Steel rang against bone and wood as the two clashed in the dirt pit in front of the small guard barracks, Jake gasping as he was thrown back and peppered with stabs, sending jolts of pain through his body. He staggered back, reorientating himself as he lifted his weapons, charging in again as Bertram stood placidly in front of him.
“I see,” the Assassin hummed, “Right. No, that’s no good. We can work with that, but not that.”
They’d been fighting for twenty minutes now, and Jake was starting to feel exhausted. Thankfully, he didn’t have the actual debuff, but still, the prolonged battle was taking its toll on him. He slashed at Bertram again, his attack being easily parried and resulting in him being flipped over onto his back, landing on the hard packed earth.
Warning!
Health below 50%
“Ow,” Jake groaned as the point of one of the man’s stiletto blades pressed against his throat, “How?”
“I parried you,” Bertram hummed as he stepped back, allowing Jake to get back to his feet.
“I saw that,” Jake sighed, “What I meant was how are you so good? It’s not simply levels, is it?”
“Good question,” Bertram nodded, “And no, it’s not. It’s all about experience, something I have in spades, and you have almost none of. How the hell did you even get to your level anyway?”
“I killed a rat,” Jake replied, the man staring back at him blankly.
“A rat?”
“It was a big rat,” Jake muttered defensively, “A Giant Shadow Rat, to be exact.”
“One of those critters?” Bertram snorted, “When? And what level were you when you did it?”
“When I first appeared in the Dark Woods, and I was level one,” Jake answered, the man giving a short, impressed whistle as he nodded.
“Explains a lot,” he said, “You must have gotten a bunch of Titles from doing so, so the amount of experience you gained would have been gargantuan. It take you all the way up to level twelve?”
“Level eleven,” Jake shook his head, “I reached level twelve when I killed the Shadow Wolf Alpha.”
“You killed the…that thing is a World Boss, lad,” Bertram laughed, “And you expect me to believe you killed it alone?”
“I have a Title for it,” Jake nodded, quickly switching his active Title to World Breaker, “See?”
“Well I’ll be damned,” Bertram hummed, staring at the air above Jake’s head, “Guess you did. Well then, I suppose that means you have something in you. Not sure what just yet, but there’s definitely something.”
Jake just nodded as he remembered the burning flame in his chest once again. It had only started to manifest after his fight with the Alpha, or more accurately, during his fight against the Corruption. Gaia had warned him that it could prove dangerous, but he wasn’t too sure about that. It had helped him in the fight against Machie and the following one against his son, Maurice. Jake started at the thought, looking at Bertram.
“What happened to Maurice?” he asked, the Assassin shrugging.
“Don’t know,” Bertram said, “Guess he might have skipped town, all things considered. Bit of a shame really, he’ll miss out on his own father’s funeral.”
“Funeral?” Jake blinked.
“Aye,” Bertram nodded, “Machie may have been a bastard, but he was still a Priest Class. You got to give those sorts the proper rights, otherwise you risk the fury of their gods.”
“I see,” Jake nodded, “When is it?”
“This evening. Got a few of the hunters building a pyre for him right now,” Bertram hummed, “Anyway, enough talk, come at me again, we still have some problems to identify in your fighting, I’m sure.”
“Right away,” Jake nodded, before throwing himself at the man with abandon.
------
Howard groaned.
It was early morning and he had been woken up by a frantic call from Abrahms, his secretary having to come rouse him from his peaceful sleep. He had thought his immediate problems over when Jake, as the man had insisted on being called, had signed the contract, being carted off to the City Twelve Pod Hub. Apparently, he had been very, very wrong.
“He’s done what?” he asked the technician, the woman staring back at him from the holo-screen.
“Taken ownership of a town,” she repeated herself, “One out in the Wilds, so it wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but he’s put a frankly ludicrous amount of in game money into it. Enough to almost upgrade it to a city.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“How much?” Howard asked, “And how did he have so much money in the first place, anyway? There’s no way he would have been able to get enough to do that in the, what? Eight days he should have been playing?”
“Bug rewards,” Abrahms replied, “His little stunt at the beginning of the game netted him a hefty sum from the System for finding multiple major bugs. Two hundred thousand, to be exact.”
“Two hundred…” Howard trailed off, shaking his head in disbelief, “And how much has he put into this town?”
“So far? Twenty thousand,” she answered, “More than the place should have been able to make in ten years, regardless of its geological positioning.”
“Gods dammit,” Howard sighed, “And what is he doing right now?”
“Training,” Abrahms said as she looked to the side, a new screen opening on the holo-screen showing the sped-up footage of the cloaked man fighting against another man wielding stiletto blades.
“Great,” Howard muttered, the sarcasm in his voice obvious, “Is there anything we can do about this?”
“Not really. Though the System has already started to take action, sir,” Abrahms said, “It’s sending an envoy from the Brightborne Kingdom to Machiville as we speak.”
“Machiville?” Howard snorted, “What kind of name is that? You know what, never mind, let’s just hope that the System can sort this all out before he manages to break anything else.”
