New Story -- Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Thaden still had his Minor Repulsion Field active from when he was still in the town of Ashcleft, and he was prepared for the beasts that would likely attack him outside. He was expecting the same ones he had seen before when he had walked to town from the Vogmite Tunnels, such as the Wheat Rats, Venomous Snakes, and Grass Wolves…

…and while he saw them out in the fields and in the knee-high grass a little further away from town, none of them attacked him. In fact, they didn’t even seem to acknowledge his passage over the road, completely at odds from what he’d experienced before, where they had all flocked to him as if he was a walking steak and they were packs of ravenous monsters.

Then he remembered that he was now Level 17, and when he looked at their descriptions above their head, they were a lighter white, almost greyish color. Based on games he’d played in the past, he could only assume that meant they were no challenge to him anymore, and therefore wouldn’t attack unless he specifically messed with them. He also figured that they wouldn’t give him any more PICK when he killed them, as they were such a lower Level than he was.

More and more, this world seemed like it operated on the same principles he was at least semi-familiar with in video game RPGs, to the point where it was almost uncanny. He knew how it worked in games, as the programmers could simply write code that changed the behavior of monsters so that they didn’t attack anyone much higher Level than them, but how did something like that come about in a world like this? Was the Assimilation System essentially one huge computer? Or was it some god-like programmer that instituted his code on the very nature of reality?

Obviously, his walk toward his destination was so boring that he had time to contemplate the meaning of reality and the universe. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have any more answers or revelations that came from his random thoughts on the subjects, so all it ended up doing was pass the time while the dirt road reached a fork. One fork led to the south, which was essentially away from the mountains where the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon was located, while the other was headed slightly northeast; the one leading south, and to another town called Hewndar, was in much better shape, while the one that he needed to take was much rougher – it was more an overgrown track than a road from what he could see.

Now that he was getting closer to his Quest location, Thaden checked over his Access Slots and made sure they were set up exactly how he wanted them.

Available Spells: (You currently have 0/5 Access Slots available)

Weak Regeneration (Single Cast) – 1 Access Slot *

Weak Cure Physical Affliction (Single Cast) – 1 Access Slot

Weak Absorption Field (Channeled) – 1 Access Slot *

Weak Health Reduction (Single Cast) – 1 Access Slot

Weak Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast) – 1 Access Slot

Weak Mass Healing (Single Cast) – 1 Access Slot *

Weak Resurrection (Single Cast) – 2 Access Slots

Minor Healing (Channeled) – 1 Access Slot *

Minor Repulsion Field (Channeled) – 1 Access Slot *

Thaden only had five Access Slots available, but fortunately all of his spells – except one – only took a single Access Slot. Weak Resurrection was the only spell he possessed that required two Slots, but that was something that he could switch up if it was ever needed, as it hopefully wouldn’t be something that he would use all the time. As for what he actually stuck into his Access Slots, the three he had started with were still there (with his Healing and Repulsion Field with an upgrade), but he also added in Weak Mass Healing and Weak Absorption Field.

Until he knew what he was up against, especially while traveling alone, he wanted to be able to protect himself and heal any inadvertent damage that was done to him along the way, and his selections reflected this. He was tempted to take out Weak Regeneration and replace it with one or the other Cure Affliction spells, but without knowing what he might be facing as far as afflictions, he felt it was better to keep it in. He hadn’t ever switched out spells in the middle of combat before, as he never had enough to need to do something like that, but he intuitively knew that he would be able to easily enough; he had a feeling that if one of the spells he was switching in had a cooldown, however, then it would start as soon as he slotted it in. Therefore, if someone died and he needed Weak Resurrection during a fight, it would be better if he waited until all the monsters were dead before adding it into two Access Slots, as it wouldn’t automatically start with a cooldown.

He wondered where that information came from, as it wasn’t anything he’d learned from anyone or from anywhere; it was just sort of there when he was looking at his spells and his Access Slots. Wherever it came from, he just hoped that the same sort of intuitive information worked for some of the other confusing systems he had to deal with in this new world – because other than his Access Slots, nothing else had seemed to help him out automatically.

Or maybe he retained more of the ways MMORPGs worked back on Earth than he thought he remembered, because this whole thing with the Slots was certainly a familiar mechanic.

Regardless, after ensuring that he was prepared, Thaden took the fork in the road and quickly progressed through the grassland that encompassed the entire area. After about 30 minutes, however, he could see the land start to change, shifting from vibrant green and yellow grass to almost all yellow, as the grass seemed to be dying off and was struggling to stay alive. Before too long, large clumps of dying grass were gone altogether, as barren ground was seen where it had once been. In another mile or so, the grass was gone altogether, only to be replaced by skeletal trees that seemed like they were once part of the Wandering Forest to the north but had died off at some point, like an arboreal plague had swept through the area, killing everything in its path.

Speaking of a path, the road he was following had nearly disappeared by the time he entered the dead trees, and he hesitated slightly before stepping into the creepy-looking forest. Fortunately, he wasn’t afraid of getting too lost because he could still tell where the “pull” was taking him, and he simply kept walking in that direction – albeit much slower than before, because he wasn’t exactly sure what he would find in there, and he was actively looking for any other members of the Coalition that might be heading there to complete the Quest.

