PA-01. Den Of Thieves, page 8
part #1 of Pantheon Online Series
Kohli nodded silently, grabbing one of the torches.
“You ever see anything like that before?” Gunnar asked, thinking foolishly that more talking might ease the tension. “Undercover guards?”
“Not in this world,” Kohli said. “But I probably haven’t been in Pantheon a whole lot longer than you.”
Gunnar wondered what circumstances had landed Kohli in this world. Was he a ruthless killer? Or was he more like Gunnar?
But I guess I’m a killer too, aren’t I?
That girl’s blonde hair and pretty face flashed in his memory. It was strange, but her face had still been distinguishable after the wreck.
He remembered that much.
He pushed the image away.
Kohli produced a small stone from his belt.
“Well, at least we can level up a bit down here, right?” Gunnar said. “Should we form a party or something?”
Kohli sighed. “Look, I took you on to pay a debt to Sykes and try to earn my way into a guild. You and I? We’re not friends. We’re not members of a party. If me getting out alive means leaving you behind, I’ll do it. And I expect you’ll do the same. I don’t know what’s in this crypt, but we should probably keep quiet going forward. Now, let’s get this over with.”
Kohli struck his flint and lit the torch.
Gunnar dismissed Dark Sight, his Mana already down to 50%. He would probably need to have a much larger Mana pool for it to be a practical skill.
Kohli used his torch to light another and handed that one to Gunnar.
Gunnar nodded his thanks. Kohli might be pissed, but Gunnar wasn’t so sure the man was as survival-of-the-fittest as he let on. He could have easily left Gunnar to fend for himself with the Red Cloaks. But he hadn’t. He’d jumped in to help.
Maybe it had something to do with his debt to Sykes. Or maybe he was just trying to gain some XP.
Or maybe you really are just a naive dumbass who desperately wants a loyal companion in this world of cutthroats. He could just hear the game telling him what it really thought of him.
But it was what it was. He wanted to believe there was something more to the man.
Torches held before them, they set out from the entrance chamber. Gunnar drew Sheira’s dagger, and Kohli drew a dagger as well.
Gonna have to get nice and close to whatever’s in here. Great…
They descended a long narrow staircase, which spiraled down and brought them at least thirty or forty feet below the streets. As they turned the first corner, Gunnar barely stifled a scream.
An enormous blob of fur and teeth launched itself at him from a small shelf in the wall with a bloodcurdling screech. Red eyes illuminated the darkness. With a swift stab, Kohli pinned the thing to the ground. A couple more quick stabs and the screeching turned to a whimper and then faded.
Gunnar’s heart pounded. He held his torch over the dead creature to find the largest rat thing he’d ever seen. It must have been two feet long, with short barbs jutting out along its spine, claws as long as his fingers, and some very long and menacing incisors.
Spined Sewer Rat
Level: 3
HP: 15/15
Description: Worse than the worst New York could ever muster, these mutant shit eaters aren’t terribly hard to kill, but you really don’t want those pearly whites piercing your skin.
A couple more shrieks echoed up the chamber.
“Ah great,” Gunnar murmured.
Two more of the massive rats came barreling down the chamber.
“Here we go,” Kohli said, and Gunnar was pretty sure he detected a small hint of excitement in the thief’s voice.
Gunnar readied his blade, blood pumping, adrenaline surging.
He zeroed in his focus.
One of the creatures leapt at him. He dodged to the side and plunged the dagger into the thing’s skull.
The monstrosity shuddered as he withdrew the blade, viscous black gunk dripping onto the floor.
[Critical Hit! You have dealt +15 Damage to Spined Sewer Rat - Level 3.]
The thing twitched on the ground for a moment.
[You have defeated a Spined Sewer Rat - Level 3. Here’s 5 XP!]
“Only five?” Gunnar muttered.
Kohli didn’t answer. Instead, he knelt down and started cutting out one of the creature’s incisors. There was a nauseating wrenching sound as he twisted the tooth free and stowed it in his belt.
