Devil's Waltz Page 7

  "But what?"

  “You sure? My brain’s still healing, remember.” He gave her inner-thigh a gentle squeeze.

  “Yuppers. We’re safe. The sign was just for extra precaution… and the regular people.”

  Gabrielle made a few gestures in front of the onboard computer. A holographic projection of a topographical map fuzzed to clarity above the gearstick. Heading into a valley, their position, a small moving red dot, blinked between two hills and a deep river running down from a mountain. She pointed at a spot not too far away. “We’re staying by the edge of the zone, so it’s fine, my anxious, grouchy Rowan. The house has plenty of shielding anyway.”

  Disregarding her liberal use of adjectives, he withdrew his hand and pulled her coat tight as if it would shield her from radiation. “Look at all these trees. It’s like they’ve been frozen in time for a century.”

  She blinked, then glanced to the right. “Oh, that’s actually cus of a new scrubbing tech they came out with last year. It kills everything in the processes, but it’s way more effective. The cutters will come next year or whenever.” She made a circular gesture with a finger, and an overlaying radiation heat map indicated they were driving up an almost unseeable greenish-yellow gradient. With a reverse-pinching gesture, she zoomed out until their dot wasn’t visible, revealing a rough four or five hundred mile wide radioactive zone. True to her word, the whole area was mostly cleaned up. The peak of the radiation at the meltdown site was a safe faint yellow. Most of it was safe for development, in fact.

  "Right. Looks safe." Rowan nodded and let her drive the remaining few miles without further groping. The surrounding radiation suffocated the lingering sexual mood. Another danger he could lose her to in this world. And in this world, there were no heal-all, cure-all potions. There was no magic. She only possessed one life. There was no respawn, and no matter how much science progressed, nothing could save her if her body was vaporized… or burned to ash.

  His nostrils flared. The image of her melting flesh bubbled to the surface of his mind—the fight against Zaine. She hadn’t lasted a minute, and he’d prevailed thanks to dumb luck. Their entire victory had been a string of lucky stumbles, not triumph by skill or brute force or preparation. That needed to change today. From gaming to schoolwork to avoiding pig-like bullies to whatever, one couldn’t be perpetually lucky. Fortuitous wells would always eventually dry. He needed to catch up in levels, gear, skills, and professions before that happened. Sinking those ships would only help in the levels department. There was no choice other than leaving the safety of the town.

  Something poked his cheek. “Rowan?”

  He shook out of his rumination, eyes re-focusing. The intimidating face of a cliff towered high above the windscreen. The car was slowing. “I was thinking about the game. Once we defend the spire, I need to go adventuring to catch up to you. I’m still level…” What was his level? Somewhere around 140? There were minor gaps in his memory.

  “And how are we gonna defend?” She turned a sharp right into a tunnel-like opening in the rock. “I still need a functional blueprint for a tower. Don’t have much building materials either. Short on gems. And are ya gonna make Redwing a body? ”

  “That…” Although his plan was to make a swarm of bony Undead, that might also work as a centerpiece. And considering his tenfold-multiplied minion cap, maybe multiple said dragons could be summoned. “That could work. You have a skill to transfer his soul, right?”

  “Yup. Vessel Shift. I read it combos really well with your Necro skills—as a hidden mechanic.”

  “Good. How long will the shield last?”

  “Hmmm. I’d say a day at most.” A hint of worry leaked into her tone. “Less if they bring more fliers.”

  More than enough. Those Advanced Shield Batteries were pulling their weight a hundred times over. “Yeah, I can make him a body out of bone and mana. Can’t promise it’ll be the best though. You can save his soul again, right?”

  “Yippie. And yup.” The car pulled to a stop at the tunnel’s abrupt end, the headlights illuminating a metallic door with bolts and a digital keypad. “We’re here!” After reaching for a camping-style bag, she slapped down a button. The doors clicked open. The chilly tunnel smelled of plain dust and mud, nothing alarming.

  “What is this?” he asked as he followed her out.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” She clicked her tongue. “Fallout bunker.”

  “From last century?”

  “Ahhh… I think so. But it’s been refurbished and kept in good condition… just in case of a disaster or whatever, ya know?” She tapped a very long sequence into the keypad, at least twenty numbers long without end, and it didn’t look like she had it written down anywhere.

  Over fifty digits beeped by, and Rowan stared with increasing astonishment. She had to be trolling. “You don’t know it, do you?”

  “Hmmm?” She didn’t stop tapping. “I know it. It’s a mathematical sequence.”

  Oh. Well, that made more sense. “Tch. That doesn’t sound very secure.”

  “You’d be surprised.” She pressed seven one last time. The keypad lit up with green backlight. “It’s not a sequence like the ones in the textbooks. It’s a tippy-top-secret sequence.”

  “Right.” Shrugging, Rowan followed into the metal airlock. From the holes above and below, it looked to double as a decontamination chamber. A closed chute at the left opened—for clothes.

  Yellow-white light flooded the tight space as she exchanged her roman sandals for a pair of slippers from her bag. She handed a pair to him.

