Fifty miles really shouldn't have been a lot for soone like Zach. But after two hours of trudging through sand, Zach quickly ca to understand that 50 miles on Galterra was not the sa as 50 miles on Albion-4. In terms of raw distance? Sure. But in terms of the actual effort required to walk that far? It wasn't even…you couldn't even compare them.
The heat was like a weapon the desert wielded against him, and the constant burn from the intense sun was its co-conspirator. With his current stats, Zach could easily run more than 250 miles per hour under normal terrain—300 if he really went all-out—and he could probably get up to 150 if on sand. But none of that mattered here, because if he even dared attempt to move that fast, he would exhaust himself so fast that he'd probably collapse inside of fifteen minutes. So he chose to jog, at first, but that quickly beca too much for him, and he'd resorted to walking.
Now, four hours after he'd left that little village, Zach felt like one of Olivir's zombies as he shambled along, moaning, his throat dry, his body aching, the heat attacking his body like a poison. His head ached badly: throbbing in a way it hadn't since the days before he'd beco an adventurer and could still get headaches. He was becoming dizzy, too. Every step was torture. And still, he had about five miles left until he returned to his starting point: to the place where he'd dropped down from space and died.
I haven't even made it a single step towards my goal yet, he thought with a groan. I've made it negative steps. That's how bad I'm doing so far. I'm negative steps towards the city.
His hair was soaked. His eyes were stinging. There was nothing here: just endless dunes of sand that baked under the infernal sun. Well, nothing but mobs everywhere, which Zach at least found very easy to avoid. The one good thing about all the "nothingness" was that he could just walk around anything he didn't want to be near, such as that…that fucking "thing" over there on that little sand hill.
What in the hell even is that?
Picture a tornado. Now, picture that very sa tornado shrunk down so that it was only about three feet tall and two feet wide. Finally, picture that this spinning, spiraling vortex of wind sohow also had two black dots for eyes and a thin line that represented a mouth, which remained stationary on what was otherwise literally just fast-moving wind.
Yeah, that was what began moving towards Zach, its body making a wind-like sound as it floated along the sands towards him.
HP
1,100,000/1,100,000
Na
Hateful Wind
Level
77
Even as his body protested, Zach pumped his arms and ran, hightailing it out of there. But the wind thing moved to cut him off, so he juked left, then lurched off to his right side, and then juked his way around a second of these literal wind creatures that he didn't even see, and finally, getting around both, he continued on until, eventually, it was out of sight and out of mind.
And this had been sothing he'd been doing pretty much all along as he made his way through what he now knew to be a "red" area.
Briefly opening his map, he saw that he was almost upon the point where the region turned from "Obal's Expanse" into "Slithering Dunes," which was where he touched down. At the mont, he had his map zood in quite far. It only showed a 10-mile radius around him, and a lot of that was still dark, as he hadn't physically been present in any of these areas, but there was now a significant, unevenly shaped "path" that had been revealed as a result of him walking it. This path, which he had taken, led from the village he'd respawned in to where he was now standing.
Then there was a little patch of dark beyond that point, followed by an almost perfectly circular revealed area where he had landed and died. The shape, of course, was not the shape of the area itself, but rely the portion of it that was revealed to his map. Like, imagine pressing your thumb directly into a little box filled with a very, very thin layer of black ink…then imagine sliding your other thumb all the way over from the left side of the ink to about halfway to the right. That was what Zach's map looked like.
And on the top left of his map—a place where he was now paying closer attention to—there was a box that always contained a color. Right now, that color was red, aning everything around him in this area—or just about everything—was hostile. But at least he was finally leaving it behind.
Yet, as he crossed into the Slithering Dunes, the box remained red, which ant that this area, too, was hostile. Of course, Zach could've told you that without the color coding, because his entire body had been detonated by so Gods-be-damned, barely five-foot-long snake. Seed pretty hostile to him! Gods, that thing had killed Zach so quickly that Zach hadn't even been able to feel it. It had been that fast: that instant. It sure beat the first ti he died, though.
If I die again, there's no coming back this ti. I don't have a Resurrection Totem anymore.
