[Wake up! You are participating in your first Incursion.
Destination: White Chapel
Date: August 27, 433 of the Third Era
Number of players: 12
Purpose: Eradication of an imminent threat, Rank F.]
Whispers managed to wake her up after several more attempts, but her body was still sluggish from the uncomfortable position she was in. Face down on a dirty stone floor. She felt like she had slept for days.
[The state of corruption in your body has advanced to its second stage. Disease Resistance has prevented the progression to the irreversible third stage.]
Corruption and her obsession with trashing her attributes. Plus the disgusting mucus in her mouth, every muscle and joint felt like the beating of a flu. Coughing, she wondered how much more harmful that third stage would be to her body. Whispers urged her to take a remedy if she didn't want to find out.
“You finally wake up, sleeping beauty.” The voice belonged to a young woman. “Try not to talk out loud. We're not alone around here, and I want to stay that way.”
Unable to open her eyes, speak or stand up, Jean ordered a remedy to be consumed. It was almost instantaneous, and without the need to open the inventory. It took about 30 seconds before she could bear the sickness. The young woman filled the silence until that moment.
“Bastards! Nobody warned me about this. What a scare I got when I saw you were a despicable Daughter of Nimireth. I would have killed you without thinking twice if it wasn't for them giving me a note with your name!”
The sudden urge to smash that loudmouth's teeth helped her speak. “What did you call me?!”
“Look! I have nothing against you! But I’ve met others...”
“Yeah, sure! ... Wait a minute!”
It took Jean quite a while to realize that she was naked and in the dark. That infuriated her even more. After summoning Devourer's Vision and locating her silhouette about seven paces away. “What have you done with my clothes, bitch?”
The young woman almost burst out laughing. “What a streak I've been on ... Open your inventory, you idiot! Maybe you'll find your brain in there too.”
At the same time she stood up, Jean opened the inventory to get a weapon. Everything was there, but unequipped. Whispers assured her that incursions forced that so that items could travel with the player.
She set up the quick accesses as her bad mood subsided. One for each of her weapons. The shield, the spear, the greatsword, the hammer, the daggers and the sword. It was at that moment that she realized that the souls were still. All in one square respectively. Impossible to interact with them.
“What the hell is an Incursion?”
“Wait! Really? Did they send you through the portal blind?” The young woman sighed. “Holy shit! I always have to babysit the damn rookies!”
Jean cleared her throat and re-equipped her clothes along with the five accessories. The vision improved noticeably, marked by the characteristic dark blue hue, but the young woman's face was barely discernible except for a lock of silver hair and her purple eyes.
Her equipment was perfectly visible in contrast. Black leather armor with a hood and cape. From the side, arrows peeked out of a quiver. The bow was in her left hand with a projectile ready to be drawn. Jean bet they were not her only weapons.
»Human Player«
Alignment: Neutral
Level 29
Highest Attribute (Agility): 62
Name: Ilya
Skills: [Invisibility], [Dark Vision]
Marks: [Thief], [Killer], [Weaver].
Details: The corruption that afflicts you makes this player a slightly superior opponent than you.
Ilya made something appear in her hands. A piece of paper that she showed Jean, but did not offer her. “I was told to give this to you. Although you look like you can't even read basic runes.”
It was too dark for her, but Identify and Linguist had no such problem.
[Item: Note to Jean.
Hello again, Jean! Since you don't trust me, we have taken the liberty of making you see. Don't hold it against Narhad. She follows orders, as do I. Your mission is simple. Meet Uthell, listen to what he has to say and kill him. Then, do with his body what you are best at. The latter part is the most important.]
“What the fuck is this all about?!”
“I'm more concerned about what you're after? As if Daughter of Nímireth wasn't enough, you also possess Plague. If I had touched you by mistake, I'd be fucked.”
[Plague]: Corruption has taken root and you spread it by the mere touch.
Jean's eyes widened in puzzlement. “I’m a source of corruption now?!”
She remembered that Narhad had squirmed when she touched her. At the time, she thought it was because the being belonged to a healing source. She never thought that the corruption was so strong in her.
“So even if I hadn't been bitten by the infected, I would still have been infected by hitting them with my fists?”
Whispers explained that the mere exposure to the water the infected were stepping in would have killed her in a few hours.
“Motherfuckers!”, she whispered as she realized she never had a chance. She had never felt so deceived in her life.
