Into a Dark Adventure
Author: Belart Wright
Date: 2016-05-25 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy
Description: A brand new LitRPG adventure for fans of dark adventure games. Inspired by a dark masterpiece. Twenty years into the future, an independent virtual reality developer named Fulton Milner creates a VR program that is so immersive that it truly fools the mind. His program, a virtual resort, created such pleasurable immersion that he is soon recruited by a renown games studio. Here, one of Milner's projects, a virtual fantasy game, catches the eye of some investors and he is finally given the approval he needs to begin the project that would define his career. It's a dark fantasy adventure simulat
Publisher: BWright Publishing

Hell’s Glitch: Into a Dark Adventure

By: Belart Wright

Copyright 2015 © Belart Wright

Written by Belart Wright

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.

Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

TOC

Copyrights

0 Misdirection

1 We’re Here

2 Create-a-Character

3 Opening Cutscene

4 Hard Ass

5 Yesterday

6 An Unreal Fight

7 A Beacon in Dark Times

8 The Merchant

9 Assassin’s Forest

10 Undead

11 The Mad King of the Forest

12 The King’s Justice

13 The Gift of Sinning

14 The Sinner vs The Immortal

15 Not a Madman

16 Sample Data

17 Sedwin the Silver

18 Stumpy and Grumpy

19 Cheap Cheap Cheap

20 Big Mid-Boss

21 Royal Cooperation

22 The Will of the Forest

23 Guilt

24 Sin and Punishment

25 Phase 2

26 Motivation

27 Deadly Cooperation

28 End of the King’s Quest

29 Special Announcements

30 Rest And Reflection

About the Author

Support Me

Other Books

Special Note

0 Misdirection

Sam Nagai rose out of bed and counted himself lucky today.  He felt so good about what was ahead of him that he got up, showered, and dressed without hitting the snooze even once.  Sam was a games tester which normally meant getting paid low wages doing mundane work on shitty mobile hologram games.  Tap here, tap there, fill out a report, cash check.  That was the normal way of things, but today would be a little different.  Instead of having to test another Holo-Birds rip-off for mobile, he would get to instead immerse himself into a full on virtual reality simulation and it was a fantasy game at that, a dark fantasy.  Sam was a huge fan of anything considered dark, from bloody horror movies to strange eldritch tales and gothic fantasy eBooks.

All morning and afternoon his thoughts were focused on just what kind of game he would get to play this time.  He thought about it as he ate breakfast.  It couldn’t be helped as all sorts of thoughts about it came to his mind.  His boss hadn’t given much information about it, not even a title.  The secrecy of it all was maddening.

Sam left his apartment at two twenty on the dot and drove through the streets of sunny San Fran.  After a short trip, he arrived at his friend Robert’s house in no time.  Robert only stayed a mile away from Sam’s own studio apartment.  Sam honked his horn and Robert came out of his house after giving a sendoff kiss to his girlfriend Chelsea.  Robert was tall and lanky and walked kind of like Shaggy from that classic cartoon with the dog.  He looked like him too with his short brown hair, stubble, and long arms.  He carried a book satchel over his left shoulder and tossed it into the back seat once he got into the car.

“You know, you probably won’t need your laptop, if this is really a VR (virtual reality) game,” said Sam.

Robert buckled his seat belt and shrugged.

“Probably not, but you know, just in case.  We might need notes or something when we’re done,” Robert said nonchalantly.  He looked over at Chelsea and she waved then blew him a kiss.  Oh, to be in love!  Robert was lucky that he had an angel like Chelsea, someone who truly loved him for who he was.  Sam was not so lucky and as of yesterday, he was currently girlfriend-less.  Sam gave Chelsea a wave then drove off.  They needed to get to the testing center by two forty-five.  It was downtown.  Sam figured they had enough time to get there a little bit early, which was actually time he allotted for any disruptions, such as slow traffic, or a random traffic stop by the police.  As he drove, his thoughts inevitably went back to the mysterious game.  Robert beat him to the punch with his question.

“What do you think this game is about?”

It was a conversation they’d had before, but even now it was fun to speculate.

“I have no clue, man.  You?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know.  I’m thinking it’s going to be something like those old Death Planes games.  Remember those?  They haven’t made anything like that in like twenty years.  Everything now is just bubblegum bullshit.  That game was so metal!”

“I don’t think so, man.  That would be way too awesome,” Sam said while laughing.  “We can’t get our hopes up like that.”

“But, what if it is?” Robert said, barely containing his own excitement.  “Can you imagine actually slashing demons and throwing fireballs and shit in real time?  Imagine how badass that would be!”

“Come on, man, don’t get my hopes up.  I’m trying to keep my expectations low.”

“Okay, so it probably won’t be that awesome.  I’d be satisfied with a realistic sword and sorcery as long as I could axe a few questions to my opponents.  I’d take that over another Holo-Birds any day.”

“Amen to that.  I’m with you there, but I denounce that horrible axe pun,” Sam said laughing.

“Fuuuuck youuuu,” Robert replied, also laughing.  “My axe pun is the cutting edge of humor.”

“Gross dude, gross.  Anyways, I hope the game isn’t too realistic.  Can you imagine my five foot nothing, three hundred pound ass swinging swords against goblins and orcs?”

“I can, but I really don’t want to,” Robert replied.  “And way to exaggerate.  You sound like my sister.  You’re not even remotely close to three hundred.”

“I’m one bad week away from it, and now with the breakup, I know I’m just going to put the weight on.”

“Whatever man, forget all that.  This gig is going to be a good fucking gig.  I can feel it.  We’re going to have a lot of fun and we’re going to get paid for it, then after that you’ll do your art thing, make some more loot, and charm the panties off of some sweet little princess.  You are the bear, are you not?”

Sam sighed and answered, “I am the bear.”  On days like this, Sam was especially glad to have Robert around.  The man was an expert on calling him on his bullshit.  They continued talking about the game while Sam drove around the downtown area looking for the testing facility.  He stopped and parked in front of an empty lot.  The car’s GPS was telling Sam that there was a building in front of him, but his eyes could not agree.  The lot was fenced off and seemed to have been home to a recently demolished building.

“What the hell?” Robert asked, expressing Sam’s own confusion.

“GPS says it’s here, but it’s not.  Let me check my messages again.”

He checked his messages and confirmed the address.  He looked around and shook his head at the stupidity of the situation.

“They gave us the wrong address!” Sam yelled.  “I actually wanted to get there on time.”

“Hold up, some guy from the car wash is walking up.  Maybe he saw some other testers as confused as we are.”

A tall man with a heavy tan walked up wearing a baseball cap, tank top, and cargo shorts and called out to them.

“Hey!  You guys looking for a building?”

Sam leaned out of his car window and replied, “Yeah.  Have you seen any other cars come over here looking for a place?”

“Yeah,” the man said as he neared Sam’s car door.  Naturally, Sam tensed up a little at the proximity of the muscular man.  He wasn’t full on scared, as the man was being helpful, but he was on alert.  “People have been coming over here all afternoon.  I guess someone gave you all the wrong directions.  Anyway that guy over there in the red car has been coming back and forth leading people to the right place.  He wanted me to tell you to follow him.”

“Wow, that’s really nice of you,” said Sam, earnestly surprised by the man’s generosity.

The man laughed and added, “I’m nice, but getting paid to tell people to follow a guy makes me nicer.”  He turned around and walked back to the car wash across the street.  The red car that the man mentioned pulled up to the curb from the side of the building and the short-haired blond man with glasses inside looked over at Sam.  Once he saw that Sam had seen him, he pulled out into traffic and headed north.  Sam quickly turned his car around and followed the man for a mile before pulling up next to him at a stop light.  The man looked much younger than Sam initially thought, like he might have still been in high school.  Sam leaned over and called out to him.

“You going to the testing facility?”

“Yeah.  I’m leading people there since there was some sort of mix-up,” the blond man said.

“You a tester too?” Sam asked.

“Yeah.  We got a pretty cool game this time, eh?”

“You know anything about it?”

“Probably as much as you do.  Dark fantasy VR sim (simulation), right?” he asked.

“That’s exactly how much I know,” Sam replied.

“Well, I think we’ll be in for a pleasant surprise.  That’s my hunch.”

“See dude, even he knows it,” Robert said, nudging Sam.

The light turned green and the blond haired man said, “Alright, see you when we get there,” before driving off.

He led them a mile down, to an underground parking garage.  He pulled in, and then did a U-turn when he saw that Sam had driven down into the structure.  He drove next to Sam’s car, so that their driver’s side windows were facing.  This close, Sam could see that the man was definitely high school to early college age with light brown eyes and barely-there freckles.

“I’m going to go back to the car wash one more time to get anyone else who might get lost.  They’ve extended the grace period because of their error, so you guys will still be technically early.  The building you need to go to is right across the street once you get off the elevator at the first floor,” the boy explained.

Sam nodded his head and the boy pulled off without so much as an introduction.  Sam found an empty parking spot on the third underground level and parked his car.  He and Robert made their way to the elevator and waited for it.

“What a fustercluck already,” said Robert.  “Geez, this is way too complicated and we aren’t even in the building yet.”

“I know right.  You know what’s weird though?  I’m still psyched about all this,” explained Sam.

The elevator arrived and they walked into it.

“Yeah, me too.”

Robert pushed the button for the first floor and sent them up.  They walked off the elevator, out of the parking garage, and crossed the busy street into the modest sized office building and were immediately greeted by a large, wide white man in a security uniform.

“Hello, gentleman.  Welcome to the virtual testing facility.  I’ll need you to check in all items in your possession that are not absolutely vital.  Any pens, pencils, markers, or whatever other writing utensils you may have.  Leave all paper, notebooks, scrap paper, and electronic devices here also.  There will be no mobile phones, handheld computers, or anything else that can connect to the internet allowed past this point.”

“What do you mean?” asked Robert.  “I have a wife and family that may need to get in touch with me.  I would call that vital.”

Sam had a laugh at Robert’s hypocrisy, exaggerating his and Chelsea’s relationship status, when he had admonished Sam for his earlier exaggeration.

“There will be no cell phones or anything else that I have listed to you allowed past this point.  If you don’t agree then you will not be allowed to participate in the test,” replied the guard.

“What if my family really has an emergency?” asked Robert.

“Your contacts will be added to our database, with your permission, and if one of them calls with an emergency, you will be informed.  Make sense?”

Robert sighed, knowing he was defeated.  “Yeah, it does,” he said, and then turned over his phone, watch, and backpack.  It seemed at tad bit much for the sake of secrecy, especially for a videogame.  Sam followed suit anyway and then the two of them proceeded down the hall to where others were standing, a roughly even mixture of men and women.

Sam whispered over to Robert.

“Hey, look at that.  For the first time in our lives, it’s not a complete sausage fest.”

“That benefits you more than me,” Robert replied.

“Nah, I’m not even looking at it like that.  After everything Michelle put me through, I don’t even want to think about getting a girlfriend right now.  I’m just glad to have some chicks around, ya know.  I like the vibes they give off.”

“Yeah, I understand.  You like their vibes, then you end up liking another V word of theirs.”

“Ah, screw you, man.  I’m trying to think beyond the normal binary of male/female relationships.”

“And you’re failing miserably if you let me talk you out of it.  Wait!  Look at that.”

There looked to be a line of people signing a piece of paper on a pedestal.  A short haired brunette woman dressed in a professional gray skirt, navy blazer, and black heels noticed Sam and Robert approaching the line and addressed them.

“Hello, gentlemen!  My name is Anna and I’ll be guiding you throughout this whole process.  Right now we are signing the confidentiality waiver.  While you are waiting to sign, I recommend reading over the terms.  Here, take these.”

She walked over and handed them a thin sheet of paper with a very simple agreement on it.  Sam and Robert handed them right back.

“It’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it?” she asked rhetorically.

Sam couldn’t help but to nod his head like a goober.  He was a sucker for trying to please beautiful women.  It was why Michelle was able to take advantage of him so easily before.  Anna went back to where she stood before and greeted the next group of people to come in after Sam and Robert.  Eventually the two of them signed the waiver, followed by the last of the testers.  There were at least a few hundred people standing in the packed hall and all of them were here to test the game.

Once everyone was gathered, Anna stood up on a small platform so that everyone could see her and her wonderfully toned legs and gave an announcement.

“Attention, testers.  Again, my name is Anna and I’d like to welcome you to our company.  We are Full Core Studios and today you will be the first to get your hands on our newest triple-A title, a cutting edge Dark Fantasy VRRPG (virtual reality role playing game).  I can say that this game is truly in a league of its own, folks, and I can’t wait to show it to you.”

She paused and took a moment to look around the room.  Sam could feel the excitement building all around him.  Everyone was buzzing.  It was mostly her gigantic reveal of the studio name.  Sam knew, from his own games collection, that Full Core were publishers of mostly obscure Japanese RPGs (role-playing games) along with a few hit action games.  Their games usually got high scores for quality, art direction, and original gameplay.  Knowing that tidbit only made his excitement build to a frenzy.

“We’ve taken great steps to ensure the secrecy of our game, as you can tell, and now we have just one more step before you are ready to play.  You see, our testing workshop is not actually in this building—no— Surveillance software and hacking programs are just too advanced to even give that much sensitive information out to the companies you all work for.  It’s too big of a risk, so we will instead shuttle you to our real testing facilities, not far from this building.  Now, I want you all to follow me to the shuttles out back.”

She starting walking and the group quickly followed.  Sam looked at Robert with a confused look painted on his face.

“Is it me, or are these guys crazy?” he asked.

“Yeah, but for all this trouble you know the game is going to be good!  And did you hear who’s making the game?” asked Robert.

“Of course I did!  It’s why I’m still following this lady to what’s bound to be the adult equivalent of a school bus.”

They all gathered out back and left the building in small groups to board the bus.  Seemed like Full Core didn’t want to raise too much attention by having a large group of people outside at once.  Sam and Robert seated themselves on the mid-sized white bus and soon the buses pulled off, one at a time every few minutes.  Their bus drove a few miles east before driving into another underground parking lot.  Sam’s group exited the bus and was led down a cool tunnel into a rather lavish building brimming with all sorts of gaudy technology.  There were huge screens just about everywhere with scrolling scenes of rainforests filled with colorful exotic animals, oceans with sparkling clean blue water and massive sea life, and dank dark caves with slithering creatures.  They were ushered forward before Sam got to see the rest.  He wondered if the images were real or virtual.

1 We’re Here

The room that Anna led them to looked to be some kind of standing theater.  There was a single large screen hanging over the group which wrapped halfway around the circular room.  The screen was blank, so Sam instead focused on the lovely Anna as she made her way up to a small stage.

“Okay, everyone, we are now here at our official studio.  A few floors above us, the programmers, designers, engineers, and other developers are hard at work making their final preparations for the test.  Below us is where your Dream Chairs are located.  That’s where you will be stationed for the duration of this alpha test.  Our project doesn’t have an official title yet, and the developers have had the toughest time thinking of a way to condense everything the game is about into two simple words.  I’ve brought you here to this room to show off some of the game footage that we’ve captured.  Are you all ready?”

A collective “yeah,” boomed throughout the spacious room.  Anna’s micro mic broadcasted her playful laugh then she signaled for the lights to be cut.  The chatter fell to pure silence as the group was covered in dark.  Anna quickly shuffled off the stage and the huge screen displayed a bloodshot moon with symphonic background music playing from the speakers in the walls.  The moon was soon engulfed in flames as a woman’s siren like voice cried out in a haunting soprano solo.  Soon the video cut to a chaotic battle between two kingdoms.  There were knights on either side, rushing forward on horses and on foot with swords or lances in hand.  The battlefield was already littered with the dead and even more fell as the fighting intensified.  The camera panned to two opposing captains then to a solitary man, an old grey-beard dressed in light armor with a dark cloak over it.  The old man wielded what Sam thought was a broadsword in his right hand.  He smirked then ripped his cloak off and revealed huge muscular arms clutching a handful of fire in his left hand which grew bigger and bigger until it exploded and engulfed the whole battlefield.  The screen cut to a spiky red dragon flying through a blue sky.  The scaly dragon landed on a rocky cliff and breathed an unending stream of flame unto a group of four adventurers who were trying to hide below it.  The next screen was of a female mage fighting some kind of giant clad in armor.  She acrobatically dodged his attacks and held up her staff, retaliating with a cluster of fast moving blue energy spheres that pierced the creature’s armor.  There were then huge sweeping shots of several gorgeous vistas, including gigantic mountains, decrepit cities, a lava-filled volcano, a dark forest with skulls strewn about the ground, a green hilly valley, a roiling blue ocean, then there was a montage of intense and creatively designed creatures, creatures that Sam knew he would soon have to come face to face with.  After that was a montage of deaths from all sorts of characters like knights, assassins, wizards, and what looked to be a cleric.  Another round of deaths, most likely player deaths, was broadcast in first person, each one more gruesome than the last, with the final one being getting ripped in half and eaten by a giant Cyclops looking monster.  The video ended with a montage of various weapons and spells being used.  Once the lights came back on, Sam swallowed hard and breathed deep.  He was definitely ready to play now.

“That was pretty kickass, right?  And from the looks on many of your faces, terrifying.  Okay, come on, everyone.  We have one more person to meet before we get you all strapped in and logged into the game world.”

Anna then made her way through the crowd back to the door they came in through.  She led them down the hall and into a huge room filled with padded reclining game chairs, arranged in rows and spaced out to allow a person to pass comfortably on each side.  There looked to be medical attendants all around, mostly women.  In the middle of the room was a tall woman who stood out from the rest of the staff.  They were all wearing blue and white scrubs, yet she had on a green and white lab coat with what looked like professional office clothes underneath.  She was wearing a skirt like Anna’s, only hers was longer and white.  The woman’s long hair was tied into one thick braid and was a redder shade of auburn and her eyes were brown.  Anna walked up to the woman and waved her hand over her as if displaying a prize.

“This, ladies and gents, is Alanna Moxley.  She will be looking after you while you use our Dream Chairs and Full Dive headset.  I will pass it over to her in a moment to explain more of the technical details about the medical facilities, but right now I’d like to say more about Full Core’s virtual technology.  Show of hands, who here has heard of the lucid dream control theory?”

Sam and Robert raised their hands, along with a handful of others.

“That’s more than I expected.  To summarize, for those of you who are not familiar, the theory posits that lucid dreams—a very powerful and vivid visual medium—can indeed be controlled.  The theory suggests that not only can lucid dreams be controlled, but they can be created.  Scientists have been looking at ways to create new dreams for decades now.  They used music, suggestion, art, and symbolism but none of them have yet used the most obvious tools: game creation software.  We here at Full Core Studios, are led by a master in the field of full immersion virtual reality.  His name is Fulton Milner and he is the director and lead designer of this very project.  What he has done is quite brilliant.  He used electronic tools to enhance brainwaves and has found a way to mix these brainwaves—that are most active during lucid dreaming—with his own game program and has created the most immersive videogame ever made.  This is possible through the breakthrough technology of the Miyabi Full Dive headset and the Dream Chairs, which Mr. Milner has created just for this game.  We here at Full Core are proud to say that we have created a game with the absolute maximum level of immersion.  Every other VR program that has come before is now what we call half-diving.  And believe me, as much as we’d like to brag, we’re not.  But I suppose you’ll just have to experience it for yourself,” she explained.

Anna winked, bowed, then walked over and stood behind Alanna.  Sam thought a little about the lucid dreaming theory.  It was a mostly safe science, but it was the sort of thing that scared a lot of people.  Everyone was always on the lookout for negative psychological effects and dream manipulation had always seemed like it’d be a one way ticket to an eventual mental breakdown.  The science just didn’t agree, at least when it came to those who were well adjusted.  Those with a history of mental illness were the most susceptible to any negative effects, but even those were negligible.  Alanna stepped forward and addressed the group, her voice projecting a heavy English accent.

“Hello everyone!  Welcome to the dream room!  I am Full Core’s resident medical authority, Alanna Moxley.  I am here to look after you while you are immersed in the Miyabi Full Dive virtual world.  Today I will be explaining all about our little facility here.  Let’s start with the Dream Chairs.  They are there to provide comfort to each of you testers and to also help immerse you even deeper into your game worlds.  They are made with infused memory foam to shape to your bodies and have small speakers and subtle vibration features installed.  We will be strapping everyone down to the chairs with Velcro wrist and ankle restraints.  Don’t be alarmed, it’s not some BDSM experiment, I can assure you,” she explained.

The group laughed, which Sam noticed alleviated much of the tension that had been building, mainly his own.  Alanna continued.

“The restraints are for your own safety and the safety of our medical staff.  A small percentage of people’s bodies may react to what they’re seeing in the game world.  It’s usually quick, sporadic hand and leg movements.  It’s very unpredictable and our medical attendants are always patrolling, so it’s best to restrain those limbs to avoid potential injuries.  Now I’d like you all to go ahead and pick a seat and we will begin.”

Sam and Robert hurried down the aisle and grabbed two chairs across from one another.

“For those of you who can’t find chairs, follow me to the next room,” Anna yelled, over the commotion.

Anna left the room with a huge group of people in tow.  Alanna issued orders to those who remained in this room.

“Alright you all, sit back.  The attendants will stop by each of your Dream Chairs and secure you with your restraints and hook you up to the heart, body, and blood pressure monitors.  While you are playing, we will be diligently monitoring you.  If any of you have any negative reactions, we’ll know immediately and we’ll stop the game.  Remember also that you can log out of the game if you feel any sort of deleterious health effects.  You’ll receive further instructions once you are inside the virtual world.  If any of you have to use the restroom, I suggest doing it now.”

If not for all the buzzing around him and his own perpetual excitement, Sam would have easily been able to fall straight asleep in the Dream Chair.  He and Robert were soon strapped to their chairs via restraints on their wrists and ankles.  The restraints were rather loose, giving Sam as comfortable a range of movement as he could get while still being restrained.  They also weren’t as abrasive as he thought they’d be.

Soon after that, they hooked him and Robert up to a tiny device that monitored their heart rates, blood pressure, and other data from their bodies.  The device was much more sophisticated than the one they sold in stores and was completely wireless.  The devices were set directly against their chests, under their shirts.  Then the headgear was brought out and it looked as cutting edge as Anna had said and was sort of intimidating, all black and glossy and maybe too small to fit his head.  There was a large opening at the front where Sam guessed his mouth and nose would go.  It reminded him of the over-the-top classic movie Robocop.  Inside the mask was a network of gadgets, mostly concentrated around the ears, eyes, temples, and top of the head.

The young woman smiled as she approached and stretched the headgear out to fit Sam’s head.  It was definitely snug, uncomfortable even, and seemed to tighten a bit when she snapped it on.  Sam could hear electronic buzzing and clicking inside the headgear as several mechanisms shifted around.  He couldn’t see much inside of the dark headgear, but he did see some kind of visor or screen shift down in front of his eyes.

He was now at his wits end waiting for the darn thing to boot up.  He squeezed his fingers and felt his fleshy limbs squirming impatiently against the Velcro restraints.  Worse than that, he felt the sweat pooling and dripping all over his rotund body from his head all the way down his pits then to his toes.  His excitement was building.  He hadn’t gotten to alpha test any VR games in a long while and never had he tested a fantasy simulation.  He had no clue what to expect.  He could hear the animated whispers and excited whimpers of all the other lucky alpha testers around him who were also strapped up in comfortable recliners and unable to see.  Sam yelled out to Robert, who he had quickly forgotten was across the aisle from him.

“You ready buddy?  It’s about to get real.”

“Dude, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop shaking until they start it,” Robert yelled back.

Sam could hear Robert nervously laughing and he laughed as well.

There was a sudden whirring in the headset and all the talking in the room quickly died down to mere murmurs.  The headset tightened itself even more on Sam’s head, some kind of headphones inside it cupping tightly around his ears.  He couldn’t hear anything but the seashell effect and he panicked a little bit at the seeming sentience of the machine.  Chills ran down his spine as a quiet voice travelled through the headphones into his ears.

“Hello and thank you, alpha testers.  I am the lead designer of this game, Fulton Milner.  In a few minutes you will be in a virtual world created by me and my talented team of artist, designers, and programmers at Full Core Studios.”

It was the voice of the genius who spearheaded the game.  He sounded calm and confident, like most of the other tech geniuses when they did presentations at their annual conferences.

“This whole project has been a labor of love and intense effort for all of us, but we need you to help us make it into true perfection.  I’m counting on you all.  With that said, we’re offering bonuses to the best of the best alpha testers.  Those who give us their all in finding errors we could not find ourselves.  Right from the start, we’ll be giving a monetary bonus of seventy-five percent added to your current pay rate to the first person to find five game breaking glitches.  We’ll also be rewarding testers for reaching all sorts of milestones within the game.”

Sam’s breath caught in his throat for a second.  If he could get that bonus, he could actually treat himself to something other than instant ramen and lunchmeat sandwiches.  Hell, he could even get some extra art supplies for his next commission, whenever that would happen.

“It probably won’t be possible to find very many glitches.  You can thank my world class elite team for that.  If any of you miraculously find any more than that, we will decide on an even greater reward.  We haven’t planned anything yet because we don’t think it’s possible.  It’s up to you to prove us wrong.  Of course, lesser bugs are to be found and reported as well.  We expect full reports from all of you, even those who don’t find bugs.  We will walk you through the reporting process as we go.  Go forth, alphas, and work hard, so we can make the best game possible, but remember to play even harder.  In one minute, we’ll start the countdown.”

Sam felt goosebumps all over his body from the announcement.  The addition of bonuses made this gig even sweeter and made his excitement levels reach a fever pitch.  They were all mere moments away from delving into the game.  He couldn’t hear himself, but he felt his lips mouthing, “I hope this doesn’t suck.”

He couldn’t contain his childlike grin after that.  The minute long wait was agonizing, but soon after he heard a robotic system voice.  A large white number ten and some text appeared on the screen in front of him, in a strange script.  The numbers were all different and seemed to play with his eyes.

“Initialization in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ...”

........

...........

Sam had the strange feeling that he had just woken up.  Did they knock him out?  Whatever had happened, he couldn’t feel his limbs or his excess sweating anymore.  He couldn’t even feel his face and he still saw nothing but blackness all around.  Suddenly, his world lit up all white, nearly blinding him.  He wished that he had his hands to block out the brightness.  For whatever reason, he couldn’t even squint.  He was soon after surrounded by a beautiful blue sky and moving clouds that seemed to have come from nowhere, but there was nothing else.  Text popped up on screen as if someone was typing as they went.

Sky Eden initialized...

Textures 100%...

GUI 100%...

Packages - H 100%...

Packages_I – Z 100%...

Maps 100%...

Audio_Packages 100%...

Char_Resources 100%...

Objects_Resources 100%...

Babylon language packages initialized...

.....

VR Systems booting...

The text disappeared as fast as it had appeared.  Then more text appeared, but this time it lingered.

Personalization in progress...

Sam heard Milner’s quiet voice all around him then the man was slowly digitized into existence right in front of him.  Virtual Milner was a tall and absurdly thin man with short black hair that seemed to fly in every direction.  It was cut shorter on the sides, but each strand seemed to have a mind of its own up top.  It was like he tried to take care of his appearance, but didn’t follow through.  There was dark stubble all around his chin, but the hair growing atop his upper lip was a little fuller.  He had bags under his thin dark eyes and a blank tired look as he seemed to stare right through Sam.  Sam had no idea why the man was wearing an unbuttoned white lab coat with rolled up sleeves either.

“Welcome to the personalization process, alpha.  This is a prerecording of my voice.  I’ll be feeding you instructions that will allow the Miyabi Full Dive technology to perfectly sync with your movements.  Follow my simple instructions for the best results.”

Milner disappeared after his message and left Sam with control of his head, but he could only move it left and right.

“I want you to look at the clouds.”

Sam looked around at the various white clouds.

“Good.  Now look at that red cloud behind you.”

Sam quickly turned his head and spotted the bright red cloud.

“Good.  Now I want you to find the dark blue cloud.”

Sam could see part of the cloud already.  It was above him, but he couldn’t lift his head.

“Can’t look up at it, can you?  Sorry about that.  I’ll need you to ask for my permission to look at it.”

That annoyed the hell out of Sam.

“You’ve got some nerve, asshole!”

He heard himself speak for the first time and it astonished him.

“Good, you can talk.  But I still need you to ask for my permission to look up, to complete this trial.”

“Fine, jerk bag.”

Sam was amusing himself, but he hoped that this creepy man couldn’t hear him.

“Will you please let me move my head like a normal person, Mr. Full-tan?”

“Yes, I will happily comply with your request, but my system detects heavy sarcasm.  No need for such an attitude,” said the seemingly omniscient designer.

Sam decided to keep any further smart aleck comments to himself and hoped that the system couldn’t read minds as well.  Still, that was impressive.  For a game to be able to detect emotions in someone’s tone of voice was pretty advanced.  This was stuff that developers had promised ten years ago and were still struggling with today.  He complied with Milner’s request and looked up at the blue cloud above him.

“Good, now find the yellow cloud.”

That one was below and to his left.

“Perfect.  Your system now fits you like a glove.  Movement here should feel as natural as it did in the real world, at least when it comes to the camera control.  Personalization complete.”

The screen went black again, then some words formed in thin white mist in the middle of the screen.

Project_DH

2 Create-A-Character

The title faded to black, then the screen showed a panoramic view of a thickly canopied forest that was mostly shrouded in shadows, but had some open paths bathed in beautiful moonlight.  The trees were various shades of grey, with leaves ranging from dark green to deep purple.  It all looked both enchanting and deadly.  Sam tried to take in every detail of the forest as he waited for the next phase of the game.  The camera stopped in a small clearing, visible by moonlight.  A single empty textbox dropped down, asking for the player’s name.  A two-dimensional, nearly-transparent keyboard appeared in front of Sam and he wondered how the heck he was supposed to use the thing.  He didn’t seem to have hands at this point.  Fulton’s voice seemed to come from the very shadows.

“You can summon and dismiss a keyboard with a thought while immersed in the Miyabi Full Dive.  You can also choose your text with nothing but a thought.  With no barriers between your thoughts and the keyboard, you’ll be able to communicate much more quickly with our developers and other players.  Menus function in the same manner.  Voice functions between players are disabled, as we like to maintain a certain atmosphere within the game.  You’ll only be able to vocally communicate with the developer you report your progress to.  I’ve begrudgingly allowed this with the advisement of my most trusted designers.  Now, I’d like you to choose a player character username, one that suits you.  Just remember, make it cool.”

Sam laughed at this ridiculous man, Milner.  Truth be told, the guy was already starting to grow on him with his strange personality.  He decided to take Milner’s advice to heart and start with a cool character name.  He wanted a name that was dark and mysterious.  He also wanted it to be timeless and unique.  He came up with it on the spot, Sarem the Sanguine.  His thoughts manifested as text on screen.  Ideas flooded his head about a cool character to match such a dark name.  He hoped that the game had a robust character creation feature so that his ideas may come to life.  Milner’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Good, now you’ll be able to create your character.”

“Yes!”  Sam couldn’t help but scream.

“You’ll start with your physical features such as skin color, height, weight, and body type.  I’ll let you create your perfect virtual body in peace.  Just say ‘help,’ if you need anything.”

Good, Sam thought and then he focused on what his new body would look like.  He scrolled through the genders and skin colors.  He thought about a female character, but his hunch was that the game had a first person viewpoint instead of third person viewpoint.  He wouldn’t be able to stare at the virtual babe’s ass the whole time if it was first person, so there was no point in gender bending, he figured.  He also wanted an experience completely different from his everyday existence, so instead of transferring two hundred and eighty pounds of his five foot eight Asian self into the game, he made himself into a tall, broad, and superbly muscular man with a deep black skin tone.  He wrestled with whether to make the character bald or not and settled for a dark haired close shaved Caesar haircut like he actually had in real life.  He went for a full-on black goatee. along with creepy silver eyes that seemed to glow in the moonlight.  He kept his character’s main sword hand on the right.

That completed the character’s physical appearance and he moved on before he got lost in the minutia of all the other tweaking options.

Now came the fun stuff.  As he read the text on this current menu, his excitement started to build again.

Choose your class:

Fighter

All around combatant.  Best at close range.  High STR and DEX.  Good VIT and DEF.

Starting Gear: Burnt Iron Helm, Burnt Leather Cuirass, Burnt Leather Gauntlets, Burnt Leather Leggings, Burnt Leather Boots, Steel Sword, Burnt Iron Shield

Soul Intensity: 3

VIT 10 DEF 10 RES 8 STR 12 INT 6 DEX 12 SPD 8 SPT 2 BLF 5 PCP 2

Sam’s character, Sanguine looked every part the fighter in his tough and flexible burnt leather gear.  He looked like he had weathered one hell of a battle.  Now Sam knew what kind of game he was playing.  It was a Planes game, like he and Robert had hoped for.  This was some modern day version of one.  The term “Soul Intensity” and the way the stats were spread out gave it all away.  This stat distribution and the stats themselves reminded him closely of the Death Planes, a game he played to death about ten years ago.  Sam read the class’ description to himself, trying to remember what each stat stood for.

“I think ten vitality is good and would be my max health, so I would be able to take a few hits.  Ten defense is solid too.  It would protect me from some physical attacks.  That’s eight resistance, I think.  I’d need to raise it higher if I wanted better protection from negative status effects like poison.  Twelve is a really high strength level, perfect for this class and its physical attacks.  Of course the intelligence is down to six, not like a Fighter is going to be using spellcraftes or need any magic points.  Twelve dexterity is really high too.  I could actually wield some of those tricky weapons or probably even a bow.  Eight speed seems good for a class like this.  It’s not that fast, but more importantly it’s not slow.  SPT?  What’s that?  Is that uh ... sss... spirituality!  Spirituality is for spellcrafte slots.  See!  I knew this game was a rip-off!  They even use the same terms!  I’ll probably need at least five points in spirituality to get my first spellcrafte slot.  And that means that BLF is belief, for characters that worship the gods.  And soul intensity three should be about the standard for starting level.  But PCP is new, I’ll have to figure out what that is later.”

Milner’s voice cut in.

“PCP is short hand for the Perception stat.  Perception is a multifaceted stat that affects a player’s field of vision, among other things.  It’s a stat archers will want to invest points into as well as those who like to discover all sorts of hard to find treasures.”

Interesting, Sam thought.  He’d have to remember to try a point in PCP every so often to see how it affected things.  So far, he felt the balance was good, but that had to be easy since they mostly copied the stats wholesale from The Death Planes.  Even the distribution of the Fighter’s points and his equipment seemed exactly the same aside from the new Perception stat.

“Okay, let’s see who’s next.”

Knight

Defensive combatant, able to outlast opponents.  Best at close and mid-range.  High VIT and DEF.  Good STR.

Starting Gear: Ashen Knight's Helm, Ashen Knight's Armor, Ashen Knight’s Leggings, Ashen Knight's Greaves and Sabatons, Ashen Knight's Gauntlets, Arming Sword, Knight Shield

Soul Intensity: 3

VIT 12 DEF 12 RES 6 STR 10 INT 8 DEX 8 SPD 6 SPT 3 BLF 8 PCP 2

Sarem looked like a towering metal sentinel in the Knight’s armor.  The helmet obscured most of his face, aside from his eyes and a few small holes on the left side where it looked like some weapon had pierced it.  The Arming Sword and Knight Shield both looked weighty compared to the Fighter’s sword and shield.  The Knight was the defensive side of the Fighter’s coin.  They were nearly the same, but the Knight had more range with its starting weapon and a better head start when it came to using spellcraftes thanks to its higher INT and SPT.  With some effort the Knight could become a paladin type near the beginning of the game.  Good classes, but Sam wanted a less standard style of play.  The next class fulfilled that perfectly.

“What a badass!  Look at that shadowy assassin gear!”

Cutthroat

Sneaky assassin, able to dispatch unaware enemies easily.  Best at extremely close range and one-on-one combat.  Extremely high DEX and SPD.  Good INT.

Starting Gear: Twilight Hood, Twilight Armor, Twilight Pants, Twilight Boots, Twilight Gloves, Deflector, Dagger, Throwing Knife x10

Soul Intensity: 5

VIT 7 DEF 6 RES 7 STR 6 INT 10 DEX 15 SPD 15 SPT 4 BLF 4 PCP 3

Soul intensity five meant that the Cutthroat started at a higher level than the first two classes and that meant that it had more stat points distributed at the start.  Sam added up all the numbers and it found that the Cutthroat had seventy-seven total stat points compared to the seventy-five of the Knight and Fighter.  So each soul intensity increase only granted one point for increasing a stat.  It was identical to the Death Planes.

“These guys are shameless.”

Sam thought of Fulton Milner.

“Lead designer my ass!  You’re a copycat, Milner.”

The Cutthroat had a great advantage in mobility over the other classes, but its crippling lack of defenses insured that it wasn’t a good class for people just beginning the game.  It was strictly an expert class, just like in the Death Planes.  If this was a simple game console, it would be a no brainer.  Sam would choose the Cutthroat, but this was a VR sim and he didn’t think he could count on his own physical coordination, or rather lack thereof, to be up to par for operating a class like that.  He begrudgingly moved on despite really liking the class’ badass all black gear.

Ranger

Adaptable combatant, although highly specialized.  Prefers ranged battles.  Extremely high DEX.  High STR, and RES.

Starting Gear: Ranger's Bandana, Ranger’s Pouched Vest, Ranger’s Leather Tassets, Ranger's Tall Boots, Ranger’s Archery Gloves, Short Recurve Bow, Hunting Sword, Army Arrows x25, Absorption Herbs x2

Soul Intensity: 4

VIT 8 DEF 6 RES 12 STR 12 INT 6 DEX 15 SPD 8 SPT 2 BLF 2 PCP 5

Another really cool class.  It was distinct from the rest, yet balanced.  Long range bows weren’t the best option in a game like this, but with patience many enemies could be cheaply killed with it.  The Ranger could fight up close too, but lacked the defense and HP (health points) of the Fighter.  Sarem looked like a grizzled vet in the Ranger’s gear, but he thought he might come back to this one.

Scholar

A highly intelligent user of soul based spellcraftes that defy nature.  Adept at long ranged combat.  Extremely high INT.  Good SPD, good DEX.

Starting Gear: Thinker's Cap, Scholar's Gown, Practitioner’s Pants, Practitioners Boots, Practitioner’s Gloves, Staff, Soul Shield, Imbuement

Soul Intensity: 5

VIT 6 DEF 5 RES 8 STR 4 INT 15 DEX 10 SPD 10 SPT 15 BLF 2 PCP 3

A very specialized class.  Definitely suited for expert play if this was anything like The Death Planes, which so far it was identical to with its classes.  With virtually no defenses, this class was a nightmare to start in the former game.  The early bosses all fought close range, giving no time for spellcrafte casting.  With a starting fifteen points in spirituality, the Scholar had slots for three craftes.  That confirmed Sam’s theory of getting new spellcrafte slots after every five points put into spirituality.

“Sorry, I never liked mages.  Let’s see who’s next.”

He also didn’t like how strange the Scholar’s robes and cap made Sarem look.  Having a giant like Sarem wielding a staff looked pretty ridiculous to Sam.

Raider

A bandit that relies on reckless strength.  Collects equipment from defeated foes.  Extremely high STR and high VIT.  Good RES and DEX

Starting Gear: Fallen Soldier Helm, Cross Bandolier, Mercenary Tassets, Fighter Boots, Iron Bracers, Hawk Shield, Steel Axe

Soul Intensity: 3

VIT 12 DEF 8 RES 10 STR 15 INT 4 DEX 10 SPD 8 SPT 3 BLF 2 PCP 2

The Raider was definitely a fun class.  It was similar to a Fighter, but with a greater specialization in offense.  With fifteen points already invested in strength the Raider could even wield those unwieldy strength based weapons that no other class could, and could do it from the beginning of the game.  No one would confuse the Raider for a defensive fighter.  Sam made a mental note of this class as well, though didn’t like the Raider’s uncoordinated patchwork gear.  After staring at it for a while, he had to admit that it did look cool on Sarem.  He especially liked the avian look that the masked helm had.

Barbarian

A cave dwelling warrior who excels at fighting and shuns society.  Extremely high VIT and STR.  High DEF.

Starting Gear: Fur Headdress, Fur Loincloth, Big Club

Soul Intensity: 4

VIT 16 DEF 12 RES 6 STR 18 INT 1 DEX 4 SPD 8 SPT 4 BLF 5 PCP 1

Sam didn’t linger too long on the Barbarian.  The gear it started with was too crappy, not to mention Sarem looked absolutely stupid in the fur covered getup.  No, the mercenary did everything the barbarian could do but better.

Primeval Prophet

A sorcerer attuned with nature.  Can summon forth the power of primeval pyromancies.  High RES and SPT.

Starting Gear: Burned Crown, Burned Prophet Robes, Burned Patched Pants, Burned Shoes, Burned Wraps, Tattered Wooden Shield, Ignitor, Oil Sword

Soul Intensity: 4

VIT 8 DEF 8 RES 12 STR 8 INT 6 DEX 6 SPD 6 SPT 12 BLF 6 PCP 4

“Damn, this is shameless.  It has to be a sequel.  No way Milner could be this blatant.”

Just like in The Death Planes, the Primeval Prophet was a strange class.  At first glance it appeared weak or, at best, mediocre thanks to its spread out stat distribution.  But the Primeval Prophet had a killer secret to it that made it stronger than it appeared—or, at least that was true in The Death Planes.  The class’ burned tatters left Sarem looking like he’d barely survived a catastrophe.  Sam didn’t like the look.

Vagabond

A fleet footed traveler that is well versed in multiple weapon disciplines.  Very high DEX and STR.  High SPD.

Starting Gear: Traveler’s Cowl, Traveler’s Long Coat, Traveler’s Pants, Dark B. Boots, Dark Bracers, Shortsword x2, Throwing Knife x5

Soul Intensity: 4

VIT 6 DEF 9 RES 8 STR 13 INT 5 DEX 13 SPD 12 SPT 6 BLF 2 PCP 2

Another specialty class, this one geared towards high offense and mobility.  The Vagabond lacked all sorts of defenses.  Hell, it didn’t even come with a shield.  The Vagabond’s high level of dexterity meant that weapons in its offhand did more damage, so it was a beast at two handed fighting.  It was a class that could easily wield both strength and dexterity class weapons.  Another class for Sam to consider.  Sarem looked pretty awesome in the badass navy and black long coat with the dual Shortswords.

Priest

A sturdy holy warrior.  Uses belief and blessings to overcome the odds.  Extremely high BLF, High STR and DEF

Starting Gear: Hood of the Holy, Robes of Reverence, Pants of the Pious, Saint Shoes, Gloves of Grace, Halberd, Lion Symbol Shield, Prayer Charm

Soul Intensity: 3

VIT 10 DEF 12 RES 6 STR 12 INT 4 DEX 4 SPD 6 SPT 4 BLF 15 PCP 2

The Priest was a really good starting class to the point of being imbalanced thanks to the powerful gear it started with.  It was similar to the Fighter and Knight in many respects, but it was far better geared than the other two for becoming a paladin type character with a mixture of divine Blessings—the Priest’s brand of Spellcraftes—and physical attack power.  In The Death Planes, the Priests had some good Blessings that could restore their health or transport them to safety without the need for items.  And many enemies were vulnerable to belief-based attacks.  Sam added another class to his list of potentials before he got to the final class.  The black, red, and white robes didn’t look all that bad on Sarem either.

“What’s this?  A new class?”

Alchemist

Uses intelligence and nature in tandem to produce wonders beyond comprehension.  Extremely high RES.  High INT and SPT.

Starting Gear: Alchemist's Cowl, Alchemist's Cloak, Alchemist's Tailored Pants, Alchemist's Jackboots, Alchemist's Gloves, Tattered Alchemy Book, Blighted Dagger

Soul Intensity: 4

VIT 8 DEF 4 RES 15 STR 6 INT 12 DEX 6 SPD 8 SPT 12 BLF 2 PCP 3

The alchemist’s cloak and cowl looked pretty cool and the rest of the uniform had a military vibe to it, especially the long boots.  Strange, that the class used a Dagger and book to fight and had no shield to speak of.  It was an interesting class to consider, but Sam didn’t think it would fit his playstyle.  It was a hunch.  There was another new one too.

Nun/Pilgrim

A pious believer of the divine that serves the church no matter what.  Extremely high BLF.  High DEX.

Starting Gear: Pilgrim’s Hat, Pilgrim’s Robe, Pilgrim’s Trousers, Pilgrim’s Shoes, Pilgrim’s Gloves, Epee, Maiden Shield, Rosario

Soul Intensity: 3

VIT 8 DEF 8 RES 6 STR 4 INT 6 DEX 12 SPD 8 SPT 6 BLF 15 PCP 2

This new Nun/Pilgrim class was pretty interesting.  He guessed that the class name would change depending on if you used a male or female character, probably the gear too.  What the Priest normally had in pure strength and durability, this new class had in quickness and dexterity.  The Pilgrim even had enough points in spirituality to immediately use some Blessings right away.  The black and white Pilgrim’s gear looked sort of silly on Sarem though.  He didn’t want a character that just looked like they stepped off of the Mayflower.  Though he was a fan of the small white shield and Epee.

“Oh god!  What is this?”

He was shocked as he looked on at the way the next class’ gear looked on his character.  His awesomely tall and chiseled fighter looked like a raving lunatic—no!  He looked like a nearly naked serial killer barbarian.  That’s the only way to describe it.  There was blood and dirt covering Sarem from head to toe.  Sam read the class’ description and had a nice chuckle at the equipment that came with it.

Deranged

Good for nothing?  Is this a joke?

Starting Gear: Sack, Bloodied Smock, Loin Cloth, Broken Shackles (ankles), Broken Shackles (wrists), Bloody Femur, Rocks x5, Bomb x1

Soul Intensity: 1

VIT 1 DEF 1 RES 20 STR 1 INT 1 DEX 1 SPD 20 SPT 10 BLF 1 PCP 5

“Wow, just wow.  Well, at least this is something else new.”

So Milner did have the talent to create something original, but this?  This was definitely a good for nothing joke.  This class was useless in just about every way except for trolling.  It had no defense or HP at all, not even a shield.  One hit from a normal enemy is probably all it would take to do the “Deranged” in.  It had a lot of speed and with its gear that weighed virtually nothing, it could move like no other class could, but that didn’t matter since it couldn’t do any damage.  Its weapon was literally a giant bone.  And it only had one bomb.  True, that was one more bomb than the other classes had, but it was only enough to drastically hurt one enemy and probably not even kill it.  What was this class supposed to do against the first boss or any bosses after?

“You’re a troll, Milner.  I kind of like that.”

Sam would have loved to start the game trolling, but he didn’t know enough about this new VR system to risk it, and so he thought hard about the class he would choose to start the game.  All of the classes he liked were specialty classes, but which specialty did he prefer?  How did he want to play the game?  All out fighting?  Ranged warfare?  Blessings?  Sam was thinking so hard that he was sure he would soon get a headache, if that were possible in a VR sim.

“Fuck it!  I can’t stand here forever.”

He threw caution to the wind and selected the Cutthroat class like he initially wanted.  The shadowy hood and all black gear looked so awesome on the character that he couldn’t help it.  This class suited his playstyle the most too.  He’d just have to get accustomed to the dodging really quickly.  Hopefully this game had a robust parrying feature as well.  Sam had counted on it after seeing the all black Deflector shield that the Cutthroat came with, same as in The Death Planes.  He found it curious that the game didn’t let him choose a starting item, but he didn’t linger on the thought.  He sighed out loud, finalized his choices, and waited for the game to start.

“All right, here we go!”

The creation menu disappeared and Sam was whisked away to the game’s opening cutscene.

3 Opening Cutscene

A voice echoed into Sam's ear, an English narrator with a Master’s degree in Epic.  With an ancient and smoky voice, she told the tale of the beautifully rendered cutscenes.  Sam kept quiet and watched on in awe at the game's beautiful and mysterious backstory.

“For time immemorial, the world had been covered in cold, stillness, and dark, suitable for only those ancient, eternal, and powerful: the dwellers of the deep.  But then a chance occurrence happened—a small spark lit up the world—and it became the catalyst for an age of change.”

Sam couldn’t see anything at first, but heard the sounds of some sort of massive collision.  After that, the dark world was suddenly brightened with a tiny flickering flame.

“The spark burned bright but only briefly, long enough for a courageous Dweller to seize it and take it into himself.”

A shadowy human like creature stepped out of the dark and grabbed the tiny flame, cradling the flame gently.

“This Dweller became Supreme and awakened the spark to bring the light of his new soul to the world.  The other Dwellers scornfully referred to him as the Lightbringer and feared his brilliance.  They banded together and challenged him, led by Straga of the deepest depths.”

In the fiery light, the Dwellers could be seen.  They were all mostly amorphous or misshapen and long like the very shadows.  Straga was one of the few that seemed to have a solid form and it was massive.  The rotund giant was covered in spikes and had no eyes to speak of.  His skin also seemed to shift as if covered in living mud.

“In defense against their great numbers, Supreme split his inner spark into two and created a son with the second half of the ceaseless soul flame.  He named him Morningstar and together they fended off the assaults of the Eternal Dwellers.”

An army of the shadowy Dwellers seemed to be gathering in the dark depths.  Way above them, Supreme could hardly be seen with all the light emanating from his body.  Sam only saw his vague human shaped outline inside of a sun-like sphere of light.  His son Morningstar was also glowing, but he wasn’t so bright that his features couldn’t be seen.  He wore an ornate purple set of robes, along with golden rings on his wrists and ankles.  He also had a pair of golden wings on his back.

“The brilliance of Supreme the Lightbringer and Morningstar the Son of Light brought form to the formless.  In order to fathom this new world many Dwellers acquired the sight, but some refused to adapt and remained blind to this light and numb to this warmth.

“With their world and sensations affronted and with fear gathering in their midst, Straga and his Eternal Dwellers waged war on the two Lightbringers once and for all.  In the battle, Supreme was struck down and consumed by his former brethren which spread his light and formed the first of the Great Beings from the now burned and destroyed bodies of the Dwellers.”

Supreme appeared to be much larger than Sam had initially thought.  He was pierced by a score of massive spiked pillars.  His body fell to the earth and was divided and eaten by several of the amorphous Dwellers, but soon after, each of the creature’s exploded in wild flames and where they had died, gigantic infants thrashed about in the carnage, crying.

“In his rage, Morningstar hurled a powerful bolt, formed of his own soul at Straga, slaying the ancient Dweller.”

The bolt was a massive golden spear of light and it pierced the shadowy giant like nothing, obliterating him and the Dwellers around him in an instant with an exploding wall of fire.  Lava erupted from magma pools deep underground and bathed much of the stony land in molten rock.

“From the destruction came the advent of earthbound fire and mankind.  The battlefield was cleared and the remaining Dwellers retreated or surrendered to the Son of Light.”

Morningstar sat on a rocky throne as many Dwellers waited in line to pay him homage.  Some others slinked right back into the darkness, avoiding the light.

“Morningstar contained the deadly fire and used it to form a winged creature like himself, a beautiful ruby bird.  The bird introduced itself as Phoenix and became Morningstar’s favorite pet.”

Phoenix was giant sized, just like Supreme and Morningstar.  The inside of its colossal wings were solid gold, while the outside was a shimmering red.  It bathed in the flames, seemingly thriving in them.

“Morningstar sought to gain favor and continued peace with his defeated foes, so he arranged to couple with an Eternal Dweller, and presented her with a gift.  He chose Hystera, who was now the queen of the depths, and built her a castle.  There, he presented her with Phoenix.  Hystera sobbed at the sight of Phoenix and considered its mere presence an insult to the loss of her people, so she released it.”

Hystera was taller than Morningstar, thin, and had skin that was the deepest shade of black.  She was one of the few Dwellers who actually had eyes.  Hers were as dark as her skin with grey pupils.  She had no hair to speak of, and inside of Morningstar’s castle she wore an ornate jade and gold headdress and matching gown.  In her room, she opened the cage of the ruby bird and watched it fly out of the window, silver tears running down her face all the while.

“Phoenix was drawn to the presence of the newly formed humans who shared its kindred soul.  It brought more fire to their souls and strengthened their wills.  From here, man grew in number and capability.  They marked the land with wooden and stone towns and worshipped the bird as their lord, Lord Phoenix.”

The progression of mankind was shown, from caves to towns.  Phoenix then flew high over the comparatively small men and women, who were on the ground tilling the land.  The humans then cut stones and erected monuments to the bird.  The symbol for the bird was apparently a plus sign with the horizontal line elongated.

“Hystera gave birth to Abominations that plagued the world.”

It showed the Dweller queen giving birth to terrifying creatures that were curiously diverse from her, Morningstar, and one another.  Some had claws, some had scales, or horns, or fur; some even had all of the above.  All had eyes that glowed red, orange, or yellow with some kind of intense primal fire.  The backdrop of the scene wasn’t the castle this time, but instead some place surrounded by black earth and magma.  Sam wondered if she had maybe returned to her home deep underground.

“These children of Morningstar betrayed their father and sealed him away while using his power to conquer and spread their influence throughout the world.”

The Abominations had surrounded Morningstar by standing in a circle side-by-side.  They each used some kind of sorcery, composed of gold and crimson light that converged over him and locked him in place.  Morningstar screamed in agony as the strange light pierced his body and held him in place.  His own brilliant light came out of his body in several streams and was absorbed by every one of his terrifying brood.

“The Great Beings, possessors of souls of light, challenged the Abominations and were deadlocked with them until mankind joined the fight.”

The babies from before were now full-on giants clad in thickly armored plate mail with closed helmets.  Four of the giant warriors were fighting a horde of smaller Abominations.  Two of the warriors were slender and quick.  They drove off their opponents with piercing lance thrusts and wide sweeps.  Another of the warriors was bulkier and fought with a humongous greatsword and chopped down his opponents as if they were mere weeds in need of whacking.  The final giant warrior bore two massive axes and swung them around as if they were daggers, cleaving all sorts of heads, arms, legs, and wings as he went.  But it seemed like the more the warriors killed, the more Abominations would show and challenge them.

“With fire and steel, the men helped push the Abominations back and together with the Great Beings sealed them away in their subterranean dwellings.”

A vast human army gathered at the edge of the flaming battlefield and converged on the horde of Abominations.  They looked like little mice compared to the other giant combatants, but they were a tenacious group.  Many of the men climbed atop the Abominations and hacked away at their heads while others hacked away at other limbs.  Some of the men used spellcraftes, pyromancies, bows, and javelins to fight from long range.  A massive ballista was brought in and fired at a giant Abomination that had a goat’s head, hooves, claws, and wings.  It breathed fire unto a group of human soldiers below it, until the giant wood and metal missile pierced its chest.  Once the giant Abomination fell dead, the human soldiers and giant warriors drove the rest of the Abominations underground.  The giants used boulders to block off the tunnels that led deep underground and a small group of robed humans chanted as a white mist enveloped the entrance to the tunnels to form a barrier.

“But when the time came to unseal Morningstar, the men instead chose to deceive the Great Beings and placed further seals to further lock away Morningstar so that he could not influence their world.”

The chanting humans, in their robes, created two mist barriers this time.  The one closest to the sealed Morningstar was golden.  The humans who created that barrier turned to dust as soon as it was done and were scattered to the winds.  The second barrier was the same white as the one from the tunnels.  Those sorcerers looked severely drained, but remained alive afterwards.

“Without their Lord, the Great Beings faded into obscurity, seeking respite from this new era.  Only a few continued to interfere in the affairs of man.”

The battlefield from before was shown, only now it was quiet and empty.  Wind blew the clothes of the piled human corpses.

“Now that man has come to power, the darkness is beginning to pervade and the strength of the fire is beginning to fade.  Phoenix, who has given men the strength of ceaseless fire, has gone silent and disappeared.  Mankind has long since forgotten why many of them rise again after they die.  Was it a curse?”

Another big battle was shown, this time between two warring kingdoms of humans.  Day and night passed rapidly, dwindling the combatants to just a few.  Time slowed back down to real time, the battle winding down at night.  Two small groups of knights remained, but as they clashed, fallen ally and enemy alike slowly rose up and rejoined the battle.  Many of those who were resurrected attacked mindlessly and lumbered around like zombies, though some had just as much vigor as before.