With his speed reduced to less than a walk as he felt slightly claustrophobic with the dead trees surrounding him, Thaden concentrated on his hearing, using it to warn him of any dangers that might creep up on him. For another hour, his anxiety and paranoia ramped up as he didn’t hear anything but his own footsteps; the forest of trees was well and truly dead. There was no sign of any Undead or any other monsters he thought might be lurking around the area, even lower-Leveled ones that would likely leave him alone. It was eerie, especially as the sun rose higher in the sky, and yet the dead forest never truly brightened fully, as if it was permanently dusk. As he began to wonder why this was, he noticed that the further he progressed toward his destination, the harder it became to see.

It wasn’t becoming darker, however; instead, the area between the trees started to fill with fog, like some sort of low-budget horror film depicting a graveyard scene before zombies started emerging from their graves. The images the fog inspired didn’t exactly fill him with confidence – and yet he continued to make his way carefully through the trees. This is idiotic. You’re going to get yourself killed by something you can’t even see.

Still, he was confident enough in his Field spell that he didn’t turn around and flee as soon as the environment looked like he was walking through a thick cloud. Whether it was stupidity or overconfidence, he didn’t really care, but he could feel himself getting closer to where he needed to be.

It turned out that even though he was straining his ears listening for any type of sound other than his own nervous breathing, any noise he heard wouldn’t have helped him much; the fog made sounds seem to come from all directions, which was what made him freeze in fear when he heard the moans of the Undead coming from seemingly everywhere at once. It reminded him a little of the zombie movies he’d watched back on Earth, with long, pained moans that sounded like a foghorn, but there were also high-pitched screeches accompanied by strange clicking sounds that – for some reason – freaked him out more than anything else.

As he stood in place and listened to the sounds of the Undead, he eventually pinpointed that all of it was coming from ahead of him somewhere, instead of surrounding him like he had first thought. Alright, so I’m here. Now, to find a party to join—

As if his thought had summoned them, Thaden heard the sounds of voices coming from somewhere off to his right, and as soon as he turned his head toward where he thought it was, he was blasted off his feet by a heavy gust of wind. As he flew sideways, his shoulder hit one of the dead trees, but instead of causing severe damage to his body, his Minor Repulsion Field treated the presence of the tree as an attack, likely as a result of the abnormal gust of wind that came out of nowhere. As a result, the trunk of the tree cracked and was pushed ahead of him as he continued to fly through the air, eventually hitting the ground, though he was cushioned by his Field a few times as he tumbled with flailing limbs. As he finally came to a stop, the active ability of the Minor Repulsion Field deactivated, dropping him to the dead dirt underneath him, and he groaned in pain.

Not from any impact due to his flight, but from the powerful impact imparted by the gust of wind. He immediately knew that it was magical in nature, which was why it wasn’t blocked by his physical protection Field; at the same time, it was also considered an attack, which prevented the physical aftereffects of his flight from damaging him. He thought that was fortunate, because he was fairly certain he would’ve been horrendously hurt by slamming into the tree with such force.

Looking at his Character Report, he saw that he had only lost 3 Health, and one of his lost Health had already been healed by his Weak Regeneration. He debated using another spell to heal himself the rest of the way, but decided against it until he knew what was going on and could make a better decision.

As he quickly got to his feet, he immediately looked back to see where he felt the gust of wind come from and noticed that it was much, much clearer. The reason for that was the presence of four people running toward the Mausoleum, all of them the dusky orange that marked them as Charee, and they looked to be straight out of an RPG. One of them was wearing a set of heavy-looking chainmail and leather armor, complete with a coif that protected his head and neck, along with a rounded helmet that protected it even further. He was carrying a shield in his left hand that was much larger than the Darkwood Buckler he’d seen in the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon, as it was large enough to cover nearly two-thirds of his body when he held it out in front of him. In his other hand was a longsword that had to have been at least 5 feet long, and it was nearly 6 inches wide at its base above the hilt; it looked extremely heavy, and Thaden doubted he would even be able to lift it, let alone swing it with any type of skill.

Not that he could as an Assistant Healer, of course.

Just slightly behind the rushing tank-styled individual was a stereotypical “Rogue”-type character, wearing dark grey leather armor that looked a little too dominatrix for Thaden’s taste, especially as she was, uh, well-endowed, so to say. It wasn’t helped by the fact that her face was half-hidden by a leather mask and the coiled leather whip attached to her belt, though she was currently carrying a pair of short blades that were made of some dark material, meaning that they didn’t shine in the sunlight that momentarily streamed through the cleared fogbank above them.

