Demonic Magician

Fiona planned to abandon the camp after scouring it for anything of use. The group that had gone west during the day had taken everything with them - not entirely odd given we had an intangible Inventory to hold everything in anyway. The ones who had left in the night… had left remnants of their existence.

Which was odd.

Ren stood nearby, her hands on her hips as she scowled at the spent campfire. “They were here, sitting on these two chairs?”

I nodded and looked back in the direction of the sectioned off area where the shower was. Even in the darkness, they would have been able to see me come and go. They waited until I was back in the tent perhaps, but there still would have been someone at the front entrance on watch. Why Fiona expected most assaults to come straight down the road rather than flank through the woods as the zombies had done was neither here nor there. No point beating up someone already broken.

“Anything you can track, Wolf?” I looked back at the bear and he started to sniff around the chairs.

“There are some tracks.” Ren blinked at the ground where grass had been scoured away. “West, at least to start with.”

“That’s where we’re headed too?” I raised an eyebrow at Quinn, and he just nodded in response. If they had joined the Crimson Shadow, then I would have expected them to have gone north to join the others, or head toward Candlekeep to assist the weakened Lady.

I grunted and withdrew some paper and a pencil from my Inventory. “Quinn, could you go prod Fiona or Magnus about any details on the two groups. Classes or abilities. We’ll head out soon. I just want to gather what information we can.”

“Of course, Max.” He gave a brief bow and took the things before walking away.

“Can never have one normal day, can we trickster?”

I gave the elf a slight smile. “It’s hard to imagine there is such a thing, given the company we keep.”

In an odd display of something other than disdain for the waking day, she instead just pouted, still with hands on hips. No quip or further thought was offered.

With a snuff of his large nose, Wolf shook himself out and looked up at us. “Two stronger scents, male, there are a handful of other weaker smells that I cannot place.”

“Handful,” I repeated. It was possible that, other than the group of five, people could have walked this way just as we had. “And they head west, like Ren says?”

He returned his snout to the ground and started to move, trying to draw out any scent over what I imagined was a campground full of undeath and desperation. He wasn’t wearing his hat or waistcoat today, and I’d prod him on why once business was over.

“I feel bad for Fiona,” Ren eventually said, relaxing her arms. “I considered asking them to travel with us. System might limit parties to five, but we can move about as more than that, right?”

I nodded. We may still be reeling from the inclusion of Quinn to our stage show, but it seemed cold hearted to leave others to the wolves just because we had a theme we had attached our mental safety to.

“But…” she continued. “You could see it in their eyes too, I bet.”

The wind hadn’t just been knocked from their sails, the whole mast had been torn off and thrown into the endless sea. “They don’t have the heart to fight.”

She nodded, and anything else didn’t need to be said. Better they be safe and have time to grieve than to be dragged along in our wake. Being drawn to conflict was one thing, but we were steeped in it. Taking on all odds because we believe we were better than them. That we could survive them because of Wolf’s indomitable constitution, Ren’s unerring aim, and my complete inability to let the System tell me what was possible.

Oh, and Quinn could blow things up.

“You want to see them off to the bridge, though?” She looked back at me and there was some amount of sadness in her eyes. Not something I’d seen often, and even if my initial answer had been no, I melted under that gaze.

“I’d feel a lot better if we did.” I smiled. The first area would do well to have a few higher level Players about in case something untoward was going on.

She smiled, if only briefly. “We’re becoming soft, trickster.”

The way my stomach did a small flip at being referred to as a ‘we’ signaled there may be some truth to the statement, yet I did not want to admit it. “Your perception of time may be awry, Ren.” I gestured for us to walk after the bear. “Was it not yesterday we killed hundreds of monsters and I murdered a demon?”

“That’s barely anything, in the grand scheme of things.” She shrugged and followed along. “If you’re not killing whole parties and swearing while your eyes blaze purple, then it’s all rather… pedestrian.”

