The War (Play to Live: Book #6) (30 page)

Our military group 5 which was fighting for survivability was overwhelmed. The guys gave it their best. They kept us updated extremely fast, letting us know which sections we could flood ourselves, which buffs needed to be reconfigured, and which antipode elementals needed to be summoned when the enemy used a certain element against us.

We encountered very few human enemies. Once in a while, another arrowslit would open in a wall, and a magic staff would shoot at us with a bolt of magic strong enough to rival an artifact.

It was all part of the raid routine. Ten new graves lined up to await resurrection. The demons quickly brought down a section of a wall. Behind it was a tiny recess the size of a vertically standing coffin. We could get through by portal only. Those who went in did not leave alive and used the medallions around their necks to die.

The ground would shake occasionally. It was the camoes, most likely. Having lost their key weapon, secrecy, they were in a hurry to evacuate and destroyed all portal areas after themselves.

During the fourth hour of monotonous fighting, we opened another door and found a heap of concrete debris blocking our way. Our NPC dwarves pressed their ears to the debris, pounded their tiny hammers on it and worriedly shook their heads. They didn’t like this type of rock. It prevented them from sensing the empty halls and portals that lay ahead.

The staff hadn’t even gathered for a briefing yet when the ground gave a groan, and the floor of the entire passageway sank with a deafening noise. Stones fell from the ceiling, turning our warriors into scarlet puddles. Several of our people fell through the cracks that opened beneath our feet. Fortunately, the survivors couldn’t see the bloody mess through the cloud of gray concrete dust.

This accident killed half of our raid group. After the warriors were finished reading injury alerts, round magic lamps came on in the darkness. Some cussed, others nervously laughed.

The dwarf sitting next to me looked up at the hallway’s conic ceiling with respect. "The stratum sank about 90 feet, and the passageway still stands. Wonders never cease."

I pointed to the floor. "Do you think the rest of the base still stands too? Can we get there?"

The dwarf shook his head. "We’re looking at 90 feet of empty space below us. Right now..." he lay down, pressed his furry ear to the mountain and listened. "Water is making new passages, and the earth elementals are shaking the flimsy rocks. Once everything settles, we will be able to drill a dozen wells. Maybe then we’ll find buried treasures."

I nodded with disappointment and rose to my feet. I had to talk to my warriors, cheer them up. For the soldiers, this raid was a failure. We had spent much gold on ammo and inevitable equipment repairs. Plus the annoying and painful deaths caused by the environment took off tons of XP and made the graves hard to find.

On the way home, the officers would come up with the right words eventually and explain to the soldiers how strategically important it was to destroy the enemy’s home base. But right now, I needed to get my butt in gear and peform the duties of the leader. I needed to tell the warriors all of their individual fighting strengths, to find the right words even for the rearmost enchanter of the third line.
Get to it, Max!

But I didn’t get far. I saw Camo near the demons of the Silver Legion who clustered together. The girl stood by the violet entrails of an ogre crushed by a boulder. She was casting some spell time after time.

I came up from behind, walking loudly on purpose, and put a hand on the girl’s slender shoulder covered by a purple wizard cloak. "Camo, what are you wasting mana for?"

"Huh?!" the girl gave a start, then grew embarrassed. "Well, you see, ever since I escaped, I developed this silly habit. I like to play dirty tricks on the NSA. Whenever I find something nasty, a pile of dung for instance, or stinky mold, I can’t help but send it to the Alpha Zone. So that those bastards puke!"

Watching the piles of slimy entrails disappear, I felt one of the last grenades on my belt.
Should I ask her to send a highly explosive "hi"
with the pin removed?

Then my fingers found the quick access slot which contained a Soul Stone. What I thought of then made me shudder.

Slowly taking out the crystal as if fearing I might spook it, I threw it to Camo’s feet. "Camo, my dear…Would you be so kind as to send them this stone from me?"

My tone discomforted the ex-delivery girl. She shrugged, trying to seem calm, and took the crystal. Magic briefly tinged our surroundings with color. My heart was beating madly. A quiet clap followed, and the stone disappeared. A message appeared on my internal interface.

I quickly read it and my legs grew weak.

Status alert. New ability learned: Portal to Alpha Zone.

A necromancer’s bond with the soul of the creature he destroyed is so strong that the Stone keeping it prisoner will shine for you like a beacon. No spatial obstacle can hide the crystal’s true light from your eyes. From now on, you will always be able to open a portal to the mysterious lands of the Alpha Zone and to keep it open.

Ingredient: Soul Stone.

Carefully minimizing the alert into the tray, I switched to my ability tab to make sure the new pictorgram was there.
Dear Lord! How am I to live with this?!

Focusing on the outside world again, I looked around, dumbfounded.

Camo looked very confused. The Drow from my personal guard kept their usual businesslike calm. Asmodeus crept up to us, his eyes flashing with greed.

I jerked my head up in alert. The Top Demon smiled affectionately and whispered almost inaudibly: "A portal to Earth, you say? You have not disappointed me, stupid mortal…"

My sense of danger was triggered immediately. I quickly looked at my 30-second invulnerability icon, trying to press it, but Asmodeus jerked his arm up, and instantly my soul was knocked out of my body.
Ouch!

