Chapter 74: Card Capture
“SHUTTLE LAUNCH IMMINENT. ALL NONESSENTIAL CREW MUST IMMEDIATELY VACATE THE AREA AROUND DOCKING BAY 4. SHUTTLE LAUNCH IMMINENT. ALL NONESSENTIAL CREW…”
As the final launch warning blared loudly over the speakers, Prila reminded herself for the fiftieth—or maybe sixtieth—time that everything was going to be just fine. This was not dangerous. This was just an ordinary, routine flight of the sort that took place with great regularity from the various Orbital Monitoring Platforms. Not only that, but statistically speaking, a person was roughly eight-thousand times more likely to perish in a DEHV-related accident than they were to meet the same fate during the course of a shuttle flight. She therefore had no reason to be afraid. None at all!
Yet as she felt her safety harness automatically tighten around her to the point it became painful, and as the ship’s pilot activated its engines and began to ramp up power to the rear thrusters, she was unable to escape the rapidly growing sensation of alarm as she anticipated the trip back down to Galterra, which she knew would be less pleasant and far more terrifying than the one that had brought her up here in the first place—and that hadn’t exactly been a particularly enjoyable experience, either. But this? This was going to be a whole lot worse. Her friends had all told her as much.
On numerous occasions, she had asked what it was like to head down to Galterra, and the story was always the same. They described the voyage as being like a rollercoaster multiplied by a thousand. According to just about everyone she’d ever spoken to, the trip down would, at various points, cause an intense, overwhelming sensation of “falling” that was apparently petrifying the first few times someone went through it. A friend of hers who’d transferred to a different monitoring platform last year once told her that it was like being trapped on a ride you couldn’t get off. She claimed she’d come close to tears as she’d whimpered to herself and prayed for it to be over.
Her worries making her agitated, Prila slowed her breathing and reminded herself that this was a modern, state-of-the-art vessel that had completed all of its required safety evaluations. The shuttle itself was vaguely similar in appearance to an airplane, only it was slightly smaller than a jet, its wings were located towards the rear of the craft, and it utilized rocket engines. Through her left window, she saw an intense glow of light along with a loud, high-pitched whine as a similar-looking shuttle departed from Docking Bay 3 and sailed forward into space. Then all sound abruptly vanished the moment it left the airlock.
Just be cool, she thought to herself. You don’t want to look like a fool in front of everyone else.
Despite her nerves, Prila smiled in an attempt to hide her unease and to project the same kind of fearlessness displayed by the eight engineers of the maintenance crew who were sitting around the shuttle beside and across from her, as well as the sole security officer tagging along for their protection. It was standard operating procedure that all expeditions to Galterra bring along a security officer level 80 or higher in the rare and unlikely event that the level-1 crew encountered trouble while enacting repairs or during the subsequent downtime afterwards. Typically, upon the completion of dungeon maintenance, the crew would be allowed a few days of leisure where they would stick together as a group and enjoy life in one of the cities while awaiting the next scheduled launch off Galterra.
“I definitely need to buy some new sneakers while I’m down there,” one of the men remarked, his voice coming through clearly over the Comm in her ear.
“I just want to feel my feet on some soil,” said another.
Through the transparent, polycarbonate visors of their space helmets, Prila did not see anything remotely resembling her own anxieties regarding their imminent flight—and why would she? Unlike her, these men were well accustomed to traveling back and forth between Galterra and the monitoring platforms. Thus, she was unsurprised by their calm, relaxed demeanors; if anything, they actually looked bored. One even yawned. The man turned his head her way and, as though seeing straight through her, he chuckled.
“I was just as nervous my first time heading down,” he said to her. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”
“I’m not nervous.”
He chuckled a second time. “Sure ya aren’t, darling.”
This caused the rest of the men to share in his laughter, and Prila decided to simply ignore it rather than pull rank. She knew he was only being kind and not deliberately trying to ridicule her. And to be fair, he wasn’t wrong. This was her first return voyage, and she really was nervous. It was hard to believe it had been a decade since she’d last been planet-side. Ten years ago, she’d blasted off Galterra and arrived at what had become her new life: and now, finally, she was coming home. Maybe she’d even see her family again.
I’m not here for pleasure, she thought, chiding herself. I need to make contact with Angelica.
Time and time again, she had watched people die from the comfort and safety of her terminal in service to a man she had once believed to be a God. But he was no God: he was just a very powerful mortal who was too stuck in the past to see the harm he was causing the world. And now that she understood this truth, she could no longer bear the sense of guilt and neglected responsibility that grew the longer she upheld the system. Truly, it had been Ziragoth that served as the final straw for her.
