Unforeseen path, p.34
Unforeseen Path, page 34
“It’s not an attack?” Zeven demanded, glancing at the pair in confusion as Nahimana worriedly eyes the Ghouls while his Grizhawk paused in confusion.
“What do you mean?” Byrnwulf demanded in the same tone, not lowering his weapon. Before Igtra could explain, Phoenix and Töten busted out laughing as Neristhana glanced back at the scene shaking her head in amusement.
“Star,” Phoenix chortled in amusement, “you really need to start warning new teammates about what’s up before you do shit like that.”
“They’re Necromancers,” Igtra repulsively spat, critically giving Helgath and me another once over as if to reevaluate our potential threat levels.
‘That female needs an attitude adjustment,’ Helgath irritably sent as she turned towards Igtra with a glowing clawed hand.
‘Remember,’ I gently sent, placing a calming hand on the Half-Orc’s shoulder, ‘we only cleanse those that directly harm or attack us.’
‘Yes, War Leader,’ Helgath grumbled as the Badger kin’s head whipped around to stare at us.
“Those undead monsters are yours?” Zeven asked, giving me an accusatory look as Nahimana and Bright Claw traded a confused look, “Dude, if you had these things the whole time, why didn’t you use them for taking out the PKers back at Töten’s stronghold?”
“I did use them,” I said, giving the Badger kin an indifferent shrug as I ordered the undead to guard the doors, “for camping any of those fuckers that decided to respawn at the graveyard.”
“Ouch, remind me not to get on your bad side,” Byrnwulf joked, ignoring the alarmed looks coming from his companion as the Badger kin’s eyes widened in surprise.
“It’s probably for the best,” Phoenix agreed in a tone that said she wasn’t joking.
“Oookkkaaayyy,” Zeven said, realizing just how easy it would’ve been for us to gank his stronghold if we’d really wanted to, “that’s good to know.”
“What I don’t understand,” Igtra groused as she eyed us warily, “is why you didn’t raise your undead sooner?”
“Probably because it takes a minute of uninterrupted casting to raise them, duh,” Phoenix explained in the same tone.
“So, we good?” I asked, glancing back and forth between the Badger kin and the Red Draconian-Humans.
“Sure, man,” Byrnwulf said, elbowing Igtra in the side, “Come on, Igtra. Let’s get these guys down.”
“Yeah, we’re cool,” Zeven agreed as I nodded and began heading over to the boss.
“Hey Neri, Phoenix,” I said as Zeven followed me, “why don’t you go ahead and summon your Ghouls while we have the time.”
“Good idea,” Phoenix agreed as she began fishing out two soul stones from her belt pouch.
“I’m sort of busy right now, Lord Stinky,” Neristhana complained.
Even so, the Gnomeling paused in her work to do what I asked as I walked over to the pile of gear that she’d looted from the mini-boss. Calling up the in-game wiki, I started reading up on how to do automatic group rolls since our group now had new teammates. Reading quickly through the process, I called up the system window just as the big guy came to a stop next to me and gave me an amused look.
“First time rolling for loot?” Töten asked, reaching for the first item in the pile as he gave me a wink, “You need to be the group leader to set loot preferences.”
There was the loud clink of coins in my ears as a system message popped open before my eyes.
You have received three golds, twelve silvers, and 37 coppers.
Decent haul for a group this size, I thought, as the coins were evenly divided amongst everyone present. As soon as that message blinked away, a new window popped up. This time, it was the glowing text of a purple-colored item.
Toxic Fang of the Cheliferidae Risso
Item Quality: Uncommon
Item Type: Unique
Attack: One-hand Edge
Weapon Type: Dagger
Damage: 120-130
Durability: 300/300
Weight: 1 kg
+15 Stamina
+15 Agility
-Venomous Touch (Type: Poison) Target suffers a poisonous effect that slows movement and reaction speeds by 20% for thirty seconds on each successful strike.
*5% Chance on proc to inflict a five-second paralysis on each successful strike.
