Chapter 13: [13] : Weight of the Warden, The Stone Golem
Declan stood at the edge of the dark underground lake. The water was churning with hundreds of armored leeches. They snapped their metal teeth, hungry for the guy who had just vanished right in front of them.
Declan looked across the thirty-meter gap. Sloane and Kendra were standing near the crater ridge. They looked like two very nervous mice waiting for a cat to do a trick.
He checked his stamina bar. It was sitting at a perfect 100.
"Void Blink," Declan thought.
The world went pitch black. A split second later, he appeared fifteen meters in the air, right over the center of the deadly lake. Gravity tried to pull him down into the writhing mass of leeches.
"Void Blink."
Another flash of nothingness. Declan's boots hit the rocky shore right next to Sloane and Kendra. He didn't even stumble. The Kinetic Dampener trait on his boots completely ate the downward force of his fall.
Kendra jumped back, startled. Sloane just crossed her arms and shook her head.
"Show off," Sloane muttered. "Did you get the Relic weapon?"
Declan opened his inventory and pulled out the Dull Warden's Halberd. The massive, eighty-pound polearm hit the dirt with a heavy thud. It looked like a piece of junk. The iron was dark and unpolished. The axe head was completely blunt.
"That's a Relic?" Kendra asked, leaning in to look at it. "It looks like a rusty shovel on a stick."
"It's a stat stick right now," Declan admitted. "I don't have the twenty base strength required to swing it properly. The system drops my attack speed by eighty percent if I try to use it like this. It's basically a giant paperweight."
"So you went into a death trap for a paperweight," Sloane said flatly.
"I went in for a canvas," Declan corrected her. He willed the halberd back into his inventory. "I need to upgrade it. But Relic items don't cost one Origin Point per level like Scavenged trash does. The system says it costs fifty Origin Points per level for a Relic. I need five hundred points to push this thing to plus ten and get the mutation."
Kendra did the math. "You don't have five hundred points. We barely have fifty."
Declan pulled his mutated +20 Carnage Cleaver out of his inventory. The jagged red blade pulsed with dark light. He rested the flat of the blade on his shoulder and gave his two scouts a very corporate smile.
"That is why you two are going to work overtime," Declan said. "Find me things to kill. Let's go."
For the next two hours, the trio scoured the Ashlands. The gray, rocky terrain was ugly, but it was packed with monsters.
Kendra was actually a great scout. She used her bow to pull aggro from a distance. She would shoot a monster, yell, and run back to where Declan was waiting.
They fought packs of Level 6 Ash-Lizards. The lizards spit globes of burning acid.
Declan just used Void Blink to teleport right through the acid spit, appearing directly behind them. One swipe with the Carnage Cleaver applied the Hemorrhage trait. Then he just snapped his fingers.
Blood Burst.
The lizards exploded from the inside out, painting the gray rocks with bright blue digital pixels.
Sloane mostly just stood in the back. Whenever Declan took a stray hit, she threw a glowing green heal at him. But honestly, his +10 Predator's Coat had fifty defense. The monsters were barely doing scratch damage. He was just farming them like a guy cutting grass.
By the time the sky above the Ashlands turned a deeper shade of purple, Declan had racked up exactly five hundred and twenty Origin Points.
"Stop," Declan called out. Kendra was just about to shoot another lizard in the distance. She lowered her bow and wiped the sweat off her forehead.
"Break time?" Kendra panted.
"Upgrade time," Declan said.
He sat down on a flat rock and pulled the Dull Warden's Halberd out of his inventory. It rested across his knees, heavy and ugly.
"System," Declan commanded. "Enhance the Dull Warden's Halberd ten times."
The bright white light of the enhancement system swallowed the weapon. The chimes rang out in his head, one after another. Since it was a Relic weapon, the light was much thicker and brighter than before.
[System Enhancement Initiated]
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +1. Damage increased.
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +2. Damage increased.
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +3. Damage increased.
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +4. Damage increased.
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +5.
The standard red warning box popped up, telling him the weapon would shatter if he kept going. Declan's SSS Rank talent, Boundless Enhancement, crushed the warning box instantly.
[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +6.
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +7.
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +8.
