Returning to the game, Jicker swore, screamed and shouted, throwing rocks and sticks as he tried to vent his feelings. He knew it wouldn’t achieve anything, and could even attract unwanted attention from creatures in the forest but he needed to do something. August had stripped away his chance of making any money from his work, closing off another way to try and get some distance from the man. He’d created an entire new species of plant, only to have it taken away from him immediately.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself down, to get his emotions under control. Going over to the bush, he spent a few minutes carefully removing every remaining incendiberry, making sure not to tear the skin as he pulled them free. Once they were all safely stored in a pouch of his backpack, he took out his sabre and used it as a crude shovel, digging up its roots and pulling it free. Sighing, he broke up the plant and threw it back into the hole before beginning to bury its remains. As he dug, he came to a decision: He had to get out from underneath August’s thumb, no matter what it took. He thought he could put up with the threats, the insults and being talked down to. After all, he’d worked for people like that before, and he was actually being payed well for what he was doing now. But in the past it was always on his own terms, and when it‘d gone too far he’d always had the option to cut his losses and run. But now he’d had that choice taken from him, and with the threat of his reveal hanging over his head, he had no choice but to obey.

At least, that was his current situation. While he couldn’t see a way around it yet, he had time to plan and funds to work with. Not as much as August had himself, but he’d certainly done more with less. Jicker was sure that, if he looked hard enough, and kept an eye out for an opening, he could get free, and hopefully some payback as well. He figured he should probably start by reading through his contract more closely when he had time. But for now he was stuck, and he had work to do.

Entering the cave for the second time, Jicker made his descent far more quickly, knowing he had quite a bit of time before he needed to worry about being spotted. It wasn’t until the light began to fade to black that he once again began to sneak along, looking for his first target.

It wasn’t long before they appeared, slowly and aimlessly stumbling around on the cave flaw. It seemed unlikely that something that was struggling to stay upright as it paced around the rocks would be much of a threat, but he’d dealt with some before. Once they spotted their prey, they would move faster, relentlessly chasing down it down and ignoring all else.

Crouching down low, he pulled out his pipe and picked one of the berries, loading it as carefully as he could, before lining up his shot. Patiently, he waited, until it turned at the right angle, exposing a deep gaping wound in its side, and fired. Silently the berry flew through the air, before burying itself inside the zombies flesh. The monster paused, moaning as it looked around for whatever had struck it. Jicker shrank down as much as he could, trying his best to stay hidden.

For a few moments nothing happened, the zombie giving up looking for anyone and resuming its previous lurching around. He began to wonder whether it was a dud, when it ignited violently, throwing the zombie to the ground. It moaned as it got back to its feet, clawing at the still burning wound.

Zombies weren’t known for being smart, and if it had been, it might have been able to smother the flame and save itself. But lacking the intelligence to do so or the dexterity to remove the burning material, it began to claw deeper at its side, growling and moaning in more fevered tones.

Eventually the fire burned itself out, leaving the side of the now truly dead zombie charred black, filling the cave with both a foul smell and haze of grey smoke.

Approaching slowly, he poked the body with his pipe gingerly; making sure it was actually dead. He knew it was he realised, chuckling to himself, since the game had awarded him experience for killing it, making him blame all the horror movies he’d watched.

“Now comes the gross part.” He said to himself, swallowing nervously. Pulling out his sword, he dug it into the side of the zombie, using it to lever out its long dead, and now cooked, insides. Trying not to throw up, he poked around squeamishly, looking for where the seed had stopped, eventually finding it stuck in what seemed to be a piece of coal. Taking it and putting it away, he moved away, considering his next move.

The cave got darker the further he went in, and was already hard to see. While it didn’t seem to bother the undead, he didn’t really want to fight off a mob of zombies in a pitch black cave. He’d either need to light up a torch and give up on stealth, or hope he could pick them out by sound and smell. Or, he thought as he opened up his pack, come up with another option. He hadn’t tried to create any potions apart from the ones his class had taught him, since resources had been fairly limited. But he currently had an entire forest he could comb for ingredients if had to, and he knew night vision potions existed, having used plenty in the past.

Pulling out a bowl from his pack, he looked through what he had; putting in things he figured would help, relying on luck and his gremlin talents.

