Chapter 11: Grinding

After the discovery of the new part of the Hold, we spent the entire evening cleaning the place. We dismantled decayed furniture and burned it. We carried over new beds from the current living quarters. Now all the members of our group (beside myself) could spend the night in their own rooms, even if they weren't private (since we lacked doors).

The breakfast next morning was delicious. A welcome rest from dried meat. Kytar even added vegetables. We all ate together in the former cult mess hall while chatting about our plans.

...Yes, our current situation was a pain. We had experience in two different magical anomalies... and in both we encountered creatures way over our head that could still be there. I'm seriously thinking that this might be some bug, since I can't imagine someone being so unlucky.

The argument about various aetherwarped locations in the area changed into a talk about the Dragonspine Mountains in general, prompting Leria to unload a major infodump on us.

The Dragonspine Mountains turned out to lie in the middle of a minor continent called Aevaria, separating it into two parts. Most of the Doomplace was in the mountains, but there were also plains in the north, in the triangle between the Dragonspine Mountains, the Dead Sea and the Saltrock Mountains. It's where the majority of the Doomplace population lived, while also being the only area of it that was politically united, being a part of the Kingdom of Northern Aevaria. How fucking original.

The rest of the Dragonspine Mountains was divided between various city states and petty kingdoms. More normal civilizations would have burnt everything to the ground long ago if not for several factors.

First, the Saltrock Mountains were haunted (being a massive if not very 'intensive' magical anomaly) and also inhabited by several tribal confederations of orcs, goblins, kobolds, mountain elves and other wild species. Those that were at least a bit civilized (goblins, surprisingly) were hostile to Northern Aevaria and the Doomplace in general, but the whole area was still impassable by outside armies. Plus, there were dragons.

Second, the Aevaria continent was divided into two superpowers, with the Doomplace existing in the middle as a buffer zone. To the east there was The Empire. Also known as the Sacred Empire, the Grand Empire, the New Kynevian Empire or Sacrum Imperium. Most of the people called it 'Imperium' to differentiate it from several smaller empires it had under its thumb. Despotic monarchy - with its ruler (titled Imperator or Grand Emperor) being considered a voice of the gods.

It was DFI's political fetish. A religion-friendly monarchy, absolute in theory but constitutional in fact, that not only allowed but endorsed internal diversity. Rather than some organized province system, the imperium-controlled part of Aevaria was divided into a handful of vassal states, that could do whatever they wished as long as they didn't violate several common laws of the Imperium as a whole and payed surprisingly modest taxes.

The Imperium mediated between them, took care of serious supernatural threats and crises, protected them from outside enemies and suppressed (sometimes in brutal fashion) all revolutionary movements that seemed to undermine the general political and social system. It ignored revolts against oppressive rulers, but if you decided to introduce democracy via revolution, were hostile to religions the Imperium accepted (either one or all of them), or tried to eradicate political movements, ethnic groups or certain species by genocide, you were in for a serious beating.

On one hand, DFI did it to portray monarchy in a good light (political bias of DFI strikes back), but on the other such countries were required to balance the game and prevent players from either becoming too powerful or failing quests and unleashing something terrible upon the world. Each DFI game had one. It had almost endless arsenals (including whole storages of legendary artifacts it recovered in the past), at least a million soldiers stationed worldwide (without resorting to its vassal states might), and entire religious system on its own to call for aid. With SIXTY gods, including Deviation and Pentagram (they were in the Black Pantheon, not really loved by the state religion or, in case of Pentagram, on a Kill-On-Sight list).

Pissing off the Imperium was the second worst idea in DFI games after pissing off the gods. No sane person angers the country that considers execution preceded by long and creative tortures a third most serious punishment. The worst one being literal I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream scenario. The Imperium was a nice country that ensured that nothing terrible happens to the world, curbstomping wannabe sorcerous overlords and daemon lords with almost comical ease and keeping the Pentagram forces at bay. But when somebody pissed it off for real or forced it to resort to more extremist measures... it could get downright ruthless and terrifying. Especially in the case of potential Pentagram worshippers it most often killed everyone involved just in case, letting the gods sort them out.

If they could, they would burn the Doomplace to the ground. Or, to be exact, their gods would do that. Which meant that the Imperium would do that. It was hard to say when the Imperium ended and Imperial Religion began. Separation of religion and state was a concept completely beyond the mental capacity of most imperials.

