At first I didn''t feel like, well anything. I couldn''t even feel. It was as if my mind was just floating there in a black abyss, and then that box showed up. So I looked at it trying to figure out how I was supposed to select fantasy when the box vanished.
Thank you for your choice
Syncing with Fantasy
''So apparently I don''t need hands, or the rest of my body in the abyss. It reads my mind.''
Once the second box disappeared my surroundings started to change. I felt like I was watching those big bang theory videos as I watched stars, planets, and everything else that''s supposed to be in space form around me. Then I was pulled (or the universe moved around me, I still couldn''t feel anything so it was hard to tell) to a new planet that was rapidly changing, growing. I watched mountains rise out of the ground, oceans fill in the valleys, and plants cover everything. Well, almost everything I saw a desert, and an ice cap.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Would you like to enter character creation?
Y/N?
''Why is that a choice? Unless, if I don''t enter character creation, maybe I could be a ghost? That could be fun, so no I don''t want to enter character creation.''
Generating character based on mental map.
Character successfully created!
''Oh, so I don''t get to be a ghost.''
I was again pulled through space until I was at the surface of the planet, and then I was pulled to the mountains. Just before I got tothem I dropped into the ground and actually started to feel things. First I felt something warm and gooey and all over me. Second I felt a lot of heat, which got rid of the gooey stuff.
"Open your eyes, my daughter."
I kind of felt like the voice was talking to me so I opened my eyes. All around me was the remains of a (now burned) giant egg, and directly in front of me was a dragon. We were in a cave, or at least underground, and the dragon took up about half the space. She was huge. I was pretty sure I could fit in her mouth about five times, and her teeth were uncomfortably close. Her scales were a dark color, it was hard to tell in the darkness of the cave exactly what color they were.
"Have I failed again?" She sighed. She sounded sad.
"Um... H-hello?"
The moment my voice came out of my mouth I started to really feel things. The goo, and the heat had been nothing compared to the sensory overload I got. It was as if all my nerves suddenly woke up, and each one of them was screaming at me, trying to get my attention. Although, the ones that really got my attention were the ones in my tail, and wings, and everything else I had never had before. And that''s when I realized that dragon was my mom.
2. Cursed
Character Sync Complete
For more information access your character info
Before I could even think about thinking status the dragon, my mother, brought her nose really, really close to me and smelled me. The air moved so much my hair started blowing around and getting in my face...
''If I''m a dragon why do I have hair?''
And that''s when I realized I wasn''t exactly a dragon. I was more human than dragon. I had human arms and legs, human fingers and toes, and a human shaped head (its not like I could actually see my head though). My ears were slightly pointed, and I did have two wings and a tail, but they were nothing compared to the dragon in front of me. In fact the only parts of me that were dragonish, were my skinny tail, and my tiny wings (they might have been foot long). Other than that, I looked like a normal human girl. There was a little bit of a scale pattern on the backs of my hands, and my feet, but it was still skin.
"I am glad you have awareness. Someday you may understand what I have been through just to shield you from our curse. You are more precious to me than my own life." Her voice was soft, but it carried throughout the entire cave with a slight echo.
"C-curse? Is that why I''m not like you?" I tried to sound like a naive little dragon/human, which was surprisingly easy because I kind of was naive, and definetly little compared to my mom.
"Many years ago a god cursed us for trying to destroy him. I resisted the full effects, but until you, every one of my children has been born feral. Nothing more than mindless monsters. I, used a different method with you." As she spoke, her form started to change. She started getting smaller, and by the time her transformation was done, she became human. "I used my human shape to form you, and... I will explain how dragons are born when you are older. Let me look at you."
She started looking me over, which didn''t feel as wierd as I would have expected from a complete stranger. It felt like she was my mother, and I wasn''t embarrassed at all to be naked in front of her. Even if her human form was wearing clothes. So while I was being examined I took the time to check my character info.
''Well that''s less information than I expected. I wonder why some skills are degraded.''
Dragon (Cursed)
As a dragon you gain the skills Natural Armor, Dragon Breath, and Flight. (Cursed) Your form is altered, and all dragon related skills are (Degraded).
Natural Armor (Degraded)
Gain 1 point of physical resistance per level. (Degraded) Maximum level is 1.
Dragon Breath (Degraded)
Gain a fire breath attack that ignores half the target''s fire resistance. The damage is equal to your Fortitude multiplied by Dragon Breath''s level. (Degraded) You will also take half the damage you deal.
Flight (Degraded)
You can use your wings to fly. You will gain more control, and special maneuvers as the level increases. (Degraded) Maximum level is 1.
Fire Magic
You can use your mana to cast fire spells.
Shadow Magic
You can use your mana to cast shadow spells.
''So, I should get rid of the curse to become an awsome dragon. Oh, wait what''s my Fortitude?''If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Strength:????????????5
Agility:????????????4
Mental:??????????????5
Fortitude:????????????10
Reflexes:???????????4
Willpower:? ???????????9
Dexterity:????????????8
Perception:??????????4
Awareness:????????????3
''Um, wow. That''s a lot. I wonder if I''m going to have to figure this all out or if there''s a tutorial.''
Before I could look at anything else there was a loud explosion, and my mother immedieately shifted back into her dragon form.
"Stay here, I will return." She flew up and then down through a hole in the floor.
I walked over to the hole. Well, I crawled for part of the way then when I trusted my balance, I walked on two legs until I got to the hole, where I crawled again. The hole was huge. You could fit my mother in it at least five times. The ground below the hole was also far away, so I wrapped my tail around some rocks that were nearby. Then I remembered I had a tail.
It wasn''t like I actually forgot that I had a tail and wings, they just felt so natural that I didn''t really notice them. It was like a dream where wierd things can happen but it all seems normal until you wake up. Except this dream felt real, and I could still remember that having a tail was wierd, and I could remember my real life.
''Heh, it is kinda real.''
After my brief moment of contemplation, I decided it didn''t matter and while I was here, I was going to make the most of it. Also, I was going to avoid falling through the giant hole before I learned how to fly. It looked like the hole was in the bottom of some kind of overhang. On one side I could see a clift, and on the other it was just open space. I kind of made sense, because the area where I woke up was above the clift, so there was plenty of support for my mother''s nest.
As I tried look at more of the outside world, I saw my mother light up the darkness with a beautiful purplish flame. The fire swept over trees, though it didn''t seem to damage them, but there was a large looking creature that howled with pain. My mom didn''t give it any time to recover and she used her wings to leap into the air and pounce on it. There was a brief moment of thrashing and then everything went still.
After a moment the area around where they were fighting got dark. It wasn''t just low light, it was as if somethng had swallowed the light and left a hole to the abyss. It only lasted for a few seconds, but I felt like I was pulled in. It was all I could do to avoid falling off the edge. Then it was gone.
"Are you sure you want to be that close to the edge? It might be dificult for me to catch you." My mother had somehow gotten behind me.
"Oh, I don''t want to fall. I was just trying to watch you." I gave her a sweet smile. At least I think it was sweet, I still had no idea what my face looked like.
"Well, I brought you dinner, so... You might need cooked meat. Here try this." She dropped a piece of meat on the floor in front of her, and then cooked it with her (not purple) flames.
I crawled away from the edge, my nose filled with the amazing smell of cooked meat. I was very impressed by the smell. It made me feel like I hadn''t eaten for a week, and someone was having a barbeque. By the time I got to the meat I was almost running, and I didn''t stop very well when i got to it. I tumbled over it, but still managed to get my hands on it, and as I was still rolling I took a bite. The juice got all over my face, hands, arms, chest, and my mothers hand/claw as she stopped me from rolling.
"You really should try to calm down. It is only feral earth dragon. They have such a bland taste."
3. My Name
I slowly stopped chewing, wondering if I should avoid eating dragon meat. Woudn''t that be cannibalism? Though it was earth dragon so maybe we weren''t the same type of dragon. Besides, the meat was so good, and I was starving. I started eating again, but this time I took it slow. I chewed each piece of meat until there were no more chunks, and my mother seemed to approve. At least I think she did, she kind of smiled, but I hadn''t really gotten used to dragon expressions so it was either an approval smile, or a grimace.
"You are so full of life, I will call you Bwyd Diderfyni." She was definetly smiling a happy smile. "There is much you must learn, and the first thing is how to act like a human."
New Quest!
Prove to your mother that you can pass yourself off as a human, or other humanoid race, within a reasonible amount of time.
Rewards: 3 stat points
Failure: -1 favor from your mother
You cannot decline this quest
I almost choked on the food I was eating. This would be the easiest quest ever. I mean, I was already human, so learning how to act like one would be the same as acting like myself. Of course, this was a fantasy world so there were probably a few things that were different, butI was confident I was going to ace this quest.
"The first and most important part of being human is wearing clothes, and the second is keeping your appearance clean and neat. You are currently failing at both of those."
It''s not like I have any clothes to wear, and it''s not my fault the meat is extra juicy.
"You also need to learn to eat with utensils. Humans never use their hands to eat anything." She paused for a moment as she changed back into her human form. "While imitating a human you must remember that their strength comes from the tools they make, and becuase of that they never go anywhere without their own personaltool."
At least they aren''t a tool...
"Humans are strange illogical creatures who need other humans in order to feel strong. So the last thing you must remember is humans almost never travel alone. If they do it means they are either a criminal, or abnormal. You must learn how to befriend humans, and how to participate in social events. So, any questions before we get started?"
Wait, is this my tutorial? I don''t think I can ask that.
"Good, since you have no questions you can start by cleaning yourself off in the pool of water over there."
New Quest!
Clean yourself.
Rewards: +1 favor from your mother
Failure: -1 favor from your mother
You cannot refuse this questStolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I swallowed the last of my meat, and headed over to the pool. My balance had improved so I was able to walk without stumbling too much, so I tried running. Running worked fine, but then I tried to jump into the water. I wasn''t quite expecting to jump very high, but apparently I was stronger than I looked. I launched myself about ten feet into the air, and instead of coming back down feet first, I started to rotate. I got that feeling in my stomach that happens when you realize you messed up, and started the descent for a perfect belly flop.
Next thing I knew I used my wings to fix my fall. I just oppened them and poof! I was heading feet first into the water. It felt just as natural as breathing. The game just kept surprising me, in a good way. I really did not want to embarrass myself in front of my mother.
The water was a little cool, but it wasn''t too bad, so I looked around for anything that could help me scrub. Other than some rocks, there wasn''t anything, and I wasn''t about to drag rocks across my skin. So I just used my hands to wipe the meat juice away, which wasn''t too bad see as it was still juicy. By the time I was finished, my mother brought some clothes to the edge of the pool.
When I say some clothes, I really mean piles and piles of clothes. It was like she raided a couple Medieval Goodwills and just dumped all the clothes on the ground. She had shirts, skirts, dresses, socks, shoes, hats, pants, underwear of all different types, and scarves. For a moment I just stared at all the clothes. I had no idea why she''d have so many different types of clothes if she was a dragon. Not to mention she automatically had clothes on when she was in human form.
"I know it can be overwhelming when you look at it, but you can think of clothes for humans as scales for us. Their clothes are the first thing that they see about each other and it helps to identify their occupation." She lifted up a hood. "For example, only humans who like to hide wear these." She picked up a pair of pants. "This is a symbol of the one who provides for a family. Only a few humans per family wear the pants, but they have the responsibility of the whole family."
Is this true? Maybe acting like a human is going to be harder than I thought.
"Some humans even wear extra clothing to protect them from enemies. I do not have any of that here, but in my lair to the west I have a great collection. Also, the most important piece of clothing for us to wear is this." She picked up a bra. "If you do not wear this, humans will try to engage in a mating ritual with you. They do try to pay, but the human mating ritual is a lot of work, and involves a great deal of physical contact. The initial process is quick, butone of the humans involved needs to carry the child for a long time and... The point is you need to wear this if you are going to be walking around human cities at night."
"Mother, where did you learn all of this about humans." I was trying not to laugh.
"Most of it comes from my mother''s teaching, but a few things I learned on my own. You will have to live among humans, so it is important that you learn as much as you can." She started tossing clothes at me. While I was still in the water.
"Hey, wait. Let me get dry first."
I climbed out of the water, and she immedieatly blew hot air on me. Kind of like a super high powered blow dryer. Some of the clothes went straight into the pool, but I was dry in a couple seconds. I started picking clothes out of her piles that would fit me, and that actually matched. Unlike the clothes she had tossed to me. I was starting to get the idea that she really didn''t know much about humans. It was a little difficult to put them on though. It was my first time putting a bra on with wings, and that slowed me down a little. At least my tail didn''t get in the way with the sun dress I picked.
"Well, you seem to know what you are doing. Those clothes suit you. Your next lesson is how to use a fork." She held up a wooden fork. "This is one of the most common tools that humans have. They use them to eat, and make music. I do not understand the music part, but to eat you hold it like this, then stab the food like this, and finally bring it to your mouth like this."
It was entertaining to have her demonstrate how to eat with a fork using extremely exagerated motions, and somehow I still managed not to laugh. However, I found out that even though my mind knew how to use utensils, my body didn''t. Holding the fork correctly was awkward. It just felt wierd, even if it looked right. Luckily it was good enough for my mother, and she moved on to the next lesson. Socializing.
4. Talking
"So far we have been speaking Draconic. The language of Dragons. Humans speak several languages, but the trade tongue is the only language that all humans speak. I made sure to speak it while you were in your egg, so you should have learned it." She paused a moment and then started speaking in a different language, which I understood perfectly. "This is the trade tongue. Try it."
"Um, hi. My name is Bwyd. This language feels weird."
"Mhm, but your body will have less trouble with it than if you were in dragon form. Now to teach you the correct words to say."
We spent hours just talking in the trade language. My mother couldn''t stop complimenting my grasp of the human language, and I realized the trade tongue was very similar to English. Draconic was more of a hissing, growling, and clicking language where certain patterns had meaning. There was also a slight bit of energy, that was missing from the trade tongue, that I assumed was psychic, though I''m not sure what that did. I wasn''t sure a normal human would be able to understand it with the limited range of hearing and lack of psychic energy sensing organs.
Most of what we talked about was how humans lived and acted in a couple different societies. According to my mother there were five major human civilizations. The closest to us was, what she called, the tree dwelers. They lived in cities built in and around massive trees. Of all the humans they were the least friendly. They tend to turn away outsiders, and not only do they have powerful magic to keep people from finding their cities, they also use the forest as a way to keep people out. Apparently, they can move trees, and rearrange the entire forest in a day.
The next closest group, and also the one near my mother''s lair, is the mountain humans. They live inside mountains in incredible cities carved from stone. She was very welcome there. They loved showing off their craftsmanship, and every citiy of the mountain humans gave her a tour of their monuments and great buildings. They sold her the area where her lair is (though they had no idea she was a dragon), and she actually has some of them working for her in what sounds like an inn or tavern.
The only other group she had visited was the fractured humans. They had once all been part of a giant empire, but they had some wars, and now they''re just a bunch of kingdoms that constantly argue, and fight with each other. She said they were the most innovative of the humans, and all their inventions were as amazing as they were odd. Like a gliding ship that used magic to launch it into the are so it could glide down to its destination. She also told me that she would send me there to learn about humans for myself, because they didn''t notice outsiders as much as the others.
Before she was done talking I nodded off, but I''m pretty sure I was awake for the important parts. Until I woke up.
Congratulations!
You have finished the tutorial!The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
You completed your first quest
Reward: 3 stat points and +1 favor with your mother.
New Quest!
Remove your curse.
Reward: Unkown
Failure: Unknown
New Quest!
Join the Wardens
Or
Join a guild
Reward: 1 stat point
Failure: none
''I feel like I missed something. What is that smell?''
I was no longer in my mother''s cave. I was in some kind of city. All around me were stone buildings that looked like they came out of the Medieval era. I was in an alley laying on a dirt road, next to a lovely pile of some animals droppings. Luckily I didn''t have any on me, but I could smell it, and sadly my sense of smell was much better than a human''s.
I slowly got up, making sure I didn''t accidentally touch the pile, or a different pile, and then I started to look around. It was early morning, so there weren''t too many people around yet, but I could see some men wearing chain mail and some kind of uniform walking down the main street. I was pretty sure they were guards, so I tried to act as innocent as possible. It shouldn''t have been too hard, I was actually innocent, but the moment they saw me they quickened their pace and came straight for me. I remembered from somewhere that running makes you look guilty, so I stood right there and waited for them to come to me.
"Hey, you, girl, don''t move." The one who spoke had a gruff voice, and a bit of a pot belly, but he looked pretty tough.
"Hi, I''m new in town. I think I''m a little lost, where''s the..."
"Shut it. We don''t care about your excuses, just show us your papers, and we''ll let you go." Mr. pot belly held out his hand like he expected something.
"Oh, of course my papers are, um." I made a show of checking all over for something. "They''re missing. I, I think I''ve been robbed. I have no money, and, and." I started crying, on purpose.
The guards watched me for a moment before the pot bellied one whispered something to his partner, which I happened to overhear with my super awesome dragon hearing. "I don''t know. I''d wager she''s lying. You can''t trust those half-elves. Who knows how old she is."
''Half-elf? Mother didn''t say anything about elves, and I''m not a half-elf, I''m a dragon. That looks like a human, oh, with pointy ears. Good thing they didn''t see my wings or tail, they might think I''m a demon.''
"Girl, come with us to the Warden station. We will see if you are telling the truth." The other guard spoke his first words (to me anyway) with an almost monotone voice.
"Ok, but can we stop by the adventurer''s guild first, they might be able to save you the trouble. They can vouch for me." ''I hope...''
"Fine, but if you can''t afford an identity ring, you must be a bad adventurer." Pot belly looked like he believed me even less.
The walk to the adventurer''s guild was, awkward. I had to walk between the two of them, and no one spoke a word. Everyone we passed in the street looked at me with pity or smug looks, like they thought I was going to be punished for something. Which was very possible, I had no idea what would happen at the adventurer''s guild, I was just lucky that there was actually an adventurer''s guild. I pulled that name out of my knowledge of other fantasy worlds. My mother''s information was really lacking. She didn''t know about elves, papers, Wardens, or guilds. I just hoped they didn''t need to verify my race. That would be really awkward.
5. Guilds
So, the guild was not what I expected. First of all, there was a bunch of buildings all around one somewhat large open area. Each building had a symbol on a sign in front of it, and thanks to my lack of education on symbols and their guilds, I had no idea which building was which. I could have guessed, and I might have been close, but to start guessing with suspicious guards right next to me was not something I wanted to try. I waited for them to find the adventurer''s guild themselves, and start leading me to it. It didn''t take them too long, just a couple seconds as they scanned around the plaza before they started heading towards a building with a symbol that looked kind of like a big back pack. Like the ones people use for hikes that take several days.
I noticed a lot of people in the plaza didn''t have a look of pity in their eyes. Most of them didn''t even seem to care. They just glance at us, and then carried on with what they were doing. A few had unpleasent looks, but most of them were shouting things like,
"Need healer then good to go. Firestone plaza."
"Tank here. Looking for anything."
"Marcus the Magnificent, here for all your wizarding needs."
"Selling surplus monster cores."
It took me a moment, but I quickly realized that this was the gathering place for players. At least the ones in one of the guilds. Maybe the Warden players met somewhere else. Most of the people in the plaza were human, but I did see elves, dwarves, bipedal reptilians (definetly not dragons), and humanish people with some interesting differences. Mostly things like animal ears and tails, but there were some with horns, feathery wings, bat wings, and even one guy made out of polished stone (I thought he was an oddly placed stature until he moved).
The guards didn''t seem to care about all the people, and they almost dragged me through the middle of the plaza while I tried to gawk at everything and everyone.
Alert!
ShadowM3n007 has sent you a friend request.
Accept Y/N?
''Um, do I really want to be friends with someone named that? No.''
I tried to find the guy who sent me the friend request, but I didn''t see anyone who looked like a shadow man, which is probably because they were hiding. Like a shadow man should. By the time we got to the middle of the plaza I noticed a couple of people following us. Looking at the guards I was pretty sure they hadn''t noticed, but they were very focused on getting to the adventurer''s guild. They looked a bit uncomfortable here.
We continued to the adventurer''s guild, and went through the large open double doors. Inside reminded me of a bank. There were lines that led to a bunch of receptionists which seemed to be where everyone was heading to. There were also some rooms off to the sides that were probably offices, or meeting rooms for guild members, and by the door there was a large bulletin board with little pieces of paper all over it. Which I could not read. It looked like scribbles, with doodles and more scribles on top. It almost hurt my mind trying to read what everything said.
Luckily the guards didn''t leave me to suffer with my lack of literacy. Instead they pulled me around the lines and right up to one of the receptionists who happened to have an empty window.
"We don''t got much time, so just verify this girl''s ID and we''ll get out of here." Pot belly tried to sound important, but the receptionist glared at him, like he was interupting something important.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
"There is a line for a reason, and town guards are supposed to uphold the law." She spoke in a haughty tone.
"This girl might be a spy, so we need to know who she is. She said she''s one of yours, all we need is verification. Otherwise we can stand here until you die of old age." He leaned up against the wall when he finished, like he was a bouncer keeping people away.
She sighed, "Fine, miss, if you would put your hand on the orb, please."
I was incredibly nervous. I mean, here I was, in a human city, surrounded by humans, and they wanted me to put my hand on a strange magical device. If things went badly, there was no way I''d get out of this alive, or in even worse shape. I had skills, but I had never used any of them. I didn''t even know if I could. Like, supposedly I could fly, but my wings were tiny so who knows how that would work, and for all I knew my dragon breath was just a tiny little spark.
So while I froze with nervousness the guards started smiling, and nodding to each other, like they had just won something. Because I realized they were acting like that because they thought I was lying I decided to put my hand on the crystal and hope for the best. When I did both guards, the receptionist, and me looked at the crystal waiting for whatever it was supposed to do. And we waited. Until finally the receptionist put her hand on the orb and it started glowing, then she took her hand off and it stopped.
"Well, I may need to speak with an administrator. I''ve never seen this happen before." She started to leave.
"Wait, my dear lady. I, Marcus the Magnificent can solve your problem." A man with a booming voice, dressed like a circus ringmaster in blue, wallked out of the little crowd that had formed to watch me.
"Marcus, this has nothing to do with you." She seemed to know him, and looked a little annoyed.
"Alas, whenever a fair maiden is in need I cannot help but interpose myself. Besides, why waste these fine gentlemen''s time any more than needed. I am sure they have much better things to do than stand around here all day." He winked at me. I raised one eyebrow.
"Yeah, I''m getting tired of standing here all ready, you people are too wierd." Pot belly started pushing Marcus to the window, "If you can fix this then do it."
"My good sir, it is but a simple matter. You see, there are some of us who cannot use an orb with only one of our hands. Allow me to demonstrate." He put his left hand on theorb, and nothing happened. "Now with my other hand." When he put both hands on the orb it started to glow. "And finally." He took his left hand off and it stopped glowing. "As you can see, there is a small portion of the population who must use two hands in order to start the process of the identification orb." The crowd started applauding. "Thank you, thank you. Remember Marcus the Magnificent for all your magical needs."
"You heard the man, get both your hands on that orb." Pot belly seemed upset with the show Marcus just performed.
As I went to place both my hands on the orb, Marcus patted me on the shoulder and said, "Good luck," with another wink, and something more. I felt something, almost like water, that went from his touch to the tips of my fingers. I hoped it was his magic, and not something like actual water. This time when I touched the orb it started glowing, and after about ten seconds wierd glowing squiggly lines started forming over the orb. When they stopped forming I realized that neither of the guards were making a sound, and even the receptionist was staring at the lines with amazement all over her face.
"I, I''ll, um, I will create your identification papers for you, your highness." The receptionist barely regained her composure by the time she said "your highness".
"We''re sorry to have bothered you, please excuse us." Both guards were slightly bowing, waiting.
"Oh, um, well you may go. I''m not angry or anything." I was starting to feel embarrassed, especially since I didn''t even know what the orb said.
"Your highness, it was a pleasure to meet you, here are your identification papers. Thank you for visiting the adventurer''s guild." The receptionist had fully recovered and handed me some papers, with unreadable squiggly lines.
I wasn''t really sure what to say, so I just took the papers and left. Everyone was watching me as I left. It was really awkward. The moment I got outside I started moving towards one of the roads that led away from the plaza. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. It was hard not to just start running, but I was almost in a panic. Why did the orb say I was royalty, and what did Marcus do? Wasn''t this going to make it hard for me to quietly learn about human culture, and cure my curse? My future was too uncertain.
6. Answers
I just barely got out of the guild plaza when a notification appeared in front of me.
Alert!
Marcus the Magnificent has sent you a friend request.
Accept Y/N?
At least I kind of knew who he was, unlike the last one, so I accepted. I did have my doubts, but I figured he owed me. I was pretty sure he messed up the orb thing, so it was his fault that I wouldn''t be able to keep a low profile.
The moment I accepted the friend request he appeared in front of me.
"Hey, um, so that was cool." He looked around before continuing, "You''re not really a princess, are you?"
"I don''t think so. I''m pretty sure someone would have told me, but what did you do, and how can I, or you, fix it? And how did you appear?"
"Oh, that." He started running his hands through his hair, "once a day friend teleport, and the other things was just a simple illusion spell to make the orb think your magical signature was something other than what it was. I happened to notice that you don''t have an aura like everyone else, and from what I can figure that''s either because you aren''t real, or there''s something blocking it." He paused to take a breath. "And that is why I was able to place an illusion of an aura in the external layer where your aura energy should be radiating. The illusion was only supposed to portray a form of you that would be acceptable for your stay in this city, and after getting to know you I''d make one that was more fitting for what you wanted."
"So, your spell thinks I''m supposed to be a princess?"
"No, well yes, but not really. It''s complicated."
"I''m not stupid, explain it." I crossed my arms and tried to look imposing.
"Well, it might have just seen that your father was some kind of leader, and translated that to royalty. He wouldn''t even need to be if your, um, presence was strong enough. He could just be a caravan leader, and that combined with you somehow got translated to princess."
"You''ll have to fix this."
"What? You don''t want to be a princess?" He actually looked surprised.
"No! Of course not. I can''t pretend to be a princess, anyone could figure it out pretty quick when they realize I have no money, or servants, or fancy clothes. It''s an obvious lie."
"I could help you pretend. I''m an illusionist so I can make it seem like you''re a normal princess. Plus you could just be a princess looking to learn about the world by travelling, so only having one, or two servants and guards would be fine. I can be your servant."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Alert!
Marcus the Magnificent would like to be your servant.
Current servants 0/4
Accept Y/N?
I paused for a moment, a very short moment, before I accepted. I figured this was a normal thing, and Marcus owed me, so I had no problem with gaining a servant. I just wasn''t sure I wanted Marcus as a servant. I mean, he had caused the problem in the first place, and he seemed to be a little showy for my plans. Or my idea of my plans, I hadn''t really gotten around to planning them yet. But I figured I could just fire him if I wanted to, so I accepted, and watched him become stunned.
His mouth and eyes widened a little, and he just froze. For a while. I finally decided that I needed to wake him up, so I gently pushed him, and he fell over. Well, more like he completely collapsed. I had no idea what was wrong, so I just poked him, until he finally looked at me.
"Y-y-y-you! Are. You?" His eyes looked around my face like he was searching for something.
"I am me? If that''s what your asking." I offered a hand to help him up.
"Yes, you. Can I?" He gestured to my hand.
"Yeah? I was offering it?"
He gently took my hand, like he was handling glass, and pulled himself up. Then he just stood there and stared for a few seconds before he just started walking off. I watched him go until he turned down a street, and I realized that he was supposed to be my servant, so I took off running to catch up with him.
Around the corner I saw himknocking on a door. Continuously.Until finally a girl openned the door. She was probably about four feet tall, had bright pink hair, pointed ears, and tanned looking skin. When she spoke her voice sounded like a little bell. Literally like a bell. I couldn''t understand anything she said. It was all ring ring RIIING? Then he just muttered some things and walked inside.
She saw me standing there staring and spoke with some more ringing before she realized I couldn''t understand her. She frowned for a moment then spoke without moving her mouth.
"Did you break him?" Her mind voice was quiet but full of force.
"No. He did that to himself. After I, uh, accepted him as my servant."
She frowned again, "Why would that cause him to... Why don''t you come in. I might need your help to fix him."
I sighed, "And I needed him to fix something for me."
"We can talk about that later, but do not worry, he is a good man. He will repay you."
She let me into the house, which was mostly made of stone, but inside it looked like it had wooden walls. There wasn''t much for furniture, but what was there was fairly functional. The first room had a wooden table and four wooden chairs, and attached to that room was a simple kitchen. Marcus was pacing back and forth beside the table, muttering to himself.
"Oh, by the way, I am called Lily. You seem to have met Marcus, but there is also another man who lives here. He is somewhat big, and can be scary looking, but he issoft on the inside. He is called Bjorn."
"Nice to meet you, I''m Bwyd, I just recently got here, so I have no idea what''s going on."
Lily laughed, it was kind of like what little bells would sound like if they could laugh. Then she said some things in rings again, before she remembered to switch to telepathy. "Why does that not work with you?"
"I have no idea, what is it?"
Before she could answer Marcus finally stopped pacing, and instead stared at a corner of the room. Very intently. Both Lily and I started watching him as he just stared, and stared. Finally, after what felt like forever, he raised his hands and said, "Arise. Arise. Arise!"
Nothing happened.
Unless you count Lily''s bell laughter, my quiet snort, and a deep friendly laughter that came from behind me.
7. Friends?
I jumped a little when I realized there was someone behind me. He was huge, at least twice my height, and had grey skin. It wasn''t stone, but it still looked pretty tough. He was bald, but almost to make up for that his eyebrows were huge, and thick, and he had a short well trimmed beard. He was wearing chain mail, and carried a huge shield, well, huge to me. It was like a kite shield to him.
Lily came up to his knee. "Hey, Bwyd, this is Bjorn. He''s part giant or something." She then started making bell noises.
Bjorn held his hand out towards me and said, "What''s up?"
"You, definetly you." His hand could have held my whole head, but his hand shake was surprisingly gentle.
He laughed, a deep rumbling laughter, "To you sure, but just the other day I was fighting a twelve foot tall cyclopes. My head was at his shoulders."
"Ooh, that sounds scary. Did you beat it?"
"Not right away, I had to kill his fifteen foot brother." He started acting it out as he told the story. "The taller one had me in a strangle hold, and all I could do was kick the short one..."
Lily inturupted him, with bell noises, and pointed at Marcus.
"What did that?" His thick brow furrowed.
She jingled again, and I tried to look inconspicuous as he stared at me.
"Bwyd? What did you do?" His voice lowered and he kind of growled.
"I, um, I just made him my servant. He did this after."
Lily jingled some more, and he seemed to calm down a bit.
"As long as it''s just him being him, I guess that''s ok. But, I am the tank of this party, and it is my job to protect them from all enemies. So if..." He kept talking, but Lily started telepathically talking and it was just too hard to listen to both.
"Bwyd, do you have a party?"
I shook my head slightly.
"We could use another member, if you are interested."
I cocked my head to one side, thinking about what I actually wanted. I started playing the game because it seemed interesting, but somehow I had gotten a special story. These people were also interesting, but I was pretty sure that if I spent too much time with them I wouldn''t be able to hide the fact that I was a dragon. Or kind of a dragon. Unlike my mother who could just fly away if something went wrong, I was pretty much stuck. So I had to be absolutely sure that I could trust the people I told my secret to. Marcus, Lily, and Bjorn seemed like good people, but they didn''t know me. There was nothing to keep them from putting me in a prison, and doing evil anti dragon experiments. I knew it was a game, but I also felt attached to my character. It didn''t really feel like there was a difference between reality and the game. Well, except that everything felt a little sluggish and muffled. Like I was in water instead of air. But it would be nice to have friends, so I figured I could join the party, and let things develop on their own. Until Marcus finally started talking...
"Bwyd, I have a million questions for you. Starting with how did you give me such a crazy buff?"
Bjorn stoppedlecturing to talk to him, "Marcus, you can keep staring at your corner, I''m giving her the party is family speech."
"When I became her servant, I got a buff, named in some weird language, that gives me an insane bonus to all shadow and fire magic. It also gave me a summoning spell, that didn''t work, but it summons a cursed shadow dragon to a point near me." He pausd to take a breath, "Oh, and did I mention that I now have 5 for both shadow and fire resistance? I think my questions areway more important than your family talk."
Lily jingled, quietly.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
"I know you like her, but Bwyd I need some answers, and I need them now." His eyes were so focused on me, I felt like he was looking right through me.
"Well, I''m not sure. I don''t have a buff like that. At least I don''t think I do."
"You do know how to check your status, right?" Marcus raised an eyebrow.
"Of course I do, I don''t have any buffs." Then just to be sure.
Spoiler: Spoiler
Gain 1 point of physical resistance per level. (Degraded) Maximum level is 1.
Dragon Breath 1 (Degraded)
Gain a fire breath attack that ignores half the target''s fire resistance. The damage is equal to your Fortitude multiplied by Dragon Breath''s level. (Degraded) You will also take half the damage you deal.
Flight 1 (Degraded)
You can use your wings to fly. You will gain more control, and special maneuvers as the level increases. (Degraded) Maximum level is 1.
Fire Magic 5
You can use your mana to cast fire spells. Each level increases the spells you can learn, and the level of the spell.
Shadow Magic 5
You can use your mana to cast shadow spells. Each level increases the spells you can learn, and the level of the spell.
So the only new thing was the title...
Master
Earned after gaining a servant. +5 Mental and Willpower.
"What about titles, or special abilities that give buffs to servants?" He started moving towards me.
"Nope, nothing."
"Passive ablities?"
"No."
"There''s got to be something, have you checked everything?" He was close enough now that he put his hands on my shoulders.
"Have you checked everything?" I pushed his hands off, "I don''t have anything that would give you any kind of buff."
He started pacing again. Bjorn sighed and said, "Now he''s reading again, at least we have some time. As I was saying, we are a close group of friends and we would do anything for each other. My role is protection, Lily handles healing, Marcus is our mage. We are looking for two more members and..."
Marcus stopped and practically shouted, "I got it! Bwyd, can you read this?"
I was about to say I can''t read when he made an illusion of a notification box.
%&$*#@^%^$%&(!
You have contracted as a dragon''s servant!
The dragon is young and cursed and a bit shy, but a dragon is a dragon.
As a mage you will gain magic benefits from your contract based on the power of the dragon,
and you will be able to summon her if she is willing and the summons is not blocked by a god.
*#$(&%(@#$ #&# &#$7 #$&*)% #$*&& #)&$)& #)%&p^&&#
#$*&am$!@p#& )#&$*#& 7^_()%^*$ *@)($#*%_
My eyes widened a little when I realized I could readsomething, then I realized I had been reading my notifications this whole time so I could apparently read something. I just thought that it was a notification so you could read it no matter what, but now that I could see his illusion of a notification it made me realize that they were written in a language you could read. Which meant I could read dragon.
Bjorn interupted my thoughts, "Now she''s speechless. But seriously man, that''s an awsome buff, resistance and two levels of a couple magic skills. You got anything like that for tanks Bwyd?"
Lily made bell noises and Bjorn laughed. Marcus was still focused onme, waiting for my answer.
"So, uh. I can read some of it."
"Yeah we all can read some of it, it''s that gibberish in the middle we can''t read." Bjorn poked at the illusion as he talked.
"No, I can''t read the stuff on the outside. I can read the middle just fine." I spoke quietly, worried how they would react.
Bjorn just looked at me with a puzzled look, Lily gasped, and Marcus smiled and said, "So, what does it say?"
"It basically says that you get bonuses for contracting with me." I started getting uncomfortable as they all just stared at me.
"Why?"
