Author's Note

Arc 1 Freedom has its Price

Chapter 8 A Night of Hunting

After walking for a few minutes I stop after finally realizing something important, the situation that both Salvation and I found ourselves in was not something one would expect from any game. That being the case opening a support ticket with the company explaining the situation should resolve most of the problems, as they surely wouldn't have intended for things to be like this. Still it wasn't like my actions were meaningless as I likely just kept Salvation from being tortured in the time I took for them to fix things. I try various commands and search through some menus but it seems like they didn't add an in-game support function leaving me no other option open when on their website.

Logging out I get out of my pod and walk over to my desk where my laptop was still sitting. Opening up the game's website I click on the Support link and create a ticket with the current situation described in detail. While I wait for a reply I take care of some personal maintenance issues (using the bathroom, getting a snack, brushing teeth ect). After I'm done half an hour has passed and I go back to my room and check for a reply. Surprisingly my ticket was already responded to, however the content left much to be desired.

A brief summary was that everything I listed was a feature of the game and when I bought the game I had given consent to the possibility of these types of situations occurring. Lesson learned, always read the terms and conditions before agreeing to something. There was one small piece of good news in the response in that there would be a small update that would make the log out function not require a verbal command, restrictions to when you could log out were still the same though.

"God damn corporate bastards, what the hell are they thinking? It's like they don't even care about their customers. If you want to play the legal angle that's fine but don't expect me to not fight back! One of my friends is the son of an chief editor for LA Times and I'm sure he'd be more than willing to pass along this information to his father."

Of course no one responded as I was basically just venting to the room, I was still going to pass along the story though. Sighing I proceed to write an email to my friend all while grumbling to myself about corporate bastards. Sending the email I hope back into the pod.

Since the company won't fix the problem I'm Salvation's only chance of playing again at the moment and I have only 10 real days to do so. Naturally not being able to play the game isn't the end of the world but I like playing with her and it would be a shame if she quit. Even if I fail eventually she could just make a new character once they kill her, not ideal but again not the end of the world. My situation is arguably much worse but since I can't do anything about it at the moment might as well try. Plus if I free her she'll owes it to me to get me out of my shitty ass situation.

I log back in and find myself on the street I had logged out on. Night had fallen while I was logged out so the amount of traffic had fallen considerably as people went home or to their favorite tavern. This put a bit of a cramp in my plans as I couldn't buy any supplies or gather information easily, as most of my people I could ask would be drunk, unavailable or unwilling at this hour. With nothing better to do I decide to leave the city and grind some levels as it would be the best use of my time.

Since this is a game the gate was actually allowing people to come and go, unlike what one would expect from a medieval castle town. It seems it was only some players that could do so however as when I asked one of the guards about it he told me they have magic tools that can determine who was a player. Another rule was that players with chaotic alignment couldn't come or go without special circumstances, I took this to mean bribery.

After exiting through the gate I was startled by how different the grassy plain looked at night. The once lush green plane was now brown and withered, like the life had been drained from the land. The earth was cracked and dry looking like it belonged more in a desert than a prairie. Gone were the cute Disney princess wild animals the only evidence of their existence skulls and bones from the various creatures. What replaced them were the dark denizens of the night, giant hairy spiders more than 2 feet long stalked the grass while half starved wolves only slightly small than tigers gathered in groups to hunt for food. In between them were things I can only describe as a mix between a large bat and a centipede who seemed to just sit in their respective locations, daring anyone to attack them.

This was apparently normal as both the players I saw coming out of the city and the guards near the gate had indifferent expressions as they looked towards the plain. Unlike during the day there were no solo hunters so even if they weren't surprised by the scenery and monsters they weren't used to them.

That or they are stronger than the mobs during the day, which seems more likely to be honest.

Deciding against what was likely to be common sense I didn't look for a party to join. My main reasons being that being in a party reduces individual experience gain and I don't like grouping up with random strangers if I can help it.

Besides solo play is fun and avoids all the hassle of splitting loot, although the only things I've seen drop is money.

I decide to focus on the spiders for now, although the sight of them really disturbed me, since they appeared to be the weaker than the Batepedes and weren't traveling in groups like the wolves. I go to an area that appears to have the lowest number of players so as to avoid potential conflicts and have more mobs available to myself. The low number of players here was likely due to the fact that it was on the opposite side of the city from the gate and as a result had both less light and was further from help/safety. Looking for my first target I spot a spider that was closer to the wall than others, thus making it further from other mobs.

