Chapter 13

  As we made our way north through The Brink, we slowly worked our way up in elevation toward a range of mountains. Heavy snow fell all morning and early afternoon, keeping our vision obscured and our feet wet and cold. We decided to keep moving to get to a higher level recommended zone and to hopefully find another village. My stamina supply was running low, and Clara would be staying logged in, for now. Hopefully we could convince her to log out at some point. Sleeping in Hearth was super risky, in my opinion.

  We came upon a path through the middle of the mountain range, and as we did, bold words filled my vision.

  MERCHANT’S WAY

  We made the decision to head through, to get a grasp of the area beyond. Based on the map at The Notch Inn that was now copied to my own map interface, we didn’t know what was past this point. The map showed only blackness. I didn’t like heading into unknown territory like this.

  As we made our way through the pass, the temperature dropped further.

  My feet were numb, my breathing labored, my snot turned to ice, and the one time I attempted to piss, it froze before it hit the ground. We layered cat pelts over our shoulders, desperately trying to stay warm over the next hour, and I was just about to say we should turn back or log out when the gray sky cleared, showing bright blue ahead.

  We worked our way through the remaining distance of snow and ice, and as we passed out of the mountains the snow began to melt and the trees fell away into a temperate grassland valley.

  RIVERMOOR

  Tier: Town

  There were rocks sticking out of the ground at odd angles, and a waterfall or two poured down from the mountains behind us into a roaring river which headed to the east. Beyond that, there was a large town surrounded by an aged stone wall, standing at the opposite side of the valley. I could see the tops of a few buildings that looked to be made of stone as well. Their roofs were covered with slate panels.

  I turned to Mie and Clara. “What do you guys think?”

  Their eyes were moving left to right, and I could tell they were doing something with their interfaces. “Wait . . . are you guys DMing each other right now?!”

  “Maaaybe?” Mie said.

  I opened a chat with Mie.

  Sam: I swear to god, I will kill you if you are sharing my memories with Clara in a private message.

  I saw her stiffen noticeably.

  Sam: Oh my god. YOU ARE!

  Mie: Uhhh . . . no I’m not.

  Sam: Liar. Uuugh. I don’t even want to know.

  Mie: I swear! Well okay, just the one hilarious thing about you running into a glass door thinking it was open . . . in front of like, everyone you know. But other than that literally nothing I promise! Just trying to get to know her a bit. She seems great honestly. Good listener. Glad she is part of the party.

  I turned back toward the town across the way, a little growl audible only to me escaping by throat.

  Clara spoke up. “I’m good to take a gander at it.”

  I sighed. “Sounds good. If we see any groups of players let’s plan on back tracking, but otherwise I’m good to check out this new location to try to make it to a PVP-free inn or something like it.”

  A few minutes later, we came up on a large wooden bridge. Though it looked wet and old, it still seemed solid and stable.

  There was a column of covered wagons approaching from the other side. Each wagon looked like something out of that nineties game Oregon Trail. They were covered with white cloth, and the chassis of each one was made out of solid wood. Their interiors were hidden from view. Each wagon—there were four in total—was pulled by a horse. Something about this activity seemed more expansive than normal. Suspicious, I counted eight NPCs. There were a pair to each wagon.

  Words spread across my vision as they approached.

  EVENT: Protect Merchants from Bandits

  Rank: Legendary

  You discovered an event.

  On successful completion you will receive rewards, experience, and reputation based on your current level.

  Dark figures stood up from among empty barrels and trash that lined the edges of the bridge. I saw at least six appear near the first two wagons, but more were showing up behind. They started to encircle the wagons that had stopped abruptly at the sight of the shady-looking figures.

  I inspected the three figures closest to us. Their nameplates . . . were red.

  Level 15 Bandit Crossbowman

  Level 13 Bandit Warrior x2

  “Uuuugh.”

  I was about to message the group to back up when a blazing green arrow whizzed by my head, striking the nearest warrior in the back.

  I turned and looked at Clara, giving her a quizzical look.

