NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42 - A.C.D.C.
It physically hurt as I slammed the coins into Alcender's hands. Another tick of my heath dropped from the bleed effect. It was also part of the paladin's gold from earlier. It wasn't mine to give, and I needed it to live here in hell. The drama of this was entertaining the viewers, only because I was leaching off Alcender as much as he took my coin right now.
The pain flared for one last time as the scumbag mage yanked the arrow out. The moment he did, I chugged his sour potion. I've done shots of vinegar that tasted better. The entire exchange thing left me in a matching mood. Even the health potion I drunk tasted like a flat orange soda. The mage player went on a monologue chant for his fans and of what was to come. I didn't feel like talking to anyone, not even my viewers. I wanted to message my family.
I wanted to be with them. Even if it meant doing crafting in the city instead of adventuring.
But because I didn't grab a balaclava, I had no means of message them. Why didn't I just grab it and do the quest before breaking into that building? My priorities were wrong again as I looked at the stream numbers. I was making them happy, but not the kids. I couldn't live old times gaming without a care - because I now cared about others.
I looked over at my quests and mission to get to my kids. Grab hell dirt, solve what was with the mushrooms, and wrap up the class quest immediately. Then I could suck up my pride and ask Triangle for money to get home. I'd work my butt off to help him make that money back in interest.
But for now I was out here in hell alone, conning a paladin out of his funds, becoming a thief, and teaming up with someone I rather not be in the same league with.
This wasn't the game I wanted. All my actions created this scenario.
The timer on the box continued counting down. I had to get moving and give it to Bearita, and pray that's what she was looking for. Then I could shake off Alcender and get back to my main quests…
My fingers twitched as I went in circles, mentally repeating this. I lost us a full day at this point because I was failing to focus on one thing.
It didn't help Alcender had fun blinding me with his torchlight on his hat. The spots took forever to go away from my vision. Like annoying eye floaters, but were multiplying.
Alcender looked up at me, again flooding spots in my eyes. "Follow me. There's another gather spot up ahead and then we can walk back to town."
"No, I need to get back now." I explained. "I can't be going gallivanting about the hillsides of hell."
"Gallivant… that's an old slang." He changed his voice to mock some ninety-year-old smoker, "But you can 'skedaddle' back to town and off my server." His voice went back to its energetic annoyance. "Is that how you old folks use it? Warning old guy, know that without me sweeping the area with this." He tapped his head. "Hell will hunt you sooner than later."
I listened and sure enough, between the howling and maybe that purple light, the monsters of hell stopped howling. But I didn't know if that was because of his hat or I drank the bleed potion and was healing up on health. I tried blocking the light from his torch with my palm to talk to him. It felt like I was creating horse blinders. "What is with the purple flame, anyway?"
"It's just condensed pond water that's lying around. It's like the stuff in your box."
"And why do you have the key?" I doubt anything he was telling me the truth.
"I got it for my class quest. The box is supposed to be my reward once I finish a few things. I'm an alchemist and I need ingredients, like those mushrooms." Alcender pointed a gloved hand out to a small hill in the bog.
Further down it, I could see the fog of hell and hints of the pillars of stone dancing in and out. Beneath us were shelves and shelves of puff ball mushrooms. The repeated visits by visitors led to the formation of a small set of stairs along the hill, following the mushroom shelf wall.
Alcender walked down the stairs like he had done this hundreds of times and didn't care about the buff. "You coming?" He called to me.
"I don't like fungi."
He hummed a tune, "Clearly." He popped the mushrooms in his bag, pointing one up at me. "Its just spores."
The light brown bulbous top puffed out, and he gasped and dropped it quickly and backed away to another step with more precaution. From where I stood, I could see the properties of the mushrooms. They were definitely the Helitical Shrooms. I knew that the luck buff was full of lies.
"The, uh smell lingers for a bit. Have you seen these mushrooms before?" Alcender moved to a new shelf of shrooms, trying to save face as he got scared of them.
"Nope, first time outside of my continent." I answered.
"Which one?"
"Fanamel." I stepped closer to the mushrooms on the opposite side of Alcender. If I didn't breathe, could I take one into my inventory for Triangle to study? He might find a cure for the bad debuff, one that didn't require us to pray to a god. Just had to let him know to be safe. I gently, through black spots in my vision, I cut the stem of a collection of them with my axe. Watching the minute amount of particles floating in the air. I grabbed them and waited for them to switch to my inventory, stepped back, and took a breath. My status buff's didn't update.
"You seem to recognize these. Are you an herbalist? Why are you after the mushrooms?"
I didn't answer him until I climbed back up to the box area. "No, but a guild mate of mine is into alchemy."
"In Fanamel? What's your guild? I'm from there!"
"Uh, we are a closed group." I started scooping up some dirt by my feet. The wall of hell was right there. We had to be close enough. I looked at the properties.