All those people.
Dead for no reason.
So many of them had been children, too. And for what? Some absurd notion of impartiality? This was wrong. This wasn’t righteous. This was complicity in their deaths. No more. Enough was enough! Prila was as Galterran as anyone else, and this was her world too. Her conscience would no longer allow her to indifferently observe suffering and death when there was something she could do to avert it. And with that thought in mind, she grabbed the sides of her seat as the thrusters picked up and the shuttle began to undock. She was about to find out if planetary descent was as bad as she’d heard. But even if so, she would just have to grit her teeth and bear it; it was too late to turn back now.
*****
Gripped with such an intense exhaustion that he was nearing the verge of outright collapse as he suffered his way up yet another steep, rugged hill with his mouth open and panting for air, Zach was more than happy to assume that the rocket-sounding screech he’d just heard in the sky above him was the result of, like, a heatstroke-induced delirium or something. Well, assuming that was even a real thing. Was it? He didn’t know. All he knew was that, for a brief instant, he could have sworn he saw a flash in the sky that came just before the high-pitched screech while he was busy trekking the final bit of distance to what Donovan had called the “interception point.” Yet no one else seemed to have noticed or heard it, and despite his curiosity, he didn’t dare glance up to look, as it was bad enough having this cruel, unrelenting sun scorching him to begin with—the last thing he wanted was to have to feel it burning his eyes, too.
“All right, we’re here,” Donovan said, as the group of nearly thirty of them arrived. “Take it easy for a few. This is the best spot to put the dragon asleep until tomorrow.”
His body sore, his muscles aching, and the front of his tunic drenched with perspiration as even more sweat poured down his face, Zach took a seat on a large rock with a somewhat smooth, flattish surface; it was one of several that dotted this particular area of the grasslands about ten-and-a-half miles northwest of Shadowfall coast and about three miles northwest of the raid camp. As he settled down into a seated position, he released a groan as a sense of relief flowed into his legs, back, and hips. He was exhausted, and he felt like he was being baked alive under the ruthless sun.
“Are you feeling all right?” Mr. Oren asked him, concern in his voice.
Zach rolled his eyes. “I’m fine.”
“Here, kiddo,” Donovan said, throwing him a half-filled canteen. Zach extended his arm and caught it midair, then twisted off the top and took several large gulps. This, as the front, sides, and back of his head tickled as more of his sweat slid down his face and neck.
“Why couldn’t we at least take the skeleton horses?” he asked, breathing heavily. Leaning forward on the rock, he tossed the canteen back to Donovan, who let out a chuckle as he snatched it out of the air. At the same time, Zach began waving his hand around as what felt like a billion little gnats buzzed around his face. Several times, he had to slap his own forehead to kill the annoying critters that kept incessantly landing on him. It was almost like they wanted to die. They just wouldn’t leave him alone. It really did seem like they were spitefully trying to fly into his eyes, up his nose, or into his ears.
I fucking hate nature, he thought grumpily.
Zach was not currently in the best of moods, and it had nothing to do with Fylwen, the arguing on the beach, or even that he was about to come face to face again with Ziragoth. No, it had to do almost exclusively with his current situation. For starters, he felt gross, and he was in desperate need of a shower. He had the dried blood of an Elf he’d killed staining his tunic—and after having only just vigorously scrubbed it clean of zombie guts and pumpkin blood before leaving Olivir’s estate, too. Now he had to wear it on him as a constant reminder of what he’d done: and what a disaster this whole foray had become for him. Hell, the only reason he’d ever snuck out of the hospital in the first place—the only reason he was even here at all—was because he wanted to replace the sword that Ziragoth had broken. But it was starting to really dawn on him that, not only had he failed to do so, but he’d lost his other fucking sword as well! So now he had zero swords. He felt so stupid and inept. It also didn’t help that the trip over here had thoroughly humiliated him and reminded him of his shortcomings.
Following what had been a pretty awful day, he had actually really been looking forward to the trip out here, if not the deed itself; specifically, he had been excited to ride a winged skeleton horse through the Galterran summer sky with Kalana sitting behind him. But both Zephyr and Donovan had decided against using flight, as to do so risked the ire of the political guilds, who would likely not appreciate having to explain such an alarming sight in the event it somehow leaked onto the internet or was otherwise unintentionally broadcast by the media. In fairness, Zach had to admit that both of those things would be highly likely to happen given that they’d be flying over the populated city of Shadowfall Coast. Thus, Zach did not disagree with the decision; after all, with everything else going on, the last thing he wanted to do was cause the already frightened people of North Bastia to feel any additional terror.
