The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

"Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd night;

Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die,

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night..."

The boss, [Spawn of Jormungandr], dragged its large, white-scaled skin heavily across the ground. Its eyes glowed with a chalky white aura, obscuring its red-grey pupils behind this thick glow. The creature slowly unveiled itself as it crawled out of its cage. Its white scales had green markings across its back, tracing its large outline and forming eye-like shapes on its back.

Crucis saw that the boss was moving too slowly to catch up with the fleeing level 14 player, that was heading in Crucis' direction. The player was occasionally stumbling, however, and was crying out for Melydia to save him. Crucis noticed that he also called Melydia by the name 'Mandy,' which must be her real name. Of course, her corpse couldn't help now.

However, Crucis decided that he should help himself to this low-level player's belongings. He didn't want the player to see Melydia's corpse before the fight, as it might motivate them to resist and Crucis was hoping that this fight could be quick since he also had the boss to worry about.

As the level 14 stumbled awkwardly around a wall, he was nearly caught in the boss' [Black Mist Breath], where the snake unhinged its jaws and released a stream of black mist at his target that eroded their skin. The attack grazed the fleeing player, and this was enough to reduce him to 60% HP. Crucis moved towards the player, and then crouched next to the entrance to this large area.

As he heard the player approach, he offered a friendly greeting, "Hello, do you need some help?"

He activated [Stealth] and approached the running player.

"Hi!" replied the level 14 excitedly, as he quickened his pace to find the source of the voice, "I'm [SkyGabriel]! Please help! I'm looking for -"

He was interrupted as Crucis grabbed him in a firm [Chokehold]. Due to SkyGabriel's momentum, the level 14's feet and lower body lifted cleanly into the air and flew up until he was almost horizontal, with Crucis' grip on his neck stopping his sprint. This momentum made the chokehold more severe, and SkyGabriel let out a hoarse scream and begun to shed a thick wall of tears. Crucis knelt down while SkyGabriel was still near-horizontal in the air, and then used his chokehold to slam SkyGabriel's neck down onto Crucis' knee. SkyGabriel let out a mangled cry, and tried to use the [Arch-Knight] sub-class skill [Hammering Strike] on Crucis but could barely move an arm.

SkyGabriel finally managed to cry out something resembling words, "I had a great time with Melydia in the bar last night! If she saw this, she'd show you!"

Crucis guessed that this was one of the players who had spent a lot of money, but spent most of the early-game getting drunk due to the booze rewards. It would explain why they were still only at level 14, in spite of spending enough to unlock their sub-class early. SkyGabriel also seemed to look up to Melydia's playing skills, implying that he had been interested in strengthening his character now that he was trapped in the game, and Melydia had offered to drag him along.

Crucis quickly smirked and said, "Who's Melydia?"

He then used [Black Spot] on the Knight, who was lowered to 5% HP and was now bleeding heavily from his twisted neck. Crucis knew that SkyGabriel would soon die. He grabbed the Knight by the shoulders, and quickly ran with him away from the boss who was rapidly closing in.

"She was a girl, she was really impressed at my expensive items! She said she'd help me out! Not like you!" whimpered the Knight.

Finding Melydia's corpse, Crucis smiled and dumped SkyGabriel on top of it to die. SkyGabriel was visibly shocked once he realised who it was, and shivered as if he had been electrocuted.

"I hope you like speed dating," said Crucis.

The boss was getting close now, and Crucis leapt to the right as it released another [Black Mist Breath]. SkyGabriel had already died from the bleeding, and Crucis had gained loot from the fallen warrior. However, he still had to escape from this boss. Since he was much faster than SkyGabriel, however, that should be possible.

He looked up and saw the snake exposing its fangs, and then using them to bite its own tail. As this happened, it lost 30% of its HP and gained the 'Poison' status. Crucis guessed that this might lead to some kind of area-of-effect attack, and used [Stealth] while running far to the creature's right side. As expected, after about 5 seconds a fairly wide white ring appeared in the area around the creature, and a bright burst of light exploded through this area. This skill was named [Ouroboros]. When the snake is fighting a low-HP opponent, like SkyGabriel before he died, the snake is programmed to queue this powerful finishing move and use it after a slight delay.

