《Sundered World Online》 Chapter 1: Im a WHAT?!? The TV flashed the commercial I had seen more times than I could count. Various scenes of a fantasy world flitted across the screen while a slightly overdramatic voiceover played up pretty much every trope imaginable. ¡°Imagine a world with infinite possibilities¡­¡± A nomadic trading caravan traveled through a desert sandstorm with their wares packed on the backs of strange beasts. ¡°A world of unending adventures¡­¡± A group of large, muscular people wearing leather and fur armors with rough looking weapons stood off against a very aggressive looking mammoth-like beast in the middle of a snow covered forest. ¡°A world of mysteries and wonders¡­¡± A dwarven miner chipping away some rock in an underground cave, revealing a strange, glowing crystal. Awe and greed clearly showed on his bearded face. ¡°All these things and beyond are out there, waiting for-¡± The logo for Sundered World Online, the new virtual reality MMORPG, flashed across the screen as I reached for the remote and turned off the TV. I had seen that commercial more times than I care to count, and every time I feel almost mesmerized by the beautiful fantasy world of the game. And tonight at midnight the servers would finally be going live. I just had to live with the anticipation for a while longer. Well that and go to work. As much as I would rather stay here and read everything I can find about the game online, I do still need to earn a living. Ah right, introductions. I¡¯m Nathan. Nathan Freeman, 25, single, a software engineer employed at a small development company specializing in embedded control systems. Think the computer in your car that makes everything work in unison, that type of thing. Not that any of that really matters. It pays the bills, and that¡¯s the important part. About a year and a half ago, I packed up and moved across the country for this job, so at this point I¡¯m pretty settled into it. Unfortunately, I¡¯m not really the most social person, so while I still keep in contact with my close friends back home and get on well with my coworkers, I don¡¯t have many acquaintances here outside of those. However, since most of my coworkers have similar interests we get along pretty well, and most of us were anticipating the release of SWO. ¡°Morning Nathan. Ready for what will probably be the longest Friday at the office in a while?¡± As I walked into the office I was greeted by my coworker, Erik. He, like me, was clearly already mentally ready for the weekend and playing the game judging by the fact that the SWO website was up on his computer rather than any work. Luckily it was a holiday weekend, so the boss honestly wasn¡¯t expecting much from us today. Additionally, a lot of us had put in a few extra vacation days as well to get as much playtime in as possible. I actually had all of the next week off, since I had a lot of vacation time banked up and rarely actually use any of it. ¡°Hey Erik, let¡¯s grab some coffee and get this day over with.¡± We chuckled and headed to the break room, mugs in hand. This was something like a morning ritual for us. We¡¯d go get some coffee, chat for a bit, then get to work. Today the chatting inevitably ended up on SWO. ¡°So, you gonna go random, or design your character?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll most likely go random. It¡¯s worth it to try, after all. And no matter what you end up with, the game should be fun.¡± SWO¡¯s character creation was one of the things that had received a lot of discussion. In addition to a large number of races to choose from, players would also be given the option of randomizing their character. The player would only be able to choose their name and make a few minor alterations to their appearance rather than completely designing their character, but the benefit of going random was the small possibility of getting assigned a race not usually available for selection, referred to simply as a rare race. These races could range from being uncommon but occurring enough to form a small village if they banded together, to being unique to that character alone. It was important to note that the developers of the game, PassCom, and beta testers all agreed that while these races were rare, they were still balanced with the others and would not give the player an unfair advantage. That said, unless they already had their character complete planned out, most people intended to give the random setup a try at least. Also, while the details weren¡¯t available, there were supposedly systems in place to prevent a player from repeatedly generating random characters to get a rare. Throughout the day, any time we took a break, I and my coworkers would end up talking about the game and our plans. We talked a bit about meeting up eventually, but with beginning areas depending on race and most of us planning to randomize our characters, there was no way to plan that ahead of time. --- After work, I ate a quick dinner and chatted online with Joseph, who I can only really describe as my closest friend in the world. Seriously, I¡¯m pretty sure he knows me better than I know myself. He was still living and working in the town I left when I moved here, but we talk almost every day. Just like with my coworkers, we were talking about SWO and our plans for the game. However, unlike with my coworkers who I would just find in game whenever it was convenient, meeting with Joseph and playing together with him would be a top priority for both of us. Well, priority number two for him. His girlfriend was also going to play, so he had to find her too. Not that I minded, she was a good friend of mine as well. I was actually a bit surprised she was going to play right away, as she was usually more of a casual gamer if anything. ¡°Well, since our cell phones are synced to the VR pods, I¡¯ll just send you a text with my character name so you can add me to your friend list in game and we can figure things out from there. I gotta figure out how to find Ashley, too. She may need some help, so I¡¯m gonna try to get to her quickly. It might be a bit before all three of us can meet up.¡± The VR pods allowed cell phones to be accessed from in game so players could stay in communication with the outside world while playing. While you could make and answer calls, due to the games time acceleration your consciousness would be moved out of your character while you talked and your character would go comatose during that time, so most people planned to use text to communicate while in game instead. ¡°That¡¯s fine, I can take care of myself for a while. I¡¯m really looking forward to this, it¡¯s been awhile since we were really able to muck about freely in a game.¡± ¡°Tell me about it, I¡¯m already afraid to see where we end up. I¡¯ve been telling Ashley some of our past ¡®exploits¡¯. She¡¯s both excited and a bit concerned with how often we find ourselves in trouble.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s not our fault. Trouble comes looking for us, not the other way around¡­ usually.¡± ¡°Mmhmm, like the time you incited the kobold tribes to unite and attempt to overthrow the main trading hub?¡± ¡°Hey, that was a misunderstanding. I just traded them some wyvern meat as an exchange for some materials they had, and happened to slip that I had gotten it in that town. How was I supposed to know it was addictive to kobolds, and that they would decide to invade in order to secure the supply. It¡¯s not like they were actually able to take the city anyway. And no one but you knows that I was the cause of that mess, anyway.¡± "Most people don''t try to trade with monsters, you know?" While we still played together regularly, lately it had been more strategy games so we weren¡¯t able to really mess about as much as we did when playing RPGs. In a few hours we would be set loose on the world of SWO to do whatever we pleased, for better or worse. Probably worse, knowing the hijinks we¡¯ve gotten into in the past. The kobold incident was just one of many, after all. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m gonna go try to get some sleep before the game goes live. While being in the pod is more restful than being fully awake, I want to maximize how much time I can go before I need to logout and go to bed.¡± ¡°Yeah, probably a good idea. I¡¯ll talk to you in game later.¡± We both disconnected and I set my alarm to wake me up about half an hour before the game started, and closed my eyes in an effort to will myself to sleep. --- BZZT¡­ BZZT¡­ BZZT¡­ BZZT¡­ I groggily switched the alarm on my phone off, and glanced at the time. 11:30¡­ Why would I have set an alarm for this early? Or late? Whatever, why am I awake? My eyes wandered the room as my brain tried desperately to wake up enough to remember my reasoning for interrupting my sleep after only a few hours. Then the VR pod entered my vision, and my faculties jolted awake.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Ah, right! I dragged my sluggish body out of bed and headed to the kitchen to brew a quick cup of coffee. A dose of caffeine should be just the thing to get me going for the long haul to come. Honestly, the caffeine itself did very little to me, due to the resistance I had built up, but it still helped me focus thanks to the placebo effect. After tricking myself into waking up, I made my way back to my room and the VR pod and climbed inside. Specifically designed for the player to be in it for hours at a time, the lounging chair in the pod forced the body to remain in a neutral position to minimize the discomfort and strains. In fact, some people even sleep in the pod, even when not using it because it¡¯s more comfortable than their beds. Of course, the developers of the pod recommended getting out and stretching for a bit every 6 hours or so, but very few people took that recommendation seriously. I went ahead and started up the game ahead of time so I would be connected immediately when things got started. Players were allowed to make their accounts starting a week ago to reduce strain on the registration servers. Of course, that would just increase the strain on login and character creation, but the developers promised that was already accounted for. After signing in, I was presented with a small library in order to not have to stare into empty space during the wait. Especially since time was accelerate to around 3x real time while in game, so the wait was considerably longer than it would have been outside of the pod. The books were all the backstory of the world in which the game took place. Most of this information was already available online, but I still skimmed the books while waiting for character creation to begin. Basically, the world was once connected with two other worlds, the celestial world and the infernal world, via several gateways found in various places. Fairly typical setup, really. Eventually, war broke out between the celestials and infernals, and this world, called Ariloth, was caught in the middle of it all. To protect the world the gods, who usually acted more as spectators than participants in worldly affairs, opted to take the rather extreme action of destroying the gateways, isolating Ariloth. This ensured no celestials or infernals could enter this world, but also trapped the few that were already here. Enraged at being trapped the Remnants, as they were called, vowed to destroy the world the gods had protected in revenge. However they currently did not have the strength to do so, and so they fled to the uncivilized parts of the world, ruling over the monsters in those regions through force. Since the war, the races of this world have prospered in relative peace. Because of the existence of monsters and the looming threat of the Remnants, very few wars have been fought amongst the inhabitants of the world. Each race has internal quarrels, but few of those have ever amounted to anything beyond a major nuisance. Some races are split between the reasoning members, and the feral ones. As an example, while elementals are welcome in towns, feral elementals are considered dangerous and attacked on sight. Also, extra-planar beings such as angels and demons (not to be confused with celestials and infernals, very different beings) are extremely rare as they must be summoned to Ariloth using rituals that require tremendous resources. Their acceptance is usually handled on a case by case basis, with demons much less likely to be accepted by the other races than angels. In spite of the lasting peace with each other, the civilized peoples of the world have not been able to expand their territories far either. Any attempt to cultivate new lands brings the risk of accidentally invading the lands the Remnants have claimed as their own. Coming too close to those lands will bring the wrath of the Remnants, leading to conflicts with the monsters under their control. I had just finished going through the history books and was about to read a book titled Atlas of Ariloth, which admittedly I should probably have looked at first, when a notification popped up in front of me.
Character creation has been unlocked. Would you like to begin?
Yes No
Geography was important, but play time was more so. I immediately selected ¡°Yes¡± and was transferred to a black space. You would expect it to be dark, but I could clearly see myself and the other occupant in the room. She was dressed in an elegant silver gown, with blond hair tied in a loose ponytail that was pulled to the front over her left shoulder. In a word, she would be described as ¡°beautiful¡± by nine people out of ten. And the tenth¡¯s opinion doesn¡¯t count since they clearly have questionable taste. ¡°Greetings, and welcome to Sundered World Online. My name is Kara, and I am tasked with guiding you through character creation, amongst a number of other duties. Shall we begin?¡± Really PassCom? Kara the character creation assistant? Well, I¡¯m not much better at naming things, so I can¡¯t really say anything. Also, ¡®other duties¡¯? I suddenly have a slight suspicion she may be one of the gods responsible for isolating this world from the others. ¡°Sure, where do we start?¡± ¡°To begin with, you have two options. First, you may choose from among the common races of the world and create your character as you see fit. The other option is to accept a randomized character. This has the possibility of unlocking a rare race, however this race will not be any more powerful than the common races. If it does have particularly strong abilities, it will have equally strong drawbacks. Also, if you choose to randomize and are unhappy with the results, you will not be eligible to receive a rare race again for at least 90 days. This means you will have to play with either a common race or the result of your first randomization for approximately three months in real time before you can possibly get another rare race. Any questions so far?¡± Wow, three months invested in a character would be hard to throw away. I can see how that would discourage rerolling for a rare race. Which brings up a question I saw asked in a forum about a week ago. ¡°Is character creation the only way to obtain a rare race, or can your character''s race change in the game?¡± Kara nodded. ¡°While hard to come by, there are ways in the game to change your race to some of those not available at character creation, and even some that cannot be generated randomly. However other races are only available through random character generation. Any other questions?¡± I see, so basically races are classified in four groups. The common races available to everyone, the rare races that can be generated at character creation or obtained through gameplay, rare races only available through gameplay, and finally the rare races only obtainable through character randomization. ¡°Nope, that¡¯s all for now. Let¡¯s get started.¡± ¡°Alright. First, will you be designing your character, or will you take a randomized character?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to go random.¡± ¡°Very good, you are allowed to bias the randomization toward a particular play style. For example, you can choose to bias the randomization toward warrior type races, giving you a higher chance of obtaining a race specializing in physical combat stats like strength and endurance. Note this does not guarantee you will get a race like you chose, only increases your odds. Would you like to add a bias?¡± Oh, a bias. That was something I hadn¡¯t heard about. I thought a bit about it, and decided to go ahead and give it a try. I would probably force whatever race I ended up with into my preferred play style anyway, may as well try to get one that was good at it. ¡°Can I bias it toward being a magic user?¡± ¡°Certainly, now then one moment while your race is generated.¡± Kara closed her eyes and stopped moving for a moment. The she opened them again and smiled at me. ¡°Congratulations, you have generated a rare race.¡± Before I could even wonder what it was, a new window popped up in front of me.
Congratulations on your randomly generated race. The race you have been assigned is: Succubus
¡°... huh?¡± I was honestly shocked. I had been prepared for a lot of things, but discovering I would be playing the game as a seductive demon who drained men of their essence through sex was not on that list. First of all judging by the ratings it¡¯s received, I¡¯m fairly sure sex isn¡¯t even possible in this game, so how would that work? ¡°Um Kara, can I ask you a question about this race. I¡¯m fairly certain one of the more major features of traditional succubi isn¡¯t possible in SWO. How is this going to even work?¡± Kara pondered my question a moment before responding. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m not able to answer your question on my own. Please wait a moment while I summon one of the PassCom character creation support staff to help.¡± After waiting for roughly fifteen seconds, there was a flash of light and next to Kara stood a young man in a professional looking suit. He stepped forward and began to introduce himself with a well practiced smile for dealing with customers on his face. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m David with Sundered World Online character creation support. Kara tells me you have a question about your race that she was unable to answer. Give me just a moment to pull up your information and replay your discussion with her.¡± A few windows opened in front of him and he stared intently at one of them for a minute before it vanished. He then glanced at the other window before nodding. ¡°I think I see where your confusion is. First off, let me congratulate you as well on your rare race. It seems you are confused by the discrepancy between succubi in traditional mythologies and SWO, correct?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s about it. Succubi are traditionally a race specialized in¡­ shall we say ¡®adult activities¡¯. I¡¯m pretty sure those aren¡¯t an option in SWO, right?¡± It¡¯s not that I¡¯m particularly hesitant to say ¡®sex¡¯, it just felt strange discussing it so frankly with a man in an immaculate business suit and a beautiful, elegant woman who may or may not be considered a goddess, so I ended up censoring myself. ¡°That is right, you cannot perform, as you put it, ¡®adult activities¡¯ in SWO.¡± David grinned slightly before continuing, ¡°The race¡¯s abilities have been designed to emulate tradition as closely as possible within the confines of the game, all while still maintaining game balance. As an example, the signature draining of males by succubi has been altered. You will have the ability to drain health from someone through physical contact to fill your satiety. Because of the toned down requirements, this also allows anyone to be drained, rather than just men. However, the restriction requiring the succubus to be a woman does still exist. Also, should later updates allow sexual activities, you will be given the option to convert the character to be more in line with traditions if you would like. Does this clear up your confusion?¡± Ok, so not only will sex not be required (good since it¡¯s not possible), but even the restriction to men is also lifted. This should be quite doable then. I don¡¯t mind playing a female character. It can be fun, and opens the door to really mess with some people. But needing to sleep with other guys would take a lot of the fun out of it. I have no problems if other people want to do it, but that¡¯s just not how I swing personally. ¡°Yeah, that settles my questions. Thanks.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome. I hope you enjoy SWO.¡± David flashed his perfect business smile again, then with a flash of light, the room was back to two occupants. There was a short pause, then the goddess (verification pending) Kara, who had been standing to the side through my exchange with David, took a step forward. ¡°Are you ready to finish the character creation process now?¡± Oh, right. We were doing that, weren''t we. Chapter 2: Abilities ¡°Are you ready to finish the character creation process now?¡± Ah, that¡¯s right. We were in the middle of that, weren¡¯t we. Well, not that there was much to it since I was playing a randomly generated character. Still, the sooner I finished this, the sooner I could start the game. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s get this finished.¡± ¡°Very well, next is character customization. While most of the character generation is handled by the random character generation, you are allowed to make minor changes if you would like.¡± Kara nodded, then what I could only assume was my character appeared in front of me. While not the best at guessing ages, I would put her in the early to mid 20s. She stood perfectly still, allowing me to get a good look. As one would expect of a succubus, she was extremely attractive. Her skin was smooth, her body curved in just the right places, and her face was one that would draw both men and women. Her platinum blonde hair was cut in a short bob, and the large pale green eyes had a sharp, playful look to them. In contrast with the human beauty, the most eye catching of all were the parts that made her clearly not a human. First, while not as long as those of an elf, her ears were noticeably pointed more than those a human. More obvious were the wings and spaded tail hung extended out from her back. The wings were leathery and looked like those of a bat, with the rigid portions being black while the webbing between them was a deep red color. The tail was also black, though it faded to a deep red toward the tip. It didn¡¯t seem to have any joints but could bend anywhere along its length like a rope. Finally, from the sides of her forehead two black horns extended up and back, curving in toward each other following the curvature of her head. I looked over the character, considering for a moment making some alterations to her appearance before remembering the horrifying monsters I had created in the past trying to ¡°perfect¡± the appearance of characters in the past. In the end I decided to keep most of it the same. There was really only one thing I absolutely wanted to change anyway. ¡°Can I make the hair longer, say about halfway down her back?¡± What can I say, I prefer women with longer hair. And if I was going to be one, she was going to meet my preferences before anyone else''s. Kara nodded, and immediately the hair grew to be the length I asked for, putting my character well into my strike zone. ¡°Much better. Let¡¯s go with this. Is it possible to alter my appearance at all in game later?¡± ¡°There are NPCs in most major cities that can do some appearance alteration, however physical changes are very limited. They are also able to alter the length of your hair if you would like. As for styling, you are able to do that yourself, or have someone else do it for you.¡± That¡¯s good. While I like long hair on women, I don¡¯t know much about styling it to look good. Most likely I would just let it hang loose or pull it into a simple ponytail or something until I found someone who could do it for me. ¡°Next, you need to chose a name. This is permanent, however you can get titles and nicknames due to your actions.¡± Ah, there it was. The hardest part of creating a character. Physically designing my appearance is challenging enough, but making a name that fits the character leaves me paralyzed. Especially since I am fully aware I have absolutely no naming sense. If this were a single player game, I would probably just name myself something like ¡°AAAA¡±. You would not believe how many AAAA¡¯s have saved the world over my gaming career. But this game was different. My name would be how other people were going to call me. It would be a moniker that followed my every action. I wanted it to be something that I like the sound of, and wouldn¡¯t be embarrassed of in the future. While I wracked my brain, desperately trying to think of a good name for my new succubus, Kara stood watching me with that same gentle smile she¡¯s maintained this entire time, not saying a single word. It was almost uncanny how she wouldn¡¯t even trying to give a suggestion. Oh, speaking of which, that brings up a question I could use to distract myself from the problem at hand for a minute. ¡°Hey Kara, what¡¯s going to happen with my voice?¡± While not the deepest, manliest voice you¡¯ll ever come across, my voice is still very clearly masculine. It would be really strange to hear that coming out of a beautiful woman like the still unnamed succubus standing beside me. ¡°There is an automatic vocal modification that will alter the player¡¯s voice to be fitting for their character. In your case it will make it sound more feminine. It also includes a translation function, so your words will be heard in the listener¡¯s native language, though they may be altered slightly to convey the meaning behind them for languages that are very different from your own.¡± That makes sense. I do wonder exactly how that software works. It¡¯s probably extremely complicated. While changing the voice would just be a matter of filtering the waveform, translating accurately between languages is extremely difficult. Hopefully it wouldn¡¯t lead to too many awkward misunderstandings between people. But that was enough distracting myself for a bit. I turned back to the stationary avatar still standing perfectly upright beside me. Rather than trying to come up with a name that in my opinion sounds succubus-y, I decided to try borrowing a name someone else thought of instead. Besides, if I went with a name from mythology or something, it gave the added possibility of someone recognizing the name and possibly putting together than I¡¯m not what I appear to be leading to fun and interesting events. While I¡¯m not an expert on the subject, mythology is something I have some interest in. I enjoy seeing the stories ancient people came up with to explain things happening around them that they didn¡¯t understand. What happens when we die, why does lightning fall from the sky, why is my wife pregnant when I¡¯ve been away at war for the last year. All these things needed answering, and they came up with very interesting answers to them. Anyway, because of this passing interest, I was fairly sure I can find a decent name. I started running through the different mythological women I could remember trying to find a good one for a succubus, when I hit on it. The perfect name. It¡¯s even associated with succubi, or at least being similar to them. ¡°Kara, I¡¯ve got a name. How about Lilith?¡± Lilith. In Hebrew folklore, she was Adam¡¯s first wife, made at the same time he was. For various reasons, she was kicked out of the Garden of Eden and ended up becoming a demonic embodiment of lust. So basically, a succubus. Perfect. Just don¡¯t ask for the details. It¡¯s been awhile since I read about her, and honestly I don¡¯t remember them. There was a flash of light for a moment, and afterward the avatar had vanished leaving me and Kara. However my point of view had changed a bit, so I must be in the avatar now. I glanced down and confirmed it. Now, I know some of you were expecting me to get all excited about having boobs. Sorry to disappoint, but that¡¯s not what happened. This time. This isn¡¯t my first female character in VR, so I got all that out of my system before. Anyway, now it was time to get started. ¡°Before you go, you might want to take some time to get used to your new body. You can also test your skills so you understand how they work before entering the world of Ariloth.¡± ¡­ or not. As Kara said this, a simple straw dummy appeared in front of me. ¡°Feel free to try abilities on the dummy there. It is indestructible, but will still give feedback like a normal being. I will be over here if you have any questions.¡± Wow, that¡¯s a fancy dummy. I wondered if that¡¯s a playable race somehow. Invincible straw dummy. Unable to move, but can¡¯t be killed. Anyway, I figured I should probably take her up on the offer and try things out first. Especially since I had never had wings and a tail before, so that might take some getting used to. First, I decided to take a look at my stats and skills to see what I can do. Conveniently, opening the menus didn¡¯t take any chanting or anything. You just think strongly about the menu you wanted to open, and it did.
Name: Lilith Class: (none) Active Title: (none)
Race: Succubus Level: 1 Inactive Titles: (none)
Health: 101/101 Energy: 100/100 Mana: 104/104
Strength: 3 Endurance: 3 Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 4 Intelligence: 8 Willpower: 8
Charisma: 5
Skill List
Mind Magic Level 1: 0%
Abilities
Charismatic
Mind Magic Talent
Night Vision
Shunned
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Seduce
Enthrall
Life Drain
Flight
Sharpen Nails
Hide Nature
Well, there¡¯s a lot there. Starting from the top is basic character information. After that are my stats. Looks like 35 points total, 5 for each stat then redistributed for racial preferences. That makes sense. There are a few things I¡¯m not sure on, though. For starters, while I understand Health and Mana, what is energy for?
Energy
Energy is a resource used to power your abilities. For most players, the maximum value will be fixed at 100, rather than increasing with level like health and mana. In combat, energy regenerates quickly, while mana is slow to regenerate. Raising skills associated with the abilities will lower the energy cost of those abilities.
I see, so it¡¯s used for special physical attacks to prevent players from being able to rapidly spam their most powerful attacks repeatedly. Interesting that the maximum is a fixed value and instead training lowers the cost associated with abilities, though. Well, I don¡¯t intend to be a particularly physical fighter anyway, so it should be easy enough to balance. A quick skim of the other stats shows me they are split into two types, with Charisma being an odd one out. While they all do a few different things, Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence all are primarily attack stats governing melee, ranged, and magical damage respectively. Intelligence also governs maximum mana, with every two points of Int adding a point of mana. Dexterity also affects stealth and movement speed. Similarly Endurance, Constitution, and Willpower are defensive stats. Endurance is your health and offers a bit of physical defense. Constitution is resistance to ailments such as poison and disease, as well as elements. Willpower is your ability to resist magical damage, and ignore supernatural effects like curses. Finally, there is Charisma.
Charisma
An extra stat that affects others disposition toward you, especially at the first meeting. It also controls some abilities related to communication and manipulation of others.
It¡¯s a bit ambiguous, but I think having this higher will make people (particularly NPCs) a bit more friendly toward me. Also given my race, I probably have some of the abilities that use the stat for manipulating others. Speaking of abilities, I¡¯m a bit confused on one point. ¡°Hey Kara, can you tell me what the difference is between skills and abilities?¡± Oh wow, this was the first time I had spoken with my new voice, and it was pretty fantastic. It was a very smooth, almost silky voice that was extremely pleasant to listen to. I was so distracted I almost forgot to pay attention to Kara¡¯s answer to my question. ¡°Certainly. Through your actions, you will obtain and train up various skills. As these skills gain experience, they will level up. This will grant you various new abilities and spells. Abilities are actions you can take using your energy, while spells are magic cast with your mana. These will also become more effective as you level up the related skill.¡± I see, so I train a skill to unlock new spells and abilities to use in the game. That seems a little complex, but it does make sense I suppose. That brought up a couple new questions, though. ¡°So, is that the only way to unlock new abilities and spells? And how does one obtain a new skill?¡± ¡°The easiest and most common way to obtain a new skill is to receive basic training in that skill. There are also ways to obtain some skills without training, but the criteria are hidden and often difficult to meet. As for Abilities and spells, these can also be discovered through gameplay. Your class may also provide a few class specific abilities and spells when you obtain it and when you level up.¡± I see. Like most things about the game, there was a lot of freedom involved. As I recalled from what I read online, you can only reach level 5 without a class, at which point you stop gaining experience. Obtaining a class allows you to begin advancing, and aside from classless there is no maximum. Next, I took a look at my only skill, Mind Magic.
Mind Magic
A subtle magic that affects the mind of the target. Most spells of this school do not cause any actual damage, but cause various effects to hinder your opponent. Currently learned spells:
  • Charm
Charm
Causes the target to view the caster as a friend. Charmed targets will not fight their allies if they are hostile to the caster, but may attempt to convince them to stop attacking. Target will fight to protect the caster from other threats in the area. Duration of the effect varies depending on the caster¡¯s intelligence and the target¡¯s willpower. Mana cost: 10
Hmm, at first glance, that didn¡¯t seem incredibly useful. It could come in handy in certain situations, but if I¡¯m up against a group of enemies it might take one out of the fight temporarily, but it did basically nothing about the rest. Well, it was only a level one spell after all. I can¡¯t expect too much from it. Maybe something more useful would be in my abilities. I decided to start with the passives.
Charismatic
Grants the charisma stat.
Well, that was pretty basic.
Mind Magic Talent
Grants access to the Mind Magic skill. Increases the rate at which Mind Magic gains experience.
Oh, so I should be able to level up Mind Magic and get some new spells a bit faster.
Night Vision
Grants the ability to see clearly in the dark, even without a light source.
Another convenient skill. I won¡¯t need to carry torches, though if I¡¯m in a party we¡¯d probably have some anyway.
Shunned (racial ability)
Demons are considered monsters by most of society, and will be viewed as hostile when discovered.
  • Guards and some braver citizens will attack on sight
  • Citizens not confident in their combat abilities will flee and alert others to your presence
What? I know Kara said there would be negatives to counteract a powerful rare race, but this seemed a bit overboard in my opinion. How was I supposed to do anything if I couldn¡¯t even enter towns? Would I need allies to do any business in town for me? I was willing to bet that charm spell would wear off well before a charmed person was even through the gate. Okay, let¡¯s calm down. Maybe something in my active abilities could help.
Flight
Grants the ability to fly to winged races
  • Drains satiety at an accelerated rate
  • Cannot be taught to non-winged races
Energy cost: Special, does not require energy
Well, I suppose if I can¡¯t walk into town, I can always fly in. Still, it would be pretty noticeable, and if I¡¯m spotted it would be about the same in the end anyway.
Seduce (racial ability)
A succubus can hypnotize victims and order them to perform simple tasks for, but not fight for, the succubus.
  • Requires eye contact
  • Duration of Seduce depends of victim¡¯s willpower, succubus¡¯ charisma stat, and actions performed by and on the victim while Seduced
  • Seduced NPCs will forget everything that happens while Seduced and everything about the succubus
  • Seduced players will lose control and senses will be distorted to hide identity of the succubus and what actions occurred while Seduced
  • Limited to one Seduced or Enthralled victim at a time
Energy cost: 25
Hmm, this seemed like a slightly altered version of the charm spell. Looks like it was designed specifically for grabbing someone when I need to feed. Still, a lot less useful if I couldn¡¯t get into towns.
Enthrall (racial ability)
A succubus can enthrall a previously Seduced victim and order them to serve the succubus for a period of time, allowing them to perform more challenging tasks including combat if ordered.
  • Requires eye contact
  • Requires target be under the effects of Seduce
  • Enthralling a target resets the duration from Seduce
  • Enthralled victim will remember everything that occurs while enthralled
  • Players that are Enthralled will lose control of their character, but will still view everything that happens from the character¡¯s point of view
  • Limited to one Seduced or Enthralled victim at a time
Energy cost: 25
Wow, okay that could be handy. There¡¯s a strange feeling of satisfaction in forcing someone to turn on their allies. And unlike the charm spell, the victim would probably be willing to fight former allies if ordered. However, the energy cost was pretty high. Combined with the cost to Seduce the target, that¡¯s half my energy gone right there.
Life Drain (racial ability)
Drains health from subject from victim and converts it to satiety
  • Requires physical contact
  • Type of contact will affect rate of draining
  • Cannot drain beings that are not alive such as undead or golems
  • Can be used to kill target by draining health to zero
Energy cost: Special, uses 1 energy per second. If energy reaches 0, uses 1 mana per second.
There was the life drain David had mentioned earlier. Still, type of contact affecting the rate of draining was new. It maked sense that wrapping my arms around someone would work better than poking their forehead or holding their hand. Also the energy cost is odd. So it uses the quick regenerating energy, then rather than ending transitions to the slower regenerating mana when the energy ran out. I suppose that would probably be better than just ending while I¡¯m still needing to eat, especially since a lot of my meals would have a time limit if I needed to use Seduce to get someone to feed off of.
Sharpen Nails
While not known for their physical capabilities, Succubi can sharpen their fingernails for self defense when needed.
  • Your fingernails extend, harden, and sharpen temporarily, becoming a claw weapon
Energy cost: reduces maximum energy by 20 while used.
An interesting ability. Still, I think I would rather not need to fight in melee if I could help it. Not that I can¡¯t fight, but I usually prefer not to. But it is nice to have a backup without needing to carry a weapon with me. Also, rather than using a certain amount of energy, it basically reserves 20 of it permanently while active.
Hide Nature
Succubi can transform their bodies to disguise themselves as a any sentient race they have encountered before.
  • Can only use Life Drain and Seduce while transformed
  • Abilities that can be used are weaker than they are in demon form
  • Only a few high level detection spells will be able to see through the disguise
  • Shunned does not affect character while disguised
  • If satiety drops below 15%, Hide Nature will be disabled and will not be usable again until satiety rises above 50%
Energy cost: reduces maximum energy by 60 while used.
Alright, I finally found the ability I needed. With that I could go into town, though in a considerably weakened state. It reserved over half of my maximum energy, and locked out many of my abilities. I would also need to be careful not to get too hungry. Turning back into a demon in the middle of town would be horrible. At least I could still feed and use Seduce, and my magic would be unrestrained. Still, I made a mental note to be careful. Finally done examining my character''s capabilities, I spent some time getting used to my body. I also tested out my spell and abilities on the straw dummy. Seducing a straw dummy was a strange experience. Of course, it was still just a dummy, so no matter how I ordered it, it just stood there silently. Still, I got the feeling that it was or was not accepting my command, so I was able to get an idea of the limits for Seduce. I also noticed another advantage to Seduce over the Charm spell. While the spell requires you to speak the spell, Seduce just required eye contact (or what counts as eye contact for eyeless beings like the dummy) and mentally choosing to activate it. So mind controlling someone silently was only doable with Seduce. After that, I tested out Enthrall and found that I could indeed order the enthralled target to attack, though the dummy couldn¡¯t actually perform an action. I¡¯ll have to try it later to make sure they¡¯ll attack former allies. Next, I tested out draining and noticed I could feel the energy flowing into me. If I could feel it flowing in, I suspected the victim would feel it flowing out as well. I¡¯d have to be careful to only drain mind controlled or willing victims until I confirmed it. No surprise meals for me until then. Finally, I grew my nails and slashed a few times at the dummy before deciding I was ready to move on. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s probably enough. Kara, I think I¡¯m ready to go.¡± Kara smiled and nodded ¡°Very well. I will now send you into the world. I wish you the best of luck in your adventures.¡± And with that, everything went black. Chapter 3: Summoned The darkness didn¡¯t last long before I found myself in a candlelit room. The bare stone floors and walls gave it a cold feeling. In one corner was a simple flight of stairs, making me believe I was in a basement somewhere. Drawn on the floor was a large pentagram, with what seemed to be a magic circle drawn in the middle. And in the middle of that circle, I stood. At each point on the pentagram was a chanting hooded figure, and toward the front was a sixth person in a fancier robe than the others. Guessing at the situation, I suspect these six people must have summoned me, and judging by their choice of location to perform the summoning, they were probably not doing so with the blessing of most of society. My guess is that this was a small group of cultist who decided to summon a demon for some nefarious purpose, and ended up bringing me to the world. As if to confirm this, a window popped up in front of me.
Quest: Summoned
You have been summoned by an unknown cult. Following the summoning, the next stage is an enslavement ritual that binds the demons will to that of the summoners.
  • You have 15 minutes to interrupt the ritual before it is complete.
Objectives:
  • Escape the magic circle holding you
  • Defeat the cultists and escape from the ritual site
Note: Failure will forfeit this character and return you to character creation.
A quest right off, and a rather nasty one at that. Completely losing the character was a rough penalty, especially since I would almost certainly not get a rare race again. I wonder if everyone¡¯s start is this bad, or if it was just because of my race. I¡¯d have to ask around later. For now, I needed to get to escaping. First I tried reaching out my hand toward one of the cultists. As expected, I encountered an invisible wall blocking me from moving out of the circle. I activated Sharpen Nails and tried to take a swipe at the barrier, but as expected it didn¡¯t have any noticeable effect. Usually in stories where a demon escapes at the summoning, it¡¯s because someone erases a portion of the magic circle containing them. I took a close look at the circle surrounding me for any mistakes. There was one section where it is not perfectly drawn, but no complete breaks in the circle to take advantage of. The messed up part was still done well enough that the barrier held me back in that direction, but I guessed it might have been weakened enough for me to cast a spell through. I obviously couldn¡¯t touch the circle, so I needed to get someone else to do it for me. Using the charm spell might alert the other cultists to what I was doing, and I want to delay that as long as possible so I decided to use my abilities instead. I would need to make eye contact with the cultist by the flawed portion of the circle and use Seduce and Enthrall, though. All six cultists are currently kneeling on the floor with their heads down chanting, so eye contact wasn¡¯t something I would be coming by easily. I needed to do something to get the cultist¡¯s attention enough that he would look up long enough to trigger my ability. Deciding on my course of action, I stepped back to the far side of the circle then charged straight at the barrier right in front of the cultist I¡¯d selected to become my new servant. I slammed into the barrier with a shout, surprising the cultists and causing the one in front of me to glance up for a moment. Seizing that instant, I locked eyes with him and triggered Seduce causing him to stop before he could look away. My energy dropped to 55 because I¡¯m still maintaining Sharpen Nails, but that was enough to carry out my plan. The cultist remained kneeling on the ground staring blankly at me awaiting orders. I glanced around quickly to see if the others had noticed yet, but they were looking down again like they had been before and continuing to chant.
Quest: Summoned
A cultist has stopped performing the ritual. Timer has been extended by 5 minutes.
At this point I noticed a small countdown in the corner of my vision showing the remaining time until the limit. Currently it¡¯s at 17:23, meaning I had used roughly two and a half minutes already. Still, I had what I needed at this point, a willing servant to be my accomplice and help me escape. Well, maybe willing isn¡¯t the right word when I¡¯m mind controlling him to do it. Close enough. Now to plan my next move. I could just turn this cultist on his allies immediately, but if he was defeated I¡¯d need to get a new servant, and I couldn¡¯t expect that trick to work twice. The better course of action would be to escape the circle immediately. That should at least remove the time limit. Things would turn into an all out brawl at that point, though. Two on four isn¡¯t very good odds, but hopefully I¡¯ll be able to Charm one of them to at least take them out of the fight temporarily. I focused my mind on the cultist and mentally ordered him to erase the circle in front of him, hoping that would be a simple enough command that he could do it without me resorting to Enthralling him yet. Mentally issuing orders is one of the things I found I could do with Seduced and Enthralled victims while experimenting with the straw dummy earlier. While verbal commands were needed when I used the Charm spell, I could think commands to victims of my racial abilities. As for why I¡¯ was delaying using Enthrall as long as possible, it was because there is going to be a fight after I get out, and I wanted to have a mind controlled ally for as long as possible, so I was waiting till the last minute to start that duration. Even a few seconds might have proved to make a difference. While never looking away from my face, my new servant reached his robed hand out toward the circle in front of him and wiped away a large portion of it. The instant the circle was broken, a sound like glass breaking filled the room. If seducing him hadn¡¯t gotten the others attention, this definitely did.
Quest: Summoned
Objective Complete: Escape the magic circle holding you Due to erasing a portion of the circle while the ritual was ongoing, everyone currently performing the ritual has been stunned for 4 seconds.
Well, that worked out better than I had expected. I decided it was time for a change of plans. New plan was to try to kill as many of the cultists as possible before the stun wore off. I activated enthrall and ordered the thrall to attack the cultist to his right, while I went after the one kneeling on his left. I was down to 30 energy now, but I wouldn¡¯t need much more anyway, so it wasn¡¯t a large issue. It would have time to recover a bit before I was Seducing another target anyway. With my sharp nails, I reached around the still kneeling cultists throat. Digging them into one side I rapidly ripped them across, slitting his throat 4 times instantly. I cringed slightly as he fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding throat in a vain attempt to keep himself from bleeding out. I had killed humanoid NPCs in melee before in other games, but it still wasn¡¯t something enjoyed often. That¡¯s why I preferred ranged and magic classes. The feeling is a lot less visceral. The cultist¡¯s health had instantly dropped to under 10% by my sudden onslaught, and continued to drain rapidly due to the bleeding debuff. At that rate, he would die in less than 2 seconds, so I kicked him out of the way and dashed at the second cultist while glancing to see how my thrall was performing. The thrall had about the same luck I had with his first target, a female cultist. He pulled a dagger out from under his robes and shoved it straight into her throat. Not finished there, he then twisted it a few times before pulling it out killing her instantly and turning to his next target. I can¡¯t help but wonder if he was always that vicious, or if it was a result of the enthrallment. It could be that any discomfort he might have had was erased by my mind control, something to keep in mind later. About the time I reached my second target, the stun wore off and the remaining cultists leapt to their feet to defend themselves. The leader and one of the cultists charged at my thrall while the other turned to face me. Still, three on two was a whole lot better than five on two, so now I was considerably confident in my chances at winning. Plus, I still had a few tricks I could play and a full mana bar. I raised my hand toward the cultist in front of me, hoping this would work. ¡°¡± Low level spells only require the spell name as the chant, allowing them to be cast quickly in a fight. Apparently more powerful spells would require a more drawn out chant before they can be used, making them harder to fire off in mid combat without a party to protect you. My luck held and the cultist in front of me lowered his dagger and looked around the room in confusion. Unfortunately for him, I wasn¡¯t about to let that opening go, and slashed at his face and neck with my nails. The wounds, while substantial, weren¡¯t nearly as deep as with the first cultist, and the sudden attack broke the charm spell on him. As the cultist slashed out at me with his dagger, I flapped my wings and jumped backward in an effort to avoid the blade. Unfortunately due to the nature of my nails, I had to be very close to get a hit in, and was unable to completely avoid the blow. I raised my left arm to intercept the blade, taking roughly 5% of my health in damage. I again accelerating my movement with my wings I dashed straight in at the cultist again. This time instead of slashing at the enemy, I dug into his throat with the nails of my right hand. He let out a rather disgusting gurgling sound and slumped down as he died. I pulled my claws out of his throat and turned toward the remaining enemies.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. My thrall had clearly been doing pretty well. I wonder if the others were hesitant because he had been one of their companions, because he had definitely inflicted more damage than he took from the two of them. The leader was down to around three quarters of his health, while the other cultist was at around 10% and seemed to be bleeding as his health was steadily decreasing. The thrall was also low on health, however. He would probably not last beyond a couple more hits. I didn¡¯t really mind that too much, as the enthrallment would probably wear off soon anyway, so it would be better for them to drop him before he turned on me. Still, best to inflict as much damage as we can while there¡¯s two of us. I flapped my wings again sending myself darting across the room with a yell. Both of the remaining enemies turned in surprise at the sound, an opening my thrall was not going to miss. He rammed his dagger into the chest of the bleeding cultist, ending his life. However, the blade stuck in his target, leaving him exposed as the cult leader swung his own blade in a ferocious arc and killed the thrall before he could react. He then turned towards me, eyes filled with rage. ¡°You! You¡¯ve ruined everything! My followers are dead, the ritual was interrupted! All the time and resources that went into preparing for this, lost! At the very least, I can kill you and sell your body to recuperate some of the losses. Alchemists will pay a good bit of money for demon parts.¡± The ensuing grand duel to the death¡­ didn¡¯t happen. I¡¯m not the type of character to stand and fight fairly, after all. I¡¯m a demon that specializing in messing with the enemy''s mind, using trickery and deceit to defeat my foes. Plus, this cult leader guy was staring right at me this whole time. He made it almost too easy. I grinned slightly at the leader¡¯s ranting at me, then triggered Seduce. During the fight, my energy had recovered to about 60, so I had more than enough for Seduce, and with this the fight would be over anyway so there was no need to enthrall him. He immediately dropped his dagger and stood at attention. ¡°Come kneel over here beside me.¡± He was a tall man, with a well featured face and dark hair. He immediately knelt on one knee beside me. I bent down and placed a hand on either side of his face touched my forehead to his, and activated life drain. His health immediately started dropping as my satiety increased. Judging my the consumption of my energy at this point, he would die just about the time I ran out of energy. Well, if not I can still finish him off with my nails. ¡°Now then, I want you to answer my questions. First, what was your objective in summoning me?¡± ¡°We sought a powerful demon with which we could cause panic and mayhem in the streets. We wished to show the crown and nobles that they aren¡¯t the only power in this land. If things went well, it was also possible that we could incite the citizens to revolt.¡± So, cultists and terrorists. That¡¯s a combination you never want, doubly so in worlds where magic rituals actually do something. ¡°Next question. Where are we now?¡± ¡°This is the basement of a house in the slums of Eridell, the capital city of the Kingdom of Astoenn.¡± Hmm, those names mean basically nothing to me, but at least I have a name for the place I¡¯m in now. I can finally respond to an annoying little message indicator that popped up around the time I was bearing down on my second cultist earlier. As expected, the sender was Joseph.
Hey, just got word from Ashley. She started as desert nomad, so I¡¯m going to need to go east to the Great Central Desert to meet up with her. It¡¯s going to be a little while, because I need to get stronger before I can make the trip. My name is Horvath, and Ashley¡¯s is Simona. Add us to your friend list.
I considered responding right away, but before I could, I felt the Life Drain cut off and another window appeared in front of me.
Quest: Summoned
You have successfully escaped from the cultists that summoned you to this world. You are now free to act as you see fit.
OH, he died. Well then, I guess now it¡¯s just to walk out the door. I checked my satiety to try to get an idea how much health I need to drain to fill myself, but the bar was full so I guess I overate this time. Hopefully I won¡¯t gain weight or anything. I don¡¯t see fat succubi being all that popular. Finally done with my starting quest, I cancelled my Sharpen Nails and sent a message to Joseph. I¡¯ve got time to kill anyway, as my energy was down to 10. I need at least 60 for Hide Nature before I leave this basement.
I¡¯m in the capital city of Astoenn, Eridell. Not sure much about the area yet, as I haven¡¯t started exploring beyond my start. Character name is Lilith. You should both be getting the friend request momentarily.
After that, I opened up my friends menu and added Horvath and Simona. I couldn¡¯t actually communicate with them until they accepted, but at least my side of things was done. Now, onward to the loot! There wasn¡¯t much on the cultists beyond their daggers, the robes they were wearing, and a few coins I found in their pockets. The fancy robe from the leader did increase my intelligence stat slightly, so I decided to wear that. Equipping armor was done through the inventory menu in this game, and armors were automatically adjusted to fit the character wearing them. In my case, this meant that the fancy black robe became more of a fancy black gown on me. First, there was a frilly black collar around my neck. From that extended two straps that outlined my shoulders and held the rest of the gown up. The back was left open for my wings and tail, while the front accentuated my chest rather nicely, then tightly followed my body line to my waist. From there, the gown extended to just above the ground, with a slit on one side extending to just past the knee. Overall, it was a highly enticing outfit, but still more tasteful than I was expecting. Much better than succubi often end up wearing in fantasy settings. I had been a little worried I would end up wearing little more than a cloth bikini, so this was a pleasant turn of events. Still, I should probably get used to wearing the revealing outfits typical of female fantasy armor. Even if the game didn¡¯t usually go that route, as a succubus my character probably would. Having changed, I equipped one of the daggers and took a closer look around the room. The only thing of interest I found was a simple pedestal in the corner with a heavy book on it. Glancing through it showed that it was a grimoire on the summoning of demons. It seems that the ritual these cultists were performing is very rarely done, mostly because the resources needed to perform it are incredibly expensive. That explains the complaints of the leader about needing to recuperate the costs. I guess that means there probably won¡¯t be many other demons in the world, players or otherwise. It also two other interesting things about the ritual. First was that there was no way to specify what type of demon you get. You summon a demon at random, and have to just accept whatever shows up. Secondly, the enslavement process would permanently erase the demons will. They would unquestioningly serve their master. If a case where the master died without transferring ownership of the demon to someone else, the demon would go berserk. So basically, that short period between summoning and enslavement is the only chance a demon has to become free like I did. I decided that it was best I hang on to this book for the time being. As I was transferring the book to my inventory, my chat icon lit up showing I had incoming messages. Opening it up showed it was an invite to a group discussion.
Lilith has entered the chat. Horvath: Really man, a female character again? And ¡°Lilith¡±? Lilith: I wasn¡¯t really given a choice. The randomization picked it for me. And Lilith is actually very fitting. Besides, you can¡¯t say anything about my name ¡°Horvath¡±. If I recall correctly, this is the fourth Horvath I¡¯ve met now¡­ Horvath: Whatever, just try to hold back the flirting with random people this time. It gets uncomfortable to have to explain to random guys that we¡¯re not a couple and while yes you are single, they really don¡¯t have a shot. Lilith: Actually, that might get even worse this time. Sorry. Horvath: I¡¯m sort of afraid to ask why. I¡¯ll save it for now, Ashley should be joining the chat soon. Then we can discuss plans from here out. Lilith: Sounds good. We¡¯ll save the explanation for when we meet up.
Minimizing the chat I sat on the stairs and looked at my energy bar. I was already up to 55, so I should be able to head out after making plans with Horvath and Simona.
Simona has entered the chat. Simona: Hello guys. Lilith: Hey, it¡¯s been a while. Simona: Yeah, it really has been. When are you coming back to town to visit? Lilith: No idea. I haven¡¯t really made any plans. For now, we¡¯ll just have to see each other in game. Horvath: Sorry, got sidetracked by something here. Anyway, I managed to find a map. It looks like I¡¯m west of that city Lilith is in, which is west of the Great Central Desert where Simona is. So I¡¯m thinking once I¡¯ve levelled enough to make the trip I¡¯ll head to the city, then together we¡¯ll head to the desert. Sound good? Simona: That should work well. The Caravan is currently on the eastern side of the desert and headed west, so it should be a little while before we get to that side. Lilith: Fine with me. I can stick around the city for a while. There¡¯s probably plenty to do since it is the capital of the kingdom. Horvath: Alright. Also, what type of characters are you playing? I¡¯m intending to run a tank again. Lilith: No surprise there. Of course, none here, either. I¡¯ll be some sort of mage. Simona: Um¡­ I¡¯m using swords. Horvath: So a tank and 2 DPS. Lilith, any chance you can come up with a healer. Maybe an offtank as well. Lilith: I¡¯ll see what I can find, but I make no promises.
Joseph usually leaves getting party members to me. This is partially because he doesn¡¯t like to deal with strangers if he can help it, but also because he trusts me to pick people who will work well with our group. Also, we aren¡¯t leaving it to Ashley because she doesn¡¯t have much experience with this type of thing, so she won¡¯t really understand what we¡¯re looking for.
Horvath: alright, I¡¯m gonna go start working on levelling. I¡¯ll let you know when I start headed your way. Lilith: Sounds good. I¡¯ll keep you posted if I find some new friends for us. Simona: Bye. See you soon Horvath has left the chat. Simona has left the chat.