I walk up to the spider slowly, invoking Imagination is Magic and generating an icicle on my way. Focusing on the spider I was able to see it's window before I entered its aggro range it and it made me pause.

Death TarantulaLevel9Health400/400Stamina200/200

That's a big ass spider. I really don't want to have to touch it, why did I not give myself a weapon? why?

I sigh, resolving myself to the awful fate of beating a giant hairy spider to death with my bare hands. Hefting my icicle I take aim at the spider outside it's aggro range, about 15 or so yards (which seems to be the norm for earlier mobs at least). I cock back the icicle like a javalin, steady my breathing and then throw it with all the strength my character had. Although I had aimed for it's head my aim wasn't as good (or lucky) as previous throws and I hit one of it's many legs instead. Fortunately like previous throws the icicle impaled itself into the ground pinning the spider's leg in place. Unfortunately and rather terrifyingly it didn't last long as the spider gave a nerve wracking screeching noise before ripping off its own leg before running towards me, its eyes turning a deep crimson red.

I, like the badass dragon warrior lady I am, promptly ran from the angry giant spider spurred even more when I saw the disappointingly low number -20 hovering next to the creature. Cursing this game for being so evil I try to think of a new plan (since the old one of taking advantage of it getting immobilized didn't work) while desperately trying to keep ahead of the enraged spider. Unfortunately my plans all involved my having to get close to the spider so I decided to use the one that seemed the most promising. I kept running while my mana slowly refilled and when it was full generated yet another icicle, of course having to close my eyes for this nearly caused me to trip but I managed to avoid that bad end.

Here goes nothing, and if I die by being eaten by a spider I'm never going out at night again.

This time instead of throwing the icicle I grab it with both hands, face the spider, and brace it firmly against the ground. Fortunately for me but unfortunately for the spider it had remained closely behind me throughout the chase and thus was unable to slow itself down in time when I stopped running, impaling itself face first onto the icicle. This time the damage was more like what I expected, dealing 40 damage, coupled with the loss of one of its eyes (which sprayed me with spider gunk by the way) caused it release a shriek of pain as it struggled to free itself.

Seeing it struggle I had no doubt that ,much like the badger, it would free itself shortly so I got to work. Turning my fists into spear hands I start launching thrust after thrust as fast as I can into its face. I aimed each strike towards one of its many eyes so every time I did damage my hands would feel the mushiness of the spider's insides while my arms were coated in cold spider blood making. Despite the scales the sensation of both those combined caused my to gag especially after the stench of the gunk hit me. Still it was worth it at as I managed to destroy the majority of its eye while taking it down to half health in the process. I hadn't used this brutal tactic on the other mobs because they were cute but for this demonic hell spawn I had no such reservations.

More than half blind and crazy from the pain the spider, now free from the icicle, started raining blows down on me like an angry Asura. Which it sort of was in a spidery sort of way as it was able to balance itself on its back 4 legs with the front 3 stabbing down repeatedly. I managed to avoid most of the blows by diving to the side, taking care to smack the beast with my tail on way of course. Most does not mean all however as I took two hits from the spider, one stabbed into my arm and the other into my stomach. The damage was fairly monstrous as after taking them I was left with a little bit less than 100 hp. All my hits combined only did slightly more 200 hp yet only two hits from the spider did a comparable amount of damage.

I really need to work on my dodging, or my defense, or both. This amount of damage is really not a joke and I still have to burn through almost 200 hp before it dies. Well not like I can really do anything but try, I doubt I could build up enough speed to run before it kills me now.

Thinking this I once more dive out of the way of its hits, thankfully causing them all to miss this time. Instead of managing to hit its body with my tail I hit a leg instead which, despite the lower damage, proved quite fortuitous. When my tail smacked into its leg a large cracking sound occurred and fractures appeared along the damaged leg.

Thank god for my night vision, were it not for it I wouldn't have noticed the fractures. It pays to be a dragon lady it seems. Time for my new, new plan of attack!

