It didn’t make me feel more beautiful, or any different for that matter. But when I looked at my own ability list, I saw that I now had access to everything the Cloak offered.
Void Portal? Interesting.
Phase? Wow!
Teleportation? Amazing!
A chat request appeared. At first, I thought it would be Ogden wanting to scream at me, but then I saw who it was from and opened it.
“Muddie!” I said.
The first thing Mudhoof said as he appeared was, “Did you get my stuff?” Then smiled. “Just kidding.”
I laughed. “Where are you? Minotaur Warrior Newbie zone?”
Mudhoof angled the camera so I could see behind him. Half-naked minotaurs ran around a grassy field chasing little boars with wooden axes. “Yup,” Mudhoof said and showed me his own wooden ax. “This is the end result when you’re punted by an angry god.”
“Sorry about that,” I said. “It was a tough encounter all around.”
“No worries, I’m a power-leveling fiend. I’ll be back up in no time. Oh, and congrats on the Legendary Cloak!”
I furrowed my brow. “Thanks, but how did you know? I just put it on.”
Mudhoof said, “Yeah, and when you did, the game updated the database with its existence and all the news-feeds picked up on it. Now everyone knows what you got. You’re famous!”
I frowned. “That’s to be expected, I guess.” This was something I hadn’t considered since keeping the item wasn’t originally my intention.
“Uh-oh,” Mudhoof said, looking at something on his view screen.
“What is it?”
“Looks like Ogden Trite has put a bounty on your head, and a reward for the return of the Legendary Cloak. Claims you reneged on a contract to give it to him.”
“What?” I said. “He’s the one who reneged on the contract. Tried to kill me, too!”
“Well, it’s all over the bounty hunter boards now, and there are lots of them signing up to go after you.”
“How many,” I said, swallowing.
“Oh, a couple hundred thousand.” Mudhoof gave me a mournful look. “Might want to think about going into hiding, Vee. That’s a lot of people looking to get you to re-roll.”
I sighed. Wasn’t owning a Legendary Item suppose to make things easier instead of harder?
Mudhoof said, “Hey, no worries. Once I power-level up, I’ll help you out. Bounty hunters beware.”
“Thanks, Muddie,” I said. “I’ll be in touch.”
I closed the screen and frowned. This was going to suck. As a new owner of a Legendary item I should be over the moon with delight. But things became a lot more complicated.
In an effort to make myself feel better I tried one of my new Cloak abilities.
Summon Shadow Steed.
A beautiful black horse appeared complete with full tack and saddle. The beast was tall and majestic. A sight to behold. When I ran my hand over its skin I noticed the animal was transparent as smoke.
“Cool,” I said and jumped up on my new mount.
“Pretty horse!” Phlixx said as he jumped up to sit in front of me.
A request appeared on my screen. ‘Name of Mount?’
I thought on it for a moment, but only one answer seemed appropriate. “Smoke,” I said.
Name assigned, the request closed.
A gate irised opened in the air in front of me. A forested landscape covered in snow could be seen within. The exit.
I stared at it for long moments. Now I had a Legendary item and six others had been created in the game world. Ogden would be after them. And what of the growing Darkness the parchment mentioned?
I also had a huge price on my head, thanks to Ogden’s treachery. Every bounty hunter and cutthroat would now be on my tail looking to take me out. I touched my new cloak. I guess this Legendary item, and its incredible abilities, will be useful in keeping me alive. However long that may be.
My life got much more complicated than I ever imagined it would before taking this silly quest.
I kicked at Smoke and my steed ran forward.
But as we jumped through the gate, my mind heavy with all these thoughts, I found myself grinning from ear to ear.
This was going to be fun.
Shadow Hunting
The most powerful player in the gaming universe wants me dead.
Now I have a price on my head with tens of thousands of bounty hunters out to kill me. But I can only run for so long. I need to put an end to this madness once and for all.
If I’m going to die, it will be on my own terms.
The tables must be turned.
Time to go hunting.
CHAPTER ONE
I was busy looting the corpse of a goblin raider when the unicorn attacked.
I’d pinned the goblin with arrows up against a large oak tree. It wore a mismatched set of armor, no doubt taken from pillaged victims, which gave the humanoid a scarecrow-like look. But it was the handmade leather-armor vest which had my interest. This specific type was currently in high demand by leather workers on the auction house. These leather vest mats – or materials – were desperately sought after for a new type of armor leggings.
I have no idea why they are so valuable, but I knew it took a lot of goblin raiders to farm – or kill – to find one.
Anyways, the unicorn. I was distracted while trying to estimate the best way to remove the vest without touching the vile goblin. My back was turned to the forest, so I was caught unawares when the equine beast burst from the tree line.
Greed has always been my undoing. I’ve died many times because of it, and have become quite familiar with the newbie zone to know that avoiding death for as long as possible would help me keep my sanity.
Yet, now, it looked like I was about to be sent there in quick fashion.
I heard the rustle of branches and the clomping of hooves, and whirled around, surprised.
Head tilted down, with horn (uni-horn?) pointed right at me, the creature closed the distance between us in less than three frantic heartbeats.
Had it been two heartbeats I would have been killed. Thankfully, that extra bit of time allowed me to select an icon on my view-screen; the only icon which might have saved me at that moment.
Use Phase Ability
I swear, even now, that I felt the tip of that horn press against my chest. But I can be dramatic when recounting near-death experiences.
My phase ability kicked in at that instant and my entire body, armor, weapons, and inventory became as corporeal as a ghost. Wisp-like as smoke.
The unicorn, large pink eyes wide with triumph, didn’t have time to realize what had happened and passed straight through me like a steam-train in a fog.
Instead of skewering me, and presenting me with the joy of leveling yet another new character, the unicorn charged into the dead goblin raider, and plunged its horn straight into the oak tree.
For a few moments both I, and the unicorn – participants in this sudden little drama – were too shocked to move.
I took in the sight of the animal. It was most definitely a unicorn but there were odd things about it. First, it was yellow. Bright yellow, almost offensively so. Second, it had a large saddle strapped to its back.
I blinked in confusion. A mount? A yellow unicorn mount just tried to murder me?
While the being was stuck, I queried the game to pull up its statistics.
Species: Unicorn
Subspecies: Unknown
Leveclass="underline" Unknown
Hit Points: 680
Mana: Unknown