“Let’s see,” He muttered “Water’s a good base for everything, so a dash of that... Some carrot pieces from my lunch? They’re supposed to be good for your eyes... what else... sugar? Couldn’t hurt...”

Grinding it down and mixing it, he was left with an orange mash that while fairly healthy, wouldn’t help him unless he needed to feed a small child. But he felt he was on the right track, he just needed something to focus it, something about sight...

He suddenly knew what it needed. His gut told him it was the answer and while his brain agreed, his stomach was shouting that it was the worst idea ever. Pushing aside his disgust, he pulled out his sabre, and went back to the zombie’s corpse.

~~~~~

Mother of invention!

You have created a new recipe for the potion – Dead man’s sight.

Recipe: 3 units of water, 2 units of carrots, 1 unit of sugar, an eye of zombie

Item type: Potion

Grade: Uncommon, created by Unknown

Effect: Darkvision and minor life sense- duration 1 hour.

Jicker looked at the bowl of thick, orange liquid in his hands, both happy it had worked, and horrified that he’d have to drink it. If he hadn’t made it himself, maybe it would just seem like bad carrots, but he knew what was in it.

“I just hope I can keep this down.” He grimaced, upending the bowl and downing the potion.

Gagging, he knew all he could taste was carrot, but his brain kept trying to suggest other flavours hiding underneath. Still, it was done, and after a few moments of retching it stayed down, letting him press on deeper into the cave. As the potion took effect, the world began to shift in tone, becoming black and white, the darkness replaced by shades of grey. He had to move carefully as the change robbed him of most of his sense of depth, but once he’d adjusted it was fine.

It didn’t take long before he encountered his second zombie, this one seemingly a dwarf that had lost a fight with the pickaxe buried in its back. Repeating his earlier strategy, he first warmed up a berry in his hands before taking a shot at his target. This time the berry broke instantly, taking only seconds before covering the dwarf in flames. The brightness of the fire was amplified by his darkvision, to the point where he had to stop himself crying out as he was momentarily blinded.

By the time his vision came back, and he’d finished blinking away the tears, the zombie had ended up in the same state as the other, making him wonder at just how effective the incendiberries were. He’d turned off most of the damage notifiers form the game since he felt they ruined his immersion, but part of him wondered. He also wanted to get a more durable and secure container for them as soon as he could, the thought of tripping and crushing an entire pouch of them seeming more terrifying than he’d first thought.

The rest of the cave complex went the same way. He’d find some sort of zombie, get close enough to fire while keeping out of sight, then duck away while it burned itself out. It was an effective strategy as long as there was only a single target, since a second zombie would have a much better chance of spotting him in the temporarily brightly lit tunnels. As it was, all he had to worry about so far was his supplies and potion holding out, which was down to its last few minutes, forcing him to prepare another dose.

Coming to wider chamber he looked around at the cavern floor and walls, seeing if he could find anything to complete the quest, while his mind worked on a problem that had been bugging him for a while. He’d seen plenty of different zombies as his previous character, but the variety he’d seen in this case was much too wide to be normal. Dwarves, humans and goblins made a certain amount of sense to find in a cave, all them were known to work as miners. But he’d seen elves, orcs, and a host of others down here, which had no business being underground. Either the game had stopped working properly, or something was off about these zombies. It wasn’t until he spotted a human with the rotting remains of a noose around his neck that he knew something was off, and that the game agreed.

Ding!

Quest: Dead men tell no tales.

Something has taken bodies and animated them inside this cave.

Success: Discover the source!

Failure: Leave the cave without answers

Not that he’d planned to leave until he’d figured it out, but now Jicker was really curious. While they weren’t overly strong, seemingly proportional to the rest of the forest, the zombies had seemed out of place, and now it looked like they really were. Checking his pouch, he saw he still had a little more than two dozen incendiberries remaining. Hoping it would be enough, he pushed himself onwards, deeper into the darkness.

Several zombies later, he was creeping along slowly, getting closer to the newest zombie, this one apparently important enough to still be wearing armour. By the way the chest had been caved in; it looked as if they’d been wearing it when they’d died. He managed to get close enough to land the berry right between the plates in it armour, burning it out from underneath when he got a prompt from the game.

Ding!

You have unlocked the stealth skill!

Current level: 1

Ranks in this skill enhance your ability to go unnoticed. Attacks while undetected will do increased damage based on skill level.

Synergy: Each point of Enigma will multiply your effective stealth value by 20%

Jicker sighed, happy to get the skill. He’d expected to unlock it for a while now, since it had been core to most of his strategies so far. In addition, the synergy would make it far more useful, since he doubted he was ever going to be much of a front line fighter.

“Still, that would have been handy earlier.” He said to himself

“I'm sure it would have.” Said a voice from behind him, before a bag came down over his head.

