Jericho The Bard A VRMMORPG Story 29 The Other Jericho

"So we are here to help take out the monsters?" RuneHeart inquired.

Jericho shook his head. "That big monster is my sister's friend. I thought the farmers were going to keep them save while he and the little one hunted." He noticed the damage Ken was taking and pulled out his piano.

"What are you doing?" RuneHeart asked.

The bard flashed a deranged almost vile smile as he split into two. "Doing what I do best." {Glaw, will you go and join the fight?}

{I haven't had a good fight in a while. I'll take pleasure in it.}

The first Jericho started playing the song of Healing part 1 to heal up his allies health, stamina and magic, while the other Jericho walked towards the fight. "Stop trying to kill my friends!" He shouted at the party.

The group of five looked over and saw Jericho's beginner gear. "You are hilarious. You think we will stop just because you say so? Go back and cry to your mommy. Oh wait, she probably doesn't care either."

The bard clenched his fist. His feelings of grief and regret he was already feeling sparked a depressed rage. "So you won't leave peacefully?" He confirmed. Jericho's entire demeanor radiated an extremely ugly feeling.

They laughed as they continued to attack Ken, whose health was regenerating. "Leave? When we have such a great boss here? You're delusional man. There is nothing you can do to stop us from killing this cat."

RuneHeart stepped forward. "I'll fight them. Jericho step back."

"No." Jericho replied fiercely. The light in his eyes vanished. They were filled with a dark void. "I will not let these people murder my friends." He stormed back to the piano in a fury to join his clone playing the healing piece. He pulled out the zither.

Loud heavy chords from both instruments echoed across the nearby farmlands as the once calming song from the piano turned fast, dark, ominous, and weighty. An intense feeling of doom and dread filled the enemies.

[You have created a cursed composition: Rhapsody of Doom]

[You have gained the rare skill line Death-Bringer Tier 3]
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[Rhapsody of Doom 1/10 Expert: A Rhapsody filled with unbridled emotions of grief, regret, rage, pain, agony and other powerful emotions. Enemies who hear this song will be filled with a feeling of dread and impending doom. They may experience mental aliments as a result. Once the rhapsody is completed, the player of this piece will enter a doomed state, receiving a -15% to all stats as punishment for desiring others to feel their own agony for 10 minutes. Adept bonus: Enemies who hear this piece will suffer a -3% to all stats. At the end of the piece, all enemies will receive the status effect Doom, -10% to all stats for 10 minutes. Expert bonus: The skills of enemies who hear this piece will cost twice as much Stamina, HP, and MP to use. Note that Rhapsody of Doom cannot be properly performed without the correct emotions. If emotions are missing, the composition will not produce the desired effects.]

Affected by the composition, the enemies started to fall. Lux took out the healer and a mage; Ken slew the tank and the rouge, while Glaw brought the other fighter to his death.

[Your murder count has reached 5 thanks to your pets and monster companions slaying people. The witnesses know the truth and have agreed that you and your helpful pets should not be punished for defending yourselves. Your murder count has been reduced to 0.] [You have greatly a.s.sisted in the deaths of 5 hostile mortals. You have gained 750 Exp and 650 MExp. a.s.sign?]

{a.s.sign to Mutable body.} Jericho murmured. [570MExp a.s.signed to Mutable body. Mutable body has reached Adept 9/10] [You have 80MExp remaining].

Knowing that he didn't have enough to make a difference with his elemental skills, he a.s.signed the rest into MC.

[You have entered a state of Doom for 10 minutes. All stats are reduced by 15%.] [You have 250 MC]

Unknown to the performers, Ken, who had returned to his animal form, was quietly looting the corpses.

"Wow, I underestimated you once again. That was intense. I haven't seen this side of you before. I always thought you were a peace loving freak with a short temper."

Jericho took a deep breath and frowned as the light slowly returned to his still dark eyes, "and it mostly likely won't be the last time you see it either."

{We are back!} Ken called out. {Who won?}

The two felines stared expectantly at Jericho once again.

The bard laughed as he suppressed the dark feelings once more. He pulled out his last grilled fish and put it in front of Ken. "You won by 8 Ken, the two of you are tied."

The other musician looked shocked. "These two cats were competing? How is that fair? The one is clearly a higher grade creature."

Jericho nodded. "Before, these two brothers were the same size. The big guy must have grown after the compet.i.tion ended."

Ken, with his much more regal and mature feline face frowned. {You aren't telling the whole world about me, are you?} He asked as he reached the halfway point in eating the fish.

Jericho shook his head. {Nope, just answering a question without sharing any details.}

Lux's saliva started dripping from his small mouth.

Ken looked over. (Here,) he pa.s.sed the fish.

The smaller cat swallowed and looked up. (Are you sure brother Ken?)

The larger cat nodded. (You worked hard fighting those mean people; it would have been much harder without your help.) He pushed the fish closer.

RuneHeart gave a confused look to Jericho. "Wow, they are so nice to each other. You mentioned that duet was called Compet.i.tive Kittens? I can't see how them competing would give off the feeling you did when you played that duet earlier."

"If you had seen their compet.i.tion you would understand." Jericho replied still shaking slightly from the heavy emotions he just pounded out. {Ken, you are too big to fit in the box now.} Jericho teased to ease his own emotional burden.

