Nemesis (Sparta Online Book 1) Read online

  The effect wasn’t just psychological – fatigue in Sparta Online caused physical harm, Troy could see, for a notification appeared warning him of lost hit points:

  Health update! You have lost 2 hit points.

  As he approached the marble staircase between the training ground and the outer path once again – a point which marked the start of the third lap – Andros came into sight up ahead; the golden warrior was still standing by the olive grove below the path, and clapping gently as each of the hoplites passed. This time, Troy took a moment to stop and catch his breath a few yards from the guide.

  “You’re not giving up, are you?” asked Andros, folding his arms. He looked curious, but not concerned.

  “No. No,” Troy replied, panting and shifting the log more evenly across his shoulders as he did so. He looked around, and then pushed his fingers further into the handholds that he had cut.

  “So you are going to make it to the end?”

  “I think so.”

  Andros nodded towards the log. “I see you made some modifications. Good. The General specifically wanted hoplites who can think for themselves.”

  Troy managed a weak smile. “Andros,” he said, looking around as he started to run slowly onward again. “Can I speak to you about something? After the race, that is.”

  “Of course,” replied the warrior without hesitation. “I can’t help you complete your challenges, but I will do my best to provide any information and clarification that you desire.”

  Troy nodded as he ran past. He was now on the last lap – and it felt harder than ever. He reached and passed Plato, nodding and giving a weak smile to his friend as another 10XP notification appeared. Plato was going to make it, he was sure, but there was nothing he could do to help spur his fellow runner on. They were both around halfway up the field, now, with as many ahead as behind them, but most of those ahead were close together in a group.

  For a time, Troy focused only on his legs. Moving one and then the other, despite the way they now felt more like jello to him than like firm muscle. The fatigue, certainly, was very real. All too real. But if he could just persuade his legs to keep going. Will them on, somehow.

  Skill boost! You have developed your grit. +5XP

  He felt light headed, and indeed, his head was pounding, the helmet making it feel extra hot.

  He passed Ajax’s sidekick Glaucus, and then three more female hoplites. Ajax himself was the next runner in sight up ahead, just behind Clio, who again had the mace strapped to her back. Troy felt glad to see her doing so well – perhaps the cruel Captain Semele would go a bit easier on the young woman after this, together with her having shown the skills to gain the chestplate and weapon.

  Soon Troy had passed both of them – and this time saw a less common notification in addition to the bonuses for gaining ranks in the race:

  Level up! Hoplite level 3. You have gained two additional hit points.

  There were now only four runners ahead of him, he was fairly sure, and none too far ahead. They were all approaching the marble steps once again, at which point they would turn and move back into the training ground for one last lap of the rectangle.

  He really wanted that shield. But at the moment, it was beginning to look like his handiwork with the log had just set him back a bit too much. For while the slight advantage it gave him had helped him pass most of the other hoplites, there was too little time left now. The ones in the lead must have been the lucky ones, first to pick up their burdens and who had somehow got particularly light or well-shaped ones. He had no advantage over them.

  As Troy came within a dozen yards of the marble steps and prepared to turn up towards the training ground once again, he made eye contact with Andros, nodding – there was no way he could stop to speak to the guide again. But then he noticed something strange.

  More than strange – deadly.

  Two warriors in tightly-fitting black clothes were approaching Andros from among the olive trees. Even their faces were wrapped in black cloth, with only their eyes showing. They couldn’t look more like assassins. And as Troy slowed and looked on, gaping, one of them pulled a glowing sword out from its sheath and stabbed Andros in the back. A fraction of a second later, the second assassin had stabbed him again, in the side this time. The guide cried out, his head turning as he tried to see what had happened to him. The attackers turned and fled. Andros then fell to his knees, and slowly slid to the ground.

  As Troy staggered to a halt and looked down, blood pooled around the golden warrior on the path.

  Level: Hoplite (Level 3)

  XP: 0360

  Hit points: 16/18

  Equipment: belt; bronze helmet; coin pouch; dagger; wooden log.

  Chapter 11: The House of Healing

  “We can’t see him for another three or four days, they told me,” said Plato to Troy and Clio, dismay written across his face.

  It was late, and dark out. After eating at the Feasting Hall, the three hoplites had agreed to gather in front of the House of the Healing.

  “What – we can’t even see the body?” said Troy.

  Plato shook his head. “They don’t want us to. Not today, anyway.”

  “Four days. I wonder why?” said Troy. He had been quiet since witnessing the killing, trying to make sense of it.

  But Clio was quick to clarify. “He’ll be back, Troy, don’t worry. We just need to be patient.”

  “Back? Clio, what do you mean?”

  “NPCs in the game return after a couple of days, Troy,” she said in a whisper. “You knew that, right? Death isn’t permanent for those characters. But it takes time, and they need to rest too, after they regenerate. Regaining their strength.”

