Pazka slunk through the treeline. It was a simple matter to stay out of the little zombie’s sight, even without his invisibility belt. The darkness of early night painted the woodland in thick shadows, only disrupted by the throng of his retinue constantly assaulting the collectable.

  He found it rather foolish that she and her accessories had taken to this disadvantageous terrain in such poor lighting. It made him question why his peers had so much trouble pinning her down and capturing her. Then again, the zombie wouldn’t be worth collecting if any fresh-shelled Initiate could walk up and detain her.

  But now she was alone, split off from the rest of her group while she cut her way through unending Radoch supremacy. Tiring - Pazka could see it in her face no matter how she scowled. Even as the collectible sliced her way through his disposable pawns with her own, the weight of inevitable failure would surely be her undoing. Magical thread sutured up her wounds, but that couldn’t last forever.

  All he needed to do was wait for the right time when her guard was down. He flexed his gauntlets. It had taken almost a full year to get four copies of the rare weaponry, but the results spoke for themselves.

  There it was - the undead collectable turned to the side as she kicked out at one of the Initiates. Pazka moved forward, his invisibility making him nothing but a ghost as he crossed the distance.

  She spun to face him, but was too late. He shimmered into view just as his upper-right gauntlet struck her.

  The short zombie twisted as the force launched her into the air, flying over a dozen feet before she connected with a tree trunk with a dull crack. Pazka’s weapon hissed from the spent enchantment. It took a short while to regenerate that amount of power, but that was why he had four of them.

  His retinue parted ways to allow him to approach his quarry. She coughed up blood as she struggled to get back up to her feet. He’d need to be careful not to kill her if he wanted to collect her. She looked weak, but would probably be able to escape his stasis pod still.

  “A sucker-punch, huh?” Sally wiped the blood from her mouth with her forearm. “Bet you can’t do that a second time.”

  Pazka chuckled - a scratching, wheezing noise. Although there was danger in playing with his food, he couldn’t resist the rare chance to use his artefact weapons on a worthy opponent.

  Without warning, he darted toward her. The lower-left gauntlet swung in an uppercut, straight for the zombie. With a crack, bloody chunks of flesh burst out from the impact. The trunk behind the splattered body cracked and groaned, the canopy above shaking as the tree slowly tipped over.

  It was a zombie, but not the right one. Pazka turned his head to the side just as his target fired a crossbow bolt at him. Despite blocking it with his upper-left arm, the bolt exploded, causing a wave of deep green energy to sink around the area.

  [Plaguereap]

  [Movement Speed and Vitality reduced]

  While he spent a moment to check this new status effect, Sally moved in against him. The Radoch twisted, having no issue moving quickly enough to intercept the strike. As he brought one of his unused gauntlets up to counter the sneaky collectible, he realized too late that his arm had been severed off. What a remarkable knife indeed.

  The gauntlet dropped to the ground, activating against the dirt. Clumps of mud and sodden grass flew in the air as the shockwave pushed the two apart. Pazka stumbled awkwardly on injured legs as he scowled at the zombie.

  She stood with a grin on her face, downing a potion to heal the shredded flesh on her own legs. Maybe he understood a little better how such a small human could be such a thorn in the side of their plans here. That weapon of hers was certainly worth adding to his collection as well.

  “Looks like you could use a helping hand,” Sally said. She withdrew another potion from her Inventory and lobbed it toward the giant bug. “This'll put us back on even footing.”

  Pazka caught the bottle in a gauntlet before shattering it immediately. “Whelp, I do not need your…”

  His words faded away as instead of the warming, healing liquid, a light blue cloud of dust fell from the broken potion bottle. He felt his arms and legs twitch and convulse, his every joint tensing up. Looking over at the Initiates waiting on the sidelines, the mysterious cloud had affected them even worse. Several dropped to the ground, their limbs twisting against their torsos as they curled up into a ball.

  Pazka struggled to stay upright as he looked back at the zombie. She was now nothing but glowing red orbs over a wide mouth full of sharp teeth. “What have you done?” he snarled.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  Sally stepped forward, her dagger raised. “I have no idea.”

  Bully rubbed at his round chin. “It’s something of a dehydrating agent, mixed with a root that affects the nervous system.”

  The dwarven scholar nodded slowly.

  “Don’t get me wrong. My work doesn’t usually involve war crimes or System manipulation. In fact, until recently I didn’t even consider such applications.”

  He ignored the fact that the dwarf was still staring at him blankly. It was difficult enough to read their skull-expressions as it was without imagining how much guilt he should be feeling over his actions. It was simple, pragmatic science.

  What the System called Conditionals were always present. It was the part of an item that said that it could only be used on allies, or that it did increased damage to beasts. For the most part, these were ingrained and mostly ignored - save for in certain crafts or individuals who made a habit of trying to break every rule possible.

