Respawning in 3, 2, 1... complete.
Kafrim opened his eyes and grinned. He was back, and right where he wanted to be, in the bed in his small room above Master Lukas’ workshop. He’d just been killed by a whole flock of tiny, lightning-quick birds, and had been sent back to a respawn point. All according to plan.
He got out of bed and checked his stats. Full health, full mana, and - crucially, time skills at 300 000, the max. It had been more than enough to deal with the birds, and he’d had a lot of fun with them until he decided it would be easier to reset than to walk back home and recover.
He was a bit miffed that he’d needed to recover, to be honest. There hadn’t been any real need to take any damage, but he’d decided to see if he could level up a bit more. Completely unnecessary, since the only experience he needed from this game now was the time skills, and he’d maxed out on those.
All that was left here now was to double-check himself against the toughest boss and then get going. Kafrim collected his stuff and went down the stairs and into the cold, dark night. He walked briskly through the small town, to a door in the town wall. Old Ned was guarding it, as usual. Kafrim was pretty sure he was a game character rather than a human, since he never seemed to do anything different.
“Hullo lad,” Ned wheezed and raised his torch. “What brings you out so late?”
“Gold,” Kafrim answered, “gold and adventure.” And the greatest theft in all the worlds, but Ned didn't need to know that.
Ned shook his head. “Back to bed with you,” he said. “Ain’t no adventure being outside the wall this night. ‘S death, for sure.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“I shan’t send you to your death,” Ned said, “and lose poor Master Lucas his best apprentice.”
“Not even for thirty gold?” Kafrim said. “And... I hear there’s a princess out there tonight as well, trapped in a dungeon.”
“A princess?” Ned peered at him, suspiciously. The old man was a sucker for romantic tales, but many of the boys in town knew it and tried to prank him with it.
“A princess,” Kafrim confirmed. “Princess Angelica of Kerendra has been kidnapped and brought to the Dark Lord’s dungeon.” Which was true, and formed the backbone of a large and intricate story arc in the game. Kafrim had played it, thrice, but it wasn’t his goal tonight. The poor princess would have to languish in the dark, dank dungeon until Kafrim or someone else came to free her.
“You’re not pulling my leg, are you?” Ned frowned deeply.
“Never,” Kafrim insisted. “In fact, I will take her back here to meet you.”
“Oh!” Ned’s jaw dropped and he stared at Kafrim. “Meet a princess...?”
“Absolutely. If you’ll just let me out the door here, and not say a word to anyone that I left?”
Kafrim had brought the princess back to meet Ned, twice, even if he thought old Ned was just a mechanical character. He had a soft spot for romantic tales himself, he knew, and Ned had been so happy to meet a real, live princess. It helped that the princess had been very grateful after being rescued, and had been even happier to be taken on an unchaperoned tour of the kingdom. It had been a very enjoyable trip for Kafrim too. A pity that she was just a game character, she'd been fun company.
“Just don’t get into trouble,” Ned grumbled, but he took the large iron key and unlocked the door.
“Thanks,” Kafrim said, “I won’t. I’m really grateful.” He cast a quick salute to Ned as he darted through the door and slipped into the dark forest outside.
Kafrim shifted up as soon as he heard the door clang shut behind him. He did see fairly well in the dark - which was a surprisingly difficult skill to acquire, he’d found - but it never hurt to slow down any lurking enemies. He didn’t shift very far, just enough to double or triple his own apparent speed. He stood still for a moment, listening and watching, and when nothing moved, he began walking briskly along the path leading into the forest.
He’d been here before, many times, although he’d rarely gone all the way to the other side of the forest. There was a whole side quest involving dryads in here, which gave in-game experience and useful loot but no really useful skills. The dryads were fun, but he wasn’t in the mood for negotiating with them tonight. Instead, he shifted up further and began jogging.
The forest swept past in a blur, and he peered intently into the shadows. At this speed, even a small branch could be painful or worse, and he relaxed into his intuition and dodged and jumped at everything, whether he was sure or not.
