《Murphy´s Law》 1. BlueSky the Fly "Huuaaaaa..." I broke out of my daze with a yawn. It was definitely too hot. The blazing summer breeze was dancing around me as if to mock my efforts. "That¡äs what you get for trying to be different!~" I heard it hiss. I tried to retort but my mouth was dry and I was out of water, the future looked grim indeed. There was nothing in sight wherever I looked, well nothing besides stones, sand and my own footprints indicating that I had been walking in circles. Sure enough I was still in the DryDry desert. There was no sign of life around. "You will dry here~ you will die here~ too dry, you die!" Not that I was actually concentrating on anything in particular. I, after all, had no sense of direction whatsoever. After getting over the fact that I had found my own footprints, again, I decided to go into a different random direction. A futile struggle, really, after all I was out of water in a desert with nothing in sight for the next few kilometers. I nodded in approval of my discovery. The solution should have been obvious from the start! If there was no way to get out of this oven I just had to sit it out until I died and resurrected in the Beginnercity. My mind made up I dived into the sand and started making a sandangel. I rather enjoyed the feeling of the cool sand on my sun burnt skin. < I should have done that from the start.> Building a castle turned out to be a more difficult task than I would have expected. Not only was the sand in the DryDry desert ... well dry, so it didn¡ät stick together properly, the wind kept destroying what little I achieved. Thus I tried to reinforce the sandy walls with the stones that littered the area. Luckily the DryDry desert wasn¡ät an ordinary desert. There were patches of obsidian black stones all over the place. These shiny black stones were perfectly circular and were a stark contrast to the sky blue sand, which was piled up by the smoldering desert wind, forming almost oceanic seeming dunes. The glaring sun, reflective stones and bright blue sand created a picture of perfect harmony. Blinding harmony. Also known as SandMirror the entire area was too bright for most people¡äs eyes to bear. A human, so it was said, would go blind after a single week in the SandMirror. I, however, was relieved by the fact I was surrounded by beautiful materials I could use for the construction. So I replicated a castle I had seen in reality before. There was a magnificent wall surrounding a vaguely square shaped building. The most eye catching feature of the castle was its tower. This part was completely unlike a sandcastle, to my dismay. After the wind had ripped every last grain of sand from the lofty construction the piled up stones stood naked like a skeleton that had lost its flesh. Stacking up the round stones had been one hell of a difficult task as they always seemed to roll away. Stubborn person that I am, of course I kept fighting the stones until the skeletal tower was erected. I liked the tower. Although my sandcastle didn¡ät even resemble the model I had in mind I still liked it. I smiled in glee as I was about to finish my project and thus triumph over the breeze that had incessantly annoyed me for the past 2 hours. I searched for a big stone to use as my castle gate. After a while I found the perfect gate. It was a fist sized red stone and was supposed to give my castle a royal touch. At this point I really should have started to wonder what a red stone was doing in a world of black and blue but... blame it on the heat, the thirst or plain stupidity... I didn¡ät notice the stone was out of place. Crawling my way over to the stone, too exhausted to stand, I took the stone and placed it. Not. I lamented in my mind. As I was sucked into the sand my frustration grew. It was always like this. Whenever I found something I enjoyed in this game something annoying would happen to prevent me from having fun! Watching the sand around me rise higher and higher I threw a longing look at my castle. Yes, by then I had already forgotten the original purpose of building the castle in the first place. I hated to leave things unfinished so with the last ounce of strength I could muster I threw the gate towards my castle in an attempt to complete it. Before I could see the completion or more likely destruction of my castle, however, I was swallowed by the desert while hearing the wind chuckle for the last time. At this point I was ready to return to the city when... Splash! I facepalmed then stared at the muddy water longingly. Dignity warred thirst with thirst winning. After replenishing my water supply, still coughing up the dirty water I had nearly choked on, I scanned my surroundings with big eyes. I was in a tunnel with stony walls and a low sand ceiling, not that I understood how the crumbly dry sand managed to form a solid ceiling that didn¡ät plummet down. Said ceiling was just high enough for my head to brush it while walking. I had to bend down a bit to walk comfortably. The tunnel itself was illuminated by dim light that broke through the sand and bathed everything in shades of blue. I touched a wall to confirm a rising suspicion. Obsidian. AHAAA! Or not. I was no stone expert but I figured my Minecraft days had taught me a thing or two. Clearly this tunnel had been built by intelligent people. They created smooth walls infused with magic for protection. I could feel the tingling sensation of an enchantment on the wall and the golden runes were also somewhat of a giveaway. I revised my opinion of the game. Maybe this place wasn¡ät so bad after all! There could be a treasure! Despite my newfound excitement I still couldn¡ät suppress a shiver. It was as cold as a night in the desert down here! Maybe this tunnel is the reason why the desert sand was cool to the touch... Choosing a path at random I made my way through the tunnel. Whenever I reached a fork I simply took the right turn. Drawing a map would probably have helped me navigate in this maze but I never bothered buying paper and a pen so I just kept walking. Always going right was the best maze tactic I knew so I stuck with it. However, for some reason my perfect plan to find the exit or treasure didn¡ät work. Soon I felt like I was descending into a lower level. The light source switched after an hour of walking from random streams of light that passed through the ceiling to torches on the wall. The atmosphere changed completely with the lights. A rune engraved blue lit tunnel was more mysterious so I regretted leaving it behind. The new area had a friendlier feel to it. I was overcome with joy and anxiety at the same time. The Sand had been telling me horror stories all this time and I wasn¡ät too sure whether I wanted to find out who or rather what had inspired them. I certainly didn¡ät trust the friendly atmosphere this place exuded. Nevertheless my curiosity won against any instinct of self preservation. Torches meant people so I took a moment to listen for voices or steps or anything at all. When I didn¡ät hear anything for at least five minutes I followed the torched path passing countless dark tunnels, completely abandoning my initial maze tactic. I did my best to be stealthy. The rustling of my clothes and the crunching sand destroyed my ninja delusions quickly so I opted for a more casual approach. Whenever I came upon a fork in the road, only one path was lit. So of course I followed the torches with no means of lighting the tunnel on my own. My adventurous spirit drove me to creep up on the dark tunnels and pass them in the most imaginative ways I could find. I crawled on the floor, sprinted, jumped, climbed around the doorway... and fell down during that particular endeavor. I had fun in my own way. Thoughts of the desert and my near death experience all but forgotten. I soon reached a gigantic hall. The hall was at least as big as a sports field and about 4 stories high. Especially the height startled me. I didn¡ät realize until