Cuckoo's Dream Chapters 1-3 updated (Patreon)

Chapter One

Ava stared down at the spreadsheet displayed on her screen, tapping her stylus against her teeth with a soft click. “Just two hundred dollars, huh? Just.” She laughed bitterly, tossing the stylus down on her desk and leaning back to stare blankly at the ceiling.

Ever since her mother had lost her battle with cancer the year before, Ava had been drowning in debt. Not that she begrudged the expense, since every moment she gained with her mom had been worth any price, but she was just so… tired.

Shoving the chair back away from the desk, she stared at the pod sitting in the corner of her cramped, studio apartment. It was the last thing she had that was worth selling, but the thought of giving it up made her heart ache like it would crumble into a thousand pieces. The pod had been her mother’s last gift to her, before the diagnosis, and playing Veritas Online was Ava’s only relief from the stress and fear that had been her daily companions since the doctors delivered the news.

“I’ll try one more time,” she muttered, standing. She glanced at the clock. She had six hours before she had to go to work at the grocery store, and after that, she had a full shift at VaVaVoom, a clothing store that catered primarily to drag queens and crossdressers.

Honestly, she should sleep for most of that six hours, but if she played for three, Veritas somehow doubled the time, giving her a full six hours of play time, and still leaving three more to sleep. The creators of Veritas, Veritas Corporation, had recently announced that they would be releasing some of the technology that allowed their ground-breaking system to work, and it seemed like the whole world was waiting to see how that would play out.

The whole world except for people like Ava, of course. Things like earth-shaking technological breakthroughs were something that wouldn’t affect her until they managed to trickle down through all of the scientists, governments, and multinational corporations who would get first dibs. Which was fine, because Ava was only able to feed and clothe herself because of the employee discounts she got through her various jobs.

Speaking of jobs, the last one was off the books. She hired herself out like a slave in Veritas in exchange for money in the real world. Thankfully, there was no sex (or even nudity) in Veritas, so she didn’t have to deal with those kinds of propositions, but that didn’t mean people treated her like a real human being.

She smirked a bit at her inadvertent joke, even as she pulled on her worn bodysuit. Never once had she played VO as a human, so asking to be treated as one… Well, it was a good thing she didn’t really care, as long as she got paid.

Her pod had been sending her warnings that the nanomaterial was wearing thin and would soon provide a ‘sub-optimal experience’, but there was nothing she could do about that. Until someone figured out how to bling out the suits, VaVaVoom wouldn’t carry them, and there was no way Ava could afford a new one without some kind of discount.

She climbed into her pod and tugged the headset down over her face. Lying back, she blinked open her eyes, staring at the hovering Veritas Online splash screen. “System,” she murmured, “start Veritas.”

Without further ado, Ava’s dark, lonely, sad little world fell away.

❦ ❦ ❦

Alpha opened her eyes and sat up with a grunt. As always, it took a moment to adjust to the small tusks that protruded between her lips, and she swiped at the corner of her mouth, carefully wiping away drool. If someone had told her she’d have so much trouble with the darn things, she’d have opted to create a more human-looking half-orc. Still, when she’d wiped her old character, she hadn’t exactly been looking to make friends, and her brutish appearance made for a far different play experience than her original character.

Alpha stood slowly. She wasn’t exactly short in real life, but at nearly seven feet tall, her inhuman avatar was much taller than she was used to. If the tusks were the first thing she noticed, her height was the second. Someday, she’d have to invest more stat points into dexterity, since she’d heard that could help if your real body was significantly different from your in-game body.

Not that most people had that problem, since Veritas based your avatar’s appearance on your own, and prevented you from altering it too much. She’d heard that the idea was to prevent players from using anonymity as a shield, since if your behavior could lead to real-life consequences when someone recognized you, you were less likely to be a complete and total dick-wad.

She snorted, a much more imposing sound coming from her slightly piggish snout than anything she could produce in real life. There were ways around anything, and while she gave the developers kudos for their efforts, all someone had to do was wear a mask or helmet, and all bets were off. Or, if they were really determined, they could do what she’d done, and choose one of the half-monster races. While she could still see her original face in her orcish features, she doubted anyone else other than her mother could have done so.

Her eyes burned at the thought of her mother, and she scrubbed at them with one gray-skinned hand. What was it with the devs that they allowed drooling and snot bubbles, but wouldn’t let someone cry? Though she had been grateful for that more than once in the early days, since it allowed her to keep her composure when she would otherwise have broken down sobbing. In fact, she had logged into Veritas more than once simply to escape the physical symptoms of devastating grief.

Sighing, she stood and began grabbing pouches off the floor. Alpha spent most nights sleeping in a Dead Tent, which was within the non-combat zone surrounding the Traveler’s Guilds that were scattered around the world. Players were known as Travelers in Veritas, and their backstory was that they were people from another world who used magic to transport their souls into new bodies here in this world.