At least it made the soundscape better. Shifting did strange things to sound, and the forest seemed to be filled with deep, low rumbling and moaning. At higher levels it faded away. Just why it didn't do the same thing to sound Kafrim had never been able to understand, even though the Professor had tried to explain it. He wasn't that interested, to be honest.
Soon, he reached the border of the dryad lands, and passed right beneath their treetop outposts. He doubted they saw him, even with their very sharp eyes - he was moving very fast now, to them. It should look like only a faint shadow, darting past before they were sure they saw anything.
He veered left onto another path, to avoid speeding straight through the dryad habitations. It was longer, and more dangerous with more branches and rocks, but much less risk of causing unnecessary alarm. It didn’t really matter but he liked to act considerately when he could. He sometimes fancied himself somewhat of a gentleman thief.
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The night deepened, and Kafrim had to slow down a bit. He stayed up-shifted, but just slipped from jogging to a brisk walk. It was enough, he thought, and safer.
It took him a few hours to get through the forest, and without incident too. Right around midnight, he emerged from the thinning low brush at the other side, and entered the rocky wasteland surrounding the Timeslayer’s keep.
The Timeslayer was the real high boss of the game, even if everyone thought it was the Dark Lord.
The first time Kafrim had encountered it, he’d just been killed without even understanding what had happened. It wasn’t until much later, when he began investigating the time skills, that he realized what the Timeslayer did. He’d been killed a few times more while he figured it out, but this time - he wouldn’t.
Kafrim jogged over the barren land, which was dimly lit by faint moonlight coming through the clouds, and soon the stone fortress rose before him. He stopped by the great wooden doors and shifted down. As the world sped up around him he stretched and did some jumps. He’d learned the hard way to re-attune himself to normal speeds. Not that he planned to stay normal for very long.
It was possible to get into the keep through the main doors, but it led straight into the small army waiting in the courtyard. That wouldn’t be a problem this time, but he wanted to conserve his energy in case the Timeslayer had some surprises up his sleeve. Instead, Kafrim walked along the fortress wall, turning the corner and continuing until he reached the small utility door. He smiled slightly as he took his game lock-pick and easily unbolted the door.
As he went in, closing and locking the door behind him, he reflected that this was one of the good things about this being a game world, he reflected - it didn’t always follow ordinary logic. The contrast between the huge, hulking main doors with several battalions of monsters behind them and this simple, small door with zero guards made no sense, unless you knew it didn’t appear until you’d completed a whole separate side quest helping one of the Timeslayer’s escaped servants.
He passed through the small storage room - garbage room, he thought - and into the corridor. He decided to shift up slightly, to give himself an edge in case he met anyone. If he shifted just a bit, he could still hear more or less decently. Right now, the keep was silent and still. The entire staff was in the courtyard, waiting for the full moon.
He made his way quickly through the corridors and up the stairs, until he reached the level of the Timeslayer’s Grand Hall. He shifted back down as he emerged into the anteroom. Time to get ready.
As far as Kafrim could tell, the Timeslayer had no special skills or weapons apart from its signature one, but he hadn’t been able to make fully sure of that. One of the drawbacks of the time skills was that the stat system didn’t work while he was shifted, so he couldn’t check on his opponents. He was pretty sure, anyway, and there was nothing else he could do, really.
This game didn’t have potions, but in a weird fit of developer humor it had - sandwiches. Kafrim had expended some energy getting here, and so he ate four cheese sandwiches. He checked his stats - yes, energy back to almost full, health and mana at full strength. He had a few more sandwiches in his inventory. They were useful in other worlds too, even if they didn’t have quite the same effects they had here.
With his energy level topped up, Kafrim drew his sword and marched up to the door leading into the Grand Hall. It was unlocked, but he kicked it open anyway. If the choice was between dramatic entrance and boring entrance, always go for the dramatic one, Kafrim thought.