then that I was so far from the surface. The slight slope had mislead me into thinking I was 10 meters beneath the desert, at most. The hall was clad in similar runes as the tunnel I had come through, though these runes seemed to tell a story. There were shapes I recognized. People, horses dragons. Horned people? Maybe demons but I could be wrong as I had never seen one before. As I slowly walked along the wall I came to a stop in front of an especially big rune. Fire, water, swords and arrows whizzed in and out of existence as a great war took place in front of my eyes. The participants however were barely recognizable as silhouettes. There must have been thousands of fighters. I strained my eyes, trying to see more than these vague outlines and unconsciously stepped closer to the rune. As if in reaction to my approach the pictures changed. The runes seemed to zoom in on two fighters. They had thrown themselves into the enemy lines with reckless abandon. Fighting back to back without even looking at each others movements. They were simply in perfect sync. One of them was a mage, the other an archer. I almost couldn¡ät believe it. How can two nonmelees like them fight in the midst the enemies ranks? How weren¡ät they dead yet? I watched them for what felt like minutes but, judging by my flashing energy bar, must have been hours. I saw it all. Their haughty attitude that led them into this position crumbled and gave way to despair. As they grew more frantic and exhausted, I could see openings in their formation forming. Predictably they had no way to last the endless onslaught of enemies. All too soon their struggle came to an end. It was a suicide attack. The mage blew them up. An onslaught of questions assaulted me but I was too tired to answer them all. What I wanted to know above all were the names of these suicidal fools. Who were they? What did they fight for? Who won the war? My low energy bar forced me on my knees. I slowly munched on some stale bread. When I was ready to look at the other moving runes I couldn¡ät help but throw another look at the tragic fools. But what I saw wasn¡ät the battle scene from before. The runes now formed writing. I quickly scanned the text. Encouraged by the mysterious atmosphere, beautiful runic writing and my overzealous imagination I started reading aloud, dramatizing every word like a storyteller. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. "Hear my plea! Heroes of the past! Your destiny is not fulfilled. Villains of the future! A dream, barred by the remnants of the past. Forget what you believed and open your eyes!" And so I did. __________________________________ I stared at the lustrous furniture of the Temple of Rebirth¡äs sanctum. I had only been here once before but undoubtedly this was the sanctum with its golden mirrors, gigantic windows that revealed a view of the clouds from above and the ever changing painting of a tree. Right now it looked like a palm tree for some reason. There was no door and the ceiling gave off a red glow. I knew I could change the color at will. This was the character creation stage. before I could finish the thought I found something odd. There was a crystal ball in front of me. I could have sworn it wasn¡ät there when I checked out the room a few seconds ago. Intrigued I took a step towards it and reached out with my left hand. To my surprise it flew towards my outstretched hand. "Who am I?" strange floating crystalball. "You can talk?" Me "Of course why would I not? Nevermind. So who am I?" talking crystal ball. "hmmm... I don¡ät know but I could give you a name if you don¡ät have one!" "No I think..." cautious crystal ball. "Alright its decided! Your name is SparkleFly!" nodding me. "SparkelFly?!? No! What kind of awful namingsense-" panicked crystal ball. "So SparkelFly, do you know why we are here?" I wanted to get to the point. "I thought you knew! And stop interrupting me. My name is most definitely not SparkelFly." I was stumped. Why was it so angry? It didn¡ät have a name so I went through the trouble of thinking of an awe inspiring name. Well, everyone¡äs a critic. "What I know is, that we are in the sacrosanct of the Temple of Rebirth. This is the place where stray souls get bodies. I already have a body though." I looked in the gold mirror just to make sure.< Body? Check!> That left only one other person. A bodyless person currently in the form of a floating SparkelFly. I was getting excited. Character creation was fun and I kind of wanted to see what I could create this time around. "You don¡ät have a body. I don¡ät know what lead to this development but I think we should create a body for you. So Fly what do you want to be? A beast, a plant, a gust of wind? You could also go with something boring like an elf or dwarf." Yes in this game people could not play human. When I found out I could only silently applaud the creators. This revelation called forth a shitstorm of never before seen magnitude but I ,contrary to the masses, was delighted. The game was more interesting this way! While I was pondering fun possibilities for my new friend he just stared at me. Or at least that¡äs what it felt like. Have you ever had a chrystal ball stare at you? A peculiar feeling indeed. "What is it? Cat got your tongue?" "No it¡äs just... I .. I never thought I would get a chance to... you know... get a body" deeply moved Sparkel. "So what have you been doing until now?" "I don¡ät want to talk about it." His tone grew colder with every word. Sensing a landmine I backed of. His lifestory was none of my business after all. Even if I enjoyed messing with him it wasn¡ät to that extend. "Ok, back on topic. What do you want to be? Who do you want to be? What are your dreams your fears your wishes?" I started to dramatize everything I said and threw my arms around like an idiot. Sparkel took his time thinking while I simply wandered around the luxurious room. The tree painting had become a cactus for some reason... I gave it an irritated look. This weird picture... during my creation process I was so fascinated with it I tried to pry it off the wall and the malevolent thing nearly electrocuted me for it. I was somehow sure the picture could read thoughts too, but had nothing to back that up with. During my own creation process, well after the almost execution by lightning, I had a long chat with the thing. Whenever I said something it would switch to a different tree. I would then try to decipher what message it was trying to convey. Little hints like the colors of the leafs, their size or animals that appeared sporadically with a new tree would be used for this reason. I thought with a chuckle. At the end of last times chat, which of course did not end because I wanted it to, no I had fun so of course the evil game butted in to end my fun , I even got a title and a skill. It¡äs pretty much the only skill I had right now and simply allowed me to talk to all kinds of inanimate objects. The thing is.. I couldn¡ät turn it off. Finally Fly came to a decision, which was no decision at all... really. What kind of stray soul that has wished for a body enough to become all emotional about it could be so indecisive? "I want to be male, strong, able to fly, handsome... I guess that sums it up." contemplative Fly. I sighed and then went through the races with lightning speed. SparkelFly seemed unable to browse the selection so I narrowed it down. Just when I had decided on a course of action I remembered the runes and the two idiot fighters. Thus I played around with different races for a while. With a flash of electricity my masterpiece came to life. Literally. He opened his eyes to his new form and stared long and hard at his reflection in the mirror. He was naked, two meters tall with tanned skin and lean muscles. Light blue hair fell to his back and bluish transparent wings as large as him decorated his back. As he opened and folded them a single feather came loose and floated through