Stage 5
“Scan!” The basic scan was the most basic of basic spells. Every player, and most NPCs, could use it, even pure martial classes, starting at Level 10, for a single Power point. There were ways to fool it, such as Data Illusion spells, and there were also scanning methods that could pierce such spells. But few players, let alone NPCs, even Elite ones, bothered with Data Illusions, so the datascreen that appeared before me was most likely accurate:
Captain Bonemaster
Level 50 Skeleton Troop Captain (Elite)
HP: 52,512/52,512 Power: 355/708
Resonances: Decay 100% Infernal 20%
The first member of the legendary Thirteen Devils that guard the various stages of the Tower of the Underworld. Possesses enhanced capacity to summon Skeleton soldiers, and augments his own attacks with Hellfire. It is said that the other Devils are much stronger than him.
Below all that was a color-coded bar chart which gave a general idea of how good their various stats were relative to their level. A line in the middle of the chart marked the average aptitude; a bar far past this line was high aptitude, meaning they had an abnormally high stat for their level, and a bar that fell well short meant that stat was woefully inadequate.
I didn’t have time to read the flavor text, but I had trained myself to take in the rest at a glance. Captain Bonemaster, like most undead, had very low magic defense. And the conjunction of Decay and Infernal element resonances, also common among lesser undead, meant he’d be vulnerable to Light spells.
“Saint Ray!” It was a weak Circle Two Holy offensive spell, but if it worked I’d easily be able to wear him down. Unfortunately, the ray of light reflected off his golden armor. I doubted such deflection would stand up against a Circle Six spell, which was the strongest I could cast at Level 50, but Bonemaster wasn’t going to give me the kind of time I’d need to cast something that powerful. In fact, even when I renewed Fleetfoot, I was hard pressed to evade him, though I was able to parry some of his attacks with my rod. At least, until he stepped it up. I had just sprang back from his latest assault when he shouted “Hellfire Lance!”
As his sabre slashed the air in front of me, it glowed more brightly, and a tongue of hellfire shot from it and struck me in the chest. My armor helped reduce the damage, but not by much. The yellow bar that represented the strength of its magical protection also fell by more than a quarter.
Time for Plan B. This would end my attempt to clear the entire dungeon for now, so I hoped I could find a way to avoid facing Captain Bonemaster when I came back. “Phase Shift!”
Phase Shift was a Circle 4 Quick-Cast spell that shifted my body to another dimension where I couldn’t be harmed, nor seen with See Invisible. And acquiring that status was a requirement to be able to cast one of my favorite spells in the game.
As Bonemaster exclaimed, and looked around in confusion, I called the Third and Fourth Circles, then began a chant in Runic language while enacting the gestures to call the Fifth and Sixth—a larger pair of magic circles which materialized some distance from the weaker Inner Circles, surrounding them and me, though still invisible to Bonemaster in my Phase Shifted state: <"Threads of space and time, entwine and wreak destruction!”>
While I did this, I also positioned myself so that when I cast the spell, I reappeared right behind Bonemaster. “Dimension Render!”
“Gyaaaah!”
At melee range, this spell immediately canceled Phase Shifted status, and opened a destructive hole in dimensions, a hole that couldn’t be opened by someone fully on the material plane. It had the highest damage output of any Sixth Circle Cosmic spell, enough to equal some Eighth Circle spells, but it cost more Power than any other spell in that category as well, and that was without taking the cost of Phase Shift, which cost to activate as well as to maintain a Phase Shifted state, into account. Even so, it amounted to Eighth Circle damage for a low Seventh Circle amount of Power. It had taken a lot of time, effort, and Crystals for me to track down the needed items, and fulfill the other requirements to be able to cast it back when my level was in the 70s.
The number that appeared as damage to Captain Bonemaster was over 40,000. Now came the troublesome part. There was no way I was going to be able repeat such an attack. I gained as much distance on him as I could while he was reeling from the extreme damage, but I’d probably only manage a Circle Four Holy spell before he closed on me again. His own Armor bar had depleted to almost nothing though, so it was definitely worth trying.
I finished the spell just as he got close enough to attack me again, his sabre now glowing intensely with hellfire. “Saint Pillar!”
