The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

As the group swerved past the Esyu mansion, there was some agitation from Akshel and Grisier. Looking back, Crucis saw the black silhouette of an unfamiliar female figure staring through one of the mansion windows. She looked middle-aged, stocky and pale; her face was locked in a screaming position, but there was no sound from the mansion.

After a few seconds, the figure disappeared.

"Did you guys see that?" Akshel asked.

"Yeah, I could make out a screaming face up there," Crucis said. "It's getting late, so perhaps the ghosts are coming out."

"Yeesh, glad we're not going back there."

"I wouldn't mind not going back there for some time," DicingDevil said. "But stay quiet now, we're reaching the minks."

"Gotcha."

DicingDevil's mount slowed to a halt, and he held up an arm to get the attention of the group.

"Everyone, dismount," DicingDevil said, lowering his voice slightly. "The dens are nearby. Let's not make too much noise. I'll tell the others to meet us here."

Soon, Gastlem and Dionarcy emerged through the trees, having hightailed it back after reviving. They towed a large trolley behind them, which they had picked up at the Hunting Lodge on their way.

"Welcome back, you two. It looks like there's some activity in the dens, so be quiet so that the minks stay in place," DicingDevil said. "Assassins, go in first, and block up the nearest two dens. Those two are close together, so we should get them both blocked at once."

Crucis joined the group of Assassins, and activated [Quickstep] to walk towards the dens quietly. He split into one group with Akshel and Danemy, who walked towards a den on the left.

Akshel lowered a long iron pole with a circular, metallic disc on one end, designed to block off the tunnel into the den. Crucis stood quietly near the entrance to the den, and helped to stabilise the pole as it thrust into the den, blocking the only way out. He could hear a lot of nervous activity from inside, and estimated that there were at least five minks.

Once both holes were closed, DicingDevil gestured over to the rest of the group.

Starfighter walked over to help Crucis' group with opening the heavy door at the top of the den. When it heaved open, they saw a group of seven agitated minks inside, occasionally clawing at the walls as if trying to climb out. However, none was able to escape the large den, which was too high to jump out of.

"Well, here they are. They're even shining in the moonlight," Starfighter observed. "These pelts will be worth a lot."

"They might be worth more alive," Danemy said.

"It depends on where we're selling. The market for pelts is probably larger and easier to access, so maybe take a few alive and take most as pelts. Try not to damage them."

Dionarcy approached the dens, dragging a green trolley filled with boxes. There were a few nets and spears on the side.

"Alright, we can use these to collect the creatures and their pelts. Gastlem got them, he lied that we were hunting for common otters," he said.

DicingDevil inspected the trolley, and added, "They also gave a rack of [Hunting Spear], which anyone with basic Hunting skills can use. It's not as strong as a normal spear, but it gives a buff to your Hunting skill while you're using it. Also some large nets, you can use those to trap creatures. Take one each, for now."

Each of the players went up and grabbed a net and spear.

At first, each player cautiously aimed their spears at the minks in the dark den, and mostly missed. Although the minks glittered, they also bolted haphazardly around the den in their panic, and it was difficult to get an accurate strike.

After half a minute, Akshel managed to stab and pull out a dead mink with a slightly torn pelt. He sighed as he inspected the pelt.

More patiently, Crucis carefully watched the minks scurrying around the enclosed space, and hovered his spear over them. In a quick, decisive movement, he stabbed through a mink, then pulled it up carefully across the den wall. Its pelt was still in decent condition, and as he carefully ran his hand over it, he found that it was surprisingly soft and velvety in spite of its gem-like, magenta sheen.

Nearby, Grisier shone a dim light to help illumine the dens, so that it would be easier to aim.

In this light, the mink fur lit up like a small, intense hearth, and Crucis had to look away from it for a moment because his eyes had adjusted to the darkness. A few glints of slightly sickly, thick dark-pink light emerged around it like a halo. As he put it into his inventory he saw that it would have a price tag of 30,000 gold, which was quite high.

However, he had been lucky not to puncture it with the spear.

As the group collected the remaining minks, Crucis managed to trap one in a net, and pulled it up. It ran to and fro over his arm, as he tried to keep it in balance. Its bright light flickered from side to side like a spinning chakra firework at a Diwali celebration.

He placed it into a box, which he signed with his username, and tightly closed the lid. Vladimir ran up and pulled the box back to the trolley.

"These pelts are pretty high-value," Danemy commented. "I'll likely double my gold by the end of this."

"Yeah, they're flashy creatures," Crucis said. "Probably difficult to catch, unless you trap them like this."

"Which we probably weren't supposed to do," Starfighter said. "They are very elusive otherwise. But it's a good day for minkfishing, I guess."

"And for all of us," Danemy replied, inspecting his latest catch. "A large haul like this must be useful, if you're stuck around Kruxol... Whew, this last mink's pelt will sell for 40,000."