the air. I caught it and touched it. Contrary to my expectations it was hard as stone. On SparkelFlys head a silver crown rested. It was astonishing. The crown was no crown at all. I had arranged the horns to look like an intricate web of silver with the occasional vertical spike. The voluminous blue hair hid the horncrowns connection with Fly¡äs head perfectly. He looked majestic. The thing that took me the longest to create however was his face. Usually when creating a character you would be able to take your own face as the base and change things from there. I didn¡ät want him to look like me though so I spent quite some time there. He was handsome though. I was proud of his eyes. I managed to give them a blue shine with specks of silver. Fly started flexing his muscles, striking all kinds of embarrassing poses, smiled scowled and opened his mouth to reveal sharp predator like teeth. He looked idiotic and I couldn¡ät suppress the laughter. As he inspected himself I calmed myself down from the fits of laughter and raised my voice again. "Are you satisfied?" He was startled for a moment then turned to look at me as if he had totally forgotten I was even here in the first place. I was still holding the feather from before and twirled it in my right hand. I anticipated his reply. Although I could already see the look of wonder and amazement in his eyes. "Thank you." A deep manly voice resounded. This sincere reply caught me off guard. I had wanted to tease him a bit. I smiled, then laughed and he laughed too, about nothing in particular and everything at once. It was a simple happy laugh that lasted what felt like moments but could also have been hours. I could see us becoming friends in the future. "You need a name. Now you are no longer a SparkelFly." I said full of vigor. How could I let my masterpiece walk around with a dumb name like that? We exchanged looks but he didn¡ät seem to have any ideas. "Any wishes? Do you want something with meaning or maybe a name that just sounds good?" The lack of initiative on his part had been bothering me so I just dragged him into my pace. "Blue.." he said while looking at his hair then looked outside the mega window overlooking a landscape of clouds. "I am BlueSky." He said with finality. < Well, that was unexpected... too bad I wanted to name him Wish.> "BlueSky it is then." I said mentally applauding him for his uncreative name. Even the Sparkel one had been better than that. I entered the name into the creation menu and thus finished the process. Lightning again enveloped the room but this time when it faded I found myself staring at the runes in the DryDry deserts underground labyrinth again. "Seriously what¡äs up with the random teleportation?" I basically screamed. "Owww... could you not shout into my ear?" an equally peeved voice returned. I turned around to see BlueSky standing next to me, taking in his surroundings. He was still naked. I could only watch him with a pity filled gaze. "What is it?" BlueSky "Oh, I was just thinking that we ought to find you some clothes."Me Finally becoming aware of his situation he covered himself, or tried to. It looked hilarious. A two meter man with somewhat royal appearance blushing like a young maiden and trying to block my view. I literally rolled on the floor while laughing. Ironically enough there were always clothes of all sizes in the sanctum for the newly created bodies. I was simply too forgetful to get him some before finishing the process of creation. When I realized it I exploded into laughter once more. Of course I didn¡ät tell him of my blunder as some things are better left unsaid. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Author¡äs note Please tell me about any mistakes you may find! I¡äm not a native english speaker and I would like to improve =D Thanks for reading~ 2.The Game of Factions My stomach ached from all the laughter. I couldn¡ät take it anymore so I forcefully calmed myself down. The future promised to be interesting with this guy around. "Stop ..haha.. stop looking so embarrassed Sky! Remember, I made that body. I have already seen it all. Oh come on, don¡ät give me that look." "Pervert!" I facepalmed. If I had bothered taking my hand away from my face after the last facepalm I would have put it there again. "Dude, I¡äm a man." I said matter of factly. "No way. You are obviously a girl! Don¡ät try to mess with me." "I¡äm a man." "Nope" "I am!" "Impossible!" "Stop denying my gender!" "I¡äm not denying your anything! You are a girl!" "Gahh just believe me already!" "I don¡ät believe that. I can¡ät believe that! Have you looked into a mirror recently?" "It¡äs my belief and I¡äm entitled to it!" I joked. "Gender is not a matter of belief especially in game! Plus, you are obviously a girl." "Suit yourself. Not that it matters." I grumbled and pouted. "Aha! So you really are a girl!" BlueSky excitedly pointed at me, his nudity all but forgotten. "What gave you the idea?" "Men don¡ät pout! Men hit things when they are discontent! And no self-respecting man would pout when his gender is questioned!" "I am a pacifist! Don¡ät you think you have a twisted view of men? Are you sure you are ok being a man? Maybe we should get you a sex change and a therapy after all." I said mostly to annoy him. "Whether I am a man or a woman is none of your business! You will just have to get over it." I was done with this topic and turned back to the runes. BlueSky thankfully got the hint and turned to the runes I was inspecting. "So this might be a bit late but... what¡äs your name? And where are we? I thought you were just a character creation NPC or some sort of guide but now you seem more like a Stray to me." BlueSky Strays were simply players in this game. The language software which also translated all kinds of languages exchanged the word "player" with "Stray Soul" whenever it got the chance so the players got used to calling themselves "Strays" on their own. For a player to say "Stray" instead of "Stray Soul" meant he initially called himself as such and the software didn¡ät kick in. More experienced players used this to recognize noobs. I remembered the previously icy tone, when I asked him about his past. Thus I shrugged it off. "Oh, you finally noticed? I thought you would never ask. Anyways I don¡ät really know where we are. I was just walking through a desert minding my own business, building sandcastles along the way when the sand ate me and I ended up in this underground maze. After looking around for a bit I was for some reason teleported to the sanctum with you. And yes I¡äm a Stray. The name is Murphy." I gave a ridiculously large bow for the sake of roll playing with his majesty, the crown wearing demonlord. He played along, got into a formal posture and gave me gracious nod. The entire situation was absurd as he was still naked but he must have gotten used to it by now. Both of us being Strays means he is also a player, not that I didn¡ät suspect that. That didn¡ät make the situation less strange though. The notion was absurd. "Well I guess we are stuck with each other for a while so let¡äs explore! This place is interesting~. There are moving runes and pictures and epic large scale fights! Oh but I didn¡ät see a single monster ever since I came here!" "Where did you come from?" "Oh that tunnel over the-..." I pointed at the tunnel I had followed to the big hall...just that there was no tunnel. After a quick sprint I stood before the place where the tunnel should have been. I touched the wall but to no avail. There was no tunnel. Runes covered the wall and formed a stop sign. "Strange~, I guess there is no going back." I faked nonchalance and turned to Sky. BlueSky had caught up with me and stared at me inquisitively. "What is it?" I felt uncomfortable under his gaze and began to fidget. "I don¡ät see any other exit." "Thanks Sherlock, I didn¡ät notice." "Sorry... I didn¡ät mean to snap at you Blue...I simply hate confined spaces like this." I