Chapter 10: Attack on Paxdom
Earlier
Meet Linderton. He’s a young adult aged in his middle twenties, dressed in cheap light leather armor and carrying a disproportionately expensive shining golden spear. He’s also tall, has long black hair, and has a naturally gaunt face. Some of his friends like to make fun of him, unfittingly calling him Sad-Sack Linderton, but that doesn’t bother him. He has a nice, easy job as a guard for the city of Paxdom. Monsters never attack it, and criminals tend to pass the city over. Yup, nothing but a nice and peaceful life for Linderton here.
Today, however, has been anything but peaceful. In fact, it’s been quite hectic. Still no monster attacks or anything like that, of course— in fact, the ones causing trouble are all people! Regular civilians at that! And the trouble they’re causing is what Linderton so unaffectionately calls ‘a right fuckin’ headache’. Tons and tons of people are flooding into the Paxdom city gates, probably in order to attend the upcoming Water Festival. The rest of the guards really have their hands full trying to sort and check everyone. Since Linderton’s on security duty, he doesn’t actually have to deal with any of that, but hearing all that racket in the background is still bringing his mood down a bit.
“Man, I’m really glad I’m on security duty today instead of doing check-ins. Always glad for a chance to bring out this spear, too. It cost a ton!”
Standing far to the sides of the gates and keeping an eye on the surrounding fields, Linderton spins his golden spear like a twirl baton and chatters away to his fellow-guard-slash-drinking-buddy Michael. Michael, with his close-cropped dusty orange hair and a stern face lined with stubble, simply listens quietly while gripping his sword tightly. He’s a man of few words, as opposed to Linderton’s incessant verbal diarrhea. Even Michael’s fit body contrasts Linderton’s slight beer belly. But despite their differences, the two get along well.
This peaceful routine continues for a while, and Linderton starts feeling sleepy. He can’t seem to stop himself from yawning every couple of minutes. At some point, he blinks once, blinks twice, rubs his eyes to keep himself awake, and when he opens them again—
“...huh? When did that thing get there?”
—a monster has appeared in front of him. Vaguely humanoid, with long dark goo-covered limbs and faint red eyes. The entire beast seems to be wreathed in shadow. But more surprising than its appearance is its method of arrival. It didn’t walk up to him, it didn’t drop in from the sky, it didn’t rise out of the ground. It just… wasn’t there until it was.
Linderton and Michael briefly turn to face each other in confusion. Michael, who had actually been doing his job and keeping a steady lookout, is especially confused.
“Michael, did you see this thing show up?”
“No. It just appeared. I was watching.”
“Weird… Well, it doesn’t look very strong, at least. If it doesn’t attack, we can just let it go.”
“Yup.”
Nodding to each other, Linderton and Michael decide on their course of action. But as soon as they do, the monster begins to take lumbering steps towards them. Left, right, left, right, it slowly approaches. Linderton just watches at first, before sighing and rubbing his hair in exasperation.
“Okay, fine. Looks like this thing really wants to die today. Michael, you got this?”
Michael responds with a grunt and draws his sword from its scabbard. He then proceeds to hold the blade horizontally near his waist in a preparatory position. The well-polished iron of his blade begins to sheen with a slightly green luster, and the grass beneath his feet begins to wave in the wind and softly bend in the direction Michael’s sword is facing. All this indicates the activation of a skill— in this case, sword-type skill Fine Woodcutter.
“Go.”
Michael softly utters a word under his breath. And then with a dramatic verdant flash of light, Michael’s sword beautifully slices the air and bisects the monster, instantly reducing its health to zero. As the top part of the monster’s torso begins to slide backwards off of the rest of its body, Linderton appreciates Michael’s fine swordwork.
“Nice one, buddy. Man, that’s the first monster we’ve fought in a while, but you’re not getting rusty at all. But… why’d you use Woodcutter? That pretty clearly wasn’t a plant mon.”
Fine Woodcutter is a particularly precise horizontal strike that deals extra damage to plant objects, like trees, and plant-based monsters, like the Man-Eater Banana. All in all, it’s a fine skill for a guard living in the vegetation-themed Paxdom Fields to have, though it can be a bit tedious to keep the Skill’s ridiculously proper form throughout the swing.
“Keeps my Dexterity level up.”
“Ah, got it, got it. Well, that cut was as clean as always!”
The quick victory was to be expected. Michael’s a diligent guard, practicing often and with an exemplary mindset; as a result, his Overall Level of 31 had long since dwarfed Linderton’s (whose Overall Level is still in the teens). Same went for his individual attribute levels. Michael’s standout Dexterity attribute numbers in the 50s, and his sword is exceptionally well-maintained. Against such a weak monster, almost anyone trained in combat would have won in as short an amount of time. Linderton is only complementing the preciseness of Michael’s cut, is all.
As both the upper and lower halves of the deceased monster hit the ground with a *thud*, Michael resheathes his sword and gives Paxdom’s gates a quick glance before turning back to resume guarding the fields. He then proceeds to stay like that for… barely a second.
