I crept up behind the gathering of harpies and snatched the small pile of scrap metal from behind them. The beasts didn’t seem to notice me as they continued to chatter at each other like little old ladies around a mahjong table. I crept away with my prize, slinking back into the safety of the shadows.
I shoved the scrap into my bum bag and once again checked the timer as I scratched at my bristly beard.
Four months, eighteen days, and three minutes.
Disciples remaining: 837
One month down in this purple nightmare and one hundred and sixty-eight players dead. I navigated through the hellish landscape to the tiny cave hidden in the rock formation that I’d called home for the last two weeks. The benefits of being a practiced scout meant I had learned to walk this path without my notebook very quickly.
It wouldn’t be long now until I had to change locations again though. The others would find me if I waited too long. I’d already discovered that compared to the Nox Warriors and the Daughters of Umbra I was a poor fighter. I had come to terms with that though the moment I had discovered the crafting menu.
I guess I should have known it existed. I’d been around plenty of Crafters before at Oliver’s Rest. I always assumed their crafting was dictated by skills alone and not a menu where you could put collected goods together.
Even with the schematics I’d received from beating Vincent Voss, it hadn’t really crossed my mind. Stuck in this place though, I’d desperately laid out everything I had to try and survive.
The crafting menu was fairly simple to get to, all I had to do was focus on a craftable in my inventory and it would take me there. Metal scrap for the traps crafting window and flowers for the alchemy crafting window. Both were similar in appearance. I could place up to three craftables in a row before merging them to form something. With recipes and schematics, it was simple to do because I already knew what to combine. I could do it without the instructions but it wouldn’t always work.
In the crafting window, I combined the metal scraps with a spool of wire as my schematic instructed me to. It created the most basic of traps; a spring trap.
It wasn’t much but it was enough to stun anyone trying to murder me for a short time.
I would have liked to jazz up the thing with a little poison but after reading the recipe and scouting around I’d discovered there was nothing here but nightshade flowers. My Identify skill made finding things like that much easier. Unfortunately, combining nightshade with nightshade resulted in a flash of heat warm enough to singe your eyebrows. Thankfully, my eyebrows were bushy enough to survive a little singeing.
The traps stacked in my inventory much the way my arrows did which made making a heap of them much easier. By a heap, I mean twelve, but that was still pretty impressive given I was scrounging in the dark for craftables avoiding killer players and hungry harpies.
They’re coming.
The voices in my head no longer surprised me. Even when they were loud and didn’t make much sense. It took away some of the loneliness that still threatened to send me into a deadly stupor.
I took the phantom’s warning and wandered to the edge of my tiny cave, peeking out into the purple landscape. I steadied my breathing and listened carefully. I could hear the heavy footsteps of a Nox Warrior. It was easy enough to tell the difference between all of the disciples. Heavy footsteps belonged to Nox Warriors and fluttering or twangs belonged to the Daughters of Umbra. The Shadow Wraiths were much harder. Like me, they seemed to be hiding and using tricks to survive which meant unless I stumbled onto a trap, I didn’t hear them coming.
The Nox Warrior used his Flicker skill to light up the area. I flinched and carefully eased back so the little golden glow wouldn’t reveal me. The black armored knight spotted two of my traps and with surprising dexterity avoided them.
I clamped my lips shut so I wouldn’t let out the string of curses that tickled my tongue. I was beginning to hate the Flicker skill we all seemed to be gifted with. It made it more difficult to fool the others. The warrior sneered at my traps as he came closer to my hiding place.
Quietly I drew my sword and readied myself for the worse part of this horrid world. I watched as the man's foot landed in my final trap. Before his pained scream could alert anyone else I dodged out of my hiding place and shoved my blade up through the man's chin.
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He toppled back when I drew the blade free, his body landing with a solid thump. I swallowed hard and wiped my blade clean.
836
I tried not to think about the fact I’d killed another player as I raided his supplies. I left his armor and the scimitars behind. They were no good to me and there was no one to sell them to here. The metal scraps and wire were welcome additions to my collection of goods, however.
