The team scrounged around to find more rope and the other scraps needed to make a second trap. Daniel kept shaking his head and muttering to himself. "These traps just don't make sense, the way things connect. Look, I wrap this rope around and it just merges straight into the wood and becomes this ridiculous hinge.”
"It's a game world, Daniel," Rick tried to explain. "Things are simplified."
"Things are ridiculous, more like it." But he finished the next trap anyway.
Rick put another point into Force Wave. Now he had two in Force Wave and two in Soothing Mist. His stat points went into Magic Affinity and Dexterity.
There were six of the bandits left, all close together. Rick and Gambit didn’t know if they could peel any more away without pulling the whole group.
Rick was vaguely worried about respawns. In some games, if you took too long to clear a camp more mobs would spawn in to areas you thought you’d already made safe.
They took their time setting the traps and figuring the angles as they discussed how to handle pulling all six at once.
In the end, none of that proved necessary. They only got two in the pull.
With the extra points into Force Wave, one of them was mostly dead before they started chasing Rick. Daniel dropped that one with an arrow, and Gambit soloed the other one, clobbering it with the lizard weapon.
Gambit made a face as the second died. “The XP is terrible now. It’ll take two dozen more of these to reach level 5.”
“Let’s hope we get good XP for the quest turn-ins,” Rick said.
“I went to all that work to set traps and we didn’t even use them,” Daniel complained.
“Don’t worry. We’ll use them now,” Rick said. “Let’s pull the whole group.”
“Agreed,” Gambit said. “Hit them.”
Rick cast Force Wave and stepped back into the narrow place where they’d set a pair of traps. Daniel had marked both with unobtrusive rock cairns, easy for Rick to spot but not something the Rorks should even notice.
All four Rorks leapt up and chased him into the rocks. Both traps went off at the same time, killing two and wounding the others. Gambit skewered one of the survivors with a spear. He was trying to level up multiple different weapon types, hence switching between the lizard and a spear.
Daniel's arrow missed, but Rick's Force Wave came off cooldown and crit. He splattered the final bandit all over some rocks.
Daniel let out a whoop as a message appeared. [Objective complete! Bandit camp destroyed]. “We did it!”
“You were awesome,” Rick said. “We totally cheesed that. I love your traps, man. Keep it up.”
“I got another point for all that,” Daniel said. His game combat instincts weren’t great, and Rick felt like he’d be a liability if a fight turned nasty, but those traps made up for a lot. He and Gambit would just have to keep the mobs occupied.
They took their time looting the camp. In the refuse at the edge of the main fire ring, they found a decaying body. It was little more than bones and scraps of cloth. There was a silver locket on a chain in the remains. Rick picked it up.
[Located! You have found Scout Mark’t. Return his locket to his grieving mother]
“Told you,” Gambit said smugly.
“Yeah, you did,” Rick agreed. “I’m glad I let you convince me. I bet these two quests are enough to get us to level 5.”
“Then let’s get back to town, I want that guide.”
“Not until we loot the bodies,” Daniel said. “I get experience for building traps.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t leave any loot,” Rick assured him.
In addition to the spears, the camp's loot produced several pieces of wearable equipment.
[Rork battle harness. Chest slot item]
The harness had no stats on it, Rick hoped just because it was a low-level piece of gear, and not because the game system didn't have gear with stats on it. He inspected the next item and was relieved.
[Bandit boots. Plus one to stamina. Foot slot item.]
When he selected them in his inventory, an option appeared to equip an equip-able item. Redundant, but clear enough. He tried on the battle harness briefly, but oh man, it was hideous, and it definitely seemed like it would chafe. Gambit looked at him and bent over, laughing. “Man, you look like one of those Chinese tourists who comes to Ulaanbattar cosplaying as Genghis Khan!”
“You try it, then.” Rick switched back to his tattered StarcruiseR jumpsuit. The bandit boots fit comfortably on his feet. A game system where you had to find the correct size of shoes would have been awfully inconvenient, he supposed.
There was also a leather bandit belt, with no stats or set bonus. Rick had nothing in his belt slot, so he put it on. The harness, along with one of the spears, he gave to Gambit.
"Sweet!" Gambit said and immediately equipped the item. His ship suit vanished and was replaced with crossed leather straps, studded with metal, that would have made any S&M fetishist jealous.
"Oh, come on, man, really?" Rick asked incredulously. "You're going to wear that? After what you just said?"
"You forget, I can actually pull this off.”
“But it's got no stats.”
"So? It looks badass on me. I bet I could hang weapons off of it." Gambit puffed his chest up a bit.
Rick turned away in disgust, not wanting to see Gambit in the outfit any more than he had to.