“—!”
He immediately unsheathes his sword again and turns back to the gates with an incredulous expression on his face. It’s the stereotypical depiction of a double take.
Linderton looks over at him with slight confusion.
“Michael, man, what’s wrong? Something at the gates?”
Michael doesn’t respond immediately, instead continuing to stare with his brow furrowed and eyes squinted. So Linderton, too, turns around.
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Lumbering towards the crowd of civilians trying to enter the city gates is a pack of about 20 monsters, similar to the one Michael just cut down. All dripping with black ooze, all vaguely humanoid with freakishly long limbs, all shambling along with their glowing red eyes. No, they’re not just similar— they’re exactly the same.
Linderton’s eyes widen, and he realizes that his peaceful day is officially over. The monsters are still a ways away from the gates, but they’ll arrive soon enough, so Linderton has to act fast if he’s going to defeat all of them. He draws his spear and takes a big step forwards before being intercepted by an arm shoved into his chest.
“Huh, Michael? Why are you—”
“Linder, go alert the rest of the guards. I’ll do my best to stall them here.”
“Huh? Man, screw stalling! There’s a lot of these things, but they aren’t that strong, so we can totally take them all out.”
“Linder. Go.”
Linderton finally looks up at Michael to see that the latter isn’t even looking towards the horde approaching the gates anymore. He’s looking back at the corpse of the monster he just killed. What’s with his friend and spacing out today? Is Michael feeling sick or something? No— those are simply excuses Linderton makes in his mind to avoid facing reality. Apprehensively, Linderton sneaks a glance backwards to find a horrifying sight.
Out of the corpse of the dead monster, as if superimposed, rises another humanoid goo-covered monster. It gets to its feet and leers at Linderton, groaning threateningly. And then another monster rises out of the corpse. And then another. And another. Slowly, but without ever stopping, the monsters emerge. And then they all start walking. Directly towards Linderton and Michael… no, they’re merely in the way. Directly towards the Paxdom city gates— and all the innocent people crowded there.
“Michael?”
“Yes?”
“I’ll go.”
“Good.”
And so Linderton begins running towards the city gates as fast as he can, barely hearing the swishing noises of Michael’s sword behind him as his old friend starts to cut through the newly arrived monsters. Linderton cups his hands and takes a deep breath as he runs, because he has to let someone know, anyone, that there’s a—
“MONSTER! MONSTER ATTACK!!”
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Now
A crowd of people push at each other in an abject state of agitated excitement, frightened by the news of the appearance of monsters. They’d been eager to get into Paxdom before, but now they’re genuinely desperate— people are starting to be caught in the crush and seriously hurt. Near the front of the pack, close to a row of check-in stands that serve as a verification point for people entering Paxdom, is a certain scrawny boy. Perhaps he’s important? Oh, nevermind, of course he’s important— it’s none other than our illustrious protagonist!
“So… does this mean I’m free to enter the city?”
Diegi, straining to speak over the incredibly loud crowd, does his best to yell at the guard who had just been checking him in. Unfortunately for Diegi, the check-in guard just grabs his staff and quickly abandons his station, using some sort of spell to harmlessly push people to the sides and part the crowd as he runs towards the long-haired guard who had announced the attack in the first place. At this, Diegi looks towards the sky and shouts:
“Automod? Are you there? You stopped babbling a while ago, but now you’re giving me the silent treatment, eh? Well, come back! I could reaaaallly use your help right now!”
No telepathic response from the AI. Not even a peep.
Diegi, upset but not surprised, then turns his head to the other side and asks his temporary companion another question.
“Oh man. Gloria, what should we do now? I mean, we’re at the front of the line and everyone’s totally in a panic, so— huh!?”
Not only can he barely hear the sound of his own voice among all the crowd’s commotion, he can’t catch sight of Gloria either. The grain cart she’d been working so hard to protect is still there, lost in a sea of pushing and shoving Paxdom visitors. But the girl herself— gone with the wind. As he twists his head wildly to try and look for her, Diegi catches a flash of brown and blonde. He squints over towards the Paxdom city wall’s giant open gates, trying to see if he can catch sight of Gloria again, or at least her hair, but to no avail— she must already be inside the city proper.
“Damn, she’s fast, huh? It only took her a couple seconds to run all the way over there. Did she just hear the words ‘Monster Attack’ and immediately start running? How cowardly— Wait… You know what? That’s a great idea! Sorry guards, I’m entering Paxdom whether you like it or not!!”
Still speaking to no one in particular (the crowd is too loud for anyone to hear him), Diegi begins to jostle his way past the row of check-in stands. He’s already at the front of what used to be a waiting line to enter Paxdom, so it doesn’t take him long to break free of the crowd and dash through the giant gates that marked Paxdom’s entrance. As he does, a few guards briefly look his way, but they ultimately let him go— after all, they’re too busy grabbing their weapons and rushing out of the gates to assess the whole monster situation.