  She shrugged and fired off another shot that struck the same warrior bringing up his poison stacks to two.

  “Okay then,” I said, taking charge. “Mie, you’re upfront with me. With all that plate . . . I might need you to tank a bit on this one. Clara, stay ten paces behind us, and make damn sure no one gets behind you.” She nodded and backed up a couple paces.

  I saw three more bandits circling the second wagon behind the first.

  All three on the first wagon had turned in our direction after the initial arrow landed. The two bandit warriors charged, and the one with the crossbow loosed a bolt right at me. I activated Parry, and this time I successfully blocked the attack. But after that . . . it was mayhem.

  The bandits around the second wagon were all warriors. They charged toward us as well, putting our current enemy count at six.

  I vaulted in and finished off the first warrior with a spear through his neck.

  I yelled back to Clara, “TAKE OUT THE CROSSBOW . . . GUY!”

  I couldn’t think as the closest warrior reached me and swung downward with his mace. I tried to block, but missed, and it crushed my left shoulder. Pain leapt throughout my body. I activated Sweeping Strike as they all grouped up around Mie. The sweep caught all four melee mobs, and I uhh. . . accidentally knocked Mie down as well. Rooted debuffs appeared over everyone, and transparent chains grabbed everyone's legs. Even Mie's . . . I had no idea allies were affected by our abilities . . . or took damage. Oops.

  “WHAT THE HELL, SAM!” she cried. The four remaining warriors were thrusting and chopping Mie with their swords over and over as they all stood up. Off balance, they didn’t deal as much damage as they could have . . . yet, and she took a number of cuts, but the plate seemed to be mitigating some of the weak attacks. They were all rooted, and none of them could move. But neither could Mie. I had trapped her there . . . to die.

  I took a step back, threw my spear, and popped a stam potion, cursing as I watched the cooldown on my stack of stam potions start up. One and a half minutes. I took another couple paces backwards and threw another spear at the same warrior. His health dropped to twenty-five percent.

  I repeated the action, watching Mie’s health drop at a horrifying rate when a couple sword thrusts pierced through her plate armor. Flash Heal already used, she popped a health potion, and then her skin darkened to more of a golden brown as she activated her Skin Hardening ability. She was yelling and cursing my name. Her staff came up and down, its end swinging in large arches. Each blow dealt blunt damage, but it wasn’t very effective against the bandit’s plate armor. Sweat beaded off my forehead into my eyes. I repeated yet another Spear Throw and was awarded with a crit, taking out the warrior I had been focusing on.

  The rooted effect wore off everyone . . . but Mie didn’t move. Her health was too low, and she was trying to cast her new ability Holy Armor on herself. I registered her cast bar for the first time. It kept appearing and disappearing as the damage kept interrupting her cast. I ran back in, activating sweep again, this time avoiding Mie, but her health was at zero, and then she was on all fours.

  “No!” I shouted.

  Then I remembered the Death’s Door ability. She was Knocked! Not dead.

  An immunity buff appeared over her, and it looked like she was covered in a golden transparent layer of air. Her Knocked health bar reset to half her max health. Her body, which had been savagely wrecked, repaired itself just enough for her to be able to move at ninety-percent speed on all fours. She was groaning and drooling blood.

  The bandits now ignored her due to her Knocked status. One swung a sword low and caught me in the side, dropping my health to seventy percent. A bolt dug into my calf, dropping it further. “Gah! Shit.”

  I couldn’t do anything for Mie, and the warriors were all on me. I fell in among them. I was yelling, I realized as I avoided blows from two of them. I started in with some Basic Attacks on the warrior that was closest. A blade slid into my shoulder, spraying blood over the wooden bridge below me. Another mace blow . . . took my jaw off completely and cut off my roar. A large yellow number floated up over my head. Critical hit. The world strobed red as a stacked Major Bleed debuff appeared over me. My health was dropping rapidly, but I was able to focus down another warrior despite my agony.

  Three left. Two melees. One ranged.

  I popped a weak health potion. My jaw flew back on, and my skin knitted back together. I popped out my axe into my main hand and Axe Cracked the next warrior that was closest to me, freezing him in place.

