Subject 4 (Kathrine)

Virtual Home Space

Kat fell back onto the triple king sized bed. It was the perfect ratio of firmness and comfort. Of course it was virtual but she’d grown accustomed to it. Kat was already in her blue silk pajamas and matching top. She’d had such a long and eventful day. The betrayal still felt raw. The emotions angrily coiled around her heart. Kat should have known or guessed. How gullible, stumbling into their trap like a lamb to slaughter. She’d been to stunned by what was happening to put up much of a fight. Reaching over she pulled a giant stuffed pillow towards her. It was in the shape of a fluffy orange cat, and she pressed her face into its soft fur. Everything seemed to spill over and Kat screamed her anger out. The sound was muffled by the pillow but it made her feel better. Kat squeezed the cat tightly to her chest for a while. It wasn’t so bad in all honesty. Kat had known pain, known agony for years. The fear though that had been something new. It was so unlike the knowledge of her slow death by disease. Today her mortal life had suddenly hung on the edge of a knife. That had to be the scariest thing she’d ever been apart of.

She’d actually seen the necromancer walk out of the darkness like a wraith. His eyes that hellish green color. She was absolutely sure he was going to finish the job the wizard had started. Instead he’d ignored her, actually turned his back to Kat. Then he’d gone over to read a stupid book of all things. That had given Kat time to look at him in the torchlight. Those murdering bastards had told her all about him. Nothing could have prepared her for seeing the necromancer up close. He was over seven feet tall with big bones. His skull was malformed even for a half-orc which made him all the more creepy. Her arms tightened on Fluffkins as she remembered the sight. He wasn’t bad exactly and had saved her which she appreciated. Though he’d admitted to only needing her help selling his garbage.

“Liam,” She said aloud. Not exactly a name for a necromancer. She wondered if he was lonely and Kat wanted to be his friend. In a way he understood, knew what it was like. The things he’d said had struck a cord in her heart.

“The living and the dead don’t mix.” She remembered him saying. That had been such a sad thing to hear considering her circumstances. Kat decided she’d try and become undead as well. If it took her dying again to see Liam she’d do it.

“Console,” She thought and a small window dropped into her vision. “Summon Datapad,” She said and the words appeared before flashing twice. A tablet quite large but nearly weightless appeared in her hands. She powered it on, and opened up a web browser. Kat started a net crawler before typed in the words ‘Nigmus+become+undead.’ The search didn’t bring up results worth looking at. At least the bot would let her know when something promising appeared. Thoughts of the necromancer flitted through her mind again. If she couldn’t be his friend she might be able to keep tabs on him at least. She typed in a new search, ‘Nigmus+necromancer.’ There was several threads on a Nigmus information website. People were speculating on how to fulfill the requirements of the necromancer class change. The last post instantly arrested her attention and she sat up in bed.

Deathsythe - I was so close to becoming a necromancer tonight. That asshole half-orc necro came out of nowhere and killed me. We need to make a party and hunt him down. At least now I know how to change classes.

Comment - So tell us.

Comment - Totally. Your ass failed so let us try.

Deathsythe Comment - Not until I become a undead necromancer first.

Comment - Lame.

That jerk! He thought killing her was just a requirement of class change. Kat wanted to reach through her tablet and wring his neck. Her only source of solace was knowing he’d died. Seeing his dead body hanging by the wall chains had been particularly satisfying. Kat signed up for a forum account just so she could post. She started a new thread under Deathsythe’s which was growing in comments.

UnwillingSacrifice - Yes, I was there too. You took a level one player, and scammed her into following you around. At level five you took said noob to the lich’s dungeon so you could sacrifice her. The necromancer stomped you, and your two little buddies at the same time. As I recall you squealed like a pig when he appeared. Just for your information, he let me go. He’s actually a nice guy and he did tell me something about changing classes.

Comment - OMG Deathsythe is such a douche bag.

Comment - How did he do it?

Comment - For reals we want to know.

Comment - What’s his name?

Within minutes of the post her inbox was getting flooded with information requests. People commented on her post over and over. She went back and edited her first post putting the words in big red letters.

Edit - No he didn’t tell me the specifics. All he said was that it *Doesn’t* require a sacrifice so Deathsythe is a stupid jerk. No I didn’t get his name, the game wouldn’t let me send a friend request.