“From the depths, the final remaining Abomination invaded.  Once shunned by the rest, the final Abomination sought out true dark and bided its time to gather the power necessary to defeat the most powerful Great Beings.  With their defeat, many of the Great Beings pledged fealty.  Now together they guard over the power of the ceaseless fire and rule over the holy lands of Heimfall, where the cursed are sent to rot.  These rulers are known as the Fire Bearers.”

A giant flaming pyre the size of a city was shown from the air.  The camera zoomed down into the center of the fire and down to the bottom, where there had to have been thousands of piles of bones piled up.  Tortured screams and ghastly wailing could be heard all around along with what Sam thought was a screech.

“Unable to escape this perpetual conflict through death, men finally see the true nature of their undying state and they seek to end it.  To do that, champions set out to conquer the undead and snuff out the Fire Bearers.  But is that what mankind truly wants?”

The screen faded to black.

4 Hard Ass

Sam’s viewpoint went from looking directly at his character, Sarem, to swiveling around to the back of him, then travelling inside his head until Sarem and Sam were one.  It was like Sam had predicted, the simulation was a first person one.

Sam looked down at his digital hands and noticed that he was moving them.  It was initially a weird sensation, like he had never had hands before in his life.  The ones he was looking at weren’t his—well—now they were.  He flexed his long dark fingers and heard the crunch of the supple leather when he balled his hand into a tight fist.  The leather felt good, and so did the wind.  A nice breeze was blowing on a relatively quiet night.  There were no manmade sounds to be heard, only the sounds of tiny forest creatures.  There were actually tiny spiders and crickets moving around on the forest floor seemingly alive in a nightly dance, just like in real life.

“This is sick!” Sam whispered to himself.

He couldn’t believe that such minute details were rendered inside of the game.  It was almost indistinguishable from a real forest.  He looked above, and through the trees could see some of the moon’s radiant glow.  He wanted to see more, so he moved his feet for the first time.  It was another funny sensation; a strange tingling travelled through his whole body.  He moved to the middle of the clearing to look up at the gorgeous full moon.  It was a much more beautiful sight than any moon he’d seen in real life.  The hugeness of it, its purple tint, and the glow from it made it otherworldly and its mere sight made Sam frightful, yet excited for the journey that was to come.  He let out a shaky breath in an effort to calm himself, and thought about his next plan of action.  He wasn’t just some mere player.  He still had a job to do.  He had to remember to think of this like work, like every other game he’d playtested.  At the moment, that seemed impossible, but he had to get over it.

He walked around in a circle to get accustomed to the walking.  He stayed in the same area, so as not to rouse any enemies that might be nearby, and talked to himself.

“So my method is the same as always.  I need to first find the bug.  That requires extreme testing of the game’s systems or one of its features.  I’ll need to even go outside the bounds of reason and explore every inch of the game that I can.  I’ll have to test it and repeat the test to make sure that it’s a repeatable flaw.  Either way, I’ll report what I find to the developers.  They’ll check it out and let me know if they want me to test it further.  Hopefully I can do this quickly and move on, so I can get five glitches before anyone else.”

Sam was satisfied with his method.  He prepared to check his gear when he heard a voice that didn’t fit with anything else he’d seen in this world so far.  The liveliness of her voice broke his concentration and immersion with the world.

“That’s a good method, tester number forty one ... Sam Nagai, is it?”

The woman sounded young, maybe close to Sam’s twenty-seven years as there was a hint of maturity in her tone.

“Who are you?” Sam asked.

“Oh sorry.  I’m one of the level designers for this area, the Forest of Woe.  Fun fact: it’s also called the Assassin’s Forest by many of the NPCs and Murderville by many of us on the design team.  My name is Alex Madura,” she said, joviality in her tone.

“Nice to meet you, Alex.  So this is a Planes game?  The character creation and even the name of this area makes me think it is.  Is it a sequel or a remake?” he asked.

“Sorry, Sam, at this stage of the game I’m not authorized to answer those kinds of questions.”

“That’s a bummer.  But it’s kind of obvious that this is that same sort of game.”

“There’s no harm in you making whatever speculations you want, Sam.  I just can’t confirm or deny them,” she said playfully.

“Fair enough, Alex.  I take it I’ll report whatever glitches I find to you?”

“Yes and I apologize for taking you out of the game’s atmosphere like this, but we do so early on to remind testers of their roles.  As you can see, it’s easy to get lost in the game world and forget why you’re even here.”

Sam chuckled at the obvious truth of that.

“You guys definitely know your game.  Well, thanks for the reminder.”

“No need to thank me, Sam.  I know you already realized your goal before I contacted you.  I heard you speak your plans for testing out loud.  I’m only interrupting now to tell you my part in all this.  I think it helps if we are on the same page as early as possible.  It’ll make the rest of our communications go a lot smoother.”

The woman had really good reasoning, so Sam was all ears.

“So what’s your part?” he asked.

“Okay, so I’ll take it a step back and go over one of the parts of your own testing method.  You actually don’t have to repeat any bugs you find yourself.  Just report them as soon as you find them.  I’ll take a look at the code, and if I think that it needs further testing I’ll let you know.  And don’t worry, I’m a fast code reader.  If anything needs repeating, I’ll know almost instantly.”

That was really good.  Sam counted his blessings that he got a designer as efficient as Alex to report his bugs to.  Seems this contest had a great element of luck involved too, since you didn’t know which designer you’d have helping you.  Sam was sure that not all of them would be as good as this Alex seemed to be.

“Glad I got you then, Alex.  Is there anything else?”

“Well, I’m getting to it, Sam.”

Sam chuckled again and fiddled through his various menu options.

“Sorry.  Please continue, Alex.”

“There’s an extra menu just for you testers.  It’s called Alpha Build.”

Sam was already browsing through it.

“What I need you to report to me is listed under Reports.  What’s needed is self-explanatory.  After you send me a report and I check the data, I run simulations myself.  If I can’t find the bugs on my own with the data you gave me then I’ll have you repeat it in your build of the game.  If we successfully repeat it on either my end or your end, we’ll officially list it as a game bug.  With this current test, we won’t focus on fixing any of the bugs.  We just want to discover them at this point, so find as many as you can.”

Sam smiled broadly.  He couldn’t have asked for a better system.  He’d now be able to find a bug, report it, and simply move on instead of being stuck trying to help the developers fix it.  This job would be fun after all.

“That’s the plan, Alex!  Glad we’re on the same page now.”

“We definitely want the same thing, Sam—to make this game the best it can be and to make sure you win this contest.  You can count on me.  Good luck!”

The option to contact her was under Reports on the Alpha Build menu.  The first level menu options were, Inventory—Equipment—Status—Game Options—Alpha Build.  Sam selected his inventory to see the other items he came with besides his gear.  The menu dropped down in front of him with images of his items on a two-dimensional grid.  There was more here than was listed in the character creation.  He already had a healing item called a Soul Fire that could be used five times before emptying.  The portrait of the somewhat translucent silver container made it look like bottled blue fire.  It even danced with life as Sam stared at it.  He read its description.

Soul Fire

Heals HP

A mystical silver container able to hold the coveted essence of human determination and will.  Has a restorative effect on those heavily afflicted with the Phoenix’s curse.  Only those chosen few will find themselves in possession of this item.

Along with that, he had some rings that increased his resistances.  One increased his resistance to physical damage and the other increased his resistance to magic.  He laughed at the names of each ring.

Beginner’s Gift of Survival

Increases physical defenses.

A starting gift for our first adventurous Full Divers.  Don’t say we here at Full Core have never done anything for you ;-).

Beginner’s Gift of Persistence

Increases mystical defenses.

A starting gift for our first adventurous Full Divers.  Do your best to get accustomed to the game.  Never give up!

“Oh wow!  They still made this easy mode for me.”

That didn’t stop him from using the rings.  He backed out of the inventory and equipped the rings right away through the equipment menu.  His weak defensive stats rose up to levels rivaling the other classes.  He wondered if the other classes received the rings as well, but thought there wouldn’t be a point in that.

“Maybe this character stole these items or something,” he tried to reason.  He checked the manual to read up on the basics before he did anything else.  Even the basics of the manual clocked in at over a hundred pages.  The extra motions players could do in VR added a lot more complexity to the game.  There were now special techniques that the character could perform if Sam could mimic the right motions.  With Sam’s horrid level of bodily coordination, he counted that as a current impossibility and stuck to the most basic style of play.

“I can’t read all this.  I’ll just have to learn as I go.”

He hurriedly crammed some info about blocking, parrying, roll dodging, and attacking.  He thought he understood the gist of it all, so he closed his menu.  He didn’t want anyone beating him to that bonus, so he did what any good adventurer would do and put one foot in front of the other.

The clearing provided a clear trail forward.  Sam hoped it was the right direction.  There didn’t seem to be much but darkness in the other direction.  The dark forest was spread out around him, obscuring all that was within as long as he stood in the moon’s light.  He wondered if his eyes would adjust to the dark, like in real life.  He needed to be ready for whatever was inside.

He didn’t recognize this part of the game.  Well, he did sort of recognize it, but he wasn’t supposed to be here so early in the game.  In the original Death Planes game, you started off in a graveyard, so this wasn’t a remake after all.  Maybe it was a sequel then.

The clearing’s path led back into the dark forest, but there didn’t seem to be nowhere else to go, so Sam proceeded further in.

“Wait!  Is my dagger even equipped?”

He didn’t have anything in his hands and he saw nothing at his sides, not even a scabbard., so he checked his equipment menu and found nothing equipped to either hand slot.

“Trolls!” he yelled in anger.

He was mad that he didn’t notice it earlier when he was putting on the rings.  He quickly equipped his Dagger to his right hand and the Deflector shield to his left.  A scabbard for the Dagger appeared on his lower back and his Deflector was always strapped to his left wrist as long as it was equipped.  There was a slot for another weapon or shield on either hand slot, making for a maximum of two slots to each hand.  You couldn’t equip all four weapons or shields at the same time, but could switch between two of them in each hand on the fly.  He made sure he had all his armor on as well.

After confirming that all his equipment was in its proper place, he figured he was ready for combat.  The only issue he had was that his tiny Deflector and naturally low defenses made blocking ineffective.  Even with the extra protection from the ring, he’d be in a bad spot if he couldn’t dodge properly.  He also needed to be quick and parry with his Deflector, so he wasn’t totally defenseless.

“Why did I pick this class?  I’m going to get killed so hard that my friends are going to throw me a funeral in real life,” he said, only half joking.

He silently laughed at his own absurdity, mostly to calm his nerves.  Then he proceeded forward and heard some footsteps other than his own.  He stopped and hid behind a tree to see if he could find where the sound was coming from.  His eyes were successfully adjusting to the dark, just not all the way yet.  But the footsteps were growing louder.

I hope they didn’t see me.

They had probably seen him while he was in the moonlit clearing, whoever or whatever it was.  He frantically searched around for whoever was coming and found the silhouette behind him over his right hand shoulder.  The thing seemed to be walking deeper into the forest and paying him no attention.

He was stuck at a crossroads wondering what to do next.  The smart thing to do would be to keep going and avoid whatever that thing was, but that was also cowardly.  He hadn’t even seen what it looked like.  He had to at least do that before he chickened out.

He crept through the trees without making a sound.  He had to look down at his feet to make sure he had them.  The silent movement must’ve been a Cutthroat class perk or maybe an ability that came from the equipment.  He wasn’t sure since he hadn’t read any of the descriptions yet.

He used the silence to his advantage, closely stalking the strange creature milling about through the forest.  A sliver of moonlight peeked through a tiny opening in the canopy and the thing walked right under it for a split second.  Sam saw thin and dark brown wooden flesh and elongated branchlike limbs.  He only saw it from the back, where it was mostly covered in dark purple leaves.  It was taller than most men, easily towering over Sam.

Well I’ve seen it now, time to move on?

The answer was no.  Now that he saw it, he had to kill it.  That was the law in these types of games.  There was a chance that this thing could later sneak up on him while he was fighting some other creature, or it could even have some useful item that he needed.  It would definitely have souls to drop, this game’s version of experience points.  He equipped his Dagger by grabbing it from its scabbard and stalked forward.  The plant creature had stopped near a tree and seemed to be doing nothing.  Sam, aka Sarem the Sanguine, inched forward a little bit, then a little more.  The tree he waited behind now was right next to the creature.

He held his breath and peeked around at it.  Even in the dark, he could see that its back was to him.  His sight was pretty good, now that he was accustomed to the dark.  He inched forward just a little more, then felt a shiver followed by a cold sweat.  He stopped in his tracks immediately knowing something was wrong.  The plant creature raised its purple leafy head to the sky and shrieked.  It was a dreadful sound and Sam felt another wave of cold come over his body.  The dreadful noise sounded like a whistle, a cry, and a scream at the same time, together carrying a foreboding melody.  Sam had never heard anything like it.  He slowly and quietly crouched and watched the surrounding forest for any signs of movement.

Is this thing calling someone?  Does it know I’m here?  Is ... is it singing?

He was ready to run at a moment’s notice, but the leafy thing was still staring up at the sky and there was no movement in the forest around them.  Perhaps he’d found his first glitch.  He didn’t dare stop and report it now.  He wanted to see what the creature would do next.  It hadn’t transformed or anything and its behavior seemed to remain the same.  It didn’t even seem to know he was there.  Once it started moving, he moved with it.  It seemed to be moving back to where he’d first heard its footsteps.  Compared to Sam, the thing was a heavy stepper.  It loudly crunched all manner of foliage under foot as it passed its original location.

When it stopped again, Sam made sure to get even closer.  This time he was quick to look around for other approaching movements.  He only made his move when he was certain he saw no other movement in the forest and his moves were quick, clean, and quiet.  With three silent steps he was at the monster’s back and with one swift motion he plunged his Dagger deep into it.  He felt the thing shiver and saw it wilt as the cold Dagger pierced through wood and found its target.  The thing had some kind of soft organs inside of it; Sam could feel whatever he had struck squirming around his blade.  He instinctively kicked the creature off of his dagger and pulled the blade away as it fell to the ground.  He had successfully gotten a special backstab on the creature, meaning he had effectively done at least triple his normal damage to it.  His Dagger and gloves were now covered in the beast’s dark blue blood.

After attacking it, he was able to see its health bar.  He watched as it quickly diminished—only it stopped diminishing a little more than halfway and the creature started moving on the ground.

Sam whispered his panic under his breath: “Are you fucking kidding me?”

The critical blow had allegedly done three to four times normal damage and it still only took down slightly more than half the creature’s HP.  Sam’s class was ridiculously weak.  Or maybe this enemy was just too strong.

“I can’t believe this.  Come on, get up!  Let’s go!”

Sam tried to position himself at the creature’s back as it was rising, but the thing quickly turned to face him as if it knew his thoughts.  He quickly struck it two times with a slash and a stab at its arms and chest doing damage that was barely noticeable.  The critical damage for the backstab must’ve been much higher than he’d anticipated, like twice as high.  Now, his attacks didn’t seem to be doing even a single percent damage to it.  The thing lashed out at him with its pointed claws and he barely dodged it with an instinctive side roll.  It was as if the game had assisted him with the maneuver.  His movement was much smoother than anything he could muster in real life and he noticed that he cleared a long distance.  He was quickly on his feet and nearing the creature’s back again.

The rolling motion had made him feel a little dizzy, but he ignored that and tried to get in close.  The creature extended its brown leafy arms out at its sides and they grew large wooden spikes that hardened to a darker brown.  The creature then spun its upper body around in a deadly contortionist’s twister.  Sam was too close and reactively raised his Deflector in a parrying motion.  The panicked parry was way too early and Sam was left wide open to the creature’s attack.  The backhand blow was solid and sent Sam sprawling down onto his back.

The pain felt too real.  Sam could actually taste the blood in his mouth.  It made him wonder what was happening to his real body as he played the game.  It made him want to quit.  But there was an urge deep in the primal part of his brain that didn’t want to die, no matter if he was in real reality or virtual reality.  It made him rise to his feet for his own survival.

The blow had taken a little over a third of his total health and the creature was approaching to attack again.  Now on his feet, Sam knew what his next move would have to be.  With his current class, he could only play in a reactionary way.  He’d have to capitalize on an enemy’s mistakes and punish them for it.  Now that this thing was guarding its back so well from his attacks, he only saw one good option, but he had to wait for a good chance to use it.

Sam stood at a disadvantageous middle range from the creature that he now decided to call Hardass.  He stood straight ahead of it, prepared to dodge at a moment’s notice.  Hardass whipped its stretchy leaf-like arms and razor sharp claws at Sam.  Sam dodged to the left, out of the creature’s way.  The move was guaranteed to put him at the creature’s back again—but the creature’s response felt off.

“Oh crap!  Screw you, Hardass!”

That whipping motion had been a feint.  Before Sam had even made it to his feet, Hardass was priming for another attack.  It stretched its thorny limbs all the way over to him.  One of the claws took on a spear-like shape and pierced his chest, while the other struck him in the face, cutting into much of his flesh and drawing blood.  It hurt like hell and even when it recalled its limbs, Sam’s body was left with a feverish feeling.  He had lost half of his health this time and now it was steadily decreasing even more.  There was a constant buzzing sound in his ear, like some small object was dunked into acid nearby.  That’s when he noticed that his own health bar display in the upper left hand corner had the words POISONED over it in huge red letters.  His health bar itself was deep purple now.

“Great.  I’m going to die in the first few minutes of this game.”

And the worst part of it was that he knew it would hurt, more than any pain he’d felt before.

5 Yesterday

The previous day, 6:23pm.

As Sam was pulling the large cola out of the grocery bag, the cell phone that was also in his hand buzzed and somehow his useless hands dropped both the cola and the phone.

“I don’t even know how the hell I did that,” he said after a long sigh.

Sam cursed his horrid coordination, bad reflexes, horrible luck, and whoever was calling him at the moment.  The cola was shaken, but he planned on putting it in the fridge anyway and his phone was still in good shape despite the horrible fall it took.  This day just wasn’t going well for him, but it was just a microcosm of his life as a whole.

Where was his life headed?  Suddenly, he didn’t know.  He was feeling fine until his immature girlfriend had decided to break up with him for the umpteenth time.  That wasn’t the bad part.  He was fine with removing her from his life.  All she ever brought him was confusion and some ridiculously high standards that even she didn’t understand.  He was at the point now where even getting laid wasn’t worth dealing with her BS.  He would’ve ended it soon himself if she hadn’t.

The bad part about the whole breakup was her deciding to do it over the phone while he was out grocery shopping even when he told her he’d talk about it later once he got home.  She wouldn’t stop talking to let him get a word in.  All he could do was listen to her yap about how much of a little boy he was and how he needed to grow up and outgrow videogames.

Not like it was his job to play the damn games.  Not like he was using the cash from the jobs to further his art and design career.  Not like he was making important contacts in the games industry with each and every job that he worked.  No, he was simply wasting his time being a kid and not pursuing a real career, whatever that meant.

To a small degree, she was right, because he sat on the phone and listened to her crap, like a good little boy, for over an hour whilst angrily plodding through the store with his tiny basket.  The five items he’d gathered by the end of the call did not warrant the hour-long stay roaming the aisles.

By the time he got home to his apartment, he was already exhausted.  Today was supposed to be a good day.  He wanted a good start and a good mood going into tomorrow’s gig since he counted on it being a fun one, but of course she had to ruin it.

He stared at his phone on the kitchen floor and waited for it to stop ringing before he picked it up.  He had no desire to talk to Michelle again, now or ever, so he put the phone on the table with the projector facing downwards.  He first put up the cola and the rest of his groceries then put the bags in the recycler under the counter.  He finally picked up his phone after and checked to see who called, in case it wasn’t Michelle.  It was actually his sister, Rui, who’d called, and was now calling right back.  He answered on the first ring.

“Hello.”

“You’re too good to answer my first call now?” His sister sounded like a pixie.  The phone couldn’t contain her crazy energy.  Her voice came through so loud he had to move the phone away from his ear a little.

“Come on, Ru, I don’t need your shit right now too.”

He decided to put the phone on the table to project her image.

“Project, Ru!” he said strongly.  He then sat down and watched the phone project his darling little sister as an aqua blue 3D image.  She was lying down somewhere, probably her bed or the living room sofa, with an annoyed look on her face.

“Project, Butt Head!” she yelled, annoying Sam with the way she changed his name in her contacts list.

“Lighten up, jerk.  You know I’m just kidding.  What’s wrong with you anyway?” she asked sitting up and pushing the hair from her face.

“I don’t want to talk about it, to be honest,” he said after a long sigh.

“You don’t have to.  I can hear it in your voice.  It’s Michelle again, isn’t it?”

“I told you I don’t want to talk about it.”

She persisted.

“We both know that Michelle isn’t worth your time anyway.  She’s more confused than girls I go to school with and she’s had eleven more years than us to figure this out.”

He wondered if she already knew about the breakup, but figured it wasn’t possible.

“Figure what out?” he asked giving her a suspicious stare.

“That girl’s just confused about life in general.  She needs help with it all,” she said, stretching.  She then got up and started walking.  Sam was annoyed when he saw her choice for an outfit.  Her dress was way too short.

“You only met her that one time.  How do you know what she’s confused about?  And how did you convince Mom to let you out of the house like that.”

“She came to my dance program with Mom that time you didn’t show up.  Me and Mom talked to her after and I could tell then that she was a ditz.  And I’m inside the house, genius!  I can wear what I want.”

She always had a way of making him feel guilty without even trying.

“I apologized for not showing up for that,” he said looking at the floor.

“I’m not accusing you of anything, jeez!  But anyway, she doesn’t know what she wants.  I hope you figured that out by now,” she said, sitting her phone on a table and grabbing something from the fridge.

“I’m a scatterbrain, not an idiot, Ru, and I don’t need any dating advice from my sixteen year old sister.  So let’s stop talking about Michelle.  I’m trying to forget her.”

“Good.”

There was a brief silence on the line.  Sam hadn’t expected such a brief response from his sister.

“So why’d you call me?”

“Dad’s birthday is coming up.”

“And?”

She stopped what she was doing and looked right at him, furious.

“And stop being a dick.  Mom wants you home, asshole.”

Sam could only blame himself the vulgar part of his sister’s vocabulary, so he was never hypocritical about it.

“I don’t know why.  It’s been five years.  I can remember Dad and pay tribute to him in my own way and she can too.  We don’t always have to eat together.  It’s so inconvenient to have to drive all the way home like that, especially when I have other gigs I have to work.”

Rui huffed and slapped her forehead.

“Why do you have to be that way?  You know she just wants to see you and to have us both around.  It’s special to her.”

“Then she needs to get off my back.  She’s been worse about nagging me since Dad’s been gone.  I just don’t want to hear it, Ru.  I get enough of that crap from Michelle and even you.”

She sat down and finally annoyed with it, gathered her long hair into a ponytail.

“Hey, don’t lump me in with Michelle!  While I think you have some really childish hobbies, at least I can see that you’re trying to make a living from your gaming.  And all Mom wants is for you to be safe and stable.  She doesn’t want to have to worry about you being homeless out in LA or something.  And Michelle’s just an idiot, so her concerns don’t matter.”

She was right.  Rui always had a good head on her shoulders.  She could see the bigger picture, unlike most people.  There were some days where Sam was forced to wonder if the girl had more sense than him despite being almost half his age.

“I know.  I just don’t want to hear it, Ru.  I don’t need her nitpicking every little thing.”

“Stop whining!  It’s just one day and you can go back to doing whatever you do right after and continue ignoring us.”

“I do not ignore you!”

She gave him an exaggerated wide-eyed look as if he’d said something crazy.

“Pfffft!  I was starting to wonder if I even had an older brother.”

That dig really cut at Sam, despite his sister’s facetiousness.  He wasn’t around his family as much as he should be and he knew it.

“Okay, enough with the guilt trip!  I’ll come.  Tell Mom I’ll be there.  I made sure to take that day off next week, but I’ll be busy for the rest of this week and for the days before and after Dad’s birthday,” he said, staring at the ground in defeat.

Sam wasn’t looking, but he could hear Rui’s victorious giggling on the other end of the line.  It made him smile despite the fact that she had him wrapped around her little finger.

“You should feel guilty.  It’s your own fault anyway.  You can make it up to me by giving me some brotherly advice about boys.”

Oh no.

Sam plotted the ways to get off the phone.

“I’ve been dating this airhead named Kyle, who’s a gamer like you.  Is that something all you gamers have in common, lack of common sense?  Anyway, Kyle’s cute, but he lives in his own world.”

“Aren’t you too young to be dating anyway?” Sam interrupted.

“I’m sixteen, not twelve.  And please don’t interrupt unless you have some good advice for me.”

“You only need to know one thing Ru.  Boys are pigs.  Just keep your nose in the books.”

6 An Unreal Fight

Back in the game world ...

Sam shivered.  He was now face to face with the strange plant creature, Hardass and could see that it didn’t have a real face, only hollowed out cavities for its fake eyes and mouth like a puppet.  Normally Sam found stuff like that sickeningly cool, but right now his body was racked with pain and his health bar was steadily draining.  Now, he was under twenty percent, dangerous territory since each of Hardass’ previous attacks had taken more than a third of his health.

Hardass stood in place and started shaking spastically, so Sam ran.  He put as much distance as he could between himself and the plant creature.  Unfortunately Hardass was quick despite looking like he was made out of wood.  It remained only a few paces behind him.  Sam ran for a while, but saw that not only was his green stamina bar nearly depleted, but so was his health bar.  He had no choice, but to stop and grab the Soul Fire from his hip and take a swig from it.  His health shot up nearly to maximum along with his stamina.  The only problem was his health bar remained deep purple with the red POISONED message above it, and of course his health was still draining.  Hardass launched another attack from behind and Sam just barely dodged it with a side roll.

“Crap, I’m really starting to feel sick.”

He didn’t know if it was because of the poison or the rolling.  He didn’t like how realistic this game felt.  Why would anyone want to feel pain like this, he wondered.  He approached Hardass again to attack, but noticed that it was already moving towards him.  It had good recovery (freedom to move) after most of its attacks.  The only one that left any sort of opening was the spinning attack, but Sam’s weapon was too short to take advantage of it.

Maybe that long range piercing thing it did on me has a long recovery too.  With it being a straightforward linear attack, I should be able to avoid it and counterattack easily enough.

That was easier said than done.  Sam was still sure he wouldn’t have enough time to backstab the creature again.  He blamed his lack of offensive options on his starting weapon.  The Dagger had no reach at all and now Sam saw that it did no real damage with normal slices and stabs.  All its power seemed to come from critical strikes.  That last backstab had netted him about ten times normal damage since Hardass was currently near half health.  His other two strikes hadn’t even done a decent fraction of damage to the creature.

“There’s only one way.  I have to do it!”

He ran straight at Hardass and dodged to the side.  His roll took him much further than he expected, but Hardass was already protecting its back by moving away from Sam.  It was quick and smart enough to know not to expose its weakness a second time.  Sam slashed at its side for a small pittance.  It attacked and Sam rolled again to the same side and struck it again.  Hardass’ back was again close, but just out of range.  Sensing danger, Hardass prepared its spinning attack again and Sam was forced to roll twice to the left to get out of its range.  The attack took as much recovery time as Sam had predicted and he was also right about not being able to close the gap between himself and its back.  He couldn’t even get a good slash in before it was ready to attack again.  All that and Sam’s health was already down to seventy-five percent again thanks to the poisoning.

He then stood at mid-range and waited for the creature to attack again.  It went with the long piercing attack.  Mid-range was definitely too far, so Sam closed in the gap and instead of attacking, he stopped and waited for Hardass to attack.  Hardass lifted its right hand and struck down at Sam with its most straightforward attack so far.  Sam used his Deflector and pushed its whip-like arms and razor claws towards the sky.  Hardass staggered backwards a little, leaving its pulsating heart exposed.  Sam took one step forward and thrust his blade into the dark blue heart.  A drum beat echoed in his ear along with the sound of a knife slicing through flesh, sounds of a successful parry and opening blow.  Hardass wilted down; its wood splintered and cracked as Sam kicked it from his knife.  Some strange glow from its body had enveloped Sam in a ghostly white mist.  Sam’s soul count popped up in the lower right corner and he saw it increase from zero to four hundred.

Hardass’ corpse remained on the ground but seemed to be quickly decomposing into mulch.  The poison it had laid on Sam was still draining his health.  He was currently at less than fifty percent.

He now noticed a smaller purple bar under his health bar that seemed to be ticking down.  He guessed that it was the duration of the poison effect.  He only had to endure for a bit longer to be rid of it.  He waited in place while the little bar had completely run out.  By the time it did, he was left with less than ten percent of his health, but more importantly he was free of the poison.  He took another swig from his Soul Fire which restored his health close enough to full.  He was left with only three more drinks before the container was empty.

He took a deep breath then brought forth his menu and checked over his equipment, mainly his Dagger.  He was right about it only scoring its main damage from critical hits.  It was an assassin’s weapon after all.

Dagger

Knife

A small blade, typically reserved as a last resort on the battlefield.  For most, it is a useless weapon, but a few know human vital points quite well and look for the perfect moment to strike.

ATK (total attack power) 37

Weapon Damage 10

S ATK (strength attack power) F = 0

D ATK (dexterity attack power) B = 27

M ATK (magic attack power) F = 0

B ATK (belief attack power) F = 0

F RAT (fire rating) 0

L RAT (lightning rating) 0

D RAT (dust rating) 0

P RAT (poison rating) 0

B RAT (bleedout rating) 10

Weight: 1 lb

S ABS: 200

“There’s no way I’ll be able to fight a boss like this.  I need a better weapon.”

He closed his menu and noticed the shredded remains of Hardass were in three separate piles.  They hadn’t fallen like that, so Sam wondered what the heck was going on.

Is it still alive?

He wasn’t too concerned if it was.  Now he knew which of its attacks to avoid and he knew how to get in close to defeat it.  He would avoid another fight so soon if he could though, so he opted to walk in the opposite direction.  That was a mistake.

“What the—”

The three piles sprouted up from the ground with three new enemies.  Sam couldn’t believe his eyes.  All three creatures looked just like the Hardass he’d just barely managed to kill.

“No!  No!  And hell no!”

Sam was terrified but he kept moving.  He kept his wits about him as he considered his options.  He knew that running, in a game like this, could be more harmful than good.  He might easily pull another group of enemies into the fray and that would be disastrous.  The enemies watched him and slowly closed in and he circled around them.  Besides the fear of pulling more enemies, Sam also felt like he had a chance to win this fight.  When he stripped away all the bullshit from his previous encounter, it was clear that it had taken two blows to actually kill the original Hardass.  The two critical blows weren’t easy to get, but they were very powerful, doing at least ten times the damage of his most damaging normal attacks. All he needed was to get in close and find his opening.

Two of the Hardass clones started to attack.  One wound up for the piercing attack, which Sam knew would poison him and the other went for the whipping attack.  Sam concentrated on the one with the piercing attack and made sure to circle around it.  The one with the whip attack was feinting again, so Sam had enough time to get in close and backstab the other one since it was already in range.  The third one, which he had named Murderass—after Hardass Number Two and Hardass Number Three—was only now starting to attack.  It went for a whipping strike as Sam’s blade claimed over half of the other creature’s HP.  Sam was just wresting his blade from the creature when Murderass and Hardass Number Three’s attacks passed right through him.  He smiled at his turn of luck.

“Wait your turn, Murderass and Hardass Number Three.”

Backstabs and hopefully other special attacks had some invincible frames to them, meaning he was safe as long as the attack was being performed.  This fact and his speed were about the only advantages he had in this fight and he made sure to use every advantage he had.

The very end of the animation, right after he kicked the enemy from his blade, was not invincible.  Hardass Number Two’s whipping strike showed him his vulnerability.  The quick strike lashed at his leather clad body and reduced his health by a fifth, while Murderass landed a successive blow reducing him by another fifth.  That quick, he had lost over a third of his health.

“Damn, you guys are hardcore.”

He wanted to take advantage while the other Hardass was still on the ground recovering, but together left no openings.  When he saw the third creature getting to its feet, he tried to quickly create an opening with one of the other two.  He tried to parry one of the whipping strikes, but only managed to partially reduce the damage and still took full damage from the other Hardass’ follow up strike.  All in all, he now had less than a third of his health, so he retreated behind a tree and drank from his Soul Fire.  He heard the blows from the creatures raining down on the thick trunk behind him.  It gave him a wonderful idea.

He ran to the next tree, narrowly avoiding two piercing attacks.  He did this around them, watching them, timing their blows as they struck tree after tree.  Finally, he saw his next opening.  As two of them launched the long range piercing attacks, the third continued to press forward towards him.  He’d lost track of which one this was, but counted his blessings that it was closer than the others.  Sam ran in close before it started its attack and simply waited, like he had with the original Hardass.

This Hardass clone did not disappoint.  It went for the same close range strike as its predecessor and was met with the same response.  Sam successfully threw its whip-like arm aside and plunged his dagger deep within its heart.  This Hardass clone lost over half of its total health too.  And just like with the backstab, the opening blow also had invincible frames for the duration of the attack.

“Oh no!  Got to move!”

He was still only invincible while attacking and kicking the enemy from his blade.  The short recovery afterwards where he was forced to back away a little was where he was still most vulnerable.  This time the piercing attack from the other Hardass caught him right in the chest and he lost half his health instantly.  He was unfortunately also poisoned.

He quickly rolled to the side and behind another tree before the other one could follow up with an attack.  The poison was coursing through him again, making him feel nauseated, and putting that hissing sound in his ear again.  He let the health and poison duration bar drop a little before he healed himself with another swig of his Soul Fire.  He only had one drink left and the poison assured he’d need it for that.  He couldn’t get hit again or he would be seeing his first game over screen.

He had again forgotten which Hardass clones were which.  Two of them were near death and the third still had all its health.  All he needed was a good parry then opening blow or a backstab.  He danced around the trees and considered his options.  His enemies were still attacking, but there were only two of them together.

“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!  Where are you?”

Sam’s stomach nearly dropped down to his feet.  The missing creature was right in front of him and out the corner of his eye, he could see the other two running to other positions around him.  They were trying to box him in.

“Shit!”

The one in front of him looked to be going for a new attack.  Sam froze.  He didn’t know what to expect.  All he knew was that he couldn’t parry too early.  He had to be reactionary.  He had to perfectly predict his foe.  He had to see the moment and origin of the strike.  He saw it!  It came right from the creature’s shoulders.  The blow was fast and came from a new direction, but Sam was ready.  The sideways slice was deflected upwards, leaving Sam with the perfect view of the creature’s pulsating blue heart.  He quickly thrust his Dagger into it and watched it wilt away as its health ticked down to nothing.

The other two were approaching from his sides, both too far to attack, leaving Sam nervously ticking down the seconds of the opening blow’s animation.  He saw his soul count increase but didn’t have time to see the amount.  He rolled away backwards in a nick of time.  Both Hardass assholes had launched twin piercing attacks.  No doubt it would have killed him if both had hit at the same time.  His health was ticking towards seventy percent.

So far, Sam had used some surprising skill and good tactics to take down one of the foes—well, two counting the original.  Now, however, he needed luck.  One of the Hardass clones was already half dead.  He’d need to take that one out next if he had any hope to survive this.  Fighting the last one, one-on-one, would be infinitely easier than his current dilemma.

He backed up a little, then circled around to the clone on his left.  He heard the one on his right start to run, so he sprinted, burning through half his stamina to quickly get near the other one.  Now behind a tree, he heard both Hardass clones attacking him with long range attacks.  He couldn’t see which ones they were using.  One of the clones ran around the tree, startling him.  It went for a whipping strike, which Sam wasn’t sure how to parry yet.  He rolled out the way of the whip and quickly ran back to face the creature.  Sam was now in close range and waiting for one of the two attacks he had seen before.  He also paid attention to any other movements around him.  The other Hardass clone seemed to be attacking at the tree again.

Now!

It was attack number two, the sideways slice.  Sam was ready for it with his now patented parry.  Its arm flew up, its heart was exposed, and more blood soaked Sam’s knife.  He smiled as it wilted and gave him four hundred more souls.  He had luckily gotten the right one.

He peeked around the tree and saw the last one coming.  Since it wasn’t yet attacking, he quickly ran up to it and waited for it to attack him at close range.  It moved its arms in a strange way and left Sam unsure of whether to stay to parry it or dodge.  In the end he decided to roll away from it.  With the blow it attempted, it first reeled back then whipped both its arms out.  It didn’t look easy, but Sam figured out the timing of the attack.  With the other parries he had executed, he had to find the weak point in the attack and deflect it at its origin.  This was no different.  The origin of this new attack was the creature’s forward limb, the one it led the attack with.  Deflecting that limb would knock it off balance and open it up for critical damage.

With his plan in place, Sam made his way back in front of the creature and waited.  It reeled back again, preparing its new blow.  This time Sam was prepared too.  He saw it lash out and saw the origin of its attack.  He deflected the limb just as planned, only this time it did nothing and only his own arm was raised skyward, leaving him wide open to counterattack.  The creature’s attack was not a simple blow this time, but a grab.

It wrapped its whip-like limbs around Sam’s neck and body and squeezed him.  Sam felt his breath being strangled right out of him and felt life leaving his body.  He struggled and finally found himself free when the creature tossed him to the ground after he stabbed its limb.  His health was drained to nearly nothing and the poison was still only halfway through its duration.

On his feet, Sam quickly sprinted to a nearby tree and hid behind it while taking his last drink from the Soul Fire.  His health and stamina were restored to max and he quickly took off sprinting again.  What he knew now was that his chances for surviving this encounter were next to none.  Even if he did survive, the poison would claim the rest of his life.  And these things were tricky.  He didn’t know if the creature had even more attacks that he didn’t know about.  That grab move was hella unfair.  Sam had parried it clean and still got cheated by it.  Then Sam thought of something else.

What if those other things I killed split apart and grow just like the first Hardass did?

That was a scary thought.

7 A Beacon in Dark Times

Sam wasn’t sure if the Hardass clone was still following him.  He walked as quickly as he could, waiting for his stamina to recharge.  He looked back into the forest when he heard footsteps and saw the clone approaching.

“Dammit, I can’t lose this thing!” Sam cursed.  “Even after I ran what feels like a half a mile.”

Sam had to do a double take when he saw four other creatures that looked just like the Hardass clone behind it.  It looked like the forest itself was chasing him.  All five looked like tiny man shaped trees.  All were brown, with purple leaves covering their heads, and hollowed out holes where their supposed eyes and mouth were supposed to be.  The leaves on their heads all shook in unison as they closed in on him.

Behind them, Sam could see even more of them and in the distance.  He heard one of them screaming that same foreboding scream that the original Hardass had screamed before Sam had attacked it.  He was regretting the hell out of that decision now.

He started sprinting again as soon as his stamina bar filled back up and managed to outpace the tree man army behind him before having to slow down again because of his drained stamina.  He wondered how long he could keep this up before they finally caught up to him.  He couldn’t see anywhere around that could be considered safe.  It was nothing but trees, darkness, moonlight, and death around him for miles.

He had to think of something.  These tree men were smart.  In his battle with them they had managed to strategize a way to box him in.  If the army that was chasing him managed that then there was no way out for him.  Luckily the poison had completely run its course and he was left with a little bit more than a quarter of his total health.  But one attack from a Hardass clone was all it would now take to kill him.

In the distance, he saw an opening in the forest.  There was a large concentration of moonlight and he could even see the sky.  That was currently his best bet, or a complete dead end.  Either way, he’d soon find out.

Now at the forest’s edge, Sam found himself near a cliff.  Way below, there was even more forest, and a river, but even the trees looked too far down for him to survive the fall.  With the enemies at his back in the forest and certain death below, Sam decided to circle around the cliff and look for some other option out of this mess.

He ran forward and saw that the cliff’s path was leading back into the forest.  He knew there was no way he’d survive in there.  He looked over the side of the cliff for some place to hopefully drop down to, but found nothing below him.  Across the way below an adjacent cliff, he saw a little cave.

He quickly cut through the forest to get over to the other side of the cliff and nearly ran into a few trees during his scramble.  He heard the tree men attacking, meaning they were now close.  This was his last chance to escape.  With his stamina nearly emptying out, he was at the part of the cliff where he saw the opening below it.  He hoped that it was really a cave, and he hoped even harder that it didn’t have invisible walls covering the entrance.

“It was here!” Sam proclaimed nearly out of breath.  At the cliff’s edge he jumped and felt the wind against his body as he took flight.  He immediately looked down to see if his memory was correct.  He was in the cave before he even realized it, and instinctively rolled forwards as soon as his feet touched the ground.  He huffed and huffed and tried his best to calm himself.  He had made it by the skin of his teeth, but his health was still low and he was in a strange place.  There was no telling what would happen next.

He first looked back to see if any of the tree men were following him, if any were clever enough to make the jump.  He let out a breath of relief when he saw them turn back into the forest.

“Well, at least that’s over with ... for now.”

Sam looked around the cave for anything dangerous and saw that it was nearly empty.  The only thing ahead of him was a huge animal totem on an ashen stone pole.  The totem at the top was a snake with scales carved into a stone body that coiled in a circle where its head swallowed its tail.  When Sam closed in on it and touched it, it lit up and he was given a message.

Soul Beacon Activated

A dim blue light shined from the center of the coiled snake and bathed the area in a warm glow.  Though creepy as hell, the whole thing felt sort of safe.  The warmth began to course through his body and left him feeling renewed.  It gradually refilled his HP to max as he stood near it.  He decided to sit down in front of it and hold out both of his hands.  Then a genius thought came to his mind.  He grabbed his silver Soul Fire container from his hip and held it near the Soul Beacon.  Blue fire slithered from the top of the totem and refilled the container to its max five uses.  Sam grinned and placed it back on his hip then tied it there.

He let the warmth fall over him, and for the first time he allowed himself to rest.  He was already mentally exhausted and it was only the start of the game.  It wasn’t real fatigue, but he knew that a little rest would steady his nerves at least.  He let out a long sigh and let his mind wander, thinking of what the rest of the game would be like.

“You doing okay, Sam?” Alex asked in his ear, concern in her voice.

“Alex!  Where the hell have you been?  I was almost killed out there!”

She giggled and said, “Well, it is a videogame, Sam.  You might die once or twice to say the least.”

“In a game like this, I’ll easily die like fifty times.  You guys already set up some cheap enemies.  Those tree guys just kept multiplying after I killed them.  Is that a glitch?”

There was no reply for a little while, so Sam just knew that she was laughing at him behind a muted microphone.

“You’re laughing at me, aren’t you?  This is not funny, my life is on the line here.  You don’t know how it feels in here.  It feels all too real.”

“Sorry, Sam.  I couldn’t help it.  No, you haven’t come across any glitches so far.  Those enemies you fought are called Forest Barkers and they are actually non-hostile,” she explained.

“Non-hostile my ass!  Those things almost killed me!” he yelled.

“They’re only programmed to do so after you’ve attacked them.  Normally they just go through the forest singing their sad songs and entertaining the other forest creatures, but you just had to try to kill one, didn’t you?  Barkers are designed to be a cruel punishment for cold-hearted gamers.”

Now he felt like an ass.  It was dumb of him to attack a creature he knew nothing about and he’d almost paid the consequences for it.

“Okay, fine, you made your point.  Can you actually kill those things for good though?”

“I’ve told you too much about them already.  The point of the game is to learn all this stuff yourself, Sam.  There’s enough clues within the game to give you a full picture of everything within the game world.  Remember to explore and to read your item descriptions.  Oh, and I do know how it feels to be in there.  I’ve already tested the game a few times, so I know how you feel.  That’s why I’m checking in on you.  I know that the Full Dive immersion adds an extra level of stress to the game.”

“Stress is an understatement.  By the end of all this, most of your testers are going to have PTSD.”

“Uhh, we’re hoping to avoid that.”

Sam couldn’t help but have a laugh at that.  Even though Alex hadn’t admitted it yet, this was clearly a Death Planes game.  The opening cutscene gave it all away.  The Planes games were already difficult and highly nerve racking.  They were the sort of games that blurred the lines between survival horror, RPG, and action game.  Now with the added element of being in the game and actually feeling pain caused by enemy attacks, the game seemed designed by default to cause PTSD.

“You guys should nix the realistic pain feature.  It might actually cause more issues than its worth in the long run.  Is it affecting our bodies in any way?”

“No Sam, not at all.  Your bodies are perfectly safe back in our testing lab.  All of the sensations you feel in the game are just signals we send to your brain.  Remember too, that you can quit out at any time.  We don’t recommend it, but you always have that option if the simulation overwhelms you.”

He let out another long sigh.

“Okay, thanks, Alex.  That’s pretty much what I wanted to hear.”

“Alright, Sam.  Just remember to call me if you’re having trouble.  There’s only so much I can say about anything other than glitches, so choose your opponents carefully.”

He could hear the teasing amusement in her voice.  He took that for a challenge.

“Thanks for the support, Alex.  I think I’ll work on a way to kill those Barkers for good.”

“I liked the pet name you made up for them.  My favorite had to be Murder Ass.  He was pretty cute, wasn’t he?”  She couldn’t control her giggles.

“Now I know you’re making fun of me.  I was hoping you didn’t hear that.”

“Don’t worry, I think it’s cute that you name the creatures of the forest.  Just do whatever it takes to enjoy the game.  I’ll be in touch.  Ciao!”

Alex was pretty cool.  Sam wondered if she looked as good as she sounded.  He liked girls that teased him the way she did and they seemed to like him as well.  Despite being a big guy, Sam was fairly popular with women.  They usually found him to be cuddly like a teddy bear; he was always told that his dark brown eyes had an alluring innocence to them.  That always made him laugh since he was anything but innocent.

He pushed all those thoughts aside and got back into his survival instincts.  He needed to get stronger.  Skill-wise, he was doing well.  He had learned the proper parry timing against the Forest Barkers.  That was good, but he figured every enemy would have its own attack pattern, so he’d have to learn a different timing for each one.  The idea of fighting some powerful enemy and messing up his parry timing frightened him.  He thought his best bet would be finding a better shield, one he could block and parry with properly.  The Deflector he had was just too small for anything, but one-on-one fights.  He was lucky to have the forest trees earlier to block most of the Barkers’ attacks.  If not, he would’ve been wide open.

He also needed a weapon with better reach.  The Dagger also wasn’t made for fighting multiple opponents, and was even mostly a disadvantage in a one-on-one fight.  Its only saving grace was all the critical damage it did, but you had to be up close and personal to get it.

Sam rubbed his hands near the Soul Beacon and discovered it had more to it then he initially thought.  His menu opened up with more selection options than before.  The menu for Soul Beacon options inserted itself next to his inventory menu.  There were three selections under the Soul Beacon menu.

Level Up

Equip Craftes

Revive

Sam checked each option and read up on it in the digital instruction manual to get a better idea of what each option did.  It was the exact same as it was in The Death Planes.  He could increase his various stats with the Level Up option.  Equip Craftes would allow him to equip any Spellcraftes, Blessings, or Pyromancies that he’d collected, only now he had no Spellcraftes, Blessings, Pyromancies or slots to put them in.  And Revive allowed him to return to life as a human if he found himself turned into a revenant.

This time, he started the game in human form, and since he didn’t die, he still had his full humanity.  Turning revenant meant he’d permanently lose some of his max HP until resurrected as a human.  That gave him another reason to cling to his life.

Sam went to the level-up function and was taken to a screen that looked identical to his stat screen.

Name: Sarem the Sanguine

Class: Cutthroat

Soul Intensity: 5

HP: 140

Held Souls: 1200

Souls to Next Level: 590

VIT 7

DEF 6

RES 7

STR 6

INT 10

DEX 15

SPD 15

SPT 4

BLF 4

PCP 3

His dexterity and his speed were already really high.  The attack damage for his dagger was based off of his dexterity stat, and the speed stat affected how fast he moved and how far he roll dodged.  The only thing that kept him alive were those three things.  Now he needed something to cover his ass when he messed up, so he put a point into his vitality which increased his max health from one forty to one sixty.  He was now at soul intensity six and still had enough souls to level-up one more time.  The amount he needed to get to soul intensity seven was six hundred and ten.  It was all he had left.  He used it to increase his vitality again to nine, which gave him a max health of one hundred and eighty.  That health would really come in handy, he reasoned.

With no souls left to spend, Sam opted to get up and resume his game.  He started by exploring the cave he was in.  The light of the Soul Beacon only reached so far into the cave.  After a while, Sam couldn’t see anything because the after image of the fire’s light was still there in his eyes.  He instinctively stopped then, not wanting to traverse the cave blind.

“Hey, stranger.  What brings you to my cave?”

The voice was a delicate whisper, and when he heard it Sam’s heart started beating a mile a minute.

8 The Merchant

The cave in front of him was so dark that Sam couldn’t see where that voice had come from.  Whoever was in the dark had a great advantage over him.  He lifted his Deflector defensively, unsure of what to expect next.

“No need to fear, o’ traveling soul.  I mean you no harm,” the man whispered, sarcasm creeping into his voice.  Sam kept the Deflector up.  He didn’t trust whoever this man was.  The man seemed to sense that and just laughed at Sam derisively.

“Can’t see me, can you?  Well, maybe this’ll help.”

Sam heard a striking sound and suddenly a flame jumped to life in the man’s hand.  The torchlight cast am orange glow all over his features as he placed the torch in a standing sconce then leaned against the cave wall.  He was shorter than Sam’s avatar and had an average build.  His hair was short, stringy, and russet, the same color of his eyes.  He bore a tired-looking half-smile and wore the exact same dark clothes that Sam did.  Sam wondered how clearly the man had seen him in the dark.

“Now, that better?” the man asked.

“At least I can see you now.  Who are you and why are you here?” Sam asked.  The man laughed.

“Always with the who’s and why’s.  Not a particularly fair set of questions, seeing as how you haven’t introduced yourself yet.”

Sam remained quiet.

“You don’t need to say a thing.  Your story is written all over you, killer.  An undead Cutthroat, eh?  Well, that’s certainly new.  You haven’t lost your quintessence yet, so there’s something you want to accomplish, eh?  I wonder what that could be in this forest.”

“I woke up here,” Sam said, nearly glaring at the man.

“No need to be testy.  I’m just here to offer a warning.”

That was incredible.  The NPCs (non-player characters) could actually respond to a player’s emotions as well as their words.  No other game on the market had that kind of sophistication to it.  The digital man responded as precisely as a real man would, picking up on Sam’s annoyance as well.  Sam looked around at the gear the man had around him.  It was halfway out of a large sack that sat on the ground next him.  Sam saw some weapons in it and some armor as well.

“What’s that?” Sam asked, pointing at the sack.

“Ah, those are my wares.  There’s a lot of treasure to be found in this assassin’s forest.  Most of it dropped from adventurers like yourself after they ... expire.”

“Can you show me what you have?”

“Hehe, sure.  My items will keep you from losing that precious quintessence of yours.”

A menu opened in front of Sam with the man’s item stock neatly categorized into sections for consumable items, weapons, armor, ammunition, and miscellaneous items.  For consumables, he had some Absorption Herbs to heal poison and some Bandages to stop bleeding wounds.  The herbs were one hundred souls apiece, but so very worth it against the enemies of this forest.  Sam currently had approximately no souls, so he’d have to brave the forest without it for now.  He flipped over to the weapons just to see what the man had.  His selection was pretty crappy.  He had possibly every type of weapon from daggers to axes, but it was all basic stuff.  There were a few swords there, but all of them required too high of a strength stat to wield properly.  Sam only had a six in strength.  The only good thing Sam spotted here was a simple mid-sized wood and metal shield.  He looked at its stats and found it to be to his liking.  It had a nice balance of physical defense and sturdiness even if it was lacking in most other categories.  The shield had cost a whopping twelve hundred souls though.  In his current state, Sam found that to be worth it.

He moved on to the armor and saw absolutely nothing that was more useful than the Twilight gear he was already wearing and that was the most expensive gear that the man had.  For the ammunition, he spotted some nifty Wooden Arrows for five souls apiece.  The only problem was that the merchant didn’t sell the bow to go with it.  Sam cursed under his breath.

“Asshole.”

“What was that, traveler?”

“Brass pole ... I don’t see one.  Just thinking out loud.”

These NPCs had some damn good hearing.  Sam had no clue how the NPC would react to an actual insult and though he was curious, he still wanted to hang on to his human form for a bit longer at least.  This guy seemed like a secret badass to Sam and he didn’t want to piss him off yet, at least not at this point in the game.  He’d avoid death for as long as he could.  He skimmed over to the miscellaneous section and found an item called Blank Map.  It was ridiculously overpriced at five thousand souls.  He opened a screen for taking notes and mentally dictated that the price of the map should be lowered, the merchant should sell more useful items, and he should definitely sell a bow with his arrows.  He closed the notes window along with the item shop screen.

“Nothing suits your fancy, eh?  The younger me would’ve taken such a blatant waste of my time up with a blade, but I’ve come to see that we live in a tough age, traveler.  So no hard feelings.”

Sam was terrified not only by what the merchant had said, but by the way he stared at Sam, as if he could see right through him, and then there was the wicked smile he bore.

“Hehehe.  To prove my good intentions, I’ll give you this for your nightly travels along with two warnings.”

He produced a torch from his bag and handed it to Sam.  Though Sam towered over him, he was still leery of such close contact.

“Are you a Cutthroat like me?” Sam asked.

“From the look of ya, I’d say you’re barely a Cutthroat hehehehe.  But I wouldn’t call myself a Cutthroat.”

“Then why are you wearing a Cutthroat’s gear?”

“I told you, lad, you ask too many questions.  Simple ones too.  I’m in an assassin’s forest, why would I dress as anything other than an assassin?  Do you think I want to be killed ... again?  Hehehehe.  No, lad.  I’m just here to make a wage off some unlucky souls.  Make sure you don’t die out there, hehehehe.”

What a creepy sense of humor, Sam thought to himself.  Sam did want to hear the man’s warning though, so he promptly asked him.

“There’s a madman in the forest up ahead.  If you were smart, you’d avoid him.  I’ve heard it said that he’s killing anyone that crosses his path.”

It was just a game, but hearing that greatly unsettled Sam.  He needed to know more.

“What does he look like, merchant?” he asked.

“He’s been described as a monstrous brute of a man.  More demon than human.  He wields a giant greatsword that he uses to cut revenants down indiscriminately.  Some say he was once a king in an age long ago, but now he is just a ghoul out for souls.  He will pillage the quintessence from your very being if you aren’t careful.”

“Where is he now?”

“An answer not known by me.  I’m staying out of the way myself.  All I want to do is sell my wares to needy travelers.  I don’t need all this madman business scaring my customers away.  If you come across anyone strong in your travels, you could ask them to kill the madman for you.  Otherwise I’d stay away.”

That stung the old ego for Sam.  He lacked the strength now, but he swore that he’d soon gain the levels, gear, and skills needed to beat this mad king.  He just needed to avoid him until he got strong enough.

“Okay, what about the other warning?”

The Merchant’s grin widened.

“I’m amused that you’ve come to this forest without knowing of its dangers.  What a foolish endeavor.”

He paused and looked at Sam with a gleam in his eye then continued.

“There is another man in the forest, more depraved than the mad king, though barely.  Watch out for him and the quick death he brings.  He has a fascination with stringing up the bodies of those he considers to be strong.  You shouldn’t have to worry about that though.  Hahahaha.  Just thought I’d give fair warning anyway.”

Sam bristled at the insult and wondered if it were really true.

“Am I really safe from that killer?” Sam asked.

“Who’s to say?  I’ve never met him myself.  I only know of him through his wicked reputation.  From his reputation alone, he is to be avoided, no?”

That was definitely something that Sam could agree to, at least until he gained some more levels and attained some better gear.

“And where does he reside?”

“It is said that he haunts near the front entrance of this part of forest, the perfect place to snare unsuspecting warriors, but no one is safe anywhere in the Assassin’s Forest.  Hehehehe.  Best to be on the move.”

Sam had to agree.  From his equipment menu, he placed his torch in one of his Quick Select slots.  It made it easy to select on the fly since the item would hang somewhere from his body.  He had space for ten items in his accessible slots.  His Soul Fire had already taken up one space.  Items that were put in his accessible slots hung from his body, and so he could just reach and grab what he needed instead of mentally scrolling through menus.  He kept his torch slotted until he needed it later and moved on, out of the cave.  His next plan was to grind (collect a lot of resources, in this case souls) in the forest until he could afford a better shield and could level-up some more.