pointed at the room in general. Although it was by no means small I felt increasingly uncomfortable. Even the small tunnel was a better alternative as in there I could just counter my fears with the hope of finding the exit. The character creation stage also didn¡ät scare me because I could just jump through the window even if there were no doors...and nothing but clouds beneath the window. I chided myself but there was nothing to be done about it. Blue gave me a skeptical look. "Are you... claustrophobic?" He somewhat tilted his head. "Of course not! Are you?" Despite myself my body language gave me away as I started to restlessly pace back and forth then along the walls in search of an exit, a window, an air vent or maybe a pin sized hole that would give me at least a bit of hope. BlueSky just watched me with increasing worry. He had obviously seen through the facade but figured talking to me about it would only worsen the situation. Even if he wanted to help me there was nothing he could do, well except for finding an exit. Thus he took the opposite side of the room and looked at the runes. In my increasing fear I had all but forgotten BlueSky was even with me. I panted heavily, frantically pulled on torch holders and pushed any suspicious parts of the obsidian wall in hopes of finding some kind of mechanism to open a secret door. It worked as I had already found two secret compartments this way. Sadly none of them were an exit but they still encouraged me. One contained an antidote the other a lavashard that would unleash a fireball on my foes if I activated it. Especially the lavashard was a rare treasure I would usually have been overjoyed to find. Now it just came as a disappointment. "I found something!" BlueSky excitedly exclaimed. With a dash I was by his side and searched for the cause of his excitement. I didn¡ät find anything. Where was the exit? My eyes met his and he pointed at the obvious runic painting in front of us. Thus I inspected it. There was actually a text instead of a picture. My adventurous spirit flared up as I wanted to dramatically read it aloud again but the fear won out and I just skimmed the text. "So we have to sing this?" I laughed despite myself. "So it would seem..." "Are you a good singer?" My fear was already subsiding with the emergence of hope. "I bet you could solo that!" "Even if I wanted to, how am I supposed to sing two different texts at the same time?" "I¡äm sure you will find a way~" I took a moment to marvel at my own creativity then tuned the ranting BlueSky back on. He had been cursing me for a bit all the while grinning. He was visibly relieved and annoyed by my recovery. "Alright let¡äs do this! On three ok? One, Two" I was pumped and sang the first line but BlueSky who had tried to sing his own line suddenly exploded in laughter, so I stopped as we already failed this first attempt. I stared at him in pouting contempt. I already knew why he had laughed after all. "Haha... Murphy what¡äs up with your voice?" "Got a problem?" I gave him a grin that promised eternal hell if he didn¡ät stop laughing this instant. "Hehe.. will it even work if you sing like that? Haha" "Of course! The text told us to sing. There was no mention of being good! Not like it¡äs my fault after all. It¡äs a side effect of my race." "Ahh your race huh? Good excuse, girl." I glared at him for more than one reason. "Yep my race~. I¡äm a pseudo mermaid. The backstory is something about a part of the merfolk that wanted to live on land and developed legs. But our sirens singing became a bother to the other inhabitants of the land as their males were drawn to our beautiful voices. They were a bother to us too so after the jealous landfolk females almost drove us to extinction a pact was formed. All pseudo mermaids would be forced to scream for an hour every day in their youth until they reached adulthood. By then all the screaming would have destroyed our mesmerizing singing voices. This pact made coexistence possible for my kin. Even the body of a Stray like me can¡ät sing properly because of this. I guess my race would be the worst race to choose if you wanted to start as a bard." I mused. Suddenly self-conscious I looked at my webbed blue hands then at the fins on my arms. I had a lizardish tail and gills on my neck. My face was the only part of my body that wasn¡ät covered in scales. I had also short wavy green hair and matching swamp green eyes. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. By the way, BlueSky wasn¡ät even that wrong when he called me a girl. Pseudo mermaids had the neutral gender by default. In a way we were like fish. There was nothing visible to tell apart male from female and with my petite build and height of only 150cm I didn¡ät look manly at all. No matter how reasonable Blues arguments, I would not concede here. BlueSky thought about this revelation with a tilted head. "Well Smurfy we should just try again. Just sing the best you can and I will try not to interrupt the song again." He smiled. That somehow crept me out. "Ok let¡äs... WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME???" "Chill, I figured Murphy is just too hard to pronounce so I just..hahaha" he laughed. Now he was rolling on the floor. "Hahaha don¡ät be a bore it¡äs just a nickname haha... hey what do you plan to do with that shard haha? Smurfy? No! Stupid that will kill me! STOP! I¡äm sorry so please stop chanting!!!" As I was activating the lavashard the soon to be crispy BlueSky was now apologizing on his knees. I stopped chanting in favor of laughing until my side hurt. BlueSky was still sitting on the floor though he was no longer apologizing. I wanted to snap a picture of this guy and put it next to the word "confusion" in a dictionary. Nothing could ever incorporate that word more than BlueSky at this moment. However the notion of having a naked demon in a dictionary was kind of strange so I didn¡ät screenshot him. "Hahahaa~ have you been mentally calling me that all this time?" "No, only after you told me your name." "Genius~!" I smiled at him, sincerely this time. I had already forgiven him in face of his creativity. "So, will you roast me the next time I call you that?" "Oh well, I probably won¡ät as I need you to get out of here but I¡äm sure you might be cold by the time we leave this place so a nice little fire would surely warm you up, no? I¡äm sure you taste good, all crispy~" "You like burnt meat? I would have judged you to be the bloody type." "It¡äs fine once in a while~ Plus only the outside would be crispy so there should be more than enough bloody meat left." I licked my lips for good measure and revealed a toothy grin. He blushed for some reason. I chose to ignore the blush. "Cannibal!" "We are not of the same race so it¡äs not cannibalism." I stated matter of factly. I was in relatively high spirits so I jumped to my feet and urged BlueSky to do the same. "Are you ready to rock~? Are you ready to roll~? And especially not to laugh~?" I psyched us up with exaggerated movements, then started the countdown. ____________________________________________________ An embarrassing song, which I secretly recorded for laughs sake, later we had completed the task and the text changed. I wanted to immediately read it out but stopped when I noticed my depleted stamina. "Are you hungry?" "Yep, my stamina is in the red." So Sky was also exhausted from all the singing. I gave him some bread as well as a cup of muddy water. I still had 8 rations so it was fine. "Eww.." "Don¡ät complain. Remember what I told you about our location?" "A maze?" "Yeah but it¡äs a maze beneath the SandMirror. I thought I was a goner before I stepped into that quicksand. Luckily underneath I found this water. So even if it¡äs disgusting, we can¡ät be picky." I was actually testing him. If he really was a noob he was bound to ask what the SandMirror was. However, BlueSky just nodded and forced the water down his throat. The flicker of recognition