I looked across the coffee table at Olivia. She was a young black woman, glasses, chocolate colored eyes, and a bun atop her head with strands of braided and curled hair over her right shoulder. She was wearing a neat white pressed shirt and black jeans. I could see on the backs of her hands that she had quite a few tattoos, most of which seemed to be for either comic book or video game characters.
She seemed nervous.
I gave her my best disarming smile and looked over the resume she handed me saying gently, “Well, if Mrs. Moore hired you I don’t really have any complaints.”
“You don’t need to be nervous,” I said with a wink as I chuckled.
She shook her head and stuttered, “I… I should say I’m a big fan of yours.”
I gave a weak smile and a tilt of the head as I looked back down at the papers and said, “Surprised I have any of those left.”
The young woman gave me a bright smile and adjusted her glasses, “We all have things we regret. I think you’ll come back from all this.”
Strange thing to say… but it was nice. Nice comments were definitely in short supply these days. After a moment I gave her a lopsided grin, “Thanks, Olivia. I’m glad that if someone is going to be working around the house they are a fan.”
She beamed a grateful smile and we started to discuss her upcoming schedule.
–
I rolled the stone over in my hand and dislodged the rubber band holding the note in place. The streetlights across the fence hummed and crackled as I unrolled the paper and pulled it open.
Welcome Home, Murderer
Staring down at the message, the glint off of the strange platinum ring caught my eye.
Where did it come from? Maybe I should ask Lydia…
Moments after looking away and back toward the note the ring had faded from my memory and was gone.
The note crunched into a ball in my white knuckled fist as I touched the small square patch phone on the left side of my chest and growled, “Lyd, check the cameras outside and see if you can send some still images of the vehicle that the person who threw this drove up in.”
“Not sure we can find much sugar, but I’ll give it a shot.”
Turning, I threw the stone at the wall surrounding the house. It burst into chunks and dust as I turned and stomped my way back inside. I breezed back through the living room in the dark and down into the blood red light of the dive room in a fever of anger.
Walking over to the rig, I pulled off my robe to reveal my skin tight dive suit lined with chrome connectors glinting rich crimson light. Settling in on the dive chair, I started the slow process of clipping all the connectors in and tried to let my anger bleed off.
Studying the monitors above me, I let out a deep exhalation of breath and said, “Lydia, play that audio instruction file that Speers sent over.”
The speakers in the corners of the room clicked and the man’s voice filled the chamber, “Hey there Mr. Voss. I just wanted to give you a heads up about where we are starting your test. We are dropping you into the world with a bit of power under your belt. If I had to gauge your progress I’d say roughly ten percent.”
He continued and I could hear him clicking and typing as he laid out the situation, “Our testing character for you is a vampire hybrid with a rogue/dps heavy class. You operate on DOTs and dodges. Your goal is to find a location on the map called The Descent. As you can imagine there will be plenty of sidequest locations and enemies standing in your way. Once you get to the stairs we will discuss the next testing environment.”
He started a description of how the skill, attribute and leveling system functioned.
“Lydia, play at two times speed.”
Speers’s sped up voice rambled through the various systems. An image of my character appeared on the monitor hanging from the wall facing my dive chair. My avatar was short, perhaps one meter seventy, with thick glossy inky black hair slicked back on his head, long and reaching his shoulders. He was obviously some kind of fantasy race with lilac colored skin and long sharp ears swept backward to sharp points. His eyes were entirely pale gray, not unlike my own, and glared out at me as if he was considering hunting me. He was wearing equipment but the choices made it appear he had gone to an effort to have as much of his toned svelte physique as he could exposed. He wore a black vest embossed with twisting vines and rose imagery, a long tattered blood red cloak that seemed to move of its own accord, fingerless black gloves, a pair of thin gray leather pants and a pair of sandals that stood out jarringly with their fire engine red coloring.
In a lot of ways Catacomb did not veer from the standards that had been established by tabletop games more than sixty years ago. There were six base statistics: strength, agility, vitality, reason, spirit, charm.
The skills were established in a tiered system: Novice, Trained, Expert, Master and Legend. With each respective tier the number of skills that one could advance decreased. Novice and Trained skills were unlimited but Expert was restricted to ten, Master to five, and Legend to three. Starting at Master tier a character could take on an additional Role that condensed whole skill trees under a single umbrella. Roles had stronger skill progression overall but lost the constant gain of admittedly weaker skills in all the individual skills.
My character had the Assassin Role which condensed my Blade, Dual Wield, Acrobatics, and Stealth skills. There were a few other high level skills on the list. Unarmed, Rune Carving, Analyze, and Alertness were all in the high Expert tier and were close to being considered for Master.
