“So, who are we looking for again?” Matt asked.

“Her name is Griselda the Harpy,” Stoffel replied as he grabbed Matt’s head and shoved it back down below the reeds growing along the river bank.

“Is she a player or an NPC?” Matt asked.

“NPC,” Stoffel said curtly, his eyes scanning through the reeds.

“If she’s a quest NPC, she can’t be all that bad, right? Let’s just--” Matt started to stand up, but Stoffel bopped him atop the head and pushed him back down.

“She’s horrid, I should know, I had to deal with her once.”

“You had a cursed item?”

Stoffel grunted. “I wasn’t that foolish.” He turned a scrutinizing eye on Matt. “I had... other business with her.”

“What, did you get married or something?”

Stoffel slapped him upside the back of the head. “No, now knock it off or I’ll let you deal with her on your own.”

Matt rubbed his head. “Just the way you said it made me think...”

“Yeah, you probably shouldn’t do much thinking. Logic isn’t your forte. Now listen up, when she comes back to her nest, she’ll either be happy because she’ll have some sort of bauble for her collection or animal to eat, or she’ll be grumpy because she’ll be empty handed.”

Matt peered through the reeds at the house on the river bank. “Nest? I thought we were watching the house.”

Stoffel grunted and pressed his index fingers into his temples. “She’s a harpy get it?”

Matt’s eyes went wide. “Oooooh. I thought harpy was just part of her name, like Baedor the Wolf or something.”

“You’re making me doubt our success with the Red Tower,” Stoffel commented dryly.

Matt followed the trees up until he found a nest. He’d imagined something maybe the size of an eagle’s nest, but this thing was enormous. It spanned four fully grown pines and was easily twenty feet in diameter. “Quick question...”

Stoffel put a hand to Matt’s mouth and then a finger to his own. Matt glanced upward to see a figure flying in from the west. It was small at first, but quickly appeared larger as it neared the nest. Given the nest’s size, Matt had worried that perhaps harpies were much larger in this world, but he was relieved to see that she was roughly the size of a human, if humans had eagle’s legs and ridiculously long brown wings that is.

Stoffel emphasized his finger along his mouth, then slowly removed his other hand from Matt’s mouth. He then pointed to himself and mimed a talking motion with his hand, then pointed to the nest. After that, he pointed to Matt and mimed a zipped mouth.

Matt nodded, clearly understanding he wasn’t supposed to talk.

Stoffel motioned for Matt to sit still, and then he took to the air. Matt watched him fly for a moment and then the imp turned invisible. A few moments later there was a squawking sound coming from the nest. The harpy jumped around as twigs and dust flew up from the nest.

After a few seconds the harpy calmed down and stood in the center of the nest. He could hear voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Stoffel then appeared visibly as he flew up from the nest and down toward Matt.

“She’ll help, but only on one condition,” Stoffel said. “There is a group of raiders nearby that are hunting her for her treasures, we have to dispose of them.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Matt said. “Let’s get moving.”

Matt stood up and saw the harpy perched at the edge of her nest.

In a scratchy, high-pitched voice the harpy called out, “Hurry back, my love!”

Matt eyed Stoffel. “So it is like that?”

“Shut up,” Stoffel demanded.

Matt snickered to himself and then hurried to catch up with Stoffel who had taken to the air and started flying off, presumably in the direction they needed to go. They traversed up over a couple of foothills, then slowed when they came upon a small encampment nestled near a still pond surrounded by thick reeds.

Matt crouched low and engaged his stealth ability while he surveyed the area. Seven people milled about the camp, chattering on about how they’d pay the harpy back for attacking their respective villages.

Stoffel landed softly nearby and cracked his knuckles. “You ready to get your hands dirty?”

Matt shrugged. “It’s just a quest, let’s get it done so the harpy can have my pants.”

Stoffel gave Matt a sidelong glance.

“I... that didn’t come out right either.”

“There’s something you should know,” Stoffel said. The harpy is not known as a good character throughout the game. She has a bad reputation, so by helping her, you might suffer a charisma debuff.”

Matt sighed. “And if I don’t help her, do we know anyone else that can help me?”

Stoffel shook his head. “People who can take cursed items are hard to find, and to be honest, unless a player has become powerful enough to do it and knows how to recycle curses, then anyone that would help you will have some sort of negative consequence attached. It’s part of the game’s systems to keep things interesting. Not all choices are straight black and white. Most of them are going to be very, very gray.”