Based on what he now knew, it appeared he'd landed very close to the border between Slithering Dunes and Obal's Expanse. Up ahead, there were two markings he could see even with his map closed. They had permanently beco parts of his vision, and they would likely remain that way until he manually chose to either get rid of them or get close enough so that they vanished. These markings could apparently be seen through walls or even in perfect darkness. They were labels that had beco affixed to three-dinsional space.
The first was a marking of a skull-and-bones, which was now just a mile and a half away. It was where he'd died: the exact spot. The second was the blue-dot waypoint he'd placed himself, which indicated the start of the city nearly 5k miles away. A vast, absurd distance to be traveling in this heat.
I'm really starting to have so trouble, he thought, feeling woozy and tired. His throat was getting even drier. But there would be nothing he could do until he got to his stuff.
Opening his map again, he could see just how close he was. He had almost connected the uneven, jagged path he'd taken to the dot on his map from where he'd landed. The path wasn't even close to straight. And that was because there was just so much shit everywhere trying to kill him that he had to avoid.
Forget those wind things: he'd had to get around wolves, skeletons, skeleton archers, actual thumbs made of fire, and all kinds of other weird shit he didn't even bother taking a good look at because it was too hot for him to care or be impressed by any of it. So of the enemies out here were ordinary. Like that thing up ahead that looked exactly like a jackal. Like, spot-on. With no discernible difference aside from the fact that it had a na, a level, and HP.
HP
1,030,000/1,030,000
Na
Desert Shredder
Level
75
And then there were things that were so weird Zach didn't even bother to question them. He just avoided them. Like that…that giant brown leather shoe the size of a house that had a rat's head poking out from the inside of it, along with machine gun turrets near the laces.
HP
7,111,111/7,111,111
Na
(T4) Sand Shooter
Level
74
Zach had to take a wide berth to get around that giant shoe-thing. And it really was a giant shoe. A worn, old-looking shoe that was about as large as a suburban, four-bedroom ho. And it "walked" by simply floating up about ten feet in the air and then stomping back down, causing sand to blast all around it with each impact.
This reminds of that simulation Jimmy ntioned a few tis. What the hell was it nad again?
As Zach stumbled, waddled, and barely remained upright on his trip back to his items, he tried to take his mind off his exhaustion, thirst, and pain by rembering what Jimmy had told him once. It was hard to rember, and not just because of the heatstroke that left him feeling close to death, but because, despite Jimmy having such a massive knowledge of "simulation information," he always seed to harp on one simulation in particular. Even when other adventurers begged him to talk about literally anything else, he would sohow always end up talking about just one in particular. It was sothing he would bitch about so much, and with such derision, that the entire adventuring community knew of it.
It was called "World of Warcraft." And it was sothing that Jimmy claid to hate despite never being able to shut up about it and talking about it for hours and hours. Seriously, if he hated it that much, why was it always the only thing he wanted to talk about? He was obsessed. And he got mad when you told him that. But it really was an obsession. That simulation had made him deranged. Zach could almost hear Jimmy's voice in his head talking about it.
"…and then they removed the XP bonus to heirlooms after I spent all that effort and ti, I knew I had to…Zach, are you listening?"
Always: always complaining about World of Warcraft. Zach distinctly recalled, during that long walk down the hallway in Angelica's, that he had spent so much ti bitching about World of Warcraft that it had sohow convinced Fluffles to hate the simulation as well. Zach recalled waking up one morning to see the cat rolled over onto its back and hissing in its sleep, having so kind of nightmare.
"Fluffles hate warriors! They try to steal Fluffles' loot. That spec not even a tank. Kick off raid!"
Zach laughed at the mory. And then it struck him. He wasn't sure why, or whether sothing about that mory triggered it, but the na simply popped up into his head.
Everquest! That's the one!
Jimmy never talked much about it except for on a few occasions, and mostly in the context of being glad that Galterra wasn't more like it. He said that you could de-level, and that every ti you died, you'd have to run back naked to your corpse. That was what this reminded him of. It was just like that, wasn't it?