“What are you going to use that for?”
Kohli smirked and shrugged. “A trophy. I hear the blood of these things is good for some sort of potion too, but I don’t have any vials to store it in, do you?”
Gunnar shook his head. “But from the look of it, these things aren’t too rare, so it’s probably not a big loss.”
“Right,” Kohli said dismissively.
The corridor was about ten feet wide, lined with little stone busts of old guild masters or something. The place smelled musty and rotting, but in a really ancient way. Gunnar guessed they didn’t still bury people in here. This place looked like it had sat like this for years.
Or it was set up to look that way. It was a leveled crypt, after all.
There were wooden doorways on either end of the corridor, every hundred or so feet—burial chambers, probably—but the main passage kept going and going.
They killed ten more of the Spined Sewer Rats in quick succession. Most of them were Level 3s, with a couple Level 4s mixed in. These were larger and quicker and offered a little more XP. But all in all, the rats were pretty manageable between the two of them. And thankfully, they avoided getting bit, though a couple of the things had come a little too close for comfort.
By the time they were finished, Gunnar was feeling much more confident with his dagger, and found himself hoping for a tougher mob and a larger weapon.
“Don’t get cocky,” Kohli muttered. “I’m sure these rats are just a warm-up. And you’re still only Level 2.”
But he was getting close to Level 3 already, and he was eager to get past the early levels of the game and move on to greater challenges.
They descended another staircase, emerging in a wide and very eerie corridor lined with the dead. There were little nooks where coffins could slide into the walls—a few were jutting halfway out of these slots. There were small pedestals where Egyptian-looking sarcophagi stood upright—these were carved with angry human faces on the outside.
Gunnar gripped his dagger tightly. His heart thudded against his rib cage as they walked.
“Use Stealth,” Kohli whispered.
“I don’t think I’ve unlocked that one.”
“Just, you know, try to creep softly. Like this.”
Kohli strode forward, walking on his tiptoes. Gunnar tried to mimic him, imagining the way he’d walked across his parents’ wooden floors when he’d come home from a party after curfew. He’d failed that test a couple times, but he’d gotten better over time. He paid close attention to his feet and walked lightly, trying not to step on any loose stones or bump any of the coffins.
After he’d covered about ten feet, a notification appeared.
Unlocked Skill: Stealth
Skill Type: Physical
Linked Attribute: Agility (+80% Development)
Affinity Level: 6
Cost: N/A
Requirements: Level 4 Agility
Effect: Decreases your Audible Detection by nearby mobs
Description: Use Stealth to slither past guards and sneak up on enemies. Stealth will muffle the sound of your footsteps and help you blend into the shadows. Handy skill for assassins and Peeping Toms.
Gunnar tensed as he crept past the first sarcophagus. The face on the outside had once been painted, and there were faint traces of red paint left in its eyes.
They slipped past, and nothing happened. One of the coffins was cracked open, jutting halfway out from its burial nook. Gunnar braced himself as he held his torch toward it.
Neither he nor Kohli dared utter a word.
The corpse within was gray and decayed, but it had clearly been there for years because it was nothing but bone.
They passed a few more sarcophagi, and still nothing.
Gunnar breathed a little easier after they cleared the hall and nothing came chasing after them.
The passage wended around a corner.
But before they turned it, the soft scrape of stone echoed from the chamber ahead.
13
COMMON FULCRA
Gunnar and Kohli froze. The scraping went on for a few more seconds, echoing from around the corner, and then there was a soft clacking sound.
Footsteps. Very strange footsteps.
And Gunnar was fairly certain they were growing louder. He started to back away.
Kohli’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”
“We don’t know how many might be up there, but I’m guessing we’re probably gonna wake more when we kill whatever it is that’s coming. This section seems clear. If we lure it back here, we can pick it off and then handle whatever follows after it. One at a time.”
Kohli nodded. “Good thinking.”