>>><<<
[(Item, common) Demonic Dirt: This soil is rich in hellish deeds. The dead are full of them. This is dirt. Don't eat it. It can make one hell of a mud pie when wet.]
>>><<<
Alcender waved his hand, forgetting about the spore in his hands again and tossing it closer in my direction. He moved to another safe area before talking. "Sorry! I'm not trying to join. I'm from the guild The Pantheon and enjoy working with them. What was your guild's name?"
My eyes narrowed; I couldn't lie. The trolls of my stream would hop on over to him and tell the truth. But everything about this exchange felt dirty. "Doesn't matter. That's great you got out of that town. It's pretty low level, it feels like."
"It's not meant to be an adventuring town. Surprised someone found the herbalist."
The words came out as a threat, one I stepped away from. Walking back up the slope was hard with my vision. It wasn't like I had a headache, but the spots took up a bigger portion of my vision than I liked. I pulled up my debuffs to figure out what was going on.
>>><<<
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
[Quest Update: What's in the box? You would think with an overhanging timer on you, would learn to focus and get a job done before it goes down. But no, you need to narrow in on the problem better. Bring the box back to its target.
Failure: As time passes by, your vision will narrow down.
Reward: You'll learn about the box.]
>>><<<
If I give the box to Alcender, I could be done and save my vision. Then I would fail Bearita's quest. That meant I couldn't leave him if it was truly his box.
"I'm going to head back," I declared. "Meet up with me in town and I will split the rewards by the four pillars."
Alcender stumbled about with his supplies as he caught up to me. He kept placing the mushrooms in this odd orange cooler box. A logo of "A.C.D.C." was on it with some tiny font reading "Air Controlled Demonic Container."
He called to me. "Wait up. I'm done. Thanks for letting me grab that. Can't spend too long doing that or the viewers get bored. Do you stream?"
I could hear snarls and yips of demons getting closer. "You sure that light is working to keeping them away? Fighting with this giant box in my arms is going to suck."
"This is why low-level adventurers like you should stay in Fanamel. You don't know what's out there and you can't handle it," Alcender exclaimed with a sigh.
"Ha, that's what you think. My guild can handle themselves." If only he knew about the legendary quest we were working on. How Naiad lead in solving critical parts - and kept us alive. Her desire to study nature saved us. Triangle probably would've made friends with the imps somehow.
Alcender was meandering about our way out of the bog to a direction, and I couldn't help but notice how we weren't going even in a straight line. As I opened up my mouth to say something, I heard a squelching near and behind us.
A lack of howling was happening as I felt the wind stir. Demons of some sort were following us. Or this was all a trap. I took off running with the box fast and changed directions.
"Where are you going?" Alcender shouted.
His shout gave his position away completely. I didn't see what happened. I only heard him scream as the demons crashed down on him. My helmet crashed and rattled against my head as something hit it.
I stumbled and dropped the box, adjusted my helmet and looked up just as broad, gray owl wings came dove at me again. I brought my arm up to block the attack, forgetting I hadn't equipped the shield.
The talons ripped across my arm, threatening to take the whole limb.
>>><<<
[Level 14 Creature: Aulley, Variant type: The knight owl (epic). Type: Hell
Description: Larger than the base aulley, this is a soldier of hell with the most honor. It glides through the air silently and ready to hunt anything that invades its territory. Also, an excellent tracker for the god of Kujira.]
>>><<<
I swung my axe up at the bird and it backed up into the sky. Quickly I chugged my last minor health potion. I wasn't the fastest drinker, and two silent hunters dove at me.
The moment I finished the potion bottle, I tossed it up at the birds. They stopped and diverted away from it and further from me.
"Ha!" I mocked them as I grabbed my shield out.
The aulley only moved to make room for a larger Knight Owl chasing after me.
To make room for a larger knight owl chasing down after me.
>>><<<
[Level 14 Creature: Aulley, Variant type: The Templar Owl (unique). Type: Hell
Description: This big bad O.W.L. is going to chew you up and make you its next pellet. To achieve this status, an aulley knight owl has journeyed through earth and back to hell, a journey that always comes at a price, like its lovely appearance.
>>><<<
My shield barely made it up in time as the beast crashed down on me. The templar owl green ghastly eyes glowed as half of its feathers and skin were missing, revealing the powerful muscle flexing around its beak that snapped at my head.
With a grunt, I pushed back on the bird and swung my axe at its bald head. The templar owl pushed off my shield, evading the hit. The moment caused my shoulder to be exposed, and it went reaching back for a piercing attack with its beak.
>>><<<
[Debuff: You're now poisoned! Like a bleed effect, you'll lose a portion of your health. As a bonus, the poison reduces your stamina and mana regeneration rate by 5%.]
>>><<<
I moved the notification aside and focused on the stupid animal flapping at me. Turning to keep the bird in front of me and worried about the other aulley around. My position exposed my back. There was no wall or tree to keep up against. Again, I over relied on needing Naiad to defend me, but she wasn't here.