Because of this, when a player logged out, their avatar, or soulless Zombie, was left behind, and while it couldn’t be moved, it could easily be killed, since it had no defensive capabilities. Most players gave their Zombies instructions to find the nearest Inn or Dead Tent and rest until they logged in again. The benefit of the Dead Tent was that it was significantly cheaper than an Inn, though it was certainly lacking in amenities.

Alpha strapped her last pouch onto the one of the belts criss-crossing her chest, and shrugged, trying to get all of the dangling bits to hang comfortably. She was, for lack of a better word, a pack mule, and she’d learned a long time ago that being comfortable beat looking good any day. Wincing in anticipation, she reached out and opened the hanging curtain that blocked the small, silent room in which she’d awakened, stepping out into chaos.

“Buy Lunar Moth Wings, only six silver each! I have five hundred!”

“Looking for a cleric for a Barrow run! Must be at least level sixty!”

“Need two custom dual-”

Voices and bodies surrounded her, and she stopped, a single stone in the midst of a raging river. No NPCs could enter the space close to a Dead Tent unless they were in a party with a player. It was only recently that the ability to add NPCs to a party had been patched in, and since the average NPC was much weaker than any player character, very few people even bothered hiring them.

That meant that everyone surrounding her was a player. A real person, with their own needs, interests, and lives. And Alpha didn’t give a damn about a single one of them. If she could have left them all behind and gone out to live alone in the wilderness, she would have done so gladly. Unfortunately, she needed something from them.

With a twitch of a clawed finger, she opened the interface for the Traveler’s Guild bulletin board. This was where quests and requests were posted. For Sale signs mingled with notices about people looking to buy something. She almost laughed as a note from one person selling Ant Jaws slid by right after another from someone looking to buy Ant Jaws. Human beings were stupid.

A few deft movements separated the notices into categories, and she dismissed all the ones she wasn’t interested in. What was left was a short list. Unusually short, in fact. It looked like someone else was clearing Help Wanted tasks, and she gritted her teeth as she saw what remained.

Three.

The first one was an easy no. A mage and a warrior were looking for a distance damage dealer and a healer to head into the newbie forest north of Bright. Not only did Alpha not fit either of those categories, the rewards would never be enough to make up for that two hundred dollar shortfall in her budget.

The second was a possibility. Two members of the Angelic Embers guild were planning an exploratory mission into the area east of Bloodhaven, and needed someone to carry their items. According to game lore, that area had been part of the prosperous human nation of Quarternell before their borders intruded on the expanding lands of Lich Lord Akuji. Akuji’s army had devastated the area, and people would occasionally find a map or receive a quest that gave the location of some dungeon or lost treasure.

The downside was that these exploratory missions were exactly that. Exploratory. They might find untold riches, or they might find diddly squat. It was impossible to know. Also, they might be back within a few hours, or the mission might take days, and Alpha couldn’t commit to something with such an uncertain schedule.

Reluctantly, Alpha flicked that notice away, too. She’d heard good things about Angelic Embers. They were one of the few all-female guilds, and avoiding males and their compulsion to dominate and posture was always a good thing. Not to mention that their guild leader, Doom Bloom, was a Hero of the Realm, and as a result, her entire guild gained boosts to reputation gains. Which Alpha could definitely use, since as a half-orc, pretty much all NPCs hated her on sight.

With a scowl, she popped open the last advert. She already knew she didn’t want this one, simply based on its original poster. The Forceworn Guild had been one of the powerhouses of Veritas until very recently. She didn’t know exactly what the deal had been, but even she had heard that several of the high-ranking members had been banned from the game for life, a punishment that no one had even realized was an option until it happened. She’d even heard rumors that one of the highest rankers had gone to jail for whatever he’d been doing, but she suspected that was the usual overblown hyperbole.

LOOKING FOR MULE FOR BLACK CATACOMB RUN. NO WIMPS. BRING YOUR OWN BAGS. LEAVING AT 15:30, HARD. -FG

Quite aside from the message being in aggressive caps, the ‘no wimps’ part set her teeth on edge. ‘Mules’ were people who had acquired a large number of spatial bags and would use them to carry excess items when a person or group ventured into an area where the amount of loot was likely to exceed the standard amount of inventory space. Strength and stamina were their most important stats, and none of the successful ones were ‘wimps’.

Veritas had a fairly simple inventory system. The base inventory held one hundred slots, each of which could hold up to 99 identical items. Anything worn by the player did not count against this total, and it wasn’t uncommon for someone who ran out of space to wear a number of unidentified items, taking the risk that they might have a negative effect in hopes that they would turn out to be something amazing. That hope was almost always wrong, but it didn’t keep people from trying.

The base inventory was also known as the ‘safe’ inventory. Anything you placed inside could not be stolen or dropped. The same did not hold true for any items held in extra spatial containers, and if a player died while carrying a bag, anything and everything inside could drop. This led to the use of mules.

When a player or group went into a dangerous area, they would hire someone to hang back and hold onto the loot they acquired. The person had to sign a contract to share their inventory logs from the beginning to the end of the hire period, which prevented them from keeping anything that so much as touched their hands. All the party members gave the mule their items, which the mule identified and stored away in the many bags hung about their avatar.