Alright, plans made. I had two goals for now. First, gain some experience and hopefully get my class before Horvath started heading this way. Second, I needed to try to find some party members. My energy had just hit 100, so I was ready to head out into the city. Chapter 4: Getting Started A red haired beauty made her way down the street, looking this way and that with her dark green eyes. Well, it¡¯s me, though. It turns out that Hide Nature allows me to alter the color of my hair and eyes in addition to hiding my race. So I opted to play around for a while. I¡¯ll probably swap coloration from time to time. It¡¯ll be good if the guard start getting suspicious, as well. They could start looking for a redhead, only for me to actually be a brunette. Plus, if my hair and eyes change color when I transform back to succubus form, it adds a bit of flashiness to the whole process. Anyway, after exiting the basement I had been summoned in, it became clear that the house above it was abandoned, and with good reason. I¡¯m fairly sure a stiff breeze would bring it down. I¡¯ll admit I was a little bit disappointed with this discovery. I was hoping it might be a place I could use, but I suppose it would be incredibly unfair for me to have a hideout dropped into my lap this early in the game, even if it was one in the middle of the slums. Heading out in the streets, I was a bit concerned about being attacked, given that I was wearing a rather fancy looking gown and had a well groomed appearance. Luckily, that didn¡¯t happen. Apparently the guards station more people in this district than the others to maintain order. While I question how the guards managed to miss the group of cultists marching into the basement of an abandoned house, their presence now is quite convenient. ¡°Excuse me, Mr. Guard. I seem to have gotten a bit lost.¡± The young man looked at me with surprise, not expecting someone to actually approach him in this area. Usually residents in this district would be avoiding them, after all. ¡°Wow miss, I¡¯m not sure how ya managed to wander into here. I assume you were looking for one of the shops in the central district, but how on earth did ya manage to wander to the middle of the slums?¡± Oh, so the central district has shops. I guess I¡¯ll pretend that¡¯s where I was trying to get. ¡°I¡¯m not exactly sure myself. I¡¯ve never been to this city before, and apparently made a few wrong turns trying to get where I was going.¡± ¡°Ah, ye¡¯re one of those folk who recently started showing up, aren¡¯t ya miss. We¡¯ve had quite a few of ya get lost in the slums today, though I didn¡¯t expect one of you to make it this far in. We actually stationed some extra guards here today to make sure nothing happens to ya new folks, but that doesn¡¯t guarantee yer safety in this area. I¡¯ll escort ya back to the central district, but if yer gonna be staying in the city, ya should really learn the roads ya should and shouldn¡¯t go down.¡± Ah, I had forgotten that the NPCs in this game do acknowledge that players are different. They don¡¯t see anything strange about people just vanishing into thin air only to reappear several hours, or sometimes even days, later. That should help me out some though. I¡¯ll be able to get help without looking like I¡¯m completely clueless since a lot of people who didn¡¯t exist before just suddenly appeared this morning. ¡°Thank you very much. I¡¯ll do my best to learn the layout of the city while I¡¯m here.¡± Along the way the guard, whose name was Jared, explained that he grew up on a farm in the outskirts and was a recent recruit, which was why he was assigned to the slums. Apparently most guards start out there, and move to other districts as they are promoted. More importantly, I was able to learn to the basic layout of the city from him as we walked. The city is roughly circular, and is separated into four districts. The eastern district is the slums we were currently in. The guards do regularly patrol the area, but the locals are accustomed to dodging the patrols so even with their presence it¡¯s not considered a safe place to be usually. The central and southern districts are the commercial area where you can find most shops and inns. The northern district is where the palace and noble mansions are. There is actually a second wall surrounding this district, and access is strictly controlled. Finally, the western district is where the Mages Association is located, and also shops pertaining to the practice of magic. ¡°Now, I don¡¯t trust them mages myself. Way too dangerous if ya ask me, bein¡¯ able ta kill a man with just a word and all. But if you need anything magical, or want to be a mage yerself, that¡¯s the place to go. They have the ¡®sociation office there where they give trainin¡¯ ta new mages and teach ¡®em to do magic ¡®n such. Honestly, I don¡¯t know much ¡®bout it, as I¡¯ve never bothered ta go over there. I find a blade works fine, myself. Doubt I¡¯d make much of a mage anyhow.¡± I¡¯m pretty sure my guides accent got thicker as we walked. He was probably told to speak properly, but couldn¡¯t keep it up with how long we were talking. It actually suited him pretty well, so I decided not to mention it. ¡°Well miss, this is the Central district. I need ta be gettin¡¯ back, but from here you should be able to find yer way. Be careful not ta wander into the slums again. While most folk are decent enough, there¡¯s some that¡¯ll take any chance they can to make a few coins, even if that means takin¡¯ ¡®em from some poor lost person by force.¡± After thanking Jared, I turned toward the merchants stalls and shops. First order of business was to sell the extra robes and daggers I had gotten off of my summoners. I had no use for them, and they would just take up room in my inventory, so I may as well convert them into money. That done, I wandered around for a while seeing what types of equipments were available. While most equipment I could buy was the typical medieval style weapons and armor fitting the Astoenn kingdom, there were a few with designs very different from the usual. Asking one of the store keepers about it, he explained that they were weapons traded with other regions. As an example, there was a sword that appeared to be made from a hard, sharp glass rather than iron or steel. According to the storekeeper that was the style of weapons for the Draconids who lived in the mountains to the South of the Great Central Desert. It seems every region has their own distinct style of equipment. The Central District seemed to be focused on stores for adventurers. Aside from the weapons and armors, there were apothecaries and alchemists, as well as a few general tool shops for other things that one might need while travelling such as tents, ropes, and torches. The Southern District was made up primarily of inns as well as shops and stalls for all variety of foods. I imagine for most people this would be an important place, but while they can, players don¡¯t actually need to sleep in this game, and I don¡¯t even need to eat regular foods. Since players have no real need for an inn, they had to make a few changes to keep them relevant. While they do still rent rooms for an individual to rest in, the inns in SWO also have rooms for group meetings. They vary in size from just large enough to hold a few people to grand halls large enough to fit several parties or even a full guild in if needed, and you can set it so no one but the designated members can enter if you want to have a private discussion. As I explored, I tried to look for alleyways and side roads where I would be able to lure someone when I got hungry. There were a few, but the Central and Southern districts were very busy, so I doubt I would be able to Seduce someone and take them somewhere to feed on without being noticed. I might have to make my way back to the slums in the Eastern district, though that would bring it¡¯s own hazards. As I was pondering that, my thoughts were suddenly interrupted. ¡°Excuse me, are you interested in joining our party?¡± Ah, another one. I had mentioned that my appearance was rather eye-catching. Well, there were some downsides to that. While touring the city, this scene had happened several times already. Even when they weren¡¯t actively trying to recruit me I received a lot of attention, particularly from the males. Thus, most invites to party with people were very blatantly laced with ulterior motives. Just like the others, I gently let this one down. ¡°Sorry, I am going to solo for a while until my friends can get here, then party with them.¡± The young man was clearly disappointed by this response, but nodded acceptingly. Then turned to the three other men standing behind him and shook his head before turning back to me. I¡¯m guessing he drew the short straw and was given the job of asking. ¡°Alright, I understand that. If you change your mind and want to join us even temporarily, we¡¯ll be glad to have you. So please find us then.¡± And with that, he walked away. That was the usual pattern, and definitely the preferable one. So far, there had only been one variation on that, a guy who was persistent and kept insisting that I come with him or add him to my friends list, until his party came and dragged him away while apologizing for his behavior. It was actually kind of funny, but I¡¯m getting sick of party invites. I decided to find a job to do and get out the city for a while. Luckily, finding a job was pretty easy. There¡¯s a billboard near the front gate where locals can post a job they need done. Most of the time, you would take down the request when you take the job, then return it to the requester when the job is done, but some jobs are always up and you just need to bring the results to the requester. I decided to do one of these. The job was simply hunting giant rats in a field outside town, and then returning their hides to a leatherworker in town. Arriving to the field, I found it wasn¡¯t as crowded as one would expect a beginning hunting zone to be. I guess part of that might be because the players are spread out more due to the randomization of characters. Most games have races that are very popular and others that are less played. SWO managed to avoid that by convincing a majority of players to randomize their characters though, so the players should have started out spread relatively evenly through the world. The field itself was quite spacious, so there was plenty of room for everyone. It was made up of rolling, grass covered hills with a few trees placed randomly. Along the ground, a number of rodents wandered about, occasionally digging at the ground and doing whatever else a giant rat does in it¡¯s spare time. Further out there were also a few roaming packs of wild dogs. There was also a job for hunting them, but I wasn¡¯t confident I could take on a pack of 3-5 dogs on my own with just a dagger and a single target spell, so I was going to stick to the rats.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Unfortunately, because it was so open, I had to keep up my human disguise while hunting. I would rather not see the pandemonium that would ensue if the guards at the gate saw a demon running around near the city. It wouldn¡¯t be too much of a loss, though. I won¡¯t be as mobile without my wings, and the dagger would almost certainly be weaker than my claws, but I still had a weapon and a spell I could use to fight with. Since the rats are solitary and simple monsters, I assumed I would be able to use the Charm spell effectively here. Targeting the closest rat to me, I drew my dagger in my right hand, then raised my left hand toward the rodent and cast Charm. As I expected, rats don¡¯t have a lot of willpower so Charm worked quite well on them. The rat no longer hostile, I simply walked up and rammed my dagger into its neck, then slashed it to one side for a one hit kill. Thankfully, damage in SWO is a lot more than just a strength vs. enemy defense calculation. The number of things that go into figuring out how effective an attack is are tremendous. Because of that, with a single blow the rat turned into a bunch of light particles, and in it¡¯s place was just a hide I could take to town. Ah, I didn¡¯t mention that before. Enemies do disappear like that about 10 seconds after they are killed. Did you think I was literally looting the bodies of the cultists earlier? I¡¯m not exactly squeamish, but I still think I would be uncomfortable stripping a dead body and searching it for stuff. The daggers and robes were in a neat pile when I finally got to them. With a safe and effective hunting method, I continued to kill rats in my general area, take breaks to let my mana regenerate from time to time. As noon rolled around and I had been hunting for a couple hours, my mind magic went up to level two, and I unlocked a second spell.
Confuse
Causes the target to become confused about the situation surrounding it. Confused targets will behave extremely erratically. A few of the possible actions a target may take are:
  • Going to sleep
  • Attacking allies
  • Fleeing in terror
  • Become dazed
Mana cost: 15
Well, it¡¯s a bit random, but seemed like it could be a fun spell to mess around with. It was a little more risky than my charm spell since the confused enemy could still be hostile to me, but I decided to give it a try. Moving to the next rat, I cast Confuse at it. The rat jolted for a moment, then curled up and fell asleep right where he stood. ¡°Well, that¡¯s convenient. Actually, wait a minute.¡± I suddenly had an idea. My Life Drain ability doesn¡¯t actually say anything about the race of my victim. I had been sort of assuming I needed beings with a high level of sentience since in mythology succubi are only seen feeding on men, but maybe I could feed off monsters as well. That would make eating while staying in town a bit easier. After a quick check to make sure no one would notice what I was doing, I quietly knelt down beside the sleeping rat. To keep it from attacking me if it wakes up, I grabbed it¡¯s muzzle and held it closed with one hand, while I put the other hand on it¡¯s stomach and held it up so it¡¯s clawed feet couldn¡¯t reach me or the ground. I glanced at my satiety and noticed I was at about 85%. Then I activated my Life Drain ability. Sure enough, I was able to drain the life from a rat. Also, it woke up as expected, but since I had it held in a position where it couldn¡¯t do much of anything, it could only thrash about as it¡¯s health steadily fell. I was draining less health per second, mostly because I was holding the rat at a distance rather than pressing myself against it like with the cultist this morning. However the rat had a lower total health so it still died much faster than he had. My satiety also only went up by a small amount though, so draining monsters seemed to be considerably less effective. I doubt I could maintain myself long term like this, but I can delay the necessity to hunt for a while and I could do this without the danger of being attacked by guards, so it still wasn¡¯t a bad deal. And monsters with more health might have filled me more. My experiment done, I continued playing with Confuse on the rats. Honestly the inconsistency probably slowed me down some, but it was really entertaining and that¡¯s the important part. One rat charged me and I had to actually have a (relatively) fair fight with it to take it down. Another began hallucinating and attempted to climb a tree that wasn¡¯t actually there. It was obnoxious to have a few rats flee from me occasionally, and I didn¡¯t feel like chasing them so I just moved on when that happened. One actually came back as I was about to attack another rat and jumped me from behind. I took a decent amount of damage from the surprise attack before taking that one down. I also managed to put a couple more rats to sleep for easy meals. After spending the entire day massacring the rodent population outside town, I glanced at my character screen and saw I had leveled up a couple times.
Name: Lilith Class: (none) Active Title: (none)
Race: Succubus Level: 3 Inactive Titles: (none)
Health: 111/111 Energy: 100/100 Mana: 114/114
Strength: 3 Endurance: 3 Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 4 Intelligence: 8 + 1 Willpower: 8
Charisma: 5
Stat point available: 4
Every level gives 5 health and 5 mana, as well as 2 points you can invest in your stats, so now that I was level 3 I had 4 points to spend. I considered whether to put them into defensive or offensive stats. My defenses were very low, while my offense was actually fairly high. Especially my Intelligence which was 9 after putting on the robe. That said, before too much longer I would have meatshields¡­ er, I mean party members¡­ to stand behind so I shouldn¡¯t be taking too much damage. One other thing I wanted to do was increase the duration of my Charisma based abilities. I really didn¡¯t like the idea of having a Seduced or Enthralled enemy turn hostile to me again in the middle of a fight, or for that matter a person I have seduced in town to feed from suddenly regaining control mid-drain. In the end, I think 1 in Endurance and 3 in Charisma should be fine for now. That¡¯ll make Endurance an even number giving me another point of health, and boost the duration of my abilities by a decent amount. It¡¯s not the end of the world if this investment doesn¡¯t work out. I¡¯ll be getting more points as I level, and I can always boost stats with gear as well. For now, my stats look like this:
Name: Lilith Class: (none) Active Title: (none)
Race: Succubus Level: 3 Inactive Titles: (none)
Health: 112/112 Energy: 100/100 Mana: 114/114
Strength: 3 Endurance: 4 Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 4 Intelligence: 8 + 1 Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 8
Two more levels to a class. For now, I decided to head to town and turn in the rat hides before finding another job. There were diminishing returns on the amount of experience the rats were giving, so I need to find bigger targets now. I walked into the leatherworker''s shop as the sun was setting. The middle aged man behind the counter looked up from the hide he was currently cleaning as I walked in and greeted me. ¡°Welcome, if it¡¯s leather you¡¯re looking for, my selection''s a bit limited right now but I¡¯m sure we can find something to fit you.¡± ¡°Actually, I¡¯m here with some giant rat hides for you.¡± The man perked up at that and began clearing off a space on the desk. ¡°Ah good, I¡¯ve been having a hard time keeping up with the demand today, so I was starting to run low. Just set them here and let¡¯s see what we¡¯ve got.¡± Hmm, I hadn¡¯t thought of that before. Thousands of people just appeared all over the world one day, and most player¡¯s first task would be to acquire suitable gear. I imagine most shops that deal in weapons and armor are running short on merchandise by now. That also explains why the owner of the store I sold the daggers and robes to this morning looked so happy to be buying instead of selling. Opening up my inventory, I pulled out all the hides I had collected and set them on the counter. The man looked through the hides, inspecting each one carefully before nodding with satisfaction. ¡°Yep, these will do nicely. Thank you very much, this should help a good bit with keeping my stock up.¡± As he was counting out my pay, I asked about what the hides were used for. ¡°Ah, giant rat hides are only really for making low end leather armor and equipment. It¡¯s not very strong, so armor made of basically anything is stronger, but it¡¯s cheap to get so most people buy a set starting out. Other than that, it¡¯s mostly used for small things where the strength of the leather is less important, like sword grips or lacing for boots.¡± Giving me my pay, he asked if I was interested in any of his wares, but since I¡¯m a magical type armor would just prove a hinderance to me I declined. Stepping back out into the street as night set on the city, I decided this would be a good time to take a break to eat something, and logged out. Chapter 5: Meals and more I pushed open the VR pod and stretched with a groan as I climbed out. No matter how comfortable they make the chair, sitting in one place for hours at a time will result in some rather rough stiffness. And my rather sedentary lifestyle definitely isn¡¯t helping that, either. Making my way to the kitchen, I spent a few minutes making a decent breakfast, and sat down at the table with my laptop out. While eating, I went about checking a few standard news sites and my email before browsing various websites looking for information about SWO. Just because I¡¯m not in the game right now doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m going to stop thinking about it, after all. Most people were just discussing their experiences starting out. Apparently even among the same race, people started out differently. Some people¡¯s starts were difficult like mine, while others were considerably easier to get through. There were also details about the various regions people were in. In relation to the Kingdom of Astoenn where I was currently, to the west was large nameless forest while to the east was the Great Central Desert. Beyond the desert was the Kederassan Empire, a generally Asian themed empire. North of the desert is a mountain range, and beyond that was a vast Tundra. Another thing people were discussing quite frequently was the races they ended up with due to the randomization, and how they intended to grow their characters. A few people were trying to compile a list of all the known rare races. Skimming the list, there were many interesting ones, but Succubi weren¡¯t listed yet. Either there weren¡¯t any others aside from me, or the others have opted to take the same route I did and avoid exposing themselves publicly. Either way, I don¡¯t intend to announce my race just yet. I¡¯m not really sure I want to intentionally bring attention to myself when my very existence is considered a capital offense by the NPCs. As I continued browsing and eating, my phone buzzed next to me suddenly. Glancing at it, I saw it was a text message from my sister, Sarah. There is quite a large age gap between us, so she¡¯s still living with our parents while attending a community college in town. Perhaps because of the age gap, she¡¯s always been very attached to me, so we¡¯re very close for siblings even now. Hey, are you playing Sundered World Online yet? Ah, I should go ahead and mention that just like just about everyone else I know, she had been looking forward to the game as well. Last I had heard she wasn¡¯t sure if she would be able to play right at launch or not, but judging by this text, she probably wasn¡¯t able to yet, and wanted to hear about it. In general, yes. Right this moment, no I¡¯m taking a break to eat. I set the phone down close by, and just as expected about 20 seconds later it started ringing. Knowing this was coming, I immediately picked it up, shoved another spoonful of food into my mouth, then answered. ¡°MmMmph. Hmm mM mmph.¡± ¡°One, don¡¯t answer the phone with food in your mouth. Two, I know you have caller ID so you know darn well who it is, so there¡¯s really no need to ask.¡± I swallowed the last of my meal with a chuckle before continuing. ¡°There, better? I have a guess what this is about already, but what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Tell me about SWO. What¡¯s the game like? What are you doing? Is it fun? What strange things have you encountered and done so far? How much have you levelled already? What strange people have you met so far?¡± Geh, it¡¯s like a machine gun of questions. I slightly regreted answering the phone. ¡°Alright, alright. Calm down, I¡¯ll tell you about the game. But first, why are you so certain that I¡¯m going to do strange things and meet strange people?¡± ¡°You always do. It¡¯s basically a given at this point that you¡¯ll end up with at least one.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not true. There was¡­ um¡­ that one time¡­ I¡­ huh, actually now that I think about it, I can¡¯t remember any instances where that wasn¡¯t true. Maybe you¡¯re right.¡± ¡°Of course I¡¯m right. I doubt anyone is as familiar with your misadventures as me at this point.¡± When she was too young to play with me, Sarah always enjoyed listening to the stories of what I was doing in games. Originally, that might have been part of the reason I was always doing such strange things, to keep the fun stories flowing for her. Once she was old enough, she started playing with me so she could witness the stories first hand, and influence them herself for better or worse. Often worse. I may be a trouble magnet, but she actively seeks it out. ¡°Anyway, tell me about the game already. I won¡¯t be able to get started until this afternoon, so I want to hear all about it to help me bide the time.¡± ¡°Oh, so you¡¯ll be able to get in this afternoon?¡± ¡°Yeah, Dad is setting up the new pods, but he probably won¡¯t be finished until lunchtime.¡± ¡°Ah, I see. Wait, ¡®pods¡¯, as in plural?¡± ¡°Yeah, in addition to mine, he got one for himself and one for Lily as well. She saw the commercials and wanted to play too.¡± Lily is our elementary aged cousin. Due to some complicated family circumstances, my parents are raising her now. Not that they mind. With both of us now into our adult years but no signs of grandchildren anytime soon, they were quite happy to have a new little child to play with, and as one would expect, they spoil her a bit. If she wanted to play, it makes sense that Dad would find a way to make it happen. The reason he¡¯s going to play as well is probably to use the parental account linkage options to keep an eye on her. They may spoil her, but they''re also quite protective. SWO offers an option to link a parent¡¯s account to their child''s, imposing some restrictions on the child¡¯s account to help the parents keep an eye on them. These restrictions can be adjusted or removed by the parent as the child gets older, allowing their freedom to grow as they mature. It also changes the character creation, limiting the available races to a region so that the parent and child can start together rather than needing to find each other later like everyone else. ¡°So, stop changing the subject. What¡¯s the game like?¡± After that, I spent some time telling her about my experiences so far. Or at least tried to. We only got into character creation before she was laughing so hard she struggled to breath. ¡°...You¡¯re a what?!? ...Pfft¡­ Have¡­ have you told Joseph¡­ eheh... He¡¯s not gonna be happy¡­ about this...¡± ¡°Na, I¡¯ve talked to him in game, but I¡¯m keeping that as a surprise when we meet up. I have warned him my flirting is going to get even worse, though.¡± ¡°Oh geez¡­ I hope he doesn¡¯t strangle you¡­¡± Her sentences are becoming a bit more complete, so I guess she¡¯s calming down finally. ¡°He probably will, but it¡¯ll be worth it. Besides, he can¡¯t get too upset and leave me. That guy would never find a party on his own, and he knows it.¡± ¡°Haha, that¡¯s probably true. Just make sure to save me a space in that party.¡± ¡°Sure, sure. So far it¡¯s just him, Ashley, and me, so there¡¯s plenty of room. I¡¯m supposed to try try to find us some others at some point before he meets up with me, especially a healer.¡± ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t really think I¡¯m suited for that role, so you¡¯ll need someone else there. I¡¯ll probably end up going with the usual, though it does depend on what race I get I suppose.¡± Sarah has a strange love for playing the roguish characters. Thieves, assassins, bards, and the like. She always seems to have peculiar skill sets making her very useful to have around both in and out of combat. I sort of hoped she would end up rolling a barbarian or giant or something like that, just to see how she would work that out. The picture of a giant trying to sneak up on an enemy with a tiny dagger in hand would be pretty funny to see. After that, we chatted a while and I told her about my summoning, the fight for my freedom, and how I kept busy after that for a while.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Hmm, so you¡¯re only level 3. I might be able to catch up with you then.¡± ¡°Do your best. I¡¯m hoping to get to level 5 soon so I can get a class.¡± ¡°I suppose I should let you get to that then. It wouldn¡¯t do for Joseph to reach you and you not be ready to go.¡± ¡°Sure. Add me to your friends list when you get into the game.¡± ¡°Yep, will do. I guess I¡¯ll talk to you then.¡± --- Finally off the phone, I proceeded to clean up my dishes and kitchen. As much as I would like to jump right back into the game, I do have to at least pretend to be a responsible adult. And if I put off cleaning up now, I¡¯ll continue to make up excuses to put it off indefinitely. Or, at least until the smell becomes unbearable. Either way, it¡¯s best if I just take care of this now. That done, I could finally get back to the game. Logging in, I returned to the central square where I had been when I left. With the time it took me to eat and have my conversation with Sarah, it was very early in the morning. Several players were milling around the square, waiting for the shops to open. The major roads in the city were lit with magical lanterns, so even without my night vision ability, I could see just fine as I headed to the billboard to try to find a job to do while I levelling. As I entered the southern district, I saw a NPC staggering down the other side of the street. I glanced between him and my satiety for a bit, then decided I should try to get a ¡°meal¡± in before heading out of town. I moved across the street toward him and helped him back to his feet. He absolutely reeked of alcohol, and in his current state he would probably not remember our encounter even without me using my skills. Not that I would risk it, but this guy was very, VERY drunk. It wasn¡¯t until I was supporting him on my shoulder that he realized someone else was even there with him. ¡°Oh, thank ya miss¡­¡± Ew, stop talking. The smell on his breath was almost bad enough to make me lose my appetite, and that¡¯s the only reason I helped in the first place. And his drunken smile shows he was clearly very happy to have an attractive young lady holding him up. Well, if he knew what was coming, he would probably be a bit less excited. ¡°Oh, no problem. Let me help you get away from here.¡± Thankfully, he was far too drunk to question why I was pulling him toward an unlit alley, and at this time of day there weren¡¯t any other people around to take notice. Once safely out of sight of the main road, I brought my eyes to meet his and activated Seduce. With that, his face went completely blank and he stood staring at me as I reached out both my hands to the sides of his face, much like I did with the cultist yesterday. I opted not to bring our foreheads together like I had that time, mostly because this guy stunk and I didn¡¯t really want to bring my face any closer than I had to. Instead, I activated the drain, and watched both my satiety and his health closely. I had already decided I would only drain a friendly NPC to about half their health at most, and there was no need to overfeed. After a short while, my satiety was full so I removed my hands from the drunk. He was still staring at me, as though awaiting an order. I pointed to a pile of wooden crates nearby. ¡°Sit over there and do not leave this place. You can go to sleep there if you would like.¡± He nodded and sat down as I turned and casually left the alley. If he goes to sleep, he¡¯ll just figure he blacked out and won¡¯t even question what he was doing in this alley. Sure, he wouldn¡¯t remember our encounter anyway, but it¡¯s best to try to fill the gap in his memory somehow. Well, in this particular case he was so drunk there was probably going to be a gap anyway. Now with a full satiety bar, I returned to my original objective. I reached the billboard around dawn, and began looking through the various postings for a job I could do. Looking them over, most of them would require either more combat capability than I have, or a team. I suppose I could buy a simple mage weapon that allowed me to use a basic combat spell, but right now shops were all closed limiting me to my dagger and mind magic spells. ¡°Um¡­ Are you looking for a job? You should come with us!¡± Woah, I hadn¡¯t heard someone approach behind me. I turned around to see two young girls looking at me. The first impression would be ¡®twins¡¯. They had made their characters to look the same, other than hair style. They looked like they were around 16. The girl who had spoken to me had her blond hair cut short, while the others was braided in a long ponytail. The short haired girl carried a spear and had a small buckler strapped to her arm. She was dressed in simple leather armor, with a simple iron chestplate. The other had a white staff in her hands and a robe similar to the ones I looted off the cultists before. ¡°You want me to come with you?¡± ¡°Yeah, we need some help. We want to try to hunt some wild dogs, but with just the two of us we get overwhelmed pretty fast. So we were looking for someone else to fight them with.¡± ¡°I see, well, that works out well. I wasn¡¯t sure I could handle them on my own, so hunting with someone makes things easier. Sure, I¡¯ll come with you.¡± ¡°Yay, now we can hunt the small packs at least. I¡¯m Celeste, and this is Aurora. As you can see, we decided to play together as twins. I use a spear and shield to fight, while Aurora is a healer.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Lilith. I specialize in magic that controls enemies. Right now, my spells don¡¯t do any damage, but can keep an enemy from fighting back for a bit. I¡¯ve been using a dagger until I can get a better way to do some damage.¡± The twins, Celeste and Aurora, added me to their party, and we headed to the fields to hunt some wild dogs. Along the way, I chatted with my companions a bit. Apparently, they were friends who had decided to play the game together. They were both new to MMOs in general, so they didn¡¯t understand a lot of standard terms and tactics. I decided to educate them on online gaming as much as I could while we were together. ¡°Well, you see a tank is supposed to draw enemies attention so the rest of the party can hit them with impunity. They intentionally maximize their damage reduction so they can survive pretty much anything, then try to make the enemy hit them exclusively. It also makes the healer¡¯s job easier as they only have one person to focus their healing abilities on.¡± ¡°And your friend likes to play that way?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve often suspected he might secretly be a masochist. Anyway, there is usually a main tank, then the off tank who does a mix of tanking and damage. They take some pressure off the tank when needed, but usually focus on damage. I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s more where you want to go.¡± ¡°Hmm, yeah that sounds about right. I like hitting the enemies, but we found it a lot easier to deal with them once I picked up some armor and a shield. But that said, I¡¯d rather not get hit if I can help it. Even if there¡¯s less pain online, it still hurts.¡± Along the way, I talked mostly with Celeste. It wasn¡¯t that I found Aurora disagreeable, it¡¯s just that she doesn¡¯t talk much. I¡¯ve met shy people before, but she really takes it a step further than most. I haven''t asked, but I¡¯m willing to bet their friendship was initiated by Celeste, or whatever her name is offline. I just don¡¯t see Aurora approaching someone on her own initiative. That¡¯s not to say she doesn¡¯t speak at all, though. She¡¯ll occasionally ask a question about whatever Celeste and I are talking about. But I have yet to hear her bring up a topic on her own. ¡°... so as a healer I should be mostly focused on the tank?¡± ¡°Yes and no. Usually, the healer has 4 jobs. In order of precedence they are: keep yourself alive, keep the tank alive, keep the rest of the party alive, and buff the rest of the parties abilities. I¡¯ve done a bit of healing in other games, and I can tell you they never really have down time in combat. You¡¯ll be busy, but a healer can really make or break a team. A lot of times a team will have more than one healer as well to help keep the pressure down as well.¡± Aurora nodded and went back to listening and thinking or whatever she was doing. ¡°Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you. How do you have a spell without using equipment already? I thought you had to have a class for that.¡± Oh, crap. I hadn¡¯t really thought of an excuse for that. Usually I would need a staff or wand to use magic until I got a class that granted spells. Because of my race, I had some, but I wasn¡¯t sure I was ready to reveal that information just yet. ¡°Ah, well¡­ I managed to get that and my robe from my starting situation.¡± ¡°Wow, I knew the rewards for the starting scenarios were varied, but it sounds like you got a really lucky one.¡± ¡°Well, maybe. It was a difficult one too, though. I started unarmed and surrounded by 6 enemies. Maybe the difficulty affects the rewards.¡± "Hmm. We started in a wagon on the way into town, so it was easy but all we had was the cloths on our backs and a little money to buy some starter gear." We continued to talk about starting scenarios, battle strategies, and general MMO knowledge as we reached the plains where the wild dogs were. There was one other party of three already hunting them, but there were enough packs that even if we both stuck to the small packs of 3 or 4 dogs, we should be able to both hunt continuously without bothering each other. We worked out a fairly simple battle plan and went after the first pack of 3 we found. First, I targeted one of the dogs with my charm spell. It immediately stopped and stared at me blankly. ¡°Go!¡± When I gave the command, both Celeste and I dashed at the other two dogs. Celeste¡¯s dog leapt at her with teeth bared, but she parried with her shield and pushed it back before thrusting with her spear. Unfortunately, Celeste wasn¡¯t an expert with a spear, and only stabbed the dog in the leg. This left it alive but wounded, but the injury slowed it down making it easier for her to finish it off. At the same time, I rushed forward with my dagger and tried to slash at the dog¡¯s throat. The dog twisted around my attack and bit down on my arm just above the wrist. I grit my teeth to endure the pain and keep myself from dropping the dagger, and grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck with the other, lifting it off the ground slightly. I couldn''t fully heft it into the air because of my low strength, but I could raise it enough to prevent it from moving any further. As I pulled back my injured arm to attack again, it was bathed in a soft light and my wounds began closing. Glancing back, I saw Aurora with her staff pointed at me and nodded in thanks, then whipping out with my dagger again, I managed to finish off the dog just as I saw Celeste stab the charmed dog cleanly in the throat defeating it in a single blow. It¡¯s easier to hit a target that isn¡¯t moving, after all. After the fight, we divided up the loot between us and rested a bit to regenerate my and Aurora¡¯s mana, then repeated the same strategy a few more times. It was effective, but the small groups of dogs meant our experience gains were small as well. We were a bit concerned about our ability to take on any bigger groups safely though, so we continued wiped out small packs of the wild dogs for a while. About half an hour later, as we finished off another pack of dogs, we were surprised by a loud voice from behind us. ¡°Hey, you three! Hold up a minute!¡± Chapter 6: Suspicions ¡°Hey, you three! Hold up a minute!¡± All three of us spun around at the unexpected voice calling out to us from behind. Celeste immediately raised her shield and held her spear at the ready while Aurora ducked behind me. I slightly questioned her choice for a shield, but I didn¡¯t say anything and gripped the hilt of my dagger and glanced over the swordsman running towards us with his two companions, a mage and a lightly armored man with two daggers, trailing behind him. The swordsman wore a basic plate armor on his chest and had a large shield on one arm and a one handed sword in a sheath at his waist. Seeing us immediately preparing for combat, he threw his empty hands up. ¡°Woah, woah. Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to startle you. I just wanted to talk.¡± I was still a bit cautious, but relaxed my grip slightly as Celeste lowered her weapons as well. I heard Aurora sigh behind me, but she stayed where she was. About that time, the swordsman''s companions caught up. The lightly armored man had on leather armor that was dyed a dark color that seemed to blend in with shadows. Or it would, if he weren¡¯t in the middle of a grassy field at mid morning. His sullen, glaring expression really didn¡¯t fit with the bright sunny skies either. The mage was the only woman of their group. Her skin had a dark tanned tone to it, and contrasted well with her bright red, shoulder length hair. It wasn¡¯t a combination that I had ever seen happen naturally in the real world, but it worked pretty well. Her robe was a light blue, and she carried a standard wooden staff. As she caught up, she immediately began lecturing the swordsman while standing between our parties with her back to us. Every sentence she yelled at him was punctuated by a blow from her staff to his head. ¡°Idiot! *thwack* I told you not to just yell out to them out of nowhere! *smack* You nearly got yourself attacked, and frankly you would have deserved it. *wham* I might have even chipped in and hit you a few times too.*fwap* Maybe then you¡¯d learn and stop doing these types of things. *thud* I doubt you¡¯d be able to take more than a couple hits from my lightning right now. *bwak* You might have become the first player to be killed by friendly fire. *whap* Maybe you¡¯d get a title for it. *crack*¡± ¡°Ow, stop it. I said I was sorry.¡± The mage turned to us ignoring the swordsman, who by now was grovelling on the ground holding his head in pain, and rogue who was knelt down trying to comfort him. ¡°Sorry about this idiot. He gets excited and does stupid things without thinking. We don¡¯t mean any harm.¡± ¡°No worries, nothing really happened after all. But you should probably stop, it might break after all.¡± I indicated her staff. I¡¯m pretty sure I just heard it start to crack. ¡°Naa, his head¡¯s too thick for me to do any real damage. Trust me, I¡¯ve hit him harder in the past.¡± ¡°Well, I kinda meant your staff, but whatever. Anyway, what were you calling out to us for? If I recall correctly, I saw you all hunting dogs earlier as well, right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, and that¡¯s part of why we approached you. We¡¯re trying to get to level 5 on dogs so we can get our classes. After that we were going to hit a dungeon we heard of nearby. We saw you all hunting and were wondering if you wanted to join us. All three of us are damage focused, but the support members of our usual group are in other beginning areas. If you want, we can join our parties temporarily, get everyone to level 5, then hit the dungeon together.¡± I see. They needed some support players, and our party is definitely support heavy right now. This combination does make sense, and both groups would profit from it in the long run. I looked over at the other two with me. ¡°It sounds good to me, but what do you guys think?¡± ¡°Sure, more people would make the fights easier, after all.¡± Celeste agreed immediately, but then Aurora¡¯s response caused all three members of the other party to open their eyes in shock. ¡°...um, I don¡¯t mind, but what¡¯s a dungeon?¡± Oh, right. They¡¯ve never played an MMO before. Looking at Celeste, she also didn¡¯t seem to know what we were talking about. I¡¯m a bit concerned with how easily she agreed to something without knowing what it was. After all, I couldn¡¯t help but think of them as anything but couple of high school girls. Sure, for all I know they might actually be a couple old guys playing from a nursing home, but I can¡¯t help but go by appearances. I generally just find it easiest to assume people are similar to their characters until they tell me otherwise. As an aside, this wouldn¡¯t be the first time I met a couple nursing home patients playing as young women. The arguments over who should hold the title of ¡°hottest nurse¡± got alarmingly heated at times. ¡°Right, I had forgotten you two haven¡¯t played this type of game before. I don¡¯t know precisely how they are in SWO, but a dungeon is generally an area with a lot of monsters in it. They are usually instanced, so every party that enters has their own copy of the area so you won¡¯t run into anyone else while inside. Usually there¡¯s a tough boss at the end, and sometimes a few others scattered about. In most games, enemies inside a dungeon don¡¯t respawn, so if you want to fight them again you have to leave the dungeon and restart.¡± She nodded and I turned back to the other players. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re all for joining forces. I¡¯m Lilith, a mage focusing on crowd control rather than damage. Actually, currently I don¡¯t have any damaging magics at all, so I¡¯m fighting with a dagger until I can get to a shop and buy a magic weapon. This is Celeste, and as you can see she uses a spear and small shield. The one hiding behind me there is Aurora, our healer. As you just heard, they¡¯re new to MMOs, so I¡¯ve been trying to teach them the basics while we go.¡± ¡°Healer, crowd control, and damage. Looks like our parties combine pretty well, then. I¡¯m Kiera, a mage focusing on lightning spells. The angry looking guy with the daggers is Richter. He¡¯s not really mad, he just thinks that¡¯s how an assassin type character should be. And the idiot on the ground is our tank, Jayren. You¡¯ve already seen what he¡¯s like.¡± After introductions were over, we headed off to fight some of the larger packs of wild dogs. We found that with our combined strength we could easily take on 5 or 6 dogs without any major risks. There wasn¡¯t a lot of strategy needed. We would start with me charming one of the dogs, much like how we had hunted with the three of us. Then if it was a pack of 5, each of the damage dealers would take on one of the remaining dogs while I finished off the charmed one. If there were 6 we would ignore the charmed dog, and whoever finished their target first would move to kill it. With this, our experience grind became much faster. Also, because of the minimal risk, I was also able to instruct Celeste and Aurora more on techniques. Particularly Aurora, who was initially trying to heal every injury as soon as it occurred, no matter how minor. This would put a fairly heavy drain on her mana, and later might cause problems in large fights. I took some time while we were regenerating our mana to explain to her the dangers of overhealing, and taught her to pay attention to the situation as well. If someone wasn¡¯t likely to take any more damage, there was no need to heal them right away. Depending on the type of injury, it could even wait until after the fight was over. A little while into our joint hunting, my Mind Magic skill reached level 3. It seems the experience needed to level skills up increased exponentially, and it was slowing down noticeably already. But finally reaching level 3 unlocked a spell I had been hoping for, the Frenzy spell.
Frenzy
Causes the target to attack the nearest being to them, regardless of whether that being is a friend or enemy. This spell can be completely resisted with willpower. If successful, duration varies depending on the caster¡¯s intelligence and the target¡¯s willpower. Mana cost: 25
Ok, so it¡¯s not completely amazing. The target may still attack me or my allies if they are close to it. And that mana cost in pretty high, especially right now with our low levels. Still, it might be a good way to start fights. It will tie up more than one target, and cause some damage as well. After getting this spell, we switched to starting fights with it rather than charm. Much like the rats before, the dogs did not have much willpower and I was able to consistently frenzy the dog farthest from us. This would cause it to attack the nearest dog to it, then the damage dealers in our party would focus on the remaining dogs, only turning to the injured dogs who had been fighting each other after killing the unaffected dogs. The spell had a very short duration so usually it would have worn off by then, but the remaining dogs were both injured had been distracted long enough that it wasn¡¯t a problem. After a while hunting like that, I received a message of Horvath. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Horvath: Hey, I just got my class and found a group headed your way that I could join. We should be arriving in about three game-days. Lilith: Perfect. I might have found us a healer and a melee fighter that can offtank if needed, though she doesn¡¯t really like the idea of taking hits. I haven¡¯t brought up coming with us long term yet. They¡¯re both new to MMOs, so I¡¯m trying to teach them as much as I can for now. We¡¯re going to be hitting a beginners dungeon once we get our classes, but we should be finished around the time you get here. Horvath: You aren¡¯t teaching them anything strange, are you? Who am I kidding, of course you are. We don¡¯t need another healer like you. Lilith: Hey, I kept you alive. Horvath: and as low on health as you possibly could. Most of the time I was only a hit or two from death. Lilith: But alive. Your class got extra bonuses when you had low health, so I just tried to keep them active as much as I could. And no, I¡¯m aware that¡¯s not the usual method, and I¡¯m teaching her a more conventional healing strategy. We¡¯ll save that kind of advanced tactic for later. Horvath: How about not doing that at all. It¡¯s reduced, but keep in mind that injuries do still hurt here. Lilith: Whatever, anyway we¡¯re about ready to get back to fighting mobs. See you in a few days. Horvath: Later.
¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± Celeste was looking at me, trying to figure out why I had suddenly started grinning. ¡°Oh, I was just talking with my friend who¡¯s coming here later. He says he just got his class and will be here in a few days, so we should have just enough time to get through the dungeon before I need to meet him.¡± ¡°Hmm, that doesn¡¯t explain what¡¯s funny, though.¡± ¡°Ah, we got to talking about some stuff that happened in a previous game. Maybe I¡¯ll tell you about it some other time. For now, let¡¯s keep going.¡± --- After that, we continued hunting dogs until shortly after noon, when at last all six of us reached level 5. After reaching level 5, it seems experience gain is greatly reduced until we get a real class. So even though we started at different amounts of experience, now we were all at almost the same exact experience level. Since there¡¯s no real benefit to continuing to fight right now, we all decided to head back to town. After talking it over, we rented a meeting room in one of the inns. After getting our classes, we would meet up there to plan for the dungeon run. As a note, my satiety was down to around 70% at this point, but because Kiera and Aurora were going to the same place I was, I couldn¡¯t exactly sneak off to the slums for a ¡°meal¡±. Since we didn¡¯t have a set time to meet after we had classes, I figured I would go fill my satiety before rejoining the others. Given we would be in the dungeon for around a day at least, I would need to tell them about my race, and particularly my feeding method. However, I didn¡¯t want to tell them in a place where NPCs can overhear me, so it had to wait until after we got our classes and we were in our private room in the inn. Kiera, Aurora, and I walked to the western district together. As I recalled from my guide the previous day, the Mage¡¯s Association where we could get our classes was located there. I assumed they could help Aurora since healing was a magic class, and I hadn¡¯t seen any temples or anything that would usually be associated with healers. Celeste and Jayren had gone to the guards training ground where martial classes were taught, and Richter had gone off to the Slums to look for someone to teach him. As we walked, we also did a bit of window shopping. This district was less crowded than the central shopping area, so we were able to leisurely make our way while examining the merchandise. There was numerous larger stores that carried a variety of wands, staves, and robes as one would expect for a mage. There were also a number of stores in small buildings that specialized in specific types of magical equipment or equipment for specific types of mages. For example, we came across one store that had it¡¯s open doorway covered with a heavy black cloth. The inside of the store was dimly lit with candles, giving the feel of questionable and taboo types of magic for which the merchandise clearly seemed to be intended. There were skulls with strange patterns carved into them, strange ceremonial looking daggers, and voodoo dolls amongst other things. It seems this is the magical analog to the wide variety of weapon types and styles available to martial classes. I couldn¡¯t confirm it, but I suspected the different regions will also have a different variety of magic tools and types available. Kiera was particularly interested in the various weapons we saw. ¡°Hmm, I think I¡¯ll stick with a wand or staff. I like the traditional mage look, after all.¡± ¡°True, there is something to be said for that. I¡¯ll probably end up with a class casting item. Although, first I need to figure out what class I want.¡± ¡°Well, since you already have a magic skill, I imagine you¡¯ll get a class related to that.¡± ¡°That was my intent, but who knows if that¡¯s even available. I¡¯ll have to see once we reach the Association. How about you Aurora, are you going to stick with a staff or find a more specialized weapon?¡± ¡°... I don¡¯t know. I think it will depend on what the item is. I wouldn¡¯t want to carry something like a skull.¡± I smiled at that. Most of the conversation was between myself and Kiera, but I figured out a little while ago that Aurora was actually fairly invested in conversations around her, just wasn¡¯t actively taking part in them. So I started asking her opinion from time to time in an effort to draw her out of her shell a bit, and was beginning to see some results. I think this is the first time she¡¯s said more than one sentence in response. It¡¯s not much, but it¡¯s still progress at least. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll need to worry too much about that. I have a hard time picturing any healing class that uses a skull or something like that as a tool. I wonder if there are any magical stethoscopes¡­¡± ¡°Pfft¡­ I highly doubt that, though you never know. I¡¯ve heard that gnomes and dwarves are more technologically focused than most races, so they might have something like that.¡± With that idea planted in my imagination, I began plotting to drag my friends north after we picked up Simona to find out. And since, though they weren¡¯t aware of it yet, I did plan to bring Celeste and Aurora along with us, I began imagining finding Aurora a nurses outfit to go with the stethoscope. As I was slightly distracted, my companions and I finally reached the Mage¡¯s Association. The large lobby we entered was lit by ornate chandeliers that seemed to have magical lights rather than candles. The walls, pillars, and ceiling all seemed to be made of a single, giant piece of marble, with the room carved out of it. A large door stood opposite the entrance, and to one side there was a wooden desk with a few other players in a line, which we joined. The line moved quickly and before long we reached the desk. There sat an elderly woman wearing an odd pair of glasses with a large crystal ball in front of her. As we approached, she reached out and touched the ball, and spoke to us without looking up. ¡°Greetings. What can the Mage¡¯s Association help you with?¡± Kiera decided to go first and stepped forward. ¡°We were hoping we could get our classes here.¡± ¡°I see. What is your name?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Kiera¡± ¡°Very good, and what type of magic would you like to specialize in?¡± ¡°I would like to focus on lightning magics.¡± ¡°I see, very good. Just wait one moment.¡± With that, the woman finally looked up from her crystal ball at Kiera. She then turned to one of a number of assistants that were standing nearby. She mumbled something to her, then turned back to Kiera. ¡°Please follow this apprentice. He will take you to a trainer to teach you an appropriate class.¡± The apprentice and Kiera then went deeper into the facility, leaving me and Aurora. I nudged Aurora forward to let her go next. ¡°Are you also looking to get a class?¡± ¡°...yes¡± ¡°Alright, what is your name, and what type of magic would you like to specialize in?¡± Ah, she picked up on Aurora¡¯s reticence pretty quickly and tried to speed things along. Clearly, this lady had been doing this type of work for a while. Still, she would probably be less intimidating if she looked up from that crystal ball once in awhile. ¡°...Aurora. I would like to learn healing magic.¡± ¡°Okay, just a moment.¡± Again going and getting one of her assistants, she came back to Aurora. ¡°This apprentice will take you to a trainer who specializes in healing magic. She will teach you.¡± ¡°... Thank you.¡± With her head lowered, Aurora followed the apprentice in silence. I would be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t a little worried how that would turn out, but there wasn¡¯t much I could do, as I had my own training to look to. ¡°Alright you¡¯re next. I assume you are here for a class as well?¡± The woman at the desk was back in her seat and once more staring at the crystal ball in front of her. She spoke without looking up. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Very well. First off, what is your name?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Lilith.¡± ¡°And, what type of magic class would you like to learn?¡± ¡°Well, I already have the Mind Magic Talent, so something that uses that would be preferable.¡± At that, the woman looked up at me for the first time, then her eyes went wide. Something about that expression worried me, and I began to contemplate fleeing and skipping town immediately. Before I could do anything. the woman¡¯s eyes locked on me and I froze in my place. That glare clearly communicated that I was not allowed to leave. As she stood up, she yelled to one of the apprentices behind her. ¡°Margret, take over the desk for a bit!¡± With that, she handed the glasses she had been wearing to another woman, who I assume was Margret. ¡°You come with me.¡± Her words and expression told me this wasn¡¯t a request, and I had missed my chance at escaping. I could try to fight my way out, but this was the Mage¡¯s Association. I was still only level 5, so I had practically no chance of getting away if it came to a fight. Most likely, the elderly woman in front of me wouldn¡¯t even need help to stop me if I tried. I decided to obediently follow and hope I could get away alive. She hadn¡¯t immediately sounded the alarm, so maybe I still had a chance to survive this. She led me to a smaller office with an elaborately carved wooden desk on one side. As I followed her in, the door behind be swung itself closed. The woman reached out and touched the desk a moment, then turned back to me. ¡°First, a few warnings. This desk has a spell cast on it that creates a barrier around this room. Without both defeating me and destroying the desk, you will not be able to leave unless I permit it. And destroying the desk will raise an alarm throughout the rest of the association, alerting every staff member we have to the attack. ¡°That said, if you are cooperative with me, no harm will come to you. In fact, this whole situation may even be beneficial to you. I simply want to ask you a few questions, and I want you to answer them honestly. Do you think you can do that?¡± ¡°I get the feeling I don¡¯t have much of a choice. I¡¯m locked in here with you until you are willing to release me, after all.¡± The woman smirked at that, then locked her eyes onto me. I did notice she was careful to avoid eye contact. ¡°Good, you understand quickly. Then first let me introduce myself. I am Elenore, one of the instructors here at the association. Before I begin asking my questions, I have one request. Though I call it a request, it¡¯s really more of a demand. You have my assurance no one will know what happens in this room, so I want you to drop your disguise and show me your true form.¡± Well, I guess that removes any possible doubt that I¡¯ve been caught. Chapter 7: Interrogation I was caught. There was no realistic way for me to escape this woman¡¯s trap. I was still in human form, so most of my abilities were sealed. Of course, given Elenore was an instructor she was almost certainly going to be a high level mage, so even if I could use them they probably would not work. My only real option was to cooperate and hope things work out well. However, I felt like if I just complied with everything she said, I would have lost somehow. So I opted to put up a token resistance in the form of asking a question or two first, rather than immediately dropping the disguise like she had asked. ¡°Alright, since you¡¯ve clearly somehow guessed I¡¯m not exactly what I seem, I¡¯ll stop hiding. But before that, I need to know a few things. First, will I be allowed to restore my disguise before I leave this room? And second, will my identity be revealed to anyone else aside from you?¡± The old mage grinned at my questions. She clearly saw my attempt at resistance as nothing more than one would view a stubborn child refusing to eat their dinner. ¡°You can relax, I¡¯ll let you hide yourself before you leave. As for telling others, that depends on your answers. If I decide you¡¯re innocent, I¡¯ll keep your identity secret from the guards. I assume that¡¯s who you¡¯re most worried about. Now get to it or I¡¯ll assume you have something to hide and call for help.¡± Yep, she saw right through me with this one, and cut off my route to continue dragging my feet. With no real choice left, I let out a sigh and released my disguise for the first time since I left that basement yesterday. My wings unfurled and stretched outward for a moment before folding themselves comfortably behind me. Likewise, my tail swung around slightly in annoyance. A lot of the movement of these extra limbs was automatically done without any thought or intent on my part, particularly with the tail. I could will it to be still, but if I wasn¡¯t doing that it would move about on it¡¯s own in reaction to my emotions and actions. The old woman continued smiling as she saw my transformation. ¡°As I thought, you were a succubus. It¡¯s pretty rare for one of you to be walking around freely.¡± ¡°I have to ask, how did you see through the disguise? You were quite confident about it after all, so I assume it wasn¡¯t just a lucky guess.¡± ¡°Ah, that. I suppose you deserve to know. When working the greeting desk here, we have a few safeguards in place to protect the association. There have been cases of people attempting to infiltrate our association to steal dangerous items sealed away or other nefarious reasons. We obviously can¡¯t have that, so we ask each applicant their reason for coming, and a few basic identifying questions. That crystal ball on the main desk displays any words said near it in writing, and the glasses I had on are enchanted with a spell that allows the wearer to see falsehoods.¡± Ah, so that¡¯s why she remained staring at that crystal ball while talking with us. She was checking everything we said for lies. ¡°Anyway, when you went and said you had a talent for Mind Magic, I was quite surprised to see it was the truth. That¡¯s an extremely rare talent to have, and is only present in a few very rare races which most people will never encounter in their lifetime. In my surprise I glanced up at you, and saw in the glasses that your entire body was a falsehood. That was something I¡¯ve only seen once before, so I was able to guess your situation was similar to that case.¡± Elenore lowered herself into a chair behind the desk and resting her chin on her hands stared hard at me. ¡°Now then, it¡¯s my turn to ask the questions. To begin with, where did you come from and when did you reach this city?¡± Hmm, how am I supposed to answer this one. I, like all the players, have no history in this world, and I¡¯m not sure I want to try to explain that this is all a game to us and we live in another world in reality. Thankfully, the NPCs accept that people suddenly appear, and these people are a bit different than they are. They don¡¯t find it odd that we vanish for long periods of time only to reappear, or that we can resurrect in town if we are killed. I just don¡¯t know if they expected a summoned demon to be one of those strange immortal newcomers. ¡°That¡­ is a difficult question. As you are aware, a lot of people recently started appearing. I am one of those, but I ended up appearing as a summoned demon rather than one of the local races.¡± ¡°Wait, are you saying you were summoned in the last day and a half? That would mean you had to have been summoned in this city. There¡¯s no way you would have had time to travel here between when people started appearing and now.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. I was summoned in a basement of a house in the eastern district. And before you ask, no, I can¡¯t take you there. I am not confident I would be able to find the place again. But you may be able to find the general area from a guard named Jared. He helped me find my way to the central district after I got out.¡± Elenore nodded and grabbed some paper and a quill to take notes. Sorry Jared, you¡¯re probably going to be getting a visit later. Hopefully he¡¯ll remember me. Most likely he will. It seems strange to say it about myself, but I am quite memorable after all. ¡°So, how did you escape the summoning?¡± ¡°Ah, that. I don¡¯t know if there are multiple rituals, but the one the people who summoned me used had two stages. The first summoned me, and the second was supposed to enslave me. I managed to interrupt them before they finished the second.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the standard arrangement for a demon summoning ritual. But you interrupted the ritual? How?¡± From there, I explained how the magic circle that created a barrier around me was imperfect, so I was able to use my abilities on one of the cultists, and with his ¡°assistance¡± escape. I figured she wouldn¡¯t be interested in the details, so I glossed over the fight. I also chose not to mention draining the cult leader to death. I did tell her about the grimoire that was in the basement. ¡°Hmm, that¡¯s surprising. It seems that the group that summoned you was careless. Given how expensive and rare the required materials to perform that ritual are, one would expect them to be more thorough to getting it right. But I¡¯m more concerned with that book. Do you remember what the title was? What happened to it?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember what the title is, but I have the book right here.¡± As I said that, I pulled the book from my extradimensional inventory space. The old woman watched with eyes wide. ¡°You newcomers sure have some convenient abilities. Immortal and you don¡¯t have to carry your equipment on your back. There¡¯s no reason for you not to travel. I¡¯m a bit jealous. Now let me see that book.¡± I still don¡¯t really feel like I have any choice but to be obedient with this woman, but at least I¡¯m fairly sure at this point that she doesn¡¯t intend to do me harm. I handed over the book to her. ¡°Hmm, as I suspected. This the Octavo of Horicre, a book written in the demon language that details a number of rituals related to them. This is a book that most people believe doesn¡¯t really exist. Perhaps it would be better if they were right. I hope you are willing to give this book to me, but we will discuss that later. For now, let¡¯s get back to my questions. I am aware of a succubus¡¯s need to feed on the life of others. If you¡¯ve been here for nearly two days now, how have you sustained yourself?¡± I was afraid of this. It¡¯s that necessity that is most likely to get me in trouble, after all. I suppose I can only be honest and hope that the fact that I haven¡¯t killed anyone will work as an excuse. ¡°To begin with, I drained the life from the final cultist when I was escaping. That was enough to completely fill me for a while yesterday. After leaving the basement I went out hunting some wild rats in the fields outside, and found that while they aren¡¯t very filling, they can be used to sustain me for a little while. Early this morning I encountered a drunk on the street who I fed off of, being very careful to leave him with at least half his life remaining. He actually walked away with a little more than that because I was full. I don¡¯t intend to feed off of anyone past half of their maximum life.¡± The woman narrowed her eyes. ¡°And that¡¯s the last meal you¡¯ve had. You¡¯ve gone without feeding since then?¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°That¡¯s right. I found some companions to fight wild dogs with and I haven¡¯t told them about what I am yet, so I¡¯ve been refraining from feeding. Once I have some trusted companions, I intend to keep my feeding to them as much as possible.¡± ¡°I see. I suppose I can accept that, as long as you don¡¯t start killing your victims. It would be best that you get willing donors quickly, though. The death of the cultists can be overlooked, as attempting such things is considered punishable by death anyway and it could be looked at as self defense. Until you have companions, I would also like you to make sure to leave your victims in a safe location as well after you feed off them. Even if you leave them half their life, they are still weakened. And of course if people start turning up completely drained, you will find yourself suspect. Depending on the circumstances I may even inform the guards about you.¡± Geh, I really needed to be careful when I eat. And get some players I can feed from instead of finding NPCs as soon as possible. Well that was already my plan. In fact, I was going to have to feed from players when I leave town anyway. ¡°For now, I believe your story, and will teach you a class you can use. It¡¯s actually the same class my master taught another succubus a long time ago. She and I were something like co-apprentices for a while. Usually, applicants are required to perform a challenge before being taught a class, but if you¡¯re willing to hand this book over to the association I will accept that as proof of completing the challenge and teach you now. What do you think?¡± Oh, I hadn¡¯t heard about the challenge requirement. It seemed rather convenient that I could skip that. She said something I found much more important, though. ¡°I don¡¯t mind that, but before we proceed could you tell me about the other succubus? From what I read in that book, it should be extremely rare for us to be summoned.¡± The woman leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling with a slight smile on her face as she reminisced. ¡°Ah, that. I suppose I can tell you. If I¡¯m correct, it¡¯s actually related to your situation, after all. It happened back when I was just an apprentice, learning under my master. This was in the early days of the association, and the guards would occasionally come to us for help with difficult cases involving magic. These days they have their own magical units, but back then they had to rely on us. ¡°That particular time, the guards had discovered a group of cultists who were preparing for something in the sewers beneath the city. We only discovered later they were attempting a demon summoning, but in general when a cult is doing something secretly, it¡¯s probably nothing good. ¡°My master and I were sent to assist the guards dealing with the cult. As we approached we could hear chanting. There was a strange flash of light ahead, and then the chanting changed. From what you¡¯ve told me, I suspect the strange light was the actual summoning, and the new chanting was the enslavement ritual. ¡°We assaulted the ritual and were forced to kill most of the cultists, but a few escaped and fled into the town where the guards lost them. I suspect these people, or more accurately those they indoctrinated and trained later, were the ones that summoned you. ¡°Afterward, the only people left in the ritual chamber were my master, myself, the guard captain, and the newly summoned demon. The other guards had been sent to return to their posts or were searching for the escapees. ¡°To this day, I don¡¯t know why he did it, but my master convinced the guard captain to let him take in the demon, rather than execute her. He had done some studies about the summoning of demons, and had suspicions about how it works, which he was able to confirm with her help, and which you confirmed for yourself. The demon had no memories, but was not naturally aggressive toward other races. It seems it¡¯s only when they are enslaved that a demon will lose all reasoning. ¡°Because she had no memories, she didn¡¯t even know her own name. In that you seem to be different, but that may be because you are one of the newcomers. They appear with no knowledge of the world, but still have a name. Perhaps that overwrites the memory erasure of the summoning. That¡¯s something that we unfortunately will probably never be able to confirm. ¡°Anyway, we gave her the name Orinana and brought her back with us. She disguised herself as an Astoennian and studied magic alongside me for many years. We only revealed her true identity to a few highly trusted associates, mostly so that she always had access to someone who she could feed off of without attacking citizens at random. ¡°Eventually, she decided to leave town and travel. It was becoming more and more noticeable that she didn¡¯t age, and even if she continued to change her disguise slightly, it wasn¡¯t going to hold up much longer. I occasionally get a letter from her still, but I don¡¯t know where she is now. She doesn¡¯t stay in one place more than a few years in order to avoid suspicion.¡± I see, that makes sense. And as an added bonus, it looks like I¡¯ll have eternal youth. Although I don¡¯t think player characters age anyway. Actually, now that we exist, it might make things easier on Orinana, too. She can just pretend to be a ¡°newcomer¡± and no one will question her agelessness. ¡°Anyway, that¡¯s enough of this old woman¡¯s reminiscing. I¡¯ve kept you long enough already. Let me teach you the class before putting back your disguise. It¡¯ll be easier for you like that. I¡¯ll also arrange with one of my apprentices to get you something to ¡®eat¡¯. As long as I¡¯m here to monitor it and you use your natural abilities so they do not remember, I will allow it if she doesn¡¯t mind, and I¡¯m quite sure she won¡¯t. She will be told about you first, however. While I can¡¯t make you accept that, it would be preferable to you hunting randomly in the city. ¡°As for the class, it¡¯s called the Enchantress and as I mentioned before it¡¯s the same class that Orinana was taught when we first brought her here. At the time, we had two reasons for giving her this class. The first was because she naturally was talented with mind magic. This class relies mostly on that school of magic so it was a natural fit, but we did have a second reason. The class has very few spells and abilities that cause real harm to your opponents. When we taught her the class initially, we were still not certain she wouldn¡¯t go berserk one day and turn on us. My master knew theoretically it shouldn¡¯t happen, but she was the first demon he knew of that had reason and was not a slave. We chose to be cautious, something that she accepted and understood.¡± So, a class that focuses on manipulating enemies, rather than harming them directly. That shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem as long as I have a party. I¡¯ll just have to be focused on support rather than damage. Not a big problem, really. ¡°That should be fine. I do have a few friends who can finish enemies. It sounds like this Enchantress class will make their jobs easier, which is perfectly acceptable to me. Actually, It might even make things more interesting.¡± At this point, I was beginning to smile while thinking of the possibilities that could come with this. ¡°Very well. Stand here and I will teach the class to you. This will drain half of your energy, which is one of the reasons I had you remove your disguise earlier.¡± Oh, so that wasn¡¯t just to confirm my identity. It was a test, but also a necessity even if I passed the test then. I moved over to Elenore¡¯s side as she stood up from the chair she had been resting in during our discussion. She reached out her right hand and pressed it against my forehead and closed her eyes. ¡°I, Elenore, associate archmage of the Eridell Mages Association, grant you, Lilith, the class of Enchantress. In accordance with the association¡¯s regulations, I request that you use it¡¯s powers with responsibility, and in a way that will not bring trouble to users of magic world wide. Magic is a great power that is already surrounded with suspicion. Do not use your powers in such a way that it will bring harm to the rest of the mages community.¡± Wait, "archmage"? Before I could react, her hand against my head began to glow and a window appeared in front of me.