Kat lied about the last part. She did know his name but she wanted to keep that gem for herself. The system might not let him be friends with her but she could probably still send him messages. Sighing she dropped the tablet over the edge of the bed and rolled over. She fluffed the pillow several times before settling back. Lastly she opened the console and told the VR machine to enter sleep mode. Slowly the room became blurry and indistinct. Now she could actually rest without being force fed simulation data constantly.

***

It was late morning when she’d roused enough to log into her character. She was sitting outside the ‘First Steps’ adventurer’s tavern she’d stayed at last night. Slowly she composed a private message to Liam.

“Hey if you’d like to talk sometime,” She began then stopped herself. After a second she deleted it because it sounded so damn goofy. Kat didn’t want to come off as weird. She tried a different tact.

“Let me know if you’d like to sell more stuff, free coin is always nice.” Kat typed and liked it much better. She didn’t appear needy. It would give her the chance to see him again too. As soon as she hit enter the system informed her the person wasn’t online but would receive the message when they logged in. She supposed that was for the best. A group of three low level players came out of the inn and wandered by her. They opened the little gate that separated the tavern from the street before disappearing. There was always so much activity going on. At any given time literally thousands of players were entering or leaving the city. When you combined them with the NPC’s walking the street it made New Hearth feel full of life.

She took the time to check out her character stats and skills.

Kat had a few daily abilities that came with being a paladin. [Lay Hands] could heal a touched target for a large amount of HP. Her [Holy Smite] made her weapon super holy for a single strike. Useful if she wanted to lay the smack-down on something quickly. Her melee abilities had taken the most time to get used too. [Shield Bash] could unbalance a target but it worked best just as an enemy was attacking. Then it would critical the creature and stun it momentarily. She also had [Piecing Thrust] and thank god she didn’t have to shout that every time she wanted to use it. All she had to do was hold the blade near her body pointed forward. The blade would glow slightly which let her know the skill had activated. Then Kat just pushed forward and it would do armor piecing damage. Talented players could chain regular attacks with the skills in a combo. At the moment Kat had to stop and consciously use the skill form. Regular fighters also received considerably more of these abilities than her.

Kat couldn’t look at what skills she would receive in the future. She would’ve liked to plan out her character a little more. It would be so annoying to move in a direction with her paladin only to find out it was wasted effort. Her perusing was interrupted by the chat-box appearing in the corner of her vision.

“I want my stuff back.” Came up on her chat window as a private message. The name she didn’t recognize, a person named Riggs. It wasn’t Liam, that was for sure. She suspected it might be one of the people that had tried to kill her last night. Obviously it was someone who knew her name. She decided to take a stab at him.

“Think I’ll keep the rings,” She typed back.

“Bitch, those are mine.” Was quickly sent to her and she laughed. She had been right after all. Closing out of her character window she paused long enough to consider her response.

“They look much better on my fingers though.” She sent back. Kat took the time to open her equipment window. She knew from checking the auction that special gear of any kind was rather expensive. The fact magical equipment didn’t drop from common enemies made all such items super expensive. Money too was only found on humanoid type monsters. Creatures that would naturally be interested in coin. Almost every player was stomping around in plain crafted armor.

“I’ll find, and kill you!” Flashed into her chat window.

“You attempted that last night. Grind a few levels little boy then try again.” She typed back then waited. She selected his name and saved it to her enemies list. It was similar to the friends list but wouldn’t tell her if he was online. If the man happened to come near her she would see his name. After a minute of silence she shrugged and looked at the new stuff she’d gotten last night. Kat hadn’t sold everything Liam had given her. The two strength rings were +1 each along with a set of paladin specific gauntlets. They allowed the wearer to cast [Lay Hands] twice per day. That was coupled with the +1 amulet of faith she’d gotten from the Order. In all she was feeling pretty good about her gear at just level six. It was time to get her butt moving.

Kat stood from the wooden bench, and walked out of the inn’s courtyard. The street bustled with activity as players ran by. She joined the crowd moving towards the south gate. On the way she stopped at the market square to pick up a handful of weak health potions. Normally hit points regenerated quite slowly unless you used bandages or potions. There was also a food vendor which sold quite a variety of delicacies. She bought two hot pork dumplings for breakfast. They would increase her health regeneration by a small amount for two hours. As she walked Kat bit into the pie. The buttered pastry was filled with honey sweetened pork and white cheese. She noticed a little +hp regen icon appear in her periphery then fade. By the time she’d finished breakfast she was nearing the city exit. Several guards stood around the south gate. They were high level NPC’s but she could only tell they outmatched her. Their threat levels indicated a massive gap between her and them. One stood on each side of the gate while a third idly wandered about. A guard captain was sitting behind a desk within the gatehouse. Kat stopped just inside the walls as she decided what to do. She considered soloing for the day, but the recent chat with Riggs made her shy from the idea. Being by herself would be just as dangerous as joining a random group.