"I''m, not." I almost said ''sure'', but I didn''t want to lie to them. "I''m not human."
8. Party!
There was a pause, then Bjorn started laughing. Lily just smiled, but Marcus kept his serious look.
Lily half whispered, "You do realize we are not human either?"
"Uh, yeah? Wait, even Marcus?"
Lily just laughed, and pointed a finger at Marcus. A bit of energy shot out of her finger and hit Marcus, he looked a little offended, and then there was a sound like glass breaking. It looked like a mirror shattered all around him, then I saw a completely different looking person.
Alert
You watched an illusion break in front of your eyes
Due to your Draconic nature (degraded) your friend list has been updated
Marcus the Magnificent has been changed to Marcus
His skin was blue, and he had two little horns that came up out of his temples and curled back to his ears. His hair was pure white, and his bright red eyes were now glaring at Lily.
She made bell noises and hid behind Bjorn.
Bjorn stopped laughing to speak, "Lily, maybe don''t make the half demon angry. He does magic, and might be able to summon a dragon now. Besides, interparty conflict is never good in any world."
She made bell noises, then suddenly stopped. "Hey, Bwyd. You are not a half elf, are you?"
"Well, I''m kind of a half something..." I wanted to tell them, but they all were looking at me with strange looks. Lily had a hungry look, Bjorn''s looked like he was checking me out, and it felt like Marcus was staring into my soul (of course that could have just been the demonic stuff making me feel that way).
Surprisingly Marcus spoke up, "If you don''t want to tell us, that''s fine. I wouldn''t want to force anyone to suddenly reveal their secret. Especially if theywere planning to reveal it. I wouldn''t want to ruin the performance, and the brilliant speech, and the carefully constructed magic spells, and all their hard work. That would be messed up." He was now glaring at Lily.
"Ok, Ok, everyone calm down. Marcus, while you were thinking me and Lily basically decided to let Bywd join our party, so this would come out anyway." Lily stuck her tongue out at Marcus. "And Lily that was not cool. You know how Marcus likes to put on a show." Lily pouted. "So what I think we should do is introduce ourselves, as long as you actually want to join our dysfunctional family Bywd."
I thought for a brief moment, "Yeah, I''d like to join, though I have to warn you, I might be more dysfunctional."
"Cool, then I''m Bjorn, tank and party leader. I basically make the final decision when these two can''t agree on what to do. I''m a half rock troll, so I heal quickly, and have tough skin. Lily you''re next."
"Alright, I''m Lily, I''m fae. That''s fairy, but not like those little things that fly around and drop dust on everything, I''m a real fairy. I basically heal, see most magic, cast some buffs, turn invisible, and all the mortal races can understand when I speak." She gave me a knowing look at the end.
"You already know me, I''m Marcus the Magnificent, master of magic. Specifically illusion, but I''m pretty good with some elemental stuff. Mostly wind and water. As you can see," he paused to glare at Lily, "I am a half demon. That doesn''t mean I''m a demon, just a mortal human with some demonic powers. There are many different ways to become a half demon beyond just being born this way, but I was most definitely born this way. If you can do fire magic I am resistant... I''m guessing you can from that buff, so don''t worry if you hit me with a little fire. A lot of fire will still be painful, but..."Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Marcus, that''s enough! You talk way too much when you''re nervous. We can talk tactics later. It''s Bwyd turn."
They all looked at me again. I swallowed the lump in my throat and slipped my tail out of my dress. It was wrapped around my waist, so it looked like I lost a bunch of weight all at once. They were all looking at my face and somehow didn''t notice, so I decided to show them my wings too. I undid a couplebuttons on the front to loosen it enough for me to slip my wings out. Apparently, they misunderstood my actions becauseMarcus turned a darker shade of blue and turned away, Lily''s mouth just hung open, and Bjorn''s eyes widened and he had a slight smile.
I realized what I was doing looked kind of bad, but I didn''t feel embarrassed at all. I felt like I could be naked in front of them and feel perfectly normal. It was wierd to know that I should be embarrassed, but not feel it. So to avoid making everyone else more uncomfortable I pulled up the front of the loosened top to bothkeep my chest hidden, and give me the space needed to slip my little wings out the collar.
"So, like I said, I''m not human. I''m kind of a dragon."
Marcus'' head snapped back to look at me, and his eyes seemed to dart between my wings and my tail. The other two started whispering to each other, which looked funny because Bjorn had to crouch down and Lily still barely reached his ear.
"So, that was draconic in my notification?" His eyes finally stopped to look directly at me.
"Yeah, but that was all I could read." It was hard to return his gaze so I looked at his feet.
"How much of a dragon are you? You can''t be a true dragon, they''re aggressive, so are you some kind of experiment? A mutation? A miracle?" He almost sounded excited.
"I guess, I''m kinda like an experiment?" My mother wasn''t sure I''d be me, so that''s kind of like an experiment. "I don''t really know how it happened. I was supposed to find that out later. When I''m older."
Bjorn spoke up, "So, me and Lilly''ve been talking, and we both want to be your servants." Lily stood next to him and just nodded with a big smile on her face.
"Guys, I don''t know if you''ll get the same buff. I don''t even know how any of this works. I''m just lost." I felt tears forming in my eyes.
"Lily said the fae have something similar, but her rank isn''t high enough to have servants, so we''re guessing that every immortal race has a similar kind of buff."
Marcus joined in the discussion, "Makes sense, I read some stuff about how you got powerful buffs depending on which elder being you choose, and your class, so having a contract with a fae, elemental, demon, or even an experimental dragon probably does the same. I think it sounds like a great idea, as long as Bwyd wants to join us." He gave me a nice smile that lookedso out of place on his demonic looking face I started giggling.
They looked at me like I was crazy, I did just go from the verge of tears to giggles, but I did manage to stop giggling before they threw me out. "Ok, I will join the party! And you can be my servants if you really want to. I will warn..."
Alert
You have been accepted into the party Bjorn & Buddies
Lily has become your servant
Bjorn has become your servant
"Or I won''t... so, any buffs?"
Bjorn had a satisfied smile on his face, but Lily was standing there with her mouth and eyes wide open.
"I''ll take that as a yes? Probably? Marcus are you still listening?" Bjorn and Lily weren''t reacting to anything I said.
"Yeah, but why is your power level so low?"
"My what?"
"Power level. The numerical value that is assigned to you to denote overall power. Mine is 57, Bjorn is 45, and Lily is 63. You have 20."
"I didn''t even know I had a power level."
He sighed, "What do you know for game interface stuff?"
"How to see my status, and how to get servants."
"Then your first task as a member of Bjorn & Buddies is to read the forums when you log off. There is a lot of stuff you need to know. After that we''ll probably start looking for a rogue... wait, what''s your class?"
"Dragon?" He facepalmed.
"Never mind, your first task is to get a class. Now. Follow me."
He walked out past Bjorn, whowatching Lily, and Lily, who was waving her hands around and somehow surrounding herself with thousands of little lights that looked like fireflies.
"Will they be alright?"
Marcus shrugged, "Probably, if not they''ll send us a party message. Regardless, you need a class, and an in depth lesson about everything."
9. Classes
As we walked back to the guild plaza to find a class trainer for me, we didn''t talk much. Marcus put his disguise back on before we left then he said follow me, and started walking. He looked like he was back in thinking mode so I didn''t feel right interrupting him, and I just followed him. The plaza was almost empty when we got there, though Marcus didn''t seem to notice and just went straight to a building with a crystal orb on the sign.
The building was filled with a lot of different things. In piles, on shelves, hanging in baskets from the ceiling, and in a generally disorganized mess. The items weren''t even sorted in any meaningful way. There was a basket with an arrow and a watermelon. One of the shelves had a couple books, an orb, a wand, some folded cloth, and a full face metal helmet. The person behind the desk was just as odd as the stuff. He was a young looking man, with a really bad case of bed head, and no sense of matching clothes. He had one bright pink glove, a dark red shirt, a light green vest, and orange pants with one long leg, and one short leg.
As we entered the mismatched man said, "Hi, welcome to the odd magic stuff and things and, uh, yeah, stuff."
"Greetings Poroto, I have come with a request!" Marcus suddenly went from thoughtful to super excited showman.
"Oh, you. It will be three thousand gold." He sounded very bored.
"No, my dear friend. The request is not for me, but this incredible young woman. She has travelled far and wide to come to this very place. All she seeks is a capable instructor to help her learn the intricacies of magic. When I heard her plight I immedieately thought of my great friend Poronto and ..."
Poroto slammed his fist on the desk. "I don''t do favors, I don''t take pity on poor weary travellers, and I most certainly do not do favors for swindlers. If you do not leave now I will throw you out." He stood and glared at Marcus.
"Poroto, you are making a big mistake kicking her out of here. She could very well be your best student." Marcus lowered his voice almost like he was making a threat.
"I never told her to leave, just you. You have till I count to five. One, Two, Three, Four..." Marcus bolted for the door, giving me a thumbs up on his way by. "Now I don''t care what he said, why should I teach you anything about magic?"
"Because I like magic?" I was a little intimidated by him.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
"No. If that is your reason you can leave. Why should I teach you?" His glare was now fully focused on me.
"I, I want. No, I need to learn how to destroy curses."
His eyes seemed to glow for a moment. "I see, Come with me and you''ll be able to free yourself. If you can persevere that is."
He walked through a door, and I followed him. The room beyond was completely different from the first room. It was almost empty, except for a large circle drawn in the center of the room, and another door on the other side. It was dark when we first stepped in, but I could see, and he didn''t seem to have a problem with seeing, so it didn''t really matter.
"Please stand in the center of the circle so I can properly evaluate you."
I moved into the circle, and when I did it started glowing. After a few seconds it stopped.
"Hmm, so your curse blocks any attempts to identify it. That means you were either cursed by a god, or something of similar power. Well, what kind of magic are you capable of?"
"Um, fire and darkness. I don''t think there''s any others." I kept standing in the circle because I didn''t know what else to do.
"Then I believe I know what to offer you. You should be able to learn about curses and use you innate talent" The circle started glowing again, then:
Congratulations!
You have been offered a class
Witch
Due to your race the class has been modified
SugarraWitch
Accept Y/N?
"I accept!" The circle started glowing brighter and brighter, then when I could barely keep my eyes open a rush of energy went from the circle into me. When it was done I had a bunch of notifications, which I turned off, because notifications are never important. Usually.
"There, you are now a witch. If you wish to purchase any class specific equipment I can provide it for you, and you can come to me for any spells, or skills you may wish to purchase. I may not be a witch myself, but this circle makes up for what I don''t know. Any questions?" He started walking back to the main room.
"Yeah, what does a witch do?"
He stopped and slowly turned back towards me. "You mean to tell me you agreed to become a witch without knowing anything about it?" I nodded. He started laughing. "You are amazing. That level of trust in a complete stranger. I think we''ll get along well. Much better than your friend anyway."
"Ok? Thanks." He just chuckled and led me back into the front room.
"I hope to see you once you figure out what a witch is, and once you''ve decided what you want to learn. Oh, and take this wand. I have a policy that if someone makes me laugh they get a free item. You did so congratulations." His tone started to sound bored again. "Now get out of here before your friend gets worried."
When I left Poroto''s building I didn''t see Marcus anywhere outside. The plaza was almost completely empty of anyone, and the few people who were there were probably not Marcus. I mean I didn''t know for sure because of his illusions, but they all looked plain so I figured they weren''t him. After standing there for a moment looking around I realized there was some kind music playing in the distance. It sounded like a lot of trumpets.
10. Parade!
I tried to listen to figure out where the music was coming from, but the plaza made the sound echo all around me, and the side streets weren''t any better. After wandering for a couple minutes I finally decided to climb a building. I picked an abandoned back alley just in case it was illegal to climb buildings. I''d played other games where you could climb a building with no problem, so how hard could it really be?
Hard, very hard.
Apparently 5 strength is not enough to climb a vertical surface with barely any handholds. Oh, and did I mention that most of the buildings were made out of large slabs of stone? There weren''t any edges to grab onto, unless you could reach twice your height. Maybe Bjorn could have done it, but even jumping I couldn''t reach. So after falling on my bum a couple times (it hurts more when you have a tail to land on) I decided to sit there and pout.
While I was pouting I remembered my new class, and all my blocked notifications, so I started looking at everything, hoping to find some kind of music finding spell.
Congratulations!
You have successfully completed your initial class selection
For choosing a magic class you gain
+5 Mental
+5 Willpower
Congratulations!
You have successfully changed your class to an advanced class
For unlocking Sugarra Witch you gain
+5 Mental
+5 Willpower
+5 Awareness
+5 Fire Magic
+5 Shadow Magic
+10 Fire Resistance
+10 Shadow Resistance
Congratulations!
For unlocking a class that synergises with your race you gain
+5 Fire Magic
+5 Shadow Magic
+5 Fire Resistance
+5 Shadow Resistance
+5 Curse Resistance
Congratulations!
For choosing a spell casting class you unlock
Spells
Alert!
For rank 15 Fire Magic you learn
Firebolt
Fireball
Firewall
Fireshield
Flaming Skull
Burn
Alert!
For rank 15 Shadow Magic you learn
Shadowbolt
Cloak of Shadows
Darkness
Shadow Blade
Shadow Step
Shadow Swap
Alert!
For having20 Mental as a witch you learn
Curse of Blindness
Curse of Stupidity
Curse of Molasses
Curse of Inevitability
Congratulations!
Forknowing 15 spells you gain
+10 Willpower
Congratulations!
For having 30 Willpower you learn
Meditation
Mana Conservation
Empowered Spells
Alert!
Forgaining Curse Resistance your cursed state can be removed
You will need to discover the method to do this
Congratulations!
For rankbecoming a Witch you have entered the Arcane Guild
You gain +1 Mental for every spell you knowYou might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
You gain Magic Resistance equal to half your Willpower
You have completed a quest
+3 stat points
Congratulations!
You have gained +5 favor with Poroto
You have a 1% discount when buying from Poroto
Congratulations!
You have acquired a soulbound wand
This wand can never be stolen
It will grow with you and develop based on your abilities
Normal Soulbound Witches Wand
This is wand is designed for a beginner witch to grow with
+3 Mental
+3 Willpower
Spell: Hexbolt
Name: Bwyd Diderfyni
Titles: Master
Race: Dragon (Cursed)
Resistances: Shadow 25, Fire 25, Curse 5, Physical 1.
Gain 1 point of physical resistance per level. (Degraded) Maximum level is 1.
Dragon Breath 1 (Degraded)
Gain a fire breath attack that ignores half the target''s fire resistance. The damage is equal to your Fortitude multiplied by Dragon Breath''s level. (Degraded) You will also take half the damage you deal.
Flight 1 (Degraded)
You can use your wings to fly. You will gain more control, and special maneuvers as the level increases. (Degraded) Maximum level is 1.
Fire Magic 15
You can use your mana to cast fire spells. Each level increases the spells you can learn, and the level of the spell.
Shadow Magic 15
You can use your mana to cast shadow spells. Each level increases the spells you can learn, and the level of the spell.
Meditation 1
You canincrease your mana recovery rate by 1/10 of your Willpwer per level.
Mana Conservation 1
You spend 1 less mana per spell cast. This increases by 1 per level.
Empowered Spells 1
You may double the mana you spend to increase the power of the spell. At higher levels you can use more mana to empower the spell even more.
Master
Earned after gaining a servant. +5 Mental and Willpower.
Firebolt
Range:??2 X Mental (80).??Single target Fire damage:??Mental (40).????Throw a bolt of fire at one target within range.
Fireball?
Range:??2X Mental (80).??Single target Fire damage:??2 X Mental (80).??Area Fire damage:??Mental (40).??Diameter:??Mental (40).?????Throw a ball of fire at a target to cause damage, or explode.
Firewall
Duration:??Willpower (37).??Length:??Mental (40).????Fire damage:??Mental (40).????Create a wall of fire.
Fireshield
Duration:??Willpower (37).??Fire/Cold Resistance:??1/2 Mental (20).??On hit Fire damage:??1/4 Mental (10).????Protect yourself with fire.
Flaming Skull
Duration:??Willpower (37).??Fire Resistance:??1/4 Mental (10).??Intimidation:??1/2 Mental (20).????Light your skull on fire to give a slight boost to Fire Resistance and Intimidation.
Burn
Duration:??30 Seconds.??Damage Frequency:??1/2 Mental (20).??Fire damage:??1/5 Mental (8).????Light a target on fire.
Shadowbolt
Range:??2X Mental (80).??Single target Shadow damage:??Mental (40).????Throw a bolt of shadow at one target within range.
Cloak of Shadows
Duration:??10 X Willpower (370).??Stealth:??1/2 Mental (20).????Surround yourself in shadows.
Darkness
Duration:??Willpower (37).??Range:??Mental (40).??Diameter:??Mental (40).????Create a zone of darkness.
Shadow Blade
Duration:??Willpower (37).??Shadow Damage:??1/4 Mental (10).????Create a blade of pure shadows.
Shadow Step
Range:??Mental (40).????Step through shadows.
Shadow Swap
Make your shadow take damage from one attack for you.?
Curse of Blindness
Duration:??Permanant unless target is resistant to curses.??Cause a creature to become blind.
Curse of Stupidity
Duration:??Permanant unless target is resistant to curses.??Cause a creature to lose half its Mental, Willpower, and Awareness stats.
Curse of Molasses
Duration:??Permanant unless target is resistant to curses.??Cause a creature to becomeslowed.
Curse of Inevitability
Duration:??Permanant unless target is resistant to curses.??Cause a creature to be hit by everything that is aimed at it.
Hexbolt
Range:??2X Mental (80).??Single target Curse damage:??Mental (40).????Throw a bolt of curse energy at one target within range.
It took me a little longer than I expected to read everything, and then read some of it again, and again, until I thought I understood everything. I was kind of glad I didn''t read all the notifications while I was still with Poroto, because I probably had a stupid look on my face while I was reading, and then I remembered Marcus. I turned a bit red as I realized that I looked a bit like he had when he couldn''t process his notifications. Then I looked around just to make sure no one saw me in my awkward state. I did see a small rat chewing on something, but there weren''t any people. I did notice that the music was a lot louder. Like a lot louder. In fact it was so loud I realized how absorbed I was in my notifications, and started heading towards the plaza.
As I got closer, I found the side streets were slightly crowded. All the people whowere missing before had come back. Most of them seemed to be going towards the plaza, so I just moved along with the crowd. When we got to the plaza it had changed. There was a stage set up near the center, and crowds of people all over the place. There was one path that was clear from one of the roads to the center, but the rest was filled with people. To get a slightly better view I decided to use a spell. Shadow Step. At first I tried to step to the shadow of a chimney on top of one of the guild buildings, but it failed. So then I went back to the side street, and Shadow Stepped to the darkside of the roof. It gave me a wierd feeling as I went from one place to another, but I managed to not fall off the roof. Luckily I had a great view of the whole plaza from the rooftop so I was able to see a group of soldiers in bright red jackets with black shirts, and pants start to enter the plaza by the cleared path. They had long spears with red and black banners haning on them. Behind the soldiers was a group of trumpeter soldiers. They had the same uniforms, but they carried, and played, trumpets. Then came a group of drummers, also in the same uniform, and then came a chariot.
The chariot was made of gold, and there was one man riding in it. He wore robes and a lot of gold jewelry, and his hair even had stips of gold in it. It made me feel a little annoyed to see him wearing so much gold. It just seemed excessive. Behind him was another group of soldiers on horses, and finally at the very end was a group of soldiers that looked like they probably did magic. They had staffs, and wands, and wore robes (red and black of course).
Eventually the gold wearing man got out of his chariot and on to the stage. The crowds around him started cheering, until he held up his hands to stop them. He did have a kind of charming look, and I might have thought he looked hansome if it wasn''t for all the gold, but the way the crowd responded to him made me think he was either a celebrity or a noble that everyone liked.
"People of Dorsythe, I have come before you today to tell you of our grand undertaking. The king has decreed that we shall hunt down and destroy all the creatures of evil, and we will hunt them to the places they hide. No where will be safe for the monsters that have plagued humankind. Today, as your lord, I come before you to ask for volunteers to travel to the dark lands and hunt down the monsters, to save our people, and to secure our kingdom from our enemies." The crowds cheered. "If you are brave enough, and love this land, then go to the adventurer''s guild and they will sign you up on our greatest quest ever!"
11. Show Business
I stayed up on the roof for a little while longer. Mostly waiting for the crowds to go away so I could get down without being noticed. It didn''t take too long, as soon as the golden chariot guy finished talking he got back on his chariot and left with all the soldiers. Once he left most of the normal looking people (the ones without weapons and armor) left, and the adventurous looking people went to the adventurer''s guild. Oh, and Marcus hopped up on the stage and started doing a magic show.
He was doing pretty good with flashy illusions and magical sound effects, until some other mages started messing with him. At first I didn''t notice, but sometimes his illusions would just stop, or disappear. Like when he pulled a bunny out of a hat, and all he got was the ears, or when he tried to make someone disappear and they just changed to a bright neon yellow color. As he got more frustrated I realized something was going on, and that''s when I saw three guys in blue mage robes laughing and pointing just before something went wrong.
I wanted to help him, but they were out of range of pretty much everything I could do, so when I heard everyone around Marcus laughing I tried to get his attention. I jumped and waved my arms, but he just didn''t seem to notice me, so I used a spell. I cast darkness over my head. He didn''t seem to notice, in fact, he was just standing on the stage while his audience laughed.
Alert!
Marcus sent you a message:
Are you free?
Respond Y/N?
''Um, yes respond, and yes I''m free''
Alert!
Message sent
Once he recieved the message he held up his hands to quiet the audience.
When they finally quieted down he spoke in a booming voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, you must think that I am merely a shabby magician if I cannot even do some simple magic tricks without such obvious failures, but those tricks are not my closing act. What I am about to show you is far more than anything you have ever seen before. Indeed, it is a greater trick than I have ever performed before, and I warn you that it is not something that anyone should interfere with. When I start I will need to concentrate completely or I could lose control. So, if you are ready to see the greatest magic trick ever performed. Silence."
There was an unnatural silence, caused by his casting of a spell. When he cast silence the three blue robe group looked a little surprised. Then he started channeling power into his hands. As he did shadow started to swirl around the stage. The shadow started to get thicker and climb into the shape of an upright box, almost like a phone booth. Once the box was complete the energy in his hands started to burn, and he channelled it into the darkness. As the fire entered the shadow fiery cracks started, until the box looked like it was about ready to break.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Alert!
You have been summoned by your servant Marcus
Accept Y/N?
I smiled as I realized what he was doing, and accepted. It felt kind of weird to get teleported into the middle of the shadow box. One moment I was on the rooftop, and the next I was surrounded by shadow and fire and silence. Then the box broke, and I remembered that I didn''t like being the center of attention. And I was most definetly the center of attention. Everyone in the entire plaza was looking at me. Even the ones who weren''t watching the show. Even the ones who just walked out of the adventurer''s guild.
"Boundless Courage" Marcus whispered, and suddenly I wasn''t bothered by all the attention. It wasn''t like I forgot about my feelings, I just didn''t feel them anymore.
The crowds stared for a moment before someone (probably one of the blue robe group) shouted "You can''t do a summoning spell in silence! It has to be an illusion. She isn''t real."
Feeling like I could beat my mother in a fight, I raised my hand and spoke, "Good people," I paused a moment, my voice didn''t sound like my normal voice. "I can assure you that I am real. If you have any doubts I would be happy to erase them."
"There''s no way a celestial would serve that loser. He''s just a sham!" It was hard to tell where the voices were coming from, almost like magical interference.
I looked to the blue robe group, "Would one of you like to come up here and see how real I am? Also, I do not serve him. He is my servant."
The mages started arguing about coming up to the stage while most of the audience gasped. I also realized that there was an illusion on me that made me look like a celestial. I really wanted to look at myself, just to see what I looked like, but i was pretty sure that would look odd, so I just tried to look bored. I started to get bored because the mages didn''t stop arguing.
Shadow Step
I appeared right in the middle ofthe mages, and they all jumped. One of them castForce Blast, and I calmly countered withShadow Swap. When he realized I took no damage he was stunned, and the mage on the other side of me started yelling.
"What if that had hit me? You idiot..."
The third mage, and the shouting one seemed to realize at the same time, "She''s real!"
"Wonderful now that we got that out of the way" I glared at the one who tried to hit me, "would you mind explaining why you tried to attack me?"
"I, I, I thought." He ran. I tried not to laugh.
"I hope you two can explain what is wrong with your friend, I don''t feel like chasing him today."
"He just panicked, he''s an idiot, please forgive him." They both got on their knees like they were begging.
"I suppose, no one was hurt, but I would appreciate it if people would stop interfering with my favorite servant''s show. It''s rather rude." IShadow Stepped back to the stage.
The crowd started cheering and claping even though I didn''t feel like we had done that much. I just semi-threatened a few mages while pretending to be a celestial, that was summoned from shadow... I was starting to see some holes in Marcus'' plan.
He whispered to me again, "I didn''t have a plan to get you out, so can you handle that?"
I sighed.Shadow Step,under the stage. It was kind of nice under there. Cool, dark, somewhat quiet, and no people. Also, whatever illusion he put on me was gone, so I missed my chance to see what a celestial looks like. Of course I could always ask him later, but it wasn''t that important.
It took a little while longer for him to finish his show, and for the crowd to disappear, but I kept myself occupied practicing my magic. Before I got a chance to leave I got a message.
Alert!
You have reached your allocated play time
Would you like to log out now?
Y/N?
It wasn''t like I was doing anything else so I logged out.
12. Decisions, Decisions
The game system was kind of nice because you could set a certain amount of real world time as your play time. So even if you lost track of time (which was somewhat dificult to track when you''re basically dreaming) the system would automatically let you know when you reached your limit. They also limited your playing time to 24 hours in a 36 hour period, so you''d have to take some time off to rest, but I wasn''t too worried about hitting that limit. I may like games, but I can''t spend all my time playing them.
Anyway, when I logged back on I was still in the same place as before, except the stage was gone, so I was standing in the open in the middle of avery busy plaza. Nobody seemed to care that I just appeared there, though I''m pretty sure this was were a lot of people logged on and off. It was definetly made for players, and most of the people around me looked busy. They were all gathered in groups that looked like there were probably parties of players, and some of the soldiers from the parade were directing people.
It took me a moment, but I realized they were about ready to head out for the expedition the chariot guy mentioned, so I figured I''d try to stay out of the way. I wanted to go back to the house where I''d met Lily and Bjorn, but I wasn''t exactly sure where it was. I probably could have found it if there were less people around, or I had been there more than once, but I was feeling a little overwhelmed. Especially when people started noticing me.
"Hey, you got a party for the quest?"
"You''re class doesn''t matter, join us!"
"You don''t want to join them, they''re idiots."
For the most part I just shook my head, or said no as I started moving through the crowd, just trying to get out of the middle. Until I was very abruptly stopped. One of the soldiers stepped in front of me and held up his hand.
"Halt, state your name and business." It seemed like he was guarding a coffee shop with a couple other soldiers.
"Um, I''m Bwyd. I don''t really have any business?"
"Then you can turn around and go back the way you came." He pointed, like I didn''t know which direction he meant.
"Uh, sure." I started walking away.
"Wait, stop her." A woman called out from the window of the shop. "I want to speak with her."
"My lady wishes to speak with you. You may enter the coffee shop."
I turned back to the soldier, "Do I have to?"
He looked surprised that I would ask that, "My lady is the daughter of Lord Dor, master of this city and the surrounding region. It would not be wise to refuse."
I sighed, "Fine, I''ll go talk to her."
"Are you carrying any weapons?"
I started to shake my head then stopped, "Does a wand count?"
"It does, but you may keep it with you so long as you do not retrieve it." He motioned towards the door, "You may enter."
I walked into the coffee shop and the first thing I noticed was the strong scent of coffee, followed by the presence of a bunch more soldiers. It was as if the only people inside were the lady, and her soldiers. Well them and the owner of the shop. All the soldiers watched me as I walked in. They weren''t really hostile, but I got the impression theywere watching every move I made, and if I did anything that looked suspicious they would stop me.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
"Ah, there you are, you took some time to enter." The lady was wearing a lot of gold. She had a collar made of gold with gems embedded in it, and bracelet sleeve things, that covered her entire upper arm. Her belt was gold, she had several gold rings, and her clothes were silk with gold embroidery of flowers. Her eyes were the same color as all the gold, and she had gold in her black hair, just like her father. "You may join me at my table."
Warning!
Due to the presence of a large amount of pure gold which you do not possess
Yourstats will be reduced by 1/2
I almost stumbled when I saw that notification, but somehow I managed to stay standing, and walk over to her table. As I got there the shop owner brought over another coffee mug, and poured some coffee into it.
"I almost never see people walking around with such powerful curses on them, so I hope you don''t mind that I invited you in justto see your curse." She spoke in a conversational manner, as if this was an everyday occurrence. "From my first impression it seems to be Divine in nature, but there is something else. Something I cannot identify. May I see your hand?"
I wasn''t sure how she knew all that, but if there was a chance she could remove my curse... I held out my hand for her. She didn''t take it, instead she put both of her hands on either side of my hand and they started to glow. It was, unsurprisingly, a golden light. It felt kind of warm, but it also felt like it pierced into my hand. I almost pulled away, but the hope that she could help me, and my stubborness helped me keep my hand steady. Well as steady as you can keep a hand when it feels like someone is stabbing hot knitting needles into your hand.
When she finnally stopped she collapsed back into her chair, and I did the same thing in mine. It was like all the tension in my body released and I just didn''t have the strength to hold my hand up, or even sit up in my chair. We were both breathing heavily, and sweating, and I realized the soldiers were a lot closer than they were before.
"Well, that is a strong curse." She used a handkerchief to wipe her face. "I believe that you either need to find the one who cursed you, or a miracle. My family can help you repress the curse, but we are not strong enough to break it. Even my father cannot help you."
"I, I really didn''t expect it would be that easy to remove. Just repressing it would be great, but if it''s too strong how can you repress it?" I took a sip of coffee, and learned that my taste buds were super sensitve to bitter tastes. I managed to not spit it out, but I decided that I wouldn''t have any more coffee here.
"What amazes me is that you are able to function. It seems like the curse is meant to change you into a mindless monster. You should be stripped of all reason, driven to devour and take whatever you want from your victims." She started writing notes, "I sensed two unknown energies intwinned with your curse, one seemed to be part of it, while the other was helping you to resist. If I could discover what the trigger is then perhaps we could even give you a small amount of time when the curse barely effects you at all."
Alert!
You have partially completed the requirements for your quest
Remove Your Curse
Reward: 1 stat point
"Gerard, do you have any writs with you?" She looked at one of the soldiers.
"Yes my lady."
"Then give it to her so she can enter the palace" She started walking out, "I really want to see what we can do to your curse, and I am sure you want to be rid of it, so come visit soon." As she left most of the soldiers went with her leaving Gerard and one other.
"Show this to the guard at the gate and they will let you in and direct you where you should go. I would also advise you to not keep my lady waiting. She will find you if you take too long to present yourself."
After they left I kept sitting there thinking about something that had been bothering me since I walked into the shop. Why doesn''t coffee taste as good as it smells?
13. Full Party
It wasn''t until after I left the coffee shop that I realized how convienent it was for me to end up in a city that happened to be ruled by a family that speciallized in removing curses. Almost like I was given a place to start, or someone planned for me to be here. I would have thought it was my mother, but from what she told me about human culture I wasn''t too sure she knew what she was talking about. So maybe it was the universe, or there was some kind of game master who took pity on me, or maybe there''s a dragon god that''s sad about all the cursed dragons. Whatever the reason I was thankful.
The plaza was still busy, but I noticed a familiar blue jacket moving through the crowds.
Shadow Step.
When I got there I noticed that it wasn''t just Marcus, but Lily too. I wanted to see how long it took them to notice me, so I just followed along without saying anything. For a while. I followed them all the way through the plaza, into the adventurer''s guild and up to a receptionist.
"Welcome to the adventurer''s guild, what can I do for the three of you today?"
"Three?" Lily looked back at me and squealed, "Bwyd! Bjorn went to get someone to scry you, we thought you were in jail or something."
"Uh, jail? Why would I be in jail?"
"Oh I just assume the worst if anything isn''t what I expect. Also, you can understand me! I improved my speech thing so I can talk to dra... you. It was really cheap."
Marcus looked at the receptionist, "We were just here to sign up our party for the expedition, and Bwyd needs to register as a member of the arcane guild."
"Alright let me see your party papers, and Bwyd''s identification papers and I''ll get everything taken care of for you."
Marcus handed her a paper, and I took out my papers. Once the receptionist finished with the party papers I got a notification about the party joining the expedition, and then she took my papers. Her eyes widdened when she read them, probably because it still said something about my princess status... But she quickly did something with the orb, and my papers, looked at me a couple times, then pressed a magic stamp on my papers.
"You are all set for the expedition, and Princess Bwyd you are now officially associated with the arcane guild with the title of apprentice. If you need anything else do not hesitate to let us know." When none of us said anything she continued, "Thank you for your help on the expedition, and have a wonderful day, your highness."
We walked out in silence, with Lily giving me wierd looks, and Marcus slightly shaking.
The moment we were outside Lily pulled us over to a bench and said "Privacy zone. What. Was. That?"
Marcus chose that moment to burst out laughing so I had to explain, "Marcus."
"What? Did he mess with your identification papers to make you a princess?" She had her hands on her hips, and was kind of angry looking, but she almost looked like a child so it was hard not to laugh at her. "Hey, I''m serious!"Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
"Mirthful Laughter"
Alert!
Your servant Marcus is attempting to cast an enchantment spell on you
Do you want to ignore the effects?
Y/N?
''I''ll ignore that, and Curse of Stup... Oops that''s permanant. Why can''t I remove curses?''
"Marcus! Sleep." Marcus suddenly fell to the ground, and started snoring. "There, the smart idiot is asleep, so what happened?"
"Well, remember when we first met?" She nodded, "Well he did something that made it so the orb thing could see something when I touched it, and for some reason it said that I was a princess. I have no idea what else it says though, I can''t read it."
"Hmm, let me see I can read it if you want. That I''ll know how badly he messed up." She had a creepy smile, but I figured I could trust her, so I gave her my papers. "So it says here that you are Princess Bwyd Dider of the Scathy clan of the Bairseach Kingdom. Daugher of Queen Fawrioscatha Dider and heir to the kingdom. Race, half elf. Also affiliated with the arcane guild."
"So, that almost sounds right."
"What! You really are a princess?" Lily''s eyes were wide.
"You know what I am, and I think I heard my mother say something about Bairseach, and she does kind of rule the area, so... yeah. Also Dider is close to my actual name, so I bet whatever he did took some of the information about me and made it make sense."
"As long as you''re ok with it, and we''re not going to have some noble from Bairseach calling you a fraud, I don''t see a problem with you being a princess." She started kicking Marcus.
"Is it wierd for royalty to run around on adventures?"
"No, there''s quite a few kingdoms around so princes and princesses often go out on adventures. They just usually have an entourage." She started kicking harder and Marcus finally woke up.
"Hey, you don''t have to kick me. Just dispel it next time."
"But that isn''t as much fun." She looked like she was pouting.
"What kind of healer likes to inflict pain?" He brushed the dirt off his jacket.
"Only on the ones who deserve it. And you."
"Ok guys, stop fighting. Don''t we need to find Bjorn?"
They both smiled at me and said at the same time, "We aren''t fighting." Then they started walking off.
I followed them, shaking my head just thinking about what I just saw. I was pretty sure that both Marcus and Lily liked messing with people, and Bjorn was the member of the group that kept things focused, but they all cared for each other. I was still reletively new to the group, so I really hoped I''d find where I fit in, and they''d accept me just like they did each other.