“Well... I mean, we’re going to blow up a mage tower right? So we probably aren’t going to get a reward for that either.”

“Yes and no,” Stoffel said. “We’ll gain infamy points with that particular faction of wizards, and the auditors will do everything they can to unmask us, but we’ll gain favorable reputation with a couple factions that hate the Red Tower. So it’s a bit of a trade off, not to mention the sheer chaos it will inflict upon the company will be deliciously amazing.” Stoffel rubbed his hands together. “I just didn’t want you to see the infamy points without a heads up and think I was steering you wrong.”

Matt shrugged. “I’m good with it. I really don’t want to find out what the cursed pants do.” He glanced at the enemies again and then asked, “What’s the plan?”

“First off, I’ll have to stay back. We don’t want them finding the dragon shard.”

“So you want me to handle them on my own?”

Stoffel shook his head. “Not entirely. You go in from the south, go for some stealth kills. Once they detect you, or you kill three of them --whichever happens first-- then I’ll rise above the camp and throw a couple fireballs. Then, once I have their attention, I’ll go invisible.”

“So, you want me to do it mostly alone, got it,” Matt said with a laugh.

“Come on, you are Gryl the Enchanter. There’s nothing you can’t handle, right?” Stoffel gave a wink and flew up into the nearby trees.

Matt readied his mythic dagger and then circled around to the southern end of the camp. Two of the seven rose from the camp fire and walked northward saying something about hearing a noise. The third went into a tent and disappeared. The other four watched the pair leave camp.

Matt quickly assessed the situation. Two had their backs to him and shared a log near the fire as they tended a pot of stew. One was resting against a tree, and the fourth was the closest to Matt, standing at the southern edge of camp just beyond the reeds. Matt slowly crept through the reeds, careful to find solid patches of ground and not hit any of the murky puddles. The pond to the east of camp stank of muck and rot, but it also gave off a thin layer of fog that just might help hide a body if Matt was able to pull off the first kill.

He was only a yard away from the man when the adventurer turned around suddenly. A small icon in the bottom left of Matt’s screen flashed and the once solid line started to open slightly as if it was an eye. Matt froze and held his breath as the adventurer stepped close to the reeds.

“Where’re you goin’?” one of the other adventurers asked.

The man near the reeds stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Gotta see a man about a horse, now mind yer own business and turn around.”

Everyone looked away, their gazes steadily focused northward once more. The man near the reeds gave a nod and reached toward his trousers as his head started to turn back around.

Nope. After everything else I have gone through I am NOT about to get pissed on! Matt lunged forward with his mythic dagger and struck from the reeds. The magical blue blade cut effortlessly through the man’s neck, spilling blood down his front as the body went limp. Matt caught the corpse as it collapsed and dragged it into the reeds. He turned around and saw everyone in the camp still watching the northern edge of camp.

No time to loot now. Gotta make this quick while I have the advantage! Matt snuck north-eastward, keeping to the reeds as long as possible while making his way to the tree where his next target sat. When the reeds could no longer hide him, he positioned the tree between him and the three adventurers as best he could. He padded up to the tree, then inched around until he was within striking distance. He lashed out and caught the sitting man in the right side of the neck. His left hand reached up, covered the mouth, and pulled the body backward as the life flowed from the victim. He deposited the body behind the tree, not wanting to waste time dragging it all the way to the reeds, and then he circled around and moved toward the log.

This is where it gets interesting. Matt realized that with them both sitting side by side, there was little chance he could perform a stealth hit on each of them. With his left hand he prepared Magic Arrow and then he went as quickly as his stealthy feet could carry him from the tree to the fallen log near the fire.

“Hey, remember that time in Frenrierton when we were hired to kidnap that duchess?” the man on the left said.

“She was a feisty one!” the other said.

“And then she turned out to be a troll in disguise!” the first said with a laugh. “Good times in Frenrierton!”

Matt reached the pair, plunged his dagger into the first man’s neck and blasted Magic Arrow into the second man’s skull. The second man went rag dolling over the camp fire and collapsed on the dirt while the first fell backward as Matt removed his dagger.

“No more good times for you two,” Matt said as he stood up. The eyeball icon was fully open and flashing red now, so there wasn’t much use to crouching low.

