The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Cael walked back towards the centre of Kruxol down a cobbled street towards the South of town. On his way, he saw an archer and a warrior gingerly walking towards the small woods South of Kruxol, both casting superstitious glances towards the dark-brown, pyramidal temple a short way to their left. Cael surmised that the players had probably been warned about the temple's guards, who would attack and one-shot any intruders who were not in the Mage class or in a Mage's party.

Cael quickly walked up to them, and spoke politely, "Hey, are you guys worried about the temple guards? If you're in a Mage's party, they won't attack you. I can invite you guys, if you want."

The male warrior turned around, and replied in a Czech accent from behind a large helmet, "Thank you! We are not entering the temple, though, that is fine?"

"Yes, as long as you are in my party they will not attack. It doesn't matter if you're entering the temple or just walking past it to the South."

"A grand idea. My friend here, Ron, he said there was good quests down South. But our Guild leader warned us that temple guards could kill in one hitting, so are careful."

"I see. Are you from Eastern Europe, by any chance?"

"Yes! I am from Czech Republic, he is from Slovakia. We always play on English servers to avoid the Russian hackers, haha."

"Interesting," said Cael, smiling, "I am also from that region, Belarusian, and moved to Czech Republic early. Even have a Czech name, but can't speak the language. Now currently in the USA. Nice to meet you, Ron and Andrej."

"Thank you as well," said Ron, the archer. He was much shorter than his warrior friend, and wore a mask that partially covered his face. Unlike [Andrej], Ron's character name was currently garbled, although Cael knew his nickname because Andrej had mentioned it. Cael guessed that it was short for Ronald. Andrej was higher-level, at level 23, but although Ron was only level 14 he seemed to have done more research about the game.

"Good luck! Be careful on the way back, the guards will still be here."

The two players thanked Cael, and made their way South. Since they were in his party, he could track their movements. They seemed to be heading for a small building towards the Southern end of the woods, where an NPC would give quests set in the woods. Cael guessed that they would be hesitant to return quickly, since they didn't want to run into the guards again. He also saw that, although they were in the Guild named [The Fountain], the Guild's stronger players were not nearby, perhaps being too busy with the new expeditions between towns and cities.

Cael quickly switched characters back to Crucis, and sprinted towards the South of Kruxol. Stealing his way past the temple to the South, using [Stealth Cloak] to avoid having to worry about the guards, he ran into the woods and slowed his pace to avoid making too much noise. He quietly crept forwards towards the South of the woods, until he saw a small, white cottage with floral decoration painted across the exterior. Inside, there stood an old male NPC, wearing a blue suit. The sound of intermittent talking could be heard towards the left, in a thick clump of leaves. Crucis crept quietly towards this, and listened in on the two players.

He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, as they spoke a mixture of Czech and Slovak which he mostly didn't understand. Unless they spoke exclusively in swear-words, with which he had a passing familiarity due to the age-old online tradition of Eastern Europeans cussing people out using their native languages on English servers to avoid scrutiny, he could barely make out what they were saying. However, the two players would occasionally use English words when referring to item names or quests, since the item names and quests were written in English.

From this, Crucis surmised that they were looking for both a sturdy silver bowstring - a part of Ron's quest - and a letter from a swordsman named 'Dane,' in order to help the old NPC teach them each a new skill. The creatures here seem to have run off with the letter, and the players were trying to kill the [Giant Squirrel] and [Boar Cub] mobs until it drops. Crucis remembered that a Mage he had killed had also gained a rare spell from here, and wondered if he could also gain a new skill from the quests here. For now, however, he waited for the players to finish their quest.

He heard the sound of loud chattering which indicated that Ron had found the 'bowstring,' a word which Ron seemed to find funny. Crucis heard the two using the word 'Dům,' and guessed that they meant the cottage, since it sounded like the Russian word for 'house,' дом (dom). Crucis anticipated that, since Andrej's quest was not done, only the weaker Ron would be setting off to reach the cottage and leaving Andrej to finish his quest. Due to this, Crucis snuck up towards the thick wall of low-hanging leaves and branches that Ron would be passing through to reach the path to the cottage. Soon, he heard Ron pushing his way through the dense clump of greenery, seemingly impatient to get through. Andrej was still fighting a gathering of boars behind the thick wall of leaves, but Ron was on his way back to the NPC and looked somewhat tired.

