Death Geysers [2]

It took only a couple of minutes before we arrived at the death geysers. On the way there, I encountered about a dozen Alorae, but none of them were hard to get rid of. That was because only a couple of them achieved level 10 and had classes.

The death geysers, as they were called, were an area within the Verdant Abyss covered in rocky terrain with hundreds of hazardous geysers all over. The rocky terrain was inconsistent and allowed for the geysers of water to fire out, not only vertically but diagonally. The water was densely compressed, enough for it to easily cut off limbs if you weren't careful while traveling through. I stopped moving and looked towards the geyser, giving myself time to remember where the safe zones were.

Tim's little face appeared on the watch as I finished planning my route. "I can see why these are called the death geysers. You said you knew a safe spot?"

I nodded. "Yes, I know a safe spot; in fact, I know several. We can move between them if we time things right. Anyone hunting me will probably end up getting diced up if they are lower level or inexperienced."

"Okay, if you say so. I don't think that's going to stop anyone with a high agility stat like you though."

"Yeah, but how many people out there are like me?"

"Good point."

We navigated our way through the geysers, and I showed Frank the three zones we were going to be alternating back and forth from. They were zones within the geyser area that were about 5 meters in diameter. They were spaced about 20 meters from each other, and there were narrow routes that you could take between them that were danger-free.

If I just kept running between these three safe zones, I could let the geysers do all the work for me. The Alorae were not just sitting on their hands while I was recovering in the Veldan camp. I was certain that they had spent a lot of their time growing stronger and preparing for the moment I was no longer under the protection of At'tok.

I stood in one of the safe zones and began to focus on my senses. There was nothing in the area for the moment, so I had some time to kill. Out of curiosity, I opened up the leaderboard to check for point differences. I could not remember what the point totals looked like in the past, but I knew that the Alorae had the upper hand for a very long time during the first season. This time around, I believe my interference must have shaken them up. 

Season 1 Scoreboard

Humanity: 112,860

Alorae: 27,703

Veldan: 24,996

Leaderboard

Ronan Wilde [Humanity]: 100,108 points

At'tok Krosfah [Veldan]: 7,245 points

Losha Feivoni [Alorae]: 7,037 points

Korralis Bayspo [Alorae]: 6,809 points

Keke Keke [Veldan]: 6,331 points

The Alorae and the Veldans were still far behind the humans, but that didn't mean that we were in the clear just yet. We were just a few days into the three months we would be competing, so there was a lot of room for every side to progress. By the second month, it was pretty obvious that the different competing races had to fight each other to take over their point farm locations. So if the Veldans had a nice place where they were farming 3-point mobs, the Alorae would attack them, and vice versa.

In this life, I'm pretty certain that this will happen again. Humanity didn't have to worry about that problem at all in the past because all the good farming locations were taken up by the Alorae or the Veldans. This time around, because of my knowledge of the future, I can set humanity up with a few locations that would not garner too much attention from either of our competitors.

I closed the window showing the point totals as soon as I sensed the presence of other players in the area. I was not expecting it, but the Alorae had sent out a very large, very strong hunting party after me. I sensed the presence of over 40 players, all of whom were above level 10. I wasn't scared, though, mainly because I knew that these geysers were about to put in a hell of a lot of work.

"Hey assholes, come get me!"

Immediately after shouting my provocation at them, I felt as they started to push their way through the death geysers. I heard a lot of shouting and screaming as many of their numbers were cut down, and I could no longer sense them. I felt as over ten members of their group had perished and their auras vanished from my detection.

The first few players that were lucky enough to reach me immediately engaged in combat with me. One was a beautiful Alorae woman with fair skin and her long white hair braided all the way down. The other two were brutish-looking Alorae men, who were still slender and handsome but had equipment meant for tanks.

The two tanks rushed me, both with large shields in one hand and scimitars in the other. They ran through some geysers to reach me, which was a big mistake. One of the tanks was prepared and managed to angle their shield down to block an unexpected geyser; the other was completely focused on me and missed a geyser that cut diagonally. That tank lost half of his leg as it flew off into a bush next to me.

Notification

You have resisted Curse of Binding.

A blue notification screen popped up as I sidestepped the healthy tank. I looked over at the beautiful Alorae woman and shook my head.

"It's not gonna work; try something else." I smiled provokingly.

The tank I just dodged activated an ability that caused him to glow a dark blue. I noticed that his speed increased, but I couldn't make out any other changes. He rushed towards me again and swung his scimitar horizontally. I brought my blade up and parried his weapon to the side. A geyser shot up behind the tank, and I used telekinesis to push him backwards. The poor Alorae tank stumbled back from the telekinetic shove and was cut in half by a vertical geyser.

Notification

You have resisted Curse of Binding.

I rolled my eyes and looked back at the Alorae woman. "You're gonna be annoying in the future. I can tell."

I pulled the woman towards me and threw my sword at her as she drew near. The sword pierced her in the chest, and she fell limp. I turned to look for the injured Alorae tank who had his leg cut off, and found that he met an unfortunate fate. A geyser appeared to have cleanly severed his head from his body.