I got suspended in midair like an astronaut in zero gravity, helplessly turning somersaults about three feet from where my body stood. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. All was silent.

I grabbed the shoulders of the Drow nearby, but my hands went straight through them. Asmodeus alone could see me. He was looking straight at me, an insidious smile on his face. This was his hour of triumph.

He waved his sharp-clawed hand again, and Lightfighter’s soul entered my body.

"Open the portal," Asmodeus ordered politely.

Shit! Sungoddammit!
I watched a devilish grin spread across my own face. My body raised its arms as the sounds of the spell being cast reached my ears.

I howled and forced myself to move forward, bridging the distance between us inch by inch. I reached out my ghostly fingers, trying to dig them into my physical face and rip the mask right off, revealing to my clan mates the
beast
that had occupied my body.

Kaboom!
The portal to Earth opened with a deafening noise. The long-forgotten scent of ozone, plastic, and a room with an AC entered our world through the bubble-shaped curtain of the gate.

"I have dreamt of this moment for the last two thousand years…" whispered Asmodeus and, winking at me mockingly, stepped into the portal.

A file of demons clad in silver armor followed him. Lightfighter couldn’t help but smile blissfully as he continued to keep the portal open.

My warriors exchanged remarks worriedly. Orcus frowned as he persistenly kept asking me some question. I couldn’t hear him. I dug my fingers into my body. It still remembered me and therefore didn’t push me away. But I still had to regain control of my avatar.

One more step, and I would break the cast! One push, and I would knock Lightfighter’s dark soul out of my body! I could feel him yielding to me.

The demon lost control of my secondary muscles. My face relaxed, my spine bent. And I just kept pushing, focusing my efforts on a small area and putting all my anger and hatred into the fight.

I did it!
My jaw and neck muscles were finally under my control again. With a huge effort, I turned my head to the side. The crunching sound was terrifying. I must’ve made a 130-degree turn. Once I saw Lizzie, I whispered to her: "Kill me! Code: thirty-two, orange, wolf!"

The apprehension in her eyes gave way to happiness as she received a direct order and saw this as an opportunity to fulfill her duty.

Lizzie stepped forward, ripped out the pins of two grenades she found at the unloading site, and pressed herself against me for maximum efficiency.

I counted the seconds in my head as Lizzie looked into my eyes through a veil of tears.

One…Two…Three…

Tears ran down Mona Lisa’s cheeks. Hugging me and being so close to my body evoked an odd anxiety in her along with troubled feelings. She leaned closer to me. Full of mistrust and hardly understanding what she was doing, she kissed me.

Four…Boom!!!

My vision clouded over with red. I saw a system message:

Status alert! You have died in battle and will now be resurrected in the last bind point.

Respawn in 5…4…3...2…1…0!

End of Book Six

August-October 2014. Bangkok-Kiev-Moscow.

To learn about PTL-7, discuss the book, chat with other fans and ask me questions, please visit my personal website:

http://www.d-rus.ru/forum/

Follow the news and friend the author on VKontakte (VK):
http://vk.com/rus_dmitriy

Many thanks!

Dmitriy Rus.

MMORPG Glossary
[i]

AFK

Away from keyboard

Aggro

As a verb, it refers to a hostile mob that has noticed a player and is actively trying to attack that player. As a noun, it refers to the amount of "hostility" the player has generated on the mob. In typical combat strategy, the fighter tries to take as much aggro as possible away from weaker players such as healers and mages.

Alt

Short for "alternate". It refers to the alternate character a player has from their main character. This is not a stable category as sometimes alts can outlevel mains and sometimes mains become moth-balled.

Alt Tab

The act of using the ALT+TAB keys to jump from application to application

Bind

In certain MMOs, characters are teleported back to a safe spot when they die. This spot is predetermined by the user. The act of determining the safe spot requires an explicit action by the user. That action is known as a bind. The spot is typically referred to as a bind spot.

Bind on equip

This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after they have been equipped. In other words, the item can be traded as long as no one equips it.

Bind on pickup

This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after it has been picked up from a monster. In other words, the item cannot be traded once a player picks it up. BoP items commonly cause looting conflicts and disputes during game-play.

Bokken sword

A wooden training sword

Buff

Temporary boost to character attribute or combat ability

Camp(ing)

The act of waiting in an area to hunt a specific mob or a specific spawn

Caster

A mage or a wizard

Char/Toon

A player or their character.

Class

Professional archetypes. In D&D games, these would be warrior, healer, rogue and mage. The most typical class types are: close-range damage, ranged damage, healing, crowd control, support.

Cleric

Typical healing class in D&D style games

Combo

A combination of hits, especially causing severe damage like paralyzing or bleeding

Corpse

In certain MMOs, a corpse appears where the player died. Sometimes all the player’s items and money are left on the corpse and the player is teleported back to their bind spot. Corpses typically will decay after a certain time proportional the character’s level.

