Chapter Ten
Once Bug was ready, I rushed to the fallen officers before they decayed, unwilling to lose the trophies I was due. They dropped some cool armor plates, greaves and pauldrons—no extra characteristics, but with decent defense parameters up to level 20. Good tank gear. It had to cost something even if I just took it to some store or other. The Priest made my day: he dropped the first quest key with a complex multitoothed barb and a digital rune. Wonder if it was the Dwarves' work? It didn't look like something made by hyena men. Their paws weren't up to it. Overall, the Priest proved a walking stash. Eight silver pieces, a red bracelet, a Soul Stone, the key and an interesting belt decorated with plates:
Steel Gratitude Belt
Item Class: Rare
Durability: 55/65
Weight: 5 lbs.
Effect 1: +16 to Armor, +5 to Strength
Effect 2: When healing allies, may give a 5% chance of doubling the spell power without additional mana expenditure.
I had a funny feeling I knew who'd be happy to wear it. Looked like Taali had been wrong and paladin-type loot could drop off Priests and not just Shamans. As for the King, he was as Dark as they made 'em.
I sloshed across the pools of blood toward the remaining monster. Let's see. A gold piece and a half. A bracelet. Another key—the rune was different this time. And most interestingly, a heavy forged breastplate.
Gnoll King's Breastplate
Item class: Rare
Effect 1: +30 to Armor, +5 to Intellect, +1 to Strength, +1 to Constitution.
Effect 2: The raised creature has a 30% chance of keeping one of its special skills.
Class restrictions: Only Death Knight
So that's why the place wasn't crowded. Apparently, the dungeon boss only dropped Death Knight stuff. Which was of no good here in the Lands of Light. Had the dungeon belonged to the opposite faction, it would have been packed solid. I'd have to store my loot in the bank until I had a chance to come across some Dark vendors. Provided they didn't smoke me on the spot.
The bear bellowed. I jumped up and looked at the throne. There, respawning was in full swing. With a hoarse growl, the two officers reappeared first, followed by the Priest. The pet had no qualms about repaying his second chance at life. The brief fight was followed by a ringing silence as we waited, wary, for the King to reappear. One minute, two, three. That was funny. He should have respawned by now.
I quickly crossed the room and frisked the bodies, stumbling under the weight of an officer's double sword. The priest didn't let me down. He respawned with full pockets: some cash, a bracelet, a key and a crudely made ring with a simple +15 to life effect. Still no King. I just presumed that bosses couldn't respawn as often as regular mobs. Very well. We could wait till next round. If he still hadn't turned up, we'd have to pull some guards from the hall's farthest corner.
Staggering under my overflowing bag, I walked to the archway where I'd left the stealthed Bug. I tapped a finger on the wall,
"Knock, knock, open up!"
I could hear some heavy wheezing, swearing and the sound of metal clanging against metal. "Are you making yourself a nest? Come on now, off with your stealth and on with your trading mode. I've got some stuff to give you."
Finally, Bug came into view, all ruffled, poking the wall with his lockpicks.
"What have you got in there? A peep show? Why did you make that hole in the wall?"
"This ain't no hole. That's a lock in the door. A secret door!"
"No way!" I crouched and peered into the dark.
It was a lock all right. The whole niche, concealed within the archway, was actually a door.
"How cool is that? You think you can open it?"
Bug gave a tired shrug. "Who knows. It looks like some special kind of lock. I think I'll alt-tub now to a closed clan forum I know. I'll do a bit of search there about this little door and how to open it."
"So you're not in FIVR, then? Are you in 3D?"
"Exactly. Already since morning. I've maxed out the time limit."
"I see. What's that forum you're talking about? How did you get access? You don't belong to a clan, do you? Or do you have another character?"
Bug winced, apparently not too forthcoming. "They're tough. No, I don't have another char. I only have this one. As for the access… I did tell you I wanted to be a super spy, didn't I? Well, that's how I got the access."
He gave me a wink and sent me a sales invitation. I dumped all the regular steel into an opened window.
"Think you could change some copper for gold?" I asked. "You're not going anywhere, anyway. And I honestly can't stand straight any more."
"Be my guest," he mumbled, his attention focused on something else.
I added seven thousand copper and peered at Bug's frozen absent stare. I tapped a finger on his forehead. "Anybody home? You owe me seven gold. Go ahead, shoot it. And take the stuff, quickly, before the mobs respawn."
Things were falling into a pattern. We kept killing gnolls, to mixed results. Some spawns brought no trophies at all, just a couple bracelets and a piece of armor. Once the fight was over, I collected another helping of stuff and passed it over to Bug who regaled me with the latest four-letter news about the game developers and their doors and locks. I'd grin, crawl back onto the throne and lower my lids to meditate. I was exhausted.
The King reappeared only after an hour. The timing was really bad. I had just turned my attention to the Priest when the dungeon boss arrived with two guards in tow. Not good, considering my fear reflexes had somewhat atrophied while I'd been ordering my pet around from the comfort of the throne, only raising my backside to cast a sluggish spell. Now I had to face the boss himself.