"Bjorn just messaged me and said he got a new member. He won''t tell me anything, just says she might be a handful, and too much for me to handle. I think he''s underestimating me, but I''m teleporting to him. Meet you guys back at the house." And Marcus disappeared.
"Well, that was sudden. After the speech, and all the build up. I''m glad we''re going to have more girls than guys, but if Bjorn says she''s a handful then from now on, we might have even more fun." She had a gleeful look as she took off running. "We have to get things ready at the house, and you need to pick your room before the new person."
I was able to follow her by running and using Shadow Step, but even with her short legs, Lily was fast. She was so fast I had to useShadow Step. I may have been bad at running, but her speed was unnatural. So, needless to say, we made it to the house in record time.
Waiting for us in the dining room was Bjorn, Marcus, and a woman who was about the same size as Bjorn, but that was the only similarity. She had blue skin, short black hair, leather armor, and lots of weapons. Every inch of available space was used to carry some kind of weapon. She had daggers, swords, maces, javelins, and hand axes for small weapons, and she had a massive sword and a halberd on her back.
Oh, and she had four arms.
14. Hugs!
"Everyone, this is Scria. She''s a bit of an all rounder, and I think she''ll be a great addition to the team." Bjorn looked a little nervous introducing Scria.
"Yo, B''s been talking ''bout you guys a lot. I wanna join." Her voice was a little gravelly, and she was almost yelling, but she sounded sincere.
Lily started laughing, and might have muttered something about hands and handy, but Marcus stayed calm and sat down in one of the chairs.
"Scria, have a seat. I have a few questions for you." Marcus sounded profesional.
"Oh, sure. I''ll tell ya whatever."
"First, what is the strongest creature you have defeated?"
"There''s this mamoth, big as a barn. Me and the boys were huntin'' it." All four of her arms were moving as she told her story. "We got it cornered next to a cliff, but didn''t want it to fall, so Wiz used a bind and we charged right in. Nothin'' went right. The beast broke the bind and came at me. Severn, our tank, was in the dirt, and arrows didnt'' do nothin''. I grabbedthe closest thing and swung at its head. One hit, and down it went." She struck a pose with all four of her arms flexing.
"Well, your presentation was slightly lacking. I mean, what did you kill it with? Also, I haven''t heard of mamoths around here, so you should probably pick something local, or start by saying you''re not from around here. Oh, and when you mention ''the boys'' it makes it sound like you are already part of a group, or that you were part of a group and then got kicked out. I give it a five out of ten."
Her eyes widened, "Whoa, I tell that story to everyone, and they laugh or cheer. You''re something else."
"Glad I could surprise you Scria. I vote yes."
"Cool."
Lily sighed, "Seriously Marcus? You don''t even know what she does." She hopped up on the table, " Scria, what is your class?"
"You heard B. I''m an all rounder." She gestured to all her weapons.
"That isn''t a class. Personally I do not want to work with a beserker, and you give off beserker vibes."
"I''m a weapon master?" She cleared her throat. "I master weapons."Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"Do not lie to me." Lily''s tone became very serious.
"Does it matter?"
"Yes."
"Battle dancer." Her voice was incredibly quiet.
The entire room was quiet. It felt like we were all waiting for something to happen, and it didn''t happen. Bjorn was apprehensive, Lilywas focused on Scria, Scria looked embarrassed, and Marcus was sitting in his chair with absolutely no expression. And there I was standing by the wall, feeling invisible. It felt like that moment went on for ever, like we were frozen in time. Then I broke it all.
"What''s a battle dancer?" They all turned to look at me with different looks of shock. Except Marcus, he knew how much I didn''t know about anything.
"Jack of all trades, master of none." Marcus was the first to recover. "They aren''t really a usuful class in most normal party comps. Basically they act as an off tank damage dealer, but their defence sucks, and they do less damage than pretty much any other class. To top it all off, they can''t use any skills unless they can move, and for the more powerful abilties they need to perform complicated dances. So for a normal party, they are useless."
Scria looked miserable, "Give me a chance. I''m way better than any lame warrior class. I''ll prove it."
Lily held up a hand, stopping Scria, "I vote yes."
Bjorn smiled, "So that just leaves one vote, Bwyd."
"Ah, I get a vote?"
Lily laughed, easing the tension a little, "Of course silly. You are a full voting member, and if you decide that you don''t like Scria then she won''t join us. Though we might all be upset and tease you forever."
"Not to mention she is perfect for our group." Bjorn seemed enthusiastic. "She rounds off our non standard party with damage. Trust me." He gave me a thumbs up.
"Aren''t we missing a rogue?" They all started laughing at me, it wasn''t with me because I was not laughing.
Lily walked to me and took my hand, "Bwyd, you''re our cute little rogue." Seeing my confused expression she continued. "None of us is a traditional whatever we are. Bjorn only uses a shield and sucks at keeping aggro, Marcus is an illusionist so he has low magic damage, I perform lazy healing by summoning other things to heal, and you are a stealthy witch."
"Wait, what kind of party do you have?" Scria looked surprised.
"Scria, I told you we were a different type of party from what you''d expect, which is why I invited you in the first place."
We all kind of stood there in awkward silence as no one knew what to say next, and I was trying to figure out how I could be a rogue if I didn''t know how to pick locks. Or if I could even learn how to pick locks. How hard could it really be, all I needed to do was figure out how they worked and probably build some stats up. Or I could learn a spell. Maybe some kind of hex that makes locks fail, or a disembodied hand that can pick locks on its own.
"Bwyd, we''re waiting for your vote."
"Oh, sorry. I was trying to figure out the best way to pick locks."
Lily laughed again, "Taking your rogue roll seriously I see, but it doesn''t matter. Bjorn is great at openning locked doors. So what is your vote."
"Yes, obviously. I wouldn''t vote against you guys even if I didn''t like Scria."
Bjorn smilled, "Alright then, Bjorn & Buddies is offically a full party. Group hug."
Shadow Step
"Haha, see just like a rogue."
They laughed, hugged and started talking about strategies, but I had an important mission. Given to me by Lily. I needed to claim my room before Scria did.
15. Kinda Prep?
Once Scria was settled in we all headed off in different directions to get ready for the expedition. Bjorn basically took charge and told us all to meet by the East Gate the next morning so we could practice working together. I wasn''t sure exactly what I''d need, and everyone just seemed to scatter so I was left alone. My first stop was Poroto. He was in his shop with the same bored look, and fashion sense as before.
"Hi, welcome to the odd magic stuff and... Oh, you. Have you learned what a witch is?" He sounded slightly less bored.
"Not really, I''m kind of supposed to be my party''s rogue, so I''m not sure what I''m doing."
"Well, of all the magic classes, and I mean pure magic classes, not those hybrid ones, the witch is best suited to act as a rogue. You have the ability to learn curses, and spells to manipulate events from the shadows. You could curse a rich man to hate his gold, or a guard to be absent minded. You can plant suggestions in the minds of the weak willed, and create or call minions to aid you. You may not have the power of an elementalist, or the trickery of an illusionist, but you have subtlety. So I doubt you are ready for the next tier of spells, but I can offer you spell training for what you know, or help you learn a new spell." He looked exhausted after talking for so long, but still bored.
"Can I take a look at what I could learn?"
"Certainly, if you place your hand on this orb you will be given options for your current capabilities." He seemed to pull an orb out of nowhere, and handed it to me.
As soon as I touched the orb it started glowing and I got a notification.
Attention
This orb will display available spells for your class by catagory
Available catagories:
Fire
Shadow
Curse
Hex
I started by looking at the options for curses. Mostly because I wanted an ability that could remove curses just in case I accidentally, or not so accidentally, cursed a friend. Oh, and to hopefullyget rid of my curse. I found a couple spells that countered curses when they were cast, or gave a bit of resistance before they were cast, but there was nothing that removed curses after they were cast. I felt the curse list was a little lacking. There weren''t many at all. So then I moved on the hexes. Hexes were kind of like curses, except they weren''t permanant. There were also a lot of them, and they had very specific targets.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
There was a whole sub list of the malfunction hex. You could get a wing malfunction, or voice malfunction, or knee malfunction, or pretty much anything malfunction. Like locks, doors, and traps. There was one hex spell called hexproof that protected from hexes, and hexes that caused bad luck (which is kind of what I though a hex was anyway) but there were so manyI decided to remember the hexes I liked, and moved on the fire and shadow lists.
Fire was pretty much what I expected. Lots of spells that burned things. The biggest change between spells was the shape. Some spells were like explosions, some were like flamethrowers, some were like beams, and some only hit one creature. There was one surprising fire spell though. Basically it removed physical impurities, like poison, or infections, and stopped bleeding.
Shadow was a little less expected. Yes there were stealth spells, and spells to summon shadow creatures, but there were also spells that formed contracts. I got a little distracted by the contract spell, mostly because the description was very, very long, so when my play time alarm went off it surprised me.
"Oh." Poroto looked at me like he expected me to keep talking. "How much does it cost to learn a spell?"
"That depends on the spell. For what you would learn, it could be anywhere from 10 gold to a few hundred."
Then I realized, I was broke. "Ok, I''ve got somewhere to be soon, so I''ll come back later to actually learn a spell or two. I really like the contract one from Shadow, and the lock hex thing, see you later!" I handed back the orb and practically ran out of the store.
I decided to get to the East Gate before logging off, so I headed to the rooftops, and through a mixture ofShadow Step and running I made it to the gate.
When I logged back on, I saw Bjorn leaning against the wall talking with Scria. I was a little worried that I was late, but since Lily and Marcus weren''t there I figured I was ok.
"Hey guys, hope you haven''t been waiting too long."
Bjorn smiled, "We just got here, and you beat the other two so, that''s a point for you."
"Did ya give me points?" Scria seemed a little nervous, probably because this was her first time working with the rest of us.
"Of course, but remember I make this all upand the points don''t matter."
"Then ya better give me lotsa points. Like a billion."
"Fine, but Bwyd has a trillion." He patted my head with his enormous hand.
"What did I do to get that many?"
"Contracts." He winked.
"Oh, I found a spell to make more contracts, and a hex that can unlock locks. There are a lot of hexes. It''s kinda like a hex for this a hex for that, and a hex to not get hexed." I started nervously talking because I realized this was the first time I had worked with anyone except Marcus. "There''s a curse for that too, well not to get not hexed, but not cursed, and, I didn''t get any..."
"Bwyd, take a breath. Good, now again. Have you ever left the city before?" He knelt down in front of me, so his head was at the same height as mine.
"Um, I technically started outside, so yeah, but that was a safe area, and I got teleported here. I think. I don''t know?"
"Alright, calm down. We''re just heading out a little way. There is nothing too dangerous, and you''ll be fine." He was talking slowly.
"That''s not what I worried about, I, I just don''t want to mess up." My panic was starting to seem pointless. These were the most accepting people I had ever met.
"We don''t care if you mess up. We''re all friends here." He patted my head a couple times and stood up. "There''s Marcus and Lily, looks like we''re ready to go."
Before Marcus and Lily joined us Bjorn led the way through the gate, he didn''t even give them a chance to say hi. All he said when they got close was "You''re late" and away we went. Surprisingly, Lily and Marcus didn''t say a word and just started following.
16. Outside
At first we just walked in a group away from the city. The area directly around the city was open fields with ankle length grass, but as we got farther away there were trees, and eventually we were walking through an old pine forest. Some of the trees were massive with branches big enough to build a house on. It would have to be a small house, and more long than wide, but you could live in the trees. I was going to ask someone why no one lived in the trees, but everyone seemed preocupied, and I didn''t want to disturb them.
Bjorn was in the lead, and he looked like he was completely focused on following whatever path he saw. Marcus talked to Scria about the city, and his favorite spots to go, but she barely replied except with grunts, "ya", and "no". She was focused on everything around us. Every bush, every tree, everything that could possibly hide something. Her eyes never stopped darting from one thing to the next. Just watching her made me nervous.
Lily was the exact opposite. She was practically skipping around to different fruits and flowers to pick them, or just smell them. Sometimes she''d find a flower and cheer out loud before picking it, and sometimes she''d pick a berry and eat it immediately. She did offer me a couple of berries that looked kind of like blueberries, but they were yellow, and tasted kind of like rasberries. I didn''t get sick from them or any buffs so I figured they were just food items with nothing special about them.
After about an hour of walking, Bjorn stopped and said, "Alright, from here on out we need to pay attention. I''ll lead, followed by Bwyd, Lily, Marcus, and Scria can guard the rear. We are going to a dungeon that isn''t too far from here, but there is a chance that wild monsters will attack. If anyone sees anything suspicious then say something."
"Also, buff time!" Lily started waving her hands around, like she was conducting an orchestra, and making bell noises. It kind of sounded like music. As she continued little balls of different colored light started to appear and dance around each of us. Bjorn and Scria got red, yellow, and green lights, Marcus and Lily got blue, green, and red, and I got red, blue, and violet. "There, they will stick around for a while, and I can empower them to increase the buffs for one person at a time."The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Scria looked like she was in a state of complete shock. Her mouth was open, her eyes wide, and she was just pointing at Lily. Marcus took the opportunity to put something in her mouth, which immediately woke her up.
"Oy" she spit whatever it was at Marcus, but he just smiled as nothing hit him. "What the... Did ya stuff dirt in my mouth?" She surprised me by not attacking Marcus, well besides the attempted spitting.
"Of course not, it was illusionary." He smilled, "I would never dream of placing a weapon in your mouth for you to shoot at me."
Bjorn got between them, "Ok guys, lets keep moving, we don''t want to waste our buffs."
"Hold up, Lily how''d yaget that many spirits?"
"Fae secrets." She put her finger on her lips and started walking away.
"Yeah, she doesn''t tell us either, but she''s the best Spirit Caller I''ve seen." Bjorn jogged to get ahead of Lily, "In formation, lets go."
We all got into our positions, and headed toward the dungeon. It did take us about an hour to get there, and nothing attacked us on the way. The entrance to the dungeon was not at all what I expected. I thought it would be some kind of cave, or ominous door, or dark portal, but it wasn''t. The entrance was an outhouse. A random wooden outhouse in the middle of the woods. It didn''t even look old or haunted. It looked fairly new, like someone had just decided to build an outhouse and put it next to their favorite tree. I almost expected some old man to step out and yell at us for being in his forest.
"Well, I''m glad to see it''s here. I''m not so sure about the people you get information from Marcus." Bjorn walked up to the door and openned it. "Yeah, that''s a dungeon. Buffs are still good, lets go."
As he stepped into the door he disappeared.I followed him in, and the moment I stepped insided it felt like I was falling. When the fall stopped I was in darkness.
Then I started to smell something, and the outhouse entrance started to make sense.
17. Dungeon
I was standing knee deep in a pile of poop. At least I think it was poop. It was kind of like really thick mud, but it smelled much, much worse. Looking around I saw Bjorn climb out of his own pile, and everyone else appear in piles made just for them. It actually looked like the piles were specifically sized for everyone. Lily had a short pile, Marcus had a medium one, and Scria and Bjorn had large piles. If Lily had ended up in Bjorn''s pile, she would''ve been burried. Shuddering at that thought I pushed my way out of my pile and went to where Bjorn was pulling Lily out of her pile.
"Yo B, why''d ya pick the shitty dungeon?" Scria looked a bit upset.
"It was the closest? And the cheapest one. All the good dungeons are secrets, and buying locations is very expensive."
"Breath of Wind" Marcus cast a spell that immediately removed the horrible smell, "Clense, you''re welcome everyone. Marcus the Magnificent is here to take care of all your laundering needs. So never fear and follow our brave Bjorn into the depths of the Abyss, for I shall keep your air fresh and your hair perfect."
He got a few chuckles from that, but I could tell everyone was relieved to have fresh air, and poop free clothes. Before we went any further, Bjorn, Scria, and Marcus started buffing themselves. Bjorn looked like his skin got tougher, I could almost hear a drum beat near Scria, and Marcus looked kind of blurry.
"Alright, Bwyd you scout out ahead, otherwise we''ll use the same formation that we used in the woods. For those of you who don''t know, most of the system functions do not work in dungeons, so we''ll have to comunicate without sending messages. Any questions?"
"If I''m scouting, what should I do if I find a fork in the cave?"
Marcus answered, "Pick it up, unless its cursed or a trap." Lily giggled (in bells), but everyone else sighed or rolled their eyes.
"Marcus. She''s asking a serious question, we don''t need jokes. Either wait for the rest of us or leave a mark so we know what way you went."
"Oh, and Lily, if I''m sneaking will your lights mess that up?"
"No, they''re basically as visible as you are, so if your invisible they are too. They''re basically like equipment, but not."
"Alright, I''m ready.Cloak of Shadows."
I started walking down the tunnel as Bjorn called to me, "We''ll wait about a minute then start following you, if you see anything dangerous get back to us as quickly as possible."
The tunnel was very smooth. The bottom was flat, but the rest of it was round, almost like someone made a perfectly round tunnel, then poured cement in the bottom of it to make a flat walking surface. There was also a trough down the middle of it that had some unpleasent looking liquid in it, and probably smelled really bad. It was dark, but I could see pretty well, and with my spell I was pretty sure I''d see anthing before it saw me.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
I walked down the tunnel for a while before it openned up into a room. It wasn''t a very big room, but there was a large rat sitting in the middle of it. The walls were all flat, but the ceiling was a dome, and the trough went straight through the middle of it and out a tunnel on the other side. I started to sneak into the room, but as soon as I stepped in the rat started sniffing the air. I froze for a moment, then decided to try attacking the rat. I figured I could always escape if I really needed to. And besides, I was a dragon. How could I be afraid of a little rat. A little rat that was about the same size as me, but nothing compared to my mother, so it was still small. At least that''s what I tried to tell myself. Sadly my thoughts were interrupted when the rat stopped sniffing and lunged at me.
Shadow Step
I managed to get out of the way by teleporting to the other side of the room.
Curse of Molasses
The rat slowly turned around to look in my direction, then it slowly ran towards me. I had so much time I decided to try all my attack spells, so I started withfire.
Firebolt, Fireball, Firewall, Burn
The rat was dead before it got to me, I think it might have died around the time I castFirewall, but I was mostly casting as many spells as I could to keep it from getting to me. Even if it was a bit of overkill, I realized I killed my first creature, it was kind of an interesting feeling. I had never killed anything before, and even though this was a game it seemed real enough. The rat was still smoking a little, and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. It justhappened so quickly, and now my stomach started grumbling. Which was probably becuase the cooked rat smell kind of good, and myFirewall was still burning. Before I could even think about eating the rat, it started to disappear in little motes of light and the smell of cooked meat went with it.
"Hey Bwyd, you around?" Bjorn yelled from the other side of the Firewall.
"Yeah I''m just over here, I fought a giant rat. I think I used a bit too much power."
I heard bell laughter, "Do not worry about that, we''re just glad you are alright."
At that point theFirewall ended and I saw everybody on the other side, mostly smiling.
Bjorn wasn''t really smiling, he was serious looking, "Congratulations Bwyd, you didn''t die, but you should have let us know there was a monster, so we could have fought it together."
"B, don''t be stuck up. If she wants kills, let ''er have em. Besides, she looks great." Scria gave me a few thumbs up.
"Fine, if you can take care of weak mobs, go ahead, but how much mana did you use Bwyd?"
"Um, how do I check?"
I got incredulous looks from everyone, even Marcus but he was the first to recover, "So, just like your stats you can will to see your mana, the system will tell you. Also, you regenerate 1/10 of your Willpower in mana every minute, unless you meditate then it increases."
I willed my mana to be shown.
Alert
Mana 22/37
"I have twenty-two out of thirty-seven, so I should be good. I could kill a couple more rats and I don''t even need to use as much as I did with the first one." I felt a little upset that they didn''t think I could take care of myself.
Bjorn still seemed shocked, "Bwyd, how do you have so much mana? You only have 20 for your power rating. You should only have like twenty."
Marcus whistled, "Guys, her power went up when she got a class. It''s over ninety. Ninety-five to be exact."
There was an awkward pause as everyone checked to see my power in whatever part of the system they used to see it, then Scria burst out laughing.
"B''s the baby, big baby. Half the power of Bwyd." She could barely talk through the laughter.
Bjorn was starting to look irritated, so I decided to keep scouting, "I''m going to keep going, see you guys later."
I recastCloak of Shadows and headed down the tunnel before anyone could stop me.
18. Unconscious
After I got a little way away from the rest of my party, I tried to bring up the party info to see what everyone''s power was, and I got a bit of a surprise.
I felt slightly used, I mean, Scria and I were both higher power levels and we were recruited later. Then I remembered that I was only 20 before I got my class. Besides, I had no idea what power levels actually meant. For all I knew being a dragon with a class gave me 70 points, and the rest was just my spells which would mean that I was a lot weaker than everyone else. Except Bjorn, he was kind of low.
Anyway, once I saw the power levels, I continued down the tunnel. It looked pretty much identical to the last tunnel, and it even ended in a room that looked like the last room. However, the room did not have a giant rat. Instead there were five giant rats. Being the brave, adventurous person I was, I immediately turned around and went back to everyone else.
"Hey guys, there''s five rats ahead."
Marcus jumped a little, "I didn''t even see you, can you give a little warning next time? Scuff your feet or whistle or something?"
"Just learn a telepathy spell, and I won''t have to sneak up on you."
Bjorn silenced us both with a wave of his hand, "Five rats should be easy enough. I''ll charge them to draw their attention. Scria, Marcus, and Bwyd each take a rat and kill it, then help me out. Lilly do your thing. Any questions?"
We all agreed with his plan, so we followed Bjorn down the tunnel. We did try to sneak, but between all of Scria''s weapons, and Bjorn''s armor we made a lot of noise. So much that the rats decided to derail our plan before we could even get to them. All five rats charged down the tunnel before we even got to their room.
Bjorn slammed his massive tower shield into the ground and said, "Change of plans, we hold them here. I will be your wall."
The rats started screeching, and they charged. Not a single one touched Bjorn, or his shield. The just went right past him and attacked the rest of us. Since Scria was directly behind Bjorn she took several hits from the rats before she could react. It looked like they bit and scratched her, but there was no blood, and they only left red marks where they hit. I was slightly shocked, this was the first time I had ever been attacked, and so I stood there for a moment as the rats struck Scria a couple more times.
Luckily, Scria was not shocked, but she started dancing. It was kind of cool to watch. There was a lot of stomping, and spinning, and I almost thought I could hear a drum beat. It reminded me of tribal dances, but with swords. The rats seemed to only care about her, but everytime they tried to hit her, she either dodged, or the rat missed. It was impressive to watch.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Yo... somebody... wanna...kill a rat?" Scria was breathing so heavily that it took some effort for her to talk.
Marcus almost immediately hit a rat with some kind of air whip, and even though it looked like it hurt, the rat completely ignored him. Lily made bell noises, and dark glowing balls appeared around the rats, and I decided to burn all the rats.
Burn. Burn. Burn. Burn. Burn.
Alert!
You have used all your mana
You are unconscious
So, everything went black. I also felt a little lightheaded, and nauseous, but I couldn''t see anything, or hear anything. I was stuck in a world of nothingness. It would have been peaceful if I didn''t know that at that moment my friends were fighting for their lives against a pack of giant rats. Well that and the nausea. I wasn''t sure how long I was stuck in the unconscious zone, but eventually I heard some bells ringing, and I could see again. I was laying in the tunnel, and everyone was around me. They all looked worried, but the moment I openned my eyes Bjorn''s expression changed to a more stern look.
"Bwyd, do not use all your mana at one time ever again. It is one of the most dangerous things that you can do, and we may not always be able to protect you if you pass out. You will meditate here, until your mana is full, then we will continue on." He walked away once he was done talking, and Scria followed him.
Marcus kind of half heartedly smilled at me, "Don''t worry about Bjorn, he''s just worried about you. But he does bring up a good point. Using all you mana makes you vulnerable, but you did it in the best way possible." He gave me a thumbs up.
"Uh, I had no idea that would happen. I''ve never run out of mana before."
"Have you ever left the city before?"
"Not really."
"Well, that explains it. In the city you basically have unlimited mana, as long as you are in good standing with the city. So if you''re a wanted criminal then you get limited, but other than that you can cast spells as much as you want. Well, unless a spell costs more than your maximum mana."
Lily sat down in front of me, "Ok, let''s get this meditation over with. I used a bit of mana in that fight too, so I''ll join you."
"This might sound like a stupid question, but how do you meditate?"
They both stared at me like I had two heads, then Marcus said, "It should be a class skill.You just have to activate it and sit for a while. Usually it''s about five minutes if your empty."
So I did check my skills, and found that I did in fact have a meditation skill which basically doubled my mana regen rate. So I activated it while I was comfortably laying on the ground.
Alert!
You have activated Meditaiton
You will lose the effect if you move too much or talk
So I closed my eyes and brought up my mana notification to watch my mana slowly trickle in. After about five minutes I was back up to 37/37 mana, so I openned my eyes and realized that Lily was already done and was just waiting there for me.
"Everyone else is already in the next room. Ready to go?"
"Yeah, and now that I know about mana, maybe I can avoid passing out again. At least meditation is nice."
"You looked really comfortable, though I have never seen anyone meditate while laying on their back before. I might try it next time." She laughed. "Let''s get going."
When we got to the room the rats had been in everyone looked a little bored, but they perked up as soon as we entered. We got quickly reorganized, then set off once again.
19. Big Rat
We came across several more rooms with about five rats in each, and even though Bjorn tried to get the rats to focus on him, he failed. I started to feel sorry for Bjorn. It was like the rats realized he wasn''t a threat, and just ignored him. No matter how many insults he yelled, or how many times he slammed his shield into the ground, they never attacked him. Scria on the other hand, was amazing. She just danced and the rats would only attack her. Not that they could hit her, most of the time. Once she started dancing, she got some kind of buff so simple creatures (like a rat) would have almost no chance to hit her. With Lily''s healing and debuffs, and mine and Marcus'' damage we basically cleared the dungeon without Bjorn''s help.
By the fifth room we cleared Bjorn had started slamming his shield into rats. It didn''t do much damage, but it seemed like he was relieving his frustration, so no one said anything. Not even Marcus. The sadest part about it was the rats still ignored him, even though he was brutally hitting them with a tower shield.
After a total of ten rooms cleared we had perfected the strategy of me sneaking up and finding out what was in the room (which was always five rats) then going back and telling everyone. Scria would then charge and start dancing, while the rest of us followed and started doing as much damage as we could. Once all the rats were dead Lily would heal Scria if she needed it. This strategy worked great, until room number eleven.
I did my normal scouting, but instead of a small room with five rats, there was a much larger room. The trough that went down the middle of the tunnel emptied into a river that went right through the middle of the large room. It wasn''t acually a river, but there was so much stuff flowing through the channel that it looked like a river. A really muddy river. There was a bridge over the channel, and another tunnel identical to the one I was in on the other side. There were also walkways that went down the side of the muddy river, and a bunch of rats.
There were about ten of the large rats we had been fighting, but there was also a much larger rat. It was twice as tall as Bjorn, and its fur was completely red. Not a dark red, but a very bright red. It looked so unatural that I just stared for a while. I might have kept staring, but I started to hear the sounds of clanking metal from behind me, so I quickly went back down the tunnel to warn everyone else about what I saw.
"Sorry Marcus, I didn''t scuff my feet, but the next room is different."
"Jus'' lemme at em. These rats ain''t nothin." Scria started going down the tunnel.
"Scria wait, there''s a big red one, and more of the little rats than we''ve fought before."
"We got this, BLOOD AND GLORY!" With a loud war cry she charged down the tunnel.
Bjorn shook his head then started running after her, though I think he muttered something about Leroy, and the rest of us followed. By the time we got to the room, Scria was already surrounded by all the smaller rats, but the big red one was just sitting on the bridge watching.
Bjorn seemed to regain a little bit of his motivation, "Guys, just do what we''ve been doing, if that big one joins in stay back until we know how strong it is."
He ran to Scria''s side while the rest of us started launching spells from near the door way. Things were going pretty much the same as before, except there were a few more rats. The big red one didn''t seem interested in fighting, so we ignored him. I was only using small spells like firebolt to save mana for the big one, but it didn''t do anything, even when we killed the last of the other rats. It just sat on the bridge and watched us.
Scria only paused a moment when the last little rat died, then she charged the big one. Well kind of charged, she was still doing her battle dance, so it looked a bit funny. She was generally moving towards the red rat, but she was weaving back and forth, and sometimes she would jump, or twirl around. Bjorn just followed her, looking very boring compared to her exciting movement, and the red rat just watched. Until Scria stepped onto the bridge. The red rat moved so quickly I almost didn''t even realize what happened. The rat''s tail swung around, and hit Scria. She flew a few feet through the air, and hit the railing on the bridge. I was pretty sure the stone started to crack from the impact. Lily started making bell noises and Marcus cast an illusion spell to create more Bjorns.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Bjorn held his shield in front of him and slowly approached the red rat. Just like with Scria, the moment he stepped on the bridge the rat struck with his tail. Bjorn was ready for it, so he was able to deflect the tail with his shield. Even though it looked like there were multiple Bjorns the rat aimed for the real one, and with every step towards the rat, the tail struck the real Bjorn. While the rat was focused on Bjorn, Lily and I got Scria off the bridge, and Marcus gave up on his illusions and started throwing elemental magic to damage the rat. His spells seemed to fizzle in the rat''s fur, so I tried afirebolt, and the same thing happened.
"No weak attacks, this is a boss." Bjorn stopped to yell, but apparently the rat didn''t like that and it pounced on him.
Bjorn was thrown back, but he managed to block the rat with his shield. The rat didn''t let up though, it usedits momentum to continue to push Bjorn back.
Curse of Molasses
Alert!
Your target has resisted your curse
A lesser effect will be applied
The rat stopped attacking Bjorn, and looked right at me. I could almost feel its hatred as it glared at me with its red eyes. It jumped at me, but it seemed a little slower than normal, so I was able toShadowstep away. The rat looked angry and started searcing the room, until it found me again and jumped again. I had the feeling that the rat could jump a lot more than I couldShadowstep so the third time it jumped at me Iwent to Bjorn''s side.
"Can you keep me safe?"
He seemed a little surprised that I was there, but he recovered quickly and said, "Of course, that''s my job. I am the shield! Stand behind me and I will block any attack the enemy may throw at you."
Alert!
Your servant Bjorn has unlocked a new class due to his dedication to you
When you are in the same area you will both gain a damage mitigation buff
Before either of us could react to the notification, the rat jumped again. Bjorn raised his shield and used a skill that caused his whole body to be surrounded by a shadowy energy. The rat hit his shield, and Bjorn did not move. Instead the rat was thrown back about twenty feet. Everyone seemed stunned for a moment, even the rat, then Lily started cheering and everything started moving again. The rat charged Bjorn (without jumping this time), I castBurna couple times, Marcus started chanting, Lily made bell noises, and Scria looked like she was trying to focus.
No matter what the rat did it could not get past Bjorn''s shield, and everytime it hit the shield it looked like it took damage. To match Bjorn''s shadowyness I decided to try outShadow Blade. It made a shadowy long sword, that felt light (or should I say shadow?) and I was able to stab at the rat around Bjorn. I had to be quick because the rat would try to hit me everytime I poked him, but between the curse slowing the rat, and Bjorn''s shield I managed to avoid damage.
When Lily finished restoring Scria the fight got a whole lot easier. She cast some debuffs on the rat, and Scria joined right into the fight. Her dance was a bit different than before. Before the dance had a circlular motion to it, but against the red rat she seemed to be moving in a line. Foward to attack the rat, then backward to avoid it. She was also using a rapier instead of the two weapons she used earlier.
Then Marcus finished chanting, and the rat was struck with hundreds of little chunks of ice. The Ice seemed to come from no where, then it hit the rat, and disapeared. It was great because we didn''t have to worry about the ground getting covered in ice, and it seemed to slow the rat down even more. When the ice finally stopped, Scria jumped on the rat''s back and stabbed it in the back of the neck. The rat didn''t die from that, and it started to swing its tail at her, but somehow Bjorn was beside her with his shield raised to block the attack.
Of course that meant that I was now facing the rat, without my shield. The rat seemed to know it was almost done, but with one final effort it opened its mouth and tried to bite me. I almost usedShadowstep,but at the last moment I rememberedShadow Swap.I let the rat bite me, which was kind of weird. Everything about letting a giant rat put you in its mouth was just wrong. But I usedShadow Swap and I didn''t feel any pain as the jaws closed on me, and my ShadowBlade.My blade went through the roof of the rat''s mouth,which was probably why it opened its mouth almost immediately after closing it. That let me back up in case it tried to attack me again, but as I did the rat stopped moving.We had won.
20. Servants
After the big rat died, it started to disappear into lights, but the lights didn''t just disappear. They swirled around and formed a chest shape and then they disappeared, leaving a wooden chest behind. Marcus was the first one to the chest and when he touched it, it openned and a bit of light went to each of us.
Congratulations!
You have recieved loot!
Sewer Rat Boots
10 gold
Item Information
Sewer Rat Boots
Rare: 50 Power
You can expend 5 mana per minute to walk on water, and vertical surfaces.
Scria held a fist up in the air and said, "Whoop, ya try to whip me, Scria gotcha tail." and the rat''s tail (a little smaller than it was) appeared in her hand. "Guys, I gota new toy!" She moved a little way away and started swinging it around. It looked like she was trying to use it like a whip.
Lily looked a little depressed, "I just got rat claws. Apparrently, they can be used to make stuff. Yay."
"Poor Lily, at least you didn''t get an eyeball." Marcus held a giant eyeball out in front of Lily, who made screeching bell noises and blasted it with some energy. The blasted eye exploaded all over Marcus and Lily. She immediately started using more magic to clean herself while Marcus just stood there and laughed.
Bjorn just shook his head then looked at me, "What did you get Bwyd?"
"Boots. Uh, where are they?"
"On your feet?"
I looked at my feet, and realized that I was actually wearing boots, then I realized I hadn''t been wearing boots, shoes, or any other foot ware the entire time I had been here. "Oh. Neat."
"If you were wearing boots, or the item had negative effects it doesn''t get automatically equipped. Normally, you can just leave the notification up and you won''t get it, but once you accept it you get the item. I think there is some kind of limit to how many loot messages you can save, but I have a storage ring anyway so I''ve never seen it. Oh, and thanks."
"How do you normally learn all this?"
Lily had managed to clean herself and joined the conversation, "The tutorial, though I''m guessing your tutorial was a little different than most people''s. Like mine. But I think I got most of the same stuff, but with a fae flavor. You must have gotten the dragon tutorial."
"Yeah, it was... interesting."The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Marcus, still covered in eye bits, joined our little conversation, "Speaking of interesting, was that a class change in the middle of combat?"
"You bet. Bwyd and I are on a whole other level. I think that makes me her best servant."
"I was first."
"But I reduce the damage she takes, and she gave me a class." Marcus and Bjorn were starting to square off.
"Really? If I hadn''t found her you would never have met. Besides my power level is still way higher than yours."
"Why don''t we fight. Settle this man to man. Se who the better man is." Bjorn slammed a fist against his shield.
"Well, that would take too long, and I''m low on mana. A fight between us is like strong winds on a flexable tree. Nothing really happens."
"I accept your surrender."
Marcus almost looked like he was about to cast a spell, but Scria chose that moment to crack her new ''whip'' right in between them. "Yo, save ya fights for later. Bwyd, you a master?"
"Yeah."
"What bonus?"
"I think it''s fire and shadow magic with some resistance and physical stuff. Oh, and apparrently Bjorn got a class." Bjorn gave me a thumbs up.
"You got four bonuses?" Her eyebrows raised.
"It''s different for everyone too. Marcus got magic stuff, and Bjornand Lily haven''t told me what they got."
