmer moved to exit the back of the house, and the pair followed. Out back was a large orchard of evenly spaced apple trees, fruit ripe on the branches and littering the floor.
"This has been my families land for generations. I completed this house three years ago, to replace the old and rotted one. Took me two years of sweat and toil. I have been making cider here, and what cider it is, but six months ago these wasps moved into the orchard. I can only grab the fruit from the nearest row of trees, and it's not enough to sustain me. If I go any further, they come, and I have to run back to the house. The village boundary is weak, here, near the edge. Most things stay out, but... If you can rid me of these pests, I will give you four gold. It's all I have left."
The two players looked at each other as Jeremy finished his tragic tale. They saw the need for gold in the other's eyes and nodded to the farmer at the same time. Angie spoke, "We'll do our best."
[Quest - The Wasps : 500XP]
[Clear the orchard]
Jeremy looked at the two in turn. "Don't do anything too foolish, if you're really in trouble then come in to the house and shut the door fast, ok? They can't follow inside and will calm down in a couple of minutes." With this, he entered the shack and shut the door.
The pair started to walk slowly towards the trees, and Morgan accepted Angie's party request. He started, "I'm glad to see you, I hadn't realised how good it would be to see a familiar face in this madness of a game. Did you get approached by the company?"
Angie nodded at him with a grimace. She replied, "Yeah, that was unpleasant. Guy and a girl in suits. Felt like they were shaking me down. They want five gold in our first five days? It seems pretty cruel to me. But what can I do? It's do or die." She shook her head in sadness.
Morgan replied, a bit more optimistically, "Yeah, the goons I met were grim too, but it's still a better chance than we have out of this place. And this game has some pretty neat things." He gestured to the sword on her hip. "You any good with that?"
She grinned at him. "Nope."
The pair reached the first row of trees, stopped and peered into the orchard. "Well, I can't see any wasps." Offered Morgan. Angie shrugged. "Maybe we’ve got to get closer." They paced forward and drew their weapons. As they crossed the gap between the first and second rows, a faint buzzing could be heard. The two froze. A single wasp – a big wasp, around the size of a tennis ball, drifted into view and flew towards them.
[Identify – Wasp : Level 0]
[Race - Monster/Insectoid]
[HP - 5/5]
The buzzing rose in volume, slowly at first, but then rising rapidly as a swarm of wasps appeared. Hundreds of the terrifying insects rushed from the back of the orchard. Morgan stared down the approaching swarm. Gripping his sickle tightly, he shouted "Run! Back to the house!" They both turned on their heel and sprinted to the house. Angie got there first, slowing to push the door that Jeremy, who had been watching them, had just opened. Morgan crashed into her back and they tumbled in. Jeremy slammed the door, just in time for a smattering of wasps to bounce off it. The players disentangled themselves and moved to peer at the orchard through the cracks in the wooden walls. The wasps were milling about now, some settling on rotten apples for a few seconds before flying off. A few had started drifting back to the end of the orchard.
"Maybe we can snipe a few when most of them drift off?" Suggested Angie, "I have a feeling they won't come en-masse if we don't cross the treeline." Morgan nodded, and they waited for their moment. When enough wasps had cleared, Angie kicked them off, "OK, there's about ten left on our side of the line. I'm on the left, you're on the right; keep out of swing range. Let's go."
She opened the door and they charged out; weapons at the ready. While the rest of the swarm continued their lazy drift back, occasionally stopping to sample the rotten apples, the wasps on their side of the invisible line between the trees noticed them immediately. The majority charged at Angie, and Morgan saw four heading towards him. He saw Angie bat a wasp to the ground with the flat of her sword as he readied his sickle for his own opponents. He sliced at the first as it came into range, and neatly bisected it, the two halves falling to the ground.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
[You have killed Wasp : Level 0 : +2XP]
As the dead wasp hit the ground, the rest struck with lightning speed. Morgan jumped backward, flailing and clipping one with his sickle, which was enough to kill it. He heard yelps of pain coming from Angie, just before he too was stung.
[-7HP]
[-9HP]
He swore fiercely as the two wasps plunged their stingers into him, one to his leg, one to his hip. He swung at them as they backed off for another strike, missing them completely as they darted about in the air. He took several more stings before managing to subdue his opponents, then turned to help Angie. She had fared better than him, despite having almost double the wasps to deal with. Four of the wasps lay at her feet dead, and as Morgan started to help.
"Bloody hell these stings hurt," she complained in short breaths, "I'd give anything right now for a tennis racquet." With these words she swung her blade at the last active wasp, striking it down. The whole episode had taken them about a minute, and both of them sported a variety of swollen stings. Angie had taken a sting to the lip, and her face was starting to swell comically.
They stopped and looked at each other. Morgan laughed as Angie poked at her face and grimaced with swollen lips. She returned him an irritated expression. "Look, man, this hurts." He replied contritely, "I'm sorry. I do wish I had a camera so I could show you though. Anyhow, I'm not sure this plan will work. They're too small and fast to hit regularly, and I'm not sure I'm willing to go through this charade again, let alone 20 to 30 times to clear that swarm."
The pair sat on the grass for a minute gazing out into the orchard, as their swellings faded. Morgan's wandering eyes rested on a rotten apple for a moment, when an idea struck him. "Angie, back to the house, I have a plan." She raised an eyebrow at him. "I'll explain everything when we're in."
