Heralds- The Proving Grounds, page 33
Jen found herself standing more or less where Ben had been sitting. She glanced about and bolted for the exit.
It looked like the last of Tobin’s party was filing into the church at the center of town. It had been the only building in the place way back when, all of a few days before.
Jen made her way towards it. Not an easy thing given the number of bystanders in the streets. People were still cheering and clamoring, yelling congratulations and praise for the world firsts and whatnot. She squeezed by in the gaps she could find.
The doors to the church where closed when she broke through the crowd. They had left a bit of a space around the church just beyond a short broken wall that surrounded it.
She almost ran into Paul, the paladin who lead them, as he appeared out of nowhere in front of her. She backpedaled a few steps.
He swung his eyes around and charged for the door. The other members of Tobin’s party came running from around either side of the building. Paul grabbed hold of the door handles and yanked , but it didn’t so much as budge. Claire was the first of the others running to make it to the door. He pointed straight at her as he released the handle, “Get a GM in there now. I don’t care what they’re doing.”
She nodded and opened her menu. She vanished a moment later.
The others arrived as he stared daggers at the wooden doors. “What is he up to?”
Jesse caught sight of Jen and her eyes lingered for a moment, but she turned her attention back to Paul and the doors.
He opened his own menu and disappeared a moment later.
Jesse frowned as the others, a ranger and a mage, tried the doors again. It worked just as well as it had the first time.
Voices rose from the confused crowd that had gathered around. Something clearly wasn’t right.
It seemed like Hank wasn’t content to toy with them anymore.
Jesse tilted her head to the side slightly, her eyes cutting hard to her left like she was listening to someone whispering. She nodded and took a few steps towards Jen. “Hey, don’t go anywhere, okay? Everything is… under control. Ish. Sort of. I think.”
The ranger and mage vanished and with a few quick gestures Jesse followed them.
Jen turned to find a sea of confused faces looking at her.
“Umm…” she waved her hands to get their attention. “It’s okay. I’m sure it’s fine. Probably.”
It was a skosh over fifteen minutes later when Jesse and the others returned. They popped back into being right outside the church. Paul, the guy that tended to give the orders, was already mid sentence when he appeared. The others scattered before he was done talking. They all looked determined.
All of them but Jesse. She made a beeline for Jen, currently seated on the short stone wall separating the church from the rest of the town.
“Hey.” She waved.
Jen nodded. “Howdy.”
“Don’t have long, I’m afraid. I have some orders to carry out. Round up the posse, circle the wagons, that sort of thing.”
“Yeah, about that…”
Jesse tilted her head a bit.
“I… might know something about what’s going on.”
Jesse frowned. “What, we’ve got a leak now? Jeez. Like anything else needed to screw up…”
“No.” Jen shook her head. “I know because the guy messing with you is Hank Miller, right?”
Jesse’s eyebrows lifted a bit. “Turns out I’ve got a minute.” She sat down on the wall beside Jen.
“Okay…” Jen sighed. “So, my sword? Soulshine? It seems I didn’t just happen to find it. He made a relic appear.”
Jesse nodded. “That kinda makes more sense, yeah.”
“I restored it, and he provided the resources to do so. Because when this event started he recruited people to work against you guys. He talked to us under the guise of a GM working on the event. Hard to argue when he could throw us across the world and whatnot.”
Jesse blinked a few times but she didn’t say anything. It made Jen a bit nervous and the words came faster.
“So anyway, he told us there were two teams of players going into this thing and we were the other team meant to cause Tobin Ironblood problems and eventually win out for the sake of the free world. So we leveled up some and tried to make some friends, but Hank was an absentee mentor most of the time. Turns out he wasn’t really gone though. That thing with the skeletons? We were there, but what happened was because of him.”
“We figured.” Jesse nodded.
“Then the orders started getting weird. He told us specifically not to mess with Tobin after giving the green light to do so the day before. Which was the orc camp thing. The guy Tobin fought, Bulorn? He was one of us.”