Lily held up a hand, "Bwyd. Do you want to reveal your secret to Scria? Because if you don''t, this conversation needs to stop now."
I took moment to look at Scria, I really hadn''t know her that long, but I hadn''t had a problem with her. She fit in with the rest of us so well, and we had been relying on her to take on all the rats, so I was pretty sure she was a good person. Besides, I basically Lily, Marcus, and Bjorn that I was a dragon when I first met them, so I figured it was about time to tell Scria too.
"I ok with it. Besides, I can have one more servant anyway."
Bjorn smiled and said, "You''re awesome Bwyd, I would have been upset with you if you couldn''t trust Scria. Share class details with party."
Shadow Dragon Defender
You have sworn to protect a shadow dragon, and that dragon actually accepted your offer.
+25 Fire Resistance
+25 Shadow Resistance
+15 Physical Resistance
New Skills:
Shadow Return
Shadow Bind
Shadow Jump
Scria whistled, "Whoa, that''s just the class?"
"Yeah, I get more resistance from being a servant, and I still get all my class stuff from Shield Master." He started flexing.
"Don''t forget that as long as we''re near each other we both get a damage mitigation buff."
"Yo, Bwyd, gotta class for me?" Scria looked excited.
"I don''t know, you can be my servant, but the class thing kind of just happened."
Marcus stepped in between us, "Wait don''t accept her offer, I have an idea. See, Bjorn became a Shadow Dragon Defender when he agreed to protect Bwyd. So what if Bwyd could offer a special position to her servants, or even offer a non servant a position as a speciallized servant. You might be able to create classes, and that is just, incredible." He stopped to take a breath, "So why don''t you offer Scria the position of your sword, or something like that. So it''s not just a servant."
"Ok, Scria, will you serve me as my sword?"
We stood there for a moment before Scria broke the silence, "Nothin''s happening."
Marcus sighed, "Well I guess it isn''t that easy. We''re going to have to experiment with this."
"Hey, ya done experimenting? We doing this servant thing?"
"Scria will you be my servant?"
"Hell yeah, give me da buffs!" She started smiling, "Woot, cool."
As Scria cheered I got a notification of my own.
Alert!
You have your maximum amount of servants
You will recieve a bonus based on your current servants
+5 Strength
+7 Fortitude
+6 Mental
+8 Willpower
When your rank increases to the next level you will gain additional servant slots
21. Onward!
I didn''t tell anyone about my last notification, mostly because I didn''t want to be the center of attention with another thing that no one else got. So we rested a bit and got back into formation (I scouted, then Bjorn, Marcus, Lily, Scria) and continued the dungeon. It took us a little while to decide which way to go, but eventually we chose the path next to the channel. It wasn''t too wet, and it just seemed to be different than the two pathways on the sid of the room, one of which we came through. We also decided to go downriver, because it made sense that if we were fighting rats they would probably be down river and not up. At least, Marcus made an argument that no one disagreed with, so we went with the flow.
We travelled for an unusually long time without seeing any other monsters. All I saw was the endless flow of water (and other stuff), and the path that I followed. There were no doors, no other pathways, no monsters, no traps, no loot, nothing. It was the most boring dungeon ever. I even went back to the party a few times just to make sure they were still there.
After about an hour of walking I started to hear the others talking quietly. The sound echoed through the tunnel, and yet nothing happened. No ambush, nothing. It was almost like someone else had already gone through the dungeon and cleared it, and the others were starting to relax, and joke around. It made me feel a little left out, able to hear their voices, but not able to understand what they were saying.
After another hour had passed they had relaxed so much that I could hear laughter, and cheers coming from behind me. I still couldn''t hear exactly what they were saying, but occasionally a single word would make its way to me. I was starting to get annoyed. Here I was, working hard, sneaking through a sewer, and they were just enjoying themselves. I started moving faster, just trying to get a bit farther away from them. It wasn''t too hard, between jogging, andShadow Jump I got far enough away that I could barely hear them in a couple of minutes. I would have gone farther, but I was a little worried that there might be something here.
A few hours later, and I was only continuing because I had already come this far, I wasn''t about to quit now. I also wasn''t giving anyone else a choice, because they were still far enough away that even if they yelled my name, I wouldn''t understand them. I did hear them enough that I knew I wasn''t alone, so I was pretty sure I''d have backup if something happened.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Then, something happened.
I was surrounded by light, then I was in complete darkness. It was so dark I couldn''t see. Or there was nothing to see in the first place. I also couldn''t hear anything, and I was pretty sure I was screaming. I don''t know how long I stayed there, in that dark space, but eventually I started falling. With the falling feeling, I also started to hear my scream, and I started to see little lights in the distance.
I stopped screaming, and tried to figure out how to use my wings. I struggled a little to get my wings out of my dress, and at first I only got one out, which made me spin, really fast. I almost felt sick, but I was able to ignore that feeling and get the other one out. It took me a moment to stop my spin, but eventually I got myself into a glide. It was really more of a fall, but I was kind of in control. I was really hoping I could slow down enough that I wouldn''t hurt myself when I hit the ground.
As I kept falling I saw a city in the distance. It was too dark to recognize it, and I had only seen one city from a completely different perspective, but I tried to aim for it. I could tell I wouldn''t make it, but I was able to direct myself in that direction.
By the time I could start to make out individual trees on the ground, I realized I had been teleported a long way up. I had plenty of time to calm down, kind of control my fall, and aim for a city. I actually started to feel a little sad, that I would be stuck on the ground again. I actually enjoyed the feeling of being in the air, even if I was falling. I decided that I was going to figure out how to fly, whether by magic or by my wings, and that''s when I remmebered I had magic.
Shadow Step
I didn''t teleport too far, I just flipped myself around. I was expecting to start going up from my momentum, but instead I lost all of my momentum then started to fall again. When I realized that I just started laughing. All I had to do was get close to the ground, and I would be completely safe. I could fall from any height, and as long as I had mana, I would never die.
After that I just calmly waited till I was in range toShadow Step to the ground, and through the power of magic I survived a fall that should have killed me, or at least broken a leg or two. Once I was on the ground I lay there for a while. Then I remembered that there were other people behind me, and if I had stepped into a trap there was a good chance they did too. I started searching the sky, but I didn''t see anyone, or hear any screams. In fact I didn''t hear the normal sounds you''d expect to hear in a forest.
It was dead quiet.
22. Hello Darkness
The sound, or lack of sound, of the forest wasn''t creepy until I realized there was something wrong. Then it was as if I was seeing the forest in a whole new light. Well, a darkness that made everthing look strange. There were no shadows, and nothing moved. I started to feel like I was in a horror movie around the time the main character realizes she''s in a bad situation. I expected something to start screeching, or to see shadows moving around, or something equally horror movie themed. But nothing happened. I was alone in a dark forest. Surrounded by dark trees. Smothered in silence.
I probably stood in the forest for a few minutes before I felt comfortable moving in the direction I saw light. I was pretty sure if a monster was going to eat me it would have already done it, so even though I still felt uncomfortable I was able to overcome my fear. At least the paralyzing part of it. I was still on high alert, scanning every direction. My head and eyes didn''t stop moving, and just to be safe, I would randomly turn around to make sure nothing was following me.
Walking like that was tiring and after what felt like hours, I decided to stop. My legs were getting sore, and I just wanted to sit down for a short moment. So I picked a thick looking tree and after examining every part of it (that I could reach) I sat down with my back to the tree. I still paid attention to everything around me, but I was able to stretch out my legs, and get my weight of my feet. Plus I didn''t have to worry about what was behind me. Nothing could sneak up on me through a tree. That I knew of.
I only sat there for a few minutes, but it was enough to renew my energy. Before I headed off, I decided to climb the tree. I wanted to get an idea of where the lights of the city were and it made sense that I might be able to see them from the top of a tree. I didn''t waste any time with actually climbing the tree though. I just usedShadow Step to go as high as I could see, and then again to get to the top of the tree. It was a massive oak tree, with no leaves (like the rest of the trees in the forest), so I had a great view of the dark sky. I also saw the light from the city shinning into the sky. I couldn''t quite see the city, but the light was very noticable in the darkness.
Once I got my bearings, I continued on my way. In the same paranoid fashion. I didn''t want to risk dying here. I wasn''t sure where here was, but I was pretty sure it was some kind of secret zone. I was hoping for cool rewards, and if I died I''d respawn back in the city.
It took me a several more hours, and a few breaks with tree climbing to spot the light, to make it to the city. Or at least where I could see the city. I stepped out of the forest and saw open fields. Probably about five miles of open fields before the city. I was on the edge of a cliff, looking down into the fields, and I could see movement in the fields. It wasn''t close enough for me to see exactly what was moving, but it looked like a lot of things moving around. The ground sloped gently upward towards the city, and the city itself was lit up with more light than anyone really needs. It was bright enough that it could have been daylight over there.
The city was also much bigger than I expected. Though I was really able to get a good idea of its size when I was falling, or from seing the light from the trees. Now that I was looking directly at it from a fairly close point, I could tell that the city was bigger than any city I had ever seen in the game. And not by a small margin. It was at least ten times bigger, and had massive walls surrounding it. It was almost like they were trying to keep titans out. And every part of the wall was lit up with bright light. The walls weren''t the only things that were covered in light, the light also spread out over about a quarter of the fields. I was pretty sure that myCloak of Shadows would not work in all that light.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
I almost decided not to go to the city, but when I looked around, I realized it was really the only option that I had. Especially since my stomach had started grumbling.
So, I activatedCloak of Shadows and usedShadow Step to get down the cliff, then I started walking towards the city. It didn''t take me too long to approach some of the figures that were moving around. It also didn''t take me too long to realize there was something very wrong with them. They were generally human shaped. Two arms, two legs, a head, average human height, but the way they moved was wrong. It was as if they were extremely stiff, and some of them looke a little messed up. Like half a head, or legs twisted in a wierd way.
It was very obvious that they were zombies. I had watched enough movies to know what that looked like. So being confident that my stealth would be good enough to walk right through a group of zombies, I walked straight through a group of zombies. At first it worked, and then it didn''t. I probably got past a couple zombies before they started looking at me, and once they started looking at me they started groaning/shrieking/making noise. That got more zombies looking at me, and then they swarmed me.
Shadow Step
Fireball
The zombies exploaded. It was extremely gross. Bits of zombie went everywhere. Luckily I was far enough away that nothing hit me, but I could still smell burning zombie. Which does not smell as good as burning rat. It was almost like someone took some rotten eggs and decided to fry them. Combined with the exploading zombies it was enough to make me puke. Or dry heave, since my stomach was empty.
When I was done dry heaving, I was surrounded again. This time I decided to use a different tactic. I usedFire Shield and started running through them. It was kind of cool, because I was completely surrounded by fire, but it didn''t hurt. It felt like a warm blanket, snugly wrapped around me. When the zombies hit me, or got too close I got to smell the fried rotten eggs, and they sometimes lit on fire.
For the most part they didn''t really hurt when they hit me. The fire seemed to slow them down, so there was no force behind their attacks. Until one of them bit me. It almost looked like it fell over as I ran by, but instead of hitting the ground, it twisted in an impossible way (for a living person) and bit my wrist.
I felt its teeth pierce my skin, and since I was running and just got a bunch of extra weight added to my arm, it felt like my arm was pulled out of its socket. The zombie didn''t let go, even as it burst into flame, and the pain of its bite was so bad it felt like my wrist was on fire. With all the thoughts of fire, I just kind of reacted with more fire.
Fireball
The zombies around me exploaded, but since I was at the center of the blast most of them disintigrated, or were thrown away from me. My wrist still hurt, but I was free from the zombies for a while. I didn''t waste any time, and I just started running towards the city. Whenever I saw a large group of zombies in front of me I preemptively blew them up and just kept running. I think it might have been adreneline, or something, but after the first time I puked, I didn''t puke again.
My strategy worked pretty well, until I started getting closer to the city. There were a lot more zombies near the city, and I was worried about using too much mana and passing out. Luckily, I saw help coming. The people of the city had probably seen my explosions, and sent someone out to investigate. I couldn''t quite see what was coming, but they had a bright light, and they were also good at making explosions. I decided it didn''t matter if I passed out so long as I could get to them, so I went a little crazy. Charged straight towards the light, and everytime a zombie got close to me I set off aFireball on myself. It kept them away, and cleared my path, plus it kept me warm (not that I was cold in the first place).
By the time I reached the light I was exhausted. I was pretty sure I was about to pass out from mana use, but somehow I was able to stumble into the light and speak.
"I''m not a dea..."
Then everything went dark.
23. Hello Light
The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was a very bright light, shinning directly in my eyes. I made a groaning noise and quickly closed my eyes again.
"You''re awake." The voice was male, and sounded dull and bored. "Can you understand me, or is your mind already too far gone?"
"I''d understand you if you made sense."
"Good, what is your name?" I heard the sound of writing.
"You can call me Bwyd. What''s your name? Where am I? What''s with all..."
"Silence! I ask the questions here. You are an unknown creature, so until we know what you are, you will be treated with suspicion." His voice became harsh, all traces of boredom lost.
I thought about saying something, but he did say silence, so I just waited. Well, I didn''t just wait, I also tried to move a little, and found that my hands and feet were attached to the chair I was sitting in. It felt like they were leather bindings, and the chair was probably metal. I also tried to move the chair by pushing with my feet on the floor, but the chair was connected to the floor.
I also tried to open my eyes again. The light was still there, but with some squinting, I was able to see that it wasn''t too bright. Just uncomfortably bright, and aim directly at me. It reminded me of old spy movies when they interrogated people with the bright light shinning at them so they couldn''t recognize the interrogators. I was starting to get a little nervous. I didn''t think the game was supposed to have scenes that were this stressful. You got to have the heroic adventures, or villianous, but torture was something that wasn''t possible. You''d get banned.
"Where do you come from?" The voice was calm again.
"Um, that''s kind of complicated."
"Answer the question." The voice was getting angry.
"Well, I was in the sewers until I got caught in a trap and then I started falling..."
"Enough. If you won''t take the questions seriously then I have no time for you. Oshac, she''s all yours."
When he said that, I saw a massive form block the light. It kind of reminded me of Bjorn, but it was not reasuring. It was very threatening. As he got closer I could see that it was basically a human body builder on steroids. Or at least he had that appearance. For all I knew, he could have been agod, or maybe muscles naturally get that big here, or any number of fantasy reasons for massively bulging muscles.
The main point is a very strong looking man was moving closer to me, and I was pretty sure I was in an interrogation. Still confident that the game wouldn''t allow torture, I waited. On a positive note, he was blocking the light, so I wasn''t blinded anymore.
"Little girl, you will tell me what I want, or you will hurt very much." His voice didn''t have any crazy accent, and it was actually gentle. It almost sounded like he didn''t want to hurt me. Which I really appreciated. I didn''t want him to hurt me either.
"That works for me." My voice almost came out as a squeak.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"Ha, do not worry little girl. I only hurt bad people. You are not a bad person, are you?"
"N-no!"
"Good, good, then tell me little girl, why come here?"
"I fell in a trap," he started a low growl, "I''m not even sure where here is, I saw the lights and tried to get here, because it wasn''t dark. It was so quiet and dark out there, and then there were zombies, and, oh." I felt a warm relieving sensation and realized I just peed.
"Do not stop now little girl, you were speaking so much. I want to hear more." He put his hand on my arm.
"I peed." I barely even whispered as my eyes started to water.
"What? Speak up."
I stared straight into his eyes, "I peed. I hope you''re happy, you''re so scary you cause little girls to pee all over themselves. They can''t let you near any children, can they? They all just run away from the big scary evil man, and all you do is say I won''t hurt you if you do what I want. That''s why you..."
He pushed his thumb on the spot I was bitten by the zombie and pain shot up my arm. So much pain that I stopped talking and my vision went blurry as tears flowed freely. After he released the pressure, he grabbed both arms of the chair and put his face inches away from mine.
"You do not speak of me that way. You know nothing about me, or my children. You have no right to slander me." He was angry, and if my face wasn''t already wet from tears it would have been soaked from his spit.
"And you don''t know anyting about me. I just want to go home, and never see your stupid city again." I thought about logging out, but decided to see where this was going.
He glared at me for a moment, then straighted up and undid my bindings. He then walked away, without saying a word, and turned off the bright light. There were other lights in the room that turned on when he turned off the big one, but they all seemed to be some kind of crystal that glowed. Very brightly. The other lights were covered by some kind of filter that made it more bearable.
Oshac walked to the door opened it and held it open, "If you want to change you clothing, come with me."
I hesitated a moment, then figured I didn''t have anything to lose. I had already peed myself, after all. So I followed him. He took me through a stone hallway lined with more glowing crystals and the occasional door. It almost seemed like the doors were placed at random. They were not evenly spaced.
Eventually we got to the end of the hallway, blocked by a thick metal door, and he pulled out a ring of keys and unlocked it. The other side was a larger stone hallway, and there were several people in similar clothes to Oshac. Though none were quit as big. They did have weapons, mostly swords, but there were a few axes, or polearms. When I stepped through the door, all conversations stopped and they all stared at me.
"What is she doing here?" I recognized the bored voice from before. It belonged to a very plain looking man, who also happened to be the only one not in uniform.
"I questioned her, and determined that she is neither an agent of Haka, or one of the dead. Now I will treat her with the decency that living creatures deserve."
I wasn''t sure how to feel about his declaration. Just a few moments ago he was torturing me, but now he was defending me.
"You cannot just decide that on your own. There are procedures. The doctors have not had a chance to examine her, and until we have their verdict we cannot be sure that she isn''t turning. Besides, I have never heard of a normal person with purple blood. Not to mention the interogation procedure. I also spoke with her, and I determined her behavior to be suspicious. I demand you lock her back in her cell."
Oshac crossed his arms, "It has been three hours since she was brought here. If she was turning, we would see the signs, and the only reason she was suspicious is becuase she has no idea what is going on."
"She could have charmed you. We all know that once anormal person is bitten by the dead, they must either be immediately purified, or she will succumb to the curse. She was not purified, so it is only a matter of time before she changes, and when she does it will cause a plague in the city."
Several of the others in the room started nodding, and some of them spoke up, "She could be turning into a high ranked undead. Some of them have charm abilities."
"Maybe that''s why her blood was purple."
"Quick, someone call the templars."
"Silence! This is ridiculus. I have no intention of letting her walk around without an escort. She just needs a change of clothes, and a shower. You, and you, come with me. We will not even leave the barracks."
24. Messy
No one seemed to argue with Oshak, so with him and the two he pointed out we started walking down a different hallway. One of them was a man, and one was a woman, and even though they weren''t anywhere near as muscular as Oshak, they still looked like they worked out. Both of them looked human. Most of the people in the room looked human. There were a couple of pointed ears, and I''m pretty sure I saw one tail, but they were mostly human.
As we travelled through the barracks, I noticed that the entire thing was built out of stone, but it was almost as if there were no seams. It looked like it was one giant piece of rock that someone carved symetrical hallways into. Well, except for the doors, they were all metal, and all the lights were the covered crystals.
We eventually stopped in front of a door, that looked like all the others, and Oshak used his keys to get in. It was a storage room for clothing. There were shelves filled with all the uniform stuff they were wearing, and a few shelves that had some clothes that looked more like they were designed for exercise. Oshak looked at me for a moment then grabbed a few things from the exercise section and headed out again.
When we got to the next door Oshak handed the clothes to the female guard and said, "If you need anything just give a shout, we will be out here." Then he looked at me, "Once you have cleaned yourself you may put on the clean clothes, and I will take you to see the doctors."
I just nodded, and followed the female guard into the room. It was basically a locker room with showers and toilets. The lockers and showers were all metal, but the toilets looked like they were made out of marble. It was all kind of open too. No stalls or anything to offer privacy. The lockers were in several rows in the middle of the room with benches on the ends, the toilets lined two of the walls, and the showers were just shower heads sticking out of the third wall. The wall with the door also had a bunch of marble sinks, and mirrors.
When I got a glimpse of myself in a mirror, I almost jumped. I looked horrible. It wasn''t hard to see why they might think I was some kind of monstrous undead creature. I was covered in dried blood, and other stuff that looked slightly burnt, and definetely not part of me. I was a little shocked that I had gotten that messy. Then I remembered the running, and fireballs, and exploading zombies, and I really just wanted to take a shower, or a nice bath, and wash all that gunk off.
"I didn''t realize I was this bad. So how does the shower work?" I turned towards my guard.
"Open the valve beneath the shower and water comes out." She made it sound like I should have known that.
"Thanks!"
I tried to sound cheery, and friendly, but when she ignored me and sat on a bench I figured it failed, so I just cleaned myself. It was actually very simple to operate to operate the shower, and the water came out at a fairly warm temperature, without needing to heat up. The hardest part of the whole thing was getting my clothes off. The boots were easy, there were also surprisingly clean. There was a little bit of dried blood on them, but other than that they looked fine. The rest of my clothes were destroyed. It was almost like they had hardened in place, and the only way I could get them off was by breaking them. I thought about burning them, but I didn''t want to cause a scene, so I struggled with them until I got them to rip. Which kind of caused a scene anyway, though there were only a couple other women in there at the time, so it wasn''t too bad.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Once I finally got in the shower it was amazing. I could feel the grim and disgusting things from the fight washing right off. It was almost like the water was magical. Or I was in a game that made water the perfect cleaning thing. When I finished I realized that everyone was staring at me. All three of them. I felt a little awkward, but not embarrassed. Probably because of the whole dragon thing, and dragons not really caring about clothes.
"Hi, I''m Bwyd, this is what I look like when I''m clean."
They seemed to realize they were staring, and they went back to what they were doing, except for my guard. She went out the door. I was a little surprised that she just left, when she was supposed to be watching me.I was a little upset with myself forgetting so excited about cleaning myself, I didn''t even think about showing my dragon parts to complete strangers.Though I had no idea what these people would do. At least there was always forced respawning if things got too bad.
By the time she came back in I was already dressed, so we just went back out. Oshak looked at me, but he didn''t seem angry, or afraid, or worried in any way.
"So, Bwyd?" I nodded. "You are not a half-elf. I apologize for our mistake, but if you do not tell me what you are, I will personally throw you off the wall."
I would have laughed at being thrown off a wall if his tone hadn''t become very threatening. "I''m, kind of, a dragon."
"I see, that would explain your resistance to the curse of undeath. This makes things complicated. First we will need to verify that you are curse free, then we can talk about your position here." He started walking.
I followed, "Why would you apologize for mistaking me for a half-elf?"
"Elves caused the curse, so we suspect all elven kind of dark intentions. Basically, if you are an elf, or half-elf, you are fist on the list for investigation if something happens."
"Weren''t there some guards that were elves?"
"No, those were beast kin. After several generations of mixing with humans, a beast kin can look like that. You can tell the difference by the angle, of the ears, and the eyes. Elves have a single color in their whole eye."
"Wait, what?" I was pretty sure I hadn''t seen any elves like that, though I hadn''t really talked to a lot of elves.
"Have you never seen an elf?"
"Um, I''m not sure. I knew about the pointy ears, but I had no idea about the eyes. So why did you think I was a half-elf?"
"Your fire magic. Beast kin cannot control fire. So, with your ears, it made sense you were a half-elf. Though, I guess dragons also have pointed ears, or you are a demon. The doctors will be able to tell."
We walked in silence for the rest of the walk, which wasn''t that long, and ended up in a somewhat modern looking waiting room. There were chairs in the middle of the room, all lined up and facing the receptionist area. There were three bored looking guards sitting in random chairs. The receptionist area was basically a window in the wall, with a desk, and a human woman in a simple white dress. Kind of like a nurse''s outfit, but more medieval looking.
"How can I help you today, commander?" She had a sweet sounding voice.
"Have the docs check this one. Full physical. Her name is Bwyd." He looked at me. "Will you cooperate?"
"Ah, yeah. As long as they don''t do anything wierd. And no blood samples."
"You have to talk to them about the blood." He turned back to the receptionist, "As soon as possible. This is a high priority."
"Understood, we should be able to get her in a few minutes."
"Dero, stay with her, Tomol with me." He left withme with the female guard, and the receptionist, and the three guards in the waiting seats.
I stood there awkwardly until, finally the door next to the receptionist openned. A guard came out, and I caught a glimpse of a man in white robes.
Then the receptionist said, "Bwyd, the doctor will see you now."
25. Tests
The doctor was a kind looking man with slightly grey hair, and a white robe. He didn''t talk too much, except to tell me to hold something, or turn one direction, or cough. Kind of similar to normal earth doctor stuff, the the examination methods were a bit different. Which makes sense for a society that has magic. The examination wasn''t too bad. A lot of it used magic crystals that apparently told them everything they needed to know. The doctor just told me to hold a crystal and he got information on a strange looking device. It was kind of like a cross between a tablet, and a bowling ball. So I guess, if you too a bowling ball and cut it in half, then squished the sides in a little so it was less round, and more oblong, then put a screen on the flat side. That''s about what it looked like. It even had the holes for your fingers, so the doctor could hold it easily. When he set it down the back automatically put out a little stand so it would stay up by itself. It was also adjustable.
The crystals he gave me were color coded, so I''m sure he knew what they were for, and each one was supposed to be held in a different place. One went against my forehead, one went on my chest, and one went on my belly button, or where it should have been. Apparantly, a dragon does not have a belly button. He was a little surprised by that, but he just had me hold it in the area my belly button would have been. When all that was done he removed the bandage around my arm, and held a different crystal against my wound.
It was actually a little scary looking. My arm was all dark and bruised looking around the area I was bit, and the bite itself was covered with what looked like hardened tar. The doctor didn''t say a word when he saw my injury, but he took a different crystal and held it over the bite, and a couple different places on my arm. When he was done he took his tablet ball, said "I''ll be back", and left.
While he was gone, I had a few minutes to myself, and I started poking the tar stuff. It was a bit sticky, but it didn''t hurt, or feel too uncomfortable, so I started picking at it. I ended up pulling it right off. It felt almost like glue that was stuck on my arm, and once I got it all off I saw a little bit of my purple blood. It wasn''t much, but it kind of made me realize that I wasn''t currently human. I mean, if you started leaking purple blood out of a zombie bite, it makes it kind of obvious. I knew I was a dragon, but just seeing that made me realize I was a dragon. I don''t know why the wings and tail didn''t, but it was almost as if I''d just been going through a dream, and when I saw my blood it made it feel real.
Of course the whole idea of the game was that it was a dream like experience, with rules. You can''t just fly, unless you have that ability. So for pretty much the whole thing I felt like I had been dreaming. Where you just kind of accept everything that happens because you do. But seeing my blood brought me out of that dreamy feeling, and Ifelt like I was actually playing the game now, instead of just dreaming.
I wasn''t too worried about the bleeding, it wasn''t too much. It looked like my arm had pretty much healed, there was just a small hole that leaked blood. So, I started poking my blood. It was purple, so I was a little curious if it would feel like blood, I was also trying to wipe it away to get a better look at the bite marks. Thankfully, I''ve never been afraid of blood. I''ve seen enough of mine that I guess I''m just used to seeing it.
While I was wiping away my blood, the doctor came back in. "You removed the bandage? I see your wound looks mostly healed. Do you have any pain?"
"Nope. Just a little blood."
"Has your blood always been purple?" He started tapping on his tablet ball.
"I think so."
"Interesting, I''ve never heard of a beast kin with purple blood." He tapped some more.
"I''m not a beast kin." I actually felt a little insulted.
"What? Are you an elf?" He looked shocked.
"No. I''m a dragon."
He stared at me for a moment, then grabbed another crystal and handed it to me. "I see... I mistook the earier readings as beast kin. I sincerely apologize. I have a few additional questions though."
"What do you want to know?" I was a little surprised that everyone seemed to accept that I was a dragon. Even with Oshak it was odd.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"What is the curse that you are afflicted with? We saw it in our readings, but we could not identify it."
"It''s the reason I look like this, instead of, well, a normal dragon."
"Hmm, but the nature of the curse is beyond anything we have ever seen, and that includes the elves curse of undeath. Your curse is far more complex, and we could not even come close to unraveling it. Even with magical assistance."
"Well it did curse all dragons, and my mother did something to make it less potent in me. So, my version of the curse is probably more complicated."
He tapped his tablet ball a bit more, "Then, if you don''t mind, would you be willing to let us examine you more? I believe we could learn a lot about curses from studying you."
"No. I don''t want to be a test subject. I just want to get back to my friends." I got ready to escape if I needed to, I did not want to be locked up here.
"It would be nothing too invasive. Just a full examination in the augur machine. It would allow us to see the curse in its entirety. Nothing would be done to you."
"What do you mean?"
"The augur machine allows us to see the magical effects in and around objects or creatures that are inside. It uses power from a different plane of existence to simply look at you. It will not harm you in any way. I''ve been in it multiple times."
"So all I''d have to do is sit in this machine for a while?"
"Yes, it''s completely painless."
"I want to see you in it first, so I know what I''m getting into."
"That is perfectly acceptable. We can go now if you are ready." He glanced at my arm. "Let me bandage that for you first."
Once he wrapped my arm in a cloth bandage, because he didn''t want to use a magical one and mess up the augur machine, he brought me to a large room. In the middle of the room was a thing made out of crystal, that looked like an hour glass. There were steps going to the top part, and it looked like there was a seat in the top. The bottom was basically a bunch of screens, kind of like the tablet ball, but bigger, and embedded in the crystal of the hour glass. There were five people, in white robes, who seemed to just be sitting around talking. Until the doctor entered, then they were checking random things, and looking busy.
The doctor ignored their flurry of activity, and let everyone know that he was going to show me how safe the augur machine was. With that they started powering up the machine. Basically, they tapped the screens, and the top portion of the hour glass started to glow. After a couple minutes a hole opened at the top of the stairs, and the doctor went up and in. Once he sat in the seat the hole closed and the whole hour glass started glowing. It only took a few minutes before the glowing stopped, and the hole opened again.
As he got out of the hour glass the doctor said, "See, nothing dangerous at all. And now I can show you myastral profile."
He got down the stairs and motioned for me to join him at one of the screens. On the screen was a human shaped image. It was mostly white, but there were patches of gold around the hands, and the head was blue.
"See, for the most part my astral body is filled with neutral energy, but in my hands I have holy energy. It helps when dealing with curse victims, and increases my resistance to curses. My mind is protected by several different enchantments, but that shows up as this blue energy."
"So it only takes a couple minutes?"
"Yes, though wewill probably need alonger session to fully examine your curse. The longest we have ever done was two hours, and your case is a little more complicated, so I would estimate four to five hours."
"So I''d have to sit in there for five hours?" I was starting to think twice about doing this.
"Yes. We can break that time up a little, but each time we stop would add about thirty minutes on to the total time. We can do a short session just so you know how it feels, and then we can decide how long you want to go for each session after that."
"I guess that sounds reasonable." Then my stomach complained. Loudly. "Uh, could I get something to eat first?"
He laughed, "Of course you can get some food." He suddenly turned serious, "What do you eat?"
"Meat, I can eat fruit and vegtables, but they don''t do as much for me."
"I assumed meat, I just wanted to know what kind."
"Oh, well, if you have meat that you eat, I''m sure it will be good." So far, I had only eaten dragon meat in the game. You only had to worry about hunger if you were in an exploration zone, so I didn''t have to eat in the city unless I wanted to. And I was broke.
"So, you do not eat humans?"
"NO! That''s disturbing. I have friends that are humans." Well, kind of humans.
"Good, good. We''ve heard stories of evil dragons that enjoy feasting on human flesh." He turned to one of the others in the room, "Go get her some meat. I will reinburse you."
"How much?" He looked at me.
"Um, a lot? I haven''t eaten since I''ve been here." I was pretty sure this was one big exploration zone, so I probably needed a lot of food."
Once he left the doctor tapped a few screens, and turned to me, "If you are ready, we can do an initial examination while we wait for your food. It should only be a few minutes."
I agreed and climbed the stairs. The seat was actually really comfortable for being made out of crystal. I could see outside, through the crystal, but everything looked a little paler than normal. When they started the examination it felt like there was a warm breeze all around me, and then I heard something.
"Bwyd!"
It was Marcus.
26. Only a Dream
When I heard Marcus'' voice, I looked around, as if I might see him somewhere around. When I didn''t I started to think that I might have imagined it. I mean, this was some kind of wierd magical machine that was supposed to see magic, so maybe there were side effects, like hallucination.
"BWYD!"
Then I heard him again.
"Marcus?"
The moment his name left my lips, the the crystal around me started glowing brighter and brighter. As it got brighter the whole thing started vibrating, and I heard a high pitched whining noise. The doctor, and his minions started rushing around touching various screens. After a few seconds I could barely see outside, and the noise and vibration had gotten so bad I was thrown around the small space, clutching my ears. Just trying to stop the noise. I felt something wet coming out of my ears, and I was pretty sure it was blood. Then the light started to rapidly change colors, going through the entire specturum one way then the other. I tried to close my eyes to keep the light out, but it didn''t help. Just when it felt like my head was about to burst, everything stopped. I was half convinced I had died, and this is what the respawn feature felt like.
Until a bunch of people started talking.
"Bywd? Are you ok?" Marcus sounded concerned.
"Bwyd, that was some crazy light show. Even beats Marcus."
There were bell noises, and I felt my headache, and bruises, go away.
"Guys, she bleeding. In purple." Scria almost sounded scared.
They were all just standing around me, and now they stared at my ears. I kind of wiped my hand under my ear, and it was covered with purple blood. Then I realized something. People don''t bleed in the game. There was something about PTSD, and fear of blood, so they didn''t show blood. Injuries were just a red mark, that disappeared with healing. They could become a scar if you didn''t heal it, or it was from massive damage, but if you didn''t want a scar then you could just have it removed. But you could never bleed, or have body parts removed, or feel pain from someone touching an injury.
"That can''t be blood. You know the game doesn''t have gore." Marcus sounded like he was about to start a lecture.
"Shut up! I knew a guy. Liked playin with, loud things. One of em blew up in his face. Burned the hair off his head, and made him bleed from the ears. Like that." Scria finished and pointed at me.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
They all looked at me again. They all had very serious looks, like they were thinking really hard. So while they were thinking, I decided to check something. I bit my arm as hard as I could. It didn''t hurt at all, but it did make all of them jump.
"You ok Bwyd?" Bjorn approached me and put a hand on my back.
"Yeah, but you''ll probably never believe me when I tell you where I''ve been."
"Will that explain what we found here?" He gestured around, and there behind me was a large crystal. It looked like the same stuff the augur machine was made out of, only a pillar instead of an hourglass. And it looked like something had smashed out from the inside of it.
"Was I in that?"
"Yeah. We were wondering about that."
"I don''t remember seeing anything like this when I was here before. It was just empty sewers. And darkness."
Marcus walked up to the crystal, "Yeah, we were following, but you got quite a ways ahead of us, so when your name suddenly went dark in my friend list, and it said unavailable. We started running to catch up to you."
Lily cut him off, "In case you don''t know, your name only goes dark if you''re offline, but it says offline, I''ve never heard of unavaillable."
"Yes, yes. I''m sure Bwyd''s read the forums by now. She would know."
I didn''t but I just nodded, "So what does unavailable mean?"
"That''s the mystery. I sent a message to an info broker, just to see if he knew anything, and he had no idea. Never heard of it. Apparently, that is a status that does not exist in the game. So it means that something was hacked, but from what I know of you, you aren''t a hacker. Hackers tend to know more about the game they''re hacking." He paused, as I started glaring at him, "You''ve learned a lot, but hackers need as much knowledge as possible. Plus, the game is supposed to be unhackable. Something about the interface having no connection to the core game code. The most a hacker could do is change what their menus look like, or alter the information on their stats, but nothing actually changes. Which really means that all of your friends would be the hackers, becuase they were the ones who saw your status as unavailable."