~~~~~~

He wasn’t sure how far they’d travelled since he’d been grabbed, but according to his clock they’d picked him up over twenty minutes ago. After dropping a bag over his head they’d bound his hands behind him and put him on what felt like a cart. Not a single word had been spoken since his capture, and without any way to see his surroundings, he had no idea how fast they were going, and only the vague feeling of wind told him they were moving at all. His attempts and communicating with them had been met with total silence, not even telling him to be quiet, which made him give up far sooner than threats would have.

Without warning they stopped, the cart lurching and sending him toppling over, landing heavily on his side. As he tried to regain his bearings, a pair of hands grabbed him and hoisted him into the air. It seemed that this part of the trip had to be taken on foot, though his captor didn’t seem to have any issue carrying him for several minutes, before dropping him roughly onto a seat. The bag was suddenly torn away, leaving him blinking to a bright light.

“Who are you?” Spoke a voice, seeming to come from all around him.

“I... what’s going on? Why did you-” Jickers question was silenced when something struck him heavily from behind.

“We ask the questions here. Who are you?” The voice continued.

“...Jicker. My name is Jicker.”

“Jicker, why did you enter the cave?”

He hesitated, not wanting to give the wrong answer. “For a quest.”

There was silence for a time. He wanted to ask what was going on, but he really didn’t want to be struck again.

“Jicker, which guild are you apart of?”

“Um... none? I'm fairly new.” Jicker replied, confused.

“I see, and what is your quest?”

“To look for any plants changed in the upheaval.”

“Hmm. Jicker, do you swear an oath to remain silent about what you have seen here?”

“I... suppose?”

You have accepted an oath of silence.

You will be unable to communicate about the subject for a minimum of 3 months, after which the oath may be broken.

Jicker swore silently. There were a few oaths in genesis that had real meaning, and were generally hard to call on. But if you did, they were heavily enforced, to the point where people often got punished for breaking them outside of the game, though it was unsure how it tracked that. If he was now under oath, he was dealing with people well out of his weight class.

“Okay, the oath took. Tay, you can drop the light now.” Came the voice again, now sounding like a normal person.

The light faded away, letting him see his surroundings clearly for the first time. He was in a large circular room of white marble with a high vaulted ceiling that seemed to be giving off its own far more subtle glow. Dozens of entrances opened into this one chamber leaving him with no idea of how he got here. Turning around, he could make out various figures going about their business down the passages, making him wonder where he was.

“Now then Jicker, I’m sorry about all this. And, just to confirm, you’re a strong soul, correct?”

“Yeah, I'm a player.” He said understanding what they were getting at.

“Good! It’s always awkward talking to an NPC like their worlds not real, even if they forget it in a few moments.” A speaker continued in a friendlier manor.

Turning to get a look at the speaker, he saw it was a fairly short looking human, dressed in a large dark cloak that covered everything but his face, black gloves hanging inside of his oversized sleeves. It was fairly classic attire for a mage, which explained how he did the voice trick. His brain began making the connection: Wizard dressed in black, zombies...

“You’re a necromancer!” He blurted out.

“So close! I’m not actually, though we have plenty with us. I can see why you got that idea though, it’s the robe isn’t it?” he sighed. “I've told them it’s a huge give away, but no, they're all ‘we have to show solidarity’ and ‘what’s the point if you don’t look the part?’. Honestly, some people take these things far too seriously. Anyway, call me Gabe.” He finished cheerfully.

“Good to meet you then Gabe. Is that your real name?” Jicker asked, noting an odd expression on his face.