Gunnar and Kohli set down their torches, which cast haunting shadows around the sarcophagi.
They backed away from the light until the darkness of the crypt enveloped them.
The clacking sound grew louder, and finally, Gunnar spotted the creature at the end of the hall. It was some sort of walking skeleton.
Common Fulcra
Level: 4
HP: 30/30
Description: Fulcra are the reanimated forms of ancient beings. The work of basic necromancy, the common Fulcra are not the sorcerer’s finest work. While quite dangerous in groups, if the two of you let one of these kill you by their lonesome, take it as a sign that you’re just not cut out for this shit.
The common Fulcra’s feet shuffled around as it walked, shifting from side to side, its scrawny arms swaying with the movement. The clack, however, kept a consistent rhythm. Then, it paused and spread out its skeleton hands in a sort of two-handed wave.
“What the hell?” Gunnar muttered.
“I… I think it’s dancing,” Kohli said.
When it reached the lit area, the Fulcra paused its dance/walk and glanced around. It grunted, though Gunnar was not sure how that was possible for a fleshless undead creature. It was quite a bit larger than your average human, even just with its bones, and Gunnar was fairly certain it had not been human at all. What Gunnar had at first thought was a protruding jawline turned out to be a pair of small tusks.
It peered in their direction. They did not move.
The creature reached up to its own chest, and with a horrific crunch, it cracked off a pair of its ribs.
Then, with a groan, it scurried forward with sudden, manic speed.
Gunnar and Kohli nodded to one another and charged.
They leapt into the light. The Fulcra’s ribs were jagged, but awkwardly shaped, and the Fulcra could not fight as quickly as they could. Gunnar ducked an attack and lashed out with his dagger, the iron blade scraping against thick bone.
No damage.
He backed a few steps away, dodging another attack, while Kohli followed up with another of his own.
No damage either.
As Kohli spun away, he cried out. The Fulcra had clipped him in the side with its rib blade. It looked like a glancing blow, but Kohli staggered back.
The Fulcra shifted back and paused, perhaps regaining Stamina.
“You all right?” Gunnar whispered as he and Kohli backed away.
“Just a flesh wound, and all that. Let’s finish this bastard.”
“How do you think we deal damage to an undead orc thing?”
“Behead it?” Kohli asked.
They leapt forward again and traded blows with the creature. Gunnar tried to get close enough to land a good attack at the thing’s neck, but he missed, and his own neck very narrowly missed a swiping blow.
Kohli was also unsuccessful, and they retreated back the way they’d come once more.
“This thing is tougher than that description made it sound,” Gunnar muttered.
“The developers, remember?”
“Right. Dry sense of humor. More like dick sense of humor.”
Kohli nodded. “It’s a Level 4, shouldn’t be too hard. We just gotta figure it out.”
They stood at the edge of the illuminated area, and the Fulcra shuffled forward, slower now. Gunnar really wished he had something bigger than a dagger to fight with. It seemed to be too light of a weapon against this thing.
But he had an idea.
He backed further away.
“What are you doing?” Kohli asked irritably.
“You lead it back here. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Gunnar’s Mana had recharged since the last time, so he cast Dark Sight. He spotted the looming shadow of one of the standing sarcophagi in the darkness behind them and hurried over to it.
Kohli slowly backed into the darkness, muttering curses under his breath as the Fulcra shuffled after him.
When Kohli passed him, Gunnar whispered, “Okay, stop!”
The Fulcra shifted toward the sound. Gunnar activated Sheer Strength and shoved at the sarcophagus with all his might, using up a surge of Stamina in one moment.
The stone groaned as it shifted, and the Fulcra’s mouth went wide.
The coffin toppled, and the skeleton shattered into a hundred shards of bone.
[You have dealt +30 Damage to a common Fulcra!]
[You have defeated a common Fulcra! Not sure how that applies to the undead, but here’s 20 XP!]
Gunnar’s chest heaved as his Stamina slowly replenished from the exertion.