Jesse frowned. “We were pretty sure Miller was trying to screw us over, but him using players to do it is news. Disturbing news, even for him.”
Jen shrugged. “If it’s any consolation we kinda sucked at it. I mean, I never tried to hurt anyone. I was outside the building healing you guys during the skeleton fight. No one even seemed to notice I was there.”
“Heh.” A small smile returned to Jesse’s lips. “And to think I was giving Paul credit for tanking the door and healing.”
Jen stared at her virtual feet for a moment. She didn’t know what else to say but… “I’m sorry if we made things hard on you. We thought it was all part of the plan. And I guess it kinda was. Just not your plan.”
Jesse shrugged one shoulder. “Meh. Done is done. We’re still here and you filled in a few pieces of the puzzle, so that’s good.” She turned her eyes to Jen. “How many of you are there?”
“There were six. There are three left. Bulron is gone but he took two friends down with him.”
“Sorry.” Jesse frowned a bit. “Do the rest of you have relics, too?”
“Ha. No.” Jen sighed. “Turns out Hank thought I wouldn’t be much help after picking me, so he tried to give me a relic to offset that. I guess which one shows up is random? He seemed annoyed about it.”
Jesse laughed. “Oh, man. That’s awesome. Soulshine is weighted super low in that list. Luck kicked him in the balls.”
“It worked well enough on Bulorn.”
“Oh, yeah. I’d imagine. Soulshine was made to decimate red people. That’s the idea. It’s less of a means of upsetting the world order and more one to prevent power plays by other relics. Or at least to slow them down.”
Jen glanced down at the sword. It was still making merry little songs only she could hear from time to time. The glass wind chime sound. It was pretty quiet right now. Easy to lose in the noise from all the people milling around. But it was definitely there.
“So that’s my confession.” She looked ahead, her eyes unfocused. All she could see was the wall of the church. “I didn’t tell anyone I was going to spill the beans, just that I came here to help, if I could.”
Jesse was quiet for a few moments. “It helps to know the truth. Some things make a lot more sense now. I’m not sure how well Paul would take all this, though. He might not be happy with you regardless.”
Jen had kind of hoped the wagon would be a good peace offering. They were clearly making use of it.
“But…” Jesse shrugged. “What he doesn’t know won’t kill him.”
Jen turned her eyes to Jesse. The woman was smiling ahead at nothing. “That seems like a bad idea. He finds out later and it could cost you your job.”
“Hardly.” Jesse rolled her eyes. “Paul isn’t like that. Besides, I prefer to think it’s serendipity.”
“Have to admit, I was never a big fan of that movie.”
“Fortunate happenstance. Serendipity means ‘fortunate happenstance.’ And that’s what you are.” She pointed at Jen. “You and the others. I mean, you’re not normal, right? He wouldn’t sick normal players on us. Oh wow, the offline bug thing totally makes sense all of a sudden.”
“He didn’t do that. I did when things started getting… weird. But yeah, we have a few tricks. Mostly for getting around right now. We had more. For awhile there we were immortal… outside certain circumstances. Like Tobin’s sword. It took down a few of us.”
“I think that sword might even be able to kill Chuck Norris.”
Jen didn’t feel like dignifying that. “Yes, well we got better. We could respawn where no one else can. But he turned that off after he figured out we had given up on his cause and he sicked Bulorn on us.”
Jesse was looking at Jen’s sword. “Surprising how a game where we’re supposed to reappear changes so drastically when we cant, and suddenly people are seeking immortality again. Like people always do.” She shifted her eyes up to Jen’s. “Soulshine is powerful even if you had nothing else. But you’re a level 50 paladin too, in a world where most are below the cap by a wide margin. I might have a job for you… what else do you guys have lying around?”
