Chapter 11: The thing about Noble quests

Fizzlewiz unlocked the door after we had rested. We wanted to mentally prepare ourselves for the (no doubt) final boss monster in this creepy, smelly dungeon. The room beyond the locked door proved to be a zigzagging staircase. It ascended to another set of double doors. I ascended ahead of the party, striding towards the doors. The room beyond was lit by etiolated light that made its way through the smeared windows that sat at the landing joining. At-least half the room, the side closest to the door, was piled floor to ceiling with crates barrels and other sheet-covered containers. Across from us was a spiralling staircase heading up into what I could only assume was the bewildering tower. Scattered around the winding stairs were the ruins of what once must have been the matron’s living quarters when tending to the little girl of the household, Alma. Vines clung to the curving handrail of the staircase and the central column that the stairs climbed.

I looked at the vines suspiciously as we moved forward into the relatively emptier far end of the room. As we drew closer, I swore I saw the vines twitch but reassured myself that it was the trick of the flames.

“Well,” Fizzle said wringing his hands with enthusiasm. “the boss isn’t going to gank itself; after you Blue.” He slapped my thigh, I grumbled but headed towards the stairs, Fiona coming behind me as Fizzle, the squishy little shit, came up the rear with Baruu and Violet.

We climbed the ascending staircase quickly only to realise the vines were in-fact living and had tried to ensnare us, Fizzle put an end to them with small, controlled gouts of flame.

“Hold up,” Fiona said, placing a hand on my shoulder to stop my ascent. “We aren’t getting XP from the vines. It’s a spell effect. The boss up there can probably use more advanced magic than the previous bosses.”

“The midden heap horror had a miasma or poison gas attack, it used at me before you two joined me.” I whispered back nodding in understanding at her.

I was met with a heart-breaking sight as I entered the tower’s solar. The windows, clean of any filth, let in the moonlight. Lying at the centre in gentle repose was a small, sad figure. Her hair was long and spilled out across dusty pillows, her hands were clasped on her chest as if she were settling into sleep. She was unmoving but the fungal growths that extruded from the little girl vibrated menacingly. They filled the air with a low drone. Fiona, flinched away to the door way as Fizzle scowled at the shambling wretch that was now jerking its way erratically to a vaguely standing position. Lettering appeared above the creature:

Alma, the infected. Level 9.

The gold blade lurked menacingly by the name bar. I sighed, then swallowed back the lump in my throat and advanced on the sad little creature. Fizzle, silent for once; readied flames, his face drawn and grey. Fiona peeked from the doorway tears in her eyes. This wasn’t going to be a fun fight.

“I’m so sorry,” I wailed at the boss monster as I swung my axe at her, burning a Ki point transforming it into a Wild Blow.

She let loose a loud, piteous scream and the explosion of sound buffeted me like a wave. My ears began ringing in response, my attack went wide. The monster turned to me and lunged, flailing with clawed, fungus pocked hands. While the damage was nothing really, three to four damage with each swipe. The poison and the infected debuff that came with them weren’t fun. Infested, like a poison or a bleed status, was a damage over time affliction and I swore I could feel the spores burning in my veins as they entered with every scratch Alma landed. Baruu was doing her best I noted, as each icon vanished and reappeared in succession.

Fizzle, Glitters, Violet and Fiona let loose their magical attacks. Bolts of orange and purple flames engulfed the creature. Fiona lobbed grenade-like sprawling globules of umbric power that spread and burrowed into flesh. I taunted, then readied my shield, blocking a wild flail of poisonous claws from the monster. I had to keep thinking of this as a monster, as a mob in a video game to be beaten so I could advance in the game. I hardened my heart though the misery of what I was currently engaged in was still lurking deep in my chest.

As Alma’s health dipped below fifty percent, our mana, Ki and stamina reserves were beginning to take a toll. Baruu was floating nearby at a safe distance from the fight, waiting for her mana to regenerate. Fizzle was chugging mana potions like he was drinking his problems away one shot at a time. Fiona was now using the rest of her mana and Ki to ambush the childlike creature from what few shadows there were in the many windowed room to deliver punishing back stabs.

The battle raged on until, upon falling below thirty percent health, Alma promptly crumpled into a crabwalk and scaled the walls like a spider until she hung upside down from the rafters above, spitting thick globules of acid down at us. I cursed and backed up raising my shield to intercept the spat globules. Even so, a green targeting circle blossomed under my feet as well as a those of my companions in the small octagonal room. Fiona and Fizzle moved out of the circles; but foolishly, I stood my ground. Whilst my shield took the brunt of the area of effect attack, it flowed over the rim in fat stinging droplets that fizzed and smoked when they dripped onto my jerkin.

