THIRTEEN: THE SPOOKS
(Alex Kross)
After the second Quest, and everyone had had their Awakenings, the final Stats were:
•Tyrone Lee: Pyromancer (Level 18)
Abilities: Pyrokinesis (Lv 12), Flame Boost (Level 6)
Weapons: Mana Infused Spear
• Jennifer Alvarez: The Plague (Level 14)
Abilities: Infection (Lv 10), Antidote (Lv 3)
Weapons: Moon Knives
• Nolan Witshire: The Reaper (Level 16)
Abilities: Overweight (Lv 14), Weightless (Lv 2)
Weapons: Gravity Carbine
• Alex Kross: The Exiled (Level 17)
Abilities: Sprint (Lv 15)
Weapons: Teethed Daggers
I had bought the Teethed Daggers from Store, via Lee. They were certainly an upgrade. They were lighter and faster, but dealing six times as much damage than my old Daggers.
Now we had the next Quest to focus on. We were supposed to collect some Orbs, which were supposed to be scattered around and area. We had to collect 8 Elemental Orbs as a Team or Single, which were scattered around Warrenton. We left the Camp Krypt HQ at noon and started our venture to find the Orbs. We had barely searched for an hour when a notification popped up:
ORB OF THE LEAF HAS BEEN FOUND
UNDISCOVERED ORBS: 7
So fast? Apparently someone was lucky or was rushing tactically to find Orbs. I mean we did expect this but damn. We had to pick up pace.
"Alex, you scout North Warrenton, Nolan you can scout the South, Jenny go East and I'll check West. Let us meet at Camp HQ by eight tonight."
So we separated. Tyrone had bought a Team Communicator for 1200 Shards from the Store, so we could stay in touch. I went North. There were a lot of people here now. It was almost a normal scene, except for the ruins. There were shopping malls, movie theatres, clubs and casinos in the north. And it was my job to thoroughly check through them all.
Finally time to Sprint. I dashed in a Mall and Sprinted through all the floors in fifteen minutes. Found nothing. Same with a club, two theatres and an ice cream parlor. By now I was quite tired. I decided to hit the luxurious hotel called, "El Palacio del Sol". It had some Players relaxing and making use of the now free top notch facilities. Or rather what was left after the two Quests.
I got myself a room and locked the door before going to the washroom to refresh myself. I could use a nap. I thought as I went back to my room. I looked into the wardrobe and there were some clothes left. They were a size bigger than me, but I could work with that. Quickly changing into the sweatpants and the hoodie, I sat down on the bed.
I sat there and thought about things so far. I still didn't understand a lot of things. Like Emmisaries or The Fallen Spirit and so on. The System was particularly unfair to me. Like Okay, thanks you saved my life! But why the fuck keep me alive if I was the only one without any actual powers in this new world? I fell back on the bed, tired already and ready to take a nice, hour-long nap.
WHOOSH!
I was falling! I had fallen through the mattress! No wait... I wasn't the one who had fallen. The mattress had disappeared! I could see the tiny light above me in the eternal darkness which enveloped me. I was falling through the void at a dangerous velocity.
Plop! Plop! THUD!
I had landed on my ass, somewhere soft and cold. I looked around and saw a starry sky. But it was, colorful? It had streaks of pink, green and blue running through the sky. I appeared to be inside a bubble. It had a table at one end with Eight seats behind it. They were occupied by eight people. They were all wearing hooded cloaks, but they still felt different.
The one seated on the left had a warm, orange aura around them. The next guy had a calm, blue aura. The third person had a gray, turbulent aura. Then came a friendly, green aura. A bright, wise aura covered the next entity. The third from the right gave a cold, white vibe. The last two emitted the strongest aura. One had a bright light surrounding them, while the other was shrouded with malicious shadows.
The Green guy spoke, "Welcome! Umm-" he looked at something on the table, "-yes, Alex Kross! Your region has already secured my Orb of the Leaf! Brilliant work indeed. Now choose your desired Orb and prove your worth to win it!"
"Wait, a second! Who are you people? Where am I? And what will these Orbs do?"
"You have many questions, young one! All will be answered in due time. As for who we are, we are The Spooks. We are a Spirit cloud. Together we can choose our Emissaries as we see fit! Now choose your Orb!"
