The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 36: Bleeding the Wounded

Few players visited the thick fog and old, large trees on the far-West side of the woods. There were barely any NPCs, and none of them gave quests. The stillness and fog hovered eerily over the ground, which was littered with fallen leaves. Crucis saw a few clumps of blackened, dead trees, as he cautiously made his way through the fog. He had gone some distance West of where Hiroto had told him to go, because he was looking for the cottage.

As he ducked under a low-hanging vine, he heard the sound of a sword clashing loudly against a tree. This was probably another player, but Crucis wondered what had brought this player all the way to this side of the woods. Crouching and quietly shuffling in the direction of the noise, Crucis glimpsed a level 37 player named [Keene]. The player was grinding on a small mob of level 25 [Young Silver Monitor Lizard], and was part of a Guild named [Samizdat] that Crucis didn't recognise. Keene would occasionally glance to the side as if checking on something, and Crucis guessed that the player was doing a quest involving these lizards. Cautiously observing from within the fog, Crucis ascertained that Keene was a warrior of the [ArchKnight] sub-class, and had been grinding here undisturbed for a while. There were a few other small mobs in the distance, and it was likely that there would be a few other players nearby.

Crucis glimpsed a [Young Silver Monitor Lizard] slinking along the ground towards Keene. The lizard crawled across the ground like a ray of brilliant silver light, and from the fog looked as if it were a walking will-o'-wisp. Crucis saw it raise its upper body to tackle Keene's chest, but the warrior struck it away with a [Stunning Blow], a sharp diagonal strike from the upper-left, and then lined up a [Strong blow] to strike the lizard to the ground. After that, a [Lunge] was enough to kill this lizard. The [Young Silver Monitor Lizard] seemed to spawn slowly, and Crucis noticed that there was usually only one or two at a time for Keene to fight.

Crucis tried to edge closer behind a group of trees, but Keene saw him emerging from the fog. Keene began walking up to the trees which Crucis stood behind, with sword readied. Crucis saw that Keene's sword was quite thin towards the centre, and had a black hilt. As Keene began pushing leaves aside to look for the player and prepared an overhead strike, Crucis used a quick [Slash] at the shoulder of the warrior's sword arm, which the warrior firmly parried. Crucis backstepped quickly away, wielding his [Black Cursed Draugr Sword].

"Are you a DeathGang guy or something? I'll kill you!" shouted the warrior, who held his sword at shoulder-height.

Crucis calmly used [Warding], and prepared a [Wrath strike], holding his blade behind his right shoulder until its tip pointed towards the left. He stood at the edge of the fog, and the Arch-Knight followed him.

"You going to chase me through the fog?" taunted Crucis, backstepping carefully into the nearby fog and glancing behind his shoulder occasionally as if preparing to run.

Keene quickly pursued the Assassin, but soon a sword came flashing out of the fog angling towards the pursuing Arch-Knight's head. While Keene quickly used [Parry], holding his blade horizontally just above shoulder-height and blocking the incoming [Wrath strike], Crucis swiftly stepped forwards and transitioned into a [Lunge] at Keene's face which tore a large gash across the nose and cheek. He had noticed that, despite Keene's parry, his own sword was still pointed at the warrior's face. As Keene screamed out, Crucis used [Sword hold] to grab the warrior's sword, and then swivelled his own sword towards the left to use [Thrash] just above the inside elbow of Keene's sword arm. Hacking at the warrior's arm thrice tore an ugly cut in the warrior's arm, with the [Thrash] not cutting cleanly but instead hacking painfully at the wounded arm. Keene screeched and let go of the sword, and Crucis flung it away far to the left.

As the warrior scrambled to try and run, he almost fell forwards to the ground and kept himself standing with his outstretched arms. Crucis used [Agile Step] to approach the leaning warrior, and used a firm [Overhead slash] to strike the back of Keene's neck as the warrior tried to stand up again. The warrior was now on only 7% HP, but was bleeding profusely. Crucis saw the shape of a female approaching from the distance, and guessed that the loud warrior had caught someone's attention. He grabbed the warrior's arm and dragged them harshly into the fog, in order to make the corpse harder to find. As the warrior struggled, and attempted to punch, Crucis delivered a firm [Slash] to the warrior's arm to stop the attack. He then grabbed the warrior in a [Chokehold], and kicked Keene flat face-first against the ground.

