Mixing It Up (The World Book 2) Page 2

  “So what’s the plan? Are we calling it a night or are we going to check out this freaking dungeon that took us all day to reach? In case you haven’t figured it out yet, my vote is yes for the dungeon.” Sarka said, eyeing the shimmering gate against the far wall. Seeing her husband looked at her in surprise, Sarka laid into him. “What? It’s only ten PM here. If you can watch football until midnight to one o’clock in the morning, then you can play just as easily too. Am I right?” She said looking at the rest of us for support.

  I hid the instant smile that came to my lips as I held up my hands backing away listening to Sarka’s logic. I liked them both, but I had a feeling that Sarka was more of a gamer at heart than her husband. Luckily, he and I got along well with one another, and I definitely enjoyed playing with the two of them. Still, Yun had his hands full with that woman … in more ways than one. I heard Unalia and Tinyr speaking in hushed voices together before Tinyr spoke up.

  “You can count us in too.”

  “Sounds like a plan then. Let’s do it before it gets too late.” I said ignoring Yun’s pleading side look. The players watched us intently as we made our way through the crowd towards the gate, most hurrying to get out of our way. It almost made me feel like standing outside of the lunchroom cafeteria in High School with the different groups of players huddled together talking. I mentally shook my head to get rid of the unhappy thoughts. We’d nearly reached the gateway when we ran into a group of three that didn’t immediately step aside to let us through. Looking at the unreadable faces of the players standing before us, I recognized the two Valkyrie players that had spoken up during my argument with Snufu from earlier. Focusing on the players to call up their visible stats, I realized that all three of them were from the Valkyrie guild. Although Torlandro, the third Valkyrie player, didn’t have the massive amounts of Hit Points and Mana that both Kayarina and Vardrid did.

  Here were two players that could give even me a run for my money in an encounter if they chose to attack. Their Hit Points weren’t as high as my own, so they weren’t a Nightmare start. Obviously, they’d taken part in the P&M exam program. I frowned thoughtfully as my new friends spread out to either side of me eyeing the group warily. If these Valkyrie players had such high stats, then why did they dither so long over whether or not to stop Snufu from ganking lower level players? The extended silence between us started to look more like a standoff then two groups of players checking each other out. As I became aware of the players around us stepping back to clear the space around us large enough for us to fight without pulling in any bystanders, I grinned giving the Valkyrie players a casual nod.

  “To what do we owe this pleasure?”

  “Do you really think that level of brutality was called for?” Kyarina accosted me coldly.

  “What can I say? I don’t take threats from bullies well.” I said, feeling my lips twist in distaste. “I hope you’re not going to try defending that asshole after the fact?”

  “We were standing up to him when you attacked unprovoked.” Kyarina continued undeterred. The contempt clear on her face.

  “Really? Do you see me marked red for PVP?” I asked sarcastically pointing above my head at the virtual nametag that I knew was floating there. Seeing their confused looks, I laid into them. “Nothing, right? That’s because Snufu attacked me first while you guys were flapping your jaws. I take it from what Snufu said; this wasn’t the first time something like this has happened. So, how many other newbies did you let him ganked before us?”

  Seeing the uncomfortable looks they gave to one another, I just shook my head in disgust. “Really? I guess you guys deserve a big congratulations. Good job on stopping him and all that. Honestly, I don’t understand your problem. You’ve both taken the P&M exam. You could have stopped him at any time, but you chose not to.”

  “We prefer not to participate in PVP unless we have to.” Vardrid stiffly answered with his head held high.

  “So, even after discovering you were wrong in your assumptions, you still haven’t apologized for accosting me. Why, because I finished what they started? Because you didn’t like my methods?” I spat sourly, mentally swearing at the self-righteous idiots.

  “It’s not like you had to kill them all.” Kyarina shot back at me angrily.

  “Look again, no PVP flags. Obviously, they were just as guilty Snufu.” Seeing the man’s hesitation, I just shook my head at the lot of them in disgust. “No one forced those guys to attack us; they chose on their own accord to engage in PVP. They engaged us, not because they were defending themselves or because they’d been wronged, but because they thought we were weak and they could get away with slaughtering us and taking our stuff. And that, might I remind you, is after they followed us into the dungeon after we cleared out the majority of the mobs. Now you’re basically attacking us for defending ourselves too efficiently. Nice double standard there guys.”