{That is okay, I feel much better now that the cuteness is gone. So what is with the other person?}

Jericho crouched down and started petting Lux to continue calming down before turning back to Ken. {He is a fellow musician. He has something important to ask Princess. Let's go collect the rewards, sell some stuff and go find her. It is nearly afternoon again. We should still have some time before the patch.}

Ken gave a light nod. {Yeah, not getting attacked would be nice. Oh, the collar broke when I grew. My neck feels so much freer now. But more importantly Jericho, do you want to talk about what happened back there? You weren't acting like your normal self. When you started pounding on the piano, I felt like there was something almost…}

{I'll be fine} He interrupted. {And if you want, I can ask Moira to make you a new collar. I'm sure she would love to.}

{Please don't.}

The bard turned back to RuneHeart. "We have a few minor errands to accomplish before we meet up with Princess. You can accompany us if you would like." Jericho started to walk forward.

RuneHeart nodded. "Sounds like a plan. I really hope she will agree to let me learn from you. Seeing you play just now made me realize how much there is to learn."

"It would be nice." Jericho replied as they approached the farmer.

"Wow, your lynxes are very impressive. Here is the 24 silver, 55 copper and all the corpses as promised. I am sorry we couldn't stop those people from attacking your pets. They threatened us as well."

Jericho received the loot and Ken once again helped with the inventory issue.

[Contract complete. The farmers will not likely need your help again for some time.]

"Everything worked out. Thank you for at least trying to step in. I'm glad these two were able to help with your rodent problem. Besides, the big one has gotten much stronger thanks to you agreeing to let them hunt."

The farmer nodded. "While we won't need the help for a while, I suspect I will see you again sometime, cat man."

The bard chuckled at the nickname. "Until next time," he replied to the farmer. "We should go. Come on you two!" He shouted to the felines.

Lux hopped into the box.

Ken excitedly a.s.signed the new batch of MExp from the fight to his skills.

Jericho, RuneHeart, and Ken walked back towards Pren.

Jericho messaged his sister. [Sorry we took so long, we are heading your way. I'm bringing an old friend. He wants to learn how to play musical instruments from me but I said I would need to check with you first.]

She replied with a 'thumbs up'.

After selling the random stuff dropped from the hunt, they headed to where Princess's temporary workshop was located.

RuneHeart stopped as something dawned on him. "You forgot the drops!" He face-palmed and shook his head. "They are probably gone by now."

"The drops?" Jericho asked.

The other musician nodded. "Yeah, while PK doesn't drop anything from your inventory like other games did, they still drop items that would make sense for them to drop, like NPCs. It's too late now though."

Ken looked a little smug but it was hard to see past the naturally proud feline look he had.

Princess looked up. "You're back!" She looked over to the collarless Ken. (Good job Lux for growing bigger.) She gave the larger cat a hug.

Ken felt happy, even though he knew he was being mistaken for the wrong cat.

Lux lifted himself up to the top of the box. (But I didn't grow bigger, brother Ken did.)

The girl let go of her friend and sat down on the ground before letting out a light chuckle. (Oh, sorry Ken. What happened to your collar?)

Lux leaped out of the box and onto Princess's lap. (It went snap! Then brother Ken and I fought off mean people and Jericho played some scary music.)

She raised an eyebrow. (Ken, care to give me the details?)

(Strangely the collar didn't adjust to my new size like I originally expected it would. It broke off. We were attacked by a group of people but we handled it fine. Your brother pounded on the piano and that other instrument he likes and our enemies got weaker. It was like he was a different person.)

Princess looked a little despondent. (So, you saw The Other Jericho he tries to hide even from me. Something must have triggered his...) She looked over to her brother and looked at his pale face and tranquil dark eyes before turning back. (Don't worry, he has calmed down. He will be able to adventure with Purai just fine tonight.)

Ken slumped slightly. (Can't I worry about your brother too?)

Princess let out a sad laugh. (Sometimes worrying can hurt that person more. It is best to move forward at this point. If it makes you feel better, I will talk with him later.)

RuneHeart coughed awkwardly.

Princess looked up at the man. "You must be the guy who wants my brother to teach you." She said.

RuneHeart nodded. "I did. I came to ask for your permission."

The girl frowned. "Michael Rune, the guy who shared with us the basic information about the area before right?"

The guy nodded. "The one and the same, Moira; it seems your memory is as good as your brother's."

Hearing her real life name, her suspicions were confirmed. "You're Mike, that ruined child of the motherless seagull that told my brother he belonged in a museum. You're shameless enough to ask my brother to teach you how to play music his way after seeing how effective it is? Do you also want to join us in the museum? I don't think they have one of you on display yet." She oozed malicious intent.

The musician scratched his cheek. "I already apologized to your brother. He said he was okay with the idea if you were."

Princess smirked. "From what I have seen, music lessons typically cost 25 Credits an hour. However, you won't be able to find someone to teach you how to play instruments as well as my brother. It is something you musicians have forgotten how to do so how about 50 Credits an hour?"

RuneHeart sighed. "I'm not sure I can afford that much."

Jericho gave his sister a 'be nicer' type of look.

The dancer continued her smile as she acknowledged her brother's forgiveness of the man in front of her. "But since you are an old friend and my brother seems to have forgiven you, we can give you a friend discount. How about you pay 35 Credits an hour and you agree to admit to others that my brother is your teacher."

The man half smiled. "I can do that. When and how should we do lessons, Jericho?" He asked to avoid the scary pre-teen in front of him.

"In person would be best but we can do it over holo-conference. What are your weekday mornings like?"

"Usually I spend the morning working on my music so that is actually a great time. Are you still living at your parent's place?"

Jericho grimaced, his former friend didn't know about his parent's deaths. "Yeah, I'm still living there." He replied with a very subtle lifelessness in his voice.

"Then I'll come by Monday morning around 10 AM. See you then."

Jericho shook his head. "I've got something important to take care of on Monday. Come by Tuesday or Wednesday."

"Tuesday it is then." The other musician left, happily.