“Good thinking,” Kohli said. The sarcophagus had cracked and spilled open, exuding a small plume of dust. The thief stooped down and rifled through the interior for loot, quickly pulling out an ancient, dull-looking gladius.
Kohli smiled at the one-handed short sword and stowed his dagger in his belt. “Hope you don’t mind.”
Gunnar shook his head. “You’ll probably deal more damage with it than me, anyway.”
Blue sparks hovered over the decimated Fulcra bones, indicating there was some loot to be had.
Gunnar knelt down.
Weak Soul Gem
Item Class: Common, Magic Item
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.3
Description: The inconsequential soul of some ancient dead being. Yeah, we know it’s bad luck to speak ill of the dead, but this dude was pretty much worthless living, and ain’t good for much now either.
Gunnar smirked, enjoying not having the AI’s ire directed at him for once. He held up the gem for Kohli to see.
“Weak one?” the thief asked.
Gunnar nodded.
“Figures. Worth holding on to. If you get enough, you might be able to sell them.”
“What do they do? Replenish Mana?”
“Nah. Alchemists and sorcerers use them mostly. They can enchant weapons and that sort of thing.”
“Or a Fulcra apparently.”
Kohli nodded. “But they’re pretty much useless for us.”
Gunnar shoved it in his pocket. More blue sparks emitted from the skeleton, so he checked again.
Orc Femur
Item Class: Uncommon, Melee
Quality: Poor
Base Damage: 15
Weight: 11
Durability: 6
Description: The thicc trunk of a dead orc. Makes for a decent club in a bind, and can even serve as a token of friendship amongst certain barbarian clans.
Gunnar shrugged and picked it up. At any rate, it would do more damage than his dagger. The bone was about three feet long and took both hands to wield. He took a couple swings in the air, holding it near the knee, with the hip joint serving as the club head.
Clackety, clack, scraaape!
Gunnar and Kohli both jumped at the sound.
Two more Fulcra appeared around the corner, shuffle-dancing toward them, their movements jerky and awkward as they each dragged a large warhammer behind them.
These were both Level 5, and those hammers left a sinking feeling in Gunnar’s gut.
He and Kohli lingered in the darkness. The two undead paused in the torchlit space, glancing around.
Gunnar picked up a small shard of bone and chucked it down the chamber. One of the Fulcra turned toward the sound.
And Gunnar and Kohli leapt into action.
Together, they both attacked the first creature. The femur took a lot more Stamina to wield, but his first attack dealt +15 Damage and managed to dislocate the Fulcra’s right forearm. It dangled uselessly from its elbow by one tendon. Kohli landed a blow to the creature’s shoulder. The gladius sheared through the collarbone, but the Fulcra jerked back, and the blade lodged in the bone.
The ground thundered as the second creature brought its warhammer crashing down only inches from Gunnar’s feet.
He backed away, hoping to regain a little Stamina before landing another femur blow, but the first Fulcra grabbed onto his cloak with its only good hand. Gunnar tried to spin away, but it was latched on good. The creature bit into his shoulder, and Gunnar screamed.
His Health dropped to 60%.
Gunnar stomped on the creature’s foot. With a loud crunch, the Fulcra jerked back. Gunnar spun and swung the femur hard into its skull.
[You have dealt +20 Damage to a common Fulcra!]
A crack formed along its face, and the skull fell away in several pieces.
[You have defeated a common Fulcra with an assist from Samir Kohli! Here’s 10 XP!]
Kohli was currently dancing to avoid an attack from the second Fulcra’s warhammer. The creature had to pause for a moment before it could raise its enormous weapon again. Having lost his own weapon, the thief seized one of the torches and shoved it into the Fulcra’s rib cage.
Sparks flew, but the flames didn’t do much damage.
Gunnar leapt in to help and brought the femur down hard against the creature’s spine.
[You have dealt +15 Damage to a common Fulcra!]
Unfortunately, that was the last attack the femur could handle, and it splintered in Gunnar’s hands.