Cupping her hands to her mouth she yelled, “Looking for group level six paladin.” Thankfully it didn’t take more than a few shouts. Two people stopped nearby and looked at her. They seemed lowish level with barely enough equipment between them to outfit a single player.

“We could group with you. I'm a cleric, and my boyfriend is a fighter.” A tall half-elven girl said. She had greenish hair with twigs interwoven within. The woman was thin like a willow tree but her assets were over proportioned. The man was average height and handsome in a scruffy warrior way.

“What levels are you?” Kat asked.

“Three,” the elf said pointing to herself. “Jack is fourth,” she finished slipping an arm around the human’s. Kat was mildly relieved by their display. The fact she was higher level than either helped too.

“Can you invite me?” She asked and a few moments later a pop up appeared. It invited her to join HackJack’s group. Their names appeared above their heads when she accepted. The cleric’s name was Evalinn.

“Were should we go?” The cleric asked.

“Lets just pick a random direction, and keep going until we hit water.” Kat suggested. The starting city was near the center of a small island nation.

“That’s fine with me.” Jack said casually.

Since her fellow teammates were still low level she’d have to grind them up a little. Level five was where most characters started gaining any real powers. The cobblestone road came out of the south gate and gently turned south east. Since it was still morning and the sun was coming up she decided to turn the group west. That would keep the light out of her sensitive eyes. The foot hill slowly dipped down into a low prairie.

“There’s a [Adolescent Bear] over there,” Jack said pointing. He drew a sword and wooden buckler. Kat caught up to him as she drew her own longsword and shield.

“Let me get its attention first. Bears have big health pools.” She said running forward. The waist high bear heard her coming and turned at their approach. As it targeted her the bear roared then charged to meet Kat. Just before it reached her the creature swiped with a blackened paw. She raised her shield blocking most of the damage. A few seconds later Jack was attacking its side.

“Cure light wounds,” Evalinn said and Kat felt a rush of positive energy hit her. Her health bar which had been near 92% ticked back up to full. The bear had done damage but it was a laughable amount. Kat slashed with her sword cutting at its neck. Jack was on its other side hacking away with gleeful impunity. Kat didn’t even bother using any melee skills. Another claw hit her getting between the shield and striking her arm. Kat felt the damage like a butter knife running quickly over her skin. It wasn’t painful exactly but let her know she’d been damaged. Not for the first time she considered turning the pain threshold off completely.

“Cure light wounds,” The cleric called again filling Kat with a tingling warmth. The bear roared its defiance at this then slammed Kat out of the way. It began charging towards Evalinn who squealed in terror. She tried to turn and flee.

“Baby, run this way.” Jack called. She paniced and ran in the opposite direction. Evalinn barely made it a dozen yards though. The bear attacked the cleric knocking her to the ground. She cried out as it bit her face. Kat and Jack caught up hacking quickly with their swords. Kat tried to damage the bear enough to draw its attention again. In the corner of her screen she could see the cleric’s hit points getting decimated. She almost used her [Lay Hands] on the girl but stopped herself. Yesterday she wouldn’t have thought twice about it. A new selfish side told her the girl needed to die. She’d screwed up by drawing its aggro with all her heals.

“Help!” Evalinn cried out.

“Heal yourself,” Jack said as he continued to cut at it.

“I can’t it keeps hitting me.” She said flailing ineffectually. Kat rarely used spells in combat. Her mana pool was so pathetically small that it rarely did any good. At best she could get off three weak heals.

“Cure light wounds,” Kat cast pointing at the cleric. Her health ticked up by a few points before a claw came down on Evalinn’s chest. A skull symbol appeared next to her party name and she disappeared. Her body was death protected and summoned to the graveyard. Almost at the same time the bear fell to Jack’s blade.

“Bollux,” Jack said and looked to Kat. She was annoyed by how the cleric had just wailed like a damsel when the bear was on her.

