When I strode up to Hergvor, he surprised me by slapping me on the shoulder. The NPCs in Seven Keys didn’t do that sort of thing.

  “Oi! It’s our Great Hero of the Gates! Come to avail yourself of my fine food and drink?”

  In the original game, a simple “yes” or “no” would progress the player through Hergvor’s options, but I was already starting to see that this was more complicated than that.

  “Actually, I was wondering what quests you had for me?” I said.

  He took his hand back and gave a barrel-chested laugh. “Oh, an earnest one, are ye? Yeah, I’ve got plenty of quests for ye! Have a gander.”

  As soon as he finished talking, no fewer than six panels appeared in front of me, each one depicting a different quest option. I grinned. This was exactly what I’d been hoping for.

  While I scanned through the quests, Dave flapped to a chair at the table and perched on it, sinking into himself and poofing his feathers, so that he looked like a little green ball of fluff.

  “The fire is nice. Chilly out there,” he said.

  I nodded. Radix was in the Stonecurve, which was basically in perpetual winter. Sometimes there was snow, sometimes not, but it was always cold.

  The fire in the game didn’t give off heat, though. At least not without the right upgrades to your Leap suit. The thought reminded me that this wasn’t the game. It was some bastardized version of real life.

  “Whatcha looking for?” Dave asked. “We should start with the low-level quests. We can probably blow through them.”

  “That would be wasted time,” I countered. “Because we got the Infernal Riftguard Key ahead of time, that automatically settled the prerequisites for all of these quests. We shouldn’t have these yet. Especially this one.”

  I tapped the floating panel of violet, translucent lettering. It was the only one marked with a main quest line symbol.

  To Hergvor, I said, “I’d like to do this one.”

  “Ah! Good choice. Pays well,” Hergvor said, waving a hand. The other five quests vanished, and he instantly started on his set lines.

  “We got a tribe of savages just moved in outside of town,” he said. “Call themselves the Tendua. They’re mean, fightin’ with nightpanthers. My men can’t even get past the guards, even though they ain’t got any walls to speak of. Keep getting their heads sent back to me. Not a pretty sight.”

  “You want me to take care of them, then?” I asked.

  “Well, mostly I just wanna speak to ‘em,” Hergvor rumbled. He dropped a hand to his sword, which hung from a belt at his hip. “Now, I’m right mad they killed my men, mind you. I do plan to do somethin’ about that, and it almost seems like they’re askin’ me to, since they’ve made it clear the only thing they respect is raw might.”

  He stepped past me, to the table, where there was suddenly a map laid out. It hadn’t been there a moment ago. He spread it flat with both hands, showing that it was a map of Radix and the surrounding areas—essentially, the whole Stonecurve. He tapped a spot to the east of the town.

  “Right here’s where we’ll find ‘em. I say, you and I go in and kill as many as it takes to get us an audience with their leader. Then maybe we can broker a peace. What do you say?”

  “Just you and me?” I asked. “None of your men?”

  He straightened, which made the map roll back together. “I don’t wanna risk anyone but myself. And I know you ain’t about to die easy. Tell you what, though. I’ll take orders from you. How’s that sound?”

  I let a smile slide across my face, although no one could see it under my helmet.

  “That sounds great,” I said. “When do we start?”

  #

  Hergvor tromped along behind me, following in my exact footsteps as we hugged the inside of the city wall. We were headed to the entrance to Alhaitham’s Deep, where the Tendua tribe lived. I knew the area would be guarded by Hergvor’s men, ones who were actually higher level than he was, since players couldn’t be allowed to force their way through until far later in the game.

  On the other side of that wall, I felt much more secure about leveling. All I had to do was avoid the Tendua’s aggro range, and I could sit down and level up to my heart’s content.

  After I’d agreed to this quest, Hergvor had gained an icon above his head which was uncannily similar to the shield icon that had allowed me to Conscript Seth and the Kitty Scouts. The only difference was the chevron in the shield, marking him as a Conscript (Temporary) when I tapped it and opened his info-box.

  Just like the shrine maiden Lore had once shown me, Hergvor came with three options. He could assist me in battle by fighting alongside me, which apparently also had him following me around. He could assist me in battle by healing me when my health reached certain thresholds, and for that, I would have to command him to stand in a set spot; he wouldn’t follow me if I went out of range of him.

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  Lastly, he could gather more guards to the exit of Alhaitham’s Deep, where they could attack any enemies that I led close to them. All in all, it gave me three options for defeating the Tendua: fighting them with a partner, fighting them with a healer, or kiting them to the gates, where someone else could pick them off. I imagine I’d get the most experience points for fighting them without Hergvor’s help at all, but that wasn’t my aim at the moment.

  Lastly, with a little testing, I had figured out that I could switch Hergvor’s set Task in his menu at any time. It wasn’t permanent. That was going to come in handy later.

  “I’m still not sure why we’re bothering with this,” Dave said. We could see a pair of Riftguards just ahead, guarding a ladder up the wall, so we were close. “Isn’t his Conscription temporary? You can’t keep him.”

  Instead of answering him, I said, “FATE?”

  Her monotone voice immediately came on in my helmet. Yes, Remnant?

  “In this Hunt, all other Hunters will see the same things I see, correct?” I asked. “As in, they won’t be able to find Hergvor to get quests from him, if I’ve taken him with me. The game state changes for everyone?”