↳ Dull Warden's Halberd +9.
The heavy iron shaft was changing. The old leather grips fused with the metal, turning into a sleek, dark alloy that fit perfectly in his hands. The blunt axe head didn't get sharper. Instead, it grew thicker. It looked like a solid block of dark steel forged for the sole purpose of breaking tanks.
[Dull Warden's Halberd has reached +10.]
[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]
A wave of heavy, oppressive gravity pulsed out from the weapon. The gray ash on the ground around Declan was pushed away in a perfect circle.
The white light faded. Declan looked at the new stats.
[Warden's Halberd +10]
↳ Tier: Relic (Mutated)
↳ Damage: 300 to 450
↳ Stat Requirement: Strength 20 (Requirement unmet. Attack speed reduced by 80%)
↳ Trait Unlocked: Weight of the Warden
↳ Functionality: During any downward swing, the weapon's mass increases by 500%. This massive weight increase does not slow the user's momentum or require extra stamina to swing.
Declan stared at the text. He did some quick math in his head. The halberd weighed about eighty pounds normally. A five hundred percent increase meant that the second he swung it downward, the weapon would temporarily weigh almost five hundred pounds.
And the system explicitly stated it wouldn't slow down his swing speed. That meant the kinetic energy behind the strike would be completely ridiculous.
"Let's check this out," Declan said, standing up. He grabbed the halberd. It was still sluggish to lift because of his low base strength, but he managed to rest it on his shoulder.
"You're in luck," Sloane pointed a finger down into a small ravine just ahead of them. "Kendra spotted that ten minutes ago. We avoided it because it looks like a tank."
Declan walked over to the edge of the ravine.
Down below, pacing back and forth, was a massive monster made entirely of jagged black rocks and glowing orange magma veins. It was easily nine feet tall.
[Obsidian Stone Golem]
↳ Level: 8 (Mini-Boss)
↳ HP: 1500 / 1500
↳ Defense: 200
"Two hundred defense," Kendra whispered, walking up next to him. "My arrows would literally just bounce off that thing. The cleaver bleed effect might work, but you'd have to cut stone first."
"I'm not going to cut it," Declan said.
He gripped the Halberd with both hands. He didn't bother using Void Blink to get down there. He just jumped off the ten-foot ledge of the ravine.
His boots hit the ground with a loud crunch. The Kinetic Dampener ate the fall damage, leaving him standing perfectly still right in front of the massive golem.
The Stone Golem turned around. Its orange magma eyes locked onto Declan. It let out a sound like two boulders grinding together and raised a massive stone fist to smash him.
Declan didn't dodge. He planted his feet. He hauled the heavy Warden's Halberd up over his head. Because of the stat penalty, his upward movement was incredibly slow. The golem's fist was already coming down.
"Let's test the physics engine," Declan smiled.
He brought the halberd down.
The instant the downward arc started, the Weight of the Warden trait activated.
The dark iron axe head didn't just fall. It tore through the air. The sudden addition of four hundred pounds of mass, combined with the speed of his swing, created a literal sonic boom. The air pressure around the blade warped visibly.
The blunt head of the halberd smashed directly into the top of the Stone Golem's head.
CRACK!
There was no struggle. There was no resistance. The five-hundred-pound kinetic strike hit the two-hundred-defense monster, and the system's math simply broke.
The golem didn't lose health points. It just ceased to be a solid object.
The massive stone body shattered into a million tiny fragments of dust and pebbles.
The shockwave of the impact hit the ground, carving a spiderweb of deep cracks into the solid stone floor of the ravine. A cloud of ash and rock dust exploded outward, completely hiding Declan from view.
Up on the ridge, Sloane and Kendra coughed and waved the dust away from their faces.
"Did he die?" Kendra asked, trying to see through the smoke.
The dust slowly settled. Declan was standing in the center of a newly formed crater. The Stone Golem was completely gone. All that was left was a massive pile of blue digital pixels floating up into the air.
Declan easily lifted the halberd back onto his shoulder. Since he wasn't swinging downward anymore, the weight went back to normal.
He looked up at his two scouts.
"This works really good," Declan said.