Ilya kept her distance from her. “Who was that for? For those who force us to go through the portals to do the dirty work? Or for those who spread corruption from the shadows?”
Jean gritted her teeth. “Is there any difference?”
“How dare you! We're trying to stop this!” Ilya had the terrible idea of aiming at Jean's head, but instantly lowered the bow. Her whispers screamed as soon as she tightened the string, leaving her dumbfounded. How could a level 13 pose such a great danger? That was ridiculous. “W-what the fuck are you doing here then, screwing up the mission?!”
“Do you expect me to trust a Weaver?”
Ilya effusively lowered Ilya effusively shushed her by waving her hands several times. “Keep your damn voice down! ... Look! I feel like being here as little as you do, but I need to accomplish enough missions to get pardoned, dammit!”
Jean remembered how all the infected she had devoured had Thief or worse marks. Now she finally understood why some of them were helping each other. They had sent convicts on an incursion, but why? They were sent to fight the impossible only to fail and then be devoured by her or... Was it far-fetched to assume that?
“Motherfuckers!”
“Shhh! Lower your damn voice!”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Jean opened the map and checked her missions. Curiously, now all the arrows pointed to a single place. A weak, cracked wall.
She pointed it out. “What's over there? A portal back or something?”
Ilya didn't avert her eyes from Jean. “Portal? No!... Look! I have to kill that guy and go back. I only have 5 more missions left and I'll be free. If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours... Well, you know what I mean. I'm not touching you!”
Jean ignored her and surveyed the room. It looked like a rectangular abandoned warehouse full of damaged boxes with thick walls made of huge stone blocks. In the corner where Ilya was, there was a thick wooden door with rusted steel elements. On the other side, a very deteriorated wall. It was not made of stone like the rest, but of clay bricks with poor mortar between them. Nothing particularly sturdy.
In that same corner, a small pillar covered with runes. When Jean approached it, the runes began to glow and its accessories vibrated. It had to be related to the portal of the great lake; the written runes were the same she had previously read there.
She approached the crack and examined it. It appeared that the room had been split long after the original sturdy construction was built.
“What are you doing? Stop! It's not that way!”, muttered Ilya impatiently. “You'll get us discovered! We have to go through this door, but first we have to take off the two guards. Just let me pick the lock and we'll liquidate them quietly.”
“Guards?! Don't count on me! I'm not going to kill anyone for doing their job. Besides, I'm so sick of being played with. Everyone seems to have taken me for an asshole! So, fuck your mission!”
After taking several steps back, Jean began to imbue her legs with red and brown.
Ilya was incapable of restraining her voice. “What!? … No, no, no…!”
Jean ignored her and jumped against the wall with both feet first. After the loud bang, the wall gave way a few fingers, but didn't fall. Not two seconds later, the voices of the guards were heard on the floor above. It was an unfamiliar language, but her Linguistic skill translated it as if she were a native.
“What was that?”
“I think it was a tremor!”
“Bullshit, a tremor! It came from below! Let's check it out!”
Ilya was freaking out, “Are you out of your mind? It was supposed to be a stealth mission! Those guys are the king's guards! They're fucking strong!”
Jean shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “Don't you think you should have started from there before you pointed the bow at me?”
“Have you seen yourself? You look like the damn bastard sister of the Clegane brothers, for fuck's sake! What did you want me to do to convince you?”
The sound of the metal boots approaching in a hurry got on Ilya's nerves. She pointed to the wall insistently. “Finish what you started and break the damn wall! We'll run that way!”
“Now you're in a hurry to make noise?”
“Shut the fuck up! This is your fault! I'm not good at fighting multiple enemies. Subterfuge is my thing.”
From under the door came a light and the voices of several guards.
“Where are you going? Why did you abandon your positions?”
“We heard a loud bang! It came from down here. Didn't you hear it?”
“Yes, and...? Surely some creature has crept up from the depths again... First of all, did any of you bring the damn key?”
“No!”
“What the hell are you waiting for then? Stop looking at each other like assholes and go get the damn key!”
“You don't have it?!”
“My orders are to guard the hallways! Have you ever seen me carrying the keys to the 16 doors of this damn place? ... Stupids!”
One of the guards turned around and Ilya pointed to the wall nervously. “Come on, come on! Tear it down!”
