My partners were the guy who touched little elves, and another man who looked blind. They both seemed indifferent to my presence. Here we were, trapped in a barricaded square and about to chase each other to repeated death, and most of my thoughts were stuck on Wyl.
The former guard captain of [Haven Valley] stared right through me with complete apathy. His body held rigid in the protective beam of light. I couldn’t remember enough details of our time together. The automatic game journal notations from William Carver’s era were mixed. Many items were recorded, but a low starting [Depth] and [Knowledge] limited the information. Having both stats higher would have helped record more details automatically.
I tried to talk to him again. “Wyl? Is Haven Valley okay?”
That earned me a dirty look and glare. The man was in his forties and looked rough compared to the nearly constant smile from before. It had been almost ten months of game time since then. Something must be wrong, the very idea made my face turn white. I stepped past Knight Middleton’s post to get closer to Wyl. He stood a bit shorter now that I was no longer in a hunched old man’s body.
“Mylia? The kids, are they okay?” I banged into the pillar of light and lost a chunk of health as my teeth vibrated in pain.
Wyl briefly winced then ignored me in order to stare off into the distance. I panicked and hit the barrier again. Health dipped as pain rippled through. My ability to grit my teeth and suffer through was far less than the Hispanic guy’s had been.
Electricity eventually cures stupidity
Total Health Remaining: 70%
“Go on with your task, convict, so that we can move onward.” Carver’s former friend said. Not wearing the old man’s body counted against me. Would he feel different when seeing [Morrigu’s Gift]?
“Wyl, I know I’m just a convict to you right now, but, life started for me in that town.” That location was when I first began to wake up after three years of sticking my head in the sand. All those people were important for different reasons, even if none of them knew me as Hermes. “Can you at least tell me, are Mylia and the kids alright?”
Wyl stared at me, then looked at [Morrigu’s Gift]. His eyes lingered on the smooth blankness that went with the wooden cane form. I couldn’t outright say it, but at one point I had a [Legacy Wish] from Old Man Carver himself. Shortly after the ability merged into the [NPC Conspiracy] ability.
“No, they’re not,” He answered. The man looked briefly human for a moment. “Haven Valley isn’t alright at all.”
I nodded. Now there was something to really fight for. [Haven Valley], a town that had started everything for me was in trouble. Not to mention there was the issue of Xin, floating in virtual reality waiting for me to make a move of some sort. I needed to get a letter to the Voices quickly.
Quest: The Task At Hand [Stop #3] Difficulty: Pathetically low to Difficult Details:
As part of your attempts at [Redemption] there is a dungeon to be cleared. This dungeon will pose many challenges that typically kill normal Travelers. If anyone in your group has access to a [Resurrection] skill you will be allowed to use it, and bypass the (4 day) reconstruction timer.
Convicts will be stuck at this stop for twenty-eight days. Removing the final boss will allow for a rest period.
In order of value, points can be earned for:
* Destruction of enemy monsters
* Key resources collected
* Defeating other parties
* Contribution to current group
* Survival duration
Points will be lost for:
* Complete lack of participation
* Destruction of valuable items
* Betrayal of team members
System Help!
All items earned during the dungeon crawl will be removed upon the 28 day marker. Only [Bound] items are allowed to be carried over to the next point on [The Wheel]. Travelers who reach their [Redemption] requirements to remove [Criminal] status, will be released at the 28 day marker.
I turned away from Wyl. Trying to convince him of our past history couldn’t be completed in the remaining hours before our dungeon entrance. Any quick method of convincing him required betraying William carver’s last few weeks.
“I go by Viper.” The blind looking one of my new team members said. That nickname fit once I noticed that his eyes had really thin vertical slits in them. It made sense that he seemed blind with so much of the eyeball being pure white and no standard iris.
“Hermes.” I turned to face them and tried to give a decent smile. Well, mostly Viper, the other guy bothered me. Though my brain also felt conflicted about the idea of an eighty-year-old little girl. What kind of nonsense had the Voices put down in this world?
“This is Mister Daft, not Hermes. Daft, as in can’t hear or think.” The guy who had been speaking behind me looked more human than Viper did. He was slightly shorter with brown hair cropped into a goatee.
“That’s Ssquickss, he’ll try to get killed.” Viper pointed to the guy who insisted I was Mister Daft. “Sso normally we let him.” There was a disgusted tone in his voice as Viper spoke. “Dude sskatess by with like twenty participation points each time, then logss off until the twenty four hourss is up.”
“So, the three man team is really only two?” I tried to ignore the way Viper hissed certain letters.
“Until ssomeone bribess me with enough to kill you.” The funny eyed Traveler shrugged then laughed with a stutter.