“Your girl isn’t very good at this.” She said to him.

“Sorry no, she’s not really into games.” Jack replied somewhat abashed.

“At least she’s death protected until five.” Kat said and turned jogging east. They’d have to run back to the graveyard to pick Evalinn up. Her health bar appeared again on the party screen.

“Oh god, she’s freaking out.” Jack said from behind her. “Two weeks and she’s only gotten to level three.” He said sighing loudly. Kat stopped to stare at him when he said this.

“You’ve been playing that long?” She asked amazed. Kat had reached level six on the first day, though she’d had massive help from her killers.

“Umm, kinda. Evalinn says she feels bad hurting the critters. So we stay in town mostly. I haven’t minded too much.” Jack said jogging past Kat.

“Why?” She asked.

“We’re in a long distance relationship. I came into some money so I bought us two VR dive helmets to play together. We sort of been screwing each other blind since day one.” Jack said and Kat rolled her eyes. Just great, she suspected this group was about to end. Ten minutes later they found a crying half-elf sitting on the ground in the graveyard. Jack rushed to her side and knelt putting his arms around her.

“There, there baby.” He said tenderly.

“You let me die!” Evalinn yelled punching his back as he held her. Jack silently accepted this and continued to hug his girlfriend. If this was going to continue Kat needed to set the girl straight. She tried to be nice.

“Actually I'm a paladin so I have cleric spells too.” Kat said to Evalinn. The woman’s face turned to her a question in her eyes. “Heals cause a great deal of attention from monsters. When you cast them over and over it almost guarantee’s they’ll come for you. In the future you should wait until we get down to half life.” Kat instructed the cleric. The girl was still sniffling.

“I was so scared, I don’t want to do this anymore.” Evalinn said.

“Sweetness, its just a game. You’ll get the hang of it.” Jack tried to soothe. Kat didn’t think the cleric was ever going to get the hang of it. She’d frozen up when the bear was mauling her. All she had to do to save herself was attack back a couple of times. She could imagine what would happen when she encountered her first unnatural creature. Kat’s suspicions were confirmed a few seconds later. Instead of sucking it up and trying again Evalinn collapsed. Her body went limp as the girl suddenly logged out.

“Shit, come on.” Jack said and turned to Kat. His face was embarrassed and pleading.

“I have to call her,” He said wearily reaching up. A few seconds later his body hit the ground next to the clerics. The party collapsed leaving Kat by herself. That was frustrating. She’d just wasted close to an hour killing a single bear. Not only that she’d have to spend more time running back out. Kat was incredibly grateful she hadn’t wasted her daily ability on the girl. The cleric would have certainly died at some point during the day. If they were just going to screw around they had plenty of adult social games to play. Standing she left the two unconscious bodies on the ground. Grouping up with those two had been more hassle than they were worth. She wasn’t about to wait around. Besides she had no idea how long Jack’s damage control was going to take.

She went east this time setting out on her own. Kat would just have to be careful. The terrain ran into the mountains which was a bit higher level. At last she was able to locate a small goblin village. The experience was slow all by herself. Even with spells, health potions, and food she often had to rest. Kat spent about four hours pulling goblin scouts and runners away from camp. Finally she leveled up and moved away from the village. Kat was done hunting the same six stray goblins. Besides she’d completed the town quest for getting goblin ears. Now she needed to get some gnoll talismans for the other bounty reward.

Her chat box appeared with a private message. Despite herself she felt a little flush of excitement at seeing his name.

“Just got your message, I do in fact have more loot to pawn.” Liam sent to her.

“That’s great, would you like to meet now?” She asked and waited a long minute.

“While I am eager for gold I must be cautious when meeting near a city. The locals have been getting aggressive.” He typed back. Kat suspected he meant that people were actively hunting him. Liam had made some enemies just by being the only necromancer.

“I'm east of New Hearth up in the mountains right now. I just leveled and could use the break.” She typed.

“Congratulations, how do you like being a paladin?” He asked in reply.

“We get a horse for free. I always wanted one as a child.” She typed.

“None of that lowly walking for you, KittKat rides in style.” Liam said and she smiled.

“So?” She asked and waited. She sank down next to a group of boulders for protection. The wind was strong making the cold cut into her a little sharply. Virtual Reality really got the sensations of temperature pinned down. Kat felt like she was going to end up with frostbite if she stayed here for too long. Her horse was nearby keeping an alert eye out.