"What Marcus is trying to say is, you''re an anomaly. But we love you anyway." Lily seemed impatient with how long Marcus'' explaination was taking.
"So, I was thinking, you should get a full appraisal done. It might show something that you don''t even know about."
"Ha, funny story. I was getting something like that done. Then Marcus showed up and ruined it all, but don''t let me interrupt your story. What did you find when you finally got here?"
He looked a little confused for a moment, then he seemed to get back his original train of thought, "Oh, right. So when we got here, there was a giant crystal on top of this walkway. We tried to summon you, but nothing happened. We even tried breaking the crystal, but it was immune to everything. Including Lily''s and my identification magic. When we had just about given up, it started pulsing with light."
"Like a rave." Scria did something that I think was supposed to be a dance move you''d see at a rave, but with four arms.
"Yeah, sure. But everytime it lit up you came online, and everytime it went dark your name went dark as well. So we started yelling your name and trying to summon you. Then it exploaded with a bright flash that blinded us all, and you were there."
Lily was practically bouncing up and down, "So Bwyd, did you find a personal dungeon? Or a secret challenge? What was it? Tell us, tell us."
"Blood and zombies."
27. Safe Again
Before anyone else could ask any questions, Bjorn told us stories could wait till we were home, and to gather as much of the crystal as possible. It didn''t take too long to gather it all. There was probably enough crystal to make a a lifesized replica of Bjorn and Scria, and most of it was in large chunks. Everyone seemed to have a different way of gathering it. Scria just picked up pieces and strapped them on with her all her weapons. She actually had open spaces in case she found a weapon she liked. Lily shrank a couple of pieces and put them in her pocket, and Marcus put them into some kind of dimensional storage.
We didn''t have very far to walk from there. The sewer path that we were following ended at a ladder (or a pipe if we wanted to go swimming), and when we climbed up we were back outside, and out of the dungeon. We even got a notification to tell us.
"Um, did anyone else get a messed up notification?" They all looked at me, but with slightly confused looks.
"We should have all just gotten the dungeon completion notification. It tells you how you did. Like mine says that our party ranks 4096th out of all the parties who have entered the dungeon. Which puts us... at the bottom of the rankings." Marcus looked a little upset with his findings. "That makes no sense. We didn''t lose anyone, we killed a boss, and we found an exit. We should have gotten at least mid rankings. Oh."
Bjorn looked like he was tapping some kind of invisible screen. "Did you check the details? Somehow it has ten thousand deaths."
They both looked at me at the same time, "Uh, guys, that was creepy."
"So Bwyd, are you alright? The system says you died a lot." Lily looked concerned.
"I didn''t die once. I was..."
Bjorn interrupted me. "Wait, lets talk about it in the house. It''s more private than here."
Scria nodded, "Ya neva know who''s listening. I was tellin'' my budies about some, uh, stuff and this weasel was listening. He told everybody. Messed everything up."
So we started walking to the city. We were a little bit closer to it than where we entered the dungeon, but it still took us about thirty minutes to get back. It felt way longer than that, because everyone wanted to know where I''d been, and I wanted to know what they thought about it all. Plus we could have been robbed of everything we had gotten since we left the city. Basically PvP worked similar to killing monsters, except you couldn''t steal something that they had when they were at their last safe zone. If you had certain skills you could get a copy of something, and the original would break, but the person you robbed would still have a broken version that they could get fixed. Except for legendary items. They had special rules, and it was different for each item. It was like they had minds of their own.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Luckily, we didn''t see anyone on our way back, but it felt good to get back in the city, and relax a little. I really just wanted to lay down and sleep. It felt like I had been going for too long, and I was exhausted. Sadly, my friends all wanted to know what I''d been through, and I had to figure out how to tell them. I knew blood wasn''t supposed to exist in the game. I knew pain wasn''t supposed to exist (it usually felt like pressure, not real pain). I wasn''t sure exactly why those two things existed in the zombie city, but they did. I wasn''t sure if they''d even believe me if I told them. I was also a little worried about telling them. I didn''t know if I should keep it a secret, or not. So after the first bit of relief when we got back to the city, I started to get really stressed. By the time we got to the house I was practially sweating.
"Marcus, activate the wards please." Bjorn sounded very professional.
Marcus closed his eyes for a moment. "There, done." He also sounded professional.
"Bwyd, what happened?"
"I think I broke the game. Or it broke around me? I didn''t try to break it."
"Calm down Bwyd. We''re all friends here. Just take a deep breath, and start from the beginning."
So I did. I told them everything. I started with the darkness and told them everything up to when we were back together. Surprisingly, they were all quiet till I was done. When I finished we all just kind of sat there for a few minutes. Everyone seemed to be thinking. Well, Scria looked a little confused, and maybe bored, but she was probably thinking.
"Ok, Bywd, don''t tell anyone else this." Marcus walked over to me, he looked a little excited. "Bjorn and I had a bet, and you''re story just helped me win. Have you ever watched anime?"
"Uh, a little?"
"Well there are several shows that have the main characters get stuck in a game, or something like that. Usually the game world is not what it seems, or there''s some kind of evil programer who wants to force people to live or die depending on what happens to them in the game.I thought this game was too much like some of those worlds and Bjorn thought I was crazy. We had a bet, and I think your story proves me right."
Bjorn shook his head, "That could just be a special part of the game. A challenge arena, or something. You need more proof."
"Lily? Can you believe that? You agree with me, right?"
"Nope. Bjorn''s right. There could be some kind of special arena. Did you get any rewards Bwyd?"
"Oh, I almost forgot. My notification for the dungeon was all messed up. I couldn''t read it. Like when there''s another language in the notification."
Marcus smiled, "I''d say that''s more evidence."
Bjorn crossed his arms, "Or Bwyd broke the game. Bwyd, can you send me a message?"
"Sure." I tried to bring up my menu, but all I got was a very bright blue flashing light. It looked like it was coming from everywhere, and everytime it flashed I got a spike of pain. I think I made a shrieking sound, and fell over backwards, but when I hit the ground the flashing stopped, and my menu was there. Looking perfectly normal.
They all rushed over looking concerned, but Marcus was the first to get to me, "Are you alright?"
"Uh, yeah. There was a flashing light, but everything''s normal now."
Bjorn was next, "Maybe you''re still wrong Marcus, and there''s an error with her system."
"Have you tried turning it off, then on again?" Lily giggled. "But seriously, are you sure you''re alright?"
"Yeah, I''m fine. But maybe I''ll log out for a bit. See if there is something wrong. I can always run the trouble shooter just to be safe." I started to select the log out option.
"If you need anything, we''ll be here for a bit so if you log on. I''ll be here." Marcus gently put his hand on my shoulder. Trying to be comforting.
"Ok, thanks guys!" and I logged out.
28. Broken
When I tried to log out, things didn''t work like normal. I disappeared from the game world, but that was the only thing that stayed the same. Instead of waking up in my room, I was floating through space. At least, it looked like space. There were little points of light all over the place, and I thought I saw something like the Milky Way galaxy. There was nothing near me except darkness. Everything felt so far away.
Then, I was suddenly pulled, at super high speeds through space. I was able to see planets, stars, comets, asteroids, and all kinds of space things, but I was moving so fast that it felt like I only saw a blurry picture. My crazy flight through space finally stopped at a planet that looked like earth. I was a little dizzy and disoriented, so I wasn''t sure if it was earth or not, but the blurry continents I could see seemed to be the right shape. I think I floated there for a few minutes while it felt like my head was spinning, then I fell into the planet.
And woke up in my room.
I quickly checked myself to make sure nothing was wrong, and other than a little queasiness, I was fine. So I ran the built in self test, spent some time in the bathroom, and checked online for anything about glitches with the game. I found a few things, but nothing that sounded anything like what I''d been through. Most of it was just people complaining about unfair advantages, or gameplay things that weren''t really glitches. Apparently, there was a demon player who had conquered an entire city, and made slaves out of everyone. And he had done it without killing anyone. They made a deal with him that allowed him to rule them all. There were a lot of complaints about that being overpowered, or they didn''t know what they were agreeing to, or slavery shouldn''t be allowed.
After searching in vain, I checked the diagnostic, and saw no errors. I still had a few hours before I had to do anything in real life so I decided to log back in, and see if my notifications were still messed up. I was hoping ythat all I needed to do was turn it off and everything would work normally.
It didn''t work normally. I got to fly through space again. It was just as disorienting as the last time, only I started at earth and shot out towards dark space. After that everything was the same. I was in the same space I logged out in, and I even got the normal welcome message. The first thing I did was check my menus. I didn''t see anything wrong with them. No weird symbols, or messed up words. Everything was back to normal.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Bwyd, everything ok?" Marcus walked into the room.
"Yeah, I don''t see anything wrong with my menus at all. Though, I flew through space before I got here."
"Flew through space?" He sat down at the table and started pulling things out of a bag and putting them on it.
"Yeah. At least, I think it was space. There were stars and planets and galaxies."
"Hmm, wish I could see that. Did you recognize anything?" He started making a circle with candles.
"I think I saw Earth, and the Milky Way. But I''m not too sure. Everything was a little blurry."
"Interesting. I''m running a little test on the crystal we found. I want to see if I can activate it." He placed a piece of the crystal in the middle of his candle circle.
"Are you sure that''s a good idea?"
"Of course. I enjoy a little magical experimentation. Besides, I''ve already tried a bunch of other things on this crystal and nothing has done anything. This is basically a seance ritual. I''m hoping to get some kind of a reading from it." He started lighting the candles.
"What if it''s a possesed crystal. The ghost might come out and eat you." I was trying to be sarcastic. I mean, who does a seance with a crystal?
"We will be safe from anything like that. This is a fantasy world, so we should be able to fight a ghost anyway."
Lily came running into the room, "Did someone say we''re fighting ghosts?"
We both answered at the same time,"Marcus is doing a seance." "Probably not."
"Ooh. I love ghosts. Let me join." She gave Marcus a pleading look, and almost looked like she was about to cry at the same time.
"Fine, I''ll just..."
"YAY! Thank you, thank you, thank you." She inturrupted him and gave him a big hug, then sat in a chair next to him.
"Bwyd, are you going to join us?" Marcus gestured to the seat on his other side.
"I guess so, I just don''t want to actually fight a ghost."
Once we were all settled and Marcus had all the candles lit, we held hands, and he started chanting. I had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded a lot like music. His voice started out soft, and quiet, but as he continued he got louder, and louder. As he got louder, the flame on the candles got higher, and the lights in the rest of the room got dimmer. When the flames almost reached the ceiling, he stopped for a moment, and then started chanting in a monotone voice. With every word he spoke, it sounded like another voice joined him, and the candle flame changed from normal fire color to a pale blue. Then it was quiet. For a moment.
"AWAKEN!"
He shouted the last word in a very dramatic way, and the crystal responded in an equally dramatic way. No spirits appeared, but the crystal started vibrating, and flickering with white light. And then it exploaded in a brilliant flash of light.We were all blinded, I felt a little sick, and I''m pretty sure I heard Marcus puking, but it seemed like we were alright. As my vision started to return a familiar voice called out.
"Bwyd? How did you do that? Who are these people?"
It was the doctor.
29. Friends Meet Friends
As soon as I could see again, I recognized exactly where we were. It was the same room that the augur machine had been in. I say had been, because it was kind of destroyed. There was a ton of crystal all over the place, that looked like it exploaded from the center of the room where the augur machine was. There was a crater in the center of the solid stone floor, and there were cracks from that crater that stretched out to the walls. The wierd part about the cracks was they were filled with crystal, but it almost looked like it was water that flowed into the cracks and then froze. The chunks of crystal that were scattered all over were hard and jagged, but the crystal in the cracks was smooth.
There were several people spread throughout the room, who looked like they were examining everything, until we showed up. They were all looking at us now.
"Bwyd. Can you hear me?" The doctor waved his hand like he was trying to get my attention, probably becuase I was a bit dazed. All three of us were.
"Yeah, uh, sorry about your machine."
"No, no. That, whatever it was, gave us more research data than anything I''ve ever seen. The energy that came through could revolutionalize everything we do here. The possibilities that you showed us, more than make up for the loss of a single augur machine. And no one had to die to discover this." He paused to take a breath, "We thought you might have died, but it seems you survived, and brought friends."
"Oh right. This is Marcus, and this is Lily."
When I said their names they seemed to jump.
"Yes, I am Marcus the Magnificent. I can, um, apparently make portals to other worlds with a seance." He kind of trailed off and started looking around instead of standing there in a daze.
"And I''m Lily. And disappointed, I thought we were going to see a ghost Marcus."
"I didn''t think a seance would create a connection with another world. It was supposed to connect with a spirit, or the energy of the crystal, but instead it connected with this place, and transported us here."
The doctor seemed to be torn between talking to Marcus, or Lily, but finally he chose. "Lily, do you mind if I ask what you are?"
"You know that''s basically like asking what I am while asking to ask. But I don''t mind. I''m fae."
The doctor''s eyes seemed to grow bigger, and several gasps were heard from the others in the room. "You are fae?"
"That is what I said. Is there something wrong with being fae?" She looked a little worried.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
"Not at all. We just thought that all the fae had perished. The true fae anyway. If you exist here then maybe hope is not lost... Wait Marcus, you said something about another world. What did you mean by that?"
"Well, now that I''m here, that''s the only thing I can describe this as. Bwyd told us about it, and we thought it might have been a part of our world, but now, I''m not so sure." He made a ball of light on his hand, "Magic seems to work in a similar way, but not exactly the same. For magic like mine, we had shortcuts to avoid chanting. We could use an invocation if we wanted to, but that meant we had to memorize a ton of invocations, and say them right everytime. So we had a slot system that could basically remember our invocations for us, and all we had to do was say the name of the spell. I can''t access that system here."
Lily gasped, "Oh, neither can I. Bwyd why didn''t you tell us?"
All three of them started looking at me, Lily with disappointment, and the other two with a surprisingly similar look. I wasn''t sure if it was excitement, or something more creepy, "Well, I''ve never used that system. I, I didn''t even know it existed. My magic just kinda happens."
There was silence for a moment until the doctor broke it, "Hmm, must be innate dragon magic."
Marcus looked surprised, "Bwyd, how could you know so little and still be so amazing?"
"Is that a compliment, or an insult?"
The doctor interrupted before he could answer, "That''s not important right now. If you truly come from another world, then can we go to that world? Or can you bring others from your world to save ours? The possibilities are endless. Will you help us save ourselves and our world?"
Lily looked disappointed, "Aw, I miss quest prompts already."
Marcus walked up to the doctor, "I have never been more excited about anything in my entire life. Let''s do this!" He offered his hand to shake.
The doctor took his hand, "I am glad you are willing to help. Now if you all don''t mind, please go into the next room, I have some tests to run."
He gestured to the door, and started tapping on his tablet ball while walking around the area where we had appeared. When we didn''t immediately leave he looked up from the screen. "I will be with you in a moment, I just want to try to capture this end of the portal that you created to get here. I''ll only be few moments." He pointed at one of the others in the room, "You, take them to the meal we prepared for Bwyd, it should still be warm."
We followed the man out and into another room. It was a bit smaller than the augur machine room, but it looked kind of like a break room. There was a table in the middle, and a sink, like the ones from the bathroom, in a counter against one wall. On the table was a feast. There were several plates piled with different types of meat. There was steak, chicken, something I think was pork, and a ton of different types of meat on sticks. Like what you can get at Chinese restaurants.
There were also a couple people in there eating. The looked really surprised when we walked in, and then they looked terrified. "We''re so sorry. We thought you were gone, so we didn''t want to let the food go to waste."
"Yeah, here, you can have what''s left of this." He started handing me a half eaten steak.
"Ew, no. You can keep that. You already took bites out of it."
He looked a little stunned till Lily spoke up, "If you don''t want it, I''ll take it. I don''t like letting good food go to waste." She started to reach for it, but he recovered and stuffed the rest of it in his mouth.
We all kind of stood there for a moment, then everyone started laughing. Then we ate.
30. Realization
After stuffing ourselves, and actually feeling the uncomfortable feeling of being stuffed, we were brought to another room. It looked like a meeting room. There was a large table in the middle, a screen thing on one wall, and comfy looking chairs all around the table. We were told to wait there until the doctor came to get us. So we waited, and waited. We were all in a bit of a food coma, and no one really said anything.
Since this was my second time here, I was pretty sure that we were not in the game, or this was some special part of the game. Everything was too real. Eating, bleeding, even peeing. We didn''t have the game system to take care of things. Normally you didn''t feel stuffed. You could eat as much as you wanted, and never feel like you were going to expload because you ate too much. You never felt hungry, hot, cold, pain, or any of those natural real life things. Everything was numbed. Here I felt pain. I felt hunger. I felt stuffed. I could feel the texture of my tail, and that''s when I realized, my tail could feel.
In the game, extra appendages would be almost completely numb. Though, most feeling was a bit numb anyway. Everything had the same texture. It might look different, but it all felt the same. It was almost like you just got some kind of indication that you touched something, without really feeling it. It was just a bit of pressure. The last time I had been here, everything was still a little numb, but there was still way more feeling to everything than in the game. This time, it felt as real as real life, and I could feel things with my tail. Like the chair I was sitting on, or the table, or my clothes. It was a wierd feeling. I could feel from a place that had never felt before, and before anyone says I forgot, I could also feel from my wings. It was the same with my wings as it was for my tail.
So as we sat there digesting, I was getting excited, and a bit scared. If this was real, so many possibilities were openned in front of us. Some good, some bad. Of course we still needed to figure it all out, before we could really do anything, but the possibility was still there.
"Lily, Marcus?" They looked at me with sleeply looks, "I was just wondering. Do you feel, different?"
"Different, how?" Lilly looked a little concerned.
"Like, everthing feels, real? Like it''s not a game?"
"Just because the food was, good, doesn''t mean that it can''t be a game system. Just more realistic than normal. We all know that they have several different worlds that you could play on, and it might just be that this one is a realistic version." Marcus paused for a moment. "It does seem more realistic than I''d expect, but this is all within the realm of possibility. It''s not that different. Even the pain you felt was probably just some kind of stimulation from the system."If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Marcus, shut up." Lily looked completely serious. "I am absolutely sure that this is not the game."
"What, how?"
She looked really uncomfortable. "I just know! This is very real."
Marcus and I looked at each other, and he kind of made the gesture that means ''you try''. I wasn''t sure I actually wanted to try, Lily looked uncomfortable just thinking about whatever it was. So I figured I''d just offer my support without forcing it on her.
"Lily, if you ever want to talk, I''m a great listener. And I promise I won''t tell Marcus."
"Hey, I want to know all her secrets."
She kind of smiled, "Thanks Bwyd. I''ll definitely take you up on that later."
"I feel so left out. Why are you two the only ones who are sure this is real? That would be amazing.I''ve done plenty of reading... Lily, what happened to your supper embarrassment?"
Lily had an evil grin on her face, "I can prove that this is real."
"How?" Marcus seemed cautious.
"Well, you know that certain things are not allowed in the game, right?"
"There''s a lot that isn''t allowed. What, specifically, are you talking about?"
"X rated stuff."
Marcus'' face immediately turned red. "I''m not interested in you that way."
Lily''s bell laughter rang out, "Idiot, I don''t want you to do it with us. Find a room and do it yourself. I know you''ve tried before."
His face became a bit more red, "We aren''t supposed to leave this room."
"Your loss."
We all kind of sat there in silence, I was a bit shocked at Lily''s complete change in atitude, though it did stop Marcus from asking questions. Before too much longer someone came in and told us the doctor wanted to see us in the augur machine room, so we followed him. On the way out, I heard Marcus whisper "You were right" to Lily, and Lily quietly giggled.
The doctor was waiting in the augur machine room, but he had a few crystal structures in there, that weren''t there before. There were three around where we had appeared. They looked like six foot tall radio towers made out of crystal, and they had a thin glowing line connecting their tops. In the middle of them was a ball of light. The doctor was standing near them looking at his ball tablet.
"Good, you are here. I have managed to stabilize the residual energy that you three left behind, but I am unable to interact with it. It seems to reject any attempt I make to control or absorb it. Can any of you do anything with this?"
Marcus stepped closer, "From what I can tell, this appears to be some kind of magical energy, from the place we came from."
"If that''s the case you should be able to do something with it. You should resonate. All we''ve been able to do is contain it here. There was more when we first discovered it, but it was dispersing. Just reach your hand in, let''s see what happens."
Marcus reached his hand in, and was immediately thrown back about twenty feet. It looked like he was struck by lightning that came from the ball of light. A couple of the other people in the room rushed over to him, but he jumped up before they got to him.
"Eureka! I know what happened!"
31. Brain dead
After his announcement, everyone in the room was silent, waiting for Marcus to enlighten us. All Marcus did was stand there, slightly swaying, until he collapsed. The assistance that had rushed to help him when he first flew across the room immediately rushed to his side.
"He seems stable. It''s almost like he just fell asleep."
The doctor pulled out one of his crystal things, like what he used to examine me, and he tossed it to one of the assistants. "Get some readings, we need to be absolutely sure we know what he is going through. Bwyd, Lily, can you do anything to access his condition?"
I just shook my head, but Lily seemed to remember that she was our party healer, "Oh! Let me see." She made her bell noises, and her colored lights showed up, just like normal. "Oh, this is different. They have voices."
She started making bell noises, and the lights seemed to respond with their own bell sounds. They were a high pitch, and almost sounded like a bunch of the really small wind chimes. After a few seconds the lights all went to Marcus, and they seemed to wrap around him. It almost looked like smoeone made a swarm of fireflies into a blanket and draped it over him. The people around him started using their devices to examine the lights, but judging by their expressions, they didn''t get what they wanted.
It wasn''t too much later that the lights went back to Lily. They had a conversation in bells and chimes, and then she waved her hand and the lights all disappeared.
"So, they said that Marcus is a big dummy, and he shouldn''t touch live exposed interdimensional rifts without protection. They also said he was very lucky. He only fractured his mind a couple times. Also, they can''t fix stupid. Or mind fractures, but apparently those fix on their own."
The doctor pointed to a few of his assistants, "You get him into a bed. Place a meditation crystal in there with him, that should help with most mental issues. So long as his mind is not completely destroyed. Also, I want everyone to keep away from the, what did you say it was?"
"Live exposed interdimensional rift."
"Right, stay away from the LEIR. I want a ten foot perimeter set up. Also we need some monitoring crystals in case it starts changing, or expanding. Bwyd, Lily, I want you to stay with Marcus until he wakes up. If you could periodically monitor his condition, and inform us if things get worse. The rest of you, start analyzing all the data we have. We need to find answers in case this becomes a threat."You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
When he finished giving orders, everyone jumped into motion at once. Well, everyone except me and Lily. We just kind of stood there wondering what happened, while everyone was moving around us. Luckily Lily saw them taking Marcus out of the room and took off running to catch up. She was pretty good at dodging past everyone, or under in a few cases. I didn''t want to attempt the same things she did, so I just Shadow Stepped straight to the door. No one seemed to notice, or if they did, they didn''t care.
We followed the men with Marcus through a couple of hallways, and ended up in a room that looked a lot like a hospital room, except instead of monitors, and earth medical things, there were crystals, and crystal screens. They set marcus in the bed, and all but one of them left.
"Don''t mess with anything. Just wait here, and let us know if something happens." He started to leave then seemed to think of something, "You can contact someone by touching this crystal." He pointed to a small crystal that was near the bed, then he left the room.
"So, Lily."
"Yeah?"
"If this is real, should we be worried about Marcus?"
"Nope." She looked like she was doing something magical, her hands were glowing anyway.
"But we should probably be more careful."
"Probably." She closed her eyes.
"Do you think we can actually die here?"
She seemed a little surprised by my question, and gave me a serious look, "Probably. I don''t know if that means we really die, but I''m pretty sure this universe is real, our bodies are real, and our magic is real. So I''m pretty sure that dying would be bad, but we also have magic, so that''s kinda cool."
"So that would mean that all these people are real too, right?"
"Yeah, they aren''t NPCs, and I bet they''d do anything to keep themselves safe. If anything happens we stick together, okay?"
"Of course, I couldn''t abandon you, or a brain dead Marcus."
"He''s not braindead right now, just fractured, or something. Brain dead is just his normal state of being."
"Then he''s the smartest braindead person I''ve ever met."
We both laughed a little. Kind of like one of those laughs where you want to laugh, but you don''t want to disturb anyone, so you supress it. Then we sat there in silence for a while, until one of the assistants came in with a blue crystal pyramid. It was about as big as a bowling ball, but pyramid shaped.
"This is the meditation crystal. It helps to calm the mind, so if your friend has mental stress or damage, this should help. It''s also great for sleep problems, so if you feel tired, just get up and walk in the hallway a bit and you should wake right up."
We didn''t answer him, but Lily gave him a thumbs up and he set the pyramid on a table and left. It wasn''t long after that we both fell asleep.
32. Revival
When I woke up, I felt amazing. Like I just slept for a perfect amount of time, and woke up when I was ready. No grogginess, no tiredness, just perfection. I didn''t even have a stiff neck from sleeping in a chair, it was great. I was the only one who was awake, so I just sat there quietly and waited for the other two to wake up.
I was a little worried about what was going on overall, but at that moment I felt comfortable. I was safe, with friends, and I was sure we would get through everything alright. Marcus was in a bit of a bad state, but he was Marcus the Magnificent. I wasn''t worried at all, even if this wasn''t a game, and he might have fried his brain. We had magic. Magic fixes everything.
So I wasn''t worried about Marcus, but what did bother me was getting home. We couldn''t logout. We didn''t have Marcus in the game world to summon us back. We were pretty much stuck here, unless we found some way to leave. All we needed was some way to use magic to get us back. The problem for me was, my magic had nothing to do with traveling to other worlds, so I had to rely on someone else.
I wasn''t too sure about what Lily could do, but I was pretty sure Marcus didn''t do interdimesional travel. If it was even interdimensional. For all I knew we were on some planet in the same universe as Earth, or we were in a completely different universe, or we were in the 5th dimension. I had no idea, and I had no idea how to figure out where we were.
The more I sat there, the more hopeless my thoughts became. I had a hard time seeing a way out. A way home. I started to cry, just a little. It was the whole single tear thing, plus a couple extra tears, but I didn''t make any noise. So when Lily, put a hand on my shoulder, I was completely surprised.
"Bwyd, he''ll be fine."
"I know, I was just thinking about what we''re going to do now." I wiped my tears away.
"That''s easy. We wait for him to wake up, then tease him, with no mercy." She had a mischievous smile.
I laughed, quietly, "No, I mean about getting home."
"Oh." The smile disappeared. "What if we can''t?"If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"That''s why I was crying. Unless you can create a portal that takes us home, I don''t think the rest of us can."
"Oh, I summon things, in a way. I think it only goes one way, and only from one place. They also die."
"What!" I realized I was a little loud, and quickly glanced at Marcus, but he kept sleeping.
"I just found that out. Those pretty lights I summon, are actually fey creatures. They said they have no personality until they come here, but once they do come here they only have a limited amount of time to live."
"Are they ok with that?" I wasn''t really sure how to feel about Lily mass murdering a bunch of tiny fey.
"Yes. The way they described it was, they were nothing until I summon them, and then they get to be someone, even if it is only for a few hours. It is the best time of their life, and they would never be able to experience it if I refused to summon them. I guess it is almost like they would never be born if I did not summon them, and they know their life is going to be short, so they make the most of their lives. Living to the fullest, while doing what I ask, becuase they owe everything to me." She stopped to wipe her eyes. "I don''t want to be the reason they die, but they''re so happy when they are here. I give them life, and they love every moment of it, and they love me for giving it to them. Even if they know that I also cause their death."
"Um, that sounds complicated. I guess they sound happy, and it''s not like you''re killing them. You give them life, and they just naturally die."
"But I feel bad giving them life just for them to die. They should love someone better than me."
"Whoa, Lily? You are an amazing person. It''s not your fault they die. They''re kind of like, children. You don''t blame your mother for giving birth to you just so you can die eventually. Right?"
She seemed a little shocked by what I said, "Why would I blame my mother? That''s completely different."
"Well, I guess it wouldn''t be just your mother. It''s both parents. Together they gave you life, and the end result of life is death. So unless you blame your parents for your eventual death, you cannot blame yourself for the death of the pretty light fey people. You are not killing them, death is a natural part of life. Everything just has a different lifespan. Cats and dogs don''t live as long as humans, but do we stop them from being born, just becuase we will see them die? No, we cherish the time we get to spend with them, and we take care of them as best we can. If you really feel bad about the short life of the light fey people, then practice enough so you can give them a longer life. Don''t give up on them because they will die. Support them because they are alive."
I might have gotten a little carried away with my speech, and by the end of it both Lily and I had tears streaming down our cheeks. She held her arms out, looking for a hug, and unlike last time, I hugged her. We stayed like that for a bit before we were interrupted. By applause, and Marcus'' hoarse voice.
"Nice speech Bwyd."
33.
Marcus looked, kind of okay. He looked a bit pale, he had bags under his eyes, and he looked like he hadn''t eaten for a few weeks, but he was moving. It was a bit surprising to see him like that, he had only been knocked out a little while ago, and he was sleeping for most of it. When he spoke both Lily and I were surprised, but she quickly slipped out of my arms, ran over to his bed, and punched him in the arm. I think it was a gentle punch, but Marcus still winced when she hit him.
"You''re not supposed to spy on girls while they''re crying, you jerk." Her voice sounded upset, but there was a huge smile on her face.
"Well, maybe you shouldn''t cry in front of me, I see all, I am Marcus the..." He tried to sit up and do his usually boisterous voice, but started violently coughing instead.
"Hey, stop talking if you''re going to cough like that. Why are you always such an idiot?" She pushed him back down in the bed. "Just rest, you can show off later. Also, we were not crying about you. So, do not get a big head."
Marcus gave her a funny look, but decided to avoid speaking. He just patted her head, which was just about the right height for him to rest his hand on. She didn''t seem too upset about that, so he moved his hand to wipe away her tears.
I felt a little left out, so I quickly wiped my face and and started playing with the blue pyramid thing. It was surprisingly light, almost like it was made out of foam, but it felt hard. It felt like I was touching some polished stone, but I could easily toss it in the air.
By the time I was bored with the pyramid, Marcus and Lily were holding hands, and Lily was sitting beside Marcus on the bed. I felt like they didn''t even remember I was in the room. Not that they were doing anything weird, but it was like they were lost in their own little world.
I started to feel a little awkward, like I was intruding on something so I went to the door, "Guys, I''m going to let them know he''s awake."
They both kind of acknowledged me, but they weren''t really paying attention. I stood in the hallway a few minutes, not sure exactly where I wanted to go, just that I wanted to get out of that room. It wasn''t too long before one of the assistant guys came down the hallway. He was carrying a couple of blankets.
"Hello, what are you doing out here?"
"It was getting uncomfortable in there, so I left." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Oh, I was just about to check on you three. I saw you were all sleeping so I brought some blankets."
"Ah, well, we''re all awake now."
"Even the male that was with you?" He looked excited.
"Yeah, though I wouldn''t go in there right now. They were lost in their own little world."This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
He looked confused for a moment, then he got a dirty look on his face, "Oh, well in that case we don''t want to disturb them, do we?"
"Why is that a question?"
"It just came out that way, I don''t want to... Well. Want a blanket?" His face was bright red.
"Sure I''ll take a blanket, and do you know where I could get some food?" I was starting to get hungry again.
He handed me a blanket, "What are you going to do with a blanket?"
"Wear it." I unfolded it by dropping it while holding on to one edge, and tried to flip it around my back like a cape, but it hit the wall and didn''t look as cool as I planned. "So what about food?"
He laughed, "I''ll let someone know that you''re hungry. If you want to wait somewhere I can take you to a different room. We can get you some food there."
"Fine."
He brought me back to the conference room that we were in before and told me to wait for the food to get there. After he left I realized that I probably looked like a glutton to them. All I did was sleep and ask for food. Though I guess I did break their machine, and kill a bunch of zombies, so I obviously worked up an appetite. Magic is hard work. Kind of. I really needed to get to know these people better, I really only met a few of them, and I only knew two names. There was Oshac, and... The doctor. I started laughing to myself. Apparently I only knew one name, and whoever the doctor was. I tried to remember anyone else, but I hadn''t really cared about the people the last time I was here. I thought they were just background in a game, so they weren''t important. Now that we knew they were real I felt bad. I wanted to actually pay attention to them, and yet, I completely forgot to ask the blanket man his name. I wasn''t good at the whole name thing.
The door openned, "You ordered some food?" It was the blanket man.
"Yes! Thank you."
He brought a tray with a couple different plates on it, and after he set the tray down he took one off for himself.
"I wasn''t sure what you''d like to eat, so I just made two plates wtih what I like, and hoped you''d agree." He started eating.
My plate had a nice balanced meal. It was some kind of steak, with some green stuff that looked kind of like peas, but more egg shaped. The steak looked kind of like normal beef steak from earth, but it had more of a round texture. When you try to cut normal steak it usually has a direction that it cuts better, and a direction that it''s harder to cut. This steak was easy to cut in all directions. On top of that, it was very tender and practically fell apart in my mouth. I didn''t even have to cut it. It was a little different than the original meal I had in ths world. The meat from that was a little tougher, and reminded me of Earth steak.The flavor was even good. It was a little unique, but I liked the flavor. It was almost like a spicy barbeque sauce.
"This is really good."
"Really? It''s just the cheap steak from the cafetiera. It''s from the magiculture department." He noticed my confused look, "So it''s not even from real animals."
"Wait, you magically make food?" I looked at my steak suspiciously.
"Yes, it''s a little difficult to produce all our food from farms, so as a cheap solution we magically create what we need. Rich people eat the real stuff, but for the rest of us, we have the cheap stuff."
"But this tastes so good, why would you spend more to eat something that isn''t as good?"
"You think this tastes better? There''s no flavor at all." He poked his steak with his fork.
"But it has amazing flavor. Like nothing I''ve ever tasted before." I tried another piece just to be sure, and it still had flavor.
"I''ll just say it''s because you''re a dragon, and have a messed up sense of taste."
"Pft, maybe I have superior tastes. You just don''t know how to enjoy the finer things of life."
He laughed, but before he could say anything the doctor walked in followed by Marcus and Lily.
"Now that we have everyone together again, let us continue our discussion of the energy."
34. More Questions
Blanket man immediately got up, and started moving towards the door, "Excuse me sir, I''ll get out of your way."
The doctor stopped him, "Wait, I want a second opinion from our world. Marcus you may restart your explaination."
Marcus let out a little sigh then started talking, "We, Me, Lily, and Bwyd come from a world that was created for the enjoyment of people. It is not a real world, but people from our world are able to travel there in different forms, and interact with the fabricated world. We were all told it was a game world, but no one said that it was actually... Oh, Kinda Real." He stopped talking and stared off into the distance. Which really wasn''t that far since we were in a room.
"Hello? Marcus? Anyone home?" Lily lightly punched his arm.
"Oh, sorry, I just realized something." He stopped again.
Lily looked at the doctor and shrugged, "He does this alot when he''s thinking about something. He''ll figure it out soon, and tell us all about it."
"Hmm, then can one of you tell us more about your world?"
"Sure! It''s big, bright, and filled with lots of people."
"Can you be more specific. What kind of magic do you have, what kinds of people, geography, climate, religions. I need details, and I will be recording this." The doctor held his tablet ball up.
"Details? Well, there''s a bunch of different climates, and races, and geography, and religions, but no magic." The doctor was looking strangely at his tablet ball. "We have some racial tensions, but for the most part everyone gets along, except the changelings, nobody trusts changelings."
I almost spit out the last piece of steak that I was eating, but managed to swallow it instead, "What do you mean changelings?"
"Changelings are changelings. They change, so you never know what they really are." She looked surprised that I asked.
