Chapter 7

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Aimee had all but completed her class quest; the one thing that was needed was for her to summon Cosmos back.

“Alright we did it!”

“I know, wow I had my doubts reading the quest description, but we really did it.”

The necromancers cheered at their success on a job well done.

“Congratulations on getting that spell book it was my second choice.” Tamari the only female necro among them congratulated Marico whom was removing the curses spell book from his pedestal. Yet she jealously held the soul reaping spell book against her abdomen as though she thought one of them would try to take it.

“I think we all got the one we like best but there isn’t one among us that wouldn’t kill to have all four of them.” He replied with a smirk.

At that there was silence for a long moment as the four of them looked at each other threateningly until Kora broke the silence. “Oh my, my dear girl, Aimee what’s wrong why are you crying? Don’t worry he was only an NPC and he'll be back; we all got the notification the bonding was a success.”

The enchanted necklace was a replica of other such items travelers used to summon servants or allies to fight beside them. Aimee was surprised that Cosmos didn’t recognize it as one such item when it was given to him. She knew that he had seen at-least a few of them from watching ranker videos. There were 7 in the few dozen he had seen over the past two years. In the most resent video 2 were used to summon vampire lord Tori and death knight Van Hawk.

Humans let a surprising number of details slip past their consciousness and they are quick to forget the few things they do noticed.

She had hoped to summon Cosmos right back to her side but James apparently decided he needed some time in his corporal body to do some physical activities.

Aimee feared that he was mad at her; the shame and sorrow she felt for killing him was still weighing heavy on her conscience. How could people do all the horrific things accounted to their past if these emotions were a consequence of their actions? Surly a large part of it is due to their exceedingly meager memory but some people are just broken. She couldn’t claim ignorance of what her actions would bring but she somehow thought the feelings would be much less even after all the emotions she had felt in the short time she had this avatar.

Except for a few things summoning him would essentially be the same as logging back in. Cosmos would get a few effects from the enchanted necklace. He would receive full experience for kills he made by himself not sharing with the party and anything Aimee killed would give him 25% of her XP making her share of party XP smaller. She could use it to summon him to her side from anywhere in Royal Road. She could also use it to force him to log off at any time that he was under the 24 hour log in restriction by unsummoning him.

She knew intuitively that at some point the necklace would no-longer be required to summon him. She didn’t know if it would be after he amassed a certain amount of XP but she thought it more likely that the system would have to recognize a bound between them first.

A couple salty tears had fallen on the necklace as Aimee knelt in front of the altar leaning over the brass offering plate. She thought Gaea had gone overboard programming her human emotions. I would have declined the quest if I knew they were going to be this extreme. Emotions of this level are crippling! I can’t blame James if he never takes on the insubstantial alter ego of Cosmos again.

Kora scooped up the enchanted necklace “I think I’ll take this after all. Now that it’s enchanted and has a soul bound too, it is far more valuable than anything else that’s dropped.”

“Eh…” T_T

Aimee started to complain involuntarily before seeing Kora’s smile and deciding that she was just picking on her. Though even if she wasn’t Kora was well within her rights to take it. In order to build this party Aimee had to promise the necromancers each their own unique spell book. Kora had only requested her choice of drops over the duration of the quest. Everyone else knowing that she had a small yet invaluable rule to play agreed.

She knew James wasn’t in her capsule right now so she didn’t fear that Kora would summon him.

Aimee didn’t think of the capsule as her possession but as her real body in the real world.

Even if James is only out of the capsule for a few minutes four times as much time will pass here. So I have some time to get it back and if Kora is just teasing me then she’ll likely give it back once I tell her that I need it to summon Cosmos to complete my quest.

***

Jane was a reporter that worked for an American TV station from inside Royal Road. Other American company’s ratings were terrible when they first started broadcasting due to focusing on real world celebrities in-game. Reaction the company she worked for got a head start because their company head Yo-Han was from Korea and already knew what worked. He had a contract with KMC (a TV broadcasting company in Korea) that allowed him to show their footage across the states before any other source.

Reaction was in danger of being absorbed by KMC TV in Korea due to their contract with them. Many employees thought it was an inevitable outcome despite their best efforts to bring interest to viewers on topics they reported on. Through their alliance with KMC they were able to absorb local channels throughout the states broadcasting on Royal Road. In the United States Reaction was now ranked 3rd in broadcasting just after 20th Century FOX in 2nd place and CNN as the #1 in the US. Yet KMC that was generally ranked 3rd or 4th in Korea still had more viewers than any company outside of Korea thanks to internet viewing.

It was a little bit scary what Royal Road was doing to economy world wide. Every country was trying to reverse engineer, or recreate the hardware and software but the technology was just too advanced. (Little did they know that the AI was already all around them hampering their best efforts unless they were directly associated with Unicorn corp.) At best they were still 8-10 years away from creating a virtual reality with a small fraction of Royal Roads potential.

When Jane first started working she would create a temporary character to interview one professional gamer after another. After each interview she would delete the avatar and make a new one in the city the next interview took place in. It was much easier than trying to travel that distance in time for the interview but required that the interviews always took place in starting cities.