They certainly had some things to make up for. “A poison specced rogue, and a necromancer that Hank souped up to create that skeleton mess. That only turned out like it did because Hank took them away from him and turned them loose on you. They were rather handy in getting rid of Bulorn.”
“I like it.” She nodded a few times and tapped a finger against her chin. “I like it a lot.”
“I think we might stand out in the raid…”
“Oh you’re not going on the raid.” She shook her head. “Turns out Miller was being totally Miller and has a secondary asshole plan in place.”
“Say what?”
“When we start the raid he’s going to unleash random events across the game. He wants to do as much damage as he can. Some of those are bound to be at the level cap.” She pointed at Jen. “And I want you to chase them down and deal with the worst of them.”
Jen blinked a few times. “Uhh… I guess?”
“Probably won’t be easy but it needs to be done. We can put people on alert but that’s about all we can do. We need our GMs to handle Miller’s bullshit. But now you can go there, so you can do more.”
“Fair enough.” Jen nodded. “And after?”
Jesse shrugged. “We’ll see. Right now we definitely have bigger fish to fry than you. And if you help us? Well it’s that much easier to put in a good word for you when the time comes.”
Jen nodded a few times. “Consider it done.”
Jesse gave Jen a gentle punch to the shoulder. “You got this.” She hopped up. “I have to go wrangle up a raid. Be ready. I have no idea what’s going to happen when we cross that threshold.”
Jen brought up her menu as Jesse walked away, pointing and yelling at people. She tapped on the chat box.
To Samara: Tell me things are going well. There have been some developments…
33
Jen followed Sam to help Poe level faster, but he didn’t really needed any babysitters. So far there wasn’t a limit to the number of skeletons he could call up and every last one obeyed him without question.
Jen’s plan was to heal him as he fought but he was never at risk in the first place. Sam and Jen mostly just watched groups of skeletons tear hyena men to bits. It should have been a horrific scene… but those guys were goddamn annoying to fight and it did Jen some good to see them get absolutely rolled. Hyena men enraging? Skeletons didn’t care. If they broke one, another took its place. Hyena man trying to run away and aggro another group? Skeletons aren’t taking your shit, buddy. Some would grab hold of the runners to keep them from leaving while the rest wailed on them.
Even with all that power at his fingertips, Poe hadn’t reached the level cap when word came that the raid was starting. He was level forty five. Certainly no slouch by the standards of the rest of the player base. He might be able to hit the cap soon enough. They had no idea what was coming.
The three of them just stared at the map… and waited.
Poe’s voice was unexpected. “We should do something about Annabelle and Kail.”
Jen glanced up at him. “I don’t know what we can do. Everything points to this being over soon. No reason to take their stuff.”
“It just seems… wrong to leave them lying out there.”
Sam reached out and patted him on the arm. “Game face.”
Wow. Jen wasn’t sure what to make of it. She might be the best friend Sam had, and yet she had never really stopped being abrasive.
Oh jeez she had a crush. Jen felt a smile creeping onto her face and worked to hide it. Poe seemed young to her… but that didn’t mean anything. Sam was younger than her too, and she must have raised the question and received an acceptable answer to be acting like this.
Sam pointed at the map and started moving it around. “Okay, that looks bad.”
“Hmm?” Jen hadn’t been paying attention. Stupid.
“Most of what is popping up seems okay… but right here lots of blue dots are disappearing.”
Poe frowned down at the map. “Logging out, maybe?”
“Huh.” Sam rolled her eyes. “Sure, maybe. Or they’re dying in droves. But logging out sounds better.”
Jen drew her sword and lowered her hand toward the map.
“Hey, wait a second.”
Jen looked up at Sam with a raised eyebrow. “Why?”
She pointed over Jen’s head. “Guild tag. Look, if we’re going to do this, go gallivanting around as super heroes until something kills us, sure, fine, whatever. But you can’t do it with a guild tag. It’s going to look like being part of the Kingsmen is getting you favoritism. I mean, you have a relic. People will be either be angry about that, or angry about it looking like they are making things for you to fight that are hurting other people.”
