The pale lady in shimmering black armor twirled towards Isabelle, spinning her two curved blades with malice. Isabelle noticed that as the lady got closer and spun her black blades faster they started to glow red. That was terrifying. If only Isabelle could just have a second to think.
[Notice: use stamina for extra battle focus?]
[Y/N]
That wasn’t a bad idea. Isabelle thought yes.
[Stamina 90%]
Time slowed down. Sounds got slower and deeper, including the lady’s screaming battle cry, which suddenly sounded less like a lady screeching and more like the Kool-Aid man groaning for a long period of time. Isabelle took a moment just to breathe in deeply. Surely this crazy lunatic of a lady wasn’t going to be that difficult to fight, right? Isabelle had dispatched those skeletons pretty easily, after all.
[Stamina 84%]
Ugh. Time was still moving too fast. The lady was, what, like two leaps away from Isabelle now? If only she had just a little more time to decompress before fighting this crazed Overlord syncophant. Could she enter meditation right now or something?
[Clarification: No. Meditation, as earlier stated, can only be entered outside of combat mode.]
Damn, Isabelle had forgotten about that.
[Stamina 74%]
Okay, enough messing around. Isabelle needed to attack, and fast. But this glaive didn’t really seem like the best pick for fighting this crazed lady. Isabelle opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 217.4/232
Item
Traits
Steel Warhammer of Electrocution (enchanted) (poisoned)
+18 damage, +11 str, +8 const, +5 stm, +11 carry weight
Scimitar (poisoned) (enchanted)
+3 electrocution, +1 poison, +8 damage, +2 dx
Stealth Drainer (enchanted)
+5 stealth, +10 damage, +1 carry weight
Poisoning Dagger x2
+1 poison, +6 damage, +1 sneak level, +1 carry weight
Steel Mace
+10 damage, +1 str, +4 carry weight
Ruby Studded Pocket Knife
+1 stealth, +3 sneak, +0.5 carry weight
Staff of Paralyzation
+5 mana, +4 carry weight
Young Red Dragon Dagger x2
+2 fire damage, +5 damage, +3 stm, +1 dx, +2 carry weight
Young Red Dragon Glaive (enchanted)
+3 electrocution, +2 fire damage, +7 damage, +2 str, +6 carry weight
Young Red Dragon Bow (enchanted)
+3 electrocution, +3 fire damage, +2 damage, +3 dx, +3 carry weight
Staff of the Undead
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Steel Longsword
+5 str, +5 damage, +8 carry eight
Vial of Cauldron Goo
n/a
Abbreviated list based on prior use. Focus to see more items…
Isabelle had an idea.
[Scimitar (poisoned) (enchanted) equipped]
[+3 electrocution]
[+1 poison]
[+8 damage]
[Poisoning Dagger equipped]
[+1 poison]
[+6 damage]
[+1 sneak level]
Now Isabelle had a scimitar in her right hand and a dagger in her left!
[Stamina 63%]
Shit, she was running out of stm quickly. And the crazy lady ahd almost twirled all the way over to greet her. Isabelle raised both her weapons and dashed to the side, out of the path of the lady’s attack.
[Stamina 55%]
Isabelle raised her blades and jabbed the into the lady’s back.
[Critical hit]
[Critical hit]
After both blades sunk into the lady’s back, time sped up to full speed and the lady feel facefirst to the floor.
[3045 damage dealt]
[2958 damage dealt]
[‘Maviel’ resisted fire damage]
[‘Maviel’ resisted electrocution damage] [‘Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[Stamina 49%]
“Ack! What the fuck was that, player?” spat the lady, whose name was apparently Maviel. She spun around to glare at Isabelle. “You’re quick. That’s impressive, I’ll admit. But your damage bonuses are too weak to get past my resistance. I haven’t been a level twenty three in a long, long time.”
[Stamina 54%]
“Did you just brag about being old?” asked Isabelle, hoping to get on Maviel’s nerves a little bit to compensate for how inadequate she felt in the moment about her own stats.
“What? Do I look fucking old to you or something?” said Maviel. “Do I have one wrinkle on my face? Do I have even one fucking wrinkle?”
“I don’t know,” said Isabelle.
[Stamina 59%]
“You insolent little twerp!” said Mavile with a hiss. She stormed right up to Isabelle, face to face and way too close for comfort. “Look at my fucking face and tell me right the fuck now if you see even the semblance of a wrinkle!”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Truthfully, Isabelle didn’t see any wrinkles. But she also couldn’t waste this opportunity. She raised her scimitar and slashed right towards the lady’s face.