The reason for the cleared fog was from the next individual, a Charee wearing what could only be a dark blue mage or wizard’s robe, complete with a wide sash that had small arcane-looking symbols that appeared to be stitched into it, and a pointed, wide-brimmed hat with the point flopped over completed the ensemble. Apart from her clothes that screamed “spellcaster”, a gnarled wooden staff in her hand was held out in front of her, and a nimbus of glowing power surrounded it, even as the same gusts of air that had blasted Thaden back seemed to expand outward from the tip of the staff in a spreading circle. Somehow, the gusts of air seemed not to affect her companions, who kept running as they seemed to ignore the air blasts that cleared the way so that they could see where they were going.

Bringing up the rear, an archer wearing tight-fitting, lightweight clothes in muted colors, holding a bow with a quiver on his hip full of arrows, had his head on a swivel as he looked all around for danger. His weapon wasn’t as impressive as the one he’d seen Virlo wield back in Ashcleft, but then again, the Level 45 Town Guard didn’t need a weapon to look impressive.

Unfortunately, they were too far away for whatever prompted the words to appear above their heads, which would’ve given him an idea of who they were and their Levels, but he was fairly certain that they were from the Adventurer Coalition. They were also obviously strong enough to run straight into the Undead that Thaden could still hear making noises ahead of them, and fortuitously – thank you, Fortuity – they didn’t seem to have a healer with them.

Without hesitation, Thaden rushed ahead, following where he saw them running, but the fog was already filling in the gaps that had been blown away by the mage’s air spells. Before he ran more than 40 feet, the wall of fog blocked his sight of them, but he continued to head in the direction he saw them moving, hoping to catch up with them.

Unfortunately, his sense of direction seemed to be skewed, because the more he ran, the closer they seemed to be – all the way to the point where he thought he heard them right ahead of him, only for nothing to be there.

It was at the point where he began to slow down, not wanting to rush into them and surprise them with his appearance, that he heard the moaning and clicking of the Undead change to something a little more intense and louder, until he heard what he thought was the groaning of the Undead… dying? Being killed, or whatever the term was for an Undead dying again.

Then the screams of pain and anguish began, and he was fairly certain that they didn’t come from an Undead. They came from someone living.

As far as he knew, there were only five people that were classified as “living” in the foggy forest: Himself and the four members of the Adventurer Coalition he was chasing.

They’re getting hurt! I need to hurry and heal them!

That was his only thought as he rushed ahead again, aiming his path for where he thought the screams were coming from. The more he ran, he closer they seemed to come, but he couldn’t seem to find those that had rushed ahead. At point, he figured he must have overshot their location because the screams came from a different direction and he had to turn away from where he felt the pull of the Mausoleum location, only to find that his senses were playing tricks on him because nothing was there.

Running at a full sprint, trying to get to the injured Coalition members in time, he lost himself in the confusing fog-filled trees, pushing himself to just run a little more so that he could help them. Eventually, he had to stop, his breathing labored as he bent over and put his hands on his knees. He wasn’t sure how long he had been running, but it felt like at least an hour or more based on how tired he was.

It was only when he stopped running that he realized that the screaming had stopped. He wasn’t even aware that it had stopped, let alone when it did, but that didn’t deter him. He simply caught his breath and looked up, ready to start running again—

—only to see, sprawled out on the ground between a pair of dead trees, the mangled and ripped-apart bodies of the same Adventurers he’d been chasing.

“No! I’m too late!” he exclaimed, though he choked a bit when he sucked in a breath which was filled with the horrendous stench of rotting flesh. Looking a little closer at the area around the fallen Coalition members, he saw dozens of rotting corpses, as well as piles of bones scattered everywhere, showing that the party hadn’t gone down easily and had taken quite a few of the Undead with them.

Rushing to the mangled bodies, he only barely recognized them as the same people he had seen not long ago, and that was only due to the weapons and scraps of armor he saw lying near their ripped-apart bodies. Quickly slotting his Weak Resurrection spell, he targeted what he thought was the tank, knowing that if he was going to survive killing the Undead, he would need someone that could take some damage that he could then heal.

He began to cast the spell on the figure, only for nothing to happen. He tried again, wondering if it was on cooldown for some reason, but the Access Slots that held the spell didn’t seem to be on cooldown; instead, it was something else. Frantic, he checked his feed and his heart dropped.

Weak Resurrection spell has an invalid target! Target has been deceased longer than 60 minutes!

Oh, no. He quickly tried to resurrect the others, but the same message popped up on the feed window with each one. As he slumped to his knees, uncaring of what he was kneeling in, couldn’t help but think that the Mausoleum of Despair was accurately named because he certainly felt his fair share of despair right now. All this power, and I was too late?

A low moan interrupted his sad contemplation of the bodies around him, as his first time seeing a dead person that wasn’t himself or a Vogmite (the heads in their dungeon he thought didn’t count) really affected his mental state. When he looked up, he realized that at the extent of his vision in the fog, approximately 20 feet away, was a walking corpse that had glowing red eyes – completely different than he expected in a zombie.

That single Undead was bad enough with its rotting flesh that literally dripped off of its naked body, but it wasn’t alone. More moans and clicks came from all around him, and this time it wasn’t a trick of the fog.

Whipping his head around in a circle, Thaden realized he was surrounded.