Continuing to dive out of the way of the spider's attacks I focused my counter attacks against its back legs. After another two hits to the previously injured leg it finally snapped and became useless. This caused the spider to lower one of its front legs to maintain its balance. In exchange for my last attack though I had taken another hit from the spider, this time it pierced through my side. With my health down to 50 I was in a critical state where any additional hits would likely kill me.

Luckily the spider now only two legs with which to attack me now otherwise I doubt I'd be lucky enough to survive this fight.

I keep up the hit and run tactics aiming for it's remaining legs. While the hits didn't actually do a large amount of damage by the time I broke the third leg the spider was down to 100 hp. Unfortunately its back most legs were generally out of my attack range so I couldn't cause it to topple over and be unable to lift itself (its front legs were thicker than the back ones for some reason and I couldn't break them). While I couldn't cause the effect I really wanted I was able to force it to be unable to use its front legs to attack. With it unable to attack with its legs to attack it naturally turned to its only remaining weapon, it's mandibles and mouth. Needless to say when I saw it do that I almost peed myself, the open mouth of a giant spider was the stuff of nightmares.

"I didn't know spiders had fucking mouths, let alone that they looked like a teeth filled portal to hell! What the fuck is this demon spawn and why was I dumb enough to fight it!?"

The spider naturally took my yelling as a provocation and promptly charged at me, mouth wide open and mandibles clacking together crazily. This sight was not good for my hearth but I managed to get out of the way, taking the liberty to bitch slap the demon spider with my tail once more. Once I was out of the way I charged towards the spider for some hand to spider action. With the decrease in legs came not only a decrease in speed but a decrease in turn rate so the spider's side was still wide open by the time I got within striking distance. I repeatedly stabbed the spider with my hands not stopping for a full minute at which point I finally realized it was dead. All my stabbing had caused a large hole to appear in its abdomen from which leaked out all sorts of unrecognizable spider organs. Of course since I had been stabbing the spider with my hands lots of those were on my hands.

I slowly backed away from the vanquished spider, the feeling of victory and relief causing me to feel nauseous. Or was that the feeling of spiders guts on my arms and their accompanying smell? Either way I promptly threw up. Interesting fact, throwing up in the game felt exactly like throwing up in real life. After emptying contents of my stomach, or something (not sure if that's how it works in the game or not), I wipe my mouth and proceed to gather my loot. The loot, again, consisted of only money, this time totaling about 50 copper.

I'm starting to think that there's some part of this looting system that I'm not getting. Usually not matter what the mob you kill is you'd at least get some kind of japtem. Maybe it had to be manually gathered? Something to look into tomorrow when I'm done hunting.

After gathering the money I walk towards the wall as it was monsters didn't voluntarily get close, making it a good place to recover health. A few minutes go passed as I recover (both resource wise and mentally) during which I watched some of the small handful of players in the area fight against one of the batepedes. It proved rather bland as they were generic looking and fought just as bland, (i.e letting the guy with the shield get hammered while everyone else attacked wildly. Having finished my short break I get up in search of my next victim.

I hunted spiders for the rest of the night, each kill becoming more and more cruel and violent as my hatred for the foul things only grew stronger. My last kill before the sun rose and I headed back to the city was particularly gruesome. Thanks to the high level of the spiders and my constant farming I had reached level ten, pumping up my wisdom by another 10 points while pouring the rest into Int. On a side note another contributing factor to my anger was a title that had showed up on my status, Slave of Steel. Thanks to the increase in mana I was able to use Imagination is Magic better, allowing for the creation of more magic type attacks. Unfortunately for the last spider that meant a super big (and long) icicle running through its entire body pinning it to the ground. Because I hadn't want to deal with another angry spiders I quickly proceeded to rip off the majority of its legs before it could extricate itself.

After pulling off its legs I proceed to beat its face into a pulp, without using my claws. It must have painted quite the terrifying picture as when I looked up I saw the only remaining group of players looking pale as they slowly backed away from me. Kind of silly if you ask me as they were over 30 yards away but whatever. Collecting the money it dropped I head into the city, it was time to get supplies, information and hopefully some answers.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading

Ren Waya

Potential spoiler but king of not really:

Next chapter I will be trying a different POV, in which I'll be showing things from Salvation's perspective. This is done in order to more smoothly give details surrounding the whole imprisonment incident. This was be more first time writing from a different characters POV, I doubt it will be too hard but none the less I welcome suggestions and tips if you have them.