-----x-----
Chapter 14: [14] : The Vanguard's Retaliation, Juggernaut
Declan climbed out of the ravine, leaving the pixelated remains of the Stone Golem behind. His Origin Point balance ticked up by another hefty chunk. Mini-bosses paid well.
"Alright, playtime is over," Declan said, tossing a small health potion to Sloane. "We need to head toward the Sector 5 border. This zone is getting boring."
Sloane caught the potion and shoved it into her bag. "Boring? You just turned a rock monster into baby powder. I don't think we're playing the same game."
They started walking toward the main path that led out of the Ashlands. The terrain slowly began to slope upward, funneling into a narrow canyon pass.
Kendra ran ahead to scout, quickly disappearing into the jagged rocks. Declan and Sloane followed at a normal pace.
"So, what is the plan when we actually reach a city?" Sloane asked. "You can't just murder everything. The game has safe zones with guards. High-level NPC guards."
"I'll play nice in the cities," Declan replied. "I just need a place with a decent forge and an auction house. I have too much junk in my inventory."
Before Sloane could answer, Kendra came sprinting back down the canyon path. She wasn't holding her bow. She looked completely panicked. She slid to a stop in front of them, kicking up a cloud of gray ash.
"We have a problem," Kendra gasped, pointing back up the path. "A really big problem."
"Did you pull another boss?" Declan asked lazily.
"No. It's players," Kendra said, catching her breath. "It's the Black Vanguard. They are blocking the canyon exit."
Sloane groaned and rubbed her face. "Of course they are. How many?"
"Fifty," Kendra said, her voice shaking. "I counted at least fifty guys. They have heavy shields, crossbows, and mages. And Gideon is with them."
"Gideon?" Sloane frowned. "Declan chopped him into pieces at the bridge. He's dead."
Declan blinked. "Wait. He respawned?"
"Standard PvP kills just trigger a respawn, Sloane," Kendra explained quickly, her voice shaking. "The system takes a level and drops their active inventory, but they don't stay dead. The only thing that permanently deletes an avatar and fries your real-world brain is a 'True Death'...like starving, or getting killed by a Purge event."
Declan stared at her. That was a massive oversight. He had been treating kills like they were permanent. They weren't. "Where did he spawn?"
"Probably at the nearest camp," Kendra said. "He must have rallied his entire guild to come hunt us down. They are completely blocking the only way out of this zone. We need to turn around and hide."
Declan looked past Kendra, up the sloping canyon path. The walls were steep and jagged. There was no way to climb out. The only way forward was through the chokepoint.
He didn't pull out his cleaver. He didn't pull out his halberd. He just adjusted the collar of his pitch-black Predator's Coat.
'Hide?' Declan laughed softly. "I'm not walking backward for anyone."
He walked right past Kendra and headed straight up the path.
"Declan, stop!" Sloane hissed, jogging after him. "There are fifty of them! You have a cool weapon, but you're only Level 6! If fifty people hit you at once, you will die!"
"Just stay behind me," Declan said. "And enjoy the show."
He reached the top of the incline. The canyon opened up slightly, forming a natural arena before the exit.
Kendra wasn't exaggerating. The Black Vanguard was waiting for him.
Fifty players stood in a tight, organized military formation. The front line was made of ten guys holding massive iron tower shields. Behind them were warriors with spears and swords. In the back, a dozen players held loaded crossbows, and five players in robes held staffs glowing with low-level fire magic.
Standing in front of the shield wall was Gideon.
He looked entirely different than he did at the bridge. He was a level lower now. He didn't have his glowing red broadsword anymore. He had lost that when Declan killed him. Instead, he was holding a cheap iron longsword. His face was twisted in pure, unhinged rage.
When Gideon saw Declan walk over the ridge, he raised his sword and pointed it right at Declan's chest.
"There he is!" Gideon screamed. "The hacker!"
The entire Vanguard formation tensed. Weapons were raised. Crossbows were aimed.
Declan stopped walking. He stood casually with his hands in his pockets. Sloane and Kendra huddled behind a large rock a few yards back, too terrified to move.
"You got a lot of nerve showing your face here," Gideon spat, taking a few steps forward. "You think you can just embarrass me? You think you can steal my bridge?"
