The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 19: The Ties That Bind

Returning to Kruxol, Crucis noticed that a few large notices had been set up on billboards around the town. Looking more closely, he saw that they showed the schedule of groups travelling between Kruxol and other nearby towns. These groups were set up by strong Guilds in response to the bug, and were intended to assist players with transport between towns while guarding them from attack. Crucis scanned the list of incoming journeys from Sanra, and saw that one was due to depart in one hour. He decided that it would be useful for Cael to hitch a ride on this journey, to join him here in Kruxol.

However, this still left him with an hour to spare. He was slightly hesitant about switching accounts, because Cael wasn't as adapted to stealth and hunting players in the wild, and he knew that he would have to figure out some way around this. However, he quickly thought of a way to ease Cael in. Going to the 'Trinket Store,' he searched their section of miscellaneous goods to find a [Sturdy Rope], a long, thick white rope that was coiled like a white python around a wooden stake. Purchasing this for 200 gold, he went to the South-East outskirts of Kruxol, where he didn't see anyone else around. Here, he saw a rickety building labelled 'Storage Containers for Sale.'

This area was initially added as a stopgap during the game's testing phase, to allow players to store items while the current Storage building was still being ironed out. The purchase of a few smaller game companies allowed for their developers to be repurposed towards this game, but due to this there was occasional rotation in the development team and this discontinuity meant that several features weren't fully-implemented during testing. The 'storage containers' were a remnant of the initial method for storing a player's inventory: like a locker room, players would pay for the key to a large, wooden storage cabinet, and could freely place their items inside or withdraw them. In early versions of the game, this was sometimes treated as akin to a marketplace, with players keeping their container open to show other players their wares, although only the original player who owned the container could withdraw items from it. The player could withdraw and sell items if an agreeable price was found.

However, by now it was barely used due to better alternatives like the Storage building and Guild treasury. The official reason for keeping the storage containers in the game was that they hadn't had the chance to run the other storage methods through most phases of testing, and were keeping this here temporarily while adjudging whether the other methods were suitable. The other, unacknowledged reason was that they had issues with removing the storage container code, because the rotating development team had connected the storage container area's code with the rest of the code related to storage, in such a way that removing this container facility could make the rest of the storage facilities break down or become inconsistent.

Crucis was pleased at the unwatched, empty area around the building, however, and quickly purchased a key. He was led towards a large, open yard behind the building, with several large containers placed in rows. His container was in the 3rd row from the left, and was marked 'C5' - the 5th container in row 'C.' He opened the container, and noticed that it was quite spacious, and he could fit inside it quite easily if he wanted to. He didn't have much to store in it at the moment, but he had a plan. He could hear a few players grinding at a slight distance. He kept still and listened carefully, trying to make out by sound which players were using which classes and weapons. He heard a loud, unfamiliar sound of sparks crackling wildly as a heavy sword struck, towards the East of Kruxol. Curious, he cautiously crept closer to the source of the noise, holding the coiled rope in his right arm.

He saw a player dressed in a golden suit of light armour with Mage-like violet robes draped around them, wielding a sword that glowed with a force that seemed like mana. This player was named [ykpaiha], and his sword's strange magical effects were something which Crucis had not seen before. The player was fighting a gathering of three level 16 [Nocturnal Wild Dog Pup]. The [Nocturnal Wild Dogs] are a strong enemy that appears in packs in the wild at night, pouncing on unwary travellers. These younger versions are still quite strong, but at level 16 they are more manageable. The warrior seemingly attacked these dogs by accident while trying to grind on a [Boar] mob, as he was barely able to tell where he was striking in the darkness. The group of dog pups had attacked him, and scared away the boars. Crucis crouched behind some nearby bushes to watch.

