Ritualist Read online

  “Woah. This game is freaking amazing.” Joe couldn’t stop a smile from crawling across his face. “This is because people kept leaving the rabbits out in the open after killing them, right?”

  “I don’t see it. What are you talking about?” Dylan was looking around the open field with evident confusion whereas the others quickly saw the issue.

  “Bad perception?” Joe grinned at the musclebound warrior. “Looks like the rabbits that people left out in the open went full zombie mode. There is a zone quest to clear them out before we lose the rabbit population entirely.”

  Dylan flinched as a screen appeared in front of him. “Okay, I see it now. Thanks for pointing it out. Chad would have made me suffer for a while first.”

  “Not my fault that you were building as a tank even before you knew you were going to be one.” Chad stared at Dylan, trying to make his eyes hypnotic. “Do it. Do it.”

  “I’m not going to be a tank!” Dylan shoved the ranger away.

  “Where is everyone? Isn’t this kind of important for the town?” Joe was surprised to see Tiona roll her eyes.

  “It is, but most people don’t care. It is technically a social quest. No guaranteed loot, so unless they are trying to get high reputation they just won’t bother.” She gestured at a group of people walking past all the zombies like they didn’t have a care in the world. “The zombies are not hostile toward us right now, being too focused on killing healthy rabbits. The pelt and meat are rotten and were worthless even when they weren’t disgusting. They apparently do give a little bit more experience.”

  “That means nothing to me, though,” Chad groaned abruptly. “I got a total of zero experience from them yesterday.”

  “That’s why we are going to the edge of fox territory to grind today.” Tiona grinned wickedly at Joe, creating a sinking feeling in his stomach. “We are going to hunt foxes, while Joe hunts zombits. We meet up to get healed or if one of us needs help.”

  “Zombits? Oh. Zombie rabbits. Cute.” Joe shrugged his thin shoulders. “Works for me. I could use the practice.”

  They started walking, exterminating all zombies in their path to gain some progression in the quest. It took a bit longer than expected because the corpse didn’t count as ‘dead’ until either fully dismembered or the heads were crushed. When they got to the edge of the territory, the others gave a jaunty wave and left Joe to kill the rotten balls of fluff and pus. They intended to stay within shouting range, but Joe still felt a bit nervous to be alone. Luckily, the dead animals weren’t hostile until attacked, so he could take his time lining up his attacks. He got behind a roaming zombit, grasped his scepter with both hands, and brought the weapon down as hard as he could.

  A sad little ‘-1’ floated away from the rabbit.

  The zombit shuffled to a stop, twitched as though it had been bitten by a mosquito, and then turned around after deciding it had indeed been attacked. Joe glanced at his stamina bar, noting that it had dropped by a third. So the careful stance and purposeful swing had cost less than his wild attack on the wolf last night? Good to know. He swung again, his scepter cracking against the rotting legs of the rabbit.

  -1, crippled. Movement speed -30%.

  Good, that should slow the animal down and allow him to regenerate some stamina. Joe was gasping a little, the force he needed if he wanted to inflict any damage was difficult to muster.

  The zombit suddenly lunged at him, tearing into his leg with its large, flat teeth. Joe released a high-pitched shriek as the fatty stores in his leg were exposed to the open air.

  -7 health. Bleeding (minor), -1 health per five seconds! Minor infection possible if wound is not treated within 30 minutes!

  How the heck was that fair? He was swinging a weapon, it was using rotten teeth! Off balance, Joe swung his weapon again, hitting the animal and fully draining his stamina. He dropped to the ground as a wave of exhaustion hit him, and he waited for the next attack to tear into his body. After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked for the zombit he had been fighting.

  The creature was not in sight, but a small pile of ash informed him of its fate. Joe was confused enough that he had to look over the combat logs.

  Glancing blow! Zombie rabbit takes zero damage! Scepter activates ability [Turn Undead]! As Zombie Rabbit is at half health or below, it is disintegrated! Exp: 4!

