MM - Chapter 105 - CURSE OF A DIFFERENT KIND

- Outside Oilong’s Restaurant, Silverlight City -

Two young men perched on the back of a street bench like a couple of gargoyles. They enjoyed the day’s fading light, happily munching on kebabs. The quality and depth of the smells released by the nearby restaurant had been irresistible.

The man on the left tipped his kebab at his partner, “This is what it’s all about, brother.”

The second man nodded emphatically, “Exactly! What’s the point of grinding for twenty-three hours a day if we never stop and enjoy the meat?”

“Hey, did you notice the new tab on the leaderboard?”

“The top ten for the tower-of-something?”

“Yeah, yeah. The forums are going wild. There are huge coliseums in every major city that access the same Tower of Triumph. Each floor has ten waves of enemies; the first time you clear each floor, there's a reward.”

The second man scanned the forums, finding the relevant posts were right at the top, “Woah! Check it out. There's a new post about it. Supposedly, this guy’s a peak expert and couldn't make it past the second floor. If it's that hard, I bet the rewards are awesome.”

Both men paused, their thoughts in perfect alignment. They scrambled to open their leaderboards, revealing the hundred highest-level players registered to the city. Clicking the Tower of Triumph top-ten tab, their jaws dropped.

“Am I seeing this right?”

“How the hell did two people from our city make it to the cusp of the fifth floor?”

“I don’t know. Maybe ours is easier? Fizgore and Rhino. Do you recognize their names?”

“Nope. I don’t think they’re part of a big guild or anything. Hey, if our tower is bugged, shouldn’t we get those rewards before they patch it?”

Eyes wide with sudden excitement, both men stored their kebabs in their inventories and rushed toward the coliseum. The building was so massive that it was visible from almost every street in the Commoner's District. They arrived to find a long line of players wrapping outside the structure. A host of guards kept everyone in order, and their wait was short as there were enough kiosks inside to keep the line moving quickly.

Plenty of people left with dejected expressions, but the two ignored them and the whispers of how challenging the tower was. They were both class four martials, already on the city’s leaderboard at level sixteen, and confident in their skills. They paid the not-insignificant three silver entrance fee and were promptly teleported to their respective battlefields.

Not five minutes passed before they appeared outside the arena, shocked to their cores at the insanity they’d just witnessed. They did what they should have done from the start and checked the rest of the top ten climbers. The third place was the same as the guy on the forums: second floor, eighth wave. The tenth place didn’t seem like they were that far behind on the second floor, fifth wave. But now that both of them had experienced the horror of the tower, the difference of three waves felt like the vastness of an ocean.

“How far?” The first man mumbled.

“Second floor, second wave.”

“Same here…”

They stood in stunned silence as dozens of people died in the tower and were ejected around them, “Fizgore and Rhino, huh? Those guys aren’t normal at all.”

“Understatement of the millennium, brother.”

Damian Tafell

“She didn't take the bait, Master Damian. At least not yet,” Hammer’s deep voice was tinged with disappointment.

Damian nodded at the image of his underling in his HUD, “Stay out of touch until she does. Arya even scolded her about chasing you; she'll come. After DoberMan's betrayal, she’ll take her time investigating you. With her level of intellect, I’m sure she’ll reach out if we aren't in contact for a bit.”

“I live to serve.”

Damian ended the call, releasing an amused snort at the fool’s expense, “You’ve still got it wrong after all this time, little pawn. You do not live to serve: you serve, or die.” He tapped the command to log out of ZionLine and sat up, surrounded by opulence. The comfortable bed beneath him contorted to his new position as he unclasped and removed his headset. Not an instant later, pain exploded in the back of his skull, and his vision went fuzzy. The blow sent Damian hurtling through the air. He crashed into a twenty million credit desk made of reinforced wood that had gone extinct in the devastation of the AI wars.