  Mie: ASS CRACK EM BABY!

  My pain now more manageable, I noticed another set of three bandits at the third wagon looking down the line of wagons at us, curious what all the commotion was here at the entrance to the bridge.

  Merchant slain 1/8

  Breathing hard, I said, “Oops,” as I backed away from the other warrior that wasn’t stunned. I hadn’t thought about the merchants in the third or fourth wagons.

  I noticed one of the dead warriors’ corpses. He had dropped a common axe. I looted it quickly and popped that into my off hand, spear going into my inventory. I watched blood run from my hands down both the shafts and then onto the blades of the axe heads. The blood from them dripped onto the ground as the remaining non-stunned warrior approached cautiously now. In the distance at the far end of the bridge, I saw a large man move behind one of the merchants. There was a jerking motion, and the NPC merchant slumped sideways . . . dead.

  Merchant slain 2/8

  I saw Mie crawling off to the side of the bridge . . . and something inside me . . . caught fire.

  Memories flooded my vision . . . tree branches blew in the wind, shedding snow. A car on its side. Ada, so proud of her loose tooth, grinning at me. Lily as a toddler running up to me, with her eyes to the floor . . . She was scared. She slammed into me . . . and gave me a massive hug.

  God. Fucking. Damn it.

  I was going to fight. No matter the obstacles. No matter the pain, I was going to find my family. I might be dead. I might be weak. But I was going to get stronger. I was going to hold my children again, damn it. I was going to fucking survive, for them.

  Fuck this reality. This game.

  Rage and heat pumped through me as I ignored the warrior right in front of me and activated Vaulting Strike on the one I had stunned. I jumped and darted towards him, and when I crashed into him, both my axes bit into his chest. I saw his stun fall off as I activated Quad Strike. Both my axes crashed into his sides once more, came back out, then cut into his neck. His head went flying off as I kicked his body, sending it to the ground, hard.

  “Ah!” I took a step back at the sight, once again shocked that I had done that. These axes . . .

  I took back my earlier thoughts about dual wielding. Dual wielding . . . is still damn awesome.

  Too late, I heard the fast clinking of foot falls behind me. The remaining warrior’s stun was up, and he landed a couple slashing blows that bit deeply into my back.

  I roared out a, “HOLY FUUU—!” then a growl. “This place is THE WORST!”

  The blows had dealt massive damage and dropped my health to twenty percent. Blood was everywhere, my vision was pulsing. I turned around toward the warrior and was about to swing when another blazing green arrow—which I assumed was Clara’s Dead Eye ability—took him through the eye. He fell forward, dead. I turned toward the crossbowman . . . who was also dead. Good work, Clara.

  I ran over to Mie.

  Through my red and strobing vision, I saw the three new bandits from the third wagon coming up on the second wagon. As quickly as I could, I started the Hand of God ability, watching the insane ten second cast bar appear in order to resurrect her. I looked up again, anxiety building. The figures were at the first wagon now and fast approaching.

  The cast completed, and Mie popped back up at fifty percent health, staff in hand. I noticed her mana was also at half. I took cover behind her towering figure as she immediately cast Hardening Skin again, taking reduced damage from an incoming ball of fire. It rushed over her.

  She screamed out, “I DON’T LIKE PLAYING TANK!”

  The smell of burning metal, hair, and skin met my nostrils. I inspected the next group, peeking out from behind Mie.

  Level 15 Bandit Mage x1

  Level 12 Bandit Warrior x2

  She sent me a Flash Heal, getting me back to near-full health. I checked my stam and health potion cooldowns. They were close to being available again. Mie’s mana potion must have already been off cooldown because she popped another, topping her mana bar off. She also used a health potion, which I couldn’t blame her for. I appreciated the heal she had sent me, instead of herself. Her off-hand arm knitted back together, the gouge in her shoulder healed, and the scent of burning hair and skin wisped away. Then the two warriors were on us.

