Chapter 022

  Waking Suspicions

  Ethan woke up several hours later, once again feeling as though he’d slept away the night in the blink of an eye.

  This time he had difficulty opening his eyes. A massive headache greeted him, along with too much warmth. He’d felt bad types of sicknesses before of course, and he realized the Undead Fever must be starting to hit him.

  It was 8:21 a.m. and a little bit of sun poked in through his one small window. Not a ton, but enough for him to know it wasn’t raining.

  He looked at the scratches on his arms and his chest. They looked extra gnarly, now festering with unnatural purple, red, and black nastiness.

  Mia was asleep sitting in one of the chairs at the table. She was slumped over the top of it and using a jacket as her pillow.

  A little bit of drool hung from her open mouth as she snored. He barely knew the woman, personality-wise. He wouldn’t tell her, but she actually looked kind of cute.

  He guessed she fell asleep due to some combination of boredom from reading, and from a cautious apprehension of the random man she’d suddenly made friends with.

  At least that was what he would think in her shoes. In a game like this it was impossible to know who you could trust.

  He’d saved her from an almost certain death. Then he’d also given her a giant pile of information she probably never would have had such easy access to otherwise.

  On top of that, he hadn’t asked for much in return: just a summary of the information and a friendship. In a world full of ulterior motives, that was probably seen as being highly suspect.

  But he didn’t care. He truly didn’t need or expect anything more from her. Once they were done with the information, the two of them could go their separate ways if she wanted.

  Groaning a bit as he tried to sit up, he felt all the many wounds he’d received. Flexing and stretching as he sat up pulled at the gashes scattered across his skin.

  Mia woke with a startle, having heard him. He watched for a few seconds as she gathered her composure.

  “Morning,” he said.

  She studied him. “How long have you been awake?”

  “A few minutes maybe. Not long.”

  She nodded. “You slept good. You hardly tossed or turned at all. Snore pretty loud though, I gotta be honest.”

  He smirked, deciding not to mention the drooling and snoring she’d been doing.

  There was silence for a few seconds, but the woman didn’t let it get awkward, and he appreciated that.

  “You feeling any of the symptoms from the Undead Fever?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. A little fever, I think, and the wounds are visually infected with some type of nasty festering. I don’t like the looks of that obviously.”

  Mia considered his words for a few seconds, looking over his body from where she remained sitting. Then she glanced across the table to a small jar. It was a little more than half-filled with a yellow substance.

  “I went to Sunflower Apothecary this morning when you were still sleeping. Told the lady what you said last night and mentioned what happened. She said this would start healing it.”

  He didn’t need to ask what it was. Even as Mia picked up the little bottle and came over to hand it to him, he was already identifying it.

  Shadebreaker Serum

  This common elixir is created in small batches using honey, crushed sunflower, holy water, elderflower, bitterroot, and a variety of other less important items. It naturally slowly heals still-living beings of common afflictions such as Undead Fever or Plague Scurvy. Tastes as nasty as you might expect. May require multiple doses.

  “They said you would need two doses.” Mia explained. “You drink the second bottle after twelve hours. But that one cost me two dollars. It was the only one I could afford, in case you were wondering.”

  He held the bottle up at an angle and tried looking through it. The concoction wasn’t thick like honey or syrup, but it did stick to the sides a bit as he tilted it.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Ethan said. “I’ll pay you back just like I said I would. Also, I have no idea where Sunflower Apothecary is. That might be helpful so I can go and get the second one.”

  She nodded, but he could see she wanted to say or ask something more. He wondered why she held back.

  “What?”

  “It’s just… I don’t understand you… like at all.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked. “I have money. I’m not lying about that. I’ll pay you here in just a bit when I get up.”

  She shook her head. “Not that. Why are you being so… nice?”

  “Nice?” Ethan thought about it. “Maybe I am, but isn’t that normal? I mean, I’m treating you like I would any other person I know.”

