The Dragon's Revenge Read online

  And almost right away, we all got confirmation of this.

  The Vampire is dead. You gain experience.

  It took ten minutes and all five were gone, with a healthy boost to our experience that put me a third of the way into level 8. This reminded me, at some point I needed to find a merchant who could sell me hunter spells.

  [Group] ‘How are we going to get you to the dungeon?’ asked Braja.

  [Group] ‘In this coffin. Let’s see what happens when you bring it outside.’

  With some lurches and a few complaints, they improvised a harness and began to lift me.

  [Group] ‘Careful. Don’t drop me, if this breaks open I’ll be dead in a minute.’

  After they put me down, I watched the hit point reports with some concern.

  You are damaged by sunlight for 3 damage.

  You are damaged by sunlight for 3 damage.

  You are damaged by sunlight for 3 damage.

  You regenerate 5 hit points

  You are damaged by sunlight for 3 damage.

  You are damaged by sunlight for 3 damage.

  You are damaged by sunlight for 3 damage.

  You regenerate 5 hit points

  [Group] ‘This isn’t working, I’m losing about a hit point a second.’

  [Group] ‘Let’s cover it up with our cloaks and blankets,’ suggested Sapentia.

  Soon, the hit point loss was stable, back to a small gain in fact.

  ‘How’s that?’ Sapentia asked, her voice near my ear on the right-hand side.

  ‘Perfect!’

  Directly above me was Raitha, his eagle had landed on the coffin lid. ‘Did you get any useful abilities?’

  ‘Oh definitely: Invisibility; Bat Form; Cloud Form; Summon Bats; Summon Rats; and Read Thoughts.’

  ‘Wonderful. Perhaps you can make me a vampire too. Do you not think that being twin vampires is a very appealing storyline for our characters? Tell me, though, how does Read Thoughts work? I don’t recognise it.’

  ‘Good question, I don’t know. I have made a hot key on UI for it, let me target you and try. Think of something particular.’

  ‘I really don’t see how you can actually read my thoughts.’

  ‘Just concentrate on something.’

  ‘All right.’

  Using the Group screen to target Raitha, I triggered the ability.

  This ability can only be directed at NPCs.

  ‘Oh, I got the message it can only be directed at NPCs.’

  ‘Interesting. Potentially very useful, depending on the extent of the information and the situation.’

  ‘Raitha?’

  ‘Yes, my friend?’

  ‘What did you think about?’

  ‘Blueberry pancakes. America is such an excellent place for delicious breakfasts.’

  ‘This is the strangest group,’ interjected Braja, a laugh in his voice, ‘our pullers are an eagle and a vampire stuck in a coffin.’

  ‘I can’t wait to get out and do some fighting. According to the alert, I’m immune to all weapons. That should allow us some amazing pulls.’

  ‘So long as vampire can keep mobsss on him.’

  ‘True, Grythiss, we won’t be reckless with this gift. I don’t have a Taunt trained. And there’s another downside too.’

  ‘Yesss?’

  ‘I think I’ll need to take a drink from your necks now and again.’

  Chapter 14

  Going Underground

  Although we made good progress via boat (well, they did, I just lay in my coffin, making smart remarks and laughing to myself) it was after twelve by the time I was told I could come out safely. That only left us a short period before the team meeting.

  ‘Right,’ I said brushing myself down, feeling great, ‘let’s try to get through to whatever boss thinks he owns this dungeon before the meeting.’

  ‘Plan?’ asked Braja.

  I looked around, my infravision showing me red corridor walls stretching into darkness. There were carvings in the rough stone spirals and symbols that reminded me of my trip to Newgrange. Although I was interested in studying them, I was impatient to get the crawl underway.

  ‘I pull and tank. Grythiss takes adds or mobs I can’t hold on me. Sapentia, you are in charge of directions as well as nukes. There was no map with the guide so you’ll have to make one. Raitha, DPS when the mobs are below sixty per cent and loot until you are full.’

  Looking around, I got a couple of nods and I was off, covering the stony ground at amazing speed. It seemed to be that the corridor was descending slightly. A few hundred metres in and there were alcoves either side with a wolf-headed humanoid in each, some kind of zombie, since the state of the bodies was corrupt. They both held impressively large double-handed axes.