“Alright Hardasses, here comes round two.”

9 Assassin’s Forest

Sam’s efforts at grinding had been quite taxing at first.  He had started his fight against one Forest Barker, like before.  And like before, it was completely docile initially.  Resting at the Soul Beacon seemed to reset all enemies’ positions, so now the aggressive clones were gone.  Once he killed the first one with a backstab, parry, then opening blow, he found that fighting the other Forest Barkers the second time wasn’t much easier than the first.  Killing them almost seemed pointless as each time you killed one, it would leave its remains and grow into more identical Forest Barkers.

Sam was somewhat lucky this time since the Barker he killed had only split into two clones.  The splitting was worse than he initially thought, because Sam didn’t understand the timing for when the new clones would sprout up.  It seemed random to him.  He’d missed some easy parries and got punished hard for his mistakes.  The enemies seemed a little smarter this time around and he wasn’t able to hide behind the trees as much as he did before.  They also varied their attacks and timing more.

By the end of his second outing, he ended up limping back to the cave, past a grinning merchant, worse off than the first time he had come with hardly any health, a depleted Soul Fire container, and only four hundred measly souls to show for it.  He kept his goal in mind.  His next purchase would be that shield.

He rested at the azure Soul Beacon until he regained full health and filled his Soul Fire container, then went back to the forest for more souls.  His timing was a little better now when it came to roll dodging and parrying.  He lost most of that anxious feeling that was over him last time and he was more focused than the first time he fought the Barkers.  Whenever he rolled, he kept the position of the trees in mind so that his enemy would strike those instead of him.  By moving, using cover, and isolating the group of Barkers into one-on-one fights, Sam was now up to two thousand hundred souls.  He’d quickly killed four of the Barkers including the first docile one.  Getting backstabs and opening blows on each enemy behind cover had helped him greatly.  He’d only drank his Soul Fire once amidst those kills.  But the odds had quickly stacked up against him and he found himself facing six enemies at once.  His limit was three at a time, he’d decided.  If he was really pushing it, he could maybe challenge four, but six was out of the question.  They had too much of a range advantage.

Sam cut and ran and found himself in a similar situation to before.  He ran and jumped off the cliff and into the cliffside cave entrance rather than the one that opened in the middle of the forest.  He went straight to the merchant and stared him in the eyes.  At this range the merchant looked quite weary.  There were dark rings under his brown eyes and baggy flesh.  Now, his eyes even seemed to sag.

The torchlight covered both men, as Sam made his request, “Inventory please.”

The two dimensional dark gray and white grid panel opened up and Sam scrolled over to the shield he wanted and read its stats in great detail.

Metal Crest Shield

Mid Blocking Shield

A wooden shield with a mid-sized iron crest of falcon on the front of it.  The crest sits in the middle of the shield and is scuffed from all the times it has deflected sword blows.  An iron border around the shield increases its defensive capabilities even more without sacrificing much of its light weight.

ATK 18

Weapon Damage 10

S ATK  D = 8

D ATK  F = 0

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

P RAT  0

D RAT  0

B RAT  1

The first page of stats looked to be all offensive.  Sam found these stats to be pointless for a shield, so he flipped over to the next page with the defensive values.

Metal Crest Shield

Mid Blocking Shield

P DEF (Physical Defense) 93%

M DEF (Magic Defense) 71%

L DEF (Lightning Defense) 65%

F DEF (Fire Defense) 25%

D DEF (Divine Defense) 30%

A DEF (Abyssal Defense) 30%

P RES (Poison Resistance) 85%

D RES (Dust Resistance) 70%

C RES (Curse Resistance) 30%

B RES (Bleedout Resistance) 100%

Sturdiness 54%

Durability 300/300

Weight 2.8lbs

This shield definitely had its uses.  Right now Sam just needed to be able to properly block.  He quickly purchased the shield which depleted the amount of souls he held down to eight hundred.

“Great purchase!” the merchant yelled with joy, “I knew there was a reason I liked you.  It’s always better to spend a soul than to hoard one.  You never know when you might die and of course your corpse has no need for them, hahahahahaha.  Imagine that, a corpse with no need for souls, hahahahaha.”

Sam ignored the creepy merchant, who seemed to be having the time of his life laughing at his own macabre jokes.  He quickly exited out of the purchase menu, since there was nothing else that he wanted right now and ran over to the Soul Beacon.  He sat and rubbed his cold hands near the warm totem.  He accessed Soul Beacon menu and mentally scrolled to the Level Up options.  He looked at his stats and pondered which one he’d level-up next.  He currently had enough to gain one Soul Intensity, which of course meant that he had one attribute that he could increase.

Name: Sarem the Sanguine

Class: Cutthroat

Soul Intensity: 7

HP: 180

Held Souls: 800

Souls to Next Level: 640

VIT 9

DEF 6

RES 7

STR 6

INT 10

DEX 15

SPD 15

SPT 4

BLF 4

PCP 3

It didn’t take him long to figure out which path his character would take.  Even though he’d only now just figured it out, he was glad that his previous stat increase would favor his newly thought up build.  He still didn’t know too much about this particular game, but it was similar enough to The Death Planes that Sam could form a good grasp on how he would specialize his character.  His start of a Cutthroat build ensured he’d have to play a certain way and so far he was doing better than he thought he’d do with his playstyle.

He placed his next point into vitality which increased the stat to an even ten and granted him two hundred health points.  He told himself that it would be the last point he’d invest in vitality for a while.

His next focus would be on getting his dexterity up to twenty.  Since it directly affected the attacking power of the skill based weapons he planned on using.  His Dagger had a B-grade scaling (power adjustment) with his dexterity stat, meaning that the weapon would attain more and more attack power as his dexterity increased.  A B-grade meant that the Dagger would receive a bonus eighty percent extra damage whenever Sam would attack with it.  If Sam’s Dagger had lacked a listed grade then it would only do the base amount of damage, which was only ten.  With A B-grade scaling in dexterity, Sam’s Dagger had gotten an extra twelve points of damage. With the weapon’s base ten damage, along with the fifteen points of damage added by Sam’s DEX stat, and the twelve from the Dagger’s scaling; Sam did thirty seven points of damage with his weapon.

Weapon scaling was enormously useful as even an E-grade with the weapon insured that he’d get the whole fifteen damage from his DEX and at least a twenty percent extra on top of that.  As long as the weapon didn’t have an F-grade, he’d get at least some benefit from scaling.

After all that, he’d increase his speed to twenty or maybe just increase his dexterity all the way to twenty-five and wait to see if he needed more speed or health at that point.  If he came across any useful abilities, he could add a point to spirituality along the way to get a single spellcrafte slot.  But that was it.  He didn’t need any of the other stats at all.  Putting points in defense would only slow his growth down in other needed areas.  Increasing his health and mobility was the priority along with his pure offensive power.

With high dexterity and a good DEX based weapon, he didn’t need the strength stat at all.  The default six amount given at the start was good for equipping all the small and mid-sized shields, so he wouldn’t need to increase it at all.  Resistance could come in handy, but Sam figured that the points were better spent in speed so that he could just avoid potential status afflicting attacks with quick dodging.  A ten in intelligence was a good base to learn some basic level spellcraftes, but Sam couldn’t see himself increasing it.  While a four in belief was four points too many as far as he was concerned.  He wished he could take all those points and put them into his dexterity right now.  The belief stat only affected the power of Blessings, Blasphemies, and divine as well as abyssal weaponry, four things that Sam had no desire to use with this character.

With his plan in place, Sam set out again on his quest to gain more souls.  He tested out his improvements in live combat.  With his new shield, he didn’t have to rely on the trees for cover as much.  Though his enemy limit remained at three at a time.

Each blow he blocked with his shield consumed a sizable portion of his stamina gauge and after so many consecutive attacks, his guard had been broken.  After that happened, he was left vulnerable to attack.  He quickly learned to block only at specific times while mostly using his dodging to avoid damage when possible.  He’d also noticed with the Metal Crest Shield that the opening to attack after parrying was about a second less than with his Deflector.

He returned to heal and reset the enemies again at his Soul Beacon and did it all over again, attaining forty-eight hundred more souls before deciding to move on.  He still hadn’t figured out the trick to killing the Barkers for good.  Alex had earlier eluded to there being one.  Instead of vainly focusing on that, he used all of his souls to increase his dexterity to nineteen.  He was one point shy of his goal, but figured it was best to move on to find his first glitch before he lagged behind too far in that competition.

******

Sam had bypassed a few lone Forest Barkers as he journeyed deeper into the forest.  He made sure to creep by them silently in case even one of them proved to be aggressive.  Way past them, he found a large bear decked out in knight’s armor from its head to its hind legs.  It sat on its rump like a human and stared listlessly at its feet.  Sam was curious about why the hell a bear would even be wearing armor in the middle of this forest, but something told him to leave the whole issue alone and just sneak past the bear.  He did just that and far from there, found himself near another clearing.  This time he stayed hidden amongst the trees, so he could better see his surroundings.

There was movement at the far end of the trail, so Sam stopped and crouched near a tree to see just who or what was approaching.  It was some sort of bearded huntsman who appeared to be looking for something.  He wielded a huge two-sided greataxe in his left hand and a wooden shield with a chipped blue deer painted on its front in his right hand.  He gazed from left to right as he passed tree after tree.  Sam grew a little concerned when the huntsman stopped only a few yards in front of him and started sniffing.  The huntsman walked forward a little more, stopped again and stared with wide opened eyes at something straight ahead of him.  Sam looked over and saw what he was looking at.  It was a dreadful sight.  A tall beast of a man with a large and broad frame noisily approached, each of his footsteps hit the ground with a metallic clatter.  He was decked out in black and red metal and had a blood red cape draped across his shoulders which fell to the length of his calves.  His mask was absolutely terrifying, it looked like the bleached skull of a huge vulture and attached to it were pristine white feathers which fell down the back and sides of the mask and further obscured the man’s features.  A cross-guard sword hilt poked out from his back.  The swordsman drew his weapon very quickly and held it down to his right side.  His knightly greatsword caught the moon’s light and refracted it into the dark forest.  The huntsman quickly strapped his shield unto his back and gripped his greataxe tightly with both hands.  Sam had learned from the manual that wielding a weapon with two hands increased its attacking power greatly.

As the two combatants stared at one another, the forest seemed to be on pause.  Sam was forced to wonder if the game had frozen.  They stayed that way until the swordsman with the vulture skull helmet broke the silence.

“Can you satisfy me?”

His voice was all ice, but it had a polite quality to it.

“You fiend!  I’ve come to end your miserable life and to insure that you lose all your quintessence.  You’re not a man anymore now, so you don’t need it.  I’ll send you to the depths where you belong!” screamed the burly huntsman.

The armored swordsman casually lifted his massive greatsword and laid its blade down on his shoulder.  He then flexed the fingers on his free hand and strolled towards the huntsman calmly, his cape catching some of the night wind.

The huntsman gritted his teeth and gripped his great axe even harder.

“For Marcus, for Maria!” he shouted as he ran towards the swordsman.

On approach, the huntsman hefted his mighty greataxe overhead and came down with a powerful blow that Sam knew would cleave the swordsman right in two.  The swordsman was too fast however and had anticipated the blow.  Sam had seen it all.  The swordsman had stopped the blow at its base by catching the greataxe’s handle and pushing it aside.  The swordsman then took his greatsword into both of his hands and sliced through the huntsman’s right shoulder and neck.  The huntsman’s blood had sprayed through the air and his head went rolling along the open forest trail and into the dark woods.  Sam had to stop himself from cursing aloud and whistling at such an impressive yet frightening showing of strength.  He certainly didn’t want to attract the attention of the bloodthirsty swordsman, so he kept completely silent and still.

“Now, I guess you’ll do then.  I’ll hang you up real nice too,” the swordsman said, murderous glee in his voice.

He bent down and grabbed the dead huntsman by his foot and started dragging him down the forest trail.  Sam felt an unease in the pit of his stomach as the swordsman and his carcass passed by, only a few feet in front of him.  The unease turned into a heaviness when the swordsman had suddenly stopped only a little ways past that.  He inclined his head to the side of the forest that Sam was on.  Sam couldn’t help but stare into the hollow sockets of the vulture mask that the swordsman wore, but he made sure to stay low and out of sight.  There was no way that he could be seen from the clearing, no way at all.

Sam resolved not to move until the swordsman was completely out of sight.  Nothing would convince him otherwise.  Thankfully the swordsman focused his attention to the path ahead of him.  Mentally Sam was relieved, but his virtual body had yet to relax even as the swordsman began to shuffle forward.  A light breeze buffeted Sam, the swordsman, and the forest trees in a brief cold wind.

“Ah, there it is.  Another trophy.”

The swordsman dropped the huntsman’s carcass and drew greatsword so fast that Sam called BS.  The nightmarish warrior quickly closed the distance between him and Sam.  Once he knew for certain that he was caught, Sam lifted his shield and drew his Dagger.  With both hands on his sword hilt, the swordsman busted through Sam’s meager defense easily with one downward strike, draining all of Sam’s stamina in the process.  Sam was left stunned and vulnerable as the swordsman naturally finished his attack with a vicious two-handed thrust into Sam’s midsection.  Sam felt the tremendous pain and cold weight of the steel inside of his digital body, which was starting to feel indistinguishable from his real one.  He felt all of his strength draining right out of him as his blood spilled onto the forest floor.  The swordsman violently pulled his greatsword upwards and wrenched it out of Sam’s body with a vicious slash that ripped apart Sam’s flesh from inside out and sent his blood spraying into the surrounding forest.  Sam’s health had already depleted and he was now simply waiting for the translucent ghost health bar to fade completely.  His vision had blurred and he felt an overwhelming urge to just lie still and rest.  And so he did, not knowing if it would really be his last breath.  His vision faded to black and dark red words painted his screen:

YOU HAVE DIED

10 Undead

“Sam?”

A voice, but whose was it?

“Sam!”

There it was again, but who was calling out to him like that?

“Oh my god, Sam!  Are you okay?”

It was a woman, but who?  Was it Alex?

“Come on now, Sam!  Wake up, you still have some glitches to find.”

It was Alex and she was right, he did have a lot of glitches to find.  He just knew that he was behind.  But right now he couldn’t see anything.  He also had a horrible headache and overwhelming nausea.  Was this an aftereffect of faulty Full Dive technology?

“Ow, I’m up Alex, but games shouldn’t make you feel like this.  I feel like I’m coming down with some sort of illness while I’m playing this.  Is it intentional?”

“Not intentional Sam, but it is an aftereffect of dying in the game.  We did want a penalty for it and the penalty is supposed be an aversive stimulus to the brain, like a dull mental discomfort.  Our algorithms should have adjusted to your mental state, but it seems to have given you more pain than was necessary.  I’ll work on a fix for this and we’ll call it your first glitch for now.  I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah, well I don’t feel okay.  I can’t actually die in here, can I?”

“No, not at all Sam.  Nothing in the game will affect you to that extreme of a degree.  As a matter of fact, all the pain you feel in here is completely simulated.  If you were to log out, you’d see that your physical self is still feeling as good as you did when you first started playing.  Well, maybe a little more hungry than before, but you get what I’m saying,” she explained.

That gave him some comfort, but the pain he was currently feeling didn’t fully convince him that she was telling the truth.  He was at least satisfied that he had been awarded one glitch pretty effortlessly.  Though he wondered if the pain was worth it.

His vision was starting to clear and he could feel the game’s cold forest atmosphere.

“Okay Alex, I got it.  As long as you assure me that I’ll be okay then you don’t have to worry about me.”

“That’s great Sam!  Hang in there.  You’re doing really well.  I’ve been checking the data of the other testers and it looks like they’ve been dying at much more frequent rates than you.  As a matter of fact, only you and four other testers have died less than three times so far.  Only two other testers haven’t died in the game at all so far.  All things considered, that’s a good start.  Now, until I fix the pain threshold, try not to die again.”

“Hell, Alex, I can’t promise anything as long as this madman is roaming through the woods.”

“Haha, good luck Sam.  Sorry about all this.  I know you’ll continue to do well, just keep pressing forward and playing smart.  I’ll be in touch.  Ciao!”

And that was it for the cheer.  Sam’s eyesight had now completely returned and he found himself in a horrible predicament.  He was upside down, hanging from some really tall tree.  He looked around and saw other corpses hanging around him.  The corpses were hanging from long thick gray branches on a score of tall trees.  There had to be at least a few hundred of them.

Most were dry mummies, but a few were actually still moving around and moaning with low forlorn voices.  You couldn’t call any of them alive as it seemed every one of them had been robbed of their very quintessence, that which made them human.  They were all revenants.  Some were just closer to becoming mindless husks than others.  Sam remembered the term from his days of playing The Death Planes.  He saw at least close to a hundred of these revenants wearing the same equipment as the starting classes.  There were more than a few twilight garbed Cutthroats hanging right near Sam.  Unfortunately the game devs (developers) had even included a sense of smell into the game.  The forest now reeked of dead and decaying things.

How the hell did they even know how to program that smell into the game, Sam thought.  Frickin sickos!

Sam started swaying his body without even thinking about it.  He looked over to his left and saw a humble wooden house hidden in the thick woods at the end of the forest path below him.  He tried to twist his body in the direction of the house and was mostly successful.  His stomach tightened when he saw the vulture headed swordsman walking from the residence down a dirt path towards him.

“Fuck.” he whispered to himself.

When the man was right below him, Sam heard something peculiar, something he didn’t think he was really hearing.

Is he crying?

“Oh no ... I can’t believe this.”

He wiped something from his unseen face.

“I’ve messed it all up now, haven’t I?  What will they say when they see that old Caesar is just hanging up anyone?”

He must’ve been referring to himself.  Sam heard him sob some more, but kept still on the off chance that the fiend thought he was still dead.  That hope ended when Caesar, as the man called himself, looked up at him and spoke.

“You’ve gone and really messed it up for me, haven’t you boy?  It was all perfect before you came.  A forest of the fiercest warriors in Heimfall.  The strongest undead from around the world on display.  It was fine art, really.”

He wiped his face again and sighed for an unnaturally long time.

“But I suppose it’s my fault for putting you up there.  It was an honest mistake and I didn’t dare pillage your quintessence.  That would completely ruin everything, all those years of beautiful work on my greatest masterpiece.  I’ll have to correct this and go get that huntsman instead and put him in your place.  You’re such a pain to get down though.  Please find your own way down.  If not, the only way to get you down is in pieces and I don’t want to worry about cleaning that mess.  I wonder if the mad king is out there now?  Snagging him would fix everything that I bungled.”

The madman walked off down the forest path and out of Sam’s sight.  Sam looked up at his own body and saw that he was still in his gear like many of the others.  He even still had his weapons equipped and hanging from his sides.  He quickly grabbed his Dagger and worked at the rope that was binding his legs together.  That rope snapped and Sam fell to the ground hard.  Sam was hanging so high up that the fall had shaved his health down to forty percent.  He landed right on his back and although in a lot of pain, he quickly got to his feet and took a swig of Soul Fire.  His health still didn’t restore itself completely, and so Sam took another swig from the silver container with no results.

“What the hell?”

Sam looked closely at his health bar and saw that there was some sort of metal bar where his health had stopped.  It seemed to be preventing his health from filling to maximum.  Then he looked at his stats and saw that his health was locked at one-hundred and eighty and next to his character name it said, (Revenant).

“Oh yeah, I’m dead now.  So I’m a revenant.”

He took off his gloves and looked at his skinny mummified hands which confirmed his suspicions.  He put on his gloves and started to run away into the forest, until a crazy thought crossed his mind.

His house is probably unguarded.  I might find some rare items inside of it.

Sam thought that the chances of that happening were highly likely.  After all, who would invade this madman’s house?  The game devs would count on no one wanting to do that.  If Sam wasn’t so desperate for good gear, he wouldn’t even consider it.  Now though, he had nothing to really lose, except the pain that came before and after dying.  He figured that the chance of finding rare loot outweighed the horrible pain, so he ran up to the residence as fast as he could and circled around to the back of it.  Already, he found a treasure chest right near the house.  He leaned down and opened it and found some sort of rosary called the Priest’s Charm.  He didn’t have time to read the stats for it.  He was quickly on the move again and quickly ran to the front of the house, opened the door, and snuck inside.  There was a single lit candle sitting on a large wooden table in the first room.  There were wooden carvings of many people fashioned into crude partially finished dolls, all lying across the floor.  Sam crept past all that and looked around the mostly empty house.  The only part of the house that looked lived in was the room with the strange blue hearth fire.  Inside of it was a small unburnt stone snake totem.  How it survived the fire unscathed, Sam had no idea.  He reached out and touched it and suddenly found himself with a similar Soul Beacon menu to the one that was displayed at the cave.  It surprised him that the two beacons were so different.  A thought popped into his head then.  He felt he’d made some sort of mistake.

Will I respawn (revive and teleport) here after I die?  And how come I didn’t respawn at the cave Soul Beacon the last time I died?

It was all very strange.  The manual had clearly stated that Soul Beacons were respawn points that reset much of the world, and that players would respawn at the last Soul Beacon they rested at upon death.  What had happened when he had died?  It was a question that he had no time to answer.  He exited the menu and removed his hands from the fire.  After refilling his Soul Fire, he saw nothing else around of interest in the room, so he quickly crept to the other side of the house and found the madman’s bedroom.  It was also very bare, with only a small wood frame bed, large wooden dresser, and a bunch of small wooden crates.  Sam did find one small treasure chest here.  Inside it, he found two items called a Wishbone along with three Quintessence items and a Forest Residence Cellar Key.  He wondered what these items did, but he didn’t dare stop and look.  He made his way to the back of the house and found the cellar that the key went to.  He quickly summoned the key from his inventory and unlocked the cellar doors.  He crept down into the dark cellar and activated his torch.  He looked around and was surprised by what he didn’t find.  There were no dead bodies or even any prisoners, but there were two long rows of treasure chests.  Sam hurriedly stooped down and opened them one-by-one.  There were six in total.

In the first one he found something called Broken Shackles (wrists) which sounded quite useless.  Then he found the matching Broken Shackles (ankles) in the chest next to it, followed by something called a Priest’s Extinguisher in the next.  On the other side he found an item called Sinner’s Scriber and next to that he found a Three Headed Hound Seal.  Each item sounded fairly useless and Sam was now dreading the fact that he even journeyed into the house.  Sam was most disappointed in the final treasure chest.  When he opened it, there was nothing inside and nothing special happened either.  He wondered if it were another glitch or not, so he quickly made a call to Alex from the Alpha Build menu.

“Yes, Sam?”

“Alex!  I’m short on time here!  Can you check this treasure chest to see if something was supposed to be inside of it?  I know you guys can be trolls, but I don’t want to miss out on any good items.”

“Gotcha.  Let me check it out ...”

It only took her about ten seconds to check her data.

“Wow!  I can’t believe this, it’s so careless,” she said with a frustrated tone.  She sighed and continued, “this used to be a mimic, but the other devs thought it wouldn’t be very fair or make much sense to have a mimic here, so we changed it at the least minute.  It was one of the few instances we decided to have mercy on the players.  Though I can’t even remember what was supposed to go in there.  I think it was a weapon, but I wasn’t the one who finalized it.  I don’t want to slow you down either, so I’ll just analyze this one on my own.  In the meantime, we’ll just note this down as your second glitch and put you a decent weapon in there, nothing game breaking though.  So what do you need, Sam?  I know that the Dagger is causing you some frustration,” she asked affably.

Sam couldn’t contain the crazy grin now plastered across his face.  How lucky was he?  Whatever was supposed to be in that chest might not have even been useful to him.  Now though, he could get something directly tailored to his playstyle.

“Thanks Alex!  Can you get me a mid to long range DEX weapon?  Preferably a sword if possible.  This Dagger’s lack of reach and base attack power is killing me, literally!”

“Okay, will do, sir.  Give me just a sec and I’ll randomize it to make it a little more fair.  Each weapon will match the parameters you asked for, but you won’t know which one you’ll get.”

“Fair enough,” he said still buzzing with excitement.

The chest closed itself.

“Can I open it now?”

“Go right ahead, Sam.”

He gleefully did as instructed and received a Rapier for his troubles.

“Fuck yeah!”

“Sam?  Sounds like you got what you wanted,” she said, amidst giggles.

“Yes Alex, thank you so much!”

He equipped it as fast as he could and extinguished his torch.  He still didn’t think he stood a chance against that madman Caesar, but at least he was better equipped than before.  He snuck out of the cellar and unlocked the back door of the house so that he could sneak out from there.  When he saw no one approaching, he ran back into the dark woods and kept running until he was sure that he was well away from the residence.  He still wasn’t sure where Caesar even was in the forest, but if he saw him, he would start running right away.  Combat was suicide.

He kept going until he found himself back near his old training grounds, near the cave, after having evaded some new enemy types after taking a new route through the forest.  One of the enemies was a Cutthroat like himself.

The Cutthroat had ambushed Sam from a tree with a “death from above” attack that took most of his health in one strike.  Sam had hurriedly scrambled to his feet and ran, but the Cutthroat was quick and persistent.  Sam had to weave in and out of the trees to create some distance and had to time his dodging with the enemy’s knife throws until he was out of range.  He didn’t want to start a fight with anyone or anything until he was sure that Caesar wasn’t around and that Cutthroat seemed like a tough opponent in his own right.  Once he was finally inside the cave, he passed by the grinning merchant and had his rest at the Soul Beacon.  He decided to sit and check his new items to see just what he got.

Priest’s Charm

Used as a catalyst to cast divine blessings.

A basic rosary worn by most peaceful priests of the church and battle priests in the fields.  Showing one’s belief is said to grant one abilities not known to those who are skeptical of the divine hierarchy.

Blessings come directly from a pact with the gods.

Wishbone (2)

Randomly pulls a partner for cooperative play.

A favorite of those who are superstitious.  To many, it’s just a simple bird’s furcula.

Breaking these with a friend is said to cause something special for the one with the bigger piece, a wish if you will.

Quintessence (3)

Completely restores a player’s HP and adds a point to his or her quintessence counter.

Probably the single most important object of desire for those who find themselves risen after death.  The quintessence is said to be what makes a person truly human.  To lose it is to lose yourself.

Broken Shackles (wrists)

Gauntlets

Used to restrain prisoners, these appear to be rusted and bloodstained.  Those who are cursed with undying flame are considered an abomination by most nations outside of Heimfall.  Thusly, when a person rises out of their graves after death, they are quickly contained and shipped to the cursed lands to rot away, away from civilized society.  These shackles litter the landscape.

Broken Shackles (ankles)

Anklet

Used to restrain prisoners, these appear to be rusted and bloodstained.  Those who are cursed with undying flame are considered an abomination by most nations outside of Heimfall.  Thusly, when a person rises out of their graves after death, they are quickly contained and shipped to the cursed lands to rot away, away from civilized society.  These shackles litter the landscape.

Priest’s Extinguisher (1)

Prevents a revenant’s use of Soul Fire upon contact.

A much needed item used by battle priests of many nations.  Priest’s extinguishers were so named because they disconnect a revenant’s soul from the very fires that feed it.

The first battle priests were said to hail from the cursed land of Heimfall, where this enchanted item is said to have been created.

Sinner’s Scriber

Allows a player to encroach upon the plane of another player.

One of the legendary writing tools crafted and enchanted by the eminent linguist, scholar, and mage Letraym.  As Letraym had no moral qualms about exploring facets of magic and language otherwise deemed wicked, she crafted this tool as a way for its users to share their malice with other worlds.

Three Headed Hound Seal

Increases Wearer’s Perseverance.

A signet ring bearing the seal of the royal family of Aschelund.  The seal depicts a legendary demon beast said to have been slain by Aschelund’s very first king.  Just wearing it seems to make one feel royal and strong.

Ring Slots: 2

Sam hurriedly equipped the ring to one of his free fingers and it increased his Perseverance by twenty points, up from the single point he currently had.  He scrolled through his menus to get to his manual to look up what perseverance actually did.  He had forgotten after so many years.  From its definition, it looked like perseverance was a statistic that allowed one to keep their “composure” in combat.  That seemed to apply to offense and defense, but beyond that the exact definition of what perseverance did was very vague.  He didn’t linger on it and instead read the stats of his Rapier.

Rapier

Thrusting Sword

A type of sword favored by those with precision and high skill.  Patience and good timing are needed to bait out attacks and strike an enemy’s exposed weak points.  The blade’s long reach makes its thrusting attacks very effective.

ATK  103

Weapon Damage  65

S ATK  D = 8

D ATK  C = 30

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  4

Weight: 2.2lbs

He switched over to read his Dagger’s stats to compare.

Dagger

Knife

A small blade, typically reserved as a last resort on the battlefield.  For most it is a useless weapon, but a few know human vital points quite well and look for the perfect moment to strike.

ATK  44

Weapon Damage  10

S ATK  F = 0

D ATK  B = 34

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  10

Weight: 1 lb

S ABS: 4000

The Dagger was a lot weaker, but had an amazing hidden critical value that was very high.  Sam hoped that the Rapier would be the exact same.

11 The Mad King of the Forest

Sam was a man possessed.  He dived headfirst into his new goal of collecting a lot of souls.  He spent what felt like a few hours on it, mainly fighting the Forest Barkers and running when they’d overwhelm him.  He gained enough souls to level-up four more times to soul intensity sixteen, increasing his dexterity to twenty, speed to sixteen, and his vitality to twelve.  He wanted a little more HP after being spooked by Caesar’s one hit kill blow.  He was hoping that his increased dexterity and new weapon would be enough to eliminate the Barkers with one critical strike, but his Rapier did the same amount of critical damage as his Dagger in the end.  That meant its critical multiplier was much lower than the Dagger since its base damage was much higher than it.  Sam guessed the crit multiplier for the Rapier to be about three times damage compared to the ten or more times of the Dagger.

Another negative impact of equipping a heavier shield and sword was that it affected his movement and dodging speed.  It wasn’t a drastic change, but he could feel the difference, especially whenever he rolled.  He didn’t cover as much distance as before.

He decided to move deeper into the forest.  There was a new enemy here that was hostile from the start.  It was another plant creature, but this one looked like a matador.  It hopped around like one and brandished a red muleta made of flowers while it danced.  It seemed like a rose come to life and even wielded a thorn covered sword made out of some kind of durable plant matter.  Its face was round and blank like a green grape and on the top of its head was a rose bud fashioned like a cap.

Sam and the rose man took turns thrusting at one another with their swords.  Sam attacked safely from behind his shield while the rose man evaded with its muleta.  Sam thought he had an advantage with his shield, but the rose man’s flowing muleta was effective at diverting all damage from its body.  Sam was starting to get frustrated, but he was having a harder time simply anticipating the rose man’s attacks.  He was afraid to attempt a parry, but it seemed like it was the best way to get past the rose man’s defenses in this case.  Nothing else seemed effective against such an evasive and deceptive opponent.

He tried to bait out certain attacks, but the rose man wouldn’t cooperate.  When it missed a thrust, Sam found his moment to strike.  Only it wasn’t his moment and the rose man countered him with a parry from its muleta.  It then thrust its thorny sword into his exposed chest and took half of his health, whilst afflicting him with the bleedout status effect which damaged him over a period of time like poison and seemed to slow his stamina regeneration.

Sam fell to the ground clutching his chest.  The pain was so great that he just wanted to stay on the ground and curl up into a little ball.  He only scrambled to his feet once he saw the rose man approaching.  He rolled away, created some distance between the two of them and took a swig of Soul Fire.

As it approached, the rose man launched a more powerful thrust at him.  When it collided with Sam’s shield, it deflected off of it hard, leaving the creature briefly stunned.  Sam retaliated with two quick thrusts of his own doing more damage than he normally would.  It wasn’t close to critical damage, but it was sizable enough to make a difference.  The creature’s health dipped down by about a fifth with each strike.

It quickly retaliated after Sam’s second thrust, but Sam had seen its attack already and now knew its point of origin.  He looked closely at the creature’s upturned wrist and the moment its thorny thrust took flight Sam tossed its delicate hand away which left it wide open for his opening blow.  Sam’s blow was a vicious thrust that went right through the creature and pierced its heart cleanly.  Its health quickly faded to nothing and Sam received a Rose Muleta for his troubles along with three hundred souls.

Sam made sure no one was around while he looked at what the muleta could do.

Rose Muleta

Shield

Boost’s evasion and blocks magic based attack.  Useless for blocking physical attacks.

A favored item by demon hunters and matadors of Krylatty.  The red color and aroma provokes simple minded demons and other beasts into attacking recklessly.  The size and length of the flowy material can obscure secret attacks.

P DEF  5%

M DEF  92%

L DEF  75%

F DEF  10%

D DEF  50%

A DEF  50%

P RES  100%

D RES  90%

C RES  60%

B RES  40%

Sturdiness  0%

Durability 100/100

Weight 0.3lbs

It had some solid advantages over his Metal Crest Shield in many aspects, but it just didn’t have enough physical defense or blocking ability, so he chose to skip it for now.  Seemed like it could be a good asset once he improved his parrying and dodging abilities.  He took another swig of his Soul Fire once the bleedout damage subsided and challenged another rose man on his way deeper into the forest.  His victory netted him three hundred more souls and one less drink from his Soul Fire.  He was down to only one drink.  He thought about returning to the Soul Beacon in the cave, but resting would only revive all the enemies he had already killed.  He pressed on further, looking out for strong enemies as he crept through the shadows of the forest.

Sam thought he heard something strange nearby, but he wasn’t sure what it was.  It sounded ... human.  The sound seemed to come from the north.  Sam hoped to hell that it wasn’t Caesar again.  Losing all his souls right now would be a pain.  He stayed in place for a while, listening intently until he heard the noise again.  It was heavy breathing and it had a cadence to it.

Sam silently stalked closer, staying near the taller trees, rounding them slowly, and staying low until he got to the next one.  He could now make out a towering figure in the dark.  It was a man, mostly obscured by a cluster of smaller trees and he was swinging a huge hunk of metal.  From this distance it looked like a very long and sturdy greatsword.  The man lifted it above his head with both hands and held it there.  His whole body remained still as stone and soon after he brought his sword down with power and precision, stopping it between his chest and stomach.  He hurriedly lifted the blade and struck downwards again, stopping at the same place.  Then he swung his sword around in circles with his right hand before passing it to his left and doing the same.  When he was done with that, he took the sword up into both hands again and brought it down near his pelvis where it hovered while he deeply inhaled the cold night air.  Sam could now clearly see his massive muscular shoulders and huge biceps.

At a distance and in such poor visibility, the man’s face couldn’t be seen.  Sam was certain that it wasn’t Caesar, however.  The man seemed much bigger than him and much broader.  He was also wearing something different.  He had some weird looking thing on his head.  Like a ... like a ...

Is that a crown?

Sam remembered back to what the merchant had told him earlier.

The mad king!  I need to get out of here.

Sam silently backpedaled, with the intention of going back to the Soul Beacon at the cave.

“Have you had your fill, stranger?”  The man’s question had chilled Sam.  He backpedaled some more and prepared to run.  “Prepare yourself.  You’re not getting away.”  The man’s raucous voice was filled with grim absolution.  He sliced down the trees between himself and Sam effortlessly with his greatsword.  Sam tried to run, but one of the trees fell in his way and when he tried to adjust the direction he was running, the mad king was already in his face.  The trees he’d cut down on his way to Sam had fallen and opened the canopy.

The moon’s light spilled down upon Sam and the king .  Sam could now see him clearly.  His humanity seemed to be intact.  There was no sign of decay on him, unlike Sam’s own mummified avatar.  He was a powerfully built mountain of a man, tall, and heavily muscled.

He wore a thickly plated red muscle cuirass over his chest, but left his arms and hands bare.  He wore a mostly gold cloth skirt with red designs over his lower body along with deep red greaves on his legs that covered his knees, calves, and ankles.  He wore a thick red cape over his shoulders with a golden clasp depicting some four legged multi-headed beast over his cuirass.  He froze Sam in place with his icy blue eyed stare.  Sam hurriedly glanced up from the king’s thickly bearded face up to the crown sitting atop the king’s short dark hair.  It was covered in dried blood and seemed to be a permanent fixture atop the king’s head.

“Ah, you aren’t the one I’m looking for.”

He looked at Sam from brow to boot, apparently sizing him up.

“You’re tall for a Cutthroat, are ye not, boy?” he asked loudly.

His voice disrupted the quiet night atmosphere more than anything else so far.  Sam remained silent, thinking of what his next action would be.

“Answer me boy!” he growled and pointed his greatsword at Sam.  The tip of the blade nearly touched Sam’s nose.

“I suppose I am,” Sam admitted.

“A foolish occupation for one so easily seen, but I think all Cutthroats are fools.  Why were you stalking me then, boy?” the king asked not dropping his sword.  “Doing a Cutthroat’s duty?  Trying to pillage my quintessence?”

Sam shook his head.

“That’s a dead man’s game, fool.  You try anything like that and I’ll take yours with no qualms about it.”

The king looked him over again.  He lowered his sword and continued to stare at Sam while rubbing his beard.

“You look to be in dire straits.  This forest has tested your will to live, it seems.  When I look you over, I just can’t see how you made it this far into this forest,” he said then laughed out loud.

“More men have lost their lives and sanity here than you can count.  Even worse, those men have found their very quintessence stolen and without it, were forced to become listless revenants.  That is the nature of this plague, to steal, kill, and perpetuate our foul stagnation.  You’d do well to leave here, boy and to leave your foolish profession.  You aren’t cut out for it anyway by the looks of you.”

Is this the same mad king that the merchant had mentioned?

“I would if I could, king.  It’s too dangerous to exit the forest.  There’s a swordsman out there, with a greatsword just like yours,” Sam answered.

“Greatsword?  Maybe you refer to that bloody forest killer.  I’ve heard the tales of his butchery.  He finds himself fortunate to have not faced the king’s justice.  If we ever cross swords then I will eagerly put the mad dog down.  I see you’ve lost some of your quintessence and have started to decay.  Could it be that you were killed by that madman?”

The king answered his own question before Sam could even respond.

“No.  It’s been said that he only kills and pillages the quintessence from warriors of great strength.  You luckily don’t qualify as one of his targets.”

Fuck you too, king asshole!

“This forest still remains perilous for an upstart like yourself.  Though I can clearly see that you’ve been tested, you just don’t have what it takes to survive here.  When I ruled, I was a kind king.  I hold the knightly oaths dear to my heart.  The number one oath of a knight of Ashelund, ‘protect the weak.’  I will help you while you’re in this forest, boy.”

“Whoa, really!?” Sam couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes.  Of course, my assistance doesn’t come free, not for one dressed in Cutthroat garb.  You will help me with something later.”

“With what?”

“In time, boy.  Right now we’ll make a pact.  I’ll consider you as part of my honorable king’s guard and provide you with strategies and assistance with many subjects in this forest.  In return you will join me in meting out the king’s justice.  What do you say to that?” the king asked as he walked further into the forest.  Sam didn’t know what else to do but follow the man.  They walked through a thicket and down a dirt path for a few minutes before coming to a stop near a thin stream.

Sam gave it some thought and decided that the king was giving him a seemingly good deal, at least for now.  The terms were a little vague but the tit-for-tat seemed to fall more in Sam’s favor.

“Sure,” Sam agreed.

“Good lad.  I’ll tell you a secret then to cement our cooperation.  All the plantlike creatures in the woods can be easily killed with fire.  That includes the seemingly immortal Forest Barkers.  Those tenacious beasts like to attack relentlessly, but fire takes them out at the root so they can’t replicate.  Here take this.”

Ignition Powder x5

“This’ll put the odds in your favor whenever you’re facing a hoard.  Imbue it to your weapon of choice.”

“Thanks, King.”

12 The King’s Justice

They stopped right in front of a Soul Beacon that was placed nearby.  Sam touched it and bathed in the blue glow that emitted from the stone snake totem.

Soul Beacon Activated

Without thinking, Sam sat down in front of it and rested.  Surprisingly, the king sat down next to him casually, with one leg stretched out and the other bent with its knee pointing skywards and his hand draped over that.  Sam looked over and thought to ask the king an obvious question.

“Sir ... king, what’s your name, sir?”

“That’s alright, boy.  In our current situation there’s no need for formality.  You can just call me king, if it pleases you.  But I have to wonder, where you have to be from not to recognize such a famous king as myself.”

“I’m from another world, Earth.  If you want to get specific, I’m from San Francisco though I originally hailed from Palo Alto.”

“I have not heard of such a world, but it is known that revenants lose their wits as they lose their quintessence.  You’ll have to restore yourself soon or lose your wits completely.  But to answer your question, boy, I am the Warrior King Herke of Aschelund.  Tales of my exploits have been told the world over.  I was once called the demon slaying prince in my youth, but am now known as the just king, for all my deeds leading up to my death.”

What about the mad king?  When did they start calling you that?

“That was before the curse.  Now it means nothing to be king in this undead land,” King Herke explained.  “All I can do is spread the king’s justice to all the depraved souls that I come across with my greatsword.  That forest killer for instance.”

“Why are you doing this?” Sam asked, naturally curious.

“I consider it a noble duty.  Just because I am undead doesn’t mean I lost what made me a man,” he said with pride in his voice.

“Is that why you’re in this forest?”

“You’re a curious one,” he stated, then laughed.  “I’m here because I’m looking to mete out the king’s justice to one particular undead.”

Sam was impressed by how real this all felt and how natural the king’s own conversation flowed.  He wondered who provided the voice for the king.  It had to be some highly trained classical actor.  The king’s passion came through with his every word.

“The forest killer?”

“No.  But he will receive his justice too.  I’m looking for a Cutthroat much like yourself.  This one lacks the fire that I see within you however.”

Even though he was referring to Sam’s avatar, Sam couldn’t help but take some pride in the king’s compliment.

“Who is this Cutthroat?  What have they done?”

“Ah, his name?  It’s been a while since I’ve passed that poison phrase through my lips.  His name is Rondo and he hails from my own land of Aschelund, at least that’s what I’ve been told.  He murdered my family; my wife and my son.  I never even got to take his miserable life myself.  While on the hunt, I was ambushed.  Caught some arrows in my back from some traitors who wanted my throne.  So the fiend slipped through my fingers, but I’ve heard it said that he’s in these lands, an undead.  I’ve made it my life’s mission to hunt him down, kill him twice for my queen and my heir, and to pillage the impure quintessence that he preciously clings to.  He will meet the king’s justice.”

Sam thought of the Cutthroat he had run into after he’d escaped Caesar’s house.  He had attacked Sam closer to the middle part of the forest near the cave.  Sam hadn’t made out too many of that Cutthroat’s features and at the time, he was too focused on running back to the cave to pay attention, but that was the only other human enemy that Sam had run into in the forest other than Caesar and possibly the huntsman.  Sam knew one thing for certain though, he wanted to help the king.  He felt bad for him.  To lose his wife and child to a murderer, then his own life before he was able to kill the animal responsible.  It saddened Sam, but Sam had also respected the fact that the king didn’t let an event as traumatic as his own death get in the way of doling out his justice.

“He’s in this forest?” Sam asked.

“He’s close.  I can feel it in my bones,” he said with conviction.

“Well then king, I’ll help you find this Cutthroat.  On my honor.”

For whatever that’s worth, Sam thought.

“Those are some courageous and honorable words you say there boy, but can I believe them?” asked the king.  “I just don’t know anymore.  My countrymen betrayed me and you, you’re dressed in the same clothes as my family’s killer.”

Sam went into his inventory and attempted to change immediately until remembering that he had nothing else to wear.

“But now, none of that matters, I suppose.  I have seen your soul firsthand.  I saw a conviction much like my own.  You have potential, for an undead that is.”

Sam stopped and simply looked at the king.  The big man stood up, completely eclipsing Sam’s view of the moon.

“If you are going to be a part of my King’s Guard and help me dole out justice, then you will have to be strong enough to survive the perils of this forest.  To that end, I’m going to teach you a Technique of the Aschelund Royal Guard, one that uses the full power of one’s sword and soul.”

Sam hurriedly got up to his feet and was captivated by the king’s every word.

“Draw your sword,” the king demanded.

Sam was confused by the sudden change in the king’s demeanor, but he made sure to closely obey his commands.  He quickly drew his Rapier from its scabbard at his side and held the blade up in front of him with both hands.

“No need for two hands, boy.  Relax.”

Sam took one hand off of his sword then looked over at the king.

“Good, now watch me and do precisely what I do.”

The king drew his huge greatsword from the sheath on his back.  The face of the blade was bathed in the moon’s light which refracted into Sam’s eyes.  The king held the greatsword in front of him in one hand, which was impressive, seeing as how the blade had to be the size of his teenage sister Rui.  Sam had expected the sword to be rugged in its design, but it was actually very elegant and somewhat ornate with fancy designs etched into its hilt.  The blade had care put into its design and the king was keeping it in good shape since it looked expertly polished and superbly sharp.  His grip on the sword handle remained firm and the king looked focused as his sword took on an orange glow.  At the apex of the glow, he turned the sword around with a flick of his wrist and swept it upwards over his head in a diagonal arc.  The king’s right knee had bent slightly while his upper body twisted in time with the blow.  The blade’s glow subsided once the king was done with the strike.  The king maintained the finished pose from the strike for another second allowing Sam to take in the details of the form.  The final detail was the bend of the left elbow while the right arm was completely extended with the sword in hand.

“Impressive,” Sam half whispered.

The king dropped his sword to his side as he talked to Sam.

“That is the famed Sword Uppercut Technique of the Aschelund royal guard.  Like with most of our Techniques, it’s best used to fell massive foes like those nightmarish beasts in our homeland.  Now, try it for yourself.”

Sam took his Rapier in hand and attempted the Technique with no results.  He tried again and got nothing.

What the heck is wrong, he wondered.  This is exactly how he did it.

He tried and tried and failed and failed.

“Don’t lose heart now.  You almost got it.  Your form is impressive.  Now you just have to feel for the power of the blow.  For us soldiers and royalty in Aschelund, the power comes from a resolute oath we take.  For we are the shields of our kingdom and the pillar upon which everything is built.  That resolution gives us immeasurable strength.  It is what ignites the power of our souls.”

To be strong and resolute, Sam wanted that too.  He needed it in his personal life as much as he needed it in the game right now.  He needed more strength to deal with the consequences of his father’s death, particularly the loss of his sagely advice.  Sam could only rely on himself now and he needed to be strong.  He needed to set a better example for Rui as well, so that she would have someone to turn to like he had with his father.  He also wanted to be strong for his mother, who he still knew hadn’t gotten over his father’s death.  He needed to be resolute in his decisions and stick to them.  Being there for his family, continuing forward as an artist in the video game industry even though it wasn’t working for him, not answering the phone when Michelle called, and more than all that sticking to the plan for success that he and his father had mapped out many years prior.  That path had no room for quitting and doing anything else except what Sam had planned on doing.  Sam would be a professional concept artist and he would make good money doing it dammit, but right now he would be the best at this damn game!

Sam found the burning feeling he needed, the feeling that he associated with winning, with survival.  It wasn’t a feeling he felt too often either.

“Good, boy.  That is your Soul Burning.  You need it to power Techniques of this magnitude.  Use all the power of your soul!  Use it with your most ferocious strikes and you will achieve victory.”

I will be strong and resolute, my blade will strike and I will not falter.  That thought had somehow felt natural to Sam.  It was such a strange thing to think, something so ridiculously serious.  He couldn’t think of the last time he had thought words so serious and powerful in real life, maybe never.  The words made him feel so good and so strong that he wondered what they’d make him feel like if he said them out loud.

“I will be strong and resolute.  My blade will strike and I will not falter.”

He took his Rapier in hand and took on the king’s earlier one handed fighting pose.  He kept that feeling of assured victory and let it burn within him.  He wouldn’t let himself lose now.  The burning he had felt inside of him had risen so much and soon seemed to even affect his sword.  It glowed in his hand just like it had with the king.  Finally, he turned his wrist upwards and swung his sword over his head in a diagonal arc.  He felt unstoppable as he swung his sword with the feeling only subsiding once the blow was done.

New Soul Burning Technique Learned.  Gained Sword Uppercut.

“Good, boy!  Good!  You’re a natural it seems.  That power is not easy to summon forth.”

It wasn’t and it seemed to tire Sam out very quickly.  He looked over at his green stamina and saw that it had depleted by about forty percent.

“Holy hell!”

This wasn’t the sort of Technique that one could spam (use repeatedly in an exploitive manner).  He also noticed a new bar under his health and stamina bars.  It was blue and about a tenth the size of his health bar.  It had already partially depleted after he had done the Sword Uppercut Technique which was when it also appeared in the first place.  A magic gauge?  It seemed so.  And so Techniques used magic and stamina.

Sam looked over at King Herke to see if he had anymore wisdom to impart to him.  It unnerved him to find the king staring at him with great intensity.

“Where did you get that ring?” he asked aggressively.

“What—”

Sam looked down at the rings on his hand and tried to figure out which one the king was referring to.  One had increased his physical defense, the other his magic defense, and the third one increased his persevere which did something that Sam couldn’t remember.  He stared at the rings.  The first two rings didn’t look like anything special, but the last ring had a cool etching of a three headed dog on it, like Cerberus from Greek myth.

“This one?” Sam asked holding the finger up with the dog etching.

“Yes.  Where did you get it?”  The king narrowed his eyes at Sam.  All the trust they had recently built up seemed to have flown out the window.  Sam could think of nothing to say but the truth.  He only hoped that it wouldn’t get him killed.

“From the forest killer’s house.  I snuck in after he killed me and looted his place when he left.”

The king surprised Sam when he started laughing.

“By the gods of light!  Did you really steal from that madman?”

Sam nodded his head with a grin on his face.

“That’s bold, boy and much better than he deserves in any case.  That ring you so casually wear belonged to a member of the Aschelund royal family.  If it were in that monster’s possession, no doubt he’s murdered some kin of mine.  As if I needed more of a reason for him to meet the king’s justice.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, sir.  Would you prefer it if I didn’t wear the ring?” Sam asked thoughtfully.

“No, it’s yours now.  The royal name of Aschelund has very little meaning in these lands anyway, probably less than my former title of king.  I’d rather someone with righteous fire inside of them hold onto it than a killer.  Now that it’s in your possession, let’s make sure it stays there.  I will teach you one more Technique, this one my own specialty.  I’ve only managed to teach it to one other person.  Once you master this, you’ll be truly prepared for the dangers that lie in this forest.  Now follow my lead.”

13 The Gift of Sinning

The king’s Skyward Thrust Technique was more difficult for Sam to learn than the Sword Uppercut was.  Mimicking the king’s intricate movements was the most difficult part.  This time, the piercing blow required a lot of forward movement on Sam’s part.  He had to start the Technique leading with his off foot in front and then lunge forward with his right foot in front of him while thrusting his sword into the air with his right hand.  There was a trick to the thrust too.

“You can’t do it exactly how I do it,” said the king.  “Our weapons are too dissimilar.  Thrusting like I do with my greatsword isn’t going to help you.”

He hadn’t instructed Sam on what to change to make the Technique work and that left Sam to practicing it for a while to figure it out.  The main difference between Sam’s Rapier and the king’s greatsword was size.  The king punched forward with his thrust, effectively relying on his great power to obliterate all that stood ahead of him with a single blow.  Sam didn’t have anywhere near the amount of strength that the king had, so he had to rely on his skill instead, even with a powerful Technique like the Skyward Thrust.  Once he had that in mind, he seemed to visualize his next move perfectly when he closed his eyes.  Now he just had to feel it out and perform it flawlessly.

He got into position and practiced a few normal thrusts.  Then he built up the power of his Soul Burning, that feeling of complete power, of victory.  Thanks to his visualization, he instinctively knew what to do next.

Is that something that the game programs in us, he thought, the ability to visualize these Techniques once we figure them out?  It doesn’t matter.

He led the Technique with his left foot and lunged forward with his right, this time he swiftly upturned his wrist and let loose three quick rapid stabs followed by a powerful final blow that he had to completely extend his body into.  The whole time he felt rooted to the spot and as strong as stone.  During the Technique, each of the stabs resulted in a fiery glow on the tip of his Rapier and the final elongated stab caused the whole sword to glow like an ember.  Sam’s body had also been briefly engulfed in the glow whilst performing the move.

New Soul Burning Technique Learned.  Gained Skyward Thrust.

Replace Current Skill?   Yes   No

Sam chose yes.  It was strange, but somehow he was able to equip the Technique without having any spirituality slots.  But, he still had to remember to occasionally put some points into spirituality so that he could equip multiple Techniques or Spellcraftes, should he find any good ones.  For now the Skyward Thrust seemed to suit him more.

“Good, very good.  You have learned my Technique well and made it your own.”

“Thank you, king!  I feel stronger already.”

The king laughed and put his own sword away.

“You should.  That very Technique has been used to slay the most foul and fearsome beasts in our land.  My own ancestor used it to slay the tri-headed crimson beast of legend.  Make sure that you aren’t the only bearer of this Technique to leave this plane in abject mediocrity.”

Sam was determined not to be.  He gave the king a quick nod and thought of the many uses he’d have for his two new Techniques.  He needed to practice them ASAP.  Now, he had favored the Skyward Thrust, because it was a multi-hit thrust Technique with great range.  The Skyward Thrust used more of the magic gauge, which Sam now knew was called Soul Power.  Each stab from the Technique drained a little of the gauge, with the final power stab taking slightly less SP than the entire Sword Uppercut.  The Sword Uppercut was a quicker attack though.

“Now go.  This forest is large and the easiest way to find Rondo is to take separate paths to the fiend.  I will leave my sign in the forest.  If you find him or are in dire need of my help, use my sign to call me.  I too am a Walker.”

“A Walker, sir?”

“I can travel between the planes of worlds.  That ancient mage Letraym has left all sorts of tools around to make such a thing possible.  But if you find any wicked person of interest or simply need my assistance, find my signature and summon me across the planes to your side.  It’s the best form of cooperation in this cursed land.”

******

Sam had tested his new moves against the rose men of the forest.  Unfortunately he could only hit the creature cleanly with the Sword Uppercut.  The Skyward Thrust could only be aimed upwards and went right over the short rose man he was fighting.  Thankfully, the Sword Uppercut’s attack started at Sam’s hip.  The Sword Uppercut did more damage than Sam’s normal light and heavy attacks.  It didn’t outstrip the heavy attack by very much in damage.  Sam was almost disappointed until he accidently stumbled upon the real usefulness for the Technique.  The second rose man he fought had attacked him while Sam was performing the Sword Uppercut and even though Sam got hit with the rose man’s full thrusting attack, he didn’t stagger or stop his own attack.  He took full damage and continued to swing his sword upwards as if nothing had happened at all.  He felt invincible, unstoppable.  Well, until the attack ended anyway and his brief burning glow subsided.  And because that particular Sword Uppercut was a counter hit (attack performed on an attacking opponent), he scored a bonus amount of damage for it.

“Awesome!  I need something else to hit!”

******

Sam returned from a grueling training session against the Forest Barkers near the cave.  He was delighted to find that the Ignition Powder had actually worked and when the Barkers began to number more than six, Sam had applied the fire effect to his weapon and burned the Barkers so that they could not replicate anymore.  After returning and testing his parries against the rose men, Sam noticed that King Herke had already disappeared from the Soul Beacon.  Sam searched around the area and even went to where he had first found the king, but he couldn’t find him at all.  He then went back and rested at the Soul Beacon to peacefully think about what his next move would be.  He had enough points to level himself up some more, so he did just that.

Sam toggled each of the stats, increasing some by a single point then seeing what each stat would change with all three points that he could allocate.  Some of the stats surprised him with extra effects that he hadn’t counted on.  He noticed that increasing his vitality also increased his stamina as well as his “Equip Hold” which was the maximum amount of weight he could carry at any given time.  Increasing Equip Hold would also decrease his current equipment burden and if he could get that low enough, his overall speed would increase.  Since Sam had yet to save his point increase, he took the vitality back to normal and checked out what increased strength would give him.  Besides increasing his S ATK, leveling strength seemed to increase the Equip Hold even higher than the same amount of points in vitality.  Three points in vitality would give Sam an additional sixty points of health, six points of stamina, and six Equip Hold.  Increasing his strength by three would give him an additional three points to S ATK and nine points in Equip Hold.  That extra Equip Hold almost made Sam put a point into strength, but he instead put all three of his points into vitality since he could use all the benefits it provided.  Sam was now soul intensity nineteen and was curious about what his stats looked like overall.

