A New World (Gamer, Book 1) (7 page)

"I hear they're calling you
Pig Killer
Elite
nowadays."

"They've given me a nickname?"

"Yeah, I’ve been watching the local chat and
there's a few people betting on how long it will take before one of
the newbies complains about the lack of pigs in the
area."

Harry chuckles. He has lived with the pigs and
he has killed the pigs. It's become a sort of obsession with him
and his mind has no room for anything but killing pigs by the
dozen.

"I don't spend much time on local chat, so I
haven’t noticed. You’ll have to bet some money on me sometime. I
guarantee that day there will not be a pig left alive in the entire
forest."

Axel laughs loudly. It has a sweet almost
masculine tone to it, but it suits her personality well.

"I don't think I should be encouraging you to
bet any more money on anything, my pig killing friend. You are
already in enough trouble as it is."

Harry shrugs and then begins walking in the
direction of another group of pigs. Axel jogs up beside him and he
notes that she has a fancy new pair of boots and a much better
bow.

"I see you've been busy."

She fingers her bow and smiles.

“
I have been out questing,” she
says. “Actually, that’s something I've come to talk to you about. I
have a job you are going to be interested in."

Harry hasn't done a quest since the incident
was Sally. He's certainly looked, but most of the rewards aren't as
good as grinding away at the pigs at his level and a lot of quests
require more than one person, which, considering his experience so
far with other players, is not a good idea.

"So tell me about it. What have you got for
me?"

"It's a quest in the neighboring area. It is
about a quarter of a day’s travel from where we are now and the
monsters have a little bit more variety than the pig and bear
combination that you can find around here.”

She lifts her bow and nocks an arrow. She lets
fly and it slams into the front most pig in the small group that
they are approaching. Harry jogs on ahead of her and quickly takes
down the remaining beasts with a few well aimed strikes.

Axel takes down the last one and whistles in
respect.

"You truly are the master of killing
pigs."

Harry smiles and they start skinning. Once
they have finished, they sit down and pull out their pipes, looking
out over a small river that runs through the area.

"So you want me to help you with a quest? Why
don’t you get someone at a higher level like you? It can't be fun
having to cover for a lowbie like me all the time."

Axel takes a puff and taps her pipe on her
finger

"Do you trust anyone in this game?”

“
Not really.”

“
Exactly.”

“
So you think I’m more trustable
than the next guy?”

“
Sort of. I need someone that I
can, at the minimum, trust not to rob me blind in my sleep like
most of the experienced testers will if given the
chance."

"So being a newbie makes me more
ok?"

"Marginally, she says.”Plus, I know the sort
of guy you are. You aren’t going to rip me off over a few gold and
some items. For all of your bad behavior outside this game, I think
you are an honest person. That’s why I’m offering you a shot at
this quest…"

She holds out her quest book and gives Harry a
look. The quest is fairly detailed, but the basics of it are to
kill an evil sorcerer, who is poisoning the land, for another evil
sorcerer who is, no doubt, poisoning the land himself in his spare
time.

Axel pushes
share
and looks to Harry.
He has a decision before him and it is a hard one. He has avoided
other players up until now as the other testers are more likely to
cause problems for him than anything else. The Thousand, the name
for the million plus testers that are in the game, are the dregs of
society. Testing is a life-threatening activity and only the brave,
the bold or the adventurous and, more often than not, the young and
poor, are willing to do the job.

"Well, do you want it or not?"

Harry pushes the
accept
button and
gives Axel a wink.

"You’re not going to rip me off are
you?"

She shakes her head and gives him a wry
smile.

“
I won't if you won’t. We’ll call
it a deal,” she says, offering her hand.

He puts his hand out and shakes hers. That
deal doesn't sound half bad to a man who has seen only betrayal
from almost everyone he has met so far in this game.

*****

There is a field full of slimes, tentacles,
and blobs in front of them. The only way into the cave where the
monster that they are required to defeat to finish the quest is
through the mobs (a slang term used to describe weak monsters) that
appear to be mostly mindless when compared to the cunningness of
the pigs.

"There sure are a lot of them," Harry says.
"Are we sure this is going to be okay?"

Axel gives him a look and then nods in a way
that indicates she is not so sure either.

They begin their approach and immediately are
assaulted. Harry whacks out to his side with his stick, knocking a
tentacle out of the way, as they discussed, so that Axel can fire
directly into the centre of the monster. Her arrow pierces its soft
outer flesh and strikes into its heart. The creature flops to the
ground like an overly cooked cake when Harry jams a stick into it
and lets out the air. That win would be great, yet it is only one
of dozens that are assaulting them.

They back away from the area and Axel fires
arrows into the advancing mobs. Harry uses his Pig Sticker 2000 to
good effect whenever an enemy gets too close and his swing is
almost looking proficient, if not yet even close to acceptably
strong enough to defeat one of these creatures in one
shot.

They eventually near the tree line and there
is a howl from behind them. It's the sort of sound that sends
shivers into the human heart and, even though this is the virtual
world, there is still a response deep down in the two players. The
wolves are coming and, if either attempt to retreat further into
the woods, they will be attacked.

They look to the mobs and then to the woods
and back to each other. They pass a look between each other that
clearly says that they're better off fighting the enemy they can
see, rather than the one they can't.