  “You know, at first I thought you guys were cool. I was even thankful that you’d at least tried to stand up to the griefing asshole, but after all of this shit, maybe Snufu was partly right. Maybe you guys do stick your noses too much into other people’s business.” I said deadpanned.

  “Dude, that’s uncalled for.” Vardrid snapped at me indignantly.

  “Really?” I said shaking my head unbelievably. “Hell, your friend Kyarina here is so pissed off that she can barely look at me and yet I’m the asshole for protecting my friends from a group of PKers. Next time, maybe you should get your facts straight before accosting people.”

  Whether or not they were angry at my words, it didn’t make them any less true. I’m sure their problem was mostly from the embarrassment of being so wrong. The double standards they held wasn’t surprising. Most people seemed to have the philosophy of doing as I say, not as I do. I held my hand up to stop Vardrid’s snippy reply. “You’ll have to excuse us for now. We have a dungeon to check out.” I said pushing past them. “Have a good evening,”

  My feelings were all confused. I had the fight or flight reflex surging through my body from the fight, and I was pissed off from the whole discussion with the Valkyrie players. I was so pissed off at that second I could barely breathe. Stretching my shoulders as I walked, I focused on releasing the built-up tension in my muscles. Three long deep inhales and exhales later I slowly began to feel better as we came to a stop in front of the shimmering portal. Drawing my hand-axe from my belt, I gripped it in my shield hand as I looked back at the excited faces behind me. Getting a nod from the rest of the team that they were ready, I called out “Let’s go!” and walked through the portal.

  So far Delonshire Mine had been everything I could have hoped for and more. The game designers had managed to intelligently combine a mixture of old and new school style of gameplay that was smart as hell. The beginning of the dungeon was built from an old school design. The tunnels were what would be considered an ‘open world’ design in the MMORPG world. To reach the main part of the dungeon your group had to pass through corridors filled with mobs. At any time your group could choose to work together with the other teams in the area to reach the next part, be overwhelmed by a train of mobs from another dying group or get jumped by a group of PKers. It was the luck of the draw.

  In this way, groups were encouraged to socialize and work together to complete the first half of the dungeon. The second part of the dungeon was structured off a completely new school design. There was a crystal portal that allowed players to warp past the first part of the dungeon, while the dungeon itself was broken up into what was referred to as ‘closed instances,’ meaning that every individual group had its own separate dungeon to explore and conquer alone. Seriously, it was like having the best of both worlds in one.

  I wasn’t sure what I’d expected as the glowing air shimmered around me. Maybe due to the Stargate look of the gateway, I unconsciously expected a rollercoaster ride into the instance. Instead, it felt like walking through a curtain of light as the rest of the team almost instantly appeared be
side me. Yea right, somewhat of a letdown. The only difference was the feel of the mine itself. Instead of the rough stone of the tunnels, these walls were as smooth as that of a manmade building. It was like we’d stepped into the entrance of some ancient structure that had been carved into the solid rock. My immediate impression was that we were in the administrative and living area for the personnel that ran the mine. The lighting was much brighter here. Unfortunately, that only helped to highlight the horror that had occurred here.

  Everywhere we looked blood splattered the walls or was pooled on the floor, while the corpses of Light Elf bodies were strewn across the entrance room hacked apart. Even more disturbing, most of the bodies looked like they’d been recently gnawed upon by a pack of wild creatures. While the stench of death was overwhelming, thankfully it was nothing like the burnt dead bodies from the Goblin Raiders on my first day of the game. Truthfully, the entire over the top scene made me think of a Diablo dungeon level come to life.

  I heard the harsh voices of approaching Goblins echoing from the tunnel at the far end of the room at the same time the sounds of retching came from behind me. The sound was immediately followed by the familiar noise of vomit splatting against the floor as the sharp acidic tang of puke floated through the air making my stomach churn. Somehow I managed to keep my lunch down as I took off for the far side of the room. I didn’t even want to think about how puking in-game would affect my pod in real life as I forced the bile down in the back of my throat.