Maybe…
Up ahead, Zach finally spotted the end of the marker. Below it was a tombstone, one that was floating in the air and shining a bright white light as though serving as a sort of beacon. The tombstone was rotating around and around in the air, spinning nonstop, and above this tombstone was a tir that seed to indicate a span of 6 days and 16 hours. Without bothering to pull up his glossary, Zach used common sense to figure out it implied that his stuff would de-spawn and disappear in that amount of ti.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Zach approached closer—and then stopped. Now, he swore aloud. It seed that this "beacon" had attracted more than just him. Three of those fucking snake things were just "chilling out"—to use Jimmy's term—by the floating tombstone as though deliberately trying to prevent him from reclaiming his hard-earned belongings. Backing away slightly, Zach reconsidered and decided that calling upon his glossary was probably for the best. With that, he searched "tombstone." Thankfully, sothing actually ca up.
Glossary Entry: Tombstone
Users will drop everything in their Quick Inventory upon death and leave behind an indestructible tombstone, which will last for 7 days before all contents are lost. Tombstones may attract nearby hostile enemies. In order to recover one's belongings, the user must place their hand on the tombstone and hold it there for ten seconds. Afterwards, everything will be automatically placed into their inventory wherever it previously resided. If there is no room, it will be automatically moved into one of the user's boxes.
With those three "Slither Slickers" surrounding it, there was no way that Zach was going to be able to retrieve his stuff. But there was also no way he could leave it, either. At the mont, if he tried to do anything else, he would die for certain. His dehydration had beco serious. He needed a yellow stone.
Never again do I put all my stones in my QI, he thought. I have to leave so stuff behind in a box in case I die.
Desperate, Zach opened up his empty inventory, then opened up box 1, which appeared before him. He looked inside. Now, he felt a glimr of hope as he took an item out of it. It appeared in both his hands without him even needing to raise them upwards like he used to have to do for Bank and Storage. Gods, he was so glad he'd stowed this away. This might be all it took to make a difference. He cheered as the item description filled the air above and to his right.
Na
Kralzek's War Spear
Level
110
Rarity
Artifact
Strength
60
Dexterity
60
Constitution
60
Speed
60
Passive Ability
Attacks with this weapon generate a wind with a forcefulness that scales with dexterity. The wind deals no direct damage but can interrupt so spell casts and disrupt so projectiles.
Ability
Hunter's Mirage
Cooldown
60:00 (minutes)
Description
Summons a shadow form of the user to fight beside the user. The shadow form inherits 10% of the user's base stats and can be controlled like a pet. The shadow remains for 5:00 minutes or until killed. Explodes upon death, dealing heavy damage that scales primarily with the user's strength and slightly with the user's intelligence.
He dismissed the spear's information and then regarded the three "Slither Slickers." One thing was clear: he needed to stay far away from them. They were incredibly dangerous, and if Zach was hit with one of those pellets again, he'd never see his friends or anyone else ever again. These were the kinds of enemies that needed to be fought at a distance. Unfortunately, Zach's rapier had been in his quick inventory, and so using magic was out. He chided himself for not looting that uncommon-rarity staff the spider had dropped. His rapier was the only piece of equipnt he had that enabled spell-casting. So, yeah. For now? No ranged attacks.
Having said that, there was still one thing he could try.
With the badass-looking, black-and-silver boss weapon gripped in his hands, Zach activated Hunter's Mirage. Now, a perfectly circular, flat, and dark shadow appeared to his imdiate right by his side. And then erging from this shadow—sliding directly upwards—was a three-dinsional, smoky, shadowy silhouette that had sothing close to a greyish sheen coating its form. When viewed from just the right angle, it vaguely resembled Zach, yet its face and body had nothing in the way of skin, and it had no hair, either. It did, however, bear a spear that was the sa length as the one Zach was wielding, although in its case, the spear was just as shadowy and smoky as its wielder.
HP
20,000/20,000
Na
Hunter's Mirage (Zachys Calador)
Level
39
"Only 20k HP?" Zach asked aloud.
That really didn't seem like a lot. If this thing had 10% of his base stats, did that an that he could use this number to determine roughly what his hidden HP was? Sohow, he highly doubted it. No, this seed to imply sothing else entirely. And as Zach pulled up the item information yet again and read it over, he understood exactly what was going on here.
This thing isn't supposed to last.
It clearly stated that it would explode upon death. And with only 10% of his stats, it could not have possibly done much damage in the first place. No, it was clear how to use this thing. Zach was sure of it.
