Unknown (24 page)

Success! You've created a vial of Minor Life Potion!

You've reached level 1 in Profession: Alchemy.

I lovingly took out the vial. For some reason, things you make with your own hands make you feel better, which is a fact exploited by numerous brands selling you lopsided DIY furniture kits more suitable for dwarves that for human
 
use. Ah, forget it.

By the time Bug screamed "Yes! Nineteen!" I'd already used up all the herbs I had, raising the skill to 23.

I proudly pointed at where three dozen tiny bottles were lined up by the fire. "Welcome to Dr. Death Knight's clinic," I said, filling my quick access slots with vials. Others followed suit, snapping up the rest.

A few minutes later, I gingerly stepped onto the moss of the Sleeping Woods. The first to meet me was the SUV-sized hulk of a grizzly bear. A couple levels higher than myself, he was perfect for a test pull.

I cast a DoT with a snare. The creature bellowed, causing wood rot to cascade below. I shook my head, stunned by his voice. Was it his skill or the developers' sick sense of humor again? Was there a way to put the sound down here? I bolted. A flower of Purple Cineraria flashed under some fir tree or other. I tried to memorize the place to be able to come back to it at a later date.

Both Hummungus and the zombie stood by the fire as I'd told them to. You couldn't get further than fifty paces away from your pets. If you did, the mount would revert back to his artifact and the zombie could follow one of two scenarios. He would either crumble to dust in the absence of his owner's control or turn into an uncontrollable aggro. If some Necro left behind a high-level creature like that in a newb location, it could keep devastating the area for a long time until finally killed by a stronger player. And as it didn't offer any loot or experience, few would bother laying an unleashed mob like that to rest.

I turned to the pet. "Attack!" Then I slowly moved to face the grizzly bear.

Now we had to wait a few seconds as agreed. No one wanted to pull aggro to him or herself. Finally, Taali swung her sword entering the scene. The tip of her blade drew some kind of pictogram on the beast's side. With a guttural shriek, she hit the creature with her shield, finishing her act. The battle chat started flashing messages.

Failure! Taali's sword has dealt a powerful blow, but the Grizzly is still resisting her attack!

Which was when I joined the fun. I first sent Teddy to attack him. Then I cast a DoT with a snare, and another one, ending by casting two heals over my zombie. Somewhere in the wings, I heard Bug's cry for help.

I turned round. The kid was pulling two wolves from the woods. Too early. He should have sat out our first pull and watch us handle it. I switched the target and cast Deadman's Hand over one of the wolves, adding a DoT for good measure. Once the spell wore off, he'd start aggroing me, and then we'd see. Was I a semi-tank, after all? By then the grizzly and Taali were at 30%. On my command, she broke off the fight to heal Bug and herself. The zombie was still holding while Hummungus kept nibbling at the grizzly's back. I cast a DoT over each of the three mobs and renewed Deadman's Hand on the wolf. Taali rejoined us as I cast several Life Absorptions. Too much for the grizzly who promptly collapsed, bellowing. Keeping an eye on Bug, we finished off the remaining wolf while the kid terminated his, too.

Phew. That wasn't too difficult. Good team work, without walking a tightrope. We could do it. We'd had a stress test instead of the easy one we'd expected, that was all.

"Regen," I said. They sat down for a mana-restoring meditation while I quickly rushed to get a plant I'd discovered earlier, picking up another Sunleaf on my way. My herbal skill happily
 
jumped up another point.

I looted the corpses. The wolf dropped a couple of chunks of meat while my newly-acquired flaying skill gave me an Eye of a Wolf. It didn't cost much but could be used for Night Vision Elixir. Waste not, want not.

The grizzly dropped nothing but a hefty handful of copper. True, farming Soul Stones solo was much easier than as part of a group. Each group member lessened my chances. With two of us, Soul Stones dropped half as often—even less when Bug joined us. In theory, you weren't supposed to notice it that much because logically, a group had to kill more mobs than a solo player. But in reality, the stronger the group, the more ambitious its goals and the higher the monsters the players target. That raised both loot and adrenalin but dramatically lowered the group's kill chances. I didn't even want to calculate the chances to get a Stone off a raid boss attacked by a group of two hundred players. Such chances had to be too depressing to bother.