Class Granted: Enchantress Using magic to bend your opponent''s mind and will to your own, this class has very little direct damage. Instead, it specializes in manipulating your enemies into doing your bidding, even if that would cause them harm.
Initial Class Abilities
Fortified Mind Magic Passive ability. Your mind magic spells are more likely to affect your opponent, and are more powerful when they do.
Wide Influence Active ability. You can affect more than one opponent with your Mind Magic spells. Costs energy equal to the mana cost of the spell for each additional target, in addition to the mana cost to cast the spell.
Inspire Mind Magic spell. Boosts the abilities of a targeted ally slightly.
Migraine Mind Magic spell. Causes sharp pain directly to the target¡¯s mind. Does a small amount of damage causing them to flinch and may slow their reactions for a period of time.
Finally, I¡¯ve gotten a class. In SWO, all classes start with a few unique abilities and spells, and as you level up with the class, more skills, spells, and abilities are unlocked. ¡°Thank you Elenore. And I will take you up on that offer of a meal. As long as the apprentice is trustworthy and won¡¯t go reporting me.¡± ¡°You are welcome, and you don¡¯t need to worry about that. The girl I will be calling is fascinated by demons and demonology for some reason. She¡¯ll be overjoyed to meet a real demon. Honestly, you¡¯ll have to be more worried about her doing something strange than calling the guards. Before I call her, there is one more thing. First, after you become stronger and begin reaching the limits of your class, I would advise you to seek out Orinana if you can find her. She created her own advancement for the Enchantress class, and is the only one who can teach it to you. And secondly, I have a request...¡± At that, Elenore trailed off for a moment, and her eyes turned downward. ¡°If you do find her, tell her to come back here. I am getting old, and don¡¯t know how much longer it will be before I leave Ariloth. I won¡¯t ask you to promise, as I know finding her will be difficult. But if you can do it, I would really like to see her one more.¡± I nodded to Elenore as she turned her eyes back to me, making eye contact for the first time. ¡°I will try to find her for you and pass on your message.¡± Chapter 8: Shopping I finally left the Mage¡¯s association with a full satiety bar and a class to roll with. I had thought the interrogation I went through to get my class would be the most harrowing part of this trip, but then I met Samantha. Samantha was the apprentice Elenore had spoken of. After Elenore finished teaching me the class, I restored my disguise and she lowered the barrier temporarily to call for Samantha. A short while later, a small girl around 18 years old entered the room and shut the door behind her. Her brown hair was tied in a simple braid that hung down her back, and she wore a modest brown robe and a pair of glasses. Overall, she gave off the feeling of a quiet, bookish girl. I would soon discover that impression was wrong. Very, VERY wrong. After the barrier was back up, Elenore explained the situation to her. I had been told she would be overjoyed to meet a real demon, but it turned out that was a huge understatement. No sooner had Elenore told her what I was and why she had been summoned, than she was kneeling on the ground clinging to me, begging to see my true form. I tried to pry myself free and explained that I didn¡¯t need to transform to feed, but her grip was far stronger than one would expect from such a small girl. She absolutely insisted on seeing me transform before she would let go or agree to anything. Not seeing any choice, I agreed with a sigh. This apprentice may be even harder to resist than Elenore was. Speaking of Elenore, I suspect she had expected this from the beginning, as she was standing by the desk enjoying the show, showing no signs of helping me handle this crazy girl. After transforming, I asked Samantha if she was sure it was alright. I confirmed she did realize I was going to be consuming a portion of her life. The girl looked at me feverishly as she said she understood, and wanted to get started right away. It was at this point Elenore finally spoke up. ¡°Remember, you absolutely must use your ability hypnotize her so she doesn¡¯t remember you draining her.¡± I did find it slightly strange that Elenore insisted on this. I had never drained anyone aside from a rat who wasn¡¯t hypnotized before, so I didn¡¯t have any idea why. Perhaps having your life drained is actually a painful process, so she¡¯s trying to protect her apprentice. I looked Samantha in the eyes and activated Seduce. As usual, her expression immediately went neutral and she stared blankly at me, awaiting my orders. I decided to do this quickly, so I put my hands on either side of the apprentice¡¯s face, and brought our foreheads together, much like I had done with the cult leader. With an acceptable amount of contact secured, I activated my Life Drain and began restoring my satiety. It didn¡¯t take very long for me to reach my maximum satiety, so I released Samantha and had her sit on a nearby chair until the Seduce wore off. I decided to stay around because I was somewhat curious about how much she would remember of our encounter. Besides, it would be rather unfair for her if she didn¡¯t have any memory of meeting me since that was her payment for allowing me to feed from her. I sat in another chair to one side of her, while Elenore sat in front of us. ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve seen that. I must say, your choice of contact was rather¡­ tame.¡± ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m not really comfortable with more than that, particularly with someone I just met. Now that you say that, I¡¯m a bit curious how Orinana went about it.¡± The elderly woman chuckled slightly with a blush on her face. ¡°Well, it depended on where we were and who was around. Sometimes it was just holding hands, while other times she would embrace the person. Then occasionally when we were in the baths or alone in our room¡­ well... Heh heh heh.¡± Oh my. This conversation took an interesting turn. I can¡¯t help but notice she seems fully aware of being drained though, so she was probably not always under Seduce¡¯s influence. Perhaps it isn¡¯t painful after all. For better or worse, before any more details could come out Samantha¡¯s consciousness returned. She looked at Elenore with confusion. ¡°What just happened?¡± ¡°Tell me, what do you remember?¡± ¡°You called me to your office. I believe you mentioned something about meeting a demon. I think there was someone else in the room as well. Then I suddenly found myself sitting here.¡± So it really did completely remove all memory of the actual encounter with me. That¡¯s both impressive and somewhat terrifying. ¡°Well, stay calm and look to your side.¡± Elenore said, pointing toward me and grinning. She looked at Elenore questioningly, then turned her head toward me slowly. Once she realized I was there, her eyes went wide with shock. ¡°You¡­ you¡¯re a¡­¡± ¡°My name is Lilith, and I am a succubus. The lapse in your memory is due to one of my abilities. You may not remember it, but you agreed to allow me to feed off of you in exchange for meeting me. I apologize if you are unhappy with that now, though.¡± The girl began to shake in her chair, and I began to worry she was going to attack me. While it is true that she gave consent, the fact is she has no recollection of that, and may not believe me. ¡°Unhappy? UNHAPPY?!? HOW COULD I BE UNHAPPY ABOUT THIS?!? I finally get to meet a real demon! This is the greatest day of my life!! I would be happy to let you feed off of me any time you want. NO! Actually you must absolutely come to me whenever you need to feed! My door is always open to you, so visit me as often as you can!¡± As she shouted, she jumped up again and ran across the room and began examining my wings and tail. At one point she reached up and tried to grab one of my horns, but I moved my head to keep it out of her reach. This girl was clinging to me enough without having a convenient handle like that. I wasn¡¯t about to agree to using her exclusively as a meal, though. I¡¯m planning on travelling, so I can¡¯t come back here for food. Besides, in all honestly this girl frightens me more than her master does. In the end, Elenore was only able to coax Samantha to let me go after showing her the book I had brought with me, which excited her almost as much as my presence. I did have to promise to stop by occasionally to allow her to study me when I was in town, with the promise of a meal as payment. That agreement made, I was finally allowed to restore my disguise and leave the mage¡¯s association. I may not have had to perform a challenge to get my class, but I still ended up taking longer than most people. As I was leaving the building, I noticed Aurora was standing nearby. I made my way over to her. ¡°Hey, were you waiting for me?¡± Aurora nodded, then looked up at me. ¡°You look tired. Did something happen?¡± ¡°Well, lets just say I want to avoid this place for a while. We¡¯ve got some time before we plan to regroup at the inn, do you have any plans?¡± My attempt at changing the subject seemed to work, as she shook her head and didn¡¯t continue to ask what happened in the association. ¡°Well, I intend to do some shopping for better gear for now. Want to come with me?¡± ¡°Alright. I want to get some new things too.¡± As we walked, I asked her how her class training had gone. It seemed she had obtained the priestess class, and with that gained the light magic skill, as well as a couple of spells. She also mentioned she wanted to get a new weapon, because one of her spells was a healing spell that was more effective than the one that her staff gave her. After selling the wild dog hides we had obtained that morning, we returned to the western district to look for magic focused items and armor. First we went to a store that specialized in mages robes. After some looking around, we found a white robe with an ornate golden pattern sewn into the fringes and a golden belt around the waist for Aurora. The robe also improved both her intelligence and willpower slightly, so it was an upgrade in virtually every way from the simple grey robe she had been wearing. Aurora asked me if I wanted to find a better outfit as well, but I decided to keep my gown for now. My reasoning was twofold. The reason I gave her was that this robe already gave a slight boost to my intelligence, which was the primary stat I was interested in. The cloths that gave a bigger bonus were more expensive than I was ready to spend just yet. Of course, I could get one that has a bonus to multiple stats like she did, but for now I wanted to save my money for a bigger upgrade.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The reason I didn¡¯t say was simply that I was fairly sure I had gotten lucky with this outfit, and have no guarantee that luck will hold. I suspected most outfits are going to be even skimpier than this on me, so I was simply putting off changing for as long as I could. There was a chance an ¡°upgrade¡± in my armor would be something like a bikini and knee high boots, and I wasn¡¯t quite ready to parade around in that just yet. I¡¯d have to chance it eventually, but not just yet. Hopefully, the developers still kept my outfits tasteful at least. They did with pretty much everyone else, after all. Most female armors in SWO were more toward the realistic and practical side, so unless they want to look like that, most characters did have a choice. With Aurora in her new robe, we headed to a shop for weapons for casting classes. We first looked through the staffs and wands in one of the larger stores. There was a wide selection, all of which granted basic spells for nearly every school of magic known. Aurora picked up a delicate looking white wand that granted the Purify spell which would remove poisons and other status ailments from the target. As for me, we began looking at some specialty stores for other casting item types available. This seemingly random assortment of items were only usable as a casting weapon if your race or class had the proper affinity towards them. There was no clear way to tell what was and was not usable, but I could vaguely feel which items I could use as I browsed through them. Most items that the Enchantress class gave me an affinity toward were various forms of jewelry and other decorations. Many fancy looking bracelets and rings would give me access to additional mind magic spells. However, I was looking for something to supplement my damage output, and as expected spells from Enchantress equipment wouldn¡¯t do much damage. On the other hand, items that my race gave me an affinity for were often rather strange things. I question what class would give one access to some of these items, as that was more than likely the true reason this store carried them. I don¡¯t expect to find stores catering to succubi, after all. Among my options were amulets with pentagrams on them, strangely disfigured skulls and bones, ceremonial knives, and finally most appealing to me, a few whips. Before anyone asks, no I am not into SM play. Besides, I¡¯m fairly sure that doesn¡¯t use long bullwhips like these, but rather shorter things like riding crops. Though again, that¡¯s not really my thing so I may be mistaken about that. Anyway, I gravitated toward the whips more because they could be used as an actual weapon as well as a casting item, and I could finally live my fantasy of being a whip wielding, fedora wearing archeologist. Well, at least part of it. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be able to find a fedora anywhere, but I will absolutely be looking for one. The whip I finally decided to purchase was made of a black leather that matched my outfit well, and came with a spell called ¡°Flame slash¡±. It was a spell used by spellsword types to ignite their weapon, doing fire damage in addition to their physical damage with the next strike. The whip itself doesn¡¯t do a large amount of damage, but I was still pretty excited to try it out later. Anything would be better than having to get up close with a dagger or my claws like I had been doing. Our equipment secured, we decided to stop in the central district and stock up on a few essentials before returning to the inn to meet with the others. There was still a while before the agreed upon time, but we didn¡¯t have any other pressing tasks. We stopped in an alchemist¡¯s shop and picked up some healing and mana potions. Aurora wasn¡¯t certain why we would need the healing potions, but after I explained to her how they were often faster and occasionally there would be situations where the healer couldn¡¯t do their job she bought a few as well. As we began walking south toward the inn, an energetic voice stopped us. ¡°Aurora, Lilith! Wait up!¡± Turning, I saw Celeste running towards up. She had a huge smile on her face and waved as she charged at us, leaping into an embrace with a somewhat uncomfortable looking Aurora before firing off a chaingun of excited speech. ¡°That was so fun! I had to go alone into the forest outside town and fight a strong wolf for my class. But now I¡¯ve got a really fun sounding class, so I¡¯m looking forward to trying it out!¡± She finally let go of Aurora and took a step back. ¡°Hey wait, you got new clothes! And a new wand! No fair! I want new stuff too!¡± After that, we were made to go shopping throughout the busy central district for gear for the excited spearwoman. First, we stopped in a weapon shop to find her a new spear. Celeste chose to keep with the short spears for now, as she wanted to focus more on maneuverability and a larger one would get in her way. Frankly, that was probably the best. The twins had chosen to make their characters rather small and slender, so a bigger weapon would look out of place in her hands. Comical, but out of place. She finally chose a short spear with a narrow, steel head. The haft was made of a flexible yet strong wood with a strange blue tint to it. It should be able to stand up to continuous use for a while with only basic periodic maintenance, as long as she didn¡¯t start using it as a bludgeoning weapon for some reason. I recommended she look at the leather armors at the shop I had sold the rat and wild dog hides to, but she explained that her new class focused more on avoiding damage rather than absorbing it, so she was going to wait to upgrade her armor for now. Instead, she bought a new buckler made of a treated wood and studded with iron. According to her, she would have stopped using the shield entirely, but a few of her new abilities needed one, so she was keeping it. She also purchased a few healing potions and some maintenance kits for her spear before we once again began walking south toward the inn. Due to our encounter with the Celeste and her subsequent shopping spree, we were now barely going to make it there by the time we were planning to meet, but I doubted the others would mind too much. Along the way, I asked a question I had been wondering about for a while now. ¡°Hey, how did you two manage to coordinate your appearances like that? I can¡¯t imagine you did it through the integrated text messaging. Did you plan exactly what you would look like ahead of time?¡± Celeste grinned and pulled Aurora close to her. ¡°Nope, we actually went into the character creation together. Our pods are both in my bedroom right now. We setup the parental link on our gaming pods so we had to be together at the beginning. Then I generated a random character to try to get a rare race. Since that didn¡¯t work, Aurora decided to be the same race as me and designed her character to look almost exactly the same. Then once we were actually in the game, I released all of the restrictions on her account so she could move freely as well.¡± Celeste¡¯s face practically glowed with pride at their trick to stay together, Her expression practically begging for me to acknowledge the brilliance of their trick. However, that means Aurora will need to transport that pod later when she goes home. Well, what they do offline isn¡¯t really any of my business anyway. ¡°I see, that was a clever way of doing that.¡± I turned to Aurora, ¡°What would you have done if she had managed to get a rare race?¡± ¡°... It was Celeste¡¯s idea. If she had gotten a rare race, I would probably have generated a random character too. We still would have started together, we just wouldn¡¯t look the same.¡± ¡°I was actually hoping to get something like a centaur. Then I could have charged into battle with her riding on my back. That would have been awesome!¡± That¡­ actually would be pretty cool, now that she mentions it. Although I have a hard time viewing Aurora as a skilled rider. She would probably be ducking behind Celeste¡¯s human portion trying to hide most of the time. ¡°Well, don¡¯t give up all hope for a rare race. There are supposed to be ways to get one in game as well. You¡¯re dream of being a mount may still be fulfillable.¡± As we laughed over that image, we made our way into the inn room we had rented. There, we found Richter and Jayren lounging around. I greeted them with a wave. ¡°Hey, sorry we¡¯re a little late.¡± Richter looked up and nodded to me while Jayren waved back. ¡°Not a problem. Kiera had to sign out for a bit, so we¡¯re not in a big hurry anyway. Nice equipment.¡± Thanking him, we sat down. These two had also upgraded their equipment. Jayren now had a plate mail chestpiece and chainmail covering the rest of his body. He had also gotten a new kite shield and a sword to match. Richter¡¯s armor was the same, but he had a new pair of daggers on his belt. As I sat down, Jayren noticed my whip and looked up at me with some incredulity. ¡°What kind of class did you end up with that you¡¯re using a whip?¡± ¡°Oh that? It¡¯s just a caster weapon. It comes with a spell to ignite it to do additional fire damage with my next attack. But let¡¯s save the class discussion for when everyone¡¯s here, so we can go over everyone at once.¡± ¡°Mm, good idea. We can all describe our classes later than.¡± As I relaxed in my seat, I noticed I had recieved a friend request from a character named Amber at some point while we were shopping. Guessing that was probably Sarah, I accepted it. As I leaned back in my chair to relax, a message popped up.
Amber: About time. I was beginning to think you were ignoring me. Lilith: Well, I was. I had an invite from an unidentified sender, and was talking with my party members. Which do you think took priority? Amber: Oh, right. You didn¡¯t know what my name was. It¡¯s Sarah, if you haven¡¯t guessed. Lilith: I did. I wouldn¡¯t have ignored you if I didn¡¯t already suspect that. Amber: Hey! Anyway, I rolled a gnome, and am currently in a city deep in the northern mountains. You should come visit me. Lilith: Alright. Horvath and I have to go get Ashley first, but we can head that way afterward. Amber: He went with Horvath again, huh. And he talked Ashley into playing, too! Lilith: It was her idea, actually. Her name in game is Simona, by the way. I¡¯ll let them know what your name is so you can send them friend invites as well. For now I have to go. Once the last member of my current party signs back in we¡¯re going to plan our first dungeon dive. Amber: Okay, have fun. Try not to get them all wiped out, and tell me about it later. Lilith: Oh right. Do me a favor and look around at the stores up there when you get some time for a stethoscope. Amber: Do I want to know? Lilith: You¡¯ll have to look forward to it if you find one. It¡¯ll be great.
Closing that conversation, I sent a quick message to Horvath and Simona, warning them of the incoming friend request, then went back to relaxing and waiting for Kiera to come back. Chapter 9: Strategy Meeting ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get this started. The sooner we finish planning, the sooner we can get to the dungeon.¡± As soon as she signed in, Kiera took control of the room to start the meeting. I decided not to point out we were waiting on her. Jayren looked like he was about to say it, but with a glare and a shake of my head, I communicated to him to keep quiet. ¡°I assume everyone got their classes with no troubles?¡± ¡°Well, maybe not ¡®no troubles¡¯, but I got it in the end, so we¡¯re good.¡± Kiera raised an eyebrow at my response, but I didn¡¯t bother to elaborate. I can¡¯t say being locked in a room and interrogated wasn¡¯t a bit troublesome, and my encounter afterward with Samantha was not exactly smooth either. Still, everything worked out in the end. This time, it was Jayren¡¯s turn to interrupt. ¡°I was thinking, before we plan our dungeon outing, we should all go over our classes. I¡¯ll go first. I got the knight class. It wears heavy armor and specializes in using a one handed weapon and a large shield to protect allies and fight enemies. I¡¯ve decided to focus on swords for my weapon. With the class, I got a taunting skill that lets me draw enemies attention easier, so I suppose my role will still be the tank.¡± ¡°Good, since we had all already agreed you would be tanking. Still, well done getting an appropriate class this time. I was honestly a bit worried you would do something silly like become a ninja.¡± Kiera¡¯s pretty relentless when it comes to insulting and making fun of Jayren. Although judging by his guilty look, he may have prior offenses that lead to her harshness. ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll go next. I took the Elementalist class. It allows me to use spells of all of the elements to some degree, but I get bonuses when using my chosen specialization. As I mentioned this morning, I specialized in lightning spells. I can even use some energy when casting to boost my lightning spells even further. At present I have two lighting spells to choose from, and one fire spell incase I encounter something immune to my lightning damage.¡± Kiera went for a typical mage class it sounds like. Still, I imagine she¡¯ll be outputting a tremendous amount of damage when she¡¯s using lightning spells. That¡¯s how mages usually are, after all. I¡¯m just an outlier. At this point Celeste, who had been shaking a bit in her seat, couldn¡¯t stand it anymore. ¡°Oh, me next! My class is called a Dragoon. It focuses on using a spear and high mobility to hit enemies and avoid attacks. I gained an ability called Charge that causes more damage the further I start from my target, and the dodge skill that makes it easier for me to avoid attacks. Let¡¯s hurry up and go, I want to try it out!¡± ¡°... Celeste, calm down.¡± She¡¯s been excited about that since we met up in town, but I think if Aurora didn¡¯t stop her she was going to go running out there right now. Hopefully this strategy meeting won¡¯t last long, because I don¡¯t know how much patience she has. While Aurora was busy with Celeste, I decided to go ahead. ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll go next. My class is called the Enchantress. It focuses on mind magic, which doesn¡¯t do much damage but can disrupt the enemy. With the class, I gained a new spell for attacking enemies, and one that buffs allies. I also got an ability that lets me use energy to turn my Mind Magic spells into AoEs. To help my offensive ability some, I picked up a magical whip that can use the Flame Slash spell to add fire damage to my next attack.¡± I considered telling them about my race here, but honestly I¡¯m not sure how to bring up that subject and before I knew it I was finished talking. It was actually a little difficult to just pop up with ¡°oh, and by the way I¡¯ve been deceiving you all this whole time. I¡¯m actually a demon! MUAHAHA!¡± Alright, so I probably won¡¯t say it like that, but still. I¡¯ll have to find some other point in the discussion to bring it up without derailing things too much. As I was mulling that over, Richter spoke up. ¡°Assassin. Uses stealth and sneak attacks to take down enemies.¡± Really, that was all. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s just his role play or if that¡¯s how he usually is, but he¡¯s incredibly taciturn. He¡¯s not shy like Aurora, he just doesn¡¯t talk much. The assassin class actually fits that personality well, though. Finally, it was Aurora¡¯s turn. We had been together for a bit so she was able to speak with us, though she still didn¡¯t like being the center of attention. She stared at her feet as she told us about her class. ¡°Um, I¡¯m a priestess. I focus on light magic and can heal with magic, or with an aura that uses energy. I also have a weak attack spell.¡± Hmm, light magic, rather than holy magic. That makes me wonder if there is a holy element. Maybe angels use it, assuming they exist. Well, since I¡¯m a demon, I¡¯m pretty sure my heavenly counterparts are out there too. ¡°Alright, so it sounds like our basic formation is about the same. Jayren will tank, while Celeste, Richter and I will be our main damage dealers. Lilith, I think we¡¯ll have enough damage so you can focus more on support and disrupting the enemies. I¡¯ll leave it to you to attack if you think we need it. Aurora, you just keep healing like you have been.¡± Wow, I¡¯ve been in some meetings at work that could really have benefited from a person like Kiera. She took full control of the discussion from the instant she appeared in the room, and was driving our discussion forward without letting it get off the rails at all. I almost felt like I should apologize to her, as I planned to derail things before we¡¯re done, if only temporarily. But first, a more relevant question. ¡°Do you guys know anything about this dungeon? I hadn¡¯t even heard of it until you guys invited us to join you.¡± Jayren nodded to me. ¡°Yeah. I heard a bit about it while talking to some NPCs in my starting scenario. It¡¯s apparently about a half a day¡¯s walk from the city into the woods nearby. The dungeon itself is a goblin cave, and should take about a day to clear.¡± ¡°And do you know exactly where it is? I doubt we¡¯ll just wander into the woods and find the cave, after all.¡± Jayren waved his hand. ¡°Not a problem. They sell maps in the central district. I already bought one, so we¡¯re good to go there. We just need to get food for everyone and we¡¯ll be ready to go.¡± Hmm, food. ¡°Ah, about that, I actually have something I need to tell you all. First though, I want to confirm. Is this room set to not allow anyone else to come in or hear what we¡¯re saying?¡± Kiera, who had actually rented the room, opened the control panel and checked. ¡°Yep, it¡¯s set so we won¡¯t be disturbed or overheard. Why?¡± ¡°Because what I have to say is something I really don¡¯t want spread, particularly to the NPCs.¡± At that, five pairs of questioning eyes were directed my way. ¡°Well, to be brief, I¡¯ve been hiding something from you all. I am not actually an Astoennian like the rest of you, but a rare race that allows me to disguise myself as something else.¡± Jayren was the first to respond. ¡°Why would you want to hide your race?¡± ¡°Well, there¡¯s two reasons. I¡¯m hiding it from other players because I suspect people will pester me about it if it spreads too much. I¡¯ve seen players do really silly things in the name of jealousy in other games.¡± Everyone except Aurora and Celeste nodded. They had all played online games before too, so they likely had seen things like that as well. ¡°As for hiding from the NPCs, well it¡¯s because there¡¯s actually a standing policy of execute on sight for my race. If the NPC doesn¡¯t think they can take me themselves, they¡¯ll alert the guards. So if I get found out, I will most likely have to leave that town and go into hiding for a while. Of course, I could probably change my disguise and come back, but it¡¯s still a lot of trouble to go through.¡± ¡°... What race is it?¡± ¡°Ah, right. I suppose it¡¯ll be easiest if I just show you all.¡± With that, I dropped my disguise. As my wings materialized behind me again, I spread them dramatically.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°I¡¯m actually a succubus.¡± There was a short pause as everyone in the room processed what I had said. Then Kiera spoke up. ¡°You¡¯re¡­ a succubus. Well, I guess your name makes sense then. But how does that even work? This game doesn¡¯t let you¡­ do things succubi are know for, does it?¡± Kiera¡¯s first question was the same one I asked in character creation. Also, she is apparently also somewhat knowledgeable about the mythology I took the name from. ¡°Well, they¡¯ve had to alter it some to fit the race into the game. I still drain life from my ¡®victims¡¯, but I can do it with any physical contact. Actually, I have to do that to fill my satiety bar. I can still eat normal foods, but it doesn¡¯t actually do anything for me.¡± ¡°... Um, what are you talking about? What is a succubus known for doing that you can¡¯t do in the game?¡± Everyone looked at Aurora in surprise. I knew she was shy, but I didn¡¯t realize she was also that innocent. I looked questioningly at the others. Jayren and Richter looked away, while Kiera looked confused and shrugged. Finally Celeste leaned over and whispered something in Aurora¡¯s ear. As she did so, Aurora¡¯s face went bright red. She let out an odd noise, then covered her face with her hands. Her blushing was still evident though, as it reached all the way to the tips of her ears, and I couldn¡¯t help but notice her occasionally glancing at me from between her fingers before covering them again and refreshing her blush. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s leave Aurora alone to calm down for now.¡± Another muffled squeal came out from beneath the hands. ¡°First off, I should apologize for lying, both in general about the race, but also when you asked me how I had a magic skill already. The truth is, I started with the Mind Magic skill.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a problem. It makes sense that you would want to hide a race like that. Especially since you could be killed if people find out. But what abilities do you get? I imagine if you¡¯ve got a disadvantage like that, you must get some decent bonuses as well. Could you tell us about them?¡± Kiera was back in logical leader mode by now. ¡°Sure. First off, I can alter my appearance to disguise to look like any race I have met. This lets me enter cities, but while I¡¯m disguised, many of my other abilities are sealed. I can drain life for food as I mentioned before, I have passive night vision, and I have an ability that allows me to hypnotize someone, like a stronger version of the charm spell. The target can only perform simple tasks, and they will forget ever encountering me when it wears off. Those are the only ones I can use while disguised. Aside from those, when in this form I can take the hypnotism further and even command the target to fight for me. I¡¯m also able to use my wings to fly, and I can turn my fingernails into a claw type weapon to defend myself.¡± ¡°Wow, so it seems like the abilities you have when disguised are mostly to help you safely feed, then. Have you been feeding on people in town for food so far?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. I managed to get a good meal in during my starting scenario that held me pretty well through most of the first day. Then shortly before I met Celeste and Aurora, I met a drunk and consumed about half of his health. Finally, I got found out when I went to the Mage¡¯s Association earlier, but they chose to trust me as long as I didn¡¯t kill people in town. One of the apprentices was very excited to meet a real demon and allowed me to feed off her, so I¡¯m still almost full right now. ¡°So that¡¯s why you chose now to reveal your race?¡± ¡°Yes and no. It did become a necessity, but I had already planned to tell you all about this during this discussion. Actually, I would have told you all earlier, but this is the first time we¡¯ve been somewhere where no one would see or hear the conversation. That said, I understand if you don¡¯t want me to come with you. After all, I will literally consume someone¡¯s health every time I eat, and while in the dungeon, it¡¯s going to need to be one of you.¡± The others looked at each other for a second before Kiera spoke up. ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a particularly big problem. We trust you won¡¯t drain us to death, after all. And feeding off us also reduces the risk to you as well.¡± Jayren nodded and shrugged. ¡°Yeah, besides now we only need to buy enough food for five people, so this saves us some money, too.¡± After that we waited for Aurora, who was still quite embarrassed over whatever Celeste had said to her, to calm down and continued our planning. I also went ahead and restored my disguise once my energy had replenished. I considered changing my hair color, but decided to leave it as it was for now. Someone outside might notice if it changed while we were here, after all. ¡°Alright, so we got a little derailed there, but let¡¯s get back on track. We need to get at least two days worth of food each. I recommend getting some extra as well, just in case. It might be cheaper to get raw ingredients and cook them ourselves, but I doubt any of us have the cooking skill so for this outing at least we¡¯ll want to stick to things that are already prepared. We should also get a few torches or lanterns. Since we want to leave immediately, we¡¯ll be travelling at night, and since the dungeon itself is a cave, it will probably be dark inside. Should we pool funds and everything as a group, or have everyone be responsible for their own supplies?¡± After some discussion, we decided to have everyone be responsible for themselves. There were two main reasons. The first was that we don¡¯t know each other well enough to be able to meet everyone¡¯s preferences if one person did the shopping. However, this was a minor issue compared to the fact that after the dungeon, we intended to split up and go our own separate ways. Richter, Jayren, and Kiera had other people they intended to party with in the future, while I am planning to meet up with Horvath in a few days. Because of that, it will be easier to split up the party if we don¡¯t have any communal property. With that decision made, we headed off to get our various supplies. I decided to go with Celeste and Aurora, since I don¡¯t need anything anyway and they were going to go around together, while the others were all going individually. ¡°So, what do you two plan to do once we get back from the dungeon? Do you have any plans?¡± The two looked at each other for a moment before Celeste spoke up. I couldn¡¯t help but notice they both looked a bit melancholy about that subject. It¡¯s not surprising, as they only know the four of us, and we¡¯ve all already stated our intent to move out of the city soon. ¡°We don¡¯t really have any plans. We don¡¯t know anyone else playing the game, and since we¡¯ve never played something like this we really don¡¯t know what to do at all. It¡¯s actually a little overwhelming to think about.¡± I see, I hadn¡¯t thought about that. Even if I didn¡¯t have people I knew to play with, I¡¯ve played enough games like this that I have a basic idea of what type of things to do to enjoy the game. These two are practically clueless about what to do with themselves. They¡¯ve basically been dropped into the world with no direction at all. At least in older MMOs there was a clearly defined questline to follow. As far as anyone knows, nothing like that exists in SWO. Sure, there¡¯s some possibilities in the background story, but even if they are aware of it, I doubt these two would be willing to jump into that on their own. However, them not having plans was actually the best for me. ¡°Well, if you two don¡¯t have any other plans, do you want to come along with me? I don¡¯t know where we¡¯ll end up, but it should be fun if nothing else.¡± ¡°I thought you were meeting up with some of your other friends.¡± Celeste tilted her head and looked up at me. ¡°I am, but that¡¯s no reason you can¡¯t come. There¡¯s only four of us, so we don¡¯t even make a full party. If you want to come, you two are absolutely welcome. Give it some thought, we¡¯ve got a few days before you need to make a decision.¡± Celeste nodded, but didn¡¯t say more. In a surprising show of restraint, she clearly wanted to consider the options before making a choice. However, Aurora suddenly grabbed Celeste¡¯s elbow. ¡°... I want to go.¡± I think both Celeste and I figured Aurora would just go along with Celeste¡¯s decision. She hadn¡¯t showed much assertiveness when the two needed to make a choice before, and usually just followed Celeste¡¯s lead. ¡°Huh.¡± ¡°I want to go with Lilith. I think it would be fun. And we don¡¯t have any reason not to.¡± Celeste stared at Aurora for a few seconds, then nodded and turned to me. ¡°Alright, it looks like we¡¯ll take you up on that offer. Although we don¡¯t even know where you¡¯re going.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Neither do I, really. I know we¡¯re going to make a stop in a city near the Great Central Desert and eventually head up north to find a gnome, but beyond that we don¡¯t have any set plans. We¡¯ll just roam around seeing what this world has to offer.¡± ¡°Find a gnome? I knew you were going to the desert, but I don¡¯t think you mentioned that before.¡± ¡°Ah, yeah. My sister¡¯s character. She just contacted me right before we started our strategy meeting.¡± We continued our casual chat as they purchased their food and provisions for our trip, then headed back to the main gate to meet up with the others and head out. ---
Lilith has created a chat. Horvath has entered the chat. Amber has entered the chat. Simona has entered the chat. Lilith: Healer and offtank (sort of) secured. Amber: Yay? Horvath: Sort of offtank, or sort of secured? Simona: who are they? Lilith: Yes, Yay. She¡¯s only sort of an offtank. Her focus is more on evasion and mobility, but should do the job alright. And they¡¯re a couple of new players I¡¯ve been playing with. They just agreed to come along with us when we leave town. Amber: Add them to the chat! Horvath: An evasion tank. That should work. Lilith: I¡¯ll add them to a chat later. We¡¯re actually about to head out of town and do a dungeon dive for a couple days. Amber: You mentioned that earlier. But how did you find a dungeon that easily? Lilith: One of the people I¡¯m going with heard about it. Apparently it¡¯s well known, as they were selling maps to it in town. Amber: Seriously? I need to check the stores around here better, then. Lilith: Looks like everyone¡¯s here. I¡¯m out for now. Oh and Horvath, you¡¯ll be excited to know I picked up a fire spell today. Lilith has left the chat Horvath: What?!? No, you¡¯re not allowed to have fire anymore! We banned that after last time! Simona: Too late. And do I want to know? Horvath: He managed to burn down half a village once. They had requested we clear out a rat infestation. I¡¯m still not exactly sure how it happened, but we all got the ¡°public menace¡± title that time. NPCs weren¡¯t very friendly towards us afterward. Amber: In his defense, the spell would only ignite targets. He just didn¡¯t expect the burning rats to run into any building they could find to get away. And I don¡¯t think that incident alone would result in the title. That was probably just the final straw. Simona: Oh. I¡¯m starting to worry about this. Although from what you¡¯ve told me, those things seem to happen no matter what, so banning one type of spell probably won¡¯t do anything. Horvath: Unfortunately, you¡¯re probably right.
Chapter 10: Dungeoneering After travelling through the night, we arrived at our destination shortly before dawn. The journey itself had been fairly uneventful. Because we were travelling in the dark, everyone aside from Richter and me carried or wore a lantern as they travelled. The light attracted a few enemies to us, but we were able to dispatch them without any issues. Due to my ability to see clearly in the dark and Richter scouting ahead on his own, the monsters were not able to ambush us. For nocturnal monsters that relied on attacking before being seen, losing this advantage proved disastrous. While their damage was high, they had very poor defense so not getting the first attack in meant they fell very quickly. Once we had entered the cave, we checked that there were no enemies in the first chamber, then decided to take a short break. While our physical bodies don¡¯t need rest, travelling through the night while being on guard from attacks was mentally tiring. While we relaxed, we decided to take turns signing out for a little while to eat and deal with any other biological needs in the real world before we started our invasion of the goblin cave. While this room seemed to be safe, we still signed out in pairs, so we could defend ourselves if attacked. Those that were left prepared their gear, and I took this opportunity to drop my disguise. I didn¡¯t think it was possible, but my wings actually felt a little stiff until I stretched them out and flapped them a few times. ¡°Going with that form, huh?¡± Jayren was watching me curiously as I readjusted to having my spare limbs. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s really best if I fight like this when I can. When I¡¯m disguised, I can¡¯t use a lot of my abilities, but more importantly my maximum energy is limited down to 40.¡± ¡°Wait, you¡¯ve been fighting with only 40 energy this whole time?! I guess since you¡¯re a mage it doesn¡¯t really set you back too much, but it¡¯s still a pretty hefty limitation.¡± He looked down contemplating how I¡¯ve fought with less than half my energy so far. ¡°By the way, how does that work? I mean controlling your wings and such.¡± ¡°My wings? Honestly it¡¯s still a little awkward, and I stop being aware of them when I¡¯m disguised so I have to get used to them again every time. Most of the time they move on their own if I¡¯m not consciously thinking about them. For example, I don¡¯t intentionally move my tail at all, but it seems to move with my emotions and to help me maintain balance. Similarly, if I¡¯m not trying to move them, the wings naturally fold onto my back to stay out of the way. If I do focus on them, it feels like I¡¯ve got a couple of extra, misshapen arms growing out of my back. It¡¯s hard to explain. I actually spent quite a while figuring them out in the character creation area before starting the game.¡± ¡°That¡¯s cool. I kinda wish I had ended up with a less standard race. Not even a rare race, I would have liked a beastman even. Just something a little different.¡± ¡°Well, there¡¯s supposedly ways to change races later, so you might be able to find some way of making yourself different. You could make that a goal.¡± ¡°Yeah, maybe after we¡¯ve linked up with the rest of our group, I¡¯ll do that. Though from what I¡¯ve seen of the forums, only a few of those methods have been found yet, and they¡¯re limited to specific original races.¡± ¡°I¡¯m actually surprised anyone has found a way already. We¡¯ve only been here a couple days, and right now players are mostly limited to staying near civilized areas. I¡¯d wait till we can get to more dangerous areas before you start looking. That¡¯ll be where the more interesting ones are.¡± As we were talking, Celeste and Aurora signed back in, so it was my turn to log out. Deciding not to take the time to prepare a proper meal, I quickly made a fairly large sandwich and downed some water. I did toss together something in my slow cooker for later, so I could have a quick hot meal next time. Finally, I took care of my other needs, and slid back into my gaming pod. ¡°Oh, Lilith¡¯s back!¡± As soon as I had signed in, Celeste and Aurora came over to me. ¡°We were hoping to ask you about dungeons while we waited, is that okay?¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ve got nothing else to do. What do you want to know?¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯ve never done something like this, so we have no idea what to expect. What kind of things will we be doing? Also, how did you all expect that the enemies wouldn¡¯t come in here?¡± ¡°Oh that. In most games, if you die in a dungeon, you return to the beginning of the dungeon, rather than back to town. So usually there won¡¯t be enemies there.¡± ¡°... Are we going to die in here?¡± Both twins looked quite concerned about that. I guess they hadn¡¯t been aware of that possibility. ¡°Maybe. It¡¯s a dungeon intended for beginners so it may be easier to get through than usual, but in most games I¡¯ve played going into a dungeon with a group of people who have never been there before and with no idea what to expect, you can expect to die at least a couple times before clearing it. Don¡¯t worry too much about dying, though. It¡¯s just a part of the game. Besides, some of the best stories come from dying in absurd ways.¡± After that, I went over some of the basics of dungeoneering in games with the two of them. We discussed standard tactics, such as pulling enemies to a bottleneck or other advantageous terrain, and talked some about some of the more common traps and mechanics we might encounter. After he signed back in, Jayren also joined us. He clearly had played quite a few games himself, and was quite knowledgeable as well. --- Once everyone had signed back in we set off. As we moved, Richter slipped off to scout ahead from the shadows. For the rest of us, Jayren took the lead. Following him were Celeste and I, and bringing up the rear were Kiera and Aurora. Because the cavern was even darker than it had been outside, Celeste and Jayren wore lanterns strapped to their belts, while Kiera and Aurora carried theirs. Since my night vision could see further than the light could reach, I also had the job of watching ahead and warning the others if anything made it past Richter and was coming our way. After a short walk, we were approaching a bend in the path when Richter materialized from the shadows. In the room just past the bend were three goblins. According to him, one had a bow, and the other two used two handed spears. After debating whether to lure them around the corner or charge into the room, I suddenly had an idea. ¡°Hey, could you guys let me try something with this group? Since they¡¯re fairly weak, it should be a good chance to test one of my skills to make sure it¡¯ll work on these guys.¡± ¡°Hmm, I suppose it won¡¯t hurt. We can wait ready around the corner in case whatever you¡¯re doing fails. If things go south just run back here.¡± With a smirk, I crept up toward the corner and peeked around it. Sure enough, there were three goblins standing with a small torch burning behind them to light the room. The flickering torchlight didn¡¯t really let me see many details about them. From what I could tell, they were the typical fantasy goblins you see in nearly every story. Small, dark green skinned, and all together not a very attractive race. They were usually not known for their intelligence, and judging by the fact that I had watched one accidentally light his spear on fire twice already, these were no different. Luckily for me, the light of their torch didn¡¯t quite reach the corner where I was, so the goblins couldn¡¯t see me yet even if I don¡¯t have a convenient stealth skill. I made a mental note to look into getting that and a skill to cast my spells quietly if this worked. If it did, this would be a technique that could be a lot of fun to use. I raised my hand at the archer and targeted the two spearmen (speargoblins?) using my Wide Influence skill. Then, I cast my Frenzy spell. Attacking all three burned a fifth of my mana and half my energy, but the results were absolutely worth it. All three goblins looked my way as the spell flashed out at them, but as one would expect, basic goblins don¡¯t have a lot of willpower and thus were completely unable to resist the effect of my spell. The two with spears immediately turned to start stabbing each other. One thrust his spear out, but was parried, then stabbed in the gut with a counter attack. Alive but wounded, he braced to try to attack again, but the archer who had been forgotten by the others till now had taken aim. A crude arrow lodged itself cleanly into the wounded goblin¡¯s chest, ending his life.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Unfortunately for the archer, he didn¡¯t get a chance to fire again, as the first speargoblin had run at him after the other died, and began viciously thrusting at him without giving him a chance to react. The archer managed to dodge the first couple thrusts, but the third caught him in the thigh, sending him tumbling to the ground. From there, the spear made short work of him. As all this was going on, I motioned the others to come to the corner. ¡°Good news, there¡¯s only one goblin left. It¡¯s one of the one¡¯s with a spear, so prepare for melee combat I guess. He should be coming this way soon.¡± As I spoke, I rejoined the formation behind Jayren and prepared my whip. It turned out I didn¡¯t need to, though. As soon as the goblin rounded the corner, it was hit squarely in the chest by a bolt of lighting. While it survived that hit, it was stunned, and couldn¡¯t raise any defenses to meet Celeste¡¯s charge. Her spear had a lot of momentum behind it from the charge, and cleanly finished off the goblin before it even registered the hit. After the goblin fell, I couldn¡¯t help but grin. That had worked perfectly. ¡°What exactly did you do? I saw you cast Frenzy, but how did this goblin manage to kill both the others without taking any damage?¡± ¡°Well, this goblin actually got lucky. When I cast Frenzy, I used one of my skills that let me target all three goblins with the spell, so they all got frenzied. The three proceeded to attack each other, and this one just happened to avoid getting hit.¡± ¡°That seems like a crazy powerful ability. Are there any drawbacks?¡± ¡°Only that the energy cost is the amount of mana the spell costs for each additional target. So My Frenzy is 25 mana, and that cost me 50 energy on top of that. It¡¯s not something I can use a lot, especially with enemies that may resist the completely. Thankfully, I sort of figured the basic goblins wouldn¡¯t have enough willpower to stop it.¡± Kiera nodded. ¡°Hmm, so 5 targets at most then. Still, not a bad way to start a large fight.¡± ¡°Yeah, I figured I don¡¯t have much else to do with my energy right now, unless I want to start using my succubus abilities on goblins. I¡¯ve found draining monsters isn¡¯t very effective, though, and the frenzy spell is probably more effective than enthralling one of them. I could grow my claws in case they get too close, but I¡¯ve got a whip and a tank, so I doubt I¡¯ll need to do that.¡± ¡°True. For all his flaws, Jayren does make a very good meatshield.¡± ¡°Why do I get the feeling that wasn¡¯t really a compliment¡­¡± Kiera just patted Jayren¡¯s shoulder and cleanly ignored his complaints about her slightly ambiguous statement. At first, I thought Kiera disliked the knight, but as we traveled together I began to suspect this was actually what flirting looked like to the two. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they told us they were in a relationship in real life. --- After collecting the loot from the goblins, we continued down the passage. Initially all we encountered were small groups like the first one, but as we continued the groups began to get larger, occasionally even outnumbering us. We opted not to use the mass frenzy technique so the others could train their skills as well. Instead I mostly stuck to harassing the goblins with Migraine when they moved to attack someone, while occasionally casting Inspire to buff one of our attackers. Because our group was mostly melee focused, I did still cast Frenzy on any archers we encountered. This caused the archers to target their allies with their first few arrows, giving Richter time to sneak up on them and finish them off.
