Well, if they chose to take me out there was clearly nothing I could do to stop it. Managing to tweak my avatar’s lips into an approximation of my usual smile I gave them a thumbs up, “Thanks for the help. You guys are a good team.”
The giant skeleton bowed in a way that seemed traditionally Japanese and offered in a meek voice, “We appreciate your aid as well.”
The zombie just glared down at me with an unreadable expression and added, “Could have used your help with the priestesses as well.”
My grin did not abate, “I didn’t want to hog all the kills.”
The giant skeleton pressed a hand to her chest and said, “I am Sakurai. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
The zombie studied me and added, “Nomura.”
“I’m Florin,” I said with the most disarming smile I could manage and a small nod
Narrowing my eyes at the skeleton I pointed at her, “I recognize your voice. You are a vTuber aren’t you?”
She seemed flustered as she answered, “I was. I graduated from the company six months ago.”
“I loved your art streams,” I struggled to my feet and pressed my back to the wall to stay standing, “I put them on while I edited videos. Very chill.”
She bowed again, “That is very kind of you.”
She continued, “Nomura is a good friend of mine and Catacomb were kind enough to invite him to the game along with me.”
Nomura extended a fist for a bump and I returned it. He asked, “You some big time streamer?”
My facade broke for a moment and I sighed, “Yeah, I was. I’d rather not talk about it though.”
Nomura studied me for a moment, “Whatever your reasons, you are a great player. I respect that.”
I gave the zombie an affirming nod and said, “I appreciate that.”
Gesturing at the bodies of our foes, I added, “All their stuff is yours. Sakurai, the one I killed, had an amulet that added a point of fire damage to my attacks. It’s only one point, but it does add fire to your weapon’s damage type. The skill system indicates that almost every monster has a weakness so being able to slip in a little fire could help.”
I wasn’t aware that I could see a skeleton be surprised but Dark Spiral was doing its best to keep me reeling. Sakurai moved to one of the bodies and then the other and then I saw her add her own amulet to her character.
When she returned I noted that her streaming window was situated over her right shoulder. I nodded to it and asked, “You got the first streaming bracket?”
She responded with a clear smile in her voice, “Yes, chat has been most helpful.”
Leaning in I gave my best smile and wink as I said, “Hi chat.”
She giggled, “They seem ecstatic.”
Nodding, I lowered my eyes, “I won’t be running a stream but always glad to help others out. Now, those two were protecting something down there. It may be a boss of some kind. I don’t know if we need to be in a group to share rewards but why chance it?”
Sakurai offered out her giant fist without pause and when I accepted I received a prompt from Lydia:
“Join Sakurai’s Group
Yes / No?”
Accepting, I could see bars representing their three statistics in the upper left of my vision. They faded almost completely when I looked away. Looking at my own health I groaned as thoughts of chewing on long dead rats came to mind, “Alright, I’ll be ready to go down when I recover my health.”
Nomura smirked and performed a few quick gestures. A bolt of blue black light enveloped me and I was relieved to see my health climbing quickly. He strode up to me and gave me a side-eye, “Book of magic healing. It dropped off the priestesses.”
Smiling, I nodded, “Thanks.”
Without too much more fanfare we advanced down the stairs and back into the circular chamber that seemed to span the entirety of the bottom of the vault. At its center there was a small raised stone coffin I had noted before between the two Banes.
Scanning the stone floor for signs of possible traps I led the way across the room toward the seeming focus of the room. The stone sarcophagus bore intricate runes along its sides. Many appeared to be flames encircling the same vine covered heart from before. As I approached I noted that it had been carved to resemble a young woman. She was wearing some kind of torc at the neckline. Someone or something had hacked into the left side of the stone visage’s face leaving a deep stone scar through her eye and cheek.
Looking over my shoulder, I said, “Let’s hope that this gives us all a prompt.”
When I brushed my fingers over the marred visage of the woman I was not surprised that we got just that as Lydia read a warning in my ears:
“You Have Found a Hidden Quest
Choose carefully. You can activate this quest to rouse an ancient creature from her slumber. If you do so you will walk a path toward a rare evolving race change. Beware: Activating this event will tie your immediate future advancement to the individual within the sarcophagus.
If you choose not to begin this event you will be given a single item of Tier F and Rare Rarity equipment appropriate to your class!”
“Hmm,” Sakurai said with clear trepidation, “I don’t think I want to tie myself to an NPC.”
“Me either,” Nomura said clearly making his selection, “I’ll take the item thanks.”
Sakurai was suddenly wearing a chestplate and Nomura a pair of… pink sandals? I glanced at him and said, “Love’em man.”
He grunted and surveyed the light pink footwear, “They do look nice.”
I considered the prompt for a long moment weighing the two options. I was going to replace a Tier F item, regardless of its rarity, pretty quickly assuming other experience. A rare race, however… that could pay off with dividends. All I have to do is deal with an NPC?
