Path of Darkness Read online

  As soon as he passed beyond the trees, everything changed. The tranquil farmland transformed into a buzzing, cheerful forest. Wind whistled through the trees, birds chirped around, and even sounds of scary animals echoed in the forest.

  Jon didn’t care for any of it. His goal was clear. Find a four-handed dude and get killed. But even after walking for twenty minutes, he found no druid, nor even a deadly animal.

  What was wrong with this forest? Where did all the druids go?

  Chapter 10

  The scary animal sounds escalated as Jon marched deeper inside Abomination Forest. Strangely, he didn’t encounter a single animal, not even after walking for nearly thirty minutes. The only thing that affected him was the temperature. As he moved deeper, it dropped like crazy, almost to bone chilling levels.

  “Where the fuck are the druids?” He cursed as he rubbed his palms together.

  The trail suddenly stopped in front of a huge tree that would take ten men to circle its trunk. There was a big hole inside it.

  Jon jumped back when a growl came out of the big hole, followed by hot breath that pricked the hairs on his neck.

  Scared, Jon took another step back.

  The next growl came out with a hot breath of some animal that stank of rotten meat. There was definitely a dragon or something inside.

  Turning back, Jon ran away at full speed. He ran like a rat running for his life. Actually, he was running for his life.

  Something big moved close to him, something so big that its steps shook the ground.

  F-ck!

  He charged to his right. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, increasing his speed.

  Something changed. He felt like he was moving through a thin film of light, but looking around he only found trees and more trees. Ignoring the weird tickling at the back of his mind, he raced through the trees, far away from that big monster. Whatever it was.

  But soon his speed decreased, his chest heaved like a machine, and his vision blurred. Sweat ran over his eyes, and he had to halt. His legs refused to move.

  A green bar popped up and quickly turned gray.

  System: Stamina debuff active. You regenerate 1 Stamina per second.

  What the heck was this? Focusing on the green bar, his Stamina stat floated in his vision.

  10/130(4.25/S)

  Shit! He totally forgot about this. Every activity in the game used Stamina, and running depleted it like crazy.

  Turning back, he listened carefully for the monster running behind him. All was quiet. Surprisingly, he had run away from the monster. So, he stopped for a minute and let his Stamina replenish to full. When it reached the full indicator, the gray portion vanished, and his heart rate eased.

  Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he glanced around.

  “Where am I?”

  The surroundings looked totally different. There was no trail below his legs, nor any red dirt around him. He stood on soft, lush green grass surrounded by bamboo trees. Where the heck did the huge trees go? He’d been running for only a few minutes; how did he reach this part of the forest?

  Crap! How was he supposed to get back now?

  Map, there should be a map. Every RPG he’d played had a map. He willed to activate the map. It came up, marking his current location with a small green dot, but there were no other markers. No farms, no respawn location. He seemed to be in the forest, but then there was forest everywhere. Where was his farm? Did he run too deep inside the forest?

  No way. He was only running for five or seven minutes.

  He tried to turn back, but soon he realized there was no way to find the way out. Everywhere he went, he found more bamboo trees or thick bushes. All the huge trees had vanished from the forest.

  Damn. The only way out of here would be to die. Yes, that was the only way.

  Jon started moving in a random direction, hoping that the next thing he would encounter would be a druid.

  But the game-god wouldn’t listen to his prayers, right?

  Instead of a four-handed druid, he met a sharp-toothed dire wolf.

  With a piercing shriek, the wolf jumped out of the bushes and stared at him with deadly white eyes. Its breath was so strong and fierce that it blew the dirt on the ground whenever it exhaled.

  Licking its sharp teeth, the wolf slowly stepped forward.

  A tremor ran through Jon’s legs. This was his end. Without thinking twice, he picked another random direction and ran with all his might. His leather boots cracked over the dead foliage and brushed against the soft grass. He stumbled a couple of times.