"But they aren''t real. They''re fantasy creatures, like elves and dwarves, and... dragons." I said the last word a little quieter. I was a dragon in a, probably, real world.
"Uh, Bwyd. I''m normally an elf. I am definitely not a fantasy, and so is my family." She spoke telepathically to me, like what she did when we first met. "Do you really not have elves where you are from?"
I just nodded.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The doctor, who had been messing with his tablet ball for most of our conversation, said, "Lily, is there a reason your voice can''t be recorded?"
"Does her voice sound like bells in the recording?" I moved closer to him to get a look at his tablet ball.
"Her voice is not registering as a voice. I cannot get it to record."
"So, when we first met her voice sounded like bells to me, then she figured out how to talk to dragons, and it sounded like words, so maybe she can''t talk to tablet balls."
"What? Tablet balls?" The doctor looked confused.
Marcus surprised us all as he started laughing, "I picked the right time to start listening. Great name Bwyd!"
Everyone else looked confused, and Lily asked, "What is a tablet ball?"
Marcus started laughing again, so I had to answer, "Well a tablet is a device from my world that you can do a whole bunch of stuff with, and it can be carried around easily. That thing" I pointed at the tablet ball, "reminded me of tablets, but it''s round, and tablets are flat, so I was calling it a tablet ball in my mind."
The doctor looked a little upset that I called his device a tablet ball, "First of all this is a multi-purpose utility device, or MUD. Secondly, if Lily''s communication ability is a mix between telepathy, and ''bell noises'' that would explain why the MUD does not register her voice as a voice. It also means that we cannot record what she says, so someone else will need to describe your world. And lastly, Marcus good to have you back, please finish where you left off."
"Oh, sorry about that, but I realized something. The virtual world we came from, was called Kinda Real Online. They were basically saying that it was almost a real world, but not quite. It was filled with both fake and real things, held together by something powerful that made everything make sense. It didn''t matter what happened in that world, no one ever questioned it. It was like we were all forced to accept what happened as possible, no matter how absurd. You could have an alien android fighting a flying spagetti monster along side a six armed snake woman, and no one would question it.
"I could cast magic, and do things I would never imagine doing in reality, but now I think I could have. I don''t think our worlds were devoid of magic. I think we just didn''t know how to do it."
The doctor stopped him, "If that is the case, then perhaps we should discuss your world. It may help us to get a better picture of what is going on."
The next few hours we talked about Earth. Well Marcus and I talked about Earth. The doctor asked a lot of questions, and we answered them as best as possible. It was kind of interesting how the doctor reacted to our descriptions of political events, and the governments of the world. To his people, the idea of separate nations was odd. They needed to work together to survive, and though they had factions, everyone had a place, and a purpose. They were kind of like a capitalist communist city, ruled by a noble class, who also happened to possess strong magical bloodlines. So as Marcus explained things and I felt like I should pay more attention to the news, the doctor seemed to get more and more upset with what he heard.
He mostly complained about the waste of resources, and if Earth was governed like his world was, we would be able to acomplish more. Eventually, he stopped trying to figure out why we did things the way we did, and just listened with a frown on his face. I also learned that Marcus was from Hawaii, and didn''t like Hawaiian pizza.
When the doctor was finally done asking questions about Earth, we took a bathroom/stretching break before we started learning about Lily''s world.
35. Interruptions
We never got the chance to hear about Lily''s world. We had all settled down to talk again when an alarm started blaring. The doctor immediately checked his tablet... MUD and told us to follow him. We went down the hallway in a new direction, and ended up at an elevator. Or a magical version of an elevator. There were doors that openned, and a platform that moved up and down. There weren''t any walls, so you could see the elevator shaft, but there was a little railing. Not that it would do much except let you hold on. You could easily go over, or under, the railing and drag your hand along the wall. We were moving fast enough that it looked like that would hurt, so I stayed in the middle of the platform. Unlike Marcus, who tried to look below the platform through the tiny crack on the edge.
The elevator took us up to the top of whatever building we were in, and when we stepped out, it looked like an observation tower. There were big windows, and barely any walls or ceiling. It was all glass. It was actually kind of a nice view. We could see a large part of the city, and we could see over the walls. Marcus and Lily both talked excitedly to each other about the city, like they didn''t have a care in the world. They were mostly excited about how it reminded them of different cities they knew, but it was completely made of the same material. Everything was the same color. Some parts were a little dirtier than others, but it was pretty much all the same. There weren''t any billboards, or neon lights, just light grey stone. I did glance at the city, but I was more interestd in where the doctor, and blanket man were looking. They were looking outside the city. Beyond the wall.
"That is the biggest wave I have ever seen." The doctor looked worried.
"If the alarm is going off, the augurs must be worried." Blanket man couldn''t seem to keep his hands still.
"This is probably one of the safest locations in the city, after the inner district of course. If there was going to be a breach anywhere, I''d assume the farming area, or the slums."
"If we lose some of the herds that''s going to make some rich people very unhappy. No more real meat." Blanket man glanced at me, "Do you think there''s a reason Bwyd like the magiculture steak better?"Stolen story; please report.
"What? Where did that question come from?" The doctor was now looking slightly amused.
"Oh, sorry sir. It''s just when she was eating the magically created steak she said the flavor was better than the real stuff."
"That so? Hmm. I would guess that it is..." Before he could finish the entire tower shook. "What!?"
Marcus pointed towards the city, "Is there supposed to be a drop pod there?"
A large metal thing, that could be called a drop pod, had landed a couple blocks from where we were. It looked kind of like a closed pine cone, but made out of dark grey metal. As we all went to that side of the tower to look at it, the bottom of it openned up, kind of like a pine cone, and things started coming out. They weren''t really anything specific. It was almost as if someone had taken some body parts and put them together, then gave those things life. Or unlife. It wasn''t too bad to look at them until the doctor held his hands out in front of him and then pulled them apart, like he was stretching something, and the creatures were magnified. He zoomed in so close we could see the saliva dripping out of it''s mouth. Needless to say, we were all shocked. Though I suppose if it was needless to say, I didn''t need to...
"Ew, that''s gross." Lily was the first to break the silence after our shock.
The doctor pulled out his MUD, and started tapping furiously, while the blanket man started pacing back and forth muttering to himself.
"Hey guys look, it''s like the start of every space RPG." Marcus pointed to a few more pine cone drop pods, as they fell out of the sky, and landed in the city. "Uh, I just remembered this isn''t a game." He started to look worried.
"Yeah, dummy. You can die here." Lily punched him in the arm.
Everything was quiet after that except for the doctor''s tapping. It almost felt like we were being crushed by some invisible force. Maybe it was the silence, or the realization that the city wasn''t as safe, or maybe someone made the air really heavy using magic. Whatever it was started to bother me so I figured it was time for a motivational speech.
"Who cares if we can die, you can always die. Even if you''re in the game, someone could drop a plane on your house and kill you, so it isn''t much safer than real life. Kinda. Just forget about the zombies and stiched misshappen things, ok, maybe the game is a bit safer..." I trailed off at the end, realizing I wasn''t as motivational as I planned.
The doctor looked at me with wide eyes. "Bwyd you are a genius."
36. A Plan!
"What?" I was confused. What in my muddled motivational speach made me a genius.
"You said the game was safer. If we can access that world, we could..." The doctor stopped talking momentarily, but the expressions crossing his face told us he was still thinking. "There is too much to think about. For now we need to channel the rift."
He immediately went to the elevator, and when no one followed him he made an impatient gesture with his hand and said, "We don''t have much time."
We followed him all the way back to the room with the rift. Everything looked a little different, there were cracks in the walls and floor, and some chunks of rubble that seemed to have fallen out of the walls and ceiling. The lights were still working, so the power grid was still working, or whatever lit the lights. Anyone we passed was told to follow, and by the time we got to the rift room there was porbably about a hundred people with us. Surprisingly there wasn''t any new damage to the room, though I might have just missed it because the room was already pretty badly damaged. There was a whole bunch of new equipment. The original tower things were still there, but around them was a bunch of things that looked like the concrete barricade things that usually go on roads, except they were metal. There was also a few screens that had symbols, and bar graph things. It all looked like some kind of crazy science lab. Oh, and the rift was a nice little sphere, about the same height as Lily.
The doctor immediately started giving orders when we got there, telling people to do things that didn''t make sense to me. Like manage the vitality pulse, open vapor vents, and prepare for temporal spatialization. He did say some things that I understood, like reroute power from non-essencial systems, and set the blocades. Everytime he gave a command he pointed to one or more people and they went off in some direction to do their assigned task. It was surprisingly organized, I think I was just standing there with my mouth open until blanket man grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the side. Marcus and Lily followed, but they looked almost as surprised as me at the way everyone seemed prepared for whatever was going on.
"If you guys just stay over here you should be out of the way. This is something we train for all the time." He brought us to the edge of the room, away from the doors.
"Thanks Brogan. This is all a little overwhelming. The closest I''ve gotten to an emergency was some evacuations for a volcano." Marcus put his back against the wall, and slid down until he was sitting.
"I''ve seen, some stuff. But I was really young at the time, so it is a really old memory, but this is uncomfortably similar." Lily sat next to Marcus.
I was worried about more important things, "Wait, Marcus, when did you talk to blanket, uh, Brogan? Your name is Brogan?"
They all looked at me like they didn''t understand what I just said.Stolen story; please report.
"Bwyd, he introduced himself a while ago. You were there." Marcus was giving me one of those concerned looks, like he was worried for my sanity.
"Oh, I must of been distracted. A lot''s been going on." I wrapped my blanket tighter around me.
"Hey, Bwyd, it''s ok. I''m sure you have a lot on your mind. Remembering one person''s name when you''re introduced to as many as you have been, isn''t easy. It''s not like I''m a dragon. I''m just one of the humans you''ve met." He looked a little depressed, but like he accepted being forgotten. Which just made me feel worse.
I didn''t know what to say, so I stood there trying to think of something that wouldn''t make me look like a heartless jerk, and when I didn''t think of anything right away, it just became an awkward silence. Thankfully my silence was interrupted by a low hum, followed by several pulses that spread out from the rift. It almost felt like waves, but in the air, and not wet. When they stopped, the hum continued, but the rift looked like a flat floating circle of water.
"Whoa, it''s a star gate." Marcus stood up so quickly that Lily, who was leaning on him, fell over with a squeak.
"Marcus, Bwyd, Lily." The doctor motioned for us to go to him. "The portal is stable, it should work both ways. Would one of you go through to confirm that it is in fact the game world you recognize?"
"Me, I''ll go." Marcus barely gave the rest of us a chance to answer. He looked excited.
The doctor nodded, "Good, go through confirm the location, and come back. We will prepare for an evacuation immediately."
He didn''t actually get close to the portal before he stopped and turned around. "Guys, I''ve got notifications again. Apparently I''ve gained some skills and a title."
"Good, your game world seems to have a sphere of influence around the portal." The doctor turned to someone who was talking into a MUD. "Tell everyone we have a safe evacuation portal here, and someone get to the transpo cirlce. We''re going to have a lot of visitors. Marcus, Bwyd, and Lily, you should go through first to prepare the area for at least a thousand refugees."
"Sir, I would like to go as well." Brogan didn''t look depressed anymore, so that was good.
"Go ahead, and remember this is a completely different world, with different rules. I would suggest recording everything you can so we can study it later. Everyone else, listen up. We are going to keep this portal open for as long as possible. We need to evacuate as many people as we can. If this works, we may avoid what happened to Tripolta, and be able to rebuild. For our families, for our people, for life!"
Everyone cheered, but it was kind of a subdued, probably because their city was being attacked.
"What are you waiting for, get through that portal." The doctor looked at us before turning back to the gathered people, "Pep talks over, get back to work."
The four of us looked at each other, then stepped towards the portal.
Congratulations!
You have earned an achievement!
World Walker
Grants the ability to understand any recognized language, though you may not be able to speak it.
Congratulations!
You have gained 5 stat points for unlocking a rare achievement
After dismissing the notifications, we stepped into the portal.
37. Uh, What?
Travelling through the portal was basically like flying through space, really fast though it felt like we were watching a movie. It didn''t feel like we were moving, it just looked like it. Sort of like light speed, except I''m pretty sure we made some turns, and we were kind of like disembodied spirits. I could feel the presence of everyone else, but I couldn''t actually see them. Just blurs of light flying past at insane speeds. The end of the trip was a very sudden stop. We went from watchin the universe fly by to standing in a forest. It was so disorienting that I almost fell over, and Marcus and Brogan, did fall. Lily looked perfectly fine, and she started laughing as soon as she saw the other two on the ground.
"Who brought the alcohol, and why didn''t I get any?" She tried to look upset, but the bell giggle noises ruined her image.
"Aren''t you too young to drink?" Marcus looked completely serious as he started lounging on the ground.
"Hey! Do not bring your laws into my fantasy. I bet I can drink way more than you." She started walking angrily away.
"I feel like that was a bit of an overreaction. It was only a joke about her height."
"Some girls are sensitive to height comments, but, you also made an age comment. So that just made it worse." Brogan got up and started to brush his clothes off.
They kept talking about what to say, and not say to girls, but I wasn''t really interested. I was a lot more interested in the forest around us, and the lack of a portal. The sun was shining, but there was plenty of shade from the trees. They looked like some kind of pine, or something with needles, but they were hundreds of feet tall, and really wide. There were some smaller trees, and some bushes, and lots of ferns. I could also hear animals, like birds, and squirrels, so I was pretty sure it wasn''t an undead forest. Unless undead birds make normal bird sounds.
It definitely reminded me of fantasy forest where there''s elves living in the tree tops, or giant animals walking around, even if I didn''t see those, I still expected them at any moment. I wandered around a little bit, but stayed close enought that I could still hear the boys talking, the sound echoed a little bit, but my superior dragon hearing helped me to keep track of them. Eventually, I found Lily. She was lying in the middle of a bunch of ferns, holding a squirrel. They were both chittering away, like squirrels do, so it seemed like they were having a conversation. I watched for a little while, but eventually the squirrel saw me and started making the really loud squirrel noise. Lilly just patted its head, and chittered something which made it quiet down, but it kept staring at me.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"So, you speak squirrel?"
"It''s a fey thing." She shrugged. "Where are the others?"
"Uh, where we first got here. They were talking about how to talk to girls."
"Oh, really? What were they saying? Was it good, or are they just idiots? I need more ways to mess with Marcus. Tell me everthing." She sat up and stared at me, filled with anticipation.
"I kinda stopped listening after they said you weren''t supposed to talk to a girl about height or age. The forsest was distracting."
"I know, I only walk a little way, and this squirrel started asking me for food. I told him I did not have any, so then we started talking about our favorite types of food. Turns out, we do not like the same food."
"I never would have guessed that your likes would be different..." I was going to say more, but Marcus and Brogan found us.
"Lily, Bwyd. Can you access the game system?" Marcus looked very concerned.
I tried to bring up my stats, but nothing happened.
"Do you think it''s broken?" I looked at Marcus, hoping he would have an idea.
"I have no idea. I got a notification before we went through the portal, but I haven''t gotten anything since then."
Lily chittered to the squirrel, then looked at us, "Mister squirrel doesn''t know either. He just thinks we are all crazy."
"We might be." Brogan was holding a MUD. "It looks like we were briefly in a strange dimension, but only for a moment. We probably didn''t even get to see it, but then we were sent here. If I had a better device I could probably figure out where here is, but this thing can''t process that much data."
"You can track where we went?" Marcus looked interested.
"Not with this, but back in the city, before, everthing. Before the attack." He looked like everything finally sunk in. He had been running on adrenaline, but now that we had stopped. He was overwhelmed. He dropped to his knees and a few tears started running down his face. "I can''t believe, this. Everyone I knew is gone." He started shivering.
For a brief moment I was shocked, but it kind of made me remember that this wasn''t a game. Especially not to him. His whole world had been taken from him. He was lost with a few strangers, and none of us knew what was going on. So since he was shivering, I figured he could use a blanket, and a pat on the back. I briefly considered hugging him, but I didn''t want to take Lily''s job.
"Hey, Brogan, they still had the portal. They can still get out. We just have to find them."
"That''s easy for you to say, everything I''ve worked for is gone. Everyone I knew is gone. You can''t understand." He sounded a little angry.
"If that''s how you feel I''ll take my blanket back." I glared at him, glad that I didn''t hug him.
"What?"
"Look at us, we''re no different than you. Well, for the most part. We all had lives, families, friends, and now we are here, and they aren''t. We don''t even have our bodies, though this body is probably better than my real one."
"Oh, no." Marcus put his hand on his head. "Our bodies. Who knows what''s happened to them. I know they don''t go into the game world with us."
"What if the same amount of time passed there as it did here?." Lily was also starting to look worried.
Marcus looked really pale, "If that''s the case, I''m dead."
38. Welcome Back!
"Hey, Marcus!" Lily tried to get his attention, but he seemed to be in one of his lost in thought states.
"You think he lives alone or something?" I was worried, but I figured it was better to just let him come back to us on his own.
"I hope not. We have been gone so long that... that would be bad." Lily seemed to accept he wasn''t going to talk to us yet and just held his hand.
Brogan had been fidgeting with his MUD, but he really didn''t seem like he was doing anything. It was like he was pretending to be busy while not doing anything. That kind of annoyed me, so I glared at him. It took him a while to notice, but when he did, he looked a little embarrassed.
"Sorry about not thinking about you. I just, I''ve never... sorry, I don''t want to make excuses. My father always said ''A man never makes excuses, just take responsibility''." When he quoted his father he puffed out his chest, as if he was trying to look bigger.
"He sounds like a, uh, man." I wanted to say something that sounded better, but my mind was filled with images of buff men with German accents.
"He is. He is my father after all. Wait, do dragons have fathers?"
"Uh, actually, no. That''s kind of wierd..." I was slightly confused by my newfound knowledge.
"What?"
"Oh, well, until you asked, I hadn''t really thought about it, but now that I have. It just makes sense. Like it''s something I''ve always known. Like it would be strange for someone to think dragons have fathers. True dragons anyway. This is kind of hurthing my head." It felt like a whole bunch of information was just appearing in my head.
"Is there something I can do to help?"
"No, it''s not actual pain it''s just odd to think about. It almost feels like I''m remembering things that I forgot, but I know that I didn''t ever know it in the first place. Except it''s more like I knew it, but I just didn''t think about it, and now that I keep thinking about it I keep remembering more. Even though I''m not really remembering anything. But I am."
"Maybe we should talk about something else? I don''t want you to end up like Marcus." He glanced at Marcus, who was sitting down now with Lily giving him a shoulder massage.
"I don''t know, a shoulder massage sounds good right about now..." Brogan shrugged and moved like he was actually going to give me a massage, "Wait, no, that was a joke. Kind of." I shook my head and buried my face in my hands.
"You ok?" Brogan sounded hesitant.
"I''m just confused. I''m fine, really." I tried to give him a reassuring smile, but I was interrupted. By a flash of light.
Calling it a flash of light might have been a little bit of an understatement. The whole area was bathed in a bright white light, that was so bright we couldn''t see anything. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but it was so bright that we were all blinded for a bit after it went out. Well all except for:Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Warning
System authority has detected anomolous behavior
Removing Duality
Authority insufficent to erase all anomalies
Isolating anomoly from non-integrated environment
Assimilating environment
Creating instance
Assigning highest leadership member to Controller
Transporting all anomolies to isolated area
Integrating all anomolies into instance
Developing logisitical support
Creating dungeon "Dragon''s Refuge"
I was a little overwhelmed by the light, and then the longest message I''d ever seen. Not to mention the things that I could only guess what they meant. But at least it looked like we were back in the game, maybe.
When I could see again, I realized that things had changed. There were still giant trees, but right in front of me was a fortress. A massive fortress. It looked like it was made of stone, but like the city in the darkness, it was seemless. The walls were probably about a hundred feet tall, and they had crenulations on top of them. Every hundred feet or so, there was a round tower that was a bit higher than the wall, and it looked like there were balistas on top of it. I could also see arrow slits near the top of the wall, and all through the towers.
Beyond the wall there was a large keep, with the same design as the walls, exept it was a building, not just a defensive fortification. I quickly teleported towards the wall then to the top so I could get a better look, and the keep was more impressive than I expected. I''m not an expert on defenses, but I got the impression that this place was built to survive a siege. Standing on the walls I realized that they were at least twenty feet thick, and had javelins, arrows, and balista bolts stockpiled in several places. There were also things that looked like giant cannons in the middle of each tower. They were big enough we could put Bjorn inside and shoot him like a cannon ball.
There were two sets of walls total, with the keep connected to one side of the inner walls. The inner walls were slightly taller than the towers on the outer wall, which were taller than the trees. There were only four towers on the inner walls, but they had a hundred foot diameter, and they had gigantic cannons on them. The keep itself had two more towers that rose far above any other part of the fortress, and kind of reminded me of Notre Dame. Except taller. And wider. And rounder.
As I looked around I realized that the trees were far enough away that there was a nice open field around the fortress, and then I realized there were people throughout the fields. There were hundreds of people. Some were walking around, some were yelling at each other, some just sat or lay on the ground. I also saw my group crossing the field, so I waved hoping they''d see me, but they were too distracted by all the people. Some of which were talking to them. I figured I could find the gate while they walked closer, I was supposed to be our parties scout after all. Not that we''d really done game stuff as a party for a while. We didn''t even have our tank. What kind of adventuring party could we be without a tank?
So I looked around to see if I could see a gate, but there was nothing. I went around the entire outer wall, and it was solid all the way around. I started going around again, but got distracted. There was a group of people who were surrounding a couple of large looking people. It looked like there was some kind of a disagreement, and as I watched one of the large people pulled a massive dark shield out of nowhere and slammed it into the ground, while the other one drew two large swords from her back, and two smaller swords from her waist. The shield slam knocked down the people around them, and then I realized, she was blue and had four arms, and the shield guy was kind of rocky looking.
When I recognized them I immediately teleported in front of them, and held up a hand in greeting. "Hi guys."
39. Reunion
The people around Bjorn and Scria were definitely from Brogan''s world. Their clothes were simple, dull colors, and they had MUDs. Oh and things that looked like weapons. At least they were pointing them at Bjorn and Scria, like they could shoot them or something. The weapons looked a bit like rifles, but without all the extra stuff. So I guess it was kind of like a rod with a handle and grip.
"Hey, everyone calm down." I figured I should try to keep everyone from fighting.
Bjorn looked a bit confused, "What? Bwyd! What is this place?"
It was then that I remembered languages were a thing, and Bjorn was speaking a different language then I did. I was speaking the other world''s language so the guys with the rod guns understood me, but Bjorn and Scria didn''t.
"Ma''am, are you the dragon?" One of the rod gun guys turned to face me, and lowered his weapon.
"Yes, and these are my friends, so please stop pointing your, uh, things at them."
"Stand down." He then did something that was proabably their version of a salute. He stood straight with his heels together and then held his right fist across his chest. "We have been ordered to follow any guidance you or your companions give in regards to this world. Quit frankly, we are far beyond our comfort zone, so we had no idea what to do with these friends of yours."
The rod gun guys had lowered their weapons when they were told to, but they still seemed a bit intimidated by the two large people, who were obviously not human.
"So Bwyd? You know we can''t understand a word of what you''re saying, right?" Bjorn still held his shield up, but still looked slightly concerned.
I focused a bit to switch languages, "Yeah, I completely forgot that they don''t speak the same language. Anyway, I told them you were friends, so you should be safe now. Oh, and they are actually here. Like, actually physically here."
He still looked concerned, but he lowered his shield, and Scria sheathed her weapons. "What is this place, we just got a message that said our party member had established an instance and asked if we wanted to teleport here. This is just..."
Scria cut in, "Freaken weird. It, I, feel things."
Bjorn gave her a funny look, but I steathily touched my tail. I could still feel with it. Like I wasn''t in the game. I quickly pulled up my menu, to see if that was working normally.
Spoiler: Spoiler
Name: Bwyd Diderfyni
Titles: Master, World Walker
Race: Dragon (Cursed)
Resistances: Shadow 25, Fire 25, Curse 5, Physical 1.
Gain 1 point of physical resistance per level. (Degraded) Maximum level is 1.
Dragon Breath 1 (Degraded)
Gain a fire breath attack that ignores half the target''s fire resistance. The damage is equal to your Fortitude multiplied by Dragon Breath''s level. (Degraded) You will also take half the damage you deal.
Flight 1 (Degraded)
You can use your wings to fly. You will gain more control, and special maneuvers as the level increases. (Degraded) Maximum level is 1.
Fire Magic 15
You can use your mana to cast fire spells. Each level increases the spells you can learn, and the level of the spell.
Shadow Magic 15
You can use your mana to cast shadow spells. Each level increases the spells you can learn, and the level of the spell.
Meditation 3
You can increase your mana recovery rate by 1/10 of your Willpwer per level.
Mana Conservation 3
You spend 1 less mana per spell cast. This increases by 1 per level.
Empowered Spells 1
You may double the mana you spend to increase the power of the spell. At higher levels you can use more mana to empower the spell even more.
Master
Earned after gaining a servant. +5 Mental and Willpower.
World Walker
Earned after travelling to a world other than your original world. Gain the ability to understand any registered language, though not the ability to speak if it is beyond your physical capabilities.
Firebolt
Range:??2 X Mental (98).??Single target Fire damage:??Mental (49). ????Throw a bolt of fire at one target within range.
Fireball?
Range:??2 X Mental (98).??Single target Fire damage:??2 X Mental (98).??Area Fire damage:??Mental (49).??Diameter:??Mental (49).?????Throw a ball of fire at a target to cause damage, or expload.
Firewall
Duration:??Willpower (50).??Length:??Mental (49).????Fire damage:??Mental (49).????Create a wall of fire.
Fireshield
Duration:??Willpower (50).??Fire/Cold Resistance:??1/2 Mental (25).??On hit Fire damage:??1/4 Mental (13).????Protect yourself with fire.
Flaming Skull
Duration:??Willpower (50).??Fire Resistance:??1/4 Mental (13).??Intimidation:??1/2 Mental (25).????Light your skull on fire to give a slight boost to Fire Resistance and Intimidation.
Burn
Duration:??30 Seconds.??Damage Frequency:??1/2 Mental (25).??Fire damage:??1/5 Mental (9).????Light a target on fire.
Shadowbolt
Range:??2 X Mental (98).??Single target Shadow damage:??Mental (49). ????Throw a bolt of shadow at one target within range.
Cloak of Shadows
Duration:??10 X Willpower (500).??Stealth:??1/2 Mental (25).????Surround yourself in shadows.
Darkness
Duration:??Willpower (50).??Range:??Mental (49).??Diameter:??Mental (49).????Create a zone of darkness.
Shadow Blade
Duration:??Willpower (50).??Shadow Damage:??1/4 Mental (13).????Create a blade of pure shadows.
Shadow Step
Range:??Mental (50).????Step through shadows.
Shadow Swap
Make your shadow take damage from one attack for you.?
Curse of Blindness
Duration:??Permanant unless target is resistant to curses.??Cause a creature to become blind.
Curse of Stupidity
Duration:??Permanant unless target is resistant to curses.??Cause a creature to lose half its Mental, Willpower, and Awareness stats.
Curse of Molasses
Duration:??Permanant unless target is resistant to curses.??Cause a creature to become slowed.
Curse of Inevitability
Duration:??Permanant unless target is resistant to curses.??Cause a creature to be hit by everything that is aimed at it.
*Hexbolt*
Range:??2 X Mental (98).??Single target Curse damage:??Mental (49). ????Throw a bolt of curse energy at one target within range.
Everything looked like I expected, well except for the stat points. Apparently I had 15 to spend, and no idea where they all came from. I could always go through my notification log, but I didn''t care enough to take the time. Plus I got some strange notifications, so who knows what those said. So somehow the game system was running, but I could feel things like this was reality.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Guys, there is so much we need to talk about, but I think we should get Marcus. He might understand more about what''s going on. It''s been a bit crazy."
They both agreed, and we started going towards where I left Marcus, Lily, and Brogan. Before we had gone very far, the rod gun guys all seemed to jump a little, at the same exact time. They also started to make various motions, like there was something in front of their face. A moment after they jumped I got a notification.
Alert
The system has discovered 72,337 unregistered enties
Due to the system''s moral code these entities cannot be eliminated and must either be removed from the integrated area, or given a special instance
As the controller of this instance you may convert it to a special instance immediately, or a normal instance after all unregistered entities are removed
Until you choose one of these options, your instance will remain in flux
I reread that notification a couple times just to make sure I understood what it said. It looked like I was somehow given an entire instance of my own, and it had a massive fortress surrounded by a massive forest. Which was pretty cool. But then there were the unregistered entities. I was pretty sure that the unregistered enties were all the people who came through the portal, and I wasn''t about to tell them they all had to leave, so I figured I would have to make a special instance. Not that I had any idea what that meant, or how to do it, but I was sure I''d figure it out. I mean, I''d been doing ok with the game so far. Before I was able to start looking at what I could do with my instance I got distracted by Bjorn and Scria.
"Do you think she''s really Marcus? Just disguised?"
"Poke her, Marcus don''t notice nothing."
"I''m not going to poke her I''m a man, it''s inappropriate. You poke her."
"Ya, but you got that dragon thing goin'' on."
"Hey, nobody gets to poke me." I put my hands on my hips and tried to give them a stern look.
Bjorn started smiling and then he lunged at me. Apparently he forgot that I could teleport, so he landed on his face, and I was standing in Scria''s big shadow. However I missjudged one thing. They were working together. He knew perfectly well that I would teleport into Scria''s shadow, and she was waiting. All four of her arms reached out in a perfectly timed attack. She might have hit me a little hard, but thankfully I was a little bit tougher than the average human. The force of her pokes lifted me off my feet and sent me tumbling a few feet away. Both of them were laughing. Bjorn still on the ground, and Scria holding her stomach.
"So do I have to escape from pokes now?" I tried to mimic Lily''s pouting face.
"Yo, Bwyd. Ya face..." Scria just started laughing again, unable to say any more.
"Bywd, it''s just, we thought you needed a poke. You looked so serious. You didn''t even hear us talking about poking you."
"I heard you, that''s why I said nobody gets to poke me." I gave up on the pouting face and just glared at Scria, but that just made her laugh more.
"Only the last bit, we talked about our whole plan. You looked like you were reading something. Was it important?"
"Oh, right. Wait a moment." I turned towards the rod gun guys, and saw they were still seeing something in front of their faces. I switched lanuages, "Are you seeing a blue box in front of you?"
The man who spoke before answered me, "Yes, we have figured out how to dissmiss the messages. It seems like a more advanced interface than our own devices, but the idea is similar."
"Wait, you have more than one message?"
"Yes, the first one was unreadable, but the second said something about being unregistered, and recieving a temporary ID until we were removed from this space, or allowed to stay. Do you know anything about that?"
"I think I may be able to help, but I don''t really understand everything that''s going on here. We are going to get another friend of mine who is really good with this type of magic. We should be able to figure out what''s going on."
"Good, then we will meet up with the rest of the refugees. We''ll gather near that wall, maybe we can find what''s inside."
"Ok, sounds good, though the fortress was empty. I already took a look inside."
We separated after that, and it wasn''t too long after that we found Marcus, Lily, and Brogan. They were walking though the field towards the fortress. I was about to yell something, but Scria spoke first.
"Yo, guys. Wanna mess with them?"
40. My Castle
"Yo, guys. Wanna mess with them?"
I didn''t have a chance to respond, Scria dashed off almost as soon as she spoke. She started running so she could come up behind Marcus and Lily, but after a couple seconds she fell.
Bjorn shook his head, "Scria, is it just me or have you gotten clumsy?"
"Just, shut up." She looked away from us, but I was pretty sure she was blushing, or at least a darker shade of blue.
"You know it''s cute when you act shy."
"I said shut up." She almost sounded like she was going to cry.
I was about to say something, but Bjorn winked at me, "Hey, if you ever need a big man to hug, I''ve been told I''m a great hugger."
"F... you" and Scria disappeared. With the usual slow fade that happens when someone logged out.
"Bjorn, I think you made her mad."
He was laughing too hard to say anything. In fact, he was laughing so hard that Marcus, Lily and Brogan heard him. When they saw Bjorn, Marcus looked surprised and rushed over, Lily and Brogan followed at a normal pace.
"Bjorn, are you really here?" Marcus almost looked like he wanted to touch Bjorn, just to make sure he was real, or virtual, or whatever we were.
"Yeah, what did you get yourselves into?"
"I''m still trying to figure that out."
"It was a seance!" Lily actually jumped into the conversation as she gave Bjorn a hug. Or tried to, her arms barely made it halfway around him. "It was all Marcus'' fault, but everything worked out. We even found a guy for Bwyd."
Marcus chuckled, I choked, Lily giggled, Bjorn gave me a thumbs up, and Brogan was thankfully oblivious. Thankfully, Brogan was polite and didn''t ask what we were saying. He just kept tapping his MUD. Looking slightly awkward.
I decided to change the subject, "Scria was here earlier, but she logged out. Bjorn was teasing her."
"She logged out?" Marcus was suddenly very serious.
"Yeah? I mean she disappeared like she logged out."
"Did you see the slow vanishing effect, or did she just disappear?" He grabbed both my shoulders, as he continued his questions.
"Um, yeah, she did the slow thing, and now she''s offline in my friend list."
"Bwyd. Can you log out?" He almost looked concerned and hopeful at the same time.
I checked my logout button, and couldn''t find it. "Uh, no? My logout button is missing."
Bjorn started to look confused, "What are you guys talking about?"
Marcus finally let go of my shoulders, "Me and Bwyd, cannot log out."
Bjorn didn''t respond, so I asked, "Lily''s fine?"
She looked gulty, "Yes, I even logged out just to be sure."
We kind of stood there in silence for a moment. Just thinking about it, didn''t make sense. If Marcus and I couldn''t log out, but Lily and Scria could, there wasn''t a pattern. Unless there was something wrong with just two of us.
"Are you ok Marcus? Bwyd?" Bjorn sounded concerned.
"Can you log out?" Marcus'' voice was quiet, completely different from normal.
"Yeah, I just checked, though if you want me to make sure, I can log out for a moment and get back in."
"No, that''s fine. I wish Scria was here though. We need to talk about everything."
Bjorn sighed, "I can send her, uh, cousin a message. I know him in real life. Give me a moment." He then disappeared, slowly, like a normal logout.
"So, while we wait, all 72,337 refugees from Brogan''s home made it here safely, and I control this instance." I switched to Brogan''s language so he could understand me.
Marcus looked at me and blinked a couple times before speaking, "What?"
"All 72,337 refugees from Brogan''s home made it here safely, and I control this instance."The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Oh, that''s what I thought you said..." He started to retreat into his mind.
"Hey! Don''t you dare leave again Marcus!" Lily came out of nowhere and slapped him in the face. "We need you to think out loud, and respond, and be here."
"I, uh, need to think." He wasn''t really focusing on anything.
"Then I will do unspeakable things to your body." She cracked her knuckles.
For a moment I thought he was still going to do his thinking thing, but then he shuddered and his eyes refocused.
"Good boy! Now listen to everything Bwyd has to say, and talk like a normal person." She sounded like she was talking to a dog.
"Uh, Lily I think he''s ok now." I was a little worried about what she might do.
"He better be." She crossed her arms and stared at him.
We ended up talking about all the notifications I''d seen, and the fortress, and all the people, and the notifications the rod guys saw. Marcus was actually pretty good at listening, and responding to my story, though he did keep looking at Lily. She just stared at him the whole time. I was even intimidated, and she wasn''t even looking at me. We eventually decided that I should make this the special instance, like I had planned, and that we should set it up before Bjorn got back and we had to talk about more serious stuff.