Splinters flew in all directions, including into his back and legs. Bleeding and disoriented, Damian barely understood what was happening when thick fingers spread over his scalp. They twisted into his hair, then he was lifted entirely off the floor. Sensation returned as spears of agony raced through his stretching skin. He opened his mouth to scream and was silenced by a fist of steel that crashed into his jaw.

He blacked out, only for consciousness to return in a flash. The slap was still echoing through the large room when his eyes snapped open. Damian finally got a good look at his assailant, a burly man early into his middle ages. Their eyes locked, recognition flashing through Damian’s ringing skull. Before he could demand what the peasant was thinking by laying hands on him, an elderly man with immaculate gray hair and a stylish goatee leaned around the thug.

Damian’s complaints died on his cracked lips, “E-elder Snow. If I’ve offended in some way—”

“Cut the shit, you little turd,” Elder Snow’s venomous tone was in complete opposition to his smiling face and delicate features. “I ensured you won the auction for my armor, didn’t I? I supported your guild with twenty thousand gold and the crafters needed to make the sets. I couldn’t have possibly made your task any easier. All you had to do was stay out of trouble and keep your nose to the grindstone for Five. Fucking. Days!”

Damian tried to shake his head in denial, but the burly lowborn still had a tight grip on his hair, “I-I haven’t failed you, Elder Snow! There must be some misunderstanding!”

Damian failed to perceive the peak class five martial’s movement. The air was blasted from his lungs, and his back cracked the wall as he bounced. Elder Snow caught him mid-air by the throat. He sneered, effortlessly holding Damian suspended at arm’s length, “Fifteen thousand of my gold pissed away to some nobody and you think I wouldn’t notice?! Worse, because of your failures, that slut Arya got to the patriarch first. It should have been me!” Snow roared.

Before Damian could lose consciousness again, Elder Snow pinned him to the broken wall, leaning close to whisper menacingly, “My men will be level twenty shortly. You have a week. One hundred sets, Damian, or I’ll ensure this round of your little competition was the last fond memory you’ll ever own.”

Elder Snow spun on his heel and left with his thug. Damian gasped pitifully, choking around the finger-shaped imprints etched into his throat.

Fuck! A hundred sets? Bastard knows the materials we need come from a level forty zone. Don’t even know how to get there because of the worthless, tight-lipped NPCs. That recipe is cursed.

The worst part was that Damian could barely get any of the city's NPCs to talk to him anymore. He had no idea why his Silverlight reputation was in the negative. Every time he logged in, it was lower than when he left. Which, of course, just made the NPC shits less cooperative. Damian took measured breaths, forcing the adrenaline from his system and slowly bringing his emotions under control. During that time, he realized who was truly at fault for his string of terrible luck.

How dare that cattle even dream to look up at my ankles! I alone will rule this world.

Accessing his LinQ, he made a call that was instantly answered. Hammer's rumbling voice responded, “Master Damian?”

Damian spat around the ache in his throat, “I have something for you to do while you wait for the dumb bitch. I want you to work with Origin of Sin to investigate Alaric's origin town in ZionLine.”

Like the good slave he was, Hammer was quick to comply, “Understood. I’ll get it done. However, even if we use his origin town to find out what city he’s really from, finding one person among millions…”

Damian bared his teeth, eyes alight with malicious anticipation, “Someone like him won't be satisfied staying hidden for long. The moment he sticks his ugly head up, we'll be there to chop it off! If I have to, I'll annex the entire city. Every man, woman, and child will become my personal slaves. Even if he escapes, his friends and family won't. Then, he'll reveal himself all on his own.”

“But Ripper said the patriarch wants to befriend him.”

“Do you expect me to believe that monster wants us to lower our heads? Our heads?!" Damian fumed, continuing with unsteady breaths, "No, grandfather's only use for Alaric is a tool to teach me and the dumb bitch a lesson. I understood his true meaning all too well: if you can't beat him, devour his foundation. When he’s weakened and alone, he’ll fall like the prey he is. This is nothing but another test. Do not forget who we are, Hammer. We are the Phoenix: there are none permitted to soar higher!”