  One time he fell hard on his face, hurting him for -10 HP. He found a peculiar object called Key of Souls there, which he dropped in his bag and jumped back up to run faster.

  However, no matter how fast or slow he ran the wolf stayed a couple meters behind him. Soon, Jon realized the bastard was toying with him. The wolf was making him run and run until he dropped from exhaustion, and then it would eat him.

  Two minutes. Five minutes. Jon’s Stamina bar depleted faster and faster. After maybe a minute, it would reach the zero mark, and he would have to stop. Then the fucking wolf would have a leisurely meal, laughing a wolfy laugh, rending his flesh with its teeth.

  A bolt of fear ran down Jon’s spine when the thought of such cruelty came to him. Goddamn, the wolf was the real predator.

  A crazy thought ran through his mind.

  No. He would kill himself, but he wouldn’t fall prey to the wolf. His mind raced, trying to come up with a way to kill himself. Maybe he could stab himself with the shovel. No, that wouldn’t work, and he would lose the shovel. The last time he died, he lost all the items he’d pulled out of the Bag of Holding. Maybe he should let another animal kill him. Yes, that sounded like a good idea.

  When his Stamina was almost gone, he heard a growl on his left. Yes, there were some animals there. Swiftly changing his direction, he dashed to his left, toward the origin of the growling.

  The footsteps behind him stopped.

  Halting, Jon turned back to stare at the wolf. The white-eyed wolf had stopped, like it was afraid of something. Jon turned back to glance at the origin of the growling sound and then back at the wolf. It seemed the wolf was afraid of the growling.

  Good.

  Jon squatted, recovering his Stamina a little. He was lost in the forest, and the only way out was dying, but he didn’t want to die in the wolf’s jaws. The wolf was still waiting. Waiting for him to come out of the invisible territory of the growling animal.

  He would find that growling animal and sacrifice himself.

  Another snarky message popped up in his vision.

  System: +1 to Constitution for the next 12 hours for running like a dog.

  The game developers must be bastards in real life to put those kinds of messages in the game.

  F-k them!

  Ignoring the message, he marched in the direction of the growling. But as he moved closer, the growling turned into some sort of weird chanting. Maybe there were humans in the forest, doing something?

  Great!

  He could ask them for directions to the farm, or how to find a druid. That would fit perfectly with his plan.

  Jon was about to shout in joy when he pushed his way out of a thick bush and found a group of druids on the other side.

  Yes. The dudes with four hands. And god, they looked creepy. They had snouts like dogs but stood on two legs, hunched over. Between that and their four hands, they looked like some shit out of ancient times. And the four hands, those were like plant branches. What kind of monsters were these?

  But that wasn’t the most interesting thing about the scene Jon stumbled across.

  The fifteen weird-looking druids encircled two altars made of bones. A beautiful girl in white was tied to one altar, and an old druid with only one hand was lying on the other.

  A tall and heavyset druid stepped forward and stabbed the old druid with a sharp knife. Green blood flew out of the old druid’s body, staining the a
ltar. The heavyset druid dipped two of his hands in the old druid’s blood and sucked the green fluid from his fingers, then turned toward the girl. A smug, evil smile spread on his doglike face.

  This was Jon’s chance, to die at the hands of a druid, to get all his Mana sucked out.

  Jon dashed forward, breaking through the ring of the druids encircling the altars, and jumped on top of the girl.

  The druid’s hands pierced his back, and a sharp pain shot through his body. He could swear he felt a stick-like finger pierce his heart and begin to suck.

  System:

  The druid chief has hit you for 1000 damage.

  You have died on the altar of transformation.

  You have taken part in the transformation ritual.

  You have gained a new class: Arch Druid.

  Congratulations, you have unlocked a unique class.

  You died. Respawning in two hours.