  “Yes – right!” Troy felt momentarily elated to think that he would see Andros again after all. “Of course, Andros did tell me about NPCs, and I guess that includes him, too. That’s… that’s amazing!” He had suddenly realized that he would get a chance to talk to the benevolent guide again after all. Out of all the adults and soldiers, Andros was the only one that he really trusted – with the possible exception of the Helot, Democles. But he didn’t get the impression that the Helot villagers knew anything much about Sparta Online.

  Starting to move away from the House of Healing, the three recruits looked around the training ground in silence. Several other hoplites were also walking around in ones or twos. Perhaps because of the widely-felt shock of Andros’s slaying, there had been little talk of rewards or punishments following the race. Everyone had finished, and all had been given a small bowl of goat stew and a wheat biscuit, in spite of Captain Theseus’s earlier threat. The sustenance had seen Troy return to full hit points.

  In the afternoon, the winner – a female hoplite who Troy hadn’t met – had been awarded the shield in relative silence. After that the boys had sat quietly indoors for a short while, and then spent the remainder of the time training with their own new weapons.

  “So – he’ll definitely be back just the same as before?” asked Troy quietly. “Still with his memories and so on?”

  “Hmm. Not sure,” replied Plato.

  “Well, it would make sense, wouldn’t it?” said Clio. “Why set up the training with a guide and captains who know and help us, and then have their memory reset if any of them happen to get killed by a stray arrow?”

  “Good point,” replied Plato. “But for that matter, why have them out of action for a matter of days? Would an hour not be enough?”

  She shrugged. “Not sure. I guess they want there to be some consequences.”

  “And for us?” asked Troy. “What happens if one of us gets it? Gets killed, I mean?”

  They looked at each other in silence for a moment.

  “Our deaths will be permanent,” said Plato. “Surely they must be. When we go, we go. And it’s back to our crappy lives in the real world.”

  Troy frowned. “You’re sure?”

  “No,” his friend replied, “I’ve never had that confirmed or a
nything. But surely that’s part of the purpose of this place. Remember what the captain said yesterday about ‘weeding out the weak’. I don’t think we drop dead back at the military facility or anything like that, but I don’t think we’ll get an extra life. Think about it. The General wants a way of selecting elite troops.”

  “Sure, Captain Theseus did say that,” said Troy slowly, “but I mean, what about…” He trailed off.

  “The trouble is,” said Plato, “we’ve no way of knowing what happens to a hoplite who is killed. And I bet the captains like it that way. It keeps us anxious and compliant.”

  “He’s right,” interrupted Clio, pulling closer to the pair of boys and lowering her voice. “And there’s something else they don’t want you to know about. Come on. I want to tell you something away from the training ground.”

  She led the way, pointing ahead and leading them back towards the House of Healing and then down the side of the building to speak more privately. Then she turned, leaning back against the side wall. “I’ve seen it happen before,” she said. “Deaths of recruits, that is. There were twelve in our group of hoplites to start with, just like yours, and now there’s only ten. And I don’t think any of the group of boys before us survived. They were the first ones here.”

  “There were other hoplites before us?” asked Plato, frowning?

  She nodded.

  Troy put one hand on her shoulder. “Clio – they all died?”

  She nodded again. “Well, actually, I can’t be sure about all of them. But none are here now, are they? They had a different dormitory, on the northeast of the training ground, and it’s empty now. If they didn’t die, then I don’t know where they went. But none of them have been around for weeks, that’s for sure.”

  Skill boost! You have developed your knowledge. +5XP

  Troy shook his head slowly with a wry smile. It was strange that he still got XP boosts even when he was conspiring against the captains. The inbuilt AI must be quite neutral, figuring out – as Andros had told him – when hoplites were using their skills to best effect.

  “So I think we have to assume that if you die here, then you’re gone,” said Clio, raising her eyebrows as she looked at them both with wide eyes. “But, if so, hey – at least that’s your ticket home. No more beatings, hunger and suffering.”

  But Troy shook his head. “This place might be horrific, and the captains are clearly psychopaths. But I still don’t want to go back to a life of drudgery at boot camp in Technoburbia. We just need to find… I don’t know. A way of making this place better, I guess. Fairer.”

  Skill boost! You have developed your grit. +5XP

  Just then, a noise came from the main training ground, and they all instinctively took a step closer to the marble wall of the House of Healing. The side of the building was sheer vertical marble, unlike its pillared front facade.

  “The bigger trouble for us just now,” said Troy, “is that we had just started to express some concerns about how our training was being run, and then the guide mysteriously gets assassinated.”

  “And?” said Clio, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. “You’re not suspicious of us, are you?”

  “No!” said Troy quickly. “Not at all, but… I mean, that could just be a coincidence. But it’s convenient, if there is something or someone that is trying to mess things up here. In fact, I had made up my mind to speak to Andros just before it happened. I even spoke to him during the race.”

  Skill boost! You have developed your interpersonal skills. +5 XP

  “Silence the guide,” murmured Clio, nodding.

