Welcome to Abarrane [Part 1] Read online

  Joe Axe, Blueblood Jungle Troll.

  Attributes:

  Intelligence: 1

  Agility: 7

  Strength: 5

  Charisma: 1 (.5)

  Endurance: 12 (21.6)

  Wisdom: 1

  Perception: 2

  Luck: 1

  Racial Traits: Bryophyte Enhanced Regeneration: Endurance increased by 80%.

  Blue Blood: Immune to Blood Magic.

  Hated Monster: Charisma decreased by 50%.

  You have 10 unused attribute points.

  I selected Intelligence and added four points to it. I’m sure she meant equal five points because there is no way she knows my stats. I couldn’t see anyone else’s, so it was a safe bet.

  A prompt appeared “Are you sure?” “Yes,” I said aloud. “Attribute points cannot be reallocated once used.” I selected yes and decided then and there to find a way to shut those prompts off. My brain began to burn and pulse. I ground my teeth and grabbed my head, squeezing my eyes closed. And like that, a second later I was fine.

  I opened my eyes to see the little girl still kneeling in the dirt before me, as I rested my head back on the stone wall I heard, “are you okay?”

  “What?” I asked looking at the little girl.

  “I said are you okay?” It was the girl.

  “How can I understand you?”

  “You need five points in Intelligence before you can speak basic. That’s why a lot of the monster races with low Intelligence scores can’t communicate with other races. They don’t like wasting points on something that won’t let them crush skulls.”

  “That makes sense.” For the first time, I could hear my deep impious voice, I sounded cruel with every word. “Why do I sound like this? Can I change it in the settings?”

  She smiled at me the way a person might smile at a child’s silly question. “You need to raise your Charisma. If you could change it that easily I would have figured out a way to do it my first day here. It’s eerie sounding like a little girl.”

  “I suppose it would be. How old are you?”

  She hesitated, “thirty-six, but that’s the last question about my past life I’m going to answer.” I nodded in understanding.

  “I’m Joe, what’s your name?” I asked reaching out to shake her hand.

  “Charlotte,” she said with a slight bow. Refusing to shake.

  “So where are we?”

  “A little town called Burnshire. About twenty miles north of Telonora, the nearest major city.”

  “Did you spawn there?”

  She gave me a look of concern. “No. Did you spawn here?” I nodded. “That’s not supposed to happen. You should have spawned in a low level village filled with NPC’s (non-playable characters) of your race to learn the basics.”

  “That’s what I was worried about.”

  “Seems the Mayor has a way of getting new players to spawn in his graveyard.”

  “The Mayor?”

  “Yeah, Mayor Blume. Some player that raised his Charisma high enough to run the town. He captures low level players and extorts them for money. If you don’t do what he says, he’ll kill you, loot the 10% the game allows to be looted off a player and captures you again. Those two humans in the corner, they’re on their last life. If they get killed again, they perma die. Die permanently”

  “What does he ask you to do?” I asked hoping for a reasonably safe way out of the situation.

  “Give him twenty Mystic Coins or sign a magical contract.”

  I didn't have that much money and I didn’t want to tell her that. I asked instead. “What’s on the contract?”

  “Twenty five percent of all your experience and money earned, go to him. He has some high level scribe making them. Since its magic supposedly it doesn’t matter where you are in Arielle, it will magically transfer to him. I don’t know how it works.”

  “What the hell? We all come here to live a new life and this asshole enslaves and kills people.”

  “Yeppers.”

  “So how do we escape?”

  “We can’t. Do you see that marking on the wall?” I looked to where she pointed. Nothing was there.

  “Damn, what’s your Perception at?”

  “Two.”

  “You need at least five to see these. What are all your stats at?”

  A loud, “ayyyyyy,” came from the corner. In a deep Scottish accent the Dwarf sat up and spoke. “Rule number one about Abarrane, don’t tell nobody your stats and racial traits you newbie troll.” Charlotte rubbed her temples. “I’m trying to help him Kraz.”

  “Sure you are lil lass, sure you are.”

  “Kraz?” I asked. “The names Kraznick Gemcutter.”

  “That’s a cool name.”

  “Yes, yes it is.” He grinned. “Like I was saying don’t tell nobody nothing. Not your stats, traits, amount of money, level, or class. Sure, there are some spells to figure most of that out, but hardly anyone has them. The little lass claims to have such an ability, but she hasn’t used it.”

  “If either of you upped your Perception to 5 you could see the silencing wards on the walls, I can’t cast any spells in here you hard headed Dwarf. If it wasn’t for those I would have blasted my way out of here long ago.”

  “Ain’t she a cute one. Little girls gonna break out of here, while my high Strength can’t even bend the bars.”

  “Must not be very high if you can’t bend iron, takes 50 Strength to bend iron.” Charlotte retorted.

  I asked, “how do you know that.”

