There were certain inescapable truths you had to deal with when you were gearing up to do player versus player action.

One that was if all over things were equal, the lower level players would always lose.

The other inescapable truth was that anyone who tried pvp with all other things being equal was being a goddamned moron about it. You should, could, and had to use every dirty trick in the book to make sure you'd win, and if you didn't then you would end up dead with assholes laughing at you.

Which was why he was following LivingDeadGrrl through the snow right now, towards a blurry patch of black and green in the distance, and hoping like hell that the endurance he'd gained from his casual act of cannibalism would keep him going until he could get back.

“You're sure this is the easiest quest they've got?” he whined, and okay maybe he had asked it a few times already, but he didn't think he was being that annoying about it.

LivingDeadGrrl obviously disagreed. “Shut the fuck up about it,” she called back. “If you don't like it go log off and find someone else to sponge levels off of.”

“Jesus, okay, fine,” Rich shot back. “No need to lose it, your stream's off now anyway.”

“Yeah, and if you're still whining when it comes back on, then I'll lose viewers. Nobody wants to watch brats be brats. If they want that they can knock someone up or squirt out a few and raise them themselves.”

“Unless they're kids,” Rich pointed out.

“No, I don't do kiddie streaming. There's content advisories all over my streams. Any kids watching it are doing it for the thrills and not my problem.” She shrugged. “Most of those are busy trying to find porn streamers anyway. Good luck there, all of the easy to find porn streams are FBI agents.”

“What's FBI?”

“What you guys used to have until you let the church run everything. Okay, look, we're almost there. The most dangerous part is right before you hit the woods, there's a lot of predators that hunt the edges. Give me a few minutes head start. I'll message you if it's clear, or if I find something that's easy enough for you to fight.”

“Okay,” he whispered back.

LivingDeadGrrl hunkered down. Then she was off into the storm. Rich watched her go.

It was lonely out there, with the wind howling. The cold was persistant, even if it didn't seem to do any real damage. That was thanks to his constitution, which LivingDeadGrrl assured him was absurdly high for a level 2 character. She figured he'd be fine out here for the duration of the trip, maybe a whole day if worst came to worst.

But more than the cold, this was the first time he'd been truly alone for a while. He'd always had Geebo to keep him company. This time Rich had to leave him behind in the village. The draggit was in no shape to travel on his own, and Rich couldn't afford to carry him. If they ran into something really dangerous then the little guy would probably die.

The wind howled, and Rich waited.

LIVINGDEADGRRL: All clear. I'll wave when you get close. Do me a favor and run, okay? I'm milking the moment for tension.

Rich obliged, bolting flat-out towards the trees. Something rose from them as he did, and he flinched away but it flapped away in silence. Some kind of bird, but he didn't look around and kept going.

Motion at the treeline itself, and he steered around towards what he really hoped was LivingDeadGrrl, managing to turn without tumbling over in the loose, slippery snow. Fortunately he recognized her fur armor through the storm, and managed to get to her with a minimum of flailing.

“You're about as graceful as a vatcow,” she told him as he hauled to a stop, spraying snow everywhere.

“It's really hard,” he tried not to whine, he really did. “I'm not built for running.”

“Yeah, I know. If we run into something we can't handle I'm going to have to leave you behind. Just respawn at the village if it goes bad.”

“I can do that now?”

“Yep. You can respawn at any significant location you visit.” She frowned. “But if the griefers keep going, then I don't think it'll be too significant anymore.”

According to what LivingDeadGrrl had told him, Tankitaway and his party had rolled in a week or so ago. They'd asked questions about the dragon, then killed the chief and taken his stuff. Then they'd looted all the homes, and killed anyone who tried to stop them. Then they'd left.

And if that had been all, it wouldn't have been a big deal. The people of the Yellow Icon had been through plenty of hardships before.

But they came back the next day, and the next after that. Usually in ones or twos. And they came back to murder.

“Most of the villagers are just the right level for them to grind on,” LivingDeadGrrl had told him. “And whatever they're doing in between dragonslaying it's taking a while, so it looks like they're just grinding out of boredom. Which is bad, because the village is the only place around here with vendors. It's only sheer luck we have any of those left.”

Of course, respawning in the village wouldn't do Rich any good if he somehow got kicked out of LivingDeadGrrl's party. And that was why he had a nifty new quest called “Wood for Stone,” and was out here in the godforsaken wilderness hoping like hell he didn't run into anything he couldn't handle.