“Get ready to fight!” he yelled as he ran into the hall. As expected the Timeslayer was sitting on its stone throne, unmoving and silent. Kafrim stopped halfway between the door and the throne, and focused his time sense. It shouldn’t be a problem, this time, unless he allowed himself to be surprised. The Timeslayer just sat there, waiting.... Still waiting.
Until, suddenly, it rose from the throne and leapt down the steps, onto the floor. Kafrim felt the faint tug as his opponent shifted, and grinned as he watched a dark blur moving towards him. Let’s dance, he thought, and shifted up.
He’d only fought a shifted opponent a few times and it was still a bit trial and error. It was crucial to shift enough and not stay too slow. Better to err on the other side.
Suddenly he saw the Timeslayer clearly as it advanced. It was tall and spindly, with long arms and legs, and it brandished long knives in its hands. Kafrim jumped out of its way and realized he’d shifted beyond his foe - it was moving slowly, in slow motion. Kafrim slashed his sword through the Timeslayer’s cloak, and grinned as he saw its head turning towards him, ever so slowly. And then - it shifted up.
Kafrim was ready, and shifted up too, way up. He took a few quick steps back, away from the suddenly immobile Timeslayer, and shifted back down again. He wanted to gauge how fast it was.
He seemed to have matched it fairly well.
The Timeslayer was still, but he could see its eyes darting. They were at the same speed. It seemed to be thinking. Kafrim didn’t know exactly how complex it was - many monsters and characters in the game worlds were fairly mechanical, but some were surprisingly complex and unpredictable. There should be some kind of provisions in the programming for a shift-capable opponent - there was no other good reason in the game for the whole time skill business, as far as Kafrim had discovered.
The Timeslayer smiled, thinly, and then shifted up, and jumped. Kafrim almost missed it - he didn’t shift far enough, and only saw a blur moving to his right. He shifted all the way, as high as he could, and just barely dodged a volley of knives by throwing himself flat on the floor. One of them grazed his shoulder, drawing blood. He winced as he rolled and jumped to his feet, just as the Timeslayer leapt and slashed right where he’d been a moment earlier.
Right, he thought. He was as fast as he could be now, and seemed to match the Timeslayer. It probably also had 300 000 in time skills Now it was just a normal fight, except that the world around them was frozen. They were at the same time level, but the Timeslayer was fast and deadly in itself.
Knives seemed to be its preferred weapon, lots of them. It had long, nasty ones to slash with, and thin, long daggers to throw. Kafrim had to work for it, dodging and parrying and only slowly working his way into the fight with his sword. He wasn’t the greatest fighter, he knew, and he might admit to being a tad lazy since he’d discovered the time skills. Most fights became boringly one-sided when you could shift up and make your opponent freeze in place.
This opponent was anything but frozen, though. Kafrim struggled to keep up, and only managed a few ineffectual rips through the Timeslayer’s cloak while he himself received more and more gashes. Not good. He hadn’t planned to die here, but he might have to let it happen anyway. It was better than getting wounded and having to waste a lot of time healing.
The plan wasn’t to kill the Timeslayer anyway - there were strange but persistent rumors that doing so was a Really Bad Idea, since it would crash the game and nobody knew what would happen then - the plan was to verify his theories about his skill levels, and test shifting while shifted. He needed a moment to focus for that, just a moment...
As he was forced backwards, and was beginning to get tired, he decided he’d have to take his chances. The worst that could happen was that he’d die, and then he’d respawn back in his apprentice room. So, he thought, you won’t expect this, I think...
He swung his sword in a wide arc, forcing the Timeslayer to pull its arms back, and then he took three quick steps, right up to it. He grinned up at it as he reached inside its cloak and found a dagger. Now, he thought, and let his eyes go unfocused. He felt the Timeslayer move as it wrapped its arms around him, and knew a knife would cut into his back any second.
He was faster. Before the knife hit, Kafrim did the peculiar mental twist he’d been given, and shifted out.