Chapter 190: Death Amplifiers

Elara sat hunched forward with her hands clasped between her knees. She looked far more exhausted than someone who had only died in a game had any right to look.

Gavin, Malik, and Mina had already heard the rough version of what happened from the recording making its way around Divinity. However, hearing it from Elara herself made the room a lot quieter.

She stared down at her hands for several seconds before forcing herself to speak.

"I can’t even log back in." She rubbed one thumb across her other palm, her voice dropping. "Whatever was on Maelis’s spear changed the death penalty. Instead of the normal 24 hours, I’m locked out for 3 days."

Gavin’s expression tightened. Though, he didn’t look surprised that an item like that existed.

Equipment and Abilities that made death worse were rare enough to be expensive, but they weren’t some hidden secret among serious players. The nastier ones could strip away multiple Levels in a single death.

There were even rumors of treasures that could force a true death, erasing a character entirely and sending the player back to Level 0. That said, nobody Gavin trusted had ever confirmed seeing one.

"Maelis survived the guards." Gavin leaned back in his chair and looked around the room before continuing. "She posted afterward that she’ll kill every member of Jaxir’s team she comes across. We can’t log back in casually until this matter is handled."

Malik’s jaw tightened, and Mina stayed quiet beside him. Neither of them argued.

They had already put too much time into their characters to just stroll back into Marr Town while a Level 27 member of the String Quintet was openly hunting them. Especially not after watching what Maelis had done to Elara in a single strike.

Losing a day of progress was bad enough. Losing Levels, or getting locked out during the most important stretch of their operation, would be a lot worse.

The timing made Elara’s death hurt even more.

Their guild challenge was already coming up under circumstances none of them liked, and now their Healer was out for 3 full days.

Even if the rest of them decided to risk going back before then, they’d be doing it without one of the most important pieces of the team. Gavin could work around a missing damage dealer far more easily than he could work around losing the person who kept everyone alive.

Then there was Niri, she was also too important to their future plans.

None of them knew what had happened after Elara died, though it seemed Niri was likely to be alive since Maelis hadn’t made any threats with her. Still, logging back in just to double check carried the same risk they were trying to avoiding right now.

They had spent money, time, and more effort than Gavin cared to admit on an NPC whose importance they still hadn’t fully figured out. If Maelis had managed to grab her after killing Elara, all of that could already be gone.

Malik finally leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"And nobody knows where Jaxir is?"

"No." Gavin answered without hesitating. "He left Marr Town before any of this happened, and Nick hasn’t contacted us."

The silence that followed was heavier than the last one.

They had all known that sticking with Jaxir came with risks. They didn’t know about Jaxir’s meeting with a Chance Corporation lawyer, but they had already heard inklings that the Chance Corporation wouldn’t be likely to let Jaxir just rise up uncontested.

But, none of them had expected those risks to turn into a personal war with the String Quintet before the guild challenge had even started. Now they were stuck outside Divinity while the consequences of a decision none of them had made kept piling up inside it.

Elara lowered her head again.

**

For the last several minutes, Nick had been cursing Jaxir, Maelis, the String Quintet, and Marr Town, in whatever order annoyed him most at the time.

He kept the hood of his cloak pulled low as he moved through one of the busier streets. Though, staying disguised had gotten a lot harder now that his face was plastered across half the walls he passed.

Apparently, threatening to murder people wasn’t enough for the String Quintet. They had put money behind it too.

20,000 gold sat beneath Nick’s face. The same amount had been posted for Gavin, Malik, Mina, and Elara.

As for Jaxir? His notice was bigger than the others and placed where nobody could miss it, with a 40,000 gold bounty under his name.

Nick stopped in front of one long enough to read it again, and his mouth twisted.

"Forty fucking thousand."

Divinity gold traded almost one-to-one with the Euro, and in American money, 1 gold was worth roughly 2 dollars. That meant someone who killed Nick and collected his bounty could walk away with around 40,000 American dollars. While turning in Jaxir was worth roughly 80,000.

Those weren’t numbers most people could laugh off just because the money happened to come from inside a game.

Nick dragged his eyes away from the poster and kept walking. What pissed him off almost as much as the bounty itself was seeing the damned things everywhere in Marr Town.

Maelis had been banned for attacking Elara and trying to take Niri. Yet, apparently nobody thought it was suspicious when notices offering tens of thousands of gold for the people involved started popping up all over the city right after.

Was whoever approved these things stupid? Corrupt? Or just committed to pretending that two events 5 minutes apart couldn’t possibly be related? Nick couldn’t decide.

"Wonderful town."

He pulled his hood lower as another pair of players stopped to read one of the posters.

The whole situation had gotten so ridiculous that Nick wasn’t sure whether to laugh or start breaking things.

Yesterday, working with Jaxir had looked like one of the best opportunities he’d stumbled onto in years, especially once the mana potion formula came into the picture. Today, his face was worth more money than some people made in an entire year.

And Jaxir’s was worth twice as much.

Nick eventually reached the street leading to Jaxir’s neighborhood and slowed down, careful not to make it obvious.

From where he stood, everything looked normal. People were moving between homes, and the occasional patrol passed through.

However, his experience told him otherwise almost immediately. Several presences were sitting around the area, their stealth so bad that Nick could barely suppress the desire to assassinate every one of the fuckers.

He kept walking.

Turning toward Jaxir’s house now would tell every one of them exactly who he was. So, Nick passed the street without changing his pace, staring straight ahead as though he’d never meant to stop there.

Several probing sensations brushed over him as he went. Each one was light enough that whoever was using it probably thought he wouldn’t notice.

His jaw tightened beneath the shadow of the hood.

"Goddammit, Jaxir."

At least Nick hadn’t been inside the house when Maelis showed up.

Elara had been one-shot before she could do anything useful, and Nick had no illusions about his own chances if Maelis decided to put that spear through his chest instead.

He would probably be staring at the same 3-day lockout right now. Except, he’d also get the added pleasure of wondering how much equipment he’d dropped when he died.

Avoiding that should have made him feel lucky.

It didn’t.

The money that could come from Jaxir’s potion alone was enormous. Nick still understood why the bastard had refused to hand the formula back after the String Quintet tried to use it as bait.

But, understanding Jaxir’s decision didn’t make being worth 20,000 gold any more comfortable, though. Believing someone was right and enjoying what came after were two very different things.

Nick kept going down the street, leaving the hidden watchers behind him.

And this was still only Maelis.

She was supposedly the weakest member of the String Quintet. Yet, one angry woman had already forced their entire team out of the game, locked their Healer out for 3 days, put Niri in danger, filled Marr Town with bounty notices, and turned Jaxir’s home into somewhere Nick couldn’t even safely go near.

His thoughts drifted to the other five members and stayed there.

What happened if even one more of them decided to join in? How much larger could this shit storm grow?