Corpse Run

The act of retrieving your corpse after you have died. This is typically a dangerous thing because people tend to die in dangerous places rather than safe places.

Crafting

A general category of skills that allows players to manufacture objects from raw resources

Crit

"To crit" refers to landing a critical hit either with melee or spells. Effective damage is usually increased from a base of 150% to upwards of 250% with extra talents/skills/buffs.

Crowd Control

Refers to a set of spells / abilities that temporarily paralyze or stun other mobs or players. Crowd control is an important group support ability when fighting multiple mobs.

DD

Direct Damage. Used to refer to a class of spells and abilities that allow players to damage enemies from a distance. The firebolt is the archetypal DD.

DD/DPS

A character whose primary role in a group setting is to deal damage to the opponents.

Debuff

The opposite of a buff. An offensive spell cast on enemies that weakens an attribute or combat ability.

Donator

A player who invests real money into virtual gear

DoT

Damage over time. Refers to a class of spells that deals damage over a period of time. These spells typically do more damage than DD spells overall.

DpS

Damage per second. Used when figuring out weapon speed and damage.

Drow

A Dark Elf race

Druid

Hybrid class in D&D style games—part healer, part support, part fighter.

Enchanter

A mage specializing in buffs

Epic

An extremely rare item or quest. Has come to mean something exceptionally cool and hard to get.

Experience

A quantity gained when completing tasks/quests, killing mobs, or various other achievements in games. When enough experience is accrued, characters often "level up" and become more powerful.

Familiar

Same as pet

Farm(ing)

The act of accumulating currency or a specific item by repeatedly killing a mob or repeatedly performing a series of actions

Gnoll

An NPS (AI-controlled character) race of humanoid hyenas

Guilds

Semi-permanent player groups. In typical games, players must use a substantial amount of capital to start the guild.

Health/HP

A base attribute of characters

LFG

"looking for group"

Lich

A race of the undead

Loot

Currency or items that are dropped by a mob when it is defeated

Mana

A commonly-used pool of magic potential (magical analog of health points)

MMORPG

Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

Mob

An AI controlled monster. 'Mob' originally comes from the MUD era, where it was short for 'mobile', to differentiate monsters that would patrol a set of rooms as opposed to monsters which would stay in one place until killed.

Mount

Any riding animal from a donkey to a dragon

Newbie

A new inexperienced player

Newblette

A new and inexperienced female player

Noob

The pejorative form of newbie or an unskilled arrogant player

NPC

Non-player character (ie. controlled by AI)

Nuke

Refers to casters, to cast the highest damage spell or spell combo to effectively pull or finish of a npc. Mages usually are the most effective class in highest burst damage.

Nuker

A caster who throws a lot of damage spells on a target.

Perma

Permanent, permanently

Pet

A creature that can be summoned to help and defend a player

PK

Player Killer—a derogatory term—as in a person who primarily plays to kill other players

PK counter

Shows the number of players already killed by a PK and allows to calculate the chances of his dropping an item if killed by another player

Port

Short for teleport. Used as a noun and a verb.

Powerlevel

Same as rush. When a higher level player tries to help a lower level player level faster. Most games have mechanisms that prevent power leveling.

Pull

A standard hunting strategy where a player lures a single or a group of mobs to the group so that the group can hunt from a safe area instead of hunting in areas where new mobs may spawn.

PvP

Player vs. Player combat

Quest

A set of tasks of a player to complete

Quest item

An item needed to complete a quest

Race

Typically fantastical creations, such as Elves, Trolls and the like.

Raid

A more substantial engagement involving a large organized group of players typically set in a dungeon and involving difficult mobs

Regen

Short for regeneration (of health, mana, or other replenishable attributes)

Resist

A parameter showing one's chances to resist a spell, whether partially or completely

Respawn

A character's resurrection after being killed

Rogue

A game class used for scouting and spying

Root

Can refer to a class of abilities as well as its effect. A root spell immobilizes a target. The target is then said to be rooted. Early versions of these abilities involved references to plants, hence "root".

Rush

Same as powerlevel

Server

Due to technical reasons, each server can only support a limited amount of players. Each MMORPG typically has several servers. Players cannot interact with players on other servers.

Slot

A storage unit, especially in a player's bag

Snare

An ability which slows down a character's movement speed, but they are still capable of moving.

Solo

The act of playing alone, hunting mobs alone.

Soulbound

An item-control mechanic where an item cannot be traded. In other words, only one person can own the object and it cannot be traded. See also BoE and BoP.

Spawn

Resurrect

Stealth

A type of invisibility that lets stealth characters sneak up on others for large critical strikes or for scouting.

Stun

A typical form of crowd control ability that immobilizes an enemy

Tank

As a noun, refers to character classes that can take a lot of damage. As a verb, refers to the act of drawing aggro from mobs before other team members strike with their abilities.

TSB

Toxic Sperm Buildup

Uber

Slang form of super

Wonder Waffle

From German
Wunderwaffe
, a wonder weapon

WTB

"want to buy"

WTS

"want to sell"

Zool

Cool