  Yes, that is correct for this iteration of the Hunt.

  I nodded. In the real game, Hergvor would still appear for other players even if I was using him in a quest. NPCs loaded individually to each player, and one player’s game state could not affect the game play of another player, at least not outside player-vs-player areas.

  This whole game was a PvP area now, though. So by taking Hergvor with me, I could remove a source of experience from everyone else.

  “I don’t see why this matters,” Dave said. “The game is about killing other Hunters more than it’s about completing game quests. Quests are just for leveling, or for fluff. Story lines are entertainment. But we shouldn’t be focused on that. Hunters will literally die if they can’t kill all the other Hunters in an instance.”

  “You talk too much,” I replied. “FATE, what happens if I win this level without completing this quest? If I win while Hergvor is my temporary Conscript?”

  FATE gave me one of her customary pauses. According to the Trash Planet handbook, any temporary Conscripts who are active when an instance terminates will be reset to their previous game state.

  I frowned. “You mean Hergvor will go back to the mayor’s mansion in Radix?”

  Yes.

  I opened my mouth, then closed it and sent a Whisper to Dave.

  Remnant: Will this Radix area still exist after we clear all the Hunters from it?

  Fuck You Dave: Yeah. You just can’t get past the bio-net to access it anymore.

  Remnant: But why keep it around at all?

  Fuck You Dave: Beats me. I never really thought about it.

  I stopped walking, and Hergvor’s heavy footfalls paused behind me. We’d reached the pair of Riftguards standing to either side of the ladder, neither of whom carried swords; instead, they wore long robes and their eyes glowed red, marking them as magic-users.

  There were two more guys guarding the top, along the wall. One was also an Infernal mage, but the fourth guy had a bow. All of them were marked Lvl 40, double their own captain’s level. That was game logic at its best. I didn’t want to tangle with these guys.

  “FATE, I want you to look for loopholes for me,” I said. “Find me a way to keep Hergvor as a Conscript once this instance ends.”

  Another pause. I wondered if she might say that my request was illegal or something, and that it wasn’t something she’d be able to help with.

  Instead, she said, I’ll see what I can do.

  “Great. Ping me when you’ve got something. You’re dismissed.”

  She didn’t respond, which made me think she could ping me when she was done. I’d said that mostly by habit; in the real game, people could “ping” each other, essentially playing a quick tone over the Whisper chat, when they wanted to get a friend’s attention. Apparently, FATE had that capability.

  Dave took flight from my shoulder, flapping wildly upward to land atop the wall. “Are you sure you want to try this? You’re still essentially level 9, since you haven’t done your level-up stuff yet, and if these guards are level 40, then the tribespeople are probably certified units.”

  I checked my quest targets. It still read Targets Remaining: 4.

  There were four other Hunters searching for me, or for each other. That was too many hands in the cookie jar. I wanted this narrowed to one, and to do it, I had to use the game in a way they couldn’t. I knew Seven Keys, especially the starting levels. These aliens had never played it before, but I’d spend hundreds of hours here—far less than my brother, but still enough to give me an advantage.

  “We’re not going to fight the Tendua,” I said, pausing to pull up my inventory. Before I went up this ladder, I wanted to check on that codex item I’d gained. Skills were passive effects, always active. If it was any good, I wanted it, whether the name made me uneasy or not.

  I pulled the codex into my hand. Once again, it was a tube with segmented pictograms on it, although this one was red. I twisted it a few times, until I had it nearly matched up; it depicted a series of tidal waves. Given the red color, I figured it meant waves of blood.

  Well, that wasn’t promising. I opened its info-box.

  Bleeder.

  Skill Lvl 1.

  When under 100% health, the player’s Strength stat is increased by 25%, but the Bleed effect will apply. This effect can be triggered once every minute.

  I scowled. “Wow. This is shit.”

  “What’s it do?” Dave asked.

  “If I’m not at full health, I’ll be Bleeding. Pretty much constantly.”

  “Oh, wow. Yeah. That is kinda shit.”

  The 25% Strength boost might be useful later, but right now, it would only boost me about 2 Strength, since I was at 10 Strength total. That wouldn’t be worth the sacrifice of having the Bleed effect on me all the time, draining 1HP per second. I only had 120 HP to start with. That meant I’d kill myself in just two minutes if I wasn’t at full health.

  Besides, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go the Strength route. I was more interested in Constitution right now.

  All in all, this codex wasn’t worth it. But perhaps I could sell it for—

  Thump.

  My head jerked forward, my thoughts scattering. Something had hit my helmet from behind.

  I heard a cry, and managed to turn. Another Hunter had his hand to his head about twenty feet behind me; he was enormous, ten feet tall at least, and he looked like he was made of reddish stone. He had just triggered my Bigger Than I Thought You Were skill, and was taking half his own damage himself.

  I started to smile. Traveling out in the open had had its intended purpose. I’d flushed an enemy out.

  “Oh shit, the codex,” Dave said.

  I took advantage of the other Hunter’s disorientation and looked down at the ground. I must have dropped the codex when he’d hit me. Where was it? It was too valuable to leave behind.

  “Remmy, it’s gone,” Dave said. “You equipped it when he hit you. Your hand must have slipped.”

  I looked up at Dave. He looked down at me.

  This had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.