  Well, that explains it. Joe looked at his weapon with a new appreciation and was also pleased to know new facts about the zombits. They had to have between three to four health, and they bit really hard. Not only did he need to watch out for their normal attacks, but there was no way he could dodge. He had to be extra careful to stay on top of his wounds because while he didn’t know what disease damage would do to him, it was likely unpleasant. With a quick motion, he healed his leg and sat down to recover his stamina. He didn’t want to be lazy, but he needed to be able to swing his weapon with full force at least three times. Also, weren’t the zombie versions of these animals supposed to be worth extra experience?

  Automated system response: As a cleric not devoted to evil or necromancy, a part of your duties is to destroy undead. No extra experience will be gained for their destruction.

  Well that was just unpleasant; he had been hoping for quick levels off of this. Joe quickly began hunting in earnest, trying to refine his skull bashing technique as he went along. Get behind zombit, swing scepter into creature’s leg, and hopefully cripple it. Step back, let stamina refill a little. Attack twice, hit head as hard as possible. If the zombit died, great! If not, step back and wait a moment. Finish off zombit, collapse from exhaustion. It took a few tries, but he started becoming more efficient at dismantling the undead bunnies. He got a notification three hours into killing zombits, just as he killed his thirty-second animal.

  For landing one hundred attacks without missing, dexterity +1! For having refilled your stamina from under a third–thirty times in three hours–constitution +1!

  Skill gained: Staff mastery (Novice I). You have taken a step on the path of hitting your opponents with blunt objects and hoping against hope they stay away from you. You are doing great!

  Yes! He was well on his way to being as healthy as an average child! Maybe a sickly child. A scepter was considered a staff? Alright, he could deal with that. Joe planned to keep going, but his rumbling stomach informed him that he was starting to become hungry. He turned back, slowly making his way toward the meeting point for the team. As he arrived, he froze as he noticed something amiss. It took a moment to understand why his senses were screaming danger, but then someone stepped out from behind a tree and the smell of blood wafted over his enhanced senses.

  “Hello there! You must be the cleric who has caused so much trouble for us!” The man was grinning but certainly didn’t appear overly happy. “The Wanderers guild is ahead of us in reputation gains now! How do you propose to fix that for me?”

  Joe was startled by the sudden development but tried to keep his wits about himself. “I have no idea what you mean. I’m sorry to say I can’t help you; I’m just here to meet up with my team.”

  “Oh?” A few more people stepped out of cover as the man spoke. “Tiona’s team, right? Well, they’ll be back online tomorrow. How about you party with us for a while instead? You know, make up for wasting our time?” Obviously these people had killed Joe’s team while he was away heroically slaying rabbits. From the look of the blood dripping from the others, saying ‘no’ wouldn’t be appreciated.

  “And who are you?” Joe asked as boldly as possible, trying to inject himself with confidence.

  “I go by ‘Headshot’. I’m the leader of a little guild, you may have heard of it. The Hardcores?” His grin widened as he saw Joe make the connection. The Hardcores were the guild of people dedicated to PK-ing people in long-term pods. Knowing that Joe knew about him, Headshot was baffled by the next words he heard.

  “No chance. May as well send me to respawn.” Joe glared at the people who had killed his team before tu
rning and trying to walk away.

  “Hey, hey! No need to be so hostile!” Headshot made a motion, and the others surrounded Joe, cutting off his escape. “How about you just come with us for a walk, and you can make your decision when we are done chatting?”

  A blade poked into Joe’s back, knocking off five health points and making him wince. Headshot turned around and started strolling along; Joe was forced to follow. “There are so many benefits to working for me! You level faster because the competition won’t take your kills, you get to go into high-density spawning areas that we control, and best of all, my guild won’t kill you every time we see you!”

  Joe stayed silent as the man waxed eloquent about all the control tactics he used against other people but was fully disgusted by what he heard. The way this man was speaking, everyone in the guild was a slave while everyone else was an obstacle to be cut down. They passed through the edge of the wolves’ territory, and a thundering sound began to grow in volume.