  “That’s the problem, genius boy, this isn’t the real world. You should be trying to kill me or trying to use me for something.”

  “Nah, that’s a bad strategy, I think.”

  “But why?” she asked, “I saw the way you basically one-hit those vampires. They were higher level than you. Those blade things you threw at them are way overpowered. You could get like half a level worth of experience out of me, probably. It would be easy for you. But instead you treat me…”

  “Like a person?” he finished her words.

  She laughed, but held onto a smile. “Yeah, like a person.”

  He smiled back. “Well, if you really want to know, I think it’s a better strategy to have a small team, at least until we get situated and know what we’re doing. I got lucky with the throwing blades. They’re soul-bound with no level restrictions, and I’m pretty sure they contain a vampire's actual fangs.”

  “So they’re made for killing vampires?”

  “I think so. The point is, I might not have done so well against another player or some different types of NPCs.”

  She nodded again. "I still have way too many questions, but you should probably drink that."

  Ethan looked at the yellow liquid again before opening the cap. He took a big whiff of it and pulled his head away, catching the odor of moldy dirt mixed with a someone's unwiped butt. He definitely didn't smell any honey or flowers.

  He turned his head and smiled. "Yeah. Well, I guess it's just a game, right?"

  Mia shook her head and rolled her eyes. She said nothing as he tipped the bottle and chugged it all down.

  It tasted like honey, so that was nice, but then came the flavor profiles afterwards. The hints of dirt, mold, seeds, and who knew what else lingered in his mouth and made him think of burnt butterscotch more than anything.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  He set the bottle down while smacking his lips, trying to get the taste out. It didn't work, and he had no water to wash the lingering taste away with. He felt a delayed tingling as the liquid oozed through his body, otherwise nothing particularly special seemed to happen.

  Then he climbed to his feet, groaning in pain all along the way.

  "Not too bad that stuff, but I'll make sure to have some water for the second dose. I really do appreciate you going to get it."

  Mia nodded again and turned to look across the table at all the papers she'd organized. At least half the documents had been too badly damaged from the rainwater, and they were no longer legible, the ink smeared or washed away completely.

  Ethan took a five dollar bill from his wallet and set it on the table in front of her. She looked up at him in surprise.

  "Thank you," he said, "I'm serious. I really do mean it."

  "I… don't have any change," she tried to hand the money back to him.

  He shook his head and walked over to the other chair to sit down. "If you need an invoice so you don't feel bad about accepting the money, then listen. Two dollars for the elixir. One dollar for the delivery. Two more dollars for you to summarize whatever you learned from all this."

  She rolled her eyes.

  "I'm serious," Ethan said. "Just accept it as wages for labor or whatever, and let's move on. I'm not hurting for money and you don't owe me anything. Well, except for saving me the hassle of reading this."

  Slowly, she seemed to accept his answer, and she put the money in her own inventory. "It's probably rude of me, but how much money do you have? And how did you get that cool weapon?"

  He laughed. "A bit of luck, honestly. At least, I think so. I started out slow, and with no real direction in mind, but yesterday was a busy day for me. I got quite a bit accomplished even before last night."

  She nodded.

  "Which raises my own curiosity," he said. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but why were you out so late?"

  "Like you, I was trying to finish a mission and lost track of time. There was a player chasing me. Some weirdo named Rooster. But I managed to get away from him. I hid for a while, but when I finally tried to make a run for my place, that was when the two Grimsborough Vampirs started chasing me."

  Ethan acknowledged her story. It was simple and made plenty of sense. That guy Rooster had given him some seriously bad vibes. Just thinking of the dude seemed to make him angry for some reason, and he decided to be blunt with a few choice words.

  "Rooster Normand's on my list of players to kill."

  She seemed surprised he knew the other player. "You ran into him?"

  "Yep," Ethan said, "and luckily it was before I hit level three. Stalvek Dyomin's another one I want to take care of. Well, I'm not necessarily hunting them, but I want to be strong enough so that if I encounter them again they won't be a problem for me."