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With no way to reach the monster in melee combat, I defaulted to renewing my Stoneskin spell and prepared to join the magical assault that had resumed once mana potions had been drunk. My magical gem stones thudded into the small body much like they had with the ghost dog, detonating a second later blowing away chunks of spongey fungi flesh. Eventually, health points reaching zero, the body went still and fell like a puppet with its strings cut. Before it hit the floor, it broke apart into lights; but unlike when we killed monster previously these lights hung around, coalescing together into the visage of young Alma. She smiled at us and wiped away a ghostly tear.

“Thank you. I can rest now. I’ve waited for so long for someone to come get me. I can go see Mother and Father now, I’ve missed them. I hope Johnathan is with them. I do so miss my baby brother…”

With that the little girl faded from sight, leaving in her place a fat sack and a chest slightly bigger than the ones the previous bosses had dropped. Exhausted, acid burned and generally filthy; the three of us, monsters-and-all, sank to the floor. Various notifications made themselves apparent to me as we waited for our bars to recover, not wanting to waste the precious potions now that there was no obvious threat.

Quest update.

Alma’s spirit has been released into the afterlife and now she is at peace. However, while reunited with her mother and father, her brother Johnathan still yet lives. Find him within the city of Jeckart on the mainland and inform him of the fate of his sister and the long-abandoned family manor.

Objectives:

Find Johnathan in Jeckart

Optional: Deliver Alma’s final letter to her brother.

Fizzle pulled open a map window for Fiona and I to see. A small arrowhead icon, a lot like a curser, showed our position and the direction we were mostly facing. Far inland of the clouded over map was an indicator. I looked at it for a moment before it clicked, the indicator was where Jonathan was. Fizzle scowled at us both, fists on hips.

“See, this is the thing about the noble quest,” he scolded, “we’re going to have to head to this location here.” He gestured at the icon on a fogged over map. “Likely Jeckart or a family estate in the outskirts. Assuming this John guy isn’t some sort of toothless beggar or senile old man. Could be his descendants, if this story line supposedly started back when this place was being founded it’s likely the descendants nowadays, maybe. I’m not a good judge of this medieval stuff.”

“Aww, you can read.” Fiona teased him ruffling his curly green locks. “I’m well aware that it’s far away.”

“I want to take Blue to the guild,” he told her. She blinked at him then sighed.

“That should be up to him, I’ve got a feeling he’s going to enjoy PVE and some other features. That distance, it’s what… three months game time to get there? Bound to be quests dotted along the way, so it’ll give us something to do that isn’t endless fighting and death. I know what you’re worried about, but from what you’ve told me about Blue, there’s no way it’ll turn into something like Guildbreak”

“What’s Guildbreak?” I asked deciding to join the conversation since it seemed to concern the future of my experience in the game.

“It’s just a thing that happened a year and a half after launch. Nobody really talks about it.” Fizzle dismissed with a wave, Fiona gave him a pointed look but said nothing, Fizzle scowled back at her not looking the least bit intimidating, more like a grumpy baby.

I frowned at the pair and thought back six months, Alber had acted strange then. I had chalked it up to him being exhausted from binging on Concordat Online every free hour he had. He still insisted that falling asleep in game was the same as falling asleep in real life. It was disquieting, thinking about how my friend had used to act back then.

“So, around that time Alber was over-playing?” I said diplomatically. “It was all because some random people in the server got carried away over a noble quest?” When Fiona nodded, I considered my next words carefully. “Then we don’t make it a priority, if we fail who cares, we’ll do whatever when we get to the mainland.”

“Yeah?” Fizzle asked sounding hopeful. “Think you wanna do the war games stuff.”

“I don’t know” I told him with a slight shake of my head and a shrug. “I don’t know if I fancy ending up getting tea-bagged by a bunch of kids with a hard-on for murder.”

“It isn’t like that.” He explained.

“Oh no, of course not,” Fiona snickered sitting down next to him, patting his arm gently. “Alright then,” Fiona said before Fizzle could launch into a passionate rambling explanation of how their shared guild operated in PVP. I had figured they were guildmates now that I knew she was transitioning to Mars, already embarked on the journey here. “Are we decided on continuing the quest chain if we find ourselves near Jeckart?”

“Yeah,” we answered in unison.

Fiona accepted and the quest box closed. I scrolled through the remaining notifications, namely increases in my axe and shield skills. A new one had appeared though I noted, Armor proficiency: medium, level 3. I guess getting smacked around, clawed, and bitten was one way to increase how well I performed whilst wearing armour. Still, it was one step closer to being able to survive the coming adventures on the mainland.

Dawn was rising as we left through the manor gates. The items Alma had left us were interesting and the conversation had once-more turned into a debate as to who would get what as the power gamer reared its head in both Fiona and Fizzle, posturing for dominance. I had ignored the two and chosen my rolls accordingly. I received a simple bronze helmet and Fiona received an iron dagger that sapped a target’s stamina. Fizzle won on the final role, a high-quality death affinity stone, one that he was now inspecting. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he did some unfathomable calculation in his head.

“Okay,” he said depositing the stone in his inventory and turning to us, hands on hips. “Let’s get the fuck off this island.”