Aquila could feel his cloak flapping about behind him as a light gust blew through. The three of them had followed the path west of The Town of Crossings for most of the day; at first they had come across a few cheery players passing them without a care in the world, but the further along the path they went, the less players there seemed to be. At first the road had been green and lush, making Aquila question what was so off-putting about this part of the land, but the more they walked, the more the grass turned from a vibrant bright green to a deep yellow, and then the grass began to give way to hard brown dirt.
The once vibrant fields, full of flowers, clovers and dandelions that had surrounded the Town of Crossings, were now patchy at best, with only the occasional flower here and there; and certainly no life about the place. The more they continued, the more the grass decreased, and the more the barren dirt increased.
‘I’m starting to see why they call it the Lonely Planes, hey,’ Slie joked, ‘it’s pretty lonely out here.’
Aquila tried to fake a laugh – but it wasn’t convincing. Not only because things were getting slightly unnerving, but also because he didn’t really find the joke all that funny.
They continued onward, well into the afternoon, and a little into the night. Slie attempted to make conversation a few times – but for the first time since Aquila had joined them, they mostly travelled in silence. By the time the sun began to set, the grass had all but disappeared, and the dirt itself had hardened quite a lot; though their sleeping rolls did a good helping them to forget that was the case. They were also back to setting up watches during the night, and warding the area; which meant that their sleep would be broken.
Unfortunately dinner was quite bland that night. Nixie served them toast with butter. She was concerned about conserving supplies.
‘We just don’t know much about the area; and when we’ll be able to buy next, or even what we’ll be able to buy.’
‘I used to hunt for us when we were on the road and low on supplies,’ Slie explained, ‘before you joined us.’
‘And what’s stopping us from hunting now?’ Aquila asked.
‘Look around – have you seen anything to hunt around here?’
It was true, Aquila realised, the area around them had gotten quite sparse, both in terms of vegetation – and he only just realised, in regards to animal life too. He did see the occasional bird swoop through, but those moments were few and far between. On top of that, he wasn’t sure if his shooting skills were accurate enough to actually hit one of them.
‘You’ve got a point about conserving supplies Nixie,’ Aquila said, and he meant it too. Nixie wasn’t one to be stingy, so if she thought it best to be careful with their food, it meant that they probably should. Aquila just didn’t understand how in a world where they didn’t actually need to eat, it still felt so unnatural to go without the basic meals; breakfast, lunch and dinner. Indeed, he turned in his bedroll that night, longing for something more substantial.
Sleep was about the only thing that felt untainted from the effects of the game. It took him at about midnight, but even then, it wasn’t consistent. He was woken for his watch at twelve and only got back to sleep at four in the morning. He dreamt in the same way he would have in real life. He dreamt of Sophia and Alex – he saw them getting into the pods. They were the same pods that held them captive. The laboratory was around them. It was exactly the same as it had been when the odd receptionist had led them down there; like he had been transported back in time.
‘Sophia, Alister, maybe we shouldn’t do this,’ Aquila said.
Sophia stepped out of the pod. Nobody seemed to care. She walked right up to him and placed a hand under his chin. Her skin was cool and soft.
‘Sebastian. It’s going to be okay!’ she said warmly.
‘But Sophia.’
‘I’m here! We’ll find each other,’ she sounded confident. Her perfect black her flowed about her shoulders gracefully. And her dark eyes were more comforting than anything else in the world.
‘I hope so!’
‘Aquila,’ she whispered, ‘it’s time to wake up.’
Sophia still looked at him, but suddenly her eyes were blue. It was then that he realised it wasn’t Sophia anymore. It was Nixie.
‘Aquila, wake up,’ she whispered, ‘wake up!’
Aquila shot up. Nixie was kneeling beside him, a hand on his shoulder – while Slie seemed to be pacing in front of him, deep in thought. Their campsite was all packed up. The fire had disappeared, and there were no signs of the other bedrolls.
‘What….time is it?’ Aquila asked.
‘It’s ten o clock. We tried to let you sleep for a while, but it is getting quite late,’ Nixie said.
‘Of course,’ Aquila agreed. As soon as he slipped out of his bedroll, his pyjamas vanished, and his gear re-appeared all over him. Slie walked up to him and held out a bright red apple.
‘Breakfast?’ he said smiling.
Aquila took the apple.
‘Thanks,’ he said before biting into it. It was soft and sweet, and by all means tasty - but he had gotten used to the flavoursome meals that this world offered. An apple hardly satisfied him anymore.
They were back on the road in less than half an hour. The scenery around them continued to turn grimmer as the path drew onward. The grass was nowhere to be seen anymore, and so much for the birds swooping by – the plains around them were completely bare of all life, apart from the occasional rat that ran along the road, some of them a little too big for Aquila’s comfort. As Slie pointed out though, there were trees. But they were wrangled, and half-dead with no leaves at all, like rancid claws reaching up to the sky.