  Chapter 11

  Jon rolled around on the hard marble floor of the respawn room in agony. The pain deepened with every passing second. The game developers weren’t just stupid, they must have been cruel too. Why did they design a respawn room where the player would be pushed to experience the pain of death? If they wanted to make it realistic, then the dead person shouldn’t f-ing experience pain after death. Couldn’t they understand a simple thing like this? Did he have to shove their head in the ground and show them how it worked?

  He might do that someday, if he had the opportunity.

  Ten minutes passed, and the pain subsided a little, but the prickling sensation of someone sucking the Mana from his heart lingered a bit longer.

  After ten more minutes and lots of sweating, Jon could finally sit up.

  Sighing, he glanced down at his sweat-soaked clothes.

  That was brutal. He would never let himself be killed by a druid again. The shovel through the throat was way better than that.

  When his senses finally settled down, he accessed his notifications. There were myriad notifications waiting for him.

  System: Congratulations, +2 Chance for happening on a transformation ritual and obtaining a unique class with no effort.

  -1 to Intelligence for the next 12 hours for jumping into the ritual. Are you suicidal? Eager for a painful death, at that?

  Congratulations! You have unlocked a unique class: Arch Druid.

  When a druid meditates for hundreds of years and goes through the transformation ritual, he can advance to become an Arch Druid. The Arch Druid class provides many benefits, including +1 to skill points and +2 to stat points each level. It also provides one free random spell/skill for each spell selection level. Arch Druids are focused on nature and hence they receive the Circle of Nature as their base circle.

  What the heck was this? One free skill each spell selection level? What was that?

  Jumping to his feet, Jon dashed toward the table and called up the internet with a thought. First, he accessed the druid class information.

  Bingo! Jackpot! He hooted as he read the information.

  Druid was a nature-based class, having power over nature. It fit well with his farming needs. The class was the only class that came with two free skills at level 0. It didn’t mention the Arch Druid class, but the system notification had called it a unique class.

  Jon punched the empty air in ecstasy. This was a blessing in disguise.

  Then he checked what this spell selection level was. Apparently, spell/skill-based classes only got a handful of spells available at random levels. Like 1,3,5,8,10, and so on. Then he could also learn a spell/skill through a book of skill.

  Sighing, he accessed his character sheet.

  Name: Jon (Level 1)

  Class: Arch Druid

  Second Class: Locked

  Stats:

  Strength 11

  Dexterity 5

  Constitution 5

  Intelligence 5

  Wisdom 5

  Chance 2

  Charisma 2

  Health 180/180

  Stamina 130/130 (5.25/S)

  Mana 50/50 (5.25/S)

  Spirit 50/50 (5.25/S)

  Utility Class: Formationist

  Stat points available: 8

  Skill points available: 3

  Experience 500/1000

  Skills:

  The Circle of Nature:

  Druids get access to the circles which enable them to access greater powers of nature. The Circle of Nature allows the druid to embrace spell-casting and truly become embodied into a nature Wizard.

  Mana Manipulation (level 1): Allows you to manipulate your Mana and use it for spells and utility purposes. Each level increases the proficiency of Mana handling. This is a passive skill and can’t be increased with skill points.

  Please choose two free spells available for your class.

  There was a huge list of the spells, and Jon took fifteen minutes to narrow it down to four.

  Mold Earth: This spell allows you to mold a 50 square meter area to suit your needs. +10n radius where n is the skill level. Cost: 25 Spirit.

  Flame Cast: This spell allows you to cast a flame at a given place without need of raw materials. The flame will burn for five minutes and damage everything in a one-meter radius for 5n*SM damage where n is the skill level and SM is the spell modifier. Cost: 5 Spirit.

  Freeze Ice: This spell allows you to freeze any water (up to 1 cubic meter) you have available. The freeze duration is one minute. Cost: 5 Spirit.

  Healing Space: Call upon the power of nature to heal yourself or target in a two-meter square area for one minute. Heals for 10n/s, where n is the skill level. Cost: 10 Spirit/sec.