Crucis used [Stealth Cloak] when he saw the archer was close to emerging, and pounced as soon as the archer pushed through the foliage. Grabbing the archer in a [Chokehold], Crucis shoved the archer to the ground. Since Ron was only level 14 and had even lower STR than him, he planned to make this fight quick. Casting a [Figure Blur] as soon as his invisibility wore off, Crucis stabbed the archer with a [Stunning Dagger] while still preventing Ron from looking at him. It seemed that Andrej had noticed the commotion, and was trying to make out what was happening by squinting from afar, seemingly keeping his distance. Crucis saw that Ron was getting low on HP, and quickly used a well-placed [Ripper] to slash a jagged cut across the back of the archer's neck and cause bleeding. He triumphantly said, "Victory to DeathGang," remembering the name of a ganking Guild and trying to incriminate them. The [Ripper] had reduced the archer to 10% HP, so Crucis used [Black Spot] to cut a further slit in the front of Ron's throat, before pulling the archer's shirt over their face and head in order to prevent the archer from watching the direction of his retreat and warning Andrej. Leaving the archer to bleed to death, Crucis crept quickly away across the undergrowth, as he heard the sound of Andrej's heavy boots trudging slowly behind the thick leaves that separated him from the rest of the woods.

The players from [The Fountain] confusing Crucis' kills near Kruxol with the Hashin had impressed on him that his victims and their Guilds might not always realise who has killed them, and in the present situation may be quick to blame common scapegoats like the Hashin. Further, since ganking Guilds right now were quite active, it's entirely possible that they will do something that seems to incriminate themselves for the other paranoid Guilds, sparing Crucis some scrutiny. By offloading suspicion onto large Guilds like [DeathGang], Crucis created more suspicion and conflicts between the powerful Guilds and their large players, while giving himself more leeway to attack low-level opponents. If people are expecting large-scale, dramatic conflicts, then the simple, small kills can escape their scrutiny. He was able to keep Ron from seeing him or figuring out that he has no Guild affiliation, and he realised that so long as he could choose weak enough targets it would be quite possible for nobody to know who was responsible for the kill. He had also realised that it wasn't necessary to kill someone outright to condemn them to death, and a hit-and-run strategy could still ensure a kill due to his ability to cause bleeding.

He waited for Andrej to emerge, hiding behind a clump of trees with thick barks, but saw that the warrior had glimpsed Ron's corpse through the leaves and was planning to flee. Perhaps he was spooked by the rumours of powerful ganking Guilds. Very well, his heavy armour would hold him back. Crucis saw that Andrej was heading back in the direction of Kruxol, and tailed him, shoving leaves and branches out of his way as he ran. While Crucis could have rushed in and attacked, he saw that the warrior was running blindly and almost tripping over their own armour, so he pursued more slowly as if daring the warrior to fall. He noted that Andrej was level 23, and could still cause some problems in a typical fight, but if he fell or ran into something then Crucis would have an advantage. Quickly looking through his inventory while in casual pursuit, he noticed that Ron had dropped an item called [Black Wristband]. It had a chance of skipping one of your move's cooldown times once if you were fighting two opponents at once, and increasing your Agility by 2x for 1 second when that move was used. Crucis slotted it quickly onto his right arm.

A yell rang out from Andrej as Crucis approached. Crucis hesitated, concerned that the warrior might be calling for help, but as he cautiously stepped forwards he saw that Andrej had tripped over a walking [Vile Tortoise] boss, not noticing it due to its dark-green colouration which blended in with the bushes and leaves at night. The level 12 boss was generally quite docile, not attacking unless provoked, but the warrior running into it had provoked its ire. Kicking Andrej back to the ground with [Strong Kick], the tortoise proceeded to release venomous fumes from its mouth using its signature [Vile Toxin] skill. This green cloud enveloped the grounded warrior, and caused his skin to rash lightly. The lack of pain reduction was a boon for venomous bosses, since it meant that players were now more subject to injury and pain. A few high-level players had taken down a level 40 version of this boss on the game's second day, but now nobody would dare challenge that boss after a few high-profile players were left traumatised by venomous boss fights.

Andrej was screaming in pain on the ground, trying to scratch himself through the thick armour as if afflicted with a severe itch. However, as the boss prepared for another kick, Andrej's sword swung out in a [Flank Cut] and caught the tortoise's leg, causing the tortoise's HP to reduce to 70%. Crucis noted that the warrior seemed to have high STR. The tortoise, since it was low-level, flinched back at the attack, rather than resuming its assault on the grounded enemy. Andrej took advantage of this with a [Hilt Blow] to the boss' face, and followed this up with [Combined Slash], a combination that Crucis recognised from Jarius using it before. These firm blows to the head left the tortoise boss at only 16% HP.

However, as Andrej tried to get to his feet, the boss unleashed another wave of [Vile toxin]. This sent Andrej falling to the ground again, grunting loudly. He seemed to rub himself against the ground to try and mollify the harsh, rashing sensation of the venom. Although he still has 70% of his HP remaining, having to go through the toxin's effects again was clearly difficult for him. Crucis decided to strike now, so that he could also kill the boss.