in his eyes when I mentioned the SandMirror told me all I needed to know. "So what¡äs a pseudo Mermaid doing in a desert?" I froze. That question... I didn¡ät have a decent excuse for that either. "Building sandcastles?" "The real reason please." "Fine... I wanted to cross the desert and go to SplashCastle. And before you ask, yes, I am obviously a member of the water faction. You too, by the way." I laughed as he paled. The choice of faction was undoubtedly the most important choice to be made during the character creation. There were a total of 7 factions that were fighting each other for supremacy as the goal of the game was to kill all the opposing faction gods. Once a faction god died his faction would be disqualified and its members would only be able to spectate through the eyes of various observer NPCs. People of different factions generally have a hard time getting along as later on in the game missions would be issued by the faction leaders or the faction god himself. These missions with the goal of killing your friend¡äs leader, as a matter of course, lead to conflict among friends who have different factions. By the way, the faction god was an NPC stationed in the factions capital while the faction leader was an elected leader who could either be an NPC or a Stray. The god of the water faction was in SplashCastle, the water factions capital, thus it was obvious that other factions members could not enter SplashCastle freely. With this kind of game setup the faction members closely bonded and tended to choose the same faction in the next game again because this way they would be able to play with their friends again. The game itself had a defined goal. As such it would come to an end after several months of play and restart. This particular game was the first official game after the beta and still in the beginning stage as the faction leaders had not even been elected yet. Players would be able to join until the limit of 500 players per faction was hit. "I AM WHAT? YOU, you can¡ät just decide my faction!" "Oh, of course I can! Factions are decided in the character creation and as you were unmotivated to the max I took the liberty of adding you to my faction. You never specified which faction you wanted, you know? Hey, don¡ät be so gloomy! We will have lots of fun together~." "But .... gaahh how am I supposed to explain to my friends that I can¡ät play with them now?" "You don¡ät." I shrugged. As long as they didn¡ät know his faction there was no problem. "They are my friends. I definitely won¡ät lie to them about this." "Suit yourself. You can¡ät change your faction unless you delete your character and start over. Well I guess it was nice knowing you BlueSky. It¡äs a damn shame about my masterpiece though..." I looked at BlueSky ruefully. However, this was still better than having my masterpiece on the enemies side. I regretted losing my newfound friend more than the character though so I sighed. BlueSky also looked at himself. He moved his body, spread the translucent wings and touched the crown. I could see that he didn¡ät want to part with it. I decided to offer him a way out of his dilemma, at least for a while. "Oh but before you reroll could you do me a favor and help me get out of here?" "Sure I guess." I approached the obsidian wall again and read the text. As a matter of course I read it in a loud and dramatic way. "Doomsday brings light, trust will prevail, arrogance fail, save the fools as they will be your tools." "So, what do we do?" BlueSky "Save some fools? Which fools?"Me I took a walk around the room. The answer had to be hidden in here somewhere. BlueSky watched me and followed me in my circle around the room. His depression seemed genuine. BlueSkys periodical sighs started to get on my nerves. "Blue! I know it¡äs hard to kill your character, but let¡äs try to enjoy this last adventure together. You are making me feel guilty here!" "You can feel guilty? Poor Smurfy~" He didn¡ät seem sarcastic but genuinely surprised which made me angry. "I wonder what you really think about me, haaa~" I rolled my eyes and he mirrored me. Not wanting to be outdone I rolled my eyes again and so did Sky. The situation escalated quickly and soon we were just standing there eyerolling until both of us got dizzy and called for a truce. Our search continued when our heads cleared up again. Skys mood seemed to be better for some reason. But he still sent me the occasional angry, sad, irritated or annoyed look. How I knew about all that? Well I was kind of, sort of, staring at him while lost in thought. With my thoughts in turmoil I almost missed the runic painting of the mage and archer that went to fight in the midst of the enemies ranks. Almost. "I think we have to save these two." I said pointing at the painting. Without even looking at Blues reaction I started looking for a way to save them. Thus I touched the painting. 3.To the Rescue With a flash of silvery light a landscape took form in front of my eyes. Rubbing my eyes while thinking idle thoughts I wondered whether the painting had teleported me straight into the war zone and whether Blue would follow. When my eyes had finally adjusted I turned around in search of Sky. Schwooosh... I had a dumb look on my face as I stared at the arrow that had missed me by a hairs breath. It was now deeply embedded into a tree trunk. Without further thought I broke out of my stupor and jumped into the closest bushes. Out of the relative safety of my hideout I scanned the surroundings for the attacker. I was surrounded by a snow covered forest. The trees were spread quite far apart and the leafless bushes didn¡ät give me enough cover for my taste but it would have to do for now. The snow in the area was painted red in the blood of fallen soldiers. There were corpses with two differently colored uniforms. I figure there were two armies fighting each other just like in the painting. One army wore red the other black. I wondered for the briefest moment where Blue was but decided to worry later. There were people in the vicinity. The sound of careful steps and heavy breathing gave me a vague idea of their location. "Snow, nice to meet you and all but could you be quiet? I¡äm trying to concentrate." I whispered to the snow beneath me. Sometimes I regretted getting this annoying skill as I could never get a minute of quiet. I was desperately trying to come up with a plan but there was no way I could fight an entire group of soldiers. "Yeah, I know it¡äs rude but this is an emergency so please give me a break!" I hissed yet the red snow kept crunching. "You want to help? Great! I need to know what exactly is going on here and who and how many people are on their way here. Do you have some info for me?" What I learned next was quite shocking. Just as I thought there were two armies in this forest. Apparently they were both pursuing the same target although the forces were hostile towards each other. Who or what the target was ,however, the snow did not know. "Thank you. Let¡äs chat next time okay?" I grinned. This target had to be a clue to finding the fools. Crack! I finally snapped out of my thoughts. The mission was now clear enough. I had to find the target without being noticed by either of the armies. There was also the possibility of posing as an army member. I could steal a uniform from one of the corpses. I grimaced. I didn¡ät feel like stripping some bloody corpse but time was running out. I could hear voices and knew enemies could show up any minute. In a dash I was besides the closest corpse and was about to peel his uniform of when I heard an explosion. My initial plan forgotten, I mustered my courage and tried to climb up the closest tree to satisfy my curiosity. OK! Maybe I was trying to avoid the grisly task of stripping a blood oozing corpse. I admit it! After a few failed attempts I gave up on climbing the slippery thing and began to sprint in the general direction of the explosion. I periodically