Valhalla online, p.9
Valhalla Online, page 9
part #1 of Ragnarok Saga Series
Health 25/30, Stamina 93/100, Mana 50/50.
She kept backing away, looking for a way to gain some sort of advantage over the creatures. The sound of more scurrying from behind her made her glance back. Her little friend from earlier had recovered his dagger, and now he advanced on her rear. He’d picked up more friends, too. Another four of the creatures closed alongside him.
Eleven of the things? She was surrounded, with no way out. If she could win through the batch ahead, maybe she could get past the doors and lose herself somewhere beyond, although she had a sinking feeling that all she was going to discover was a warren full of these things.
She stepped forward to meet the band of six, and they rushed her. She blocked a dagger with her shield and lashed out with her sword, taking one of the things in the shoulder. Two more lashed in with their little knives though, slicing at her legs. They stood only about waist high on her, which made fighting them difficult. Her only armor was on her torso, but they ignored that target entirely and sliced at her more exposed calves and thighs instead.
Her sword cut another of them down. She blocked more dagger blows and took another nick to her leg. Sam could feel more blood trickling down her legs from the cuts she’d taken. This wasn’t getting her anywhere. It was time to retreat.
She slashed hard, cutting down one of the creatures. It burbled and fell. Then something wrapped itself around her sword arm. She felt arms lock there, the heavy weight keeping her from swinging her sword freely. Sam looked down and found one of the things had wrapped itself around her lower arm. As she watched, it opened its mouth and bit down on her skin, opening another wound.
“That’s disgusting!” Sam said. She swung her shield at the thing, bashing it in the head. It released her arm. But she’d been thrown off balance by the attack. She staggered another few steps and her hips came to rest against something cold.
It was the well. They’d pushed her up against the edge of the stone wall surrounding it. Nine of the little monsters still surrounded her, all slicing and pushing at her. They were trying to throw her in!
Another dagger got in a little nick on her right leg, and Sam found she could barely support herself on that leg anymore. Sensing the moment of weakness, the creatures pushed hard against her from that side.
Sam tumbled backward. She was falling over the edge. She dropped her sword and shield in an effort to stay up, stay above, to scrabble for some sort of hold and not fall. Everything in her being fought to slow her drop.
The fingers of her left hand caught hold of the rocky edge of the stone ring around the well. Sam glanced down, seeing nothing beneath her but inky black. There was no sign of a bottom.
Sam looked back up, reaching with the other hand to find purchase on the rocks. If she fell, she was done for. With two hands on the rocks, she started working to pull her body up higher, hoping to reach the top.
A small, scaly head appeared above her fingers. It smiled at her. It opened its mouth.
“No, please don’t,” Sam said.
It bit down on her hand.
The wound wasn’t especially painful, feeling more like a bad spider bite than the savaging her hand actually received. But it was enough to jar her body loose from the lip of the well. Sam tumbled back into the darkness, falling into that inky black toward whatever waited for her below.
Sam saw a flash of light from below her a moment before she struck something hard, and then she didn’t see anything at all for a while.
20
When she woke, it was to aches from all over her body. She scanned her status almost automatically. It had become second nature to check in and see how she was doing numerically.
Health 4/35, Stamina 62/110, Mana 55/55.
She’d barely survived the fall. If she’d been unconscious for any length of time, then she must have been at a single health point or two when she hit. The fight hadn’t gone as well as she would have liked, but it could have been worse. She was still alive, at least. A little icon glowed in the corner of her vision, one she hadn’t seen before. When she glanced at it, a new window appeared in her view.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 2. You have five attribute points and five skill points to allocate as you choose.
Sam’s head hurt. Both metaphorically and actually. Leveling up in this world had to be a plus, right? The greater her level was, the more she would be able to do. Eventually she’d be able to fight that bastard Thorsten and beat him. That was an appealing idea. The levels would probably also help her in her ultimate goal, which was getting the hell out of this place and back where she belonged.
But why did it have to be so complex? She looked at the icon on the bottom of the display and it opened up an intricate set of windows. Those windows showed her skills - she recognized the ones she’d earned so far. It also showed a dizzying array of things called attributes. She needed to sit down and learn how to manage all of this soon. For the moment, it could wait until she was certain that there wasn’t any danger lurking nearby.
The room was small and round, illuminated from some source she couldn’t see. It almost looked like a soft blue light was coming from the floor. Her fall had been broken by an enormous pile of bones directly under the well opening, which was in the ceiling about fifteen feet above her. Climbing out wasn’t going to be an option. She’d need to find another way.
Sam shook off bits of the bones. Some of them still had some meat clinging to them, and Sam shuddered a bit as she brushed those bits from her clothing. The mess looked like a mix of skeletal remains from a variety of animals. Some skulls looked human or vaguely human. Others were bits of rat or some other animal. The whole mess was disgusting, but had probably saved her life by breaking her fall. If she’d slammed into the hard stone floor instead of the heap of debris, those last few health points might have been forfeit. She shivered at the idea of how close she’d come to death.