  Now this was difficult. His first choices were Mold Earth and Healing Space, but that meant he would be left without any damaging spell, and he was quite eager to try something on Grimish. But then he would get to choose spells at level 1 too, so he could choose an offensive spell a bit later.

  He went with Mold Earth and Healing Space. They seemed like the best options for now.

  Then he got a prompt to choose level 1 spells. There was no limit of spells he could choose here, but he only had 3 skill points. So, the game treated skills and spells interchangeably. How could he otherwise use skill points in spells?

  So, he could either choose 3 different skills, or choose only one. The remaining skills would be available until he usage his skill points for that level. Again, he narrowed down to two options.

  Land Heal: Heal the land for a 20 square meter area and increase the yield of plants, crops, fruits and nature related products. +2n radius where n is the skill level. Consecutive cast on the same place requires a 4 hour cooldown. Cost: 25 Spirit.

  Acid Vine: Call upon nature and imbue target plant with the impurities of nature to turn it into an ally for 3 minutes. The target plant turns into a vine that throws acid for 3 minutes. Deals 5n+5n*SP damage per throw, where n is the skill level. Cost: 50 Spirit

  Jon had three points available, so he put 1 in each spell and left 1 unspent. He may need it later, or might spend it on Land Heal or Mold Earth to work on his farm—or on Acid Vine, if Grimish got on his nerves again.

  On to stat points. Seeing he needed Strength for farming and Spirit for spells, the choices were simple.

  He dumped 4 in Strength and 4 in Wisdom.

  Now his new character sheet looked better.

  Name: Jon (Level 1)

  Class: Arch Druid

  Second Class: Locked

  Stats:

  Strength 15

  Dexterity 5

  Constitution 5

  Intelligence 5

  Wisdom 9

  Chance 2

  Charisma 2

  Health 220/220

  Stamina 150/150 (5.25/S)

  Mana 50/50 (5.25/S)

  Spirit 90/90 (5.81/S)

  Utility Class: Formationist

  Stat points available: 0

  Skill points available: 1

  Experience 500/1000

  Skills:

  Pas
sives:

  The Circle of Land

  Mana Manipulation (level 1)

  Active:

  Mold Earth (Level 1) Progression: 0%

  Healing Space (Level 1) Progression: 0%

  Acid Vine (Level 1) Progression: 0%

  Land Heal (Level 1) Progression: 0%

  Elemental Shield (Level 1) Progression: 0%

  Utility Skills:

  Perception (Level 1)

  What the heck? Surprised to find something unexpected on his sheet, he accessed the Elemental Shield details.

  Elemental Shield (Free skill received from class bonuses.): Absorb the strongest element around you to create an elemental shield that protects you from elemental damage. Create a shield that absorbs 10n elemental damage where n is the skill level. Cost: 10 Spirit.

  Great, in one hour he’d transformed from a nobody to a mighty unique class spell-caster.

  He went looking for information about the transformation ritual, but there was none. Actual players managed the BlackFlame Online wiki, so if no one had tried it or experienced it, the wiki wouldn’t have that information. So, it seemed that no one had encountered it in the game yet.

  Fair enough. Maybe he would be the first one to do that. He logged in to his account and started writing an article.

  This time, his two hours passed quickly, and when it was up Jon jumped out of the portal to the shrine. The night had spread its wings over the outpost office and the surrounding area when Jon walked out of the respawn portal. The only shiny thing around was the white halo on the stone shrine. The old man from the outpost office glared at him at first, then jumped out the window and dashed toward him.

  “You— You got a class,” he said in a horrid voice.

  Chapter 12

  “How did you—” The old man choked. “How is it possible?”

  “What’s the problem?” Jon asked.

  The old man stepped back. “Did you steal the Eye of Chulia?”

  Jon arched his brows. “What’s that? I got the class from a transformation ritual.”

  “No, this isn’t possible. I’ve got to report it to the higher-ups.” The old man ran off and disappeared into the outpost office.