And so, testing this theory, he ntally selected one of the Slither Slickers, and he sent his mirage after it. Remaining where he was, he watched as the shadowy form ran over the sand without disturbing it as though it were a ghost. Since all three Slither Slickers were close together, all three aggroed at once. And this ti, rather than use their pellets, they launched a physical biting attack.
"SSSSSSSSSS!" they each hissed and rattled as they sank their teeth into the mirage. Each one did more damage than it had health.
2,111,441
2,000,310
2,095,567
HP
0/20,000
Na
Hunter's Mirage (Zachys Calador)
Level
39
The mirage began to flash like it was one of the snakes' pellets. And Zach, standing a safe distance back, said, "Okay, let's see what this guy can—"
The land trembled and shook as an earth-splitting explosion caused his eardrums to pop and an explosion so powerful that, even having stood back, Zach was hit by so kind of force, which slamd into him and sent him rolling backwards over the sand six entire tis before landing on his belly. Groaning, he lifted his head to see a giant pillar of pitch-black fire with orange-colored smoke rising above it: an unusual combination that sent chills down his back. And so did the damage numbers.
9,211,441
6,234,555
7,211,444
350,000xp
350,000xp
350,000xp
As the fire faded quickly with nothing to feed it, the orange smoke subsided as well, and then Zach, whose face was now covered in sand, made a boisterous laugh. "Hahaha! Serves you right, assholes!"
Tired, exhausted, and slowly dying of dehydration, Zach stabbed his spear into the sand and then used it to help climb himself back to his feet on slightly unsteady legs. With that, he began walking over to the tombstone.
"SSSSSSSSSSSS!"
"SSSSSSSSSSSS!"
Zach yelped. Two more of the Gods-be-damned snakes ca at him from seemingly out of nowhere. N-no, wait! It wasn't two. It was three. And now, Zach understood what was happening and how he had been surprised by these things in the first place. They were hiding under the sand!
One opened its mouth, made a "blehh" sound, and a pellet began rolling along the sand towards Zach's legs.
Sh-shit!
Zach acted purely off of instinct. Getting into a fighting stance, he pivoted on his hips and ripped his spear from right to left, attacking only the air itself. But it wasn't the snakes he was aiming for, as following the swing of his super-rare, artifact-quality weapon, a massive wind ca out of nowhere: one powerful enough to blow the pellet right back where it ca from. It started to flash even as it landed right near the three snakes.
And then it went off.
This ti, the explosion was brighter than it was loud. And it was brief, too. It was more like a flicker and a "pop." First ca the flicker, which for perhaps a tenth of a second resembled an ordinary column of fire, and then ca the pop. All in all, the pellet's explosion both showed up and lasted for perhaps a quarter of a second. And it didn't even disturb the sand beneath it. Yet, despite this, it struck all three snakes for an impressive amount of damage, dealing between 2 and 6 million damage each. More than enough to kill all three.
350,000xp
350,000xp
350,000xp
Level Up!
40 (39)
Intelligence
17 (294)
XP Required for Level 41
5,555,000
"Any more of you bastards?" he shouted, his spear held awkwardly in front of him. Zach had never fought with a spear. It was a totally unfamiliar weapon. But…but they wouldn't know that! "Co on, you snake freaks! Co get so!"
He waited a mont. There was nothing. So he sighed and then proceeded to move towards his tombstone.
"CEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Oh, Gods, now what?"
He looked up and saw a big, hawk-like bird racing towards him with its talons extended as though ready to rip into flesh.
"Why is this happening to ?"
He needed to get out of the way—or do sothing! Right now, Zach had zero armor. Literally zero. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt for the sake of the Gods. He was also exhausted and felt like a shriveled prune. This was the last thing he needed.
HP
1,350,000/1,350,000
Na
Heat Flier
Level
74
"CEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Zach dropped down to his knees on the sand, lowered his head, and tucked his chin into his chest as the large bird nearly decapitated him as it flew right over him. Then, as quickly as he could, he jumped back up to his feet, turned around, and awkwardly swung the spear, barely knowing how to use it. The bird was too fast, however, and he missed—at least physically.