hid behind a tree or in the snow to escape detection from passing soldiers as I made my way towards the source of the explosions that disturbed the peaceful sound of war cries and clashing steel. There were no close calls despite my laughable attempts at stealth as most soldiers were in a rush. I noticed that they were disorderly and that there were only soldiers with black armor around. Maybe I was close to their main army. The thought made me shudder. As I once again heard the telltale sign of enemies I ducked behind a convenient boulder and watched as a man in green traveling gear and an equally practical dressed woman ran by. "There they are! Don¡ät let them escape!" I watched as a group of about thirty members of the black army ran after the two in close pursuit. They were closing the distance surprisingly fast but by the looks of them the green clothed people were tired and worn out. They simply didn¡ät have enough strength left to outrun the soldiers. I figured they were the target or had something to do with it. They were out of breath, their clothes were torn in several places and they looked like hell overall. Exactly what I would expect the targets chased by two armies to look like. Just when I was about to interfere screams resounded from my left. Again I hid behind my boulder and watched in glee as the red army started attacking the black one. They didn¡ät however neglect to send their own men after the green clothed couple. Metal hit metal and flesh as the opposing groups collided. Soon the first victim tumbled to the ground and was trampled by enemy and comrade alike. There seemed to be neither mages nor archers present so the battle turned into an organized melee as the respective leaders employed their strategies. I did not stay idle either. Due to the battle I had lost sight of the target and frantically looked around. My effort remained unrewarded, however. I couldn¡ät find them. They were nowhere to be seen. I already feared for the worst when I felt a draft of air to my left. A sword came rushing towards my head and I was neither prepared to dodge it nor did I have a way to block. I just crouched there, dumbfounded and helpless, between my boulder and an assailant about to chop me to pieces. When I was about to kiss my life goodbye the snow beneath the soldiers feet began to move. It was nothing special or powerful. Just the slightest of tremors, that, had it been a magic spell, would not even have qualified for the lowest tier. This tremor saved my life. The soldiers balance was disturbed by the ground shifting beneath his feet and the sword passed by harmlessly an inch above my head. I was just as surprised by this turn of events as the soldier but decided to think about this particular mystery later. Now prepared to face my enemy I decided to employ my usual combat strategy. Thus I ran with all my might and expertly dived into the melee avoiding sword slashes left and right in search of either a new hiding spot or the target. Whenever and enemy tried to attack me I would step behind another combatant and use him as a meat shield. Sometimes I would trip a passing enemy or kick him in the knee, other times I would throw desert sand into their eyes and leave them to a predictable fate. There was no need to seriously engage in combat with these soldiers. They outnumbered me by far and I had no significant combat power to boast of. While I was preoccupied with surviving I noticed the battle gradually changing as more and more enemy soldiers joined in on both sides. The conflict seemed to be reaching the last stage in the rune picture. Just as this thought occurred to me a scene I recognized played out in front of my eyes. There they were, dressed in black, a mage and an archer fighting back to back in the midst of a sea of red soldiers. Sweat dripped down their faces as they rained death on their opponents. They still weren¡ät too deep in the enemy¡äs ranks. I made my way towards them, gradually making out more details in the crazed melee. The black archer wore clothes reminiscent of the hero Link from one of my favorite console games, just that his clothes were black instead of green. His companion wore not so traditional combat mage clothes. Unlike normal mage robes combat mage clothes were not nearly as loose and the pointy head was exchanged for a simple hood. These clothes gave him the necessary mobility to survive even in closer range. I dived through the crowd, their attention taken by the mesmerizing display of ability in front of them. Nobody stood in my way as I approached the two but I soon encountered a problem with my current plan, or lack thereof. I hadn¡ät really given it a thought before but... how in the heavens was I supposed to get these two out of here? They would most likely attack me on sight as I was not wearing a black uniform. They wouldn¡ät trust a stranger just like that and I didn¡ät have the power to forcefully get them out of their predicament. Suddenly the scene I had encountered not too long ago sprang into my mind. They were blown to bits as their situation turned disadvantageous. A plan at the ready I bode my time, it was about to get hot. __________________________________________________________________________________ pov change: BlueSky I watched as the pseudo mermaid touched the picture without even looking at me as he was enveloped by light and faded away. He had just jumped into certain death without even thinking about it. I paced in front of the runed wall not knowing what to do. I wanted to touch the wall and help the dunce, I really did but I was also angry. I thought about the short time I spent with this dude I randomly met in the character creation. Of course I knew why he was necessary though I didn¡ät want to tell him. Some things are simply too personal to tell even your closest of friends, so how could they be told to a stranger? Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. I was so happy to finally be able to live again, I was so overwhelmed by feelings when I got my new body I never even thought about the choice of factions. Truly, it was a blunder on my part but that didn¡ät mean I would just forgive this wannabe man. "Damn!" I hit the wall. There was no use grumbling and mourning my body. It was idiotic. Especially with what I had planned. I wouldn¡ät destroy this body. I couldn¡ät. My mind made up I smirked at the runed wall watching Murphy as he made his way deeper and deeper into the warzone. He showed a special interest in two silhouettes and tried to find them again but it was futile. I could see him drifting away from them in this endless sea of enemies. I now shifted my focus on those two. What was so special about them? The picture was fuzzy and I couldn¡ät quite make out what they looked like but the entire situation seemed so... familiar. Two people hunted by the members of two armies. A red army and a black army. This place was... the FutureForest? My eyes widened as a suspicion grew in my heart. I sprinted back to the text wall. < Doomsday brings light... too obvious... how could I have missed this?