My opponent screamed in pain as a sizeable column of light engulfed him, and another number, nearly 20,000 this time, appeared, clearly visible in the light. Less clearly visible, Captain Bonemaster was destroyed, and when the light cleared, a small pile of ashes was left behind. Usually, Elite NPCs were ZOed first, but by using so many strong attacks that he had been vulnerable to, Bonemaster had been Overkilled. Also left behind was a silver key with teeth that looked like bones and a skull on the end. Real subtle, I know. As I added it to my inventory, it appeared as “Castle Inferno Gate Key.” Also on the ground was a chestplate that looked like his chest armor, and a potion of glowing green liquid.
My heart quickened. I couldn’t equip the chestplate myself, but I had something in mind to put it to use already. As for the potion…if it was what I thought it was, it was ridiculously valuable. I’d need to identify it first, though.
I turned around and headed back to the entrance of the castle grounds. As I did, I glanced at my HP and Power status.
HP: 33,512/40,640 Power: 307/1,282
Good. Still enough for a Haven spell. Then again, it’s possible I won’t need it with my shiny golden olive branch.
Instead of heading for lodging, whether in the Fallen’s safe zone or out of it, I asked directions to the Helper. This was my evening session, so it was the same one I’d heard about before, Barkin. He ran a blacksmith’s establishment near the outer walls of the city, called The Devil’s Arms. To my considerable unsurprise, he was a dwarf. Almost anyone who wanted anything to do with forging or metalworking or basically crafting of almost any sort played as a dwarf, due to the inherent racial bonus they had for all such activities. He wore his own Cloak of the Condemned over a considerable quantity of high quality armor that he'd probably made himself. When he spoke, his voice was warm and boisterous. “Welcome! Haven’t seen you before. New in town?”
“Well, yes and no,” I said, “I’ve been here a little while, but on my first day here I sorta mouthed off a bit to one of the Campers, so I haven’t had much to do with you guys since then. See, I’m doing my best to get as far as I can in the Underworld solo. I don’t intend to join the Fallen outright if I don’t have to, but I want to make it clear I do support you guys. I got what seems to be a rare drop, and I can’t use it myself. I figured you’d be able to pass it along to someone who can.
I went to a nearby unoccupied table, and released the Bonemaster Chestplate from my inventory. It landed on the table with a conspicuous clank, and some of the other dwarves looked up…and kept staring. But Barkin laughed. “It’s not every day someone I’ve never seen before just waltzes into my forge and drops one of these in my lap! What’s your name, stranger?”
“Veralix.”
“Well Veralix, if there’s anything I can do for you, just ask!”
“As it happens, I still have a lot of questions about how the Underworld works.”
“Ask away, by all means. It’s the least I can do to repay your generosity.”
“Well first, how are there so few players here? Is it just that the Demons discourage all but a few people from even trying to reach the Gate of True Return, or?”
“Well, there’s that, but that’s not all. See, before the fourth zone, there are multiple copies of each Area of the Underworld. Players are put into ‘em at random when they reach them. So if you died today and grinded your way back to Perdition tomorrow, you probably wouldn’t even meet me here. Doesn’t matter where you’re from in the real universe, either. Me, I’m from the Exploration Hub colony, but I’ve helped out folks from Arcadia, Sol Prime, even the Multiverse Society.
“Oh? Don’t get very many from the Society?”
“Not too many. They’re a lot more careful about dying in the main game over there, I hear.” True enough, at least whenever a player gets beyond the novice levels, I thought. “And most of them who joined the Fallen are up in in the fourth zone—till they get killed and go all the way back, at least. Finally, a lot of the Society players who do die tend to join the Demons.”
The Demons were popular with my people? That was extremely interesting, and even more worrying. I might need to double down on hiding that I was from there, then, in case other Fallen reacted like that Camper had.
Or hiding it could be viewed as even more suspicious after I’d been told. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that with me, even if I am from the Society. What can you tell me about zones 3 and 4? I definitely hope to reach them.”
“Hmm, not much myself. I’ve tried to get through zone 3, the Great Maze but it always kicks my ass. Like its name says, it's basically a giant, really dangerous maze. So, for the time being I’m helping the Fallen out here.” He started glancing around. “Anything else?”
“One last question,” I said, “I’m sure you have things to do. Now that I’ve beaten Captain Bonemaster, but then retreated from Inferno Castle, will I have to get past him again when I go back?”
“What? No, that’s what the Sigils are for.”
“Sigils?”