Dying shouldn’t bother her, not here. After all, death in this place was just an illusion. But somehow she couldn’t shake the feeling that if she died here, that would be it. She’d be stuck. Escape from this virtual world would become impossible. That would be the end of the Sam that was, out there in the real world, and she’d end up trapped in this place forever.
Intellectually she knew that was just bad science. These games didn’t work like that. Your consciousness was projected out into the virtual world, either from a body through a VR hookup, or by uploading a consciousness to the computer itself like most of the people who’d chosen Valhalla Online as their artificial afterlife. Death here wasn’t real. It was as illusory as the clothing she wore or the sword she’d been using.
Thinking of her sword made Sam realize it was nowhere to be seen. She’d dropped everything as she started to tumble over the edge into the well. Her shield, torch, and sword had all been dropped. Had they fallen down with her? She couldn’t imagine being unarmed in this place.
She rooted around in the trash, hunting for her things to no avail. All her items must have been dropped in the room above. Some little creature was probably carrying them around now. She was left with only her leather vest and an empty pouch. It wasn’t much against whatever lay ahead. Digging through the pile again she found an old bone from some big animal, maybe the size of a cow or horse. It was old, brittle, and unwieldy, but it would serve as a club in an emergency.
That accomplished, she examined the room she was in more carefully. It was round, about ten feet across, and still lit evenly by that dim blue glow from the floor. Peering closely, she saw runic markings all over the stone beneath her feet. The runes themselves emitted the soft light.
Across the room from the debris pile was a low stone table, set against the wall. There was nothing else to see. No doors or windows adorned the room. The walls were smooth stone, and virtually impossible to climb. She clearly wasn’t getting back out the way she’d gotten in. But perhaps the table would provide some sort of answer.
Like the floor, the table was carved all over the top and sides with blue-glowing runes. Sam had seen Norse runes before on a few occasions. These looked a lot like the ones she’d seen, but she didn’t know the alphabet well enough to be certain they were the same ones. The game creators might well have styled the runes here directly after those from the real world. It seemed to match their general motif.
Sam traced the lines of runes with her fingers carefully, without actually touching them. Nothing happened. She sighed, and hoping that she was not about to activate some horrible trap, she touched the table.
A window popped up in her vision.
Kaladesh was once a center of magical learning. Home to great Dwarf artisans and makers of elder magics, many people from a variety of races once traveled to this place to study with the masters here. They brought wealth with them, which caused the fame of the hall to grow even more.
That wealth was likely what brought the darkness upon them. Evil came to the place. Some say that it was summoned by a careless wizard who resided in the hall. Others have claimed that the hall was doomed when they tunneled too deep and encountered an ancient enemy that struck them down. Whether either tale is true, or if some other thing happened, no one alive knows.
Except the people who wrote this silly script, Sam thought to herself as she read on.
You have discovered the lost magical hall of Kaladesh. The task to undo the evil here and rediscover the runes of magic which once safeguarded this place is one only the mighty should undertake. Do you accept this quest? Y/N
“Hell of a time to ask me now!” Sam complained aloud. It wasn’t like she had a lot of choice at this point. There didn’t seem to be any other way onward except to take the damned quest on whether she was ‘mighty’ or not. Out of spite she looked at the No answer anyway. The entire speech disappeared from her view.
Nothing else happened. She wasn’t struck down, but she wasn’t transported out of the place either. She was still stuck at the bottom of a well, in a glowing room with no way out.
“God damned programmers and their shitty ass code,” Sam said, touching the table again. The same speech appeared in her vision. This time she didn’t hesitate, and just looked at the ‘Y’ answer. It highlighted and then clicked. It wasn’t like she had a lot of choice about it.
The wall to her left rumbled. The cave wall slid away, revealing a passage beyond it. Like the room she stood in, the hall was dimly lit by trails of blue runes on the floor.
“I guess we follow the trail of breadcrumbs and see where it leads,” she said.
21
The corridor was only about six feet tall, arched at the top. Not a single cobweb broke up the passage. It was utterly clear, like someone had dusted the place regularly. That was creepy enough. The silence, the dim blue light, and the feeling of a mountain of stone above her head all added to the ambiance.
“Not where I’d pick for a vacation home, whether I was a dwarf or not,” Sam said.
After about twenty feet the passage opened up into another circular room. This one was larger than the last. It was at least twenty feet across. Here, the floor was glowing like it had been in the first room. But the trails of runes seemed more focused here. There was an outer ring of runes which ran around the edge of the room. Then there was an inner ring which surrounded a pedestal, upon which rested a book.
Other runes traced paths between and around the two circles. Sam stared at the runes for long moments, almost thinking that they moved and twisted like a living thing when she looked out of the corner of her eye. But when she looked directly at them they remained still.
There was one exit from the room, a doorway just like the one she had come through on the far side of the room. Beyond it was another hallway just like the one she’d come in from.