Harry charges forward into the mobs and
immediately receives a shocking blow by a large set of tentacles at
the back. The things big piece of flesh slams into Harry's chest
and sends him flying back the three meters he just
sprinted.

His health gauge slips down and he cries out
in shock seeing how powerful these creatures really are.

A blob is thrown from the group by one of the
tentacles and lands on top of Harry. Stinging acid bites at his
leather armor. It is virtually rags anyway and gives him little
protection from the acidic liquid, which hurts yet in reality does
not burn.

Axel spins and fires an arrow into the blob,
busting it and sending a squirt of acid up into the air that lands
on Harry and causes him to scream out in agony. He rolls out from
underneath the creature and is immediately assaulted by two
tentacles, which grab his arms and start to strike at him with
heavy heart hits to his chest that push him further and further
towards a virtual death.

Axel begins firing at a very fast rate. She
pulls arrow after arrow from her quiver as she fires again and
again, aiming for the blobs and slimes, which are easier to kill.
The enemy thins out slightly, but both of them can already see
that, behind the mobs in front of them, the dying monsters are
slowly coming back to life as they respawn in their static
positions.

"We can't kill them fast enough," Harry yells
to Axel, who looks like she is very close to running out of arrows
by the number remaining in her quiver.

The woman grunts and whacks away a tentacle
with her bow. Harry jumps over and reverses his pig stick to dodge
a tentacle and slam the sharpened point into the beast's body. He
pulls it out and slaps away another tentacle's attacks. Two slimes
liquefy around his legs and form a sticky goo that holds him in
place. He has to stop his offense to defend for a moment as he
strikes down into those two sticky creatures, so he can roll out of
the way in a rather ungainly movement and avoid further
damage.

Two blobs jump on Axel and she cries out as
her health gauge slips down. They squirt acid all over her armor
and it slowly melts away. It won't be long before the acid melts
the steel and gets through to the skin. After that happens, her
health will very quickly disappear.

Harry slams his Pig Sticker against the back
of one of the blobs and if falls away. Axel yanks one of her arrows
out and slams it into the creature to her side. It splashes acid on
a tentacle.

The creature whirls its limbs in agony and
falls backwards, suffering little damage yet experiencing the same
pain that the human fighters are experiencing when
burnt.

The assault continues and soon Harry and Axel
are back to back surrounded by mobs. Their legs are frozen in place
by five slimes that have liquefied and hardened like concrete
around their legs. There is no way they can run with the number of
assailants that are attacking them. They must fight to the death
and lose gold in the process.

Harry slaps out with his stick and a tentacle
grabs the weapon. It's torn from his hands and falls a short
distance away.

A slime jumps on him. It solidifies around his
chest and he falls to one knee as several blobs pile onto his
trapped frame.

Harry grabs the insides of two blobs by
forcing his hands inside and punches his fists out the other end. A
massive squirt of acid that takes away a small amount of his health
bursts forth. It does little damage but the creatures around him
pull away from the painful liquid.

Harry cries out in realization that there is
perhaps a way to defeat these creatures.

"Stab me!" he yells to Axel, who has a short
bladed sword out and is hacking at a large size set of tentacles.
She looks back seeing the small remaining squirt of acid from the
creatures, which have not yet died and realizes Harry's
plan.

She cuts down at the slimes on her legs and
detaches herself from their grip, taking a few hard hits from the
tentacles as she does, and jumps in front of the blobs that hold
Harry still. She cuts straight through them and they squirt acid on
the creatures that are attacking the two players. The mobs pull
back and the blobs fall to the ground, barely alive and still
leaking acid.

Free, Harry grabs his weapon again and they
both turn to the creatures rushing at them.

"We have to go through!" Axel
yells.

They race forward and cut into the first blob
they encounter from both sides as they pass it by. It lets forth a
massive spray of acid that forces the creatures back. They slash
out as they run stabbing and hitting as best they can. Neither of
them are highly effective in the game as yet at their low levels
and with their limited weaponry and experience, but the blobs that
they do hit squirt acid at every strike. It pushes the tentacles
and slimes away and allows them to pass through the
mobs.

They keep this up all the way to the mouth of
the cave and look back to see the creatures slowly advancing on
them, respawning quicker than ever.

"We don't have time to rest. We have to keep
going," Axel says, looking back at the creatures in
concern.

"I hear you. I don't want to be here when they
catch up. We may not be able to get out."

They turn and race into the darkness behind
them.

Inside the cave they find even more shocking
monsters. Harry cries out and begins to run, but is stopped in his
tracks as Axel grabs his collar and yanks him back around. There
are ghosts slipping out of the walls and other strange creatures
with odd looking almost demonic faces. There are also skeletons and
creatures made of bones moving around in the distance.

They are standing in the corridor just inside
the entrance, but even here there are enough creatures to make both
of them a little worried.

"Have you ever fought anything like
this?"

Axel shakes her head and starts to ruffle
through her inventory.

"I don't even know of we can hit a ghost, let
alone kill one." Harry says, his teeth clenched and a look of fear
on his face.

"There's only one way to find out," Axel says,
revealing her new toy.

Harry looks at the stone shooter in her hands.
It's basically a rubber band (or something rubbery, anyway) tied to
a stick that has been shaped into a V with a handle.

She gets out a few stones and puts one in the
device so she can fire it at one of the ghosts. The stone misses by
a long shot and spins off the roof. The ghost looks at them and
starts to advance slowly.