Chapter 17

  The change in scenery once we crossed the boundary into The Black Domain was starker than we had experienced so far.

  The Black Domain

  The terrain still shifted slowly to a more sparse and dead forest over thirty meters, but the lighting change was different, and silence fell over the landscape, like someone had just plugged my ears. The light . . . it flipped like a switch had turned it off. The sunlight on my face was replaced by an eerie moonlit darkness. It reminded me strongly of the eclipse in twenty-twenty-three. I still remembered that day, despite it being five years ago. I remembered eight-year-old Ada . . . looking happy in those ugly eclipse glasses. Those moments were rare. Her . . . happy. Her mom’s death was harder on her than Lily. Loud thumps started beating against the black barrier of glass, so . . . I stopped thinking and instead I watched my logs update.

  EVENT: Join the Black Queen Raid

  Rank: Epic

  You discovered an event.

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

  Your map has been updated.

  I opened my map to find the whole Black Domain area revealed, activity included. In the center lay the mountain and the city on its side. Actually wait, no, the city wraps around the whole mountain, I realized. I noted the name of the city. It was called, like I thought, ‘The City of The Black Domain.’ Original name. Well done, devs . . .

  I kept analyzing the map. It was strange, being able to see so much activity, and I was pretty surprised at how many yellow nameplates were in the area. Most were groups of four running around after larger groups of red dots. Mobs, I was pretty sure. Within the city, I saw gate icons wrapped around a structure I assumed was the castle. It looked like the castle was part of the mountain. Or in the mountain, I wasn’t sure. But the gate icons were color-coded. Six were red and four were green. I inspected the red ones first and got a readout right there next to the icon.

  Claimed Gate

  And . . . that was it. Okay, not much to go on there. I did see yellow dots next to each red gate. I moved to the green gates and inspected those; there were still two on our side of the city.

  Available Gate

  Key Required

  Okay, it was coming together now. It looked like this was some sort of area-wide event. In order to participate in the Black Queen Raid, we needed to find a key to claim a gate. As I closed out of the map view, I noticed one of the green gates on the far side of the city turn red. We don’t have a lot of time if we want to be part of that raid.

  “Alright, seems simple enough,” I said.

  “I can never remember how to open my darn map,” Clara grumbled.

  “Uhh,” I said, caught off guard.

  “This technology is hard. Ah, okay. I found it . . . What are we doing?”

  I shook my head. This younger generation grew up on Candy Crush and their phones, but can’t figure out a simple map interface? I looked at Fred, who had his face screwed up and was also clearly . . . confused. I sighed, looked at Mie—who gave me a knowing, ‘have we made a huge mistake by bringing these two aboard?’ look—and set to explaining what I had discovered to the others.

  The inky lines of black were everywhere as we moved deeper into the area toward a group of ten red dots. I noticed one of the dots was slightly larger than the others . . . and that this group was greater in number than all the other ones . . . by a lot. But it was the closest one to us, and we didn’t have time to go to the opposite side of the area searching after a smaller group. Fred continued to get caught by the vines, and we even saw some rare wildlife—a small doe—get caught.

  As we got closer to the deer, I noticed little red glowing dots flowing away from the dying creature and heading upstream toward the city. Whatever this corruption was, it was sucking the life from the area. It gave me the chills as I watched the doe continue to struggle, then finally succumb to death.

  “Whoa,” Fred said.

  I glanced at Mie, feeling her sadness. Her eyes glistened slightly. I hunted back home so I was uhh . . . used to dead animals, but I couldn’t blame her for her sensitivity. In a lot of ways, it really was sad. But it was also food.

  As we approached the group, which I realized was a patrolling squad of Landorian soldiers led by a man in heavy black armor, I looked at the others to gauge their feelings.

  When Tittles announced the fact that we had twenty-five days remaining, the mood had shifted considerably. Even Mie was serious about getting stronger. We were low for this area, and everyone was determined to improve themselves and their gear sets. I was now fully analyzing every ability, item, and effect I came across. We had, after all, glitched the system once before . . . sort of, by unlocking the party system early. I guessed that was an extremely rare edge case, but I was keeping my eyes out for other mechanics that seemed exploitable. I wasn’t a gaming speed-runner, but if there was some way to glitch the system, I wanted to know about it.