> Doomsday was the day the first war started. It was caused by a love affair between the faction leader of the Darkness faction and the daughter of the Fire faction¡äs god. It was a forbidden love, obviously, and when it came to light due to the Lightning factions plot the two factions tried to break the couple up. However the stubborn lovers chose to run away together. It was a disgrace to both factions so they sent their respective armies to kill the couple. Of course this also lead to infight within the factions because the lovers were popular and had many friends. But despite the opposition, armies were still dispatched. In their pursuit of the same target the armies eventually clashed. This battle would be known as the beginning of the end. Doomsday. Gripped by longing I made my way back to the runic picture and watched as they were chased down like game, surrounded and about to be killed. With a sigh I touched the picture, ready to fight for the one I once failed to protect. _________________________________________________________________________________ pov change: nobody in particular The lovers were desperate. No matter where they went, no matter how many enemies they killed they were unable to escape. Covered in dirt, sweat and blood they continued to run for their lives. They had been on the run for two weeks already. Exhaustion had long since settled in, even the last bit of adrenaline long since used up and their lifeline, a bag filled to the brim with potions, had long since been emptied of its healing contents. Felicity Hellfire and Nathan Raven were at the end of their ropes. Death was approaching. They knew it and strangely did not feel even an ounce of fear. When the pursuers finally encircled them and they knew there was nothing left for them to do, bruised and battered as they were, they hugged in one last effort to stay together until death would part them. The soldiers seeing the loving couple could only give them sympathetic looks. They were members of the Darkness faction, wearing the proud black armors of the elite knights, and they knew their faction leader- no, their former faction leader Nathan Raven personally. They had shared many adventures together and considered Nathan a friend and respected superior- that is, until he had betrayed them and their God for a woman belonging to a different faction, not just any woman as that would have been forgiven after a small scolding. He just had to choose another God¡äs daughter. And despite their God¡äs leniency towards his foolish faction leader, even going as far as offering to forgive him if he cut ties with the woman, Nathan had disobeyed. The soldiers gritted their teeth at what was to come. Even if it meant murdering their once trusted companion, superior and friend they could not stand down here. Nathan¡äs death was their God¡äs will so they would obey. And as the black clad men and women approached the hugging couple with drawn weapons, in a flash of light a demon appeared next to them. The demon looked around in feigned curiosity, taking in his surroundings and the scene in front of his eyes. His gaze eventually rested on Felicity Hellfire, a look of relieve brightening up his stern face. With renewed determination he turned towards the dumbfounded knights of darkness and began to smile. After all, sending people of to the netherworld with a frown wouldn¡ät do. _________________________________________________________________________________ pov change: Murphy There they were. A mage and an archer in the midst of enemy lines, fighting in growing despair as try as they might, they were unable to part this red sea of Fire faction soldiers to get back to the safety of their own ranks. The overconfident attitude from the beginning began to crumble as streams of sweat ran down their bodies dampening their clothes in places, not that anyone saw it, clad in black as they were. I was still weaving through the red ranks, more relaxed this time as I had stolen a red cloak from a living person, peeling of blood soaked clothes from corpses just isn¡ät my style. Camouflaged in almost neon red I felt safer though I kept circling around the pair of fighters, slowly getting closer. I wasn¡ät bothered by their continued resilience. The increasing anxiety on their faces spoke volumes. These guys would die if I didn¡ät act within the next 2 minutes. All the components of my simple albeit hopefully effective plan were ready. My genius plan went like this: Let the fighters fall into despair then show them a way out of their dilemma. Simple enough, ne? Once they were desperate enough they wouldn¡ät be too picky about who came to the rescue after all. It was time to commence the plan. I raised my hand holding a certain ruby red shard and began a short chant "BruzelBruzel, Knusprig, Bruzel sie Knusprig!" At the end of this mighty chant the shard transformed into pure fire magic and flew towards the mage and the archer. In an explosion that was more show than power a smokescreen was created. I instantly rushed into the smokescreen and wrapped the confused, exhausted and coughing pair in two red spare cloaks I had gotten after I stole my own. My genius plan encompassed diving into the crowd and running away, as most of my plans do, really. Thus I dragged them into the crowd that was also coughing, that was a good AOE technique! Good thing I had wrapped a piece of cloth around my mouth and nose before I let loose that cloud. My eyes still burned as smoke got in but I endured and as I didn¡ät cough at all I still kept most of my vision. My puzzled charges however didn¡ät see anything as they had coughing fits and running eyes. They certainly got the worst of the explosion, they were in the center of it after all. I figured they believed it was their companions plan all along thus the little resistance while I was dragging them along. We made our way towards the outskirts of the battle. That wasn¡ät particularly hard in the confusion. I was afraid people would stop us, thinking we were deserters but that never happened. Maybe they saw the pitiful sight of two people in agony from being exposed to the black smoke in the front and pitied us. Everything was going according to plan when... "Who the hell are you?" Archer "The man that saved your life." "Man? Where?" "..." "....you meant yourself?" He said that like a statement so I didn¡ät deem it worthy of an answer. "The name is Murphy, but we can introduce ourselves later, we are still in the midst of enemy territory." The archer looked at me with bloodshot irritated eyes. That smoke really did a number on him. "How did you...?" As he was about to ask how I saved them he noticed the neon red cloak he was wearing. That was enough to make him understand what was going on. With a look at his mage companion he did as I said and followed me away from the battle. Only when there were no more soldiers of either camp in the vicinity left I stopped and sat on the ground. I was exhausted. Being constantly surrounded by countless enemies really can drain you. How unexpected. I didn¡ät do any real fighting after all. But if I was tired then these guys were half dead. The mage had finally calmed down from his coughing fit and was looking around curiously. He sent me a skeptic look but still took a seat next to me. The archer attentively scanned the surroundings, searching for what? "So Murphy," he pronounced my name in a weird way, I couldn¡ät quite place it. "care to explain some things?" I decided to first greet the snow as it was again annoying me and maybe ask it to keep watch for me. As I was talking to the snow the fools I just saved gave me incredulous looks. I tactfully ignored them. "Back to you guys..." I said this as nonchalantly as possible."Who are you?" _____________________________________________________ Author¡äs comment Battle scenes are hard to write... My respect for people who can write them has risen tremendously. Please tell me about any mistakes! 