I tumbled to the ground, harvesting a couple of hits from the guards. Then I jumped to my feet and backed up casting Deadman's Hand, trying to bring the aggros under my control. Finally, one of them froze. Teddy had finished with the Priest and turned to the King. Make it quick, boy. My Life flashed orange by the time I managed to restrain one of the guards. Even though I'd have loved to restore whatever hits I had left, I had to switch target to the first mob and freeze him again. Stay where you are, you son of a bitch.
I kept switching from one target to the next, deterring the gnolls while the bear finished the King off and joined in the fun. The rest was history.
Whew. That was close. But I had something to show for it: a mountain of corpses and my almost-level 27. Among the more interesting loot I counted a couple of keys and some good greaves dropped from the King.
Gnoll King's Greaves
Item class: Rare
Effect 1: +22 to Armor, +50 to Life, +3 to Strength, +3 to Constitution
Effect 2: Increases the chances of dropping Soul Stones 6%.
Class restrictions: Only Death Knight
Excellent.
Then I heard a happy yell from inside the niche. "Got it!"
Something clinked. A stealthless Bug pushed the secret door open with a flourish. That's my boy. I thought he wouldn't make it.
The new room was dark, the only feeble light coming from a glowing pictogram on the stone floor.
I peeked inside but didn't discover anything worth our interest, apart from the crimson reflections licking the walls and ceiling. "What's that, the gates of hell?"
Bug took it personally. "What hell are you talking about, boss? This is a portal. It'll take you right up to the first floor into the room closest to the entrance. You can go visit your Elfa girlfriend if you wish. When I went past her, she was still busy slaughtering gnolls by the dozen."
"Yeah, right," I chuckled. "And spend another hour and a half getting back down here. It's cool, anyway. How did you manage to open it?"
Bug hesitated. "Er, this clan portal, they have a cool piece of software, a lockpick tutorial. So I fiddled with it for a bit. They actually say it takes on average three hours to work it out."
"Dude, you're awesome."
I slapped his shoulder and climbed the thron
e which already felt like part of me. We had another hour to wait for the King to respawn so we could just as well make ourselves comfortable.
Time kept going. After a few more fights, I collected a full set of keys and got to level 29. I received another Achievement, for staying alive for twenty subsequent levels, and Fame Level 2: "People know your name". But this kind of fame came with strings attached. On one hand, this was virtual reality where aggro mobs only understood brute strength. But on the other, I was no TV star and didn't enjoy the audience's attention. Never mind. Plenty of time to look into what they'd said.
It was time for the King to respawn again. Seeing that Bug didn't look particularly happy, I sent him an invitation to join the group.
"Come on, click Yes. I'll take you on for this round. You can do with some leveling up."
Judging by his eager acceptance, he had to be sitting bolt upright by his computer staring at the XP bar and anticipating an experience downpour. And we got cooking.
The mobs' next respawn went without a glitch. I was finishing off the King when Taali's message dropped into my inbox.
U there? Help!!!!!
Oh. Awful timing. I glanced around, made sure I was safe and typed away,
Whassup? Where are u?
A long pause was followed by a brief answer,
3PK at gnolls level 1.
The bear killed the King. I stuffed the loot into the bag as fast I could and turned to Bug. "Gotta dash. There's an Elfa I know being killed by some PKs. You just keep going as we planned. I'll keep you posted. If push comes to shove, remove stealth and go straight to the cemetery. See you in town. OK?"
"No problem," Bug raised a clenched fist. "Make 'em eat dirt."
I nodded and walked past him through the portal. The last thing I heard was Bug's indignant squeak when the bear squeezed itself past him into the archway.
For a second, I lost all sight and orientation. Then we found ourselves in the purple-moss room. Two level-11 gnoll warriors lunged at us, growling. Barely a mouthful for my Teddy.
I squinted at the map trying to work out the exit location. I made two hurried steps toward the archway and examined the corridor behind it. Three caster Elves stood with their backs to me. In front of them rotated a translucent spawn sphere. Then it stopped and jingled down in a cascade of broken fragments. Taali stood in its place, surrounded by a couple dozen of her little graves. She was having a hard time of it.
The Elves loved it. One of them quickly paralyzed the girl while the two others began hurling fireballs as her body jerked with electric charges. That hurt a lot. Bastards.
"Hummungus—attack!"
The Elves jumped, squeaking with surprise. They had a point: the first thing they saw was the bulk of a bear charging at them. Teddy hadn't had enough regen time after his last King job, therefore he looked slightly out of shape, read: spine-tinglingly scary. His torn bloodied hide was covered in burns and stabbed wounds. Forcing his large body through the corridor, Teddy looked a bit like a subway train speeding down a tunnel.
Bang! A heavy paw slapped one of the scumbags. Either with surprise or in pain, he slumped to the floor. The remaining two backed away while the bear finished off the unlucky one in a few saucy smacks. Level 20. For Taali it was way too much to handle; for Teddy, a minor distraction.
You have killed a player of the Faction of Light!
You relationship with the Dark Alliance has improved!
You have 1 point on your PK counter! In case of your death at the hands of another player, you have 1% chance of dropping an item.
You have fewer PK points than the killed player (1
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