It would have been mid-afternoon when the sun began to darken. Aquila noticed a fog was beginning to appear in the sky. Not so strong that it blocked out the sun altogether, but strong enough to create a haze that seemed to be permanently setting over them, like they were in a world of endless twilight. But not the beautiful twilight, with lots of stars, a purple sky and a scarlet red sunset. No; this was more like an eternal fire was burning and producing enough thick fog to block out the sun.
They knew they had really gotten to the Lonely Planes when they passed a large wooden sign. It wasn’t the usual sign they would come across when entering a new place, unlike the cheery ‘Welcome to The Town of Crossings’ sign, this sign was torn and splintery, and simply had ‘Lonely Planes’ carved awkwardly into a crooked wooden plank that had been nailed onto a pike. Underneath the sign, there was another wooden sign nailed to the pike, with ‘Beware’ written on it.
Aquila looked around and examined what was officially the Lonely Plains.
‘Well, I guess it’s not so bad…’ Aquila said with doubt in his voice.
At that moment a giant rat emerged from the darkness and hissed loudly at the three of them. Aquila jumped back in freight, but Slie had his bow out in less than a second, and let an arrow fly. It turned out that the rat was scarier than it was strong, because Slie took it out in a single shot.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
‘Not so bad at all,’ Slie said, seemingly without a care in the world, ‘Asphodel shouldn’t be too far away now.’
Slie began walking forward, leading them past the sign and further into the dark region.
Nixie hesitated. She was clearly intimidated, and she was doing a pretty bad job hiding it (in Aquila’s opinion). She put on a brave face, but Aquila could see right through it. Slie continued to walk in front of them, scouting out the area, Nixie started forward, following him, albeit at a distance, and Aquila stayed by her side. Placing a comforting hand on her back. She looked over at him, her blue eyes shining a little brighter now that Aquila was next to her.
‘It’ll be okay,’ Aquila whispered.
‘I hope will be,’ she didn’t seem convinced of her own words.
Aquila embraced her with one arm. Nixie leant sideways so that her head was on his shoulder. But all the work Aquila had done to lift her spirit was quickly broken as Slie called out to them loudly.
‘Guys! We got something incoming. And I think this time it’s more than just a giant rat,’ Slie said.
Both Nixie and Aquila looked up, scanning the dark road ahead. Off to the side, upon the barren plains, a large shadow-like creature was gliding toward them. Nixie, despite her anxiety, was ready for battle. Her hands were out, and they were glowing bright red. Aquila wasted no time either, tearing the sword out from the sheath on his back (he recently learnt there were actually two ways to draw weapons in this game; although a little slower – drawing a weapon physically made him feel better for some reason.)
Slie spoke without looking back.
‘I’m going to need you to take the brunt of this one Aquila. Just stay in front and avoid its attacks.’
The creature was close to them now, almost within striking distance. Aquila wasn’t certain if it had come towards them with incredible speed, or if it had simply spawned close by. But he didn’t have much time to think about it.
The monster locked onto Slie, but Slie ducked down and disappeared. Slie’s name tag was still visible to Aquila, but that was only because Aquila was in Slie’s party. Slie had completely gone into stealth mode. As soon as Slie disappeared, the creature swivelled to the side, turned, and began zooming toward Aquila. Its tag was visible now; Undead Phantom – Level 14.
Aquila tensed up when he saw the level next to the mob’s name and his heart beat so hard in his chest that he thought it might explode. But before he was able to dwell upon his fear – the creature was upon him. It swept its arm across in the sideways arc, its mangled claws extending out toward him. Aquila jumped back with extraordinary velocity, avoiding the blow completely, though his stamina bar dropped significantly. He definitely didn’t have enough stamina to be able to move that fast for the whole battle.
Slie’s name tag seemed to be moving slowly in an S shape behind the creature. Before Aquila could figure out what Slie was doing, the creature attacked again, this time a large shadow extended from its claw, and it whipped around much too far and too fast for Aquila to be able to jump back in time to avoid the hit. The attack drew 7 points from his health, lowering his health bar by nearly a quarter.
That comforting familiar red aura appeared around him now, as his health bar began to fill back up. Nixie was behind him, with all her healing magic out, and focused on him. But his health bar wasn’t regenerating fast enough. The monster struck again; Aquila jumped back, the clawed hand flying inches away from his torso. He knew that all it would take was a few critical hits to finish him.
Aquila slashed forward with his sword and stepped to the side in the same motion. His attack did 4 damage, a decent hit; but not sustainable by any means. Just as the creature moved to attack him again, a damage counter appeared above its head: 30, and its health dropped down to under a quarter. The creature had time to let off one last attack, which Aquila easily dodged, before the phantom crumpled into a dying animation and disappeared. Slie was standing in its place – dusting off his hands.
‘That wasn’t so bad, now, was it,’ he said with a smile.
‘What took you so long?!’ Aquila said, his heart still racing, ‘all you had to do was shoot it with a few arrows.’