Damn, that’s a sweet dagger, I mentally whistled as my internal greed monster perked up at the interesting loot. While it didn’t have a Leeching option, the dagger did offer an appreciative stat boost just for keeping it sheathed on your hip, which wasn’t too shabby. Besides, that Venomous Touch was a pretty nice special, especially if the paralysis proc’ed.
Curiously enough, just as I’d read on the in-game wiki, everyone’s names in the group were listed underneath the item and a dice roll was automatically initiated. To my complete surprise, that included Neristhana, Helgath, Nahimana, and Igtra’s names too, and not just the other players in the group. I guess Töten had chosen to roll for any loot that dropped.
Hopefully, that didn’t cause any problems, I silently thought, holding my breath as the results appeared a second later showing that Helgath had won the roll.
“Grats on the win,” Töten said to the Half-Orc next to me as he handed the dagger over without batting an eye.
“Damn, that’s a decent drop,” Byrnwulf called out from the other side of the barn without any outward malice as they released the first player from his spittle bindings.
“Um, thank you,” Helgath said, unsure of how to act as she accepted the black and green chitin curved dagger in its plain sheath with both hands.
“No problem,” Töten said, grinning broadly as the Half-Orc unsheathed the long-curved dagger to inspect its green glowing edge, “without your support, we’d have never brought that mini-boss down.”
While a small part of me was a little bit jealous at losing the roll, I shrugged the jealous feeling off for the nothing it was. Helgath needed the upgrade, and it was basically the same as if I’d won the roll myself. Laughing at my reaction, I glanced up at the Anti-Paladin as both Neristhana and Phoenix finished raising their second Orc Warrior Ghoul.
“Respect,” I said, giving the big man an appreciative nod as he reached for the pile of gems that Neristhana had set to the side.
“It’s only right,” Töten grunted with a dismissive shrug as multiple windows suddenly popped open before my eyes. There was one for each gem held in the Anti-Paladin’s hand. The results were listed within a few seconds.
Everyone but me won a roll on one of the ten Blood Agates that had dropped. Zeven and Byrnwulf won the roles on the two Verdant Agates, while Helgath won another roll for the Lesser Moonstone that dropped. Not that I was complaining. I ended up with one of the two Citrines that dropped with Igtra getting the other.
As Töten bent down to pick up the next item, I was curious to see the turquoise color of an Exceptional item pop up in a window.
Toxic Chitin-Spiked Knuckles
Item Quality: Exceptional
Item Type: Unique
Attack: One-hand Edge
Weapon Type: Dagger
Damage: 40-60
Durability: 250/250
Weight: 7 kg
+10 Stamina
+10 Agility
-Venomous Touch (Type: Poison) Target suffers a poisonous effect that slows movement and reaction speeds by 3% for thirty seconds on each successful strike or pierce against target's dermis, scales, chitin, etc.
While interesting, it wasn’t anything I particularly wanted, I thought, as the automatic roll started again. A second later, Nahimana was displayed as the winner.
“Is this alright?” Nahimana asked in consternation as she turned to look at Zeven
“It’s fine,” he assured his Badger kin companion, “take it.”
The next item that popped up for a roll was a flat stone with carved runes on its face. As soon as Töten held up the item, a green text system window popped open before our eyes.
Charm of the Warrior
Item Quality: Fine
Item Type: Crafted
Location: Inventory
Durability: 150/150
Weight: 0.8 kg
+20 to Stamina
+200 to Armor
Even though the charm was green, that extra 200 to your Armor Class and plus twenty to Stamina wasn’t anything to sneeze at. That most especially went for an item that you simply had to keep in your inventory to get its benefits. When the automatic roll finished, Byrnwulf let out a happy whoop from the far side of the barn.
“Oh yeah, baby, that’s sweet as hell!”
“Head’s up,” Töten said, throwing the stone charm to the Red Draconian-Human player like a Frisby.
“Thanks, dude!” Byrnwulf shouted as he nabbed the stone expertly out of the air.
“What did you get?” the player he’d just released asked.
“Holy shit,” the Rogue said, “I didn’t know they had charms in The World!”
