Chapter 56

Dave lay on his bed. “I didn’t even get groceries… crap, that was a bloody disaster.”

He firmly put the incident out of his mind and started thinking about his current situation.

“I need to get this fixed up, I can’t even hold things properly. The tendons are damaged. It should be treatable. But I can’t afford it.”.

“Arghhh! I ’m so bored!” he shouted.

He plugged into his capsule and watched the recording of Drahma fighting the guild group.

“Their teamwork needs to be improved. But Sublime Spirit knows how to use his skills…” Dave analyzed the footage.

“This is where I came in, heh heh.” he chuckled, thinking about the dungeon run.

Dave trimmed the video and added a title: ‘Always Be On Your Guard’

He added a description line, ‘You never know when a Skeleton will stab you in the back,’ and posted the video.

Almost immediately the video started getting hits. Mr. Skeletal had a lot of followers.

In minutes, scornful comments began appearing faster than he could read them. Most berating Mr. Skeletal for his behavior.

But, he didn’t care. “Any publicity is good publicity.”

He browsed the site, looking for interesting videos.

There was a video showing him facing the guild group in the mini-boss room.

The video started with him speaking, stamping his foot, and then disappearing after a few more words.

The video cut to different views of the giant slime-monster, the bones coalescing and covering it in armor. Then the finale came, the mini-boss starting its attack and decimating the group with unpredictable skills.

The group was so out of sorts and disorganized they hadn’t lasted more than a few seconds. Their attacks didn’t even remove 10% of the boss’s HP before they died.

Dave smiled as he watched the scene, his hand moved as though to reach up and stroke his bare chin.

“I wonder how many Contribution Points I will average a day, especially after this new service pack. High-level players won’t bother with lower level dungeons if they don’t get anything from fighting bosses below the minimum level.

“Most low-level players will get their asses handed to them in my new dungeon. Just more CPs for me.”

Dave grinned and chuckled. He almost rubbed his hands together in glee...but decided that would only be something he would do in-game.

Dave clicked the next thread and watched as he faced off with three players, their levels in the 40’s.

“Oh, it’s TNT. Pussy Flanker and his boyz in the graveyard.”

Most of the comments on the Terribly Named Trio’s video were analyses of Dave’s skill-set. All of his skill-set. Dave’s brows furrowed.

“Damn, I wasn’t thinking. I showed all my skills.

“The only Skill I have left as a surprise against some badass, or group of badass attackers, is [Zealot]. I need to be more careful…and get some more skills as soon as possible.”

Some commenters began lambasting how he used Spectral Bomb to put a skull on Fortress. Dave just smiled wryly.

It was a cheap shot, but it was funny, and a cool way to end a fight.

It also made a statement: ’Don’t fuck with Mr. Skeletal.’

He thought a bit, then stood up to go make something to eat.

“God, three days of this! I will go bonkers.”

He sat in front of his computer screen watching some old movies, trying to alleviate the boredom.

Dave then looked through the game map for a specific location. It was the graveyard where he disconnected at. And there was a dungeon there.

Dark Threading was the name of the dungeon, and it was a series of steep twisting staircases. Mobs spawned every few hundred steps. They were giant beast-like monsters… werewolves

“Shit, I hate werewolves…”

Of all the mythical creatures out there, werewolves were the ones that actually frightened Dave. They made his skin crawl.

Maybe it was from hearing too many stories about them or seeing too many werewolf movies when he was little.

He remembered watching the movies when he was very young. Shivering and hiding when normal looking people morphed into the vicious demons and went on gory rampages.

“This place could have something to do with the Undead Legion. Maybe I will find more clues to the Black Skull order’s location there too.”

Dave typed the name of the order in the search bar, but only got some miscellaneous mentions of it, nothing important.

“I guess I will have to keep working on the missions for the Undead Legion to get more information.”

Sleep came, and another day passed.

Dave had nothing to do but wallow in his boredom. He watched videos, ordered food, and slept.

Finally, the three days were up. Ten minutes before the servers came back up, Dave got a call from Lone Arrow.

“Hey! You gonna tell me where you are?” she almost screamed in his ear.

“Take it easy, cowgirl! I will be in Femurs Only graveyard in the northern part of the Devastator’s kingdom. Take the portal, I’ll wait for you near the Dark Threading dungeon. Oh and bring torches…a lot of torches!” the last words were said emphatically.

“Alright already. I guess The Mighty Mr. Skeletal is afraid of the dark.” she giggled.

“No!” he spoke quickly. “Werewolves hate fire, and we need to be able to see where we are going.”

Even Dave thought those were lame excuses.

“Whatever you say, Mr. Skeletal.” she replied, laughing, before hanging up.

Dave used the time left to nom on some food.

The game servers came back up, and Dave jumped to log-in like an addict going for his fix.

As he entered the virtual environment another version of the patch notes and some notifications popped up on his HUD.

Conquest service pack 2.0 Notes

Some of your skills have been modified.

Destructive Smash (stun duration increased to 2 seconds)

Twin Strike cooldown reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds

{Stampede} damage increased and cooldown reduced to balance the effects of Evasion.

Total Stampede damage 300% basic weapon damage.

“Hmm, that’s it? I thought there would be more.”

Dave called for the game AI, “Hey, Alfred.”

Alfred appeared immediately, looking at Dave calmly.

“Yes?” answered the AI.

“Because of my restricted location I don’t have access to instructors to learn Skills; I can’t keep playing effectively without basic skills.”

Alfred nodded, “The Dead Realm was made for the use of players at much higher levels than yours when you entered, so your situation was not considered. I will make trainers available in the areas to which you have access.

“The next time you are in the Dead Realms you will be able to find an instructor. Thank you for informing me of the issue.” He finished speaking and promptly disappeared without giving Dave a chance to reply.

“That’s disappointing, I thought I would be able to get the skills here... But I can’t go back now, I have to meet Lone Arrow.”

Dave waited with his Undead just within sight of the dungeon. The entrance was a cave, a dark yawning opening like the fanged mouth of a wolf.

This was the entrance to the Dark Threading dungeon. Distant howls, savage and hungering, shivered from the opening.

His draugr skin crawled..

Despite his passive immunity to Fear effects, Dave’s heart was pounding at the prospect of facing the monsters from his childhood nightmares.