  “Um, are we going to strip—”

  “Already thinkin’ of showering with me?” She looked back with a smirk. “Unfortunately, nope. There’s a radiation detector lining the walls, and the sprayer would’ve activated automatically if we needed hosing down.”

  Rowan eyed the counting down numbers on the liquid crystal display. “Then what’s with the count—”

  “Just some airing out for fungi and stuff.”

  “Ah, I see.” Too much disappointment leaked into his tone. With a stronger voice, he tacked on, “Good. The game’s back up any minute.”

  “Yup. Gotta go fast.” She touched a button.

  The front entrance shut with a clang. Rushing cool air laced with a medicinal detoxifying scent whirled through the space, billowing under Rowan’s shirt and jeans and filling his loose boxers. Though he was doubtful it was cleansing in the slightest, it certainly felt like he was being aired out. It tickled in the right places.

  “Rowan…” Gabrielle smiled at him alluringly. She hadn’t buttoned up her coat. It hung open, barely covering her breasts. “I was gettin’ worried for a sec yesterday that ya ditched us and was hidin’ out at Antarctica.”

  "Antarctica?" he blurted.

  "Good place for hiding. Among the penguins, ya know?" She stepped closer, and in the action, the air blew open her coat all the way. “But ya have my thanks for staying.”

  “I wouldn’t think of ditching my fucktoy.” He grabbed a handful, fingering her nice hardening nipple.

  She giggled. “Of course, ya wouldn’t.”

  The wind cut off. The airlock cried with a harsh trill that made Rowan’s teeth and skull vibrate. “God damn." He winced.

  “You’ll get used to it.” Twirling, she slid open the door and skipped into a wide hall, lights activating at her first step onto the polished wood. “Pods are down the hall, last room to the right.” Along the way, she disrobed and tossed the coat, hat, and bag into an already-open room at the left labeled ‘bedroom 1’. She undid a knot and let her curtain of blonde hair flow free behind.

  Rowan jogged to follow. He couldn’t help but grin at her swaying bubble butt— and also peek into her claimed bedroom. Unlike the dreadfully plain hall, her private space was air-conditioned and decorated with artificial windows simulating a view of a crescent beach. And by the looks of the bedding and few bags in there, she was staying with him in this bunker, which made sense as
his handler. Fine. All that did was grant all the more time to win her over for keeps. He was going to fuck her brains out every night starting tonight.

  Is this a dream? If he had been a coma since the day of the wolf attack, this world better not end soon. It was far better than his regular life as Rowan Black the lost boy. This all felt like a fantasy. Like he had fallen into an alternate dimension and taken over an alternate Rowan’s body and stole his hot perverted girlfriend. She was a one-in-a-billion girl. Unique.

  “Hurry! Are ya there?!” she called from the room with a lot of concern, smacking him out of his stupor.

  Oops. “Yeah, just checking out our rooms!” He sprinted down the hall, nearly tripping thanks to the slippers.

  It didn’t take long to plop into a pod, turn it on via an internal control pad, and wait for the minute-countdown. Gabrielle was already in hers with the lid down. Neither were attached to an external computer like the one in Roth’s office. Rowan assumed both were pre-calibrated for his implants. That, or the new firmware updates took care of it. Probably the latter. It’s what he would’ve done if he were in charge of Synaptic Entertainment.

  The smooth beige ceiling faded to black along with the pod’s lid and inner gel lining. His eyelids became heavy. He fell asleep except he retained full consciousness, a lucid dream. The familiar underwater-like void decorated with strands of flowing magic washed in from all directions. At last he was home. Where he belonged—alongside his immortal beautiful Gabrielle. Two dialogs expanded one after another.

  LOGIN SUCCESSFUL: ROWAN BLACK

  Aeon Chronicles Online down for maintenance, 4 minutes and 23 seconds remaining (real time).

  Aeon Chronicles Online Patch Notes.

  Would you like to view them?

  Yes! Only an idiot wouldn’t like to view patch notes. His intent blasted outward from his forehead. The second dialog expanded to fill his view. A single paragraph greeted him, the start of a slide-show.

  Although the game’s balance and systems are dynamic and constantly improved, sometimes sets of more impactful changes are delayed and delivered in bulk at or near the beginning of a new era. Patch notes are divided into two sections: personalized and general. General changes effect systems such as core mechanics, interface systems, or anything that all players need to know. Personalized changes apply to systems such as your class or anything that you need to know and may want to keep secret from other players.

  A different approach to patch notes. Rowan guessed it made sense due to all the unique classes, which weren’t mentioned in the forums. He certainly did not wish the intricacies of Necromancer plastered on display for the entire playerbase. Very smart of the AI and Synaptic. Now onto the actual notes. First came the personalized changes, each with their own slide and accompanying drop of knowledge where necessary.