The mule had a Return Scroll, and if it looked like a party wipe might occur, their job was to get the loot safely back to a preselected meeting place, and hand it, and their logs, over. Mules who could use a high-level [Identify] or [Appraisal] skill were highly valued, but the number one requirement was a willingness to be alternately terrified and bored out of your mind.

Mules weren’t allowed to fight. Their one job was to keep the group’s items safe. Even if everyone else was slaughtered around them, they had to stay until they were told to run or it became clear that no one would remain to help them escape. Fighting and healing both attracted aggro from mobs, and so the mules had to do absolutely nothing except carry other players’ junk.

As a result, mules had a reputation for cowardice and weakness. While it was vaguely possible that some mule somewhere had earned that reputation, it wasn’t any of the ones Alpha had met. Standing and letting yourself take damage, depending on others to save you, or watching other people die while being unable to assist… it was incredibly difficult, especially if you liked your team-mates.

Alpha sighed and flicked her gaze at the game clock. It was fifteen fifteen, which was actually good. She didn’t have time to stand around and wait while a group dragged their feet getting ready. If the Forceworn members were ready and willing to pay at least two hundred dollars for her services, she’d go with them. Black Catacomb was well-mapped, so it shouldn’t take longer than six hours to do a run with a decent-sized group, and Forceworn was still a large guild, even after the recent hit to their reputation.

She clicked on the message and sent the poster a reply.

@AlphaOmegadon: Two hundred bucks and you have a mule.

@R3dLit3: WTF?

@AlphaOmegadon: Your ad, dipshit. You need a mule. I’m the best. Two hundred bucks, and I’ll do Black Catacomb with you.

@R3dLit3: Two hundred is too much. One hundred.

@AlphaOmegadon: Your group leaves in fourteen minutes. Let me know when you change your mind.

Alpha smirked as she closed the chat window. She hadn’t been lying. She was the best. She’d worked hard to make sure that was true, and if the guy bothered asking around, he’d quickly find out. Two hundred was a little high for a BC run, but he needed someone now, and she was, again, the best.

A commotion nearby drew her attention. A small group of boys who looked to be in their late teens or early twenties were arguing amongst themselves in the clear. This close to the Traveler’s Guild, they should have been using private messages, but no, these jerks decided to pollute everyone’s air with their cursing.

Her eyes widened as their words began to sink in, now that she was focusing on them.

“-say we take it. We can always-”

“No way, man! That’s my allowance-”

“-can definitely make it back. C’mon, you cheap-”

Surely, surely these idiots weren’t her potential clients. She knew her luck was crap, but this was really taking it too far.

@R3dLit3: Fine. Two hundred when you deliver.

She scowled.

@AlphaOmegadon: Half up front.

@R3dLit3: F— you.

Alpha snorted. Thankfully, Veritas automatically censored chat. She had a feeling this was a guy who knew exactly one expletive, and used it for absolutely everything.

@AlphaOmegadon: Your loss.

She waited, hooking her taloned thumbs into the belt full of bags that dangled from her lean hips. It took less than a minute.

@R3dLit3: Whatever. Meet us by the western Dead Tent. Bring your horse.

Alpha bared her sharp tusks in victory. The guy might be a jerk, but his money was as good as anyone else’s.

Chapter Two

Sampson, Alpha’s horse, stood placidly by as Alpha and R3dLit3 signed the contract. [Contract] was one of the first skills a mule learned, and was almost as important as [Identify]. A contract proved that two players had agreed upon something that might require a higher authority to step in and enforce. Usually, that higher authority was one of the servants of the complainant’s god, but in cases involving real world exchanges, such as bank transfers, it could even reach a game master, who might put a temp ban or severe debuffs on anyone who could be proven to have violated a contract.

R3dLit3 glared down at the contract petulantly. “This is the normal one?”

Alpha sighed. “Yes. Have you not done a contract before?”

The boy, a bumbling idiot with long, stringy brown hair, exchanged a glance with his teammates. UmberHulk6, who seemed to be R3dLit3’s second in command, grimaced. The boy’s watery blue eyes and weak chin clashed with the bulk of his body, which was so heavily muscled he obviously found it difficult to do simple things, like turn his head more than a few degrees. That could happen when someone managed to build a completely unbalanced character, but it had been a while since she’d seen it in person.

R3dLit3 hesitated, looking from the contract to Alpha. “Let’s see your stats first. No wimps.”

Alpha clenched her teeth, feeling her tusks pinch her upper lip. Technically, he could ask. Technically, she could refuse. It was rude to ask to see someone’s stats, even if you were hiring them. If Alpha hadn’t needed the money, she’d have told him where to stick his job. Instead, she grunted, and flipped them to him. Using a particular finger.

The obnoxious prat glanced over the screen, nose wrinkling in disdain. She’d taken Warrior as her primary class , even though it was the most basic ‘I’m strong and I break things’ class. Her sub-class wouldn’t impress him, either. It was, essentially, a servant class, but it granted extra spaces in her storage, which were expensive and hard to come by, so he could just take his contempt and stuff it.