Readily accepting the decision, Olivir had instead offered to conjure forth the same kind of skelly horses that he, Kolona, Grundor, and Zach had used to race through the giant forest on Archian Prime. But this, too, Donovan firmly declined. He’d instead insisted that they go by foot. From what Zach could gather, this was because the interception point Donovan had chosen was only three miles from the camp itself, which meant they’d actually have considerably more time than originally thought. In fact, from what he understood, even taking into account the hike over here, they had about forty-five minutes before Ziragoth roamed to within aggro range and Olivir put it to sleep. For this reason, Donovan decided against using skeleton horses, real horses, DEHVs, helicopters, or any form of transportation at all, claiming instead that “exercise was a good thing.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Now, to be clear, Zach did not disagree with his core sentiment. Needing to raise his stamina, he fully agreed that exercise was a great and wonderful thing. But not when he’d just recovered from a crippling E-debt, and especially not when he was traveling more than ten miles by foot with people who were all vastly higher level than him! Right now, Zach’s speed was a mere 7 points with his equipment on—and only 5 without. Despite Donovan claiming he’d be moving at a “slow and calm pace,” Zach basically had to burn every Gods-be-damned calorie in his body just so that he could barely manage to keep up, lagging behind everyone else. And so, in a sense, his own weakness was being rubbed in his face, as everyone else, including Fluffles, had effortlessly managed to make the trek without any visible sign of strain or exhaustion. It was literally just him and him alone.
I actually wish Rian and Lienne had come along, he thought. Then all three of us could have limped our way over here. I wouldn’t have to be the only ant.
The two had chosen not to accompany Zach, as not only would their presence serve no purpose, but the both of them seemed to have other things they really wanted to do. Rian, for instance, had run off in a state of absolute bliss because that red-haired Elvish girl he’d “met” on the beach had decided to make him her “consort,” which Rian was so happy about that Zach was pretty sure he’d spotted tears of joy in his friend’s face. Lienne, on the other hand, had claimed she wanted to go shopping in Shadowfall Coast—which, incidentally, did not even end up happening. Somehow, she, too, also ended up paired with an Elf. Actually, Zach found that last bit very, very amusing. It was funny to him how the girl’s “extreme” anti-Elf hatred seemed to vanish into thin air the moment some six-foot-tall, green-cloaked warrior her own age said hello to her. Suddenly, she liked the Elvish. Crazy how that worked.
And so now, Zach was the lone aimless, low-level soul amid almost three-dozen superpowered, high-level adventurers. From what he understood, everyone here with them right now was a member of the GSG aside from Zephyr, Olivir, Grundor, Kolona, Kalana, Eldora, and obviously, himself. Actually, assuming Zach had understood Mr. Oren correctly on the trip over here, the God Slayers Guild would be the only adventuring guild with a one-hundred-percent participation rate in today’s—now hopefully tomorrow’s—raid, meaning that between those gathered here and at the camp, every single member of the God Slayers Guild had shown up for Ziragoth. All sixty-five of them. No one could say they weren’t a dedicated bunch.
This is what they do, isn’t it? This is their whole reason for existing.
Zach was still figuring out his own personal reason for existing. Of course, it wasn’t something he had the mental capacity to dwell on right now. He already had too much on his plate. He just hoped he wouldn’t be forced to meet the political guild leaders looking—and smelling—like this. For sure, he would need to find a hotel in the city to shower, as well as a shop to buy something half decent. He couldn’t stride into their fancy tent in his current condition.
Tent, he thought, his mood becoming somewhat elevated. That’s right. I'm sleeping in Kalana's tonight…
Just a few minutes prior, Zach had been informed that Eldora would be moving into a different tent so that Zach could spend tonight alone with Kalana in her tent. That all by itself was almost enough to make him forget every other shitty thing that had happened to him, past and present. Speaking of Kalana, she was currently busily engaged discussing emergency tactics with Mr. Oren, who wanted to have a brief look at the Ziragoth document while they had more than forty minutes of free time to spare. Zach, who’d been carrying it in his pocket this entire time, had handed it to him, and what he saw in the eyes of his former science teacher did not inspire him with much confidence. Mr. Oren had practically turned pale, and so too had Donovan, which was even more unsettling.
