Chapter 11 Bone Blade

‘Move an inch and you’re dead. Just listen. You may be level four, but you’re outgunned here, son.’

Level four. How the fuck did he know I was level four?

The campfire was out, and there was no source of light in the room. I focused, enabling keen eye, but found I was unable to use it. The system flashed a warning.

[You may only use this ability in combat.]

So a knife at my throat wasn’t combat? Fine. I took a breath, focusing on my perception. I waited a few moments for the system to calculate my success rate and then saw another alert,

[Perception check – successful.]

The tiny tent bloomed, as if a spotlight were now filling it, and I was able to take in every detail of my attacker. Or rather attackers. There were three avatars, only one of which I actually recognised. The one with the bone blade at my throat was a young, wiry woman with the determination of someone for whom this wasn’t their first kill. The second was a shaman, judging by his fur robe and shaman’s staff. His mouth was moving, but I heard nothing, he was speaking too slow.

[Spirit’s Silence – The shaman channels, calling the ancients to dampen the senses of all hostile characters in a ten-meter radius. All senses are dulled, and enemies must roll a successful perception to break it.]

That explained why I hadn’t heard anything. The shaman’s magic. Thankfully, I had passed a perception check, as I saw the very last avatar. Adrian, the bald-headed man, had the kind of raw musculature and gut of someone who worked construction day in and day out.

‘I’m listening.’ Wasn’t much else to say. I had no idea whether the bone blade would even kill me, or just take a hefty chunk out of my hit points. But they seemed sure. Either they were right or they were bluffing, but right now that wasn’t a dice roll I was willing to take.

‘Good,’ said Adrian, folding his arms. ‘Smart.’ He made a gesture and the woman pulled back, so that whilst the bone blade wasn’t at my neck, it would be less than a heartbeat for her to thrust it.

‘Raymond won’t like this,’ I said, sitting up. Thankfully, I had the king’s mantle equipped. It was too rare loot to un-equip, but the rest of my weapons and armour were stowed in the primitive chest behind my assailants.

Adrian shrugged, ‘won’t be a problem. Raymond is dead, as are most of the avatars in this camp. Those too loyal or stupid. The rest have joined me.’

Dead. Shit. My expression darkened. ‘I didn’t know him much, barely knew him at all, but he gave a shit. He protected these people, he had a family. He didn’t deserve to die like that.’

Adrian approached me, striking me hard across the face. The blow was powerful, his fist like a sledgehammer.

[Stone Punch – Your fist hardens like rock. For ten seconds you do double damage, but your fist becomes brittle.]

I took a staggering fifty points of damage to my hit points. Adrian pulled back, his stone fist turning back to flesh. ‘I ain’t here to bargain, kid. I’m here to tell you what’s going to happen. You can either listen, or you can end up like your buddy.’

The strike had done one good thing at least. It had initiated combat. Judging by the combat log, which I had kept open in a tab in the top right of my vision, I had five minutes before combat ended.

‘You’re clearly capable. Know the rules. Levels, experience. You’ve done more in a few days than most of these idiots have done in months.’ Adrian seemed to consider for a moment. ‘So here’s your offer. Give up your loot. I don’t know how you managed to kill the sabretooth king, but that cloak, it belongs to me.’

‘Why should I trust you?’ I said, as I opened my inventory tab and applied a poultice to my wound. My health began to tick up. Eight per second, for ten seconds. I triggered keen eye, the world slowing, my perception increasing. There were three others surrounding the tent to the west side. ‘You killed Raymond, and you guys were friends. How do I know you won’t just kill me?’

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Adrian laughed. ‘I don’t think you really understand what’s happening here. Either you join our party, lend your strength to ours as we complete quests, or I kill you here and now, carve the experience from your corpse instead. Either way, I’m good.’

My ears pricked at this. So you gained experience from killing other avatars. Damnit. I really had to find a way to examine other avatars without touching them. For all I knew, Adrian was a far higher level than me.

But then… he wore only fur armour. The woman had a bone blade, which was just one tier above fur. That put them at level four. Plus, if they were level five or above, then why would they be here? They’d have already pushed for the gate.

Even footing, even levels, but I was completely outnumbered, and even if Adrian was level four, the duel with the vandal had shown me that levels alone did not determine the winner.

‘Say I join you,’ I said, ‘then what? You take my king’s mantle, and I just fall in line?’ My hit points were ticking up, almost full. I took another poultice. It wouldn’t heal me past my maximum hit points, but it would mean if I took damage – and it looked like I soon would be – I’d immediately start healing. That would save me precious seconds I may soon need.