The glint in her bright blue eyes told me she rather liked the dangerous side of me. I did too; I supposed. Ordinary Magician Max wouldn’t have made it this far, of that I was certain. Demon Hunter Max had the skills to keep us afloat, despite his rough edges. I just had to temper the two sides of me so that I remained affable and intact.

“Pedestrian is nice sometimes,” I eventually said, as we reached the bear. “Gives us time to work on our… entrance.”

She avoided my look, so I turned to Wolf instead. “Thoughts?”

“I feel like shouting at the enemy isn’t the best way to reveal ourselves.” He looked up at me with his amber eyes. “Plus, for that one, I have to be stationary. Which is boring.”

I nodded slowly. “And the tracks?”

“They head into the woods and then are harder to track. Either because of the zombies or they used something to hide better.” He shrugged his large shoulders and then sat down on the dirt.

The rejuvenating energy the coffee had provided was starting to wane already. While I rubbed at my temples, I freed my mind to wander. The undead were most likely System-created that could be summoned and controlled. Although I had glossed over their details during the attack due to the tired surprise of their arrival, they had all looked rather generic.

As if they were all made from the same three to four ‘villager’ presets from one of the towns. All human, plain clothing, and no remarkably outstanding visuals that would give away that they had been Players. Something of a relief. The world was terrible enough without worrying about the corpses of those fallen coming back for a second time to try to bury me.

“No sense chasing ghosts,” I said eventually, giving them a shrug.

“Pretty sure they were zombies, trickster.” Ren turned away from me, perhaps to hide an expression of amusement, but I followed her gaze to see Quinn approaching us.

“Got the list for you, Max.” He smiled and handed it over. “Magnus was very helpful.”

"Fantastic. We found that the second group left this way last night, but the trail goes cold.” I took the list from him and had a cursory glance before placing it in my Inventory. Enough to recognize the groups if we saw them, but I’d study their known abilities later.

“We’re actually going to go back and escort them to the bridge,” Ren added. “Make sure they get there safely.”

He nodded. “Very kind of you both. I believe they are about ready. They wanted to speak with us anyway, before we parted.”

We left the edge of the campground and followed him without much to say. Plenty was going on within our heads. I gave Wolf a pat on the side as we went through the tents. He was a little grumpy about not being able to chew through the enemies last night, I could tell. There would be plenty of enemies ahead, even if we took a step back and focused on leveling on Monsters.

As we circled around the last of the tents, we came across the trio of survivors. They still looked weary, with exhaustion and guilt on their faces.

“Anything?” Fiona asked.

I shook my head. “They left toward the west, but there’s no solid trail outside of the camp.”

She nodded slowly. “Was hoping for… I don’t know, honestly.” With a sigh, she put a hand on the goblin’s shoulder. “We’d like to stay in contact, if that’s okay? We’re no good to you at present, but the future might be brighter, even if bloody.”

“Of course.” I smiled.

Her brow furrowed as her eyes unfocused, looking at her STAR menus. “It’s not letting me add either of you as a contact?”

I exchanged a glance with the elf. For once, she seemed just as confused as I was. “There are contacts and messaging in the System?”

Fiona looked away from her screens and narrowed her eyes at me. “Yeah… pretty early on there’s a questline that… you didn’t really do Quests, did you?”

Ren tilted her hat down slightly. “Guilty.”

Ah. So there was a way for us to stay in contact. We had just blazed past it in trying to level and address the Crimson Shadow problems. Somewhat awkward, and it made me wonder if there was anything else important we might have avoided in our ascension.

Quinn cleared his throat. “There might be a way I can help you there. If you give me your details, I can then pass them on when the others have it unlocked?”

The fighter shrugged. “Reasonable. I hadn’t assumed you to be the responsible one of the group, but perhaps you can steer them straight.”

He didn’t appear to want to bear that burden, but gave us a sheepish grin as he exchanged details with her.

“We’re going to escort you to the bridge,” Ren said, to change the subject away from our incompetencies. “If that’s okay?”