To the west of the Dragonspine Mountains, however...

"On the other side of the mountains lies the Tyranny of Ashkar, which is..."

"... another brand of Doomplace, essentially." I interrupted Leria. All NPCs living in the Hold already learned what this word meant for the players, so I did not have explain that part. "Each DFI world has a country called Tyranny. Tyranny of Amzir, Tyranny of Drakh, Tyranny of Ashkar, it seems..." I sighed.

The part about this world being a game was also no longer a secret. It was a major shock to all three of our NPCs that they, however, overcame. They rationalized it by saying that from their point of view, this world is true to the core and that we can't be sure it isn't, considering all that happened.

... They had a point, to be honest. The level of details and the NPC intellect far surpassed everything I had ever seen or heard about. World's Requiem had still been bound to the old dialogue systems (where one chooses what to say from a list of dialogue lines) that dated almost to the beginning of video games. It was the central computer that simulated changes in the world by adding more of them when it was seen applicable. Here?

Considering all the weird shit Robinson kept pulling since the beginning of his career I could imagine him striking a deal with a devil (or something else) to send all the players to another world. Of all the people I knew he was the most probable culprit of something like that. If that was the truth, were the earlier games imperfect copies of it? Or was I just going crazy?

"In short - the country where the state became the God." Too bad no-one here ever read or even heard about Chesterton. Sigh. "Essentially a totalitarian regime where religion and all sort of subversive thoughts are expunged by the ever-present State, the ruler has absolute authority over everyone, and the army, law enforcement, and pretty much every person of some status seems to be into black clothing and evil magic. Of course, in a world where gods are very real and keep meddling, every attempt at atheism is bound to fail horribly. It's a public secret, but they are pretty much a vassal state of the Pentagram."

A few days ago we had a long talk with our native companions about the concept of atheism; they considered it incomprehensible. Well, it gets hard to be an atheist when in the nearby river you can see great-granddaughters of the imperial goddess of water and rivers (river nymphs) playing around when they think no-one watches them. Even Leria believed that gods existed; she just wanted the power the Beyond could grant her. Vaera was more complicated, but even mountain elves had some less... tangible deities.

"Bonus points for almost eradicating the concept of family by making all children grow up in state-controlled brainwashing facilities and modifying the minds of their soldiers, making entire squads of them literal hiveminds incapable of fear." I ended, almost sarcastically. Well, no wonder Imperium couldn't burn the Doomplace to the ground. Tyranny considered its inhabitants useful (for the time being, it couldn't accept any freedom and individuality for long) and it intervened every time Kynevia tried to push the border westward.

Imperium would most likely win with Ashkar if it went all out. It was much bigger, had more manpower and a stronger economy. But if both sides unleashed their whole arsenals... powerful daemons, archspells and archhexes, legendary artifacts, warmachines, archmagicians, top level aura manipulators... well, the victory becomes a moral one if you accidentally render the entire continent uninhabitable.

"... DFI strikes back. Where do they find all the dreadful ideas for Doomplaces?!" Simea commented, visibly angry. Her approach to DFI as a whole kept getting darker and darker the longer she had to remain in her terrible situation.

"In Earth’s history." She looked at me strangely, so I continued. "The Tyranny is all Earth's totalitarian regimes mashed up and taken up to eleven with magic. The Third Reich, the USSR, the People's Republic of China... also the Hamburg Commune, the Sixth Republic of France and the November Republic in California if you look for more contemporary examples." That all of them didn't stand for long didn't help their victims.

It was made mostly to piss off the radical left by showing them DFI's view on their utopia... while simultaneously pissing off the radical right by showing them how their utopia looked. Robinson had nothing but disdain for both groups, and since Demiurge Forge’s sole reason for existence seemed to be triggering everyone they could... it worked.

"Your world sucks, you know?" Leria interjected. I chuckled in response.

"And you, as someone living in the Dragonspine Mountains, are an expert in terms of places that suck. Aren’t you?" Lena answered with venom in her words. Yeah, well, her angry approach to locals was understandable considering what she went through, but she had to be less vocal about it. We didn't want said locals - outside of those living in the Tyrant's Hold - to know our opinion on them.

Seeing that Leria was about to answer her (in a way that, judging from her expression, would lead to an argument), I used my authority as a leader.

"Alright, that's enough." I stood up from the table. "We’re leaving."