“We’ll figure something out, Alex,” he said, giving him a pat on the back. “Don’t worry about it right now.”
“I hear you, Donovan. It’s just…”
“I know. It’s bad.”
“We’ll be okay, you guys,” Kalana said. “We won’t lose!”
Zach smiled at her confidence. So too did Kolona, who Zach just now realized was sitting on the rock next to him. As Kalana, Mr. Oren, and Donovan prattled on in the background, Zach turned his attention towards her first cousin, who was studying his face as though worried about him. She didn't need to be. Nevertheless, she placed a hand on his arm, giving him a friendly squeeze before returning it to her own lap. “Thank you for everything, Zach,” she said to him.
“I didn’t really do much.”
Kolona shook her head. “No, you really did. You did so, so much. You brought me here to my cousin and uncle. And you showed me the truth about Kalana.”
Zach sighed. “I guess that's true, but on the other hand, if it wasn’t for me, Olivir might’ve killed Fylwen, and then you two would've never had to flee your home in the first place.”
“It was worth it to see Kalana again,” she said. “Maybe not for Oli, but for me, it truly was.”
Zach sat up a bit straighter, his awkward posture causing his back to ache even more fiercely. Eventually, he could no longer remain seated at all and had to stand upright, as the rock had begun causing him more discomfort than anything else. Once again on his tired feet, he stretched his arms widely then wiped some more sweat off his forehead. Now, he took a good look at the world around him and shook his head. He felt so out of place. He didn’t belong here with all these people. Despite having Kalana back in his life, and despite making so many new friends, there was a part of him that still felt all alone.
“I’ll be right back,” he said. “Gotta take a piss.”
Without waiting for Kolona to respond, Zach headed off to a more isolated area, which wasn’t hard to do since there was basically nothing out here but grass, shrubs, hills, and rocks. For some reason, he felt the desire to be by himself for a little bit. He needed to clear his head. But first, he made absolutely, positively, one-hundred percent sure that there was no one anywhere who could see him. Yet even after he was sure, he still didn't feel like that was good enough, so he walked just a bit farther away from everyone beyond that point just to rule out even the possibility that someone could stumble upon him. He wanted to be away from prying eyes and listening ears. He really needed a moment of privacy.
Once he was fully confident that that no one would disturb him, he sat down onto the grass, bent forward, and began to weep as he finally had a moment of down time and quiet to really let it sink in that he’d killed two people. They had names. They had lives. They had families. He’d killed them. They were gone forever. They probably had mothers who were going to be informed of the news. Did they know yet? Had someone knocked on their mothers’ doors or their spouses’ doors to let them know that they were dead and never coming home again?
“What did I do?” he whimpered to himself, squeezing his hands into fists. “The fuck did I do? I didn’t have to do that. I didn’t. Gods damn it.”
He clutched his mouth as he cried so hard that snot came out of his nose and his eyes ran like open faucets. He didn't just kill: he'd butchered. He'd beheaded another living, thinking being. That Elf probably wanted to live just as much as anyone else did, and Zach took his life away from him. The more he thought about it, the more his body trembled. He bawled like a small child into his hands, the hurt overflowing from him. Worse, he would do it again if he had to. He was starting to become afraid: so, so afraid, that there was a part of him…that somewhere inside of him was a part of him that actually enjoyed it. He didn't want to believe it was true. He couldn't bring himself to fathom it. But there was a sick, twisted part of him that wanted to do it again. To Varsh. To Fylwen. To anyone who threatened him.
Realizing how destructive this train of thought was, he knew that he needed to think about something else: anything else. It didn’t matter what. He couldn’t handle this.
My new abilities! I never looked into those.
He’d promised Olivir and Kolona he’d discover what they were together, but he didn’t feel like going to find them. He didn’t really want to be seen right now. So instead, by himself, he called forth his list of abilities, using the method that Kalana had actually taught him. Gods, that felt so much longer ago than it actually was.
It’s only been a little more than a month, but it feels like it’s been years.
Wiping both sweat and tears from his eyes, he tapped his right shoulder four times, then held his finger there in place on the fourth tap. He counted slowly to five, then removed his finger and tapped two more times in quick succession. This caused his list of abilities to appear in the air before him. Nervously, he set out to see what his newest acquisitions actually even did. He started by tapping the first of them: the ability called “Card Capture.”