Name: Sarem the Sanguine (revenant)

Class: Cutthroat

Soul Intensity: 19

HP: 270/270 (-10%)

SP: 7/7

Stamina: 67/67

Held Souls: 1300

Souls to Next Level: 1840

VIT 15

DEF 6

RES 7

STR 6

INT 10

DEX 20

SPD 16

SPT 4

BLF 4

PCP 3

S ATK 6

D ATK 20

M ATK 10

B ATK 4

P DEF 6 +20 (Ring) 26

M DEF 11 +20 (Ring) 31

F DEF 4

L DEF 10

D DEF 5

A DEF 5

P RES 7

D RES 7

C RES 4

B RES 7

Perseverance: 1 + 20 (Ring) 21

Burden/Equip Hold: 14/58 24%

Discovery: +2

TECH Slots: 1, Skyward Thrust

SPT Slots: 0

After leveling up, he decided to check all of his items and read them closely this time.  Certain items seemed to have some story significance to them, as was the case with the Three Headed Hound Seal.  He sat and read the descriptions for a while and found one that piqued his interest.

Sinner’s Scriber

Allows a player to encroach upon the plane of another player.

One of the legendary writing tools crafted and enchanted by the eminent linguist, scholar, and mage Letraym.  As Letraym had no moral qualms about exploring facets of magic and language otherwise deemed wicked, she crafted this tool as a way for its users to share their malice with other worlds.

“Encroachment, huh?  It’s time to go say hi to some other players.”

Sam added the Sinner’s Scriber to his one of his Quick Select slots.  The scriber looked like some sort of ornate and thin ice pick.  It was wrought in a metal that was as polished as silver and had a handle made of dark red wood.  Sam instinctively knew that he had to scribe his message into the ground below.  The game seemed to feed him these subtle instructions mentally.  He bent down and etched his message into the dirt of the forest floor.  As he wrote, the tip of the scriber glowed.  Sam rose up and smiled as he read his ominous message which seemed to be written in magic that was the color of glowing blood.  It read, “Sarem is coming.”  Sam placed his hand on the glowing message and a prompt popped up.

Use the Sinner’s Sign to warp to another’s plane?

Yes   No

Sam vocalized his decision with a, “Hell yeah”, and was enveloped in a deep red glow that obscured his vision.  He could only see pulsating crimson light all around him and felt himself being pulled from all sides, like he was being stretched apart.  He felt like he was moving, but had no clue what direction he was moving in.  The distortion caused him to fall to one knee to balance himself.  After only a few seconds the glow faded and he found himself back the in the dark forest where he had seemingly left it, only nothing seemed to have changed.  He rose to his feet and looked around.

Did it work, he wondered.  He touched the nearby tree and got a confirmation, well maybe.  There appeared to be two red lights on the tree that brightened when Sam leaned his head in to inspect it.  His eyes were glowing, he suspected and they were very bright.  He’d be at a disadvantage like this, in the dark.

Now encroaching upon the plane of JakThe_MonarchBfly.

The words blinked on and off for a while.  Sam grinned as he recognized the gaming handle as one belonging to his pal Jacob.  He had gone out with Jacob and a few others a couple of nights ago for drinks as a matter of fact.  They had all speculated about the game.  None of them had predicted that they’d be playing a fully immersive VR version of The Death Planes.

“I’m gonna find you Jacob and kill you buddy, hehehehe.”

Sam decided to proceed through the forest slowly while lightly humming the theme of Michael Myers from the Halloween movies.  As he skulked around, he came across the same creatures from his own plane.  At first he avoided them, until he noticed that none of them had paid him any attention.  One of the rose men had even walked directly in front of him without a care in the world.  Normally they aggroed (become aggressive) at a much further range.  Sam then remembered a little about encroaching in the old Planes games and recalled that it was the same back then.  The AI controlled enemies didn’t attack encroachers.

Sam heard some foreign noises in the distance.  It wasn’t a sound he recognized from the enemies of his own game, so he went to go check it out.  In the distance he saw some intense fighting between a Cutthroat and a Fighter.  The Fighter had the default armor set and the starting Steel Sword for the class.  The Cutthroat was in the same gear as Sam but fought with two Daggers instead.  He circled around the Fighter, who kept his mid-sized shield up in front of him.  Above the Fighter’s head was his username, JakThe_MonarchBfly.  Sam quickly took advantage of the situation and snuck up to Jacob.  Even though he approached from his rear, Jacob still seemed to notice Sam’s avatar and rolled away into the forest away from both Sam and the other Cutthroat enemy.  Sam counted on the repeated rolling to drain Jacob’s stamina really quickly.  After four rolls, Jacob looked unable to move for a little more than a second.  Sam used that to catch up and stab his buddy in the back.  Jacob’s health bar had popped up, already at half, and Sam’s backstab had easily taken the rest of his health.  Jacob’s avatar fell to the ground and writhed in pain until he faded into a cloud of white soul aura and was absorbed by Sam.

Sinner’s Encroachment Completed

Sam was given one thousands souls for his efforts and a single unit of loose Quintessence which was temporarily displayed at the lower right hand corner of the screen, below his souls.  He also got something called a Bloody Tearstone.  He gave a bow to his fallen opponent, even though it was a little too late for honorable gestures considering all the grief he just put Jacob through.  Sam still couldn’t help but to laugh at how he ambushed of his friend.  The game didn’t have any chat functions for the players, but he just knew that Jacob would be ridiculously pissed at him right now.  He’d be that way for at least the next thirty minutes straight as he whined and cursed at how unfair the game was and how much of a jackass Sam was to do something so cheap.  It would be even funnier once he saw Jacob outside of the game and heard him explain it all in a way that only Jacob could.

With the Sinner’s Encroachment completed, Sam was whisked away back to his own plane in the same way as before, this time without the red aura.  There was only a blurred distortion this time.  When the distortion disappeared, Sam found himself in the exact same place as he was before he left.  There were no enemies nearby, so he took the time to read the description of his new item in relative peace.

Bloody Tearstone

A favored trophy of sinners.

When sinful Walkers decide to encroach upon the planes of those who are innocent, several distortions are guaranteed to occur.  One such distortion is the creation of these solid crimson colored gems, which are said to be a physical manifestation of an encroachment victim’s grief.

What was strange about the whole encroachment was that Sam was able to encroach upon another player’s plane while being in his revenant form.  In the old Death Planes games, players had to be in human form to encroach into other planes or even to be encroached upon themselves.  It was a mechanic that ensured a certain level of balance when it came to the frequency of encroachments.  That method ensured that players had some control over if they would participate in encroachments or not.  The more he thought about it, the more Sam simply figured it to be a product of the alpha build of the game.  The developers probably just wanted to see if encroachments worked correctly and didn’t want simple barriers to get in the way of testing it.  That still didn’t explain why they would hide the item needed to initiate an encroachment inside of a place that most players would avoid.  Maybe they wanted to test out player psychology and see what kind of players would find and use the Sinner’s Scriber or maybe they just wanted players to be at a higher level to defeat Caesar before they got it.

Whatever the case, Sam was the perfect candidate to get this item.  He had no qualms about encroaching and killing other players.  In fact, he found it pretty funny and enjoyable in a game like this.  He could only imagine the pure terror in the other testers who were likely already struggling with the game as they got encroached upon by a skilled tester like him who was out for blood.  It made him feel like a movie monster.  Sam was confident that he was the first person to get the Sinner’s Scriber, so he would make sure he got the most use out of it before anyone else.  Since he still had all of his health and full Soul Fire, Sam used his Sinner’s Scriber again and dove right into another new plane.

14 The Sinner vs The Immortal

Sam hurriedly lifted his shield in front of his face and was pushed back a little from the force of the projectile as it collided with his shield.  It was a wooden arrow, the third one that Sam had blocked in this fight.  Sam had a hard time getting into the range of the tester he was chasing who seemed to have built a character even faster than Sam’s own.  The tester used a Ranger and went by the handle DangerStompz and Sam knew him as a quiet guy named Steven in real life.  Steven was cool because he told Sam the dirtiest jokes he’d ever heard in his life.  It was so funny because no one else believed that Steven told jokes like that.  The other testers always assumed him to be a nice and quiet guy because he mostly kept to himself.  Besides telling dirty jokes, Steven also played dirty no matter what the game.  He’d exploit any advantage in order to ensure his victory, even glitches.

Steven was also really smart and observant.  Every time Sam blocked one of Steven’s arrows with his shield, Sam noticed that Steven’s attacks had locked him in his blocking animation for a half second longer than he needed.  Steven took advantage of this to create more distance.  Sam yelled obscenities, knowing that Steven couldn’t hear him.  When he was done with that, he puzzled out a strategy to get in close to his friend turned opponent.

“Alright!  Here we go!  YOLO dash!”

Sam ran forward, laughing at his outdated slang from the twenty-tens while using the trees as cover whenever he saw that Steven was about to fire an arrow.  The strategy worked for a while until Steven altered the timing of his shots.  He waited for Sam to emerge from behind cover then fired shots at various speeds and trajectories.

One of the wooden arrows pierced Sam’s shoulder and caused him to reactively reel backwards from the force of the blow.  The arrow had stunned Sam enough to leave him open to another of Steven’s shots.  The arrow almost connected, but Sam rolled forwards, past it, just in time.  With a properly timed dodge roll, Sam found that he could get certain attacks to pass right through him, even when it looked like they connected.

Steven stood up on a slight incline deeper in the forest, and so Sam had to run upwards to catch him.  He gained a lot of ground thanks to his dodging and was now right in Steven’s face.  Steven ran around to Sam’s right and tried to circle around him, maybe searching for a backstab.  Sam quickly guessed that Steven was actually trying to bait out one of his attacks, possibly to parry it or maybe he was just trying to buy some time.

“That’s it!” Sam yelled aloud, but he knew his friend couldn’t hear him thanks to the way the game was designed.  He also knew that his earlier guess was wrong.  Steven was actually stalling so that he could equip a melee weapon.  Equipping more than one weapon would surely slow him down tremendously.

Sam stopped and charged up his Soul Burning Technique.  Steven thought he saw some sort of opening and attempted to close the distance between himself and Sam.  Sam stopped charging his attack and unleashed it on Steven.  He pivoted around and swept his fiery blade upwards, cutting Steven’s avatar from hip to shoulder.  Steven was knocked to the ground from the forced of the blow.  Sam was able to follow up with something new that he totally did by accident.  As a way to prolong his attack while waiting for Steven to rise, Sam charged a heavy thrust by going deeper into his stance and tensing his muscles, just like real life.  Once the charged strike landed, it did nearly twice the damage of a normal heavy attack and caused Steven’s Ranger to recoil horribly.  It was all that Sam needed to walk up to Steven aka DangerStompz’s and backstab him.  Sam stopped and, with outstretched arms, did an “are you not entertained” pose from a certain classic movie, over Steven’s fading corpse.

Sinner’s Encroachment Completed

Sam managed to rake in one thousand souls, a unit of loose Quintessence, and another Bloody Tearstone.  Now he had twelve of those tearstones, one from each of the testers he had encroached and killed.  Steven had proven to be his most difficult challenge and even he couldn’t get Sam’s health down below half.  Each of the testers had proven to be a very good source of souls and Sam had enough Quintessence to stay in human form for a while now.  He turned human right after his first encroachment and hadn’t been killed since.

With his prey now vanquished, Sam was once again returned to his own plane.  His soul count was looking pretty hefty, so he figured he’d take a break from killing other testers in order to level himself up and do it all over again.  The encroachments were proving to be way too much fun.  It was a welcome distraction from the difficulty of the game.  It felt better being the predator rather than the prey.  Sam had dug into the game manual a little more to read up on the ends and outs of player encroachments and saw that an encroacher stood to lose very little even if they were defeated.  They’d remain in human form and even had a chance to keep their souls and loose Quintessence as long as they went back to the spot where they died in the other player’s plane to pick them up.  That spot would appear in Sam’s own plane.  It was called a Death Mark and had contained all the loose Quintessence and souls that were in Sam’s possession upon his death.

Sam rested at the forest Soul Beacon and accessed his Level Up menu from there.  He threw caution to the wind and rose his soul intensity up to twenty five by putting all six of his points into his speed.  It had cost him a hefty thirteen thousand six hundred and thirty souls, but after seeing what DangerStompz could do with his speed, Sam opted to try the same.  He grinned as he rose up from the Soul Beacon and started moving.  He immediately felt the difference in his basic movement.  He tried a roll dodge and saw that he had cleared much more distance than usual.  Even his attack speed had improved by a noticeable margin.

“Oh yeah, this is where it’s at!  Hold on to your precious souls and quintessence, alpha adventurers!  Sarem the Sanguine is coming ‘round, coming ‘round, coming ‘round!  And Sarem wants to hear you cry out his sins as your blood paints his forest red.”

He knew it was over the top, but he was having fun with it.  The Full Dive technology really made this game a true role playing experience.  He knew he’d have some really sick stuff to illustrate once he was done with the gig.  He was feeling all types of inspired.

“Now, let’s get back to sinning.”

He took out his scriber and etched his crimson sign into the dirt.  This time it read “Fear the Cutthroat Walker, Sanguine.”  Only Sam could read his crazy messages, a fact that disappointed him.  He knelt down and touched the message which once again glowed red and whisked him away to another plane.  He noticed that he was in a random part of the forest, this time far away from where he was in his own world.  He hadn’t been to this part of the forest yet in his own game.  He didn’t have a lot of time to survey his surroundings as the tester he had encroached upon was right in front of him up on an incline, just staring at him.

Now encroaching upon the plane of IMMORtAL_Kalika.

The tester used a small female avatar and was in human form.  The avatar had dark brown skin, dark red hair, and even at the distance he was from her, Sam could see her eyes were a shimmering yellow color.  It wasn’t an easy color to create with the character customizer.  Sam couldn’t figure out the setting she chose to get the shimmer effect.

Her long black boots and bright white gloves gave Sam the impression that she had started the game with the Alchemist class, which was brand new territory for this game.  He was curious as to what it could really do.  Instead of wearing the Alchemist’s cloak or any protection for her upper body, the girl instead was stripped down to her bra which covered all but the top part of her size B breasts.  She also didn’t wear the Alchemist’s cowl, instead opting to let her mid-length hair flow freely.

Sam couldn’t get a read on her.  She remained still and her face seemed totally blank as she stared at him.  He expected some level of fear or at least some annoyance at his sudden arrival.

They both stood still and stared at each other for what felt like two solid minutes.  Sam was quickly getting impatient as he listened to the forest ambience that was the soundtrack to their stare down.  He continued to remain as still as the girl was and they faced off for another minute before she stepped backwards, turned, and started running.  Sam laughed before quickly pursuing her.

Clever girl, Sam thought, you were just stalling.  It won’t buy you much time though.

He ran up the incline and as soon as he reached the top, he lost his footing and fell into some sort of opening at the top of the incline.  Once he saw what he was falling into, his stomach dropped and he yelled into the chasm that stretched endlessly below him.  After a while he stopped falling and his screen turned black followed by the words:

You Have Been Vanquished.

Sam found himself near the Soul Beacon of his own plane feeling very disoriented and sick.  He felt like throwing up and the headache was coming back like when he had died before.  Alex still hadn’t fixed the pain simulators.  Sam had to make sure that he played safer.  He had hoped that dying as a Walker wouldn’t cause that pain.  The thought of his death made him think of the tester who had just bested him.  Was it a fluke, he wondered.  He had to replay it all in his head to get a sense of what had happened.

“That bastard!” he said grinning.  “She tricked me.”

Her staring game was merely a distraction and when she ran she knew it would bait him into chasing her.  She was already on the other side of the chasm when he showed up.  That was what he had figured anyway.  IMMORtAL_Kalika wasn’t a tester Sam had any familiarity with in real life, so he didn’t really know the player’s style or tactics, but if he or she had planned that outcome of their encounter then whoever that person happened to be was reasonably smart at the very least.

“Ooooooh!  I hope I get to run that one back again.”

Sam’s blood was boiling and he hurriedly equipped his Sinner’s Scriber and wrote “Salty Runback” in crimson into the dirt.  He crossed his fingers as he teleported into the next plane.  Once there, he immediately started looking around for his target.  He balled his fist tightly around his Rapier and gritted his teeth in a predatory smile once he saw the words he wanted to see.

Now encroaching upon the plane of IMMORtAL_Kalika.

He was once again in a part of the forest that he didn’t really recognize.  There was a large archway covered in thick white mist way up in the distance.  It looked like it might have been a way out of the forest or maybe even some type of dungeon.  If he swung around deeper into the forest, he could reach it, but for now his attention was focused on finding Kalika, wherever she was.

He didn’t need to go very far to find her.  She was right ahead, under a cluster of tall trees.  This time, she gave a bow, never taking her shimmering yellow eyes off of Sam.  Now, there was a playful smile on her lips, one that Sam read as “I got you last time, now what’re you gonna do?”

Sam returned her bow with a bow of his own.  He also kept his eyes on her the whole time.  Once they were done with the pleasantries, he jogged towards her with his Rapier and shield ready in front of him.  He kept his eyes peeled for any nasty environmental traps, a tough thing to do while examining his opponent.  At a glance, her playstyle seemed odd.  She wasn’t using a shield at all, not even a tiny Deflector like Sam had before.  As a matter of fact, it looked like she wasn’t using any weapons at all.  Both of her hands were empty.

What the heck are you up to, Sam thought to himself.  You must think I’m a small-fry.  Let’s go ahead and show you why you need to be taking me more seriously.

If she was any good then she would wait for Sam to attack and then parry his attack.  Sam didn’t remember if you could parry an attack with your bare hands in this game, but he assumed it was possible.  He broke into a sprint once he was only a few feet away and ran to her side.  His burst of speed would catch her off guard, especially since he’d increased it.  As she turned towards him, he quickly rolled towards her back.  He was laughing in his head.

This’ll teach you to fight me with no gear!

He quickly bounced to his feet and was knocked off guard when something collided with his face.  Whatever it was had done very little damage, but it did knock him off balance a little.

“What the hell?” he wondered aloud.

The girl was in his face and actually attacking him with her bare fists with repeated combinations.  The damage was pitiful and even multiple hits barely racked up to anything significant.  Despite the low damage, Sam was still worried.  She had effectively locked him into some sort of stun state where he couldn’t move until she was done attacking.  Once her combination ended, she rolled away and Sam gave chase, this time ready to attack.  Once he closed in on her, she surprised him again by turning around and throwing a wild haymaker.  He instinctively pulled his shield up in front of him which caused her hand to rebound off the shield like so many of the plant enemies he had faced before.  Perfect!  He thrust his Rapier at her for some heavy damage.

Unfortunately she didn’t suffer the same deflection penalty that Sam and the other enemies faced from having their attacks deflect off of a shield.  She recovered far faster and was able to parry Sam’s thrust.  Her timing was perfect and she walked up to him to deliver a cool looking, though very painful opening blow.  She drove her bare fist deeply into Sam’s stomach, which caused him to involuntarily cough up ridiculous anime levels of glowing blood.  She hit him so hard that he was briefly lifted from the ground and when he fell back onto her fist, she heaved him down to the ground onto his back.

When all was said and done, he had only lost about a fifth of his total HP which wasn’t bad at all.  She would have to catch him off guard four more times to win at this rate.  Sam was in a lot of pain as he rose to his feet, but he was grinning.  He knew that he had her now.  He only needed a few powerful thrusts to take her out and he had a range advantage.  He could poke at her with his Rapier from outside her parry range if he needed to, and that’s what he did.

IMMORtAL_Kalika didn’t have many points invested in her HP.  Sam landed two light pokes on her from behind his shield and took off a sixth of her total health with each strike.  He had done more damage to her with two easy attacks than she did with an opening blow which was supposed to be many times stronger than basic attacks.

“You’re a little bit underleveled, aren’t you darling?”  Sam wished that she could hear him.  “Don’t worry, I’ll finish you quick.  No need to draw this out.”

Surprisingly, she went on the attack again and tried to close the distance between the two of them as Sam backpedaled into the forest, though she stopped abruptly in her tracks.  Sam briefly spared a glance behind him and saw that there were enemies near him.  He was in spitting distance of them.  It was two absurdly large and muscular brown bears, only they looked ghoulish with eyes that glowed red against the backdrop of the dark forest night.  Large swathes of their fur was completely missing and where their skin was exposed, they had cracked gray patches covered with dried blood that looked bloated and diseased.  He knew that since he was an encroaching Walker, that the enemies wouldn’t react to him, but it looked like his opponent knew it too.

“Looks like a stalemate, Ms. Immortal.  What will you do, I wonder?”

Sam smiled.  She was in a tough spot now.  The clear choice to make would be to simply run away opposite the enemies.  Sam would follow, of course, and they could continue their fight uninterrupted that way.  He watched closely for the first sign of her running.  If he started running now, he might be able to get to her and get a backstab as she turned and started running.

As if reading his very thoughts, IMMORtAL_Kalika ignored conventional wisdom and charged right at Sam, aggroing (angering and attracting) the nearby undead bears behind Sam.  They hulked forward, walking right by him and towards his opponent.  Kalika split between them with a very well timed roll, skipping their wide aggressive swipes altogether.

She landed in front of Sam and rolled again, this time behind him.  Sam had the advantage this time though.  As she was still in the middle of her roll, he quickly ran up behind her to attack.  She barely dodged him with another quick roll forward.  Luckily Sam hadn’t attacked yet and was able to keep his running momentum.  He was closer to her now than before and quickly thrust his Rapier at her back.  He wasn’t close enough to get his special backstab, but his light thrust did catch her for another sixth of her health, leaving her with half her health.

Three more quick attacks would finish her, or one and a heavy attack or better yet, a single well-timed charged attack.  He was still within range of her and since he recovered quickly thanks to using a light attack, he continued to follow right behind her.  She rolled again and he instantly followed suit.

Strange.  Right before he went down for his own roll, he noticed that she angled hers deeply to the right.  She had been running towards the left the whole time and Sam had rolled in that direction where he assumed she would be.  She recovered before he did and he saw that she had a good angle at his back now.

As soon as he got to his feet, he attacked with his Sword Uppercut to discourage her from backstabbing him, though he ended up missing her completely.  Her strafing speed was faster than his own, if only by a little and she rolled past the end of the quick upwards blow at the last minute.  She was behind him in no time as Sam was forced to finish the rest of the Sword Uppercut.  He had to rely on his other senses to track her now.  The only thing he needed was his sense of touch, as she thrust something cold and sharp into his lower back.

“Hrrgh!  Bastard ...”

Sam felt the girl’s foot press lightly against his back and she gently pushed him off of her blade.  He fell to the ground face first.and as his health faded, he made a realization.

“You were hiding your weapon the whole time.”

He looked up and saw her properly curtsy before rolling away from the threat of approaching undead bears.  His view faded to black and he again got the message:

You Have Been Vanquished.

This Kalika player was proving that she was actually immortal.  More than that, she was insanely skilled.

15 Not a Madman

“Damn, I lost all that Quintessence!”

Sam was lamenting the fact that he never made it to his Death Mark, which held eleven units of loose Quintessence.  By dying a second time before collecting the contents of his Death Mark, he lost it all along with the few souls he still had inside of it.  It was now replaced by his second Death Mark at Kalika’s hands, which held nothing since he brashly went back to fight her immediately instead of collecting his Death Mark near that chasm he had fallen into the first time.

Sam decided to put all that behind him and encroach again, only this time he didn’t get to encroach Kalika like he did the previous two times.  He got another tester with a female avatar named CrushKills.  Sam had run throughout the forest looking for her.  Like with Kalika, this was the first time Sam had seen this tester’s username.  She was outfitted in the default Knight’s set which was all dark metal that had a burnt and ashen appearance to it from the breastplate to the boots.  It was small to match her frame.  She didn’t wear the Knight’s helmet, instead opting to let her long blond hair fall down her back in a long braid.  She seemed surprised when he finally caught up to her, her green eyes were wide open and trained on his ghostlike rippling form.  Sam was surprised to find her in her human form.  Her flawless skin seemed to take on some sort of glow.  She was a gorgeous character to look at, but was not a challenge in the least.  Sam easily parried one of her blows and was able to repeatedly backstab her time and time again in a vicious chain that she was unable to escape from.  Even her high defense and protective armor couldn’t protect her.  Sam was easily awarded one thousand souls, a loose unit of Quintessence, and a Bloody Tearstone.  He was however, disappointed that he had no direct way to challenge IMMORtAL_Kalika again.  He lost his desire to encroach other planes and opted to instead finish his single player campaign, at least for now.

He left the Soul Beacon near where he met King Herke and went through the Forest, killing first rosemen then some Forest Barkers.  After defeating several of each enemy type and getting a drop (randomly generated item) from one of the rosemen, called a Thorn Saber, he checked his inventory and equipment again for anything that might give him an advantage during his next encroachment.

“That Thorn Saber might just be what I need and maybe I can use it with the muletta I got earlier,” he pondered aloud.

On his way to read and equip the Thorn Saber, he stumbled across something funny about his other weapons.  Specifically, the Rapier.  It now had a seemingly unique statistic that wasn’t present before, or at least he hadn’t noticed it before.

Rapier

Thrusting Sword

ATK  105

Weapon Damage 65

S ATK  D = 8

D ATK  C = 32

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  4

Weight: 2.2lbs

S. ABS: 14,475

“S. ABS?  What the hell does that even mean?  Sword abs?”

That fourteen thousand four-hundred and seventy-five wasn’t there before, in any case.  He was curious now, but he also didn’t want to bother with the manual right now, so he contacted someone better.

He opened his Alpha Build menu and made his call.

“Yes, Sam?” asked Alex.

“Hey, Alex, what does S. ABS stand for?  It’s a value on my Rapier—oh, it’s on my Dagger too!”

He examined the stats on his Dagger and remembered that the S ABS value was there before.  He just hadn’t given any thought to what it could be before, but it was growing at an exponential rate, whatever it was.

Dagger

Knife

ATK  46

Weapon Damage  10

S ATK  F = 0

D ATK  B = 36

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  10

Weight: 1 lb

S ABS: 4000

“Sam, I’m not a manual you know,” she said admonishingly.

“I know, you’re better!  What better way to learn the game’s systems than to ask one of the designers?”

“It’s also against the rules.  We’ve given you all you need to learn the various systems inside the game, even a very detailed manual that won’t be available to the players once the game is officially released.  It’s also a massive waste of my time.”

“Okay, okay!  I got all that and I apologize for wasting your time, Alex.  Buuuut ... since you’re already here, can you give me a quick explanation?”

She huffed into her microphone very loudly so that Sam could hear her frustration.

“You’re incorrigible, you know that?  This’ll be the last time too.  Remember, you need me to report those glitches.  Please, make an effort not to piss me off.”

He made a mental note of it.

“You got it, Alex.  You just caught me in a lazy moment.  It won’t happen again.”

“Good, and sorry for going all Serious Sam on you.”

Sam chuckled at the classic game reference.

“Oh, I’ll have to use that one.”

“Pun well intended, Sam.  We’re all just doing a lot of work here while you guys are playing.  I don’t mind helping you out, but that’s only when you can’t fend for yourself, never before.  Okay, done lecturing now.  S. ABS refers to soul absorption.  Every weapon has that value.  It’s a feature unique to this project.”

Meaning it wasn’t in The Death Planes.

“Every weapon absorbs souls now?  What the hell for?” Sam asked.

“Well it has a lot of cool applications.  In this game we wanted the weapons to be more customizable so that each player makes a name for themselves with their own legendary weapon.  So now the weapons absorb souls separate from you at a thirty-three percent rate, so whatever weapon you equip will always store a third of whatever souls you’re currently absorbing from the enemies.”

“I hope that the weapon is getting stronger or something with all those souls its taking.”

“Can you not see the usefulness in having a weapon that stores souls?”

“Unless I can get them out of it, then no.”

“Then you lack imagination and a mind for strategy.  I can’t help you more than that Sam.  You’ll have to figure it out yourself.  Report to me the next time you run into something game breaking and not before.”

She severed the line.

“I wonder what crawled up her butt?” Sam dared to say out loud.

He understood her frustration because she had a very stressful job, but it had seemed to come out of nowhere.  Not long ago, they were casually chatting it up and even then it was about something that Sam could’ve figured out on his own.  What changed?  Well, if anything, she’d convinced him to crack open his instruction manual.  He looked up the Soul Absorption options for his weapons and saw that he could actually use those souls to level his weapons up.  You couldn’t remove the souls from a weapon, but you could make that weapon stronger if you took it to the right specialist and tempered it with the right materials.  Sam wondered if there were any specialists like that in this forest.  He wanted to test this game mechanic first hand, it seemed pretty cool.  It appeared to encourage players to stick with a certain weapon for a while and grow with it.  Sam had already loved his Rapier, so he couldn’t see himself changing it anytime soon.

“I guess I’ll be sticking with the Rapier for a while.  And yes, I’m smart enough to know that having a weapon that stores a third of my souls in a game where you could lose all your souls at any time is an amazing gameplay consideration.  Thank you very much, Full Core!”

He yelled that last part just for Alex, if she was listening.  Having something always taking a third of his souls made the game more difficult, but always having some souls available to level a weapon up even when you died definitely made the game easier.  Sam wondered if it all balanced itself out or if the difficulty fell to one side or the other.  Right now he wasn’t sure and he was eager to get moving again.

“Maybe the merchant can level my blade up.”

He tossed that idea around in his head and quickly made his way over to the cave.

******

Sam healed at the cave’s Soul Beacon and refilled his Soul Fire.  He got up after that and walked around to the merchant who was still leaning against the wall in his usual spot.

“Ready for a chat now are we?” the merchant asked as Sam approached.  “Or is it items you’re looking for?”

He regarded Sam with a lazy half-smile and brown eyes filled with humor.

“Both.  I’ll buy some items first,” Sam answered back.

“Great!  Have a look then, I got some new wares from a few unlucky revenants.”

Sam’s digital menu opened up and he saw the merchant’s new items immediately.  Along with the lackluster weapons and armors from before, the merchant now sold some gear that was several times more useful.  Now he sold a Flexile Wooden Bow to go with his Wooden Arrows.  The stats on the bow were pretty bad, but at least it scaled with two of his stats.

Flexile Wooden Bow

Bow

A flexible bow often used by farmers chasing vermin.  Its widespread popularity is due to its low cost, resilience, and reliability.  It’s not rare to catch a thrifty adventurer using such a weapon.

ATK  58

Weapon Damage  15

S ATK  E = 15

D ATK  D = 28

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  3

Weight: 1.6 lbs

Sam hurriedly bought both the bow and the arrows.  He only bought fifty of the arrows to conserve some of his souls for other things such as the Blank Map, which he still didn’t have enough souls to buy.  He ran out of the shop and found the lone Forest Barker again.  Once the Forest Barkers multiplied up to six, Sam used his Ignition Powder to kill the remaining ones for good.  He returned to the cave merchant with a total of seven thousand, five hundred souls.  He had enough to finally get what he wanted.  He first bought the Blank Map for five thousand souls.  He hoped it would prove to be worth it.

Blank Map

Fill in important destinations on your journey.

You could just as easily call this a blank vellum.  It is simply a blank space for anyone to write anything.  By calling it a blank map, adventurers define their intentions and thusly a major step in their journey is undertaken.

It was literally what it said it was, a blank map with absolutely nothing written on it.  Sam had a strong feeling that he had just been trolled by the developers.  He went back to the merchant’s menu and saw an item of interest called an Envoy Scriber.  Since he was in the spirit of wasting money, he bought that as well and read its description.

Envoy Scriber

Send messages to other worlds.

One of the legendary writing tools crafted and enchanted by the eminent linguist, scholar, and mage Letraym.  Letraym perfected these tools after she made “first contact” with another world.  That world later turned out to be a twin of her own, at least as she claimed it.  Letraym was wroth to discover that language could not easily travel between worlds, so she devised a method of powerful runes for such communication.

Now he could interact with other testers with the Envoy Scriber.  He found that to be pretty neat.  He promised himself he’d mess with it later.  For now, he busied himself with buying whatever herbs and bandages he could afford from the merchant.  After he was done purchasing everything, he was left with a paltry fifty souls.  With that he bought ten more arrows for the hell of it.  He felt that he had all he’d need for now however.  Now done with shopping, Sam closed the shop menu.

“Thank you for your patronage.”

The merchant beamed at Sam.  Sam nodded his head back at him.

“There is something different about you, traveler.  What is it ... what is it?”  The merchant rubbed at the light stubble on his chin creating a scratching sound in the quiet cave.

“I’ve gotten a lot stronger,” Sam answered back.

“You have, but it’s not enough to fend off those monsters.  Make sure to continue avoiding them if you value your life.”

“I’ve already met the king and the forest killer, Caesar.”

The merchant seemed intrigued by this turn of events.

“And they didn’t tear you to bloody ribbons?  What kind of fool do you take me for?”

“I ... was killed by Caesar, but he didn’t take my quintessence like you said he would.  At least I don’t think he did.”

“He only likes pillaging the quintessence of strong opponents.  The warriors hanging in his trees have had all their hopes and dreams drained from them until all that’s left is hopelessness in their husked out bodies.  They are so drained that there is nary even the tiniest speck of a flame in their eyes.  Clearly you are nothing more than a pup, with slightly bigger fangs than before.  Nothing for that killer to display.  Still, it’s incredible that you’re here with your quintessence restored, even after death.  I wonder how.”

Sam didn’t think it was necessary to tell the NPC about encroaching on other testers, so he remained quiet.  He was annoyed at how the merchant kept dismissing his strength.  He had at least challenged Caesar, even if he was dispatched fairly easily.  It was more than this cave dwelling merchant ever did.

“I met the king too and he taught me his Techniques.”

Sam said brazenly in an effort to prove his mettle.  The merchant’s face went sour.

“The mad king didn’t kill you, eh?  Well you’re just a lucky one, now aren’t you?”

His smile darkened and Sam was forced to wonder if the merchant actually wanted him dead.  Well, it did make sense since the merchant was a corpse robber.  He could make quite a profit recollecting items from Sam’s corpse that he sold him earlier and then reselling them.

“The king that I met in that forest wasn’t mad at all.  He was actually the most upstanding person I’ve met so far.”

The merchant put his hand over his mouth as he chuckled.

“Then you have been deceived.”

“No, I haven’t!”  For some reason, Sam was genuinely upset at the accusation.  He had no clue why he cared so much about the reputation of a fictional character.  He continued, “King Herke is a just man.  He only wants to get justice for the murder of his family.  He even went out of his way to help me.  The only madman in this forest is that killer, Caesar.  He is clearly deranged.  His hanging body art gallery should’ve given that away.”

“From the sound of it, you’ve allied yourself with the king.”

From the growing mistrust in the merchant’s voice, Sam didn’t think mentioning his pact with the king would be beneficial.

“He will show his true nature soon enough, mark my words.  You’d be a bigger fool not to kill him when the next opportunity presents itself.”

Sam knew the king’s character.  In his brief time with the man, he knew that he could trust him.  But right now, he lacked the drive to continue this argument with the merchant.  He instead opted to get some information from him.  Something that could help the king along with his quest.

Ahh, I know what I’ll ask.

“Have you seen a Cutthroat around these parts called Rondo?  Probably someone from Aschelund or a nation near it.”

The merchant’s face seemed to quickly drain of all emotion.  He narrowed his eyes on Sam.

“I have no more interest in your questions, traveler.  You have proven yourself to be a complete fool.  You won’t survive this Forest of Woe, as slow witted as you are.  And I won’t share my wares with weak dim-wit fools who ask too many questions.”

“Whoa!  What the hell!?  I only asked a question!”

“It was one question too many, now go.  I don’t want to chance you bringing any madmen to my cave.  You seem to attract them all.”

Sam backed away from the merchant, glad that he had already bought all the items and equipment he needed.

“Your wares were mostly crap anyway.  I found better stuff in the forest on my own.”

“Back to foraging with you then.  We’ll see how long you survive in the forest without my help.  You’ll never make it out of here, hehehehehe.”

Sam left the cave before his urge to murder the merchant increased any more.

“I should just take all of your merchandise you cowardly sack of—aagh!  You know, Alex.  People normally play videogames to get away from assholes like this in the real world.  Why’d you bring the assholes here?”

This time he didn’t get any response.  Perhaps she was still mad at him from before.  No matter.  He had one more stop in this area before he moved on to another part of the forest.  Before he moved, he removed his Sinner’s Scriber and placed some Absorption Herbs and Bandages in his Quick Select slot.  He wanted to be properly prepared for his next battle.

Not too far from the cave, Sam found his opponent.  It was the Cutthroat from before, clad in the customary black hooded garb.  The dark colors and a face mask hid the person’s expressions, but now that they were still Sam could see that this Cutthroat had an average build and was a little taller than average.  Whoever it was, was also very thin.

“You over there!  Are you the Cutthroat, Rondo?  I need to know.”

The shadowy assassin didn’t say a word and continued to approach slowly with knife in hand.

“Alright, well, maybe my sword will loosen your tongue.”

The roleplaying was exhilarating to Sam.  He drew his Rapier and as he did, the Cutthroat ducked into the forest to circle around him.  Sam could still see his opponent even amidst the trees, so he turned and ran after.  Once Sam had closed in the distance, the Cutthroat brandished another knife in the other hand.  The Cutthroat quickly ran towards Sam and began slashing at him.  Sam could do nothing, but put his shield up to block the incoming barrage.  One of the Cutthroat’s knives bounced off the metal part of the shield and left an opening for Sam to attack.  He thrust his sword forward quickly and did some damage with a light attack.  The Cutthroat’s health bar had shown him that he did a little less than an eighth and she let out a feminine grunt before lunging forward with her own left handed counter stab.  Sam’s health ticked down by a tenth and he backed away to avoid the rest of her barrage of slashes and stabs.  She caught him again right before he was able to lift his shield up in front of him and did another tenth.  This time she smartly backed off once Sam’s shield was up and tried circling around him for an opening.  Sam kept his shield up between him and her as he turned to keep his focus on her.

“Listen you data packet, if you’re not Rondo then just say so.  We can stop this fight.  And if you tell me where he is, I’ll get out of this forest and leave all you forest weirdos alone.  I don’t really like it here anyway.”

She still had nothing to say.  When she approached, Sam saw that her eye sockets were hollowed out and inside of them was the tiniest speck of fire.  It looked like a tiny ember, but had somehow given her vision, for wherever Sam went, the ember in her socket followed.  The flesh around her eyes was drier than Sam’s flesh had been when he had died before at Caesar’s hand.

“You’re mindless,” Sam said of the Cutthroat.  “You can’t even talk.”

At this point, she was no different than some random monster, but what were the chances that she was Rondo or at least knew where he was?  She couldn’t tell him anything now, so it was time to defeat her.

He held his shield down to the side, baiting her to approach.  When she still dallied and continued to circle around him, he completely unequipped the shield.  Now with nothing in his left hand, she approached, first thrusting out with her knife.  Sam tried to be cool and parry the attack, but he was much too slow.  He took full damage from the thrust and quickly rolled out of the way to avoid any more punishment.  She pressed him, smelling blood in the water and Sam was forced to roll away again.  Finally, he was able to rise and meet her, blade to blade again.  She came forward again with the same attack as before and this time Sam had the right timing for his parry.  He threw her right knife hand up, surprising her, then quickly thrust his sword into her chest.  He kicked her off and saw her health go down to nearly nothing.  Opponent’s that were recovering from the ground were dangerous.  As they rose up, they had all manner of options to counterattack such as sweeps and sudden slashes.  Sam patiently picked his spot and swiveled around to her back.  His next move was tricky.  He had to estimate which side she would choose to respond to him from.  He effectively had a fifty-fifty choice to make.  She could turn to his left or right.  He looked at her as she rose up from the ground and predicted that she would turn towards her right, where he was now standing.  He took one quick step to the left near the center of her back and waited.  As predicted, she turned to her right searching for Sam.  Sam was free to do what he wanted now and, so he plunged his knife into her back for critical damage.  It was extreme overkill.  The Cutthroat revenant let out an anguished death cry then fell to the ground in a heap.  Sam was rewarded with two thousand souls.

“There’s no way you could’ve been Rondo, is there?”  Sam thought it over while staring at the mummified corpse as it faded away.  “No, you can’t be.  The king referred to Rondo as a male.  But what if he doesn’t really know either.  He’d only heard of Rondo through reputation it sounded like.”

Sam thought over all the events of his time in the Full Dive simulation.  Those thoughts brought him to his meeting with the merchant not so long ago.  He still couldn’t figure out exactly where the merchant’s anger with him had come from so suddenly.  His hatred of the king also seemed strange, but perhaps it was well placed.  The merchant was dressed like a Cutthroat, so maybe the king had mistreated him in the past.  But no, that couldn’t be the case, since Sam himself was dressed in Cutthroat garb during his first encounter with the king.  The king was annoyed by it, but he quickly judged Sam’s character and offered his help after.  Maybe the merchant was someone that the king didn’t respect?  That would mean that he was an unjust man, exactly the kind that the king despised.  But maybe it was all due to a vicious rumor gone rampant.  Maybe some lie had spread about the king murdering someone close to the merchant.  As Sam pondered it all, something popped into his head.  He whispered his question to himself.

“Why did he get so upset when I mentioned Rondo and Aschelund?”

The light bulb finally went off and Sam’s mind started racing.

“What if he is Rondo!?  Or at least one of his allies?”

This was bad.  If the answer to either of those questions was yes then the merchant might use that information to his advantage.  He could in fact hunt Sam or King Herke down, if such a thing were possible in this game.

“Okay, okay!  I need to go back to the cave.”

He ran there and found the cave to be pitch black inside.  He lit his torch, this time carrying it in his sword hand.  He held his shield up with his other hand to fend off any surprise attacks.  He found nothing inside the cave.  The merchant had taken everything with him.  Even his standing torch sconce was gone.  Sam went down and snuck around the corner to see that even the Soul Beacon was extinguished.  He quickly reignited it with a touch and rested.  He had a lot to think about now.  Mainly, he thought of his next move.

16 Sample Data

Alex Madura pored over the tester data for much longer than necessary.  She felt a pain creeping into the center of her forehead and tried to rub it away.  When that didn’t work, she just ran her fingers through her untidy black hair.  The creeping headache had come only after Milner’s latest task for her.  He wanted her to monitor Sam closely and note any changes to his physical and mental status.  This was after the man had increased the pain simulators in twenty percent of the alpha testers without telling any of the staff he’d put in charge of the testers ahead of time.

“An experiment in player motivation,” he called it.

All Alex knew, was that she didn’t like the idea of a game she helped make inflicting pain upon people.  She also didn’t like lying to Sam like she did before, telling him that the pain feature was a glitch, but that was also Milner’s decision.  He didn’t want the testers getting wind of his tests.  “Better that they think it’s unnatural,” he reasoned to Alex.  The only reason Alex hadn’t quit and reported Milner right there—besides needing the money—was because she knew that the added pain didn’t affect the player’s bodies in any way.  None of them were in any real danger.

“Think of the devil,”  Alex mumbled under her breath as Milner strolled up to her desk, his dark eyes locked on one of her many screens the whole time.  She had six of them currently up in front of her.  She had three feeds, each dedicated to one of her testers, in a row above three screens with numerical statistics and other useful data for each tester.  The screens on the left were for Dan aka Corbine, the screens in the middle had Sam aka Sarem in the middle of the forest king quest, and the screens on the right was Jacob’s aka JakThe_MonarchBfly.  Milner focused on the middle screens, mainly on the detailed player data on the bottom screen.  With only a quick ciphering look, Milner seemed to grasp the numbers and what he needed to know from them.

“Disappointing,” he muttered.

Alex was tempted to keep her mouth shut.  Milner paid her well to do just that, since he never seemed interested in what she had to say.  She had never quite understood what he was looking for, really.  Whenever she’d ask a question about it before, she always felt like a fool.  It was a combination of Milner’s silences in the face of her questions and her own lack of being able to understand what the heck Milner was talking about half the time that led to her feeling like she did, so she created a “stupid quota” for herself so that Milner wouldn’t truly think her an idiot.  Now though, her curiosity had overwritten her desire to stay quiet on the issue.

“What do you mean?”

Milner looked at her with disinterest.

“Your tester, Sarem.  He is one of the top performers and yet he is not progressing as I had hoped.”

“Sam is doing fine as far as I can tell.  What exactly are you expecting from him?”

Milner ran his left hand fingers along his beard and finally showed some other emotion besides disinterest.

“I expected a more spirited performance.  He’s one of the few with the highest levels of pain receptors.  Of the twenty percent with the heightened pain receptors, there are ten percent in this group who are very near the maximum pain threshold.  With his body being able to handle that, I assumed he’d excel in battle.  Like a true warrior.”

Alex thought about that, but she still couldn’t figure out what the man wanted out of all this.  As if sensing this, Milner continued his response.

“I expected these testers to quickly cannibalize the game as their senses of survival kicked in and for each of them to be in the top ten rankings or to fill out the top thirty by this point at the very least.”

“Well, no ... ”

Milner seemed genuinely confounded by Alex’s answer.

“No?” he asked.  “Care to elaborate?”

“Sure.  It’s simple.  People are afraid of pain.  For most of them, they won’t excel with life or death pressure, they’ll crumble under it.  You’ll just have more of these testers afraid to play the game and experiment.  They’ll do everything the safest way that they can.  These are regular people we’re talking about sir ... well as regular as gamers can be anyway.  These aren’t trained soldiers we’re talking about here.”

Milner’s grin was the closest thing to a smile that she had gotten from him so far.  Strange, he was oddly handsome for the second he held the grin.  That caught her off guard.  All she had ever seen was Milner’s robot face.

“That is exactly right.  But there is a small probability that some of the elite players should bloom under such dangers, but I’m not seeing that so far.  That’s why I’m disappointed.  None of these testers are the alphas that I’m looking for.”

“But that’s why Sam should impress you.  Even with his pain levels as high as they are, he is still as adventurous and fearless as ever.  He’s still playing this like he’s playing an old school video game, like the best players used to play The Death Planes.  He’s really making good progress.”

“Yes, he’s the best of the failures.  I’m aware that he is our third best player right now.  I’ve been monitoring that data very closely.  But being third place means nothing when Immortal Kalika is so far ahead of everyone in terms of skill,” Milner answered her snidely.

Kalika was another beast entirely as a player.  She had already completed most of the quests in the forest and found most of the treasures yet she still hadn’t died.  Maya, the designer that was helping her, had told Alex that the system had fit Kalika like a glove at the start and that her gameplay skills were out of this world.  Alex wondered if she was a speedrunner in the old Death Planes game.  If she was, she wasn’t a famous one, since Alex didn’t recognize her gamer handle or her real name.  But if she knew that game intimately, then it would give her a big advantage over the others here.  Still, it was strange that she became accustomed to the controls so quickly.  Everyone was still warming up to them, more or less.  The way it felt to be in the game was unlike anything else, even reality.  The world of Project DH was a strange mixture of realism and complete fantasy, including the physics.

“I’ve been hearing that Immortal Kalika is very good, but it doesn’t take away from players like Sarem the Sanguine and Sword Wrench Man.  Kalika is just a freakishly good player.”

Milner studied the data on Alex’s screen again, then projected a three dimensional hologram data screen from his watch.

“I’m not getting anything I can use from this test.”

She still had no clue what this man even wanted.  Everyone was playing the game and enjoying it and the only bugs that the testers reported were those that were purposely programmed into the game to keep them on their toes.  What more could Milner want?  Everything seemed to be on course for a successful release.  Alex thought to directly ask him, but now she felt she was getting close to her “stupid quota” for the day.  She instead chose something that wouldn’t peg her as an idiot.

“Mr. Milner, is Kalika a part of your experiment too?  Does she have the same realistic pain simulation as Sam?”

“No, she doesn’t.  She’s playing with the default settings.”

Which meant that only dying and getting hit with certain attacks and status effects would send a light adverse stimulation to her brain.  It was nothing like the sharp spikes in pain that Sam felt.

“Even with the lack of eminent danger, she still manages to fight through each of her battles as though each were her last.  She’s fighting like the perfect warrior I need her to be even though she’s only roleplaying.  The others will have to follow suit.  For now, I’m advancing to the second phase of this alpha test.  I need more output from these testers.”

Alex stared at Milner, worry and confusion clearly painted on her face, she knew.

“Second phase, sir?” she asked.

“I’ll be announcing it shortly.  In the meantime, keep monitoring your testers and report any new developments.”

He walked off down towards Maya’s cubicle at the other end of the large office area.  Fifty designers were sat, cubicle to cubicle, in the spacious room with its high ceiling.  It was the same with two other rooms, one directly across from them and the other down the hall.  Alex stood and stretched for what felt like the first time in hours.  She took a moment to look around the room, mainly to see if anyone fun was also up and stretching like she was.  Sue liked to work while standing and sure enough she was a few cubicles over, absorbed in whatever she was doing.  Alex looked around for Milner.

“What the hell?” she whispered her question quietly to herself.

A gray haired man dressed in an ornate white and green long coat walked up to Milner and whispered something into his ear.  Alex was curious about what the men were talking about.

“Is that cosplay?”

If so, then why?  Was Milner doing some sort of contest?  Was the man in the jacket here to promote the game in some sort of way?  Before her imagination ran too wild, Alex took another look around the room to see if there was anything else crazy going on.  Her eyes didn’t disappoint her.  There were other men in similar colored security uniforms around the room.  There were now men at each of the doors and two of them randomly walking around the room surveying the developers.

“What the hell is going on?  Well, Alex, if there was ever a time to ask your boss a stupid question, now would be it.”

She put all her equipment down and made her way over to her boss, the enigmatic Fulton Milner.

17 Sedwin the Silver

The cave had been cleared out and the merchant was nowhere to be seen.  Sam silently berated himself over his idiocy.  He had tipped his hand way too early to the merchant.  He should’ve played it much more carefully with the sensitive information that the king had given him regarding his pursuit of Rondo, the Cutthroat who butchered his family.  The problem was that he had expected the game to be a lot more straightforward.  The fact that NPCs could react so drastically to things he said had produced a monumental change in the game’s structure.  It allowed for more chances at failure from what Sam could tell.  He had to be a lot more careful.  His blunder might have messed up the king’s plans in finding Rondo.

Sam left the cave, heavy with dark thoughts.  His pity party was cut short when a generic Cutthroat class enemy attacked him.  The Cutthroat was clearly male this time and like the others, was dressed identically to Sam.  He wasn’t a complete revenant like the female Cutthroat Sam had fought, but his attack pattern was much more predictable than hers.  He wasn’t as fast as her and only used one knife to attack.  Sam dispatched him easily enough and was given six hundred souls for his troubles.

“Where the hell did he come from?  Did he follow me from somewhere?” Sam wondered aloud.  He walked further into the forest and was attacked again, by another generic Cutthroat.  After dispatching that one with a few well timed thrusts of his Rapier, he was awarded another six hundred souls and even more questions.

“These guys weren’t here before, what gives?”

He took a swig from his Soul Fire to heal the damage he took in the two fights and kept moving forward with his eyes peeled for more enemies.  It didn’t take him long before he was attacked by two of the Cutthroats at once.  After a tougher bout, he put them both down and took another swig of Soul Fire, since they’d got him down to half health this time.  One of them had also dropped some item called a Boatman’s Coin.  He couldn’t help but feel that this increased proliferation of Cutthroat class enemies in the forest was caused by the merchant’s absence somehow.  Maybe the merchant had sent these men after him.

Sam made sure the coast was clear before opening up his menu and examining his new item.

Boatman’s Coin

A tradable coin for those who work in a shadowy profession.

A dark metal coin with the image of the hooded boatman of the underworld on one side and an iconic winged serpent on the other.  Cutthroats receive one of these for every completed contract.  In Heimfall they’ve become a calling card, symbol of power, and currency for those who follow the Cutthroat Rondo, particularly the assassins residing in the Forest of Woe.

There it was.  The coin was a symbol and it showed that whoever carried it was most likely a follower of Rondo.  Did that mean that all these Cutthroats now chasing him throughout the forest were following Rondo’s orders?  That was a scary thought.  Sam recalled back to the merchant’s words when Sam had questioned him about his clothes.

“I’m in an assassin’s forest, why would I dress as anything other than an assassin?”

It was as good an excuse as any, but it was a very convenient excuse as well.  Easy and convenient ...

“That bastard is Rondo.  I’ll bet one hundred frickin’ dollars on that being the case.  I’ll kill him for lying to me.  No, I’ll kill him for the king’s family ... the scummy bastard.”

Sam continued forward into the forest and noticed that he was unconsciously heading in the direction of where he had been killed by Caesar before.  He almost doubled back right there until he saw a tiny white light on the ground ahead of him.  It might have been some sort of trick, but Sam chanced it.  The light was not unlike the light that came from the Sinner’s Scriber, the only difference being the color really.  As he approached, he found his assessment to be correct.  The light was coming from some sort of message, similar to what he wrote before encroaching upon other tester’s planes.  He knelt down and read the message when he was close enough.

Useful ally ahead.

Relevance 13

Sam guessed it to be a player message, but was it an accurate one?  Thirteen Relevance meant that thirteen people voted on it being a somewhat useful tip, though it could be thirteen people voting on a good practical joke as well.  Hmm?  As in most cases, Sam threw caution to the wind and decided to proceed forward.  In front of him, in a small clearing was that armored bear from before.  Only this time, Sam was a lot closer to it.  He could make out fine details of the creature’s head and its exquisitely crafted silver armor.

It wasn’t the largest bear in the world, but it was still very imposing.  Even as it sat, childlike in its clearing with the gorgeous moonlight glinting off of its radiant silver armor, Sam guessed that it was close to his height – his avatar’s height.  The armor made the creature appear bulkier than it really was.  The armor’s design seemed like something a heroic knight would wear, rather than an evil enemy, so that gave Sam some hope that he could approach the beast without issue.  The creature’s fur was exposed in a few places near its paws and Sam noticed that it was gray.

What to say to a bear in this game?  Please don’t eat me, Sam wondered.

Even as Sam approached, the bear seemed to take no heed of him.  Sam kept his sword and shield in hand as he spoke up.

“Hello ... Sir Bear ... —ington ... I am—” Sam began hoping to add some ill-conceived refinement his greeting.

“You are mistaken.”

Sam nearly jumped out of his skin when the damn thing started talking.  It was something he should have expected, but damn he wasn’t ready to see it happen in front of him.

“E-excuse me?” Sam asked.

The bear cleared his throat which freaked Sam out even more, though not as much as the fact that the creature was staring right at him, eye to eye.

“I am not Sir Barrington.  I am Sedwin, Sedwin the Silver, his apprentice.”

What the actual fuck!  Okay, now this game was becoming weird.

“Sooooo, you’re a bear ... and you serve ... a master?”

“Yea, Sir Barrington, an honored smith in these lands.”

Wow!  So this bear was the apprentice of another bear who had the worst name for a bear ever conceived in imagination and who was some sort of blacksmith.  Okay, okay, okay.  Sam had to stop freaking out.  It wasn’t as if he hadn’t played Final Fantasy VII or Chrono Trigger or even the original Death Planes game.  Each of those games had talking animals, but seeing it in a game that seemed so real was just plain strange.  Even still, bears as blacksmiths was a pretty far out there idea.  How did they pick up anything with their paws?  Sam could imagine them constantly dropping their tools and grunting in frustration as they had to bend to pick them up.  He found himself laughing out loud at the absurd thought.

“It is not a jest, human.  Master Barrington is known all over the world for his craftsman skills.  He has forged weapons and armor for some of the most famous and infamous heroes of our age.  The master has even forged weapons for royals such as kings and knights from foreign lands.”

“Sorry ... Sir Sedwin –” Sam started with.

“Please, Sedwin, if it pleases you.  I can see that you are a fine warrior.  A great patron for my master.  Well, if you can find him that is ...”

Sam was curious about this blacksmith.  He wanted to strengthen his Rapier and maybe his armor too.

“Okay Sedwin.  Thanks for telling me about your master.  Can you show me to him?”

Sedwin suddenly looked very downtrodden again, as he had when Sam had seen him long ago.

“I would happily do just that traveler, but I am stuck here for now.”