Migraine
Causes a sharp pain directly into the target''s mind - causes a small amount of physical damage - May cause the target to flinch - May slow the target''s reactions for a short period of time Mana cost: 10
Inspire
Adds one point for every 2 levels of the Enchantress to all of the targeted allies stats temporarily. Mana cost: 30
At first, there was no real variety in the goblins we were facing. Just typical goblins with spears and bows, which we knew were both easy to beat. As we ventured deeper into the cave, however, the groups began to have more variety in their weapons and equipment. Some goblins would have axes, swords, or clubs instead of the spears. These had different methods of attacking, which meant we had to pay attention to handle them appropriately. A few goblins even had leather shields and armor made up of hides and bones, making them much more difficult for us to quickly defeat. For these, Jayren would get their attention focused on him while the rest of us quickly killed all of the additional goblins, before focusing on the armored goblin. Underneath that armor it was still just a goblin, so with our combined attacks, it would fall quickly. As we continued on, we finally encountered a new type of enemy. It looked like the other goblins, except it was almost twice as big and had tan skin instead of the standard green. It wore armor made of bones that seemed to be of higher quality than any we had seen in this cave so far, and was carrying a large two handed club. Overall, it looked quite imposing compared to the enemies we had faced up to now. Thankfully, there was only one of them, backed up by two goblin archers. ¡°Hmm, looks like we¡¯ve got a Hobgoblin, if I were to guess.¡± Kiera nodded at my assessment. ¡°Probably. He¡¯ll probably be tougher than anything we¡¯ve seen so far. Think you can Frenzy him?¡± ¡°I can try. At the worst, I can get the archers for sure. With them out of the way we¡¯d be able to focus down the big one.¡± ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go with that. Lilith will try to Frenzy them all. If it works, we wait till there¡¯s only one left. If the big one doesn¡¯t get frenzied, Jayren will get it¡¯s attention and Richter will sneak up on the archers. Hopefully one will die before due to friendly fire, but if not you¡¯ll need to finish them both before rejoining the main fight. The rest of us will focus on the big one. Celeste, stay back a bit and use your charge first to get him with a big hit. Aurora be ready, we have no clue how hard he¡¯ll hit.¡± Our plan made, I targeted the goblins and fired off a Frenzy on them all. As expected the archers immediately went after each other. The hobgoblin¡¯s reaction was much more interesting. Initially, the spell took effect on him as well. He raised his club and started to turn toward the nearest archer, but suddenly he let out a low warcry, and turned back to face us before charging. ¡°That was strange, it looked like it worked but then he shrugged it off. Incoming!¡± At my yell, Jayren dashed forward and thrust his shield forward while Richter slipped out of our formation and into the shadows at the edge of the room. The instant he was in range, the hobgoblin swung his club in a wide arch toward Jayren. He swiftly positioned his shield to intercept, and braced for the impact. For good measure, he also activated his taunt skill to ensure he remained the main target. The hit was still heavy enough to knock off a portion of his health even with the shield. He grimaced for a moment before a soft light enveloped the arm under his shield, restoring the damaged limb. ¡°Geez, he hits hard. I¡¯ve got his attention, Go!¡± As soon as he had finished speaking, a bolt of lightning shot out, slamming into the hobgoblin¡¯s chest. Following closely behind that was Celeste¡¯s charge. She dashed forward and thrust at the hobgoblin with her spear. With the added momentum, it buried itself deep into his side before she pulled it out and backed off a step. Charging drained her energy very quickly, so it was really only useful for getting into the fight with a heavy blow, then using basic attacks while waiting to regain enough energy to properly fight. The hobgoblin let out a howl and raised it¡¯s club over it¡¯s head to bring down a heavy blow directly on top of Jayren. Even with his shield, that was likely to be a painful hit, and one that wouldn¡¯t be necessary. Just before it began the swing, I fired off the Migraine spell. The howl of rage suddenly changed to a grunt as it flinched from the sudden pain directly applied to it¡¯s rather tiny mind. Unfortunately as a warrior, it¡¯s tolerance for pain was quite high so it was unlikely to suffer lingering effects, but I was able to interrupt the heavy attack aimed for Jayren at least. In this manner, we continued to fight the hobgoblin for several minutes. Eventually, Richter returned from dealing with the archers, appearing out of nowhere behind it and slashing at it¡¯s hamstrings. This robbed it of mobility, but even more importantly also lowered the power of it¡¯s attacks as it couldn¡¯t get a proper stance anymore. This helped considerably, as every time Jayren deflected a blow, he took some damage. Aurora had been able to keep up so far, but her mana would run out eventually. With the enemy crippled, we were able to finish it off with relative easy. It still managed to get a few swings in, one of which Jayren was out of position and unable to block, but overall we were able to defeat it without too much trouble. Still, this was a much more challenging fight than the goblins had been up to now. And as far as we could tell, this wasn¡¯t a boss or anything, so it was possible we would encounter more of these hobgoblins later. As we gather the loot, Celeste held up the bone armor it had been wearing. ¡°Does anyone mind if I take this? I don¡¯t think my basic armor can withstand a hit from these guys, so I would like to get something a bit stronger on.¡± The rest of us didn¡¯t have any complaints. Kiera, Aurora and I wore robes, while Jayren had sturdier plate armor on. Richter was the only one who might have wanted it, but he said the bones make too much noise, so he wouldn¡¯t be able to sneak while wearing it. Celeste immediately equipped the bone armor in place of the leather she had. It had a somewhat savage appearance to it, with layer of leather as the base underneath a number of small, carved bones loosely sewn onto the outside to provide a bit of extra protection. Celeste looked quite pleased with the overall effect, though. ¡°Still, that was quite a spike in the challenge if this dungeon. After all the easy battles with the regular goblins, I was starting to let my guard down. Looks like this won¡¯t just be a walk in the park after all.¡± We all agreed with Jayren. Up to now, we had been experimenting with various techniques on the goblins, just to see what worked and what didn¡¯t. They had been extremely weak enemies, so we were lulled into a sense of security, which was just shattered completely. If we would be encountering more of these, we would need to start getting serious. And if semi-regular monsters were that tough, I was interested to see what other surprises this dungeon might hold for us. SS: Discussion Over Lunch As my consciousness returned to my body, I reached out and slowly pushed open the lid to my game pod. Working my way up out of the chair, I glanced over at the other pod and it¡¯s occupant, my friend Jennifer. She lept spryly out of her pod as if it she wasn¡¯t stiff at all, then came over to help me out of mine. ¡°Too stiff to get up? You should exercise with me more. It¡¯ll help.¡± I shook my head at her. ¡°No thank you. Our morning runs are already enough for me.¡± ¡°Enough?! You¡¯re barely doing half the laps I am. You need more!¡± ¡°Unlike you, I didn¡¯t run track through school, remember. I also don¡¯t have a job that needs as much energy and stamina as yours does. Normal people don¡¯t run that much.¡± She dismissed my objections with a wave. ¡°Whatever, let¡¯s go eat. We don¡¯t want to keep everyone waiting, after all.¡± We headed to the kitchen, where I got to work preparing a simple lunch for the both of us while Jennifer hopped onto a bar stool and rested her arms on the counter. Due to her catastrophic cooking abilities, preparing meals was my job. ¡°So I know I kinda dragged you into it, but are you enjoying the game so far?¡± I nodded. ¡°It¡¯s interesting. I had no idea games were like this.¡± I had never played any video games before SWO. Without Jennifer¡¯s insistence on it, I probably wouldn¡¯t have played at all. My parents had raised me in a very sheltered environment, so I had little exposure to this type of thing. It¡¯s not that they were bad parents, it¡¯s just that they wanted to protect me and went overboard with it. Even while I was in college they had kept a tight leash on my activities, much to Jennifer¡¯s frustration. She had always felt they were too controlling of me. Now that I¡¯m finally independent and out of their control, I¡¯m beginning to see what she meant. There¡¯s a lot of things most people are experienced with that I still don¡¯t really understand. ¡°That¡¯s good. I didn¡¯t know what to expect either. I was worried you would be overwhelmed and want to quit right away when we started fighting monsters, but I¡¯m glad you¡¯re having fun.¡± ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve still got a lot to learn, though.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true for both of us, but I don¡¯t think we need to worry about that. We seem to have found us a good teacher, after all. By the way, I can¡¯t help but notice you¡¯ve been reverting.¡± ¡°Reverting?¡± ¡°Yep. Don¡¯t tell me you haven¡¯t noticed. Your habits of hiding and letting someone else take the lead all the time has been coming out. These last few years you¡¯ve been doing a lot better about opening up, but in the game it¡¯s like that never happened. Just because your character looks younger doesn¡¯t mean you should act like you did when you were that age.¡± I set a plate in front of her, and moved to my stool beside her to eat.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Hmm, now that you mention it, you might be right. I didn¡¯t even realize I was doing that. Maybe because it¡¯s a strange environment, I¡¯m more nervous than usual.¡± ¡°I guess that makes sense. Still, it¡¯s to the point that I was very surprised when you spoke up about wanting to go with Lilith later. Now that I think about it, you¡¯re actually getting along with her really well, aren¡¯t you.¡± My thoughts turned toward the succubus who we had befriended and my face naturally broke into a smile. ¡°Mm, she¡¯s friendly and seems to understand me. I like her a lot, so I didn¡¯t want to part ways.¡± ¡°You¡­ I thought you were straight all this time. Are you into women after all?!¡± Jennifer asked while backing away with a shocked expression on her face. ¡°It¡¯s not like that! I like men¡­ I think. I mean¡­ I¡¯ve never¡­ um...¡± My mind and words became flustered as I tried to elaborate on that thought. My friend just grinned at my reaction. She was teasing me after all. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I continued the earlier discussion. ¡°It¡¯s just, she seemed to pick up on my personality right away, and adjusted her behavior to account for it. For example in conversations, she intentionally asks me for my opinion. I think she¡¯s realized I want to speak, but don¡¯t know how to jump into a conversation naturally like you do. I think because of things like that, I¡¯ve already gotten comfortable with her.¡± ¡°I see. But... hmm¡­¡± Jennifer stared at her plate and began thinking about something. Her expression showed she wasn¡¯t sure if she wanted to tell me what it was or not. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°No, well I just have a few suspicions about Lilith is all.¡± ¡°Suspicions? Like what?¡± ¡°Well, keep in mind I have no proof of this. But the way she carries herself and acts sometimes makes me think she might actually be a guy playing a female character.¡± ¡°Eh, really?¡± I hadn¡¯t even noticed. But Jennifer has always been more observant about these types of things than me, so if she says it, I have no reason to doubt her. ¡°Like I said, there¡¯s no proof. It¡¯s just a gut feeling I get watching her sometimes. All the same, she seems like a good person. Also since her race is a succubus, it¡¯s possible she didn¡¯t even have a choice in her gender. Traditionally they¡¯re all female, after all.¡± Ah, traditional succubi are all females. I didn¡¯t know anything about them but the name until this morning, so I had no idea. My parents would have considered them a ¡°dangerous influence¡± on me, so they were careful to prevent me from being exposed to that type of story. Which led to a very embarrassing situation earlier. I began to blush, remembering that incident. ¡°Wait, why are you getting embarrassed suddenly?¡± ¡°No, I was just remembering earlier what you said about succubi. How they¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t finish the sentence, but Jennifer understood what I was getting at and grinned. ¡°Ah, that. Well, it was better you find out now, since we¡¯re going to be travelling with one. Even if she doesn¡¯t do that in the game.¡± I nodded. For some reason, I felt strangely glad that Lilith didn¡¯t need to do that type of thing. I wonder why. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m pretty excited about this dungeon. I wonder what it¡¯s going to be like.¡± As she spoke, Jennifer took both our dishes to the kitchen and started cleaning them. This was our system: I cook, she cleans. I nodded. ¡°I just hope it¡¯s not too dangerous or difficult.¡± ¡°I doubt it. They said it was designed for people like us who just unlocked their class, so I can¡¯t imagine it¡¯ll be that bad. Besides, the others all seem to be experienced and know what they¡¯re doing. We just need to follow their lead and make sure we¡¯re not holding them back.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still not sure about some things though.¡± ¡°Well, asking me isn¡¯t going to help. Let¡¯s try to ask Lilith before we head out.¡± As she said that she finished rinsing off the dishes and putting them into the washer. We decided not to keep the others waiting any longer and quickly finished up and went back to her room where our pods were. Chapter 11: Horde It had been several hours since our first encounter with a hobgoblin when we decided to take a short break. Since then, we had fought several more of them. They were always the only hobgoblin in a group, and were usually leading a group of two to four goblins with a variety of weapons. The hobgoblins themselves seemed to prefer heavy two handed weapons, with most of them wielding clubs like the first one. We did fight one that carried a heavy battle axe, however. That fight actually put a strain on Aurora¡¯s mana supplies, as when Jayren would block the attack with his shield, the hobgoblin would slide it¡¯s axe along the shield and try to hit him with it. There was less power behind the blow, but it was still a very troublesome technique. After some experimentation, we determined the hobgoblins were indeed affected by my mind magic spells, but they must have an ability that allows them to shrug off the effect, as I was never able to successfully frenzy one into attacking its allies. They would always start to move as if they were frenzied, but would then grunt, shake their head, and turn back to us. After the third, I stopped wasting energy trying on them, and just frenzied their allies. It was particularly convenient if those allies would go after the hobgoblin, as it¡¯s attention would be taken by that temporarily, giving us a chance to get a few strong hits in. There were two reasons we had stopped now to take a quick break. The first was that at a glance, the next room would be troublesome. We had been in the cave for quite a while now and should be approaching the midpoint. We were expecting to encounter a tough fight or midboss soon, and it looked like the next room would be where that was going to occur. The room was very large, and had a number of small tunnels covering the walls. ¡°What do you think? Horde?¡± ¡°If I were to guess, I¡¯d say you¡¯re right. All those side tunnels are a dead giveaway.¡± ¡°Um¡­ what are you guys talking about?¡± Kiera, Jayren and I were all in agreement that the next room was almost certainly going to be a horde, but Celeste and Aurora were unfamiliar with the term, and seemed to be concerned. Richter was still being is usual aloof self and not really taking part in the conversation. ¡°A horde is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Most likely when we get to the middle of that room, goblins will come pouring out of those tunnels. On the plus side, the tunnels are too small for hobgoblins, so we shouldn¡¯t get many of those. A few might come in from the path ahead, but that should be it. The biggest problem is whether we¡¯re supposed to outlast the horde, or fight our way through and escape.¡± ¡°Most likely it¡¯ll be a survive, not an escape event. Look at that gate on the other side. That will almost certainly slam down when the horde starts, trapping us in until we finish the event.¡± Looking across the room where Kiera was pointing, there was indeed a large wooden lattice gate perched above the door. While it might be destructible, asking a low level party to do that while fighting off swarms of enemies would be a bit much. As for the second reason we took a break here, we had been in this cave for half a day, after walking here through the night. All of our satiety bars had dropped a good bit, and this was a good chance to stop and eat before continuing. But that brought up another question. ¡°So, who¡¯s Lilith feeding on? And how do you actually feed, anyway?¡± ¡°The feeding itself is pretty simple. I just need to be in physical contact with my target. According to the description of the ability, the type of contact will affect the rate of draining, but I haven¡¯t had enough time to experiment with exactly what that means yet. Given the traditional nature of a succubus, I suspect more intimate types of contact will drain more than just touching someone. ¡°As for who feeds me, I¡¯ll let you all decide that one.¡± Jayren pondered for a moment then started standing up. ¡°As the tank I¡¯ve got the most health, so I should probably¡­¡± His sentence stalled a moment as Kiera shot him a sharp glare, and he lowered himself back into his seated position. ¡°... not do it, since I may need to take a few hits if an enemy sneaks up on us.¡± It was a good save, I will give him credit. Still blatantly obvious what he was thinking, but a valiant effort to save what little dignity he still had. ¡°Lilith, I think it should be myself or one of the twins that feeds you. The guys may start thinking strange things if you do it with them.¡± Kiera glared at Jayren again. Richter looked a bit confused why he was being lumped into that statement, but as usual didn¡¯t say anything. In the end, my feeding partner was chosen by the most traditional method known to mankind for making a difficult decision, a rousing game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. We also decided having someone not in their right mind, even temporarily, was a bad idea so I would be feeding without using my Seduce skill for the first time. ¡°You should sit down. I have no idea what effects this may have on you. Let me know if it hurts and I¡¯ll stop right away, alright?¡± My chosen meal, Aurora, just nodded nervously and sat down. I sat in front of her and took her hands in mine. While it would go faster with more contact, I¡¯m not sure how comfortable Aurora would be with that. We were planning to travel together or a while, but we¡¯ve only known each other for a day and a half. Besides, we aren¡¯t pressed for time, so this should be fine. ¡°Alright, here we go.¡± As the others all watched curiously, I activated Life Drain. I watched as my satiety bar began climbing, while also keeping an eye on Aurora¡¯s health, just in case something went wrong. Unfortunately, because my attention was on those two bars, I didn¡¯t immediately notice things were slightly amiss. ¡°Um, Aurora, are you okay? You don¡¯t look too good.¡± Kiera¡¯s words turned my attention towards Aurora. Sure enough, she did look a bit off. Her eyes were slightly unfocused and her breathing was starting to get ragged. She was also developing a slight blush. ¡°Are you alright? Should I stop?¡± Aurora shook her head at my question. ¡°...I¡¯m fine. It just feels... a little¡­ Nn¡­¡± A slight involuntary moan cut her sentence off, but she doesn¡¯t seem to be in pain. Still, this is an odd effect for the draining to have. I continued to watch as Aurora¡¯s blush deepened and spread up to her ears. She then began to squirm a little bit, rubbing her thighs together. It was about then that I began remember the vague way Elenore talked about feeding Orinana. Come to think of it, she shouldn¡¯t have remembered it, unless she weren¡¯t hypnotized. And the ones she did remember were all when they were alone in private¡­ Oh. I see. So that was why she insisted on me hypnotizing Samantha. That also explains the creepy giggle she made while talking about it. I quickly pulled Aurora to my chest and wrapped my wings around her. This afforded her a bit of privacy, and also sped up the feeding process, so it should be over soon. In the meantime, I looked at my companions. Both the guys were looking away, pretending they hadn¡¯t noticed anything. Kiera¡¯s eyes were wide. I suspect she guessed what was happening around the same time I did. Celeste was stifling a laugh. ¡°I just want to say in my defense, this wasn¡¯t mentioned in the skill description, and hypnotized people don¡¯t have a reaction, so I had no idea that would happen. I suppose I should have considered this though. The defining trait of succubi is draining someone while providing pleasure. They just removed the standard method of providing it, but not the pleasure itself apparently.¡± ¡°Right. From now on, feeding Lilith will definitely be done by one of the girls. And done in private.¡± Kiera made an executive decision, and everyone agreed. Well, everyone except Aurora, who was still squirming around and moaning softly under my wings. But she would certainly be okay with this new rule. ¡°I kinda feel like I¡¯ve done something mean to her. I suspected it would have some sort of effect, but not something like this. Celeste, any chance you could talk with her after she calms down to make sure everything¡¯s okay. I think she¡¯s going to feel pretty awkward around me for a while.¡± ¡°Hm, sure. But I don¡¯t think you need to worry. She¡¯s not the type to hold a grudge usually, and for reasons I still haven¡¯t fully figured out, she¡¯s taken to you pretty well. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen her insist on something like when you invited us to join your trip. This game¡¯s already paying off. I¡¯ve seen a couple new sides of Aurora, though she might not be happy to find out about this one.¡± She indicated towards the girl who had just gone limp beneath my wings while breathing heavily. A small indicator appeared in the corner of my vision, but I ignored it for now. I watched my satiety bar reach full and cancelled the Life Drain. I opted to keep holding Aurora like this for a bit until she calmed down. As her breathing returned to a normal level, I felt her pull back from my chest. I removed my wing-curtain to reveal a slightly disheveled, blushing face. She glanced at me, blushed even harder, and looked away.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Take some time to calm down. We¡¯ll head out when you¡¯re ready.¡± Without looking at me, Aurora nodded. I moved away while Celeste came to fix her appearance and provide after-care. On the other side of the cave, I opened up the message I had gotten earlier.
Title Unlocked: Pleasurer
You have managed to bring someone intense pleasure. What on earth are you doing? +2 to Charisma
Because you do not have a title already, this title has been automatically equipped.
Really? I got a title for that?! I suppose it is the first abnormal thing I¡¯ve done in this game, but still I¡¯m not sure I want this one. Well, the stat boost is nice, and I don¡¯t have an alternative so I¡¯ll have to tolerate it for now. Still, was that flavor text necessary? --- It took Aurora another fifteen minutes before she calmed down enough to talk to me normally again. She still couldn¡¯t look me in the eyes, but it was progress. Rested up, we were ready for whatever this next room would throw at us. Hopefully. We moved in a circular formation. Jayren was in the lead, with myself and Richter flanking him, and Kiera and Celeste behind us. Aurora was positioned in the middle to make sure she was safe when the fighting broke out. Celeste was in the back instead of me so that she had more room to charge at an enemy in the front if we were wrong and this was a boss fight instead of a horde. As we walked, I prepared my whip and also activated my Sharpen Nails. If we were facing the numbers we expected, I may be forced into melee, so it was best to be prepared. As we approached the center of the room, the gate on the other side, as well as one above the tunnel we entered from, crashed to the ground locking us in. ¡°KRISH! KOR TARK! STRALL NEK ORTAK!!!¡± A harsh voice echoed around the room. There was no actual source for the voice, but it seemed to emanate from the room itself, or possibly one of the tunnels. A howl answered, and dust began to pour out from the tunnels around the room, obscuring them. ¡°Looks like we were right!¡± ¡°Yeah. Stick to the plan. Go!¡± Our plan was simple, stay in formation and run to the exit gate. If we were supposed to escape there would be a mechanism to open it. If not, we could fight with the gate to our backs to limit the directions the enemies could come from. At Kiera¡¯s shout, we all took off toward the exit. We would only slow our advance slightly if a goblin got close enough to attack, at which point we would down them as quickly as possible before continuing to run. About three quarters of the way across the room, we hit our first problem. As we were running, Celeste missed her footing and tripped over a goblin corpse that hadn¡¯t vanished yet. The goblins weren¡¯t about to let an opportunity to isolate one of us go and moved to cut her off from us immediately. ¡°Celeste! Damn, let¡¯s restructure and get her up.¡± Kiera immediately began planning to recover from this mishap, but I stopped her. ¡°No, keep going. I¡¯ll get Celeste and meet up with you all at the exit.¡± Kiera turned like she was going to stop me, but she seemed to hesitate a moment. Not waiting to find out why, I spread my wings and quickly took to the sky. Looking down, I saw Celeste desperately dodging and parrying attacks from the goblins as she tried to find a way to break through the circle surrounding her. Deciding it was going to be a close quarters battle, I holstered my whip before diving towards her. Along the way, I also targeted as many of the closest goblins to her I could, and cast my Confuse spell. The effects would be random, but the goal was to cause chaos in the goblins ranks, giving us a chance to break free. And chaos was indeed what broke out in their ranks, as six of the lead gobins started doing practically anything but what they were supposed to. I then landed roughly behind Celeste with my back to her. ¡°How are you holding up?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve taken a few nasty hits I¡¯m gonna need Aurora to look at. It''s a good thing I got this new armor, or I probably would be dead already. Are you here to get me out of this?¡± ¡°Yeah, but first we need a little breathing room so we can get airborne. Let¡¯s try to thin the ranks a bit before we go.¡± At that, I passed Celeste a healing potion, then turned to face the horde again. They had held back a moment due to the surprise of their front line¡¯s strange behavior, followed by my suddenly dropping into the middle of the fight. ¡°What, scared now that there¡¯s two of us here? Well then, I¡¯ll just have to come to you instead! ¡± Boosting my own stats by a couple points, I used my wings to dash toward the nearest goblins. As soon as they were in reach, I slashed at them with my claws. One dropped dead immediately, while the other fell with a gurgle and held it¡¯s bleeding throat, and desperately tried to get away. Not that I was going to let it, of course. I¡¯m not a martial class, but that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t hit something laying on the ground dying. I brought the heel of my boot down on the goblin, crushing it¡¯s already heavily damaged throat and ending it¡¯s life. I then dashed at several more, eviscerating them with my claws as well. Yes, I was being reckless, but healing potions aren¡¯t instantaneous in this game, and buying even a few seconds of time for Celeste¡¯s health to regenerate could mean the difference between life and death. And I would be lying if I said recklessness can be fun at times. In this case, my recklessness payed off. The goblins all turned their attention on me, forgetting about the other, probably more dangerous threat here. They weren¡¯t allowed to forget for long though. Celeste charged in right behind me, hitting one goblin with her shield sending it flying backwards, while impaling another finishing it off instantly. ¡°Don¡¯t forget I¡¯m here too! Lilith, I thought you were a spell caster! What was that?!¡± ¡°I am! I just learned a long time ago that no one ever expects the wizard to throw the first punch! It makes for a great surprise! And this time around, I have a race that makes that first punch particularly nasty!¡± Celeste stopped and stared at me for a moment. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked, noticing her gaze. ¡°No, it¡¯s just you¡­ No, never mind. We can talk about it later.¡± After that, Celeste tried to tank for me as much as she could, but with this number there was no way she could gain all of their attention. Even if she could, she wasn¡¯t really a tank class, so she would be overwhelmed very quickly. Instead, I relied on the mobility my wings gave me, and on well timed Migraine spells to avoid getting hit. Causing an attacker to flinch right as they prepared to attack saved me from numerous hits that would have been difficult. Eventually, we had massacred enough goblins that they pulled back to regroup a bit, giving us the chance we were waiting for. ¡°Looks like our opening is here.¡± I said as I scooped Celeste up into my arms in the traditional princess carry. I didn¡¯t say anything, but I probably wouldn¡¯t have been able to lift her if I hadn¡¯t cast Inspire on myself earlier. It¡¯s not that she¡¯s especially heavy, but my strength is rather low. As it was, I was only barely able to fly while carrying her. Maybe I should put a few points into strength after all. As we flew towards the others, I noticed a group of archers taking aim at us to the side. I considered taking evasive actions, but there was no way I could perform any maneuvers in the air while carrying Celeste. Just as I resigned myself to taking a few arrows, all my worrying proved to be for nothing. A sudden thunderstorm developed around the archers. The lightning was striking at random, but even then it was enough to disrupt the aim. Kiera¡¯s spell had impeccable timing. Landing where the others where, I set down Celeste. Seeing us return, Aurora immediately turned her focus on healing our injuries. Kiera also paused from her spell slinging a moment. ¡°I¡¯m not exactly sure how you just did that, but good job. You might want to stop with that look, though. It¡¯s a little creepy¡­¡± ¡°Creepy look? Where?¡± ¡°You! You looked frighteningly serious when you took off. And now you¡¯re covered in blood and grinning like a crazy person!¡± Grinning? Me? Reaching my hands to my face, I realized that I was indeed sporting a very wide smile. And it¡¯s no real surprise I was covered in blood, given that I just more or less turned myself into a very seductive blender in the middle of a pack of goblins. ¡°Is it really that creepy?¡± I asked, looking at Celeste, as she was the only other person not currently occupied with the wall of goblins closing in on us. ¡°Yeah, I wasn¡¯t going to say anything, but you got kinda scary back there. You actually started laughing as you were slicing at the goblins, you know.¡± Ah, that habit came back up. A few games ago, I played a berserker type class with a skill that caused a debuff on others in combat if they were frightened of me. So I got in the habit of laughing anytime I was in the middle of a slaughter. After all, what¡¯s scarier than someone who is clearly enjoying themselves while covered in viscera of your friends. The only real downside was that the debuff would also apply to my allies when I scared them, too. We had a hard time keeping party members around for long in that game because of that. ¡°I¡¯ll try to keep that in check. But enough chatting. You¡¯re health is full, and mine¡¯s pretty close. Let¡¯s get back into this fight.¡± As I spoke, I pulled back out the whip I had put away during the rescue and began moving forward. I hadn¡¯t actually taken much damage in the fight, so I was good to go. With the rest of the party here, I wouldn¡¯t need to get that close to our opponents, so the added range from the whip was going to be useful now. Celeste nodded with a grin, then activated her charge skill and ran up to where Richter and Jayren were fighting, sending a goblin flying with her shield when she arrived. With our forces regrouped and a solid plan to fight with, the hordes weren¡¯t really much of a challenge anymore. Our biggest threat was simply attrition. Kiera, Aurora, and I all started getting a bit low on mana as the waves of goblins continued to come at us. I was able to mitigate it some by relying on my whip for a while to let my mana regenerate, and Aurora was getting better at balancing her healing rate to maximize her mana efficiency so she could hold out for a long time before running out completely. But in Kiera¡¯s case, her mana expenditure was directly tied to how much damage she dealt. She was forced to stop attacking completely to regenerate her mana, or to use mana potions to quickly resupply. Unfortunately, we only had a limited supply of mana potions, and were still only roughly half way through the dungeon, she didn¡¯t want to use them all. Besides, drinking a potion triggers the Potion Sickness debuff. Initially, it just decreases the effectiveness of subsequent potions, but if you continue using them, it can have other detrimental effects as well so it was best to avoid drinking a bunch of them in succession. Instead, she would have to stop attacking for a while to regenerate leaving the frontline, particularly Jayren, under even more pressure while she rested. To help alleviate that, I began jumping back in with my claws while she rested. It was a bit risky, but nowhere near as bad as when Celeste and I were isolated. Like that, we were able to hold out, but if the horde continued for too long, we would be overwhelmed eventually. Luckily for us, that proved to be a pointless worry. The number of goblins began to thin out, and eventually we brought down the last goblin of the horde. As it fell to the ground, there was a crash behind us as the gate blocking our path forward collapsed. Chapter 12: Rodeos We all spun around at the sound of the gate collapsing behind us. Jayren immediately dashed forward, positioning himself directly between it and Aurora, who was in the back and closest to it when it fell. It was a good move and showed he really did know how to properly play a tank, but it proved unnecessary this time. Nothing was coming through the gate, and we were free to move on at our leisure. We had all levelled up during the horde battle, so we took this time to catch our breaths and spend our new stat points. In SWO the only change with most levels was the increase to stat points. New abilities were only unlocked at levels 10, 15, 20 and so on, where the player would be offered a list of abilities they could learn and could choose one. Having just hit level 6, we still had a ways before we would be gaining any new abilities that way. Having spent our points, we continued pushing through the dungeon. As if anticipating our increased stats, the groups of enemies also grew. The number of goblins in each group was larger on average, and occasionally we had to fight two hobgoblins at once. Initially we found it challenging, but as we were already accustomed to dealing with one, we were able to quickly adapt and fight off two when we needed to. Additionally, we began encountering a new enemy, wolf riders. It seems the goblins had tamed some wolves, and would ride them into battle against us. The wolf riders had a troubling tendency to ignore the tank and attack the back lines. The first encounter with them I was forced into melee with one before Celeste was able to catch up with her charge to help. After that, we realized that the wolves had very low willpower, and thus were very vulnerable to my mental magic. Targeting the wolf meant that the riders were still hostile to us, but since they were always the closest thing to the frenzied wolves they were also the first thing they tried to attack, leading to a rather funny turn of events. A frenzied wolf couldn¡¯t actually reach the goblin on it¡¯s back, so it would first try to throw them off like a bizarre rodeo. If the goblin fell, the wolf would immediately attack them, usually not even giving them a chance to get up. A few of the goblins managed to hold on, though. This would cause the wolf to start attempting more desperate methods. Sometimes they would start rolling around, sandwiching the goblin between themselves and the stone flooring. Others would throw themselves into a wall to knock the goblin loose. Even better than that, the wolves started in the back and charged forward. Thus after finishing their riders off, the next closest targets were usually the archers. Because of that as long as I hit them with the frenzy right away, we could focus all of our attention on the melee enemies while the backline wiped itself out. Aside from the new enemy type, our trip through the second half of the dungeon was relatively uneventful and before we knew it we had reached another large, ornate door. ¡°Well, if that doesn¡¯t scream boss battle, I¡¯ll have to retire from gaming entirely.¡± I said, looking up at the door. Kiera nodded. ¡°Agreed, we should rest here before we march in there. I¡¯m getting a bit hungry, too.¡± We decided to take time for another round of rotating log outs while the others ate and prepared for the fight ahead. It was decided this time around Celeste would be feeding me, as I had to use up extra satiety to fly in order to rescue her during the horde. At least that was the excuse given. I truth, I think Aurora was still feeling the embarrassment from last time, and Kiera was finding any excuse to avoid doing it herself. Returning to the group with the blushing Celeste, we finished our preparations and braced for the difficult fight to come. Jayren pushed open the door, and we cautiously made our way into a large audience hall. At the far side of the room on a throne made up of various bones sat a large goblin with a war axe and shield leaning against the side of the throne. At his side stood another goblin holding a wooden staff with a deer skull affixed to the top. ¡°As one would expect, a chief. And a shaman by the looks of it. What do you think, focus the shaman first?¡± I asked, staring at the enemies in front of us. ¡°Yeah, we can withstand melee a lot better than magic.¡± Kiera responded. ¡°Jayren, think you can keep the chief busy while the rest of us focus on the shaman?¡± ¡°I should be able to keep him busy for a while, as long as Aurora can keep my health up. I might need a hand though, so let¡¯s have Richter help me with him. The rest of you hit the shaman fast. I¡¯m not sure how long I¡¯ll be able to hold up.¡± As if waiting for us to solidify our strategy, the chief rose from his throne and picked up the axe and shield before shouting at us. ¡°SHINTA! MEK NAHALRUK!¡± I grinned. ¡°Sorry, my goblin¡¯s a bit rusty. Could you speak common? Or demon, I should know that one too. Otherwise, I¡¯m just going to assume you¡¯re just surrendering to our clearly superior strength.¡± I¡¯m not sure if the goblin understood me or it just didn¡¯t like that someone talked back, but either way it was angry now. As it raised its weapon and dashed forward, Jayren lept out to meet the attack and Richter slipped to the side to try to get behind it. ¡°For future reference, could you not piss off the bosses right before the fight?¡± ¡°Sorry, old habit.¡± While Kiera was shaking her head at my response, Celeste started her charge and ran straight for the shaman. I flapped my wings and took to the sky to find a position to attack with my spells and whip while Kiera began moving forward to put herself in range before launching a lightning spell at it. Only Aurora remained back by the entrance in order to keep both groups in range of her healing. Seeing me in the air, the shaman turned its staff toward me and a blast of fire came hurtling through the air toward me. Or at least that was its intent. Luckily for me, Celeste reached it at swung her shield at it, knocking it back and causing its aim to go wide. However it didn¡¯t take long to recover, and it retaliated by launching a spike of ice into Celeste¡¯s shoulder. As I dropped to the ground behind the shaman, a bolt of lightning came flashing in and slammed into the it¡¯s chest. It aimed the skull topped staff toward the Kiera and flames started to gather around the skull. Noticing that this looked like an even bigger spell than the small fireball that came at me earlier, I cast Migraine causing the shaman to flinch and interrupting the spell casting. As the flames that had gathered dissipated a spear was thrust into it from the side. ¡°Stop ignoring me!¡± Celeste shouted, quickly jabbing at the shaman a few more times. It seemed to work, as it turned back to her and raised it¡¯s hand to try to cast at her again. I used my whips ability to cause fire damage, and lashed it at the shaman¡¯s outstretched hand to prevent it from casting. Like this, the three of us were able to shut down most of the shaman¡¯s spells and were quickly whittling down its health, when the Chief stopped swinging at Jayren for a moment and shouted something before resuming the onslaught on Jayren¡¯s shield. ¡°SHORRALK! KRAL NAR TEV!¡± In response to the call, there was the sound of heavy foot falls from the passage we had come in from, and a hobgoblin burst into the room and dashed at the nearest enemy to it, Aurora. ¡°Shit, reinforcements. Aurora, look out!¡± Kiera had been the first to notice the intruder. Unfortunately, it still took half our party to handle a hobgoblin, and right now we couldn¡¯t spare that. ¡°Leave the hobgoblin to me, keep on the bosses.¡± An idea had occurred to me earlier, but I hadn¡¯t really had a chance to try it yet. This might prove to be the opportunity I was waiting for. Pushing myself forward with my wings, I landed directly between the hobgoblin and the retreating Aurora. ¡°Hey big guy! Why don¡¯t you play with me instead?¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The hobgoblin was perfectly fine with switching to a new target that wasn¡¯t going to run away, and turned to face me as it continued to charge. I returned the stare and grinned, before activating my racial abilities, Seduce and Enthrall. As I had hoped, a succubus¡¯ racial mind control was considerably more powerful than the spells, and the hobgoblin stopped it¡¯s charge and stood at attention, ready to receive orders. Unlike with the frenzy spell, it was not able to shrug off my enthrallment. I had suspected that might be the case because they aren¡¯t counted as a spell, but an effect caused by an ability instead. I let out a small sigh in relief. I had made a backup plan if this hadn¡¯t work, but that basically consisted of using my claws to attack while dodging with my wings and preventing attacks with Migraine, much like I had done with the horde. Unlike that time, I would probably have needed to dodge every blow from the hobgoblin. I can take a few attacks from regular goblins, but a hobgoblin would do a lot of damage to me with a single hit, and the impact would probably leave me vulnerable to further attacks as well. Luckily, that didn¡¯t happen and instead we had a temporary seventh party member. Giving the order to attack the Shaman, I also flew back to resume my assault. Unfortunately for us, the hobgoblin wasn¡¯t the smartest being in the room, and the entirety of its understanding of the word ¡°cooperation¡± was don¡¯t hit us, only hit them. We were more or less forced to position and time our attacks around whatever he was doing, because he sure wasn¡¯t going to take us into consideration. On the upside, he dealt a lot of damage and drew the attention of the shaman, so most of it¡¯s attacks were now aimed at the thrall. Overall, I felt like I should thank the chief for calling a useful assistant for us. ¡°Huh, that worked well.¡± ¡°As well it better have. Hopefully he doesn¡¯t call more, as it cost me half my energy and I can only have one at a time.¡± I flicked my flaming whip across the shaman¡¯s back as it hit our new hobgoblin with a spike of ice. The damage was rapidly building up, and it wouldn¡¯t last much longer. It was at this point, the shaman did something new. Up till now, it had fought by launching relatively simple spells that didn¡¯t require much time to cast in rapid succession, either with it¡¯s empty hand or the staff. But now, with it¡¯s health critical, it sneered at us, then raised the staff with both hands and snapped it in half. With the breaking of the staff, magical energies burst out and began swirling around the shaman, preventing our attacks from reaching it. At the same time, the goblin began what we could only assume was a chant for a huge spell. It raised it¡¯s hands in the air as they became engulfed with a magical flame that continued to grow as it chanted. ¡°That looks bad! Lilith, Celeste!¡± Kiera yelled from behind me. ¡°On it! Celeste, run away as fast as you can!¡± If our suspicions were right, I didn¡¯t have time to explain. Celeste looked a bit confused, but luckily did as she was told and used her charge skill to run toward Aurora. I threw myself back with my wings as well, while ordering my thrall to get away. Unfortunately, not only was he not too bright but also slow. Also, he really preferred fighting to retreat, so he took an extra swing at the shaman before falling back. Shortly afterward, the shaman proved Kiera and I correct. With his chant complete, he lowered his hands to chest height before clapping them together. The sound of the clap was immediately drowned out by the sound of a huge explosion centered on the location where the shaman had just been. Not only that, the magic that had been surrounding him also burst forth in a wave of destruction around him. When it was done, nothing but a crater remained where he had been standing moments earlier. ¡°Self destruction huh. That¡¯s quite a nasty trick.¡± A quick check told me Kiera and Celeste had managed to get away. Celeste had taken some damage from the wave of magic, but Aurora was already restoring her damage. Kiera had already turned her target toward the chieftain. Unfortunately, the hobgoblin didn¡¯t get away fast enough, and got killed in the magical explosion. His sacrifice would be remembered, however. For at least 30 seconds. Seeing the shaman die, the chieftain glared at us and let out a guttural yell. Unlike earlier, this one wasn¡¯t instructions or even words, but seemed to be a cry of pure rage. As he yelled, his muscles seemed to bulge out and his eyes turned a deep red. ¡°This looks bad. Jayren, brace yourself and make sure to keep his attention. Aurora, be ready to heal Jayren more often. It looks like he just went berserk, so he¡¯s probably going to be doing a lot more damage now.¡± As she gave instructions, she and I began moving into range to begin attacking. Celeste stayed behind for now in order to regenerate her energy and use her charge attack when she could. As we had expected, the chieftain¡¯s attacks became faster and much more powerful, chipping away at Jayren¡¯s health even with his large shield. Aurora was able to keep him alive for now, but her mana would run out before too long if we didn¡¯t finish him. Even worse, his health had begun to slowly regenerate, so if we stopped attacking he would begin to recover. We had to constantly rain attacks on him and bring him down quickly. For my role, it mostly became stalling heavy attacks with Migraine when I saw him winding up for them. After Celeste charged back into the fray, there weren¡¯t many openings for me to attack with my whip between Jayren, Celeste, and Richter in melee range. Most of the openings between them would be taken by Kiera¡¯s lightning, so I needed to stay back and out of the way. I also took this opportunity to toss out the occasional Inspire to help. Before long, we managed to chisel down the chieftain¡¯s health to about 10 percent. Having seen the shaman self destruct suddenly when his health went low, we were watching the chieftain for any unexpected move, but he still managed to catch us by surprise with a sudden burst of speed. With the sudden increase, he parried Celeste¡¯s spear with his axe then countered with a strong blow that dropped her health dangerously and sent her flying. At the same time, his other arm blocked Richter¡¯s daggers, and he dealt a quick slam with his shield and sent Richter sprawling as well. Finally, he brought the shield to the front and deflected a blow from Jayren, then began to focus his attacks on Jayren causing considerable damage. With Richter and Celeste out of the fight temporarily, the chieftain¡¯s health regeneration began to overwhelm the damage output from myself, Jayren, and Kiera. Even worse, with the continuous onslaught on Jayren, Aurora couldn¡¯t stop healing him long enough to restore the other two and bring them back into the fight. Trying to thinking of a way to recover this situation, my mind returned to the wolves earlier. ¡°This is bad. Kiera, I have an idea, but do you have a spell that can do a large amount of damage and finish this?¡± ¡°I did get one when my lightning magic skill hit level 3 earlier, but it has such a long chant it¡¯s not really useable. I doubt he¡¯ll just ignore me for long if I start it, and by the time I can finish it his health will regen too much. I¡¯m pretty low on mana, as well.¡± I pulled two mana potions out of my inventory and tossed one to Kiera before downing the other myself. ¡°Drink that and start the chant. I¡¯ll get his attention and take care of the health regen. Just making sure, that spell isn¡¯t an AoE, right?¡± ¡°Nope, one target. Why?¡± ¡°Because if it weren¡¯t, I probably wouldn¡¯t be coming out of this alive. Start chanting.¡± ¡°Wait, what are you planning on doing!¡± Ignoring Kiera, I launched myself into the air above and behind the chieftain. She realized there wouldn¡¯t be an answer, and started her chant. ¡°From the clouds to the earth, I call down power...¡± I holstered my whip and activated my claws again, then called out ¡°Aurora, sorry, but you may need to keep me alive for a bit too.¡± ¡°With a great blow, strike down my foes¡­¡± Seeing an opening, I folded in my wings and dropped onto the goblins back. I wrapped my legs around its waist and my arms around its shoulders digging my claws in to help hold me in place. I grinned evilly, and with a sing-song voice muttered in the chieftain¡¯s ear. ¡°Got you.¡± Then I activated Life Drain. ¡°A great roar shall be heard, and all shall see the might...¡± The chieftain was clearly very unhappy to have a sudden, life sucking passenger. It began thrashing about, attempting to remove me from it¡¯s back, but even as it struggled, it¡¯s movements became noticeably dulled from before. It seemed that the side effects from my draining still worked on monsters. I didn¡¯t want to think about it, but it was coming in handy now. ¡°Bring forth the vengeance of the heavens. Smite my enemies¡­¡± The Chieftain turned and dashed straight toward the wall, turning at the last minute and slamming me into the wall, instantly dropping my health dangerously low. I would probably have been thrown off if my claws weren¡¯t anchoring me down. ¡°Geh! That hurt!¡± No sooner did I get the words out than Aurora¡¯s heal spell hit me recovering the damage. ¡°Stop running away from me!¡± Jayren roared. In it¡¯s desperation to remove me, the chieftain had forgotten his other opponent. Jayren positioned himself between us to prevent that move from happening again, and the wall and began slashing out with his sword rapidly taking care not to hit me in the process. Luckily, we didn¡¯t have to keep this up for too long before Kiera finished her chant. ¡°With a blinding flash, destroy everything! !¡± With the shout of the final keyword for the spell, a huge dark cloud suddenly gathered at the ceiling of the room with a low rumbling. Suddenly, from that cloud burst an enormous bolt of lightning, which unerringly arced into the chieftains forehead. I wasn¡¯t able to see the actual impact because I was blinded by the sudden flash right in front of me, but I felt the muscular goblin beneath me start twitching, then collapse to the ground. Chapter 13: Back in the City With the sudden collapse and disappearance of my perch, I found myself kneeling on the floor while the rest of the party came rushing over to check on me. ¡°Are you insane?! You are, aren¡¯t you!¡± Kiera was... less than thrilled with my strategy. ¡°You¡¯re actually not the first to make that accusation. It worked, didn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°I¡­ I can¡¯t deny that.¡± Jayren chimed in at this point. ¡°It was pretty awesome, if slightly suicidal.¡± ¡°... Are you hurt?¡± Aurora had reached me by this point and was examining me for injuries. ¡°Na, I¡¯m fine. Your spell recovered a good bit of it right after he hit me with the wall.¡± ¡°Normally, wouldn¡¯t that be phrased the other way around. He hit the wall with you.¡± I just shrugged at Kiera¡¯s sarcastic comment. Suddenly, we were all startled as a window appeared in front of everyone.
