The plan was simple. Elijah was able to lock onto the city of Raystown but wasn’t able to take anyone with him for such a long trip, and Benjamin couldn’t teleport somewhere he’d never been. So, Elijah would scout out Raystown for the group while they made the long journey on foot.
“I’ll be fine, Sasha,” he said with a genuine smile. His heart warmed at the way she clucked over him like a mother hen, making sure he had enough essentials to get by in the city for a few days until he could get established.
Food, water, sleeping mat, and all the party’s saved gold.
The last item on the list had shocked him when Nicholas had given it to him. He’d tried to protest, but Nicholas wasn’t having any of it.
“Elijah, if I thought that ?you’d steal it, I wouldn’t do this. You proved yourself a good friend, besides,” he said, holding up his short sword that Elijah had enchanted. “With your ability to modify enchanted gear, I think what we’ve saved will be chump change comparatively.”
He’d found and modified more weapons and armor for them. Various pieces that they’d be able to switch into to match any challenges they’d face. Elijah even suspected that he’d be able to teleport to them if the need arose.
Elijah watched as his friends waved goodbye to him as they started off through the windy, dusty streets of Nethy. This wasn’t a goodbye; this was an ‘until we meet again’, but still Elijah felt sadness creep over him as they walked away.
He stepped back into the now nearly abandoned mansion, and summoned his sole remaining friend, Bitter Root.
“Ayyyyyeeeeeee,” Bitter Root screamed, his eyes scrunched shut as he thrashed about on the floor once the light of the mana faded. “Teeth, claws, me feel `em ripping into me organs!”
Elijah kicked him, not hard, but enough to get his attention. “We’re alone; you can cut the act.”
Bitter Root stilled and opened one eye to look around. “Aw, me want mess with Boss friends.”
Elijah jabbed him lightly with his foot again, causing the goblin to stand up quickly and look around.
“Where be Boss friends?”
“They’re travelling to another city right now; we’re going to meet them there.”
“How we get there, boss?”
Elijah grinned wickedly before grabbing Bitter Root by the scruff of his neck and activating his ‘Dragontooth Teleport’ skill. He screeched as the bats bubbled up from Elijah’s shadows and began flying in tight circles around them both.
Elijah could have waited until he was in the new city to summon his familiar, but this was more fun, and he wanted a little payback on his familiar for all the crude jokes and laughing at his expense. The bats seemed to blur into darkness, completely obscuring the mansion.
When the bats finally receded, once more forming into a puddle around his feet, he looked around the new location. He had targeted the main city square with his teleport. He expected to see vendors and players walking around, to smell the scents of a thriving medieval village, to hear the bustle of crowds around him. Instead, they had come out in a dark, dimly lit stone structure.
“Next time Boss get batty, maybe warn Bitter Root?” The goblin’s voice was full of bravado, but Elijah could feel him trembling in his grip. He let his familiar drop to the ground as he looked around at the room. It was sparse with only a single door leading in and out. The walls were a rough-hewn stone with no windows, and the whole place smelled like a wet dog. It kind of reminded him of the goblin cave he’d originally spawned in.
“Bitter, do you recognize this place at all?”
The goblin glanced around slowly, stepping up to one of the blank stone walls and examining it closely.
Then he licked the wall.
“Nope, sorry Boss. Not Gob made for sure. Gobs no use tools. Gobs dig out cave with claws. This place made with magic tools.”
Elijah was immediately on edge. Would a game-generated structure be made with magic tools? Or would this be the work of another player, or players?
He moved over to the wall and tried to tug at it with his ‘Reality Warp’ skill, but got no response. He had no way of knowing what that meant though, as he couldn’t be sure if he would even get a response from player-created structures; he didn’t get anything from game-made structures.
“Okay, Bitter, I guess the only thing we can really do from here is to figure out where we are and how to get out.” He turned to face the doorway, which stood alone on a wall, the only ‘decoration’ in the entire room. His hand gripped the doorknob, but he stopped when a box popped up into his vision.
[Quest Updated]
The Reaper’s Guild
Description: You have found yourself in the lair of the Reapers. PKers whose only goal is to make money off the game. They don't care who they hurt or how bad your experience is as long as they get what they want.
Escape...
Elijah froze.
The Reaper’s Guild.
Alastor had warned him about this group all the way back on his first day playing the game, and now he found himself in their lair. Likely a hidden bunker or strongroom deep within the city…With his party’s entire stash of gold sitting in his inventory.
Bitter Root came to stand beside him and ran his fingers through the text box. That simple action both started and amused Elijah. “Can you see that quest box, Bitter?”
The Goblin rolled his eyes. “Yeah boss, me be familiar of you. Can see everything you sees.”
“So you know how screwed we are right now?”
Bitter Root let out a low chuckle. “Nah boss, me can see it but me not able to read.”
“Okay.. Okay, we need to get out of here. Be quiet okay. I’m going to summon the bats again to get us out of here.”