  ‘Hi.’ I slowed down to a walk and at about two metres they came alive, plodding towards me, axes raised.

  [Group] ‘Incoming. Two zombie wolf things.’

  To make sure I had at least a minimum of the aggro, I stabbed one then the other with my longsword (doing much more damage than I previously would have, thanks to my new strength bonus). In the time it took to do so, I was struck hard by an axe to my hip.

  You have been hit by an Undead Wolfman for 0 damage.

  Fantastic! It was true then. I was immune. Feeling a huge surge of delight, I backed off, drawing the mobs after me.

  [Group] ‘Move up to me.’

  These fierce-looking enemies were double my level and rated impossible. Yet they had no chance. So long as they continued to try to hit me (and I could see that Grythiss was patiently waiting to let me score a few hits before each time he came in, to prevent his aggro overtaking mine) we were perfectly safe.

  ‘I’m going to use a few Smite spells,’ announced Braja. ‘I’m useless otherwise, you don’t need healing.’

  ‘Sure. Just wait until they are down to around fifty per cent.’

  Squeezing along by the wall, Raitha, back in half-elf form, got behind the battle and when the Undead Wolfmen were around 60 per cent started hacking at them.

  ‘I’ve been wondering,’ he said, looking over the shoulder of the Wolfman at me, ‘what if you do try and turn us into vampires? If you can, then we could all just head on over to Mikarkathat and kill her. No need to level up three hundred people.’

  It was an incredible thought. And for a moment I felt giddy about the idea of filling my bank account with the reward.

  ‘Surely it is not possible for players to make vampires,’ came Sapentia’s voice from behind me. ‘Or it would not take long and entire player base of Epic Two would be vampires. Yuno are not so dumb.’

  ‘Maybe they are. They’ve lost control of so much of the game, maybe this is another crock,’ said Braja.

  ‘Definitely worth a try,’ I replied to Raitha, sticking my sword into the ribs of the Wolfman in front of me.

  Our interesting conversation was ended with a flurry of blows from Grythiss and a barrage of nukes from both Sapentia (electrical magic missiles that glowed turquoise) and Braja (a translucent hammer smashing downwards and dispersing in a shower of sparks).

  The Undead Wolfman is dead. You gain experience.

  The Undead Wolfman is dead. You gain experience.

  ‘Nice, halfway through eight already.’

  ‘Not so much for me. Keep going,’ Sapentia spoke, then sat down to increase the speed at which her spirit was restored.

  ‘Come with me, you can rest up closer to the next action.’

  After passing the now-empty alcoves, we came to a T-junction.

  ‘Which way?’ I asked.

  ‘West is best,’ Sapentia replied. ‘Go right.’

  After a dozen steps I could see a faint orange colour in the distance. ‘Set up here, I’ll go pull.’

  As I advanced down the corridor, I saw I was coming to a hollowed-out room, full of figures. They were horned. Demons? No, undead humanoids again but with antlers and animalistic faces. Other than the fact we had fought our way through hun
dreds of undead monsters to get here and that these were scary creations, it was a welcoming scene, like that of a feast hall: long wooden tables holding goblets and gaming pieces; dramatic banners on the wall; musical instruments hanging from straps or in the unmoving hands of some of the mobs.

  It looked as though some spell had frozen an Iron Age gathering and transformed the participants into these antlered undead. They all scanned impossible to me, hopefully meaning for good experience. How to split the pull so I didn’t get the entire room? Sixteen of them. There was a cluster of six near the door that might come if I tagged one of them from back here.

  Taking out my Finely Crafted Composite Short Bow, I aimed at the nearest figure, a human woman in a long green dress, whose features had been turned into those of a deer.

  You have hit an Undead Wild Hunt Member for 6 damage.

  You have improved the skill Archery (5).

  Nope, the whole room sprang alive and rushed towards me. Oh dear.

  [Group] ‘Incoming sixteen undead wild hunt members. I’ll stop twenty metres from you. Raitha, try and pull singles off for you guys to deal with.’

  [Group] ‘Sixteen?’ Raitha sounded incredulous.