“What in Grodin’s name is going on out there!” shouted the man from inside the tent. The flap opened up and Matt fired a second Magic Arrow. It slammed into the adventurer’s chest, singeing his clothes and knocking the man back a bit, but it didn’t kill him. The man unsheathed a great sword and emerged from the tent ready for battle. “I’m gonna crush you like a bug!”

A fireball roared from the trees and took the man’s head off, vaporizing it instantly. The headless corpse, smoke rising from the hole where the head and neck had been, stood motionless for a second or two before tipping forward to crash on the ground.

“On your left!” Stoffel shouted.

Matt turned just in time to see an arrow speeding toward him. He tried to dodge, but got clipped in the right shoulder. Fiery agony ripped through him. In the moment he accidentally lost focus on his mythic dagger and the summoned weapon disappeared. Matt answered with a quick minor fireball, but the adventurer somersaulted to the side as the final combatant emerged from the reeds wielding a crossbow. Matt then noticed the crank atop the weapon.

“Oh crap!” That’s not a crossbow, it’s an arbalest! Matt tried to dodge, but the last combatant cranked the weapon and fired five quarrels in rapid succession. The first two missed, but the last three pierced Matt’s chest, leg, and stomach. He hadn’t even felt the ground fall away from his feet as he was launched backward through the air. Only when he slammed down on the dirt and felt the air brutally forced from his lungs did he realize just how badly he’d been hit.

An orange rim flashed around Matt’s field of vision. His health was dangerously low. Trouble was, he couldn’t get up. The attack had stunned him. A thunderous explosion shook the ground, followed by two more. There was screaming, but Matt couldn’t move enough to see what was happening.

Then all of a sudden an adventurer was over him, short sword raised high and poised for the killing blow.

“Die, heathen!” the adventurer said.

A flurry of reddish brown swooped in from above and Stoffel drove his claws into the adventurer’s throat. There was a wet squishing sound followed by a sickening crunch, then a mess of blood shot out over Matt as Stoffel tore the front half of the adventurer’s throat away.

Stoffel wheeled toward the tree line and sent another fire ball. A final explosion rocked the camp and Matt could just see the charred corpse flailing through the air before disappearing from view. The imp turned down and looked at Matt.

“Thanks,” Matt said. “That arbalest really got me good.” Matt rubbed his chest and pushed up to a sitting position. “Let’s not tell Leeza about this, okay? I’m sure she’d just point out how badly I did and use it to confirm that I shouldn’t be on big missions or something.

Stoffel nodded. “All things considered, you did well.”

Matt laughed and shook his head. “That guy almost blasted me to oblivion.”

“Actually, I owe you an apology,” Stoffel said. “That arbalest guy wasn’t an NPC. He was a player, and a high ranking one at that.”

Matt rose to his feet, happy to see his regeneration powers kicking in now. “Why didn’t you say that before?”

Stoffel flapped lazily, hovering in the air and glancing around the camp. “He must have paid for a masking perk.”

“Masking perk?”

Stoffel nodded. “Some players, those lured into paying ridiculous amounts for pre-game loot and abilities with their early access passes, received a masking perk. It takes away everyone’s ability to see them as a player, so they look like a regular NPC. You’ll see their health bar, but you won’t see their rank, or even a difficulty marker to let you know they’re well beyond your power. This particular player was a level fifty. By all accounts, his shot should have killed you, so the fact that you’re alive at all is great news.”

Matt stared at the charred ground and trees. “So... he didn’t score a critical hit on me then?”

“I’m guessing he struck you close to or at the low end of his damage range, to be honest. So, it was really more about luck than skill for either one of you.”

Matt smirked. “Told you I was lucky.”

“Let’s not press that luck too far, it’s going to run out some day.”

Matt walked to the throatless corpse and looted it.

No system message popped into view.

“Hey, Stoffel, I think my avatar is broken.” Matt walked to the next nearest corpse and looted it as well.

Again, no message.

“When I defeated the enemies, I didn’t get any messages, and now when I loot them I don’t see anything either.”

“Oh that,” Stoffel said with a hint of relief in his voice. “That isn’t a glitch. There’s an advanced option to hide system messages. I turned it on for you.”

“But then how do I know what loot I got, or what experience I received?”

Stoffel waved Matt off. “Let me explain. See, even though I have created a projection for your avatar so when others inspect you they’ll see what I want them to see, the messages would mess with that. For example, a level forty five character wouldn’t get the same amount of experience for an enemy. Given that you’re a level three, you might get, say, a hundred XP for an enemy that would only be worth one XP to a level forty five guy.”