With a sigh I shrugged and spoke to my two temporary allies, “Alright, I’m going to activate this event, don’t attack it or anything. I suspect this is not going to be pleasant.”
Nomura chuckled and moved back toward the door, “You won’t catch me complaining.”
Sakurai added with clear concern in her voice, “Stay safe Florin.”
With that, the two of them retreated to the entrance of the room and watched from relative safety.
Steeling myself, I activated the event and I heard Lydia ask in her chipper sing-song voice, “Are you sure?”
“Go for it.”
I waited with baited breath. Moments later a crack started to form through the center of the coffin lid, seeming to melt away into a darkness. A pale withered hand snapped up through the cracks and wrenched off the coffin lid with ease, tossing it several feet away to explode into chunks.
Rolling my shoulders I put on a stoic expression as I watched the second half of the lid be torn away and tossed aside. A withered female figure that only vaguely resembled the top of the coffin rose to float above it. She was wearing a long blood red dress with the same green necklace at its throat. Her skin was a desiccated gray and her single eye a savage midnight black with a pinprick of blood red at its center. Most of her hair had long since fallen out. Like the lid of the coffin the left side of her face was a ruin destroyed by a deep scar that cut through her lips and eye.
She floated with a dignified air and stared down at me with clear disgust. Her voice carried an unidentifiable accent that seemed to roll through me, somehow making my knees go slightly weak, “You are the one who awoke me?”
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Squaring my shoulders, I stilled my shaking legs, and smiled confidently, “You can call me Florin…”
Before I could finish my sentence she blurred and vanished. She collided with me and bore me to the ground with tremendous force.
“What the fuck…,” I hissed as I tried to fight back finding the small woman far stronger than my avatar. Somewhere distant, someone screamed. No matter how much I struggled I was forced to watch her lower her head and bite into my neck with a savage growl.
Cold swept over me and I felt my avatar growing even weaker. I slumped and gasped, “Alright,” as my entire view went dark.
As my avatar’s vision started to return Lydia read me a prompt.
“Your Race Has Evolved!
You are no longer a Zombie!
You are now a Spawn of Theodora!
In order to oppose the will of your sire, Theodora von Achen, you must make an opposed Charm test!
You are suffering the Curse of Spawn.
If you ever countermand the will of your sire through quest or action she will punish you with a severe debuff. You suffer a -30% experience penalty. This curse is removed by the whim of your sire.”
Racial Statistics
Spawn of Theodora
Rarity: Rare
Tier: F
Statistic Modifications: +10 Charm, +5 Agility
Resistances
+ 5% resistance to all damage that is not silver and fire
Weaknesses
Repelled by holy symbols of the Lady of Flame
Stepping into flowing water causes constant damage
Abilities
Life Parasite (Replacing Consume Flesh)
Vampires eschew the necromantic energies that keep a withered corpse or walking skeleton moving for the power of Essence. You lose your stamina and mana pools and acquire the ability to use magic and your weapon arts utilizing the power of the Essence you consume.
When your Essence Pool is above 0 and you are outside of combat you regenerate one hit point per second. If your Essence Pool is full you gain the ‘Blooded’ buff (+10% to Strength, Agility, and Vitality) for 30 seconds.
If you do not utilize the Life Parasite ability on a viable target before your Essence Pool reaches 0 you gain the Withered Debuff (-10% to Strength, Agility, and Vitality)
Eyes of Theodora
You can see in complete darkness as if it was bright as day.
In addition, by meeting the eyes of an intelligent target you attempt to charm them. This is an opposed Charm test and requires a constant expenditure of Essence.”
She ended the description by informing me that I was under effect of the new debuff:
“You have gained the Withered debuff!”
I was so… hungry. How the fuck was I hungry? I must be imagining it. I had to be or… was the power of the new heightened connection Speers had promised? This was too real.
My eyes flickered open and I was looking up and into the savage black and red eye of the strange woman. Her face was impossibly close, her smiling lips coated in thick black blood as she ran a black nail that felt like a blade across my cheek. Her skin was still gray but far less withered than moments before. Her faded ruby red hair had regrown and was now short and filled with curls. She purred to me seductively, “This fear does not become you Malcolm.”
Groaning, I blinked as the new ability I gained took effect and I tried to adjust. When I realized what I had just heard, my stomach sank as I rasped, “What… what did you call me?”
She giggled and ran her sharp cold tongue across my cheek, “Always so sure of yourself. Always the brave leader and yet… right now you are so afraid.”
Gritting my teeth I studied her face, my heart hammering as anger started to replace my terror, “Nothing in my contract or the NDA mentioned this...”
She smiled, my own blood dripping onto my cheek from her lips as she said, “Oh no, call your masters and complain. Poor little player of games can’t face one little girl on his own.”
Going rigid in the dive chair back in the real world I started to reach for my helmet when she giggled a response, “That’s right, run away.”