(Inner Ability) Card Capture (LEGENDARY NON-UNIQUE)
Target is transformed into a summonable card. Card Capture can only be used on non-sentient, non-biological entities. Cannot be used on sentient NPCs, biological entities, inanimate objects, or organic robots. Card Capture will fail if target’s HP >=5% and can only be used on target(s) with a level equal to user’s int/2 (rounded up). Successful Card Captures forfeit any xp or possible item drops.
25 range. Exertion Level: None
Despite reading the information several times, Zach still did not fully understand what the purpose of it was. It seemed to be suggesting that it could only be used on mobs, bosses, and NPCs that were not sentient—like Grundor and Angelica—and that, if used, he would lose xp he’d normally get for killing them, along with any item drops he might’ve gotten, but in exchange, it turned them into a “card,” whatever that was. It also seemed like he had to get a mob really close to death in order to use it, and that he had to be within 25 range, which was basically like 25 feet. It also finally made sense to him why his Boundless ability, which was unique, mentioned card capturing, or specifically, the fact that he would not be able to use this ability in tandem with it. In hindsight, he should have expected to get this ability because why else would it be named in a previous one? Lastly, he observed that his intelligence stat—which would finally be used for something other than an item ability—appeared to determine the maximum level of what he could use it on.
If my current int is 55, then half that is 27.5, which rounded up is 28. That means, right now, while not being in Unleashed Phase, I can turn anything level 28 or lower into a card. But what would that even do? Why would I want that over just killing the mob and getting xp?
Hoping to find out, he tapped the ability immediately below “Card Capture” called “Card Summon” and began to read over its explanation. When he did, he became enthusiastic and optimistic, very much liking what he saw—at least at first. The more he read, the more that a sickening, terrible feeling entered the pit of his stomach as a rush of uncertainty, hesitation, and a powerful sense of self-doubt all struck him at the same time, more so from the implications of this ability than from the nature of what it did in and of itself. Reading it over, Zach could not help but wonder why he of all people would need something like this.
(Inner Ability) Card Summon (LEGENDARY NON-UNIQUE)
Consume a captured card to summon the captured entity as a pet. If the summoned card is killed, it cannot be restored with Card Dismiss. Up to 50,000 cards may be summoned at one time. While one or more cards are active, the user is granted access to the following mental commands: Aggressive, Passive, Attack, Defend, Stay, Go To, Besiege, and Use. If the card is mountable, these commands will remain inactive until it is dismounted. The user may use the Besiege command, such as when besieging a city or fortress, to have his or her card(s) enter Besiege mode. While in Besiege mode, a card may only be used to attack biological entities such as sentient beings or living animals. While Besieging, the user may divide his or her cards into up to ten battlegroups and assign target party member, raid member, guild member, or allied sentient as a card commander to delegate control of cards within its control group. When Besieging, the user is granted the following mental commands, which can be set to either ON or OFF: Allow Kill Hostiles, Allow Kill Only Designated Targets, Allow Kill Civilians, and Allow Kill Children. When Besieging with battlegroups, these commands, as well as all aforementioned commands, will become available to card commanders.
Exertion Level: None
Zach struggled to both understand and come to grips what he was even seeing. This ability…it seemed to be implying that its usefulness lay in conquest. Specifically, in conquering territory, killing people, and taking control of cities or towns or whatever. Why else would someone need thousands of mobs? It reminded him of Olivir’s ability to build an army of mobs. But what frightened him most of all was the idea of what would be possible if he combined this with Olivir’s ability. As farfetched as it seemed, he could not help but wonder what would be doable if he and Olivir descended upon a city with cards and minions working together.
Not that I’d ever do that, Zach thought.
Eager to read his final ability, despite having a fairly good idea based on its name what it would do, Zach tapped the air in front of him and brought forth the information relating to his final new ability, “Card Dismiss.”
(Inner Ability) Card Dismiss (LEGENDARY NON-UNIQUE)
Target card with >=1 remaining HP is returned to card form. User pays an exertion cost that scales with % missing HP. If Card Dismiss is not used within three hours of Card Summon, the card de-spawns and cannot be recovered. The user can reset this three-hour window by mentally using the Reset All Cards or Reset Target Card command. The user may choose to dismiss all cards in a single action using the mental command: Card Mass Dismiss.
Exertion Level: Dynamic
No sooner had he finished reading the description than he heard Kalana’s voice calling his name. She was probably looking to spend some time with him, since they still had over half an hour left before Olivir would do whatever it was he was going to do to put Ziragoth to sleep. Hurriedly dismissing his list of abilities, he stood up from the grass and began heading back towards the others. On top of everything else, he now had a lot more to think about.