  I Ass Cracked one, ignoring the fact that I was now mentally calling it . . . Ass Crack . . . and dodged back behind Mie as another fireball came in. I popped a stamina potion as soon as it came off cooldown.

  Clara had already started in on the mage who was now targeting her, firing arrow after arrow.

  “Guys!” she yelled. I didn’t hesitate. I put together my combo. Popping my spear back into my main hand again, I vaulted and stabbed the mage in the shoulder. Then with Sweeping Strike, I knocked him down and interrupted his cast.

  I laid into him, storing my spear instantly and replacing it with my two axes. They popped into my hands as I swung downward.

  For a level fifteen mage . . . I thought it would take a little more than a Quad Strike, Ass Crack, and a few Basic Attacks. But I tore him up, and he fell fast in his cloth armor, unable to do anything.

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  I turned back to the warriors and helped finish them off. They had been steadily working down Mie, but she seemed okay handling two now by ducking behind her new shield, reducing damage with her defensive cooldowns, and whacking them with her staff. Once I joined, we brought them down together.

  The remaining merchants found their way across the bridge and kept their distance from the fighting, watching from behind Clara.

  “Hey! What’s going on here? HEY!” a rough man’s voice called out.

  I turned to see a large overweight man with a red nameplate walking towards us. He was on the shadow side of the wagons, and as he stepped out into the light I inspected him.

  Blackthorn

  Level 25 Bandit Leader

  HP 3200/3200

  He carried a massive two-handed hammer, dragging it behind himself as if it weighed three hundred pounds. The old wood of the bridge splintered in its wake. As he approached, he slowed down and looked at the corpses of his men.

  I backed up, trying to give us some time to recover, but the ‘out of combat’ message didn’t appear. I looked at my stamina bar. It was low again. Stamina was becoming a massive bottleneck. I had so many stamina abilities, that were all on rather short cooldowns. I didn’t have a big enough pool of stamina to keep using them for a long fight like this. I checked my stam potion stack and saw that it was at two minutes left.

  Since I had already used two stamina potions so far in this fight, its cooldown had started at three minutes. I watched as it continued to fall, hitting one minute and forty seconds. So, if I used another stamina potion in this fight, its cooldown would go to six minutes.

  Blackthorn let out a little chuckle. It seemed . . . ominous.

  “Ah well,” he said, kicking the mage. “You did me a favor. He was always complaining.” He pulled a small bundle out of a pocket, and I tensed as he pulled on some leather fasteners. “To be honest, this is actually way better.” He glanced up at us and pulled a syringe of black liquid out of the case. He looked at me and held my eyes. Keeping my gaze, he slowly stuck himself with the syringe, injecting the solution into a thick vein. “Now I don’t have to pay all these idiots.”

  His neck whipped back in a jerking motion as the transformation took effect. His entire body rippled as he doubled—no, tripled—in size, his veins turned black, and his muscles bulged, reminding me of when that big green fella transforms. He no longer looked overweight, and instead ridiculously ripped. Muscles on top of more muscles. His weapon—the large two-handed hammer—made a lot more sense. I saw a new icon appear over his health bar as the buff took effect.

  {Dark Blood Rage} for 5 minutes

  {Dark Blood Rage}

  Description: All stamina costs are reduced by 75% for 5 minutes. Damage increased by 100%.

  He tossed the hammer from hand-to-hand, grinning. Then he went into a sprinter stance and performed a dash—which was more like an explosion that sent him jumping horizontally—appearing right in front of Mie, his hammer already in motion. Mie however, had activated her new ability Holy Armor with godlike reaction speed.

  The hammer came crashing down onto her head, but a small shield appeared at the point of impact, resisting the blow. Cracks cascaded down the invisible three-dimensional shield all around her, almost breaking it. He had just done close to two times Mie’s max health in damage . . . in one attack.

  Oh shit. We have a problem. Getting hit by that hammer would be a one shot for any of us.

  I didn’t hesitate and neither did Clara. Her arrows started back up, peppering the hulking figure. She drew his attention, ripping aggro off of Mie. He used his dash ability again and landed next to her, but she dodged his swing with her Diving Shot and got another hit in. I vaulted and struck out with a spear, which dug into his massive back muscles.