“Seriously?” another of the players asked, hurrying over to the Red Draconian-Human as Töten picked up the next item, “let me see.”
Half-Digested Brown Leather Pants
Item Quality: Inferior
Item Type: Common
Slot: General Clothing
Defense: 0
Armor Type: Light
Durability: 8/25
Weight: 1.3 kg
-5 Charisma
-Description – Too thin rancid leather pants that smell like rotten food and digestive juices.
“Dude, are you serious?” Phoenix laughingly asked as the roll automatically started.
“What?” Töten asked, “It triggered as soon as I picked it up.”
“Sure, it did,” Phoenix barked in laughter as the big guy flipped her off.
“Why would the system even bother rolling on an item like that?” Zeven asked as his face screwed up in confusion.
“Probably because it’s still considered loot,” Töten said with an indifferent shrug, when the winner of the roll was displayed, “Congratulations, Star.”
“Seriously,” I said in annoyance as I got a perfect roll.
“Hence the description,” Töten laughing said, tossing me the still slimy leather, “Enjoy.”
“Thanks,” I said, holding the pants up to look them over, “I swear, they look like a rock star’s used skinny leather pants the next morning after a concert.”
“Who had a lot of sex and alcohol before puking all over themselves,” Phoenix needlessly added.
“They sure smell like it,” Zeven agreed, shivering at the whiff he’d gotten of the rancid pants. Seeing me stuffing the disgusting things into my rucksack, he gave me an incredulous look, “Dude, are you keeping them?”
“At least, until the end of the dungeon,” I said with a shrug.
“Probably for the best,” Töten agreed sagely.
“Why’s that?” Byrnwulf asked as he freed the last player with the help of the rest of the team.
“It’s old-school gamer logic,” Phoenix explained before Töten or I could speak up, “The owner’s spirit shows up at the end of the dungeon, and the only way to solve the final quest is to make sure you have their missing leather pants.”
“Otherwise, he starts killing everyone screaming for his lost pants,” Töten agreed.
“You’re shitting me,” Zeven said, looking back and forth between them.
“That’s not it at all,” Neristhana interrupted as she searched the mini-boss’s corpse for loot and crafting items, “Lord Stinky is a hoarder at heart.”
“I’m a hoarder now?” I patiently asked as the Gnomeling shot me a wink.
“Yeah, Sarka and Yun told me all about what you did back in the Delonshire Mine when they first met up with you,” Neristhana explained to my friends with her arms elbow deep in the corpse, “He looted all of the bloody clothing that they found after the Goblin invasion of the mine and took it with him for his people to use later on.”
“Seriously?” Phoenix laughingly asked.
“Of course, I did,” I said without batting an eye, “I had a lot of people that needed replacement clothing after the invasion and that stuff is expensive as hell in a society like this.”
“So, what did you do?” Töten asked, belly laughing at me, “give them a bunch of bloody clothing and say, clean this up?
“And ignore the bloody stain from the last owner?” Phoenix humorously added, slapping the big man on the back as they both roared at the visual.
“More or less,” I dryly agreed, “It worked too.”
“He has a point,” Zeven thoughtfully said as Phoenix and Töten looked at him in surprise, “From what I saw in Aeroch Nor, the price of good clothing here is right up there with a high-quality piece of armor.” He shook his furry head side-to-side. “I can’t even imagine how expensive it would be to outfit a whole community.”
“You’re joking, right?” Töten asked, trading a confused look at Phoenix.
“Don’t look at me like I’d know the answer to that,” Phoenix said with a dismissive shrug, “That sounds like something a Closed Beta Player should know something about.”
“Oh, fuck you,” Töten said, rolling his eyes at the “Closed Beta Player” comment. Turning back to the Badger kin, the big guy asked, “What did you end up buying clothing-wise?”
“I didn’t buy shit,” Zeven said, letting out a derisive snort, “but the one ceremonial outfit that a Dwarven Clan bought for me a few days ago was well over five hundred gold.” Seeing Phoenix and Töten’s mouths drop open in utter shock, he curiously asked, “Why, how many people did he have sworn to him at that time?”