"I'm ready," the girl reported.

"I'm off, then?" Bug shuffled from foot to foot, impatient.

"Go ahead, then. Scream if you need help. Use your bandages and elixirs. I'll be going, too."

The hunt started to fall into a pattern. After another twenty minutes, Hummungus had finally reached a new level.

Congratulations! Your riding mount Hummungus has reached a new level!

Hummungus' current level: 2

4 Characteristic points available!

Excellent. The night before, I'd had Teddy's leveling all worked out. I was going to increase his damage, and as soon as Hummungus started to pull aggro to himself, I'd start working on his hits. And the next day I planned to invest in his speed a little. Until now, it all had been going to plan. I opened Teddy's menu with a steady hand and raised his Strength four points.

In yet another twenty minutes, a celestial glow embraced Taali and almost immediately, Bug.

"Ding!" they shouted.

A quarter of an hour later, it was my turn to celebrate. Level 33, finally.

The sky glowed crimson. The majestic fir tops had already swallowed the sun when we took stock of the day's exhausting work.

Our results were nothing to sniff at. I'd done 39, Taali 35, and Bug had very nearly hit 30. He needed another ten mobs to do so, but by then we were on our last legs. It had to wait till tomorrow. Nine hours of non-stop farming and about twenty close shaves. One of them had proven too close for Bug who'd had to walk back to us all the way from the city. If he hadn't splurged his own gold piece for a speed buff as he cleared the city gates, he'd still be trying to catch up with us. And then there was that wretched PK.

By that time, Bug had already joined our group, causing the Soul Stone loot to shrink into insignificance—one every fifteen minutes if we were lucky. I opened the Wiki to look for whatever was causing such a discrepancy. Apparently, apart from the party size penalty, we also had suffered a huge level gap. This was done to discourage the more clever players who might want to hire an assistant a hundred levels higher than themselves hoping he'd pull their chestnuts out of the fire for them. In theory, they still had a good chance of decent loot this way, but realistically it approached the same chances as hitting a rigged casino jackpot.

Don't get me wrong: I wasn't complaining. Experience kept coming, loot kept dropping, and I'd already made a nice little pile of high-level stones. My zombie gnoll had already bitten the dust, replaced by a level-36 zombie wolf. Bug kept pulling all sorts of little critters from the woods nearby. He waited till he got close enough to me and whispered,

"There's somebody around. Either stealthed or invisible. I have this Piercing Vision ability. If the guy gets too close or his skill is too low, I can see him.

"Who?" I mouthed soundlessly as I cast another DoT over a Mad Fox he'd fetched me.

He shrugged. "No idea. I've only seen his blurred outline a couple times but I wasn't fast enough to target him. Some PK sniffing around, I think."

After the battle I stopped Bug before he dashed off to get another monster. "Coffee break. Everyone, come and sit over here."

I waited for my friends to get seated. "Taali, we have a strong suspicion that there may be a PK prowling around. I suggest we go into paranoia mode. No taking risks. Make sure your hits don't drop too low. Start healing at fifty percent, not thirty. Everybody, keep mana over fifty, too. Bug, you stay within our sight, don't wander off, just keep pulling monsters from the edge, okay? If he doesn't show up in thirty minutes, we'll consider it a false alarm and stop for a smoke break."

The PK attacked us after ten minutes. Bug had just come back with an enormous patriarch wolf when the undergrowth parted, letting out a coal-black level 44 werewolf. He charged toward us. The creature just couldn't be local. According to the guidebook, they only inhabited the Cursed Woods which were coming next. No way it could have started aggroing us from that distance. Someone had to have set him on us.

You've been attacked by another player! Self-defense doesn't affect the PK counter!

The earth bulged around my pet. Powerful growths entangled the zombie's feet rooting him to the spot. That gave me some idea of what our attacker could be. I selected the werewolf as target and started casting Deadman's Hand, time after time, trying to control him.