“Me think that be good plan here boss.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
He reached down and grabbed the goblin, picking him up more gently this time. Then he selected the party mansion as his target and activated his teleportation spell. He felt the mana drain from his body, but no bats materialized, no dark shadow formed at his feet, and he didn’t move an inch. He felt as if something was siphoning away his mana before it could coalesce into a spell. The feeling was of frigid water being sucked through his body and disappearing into the air. Something was very wrong with his ability to cast spells.
“Uh, boss? Where be bats? Me sorry me call you batty. Me think we need get out now.” Bitter Root was nervously fidgeting in his arms.
“Something’s wrong with my mana, like it’s being pulled away from me.” He sat Bitter Root back down and tried to focus on the sensation.
He could almost sense it, could almost feel the drain being generated by something far away from him, but it wasn’t anything solid enough to cast ‘Reality Warp’ on.
He could hear noises not far off. They didn’t seem to know he was here yet, but he certainly wasn’t alone.
He had to think; had to consider his options. He couldn’t teleport out, and he doubted his chances of being able to sneak past any Reapers prowling this place. He looked down at Bitter Root and considered how he might use the Goblin’s unique ability to have a skill attached to him. ‘Trap Sense’ proved useful but was there something better he could use?
“Boss,” Bitter Root said to him, quieter than he’d ever heard the goblin before. He was pulling on Elijah’s tunic. “Me hear people. They be coming this way.”
His ears were twitching as he got closer to the door. “Boss me need sneaky man sneaky thingy.”
It took Elijah a few moments to comprehend what the creature was saying. He grabbed Bitter Root’s debug menu and quickly swapped out the ‘Trap Sense’ skill for ‘Stealth’, hoping that it would be enough to hide them both. He could hear the footsteps himself now.
Bitter Root grabbed Elijah by the hand and half dragged him to the darkest corner of the room. He could sense the shadows enveloping them.
“I’m telling you, Tom, I felt mana coming from somewhere in this direction,” one of the voices said as it grew closer.
“And I’m telling you that you’re full of shit. Or there is some kind of glitch.” Another, supposedly Tom said.
Elijah could sense them approaching; one of them radiated with mana in a way that felt oppressive to Elijah’s senses. It reminded Elijah of being stuck under a soaking wet heavy blanket on the hottest, most humid day of the year.
The two men burst through the door, weapons at the ready. They each carried scythes, playing up the ‘reaper’ theme, that glowed with the purple light of Master tier weapons. Elijah nearly gasped when he saw their name tags.
[Player]
Name: Tom
Class: Flesh Reaver| Level: 70
~~~
[Player]
Name: Bob
Class: Mana Mage | Level: 82
If their significantly higher level wasn’t already scary enough, the fact that the Mana Mage was a Legendary tier class and the more terrifyingly named Flesh Reaver class was Master tier, was doubly terrifying. Elijah’s grip tightened around Bitter Root’s hand. Even their gear had the faint glow of being Master tier. There was no way these two men wouldn’t notice them. He had to come up with a way out of here.
Bitter Root gently tapped his hand, and when Elijah looked down, he had his finger to his lips, then gestured for Elijah to crouch low. The men were looking away from Elijah now, and Bitter Root moved to the doorway. He pulled his cudgel from his inventory before letting out an ear-piercing scream.
“Bones for the Boss Babe!” Bitter Root screeched, bashing at the Flesh Reaver’s ankles with his cudgel.
The man’s HP didn’t go down at all, but now Bitter Root had their attention. “What the hell? How’d a goblin get in here?” Bob shouted, reaching out and grabbing for the goblin, who managed to just barely dodge out of the way and ran out of the room.
Elijah could hear him as he ran down the room shouting that he was going to feed on their flesh and pick his teeth with their femurs. They didn’t even take a second to glance around the room; they just took off running after the creature.
Bitter Root went suddenly quiet, and Elijah expected to feel his connection to the familiar to be severed, but it remained strong.
“Where the hell did it go?” He heard one of them call.
Another ear-splitting screech and the sound of heavy wood meeting metal. “What the hell? How’d it get behind us?”
Elijah knew he had to move, to find a way out of here. He stood from his kneeling position and checked the hallway outside ?the room. It was empty save for the sounds of the two men trying to locate Bitter Root as he snuck around and attacked them from the shadows. To Elijah, that implied that there weren’t any other Reapers in the vicinity, but he wouldn’t let himself be caught off guard if they were. He pulled a dagger from his pack. It resonated with a particularly good ‘Bane’ effect. One that would hopefully help him if worse came to worst.
[Item]
Dagger
Rank: Journeyman
Damage: 12-13
Condition: 100/100
Enchantments:
debug{
Bane[Journeyman,PREFERRED_ENEMY,CLASS_PLAYER]
Stagger[Apprentice,STUN_CHANCE_PERC += 5]
Striking[Apprentice,DMG_RANGE +5]
}
He’d hoped to never need this dagger, and had been terrified of showing his friends, but now wasn’t the time for those feelings. He had a mission. His mission was to get out of this place alive with all the party’s gold.
