“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, A
lex, 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 y
ou 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.