Trials of a VRMMO Healer

Chapter 10 - Cloak and Dagger

It had been a few days since I had last had a chance to play. Work had been stupid busy and I had social obligations which prevented me from spending my free time playing video games. Luckily this also gave Lily time to finish up my armor. We'd been working on a project and even though Eternity Online was a game it still took time and energy that I just didn't have. When I logged back in, I was at my inn room in Illium. I headed off down the winding back alleys of the city toward Lily's shop.

I'd gotten better at navigating the city, but I was still amazed at the scale of it. Cities in most games were pretty small, because they had to be hand-crafted by the designers. But even in real life, medieval cities were tiny compared to modern ones. I'd grown up a city of 25,000 people and that was considered a pretty small suburb, but it would've been a good size city in the middle ages. Illium, I guessed, must've had about a population of a 100k, but the limited space caused by the rivers providing a natural border meant that they had built upwards and more densely than otherwise. The good news was this meant that it was a very walkable city, but the bad news was, well, it could be a maze once you left the main thoroughfares. What I'd learned was that there were very few dead ends so as long as you headed in the right direction, the particular path wasn't that important. Still, the very fact that it existed was a puzzle to me. I could only guess that it had been generated by an algorithm, but I wondered about the NPCs. Did they have a history here? How far back did this all go? Deep semantic engines were great at filling in the gaps, but someone still had to draw the broad strokes — they couldn't create things on their own.

As I was lost in thought, I was stabbed in the back. Pain in EO was a funny thing. It hurt enough that you'd know you took damage, but obviously if it was as painful as real life, not only would people quit playing, but they'd likely wake up from the dreamlike state the hardware had put them in. But still, getting stabbed really hurt. I had taken damage while fighting, of course, but this was different because the knife was still in me as a hand grasped my shoulder and pulled me back. My assailant was taller than me, so in response to the attack I jumped up and backwards. In addition to [Glide], my jumping practice had improved my [Jump] skill. The back of my head connected with a jaw and I felt my attacker release me. That was all the opening I needed. I whirled, Earthsinger in my hands, and made a blind swing at where I thought they might and felt it connect. My attacker was a tall, lanky, unshaven man wearing a ragged hood. Dangerous, wild eyes peered out at me. He might've looked like a beggar, but there was something wrong with that assessment. My blow had knocked the wind out of him but he was quickly recovering. However, more importantly for me was that a successful hit had set off Mountainsong. I activated [Blessing of Sunlight] on myself and charged him. I wasn't exactly trained in combat, but I knew this was different from a fight with a monster. Monsters acted purely on instinct, or at least, all the ones I had fought so far had. They didn't exactly act like real animals, either. Animals, even dangerous ones, tended to be more wary than aggressive. Predators that take on fights that they aren't sure they can win tend not to live long. Monsters, on the other hand, kept fighting to the death. It was a game, after all. But people thought. People had emotions and reason. Being aggressive in this situation was best. I was a close-range fighter, after all, and if this was a mugger looking for an easy mark, I might be able to scare him off.

He had drawn a second dagger and dropped to a fighting stance but even being significantly shorter than him, a warhammer have me a significant reach advantage. My second swing had all my momentum from my charge and I swung up and wide. I overreached a bit, figuring that he might step back and into the hammer, but he was an experienced enough fighter to step forward, towards me. It was the right call. Earthsinger hit him with the handle rather than the mass at the head and he lunged towards me, stabbing toward my chest. I dropped into a slide. While my swing didn't connect for proper damage, the head was now behind him, so I spun Earthsinger's handle around and pulled as I fell. The hooked, pointed end of the hammer caught him by surprise in the back and dragged him to the ground as I slid between his feet. There were advantages to being small. This fight had to end now or things could get very risky. I could hold me own in a melee, but I had a big weapon that needed room for maximum power and I was a healer, not a fighter. Dragging this out into a pure contest of skill would be bad. My strategy, as always, was to only plan for the moment. Aim for the best outcome but have a plan if it goes awry. I jumped and bounded off the wall of the alley. I triangle-jumped my way up the walls of the buildings. It sure had gotten easier than when I had fought with Zzixis. Back then everything I did required manually shifting mana from stat to stat. Now my skills did the heavy lifting and the mana flow was second nature. I readied a Starfall Strike, but he was already taking off down the street. I used [Glide] to flutter back down to street level and backed off the other way and out to a major street. It took a minute before I realized that I still had a knife stuck in my back. Adrenaline will do that to you. The knife confirmed my suspicions—it was magical, definitely not the sort of thing a beggar would have, much less have two. I ended up having to take the long way to Lily's shop, avoiding the back alleys as best I can.