The pelt he was holding lit up almost like a neon light, as Grisier held his light towards it to get a better look at it. It was saturated with a shining, jewel-like texture, which was bright and showy enough to look tacky.

"To be honest, I think it looks quite bad," Danemy commented. "But apparently someone will pay a lot for it."

"No wonder, it's quite gaudy," Crucis laughed.

"Yeah. I guess the fur market is a bit like an old red light district: the more make-up and showiness, the more money. Especially when the fur glows red."

"It looks like the more tacky ones will have the highest value, so we should be careful with them."

"Yep."

"You know, it's said that if you kill an aristocrat, their blood runs blue, and if you kill a glowie, their blood glows red," Starfighter said. "Pity we can't hunt glowies here, maybe they'd sell for a lot."

"Yeah, pity we have to kill these sprightly guys instead," Crucis said. "Their only crime was looking too sparkly and flamboyant, and getting too much praise. And now they will be appraised by us."

"The flashy pelt is likely to get them killed anyway, if predators see them. They should have reconsidered."

"Maybe they're like rappers, they'd rather die than give up their bling."

The group moved towards the next set of dens.

Crucis managed to spear another mink, but the wound was large and messy because the creature had attempted to struggle in its last moments. As a result, its pelt was only worth 5,000 gold.

Experimenting, he found that it was easier to net the creatures and then slit their throat with a dagger, keeping them mostly intact. He used this for the remaining dens, and picked up several mink pelts which were in good condition, the most valuable being 42,000 gold.

The final den was the most crowded, with a band of eleven minks, including some young ones, huddled away inside.

As Grisier lowered a net inside, he accidentally caught three of the creatures, because they had crowded together. He felt the net tearing as he pulled up, and hastily emptied the three minks into one large box.

"Careful there," Starfighter said, as loud noises began to emerge from the box. "If you put them together in a tense mood, they'll probably fight. Besides, there's not that much space for three minks in there. I doubt they'll all survive."

"Ugh, whoops, looks like I went wrong there," Grisier said, looking in on the fray. "Two minks lost, then. Sorry."

Crucis also approached the box, and saw that three minks were fighting. They were massed together, wriggling and rolling against each other ferociously. It was almost difficult to make out each mink among the fracas. However, as the fight wore on, one stronger mink managed to shove the others into corners and Crucis could see that one of the victims had died.

The other was bleeding, but still charged defiantly back into the fray. However, it was soon bitten, and then shoved away again. Crucis saw that the strongest mink was starting to transform, becoming larger and stronger. As it bulked up, the gem-like patterns on its skin broke into a few, shining fragments across its body, and Crucis saw that it had transformed into a [Decorated Faux-Badger].

"As I said, fights can transform these minks quickly," Starfighter said.

The other mink withered down slightly, casting off some of its gem-lined fur in favour of a rough, messy splay of deep-brown fur that almost seemed to stand on edge. It had become a [Noble Tarnished Mink]. The two stared each other down, with teeth bared, and then the tarnished mink leapt forwards again. The faux-badger squared up to it.

The faux-badger easily overpowered its opponent, and shoved the tarnished mink to the ground before pinning it down and preparing a strike to its neck. Before it could kill its adversary, it cried out in pain as Crucis' dagger jammed straight into its neck. As the dagger twisted, the faux-badger died.

"Fish in a barrel," Crucis remarked.

The tarnished mink, with a red name, slinked out from under the badger and hissed at Crucis' looming form. However, it seemed to calm down as it saw him holding the dagger which had killed the faux-badger.

Crucis calmly shut the lid of the box.

"I was curious about these transformations that Starfighter mentioned," he said. "Would you mind if I kept this one? It has spirit. If I let it loose in the wild every so often, I'm sure it could tear apart a few players."

He had noticed that this tarnished mink was much faster and less clunky than the faux-badger, and would be more effective at attacking people and surviving in the wild. Although it was less powerful than the faux-badger, its movements were fast and fluid, and with a bit more pace it would be as agile as a good Assassin.

"Keeping the feral one as a pet?" Starfighter said. "It's not impossible. Just don't get too close to it at the moment, it's jumpy. Once it's taken back to the Hunting Lodge, you can probably keep it in inventory."

"Will it need to be fed much?"

"The tarnished mink will even eat flesh, especially of other minks. After all of these dens, you probably have a bit of mink flesh stored up, so you could just feed it with that. Other than that, keep this mink in Storage, since for whatever reason they don't need to be fed in there. In fact, do that for most of the others as well, until you can find somewhere to sell them. You could also try to find some other places for it to get prey, if you want it to develop its stats."

"Are they aquatic?"

"Yeah, actually. If you let it loose in a pond, it'd probably swim down there and start hunting for prey."