  “Wondering what that is?” Headshot was no longer smiling or pretending to be nice; he seemed to have decided that Joe wasn’t going to accept his offer. Now his only interest was making the defiant cleric hurt as much as possible before dying. “That’s a waterfall. It flows off what can only be called a hole in the world into a really small lake. Well, maybe it just looks small. It is a long way down after all. You don’t care about that though! What you care about is all the rock that surrounds the tiny lake.”

  Joe was forced to the edge of the hole when they got to it and had to admit that Headshot hadn’t been exaggerating. This felt like the edge of the world. As far as he could tell, the ground just dropped a few thousand feet. What was strange was that he could see sunlight at the bottom. Was it another stage of the game? Another continent they hadn’t unlocked? If so, either the land they were on was elevated or the one he was looking at had sunk. Headshot grabbed Joe by his neck and pushed him forward. “Time to choose! Join me and get all sorts of benefits, or take flying lessons and we’ll try this again another time.”

  “Guess I’m going for respawn because there’s no chance I’m joining you. Also, your recruitment pitch sucks.” Joe made a rude gesture at Headshot, whose face contorted in anger. “You overgrown man-child.”

  “You wanna play it this way? Fine! Jump.” Headshot folded his arms and glared. “That way, you will get the maximum respawn time. Intentionally jumping off a cliff? What will the AI think of you?”

  “I’m not jumping.” Joe glared back just as hard, extending the rude gesture to the other players as he waited for the situation to come to a head.

  “Either sign the contract to join our guild, or we are going to start taking chunks off of you. Or you can just jump. If you make us start slashing you, we’ll be sure not to let you die. I don’t need my name to go red again, or it’d be past dark by the time I could re-enter town.”

  “You are a total ass. Screw your guild; I will get back at you for this,” Joe promised vehemently, having made his decision.

  “Start stabbing him, boys. He’s getting too chatty.” As pointy objects began closing in on him, Joe took a deep breath, turned, and jumped.

  ~ Chapter Nine ~

  Wind rushed around Joe as he approached terminal velocity. The rock was looming ever closer as Joe tried to think of a way out of this situation, but all he came up with was ‘this is going to hurt’. He was almost positive that he would survive because the effects of his undying robe would kick in. Sadly, he wasn’t sure if he would stay alive very long, since he was certain that he would be a messy stain on the ground. Joe targeted himself and cast heal, and a globe of water appeared in his hand. His falling speed created a whipping wind that pulled the healing water off of him as it tried to collect in his hand, but he noticed that despite not being able to control the spell, the water was following his path through the air. The range was only supposed to be ten feet for the spell. Would falling negate that? Increase the range, perhaps? It was a desperate hope, but he made as many orbs as he could, starting to hyperventilate as the last few feet passed in a blur.

  *Splat!* Joe had belly-flopped onto the ground, and should have died instantly. There was now a wall of text in front of his eyes, but he was unable to focus on the information the game was providing him. Joe could only focus on what his body was telling him. His eyes had popped. His insides were outsides. His bones were shattered to splinters.

  *Splash!* The five spheres of healing water landed in succession on him, and his damaged body was forced into a cohesive shape. He would have screamed if he weren't in shock when his spinal column reconnected itself. In an instant, he was at twenty-five health. He grabbed himself and used lay on hands and heal until he was at full health, then flopped back and took deep shuddering breaths. The pain had passed so fast that it was barely horrifyingly traumatic! He really hoped that he wouldn’t have any dreams about this experience, though he knew it was inevitable. Joe opened his repaired eyes and looked over the notifications he had received.

  Heal used! Heal delayed due to travel speed x5. True damage from impact with terrain received: -4,500 health! Jump skill not high enough to mitigate fall damage!

  Undying robes passive effect activated! Health set to 1! Crippled! Bleeding! Senses damaged! Bones broken x206! Organs ruptured! -50 health per second until healed!

  5 health gained x5. Lay on hands activated x2. Heal activated x2. Organs repaired. Bleed effect removed. Full health restored!

  Joe looked at the messages and chuckled, preparing to find the energy and willpower to stand. More text began to appear, interrupting his rise.

