“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 r
espect? 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.