“Nope, not even my character name. A lot of people don’t even realise that until they’re told later, so good job there. Sorry about being all secret agent and stuff, but until we figure what to do with you, you’re on need to know at best, and there’s not much you need to know. Come on, let’s grab something to eat and I’ll explain what I can.” Gabe said before turning suddenly and walking down one of the passages, leaving Jicker to hurry after him.

“So, anyway, the top brass are deciding what to do with you. If you were an NPC, things would be easier. We’d either just dump you some place far away without revealing ourselves, or if you’d seen too much, execute you.” He paused at that, seeing Jicker’s expression. “I know, it’s not exactly the nicest thing to do, but secrecy is really important right now. Most of them just fall to the zombies anyway, so it doesn’t really come up much. But, since you’re a player who will just respawn if that happens we need to figure out something else. You’re actually the first player we’ve had to do this on, and for what? Collecting some flowers? You must have the worst luck. Ah, here we go, the mess hall! Grab a plate of whatever you want, it’s all free.”

Compared to the formal stone of the previous rooms, the mess hall was a stark change, with simple wooden walls and a dirt floor. Crude wooden furniture filled the room, with dozens of people in black taking plates of food from a buffet along one wall.

“About that, are you allowed to get rid of these?” Jicker asked as he tried to roll his shoulders with his arms tied behind his back.

“Whoops! Sorry about that, I swear I’d forget my head sometimes.” Gabe said, snapping his fingers.

The ropes tying his hands seemed to become warm for a moment before suddenly dropping in temperature rapidly, shattering around his wrists. Looking down, he saw that all that was left were a few pieces of ice with cords poking out of them. Jicker didn’t know every sort of magic in Genesis, but he did know that accurately freezing something until it shatters was high level stuff, not the kind you should be able to pull off that easily.

“Thanks, I guess. So, where are we exactly?” He asked while rubbing his wrists.

“Hmmm can’t answer that one yet, but I can say that we’re not exactly out in the open. Here, try the coffee, it’s pretty good.” He said grabbing a pair of mugs and filling them before heading to an empty table. Grabbing a few things that looked okay, Jicker followed.

“Okay then, can you tell me what this place is?”

“I can tell you that it’s ours. Next question?” Gabe said grinning.

“I’m sensing a theme here. How about this, are you all players here or-”

“Yes!” He shouted slamming his hands down on the table. “Finally something I can explain! No, not everyone here is a player, in fact we make up less than a third, but we do have most of the leadership covered. We’re not quite a guild, but close enough to one, and we pick up like minded individuals, players or NPCs.”

“And what sort of mind is it exactly?” Jicker asked him, taking a sip of the coffee. Gabe was right, it was good.

“You’ve seemed smart enough so far, see if you can take a stab at the answer.” Gabe said, leaning back in his chair, looking at him closely.

Jicker thought about what he’d seen so far. “Necromancers?” He hazarded.

“Like I said before, you’re close. We’re about half necromancers, but that’s how the numbers worked out. The truth of it is we’re all the ‘bad guys’, I suppose you could say. Assassins, demon worshippers, necromancers and a bunch of other oddballs. The sorts of people that have been labelled as a monster or villain, whether they’ve earned it or not.”

“And have you earned it?” Jicker asked carefully.

Gabe hesitated. “I can’t say that we’re a bunch of angels around here, but a lot of us didn’t shoot first if you follow me. You can’t blame a guy for killing someone who’s after your head can you? And after a while, you end up becoming the bad guy just by trying to survive as a good one.” He said, his voice turning dark towards the end as he stared down at his drink. He went quiet until a cough from nearby broke him out of his thoughts. “So you came looking for plants? What’s that about?” Gabe asked suddenly, trying to change the subject.

Jicker explained that he was looking for some paying work that didn’t need much combat experience, and how it had ended with his arrival at the cave. Gabe didn’t seem particularly surprised.

“Sounds like this Molta lady knows what she’s doing, since we ended up there for the same reason. It looks like Maser did one of his whatevers around there, which is interesting enough, but more than that, its- oh, hang on a sec, need to take a message.” He paused and began staring off into space, apparently dealing with it via his menus.

“Alright!” he said after a few moments, downing the last of his coffee. “They’ve figured out what to do with you, so we’re going in to see what that is. Ready?”