The traps they’d set were recoverable, but took durability damage every time they were used. They started with ten points of durability, One of them had taken four points of durability. The time it had caught two enemies it had taken two points of durability loss. That meant it should have up to six uses left depending on how many things it killed. Rick did some mental estimation and decided traps were expensive. Selling the spears would be more cost-effective, but damn, were they cool. They gave the party a lot of protection against over-pulling and facing more mobs in a fight than they had planned.
The quests weren't to be turned in back at the board but to various NCPs around town. "NCP?" Rick said in surprise when Daniel used the acronym.
“Yeah, it’s right there in the name. Non-Combat Player.”
“But that’s just wrong.” Rick insisted. “Every game in the world calls those NPCs.”
“Non-Player Combat? That doesn’t even make sense.”
“No. Non-Player Character.”
Gambit muttered something that might have been ‘noob’ but Daniel either didn’t hear or ignored it.
“It says the city guard will reward us for the bandits,” Daniel continued, and looked around. “I guess we just walk up to them?” He pointed at a pair of the weapon-carrying Rorks near the gate.
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“Sounds that way,” Rick agreed. The trio approached the guards.
Gambit cleared his throat. “Rork guards! We have rid your town of the bandit scourge!”
The guards looked up. Both wore identical expressions of surprise. “Bandits – really?”
“Yeah, look, N’gokt,” the second guard said. “The whole sector’s showing up as clear. They did it. Huh. Wouldn’t have thought so to look at them.” He gave them a once over before shrugging and digging into his belt pouch. “Here.” He tossed them a pouch of coins. Gambit snagged it one-handed.
“Where can we find Widow Pethshar?” Daniel asked, clearly reading the name off the quest details.
“Uh-oh.” The guards looked at each other again. “You found her son? And he’s not here so…”
Rick nodded. “Unfortunately the bandits killed him.”
One of the Rorks gave a grumbly sigh. “Well, I think she’s been expecting it. Up the spire to the second level and look for the door with a red knocker-plate.”
The door was easy to find. The old lady who lived there greeted them with a smile. "Oh, you found my son's necklace. Thank you," she said as they handed it over. Her smile was wide and something about it bothered Rick.
"You're not sad that he's dead?" He peered over her shoulder at the apartment beyond. The floor was covered in thick rugs and all the furniture was well padded and covered in fine brown-orange leather.
"Oh, I suppose I am. But it was nearly four million years ago."
The party just stared at her for a long moment as she bustled about her fancy room. She took the necklace over to a hook on the wall and hung it with several dozen other identical necklaces before returning to them with another small sack of coins. She was humming happily to herself as the team left.
"What the hell is wrong with this place?" Daniel muttered.
"More importantly, how old is it?" Gambit asked. "We keep hearing dates and they're all incredible."
"Do you think they're just made up or has there really been a game system hiding on Mars for longer than humanity has existed?" Rick wondered aloud.
Gambit shrugged. "It's as likely as anything in this crazy place, but it doesn't change our predicament."
"The real question is, how do we get home?" Daniel asked. “I think that needs to be our focus here.”
Rick’s first objective was to find Sam. Then and only then would he be ready to figure out a way back home.
"We're supposed to find the Mars expedition," Gambit said. “And to learn about this system and report back but honestly, screw the Chinese government, I’m not telling them anything.”
Rick nodded quickly. “Right. Let’s keep our focus on finding the survivors and getting to level 5." The quest turn-ins had taken him most of the way through level 4.
“I’ve only got a sliver more to go,” Gambit said.
“Why don't we go back to where we spawned in?" Rick suggested. "We can kill a few of those lower levels and get Gambit to 5."
Daniel nodded. "And we should check on how Colonel al-Raman’s group is doing."
Rick had all but forgotten about them. There had been no sign of them in town, so he supposed they were still at the spawn-in point.
“If they're still there, they really should leave. Grinding those creatures will only get them diminishing returns. I’ll send them a message telling them we’re on our way. Be sure to mention not getting a game guide until level 5,” Rick said, and they set out.
They left town and made their way back up the road, winding along the ridge until they were nearly back to where they came in. A thin trail of smoke rose down by the stream. They approached cautiously, more than half expecting another bandit camp. Instead they found the Colonel's group.
They had a fairly impressive camp. The Colonel and two others had hit level 5, and they all sported scraps of leather gear. Two of the group were crafting items when Rick's party came up. One was sharpening a branch to form a crude spear, while another sewed together scraps of leather.
Colonel al-Raman welcomed them. "Looks like you’re doing well for yourselves. Here to grind? The experience has slowed down, but the drops are good. The tree branches keep replenishing. I’ve got a couple of the men figuring out the crafting interface.”