“I’m not sure since I wasn’t sworn to Lord Stinky back then,” Neristhana thoughtfully said as she glanced over her shoulder at me, “How many people were sworn to you, about two hundred fifty people at that time?”
“I think it was more like a hundred-sixty,” I said, trying to remember back to the refugee camp I’d set up before heading on my first trip to Delonshire, “and everyone was wearing rags in the middle of winter at the time.” I shook my head at the memory. “Freezing to death during the middle of the day was an issue.”
“Fuck,” Zeven exclaimed with a look of shock plastered to his furry face, “I’d be looting every piece of clothing too if I had two-hundred-fifty vassals sworn to me.”
The Badger kin missed the looks my friends shared as they tried to figure out just how many people of The World I had sworn to me. Phoenix knew of the people that I’d saved in Auris Shaeras and sent to Palnisdale, while Töten had seen the people that I’d evacuated from Darom. On top of that, they both knew that I had a shit ton of people back in BrokenFang Hold building up my defenses and preparing for the coming Hobgoblin invasion.
“In that case, I retract everything I just said,” Phoenix said, shaking her head.
“Me too,” Töten said in the same tone, “because if I was in Star’s shoes-”
“I’d be looting every last thing I could get my hands on,” Phoenix finished. Before Zeven could ask anything more, the Gnomeling interrupted.
“Well, I think that’s all of it,” Neristhana said as she stood up and tossed a large amulet over to Töten.
“Thanks, Neri,” Töten replied, catching the necklace as a turquoise-colored system window popped open before our eyes.
Mithridatum's Amulet of Fortification
Item Quality: Exceptional
Item Type: Uncommon
Slot: Neck
Weight: .8 kg
Makes the wearer immune to paralysis-type poisons. Instead of being paralyzed, the wearer's movements are reduced by seventy-five percent.
“Now, that’s what I’m talking about,” Töten excitedly said, perking up, “Come on virtual dice, Daddy needs some poison resistance!”
“Fuck that jazz,” Phoenix said, rubbing her hands excitedly as I traded an amused look with Neristhana and Helgath, “Momma needs some more bling.”
While the amulet was nice, it was more or less useless for me. The plus five additional pets the Dark Amulet of Summoning provided were just too useful to give up for poison resistance. Though it would be awesome for one of the girls to have it, I silently thought, curiously waiting for the automatic dice roll to complete. My name was first and popped up with a one.
“I swear, Star,” Phoenix laughingly said, “you have the worst luck with dice.”
“Story of my life,” I agreed with an indifferent shrug as Töten cheered at his roll of eight. Not that I was complaining, Helgath had already won a sweet drop.
“Damn,” I heard Byrnwulf grunt as he rolled a six while Igtra got a five.
“Woohoo!” Phoenix shouted as the last three roles popped up with the Barbarian having a perfect roll of nine, “Hand that over!”
“Easy come, easy go,” Töten muttered as he tossed the amulet over.
“The gold goes perfectly with my Red Coral breastplate!” Phoenix happily said as she posed for effect with her arms akimbo.
“Hey Töten,” Byrnwulf’s shout interrupted us as he walked up with the pick-up group that he’d just released with Igtra, “Can you shoot an invite again to Samantha?”
“Sure,” Töten said as we turned around to greet the pick-up group following behind the pair of Red Draconian-Humans, “but why didn’t she accept the first invite that I sent?”
The words died on the Anti-Paladin’s lips as he took note of the tense looks on the group’s faces and the white-knuckled grip they had on their weapons. It was clear that they were upset about something. I frowned thoughtfully as Neristhana and Helgath quietly took a step closer to me. And that something was most definitely me.
“Because you were obviously teamed with that known PKer!” Samantha snarled, motioning towards me with her naked blade.
“Guys, chill the fuck out!” Byrnwulf worriedly hissed under his breath as I turned to eye the group critically, “If he’d wanted to gank any of you, he’d have just done it while you were all still tied up!”