  “Perhaps that’s what happened to the first group of recruits, too,” said Plato grimly. Perhaps they realized that it isn’t supposed to be this way, and spoke up…”

  He broke off as voices were heard from the training area again. Troy looked around and saw that Ajax had stopped nearby, standing with a group of fellow hoplites including Glaucus, Nabis and Canis.

  “Looks like Canis joined that gang,” muttered Plato.

  “Come on,” said Troy. “Let’s walk as we talk. I don’t want those others hearing us.”

  “Others?” said Clio. “You mean like barbarians?”

  Troy looked at Plato, and they both chuckled. “As bad as. It’s that idiot Ajax and his hangers-on. He’s a bully, and wants to control our dormitory any way he can. He and his friends don’t care about anyone but themselves.”

  “I’ve seen that often enough,” Clio replied.

  * * *

  Troy led his companions along the back of the building. They pushed past some trees that grew at the top of the slope and partially blocked the way.

  Ducking below some leafy branches and stepping carefully past a thorn bush, Troy continued until they had passed another building and reached the back of the Elysian Fields dormitory. Passing by the long window that ran along the building’s rear, they continued on to the marble steps that led down from the training ground, pausing after they had gone around a third of the way down. The voices they had heard before had receded now.

  “I just remembered, I was meaning to ask something,” said Troy. “Do either of you know if you can use experience points? I am seeing these notifications that say ‘XP’, and I’m thinking, ‘so what’, you know?”

  Clio clasped his arm and pointed back up the steps towards the training ground. “Up there, at the Titan’s Rest building where we started,” she said. “If you go in there, you can spend your accumulated experience on hit points and things like that. It’s only a slight advantage, but really worth doing!”

  Skill boost! You have developed your knowledge. +5XP

  “All right, Clio, thanks – I appreciate the info.”

  Troy’s gaze then drifted down towards the foot of the steps – the scene of the recent assassination. “I’m going to feel a bit freaked out every time I walk past that spot, now” he said, patting the dagger at his hip. “If those guys come again, those black-clad killers, I’m not sure I have what it will take to fight them off.”

  “Then let’s make sure we stick together, man,” replied Plato, stepping closer and putting one arm across his friend’s shoulder. “At least until Andros is better. You too,” he added hastily, looking at Clio.

  She shrugged. “It’s all right, Plato. I know I’m an outsider. The other girls don’t like me, and I don’t much care. I just want to get through this. And that means improving my equipment.” She looked down at Troy’s belt. “Thanks again for letting me take the mace – I know it was the best bit of loot.”

  “I was wondering,” said Troy, “perhaps in the city I could buy one for myself. With those gems, maybe.”

  “Yes, maybe,” she replied. “We should all spend what we got before someone tries to take them from us.” She turned, looking back up towards the dorms.

  “Right,” said Troy, nodding eagerly. “Then I’ll try to do it tomorrow. Do you know anything about what the captains have in store for us next?”

  Clio shook her head. ”I don’t know exactly, but it involves some kind of creature, at least according to what one of the other girls was saying. Something foul and dangerous.”

  “Great,” muttered Plato.

  “At least we won’t be attacking each other this time,” murmured Troy.

  Level: Hoplite (Level 3)

  XP: 0380

  Hit points: 18/18

  Equipment: belt; bronze helmet; coin pouch; dagger.

  Chapter 12: The Stymphalian Birds

  The next morning saw the hoplites, male and female, in the training ground soon after dawn, their stomachs already feeling empty again. It was another bright day, though the sun was still low in the sky.

  Captain Theseus and the girls’ captain, Captain Semele, were standing together beside a small cart, some distance away near the center of the vast area.

  “What do you think is in the cart?” whispered Plato to Troy as the pair took their accustomed places in the lineup, and waited for their captain to approach.r />
  Troy looked around, leaning back to see past Ajax and the others. “I dunno,” he said. “I can’t see much, but… wait – what’s that?” He pointed upwards – there was something dark covering the pale morning sky, and it was coming closer. No. Lots of things. A flock of some kind of bird was approaching.

  The captains were also approaching, and the smug look on Captain Theseus’ face was matched by his female partner. “Hoplites,” he cried out, stepping up to the front rank. “Some of you will have heard of the Stymphalian birds. They are ferocious carnivorous birds the size of dogs, with beaks which can pierce flesh and rip through armor. It’s time for you to learn how to shoot a bow. But there are twenty-two hoplites here, and only eighteen bows. You’re going to need to get over to that cart quickly. All levels will participate in this task – no excuses, and no hiding. Good luck.”

  He then stood back with a smirk.

  SPARTA ONLINE WORLD EVENT: ARCHERY TRAINING

  As the captains turned and sped off towards the Temple of Ares on the north side of the training area, Troy and his companions began to charge towards the cart. The rows of female hoplites were speeding forward into the mix, too, and soon elbows were being used to damaging effect. Troy ducked a swinging back-fist from Ajax, and was then pushed out to the side by a firm shoulder charge from one of the girls. He staggered and then kept running.