Jen lowered her hand to her side. She hadn’t considered that… then again she had a tendency to forget she was wearing a guild tag at all. Always seemed to be things happening to occupy her mind.
Sam wasn’t wrong.
Jen opened her guild interface. It took her a moment to find the button. No one was likely to notice. They were kind of preoccupied.
She tapped the button to leave the guild.
It didn’t hurt or anything. She didn’t feel and different at all. But she frowned a bit just the same.
“Okay.” She reached for the map again. “Plan hasn’t changed. I’ve got Soulshine and prioritize red names, you’ve got Poe to keep him safe while he does his thing.”
Sam nodded.
Poe raised his hand. “Why exactly are you talking like I’m not here?”
Sam glanced over at him with feigned surprise. “Oh, hey. Poe’s here. That’s novel. Poe is never here.”
He sighed. “Fair enough.”
Jen didn’t stick around to hear if there was any more banter between them. She tapped on the map directly in the center of the blue dots that were thinning out.
…She wasn’t quite prepared for what awaited her.
It seemed like Miller wasn’t too picky about what he was using to invade the world. Jen stared up at giant orcs stomping around a stone city with red tile rooftops. They were half again as large as the biggest orcs she had fought before. Maybe more. Easily twice her height. They looked strange moving about. Awkward. Almost like they were in slow motion as their character took several yards in a stride, but had been scaled up without any finesse. Their new movement speed didn’t match their animations.
“Well that sucks.” Sam stepped up beside Jen.
“I mean, yeah…” Jen shrugged and lifted her sword. “Doesn’t matter. They’re a problem, so we’re going to fix it.”
People were bolting away from the carnage, weaving around Jen and Sam without slowing down. Poe stood behind them. “I can probably swarm them, but I’m not sure how much damage that will really do.”
Sam shaded her eyes. “Bet they’re worth some primo experience. Can’t just throw out mobs that aren’t. Should get you caught up in a jiffy.”
“I’m actually less concerned about that than you seem to be.”
“I can’t be seen with a scrub, Poe. Already have to deal with Jen, here.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “Okay, new plan. Sam and I get their attention, Poe you keep them from squishing us like bugs. Just slow the others from getting to us if you can’t kill them. We’ll take them out as quickly as we can, but you gate them.” She pointed to the roof of the building off to their right. “Get up high so you can see, but avoid doing anything to get aggro yourself.”
“I think I can do that.” He gave a nod and started for the door into the building.
Sam unsheathed her sword. “Well, I’m happy hes confident and all, but I’m not as sure as he is. How are we going to fight those, exactly? I didn’t spec into shin strike, and I’m a mere mortal these days.”
“I’m going to tank, you’re going to stab.”
“Pfft. You can’t tank.”
“I respecced while we were waiting.” Jen pulled the old and rusted metal shield she had found days before from her inventory. She had never felt confident enough to not have one, but hadn’t bothered to ever get a better one either. She’d gotten used to two handed fighting.
That might have been a mistake, but it was too late to worry over it now.
She had upgraded her passive defensive skills and shield bash as high as they could go. Bashing when not in range of a target would supposedly cause her to charge headlong at it with the shield up now, while bashing when in range did more listed damage than her sword. She doubted what the sword listed was accurate, though. It had always been pretty ridiculous in PVE fights and had nearly dropped Bulorn. The one hit she had landed had taken at least half his health, and the man had been stacking stamina like it was going out of style.
Soulshine was a big part of why she felt she could still use the shield. Any damage increase she was getting by using two hands was probably negligible beside what the sword could already do. Besides, using a shield was just how the paladin was designed. She might give it up again later but for now, looking out at those things out there… she wanted the slab of iron on her arm. The longsword damage upgrades and duo and trio hit skills didn’t specify how many hands she needed to use anyway.