Congratulations, You have completed the dungeon ¡°Eridell Goblin Cavern¡±. Because this is your first time completing this dungeon, you are eligible to receive a bonus reward. Choose from the following:
Mask of Determination - A masquerade style mask granting a bonus to willpower
Gloves of Heavy Fists - A pair of gloves granting a bonus to strength
Boots of Sure Footing - A pair of boots granting a bonus to dexterity
¡°Huh, I guess that confirms we¡¯re finished.¡± I said, reading over the screen. Kiera nodded. ¡°Yeah, this is an interesting system for rewarding completing a dungeon. It¡¯s actually a somewhat difficult decision.¡± ¡°Is it? I¡¯m done already.¡± Jayren materialized a new helmet and put it on. ¡°Did you even bother reading what they did, or just pick the first one that caught your eye?¡± ¡°Well, I wanted to get a helmet, so I just went with that.¡± ¡°You¡­ you really are a moron sometimes, you know.¡± Kiera said as she shook her head in exasperation. Jayren just looked confused at why she seemed angry. After thinking it over, I chose to get the Boots of Sure Footing. I had immediately decided against the mask, mostly because those masquerade masks seem impractical and uncomfortable to wear for long. It was a toss up between the gloves and boots for a while, but if I wanted to use my claws, the gloves would get in the way. Quickly switching the basic shoes I had been wearing with my new boots, I found myself wearing a pair of tight black boots that reached to my knees. At least the game spared me from high heels. That would have make getting around impossible. After everyone had selected a reward, we began the trip back to town. Before leaving the cave, I reactivated my Hide Nature skill. Just for fun, this time instead of red hair I went blonde, trying to match my appearance with the twins as much as I could. I ended up somewhat like an older sister to them, something Celeste in particular found very entertaining. ¡°Yay, now not only do I have a twin sister, but I have an older sister too! This game is giving me all the sisters I never had!¡± I looked at Aurora. ¡°...She has three older brothers.¡± Ah, that actually explains a bit. --- The trip itself was another uneventful trip through the night. We had gained a couple levels in the dungeon, so the monsters we encountered were even less of a threat to us than they had been on the way there. We made slightly better time, and arrived back in town early in the morning. As we entered the city gate, Kiera turned to us. ¡°Well, we¡¯ve made it back. Thanks to all of you, I¡¯d say that was a very successful dungeon run.¡± ¡°We gained a couple levels, got some new gear and money, and had some fun. I think if this doesn¡¯t count as successful, nothing does.¡± After that we split up into our original two parties, and added each other to our friends lists before heading into the city. Although it had only been a couple days, the town seemed to have changed somewhat noticeably. Originally, aside from a small number of NPCs, the population had been almost entirely Astoennians. However with the increased number of players getting strong enough to leave their starting areas, there were a few of other races represented in the crowds on the streets. There were beastmen around with canine and feline traits, as well as one who appeared to be a bear-man of some sort. Shopping for food near the front gate I saw a couple of elves who seemed overjoyed to see meat at the stalls. There was also a woman with blue skin and hair walking around looking at the various wares. After taking a look around I found a place out of the way to sit down, with the twins in tow. We gathered a bit of attention, but no one tried to bother us this time. After sitting down, I sent a message to Horvath.
Hey, we just got back. Are you in the city yet?
¡°What are you doing, Lilith?¡± Celeste was looking at me questioningly as from her perspective, I was just staring into space. ¡°Ah, just sending a message to Horvath to see where he is. And there¡¯s the response.¡±
We should be arriving around noon. I¡¯ll let you know when I get there.
¡°Looks like he¡¯ll be here in a few hours. Got anything you want to do until then?¡± Aurora unexpectedly spoke up. ¡°... I want to find someone to teach me the cooking skill.¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯ll go with you. You need someone to eat the results, after all!¡± Celeste grinned. ¡°Alright, I think while you two are doing that, I¡¯m going to head to the Mages Association for a bit. I¡¯ve made a deal to provide some help in exchange for a ¡°meal¡± there, after all. I¡¯ll contact you two when Horvath gets here and we¡¯ll go meet him at the gate.¡± With that we split up. I couldn¡¯t help but notice Aurora looked slightly disappointed that I was heading off on my own, but I don¡¯t receive any benefit from normal food so there¡¯s no point in my coming with her for the cooking lesson. Arriving at the front entrance of the Mages Association, I paused a moment, took a deep breath, and braced myself for what I was about to walk into. Entering, it seemed there weren¡¯t any applicants right now, so Elenore, who was sitting at the desk again today, was free. ¡°Hello again Elenore.¡± ¡°Hmm? Oh, it¡¯s Lilith. I didn¡¯t recognize you at first.¡± She set down the glasses and called one of the apprentices who were assisting her to go get Samantha. ¡°How have you been? Any problems since we last talked?¡± ¡°No, no problems. I¡¯ve been out clearing a goblin cave for the last couple days with my party. We just got back this morning.¡± ¡°Ah, that place. I suppose that means you told them about yourself. Now that I think about it, you look a bit like one of the girls you came here with last time. The quiet little one who wanted to be a healer.¡± I nodded. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m going to be travelling with her and her twin, so I figured I might as well match them. By the way, I really wish you had warned me how my feeding affects people who aren¡¯t mind controlled. She couldn¡¯t look me in the eye for hours after I fed off her.¡± The old woman laughed. ¡°And ruin the surprise? I wouldn¡¯t take that fun away. Now you know why I insisted on you controlling Samantha. By the way, that rule still is in place. I¡¯ll let you feed without me being there, but you must use your ability on her first.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that. She already clings to me enough, I don¡¯t need want to give her any more reasons.¡± As Elenore laughed, I heard the tapping sound of rapid footsteps coming from the hallway to the rest of the associate, and before long Samantha came flying into the entry hall. ¡°I heard Lilith was here, so I came right away!¡± She looked feverishly around the room, then stared at me for a moment.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Ah, it is you! You looked different so I couldn¡¯t tell at first! Master, if you¡¯ll excuse me, I¡¯ll be taking her for a while.¡± With that, she grabbed my arm, and started dragging me away. Elenore just smiled and waved at me as I was pulled deeper into the association headquarters. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve come back, there¡¯s some things I want to ask you about. But first, let¡¯s get to my room.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯m coming. You don¡¯t have to drag me.¡± My complaints went ignored. ¡°There¡¯s actually a couple things I want to try as well, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Things related to you? Sure, I¡¯ll help. Ah, this is the room.¡± She pulled me into a small room. In one corner was a bed, but aside from that it was more a laboratory or study then a bedroom. On a desk sat the book I had left here the other day, and notes scattered all around it. There were bookshelves lined with reference books on magic and demonology along nearly all of the walls, and apparatus for various magical experiments were strewn around the room. ¡°Alright, first you should probably feed off me. I wouldn¡¯t want to have the memory erasure wipe out something important on accident. I wish Elenore would let us do this without the mind control. I wonder why it is...¡± ¡°There¡¯s very good reason. There¡¯s some¡­ interest side effects that happen if I don¡¯t mind control my victim first.¡± Samantha got excited at that. ¡°Oh what kind of side effects? Wait, that means you¡¯ve fed on someone without the control. Who was it? And what happened?¡± Rather than answer, I looked the girl in the eyes and activated Seduce. ¡°...sorry, forget about that.¡± I had poured quite a few point into Charisma at this point so I should have quite a bit of time before it wore off, but it was best not to take unnecessary risks. I quickly fed on Samantha until my satiety was filled, then had her relax on her bed before taking the chair by the desk myself. I took the opportunity to remove my disguise for now, since I figured she¡¯d prefer that anyway. It was some time later before her consciousness returned. Sure enough, the mind control lasted quite a bit longer than it had before. She looked around and gave a confused look for a moment when she saw me in her room. ¡°Oh, Lilith. That means I just fed you again, didn¡¯t I. That would explain why I feel a bit weak.¡± I nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. You wanted to have me feed first so you would remember anything we discussed afterward. I¡¯ll help with your research, but I would like to try a couple things myself as well.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯d be happy to help. I¡¯m struggling some to translate that book you brought. Between Master¡¯s knowledge of the demonic language and the few resources I¡¯ve been able to find I can translate it some, but given how rare it is and it¡¯s association with underground and illegal cults, there aren¡¯t any complete references to the language.¡± She got up and walked over to the desk, and began going over the book as she continued. ¡°You seem to be able to understand the demon language as expected, though. Are you able to speak it as well?¡± One of the features of SWO was a built in language translation system, but this feature extended beyond just languages of earth. If your race has a native language of their own, the game will automatically make you able to read and understand that language. It wouldn¡¯t make sense for an elf not to know elvish or a dwarf not to understand dwarvish, after all. Speaking it was a bit challenging, however. By default, speech was translated to the native language of the player you were speaking to. In order to speak another in game language, one had to manually control the language settings to translate your speech to the chosen language temporarily. ¡°I should be able to, but I¡¯ve never done it before. That¡¯s actually one of the things I wanted to try.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯d be interested to hear what spoken Demonic sounds like from a native speaker, after all. Let¡¯s start with that then before we get to translating the book.¡± It took me several attempts to get the language switching down properly. I found I could do it by focusing on speaking in Demonic while I spoke a sentence normally. As long as I maintained my intent, a small icon appeared in the corner of my vision, and all speech was automatically converted for all listeners, but if I got distracted, the translation would turn off and I would revert to the common language and translated so they could understand me. I don¡¯t see many uses for it, but maybe this could prove helpful somehow. If nothing else, it does make for a fun trick. As a side note, I attempted to force myself to speak French this way as well, but it seemed to be limited to either the automatic translation or Demonic, so I can¡¯t use this to speak other Earth languages I don¡¯t actually know. After that, I spent a few hours working with Samantha on the passages of the book she was struggling to understand. I also corrected a few mistranslations she had made. ¡°Hey, what are you going to do once you¡¯ve translated this? Surely you aren¡¯t planning to actually cast any of these spells, right?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t plan to cast them. At least none of the big, dangerous ones. The basic small spells should be fine. But the Mages Association often finds itself in conflict with the groups that do use these spells. It could prove very helpful to understand what their magic is capable of and how it works.¡± Hmm, so she was actually thinking of a valid reason beyond pure curiosity. That¡¯s somewhat comforting, I suppose. Samantha looked up from her notes on the book. ¡°Hey, wasn¡¯t there something else you wanted to experiment with?¡± ¡°Oh, right. I encountered a few new races today on the way here. Since my ability to disguise myself allows me to appear to be any race I have encountered before, I wanted to try that a bit.¡± ¡°You can be more than just an Astoennian? I didn¡¯t know that. This seems fun! let¡¯s get started right away!¡± I smiled and activated my disguise. Up till now, I have been given a menu allowing me to select the hair and eye color, but this time another menu appeared before me.
Select a race to disguise yourself as:
Astoennian
Caninid
Catfolk
Ursan
High Elf
Undine
¡°Hmm, looks like I¡¯ve picked up a few options. I can now become a Caninid, a Catfolk, an Ursan, a High Elf, and an Undine.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see. A Caninid is a dog or wolf like beastman, while a Catfolk is a feline beastman. The High Elf is exactly as you would expect. Undines are water elementals, so we see them from time to time here at the Association. I¡¯m surprised you saw an Ursan though. There aren¡¯t many of them, and they rarely leave their communities. I¡¯ve never actually seen one myself.¡± Oh, so that guy was probably a rare race like me. Which means I am able to disguise myself as other rare races. I feel like that would sort of defeat the purpose. I disguise myself to blend in and be inconspicuous, so picking something unusual like that would be the opposite of what I want. Realistically, I should be pretending to be the local native race. But for now¡­ ¡°Let¡¯s try some of these out. I¡¯m especially curious about this Ursan now.¡± I smiled and selected Ursan. I was presented with a choice for my fur color and eye color, then the transformation was quickly underway. Before long, I found myself as a cross between a bear and a woman. It was strange to see myself with large, bulky muscles while still actually being the same weak caster I always have been. The stumpy bear tail on my back also felt strange compared to my usual long one. I¡¯m a little concerned I¡¯m considering having a tail to be comfortable at all, honestly. ¡°Huh, this is pretty weird.¡± ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re dress really doesn¡¯t fit on an Ursan.¡± I glanced down at my gown. Ew, she was absolutely right. I look like a bodybuilder with a tight black cocktail dress on now. ¡°I think that¡¯s enough of this,¡± I said releasing the disguise. Samantha sighed in relief as my normal appearance returned. I considered trying out a few more races, but at that moment I received another message from Horvath.
Hey, I¡¯m about 10-15 minutes out. I¡¯ll wait for you guys at the front gate.
¡°Hmm, looks like I¡¯m about out of time today. Hopefully you¡¯ll be able to make some progress now at least.¡± I said as I restored my disguise to the one I had come in with. It would look pretty strange for me to leave as a different race, after all. Samantha was clearly disappointed, but didn¡¯t try to hold me back like she had last time. ¡°Alright. You¡¯ve been a tremendous help today. Come back any time you want, you¡¯re always welcome here.¡± Guided by Samantha, I made my way back to the front entry hall and said goodbye to Elenore, then sent a message to Celeste and Aurora to meet me in the central district. Once in the central square, it didn¡¯t take long for us to find each other. Or more, it didn¡¯t take them long to find me. With their size they disappear in a crowd pretty easily, while my appearance still draws a lot of attention when I¡¯m around. So while I was searching for them, they just had to follow the gazes of the people around them to find me. ¡°There you are. How was the Mage¡¯s Association?¡± Celeste asked as she jogged up to me with Aurora in tow. ¡°Fine, I was able to confirm a few things, and got a free meal out of the deal. Not a bad morning, all in all.¡± Aurora looked at me curiously. ¡°What were you confirming?¡± ¡°Ah, that. I¡¯ll explain as we walk.¡± With that we started making our way toward the gate in the southern district. Along the way, I explained that I figured out how to speak in Demonic, as well as disguise myself as things other than an Astoennian. ¡°Hmm, that seems like it could be fun. You can look like anything you want.¡± ¡°Well, we found out there¡¯s a downside to that. While I can alter my race to look different, my clothing still looks the same. And this outfit really doesn¡¯t look good on larger races. Trust me on that one.¡± ¡°Oh, ew. I didn¡¯t need that mental image.¡± I turned to Aurora. ¡°How did the cooking lessons go?¡± ¡°...Good. I got the cooking skill, so I can make food for us now. I need to level it some before I can make anything great, though.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. I¡¯m sure anything you make yourself will be better than what we can get at the store, after all. Although I suppose my opinion is pretty worthless, since I don¡¯t need to eat regular food at all.¡± Aurora shook her head. ¡°You can still enjoy the food.¡± ¡°True, it just won¡¯t have any real benefits. Well then, I¡¯ll be looking forward to your delicious cooking in the future.¡± She nodded with a determined expression on her face. By then, we had reached the gate area. Looking for a landmark we could use to meet up, I noticed a peculiar statue by the side of the gate. It looked like it was carved from stone to look roughly humanoid, but no details were added so it seemed unfinished. It stood head and shoulders taller than most of the people around, so I figured it would make a good meeting place. ¡°Hey, was that statue here before?¡± Celeste asked, noticing the same thing I did. ¡°I don¡¯t remember it, but we were gone for a couple days. Maybe it was put in while we were gone and we didn¡¯t notice it when we came in. It makes a good landmark, though. Let¡¯s stand by that and I¡¯ll have Horvath meet us there.¡± We made our way to the statue. Getting closer, it looked like the statue had real armor, rather than just carving it from stone like the rest of it. I looked curiously at it, then turned around toward the crowd and sent Horvath a message.
Hey, we¡¯re at the gate. We¡¯re standing near the big statue, so you can¡¯t really miss us.
After sending the message, I started scanning over the crowd, looking for anyone making their way towards us. It only occurred to me now, but I have no idea what his character looks like this time. I avoided discussing races because he would ask for mine, and I wanted to surprise him with that in person. As I was searching for anyone coming over to us, a deep voice rang out from behind. ¡°Excuse me, could you girls help me out. I¡¯m supposed to meet some people near a statue, but I don¡¯t see one anywhere.¡± Spinning around, I realized the statue was looking down at me now. ¡°Ah sorry, did I startle you?¡± The ¡°statue¡± raised its hands, looking apologetic. ¡°No, that¡¯s not it.¡± I smirked up at it. ¡°Horvath, have you seen a mirror lately?¡± ¡°Huh? Oh right¡­¡± Chapter 14: Horvath ¡°Well then, let me introduce you all properly,¡± I said, looking at the other three people at the table with me. We had relocated to a small private room in an inn near the gate after finding Horvath so we could discuss our next steps. Actually getting him into the inn was somewhat interesting. He¡¯s too tall to walk through a standard doorway, and being made of stone he¡¯s also not incredibly flexible. He was able to bend down enough, but there was a lot of strange creaking sounds as he did it. ¡°Horvath, this is Celeste and Aurora. Girls, this is Horvath.¡± Celeste jumped in. ¡°Nice to meet you. Lilith¡¯s been telling us a bit about you.¡± ¡°What have you been saying?¡± ¡°Only that we¡¯ve been together forever, and that you have a tendency to get mad at me.¡± ¡°Which you always absolutely deserve¡­¡± ¡°Never said I didn¡¯t.¡± I said with a grin. Horvath just sighed and shook his head, while Celeste started laughing and even Aurora smiled at our back and forth conversation. ¡°Anyway, I wasn¡¯t really expecting you to be completely made of stone. What race did you end up with?¡± ¡°I¡¯m currently a stone golem, but the material I¡¯m made of can change fairly easily by consuming a large quantity of a new type of ore. I actually started out as a clay golem, but I was in a boulder field so I was easily able to accumulate enough stone to change. However, there are some interesting limitations. If the material I am made of is not conductive to magic, I can¡¯t cast spells. And magically conductive materials are expensive so that¡¯s not really an option at this point.¡± ¡°Hmm, so if we find a lot of a rare resource, it¡¯ll basically be a rare race for you.¡± With a rumbling noise, Horvath nodded. ¡°Pretty much. The hardest part would be getting a large enough quantity. For now, I¡¯m aiming to get enough iron ore that I can transform into an iron golem, then I¡¯ll work my way up from there. Not having any magic for now is a bit tough, but it¡¯s what I chose so I feel like I can¡¯t really complain.¡± ¡°You chose? So you didn¡¯t go random for your race?¡± ¡°Na, I decided to look through the available races, then if nothing caught my eye I would random instead. But then I saw this and figured there was quite a bit of potential for tanking as a golem.¡± I poked at Horvath¡¯s arm. ¡°Hmm, yeah I can see how this would make you fairly tough.¡± It was then I had a mischievous idea. I must have started grinning, as Celeste looked at me with concern for a moment. Then she may have guessed what I was going to do, because her eyes suddenly went wide. I poked at Horvath¡¯s arm again. He looked at me with curiosity at first, but seeing my smirk that expression quickly changed to worry. Then I activated Life Drain... ¡­ And nothing happened. Odd, I didn¡¯t start draining his life, and Horvath certainly didn¡¯t seem to be suffering the side effects. I looked at my total energy and saw the ability had completely failed to activate. As I pondered why this happened, and everyone else looked at me like I had crazy, it occurred to me. There, in the skill description it says ¡°Does not affect beings that are not alive, such as undead and golems¡±. ¡°NOOOO! You had to go and play as a golem. You¡¯ve ruined my beautiful plan!¡± ¡°Uh, I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about, but I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯re just being overdramatic.¡± ¡°Of course I am! But it¡¯s just so disappointing to have my prank fail like that.¡± ¡°Huh? Prank? What were you just trying to do?¡± I took a step back. ¡°Well¡­¡± I paused for effect, and removed my disguise. I¡¯m fairly sure dramatically revealing my race like this is that is never going to get old. ¡°I¡¯m actually a succubus.¡± Horvath stared at me a moment, then slowly lowered his head into his hands. It was the rare two handed facepalm. ¡°And? What was it you were trying to do to me?¡± he muttered into his palms. ¡°Oh, my feeding ability. I can drain the life of living things that I touch, but I forgot you don¡¯t count as living so it didn¡¯t work.¡± I said with a sigh. Celeste had been barely been suppressing her laughter this whole time, but with my disappointment she just couldn¡¯t hold it in. I shot a glare at her. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t laugh too much. This means all my feedings are coming from the two of you for a while.¡± ¡°Geh! I didn¡¯t think about that.¡± Both girls looked away and fidgeted a bit. ¡°I¡¯m somewhat afraid to ask this, but why do they both look slightly embarrassed at the thought of feeding you.¡± ¡°Well, there¡¯s a standing rule that I¡¯m fed in private because the side effects are a bit¡­ interesting. Let¡¯s just say since you two are in a relationship, Simona¡¯s probably going to be exempt from feeding duty. I don¡¯t want to deal with that drama.¡± Horvath narrowed his eyes. ¡°And that¡¯s what you just tried to do to me?¡± ¡°Yep. It would have been hillarious if it had worked.¡± Horvath just sighed. ¡°Whatever. So what else does that race do?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got some abilities that allow me to put a target under mind control temporarily, I can fly, as you saw earlier I can disguise myself, and I can grow claws. That¡¯s really about it.¡± I shrugged, then tossed in, ¡±Oh, and if I get seen in my real form, everyone will try to kill me. It seems life draining demons are frowned upon in modern society.¡± ¡°So, you can¡¯t go out in public like that at all?¡± ¡°As far as I know. It may be possible to establish a relationship with a city and get amnesty, but I don¡¯t really see us staying in one place that long.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true. Speaking of which, do you have any future plans? It seems like we¡¯ve got all the freedom in the world, and absolutely no direction.¡± I shook my head. ¡°I haven¡¯t really thought about it. We¡¯re going to go pick up Simona and after that we need to get to Amber, but up till now I haven¡¯t given any thought beyond that. But we can figure that out later.¡± ¡°Actually I was thinking about that. Why not see if Amber can travel down and meet us?¡± He actually brought up a good point. I for some reason hadn¡¯t considered her coming to us instead. I opened up a window to message Amber when it occurred to me. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s the name of the city we¡¯re going to, anyway?¡± ¡°According to the map I saw, it¡¯s called Al Omand.¡±
Lilith: Hey, how far are you from a city called Al Omand? Amber: Hang on, let me check. Lilith: You have a map conveniently nearby? Amber: The city looks like it¡¯s about a week away, why? Amber: Yeah, after you mentioned the dungeon you were going to was on the map, I bought one of the continent, and one of the local area. Lilith: That¡¯s where we¡¯re meeting up with Simona. Do you think you could make it there on your own and we meet up there instead of us heading to the mountains to get you afterward? Also, good call on the maps. Amber: I should be able to get there. I just got my class, so I¡¯m now relatively free to travel. I might see if I can get with a group going that way. Lilith: Great. That¡¯s one less thing we have to do. By the way, any luck with that stethoscope? Amber: not yet. I¡¯ll take another look before I leave. I¡¯m really curious to see what you want that for.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°Looks like she¡¯s going to try to make the trip. It¡¯s about a week¡¯s journey though, so it¡¯ll be a bit.¡± ¡°That actually works well. According to Simona, the nomads will be getting there around six days from now.¡± ¡°Okay, so we¡¯ve got a little time to kill before we head out. Speaking of which, will you two be alright to make the trip? It might be a while offline, after all.¡± Celeste nodded. ¡°With the holiday, we¡¯ve got the next few days free. As long as we don¡¯t delay too long, it should be fine.¡± ¡°Good. That just leaves us with one decision, really.¡± Horvath held up two fingers. ¡°Do we travel on our own, or try to find a group going there we can join. We could be escorts or something like that.¡± ¡°Both sound good. If we¡¯re on our own, I can go in my natural form for most of the trip, which would be nice. However if we are escorting a merchant they might have a wagon we can use to log out.¡± When you log out in SWO, you will usually be in the same place when you log back in. But there are a couple instances where that is not true. If you¡¯re in a dungeon and the entire party logs out at the same time, you¡¯ll be ejected from the dungeon and log in right outside the entrance instead. The other exception was if you are on a vehicle when you log out, you¡¯ll still be on that vehicle when you come back. Unless it gets destroyed while you are gone, in which case you will log in where it was destroyed. Thus, being with a wagon meant we could take breaks without stopping our progress towards the desert city. Also, mounts don¡¯t count as a vehicle in this case, so if you log out on a horse, for example, it¡¯ll be like you were on foot and you will log back in in the same place. I rubbed my temple and though more seriously than I had in a couple days. ¡°I suppose we could try to find a player who has a wagon and is planning to go that way. I imagine the chance to trade with the nomads is pretty tempting to someone who want to play as a merchant, so there¡¯s a chance we¡¯ll find one. That way we can use the wagon for breaks, and I could still be in my proper form. We would just need to find a player we could trust not to rat me out.¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°That could work. I¡¯ll leave it to you to find someone, like usual.¡± ¡°Yep, I¡¯ll get on it later. For now, I vote we go do some hunting.¡± Before we could head out, Celeste stopped us. ¡°Hey, why do you leave finding people to Lilith? From what I¡¯ve heard, you end up in a lot of strange situations when she¡¯s leading.¡± ¡°Ah. There¡¯s a couple reasons. As much as I like to complain, the situations he gets us in can be fun. It¡¯s just the really bad ones are often better stories. And for some reason, he always seems to come up with good people. It¡¯s like his luck is either great and he finds what we need, or awful and we end up in some strange trouble. There¡¯s really no middle ground.¡± ¡°I see. You¡¯re relying on his luck for finding people, and dealing with the negative effects is just a part of the package¡­ Wait, ¡®he¡¯?¡± Both she and Aurora turned and stared at me. Horvath just facepalmed again. I¡¯ve lost track of how many times he¡¯s done that today. ¡°You¡­ you didn¡¯t tell them?¡± I stopped and thought through my interactions with the twins thus far. ¡°Hmmm¡­ Nope, I don¡¯t think I ever did. It kinda slipped my mind.¡± Horvath sighed. Again. ¡°Yep, ¡®he¡¯. The player playing Lilith is a guy. Although I guess the pronouns get a bit ambiguous since you only know Lilith, and not the guy behind her.¡± ¡°Ah, so it was like that. You know, I sort of guessed that was the case, but I didn¡¯t have any real reason for thinking so.¡± Celeste nodded. ¡°Wait really? How did you possibly figure that out. I¡¯m pretty sure I haven¡¯t said or done anything incredibly manly since we met.¡± Actually, that¡¯s sort of sad in it¡¯s own way. She shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know. The way you walk. The way you carry yourself. Something about your body language just made me think you were a guy.¡± ¡°... she mentioned it to me earlier, too. I don¡¯t see it, but she¡¯s good at picking up on details most people miss.¡± Aurora commented. ¡°I see. Is that going to be a problem?¡± ¡°Na, like I said, I kinda had an idea that was a possibility, so I had already accepted that. And Aurora wasn¡¯t upset at the idea either, right?¡± ¡°Huh? No, it¡¯s good. I mean I¡¯m good. Er¡­ I¡¯m fine with it.¡± Aurora shook her head, her face slightly red as she stumbled over her response. ¡°It is pretty funny though.¡± Celeste turned back to me and grinned. ¡°You may be the first male succubus.¡± ¡°Ooh, I hadn¡¯t thought about that. I wonder if I can get that put on my business cards. Actually, I wonder if I can get business cards in SWO...¡± Oh no,¡± Horvath muttered. Aurora looked at him questioningly ¡°Those two get along too well. He¡¯s going to end up playing off her and being even worse.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be any worse than when Amber and I are together.¡± ¡°Yes it can, because now there¡¯s three of you. At least try to keep yourself controlled.¡± I just shrugged. ¡°I can try, but I won¡¯t make any promises.¡± We decided after I put on my disguise again to go kill a few packs of the wild dogs. They¡¯re weak enemies for us now, so we could figure out battle strategies without worrying about getting overwhelmed. Once we were in the field, Horvath pulled an enormous tower shield and a large mace out of his inventory. He explained that the shield was so big he it was a bit awkward to carry, even for him. And since he was already storing his shield in his inventory, he might as well keep his weapon there as well. We found a pack of four of the wild dogs, and quickly decided on a battle plan. Horvath would obviously move in first, using his abilities to get the enemies attention. Once they were focused on him, Celeste would swing around and attack them from the side. Aurora¡¯s place was clearly behind Horvath where it was safe. The biggest issue was my positioning. I could stay back with Aurora and focus on using my spells, but with small groups of weak enemies it seemed wasteful. However I don¡¯t really belong on the front lines, either. My whip does work as a melee weapon, but it¡¯s damage is quite low. If we were somewhere that I could go undisguised, I could use my claws, but I was still an unarmored mage so fighting in close quarters seems like a very bad idea. Not that I¡¯ve ever allowed something like that to stop me before. After a few experiments, we finally decided that unless the front lines really needed the help and I was in my Succubus form, I would stay back and use my spells. Particularly one I had just unlocked at the end of the Goblin Dungeon when my Mind Magic Skill reached level 4.
Ineptitude
Target''s mind becomes clouded and their reasoning becomes impaired. This leads their actions to be clumsy and they may make poor decisions in combat.
  • Targets attacks may miss
  • Target may stumble when moving
  • Small chance Target may hurt itself when attempting to use an ability
Mana cost: 20
Basically, it makes it like our enemy is very drunk. By the way, drunk wild dogs are quite entertaining to see, if anyone was curious. Having worked out a decent strategy and practiced it enough that we each knew what we were doing, we started making our way back to town. After all, there was no practical reason for us to keep hunting dogs once we had figured out our combat positions. As we headed back into the town, I looked at our current group and a random thought popped into my head. ¡°Hey Horvath, do golems have a gender. I mean, you¡¯re just an animated pile of rocks, after all.¡± ¡°Technically no, we¡¯re genderless. Why?¡± ¡°Good. We¡¯re gonna claim you¡¯re a female golem then.¡± Three very confused pairs of eyes turned toward me, and Horvath uttered what everyone was thinking. ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Well, looking at our party, we can come across as one of two things. One, we¡¯re Horvath and a bunch of women, basically turning us into his battle harem. Or Horvath¡¯s also a woman, in which case we¡¯re an amazon brigade. Personally, I think the amazon brigade sounds much cooler. Have you seen the shows with battle harems. They¡¯re almost universally awful. But amazons, there¡¯s a certain romance to that.¡± ¡°What about neither. Our party is 4 women, a genderless golem, and a genderbending demon. There¡¯s no harem or amazon in this.¡± ¡°Hey, stop metagaming. In game, Lilith is one hundred percent female. Just because the mind controlling her isn¡¯t doesn¡¯t mean she¡¯s not. Imagine our entire party is walking down the street. They¡¯re going to see you and a group of ladies. Or are you telling me that¡¯s what you want. Shall I tell Simona you secretly want to have a harem of women attending to you?¡± I feigned shock at stepped back away from Horvath. Hilariously, the twins also backed away from him a bit. The reaction coming from them as well actually caused him to become slightly flustered. Even a few of the strangers we were passing gave him cold looks. ¡°No¡­ I¡­ that¡¯s not¡­ Stop looking at me like that!¡± I should probably end this soon or he¡¯s actually going to get mad. He¡¯ll put up with a lot of things, but I have learned not to go too far. I¡¯ve also learned through experience where that line is. ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll shelve it for now. You can be your ambiguous self and we¡¯ll talk about it again later.¡± Horvath just shook his head and we continued toward town. A message popped up from Celeste.
Celeste: Hey, just curious, why¡¯d you suddenly decide to stop? Is he mad at us now? Lilith: He was about to actually get angry, but right now he¡¯s just pouting that he got pulled into my silly conversations again. He¡¯s not mad or anything. If I had kept going I probably would have crossed the line though. Don¡¯t worry, this isn¡¯t over. For now, I¡¯ll just keep quiet about it, and play up the haremette role I¡¯ve been given.
I had only begun to fight! My poor unsuspecting golem friend had no idea what he was in for. Actually, he probably does, or at least knows I¡¯ll be up to something. He knows me well enough to know better than believe I¡¯ve really dropped the idea. ¡°Alright, so I need to find someone we can escort to this Al Omand place, right?¡± I asked as we reentered the city. Horvath nodded. ¡°Yeah, I think it would be best if we could leave in the next few days. That should get us there a day or two early, and give us time in case something comes up.¡± ¡°Sounds good. Since I have some time, I¡¯m going to log out for a while and get some real sleep before I start.¡± Celeste chimed in. ¡°We should probably do that too. We¡¯ve been playing quite a while by now.¡± Aurora nodded and yawned. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll probably stay a little bit longer. I want to see the shops here before they close. I¡¯ll see you all later then.¡± I jumped up and hugged Horvath¡¯s neck. ¡°Alright, goodnight sweety~¡± And before he could respond, I logged out. --- In the entry area of the city, an irritated golem turned to a pair of twins next to him. ¡°Oh god, he¡¯s going to keep doing things like that until I agree to the whole amazon plan he came up with, isn¡¯t he.¡± The short haired girl laughed. ¡°Yeah, probably. We¡¯ll see you later.¡± Then both she and her twin signed out, leaving the golem shaking his head. ¡°Why do I do this to myself¡­¡± Chapter 15: Merchant Shopping Several hours after I had signed out of SWO, I rolled out of bed. After signing out last night, I had quickly shoveled a meal into my stomach, then promptly went to bed. This game is going to do horrible things to my healthy daily routine, but it¡¯s absolutely a worthwhile sacrifice. It was now fairly early in the morning. Since your body is in a restful state almost like sleep while playing, I feel fully awake, even though I only got a few hours of real sleep. Sitting down to breakfast, I decided to spend some time online again looking for information before I got back into the game. I didn¡¯t really have any specific goals in mind, but in general having information is better than not. Besides, I doubt I could stop thinking about the game if I tried, so I might as well turn those thoughts to something productive. First off, I went back to the list of rare races to see what had been added in the last day. The list itself had gotten surprisingly long, reminding me again just how much variety there was in this game. In the list was a note about golems ability to become a rare race by changing the material they are made out of. There wasn¡¯t any mention of succubi yet, so I¡¯m really beginning to think I might be the only one. It really would make sense, after all. What are the odds that more than one incompetent group of cultists summoned a demon at roughly the same time, and happened to all get the same type of demon, and they all failed to enslave their summoned succubus. It¡¯s pretty unlikely. There was a post about the Shunned racial ability. It seems that¡¯s not unique to me, though different races are affected differently. The player that brought it up was apparently a vampire, and he wanted to know if anyone else had anything like that and how they deal with it. According to the post, because he looks like a regular human he can walk through town normally without any danger to himself (other than damage from the sunlight apparently), but if his race is discovered or he is seen using his racial abilities than others will realize what he is and call the guards. Other players said they were only attacked if they caused trouble or harmed to someone, otherwise their presence was grudgingly tolerated. Most of these are races like orcs that have both friendly and hostile tribes around, and thus are difficult to trust. All in all, it seems like I have one of the more severe versions of the skill. I thought about it, and decided to post a bit about my own situation to that page. I chose to not say what race I am, but explained that I had an ability to hide my form while limiting my abilities, and if I wasn¡¯t using that I would be killed on sight by most NPCs. If nothing else, it might generate some interesting discussion. Skimming through a few other posts, it was clear that more and more players were starting to travel to other cities already. Many talked about where they were, or where the were going next. A few players had started putting together a ¡°traveller¡¯s guide¡±, describing various locations across the continent. It seemed they intended to eventually publish the guide in game, and sell it to other players. I will be very disappointed if they don¡¯t title it ¡°The Hitchhiker''s Guide to Ariloth¡±, which reminds me I should get a towel before we set off on our trip. After finish my breakfast and research session, I cleaned up and signed into the game again. Glancing around the city gates where I was, it seemed to be a fairly busy morning with people coming into and leaving the city. It also seemed I was the only member of our party to be online right now. I decided to get to my chore of finding us someone to escort to Al Omand right away. Since I was already at the entrance to the city, the request board was nearby. Unfortunately, things weren¡¯t going to be so easy, though. There were a number of parties recruiting members and various jobs around town, but I didn¡¯t see any requests for an escort to the desert. Instead, I placed a notice advertising our services as an escort, and left my contact information. Since I was free now, I decided to spend some time to do some shopping while I waited. My first stop was back in the eastern district. Since my position was going to be mostly on the back line, I wanted to have a proper ranged attack I could use in fights. Even in the dungeon, there had been many times I was standing on the sidelines because I had no way to attack the goblins. In my reading this morning, I had learned about a trick some people had discovered. The equipping system is actually fairly flexible when it comes to weapons, and a few players had discovered they could actually equip two weapons at once, and swap between them as needed. This was mostly being used by archers to equip a melee weapon like a dagger or warriors with throwing knives, but this way I would be able to equip both my whip and a more standard casting weapon that allowed me to cast an attack spell. The only real limitation is that I would only be able to use the spell of the current active weapon, so I can¡¯t use the spell from my whip with the other weapon. There is also the option of dual wielding them, but that requires the dual wielding skill before it can be done, and lowers the effectiveness of both weapons. For my second weapon, I initially considered a staff or wand. However, a staff wasn¡¯t going to work, as it would get in the way if I needed to get into melee. Wands were small enough that they were still an option, but frankly I find wands a bit boring and generic. If possible, I wanted to have something else. Unfortunately, I needed to have something to cast attack magic with, so class based weapons weren¡¯t really an option. However that thought did put me onto something. Rings, bracelets, and other wearable casting items would be best since they wouldn¡¯t get in the way when I was using my whip. Luckily, my succubus nature also unlocked a few of these things, so I might be able to find something in one of the specialty shops I had visited before. It took a while of browsing before I found something. Most of the wearable casting weapons I could use were available due to the Enchantress class, and were thus excluded from my search. However I eventually found a decorative sleeve that could grant me a good attack spell. The sleeve reached about three quarters of the way up my arm. It was black with deep blue decorative trim near the edges, and had a ring that fit around my middle finger to hold it in place. I¡¯m honestly not sure how the other end was held in place. I just assume magic. Sliding the sleeve onto my left arm with my whip holstered on my right side, I checked my spells. Sure enough, the Flame Slash spell from the whip was not available, but in it¡¯s place I now had a new spell.