Gliding in and out of the black spots of my vision, I almost missed the other aulley swooping down on me again.
I completely missed the second one.
"Crap!" I shouted as the talons scraped across my back and helmet again.
Blindly, I swatted my axe around and hugged my shield tighter to me, getting lower on the ground. The three birds danced around, trying to time their attacks to counter mine. My potion timer was coming up, and I had to decide between the speed or health potion. Run away, or stay and fight.
>>><<<
[System notification: While on the top page, your stream has hit ten thousand subscribers.]
>>><<<
There was no time to celebrate this amazing and annoying notification. There was too much happening in my life and adding the stream notice was only another problem. I couldn't stay focused on the real problem. My to-do gaming list grew and distracted me too much from my goal.
Poison ticked my health down and more mobs were showing up. I couldn't see them, but I could hear them.
"Bird brains, come get it!" I screamed in frustration.
The Templar whooed at me and flapped its wings for an air attack. The fog gathered in front of me and the shadows danced in and out with the spots in my vision.
"Ugh, stupid box quest." I grumbled and shut up. These creatures were normally quiet, and I had to listen and feel the wind to react to them.
A beam of yellow light shot above my head, hitting the Templar before it crashed down. The attack sizzled the feathers on the aulley. The surrounding fog disappeared with the attack and the birds stopped.
"Grab the box and run!" shouted Alcender. He turned and tossed an object at the grouped minotaurs near him.
The sound of shattering glass disappointed me. I had hoped for Triangle's Jingle bombs to save me.
Instead, more stupid, dense greenish fog came billowing out in the direction he threw the bottle. The minotaurs' eyes turned bloody red, and they billowed out in the air for battle.
Then they swung their fists and weapons at each other. A blood rage spell, making them so angry they attacked the first thing in sight.
I put my axe away, keeping my shield out, as I grabbed the box as another light beam struck the aulleys flying above me. I ran behind Alcender like a coward. Through gritted teeth, I said, "Thanks for the save."
"Yeah, try ditching me less."
A guilt sunk into my stomach. I'm an adult running from a young kid really who knew nothing of the world. An idiot like I was in college.
"I've got a heal poison potion for seven hundred." Alcender offered.
My guilt vanished, as I chugged a healing potion as my answer back to him.
"That won't fix it," he said in a singsong voice, swinging his wand back and forth with the beat.
"Less talking and more shooting." I screamed as another owl set came down for us. I raised my shield up and he reached over me to shoot at them.
"Can't you do anything useful?" He complained again.
I would not throw my shield or axe for this guy. "I'm carrying the box. Which way to town?"
He pointed in front of me and underneath the aulley. "They won't let us in unless you put on the balaclava."
I shrugged. "They did earlier and this box will have them going after me anyway. Why don't you just take it?" I raised the shield up as another attack came from above.
It clattered loudly against the enforced ceramic heater shield as a minotaur followed up by throwing their axe at us. "We need another in," I notified Alcender.
"Ugh. This better be worth it." Alcender said. He tossed another potion of fog. This was an odd dark yellow at the monsters. "Run!"
He ran slower than me, even though I carried the box.
"You're a mage. Can't you cast spells to damage them? I'll cover," I offered.
"Says the warrior who tried throwing his axe at birds!" he accused back.
"No, I didn't! It's been a while since I threw it." I wanted to give him a side eye, but couldn't see him anyway. How did he know about my habit of throwing my axes if I never did it in front of him?
It had been too chaotic for me to recall anything. My hands tightened around the grip of my shield. Was I getting too old to keep track of it all? The to-do gaming list grew in my mind, with the top being about the kids, but did a few items slip off it?
"Keep your voice down, and just follow me." Alcender puffed out, exhausted from the run. "I should've brought better fighters."
The purple light that guided us vanished into the fog around as Alcender turned it off. "This way and stay close and quiet." He hissed like a snake.
I really didn't want to be near him anymore. He saved me now, but always at a high cost. I got down to below half heath and chugged a greater health potion. The fog was too thick to make that an option, so I stayed near enough to smell the singe of smoke coming off the torchlight, an odd aromatic smell.
The wall of Purge appeared at last, the brick and mortar thick to withstand attacks from monitaurs, but I wondered how they were keeping the aulley at bay. Torches lined the wall, their purple hazy light reached down to us along with the smell of rosemary.
Alcender pointed to a line drawn in the muddy ground. With exaggerating large step, he walked over it, and pointed at me to do the same. I tip toed like a ballet dancer over it. It made him laugh, that I gave a curtsy in response.
The great Alcender snorted and covered his mouth. "Shhh."
He waved his wand around, tapping the wall slowly, a small blue light glowing on the tip. It grew brighter three more steps away, and he walked right through the wall.
I followed behind him, with my shield out ready because I still didn't trust him.
Inside the dark room stood four guards, pointing a set of swords and wands at us.