Jicker sighed. “If I said no, would it matter in the slightest?”

“Of course not, but where would we be without manners? Come on, it’s down this way.” He said before jumping up and hurrying down another passage.

Following him yet again, Jicker wondered about what Gabe had meant about something being more than the explosion. He’d set off a bomb here, that much was true, though the terrain was unrecognisable because of it, but that should have been the end of it. He’d let off a few that would have longer term effects, that would alter the area at a deeper level, but nothing like that was around here. So what exactly were these people after?

They came to stand before a pair of wrought iron doors, inlaid with black glass in the shape of a moon. Knocking a few times, Gabe turned to him and gestured for him to enter as it opened.

“They really love the whole black ominous look around here, but personally I think we need more colour.” He said as they entered, revealing another circular room. A high platform rang around the opposite wall, as several shadowy figures looked down at them. “I mean, if we’re trying to do the whole come together thing, then should we show a bit of variety.” He continued.

“Because, you idiot, we are united, so we keep things the same.” Said one of the figures from up above.

“Well I think it’s wrong, and we should... actually let’s come back to that later. Move over I’m coming up.” He said back to them before launching himself through the air to land amongst the others.”

There was a brief muttering, and then the surrounding voice returned. “Jicker, you have entered the domain of the rising moon uninvited, and have seen things that must not come to light. How do you plead?”

“Plead? For what, entering a nameless cave?” Jicker asked, confused.

“...he’s got a point you know. Can we really say he intruded if we don’t say it’s ours?” One of the figures said.

“Of course we didn’t say it’s ours, we’re a secret organisation! What are we going to do, put up a sign saying ‘empty cave, don’t come in’?” Shouted another.

“I get that, but couldn’t we do something? Like a danger sign, or a fake name, or-”

“Can,” The magical voice interrupted, “we get on with this? Where was I...? Oh yeah, how do you plead.”

“Um, not guilty?” he said, losing track of what was happening.

“Wait, can he make that claim? I mean we saw him do it, so I don’t really know what to do here.” This came from Gabe.

The voice sighed exasperatedly. “Just... you know what? Screw the atmosphere, it’s already a mess.”

More muttering came from above, and sounds of grinding rock came from the wall as the raised platform descended to the floor. Panels in the walls lit up, turning the dark and brooding chamber into something that felt more like a coffee shop than an evil lair. Revealed by the light, he could now see a dozen people of various races dressed in black robes, now quietly bickering out colour coordination and aesthetics.

A dark elven woman in the centre gestured into the air a few times before speaking. “I'm fed up with this already, so let’s make this simple. Did you know about us being here in any way before you came here?”

“Nope.” Jicker replied. The woman looked over to another person who had pulled out glowing sphere. They studied it for a moment before nodding back to her. He wondered what it was. A lie detector of some kind?

“Next question: Do you know where you are or who we are?”

“I think you said something about the rising moon? But apart from that, no.”

She growled, starring daggers at someone else who was trying to avoid her gaze. “I told you to cut that from the speech, but noooo.” She sighed. “Moving on then. What do you plan to do with this information?”

“Nothing? I'm under oath, remember?”

“There are plenty of ways of getting around oaths if you try hard enough, or are willing to make sacrifices. But I’ll change the question then: what would you do with this information if you weren’t under oath?”

“Again, nothing. I don’t really know anything, and whatever you’re up to, it’s nothing to do with me.” Jicker said which was true enough. He had enough to deal with without messing around with cults or whatever this was.

Again the person holding the globe gave a nod, so the dark elf continued. “In that case, where do you stand on the systems of the world, in which certain groups are evil just because we are told they are?”

He thought about it. “I think... some people can certainly do more evil, and have a lot more access to it. But anyone can be evil, and anyone can be good, so I guess it comes down to the person? Something like that anyway.”

“Good answer. So, here’s a question for you then, gremlin Jicker. Would you like to join our guild?”

Ding!

Quest: Dead men tell no tales. - Complete!

Reward: 600 EXP.

Ding!

Quest: The Moon Rises.

You have been offered a place in the Rising moon.

Success: Join and learn more about the organization.

Failure: Refuse or be unable to join.