The wind, however, did not. And it screwed with the bird's ability to fly in a way that Zach didn't even think of and wouldn't have known to expect. The creature made another loud screech as it was blasted by the weapon's passive, which did not damage the mob, but true to its description, had very real and significant impacts on projectiles, including mob-based ones, apparently.
The bird began spinning around as though it were out of control, and then it landed on its back right in front of Zach, who took this as a blessing and wasted no ti in spinning the spear upside down and thrusting it straight into the bird's guts as fast and as maniacally as he could. Each ti, he hit for anywhere between 2- to 3-hundred-thousand damage. And he struck fast enough and powerfully enough that the last of the moisture in his skin began to sweat out of him as he tore the creature to pieces.
Thank you, Gods, for this spear!
372,000xp
With yet another attacker dealt with, Zach's adrenaline faded, and a splitting headache so powerful it caused his vision to turn blurry was his post-battle reward. He stumbled over to the tombstone, barely able to see straight anymore. He reached out—and then fell to his knees, and then onto his belly. Yet, even while lying on the sand, he still managed to touch the rotating tombstone with his palm. Upon contact, it imdiately stopped rotating, and now, Zach felt a powerful vibration shooting into his palm and fingers.
Weakly, he lifted his chin and saw a progress bar in the air before him.
[1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10]
The mont it hit ten, the tombstone disappeared. Zach rolled over onto his back, his vision fuzzy, his mouth so dry, his entire body ready to give in. He opened his inventory. He could no longer move his arms or hands, but that was okay, because he no longer needed to, either. Everything he'd lost: it was all there. Zach ntally selected the yellow stone. Then, without having to slap it into himself, he simply selected "use."
A bright yellow flash lasting only a fraction of a second surrounded his body. And then he began rapidly feeling better. His thirst—it was declining. His skin was becoming less dry. He could even breathe easier. And yet, his headache and inability to move lingered. Sothing was still very, very wrong with him.
I must've waited too long, he thought. Now I've got Gods-be-damned organ damage.
To confirm this, he selected a purple rejuvenation stone. And from the fact that the Use option was white instead of grey, Zach thought he could safely conclude that he was correct. Thus, he used the stone, and unlike when he slapped it down, his body made a small purple flash. And now he started to really feel better. Much, much better.
He flipped himself back over, sat up onto his knees, and tossed his spear back into his inventory. It vanished from his hand a second later. He then dragged it from his inventory into box 1. No way he could afford to drop that on death—assuming he found another Resurrection Totem and was able to respawn again. He stopped, however, as he decided to keep it nearby just in case another one of those birds ca around. He'd stow it in a minute or two.
For now, he lowered his hands to his stomach and peeled off the t-shirt the villagers had given him. Then he unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans and removed those, too. He stripped himself of everything except his underwear, and then he began flicking his armor back on. One by one, his feet, hands, chest, legs, and helm all beca armored.
And even hotter.
"It's too fucking hot for this set," he said again as the sun scorched him as though it had a personal score it was trying to settle.
Despite having just put it on, he removed everything yet again. And this ti, rather than put it in his QI, he put it in box 1—or tried to, at least. He'd forgotten the new restriction. He had to be out of combat for five minutes. So he rested another four, and then, when he was able to do so, he chucked it into his box, and this ti, he put the spear in there as well.
While he was at it, he also put 1 Light Stone, 2 yellows, 5 red, and 4 purple in box 1. He decided to only keep one of each in his QI. Lastly, he equipped the mage set he'd looted from the spider-boss in the tower. And honestly? It was pretty stylish. He knew because he could see a picture of himself now in the equipnt screen if he chose to do so. Hell, he could even rotate himself around if he pleased.
The set in question was navy blue, with white stripes running down the sides of the robe and a steeple hat that was folded at the edges. And now, as far as weapons were concerned, he decided to keep his Primordial Void Blade unequipped, but this, he put in his QI instead of box 1, as he did not want to end up in a situation where he needed it and didn't have it. His rapier, on the other hand, he kept at his side.
For the ti being, despite only having two offensive spells, it looked like Zach was going to be playing the role of a mage.
It was just too damn hot for him to do anything else out here. His fire and ice spell would have to cut it.
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