  As we neared the group, we bolted into a few trees, staying out of sight. Ahead of us lay a small village similar in size and shape to The Notch. Only a few buildings, with dead crop fields all around. I inspected the nameplates in the clearing ahead. They marched on foot away from us, close to entering the small village.

  Recruited Black Domain Swordsman x6

  Level 22, Landorian

  Recruited Black Domain Archer x2

  Level 23, Landorian

  Recruited Black Domain Healer

  Level 23, Landorian

  Recruited Commander Matt

  Level 27, Landorian, Knight

  HP 3500/3500

  I re-read that last one. It had a comma between the race and ‘Knight’ . . . Did that mean something different?

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  These were much the same as the guards we faced at The Notch. Tall, skinny, with black armor and various types of weapons. The armor, however, was newer and shinier than that of those grunts we’d faced way back when.

  I took a knee next to the tree and started drawing in the dry, dead, earth.

  “Okay. Here’s exactly what I want each of you to do.”

  “FRED, NO! UUUGH. I NEED TO GRAB AGGRO FIRST, DAMN IT. MIE, RUN! CLARA, START IN ON THE HEALER NOT THE BOSS.”

  I was playing . . . with a collection of children. Mie was getting way too close when she needed to basically just stay out of the fight and heal, Clara . . . was working down the wrong target . . . and Fred, didn’t understand Threat, or New Threat, and had done damage to the boss before I had grabbed aggro.

  “STOP YELLING AT US, DAD!” Mie shouted back.

  God damn it. She was right. I needed to focus on getting back aggro. We could save the lessons for after the fight.

  I growled in frustration. It was a simple plan.

  I activated the Blackthorn’s Ring active ability, targeted the entire group, activated Reaper’s Dance, and instantly leapt forward. It was like I was one of those crazy fast-moving anime characters. I dashed from target to target, always ending up behind their backs, facing toward them, and pausing for just long enough on each to dig into their necks and backs with both of my axes and then rip them back out. Then I would kick off into thin air and appear behind the next. The damage was good, but the level difference was too great. I dealt at best maybe ten percent to each swordsman and archer. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to take Threat . . . which Fred and Clara had both ruined. I growled again. Idiots.

  I started running, and the entire group, minus the healer and the commander, tore after me. I looked back to see the commander bearing down on Fred, and the healer prioritizing healing in the wake of the damage my Reaper’s Dance had caused. I looked back to the commander, and something caught my eye. I thought I saw . . . something scuttle on the back of his neck. What . . . was that?

  I didn’t have time to dig into whatever the hell that was, as two arrows dug into my back.

  “GAH!” I roared, turning in a wide arc and activating Vaulting Strike on the boss. As I nearly finished my strike, the boss turned toward me, sweeping a large two-handed sword. Oh . . . shit.

  Fred had activated his invisibility, and so the boss’s attention had gone to the only other person who had done damage to it . . . which was me. I processed all of this in a moment.

  There was no time to do anything. I was in midair.

  Thunk.

  I ate steel to my side, and my health plummeted. The two-handed sword had made its way halfway through me.

  The boss yanked the sword back, and my whole body sort of flopped forward a little. I tried to scream in pain and rage, but . . . nothing came out. His sword was stuck. I tried to store it, but his grip seemed to be preventing that. A Flash Heal fell over me just as I popped a Health potion, which way over-healed me and pushed the sword out.

  When I slipped backward off of the sword, the boss threw out his other arm, and a large black spider leapt onto me just as two more arrows dug into my back, replacing the other two I had just shed.

  “HOLY! NO! GET IT OFF!” I started running toward Mie, panicking and flailing my arms at the spider. Its legs felt like they had little cat claws, and it resisted my efforts to displace it. The boss and every other mob followed close behind.

  I could feel all of the spider’s legs. I spasmed. “GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!” Mie took one look at me and the spider scuttling around my chest, who was still resisting my relentless blows to it and she—well, I couldn’t blame her—she turned and ran, a look of terror on her face.

  The spider made its way onto my back . . . then neck. It was about the size of a basketball. Holy Fuck! A BASKETBALL-SIZED SPIDER WAS ON THE BACK OF MY NECK! It burrowed down into me, and I felt blood dribble down the back of my neck. “HOLY GOD DAMNIT, NO! HELP!” I cried.

  Mie turned around to look. “OH FUCK THAT!” she cried . . . and kept running. Clara and Fred were following, Fred throwing out green Arbitrary Blasts when the ability came off cooldown. Slightly distracted, I vaguely recognized that the healer was dead, and one of the archers was dead.