When the warrior struck at the pack of wild dogs, as he hit his sword seemed to produce flares or sparks of electricity, that would sprinkle over the opponent and cause high damage. Crucis hence realised that, while this warrior couldn't cast spells, his sword automatically triggered magical effects as it struck. Crucis hadn't seen something like this before, and wondered if the sword was paywall content that was only given to heavy donors. However, ykpaiha was clearly wearing some powerful INT-boosting equipment, because the flashes of mana as he hit were very bright and loud, almost as prominent as Cael's even though Cael was a Mage and focused on INT rather than STR. Crucis occasionally held his right hand lightly over his ear to muffle the sound of large explosions. The dogs were scratching away at ykpaiha's HP, reducing it to 68%, but he was steadily rebuffing them and soon only one remained. Crucis leaned in slightly to check on how much damage the warrior's strikes were doing, but he stumbled slightly over a tangled, fallen branch hidden at the edge of a bush, and the sound was loud enough for ykpaiha to notice. As the warrior kicked the pup back and came to look in Crucis' direction, Crucis quickly used [Stealth Cloak] and leapt to his feet, his speed increased by the skill.

As ykpaiha ambled straight towards the bush he had been hiding behind, Crucis darted in a curving path to the warrior's left and ended up behind ykpaiha. Grabbing the warrior in a [Chokehold], Crucis took a part of the rope in his right palm and looped it around ykpaiha's neck, causing the warrior to gag. Smiling, Crucis used [Forceful Kick] to send the warrior flying forward, causing the warrior to gag sharply as his neck fell harshly into the rope. The force of the warrior's fall was too much for Crucis to support, due to Crucis' low Strength stat, and hence he felt the rope slip out of his grasp as the warrior catapulted to the ground.

Gathering his rope, he saw that ykpaiha was beginning to gather his bearings after being surprised by the sudden attack. The warrior had probably just been expecting another wild dog pup to be emerging from the bush, if anything. Crucis quickly used [Figure Blur], blocking ykpaiha's vision of him, before leaning down and using [Stunning Dagger] to incapacitate the foe. Quietly, he wrapped a part of the rope around ykpaiha's neck, and then held this taut in the air while using a basic [Punch] to press ykpaiha's head into the ground inside the bush. He held on until he felt his opponent losing consciousness. He heard ykpaiha muttering, "What the hell is attacking me? A ghost?" Seemingly he had been unable to catch a clear sight of Crucis, meaning that the [Figure Blur] was proving effective. As soon as the cooldown ended, Crucis used [Chokehold] again, lightly pressing ykpaiha's injured, hoarse throat until the warrior slumped to the ground unmoving, with only 11% of his HP left.

Crucis grabbed the rope, and began wrapping it around ykpaiha's lower arms in order to restrain the warrior. He then wrapped it around the rest of ykpaiha's torso, and legs. He withdrew a piece of fine, white clothing that he had looted from the couple voyaging to the lake, and decided at the spur of the moment to tie it around the warrior's mouth as a muzzle. He wrung the shirt into a cylindrical shape, then tied it around the warrior's head to prevent any screams. At first, he dragged the warrior along the ground carefully, and then lifted the warrior once he was satisfied that there would be no resistance.

Staggering back to the storage containers with the warrior in tow, he found the container labelled C5, opened it, and shoved the warrior inside. At this point, the warrior had slightly regained his senses, and Crucis heard the sound of muffled whimpering from the container. He shut the door, and walked towards the building where he had received the keys. He asked for an additional set of keys to be provided, and, when prompted for another player to send it to, he chose Cael. It was possible for others to have spare keys to your Storage container, or even to open it, but only you were allowed to withdraw items from inside it. This feature was added in order to substitute for the lack of a Guild storage or treasury in the testing versions of the game. It was also possible for alts to both have keys, since only one could withdraw the items and hence it was not considered a problem.

Crucis checked the time on an old clock hung in the corner of the room. There was only 20 minutes left until the expedition from Sanra to Kruxol, which he intended Cael to join. Since he hadn't killed ykpaiha yet, he was not red-named. Due to this, he freely walked towards the centre of Kruxol, where he could save and switch characters. When asked which character to switch to, he selected the only option: Cael.

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