The trees were pines, old and white-topped and bristly. But the ground was warmer here, and the snow thinned as they went, until it turned into a carpet of dead needles. A strong, green scent filled his nostrils and again he marveled at the work it must have taken to make the game smell accurate. He'd played games with scent-accessibility before, sure, but never complicated online fantasy games. And this one had something that 'Farmer Don's interactive barnyard for kiddies' didn't have. He couldn't put his finger on it, it was just... more real, somehow.

Eventually they got in far enough that the sunlight started to vanish, blocked by old growth. No snow here, just carpets of pine needles.

“So you know you can't breathe fire in here, right?” LivingDeadGrrl asked him.

“I can't? Why not?”

She shot him a look. “Are you serious?”

“I'm serious, why can't I breathe fire?”

“

Because this shit burns. You'll burn the whole forest down if you're not careful. And I can't even begin to imagine the reputation you'll lose if you do that.”

“Oh.” Rich said, looking around more carefully. It was pretty dry here, the branches high above sheltering the space below from the snow. Wasn't perfect, but his burninate burned hot enough that he could see she was right. “Sorry. I'll be careful.”

“Do you guys have any trees left where you're at?”

“Of course we do! They're all over the pace. It rains so much that they don't catch fire, though. Don't you guys have like forest fires all the time?”

“Not so much anymore. Most of what's left is in private preserves or carefully gardened. I go there sometimes when I can afford it and the weather's good. I've never seen something like this in real life.” she waved a hand around, indicating the trees, the space between them, and passing over something that moved quickly through the underbrush, so quickly that Rich barely caught it.

“What's that?” he asked, pointing.

She looked around, squinting. “What's what?”

“That!” Rich pointed at a long stretch of underbrush, some sort of wiry shrub that filled the eastern side of the pine barren. Something four-legged slunk through it, and Rich caught flashes of white fur as it approached. “It looks almost like a cat, but it's pretty big...”

“Snow Links!” LivingDeadGrrl shouted, whipping her spear off her back.

And then it was on them.

Chains of ice shot down from the trees above, stretching down from the snow layers up top, and barely missed Rich. He threw himself sideways.

Your Dodge skill is now level 4!

Chains usually mean binding. He'd played enough games to know that. And with his abysmal agility, if he got caught he didn't know if he could get loose.

“See you at the village!” LivingDeadGrrl yelled, hustling away from the underbrush.

“Hey, no! Don't leave me—”

A mass of white fur and muscle and icy armor leaped out of the underbrush and slammed into him, howling and yowling and biting and Rich caught a brief glimpse of a red '31' as the big cat sunk its fangs into the place where his neck met his body.

“Ow!” he shouted, and decided to bite it right back. “Chomp!”

STR+1

Your Brawling skill is now level 11!

Your Chomp skill is now level 4!

The Links howled, and abruptly it was gone, scurrying back to the underbrush.

Rich tried to roll to his feet...

...and then the chains lashed out again, wrapping about him and lifting him into the air. Torrents of snow rolled down from above, spraying white powder and mist as Rich yelled.

He struggled, to no avail.

The underbrush stirred, as the links poked its head out to watch him.

Rich kept struggling. He couldn't gain any leverage, there was nothing for his legs to push against.

The creature slunk out, growling at him. He saw bright red against its fur, and it was limping. He'd done a number on it through sheer strength, hurt it badly. But now he was stuck, and the chains pulled tight, keeping his limbs far enough away from each other that he couldn't claw at the chains wrapping them.

The links came closer, bobbed tail wiggling. It was ready to spring...

Waitaminute. I'm a goddamn dragon. What do I care if my arms are bound?

WIS+1

“Scaly Wings!”

And the links hesitated, as Rich pumped his wings, surging upward before the chains could correct.

Your Fly skill is now level 3!

There was a pause, and then the chains shifted on his body, trying to get a better hold and tangle up his wings. He managed to strain against them in the opposite direction for a while, flying further and further up, but eventually a loop flipped over his left wing and he spiralled into a dive, hitting a tree so hard he knew he'd taken damage from it.

Scrabbling, acting on instinct, he drove his claws into the tree and clung for dear life.

And he held on.

