Messouri has died.
The fight was over. We were safe. So why was I still staring at the message?
“Alatar!” Cuby’s voice, cheerful as ever, was saying. “Alatar, we won! You okay?”
“Alatar,” Kontor’s voice came a moment later. I blinked. Kontor?
I looked over. Kontor was at just over 10% health. It was only when I saw him that I realized I hadn’t known he’d survived—in fact, I hadn’t even thought of him.
The bodies hadn’t gone away. Burned, blasted, torn full of holes—the strange transmutation effect of a Magic Arrow that was unhindered by hp had quite literally shattered Messouri’s hip like a wad of meaty glass. They weren’t despawning or turning into little headstones or anything, as if it were a game—just a video game. They were just… dead.
I blinked. My stomach roiled. “I’m not… I’m not doing so good,” I managed weakly.
“Oh,” said Cuby, a note of sympathy entering her voice. “I’m sorry. I just thought since you were an AI it wouldn’t bother you….”
I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. Kontor.
“You’ve got to get up, Alatar,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said distantly. I didn’t move.
“I’m sorry,” said Kontor. “I didn’t like it either. But look at me, hey? Alatar?”
He had to physically pull my gaze away from the dead woman by moving my chin with his hand. “Alatar,” he said, his voice more firm.
I blinked. “What is this?” I whispered suddenly. “Where the fuck am I? What the fuck is going on?”
And then:
“I want to go home,” I said, louder now. I looked around at both them. They were strangers. Cuby was even as much a murderer as these people were, if I’d judged correctly. I was supposed to wake up and look for a job today, get back on the wagon after my old job screwed me over. I was a human being. I was from Minnesota.
“Alatar,” Cuby said, voice firm. “You can’t go home.” She knelt down in front of me.
Then she reached out and took my hand, just like she had before when she’d tried to warn me about other player-killers, about Haroshi the Taxin El. This time, she didn’t seem confused by the gesture. “You have to play well because your new life depends on it, Alatar. Me and Kontor, too. I know you malfunctioned in the upload, all right? And I know that winning the lottery must be jarring, but we’re so close to town. We’ve got to get to town, all right?”
She squeezed my hand. I tried to blink away some of my confusion.
I felt… lonely. I couldn’t even tell these people who I was, and they clearly didn’t see the killing the way I did. And the more I thought of home, the more I started realizing that I probably wasn’t going back.
I tried to focus on anything but the bodies. “Kontor,” I said quietly. “Did you try to sacrifice yourself for us?”
Kontor bellowed out a laugh. “I saw the first two barrels explode, remember? I knew I could survive it—or was fairly certain, at least.”
“You saved us,” I said simply.
“It’s true,” Cuby agreed with a grin. “You were perfect.”
Slowly, I rose to my feet. “Let’s just… get back to town.”
“Great!” said Cuby. “But first, let’s loot and level up!”
Something about the look on my face must have told Kontor that the idea of looting made me sick, because he said: “Maybe give your loot privileges to Cuby and she’ll get it.”
“Okay,” I said dully.
Cuby sent me a pane that asked for confirmation and I affirmed without reading what it said. Kontor and I went and stood in the entrance passage as Cuby moved around behind us—I didn’t watch her.
“You should level,” said Kontor. “Choose your ability.”
“Yeah.”
He glanced behind us. “I wish I could say more to comfort you, Alatar. It makes me sick too, if that matters to you.”
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“Yeah,” I said.
He said nothing more, and I brought up the new ability I’d gotten from my virtue rank.
Ability – Gift of Mercy
Uses: 1
Cast Time: Instantaneous
Range: 20 Meters
Effect: 117 Healing
Instantly heal your target. This ability regains all its uses at dawn.
“Huh,” I said. “Say, Kontor, I’m going to heal you.”
“Hm?” He asked. Then he nodded. “All right, then. Can’t exactly say it’s unwelcome.”
I cast the spell and healed him to full.
Kontor blinked. “That’s… powerful. I thought you were a mage. You shouldn’t even have the divine affinity, let alone a spell like that.”