  [Group] ‘Remind me later to work on some kind of crowd control.’

  Just before the mobs arrived, looking like a stampede of angry woodland creatures, I hit Wolf Form. If the bow tactic for pulls was going to be no use down here, I may as well be in my stronger, more effective form. And I was curious, what was it like to be a vampire wolf?

  A stream of messages poured through the combat box of my UI, too fast to read but all of them presumably saying I had been hit for 0 damage as my hit point bar didn’t even tremble. Quickly filtering to just my attacks, I read:

  You have bitten an Undead Wild Hunt Member for 26 points of damage.

  You have increased the skill Bite (25).

  You have clawed an Undead Wild Hunt Member for 12 points of damage.

  You have increased the skill Claw (2).

  Aha, much better damage, along with more frequent hits and skill ups. Cool.

  Raitha’s voice spoke in my ear. [Group] ‘Incoming. An Undead Wild Hunt Member.’

  [Group] ‘Did it work?’

  [Group] ‘Indeed it did, we have just one.’

  With my own battle automatically going through the phases (dozens of blows against me to each bite and claw of my attacks), I could concentrate on monitoring my group’s hit points. Grythiss was taking plenty of damage but each time he dropped to half, Braja healed him up. The only real issue was that of whether Braja had enough spirit to keep this up for the whole fight.

  The Undead Wild Hunt Member is dead. You gain experience.

  [Group] ‘Seventeen spirit,’ reported Braja as though he had heard my thoughts. ‘Hold the pull.’

  [Group] ‘There’s no rush,’ I came in, ‘we have a sweet exploit here, so long as we don’t get greedy and you guys wipe.’

  [Group] ‘It’s beautiful.’ Sapentia sounded cheerful for the first time today.

  [Group] ‘Lizardman glad to see hunter doing ssssome work for a change, instead of sssleeping in coffin while we carry him.’

  [Group] ‘Corpse has a Pink Crystal Shard on it that’s Fastened,’ announced Raitha.

  The Undead Wild Hunt Member is dead. You gain experience.

  That was my female in the green dress; I switched to a new target.

  [Group] ‘I suggest Grythiss loot it. That way, when it turns out to be cursed he can wish he’d stuck to dragging my coffin around.’

  [Group] ‘Wait! If I loot, I can try Identify Magic skill.’

  [Group] ‘Good point Sapentia, go ahead please.’

  A short time later she announced, [Group] ‘“This seems to be part of a much larger item.” That’s all.’

  [Group] ‘We might get more of those; you collect them all.’

  [Group] ‘Spirit is over ninety,’ reported Braja, ‘pull another.’

  And the rest of the group were off again on a new mob. Everyone, including Grythiss (despite the post-drinking effects he must have been experiencing) was in good form now that we had found a way of obtaining a serious stream of exp. And it wasn’t just this particular battle. The way this vampire thing was working out suggested that if we were careful, we could use the same tactic over and over. Me pulling and soaking up the hits, them tagging individuals that they could manage. I’m sure everyone in the group had figured this out and was rejoicing in our uniquely favourable situation.

  Fifteen minutes later, we’d killed all the undead from the feast hall, collecting six pink shards and levelling everyone at least once: Raitha, who had been on the cusp of 9, was now 10; I was closing in on 10 and I’d also maxed out my claw and bite skill at 45; Braja was on 7; Grythiss was up to 11; and Sapentia led us on 12. Back in the days when I’d gone through the early levels in Epic, it had taken a week or so to level up from 8 to 10. This was rocking along and it put us firmly on track to meet Yuno’s deadline.

  There were also a few armour upgrades for Grythiss and Raitha and a bit of coin. Nothing, however, to redress the fact that we were poorly equipped for our levels. And that gap was only going to widen. It was a problem that I didn’t have a solution for. Right now, however, the priority was level, level, level. Questing for appropriate gear was a waste of time, given that we should be able to progress without it and could skip straight to high-level weapons and armour.