“That’s, up front of you.” I didn’t know how else to explain it. What kind of person just advertises they’re out to kill another player? People were weird. This was a game, and we were stuck in an endless respawn then dungeon crawl cycle for the next week of real life. Everything fell under odd.
“Eh, I tell you, because maybe during the next sstop you’ll want to buy my sservices. I’m quite good at it.” He seemed to be glaring at Squisks, or whatever the other Travelers name was.
“How do you do it?” I wanted to know what method this player had that made him so confident.
“Uh uh. I can’t give it all away.” He hissed while laughing again then got distracted. “Thiss iss just my ssaless pitch.”
Was he doing that on purpose? There seemed to be something wrong with his neck muscles and other joints too. I studied them and compared it to all the figures I had danced with over the years. Those connecting points were too fluid. If I were to combine it with Continue Online’s weird half breed quest lines, the hissing, and slit eyes, it was very likely he had some serpent abilities.
“Well, I’ll keep it in mind.” Loot never bothered me. Maybe giving some away to buy an ally would be good.
Now that we were all unbound and standing closer the atmosphere felt a bit uglier. The first party was already lined up near their number and getting ready to go. A member of the trio had their weapons out and swung the blade to warm up. A female kept shaking her hands, every so often a flare of blue energy would float from wiggling fingertips.
Their third partner kept looking around with shoulders bunched in nervousness. The final one broke away from the crowd and started running for a wall. Arrows came down rapidly bringing the man's health to zero with a grunt.
Behind me, a member of the fourth team screamed then started trying to run in another direction. I turned in time to see two arrows catch him in the back, leaving the man limply hanging over a wall. I barely had time to blink before a hand shoved me from behind. My body tripped forward and the desire to [Blink] away didn’t gain a result.
Only a lot of combat and balance kept me upright.
“Hold!” Wyl yelled. A single arrow landed right next to my abruptly relocated form. I turned to glare behind me. Viper stood far enough away that it wasn’t likely an issue. Squisks looked confused.
“Assssholess.” Viper glared at one of the people in another group.
His source of ire, a taller person with long fingers, smiled in my direction and waved one hand. I felt a gentle pat on my cheek as if being brushed by an invisible figure. Did that other teams Traveler have an invisible hand technique? How awkward.
“You want him killed, half price.” Viper said.
One casual push from an ability had almost gotten me arrowed. I shook and tried not to think about how easily players could die in this game. My major goal was surviving long enough to find a private spot and check the [Messager’s Tube]. There would be one less player in front of us, so that was mildly useful.
Viper continued his glare at the other player while I tried to figure out what our chances would be against unknown abilities. Better yet, what kind of powers did my own group had? No other players seemed interested in sharing their powers. Fantasy driven skills and talents could make for an odd array of possibilities.
There were a lot of cookie cutter abilities too. Multiple people used the same playstyles or builds with very small variations. I once went into a large capital that offered similar classes to NPCs and Travelers at the same time. Hundreds of people going through the coursework to be basic foot soldiers or trackers.
“Anyway, until ssomeone payss me more than it’ss worth to keep you alive, we’re in this together.” Viper turned then smiled at me. His teeth looked masked by thin lips.
“How much am I worth?” I asked the player while getting back to our marker. My eyes shifted around to each group to gauge those remaining.
“We’ll find out in a few hourss, won’t we?”
My mind ran through escape routes or ways to work through this mission. Getting away without earning some [Redemption] would be unlikely. Maybe there was a magical portal down below. There was also the possibility that revealing too many skills might just get me ganged up on. There had been television shows about this very idea. Look too weak, get picked on, look too strong, get ganged up on. Float in the middle and maybe survive.
No, I would save my other ideas for later. One day of real life would be four inside the box. There was more than enough time to do whatever I needed. Or, and this would be an abuse of power, my admin access should be kicking in soon. It would be easy enough to just kick all these players out, clear the dungeon, and move forward.
“So, Mister Daft, what are you gonna offer not to be killed?” Squisks asked. He looked to be on the verge of chuckling and his goatee was stretched wide in a huge grin.
I scratched my head and said, “Nothing?” The amount seemed fair for my digital existence. Right now, based on prison time, there was no reason to be insanely worried. Grinding out [Redemption] points couldn’t be more time consuming than working on the [Wayfarer Seven]’s hull. Though dying would set me back.
“What?” He sounded confused.
“Yeah.” My head tilted slightly in confusion. Did they expect me to be worked up over this? I had already been shoved into at least three situations where performance mattered. Right now, there was no reason to stress. “Worst that happens is you guys gang up on me. Then I know not to trust you, and none of us get anywhere.”