***

Lena stopped the Blackwood Stalker's attack with her shield. It startled her, so rather than countering with her sword, she allowed herself to be pushed back. He lunged forward, continuing his offensive and forcing her to retreat.

Hmph. Suboptimal. I forgot about the troubles beginners have with melee fighting. All new players had to learn to cope with getting hit by creatures. I had similar problems when I began playing full dive VR games. It had an unexpected side effect of causing the number of school brawls to spike worldwide.

Bullied people retreated into games where they learned to cope with abuse while retaliating... causing unexpected surges of assertiveness in real life. On one hand, many bullied students went to learn something about self defence to hit bullies in the face, but on the other, some of them used knives or guns to compensate for the bullies’ superiority in numbers or physical abilities.

I made things easier and fired Arcane Bolt at the Stalker, breaking his assault and forcing him back. She recovered from her defensive stance and stabbed him with her spear. Coating the tip of her blade with aura, she stabbed him, pushing him back.

He stumbled back toward Leria, waiting in case Lena’s life was suddenly endangered. She bashed him with her shield, pushing him towards Lena. This startled her, but she retaliated with another aura-enhanced stab. This time it went through him. No longer having enough magic to sustain himself, he collapsed.

“Not bad for the first fight.” I commented. The look on her face told me that she seriously required encouragement. She nodded back, still shaken. Well, while she struggled with the last Stalker the rest of us slaughtered the other four. As our team grew, so did the anomaly response, making local fauna stalk us in greater numbers. Still manageable ones, and it also meant more potential loot.

Vaera took out the aether collecting tool from his bag. It looked like a folded metal spike. He unfolded it, connected the short tube to the small bottle Leria handed to him and fired the spell anchored in the small mana crystal attached to the spike right after he stabbed one of the dead Stalkers with it.

What remained in the Stalker managed to fill 10% of the bottle with a translucent liquid. Aether. The liquid form of magic, the building block of the Dark and everything that hailed from it. It was used to power up enchantments and in advanced alchemy and metallurgy. Every civilization relied on this stuff.

If the fancy toilet we discovered was still working, it would require a drop or two of aether from time to time. In its raw state it was about as healthy to use as nuclear waste. It had to undergo a purification procedure in specialized refinery we didn't possess to be used without us growing more limbs... but even when raw we could sell for a profit.

We had five bottles, all of them enchanted to shield us from harmful effects of aether irradiation while stabilizing the stuff. It was so unstable in its raw form that if left alone, it would just phase out of existence within seconds. If we filled five bottles they should sell for about four hundred fifty ambries (exact earnings depended on the current market state).

I took a few sandwiches that Kytar had made from my Equipment storage, and handed them out while watching Vaera stabbing fallen daemons with his spike. Yeah, it was a rather casual raid into the anomaly. We did it mostly to give Lena some combat experience while earning money to finish buying her equipment.

***

I yawned loudly a few seconds after Simea’s dagger felled the last Stalker. Repetitive fights got boring after a while. People willingly grinding in games, especially full dive ones, aren't humans.

Vaera repeated his routine of stabbing things. It was almost the end of the fifth bottle. Two days of constant grind. We should earn at least a thousand ambries on this expedition, after selling aether and spare alchemical ingredients. During our last visit to Ambryxis, we also discovered that the wooden bodies of the Blackwood daemons have some monetary worth: when used as firewood, they projected smoke that empowered dark magic. Plus, people made magical trinkets out of it. We chopped a few to pieces. Equipment was a lifesaver even if one was relying on the number of teammates and bags and backpacks they carried. It was still almost full now.

I decided to drink the rest of the liquid of the mana potion bottle... only to almost choke on it when I saw familiar nymph emerging from the woods. I fucking hate you, DFI.

Our positioning wasn't the best. We were scattered around the small clearing. The closest one to the attacking nymph was Vaera, still armed with his stick, and with his back towards the Shrike. Leria noticed the threat in time; leaping forward with Long Jump, she pushed him away from the Wave of Thorns the nymph unleashed.

It barely failed to pierce the Aura Armour. A second later, I joined the battle, hitting the Shrike with Tentacle Push.

My attempt to buy time worked. She wasn't pushed back, her mana shield withstanding the hit, but it occupied her for a few seconds. Vaera gathered his wits, hid behind a Dragon Shield, and launched a Dragon Fireball at the nymph. Her mana shield broke when the swirling ball of fire hit it and exploded, but she instantly recast it. Damn, that was fast. The Destroyer Bolt I cast trying to exploit the occasion splashed on her shield harmlessly.