  Another hour and we’d cleared four more rocky chambers with the same method. I’d pull the room (now in Wolf Form, so I rushed in and tagged the nearest mob), then set up with the rest of the team a safe distance away and they would tag singles from the angry crowd who were lashing into me to with no effect. At the end of the fourth such pull our levels were: Braja, 11; Raitha and I, 13; Grythiss, 14; and Sapentia, 15.

  [Group] ‘We just about have time for one more room,’ observed Raitha.

  [Group] ‘Which way, Sapentia? Out the far side?’ I asked, looking at a corridor which left the room from beneath a heavy stone lintel carved with spiral designs.

  [Group] ‘Perhaps. By my map, this will bring us back to second chamber, we have gone around in circle apart from first.’

  [Group] ‘Let’s check in case they might have respawned.’

  A short run down the dark corridor proved Sapentia correct and, unfortunately, that we were killing the mobs faster than they were popping back into existence, assuming that they would do so at all.

  Probably, the wisest action we could take was to find a safe place to camp out in good time for the player meeting. But I had one last hope. [Group] ‘The inside of the hill is on our left?’

  [Group] ‘Correct,’ said Sapentia.

  [Group] ‘Let’s check this corridor and that last room for a secret passage towards the interior.’

  [Group] ‘A very wise suggestion.’ This was Raitha.

  Forming a chain, we worked our way back towards the last chamber, Raitha first, then me, then Grythiss, Sapentia and Braja, one by one, checking the walls, running our fingers across sinuous carvings. As half-elves, Raitha and I had a natural skill in finding secret doors. I couldn’t recall reading the exact bonus, but our chance was probably something like 10 per cent each per ten minutes checking, compared to 5 per cent for a human.

  It was like looking at a language you didn’t know, staring at the twists and curves of the designs on the wall. There was a story here, that was wasted on us. We just wanted the experience. I had a strong conviction there had to be at least one more room, otherwise what was the point of the pink crystal shards?

  ‘Bingo! As I believe you say in Ireland.’ Beside me, Raitha had both hands on a slab whose design was one huge spiral.

  ‘We have expression Bingo too,’ said Sapentia. ‘It is from game with numbers.’

  ‘You’ve found it?’ I asked him.

  Everyone crowded around and I could sense an eager excitement in the postures of their avatars, with their raised hands and concentrated
attention focused on the wall.

  ‘I had a success message on my UI. Yet, I cannot say for sure this is a door, nothing seems to yield to my pushing.’

  ‘Try tracing that spiral,’ suggested Braja. ‘Maybe it’s magic rather than physical.’

  As soon as Raitha placed a finger on the start of the spiral, a faint pink light appeared beneath it. As he ran his finger around the design, crouching to come down to the bottom, then straightening again, the light grew stronger and pale sparks flickered in and out of existence.

  No one spoke as Raitha went faster now, working his way towards the centre. At last, with a dazzling flash of pink and silver, his finger reached the final point of the design and the whole corridor shuddered. Chill air fanned my face and with a grinding and scraping sound, the slab sank into the ground, revealing a corridor that ran for about twenty metres to a chamber. This must be the heart of the complex.

  Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. ‘I love questing and exploring. If only we didn’t have such a grind on, I’d do a lot more quests. This whole passage tomb, undead adventure is just awesome.’

  ‘Concentrate,’ muttered Braja, ‘there’s a lot could go wrong, even for a vampire.’

  ‘Right.’

  Even so, it was with a spring in my step that I approached the dark room. My excitement at entering the unknown reminded me of my first few months playing Epic, which hadn’t been about obtaining elite gear or the admiration of my peers, but simply exploring a massive fantasy world, with its highly varied range of adventures and quests.

  ‘A large rock chamber with just a pedestal, flat topped, like it should be displaying something.’ I relayed what I could see back to my friends.

  ‘Safe?’ asked Sapentia.

  ‘One sec.’ Not until I’d run around the room and also, tentatively, stood by the pedestal and then touched it (cold, rough), did I call them in.

  ‘I have idea,’ said Sapentia and she stood beside me, then drew out a pink shard. Having seen her let go of it above the grey surface of the rocky stand, my heart skipped with delight. The shard twisted slightly, as though settling in a magnetic field, and just hung there. Soon, another one joined it and another. It was as though Sapentia was assembling a 3D jigsaw.