Jeremy wasn't happy with the scheme, but as a desperate man with no options, he acceded. He told the pair to follow, and the three of them each rolled a barrel into the orchard. "Just one barrel left after this," Jeremy moaned, sadly. Morgan tried to console him, "If this works, you'll be able to fill them back up in no time, I'm sure." They manoeuvred the barrels into the first line of trees, set them upright, and took off the lids. A smell of strong cider spread on the breeze. "Jeremy, Angie, back to the house, and be ready for me to come in." Morgan ordered. The pair nodded and headed to the shack. Morgan walked forward and stepped over the intangible line between the trees. The buzzing started up, and without sparing a glance at the onrushing horde, he dashed to the shack.
They peered through the cracks as they watched the wasps. The barrels attracted the wasps in droves, and they flew in and out of the barrels as they sampled their contents. In a few moments, wasps were tumbling to the ground as they lost their cohesion, drunk from the strong alcohol. A handful of the wasps had drifted back across the line towards the end of the orchard, but the vast majority were either flying around the barrels, or twitching on the ground. They gave it another minute, until all the wasps had sampled the beverage. A few XP notifications started popping up. "They must be drowning in the barrels." Angie guessed. The pair exited the shack, cautiously, but it seemed the wasps had fallen for the bait, and were now incapacitated. "Let's get 'em" crowed Morgan victoriously, as they started to stomp on the fallen insects. They ran around, stomping as many insects as they could.
[Congratulations, you have acquired the Martial Arts skill.]
[This skill marks your proficiency at unarmed combat.]
The vast majority were quickly stamped underfoot; buy they were so focused on their task that they failed to notice the queen until it was almost upon them. The buzzing finally tipped them off as the giant wasp approached fast up the orchard. "Bloody hell," Exclaimed Angie, "It's the size of a dog!" The pair turned to face the onrushing opponent.
[Identify - Wasp Queen : Level 8]
[Race - Monster/Insectoid]
[HP - 300/300]
[SP - 250/250]
[MP - 155/155]
As the queen crossed the line between the trees, a faint miasma poured off her, coating the ground. The handful of drunk, but otherwise unscathed, wasps on the ground started to twitch more rapidly before lifting off the ground refreshed. The pair frantically looked around. The queen was rapidly approaching, and now their retreat was cut off by a twenty or so of the smaller insects.
"Oh dear, this is gonna suck" opined Morgan, as he charged towards the queen wasp. Angie stood her ground, turning to face the bulk of the smaller creatures. Then, suddenly, all the wasps attacked as one.
Morgan slashed at the queen who nimbly dodged through the air. He managed to clip her on a second swing, dealing a pitiful amount of damage. A few of the smaller wasps had joined in his fight and stings appeared on his back. Yelping with the pain, he swung about, managing to slap one of the wasps to the ground with his off hand as the queen darted in for an attack. She stung him on his torso, his left side instantly swelling up.
[-78 HP]
The pain of the queen's attack stunned him for a moment, and the smaller wasps took advantage, landing more stings on him. He was surrounded, and panicking. He heard Angie as she swung her blade around and growled a curse every time she was stung. He focused on the queen, taking the attacks of the smaller creatures, driving her back and landing a couple more glancing blows that barely dented the large insect's health. After a particularly large and clumsy swing, the queen took advantage and stung him again on the right arm causing him to cry out in pain and drop his sickle. He swung about and punched the wasp with his left hand, doing little damage but causing it to tumble through the air away from him. Angie didn't sound like she was faring any better, and he looked around to find that though she was smothered in stings, only a few of the original pack that surrounded her was left flying. She'd dropped her sword and was swatting at them with her hands with much better success.
As the queen righted itself, Morgan grabbed his sickle with his left hand and tried to square up to it, but was distracted by its smaller compatriots driving their stings into the back of his legs. He swung his useless right arm at the pests, before noting the queen was on the move and headed straight for Angie who's back was turned as she swatted at the remaining wasps.
"Angie, look out!" He tried to warn her, but he was too late, and she took the queen's attack straight to the side of the head. She sank to the ground, stunned, as the other wasps took advantage and descended on her. Morgan, ignoring the smaller creatures that surrounded him, charged to help Angie. The queen got another devastating strike in and he could see Angie's health bar plummeting dangerously low. He barrelled at the queen, tackling it and bringing both of them to the ground. He lashed out with his sickle, finally landing a decent blow and lodging the blade in its thorax.
[Hit – Thorax - Damage 55HP -Bleeding]
It took more damage as he wrenched the sickle back out, a yellow liquid oozing from the puncture. The wasp lunged at him, catching him square in the chest.
[-82 HP]
He rocked back with the pain, noticing that Angie was rising back to her feet, more swelled up puffy skin than not. She stalwartly got back to dispatching the smaller insects with her bare hands. Morgan traded savage blows with the queen, both their HP reducing in chunks.
As the man and wasp wrestled on the ground, Angie, now free of opponents, grabbed her sword from the ground and leapt at the queen. She plunged her blade deep into its head. With a final thrash, it stung Morgan one last time, and he screamed as the queens wicked stinger drove into his eye. A string of notifications popped up, before his world faded to black.
[Crit - Head - 156 HP]
[A party member has killed Queen Wasp : Level 8 : +325XP]
[Quest - The Wasps : 500XP - Completed]
[You have died]