“Level 37, nearly five thousand hit points, Essence Pool…”
A number of the avatar’s abilities were reflavored vampiric skills familiar from other media that certainly played into Speers’s description of my character as a fast-moving, dodge-focused DPS. It all pivoted around maintaining my Essence Pool by shedding blood with damage over time effects.
I studied the abilities and continued talking to myself as I pulled my second glove on, “Blood Mist for traversal. This Rose Hurricane thing is good for close quarters AOE. Surging Blood gives me a ten second haste but it's expensive. It’s going to be crucial though, glad they gave me a character who snagged a couple of Essence Pool expansions.”
As the recording neared its end Speers’ voice slowed down, “I’m going to go ahead and wish you good luck. Take some time once you get in to check your inventory and statistics before you get out there. The last player who drove this avatar left it a little bit of a mess. Be sure to send us regular status reports.”
Settling in, I moved my head left and right to stretch before grabbing the helmet from the hook and slipping it over my head.
Inside, my vision was dark at first until a simple loading wheel filled the center of my view, followed quickly by a title screen depicting floating golden text over a great swirling galaxy of floating stone and ephemeral dust.
Dark Spiral
Catacomb Entertainment
Log - In
Without my prompting, Lydia filled in the log-in data and the game started to load. I got a brief glimpse of my character glaring at me from the select screen.
In moments he had vanished and I saw yet another loading screen, followed by more on screen text that Lydia, for some reason, read out in her typical charming way:
“Lothin Noble District: Decayed
A post-apocalyptic ruin inhabited by remnants of a once great civilization.
Tier E, Level 35-40”
The world blossomed into blinding brightness. Blinking away the sting in my eyes I surveyed my surroundings. When the world faded into view I found myself up to my ankles in a pile of ash. Looking upward I noted that I was at the bottom of a set of stairs only barely visible under the heaps of ash. The endless dark galaxy-like spiral that had been on the loading screen stretched out above me, the only light coming from the celestial bodies dotting its arms.
In front of me there was what had to be some kind of portal. The onyx center rippled like a pool and an arch of pure cerulean crystal enclosed it. Turning away from it I walked up the stairs. The state of the city beyond stopped me in my tracks.
Whatever it had been before, it was now nothing but ruined buildings buried in ash.
There was no movement to be seen throughout the dunes of gray. I stepped on something and then backed away when I saw a skeleton lying at the top of the stairs. It seemed to be ensconced in some equipment so I knelt down and looted its heavy armor, spear, and amulet.
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As the last item vanished my eyes widened as I spotted my hand. The fingers of my gloves had been cut free and I could see the platinum ring I had been wearing outside the game rendered exactly on my ring finger.
“What the…”
“Another chance meeting. It must have been years since we last crossed paths,” I was shocked out of the insanity that was the ring’s rendering, and its actual existence, by a rasping voice.
One of my character’s curved bone daggers appeared in my hand and I turned to see a strange emaciated being that must have been more than seven feet tall. They were wearing a hood but I could still make out glowing orange eyes in the depths. The creature was wearing all manner of goods on their person. Weapons they carried; daggers, swords and even an axe, seemed to have been thrust through their body to make them easier to carry, impeding their ability to move very little.
There was no mistaking this creature’s purpose, even if the presentation was a bit macabre.
Manifesting my best smile, I said, “You’re a merchant.”
The strange towering being shuffled toward me, their goods shaking and rattling with each step, as they chuckled, “As was established last we did business.”
The last tester must have traded with this creature. It could not hurt to play along..
“I would love to do business again if you don’t mind?”
They eyed me for a long moment and I swore I could hear the smile in their voice despite their lack of facial features, “I am here for no other purpose.”
“Let me check my inventory.”
With that I looked at my HUD and opened my screens.
Speers hadn’t been lying about the last player leaving this in a mess. Not only were there hundreds of items in this endless inventory, but there appeared to be clear upgrades that the last player never got around to equipping.
Ring of the Burning Dervish
Worn by the Burning Dervishes who roam the wastelands around the Lady of Flame’s tower.
Type: Ring
Level 38, Agility 80
Rare
Tier: E
Agility +30, Charm +21, All Acrobatics Skills +2
Your melee attacks deal additional 30-40 fire damage per hit.
Of my two rings the Blade Dancer’s Loop was definitely the choice to replace with this ring. Its only benefit was an increase to my Blade skill tree. I took the hit and replaced the old ring, tossing the old ring onto the sell pile. I immediately received an achievement:
Achievement
Demigod Speed
You have achieved two hundred points in Agility!
Blinding speed and accuracy. Those Who Watch will certainly notice you soon.
Reading the strange message I smiled, “Not ominous at all.” Lydia continued reading out my item upgrades:
Gloves of the Penitent Servant
Often worn by those who suffer in the lady’s name.