I could see Simea disappearing in the corner of my eye. Good. This looks good.

Two Lignomorphs joined the fray, intercepting our warriors before they could corner the nymph. Uh. Forget I was saying anything.

It will be a longer battle. I cast Eldritch Incantation. The unholy coldness and the foul stench enveloped me. It felt almost pleasant. Lena seemed to be losing against her Lignomorph, but Vaera noticed it and cast Dragon Might, strengthening her. Yes, we seemed to be decent in terms of teamwork. If only we weren't such a mess in terms of classes and skills...

The Shrike turned her head to look at something I couldn't see. She wasn't in a mood for playing. Thorn Lance flew through the air. Simea became visible again when she leapt off the course of the projectile, avoiding death by milimeters. So much about stealth. She used aura to evacuate behind Leria's back before the Shrike fired another hex.

I cast Life Drain on the Shrike, and again. She stumbles, visibly weakened. Another Dragon Fireball hits her shield, followed up by several Arcane Bolts from me.

Simea decided to use her other set of skills. Arousal hex hits the insane nymph. She failed to resist the effects completely, judging from her sudden grimace. She fired two Thorn Lances at random. Leria dodged one, the second hit me, overwhelming Bend Reality and piercing my arm.

Fuck. It hurts. It's like a wooden bolt hit me... only this one had thorns. The hit wasn't deep, however, as the projectile had lost most of its power. I recast the Lesser Bend Reality as the projectile disappeared, leaving only the wound behind.

Vaera noticed it and cast Suppress Bleeding on me. Well, too bad he has no Suppress Pain spell. I will patch myself up right after the fight ends.

Simea cast Arousal again. It looked like the Shrike was weak to it, since it made her behave uncontrollably. This time she fired Thorn Waves against both our warriors, damaging her own Lignomorphs. The one fighting with Leria had enough of it and collapsed. Lena lept towards the Shrike, hoping to catch her off-guard... and it worked. Her Piercing Lance met with the Shrike’s Aura Shield, shattering it. She was about to attack the nymph again, but the nymph reacted a split second faster, releasing a howl imbued with magic.

Fear debuff again. I almost turned my back on her and fled. Vaera and Leria resisted it but not without being stunned for a short while. Lena failed and fled. The Lignomorph she fought would have killed her if Simea hadn’t intercepted him. The Shrike used the confusion to retreat from the melee range and summon another Lignomorph to keep Leria at bay.

Ok, I know that daemons have more mana than mortals but this is getting ridiculous. How much more of it does she have?! And why does getting aroused make her fire devastating hexes at random?! Is she into causing pain so much?! At least she is getting cornered, slowly but steadily. But I don't have mana to keep it like that for long. Let's go for the kill.

I used Hex of Devastation on Leria's weapon. Her sword didn't score critical, but it was still enough to incapacitate her opponent. She pushed him aside with Shield Bash and lunged towards the Shrike.

The moment her Piercing Lance connected with the Shrike's shield was the exact moment she finished casting Thorn Wave. Her shield broke, but her hex pushed Leria back, her Aura Armour overwhelmed and her skin lacerated in many places. Simea took the occasion, jumped away from her Lignomorph and used Arousal hex on Shrike.

Ah. I get it. Simea had a good idea. Once again she went berserk, her Thorn Lance breaking Vaera's shield and grazing her arm. She recovered, and almost managed to recast Magic Shield in time to avoid getting hit by my Destroyer Bolt. Strengthened by Eldritch Incantation.

She bend forward, violently vomiting. I could see blood in her vomit from here. Yeah, internal damages. She failed to recover before Leria reached her and almost slashed her face apart with her sword.

The Shrike screamed, this time without fear debuff. It was pure pain... and her own fear. Good. She staggered back, trying to cast something to push Leria back. Too late and too slow. Leria used Charge on her, making her fall on the ground on her back, before she stomped on her face. Shrike squirmed, her fingers gripping on her ankle. It must have been painful… but Leria held regardless. She stabbed the nymph’s chest with her sword, turned it in the wound, then pulled back and stabbed the nymph again.

The Shrike’s HP bar emptied itself. Good.

A rain of Dragon Flares and Arcane Bolts finished both the Lignomorphs. Lena returned, but not in time to stab something. The fight was over.