“Damn.” Viper said without a hiss. “You’re no fun.”
“I’ve had worse quests. This is just, repercussions of past choices, I guess.” Trying to sum up my thoughts wasn’t working well. The very name of [Redemption] and having a point value seemed simple enough. My actions had cost those with power. They wanted us to tear each other down, kill monsters, and gather the powers that be resources.
It was a rather good idea for putting Travelers to use, at least in kingdom terms. Everything seemed to border between kind of dark and standard Continue Online atmosphere. If this were a real fantasy world and I only had one life, than this process would be terrible. As it was, my stress was low.
“There’s sstill a threat. You’d be ssurprised what a mind can do, when there’s enough reward in place, at the very least people can make ssure you come out behind.”
“You can’t make it worse, can you? The way I read it, criminal points can only be added by those with the Condemnation skill.” I had read the text. These guys couldn’t put me further in the hole, that I knew of. It should be possible to get a few points at a time.
“True. Either way, it’ss your call. As long as no one payss me, we can go down, kill a few thingss, bring out minor loot, or try to hit pockets of sstuff, but people may torture uss.” Viper didn’t seem to care either way. Chances were he expected me to be dead weight like Squisks, or believed one of the other groups might kill us quickly.
“Why would they try to torture us? We have to be logged in for it to actually hurt. I can watch remotely anything you might be doing, and pain is far less intense in game.” The idea of another player threatening me felt laughable. Not once had any other Travelers actions scared me, even when chasing down Commander Queenshand. They didn’t bother me in the same way that the Voices or various NPCs might have.
“How can you say that?” Squisks looked nervous at even the thought of full on torture.
“Real life hurts a lot more.” I said quietly, then my head shook.
“Ssee, Hermess ain’t a wussss like you Ssquiskss. It’s just a game, if you want back to your ladiess sso bad, sstart over. Maybe try not to touch the wrong person thiss time.” Viper hissed in a bright laugh.
“Yeah.” I shrugged while thinking about what they could actually do in the game. One of them would stab me in the back, the pain would be brief, and life would go on. Such feelings were why the game required being a legal adult to play. Rumination over the next thirty minutes provided a few possible ideas.
There were tons of ways they could handle group tasks. I looked at the other teams for a bit, then back towards my own. Using visual cues only to guess each person's skill level was difficult. That being said, there were still certain ways of standing that I had learned from Shazam during our time together. Most of them came off as pretty bad physical fighters, except that Android Seven person, and maybe Viper.
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“So, do people pay you to get your group killed, Squisks?” I asked the brown haired man.
“That’s none of your business, Mister Extra Daft.” He responded while waving a finger back and forth. There was a briefly uncomfortable look on his face which was probably a yes. Too bad I hadn’t inherited William Carver’s [Truth Sense] ability.
“Then, you probably paid with a stash of items near the end of each dungeon, if you successfully off someone?” I pointed at Viper. He nodded but didn’t smile. “Which means, we’ve been here long enough that you have a preferred drop point, or you trust the paying player enough to-” My head shook back and forth and cut off the outloud rambling.
Viper didn’t say anything. Either I was on the right track, or he simply didn’t care. It was probably best that our items were all still sealed or blocked from being used. One of them might try to kill me now in order to prevent too much musing. Did everyone else have [Bound] items? No one seemed concerned about the lack of equipment.
“You get paid at the end. Which is stupid. The math probably doesn’t work in your favor.” I had a degree in accounting. Really, killing each other and fighting over items was a terrible waste of resources, time, and effort.
“How sso?” Viper seemed interested.
“Come on, we’ve got another thirty minutes to kill, someone give me numbers. How much is each part of the task list worth?" I motioned my hand at the other two in my team.
Both people started spouting numbers, which also involved some arguing. Squisks, or whatever his name was, hadn’t actually survived once until the end of a dungeon. Viper insisted the survival value was started at one point per hour and compounded from there. The math ironed out to three hundred points for the first day. Another three hundred could be earned at the end of day two, three, and so on. [Redemption] only registered if I made it back to the two guards in their beams of light. Survival down there with four other groups prowling around and gaining points for killing us sounded difficult.
Still, freedom was possible. Notes from Mother would be in reach. In addition, I wanted to get away from here and reach [Haven Valley]. If we were at the [Tower of Stars], which was near the central continent, then it would take a few weeks on a [Callibur] to reach the west coast. The idea that something had happened to take Wyl away had me worried. What about his son Dayl? The kid had looked like he might be lost without his father around.