My hands faltered and I bared my teeth at her, “I’m not afraid of a fucking game.”
She giggled and put her sharp black fingernail over my heart as she whispered, “No, you’re afraid of your world a lot more. Your heart is more scarred than my face.”
Theodora pursed her lips and continued in a mocking voice, “Where will you go when you fear both worlds Malcolm?”
What the fuck was this?
There was no way that Catacomb was mining my personal drama to make a more ‘impactful’ quest?
Why would they do this? They had to know I was going to sue the shit out of them.
Wait, was she actually an NPC?
Could she be another player?
No, this had to be some kind of sophisticated AI data mining operation. Maybe from outside Catacomb?
Fuck.
Steeling my resolve, I remembered that my gameplay was being recorded for testing purposes. Someone was definitely fucking with me. Malcolm Voss, gaming’s biggest villain. Whoever they were, fuck’em. Whoever this ended up being, this vod was going to be the last nail in their coffin.
Some of my resolve returned and I glared at her as I growled, “What’s the quest?”
She raised an eyebrow and giggled as she licked her lips scooping up the remnants of my avatar’s thick black blood. I sneered in her face as Lydia started to read a pair of notifications in my ear:
“New Quest
Escort Theodora von Achen
XP Reward: 300
Your sire has ordered you to escort her from the Vault of Souls without her taking ANY damage. If you fail this quest you will gain the effect of Curse of Spawn.
Achievements
Rare Blood
You are the first Dark Spiral player to gain a Rarity: Rare Race evolution.
A monster no one has ever seen before. We can’t wait to see what you do with it.
+1 to Spirit
Fastidious Quester
Your first quest was a Unique one.
You are picky about your meals.”
She vanished from on top of me faster than my eyes could track. I staggered to my feet and tried to ignore the constant hunger they had somehow managed to pipe through my RIG. I looked to the entrance to note that both Sakurai and Nomura were gone. That’s good. She would have probably drained both of them dry.
Without looking around me I coughed and rasped a question, “How am I supposed to get you out of here without being touched when I’ve got this debuff?”
Her voice coiled out from the shadows and I rolled my shoulders in discomfort, “It’s not my task to answer your questions spawn. Prove you are worthy of serving me or die.”
Although I was wary of what she was doing in the shadows I pulled up my notifications and Lydia read them out to me. There were a string of gains in various skills but no new abilities of note. In addition I gained the Alertness skill:
“Alertness
Rarity: Common
Requirements: None
Training Level: Novice 1
Key Ability: Spirit
Description
A sixth sense that the dangers of the Spiral are lying in wait.
Sense the Unseen: Slightly increases your chance of noticing a hidden enemy or trap.”
Finally, Lydia informed me of my level ups and a pair of ability choices:
“You are level 4, you may add 2 points to two different statistics. Choose one class ability for the Brute class!
Toughness
Your vitality more heavily affects your total HP!
Endurance
Your vitality more heavily affects your Essence usage!”
It was good to know that Vitality still had some effect on Essence after it replaced my Stamina pool. Throwing two of the points into Agility and one of them into Vitality, I then chose Endurance as my level four ability. If the combats up to this point were any indication I needed to last much longer, and dodge more often in fights. A few more hp were just going to last as long as it took for me to get hit again.
With that I pulled my hammers from my inventory and spoke into the darkness, “Let’s play this game then.”
When I emerged from Theodora’s tomb I looked back into the room where the guardians had their last stand and chose to go the opposite direction. I didn’t know where the vampiress was but assumed that she was following in my wake.
Opening my keyboard menu I spoke out loud in the dive room, “Lydia make sure all interactions with this NPC are recorded.”
She responded with faux concern, “Is everything alright sugar?”
Shaking my head I whispered, “Someone is toying with me. I am thinking this AI I encountered is data mining through the RIG connection. I’m dealing with enough shit right now.”
I chose not to voice that I might deserve a little bullying after the stunts I’d pulled in EO. If this NPC somehow wormed her way through my security, voicing my insecurities was just more fuel for the OpNet rumor mill.
Shaking my head again I added, “Just make sure you keep a good record of this and we will have words with Catacomb after I log out.”
With that I closed the connection and listened at the closed door to the right of the stairs. Hearing nothing I cracked it open and peered inside. It appeared to be a barracks with another door at its far side. There were three skeletal guards ambling through the room. Two of them had hammers and the third carried a shield and spear.
Leaning away from the door I considered the danger, and whether I should just backtrack to leave the tutorial. Looking back, I saw Theodora standing at the top of the stairs watching me with a strange, almost alien, look on her face.
I muttered in her direction, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” and then slipped into the darkened room. Moving through the chamber quickly, I pulled my dagger from my inventory and threw it past the three patrolling skeletons. The blade impacted the far door with a thunk and they turned to stalk in that direction.