“Haven’t taken a look at yourself lately, eh? Well, have you seen anyone with marks on the back of their Cloak of the Condemned, like this?” Barkin turned around, and indeed there was a small, odd symbol on the back of his cloak. Come to think of it, there were a few other people I’d seen with a similar one, and once or twice a player with two of them. “The Sigils are one of the few things you take with you when you start over here. The general opinion is that there’s one for each of the Thirteen Devils. And once you beat one and get their Sigil on your cloak, they don’t appear when you’re around. A lot of our guys who die in Area 4 and come back have both the Sigils to pass through Inferno Castle, so we try to organize groups to go with them, to give more people a chance to try their hand at the Maze. So if you beat the Second Devil then bite it, show yourself to whatever Helper is in your instance of Perdition right away when you get back, got it?”
“I’ll keep it in mind, thanks. Thanks a lot for everything, I’ll get going now.”
“Good luck to ya, Veralix. And if you do get as far as zone 4 and meet the Fallen Champion, mention Barkin helped you out, all right?”
“Sure thing.” I made a mental note to write down his name as soon as I logged out. I found lodging in the zone protected by the Fallen…but I still cast Haven, just because. In the morning session I’d have to look into finding a place to scribe scrolls so that I wouldn’t waste leftover Power like this again, along with gathering information about the Second Devil.
The next morning, my first objective went better than the second. I found an NPC-run scroll shop which for 30 Crimson Spheres, or CS, sold me a scribing quill, magic ink, and two parchment rolls suitable for spells of the Fourth Circle or lower, and told me more parchment would be 5 CS per roll. With that, I was able to scribe twenty Recover scrolls, each of which would heal me for roughly 5,000 HP. Not enough to make a difference back when I was Level 99, even though as a pure caster my HP was far below average. But right now, having 20 of what amounted to somewhat above passable healing potions could give me an edge that I’d likely need, especially deeper into the Underworld.
On the other hand, no one, not even the other Fallen Helper, an elf called Lari (and yes he had one of those senses of humor) had much helpful to say about the Second Devil. He was a vampire, the lord of Inferno Castle, Count Harknis von Pyrion, and he directly guarded the innermost chamber where the Wellspring that took players to the Great Maze was located. But all any of the Fallen in this area ever did to defeat him, it seems, was to overwhelm him with an entire party or more. Interestingly, when using that method of defeating him so I was told, no Sigil was awarded to any participating combatant. So finally, I tried to look around for someone with two Sigils on the back of their Cloak of the Condemned, but didn't find anyone.
Nothing for it but to floor it.
But my return to Inferno Castle would have to wait until my evening session. In the meantime, I still had things to arrange for my impending descent to H Tier, which by now was inevitable. Even before my death in the Game, I’d arranged for automatic payment in the event something like this happened—from the account I could no longer access manually—to cover the fees I’d need to pay in order to retain my current, moderately comfortable residence and not be assigned to an H Class apartment. I didn’t live affluently, and I lived alone, so my apartment was considered F Class, which meant to retain it I’d only lose 5 Crystals per month. Even for the entire year, I had plenty of savings for that.
Arranging for rations was trickier. As long as I was H-Tier, I would no longer be able to go to restaurants and eat Made food. However, not long before I transferred servers from my home World I found out that there was a way to avoid H-Rations, even though I hadn’t set that up in advance. There were a few clans that specialized in financial services, and one service they provided was to partner with NPC banks. From that partnership, the NPC-run banks gave them special dispensation to access the “ghost accounts” of players who were currently considered dead by the game or were otherwise unable to access their accounts themselves. The NPC banks ensured this access would not be used for any purpose other than to pay Society quality of life fees, or the clan’s own service fees. The thing was, those service fees were substantial. They charged an equivalent amount to the fees they paid for you, or a 50 Crystal minimum.
The thing was, the reason I hadn’t arranged for upgraded rations in advance in the first place was that I wasn’t sure I’d even need them. Like I said before, H-Rations were still good. I’d had them before myself, though it’d been years. In fact, it was even an off-and-on-again fad in the Society for those who were overweight to go on H-Rations for a diet. But now, for weeks I’d been waffling about downgrading to H-Rations just to test and make sure I’d be willing to eat like that for a year. Today, I decided to take my hesitation as a no. I downgraded from B-Rations to D-Rations instead, since even without the broker fees B-Rations would be way too expensive for me.