Crucis assumed that getting caught up in that attack would be dangerous, especially since the boss outlevelled him. He would have to keep his distance. Eyeing the cage where the boss had emerged from, he sprinted past the boss and towards the cage. Perhaps if he could reach the walled area, he could improve his chances of escape. In fact, since the boss was reducing its own HP now, perhaps it would be possible to stall until it died.

The boss was still in the form of an ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail, and hence dragged itself very slowly after Crucis. A couple of times, when it got slightly closer to Crucis as he navigated the rocky ground, it would stand still and use a more mild form of the [Ouroboros] skill on the area around it. However, this slowed it down and gave Crucis more time to distance himself from it. It also removed 10% of the monster's HP each time.

As he reached the walls of the labyrinth, he deliberately waited around the corner of one of the maze's turns, since the snake might find this place difficult to navigate. The snake approached him, and he began to run further down the corridor until he came to another turn. The snake awkwardly dragged its mass around the first turn, dragging itself around the wall. Crucis then took a few more turns around the maze, reaching a narrow path that was a dead end. He didn't mind the dead end, though, because his plan was to force the snake to retrace its path and try going through the maze backwards, and hence tie itself up in knots trying to make this difficult movement.

As Crucis saw the snake slowly reaching him, he waited near the dead end, then used [Stealth] while the snake was still trying to turn a corner. Running swiftly past the snake, he made sure to put some distance between himself and the boss in case the boss used [Ouroboros], although he needn't have worried because the snake was too caught up in squeezing itself around the corners, and couldn't get a still position on the ground that [Ouroboros] would require. Crucis used [Agile Step] once he had passed the snake, to make more distance between them, and watched as its pathing led it into the last place that it had seen him, the narrow alley with a dead end. Once it was stuck in there, it couldn't manage to move itself backwards around the corner and escape. It writhed angrily against the walls, but found it too difficult to move backwards and couldn't make its way out while trapped in this narrow area.

Crucis picked up a stone from the ground, and threw it at the boss, inflicting a miniscule amount of damage. He was trying to test when the boss would use its attack. He carefully walked towards it as he saw it slowly budging itself backwards by leaning on the walls, and it stopped and fell back onto the ground of its narrow corridor, standing still. As soon as this happened, he ran away. After it had released its [Ouroboros] attack, it went back to wrestling with the walls and trying to exit its corridor. Seemingly, it would attack as soon as he was near the attack's range.

Crucis repeated this a few times. The Poison status was starting to stack up and deplete the creature's HP more quickly. The monster still continued to use its [Ouroboros] attack, reducing it to 4% HP after Cael had used this method 2 more times. The creature seemed to regain about 3% of its HP every 15 seconds, but the Poison and self-harm were outpacing that easily. Seeing the low HP of the boss, Crucis used [Stealth], then [Agile Step], then ran up to the boss to use [Stunning Dagger]. This paralysed the boss and prevented it from attacking. Crucis finally used [Ripper] to slash a small gash in the boss' thick scales, and ran away in case the boss planned to unleash another attack. He needn't have worried, however, as the boss had died from Crucis' attacks. Crucis received loot for killing the boss.

By now, Crucis was exhausted, and collapsed onto the ground in relief. If he hadn't managed to trap the snake in this narrow corridor, he probably would have had to fight most of the battle using the same combination of moves as he had just done: [Stealth] to approach the monster without triggering an attack, [Agile Step] to approach it quickly, and [Stunning Dagger] to paralyse it when he was nearby, ensuring that it would use its attack because it had seen him nearby, but paralysing it so that he had time to get some distance away first. This might take slightly more effort, but would give him a safe way of taking on this beast. However, he was glad that at the end of this gauntlet of fights, he had managed to get a boss to kill itself while it was stuck in place. It was almost relaxing.