  His attention turned to me.

  It took him time to turn, and so I popped what was probably my last stamina potion for this encounter, activated a sweep, trying to knock him down. A big fat red ‘Resist’ floated up.

  “He resists roots! Ah—!” I leapt back a couple steps, dodging a swing.

  I tried to Ass Crack him just has he was about to initiate another attack and was rewarded with a stun notification as my axe crashed into his face. It didn’t do much damage, but it blessedly froze him, his body covered in a transparent blue. I let him have it for a couple seconds with my axes, landing four solid blows before I backed up again.

  “MIE, SWAP!” I shouted, backing up and then running behind her as the stun fell off. Clara was still firing, and I checked his health bar. It was still at ninety-five percent . . . and we had just blown through all of our crowd control abilities, which were now all on cooldown.

  He let out a roaring laugh, activating his dash again. He closed the gap on Mie, and before I could do anything, a glass-shattering explosion sounded as he tore through Mie’s Holy Armor. I didn’t know what to do. We had to—

  Another blow crushed Mie’s shoulder, dropping her health to zero and Knocking her. I got in another basic attack, and as Ass Crack came off cooldown I activated it immediately. But . . . he resisted it this time.

  “NO!” I yelled in anger, realizing now my mistake in assuming the stun would always take effect.

  The blow to my spine was horrific.

  I could feel my entire body get smashed. My bones broke, my muscles splatted.

  A moment later, my body reformed on all fours, and a little Immune buff appeared over me.

  I had been Knocked. No . . .

  I heard Clara shouting. I tried to yell, but my vocal cords failed me as I coughed up blood. So I messaged her in party chat instead.

  Sam: MAXIMUM RANGE. Stay at maximum range, and kite him!

  Clara: I DON’T HAVE ANY KITES.

  Rage swelled inside of me once again. I was out of the fight. If Clara died . . . we would lose two more damn life credits. Heat and blood was rising inside of my throat. I was drowning in rage, barely able to breathe.

  Sam: Just keep moving away from him after every shot. How many stacks of poison are you at?

  Clara: 7. Now 8.

  I looked up through all the red in my vision. One of my eyelids was sealed shut with dried blood. I saw Blackthorn leap after Clara and saw her activate her Diving Shot ability to get away from him once again. He was getting frustrated and tearing after her as fast as he could.

  I thought that maybe the Dark Blood buff had some sort of movement-decreasing effect. Or maybe the guy was just massive and had low agility. Still, she was only level eight. . . and if a single blow Knocked both Mie and me . . . the odds were not good. Her only chance was if she continued to outpace Blackthorn, long enough to let a full twenty poison stacks do their work.

  Long minutes passed as she kept at it, diving when she needed to. I gave her all the information I could, telling her exactly what I would do the entire time. Our immunity timers expired, and I noticed that our health didn’t start falling even though we were Knocked.

  I inspected her again, trying to think through all the red. I noticed something I had missed. Wait. She’s level ten! I was about to message her again to check her new ability . . . when the worst happened.

  Blackthorn used a new ability after his health bar dropped below twenty-five percent, which I assumed was due to some kind of boss health threshold being reached. Clara had just done another dive too, so that was on cooldown.

  Her back was toward him.

  Sam: WATCH OUT!

  The massive hammer flew from Blackthorn’s hands, and just before I thought we were going to wipe, Clara blinked.

  One second, she was running away from a flying hammer that was a few turns from crashing into her, the next second she was a few more yards away and to the side, pulling back on her bow and releasing another shot. I inspected the boss.

  Blackthorn

  Level 25 Human

  {Dark Blood Hangover} for 5 minutes

  {Minor Shade Poison} x20 for 60 seconds

  HP 720/3200

  {Dark Blood Hangover}:

  Description: All stamina costs are increased by 75%. Damage decreased by 100%.

  Huh. I guess that injection has some kind of aftereffect.