  Mia smirked. "So you do want to kill other players?"

  Smiling, he said, "Yeah, I know it's part of the game. But they're acting like assholes, so they deserve it. You on the other hand. Players like you and Jason and me, we're playing honorably… or at least fairly. I'm not here to slaughter all the other players. I'm here to survive as long as possible and get a good payout so I don't live in poverty for the rest of my life."

  She nodded. "But if they get in your way or do something you think is wrong?"

  "Dead."

  "Yeah. I think I'm starting to see your angle now."

  He questioned her. "You do?"

  "Yeah. The longer we survive, the fewer total participants there are, and so we would naturally get more viewers watching our stream, which means more money."

  "Exactly what I'm thinking. It's better to just be ourselves than to act all dramatic and exciting for the camera."

  Mia shook her head. "Maybe that is who they are?"

  "Yeah, maybe. But if it is, it'll get them killed the stronger we get."

  Ethan had so much more he could tell her, but he decided to keep his thoughts for the future under wraps. For starters, he wasn't sure they would ever happen, could happen, or when they might be able to happen.

  Starting a new mobster affiliation surely wouldn't be easy, and he figured there was a long road towards that goal. No point in getting stuck in the finer details when he still had tons of basic questions unanswered.

  They talked for another half hour about the Sunflower Apothecary and some of her missions. They'd taken her all over the district to places like Lantern's Pharmacy, City Hall, the Gulf Horizon Newspaper office, and the library.

  Then Ethan shared a bunch of names and locations from his adventures. They had a surprising number of overlapping elements that somehow involved Billy Sadler, Samuel Donovan, and all three of the mobster affiliations.

  The Gulf Horizon Newspaper, it turned out, was owned in part by some large corporation that had their headquarters in another district. Mia was pretty certain the editor only published stories with a particular bias towards something, but since they were both new to this world, they didn't know all those details and histories yet.

  When the conversation started to fizzle out, Mia suggested that she tell him some of what she'd read from the papers.

  "Nah," Ethan said, "not right now. If we wait until later you can tell Jason and me, that way we both learn at the same time."

  She was surprised. "You don't want to know right now?"

  He shook his head. "No. I have to go get some new clothes, finish a couple missions, and do some investigating into my knives."

  Mia somehow became even more confused. "You… don't even know the details of your weapon?"

  He laughed. "No. Not really. Something was off about the guy that sold them to me. Also, as you noticed, they're kinda overpowered for the price I paid, so I just want to ask some questions if I can."

  She nodded. "And what about me? Do I just take all this with me or do I stay here?"

  "Either way is fine," he said, shrugging.

  Mia sighed. "I don't get you, Ethan Jones. You're just going to trust me like this?"

  He laughed again and pointed around his apartment. "What are you going to steal? Some half-ruined papers? It's not like I own anything else."

  She looked around. "I guess that makes sense. Where is this Emma's Kitchen place? And what time do you want to meet?"

  Ethan went about telling her. Both of them agreed on a plan, and Mia ended up staying in his apartment to read the papers. He gave her yet another thanks for having brought him the elixir, and then he left. With any luck, he would see Mia and Jason at Emma's Kitchen around five in the evening.

  Stepping outside at 10:12 a.m., he was relieved to discover it was partially sunny and warm. A cool breeze flowed through the city, and a fair number of NPCs already roamed the streets.

  His first order of business? Going back to O'Malley's. Nichols the shopkeeper had some explaining to do. Like where Sadie's Fangs came from and why they had been so cheap.

  With each day he walked the streets it became easier to simply remember where things were. It was only day three, but before he even realized it, he was just a block away from O'Malley's.

  His torn up clothing, blood stains, and many uncovered wounds attracted plenty of attention from passersby. He thought it was a bit funny, as if the NPCs had never seen the victim of a vampire attack before.