  But my attention returned to me. BECAUSE ON ME, I FELT THE SPIDER GOD DAMN CRAWLING INTO MY NECK. A debuff appeared over me and started ticking down.

  {“Recruiting”} for 20 seconds

  {“Recruiting”}

  Description: If the 20 second timer falls to 0, the targeted player loses a Life Credit and converts into an enemy mob. This ignores the {Knocked} effect.

  Still running, I grabbed at it in a self-back-scratching motion, but I couldn’t get a good grip as it continued to burrow.

  The further the time ticked down, the further it was inside of me. I couldn’t find any purchase.

  5 seconds

  4 seconds

  “CLARA, SHOOT ME IN THE NECK!” I screamed.

  An arrow came whizzing in, well aimed, and hit the spider in its large butt. The debuff fell away, and the spider, blood, and black liquid all came out of the back of my neck.

  “Oh thank you, Jesus,” I croaked as relief washed over me, my voice hoarse. That was way, way, way too close. But I didn’t have long to recover, as I saw the commander throw out another spider.

  The initial plan, which we had somehow miraculously fallen into, was for me to grab aggro and run around in a large circle with the mobs as Clara and Fred peeled and finished them off one at a time. Mie was on healing duty, no tanking for her since she was so slow. The problem was . . . we hadn’t planned for the boss to drop Life-Credit-stealing spiders every minute or so. It might have been fine if they always targeted me, but no. They would speed away and randomly select their target. I did note that they were considered spells and not mobs. Which meant if we were Knocked and our immunity fell off. They would come for us.

  “FRED, TARGET THE BOSS!” I cried as another spider fell off the commander and scurried toward Mie. I speared it with a Spear Throw, and it crumpled into a ball and died.

  Originally, the plan had been to take care of all the other mobs first and then take out the boss, but that didn’t make sense with these spiders; we needed to get rid of the spider-generator. But now . . . I had a thought. A stupid thought.

  “WAIT! NEVERMIND. STICK TO THE PLAN!” It was going to be a lot harder, but the other archer was dead, and it was just the swordsmen, the boss . . . and the spiders left. Playing the long game was only going to work with the healer dead, and now that he was, I had a hunch I wanted to investigate.

  For the next ten minutes, Fred and his ridiculously lucky Arbitrary Blasts—I don’t think he rolled under a five the whole time—worked the swordsmen down. I watched that little green spell . . . pick the most random objects to cause chain-reaction chaos. Guards tumbled, causing more swords to guts, a perfectly normal tree fell over, a boulder shifted, and there was even a lightning strike as he worked them down one at a time. How does that work?! It was officially bugging me now. Clara helped finish off the mobs under thirty percent to maximize his damage potential. They just had to be careful to not pull more than one or two away from me at a time. But in a pinch, Fred could always go invisible, and Clara had a battery of kiting tools to work with.

  While this was happening, I stayed laser focused on the commander. Every time he threw out a spider, I speared it. My spears were running low, but I’d collect them after the fight.

  This went on for some time, and Mie cursed me out to oblivion at one point when a spider sped off away from me and got to her while I was particularly far from her. It started its burrowing debuff, but I pinned it away from her with a spear . . . another close call.

  Finally, it was just the commander. He sprinted after me, his eyes under his helm fully black.

  I turned to face him. Sweat beaded off my forehead, and blood had turned thick as it dried all over me.

  Okay, you little fuck. This better have been worth it.

  Timing the spider mechanic, I waited for the moment when another would come off him. Clara nailed it with an arrow as I vaulted in, then Ass Cracked. I said a silent ‘thank you!’ when the stun took effect. I ripped his helm off to expose his neck.

  I grinned. My hunch had been correct. There was a little black butt mound. Clara, figuring it out, swooped in, took a dagger, and inserted it into the back of the commander’s neck.

  I stepped back in disgust when once again, blood and a literal fountain of black ink poured out of the gaping hole in his neck as the spider fell away.

  We all took several more paces backward.

  The transparent blue stun encasing him fell away . . . but nothing happened. He turned around, his eyes to the ground. He almost looked . . . confused . . . but his nameplate remained red.

  He reached one hesitant hand up and felt at the back of his neck.

  “Well . . . that didn’t work,” Clara said.

  “Mie, send him a heal,” I said.