“I wouldn’t have to do this if Fantum hadn’t gotten caught and dragged us into the mud with him. Screw all those wimps for abandoning ship as soon as the devs nerfed us.” R3dLit3 muttered, pressing his thumb against the bottom of the contract.

Alpha kept her face impassive, but inside she was smirking. She hadn’t lied, exactly. This was a standard contract. She actually had three, and she privately called them the ‘Like’, ‘Don’t Care’, and ‘Loathe’ contracts. They only varied in one very small way… how she got paid.

If she liked and trusted her client, she was fine waiting to be paid until after they sold their loot, as long as it took no more than two days. If she didn’t care, she’d go with them to sell the loot, and take her payment as soon as the sale was complete. If, on the other hand, she detested said client, she demanded half up front and the other half as soon as they left the hunting area or dungeon. Of course, usually she took a percentage of the proceeds in either gold or items, but today she needed cold, hard, real-world cash.

Player MasseyEric@R3dLit3 has transferred US$100 to your account.

Alpha grunted in satisfaction at the notification and looked around. “Is this it? A five man party for Black Catacomb? You know it’s recommended eight plus, right?”

UmberHulk6 sneered. “Six now.”

She shook her head decisively. “I carry your stuff. I don’t aggro the mobs.” She looked around at the three remaining boys. The tags over their heads read JumperMan, I’ll Kill You All, and Charleston Chew. She doubted any of them was over eighteen, and JumperMan looked like he was barely past the minimum age to play Veritas, which was fourteen.

Charleston looked nervous. “Maybe we should wait for some of the other guys, R3d. This’d be easy with-”

R3dLit3 scowled. “Screw that. I found the map, and I’m going to be the next leader of ForceWorn, once I get the-” He stopped, eyes flickering to Alpha.

She sighed. “It’s already 15:33. Are we going, or not? Just so you know, there are no refunds.” She flicked her wrist, and the contract rose to hang in the air beside her. She pointed to an area near the bottom. “I get paid even if you decide not to go, so either get moving, or give me another hundred bucks. I’d prefer the latter, honestly.”

R3dLit3 snatched the paper from the air. “Hell it does! We never paid our mules unless we finished the run!”

Alpha shook her head, feeling her thick dreadlocks sway against her cheeks. “No wonder they all left your guild, then. Now, what’s it going to be?”

The five youths exchanged glances. Their expressions ranged from angry to worried, but they all looked determined. R3dLit3 turned toward the desk beside the bulletin board, and his hands wiggled as he muttered to himself.

Player R3dLit3 offers you a Fast Travel Pass to Black Catacomb. Accept? Yes/No

She sighed and selected Yes. The ground fell out from beneath her feet as she was swept away. She had a feeling she was going to regret it, but she was committed now.

❦ ❦ ❦

Alpha had been on so many Black Catacomb runs that she’d lost count. It was a solid mid-level dungeon, with several different areas. It was good for players from levels 30 to 50, so as long as you stayed in the right area for your level, you could farm it for a long time.

Farm was the right word, too. While it wasn’t an alchemy dungeon, Black Catacomb was best known for the rare Black Lotus blossom. It was the main ingredient in the highest level resurrection potion, which could bring a recently deceased player back to full health in an instant. Most rez pots restored no more than 25% health, so a player still needed either a healer or several healing potions to bring them back up to full health. When you were in the middle of a battle, that took time you probably didn’t have, so the Lotus res was a highly desirable (and expensive) item.

Alpha looked around at the boys. Jumper actually looked a little motion sick, and she almost shook her head. These kids were clearly noobs, and had no business being someplace like the Catacombs. R3dLit3 started toward the arching pile of bones that was the entrance to the Catacombs, the other boys trailing along behind him like obedient ducklings.

She cleared her throat. “Party?”

R3dLit3 stopped, and for a flicker of a moment he looked embarrassed. Then he pulled his jerk-face mask back on and glared at her. “Why do you need that?”

“Because I can’t tell if you guys are almost dead if I can’t see your health?” She tapped her foot. R3dLit3 was obviously used to his guild mules, and they would have been partied as a matter of course. She had a feeling he was being difficult just because he should have thought of it, and he was trying to make his error look intentional in front of his buddies.

“Look,” she said. “Just party me and then use your guild chat, if you’re worried about me hearing you guys talk. I just need to know when to bug out if you get party wiped. Plus, it lets me share my item log so you know I’m not stealing anything.” Not that she would.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Whatever.” He waved his hand and the party invite popped up. Alpha accepted it,  and the six of them passed beneath the skeletal arch.

Black Catacomb was, as the name suggested, an undead dungeon with a dark and gloomy ambience. The dimness had an almost palpable weight, and sounds seemed muffled. UmberHulk6 took the lead, with I’ll Kill You All and JumperMan slightly behind him. Charleston Chew, who was probably a mage, took the center position, along with Alpha. R3dLit3 brought up the rear, and Alpha’s shoulder blades itched, knowing he was behind her.