“Whatever you can make from these, Colonel, won't be as good as what you can make in a few levels. I recommend you move on and look for higher level spawns. Or better yet, go to town and hit the quest board."
Al-Raman nodded thoughtfully as Rick explained what they had discovered in town, and also how the quest board worked. He thanked Rick for the information, but Rick got the impression the Colonel had his own plan in mind, and Rick's long-time game experience wasn’t going to budge him.
Daniel talked excitedly with the other troops, and showed them how the traps he had made worked. Gambit hung back. When there was no sign of Daniel getting bored and moving on anytime soon, he and Rick exchanged a quick glance. “Want to go grind out the rest of the level?”
“You read my mind.”
A hundred yards away, they found a spawn of Spine Feathers and tore through it. Rick's Force Waves one-shot a single target, sometimes badly damaging two at once. Then Gambit could wade in, spear jabbing, and dispatch two or three while taking only the light damage himself. A hit of Rick’s Soothing Mist and he was right as rain.
As the second pack died, Gambit raised his arms. A glow of light suffused him. Rick could hear the chime. “Yes! Level five!”
Rick's experience bar had barely moved. He congratulated Gambit. “Let’s go get the guide. I can worry about my own leveling once we actually know what’s going on.”
“Agreed,” Gambit said.
They returned to the military camp. Daniel seemed reluctant to leave his compatriots, but finally Rick convinced him they needed to get back to town. He insisted on leaving one of his spear traps with the Colonel's team, though no one on that team seemed to have the skills to set it. Gambit was holding on to enough spears to make another, but both he and Rick agreed they should keep those for combat. Rick was getting good with Force Wave and for the time being was sticking with that, but it was good to have a spear in reserve for emergencies. Force Wave’s cooldown was short, and the knockback effect was handy. Still, he wanted to keep his melee weapons skill increasing, so he resolved to use a spear to kill a mob or two, next fight.
As they approached the town, the guard rushed over.
The lead guard called out to them. "Adventurers! You're just in time! We need your help! A caravan has been waylaid just north of town, and we need you to come with us to-"
The other guard tapped him on the shoulder, interrupting him. They put their heads together for a moment, and the first guard nodded several times. "Oh, right, I see."
Finally, the guard turned back to Rick and the others. "What we mean is you have to go and escort the survivors to safety.”
"Really.” Rick raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think you should come with us in case the bandits are still there?”
“Oh no, no,” the guard said hurriedly. “This is a job for adventurers like yourselves. We can’t leave our post. Would if we could, swear it.”
“And how did you learn about this?” Gambit asked.
“Uh, survivor managed to escape. You should hurry. Definitely.”
As they let town towards the north by a wide road, Rick asked "Do you think this is the level 5 thing the guide told us we needed to do?"
Gambit shrugged. "Beats me, but it seems likely."
“Really?” Daniel asked. “It seemed to me like they’re setting us up for something. Maybe they don’t like strangers in their town and they’re luring us out to kill us.”
Gambit and Rick looked at each other, frowning. “He could be right.”
“Of course I could. I may not be a gamer but I’m not an idiot.” Daniel sounded cross.
Rick slowed down. “Sorry if we gave you the wrong impression. It’s just this sounds exactly like the sort of quest you get given at milestone levels to lead you into the next big piece of gameplay you need. Like… an encampment ability, whatever that means.”
“So we keep going, but we keep our eyes open for tricks,” Gambit said. “Keep telling us your thoughts, Daniel. It’s good to have a non-gamer perspective, and you’re the only one of us with actual military experience.”
Daniel seemed mollified. The road took them out into the desert, across initially smooth land. After a mile or so it became rough and broken, with slabs of rock tilted up at crazy angles. Two miles along, they came around a bend, and there was the caravan.
Cracked, broken, and crashed wagons were scattered across the road. Rick and his team stopped short. A group of survivors huddled near one of the wagons. As soon as they caught sight of Rick's group, a shout went up, and they came running forward.
They were human.
Current Stats
Rick
Gambit
Daniel
Stamina
8
8
7
Strength
6
9
7
Dexterity
7
8
8
Magic Affinity
9
5
5
HP
24
24
21
Abilities:
Rick:
Force Wave. Current Damage: 6-10. Relevant Stat: Magic Affinity. Range 10 meters plus Magic Affinity. (Current range: 19 meters)
Soothing Mist. Target self or ally within 15 yards. Heals for value equal to you Magic Affinity times half your points in this ability, rounded up, plus the same value spread over the next ten seconds (current heal, 9 + 9 over 10 seconds)
Gambit: ??
Daniel:
Poison Arrow. Applies a Slowing debuff to the target for thirty seconds, reducing their movement and attack speed by 30%.