> I feel bad for these guys, they probably don’t even have any experience with monsters attacking a city. Wish I could help, but I’m a civilian, and a certain AI made all my stats and attributes absolute dogshit, so… ah, who am I kidding. Even if I was Level 10, I’m not risking my life for some random NPCs who don’t even show up in the original game. It isn’t an excuse not to help, it’s only natural. I don’t make excuses. Did I mention I’m just a civilian?
As Diegi makes it past the gates, he begins to see wooden buildings and cobblestone streets. He hears the sound of running water, and as he cranes his neck to look around he can see several small waterways intersecting the roads. It’s similar to Venice, in the sense that water is everywhere— wherever Diegi looks, small bridges have been built over burbling emerald streams, and he can see people going about their day and walking over them… They must not be aware of the commotion outside yet. But back to Paxdom. The occasional flying fish can even be seen leaping out of its channels, though it’s waterways are unfortunately too small for boats. And all around these waterways, a bustling city thrives, with stores and homes and public squares.
In summary, it looks exactly like he expected. He’s seen this city a million times— through a computer screen, that is. Finally, he’s made it inside these walls. Finally, he’s made it past these gates.
“Finally, I’ve made it to Paxdom! Now I’ll finish this tutorial thing once and for all. Let’s go register at that Guild Hall!”
Throwing his hands in the air and shouting (prompting several confused looks from passerby), Diegi tries to hype himself up as he at last approaches his goal. But something about the declaration is wrong… he feels like he’s forgetting something. He pauses, tilts his head, and places a hand on his chin. Then, it hits him—
“I mean, let’s go register at that Guild Hall, quickly! Preferably without a monster biting my head off right afterwards!”
> Yeah, I can’t be taking this lightly, it isn’t a vacation. I’ve got to finish this thing and skip town before I get caught up in this whole monster attack mess. Heh, good thing I’m used to playing on a timer— who knew gaming could teach you life skills?
With that, he dashes off into the streets of Paxdom in a tireless search of his destination.
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*DING DONG, DING DONG*
“All residents of Paxdom. Please seek shelter in the nearest designated protection center. Repeat, all residents of Paxdom. Please seek shelter in the nearest designated protection center.”
*DING DONG, DING DONG*
“All residents of Paxdom…”
Diegi does his best to tune out the incessant tolling bell and loud droning voice, but he can’t help but pay some measure of attention to it. And it annoys him to no end.
“Oh, shut up already! I get it, I get it!”
A few minutes after he started running through the streets of Paxdom, the alarm had begun to blare. Well, more like ‘ring’ than ‘blare’, considering the setting, but still! Diegi is already well aware that a monster attack is taking place, the last thing he needs is to have the fact shoved into his eardrums. And how were they even projecting the voice across the entire city? Diegi, from what he knows about the MYTH Infinite Fantasy lore, is pretty sure that no one in Paxdom should be technologically advanced enough to set up a loudspeaker system. So, it had to be either a skill or a magic spell.
“Oh, I’ve got it— maybe it’s a super high-level version of the Chat Area Boost skill, the one that lets you communicate with your party from farther away. But… that skill’s exclusively for players, why would NPCs have it? Oh well, now’s not the time to think about that.”
Pushing such unnecessary thoughts out of his mind, Diegi continues to doggedly run through roughly paved streets and over small waterways, dodging panicking cityfolk on foot and the occasional noble in a Mana Carriage. Though the real-life version of Paxdom seems to be much larger than the in-game version, the general layout is similar enough that he has a good idea where everything is. So, why hasn’t he arrived yet? Well, the problem isn’t the city that the tireless boy is navigating— rather, it’s the tireless boy that’s navigating the city.
“Huff, huff, huff… damn it! Stupid useless avatar!”
Oh, apologies, tireless isn’t the right word— more like tired. Or wiped out. Or exhausted, or weary, or… well, you get the point. Diegi, who had been running hard just a moment ago, breathes deeply as he stops at the corner of an irregular ‘intersection’ of cobblestone paths.
Thanks to his Max Stamina stat coming out at a whopping point total of 10, when a healthy toddler would have around 15, he feels like every minute he has to pause for rest. When taking the rest of his stats into consideration, it’s honestly a miracle he can even move around at all. Still, the frequent breaks are starting to get ridiculous, and that reminds Diegi of just how crappy his current situation is. If he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his existence within a big blue barrier, constantly dying and respawning just to die again, he needs that end-of-tutorial level up soon.
> And hopefully it’ll be an especially beefy one, if Automoderator gets its shit together and starts acting like the semi-deity it claims to be.
To reset both his mood and his spiraling thoughts, Diegi straightens up slightly and claps his hands, before wheezing and placing them on his knees.
“Okay, that should be enough rest for now. Better keep going before those scary monsters make it inside the fortified walls. Huh— now that I think about it, didn’t Gloria say that most monsters don’t attack this city? I wonder what kind these would be then…”
Diegi takes his hands off of his knees and once again resumes his sprint, leaving the street corner behind as well as his half-baked thoughts.
And as he does, a small bit of black, viscous goo drips out from somewhere under his trousers and onto the street, quivering slightly.