Remembering the goofy older teen made me pause in my calculations with a smile. That reminded me of the other players from William Carver’s era. Maybe they would know something. I tried to bring up the message system since we had used a Porter to become in-game friends.
Warning!
Traveler communications are limited as a result of the [Convict Brand]. Only by earning enough [Redemption] points can you once again use the messaging system for talking to other Travelers.
Well, that wasn’t very neat. I stopped laughing and looked up. For a moment, my gaze searched for a certain winged creature to be somewhere in the horizon. Then it occurred to me why he wasn’t back. Technically the [Messenger’s Pet] had died in Advance Online, which meant I needed to resummon him here.
Still, some people could use their abilities out here despite the restrictions. That struck me as odd. My own skills should turn back on once we got inside the dungeon. Then Dusk and I could be reunited, in some pit with people trying to stab me in the back while I tried to find a hole with enough light for some note reading. Topping that off would be needing to survive, make it to and from the surface, and not cross paths with Android Seven. I wanted to know the man's secret, but I didn’t want to get close enough to be turned into [Redemption] points.
“Damn.” I poked around on my interface, sure enough there was an ability to bring him back titled [Summon: Companion], but it was crossed out just like everything else.
“Ssomething wrong?” Viper asked. He had edged closer, which kind of creeped me out. The man was just inhuman enough to be disturbing. It might have been because he was a snake creature, instead of robotic like the [Mechanoid]s.
“No.” I shook my head and switched gears. “I’m just trying to go over the numbers.”
“You think you’re the first to try and sscam the ssysstem?” Viper asked.
“Mister Extra Daft.”
“Let me guesss, you’ve got a plan that will let uss all gain a little, and it only requiress that we all come together?” The snake eyed man started laughing uncontrollably.
“Daft as all hell.” Squisks started giggling too but it came out forced. He rubbed me the wrong way, it wasn’t simply being accused of some fantasy version of pedophilia. The way he acted during our few minutes together made me wonder if the man had mental damage.
“No, based on what you’ve said, we’ll be lucky to earn, maybe one thousand points at this stop.” I corrected them. The action math assumed we could make it to the surface. “That’s assuming we actually work together.”
Squisks brightened for a moment upon hearing the values. That made me blink. I wanted to ask how close he was to freedom, but the idea of interacting with him made me sick.
“Then autopilot time-” The goateed man spoke seriously. “-will fuck us hard.”
My head kept going over [Redemption] task amounts. Common item drops could give half a point each. Anything that had a special effect could give up to twenty based on Viper’s responses. Ores and furs had a value based on rarity, up to ten for a stack. I missed my armor that Shazam had made and my skinning skills were low. [Morrigu’s Gift] transformed into pretty much any weapon, which included a pickaxe and skinning knife. I didn’t have time to sit in a mine for days learning to hammer nodes for ore.
“Sso?” Viper asked while trying to recover from excessive laughter.
“Whatever. Any plan Mister Daft’s got will fail like everyone else's.” With that, the ball of sunshine called Squisks logged off, leaving his autopilot active. We both stared at him for a moment as the color drained from his character.
“I have some ideas, if I can trust either one of you.” I looked over at the other groups. Any group with three good dungeon divers would have been more put together. Honestly, this entire system was designed to throw us against an area without caring if we lived or died.
“Trust?” Viper hissed at me while weaving his head slightly. It reminded me of a cobra snake hypnotizing its prey.
I had a much better idea than trying to play numbers or build teams. Dusk, that little genius of a creature, could probably help me out a huge amount. These other players left behind caches of items. Dusk could sniff out treasure, I was sure of it.
Plus I had [Sight of Mercari], which still caused headaches after prolonged usage. According to Beth, having any sort of tracking skill was pretty rare. More commonly people had threat sensors that would tell them if danger was incoming from a direction. Travelers with low [Reaction] speeds made it difficult to use.
Skill: [Sight of Mercari] Rarity: Rare [Variant] Details:
Initial rank of [Sight of Mercari] allows the Traveler to see all sentient beings around them. This change in perception can be disorienting. As proficiency increases the skill will rank up allowing additional details to be received.
Rank 2 Unlocked!
Colors are added to targets based on hostility level
Rank 3 Unlocked!
Tracking extends to those with a lower stealth ranking than [Sight of Mercari]
“Tell you what, if we can make it through a dungeon without betraying each other, then we can split our earnings.” I offered, in hopes that all these various thoughts would come together. It was about time something worked out vaguely in my favor. All my other Continue Online adventures came with mixed results, this probably would be the same.
“You think you’ll earn more than I could alone?” Viper asked.