Once they actually started, Alpha was reluctantly impressed by the teamwork of the five youths. Umber was the tank, and he easily held off three Shamblers at once while Charleston burned them. Fire was particularly effective against the corporeal undead, and Charleston was one of the better fire mages she’d seen. Now that she was in the party, she could see the other member’s health and mana hovering over their heads, and Charleston’s mana was refilling almost as quickly as he spent it.

The third Shambler’s head fell into the dust beside it, and it crumpled to its knees. I’ll Kill You All appeared beside it. Alpha started. She hadn’t even noticed the short, slim, black-clad boy vanish, but he’d just managed to one-shot a level 37 zombie. Definitely an assassin, then. Kill leaned over each corpse, and when he stood, they immediately began to break down into Fertile Earth.

The assassin glanced at Alpha, expression disturbingly blank, and a notification popped up in front of her eyes.

Player I’ll Kill You All wishes to open a trade. Accept? Yes/No

Alpha accepted, and several Rotten Bandages and a Dead Man’s Hand appeared in her inventory. She fed her log back into the party chat as she glanced at the items. Nothing that needed to be [Identified], but the Dead Man’s Hand was actually a pretty good drop. Without a word, the six of them fell back into formation, and moved on down the hall.

Alpha could almost have slept through the next two hours, if sleeping in game was an option. For all their personality flaws, the five boys made a solid team, and they moved steadily through the dungeon, heading for the Boss Chamber. The Decrepit Skeletons and Shamblers were mowed down, blown up, decapitated, and, occasionally, melted with acid bombs. It turned out that JumperMan was an alchemist, and he seemed to have a potion for almost every situation.

Alpha glanced sidelong as a narrow passage that vanished off to their right. Nearly everyone went that way, since it led to the underground chamber where the Black Lotus was most likely to be found. This group, however, passed it by entirely, with only the alchemist sending a look in that direction. It was Alpha’s first indication that the situation was about to go off the rails.

About a hundred feet further on, the five veered sharply left, then got down on their hands and knees to crawl through a hole beneath a large, empty casket. Alpha hesitated. ::You didn’t say you were going to fight the Ghoul Master,:: she sent in party chat.

R3dLit3, the only one who hadn’t already vanished down the hole, shoved her none too gently toward the opening. She didn’t budge, but she did scowl at him, baring her tusks angrily. He glared back, and she gave him credit for that. Most people flinched at least a little when she showed her teeth.

::Go on,:: he growled. ::You signed on for Black Catacomb, not any particular part of it. We’re going to kill the Ghoul, and you’re coming with us, or you’re giving my money back. You too scared to stand there and watch us kill him?::

::No,:: she said, slowly, ::but he has several Area of Effect spells that can hit me, too. Plus, he summons minions, and they go after everyone in the area, not just the combatants. If I die, you guys have to haul out your own loot. Why not just go for the Dullahan? He drops Prismatic Armor pieces, but GM only drops a Skeleton Key. You can buy those from an NPC in Bloodhaven. They’re expensive, but cheaper than a party wipe.::

R3dLit3 bumped her with his shoulder as he shoved past. ::Shut up and come, or don’t. If you don’t, I’m reporting you, though.:: He vanished down the hole.

Alpha glared. Why had she decided to do this instead of getting some rest before work? An image of her spreadsheet with a bright red 200 on it flashed through her mind’s eye. Oh. Yeah. Damn. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and knelt down to crawl into the long, narrow passage that led to the Ghoul Master’s lair.

When she reached the end of the cramped space and stood again, the five boys were huddled together, talking. They glanced suspiciously toward Alpha as she stood, stretching as she hauled her almost seven foot tall frame from a space far too small for it. She could just make out a few quiet mutters, and then they switched to guild chat. Or tried to.

::Yeah, but she just thinks we’re here for Ghoul and the Skeleton Key,:: R3dLit3 said. He had forgotten to switch from party chat to guild chat, and no one else seemed to notice. Since they were all in both groups, the words would sound the same to them, and they would only be able to tell the difference if they had speech to text on. Alpha kept the smirk from her face and focused on adjusting the many spatial bags hanging about her person.

There was silence as the others must be replying, and then R3dLit3 shook his head dismissively. ::She doesn’t seem that smart. I mean, she’s a mule. She’s not gonna figure it out.::

The miniscule smirk vanished from Alpha’s face, and she fought not to grind her teeth. Not smart? Who was the idiot still talking where she could hear him?

The five bumped fists, and R3dLit3 turned back to Alpha, speaking out loud. “When we go in, you stay outside. Just keep an eye on us, and if we go down, use a [Return] scroll and meet us in Bloodhaven. I’ll pay you when you give us our stuff.”

She folded her thickly muscled arms over her chest. “What [Return] scroll? You didn’t give me one, so I figured this was a runner.”

The boy glared. “Can’t you do anything? Our regular mules always had scrolls.”

Alpha spoke slowly. “Those. Were. Your. Guildies. They probably got those scrolls from the guild bank. I’m not using an expensive scroll unless you pay for it.”