“How about I meet you in the wild, and you can mail me the coin. I discovered a post box outside of one of the towns.” He typed after a pause.

“Can I trust you?” She asked.

“How direct, I like that. I shall not impugn your purity or life.” He typed back and she bit back a laugh.

“Could you roughly handle my purity?” She asked deciding to bait him a little.

“You have me there. I lack any organs of note which makes snuggling difficult.”

“There’s always the social games,” Kat offered.

“With work taking up my day time I prefer doing something that feels productive. Since we are being so direct, can I trust you?” He asked in reply.

“Yes, I’ll not turn on you.” She typed and meant it.

“I'm glad to hear it. Head North towards the mountain base. Follow it round to the west until you hit the coastal cliffs.” He typed and she was surprised. The mobs that far out had to be level twenty or so. He must have done a lot of exploring on his own.

“Ok, hope nothing kills me,” She typed.

“You have that fast horse.”

It took almost thirty minutes to negotiate the mountain valleys then skirting larger camps of gnolls, orcs, and goblins. Finally she came to a bluff that jutted out of the cliff face. It angled about halfway along and narrowed as it curved into the sea. A large dark form was waiting near the end and she trotted towards it. There was no mistaking the black robed figure of the necromancer. Kat glanced around looking for danger by quickly learned habit. The view was incredible especially in the south. The sun was still high over head which let her see for miles. The city of Southport spread itself out in the distance, tiny ships floated in and around the port.

“Here I thought I wanted to be the explorer.” Kat said stopping the horse before the necromancer. He was just as giant, and imposing as last time she’d seen him. She slid from the saddle to look up at him.

“I found it was necessary to secure suitable lodgings.” He said eying her up and down. That did bring up a question she hadn’t thought of.

“Where do you sleep?” She asked.

“A place mortals cannot remain.” Liam said in that deep rocky voice of his. She thought of the snow capped mountain they stood next too.

“The mountain top?” She asked but Liam remained silent. Liam would trust to meet her but he wasn’t about to tell her where he logged out. It was impolite she supposed and waved off the answer.

“So what do you have?” She asked eager to see his ‘good stuff.’ He held out a large backpack which were expensive in their own right. How had he managed to get his hands on one of those? Still she took it and opened the top. Kat whistled at the gear inside especially for a low level character like her.

“Where do you find this stuff?” She asked a little annoyed. There were pieces inside that put her half-plate to shame.

“My undead brothers attack any living thing, not just players. Exploring often leads me to find curiously high level monsters. All I have to do is position a small group of undead before leading the critter into them.” He said lifting his big hands in an exaggerated shrug.

“You cheat,” Kat said astonishment.

“I prefer to think of it as assisted leveling.” He said with a grin. That totally wasn’t fair. Kat really wanted some of the pieces inside the backpack.

“If you let me have the fighter gear I’ll give you all the gold I get from the rest.” She said and he considered the offer.

“Our friendship has blossomed. I think that will be acceptable. Actually instead of gold can you buy scrolls. I have located a few but my spell book is a little thin.

“Those are kind of pricey,” Kat said thinking of all the wizards running around. They died so often that even low level scrolls were quite expensive.

“I’ll let you know what I need,” He said in a deep half-orc voice.

“OK,” She said hefting the backpack up and over her shoulders. She removed the shoulder bag from last time and dropped it on the ground.

“I’ll use the auction to get top dollar from these. If you have a list of spells I can put up buy offers on auction to get them cheaper. It will take longer that way, but I can mail you the scrolls.” She said tugging the straps tight.

“Good,” He said pushing away from the tree. He stepped towards her and for a moment she froze in terror. Kat forgot to breath as his massive skeletal body leaned down to pick up the dropped bag. Damn he was scary up close. All the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. She briefly wondered what Evalinn would do if she crossed paths with Liam. Wet herself and log out most likely. He straightened then walked past her leaving the bluff.

“What will you be doing tonight?” She asked his retreating form.

“The same thing I always do,” He replied still walking away.

“Whats that?” Kat had to yell.

“Try and survive another night.” His deep voice boomed from thirty feet away. Taking out her portal stone she activated it. The blue and gold magic took hold of her making the air hum. Seconds later she was standing in the courtyard of the ‘First Steps’ adventurers inn.