[Attack parried]
[Stamina 56%]
Maviel knocked Isabelle’s scimitar away with one of her curved, black blades.
“Nice try, player,” said Maviel. She slung one of her blades back over her shoulder and raised her left hand. It glowed purple and shot a ray of purple light at Isabelle.
[You’ve been clutched]
[-2 hp]
Isabelle felt like a large, invisible claw was squeezing her on all sides.
[-2 hp]
“Now, I’ll ask you again,” said Maviel. “Do you see the semblance of a wrinkle on my face?”
[-2 hp]
“No,” said Isabelle.
[-2 hp]
“Good,” said Maviel. She opened her left hand. The purple glow subsided.
[You’ve been unclutched]
Isabelle took a deep breath as the claw released her from its squeezing. She looked up to Maviel, who was sneering. “But you do look incredibly pale,” said Isabelle. “You ought to get out more often. Get some sun. You look kind of sickly.”
Maviel screamed with fury. “You take that back right now!”
Before Isabelle could respond, Maviel launched forward, spinning like a top or a tornado with her blades outstretched and glowing with red power. Isabelle didn’t want to know what would happen if she got hit by them.
“Tahsi!” said Isabelle. “Can you stop eating bread for a second and help me out, please?”
“Sure thing, Isabelle!” said Tahsi. “Want me to cast—”
“Oh, no, no, no!” said Maviel. She stopped spinning, pushed her hair out of her face and pointed a sharp fingernail at Tahsi. “No fucking party members for this fight! You’ve got your fucking hands full, kobold!”
“Hey, I can fight and eat bread,” said Tahsi.
“That’s not what I meant!” said Maviel. She pointed her finger now at the three large skeleton monsters that had combined out of the twenty dead skeletons from earlier. “Kill the player's party members! Do it now!” Maviel said.
The skeleton monsters lurched towards Tahsi. He screamed. “Tahsi!” said Isabelle. “Remember your new spell?”
“Oh, yea. That would probably be useful right about now, wouldn’t it?” said Tahsi. He stopped munching on bread and focused. With a shimmer and a shake his body wiggled and tore and split into two Tahsis. Those two Tahsis then wiggled and shook and split into four Tahsis. From four to eight, and from eight to sixteen, and then from sixteen to thirty-two.
“Oh my gods,” said one of the Tahsis. “That’s a powerful spell!”
The skeleton monsters groaned, unable to tell which Tahsi was the one they needed to attack. They would swing at Tahsi after Tahsi, but none of them seemed to be the Tahsi that could actually take damage.
“Impressive spell,” said Maviel. “But, even if they can’t kill him, at least my skeleton monsters can keep your kobold friend occupied.” Maviel spun forward, swords drawn.
Shit. Isabelle leapt out of the way.
[Stamina 95%]
At least her stamina had recharged. Wait a second, how much hp did Isabelle have? Isabelle thought, ‘Check hp.’
[You have 17/75 hp]
Fuck. Isabelle needed to heal, and fast. Then, she remembered her new spell. Her mana had recharged by now, too, hadn’t it? Isabelle thought, ‘Cast Quick Heal.’
[+20 hp]
[Mana 73%]
Nice. Isabelle felt a little better, a little boosted from the spell.
“You may be fast, but I’m fucking furious!” said Maviel, spinning towards Isabelle with another attack.
Isabelle chuckled to herself as she leapt out of the way again. This time, she had a plan.
[Notice: use stamina for extra battle focus?] [Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
[Stamina 90%]
Time slowed down. Maviel’s screams of rage once again became hilariously slow and deep. Isabelle raised her poisoning dagger and jabbed it into the side of Maviel’s neck, yanking it out and stabbing it right in her face three more times as time sped up to normal and Maviel’s cries of rage became cries of agony.
[Critical hit]
[Critical hit]
[Critical hit]
[Critical hit]
[2989 damage dealt]
[3056 damage dealt]
[3145 damage dealt]
[2991 damage dealt]
[‘Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[‘Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[‘Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[‘Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[Stamina 82%]
“Ack!” said Maviel. “You little fiend! I guess you’re proud of yourself? Well I’ll fix that quick!” Maviel’s curved blades glowed red, and then with a burst of energy started flaming with pink fire. She raised the blades and slashed over Isabelle’s chest three times.
[-10 hp]
[-11 hp]
[-10 hp]
[1 point of hp drained]
[2 points of hp drained]
[1 point of hp drained]
Isabelle felt lightheaded and nauseated, and her vision was tunneling. Maviel had really fucked her up quickly with those three stabs. Isabelle’s str was so high! How powerful was this enemy, really, that she could bring Isabelle to the brink of death so easily?