She had not yet finished speaking and Jean was already preparing a charge at full power. The impact left a red, ochre and white trail. The wall gave way, but part of it collapsed on Jean. Nothing serious, just a leg caught in the clay bricks.
The guards on the other side stirred.
“Who the hell is in there?!”
“Maybe it is one of those formians... I've heard stories that...”
“Shut up! I heard the voices of two women!”
“Really?”
“What are you, deaf?!”
Without getting near Jean in the slightest, Ilya hurried her to stand up. “Come on, for fuck's sake! Get out of the way!”
Jean focused on healing the injured leg even though the guards were beating the door. Ilya had turned invisible so that she wouldn't be spotted if they managed to break it down.
Already on her feet, Jean proceeded along a passageway with a fork at the end. To the left, another sturdy-looking wooden door despite the rusted steel fittings. To the right, stairs carved into the rock descended. The only possible exit appeared to be the depths. The map confirmed the escape route.
“Move, dammit! Move!”
Jean turned invisible too as the guards put the key in the lock. They pushed it in with great effort, but the two were nowhere to be seen. Only the destroyed wall remained as a trace.
“Inspect every corner! Don’t let anyone escape!”
You two, stand guard in the door!
Five guards hurried forward, leaving the collapsed wall behind them. However, when they reached the stairs, they stopped dead in their tracks.
“Where the hell are they? There's no way they could go downstairs that fast!”
“Unless they can climb walls like the formians.”
“Stop the nonsense!”
“I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna go down there! I don't get paid enough!”
“I agree!”
Jean listened in absolute silence just a few meters away. Still as a statue and suspended with Adherence in a high, dark area of the ceiling. Right above them. No one would think about looking there. And even if they did, she had made sure they couldn't see her.
Ilya had completely disappeared. She was nowhere to be seen or heard. At first, Jean could see her soul thanks to Yusthor's accessories, but not anymore. How on Earth had she done it? Did she have some expensive magic item? Her equipment looked ordinary. Maybe someone had given it to her or she had stolen it.
The last time she had sensed her, she was standing close to the rusty door on the left. Too close to the torches of the group of guardsmen armed with steel from head to toe. All had the same red gambeson and yellow emblem of a flame on top of a crown. Too strong to fight them all at once.
»Human Player«
Alignment: Hostile
Level 33
Highest Attribute (Strength): 65
Name: Tharoll
Skills: [One-Handed Weapon Mastery], [Shield Mastery], [Shield Wall], [Efficient], [Rage]
Marks: [Despot]
Details: The corruption that afflicts you makes this player a slightly superior opponent than you.
After inspecting the collapsed wall and the warehouse for a while, the soldiers talked among themselves about standing guard. However, a new group called out to them as they passed the door.
“What the hell are you doing off your posts?”
“Something broke this wall!
“That doesn't matter now! There is an emergency!”
“Emergency?! What happened?!”
“No time for explanations!”
They ran so fast they didn't even look back.
When the sound of their footsteps finally died away, she hastily descended from the ceiling and walked down the stairs. A staircase carved into the rock spiraled down around a gaping hole that led into a seemingly endless abyss. Much smaller than the last one she had seen before, but enough to feed anyone's worst nightmares.
“Where the hell are you going?” whispered Ilya from several steps behind.
Jean didn’t turn around; she simply focused on double-checking the mission arrows on the map. It seemed odd to her that they were pointing down, but she trusted the whispers.
“Tell me the truth, Ilya! How many do you really know who were given that reprieve for doing what they were asked to do?” Ilya didn't answer. “Why don’t you run away and forget about them and their lies?”
“Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what you are saying? ... Regardless of the fact that they will find me, you have seen what is happening in the world?! Corruption devours everything!”
“Are you so important that they'll come back for you if you don't do their little jobs? Do you think they'll give priority to hunting you down rather than fighting what nothing can?”
Ilya was very disappointed, but mostly furious. “I made a pact, damn it!”
Remembering hers, Jean fell silent for a few seconds. “And did you agree coercively or freely to fight the unstoppable?”
Ilya came into view at last, but she was aiming at Jean with the bow. “This is an Incursion to save the world, you monster! I don't understand why they have granted you such an extremely important opportunity. I have never trusted scum like you, but one thing is clear to me. If you're not going to help me. You have no business here!”