“Virtue bonus,” I said. “I got it for…” I trailed away. What exactly what I supposed to say? That I’d gotten it for being virtuous?
I blinked and opened my ability selection.
Ability Selection
You have gained a new Iconic Spell Augment slot.
Choose a new Spell Augment to learn. You may replace this Spell Augment with any other iconic mage Spell Augment you are eligible to learn by consuming its Spell Card or using a Spell Book.
Iconic Spell Augment - Supercharged Spell
Base Spellcraft: Add 1
Spellcraft Multiplier: Add 100%
Cost: Add 200%
Casting Speed: Add 100%
A supercharged spell has double the base effect of a normal spell. This effect is still increased by Power, as normal.
Iconic Spell Augment - Efficient Spell
Base Spellcraft: Add 1
Spellcraft: Add 100%
Cost: Subtract 50%
Casting Speed: Add 100%
An Efficient spell has half resource cost of a normal spell. This extends to its upkeep cost as well.
I read these over a couple of times, but somehow even their simple descriptions felt like too much to focus on. I kept asking myself: why had I cast Magic Arrow at the fleeing rogue? I hadn’t even thought of it.
“What did you get?” Cuby asked, coming closer and mistaking my distant look for the look of menu browsing.
“Hm?” I asked. “Oh.” I showed her the abilities. “I haven’t really decided….”
“Supercharged spell makes stronger buffs,” she said in a favoring tone. “But efficient gets you more of them.”
“Mm.” I took Supercharged Spell. “There’s only a few of us and I have enough mana. Let me recast some things.”
She was right, once I really started thinking about it. The fact that Elemental weapon was now doing double damage, and Mana Shield had a pool of health twice as large. They’d both eat my mana to death in short order, what with the triple upkeep cost, but if I stopped casting Magic Arrow then Cuby would be more than enough damage for both of us—even if it would feel weird just to watch her fight.
Cuby has offered to trade.
I looked over, my thoughts interrupted, to see her grinning at me. I accepted the trade, and a pane displaying two little grids like our inventories appeared. Cuby dropped an item into a slot:
Uncommon Equipment - Staff of Frost
An enchanted steel staff that enhances spellcasting and imbibes your abilities with the Frost Element.
Weapon Level: 3
+ 1 Frost Affinity
+ 2 Precision
“No meteors yet,” she said. “But this is nice, hey?”
Mutely, I accepted the trade. Equipped the staff. How did I explain to her how bizarre, how insane this was? Nothing to make you feel detached from reality like murdering three people and then getting a hefty upgrade for it.
Still… I opened my abilities and looked at Magic Arrow, which had been called Magic Arrow since I’d learnt it. It was now Magefrost Arrow, and came with a note to say that it would stack a mild impairment to movement speed. The damage had gone up with the weapon level increase.
“We should go,” said Kontor. “There could be more of anything down here… players, worms. We still haven’t found if an intelligent demon commanded the tombworms to collapse the stairs.”
“Right,” I said. We set out after him, my thoughts still dwelling on the sickening noise that the woman had made when she’d died.
The more I thought on what had happened, the more I began to feel angry. Why the hell had the other players been so stupid? Why was it that they, and apparently Cuby, were so intent on dragging everyone into a game of wholesale murder? Why had they made us kill them?
It was their fault, after all. We’d acted in self-defense. Some trio of imbeciles had turned me into a murderer—and for what?
“We’ll rest up when we get to town,” said Cuby. “You don’t have to come back out with me if you don’t want, but I’ll be leaving as soon as I can.”
“Yeah,” I said distantly.
“Maybe you’d be better off with some other allies,” said Cuby. “Ones who aren’t pushing hard to stay at the top of the level curve. You could hunker down by pairing up with some professionals… avoid a lot of the bloodshed that comes with a ladder season.”
“Yeah,” I said.
Then Cuby stopped.
We both stopped with her. I couldn’t say why—we were both human, so I was guessing it was a rogue thing—but Cuby seemed to have much, much better hearing than Kontor or I.
“What is it?” I asked.
Her voice was grim. “People ahead.”