“Of course, sir,” Abrahms nodded, “I’ll keep an eye on him, just in case.”
“Good,” Howard nodded as he ended the call, sitting back in his chair and running his hands over his face, “What have you gotten yourself into, Howard? How long until he starts asking questions?”
------
The sun was just setting on the horizon, casting long shadows on the ground. Jake stood beside the pyre as the townsfolk poured from the back gate, gathering around it in a wide circle. The pyre stood at the centre of the area that the Challenge had taken place, the area devoid of grass and covered in patches of melted earth from the heat Machie had generated during the fight, the body itself wrapped tightly in a white cloth. It didn’t take long for the last of the town to leave the back gate, all whispering as Jake lifted the burning torch in his hand.
“We gather here today to bid farewell to this man,” he said as loudly as he could, following the script he’d been given by Merina earlier that day, “Pereion Machie, a Priest of Ignis. In the custom of his religion, we shall burn his body, so that he may return to Ignis.”
“He don’t deserve it!” a shout went out, the crowd’s muttering quickly growing to shouts and jeers, “He was a bastard! A greedy bastard!”
“Silence!” Jake shouted over the noise, the area suddenly falling quiet again as he spoke more softly, “I know you all have grievances against him, but…but it is only right to give him a proper burial. I would not have you honour him, but at least do not disrespect him.”
The muttering returned, quieter than before, as the people watched Jake slowly lower the torch to the pyre.
“Wait!” the booming voice echoed over the crowd, which immediately parted to reveal an eight-foot-tall man, a scowl on his face. Maurice Machie tried to march forward, an act that was severely hampered by the fact that he was heavily limping. Even so, he quickly approached Jake, before holding out his hand to the torch, “Let me do it. He were my Da. I should be da on to send him off.”
Jake looked up at the half-giant, wrapped in bandages from their fight earlier that day. Slowly, Jake lifted the torch, handing it to Maurice as he stepped back.
“Da,” the towering man said, turning to the pyre, the smell of lamp oil rising from it as he sniffed loudly, tears dripping down his face, “I know I weren’t a good son. I weren’t as smart as you was. I weren’t as strong as you was. But I’ll get better. I’ll show you. So…so watch over me from the flames, right?”
The hulking man laid the torch gently beside his father, the oil catching in moments as the fire spread in a haze of heat. Jake watched as the half-giant remained exactly were he was, seeming to bask in the heat of the flames as they quickly consumed the entire pyre, black smoke rising into the air.
“Go with da flames, Da,” he muttered, “I’ll follow when I’m ready.”
The crowd gasped as the flames flared up suddenly, watching in amazement as they turned a bright white, the light almost blinding. Jake blinked as he thought he saw a face of a man in the fire, which turned to him and nodded, before looking back at the half-giant beside the flame. Maurice hadn’t moved, gritting his teeth against the obvious pain of the heat, his eyes squeezed tight as his tears evaporated away. Just as suddenly as it had begun, the flames died out, leaving a blackened patch of earth at Maurice’s feet.
Jake walked up to the half-giant, trying to pat him on the shoulder, only able to reach the towering man’s back. He looked at the mark on the floor, blinking as he saw something glint in the light of the setting sun. Stepping forwards, he leaned down and picked up the ring, looking like it had been carved entirely out of obsidian. He used [Inspect] on it in curiosity.
Zealot’s Ring of the Flame
A ring forged of the body of a zealot in the flames of the lord of fire himself.
Effects:
+2 Power
+2 Vitality
Ability: [Ignite]
Quality: Epic
“Here,” Jake said as he turned back to Maurice, holding out the ring to the surprised man, “It was made from your father, it would only be right for you to have it.”
Maurice stared at the ring in amazement for a moment, before carefully taking it, Jake watching as it grew in his hand until it was almost the size of a bracelet, the half-giant slipping it onto his left middle finger.
“Now what?” he asked, Jake looking at him in confusion, “I dunno no place but da town. I were born an' raised here. Do I gotta leave?”
“I…” Jake paused as he looked up at the young man, the tears in his eyes threatening to come pouring out, “No. But you must make reparations to the town for your previous actions.”
“I gotta what?” Maurice sniffed, cocking his head to the side in confusion.
“You got to help out around town, you big oaf,” Bertram said, suddenly beside them, before pointing into the crowd, “You, Carp, right? You need a strong arm for carrying materials?”
“I…I suppose?” Jake recognised the voice of the head foreman from the meeting earlier that day, the man himself stepping forwards and looking at Maurice, “Alright. Come on, you big lug, let’s get you situated and properly introduced to the other lads. May as well make some use out of you while we can.”
“Okay,” Maurice nodded sadly, limping after the man as he walked back into the town.
It didn’t take long for the rest of the townsfolk to follow them in, the sound of music and cheering soon rising from the walls as the people apparently started to celebrate. Jake just sighed as he turned to look at the woods, about to take a step towards it when he felt a hand grab his shoulder.
“Oh no,” Bertram hummed over his shoulder, “You don’t get o run off just yet. Still plenty for me to teach you.”