The hallways were the same rough-hewn stone as the room he had arrived in, and the whole place stunk. He didn’t understand why such high-level players would want to hang out in a place like this, but knew the reasons couldn’t be good.
He crept closer to the chaos that Bitter Root was causing, spotting the three of them playing cat and mouse inside of what looked like a medieval kitchen. The Mana Mage threw open a cupboard, only to be met with the Goblin springing forth from within and dropping a pot on his head. The Flesh Reaver attempted to slice at the creature with his scythe, but missed and caught his friend across the face with it. Chaos ensued as the two of them started arguing, letting Bitter Root slip back into the shadows.
“Where did this little hellspawn even come from?” The mana mage screamed through his own hands cupping the wound across his face.
The men turned their backs to Elijah, who crossed the doorway and continued towards what he hoped was the exit.
“It’s probably that damned prisoner’s familiar or something,” the Flesh Reaver answered, causing Elijah to stop dead in his tracks.
Did they know Elijah was here and had started as a prisoner? That could be terrible for him.
“We’ve been holding him for two weeks.” Elijah let out a breath of relief as he understood they weren’t talking about him. “Besides, players can’t get mobs like goblins as familiars.”
Elijah felt a tug at his heart. They’d had another player imprisoned for the last two weeks. That was cruel, to not only deny someone their freedom, but to do so in a game they were paying to play. He wanted to turn around and find this prisoner, to free him, but his loyalty to his party tugged him another way.
He could feel it more clearly now. The edge of the mana-siphoning spell was near, and more importantly, so was the exit. He didn’t know how he knew, but he did.
“Got him!”
The cacophony of chaos behind Elijah stopped suddenly just as he felt the connection to his familiar snap. He took off running towards the exit, no longer caring about being stealthy.
His loud footsteps echoed through the hallway, alerting the higher-level players to his existence. He heard them rush into the hallway behind him.
“Oh shit! Who is that?” The Mana Mage called.
“I dunno, just get him!” replied the Flesh Reaver.
Elijah could feel the edge of the mana siphon and could tell that he was nearing its border. He glanced over his shoulder in time to see Tom, the Flesh Reaver, hop into the air and spin. His body turned into a whirling cyclone of blades as he flew in the air towards Elijah. The sound reminded him of a handful of razor blades shoved into a blender.
Five feet.
Three feet.
One foot.
Elijah turned as he ran and held his hand out. He channeled his magic just as he felt his body cross the siphon’s borders, and he cast his spell.
“Dragontooth Swarm!” he shouted as bats rose from his shadows. The spell only summoned a hundred bats, but Elijah grabbed it and empowered it up to a thousand. It nearly drained his mana, and he felt the effects of Mana Drain, but it wasn’t bad enough to stop him from running.
The bats seemed endless as they sprang forth and collided directly into the dervish of death that was the Flesh Reaver’s skill. The sound of the bats flying into that deadly skill was like a woodchipper trying to puree a flock of geese. Tom slowed considerably, and the spell seemed to push Elijah, nearly tripping him as he ran backwards down the hall. His back slammed hard into a doorway and, just like that, he fell into the blazing sunlight within Raystown’s town square.
His new ally bleeds green, but at least she's not a man-eating monster. ...Right?
Nim knows no future beyond endless training sims and lab tests. So when the planet she could never call home is pelted bare of all signs of life, she eagerly awaits her turn.
Unfortunately, she wakes up on an adrift evacuation vessel. No survivors, except for the planet's AI regent who declares her its only inheritor. Her, a lab subject.
Now free from shackles but subjected to the AI's mandate for retaliation and pending resurgence protocols, Nim must earn enough Authority Points to override it, or die trying. Whichever keeps her free.
Somewhere at their destination, the last man of his kind is on the run. The Queen wants him, the tribeswomen want him, but not for the reason the humans who also want him would think, no. In fact, all of them hunger for the same prize: his guts on a platter.
Sadly for them, Ahkita is far from the weakest link in the food chain. Aided by a cryptic voice, he is no prey, though the innocent he hides among may as well be. To protect the humans scraping by in the freezing red hell of his tribe's making, Ahkita dons their coats, their hope, and forsakes his own. Be it by vacuum gun or dagger, he chips at old bonds—until he unknowingly lets a sworn enemy of his kind help his cause.
Then again, not everything that bleeds green may be wicked after all.
What to expect:
- ■ Dual POV (A Monster vs. A Monster Hunter)
- ■ A Stat-Lite System
- ■ A Sassy AI Who Thinks Himself a System
- ■ Opposing Forces (Literally)
- ■ Tactical Teamwork (He protects, she attacks)
- ■ Unique Progression (Authority Points & Skill Evolution)
- ■ Slow Burn (Reluctant partners to... "It's Complicated")
- ■ Alien Invasion (Ice Age aesthetic with ghost-like monsters)
- ■ Found Family (Human abductees... and maybe a cow)
- ■ NO HAREM