Using [Stealth Cloak], Crucis dashed between the two opponents. Using a [Stunning Dagger] strike near Andrej's neck to keep him still, Crucis used [Dagger Twist] to deepen the wound with a spin of his wrist, then spun his body swiftly around until his wrist was straight again. Facing the tortoise boss, he delivered a [Forceful Kick] to its face and sent it about a metre backwards, then threw out a [Smokebomb] which he had looted from Ron. This obscured the tortoise's sight, making it difficult for it to launch attacks. Crucis had a few smokebombs left in his inventory, and decided to release three more near the tortoise and [Andrej], so that they wouldn't know where to strike.

"Go away, Hashin!" shouted Andrej.

"I am not Hashin," said Crucis, truthfully.

"Well, you are demon like them!"

"Okay, true."

Crucis stepped on the fallen Knight to pin him to the ground, increasing his own Agility due to the [Trap Talisman]. The warrior flailed for Crucis with his sword, but the Assassin quickly leapt away, then crouched down and used [Silent Stab] to worsen the wound on the Knight's back just below the neck. He saw that the [Black Wristband] had caused his [Dagger Twist] to skip cooldown, so he quickly looked at the area around the wound and saw a faint rash slightly closer to Andrej's right shoulder. Lurching his dagger to the right, he used [Dagger Twist], and his Agility doubled so that he was almost effortlessly twirling his dagger through the wound. As he expected, the rightwards movement caused pressure on the rash near Andrej's shoulder, causing that to tear into a wider gash. Andrej let out a pained, gagging noise.

Using the doubled Agility, Crucis launched himself from a crouching position towards the tortoise, that he glimpsed lumbering out of the thick smog. Since [Stunning Dagger] was still on cooldown, Crucis struck with a simple [Punch] to the creature's face, expecting the speed of his trajectory to do most of the damage. The fast collision caused the tortoise to fall backwards sharply, and Crucis saw that it had been enough to kill the boss. He saw that part of his rewards for killing the boss included [Vile Toxin Gas], which could be sprayed on a weapon to give it a temporary venomous effect but reduce its damage significantly while this effect was present. Archers occasionally used this for backup weapons like knives, since those were often not that damaging anyway and the venomous effect made them more potent.

However, Crucis took the gas and sprayed some of it into Andrej's face, through the gap in his helmet, and also sprayed some towards the wounds on the warrior's back. He heard Andrej crying in agony and smashing the floor. Walking in to finish the warrior off, however, he found that Andrej lunged at him with a loud howl, forcefully swinging his blade in a wide arc towards Crucis. Using [Dodge Step], Crucis narrowly backstepped out of the way of the strike, then quickly threw a [Smokebomb] to confuse the warrior. Glibly, Crucis said, "You should have taken off your armour if you wanted to run away," then sidestepped quickly. As expected, the warrior prepared a heavy strike in the direction of Crucis' voice, but Crucis had by now walked a few steps to the side. When he saw the warrior's sword swing aimlessly in the air, he used [Agile Step] to approach the warrior and slashed across their back with a wide [Ripper]. Due to the damage boost after the Dodge Step, this dealt a lot of damage and worsened Andrej's wounds. Andrej was now down to only 10% HP.

Crucis tried to grab Andrej in a [Chokehold], but the stronger warrior shrugged him off and shoved him to the ground with a shoulder. Rolling back to his feet, Crucis used [Stealth Cloak] again, this time to ensure that he could dispatch the warrior safely. Due to adrenaline and removing some equipment under Crucis' taunts, Andrej had managed to get to his feet, and Crucis smiled because Andrej was more vulnerable without the large armour. As the warrior lumbered around, Crucis snuck behind him and struck with [Stunning Dagger] to the warrior's now-unprotected right arm to keep his target still, then followed this up with a [Ripper] slash to the back of the neck. Andrej collapsed in a dead heap.

Crucis nimbly walked away from the corpse. He guessed that the white cottage might still receive intermittent low-level visitors during this night, and he decided to wait near it to see if any more victims appear. If there was nobody else there, then he might as well take a quest himself. He might get a new skill, after all, and he needed a strong first strike to take advantage of his weapon's damage increase when attacking out of stealth. The woods were quite quiet at this time, and he walked peacefully back towards the cottage. These low-level areas near Kruxol were generally avoided by big ganking Guilds, since if they tried to maintain a presence here then it would be easy for other Guilds to attack them since it was close to a town and often lacked shelter. While a few low-level members dying might lead to some scrutiny, big Guilds were unlikely to care that much during a turbulent period. The lax patrols sent in response to his earlier antics weren't strong enough to deal with the actual Hashin. The big Guilds had their hands full due to the prevalent ganking Guilds, and this left Crucis plenty of space for the moment.

He expected that, in about an hour, Ron would respawn and probably sound the alarm about DeathGang being in these woods. By then, he should make sure to leave. For now, he still had some time before anyone heard of these kills, and doing quests here could fill the time until his red name wore off, as well as bringing decent rewards.