“I didn’t expect to see either of you again. I thought for sure the Leviathan would have consumed your souls!” Brittany gasped, weary from the fight and the run along the route they had taken to escape the Lost Zone.
How did they manage to escape the Leviathan?
Truth be told, she felt happy to see them once more. They were a welcome sight in the dreariness around.
“Well, same here!” Brad remarked, eyeing her with newfound admiration. “I saw you run into the depths of the Lost Zone instead of fleeing to the opposite side. I thought you were off your rockers and was going to die. That dark monster followed you instead of focusing on us.”
“It was a narrow escape!” Blondie nodded.
“See?” he smirked at Blondie. “Brittany proved to be tougher than she seems to be.”
“How did you escape, anyway?” Blondie scoffed.
“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Brittany said, falling quiet, not wanting to be reminded of the horrors in the forest.
The creatures… and that monster… she had enough of them for now. She couldn’t fight any more at this level. Her HUD showed significant improvement however. She had finally regained enough to surpass her earlier level before the game reset, so that was nice. But she was still really disappointed by her lack of weaponry. By now before the game lost its mind she had acquired her beloved flaming broadsword and there was an ample supply of dark matter grenades in her prior inventory. But compared to her, Blondie and Brad were far better equipped with decent weapons while Brittany only had a knife and a nearly useless rifle!
What could she do with a freaking knife? It only barely proved its worth in the forests. Besides, close-combat was always a risky gander. Even with complete knowledge of fighting with a close-combat weapon, there was that risk of getting nicked and the health bar going down. And the Remington wasn’t anything to write home about. The lack of a magazine or even a multiple shell barrel capacity was beyond obnoxious, and nearly got her killed several times already.
She really should have looted the sword from the large Goblin back there in the Lost Zone, but she got spooked by the presence of the Leviathan and completely dropped the ball on that opportunity. She wished there was another opponent nearby that she could take down quickly so that she could loot a weapon from them, but their surroundings more or less looked like a vast plain without a soul in sight. It was almost like they were the only ones there except for a few carrion vultures hovering in the sky overhead looking for dead flesh to prey on.
If the vultures were here, it meant that dead people might be nearby. Maybe she could loot their weapons. Hopefully, they would be better than the knife she possessed.
“This place looks quite empty!” she remarked.
Blondie shrugged. “People refuse to cluster around a place so close to the Lost Zone. Villages loathe to form anywhere near a place where the Leviathan may lurk, ready to eat their souls. That’s the reason this place is quite empty!”
Brad nodded. “Yup, that’s the unfortunate truth.” He said. “I know why you asked that, by the way. You’re in need of weapons, aren’t you?”
“Unfortunately his knife and rifle are my only weapons!” she said, fingering the steel of the blade. “This knife is good enough for close combat, but this clumsy rifle is a pain. I would like a better gun, or at least a bow and arrow.”
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He laughed. “Now, you wish you had your inventory, don’t you?”
She eyed the AR-15 slung over Blondie’s shoulder angrily, but decided not to raise that argument again.
She sighed, “Oh, yes, it would be a bonus if that got restored!”
Blondie snickered to her side. “I doubt that will happen… the system’s definitely litch. There’s no way our previous inventories would return to us. It’s gone for good. Best to accept that fact.”
She scowled, but suspected Blondie was right.
Whining about lost inventories would do them no good. “But we do need weapons… at least I do.”
“Well, we’d better keep on moving to our destination.” Blondie shrugged.
“Destination? What destination?” Brittany asked, confused what she was referring to.
“Don’t you remember the shared Weapons Quest?”
Oh, right. You mean MY Weapons Quest?
“How could I forget?” she sneered, “Let’s go.”
Despite the fact that she didn’t really like the two, she thought it was best to keep them company to help her find Sariel rather than journey across the empty plains alone. That could be more dangerous. Not turning back to see whether the two were coming, she strode forward with a brisk face only to hear Brad call out to her. “You’re going the wrong way Brittany. Sariel is that way!”
Duh! I read the map on my HUD backwards. Rookie mistake!
Compared to the serene but desolate surroundings, Sariel was a city in ruins.
Situated in a valley surrounded by mountains on all three sides, the city had but one entrance. And it faced southward. Brittany sat in the valley, her back leaning against the harsh exterior of a gray rock, her fingers fidgeting with a slender wooden stick. She loved to do that when she had nothing to do. Blondie and Brad sat a ways off kindling a small fire with some tinder they had gathered.
Brittany feared the fire might attract unwanted attention, but then she saw the need for some light. They had been traveling a lot in the darkness. Besides, the Lost Zone had nothing but shadows lurking around in its dense woods. She welcomed the light, not wanting to spend a moment more ensconced by nothing but utter black.
Even with the light, she could hardly make out the mountainous outlines around her. For some reason ever since the game reset, the world had grown darker in the nights. Fortunately, there wasn’t a sign of any monster in the place. That was a good thing, though she felt like she could use a few to up her skills and points and get some good weapons in the process.
Ever since they had left the skirts of the Lost Zone, they had been forced to make their way here a long way round. What was a short straight route turned out to be a circular and longer route, most of which were spent wading through creepy marshlands that spanned a few leagues a little south and east of where they made camp.
All their travails through dirty bogs and stench-filled little streams had wearied them. Brittany felt her bones ache and complain, but she did not speak it aloud. Neither did the other two.
Everyone had fallen quiet, each of them worried about what they would find in Sariel and if it was the right decision to be here.
Even if she was fated to travel alone, Brittany figured she would have had to come to this ruined city eventually. The last time she took a quest to explore some ruins her avatar nearly got trapped for eternity by the cursed remains of King Armaros and she would have had to reset her entire character. But this time she didn’t even have the option to reset her character ever since the server malfunction, so she was grateful to be here with companions who were better-armed than she was.
They had unanimously decided to make camp here and approach Sariel in the wee hours of morning. “Best to visit the ruins in daylight.” Brad had said.
They didn’t know what lay ahead, and they could hardly find anything in the dark recesses of the night. So, they had agreed to Brad’s proposal and made camp at the entrance of the valley.
According to Blondie, Sariel was not more than a couple of hours away from the entrance. But nothing could be seen by the naked eye as the night set in.
Her eyes felt drowsy. Tired from the long journey, she felt her energy lessen with each minute, something only a few hours of undisturbed sleep could cure. Leaning further against the rock, ignoring the harsh jabs of its skin, she drifted into sleep even as Brad stood up for his shift as a guard and Blondie put more sticks into the fire, hoping it would burn brighter.
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