Ice Spike
A basic Ice Magic spell. Launches a sharp icicle at your opponent. Does moderate damage, and magical cold seeping from the icicle may cause the enemies actions to be slowed. Mana cost: 15
As far as combat spells go, Ice Magic tends to do less actual damage than other elements, but most of its spells have that slowing effect giving it a bit of a support role as well as damage. It was still the most damaging thing I can do, possibly excepting my claws. My new spell sleeve equipped, I went back to the central shopping district. Our trip through the dungeon had used up a lot of my potion supply, so I wanted to restock those, as well as get a few other things for the future. While I was shopping, I also received a message from a merchant player who was interesting in travelling to Al Omand. I arranged to meet them individually in an inn room to interview and determine if I thought we could trust. Just in case, I went to the inn early and rented another room. In that room, I altered my disguise to a dark haired elf just in case. It¡¯s probably not important, but it might prove helpful for merchants I reject not to be able to recognize me later. Arriving in the room, I found a slightly heavy set man with a moustache waiting for me. I was honestly surprised. Who would actually intentionally make their character look like the stereotypical unscrupulous merchant? It¡¯s like screaming ¡°don¡¯t trust me¡± to everyone you meet. Still, it might just be poor judgement, so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Long story short, my initial judgement was right. After introducing himself as Coburn, he went into a long diatribe about what he planned to do, and how we could get in on it by escorting him. He was somewhat vague about exactly what he intended, but from what he was suggesting I was fairly sure he wanted to create a mafia-like organization somewhere in the game. And if we escorted him while he looked for a good place to start it, we could become an integral part of that organization in the future.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. One point he emphasized very heavily is that both he and his organization would be willing to do absolutely anything if it meant profits. That alone was enough reason for me not to want to escort him. ¡°I see, I don¡¯t think we¡¯re the group you¡¯re looking for as escorts. My party and I don¡¯t really want to attach ourselves to any organization. We prefer to freely travel the world. I¡¯ll discuss your offer with them later, and contact you if we decide to take your job, is that alright?¡± ¡°I understand. Unfortunately since I¡¯m not established yet, I have no choice but to accept your decision. I do hope you¡¯ll change your mind, though. You seem like the sort that would be valuable to us in the future.¡± The man nodded and left. Over the next couple hours, a few other merchant players messaged me and went through the interview process. While none of them were nearly as shady as the first one, they all still struck me as someone I couldn¡¯t trust my secret to. After a few merchants, the twins signed in and joined me in the room I was using as the interview room. Celeste waved as she pushed open the door, with Aurora slowly trailing behind her. ¡°¡®Morning Lilith. What¡¯s up with that look?¡± ¡°Hey. I figured it would be best not to be recognized later by the people I rejected, so I changed things up a bit. I¡¯ll go back to your older sister once I find someone. More importantly, is she alright?¡± I motioned toward the staggering Aurora. ¡°Hmm? Oh, yeah she¡¯s fine. That¡¯s just how she is when she wakes up. No luck with the merchants so far?¡± ¡°Not really. There were a couple that seemed alright, a few that would absolutely sell us out if the price was right, and one that offered us a position in the mafia he was going to start. I didn¡¯t think we would be up for that and turned it down.¡± Celeste stared at me a moment. ¡°Wow, Horvath wasn¡¯t kidding about you finding the strangest things, was he.¡± ¡°Hey, this one was relatively normal. It¡¯s not like being asked by a group of space luddites to smuggle them and their weapons onto a space station.¡± ¡°That seems strangely specific. Did that actually happened?¡± ¡°Yeah, once. I¡¯m still a bit fuzzy on exactly why a group of technophobes wanted to take over one of the most advanced research stations in the universe, but I needed the money. I¡¯m still pretty impressed they managed to take over the entire station with nothing but a bunch of wooden clubs, though. This was a game where most people carried at least a laser pistol on their person at all times. Normally they wouldn¡¯t have been able to take over a small ship, much less an entire station. Anyway, what are you guys going to do. I¡¯ll probably be here conducting interviews for a while.¡± The girls thought for a bit before Aurora finally woke up enough to speak. ¡°I need to get ingredients for cooking.¡± ¡°Oh, good point. I guess we¡¯ll do some shopping. If we¡¯ve still got time, maybe we¡¯ll see about learning some useful skills too.¡± I nodded. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll let you know when I finish up here so we can regroup.¡± After seeing off the twins, I continued interviewing a few more merchants, and was honestly surprised that no one seemed to intend to be a trustworthy character. I was honestly about to give up and remove the ad I had put up that morning when I received another message. After telling the merchant where to meet me, I sat back to wait. Before long, there was a slightly timid knock on the door, followed by the door slowly opening. ¡°Um¡­ is this where I¡¯m supposed to come about an escort?¡± Peeking his head in the room was a young looking man with pale skin and deep blue hair. His ears were elongated somewhat, And the pupils of his eyes were slightly larger than they should be. I motioned to him. ¡°Yep, this is the place. Come on in. Do you mind me asking what race you are? I haven¡¯t seen a character like yours yet.¡± The young man timidly entered the room and took a seat. ¡°I¡¯m Lucelan, a merfolk. We have a city under the water north of here, but I want to become a travelling peddler so I left as soon as I could to a coastal city, and worked my way to here with my inventory full of pearls and things found in the ocean. They sold well here and I was able to get enough to get a basic wagon and a horse to pull it.¡± Hmm, an underwater city. I wonder if I could find a way to visit it later. I haven¡¯t heard of anything that allows people to breath underwater yet, but there might be one. ¡°I see. And now you want to get to the desert? Won¡¯t that be rough on you with that race?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard that the nomads are good traders, and they know how to transport their goods through dangerous environments. I¡¯m hoping I can learn from them for a while before I set out on my own. As for the lack of water, I¡¯m carrying quite a bit in my inventory because I¡¯ll need it.¡± ¡°Wow, you¡¯ve planned this out pretty thoroughly. So you would rather travel around selling things than have a store of your own?¡± Lucelan nodded. ¡°Yeah, I want to be a merchant, but I also want to see the world. I may not be going out to the frontlines, but I still can see a lot of things this way. Sure, I might be able to make more money with an established store somewhere, but this seems like it will be much more interesting. Besides, I¡¯m not really concerned with making a lot of money as long as I can afford the things I need.¡± ¡°A merchant not concerned with making a lot of money. That¡¯s pretty uncommon¡­¡± ¡°Ah¡­ I suppose when you put it that way it does sound odd. But it is true that profits are a secondary goal for me.¡± His lack of greed wasn¡¯t really very merchant like, but it did match my needs quite well. ¡°I think you might be what we¡¯re looking for, but I do have one question to ask. One of my companions has a rare race that they are trying to keep a secret from both NPCs, and to a lesser degree other players. That¡¯s why we¡¯re being somewhat stringent with this whole interview process. The thing is, if the NPCs do find out about their race, it will cause problems. Can I have your word you¡¯ll protect that secret for us?¡± Without any hesitation, Lucelan nodded. ¡°Absolutely. I¡¯ve got no interest in profiting from someone else¡¯s misfortune. And as a travelling peddler, it¡¯ll be more useful to have friends than enemies. I am a bit curious about their race, though.¡± I smiled. ¡°Well, let¡¯s save that surprise for once we¡¯re on the road and safely away from the city. You¡¯ve got yourself an escort party to Al Omand.¡± We shook hands, then went over the details such as payment, and decided to head out as soon as possible. Checking my friends list, Horvath had signed in while we were talking, so I just needed to gather the party and we could head out. I sent a message to all three of them to meet us near the gate, and went with Lucelan to his wagon. It was a small, wooden wagon that would be hitched to a single horse. The grey horse was currently grazing nearby in the stable. ¡°It¡¯s not fancy, but it¡¯s my first wagon. It¡¯ll get us there, and counts as a log out point so we can take breaks as needed without stopping. Although with all my goods in my inventory, it might not have actually been necessary, I just wouldn¡¯t feel right without having some sort of transportation. Besides, at least this way we can have a few people ride instead of all of you walking.¡± Lucelan slid his hand along the side of the wagon proudly. That was true, aside from the enormous Horvath, two of us could fit in the back of the wagon quite comfortably. Unfortunately for Horvath, he¡¯s just too big. If he was alone he could probably sit back there, but there was no way anyone else could get on with him. Speaking of Horvath, he arrived fairly quickly after I had sent the message. He must have been in the general vicinity already, given how fast he got here. Though being that big it¡¯s probably pretty easy to push through a crowd, too. ¡°Oh, there¡¯s one. Horvath, over here!¡± I waved at the golem, who looked confused as he made his way over. ¡°Lilith? You look different, so I didn¡¯t recognize you.¡± ¡°Ah, right. I¡¯ll explain that later. For now, this is Lucelan, a travelling merchant who we¡¯ll be escorting to Al Omand.¡± Horvath turned to the merman. ¡°I¡¯m Horvath, our tank.¡± Lucelan held out his hand. ¡°Lucelan, travelling peddler. Thanks for agreeing to help me get to Al Omand.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± The golem said, shaking his hand. It was rather funny, since Horvath¡¯s hands were at least twice as big. ¡°If Lilith say¡¯s you¡¯re good, I¡¯m fine with it.¡± ¡°Hehe, you¡¯re embarrassing me.¡± I did my best to act shy. ¡°Ew. Stop that.¡± I sighed. ¡°Now all that¡¯s left is the twins.¡± Just as I was saying that, I saw the two making their way to us. Unlike Horvath, they struggled a bit getting through the crowds, but reached us fairly quickly. ¡°Lucelan, this is Celeste and Aurora, damage and healing respectively.¡± I motioned to the twins. ¡°And this is Lucelan, the merchant we¡¯re going to be accompanying to Al Omand.¡± After the greetings were over, we decided to leave in about an hour, and split up to finish up any tasks we had in town. I headed back over to the Mages Association one last time to say goodbye to Elenore and Samantha, who clung to me and refused to let me leave until I promised to write to her occasionally to keep her informed of where I was. While I couldn¡¯t quite hear her, she muttered something about graduation under her breath after I made that promise. Returning to the stables where Lucelan had his cart parked, we all gathered and set off on our journey. SS: An Impossible Invasion Oh god... Why?! How!?! For the last several months, I have been working with a group of others to create a new weapon. This game is amazing in that it allows players to create completely new items governed by the games rules. Our research ability is only really limited by our own imaginations. Sure, I¡¯m not able to fly a fighter ship as well as players who chose that route, and I can¡¯t even correctly hold a P-19 Plasma rifle, much less use it in combat. But I can make new weapons and tools for those that can. And that¡¯s how I wanted to play. But now, as we were nearing the completion of our newest heavy weapons that could punch through nearly all light to medium shield systems with a single salvo, this horrible disaster has struck us. I¡¯m not exactly sure how it started. I just know that it shouldn¡¯t have gotten this far. In fact, I¡¯m not sure how it did get this far. We have security on this research station to prevent things like this. About two hours ago, I was working in the lab on the heat dissipation module for the new cannons. One of the downsides to having that much firepower is that after firing a few times, the weapon would get so hot it would start to melt. But we had come up with a novel method for avoiding that issue. Anyway, I was working on implementing this new method when the alarms started sounding. We had gone through drills many times, so everyone knew what to do. We immediately locked down the lab and lowered the shielded barricades to prevent anyone from forcibly breaking in with plasma cutters. These barricades were designed so that no modern weapon could break through. Invaders would have better luck trying to cut through the outer hull of the station and coming in from outside. Once these barriers were in place, we were supposed to just stay put until security sounded the all-clear. That was how things were supposed to go. Instead, the alarms continued to sound as we heard sounds of battle coming from the corridors outside. Sounds of lasers firing, and muffled screams that sounded like ¡°how¡± came through the door. At first, I thought I was mistaken, but now I understand exactly what they meant. How did these invaders succeed. It doesn¡¯t make sense. It shouldn¡¯t have happened. They shouldn¡¯t even be here. After a short while, the sounds died down. There were no more screams, no more gunfire. And then, the horror came to my lab. First, I heard the creaking as the locked outer door was forced opened. Then, slowly, I saw something work it¡¯s way under that nearly impenetrable barricade. It was a number of small, chipped stone points. Once under, they began to twist and tilt, slowly lifting the barricade until there was enough space for the invaders to get their hands under it, then they lifted it out of the way! This door shouldn¡¯t have been openable from the outside without a three step bioscan that only security and authorized researchers were registered in. But these men had broken through with nothing but sheer physical strength. The invaders then stepped into the lab. Several pointed the spears, which was what they had been using minutes earlier to force the door open, at me. They all wore basic leather clothing, and their faces were painted with a variety of colors. Then one man with long, unkempt hair stepped forward.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°We are the Avengers of the Natural Order! This place and all of the activities carried out here have been deemed Unnatural. We are here to restore things to the way they should be. Do not resist, and your life shall be spared. However, you shall never again be permitted to put your hand or mind to such a disgusting perversion of nature.¡± The Avengers of the Natural Order! I¡¯ve heard of these guys before, but I never expected them to be here. In fact, they shouldn¡¯t have been able to get off their home world. They¡¯re a group of players who decided to play this science fiction game as a group of primitives, believing all forms of technology are evil, and refusing to use any of it. How did they get off the ground. How did they defeat our security forces using only spears, clubs, and arrows. No, wait. Unexpectedly, those might be the most effective weapons against the personal shield units all the guards wear. Such primitive weapons weren¡¯t even considered when designing them. We did make them capable of deflecting most composite metal blades used in modern weapons, but we never considered someone using sharpened flint arrowheads and wooden clubs. I doubt it was intentional, but they actually brought what were possibly the most effective weapons they could when they came here. Still, our security forces should have eliminated the invaders before they could even use their primitive melee weapons. This should never have been possible, yet here I am, surrounded by men pointing spears at me, and not a single security guard remaining to stop it. I¡¯m not sure what is going to happen to me now. I suspect I will be held in their village on the planet to await whatever fate they chose for me¡­ Wait, how are we going to get to their planet? How did they get here? I have been herded to the cafeteria, where I find many of my fellow researchers also are gathered. The man who spoke before, and thus far the only one I have heard speak at all, stands in front of us. ¡°We have decided to release you all, but we shall keep possession of this place until it is cleansed. Do not continue the sins against nature, for which you have been punished this day. Next time we meet, the Avengers of the Natural Order will not be so lenient. Now go! Those men shall take you away from here.¡± He pointed toward the entrance, where two men were standing. One had a stern frown on his face as he watched the whole proceeding. It was the other that truly worried me, though. On his face was an entertained grin, as though this whole thing were just some sort of comedy show. The smiling man took a comm unit out of his pocket. ¡°We¡¯re bringing some passengers to replace the old ones. You haven¡¯t filled that hold yet, right?¡± A short while later, a female voice sounded. ¡°Na, I¡¯ve been loading the loot into the others first. I figured we might need that one empty still.¡± The man nodded, then looked at us. ¡°Alright, you all come with me. My ship is waiting in the main hanger bay. My name is Krizet, captain of a relatively unknown cargo freighter called the Scavenger.¡± The other man shook his head. ¡°Can we change that name. It really is terrible.¡± The first man just shrugged. ¡°I dunno, it seems rather fitting for us, really. Anyway, let¡¯s get going everyone, we¡¯ve got a long trip ahead of us.¡± Then, as if it was an afterthought, he pointed at the second man. ¡°Ah, right, this rather dour guy is my second in command. If you need anything on our voyage, I recommend you talk to him, and not the short woman who makes up the third person on our little crew. She''ll probably pick your pockets before helping you with whatever you needed. I''ll try to keep her busy, so just look for this guy. His name is Horvath.¡± Chapter 16: On the Road We were finally on the road. Bouncing in the back of the wagon were myself and Aurora, while Celeste and Horvath walked on either side. Lucelan was of course in the driver''s seat guiding the horse. We decided on this arrangement unless someone was signing out for a break because if we do fall under attack, Horvath and Celeste need to be in melee range to fight, while Aurora and I can attack without getting down. After we had been on the road long enough that the city was out of sight, I asked Lucelan to stop a moment. ¡°Alright, I think we¡¯re far enough from the city now. Lucelan, you did say you would be willing to keep a secret for us, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, I see it being more profitable to have you all as friends rather than enemies. Plus if not you could just bail on me and I¡¯d be stuck finding another escort.¡± I nodded. ¡°Good enough for me. The truth is, I¡¯m the one with a rare race. I¡¯m currently using an ability that lets me disguise myself, but it would be better to travel undisguised if I can. Besides, it would become pretty obvious when it came time for a meal.¡± Lucelan looked at me curiously. ¡°Well, I guess there¡¯s no point in dragging it out. I¡¯m actually a succubus.¡± With that, I disabled Hide Nature ability. As usual, darkness seemed to gather around me as my form returned, then dissipated revealing my demon form. ¡°You really enjoy doing that dramatically, don¡¯t you.¡± Celeste commented. I shrugged. ¡°Honestly, with the shadowy effect it¡¯s hard not to. But it is fun to do. If it wouldn¡¯t result in me being hunted, I¡¯d probably randomly do it in crowded places just to see the reactions.¡± I began to grin as I imagined the chaos that would cause. Maybe when I was stronger that would be an option, but for now I¡¯m not really interested in being hunted down by every guard and armed NPC in the area. ¡°Oh no. I know that grin. That¡¯s the ¡®I¡¯ve got a great idea to cause mayhem¡¯ grin.¡± Horvath shook his head. ¡°Put that on hold for the moment. Since you can fly, why don¡¯t you fly up and scout the area around us on occasion.¡± Lucelan looked at me a minute before nodding. ¡°I see, it makes sense you wouldn¡¯t want this to be well known. But do you really have to stay disguised all the time? I imagine that comes with some penalties.¡± ¡°Sure, it limits me to less than half my energy and disables a number of abilities, but it beats the alternative. There¡¯s apparently a standing Kill-On-Sight order for demons, and it¡¯s my understanding the guards are pretty happy to follow it. Best not to draw their attention if I can help it.¡± After that, we explained some of my abilities to Lucelan, than continued on our journey. I would fly up from time to time to take a look around, then warn the others of any monsters or other groups I saw coming our way. If another group travelling on the road was getting close, I returned to the wagon and put on my disguise. Sure, the constant transformations were taxing on my energy, but I usually had plenty of time between it wasn¡¯t an issue. And this gave me a chance to try out some of the other disguises I hadn¡¯t done before. Doing that, I discovered an interesting limitation to my disguise ability. When I transformed into a merfolk like Lucelan, I properly became a mermaid. With the fish tail and everything. ¡°Huh, I can¡¯t seem to grow proper legs with this one. And I can¡¯t really move the tail right, either. It¡¯s like my legs are tied together and shoved in a tail, rather than feeling like it¡¯s a part of my body.¡± Lucelan looked at me confused. ¡°Really? It felt rather natural when I started. Maybe it¡¯s because you¡¯re not an actual merfolk. As for the growing legs, that¡¯s a racial ability so you won¡¯t be able to use it.¡± I flopped my fish tail around a bit in the back of the wagon. ¡°Yeah, this isn¡¯t going to work very well. It¡¯s almost as unusable as the ursan race, just in a different way.¡± Horvath looked at me in the wagon. ¡°What was wrong with the ursan race?¡± ¡°Well, imagine the dress I¡¯m wearing, but on a male bodybuilder¡¯s physique. That was more or less the result. It was pretty horrifying.¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± Horvath shuddered at the mental image. ¡°By the way¡± Lucelan interjected, ¡°why were you using a different disguise than usual when you were interviewing me.¡± ¡°Ah, that. I had two reasons. First, I figured it might be helpful not to be recognized by the people I rejected. It turned out one of them was planning to create a criminal syndicate, so I think it was the right call. And second, since I could do it, why not? It could be fun. Plus I hadn¡¯t tried the High Elf race yet, so it was a good excuse for that, too.¡± --- During the afternoon during one of my aerial scouting trips I saw a party of players headed our way, so I landed back into the wagon and reapplied my disguise before they caught sight of us. This time I was using the catfolk race, growing catlike ears and a tail, as well as fine whiskers on my face. ¡°We¡¯ve got a group coming up headed the other direction. Looked like three people, probably players.¡± Hovath nodded and pulled his equipment out of his storage. ¡°Hopefully they¡¯ll be friendly, but be ready just in case.¡± It was maybe five more minutes before we met up on the path. The group coming towards us was made up of different types of beastmen, and looked like a caninid warrior, a catfolk archer, and a mage with a birdlike race I hadn¡¯t seen before. I¡¯ll have to check my disguise list later to see what it is. As they approached, the warrior called out to us. ¡°Hey there, mind if we trade some information before continuing?¡± Horvath nodded to them. ¡°Sure, we¡¯ve got some time.¡± ¡°Excellent. We¡¯re headed to the capital, Eridell. Do you know how close we are to getting there, and what types of threats we¡¯ll see on the road?¡± ¡°Sure, we just left there this morning. You¡¯re about half a day walk away, with nothing but wolves and wild dogs in the way. What about ahead of us? Any dangers of note?¡± The catfolk archer shook her head. ¡°Not much beyond wolves. We did run into a few groups of bandits, but they weren¡¯t too much trouble. Just be careful of ambushes. Seeing as you¡¯ve got a catfolk with you, you¡¯re scouting abilities are probably similar to mine so you¡¯ll be fine. Also, it looked like I saw a huge bird this way earlier. It was in the distance though, so I couldn¡¯t make out the details. Have you seen it?¡± I tossed a glance at Horvath and saw Celeste suppressing the urge to laugh in the corner of my vision. That large bird was almost certainly me taking a look around. ¡°We haven¡¯t seen any large birds, just wolves and a few players on the road.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a shame. I was hoping to tame it. A large bird would be a great pet. Oh well, I¡¯ll find a good pet eventually. Any good pet candidates around here?¡± I shook my head. ¡°Not really, unless you¡¯re into wolves, dogs or rats. I started in Eridell, and haven¡¯t run into anything else in the area. Though it¡¯s possible I missed a rare type somewhere.¡± ¡°I see, that¡¯s a shame. Ah well, I¡¯ll have to keep looking then. Thanks anyway.¡± The warrior spoke up again. ¡°Well, we should be continuing on. Thanks for the information.¡± ¡°No problem, thanks for warning us about the bandits. We¡¯ll have to keep an eye out for them.¡± ¡°Yep. Good luck.¡± And with that, we parted ways. After they were far enough away that we didn¡¯t need to worry about them hearing us, Horvath turned to me. ¡°You heard them. Keep an eye out for bandits waiting in ambush as well as people on the road.¡± ¡°You got it. I¡¯m going to wait a bit before I take another look around, though. I don¡¯t want them getting a better glimpse of that ¡®rare bird¡¯, after all. I will not be tamed!¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Yes, I know. I¡¯ve been trying for years, and I¡¯m pretty sure domestication is impossible at this point. I¡¯m lucky you¡¯re at least housebroken. Usually, anyway.¡± ¡°Hey, that was only that one time. And I had no idea that was even possible in that game!¡± As Horvath and I continued to banter, I noticed the twins were being abnormally quiet. Or at least Celeste was, Aurora was always very quiet so there wasn¡¯t much difference. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± I asked, looking at them. ¡°Ah, no. It¡¯s just that we¡¯ve never fought with humanoid enemies before, so we¡¯re a little uncertain about it is all.¡± Oh, that¡¯s right. They¡¯ve never played a game before this, and all we¡¯ve fought so far were monsters. The goblins were the closest thing to people, but they are still pretty far off. I¡¯ve played enough to become desensitized to it, so It hadn¡¯t occurred to me before that newer players to games like this might be uncomfortable fighting things that look like actual people. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if it will help, but just like the rats and dogs, the bandits will probably respawn once we move on, so it¡¯s not like you¡¯re really killing someone. Still, I can understand why you might fight it a bit uncomfortable.¡± Celeste nodded. ¡°I think we¡¯ll be fine. We understand it¡¯s a game, but sometimes it feels so realistic that the lines get blurred. We¡¯ll doing our best not to hold you all back, don¡¯t worry.¡± Horvath shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about holding us back. If you find you can¡¯t do it, just say something and we¡¯ll adjust. This shouldn¡¯t be that difficult of a fight. Heck, if she were actually being serious, Lilith could probably handle them all on her own.¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± ¡°Ah, you might not have guessed it, but Lilith¡¯s actually crazy good at these types of games when she actually focuses. She just doesn¡¯t do that very often so most people don¡¯t notice. If she really tried, she could probably be one of the top players.¡± Celeste looked at me wide eyed. ¡°Really? Why don¡¯t you do that, Lilith?¡± Ug, I really had hoped this wouldn¡¯t come up. Horvath pushes this from time to time. I think he wants me to actually try for it one day, but I¡¯m not really interested. ¡°I¡¯m not sure you could say I would be one of the top players, but I doubt we¡¯ll ever find out. Being serious sort of goes against the whole reason I play, after all. I don¡¯t find that to be any fun, and I¡¯m playing because I want to have fun. Hence I generally employ strategies like the one I used on the goblin chieftain instead. They¡¯re much more fun than just straight up fighting with him would have been. If I absolutely need to, I can always focus for a bit to get us out of a scrape, but other than that, this is much more enjoyable.¡± Both twins looked like they had just come to a realization about something. ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s what happened in that horde room. After we got separated, I think everyone was surprised by how you were able to deal with that situation. Now it makes a lot more sense.¡± I¡¯ll neither confirm nor deny that assumption. Mostly because I honestly can¡¯t. It¡¯s true that I can fight a whole lot better when I really focus on fighting well, but the thing is I don¡¯t really recognize that I¡¯m doing it. It¡¯s not like I intentionally decide to, it just kinda happens. Either way, I felt like it was about time to change the subject. ¡°Anyway, we should get moving. I¡¯ll start taking a look around from the air a bit more often from here out, since we know there are ambushes waiting ahead.¡± Sprouting my wings once again, I took to the sky to survey the surroundings. --- It would be a couple more hours before we actually encountered the bandits laying in ambush. By now it was around dusk, which would usually give the ambushers even more of an advantage. However with my night vision, I could still see them clearly from above, and was able to pinpoint their location quite easily. Landing in the back of the wagon again, I reported my discovery to the others. ¡°Looks like we¡¯ve found our first group of bandits. It looked like there are five of them waiting for us at the next bend in the road.¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°Alright, the strategy we worked out before should be fine. Celeste, you take that side of the wagon, and I¡¯ll cover this side. Lilith and Aurora cast from the wagon. Lilith, if you think it¡¯s necessary jump into melee, but in general try to stay back. Lucelan, do you have any way to defend yourself if things get rough?¡± As he asked, we all looked over at the merchant, and were startled to find him holding a long, jagged knife that seemed to be made of coral. ¡°I brought this for emergencies, but I¡¯m no fighter.¡± ¡°Of course, we¡¯ll try to do all the fighting, but if one of them slips by us, be ready. By the way, where were you hiding that? I didn¡¯t notice a sheath on you anywhere, and that seems rather long for a concealed weapon.¡± ¡°I keep it under my seat, just in case. ¡°Makes sense. Alright then, we¡¯re all ready. Let¡¯s go spring their little trap.¡± ¡°Oh, can I mind control the last one? All this flying to scout is draining my satiety faster than usual, so I¡¯m getting pretty hungry. I figure everyone would prefer I use one of them for my meal, instead of one of us.¡± The twins both nodded in agreement. ¡°That should be fine if you can catch him. We don¡¯t really have the skill set for capturing one during the fight, so you¡¯ll have to do it yourself.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine, I¡¯m more or less made for hunting like this. I just might have to abandon the ¡®cast from the wagon¡¯ strategy for a bit.¡± I smiled while activating my claws. As we approached the bend in the road where the bandits were waiting, two of them were standing in the road to stop us. There was one in the woods on the side of the road by Celeste that was not hiding particularly well, though without my night vision I probably wouldn¡¯t be able to see him. On the side by Horvath, I couldn¡¯t quite make them out, but if they were still holding the positions I saw from the air earlier, there should be two hiding over there. I warned the others of them in a low voice so they wouldn¡¯t be able to hear me. ¡°Celeste, there¡¯s one in the woods on your side. There should be two more on Horvath¡¯s side, but I can¡¯t see them yet.¡± They both nodded and readied themselves as we approached the ambush point. ¡°Hold up there! You¡¯re in our territory now. Hand over all your money and goods, and we¡¯ll let you leave with your lives.¡± Woah, how cliche. Horvath glared at the bandits on the road, shield and mace in hand. ¡°I recommend you leave now. If you try to attack us, it will not end well for you.¡± The bandit grinned. ¡°Hmmph. Fine, we¡¯ll do this the hard way.¡± He raised his hand. ¡°Kill them!¡± As he finished the command, two arrows came flying out of the woods at Horvath from behind. He pivoted on one leg, deflecting both with his shield. ¡°Lilith, go for those two. We¡¯ll handle the others.¡± Just the command I was hoping for. Bursting out of the wagon, I quickly shot into the woods to track down the two hiding there. Behind me I heard a cry of surprise and alarm coming from the two bandits on the road, who had been charged by Celeste when fight started. Once in the woods, I continued in the direction the arrows had come from and before long I spotted two figures in front of me. Both bandits fired arrows at me. I tried to dodge, causing one to miss completely while the other grazed my cheek, but didn¡¯t cause any major damage. Recognizing they wouldn¡¯t be able to fire again, they dropped their bows and each drew a short sword from their sides. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what you are, but you¡¯re a fool if you think you can take on both of us at once. Surrender and die quickly.¡± I smiled at them. ¡°Rather confident, aren¡¯t you. But who said I would be fighting up close?¡± With that, I launched an ice spike at one of the archers, hitting him firmly in the chest. ¡°Geh, a mage! Get close before she can cast again.¡± The injured archer called to his companion. The other bandit ran toward me while the other struggled against the ice spikes slowing effect to approach as well. The first bandit got to me and began wound back his sword for a strong blow. Just as he released at me, I cast Migraine and using my wings threw myself down and out of the way of the swinging blade. Then I countered with my claws, slashing at his face and chest while he was still off balance before moving away again. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough direct fighting for now. I¡¯ll have you do it for me from here.¡± With a smirk, I locked eyes with the bandit I had just scratched up, and activated Seduce and Enthrall. ¡°Finish him for me.¡± I said, waving my hand toward the slowed bandit who was just now catching up. The bandit looked at me in confusion. ¡°What are you talking abou-¡± His question was cut off when his former ally shoved his sword through his stomach. ¡°Now then, time for a meal before I rejoin the others.¡± Grabbing the remaining bandit, I activated Life Drain. As I did so, I sent a quick message to Horvath.
Lilith: Hey, finished here. I¡¯m just draining the last one. How are things on your end? Horvath: Alright. We¡¯re done too. Celeste just left to check on you, so we¡¯ll head out once you two get back.
Oh good. Just sitting here alone draining this guy was kinda boring. Looking in the direction I had come, I could see the light of a lantern slowing coming toward me, swinging around occasionally. ¡°Celeste, I¡¯m over here!¡± I called out to her, and now knowing my location she quickly came to join me. ¡°You ended up further away than I thought. Any issues?¡± I shook my head. ¡°Na, just a minor scratch or two. I¡¯m just having a quick meal before heading back.¡± ¡°So I see. Didn¡¯t want to wait till we regrouped?¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure how long he would stay mind controlled, and didn¡¯t want to risk it breaking mid-meal. He should be just about finished, so we¡¯ll head back once I¡¯m done.¡± ¡°That¡¯s kinda morbid, but alright. I¡¯ll wait.¡± ¡°Were you alright fighting human enemies? I know you two weren¡¯t sure about that.¡± ¡°Hmm, yeah. I was able to handle it while keeping in mind that it¡¯s just a game and they¡¯ll respawn soon anyway. I think Aurora was a little more troubled by it, but since she doesn¡¯t have to actually attack the enemy she was alright.¡± ¡°I see. I know there are some people who end up quitting these types of games because they struggle with that. It wasn¡¯t as big an issue before VR, but with this level of immersion it does bother some people. A lot of games avoid having humanoid enemies because of that.¡± ¡°Ah, that makes sense. I don¡¯t see us quitting anytime soon, so don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll get used to it pretty quick, and I don¡¯t see Aurora having any issues after a while.¡± As she was speaking, the bandit I was absorbing finally died. ¡°Alright, my meal¡¯s done. Let¡¯s head back.¡± Together, we rejoined the rest of the group at the wagon and continued our journey. Chapter 17: Ruins and Cities We moved on away from the location where we were ambushed by bandits for a while before stopping for dinner. Well, dinner for everyone else. I had already ¡°eaten¡±, after all. After we had stopped and light a fire, Aurora pulled out a number of cooking tools and raw ingredients from her inventory, and began to prep a meal for everyone else for the first time. ¡°Well then, while you all eat, I¡¯ll be patrolling around nearby to keep an eye out for enemies. Let me know when you¡¯re done, and I¡¯ll rejoin you.¡± As I spread my wings to take off into the air, I heard a disappointed voice behind me. ¡°... Does that mean you won¡¯t eat with us?¡± Turning around, I saw Aurora looking at me with a melancholy expression on her face. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really need to eat, and I already fed off one of the bandits so my satiety is already full. So I might¡­ might as well¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t continue. Aurora¡¯s face went from melancholy to teary, and I just couldn¡¯t bring myself to refuse anymore. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll have a little, okay?¡± Immediately, the girl¡¯s face brightened again. I decided to ignore the snickering golem and questioning looks from the other two in the corner of my vision. So they just started talking among themselves instead. ¡°What just happened? What¡¯s so funny?¡± Lucelan asked, tilting his head to one side. ¡°Well, you may have already noticed this, but Lilith is the type to usually just do whatever she wants, no matter what anyone else says. It looks like Aurora just naturally stumbled upon what may be one of the few ways to stop her. Lilith absolutely can¡¯t stand seeing a girl crying for some reason. Never could. It¡¯s a trick his sister used all the time when they were growing up to manipulate him. He¡¯s gotten to where he can ignore it when it¡¯s being done intentionally, but Aurora was genuinely upset so he practically had no choice but to give in.¡± Celeste nodded. ¡°Ah, that makes sense. Her teary face is particularly effective, too. Even offline. She¡¯s hit me with it a few times, and there¡¯s really no going against her at that point.¡± ¡°Who would have thought she would probably be the most suited to restraining Lilith. It¡¯s a shame we probably won¡¯t be able to get her to cry on cue when we need it.¡± --- Sitting down around the smouldering fire, Aurora passed around bowls of the simple stew she had prepared. ¡°... Sorry it¡¯s nothing fancy. I can¡¯t make anything but simple meals because my skill is too low.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Although as someone who doesn¡¯t need to eat my opinion may not mean much, I don¡¯t think you need to worry too much about that. You¡¯ll be able to make more things later. There¡¯s no need to rush.¡± ¡°Lilith¡¯s right, you don¡¯t need to worry. Besides, even if it¡¯s not at the level you cook at offline, this is still way better than the stuff we could buy in town.¡± I looked over at Celeste. ¡°Really, was the ready made food that bad?¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. This is the first actual food you¡¯ve eaten, isn¡¯t it. The stuff we could buy wasn¡¯t bad necessarily, but it was really bland.¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s better than rocks, but not by much.¡± ¡°You¡­ ate rocks?¡± ¡°Yeah, racial ability. Eating a material like that is one way to absorb it so I can make my body out of it. It has the advantage of counting toward the evolution and filling satiety at the same time, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be using that method again anytime soon. They¡¯re really not very appetizing.¡± ¡°And you say I do strange things, I can¡¯t think of any time I¡¯ve eaten rocks before.¡± ¡°Oh trust me, your track record is full of things far stranger than eating a rock or two.¡± Thinking about Horvath¡¯s ability to make himself out of whatever material he ate, a thought occurred to me. ¡°Ohh, I just had a great idea!¡± Horvath looked at me, his expression clearly showing that he didn¡¯t believe my sudden idea would be great. ¡°I get the feeling I¡¯m going to regret asking, but what now?¡± ¡°Well, if you ate a whole lot of meat, could you become a flesh golem? They show up occasionally in other games, a golem made up of flesh. Could you become something like that? We could start feeding you monsters and bandits and such!¡± ¡°Ah, that. I actually thought about that as well, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be an option. I can sort of sense when I¡¯ve absorbed a material I can make my body out of, and how much more I would need. When eating meat I don¡¯t get that feeling, so I¡¯m pretty sure it won¡¯t work. So I¡¯ll leave eating the bandits we come across to you.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Your loss. That just means more of these delicious bandits for me.¡± Celeste looked at me somewhat surprised. ¡°Delicious? Really? Can you actually taste the person you¡¯re feeding from?¡± ¡°No, not really. I can clearly feel the energy flowing into me from them and get a full feeling when my satiety is full, but there¡¯s no taste or anything. Which is actually probably for the best. These bandits look pretty dirty, so I doubt they¡¯d taste much better than the rocks.¡± Celeste grinned. ¡°Lucky for me, all I need is Aurora¡¯s cooking. Just like in reality.¡± ¡°... No, you should learn to cook for yourself. I might not be around to feed you one day.¡± --- After our meal, we continued to travel through the night. At night I l took my scouting trips into the air more frequently since bandits were more likely to try to sneak up on us in the dark, but I kept my altitude lower and kept the flights shorter. This was mostly because I was the only member of our group who could actually see well. The others had lamps and other light sources, and Aurora had learned a convenient spell to provide some light, but my vision was still able to see much farther than theirs could. Throughout the night and into the next morning, we ran into several more bandit ambushes in the forest. These were all spotted ahead of time, and with the element of surprise lost the bandits didn¡¯t really stand much chance against us in a fight. I made a point to regularly mind control one bandit and feed off of them before we continued our trip. Because I was continuously flying around my satiety was draining considerably faster than usual, so frequent feeding was necessary to keep me going. Around mid morning, the road we were on exited the forest into a wide grassland. Without the trees to hide in, the bandit ambushes stopped after that and we were able to travel in peace aside from the occasional attack from some weak monsters. I still took periodic flights to look around, but it was more just to see what was there than to watch for dangers to us. From the air, I could vaguely see the desert in the distance. Now that there was less risk of being attacked, we also took turns signing out for a short break in the back of the wagon, while the others continued the trip. Since there was still some danger, we only signed out one at a time, and tried to keep it short just in case. With the large time dilation of the game, even a short break in the real world ended up being a couple hours in game. When Horvath¡¯s turn came, everyone but Lucelan, who was driving the wagon, had to get out so he could fit. After he had signed out, I looked at Aurora. ¡°I suppose we¡¯ll have to walk until he gets back. I don¡¯t want to be stuck under him when he gets back. He looks pretty heavy.¡± ¡°... That¡¯s fine. I can walk for a while.¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Deciding it was about time for another scouting flight, I stretched out my wings, then had an idea. ¡°Hey, Aurora. Want to come with me while I take a look around? I should be able to carry you while I fly.¡± Aurora looked at me a moment. ¡°... I would like that, but are you sure I¡¯m not too heavy?¡± ¡°Yeah, it should be fine. I¡¯ll cast Inspire just to be safe, but I could probably carry you without it.¡± ¡°No fair! I want to see the place from the sky too!¡± Celeste pouted. ¡°I¡¯ve carried you before, remember.¡± ¡°Yeah, but that was in a fight, not just seeing the sights. I want to go too!¡± ¡°Fine, how about you can come up with me on my next trip.¡± ¡°Yay! I get to fly!¡± She began hopping up and down excitedly. ¡°Lucelan, you want a turn too?¡± I didn¡¯t want to leave the merman out. ¡°Na, I¡¯m¡­ not good with heights. I¡¯ll stay with the wagon.¡± ¡°Alright then, for now Aurora and I will be heading up. Celeste, guard duties all on you, so don¡¯t slack off.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t. Besides, there¡¯s nothing to worry about here. We would see anything already if it were going to attack us while you were gone.¡± ¡°Alright. Just send a message if something comes up and we¡¯ll come right back.¡± Saying that, I cast Inspire on myself, scooped Aurora up in a typical princess style carry, and shot off into the sky. As we reached around the altitude I had been using for my observation trips, I slowed my ascent and looked down at Aurora, and saw her eyes were shut tight. ¡°Oh, sorry. I usually move pretty fast. I guess that could be nerve wracking if you aren¡¯t expecting it. You can open your eyes now, though. We¡¯ll stay here for a bit then head back.¡± Slowly, Aurora opened her eyes and looked around. Initially she was startled by the height and clung to my neck, but she soon relaxed and began to look around. ¡°... wow.¡± ¡°Yep, it¡¯s quite a view. Hang on, I¡¯ll turn around so you can see where we came from.¡± I slowly rotated us in the air, turning to face the forest we had come out of. ¡°It give a good indication of how far we¡¯ve come. You can just barely see the grasslands on the other side of the forest, where Eridell was.¡± Aurora just silently stared at the distant scenery as I rotated us back. ¡°And off in the distance that way, you can just see the desert that we¡¯re heading for. While I¡¯m not certain, I think that¡¯s the city we¡¯re going to over there.¡± I nodded toward a small shape near the edge of the desert. ¡°... Is this what you see every time you fly up here?¡± ¡°For the most part. While we were in the forest I stayed closer to the tree tops, since it was hard to spot people in the trees, but in the open I usually come up about this high.¡± ¡°How much longer do you think it will be before we get there?¡± ¡°I would guess we¡¯ll arrive tomorrow morning or afternoon, given our current speed. It doesn¡¯t look like there will be any major obstacles to slow us down anymore.¡± I looked toward the empty road ahead of the wagon for a bit. ¡°Yep, looks like nothing is coming up that we need to be wary of. Shall we head back.¡± Aurora nodded, and I slowly began to descend back to the ground. --- Later that evening, I was once again flying and taking a look around. As had been true all day, there was nothing of note on the road. I was about to land back into the wagon, when I noticed something odd. There appeared to be some ruins tucked into a small valley a short way away from the road. Because of this, it wouldn¡¯t actually be visible from the ground. Had I not been in the air, we would have passed it without even noticing.
Lilith: Hey, the road looks clear for a while, but there are some ruins a little away from the road. I¡¯m going to go investigate them. Horvath: Alright, just don¡¯t get yourself killed.
Landing near the edge of the ruins, I took a quick look around. The ruins weren¡¯t very large, probably just a few rooms inside at the most. There didn¡¯t appear to be anyone here, but just in case I extended my claws and prepared my whip. Fully prepared, I slowly moved toward the interior of the ruins. The dust swirled in the air as I moved into the interior. Clearly, no one had been here for some time. It was dark, but that wasn¡¯t an issue. Quietly making my way to the first room, I pushed the rotten door open slowly, and stepped into the room. It was a small room, and looked like someone had lived in it at some point. There was an ancient bed pushed against one wall, and bookshelves against the walls. While there may have been a legible book or two on the shelves still, most seemed to have long since decayed to the point of uselessness. I decided to save checking for any good books there for later, and moved on to the next room. Next there were two doors, one on either side of the small hallway connecting them all to the front entrance. I picked one at random, and gently opened the door with a loud creak. In this room there was only a staircase leading downward, with a door barring the bottom of the stairs. I took a step toward the stairs to investigate further, but then I heard a sound from behind me. I spun around, to find several skeletons quickly charging out of the door toward me. Behind them were lumbering a couple fleshy undead that I assume were a type of zombie. I tried to cast Frenzy on a couple of them but as one would expect, mindless undead monsters cannot be mind controlled. Funny how that works, but definitely a major disadvantage for me. I was now basically limited to my whip and claws to fight my way through. Even my usual tactic of interrupting heavy attacks with migraine wouldn¡¯t work this time. Given I was at a major disadvantage, I decided rather than continuing, my goal now was to escape the ruins and get back with the others. We could come back later as a group and explore this place properly. Activating the flame spell on my whip, I lashed it out at the nearest skeleton. The impact clearly damaged it, and several bones actually went flying off of it¡¯s body, including an entire arm. It didn¡¯t die, but still backed off a bit. I lashed at another with my claws, but they didn¡¯t do much of anything, only scratching the bones a bit. Even my claws were going to be ineffective here. On the other hand, the skeletons bony fingers were doing a good bit of damage to me when they hit. ¡°Hmm, this could be bad.¡± I flicked my whip toward a second skeleton, sending it¡¯s skull flying into a wall. This skeleton didn¡¯t die either, but the body did turn and walk toward the skull. It seems when I knock parts off of them, the skeletons were trying to reclaim their lost members before resuming the fight. It would actually be kind of adorable if they weren¡¯t trying to kill me when whole. At any rate, I was able to clear enough room to slip out the door and back into the hallway. Thankfully, the zombies were slow, so they hadn¡¯t gotten to a position where they could block my path yet. I don¡¯t know if my claws would have been more effective on them, but it seemed like it would be gross to scratch at them, either way. Once in the clear, I pumped my wings and quickly dashed back to the exit and out of the ruins. I took to the sky again, and turned to watch for a short while. The undead didn¡¯t come out of their crypt, though, so before long I returned to the group as the sun set in the distance. I would be coming back here. My instincts as a gamer tell me it would be valuable to explore what was under those ruins. But for now, I needed to get Aurora to patch me up after this. I was thoroughly chastised for my risky behavior while getting healed up, and forbidden from any such solo adventures for a while. Not that being banned from things has ever stopped me before, but for now I supposed I could be obedient. --- The next morning, our wagon was still rolling along the road, but the city was now clearly visible even from the ground. Overnight the grasslands we had been travelling through had gradually given way to desert, and now vegetation was quite scarce on the side of the road. The city ahead of us was not as big as Eridell, but was still quite a large city. Most of the buildings seemed to be made of an adobe like material, including the walls that surrounded the large castle where I assumed the governor of the city resided. This city was a part of the kingdom of Astoenn so they were still under the King who lived in Eridell, but the governor¡¯s castle here was just as grand as the castle there had been. I was actually surprised there wasn¡¯t a wall around the entire city like there had been in Eridell. This city is on the border, and as such could come under attack if there was ever a war. I suppose since the border it lies on is with the unowned Grand Central Desert, there wasn¡¯t any real danger of invasion like that. At most, they would have monsters roaming in from the desert. By this point, I had returned to my disguised appearance, looking once again like the twins. We passed a few people on the road, both those going out to hunt and those beginning a trip of their own. With the latter, we would stop and talk a bit about the city, and tell them of the dangers on the road ahead. As we reached the city, a middle aged guard at the side of the road stopped us a moment. ¡°Welcome to Al Omand. Please state your business here.¡± Lucelan nodded. ¡°I am a merchant, and these are my hired guards. We have heard the Desert Nomad Caravan will be arriving here soon, and wish to deal with them.¡± ¡°Ah, you¡¯ve heard correctly. We expect them to arrive in a few days. Is this your first time here?¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯re all newcomers who have only recently started travelling.¡± ¡°I see, that explains why you have no wares in your wagon. Well then, take my advice. The day after tomorrow, be at the road on the western side of the city. There will be an interesting spectacle there you may be interested in seeing. You all are free to enter the city, but please do not try to enter the castle.¡± ¡°Thank you. By the way, is there a place we can get basic information about the city. We need to find lodging and directions.¡± The guard nodded. ¡°Ah, right. If you head to that building over there,¡± he pointed toward a large, two story adobe building, ¡°you¡¯ll be able to find information and jobs around town. There¡¯s room to park the wagon around the back. It¡¯s all freelance work, so you don¡¯t need to be in any organization to take it, and they¡¯ll help just about anyone aside from criminals.¡± ¡°I see, we¡¯ll head there. Thank you very much.¡± With that, we took our first steps into Al Omand. Chapter 18: Al Omand ¡°Well, with that it looks like we¡¯ve safely arrived. I have to thank you all, I would certainly not have made it here on my own.¡± Lucelan began after we had pulled the wagon behind the building the guard had indicated. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. We were helped too and you are paying us, so it¡¯s not like we were doing this as charity.¡± ¡°Haha, that¡¯s true. Speaking of which,¡± Lucelan materialized a bag of money, ¡°here¡¯s the agreed on pay for getting me here. I feel like it¡¯s less than you probably could have gotten from other, more wealthy merchants¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°Maybe, but I would have had to stay in disguise the whole time, and taking the job at all was more of a whim anyway. Like you, we¡¯re not really seeking to become the wealthiest. We¡¯re just looking to¡­ um¡­ actually we don¡¯t really have a goal yet. I suppose we¡¯ll have to figure that out once we get our whole group together.¡± ¡°Out of curiousity, what are you guys going to do now? You mentioned you were coming to meet with the Nomads, but you¡¯ve got a couple days until then.¡± ¡°I need to sign out a bit and call Ash- er, Simona.¡± Horvath said. ¡°I¡¯ll probably be off for a while, so you¡¯ll be tankless.¡± ¡°Hmm, I guess I¡¯ll explore the city for now, then. How about you?¡± I asked, turning back to Lucelan. ¡°First, I¡¯m going to try to find people to buy some of my merchandise. I am a merchant, after all. Also I want to lighten my load before meeting with the Nomads.¡± ¡°I see, I suppose this is where we part then. Good luck. Feel free to contact us if you ever need help with something. We¡¯d be glad to help if we can.¡± ¡°Thanks. Likewise, if you find you need anything from me, all you need to do is ask. Hopefully, we¡¯ll cross paths again eventually.¡± With that, Lucelan turned and started toward what looked like a large bazaar, with numerous people buying and selling at a number of small booths. After Horvath signed out, I turned toward the twins. ¡°What do you two want to do? Like I said, I¡¯m just going to explore the city for a while. I need to find places with low traffic and poor guard presence, as well as anything interesting to spend the next couple days doing.¡± Celeste looked at me questioningly. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I already know the answer, but why are you looking for empty, unguarded places?¡± I just smiled. ¡°A girl¡¯s gotta eat, you know. And for me, that¡¯s a lot easier in places like that.¡± ¡°... Isn¡¯t it safer to feed off us?¡± I was actually surprised Aurora brought it up. I figured she¡¯d be avoiding it whenever she could after the rather embarrassing time in the goblin cave. ¡°While that¡¯s true, I doubt you want to go through that any more than you have to. In a city like this I can usually find a meal pretty easily, so you can serve as a last resort.¡± ¡°... but if you get caught, you¡¯ll be hunted and killed, right. It would be better in a private inn room. Besides, unlike in dungeons and on the road, you can use your mind control to stop the side effects, so it should be alright.¡± Oh, I had forgotten we could do that since there was no risk. Not that I¡¯ll admit that of course. ¡°You forgot you could do that, didn¡¯t you?¡± Celeste asked with a grin. Dang it. ¡°No, not at all. I totally didn¡¯t forget that there¡¯s a harmless and safe way for me to feed in town and there was no reason for me to risk getting into trouble. Yep. I totally remembered.¡± Celeste sighed. ¡°Sure. Anyway, we¡¯ll be feeding you in private later, than. I¡¯m kinda curious how the mind control thing works on players, since the game can¡¯t manipulate them like it does with the NPCs.¡± ¡°True, I haven¡¯t tried that yet. Still, I¡¯m kinda surprised you were still alright with that arrangement, even after finding out I¡¯m actually a guy.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Ah, that. Honestly since we¡¯ve never met you as a guy, it still doesn¡¯t feel real. I tend to forget when I don¡¯t think about it.¡± Aurora beside her nodded in agreement. ¡°Besides, we¡¯ve known you long enough to know you won¡¯t try to do anything funny. Although that¡¯s a strange thing to say, since we only met yesterday in reality. This time dilation thing is kinda weird.¡± I suppose that makes sense. These two only know me as Lilith, so it would be hard to separate that from the unknown person they don¡¯t know controlling her. ¡°Actually, that reminds me. There¡¯s something I was hoping I could get you two to help with it.¡± ¡°Hmm, sure. What do you need?¡± --- A while later, we set forth again into the town. This time, my hair was done in a nice braid that hung down over my shoulder. Coincidentally, it actually looked similar to the style Samantha had worn back in Eridell. The favor I had asked for, was that they do my hair for me. After all, I¡¯ve always kept my hair short in reality, so I never learned to do all those fancy hair style things that women do. Well some women. It turns out Celeste keeps her hair short offline too, so it was mostly Aurora fixing mine for me. It actually took a while, as they experimented with various styles before settling on this one for now. They were pretty clear that this was only a temporary style, and that they would be changing it again regularly from here on. I might come to regret asking them to do this for me. Anyway, we were now wandering around town. Since I no longer needed to look for places to hide while I fed, we were now just wandering aimlessly. We did occasionally stop and look at shops for new ingredients and cooking equipment for Aurora, but for the most part we were just walking with no objective in particular. Al Omand was considerably less organized than Eridell had been. The roads were often winding and it would be very easy to get lost in the back alleys. Rather than having distinct districts where different types of goods could be obtained, there were a number of bazaars throughout the city, where all manner of items were sold at small booths. Nearly all of the buildings in the city were similar in appearance, being made of the same hardened dirt and sand. However, the city avoided being extremely drab by decorating everything with colorful flags and awnings. Overall, it gave the city an almost festive feeling. Adding to the festiveness of the city was the general air of excitement over the approaching arrival of the Nomads. It seems that the few days they would be camped near the city were sort of like a holiday. While most merchants would be attempting to trade with them both around their encampment and here in the city, many other businesses would be closed. Nearly everyone intended to spend at least some time visiting their traders. Around evening, we returned to the area we had split up with Lucelan and Horvath at in the morning. We intended to base ourselves in this area while we were staying here, since it was conveniently located near the place where we could find work. Plus, Horvath should be coming back online soon, and we figured we could get a room at one of the inns near there while we waited for him. Besides, I was about due for a meal. Aurora, whose turn it was to feed me, sat in a chair opposite me. Celeste looked on curiously from the side.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going to use my ability and put you under mind control. I need you to look at my eyes.¡± Aurora nodded and locked her eyes on mine. I was a little concerned that her willpower might be high enough to resist, but it seemed that wasn¡¯t the case and I was able to properly use my ability, leaving her sitting limply staring at me. I then took her hands and activated Life Drain while talking with Celeste. ¡°This could be interesting. I don¡¯t know her stats, but I imagine her willpower is decently high. I know that robe gives her a nice boost to it as well. There¡¯s a very real possibility she¡¯ll regain control before I¡¯m finished.¡± The duration of my Seduce skill is dependant on both my Charisma and my target''s Willpower. Luckily, by now Charisma was actually my highest stat, especially when combined with my title that gives be a bonus to the stat. Still, I better keep an eye on Aurora just in case. ¡°Hmm, that could be interesting. I don¡¯t think she¡¯ll be as upset as the first time, though. I think a big part of that was embarrassment. At most, she might struggle with eye contact for a bit again.¡± In the end, we didn¡¯t need to worry too much about it. My satiety bar reached full and I cut off the life drain. Not long afterward, Seduce wore off, though. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to have her fight, then drain her completely like I did with the bandits on the way here. Clearly her willpower is a good bit higher than theirs was. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re back. How was the mind control?¡± Celeste asked, seeing Aurora regain her faculties. ¡°... Strange. It was like I could see, but I couldn¡¯t recognize anything. Everything was just a blur. I could hear you talking, but the only thing I understood was when Lilith told me to put my hands in hers. Even then, I had no control over my body. It moved itself, I was only aware that it was doing as it was told.¡± ¡°Hmm, that actually sounds pretty unpleasant. Maybe I should put some points into willpower to protect from it.¡± ¡°... Yeah. I wouldn¡¯t want this to happen normally. Feeding Lilith is one thing, but anything else I don¡¯t want to lose control.¡± I just shrugged. ¡°Well, don¡¯t invest too many points or I won¡¯t be able to do it either and you¡¯ll be stuck feeding me without the mind control. I think this is preferable for everyone involved.¡± Both girls agreed with that. Glancing at my friends list, I noticed Horvath had signed in while I was feeding. I sent him a quick message to let him know where we were, than we headed out to meet with him. ¡°So, how¡¯s Simona doing?¡± I asked once we were back together. ¡°She¡¯s doing fine. Actually, it sounds like she¡¯s doing well for being stuck figuring most things out on her own.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. I was honestly a little concerned.¡± ¡°Yeah, me too.¡± Horvath¡¯s expression became troubled. ¡°Unfortunately, she¡¯s also taken up her old hobby in the game as well.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but start laughing at that. The twins looked at me curiously, so I had to explain. ¡°Simona is a prolific knitter. Every winter in school, Horvath was wearing a new, hand made scarf or hat. One year she went all out and made an entire sweater for him. Unfortunately for him, while they were warm these were generally not the most stylish winter apparel available. She¡¯s good at creating them, but not so good at coming up with attractive designs. But he wore them anyway, albeit a bit reluctantly. He wisely decided it would be better to look a bit goofy than to upset his girlfriend. And now that¡¯s going to continue in SWO.¡± After my explanation, the twins both started giggling as well. ¡°Oh come on, it¡¯s not that funny is it?¡± ¡°Yes, it absolutely is. I¡¯m just imagining you now, but in an oversized sweater. This is great, she¡¯s going to make a fantastic addition to our dysfunctional little group, and I didn¡¯t even need to influence her at all.¡± Horvath just sighed. ¡°Anyway, she¡¯s looking forward to meeting up with us in a few days, but what should we do until then?¡± After discussing it for a while, we decided to take a job hunting monsters near the city, and planned to go to the western road to see the spectacle the guard had mentioned. We didn¡¯t really need the job, but it was a way to spend the time productively while waiting. The monsters we were hunting were a type of large scorpion that was native to the desert. They weren¡¯t especially strong, but could poison someone if we weren¡¯t careful. Luckily, Aurora¡¯s wand gave her a spell to remove that, so we weren¡¯t in any real danger. Interestingly, when defeated these scorpions usually only dropped their shells, but occasionally we would also get the venom gland. While we could probably sell them, I was somewhat curious what else could be done with them, so I planned to keep a few much to Horvath¡¯s objection. Like that, we passed our second day and night in Al Omand, and finally in the morning we headed over to the western side of the city. There was already a small crowd gathered, made up of both NPCs and players like us who had been told something interesting would happen. Thanks to Horvath¡¯s size, we were able to push into the crowd to get a position with a clear view. In the distance there was something coming out of the desert toward the city. Looking carefully, it seemed to be a man on the back of a large beast. While it was hard to make out any details, the man appeared to be wearing a bright red cloth hood, with what was probably leather armor on his body. The beast he was riding wasn¡¯t anything I had seen before, and was certainly not around in the real world. It was similar to a horse in some aspects, but the head was hunched forward. Much of its body was covered in armor, with several armored spikes protruding from the muscular neck. The saddle that the man was seated in seemed to be decorated in a number of very colorful cloths, much like the city was. For some reason, decorations like that seemed to be common in this region. After a while, the rider came closer and I could see he was indeed wearing a leather chestpiece, with baggy clothes covering his body underneath. He also wore a facemask to keep the sand out of his mouth while he rode, leaving only his eyes visible. As he approached, two guards from the town marched out to meet him. They both wore clean, freshly pressed uniforms. Clearly, they were only there to greet this visitor. The man approached them, then brought his beast to a halt. ¡°I bring a message from my lord Jamal, the present leader of the Caravan of the Grand Desert. I seek an audience with the lord of this city.¡± He said this loudly enough that the entire crowd could hear it, and bowed respectfully toward the two guards before him. The guards returned the bow, and spoke just as loudly as the messenger had. ¡°We welcome you, messenger of the Caravan. Please wait while the Governor is summoned.¡± I leaned toward Horvath, who was next to me. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t they usually just bring the messenger to the governor¡¯s mansion? It seems odd to summon him to the outskirts.¡± An older man who was near us chuckled. ¡°First time here, eh missy. They go through this every time. It¡¯s true they would usually deliver the message to the mansion, but in this case they make a big show of it to drum up excitement for the nomads arrival. It¡¯s all for show, after all.¡± Ah, that makes sense. That also explains the oddly loud conversation between the guards and the messenger. A short while later, a man I could only assume was the governor arrived, surrounded by a large number of guards. After working their way through the crowd, the guards fanned out, allowing the governor to approach the messenger while they were positioned around the whole proceeding. ¡°Greetings, messenger of the Caravan. I am Governor Tarrik of Al Omand. What is this message which you have been dispatched to deliver?¡± ¡°My thanks, lord Tarrik. In accordance with our laws which have been handed down for generations within the caravan, I have been sent today to request your permission to encamp ourselves near your city for a short while. We will be pleased to freely trade with your people while we are here, and would seek to enrich both ourselves and this city which you govern.¡± ¡°I understand. I hereby grant your Caravan permission to encamp themselves in this area, where we now stand. May our dealings be fruitful and profitable to both sides. Should you and your people require aid while you are here, you are free to request it, as you are hereby guests of this city until you decide to continue on your journey.¡± ¡°My thanks for your kind words. We of the Caravan of the Grand Desert have long learned to be self sufficient, and take great pride in that. Thus, please do not be offended if we do not come to you for aid. I shall now return to my lord Jamal with your permission. In about a day¡¯s time, expect the arrival of our Caravan to this area.¡± As the crowd began to cheer, the messenger bowed again, then turned his mount around and rode back into the desert. After seeing him off, the Governor also turned back toward the city, his guards closing around him once more to escort him back to his mansion. The older man from earlier chuckled. ¡°Hehe, it¡¯s the same every time, but it¡¯s still fun to see. The governor always offers them aid, and they always turn it down. Is this the first time you folks see the nomads, missy?¡± I nodded. ¡°We¡¯re all a group of newcomers, so this is the first opportunity we¡¯ve had.¡± ¡°I see, I see. Well, you¡¯re in for quite a treat. These nomads are an interesting bunch, and their caravan is unlike anything else you¡¯ll ever see. And if you need anything at all, chances are you¡¯ll be able to buy it off of them.¡± Thanking the man, I looked back at the empty desert outside the city. Tomorrow this would be the encampment for the Caravan, and we would gain another party member. Then once Amber got here, we would be ready to really get out into the world. Chapter 19: Arrival The next morning, we were once again going to the road into the desert that the messenger had come down the previous day. We had spent the rest of that day uneventfully hunting the scorpions around town much like we had been beforehand. I now had quite a collection of venom glands, but honestly I was beginning to think I should take up some sort of in game hobby to spend my spare time on something other than hunting. I still didn¡¯t even have a use for these things. I just figured they could come in handy, or at least entertaining, eventually. At any rate, now we were headed back at the western side of the city to watch as the caravan arrived. We knew that in this fantasy world, a caravan of desert nomads would be different than we had expected, but what we saw when we got there was beyond anyone¡¯s expectations. ¡°...Wow¡­¡± ¡°They¡¯re huge¡­¡± Gradually moving toward Al Omand were three enormous beatles swaying slightly as they moved. Their extremely thick shells had been hollowed out to create a cavern, and within these caverns were what appeared to be small cities. Around the feet of the beetles were numerous people on smaller mounts, presumably the escorts to protect the caravan. Though if anything was able to be a threat to those beatles, I don¡¯t see how a band of guards could do much about it. Suddenly, we heard a slight chuckling from behind us. Turning around, we found the older man from yesterday standing there. ¡°Hehehe, I figured you folks would be back today. This your first time seeing a Giant Desert Scarab?¡± I nodded. ¡°Yeah, it is. I had expected they would have something interesting, but this was beyond my expectations.¡± ¡°Oh indeed. As far as I know, these Nomads are the only people in the world to tame them, and they guard the secrets of how to do it very closely. It might be the only thing in the caravan that¡¯s not for sale. You see there on it¡¯s back. They¡¯ve carved out an entire living quarters in there, and expand it as the Scarab grows. It¡¯s a cramped way of living usually, but it sure beats walking through the desert. Still, you can¡¯t really blame them for all wanting off once they stop.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t just stay on the scarabs?¡± ¡°No, no. You¡¯ll see when they get here. They¡¯ll all come pouring off the scarabs and set up a bunch of tents all around them. That¡¯s where they¡¯ll live while they¡¯re here. Then they¡¯ll set up more tents and booths between their living tents and the city to make a marketplace. That¡¯s what the governor was offering to help with yesterday. They always decline, and I imagine it¡¯s because they know what they¡¯re doing, and are good at it too. We¡¯d likely just be getting in the way and slowing them down.¡± ¡°I see, that does make sense.¡± The man laughed again. ¡°Yep, it does. Anyway missy, you and your friends enjoy. The caravan should be ready to let folks come trade in a few hours at this rate. Take care of yourselves.¡± He waved, then sautered off toward another group of players. He seemed to just really like explaining the scarabs to people like us who hadn¡¯t seen them before, as he immediately began chatting with them about the same thing. Before long, we began feeling the ground shake slightly with each step from the scarabs. Finally, from somewhere in the caravan a shrill whistle sounded, echoing across the desert. The three scarabs stopped their advance, then slowly lowered their bodies to the ground causing a small earthquake that nearly knocked us off our feet. Impressively, the riders around the scarabs didn¡¯t seem to mind and continued their patrols as if nothing had happened. Once the scarabs had settled to the ground and stopped moving, a number of ramps and ladders were tossed off their sides, and the people who had been living in the shell quickly rushed down and began setting up their tents, just like the older man had told us. Meanwhile, a small group began to ride towards the city on mounts similar to the one the messenger had ridden on yesterday. ¡°Greetings, people of Al Omand. I am Jamal, present leader of the Caravan of the Grand Desert. I would ask you all to remain in your city until we have completed our decampment. I will make an announcement when we are prepared to begin. I promise, it will not take us long. My thanks in advance for your cooperation.¡± After making his announcement, he continued toward the city, where his entourage was joined by a number of the city guard and they began toward the governor''s mansion. I glanced up at Horvath. ¡°Guess that means you¡¯ve got to wait a little longer, huh.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. She warned me ahead of time that it would be like this. Apparently they have this down to an art though, and it really doesn¡¯t take very long to unpack and get everything set up.¡± ¡°I¡¯d believe it. Look how quickly that tent city has sprung up, after all.¡± A while later, Jamal and his guards returned from the city and rode back into the caravan. By this point, the caravaners had mostly finished setting up the colorful living tents near the scarabs, and had begun to assemble the marketplace closer to us. It almost looked like a swarm of ants as they quickly assembled the various booths. Even children seemed to know what their jobs were, and did them without requiring instruction. I suppose it makes sense. They do this frequently, and if everyone is involved the setup time is short. Occasionally, I noticed some of the caravan¡¯s guards would ride off somewhere in a hurry, and large clouds of sand would rise from behind the encampment. I suppose they¡¯re dealing with various desert monsters approaching from behind. I wonder if that¡¯s where most of the players are. Most of us would be more interested in combat type tasks after all, rather than full time merchants. Though there are some players like Lucelan as well, who want to be traders and craftsmen. Only a couple hours later, Jamal and his entourage once again road towards the city. By now, a small city had been assembled on what had just been a patch of desert outside of the city yesterday. ¡°Allow me to once again greet you, people of Al Omand. Thank you all for your patience. I am here now to announce that we are now prepared to welcome you all into our marketplace and encampment. For the next several days, we will be open for business here.¡± A loud cheer rang out from both the city and the marketplace. ¡°Well, we now have permission to head over there. Shall we go find Simona?¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve been talking to her. She¡¯s helping the guards in the rear, so we need to head over there.¡± ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go pick her up, then we can browse through the market later.¡± As we made our way through the nomads encampment, I was quite impressed by the variety of available items. Because they travel around trading with various groups, they had merchandise from most of the different racial and cultural groups on the continent. Even if a nation didn¡¯t border the desert, they still had managed to stock items from them through one of their trade partners. After we find Simona, we should really spend some time browsing through the marketplace to see if we can find anything interesting.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Eventually, we reached the rear of the encampment and looked around. ¡°Any idea where she is?¡± ¡°She said she was asked to go take care of a few monsters, so she should be out fighting somewhere. We can wait here for her.¡± I see. Waiting here is certainly an option, but I had a better idea. Looking around, I saw a man giving orders to various groups of NPC guards and players. I approached him. ¡°Hello, could you help me with something?¡± The guard turned toward me. ¡°I¡¯m a bit busy, but I¡¯ll hear you out at least. What do you need?¡± ¡°Thanks, It¡¯ll be quick. A friend of ours named Simona was sent out recently to fight some monsters. I was hoping you could tell me where she went.¡± The man smiled. ¡°Ah, you¡¯re her friends she was waiting for. Sure, she went that way.¡± he pointed toward the desert where there seemed to be some sand being kicked up by a fight obscuring the visibility. ¡°If you hurry, you might even be able to help out. There were quite a few monsters that popped up over there, so we could use every hand we can get.¡± ¡°Sure, thanks. We¡¯ll head off that way then.¡± I turned back to the others with a smile. ¡°Well, then, shall we go collect Simona.¡± Horvath just sighed as he brought his equipment out of his inventory. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go do this.¡± Arriving at the battle, we found several small groups fighting off a large horde of the scorpions we had been fighting for the last few days. As we approached, a mage near the back called out to us. ¡°Oh, are you all reinforcements? We could use the help.¡± I shook my head. ¡°We are, but we¡¯re also looking for someone named Simona. Any idea where we might find her?¡± ¡°Ah, that¡¯s convenient. We sent all the solos out on the left flank, which is where I was about to send you all. Since they aren¡¯t used to working together, their cooperation was lacking a bit. They got hit pretty hard and are barely hanging on now, and we¡¯re already spread too thin to reinforce them. Could you all go there and help?¡± ¡°Sure. Still, this is a lot of monsters. We¡¯ve been hunting them for a couple days now, but I¡¯ve never seen this many at once.¡± The mage nodded and cast another spell before answering. ¡°This happens any time the caravan stops. The earthquake when the scarabs settle excites all the monsters in the area and draws them to us for some reason. We always station extra guards at the rear and flanks for that reason.¡± ¡°I see, we¡¯ll be off then. Thanks.¡± She just waved at me as we headed out. When we reached the flank, I was surprised to see just how badly things were. A number of the guards and players were suffering from damage and poison, and there weren¡¯t enough healers to go around. Not too surprising if they sent all the players that weren¡¯t in a party over here. Healers are in high demand in any game, so it¡¯s pretty rare to find one without a party. Horvath surveyed the scene. ¡°Aurora, looks like there¡¯s a lot of work here for you. Try to help out the others when you can, but keep us as the primary focus.¡± ¡°Hmm, I wish I could transform, but that would probably cause a bit of a commotion.¡± With that, we dove into the fray. Horvath used his abilities to draw enemy attention to himself, bringing a number of the scorpions to us and off of the other players. Once he had their attention Celeste launched into a charge, impaling one scorpion on her spear while slamming her buckler into a second. Unfortunately the scorpion was much more stable than most of the enemies we had fought so far, so she wasn¡¯t able to knock it down. Still, the shield blow was enough to stun the scorpion for a moment. Aiming for that stunned scorpion, I launched an Ice Spike into it, before casting Frenzy on a few of the scorpions in the back. Several players and guards were surprised to see a few of the scorpions turn on each other, but they quickly recovered and continued to fight. A few other tanks stepped up and Horvath quickly organized them into an impromptu rotation. This way, they could switch who had the attention, giving the others a chance to rest and recover. As much as he doesn¡¯t like to be in the lead, he really is good at taking command when he needs to. Aurora and the few other healers we did have did everything they could for the injured, but only a few had a spell to handle the poison. Unfortunately for Aurora, she couldn¡¯t cast the Purify spell from her wand often. The cost was too high, so to conserve mana she had to use it sparingly. As I continued to cast Ice Spikes and Frenzy when I could, one of the other mages approached me. ¡°You guys came at just the right time. Things were looking a bit rough here.¡± ¡°Glad we could help. The guard handing out orders told us to come here.¡± He cast a fireball into the crowd of scorpions. ¡°Ah, you came from the city, right? Why¡¯d you come to the rear of the encampment, instead of going through the marketplace like most folks?¡± I hit a scorpion coming up behind Celeste with an Ice Spike before answering. ¡°We¡¯re looking for a player named Simona. We¡¯re gonna be grouping after this.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± he launched a flaming arrow at another scorpion before calling out. ¡°Hey, Simona, these guys are your party!¡± A young woman with deep red hair and tanned skin came jogging over to me with a smile. She had two short scimitars on her belt, and wore thick clothes instead of armor. ¡°Hmm, you guys are Horvath and Lilith?¡± ¡°Yep, I¡¯m Lilith. Good to see you ag-¡± before I could finish, Simona had thrown her arms around my neck. This has been a habit of hers for as long as I¡¯ve known her. If it¡¯s a close friend, she¡¯ll greet them with a hug if it¡¯s been more than a couple days since they last met. I found it a bit uncomfortable at first, but after knowing her for years I¡¯ve gotten used to it. ¡°It¡¯s been awhile, how have you been?¡± She asked, letting go of me. ¡°I¡¯ve been fine, but we can catch up later. We should probably finish up here first.¡± I sent her an invite to our party. ¡°By the way, Horvath¡¯s the big statue over there, if you were wondering. Celeste is the spearwoman running around, and Aurora over there is our healer. We¡¯ll do proper introductions later¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go help out by Horvath then.¡± She said with a wave and trotted off. I fired off another Frenzy spell before turning back to the mage who had called Simona over initially. ¡°I¡¯m kinda surprised. Everyone I talk to seems to know who Simona is.¡± ¡°Ah, that¡¯s pretty standard for the Caravan. They¡¯re a tight knit group. Living quarters are pretty cramped and we always work in groups when helping the guards, so we all got to know each other.¡± He said, firing off yet another fireball. ¡°By the way, how are you making the scorpions fight each other?¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s Mind Magic. I opted for more of a support mage, and my class specializes in that. In fact, my only real attack spell is coming from my equipment.¡± As if to emphasize that point, I cast another Ice Spike. ¡°That makes sense. Support''s not really my thing, but it does seem interesting. And the chaos it¡¯s causing is pretty handy.¡± ¡°Yep, it definitely helps with crowd control. A lot less useful against bosses, though. I¡¯ve got a few tricks up my sleeves for them, but I really excel at these types of situations.¡± Unfortunately, by this point, my mana was low. As I downed a mana potion, my conversation partner did the same. While I waited for my mana to recharge, I turned my attention toward the other people fighting. Particularly Simona. Her combat style was highly mobile and seemed to focus more on speed and number of attacks, rather than strength of the blows. Unlike Celeste who also focused on charging and mobility, Simona mostly would move in small circles and spin about while swinging her blades. Her fighting was almost like a dance, aside from the corpses piling up around her. Also, the somewhat serene smile on her face as she fought was rather alarming. I sent a message to Horvath, who was currently recovering while someone else held the enemies attention.