"The PK is a Druid," I shouted. "Fifty to a hundred feet at three o'clock. He's controlling the werewolf. Bug, get up there and try to break his spells. Taali, make sure we don't die."

Finally, my third spell went through. The beast raged a few paces away, unable to move. I still couldn't see the Druid even though the same strong roots had already pinned down Hummungus and Taali. A stealthed Bug, like some mad tortoise, scurried toward the suspect enemy location. In the meantime, we had to finish off the werewolf while we still could if we didn't want to lose both our lives and experience. I cast a couple DoTs, renewing my control over him, when the air around me flashed with enemy spells. The Druid had already immobilized whoever he could and was now deciding on who to get rid of first. His choice fell on me as the one with two pets and the highest level. Who was he, attacking a group of three so brazenly?

Angry Earth! Tree roots come to life and entangle your feet, immobilizing you and dealing 110 points damage.

Beehive! A swarm of wild bees attacks you dealing 60 points damage.

Stings sent an agonizing rush through my body. Hey, that hurt. Apparently, the Beehive spell was also a DoT which went off every six seconds, annoying me no end on top of dealing damage.

I started healing, casting Life Absorption over the poor werewolf. His hits kept dropping. Sometimes the stinging bees prevented me from finishing a spell. The Druid sent another DoT my way, adding his own weak but frequent hits. Finally, the Gnoll King's Charm kicked in:

Pain Mirror is activated! The enemy spell Moonlight has been reflected toward the attacker.

Take that, you bastard!

Ouch. The werewolf broke the spell, covering the distance between us in one mighty leap and sinking his teeth into my belly, stripping me of 20% health in under ten seconds. The freakin' Druid just didn't know when to stop, did he? I kept casting Deadman's Hand as I crawled away from the immobilized werewolf. My life flashed in the red zone. It looked like I was a goner.

Taali saved me by spending on me her daily allowance of Holy Hands skill. Tada! The Druid had to be absolutely furious.

"I got him," Bug yelled.

Apparently, he'd managed to steal toward the Druid who was cloaking behind the stones, then hit him with a bleed combo to his back. The bastard had chosen a great vantage point: he'd peek out for a moment to
 
select a target, then cast a series of spells.

Finally, the wolf collapsed. My four-legged friends rushed toward him but I selected the Druid as target and yelled "Attack!" Let's see how his magic helps him against three hand-to-hand fighters. That's provided we slowed him down first before he ran off, what with his druidic speed buffs and all. I cast a DoT with a snare, then another one, three times in total. His PK gear had to have some great resists until finally, my last DoT got to him.

The Druid crawled out onto the road, apparently with the intention of legging it. Hummungus had already frozen, paralyzed; now the pet stopped moving, too. Only Bug kept perforating the son of a bitch with his blades.

The Druid's life had shrunk into the red zone. He used a quick spell for a short teleport, reappearing a good fifty feet away from us. Immediately, he began casting a long spell. Judging by the familiar visual, it had to be a teleport to a bind point. I pulled some more life off him waiting for Bug to arrive. He hit the Druid with another combo, blood splattering everywhere. But the PK was in luck. He finished casting the spell and disappeared with a pop.

"He's gone to die, the bastard," I managed. "I got two DoTs on him."

Bug nodded. "I gave him a 140 bleed combo in the end. I don't think he can heal."

Warning! You've killed a player of the Faction of Light!

Your relationship with the Dark Alliance has improved!

The killed player has 271 points on his PK counter.

What a shame he was gone. With numbers like these, he was bound to drop a few quality items. He'd had some nice gear.

Oh, no. That was the werewolf again. He somehow managed to break free and sunk his teeth into my flesh. But now there were three of us plus two pets, however little mana we had left between us.
 
So we survived. Luck had a lot to do with it, and we'd been lucky twice: the second time was when the creature's corpse dropped a level 44 stone. The werewolf had been great, but I chose not to change horses in midstream and stored the stone away till a later date.

Thus we kept leveling for another hour in moderate paranoia mode: we didn't let mana and hits drop below 40%, all the time waiting for the Druid to come back with a (literally) vengeance. But apparently, he had easier targets to pursue. That's the summary of our busy day.