She carefully stepped out onto the floor. She couldn’t proceed without crossing the first circle of runes, and for some reason she was loathe to do that. Sam winced inwardly as her foot stepped down inside the first circle. She paused, waiting to see if something was going to happen, but there seemed to be no effect. Somewhat relieved, she continued further into the chamber. If the runes were just there as lighting and special effects, why the concentric rings? It was either there for a reason, or it was a red herring. But which?
Sam examined the book and the pedestal for long moments. At first she had in mind to simply pass by, continuing down the hall ahead and looking for a way out of this place. But something about the book made her hesitate. It was clearly either a trap or a treasure. Perhaps both. If it contained information that she needed to get through this place, then she might get into more trouble later for not having it.
But if it was a trap, then she should pass it by.
Sam tapped the inner ring of runes with her bone club. Nothing happened. The room didn’t explode, or the ceiling start descending, or anything else crazy. She’d had visions of setting off a trap like the hero in an Indiana Jones movie, but it didn’t seem like that was the case. Feeling more daring, she stuck a toe in the air over the inner ring of runes. Nothing happened.
Feeling a little foolish for worrying so much, Sam relaxed at last. The runes were lighting, special effects to make the chamber look cool. The book was probably just more information about the quest she’d accepted. She stepped past the ring of runes onto the pedestal. Sam felt herself hold her breath despite herself, but still nothing untoward happened.
“Just lights,” she said aloud. Her voice seemed to carry and echo down the hallways, and she resolved to speak more softly. She opened the book. A new window appeared in her vision.
You have found a book on Runic Magic! Because you have the Rune Binding skill, you can use this book to learn more about Rune Magic. Would you like to use the book? Y/N
Learn magic like the lightning Harald had wielded, or Thorsten’s earthquake? Sam felt herself growing excited. Even if she could only gather a fraction of the power those men had, it would still be a massive boon for her. Sam stared directly at the letter Y. It glowed briefly and then the message vanished.
The book flashed with a bright blue light. Sam smelled ozone, and the air itself seemed to crackle with power. She turned to the first page of the book and read it quickly. Then she flipped the page and read the next. Soon the pages were flying beneath her fingers. She’d never read this fast before, not even when cramming for finals in college. Yet somehow she knew instinctively that all the information she was taking in would be retained.
At last it was over. The book crumbled to dust in her fingers. A new window appeared in her vision.
You have learned the rune Ken. Ken is the rune of the torch, of fire and energy, of light turning back darkness. Your understanding of this magical rune is at level I. Continued practice will increase your level with the skill. Higher levels will result in new spells becoming available to you.
You have learned the spell fire bolt. This spell is at level I. Continued practice will increase your level with this spell.
Sam could feel that it was true. She knew that if she positioned her fingers just so, and traced just the right pattern in the air that it would call forth a flaming arrow which would fly at whatever target she directed. On a whim she stared at a point on the wall, focused her will, and activated the spell.
Her fingers traced the necessary pattern almost of their own volition. A second later sparks appeared by her fingertips. As she continued focusing her well the sparks grew into a burning bolt about a foot long. As soon as it appeared, the bolt sprang forward as if shot from a bow. It struck the wall at the spot Sam had targeted, exploding in a burst of sparks. She stepped over to the wall, examining the scorch mark which had been left behind. The wall was undamaged, but it was still warm to the touch.
“This is way too cool,” Sam said.
As if in answer to her words a chill breeze flowed across the room. Sam turned quickly, but didn’t see anything. Nothing stirred. Nothing had changed in the room except for the book, which was gone now. Only dust remained. Still Sam couldn’t shake the feeling that something was nearby, watching her.
“Is someone there?” Sam asked.
The voice which replied to her sounded scratchy and cold. “Did you think that power came without a price?”
That definitely sounded like a threat. Sam readied her bone club in her left hand, while preparing to cast her spell again with her right. She might not have a sword anymore, but with this new spell she was far from defenseless.
“Show yourself,” Sam said.
She might have felt like she was ready, but nothing could have prepared her for what flowed out of the dark hall into the room before her. At first Sam thought that it was a person, wearing jet black robes. The cloth of its garment was so dark it seemed to eat up the light emitting from the floor. Sam remained ready to fight as the figure approached. Not every person she’d met in this world was a friend, and some had been outright dangerous, but she felt the flaring of hope in her chest. If this was another human being, perhaps they knew the way out. If she could only convince them to help her, she might get free from this prison yet.
Her hope died as soon as she saw the face hidden beneath the robe’s hood. Where skin and eyes and flesh should have been, there was only bone. A bare skull leered back at her astonished face.
22
Sam had never seen anything like this, not outside of a movie. Even more than the scaled creatures upstairs, this thing stirred feelings of dread in her heart. It stepped toward her, each footfall silent except for the subtle swish of cloth against cloth. Sam stepped back from it involuntarily, stumbling against the cool stone wall behind her. It’s just a game, she reminded herself. This was just a creature dreamed up from the imagination of some geek and rendered in 3D for the amusement of the people playing. Nothing more.
