Descendent of the Architects defeated!
Sisyphus Artifact: Charge replenished!
Everything was dark.
Or, rather, it wasn’t so much dark as it was that there was nothing. It was as though I didn’t exist but for the notifications before me. I was in a limbo state, of sorts, somewhere between life and death, floating in the aether.
Sisyphus Artifact: Levelled up!
Artifact upgrade unlocked
Select [2] upgrades from the list below…
1. Increase Charges VI [7 > 8]
2. Extend Active Period II [1,000 > 1,500]
3. Increase Effect I [+400% > +900%]
4. Add Experience Preservation Charge IV [+1]
I was there, it seemed, because the Sisyphus Artifact was waiting to revive me. I could only assume it couldn’t resolve the effect until the upgrade was unlocked.
I was going to live.
The revelation hit me like a hex spell, metaphorically knocking me from feet that I wasn’t quite sure I possessed in this form.
Warning: Please resolve upgrades in the next [59] seconds, or user will be lost.
This message focused me, for obvious reasons, and I read through the four upgrade choices once more. I already had a charge replenished—presumably now 1 of 7 charges remaining—so I immediately passed over the first option. Hopefully I wouldn’t be dying a third time any time soon, and so wouldn’t need that.
I eyed up the timer on the message. 42 seconds remained.
The next two options were both ways of ensuring I got more out of the lifespan of the artifact, but I was too rushed to do the maths on which one was better. I almost picked the both of them—I had two selections, after all—before I realised what the last option implied.
If I didn’t pick that, it seemed, I would be reset back to level zero once more, and I didn’t much fancy that. No way. I picked that one without giving it another thought; I wasn’t going through all that again.
Warning: Please resolve upgrades in the next [11] seconds, or user will be lost.
There was no time. I picked one of the two middle options at random—getting it wrong was better than being dead.
Artifact upgraded confirmed!
HP Depleted
Sisyphus Artifact Activated
Charges Remaining: (0 / 8)
Preservation Charged Used: Respawning at Level 10 …
Active Effect: Legacy of Sisyphus
Days remaining: 999 / 1,000
XP gain increased by +900%
* * *
I gasped as I awoke, sitting bolt upright and eliciting a scream from Val, who had apparently been perched at my side. As the sorcerer watched on, I felt as my bones popped back into their joints, as the breaks mended, as the open wounds fizzed shut.
‘You’re…’ Val mumbled. ‘You’re…’
‘My head hurts,’ I said.
‘Your head?’ the sorcerer repeated. ‘After all that, your head hurts? How are you still alive? How are—’
I pulled the metal octahedron from my pocket, placing it against Val’s hand. It was still hot to the touch. ‘Killing the Player,’ I said. ‘It gave the artifact a new charge.’
‘You knew that? All this time, you knew that would happen, and you didn’t think to tell us?’
I considered Val for a moment before shaking my head. ‘I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything. Just what that old guy told us.’
‘You—’
‘I thought I’d die,’ I said, putting it simply.
Val stared on at me, meeting my gaze more than was typical of her; usually she’d look away within a second or two. She touched my still healing right hand, and squeezed it gently. ‘Thanks, Styk.’
‘No problem,’ I replied, concentrating all my efforts on keeping a straight face, and not letting Val know how much her squeezing my hand had hurt. Suddenly, memories of earlier in the fight flooded my brain, and I realised where I was. I looked around for signs of other survivors.
Lore sat propped up against a tree, still clearly very injured, but breathing, and awake. Tokas crouched over Arzak, closing her wounds. The orc’s gaze was fixed on the tiefling, her hand tight around her sword, as thought she might still need to use it. Of the other two, there was no sign.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
‘Corminar?’ I asked, and then after a moment of realisation, added, ‘Lambkin?’
‘Alive,’ Val said. ‘Tokas healed them; their wounds weren’t as bad as Lore’s and Arzak’s. They’re searching for ingredients—Corminar said he was going to whip up some health potions to fix up whatever Tokas isn’t able to.’
My eyes drifted back to the tiefling. ‘She saved us, you know.’
‘I know. Doesn’t change what she did, though.’
‘No,’ I said, watching on as Tokas healed up the worst of Arzak’s wounds. ‘I suppose it doesn’t.’
* * *
The Player Slayers, Tokas, Lambkin and I took refuge in the half-burned, half-drenched tavern, taking it upon ourselves to serve an ale each, though none of us—even Val—did much in the way of drinking. We sat around a booth in silence, inspecting the last of our wounds, sipping the tiniest amounts of beer, or—in the case of Lore—getting a moment of shut-eye. I couldn’t blame him; after what we’d just been through, I was exhausted, too.
There was another outstanding matter to attend to, though.
As beer grew flat in front of us, and blood soaked into the—admittedly already plenty damaged—seating, Tokas prepared herself to speak. When the inevitable question finally came, she kept it simple.
‘What will you do with me?’
Nobody moved, nobody spoke, and suddenly everyone found their beers incredibly interesting. Tokas didn’t push the matter, just letting it fester, and when the silence finally became too much, both Val and Corminar looked to Arzak to respond. The orc wasn’t their leader anymore, but old habits died hard.
‘You are not in team now,’ Arzak said. ‘Beyond this, I not know.’
Tokas nodded, taking this news with composure other than a large gulp, and then turned to Val. Her eyes asked if the sorcerer agreed.