Slie approached him as he put away his dagger.
‘You don’t do stealth, so I’m going to give you a pass for not knowing how this works,’ Slie said.
Aquila put his own weapon away and Nixie ran over to join them, her hands still out and glowing, casting healing spells on Aquila’s whose health bar wasn’t yet full.
‘Weapons work different when it comes to stealth bonus damage. If I attack with a bow whilst unseen then it does one and a half times damage. If I hit with a sword, I can do double damage. A dagger does times five damage. Why do you think it’s my weapon of choice? I had to get close enough to land a hit without being seen – I couldn’t just start shooting it with a bow. It would practically do nothing, and once I attack, I have a much higher chance of being seen. You did well though. It was just what I needed. And look at this,’ Slie held something up between his fingers, that glinted golden, ‘a ring of minor stealth. Five percent, not a huge increase – but better than nothing.’
Slie slipped the ring on his finger.
‘I suppose that was the right play then,’ Aquila huffed, ‘lucky you got in before that thing killed me though.’
‘Sorry. I didn’t have time to properly explain the game plan. You’ve been putting points into agility, right? Next time all I need you to do is focus on drawing attention and avoiding attacks. Nixie, how’s your manna doing?’ Slie asked even though it was completely visible to him.
Aquila’s health bar had now completely refilled; though her hands still glowed as she still had her healing spells equipped.
‘I used up a little less than a quarter. A little more than I should have because I sacrificed manna to heal as quickly as I could.’
‘Things are different now that Aquila’s with us. Do you have any spells that regenerate stamina?’
‘I have one…but…’
‘Use it. Next time I mean. That way Aquila can dodge attacks to his hearts content. And I’ll be in the background picking off those guys one at a time.’
‘I’m hardly dodging until I’m content. My life is kind of on the line. But I think he’s right Nixie, I didn’t realise how sneak attacks worked earlier. The faster I move, the more stamina I use up; which is why I need to be conservative. But if you have a spell that regenerates manna, then it would be helpful.’
‘What’s the point of having a high agility if you use up all your stamina when you actually move fast?’ Nixie asked, genuinely curious. Slie also looked at him anticipating an answer.
It felt odd that, for once, he was teaching Nixie and Slie the mechanics of the game – when it was usually the other way around. But he supposed that this was how they learnt the game in the first place, by talking to other players.
‘If you and I were to run at the same speed right now, you’d use up much more stamina than I would. That is, unless you’ve been putting points into agility, which I don’t think you have. It took me a while to figure this out; but the game actually lets you move a little fast than you should be able to. But the further past this limit you go, the more taxing it is on your stamina; it gets to the point where it’s almost not worth it, unless you’re avoiding a fatal blow. Sometimes I forget about this, especially when I’m frightened, I just move without thinking and move as fast as I can. If you’re healing up my stamina though – that means I can move without the anxiety of my stamina drying up completely. Because if that happens, I’ll have no option but to tank the damage, which there’s no way I’ll be able to do.’
‘You don’t know about the automatic dodge mechanic, do you?’ Slie said.
‘Automatic dodge mechanic?’
Slie nodded.
‘Players have a chance for an automatic dodge. This means that if an attack hits you, there is a chance that it will count as a miss. Just like there is a chance that it will crit. But these chances rise, with every point you put into agility. So you might have a better chance of tanking than you think. Of course, an opponent’s precision level offsets these chance.’
Aquila suddenly thought back to the time when he’d been lured out to the purple treed forest by Spaghetti and the rest of his people killing friends. When they’d bound him with that spell that he wished was never included in the game; there were a few attacks that seemed to randomly miss him, even though they cut straight through his torso. Aquila now realised that the automatic dodge mechanic was the reason why. He hadn’t really noticed it happening with the skeletons, but he hadn’t really tracked his health as Nixie had been healing him back then – it had been moving up and down pretty sporadically. Nixie quickly broke him from his thoughts.
‘Common,’ she said, ‘let’s get moving before another one of those things shows up. And let’s just pray we don’t run into a hoard.’
***
They didn’t run into any more undead phantoms, though they were attacked by a few odd low levelled mobs. A level 3 snake appeared out of nowhere, and was quickly taken care of with a simple sword swing. They were also attacked by a hoard of level 1 crows – seemingly weak mobs, but it was a little frightening, as there were about fifteen of them. Between Nixie’s healing, Aquila’s sword swings and Slie’s ranged attacks, they were able to widdle down the crows’ numbers until they were simply no longer a problem. Not too many people travelled through the lonely plains either. They passed the occasional party; but players out here, although decked up with expensive gear, seemed to be too concerned about running into something dangerous to start fights with other players. Aquila guessed that would change though, as time went on and the player base started to level up.
They got to Asphodel before the end of the second day, and it was a town unlike any of them had seen in the game so far. It was a dark silhouette of a city, rising up among the Lonely Plains in the distance.