Sam’s curiosity got the better of him.

“Why?”

“Master Barrington and I have found ourselves in the middle of a spat.”

“Why is that?”

“Why, I’m glad you asked!  Maybe you can tell me where I went wrong.  The good master is upset with me because I always manage to scuff my armor, even when I polish it.  I told him that it’s not an easy task when you have claws like I do.  It’s not my fault that he can’t understand my limitations, is it?” Sedwin asked.

“No, your master sounds like an asshole to be honest.  That’s like yelling at a baby because it can’t stand up, like yelling at a fish because it can’t breathe,” Sam opined.

“Ha!  Yes, you understand perfectly, stranger!  Master Barrington can sometimes be dense and quite cold when the mood suits him, but he is indeed a great person.”

“Well, I know you guys aren’t seeing eye-to-eye, but is there any way for you to at least tell me where he is located?” Sam asked earnestly, lowering his shield to his side.

“I’m afraid you would only get lost if I were to give you directions.  It can’t be helped, I suppose.  I’ll have to show you the way.  But first, I’d like you to clear a way through this path ahead of us.”

Sedwin pointed his snout at the trail directly in front of him to the north.

“There are a few nasty ghouls on the trail ahead and I would rather not be bothered with them.  They will only further mar my armor and upset my master even more.  Take care of them and come back to me, then we’ll travel together to master Barrington.  He’ll be glad to meet a new patron, especially one as impressive as yourself.”

******

Sam managed to clear the pathway Sedwin sent him to of all the mindless revenants he could find.  Some were clad in the gear of other classes and some were simply dressed in tattered clothes and fought with rusted and broken weapons.  By the end, Sam had counted twenty-one revenants slain by him in a row.  They were so slow and lumbering that Sam had only taken minimal damage.  His shield was the biggest help when several had ganged up on him at once.  Each enemy had generously dropped three hundred souls apiece.  It was a good amount for enemies so easy, more than half of what the nightmarish Forest Barkers had given him before.

Once he saw no more enemies on the path ahead, he went back to Sedwin and told him.

“Very good.  Let’s be on our way then!”  The chubby bear’s armor rattled as he moved to his feet.  He walked down the path on all fours and Sam followed behind him.  Sam kept his sword and shield in hand, should anything attempt to surprise them along the way.  The walk down the path was uneventful, until Sedwin veered off and into the forest.  They traveled under a small section where about ten large trees with dark purple leaves had fallen into one another.  The structure looked almost manmade and dome-like as the trees were leaning against each other almost perfectly.  Once they emerged from that wondrous sight, Sam found himself in a part of the forest that looked very much so different from the rest.  As they climbed upwards, Sam could see much of the open sky.  The trees of this area were sparser than below, though just as tall.

There was another glowing white message on the ground up ahead.  Sam hurried to it to read it.

The world is a lie.  Death is imminent.

Relevance 0

Now he was on edge wondering what the message even meant but had no time to contemplate it as Sedwin had veered off again, going down the other side of the hill at a gallop.  Sam quickly followed suit, only slowing down when Sedwin himself had done so.  Sedwin seemed to exercise more caution when they approached some sort of crumpling old structure made of yellow and brown brick.  Whatever the place was in the past, someone had knocked it over really well.  Not much of it was standing any more.  Bricks were scattered everywhere, as far as Sam could see.  There were also broken statues with all sorts of stony body parts strewn about.  Sedwin seemed to be guiding him through what felt like a labyrinth.  They had to take so many twists and turns to get through the place thanks to the bigger debris.

Sedwin halted to a stop once they reached what looked like an exit from the ruined half building.

“Something wrong?” Sam asked.

“No.  Sorry, on we go!”

Sedwin marched outside and turned a corner where Sam could see a familiar snake totem in the center of the camp.  In the far corner, saddled up near a wall, was a tall, broad, black and silver bearded mountain of a man.  His hair fell all around him to his upper back and chest and was the same deep black with silver streaks as his beard.  He was working diligently, hammering the hell out of a battle axe.  His efforts were strong and focused with each blow from his hammer seeming so precise.  The brown smock that covered his chest was so stained with sweat that Sam figured the man had worked for hours.  He turned to Sedwin when he remembered what the man’s name was.

“So this Sir Barrington isn’t a bear?” he asked.

Sedwin’s muzzle went skyward and his teeth were bared as he laughed at Sam.  His laughter only subsided once he saw that Sam was somewhat serious.

“No, no, no.  You don’t get to be one of the world’s foremost craftsmen by having bear paws.  What an absurd idea.”

Says the talking bear in silver armor who knows the word absurd, Sam thought to himself.

“But you said you were his apprentice, didn’t you?”

“I did, but I suppose that is overstating what I do now isn’t it.  I do various tasks for Sir Barrington and protect him from harm.  This armor helps me fight all manner of deadly forest creature for the master.  Only, when I’m not in battle, Sir Barrington tries to find a use for me helping with his fine crafts.”

The smith stopped his hammering and finally looked at his two guests.  His eyes bore down on them with nothing showing but utter contempt.

“Are you both going to chatter about, or explain to me why you’re loitering in my workshop?”

A workshop this is not, old man.  More like an abandoned crack castle that you’re holed up in, Sam thought grimly to himself.

“Sir, apologies!  We have come—”

“Silence creature.  I don’t want to hear it from you.  As a matter of fact, I don’t want to hear anything from you.  I shall talk to this man without your presence. Be gone!”

Sedwin sighed and turned around looking very sad.  Sam didn’t think his shoulders could slump any more than before.

“Don’t go too far Sedwin!  I still need you buddy!” Sam called out to him.

The smith was just being a plain asshole.  Sam would have liked to just skip through all this drama to get his weapon upgraded, but now he had a bone to pick with this rude ass man.

“Why did you bring that loathsome creature back here with you?  If you needed my services, you should’ve sought me out yourself.  Any adventurer worth his ilk would be able to find me on his own.”

“That ‘loathsome creature’ wants nothing more than to be in your service again you asshole!  Look at him!  He’s not even mad at you, just sad because you can’t even freaking talk to him like a person.  Get off your high horse and go apologize to him!”

“Why I—how dare you say such a thing?” Sir Barrington asked.

“Well, it’s true.”

“Bah, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Sir Barrington looked over at Sedwin for a long moment.

“Apprentice!”

Sedwin snapped back to face Sir Barrington.

“Yes, master?”

“Come back this way.  It can’t be helped.  I’ll have to polish your armor.”

“Sorry, master.”

Before Sedwin was in earshot, Barrington shared a surprising admission to Sam.

“I did miss the clink of that armor.  It’s one of my best works.”

When Sedwin approached, Barrington pretended that he had not just admitted to Sam that he missed his friend or his friend’s armor or whatever the hell it was that he missed.

“Now, what is it that you both want?” Barrington asked.

“I’d like you to upgrade my weapons and armor,” said Sam.

“So you’d like something reforged and made even stronger.  Let me see your weapons.”

Sam showed him his Rapier.

“Ahhh!  What a dangerous weapon!  It has bathed in the blood and souls of many, so its strength is swelling.  Yes!  I can work with this piece.  I can bring out its true potential ... if you allow me.  Hehehe.”

A menu opened up in front of Sam with the options for the blacksmith’s shop.  Sam quickly scrolled over to the smithing screen to see his options.

Awaken

Soul Drain

Reinforcement

With Awaken, he could use souls contained inside of his weapons to power them up.  Soul Drain used his own held souls to do the same thing, while Reinforcement used rare minerals to alter the properties of a weapon and leveled them up as well.  With the amount of souls absorbed by his sword, Sam was easily able to level the Rapier up to level ten, and so he did.  Each level gained by the weapon had only taken five hundred souls.  The base strength of his weapon had increased by a lot.

Rapier +10

Thrusting Sword

ATK  127

Weapon Damage  85

S ATK  D = 8

D ATK  C+ = 34

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  4

Weight: 2.2lbs

S. ABS: 18,075

“Now we can reforge the blade.  All we need is ore.  There’s much of that to be found around these cursed lands.”

“Dammit!” Sam whispered to himself.  He knew he hadn’t picked up anything like that yet.

“Ne’er mind.  You can go ahead and use the rest of those souls to increase your weapon some more.  How about it?”

There was no way Sam could say no to that.  This time, each increase to the weapon’s level cost him one thousand souls until the Rapier reached level twenty.  But it was worth it to get the twenty extra points of weapon damage.  Every level after twenty ended up costing him two thousand souls a level.  He leveled the sword four times before running out of absorbed souls.

Rapier +24

Thrusting Sword

ATK  155

Weapon Damage  113

S ATK  D = 8

D ATK  C+ = 34

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  4

Weight: 2.2lbs

S. ABS: 75

“For your weapon, I recommend getting some ores for it soon.  If you fancy it, that is.  I sell generic pieces of ore.  It’s mostly good for weaker weapons and basic armor sets.”

“Can I upgrade my armor with it right now?”

“Yes, we can reforge your armor here and now if you want.  It’ll be a much sturdier piece.”

Sam checked out the blacksmith’s shop menu and bought all ten of the Mithril Pieces that the blacksmith held.  He also had enough to buy a stylish Frayed Cloak, which didn’t have a lot of defensive value, but did look cool as hell.  It mainly offered decent protection against ailments.  There was also a boatload of new weapons that actually looked useful and an item called a Synthesis Stone that was expensive as hell.  Buying it would leave Sam with next to no souls.  Sam read its description.

Synthesis Stone

Used for armor synthesis.

An enchanted stone composed of rare exotic materials.  No one knows where these unique stones come from, but their benefits are widely known.  Most blacksmiths seem to disdain them however.  For many adventurers with this stone in their possession frequently make silly requests, like permanently fusing together two sets of armor.

Sam wondered if he read that right.  Did the description mean that he could fuse together two sets of armor himself?  He backed out of the menu and asked Barrington to upgrade his armor with the Mithril Pieces.  Barrington was able to do so, all the way to level ten, but could go no further since Sam lacked the necessary materials.  The process had taken no longer than a few seconds thanks to the magic of video games.  No wait times required.

“Ahh, now your armor can be properly reforged.  You’ll need some bigger pieces of ore to get the job done,” explained Barrington.

“What about that Synthesis Stone?”

The smith looked repulsed by Sam’s question.

“Oh that thing?  It’s just a silly trinket.”

“Can I use it to reforge my armor?”

“Yes, but I don’t see why you’d want to.  There are much better ores out there, if you can find them.  This stone just helps you make piecemeal armor.  Nothing but silly trinkets.”

“Ah, I see,” Sam said disappointedly.  He thought about all the possibilities of armor fusion as he walked quietly over near Sedwin.  He made eye contact and curtly nodded at the bear and Sedwin nodded back.  Sam activated the Soul Beacon and rested at it for a brief sojourn, unable to get the idea of armor fusion out of his mind.  With his imagination racing, he got up and went back to Barrington.  He bought the Synthesis Stone and with it in hand, he presented it to Barrington.  The blacksmith looked at him disappointedly.

“So you really want this armor to be synthesized?  It can’t be helped then, if you’re willing to pay for it.  It’s a waste of souls, but it’s a waste of your souls.”

Sam motioned in the air for the smith to get on with it.  Sir Barrington looked offended, which gave Sam some satisfaction.

“What will you combine with this set?” Barrington asked.

He was referring to Sam’s Twilight Armor.  Sam only had one thing he could really combine with it and that was the Frayed Cloak he had just bought.  He had the smith combine the two.  The smith made him decide which part of the thick cloak to apply to his current armor set.  Sam, of course, chose the long swooping frayed cape along with some other odds and ends that he thought looked cool.  It all resulted in his own Twilight gear getting even more of a badass treatment.  His status screen allowed him to glimpse how his character looked and he had to say that now he looked like some crazy badass dark fantasy superhero.  His rambling thoughts were interrupted by Sir Barrington.

“Would you like to name this thing you’ve had me create?  I offer that option to everything that I reforge, even ... this.”

“Wow!  I get to name it too?”

Sam opened his menu and was stumped by what he should name his new armor.  He didn’t want it to be named the Twilight Armor since it reminded him of these old lame 3D movies from the past that his sister liked to watch.  He went with “Bloody Sunday’s Best” and grinned at his supposed cleverness.  He looked at his new armor’s stats as well and saw that they had improved, though only marginally.

“I look freakin’ good!  Now excuse me gentleman and gentlebear, I have a bastard in black to kill.”

18 Stumpy and Grumpy

“By the way, have you two seen any Cutthroats in this area?  Besides myself, I mean?”

The bear and the smith both shook their heads.

“No, not at all.  Cutthroats wouldn’t be interested in this part of the forest anyway.  Most folks stay away for fear of running into that gigantic forest beast.”  The bulky blacksmith rubbed his beard.

“Gigantic forest beast?” asked Sam.

“Aye, the one that flies.  Like most beasts of its ilk, it feeds on men and their souls.  What they don’t know is that the beast only attacks when you get near its lair.  The parts of the forest close to here are a safe haven.  The cliffs however are not, that’s where it roosts.  I pray you don’t find yourself near one of those, lest you end your life as a morsel.  Hahahaha.”

Sam was unsettled by the smith’s revelations, but he wasn’t completely put off by them.  The northern part of the forest sounded like a suitable place to find some useful items, maybe something to help with his inevitable fight against Rondo and his Cutthroats.  Before Sam left the duo of Sedwin and his master, Barrington, he bought an item called Phoenix Floo.

Phoenix Floo

Teleport to last Soul Beacon rested at.

A potent mixture of ashen remains and soul power creates the floo.  The ashen remains are typically collected from the fiery beacons that dot the land of the undead.  Phoenix Floo was so named because of the resonant feeling it brings to the undead who use it.  They feel reborn from the fiery ash of the Soul Beacons every time they travel through the cinders.

Sam was glad to finally be able to have the option to teleport back to base.  He knew that would come in handy.  Before he exited, he eyed an expensive tool called Soul Bound Refinement Kit.

Soul Bound Refinement Kit

Upgrade weapons at a Soul Beacon.

Talented blacksmiths have become a rarity in the world, even moreso in the land of the undead.  Because of this, warriors have desperately tried their hand at the art with mixed results.  This smithing kit comprises their best efforts at invention.  The tools within the kit are capable of manipulating the souls within a weapon and nothing more.

Barrington explained to Sam that the kit allowed him to upgrade his weapons whenever he rested at a Soul Beacon and that the upgrading was limited to soul drain and awakening.  Sam could only upgrade with any ore he’d collected with a real blacksmith.  The kit was too expensive to purchase now, but Sam made a mental note to buy it later.

He left Sedwin’s camp and headed further north, into the forest.  As he traveled along the path, he rigorously hunted for treasure chests.  He didn’t find much along the way.  He did get something called a Warrior’s Soul from a corpse he’d come across lying under a tree and three Decoy Souls from a corpse near that.  He didn’t want to stop to read the descriptions now because he knew he’d read them later anyway.  He continued to walk under the tall trees, carefully looking around for any threats and treasure.  He jumped backwards when some kind of giant coconut fell in front of him.

“What the hell?” he wondered out loud.

He looked up at the tall tree and didn’t see any other hazards, unless the massive branches decided to fall off.  As he was looking up something ran right into his legs and knocked him over.

“Ow!  What the—”

His health drained by a tenth and whatever had attacked was quickly approaching again.  He rolled out of the way and looked for the thing that was attacking.  He turned around and saw that the thing had bumped into a tree and knocked down another identical looking creature.  They were strange looking creatures, both covered in some sort of giant brown shell with stumpy arms and legs and a tiny head.  They both stood and wobbled around like they were dizzy.  Neither was tall enough to reach above Sam’s knee.  He quickly ran up and attacked, while they were dizzy, with quick thrusts to their fleshy heads with his Rapier.  Luckily the two didn’t have much HP, so he dispatched them quite easily and got two hundred souls from each.

“Oh yeah, I upgraded my sword!  Damn, it’s strong!”

The coconut looking enemies were both covered in a faint white glow that signified that they were lootable (items can be taken from their corpses).  Sam looted both and gained a Stim Plant from each.

“Thank you Stumpy and Dumpy!  Your sacrifices will not go in vain.”

He bowed his head in a mock prayer to the slain creatures and moved forward without reading the description of his new item.  Once again some enemies dropped down from above his head.  This time two of the “Stumpies,” as Sam had taken to calling them, had dropped down at once.  Each of them briefly poked their tiny blue heads out of their shells and began to roll towards Sam in tandem.  Sam dodged to the side to avoid them.  Another Stumpy fell from the tree behind him.

“Listen fellas, time out please!  I’m just looking for some cool items, then I want to kill a scumbag named Rondo.  None of that has anything to do with any of you coconut-bros, right?”

Two of the Stumpies turned around and immediately rolled towards Sam.  The third began its roll after the other two and Sam was effectively trapped.  He dodged one rolling attack only to be struck with two consecutively from the side and back.  That quick, he lost one-third of his HP.

“Why the hell does everything in this game want to kill me?  Even evil-freakin’-baby-midget-coconuts.  I never liked nasty coconuts anyway you ugly bastards!”

He rose to his feet and ran to a tree, putting his back to it as the three coconut-bros revved then took off towards him.  He dodged out of the way at the last possible minute.  One of the Stumpies in the rear had clipped him, but they all collided with the tree, knocking a fourth Stumpy down.  All were dizzy and stunned, so Sam quickly let loose all he had, killing all four with one heavy strike apiece.

“You hear that?  Coconut is nasty!  I hate it, just like I hate you!”

He looted all of them and got a Stim Plant from each then quickly took a drink from his Soul Fire to heal the damage he had taken.

He looked up at the trees and branches above him.  There were coconut-bro bastards hanging everywhere.  As soon as he stepped further into the forest he would quickly find himself overwhelmed by them.

“Oh, hahaha—no!  Looks like I won’t be going that way.”

In the distance, beyond the trees there was some type of giant gateway leading to what looked to be a giant cliff side.  It was the same one he noticed when he had encroached IMMORtAL_Kalika the second time, only now it was closer.  Sam looked up to see if it were possible to fight each of the coconut enemies one at a time so that he could get through without losing any HP.  It was possible, though some looked like they would automatically drop two at a time.  But that would take too long.  He still had more glitches to find.

“Hold on ... what’s that?”

Some of the branches were empty and some of them led to other empty branches on other trees.  Looking closely enough, Sam could see that there was a potential path into the forest that bypassed all the Stumpies.  He couldn’t see the path all the way through the forest, but he decided to at least go as far as he could see.  He hoped the path would lead him to that gateway or at least to some cool loot.  The gateway would most likely have his first boss.  Sam was eager to see what a boss would actually look like up close in VR.  The bosses in The Death Planes were impressive enough in plain 3D, but in full immersion they’d be absolutely terrifying.

Following the empty branches proved to be a very good idea.  Sam found himself nearly out of the forest without a single fight.  Finally, the giant gateway was looming just up ahead.

Not far from there, he heard a growl coming from the forest.  Soon, a giant lumbering creature slowly walked onto the path he was heading down and sat down near the forest exit at the end of the path.  It looked just like the undead bear that he came across when he’d encroached IMMORtAL_Kalika earlier.  As a Walker, the bears wouldn’t attack him then, though he wouldn’t be so lucky this time.

“Ooooh man, this is shit.  They would put a damn bear right at the exit.  That’s the only way out of here as far as I can tell.  If I leave this path then the asshole coconuts gang up and kill me.  If I go down this path, I have to fight a goddamn zombie bear somehow without leaving this path.  As soon as I leave, I’ll be ganged by the coconut assholes anyway.  I forgot how goddamn cheap this game is.  It’s so frustrating!  I hate it!  I love it!  I want more dammit!”

Sam ran forward like a maniac, straight at the undead bear in his path.  The bear slowly rose to its feet as Sam approached, its red eyes glowing in the dark and some sort of creepy haze coming from its sharp-fanged open maw.

Sam ran around the nightmarish creature, evoking the ire of the Stumpies above.  Sam heard about six of them fall down behind him as he cleared the forest and found himself in a more open aired setting.  He was on a huge open cliff.  Exactly where he probably didn’t want to be, from Barrington’s earlier advice but behind him was a growing threat that he really didn’t want to deal with, so he pressed forward recklessly.

He could hear the Stumpies begin their rolling attacks and he heard the pissed off undead bear roaring its anger into the sky.  None of that sounded particularly appetizing, so he kept on running to the huge cliff.  He ran in an unorthodox zigzag pattern, like someone trying to avoid bullets.  One of the Stumpies had rolled right past him followed by another.

He was right at the gate now, and up close it was way bigger than he had expected.  He didn’t have time to marvel at its architecture.  He narrowly avoided another Stumpy attack from behind.  Getting hit even once would knock him down and allow the enemies to catch up to him.

He eyed his stamina gauge and saw it close to depleting fully.  He had to slow down just a little so that he wouldn’t fully deplete it.  As soon as he reached the gateway, he plowed right into it, not even bothering to read the inscriptions scrawled across it.  He passed through some sort of mysterious barrier, something that obscured the view to the other side of it.  The barrier seemed to be composed of the same spiritual white mist as the souls that Sam had frequently absorbed.

On the other side of the barrier, his stamina had faded all the way down to nothing and he was forced to stop and take in all the air that he could.  It was a sort of stunned state where he couldn’t move until at least a tiny portion of his stamina gauge recovered.  Ahead of him was a wide open stone and grass covered area.  It was a perfect place for a boss encounter, so Sam was savvy enough to know what to expect next.

He took the time to slow down a little bit, to let some of his adrenaline wear down, and to think of his next couple of moves.  The boss hadn’t yet activated, so Sam quickly looked behind him, and stared deeply into the barrier.  If one got really close to it, they could actually see through the barrier.  At a distance it looked vaguely like a mirror, but now Sam could see the enemies that he’d left behind walking back into the forest.  They’d known not to cross the barrier or perhaps they couldn’t.  Either way, Sam was grateful.  Now though, his mind was on the challenge ahead.

“My first boss.”

He looked at the wide open sky of the cliff face ahead, it was beautiful.  It was still night time in the game and Sam had to wonder if perhaps daylight would never come to the game world.  But he could definitely see that they were on a big mountain.  The mountain lingered above him, mostly on the right side and he knew at that moment that the whole forest was set on a large mountain.  He stopped and thought about this part of the game in the old Death Planes version.  Milner and his crew had changed up some of the things in the forest, maybe just to throw the testers off.  The characters were different and some of the enemies were changed from the game before, but this part was unmistakable.

This was the area that led, from the City of the Dead to the Assassin’s Forest.  And the boss here was unmistakable as well.  It was a boss that made Sam nearly give up on the prospect of traveling to the Assassin’s Forest all those years ago.

“Here we go!  Time to fight the Forest Dragon.”

19 Cheap Cheap Cheap

Sam found that he couldn’t exit the gated barrier behind him.  Just like in the previous Death Planes game, once you crossed the barrier, you had to defeat the boss to make the barrier disappear.  Though, he could always use his Phoenix Floo to escape back to the Soul Beacon if things got too hectic.

“What did they call this thing before?  A soul barrier?”

He quickly checked his items for something useful that could help with this fight.  He read the descriptions for both of his new items.

Warrior’s Soul

Souls of this nature can be broken down into usable soul currency.

A fierce warrior’s soul.  Oftentimes clarity can be gained on the battlefield.  Struggle breeds greatness and there is no greater struggle than life or death combat.  The warrior’s soul is strengthened through such conflicts.

Decoy Soul

Lures simple minded enemies to the location where it was thrown.

Cursed men, curious minds, demons, and those who thirst for power are all attracted by souls.  It has been a fact of life since history has been recorded.  A decoy soul is a weak soul that has been given false properties to make it more appealing.  Those who aren’t finely attuned in the soul artes can be easily fooled into thinking that these are the highly coveted prizes that they’ve been seeking.

Stim Plant

Aids in the regeneration of stamina.

A very useful plant that resourceful warriors and soldiers use to enhance their performance in battles of endurance.  It is said that this plant lets even old warriors and soldiers fight as if they were in the prime of their lives.  There was a rumor long ago that some famous Alchemist was responsible for creating these wondrous herbs though many saw such a man-made triumph as an affront to the supreme ones.

It was just as he suspected.  The Warrior’s Soul and the Decoy Souls wasn’t something he’d get any immediate use out of, but the Stim Plants that he’d collected from the Stumpies should come in handy here.  He put them in his Quick Select slot along with everything else he had there including his Soul Fire, Torch, Bandages, and Absorption Herbs.

His gear was the best and only gear that he currently had and his Rapier was his best weapon by far, especially now that it was upgraded.  He was as ready as he’d ever be for what was to come.  He inhaled deeply then let it all out in a long breath.

“Alright, here we go.”

Sam held his shield up and stepped forward into the open.  The dew coated grass covering the ground was laid flat by each of his footsteps.  He looked around for the expected threat, but found himself blanketed by a sudden shadow.  Something had eclipsed the sky above in mere moments.  Sam felt a rush of air and friction crash into him and break him.

The force had knocked him flat to the ground.  He didn’t have enough words to currently describe any of the pain he was in.  It all felt brand new and his body felt nearly useless.  Perhaps this was what getting hit by a truck felt like.  Like all your bones were ground into mulch.

Luckily, or unluckily, he was still alive and possessed a barely visible sliver of HP.  He had the presence of mind to instinctively get up to his feet so that he could move out of the way and heal his damage.  Once on his feet, he held his shield up again and looked for whatever the hell had hit him.

The first thing he noticed was a tree, a really tall one that wasn’t present before.  This one was wider and had thicker bark than many of the others in the forest.  But that wasn’t all, there were three other tall trees nearby that weren’t there before.  He noticed that they swayed frequently as if blown by the night wind—no—not only that but they were moving forward and bending at certain sections.  They were legs.

Sam glanced upwards and caught sight of the beast’s body.  The sight made him wish that he had stayed on the ground.  It was enormous, massive, and terrifying.  The upper parts of each of its legs as well as its body was green and purple, same as the forest leaves.  Its body was thick, seemingly engorged, with a round center and a long and thin neck.

Sam could currently only see one side of the creature.  It had a bulbous head with bulging red and yellow eyes with a purple procession of leaves covering much of its head and cascading down part of its neck.  They had completely redesigned it and made it even bigger than the Forest Dragon in the Death Planes.

How the hell was he supposed to kill something that was the size of a whale?

He didn’t have time to get a good look at it before it started attacking again.  It reared its head back at him and Sam prepared to roll out of the way, even though he felt like he would fall over at any moment.  Instead of chomping at him, like he expected, it blew a thick crimson mist all over Sam and the rest of the battlefield.

The mist was hot, enveloping Sam like a shower, and it quickly brought relentless pain with it, some burning sensation.  Sam was blown to the ground by the force of the spray and as he lied there, he watched as the grass all around wilted into a dead field of brown.  His own health, what little he had, was swiftly ticking down from the instant poison and bleedout status that the attack had inflicted.  The only good thing about this encounter, Sam thought, was the fact that he had at least outlived the grass.  His screen faded to black followed by some familiar words painted in red.

YOU HAVE DIED

Sam regained consciousness along with a splitting headache at the Soul Beacon in Barrington’s camp.  He was lying down when he came to.  He sat up and looked over at the startled bear and blacksmith.  He ignored them and sat up in front of the fire.  Oh how much he missed its warmth!  The cold air and loneliness of his journey was always negatively amplified whenever he died and this feeling of home brought forth by the Soul Beacon and his proximity to two characters that he trusted for the most part, it all felt ... safe.  Sam sat there rubbing his hands and extending them into the fire somewhat mindlessly.

“That didn’t go well, now did it?” Barrington asked.

“Not how I would’ve liked,” Sam answered back.

He would’ve liked to at least have gained some more info about the monster and its attack patterns before he was killed by it.  It was definitely a poor performance, but Sam didn’t completely blame himself for his loss.

“That was so fucking cheap.”

He stared into the fire thinking of everything that happened in the lead up to the boss fight.  His anger grew hot as he thought of all the trials he had to go through just to get to the boss gate.

“Cheap ass Stumpies everywhere dropping down all the time!  Then you have to take a fuckin’ thin ass path to get to through the damn forest and avoid them—oh—but guess what?  There’s a huge ass zombie fuckin’ bear that needlessly parks its fat ass down the trail that I need to go down to fight the mother of all shit-holes.”

Sam’s rant had seemingly only just begun.  His next lines were delivered in a voice reminiscent of a certain cartoon bear with an affinity for picnic baskets.

“Eh Sam buddy!  Imma not your average bear!  Imma big ass zombie bear and I don’t want no pic-a-nic basket, I want your brains little buddy, hoohoohoohoooo!”

Sam’s thoughts turned from the journey, to the boss fight itself.

“Oh and once I finally do power through all that bullshit, there’s still the cheap ass hippie dragon!  ‘Oh, I’m a dragon, but I’m made out of trees and other dumb shit.  Flowers and rainbows yall!  I’m a dragon that’s good for the environment har har har.  Save the trees yo, see I don’t even breathe fire.  I breathe peace and love and by peace and love, I mean murderous poison that inflicts fifty different status ailments including athlete’s foot.’”

A familiar voice interrupted his rant.

“Sam, Sam, Sam, stop it please!  You’re killing me here!” Alex explained.

“You guys are shit designers, you know that!  How the hell was the player supposed to know to avoid an attack as soon as they stepped on the field?”

“Calm down, cowboy.  Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

Sam was losing his patience.

“Is there a reason for your call, Alex?”

“I just wanted to explain the method to our madness here.  We wanted to see how quickly you testers could react to that kind of ambush.  Only you and a few others have made it to that boss’ Soul Plane so far, but you’ve given us some great data on player reactions,” she explained.

“Let me guess.  You’ve learned that your boss kills all your players almost instantly?” he asked.

“All except for two and only one of them beat the boss on the first try, but it took her a really long time to do it.”

Sam wondered if it was the crafty opponent he had faced earlier, the IMMORtAL_Kalika or if it were some other hotshot female player who had proven so skillful.

“Now Sam, stop bad-mouthing our boss.  We worked really hard on its design and the mechanics for the encounter.”

“I liked the old one better.”

She gasped cartoonishly.

“Now you’re just being spiteful Sam Nathaniel Nagai!”

He grinned and shot her back a response.

“What the hell?  That’s not my middle name.”

“I needed something to express my matronly disappointment and that was all I could come up with on the spot.”

“Fine, Alex.  Call me whatever you like.  And thanks by the way.”

“For what?”

“For the laugh.  I needed it.”

“I uh ... I should be thanking you for that.  Things have been pretty tense on my end.”

He wondered why.  Had the alpha test taken a wrong turn?  Maybe the testers weren’t uncovering the right kind of data, the data that Milner and his crew were looking for.  Or maybe they were turning up too much of it.  While Sam did have a lot of fun in the game, he had already discovered three glitches in it.  Well, he found two, to be truthful.  But more and more, his increased pain felt like the worst glitch of them all, constantly threatening to take away all of his enjoyment out of the game.

“How so, Alex?  I thought you sounded a little tense last time.”

“I can’t really talk about it, well I shouldn’t.  It’s company policy.  I just want you to stay safe in there, okay?  I want you to win this contest and beat this game.  You’re one of the best players in there, Sam, but I need you to get even better.”

Stay safe?  That was a weird thing to say to someone playing a videogame, but they both knew his pain receptors were glitching out.  She was completely right about him improving though.  He also wanted to win the contest and beat the game, so he needed to get even better and he needed to stop complaining.

“Okay Alex, thanks for the pep talk, doll.”

“Doll?  What year do you think this is, Sam?  Nineteen thirty?  Nobody says sexist stuff like that anymore.”

Sam chuckled.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.”

“What, that you’re a misogynist?”

“Come on, give me some more credit than that, Alex baby.”

“Oh, you think you’re funny, well you’re not Samuel Nathaniel Yoshinori Nagai!”

They both laughed at their combined ridiculousness.

“Ah, the old stereotypical Japanese middle name trick.  I must say that I approve.  We’re both pretty horrible people.”

“Speak for yourself.  A tip for you though, before I go.  If you have any Quintessence, use it to go human form whenever you can.”

“Any particular reason why?  I know you get a health boost, but is there any other reason beyond that?” he asked.

“There’s more benefit to it than you’d know.  I’ll just keep it at that.”

It was weird that she was helping him out all of a sudden, but he wasn’t going to turn down free help.

“That’s cheating you know.  I’m sensing some favoritism here.”

“So are you going to cry about fair play now too?  Just go and remember what I told you.  Keep your eyes peeled and don’t play like a fool.”

She cut the communication, but Sam had one more thing to add.

“Doesn’t matter how I play, your game still has cheap bosses.”

He sat at the Soul Beacon looking at his items, reading more descriptions, and forming a strategy for the next time he’d face his favorite hippie tree dragon.

20 Big Mid-Boss

“Stim Plant, Ignition Powder, I have the Skyward Thrust in my free slot, all my rings are equipped, my sword is upgraded, my armor is upgraded, and I can fight the boss with a full Soul Fire container if I avoid all the enemies, so yeah ... I should be good.”  Sam let out a breath as he thought out loud.

He lingered at the blacksmith’s camp Soul Beacon for a little longer, debating whether or not to use his Quintessence item to turn human again before the fight.  He could use the human form health boost.  He needed to avoid dying again though since his stock of Quintessence items was already low.  He had much more loose Quintessence contained in his Death Mark in the boss area, so he didn’t want to waste his Quintessence items which were much more permanent.

“Fuck.  I need that Quintessence.”

Sam contemplated playing without it, despite Alex’s warning, since he didn’t want to lose any more of it.  He just knew that the cheap ass dragon would take many of his lives before he managed to beat it.  As soon as he rose up from the Soul Beacon without turning back into human form, he got a call from Alex.

“Sam, what are you doing?  Have you already forgotten what I told you?”

“Of course not.  I’m using my brain and conserving my resources if you hadn’t noticed,” he snidely answered back.

“Listen, this is no time to play like that.  Have you already forgotten the rules of that game you’re always mentioning?”

“Are you talking about The Death Planes?”

“I can’t say, Sam.  But in whatever game you’re always talking about, what kind of bonus did you get for killing a lot enemies before the boss was defeated?”

“You got loose Quintessence added to your stats.  It used to be the best way to farm it, well outside of destroying people in PVP (player versus player).  I’m surprised I forgot that.  It still doesn’t help me though, if the boss kills me.  I’ll have to run to my Death Mark all over again to pick it up, which will be trapped on the other side of the Soul Barrier.  See the problem with that?  If it’s over there, that means I can’t use it to turn back to human form at the Soul Beacon.  Big problem.”

“Just be smart about it, Sam.  That’s all I wanted to tell you.”

She cut the line, ending their conversation on a somewhat solemn note.  Sam wondered why she was so concerned with him staying in human form.  Her voice had held a note of lingering gloom.  He couldn’t help but feel more on edge thanks to her odd mood shifts and inconsistent intrusions.  He thought that maybe she was trying to keep him safe due to some new issue with his pain receptors.  Maybe they couldn’t actually fix them and perhaps his real body could actually be affected by his virtual injuries.

“Alex.”

When she didn’t answer, he yelled out to her.

“Alex!  Where the hell are you?”

The line remained silent and the armored clad bear and his master stared at Sam with wide-eyed expressions.

“Ya see apprentice?  Once these undead folk die more and more, they lose their damned minds.  Ay crazy, move it along why don’ cha?” yelled Barrington.

Sedwin stood up on his four legs and bared his teeth at Sam.

“No, no, no.  I’m fine guys.  I’m only calling for a friend.  Though, it seems like she’s ignoring me.”

Sedwin sat back down on his rump but continued to stare at Sam.  A tiny text message popped up in front of Sam when tried to send a message to Alex via the Alpha Build menu.

Alex Madura, Designer: Unavailable

Why are you acting so damn strange, Alex?  Why won’t you answer me?

Sam got up and moved on forward with the game.  He left Barrington’s campsite and moved further north to the forest where the Stumpies were.  Before he went too far, a brilliant idea hit him.  He opened his inventory and equipped his Flexile Wooden Bow.  He read its description and stats again when he couldn’t recall how strong it was.

Flexile Wooden Bow

A flexible bow often used by farmers chasing vermin.  Its widespread popularity is due to its low cost, resilience, and reliability.  It’s not rare to catch a thrifty adventurer using such a weapon.

ATK  55

Weapon Damage  15

S ATK  E = 8

D ATK  D = 32

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  3

Weight: 1.6 lbs

Overall, it was less than stellar, but at least it gave him more offensive options.  It appeared on his back as soon as he equipped it.  He also equipped the Wooden Arrows he had bought from the merchant earlier.  He had sixty of them in all.  He looked up into the trees and found the evil coconut Stumpies that ambushed him before.  He pulled out his bow and loaded his arrow.  His dad had taught him the basics of archery when he was a kid.  Getting into his square stance felt surprisingly natural even after so many years.  He lifted his bow and nocked his wooden arrow.  He aimed at the closest target and loosed his arrow.  He missed miserably then cursed and did it over again.

He focused deeply on his next shot, mainly the distance between himself and the enemy, then he loosed another arrow.  He missed again, but this time he fared much better.  His arrow had flew only a little to the right of the target.  He took aim again and this time considered the trajectory of the arrow.  He now had a good feel for it, and so his next loosed arrow sailed right into the body of the closest Stumpy.  The Stumpy fell down after being struck by the quiet arrow and landed on its tiny blue head.  Sam heard a cracking sound and the creature lost nearly all of its health.  Sam took its remaining health with another arrow shot and proceeded forward along the trail.

******

Sam ventured around and managed to kill twenty-nine more Stumpies with his bow before he began to get low on arrows.  There were still a ton more Stumpies near the exit, so Sam opted to return to the Barrington to buy some more arrows.  Each Stumpy he killed gave Sam two hundred souls.  With five thousand eight hundred souls, he was able to buy the Soul Bound Refinement Kit for five thousand souls along with one-hundred and sixty Wooden Arrows from Barrington.  Sedwin gave Sam a perplexed look as he patrolled around the camp.

“Going hunting, are we?” Sedwin asked.

“You can say that.  I need to safely clear a path to the north,” Sam replied.

“Ahh, well sorry I can’t join you.  I’d love to clear out some of those nasty forest beasts, but my place is here, at my master’s side, protecting him from all threats.”

“I understand Sedwin.  It’s a shame though.  I could use an ally against that dragon.”

“That giant forest beast?”

Sam nodded his head.  Sedwin’s eyes widened cartoonishly.

“Ach, that’s a bad idea anyway you tear it.  I wouldn’t go against that thing even if I were inclined to do so.  It’s a beast beyond approach.”

“You wouldn’t understand Sedwin.  I come from a different world.  As a gamer, this is a fight I have to win.”

“Sounds like more of that undead babble to me.  Try not to die anymore, lest you lose any more of your wits.”

Sam had a laugh at that and took his leave of the camp to kill the rest of the Stumpies.  There weren’t many that remained around the middle of the trail, so he decided to skip them and went near the end of the trail to clear out the ones hanging there.  He wanted to hold on to as many arrows as he could in case he died against the dragon again or maybe even the bear that waited for him up ahead.  His whole purpose for clearing the Stumpies at the end of the trail was so that he could challenge the undead bear without any interruptions.  He had seen some of its attack pattern when IMMORtAL_Kalika had dodged two of them before.  He would need room to dodge its slashes.

He tested to see how fast he could switch from his bow to his sword and back.  It took two seconds between each switch.  It was slowed from The Death Planes where it used to switch almost instantly.  Now he had his plan.

He took aim at the undead bear and shot an arrow.  The arrow plunged into the bear’s eye and Sam could tell that he landed a critical hit from how quickly the red life bar above its head had fallen, though the damage itself was pitiful.  The bear roared to life and rose to its hind legs, even at a distance Sam could see that the thing towered over him.

He shot another arrow that struck the bear’s upper body.  It went to all fours after that and charged down the trail towards Sam.  He had enough time and space to take one more shot, that he unfortunately missed, before he had to roll away into the part of the forest that he cleared.

The bear was right behind him by the time he recovered.  Sam rolled away twice, back towards the trail.  As soon as he recovered, he changed to his sword and shield, praying that he would swap over in time to defend himself from the charging bear.  He put his shield up in time to block a wide swipe that drained much of his stamina gauge and tired him out.  He had to roll away again or have his guard broken.

The bear continued to be unrelenting in its pursuit.  Sam wasn’t even able to completely regain his stamina before his guard was nearly broken again.  At this rate, he would definitely be hit by one of the bear’s attacks.  He quickly rolled away one more time and ran as fast as he could back along the trail to the beginning of it where he cleared out the first few Stumpies.

He stopped right before his stamina had completely run out and consumed one of the Stim Plants from his Quick Select slot.  His stamina quickly refilled itself.  He managed to block a vicious claw slam from the bear as well as another claw swipe.  The Stim Plant had worked wonders, now he could fight without having to worry about his guard being broken in only a few hits.

He rolled around the bear and peppered it with light stabs when he could.  He got a few in before the bear lashed out with a wild backwards slash.  Even with the Stim Plant active, the blow still nearly drained Sam of all his stamina.  Sam could feel his heart beating swiftly as he moved away from the beast so that his stamina could regenerate.  He knew that blocking another attack like that would leave him wide open.

“Phew.  Okay, okay.  Gotta finish this.  He has an opening that I can exploit.  I just have to time it right.  If I keep going for the little attacks then I’ll bet that my Stim Plant will wear off before I kill it.  I have to go big.”

Sam clutched his sword tightly and waited for the savage creature to approach.  His heart was still pounding in his chest.  He tried to calm his nerves before reengaging.

Sam jumped backwards when the bear swiped at him from its left.  When it raised its right paw, Sam rolled to its right side as it launched its second attack.  The burning feeling started from his toes then quickly engulfed his whole body in an instant.  The power traveled into his Rapier as he thrust it three times, up into the beast’s upper body then released all his power with the final fourth blow of the Skyward Thrust.

The damage from the attack was enough to put the bear down to nearly half its health.  Unfortunately, Sam’s Skyward Thrust lacked the power to push the bear away.  It retaliated with a quick slash that Sam was barely able to block, then a nasty swipe that managed to break his guard.

“Crap!” he yelled, powerless to stop whatever would happen next.  The bear raised both of its paws in the air for some kind of incoming attack.  It came down with a forward claw lunge, but Sam’s stamina had recovered in enough time for him to avoid the charged blow.

He strafed and lowered his shield so that his stamina would recharge sooner.  He stabbed the bear quickly and rolled away.  The roll was needless and the bear was only now approaching to attack.  It went into a fury with both of its claws.

Sam wanted to get around to its other side, but wasn’t sure how, so he just moved the hell out of the thing’s way and hurriedly equipped his throwing knives.  He managed to plant two knives in the bear’s head which stopped its thrashing and made it recoil.

He quickly rolled to its back and charged a heavy thrust.  His attack landed as the bear started to recover and did massive damage.  It still wasn’t enough, but the bear had staggered again and Sam found another opening.

“That’s it!  Just DIE!”

Sam built up the heat in his soul and delivered another rapid stab Skyward Thrust.  The tip of his sword glowed red as the bear’s soul mist enveloped Sam’s body.  He was rewarded with a single Quintessence item and fifteen hundred souls.  Sam let out a sigh of relief as he watched the bear disappear.

“Damn you were tough!  I’m gonna call you Big Mid-Boss from now on.  At least you dropped something good.”

Sam patted himself on the back for managing not to get hit during that whole ordeal.  His shield took a beating, but at least his HP was intact.  He hoped that Alex was watching to see that he had indeed gotten a lot better at the game.  He didn’t have much time to celebrate though.  His next obstacle was still just up ahead.

******

Sam was as ready as he’d ever be to face this boss.  He stood on the inside of the Soul Barrier and stared at his Death Mark right in front of him.  It looked like a huge blood pool with a similar neon crimson glow as his Walker form whenever he encroached upon other Planes.  As soon as he stepped out to pick it up, he knew he’d get destroyed just like he had before.  He needed to be smart about it.  He had concocted an idea of how to hurt the beast too, even though it seemed impossible before.  Now, it was time to put all those plans into effect.

He dashed forward into the center of the battlefield and found himself engulfed in the dragon’s shadow again.  He didn’t have time to look up, so he kept running until he heard it crash down behind him.

Its violent landing kicked dust, pebbles, and grass into the air, obscuring much of the battlefield.  Sam ran around its legs to get back to the side where his Death Mark sat.

He couldn’t help but be awestruck by the dragon’s tremendous size.  It seemed strange to call such a weird creature a dragon.  He only assumed it was one, because that was what you fought here in the old game.  This time, it really was like nothing he had ever seen.  Like the forest come to life.

He ran to his Death Mark and its power was absorbed into him as soon as he got close enough to it.  His loose Quintessence counter went back up along with the amount of souls in his possession, each added to what he gained from killing all the enemies in the forest moments ago.

Sam was surprised that he hadn’t been attacked yet.  As a matter of fact, it seemed as if by avoiding the dragon’s surprise attack that he held an advantage.  It moved very slowly and since Sam was at its side, it didn’t seem able to attack him, but it was a stalemate because Sam couldn’t reach any part of its body that wasn’t covered in thick bark.

He could use his bow, he thought, but he guessed it would make for a long fight, so he took his Rapier and struck out at one of the tree trunks that it called legs.  The leg seemed to have its own HP value.  Sam was able to whittle it down only a little at a time thanks to its high defensive values.

In the middle of his attacks, he cried out as his body was pierced by a sharp spike and he lost a fourth of his HP.  The spike had come from the leg he was attacking, taking him completely by surprise.  It looked similar to an attack performed by the Forest Barkers earlier.  He watched carefully for the attack again as he continued to stab away at its leg.  He soon learned the timing of it and was able to move out of the way before the thing even struck out at him.

He stabbed the leg down below a tenth of its health.  After that, it shed the bark that was covering that particular limb and seemed to move a lot faster than before.  It stomped down at him twice in succession, nearly hitting him on the second stomp.

He moved to the front leg of the creature and started stabbing away at that.  He moved around a little more frequently to keep pace with the beast.  The mobility of the rear leg had sped it up, but not enough to threaten him too much.  He only damaged the front leg a little before returning to the rear one to finish it off.  He didn’t want the creature to get even faster with two free legs.

He stabbed at the exposed reptilian looking limb and dodged its rapid stomps.  He obliterated the leg with a Skyward Thrust and watched as the creature slowed back down to a crawl again.  He laughed at his fortune and commended his genius strategy.  Then something hit him from behind and knocked him to the ground.

What the hell was that, he thought in his confusion.  He looked in the direction that the attack had come from and could see nothing.  He’d nearly lost a half of his total health though.  He quickly healed when he got to his feet and put his shield up.  Whatever had attacked him had done so again, even with his shield up and he lost half of his health again.

“Come on!  What the hell is that?  I had my shield up!” Sam complained to no one but himself.

He got up and quickly healed again only to be knocked down again by the same invisible attack.

“Alex!”

This time when he got to his feet, he rolled away from the where he stood, hopefully away from whatever was attacking him.

“What is it, Sam?”

Yes!  He was glad that she answered, but he didn’t have any time to talk just yet.  He quickly healed with a swig of his Soul Fire.  Then looked around for whatever was attacking him.  There was nothing.  It had to be some kind of glitch.  He seemed to be relatively safe away from the creature’s limbs and its rear, where whatever it was, was attacking him.

“Something’s wrong, Alex.  I—”

The shadow beneath his feet grew larger and Sam instinctively rolled away, only he was too late.  The dragon had used the entire weight of its massive body and fell on top on him.  There was nothing he could do about it, the crushing weight had taken all of his HP and he saw the now familiar game over message.

YOU HAVE DIED

He woke up at the serpentine Soul Beacon with the now predictable symptoms of intense nausea and vertigo.  Beyond that, he was pissed.  He knew that he got cheated.

“THAT’S NOT FAIR, ALEX!”

Sedwin and Barrington once again stared at Sam with concern.

“Calm down, Sam,” Alex tried to soothe.

“No!  Just what the hell was that?  Invisible attacks?  Seriously!  How was I supposed to even defend against that?”

“I know, I know, you’re right, so calm down.”

“It took me forever to even get into that Soul Barrier, then I have to contend with that crap.  Come on, Alex, work with me here!  I’m doing my best and putting up a championship performance only to get cheesed.  I know I could’ve had him!  I know it!”

There was silence on the line while Sam waited for her to respond.

“You done?” she asked, her voice filled with frustration.  Sam let out a long frustrated sigh to match.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Okay, since master Sam has deemed it appropriate for me to talk, I’ll explain what went wrong back there.”

“Please do!  I need to know what kind of fuckery I’m dealing with here.”

“First off, I do apologize for what happened.  I know that you, of all people are dealing with a lot of pressure every time you enter the death state.  So I know any screw ups on our end really ruin this game for you.  That said, that’s exactly what happened.  It was a major screw up with the code.  That ‘dragon’, as you call it, known formally in game lore and by our design team as The Will of The Forest, has a tail that wasn’t rendered during your fight.  The attack boxes and values for the tail loaded, those things you can’t see, but not its framework or 3D model.  Again, I apologize.  There was also another glitch I noticed during the fight with its health.  I am working on fixing both.”

Sam scoffed at the ridiculousness of all that.  How could stuff like that happen at even this stage of the game?  True, it was the alpha build, but it just felt like a blatant way to kill off the testers.  Sam hated cheap game design tactics like that.

“What about its health?  What did you find?”

“I don’t think I should tell you.  You’re way too angry right now.”

“I’m not angry!”

“Says an angry five year old.  You don’t know it, but I get a readout of your mental state at all times.  And these readings tell me that you are angry, actually very angry, truthfully more like extremely angry.  Now, remember what I said before.”

“I don’t give a damn what you said.”

“Again, says the extremely angry five year old.  I’m trying to help you here, Sam.  This isn’t the way to face challenges, is it?  Even challenges that are unfair.  No, I need you to calm down and once you do, I may tell you about the other glitch.”

Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes.  He realized that she was right.  Why participate in something as awesome as this game was if he was just going to whine and complain about it.  Even his younger self didn’t whine so much when he’d gotten demolished by his first few bosses in The Death Planes so long ago.

“Okay, I’m calm.”

“Not quite, but you’re getting there.  Okay, again sorry Sam.  Now, along with that invisible tail that attacked you before, the Will of the Forest was constantly locked in its healing state, meaning that any damage you did to it would’ve been negligible even if you didn’t have any issues with its tail.”

“The damn thing was immortal too!  You guys really outdid yourselves on that one.”

“It’s a glitch remember?  A mistake.”

“Well, it’s a pretty damn big one ...”

“Sam ...”

“I’m good.  Thanks for explaining all that to me.”

“No that’s not what I was going to say.”

“What then?” he asked.

“Can I get a little cheer out of you at least?”

He huffed loudly, but then allowed himself to smile at Alex’s teasing.

“You’re a pain in the butt, you know that, Madura?”

“We’re doing the last name thing now, Nagai?  Fine, I guess I’ll keep my good news to myself then.”

Sam felt his ears perk up like a dog’s when he heard “good news.”

“What good news?”

“Address me as Ms. Alex and I’ll tell you.”

He huffed again though he quickly played ball.

“Please tell me what this wonderful news is, Ms. Alex you lovely person you.  Queen of my virtual universe.”

“Okay, you’re overdoing it now.  I’ll just tell you ...”

There was a silence in the line as Sam waited for her to answer.

“Anytime now, Alex.”

“Sorry, I love the suspense.”

Sam huffed again and was really getting irritated now.

“Come on already!”

“Fine, fine.  You won the contest you big baby,” she said, teasing.

“Contest?”

It took him a moment to remember what she was talking about.  With everything that was happening in the game, he had totally forgotten about the contest.

“Oh wow, seriously?  I forgot all about the contest.”

“Yup, you were the first to report five glitches in the game.  Congratulations!”

“Wow!  I finally win something worthwhile,” he said excitedly.

The gloom that was clouding his mood disappeared completely, replaced by overwhelming joy at his turn of luck.

“Yes!  Hahahaha!  You know Alex, even though you were kind of a jerk to me, I feel that I owe ya.”

“Oh yeah, nice guy?”

“Yeah.  How about I treat you to dinner once I’m done with this alpha test?  How’s that sound?”

“That sounds great, Sam.  I have to warn you though, I’m a girl that likes to eat.”

“That’s fine, cuz I’m a guy that likes to eat.  But before all that, I have an asshole to slay.”

21 Royal Cooperation

About twenty minutes had passed after Alex had cut the communication.  Sam sat at the Soul Beacon reading over the stats of all his gear and strategizing his next encounter with The Will of the Forest.

“Okay Sam, I fixed those glitches.  Now remember what I said before.”

“Oh, about human form.  I’ll just farm up some loose quintessence from the Stumpies.”

“Those are called Seedlings by the way, if you cared that is,” Alex answered back.

“To me they’ll always be Stumpies,” Sam added.

She sighed and Sam could imagine her shaking her head.

“You do love your creative names, don’t you?  I just want you to keep in mind that there are still even greater bonuses for you, should you find any more major glitches.  Keep an eye out for them and as always, be careful.”

She cut the line and Sam again wondered why her sendoff was so gloomy, especially when she did her best to keep him in good spirits.  Whatever the case, he had his sights set on defeating that dragon, The Will of the Forest.

******

Sam spent a considerable amount of time farming the Stumpies and Mid-Boss the bear for solid and loose Quintessence as well as Stim Plants and souls.  When he was done, he returned to Barrington, bought enough arrows to put him at an even hundred, then rested at the Soul Beacon.  While resting, he leveled up a little in preparation for his rematch against the Will of the Forest.  He first leveled his spirituality to five so that he could equip the Sword Uppercut as an alternative to his Skyward Thrust.  Strangely enough, the spirituality upgrade increased his fire defense by a point as well.  With only enough points to level-up one more time, Sam chose to upgrade his speed to twenty-three.  Once he got it to twenty-five he’d move on to the next stat.  Once he was done leveling, he remembered to use one of his points of loose Quintessence to turn back to human form.  It was good to see his health bar go back up to max.  As he prepared to leave, the smith called out to him.

“By the way, traveler.  Some strange man has found his way into my camp.  He’s out in the ruins.  I’m keepin’ Sedwin close should the stranger want to cause a ruckus, but if ye can, tell him to go away please.  I don’ need scary fools loitering about, losing their minds near my shop.”

Barrington’s words chilled Sam.  There was a chance that Caesar had wandered to the north, chasing some strong opponent.  Sam prepared himself for an unpleasant encounter and had the smith repair his weapons.  As he went to leave, Sedwin halted him.

“Sorry, I forgot to give you this for your troubles earlier,” Sedwin said nervously.  He presented Sam with an enormous shield that looked to be made of the same material as his beautiful silver armor.  All Sam could think as he looked at the shield was, how the hell is he holding that thing up?  When Sam reached for the humongous shield, it turned into a tiny white light right in front of him.  Once he grabbed it, it went into his inventory and he saw that it was called a Silver Great Shield.

“Uhh, thanks Sedwin.”

“It’s the least I could do for you.  You’ve mended the rift between me and my master.  I only hope that this shield will aid you against that intruder.  The master made it for me long ago, but as you can see, it’s more decorative than practical for a bear such as myself.”

Sam was currently browsing its stats.

Silver Great Shield

Great Shield

A heavy silver shield that can block almost any attack.  It stands taller than many men and is wide enough to fit even a bear, though who would do such a thing?  Crafted by the famed blacksmith Barrington, it has never seen use in battle as its near pristine condition attests.  Not only is the blacksmith famous for his fine craftsmanship, he is also known for being a rarity among the common folk for he was one of the few commoners to attain knighthood.

ATK  35

Weapon Damage  20

S ATK  C = 10

D ATK  F = 0

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  E = 5

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

P RAT  0

D RAT  0

B RAT  1

He scrolled over to see the defenses.

P DEF  100%

M DEF  80%

L DEF  50%

F DEF  80%

D DEF  80%

A DEF  70%

P RES  90%

D RES  80%

C RES  40%

B RES  100%

Sturdiness  90%

Durability 400/400

Weight 40 lbs

It was a really powerful shield with an insane amount of defenses.  It was probably way too good a shield to have right now, but Sam still couldn’t use it.  It weighed forty pounds and the maximum weight that Sam could currently carry was fifty-eight pounds.  Plus it required twenty strength to properly wield, so even if he could equip the shield, he’d barely be able to move.