The moment I decided to make my instance special, not that it wasn''t already special, I got a ton of notifications, and a really cool castle sculpting tool. I basically got to decide where the gates went, asign a purpose to different areas and choose an optional entry point. The areas were percentage based, so I got the idea that the castle would changed based on what I picked. I decided to put one gate on the front of the fortress, or where all the people were gathered. By the way, 72,000 people is a lot of people in one place.
I also put a gate in the inner walls lined up with the outer gate, and because I had to feed all these people I used a lot of the free space for food production. Thankfully the castle building thing was nice and told me how much food production I would need to feed all 72,000 residents. I was kind of happy because it was all the magically created meat from Brogan''s world, but it did take 50% of my castle''s space.
The last of the space I split between production and research. I didn''t need to say what kind of production or research, so I was hoping that at least some of the research area could be used to cure curses. Once I confirmed my choices the fortress seemed to shimmer a bit and then stopped. It looked about the same, except where I wanted the gate there was a cool looking design. It looked like it was etched into the wall, but it was kind of gate shaped, and looked a lot like a celtic knot. It turned out that the design was the gate. I could walk right through the wall there. When I stepped up to it the wall just opened a tunnel in front of me so I could walk through. I was completely surprised by it, but apparently this was a normal thing for Brogan''s people.
They couldn''t walk through until I gave them authorization, and thankfully I could just send an area invitation. That made them all official residents of my instance, which also gave them full access to the game system, and the nice language translation thing. They all got the world walker title. Apparently they could go to the main part of the game, and it would work just like it did for anyone else, so reviving on death, cool loot, stat points, their real body wasn''t actually there but it was different in my instance. They were like NPCs. If they died, they died. They would age, and they needed to eat. They could have children, and those children could have children, but the game system was still active. You could still get stat points, the cool loot could be brought here and still worked at full power, and there could be events that gave more loot, and other rewards.
It was like a mix between the game world and the real world. This was the real world for them, but players could come and treat it like part of the game, which kind of worried me. If players came here and decided to kill everyone, they would actually kill people. So I didn''t set up an entry point. I figured we could invite people if we wanted to, but I didn''t really remember Marcus, Bjorn, Lily or Scria talking about anyone else they wanted to play the game with.
After setting everything up, Bjorn still hadn''t come back, so we took a tour. The walls hadn''t changed, except for the gate rune things, but there were now some little phone booth bunker things between the inner and outer walls. The system was nice enough to tell us that they were housing instance teleporters. In other words we could open the door, step in, and choose someone to visit and it would ask them if they wanted visitors. We also had the option to go to our own room, which I chose, because I figured I had a nice room, and I kind of wanted to see it. I was very disapointed. My room was just big enough for a single bed and dresser, with a little open space and a door to a small bathroom with a shower. No bath tub.
When I got over my shock I found out that the rooms were upgradable. I just had to use influence points to upgrade it, and I could get influence points by doing quests for the instance. I was a little annoyed, so we just continued our tour. We went into the inner walls, and there were more teleporter things, but they went to the food processing place, which looked like a huge factory, but with magic crystals instead of machines. The production and research spaces were just a bunch of open space that could be claimed. Basically, there were 125 units for each one, and each resident could claim one unit. You could combine them to make a bigger space, but you had to agree with someone else to do that. There was a tax for the space, so at least people wouldn''t just hold on to a unit without some kind of cost. I was also hoping I could evict people if I needed to, though after seeing my room, I wasn''t too hopeful.
After I claimed a research space for curse research, we went to the last unexplored part of the castle. The keep had an actual door, though it was a stone sliding door, that opened into a large hall. The moment I stepped in I was given the option to set it up for banquet, ballroom, audience, or empty space. I pick banquet and the whole space was filled with long wooden tables and benches. They looked kind of cheap, and I found out they were also upgradable. There were no other rooms in the keep, so we just sat at a table and waited. Everyone had been fairly quiet for the whole tour, except for little comments, and we continued the silence while we waited for Bjorn and Scria.
After what seemed like hours, Bjorn came back online and Marcus sent him a message to meet in the keep. It didn''t take too long for him to get there. The gates opened for him becuase he was my servant, and he could talk to people now so when he arrived he brought a few of the refugees. One of them was the commander of the rod guys that I met before, and the others seemed to be a mix between military and scientists, with one who didn''t quite fit either group.
Marcus looked a little upset that other people had come with Bjorn, but he just said, "We have some things to discuss. Let''s get started."
41. Uh Oh
"Scria won''t be joining us for a bit. There''s something going on, but he won''t tell me about it." Bjorn looked a little concerned and distracted.
Lily cocked her head and asked, "Did you just call Scria ''he''?"
"Ah, her cousin. He''s the one who asked if I''d let her join us. I don''t actually know her personally."
"I thought you did. The way you looked at her all the time, I figured she was your girlfriend." Lily had a mischievious glint in her eyes.
"Well, uh, I''m married. To a beautiful woman, and I''m not the type of guy to, uh, actually never mind. We have important things to talk about right?" Bjorn''s face looked like it might be slightly darker, but it was hard to tell with his stoney skin.
Marcus seemed to remember that there were important things to talk about and he cleared his throat, "Right, so all of you know that we''ve been seeing some weird things involving the game lately. Like how Bwyd was somewhere else without ever logging out, and the weird crystal stuff, and well all the stuff."
Lilly giggled and muttered "Stuff" so Marcus glared, "This is actually serious Lily. Two of us cannot log out, and we don''t know what that means."
One of the scientists spoke up, "What do you mean by logout?"
"Wait, you can''t log out either?" Marcus hit himself in the forehead, "I''m dumb. Of course you can''t log out. You physically stepped through the portal, so you are actually here. Bjorn, Scria and Lily can all leave this instance, but me and Bwyd cannot. Just like all the refugees." He seemed like he was getting excited. "That means that we must be in the same state as... Bwyd, I think we are physically here. Wherever here is."
After that Marcus started to shut down again, so I decided to take charge. It was my castle after all. I told everyone everything that I knew about my instance, told Bjorn everything we''d been through (with help from Lily), and answered lots of questions from everyone. Except Marcus. He was thinking for most of it, and when he finally stopped thinking he just let me do all the talking. It took several hours to get through all the questions and explanations, and because I was hungry, I found an option for the banquet hall to serve a meal. Which I did. In front of everyone''s seat, food appeared. The only type of food that appeared in front of me was the magically created meat, but other people had vegtables as well. It also seemed like everything was proportioned for each of us. Bjorn had a couple plates of food, Lily had a small plate of veggies, and I had a platter of meat. It was perfect.
After eating, Marcus asked to speak with me privately. So we went to my room.
"I really thought the ruler of the castle would have a nicer room." I just glared at him. "Not that there''s a problem with the owner, it''s the game system."Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Yeah, and I can upgrade it. Along with everything else here."
"I heard your explanation, but I need to ask you something." He looked nervous.
"Ok?"
"What was the first notification you saw when we got here?"
"Um something about anomolies and other stuff? It was kind of long."
"You know you can look up old notifications in your log, right?"
"Oh, right. Found it."
Warning
System authority has detected anomolous behavior
Removing Duality
Authority insufficent to erase all anomalies
Isolating anomoly from non-integrated environment
Assimilating environment
Creating instance
Assigning highest leadership member to Controller
Transporting all anomolies to isolated area
Integrating all anomolies into instance
Developing logisitical support
Creating dungeon "Dragon''s Refuge"
As I read the notification out loud, he wrote down what I said. He read over it a couple times, compared it to something else he had written.
He started pacing. "Well, I think I have an idea about what happened. Our notifications are the same, until the line "Creating Instance". That''s where mine ends. Lily''s notification was a bit different. The "Removing Duality" line wasn''t in her''s."
"What does that mean?" I hopped on my bed to get out of his way.
"Where did you live?" He stopped pacing a looked at me with the most serious look I''d ever seen.
"Uh, New York. Why?"
His eyes shifted to the corner of my room for a moment, then he said, "I think we''re in California. At the point between where you lived, and where I lived."
"Can we really be on Earth? Why California? How do you know?" I was starting to get a bit worried.
"It''s the redwoods. We''re in a redwood forest."
"So, we can''t log out because this is already Earth?"
"That''s my theory. I need to get Bjorn to test it though. If he can visit one of our homes, he can see if, if we''re dead." His voice broke and his eyes looked like he was about to cry.
"Marcus. We are not dead. We''re talking, breathing, eating. We''re alive. So who cares if we look a little different. I get to be a dragon, so that''s cool. My family will understand, probably. Besides, you''re an illusionist, so you can look like whatever you want to."
He looked like he was about to say something, but we were interrupted by a siren. It sounded like a WWII air raid siren.
Alert
The protection period for you instance has run out
You may now be attacked, or visited by outsiders
Warning
Your instance has been invaded by *$(#&$#)))%
New Quest!
Defeat the intruders
Reward: Influence points based on contribution
Failure: Instance level decreases (The instance level is too low, and will change ownership instead)
We both looked at each other and said, "Uh oh."
42. Defend the Gates!
We rushed outside and saw everyone else doing the same thing.
Marcus nervously chuckled, "I guess everyone got the message."
The rod guys were already heading up onto the walls, and most of the other refugees were looking nervous and talking quietly. I could almost feel the fear coming off of them. Not that I really could blame them. Here I was telling people they''d be safer here than where they were, and now we were under attack. I really wanted to help these people, but their lives were on the line, and I was responsible. I kind of felt like I''d led them into some kind of trap. I know that wasn''t my plan, but the game was treating this like, a game. It created an invasion, and they had to fight for their lives. If they were normal players this would have been a cool event. You get the castle, build some defenses, claim a room and fight enemies to defend the castle. If you die, oh well. You can respawn. Either way you get some rewards that make your character stronger, and it doesn''t cost you anything but time. But how could I ask these people I was supposed to protect to fight in a game of life and death. Death for them was really death... then I realized, death for me was really death.
I probably froze for a bit when I realized that. This game was just supposed to be something to pass the time. I wasn''t even a hardcore gamer. This wasn''t a game anymore. I was kind of aware of that, ever since what happened in Brogan''s world, but it had just sunk in. This was a crazy new world, where I had to fight for my life, and the lives of 72,000 other people. I didn''t feel like I could be responsible for everyone, how was I supposed to lead them against an invasion? Yeah, I was a dragon, kind of, but I was basically a nobody. I finished high school, got a job, and just kind of existed. I didn''t even go to college. Though, I don''t think college prepares anyone to lead an army of interdimensional travelers in the defense of a magical castle. But the point is, I was just a girl, in way over my head.
Even though I was frozen with indecision, there was someone else who was not. Bjorn stood on top of the outer wall and slammed his shield down. The sound echoed out over the courtyard, and everyone quieted down.
"Listen up." He easily projected his voice with his powerful lungs. "You don''t know me, but I have heard about the struggles you''ve been through. I have heard of your bravery, and courage, I have heard of your tenacity, and I have heard of your sacrifice. I admire you. I don''t know if I could have done as well as you have. So what I am about to ask, is intended with the greatest respect. The soldiers who came with you are not enough to man the walls. There are weapons that will go to waste unless some of you join us in the defense. You will be in danger if you volunteer. But, if you do not, we may not be able to win." He paused for a moment while thousands of people started talking. He slammed his shield again. "If you do not want to fight, go to the housing area. All volunteers, stay here."Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
He had an authoritative tone to his voice that the refugees seemed to react to. Most of them started going into the housing area, but there were a few who stayed behind. I was going to try to count them when I got a notification.
Alert
You have been invited to an army by Bjorn
Accept Y/N?
I obviously accepted, and then realized I didn''t need to count anymore. There were ten squads of ten rod guys (their class was apparently soldiers), then there was another thousand unassigned, classless people. Then there was me, Marcus, Lily, and Bjorn. Bjorn was listed as the general, and it looked like he was putting everyone else into large groups. In less then a minute, all the classless people were in groups of 100, and I was put in a squad with Marcus, Lily, and Bjorn.
"I have assigned each of you to a group, and if you look at your map you will see your zone assignments. Get there as quickly as possible. I will give you further instructions when you are in position."
Bjorn used a form of telepathy that came as part of the system for raids and armies. Basically, he could send a message to everyone, but everyone else was limited to sending messages to other people in their squad. Unless they were the squad leader, then they could send messages to the next up the chain of command. Once everyone was in position, Bjorn gave a quick explanation of how the balista (which were inside the walls) worked, and assigned some people to man the balista, and some to man the javelins. He did ask if anyone knew how to use a bow, but they didn''t have bows where they came from, so he didn''t worry about using the bows.
As they were all getting in their places and learning the basics of firing a balista he sent me a message, "Bwyd, if you''re just going to stand around, at least come up here and activate the cannons."
I was going to say something about how I wasn''t just standing around, but I was just kind of standing around. So instead I looked at my castle interface and found the cannons. At their current level, I could fire them manually, or assign a gunner to each one. I teleported up to Bjorn and told him, so he picked out one volunteer for each cannon, and I made them all gunners. I kind of wanted to fire a cannon, but Bjorn wanted me using my skills to fight.
Once we were mostly ready, there were still a couple things Bjorn was explaining, we started waiting. And waiting. We had a notification telling us about an invasion, but nothing attacked. It was quiet. We were all expecting something to come running out of the woods any second, but nothing happened.
Until it did.
43. Enemy at the Gates
They didn''t come screaming out of the woods, it was more like shambling. I felt like there should have been clouds, or fog, or it could have been night, because seeing zombies walking through a green grass field on a sunny day was odd. There were even birds singing, like there wasn''t some kind of unatural being walking around. Seeing zombies in broad daylight also took away some of the fear, and added a lot more grossness. I mean, they were literally walking corpses. Not only were they decomposing, but they had parts hanging out where they weren''t supposed to, or missing limbs, and even holes through their bodies. And then there was the smell. At first it wasn''t bad. They were far away, but as they got closer to the walls we started to smell them. It was enough that several of us started to gag a bit. No one puked, which was good. Puking could have started a chain reaction of disgusting raining down on the ground. Though it might have made the zombies slip and fall...
By the time the zombies were half way to the walls Bjorn decided it was time to open fire. "Let''s test the firepower of those cannon. Cannons fire at will!"
I expected a boom, followed by a whistling noise and some zombies exploading. What I got was a bit different. I was standing with Bjorn, Marcus, and Lily on top of one of the towers, so we were right next to a cannon. When it fired, there was barely any noise. Just a kind of whoosing noise and a hum, then about five zombies exploaded. There was a bit of a blurry line of distortion that went from the cannon to where the zombies exploaded, but there was no projectile. Not only that, but the ground was perfectly fine. Only the zombies exploaded.
"Of course you have magic cannons. I was kind of hoping for big booms and explosions." Lily looked at me like I did something wrong.
I was going to say something, but Bjorn spoke first, "This is actually better for us. There''s no smoke, so we still have great visibility. Traditional cannons would make the battle field very messy. It would be easier for the enemy to hide what they''re doing."
"Oh, since when did you learn so much about war?" Lily made her pouty face, before actually looking curious.
"Two tours in Iraq, and a lot of games."
"Is Iraq a dangerous place?"
"Uh, yeah? I mean we were fighting terrorists." He paused to give the balistas the order to fire. "They had guns, and bombs, so... people got hurt."
She looked really confused, "So why would you go on a tour there? What kind of vacation is that?"
Bjorn had been watching the zombies, but when she said that, he looked at her with a hurt expression. "Lily, please don''t joke about that." His tone was pleading.
"I was not..."
I shushed her, "Bjorn, Lily doesn''t actually know about Iraq. She''s from a different world."
He took a deep breath, "I, I lost people there, brothers. It was a tour of duty, not a vacation." It looked like he had a tear, or two starting to form.
"I''m so sorry, Bjorn, I did not know. I am surprised we have not run into this before. There must be a million differences between our worlds."
Marcus decided to speak for the first time since leaving my room, "The game system didn''t let us realize. It''s a lot looser here, so it''s probably translating in a more literal sense instead of translating the meaning. Or maybe we are allowed to notice differences. There''s still so much I need to figure out. Just blame the system for your problems. The game system. Not any..."
Bjorn held up a hand, cutting him off, "We can listen to your rambling later. Now, we deal with that."
He pointed to a group of zombies armed with shields and spears. They looked kind of like a Greek phalanx, but dead. As they marched forward, a couple of cannons shot them, but whatever they fired seemed to have no effect on the phalanx, and the balista bolts could not penetrate their shields. They were slow, so it would still be a few minutes before they got to us, but Bjorn seemed a bit concerned.
"They are armed with weapons from the other world. It''s probably an older model, but it''s definitely the same tech. Those shields are also deflecting everything we send at them, so our squad is the only one that can take them on. Bwyd, I need you to disrupt their formation, Lily, I''ll be holding their attention, you just need to keep me alive. I don''t know how much damage those weapons will do. Marcus, keep the other zombies from noticing what we''re doing. Questions? Good, lets go."
With that he jumped off the wall followed by smiling Lily.
Marcus looked at me, "Ready to risk our lives?"
"It''s just zombies, where''s the risk?"
Just before I jumped down, I heard him mutter something about flags.
Bjorn didn''t pause before he charged through the weak zombies to get to the phalanx, and Lily was right behind him making musical bell sounds and lots of little lights, well fae. As I followed a couple of the little fae came to me, as Lily sent me a few buffs, but I kind of wished that they could make things smell better. Bjorn had just run through a bunch of rotting corpses, and broke them into small pieces. So there I was running through a field of rotting zombie parts, under the hot sun. It was the most disgusting thing I had ever done. I actually did pretty well, until I stepped on an eyball, and it just popped.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
After adding a bit to the disgustingness in the field, I teleported to Bjorn''s shadow. He was already at the phalanx, and he didn''t look too good. Lily was working hard to keep him alive, but his shield looked a bit like Swiss cheese. The phalanx zombies were holding their spears up, and it looked like there was some kind of energy around them. The lower half was glowing, and as I watched the glow moved up the spear.
"Bwyd, do not get hit by those beam attacks. They ignore armor. I think they''re force damage." Lily was the only one capable of talking. "Luckily they take for ever to charge. But it looks like it affected Bjorn more than normal."
He coughed up some blood, "It just hurt. The game isn''t supposed to hurt like this."
"Shut up and let me heal you. Bwyd, kill them please?"
She then went back to directing her little fae and ignored me. When I looked at Bjorn, he just shrugged and gave me a thumbs up. I kind of wanted to fireball them, but I figured the shields would mess up that plan, so instead, I lit my skull on fire with flaming skull. It kind of felt weird, like I had a bunch of blood rushing to my head, and it was really warm, but not uncomfortable. It did make Lily stare for a moment, which made me wish I had a mirror, but I was on a time limit now. So next I cast darkness around the zombies,shadow blade and cloak of shadows on myself, andshadow stepped into the middle of the zombies.
My plan was to use all my area fire damage spells, but the moment I appeared inside their formation, the zombies dropped their spears and tackled me. I struggled a bit, but they were surprisingly strong, I barely even got to swing my shadow blade. They even were fast enough to shove some horrible tasting cloth in my mouth.
"You are a foolish mage. You didn''t think that I would be expecting an attack like this." There was one zombie that looked a little more humanish. His eyes were still clouded over, like dead eyes, but there weren''t any pieces missing from his body. He was also wearing somewhat clean looking clothes. I doubt he would have smelled bad if I could have smelled him over the stench of the zombies pinning me to the ground.
"Now I will let you watch your friends die, before I make you one of my minions. Our weapons are almost ready to use, you won''t have to wait long." He chuckled with his deep voice, so it sounded very evil.
I started trying to get the rag out of my mouth, but he noticed and had one of the zombies hold it in. That made me a bit nauseous, and gave me an idea. I had heard that puking when you couldn''t open your mouth could kill you, but I had a feeling that breathing fire would take care of the rag. So I did.
The moment I decided to spit fire at them, I became aware of my fire pouch thing. It probably has a better name, but I only felt it, it wasn''t like I knew everything about it. I just openned it up, and I felt a burning sensation shoot up my throat. It was kind of like heartburn, but hoter. The rag didn''t stand a chance. The fire shot out of my mouth in a wave, kind of like a flamethrower, and completely destroyed the zombie who bravely tried to hold the rag in my mouth. It then washed over the smart one, and I heard him scream.
When the fire stopped, there were still some zombies hanging on to my arms so I made a mental note to turn my head next time. The smart zombie was still standing in front of me, his head tilted back, and arms hanging at his sides, but he was covered in blackened skin. I thought he needed a push to completely die, so I cast burn. His head snapped up and he lunged at me, but this time I was prepared. Ishadow stepped behind him and hit him with afirebolt. He stumbled and fell, right where I was laying a moment ago, but he wasn''t done yet. He screamed an inhuman scream, and all the zombies charged at me. I castfirewall around me just before they reached me, and then, knowing Lily was nearby, I cast fireball on myself. There was a sickening smell of burning rotten flesh, but the force of the blast forced the zombies away from me.
Well all except one. The smart one. Still burning, he stumbled towards me muttering something. I castfireshield before he got to me, and got ready to start running and hitting him with morefirebolts. Before I could move, he gestured with his hand and I felt something fasten around both my legs. I couldn''t see anything, so I knew it had to be magic of some kind, but I could not move my legs.
"Now you pay." His voice was still deep, but much more raspy.
His hands started glowing with dark power. I tried to shadow step but whatever was holding my legs didn''t let me teleport either. Then he released a bolt of pure death. At least, that''s what it felt like. It looked like pure darkness, but I am very familiar with darkness, so I knew instinctively that it wasn''t darkness. As the energy left his hands, I knew it would hurt, maybe even kill me.
Then something unexpected happened. The darkness I conjured, condensed into a single disc of darkness, and I felt some of my mana get used, as the bolt of death hit my shadows, and not me. Almost immediately, my legs were freed, so I took a couple steps back. Not that I needed to. The smart zombie was laying on the ground, not moving, and in the place my shadows intercepted his attack was a spirt figure. He looked like an elf, and he looked furious.
"HOW DID YOU RESIST? YOU ARE NOTHING compared to the might of ..." As he spoke his form faded from view, until we couldn''t hear him, or see him anymore.
I looked back at Bjorn and Lily. Bjorn looked okay, his shield was still holely, and Lily looked really excited.
"THAT WAS A GHOST!" She came running up to me and stared at where the ghost had been, the a little quieter, "You got to kill a ghost. I am really jealous. Next time let me see it first."
I kind of chuckled, "I didn''t see it till the end there, I''m not really sure where it came from, but do you mind healing me? I burned myself a bit."
Even with my fire resistance I did more damage than I could handle, mostly because my dragon breath hurts me too, since it''s degraded. So even though I didn''t burn as much as the zombies, I was still a little burned. Lily seemed a little surprised but healed me anyway.
"So Bjorn, how did you take so much damage?"
"Overconfidence. I thought my shield would work against them." He picked up one of the fallen shields they had used. "But I think I just fixed that problem. Grab what you can, these might be helpful. Let''s get back to the gate."
44. Zombie Siege
Sieges are boring.
Yeah, we got to go kill that one group of tough zombies, but most of the zombie siege was just standing on the wall and shooting them. Over and over. Or learning to shoot a bow, becuase zombies are great training dummies, and I needed a lot of practice. I mean, you''d think I could hit one shambling, braindead corpse from a horde, but bows are not easy to fire. You put an arrow on the string, pull back, and release, but you have to aim correctly, and breathe. I never knew breathing was so hard. It''s almost like there''s so much going on that you can''t even do the one thing we do almost instinctually.
So, anyway, that''s what most of the siege was like. The zombies were pretty much stupid, so they charged up to the walls, and then stood there and stared up at us, occasionally there would be some tougher zombies, but none of them showed up in a formation, and none of them spoke. It was almost as if the invasion was supposed to teach us how to defend the castle with a nice easy battle. We fought hordes of zombies, and had a bit of a mini boss, but it wasn''t really that hard. Which made me realize, if this was a tutorial fight, there was probably going to be a boss at the end.
"Hey, Bjorn?" He was teaching some refugees how to use a bow.
"Yeah?" He kept watching his students, but he glanced at me when I said his name.
"Do you think a boss is coming?"
"Yeah. I''m guessing we have a few hours. It''ll probably get here right after sunset."
"How long have you known?" I was feeling a little embarrassed for not realizing sooner.
"Pretty much since the beginning." He turned to look at me. "Bwyd, I''m your general for this battle. It''s my job to predict the enemy, so you can practice archery."
"But it is my castle, shouldn''t I be more, regal or something?"
"Well, you could try to hit the zombies." He laughed, I glared. "Hey, at least you''re doing more than Lily, she''s been napping."
"That''s why she has so much energy. She''s like a cat."
"And look at Marcus. He''s is just experimenting. He keeps throwing different things on the zombies, ''for science''."The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
"You''d think it would be for magic..."
"Yeah, but the point is, you are doing fine. The person in charge doesn''t have to be the best, you just need the experts to work for you."
"So, what, I should just sit on a throne and look pretty?"
"You know, you''ve got a dark vibe going. You could go with dangerous instead of pretty." He stroked his chin.
"Uh, Bjorn? Are you trying to set me up as some kind of evil demon queen?" I put my hands on my hips.
"I was thinking evil dragon queen. You don''t have the sexiness for a demon." His tone was completely serious.
"So, I''m not sexy?" I wasn''t sure whether to be mad yet, I wasn''t really trying to be sexy, but he did just say ''dangerous instead of pretty''.
"Not really."
"So what do you see me as?"
He chuckled, "You''ve got the girl next door look, with intense glares. You also remind me of my niece, but a little bit older. You''ve got an innocence, that makes me want to protect you, and wish I had children of my own."
"Oh, so you think I''m like a child." I was half teasing him.
"No. I''m just old enough that an adult could be my daughter." He smiled at me, but it was kind of a sad smile.
"You don''t talk about your family much."
"There is a reason for that." He turned to look out over the dying zombies.
"Sorry, you don''t have to talk about them if you don''t want to."
"Don''t worry about it. I don''t." He sounded a bit sad.
We stood there for a while before I finally joined him and just watched zombies expload, or get hit with arrows and javelins. They were actually getting good at using the bows and javelins. Much better than I was anyway.
Eventually I broke the silence, "So, can I launch a few fireballs? I need to compensate for my bow skills."
"Compensate? You just need more practice."
"But fireballs are more fun, and free."
"Mana isn''t free, and your castle spawns arrows and javelins, so they are free."
"Fireballs don''t cost mana."
"What?" He looked confused.
"Fireballs don''t cost mana."
"You use magic for them, right?"
"Mhm."
"It is a spell, right?"
"Yep."
"How?"
I smiled at him, "I''m special."
"Oh, it''s a dragon thing. Well, I think everyone has gotten plenty of practice, so fire away."
"Yes! I can hit them with a fire ball. But it isn''t a dragon thing, it''s mana conservation. All my spells that normally cost three mana are free."
"Does Marcus have that?" He looked curious.
I shrugged, "I don''t know."
While Bjorn digested the new information I gave him, I made zombies expload. There was so much fire raining down on them that the archers-in-training stopped and cheered. It only took me a few minutes to completely clear the zombies away from that part of the wall.
Bjorn then gave me permission to clear the rest of the walls, hoping that would bring the boss out before sunset. He also told me it was good publicity, so I walked along the walls destroying zombies as I went. I got cheers from the people on the walls, and a lot of them thanked me when I passed. Not just for destroying zombies, but also for letting them come here, for giving them a chance to see the sun, for hope. I was a little overwhelmed by the time I walked the entire wall, it was a bit more than I was expecting.
Hearing the refugees just made me want to protect them more.
45. Knowledge is Power
So, killing all the zombies did not bring out a boss. instead we got to sit on the wall watching as the sun set. There was still an alert telling us that the siege was happening, but there were no enemies. It even had an enemies remaining thing that said 0. So, we were fairly sure that something else was coming, but it just wasn''t here yet.
While we waited Bjorn went around and talked to the rod guys, and the refugees who held defend my castle, just to see how they were all doing. I was going to go with him, but Marcus approached me to talk about his experiments.
"I just thought you should know, those zombies were a little weird."
I raised one eyebrow, "Really? They looked like normal zombies to me."
"I guess I should say, they weren''t like other zombies in the game. Game zombies have an ability to see through illusions, unless you use light instead of mental manipulation, which I did at first. But then, I realized that normal illusions worked on them too. The theory behind that is zombies are basically minions of some necromancer, and don''t actually have a mind for you to manipulate with illusions, or any mental magic, so you have to change what they see, and sometimes what they hear and smell. So basically when I realized they weren''t normal I started trying anything I could think of. Normal... let''s call them game zombies, are harmed by healing magic immune to mental magic, and rely on the control of a necromancer, or some kind of powerful undead creature. They take more damage from divine power, and fire, and once you give them a mission, they go until they can''t anymore. They are animated by some kind of evil spiritual force, so that''s why they have all the weaknesses to holy stuff, but these zombies..."
He barely stopped to take a breath, just talking nonstop, so when he did pause for a moment I tried to help, "Siege zombies?"
"Yes, siege zombies, they were actually healed by normal healing magic, and the more repaired their bodies were, the stronger they became. On top of that, holy magic did nothing to them. In fact, magic that requires a soul, did nothing. Which probably means that spiritual healing would do nothing either. They are more like constructs, except with a mind. Mental magic works on them. So, siege zombies don''t have any of the weaknesses of game zombies, but they don''t have the advantages either. They''re like rotting bodies that are animated like you would animate a puppet, but they can think. Not a lot, but it''s enough that mental magic works on them."
"So, basically siege zombies are like some kind of better, but not better zombie?"
"Not better, just different, and maybe, not quite dead..."
"What! They''re zombies, how can they be not dead?"
He took a deep breath, "I don''t know, but I''m guessing, whatever it is keeps the body moving while controlling it in some way, and surpressing the mind. It''s like drugs, but magical. Maybe even a magical disease. I don''t think I want to get bitten by a siege zombie."Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
When he mentioned bitting, I remembered something, "That sounds like the zombies from Brogan''s world. They were all worried when I was bitten. They thought I was going to turn into one of them."
Marcus'' eyes widenned, "Where is Brogan?"
"Somewhere? I don''t know."
He looked like he was looking through menus, then he took off running. I followed, because I was sure he was on to something. It didn''t take long before we found Brogan. He was on the wall, and he had a quiver of arrows and one of the bows. When we got to him Marcus had to take a moment to catch his breath, so Brogan talked to me.
"Hi Bwyd. You two rushed over here."
I chuckled, "Yeah, when Marcus gets an idea, he doesn''t slow down."
"I''ve noticed. He reminds me of a less mature doctor Shival."
"Who?"
"Doctor Shival? The man who was working with you?"
"Oh, that''s his name?"
He grinned at me "How do you make any friends if you can''t remember their names?"
"That''s a great question, they just keep showing up, and then they don''t leave. I don''t need to know names."
"Do you even know mine?"
"Uh, pillow guy?"
He looked shocked, and maybe a little hurt, "What?"
I smiled sweatly at him, "Oh, wait, I mean Brogan."
At that point Marcus was ready to speak. He waved a hand between me and Brogan, "Hate to break up the flirting, but we have more important stuff to talk about."
I think I blushed a little, "We were not flirting, that was just normal conversation."
"Riight. So, Brogan, what do you know about the undead from your world?"
"I know a fair amount. Working with Doctor Shival I was working with the research teams."
Marcus then explained everything he just did to me, and asked Brogan to describe what they knew about their undead.
"The undead that plagued us, were caused by a curse. It was a curse that devoured the soul, and turned the body into a minion of the Haka. That''s the ancient elven high counsel. They created the curse and unleashed it on the world. We don''t know exactly how it works, but the curse sustains the undead effected by it, and they sustain the curse. Normally when a person is bitten by the undead they change within an hour or two. There are ways to purify someone, but it must be done almost immediately. Other than that, the longer something is cursed the more powerful it becomes. I could tell you about some of the experiments we ran, but that''s the summary of what we know. Oh, and Bwyd is immune."
"So, the siege zombies are not dead, they are just cursed, and souless. They are kind of braindead. It''s like all they have are instincts, and an unending will to survive, and the longer they exist, the more they learn. So I think the person who gets cursed is still killed, their body just keeps moving and is reborn as some kind of monster."
He paused for a moment, while we digested what he just said. Brogan had a thoughtful look on his face, and I probably had a confused look. I mean, they''re still walking corpses, right? So that still means they''re zombies. We just can''t kill them with divine retribution. I was about to say something along those lines, but the boss decided to show up.
There was a loud screaming sound. Not like a person screaming, but like a rocket. Or a giant metal cylinder pinecone thing. Just like the ones that we saw in Brogan''s world. It fell out of the sky, and landed right outside the gate. Then it openned, and out walked three large creatures.
Alert!
The final boss of the siege has appeared
Kill the boss or keep it from claiming the keep before the time runs out to win!
46. Zombie Triad
The boss was a zombie, kind of. It was a bit tall, and bulkly, almost like it was some kind of undead body builder, but ten feet tall. Oh, and it had a tail. A really big, thick tail, that looked like it would hurt if it hit you. It reminded me of a T-rex tail, but without scales. Probably like what a zombie T-rex tail would look like.
When it stepped out of the pincone cylinder, I thought ''well that isn''t so bad'' then it was followed by two more zombie things. One of them was really short, like shorter than Lily, and the other was a bit more normal sized. They both looked vaguely human, in a zombie sort of way, but the short one had little blades instead of hands. They looked like they were it bones, but sharpened and extended longer than they should have been. The tips of the blades touched the ground when it stood up straight, which it almost never did. It walked with a hunched posture in quick jerky movements. It was wierd to watch.
The last zombie thing was, well it might not have been a zombie, because we couldn''t actually seen any of it''s body. It was covered completely in black plate armor, complete with evil spikes and skull designs. The armor zombie also had a massive great sword. It kind of reminded me of a some anime I''d seen. Normal sized human carrying a sword that''s twice as big as him, or her, or it. Though you can usually see the anime characters. Anyway, it was a huge sword, and it was also black with evil spikes. The spikes weren''t on the blade, just the handle, which made me wonder if he ever stabbed himself with those spikes.
The three of them stepped out of the pinecone cylinder, and looked around. The little one was hyperactive and jittery, so I''m not sure it was really looking anywere, it just looked everwhere, and the armored one, well I couldn''t see where it was looking, but the armor faced straight ahead. So really it was just the boss that looked around (I knew it was the boss because the game told me when I focused on him), and when he saw us on the wall he let out a roar. It was a little intimidating, and I even noticed some of the volunteers started shaking.
Brogan looked a little concerned, "Those are the same undead that have plagued us. How did they get here?"
Before anyone could answer Bjorn shouted "FIRE" and everyone on the walls seemed to remember that they were holding weapons, or controlling giant cannons, and they all started to attack. The javelins didn''t even make it to where the zombies had landed, but a couple of arrows did make it. Sadly the arrows didn''t do much. Most of them missed horribly, and the few that hit bounced off the armor of the armored zombie, and barely stuck in the boss. The arrow heads didn''t even completely pierce his skin, and he just brushed them off like they were nothing, then he laughed.
Then the artilery hit. One explosion followed another, until the entire area was obliterated. When the dust settled, the armored zombie was still standing, exactly where he was before, perfectly fine. The boss was looking a little battered, but mostly fine, and the little zombie was gone. I don''t know it it was vaporized, or died and then did the normal monster thing of disappearing, but it was gone without a trace. I''m pretty sure I would have seen it run away, but they didn''t have a chance to react when the artillery hit.
Over the chat feature Bjorn spoke, "I figured it wouldn''t be that easy, let''s get this boss fight over with. Lily, Marcus light up the field."
Marcus made some kind of disco ball over the boss''s head, and Lily filled the field with small, but bright lights (not fae this time). We all got off the wall in our own way, and then moved towards the boss. He didn''t move the entire time. He just watched us. Bjorn went in front of us with his new shield, and the rest of us were all scattered behind him.