Since he had just defeated a few opponents, he decided that he should check on his inventory.

He checked on the treasure first, since he had been attacked while retrieving it and hadn't had the time to check its contents. It contained a rare, cut gem, [Amethyst], which gave a significant boost to weapon or spellcasting speed when inlaid in a weapon or staff. Along with that, there was a white string necklace with a slightly golden glow, which increased item drops from monsters by 5% and could be used for up to two hours each day. The treasure chest had also contained 70,000 gold, and a few rare items that Crucis didn't yet know the purpose of. This included one item that was marked as a [Lore item], and could probably only be used when an appropriate event involving the world's lore occurred. In this case, it was a long, worn-out wooden pike called the [Splintered Wooden Serpent], and it stung a bit when held.

From SkyGabriel, he noticed that he had looted a handful of rare items. This included an [Amnesty Token], a rare item mostly given to donors and people who had killed over 500 red-named players. The level 14 had probably not had the time or power to unlock it by fighting. In fact, at this point nobody had even got close. The item would pacify guards for one minute, meaning that even if the player was trespassing or criminal he would be left alone until the minute ended. This gave the player the time to get out of danger.

The other rare items included a [Treasure Sensor], which could detect treasure chests within a 50 metre radius of the player and had a one hour cooldown per use, a powerful bow which was probably brought as a gift to Melydia, a [Sunset Pass] that gave access to a level 100+ area known as the Sunset Mountain, a [Beach Pass] that gave access for up to 4 people to an exclusive beach that was mostly used by couples for romantic liasions, and the [Black Dart], a light sword that required 1000 Dexterity but gave a 30% Agility boost if your HP was below your opponent's.

He was glad to find that Melydia had dropped another [Rare Treasure Map] which led to this underground area, meaning that he could re-enter if he wished. This meant that he didn't have to be as cautious about getting killed by monsters, since he had the chance of reclaiming his corpse and the items on it. Caution was still slightly necessary, however. He began to plan his route out of this place, deciding that he should try to use the walls around [Diablo] to find his way back to the entrance he took, and leave through there. Any players passing by would probably have to deal with the boss, and this would give him time to distance himself from them. Melydia also dropped some [Fragment of Silver Orb], 38 of these valuable fragments. Crucis decided that he should grind the mobs of [Blind Boar] until he had received enough for the artifact, since he might not get the chance at the remaining fragments elsewhere anytime soon. After that, he could check on the corpse of Sardaukar, if the coast was clear. Finally, Melydia had also dropped a [Winter Pendant], a white pendant which produced cold air. It could be used to weaken fire spells or to survive a hot environment.

Finally, the [Spawn of Jormungandr] boss had dropped a rare [Green Dart] light sword, which increased Agility by 10% if your HP was higher than the opponent's. It required 1000 Dexterity to use. It also dropped 20 [Fragment of Silver Orb], and an item named [Venom Ritual] which had a 5% chance to summon the weapon [Fang of Jormungandr], a large fang which had a high chance of poisoning opponents. Crucis tried using it, but the summoning was unsuccessful and the item disappeared. He wondered if he would get another chance soon at this rare weapon, as he was curious how powerful it would be.

As he glanced up from his inventory, he saw large, red text flashing to his left.

The text was scrolling, and read: 'We have made definite progress in correcting the bug, and are starting to apply fixes already. The first major fix should occur in one hour. The world should return to normal within the next two days. It has been difficult to fix the game with players still in it, but we are making steady progress.'

Given the current state of the game, an official announcement wasn't the most trustworthy source, as Crucis realised. However, he had seen a couple of player names show normally in the last few hours, such as [Melydia] and a couple of players in Kruxol, and the names of most creatures and items was clear. He had checked, and his own name was still scrambled, as were most other players. This must be part of the 'fixes' that they were already trying, although seemingly it was only partial for now.