  Achievement earned! Jump! Jump! Jump around! You have jumped so many times, that you have spent over thirty seconds in the air! You have collectively jumped eight hundred and fifty times your height and lived to tell the tale! Jump skill has increased to _ERROR_ (“Jump skill not found”). You have earned the skill: Jump (Novice _ERROR_)! While others take the boring route, you hop, skip, and especially jump along! Jump a total of twenty-five times your height to rank up! You have so far jumped 850/0 times your height! _Error_ Experience earned: _error: (“Divide by Zero”) Debug: Exp: 800.

  Joe was starting to get concerned; that was a lot of error messages. Was this all because he had not been pushed… but had jumped and survived?

  Your Jump skill has increased to (Expert level 2). Your dedication to a single aspect of yourself has opened a new path for you to walk! Or in this case, Jump! You are able to find the magic in motion, the power in leaping, and the freedom of springing! Based on your use of this skill to this point, an extra effect has been added! (_Error_ Skill unused to this point _Error_) Debug activated.

  New expert skill variant unlocked: Jump around! Effect: Add your jump skill level to anything that can be ‘jumped’. (Current: +52. One point per skill point.) Cost: Variable. As an expert variant skill, it will have the same skill rank as its parent skill! Skill will be lost if another Jumplomancer attains a higher skill level than you!

  Class unlocked: Jumplomancer (Conditional Unique). Anyone can become a Jumplomancer by entering the expert ranks of jumping, but so far, it is just you! -50% jumping or falling damage until another jumplomancer is able to out level your skill!

  Jumplomancer has been absorbed by class: Ritualist. All effects are retained, but any leveling bonuses to characteristic points are negated. Would you like to have your class shown as Jumplomancer or remain as Cleric? (Note: Skill and Spell cost is 5x more expensive if used from non-focused class.) Reputation gain: Pending review. Issue elevated.

  Joe’s head was spinning as he looked over these new details. He earned a new class? How did ‘Jump around’ work? He cleared his throat and stuttered, “U-uh… keep cleric class focused? Strange, I thought ‘mancer’ meant a form of divination. I suppose that it is just using the more commonly accepted term. Otherwise I think it should be ‘jumplokineser’.”

  He waited for the system to acknowledge his words, but there was no noticeable change. Joe ha
d no other choice but to start walking, looking for any path or sign of civilization. After roughly ten minutes he saw a dust cloud on the horizon. He stared at the rapidly moving dots in the cloud, trying to figure out what they were, and what they were riding to be able to move that fast. One of the dots abruptly changed directions, followed shortly by the others. They moved quickly enough that they were just blurs, and within moments Joe was surrounded.

  He blinked as he looked at the tall, pale forms surrounding him. They hadn’t been riding anything; they were just running! They were mostly humanoid but had other characteristics that he couldn’t place. One of them said something unintelligible, and another seemed to become furious. They pointed at him, harshly chattering.

  Charisma check failed!

  The first creature shrugged, pulled out a shimmering mace, and swung it at Joe.

  Adolescent Goblin Berserker Novice Trainee deals 9,999 blunt damage. You have died! Due to being in an area you could not have been in and fighting a monster that you should have never met, your respawn time is set to the lowest possible. You may rejoin Eternia in three hours, and will spawn at your current bind point or starting city. There are consequences for intentionally jumping off a cliff though. I am reviewing this situation. You have lost 400 experience.

  Joe blinked. He looked around and realized this must be the respawn room. He hadn’t felt any pain, but that attack had been more damaging than falling a few thousand feet and landing face-first on stone! He shook his head. How was anyone supposed to fight that? Joe sat down on an overstuffed chair and looked around for anything to do while he waited. He almost smacked himself when he realized that he hadn’t called his mother since joining the game! He quickly established a video call with her and broke into a smile when she teared up seeing that Joe was walking and waving his arms! Her enthusiasm dropped a tiny bit when he explained that he was in a virtual reality, but he made sure to leave out the ‘being legally dead’ part. They talked for over an hour before she had to go, but that conversation had been soothing to him, healing his soul on a level that only speaking to a loved one can achieve.