  {Minor Shade Poison} x20

  Description: Dealing 20 damage per second.

  Oh my god. We actually might make it out of this. His buff had turned to a pretty harsh debuff, and Clara had stacked her poisons to twenty damage per second . . . I did some quick math. This was going to be over in less than a minute if she could avoid him. I tensed my entire body as he once again dashed at Clara. She blinked and appeared right behind him.

  Sam: CLARA NO!

  What is she doing?! I was so angry. I couldn’t do anything. Then she activated Diving Shot and used its all-other-abilities-cooldown-reset mechanic. She blinked again. It put herself right next to . . . me. She gave me a little wink as she touched my shoulder, starting to cast Hand of God. Mie started whispering, “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god,” as the boss got closer.

  Sam: What are you doing!? JUST KEEP KITING!

  Clara: :wink emoji:

  Mie: :troll emoji: :troll emoji: :troll emoji: :joy emoji:

  The rez completed, and I popped back up at fifty percent, facing away from the boss. Before I could turn and face him, Clara popped a stamina potion and fired her Dead Eye Shot. I watched it whiz past my head in what felt like slow motion until it struck Blackthorn between the eyes. He went rigid.

  I looked closer at him now, wiping the blood from my eye.

  His face was bloated, his body covered in arrows, and his eyes were unfocused. Black and red flowed out of him everywhere. He fell onto his knees. Then his corpse splatted onto the bridge, and a golden glow sputtered to life around it.

  Clara was laughing and rezzing Mie.

  I walked over to her stiffly, and clenched her shoulder hard. “Don’t fuck around like that ever again,” I said. I was shaking. Angry at her. Angry at myself.

  “Let go of me, boy,” she said.

  I released my grip. Boy?

  I breathed through my nose, trying to calm myself down. "Sorry,” I muttered. “I just thought we were about to wipe.”

  We all sat down among the dead bandit corpses, and for a minute we all just ate bread and drank water in silence as we replenished our stores. I watched my logs continue to spit out information in the corner of my eye.

  Finally, once the rage inside me subsided. I felt exhaustion, relief, and excitement. They were hitting me all at once, and I didn’t know where to start. I looked over at Clara. She had just taken out a level twenty-five boss by . . . herself.

  “You are . . . a boss,” I said over to her.

  “Thank you.” She shrugged and gave me a small smile.

  If not for her. We would have just lost two life credits. That fact alone made me grateful we’d decided to take a chance and invite her to the party.

  I turned my attention to my logs, still not quite comprehending that we had survived. I skimmed what I had missed and more.

  You killed bandits x9!

  You received 450 XP!

  You killed Blackthorn!

  You received 400 XP!

  You gained multiple levels!

  You reached level 13!

  You successfully completed the event ‘Protect Merchants from Bandits’!

  Your reputation with the town of Rivermoor has significantly increased!

  You unlocked the follower system!

  Eldric Thornwood is now a follower.

  Hilda Stonehelm is now a follower.

  Gareth Ironhand is now a follower.

  Lysandra Moonshadow is now a follower.

  Borin Thunderforge is now a follower.

  Roderick Blackwood is now a follower.

  Talk to Eldric Thornwood to receive event rewards!

  That follower system was worth looking into. If I could amass a large following over the next few months . . . My thoughts drifted to what things would be like during phase two. I wondered how that would work as players continued to dwindle.

  I put that thought line on pause as I headed over to Eldric, who had fled to the bridge entrance with the other merchants.

  He was well spoken and clearly sentient . . . which kind of sucked. He thanked me for saving them, sobbed about his two friends, and then handed over a few items. I felt awful we hadn’t been strong enough to save everyone. I exhaled as more logs cascaded down my feed.

  You received 1000 XP!

  You gained multiple levels!

  You reached level 15!

  You unlocked the ability {Reaper’s Dance}

  Active Ability: {Reaper’s Dance}

  Description: You chain hop between your selected targets, dealing 200% damage to each. You can’t be targeted during the duration of this ability.

  Cast Time: Instant

  Cost: 75 Stamina. Scales with player level.