New Item Received: Ring of Vitality
Description: A gold band sporting a small red ruby. Really, really small.
Effects: +1 Vitality
It wasn’t much but as a man with ten free fingers, I was willing to sacrifice one of them for a tiny bit more vitality. What was the saying? One grain of rice can tip the scale. I can’t remember where I heard that said but I remember it had an impact on me for some reason.
I sighed and dismantled my traps as I called upon my Rift skill and stepped through it. I was tossed out a long distance away from my cave but this time, I didn’t stumble. I found a tree and began to climb, surveying the landscape around me. I couldn’t see the ivory horse statue anymore but the second landmark I had found, a towering spire, was still visible on the horizon. That gave me something to work off of.
Just like before, in every direction I looked, there seemed to be players overusing their Flicker skill. I don’t know why they felt the need. The moons overhead never seemed to move providing a solid source of dull light. All the Flicker did was shine a spotlight on you for everyone to see. Sure, it was handy for spotting traps hidden in the gloom but with a high enough perception you could spot them without it.
The spire. She waits for you in the spire.
I swallowed and pushed the words from my head. It was not the first time I had heard them say just that. Judging, by the increase of Flickers in that direction, I assumed everyone was getting the same message. The Rifts also had a nasty habit of sending me closer to it whenever I summoned one.
Everything about the spire screamed boss fight and I had no interest in joining in an all-out brawl with hundreds of other players. I climbed down from the tree, turned my back on the spire, and began making my way as far from it as I could get.
What had to be hours later I rounded a bend and performed an awkward dance as I dodged a line of traps. I drew my blade as I leaped over the last one and shoved the pointy end at the player trying to hide behind a tree stump.
“No please!” she screamed. “Don’t kill me!”
I faltered for a moment, unsure of what to do. “Who are you?”
“My name is Erica. Please, I just want to get out of here,” she said before she broke down into horribly noisy sobs.
I sighed and sheathed my blade. “I’m not going to kill you. Stand up.”
She reached out a hand for my help but I didn’t reach for it. I might not be a completely heartless murderer but I wasn’t entirely stupid.
“Do you know how to get out of here?” Erica asked.
I pointed toward the spire still visible on the horizon. “Pretty sure that’s the only way.”
The woman gasped and stepped away from both me and the tower. “No, I can’t go there. That’s where all the real warriors are heading.”
I wondered if she truly believed I thought her helpless. Unfortunate experience had already taught me not to doubt the skills of the players stuck in here with me.
The loud snap behind me had me spinning in place, reaching out to yank the bolt out of the air before it sunk into my back. The head of it was coated in some sort of poison but even though it grazed my skin my poison resistance kept it from hurting me.
I stuffed the arrow in my bum bag, eager to use it in my own trap once I’d figured out the one she’d used.
Erica was shaking in her tall leather boots. Her eyes opened wide and reflected the purple light of the twin moons. Sweat rolled down her face as her lips quivered.
“Nice try Shadow Wra…” I didn’t get to finish my sentence.
A loud growling noise sounded behind me. I spun and faced off against the enormous black dog with glowing orange eyes.
Erica screamed and bolted but I was faster. I wasn’t fool enough to take on a creature three times larger than myself with fangs bigger than my hand. I found a tree and shot up the thing like a fleeing squirrel.
The dog monster thing charged past tackling Erica. Her scream was cut off by a horrid crunching sound as the thing tore her to shreds.
835
Blood still dripping from its maw the beast turned to me. I tried to calm myself as I focused on my Rift skill. I needed to be very far away from here right now. The dog howled and started climbing the tree as I tried to settle my pounding heart and ragged breathing.
Behind me, where I had been heading, an army of glowing orange eyes lit up the area from horizon to horizon. I could hear the screams of my fellow players as the dog monsters herded the rest of us toward the damn spire. It seemed the Goddess wasn’t as patient as she said.
The dog below me reached up, its talon slicing through my boots and deep into my foot right as the rift opened and I tumbled through it.
It would seem harpies were not the only monsters the Goddess of Shadow kept in her realm.