Day 11 Default 5
The cave was dirty, smelled like Trolls, and KillPrinsX had made up her mind.
She had gone through her options: continue wandering around in the forest… find another Vampire clan… find a way to kill Else and keep going as a Vampire…
None of those seem fulfilling. She had made it through a lot, learned a lot, sacrificed… not so much. But there was something she had wanted to do at this point, being level 26.
She’s going back to the school and competing in a tournament, Life-or-Default.
Of course it’s risky, one, she’s a Vampire and can’t stand out in the sun, and two, that tournament has a chance of getting her killed. But she’s got the levels, she’s got gold and she can buy a few new deadly skills before actually entering. It’ll be a good learning experience, even if she does default. It’s literally the name of the game…
Plus it’ll be fun… exactly what she said before getting Bruno and Tirade killed…
Alright. So now, a plan to get back to the village, use the portal and not die while in the sun. I’m sure there’s ways, there’s probably hundreds of Vampires running around out there.
She pinned the village on her map and set out. It’d probably be a day’s trip, she just has to go southwest, keep away from Lucretius Village and find a cave or something before sunrise.
Oh, by the way…
You have been banished from the Vampire clan of Lucretius.
Vampires from this clan will attempt to kill you on sight.
Lucretius is forgiving… when certain criteria are met.
She looked at the Lucretius page. It was splattered with hate messages from Else. Oh well, she won’t be visiting any time soon, not even with that suggested hope that Lucretius will forgive her.
She walked through the forest, thinking about her options, how to keep herself safe from the sun, and eventually pondering those satisfying thoughts of becoming a master Mage, utterly annihilating anyone on the battlefield.
The walk was boring and she kept her pace up using Rush, but only so much. She kept her Stamina high enough in case she had to outrun someone, or something, or a raging Else.
She had only encountered a lone Troll and put her skills to use. She was a one hit queen, using Neurotoxin and a quick jab to the neck, then using Bloodsucker just to make sure.
But by the end of the trip, she had made it to the village before sunrise. She quickly found lodgings and tried to see what she could do with her time.
She hesitated but went to ask around, “How would a Vampire survive outside, during daytime?”
The first few NPCs she had talked to had only cowered away muttering about red eyes and fangs. She had given up, and instead found that the innkeeper had guts to talk to her. He wasn’t very happy keeping a Vampire in his inn, but she persuaded him well enough, saying that she wasn’t here on Vampire business.
Since he couldn’t leave his reception point KillPrinsX managed to get her big question answered, “How do other Vampires make a living in the world out here?”
His reply to her question was hard to get, he keep saying that he wouldn’t want to see any Vampires during the day, nor help any in their business. Again, she had to repeat that she wasn’t trying to suck anyone’s blood around here, and was only trying to go back through the portal to the Mage’s Magix school. With a little persuasion he had finally admitted that towels or sheets might do the trick, and that it would cost her if she wanted to take any of his.
She paid him for the lodgings and decided that she might as well cover herself in towels, three should do the trick.
She had just enough time to try it out, the sun was about to come up and she had adventurously covered herself in towels and put on her looted sunglasses before walking outside in the morning light.
The sun had begun to blind her, even with sunglasses, she had to squint badly. It wasn’t perfect, but it’d have to do until she found something better, at least she wasn’t loosing health.
She thanked the innkeeper and made it off to the portal, while squinting, literally walking like a mummy.
The portal gave her a few options, all at a price of 50 gold. She knew where she was going though, the Elemental school district. She paid up and went on through, having the caution guidelines pop up in front of her face because she had distinctly not read them the other five times they had been shown.
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A few steps later she was back, and looking at the brightly colored houses of the Elemental school district. She breathed deeply and her mind started racing with all the possibilities she has now; tons of gold, lots of new skills to learn, and two fantastic shops for clothing and magical gadgets.
She ran off to the Robery first of all, she needed something to cover her that might just magically do the trick about this Vampire vs. The Sun problem.
She walked in and went straight up to the counter.
“Good day KillPrinsX, your debt to the Robery is outstanding by 765 gold. You will have to pay now before buying anything further from the Robery.”
Oh no, she had nearly forgotten about that. It wasn’t something she was thinking with. The payments were all on automatic. But she definitely has enough gold now. She paid it all back.
“Now,” KillPrinsX asked, “I need to know what will keep me safe from the sun. I’ve become a Vampire on my travels and I don’t think my allergy to the sun will be of any more use now.”
“That’s sensible. We have a few robes that might serve your purpose.” The NPC lady sent her to a rack on the other side of the shop.
KillPrinsX checked them out, but they were all on the order of decreasing sun damage, none would solve her worries forever.