Crucis dragged the box to the trolley, and noticed that the mink seemed to be feeding on the faux-badger's corpse.

By the end, he had managed to pick up a horde of mink fur worth about 150,000 gold, as well as four gem-furred minks to sell. That was a high amount of gold, and he guessed that most of the DeathGang members accompanying him would be using it to get some new weapons or mounts.

"Hey, Darren," he said, "You reckon you could get a decent Mount with this haul? Would probably be useful in the wild."

"Yeah," Starfighter replied. "I'd just need to make sure it could move silently."

"You know, I think the Hashin found some sort of bug that prevents Mounts from generating sound," DicingDevil said. "But I don't know what it is."

"Have you seen them doing it?"

"Yeah, a pack of Hashin were rushing through the wild on their horses yesterday, probably in pursuit of someone. Made no sound whatsoever, they might as well have been ghosts."

"Was there anything peculiar about them? Any items, or equipment? Was their speed abnormal?" Crucis enquired.

"Nope, everything else about them was quite normal. They were riding the horses like anyone else would. One was even wearing short sleeves, and I saw that he wasn't wearing any wristbands out of the ordinary."

"Strange. Did you see them mounting the horses, or only riding them? They might have performed the bug earlier. I doubt it's anything too complex, if these were just basic Hashin members. What levels were they?"

"Not that high, some were only levels 20-30. At least two were warriors."

"Then it's probably not any particularly advanced skill or build. Probably a matter of methodology. I can't say for certain, but maybe they do ride their creature normally, but set up some sort of bug before riding, either prior to mounting it or during that."

"Yeah, it's difficult to say with these things. That's definitely possible, but it would be difficult to check on. The Hashin sometimes do weirdly over-specific methods, like, using a specific rare item in a completely bizarre way and then following a series of improbable steps... I'm not entirely sure how they work these things out so quickly, to be honest."

"Maybe they have access to information that we don't. But I doubt that all of these Hashin possess a specific rare object, more likely that there's a simpler way to do this. I'll try and experiment with it tomorrow."

"Good idea," Starfighter said. "If any of you figure this one out, tell me. I'll wait a day or two before getting a Mount. By the way, would you guys mind me hanging around in DeathGang territory for a few days? It seems safer, but it's up to you."

"Hm, it depends," DicingDevil said. "Since you helped us out, I think it would be fair for today. But beyond that, it depends, Darys tries to keep our territory to DeathGang members and I'd have to ask him."

"You can't make it to Kruxol?" Danemy asked Starfighter.

"Nah. If your ID has a criminal record with certain crimes on it, then guards will typically accost you. If they can't kick you out of the game, they'll still kill or imprison you. It was possible to hang around in town at first, if you were careful, because there were areas where guards wouldn't see you... But they've ratcheted up the guard presence around the towns and cities since the bug, to help players feel safe. So I'll have to keep my distance."

"I see. How do you guys cope with that?"

"Well, I tried to hide out in the area far North-North-East of Kruxol as soon as possible. There were some villages around there, so I could still improve some skills and get a few quests or equipment."

"There are villages out there? I only saw forest, nothing on the map," DicingDevil said.

"Yes, but they aren't safe zones. Still, not many players up there, and no proper guards, so it's a useful place. The people there sprinkle their language with words from various local languages, but you can ask them about it, I tried to do that often since the maps and guidebooks there aren't in English. I didn't have any normal NPC guides to explain the game, but I managed to figure it out slightly."

"Aren't the creatures up there high-level? Like, 55-70 at least. How did you survive there alone without quests or much grinding?"

"I made sure to learn Hunting on the way. That allows you to occasionally trap creatures from level 55-65, which is great EXP. But they're difficult. Still, I managed to get decent EXP from the few that I trapped, as well as some gold and skill EXP. I did get killed by wandering whales early on, since these players saw me as an easy target. But I soon took to using the tree-climbing skill from Hunting to stay out of the way and survey the area for threats, and the big players mostly stopped turning up after the bug because the long journey back to town meant that they were vulnerable to painful fights or gankers."

"That's quite impressive," Crucis said. "Anyway, Darren has a knack for exploring and mapping out places, since he's wandered the wild for ages. Maybe you guys could get him to explore around the outskirts of DeathGang territories, and the caves in the North, so that you can map out the whole area. After all, North-North-East of Kruxol is a short journey from your territory, so if he knows the Northern territory then he can probably show you a few promising spots."

"That's a good idea," DicingDevil said. "He could set up a private stream: you can specify who can watch, either by player name or Guild tag. Our ordinary Guild members don't explore as much as I'd like, so if he spent a few days doing that then he could probably camp out on our territory with no problem."

"Sure," Starfighter replied.

"Alright. I'll tell Darys, I'm sure he'll be fine with that. A few of our allies cut us off due to pressure from the Kruxol Guilds, but at least we have some people willing to help out."