When they tugged on his legs, he tensed his muscles and went nowhere. When they pulled against his wings he bit in, ignored the taste, and used his jaws to keep from going anywhere.

Finally, the chains ceased struggling and clattered around him, ice hitting wood over and over again. With what limited view he had, he could see the chains wrapping around the tree over and over again. The links had given up on pulling him away; now it was cocconing him.

Why? He wondered.

He got his answer as claws scraped wood below.

Angling his head down as best he could through a chained cocoon, he saw the links put its paws into the bark and slowly, painfully start hauling itself up the tree trunk. Its hide was torn, it was bleeding red spatters into the needle carpet below, but it hauled itself up with vengeance on its mind. Slowly, with hatred in its green feline eyes, it climbed.

SSSSsss-SPLORTCH!

The spear took it in the skull and pinned it to the tree trunk.

Rich watched as it thrashed, caught suspended by the steel and painted bone weapon. It thrashed and died, hangling limp as blood and brains dripped down to where LivingDeadGrrl was pumping her fist and cheering.

“Yes! Perfect time for a crit!”

“Sweet!” Rich said, wiggling as best he could. “Little help here?”

“Oh yeah, hang on.” She walked around the tree, staring at him. “Okay... no. I have no idea to get you free. Activate Recall Weapon.” The spear whipped free of both tree and carcass, dropping the links down as it returned to its master. “Maybe wiggle a lot and hope for the best?”

With a sigh, Rich wiggled a lot and thought uncharitable thoughts toward his new ally.

Then again, she did save him...

Fortunately he was in a position where his raw strength sufficed to wear away at the chains until they shattered.

Barely.

STR+1

The fall was pretty jarring, and Rich's awkward attempts to glide ended up with him on his back. He watched the red '22' go floating away, and winced.

“You're pretty low now. Maybe take it easy for a while?” LivingDeadGrrl offered.

“Yeah. I'm still torn up from fighting some hound monsters in the caves.”

“That where you got to level two?”

“No, I was level two before I found them. Which is good because I think they would have mauled me.”

“Wait. You had two fights at level two and didn't level up?” LivingDeadGrrl shook her head. “Something's glitched here. I was leveling up with every fight until I hit level five or so.”

“It's probably one of my skills. I think it said something about leveling. Status. Help.” he read it over. “Yeah, it's that Slow to Age one. Leveling up High Dragon Hatchling is hard. Which means if I want faster levels I need to get them through my job. But...”

“But your other job's Cultist, and you haven't pledged to any dark powers,” she said, nodding. “No problem. We're out here for a couple of reasons.” As she spoke, she pulled out a knife and started carving the air. After half a minute, the components of the corpse separated out into neat piles; bones and fur and ogans and meat all in their own little patches on the needles. “Let me pack this stuff away and then we'll go get you that wood.”

Fifteen minutes later they stood in the oldest part of the forest. The trees towered overhead like skyscrapers, and the silence loomed unbroken.

Unbroken until LivingDeadGrrl pointed. “There.”

Among the towering titans, one lone tree listed to the side. Its bark was marred and peeling, and the thin curtains of needles left on its branches were orange.

“Is it dead?” Rich asked.

“No, but it's dying. Big things like this take a long time to die. The villagers are big on stuff that does that, just ask the Icon when you see him. Also harvesting this one means they don't have to use the livewood. Trees take a long time to grow here; if they started harvesting too many before their time, they'd run out.”

“But there's thousands of them!” Rich said. “How could they run out?”

“They personally might not. But they're planning to be around here a long time. Eventually their descendents would.” She smiled. “Speaking as someone whose realspace trees burned up before I was born, I can kinda get that.”

“Oh boy. No wonder you told me not to start a fire.”

“Yeah. No trees, no village. And none of their neighbors like them too much, so they're stuck here unless something changes for the better. But time's wasting, so let's get to work.” She hauled out a well-worn hatchet, climbed partway up the tree, and got to chopping.

An hour later, loaded down with logs and sticks, Rich followed her back across the snowy tundra. It was good exercise at least, and he managed to get a constitution point out of it, even if he did start feeling tired midway through.

Once they were back, the villager who had given him the quest happily took the logs off of the makeshift harness that LivingDeadGrrl had loaned him.

Stone for Wood quest complete!

You are now BARELY TOLERATED with the Children of the Yellow Icon.