  Cooldown: 10 minutes

  You received {Merchant’s Pendant}

  {Merchant’s Pendant}

  Rank: Epic

  Grade: Stellar

  Slot: Neck

  +5 Constitution

  +5 Agility

  +5 Strength

  +5 Endurance

  +25% Movement speed for you and party members within 30 meters

  You received {Distilled Water} x30

  You received {Strong Heart Berry} x30

  You received {Gold Coin} x5

  The readouts just kept coming, and I realized the corner of my mouth was wet. I swallowed. That experience gain . . .

  Sam: Greg. We need to talk. I just gained four levels in one event. You told me grinding is the best way to level??

  Mie: Yeah, what the hell Greg. I just hit level 14. Explain yourself.

  Greg: Yeah . . . I was watching. Honestly not sure what to say. Events are pretty rare, but then Tittles did say there would be an increase in events . . . and it might be because you guys are in a level 12-20 area. You . . . shouldn’t have survived.

  Sam: I agree. Next time a warning would be nice. Like “HEY, ODDS OF SUCCESS ARE LOW THERE”.

  Greg: I was in the bathroom . . .

  Mie: :barf emoji:

  The pendant was fantastic to have as well. I popped that into my neck slot, which had still been empty. It appeared under my shirt, and I felt my legs strengthen. That speed increase was going to be nuts. I peeked back at the bridge anxious to get back to the pile of loot. I saw a couple blue glows, a purple glow, and the golden glow still coming from Blackthorn.

  The dopamine drip was real. I hated that I wanted nothing else but to move in that direction.

  I was about to turn back and head that way, but Eldric touched me on the arm. “If you ever need anything. We will be there.” I noticed an icon show up in my interface and I mentally selected it.

  It was a list of all my followers. The six merchants were considered followers, but there were a couple other names including Eleanor who was listed as a ‘Hot Fling’ and Mark who was listed as a ‘Friend.’ Each one had various actions . . . Eleanor’s made me blush, but the new followers had actions like ‘Autonomy,’ ‘Summon,’ and ‘Request.’ I tried the summon action out on one of the other merchants, and he immediately turned away from watching the river flow by to walk over to me. I selected autonomy, and he stopped, turned around, and sat back down. He stared into the distance, still in shock from losing his friends.

  “Huh,” I said softly to myself “That’s dead useful.”

  I walked over to the glowing bodies, clicked loot, and did a little half jump, half fist pump as I saw the readout.

  You received {Rabbit Jerky} x28

  You received {Cloak of the Bandit} x2

  You received {Hood of the Bandit} x3

  You received {Chest Guard of the Bandit} x3

  You received {Leggings of the Bandit} x1

  You received {Gauntlets of the Bandit} x3

  You received {Greeves of the Bandit} x1

  You received {Wrist Guard of the Bandit} x2

  You received {Leather Gloves of the Bandit} x1

  You received {Leather Gloves of the Bandit} x1

  You received {Silver Coin} x83

  Roll for {Spear of the River Guardian}

  Roll for {Staff of Agony}

  Roll for {Cliff’s Bearded Axe}

  Roll for {Distilled Ring of Blackthorn’s Blood}

  I was speechless as we rolled for the last four items. Mie pointedly deciding to not pass on any of them. Clara took a swing at the legendary ring too . . . but in the end Mie of course won everything. I checked her character readout to make sure there wasn’t some crazy luck attribute going on. There wasn’t.

  We went through the now normal fake trade a few times, and I stayed patient. At least I tried to stayed patient until she abandoned the trade . . . for the fifth time.

  “Oh my god. JUST GIVE THEM TO ME!” I yelled . . . then deflated and pinched the bridge of my nose in exhaustion, unhappy I had taken the bait yet again.

  “There we go. That’s all I needed. Just remember: I am giving these to you,” she said. Finally the trade went through and the three items that made sense for my build showed up in my character inventory. There was a rare spear that had what looked like a shark tooth at the end and featured a smooth blue wooden haft, a bearded axe with a nice leather grip, and a ring with a black stone. I equipped each, one at a time, savoring the look and feel.