Lilith: Hey, was your girlfriend always that scary? Horvath: No, that¡¯s new. I mean, that expression is the same one she has when she¡¯s dancing, but it really is a little unnerving in the middle of a battle, isn¡¯t it? That said, you¡¯re not really one to talk. Lilith: Sure I am. I was doing it on purpose to be eerie. I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯s just smiling because she¡¯s enjoying herself. That¡¯s far more unnerving.
I noticed Horvath shaking his head in where he was kneeling, but he apparently decided not to respond. By then, my mana was recovered enough to fight again, so I resumed my barrage of Frenzies and Ice Spikes on the scorpions. shortly thereafter we were reinforced by a group of mounted guards, who performed a swift cavalry charge into the swarm. With their help, we were finally able to clear out the last of the monsters and return to the encampment. Chapter 20: Market of the Nomads ¡°Ah, you¡¯re back. Thanks a lot for helping out. Sorry we couldn¡¯t get the riders over there to break the horde sooner, they got a bit hung up with one of the other groups. Looks like you all held out pretty well, though.¡± The head guard called out to us as soon as he saw us that had been set up as headquarters for the guards after we left for the battle with the scorpions. I smiled and shook my head. ¡°Not a problem. We¡¯ve got some experience with these types of battles, so things worked out pretty well.¡± I didn¡¯t mention that thanks to this battle my collection of poison glands was now getting big enough that even I was starting to worry about what I would end up doing with them. I¡¯m pretty sure by that point Horvath was making a conscious effort not to think about it. The head guard chuckled as he handed us our payment for the battle. ¡°That so? I kinda wish we could keep you all around, then. But seeing as you¡¯ve got Ms. Simona with you, I suppose that means you¡¯ll be leaving the caravan now?¡± Simona nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. Thanks for all the help up to now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about that, it¡¯s part of the job. I wish we could keep you, but it¡¯s the path you chose, and it¡¯s our way to allow anyone the freedom to choose a path. Still, if you ever want to come back, you¡¯ll always be welcome with the caravan. That goes for you and your companions.¡± After thanking the head guard again, we exited the tent and looked around. ¡°Well, then, do we want to explore the market, or should we find a private place to talk first and go through proper introductions and explanations?¡± Horvath glanced at the crowded marketplace. ¡°I vote we handle the discussions first. Hopefully the crowds will die down some by the time we¡¯re finished with all that. Is there anywhere we can get some privacy around here?¡± He turned to Simona. ¡°Hmm, privacy? Not really. The nomads live in pretty close quarters, so there¡¯s no real sense of privacy among them. Everything is done with a group.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I suppose we can head back to the city then.¡± ¡°Why?¡± I turned a questioning look to Simona. ¡°Why do we need privacy if we¡¯re just properly introducing ourselves?¡± ¡°Um¡­ There are certain reasons we need to have the discussion in private. It¡¯ll make sense, trust me.¡± ¡°Oh, you mean your race. Horvath already told me about that, so you don¡¯t need to.¡± I glared at Horvath. ¡°Why?! Why did you go and ruin my fun?!¡± ¡°Hmm, I figured we¡¯d be travelling together, so she might as well know.¡± ¡°But now, I don¡¯t get to surprise her with the dramatic reveal. Do you have any idea how much fun those are?¡± I heard a snickering behind me, but ignored it. ¡°Is that really that fun?¡± He shrugged. ¡°Well, too late now. You can still do it to Amber when she gets here.¡± ¡°Na, I already told her about it on the phone, so it won¡¯t work.¡± ¡°Wait, you¡¯re getting mad at me for doing that, but you did the same thing!¡± The snickering behind me transitioned to muffled giggling. I might have to do something about that soon. ¡°Anyway, I suppose we don¡¯t need privacy then.¡± I motioned toward the twins behind me while facing Simona. ¡°These are the twins I picked up the other day and tricked into coming with me. The one utterly failing to hide her laughter is Celeste, and the quiet one beside her is Aurora. Girls, this is Simona.¡± While Simona went to become better acquainted with the twins, Horvath shook his head. ¡°You really aren¡¯t good at introductions, are you.¡± ¡°What do you want? I introduced them properly. At any rate, we¡¯ve got an odd little party going, don¡¯t we. Half are new to gaming in general, and we¡¯re fairly melee heavy.¡± ¡°Yeah, this might get interesting. I hope Amber has something other than a dagger this time.¡± ¡°True, she¡¯s hard to predict. I¡¯ll ask her. I wanted to check when she¡¯ll be getting here anyway.¡±
Lilith: Hey, couple questions. First, what type of weapon are you using? Horvath and I are trying to come up with tactics and such. Amber: Liar, you probably just realized you¡¯ve got 5 melee fighters and were wondering if I would be a sixth. And I¡¯m using a crossbow. There¡¯s some other features of my class, but I¡¯ll tell you more about them later when I get there. Lilith: Actually it¡¯s only 3 and 1 part timer. So 3 and a half? Anyway, that¡¯s probably good. Also, when are you getting here? Amber: Hmm, it¡¯s hard to say exactly, but I¡¯d guess tomorrow afternoon/evening. Lilith: Great. Send me a message when you get here and we¡¯ll come meet you.
Looking away from the messaging screen, I found Simona and Celeste tightly clinging to a very uncomfortable looking Aurora, while Horvath was trying to convince them to let her go. ¡°Um¡­ what did I miss?¡± I paused a moment, then shrugged. ¡°Anyway, Amber will be reaching town sometime tomorrow, and is using a crossbow, so we¡¯ve got 3 and a half melee fighters total.¡± Horvath shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m somewhat impressed how easily you dismissed the situation in front of you. Still, that¡¯s good. And are you counting yourself as that half?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m like a part time melee fighter. So, what is happening here?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not exactly sure myself. The three of them were chatting, then suddenly this just happened. I wasn¡¯t paying attention, so I don¡¯t really know what they were talking about.¡± I nodded. ¡°Well, this is pretty typical behavior for Simona, after all. I wonder if this is her general hugginess, her love of small cuddleable things, or something else.¡± ¡°¡®Hugginess¡¯? I¡¯m pretty sure you just made up that word. Still, it is fitting I suppose.¡± ¡°It really is. Anyway, we should probably stop them now. I think Aurora might explode if we don¡¯t.¡± I turned to the bundle of girls. ¡°You should probably let go soon. I don¡¯t think she can take much more.¡± Both Simona and Celeste looked at Aurora¡¯s panicked face, which was rapidly turning bright red. ¡°Ah.¡± They both said simultaneously, then both backed away. Finally released, Aurora ran over and hid behind me. ¡°So,¡± I looked at the other two. ¡°How did that get started?¡± The culprits glanced at each other and shook their heads. Surprisingly, the answer then came from behind me. ¡°...secret.¡± I¡¯m not sure if that was in answer to my question, or a command to keep whatever the trigger had been a secret, but Celeste immediately responded. ¡°Yep, that¡¯s right. It was a secret girls talk, so we won¡¯t tell.¡± After Aurora calmed down and came out of hiding, we began discussing our plans for now. ¡°So, like I was saying, Amber will be here tomorrow. So the question for now is what do we do in the meantime.¡± Horvath thought a moment. ¡°I think we should put off doing any combat until she gets here. There¡¯s no reason to figure out a way to fight with the five of us if we¡¯ll be getting our sixth in a day.¡± I nodded. ¡°That makes sense. I suppose we could check out the nomads marketplace, since it¡¯s here. Amber will probably want to do that when she gets here tomorrow, too. I just hope she doesn¡¯t need a chaperone when shopping this time¡­¡± Horvath shuddered at that, and Celeste turned to me. ¡°Why did she need a chaperone before?¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°Well, in most games she plays a thief or rogue type character. Usually not especially strong in combat, but has a lot of utility skills that come in handy. In one game we played, she was a thief in every sense of the word. We had to escort her while shopping, or she¡¯d often come back with a lot more than she could afford, and often more money that she had left as well.¡± ¡°She nearly got us chased out of a couple cities¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, her ¡®discounts¡¯ weren¡¯t generally appreciated by merchants.¡± Celeste stared at me a moment. ¡°So she¡¯s finds just as much trouble as you do, then?¡± Horvath shook his head. ¡°Not exactly. While Lilith frequently stumbles into odd things, Amber purposefully seeks them out. And if she can¡¯t find them, she¡¯ll sometime just make them instead. She doesn¡¯t usually try to cause problems for others. Lilith has said before she¡¯s looking for anything fun, right? Well Amber is the same way, but her definition of fun is a little off sometimes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m starting to worry now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t. I think you two will actually get along pretty well. And usually the things Lilith drags us into are more than enough to keep her happy and entertained.¡± I decided this was a good place to interrupt the two of them and bring the conversation back to the main subject. ¡°Anyway, until then I guess we can split up and go through the marketplace or do whatever you want. I don¡¯t think we really need to stick together unless you all want to.¡± ¡°... Celeste and I actually should probably log out. There¡¯s some chores that we need to get done.¡± ¡°Aw, I don¡¯t want to go do those.¡± Celeste pouted. ¡°If we don¡¯t, we won¡¯t be able to eat.¡± ¡°Ug, threatening with starvation. Fine, I¡¯ll sign out too¡­¡± ¡°Alright, let me know when you get back and we¡¯ll meet up again.¡± After the two of them signed out, Simona turned to me. ¡°We should all go together. It¡¯s been awhile since we could all hang out.¡± ¡°Sounds good to me, I don¡¯t have much else to do really. At most, I might look at getting a new outfit. This one¡¯s getting a bit outdated already.¡± --- The three of us wandered through the marketplace, casually looking around at the various wares. Several times as we were looking at the merchandise, the people working the booth would chat with Simona. As her companions, we were even offered discounts occasionally. ¡°It¡¯s kinda strange being on the buying side of the marketplace this time. I¡¯ve only been with them for one stop before this, but you get used to being a part of the caravan pretty fast.¡± As she was talking, Simona guided us toward a booth selling various things for tailoring and sewing. As she approached, the middle aged woman working the booth called out to her. ¡°Oh, Simona, seeing as you¡¯re here, I suppose you need some more materials. I¡¯m surprised you managed to use up the stuff you bought already.¡± ¡°No, I haven¡¯t used it all yet. But I¡¯m going to be staying here when the caravan leaves, so I wanted to stock up while I could.¡± ¡°Oho. That reminds me, you did say you would be leaving us soon. Well, then if you¡¯re going to be travelling anyway, I¡¯ll give you a recommendation. North of the mountain ranges is a vast tundra where the barbarian tribes live. They live mostly by hunting and using hides and meat from what they catch, but they do have a few large beasts they keep for their wool. You should try to get some of that wool from them. It¡¯s a very good material, and if you don¡¯t want it you can bring it to me. It¡¯s hard to get here, so I¡¯ll pay quite well for it.¡± Simona nodded to the woman. ¡°I see, thank you. I will keep that in mind.¡± After that, Simona bought a large amount of materials and kits for crafting clothing, and we continued on our way. ¡°She¡¯s the person who taught me the tailoring skill. All I really wanted was knitting, but apparently sewing and knitting are both under the tailoring skill, even though they¡¯re two very different things so I learned to do both.¡± Simona explained as we walked. ¡°I was meaning to ask about that. What kinds of things can you make?¡± ¡°For now, just small things. Hats, scarves, gloves that type of thing. Eventually I¡¯ll be able to make outfits, but not yet. I can add decorations to existing outfits as well. Except for metal armor. I can¡¯t sew things onto metal.¡± ¡°I see. That makes sense. Let me know when you can create outfits. I have some ideas I¡¯d like to see¡­¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll work on that when I can. It¡¯ll probably be a while still, though.¡± Good, step one in my plan complete. If I can¡¯t find the clothes I wanted, I¡¯ll make them instead. Horvath sighed. ¡°Why do I get the feeling this isn¡¯t going to end well.¡± ¡°Oh come on, how much trouble can an outfit cause?¡± ¡°Knowing you, quite a bit. I don¡¯t know how, but I get the feeling you want to make something incredibly silly.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a chance that I might not be wanting to make something incredibly silly. Maybe.¡± ¡°And with you responding like that, now I¡¯m sure of it. Well whatever, maybe you¡¯ll forget about it before then.¡± We continued on, stopping occasionally to look at various items for sale. Several times, Horvath bought raw materials for his possible future race changes. He obtained quite a bit of iron, as well as small amounts of some rarer ores. He still didn¡¯t have enough to transform, but every bit he could get would help. ¡°Hey, why don¡¯t you get the mining skill and harvest these ores yourself? It seems like that would be cheaper than buying everything.¡± ¡°I actually thought about that.¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°I just haven¡¯t been able to find someone to teach me yet. Not a lot of mining goes on in the plains and deserts that we¡¯ve been in so far.¡± I suppose that does make sense. There may be some mining done in the areas we¡¯ve visited so far, but they¡¯ll be small scale if anything. It¡¯s no surprise he hasn¡¯t met someone yet to teach him. ¡°Ah, there they are. Lilith, over here.¡± Simona suddenly called out, pointing to a booth with a small tent setup behind it. ¡°These are the people who I got my clothes from. They can probably help you find something better.¡± ¡°Speaking of that, are your clothes normal clothing, or does it provide some armor?¡± ¡°Oh, right. My class needs me to be moving around a lot, so it¡¯s better if I wear less armor. The clothes I¡¯m wearing are padded, but they offer even less protection than leather armor would. I¡¯m only a bit tougher than you, really. But we can leave the details for later. Let¡¯s see what they can get for you.¡± As we approached the booth, the young girl with golden hair who was watching it waved at us. ¡°Hi. Are you looking for some new clothes?¡± Simona nodded. ¡°Yep, my friend needs a new outfit, and since you helped me I figured you could help her too.¡± ¡°Oh, sure. One moment.¡± The girl stuck her head into the tent behind her. ¡°Mom, we¡¯ve got a customer.¡± With a yawn, a sleepy looking woman whose slightly disheveled hair matched her daughters emerged from the tent. ¡°Hmm, oh Simona. You need a change already?¡± ¡°Nope, this time it¡¯s my friend Lilith here. She said she needed a new outfit so I brought her to you.¡± She yawned again. ¡°Alright Lilith, I¡¯m Karen. Come on into the tent. I¡¯ll ask you to keep quiet though. I just managed to get the little one to sleep.¡± As I entered the tent, on one side was a small crib. Everywhere else were racks of clothes of various styles. ¡°So, what kind of job do you have? That¡¯s the best way to narrow down the options at first.¡± I see, figure out right away which clothes aren¡¯t going to suite my needs, then go from there. ¡°Well, I¡¯m a mage, but a bit of an odd one. Intelligence is of course important, but I also have the Charisma stat and need it quite a bit as well.¡± Karen nodded a moment, then turned toward the racks. ¡°Intelligence and Charisma. That most likely means you use mind magic¡­¡± as she spoke, she pulled several outfits down. ¡°I¡¯d recommend one of these. Feel free to try them on. They can¡¯t leave the tent without my permission.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll do that. By the way, how did you know I use mind magic. From what I¡¯ve been told, it¡¯s not exactly a common thing.¡± ¡°Ah, I¡¯ve been doing this since I was a little girl. It¡¯s rare, but I¡¯ve met a couple people who use it before you.¡± As she spoke, I tried the first outfit. I hadn¡¯t really shopped for clothing before, but apparently there was a preview type system, so you could see what an outfit would be like before buying it. The first outfit I tried on confirmed my fear that I may end up in extremely skimpy clothing if I¡¯m not careful. When I equipped it, it transformed into what was technically one piece, but was basically a bikini. The cloth itself was black. The bottom was held up by straps that wrapped around my body before widening to form my top, then slimmed back down and wrapped to the back of my neck to hold itself up. ¡°Huh, I haven¡¯t seen that outfit turn out like that on someone before. I mean, sure it was one of my more revealing outfits, but it never went that far before. I¡¯m sort of curious as to why, but it¡¯s not my business to pry. Especially since you¡¯re a friend of one of the caravan¡¯s own.¡± ¡°Is there some way to tell if the outfit will turn out like this. I¡¯d rather not be this exposed, after all¡­¡± ¡°Sure, a modest outfit will always be more covering, regardless of who or what puts it on. Similarly if you put on an outfit that¡¯s more revealing, I suspect it¡¯ll turn out like that. Let¡¯s try this one. It¡¯s the most modest of the three I pulled out earlier.¡± She held out another outfit to me and I equipped it. This one was a deep red gown that reached to around my knees. The top was a low cut halter top, with ornate straps that crossed in the front, then wrapped around the back of my neck. Thin armbands that matched the straps also appeared around my upper arms. Glancing down, I noticed my boots had also changed color to match the new dress. Instead of the black that they were before, they were now the same color as my dress. ¡°Woah, it even changed my boots?¡± ¡°Ah, that¡¯s right, you¡¯re a newcomer. That¡¯s normal. The outfit sets the main color, and everything else conforms to it so you don¡¯t end up clashing.¡± I had noticed before that everyone I met seemed to have a surprisingly good sense of style. I¡¯ve played games where you could end up looking like a clown because your equipment had the stats you needed, but none of it matched. ¡°Still, for even a modest robe like that to turn into this when you wear it. How strange.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the story of my life. It¡¯s one of the reasons I avoid changing my outfit too much. Speaking of which, what kind of bonuses does this give me.¡± ¡°Hmm, this particular outfit gives a boost to both charisma and intelligence. Unfortunately since Charisma is an uncommon stat to have, I don¡¯t have a lot of clothes for it. These three were the only options.¡± As she spoke, a window appeared in front of me with the stats for the dress.
Red Gown of the Mind
A red gown that gives a +2 bonus to intelligence and charisma.
¡°This is quite a bit better than the one I had. I think I¡¯ll go with this.¡± After paying Karen for the dress, and selling her the robe I had been wearing, she looked at me closely. ¡°I said I won¡¯t pry into your business, and I won¡¯t, but allow me to make a recommendation. In the future, make sure to specify you want the most modest outfits you can get when you shop for clothes. Some people might be more curious than I am.¡± I thanked her for the advice and the outfit, then headed back outside to meet Horvath and Simona and continue our shopping. SS: Character Creation ¡°Hey Uncle James, can I play yet?¡± My niece was standing beside me as I finished installing her VR pod next to my own. She had seen a commercial for Sundered World Online the other day, and decided she really wanted to play too. Because of her age someone has to be with her when she plays, and I would be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t a bit curious about the game myself. I could possibly have had Sarah play with her, but I know she intends to play with Nathan. I don¡¯t want to get in the way of them enjoying themselves, so I¡¯ll take the job of watching over Lily. ¡°Just a little bit longer, Lily. I¡¯m almost finished setting it all up.¡± This was the third pod I¡¯ve put together this morning, so I¡¯ve got it down pretty well at this point. I¡¯m fairly sure Sarah jumped into hers before I even got out of her room, saying she needed to ¡°catch up¡±. As for the other two, they¡¯re both in Lily¡¯s room since they need to be connected for the parental system. ¡°Alright, there we go.¡± I finished making all the connections and turned on the pod. ¡°Alright Lily, I need you to lay here for a bit while I get into mine, then we¡¯ll be able to play the game. Alright?¡± ¡°Yeah. I can do that.¡± She began scrambling up into the pod. It¡¯s a bit tall, so I had to help her into it. I reminded her to be patient, then closed the pod and got into my own. Soon, I found myself and Lily standing in a black area. While the surroundings were all black, I could still see myself, Lily, and a woman standing a short distance from us very clearly. ¡°Greetings, and welcome Sundered World Online. My name is Kara, and I am tasked with guiding you through character creation, amongst a number of other duties. Shall we begin?¡± The woman smiled and greeted us. ¡°Sure, what do we need to do?¡± ¡°To begin with, you have two options. First, you may choose from among the common races of the world and create your character as you see fit. The other option is to accept a randomized character. This has the possibility of unlocking a rare race, however this race will not be any more powerful than the common races. If it does have particularly strong abilities, it will have equally strong drawbacks. Also, if you choose to randomize and are unhappy with the results, you will not be eligible to receive a rare race again for at least 90 days. This means you will have to play with either a common race or the result of your first randomization for approximately three months in real time before you can possibly get another rare race. Any questions so far?¡± Lily tugged at my arm. ¡°What does that mean?¡± ¡°It means we need to pick what we want to be. In this game you can be all kinds of different things, so we need to choose one.¡± ¡°Oh! I want to be a fairy like Tinkerbell!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure if we can do that, but we can ask. Kara, can she be a fairy?¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid fairies are not one of the selectable races. There is a very small chance of obtaining that race if you choose to randomise your character, but the odds are very high against it.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Lily looked at me, clearly not understanding. I was considering how I was going to tell her she couldn¡¯t be a fairy when Kara continued. ¡°However, the character Tinkerbell that she mentioned would not be considered a fairy in SWO. While similar, fairies are about the size she is now. That character would actually be a pixie, which is available if she would like.¡± Lily was now very confused. ¡°She says that in this game, Tinkerbell is a pixie, not a fairy. You can be a pixie too if you want to.¡± ¡°Yeah, I want to be a pixie too!¡± Kara smiled and looked at me. ¡°Alright, pixies live deep in the forest, so you will be limited to the forest dwelling races. Here are the options available.¡± As she spoke, a number of figures appeared. These were all the races that I could choose from. Among them were a few types of elves, some beastman types, and some that looked like they would be more likely to be enemies, rather than playable races. Looking them over, I finally decided to play as a Wood Elf. Back when I played more, I would often play as an archer, and in most games Wood Elves were very good with a bow. I will probably be doing all of the fighting for both of us this time around, so I might need to switch to a melee weapon. Maybe a sword and shield. After that, we configured the appearance of our characters. Keeping with her goal of being like Tinkerbell, Lily gave her character short blond hair that was tied in a bun on the top. To match, I gave myself blond hair as well, parting it over one eye. Once we were ready, I asked Kara what was next. ¡°Next, you need to chose a name. This is permanent, however you can get titles and nicknames due to your actions.¡± ¡°I wanna be called Tink!¡± Lily was clearly going all in with her Tinkerbell character. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have a name ready like she did. I wanted something simple for Lily to remember, and also something that somewhat fit the character. Looking at the avatar, I thought about it a bit before deciding. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go with Ravi. So Lily, remember to call me that while we play, and I¡¯ll be calling you Tink, okay?¡± ¡°Alright!¡± She said excitedly. She was almost certainly going to forget. With a sudden flash of light, both of us became the characters we had designed. ¡°Before you go, you might want to take some time to get used to your new body. You can also test your skills so you understand how they work before entering the world of Ariloth.¡± That¡¯s a good point. While I¡¯m mostly the same, just considerably younger and smaller, Lily was much smaller, and was going to have to learn to fly. ¡°Lily, are you alright?¡± ¡°Yeah! I¡¯m a fairy now!¡± ¡°Well, actually you¡¯re a pixie. Fairies are bigger apparently. Why don¡¯t you try flying before we get started. It will be easier if you can do that.¡± It took us a while, but eventually Lily got used to flying around. The parental tether limited her to being near me, but with her size that gave her plenty of room to fly around already. As she gets older I could relax the limits and let her go further, but for now this was good. We also took some time to understand the things our characters could do. Finally, we were ready. ¡°Alright Kara,¡± I said, turning to the assistant who had been standing quietly to the side. ¡°I think we¡¯re ready to go.¡± ¡°Very well. I will now send you into the world. I wish you the best of luck in your adventures.¡± With a flash of light, we found ourselves standing in a small clearing in the forest. On the ground beside me was a simple short dagger, which I picked up. There didn¡¯t seem to be any enemies, so I suppose we were safe for now. As soon as I told her it was safe, Lily began to fly around the clearing excitedly looking at anything and everything. While I followed after her. Occasionally, she would hover over something she found interesting and call out to me. ¡°Hey! Look! Look!¡± ¡°Alright, calm down a bit, I¡¯m coming.¡± I walked over to her latest discovery, slightly bothered that her behavior seemed so familiar somehow... Chapter 21: Catching Up After I finished buying my new clothes, Horvath, Simona, and I continued to walk around the market area. I had actually just spent most of my money, so I was just browsing. As we walked, we chatted about things, both in game and offline. ¡°So, how have you been? It¡¯s been awhile since we last talked. I just hear about what you¡¯ve been up to from Horvath.¡± Simona asked. It¡¯s a bit late to mention this, but it really is a funny combination. Her appearance is that of a warrior, but her voice and way of talking could almost be described as ¡°motherly¡±. The voice really doesn¡¯t fit her looks. As a side note, that motherly-ness has frustrated Horvath a few times. She sometimes gets into a caretaking mood, and ends up treating him more like a little brother than boyfriend. It¡¯s especially funny since he¡¯s actually the older of the two. Anyway, I responded to her questions. ¡°I¡¯ve been fine. I never really realized how difficult it would be to move somewhere that I didn¡¯t know anyone at all, though. I¡¯m still at a point where the only people I know are my coworkers. I say hi to my neighbors if I see them, but that¡¯s about all.¡± Simona looked at me a moment. ¡°Hmm, so no friends even, let alone girlfriends or anything, huh? That¡¯s a shame. You should really work on that.¡± ¡°Which part, mom?¡± ¡°Both! You need friends, and I wanted you to introduce a girlfriend eventually. Well, I suppose¡­¡± She trailed off a bit before muttering to herself, ¡°no, that¡¯s not for me to say.¡± ¡°Hmm? Anyway, sorry to disappoint I guess. I should come back and visit eventually I suppose. That said, it¡¯s a lot easier to just meet in the game and see each other here, isn¡¯t it? Even my dad is somewhere in this world.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not the same, though! While it¡¯s the same people on the inside, I¡¯m still Simona, talking to Lilith, while walking next to Horvath here. Not Ashley, talking to Nathan, while walking next to Joseph. It¡¯s the same, but it¡¯s not at the same time. Besides, I¡¯m sure Sarah wants to see you, too.¡± I thought a moment, then shrugged. ¡°Na, she¡¯s generally pretty happy to chat in games like this. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be excited to see you both tomorrow, too.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s just not the same. Horvath, you tell him too!¡± Horvath had up to now been trying to keep as quiet as a 7 foot tall living statue can, most likely in an effort to keep the lecture from turning on him. Now that he was being dragged into it, he sighed and tried to calm Simona down. ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll come back when he can. He¡¯s probably busy with thing there, after all. And it¡¯s not like he can make plans right this moment.¡± ¡°I suppose. But I still feel unsatisfied somehow.¡± Horvath just smiled and set his large hand on her head and began to gently rub it back and forth. It¡¯s a trick he found that seems to always calm her down, or at least distract her. ¡°Ooh, this feels different. You hands are a lot bigger here than usual. But they¡¯re also hard.¡± ¡°Well, I am made of rock right now. It would be strange if my hands weren¡¯t hard.¡± As an unfortunate side effect of this technique, they tend to go off into their own little world for a while. I tactfully hung back a bit, giving those two some space. Things like this happen occasionally when we hang out, and I¡¯ve gotten used to it. While waiting for those two to remember that they¡¯re in public, I began looking over the stalls for anything interesting. Not necessarily items, as I can¡¯t afford them right now anyway, but ideas. I had been thinking that I sort of wanted to learn a new skill or two. Watching Aurora cook and listening to Simona talking about her tailoring skill made me recognize that the crafting system in this game is very robust. The problem was, there wasn¡¯t really anything I wanted to make. As a mage, I have no use for weapons or armor, and potions are just overdone. If I¡¯m going to spend time learning to make something, it needs to be something interesting, after all. Also, it would be best if it was something out party didn¡¯t have already. So I should probably wait till Amber gets here to see what she¡¯s doing, too. It wasn¡¯t really a question of whether she had a crafting job or not, just what that job was. She generally enjoys crafting skills, so she always makes something. It¡¯s just a question of what. I could send her a message and ask, but there¡¯s no rush. As I was pondering, I saw that the twins had signed back in. I sent them a message and slowly guided them through the marketplace to where we were. It was quite difficult to give directions through the chaotic mess to where we were. Because everything was basically the same, the instructions became something like ¡°Turn left at the tent selling jewelry, then go past the tent selling clothes. Next take a right at the third tent with weapons, and continue until you reach the tent selling armor¡­¡± Anyway, eventually they managed to get to where we were.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Ah, Lilith got a new dress! It looks nice. The black was nice too, but red really suits you.¡± ¡°Thanks. I¡¯ll be honest, I¡¯m not actually good with fashion usually. Luckily Simona knew a tailor who was able to help. The game systems to keep your outfit matching help a lot too.¡± ¡°Yeah, coordinating an outfit can be difficult, after all. Especially if you aren¡¯t used to it.¡± Celeste said proudly. ¡°That said, I almost expected you to turn that system off. I feel like you¡¯d want to try to do it yourself.¡± ¡°Na, I think having that automated is fine¡­ Wait, you can turn it off?!?¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t even look at the options? You can choose which piece to coordinate around, or disable the system completely if you wanted. I thought for sure you knew about it. Well, then again this is rather Lilith-like too, I guess.¡± I can¡¯t really argue with that. Still, for someone who has only known me a couple days to say that is sort of sad. ¡°Oh, you girls are back!¡± Simona jumped over and threw a hug around both their necks. Apparently She and Horvath had finally returned to reality and noticed the twins had joined us. Celeste smiled returned the hug, while Aurora just looked surprised and uncomfortable. Horvath shook his head. ¡°Simona, you might want to calm down a bit. Keep in mind they don¡¯t know you well yet. At least one of them looks pretty uncomfortable¡­¡± ¡°Oh, right.¡± She let go of the twins. ¡°Sorry, sorry. It¡¯s habit. Anyway, good to see you all again.¡± ¡°You¡¯re acting like they¡¯ve been gone for days. From our perspective, it¡¯s been maybe half a day, and from theirs, maybe be a couple hours.¡± ¡°Hmm, good point. This whole time difference thing is weird. I still can¡¯t get used to logging out for lunch, and coming back a day later. It¡¯s just strange.¡± ¡°Yeah, you get used to it after a while, but games with a time dilation are pretty strange the first time you deal with it.¡± --- After that, we continued to browse through the market and look around. I also decided to ask Simona and Aurora more about the crafting system. ¡°So, is there any limitations in crafting, or is it mostly just what you can imagine?¡± ¡°Hmm, I¡¯m not sure. I know you can¡¯t make more advanced things until your rank is higher. But as far as I can tell if your skill is high enough, you can make basically anything you want.¡± ¡°Really¡­¡± That was exactly what I was hoping to hear. ¡°Oh no. You¡¯re smirking. What are you planning this time?¡± Horvath said with a concerned expression. ¡°I don¡¯t know yet. But just the idea of being able to make whatever I can imagine sounds amazing, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°No, not really. I¡¯ve seen the things you can imagine. This sounds more terrifying than anything else.¡± ¡°Aw, it¡¯ll be great I¡¯m sure. I just don¡¯t know what I want to make yet. What about you Aurora, anything you¡¯ve encountered?¡± ¡°... At least for cooking, I¡¯ve found I can¡¯t properly use some ingredients, and can¡¯t make more intricate meals yet. I¡¯ll probably get better as the skill improves.¡± ¡°What do you mean using ingredients ¡®properly¡¯?¡± ¡°... When I tried to cook using some ingredients I use sometimes offline early on, I had a strange feeling that I couldn¡¯t really use that yet, and the dish just didn¡¯t taste right. Later after the skill went up some, I tried again and didn¡¯t get that feeling. That time everything came out fine.¡± ¡°Yep, that¡¯s how it is with sewing, too. I just feel like I can¡¯t use a certain material, or won¡¯t be able to make something yet when I think about it. Like I considered making a sweater before, but I just felt like I couldn¡¯t. Of course, it¡¯s a good thing I didn¡¯t. Horvath¡¯s a lot bigger than I expected, so it wouldn¡¯t have fit. I¡¯ll have to make it later once I have the skills.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but snicker slightly while looking at Horvath. Just imagining the giant stone statue of a man wearing a hand knitted sweater was rather humorous. He may not be looking forward to his sweater, but I will be. ¡°What are you laughing at. At least I¡¯m not almost at the level of an exhibitionist like you.¡± I shrugged. ¡°This is nothing. You should have seen the outfits I didn''t buy. And you should try it sometime. These dresses are actually pretty comfortable. It¡¯s all light and breezy. I might need to invest in some offline.¡± ¡°No¡­ Don¡¯t do that. In fact, don¡¯t even suggest it again. Picturing you in a dress may be one of the more disturbing mental images I¡¯ve had in awhile.¡± Celeste decided to add more fuel to the fire. ¡°Hmm¡­ I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a big deal, although I don¡¯t actually like dresses myself.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s easier for you since you¡¯ve never seen him in reality. It¡¯s not a good picture at all.¡± ¡°What about a kilt? Those are intended for guys.¡± ¡°No, still disturbing. Maybe not quite as bad, but still disturbing. He really doesn¡¯t have the figure to pull off a kilt properly.¡± ¡°Hmm, maybe so. I bet we could come up with a nice skirt combo for him.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t. Wait, why are we even discussing this?¡± I help up a finger. ¡°Well, it started with a discussion on crafting, then-¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t a real question!¡± Horvath yelled, getting exasperated. Aurora leaned to Simona. ¡°... Um, should we stop them?¡± ¡°Na, it¡¯s fine. They do this type of thing all the time. It is funny to see Celeste is already getting in on it too, though.¡± ¡°... Not surprising, though. That¡¯s how she is.¡± I smiled at them. ¡°This is nothing, just wait till Amber gets here too. She¡¯s basically a second me sometimes.¡± Horvath just shook his head. ¡°The two of you together is never a good thing. I really do wonder why I put up with this.¡± ¡°Because for all your complaining, you really do enjoy it?¡± Horvath just pretended he didn¡¯t hear me. Probably because that¡¯s exactly it. He may complain a lot, but deep down he¡¯s having fun too. After all, if he didn¡¯t there¡¯s no way we would have stuck together so long. Instead, he tried to change the topic. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s keep going. I¡¯m hoping to find a bit more ore today. I¡¯m still a ways off from becoming an iron golem, but every bit helps. And after tomorrow we¡¯ll probably be getting back to adventuring, so let¡¯s try to finish up all our shopping today.¡± With that, he started to head off, with the rest of us quickly following behind him. Chapter 22: The Gnome The next day, we all were sitting near the northern road to the city, waiting for Amber¡¯s caravan to arrive. She had sent me a message earlier saying the city was in sight, and by now we could vaguely make out a few wagons or carts on the road. Presumably, that was them. ¡°So, how are we going to find her?¡± Celeste asked. ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be too hard. I¡¯ll just tell her we¡¯re over by the big statue.¡± I said, pointing at Horvath. ¡°I really wish you¡¯d stop using me as a landmark.¡± ¡°Why? You¡¯re very convenient. You stand out, and you¡¯re always around us. It¡¯s perfect.¡± ¡°Whatever¡­¡± He turned back to the road. ¡°Huh, I could be wrong, but it looks like all of their wagons are metal. And they don¡¯t seem to have horses, either.¡± ¡°Really? I had heard the dwarves and gnomes were more focused on mechanics and technology, rather than magic. Still, I can¡¯t imagine they have cars. It was my understanding it was more of a steampunk style society.¡± ¡°... Steampunk?¡± Aurora tilted her head slightly at the unfamiliar word. ¡°You haven¡¯t heard of it? It¡¯s a kinda of science fiction based on an alternate take on the victorian era with a lot of peculiar steam powered technology. It was really popular a while back. We even played a game in a world like that for a while.¡± Horvath shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t remind me. Your steam powered grenade launcher caused so many more issues than it fixed.¡± ¡°Maybe, but it was fun. And versatile once I started making different styles of grenade. The healing grenades were particularly entertaining to launch at people who didn¡¯t know about them.¡± ¡°Fun for you, maybe. They were usually scared out of their wits by that. Anyway, it¡¯s unusual to see steampunk mixed with high fantasy like we¡¯ve seen so far. It makes me wonder what other styles are out there.¡± I just shrugged. ¡°Who knows. We¡¯ll have to explore and find out.¡± As we continued to watch the advancing caravan, we could finally make out some details. As expected, the people travelling were all dwarves and gnomes. The dwarves were fairly typical fantasy dwarves, with short, bulky statures and long beards. None of them seemed to be clean shaven, but I couldn¡¯t tell if that was because they were all men, or if dwarven women have beards as well. Gnomes are a bit less predefined, and nearly every fantasy setting has a slightly different take on them. In SWO, they seemed to be even shorter than the dwarves, with thinner frames overall. They also all had brightly colored hair, most of which was in colors that seemed unnatural. There were several with purple, blue, and green hair running around or riding on the metal wagons. Speaking of the wagons, we could now make out more details of them as well. There seemed to be two distinct types in the group, which I guessed were the difference between the dwarven made and gnomish made wagons. The dwarven wagons were, much like the dwarves themselves, more heavily built. We could see now that these wagons had what was probably a basic steam engine on them, though they didn¡¯t seem to move any faster than the horse drawn wagons of other races. I suppose that makes sense for game balance, but I imagine it frustrates people using them. The Gnomish wagons didn¡¯t have a steam engine on them. Instead, two gnomes seemed to be sitting in the front of each one. These gnomes operated a set of bicycle-like pedals, which drove the wagon forward. When one of the pedalers got tired, they would switch with one of the other passengers, while the second pedaler maintained the wagon¡¯s movement on their own temporarily. As the caravan reached the city and was dealing with the guards, I sent a short message to Amber.
Hey, we just watched you all reach the city. Look for the big statue, and don¡¯t be surprised if it moves. That¡¯s just Horvath.