There was no time to wonder. Maviel was preparing another swing. Isabelle thought, ‘Cast Quick Heal.’
[+20 hp]
[Mana 54%]
Isabelle felt good enough to attempt to parry Maviel’s attack with the scimitar. As the hooked blade and scimitar intertwined, Isabelle noticed she had a chance to disarm Maviel by yanking her arm backwards quickly. Isabelle tried to pull her blade back, but Maviel pulled too, and she was a little stronger. For a second, they were locked in a tug-of-war between their two blades.
[Notice: use stamina for extra battle focus?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
[Stamina 75%]
Time slowed down. Isabelle noticed she had a little more strength in this state. If only she could get enough leverage to pull that blade away, however it seemed like her combat mode almost wasn’t designed for that kind of action. Isabelle wondered if she could do some sort of check, like possibly a str+const check, to see if she could pull off the move.
[Clarification: It’s your lucky day, that maneuver requires an int+str+const check. You have advantage. Perform check?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
[...]
[Check succeeded]
Isabelle suddenly felt power and vigor rush through her arm. She easily yanked the blade out of Maviel’s grasp, sending it soaring through the air.
[Stamina 61%]
Time sped back up, and Maviel’s eyes went wide as she noticed she’d been disarmed. Isabelle needed to use Maviel’s shock to her advantage immediately, as she opened her chest up to attack, so Isabelle concentrated to using more stamina for battle focus.
[Notice: use stamina for extra battle focus?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
[Stamina 50%]
Isabelle readied her dagger and her scimitar and stabbed into Maviel’s chest over and over again.
[Critical hit]
[Critical hit]
[Critical hit]
[Critical hit]
[2312 damage dealt]
[3108 damage dealt]
[2289 damage dealt]
[3327 damage dealt][
[‘Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[‘Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[‘Maviel’ resisted electrocution damage]
['Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[‘Maviel’ resisted poison damage]
[‘Maviel’ resisted electrocution damage]
[Stamina 26%]
Maviel leapt backwards and groaned with agony as time sped back up to normal. As Maviel cried and shrieked in anger, the ground shook.
“How dare you!” she said. “How dare you hurt me in such ways, player! You disgust me! There’s a reason we don’t let any of you incarnate here anymore! I don’t know how your soul slipped through our system lock, but I’m going to make you rue the day you were born!”
“You don’t let players incarnate? What in the hell does that even mean?” said Isabelle. “Let? As if I had any sort of a fucking choice in the matter?”
[Clarification: You did have a choice. Your choice was prompted by the system before you incarnated, it was a yes/no question. That question was: accept reincarnation?]
“Oh, fuck off!” said Isabelle.
“Um, who are you talking to?” asked Maviel.
“Sorry, it was a system clarification,” said Isabelle.
“You know you can turn those off, right?” asked Maviel.
“No, I don’t know,” said Isabelle. “I don’t know, because your precious Overlord has been murdering all the tutorials!”
“I’ve even heard that the Overlord likes to torture the tutorials,” said a Tahsi clone. He stuffed some bread in his cloned mouth.
“Anybody want to look at some bread? Sorry, but I can’t really offer you any to eat from this clone because I can’t interact with three dimensional space.”
“He tortures them?” asked Isabelle.
“Oh yea, big time,” said Tahsi. “It’s super fucked up.”
“Wow, what kind of sick fuck is he, anyway?” asked Isabelle. “Oh, he’s the sickest, Isabelle, the sickest,” said Tahsi.
Maviel cleared her throat. “Um. Regardless of whether the Overlord, or anyone who works for him, tortures anybody... much less, um, tutorials... I think you two are really missing the point, which is that I’m going to make you wish you’d never accepted to reincarnate here. Really, I didn’t want to get into the tutorials. I know you’re a little bitter about the fact that you never got one, but—”
“Look, lady—” said Isabelle, “—you creep me the fuck out. You’re crazed, you’re crazy powerful, you’re crazy old, and you’re a total fucking hypocrite.”
“Hypocrite? Why in the hell am I a hypocrite?” asked Maviel.