  “What the fuck kind of game is this?” Yun asked hoarsely in-between barfing breaths.

  “I’ve heard of realism, but this is ridiculous. I’ve seen murder scenes with less blood.” Tinyr choked out, whipping the puke from his chin as Unalia staggered past her husband with her hand over her nose and mouth struggling not to puke.

  “Move your asses’ slackers; we have incoming!” Sarka gasped out as she forced her legs into a run.

  I didn’t disagree with Yun or Tinyr on that point. The realism in this game was incredible. A part of me was worried I was already getting somewhat accustomed to the digital horror of this world since I barely batted an eye at the corpses or the blood. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, I’d already experienced much worse on my first day in-game. Not to mention, I was well aware of the Goblins penchant for eating their enemies.

  Slamming to a stop with my back against the wall, I hurriedly waved everyone over just as a group of Elite Goblin Guards burst into the room as everyone froze where they stood. I silently gulped as guard after guard continued passing through the archway into the room. The green bastards were all level 20 and large. Larger than the Elite Goblin Boss I’d fought on my first morning in-game. I heard Yun’s cursing trail off abruptly as twelve Goblins came to a stop inside the room leering at them. Nothing like facing a horrible death to take your mind off of the stench of blood, piss, and puke.

  I mentally laughed at the odd thought. It reminded me of my ex-girlfriend’s complaint that I could find the one positive in every bad situation. Shaking the stray thought away to focus on the group in front of me, I noticed there were two new classes at the rear of the Goblin squad that I’d never seen before. The first new Goblin type wore what looked to be coarse, black robes that went to the floor with silver arcane symbols woven into the fabric and a gnarled staff gripped in the creature’s gnarly fists. There was no doubt in my mind that I was seeing my first Goblin Mage. The second Goblin though turned my blood to ice as soon as I saw the suit of hairy skins covering its torso decorated with bones and skulls hanging from sinewy straps. In its hand was a thick wooden staff topped with the fanged skull of an oversized rat-like creature which only confirmed my fears that this was a Goblin Shaman.

  ‘We’d entered less than a minute ago, and this dungeon was already pissing me off.’ I silently groused. It was as if our entrance had triggered an alarm that brought the guard running. I guess the Goblins’ response made sense if this were a real-life raid, but normally in MMORPGs, the area around the entrance to a dungeon was always safe for players to gather and prepare themselves to run through the instance. Having a patrol attack players as they entered was unheard of and would take a major mental adjustment for hardcore gamers like me. Especially when you were talking about Elite Goblins that had to have around 1430 Hit Points. Thankfully my quick reaction to the situation had probably saved our asses. My stealth position by the door left me in a perfect position to catch the Goblin casters completely unaware. The only question was whom to attack first.

  There was no way to work out any type of strategy with the rest of the group before I attacked, nor could I wait since I could see both casters’ hands beginning to move in preparation cast. It didn’t matter what kind of high damage spells the mage might have; the healer had to be the first to go no matter what. Especially if shamans in The World were anything like the shamans in any other MMORPG, I’d played. Silently I unsheathed the Cruel Bastard Sword from my back and switched weapons between my hands as I caught Sarka’s eyes from across the room. Seeing her face harden in anticipation, I lunged for the shaman’s back striking with both weapons as I opened the damage meter window with a thought.

  You have Sneaked Attacked Goblin shaman with Jagged Bonesplitter Axe for 550 points of damage.

  You have Sneaked Attacked Goblin shaman with Cruel Bastard Sword for 420 points of damage.

  As the Goblin shaman collapsed to his knees in agony, I was already yanking my blades free as the Goblin mage turned to look at me with a look of horror on its repulsive, green face. Sheathing the Cruel Bastard Sword in one smooth motion, I struck again Backstabbing the shaman with my Jagged Bonesplitter Axe as a Frost Nova wave rippled out from my body.