With that, she shouldn¡¯t have any trouble finding us. The northern side of town wasn¡¯t exactly crowded anyway. Most people were still visiting the Nomads marketplace, so the only people around here were people like us who were waiting for the dwarves and gnomes. It didn¡¯t take long for the guards to allow the caravan to enter the city, and the members began to split off and go their separate ways in the city. One gnome with bright green twintails came running over to us excitedly. She was wearing leather armors, and had a crossbow with some odd attachments on it strapped to her back. ¡°Yay! I finally found you all! That trip was so boring! I couldn¡¯t do any of the fun ideas I had on the way because they might have thrown me out of the caravan!¡± Horvath facepalmed at Amber¡¯s outburst. I was actually impressed, I think she managed to get that reaction from him even faster than I did. Not by much, but I think she was faster. ¡°Hey Amber. Good to see you, too.¡± ¡°Wait, are you Lilith? Wow, you had told me about it, but it¡¯s actually pretty funny to see in person.¡± ¡°Ah, yeah it¡¯s me.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see, the big one is Horvath, so the one sticking close to him must be Simona. That makes you two Aurora and Celeste, right? I¡¯m Amber!¡± Celeste waved. ¡°Yep, I¡¯m Celeste, and this is Aurora.¡± ¡°You know, I was going to do introductions. Ah well, I guess that¡¯s done. Now that you¡¯re here, shall we head off. I imagine you might be interested in the Nomad¡¯s marketplace while it¡¯s here. We can talk while we walk around.¡± ¡°Sounds good!¡± ¡°So, how was the trip?¡± I asked. ¡°Ah, it was dull, but not bad. Because there were so many of us we didn¡¯t face any real danger. The biggest complaint was when it was my turn on the pedals on the cart. I wish we just used dwarven carts, instead of the gnomish ones.¡± ¡°Yeah, we saw those. So the steam engine carts were dwarven?¡± ¡°Yep. Both Dwarves and Gnomes make a lot of technology, but in the case of the gnomes it¡¯s usually more¡­ whimsical. Our cities sometimes resembled a Dr. Suess book. Strange machines that serve no real purpose and could be made much more efficiently are all over the place. I don¡¯t think I saw a single straight line on anything while I was there. The whole thing was pretty chaotic. You¡¯d probably like it.¡± That actually does sound like a fun place. We might have to make a visit eventually. ¡°So Amber. What kind of class did you end up with, and how do you fight?¡± Horvath asked her, changing the subject. ¡°Oh, right. I¡¯m a class called a Tinkerer. It¡¯s a mix of rogue type skills and crafting. It gives the specialized skill called Tinkerer that allows me to modify equipment and tools to do various things, though right now I still can only do minor modifications. I also picked up the Artificer skill so I can make devices as well. So I make them, then later can tweak them as needed. ¡°As for fighting, I use my crossbow as you can see, as well as consumable devices when necessary. I¡¯ve been messing with my crossbow some, so it¡¯s fairly effective, but reload times are still too long. I¡¯m hoping to figure out a way to make it semi-auto, but my skill isn¡¯t high enough yet.¡± She patted the crossbow on her back.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Unfortunately, my reliance on ammunition and consumables makes my class a bit expensive. Luckily I can offset the cost some since I make most of the things I use myself. Which reminds me, I also wanted to do some farming while we¡¯re here. There¡¯s a component I can get from the desert scorpions around this city that I need to make a new type of crossbow bolt.¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°That¡¯s fine, we¡¯ve been hunting them some in our spare time, and they aren¡¯t that hard to beat. What type of thing do you need from them?¡± ¡°Venom glands. I want to make some poisoned bolts, and I hear they¡¯re a good low level poison I can use.¡± Horvath and the twins stopped and stared at me a moment, while Simona and Amber looked at them confused. ¡°Did¡­ Did you know she needed them?¡± Celeste stammered. ¡°Hmm? No, not really. I just figured they might come in helpful, or at least entertaining.¡± I shrugged, then turned to Amber. ¡°How many do you need?¡± Amber still seemed a bit confused. ¡°Oh, about 20 should be plenty.¡± Before she had finished, I materialized 20 venom glands and handed them to her. She looked them over a moment. ¡°Yep, these are perfect. Why did you already have 20 of them?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t. I had 63 of them, and now I have 43. Like I just said I had no reason, I¡¯ve just been collecting them since we got here. Seems like a good thing I did.¡± Amber nodded acknowledging my sound decision, and we began walking again. The others quickly recovered and caught up. ¡°It always surprises me how you two are able to see something strange like that, and just accept it as though it was normal.¡± Horvath said, shaking his head. ¡°What do you mean? How is it abnormal to collect a potentially useful resource?¡± ¡°Most people wouldn¡¯t be carrying over 60 of them! Especially when they don¡¯t even know if they have a use!¡± As if we had planned it, both Amber and I turned to Horvath, and in unison said ¡°¡°Why not?¡±¡±. He just sighed and gave up. Behind us, I heard Celeste quietly mutter. ¡°Wow, they really are siblings, aren¡¯t they.¡± After walking a bit further, Amber turned and looked up at the golem who was more than twice her height. ¡°Hey Horvath, could you kneel down a minute?¡± Horvath looked a bit confused, but assuming she wanted to be closer to eye level, he complied and knelt in front of her. Once he was lowered he looked at her questioningly as she inspected him a moment. ¡°Good, that¡¯ll work nicely.¡± She said, then nimbly jumped up and sat down on his shoulder. ¡°That¡¯s better. I can¡¯t see through the crowds down there, so give me a ride for a while.¡± ¡°What? Why should I?¡± He asked, reaching up to remove her. ¡°But down there if I get separated from you all, I won¡¯t be able to find you again. I suppose if you¡¯d rather, I can just start making explosions until you come find me when I get lost.¡± Horvath¡¯s hands froze. He knew better than to think that was an empty threat. If she got separated from us in this crowd, it would almost certainly turn into a fireworks show. ¡°Fine, you can ride. It¡¯s not like you¡¯re heavy, anyway.¡± He said with a sigh. That statement earned him a knock on the head from his passenger. ¡°You should know better than to comment on a lady¡¯s weight.¡± ¡°What, I was saying you weren¡¯t heavy. It¡¯s kind of a compliment!¡± ¡°Nope, you shouldn¡¯t even mention it. Ask Simona. It doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s a compliment, a woman¡¯s weight is off limits!¡± She started flailing around. Though he couldn¡¯t see her, from my perspective it was pretty clear she was just feigning offense. ¡°Alright, alright. Quit moving around so much or you¡¯ll fall off, and I¡¯m not stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice.¡± ¡°Oh, that reminds me,¡± I said to change the subject, ¡°where you able to find the thing I asked you about?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Amber tilted her head a minute, before remembering what I was talking about. ¡°Oh, that. No, I couldn¡¯t find it. But I should be able to make one eventually, if you can wait.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. We can¡¯t get the other component yet anyway, so the whole project is sort of on hold. We¡¯ll get there eventually.¡± We both sported mischievous smiles. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what the two of you are plotting, but judging by your expressions it¡¯s probably nothing good.¡± Horvath commented. It was hard for him to ignore that conversation, when Amber was literally sitting right next to his ear. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. It shouldn¡¯t affect you too much. I just had an awesome idea a while ago and asked Amber to help with it.¡± ¡°No, I learned a long time ago that when you two have that expression on your faces, I should be worried. That¡¯s the expression you make when you¡¯re up to something.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, this idea isn''t nearly as destructive as they usually are. In fact, it might even be good. Besides, you just heard us say we can¡¯t carry it out yet.¡± ¡°No, if you two are keeping it a secret, it is almost never a good thing.¡± ¡°Anyway,¡± I said, changing the subject again. ¡°Now that we¡¯re all here, we should make some plans for the future. Maybe even decide on a goal, but at the very least we should think about what we¡¯re going to do now. I¡¯ve been in this city for a few days now, so I¡¯m ready to get back out to the adventuring.¡± Amber nodded. ¡°I¡¯m fine with that. I have pretty much everything I need, and while we¡¯re in this market I should be able to get everything else. Where do we want to go? Just roam through the wilderness again?¡± ¡°Oh, that sounds fun!¡± Celeste chimed in. ¡°It is, but I don¡¯t think we¡¯re quite ready for that yet. For now, we should probably stick to more civilized areas until we get more experience. For now, I did find that ruin about a day away from here. How about we go explore that?¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°Sure, that should be a decent place to start. What kind of enemies were there?¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s the issue. All I saw were undead. There were quite a few skeletons and zombies. But I wasn¡¯t even able to get into the underground portion of the place.¡± ¡°... Why is them being undead a problem?¡± Aurora asked, turning to me. ¡°Well, I specialize in manipulating the mind of my enemies, right? Undead don¡¯t have a mind to manipulate usually, so I¡¯ll be just about useless in there. I¡¯m all for going, but I won¡¯t be much help unfortunately. I¡¯ll mostly have to use my whip and Inspire spell, as nothing else will work. Actually, you¡¯ll probably be the most powerful one of us in there.¡± Aurora looked at her stats a moment. ¡°I do have some skills for fighting undead.¡± ¡°Yep, priests usually do. So we¡¯ll be relying on you pretty heavily.¡± She nodded, slightly hesitantly. ¡°... Alright, leave it to me.¡± From her perch on Horvath¡¯s shoulder, Amber seemed to be thinking about something. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Well, usually slashing and piercing type damage is less effective on undead, right? So I was thinking of ways to modify our weapons to help that some. For me it¡¯s easy, since I can just make blunt crossbow bolts. But to modify Simona¡¯s swords and Celeste¡¯s spear might be a bit trickier. I was thinking an attachment that can be removed later, since I doubt they want me to permanently blunt their weapons.¡± I see, that makes sense. Aside from Aurora¡¯s magic and Horvath¡¯s mace, our party really isn¡¯t naturally good at fighting undead. ¡°Um, I actually might be alright.¡± Simona said. Now that she mentioned it, I don¡¯t think we ever actually heard anything about her class. We got busy getting caught up and forgot all about it. ¡°My class is a Bladedancer, and basically it gives various effects while fighting by changing the dance I¡¯m using. One of the dances I have adds holy damage to my attacks, and is supposed to be useful for undead.¡± ¡°Ah, well there we go then. Now we just need to figure out what to do about Celeste¡¯s spear...¡± Amber looked at the spear on Celeste¡¯s back. ¡°I suppose I could make a sort of cap to put over the tip. You might need to change how you use it though. It¡¯ll be more like a quarterstaff than a spear at that point.¡± ¡°That should be fine. I might need some time to get used to it, but I don¡¯t see it being too much of an issue.¡± I glanced at the time in my menu. ¡°Hey Amber, how long do you think that¡¯ll take you?¡± ¡°Not too long. A couple hours maybe. Why?¡± ¡°Well, how about this then. Let¡¯s wait till tomorrow morning in real life before we head out. It¡¯s getting pretty late here, and I should probably get some sleep.¡± ¡°Ah, that makes sense. I¡¯ll stay online a bit and get the spear fixture and my bolts made.¡± Celeste nodded and looked at Aurora. ¡°We should probably get some rest too. I guess we¡¯ll see you all in the morning then.¡± As she went to sign out, Amber hopped down from Horvath''s shoulder and stopped her. ¡°Could you leave your spear with me? It¡¯ll be easier to make if I¡¯ve got it.¡± ¡°Oh, right.¡± Celeste transferred the spear to Amber, then signed out. Amber held the spear almost as tall as she was for a moment, then put it into her inventory. ¡°Alright, I guess I¡¯ll be signing out too. Don¡¯t stay on too late, or our parents will get mad at me.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t. Oh, that reminds me. Dad says he and Lily are in the western forest, so we should go see them sometime.¡± ¡°Alright, we can add that to our itinerary. See you all later.¡± With that, I signed out. Chapter 23: In Search of Ruins It was still relatively early in the morning when I finally woke up. Which was surprising, since it was technically morning when I went to bed. I guess it was due to the restfulness from the gaming pod, but I felt fine even though I hadn¡¯t gotten anywhere near a healthy amount of sleep in the past several days. Since I didn¡¯t want to waste any more time than necessary, I had a simple bowl of cereal to eat while browsing through information about the game, which had become a bit of a habit by now. As expected, my previous post about having to hide my race had sparked a good bit of speculation about what I was. Several people believed I was some sort of doppelganger or other monster, which I suppose was technically right. Then again, in SWO most playable races can also appear as enemies, so we¡¯re all sort of monsters. It¡¯s just that some of us are more monstrous than others. I did find some images that were a bit alarming. The post was just titled ¡°Cryptids?¡±, and in it were several blurry screenshots or a large flying being seen from a distance. According to the post, the pictures were taken on the road between Al Omand and Eridell, the same road we had been travelling on last week in the game. The figure shown was clearly humanoid, but no details could be made out from the distance. What concerned me was that the figure was very, VERY familiar. It was almost certainly me. It seems someone saw my scouting trips while we were travelling, and took pictures thinking I was some sort of monster. Now a few players were planning to hunt down the ¡°mysterious flying creature¡±, while others wanted to catch and tame it. While I was a bit worried about being hunted, I was also quite proud to become the games bigfoot. I couldn¡¯t wait to tell the others I was now becoming an urban legend. I¡¯m sure Joseph will be pleased. Another interesting bit of news I found was that the forums were made accessible in game. Several subforums were set up for the various regions, allowing players to share information and news with their local area. In game, players could only access the subforum for their current region, and would automatically be switched to a new subforum if they changed regions. While offline we could browse all of the regions freely, though. Presently they were filled mostly with people looking for party members and the occasional informational post notifying others about interesting things in an area. Most also had a catalog of the currently discovered dungeons in that region. After finishing up my breakfast and any chores I needed to do, I finally signed back into the game. A quick glance at my party information told me Amber and the twins were all already online somewhere, so I went to find them. I found the girls gathered outside of town. Celeste had apparently wanted to go try out the new attachment for her spear to get used to the difference in weight before she actually needed it, so she was now beating a scorpion with her blunted spear. Amber was sitting nearby finishing up making her crossbow bolts for the trip, and Aurora was keeping an eye on Celeste to make sure she didn¡¯t die. Or she was sleeping, it was hard to tell exactly which it was. Celeste wasn¡¯t joking that she¡¯s not good with mornings. I raised my hand as I approached. ¡°Morning everyone.¡± ¡°Oh, hey.¡± Amber said, glancing up from her work. ¡°Good timing, I was just finishing up here.¡± I turned and watched Celeste beating on the scorpion for a while. The shell of the scorpion she was fighting with was covered in cracks and was crumbling in places. There were even bits coming off. ¡°Hmm, looks like your cap works. She¡¯s pretty thoroughly crushing that shell.¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright. I would have liked to give it a wider head for more impact, but that would throw off the balance of the spear too much. As it is now she¡¯s able to put a good bit of force on a small area though, so it should be fine. She can also hit things with the side if she needs to. The biggest downside though is that I have to be the one that puts it on or takes it off. It requires my tinkering skill to do it without damaging either the spear or the attachment.¡± As we were talking, Celeste finished off her scorpion and came trotting over to us. ¡°Hey Lilith.¡± ¡°Good morning. How is it?¡± I asked, indicating the spear. ¡°It¡¯s works well. It took some time to get used to the difference from usual, but I should be good to go now.¡± She glanced at Aurora, who was still sitting on the ground staring at where she had been fighting, then reached down and began shaking her shoulder. ¡°Hey, wake up. Lilith¡¯s here.¡± ¡°...Mmm? Gu¡¯mor¡¯in...¡± Aurora slowly turned her head toward me. ¡°Come one, at least stand up so you don¡¯t fall asleep again.¡± Celeste helped her to her feet. Aurora stood unsteadily, but managed to keep her balance. Her eyes were now open, but were still mostly unfocused. Celeste just shook her head at her friend¡¯s state, then shrugged. ¡°Well then, what do we do now?¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯re mostly just killing some time until Horvath and Simona get here. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s really much we need, but you all should probably stock up on food if you haven¡¯t. We don¡¯t really know how long this will take. The ruins are about a day away, so 2 travel days, plus however long we¡¯re down there.¡± Celeste nodded. ¡°I think we¡¯re good there. Aurora¡¯s been stocking on ingredients for cooking. But she¡¯s not in any state to be buying food or answering questions right now, unfortunately.¡± She motioned to the teetering priestess. ¡°By the way Lilith, it¡¯s been awhile since you fed last. How¡¯s your satiety?¡± Hmm, now that she mentions it, I haven¡¯t fed Since before Amber got here. I took a quick look at my bar. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re right. I¡¯m getting a little low. We¡¯re still safe from me forcibly transforming, but I should probably eat soon.¡± ¡°Ooh, I want to see how you do this.¡± Amber said, getting excited. ¡°That¡¯s fine, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be that interesting. Either way, let¡¯s head to an inn for now.¡± After Amber packed up her things, we all headed back into town and rented a room at the inn again. Once safely in the room, I turned to Celeste. ¡°I hope you¡¯re okay with feeding me. I want to show Amber what goes on, and I kinda feel like it would be a crime to feed from Aurora while she¡¯s in that state.¡± She just shrugged. ¡°Makes sense. I don¡¯t mind as much when you use the mind control. It¡¯s just without it that is kind of embarrassing.¡± I quickly put Celeste under mind control and took her hands to feed. While that was going on, I talked with Amber. ¡°What does that mean? Why is it embarrassing without the mind control?¡± ¡°Ah, that. It turns out if they aren¡¯t mind controlled, there are certain side effects. You know how traditional succubi feed, right? Well they took out the actual act involved, but left the¡­ let¡¯s call it pleasant feeling¡­¡± ¡°Oh, I see. That could be embarrassing.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why when I can¡¯t use the mind control, you and Simona are going to be exempt from feeding duty. It just seems like it would be wrong with either of you.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Amber smirked. ¡°Hmm, so it¡¯s alright with the twins though?¡± Though she was still waking up, Aurora appeared to be at least conscious of what we were talking about and began to blush. ¡°Well, more like it necessary. Simona¡¯s with Horvath, and I don¡¯t want to deal with any drama that could bring. You¡¯re my sister, which just makes it seem wrong. That leaves me with the twins. I can¡¯t say they don¡¯t mind, but at least they¡¯re willing to go along with it.¡± ¡°I wonder...¡± Amber turned to the embarrassed Aurora. ¡°Oh, feeling more awake now?¡± Aurora nodded, her face bright red. She was having trouble looking at me again. ¡°That¡¯s good. Anyway, enough of that. Why did you stay transformed while you did it? I wanted to see your real form!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll see it soon. There¡¯s no reason to change back just to feed.¡± While we talked, my satiety filled up and I released Celeste¡¯s hands. Unlike with Aurora, the mind control lasts a long time on her because her willpower stat is much lower. While we were waiting, Simona and Horvath signed back in and they joined us in the inn room. ¡°¡®Morning. What¡¯s wrong with her?¡± Simona indicated Celeste, who was sitting in a chair staring blankly. ¡°Oh, she¡¯ll be back soon. I hypnotized her so I could feed, and it hasn¡¯t worn off yet.¡± ¡°Aw, I was hoping to see how that works.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll have a chance. It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll stop needing food, after all.¡± Amber looked at Aurora, who was by now fully awake. ¡°Speaking of which, we should eat too. That way we can get going as soon as Celeste¡¯s ready.¡± ¡°... I¡¯ll make something simple.¡± Aurora said, and started getting various ingredients out of her inventory. Judging by how many ingredients she pulled out, her definition of ¡°simple¡± was very different from mine. Once again I was coerced into eating even though I don¡¯t need to, and after Celeste recovered we all had a quick meal before heading out. As we ate, Amber pulled out the map she had bought of this area, and I showed the others the general area where I found the ruins before. It was a ways off the main road, so it couldn¡¯t be seen, and about a day''s walk from the city. Once we were on the road a ways from town, I went ahead and released my disguise. As the shadows that gather around me dissipated, I began stretching out my wings re-acclimating myself to having the extra limbs. As I did so I noticed Amber¡¯s eyes were sparkling. ¡°Ooh, so that¡¯s what you actually look like. And that effect is cool, too. I¡¯m kinda jealous.¡± ¡°Well, I suppose if you could find a rare race with a similar transformation ability, you might get it too. But odds of that are pretty slim.¡± ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll get that lucky. Still, it¡¯s really cool. Too bad you can¡¯t do it in town. It would be great for showing off.¡± ¡°Unfortunately that¡¯s a good way to get myself killed pretty quickly. Anyway, I¡¯m off to create some more cryptid sightings. I¡¯ll be back in a little bit.¡± I began to flap my wings and lift into the sky. Amber shouted up after me. ¡°Wait, Cryptids? What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Check the forums!¡± I yelled, then took off into the sky to look around. Once high enough to get a good view, I turned my attention first to the road ahead of us. In the distance there were a few groups, probably of players, heading toward us. They were probably on their way to Al Omand in hopes of seeing the nomads before they leave in a couple days. We were still too far away from where the ruins were, so I couldn¡¯t see them yet. I didn¡¯t want to get too far from the party, so I didn¡¯t go off to find them again yet. I¡¯ll have time later to track them down. I enjoyed the feeling of freely flying around for a while before heading back to the ground to rejoin the rest of the group and report. Horvath was the first to notice me coming down. ¡°Oh, welcome back. See anything interesting?¡± I touched down and transformed back into my disguise. ¡°Nothing really, we¡¯ve got some players coming toward us on the road, but aside from them there¡¯s nothing else out there. I couldn¡¯t see the ruins yet, but I¡¯ll check again later.¡± Amber, who had apparently been reading the forum post, was giggling. ¡°You¡¯ve got to let me get some really blurry pictures of you. We can have so much fun with this. You¡¯re already a legend!¡± ¡°Maybe later. We need to make sure no one can tell where the pictures are taken so we don¡¯t accidentally give people hints. Right now the only information about my whereabouts is that I¡¯m seen along this road.¡± ¡°Good point. There¡¯s already a group of players out searching for ¡°the beast¡± after all.¡± Oh, that was new. ¡°Seriously? There were some people talking about looking before, but they weren¡¯t actually doing it yet when I read that post.¡± ¡°Yep, there¡¯s several full parties scouring the road and land around it searching for you. They¡¯re still near Eridell so you should be fine for now, but you¡¯re now being hunted.¡± Horvath just shook his head. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like this is the first time we¡¯ve had to evade people searching for you. At least this time no one knows who it is. They¡¯re just looking for a strange flying monster. Still, you might want to avoid your little flights as much as possible.¡± ¡°Na, I might make them more often, just to mess with the hunters. Oh, even better idea, let¡¯s see about joining the search parties later. That could be pretty fun too.¡± As we continued to walk and chat randomly, we passed a few of the groups of players heading the other way. As expected, they were all heading to Al Omand and were interested in the Nomad¡¯s market and caravan. According to them, the road ahead of us was just as clear as it had been on our trip to town. The only danger was the occasional scorpion, which we were already used to dealing with by this point. As night began to fall, the others began pulling out lanterns or, in Aurora¡¯s case, cast a light spell. Amber pulled out a small headband with a small light on the front with a crank, and began winding it up as she grumbled. ¡°Typical gnomish technology. It¡¯s usually pretty effective, but it always needs some extra effort to work. Well, it¡¯s usually pretty fun, even if it¡¯s extremely inefficient.¡± Once she finished winding it, she released the crank and the light illuminated as she put on the headband. ¡°I couldn¡¯t afford them, but there are actually night vision goggles, too. Still need to be wound up for some reason, but I still want to get a pair one day.¡± I looked at her. ¡°So I guess gnomes can¡¯t see in the dark, then?¡± ¡°Nope, dwarves can, but not gnomes in this game. But in the gnomish city basic lights like this are pretty cheap, since we go down into the dwarven city pretty often. It¡¯s really just one big city, actually. We have our city on the surface, while the dwarven city is underneath it. So there¡¯s a lot of interaction between the two groups. It¡¯s kinda funny to see the extremely different style though, since they¡¯re literally one city on top of the other.¡± Now that it was darker, I decided it would be safe enough to stay undisguised for now. Besides we should be getting closer to the ruins, so I needed to start looking for them again. Simona looked at me a moment. ¡°Hey, shouldn¡¯t you have two different outfits?¡± I looked down at my clothes. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, the clothes you¡¯re wearing stay the same when you transform, right? So if someone sees you like this, then you put on your disguise, won¡¯t they still recognize you because the outfit¡¯s the same?¡± I¡­ hadn¡¯t actually considered that at all. Now I wish I hadn¡¯t sold my old robe when I bought this dress. ¡°That¡¯s a good point. For now I can¡¯t do anything about it since I only have the one outfit, but I should probably look into finding a cheap set of clothes for wearing while disguised.¡± ¡°Right. I can¡¯t make them yet, but eventually I¡¯ll try to make two different outfits with the same stats for you. That way it doesn¡¯t matter which form you¡¯re in, your clothes will have the same bonuses.¡± ¡°Well in the meantime, I¡¯ll just have to be careful not to get seen too closely. Since I rarely am undisguised that shouldn¡¯t be too difficult.¡± We continued to walk through the night, with me periodically taking flights to look around. Since it was dark I was less concerned with being seen, and I really didn¡¯t want to miss the ruins and pass them by accident. It was about midnight when I finally spotted them. I dropped down to the ground to tell the others. ¡°Found them. We should probably leave the road and start heading through the plains now. I¡¯ll guide you from above.¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°Right, let¡¯s go then. Watch out, there may be enemies or other dangers once we leave the road.¡± With that, the others began pressing through the sparse grasslands toward the ruins. I flew just high enough so I could keep them in view, but low enough that the others could still see me even in the dark. Like that, we reached the ruins at about an hour later. Chapter 24: Tomb Raiding ¡°Alright, is everyone ready?¡± Horvath asked as we all stared up at the large, circular ruined building. ¡°Sure, let¡¯s do this.¡± I said, activating my claws and preparing my whip. I realized the claws likely won¡¯t be much use, but I saw no point in not having them ready, just in case. ¡°We¡¯re set.¡± Celeste answered for both the twins. Aurora was gripping her wand nervously, while Celeste was taking a few test swings with her spear. Amber was fidgeting with her crossbow. Once she finished whatever it was she was doing, she grinned. ¡°There we go. I¡¯m all ready.¡± Finally, I glanced over to Simona. She had her eyes closed and was slowly waving her scimitars around. She seemed to be getting used to the rhythm for fighting the undead, as her movements seemed to be to music that no one could hear. Eventually she stopped and opened her eyes. ¡°Alright, I think I¡¯ve got it. Ready when you are.¡± ¡°Alright then let¡¯s go.¡± Horvath hefted his shield in front and started toward the door, with the rest of us falling into the formation we had decided on. Since we expected the hallways to be narrow, we planned to move two wide at most. Horvath would take the lead alone, followed by Celeste and Simona who would need to close into melee range once the fighting started. Next would be Aurora and Amber, then I would bring up the rear. Honestly, since my abilities were so unsuited to this place I wasn¡¯t the best for a rear guard position, but I was the only real option we had. My job was mostly a warning system if anything was coming up behind us, so the others could react. We cautiously made our way into the first room of the ruins, and began to look around. Everything was still the same as it had been when I came before, with the old bed against the wall and books lining the bookshelf. I decided since we were all here this time to take a closer look through the books, but as expected time had taken it¡¯s toll on them and they were all worthless and unreadable. As we made our way further down the hallway, I pointed out the two other rooms I had explored. ¡°That room is where the stairs are, while the one on the other side is where the undead started coming from when I got close to the stairs. Anything further down the hallway is completely unknown.¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s clear them out before heading down. I don¡¯t like the idea of having some zombie sneaking up behind us, especially when Lilith¡¯s our rear guard.¡± After some discussion, we decided that Horvath would burst into the room with the undead, followed by Celeste and Simona. Amber, Aurora, and I would remain in the hall providing support with ranged attacks and watching for more enemies coming from the unexplored section. Looking at the room we were about to invade, the door was closed again, but the latch was evidently broken. That would explain how the undead were able to get at me before, since zombies and skeletons usually aren¡¯t very good with door knobs. It was strangely clever of them to close the door again behind them, but it¡¯s hard to say whether something smarted did it or if it was just the game resetting the ambush for the next group of players to walk in. Horvath positioned his shield against the door, then activated a skill. He thrust forward with the shield, sending the door crashing into the room as he charged in behind it. The sound echoed through the ruins. The dynamic entry certainly focused the attention of everything in the room on him, so it worked in that regard. I just worried that it also got the attention of anything else on this level of the ruins. Behind Horvath, Celeste activated her charge ability and dashed into the room on his right. She smashed into a skeleton with her shield, scattering it¡¯s bones around the room. Then she swung her spear in a wide arc, crashing it into the side of a zombie¡¯s head. On Horvath¡¯s other side, Simona was facing off with an axe wielding skeleton. She weaved her swords around with an almost hypnotic rhythm, slashing at the skeleton and parrying the axe when he retaliated. However, she was so focused on the skeleton, she didn¡¯t notice a zombie shuffling toward her from the side. Luckily, someone else did, and a crossbow bolt with a flat head on it caught it directly in the forehead, sending the zombie sprawling with a large indentation on it¡¯s head. ¡°Wow, that worked better than I expected. This is going to be fun!¡± Amber said with a grin. I smiled and took a quick look further down the hall. As I had feared, we had managed to get the attention of more than just one room, and now several zombies and skeletons were shuffling toward us. ¡°We¡¯ve got more coming down the hall, so you might want to finish up in there.¡± I yelled, readying my whip. Suddenly a flash of light flew past me and into one of the zombies, causing it to disintegrate. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Aurora pointing her wand down the hall, an expression of pure disgust on her face. She paused a moment to observe the result, then nodded with satisfaction and continued casting her Holy Bolt spell at the incoming undead. ¡°...Or, take your time. Looks like we¡¯ve got things taken care of here.¡± I said with a shrug and continued to watch the undead in the hall get repeatedly blasted with holy magic. One skeleton did manage to make it through the barrage, but I was able to stop it with a few hits from my whip. "Are... are you alright?" I asked Aurora after the last of the undead died. "... They''re gross. So I wanted to get rid of them as fast as I could, and panicked a little. I''ll be more careful now." She said, blushing slightly. After she had calmed down she realized how childishly she had acted, and became embarrassed. Honestly, I didn''t think it was much of a problem. Aside from a few minor hits she didn¡¯t need to do much healing, so she might as well use her mana for offense. Had it been riskier for her to stop healing, I would have stopped her. Since we had eliminated all of the undead, we explored the rest of surface level of the ruins in safety. This level wasn¡¯t particularly large, and we had managed to attract everything to us in that one fight. Unfortunately, the rest of the rooms were about the same as what we had seen previously. There wasn¡¯t anything worth keeping, aside from a few bones that Amber seemed strangely excited about.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. We took a short rest to recover, then headed to the door to the lower portion of the ruins. As we walked through it, a window appeared in our vision.
Congratulations, you have discovered Belzak¡¯s Crypt. Because you are the first players to discover this dungeon, you will gain bonus experience and the experience penalty upon death will be lessened until you either complete or leave the dungeon. Also, events in the dungeon may play out differently the first time through...
¡°Huh, I don¡¯t remember a message welcoming us to the other dungeon we went in.¡± I said, looking over the message. ¡°I read something about this. Apparently there are a number of undiscovered dungeons throughout the game. Maybe the message only shows up when you find a new one?¡± Horvath finished reading the message, then looked around. ¡°I¡¯m a bit curious about that last sentence. I wonder how it will be different for us, and why¡­¡± Amber shrugged. ¡°From what I read, in a dungeon somewhere else there were different enemies for the first party then for everyone else. I guess that¡¯s what they mean.¡± As we began exploring the dungeon, we quickly realized it was much larger underground. The winding passage was wider than the hallway had been on the surface, allowing us to fight comfortably. Which was good since we frequently encountered groups of undead. Along the walls throughout the dungeon were a large number of murals that seemed to tell a story. Initially, they showed an army of what seemed to be orcs following an orcish mage. There were numerous paintings of this army fighting with other races or besieging cities. Eventually they faced a much larger army comprised of several races, all of which they had fought previously. It seemed the races had banded together to defeat the orcs. Interestingly, within this multiracial army, there were a few orcs as well who were fighting against their brethren. It seemed that the other army was able to corner the orcs against the desert so they could not retreat, and defeated them there. The murals only showed one survivor, the mage who was leading the armies. He was shown hiding in a cave, and a sinister red glow surrounded him. After that image, the murals stopped, and from there on the walls were undecorated. I smirked. ¡°Hmm, those paintings don¡¯t seem ominous at all. I can¡¯t imagine they¡¯re here by coincidence.¡± ¡°True.¡± Horvath nodded. ¡°They could be backstory for the crypt. Though since he was defeated and his army destroyed, it doesn¡¯t make sense that he would have such an elaborate tomb. Either way, we just need to keep going.¡± As we continued, the undead that we faced began to appear in larger groups, so I had to get involved more with the fights. I maintained my inspire on myself to help some, but I still couldn¡¯t do much damage with my whip. I could at least stall an enemy or two until the others could come finish them off, though. Eventually, while holding a couple skeletons back I managed to wrap the end of my whip around one skeleton¡¯s leg. Pulling back, the skeleton fell to the floor, shattering.
You have met all of the requirements to unlock the Whip Mastery skill. You will now be able to use special whip attacks.
Ensnare unlocked
Your whip wraps around a target¡¯s leg, stopping their movement. After ensnaring a target, pulling back on the whip will cause the target to fall over.
  • Falling chance is dependant on strength of both the player and the target.
Energy Cost: 10
Huh, I knew you could unlock skills by accident like this, but I honestly didn¡¯t expect to get a weapon skill. I¡¯ve heard that the actual requirements for each skill are kept secret, so you can only get them by trying various things, or by having someone teach you. Still, now I¡¯ve got the potential to be a little more helpful in here. I immediately tried it out on the second skeleton in front of me. He didn¡¯t fall, but because of my whip being tangled up in his legs, he couldn¡¯t do anything but flail his arms around until Celeste came and killed it with her spear. ¡°Uh, Lilith¡­ Why are you grinning like that?¡± ¡°I just unlocked the skill for my whip. I can now get combat abilities with it. The one I get lets me tie up enemies legs and potentially trip them.¡± ¡°That sounds convenient.¡± Horvath said, coming up behind me. ¡°Should be, though the tripping effect is based on my strength, which I haven¡¯t put any points into at all. Also, now that I¡¯m getting things that I actually need energy for, disguising myself will become considerably more of a sacrifice. Ah well, at least I¡¯ll still have magic in those cases.¡± After that, I continued to ensnare the skeletons that came after me, rather than trying to beat them with the fire spell on my whip. When I was able to trip them the brittle skeletons would shatter every time, so I was able to quickly defeat them. Even if they didn¡¯t fall, they were immobilized so my companions could quickly finish them off. Zombies were still a problem for me. I could ensnare them, but they seemed to have more strength than skeletons so I couldn¡¯t trip them even with Inspire. For them I resorted to using the Flame Slash spell embedded in the whip. It didn¡¯t smell particularly pleasant, but it worked. As we continued on, we encountered a new type of enemy. This one was a translucent humanoid shape, a ghost. Both Celeste¡¯s spear and Horvath¡¯s mace passed right through it when they attempted to attack it, though confusingly their shields were still able to block its attacks. Amber tried to shoot it, but was met with the same result as the others. We did find that due to her blade dance enchanting her weapons with holy magic, Simona was able to hit them fine with her swords. Aurora¡¯s holy bolt spell also worked against them, as did my Ice Spike spell. My whip usually didn¡¯t work on them, unless I used the Flame Slash spell on it before I struck. We decided Simona was primarily responsible for dealing with the spirits, while Aurora and I would assist her if needed. ¡°But, they¡¯re ethereal! It doesn¡¯t make sense!¡± Horvath yelled. He still couldn¡¯t get over the fact that he was able to block the attacks from the ghosts. He managed to tolerate a lot, but that was just a bit too much I guess. ¡°I can¡¯t hit them with a non-magical mace. Heck, I can¡¯t even hit them with my NON-MAGICAL SHIELD! But I can still stop them from hitting me with it! It¡¯s absurd. It¡¯s like something you¡¯d come up with!¡± ¡°Alright, alright. Calm down.¡± I smiled. It actually did sound like something I¡¯d think of, mostly because this reaction is pretty funny. ¡°Nothing about the undead make sense. They¡¯re dead, but not. You can¡¯t expect them to follow the rule of logic or physics.¡± ¡°They should still follow their own rules though. It¡¯s just silly.¡± He pouted. ¡°Alright, fine. You can write a complaint to PassCom later. For now you need to accept it so we can get moving. I¡¯m almost to level 8, so hurry it up.¡± ¡°Easy for you to say. It makes sense you can hit them¡­¡± He continued muttering to himself for a bit as we pressed further into the dungeon. Eventually, we came to a large room. Guessing what was to come we took a short break, then walked in fully on guard. And we were right. As we entered, a large figure fell from the ceiling, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. Chapter 25: Always Have a Plan B Our vision was obscured for a few moments while the dust swirled around the room, kicked up by whatever monster had fallen from the cathedral ceiling of the room. As a side note, I¡¯m not really sure how far underground we were at this point, but I suspected that ceiling was too high for our depth. I wondered if we were under a hill now, or if the laws of physics and reality were being bent again. Games have been known to do that. Anyway, after the air in the room cleared, we could finally see the monster standing before us. And I just couldn¡¯t keep myself from commenting. ¡°Huh, that¡¯s kinda gross.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you take this a little more seriously?¡± Horvath asked, never taking his eyes off the enemy. The monstrosity stood almost twice Horvath¡¯s height. I called it a monstrosity because that was really the only word I could find to describe the thing. It had four legs, each about as thick as my waist. Not that Lilith¡¯s waist is particularly thick. She was designed to have a fairly good hourglass figure, after all. Like a centaur, from it¡¯s front it had a large, muscular torso. From that four large arms sprouted. The bald head was also quite large, with a horrifying face with none of the features in quite the right place. I didn¡¯t take the time to count, but it had quite a few eyes, rather than the usual two. Picture a spider¡¯s eyes, except made up of a number of normal eyes, rather than one compound one. The mouth was very wide with several rows of sharp looking teeth, and hung open with some drool dripping from it. The entire monstrosity was unclothed, and was evidently made by sewing together a large number of corpses. The skin was a number of mottled patches of different colors. Some were standard shades of skin, others were a pale bluish. There were several patches of very darkly tanned skin, and still others were varying shades of green. There were even a few other, even more exotic colors. Though blue and green are already fairly exotic. ¡°So, I¡¯m going to go out on a limb here and say this isn¡¯t natural. Or as natural as you can get with undead. Either way, this thing looks like someone intentionally put it together like that. Any ideas on how we go about killing it?¡± I quietly asked Horvath as we and the monstrosity stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. ¡°Really, what clued you in? That it¡¯s got too many of basically everything, or that it¡¯s clearly sewn together?¡± Horvath asked sarcastically. ¡°Anyway, we should probably just stick to our usual routine, since we¡¯ve got no clue what this thing is capable of. We¡¯ll go into melee and I¡¯ll try to keep its attention. Aurora, keep us alive and fire your Holy Bolt whenever you can. Amber, aim for the eyes. It¡¯s not likely, but maybe we can blind it. Lilith, it¡¯s big enough you can probably close in with your whip. I¡¯m willing to bet your mind magic will be just as useless here as it is on regular undead.¡± After getting everyone¡¯s acknowledgement to the plan, Horvath ran forward positioning himself directly in front of the monstrosity. Seeing us charge towards it, the creature gave a loud roar, and began its own charge and took a swing at Horvath with both of its right arms with a thundering impact against his shield. Surprisingly, Horvath was able to hold his ground from the tremendous blow, and didn¡¯t move at all. While Horvath was absorbing blows from the monster, Simona dashed forward to his right, while Celeste charged to the left. Using my wings, I quickly soared behind the monster. I activated my flame slash spell, and took a swing at the monsters back legs. Most of the monster¡¯s attacks were focused on Horvath, but occasionally it would take a swing at the rest of us while still aiming at Horvath with the others. In my case, it would attempt to kick me with it¡¯s rear legs. The first time it tried that I was barely able to get out of the way, and nearly got hit hard by the claws that were sticking out of the foot. Our attacks were chipping away at the monstrosities health, but it was very slow. We searched around as we fought it trying to find weak points, but other than when Amber shot the eyes it seemed to take very little damage. When she wasn¡¯t healing Aurora started firing her Holy Bolts at the eyes as well, but the rest of us were stuck hitting the torso and legs, since we couldn¡¯t reach higher. After we got it to roughly half health, the monster gave out another roar. Since we weren¡¯t sure what it was doing, Horvath had us all regroup for a moment, but after the roar nothing seemed to change. At least at first, then from the side entrances of the room, a couple zombies came shuffling in. Initially, we thought the zombies were coming to attack us from behind while we were fighting to the monster, but things turned out much worse for us than that. The monstrosity leapt over to one of the zombies, picked it up, and shoved the whole thing in it¡¯s mouth. As it chewed on its undead snack, it¡¯s health began to recover, and some of the eyes Amber and Aurora had managed to destroy began to regenerate. ¡°Don¡¯t let it eat the other zombie. We need to limit the amount of health it can regain.¡± Horvath yelled, and Celeste used her charge to attack the second zombie. The rest of us started running over as well, but her ability made her faster than even I could go with my wings. The monstrosity finished crunching on the first zombie, and turned to see her take a swing at its second meal. It dashed toward her, intending to stop her before she can kill the zombie. As it reached her, it picked up the zombie with one of its left hands, while both of its right fists came crashing towards Celeste. Just before impact, Horvath managed to leap between them, and raised his shield. Because he had just arrived, he hadn¡¯t had time to properly get his footing, and the impact from both of the fists sent him flying backwards. He managed to survive the blow, but only barely. He wouldn¡¯t be able to do much until Aurora healed him some. With the obstruction out of the way, the fourth arm came swinging down on Celeste, who wasn¡¯t able to dodge it and was sent crashing into a wall. Hitting the wall, she burst into small lights, the first loss for our party. Unfortunately, we didn¡¯t have time to be upset about losing Celeste. Because we had all closed in to try to stop it from killing her, now Simona and I were in close range without a tank to distract the monster. As a general rule, lightly armored characters like us don¡¯t do particularly well in this situation, and this was no exception. A large fist came crashing down on me before I even realized what was going on. Just as it hit me, I heard a loud explosion from above, and then my vision went black. --- When my consciousness returned, I was standing back at the beginning of the dungeon, in the room where we had first received the message congratulating us on discovering it. My body was a sore all over, probably because I was just crushed by a giant fist. That tends to be a painful experience, and I would know. This isn¡¯t the first time that¡¯s happened to me. Looking around the room, Celeste was sitting leaning against the wall. ¡°You alright?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah. I wasn¡¯t expecting it to hit that hard, though.¡± I smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t think it had been, up till then. I wonder if attacking the zombies enrages it or something. Anyway, things were looking pretty bad, so the others should-¡± As I was speaking, there was a flash of light, and Simona appeared. ¡°... be arriving soon.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Ow, I didn¡¯t expect the pain to linger after coming back.¡± Simona sheathed her swords, and sat down by Celeste. Before long, Horvath appeared in the room, followed closely by Amber and Aurora. I can only guess, but he probably tried to hold out as long as he could to protect them, and after he was gone they were quickly dispatched by the monstrosity as well. ¡°Alright, that didn¡¯t go so well. Let¡¯s take a break and try to think of a plan, since that clearly didn¡¯t work. Also, that should give the soreness from respawning time to go away.¡± Everyone agreed to Horvath¡¯s proposal. ¡°It was going alright, other than it healing and us not being able to do much damage to it.¡± ¡°Yeah, I think we need to hit it harder, especially the eyes. Speaking of which, what was that you used near the end, Amber? That did a good bit of damage, so if possible, can you use those more?¡± ¡°Oh, that. The results of an experiment. I only had a couple of them right now, though. They¡¯re tricky to make, and also a bit unstable. I have the materials to make a decent amount if we want to use them, but it¡¯ll probably take an hour or two.¡± ¡°Um, what are you two talking about?¡± Amber grinned at my question. ¡°Ah right, you died just as I fired the first one. It¡¯s a surprise, and one you in particular will enjoy.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve got a few more ideas we can try. Let¡¯s take a break here and have a meal. Amber, get as many of those made as possible. It¡¯s risky, but I think we can pull this off.¡± Horvath has always hated losing a battle. He views it as failing his job as a tank, and so he gets frustrated when things go south. Luckily, he¡¯s also good at analyzing the situation and coming up with new methods. We all sat and had a meal. Amber say a bit away, for safety, and began working on whatever it was she would be using in the coming fight. As for my meal, it was Celeste¡¯s turn to feed me, so while Aurora prepared everyone else¡¯s food we found some privacy, which sounds a lot more scandalous than it really was. As usual, Aurora insisted I eat with everyone else afterward, and we spent a couple hours recovering and calming down. --- ¡°Alright, are we ready to try this again?¡± Horvath asked as we looked into the room large room. This time the monstrosity was already sitting on the ground, so I suppose the drop in was only for the first appearance. It¡¯s health was back to max, but I wasn¡¯t sure if it summoned a bunch of zombies to snack on, or if the game just restored it when all its enemies died. After getting the okay from everyone, we once again marched in to face the monster. This time our formation was a bit different. Horvath, Simona, and Celeste were still in front, since they needed to close into melee. Behind them was only Aurora for healing and the occasional Holy Bolt. Finally, Amber and I were on our own, in the air out of the monster¡¯s reach. I was to carry her, while she fired her crossbow from above. As I scooped Amber up into my arms, something interesting occurred to me. ¡°Hey Amber.¡± ¡°Hmm, what¡¯s up?¡± She asked, looking over her shoulder at me. ¡°You¡¯re considerably smaller than Aurora, so why is it you¡¯re actually heavier than she is?¡± Amber turned her face away from me, and didn¡¯t say or do anything for a moment. Then her elbow jabbed into my gut. ¡°Guh, don¡¯t do that. I might have drop you.¡± ¡°You should know better than to comment on a ladies weight! In fact, I¡¯m pretty sure we had this conversation before! Now fly steady. If you move erratically these things may go off and kill us both.¡± She pulled a quiver of the special bolts she had been making from her inventory, and hung it so she could smoothly draw and fire them. These were the unstable things she had been making during our break earlier, a set of prototype explosive crossbow bolts. Our strategy was simple. The melee fighters would be on the ground, holding the creature¡¯s attention. While they were going to do some damage, their primary goal was to keep it in place. Meanwhile, I would fly out of the monster¡¯s reach with Amber, who would be firing her explosive bolts at the monster. Since there was a danger of them exploding if they were shaken too much, she wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge attacks, which was why we decided to have me carry her above the monster. Plus, this gave her a clean line of fire at the monster¡¯s eyes. We were also responsible for eliminating the zombies before the creature could consume them. As for me, I was just gently gliding through the air with a gnome in my arms. Occasionally I cast Inspire on myself to keep my strength up, since it would be very, VERY bad to drop Amber. If I thought I could, I would also cast it on the others, but I didn¡¯t do that often since maintaining the effect on myself was the highest priority and I didn¡¯t want to risk running out of mana. KATHUNK, the crossbow launched it¡¯s missile at the monster¡¯s right eye cluster. As soon as the bolt made contact, KABOOM, it exploded in a large fireball, singeing all of the eyes around where it hit, and temporarily blinding that eye and carving off a good sized portion of the monster¡¯s health. ¡°Hey, move a bit to the left so I can aim at that eye. Let¡¯s alternate targets back and forth to try to keep it blinded.¡± ¡°You got it.¡± I began slowly drifting back and forth in the air as Amber rained explosives on the monster¡¯s face. Of course, the monstrosity wasn¡¯t going to just ignore the flying target that was doing most of the damage to it. It bent its knees to prepare to leap up and attack us, but this was something we had planned for and expected it to do. As soon as the knees bent, all three of the melee fighters attacked them, destabilizing the creature and causing it to fall over. Until it was able to pick itself up, they began slashing at it¡¯s face, going for the eyes that were now in their reach. Before long, we once again had it back down to half it¡¯s health. Once again, the monster let out a roar, and a couple zombies came shuffling into the room. However this time our melee fighters didn¡¯t back off when it roared, so it wasn¡¯t free to rush over to where the zombies where. Instead, the zombies slowly started making their way towards the monster. ¡°Brace yourselves!¡± I called out to the rest of the party as Amber and I drifted toward the first zombie, and Amber quickly sniped it with her explosives instantly destroying it. Seeing one of it¡¯s zombies destroyed, the monster began slamming its fists into Horvath¡¯s shield harder than it had been so far. As we had guessed, attacking the zombies enrages it. We quickly dispatched the second zombie in the same way, then went back to attacking the eyes. This time it started attempting to shield its eyes with two of its hands, which slowed our attacks. It still had to move the hands away occasionally to locate our party members, though, so we did have windows to fire in. And with two arms occupied protecting its eyes, the melee fighters were free to attack more as there were less attacks aimed at them. Unfortunately, the enraged state didn¡¯t seem to be going away, so those attacks they did get were stronger. From then, it just became a matter of shooting the eyes when we had the chance, while the others kept the monster in place. It tried a few more times to jump at us, with similar results to the first attempt. At roughly a quarter of it¡¯s health remaining, it once again summoned a couple zombies to try to heal itself. We used the same tactic as before, and shot down the zombies while everyone else kept the monster from going to eat the other one. After killing the first zombie, however, the monsters blows became even stronger. It seemed that killing a zombie in every wave could increase the enrage bonus even further. At this point, Aurora had to stop casting Holy Bolt entirely to focus on keeping Horvath¡¯s health up. The zombie summoning repeated again at about ten percent of its health. At this point, all four fists were constantly hammering down on Horvath¡¯s shield, with the impacts actually pushing him backwards a bit. Aurora constantly cast healing spells on him to mitigate the damage, and I saw her quickly drinking a mana potion. Horvath also was using healing potions to help ease her load, but it wouldn¡¯t do much. If the monster didn¡¯t die soon, we would end up losing Horvath due to attrition. ¡°Amber, can you fire faster? We need to finish this fast.¡± ¡°No, but I do have one thing I can do. I¡¯ve only got one, but there is a bolt that does an even bigger explosion. It¡¯s even less stable than the ones I¡¯ve been using, and is liable to go off while I load it if you shake at all, though. Can you hold very steady for a bit?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do what I can.¡± I focused on keeping us as still as possible, shutting out everything else to concentrate on the movement of my wings. I barely even registered the movement of Amber in my arms as she loaded her crossbow. And then I heard the sound of it fire. Looking up, I saw the monsters entire head suddenly engulfed in a massive explosion. The light and heat from the explosion caused the rest of our party, who were closer to it, to have to shield their faces with their arms and step back away from the monster. The monster itself gave off a thunderous roar and staggered backwards, before toppling to the ground with a loud crash, and disappearing into countless small particles of light. Quick Update (i.e. where have I been these past two months) Not actually a chapter, but I felt like you all deserved to know what''s going on, and why I''ve gone silent suddenly. A while ago I had a hard drive failure, and since I don''t follow good IT practices of course nothing at all was backed up. Sadly, that includes all of my work for this story. All I have left are the published chapters here. What you all may or may not realize is I had written out a lot of background, both things that "happened" in the world before the game went live, and things that were going on in other places during the story. The world had thousands of years of history at this point that could come up in the story line eventually, and now that''s all gone. Additionally, I had maps of the world, spreadsheets for all the character stats, and a list of every character and place that had been mentioned so far, and details about them all to maintain consistency. All of this in addition to the roadmap for the future of the story. (Yes, I really wasn''t just making this up as it went. It just seemed that way sometimes sadly.)Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Anyway,now I''m stuck. I remember some of the general details, but I write these things down for a reason. All that information went away, and took a lot of my motivation with it. I''ve tried to reconstruct it to some degree, but I just don''t feel it. When I first created it, it just flowed naturally, but now it''s just not. And every time I try I just get frustrated and stop shortly thereafter. I''m not completely giving up on this story. I want to continue to write of Lilith and her adventures in SWO, but unfortunately SWO as it was is gone. I still know about the world and where the story was going. But if I can''t get these details reconstructed, I don''t believe I''ll be able to continue the story properly. And I don''t feel that would be fair to you, me, or the characters. Hopefully, this won''t be the end. I''ll keep trying to rebuild it. But don''t expect any updates to come soon. Sorry to disappoint everyone.