“So what?” Matt cut in.

“So an auditor, and some of the more savvy compliance managers, can run a script to not only inspect a character but also to check the system messages. I think Quality Assurance employees can too. The last thing we want is for one of them to do a random check and see that you have a hollow projection for your stats. That will draw all the wrong kind of attention.”

“But--”

“No buts,” Stoffel interrupted. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Since your avatar is one that I helped create, you can only spend your ability points back at our safe house. So there’s no reason to see XP gains.”

“But why hide the loot and gold?”

“That’s just part of the option. Hiding the messages gets rid of everything except some quest related messages and world-wide announcements. Besides, a level forty five character wouldn’t give two craps about ten gold here or a simple bow there. They’d just loot and move on. Besides, you can check your inventory without broadcasting messages for others to see, so if you’re really curious or are about to go into a shop or something, then you can check your inventory. Just remember, your XP and your level are going to show whatever projection I have created, so you won’t know your true amount until you return to the safe house.”

“Sounds tedious,” Matt said.

“Tedious is better than torture,” Stoffel said with a wink. “Now come on, we have a harpy to please.”

Matt arched a brow.

Stoffel cleared his throat and pretended not to see Matt’s glare. “Gather the loot if you like, but be quick.”

Matt sprinted to each body and looted the corpses. He checked the tent too, but there was nothing there. It took a few moments to find the burnt player’s body. It had been thrown a hundred yards away from the fight by the final blast. It was both an impressive and daunting feat. If the arbalest wielder could have killed Matt in one shot, then how strong was Stoffel to be able to blast the guy away like a flaming golf ball?

When he found him he quickly looted the body and then stood there for a moment so he could open his inventory and check what he’d gotten from the high ranking player. The armor was entirely broken and worth two silver pieces, essentially the price of scrap metal, and the arbalest had been reduced to a hunk of burned wood with zero value. He did see two rings though, as well as an extra thousand gold pieces. He inspected the two rings.

Signet Ring of the Mist Blades. +1 to Dexterity, +1 to Strength, +1 to Charisma. This ring is worn by Mist Blade Captains. It identifies them as able to command lower level Mist Blades and allows them access to more difficult quests.

“Nice,” Matt said. He then looked at the other ring.

Genie’s Ring. When released from his lamp, this former genie bestowed three additional wishes to his master. The power for these wishes was sealed within this ring. The original master disappeared after burying the ring in a cave without using any of the bonus wishes. If found, any person who wears the ring may make a wish for each remaining charge. Once the charges are spent, the ring loses its magic and becomes an ordinary gold ring.

“Whoa,” Matt said. He then read the last line under the description.

Charges remaining: 2.

He stared at the ring for a moment, wondering what the previous player had wished for and whether he’d found this ring or paid for it as part of the early access stuff Stoffel had mentioned.

“What kind of wish should I make?” Matt stared at the ring. He brought up the help menu and searched the index for his ring, but no entry existed. “Weird,” Matt commented to himself. “You’d think there’d definitely be an entry for this kind of thing. A moment later he heard Stoffel shouting at him in the distance to hurry up. He closed his inventory and sprinted to catch up with the impatient imp.

“Find anything good?” Stoffel asked.

“I got two rings. One is a signet ring for Mist Blade Captains--”

“That might come in handy later on,” Stoffel said.

“The other is a genie’s ring with two wishes left.”

Stoffel stopped flying forward and spun around in the air. “You found a what?!”

“I don’t know exactly how it works,” Matt said, “but it has two wishes left.”

Stoffel looked back in the direction of the camp. “I think I know which player we fought,” he said after a moment. “There are only two such rings in existence. One is rumored to be hidden in one of the main fortresses, the other was given to the hundredth player to join the game. There were a thousand early access passes sold, and each set of hundred early players got a legendary gift. That particular ring belonged to an old friend of mine but...”

Matt waited for Stoffel to finish his sentence, but the imp shrugged and started to turn around without another word.

“Wait, wait, you can’t leave me hanging like that. What were you going to say?”

Stoffel waved over his shoulder. “Just that it’s weird she’d use the ring on a new character. The player I’m talking about started as a very different character, and it wouldn’t be like her to switch characters and start over after the early access period... unless...”

Matt tapped his foot and crossed his arms. “Unless?” he urged.