"Jesus, that was tough." I said, collapsing on the ground. Even my trusty staff didn't prevent it. I was tired, I had maybe 20% of mana left, and I was wounded.

Leria kicked the Shrike’s corpse and spit on her. Huh. She must have really hated her. Karma struck her very quickly, since her wounded ankle gave up and she collapsed on the ground beside the defeated boss.

"Is that how boss fights look in this game, master?" Lena commented, still trembling from the aftereffects of the fear debuff.

"Normally it's worse." I answered. She looked at me with disbelief while I took a bandage, a potion to replenish blood and antiseptic ointment from Equipment. I disinfected the wound, drank some of the other potion and then bandaged it. Lena lent me a hand since I had troubles using my right arm. When I finished, Vaera switched off the Suppress Bleeding spell.

I stood up. It wasn't time to be sulking, others were wounded as well. Especially Leria had to be taken care off. Most of her wounds were small, but there was her ankle.

***

After the whole team was patched up, we had to face another trouble.

"Are we going to do something with her?" Leria spoke, when I finished immobilizing her sprained ankle. She pointed at the fallen Shrike.

"Ugh. I didn't know you swing that way." Simea responded, giving Leria a comically exaggerated look of disgust. Leria's eyes widened.

"Wait, that's not what I mean!" Leria protested. Vaera, Lena and Simea laughed. Even Leria joined it after a while when she understood it was a joke. I only chuckled... I would have laughed if not for the knowledge that the thing that Simea joked about wasn't a crime in the Dragonspine Mountains. Most locals would consider it only unhealthy.

"Let's take some of her blood." I spoke. The rest looked at me strangely.

"...Are you a vampire or something?" Leria was the one to speak this time. I chuckled.

"No, but that's the only alchemical ingredient we can take from her without one of us having specialized knowledge in dissection and butchery." There was an entire school of alchemy dedicated to creating magical food out of bodyparts of daemons and beasts. Eating a humanoid creature would have been morally troublesome... even if it was a murderous daemon, it was still a sapient being.

We hung the Shrike’s body on a tree branch upside-down. Then we slit her throat and armwrists, letting the gravity push blood out right into the bottles we placed beneath her.

Uh. I miss the times when full dive games weren't so realistic, and to loot the blood off the defeated creature you had to open its inventory and take it from there.

We filled three small bottles. Plus we chopped off some of her wood parts and gained a small bag of her leaves. She also had a wooden ring on her finger that seemed enchanted. Since it was hard to take it off, Leria sliced it off together with the finger and then used a knife to pick the fleshy bits that remained inside the ring.

Seriously, give me back the old school ways of pillaging corpses. Please. This stuff is getting gruesome.

We packed everything up, but just barely. Full inventory, people beaten up and tired… yeah, time to finish this raid. The last thing we want is running into something deadly right now. Leria could barely move, and I had troubles with using my arm. The rest of us were in better shape, but... Vaera and Simea played secondary roles when compared to me and Leria, while Lena was still a poor version of Leria, not really able to serve as a proper tank, especially alone.

"Alright people, we are returning to Tyrant's Hold." I spoke after we finished butchering the Shrike. They all seemed to agree with me, longing for a moment of respite.

I sighed internally seeing Leria's painful hobble.

"Em... " Vaera raised his hand. "I hate to be the one saying this, but... wouldn't it be a good idea to finish Leria off and have her resurrect in the Hold? This will be a long trip back if she's like that." Leria glared daggers at Vaera. Can't blame her. Though Vaera seemed ashamed for saying this and he seemed to speak what others thought.

"I don't think it's a good idea." I responded after thinking a little. "We don't know if repetitive resurrection will have any detrimental side effects. This whole resurrection without penalty deal seems too good to be true to be honest. Finishing someone paralyzed to avoid him being slowly devoured alive by a Pentagram daemon is one thing, killing someone with a sprained ankle because he is slow is another. Let's not get too extreme with mercy kills, ok?"

The Gore Altar seemed almost overpowered by DFI's standards. Even if setting more of them required human sacrifices. I would not risk it.

"It’s just an excuse to use more potions on us, master." Lena commented while rolling her eyes.

I smiled in answer. That was a thing as well.

Vaera decided to atone for her question by helping Leria with her hobble, raising her walking speed from Very Damn Slow to Very Slow. Ugh. It will take a while.