Scowling, R3dLit3 pulled a scroll from his inventory. UmberHulk6 put a hand out. The youthful voice issuing from the mountain of muscle almost managed to make Alpha laugh. “If you give her yours, you won’t have one, Eric. Just-”

R3dLit3 closed his fist on the parchment just before Alpha could take it. He smirked as he thrust his elbow back into UmberHulk6’s gut. The tank didn’t even grunt. “Give her yours, then, dumbass,” R3dLit3 told his guildmate, and UmberHulk6 obediently passed a scroll over to Alpha, who accepted it with an impassive face.

“Fine,” the boy’s leader said. “Just keep your wimpy ass outside, and if one of us brings you something, make sure you get it out. That’s your only job.”

She nodded. He was right, that was her only job. She couldn’t help it if she kind of wanted to see them wipe, however, even though that would make getting paid more complicated.

The five players formed up, this time leaving no room for Alpha. She trailed along behind as they plowed easily through the diaphanous forms of the ghosts that attempted to block their path. They all now bore silver blades that shimmered subtly even in the light of their glowstones, and the magical weapons tore the Wailing Ghosts into shreds.

As they drew nearer to the Ghoul’s lair, they met the first of the Pie Zombies, and Alpha dropped back as the disgusting things exploded. They were each stuffed like a pie ‘fit for a king’, but instead of four and twenty blackbirds, what emerged from their grotesquely swollen bellies were Vampire Finches. After her first Ghoul Master run, Alpha had looked these up and found that they were a real animal, and she had instantly crossed the Galápagos Islands off her list of places to visit if she ever won the lottery. If she could ever afford to play the lottery again.

Fortunately, Charleston Chew made quick work of the flocks of birds with a few well-placed [Fire Walls], and crispy nuggets fell from overhead, pattering to the ground in a disturbingly rhythmic pattern. The Pie Zombies themselves were really only bird distribution devices, so they were no trouble, and the group soon found themselves standing outside the gaping mouth of the enormous skull that housed the Ghoul’s throne. The skull was easily twenty feet tall, with an elongated occipital bone that created a sort of room inside the cavern in which they stood. All around them, the walls were lined with crypts, and it was from these crypts that the Ghoul Master would summon his minions.

Alpha looked around. “Where do you want me to wait? If I stand here, the mobs will mow me down on the way to attack you.”

R3dLit3 pointed up. Alpha looked, and saw the four black pits that were the nose and eye cavities. Whatever creature the skull had come from had had three eyes, and only a narrow slit for the nose. She looked back at the boy. “You want me to wait for you in an eye socket?”

He grinned. “You too scared? It’s a good spot. There’s a hole at the back where you can watch, and it makes a good sniping ledge for an archer. The mobs get up there eventually, but you won’t be doing anything to draw aggro, so they should ignore you, if they even notice you’re there. It’ll be too much trouble to get to you when we’re easier to reach.”

She shrugged, but inside she was cringing. Before the end, her mom had wasted away to little more than skin and bones. Alpha sometimes had nightmares that her mother’s emaciated corpse rose up, and her skull enlarged until she could swallow Alpha whole. Climbing into a skull voluntarily was a little too close to bringing that nightmare to life.

“Fine,” she muttered, and walked over to the yellowish bone chamber. She jumped up and grasped the sharp cheekbone, but the texture of the dry bone beneath her fingers was almost enough to make her drop back to the ground. Then strong hands grasped her boots and pushed her easily into the air. UmberHulk6 raised her overhead until her outstretched fingers could just grasp the edge of one of the two lower eye sockets.

“Head up to the top one,” R3dLit3 instructed. “It’s bigger.”

Swallowing hard, Alpha edged to the inner corner of the opening and stood on her toes. She got a solid grip on the lower part of the last eye socket and pulled herself up, smoothly sliding onto her belly, and then kicking her feet up behind her.

As she straightened up from her crouch, something shifted in the five-foot-deep hollow. Startled, she stepped back, her foot finding nothing but open air. A hand shot out of the darkness and caught one of her flailing arms, pulling her back to a stable position. Alpha stared.

A young elven woman stared back at her. Her curly brown hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail, and she wore brown leathers like an archer or ranger. Her mossy green eyes twinkled, and she laid a finger over full pink lips, which sported a mischievous smile. The tag over her head read simply ‘Amy’ in clear white text.

“Shhhhh.”

Chapter Three

“Who-?”

Amy just shook her head, grinning, and motioned toward a small hole at the back of the eye socket. Alpha hesitated, but the elf seemed innocuous enough, and she had kept Alpha from falling. Plus, Alpha really didn’t like R3dLit3 and his buddies, and she had no responsibility to them except to bring their items back to them if they died. Finally, Alpha shrugged and moved forward, crouching next to the slim elf, who shot her a conspiratorial wink before turning to look down on the action.