"But you didn't tell me what are my options!" I pointed out.
The Green Spook, turned yellow, and then red. Then he said in an embarrassed tone, "Ah yes! A common error. You can choose from the following: Orb Of The Shade, Orb Of The Sun, Orb Of The Flame, Orb Of The Dew, Orb Of The Snow, Orb Of The Zephyr and Orb Of The Mind."
The names were pretty self-explanatory. I decided to choose the Orb of The Shade. It was apparently a Shadow based Orb. Green Spook looked at me for a couple seconds, then sighed, "Very well, so be it! The Shadowed Spook shall test your abilities and if you succeed you will be given the Orb Of The Shade. However if you are unsuccessful, you and your team will be banished from the Game."
What the fuck? They couldn't mention it before? Now I was responsible for the lives of the other three??
The Spook at the far right stood up. It transformed into a shadow, and swirled its way towards me. It spoke in a hiss,
"What You See, Is Not What Should Be
Sometimes The One Next To You
Is The Perfect Addition To The Crew
To Find The Orb of Shade
You Must Hone Your Blade
For Upon Finding All Orbs
You Shall Make A Most Difficult Trade!"
With that I was completely engulfed in the shadows. It swirled around me. And I sprang up straight on the bed. Was it a dream? Maybe I was too stressed out these days. But by now I knew never to throw away anything related to The System as an illusion. What did The Spook mean by honing my blade? Maybe I needed a weapon to find the Orb? Or perhaps I had to fight some deadly creature for it? Another suspicious part was the one about the trade. I didn't quite understand what it meant. I decided to open Team Comms, to let the others know about it.
WHAM!
With a loud noise, the wall on my right blew in. A guy was lying in the rubble and another person towered over him. He held a sword glowing with energy and pointed it at the victim's face.
"Hand it over! Don't make this harder than it has to be."
"OVER MY DEAD BODY! I HAVE RECEIVED THIS ORB AND I AM NOT GOING TO HAND IT OVER TO ANYONE!"
Wait! An Orb? I needed to help this guy. I had to win him over and get that Orb from him. But the man with the sword was quite intimidating. He had flowing black hair and narrow, merciless eyes. The two of them hadn't noticed me yet. This was my chance!
I Sprinted towards the attacker, and summoned my Daggers as I did so. I slashed at him as I reached him. He was quick on the uptake. He swung his sword and deflected my attack, throwing me off balance. I was about to fall before I regained my balance with speed and charged again.
He deflected again and again. How could he keep up? I had a Speed Enhancing Skill. He spoke, "Get the fuck outta here kid, you don't know what you're messing with!"
I ignored his threat and slid down as I tried to attack his shins. I threw the dagger in my right hand away as I swung the left to his feet. He deflected it. Just as I had hoped. I swung my left dagger at his legs and dashed to the dagger behind him.
I was fast enough to reach before my right dagger touched the ground. While he deflected my left dagger, I slashed at his heel with my right one. It sliced through smoothly. He lost balance and slammed down hard as his right heel bled out.
Just to be sure, I shoved the dagger in his spine. He yelled out in pain, as he trembled violently and dropped silent. He was shivering but the attack was fatal as he slowly lost control over his body and got paralyzed. He wouldn't last an hour like this.
I left him there, and walked over to the guy, sitting in the rubble and gaping in wonder at me. He was older than me by an year or two maybe. He wore a black leather jacket, and torn jeans. He kind of looked like a biker. He had calm blue eyes, which were panicked at the moment. He had blue dyed hair.
He looked at me and started crawling back on his hands. I held out my hand and told him, in what I hoped was a calm voice, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you or cause you harm. Since I also need the Orbs, I was hoping we could team up temporarily. The Quest does allow Players to work as a Team. What do you think?"
He blinked. He most probably didn't read the Quest Info properly. After reading it he got up and offered me his hand. I shook it and introduced myself.
"Glad to be working with you, I'm Alex Kross. I have three others on my team who are still searching for other Orbs."
"Nice to meet you Kross. Ilias Dimitri, at your service. I would be glad to share my Orb of The Shade with you and your team!"