Raine KongRu

Raine had one more task to do before leaving the administrative facilities. He handled his business quickly, then activated a Return Stone to shortcut his way across Silverlight City. With only fifteen minutes to meet up with everyone, he logged out and dashed to the bathroom. The smartwalls portrayed a live broadcast of the night’s darkness beyond his home. Obnoxious city lights held the shadows at bay, snuffing out the moon and stars.

A few taps on the smooth metallic surface approved several requests for household purchases from Morty. The AI left him multiple messages in an attempt to get his attention so he stuck his head out the room and shouted down the hallway, “Hi Morty, bye Morty!”

“Master, wait! It is important!”

Raine sighed and jogged down the hallway, poking his head in to see Morty’s eyes strobing an annoyed orange. “I’m in a hurry…”

If Morty could glower, he would have been aiming a deadly one Raine’s way, “If you took the time to answer your messages, I would not feel obligated to detain you.”

“Well, out with it then.”

Sensing Raine’s impatience was bordering on the dangerous, Morty got to the point, “The mayor has been hounding me non-stop for several hours. If you do not respond to him tonight, I fear he will cut our power.”

“Is that all?” Raine drawled.

“Yes, carry on, minio-benevolent master.”

If Raine hadn’t been in such a hurry, he definitely would have taken the time to mess with Morty. The AI knew what he was doing by picking this exact moment to get revenge for some past grievance or another.

Raine narrowed his eyes, “Well played. Once your limbs come in, we’re going to have a little spar, you and I.” With the threat still hanging in the air, Raine retreated to his room, willingly giving the AI the well-earned victory. He barely finished strapping in before falling down a tunnel of light again.

Quick steps took him to a nearby adventurers' den, where he paid an apprentice blacksmith to repair his few pieces of damaged equipment. While there, he visited the attunement trainer.

In a move that normally only a complete idiot would do, Raine unlocked all the beginner weapon attunements at once. Usually, accruing Attunement was the primary bottleneck stopping players from purchasing all their basic class skills; arguably, skills were the more beneficial use for the precious resource. Because he was leveling two growth weapons, Raine’s Attunement pool was as deep as a lake, currently sitting at over fifty-five thousand.

The only thing stopping him from buying the last of his class skills were the general skill points required. By unlocking all the weapon attunements, he had committed to allocating forty-five thousand attunement away from his precious skills.

[Fists - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

[Mace - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

[Knives - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

[Shield - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

[Axes - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

[Staff - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

[Wands - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

[Spear - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

[Swords - Novice > Beginner 0/5000]

Raine grinned, eagerly anticipating how much more damage he would do once the attunements were completed. Unlike the novice grade, they wouldn’t give raw attributes; their completion bonuses were something much better. Eager to begin their next adventure, Raine left the adventurers’ den, passing several racks of low-grade niche-use items. He had previously purchased several items to counter demons, and they were much higher quality than the trash here designed to con noob players who didn’t know any better.

He trotted to the western exit of Silverlight’s Commoners District. While on the way, he accessed his messages. Since his only Ncode was attached to his ZionLine account, thousands of attempted friend requests sent to Alaric had to be filtered through before he found the mayor's single communication.

“Expert KongRu, we have a potential match to reclaim a deep crust silver vein. After spending five years on the infrastructure, we lost the land when the ex-champion refused to fight Millin City's champion—a peak class four martial named Vincent Price. I have tentatively scheduled the match for the last day of the reclamation period, exactly two weeks from today. If this is unacceptable, please advise, and I will rectify it immediately. I do apologize for my presumptuousness on this matter.”

Vincent Price? Never heard of him. Probably someone who joined ZL late, fell behind the curve, and faded into obscurity. Two weeks is tight. Meh. I’m sure Celeste won’t mind if I push her a little harder before her big debut.

Raine responded to the message, “Two weeks is fine. Be sure to inform my secretary, Celeste Luu Rahn. I’m sure she’ll love hearing it directly from you.”