  {Spear of the River Guardian}

  Rank: Rare

  Grade: Fine

  Slot: Primary

  +2 Strength

  +2 Constitution

  +1 Agility

  {Cliff’s Bearded Axe}

  Rank: Epic

  Grade: Masterwork

  Slot: One Handed

  +5 Strength

  +5 Endurance

  {Distilled Ring of Blackthorn’s Blood}

  Rank: Legendary

  Grade: Perfect

  Slot: Finger

  +30 stamina regeneration per second

  +10 Endurance

  Active Ability: {Improved Dark Blood Rage}

  {Improved Dark Blood Rage}

  Description: All stamina costs are reduced by 50% for 10 minutes. Damage increased by 200% for 10 minutes.

  Side Effects: Movement speed decreased by 25% for 1 minute.

  Cooldown: 30 minutes

  “You always look a little dumb . . . but now you look really dumb,” Mie said.

  My mouth had been slowly dropping the more I read, and now it was hanging wide open. “Wh-whaat?” I stammered and gathered myself. “I feel like I just broke the game. I just. I just. They. It . . . Stamina.”

  “Are you okay there?” Clara said, laughing.

  “This . . . I mean. Yes. But.”

  “Yeah, he is broken. Classic Sam. Always broken in some way. Like that time he broke his penis,” Mie said nonchalantly.

  “Broken . . . penis?” Clara asked.

  “Yeah, happened all the time—” Mie started.

  I shook myself out of it, forced by Mie to protect my honor in front of Clara once again.

  “It happened ONE TIME a long time ago. Damn it, Mie. Anyways, look at this ring! I basically don’t even need stamina potions anymore, which means my abilities are only throttled by their cooldowns. The Dark Blood Rage side effect is manageable too as long as we have this merchant pendant on.” I stopped talking, thinking. There were some potential combos possible with Reaper’s Dance coming into the mix too. The upgrades were going to take some testing. There was still so much to figure out.

  Mangled bodies surrounded me, and blood seeped through cracks in the wood below my feet.

  I breathed, my mind churning as I looked across the river toward the town of Rivermoor.

  The dopamine rush over, I felt . . . cold.

  There was so much death, pain, and terror all around me.

  The woman pleading to the Soul Space camera filled my vision once more. I watched her in my mind’s eye . . . get squished.

  I remembered her smashed head . . . and a single eyeball . . . poking out next to a flattened foot. Why.

  Why is this my reality? Why are we even here? What’s the point?

  The red liquid inside of me started to pulse once more, like a pump filling me up. My hearing faded away, tears tugged at the edges of vision, and more memories of pain battered against the black barrier beneath my feet. I saw my family, in pain. A shiver ran down my spine as something solidified in my very core. I needed answers, and I needed to protect them. I needed to tell my kids I was okay. That everything would be okay.

  I looked over at Mie and Clara. Mie was poking at one of the dead bodies, and Clara was crouched and rotating her shoulders as if they were stiff, her eyes glazed over looking at her interface. She looked so small, despite the way she had just taken out a level twenty-five boss herself.

  For what felt like the hundredth time since I had awoken in this strange existence, I had relied on someone else to get me out of a pinch. Mie had saved me in the entry event, Fred, the divine dwarf, and Mie had saved me in The Black Domain recruitment event, and now Clara had saved us in this event.

  The red liquid turned purple within me. It turned . . . to ice. I needed to get stronger. I needed . . . more power. I looked at the ornate ring that bore a large black stone on my right index finger, Blackthorn’s Ring. Then I looked up to the far northwest. A mountain with a city shrouded in swirling black mist was just visible over the treetops. Lines of inky black liquid trickled from the forest in that direction. Wind blew over the river, its roar loud in my ears.

  I was going to find my family. I was going to find all of them. I was going to win this fucking game, for them and then . . . I was going to figure out what the hell was going on.

  I just needed to keep moving.

  I’m on my way, Rach. Wherever you are, I'll find you.