Galmi cursed under his breath as he sloshed through the mud, the shin-high substance stubbornly clinging to him. Even without the mud there was a consistent presence of low-hanging branches that hampered his progress.
Selene floated nearby, her wings shrouded in an aura of sparkles. In her arms was Scarlet, kept out of the mud at Galmi’s request. It was thanks to her new racial traits, an advantage given the quagmire they’d run across.
“Maybe we should’ve gone to Faeriver, instead of just cutting across the wilderness?” Galmi said.
Selene hugged Scarlet a little tighter. “I’m sorry, I just don’t want to leave my friends waiting any longer.”
Galmi chuckled as he moved a branch out of the way. “It’s fine, I bet nobody else has even come here yet.”
There was no warning before Scarlet started to bark and growl, which caused Galmi to lift his staff in preparation. He studied the nearby swamp and the surrounding trees, but he saw nothing that seemed threatening.
“It’s alright,” Selene said as she patted Scarlet in an attempt to soothe her.
Scarlet didn’t stop growling, and if anything she became all the more agitated. “She doesn’t do that for no reason,” Galmi warned before he attempted to activate his skill, “Mind’s Ey-”
Before he could finish a snake erupted from the water in front of him. The serpent rammed straight into his right cheek, the jaws snapping shut and injecting venom.
Selene screamed in horror, and Scarlet started to bark at the snake that had attacked. “Get off!” Galmi yelled as he reached up and tore the snake off, throwing it back into the water.
No longer latched onto, Galmi activated his skill without interruption. His senses expanded and the system helped to construct a mental image of the surroundings, which caused Galmi to narrow his eyes as he noticed the dozens of snakes nearby.
He shifted the staff into a two-handed grip, and then batted a snake out of the air as it leapt at him. Selene held onto Scarlet and threw blades of wind at the serpent. It was bisected in the middle of the air, though it did little to assure Galmi with their current situation.
Selene continued to whip out blades of air at the serpents as they appeared, and Galmi in turn worked hard at battering any who got close. Now that he had his skill active it wasn’t too hard, but the numbers seemed only to grow as the fight continued.
Galmi splashed about in the shallow water and mud, his stance unsteady given the slippery footing. Yet with the sound and feel of what was beneath an idea came to him, and he looked to his new friend. “Selene, do you have any lightning attacks?”
She paused in her magic to respond. “Yes? I have a really weak one.”
Galmi slammed one end of his staff down into the mud. “Use it!”
“But what about you?”
Galmi’s arm muscles bulged as he used all of his strength to lift himself up out of the mud. He managed to lift up into a handstand, the staff utilized to support his whole body.
Selene caught on quick enough and aimed her hand at the water. “Static burst!” she shouted, and her hand produced a burst of electricity.
When the magic hit the water all of the nearby snakes immediately died. The ones further out floated to the surface, though they did not disintegrate into particles like the others.
In Galmi’s mental image he could see that the furthest out of the snakes swam away, no longer interested in such dangerous prey. “Nice work,” Galmi said with a thumbs up at Selene, even though he was upside down.
She gave a bit of a shy smile. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, now let’s ki-” Galmi started to say, but his hand slipped on the staff and he fell head first into the water.
By the time he managed to get back up out of the water, Selene was already doubled over in laughter.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The city of Holygrande was at the center of those who worshipped the Goddess of the Divine. It was a city built to her specifications, with an excess of gold and silver utilized in the masonry. The buildings all had some type of metal trimming, and even the streets were inlaid with lines of silver.
In the center of the city a small gathering of domes could be seen. Each of them connected via a long hallway to a cathedral and tower, which housed the Divine Throne on the top floor. The roof of the tower had been created from a combination of platinum and gold.
Wulfram strode through one of those hallways, his scarlet cape fluttering behind him. His metal greaves clanked against the marble floor, the sound echoing down the length of the hall. He kept one hand on the golden hilt of his sheathed sword, while his other manipulated an open screen in front of him.