My eyes went up in thought. [Awareness Heightening], [Blink], [Morrigu’s Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo], between those items I could probably come out ahead of most monsters. I could gamble for bonuses with [Wild Bill]. All those combined techniques had gotten me into dungeons delivering letters before but not through many bosses as Hermes. Most of the time I just [Blink]ed past monsters.
“Probably. Why don’t we give it some time to find out?” I asked, hoping that we could reach at least a brief moment of cooperation. It was true that having another Traveler around would increase both of our [Redemption] points. In addition, our survival chance should increase.
“Sso you want a truce for one game day?” Viper asked.
“Except for Squisks, we can take care of him ourselves, and maybe make up the loss in points.” I nodded. We were lucky the man’s character was still offline. Maybe he expected players to try and kill him.
“Yeah? You want to try and earn ssome loot for offing the pedophile?” The man uttered a line that didn’t involve much hissing.
“Yeah, that guy over there will pay us to kill Squisks.” My hand lifted to point at the hispanic guy from earlier who could grit through electrical jolts.
“That’s Big O. He has a sstanding offer, but if you want to arrange ssomething, you’ll need to move fast.” Viper said. Part of me expected a tongue to lick out and taste the air with one of his hisses. “It’ss our turn ssoon.”
I smiled, nodded, then calmly walked over to the large Hispanic man that offered a reward for killing Squisks. He laughed at me and said being able to off the slippery player with a goatee was unlikely. Even his other two team members laughed at the idea. Each success would earn me fifty points worth of items, according to his offer. I tried to do the math, if we were here for seven real days, then killing Squisks would get me up to three hundred and fifty points plus [The King’s Task] offering.
My mind ran through more numbers and tried to do math. Ensuring a team member survived would result in positive points for every hour. Losing them would have an equal point loss over a twenty four hour time frame. Keeping Viper around while removing the goateed man would be a wash. The man would suffer a brief moment of pain to assist me in gaining points, which was a dirty way to think about it. Realizing that I was going to essentially torture someone else in order to spare myself hardship made me pause.
The less player violent route would require collecting items. Fourteen thousand common items would free me. Surviving enough days down below then coming back to the surface would too. Killing the final dungeon boss would grant a reprieve in these dungeon games. Making it through seven days, killing the final boss, and managing to take all the items between here and there might be enough to redeem me in one week, especially since [The King’s Task] added a few more points. The likelihood of doing all those items combined was very low.
“Group three, pay some Voices damned attention, and move over here!” Knight Middleton shouted at us.
Viper shrugged and went over. I followed behind while mulling over my numbers. At what point had I started to think causing another player mental damage was okay? That Hispanic guy, named Big O, did seem amused at the idea.
“Touch here.” Wyl pointed to pedestal between him and Knight Middleton. Instead of a ballot style draw box there was now a single orb. It looked like a smaller version of the Porter crystals. This object must have appeared while I started running numbers.
Viper went first. A few moments later and he had a line of small daggers strapped to his chest with their handles pointed downward. His clothing looked like cloth, except for a shiny belt that might have been complete plate. It drug heavily to one side. Squisks put his hand down too but nothing changed gear wise.
My hand placed atop the smooth orb. A display popped with what looked like a standard gear system. I could, if I wanted, get one set of items to go into the dungeon with. Apparently this was the king's pity in action. The equipment wasn’t [Bound], dying would result in all my gear remaining with my corpse. All the equipment looked to be poor quality, barely better than the nasty orange and black clothing I still wore.
I picked a leather set. There were no [Limberness] penalties, and my own armor wearing skill was fairly limited. Pulling items out of inventory was allowed already. [Wild Bill] went on my head, and both weapons slid into the cheap belt provided with my leather armor.
“Once the gate drops down it’s your turn to go in! Staying out here for more than an item turn in will result in death! Trying to kill any of the guards will get you riddled with arrows.” Knight Middle pointed at a barred area in front of us. It was the same exit that the other two groups went through. “Dying will bring you back here where you may enter at without the staggered timer! ” Knight Middleton nearly shouted the words at us.
I briefly wondered about [Blink]ing past everything. How far away could I get before some magical system nonsense sealed my abilities again? The gate dropped down, signifying our turn in this delayed dungeon entry process. Viper walked ahead a little ways while I started equipping my items. Squisks seemed content on hanging back a little. The Traveler didn’t even have any gear on.
Numbers ran through my head again, patterning to the sound of music. One hand waved in time to the song that rapidly entered my head. I wanted so bad to find Xin and just dance away a night with her. Not in this dungeon, not worrying about what might have happened to [Haven Valley]. A slight hum accompanied my walk to the dungeon entrance.