"It was a public bridge," Declan said flatly. "And you're blocking public traffic again. You guys really suck at urban planning."
Gideon's face turned purple. "Kill him! Fire everything! I want him pinned to the dirt!"
The backline reacted instantly.
Twelve crossbow bolts snapped through the air. Five small fireballs arched over the shield wall, trailing black smoke. They all zeroed in on Declan.
Declan didn't move a single muscle. He didn't even blink.
The bolts and the fireballs slammed into him simultaneously. The impact kicked up a cloud of ash and smoke, completely hiding his body.
"Yeah!" Gideon cheered. "Keep firing! Don't let him move!"
Before the crossbowmen could reload, a cold, calm voice echoed from inside the smoke cloud.
"My turn."
Declan stepped out of the smoke. His +10 Predator's Coat didn't have a single scorch mark on it. The fifty points of flat defense had completely eaten the low-level projectiles and magic. The crossbow bolts were lying harmlessly on the ground around his boots.
Gideon's eyes went wide. "What the hell is his defense stat?!"
Declan didn't give them time to figure it out.
"Void Blink," Declan thought.
He vanished.
The vanguard frontline braced their shields, expecting him to charge. But Declan didn't attack the front. He teleported fifteen meters forward, bypassing the shield wall entirely, and appeared directly in the middle of the soft backline.
Right in between the mages and the crossbowmen.
A mage in a blue robe turned around, his jaw dropping. "He's behind us!"
Declan reached into his inventory. The heavy, dark iron shaft of the +10 Warden's Halberd materialized in his hands.
He gripped it tight. He swung it horizontally to clear some space, knocking three archers off their feet, then he raised the massive block of dark steel high over his head.
"Look out!" a warrior yelled, rushing backward.
Declan brought the halberd down directly onto a warrior wearing heavy chainmail.
The Weight of the Warden trait triggered instantly. Five hundred percent mass increase. The eighty-pound weapon became a four-hundred-pound meteor of kinetic destruction.
The blunt axe head smashed into the warrior's shoulder.
There was no clean cut. There was no clashing of swords. The sound was a horrific, wet crunch of metal and bone collapsing at the same time. The warrior's chainmail behaved like wet tissue paper. He was instantly crushed flat against the rocky ground.
The shockwave from the downward strike sent a ripple through the dirt, knocking four other players off their feet.
Declan didn't pause. The mass normalized as he lifted the weapon again. He took one step to the side and brought it down on a mage trying to cast a spell.
CRUNCH.
Another player was instantly deleted into blue pixels.
"Stop him!" Gideon screamed from the front, turning around in a panic. "Swarm him! Use swords!"
Ten warriors broke from the front line and rushed Declan. They swung their swords and axes wildly, hacking at his back and sides.
Clang! Thud!
The weapons bounced off the pitch-black leather of the Predator's Coat. Declan's fifty defense was an absolute wall. He literally ignored them. He just kept walking slowly through the backline, raising the halberd and bringing it down like a machine pressing metal.
CRUNCH.
An archer was flattened into paste.
CRUNCH.
Two warriors trying to block with their shields had their arms shattered and their health bars instantly zeroed out.
It wasn't a fight. It was a demolition.
Declan was an untouchable juggernaut walking through a crowd of helpless children. Every time the heavy dark steel came down, the ground shook, and someone died. The Vanguard members realized their weapons were doing nothing. Panic set in.
"He's taking zero damage!" someone screamed.
"Run! Break formation!"
The guild completely shattered. Players dropped their heavy shields and tried to sprint back down the canyon.
Declan watched them run. He didn't chase them on foot.
"Void Blink."
He teleported fifteen meters ahead, appearing directly in front of three fleeing warriors. Before they could stop, he swung the heavy halberd down in a wide diagonal arc.
The kinetic force crushed all three of them into the dirt simultaneously.
"No, no, no," Gideon muttered, backing away slowly. He watched his fifty-man army get systematically dismantled by a single guy in a black coat.
Declan kept blinking. He kept swinging. He didn't show any mercy, and he didn't slow down. He just methodically crushed every single player wearing a Black Vanguard tag until the canyon was quiet again.