  Charlotte took a deep breath and exhaled through her nose and spoke annoyed. “Higher Wisdom increases memory retention and higher intellect lets you read faster. I’ve found mental math comes easier as well. I spent a good week reading books in my starting city. Most people run off and try to find dungeons to get rich and powerful. But by reading, books, I learned that upon reaching level 50 with an attribute gives you a new trait, that every ten levels gives you a bonus, that magic can be merged to create new types of magic. If I ever get out of here I intend on learning a great deal more before I put myself in further danger.”

  I decided to trust the little girl. “Okay here are my stats. Help me allocate them.”

  Kraznick’s mouth opened to object, but I raised my giant green palm to stop him.

  “Intelligence 5, Agility 7, Strength 5, Charisma 1, Endurance 12, Wisdom 1, Perception 2, Luck 1. I have 6 unused skill points.”

  She counted bouncing her tiny thumb from finger to finger. “Well you’re level 1, so I would get Luck to five. Anything below five is bad luck. Then work on Perception. You might not realize it, but any perception below 5 is bad eyesight. At 5 you get 20/20.”

  “What about the rest?” I leaned in to learn more. Then there was a loud creak, a light shone on the packed dirt floor outside the bars. Charlotte put her finger to her lips and went to the empty corner on my left and pretended to sleep.

  “Wakey Wakey, eggs and bakey.” A shrill man’s voice sang. I wiped my eyes to see a thin man in a gray and black suit near the bars facing us, with four leather armored men behind him holding crossbows loosely to their sides. “Oh my, I have never seen a troll before. You sir are grotesque.”

  “Your mother,” I replied nonchalantly. “It speaks. I was under the impression you monster races didn’t know basic. I was going to come in here and execute you. But I suppose I will give you the same deal I offered the rest. I got up and made my way to the bars, towering over the man with his greasy slicked back hair and pencil mustache. “You’re not even trying to hide the fact that you’re a villain, are you?” He laughed, “coming from a monster race, that is rich.” It was silent for a moment and we both stared at one another. He yawned and followed with, “forgive me, living in this dingy town I seemed to have acquired some bad habits. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mayor Blume, Mayor of the fine Village of Burnshire. And you are?” I let my face fall to its lazy glare of indifference, a face I acquired over years of prison
threats and watching others suffer. He asked again, “and you are?”

  “Joe.”

  “Well Joe here is the deal.” He offered me the same deal Charlotte told me about, but it wasn’t 25%, it was 50%. What a scumbag.

  “Take the deal or I’ll kill you over and over until I have taken everything from you.” He threatened and I replied with my tried and true comeback, “your mother.”

  “Very well. Crossbows up men.” He walked to the side and without turning ordered them, “Fire.” Then I heard the thwack of cord hitting wood.

  Chapter 5

  *You have died.*

  *Respawn timer, Sixty minutes.*

  A few minutes after my death I received another notification.

  *You have been looted for 10% of your currency.*

  I looked at how much I had left, 10 Mystic Coins, 4 platinum, 1 gold, 7 silver and 5 copper. I waited angry, frustrated and unable to do anything. I’m going to kill that scumbag, I thought over and over.

  During the down time I decided to add my attribute points to Luck, 20/20 vision was important, but knowing you had bad luck seemed like a real weight on my mind. I selected Luck, a notification appeared. *You cannot take any actions while dead.* So, I waited.

  Once the timer was up another notification appeared,

  *you have been revived*

  *You have spent one Mystic Coin*

  The space around me suffused with green and golden transparent light, twisting and melding until it disappeared. I stared up at the billions of stars blotting the night sky, while two moons over lapped in the distant space seemingly fused together. I enjoyed the sight for minutes, a temporary reprieve from my thoughts of revenge and feelings of despair, knowing two horsemen awaited me.

  I allocated my six points, 4 into luck and 2 into perception.

  Joe Axe, Blueblood Jungle Troll.

  Attributes:

  Intelligence: 5

  Agility: 7

  Strength: 5

  Charisma: 1 (.5)

  Endurance: 12 (21.6)

  Wisdom: 1

  Perception: 4

  Luck: 5

  Racial Traits: Bryophyte Enhanced Regeneration: Endurance increased by 80%.

  Blue Blood: Immune to Blood Magic.

  Hated Monster: Charisma reduced by 50%.

  I closed the interface and looked up to the stars again. I could see them twinkling, no longer splotches in the night, the two moons were distinctly outlined, the larger one was tinted a slight blue, while the other took on the greyish white of earth's moon. I imagined what would happen once I got my perception beyond ten or twenty, could I zoom in and see craters, would I be able to see through smoke and fog? I’m not going to die before I have a chance to experience what this world had to offer, I thought angrily. I walked the perimeter of the graveyard looking for a gap or hole in the fence. Before I finished my round a gold and green light illuminated the tombstones and vanished as quickly as it appeared. I bounded to the source to see Charlotte lying on the grass where I spawned minutes ago. “Charlotte, are you okay?” I kneeled beside her. She sat up resting on her elbows, “yeah,” she coughed. “This is my third time.” Her lip began to tremble, as she waved her hand going through her invisible interface. A single tear ran down her freckle specked cheek. “I, I only have enough for two more revives.” Her trembling slowed as she gritted her teeth, her eyes hardened, and an otherworldly green light flared out from her right fist. “Charlotte we’ll get out of here, I promise.” She took a few breaths and the green glow left her fist as another green and gold explosion of light appeared feet above her. Instinctively I pulled her by her arm and leg away from the spawning point. As she gathered herself a dwarf fell from the glow face first onto the grass with a thud. He got up wiping the grass and dirt from his face. “Aye, that’s never happened before.” Then he went off on a rant, “bloody...no good...trash lord...gomi...piece of pig excrement…I’m gonna kill em, I’ll kill em all!”