Type: Gloves
Total Armor Value: 111
Level 35
Very Rare
Tier: E
Spirit +29, Agility +19
Once per day ignore all fire damage for 5 seconds.
There were some trade-offs for these gloves. I lost a boost to my Vitality but got a jump in Spirit. Spirit seemed to be the main statistic for my crafting profession, which was all about magical traps. Pulling off the Swindler’s Gloves, I threw them onto the pile as I equipped the new thin black-and-red gloves.
Item Spike F
Type: Enhancement
Minimum Requirement: Level 30
Very Rare
Dreading finding an upgrade? Use an item spike to immediately advance an item you possess to the next Tier.
Note: This upgrade can only be applied to equipment that is F Tier.
Rolling the long silvery spike over in my hand I made a, “Hmm,” sound and nodded. Simple upgrade item. Scanning my list of equipment, I noted the terror that was my boots slot. Whoever built this character had clearly held onto them because of their cooldown haste ability that worked a lot like Surging Blood. They had a miniscule plus three to Agility and one to Reason which was arguably my least important stat. That Haste buff would be hard to lose. Without thinking too much I applied the spike to the boots, applying the spike to them and watching it dissolve into light and into the item.
The new stats were a welcome sight:
Blazing Boots
Armor Value: 110
Level 37
Rare
Tier: E
Agility +33, Reason +15
Click the heels of these boots together to move at double your normal speed for five. While moving in this way you leave a trail of fire in your wake causing damage (90-100 fire) to anyone who passes through it.
Then there was the strange platinum ring that was on my left index finger. To my surprise Lydia did not describe the item. That was strange.
Theodora’s Ring of Remembrance
Use this ring to start a quest. Idiot.
Type: Ring
Unique
Tier: A
First Tier Use: Visit S. Start the quest.
Hadn’t I been wearing a ring just like this?
Pausing, I grimaced and studied the strange platinum ring muttering to myself as I struggled to remember, “What the hell?”
Maybe my RIG chip and my subconscious made the system model this ring for me?
Maybe my pills are making me hallucinate?
I discovered that I could still wear it, and my other two rings without worry. When I did so I got a corrupted quest prompt. Lydia, once again, did not read the text.
Que… Er.. Errr…Error
Visit Brilliant Wonders. Search Basement
XP: Error
Reward: Error
Error
Great!
Bugs.
I was briefly annoyed but reassured myself that this was why I was here.
Still worried about the strange existence of the ring I muttered distractedly, “Lyd, put bugged quest text on the list of items to pass along to Catacomb.”
There was a long beat and I asked, “Lyd?”
After a moment she said, “Sure thing, sugar!”
Shaking my head I took everything else in my inventory and opened a trade window with the strange merchant. I tossed innumerable silver weapons, suits of armor, and strange amulets into the window and watched their offer appear in the upper right.
When it was all there I started to hit the accept button, but hovered my finger a long moment before saying, “You don’t seem to have a lot of potential customers.”
The strange being chuckled and eyed me, “Astute, but I do fully intend to descend to a much more lucrative market. There are wars aplenty in the depths of the Spiral.”
Smiling and shrugging I slipped into my sales voice I’d use back when I would jump on calls with sponsors for the show, “I bet, but the kind of bulk weapons I’m offering are sure to make any buyer hoping to outfit a large army very happy. If I’m getting a good read on this place you could find a bunch of desperate survivors willing to sell their grandmother's fine china to outfit their entire group with equipment like this.”
The merchant eyed me with clear mirth as we started to barter back and forth. Finally, we settled on a price for my gear and I switched over to view their items on offer. Most of it seemed like basic gear and from the looks of the world around us, scavenged goods.
In the end I purchased a fairly minor upgrade to the Seal of House Rasila that was in my amulet slot.
Priest of Pain’s Eye
Men and women who were once seers, Priest’s of Pain have their eyes removed and replaced with molten spikes to stop their visions into the unknown. The remaining orbs are often fashioned into this strange amulet.
Type: Amulet
Level 38
Rare
Tier: E
Vitality +35, Spirit +22, +5% Resist to Fire
Once per day you may use the Priest of Pain’s Eye to scry on the location of one creature, provided you know that creature’s true name. Hold the Priest of Pain’s Eye aloft and it will gaze in the direction of your target. This divination can only be used on a target that is still living.
As I held up the disgusting eye at the end of the wrought iron chain I grimaced and muttered, “Yep that is just as gross as I thought it would be.”
The merchant chuckled and I finalized the deal. In the end, even with the purchase of the strange eye amulet I gained nearly ten thousand gold from the deal.
The merchant nodded and chuckled as they turned and started down the steps.
I started to call out to him but something told me asking the strange creature questions was a bad idea. They gave me a parting glance over their shoulder as they reached the portal and winked, “Good luck, Remnant.”