[Speechcraft attempt: persuade + intimidate]
“You’re talking about how bad it is that I’m a player with powers, but the Overlord is the baddest player with powers there is! I mean, hell, he’s caused trouble for everybody! Why are you even working for him? Is it just a sunk cost fallacy or something? I mean, really, let’s do some analysis here,” said Isabelle. “First of all, I feel like you’re really projecting all of your whole Overlord’s party over the whole world of Beaubinte. I mean, what, so you keep players from reincarnating here because they’re too powerful? And yet here you are, speaking in my mind and draining all my hp before I even get here to tell me not to come see the Overlord! Trying to scare me away! What kind of malicious, cowardly behavior is that, anyways? And what’s more, if you’re really concerned about keeping everything under control system wise, you’d use the Overlord’s system, which you obviously have access to, to fucking kill the Overlord yourself so that he wouldn’t keep shitting up the place for everybody! Or is that the last thing you’d ever possibly want to do, because to do that would mean what exactly? I’m guessing that when the Overlord dies his system stops working, right? So you’d lose all your powers? Your powers which, I’m sure, make me look like a toddler playing with toys, at least if I’m to believe the hype? It’s just ridiculous. There’s no logic behind what you say you are, there’s nothing genuine there. I bet if someone cut you in half and looked at your heart they’d see nothing but a black pit that only power itself could fill to the brim. Because that’s what you’re really after, isn’t it, Maviel? Power? You want to dunk me in the Overlord’s cauldron so that he can get all my powers, huh? And then he’ll give them to you, and to everyone else in his stupid fucking party, right? It all trickles down, right? Jesus Christ, it’s like you’re in a fucking pyramid scheme and the Overlord is the figurehead. You’re just someone trying to sell MLM products to me, that’s all you are, Maviel. I’m not fucking scared of you.”
[Speechcraft had mixed results]
Maviel started laughing. “Wow. Just... wow. Are your lips sore after all that flapping, Isabelle? Also, who or what is a Jesus Christ?”
“So you do know my name!” said Isabelle. “Why’d you keep calling me player?”
“It sounded more dramatic,” said Maviel. “And of course I knew your name. I’ve been poking around in your head, kid, I know more than you think.”
Isabelle grimaced with embarassment.
“Anyway, it’s not a scam, which I’d assume is what you mean when you say MLM. Everybody who joins the party gets all the benefits,” said Maviel.
“Yea, sure,” said Isabelle. “Tell that to Stelas.”
“To who now?” asked Maviel.
“I’ve got his severed head stuffed in a burlap sack that’s dangling from my horse Lugano over there at the edge of the courtyard,” said Isabelle. “He definitely does not seem to be getting the benefit of the Overlord’s system. He’s become my second inventory, if we’re being honest. I stuffed a whole bed into his inventory. It’s hilarious for me, but he doesn’t really seem to like it. He is, however, himself still convinced that he’s benefitting from being in the party. I just feel like if I were him I would’ve rather died at this point.”
“Good gods, that’s demented,” said Maviel.
“Didn’t you just defend torture a minute ago?” asked Isabelle.
“Yea,” said the Tahsi clone. “Plus, I don’t think Maviel likes my bread, either.”
“Look, the torture is... different,” said Maviel. A small amount of color appeared on her cheeks. Like she was... blushing? “But I don’t know why in the hell this kobold thinks I don’t like its bread. I’m completely ambivalent, thank you very much, and aim to stay that way.”
“Yup. Definite bread hater,” said the Tahsi clone.
“I don’t like you,” said Isabelle, looking at Maviel. “You’re a bad person in every sense of the word.”
“Oh, and I expect you think you’re a good person in every sense of the word? Can I remind you that since you’ve incarnated here you’ve essentially been leaving a trail of murder and blooshed everywhere you go?” said Maviel.
“I never claimed to be a good person. Hell, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing half the time,” said Isabelle. “But I do know that since the first day I got to Beaubinte your head honcho, your Overlord, has been trying to kill the shit out of me and anyone who associates with me! And not only is that very not cool, but it’s pretty much forced me to use whatever I have to stay alive. And that’s what I’m doing. Staying alive. Even when I feel the ground quaking and everyone around me is shaking, Maviel, I’m staying alive.”
“Ah, ah—” said the Tahsi clone, “—Achoo! Sorry, had to sneeze.”
“Wait a fucking second!” Maviel leapt forward and grabbed the back of the Tahsi clone’s neck. “This isn’t a clone of your bread-obsessed kobold friend. This is your bread-obessed kobold friend!”
“Ack! Isabelle, help! This hurts my neck so much!” said Tahsi.
“No fucking way!” said Maviel. She reached her other hand out in the air and pointed it at Isabelle.
Isabelle felt the horrible invisible claw grab her again.
[You’ve been clutched]
[-2 hp]
Isabelle couldn’t move a muscle, and was in horrible pain.
[-2 hp]
“Now, I’m going to kill this fucking kobold you’re so surprisingly fond of!” said Maviel. She raised a blade to Tahsi’s neck. “Say goodbye, dough boy!”
“I only eat fully cooked bread, thank you!” said Tahsi with a cough. Shit. Isabelle had no idea what to do!