-----x-----
Chapter 15: [15] : The Fear Factor, Global Auction House
The canyon was completely silent. The sound of fighting was gone, replaced by the soft hiss of the wind blowing through the jagged rocks.
Forty-nine piles of glowing blue pixels floated up into the dark sky, leaving behind a massive, chaotic mess of dropped gear. Swords, shields, crossbows, and cheap armor littered the ground like a graveyard of junk.
Only one member of the Black Vanguard was still breathing.
Gideon was on his knees in the dirt. He had dropped his cheap iron longsword minutes ago. He was hyperventilating, his eyes wide and vacant as he stared at the carnage around him. His face and armor were splattered with the digital blood of his guildmates.
Declan walked slowly toward him. The heavy iron shaft of the Warden's Halberd rested easily on his shoulder. His pitch-black Predator's Coat was still immaculate, repelling the dirt and blood like it wasn't even there.
Gideon flinched violently when Declan stopped in front of him.
"Please," Gideon sobbed, staring at Declan's boots. "I don't have anything left. You took my level. You took my gear. Please don't send me back to spawn again."
Declan looked down at the broken man. He could easily drop the halberd and crush him into pixels. It would give him another chunk of Origin Points. But Declan was thinking bigger than a few points.
If you wanted to control a zone in a lawless game like the Grid, sheer power wasn't enough. You had to let people know you had that power. Fear was the most efficient currency in the world.
"I'm not going to kill you," Declan said softly.
Gideon's head snapped up. "You... you aren't?"
"No," Declan replied. He leaned down slightly, his dark eyes locking onto Gideon's terrified face. "If I kill you, you just respawn and whine to a new group of idiots. If I let you live, you get to do a job for me."
"Anything," Gideon nodded frantically. "What do you want?"
"I want you to run," Declan said, his voice cold and flat. "Run back to the safe zone. Run back to whoever is left in your little guild. And I want you to tell them exactly what happened here. Tell them what I look like. Tell them about the coat. Tell them about the teleporting."
Declan stood up straight and pointed the blunt, brutal head of the halberd at Gideon's face.
"Tell them Sector 4 belongs to me now. If anyone tries to charge a toll, block a road, or hunt players in my zone, I will find them. Understand?"
"Yes," Gideon choked out. "Yes, I swear."
"Good," Declan said. "Now get out of my sight before I change my mind."
Gideon didn't hesitate. He scrambled to his feet, slipping in the mud, and sprinted down the canyon path as fast as his legs could carry him. He was screaming something about a Blinking Butcher as he disappeared into the distance.
Declan groaned internally. 'Blinking Butcher? That is incredibly cheesy. Gamers have terrible naming sense.'
He turned around. Sloane and Kendra were slowly walking out from behind their rock. They were both staring at the massive field of dropped loot.
"You left him alive," Sloane said, walking up beside Declan. "That's surprisingly merciful for a guy who just turned forty-nine people into pancakes."
"It's not mercy," Declan said, willing the halberd back into his inventory. "It's advertising. By tomorrow, every player in Sector 4 will know not to mess with us."
Kendra walked over to a pile of loot and picked up a heavy iron breastplate.
"Declan, there is so much stuff here. Our inventories can't hold all this."
Declan looked around. She was right. The system rules stated that PvP kills didn't drop standard EXP, but players dropped items from their active inventory. The Black Vanguard had been heavily geared. There were dozens of iron swords, shields, leather vests, and minor health potions scattered everywhere.
He didn't want any of it. It was all Scavenged or Forged tier trash compared to his mutated gear. But it was valuable to other players.
"We need Origin Points," Declan said, rubbing his chin. "Can we vendor this stuff at a safe zone NPC?"
Sloane shook her head. "NPCs give you terrible rates. A sword that costs fifty points to buy will only sell for five points to a vendor."
Sloane paused and opened her system interface. She swiped through a few menus until a bright golden window popped up in front of her.
"Wait," Sloane said, her eyes lighting up. "The server just hit a milestone. Enough players reached Level 10 across all the sectors. The system just unlocked the Global Auction House."
Declan raised an eyebrow. "Global?"
"Yeah," Sloane explained rapidly. "Players from any sector can post items, and anyone can buy them using Origin Points. The system handles the digital transfer instantly. No meeting up required."