“Thanks again Sedwin.  I’ll be back shortly.”

Hopefully I’ll be walking back instead of being teleported here after death, he thought grimly.  He left the warmth of the camp and took a short journey into the ruins next to it.  Standing amidst the ruins of a felled wall and covered in the moon’s pale light was the mighty King Herke.

Herke stared up into the sky, at the various stars to the north until Sam approached.  He hesitantly turned and stared through Sam with his blue eyed gaze.  Though the king looked at ease, Sam got the feeling that the man was ready for any sort of sudden threat.  He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination or the king’s massive physique and greatsword that put him on edge.

“It’s you, the one with the burning soul,” the king said as he regarded Sam.

“King?  You’re here in the north?” Sam asked.

“I’m getting nearer to my target, that foul Cutthroat.  I can feel it in my bones.  I must be one step behind.”

Sam didn’t think it would do any good to tell the king that he had given away information about his quest.  Mainly, he didn’t want to piss him off.

“Rondo is here?” Sam asked.

“If he was, he isn’t anymore.  If you’re here too, I have to wonder, were you chasing the fiend or was the fiend chasing you?  It can’t just be a coincidence.”

Sam hadn’t seen any Cutthroats following him besides the one’s he killed and if any of them were Rondo, then the king would not have his revenge.  All Sam could do was give the king a shrug.

“No matter, it’s only a matter of time before I find him and wring the life from the coward’s neck.”

Eager to change the subject, Sam interjected another question.

“Do you know anything about that dragon?”

“Dragon?  That flying creature, by the cliffs?  I’d hardly call that a dragon, though it does tower over one doesn’t it?  No, dragons have nothing but fire and smoke in their blood.  That creature is made of greener stuff, the stuff of this ancient forest.”

“What is it then?” Sam asked.

“As far as I know it, it’s some sort of guardian of this place.  It keeps those from the upper undead cities from crossing into its domain.  I don’t see what’s so special about this place though.  Why would anything want to protect a forest filled with death, decay, and revenants who’ve long since lost their minds?  Even the creatures here seem corrupted.”

That was a good question, Sam had to admit.  Maybe there was something worthwhile here in these parts that he hadn’t discovered or maybe the king was wrong and the creature was trying to keep all the bad things in this forest from getting out.  The king looked Sam over with suspicion.

“Hmm, why are you interested in the creature, boy?  Could it be ... you’re looking for a hunt?”

The king’s grin was bestial and his muscles flexed seemingly involuntarily.

Sam didn’t say anything and just stood still staring at the king warily.

“Ah, no need to say anything.  I can see it on you.  You crave a good hunt.  I knew I could see the hunter’s gleam in your eye when we first met.  The same is true for myself.  I almost miss the demons of my homeland and the sport they gave.  This forest guardian, it looks like damn fine sport.  If you’ve the nerve to challenge it, look for my sign near its roosting place.  I would cross into hell to join such a foolish battle.  Hehehehe.  Even old men can be fools.”

“Well we’re both tremendous fools then, king.”

******

Sam killed his way through the northern forest path as before, plowing right through the Stumpies and Mid-Boss the bear on his way to the Soul Barrier near the cliffs.  He looked around for the king’s sign just outside of the Soul Barrier, but couldn’t find it anywhere.  After getting frustrated, he went back into the forest and started killing all the Stumpies that he saw in the trees above, even the ones well away from the path.  By the time he was done, he only had two arrows left.  The King had said that his sign was near the boss’ roosting place, so maybe it was in a part of the forest that he hadn’t explored yet.

Sam saw an item in the distance.  He walked over to pick it up from the ground.  It was a Poor Man’s Soul.  He hurriedly read its description.

Poor Man’s Soul

Souls of this nature can be broken down into usable soul currency.

The soul of a beggar, one whose life has taken an unlucky turn.  Was death a better outcome?  One has to wonder.  Much of this soul has been whittled away by silent suffering.

“What a strange presence you have ... like nothing I’ve ever felt.”

The voice was a silky whisper, one that came from his right.  Sam didn’t have to search very far to find his new company.  It was a woman, dressed in white and red robes that thinly draped over her slender frame along with matching gaucho looking pants that fell down just below her knees.  She sat on the ground with her body leaning against a tall tree with one knee up.  Aside from her robes, she wore steel plated gauntlets and greaves with ornate designs of artistic clouds and snakelike dragons, but that was the only part of her that was armored.  Her hair was tied in a tall ponytail that towered over her head and then fell back down to her lower back and her slender eyes were laid on Sam.  She had a look of intrigue showing on her face along with amusement on her lips.  She didn’t have a very friendly presence, mainly thanks to the man sized naginata looming over her that she held closely against her body.

“No, I’m mistaken.  Your presence does remind me of someone.  So does that look in your eye.”

Sam took a step towards the strange woman.

“That’s far enough.  I don’t quite know your intentions ... and you don’t know mine.”

“I’m not an enemy,” Sam said defensively.

“I never said you were and I never said that I’m not.  It’s best not to assume things of people you don’t know, yes?”

“I agree.  What is your name?” he asked.

“I only give my name to those I respect or those I intend to kill.  Would you still like to know?”

Sam shook his head, while the woman smiled, apparently amused by his cowardice.

“Would you care to answer one of my questions then?  It’s an easy one,” she asked.

“I don’t mind.  Go ahead and ask.”

“I feel a certain familiar feeling resonating from you.  The pull of a powerful soul.  A sign that you’ve made a connection with a strong ally.  I’d like to know if you’ve met that man, that indomitable monarch with his burning heart and cold steel.”

Was she talking about who he thought she was?

“You said monarch?  You mean a king?”

“Yes.  There’s only one in this forest ... hehe ... well there’s that fake one too, the leader of that black band.”

“The real king, are you referring to Herke of Aschelund?” asked Sam.

“His presence is all over you and he is not one to make friends easily.  How have you come to know him, especially dressed as you are?”

Sam wondered who this woman really was.  She did have an air of danger about her, but her presence was mostly calming and it sounded like she knew the king.  Still, Sam wanted to be careful not to say too much to her, just in case.

“I’m an ally to his cause,” he said.

“Is that so?  That makes two of us then.  I followed him into this abysmal forest to help him kill those who took the lives of his family so long ago.  The only thing I fear is that the king will lose his purpose once his task his complete.  You know what happens when cursed men lose their purpose don’t you?”

“They lose their Quintessence, that which makes them human.”

“Very clever of you.  I would like to help the king avoid that fate, but perhaps it can’t be helped if he is to dole out his justice.”

Sam doubted that a man like King Herke would lose his purpose.  As long as there were evil people around, he’d want to dole out his justice, probably until the end of time since the curse brought immortality according to the lore.

“Rondo needs to die for what he’s done.  I’ll help the king mete out his justice to the fiend.  Nothing else matters right now, especially events beyond our current control.  I’m sure the king feels the same way.”

“Is that so?” she asked.  “Hmm ... you have convinced my hesitant heart.  It is for the best to help the king on his journey to find justice.  Thank you stranger.  I am Ji Susano.”

She smirked at Sam, looking more dubious than ever.  Sam wondered why she had given him her name.  Did she respect him or did she want to kill him?  He tensed up when she rose up to her feet.  She was a tall woman, easily over six feet, though the naginata in her hand was even taller.  Its shining blade was wide, curved, and had multiple edges that looked like a flame.

“You have some of the king’s fire in you, I see, but you also have something even greater within, some greater purpose and power.  For good or ill, I wish to assist you just as I have the king.  I would like to give you this, the biggest piece of me that I can give.”

She extended her hand which shined with a white glow, obscuring whatever item she intended to give him.  Sam took the item and got a message displayed across his HUD.

You’ve received an Ignitor.

“I am a pyromancer from the eastern lands.  What I just gave you is a precious piece of my soul, a piece bathed in living flame.  For us cursed with immortality, the soul and fire are intricately intertwined and can never be separate again.  By sharing that with you, our fates have become intertwined just like the flames and our cursed souls.  If you choose to take the flame within you and make it grow, there will be no limit to your power.  This is the right of a pyromancer, one who is attuned with the true nature of cursed humanity.”

Sam opened his inventory and looked at the description for the Ignitor.  In his excited haste, he passed over it several times before finally finding it.

Ignitor

Allows the use of pyromancies.

A shimmering orange and red gemstone that exudes a gentle warmth.  It is to be embedded in one’s hand to grant access to the cursed flames of a human’s soul.  Once embedded, it is said that it cannot be removed only extinguished.  This particular flame has its origins in the eastern lands where fire is treated with reverence and is a great spectacle.  The fire feels calm, but deep within there is a great and terrible power not unlike a sleeping dragon.

ATK  45

Weapon Damage  20

S ATK  E = 8

D ATK  F = 0

M ATK  E = 12

B ATK  E = 5

F RAT  100

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  0

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Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  By equipping this, Sam could officially add Pyromancy to the list of badass skills in his repertoire.  There was literally no reason to NOT do this.  Learning Pyromancies had no drawbacks and had no special stat requirements to use them aside from the five spirituality points needed to learn one’s first Spellcrafte.  That was what made the Prophet starting class one of the better classes to start the game with despite its poor looking stat distribution.

Sam selected the Ignitor from his equipment menu and equipped it to his left hand.  Equipping it meant that he had to embed the thing into his hand.  He clutched the shimmering jewel in his left hand as tight as he could.  He somehow knew that he was doing the right thing.  It was confirmed when the jewel began to burn his hand.

While instinct told him to drop the burning stone, his inner voice told him to hang on to it and endure the pain.  The pain in his hand blazed hotter and hotter, causing tears to well in his eyes.  In this moment it all felt all too real, the pain, the tears, and the promise of new power coursing through his veins.

Finally the pain began to subside and Sam slowly opened his hand.  He looked at it and immediately saw the scar burned into his flesh.  It was discolored, inflamed, and puckered where the jewel had entered the center of his hand.  The redness of the flesh began to quickly heal itself however as he watched on.

“What the hell?” he whispered.

The scars healed almost all the way, leaving only a small circular burn mark on the back of his hand which looked more like a strange birthmark.

“It is done.  You have your mark now.  That piece of me will stay with you forever.  Don’t misuse it,” Ji told him.

“Speaking of using it, how do I activate it?” Sam asked.

“You can only activate your Ignitor by learning a proper Pyromancy.  I can teach you some of the basics ... for a price that is.”

Sam gave the woman a cynical look.  He had to have a laugh at that one.  He didn’t mind that she was profiting from his excitement.

“You’re a slick one Ji.  What do I have to pay for these lessons?”

She gave him a smirk and began her explanation.

“I offer a basic lesson in crafting a Fireball, the easiest of the Pyromancies.  That costs a mere two thousand souls.  My other Pyromancy is one that is my specialty.  It is the Dragon’s Breath and it is much more complex.  As such I recommend you learn it when you have mastered the basics of Pyromancy.”

“You didn’t say how much it costs.  How much is it?” he asked.

“This lesson is worth fifty thousand souls, but I wouldn’t yet recommend it even if you can afford it.”

Dragon’s Breath sounded like it would be a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, Sam didn’t have near that amount of souls at the current moment.  Maybe he’d have close to enough once he defeated the next boss.

“Please teach me the Fireball Pyromancy!”

He gave up the two thousand souls required for the spell and watched as Ji stepped over to him and took his palm in her hand.

“To call forth your flame, you must summon your Ignitor.  Remember, it’s a part of you now.  Feel for it,” she said, her voice a whisper.

It wasn’t hard to feel the Ignitor’s power within him.  It was all he had felt since he had placed the fiery orb inside his palm.

He turned his palm up and watched it glow the color of fire.  A black symbol appeared in the middle of his hand.  It was a perfect circle soon surrounded by dark orange rays of light in the shape of wispy flames.  It looked like a symbol for an eclipse and the black spot on his hand looked like an endless void.  But when he stared deeply into it, he could see something more.  Deep inside, he saw the terrible power of the flames.

“Yes, that’s it.  You’ve awakened that power, the power of the cursed fire.  Now use it.”

Sam clenched his left hand, the source of his Pyromancy power, an act which made the flames inside of him grow hotter and wilder.  All of the power built up inside of his hand then, with nowhere else to go, it burst forth up to his palm.  Sam quickly used his instincts to give solid form to the wild flames, an act which managed to calm him a little.

He opened his palm wide to accommodate all the power then condensed the flames as he closed the fingers in around it and formed it into a sphere roughly the size of a softball.  Sam grinned with overbearing pride once his new Pyromancy was ready to go.  He looked over at a felled tree that was nearby and threw the Fireball right at it.  The orb traveled at a mild pace and once making contact with the tree, exploded spectacularly.  There was nothing left of the tree once he was done.

New Pyromancy Learned, Gained Fireball.

Replace Current Skill?   Yes   No

He could hardly think with all the power coursing through his body and mind.  He quickly chose to rid himself of the Sword Uppercut, in favor of the Fireball.

“Are you freaking serious!  Woooow!  That felt so good!  Hahahahaha!  Oh, the power!  The POOOOOOOOOWEEEEERRRRRRR!”

He laughed like a madman for about a minute as he chucked Fireball after Fireball throughout the forest.  Luckily it was a videogame and not real life, otherwise he’d he getting a visit from Smokey the Bear and the forest rangers for forest arson.

“You have a lot of energy don’t you?  You’ll need it for what lies ahead.  Now pay attention to the path ahead of me.  There is good fortune there for those who choose to follow the indomitable king.  Look for your fortune.”

Sam gave Ji Susano a respectful bow.

“Thank you very much, Ji.  Thanks to you, I’m a lot stronger now.  I’ll see you around.”

“You may not see me again, but what matters is to bring some justice to this accursed land.  Remember that.  It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

She gave him a bow then returned to her seat under the tree.  Sam followed her advice and strolled down the path she recommended.  He hadn’t visited this part of the forest before because of all the Stumpies in the trees.  He looked for more up above and ffound some hiding in strategic places high up.  He pulled out his bow and used his last two arrows to pull two of them down.  He dispatched those two and rolled under the others, one by one, to bring them down.  He cleared the area of all the Stumpies he could see, before continuing down Ji’s path.  Behind a tree up ahead, there was a glow.  The golden light brightened as Sam came closer.  Once behind the tree, Sam could now see the glowing message very well.  It was a symbol of a crown and below it were the words Royal Summons.  Once Sam stepped up to the symbol, his whole body was covered in the golden glow.  He touched the golden crown and a message popped up in his HUD.

Will You Summon The Charitable Walker, King Herke?

Sam didn’t think his jubilation from earlier could be improved upon or that his grin could be widened any more than before.  But he was wrong.

22 The Will of the Forest

Will You Summon The Charitable Walker, King Herke?

“Oh Alex, baby!  You guys are magnificent assholes aren’t you?  I can’t believe you hid this beautiful golden ticket to victory all the way over here, surrounded by all those annoying Stumpies.  On second thought, I can believe it knowing that you all learned game design at the Troll Institute of Design and Technology.  I could cry right now.”

His gaze shifted from the symbol to his nearly depleted Soul Power gauge.

“I’ll have to pass for now, king, but once I get my SP back, I’ll return.  Don’t go anywhere.”

Sam returned down the path towards Ji Susano.  He had a start when he saw that she wasn’t beneath the tree anymore.

“Damn, I thought you’d stay a little longer.  I hope you pop up again.  That Dragon’s Breath sounds like a badass Pyromancy.”

He continued on, back to Barrington’s camp.  He immediately went to where King Herke had been moon gazing before, but the king wasn’t there.  Sam let out a sigh.

“Doesn’t matter, I can still summon him, at least.  I hope.”

He made his way back around to the Soul Beacon and sat down in front of it.  The warmth from it engulfed his body and replenished his SP over time.  He sat and tweaked his stats in the level-up screen.  He leveled up his speed twice and finally got it to twenty-five.  He put his remaining point into dexterity to up it to twenty-one.  Once he was done with that, he bought more arrows, including two-hundred Wooden Arrows and one-hundred metal tipped Army Arrows, from Barrington and set off down the northern forest trail once again.

******

Sam’s heart was pounding the whole time as he again cleared his path of Stumpies and Big Mid-Boss.  He didn’t want to get hit even once before going into the boss fight and he succeeded in doing just that before he made his way over to King Herke’s Charity Sign.  Once at the golden glowing sign, he knelt down and put his hand on it.

Will You Summon The Charitable Walker, King Herke?

Yes   No

Sam chose yes and took a step back once the sign began to glow much brighter.  The golden rays from the sign cascaded outwards, blanketing everything nearby in a brief radiance.  The light dimmed as it took the form of King Herke’s Walker.

The king sprouted up from the ground like a plant yearning for sunlight as he embraced his new awakening by stretching his limbs and flexing.  Sam was impressed by the sight of the king in his Walker form.  Herke’s eyes cast a golden glow and his whole body was surrounded in a thin golden mist that moved like fire.  Sam wondered which was cooler, the King’s gold or his own crimson.

Sam gave a bow once he saw that the king was fully formed and alert.  Golden Herke returned his bow with one in kind.

“Welcome back to the forest, king.  How’s it feel to be a Walker?”

Golden Herke remained silent and stone faced.

“Dumb question, I suppose.  Well, I’ve prepared everything for this battle.  We’re going straight to the beast’s lair.  Are you ready, sir?”

The king didn’t utter a word.  He only stared at Sam with his golden eyes.

“So not even NPC Walkers can talk?  That’s a strange design choice, but whatevs.  As long as you can kick some ass like the real King Herke, that’s all that matters.  Wait!  Are you the real King Herke?”

It wasn’t as if the silent Walker could answer, but Sam wondered it nonetheless.  It most likely was the real king, since Sam was his real self when he was a Walker.  The king confirmed his question with a nod.

So you can at least understand me.  That’s good, he thought.

“Now, it’s time.  We’re going to crush this giant beast.”

The king couldn’t hide his excitement and pumped his fist into the air.

“Let’s go.”

Sam walked back through the forest and down the trail to the giant Soul Barrier at the cliffs.  He stopped in front of it, with King Herke behind him and contemplated his victory.

Nothing would stop him now, not even a stupid glitch.  He knew he wouldn’t have to worry about that though.  He trusted Alex.  If she said she fixed the problem, it was fixed.  She hadn’t failed him yet, and it was because of her quick fixes that he was able to enjoy the game.  He probably wouldn’t have even won the glitch contest without her assistance.

He tried to clear his mind before he walked through the Soul Barrier.  He did a final item check and decided to remove his torch from its Quick Select slot.  He put Ignition Powder in its place.  He only had three of them left, so he’d make them count.  He also didn’t think he’d get the chance to use his bow, so he unequipped it and lowered his equipment burden down to twenty-four percent.  He figured the added quickness from a lowered burden would be more useful than the bow anyway in this fight.

Once he felt he was focused and prepared enough, he went through the mist and waited for the king to come through behind him.  When he saw the king step through, he conferred his strategy with him before the monster could spawn.

“We have to run through here.  Follow me and only stop when I stop.”

Golden Herke nodded.  Sam ingested one of his Stim Plants and wasted no time before running forward.  He stopped further ahead of where he stopped before so that the king had some room to dodge the beast’s plunging attack as well.

The beast’s attack kicked up a blanketing dust like before, but Sam didn’t waste any time before attacking.  He focused on the leg closest to him, thrusting at it rapidly and pausing to regain his stamina before he fatigued himself.  He wondered why Herke wasn’t nearby assisting him, but he dared not take his eyes off of the opponent in front of him.

Just like before, the leg began to cast spiky wooden tendrils at Sam which he expertly dodged this time.  Once he got the wooden armor on the creature’s leg to a low percentage of HP, he moved on to the next leg.  His strategy was simple this time.  Damage each leg as much as could before breaking it.  That way he’d have an easier time breaking them once the creature sped up.

As he ran, he briefly glanced over to his left and saw King Herke at the rear right leg of the beast, hacking it to pieces with his tremendous greatsword.  Unfortunately for Sam, the King had hacked the armor restricting the creature’s movements right off and now it moved faster thanks to its free limb.  It managed to catch the king with one of its stomps and took down a nice chunk of his health, about a sixth of it.  The king was also knocked to the ground.

“Damn it!”

Sam was caught in a bind now.  He wanted to continue with his strategy, but if he did then there was a chance that the king would be vanquished in the meantime.  He made up his mind there and ran over to defend the king.

He landed a flurry of stabs on the beast’s exposed leg before he was forced to dodge one of its stomps.  The king was now up and managed to dodge as well.  They both recovered and attacked it in tandem, Sam with his quick thrusts and the king with his powerful slashes.  They crushed the limb in no time, sending blood flying everywhere when it exploded.  Sam quickly moved on to the next part of his strategy.

“Leave the wooden armor on each leg, in critical health,” Sam ordered.

The king didn’t seem to comprehend what Sam was telling him and attacked the same as he did before.  Sam couldn’t figure out what got lost in translation.

“Fuck it!  We’ll just have to take this one limb at a time.”

He followed behind the king and together they broke through the bark armor of the left front leg.  Sam got the sense that the creature was up to something, so he moved from under its leg and beckoned the king to quickly follow.

Just in time!

The creature plunged its gigantic reptilian body down where they had stood previously.  Sam moved back around to the first leg he was working on–on the right—as the creature rose up, back to its feet.  He quickly broke through the bark and began thrusting away.  It was a risk to leave the king alone with the unrestricted left leg, but Sam had come up with a new strategy on the fly that he felt would make the fight much easier.

He quickly put his shield on his back and wielded his Rapier with two hands.  He attacked with only his most powerful charged heavy thrusts.  He was in a hurry to destroy this leg faster than Herke could destroy his.

“I need more power!”

He selected his Ignition Powder from his Quick Select slot and imbued his sword with the power of fire.  The Rapier lit up brilliantly with flames and Sam continued stabbing the creature mercilessly.  The leg fell to pieces when Sam finished it with his Skyward Thrust and he hurriedly moved out of the way, with a huge grin on his face as the beast toppled over on its right side.  His improvised strategy had paid off.

“Yes!  Now to rip you to shreds!”

Sam quickly ran up to its belly and started stabbing at the soft flesh underneath.  Each stab drew forth blood that was both deep purple and cold despite his fiery attacks.  The blood hissed and dissipated as soon as it touched Sam’s flaming sword.

King Herke came forward and attacked the beast with a massively powerful Sword Uppercut.  Sam followed suit with his own Skyward Thrust, doing even more damage than the king thanks to the additional fire damage from his still active Ignition Powder and the two handing of his weapon.  The beast howled as they continued attacking and took down about a third of its total health in one barrage.

Sam stopped attacking the creature once he felt it move only a little.  His instincts told him to move the hell out of the way.

“Move out of the way!” he yelled, warning King Herke.

The massive creature rolled over on its side, the same side Sam and King Herke were attacking it from, and tried to rise up with the two legs that it still had on its left side.  It, of course, struggled and failed to do so.

Its bulbous iguana looking head was low to the ground and Sam thought to quickly capitalize and attack it.  He wasn’t able to get to it before the creature started thrashing around again, slamming its head, body, and legs everywhere it could.  The king was once again clipped by one of the attacks and sent flying.  Sam stayed safely out of range as he watched the creature’s thrashing.

He could now see the its full body and he found it more horrendous than before.  It was mainly the addition of its tail.  Its tail was its strangest and most disturbing feature by far.  It was long and coiled like a rattlesnake’s tail, but at the end there looked to be the head of another creature.  It mostly looked like a fly trap, but had huge red froglike eyes that were disturbingly focused on Sam and Sam alone.  Sam had an idea now, how the beast could attack through his defenses so easily last time.

Finally the beast stopped its thrashing, but afterwards it did something peculiar.  It leaned on its left side on its remaining two legs and seemed to be applying more and more pressure on them.  Then it used the rest of its weight and rolled over onto the legs, breaking them apart in the process.

The sound of cracking wood reverberated around Sam like a tree being felled in a forest.  Blood and wood pieces littered the ground beneath the beast along with the two massive legs it shed.  The creature fell onto its side, then rolled to its back then belly.  Once there, it seemed to be back in control of itself and focused its malice onto Sam.

Now Sam had two pairs of bulbous eyes looking right at him.  If he could, he would’ve probably vacated his bowels right there.

“Alright, round two then.  Let’s go freak!”

Sam held his shield up in front of him and braved his way forward towards the creature.  Now it looked like what it actually was, an extremely fat snake.  If this was really the will of the forest, then the forest must’ve had an insatiable hunger.

The serpentine beast slithered forward and charged at him.  It clipped Sam’s shield and he quickly lost half of his stamina.  He quickly rolled away before being clipped again and taking damage.  Thankfully, he saw King Herke running up to give him some assistance.

Quickly, while he had the chance, he ingested another Stim Plant since the effects of the first one had worn off.  He was tempted to reapply some Ignition Powder to his weapon as well, but he felt it would just be a waste if he used it now.

Once it reached the edge of the cliff, the Will of the Forest made an impossibly quick U-turn.  Sam was hit by its unexpected charge and knocked back.  He quickly took a swig of his Soul Fire once he got up, healing all the damage that the monster had inflicted with just that one attack.

It stopped its charge right near him and lashed out at him with its tongue.  Sam blocked and saw his stamina diminish greatly as it lashed out again and again.  Golden Herke approached it from the side and did some damage with a huge horizontal slash followed by a charged downward slamming attack.

Sam rolled to the side to avoid another tongue lashing then closed in on the other side of the creature’s body.  He managed a single thrust before the creature swung its body around and knocked both he and Herke down.  He lost a third of his health and reactively blocked once he got up.

Herke continued his attack, doing light but stable damage and Sam followed suit after healing.  The front head of the creature attacked Herke with a headbutt, which he managed to block with his greatsword.  Unfortunately he still took some sizeable damage and was greatly pushed back since swords weren’t the best thing to block with, even greatswords.

It then chased Herke down leaving Sam stuck facing the backside of the creature and that was not a pretty place to be.  He remembered that the creature attached to the tail had an attack that could hurt him regardless if his shield was up or not.  He opted to just avoid its attacks.

It wasted no time in attacking with its large fangs, launching its whole head at Sam from a coiled position.  The coiling strikes gave it a speed that Sam was genuinely shocked he could dodge.  Once Sam seemed to dodge all it threw at him, it spit some sort of purple cloud at him.  He remembered how he had died last time and tried to avoid it.  He avoided the powerful spit, but when it hit the ground the mist quickly spread and he found himself caught in it.  Before he knew it, he was poisoned.

“Shit!”

He felt the nausea come on almost instantly and that hissing sound in his ear annoyed the hell out of him.

“Fuck you, hippie dragon!  I was ready for this!” he yelled at the beast.

He continued moving to the creature’s side and once there, ate an Absorption Herb.  It instantly healed his poison, relieving him of his nausea and creeping headache.  He wasted no time in applying more Ignition Powder to his weapon and going for a two handed Skyward Thrust.  He followed up with a pair of heavy strikes and saw that the creature was now at below half its health thanks to all the damage he and Herke had collectively done.

The creature slithered around again and Sam made sure to move out of the way should it swing its body again.  The front head once again focused on him, but he ran at it and dodged to its side again once it charged at him.  He flanked its side, peppering it with an assortment of light and heavy blows and ending his barrage, somewhat recklessly, with a Skyward Thrust.

The dazzling combo left him completely out of stamina and SP, so he had to pause to catch his breath.  The reckless act bit him in the butt, almost literally, as the rear head of the beast struck out with a vicious poisonous fanged attack.  Sam had unfortunately lost over half his health and was inflicted with poison again.

“Shitshitshitshitshitshit, SHIIIIIIIIIT!”

He got up and ran as far to the front of the beast as he could, watching both of its heads carefully and seeing that Herke was also below half health.  Unluckily for Herke, he had the front head of the beast’s full attention, but that was certainly a lucky break for Sam.  He healed up with his Soul Fire and took another Absorption Herb along with a Stim Plant.

“Here we go!  Final stretch.  Don’t fuck up, Nagai!”

He again hit the creature’s side with a vicious combo and even though it started slithering forward before he was finished, he still managed to hit it with a charged attack.  He ran forward after the front head, so as not to be left with the jerkbag that was the rear head.  The beast changed its tactic to instead circle its entire body around Sam.  He was now faced with both heads, the fanged lizard plant and the snake iguana.

“Oh crap ... what to do ... what to do ...” he whispered to himself.

The asshole head struck out with a fanged attack but Sam dodged it.  He was hit with a headbutt from the front head though.  From the ground, Sam noticed that the creature’s health was still diminishing.  Herke was putting in work on the other side of it.  Sam only wished they could somehow switch positions.

Sam wasn’t sure if he would be able to survive long enough for the king to finish the job.  Two heads were indeed better than one, but horrible for Sam’s chances at winning.  When he got up, he didn’t even have time to heal.

The heads attempted to bash him again.  This time, he had the presence of mind to roll forward, towards where the two heads had conjoined.  Now under both heads, he waited for them to attack before rolling away.

He found them easier to dodge at this close range, since their attacks were now back-to-back almost like a single continuous strike.  It gave him time to take an action, but it was a decision that left him at a crossroads.  Should he take the safe approach and heal to maximum health in case the creature pulled another sneaky tactic or should he just focus on attacking and finishing the fight as soon as possible?  He only had a second to decide it.  His instincts made the decision for him.

As the two heads of the beast rose, Sam struck out at them doing as decent amount of damage with a single light and heavy attack.

You can do this Nagai.  Finish it.  Don’t draw it out.  Let’s go!

The beast reeled its heads back and struck out at him again.  Sam rolled away and dodged the attack expertly.

“Yes!  Come on!”

He was able to land another light and heavy thrust on the heads as they rose.  He was almost victorious.  He could feel it.  He whispered to himself now, making his thoughts a reality.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go ...”

The creature reeled back again and Sam could feel his heart pumping like mad.  His virtual blood felt hot and he was anxious.  In the second of time before the beast attacked, he felt everything at once.  There was an intense thrill at the forefront, but somewhere in the back of all that was fear.

What if he lost again?  Could he honestly beat this thing?  What if he wasn’t able to summon Golden Herke the next time?  What if he had just gotten lucky this time around?  These were all the thoughts that passed by in a single instant, but Sam hushed them all and focused only on his next move, his survival.

The Will of the Forest attacked like a cornered coiled snake.  Both heads lashed out at Sam with intense malice.  Sam saw the predators approach and did his best to time their strikes with his own movement.

He dodged the first head and the second head all at once then took his sword in both hands to deliver a light thrust on the plantlike head and finally a heavy thrust into the iguana like head.  The Will of the Forest threw its head back and screeched.  The sound was ear-piercing and haunting, but after a while it finally stopped as both heads of the beast fell forward and slammed onto the ground violently.

Great Beast Slain

Soon after, Sam was surrounded by only the sounds of the forest and a gentle wind as the massive body of The Will of the Forest faded into a white mist and travelled towards his body.  There was nothing he could do to avoid it and the mist was quickly absorbed into him, granting him ten thousand souls and an item called Soul of the Willful Guardian.

Sam looked over at Golden Herke, who gave him the thumbs up before fading away himself.  Sam gave a bow to his amazing ally and vowed to search even harder for Rondo, the man who killed the king’s family.  Sam paused to read the description of the Soul of the Willful Guardian after taking a swig of Soul Fire.  While reading he heard some kind of snapping sound, like someone had broken some cheap metal.

Soul of the Willful Guardian

Use Great Souls to create unique weapons or to gain more souls.

A powerful soul belonging to the once gentle Will of the Forest.  The Will of the Forest is a spirit inhabiting the Forest of Woe.  Long ago, when the Forest was known as the Forest of Spirits, the Willful Guardian would possess the mightiest animals to attack those with ill intent who entered the domain of the spirits.  Over time, like the rest of the cursed land of Heimfall, the spirits of the forest including the Willful Guardian seem to have been corrupted as they now attack anyone on sight.  Some would say that those spirits have not changed in the least.

“Interesting stuff.  I have to admit that I did like that redesign ... when it’s not glitchy that is.”

Sam smiled and basked in this new feeling of overwhelming victory.  He had actually defeated his first boss and it felt damn good.  He looked at his status screen to see how long it had taken him to do it.

He looked at his in-game time and wondered if it was actually right.  He had already spent more than twelve hours inside the game.  How did time go by so fast?  The thought that he could lose such a huge slip on reality scared Sam a little.  Because he hadn’t felt any lasting fatigue in the virtual world, Sam had had no interest in keeping track of the time, but now it was all he could think about, until he saw that two of his rings were broken.

“Holy crap!  Was that what that sound was earlier?”

He quickly went to his inventory and looked to see what was wrong with them.  Even their descriptions had changed

Broken Beginner’s Ring

Useless trinket.

Some gifts last forever, others shatter under the slightest bit of duress like a feeble friendship after a broken promise.  These two rings were set to last until the Will was broken and not a moment longer.  Now you must truly rely on yourself.

Both rings said the same thing and Sam was a little peeved that he had lost them.  The twenty point bonus each had given to his physical and magical defenses was now gone.  He quickly unequipped the useless things and they vanished from his inventory.

“At least you waited until I beat the boss, but I guess that’s the point,” he said to no one in particular.

He couldn’t be mad at that, since the rings were gifts from the developers in the first place.  Without them, he would have taken far more damage.  Going forward, he would have to greatly improve his dodging abilities.

He was still a little shaky as his adrenaline levels were slowly calming.  He walked over and collected his Death Mark from the middle of the battlefield and got back the nearly five thousand souls and eight quintessence that he had lost before.

He looked to the north and saw that the Soul Barrier on the other side hadn’t faded away like the one he’d come in.  Furthermore, it was an unfriendly shade of red.  Sam crossed the open field and stood in front of the huge gateway.  Up close, the red barrier swirled and shimmered just like its white twin had on the other side.  Only this red barrier produced white text in Sam’s HUD whenever he got too close to it.

ALPHA BUILD RESTRICTION: Time Locked Area

Being purposely locked out of something was no fun.  It was especially bothersome because it put a sudden damper on his jubilant mood.  But he had to consider something.

“That means I beat this damn thing way before I was supposed to.  Haha!  I’m pretty damn awesome!”

23 Guilt

Alex stumbled over her own two feet, nearly falling down completely as a string of thoughts ran though her head.

I hate these hallways!  I hate this place!  I have to get out of here!

She felt as if she was running forever in her search for the bathroom.  The armed guards turned their heads to track her movements.  She couldn’t see their faces because they wore military helmets with visors.  Their shirts and armored vests were green and white and their pants black, like the other guards in the office.

They looked like cold military robots in their gear and it made her sickness even worse thinking how quickly they had come and ‘secured’ the place.  The men were posted at various points throughout the hall.  She ran past a few of them to get to the bathroom.

Once in the stall, she wasted no time in heaving herself over and throwing up into the bowl.  Tears streamed from her eyes, but she wasn’t sure if it was caused by the violent sickness that upturned her stomach or from the heaviness now weighing on her heart.  Her words barely came out a whisper through shuddering gasps.

“There’s no way!  There’s just no way!  This can’t be real!  He can’t be serious!”

She let her tears fall into the bowl and heaved up more bile from her stomach.  The muscles in her stomach and throat burned from the rapid and extreme constrictions.  Her face was hot and sore from the constant scrunching she forced upon it every time she broke down.  Her words were nothing, but foolish hope and she needed to stop clinging to them and get back to reality.  She had a responsibility to help the others.  She tried her best to be strong for them, to not let them feel the despair that she herself had now felt.

“I just can’t, I just can’t ...”

Her shaking had persisted every time she thought about what happened to Randy.  She tried to force the shaking to stop by grabbing her arm, but it did nothing.  She could no more do that than she could stop thinking about Randy’s bloody body.  It hadn’t helped that she hadn’t slept in over fifteen hours.

The test was now well into the next morning and she would need to sleep soon, but how could she after everything that had happened in the last few hours.  She was losing her strength by the minute, so there was no way that she could continue her cheerful act for much longer.  She remained hunched over the toilet for a few more minutes until an abrupt knock came at the door followed by a digitized voice.

“You have one minute left,” said the deeply disguised voice.  She took a deep breath and moved to the sink once she heard the footsteps move away from the door.  There was no way that she was stupid enough to trust armed men that wore masks and disguised their faces and voices.

She ran her hands under the cold water and wiped around her mouth with a wet paper towel.  She then looked at the puffy red face in the mirror and it made her cry all over again.  The tears almost blinded her vision, leaving her only able to see herself as a blurry water color painting with a dark blob of hair covering the dull brown splotches of her face and a large red blob that was her shirt.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and tried her best to dry her face with her hands.  Her thoughts were beyond her control now.  They took her back to the conversation she had earlier that day.  Back before everything with this project had changed.

Hours ago

Alex left her cubicle and made her way over to Milner to ask him a question.

“Mr. Milner, what’s going on with all this security?” she asked.

He turned at her interruption and fixed his dark pupils on her.  He seemed reluctant to answer.  She couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or what.

“Why are you away from your console, Ms. Madura?”

“I always have my display linked up to my techband.”

She held up the oversized digital wristband and swiped something across the touchscreen to bring up an aqua blue hologram of Sam doing battle with another tester named CrushKills then quickly swiped the image away.

“These men are here to assist me in ensuring that order is upheld during the next phase of our little alpha test here.  Now excuse me, I have an announcement to make.  You may want to find your seat.”

That superior attitude of his ... it pissed her off.  Sure, he was a genius, but that didn’t mean he needed to treat her like a little pissant.  She went back to her seat anyway, but as much as she did want to get back to work, she was too curious about Milner’s announcement.

She watched Milner walk to the very center of the room, where everyone could see him.  Not far from his side, a white man in a green and white long coat stood.  The man was just as tall as the lanky Milner but much broader.  His dark gray hair was cut short and his dark eyes shifted throughout the room, finding the heads of each and every designer there as they passed over them.  Milner looked as calm as always, like a surgeon.  Maybe that’s how he thought of himself, since he was always wearing that white jacket that looked like a lab coat.

“Everyone!  Attention please!” yelled Milner as he lifted his right hand in the air.

The chatter around the room died down and all the designers lifted their heads from their work or stood to see their boss, the lead designer and director of the whole project, Fulton Milner.  Once he counted all the faces and saw everyone was paying attention, he proceeded.

“Do to the failing nature of this alpha test, I am forced to accelerate it to its second phase.”

There was complete silence all around the room and blank faces from her colleagues.  Alex was glad that she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what the hell was going on.

“None of you have been told what the second phase is yet, or even know of its existence.  This was done on purpose, to secure secrecy.  At this stage in the test, secrecy is of the highest order, so if you are to continue working, I must have you pledge your loyalty.  Those who are not willing to pledge can leave now.  We will send the testers you’ve been working with over to other designers who will monitor them in your stead.  You will then turn in your badge and have a nice day.  Unfortunately, that will be the end of your employment on this project.”

Alex felt a weight drop to the bottom of her stomach and she gasped silently.  There was a mixed response from the other designers, mostly silenced shock, but also the beginnings of outrage from some.

“For the rest of you, there will be a bonus involved for staying on and proceeding with the second phase.  I will come around to each of you and explain your various roles in the next phase.  Stand by for further instructions.”

Milner began making his rounds throughout the room, leaving the others to stare at one another in disbelief of the proverbial bomb he just dropped.  Murmurs went around the office as those close to one another tried to make sense of what was going on.  Alex tried to sit and work until Milner got to her, but now she couldn’t concentrate.  She looked on as Sam ran through the forest with a determined look on his face.  At least he was proceeding with his quest at a nice pace, even if he didn’t know it.

After only a few moments Milner was in front of her cubicle and staring down at her.

“Ms. Madura, it’s time to discuss your role in this next phase of the project.”

Alex nodded her head and a slight shiver ran through her when the gray haired man suddenly appeared next to Milner.  He stared at her with the intensity of a stalker.

“I have some questions as well,” she said trying to ignore the intruder.

“I’ll answer them in due time.  Now, what is your decision?  Will you stay on with the project or will you leave?” Milner asked.

“That’s just it, sir.  Where did all this come from?  And how is any of it fair?”

“Ms. Madura, that’s not the question I asked you.  Now do you have an answer for me?”

It was time to teach this man that an employer and employee relationship was not the same as master and slave.

“Look here, Fulton.  You’ve put each and every one of us on the spot here.  And you’ve done it in a bad way.  There’s no way I’m going to let you bully me into something I don’t want to do.”

The man next to Milner snorted and put on a wide toothy grin.

“This generation, are they all fools?” the man asked.

“Mind your manners, Stephen.  Ms. Madura here is actually a very talented individual.  We definitely want her for phase two,” said Milner.

That was a shock.  Milner didn’t give out compliments very often.  It was good to finally get one.

“Ms. Madura.  Alexandria.  I am aware that my demands are extraordinary.”

“I think ridiculous is a better word,” she spat back at him.

“Fair enough.  But it’s well within my realm of rights to make such demands.”

“You’re talking about firing people for refusing to pledge to something that they know nothing about.  We weren’t even given a vague clue that something like this would happen.”

“And that’s the way I wanted it.  I do want you to keep in mind too, that those who choose to walk away from this phase—”

“I don’t see much of a choice!  Looks like those decisions were made for us!”

“Lower your voice,” the man next to Milner hissed.  “And keep your mouth shut when he’s trying to explain.”

“It’s fine, Stephen.  If she wants some answers, I’ll give them to her.  You’ll note that the contracts you all signed state that you can be removed from a particular project at any time.  Those who are removed or choose to walk away are indeed terminated from this project and that’s for secrecy’s sake.  But they are not terminated from Full Core.  They’ll be able to work on other projects once this one is done.  And they’ll still get paid for working on this project.  I just can’t have them around.  That’s fair, don’t you think?  Now, do you have an answer for me?”

Alex stood up and looked around the office floor and saw that everyone was still here.  No one had quit yet.  As a matter of fact, this was probably the longest Milner had spent talking to anyone so far, since he had already cleared about half the room.  Maybe it wasn’t such a bad deal to stay on the project.

“Looking for something?” asked Milner.

“Not at all, just thinking.  What’s the bonus?”

“You’ll get a pay bonus for pledging to the next phase.  A one point five times increase to what we’re currently paying you.”

That was a lot of money.  She already made a decent wage, so the added amount could really help her out.  She had so many debts to pay that she was sure the mob would come knocking at her door any day now and by mob she meant loan collection agencies who weren’t much better.  She could erase the rest of her student debt just by pledging her loyalty to Milner’s phase two.

It was a very tempting offer, but just what did Milner have in mind for the next phase and why the secrecy?  Did it have something to do with the pain modifiers?  He had told her as much before.  He wanted the testers to excel to a higher level and to do it at higher rates.  But what did he have in mind?  Was it something illegal or was it just something he wanted to keep safe from potential competitors?

“He doesn’t have all day, girl.  Make your decision now or we’ll make it for you.”

“I don’t need your help in deciding anything, thank you very much.  Furthermore, this is a conversation between me and Mr. Milner and you’ve added nothing of substance to it, so please shut your mouth,” Alex responded matter-of-factly.

Milner chuckled which caught Alex off guard.  She didn’t think the man was capable of such a thing.  The other man, Stephen, Milner had called him, gave Alex a look of pure disdain.

“Give it up, Stephen.  She has you beat.  I won’t need you for the rest.  Please go patrol around the office.”

He looked at Milner with an incredulous expression on his face, which quickly turned to annoyance.

“Fine,” he said as he turned and walked away, leaving Alex to stare at his back.  Across the white material that made up his coat was an embroidered red symbol.  The symbol was made up of four reuleaux triangles set in a cross shape with points facing each other.

“Now, this will be my final time asking, Alexandria.  What is your answer?”

It was even more annoying hearing him say her name like that a second time.

“You can’t tell me anything about phase two?  Anything at all?”

He shook his head and held up four fingers and a thumb.  He tucked his thumb in front of his palm and stared at her silently.

“Are we doing more research on the pain receptors?” she whispered.

He continued to stare then lowered his index finger and grabbed unto it with his thumb.

“Okay fine.  I will help you with phase two.  It’s nothing illegal is it?”

“You’ll learn all about it, once I’m finished getting everyone’s pledges.”

He turned around as if motioning to leave.

“Nothing for me to sign?” she asked.

“Your verbal pledge is good enough.  Consider it a pact between the two of us.”

As smart as the man was, that was a pretty dumb decision.  If it was real secrecy he wanted then he should’ve made her and her colleagues sign a binding legal document.  Milner got up and left her cubicle after telling her to listen for his next announcement.

It didn’t take him long to finish circulating around the room and when he was done with that, he went and stood in the center of the room again.  With a quick look around, she saw that none of the other designers had quit.  She wondered if he had extended this sort of choice to any Full Core employees besides the designers and developers, like the medics down below with the testers.  The extra security personal still made her nervous and she had no clue what to expect from Milner’s next announcement.  The other designers were just as silent and apprehensive as she was, apparently.

“Now everyone, it is nearly time to proceed with the next phase of this project.  Before we do, I would like to inform you of the penalty for backing out of your pledge at this point or any point beyond.  What we’ve created today is a verbal pact, a binding agreement from one soul to the next.  If that pact is broken, the penalty you face is death.”

The shocked audience was stone silent.  Was Milner serious?  Had he lost it?

“Take a look at those guards.  Each of them is armed with advanced military grade automatic firearms and are prepared to eliminate anyone who disrupts this part of the alpha test.  I’ve instructed the guard by the front door to brandish his openly for effect.”

Alex looked over to the aforementioned guard and saw him holding a NKV-P7357 bullpup configured assault rifle in front of his chest.  He looked around the room, turning his head slowly from left to right and back while dark googles hid his eyes.  Alex had only known what gun it was thanks to all the research she did for a previous game she had worked on.

“Now don’t be frightened.  As long as you stick to the roles I’ve prepared for you then you will be greatly rewarded once this test is over with.  Anything else will be met with swift punishment.  I am sorry, but this is the only choice I have available to me and I’ll need your help.  Now we will proceed with the preparations for phase two of the alpha test.”

“I’m out!  This is ridiculous Milner and you know it!” her coworker Randy said as he suddenly stood up and glared at Milner.

Randy’s head was barely visible over his cubicle.  He looked to be fatigued.  His thick black hair and beard were a mess and his face sagged, but Randy had always worked harder than most other people, so he must’ve been working since the early morning, pulling what had to be a sixteen hour shift.  Alex was about four hours shy of that but wasn’t feeling it quite yet.

“Mr. Zbyszko—Randall, for your sake, you should calm down and have a seat.  I’ve already outlined my plans and intentions.  It’s up to you to stick to the roles we’ve already agreed upon.”

“No way in hell, asshole.  I didn’t sign up for this crap!  This job was fun and all, but you’re crazy and your expectations are even crazier.”

Randy gathered his things and put them in his computer bag to the stunned silence of everyone else.  When he picked up his bag and started to leave, the guard by the door stood directly in front of the entrance to the hallway.

“Tell your goon to get out of my way, Milner,” demanded Randy.  He didn’t dare take his eyes off the armed man in front of him.

“I already told you the consequences for breaking our pact.  Are you truly ready to face those consequences, Randall?” asked Milner.

“If you kill me Milner, especially over something as crazy as this, you can bet that my family will find out about it and that you will pay.  I’m talking every aspect of your life being totally fucked for the rest of its limited duration.  You know who my father is, don’t you?”

“Yes, he’s a famous judge and that means that he’s probably well connected with all sorts of law enforcers and politicians.  I understand that Randall, but what’s it have to do with our pact?” asked Milner.

“A pact?  Who cares?  Now tell him to stand aside, Milner.”

“Listen to him.  Stand to the side.”  The guard near the door stepped out of the doorway and held his gun downwards.  Randy slowly made his way towards the door, keeping an eye on the man.

“Stephen,” Milner said discreetly.  Alex reacted to Milner’s voice and looked back at him and saw that the gray haired man already had his gun trained on the back of Randy’s skull.  Without knowing, she screamed, but it was too late.

******

“Your time is up!”

Alex snapped back to reality at the guard’s yelling voice and quickly exited the bathroom.  She walked down the hall back to the office.  Inside the office, she walked over the spot where Randy had been shot and killed.  Even though there was no sign of any of the blood from earlier, she couldn’t help, but feel entirely crept out from walking over the spot.  It was also a reminder that Milner was dead serious and that she had no choice now, but to do whatever he said she should do.

Randy had paid the price for his rebellion and he was a good man even in the face of death.  He knew that Milner’s demands were wrong, and so he stood up to him and his threats regardless.  It was brave, but it had accomplished nothing but getting him killed.  It had done more for Milner’s cause, since the incident just made the other designers and developers quietly bow their heads and work even harder.

As Alex neared her seat, Stephen had approached her from the aisle.

“Get back to work, girl.  We don’t have time for your games.  We’re on a schedule here, if you hadn’t noticed.”

She wanted so bad to snap back at the asshole, but she just didn’t have it in her anymore.  Milner and his goons held all the cards now.  It wouldn’t help her or anyone else for her to piss this man off and get killed for it.

Once she sat quietly in her seat, she could tell Stephen was reveling in her defeat even though she did her best to silently ignore him.  She put on her headset and drowned out the world.  She focused on her secret goals, ensuring the survival of the testers under her watchful eye.  Hopefully she could at least help them, since she couldn’t help herself.

24 Sin and Punishment

Sam’s adrenaline was pumping and his eyes and ears were as alert as ever.  He knew that he stood out in this dark forest, thanks to his crimson Walker glow, that’s why he moved quickly.  His prey was probably somewhere nearby.  He had stalked him all the way to King Herke’s first Soul Beacon then lost him in the trees.

Whatever the case, Sam got the feeling that maybe he was the one being hunted.  Of course, he was right and he was nearly caught off guard from the player’s vicious slash from his rear.  Sam rolled out of the way to avoid damage and looked at his opponent.

The zombie-like revenant that Sam faced was named Roburn.  Sam knew that his friend Robert typically played under that handle and when he stopped and did the rock and roll devil horns salute, Sam knew for a fact that it was him.  Sam returned his gesture with a devil horns of his own.

Robert looked to have gone with the Knight class at the start, or at least he found some of their charred dark gray armor.  His character was tall like Sam’s, though more intimidating in the armor set, and had some kind of huge tower shield in his offhand.  It looked like one that Barrington sold at his shop for a small fortune.  Sam wondered if the one Sedwin gave him was even better.

Robert’s face was mostly hidden behind his charred helm, but Sam could see that the character had dark hollows for eyes with the tiniest specks of flames in the center focusing on him.  Some bits of Robert’s armor exposed his rotting flesh and Sam wondered what unfortunate mishap had taken Robert’s life and as a result, his human form.  Maybe he had lost to the boss or to Caesar like Sam had.

Robert brandished his Arming Sword and pointed it at Sam.  Something dripped from it to the ground, blood most likely from Robert’s solo escapades.  Sam wasn’t intimidated by his friend.  On the contrary, he felt that his victory was assured.  He had just defeated The Will of the Forest and cut a swathe through all of the other testers he faced in his encroachments afterwards.  The Bloody Tearstone that he was sure to collect from Robert would just be another trophy in his now overwhelming collection.

He grinned at his friend and bowed.  Robert followed suit.  The two of them then circled around each other and closed in.  Robert seemed to possess a high level of confidence since his character had more defenses than Sam’s.

Sam saw that he might have some trouble getting his attacks through Robert’s huge tower shield, but he had a few ideas on just how to do it.  As a test, he stepped forward and thrust his blade out quickly at Robert.  Robert lifted his shield up in time and Sam’s blow bounced right off, leaving him open for just a second.

He saw Robert ready to pounce on his vulnerability, but he had made sure to keep space between him and his friend, so he’d have the time he needed to recover.  Robert wisely failed to take Sam’s bait.  Sam cursed, missing the chance to get an easy parry.

Robert stood back shaking his head, so Sam decided to speed up.  He knew he was faster than Robert’s armored avatar, so he used that advantage to circle around him since he was just turtling (constantly defending behind a shield, like a turtle).  Robert saw the writing on the wall once Sam got to his side and lowered his shield.  He took a wide slash at Sam, barely missing then came forward with a downward strike, which Sam did not expect.

Sam had been cut already by the time he got his shield up and had lost a sixth of his health.  That lack of added defense from the beginner rings had really come back to bite him.  He also beginning to feel a little queasy as his poison gauge filled up over a third of the way.

“You douche!  You’re using poison?” he yelled.

He knew that Robert couldn’t hear him, but the smile on Robert’s face was enough for Sam to know that he got the message.  Well, all was fair in an encroachment and Sam still had a few dirty tricks of his own up his sleeves.

He put his shield away and built up heat in his offhand and condensed it.  He threw the ball of fire into Robert’s face, but Robert blocked it with his tower shield, the Great Knight Shield Sam believed it was called.  Robert still took some damage, but Sam wasn’t done yet.  He rolled forward and tossed another ball of fire at Robert’s head.  The ball exploded at the front side of his mask, doing triple the damage from before, which still wasn’t much as Robert’s HP still hovered just below his maximum.

Robert blindly struck out at Sam with a heavy downward strike.  Sam anticipated the blow and easily avoided it with a roll.  He nailed Robert with a backstab taking four-fifths of his maximum health.  Robert fell to the ground with only a little health left and Sam made sure to strafe around him as he rose up, staying near his back.

Sam could tell that Robert knew he was going for a chain backstab.  Sam waited as Robert recovered.  Robert hastily swung at Sam with a light horizontal slash.  Sam pushed his strike aside, sending Robert’s sword hand airborne, and stabbed him right in his digital heart.  Robert’s health faded away instantly and Sam gave him his customary, “Are you not entertained,” pose.

Sinner’s Encroachment Completed

“GG bro!  We’ll do it again, next time.”

Sam’s soul count increased along with his Quintessence counter.  He also got the trophy he was looking for, the Bloody Tearstone, before being sent back to his own plane.  He was whisked back to the Soul Beacon near Sedwin and Barrington.  His thoughts were still on the melee he just had with Robert.

“This dexterity build is much better than I expected.  I thought he’d give me more trouble than that with all his armor.”

The added four points he’d put into dexterity right before he encroached upon Robert had really boosted his damage, and beyond that, leveling his dexterity to twenty-five had given him another Technique slot, which he put the Sword Uppercut into.

Sam thought back to the differences in damage that he and Robert were performing.  Robert’s light and heavy slashes did good damage against Sam’s newfound lack of defenses.  Sam knew his win had come from his maneuverability and the really good critical damage from the Rapier’s backstabs and opening blows.  They were risky maneuvers, but were well worth the hassle.

From his countless battles, he deduced that the Rapier’s critical attacks had done three times the amount of a standard heavy strike.  He wondered what the critical damage was for strength based weapons like the one Robert was using.

“Oh yeah, the Knight class started with the Arming Sword.  But, his was poisoned.  He didn’t apply anything during our fight either.  So, I wonder if you can add elements to your weapon.”

Having poisoned weapons wasn’t something that you were able to do in The Death Planes, but this whole weapons system was different from the previous game, so he wouldn’t be surprised if it were possible.

He walked over to Barrington, whose smock was still drenched in sweat from his constant smithing.  He had already come to the smith earlier to raise his Rapier to plus twenty-eight.  He had even had enough souls to raise his Flexile Wooden Bow to plus twenty thanks to all the Stumpies he had killed with it.  Barrington looked up at Sam and wiped his sweaty brow with his massive calloused hand.

“Aye?” the bearded smith asked.

“Can I add elements to my weapons?”

“Ahh, you mean to know of your blade’s affinities?”

“Sure ...”

“It’s a simple matter.  As I said before, your weapon takes in souls just like yourself, but what I didn’t tell you is that your weapons have a temperament of their own too.  The temperament affects what kind of weapon it’ll be.  At this stage your sword has much potential.  There are many paths of growth open to it.  But you must take heed.  The more you use your blade and the more souls it takes, the more limited its temperament becomes,” Barrington explained.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that seasoned weapons are like seasoned men and seasoned dogs.  You can’t teach them new tricks.  You must soon choose what you want your weapon specialization to be or it will be chosen for you.”

“What can I do to craft the weapon that I want to craft?”

“Your weapons take their cues from you.  Though they’ve already been crafted by others, and even used on the battlefield, they are still in their infancy until they are wielded by someone with a strong soul.  Your soul affects the weapon along with the souls you take when you kill with the weapon.  Your will alone can temper the steel in ways you can’t even fathom.  When you combine that with a compatible orestone and a skilled blacksmith, then you can make some truly frightening combinations.”