Rich took the stone arrowhead that the villager offered with a nod, even if he had no real use for it.

Of far more interest, though, were the messages flashing past his eyes.

You are now a level 3 High Dragon Hatchling!

CON+25

PER+25

STR+25

WILL+25

Armor+15

Cool+15

Mental Fortitude+15

His eyes sharpened; the scents of the village became much stronger. And his body felt like it was swelling, full of energy and power. He felt so, so much better in a way he couldn't quite describe.

“There we go!” LivingDeadGrrl grinned at him. “I was starting to get worried. Party Status.” her eyes went wide, as she read. “Jeeeeesus. You weren't lying about your level boosts.”

“Nope!” he grinned back.

“Except you're kind of one-sided,” she said. “You've got crap for stamina and endurance. That's like halven levels, right there. We need to find stuff to boost you, otherwise there's no way you stand a chance against the griefers.”

“But how?” Rich asked. “My only other job is Cultist! I only get one, and I need a Guild to get rid of it if I want anything else.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” LivingDeadGrrl shook her head. “They haven't implemented guilds yet.”

“What? Why not?”

“I dunno. So anyway, what we're going to have to do is find a way to work with what we've got, here. And that means getting you pledged to a dark power.”

“I ran into one of those in the caves, I think, but he was an asshole.”

“Fortunately for you, we got someone around here to help with that. Now that you've got some faction rep, we should be able to talk to him without risking trouble. Come this way...”

This way turned out to be the hut farthest away from the center of the village.

The hides on it were brown and faded yellow, and the symbol that Rich had seen painted on LivingDeadGrrl and most of the villagers was plastered all over here, without rhyme or reason or any pattern that Rich could see.

“Do you have that arrowhead?” LivingDeadGrrl asked. “Didn't drop it anywhere or eat it or something stupid?”

“I've still got it,” Rich told her, holding one palm up and opening it.

“Okay, just making sure. If he's awake then it's customary to leave an offering. That can be yours.”

“Yeah, okay. I've got some other stuff, but...” he threw a look over at the hut where Geebo was still presumably collapsed. “I can't get to it right now.”

“Then let's hope it's enough,” she told him and opened the curtain.

Darkness filled the inside, and Rich muttered “Dragonseye,” before following her in.

Your Dragonseye skill is now level 13!

And when his eyes adjusted, he was staring at a hut that was far, far bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.

Standing torches burned here, smokeless with golden flame, in a circle around a prone man. Clad in ancient robes and wearing a mask of rough-beaten copper, he lay with his arms folded on what Rich initially thought was a very hard to see altar. But as he got closer he saw that the figure levitated in the air with no means of support.

Beyond it, lining the walls from top to bottom, were symbols that Rich didn't recognize. Letters strung out in patterns that, though alien, Rich recognized in a heartbeat.

Those are lines of code!

INT+1

Without a second thought Rich activated his Echo's record function and turned in place, staring around the hut, getting the best shots he could of the place...

...and then there came a rasp, directly behind him.

Rich completed the turn, and stared at the empty eyesockets of the mask inches from his face.

“Slaver!” It shouted in a hollow, metallic-tinged voice, and LivingDeadGrrl yelped in surprise as the figure drew back two bandaged hands that were suddenly full of golden lightning...

RUTGER'S CHARACTER SHEET

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Rutger Royal

Age: 18 Hours

Jobs:

Cultist 1, High Dragon Hatchling 3

Attributes Pools Defenses

Strength: 130 Constitution: 127 Hit Points: 257 Armor: 60

Intelligence: 37 Wisdom: 33 Sanity: 70 Mental Fortitude: 60

Dexterity: 13 Agility: 29 Stamina: 42 Endurance: 0

Charisma: 31 Willpower: 126 Moxie: 157 Cool: 60

Perception: 126 Luck: 32 Fortune: 158 Fate: 3

General Skills

Brawling – Level 11

Dodge – Level 4

Fly – Level 3

Ride – Level 1

Stealth – Level 2

Swim – Level 1

High Dragon Hatchling Skills

Burninate – Level 6

Chomp – Level 4

Draconic Tongue – Level N/A

Dragonseye – Level 13

Limited Equipment – Level N/A

No Thumbs – Level N/A

Scaly Wings – Level N/A

Slow to Age – Level N/A

Cultist Skills

Unlocked Jobs

Conjuror