Stoffel shook his head. “It’s nothing. Come on, the last thing we want to do is get caught hanging around when she respawns and comes looking for her rings.” He turned and took off toward the harpy’s nest once more. Matt ran to keep pace, exhausting his stamina several times and being forced to walk a bit before finally arriving at the nest.

“Ah! My love, you’ve returned and the nasty hunters are dead!” the harpy called from the air above them. She was flying into the nest with a freshly killed lamb in her talons.

“So um... how long have you two been an item?” Matt ribbed.

“Shut up,” Stoffel said. “Seriously, one more crack about it and I’ll make sure you’re inside the blast radius when we detonate the shard.”

“Sure sure,” Matt said. He started to say something else but Stoffel turned and glared at him with angry red eyes that promised agony and death. Matt felt his heart sink and so too his joke dropped.

“Look, we report in, the quest is finished, and then we get her to save you from your cursed pants. Then we leave. That’s it. Got it?”

Matt nodded.

Stoffel and Matt started to walk the last fifty yards to the tree when someone else popped up from the nest.

“Who is that?” Matt asked.

A gold and crimson recurve bow glinted in the sun and then ignited a starburst design as the string was pulled back. An arrow streaked through the air, trailing golden fire from the bow as it arced perfectly toward its target. The harpy never stood a chance. The glowing missile pierced her chest and exploded out the back in a flurry of feathers and fire. Black blood sprayed out over the trees and the harpy spiraled to the ground. Matt and Stoffel watched until the harpy struck the dirt, and then they let out a collective sigh.

The player leapt down from the nest, taking just marginal fall damage while landing in a super hero pose with the bow still in his clenched fist. A green diamond appeared next to the player’s HP bar, with the name “Darren” written above it.

“Watch out, here comes my arrow,” Darren began to sing. He stopped and waved at Matt and Stoffel. “Sorry bruh, if you were hunting the harpy I got here first. Already looted the nest too.” Darren then dropped a smoke bomb and disappeared.

“What...the...”

Stoffel put a hand over Matt’s mouth to avoid triggering the auto censor. “Play it cool,” Stoffel whispered. “You saw the player’s green diamond right?”

Matt nodded, knowing that meant the character would likely be an easy target.

“It’s responding to your projected stats, so don’t do anything stupid or he might come back for your loot too.”

Matt understood and gestured for Stoffel to take the lead. The pair traveled a few miles west into the forest and then stopped inside a small cave to regroup.

“So, what now?” Matt asked. “Does Griselda respawn soon?”

Stoffel shook his head. “No, she won’t. A harpy will spawn and take over the nest, but it won’t be Griselda. Her character is now dead.”

“So we’d have to do some other quest to gain the new harpy’s trust, and then another to get them to take the cursed pants I’m guessing?”

Stoffel nodded. “Trouble is, the new harpy won’t spawn for two to three days from now, which is long after the pants will bind to you.”

Matt nodded and then sat with his elbows on his knees and his palms holding his chin. “Know anyone else that could help?”

“Alas, that was the only person I knew of who could assist with your situation.”

Matt grunted and the two sat in silence for a few seconds before Matt thought of his wish ring. “Well, I can just use my wishing ring right? How does it work?”

Stoffel gave a sad chuckle and shook his head. “No, my friend. Curses are special. I mean, if we stumbled upon a cursed farm as part of a game quest, then sure, you could probably use the ring to heal the land or something, but this curse came as a result of your own magic. So it’s rigged to be stuck to you unless you can accomplish very specific tasks.”

“That’s dumb,” Matt replied. “So now we just head to the Red Tower and hope the curse doesn’t get in the way?”

“We have little choice. Even if we could find someone else to help, it would take more time than we have left before the cursed pants bind to you.” Stoffel whistled through his sharp teeth and shook his head. “Even with projected stats and a dragon shard, we aren’t ready to court that kind of danger just yet. The arch mages are far too powerful. It will be better to play the long game, work with the curse until we’re strong enough to go after an arch mage. Just... try not to curse any new items while we’re at it, okay?”

“Easier said than done,” Matt said. “I’m not actually in control of the results, and after the last two player encounters we’ve had, it seems the game itself is out to get me. Let’s just get to the Red Tower, blow it up, and get back to base. With any luck, we’ll survive and Leeza will be none the wiser.”

Stoffel shrugged. “Matt, my friend, I think you may have used up all of your luck.”