Sam still wasn’t quite grasping what Barrington was telling him.

“So my soul and the souls of my enemies affects how my weapon can grow?  But how?  How does a soul affect a sword?”

“Another easy one.  Your blade will react to your own temperament and your tactics in battle.  That will affect the ways it can grow and what ores it is compatible with as you go along.  It is a truly symbolic relationship for those who are cursed.  Most of us only hold onto our quintessence because of our blades after all.”

“So what is the temperament of my Rapier?”

“That I cannot tell ye.  I know it can grow, but I do not speak its language.  Sedwin does.  That is why he makes for a great apprentice.  Ask him about the blade’s temperament.”

Odd, how did the bear know how to speak the language of the sword?  Regardless, Sam took it over to him.

“Sedwin, can you tell me the temperament of my Rapier?”

“Surely I can traveler!  This is my best talent after all.  T’would be a shame to not use it.  Ahh, so let’s see ...”

He carefully inspected the Rapier in Sam’s hand.  Sam didn’t expect him to sniff the blade as well.

“There are still many paths open to this one, but it does seem to specialize already.  It is a bloodthirsty blade, but it likes to have its targets chosen carefully and it prefers accurate blows over simple hacking.  It is quite compatible with you and confident that it’ll grow strong in your hands.  You’ve awakened it yourself, it seems.”

“Awakened?”

“You’re its first master.  It’s your soul that gave it life.”

“Really?”

Sam thought that was pretty cool.  Maybe all legendary weapons started out the same way.  They were simple blades until the strength of powerful souls warped them into powerful artifacts.

“Yes and it yearns for a name.  Though, it’s not quite sure that it deserves one yet.  It will wait until it has matured.”

“It’s really saying all this?  How can it?”

“It doesn’t talk truly.  Not like I can to you anyway.  No, it instead reaches out with its temperament.  That’s a ‘language’ we animals understand fluently.  Only you men are dulled to such a thing.  You can read each other fine enough, but not nature.”

“Hmm ... what can I do with it?  What path does it want to go down?”

“It doesn’t work that way, I’m afraid.  You must lead it and not the other way around.”

“I should ask that differently.  What is it good at?  I’d like to know what element I could effectively add to it.”

“It is quite flexible at this stage, but if you wanted, it would excel with the use of blightstone, mithril, conductium, and raw glass stone refinement.  I hesitate to say it, but it would also excel with other more esoteric types of ore.  My master doesn’t handle those though.”

“What types of ore would that be?”

Sedwin stared at Sam for a long moment.  He seemed uncomfortable with the question.

“This one has a strong affinity for the more chaotic ores.  Demon bone, hell metal, and soul essence.  My master handles none of those.  You’ll have to find another smith, if one even exists in these cursed lands.”

Videogame logic told Sam that there had to be one at some point in the game.  Sam figured he could wait it out since his weapon was headed down that path anyway.  Still, he was curious about the first four orestones that Sedwin mentioned.

“What’s blightstone do?”

“Foul blightstone makes a weapon poisonous to the touch.  Forging anything with blightstone is so dangerous that Master Barrington normally wears special gloves for the process.”

Poison was a powerful status effect.  Sam was even more curious as to how effective it would be against the enemies.  He thought it would be a nice addition to his Dagger.

“What about mithril?  What’s that do?”

“Mithril is the standard upgrade ore.  It makes for the most sophisticated sort of weapon.  Weapons that are refined with mithril are the most reliable sort of weapons, but they lack many of the special components of weapons refined with other ores.  Most of the legendary weapons of human heroes have been refined with large amounts of mithril.  An unbreakable human will makes them durable weapons as well.”

A plain and powerful weapon.  That was something to think about.  It was the path Sam normally used for his weapons in the old game.  These new types of orestones sounded pretty exciting though.

“Conductium?”

“Refinement with conductium ore produces weapons that are adept at channeling and manipulating the very air to create a lightning effect with each strike.  It is a favorite of many demon hunters.”

That one sounded good to Sam.  It would go perfectly with his quick strikes.

“And what about the glass stone?”

“Raw glass stone produces the most pure type of weapons.  Raw glass weapons gain strength at an exponential rate very quickly.  Their growth potential however is capped much lower than the rest and they are terribly brittle things.  Raw glass weapons typically outstrip all other types in raw damage until the other weapons reach their final levels of growth along with their master.  It is because raw glass weapons lose their temperament in the refinement process.  They become silent and are simple tools for the willful fighter, and able to be wielded by all.  They are completely unable to resonate with their wielder however, which is a strength of Awakened weapons like your Rapier.”

Though it had many downsides, raw glass refinement was still one to consider, especially at lower levels, but Sam was overall disinterested in a weapon type that was ultimately weaker than the others in the long run.

“Okay, thank you Sedwin.  You gave me a lot to think about.”

He gave Sedwin a smile and the bear awkwardly tried to do the same.  Sam decided to hold off on any weapon refinement yet.  He didn’t have the ore he needed anyhow.  But there had to be some around if Robert was able to make a poison weapon, unless he really did apply something to his weapon beforehand.

As Sam rested at the Soul Beacon, his thoughts went back to Ji.  He couldn’t help but wonder what that Dragon’s Breath Pyromancy from her could actually do.  He decided to go through the forest searching for her again in case she had some new tricks to teach.

******

Sam’s search for Ji ended up being fruitless.  He did come across a pair of rather peculiar messages from other players though.  One had read:

Revenant is Death!

Relevance 0

And the other read:

Need Quintessence.

Relevance 7

Sam moved on from the weird messages back towards the Soul Beacon.  He was unsure where to go next.  He had been to the cave to see if the merchant would come back, but hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him.  His only option now, was to explore the front of the forest, where Caesar had killed him before.  As he thought of his approach, a message popped up in his HUD in large yellow text.  The words looked rough and jagged, almost like they were etched in stone.

You Are Being Encroached Upon By Justinian89Thrills

“Bah, I wasn’t ready.” Sam said to himself, nervously laughing.

He wondered how the people he encroached before had felt.  Were they more nervous than he was?  Were they actually scared to face him?  The answer to that was yes in many cases, he knew.  He was just overdue for this.

He soon shook away his nervousness, as it was silly for someone who caused as much grief as he did to be nervous.  He slowly moved through the trees, keeping a close eye out for his opponent.

Of course, Justinian89Thrills would have been spawned somewhere in Sam’s general vicinity.  It didn’t take long for Sam to spot him.  He saw the crimson eyed Walker easily from several meters away.  He was bathed in a fine red mist that perpetually ebbed and flowed.

Sam took out his Flexile Wooden Bow+20 and measured his shot.  He loosed his arrow and struck Justinian right in the neck for a nice amount of damage.  Justinian recoiled and ran forward to the direction where Sam had fired the arrow.  Sam was already well away from the spot.

He moved cautiously to avoid Justinian’s roving eyes.  As Justinian closed in on the spot he was before, Sam lined up another shot and nailed Justian89Thrills in the side of the head for more big damage.  The two critical shots combined took down a fourth of Justinian’s health.

Sam had nowhere to run now.  Justinian had him in his sights and barreled forwards towards him.  Sam switched to his Rapier and Metal Crest Shield.  At this range, he couldn’t help but notice something very strange about Justinian.  He was wearing a set of armor that looked identical to King Herke’s.  He was even wearing the king’s bloody crown.

“What the hell?”

Sam was not just confused by Justinian’s outfit, but also by his fighting style.  He held his shield up in front of his face as Justinian wailed away with two swords.  Eventually Sam’s stamina was chipped away to nothing thanks to Justinian’s rapid slashes.  Sam’s guard was quickly crushed and he was hit with three slashes, two from Justinian’s shortsword and one from his longsword.  His health quickly fell below half and he was knocked away.

“Shit!” he yelled as he rolled away.

Justinian was right on top of him again.  Sam saw that he was about to strike and parried.  He’d mistimed Justinian’s first blow and was hit by that and a second slash before rolling away to avoid another which was likely to kill him.

“His first strike was way too fast!  For whatever reason, he attacks faster when he’s dual wielding.”

Justinian smelled the blood in the water and ran at Sam again.

“I’m not losing this!”

Sam brought forth the intense heat inside of his soul and condensed the flames into a fireball.  He quickly tossed it at Justinian’s head and rolled away behind some trees to heal.  Justinian had retreated from the attack and gave Sam some much needed time to breathe.

“I don’t care if this is cheap.  I’m going to finish that guy!”

He took a swig of his Soul Fire and thought of how Justinian could’ve gotten King Herke’s armor and crown and the most obvious reason came to him.

“That bastard killed the king!  He must’ve teamed up with Rondo.  Now, I’m really mad!  I’ll show him the justice of the king’s guard, the king’s justice.”

Sam rushed forward and dodged one of Justinian’s slashes.  He lifted his shield up as his foe approached and baited his combo.  Justinian didn’t disappoint, and Sam was able to sidestep him and net a backstab, leaving Justinian with just a little more HP than he himself had before.

“You must have a lot of HP.  That would’ve killed anyone else.”

Sam rolled away to some uneven ground to create some distance.  He primed a fireball and tossed it just as Justinian was fully on his feet.  Justinian instinctively dodged then ran at Sam, who stood below him on the sloped terrain.  Justinian went with a jumping attack that would no doubt knock Sam to the ground.  Sam was ready for him, however, and caught him with a Skyward Thrust that he had timed impeccably from the moment he charged the power for it.  Justinian was caught in his descent with several rapid stabs and was finished before the final thrust had even touched him.  It was the only way Sam could land the upward aimed Technique.  He had to stand below him.

You Have Vanquished an Encroacher.

As with his own encroachments, Sam’s spoils for winning included a unit of solid Quintessence and a thousand souls.  This time, instead of a Bloody Tearstone, he received an item called a Token of Survival for winning.

“That’s for the king, asshole!”

Sam stopped and read his new item to see if it had any value.

Token of Survival

Proof that one has survived an otherworldly assault.

For those who have never adventured, Spirit Walkers are naught but a myth and those who talk of them are considered tellers of tale tales.  Though mostly ephemeral, encroaching spirits can sometimes leave lasting personal effects.  Objects or body parts left behind by Spirit Walkers can only be preserved when a survivor has an intense connection to it.  With proper proof, even the skeptics can be swayed.

After a while, Sam’s adrenaline began to wear off and his thoughts turned to the real world.  Just how long had passed since the last time he checked.  Now that he was thinking about time, it felt like he had been in the game forever and while he was loving every minute of it, he couldn’t help but wonder the state of his real body.

The medical staff had assured him that they would take care of his body, but hadn’t given him any concrete details on how.  To be fair to them, he hadn’t asked for any details either since he was so eager to start the game.  He found it strange too, that he hadn’t experienced any lasting fatigue yet from playing for so long.  He had been playing for more than a day now.  It hadn’t occurred to him to log out and check on himself until now.

“Maybe I should log out, just to log out.  Stretch my legs a little ... my real legs.”

He scrolled through his menus to the options menu.  He couldn’t find the logout option there.  He searched through his other menus, including his Alpha Build menu and couldn’t find any option that said “quit, exit, main menu, log out, real world, or even GTFO.”  He was quite vexed.  His next thought was to call Alex, but before he was able to do that he got a text message.

Video Message Incoming: Fulton Milner, Director/Lead Designer

25 Phase 2

It was surreal seeing Milner’s real life head superimposed in the center of his HUD.  The man was so dedicated to player immersion that he didn’t even let people voice chat or directly message each other, but here he was breaking all types of immersion with his joyless real life face.

“Hello alpha testers.  I highly suggest you watch this message somewhere safe.  At a Soul Beacon perhaps.  I’ll give you ten minutes to find one.”

His face disappeared faster than it appeared, leaving Sam with a very peculiar feeling.

“What a weird guy.  Guess I’ll make my way back to the Soul Beacon at the cave.”

Sam rested inside the cave and leveled up his stats as he waited for Milner’s next immersion breaking message.  He leveled his speed up to twenty-eight and went back to thinking about what Milner’s impending message would be about.  Maybe he would have something to say about the missing log out function.  Hopefully they’d get it up again pretty soon.  Sam was getting anxious thinking about such a huge flaw in the game’s system.

How did they mess that up, he thought.

He checked the time again and saw that his gameplay hours had stretched even further.  He had already logged over fifteen hours in the game.  He really needed to get out and check on himself and see if he could even move his legs after getting so immersed in this world.  He was sure that he’d have to pee like a racehorse too, once he got out.

Video Message Incoming: Fulton Milner, Director/Lead Designer

Milner’s image cut into Sam’s HUD.  He was visibly sweating and the dark rings under his almond shaped eyes were now more pronounced.  His shaggy black hair was more disheveled and for whatever reason, his five o’clock shadow looked messier than before.

He then remembered that it was an automated digital clone that he had come across before when configuring the game or perhaps Milner had simply pulled an all-nighter to ensure that the test was going well.  Looking at him, Sam wondered if Milner shared the same Japanese heritage as himself.  Milner was not a traditional Japanese name, neither was Fulton for that manner.

“Bear with me, testers.  I know this is jarring.  My team is just finishing the calibrations to allow me entrance into your game worlds.  Ah, looks like they’re already done.”

The video feed was cut and suddenly a light blue portal appeared next to Sam.  Sam hurriedly got to his feet and drew his sword.  A light blue, pixelated version of Milner stood in front of him with his hands in his coat pockets.  Slowly, digital Miller came to be colored with more realistic hues and eventually it seemed as if the man from the video had now stood right in front of Sam.

It reminded Sam of when he had first entered the virtual world.  Milner was wearing the same white lab coat as before.  Milner stared right at Sam, but his eyes didn’t seem to be focused on him.  Most likely, it was the same look he was now giving to all the testers en masse.

“Yes, this is good, feels more natural this way.  With that aside, I’m here to make a few announcements regarding this alpha build test.  First off, I’d like to congratulate our top testers for giving us some much needed data.  The top five testers include Immortal Kalika, Sword Wrench Man, Sarem the Sanguine, Justinian Eighty-Nine Thrills, and Regal Deego.

“These testers have made the most progress in the game, collected the most rare items and equipment, and are generally the best overall players of the game.  Top five player Sarem the Sanguine is also the first tester to find five distinct glitches in the game earning him the reward for that contest.”

A replication of Sam’s avatar appeared next to Milner in his black armor and long swooping cloak.  He was life sized and made Milner look like an ant.  Milner’s head barely came up to his chest.  Sam grinned and mumbled to himself.

“I look good in my Bloody Sunday’s Best.”

Milner dismissed the digital Sarem clone and continued on.

“There will be further rewards for those who find a suitable number of glitches, but that particular contest is now over.  Thank you Sarem for helping us ensure the quality of Project DH.”

Sam took a strange pride in that.  It felt good to be finally acknowledged for his skill.  He took his gaming very seriously.

“Our number one player is, by and large, Immortal Kalika.  She is the only tester who has not died yet, truly deserving of her namesake.  These feats are also deserving of a round of applause.”

IMMORtAL_Kalika’s digital clone appeared right next to Virtual Milner.  Even though her avatar was small, she still looked badass and dangerous with her blood red hair, dark skin, deep black face tattoos, and yellow pupils.  She was also wearing a red and white outfit that looked just like Ji’s, complete with her artistically styled steel plated gauntlets and greaves.  Had she killed Ji in her game?

Virtual Milner clapped his hands and soon the sounds of a chorus of claps joined his own.  Sam wasn’t sure if it were a premade audio track or the combined audio of the other players.  Sam himself wasn’t clapping, though not out of spite.  He respected Kalika’s prowess completely and hoped to reach her level of play soon.  He just felt like clapping would be pointless.

“Now, on to the main reason for this intrusion of mine.  I’m here to inform you all of the changes we’ll be implementing going forth with this alpha test.  We are now entering the second phase of Project DH.  To be honest with you all, phase one of the project was a total failure.  Overall, you’ve all proven to be a lackluster group of testers with unusable player data.  None but Kalika has given me even close to the results that I need to call this project a success.  That may be my fault, since I didn’t provide the correct motivation for you all, but that stops now.  From here on out, we’ll be striving for the best results.”

Milner paused and stared right through Sam with a frightening intensity.

“We can all agree that people are motivated by many things, but under it all are very basic primal motivations.  We are motivated to eat, we are motivated by success, and we are motivated by sex.  All of these motivations harken back to one ultimate truth: we are all motivated to survive.  That’s the ultimate goal of our species, survival, by any means necessary.  I want you all to keep that in mind, because phase two starts with the activation of Survival Mode—or I should say it started with the activation of Survival Mode.”

What the hell was he talking about?  Survival Mode?

“Of course, the question on everyone’s lips is ‘what is Survival Mode?’  To put it simply, it means that if you die inside of the game then your real life body will die as well.”

“Bullshit!” Sam yelled out loud.  “Why would you even say something like that?”

“Many of you are knowingly disturb by this and rightly so.  That’s a natural response.  Many of you also don’t believe a word that I am saying or at the very least can’t believe it.  But it’s the truth and the quickest way to get you to believe it is to show you, because your survival is what’s important.  Survival mode has been active now for the last two hours, ever since this last spike of PVP interactions.  It’s only been active for PVP, which can only be initiated via player encroachments.  Certain testers who were killed while being encroached upon are now dead in real life as well.  In the last two hours, twenty-one testers have been killed in PVP combat.”

“No way ... no fucking way ...” Sam repeated as he listened on.

“Since my words are not proof enough, my team has prepared a video chronicling all those who’ve lost their lives.  This is a graphic video, but none of you can afford to look away.  I implore each and every one of you to look on and remember each player who has died so far.  Remember their names as you go forth.”

Milner faded away and another video appeared in Sam’s HUD.  The screen was split in half with half the footage detailing a match between two testers in third person view and the other half showing a close up of some young guy strapped to a Dream Chair with his head covered in the Miyabi Full Dive headgear.  He was breathing deeply, almost snoring, and subtly reacting to the virtual fight.  It looked as if he were having a very vivid dream.

Sam guessed it was the sleeping guy’s gamer handle at the top of the screen.  His name was LAStrPD.  His avatar, a revenant in Fighter’s armor, was on the left side of the screen joined in battle by a crimson eyed Walker, Justian89Thrills who was dressed as he was when Sam had fought him only moments ago.

Justinian nailed LAStrPD with two sword blows and ended the fight with a vicious thrusting attack.  LAStrPD fell to his knees holding his stomach.  The guy in the recliner on screen next to him strained against the straps binding much of his body, nearly breaking them.  His screaming seemed inhuman but didn’t last long.  It was replaced by incoherent babbling as his body violently convulsed and he foamed at the mouth.  Soon after, even the convulsions stopped and some young nurse walked over and checked the pulse of the tester.  The nurse removed the Miyabi headgear and placed a white sheet over the body.

The video then cut to another side by side of a young lady in the Miyabi headgear.  Her revenant Cutthroat went by the name of Lord of Boltz.  She put up a good fight against Justinian but was ultimately cut down by him, just like LAStrPD.  Her real life death was just as gruesome as LAStrPD, only she suffered a severe nose bleed as well.

The next video featured a bald avatar dressed as a Priest, who wielded a Battle Axe.  It was a familiar opponent to Sam.  The name displayed at the top, HolyVermillion, confirmed that it was the same tester he had fought.  The tester playing him was as large as a professional football player, but looked at peace reclining as his revenant avatar did battle.

The footage on screen was of Sam’s avatar, Sarem, digging his Rapier deeply into HolyVermillion’s back and kicking him into a minefield of Stumpies that teamed up and killed him.  Holy Vermillion’s large young tester thrashed about and broke through his restraints.  He managed to grab onto a nearby nurse who was trying to secure him.  He yanked her around and crushed her wrist in one hand.

He grabbed the exposed parts of his own face with his second hand and squeezed it with violent intensity, breaking his skin and drawing forth his own blood.  His thrashing soon stopped, his grip on the girl slackened, and some other nurses came to assist her.  They cautiously checked his pulse and then placed the white sheet over him after removing his headgear.

“Holy Vermillion ...”

The next video was another of Sam’s kills, this time against a player called 3Angelo.  Sam had finished the undead Ranger with an arrow to the head during their intense sniper battle.

“Three-Angelo.”

Sam repeated all the names of those he had allegedly killed during PVP play.  There were many.

“Infamous Sampson.”

“Call of Carl.”

“John Washington.”

“Xpansion Pak.”

“Dick Rumsfeld.”

“Spearwife.”

Sam had counted each time a player was killed.  Durga2Smooth was the twentieth player killed.  The seventh to be killed by Justinian89Thrills.  Justinian was second when it came to PVP kills, Sam was first with eight.  In these circumstances, it wasn’t a title that he wanted.  He quietly watched on as the twenty-first video began to play.  Tears began to fall from Sam’s virtual eyes as soon as the name and images appeared.

In real life the player was tall and skinny.  A lanky white guy with large hands.  His face was at rest, with a faint smile on his lips as he laid in his Dream Chair.  The battle between the avatars was a playful yet heated one.  A tall dark Cutthroat versus a heavily armored Knight with a tower shield.  The Knight struck out with his Arming Sword and landed a hit.  The Cutthroat retaliated with a couple of Fireballs then managed to land a backstab on the Knight.  Finally, the Cutthroat parried the Knight’s sword slash and stabbed him in the heart.  Sam committed the image and the name to memory.  His final kill.

“Roburn.”

His best friend, Robert, struggled and squirmed against his restraints as his avatar faded away.  Robert tore the restraints right off, as if they were paper, and tried digging his fingers into the Miyabi headgear.  He punched at it, harder and harder, until his knuckles began to bleed.  His legs were still bound to the chair and he ripped one of those restraints off as well with his bare bloody hands and stood on his free leg.

There was a small table nearby that he picked up and tossed across the room inciting screams from the nurses nearby.  He clutched his headgear and screamed.  His pain was evident in his tone.  Sam could see his own sleeping self directly across the aisle from Robert and it frustrated him.  A minute went by with Robert’s breathing getting more ragged with every passing second.  Sam desperately searched for his logout button to no avail.  His best friend was dying right in front of him and there was nothing he could do about it.

A light was flashed onto Robert and someone could be seen approaching.  Robert knew someone was approaching too, his attention focused intently on whoever it was.  He lunged forth at the strangely dressed guards, but the restraint that bound his leg kept him tethered.  He reached down to pull at it.  Sam was suddenly startled when he heard gunshots.  There were two, then four.  Afterwards, Robert slumped down to the ground cradling his body.  His blood began to pool beneath him as the image disappeared.

Virtual Milner appeared again at Sam’s side, a blank expression on his face, and his hands in his pockets.  Nothing had changed in his demeanor, while Sam was on the verge of breaking down.

“Now, hopefully that has shocked you out of whatever complacency you might have been prone to before.  This test is about survival.  That’s what I expect from the very best among you.  From here on out, Survival Mode will be in effect for enemies and obstacles in the normal game as well.  The only way to survive against all the odds is to elevate your play, your reactions, and your tactics.  You must be smart and you must be quick on your feet.  The game is not designed for stagnant players.  Those twenty-one that have died already, let them be the lesson you need to push you forward.  You must be more stalwart and play smarter than your fallen colleagues.  For those of you that are still in shock or denial, I assure you that this is real.  Death will be the only thing that awaits you should you choose to continue to treat this like a game and play as if you have nothing to lose.  There is no way out but victory.  You must finish the game with your life intact.  Your log out functions have been revoked and won’t be reinstated until you complete the main questline of the game,” Milner explained.

Even as distraught as he was now, Sam knew that Milner’s promise of escape sounded like a bunch of bull.

“I wish you all luck in your endeavors.  Get strong and defeat the four fire bearers of the alpha.  See you at the end of your journey.”

Milner faded into light blue pixels then disappeared completely.  Sam was left with silence and a light wind that he only now noticed was cold.  He sat back down in front of the Soul Beacon and thought of all that just happened and how ridiculous it all was.  It was completely unbelievable, but any hope that he had that it was a hoax was gone as soon as he saw Robert’s real body get shot four times.  Robert was so close when he had died, yet so unreachable.  Sam closed his eyes and couldn’t help but to scrunch them hard as hard as he could.  His virtual tears fell fast as if he were squeezing water out of a wet rag.

Just what the hell had happened to each of the testers?  What had happened to Robert?

“I’m so sorry Robert.  What have I done?”

He buried his head into his hands and bent down to the ground letting his tears fall.

“I shouldn’t be crying.  I killed you.  It’s my fault.”

He gritted his teeth and punched the rocky ground.  He thought of all those he’d killed, all nine of their names popped into his head along with the images of their last moments in battle with him.  Their names scrolled by like credits in a movie.  HolyVermillion.  3Angelo.  Infamous Sampson.  Call of Carl.  John Washington.  Xpansion Pak.  Dick Rumsfeld.  Spearwife.  Roburn.

“Never again ... I’ll never kill again.  I swear to all of you!  I swear it on my life!  I will never take another life, so long as I shall live.  I swear it.  I swear ...”

******

Sam spent the next twenty minutes staring at the stone snake totem in front of him, thinking about everything that had happened.  His thoughts had quickly turned from sadness to bitter anger.  He decided that Milner was to blame for the deaths of all the testers.  If he had known, Sam would’ve put an end to his encroachments right away.

It just wasn’t right for Milner to turn on the Survival Mode and to not inform anyone.  It was a deeply depraved decision.  To put something like that into the game in the first place required an extremely sick mind, but to activate it in the middle of a high volume of player versus player matches was the absolute most detestable thing imaginable.

The bastard had planned all this from the very beginning.  He had to.  The Miyabi headgear had to have something in it that could do this, or maybe Milner’s staff had given them all some kind of drug.  And what was worse, every tester was at that bastard’s mercy.  There was nothing they could do inside the game.  But there was something else that disturbed Sam.  A question that kept gnawing at his brain.

Why haven’t the other designers called in on this wacko?  Just how many people does he have helping him?  What about Alex?  The last thought pissed him off more than anything.  He and the other players put all their trust into these people.  Sam had listened to Alex and believed her when she said that his body was safe even when he was in pain.

He had trusted her and Anna and Alanna the whole time and for what?  They had lied to him all along, manipulated him.  It was all a game to Milner and his staff.  They played with people’s lives as if they meant nothing and for what, a fucking videogame?  Chelsea lost Robert over a fucking videogame.

“You lying bitch!  I trusted you!  I fucking trusted you!  And you led me right to my doom!  All of you should be ashamed!  How could you?  How can you live with yourselves?  Using people like this!  Liars!” Sam yelled out at the virtual universe.  His voice echoed off the cave walls.  As always, it was nighttime in the forest and the silence reminded Sam that he was alone.

“I won’t play your game!  I WON’T PLAY YOUR FUCKING GAME!  I’ll sit here until it’s all over!  You hear me?”

“That’s not a good idea, Sam.”

Sam couldn’t believe his ears.  It was really her, Alex.  He immediately stood up and began pacing.

“You!  You have some fucking nerve.  You liar!” Sam spat the words at her, contempt in every word.

“I know, Sam ...”

“You know what?  I just killed my best friend because you and your boss lied to me.  Why didn’t you tell me we were killing each other?”

“I—I couldn’t.  I’m sorry.  But—”

“But what?  What else could you possibly say?  ‘I’m sorry, but I’m a liar?  A manipulator?  A murderer?’”

Her voice wavered as she replied.

“No Sam.  That’s not what I was going to say.  You can’t just sit there.  There are protocols in place to prevent ... idleness.  You have to play if you want to live and you have to win if you want to get out.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it!  None of you told us about this and now we’re expected to just go along with it?”

“That’s just it, you don’t have a choice.  I’m sorry Sam, but you’re stuck in there until the end.  You have to progress and you have to get better.  I know that you hate me, along with the rest of us, but you have to survive.  You don’t want to die in there.  In a videogame.”

“If you’re so concerned about us, why did you put us in here?  What do you want?”

“There are things that I can’t tell you Sam no matter how much I want to, but believe me.  I want to see you out of there.  I’d like nothing more than to know that you escaped and got to use your bonus to buy yourself a nice steak.”

“I don’t want your fucking money!  Just let me out of here!  Let all of us out of here!  I want to see my family!  I want to bury Robert!”

He punched the cave wall with each sentence.  His thoughts were unrelenting.  Why did he die?  Why did he have to die?  Why did I kill him?  Why am I not dead?

“I can’t do that, Sam.  Please, just get through the game.  Play it carefully, take it slow, be observant.  Be as efficient as possible.  It’s the only way, Sam.  Don’t just play with your heart, play with your head too.  Please, even if you hate me, please call me to help you.  I’ll help you get through this, in what few ways I can.”

“I’m not playing this game!  I’m not some sport for you psychopaths.”

“Sam please, listen to me,” she pleaded.

“That’s enough, Ms. Madura.  You’ve done all you can do.  He is just a fool that’s destined to die.  That’s all there is to it.”  Fulton Milner’s voice filled Sam’s ears just like Alex’s had.  Soon after, Virtual Milner appeared from the same portal as before, only this time his eyes were focused intently on Sam.  His mouth was upturned as he regarded Sam with disgust.

“We’re not in the business of saving those who can’t even help themselves.  If he is already broken then we have no need for him,” Milner continued.  “Sad really, but interesting nonetheless.  I knew the lesser players might have their wills easily broken after my announcement, but I didn’t think one of the top players would.”

“Shut your mouth, you psychopath!  Stop treating me like a lab experiment!”

Sam leapt at Virtual Milner and threw a series of punches right through his head.  The insubstantial lab coated avatar continued on uninterrupted.

“Ahh, so you aren’t completely broken.  That’s good.  But, attacking my virtual avatar isn’t the smartest of decisions.  I hope you’ll make wiser choices in the future.  Now, will you finally move along?  I’d like to see what kind of data a player like yourself can give under these circumstances.”

“I told you, I’m not your experiment.  I won’t do what you want me to do.”

“It’s not about what I want you to do.  It’s about what you need to do to survive.  This isn’t a game anymore, Mr. Nagai.  The death of your friend, Robert, should have shown you that.  Alex here really wants to help you and I’ve instructed all of my designers to do what they can to assist you.  There’s certain lines that they can’t cross and certain information that they can’t impart so there is a limit to their helpfulness, but it is there for you.”

“I don’t trust her or you.  You’re nothing but liars and murderers.”

Milner simply laughed, the bastard.

“By all means, consider me untrustworthy and call me what you will.  Hate me even.  But listen up.  There are worst things out there than liars and murderers.  Remember that, if you survive that is.  As far as Alex goes, she can’t reveal too much to you.  I won’t hesitate to have her executed if she interferes with this phase of my project.  On the flipside of that, I’ll have to have you killed too.  So you see, Alex here has a very tough job.  She wants to keep you alive and give you tips, but she can’t say too much or else you and her are both dead.  Regardless, she’s your best lifeline out of here.”

Why was he selling her assistance so hard?  Sam didn’t trust it and he didn’t trust Alex anymore.  She was a puppet of Milner’s any way you looked at it and since she was participating in these tests and misleading players, she was just as much of a murderer as Milner.

“Compared to the rest, you have put on a good performance inside of the game, but it’s still lacking.  You’d be smart to assume that the other players will improve greatly under the new conditions of the game, so you’d be wise to increase your skill level as well.  You need to strive for greater heights if you wish to clear this game.  Only the best will win and right now, you’re far from that.”

Was it a competition too?  Milner’s words made it seem that way.

“I never said I would play your game.”

“Oh you will.  Aside from the protocol that Ms. Madura briefly mentioned earlier, I believe you have other reasons to continue playing as well.  We’ll keep that to ourselves, but in the meantime, I do have a reward for you.  It’s a voice echo that you were tagged in on MediaNet.  Shall I play it?”

A voice echo?  From who?

“Do what you want.  Not like I can stop you.” Sam said dispassionately.

Virtual Milner smiled at Sam and the message began to play.  Sam began to cry again as soon as he heard the voice.

“I’m getting so sick of Airhead gamers.  I would’ve already gone nuts and beat them all silly if I didn’t grow up with one.  Love you brooooooo, even though you don’t ever answer your phone or reply to my messages!  See you soon!”

Silence followed Rui’s message and Sam clenched his fist so hard that it hurt.  He could hear someone sniffling in his ear.

“Silence your microphone, Ms. Madura.”

Virtual Milner and Sam stared each other down.  There was a knowing expression on both of their faces followed by a smug grin on Milner’s.

“Well Mr. Nagai, it looks like you have some place to be.  I take it you’ll be participating in phase two.”

All Sam could do was glare at the murderous designer’s digital avatar.  He found it very easy to hate Fulton Milner.

26 Motivation

“What should I do, father?”

Yoshiyuki Nagai’s familiar expression popped into Sam’s head quite vividly.  He had a stern look on his deeply lined face as he looked off into the distance.  Sam would’ve bet any amount of money that this vision was of his dad fishing.

“Please father, what should I do?”

In Sam’s mind, his father finally turned to face him and his stern look was dropped for a deep smile of genuine warmth.  Both expressions described the man his father was easily.  Too bad he wasn’t here to offer his sound advice.

“I should stop asking dead men how to live.”

Sam huffed at these lingering feelings of frustration, hopelessness, and helplessness that would not dissipate.  He had moved on from Barrington’s camp, but had only moved over to the area with the Stumpies.  He sat under a tree, well away from the enemies, but just couldn’t bring himself to fight.  He had too much on his mind to do anything effectively.

He thought about the protocols that Alex had mentioned earlier, Milner’s way of discouraging idleness.  He wondered how long he could sit before the protocol kicked in and he wondered what the punishment for it was.  It was instant death, no doubt but Sam wanted to make sure.

“Alex.”

“Yes, Sam?”

At least she was quick to answer.

“I need to know, what’s this protocol about?  The one you mentioned earlier?”

“You have to ask your questions more specifically, Sam.  I’m not allowed to give broad answers.”

He thought of how to get the information he needed.

“What initiates the protocol you told me about earlier?”

“Player idleness.”

“How long can a player stay inactive before this protocol kicks in?”

“I can’t answer that specifically.  What I can tell you is that you are given enough time to strategize, to focus, and to rest.”

“Does browsing through my menu add to my idle time when I’m sitting?”

The line was silent.  Sam guessed that Alex didn’t know the answer offhand or maybe she didn’t know if she could answer it.

“No, Sam.  Menu browsing counts as active play.”

“What’s the punishment for remaining idle over the allotted time?”

“Death.”

“Instantaneous death?”

“Yes.  It counts as a game over and all game overs result in the death of your real life body.”

“We get game overs every time we die?”

“No.  Certain conditions must be met to get a game over.”

“What are those conditions?”

“I’m not allowed to tell you any of them, Sam.  I’m sorry.”

“No, you’ve told me enough for now.  I think I can puzzle out the rest.  Than—”

He cut himself off before he got too comfortable.  She was the enemy after all.

“Is that all, Sam?”

“Yes.”

“Remember to call me when you need—”

“Okay.”

This time, he ended the call.  He began to think.

I wonder why some of the people I killed weren’t in the video, Justinian89Thrills for instance.  The game over state is specific, but what activates it?  Think, Sam, think.  Justinian was a crimson Spirit Walker when I killed him, so dying as a Walker doesn’t get you a game over or maybe it’s just when you’re encroaching.

He thought back to those he killed, igniting his self-hatred once again.  It was necessary to figure out what they all had in common.  Their avatars were as diverse as you could get, and so were each of the battles.  Figuring out their commonality wasn’t working, so he instead thought of the ways they differed from the other players that he had defeated, but not killed.

He replayed every battle in his head, even the one with Robert.  He felt the heat rise up to his face and tears welling up in his eyes.  Each encroachment was a sin, sins that would not be easily erased.  The way he saw it, his sins were permanent.  He had collected them as trophies, Bloody Tearstones.  He could count them all.  They would follow him as long as he lived.  Now though, the dead would give him the clues he needed to proceed forward, so he continued to concentrate.

“That’s it!”

The difference, he puzzled, was quite simple.  At least he hoped it was.  He needed to do some more experimentation.  But what he noticed was that everyone in the video that he had killed had been in revenant form, so were those that Justinian and the others killed.  Those who he defeated earlier that weren’t in the video, had been in human form.  Sam recalled the envoy signs he had seen only a few hours earlier.

Revenant is Death!

Need Quintessence.

He wondered who had left such chilling clues.  Had they known about Milner’s Survival Mode ahead of time?  He also recalled all of Alex’s warnings about staying in human form earlier.  Now that Sam thought about it, she was blatantly giving him the clues he needed to survive.  He didn’t quite know how to feel about that.  Sure, she made sure he was alive, but to what end?  Entertainment?  Data?  To please her boss?  It was probably all of the above.

Regardless, he had to stay in human form as much as he could.  At least he knew that.  It gave him an advantage and was the only way to ensure that he kept his life.  He made sure to keep a close track of how much Quintessence he had at all times.

“I guess I’ll give you psychopaths what you want.  Not like I really have a choice.”

Sam stood up and looked around at the Stumpies in the trees.  They had provided him with a nice amount of Quintessence earlier, but now they wouldn’t serve that purpose anymore since the area boss was defeated.  The only thing he’d get for farming them would be the Stim Plant that they dropped fairly regularly.  If he needed to restock on that, he’d just return here, but he wouldn’t need any for a very long time.

“What the heck is that?”

Sam looked ahead, near the boss gate, and saw it once again covered in a spiritual barrier.  That wasn’t supposed to happen.  Once the area boss was defeated, the barrier was supposed to dissipate for good, unless ...

You Are Being Encroached Upon By IMMORtAL_Kalika

Oh no!  Fuck no!  Not now!

Sam couldn’t believe what he was seeing.  He had always told his friends that he had the absolute shittiest luck, but now, this one moment proved it.  IMMORtAL_Kalika was confirmed to be the best player in the game, and Sam had already lost two duels against her before, duels he had an advantage in.  What was he going to do now that Survival Mode was initiated?  The improvements he had made to his playstyle seemed very insignificant now, when faced with a player like Kalika.

“Breathe, Sam.  Don’t defeat yourself before you even get to the fight,” Alex said into Sam’s ear.

“I don’t need your advice,” he said sullenly.

“She’s not unbeatable and what’s more, remember what I told you before,” she advised.

“I told you, butt out!  I got this.”

Thankfully, she decided to remain silent.  Her interruption was helpful though.  It had snapped him out of his pity party.  He moved back towards Barrington’s camp as he formulated his strategy.  The best he could come up with on such short notice was to take Kalika by surprise.

As long as she still hadn’t seen him, he had a little bit of an advantage since she was so easy to spot as a crimson Walker.  He also needed to go to an area with low visibility and very little to no enemies.  If he could meet those conditions then he stood a very good chance of defeating Kalika.  The last time they had met, she had even less total HP than he did.

As long as she hadn’t upgraded her HP, if he could hit her with two or more arrows, then he was almost guaranteed a win.  But that was the key, he needed to exclusively use only mid to long-ranged attacks and he had to be quick with them.  Kalika’s parry timing was godly when he faced her before and Sam was sure that it wasn’t a fluke.

“I know the perfect place,” he said to himself as he ran past Sedwin and Barrington, then through the ruined fort nearby.  He stopped at the fallen trees that he and Sedwin had passed before and pulled out his bow.  Kalika was nowhere to be seen, but that was to be expected.  She probably wouldn’t reach him for a while, if she ever did.  The best case scenario for Sam would be to wait her out, until she got bored and went back to her own plane.  He steadied his breathing and waited with the patience of a hunter.

Kalika proved to be persistent.  After ten minutes, Sam spotted her coming from the north, near the ruined fort.  Her eyes glowed bright red and the tell-tale crimson sinner’s mist surrounded her body.  He took aim, using the more powerful Army Arrows and pulled back on his bowstring with Kalika in his sights.  She wasn’t moving very fast, so he didn’t have much difficulty leading his target.

THUNK!

The arrow pierced Kalika’s ghostly form and took away a third of her HP.

“Geez!  I’m glad I upgraded this thing.  She really needs more health.”

Now it got harder.  Kalika continued running forward, now towards Sam, in a random zigzag pattern.  She rolled sporadically as if trying to predict the intervals of his shots.  Aiming his next shot felt impossible with the way she was moving.  He wanted to just give up and run towards her, but he couldn’t squander his range advantage so easily.  He needed to damage her as much as he could before she was in his face.

He tightened his own movements and timed them with hers.  Her strange patterns began to make some sort of sense.  His led shot now had what he guessed was a forty percent chance of landing, the best he could do under the circumstances.

He was startled when he lost her for a second.  She was now only a few yards away.  As he anticipated her movements, she suddenly stopped and stood still under a dark tree.  Sam was shaken by her strange pause, and had no idea what to expect next.  One thing was certain.  His bow was aimed right at her chest.

“What are you up to?  I swear, I hate the way you play.”

Sam was still as stone and more focused than he had ever been in his life.  Kalika, now with her attention focused directly on him, approached slowly, menace in her every step.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you stroll towards me like that.”

He let loose his arrow and watched it pierce Kalika right in the chest as he loaded another one.  It did much more damage than he expected, causing her to stumble backwards and leaving her at under a third of her HP.

“Got your heart, bitch!”

He could feel himself sweating now, a very unfortunate feature in VR.  Kalika rolled backwards then shook her head and wagged her hands from side to side like a referee calling a penalty.  She then put her hands up in front of her with her palms facing Sam, as if to say ‘I’m innocent.’  Sam just couldn’t buy into the bull of an encroacher feigning innocence while encroaching on another player in Survival Mode.

“What the hell are you up to?”

He trained his next shot at her chest, once again, but this time he waited.  He wasn’t sure if she’d make a sudden movement or not.  She continued to hold out her palms then began to move forward again.

“You must think I’m stupid, Kalika.  I don’t trust you!”

He shot at her again, but she rolled forwards, right over the shot.

“Dammit!  Skillful bitch!”

He took aim again, but once again Kalika was shaking her head and standing still.  She took something out of her pocket, leading Sam to almost shoot her right there.  He waited though, not entirely sure why.  She knelt down and wrote something in the dirt.  When she was done, her message glowed white and she backed up a safe distance from it.  She waited then beckoned Sam forward and pointed at the message.

“Fuck that.  This isn’t reading time.  Have you forgotten that you tricked me twice before?  Do you think I forgot that?”

Kalika pointed at the message again and shook her head as Sam remained in his shooting position.

“Come on!  Fuck this!  Stop being weird.  The moment I get your ass in a box is the moment you want to start playing like a dumbass.”

Sam let out a sigh and continued aiming at Kalika.  When he saw that she continued to stand still, he became more frustrated.

“Why are you even here?” he yelled.  “If you don’t want to fight then leave!”

It was pointless.  She couldn’t hear him.  He sighed again and walked forward with his bow still drawn.  He felt like a fool.

“I can’t believe this.  The moment I get a fucking advantage ...”

Kalika remained still.  She remained at a distance where Sam could get two more shots on her before she even got to him, so at least he still had that advantage.  He looked around for any kind of traps that she might have left, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.  The message she left was right at his feet.  He tensely read it, never lowering his bow.

Follow The Walker

Relevance 0

“What?  No way!” Sam answered, shaking his head.  The Kalika Walker placed her hands on her hips then shooed him away.  Sam slowly backed up to the spot he stood before.

“Oh my god, this is so stupid.”

Kalika’s message faded away and she slowly walked up to the same spot and wrote another one before returning to a neutral distance.  Sam walked forward again to read her message.

Helpful Walker, Useful Item Ahead

Relevance 0

Sam lowered his bow and looked at her.  He pointed to the ground and she erased her message like he’d wanted.  Sam used his menu to scroll through his inventory and placed his Envoy Scriber into his Quick Select slot.  He took the magical writing tool in his hand and scribed his message into the dirt.  The game didn’t allow for messages to be directly written.  You had to use prewritten terms from an archaic language.  Some of the terms were easily comprehensible to Sam, despite having no history with the language.  He picked a word that was easy to understand in all languages.

Liar ...

Relevance 0

He backed up to let her read it.  She shook her head and pointed to the south.  Neither one of them moved for a while and when she saw that he wasn’t taking her bait, she knelt down on one knee and clutched something to her chest before fading away into the wind.

IMMORtAL_Kalika Has Returned To Her Own Plane

Sam was left with an uneasy feeling.

“Just what the hell was that about?  That was so pointless, I swear.”

He was more disappointed than anything, because his last strategy would have actually given him a well needed victory over her.  He couldn’t see himself catching her off guard like that again anytime soon.

“What a fucking waste.”

He sat there, under a tree, with no idea how to proceed.  Kalika’s encroachment had shook him really bad.  Theoretically, he should’ve been safe from permanent death, but he wasn’t one hundred percent sure his theory about staying in human form was correct.  Maybe he could still die for good in these battles.

As he was thinking, something caught his eye.  It looked like another envoy message.  Strangely enough, it was in the same place that Kalika had left her previous messages.  Sam got up and went over to read it.

Helpful Walker Ahead

Relevance 0

Just as Sam finished reading that one, some other bright light caught his eye.  He walked over to the spot where Kalika had stood earlier and touched the bright golden letters.  A bold question popped up on Sam’s HUD.

Will You Summon The Charitable Walker, IMMORtAL_Kalika

Yes   No

“No way!  She can actually do that?”

Sam didn’t think he stood anything to lose from summoning her, so he did.  She came forth, out of the ground and greeted Sam with a bow.  He looked at her and thought that she actually looked pretty cool with a golden glow similar to King Herke’s emitting from her eyes and the mist surrounding her.

She was currently wearing what looked like a replica of Ji Susano’s robes and armor.  They were a lot smaller to match the shorter avatar Kalika had chosen for herself.  Sam reluctantly bowed to Kalika in return.  He wasn’t sure what she wanted from him.  Was she really trying to help him?

She beckoned him forward and started walking towards the southeast.  Sam reluctantly followed.  Surprisingly, the area they were heading to was new territory for Sam.  In his zealousness before, he had overlooked a large swathe of the forest.  The path they walked dipped lower than the rest of the forest Sam had explored so far.

She led him to a dark cave, not much different than the one he frequented with the Soul Beacon.  Sam eyed her suspiciously when he saw some nearly naked revenants nearby.  Their brown dried out flesh was on full display with only the tiniest bit of soiled cloth covering their private parts.

When he neared, all three revenants arose and focused on him, their eyes nearly hollowed out completely but for the small specks of fire that they called pupils.  One brandished a knife, the others broken swords.  They ran at him, all at once.  Sam took a few quick steps backwards, then put up his shield to block.

The closest revenant’s knife bounced off of his shield, leaving the poor wretch wide open.  Sam thrust his Rapier forward with great force and pierced the creature’s chest.  It fell down to the ground and faded into a cloud of souls that Sam quickly absorbed.  The other two approached with their poor excuses for weapons.  Sam aimed and found the throat of the closest revenant with a heavy thrust.  It dropped to the ground and Sam quickly finished the remaining revenant with two quick thrusts.  He let out a nervous breath and looked ahead at Kalika, who was giving him a thumbs up.

“I’m glad they were as easy as they were,” Sam said to himself.

Despite saying that, his heart was still beating a mile a minute.  The way he’d engaged them all at once had been foolish.  He had to rethink his tactics now that his life was honestly in danger.  He was also wondering where Kalika was leading him.  She hadn’t lifted a finger to help while he was fighting.  Was she trying to get him killed?  Maybe she just considered the enemies too weak to interfere.

“What am I doing?  Can I really trust her?” he asked himself.

He didn’t have an answer yet, but he didn’t think she could hurt him.  He resolved to keep his eyes wide open for any nasty surprises.

She led him down a long tunnel to the bottom of the cave where it ended with a beautiful moonlit opening.  She stood there grinning and pointing at a wooden treasure chest.  Then she knelt down to one knee, clutched some kind of dark jewel to her chest, and faded away.

IMMORtAL_Kalika Has Returned to Her Own Plane

Did she expel herself?  Could she expel herself?  Sam was very confused.  He was sure that he didn’t trigger anything to cause her expulsion.  His interest in answering those questions was quickly waning with a treasure chest sitting in front of his face.  There was also a nearly naked dead body nearby that looked to be holding an item as well.  Sam kicked the dead body and treasure chest to make sure he wouldn’t be hit by any sudden surprises.  He opened the treasure chest first and got five Blightstone Pieces.

“Nice!”

He then knelt down and with trepidation picked up the shining item from the hands of the revenant.  It was another scriber, this one a Charity Scriber.  If it were anything like his other two scribers then it would be a tremendously useful item.  He had a good guess as to what it did.  He quickly read the descriptions of both items.

Blightstone Piece

Reinforces weapons with a poisonous effect.  +1 to Weapon.

A poisonous ore, mined from deep underground.  It is said that the ore was made when a foul archdemon was slain.  Its tainted blood seeped throughout the earth and poisoned all that it touched.

Charity Scriber

Allows cooperation with other players.

One of the legendary writing tools crafted and enchanted by the eminent linguist, scholar, and mage Letraym.  Letraym believed that good relations could be fostered between two worlds if denizens from each worked together towards a common goal.  To that end, this scriber was made to deepen the bonds of kindred charitable souls.

When Sam was finished reading the descriptions of the items, he noticed another message right under his feet.

“When did you get there?”

He knelt down and read the message.

Use Item and then Be Ally

Relevance 0

“Be ally?  To who?”

The message had to be from Kalika, but what did she want?  Who did she want him to help?  Was it her?  But if she needed help, why didn’t she just stay?  It was so frustrating.  All of this could easily be answered with a simple voice chat feature.  Of course, Milner probably avoided putting that into the game just to make it more difficult for the testers to communicate.

“Whatever.  I just need to keep moving forward with the game.  I don’t have any more time for multiplayer right now.”

27 Deadly Cooperation

Sam walked past a drifting Forest Barker, this one taller than the rest.  There were two others just like it nearby and Sam was tremendously glad that the creatures didn’t automatically aggro.  He had carelessly walked right past one earlier after mistaking it for a small tree, but it hadn’t attacked.  He wouldn’t make the same mistake of assaulting it as he did its smaller cousins before.

He continued on, past them, until he found the path from before.  He stopped and recalled what had happened on the path the last time.  It was the first time he had seen Caesar and at that time Caesar had brutally killed a huntsman right where Sam was staring.  Sam had been killed for the first time, not far from that very spot.  He took a breath and pressed on, down the side of the moonlit path.  The trees over the path were cleared leaving Sam to wonder what had caused the clearing.  As he walked into more new territory, Sam saw more Forest Barkers and rose men throughout the forest.  Then he heard footsteps.  There were two pair.  One was heavy and gave a clinking sound with each step.  The other was light, barely crunching on the dying forest foliage.

“Shit!  They’re coming from two different directions.”

Sam braced himself for combat, his back against a large tree.

“There he is, over here!” yelled a familiar voice.  Sam then found himself in a situation that he was only half prepared for.

“Both of them?  Seriously?”

His questions were as much to the gods of misfortune as they were to Fulton Milner and his crew.  He was now face to face to face with the merchant from the cave and Caesar the forest killer.

“It is just as you said, he is alone.” said the armor clad killer.  Caesar, as before, was in his black and crimson plated mail.  The bleached vulture skull adorned the top of his head with white feathers hanging down to his upper back, while his crimson cape fell down to his calves.  Caesar’s face couldn’t be seen at all, only the hollowed out eye sockets of the vulture helmet.  Caesar’s greatsword stayed in its scabbard on his back, but Sam knew better than to expect it to stay there.

“Of course.  I knew from the start that he wasn’t very bright, but he’s outdone himself now, hasn’t he?” said the grinning merchant.  Sam hadn’t trusted the man before, but now seeing him with Caesar showed him in a completely different light.  He was a snake, plain and simple.  As before, he wore the same Cutthroat armor as Sam.  He didn’t wear it to hide from other Cutthroats as he had lied before.  He wore it because he was a Cutthroat.  Sam just had to confirm his identity before he proceeded.

“It’s not that I’m not bright, Mr. Coward and Mr. Crazy.  The reason that I’ve messed up so much so far is because I didn’t expect your A.I. and voice recognition programs to be so sophisticated, meaning I expected you to be much more stupid.  It’s more of an underestimation than anything else.  I underestimated your creators is all.”

“You call us crazy, yet you speak nonsense,” said the merchant.  Neither he nor Caesar had made a move yet, but they were blocking the better escape routes.

“No, I called him crazy.  You’re just a coward, aren’t you Rondo?  I mean, what else can you call an assassin hiding away in a forest pretending to be a merchant?  Maybe I’d be scared too if I were you, given the severity of your crimes against the king.”

The merchant smirked then seemed to ponder something.

“You must be proud of yourself, eh?  I could lie to you and tell you that you got the wrong guy, but then again, there’s no point.  I think it’s much more satisfying to kill you while you know the truth.  Innit that right, Caesar?”

“I have to agree,” said the lunatic wearing the vulture skull.  “Beauty is born from struggle, true art.”

“Yes fool, I am Rondo and in this forest I am king ... king of assassins that is.  My word is law here and you have desecrated that law with your meddling.  As for your ‘just’ king, he is a bigger fool than you.  What I did, I did for coin.  He’s no better murdering me than he is murdering some other stranger.  His hunt should’ve been for those that ordered my services.  Those nobles that wanted him and his kin removed from the throne because of his cursed bloodline.  We were both expendable in their eyes.  The buggers killed me before I was even able to cash in on my contract.  Luckily it turned out I was cursed.  Rose right out of that shallow grave they put me in.  And they were right about the king as well.  Turns out he was just as cursed as his foul son, the kin killer.  Now the mad king is right here with me, in the land of the undead.  So why can’t he just let it all go, as I have?”

Was all that true?  Sam didn’t know what to believe.  Rondo could just be playing him even further.  Whatever the case, Sam was determined to put an end to the assassin.  He couldn’t stomach hearing him talk of killing a man’s family like it were some random thing to cross off his to-do list.  He realized that he was getting upset at a situation that wasn’t truly real, but he couldn’t help it.

“That so?  So after the king kills you, he should go after the douchebags that hired you.  Will you give up the names of those nobles?”

“Why?  They are long dead.  Despite that and the time that’s passed, the foolish king’s anger hasn’t subsided.”

“That’s because his justice was robbed from him when he was sent to this place.”

In truth, it was revenge that the king craved.  That was easy to see.  Since he couldn’t punish those petty nobles who had sentenced him to such misery, he’d have to take out all his anger on Rondo.  There was no way around it.  The king would bring an end to Rondo’s existence.  Sam had no problem with that.

“I don’t care.  Both he and his followers will be put to the blade.  That includes you,” said Rondo.

He drew an ornate shortsword from the scabbard at his side.  It had a golden lion’s head pommel and looked as if it had barely seen any use.  He also grabbed a black dagger from a sheath on his lower back and twirled it in his offhand.  Caesar drew his greatsword as well.

Not yet, Sam thought, looking for his way out.  It was all for show because he had no way out where his opponents were standing.  He pressed his fingers against the tree at his back.

“What, you’re not going to fight back?  Caesar will be disappointed, but a kill’s a kill to me,” Rondo said as he approached.

Sam spun around the tree trunk on the slower footed Caesar’s side.  Caesar’s blade had nearly caught him, but a quick dodge had put the needed distance between him and the killers chasing him.  Sam quickly unequipped his weapons with a few thoughts to quicken his running speed.  He stayed away from the path, but soon found himself chased by more than just Rondo and Caesar.  He heard light footsteps closing in from all over.  He looked to his sides briefly and saw four masked Cutthroats chasing him, two on each side.  He looked back only briefly and saw two more masked Cutthroats approaching from behind as he slowed to let his stamina refill.

“Damn, you guys are quick!” he said, huffing.

As they closed in even closer, he sped up after recovering much of his stamina.  The forest soon darkened and up above Sam could see various armor clad revenants tied up and swaying from the trees.  He knew if he kept running that he’d be at the place he’d escaped from before, Caesar’s cabin.  None of the Cutthroats had given up their chase, but Sam couldn’t see Rondo or Caesar behind him.

“I’ll have to thin them out,” he said to himself while running uphill.  He had completely outpaced everyone by the time he got near Caesar’s cabin.  He looked back and didn’t see any of them.

“That was too easy ...” he said through ragged breaths.  “I am tired as hell though.”

He swept his eyes around the whole forest surrounding him and couldn’t find any sign of movement.  Had he really outran them that easily?  He stayed low in the forest until a loud voice called out to him.