  You have Backstabbed Attacked Goblin shaman with Jagged Bonesplitter Axe for 220 points of damage.

  You Frost Nova Goblin shaman for 30 points of damage.

  You Frost Nova Goblin mage for 30 points of damage.

  You Frost Nova Goblin Guard for 30 points of damage.

  …

  Quickly I triggered the damage meter window closed before it filled my vision with statistics for every enemy my Frost Nova hit. Yanking my axe-blade free as the Elite Goblin Guards in front of me went berserk trying to break free of the ice encasing their clawed feet, I blasted the shaman with my ice Flurry spell, instantly killing the Goblin after dishing out 1580 points of combined damage in less than 4 seconds. Before I could celebrate my success, burning fire blasted me off my feet.

  The pain was incredible. It felt like my skin was melting off my bones as I rolled on the ground to put out the flames still burning my body as fire blasts exploded around me. As the flames died down, I felt a feeling of relief flow through my limbs as a golden light briefly surrounded my body. Rolling back to my feet as soon as the stiffness in my muscles went away enough for me to move again, I saw the Goblin mage rushing around the Guards to get a clear shot at me as I blasted him with an instant cast Flurry spell. With a shriek, the fire mage came to a sliding stop as he called forth his magic. Without a second thought, I blasted him again and rolled behind the closest Goblin Guard as a searing ball of flame slammed into the large Goblin’s back a split second later. As a sheet of fire engulfed the Goblin next to me, I jumped to my feet and blasted the mage again as I dodged past the Guards still frozen in place trying to attack me as I ran past.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sarka tackle the two Goblin Guard closest to her with the rest of the group backing her up as the mage’s fireballs continued blasting into the line of frozen Goblins in-between us as I ran for my life. With every explosive impact, another Goblin Guard was set on fire and freed from the icy prison of my Frost Nova spell. Screaming and cursing in rage the Goblins scrambled to their feet still on fire as they chased after me half-blind from the flames.

  Dodging the shrieking Guards’ flailing swords, I circled another set of frozen Goblins to get a killing shot off at the mage when the dirty bastards next flaming shot blasted m
e off my feet. Screaming in agony, I instantly felt the hair burn off my head, and my skin boil as flames lapped at my eyes while my Hit Points plummeted to 260 from the sudden massive damage. Forcing my body to move, I managed to dodge the burning Goblins as another healing glow briefly surrounded me just as another frozen Guard went up in flames. Hurriedly I put myself in-between the mage and the rest of the Goblin Guards chasing after me as fireballs rained down around us indiscriminately. Fighting for my life, I did my best to tag every Guard at least once with my axe as I used the burning Goblins as a physical barrier to keep the rest of the Guards back.

  Hurriedly I popped my character window open and dumped all 31 unassigned attribute points into Stamina as my Hit Points shot up over 350 points. The distraction cost me a few more Hit Points as a Guard’s blade dug into my ribs, but I shrugged off the pain. Dodging to the side, I squeezed off another two shot at the fire mage before the bastard’s searing balls of flames forced me to dive for cover once again.

  The damage I was taking from this Goblin was unreal. Anyone one of these fire mage’s blasts would have one-shot a regular player. Hell, even with my P&M exam boost I couldn’t have taken three shots without healing in-between, and that was after dumping every single unallocated point I’d been able to save into Stamina. Seeing my Frost Nova’s timer pop, I blasted out another wave of ice, freezing the Goblin to the floor once again as I heard the fire mage scream in rage. Sliding around the group of frozen Guards, I followed the harsh swearing to the Goblin mage.

  Unfortunately, we saw each other the same exact time. I got my spell off just as the mage spewed a wave of fire out of from his mouth like a flamethrower from World War II. Although my fourth blast instantly killed the ugly bastard as soon as it hit, the Goblin’s spell had already done its damage as the whole side of the room was engulfed in flames. My lungs felt like they’d burst from the heat as I rolled on the ground wordlessly screaming in agony as the blast wave dissipated a moment later. The searing flames dropped my Hit Points to less than a hundred and broke my Frost Nova’s freeze effect, releasing the entire squad of Goblin Guards directly on top of me.