Tightening the chokehold to keep the warrior quiet, Crucis nonchalantly whispered, "It's very gracious of you to look so sad after killing me."

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He then used [Slice] to cut deeper into the wound on the back of the warrior's neck, causing Keene's body to enter a series of spasms before lying limp and dead on the ground.

Crucis got to his feet, and saw that the warrior's body was barely visible in the thick fog. Noticing that the female's footsteps were growing closer, Crucis fled carefully into the fog to his right, then circled around on the right side to check if the female managed to figure out what had happened. He saw that the female was from a Guild named [Honorable]. Seemingly, players from smaller Guilds were gathering in this part of the woods, and Crucis guessed that this was due to a few quests he had heard of which allowed a Guild to develop. Guild quests allowed a newer Guild to level up, unlocking additional features and more Guild Storage space. Guilds could also level up by having many active members, or having powerful members that could complete high-level dungeons. However, since players were now trapped here and unable to switch Guilds, he wasn't surprised that players were trying to develop the small Guilds that they were trapped in.

The female was named [MissQi], and had long, blonde hair. Her skin looked pale as she waded into the fog.

"Hey, are you out there anyone? Are you okay?" she called out into the fog, with a slight Korean accent.

Crucis slowly approached MissQi, and called out softly, "Be careful, there's a dangerous boss out there!"

"Ahhh!" MissQi exclaimed, as she backpedaled clumsily, "Those things hurt, don't they?"

"Yeah, it's not safe for you, miss. He just killed my Guildie."

"That's terrible! Are you okay?"

Crucis approached MissQi, hidden by the fog. He drew out his [Silver Crucifix Dagger]. MissQi was trying to make their way back to safety, but had gotten slightly lost while searching through the fog. Crucis could make out that she was only level 21.

He crept up behind her using [Stealth Cloak], as she was trying to inspect her map through the fog, and aimed a quick [Stunning Dagger] into her left shoulder. Catching her in a [Chokehold], he used his left arm to grab the map and shove it into her face to block her vision. He heard her swear loudly, and smiled.

He sliced a small gash across the front of her neck with [Black Spot], then used [Dagger Twist] to deepen it. By now, she was only on 40% HP. He saw her withdraw a sword from her side, so he kicked her feet away and let her fall to the ground.

"What? This is crazy! Who's there, is this the boss?" shouted MissQi.

She rolled around to look for her assailant, while clutching at her neck. Crucis had backstepped into the mist, and she couldn't see him.

Using [Figure Blur], Crucis approached again, and used [Stunning Dagger] to stab through MissQi's sword hand. Placing a foot upon her neck, he aimed a precise [Panoramic Strike] at the hand, drawing the wound deeper with another stab, and then used [Dagger Twist]. By this point, she was down to 15% HP and could barely use her sword, but Crucis saw that in a couple of seconds she had somehow healed to 45% HP. He withdrew the [Vile Toxin Gas] and patiently sprayed it across the wounds on her neck and hand, then crouched behind her head and carefully placed his dagger near the wound on her neck. Using [Ripper], he dragged his dagger across her skin and tore the wound larger until it was almost a semi-circle. She was back down to 15% HP, and her healing had only subjected her to more pain. Crucis heard her trying to scream, as her body writhed and beat furiously but weakly on the ground.

Crucis pulled on her long hair, which was now trailing behind her head. He pulled it from near the scalp, until the wounds on her neck started to widen. Her head almost seemed to detach from her body, but hung on loosely across her torn neck. She could barely make a sound. Finally, he picked up some soil and sprinkled it across her injured neck, and her body thrashed against the ground due to pain. He saw that she was trying to flail at him with her left arm, which had a wedding ring on it, so he stepped back and away from her.

Withdrawing some [Bowstring] from his inventory, he used [Stealth Cloak] to approach MissQi and stepped on her forehead as he wrapped the Bowstring around her neck. He held this and made a tight noose around her neck, then used [Forceful Kick] to jolt her head firmly to the left side. She let out a half-screech, then died from bleeding after two seconds.

