Haven Online

Chapter 129: Aberration

Once Xinya saw Wei's eyes, he let out a gasp, taking a step back away from her he quickly opened up the party interface. Right away it was apparent that Wei was no longer herself.

Usually, when he opens the party interface their player names is a light green color, but as he looked at Wei's name, it was a dark red. The only beings in Haven Online with red-colored names are the monsters.

Seeing as Wei was focused on Wandering Sound at the moment, he quickly checked to see how she became like this. Clicking on Wei's name to enlarge her status bar, he looked at it to see if he could figure out what was wrong.

Immediately after enlarging her status bar, he saw the problem. Right underneath her health and mana, there was a small square box with a red skull inside. Hurriedly he begins to read what it said, only to be shocked by the contents. He knew that this dungeon wouldn't be easy.

"Wandering Sound back away from Roaming Wind, she has been cursed!" Xinya said in party chat after disconnecting Wei from it. 

Turning his quickly to look at Xinya, Wandering Sound said, "What do you mean? What kind of curse?!"

"She has been cursed with aberration," Xinya said, quickly sending the details of it to Wandering Sound and Melting Snow.

Aberration: is a targeted curse that will afflict the most weak-minded player in a group. When the curse takes hold, it will amplify the player's weakness to the extreme, breaking their minds. Once the curse is in full control, the player won't be able to tell friend from foe and will try to kill all perceived threats. *This curse will last until everyone in the party is dead, the curse holder dies, or the curse is cured.

"How did she get cursed?" Melting Snow asked confused. "We were next to her the entire time."

Xinya had already asked himself the very same thing, and he still couldn't understand how Wei got afflicted with this curse. As he continued to think about it he suddenly remembered the first verse from the poem the grotesque gremlin head spoke to them:

The foolish four ventur'd within

Seeketh'rs of death those gents has't be

Just glints of gold awaketh their sin

And cousin shall turneth to foe, I see

"Just the glint of gold will awaken their sin, and friend shall turn in to foe." whispering the line to himself, Xinya finally understood that it was a warning. He had a feeling that Wei got cursed as soon as they walked into the dungeon and nobody noticed.

Xinya didn't know what to do in this situation, he wanted to calm Wei down, but in the state, she was in, that wouldn't be possible. The only thing he could do for her was to find the cure, and he had a hunch that it would be in the same place as the treasure.

Wei began to wildly wave her pistols around at them, they were being too quiet for her liking. She had a strong feeling that they were talking through party chat. That way they could sneakily plan a way to take her out without her knowledge. They thought they were so clever, but she wasn't as stupid as they thought she was.

"I know that all of you are talking about me!" She screamed crazily at the three men. "I know what you want to do, but I will not let it happen."

Wandering Sound tried to move closer to Wei but was stopped by her gun, "Roaming Wind, we aren't going to do anything to you. Please put your guns down."

"Do you think I'm stupid? I know what your plan is, as soon as I put my guns down you will try to kill me, isn't that right?" Wei shouted at him completely deranged.

As she looked at these people who she thought were her friends, their faces began to change right before her eyes. Their expressions transformed from what seemed like genuine concern until it became something very nefarious. She felt like they had finally revealed their true colors, she knew it was only a matter of time before they did.

She began to laugh maniacally at the irony of it all, everything that she thought was actually true. A cold resolve came over her, she wouldn't let them get their way, she wouldn't let them kill her. All she needed to do was kill them first.

[Player roaming wind has been fully taken over by the curse aberration! If you are attacked by the player Roaming Wind you won't be able to heal! To find the cure, get to the center of the maze and dunk her in the spring of recovery!]

As the notification appeared, Xinya couldn't help but to cuss, not being able to heal would be troublesome. He didn't want to kill Wei, he didn't think he could do it, even if his life was on the line, so leading her to cure was the only option. 

He really hopes he will be able to do it before she kills one of them. Which was very likely since the madness had already taken hold of her. Even without the notification, he was quite certain that it did, because there was a terrible glint in her eyes, an unrecognizable look that he had never seen before on her, that's when he knew that Wei had completely lost it.

Noticing the murderous rage in her eyes Xinya tried to warn Wandering Sound, he could tell that something bad was about to happen, but he was too late. Before the words could even escape his mouth, Wei had both of her guns aimed at him.

Using her best skill, Soul Shot, she fired at Wandering Sound's body before he could even react. As Wandering Sound's body flew back, Xinya regretfully threw a Floral Attack potion at Wei, binding her.

Running over to the wall where Wandering Sound's body fell, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Wandering Sound said while struggling to get up. "Luckily, it seems that the damage of her skill isn't as high when it's directed at a player."

Checking the party interface, Xinya saw that Wandering Sound was correct, his potion attack was only doing -5 damage on her. Relieved, Xinya threw another one at her to keep her bound longer.

"What are we going to do?" Melting Snow asked a little upset. When he asked for excitement, he didn't mean this kind.

Turning towards him, Xinya said, "We are going to go and find the center of the maze, so we can find the spring that will cure Roaming Wind."

"You want to leave her here all by herself?" Wandering Sound worriedly asked.

"Do you think she will just stay here? Once she is free from her bindings, she will be coming after us." Xinya explained. "Let's get going, so we will have a head start."

Xinya putting his hand back on the wall, started to run, he was driven to find the center of the maze so that he could save Wei from the curse. He didn't want this game to mess with her head more than it already has. As he ran, he didn't notice Melting Snow running next to him, looking at him with a worried expression.

While Xinya and Melting Snow running, trying to find their way through the maze, Wandering Sound gave the flower wrapped body of Roaming Wind a look of regret, promising himself that he wouldn't let this happen again, he started running after his party members.