Of course, given that Veralix was still stuck in the Underworld, I’d have to meet such a broker in person to make the arrangements. I had already confirmed that my wish for who I was in the real world to remain a secret would be respected. Only the broker who I directly dealt with would know even what I looked like, they wouldn’t ask for my real world name, and the details of our meeting would be kept even from everyone else in his brokerage clan.
The clan was stationed in Griyag City. Fortunately, I still had my full B-Tier travel rights until the end of the year, so the meeting could take place in a meeting house there without me having to go to a lot of trouble in advance. Meeting houses were places for clans to meet, and for people to meet with clans, in the real world and deal with each other face to face. Ruling clans like Bountiful and Gaia’s Hand used their District or Mayoral centers as meeting houses, and every town had at least one that any clan could book for meetings. As the District Capital, Griyag City had several.
The broker, who introduced himself as Greg, was surprised at how young I was. “Well,” I said as I shook his hand, “when you have passion for the Game and a solid plan for your character, you can get pretty far pretty fast.” Like most people, Greg was slightly taller than me, and he wore a very nice suit, though what my eyes were drawn to most was the ornate pen tucked behind his right ear. It looked made of ivory—synth ivory, of course—and exquisitely carved. The only reason I didn’t envy him it was that it looked rather too thick for me to write properly if it was in my hands. Definitely Made, and I doubted many pens existed in the Society that were more expensive. “Very nice pen. Maybe once my tenure in H Tier is done, you could point me to the Maker.”
“Since you brought it up, I know it’s not professional, but I have to ask. You’re trying for the Gate of True Return, right?”
“Yes…”
“Do you really think you can do it? No one’s managed it in 50 years.”
Hmm, how to handle this? The honest answer that I don’t know yet? No, I don’t think it’s even necessary. “Don’t invite the Curse. Have you ever even entered the Underworld yourself?”
“Can’t say as I have. Sorry.”
We finished the arrangements without further incident. As we’d agreed prior, I signed the agreement that would allow Greg to access my account as a broker as Veralix. The guy actually stared at it for several seconds before he put it away. “What a beautiful signature,” he said, “usually the signatures I get are more like doctor scrawls. You’re Griyag District’s Maker of Scrolls, all right.”
“You should see how I sign my contracts in the Game. Remember, everything about who I am in real life, hush hush.”
“Absolutely. Good luck to you.”
Less than an hour and a half of Veralix’s rest had passed, so I decided to take the slow way back, a train for people to enjoy the act of travelling rather than quickly reach a destination. I’d made heavy use of these in my travels at the start of the year. The B-Class carriages were excellent, comfortable and roomy, and I requested one with a television. It was getting close to Assessment time, so pre-qualifiers in many sub-games were underway, making for more interesting programming. And anyway, it was a good way to keep up with goings on in the Game while in the Underworld.
Eventually, I once again conquered my most challenging enemy outside the Game—boredom—and logged back in that evening. I set the maximum number of Recover scrolls that I could (6) to my quick-use item belt clip.
This time when I approached the castle, I made it all the way to the drawbridge completely unopposed. However, there was no evident lock nearby to insert the Gate Key. Well, that wasn’t necessarily a problem.
I brought up my inventory window and selected the key. The window vanished and it appeared in my hand, as shiny and skeletal as ever. I tightened my grip on it, held it up, and cried out “Invoke!”
There was a bright flash from the key, and from ahead the clanking of chains as the drawbridge started to move. As it lowered about halfway, an imposing portcullis beyond it came into view, and a moment later also began to raise. In less than a minute, the only thing barring entry into the castle was a massive iron door. This had a conspicuous keyhole in its exact center, which glowed as red as hellfire. I inserted the key, and before I even had a chance to turn it, the door swung inward on its own without a sound.
Unusually for times like this, the key remained in my hand rather than being consumed by its use, so I returned it to my inventory. Then without further ado, I crossed the threshold and entered the castle proper.
As soon as I looked upon the interior of Perdition Castle, the thing about this place that had been subtly bothering me from the start finally clicked. It didn’t seem fake in the same way as Respec with its washed out colorization, but fake like a theme park or a movie set, buildings that looked as though I could look at the other side and find they were just wooden props, though in this case that never happened. Inside the castle, this effect of false imitation was more pronounced—in the entry hall, candles gave off light that looked like fire but was not, copies of the same portrait appeared more than once, and a table I passed that couldn’t have been there for more than decorative reasons had a bowl of fruit on it that made no effort to look as though they weren’t wax.
