Page 120 of Mud

As I made it to a sitting position, my wrist did that thing again, itched from the inside a second before the brown circle appeared over my head.

To show the whole entire world that I was unworthy.

That I waslessthan the rest of them. That I was stained, filthy, unfit.

Then I heard someone speaking on the other side of whatever I’d slammed against—yep,rock.An actual well made out of stone blocks bigger than my head.

“Is that…brown?” a woman said.

“Why, yes,” said a man. “Yes, it is.”

“Mud?”

“Are you serious—Mud?!”

A growl sounded from right next to my left ear. I wrapped my hands around my mouth before my scream let those people know that I was sitting right there behind that well.

The vulcera was with me, looking over the wall of stone blocks, head low and teeth revealed, because footsteps were approaching us. People were getting closer—probably the same players who’d seen my color and were coming to check.

Needless to say, I had to get the hell out of there asap.

“Move!” I whispered to the vulcera, and I made it to myfeet without feeling any pain—must have been the adrenaline. I ran all around the other structure that was near the well, far away from the people approaching.

But I’d entered a new level of the game, and my color no longer showed over my head now. As long as they didn’t see me, I’d be just fine. They wouldn’t know it was me—unless they tried to use their magic on me and I didn’t fight back with mine, which I wasn’t going to allow to happen.

The vulcera followed without a sound. I kept my back against the wall of that building near the well, and slowly I made my way toward the dim lights on the other side.

“Holy shit.”

The words slipped from me when I reached the corner of the building and realized that I was indeed in a city. A city buzzing with life, with low buildings around a large square with a fountain in the middle, restaurants and bars with tables and chairs outside on the cobbled street, different music coming from everywhere, but nobody seemed to be bothered by it.

The narrow alley I was in was empty still, so I didn’t waste time waiting for the people who were coming to find the Mud in their midst. I just stepped out of the mouth of the alley, which had been in between a bakery—now closed—and a hat shop on the left.

My eyes wandered around, taking in as many details as I could.

Orcs and elves around us—a lotof them. At least a hundred that I could see. You could only really tell by the shape of their ears, but also most orcs were tall and bulky with big, roundish noses, while most elves were short and petite, with light-colored eyes and hair. They were moving from one side to the other, some sitting at bars and cafes, some tending to the open shops all around the street—adress shop, a leather shop with bags and belts and gloves displayed in the window, The Musk Theatre, a bookshop, a Cloud Maker, a Star Collector, and more.

Ahead, the square narrowed down into a single street, and beyond, I could just make out the silhouette of more buildings, these bigger and taller. Fire burned atop torches mounted in metal holders every few feet. There were players here, too, coming through between the buildings just like we had, and they all had animals with them. Birds, rabbits, dogs, and magical animals—like the vulcera who was looking up at me with those bright green eyes like she meant to tell me something.

“What?” I wondered. “What is it?”

She looked back as if she heard someone calling for her, toward the raised ground that could have been a hill stretching all around the buildings. A hill atop which more players were falling, just materializing in the darkness out of thin air. They fell and rolled toward the back of the buildings—exactly like I had.

More colored circles filled the night as more players made it to their feet and officially entered the new level, none of them brown. But the people—orcs—who’d gone all around that house to search for me, for theMud, hadn’t seen me. They were still looking around suspiciously at every player—including me—who was gathered in the square, still disoriented as hell.

And then…

“How about that clue then?” called a Greenfire woman whose braid of dark hair reached all the way to her hips, and she had a snake wrapped around her left leg like it was an accessory.

Suddenly, light came to life over her head, and everyone surrounding us, Iridians and orcs and elves, stopped to lookat the head and torso of the man made of light. Even the music stopped playing everywhere at once, as if by the push of a button.

“Greetings, players!” the hologram said—same voice, same light, same face as before on the Tree of Abundance. “Congratulations! You made it to Night City. Blackfire coven welcomes you!”

Night City.I was in the Blackfire challenge already—good. I wanted get this one over with sooner rather than later.

“You’ve asked for your clue for this challenge, and I am happy to deliver it to you,” the hologram continued. “The way to complete this challenge and find your key is to master one of the most important aspects of the Black school of magic—necromancy.Find your way to resurrecting a body that has died of natural causes, and you will have found your key.”

Every hair on my body stood at attention. Bile rose up my throat, too. Necromancy? They wanted us to do fuckingnecromancy—forbidden magic for every other Iridian except Blackfires for their anchors? And one needed special permission for that, too.

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