The team below had already engaged with the first wave of the Ghoul Master’s forces. Ten skeletons and six ghouls were attempting to surround the boys. Above their heads, tags blazed the bright red of aggressive mobs. So far, UmberHulk6 was holding them off easily, using his shield skills to shatter the ground into walls that slowly crumbled before the damage being piled against them. From behind the walls, Charleston Chew and R3dLit3 threw spells and shot exploding arrows. I’ll Kill You All was nowhere to be seen, so Alpha assumed he had already gone into [Stealth], and was sneaking around somewhere.

::No, damn it, Killer, don’t try to take him out,:: R3dLit3 snapped, still  in party chat. ::I don’t care if you can one-shot him! We need that dagger, and your job is to steal it. Once you have it, you can do whatever you want!::

UmberHulk6 roared a taunt, and all of the monsters turned to look at him. He flung up his arms, still howling, and a wall of force exploded out from his body. The skeletons were blown into their disparate bones, and R3dLit3 easily popped their skulls with arrows as they flew through the air, preventing them from reforming. Charleston Chew hit the staggered ghouls with a [Fire Wall], and they burst into virulent green and yellow flames.

::I told you to just hold them off, Hulk! Now we’re going to have to deal with the second wave, and it’s way more difficult. Those nasty bursters make me wanna puke.:: R3dLit3 glared at UmberHulk6, who shrugged unrepentantly as the gold shimmer of a level up surrounded him.

With the skeletons and ghouls down, the Ghoul Master, who was standing on a mound of bones in the bulging back end of the skull-chamber, waved his desiccated arms and chanted a series of unintelligible words. Behind the robed skeleton, a flicker resolved into the form of I’ll Kill You All, who froze with his hand halfway into the gaping front of the Ghoul’s robe.

Alpha couldn’t suppress a snicker at the ridiculous image, and glanced over as the strange woman snorted a laugh. They exchanged a grin, and turned back to the battle.

Understandably, the Ghoul Master wasn’t particularly pleased to find someone else’s hand stuffed into his shirt, and he swung his arm, backhanding the assassin away. I’ll Kill You All flew through the air, crashing into the inner side of the huge skull’s nasal cavity. He grunted in pain, and his life bar on the party sheet in Alpha’s interface flickered down to just over half.

“Ohh,” she muttered. “That was rough. He must have focused on strength and agility, because his vitality sucks.”

Amy nodded, and spoke for the first time, sounding  oddly complacent. “Not quite a glass cannon, but not far off. He depends on being able to dodge, and he can’t do that when he gets caught red-handed. Ghoul’s passive [Perception] is really high, so it’s next to impossible to steal from him.”

Alpha arched a heavy brow. That sounded like experience talking, but as far as she knew, hardly anyone bothered with Ghoul Master, especially if he managed to summon his third round of defenders. “You do this often?” she murmured.

The elf blinked, and Alpha clarified. “Hang out up here and watch other people die.”

Chuckling, the other woman shook her head. “You’d be surprised, but no. I’m… particularly interested in Ghoul Master. I heard a rumor that he has something I’ve been looking for.”

Alpha stiffened, even as a small horde of zombies shambled, crawled, ran, and stumbled into the gaping mouth of the skull. They had risen from the graves lining the walls of the outer cavern, and would have overrun Alpha if she had still been watching from below.

“You need something he drops?”

She really didn’t want to deal with a kill stealer or grave robber right now. Kill stealers swooped in when a party had almost finished off a mob or boss, and took the final blow, which automatically made some of the items the monster dropped go to them, even if they hadn’t contributed anything else.

Grave robbers were even worse. They waited for the original attackers to die, or killed them off themselves, and then took everything. If Amy was a grave robber, Alpha would probably need to let the guys know, if only in self-defense. After all, if Amy did want their items, she would have to kill Alpha too, eventually.

Amy leaned back, waving her hands as if she could see Alpha’s suspicions and wanted no part of them. “Oh, don’t worry. This item can only be stolen, not dropped. That’s why your friends are keeping the adds occupied. They’re hoping Killer there can steal from old Ghoulie.” She chewed on her full lower lip. “I don’t know how they found out that he has it, or how to get it, but it was bad timing. This would have been a lot easier without them. Though watching them try to not kill Ghoul is pretty funny.”

::-ing birds!:: R3dLit3’s voice intruded into their conversation, and Alpha turned to look down again. The team was definitely looking the worse for wear, now, though JumperMan was keeping their health fairly well topped up with potions. Still, Alpha could see that their stamina and mana had dropped considerably, and potions to replenish those were not only much harder to make, but had a cool-down period that prevented you from drinking more than one at a time.

R3dLit3 had popped a Pie Zombie a little too close to himself, and now he was surrounded by Vampire Finches. The drab little birds darted around, landing on anyone who wasn’t watching, and pecked them, inducing a Bleed effect. Though the original damage was miniscule, the cumulative effect of several stacked Bleed debuffs could quickly drain even a high-level player, if they hadn’t invested a lot of points in vit.

Charleston Chew finished off the Pie Zombie he was fighting and looked at his party leader. With a gesture, a cloud of fire engulfed R3dLit3. The ranger staggered, and his skin blistered, but the birds dropped like wasps wandering into a cloud of pesticide. Several birds screeched and flew off erratically. Alpha jerked away from the opening as one small, slightly crispy avian somehow managed to fly straight through the head-sized hole and into the space where Amy and Alpha crouched.