"Marcus, test them." Bjorn spoke quietly, but we all heard him clearly.
After he spoke Marcus muttered something and I watched as our party rushed forward and started attacking the boss. I realized almost immediately that it was an illusion. Mostly because I saw a somewhat familiar figure with a very familiar looking tail going with everyone and shooting off fireballs. It was actually a little wierd to see my back. I mean, I don''t normally look at my back, and even though I am comfortable with my tail, it was just another thing that made me realize I wasn''t human anymore. I pushed those thoughts aside and started watching the boss and armored zombie fight our illusions.
We were doing horrible. The fire didn''t seem to bother them at all, and the armored zombie could swing his sword really fast. It was crazy how fast he swung it. Illusion me was barely able to shadow step out of the way, and had to focus on only teleporting. Illusion Bjorn was able to block the boss''s attacks, but he couldn''t do much else. The boss was like a boxer, fists moving so fast they looked like blurs. As we watched the boss finally punched straight through illusion Bjorn and he disappeared. When the boss saw that, he roared again, and all the illusions disapeared. Then he charged us.
Bjorn hefted his shield and said, "Marcus make illusions of me to help with tanking, Lily you''re on support, Bwyd try fire once, if it doesn''t work figure out what does."
We started to spread out a bit while Bjorn and his clones walked towards the enemies, I started things off by usingburn on the boss, but instead of lighting on fire, he just didn''t. Like my fire couldn''t touch him. The boss smiled at me, and then I was staring at a hulking mass of black metal. I barely had time to shadow step before a black great sword swept through the space I had been standing. Marcus swore, and then turned invisible, and Lily started summoning lots of little fairies. I briefly glance towards Bjorn, but he was definitely busy with the boss who just kept punching Bjorn''s shield. With just that brief moment of looking away from the armored zombie, he disapeared. I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise, and shadow stepped immediately, as the great sword once again sliced through the space I was in.
Thankfully I had enough shadows to step to since Marcus''s disco ball was a disco ball, and not a light bulb. What was even better is they moved, and there were tons of shadows, so even if they figured out what I was doing, the zombies wouldn''t be able to predict where I would teleport to. The only problem was the armored zombie could also teleport, and it seemed like it was just as easy to use as mine. The moment I appeared someplace else he would appear right next to me. It was really annoying. Against my illusion, he just swung his sword fast. Now he was teleporting to me and swinging his sword really fast. After we did that a few times I realized I was going to run out of mana pretty quickly, but he wasn''t giving me anytime to do anything else. I was hoping for some kind of help from someone else, but Marcus'' illusions couldn''t keep up with our teleportation, and Bjorn was keeping the attention of the boss. Lily was helping a little, but her buffs didn''t speed me up.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I really didn''t want to get hit by that sword, and since I saw how fast he could swing it, I didn''t want to try teleporting behind him to confuse him. Then I realized something. I could fly. Kind of. So instead of teleporting somewhere on the ground, Ishadow stepped up into the air. I went as high as I possible could, and almost a second later, the armored zombie was up there with me. It went to attack me, but lost it''s footing, while I just oppened my wings. The sword was still very close to me, but the zombie started spinning, and falling so it couldn''t aim very well. I started to laugh, then it disappeared again. I immediately shadow stepped even higher. Followed shortly by the armored zombie.
This time, I did my best to dodge the zombie''s attack without teleporting and as it started to fall I used curse of molasses. The zombie then teleported above me, but this time the sword was swung at a much more managable speed. I dodged it, and used hexbolt which worked much better than my fire. It actually hit, and the zombie made a grunt like noise, then teleported above me again. This time Ishadow stepped as high as possible, and waited for it to follow. It was still slow, so I easily dodged it''s attack and this time I usedcurse of stupidity.
It didn''t teleport this time, it just kept falling, so I started launchinghexbolts at it, while I slowly glided down behind it. When it hit the ground there was a loud crunch, and it didn''t move. The boss paused in his attack for a moment. Looked up at me, then at the crushed armor, then at me again. Then he smiled. Oh, by the way, when the boss smiled, it was horrible. He had a couple of teeth, and lots of rotting gums, and the teeth kind of waggled when he smiled. As he was still smiling, the armor and sword started dissolving into a black smoke, and the smoke covered the boss. Then it hardened back into armor, and that massive sword.
Then the boss tilted his head back and let out the loudest roar yet. I could almost see the power in the sound as all the little fairies Lily has summoned were extinguised when the wave of sound hit them. Marcus'' disco ball started cracking, but it held on, and I felt all my muscles tighten up. I couldn''t move. Which of course meant that I couldn''t glide. I was ok for a couple of seconds, but without being able to make all the tiny adjustments required to glide, I started to spiral out of control. All I could think was ''this is going to hurt'' before I hit the ground, and it did hurt. I landed on my right arm, and it snapped. I was briefly impressed that my arm didn''t shatter, it only bent weird, and thankfully the bone was still inside, but then I felt the pain. That was the first bone I had ever broken, and it was horrible feeling. It was almost worse that I watched it break, because I knew it wasn''t supposed to bend like that.
Only a moment after I felt the pain of my arm breaking, I felt another pain as the boss impaled me with his new great sword. He stabbed right through my lower back, and I''m pretty sure he cut right through my spine. Then Bjorn was there smashing into the boss with his shield. The boss took a step back letting go of his sword and getting back into his boxer stance. As he faced off with Bjorn, I tried to ignore the pain and do something, but I was stuck, and everytime I tried to move pain shot through my body as the sword seemed to cut me no matter how little I moved.
As Bjorn faced off with the boss, I could see what was left of Lily''s fairies trying to help him, but the most they could do was lead the fight away from me. The boss was untouchable. Not that attacks would work as well not that he had armor, but now he was big, fast, and armored. Not to mention he was incredable tough.
While I was laying there trying not to move too much, I heard Marcus'' voice, "Hey Bwyd, I''m going to see I can pull that sword out."
I just nodded, not really wanting to try talking. I felt the sword start moving a little bit, but it was stabbed through me and into the ground, and Marcus didn''t have the strength to even make the sword budge.
"Sorry Bwyd, let me try one more thing." He muttered something, and nothing happened. "Weird, the sword is immune to magic. Uh, I hate to do this, but I''m going to try to help Bjorn. He might be strong enough to move the sword."
I nodded again, frustrated that I couldn''t do anything, but as I heard Marcus'' footsteps move away I noticed Lily had sent some healing fae to me. They were already straightening out my arm, which didn''t hurt anymore, and I could feel them on my back around the sword, but it didn''t feel like they were doing much. Just enough to make the pain a strong ache instead of a sharp pain.
I tried to watch the boss fight, but they moved around enough that I wasn''t able to without twisting too much and causing pain to shoot up my back, but what I did see was impressive. Bjorn was holding his shield with both hands and blocking most of the boss''s attacks. Even when he did get hit he wasn''t too badly hurt, and Lily was able to heal him almost immediately. Marcus dropped his invisiblity and stood up in the air, as if there was a platform up there, and launched spears of ice at the boss. Most of them shattered on his armor and did nothing, but as more hit I noticed there was a layer of ice building on the armor. And Lily was focused on directing her little fae. She looked kind of like a conductor, pointing and swinging her arms around, but the boss kept trying to get close to her, so she had to keep moving around.
At first I thought that Bjorn was just defending against the boss, but after while I noticed that they were getting farther away from me, until Bjorn used his ability to jump to me. He went to grab the sword, but the boss apparently gained the armored zombie''s teleport. He appeared behind Bjorn and went for a punch. Bjorn didn''t have time to block, so the punch hit him in the back of the head, and he went down, right on top of me. I might have sqeaked as his weight hit me, but for some reason he hurt less then the sword in my back.
Bjorn wasn''t knocked out, and he kind of did a somersault coming back to his feet on the other side of me. The boss decided to follow Bjorn over my not dead body, but he was a lot more painful. He stepped on my back, grabbed the sword and twisted it. I screamed in pain, but he ignored me and left the sword pinning me to the ground. The fight kept going how it was before, but the boss seemed to be putting in more effort. He hit Bjorn alot more than he had been, and he started picking up rocks and throwing them at Marcus and Lily. He also started laughing. A hideous, deep, evil laugh. He laughed after every punch, and every stone throw, but if he actually hit he laughed harder. It seemed like he was having fun.
The rest of us were struggling for our lives. Well they were, I was just stuck with some minor pain. And that''s when I realized, I could teleport. So I tried, and failed. For some reason, I wasn''t able to teleport. It was almost like the sword wasn''t going to let me go. I started to cry. I wasn''t bawling my eyes out, but there were tears coming out of my eyes as I felt more helpless than I ever had before. All I could do was watch as my friends got destroyed by a heavily armored, buff, zombie boxer who wouldn''t stop laughing. The boss wasn''t even breaking a sweat, and we didn''t have the firepower to destroy him. Though I have a feeling that zombies don''t sweat anyway.
It was in that moment of hopelessness that I felt something unexpected. The sword that was pinning me to the ground moved up, and out of me.
"Yo, fightin a boss without me? Not cool guys."
With that Scria charged into the fight with her new great sword in two hands, and an axe and hammer in two others.
47. Zombie Boss
With the sword removed, I started to heal. I didn''t really feel like moving yet, I mean I did just have a sword stabbed through me, it was kind of nice I wasn''t dead. I was able to watch the fight a little better, and with Scria it looked like things were going a bit better. It wasn''t like she just charged in there and we were saved, but the boss did stop laughing. Bjorn and Scria tried to stay on oposite sides of the boss, but it kept teleporting behind one of them so the other would have to run around, and between the armor and its speed Scria had a hard time hitting it.
It probably took a minute or two before my back was healed enough for me to sit up, but not much changed in the fight. It looked like it would go on forever, unless something changed. Then something changed. The boss teleported, and Marcus finished casting a spell, causing spikes of ice to rise out of the ground and hit the boss. His lower body was encased in ice, and he couldn''t move, so Scria used his big sword to stab the boss. Almost exactly the same way he stabbed me, except he was standing, and she was in front of him, and he wasn''t pinned to the ground. So... she stabbed him in the stomach, straight through the armor, and he went limp. She tried to remove the sword, but it was stuck, so she started to try twisting it to get it out.
Suddenly Bjorn shouted, "Scria, get back!"
All at once the armor on the boss exploaded, shattering the ice, and sending both Bjorn and Scria flying. A couple shards of metal even flew past my head, and I noticed Marcus flinch. Then the pieces of metal rose into the air and started swirling aroung the boss. He was still standing there with the sword in his gut, but he hadn''t moved at all. As the armor shards swirled around the boss, a black energy started to spark in the swirling mass. It almost looked like electricity as it started to jump around from one side of the metal swarm to another. Then the dark energy hit the sword, and the zombie''s body was completely destroyed. The sword didn''t fall. Instead it rose into the air and the pieces of metal swirled around it. That was when we started to hear laughter. Dark, deep, slow and evil.
Then it spoke, in a deep emotionless voice, "You are foolish to believe you can defeat us. We are inevitable. All must die, but we shall endure. Surrender yourselves and feed our power. We will devour this world, and use it to devour all worlds. You cannot resist."
Alert!
A threat to the system has been detected
An Admistrator will be there shortly
try to survive till then
Good luck!
Bjorn started to yell something, but he was struck by black lightning and thrown back. Scria swore, and tried to attack, but like Bjorn, she was struck with black lightning and thrown back. Neither of them moved once they hit the ground. Lily was probably the farthest away, but it targeted her next. Lightning shot out, went through her little fairies, and hit her. She was immediately fried. It was like all that was left of her was a burned husk, that fell apart when a slight breeze touched it.
Marcus started casting something, but he was also hit by the lightning. Except that he had some kind of shield that protected him. It almost looked like a glass ball around him, and it shattered when the lightning hit, but he survived. So the lightning struck again, and again, and again. Everytime he had a shield, and everytime that shield shattered, but he still stood there in the air. That''s when I felt it look at me. It wasn''t like it had eyes or anything, but I knew it was looking at me. I kind of guessed that meant I was next, and I really did not want to get hit by that lightning but I was frozen. Not literally, but mentally. I just watched this thing destroy my friends with overwhelming power and I couldn''t see how we could possibly survive, so I might have been a bit afraid.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
The lightning shot out from the swirling metal, and as it flew towards me, I remembered something. I wasn''t here alone. We weren''t fighting for no reason. If we all died, how could the refugees survive. I realized that I might have given up too soon, so as the lightning hit me I used shadow swap. My shadow was struck by the lightning and I was not, but I knew that it would keep trying, andshadow swap was one of my more expensive spells, so Ishadow stepped to Marcus. Luckily, I could stand on whatever he was standing on too.
"Hey Marcus, can your glass ball protect both of us?"
"My what? Oh we..." Lightning interuppted him, and he cast his protection thing, and thankfully it surrounded both of us. "Yes, it can, but I don''t know how many more I can do."
"We just have to survive, right?"
"Yeah." Another lightning bolt hit his shield, shattering it again.
"Let me try something."
"Hurry up." He was sweating a bit, and looked a little worried, but he also had a slight smile on his face.
curse of stupidity
Alert!
Your target has resisted your curse
"Uh, it didn''t work." Another lightning bolt struck.
He looked at me with narrowed eyes, "What didn''t work?"
"My curse. It said he resisted."
He roll his eyes, "Then try again. Resising isn''t the same as immune." He finished speaking as another lightning bolt hit his shield.
Instead of speaking I just started trying to curse the swirling mass of metal over and over, and each time I got the message that it resisted. All while it launched lightning bolts at us. It was moving closer to us, but it wasn''t very fast, so I figured we''d be able to get away before we were surrounded by the metal swarm.
Marcus sighed, then looked at me, "Bwyd, it''s been nice knowing you."
"What are you saying?" I was confused.
"I always thought it would be nice to die as a hero, I think this counts."
"Marcus, don''t be an idiot!"
"The sword has been gathering power for a while now. I think it''s going to unleash it''s most powerful attack soon."
I looked at the sword, it was glowing with dark power, kind of like a black light, with electricity moving on it''s surface, "We could get away. We don''t have to die."
"You can get away. I''m out of mana. I don''t have anything left. Just enough for a single shield."
Then the deep voice spoke, "Touching, but none of you will escape this day, but you can be the first to die. LET DEATH COME!"
The sword started to glow darker, or not really glow, but it was like the light was just sucked out of that area, which gave me an idea. The only problem was, I was almost out of mana too. I had been paying a little attention to how much I was using, so I knew I was almost out, but the problem was that I didn''t know if I had enough left. So I looked at Marcus, and pushed him.
"Take care of Lily, you guys make a great couple."
He fell off whatever invisible flying platform we were on as a dark beam of energy shot from the sword. It was the darkest thing I had ever seen, it almost looked like it was just ripping through reality. So as Marcus fell with a shocked look, I turned to face my probable doom. It was weird. Time felt like it was going really slow. Like I could see everything, and had enough time to count the stars if I wanted. I didn''t, but I felt like I could. As the beam of doom reached me I used shadow swap, and I felt it work, but then I felt myself falling.
And the world went white.
48. The Administrator
So the world went white, but we were all still there. Marcus, me, and the metal swarm thing. I couldn''t see anything else, except whiteness. It kind of reminded me of all the movies with a heaven that''s just white walls as far as you can see. Except, there were no walls. I''m not even sure there were floors, though when everything is the same color, it''s kind of hard to tell. When I thought about moving to see if there was a floor, I realized I couldn''t. I could feel my body, but when I tried to tell my leg to move, it didn''t. The only things I could move were my eyes, and I suppose my lungs, and heart, and all those other things that need to move to keep me alive.
It was one of the strangest feelings. I wasn''t sleeping, or numb, I just couldn''t move. It was actually a bit scary. As I started to panic, I realized that the metal swarm was probably in the same situation I was. As I looked at it, I realized that whatever was freezing us was more than I thought. The lightning in the metal swarm was frozen. It was cool to look at. Almost like pictures of lightning, but the lightning was real. It felt like I had plenty of time to look around at everything, and it wasn''t until I started to get bored that something else happened.
A little ball of light appeared in front of my face. It circled around me a couple times before it stopped in front of me again. Then it touched me, and I suddenly was able to move. I collapsed on the floor, which I could feel, but couldn''t really see, and then the light spoke to me. It wasn''t at all what I expected. The light''s voice was almost like several voices speaking all at once, but they were all saying different things, and I couldn''t understand any of it. Kind of like when you''re standing in a crowd, and everyone is talking. You might hear some words you recognize, but it''s hard to actually hear a conversation. Then there was a pop, and a single voice spoke. It was calm, and sounded like it should be narrating a nature video, but I could understand it, and it was kind of infurriating.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"Bwyd, you are no longer what you once were. You used the power of the administrators to become something that did not exist in your world. This was not the purpose of KRO. Due to this you will be removed from the system. As you are a living entity you will not be erased. Due to automatic systems you were given a pocket dimension with limited connection to the Network, this will remain under your control, but will be severed from any Network connection. You also allowed a malicious entity to enter the Network. Currently it is trapped in your dimension, and will remain there. You will be responsible for keeping it trapped as punishment for your misuse of the Network, and the administrators power."
"I''m pretty sure it was all an accident, and I don''t think I can contain that." I looked at the metal swarm.
"That has been taken into consideration. If you had acted maliciously you would have been dealt with more severely. The hostile entity will be confined within your dimension, but it will be done with the system''s power. You will only need to maintain the seal."
"Oh, ok."
I was starting to feel worried. How was I supposed to deal with a powerful creature that made metal fly, and shot lightning bolts? Especially if I didn''t have the game system anymore. Would I still be able to use magic? Breathe fire? Would I still be a dragon? I was going to ask more questions, but everything went black.
49. Cut Off
With the final judgement delivered, I was returned to the exact same place I was before. Which happened to be in the air where Marcus'' platform was. I immedieately openned my wings and glided down to the ground as I saw Marcus appear a little lower than me, and fall. I thought about diving down and catching him, but by the time I even thought that, he hit the ground.
"Ow." He jumped up when he saw me, "Bwyd! I met the administrator. He, she, whatever it was apologized for my death, and told me that as long as I stayed in this dimension for a year I could keep my magic. It also said that I..."
Warning!
All system personnel will now be removed from this instance
All non-system personnel will be sequestered for the duration of dimensional reconstruction
We had a moment to make eye contact, then everything went black.
When I woke up I didn''t see that much had changed. It was daytime, but other than that, we were still in the same place we were before. The ground was still messed up from the fight, and Marcus was in the same place he was before.
"Marcus? Are you awake yet?"
He didn''t respond, so I just dropped on the ground completely relaxed. I was exhausted, and the events of the last few hours (or minutes, or days) had been extra stressful. But somehow we had done it. We were alive, and the metal monster thing was gone. Or at least trapped somewhere. I didn''t want to think about that though, so I just lay there not really thinking about anything. It was nice. I knew that I was going to have to do something eventually, but in that moment, I was completely relaxed.
So imagine my surprise when my peace was disturbed by:
Congratulations!
You have successfully separated yourself from the system!
As the first creature to do this, you will recieve your own system!
Your system is only for your use, and has been connected to your dimension
You may use it to manage your dimension, and you may see your stats, but you will not be able to interact with your personnal status
I took a moment to read that notification, a couple times, then I tried to see my status.
Alert
Some things have been changed or removed due to system separation
Would you like to view a list of the changes?A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Y/N?
I obviously picked yes.
Alert
Race changed from Dragon (Cursed) to Shadow Dragon
Natural Armor 1 (Degraded) changed to Natural Armor 5
Dragon Breath 1 (Degraded) changed to Shadow Dragon Breath 5
Flight 1 (Degraded) changed to Flight 5
Added Dragon/Humanoid Form
I thoughtdragon form and I felt myself change. It was wierd because it wasn''t wierd. It felt completely normal to be the size of a horse, covered in scales, and to stand on four legs. At first I was going to say it was because of the game, but it wasn''t. I wasn''t in the game anymore. This was my reality. I didn''t spend to much time worrying about it. I had to try flying. So I opened my wings and flew.
It was great. There realy isn''t anything like flying. Well, maybe rollercoasters are close, but I was in control of where I went. It was a little shaky at first, but after a bit my dragon instincts kicked in, and I was doing great. The first thing I did was fly up as high as I could. Well almost as high as I could. When I got high enough that my castle looked like it was the size of a quarter, I decided that was high enough. I flew around in circles for a bit, just trying to figure out what I was doing.
I instinctually knew how to fly, but I still had a lot to learn. It''s one thing to know I can flap my wings and use some magic to propel myself through the air, and another to understand how wind currents work, and how to do flips, and barrel rolls, without getting dizzy. So after messing around in the air, I started taking in the view. I could see my castle below me, surrounded by a massive forest of massive trees, but around the forrest it looked like there was some kind of fog. As I focused on the fog, I realized there was a bit of a magical shimmering barrier that made a dome with my castle at the center. The top was only a little way from where I was flying, so I just flew up to it.
It was basically see through until I got close to it, when it started to look like water. I hovered in front of it for a couple seconds before I gently touched it with one of my claws. The claw went through, and I barely felt any pressure, just a little mana drain, so I flew through it. The other side was not much different, but I felt a difference in air pressure. I would have said my ears popped, but dragon ears are a little bit different, so it was more of a feeling.
I was much closer to the ground, but it looked like I was still in a forest with large trees. The biggest difference was the trees were smaller than my trees. They were still at least two hundred feet tall, but they were the size of the small trees in my forest. Behind me I could see a similar shimmery barrier dome, but it was much smaller from the outside. It was only three hundred feet, but it was a symetrical dome, just like the big one. I kind of figured this was my dimension, which meant I was outside. Remembering what we had talked about before, I realized this was Earth. I got a bit excited, and I wanted to take a look around. I flew a little higher, and realized something.
Five fighter jets were heading straight for me. I looked back towards the dome, and all around the bottom of it was caution tape, and people in military uniforms. When I looked back at the jets I saw missles fire, and I figured it would be better to go back to my dimension, then try to fight people who thought I was a monster. So I dropped back through the shimmery barrier and out of the sky over my castle. I waited to see if they''d follow me, but nothing came through, so I went back to the castle to talk to Marcus.
As I got closer I could see all the refugees moving, and kind of surrounding on figure. Eventually I recognized the figure as Marcus, so I flew down and landed in front of him. He looked a little shocked, and maybe a bit afraid, and everyone around got real quiet.
"Bwyd? Is that you?"
I cocked my head in confusion, then looked at myself. I was still in dragon form. Of course he wouldn''t recognize me. I change to my humanoid form, and smiled.
"Yep, I''m not cursed anymore! Also, do you think fighter jet missles can hurt me?"
"W-what?" He looked even more shocked.
50. The Seal
"Missiles? Bwyd, why do you care about missiles?" Marcus was looking a little upset.
"Well, um, you see, I left my dimension for a moment and there were fighter jets and they fired missiles at me."
His eyes went wide, "You realize what that means, don''t you? That was Earth. You went to Earth." He started muttering to himself.
I sighed and was about to try talking to him but Brogan approached me first, "Bwyd, you said your curse was broken?"
"Yeah, it''s awesome. I could probably carry someone if anyone wants to fly."
"You would actually let anyone ride you?" He looked surprised.
"Well, not anyone, but friends, yeah. Though, I''m not a horse, so I decide were we go."
He still looked a bit surprised, "I just always thought that dragons only bonded with one rider, and no one else could ride them."
"Let me guess, the rider gets to live longer and gains special magical powers."
"No, they just get to ride the dragon, but usually the one picked by the dragon is powerful on their own."
"Oh, well, that''s stupid. If I only take one friend flying, then the others would be upset. Just think, if I only took Marcus flying Lily would kill me... I could probably take them both at the same time. Lily''s small enough."
He seemed to remember something, "Before we get too distracted, the thing you fought, what happened to it?"
"The administrator sealed it, somewhere here. Hey when Marcus comes back do you want to go look for it?"
He looked confused again, "Marcus is right there... Oh, mentally. Will it be very dangerous? We could just ask some of the security forces to search for it."
"It''s supposed to be sealed, so there shouldn''t be a problem, though I think it came from your world."
"Really? What is it?"
"The H something, Hala? I really should have paid better attention. Marcus might know." Brogan suddenly looked very pale, like someone sucked all the blood out of him. "Uh, Brogan? You ok?"
"Was it The Haka?" He spoke quietly, almost like he didn''t want anyone to hear him, but some of the people around did hear, and they started to look as pale as Brogan.
I looked around and quietly whispered, "Yeah, that sounds right."
"There is no time to wait, we must find it now." He grabbed my shoulders, "The Haka destroyed my world, we cannot let them destroy yours."
With that he started to get some of the soldier guys together. I tapped Marcus on the shoulder, but he was completely in his own world. So I pushed him. It was supposed to be a gentle push, but either he was off balance, or I put a little more force into it than I expected, so he fell on his butt. He blinked a couple times and looked at me like I just stole his puppy.
"Marcus, we have to find the place the Haka was sealed. Apparently it''s the cause of the end of Brogan''s world."
He blinked a couple more times, then he jumped up, "What are we waiting for then? We can''t let Earth turn into a world of walking dead."
"Whoa, where''d that come from? Also, this is my dimension, not Earth."
He nodded, "But Earth is out there. If it takes over here, it won''t take much to take over Earth. What can jet fighters do to a spiritual entity that can control metal, and dead bodies."
He started making little illusionary birds and sending them out. Then he made something that looked like a bunch of TV screens, without the rest of the TV.
I looked at all the people around me rushing to search for the seal, "I don''t think it''s as bad as everyone''s acting it is... The Administrator sealed it."
Marcus glanced at me, "Yeah, the same administrator who couldn''t let me have all my magic unless I stayed here for a year, and isolated a powerful being here because it couldn''t stop it. You noticed that it severed all connections with your dimension, right?"
"Yeah, but it said it was punishment, and the seal would be made using system pow... Oh, the system is gone."
Marcus nodded, "You can fly now, so I''ll send my birds to the South and East, you take the North and West. Go as far as you can then work your way inward. We''ll let the soldiers take the areas closer to the fortress." I stood there a little surprised at Marcus giving orders, "Bwyd, don''t just stand there. We can''t let anyone else die because of us."Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I wanted to talk to him more, to figure out what he meant. I was pretty sure we hadn''t killed anyone, or caused anyone to die, but I was starting to get a little worried too. If the system was containing the Haka, and the system was gone, what was containing the Haka now? I shifted to dragon form and took off. I was kind of aware of which way North was, so I flew that way. On the way I pulled up my dimensional system menu. It was fairly simple. I could see the name of my dimension (Bwyd''s Dimension), and how many people were living in it. I could also look at the upgrades for the fortress, and I could do all the stuff I could before with the original menu. The main difference was instead of being an instance, it was a dimension, and there was nothing about invasions or events.
There was one new part to the menu. It was an admin pannel. When I looked at my admin options I saw things like, provide a limited system to visitors, and residents; messaging; activate personnal assistant; change day/night cycle; set immigration requirements; and taxes. I immediately provided a system to everyone, because who doesn''t want a nice little system to track your life. I then took a look at immigration. Basically any creature who wanted to enter needed to be able to use mana. Or be with a creature that could use mana. It was almost like a tax, that went to opening the door. I could set additional requirements, like you had to be human, or you had to pay money to enter. I could also keep certain types of creatures out, and I could set a list of banned individuals. There was a warning that some creatures could find other ways into my dimension, but usually I would be notified.
I also had time to take a look at the tax system. It was pretty simple, and I could catagorize people to give different rates. I could also tax different things. Like I could tax the life of people, or mana, as well as money. No matter what was taxed it got converted into dimensional resources that could be used for a bunch of different things. Like upgrading my fortress, or adding guardians, paying the upkeep cost of my dimension, or maintaining the seal.
Maintaining the seal...
I stopped flying, and landed on a tree branch. Now that everyone had my dimensional system I figured I could send messages. So I pulled up the messaging menu and picked Marcus.
Message!
I gave you a system, and I think there is an easier way to find the seal
-Bwyd
When I sent it I got a preview of what it would look like, and realized that I was basically an administrator. I could probably even send world messages.
Alert!
Marcus would like to start a conversation with you
Would you like to accept?
Y/N
"Yes, that''s probably easier."
I heard Marcus'' voice telepathically, "Bwyd, what do you mean, and how did you send that message? Why is the system back? Where is the seal?"
"Slow down, I still have a system with the dimension so I activated it for everybody."
"Oh, so it tells you where the seal is?"
"I don''t know, but there is a seal maintainance cost, so I would assume that it does? Let me take a look."
I focussed on the seal option, but it didn''t do anything. So, I looked for a map or something, and found a nice map. It was perfectly round, and had my fortress marked clearly in the middle. I could zoom in so far that I could even see leaves on trees, and it had layers, so I could look beneath the trees at the ground. It kind of made me think of satalite stuff. So I zoomed in on where I was, and I saw a purplish black dragon sitting in a tree. I moved a wing and saw my wing move on my map. No lag or anything. Then I remembered I was looking for a seal. I zoomed back out, and saw it not too far from the fortress.
"Marcus?"
"Yes?"
"I found it, uh, let me try to ping it." I focused on sending the location to Marcus, but nothing happened. "Oh well, it''s right outside the fortress. Just go East. Past where we fought it."
"Thanks, I''m heading there now. See you there."
I felt the messaging system disconnect, so I flew to the seal. It was a bit hidden under the trees, but there was a small dirt road that led to it. I got there at the same time as everyone else, so we all looked over the seal together. It was basically a little stone shrine with intricate looking designs that glowed with power. While looking at it I got a little notification.
Alert!
Seal currently at 90%
Rate of degredation 5%
Time remaining 1 week
The commander of the soldiers seemed to notice the same thing I did, "Is that 5% per week or we have one week before the seal breaks? How are we supposed to keep it sealed?"
"I can spend resources on maintaining the seal. I just might have to raise taxes, or start taxing."
Brogan raised an eyebrow, "You can maintain a seal with money?"
"Apparently. I can also tax mana, or life. I don''t think I want to tax life though."
Brogan gestured to everyone around, "I believe I speak for everyone when I say that we will gladly give either mana or life to keep the Haka sealed."
All of them nodded in agreement, even Marcus. So after some discussions about how much we needed, I set the tax rate to mana, marked all current occupants (except the Haka) as citizens, and chose 5%. So everyone lost 5% of their max mana (except me), and my dimension had enough income to maintain itself, the seal, and give me a little extra to play with. I then set the tax rate for all non-citizens to the max rate of 40%, just in case anyone decided to invade, or I got illegal immigrants. I was more than willing to give out citizenships, but I didn''t want unexpected things to happen. Plus, I figured that if the Haka somehow got out, it would have a lot less mana to use. I planned to go through all the citizens at some point, but there were a lot, so I was hoping to delagate that to Marcus, or Brogan.
The soldiers planned to set up a guard post near the seal, to keep an eye on it, and the rest of us went back to the fortress. We had a lot of work to do, and Marcus really wanted to know what was happening on Earth.
51. Time Lapse Finale
One thing I have to say about Brogan''s people is they were very well organized and adaptable. You''d think a bunch of refugees from a dying world would have trouble adapting to a video game world where all their needs were taken care of in different dimesional spaces. But they were not bothered at all. They all had jobs from their original world, and for the ones that didn''t quite fit in to my world they found something similar.
They also came up with a plan for using the available space in an efficient way. They asked for my permission first, but all I had really cared about was my space for researching curses, and now that I was cured, I really didn''t need that anymore. I kept it because, who knows what kind of curses I might need to take care of in the future, and if I had some kind of power over curses, I probably should learn morea about them. So, the rest of that space was available for them to do what they wanted. They did have me split it up a bit differently than I originally set it up. My food production facilities stayed the same, but they wanted more of a focus on production, than research, so I adjusted the focus to 10% research and 40% production. Once that was done they came up with a detailed plan on how to use the space in the best possible way. I didn''t really get involved in that, but from what I understood they set up the research space for studing magic, and The Haka, and the production space was set up to produce the gadgets they were used to. They didn''t make any MUDs because my system worked for that, but they made tools, vehicles, and weapons.
It took them a couple months to get everything running the way they wanted, and to set up a government that worked the way I wanted. Which wasn''t actually that hard. I think their government was some kind of counsel led socialist thing, with a skill based caste system. Basically they had an aptitude test that determined what job you had to do in life, and they had a counsel with the top people from each job that made the rules. Some jobs did more counsel members than others, and somehow they had a rich section, but I wasn''t too worried about what they had, so I didn''t ask too many questions.
What we decided on for a government was a little bit like what they had, except I was above the counsel, and there were three people from each section. We also split it a little bit differently, and the counsel members were picked by voting, lottery, and senority. So basically the top person was on the counsel, then there was some random person, and a popular person. We also used a bit of a different system for dividing people. We had the science section, the food section, the defense section, the engineering section, the magic section, and the scouts. So there were eighteen people on the counsel, plus I got to put two people on the counsel to represent me. I obviously choose Marcus, but I also picked Brogan because he gave me a blanket and I felt bad about not knowing his name for so long.
Since I was above the counsel I was able to veto anything they decided, but for the most part I wasn''t planning on getting too involved in politics. I just had one rule. Respect others. As long as the counsel could follow that rule I wouldn''t bother them. Besides, I was just enjoying being a dragon. And exploring my dimension. There were creatures in the woods, and not just birds and deer and normal woodland creatures. There were drakes, and unicorns, and basilisks, and a hydra, and a bunch of other magical creatures. There weren''t any intelligent ones, or very intelligent (unicorns were kind of smart), but they all seemed to understand that this was my world. I could watch the hydra defend it''s home from drakes, but if I went to visit it was very submissive. I was pretty sure that I could have told it to do things and it would have had to obey me. I didn''t really want to do that, well I might have gotten it to dance, but other than that, I let them do what they wanted. Except come too close to my fortress. I figured it would be good to keep them away, so that anyone who wanted to go on a nature walk could be safe. I did warn people that there were monsters in the woods, and that they wouldn''t come too close, and that''s why we got the scouts.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
They started scouting out the monster nests, and exterminating the ones that got too strong. And yes, unicorns are scary when there is a herd of them. They look pretty, but they''ve got a real mean streak. Unless you happen to be a virgin, or me. They never attacked virgins, until the virgin attacked them. Even though they started destroying nests the number of nests never went down. Another one would just spawn a day or two after one was destroyed. Then it would get stronger until the scouts found it and decided it was time to get rid of it. They got contribution points for destroying nests, and they could even get some cool rewards, but I had barely any control over all that. I could basically tell the creatures what to do, and they would do it as long as I was there, but the rest of it was all automatic. Marcus thought it was because of how this was originally part of a game world, or at least supposed to be.
So over the course of a year, we got a lot of things done. Made a new government, created a social system, set up an adventuring association (the scouts), and learned how to be a dragon. I had promised Marcus that I wouldn''t go to Earth without him, because he could actually make us invisble while I could only try to hide in shadows, so at the end of the year a group of us, me, Marcus, Brogan, and some scouts, left my dimension and entered Earth. The moment we did we got a notification.
Alert!
You have entered the domain of Earth in the Universal System
The conversion process is currently in progress so you will be redirected to a waiting room
And we were in a white room, just like when we talked to the administrator, except we could move and talk normally. There wasn''t an administrator, but there was a timer that was counting down. It started at one minute, and while Marcus was babbling incoherently it reached 0, and we were standing in the redwood forest outside my dimension. There were still soldiers there, but they were all waking up. Like they went unconscious at the same time. And we had another notification.
Welcome to Universal System
You already have access to the system
Updating profile
Character sheet successfully updated!
Your dimension will remain unintegrated
Welcome back Bwyd!