She didn’t quite feel hopeless yet, there’s probably some items at GEM that might do the trick.
She left and visited the gift shop immediately. Walking around in towels sure wasn’t comfortable. Neither was the sun.
Inside, she went straight to the shopkeeper and asked him for anything that might help her out.
He first pulled out a bag full of garlic, some silver bullets, a wooden stake, and a spray labeled Vampire Repellent.
She blinked, and said, “I’m not fighting Vampires, I need something for myself… I am a Vampire.”
He was startled, questioned himself as he was holding the Vampire Repellent, and decided against using it. He rummaged around and found that he did indeed have a few items. He blew the dust off of them and laid them out for her. Cream that would decrease night vision by 50%. Heavy duty sun lotion SPF 500. “There’s also a full body suit with a hood that might keep the sun off of you. And there’s probably a Tome that has some de-Vampirification spell inside. Just read the description carefully so it doesn’t kill you, instead of reversing the… whatever you call it.”
That would do it, a tome with a de-Vampirification spell. She quickly went over to the bookshelf and started looking through titles.
There were at least three that said it would banish a Vampire back home, or to the underworld, or turn them into stone. None that she wanted to be casting herself while she was a Vampire.
Finally she had found it, “Reverses all skill Stats and Attributes to before the spell of Vampirification.”
But then it hit her, would she really want to do that, she had quite some spells, good stats… she read the description again even closely, and ransacked her memory.
She had gotten a lot of skills and attribute points from the training, grinding and evolving skills. She only got two things from her Vampirification: The Vampire skill set and 10 whole skill points, and an appearance point, so actually three things. But then the description in the tome had actually said that it would turn her character back to the exact level and character settings as before she had turned Vampire. That wasn’t what she wanted, there was a good 3 levels, and not easy ones, not to mention the skill she had used and ranked up since then… this wasn’t the best option.
She closed the tome and went back to the counter.
“Made up your mind yet miss?”
“It doesn’t look like the tome is the right one for me. Do you have anything else?” She asked desperately. She could always use the cream, and wear the jumpsuit…
“There might be a quest I could sell you,” the shopkeeper said, looking like he was about to give away a big secret.
“You sell quests!?”
“Yes, I do. I’ll show you the description so you can’t rip me off. Here.”
A prompt came to her vision.
Wrong turns righted
Have you become someone who is loathed? A creature that everyone despises? You can’t live with yourself the way you have become? Werewolves, Vampires, magically “enhanced” beings, turn yourself back to a normal human being. Come back and join the brotherhood of respectable players that don’t need or want to sell their souls for power.
Allergies, mutations, conditions and disfigurations are all cured. On the down side, skill sets, specials, and skill points gained from such condition are all taken back, returned to the ether, while you keep your current Level and Attributes.
“How much is it?” KillPrinsX asked immediately.
“10,000 gold.”
She made a face. “10,000? And what about the price at the end of the quest? I’m sure someone is going to ask for gold when I get there.”
The shopkeeper just gave a noncommittal shrug, “I just said I’m selling the quest.”
She squirmed, stamped her feet and nearly threw a fit.
How is she supposed to make a decision!
Alright… calm yourself. There’s good number of options now. Think of what might happen, and take it from there… Wizard tournament. That’s the main thing, at least after buying a few good skills. If she can survive that, then there’s more questing and whatever. But doing quests only at night? Or at least some cream, it’d eventually run out. But the sun wasn’t the only problem, silver bullets, fire attacks, garlic… All bad news for her.
She’ll have to think about it some more.
She excused herself, hitched up her towels and walked outside. The sun was still rising and was even brighter than before. It took her a good thirty seconds before she could open her eyes enough to actually walk. But during the times she was shielding her eyes from the sun, groaning, holding her hands out in front of her, towels wrapped around her whole body and head… someone had yelled “Zombie!” and fired a spell.
She went down and was now sprawling on the ground, still trying to see. She yelled out, “I’m not a zombie! I’m a Vampire! I can’t see with all this sunlight.”
Mentioning that didn’t really help. Three other players came to attack. She didn’t have an option, she was about to get her ass kicked laying down if she didn’t do anything.
She put 100 MP into her shield, cast Phoenix Skin and… Fireball!
That gave them enough of a surprise to back off. But they didn’t flee. Their shields went up and they only got ready to fight.
KillPrinsX was still having troubles seeing, only being able to squint enough to see where a person was before having to shut her eyes again.
She got hit by three all at once and moved back using Psychic Evade.
But she had enough, she wouldn’t be able to even go outside without people trying to kill her.
She ran back into GEM, hoping that she would just make up her mind about something in there.