“You there, skulking in the forest!  Come out of the shadows, why don’t you!  I don’t trust things that sneak!”  It was King Herke and he was standing near the front door of Caesar’s cabin.  Sam stepped out of the forest towards the cabin, quickly equipping his weapons and looking around to see if any danger followed him.

“Oh, it’s you, with the burning soul.  Have you come seeking to bring this killer to justice too?  This is his home.”

“Yes.  I’ve been here before.”

“That’s right.  You faced the fiend.”

“Yes, and I lost.”

Caesar didn’t even consider him strong enough to hang in his collection.

“There is nothing shameful in a loss and when death doesn’t keep you down, your opponents will find themselves in a regrettable way.  That is the only blessing to come from this curse, unlimited persistence,” the king explained smiling.  “Though seeing this sick parade of death all around us, strewn from the trees, it reminds me why it’s so important to contain the undead.  We can be truly monstrous.”

“They’re chasing me, king, both killers.”

“The forest killer and who?”

“Rondo.”

The king appeared taken aback for a brief moment.

“That Cutthroat is chasing you?  Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir.”

His shock quickly faded away, replaced by a new determination.

“Then we will turn the chase back on them.  You cannot fight two, but can you fight one?”

Sam thought about it.  He was much stronger than he was before, but could he defeat Caesar?  He wasn’t so sure.  Not only was Caesar overwhelmingly strong, but he attacked with extraordinary speed and range to as well.

“I can fight Rondo.  I’m sure of it.”

Rondo didn’t seem as unbeatable as Caesar.  If he fought with a dual wielding style, then Sam had some experience fighting against it thanks to his skirmish with Justinian89Thrills.  And Rondo wore the same armor as Sam, meaning their defensive values wouldn’t be too far apart.  He would rather deal with a speedy Cutthroat than a greatsword wielding blood knight in full plated armor.

“That won’t do.  I need to bring him to justice myself,” said the king with ice in his voice.  Sam had considered that would be the case.

“It’s the only way to fight them, king.  Otherwise, Caesar will overwhelm me.”

“Then I will fight them alone.”

Sam had also considered that he’d say that.

“Not a wise course of action, sir.  Together they will overwhelm even you.  The forest killer alone might match your strength.”

“I would be foolish not to consider your counsel, but you must understand that I need to be the one to pass sentence on Rondo.  My family’s blood is on his hands.  My wife, the young queen Mera.  My son, little prince Philoke.  Two innocents, taken by his depraved hands.”

“I hear you, king.  We, however, need to be smart about how we fight.  I’ll hold off on killing Rondo so that he may answer to you once you are done with Caesar.”

The king considered it.

“You are capable of doing this?”

I’m not sure.

“Yes, sir.”

“Then that’s how we battle, but first we have to rid ourselves of those who don’t belong.”

He reflected some moonlight from his greatsword into the forest and revealed two Cutthroats hidden nearby in the dark forest.  Others came forward, out of the dark surrounding them.  Sam counted ten in all, all now closing in on him and the king.  He quickly drew his Rapier and dropped into a fighting stance with his shield clutched in front of him.  King Herke held his enormous greatsword in front of him in one hand and when three of the Cutthroats approached him, he spun around three hundred and sixty degrees and cut through his foes with tremendous velocity and weight behind his blow.  His three attackers were killed instantly.

Sam baited two of the Cutthroats near him into attacking up close.  They each attacked with the same Dagger that he started the game with.  He held his shield up and watched the blows get deflected off of it. The two Cutthroats attacked so fast that he didn’t have much of an opening to land his own attack.

He backed up a little and skillfully parried a super quick stab from the Cutthroat in front of him.  Instead of going for an easy opening blow, Sam kicked his undead enemy to the ground.  It gave him a few precious moments to engage the other Cutthroat one-on-one.  The other Cutthroat, identical to the first, came forward with the same quick stab.  Sam had the attack scouted and parried the blow.  This time, he went for the opening blow and finished his opponent before hastily returning to the other grounded Cutthroat and finishing him with a stab through the heart, which was called a grounded opening blow.

Sam turned around and saw the rest of the Cutthroats going after the king.  He was being swarmed on all sides except his back, but one of the Cutthroats was trying to maneuver there as well.  Sam ran up to help defend the king, but had to quickly roll out of the way when he lashed out with three wide swings of his mighty greatsword.

All of the Cutthroats directly in front of the king fell to the ground dead and the ones to the side were knocked away.  There was still the problem of the one approaching from behind, however.  Sam quickly ran in a little closer and tossed a Fireball at the Cutthroat’s back.  His armor caught fire and he writhed around trying to put out the flames.  He lost a fifth of his health and his HP continued ticking down even more thanks to the burning effect.

Sam quickly followed up with a leaping thrust, light thrust, then a charged thrust which finished the Cutthroat.  With only two Cutthroats left, Sam ran at the one closest to him, on the king’s right side and engaged him.  The king turned to his left and dispatched the other one with a single one handed slash, while Sam dodged then offered a quick then heavy thrust to finish the remaining Cutthroat, whose HP had already been diminished by an earlier attack from the king.

“That’s all of them,” Sam said hungrily taking in air.

“Not quite, but it was an impressive showing.”  Sam was chilled by Rondo’s voice, especially since he couldn’t see him.  “You’ve proven that my subordinates are no much for either of you, but I already knew that.”

The darkly clad assassin stepped forward out of the dark forest with a triumphant grin plastered across his face.  His russet eyes seemed to shine with a mix of hunger and horror.  Behind himself, Sam could hear the faint clinking of armor.  He turned to see Caesar approaching from the path below.  The king’s gaze hung heavily on Rondo with an intensity that Sam couldn’t even fathom.  It was hard not to see the king as a real person when he cast such powerful emotions and had such a strong presence.  Rondo kept his eyes on Herke as well, as a deer would watch a wolf.  Rondo inclined his head ever so slightly to Sam, never breaking his staring match with the king.

“Well, you’ve done it again, fool.  You’ve played the perfect predictable little lamb leading us to our real prey.  I honestly cannot thank you enough,” said Rondo, humor in his tone.

Caesar approached then stopped a few yards from the pair.  He was on one side and Rondo the other.  Sam kept his shield up and focused on Caesar since the king was currently focusing on Rondo.

We’re going to have to trade partners, king, Sam thought.  He couldn’t say it aloud and give away the strategy.  It might’ve been the only advantage they held.

“You see, my bloodthirsty friend, I was right!  He led us right to him,” Rondo yelled to Caesar.  Caesar inclined his head in the king’s direction and seemed to be studying him.

“So that’s the Mad King of tales so old?  Is he really the same king of Aschelund, Herke the bold?  He could be a doppelganger based on appearance alone,” asked Caesar in a singsong tone.

“I have to agree, he looks just like the old fuddy duddy, at least as much as my memory serves,” said Rondo.

“I’ll know for sure by the way he wields his sword.  No one could duplicate the king of Aschelund’s strong sword style.  I live to test my mettle against the true royal style,” said Caesar, eagerness in his voice.

“Ahh, you do know your combat styles.  I’m glad to hear that you know so much about the old king here.  Hopefully you’ll find killing him satisfying.  You can even take his Quintessence.  Consider it a reward for parting his head from his body.”

There was a silence and Caesar’s posture shifted.  He stood up straight, almost rigid and placed his mailed fist against his head.

“I have no interest in killing him or taking his Quintessence.  I am looking forward to challenging him, however.”

“That’s good enough.  Just make sure to weaken him enough so that I may do the job myself.  That is satisfactory, is it not?  If you won’t take his Quintessence, then I will to rid myself of his persistent nuisance.”

“It goes the same for me.  I’ll have your Quintessence and your head, child killer, wife killer.  But it’ll be a long hard path to that point, degenerate.  I’ll kill you, repeatedly.  You’ll die and revive and die again for all of the jobs you’ve cashed in on and all of those you’ve murdered for coin.  I keep a list of your crimes on me at all times.  There was a record of your kills and I procured it.  That’s thirty deaths you must suffer.  Then I’ll kill you twice for my wife and twice for my son.  That’s thirty-four deaths.  Only once I have taken your life thirty-four times will I finally take your Quintessence and leave you to live the rest of your miserable existence as a mindless revenant.  The only suitable fate for scum like you,” explained Herke menacingly.

“Your anger is misdirected, old fool.  It was the nobles who set you and your kin up to die.  I am only the knife that they hired.  I have no more connection to your family than I do to the fool helping you.  I was told, by them, that my duty was for the good of the realm.  I also had ears of my own that had heard from those same nobles that your family was cursed.  Your first heir went mad and killed your first queen.  That was a secret, but him being cursed was a truth known to the whole kingdom.  Even as you shipped him off to these accursed lands, the whispers started that your whole brood was cursed.  And since you’re here now, it proves them right.  They protected the kingdom from your cursed bloodline.  I couldn’t care less either way as long as I had gold in hand, but that is the truth of it,” explained Rondo.

“Truth?  My wife and child were not cursed.  They did not rise up after you killed them.  Those nobles with their cowardice, should be glad to have stayed dead.  If any of them should ever find themselves here then they will face a much harsher punishment than you.  We won’t be playing games of blame.  Your dagger bleeds the blood of the innocent and you will face punishment.  Get out your sword and face your fate.”

Herke stomped towards Rondo with murderous intent.

“Caesar!” yelled Rondo.

Sam had briefly taken his eyes off of the blood knight to look back at the commotion behind him.  Caesar quickly bypassed him and made a beeline for King Herke.

“King!” Sam yelled.

“Keep him distracted, I’ll kill the upstart,” said Rondo as he darted towards Sam.

28 End of the King’s Quest

“Who the hell are you calling upstart!” Sam yelled as he readied to cross blades with Rondo.

King Herke tried to cut the villainous Cutthroat off, but was met by Caesar and his greatsword.  The king steadied his own greatsword and the pair of them clashed.  Rondo quickly closed the distance between him and Sam, looking at him with a murderous gleam in his eye.

“I’m referring to the idiot fool who’s in over his head,” hissed Rondo.

He brandished his ornate short sword in one hand and his black dagger in the other.  His attacks were swift and unrelenting.  Sam held his shield out and blocked all of the incoming attacks.  He grew anxious when he saw his stamina bar quickly winding down with each new blow.  He had to move.

He rolled away to recover some stamina, but found that Rondo was right back in his face again.  Sam lifted his shield again to block, but had lost his footing soon after.  The shock of falling down had blinded him to what caused his fall.  It had all happened so fast and Rondo quickly took advantage of Sam’s disorientation.  Rondo hit Sam with a slash as he was rising and followed up with a thrusting attack.  Sam had quickly lost half of his health along with having massive buildup to his bleedout gauge.

“Did you just kick me?” he yelled then quickly rolled away nearer to the cabin.

The king and Caesar were fighting intensely to his right, both going blow for blow and canceling out each other’s heavy slashes.  Sam listened to their swords clash and boots kick up dirt so that he had an idea of where they were compared to where he was.  His eyes were strictly on Rondo, who was proving to be a tricky opponent.

“This can’t be all you’ve got?  Let’s give you a test,” Rondo said to Sam.

When Sam moved too far out of his range, Rondo threw a knife at him.  Sam blocked it with his shield and continued to backpedal.  He was getting discouraged about the fact that he didn’t have an opening to retreat and heal.

“I think it’s time to show you my more advanced killing artes.  It’s a one time show.  Make sure to take it all in,” said Rondo.

Rondo held his hands out to the side and splayed his fingers out like a magician would do.  He then did some kind of hand flourish and produced a handful of throwing knives.  In seemingly one smooth motion, Rondo tossed a succession of three of the knives at Sam.  Sam blocked all three knives, but doing so locked him in place and drained his stamina.

As expected, Rondo approached soon after and struck Sam’s shield with his shortsword.  Sam was pushed backwards and decided to roll in that same direction.  Pain shot through his shoulder as a well-timed throwing knife tore through his flesh.  He hurriedly rolled again to dodge the other two incoming knives.

How is he doing that? he thought.

As Rondo approached, Sam charged a Fireball and tossed it.  Rondo first rolled backwards then to the side to avoid the Fireball as it collided with the ground and exploded.  It gave Sam the spacing he needed to safely drink from his Soul Fire or so he thought.

As he drank, he felt all three knives pierce his chest.  The third knife knocked him down once it hit.  Once the Soul Fire’s healing effect was done, he was left with half of his maximum HP.  His poisoned and bleeding gauges had also built up halfway, leading Sam to believe that each of the knives had a different status effect placed on them.

Sam began to shake.  Rondo hadn’t given him much room for error.  He hadn’t expected him to give him so much trouble from a range, but those knives were as powerful as any of his close range attacks.  When he finally got to his feet, he was suddenly shocked to see Rondo once again in his vicinity.

Rondo quickly stabbed him in the shoulder thanks to a poor last minute evasion of Sam’s and followed up with an upward slash with his shortsword that was first aimed at Sam’s ribs.  Sam saw the origin of that particular attack and was able to parry it.  He pushed Rondo’s sword hand aside, surprising the Cutthroat, and thrust his Rapier into his heart for the opening blow.

Rondo folded and Sam pushed him off of his blade where he then fell to the ground in a heap.  Surprisingly, Rondo still had a little over half of his HP.  Sam scoffed.  Only in a video game were you able to get stabbed in the heart then get up and dust yourself off right after.  Sam’s own heart was beating a mile a minute, after getting the desperate parry.  He used the time to heal up to max with his Soul Fire and ate a Stim Plant as well.

He briefly looked over to see Herke and Caesar still engaged in intense combat.  The king’s slash had grazed Caesar’s skull helm and chipped it.  Caesar was unperturbed and continued forward pressing the king with big overhead slashes.  King Herke blocked each blow with his sword.  Sam couldn’t help but notice a similarity in their overwhelming sword styles, though Caesar’s fighting style seemed much more vicious and reckless.  The king fought smarter and hopefully it would be enough to give him the edge against Caesar.

Sam turned his attention back to his own problematic opponent.  He felt a lot better now that his health was at full and Rondo’s was near half.  Rondo attempted to circle around Sam, but Sam stayed on him maintaining eye contact and proper spacing.  Rondo then threw his three knives.  Sam rolled to the side to avoid them this time.  He dodged the first two knives, but was stabbed and knocked down by the third which had curved to hit him.  It had some sort of tracking effect on it.

Sam frantically looked around for Rondo as he scrambled to his feet.  This time the Cutthroat wasn’t in his face.  He was at a distance, chugging from a similar silver container as the one Sam had frequently used.  When he was done, he looked at Sam and chuckled.

“This little gem here has saved my hide more times than I can count.  I pilfered it from some undead hero long ago.  It has quite the revitalizing effect.  Funny, I’ve heard it said that these things are reserved for some kind of chosen one.  Hehehe, looks like I chose myself, hehehe,” Rondo explained, unable to control his laughter.

“Seems like you’re more of a thief than anything.  It explains where you got all that stuff for your store,” Sam accused.

“I am whatever I need to be to survive.  Roles are as interchangeable as clothes and there are enough fools out there for me to live a long and prosperous life.  The role I’ll play next is that of executioner,” Rondo replied, grinning at each pause.

Rondo put his shortsword away and pulled out another dagger.  The second dagger was as brightly silver as his other blade was deeply black.  Rondo spun both of the blades around in his hands then pointed the silver one right at Sam.  This time, with his left hand he threw the three knives.

Sam was again forced to block as the blades crashed against his shield.  Rondo had closed the distance much quicker than before and broke Sam’s defenses by kicking his shield and pushing him away.  He stabbed Sam’s shoulder once and nicked the side of his neck before Sam was able to recover and block again.  One of the daggers was building up his bleedout gauge like mad.

Sam was forced to use an ability he hadn’t often used before by stabbing from behind his shield.  He stabbed Rondo twice as the Cutthroat stabbed at his shield.  Each of Rondo’s attacks with his silver dagger had done a tiny portion of damage even though it only struck Sam’s shield.  There had to be some sort of magic effect behind it.  When he looked closer he saw that the blade had sparked each time it struck the shield.

Lightning, he thought as he struck out with a heavy thrust.  The Rapier’s blade went right through Rondo, dazing him and Sam was able to follow up with charged thrust.  Rondo lost over a third of his HP from all the combined attacks Sam had inflicted.  Every one of those blows had found their mark.  Sam had lost a fourth of his health from one clean hit, a small nick, and a few blocked blows.  Rondo clearly had the DPS (damage per second) and HP advantages in this contest.

I’ll need to play smarter, he thought.

Rondo threw his three knives again.  This time Sam waited until the first knife nearly collided with his face to dodge out of the way.  He managed to avoid all three knives and was even ready to meet Rondo when he approached.  Rondo slashed out with his silver dagger once and was blocked.  Sam took the lightning damage and continued to block when Rondo tried to stab him with the black dagger.  There was a sharp clang when metal struck metal then Sam was again pushed back by the force of Rondo’s boot kicking his shield.  Rondo followed up with two clean dagger strikes that took Sam down to below a fourth of his maximum HP.

Shit, he thought as his brain scrambled to create something resembling an effective strategy.  He raised his shield and backpedaled.  All his brain kept telling him was to get the hell out of there.

Rondo advanced on him with his super quick dagger strikes.  His blows rained down so fast that Sam wasn’t able to ascertain the origin point of either strike.  He didn’t think he could parry either of Rondo’s daggers.  Sam anticipated Rondo going for the kick, so he rolled away.

He raised his shield again and struck from behind it doing very small damage, but he valued his safety more than he valued doing oodles of damage at the moment.  Sam was able to see the origin of the kicking attack and was able to avoid it when Rondo immediately attempted it when he approached.  He stabbed Rondo twice again before repeating the same tactic.

This time when Rondo approached, Sam stabbed only once then surprised his opponent with a kick of his own.  Instead of following up with an attack on his stunned opponent, Sam opted to heal to full before rejoining the fight.  He felt comfortable again now that he had the HP advantage.  It didn’t deter Rondo though.

Rondo again tossed out his knives.  Sam had the timing, so he dodged again.  When Rondo came near, Sam stabbed him twice from behind his shield again.  Instead of attacking like he usually did, Rondo appeared at Sam’s side.  It almost looked like he came out of the very shadows.  Sam had barely seen him move from behind his shield.

“How in the hel—”

Rondo stabbed Sam right in the chest.  Sam coughed, spluttering blood as he lifted his shield and deflected the second dagger.  He rolled away, nearly collapsing as he did.  Rondo’s attack wasn’t a critical strike, but it was very damaging.  Sam had lost over a third of his HP.  Sam retaliated with a throwing knife of his own.  Rondo faded into shadow and effortlessly dodged to the side of the blade.

“What the hell was that?” Sam involuntarily asked aloud.

“I am a master of my profession.  These last hundred years or so has allowed me to hone my skills to perfection.  These are true shadow skills and they are the difference between you and me, upstart.”

“Is that so?  Well Rondo, I’ll give you props on having some cool abilities, but I don’t need gimmicks to beat you.  I am Sarem the Sanguine, an oddity among Cutthroats.  You may be the master of assassins in this place, but I am a prodigy amongst my peers.  You are not in my league, lowly old man.”

Sam didn’t know what he was saying.  He only knew that it felt good to say it.  When he saw the bubbling anger in Rondo’s face, he couldn’t contain his giddiness.  He threw his head back and laughed at his opponent.  It was a poor idea, but something was causing him to simply not care.  Was it the adrenaline?

“What, did I piss you off?  I suppose a guy that hides and plays different roles would be mad at something as inconvenient as the truth.  But that’s the least of your issues buddy.  You see, I’m going to kill you and take that which you hold dear, your precious Quintessence.  A low life like you has no need for it.  It’s much better in my possession.  I might even do something special with it, like feed it to a demon or something.  I can’t think of anything else YOUR rotten Quintessence would be good for.  Good riddance, right?” Sam said while laughing.

“You impertinent bastard.  I can’t wait to see what Caesar will do to you once I give him your worthless corpse.  You better pray someone takes your Quintessence.  It won’t be me.  I’d rather watch you helplessly rot away as you lose your wits at an agonizing rate.  You’re nothing to me but a bloodstain on my sword and once I’ve killed you, you’ll be a distant memory!”

Rondo dashed at Sam and tried slashing him with his black dagger.  Sam stabbed at Rondo from behind his shield and missed when Rondo again faded away into a shadowy form and appeared at his side.  Sam rolled to the other side to avoid a close range attack, but was at a disadvantage when he recovered.  Rondo was able to stab him in his upper arm.  Before Sam could retaliate with a light blade thrust of his own.  Rondo then countered with a vicious combo.  The first two slashes cut Sam cleanly, but by rolling away he was able to avoid the spinning twin bladed lateral slashes that Rondo used to end the combo.  He thanked his lucky stars that the first two attacks hadn’t stunned him.  His evasion had left Rondo open.  Sam held his Rapier in both hands and stabbed right through him with a heavy thrust.  Rondo reeled backwards briefly stunned and Sam saw his opening.  He was on a steep enough incline that his next attack should hit all the way.  He built up the power needed for it then unleashed the Skyward Thrust on a stunned Rondo.  Rondo’s body jerked and reeled with each of the rapid thrusts and he was knocked back unto the ground by the final one, but he still wasn’t dead.

“Dammit.  You persistent asshole!  Just die already!”

Rondo had but a sliver of HP left.  Sam threw another knife at him when he got up, but Rondo managed to evade it.  Sam pressed his advantage and tried poking at him as he retreated.  Rondo’s quick knife throwing caught Sam off guard and locked him into place in a block.  He waited for all three knives to collide before moving forward again.

“Shit!” he yelled as more knives came aim towards his head.  He lifted his shield and yelled, “Rondo, you fucking spam!”

Rondo had moved a considerable distance from Sam and had his stolen Soul Fire in hand.

“Shit!  No you don’t, you cheap asshole!”

Sam quickly equipped his bow and lined up a quick shot.

“Come on, come on, come on!  Don’t miss, don’t miss, don’t miss!” Sam offered up his prayer to the gods of fortune and loosed his arrow.  He watched its trajectory and silently cheered when it found Rondo’s eye socket.  The malevolent Cutthroat fell to the ground, dropping his ill-gotten container to the ground next to him.  The ghostly Soul Fire spilled out of its container and covered the ground in a brief azure glow before fading out completely.  The silver container was left barren and began to slowly crack and wither away into dust.  Rondo began to fade away as well.

“This can’t be ... all because of ... his family ... never liked killing ... children.  Can you really ... call me evil?”

Rondo faded away completely leaving Sam with his soul mist which engulfed him and increased his soul count by five thousand.  He also left Sam with a unit of solid Quintessence and a glowing black orb had floated where he had died.  It looked like some kind of spirit.  Sam quickly went over to pick it up and gained all of the gear that Rondo had previously equipped.  He didn’t have time to read it all, because he wanted to get over to the king as soon as possible.

The king and Caesar still looked to be in a deadlock.  They were both breathing hard and looked heavily damaged.  The king’s armor was dented all over, bloodied, and sliced open in more than a few places.  Sam could now see Caesar’s pale flesh as his armor was also riddled with many more large cuts and gaping holes thanks to his reckless style of fighting.  Both combatants swung their massive swords in one hand and clashed blades.  They pushed forth in a test of strength with neither gaining an advantage.

“Your skills, they are better than my soldiers’, murderer.  I am impressed.  You can take that to your grave at least,” said King Herke.

“I am not impressed by you old man.  Is this all you can muster?” goaded Caesar.

The king took the challenge to heart and came at Caesar with overwhelming force.  He bludgeoned through Caesar’s single sword defenses with a series of brutal overhead two-handed strikes that Sam knew he himself could not block.  Caesar backed away from the king’s fury and fell to one knee.

“You sealed your fate when you associated yourself with that devil Rondo, though your deeds were enough to ensure you’d meet your end by my sword.”

Caesar lifted his sword to block as the king swung his sword downwards.  Caesar displayed a crazy level of strength when his sword block slowed the king’s finishing blow down enough so that he avoided being split in half.  The blow had only managed to split Caesar’s vulture skull helm in half.

Blood flowed down Caesar’s face from the top of his head and he looked up at the king with the same icy blue eyes and a look of pure hatred on his face.  The king looked surprised and for the first time scared.  Sam wondered if the last blow had tired him out too much and put him at a disadvantage.  He got his Rapier out and ran towards the pair.  Something was off.  For some reason the king looked completely stunned in place.  Did Caesar activate some kind of Spellcrafte with his stare?

“My boy ... you—”

Caesar pushed the king’s sword aside and knocked him backwards as he rose up to his feet.  He brought his sword down across King Herke’s left shoulder, chest, stomach, and right side.  The king’s blood spilled forth as he fell backwards to the ground and landed on his back.  His crown fell off and rolled to the side and the once mighty king looked up at Caesar, tears in his eyes, and held his hands up into the air longingly.

“My boy ... my heir ... my little king ... Caesar,” the king said as he faded away into a white mist that was absorbed by Caesar.

Sam couldn’t believe what he had just seen or what he had just heard.  The whole situation was fucked up.  Sam healed up with his Soul Fire and walked up to the madman.  Despite Caesar’s overwhelming power, Sam knew he was on his last legs thanks to the king’s valiant efforts.  All he wanted now was an explanation of what had just occurred.

“Caesar!” Sam yelled.  The bloodied blood knight didn’t even acknowledge him.  “What the hell happened here, Caesar?  What did the king mean?”

Caesar stared at the spot where Herke had fallen.  Now that Sam was this close, he saw it.  Caesar’s brow, the way his jaw was set, the blue of his eyes and the harshness in them and even his fierce expression had all strongly resembled King Herke’s.

“Regrettable.  It was all truly regrettable,” offered Caesar.  Sam didn’t know what was going through the man’s mind, but he wanted to make sure he knew what had happened before he moved on.  What surprised Sam was that Caesar honestly seemed to be grieving.

“Why were you friends with, Rondo?  If you are who I think you are then he killed you, did he not?” Sam asked.

When Caesar finally turned his attention to Sam, he looked disgusted.  Sam could suddenly feel waves of fury emanating from him.

“No!  Rondo killed my little bastard brother, Philoke and his baseborn whore of a mother,” he spat at Sam.

“So you were the one that the king shipped off to this place, makes sense.”

“I WAS THE REAL HEIR!  IT WAS I, WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE NEXT KING OF ASCHELUND, NOT HIM!” yelled Caesar who was now practically foaming at the mouth.  “I WAS CHEATED, BY THIS LUDICROUS CURSE, BY THOSE DETESTABLE NOBLES, AND BY MY PITIFUL FATHER WHOM I HAVE JUST SLAIN!”  He began laughing so hard that his whole body shook.  “Yes, I have killed that fool.  The look in his eyes when he saw me was so priceless, so worth the patience I have endured for so long in this place.  Even better was the look he had when he knew his death was approaching.  Oh the feeling of my greatsword cutting through his flesh!  There has never been a better feeling.  What gorgeous art I had created with his body, with a slash that opened him up for the maggots!  How I wish that he was here now so that I may do it again and hang him up when I am done.  His body would have been worth more than his wretched soul,” he said with a rapturous whisper.

“Ooph!” he wheezed as he looked down at the thin blade protruding out of his chest.  His blood cascaded down his armor and dripped down to the ground from his armored faulds.

“Your joy doesn’t compare to what I feel right now gutting you, you sick fuck.  Now, go rot in hell, where you belong,” Sam hissed into Caesar’s ear.  “And tell all the demons and devils that Sarem sent you.”

He kicked Caesar off of his blade and watched him writhe on the ground until he eventually faded away into a cloud of white mist that was absorbed into Sam’s digital body.  Sam’s soul count had increased by ten thousand and he was given a unit of solid Quintessence.

“Justice has been met.  In honor of the king.”  Sam bowed and picked up the floating black orb that Caesar had left behind, which contained his weapon and armor.  “Now, let’s get the hell out of this place.”

29 Special Announcements

“Way to go, Sam!” Alex cheered quietly to herself as she watched Sam finish off Caesar on her monitor.  Sam’s victory over him and Rondo and his subsequent completion of King Herke’s questline was an extremely impressive feat.  It was even more impressive that he had managed it in Survival Mode.  The other testers had largely decided to proceed forward slowly.  Most of them were still grinding souls and leveling themselves, their weapons, and their armors, but Sam was actually ready for the next area of the game.

IMMORtAL_Kalika and SwordWrenchMan had done all this before Survival Mode was active and Justinian89Thrills had completed the quest early by killing the king.  Regal Deego had yet to finish.  She was glad that she decided to stay up for the extra hour to see it.  The fatigue did finally seem to be getting to her though.  She could barely keep her eyes fully open after her latest cup of coffee.

It was strange though, there was a brief shift in Sam’s brain patterns as he watched King Herke get killed by Caesar.  There was some sort of attachment there and a real feeling of loss when the king was killed.  It wasn’t strange for players to be so immersed in the game that they get attached to characters, but the extreme spectrum of feelings that Sam was feeling was abnormal.

She saw intense rage, melancholy, vindictiveness, and joy when he vanquished Caesar.  Of course, it all made sense considering what he had dealt with in the last few hours.  He’d been betrayed and thanks to Milner, he ended up killing his best friend.  There was no way that Sam was in a stable mental state right now, and her data was screaming at her, that that was the case.  She only hoped that his mental state would stabilize soon, for his sake.

She looked around and saw Milner enter the room once again with Stephen at his side.  He had been recording himself and projecting his image into the games of all the testers, talking to them, and apparently motivating them like he had done for Sam and her other testers Jake and Dan.  The only place he could do that was in the Scan Room.  She had no clue what technological voodoo he pulled to get that thing working as smoothly as it did, but she had to admit that it was impressive.

It didn’t require any further rendering from the programmers whatsoever.  They were all focused on the shit-show that was Phase 2.  Milner wouldn’t be impressed by Sam’s results in the least.  He would be more so looking for a perfect run from Sam, meaning that the fact that Sam wasn’t able to keep King Herke alive or kill both Caesar and Rondo effortlessly would be held against him.  The man’s standards were impossible to achieve and it made her really fear for everyone involved in his test.

Milner and Stephen walked past her talking ardently.  She caught them saying something about the bodies of the testers.

“They’re already dead, but we tapped them again as a precaution.  A standard procedure,” Stephen said with a grimace on his face.

She stood up to hear them better, but continued to stare at her monitors so that she appeared less conspicuous.

“I know all about your procedure, but it’s not good enough.  I need those bodies burned,” explained Milner.

“Listen, I saw to the preparations myself.  Those rounds have been mixed and dipped to produce effects that are highly concentrated.  Believe me when I say, nothing’s getting up after we’re done with it.  Remember, my people have been doing this for a very long time.”

“Yes, centuries apparently, but you all have also had the nasty habit of putting your belief in God for as long as you’ve been active.  Blame the scientist in me, but I just don’t leave anything to divine intervention.  Now, take all those bodies that you’ve tapped and burn them.  The disposal facility is below.  Alphonse will show you.  Speak of the young devil.”

They stopped halfway up the aisle and waited for the young man coming from the doorway.  The boy looked fresh out of high school with a shock of blond hair atop his head and thick rimmed glasses on his face.  Alex couldn’t help but to stare at him as he walked by, taking note of his barely visible face freckles, light brown eyes, and of how nicely he was dressed in his grey micro check suit sans blazer.

“Alphonse, I need you to show Stephen here where the disposal facility is.”

“The incinerator, sir?” asked the young man.

“Yes, what else would I be referring to?” replied Milner with snark.

“You had a freaking incinerator installed in this building?” asked Stephen incredulously.  “I can’t imagine why you’d even think you’d need that.”

Hearing them talk made Alex more and more nauseated.  They were sick, all of them.  Especially Milner.

“It was already here.  It’s the reason I picked this particular building.”

“I see.  You really are a sick freak, you know that?” said Stephen with overt disgust in his tone.  It was the first thing he got right as far as Alex was concerned.

“I prefer to think of myself as someone who thinks ahead and plans accordingly.  Now go, both of you.  I need you to do this as quickly as possible.”

“Before I go sir, I came to tell you that no one has reported any of the testers missing as of yet.  Their vehicles and mobile devices have also been disposed of.  Everyone was shuttled over from facility A so that’s their last known location as far as GPS tracking is concerned,” said Alphonse.

“And what’s the status of that facility?” asked Milner.

“It’s set to be destroyed at your command, sir.”

Destroyed?  Just who the hell were these people?  Who was footing the bill for all this?  And why?

Wait, she thought, that’s probably the same facility they had us shuttled from as well.

The only reason they’d want to destroy anything would be to cover the whole situation up.  Friends, loved ones, and other curious minds would come looking for all of the testers and other people working on the project once that happened.

Even if he blew up that building, it was to be only a matter of time before the authorities would check this building next.  They have satellite imagery for goodness sakes!  They can stop this madman as long as we can buy some time for them to find us.

“Good, keep me updated of any reports of missing testers or staff.  You two can proceed now.”

Stephen followed behind Alphonse, grumbling as he went.  On his way out, he made a show of staring at Alex menacingly and threatened, “You better forget everything you just heard, girl.”

She gave him one cursory glance and continued to watch her monitors.

“You should listen to him, Ms. Madura.  Learning too much about our operations may prove dangerous.  You just want to continue playing your role.”

Alex took her eyes from her monitors and gave Milner a stare filled with ice.

“Maybe you guys should just have your conversations outside then so that I can’t accidently hear them.”

“I’m not concerned with you hearing me.  It’s what you do with that information that concerns me.  Remember what you signed up for and the consequences for breaking our pact,” said Milner.

Alex nodded her head, thinking of Randy, and went back to staring at her monitors.

“I do want you to hear what I say next, so pay attention please.”

She watched him go to the center of the room as one of the other armed guards with a mask joined him from the front.

“May I have your attention, please?” Milner yelled.

All of the voice chatter from around the room died down and everyone stood up and focused on him.

“We are nearing the moment when the time released second area of this alpha build is accessible to each of the testers.  We will soon be unlocking the Stone Lands, to the south of the Assassin’s Forest.  I would like you to communicate this with all of your testers, but do not tell them anything else about the area, not even its name.

“Keep in mind the penalties for revealing this information to them.  Soon after that, we’ll be allotting breaks en masse.  All of you who have worked more than fifteen hours straight will be escorted to a resting area where you will be able to sleep for as long as you need.  There is also a cafe that many of you already know about.  During your resting period, we will have other staff members take your places as consorts to the testers.”

He looked around the room at all the faces of the worried developers, including Alex’s.  She knew that there would come a time when the testers would have to move along to other areas of the game, but to do so now when many had just had their morale shattered would just ensure the deaths of a great many of them.  She didn’t think that they were ready especially with all the challenges that were presented in the Stone Lands.  She also didn’t think it was fair that their most trusted lifelines would be out resting while they were off to this new area.  Feeling suddenly hot, she stood up and raised her hand.

“Sir, when will the Stone Lands be open to the players?”

Milner looked right at her, blankly.

“Soon.”

That wasn’t at all what she needed.

“Are these breaks of ours mandatory?”

“I’m afraid they are.  All of you have already worked much longer than you should have, with this abrupt shifting to the next phase of the project.  Not only will the quality of your work drop in these situations, but so will the quality of your health.  I need fresh and alert employees for all of this to succeed.”

Damn, she thought.  Even though she really needed the rest, she really wanted to be there for her testers.  Sam, Dan, and Jacob needed her.

“I can see what you’re getting at Ms. Madura.  The next area won’t be opening for another couple of hours.  If you’re a light enough sleeper you’ll be able to come back in time to assist your testers personally.  Is that satisfactory?”

The only thing that would be satisfactory would be for Milner to end this hostage madness, but his answer was good enough for the question she asked.

“Sure, thank you,” she said unenthusiastically.

“Now, I’ll also be ready to announce a new stipulation to the game very soon.  I think many of the players will actually like this one.  However, I’ll wait until they are acclimated with the current environment before doing so.  Alright, carry on everyone,” he said as he walked towards the exit.

Alex was left to wonder what he had planned.  At this point, what would the testers actually like about the game?  Was it another contest?  Milner was as hard to predict as he was to understand.  All she could do was wait and watch and provide support to those who came to rely on her.  Hopefully her testers would accept her help when the time came, especially Sam.  As Milner walked by, one burning question came to her mind and she had to ask it.

“Milner.  I have to know, what’s all this for?  Why go to such extreme lengths for a videogame alpha test?”

Milner stopped in front of her office and stood in the doorway looking bored as he stared at her.

“Ms. Madura, I see you aren’t heeding my earlier warning, but I can appreciate a curious mind.  If you’re lucky, you’ll never know the true reasons behind this test.  I think most people are better off blissfully unaware of the dangers that surround them.”

“That may be true for most people, but I’m more interested in the truth, especially if it involves my contributions,” she told him.

“For your sake, I’ll tell you only what you need to know about this project and what our aims are.  We are simply looking to cultivate the best players in our game, by any means necessary.  Through the hard fought efforts of the testers and developers, we will accomplish that goal and that is all you need to know.  Now remember that and keep in mind that in here, too much curiosity can make you a risk.  And I won’t tolerate that.”

He turned and left the room leaving her with just as many questions as before.

30 Rest and Reflection

A giant brown oak came crashing down, followed right after by another.  Dirt, grass, and leaves were kicked up when the giant limbs descended.  Sam made sure to avoid being near those, but the female Knight down the way was not so lucky.  She was brushed to the side by the lizard beast’s leg and lost a sizable portion of her HP.  Sam did his best to aggro the creature by stabbing its right leg with fervor.  Finally, it attempted stomping down on him again.

“If she’s having trouble with this part of the fight then there’s no way she’ll survive the next part.”

Sam made sure to make eye contact with the Knight and knocked against the front of his own head with his knuckle.  The Knight couldn’t hear him, but Sam yelled anyway.

“Hellooooooo, use your head!”

The knight mouthed “sorry”, healed up, and rejoined the battle.  Sam found that fighting the Will of the Forest was even more difficult without King Herke’s assistance.  It was even worse trying to do it and help another player stay alive throughout.

His partner this time, was CrushKills, the blond, green eyed knight he had defeated before Survival Mode was active.  She had a better shield now, the same one Robert had used and was using the same Arming Sword that Robert and everyone else seemed fond of using.  It was a solid weapon for those who emphasized strength in their playstyles, unlike Sam.

She still had a long way to go, however, if she was going to survive this game.  Her reactions were pretty slow and she seemed to struggle with spacing and timing her attacks.  It was amazing that she had even come this far into the game.  Judging from the way she played, this had to be the first time she’d fought the Will of the Forest.  She was not anticipating any of its attacks, as telegraphed as they were.

Maybe she was just terrified.  Sam looked back and saw her slashing at the oaken leg of the monster with quick one handed light attacks.  She would have been better off two handing her weapon and doing heavy and charged attacks.  Sam had no way to tell her that though.  He sighed and continued attacking.

“I may be doing this girl a disservice helping her like this.  She’ll never improve at this rate.”

He left the leg he was attacking with a little over ten percent of its HP and jogged over to her.  He rolled in front of her to get her attention and when she looked at him, he took his weapon in both hands and started attacking the same leg she was and doing much more damage.  She slapped her forehead and again mouthed “sorry” to him.  She must’ve been nervous or something.  She equipped her sword in both hands and began a series of heavy slashes.

Her damage output had outstripped Sam’s own by about forty points a strike.  That could only mean that she had upgraded her weapon at Barrington’s, put a lot of points in leveling up her strength, or both.  She could’ve also found some type of ring that upped her power, but Sam wasn’t too sure about that.

Together they crushed the left front leg and moved to the one at the rear.  Sam had already weakened all of the Will’s limbs, so crushing each leg wasn’t hard.  Once they finally got it to the ground, Sam signaled for CrushKills to pull her shield out by pulling and lifting his own.  She complied and Sam ran forward to attack the snakelike body of the beast.

It took much longer to whittle the beast’s HP down since they were lacking the damage output that Sam and the king possessed together.  Sam was able to see some attacks that he hadn’t seen the last time including a belly flop that nearly crushed and killed CrushKills.

If there had to be one thing Ms. CrushKills was good at, it had to be blocking.  Her timing with blocking was actually on par with Sam’s own, and her tower shield had made it even easier for her.  She knew when to reserve her stamina and her dodging had improved a little since the beginning of the fight.  Now that the battle was winding down, all of it was put to the test.

Much to Sam’s chagrin, the Will was much more interested in attacking CrushKills than it was him.  Since he was the one that was summoned, CrushKills would have more to lose by dying here.  He took advantage by getting in a ton of damage with heavy attacks and several Skyward Thrusts.

Once the Will’s HP was down to critical levels, it wrapped its body around CrushKills and initiated the same attack sequence that it had trapped Sam in before.  Sam was struck outside the ouroburos that was its body.  He quickly equipped his bow and took several shots at the creature’s plant looking head, with only a few of his arrows landing.  It was enough to stop that particular head from attacking and all CrushKills had to do was block or dodge the lizard-like head.

He could see her health bar through the Will’s massive body and it hadn’t decrease yet, so she was at least doing well with her blocking.  His arrows weren’t doing much damage, so he would need her to actually start damaging the creature if they were going to win this anytime soon.  He saw the lizard head go down for a really fast attack and saw CrushKills health go down by a small margin.  The entire red health bar was moving forward though, so she didn’t seem to be knocked back.  Maybe it had only clipped her.  His questions were answered seconds later when she unloaded some nice damage and finally finished the creature a minute later.

“Nice!  We got ‘em.”

Great Beast Slain

Sam got five thousand souls for his efforts, half of what he got for defeating the creature before on his own.  He also got a second Otherworldly Token of Appreciation since it was his second time helping someone complete the boss fight.

Returning To Your Own Plane

CrushKills did a little curtsy and Sam gave a victorious bow before he was transported back outside the boss gate in his own plane.  Here, the Will of the Forest was already defeated and there was nothing ahead but an empty boss area.  Sam whipped out his Charity Scriber, signed his initials unto the ground in glowing gold letters, and waited to be summoned by another needy player.  He breathed deeply and thought of the battle ahead.

“Just one more before I go back.  I need the training and souls anyway.”

******

Sam returned to Sedwin and Barrington after helping another player with the Will of the Forest.  He hadn’t spent any of the souls he had recently gained yet, so he was sitting on a hefty stack of them.  Now was the time to prepare, because he would be leaving soon for a new area.  Alex had vaguely told him that the area south of Caesar’s cabin would be opening up soon.  He knew nothing of what to expect, so he opted to upgrade himself and his weapons as much as possible.

“Maybe a poison weapon will be good there,” he thought out loud as he read over the stats of his Dagger.

He wanted to do something special with it since he also had both of Rondo’s daggers.  Both blades were Silenced along with the greatsword he had gotten from Caesar.  Sam had read up on what the Silence effect entailed, but Sedwin had explained the rest.  The bear had told Sam that weapons procured from any strong willed warriors he killed would Silence themselves once the Quintessence was taken from their masters.  That meant that the weapons would be unusable until Awakened by a skillful blacksmith.  Barrington was such a Blacksmith, but his rates for his Awakening services were not even close to reasonable.

“Silenced weapons need to consume an abundance of souls before they can be Awakened,” Sedwin had explained after Sam had yelled at his smith master.

Sam returned to Barrington’s camp and was amused that the smith was apparently still upset with him for yelling about his prices.  He avoided acknowledging that Sam had even walked into his camp.  When Sam walked up to him, he continued his feigned obliviousness.  Sam couldn’t help, but have a laugh at the realism or the sulky blacksmith’s attitude.  He had known people to act this same way in the real world.  All the same, he was all business when it came to talking to the smith.  He had too much ahead of him to take this transaction lightly.

“Mr. Barrington, I have a request,” Sam said.

“What is it, boy?” the smith asked with more gloom than usual.

“I need you to imbue my Dagger here with poison.”

“Do you have the necessary materials?”

“I believe so.  I have five Blightstone Pieces in my inventory and have absorbed a sizable amount of souls into my Dagger from before.”

“Remember, you need to strengthen your Dagger with enough souls before I can reforge it with these blightstones.  These five should be enough to permanently imbue your weapon with a light poisonous effect.  You’ll need more stones after that to increase the affect or more mithril to increase the pure strength of the weapon.  It’s your call.”

Interesting, very interesting, Sam thought.  The weapon crafting in this game offered more flexibility than the previous Death Planes games.

“I’d like to use all the souls in the weapon to increase its power.”

Sam presented his plain Dagger to Barrington and he laid it on his anvil.  The smith then sprinkled some kind of salt unto the Dagger and rubbed it into the sides of the blade.  It began to glow and emit a faint pulse that Sam could feel, like a heartbeat.

“Your Dagger has been strengthened, but it is not enough.”

Sam looked at the blade’s stats as it sat on Barrington’s anvil and saw that it was only at level eight.

“Dammit!” He couldn’t help but to yell.  He didn’t feel he had the time to grind the souls he needed.  He wanted to hurry along to the next area.

“I see that you’re frustrated.  Good!  Now you can feel the grief that you cause me,” said the smith.

Sam was amused by Barrington’s rant, but he dared not show it.

“Unfortunately forging your weapons brings me more joy than you bring grief, so I feel I must help you out.  As to your current dilemma, you can use the souls you’ve collected to increase the power of your weapon.  It will cost a little more to do so, but you currently seem to have a nice abundance.”

Barrington smiled behind his thick beard.  The way he smiled had unsettled Sam.

“Okay, just use enough to get my Dagger to level ten.”

The blacksmith did so, this time wrapping the blade in a white cloth.  The smith instructed Sam to put his hands on the cloth and when Sam had done so, he felt the souls being drained right out of him.  The act the left him breathless for a moment until the smith had urged him to pull away.  The cost to level-up this way seemed to be double what it was for souls already on the weapon.

“Good ... good,” the smith said while he examined the Dagger.  “Now, we shall reforge this weapon with the blightstone, correct?”

Sam nodded his head and watched the smith go to work.  He hammered away and in an instant Sam’s level ten Dagger had increased to a level fifteen Blighted Dagger.  The stats increased very little compared to his other weapons, but Sam guessed that was to balance the damage it did with criticals.  The poison slider had increased by ten to match the bleedout slider.

Blighted Dagger +15

Knife

A small blade, typically reserved as a last resort on the battlefield.  For most, it is a useless weapon, but a few know human vital points quite well and look for the perfect moment to strike.

ATK  70

Weapon Damage  25

S ATK  F = 0

D ATK  B = 45

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  10

B RAT  10

Weight: 1 lb

S Abs: 0

He counted the souls he had in his possession and decided to take a little risk.  Instead of leveling up like he planned, he asked Barrington to fulfill another request.

“Can you Awaken this weapon here?”

The weapon had merely said Silenced Dagger, for its name but its design was unique.  It was the black dagger that Rondo had used.  It had a black blade and black grip.  Sam placed it on Barrington’s anvil and Barrington grinned greedily as he inspected the blade’s craftsmanship.

“This one was beautifully made.  Quite a shame that it’s Silenced.  I feel duty bound to Awaken this masterpiece, for the right price.”

“I know, I know.  Souls, souls, and more souls.  Go ahead and awaken it, please.”

“I can sympathize with your impatience, but this one must be done correctly, which means I must take my time.  It also requires more than simple souls.  Items like these require pure Quintessence.”

“Quintessence?  Well you’re just lucky that I’m swimming in it, now aren’t you?”

Sam was currently holding twenty-four loose units of Quintessence thanks to all his farming and Encroaching.  He didn’t mind losing one for the sake of gaining a new weapon.  He offered the Quintessence and watched Barrington do his thing.  The smith rubbed a red salt down unto the blade this time, then covered it with a blood soaked cloth.  He had Sam place his hand down onto the cloth and Sam felt the same draining feeling as before, only this time it was more intense.  Once it was done, Sam felt a wicked pulse come from the weapon and he knew it was now fully Awakened.

“Yes, yes, this one feels different from the last one, does it not?  Weapons that were Silenced tend to be less complicit than those you’ve Awakened from giving your own life force to.  They are further matured and more limited in their growth, but if you’re skilled enough, they may yet bend to your will.”

Sam read over the stats of the formerly Silenced weapon.

Black Blood Rondel

Knife

A vicious blade used by the highest level of twilight assassins, the masters.  The masters of the assassin Orders tend to take contracts seldom, but the contracts they do get tend to be the most arduous and as a result are the most lucrative contracts.  The Black Blood Rondel is preferred by the masters for its concealable nature and for how smoothly it slices through flesh.

ATK  120

Weapon Damage  75

S ATK  F = 0

D ATK  B = 45

M ATK  F = 0

B ATK  F = 0

F RAT  0

L RAT  0

D RAT  0

P RAT  0

B RAT  50

Weight: 1.5 lbs

Its bleedout rating was very high.  The way Sam understood it, a fifty point rating meant that half the damage done by the blade would measure directly against an opponent’s bleedout resistance.  Bleedout resistance was so far, very rare, so Sam figured it would be a very useful effect early on.  Bleedout was a nifty status ailment, because it drained stamina along with HP.

Compared to his base Dagger, the Black Blood Rondel had an obscene amount of attack power.  It was even superior to his upgraded Blighted Dagger.  It was even stronger than his un-upgraded Rapier was.  He wondered if it had a similar critical multiplier as his other two blades.  He’d have to test it later, but he felt that he had a decent enough start for what was to come.  More weapons meant more offensive options and more ways to take down diverse foes.

He wished that he had another sword that scaled (powered up) properly with dexterity, but he felt confident that his new and improved Daggers would be useful for what was to come, whatever it was.

“Thanks Barrington.”

The smith grunted and went back to his other tasks.  Sam wondered what the silver dagger was capable of, but the five thousand souls he’d need to Awaken it seemed like they would be better used in other ways.

Sam walked over to the Soul Beacon and used what remained of his souls to level-up a few times.  He was able to increase his speed five times, which put him at soul intensity forty-two.  Once he was done with that, his soul count dwindled pitifully.  He refilled his arrows with Barrington and leveled his other weapons with the souls that they absorbed.  Both his bow and sword went up by five levels, to Flexile Wooden Bow level twenty-five and Rapier level thirty-three respectively.

He then absentmindedly picked through his inventory, glancing over each of the items descriptions.  His thoughts were really on what was next.  Alex hadn’t told him anything about the next area, nor did he inquire any more than what she told him.  He only knew that he was going south, to the supposed entrance of the forest.  He preferred learning the area on his own.  There was less of a chance he would be betrayed by whatever false information that Alex and Milner might give him.

As he stared into the fire, a shiver came over him and spread throughout his body in a wave.  He looked down at his sword hand and noticed that it was shaking.  He took hold of it to quell the outburst, but it just wouldn’t stop.  He whispered harsh commands to his body in frustration.

“Stop!  Stop this, right now!”

There was nothing he could do about it.  The fear he had been suppressing, crept up on him all at once.  It was overwhelming and sadly, it was debilitating.  Sam cursed himself for not facing it sooner.  He had overlooked just how scared he really was.  He hadn’t considered the entirety of what he stood to lose from death, until now.

“If you can’t control your fucking body, Nagai then what makes you think you’ll survive this nightmare game?” he berated himself.  “Think about it dumbass.  If this forest was the first level then whatever else is out there gets a lot more difficult.  Can’t wimp out now.  We need to be at the top of our game.  We need to win.”

He laughed at his third person self-motivating absurdity, and the act of laughter seemed to lessen his tremors.  Then he repeated the gaming handles of those he had inadvertently killed during his encroachments.

“HolyVermillion.  3Angelo.  Infamous Sampson.  Call of Carl.  John Washington.  Xpansion Pak.  Dick Rumsfeld.  Spearwife.  Roburn.”

Saying the names aloud helped him focus and ground himself.  Recalling his hand in their deaths and how trivially Milner deigned to sacrifice their lives brought forth an intense fury inside of him and that fury brought strength.  Sam knew that he needed all that if he was going to survive and that’s just what he planned to do.  Moments later, he received a call from Alex.

“Sam, I’m going be radio silent for a while, in order to get some much needed sleep.  I’ve been allowed to tell you about this and to tell you that you’ll still have some support from other staff members should you need it.  You’ll probably get a programmer or something like that helping you out.”

“How much time has passed since we started?” he asked.

“You can tell how many hours passed by looking at your in-game hours played.  You started the game at four PM yesterday and now it’s going on noon,” she explained, giving more info than Sam expected.

“How long have you been working?”

“Almost twenty-six hours.  I’m about ready to pass out any minute.”

“Alex.”

“Yes, Sam.”

“I have no way of knowing that I can trust you and I can’t risk it either if I want to stay alive.”

“I know, Sam.  I’ll just say again, that my only goal is to help you and the others survive this.”

“I understand that and I just want you to know how I feel.  Good communication, remember?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Even though I feel that whatever trust we had has been shattered, I still want to thank you, for what you’ve done for me so far.  It means something to me, that you had my back earlier, especially with all you said about the Quintessence.  I know, knowing about that and human form was vital.  Before you go, I just want to say thank you ... for that.”

“Of course, Sam.  I never—” her voice cracked and Sam could hear her break down into sniffles and heavy sobbing before silencing her mic.

She came back, a handful of seconds later, a little more composed.

“I never stopped having your back Sam, never.  And I always will.”  She sobbed again.  “We’re in this together, no matter what.”

“Okay, it’s fine.  Go ahead and rest.  I’ll ... I’ll be here, preparing for what’s next,” he told her.

“Okay, Sam.  Don’t do anything reckless while I’m gone, okay?  I won’t be gone for very long.”

“Mm-hm,” he answered back, trying to sound disinterested.  He wanted to maintain his distance, but the truth of it was that Alex had given him the faintest impression of hope.  She was suffering too, from this madman’s out of control machinations.  Maybe if they could discreetly work together, they could find some way out of this mess other than whatever Milner had planned.  He would be on the lookout for such opportunities, so that he could keep the promises he made to Ru and to live the life that he and his dad wanted him to live.

About the Author

Belart Wright here, resident gamer and indie author.  I reside in the city of Detroit, MI where I try to write books on a daily basis and not get too distracted.

My current games lists includes Dark Souls 3, Dragon’s Crown, and Borderlands Pre-Sequel.  You can usually find what I’m currently reading on my blog.  D. Wolfin’s End Online #1 was pretty good.  I read that as I waited for the edits for HG.  It was highly imaginative.  I don’t get a lot of time to play or read much from my lists since I’m always in front of my laptop writing or editing or doing whatever else needs to be done for my books.

Support Me

Thanks for reading Hell’s Glitch: Into a Dark Adventure!  I’m currently hard at work on the sequel to this book.  I wish to have it out soon with all the bells and whistles that a book like this deserves.  If you would care to support my efforts please visit my Patreon page at
https://www.patreon.com/Belart?ty=h

Other Books By Me

Story of K: An Infinite Golden Light – A short story about conquering brothers, serving their lord father who—as it happens—is a planet.  The story chronicles a massive space battle between the brothers and a rogue member of their strange race.

Liandra and the Dream Reader – A short prequel story to Average Joe and the Extraordinaires about a young girl who experiences terrifying nightmares that threaten her health and sanity.  The girl and her parents must turn to methods that are anything but ordinary in their desperate efforts to cure an affliction that is frighteningly abnormal.

Average Joe and the Extraordinaires – An action and adventure novel about a normal teenage boy and his newfound magnetic pull for everything extraordinary.  Join Joe as he tries to survive extraordinary circumstances and clear his name after being accused of terrorizing his favorite team’s sports stadium.

Special Note

Hello readers!  I hoped you liked Hell’s Glitch #1.  Depending on how the release of this book goes, you should have many more books in the series soon enough.

I just wanted to take this time to address a few things.  Hell’s Glitch proudly wears its inspirations on its sleeve.  If you read through a sizable portion of the book, you can easily identify what those inspirations are.  My intent isn’t to rip anyone off, or steal in any way, but to pay homage to something I really like and that greatly inspired me.  I just wanted to make this inspired project and make it for you guys and for myself.  I know how hungry this audience is for new books.  I’d like to hopefully continue forward and write many more stories for you all for many upcoming years.

As I said before, Hell’s Glitch wears its inspirations on its sleeve, so I’d like to take the time to thank those that inspired the creation of this book.  Thank you Hidetaka Miyazaki, From Software, CyberConnect2, Reki Kawahara, abec, Capcom, and Kentaro Miura.