He was not alone in the hall, as a blonde woman who had her hair up in a bun matched his stride. She had a tablet in her arms, one that she was flicking through even more than Wulfram was his own menus.
“Priscilla sent a report about Ghandahar,” the woman said, as she looked up over her small reading glasses.
Wulfram’s fingers paused, though he didn’t look away from what he was doing. “What’s the situation like over there?”
“Since the vast majority of the playerbase is located in Faran few guilds have formed, so most of the players are doing whatever they feel like,” Wulfram’s assistant said, as she flicked through the tablet and sent an image of a red haired man through the system, “a man calling himself Klein has gathered the most.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Wulfram came to a stop at those words, and opened the message. “Lizzi, make sure we send that image to everyone in Serenity, and warn them to not act alone against him.”
“I already did that,” Lizzi replied as she adjusted her glasses. She had a small smile on her face, as though she’d won a victory against him.
Wulfram shook his head and returned to walking down the hall. “And recruitment?”
Lizzi sighed. “The competition for new players is high, and a lot of them also want to make their own guilds, so we’re not getting a lot.”
Wulfram turned and stepped over to a small door. Through the windows on the wall it was easy to see the garden that was outside, one filled with numerous trees and birds. Even rabbits could be seen dashing about, enjoying the freedom from predators.
Before he walked through the doorway he looked over his shoulder at Lizzi. “I think that should be our priority at the meeting,” he said, and then walked out into the garden.
Restricted Zone
The Divine Garden
Any players who are not granted access to this zone will be eliminated by angels. If the player has entered on accident they have ten seconds to leave before the angels are summoned.
Wulfram ignored the alert when it popped up, but it was the reason Lizzi didn’t follow him. Out of everybody in Serenity he was the only person allowed in the garden.
He walked down a small stone pathway that meandered toward the center of the garden. Around him were a variety of trees and flowers, each one different and clearly not belonging to the current biome. It was only thanks to the magic of programming that they were able to survive.
A few small animals darted amongst the garden. Rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, even a couple of regular skunks all wandered around freely. They all ignored Wulfram as he was no danger to them, and if he even attacked one an angel would probably intercede.
Ahead of Wulfram a single tree stretched up higher than the others. It was unique in that the leaves looked to be made of gold, and the trunk had the look of platinum.
The reason Wulfram had come to the garden was seated on one of the lower branches, her small legs dangling down. A bird had settled on her shoulder and chirped into her ear, while a small crowd of animals had gathered near the base of the tree.
“I know, right? Isn’t that silly!” the girl said to the bird with a giggle.
Wulfram looked up at the girl with a frown. “Sylvia, what are you doing?”
The young girl looked at him with widened eyes. Her long white hair framed what could only be called an impish face, and she wore a lightly colored summer dress. There were no shoes on her feet, nor even the slightest sign of dirt.
“When’d you get here?” Sylvia asked as she puffed out her cheeks.
“Just now,” Wulfram said as he moved to the base of the tree. The animals that had gathered there moved to the side, forming a path for him.
Sylvia lifted her arms in Wulfram’s direction. “Where’d you go? I’ve been so bored waiting for you.”
Wulfram reached up and plucked Sylvia off of the branch. “Deathgrasp Swamp.” Wulfram put Sylvia down on the ground amongst her animal friends. “I helped out a few guild members with a dungeon raid.”
“I guess that’s okay then,” Sylvia begrudgingly admitted, “but next time you need to take me along.”
“I thought your mom banned you from doing that?” Wulfram asked.
Sylvia’s response to that was to stick her tongue out at him. She crouched down and started to pet the animals nearest her.
“Fine,” Wulfram said with a sigh, “the next time I head out I’ll take you with me. You have to promise to be good, though!”
“You will?” Sylvia’s attitude turned brighter, and she hugged Wulfram. “Thank you!”
Wulfram smiled at her. “But if you want to go with me next time, you need to promise me one thing.”
“Anything!”
“You need to come attend the meeting with me.”