  Chapter 6

  The sun rose and we made our way to the gate half awake and half zombified. To see the same two horsemen that captured me before. One caught sight of us and called to his partner with the flail. He began to spin it and grin at me. “Real tough guy, attacking an unarmed level one.” Charlotte said.

  “Are there other prisoners?” I asked.

  Kraznick answered, “yeah, in separate cells, but he only kills three at a time now. A few days ago, Elron, this pompous ass of a Wood Elf got away when we all ran separate directions. His Agility must have been high to out run the horses through the forest. The Mayor was furious, I enjoyed every second of his whining.” As Kraznick finished one of the guards toppled over and off his horse. The other guard spun his horse around in a panic. “This is our chance to escape.” I said over excitedly. Kraznick shook his head, “Nope, it's a trap. They’re trying to lure us out and as soon as we walk out of this here graveyard, that fool on the ground will jump back onto his horse and chase us down. I ain’t fallin for it. I’d rather starve to death here.”

  “What if it isn’t?” Charlotte said seconds after the second guard tumbled off his horse.

  “It’ll be your funeral. I ain’t leavin till I seen what or who dunnit.” Then a friendly male voice came from what seemed to be thin air, “It’s okay friends.”

  “A GHOST!” Kraznick cried. As he spun balling up his stony fists. “Um, no. My name is Roy Rogers.”

  “Like the singing cowboy?” Charlotte asked. He seemed to materialize in front of our eyes, starting with his brown leather boots, and upwards to his combed light brown hair. He looked at Charlotte with a confused hurt expression. “Um, no. Like the pirate. Roy Rogers.” He emphasized. “Oh, you mean Woodes Rogers? The Governor of the Bahamas.” Roy was adamant this time, “No, I mean Roy Rogers, the guy they named the Jolly Roger after.” Charlotte smirked, and with a decent French accent she said, “Jolie Rouge, means red flag.” Embarrassed and downtrodden our potential savior looked down at his feet. “Did Roy Rogers at least kill a lot of people?” Charlotte upon seeing him sulk tried to cheer the man up, “oh yes, he was known as the King of Cowboys.” Roy lifted his head with a smile, “the King of Cowboys,” he seemed to be testing the title out loud while pulling at his pointed dark brown goatee. He looked at her, “I can live with that. So why are you three all in there still?” Charlotte laid out everything about Burnshire, the Mayor and what he was doing to low level players. Roy listened with his mouth agape and when she finished he said, “well damn, that’s a good idea.” We glared at him in unison. He corrected, “an evil despicable idea, but a good one,” he still admitted. “Well you can come out now.”

  “Why, so you can kill us too? I don’t think so. We weren’t born yesterday.” Kraznick spat.

  “I can’t kill you.” Kraznick looked at him skeptically. “Level 10 and higher can’t kill anybody level 9 and below. That’s why I said it was a good idea. He always ordered the NPC’s to kill you, then he looted you, right?”

  “Right.” Kraznick admitted.

  Charlotte was noticeably frustrated, “I’m so stupid. I should have realized that.” I wanted to comfort the girl, but I didn't. Instead I just stood silent and impassive.

  “I can recognize a singing cowboy, but I didn’t even realize how I was being repeatedly executed!” She went on, and I still stood silent trying to convey some sympathy on my face.

  Kraznick ignored Charlotte's outburst, “so Roy, what are you doing here anyways? You seem to be a much higher level than the rest of us.”

  “Right.” He patted his vest pockets and reached in pulling out a folded-up piece of paper, unfolding it he showed us. It was a wanted poster. Mayor Blume of Burnshire, bounty of 5 Mystic coins alive, 50 Platinum with proof of death. “I am a proud member of the Bounty Hunters Guild. Some low level Elf paid the guild to handle this for him.”

  “Elron,” Kraznick said distastefully.

  “That's the guy.”

  “Take us with you.” I blurted out with a lit
tle too much desperation.

  “That's fine, you all can come. On one, no two conditions. I get the full pay out.” He waited and we all nodded out of sync. “And two, if you die it isn’t my fault, even if I leave you. I’m not dying for some lowbies that want revenge. The only reason I’m even considering this is because we all gotta start somewhere.” We all nodded again. “Now I’m going to invite you to the group, but I’m telling you before you accept to be in a group together, we need trust. You’ll be able to see each other’s race, attributes, and racial traits. I’m adding you to the group.” His hands flashed across his invisible interface.