Alpha jerked back, swatting ineffectually at the bird. Since it was an aggregate creature, if it was damaged, any surviving members of its flock would also be aggroed, so Alpha couldn’t afford to actually kill the injured animal, but she didn’t want it to land on her, either.

With a fluid motion, Amy’s hand darted out, and she neatly grasped the bird’s back. Her fingers rested on each side of the creature’s wings, and it struggled weakly. Its tiny, pointed beak jabbed ineffectually at the air, but Amy stroked its head in an affectionate gesture, her expression oddly calculating.

From below, a triumphant shout rose up, followed by a strangled yell. Alpha looked from Amy to her new little pet, and scurried around back to the small gap in the bone. She glanced at the party list, and saw that all five boy’s health bars were at 25% or lower. JumperMan’s bar showed he had barely any hit points remaining, and even as she watched, the last bit of color drained away.

Party member JumperMan has died. He must be resurrected within one minute, or he will be sent to respawn.

A small timer began flickering beside his name, but Alpha ignored it in favor of leaning over to peer down below. After all, even if she had a resurrection potion, using one drew more aggro than doing almost anything else, and she was just a mule.

The Ghoul Master was enraged. Alpha had been part of a GM raid twice before, and she’d never seen him go berserk so soon. Usually, he was completely calm until all three waves of adds had been defeated, and he would only start directly attacking after his own health was halfway down.

Now, however, the bony boss was flinging spell after spell at I’ll Kill You All, while the assassin dodged for all he was worth. Without a healer, UmberHulk6’s health was being slowly whittled down, and Charleston Chew looked like he was ready to break and run. A Pie Zombie exploded into a gloopy mess, the birds inside flying out to join the thick mass already swooping and diving at the boys.

Alpha saw the moment the mage snapped. Several of the disgusting little birds were perched on him, pecking at his flesh, and he simply shrieked, as wave after wave of flames burst from his body, crisping R3dLit3 as much as his avian attackers.

::Charlie, man, get it together! You rotten-:: R3dLit3 broke off as the mage took two stumbling steps toward the exit before his legs gave out beneath him. The stacked Bleed debuffs had taken their toll, and the mage was as dead as the alchemist. As happened so often, once a few members of the party were down, the others didn’t have a chance. UmberHulk6 went down with a grunt, and R3dLit3 began swearing viciously. He jumped onto UmberHulk6’s corpse, then leaped to Charleston Chew’s. He deliberately kicked them in their faces as he shot bird after bird from the air.

Finally, however, he, too, succumbed to his wounds. His skin was streaked with blood as he tumbled over onto his side, and fifty birds flocked to land on him. ::Damn it, Killer! Get the knife to the damned mule, then pull them off. At least this thing won’t be a total loss. Just take it to the fu-:: R3dLit3’s mental voice broke off as his name turned gray in the party list.

I’ll Kill You All performed a twist in mid air, vaulting from the Ghoul Master’s abandoned pile of bones. He practically flew as several dark, twisting spells burned through the air around him. Alpha lost sight of him for a moment, as he somehow managed to grasp hold of the smooth inner surface of the skull below her. She heard scraping and scratching noises, and then a black-gloved hand thrust through the gap, almost poking her in the eye with a long poignard. The fingers released the weapon, and it clattered and scraped down to the bottom of the eye socket. A wet crunch came from the other side of the bony wall, and I’ll Kill You All’s name joined the others in gray solidarity.

Alpha reached for the blade, but another hand snatched it up before she could. She looked up, eyes widening as she saw Amy clutching the weapon, which was a simple silver blade with a strangely gleaming tip. Amy turned her wrist, and something red sloshed inside the tip of the blade. Alpha found her gaze locked on that glinting, liquid movement, even as she pulled the [Return] scroll from her inventory. Sure, they’d be mad that she didn’t have their prize, but at least they’d have quite a bit of other loot to console them, and she wasn’t going to fight another player head to head for a group she didn’t even like.

Amy grimaced, eyeing the knife in her hand. “I really didn’t want to do this, but… Maybe it’s for the best.”

Alpha’s fingers twisted the scroll, preparing to tear it in half. Amy lunged forward, and to Alpha’s immense surprise, she slapped her captive Vampire Finch against Alpha’s chest. The half-orc’s moment of shock was enough to make her hesitate as the bird was followed quickly by the long, slim blade of the knife.

Alpha felt the cold length of the weapon slide through the bird, entering her body just under her ribs, and the tip of the knife penetrated her heart with a burst of pain that drove through her low pain settings like a sudden splinter jabbed beneath a fingernail. Something snapped inside her, and she fell backwards limply, staring up into the smiling face of her attacker.

A gentle hand pushed a braid back from her face as her vision narrowed to a black tunnel. “It’ll be all right, Alpha. I really am sorry it had to be this way, though.”

You have died.

Your race has changed.

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