Declan looked at the massive pile of gear. Then he looked at Sloane.
"Sloane, what did you do in the real world before you got thrown in here?" Declan asked.
"I was an ER nurse," Sloane said. "And before that, I worked retail. I am very good at dealing with terrible people and organizing chaos."
Declan nodded, then looked at Kendra. "And you?"
He wasn't really expecting her to answer.
Kendra hesitated, gripping her bow tightly. "Well, I was a corporate drone operator. I flew delivery routes through the lower slums. A gang hijacked my rig and stole a shipment of experimental tech. The megacorp held me liable for the cost. Two million credits." She shivered, looking out at the dark canyon. "That's why I have trust no one. I'm used to getting ambushed in the shadows."
Declan's eyes softened for just a fraction of a second. He knew exactly how ruthless corporate debt was.
"You have good eyes, Kendra," Declan told her. "Keep using them for us, and I promise no one is going to ambush you ever again. You're the one doing the hunting now."
Kendra looked at him, surprised, and slowly nodded. She stood a little taller.
Declan then turned his attention back to the medic. "And Sloane, your background is exactly what we need right now. Congratulations on your promotion. You are now the official Quartermaster of this party."
Sloane crossed her arms. "I don't work for free, boss."
"Five percent cut of all total sales," Declan offered. "You price it, you list it, you manage the inventory. I just want the Origin Points funneled directly into my account."
"Ten percent," Sloane countered without missing a beat. Her hands were still trembling from watching him vaporize three men, but her old ER-nurse instincts were kicking in. When surrounded by blood and chaos, focus on the clipboard. Focus on the job. "I'm the one who has to sit here and categorize forty-nine pairs of sweaty boots and rusty swords. That's hazard pay."
"Seven percent," Declan said. "And I'll make sure nothing kills you while you do it."
"Deal," Sloane grinned.
For the next hour, they turned the canyon into a literal sorting facility.
Kendra gathered all the weapons and armor from the dirt and piled them up. Sloane sat on a rock, scanning every single item into her system interface and pricing it aggressively on the Global Auction House.
"Okay, listing ten standard iron swords," Sloane muttered, tapping away at her floating holographic screen. "The newbies in Sector 1 are getting slaughtered right now. They'll pay a premium for weapons. Listing them for thirty Origin Points each."
Declan sat quietly nearby, checking his own balance. He had linked his account to Sloane's auction house terminal.
The results were instant.
The Grid was filled with millions of desperate players trying to survive their first day. The demand for decent gear was astronomical. The moment Sloane posted an item, it sold.
[Item Sold: Iron Sword. Origin Points +30 transferred.]
[Item Sold: Heavy Wooden Shield. Origin Points +25 transferred.]
[Item Sold: Leather Greaves. Origin Points +20 transferred.]
The system notifications started flooding Declan's vision so fast he had to mute the chime sound. His Origin Point balance, which had been completely drained after upgrading the halberd, started rocketing upward.
One hundred. Five hundred. A thousand.
Sloane was a ruthless merchant. She bundled cheap health potions together and sold them at a markup to desperate guilds. She sold entire matching armor sets to players who wanted to look intimidating.
"Just sold a rare crossbow for two hundred points," Sloane announced proudly. "The corporate elites in Sector 1 and 2 linked their real-world bank accounts to the Grid. They are legally buying Origin Points with actual cash. And we are going to drain their wallets."
By the time the last piece of junk was sold, the canyon was completely clean again.
Declan opened his status screen and looked at his balance.
[Origin Points: 4,850]
He stared at the number. Nearly five thousand points. For a normal player, that was a fortune that would take weeks of grinding to acquire. For Declan, it was fuel. It was the raw material he needed to break the game's code even further.
"Not bad," Declan said, closing the menu. "You earned your cut, Sloane."
"I'm rich," Sloane laughed, looking at her own balance of over three hundred points. "I can actually buy real food now. No more burnt rat!"
"Don't get comfortable," Declan said, standing up and stretching his legs. He looked down the canyon path toward the dark, ominous mountains of Sector 5.
"This was just pocket change. We have a lot more hunting to do."