"Jesus Christ, what happened to you?" Lily asked when I finally made it there. Apparently I still looked pretty ragged. I was resting in a chair in her workshop behind the main shop.

"It was a PKer, I guess. Tried to mug me in an alley."

"A PKer? Can't be. Travelers can't fight within the city walls. The same 'magic' that keeps monsters out keeps Travelers from ganking each other outside inn rooms."

"So it was an NPC then? Huh. I didn't think they usually went around attacking people."

"They usually don't. NPCs aren't like monsters or Travelers. They don't respawn when they die, but they also have the biggest ability to influence the world while they're alive. Travelers need special permits to, say, build a house or found a city. We're kind of a transient existence to this world, right? The gods created a bridge to the stars and the monsters and Travelers came through. That's how the story goes, anyway. Since we're not truly a part of this world we're limited in how we can interact with it. In return we can't truly die while Traveling. That's how the backstory goes, anyway. The point is that Travelers can't truly die, but regular folks can and even if a Traveler does 'die', they dissolve into light so you can't just take their stuff. Oh, but they drop any money they are holding. Still, that's a pretty big-ass risk to take. Plus, there's the fact that most Travelers are skilled fighters."

"So why did he attack me, then? It makes no sense. I'm not even carrying much money. He would've gotten a few hundred Gul out of it."

Lily shrugged. "I don't know, but it's definitely weird. There's nothing technically stopping NPCs from being as strong as players, but it doesn't usually happen and it definitely doesn't happen when one takes as many risks. What I do know, however, is that next time you'll have an extra secret weapon."

She grinned as she produced a suit of armor from her inventory.

"This is the Sun Scorpion Mail."

The name was a bit on the nose but the armor itself was amazing. Zzixis' carapace had been carefully split along the seams and attached to supple leather. It already looked more like proper armor than my [Crude Scorpion Leather Armor]. Lily had used the Amaras Heliolite to emboss the carapace with patterns. I took the mail and put it in my inventory and equipped it.

"And look! It has a hood! With antennae!"

Indeed, rather than a helm, the armor had a hood built in with feather details that simulated the antennae on a moth. I wasn't going to point out that scorpions didn't have antennae, especially to someone who named herself after a liger. Still, it was definitely cute, but more than that, it was lightweight. It felt like I was wearing a hoodie or a leather jacket or something. The stats were great, too. The defense was good, but more than that, it provided a bonus to Light Magic. But the real kicker was [Curse of Zzixis:

When Equipped: Every time you take damage while wearing this armor, you gain one point of Virulent Curse.

When Activated:

Spend 1 point of Virulent Curse to cast Virulent Retribution.

[Virulent Retribution: Deals damage to anyone who attacks you.]

Spend 10 points of Virulent Curse to cast [Child of Zzixis].

[Child of Zzixis: Summons a scorpid minion to help with fighting. While active, this spell drains Virulent Curse.]]

So, in other words, it gave me a damage shield that I could maintain as long as I was taking damage or, if I saved it up, I could summon a scorpid pet. In addition to the healing boost this was a nice item.

"This is amazing." I said.

"It's my finest work. I've been working on [Runecraft] and that's the result. It's kind of like programming, you connect different runes to get different effects. Oh, the basic effects need to be supported by the materials, too, of course. But a clever Runerafter can combine things in ways that amplify the effects. It's complicated but it turns out to be worth it. And like I said before, getting materials like this meant I got to level up a bunch. I got more than enough Amaras Heliolite last time, too. So you just owe me for the leather."

I paid her and modeled my new armor in front of the mirror, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see my old leather armor, with its hole torn in the back from the dagger. I had to figure this out.