  One of the reasons that Bully had received the attention and invitation of the Outsiders was because of this. To some degree, he could bake these Conditionals into his potions. Equal parts intent, ingredients, and information.

  With the data Sally had sent over, he had been able to fashion an only affects Radochs Condition. Unstable, so the uses were limited, but the second prototype was in the works and would be much more effective.

  “Of course,” he thought out loud, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Who’s to say one of these ideas might not backfire? My interest is alchemy, after all. Some degree of trial and error is natural. I just hope I don’t cause a planetary extinction by accident, you know?” Bully furrowed his brow and gestured to the dwarf. “Hand me the ghalla herbs, please.”

  The skeletal assistant did so, still unsure as to what to say.

  “You’ve been rather quiet recently.”

  Dent winced and looked over at Chuck. “You think?”

  “Could it be because your shift ended ten minutes ago and you think staying silent will allow that to be overlooked?” The Architect gave him a dry smile. “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t overdo it so much?”

  Dent sucked at his teeth and raised his hands. “Caught. Guilty as charged. There’s just so much important work here, ya know? You’re always here.”

  “I’m an intangible being that requires no rest.”

  “It’s no harm; I’m not that tired.”

  Chuck gestured to the door. “Rules are rules. I love you, Dent, but it’s nice to get you out of my hair once in a while. Stretch your legs if you’re not tired. You don’t want to get rusty, do you?”

  Dent lowered his hands and pulled a face. “I suppose it’s been a while since I honed my craft.”

  “Is that what you call it?” The Architect turned to face the monitors. “I’ve already signed you up to be a Boss for one of the dungeon events happening soon. Jade Scale.”

  “Two or Four Party version?”

  “Two. I heard that the group has a few promising martial experts in it.” Chuck raised an eyebrow.

  “Hmm.” Dent pushed himself up from his chair and walked over to the wireframe mane. “Would be a good excuse to use my flame odachi. I still have that red samurai outfit to go with the fire theme.”

  The Architect turned and rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Just don’t burn yourself trying to fire aura again like last time, okay?”

  Theo stared into the campfire, feeling rather downtrodden.

  The figures knocking on his casket weren’t looking for trouble. In fact, upon leaping out of the metal coffin, he had almost sent them running in fear. They were only investigating out of curiosity and had apologized immediately upon realizing they had disturbed him.

  From there, he wasn’t sure how he had been invited along with the party of four, but they seemed affable enough now that the confusion had been ironed out. At least, the offer of a warm fire and conversation had been alluring enough.

  Their mage was a short woman with large round glasses and long bangs. She had spent most of the time nervously drawing in a journal, although would speak softly when she had input into the conversation.

  A contrast to their frontline fighter. Theo had almost mistaken him for a dwarf at first before concluding that he was just a short and exceptionally stocky man. Muscled, but built like a barrel. Bald and clean-shaven, aside from a tuft of hair on his chin. He had the sort of energy in his eyes and enthusiasm in his voice that painted him as someone who was always eager for a challenge.

  Aside from when a vampire had popped up in front of him, at least.

  The other two party members were twins. Human… although they could pass for half-elf. Lithe and nearly identical, with sharp features and light hair. Their clothing set them apart; however. A thief in leathers and a priest in a soft gray robe. The healer did most of the talking, while the other twin seemed content to nod along.

  “So there was a bugged Player?” Theo asked.

  “Aye,” the fighter named Lanny replied. “Called herself the Red Lady, only it’s not exactly clear what powers she had.”

  “Some manner of mental manipulation or corruption,” the mage—Jana—added. “She started a cult, and those that didn’t join were killed.”

  Theo nodded. “What kind of cult?”

  The priest shrugged their shoulders. “Doomsday related. Either to bring about or avoid the end of the world.”

  “Madness.” Lanny shook his head. “Murderin’ other Players for that? I heard she swept through the world like rot and took the throne for herself.”

  There was a general murmur of displeasure from the rest of the group, but none seemed to know enough to confirm or dispute what the fighter had said. It was extra context for Theo, but he already knew how that story had ended.

  He was here to meet the pair responsible for ending the Red Lady’s schemes. Along the way, they had stumbled into enough power to make them stand out to Chuck’s scanning. That alone made them interesting to meet.

  “Do you know much about the Players that stopped her?” he asked the group.

  Another round of murmurs without direction, before the mage spoke up.

  “I think they are… magicians.”

  “Oh.” Theo raised an eyebrow. “Like spellcasters?”

  Jana shook her head slowly.

  Before Theo could press the issue further, a bush rustled out in the darkness. He turned in his seat and ran his tongue across a fang.

  It looked like he might get to eat after all.