It was creepy, but brilliant. A castle and town inhabited by, other than the players, undead. Poor imitations of life who poorly imitated its very trappings. That graveyard with the stronger than usual zombies was the only honest place around. It was really too bad I hadn't managed to explore its secrets.
The castle interior held its own challenge. The Wellspring leading to the Great Maze was visible from a panoramic—and indestructible—window near the rear of the castle, in its rear garden. But the only way in was a magically sealed door. An NPC zombie—more intelligent than a monster, less than an Elite—carried the key, but he fled the moment he spotted me. He also seemed to have a See Invisible effect active, so I couldn't sneak up on him. It took about a half hour, chasing him all around the castle, including through a library (filled with cardboard books) a dining hall (displaying an entire wax feast) kitchens (which were harder to fight through owing to the prevalence of sharp objects—nothing fake about the knives, and they were even magically endowed as weapons!) and halls, before finally cornering him in his own servant quarters.
Still, through extensive use of Gatling I managed to only use up around 20% of my Power Points in the whole encounter. Before using his key, I took some time to cast a proper buff. <“Speed the flow of the great cosmic river!> Haste!” It was much more effective than Fleetfoot, and would last for 2 minutes. With any luck I wouldn’t need nearly that long.
I entered the garden, which was full of rotting, dying plants—and the Wellspring. It stood out like a sore thumb, vibrant, well made, and well kept amid the undead fakery all around. But as I approached, I heard a voice cry out in Runic language. <“I give my existence to ward that which I must!”> Then, in English, it continued, “Life-Force Barrier!”
That was an Infernal Circle 5 spell, much more commonly used by NPCs than players. It made it so a door, otherwise open passageway, or any item no bigger than a large treasure chest could not be accessed by anyone. This barrier could only be dispelled two ways: the caster making physical contact with their Barrier…or their death.
Well, that was fine by me. “See Invisible*!” Looking in the direction I heard the voice, I spotted an Elite Vampire very close to the Wellspring. “Firespark!”
He dodged the small fireball easily. “Have you no sense of propriety?” said Count von Pyrion, “You invite yourself as a guest into my home yet show no interest in my hos…”
Presumably, he was about to say “hospitality” but I had already cast Phase Shift, and thus even to his magical high class undead senses I was gone and he had no idea where I went. This, I had found hundreds of times before, was a major weakness shared by virtually all Elite NPCs—they loved to talk. I was able to cast Dimension Render even faster than usual, saving more than 50 Power over the average that I lost from the Phase Shifted state. The Count’s health bar immediately dropped by more than half. My Power bar, however, was in much the same state after my combo, and the Haste spell.
The Count activated some kind of vampire ability to give him supernatural speed, but I had already gotten quite a lot of distance on him, and kept backing up even as I cast my first Saint Pillar. He responded with spells of his own, but the edge in damage I’d given him at the start meant the flames and dark energies that washed over my body barely got my own HP below half before, just like Captain Bonemaster, a pile of dust was all that was left of the Count. Well, that and another small green potion, which I picked up. Come to think of it, I still hadn’t appraised the first one I got.
The way to the Great Maze was now free and clear for me. But I didn’t want to go in with under half my HP and under 1/3rd of my power. So instead of taking the plunge into the Wellspring, I activated 3rd person view for a moment, confirming my Cloak of the Condemned now sported two snow-white Sigils on its coal black background. Then, I went back to Barkin’s forge. “Oh it’s you, what was your name again? Veralix! What can I do ya for?”
“Tell people if they’re desperate for a crack at the Maze, I’ll be heading that way tomorrow, 1000 CHT (Coordinated Humanity Time).”
Then I turned my back to Barkin, displaying the two Sigils, and was rewarded when I quickly turned back to see the look on his face. “You beat the Count so soon after Bonemaster? You’re really something else. How’d you do it?”
I shrugged. “Same way I always take down Elites. Hit hard and fast and know their weaknesses.”
“You say that like you’re used to mowing down half a dozen Elite NPCs before breakfast.”
“Maybe I am.”
“Well, clearly Perdition isn’t enough of a challenge for you. I bet you’ll clear the Maze in no time. It’ll be great to have someone like you helping the Fallen’s front lines. 1000 CHT, I’ll put it on the schedule, thanks.”
With that, I set out to rest—first my character, then myself.
* Quick cast, Circle 3. This version only lasts for about a minute, Great See Invisible at Circle 6 lasts for an entire hour.