  Charge-up time for the skill Tainted Blizzard granted by Anton’s Bone Wand of Ice has been reduced from twenty seconds to four. Mana drain has been increased by 20%. Damage has been decreased by 20%. Maximum radius of effect has been decreased by 10%

  Not too bad. Trading away a painfully long charge-up time for a decrease in power was well worth it.

  The skill Raise at all tiers may no longer target World Boss corpses.

  Damn. Rowan was hoping to go boss hunting and raising an army of T6s or even T7s which didn’t explode upon death. That was one plan crushed in incubation, but he did agree such an army would be laughably imbalanced. He did want the game to succeed at launch.

  The skill Consume Minion at all tiers also restores health, mana, and stamina over time in addition to immediate restoration.

  The buff didn’t change much. The skill was still bottom-tier, utility at best.

  The skill Create Bone, starting at tier one and scaling up, may now create up to two copies of a bone each weighing up to twenty kilograms, up from one bone weighing five kilograms. Bone density can now be chosen from low, medium, or high.

  Well, that was a very much welcome buff. It was exactly what was needed in the coming minutes. Rowan was already seeing the design for a crafted dragon take shape. Gabrielle would surely love it.

  Undead flying minions may no longer be used as flying mounts.

  “FUCK!” What the hell was that?! Did this mean the eagle was no longer a flying mount? Fucking hell. He was grounded again. Gabrielle was not going to like that.

  Rowan moved onto the general changes before he had an aneurysm from sheer rage, reading with tight crossed arms.

  For the final phase of beta, Synaptic Entertainment and your AI gods have been preparing something very special for our loyal testers: player World Bosses, which has already been phased in by the AI controller in the past week. The most influential players may now be granted the tribulations of a journey to becoming a World Boss. Each tribulation must be sought out and is unique to the player(s), presenting tailored challenges that the player(s) needs to overcome before ascension is granted.

  Systems to aid in the case of player World Boss inactivity have also been implemented and are waiting to be discovered along with others.

  (Note from the lead game designer, Derek Brown) I felt this would be a very risky feature that the AI controller was pushing because of one main reason: fairness. Simply stated, bosses in AC are unimaginably powerful at the later tiers, and not everyone can be a World Boss otherwise it defeats the meaning of being a boss (haha). Very, very, very, very, very, very few of you will soon find yourself on the path of tribulation, and may become extraordinarily more powerful than the average player.

  However! The one reason why we decided to let this feature go through is because many of you already act as World Bosses and their lieutenants. Think of your guild leaders in charge of player-built cities, top crafters who own massive stores, and those pesky dark-class players who (sometimes foolishly) take on whole parties by themselves. The desire to be a boss is clearly already there. The AI wanted to make that official and give the top adventures a possibility of becoming something even greater through hard play.

  We hope this change is welcomed with open minds, and as always, content is subject to change, especially during beta. And on a side note, for the seven-thousandth time, the power balance, or imbalance, between dark and light classes will not be changing for a multitude of previously stated reasons (Come on! There’s only a handful of them in the whole game!)

  Everything looked good there, plausible and well-pleaded. Rowan had no complaints as long as his ambitions of building a dark empire with Gabrielle weren’t quashed. Any changes to Roth’s plan mattered to him not. Next.

  The FIVR pods and the AI controller have been upgraded and tasked on a firmware level to monitor player health. If a player is sleep-deprived, severely starved or dehydrated, or in need of a bathroom, a Weakened or Fatigue debuff shall be inflicted. General unhealthiness, other ailments, or disease will not effect one’s character but will be shown in the new real life health status window. Emergencies will cause a force-logout.

  (Note from the lead engineer, Edgar Wilson) This system is based on Automaton Corporation’s medical technology and any diagnosis should be taken seriously. We’ve had multiple cases of dehydration and sleep deprivation (no serious injuries, fortunately) and felt we had no other moral option than to implement this system. Please take care of your real life characters—they don’t respawn.

  Alright, Whatever. It seemed like this was a natural consequence of a certain someone’s near-death experience yesterday despite Edgar’s assurance. Roth wanted extra insurances to protect his convoluted plan. Next.

  In-game time compression has been halved to five-fold from ten-fold.

  (Note from the lead game designer, Derek Brown) After multiple polls and thousands of discussion threads, we’ve decided a reduction was necessary. Like the times before, further reductions or increments may take place. Ducks for cover.

  Though there was now half as much time to complete The Frozen Calamity and unlock all the magitech, there was also half a
s much downtime. Was such a tradeoff a boon or curse? It was tricky to evaluate. Next.

  A series of Islands have been discovered in the Draconian Ocean, expanding the world’s playable boundary.

  Cool. Next.

  A landmass has been discovered to the south of Elvenhome, expanding the world’s playable boundary.

  How interesting. Next.

  The world of Aeon now has two moons (seasons unaltered). All NPCs’ memories and related lore have been retroactively altered to include the second. They were always there together. None shall say otherwise.

  Rowan chuckled, then started flipping through all these frivolous changes. They weren’t actually frivolous; however, for his current situation, they were rather unimportant. Less than a minute remained until the game was up, and he could not afford missing any possibly important changes.