Ruby nodded while Fiona was busy in menus. “Of course, that would be nice, actually. Ah… we haven’t buried the other two yet.” Her face contorted into a grimace, something unlike her.

“Quinn and I are journeyman gravekeepers. We’ll help you there.” I winced, not intending for that to sound so casual and humorous.

Wolf grunted. “I will assist.”

I noted he wasn’t currently staring at Magnus for a change, although Quinn had taken up that mantle. Despite it still being so early in the day, I felt spent already. A new morning and more enemies and hardship. Still, places we could improve and a clear plan for us to go ahead.

Part of me was itchy to get into combat again. Sometimes that made things easier - you often knew where you stood in a fight, and didn’t have the time to be morose over the fallen and state of the world. Or how we missed out on a key point of the System. We’d have to pull Quinn aside and see if there was anything else we had avoided along the way.

Fiona nodded. “We’ll do it together. They were our party and friends, but I will not turn away any assistance in putting them to rest.”

I wanted to believe that death took us somewhere nice after. Back to our own worlds, maybe. That opened up questions on what the System was, some things that I had been putting away in the back of my mind so that I didn’t go mad thinking over it. My own suspension of belief was often hard at work to allow me to function here.

“We’re leaving the camp as it is,” Fiona continued. “Take anything left that you want, but I doubt there’s much useful.”

“I have a few potions you can have,” Ruby offered.

I held up my hand. Letting me loose around the camp to loot all the oddities I could use in my tricks was prize enough. “I don’t want to deny you anything you may need. We’ll be fine.”

“It’s okay, Max.” The goblin withdrew a pouch stuffed with six glass vials. “I can replace this stuff no problem once we’re settled back in the town.”

I smiled and took them, giving the small goblin a low bow. “I thank you, then.” As I rose, a sheepish grin took my face. “Which makes me feel terrible, as all I had to offer you three was a request.”

“Oh?” Fiona raised an eyebrow. “What would you ask of us?”

“Once you’re all settled, if you could make sure the area is going well for new Players? Get the bridge cleared properly. There’s an outpost that needs rebuilding if the System hasn’t done it… I know it’s a lot to ask.”

Her expression relaxed. “We’ll do what we can and keep you updated. You’ve got a good soul under all that gaudy asshole stuff, huh?” Her eyes briefly went over to Ren before returning to me. “Some things make more sense now.”

“I’d prefer that violence wasn’t the answer,” I lied, “but the Shadows keep asking the wrong questions where I have no choice.” Well, not a total lie. A life without hardship would be preferable, but until that was possible, I’d do what it took to survive.

Ruby rubbed her pointed chin. “If you could get in contact with someone from the third area, they might be able to come help you with the Lady? We don’t know of anyone, unfortunately.”

I nodded. That would be preferable - there must be a decent number of max level Players in the world. Having them roll through and crush the Lady’s uprising would be a lot less stressful for our little group. Although… something about that had a weird taste to it. Not that we wouldn’t get the glory, but the third area was an unknown. How populated was the System? I felt whatever answers I’d eventually get would be uncomfortable and dire.

Perhaps I shouldn’t let the mood control the unknowns.

With little else to share, we agreed to go off and do the needful to put their fallen to rest. Having shuffled them around the outside of the camp toward the place Rolo was buried wasn’t the most secure given we were dealing with a necromancer, but in the stress and grief of the aftermath, it was all they could manage.

I turned back to look at the camp as we reached the gates. Seemed odd with it being so empty now. A place abandoned under the constant pressure of those ruined by the System.

Quinn put his hand on my shoulder as the others passed ahead. “In time, new life will bloom here. I believe it.”

I wasn’t so sure, but I gave him a brief nod, and we caught the others up.

Ren had turned, giving me a scowl. Something wasn’t right.

I approached to see the trio tense. Confused. On the ground, the corpse of the elven man they had left. But he was the only one.

Clive’s body was missing.