Sylvia looked up at him with wide eyes, and then immediately took off running. “Noooo!”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
When Galmi and Selene reached the north edge of the swamp they paused to recuperate. Selene had enjoyed her hover skill, but it combined with her magic had significantly drained her magic.
They found a quiet area to temporarily settle down in, which Scarlet took as an opportunity to thoroughly sniff everything. As Galmi watched his wolf pup investigate he couldn’t help but laugh.
“How’d you find her?” Selene asked, as she drank from a flask filled with something blue.
“I ran into a wolf in the forest, it was a boss,” Galmi told her, “after I killed it she just kind of popped up.”
“Oh, so that’s one way to get pets?” Selene discarded the flask, which turned into particles and vanished. “I wonder if I could get one?”
“Maybe? I could always show you where I found her, I think.”
“That’d be nice,” Selene said, her wings fluttering behind her.
They rested for about half an hour, more than enough time for her mana to recover and Galmi to dry off. The pair continued on the north, guided by a small compass that Selene had picked up in Faeriver.
So when they emerged from the swamp and into a large and empty plain Galmi could only feel disappointment. “We should’ve stuck to the roads.”
“Maybe we’ll see Freedon we go further?”
Galmi couldn’t find a way to argue against that idea, though hoped they weren’t heading even further away from the city. Once more he took the lead, with Scarlet on his head and Selene mirroring his steps.
Their encounters on the plain were goblins, a meager foe given what they’d already faced. The only issue they ran afoul of were the ambushes some of the goblins utilized. It was due to that Galmi started to think about leaving his Mind’s Eye skill permanently active.
The only problem with that idea was how the skill made his eyes far too sensitive, and so he often had to use a blindfold in order to block most of the light. There was also another danger, that he might run afoul of something that assailed his other senses which would be greatly enhanced. The potential scenario of a skunk rat spraying him while Mind’s Eye was in use put a stop to that idea.
So it was that Galmi and Selene continued to trudge across the plains. There was little to break up the monotony of their travel, save for the goblins, and after a couple of hours Galmi came to a stop.
With a sigh Galmi turned to Selene and said, “We haven’t seen any roads or anything. Maybe you should call your friends and see if they can help us?”
“It’s not like they’d know where we are,” Selene pointed out, though she settled on the ground and folded her wings, “maybe I could try something else?”
“Fly up high to get our bearings?”
Selene shook her head. “I can’t go that high yet. I could log out and check the maps that people have uploaded.”
Galmi reached up and rubbed his temple with two fingers. “But we don’t know where we are?”
“According to my compass we’ve gone straight north from the ruins. I can find where we are, no problem!”
Galmi grinned at her confidence and opted not to voice any concerns. “Alright. I’ll keep an eye on you while you’re gone.”
“Thanks,” Selene said, and then her hand lifted up and she activated her menu. A few seconds later her eyes glazed over, but her body remained standing.
Galmi studied her, intrigued at the way her logging out had impacted the artificial body. It was as though the system maintained the standing posture for the player, though aside from that it would do nothing to help.
“Definitely need to stick to the safety zones,” Galmi commented, but paused for a moment.
He opened up his own menu and slid his finger along it, lingering for a long moment over one spot.
----------------------------------------
Help Files
Bosses
The Cracked Earth players can encounter special enemies known as bosses. The boss character will differ from regular enemies in that they’re stronger, though their strength will differ based on classification and situation.
Common Bosses occur often, and rarely have any type of announcement attached to them. Their rewards are slightly better than regular monsters.
Rare Bosses are enemies that can be defeated by one or two players. At this tier rewards for defeating a boss can include skills.
Epic Bosses can be defeated by a small party of players. Some at this tier require specific items or skills in order to defeat.
Legendary Bosses can only be defeated by coordinating multiple parties of players. Very few of these exist in The Cracked Earth.
Unique Bosses are enemies that can only be fought once, and their defeat often unlocks something special for the entire playerbase.