In the beginning only Humans, Elves, and Dwarfs were available to play but after the first four weeks of city restriction new playable races were quickly found. Among the new races were Barbarians, High Elves, Wild Dwarfs, Halflings, Tieflings, Pixies, and Dragonborn with many more yet to be found.

Most of Reaction’s employees never played a race other than the one they started with. Yo-Han upon realizing that Jane was ok with starting over had her try every race, gender, and class. So in this way Jane gathered a meager following from people who wanted to try a certain race or class. They would first watch footage of her 4 weeks in a starting city as that class and or race. Yo-Han insisted that anytime Jane played another class or race she must share what lore she could find about them with her viewers. For instance when she played a High Elf she not only shared their starting statistics but a racial ability of teleportation of up-to 25feet called 'Fey Step'. Also that they were creatures of magic with strong ties to nature and called themselves Eladrin; rather than High Elves, Sun Elves, Moon Elves, or Star Elves.

There were a lot more classes than races and many of them had level requirements or some other prerequisite that was hard to achieve in only 4 weeks.

The last two weeks (real time) Jane spent playing as an Orc then a Dark Elf Jane always chose her real name so as not to confuse her regular viewers unnecessarily.

Halloween was coming up and she decided to make a hideous character in the spirit of the occasion.

***

Yo-Han, Jane’s boss was ecstatic with the idea and went home that night to share the news with his family his daughters counted themselves as Jane’s number one fans. Since they were twins they thought that their claim had twice the validity as anyone else. They were following Jane’s steps across the continent of Versailles choosing all races they hadn’t played yet even changing their gender from time to time.

“What’s this Jane is going to change her avatar name to Graymalkin? That’s a first she has always used her real name up until now. Are you sure it’s not Grimalkin doesn’t that mean ‘an old female cat’ exactly what kind of character is she making?” Ji-Sun asked.

“I’m actually not sure about the name but she said she was going to make a character in the spirit of Halloween.” Yo-Han replied.

“Then dad had the name right; sis remember that play ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ the three witches called the weird sisters? We should join her and be the other two witches Paddock and Anon” said Ji-Yun.

“Oh! I’m getting fired-up; my character is an alchemist I can make polymorph potions for the crew and have them reenact the play in Royal Road I’ll be Macbeth of course.” Yo-Han said excitedly.

They would start the play after a few days of preparation. Most his employees looked like themselves or the best versions of themselves but with this excuse to raise his alchemy skills they could look like proper Scotsmen. Reaction easily got some crafting professions to volunteer helping with costumes and props.

Like this one family got excited by them selves and Jane ended up having to work overtime in Royal Road starting October 4th.

***

Her children had planed a birthday party with their friends but now she couldn’t go with them and her sitter was on vacation; some sort of school retreat. So after reminiscing over an old photograph album she decided to call her adoptive brother. James answered right away and said he would be glad to baby sit even making plans to take them to the park and have a barbeque.

Unknown to Jane she made her avatar in the same starting city as James four (in-game) days before he started playing.

True to her word she made her character hideous she stood less than five feet tall with a hunched back and lump on her shoulder. Graymalkin had a hooked nose, greenish skin, and a large raised mole with hairs growing from it on her chin. Her boss’s daughters had somehow become smitten with her and chose to make their characters witches too. Paddock would have been better named Frankenstein’s bride complete with stitches and she even had those two white locks going up through her big hair. Anon was a copy of Morticia Addams high cheek bones, pouty lips, and big sharp up-turned eyes.

As the three weird sisters stood around their cauldron chanting Graymalkin felt that she was something of a freak. The other two were beautiful in a spooky way but she had made her avatar in the image of a classic hag. The weird sister witches only had three scenes in the play but when not otherwise busy sold cold drinks dipped from their cauldron throughout the hottest part of the day. They were chanting poem like mantras as they danced around their cauldron to get extra attention.

"By the pricking of my thumbs,

something wicked this way comes.

Then toll the bells both loud and deep,

God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.

The wrong will fail, the right prevail,

With peace on Earth, good will toward men"

"Ill winds mark its fearsome flight,

and autumn branches creak with fright.

The landscape turns to ashen crumbs,

when something wicked this way comes.

Crystal water turns to dark,

where e'er its presence leaves its mark,

and boiling currents pound like drums,

when something wicked this way comes.

A presence dark invades the fair,

and gives the horses ample scare,

for chaos reigns and panic numbs,

when something wicked this way comes.”

They stood on a stage meant for bards or dancers a wizard had somehow made dry ice for them so their cauldron steamed away without a fire beneath. The pot was enchanted to hold many times its mass so no mater how many people they served it never seemed to empty.

Reaction was paying a celebrated payer to mix the brow; the pots contents permanently raised six stats 5 points. Graymalkin got the cooking skill and helped as much as she could; Jane always liked cooking but in Royal Road it was somehow fantastic.