‘We should kill you, really,’ Val replied, meeting the tiefling’s gaze.
Tokas choked back tears, but didn’t say anything, only nodding once.
‘Val…’ Corminar started, but the sorcerer held up a hand to beg for his patience.
‘But you’ve got two young kids, and your good-for-nothing partner has—’
‘He’s not good for nothing,’ Tokas interrupted, meeting Val’s gaze with a sudden intensity in her eyes. ‘He was taken from me.’
Silence fell across the table once more, thick in its essence.
‘I’m… sorry,’ Val said. ‘I didn’t realise.’
Tokas nodded, accepting this apology. She would, of course; it was nothing compared to what she was guilty of.
‘We won’t take a mother away from two young children,’ Val continued after another moment of pause. She glanced around the table, to make sure nobody was disagreeing with her. ‘But Arzak’s right; you can’t travel with us anymore. Not after what you did. And if you step out of line again, if there’s even a sense that you might be up to something.’
‘I won’t,’ the tiefling replied. ‘I promise.’
‘You’ll forgive us if your word is not enough,’ Corminar said.
In the corner of the booth, Lambkin—who had until this moment seemed uncomfortable to be involved in such a discussion—leaned forwards. ‘I will check in on her occasionally, make sure she’s sticking to her promise. If not me personally, then, well, I still know some guardsman around the continent who owe me a favour or two.’
Corminar looked to Arzak, who nodded after a moment of thought about this arrangement. When silence fell once more, faces soon slowly turned to Tokas.
‘You should go,’ the orc said.
With no words, and a glum expression, Tokas nodded, then slid from the booth and ambled out the tavern without so much as a glance back.
‘Did we do the right thing?’ Lore asked, his eyes lingering on where Tokas had disappeared moments earlier.
‘Could you have trusted her?’ I replied.
Lore said nothing, and that was an answer in and of itself.
Lambkin sighed, groaned, and then stood up from the table. ‘Suppose I should be going, too, now that this is done.’
‘What’ll you do?’ I asked him. ‘Don’t suppose clearing my name is on the cards, at all?’
The ex-captain smiled an apology. ‘I’d try if I thought it was possible. But this… nobody would believe this. Not about a Player. No, what I’m going to do instead is make a quiet life for myself. I’ll pay a visit back to Umlok, marry Sae—whether her father approves or not—and we’ll find somewhere we can call home, out there in the Tundras. If all goes according to plan, you’ll never hear from me again. No ambushes, no traps… nothing.’
Corminar raised his still full glass in salute, and upon this signal, the other four of us did the same.
‘Good luck, lamb friend,’ Arzak said.
And then we were down to five.
‘It’s done,’ I found myself saying. ‘We did it. We won.’
Val smiled at me, though I didn’t find myself enjoying this victory as much as I might have expected to. The lack of a rapidly approaching death was nice, yes, but it left me with a feeling of emptiness; I didn’t quite know where to go once this beer was drunk.
‘I missed the challenge, I must admit,’ the ranger said, finally taking his first sips of beer and then recoiling at the taste. ‘Perhaps I shall put the procurement business on hold, and return to the Slaying. That is… if the rest of you might join me?’
‘Well I’m in,’ Val said immediately.
She looked to Arzak, who met her gaze for a moment, then nodded. ‘Yes. Important work.’
Lore didn’t say anything. At least, not until Val prompted him in the form of an elbow to the side. He winced at the touch. ‘I have sheep to return to,’ he said.
‘Your babies,’ Val and I said in unison.
‘My babies,’ Lore agreed. ‘I’ve already been gone too long. But, on the other hand… If we’re not gonna stop these Players getting away with everything they do, nobody else is gonna, are they?’
Val’s mouth broke into a smile.
‘You’re in?’
Lore nodded. ‘I need to check in at the farm, first. And I’m gonna want some downtime there between kills. But, yeah…. I’m in.’
And then, to my surprise, four faces turned to me.
‘And what about you, portal boy?’ Val asked.
‘Me?’ I repeated, pointing to myself as though the question might be too vague.
‘Yeah, you.’
‘You prove yourself handy,’ Arzak said. ‘I like portals.’
‘And I think, perhaps, our team has a vacancy, these days,’ Corminar said.
‘You’d trust me with that?’
Lore laughed. ‘What, you think any of the rest of us have died for the team? Think I trust you more than any of em.’
‘Come on, Styk, what do you think?’ Val asked, taking my hand once more, but more gently this time. ‘If this Council is what we all think, there’s going to be a lot more of this kind of work coming our way soon. And I’d feel much happier about it if you joined us.’
I paused, as if to appear to be giving the question some thought, even though I already knew the answer. ‘Alright,’ I finally said, then punctuated my reply with a sip of beer. ‘I’m in.’
‘Welcome to Slayers,’ Arzak said.
"Styk"
Level 10 Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 20
Intelligence — 87
Dexterity — 30
Strength — 42
Wisdom — 25
Charisma — 0
Skills:
Worldbending — Level 23
Knifework — Level 21
Identification — Level 8
Stealth — Level 6
Abilities:
Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Stab II — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 20%.
Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.
Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.
Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.
Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.
Stealth Attack — Passive. 50% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
Basic Identification — Discover basic attributes for a particular object or person. Ability scales with [WIS] + [INT].
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +900%