The mayor responded as if he’d been staring at his AR display with the message already typed, “Thank you, Expert KongRu! You don't know how important this is for our little Carter City. I will find a way to repay you a hundred, no, a thousand-fold! Also, about that other matter with CronGate, they agreed to pay the previously waived taxes without complaint. I’ve arranged for fifty percent of the payments to be deposited into your accounts. Your renown is already so fearsome it brings me chills!”

Those cheapskates paid without raising a fuss? What’s Vaneese planning now? I should really just track her down and kill her before she becomes a bigger problem. Soon. My contingency for Master Torune hasn't arrived yet. Once it does, CronGate is finished.

Raine rounded the last corner, and the city gate came into view. Richtor’s group, Fizgore, Rhino, and Mel, were already there. Mel caught sight of him first. She was leaning against the stone wall and pushed herself forward to wave cheerfully. Raine noticed right away that she’d spent the hour-long break giving her character a significant makeover instead of training.

Her efforts had not been a waste. She was stunning with light freckles on full display, perfectly complimenting her smooth skin.

Meeeelllllllll!

Thankfully, Raine had help tearing his eyes away from her when the others noticed him and waved as well. Accessing his interface, he invited everyone to a fresh raid group. Their names and resource bars popped into his HUD. Mel giggled mischievously as Raine continued to ignore her and her new freckles. 

He approached Richtor’s group, “How did your training go? Used to your attributes yet?” He inspected them one by one, nodding at what he saw.

[Richtor (Cleric): Level 15 (HP 610/610) (CP 190/190)]

[Deloralicious (Rogue): Level 15 (HP 590/590) (Discipline 140/140)]

[Kevinsbakon (Defender): Level 15 (HP 830/830) (Discipline 100/100)]

[TwistedReligion (Mage): Level 15 (HP 540/540) (EP 175/175)]

[Milkdud (Brawler): Level 15 (HP 670/670) (Discipline 120/120)]

Chatty as ever, TwistedReligion responded, “We mastered those movements with the greatest of ease! So, what’s next? A super-secret martial technique, perhaps?” He flashed his brows at Raine.

Observing their excitement, Raine shrugged, “Sure. Why not?” 

TwistedReligion’s surprise at the easy agreement redoubled when Raine vanished from sight. The shuffle-step brought him behind their childhood friend, and a gentle push to the shoulder blades sent the scrawny nerd sprawling. Thanks to increased attributes that he failed to adequately control, Twisted lost his balance and leaped three meters forward, face-planting against the city wall.

“Did you see it?” Raine asked with a poorly hidden smirk.

“Crap! Was anyone recording?” Milkdud smacked his forehead and groaned when the group shook their heads in the negative. He directed puppy-dog-eyes at Raine and was promptly added to the ignore list.

Celeste came jogging around the corner of a nearby alley. She took a position next to Mel, her eyes dancing as she sent the other girl a message. Raine checked the time. Before he could grow annoyed they were late, Talerra’s group rounded a corner further down the busy road. They trotted in lockstep, their names added to the raid group when she accepted his invite.

Checking their classes and resource maximums revealed nothing unexpected. Each was a combination class. Their more varied attributes spread was already beginning to show over his peoples’ pure classes. Additionally, the lower potency of their skills would put them at a further disadvantage. 

Wasn’t expecting them to be useful in the first place. Just need five extra warm bodies to get us in the door. The ten of us will be enough to handle the rest.

[SolemnRiver (Vanguard Warrior): Level 16 (HP 970/970) (Discipline 110/110)]

[FierceFire (Zephyr Mage): Level 16 (HP 520/520) (EP 140/140)]

[BrickAxely (Berserk Warrior): Level 15 (HP 830/830) (Discipline 100/100)]

[BrickRoll (Battle Rogue): Level 15 (HP 610/610) (Discipline 110/110)]

[PristineCanvas (Mystic Vanguard): Level 15 (HP 770/770) (CP 100/100)]