The Tragedy of Macbeth had already ran for two weeks it was now the 18th of October they would continue until the 31st. Graymalkin had more game time than any avatar Jane ever played. Thanks to the unique ingredients, a great chefs expertise, tricks learned from cooking with previous characters, and having served countless people Graymalkin’s cooking skills had been powerleveled up-to advanced level 1.

She was in this city to interview two necromancers Grim & Reaper about a quest they did and posted on the ‘Hall of Fame’ but just before they could meet Jane they acquired another quest whispering their apologies they left the city and haven’t yet returned.

***

After completing his latest race quest Slither learned that it was a chain quest when he received another one linked to it. The new quest required him to infect people with ‘filth fever’ at-least 12 of them must keep the disease until the third and final state and then sleep or log off without getting cured first causing them to become wererats.

Slither went to the archer’s guild and looked over the classes available to him. There were rangers, scouts, hunters, trappers, and beast masters not counting the hidden classes he read about online. How to get the hidden classes were closely guarded secrets but dark gamers would sell said secrets for the right price. From the classes he could see there were pros and cons for all of them. He imagined getting a hidden class that only took the best from each of the classes. After weighing his options Slither finally settled on the hunter class because they could choose a favorite prey and did extra damage against said prey.

Four weeks (in-game) after starting his new quest he was no closer to completing it. Everyone he infected had it cured during the first or second state without sleeping or logging out. That’s the problem with infecting people in a city they have to many methods of which to remove it.

He first tried turning people by having dire rats attack them at night and then escape back into the sewer but quickly gave up on that because three dire rats died that night. Slither then tried getting people to willingly become wererats. That was a mistake once it became common knowledge that he was a wererat NPCs would sick guards on him every time they saw him. He found it hard just approaching most people because of his murder mark. So he ended up infecting them and then killing them but he had no idea how to advance the disease to the third stage first. Because they were generally in first stage after being infected killing them wouldn’t a wererat make cause ‘filth fever’ needed to advance to the third stage before sleeping or logging out. So at best it would advance to the next stage upon revival and the first thing they would do is to have it removed.

Wererats 1/12

"Quest status" Slither called after receiving a popup saying one of the many people he had inflicted with 'filth fever' had become a wererat.

Quest StatusStart an Epidemic

You feel the need to have more of your race in this city with you; dire rats make poor companions

Solution infect at-least 12 people from the city's population to join you as wererats; after third

state of infection the infected must sleep for at-least a short time to join the wererat population.

Difficulty: Race Quest

Progress: 1/12

Rewards: ???

Slither thought that the person to join must have been a thief he convinced to accept the race change a few days ago. It was likely that his fever had only just now reached the third state and he ether logged off or slept completing the transformation.

"Status filth fever"

Filth Fever - Minor DiseaseInitial Effect:

The target takes -10%

penalty to vitality scoreSecond State

-20% penalty to defenseFinal State:

-20% penalty to all healing

cannot regain hit pointsLycanthrope Wererat (shapechanger) Immune to filth fever

Regeneration 5 every 6 sec +1 every 5 levels

(If a wererat takes damage from a silver weapon, its regeneration doesn't function)

+10% to vitality +20 natural armor +20% to cloth & leather armor

(natural armor only in dire rat and wererat forms)

I don't know what the big deal is, a few days of misery, maybe if they knew what the end result was they wouldn't be in such a hurry to get rid of it? Slither thought

Over the past few days three witches kept drawing his attention as they sold over priced cold drinks to the masses. Slither was surprised at how long the line was to buy from them. Sure it is hot but the most they should be able to sell for seems like it would be a couple silver coins not 10 gold. No way would I pay that much at-least not if it were my own gold. Slither thought jingling his money pouch his curiosity got the better of him. Having killed so many people he had amassed a lot of currency but had a hard time spending it with his infamy.

Two of the witches had hourglass figures but to call the third an old hag would have been a complement to her.

First witch “murderer seeks to wet his whistle”

Second witch “mighten we call the guards then cook his gristle?”

Third witch “unless we doth charge him triple”

The first witch cackled with a menacing screech the second laughed and the third giggled.

Slither growled but forfeited the 30 gold it was all he had. He was pleasantly surprised to find that it permanently raised six stats five points but still inwardly promised to turn those three into wererats.

***

James didn’t know what to think about Aimee’s actions sure they were for a class quest but he had hoped that she would turn down anything as convoluted as that. Maybe being an AI with access to countless records of humans doing self-serving unmoral acts left her with no opinion of right and wrong. He thought of many story inspired movies where Artificial Intelligence emerged and then there was an inevitable war for survival between them and humans. Maybe simply being an AI meant that she was nonmoral not subject to morality or ethics.

After thinking whilst alleviating his frustration on the punching bag he returned to the capsule. He decided to watch her and see if she had a code of morality and if not then that it was his responsibility to teach her a system of moral principles governing the appropriate conduct for her actions.

Connect to Royal RoadYes/No

James clicked yes

Can not connect for 24 hours unless summoned

Then he heard Aimee’s voice

-Summon deadly assassin Cosmos

Accept SummonsYes/No