Crucis looked across the surrounding area, as he exited the fog, and didn't see anyone else approaching. The bodies would be hidden by the fog, so it was possible that nobody would find out about them in the near future. MissQi had caused him some concern by appearing during his fight with Keene, so he was glad that this fight was over.

Leafing through his inventory to check on the loot from these fights, he found an item named [The Empress Card]. Curiously, he read the description:

[Allows you to copy one skill from a non-player opponent who is below your level, and use it in battle through the card. Reversed, it has a 50% chance to heal you by a random amount between 10%-40% HP when your HP is lower than 20% in a fight. This can only be used once during a fight!]

He assumed that some skills would be disallowed, so he considered which skills might be worth activating with this card. He doubted that it would be possible to copy [Sensei is Displeased], but he remembered the Sensei boss also using another attack that strongly reduced movement speed. He decided that, since debuffs were permitted in combat, it was worth checking if he could copy this skill. While it would probably not be allowed in Kruxol Arena, it would definitely be helpful when ganking, as his prey would find it more difficult to get away. He was slightly surprised at first to hear that MissQi was a heavy spender with a card from the lottery, in spite of her low level. However, he found a reasonable amount of alcohol in her inventory, as well as a small notepad with a list of names and phone numbers on it, and guessed that she had been living a socialite life and hence not levelling up quickly.

Scanning through the list of names, Crucis saw a few notes scribbled next to players' names. A few of the notes were in Korean, and he couldn't understand them, but some were in English. Trying to decipher MissQi's flowery handwriting, he saw that a few of the males had been marked 'RICH!!!' and guessed that these were probably heavy spenders. He saw that a few players were marked as 'RICH!!!' and also had notes indicating that they mostly stayed in bars when they played. These players could be easy targets with valuable items, so Crucis wrote down their names in his own notebook. He saw that SkyGabriel was one of them. He saw that one of the players was named [GeoHu] and had the note 'LOTTERY WINNER! I'M JEALOUS!!!' next to it. Crucis recognised the name, [GeoHu] was one of the top 50 players on the ranking and already over level 60.

He wouldn't be able to kill GeoHu, but decided that this might be useful information for the Hashin. After all, thinning out the ranks of top spenders, whom he could barely hope to keep up with, would also benefit him in the long run. Even if other players were ahead of him, he could often even the field with cunning or good gameplay, and had a decent chance of catching up. Spenders were designed to bypass that, and had OP equipment and items to keep them safe from better players. While they could still be defeated on occasion, they were nonetheless provided with advantages to mitigate or nullify the chance of better players. This created insurmountable limits to Crucis' approach, so he figured that reducing the amount of whales could be useful. Since GeoHu was still levelling up quickly and hence entering the wild, Crucis guessed that he might be vulnerable to the Hashin.

Crucis found that he had also obtained three fragments of a [Silver Scale Scabbard] artifact from Keene, probably a very rare drop from the [Young Silver Monitor Lizard]. He would need 100 fragments to actually get the artifact, so this wasn't very useful at present. More valuable were a handful of high-quality gems from MissQi, and a pair of [Premium Hunter Gloves] from Keene. The [Premium Hunter Gloves] added a 20% boost to all stats when you were attacking an animal that was caught in a trap. Crucis had noticed that Keene moved quite quickly for a warrior, and it is likely that Agility boosts from the Hunting tradeskill had contributed to this. These gloves would make it easier for Crucis to train in that tradeskill later.

He had also received 50,000 gold, and Keene's thin sword named [Whisper]. This black-hilted sword had a chance to deal extra damage based on the user's INT stat, and then convert 10% of this damage into HP for the user. Crucis kept it in his inventory, adjudging that it was worse than the swords which he already had. This sword would need INT, DEX, and STR to all be high, and generally this wasn't practical. It also made it more difficult to intercept blows, since it had less area to catch other blades with. He wondered why this warrior would be wielding it at all, since more powerful swords weren't difficult to acquire, and supposed that the player might have been using it because it was rare.

Walking slowly across the edge of the fog, Crucis soon glimpsed a cottage in the distance, identical to the one which he had visited previously to receive a quest. He kept closely to the tree-line, and scurried cautiously towards the cottage.