  There was a cop car outside O'Malley's, parked near the front door. He hesitated at first, but decided to go ahead and approach anyway. He'd done nothing wrong at the place, so his only fear might be that Officer Packley was there, and that the man blamed him for some missing investigation folders.

  Sure enough, as he walked closer, he saw Officer Packley speaking with another NPC. The man was short and stout, balding, and had a face that looked angry all the time, with the name Jim O'Malley above his head.

  The officer looked up at Ethan as he neared.

  "Jesus, kid!" Packley said with a fright, his face turning to one of disappointment. "You gave me your word you wouldn't go poking around at Lantern's Pharmacy. Now you look half-dead!"

  Ethan grinned. "Didn't, actually. This is just from a random encounter on my way home. It wasn't even all that late when it happened, honestly."

  The officer grunted, not believing him, but turned back to O'Malley. "Kid thinks this is a game."

  O'Malley furrowed his brows, inspecting him with hawk eyes. "Ain't no game, kid. This whole city's turning into a hell hole! I'm getting robbed every other week it seems, and this guy's not doing a damn thing about it!"

  Ethan looked back to the officer the man pointed at.

  Packley's face turned sour at the insult. "We can only do so much, Jim."

  "Well it ain't enough. And by the way kid, you should probably find a place that sells potions or elixirs. That Undead Fever might not feel too bad right now, but if you let it fester, it might kill you."

  He nodded at the NPC. "Thank you."

  "So listen, Jim…" Officer Packley changed the subject back to the previous conversation they were having. "We got enough information. If anything you listed as stolen eventually turns up somewhere, we'll let you know."

  Jim O'Malley snickered. "Fat chance in hell, huh? But sure, I get it. Now off with ya, copper. I got work to do."

  O'Malley went inside the shop. Officer Packley shook his head and turned towards his Model T police vehicle, then stopped and looked at Ethan again.

  "So you got attacked, is that right?"

  "Yes," he said, "a couple of Grimsborough Vampirs. I barely survived, as you can tell."

  The man looked him up and down. "Yeah, kid. I see that. Like Jim O'Malley said, you might want to find a place that can help you heal that. In the mean time, I got some questions for you."

  Ethan smirked. "Well, I got questions for you, so that makes both of us."

  The officer eyed him. "I'm the one asks questions around here."

  He shook his head, ignoring the statement. "What happened here? The place get robbed?"

  "None of your business, kid, unless you were the one doing the robbing."

  Ethan looked back at him. "Are you accusing me of something?"

  "No, unless you also happen to have a big stack of paperwork that I saw you eyeballing when you came to the station yesterday."

  He gulped. There was no way the officer could actually know that, right? Trying to think on the fly, he made up the first thing that came to mind.

  "What? Like the… oh… the folders Officer Mackson picked up from your office when I was leaving?"

  Packley's face twisted with some thoughts Ethan couldn't even begin to understand.

  "That son of a bit…" he stopped himself, still looking at Ethan. "That actually makes quite a bit of sense. Anyways, it doesn't matter none. You need to stay out of police business and quit sticking your nose where it don't belong. Got it, kid?"

  "Yes, sir," he said, glad to have the officer off his trail.

  Packley climbed in his vehicle and pulled away from the store. Ethan turned to look at the old building he'd gone shopping in the night before.

  Thinking about the whole experience of shopping, and the strange behavior of that Nichols guy, things actually made a lot more sense to him all of a sudden.

  He must have caught the NPC in the act of robbing the place. The guy obviously had no idea what he was doing, but pretended to work there so Ethan would simply buy something and leave.

  Exhaling, he decided not to go inside and ask O'Malley about the mysterious history of Sadie's Fangs.

  If the owner was a real player, Ethan would feel some kind of way about having indirectly stolen from the guy. But, since it was just a non-player character, he would help the owner out by killing Nichols the next time he ran into the thief.