4.Drama baby! "Who are you?" My gaze swept over a young violet haired elven youth dressed in a ripped black battle mage robe and a black haired beastman archer. The mage deceptively looked like a fifteen year old pretty boy. I wasn¡ät fooled however. Elves didn¡ät grow old as fast as humans so the boy was probably an adult. His eyes were still reddened and he was breathing raggedly though he still managed to emit an air of calm. He responded to my inquisitive gaze with one of his own. No enmity could be found in his body language. I felt a wave of calm take over me as I watched him. Momentarily I found that weird but immediately dismissed the thought. The beastman on the contrary, ever vigilant, continued to watch our surroundings. His round bear ears were half concealed by his hat and his brown eyes had a feral glint to them. By his looks I guessed him to be about 25 years old. Contrary to his comrade he paid me no heed. I grinned. I decided that I liked them and gave them a hopefully reassuring but on second thought in this situation probably misplaced smile. An awkward silence ensued after that as I patiently waited for them to answer. Thus unable to bear the silence anymore after perhaps....20 seconds I tilted my head and opened my mouth. "So..? Won¡ät you tell me? Are you secret-loving Ninjas or aliens or superheroes? You have something to hide don¡ät you?" I was already considering all the likely scenarios this could take. They just had to be one of these options! My excitement seemed to puzzle the mage a bit as he raised his eyebrow while the beastmen who had obviously been listening shook in suppressed laughter. "Do you do that often? Talk to the snow, I mean."the pretty boy said. "Only when it annoys me... the snow is particularly talkative today." I rolled my eyes at the snow. "Probably cause of the battle. Nobody could sleep with that kind of noise." I added with a nod towards the direction of the melee where even now screams and the screeching sound of metal hitting metal resounded. "Why did you do it?" I inquired. "What?" the pretty boy asked. "You know what I mean!" I didn¡ät know shit but it seemed like he wanted to make more small talk and I was already growing bored of it. I tried to sound sure of myself. Probably got that right as the elve¡äs face grew darker. He looked down at the bloody snow before him seemingly searching for the right words. "There was no choice. I- no we had to. How could we let him die? He is my best friend for heaven''s sake! Even if it means... che... even if it means betraying God." His words ended in a whisper. An expression of pain crossed his face. My sensors warned me too late. He was already rambling and I lost interest after the first three sentences. I mentally tuned him out to the best of my ability. My poker face lay undisturbed and the facade was upheld as the pretty boy continued to talk about some clich¨¦ forbidden love story. I didn¡ät care one bit though. Everything I got from the story was the fact that these guys were friends with the male lead of this soap and had infiltrated the black army in order to aid him in his escape. Their plan had spectacularly backfired as they had yet to even see him and had almost died as a consequence. I expected a quest to pop up any moment and prayed to the flying spaghetti monster that it wouldn¡ät happen. These kinds of drama quests almost always ended with either a sappy happy-ever-after-end or somebody dying. To me that meant boring unimaginative conversations, predictable clich¨¦ developments with love rivals and the inevitable kitsch. <[Insert random Name] get immediately away from [insert a different random Name]!!! You are not worthy of her/him/(it?)> UNBEARABLE I hated it with a passion. My eyes grew colder but I kept my poker face up with the utmost effort. "...And that¡äs why we have to find them. By chance, did you see them? No, more importantly. On whose side are you? Show me your emblem." Without hesitation I pulled out the pendant hanging from my necklace. It was the blue grape sized figurine of a wave with white foam at its peak. The emblem of the Water faction. I watched the mage and the archer freeze upon seeing my emblem. My poker face was still in place so I just kept the smile going, leaned forward and whispered conspiratorial. "I am the third party~" "What does the water faction want here? We figured you guys would be leaning back enjoying the show like the other factions." If there was any emotion besides distrust within his voice before the elven boy had lost it now. A member of the fire faction helping them, as I had appeared to be one with the red cloak, they could understand if he perhaps had similar circumstances as them. Nathans lover had, after all, many admirers and friends and there might be some who wanted to help her just as they had come to Nathans rescue, or so I figured they might have thought. Nathan was by the way the name of the random male lead of this soap as it would seem. "Make no mistake. I have no intention of harming those lovebirds. But neither will I help them." I quit the facade and gave the boy a stern look. "They are not the reason why I am here." "..." I ignored his unspoken question. "You still haven¡ät told me your name you know." Archer and mage exchanged some quick glances but remained silent. Meanwhile I was wreaking my brain trying to come up with a strategy that would allow me to escort these guys out of this mess without getting involved in the drama. "I am Midas of Larkana. My guard is called Eisul." Midas slowly revealed their identities." Thank you for saving our lives. I won¡ät forget this." He got up and gave a customary elven bow, then turned around to leave. He went towards the battlefield. I was still comfortably sitting on the blood soaked snow. Looking at the small back of the admirable young man. He passed Eisul who followed him without a word. "You are out of ammo and stamina, you don¡ät have any mana, you don¡ät have any allies. Say, why are you doing this?" "None of your business." said Midas And thus they left. I looked, no stared at them, as they disappeared in the snowy forest. My gaze traveled towards the sky. My motivation arrived at an all-time low and I felt unable to get up. In this manner time crawled on. It felt like an eternity of lying around and thinking about my failure. I was drowsy. Later on I heard the soft crunching of footsteps beside me as a soldier passed by. I wasn¡ät surprised or scared. In my motionless state I had heard this person approach from a distance. The snow hadn¡ät sounded a warning. My hands slowly slid over the crystalline surface. The cold never affected me thanks to a little agreement I had with the snow. I shuddered. My imagination began to run wild as I considered the likely consequences of my failure. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. A crushing sense of defeat assaulted me and I got up. "If my freedom is going to be forever taken by some desert ruin I¡äm going to have some fun first!" Thus with renewed spirit I picked up the dagger of a fallen soldier, a sword being too long, and sprinted towards the battlefield. I decided to join the red side as I already had the red cloak and began attacking the black soldiers. They were easy prey in the increasingly chaotic melee. My small build was again my greatest advantage here. Without care for my "comrade¡äs" lives I used them as meat shields whenever I was in a tight spot. I snuck up on a black soldier who was already engaged in a fight and stealthily cut his tendon. The poor lad, couldn¡ät have been more than 20 years old, tumbled to the ground and was finished off by his original opponent. The red soldier looked around for his helper but I was already off to the next target. During the fight I kept my face concealed in the cloaks hood. There was no need for me to make any enemies here after all. The longer I fought the stronger I became. My strikes became faster, more accurate in short: deadlier. After my seventh kill I entered the first step of my fighting trance. Already I could feel the enemies I currently fought become too weak. Due to my mess up I was too late to dodge an incoming kick to the stomach and was sent tumbling down, gasping for air. My enemy followed up his kick with a sword slash, which missed me by a hairs breath. I rolled away, still breathless. I retreated behind another member of the red army and had him deal with this bothersome enemy while I calmed my breathing. The enemy however was adamant about shortening my neck and circled around my meat shield. My eyes narrowed in concentration, I waited for the perfect timing to throw desert sand in his face and paint a red line across his eyes. He screamed, dropped the sword that had been about to mince me and clutched his face with his hands. I quickly ended his suffering and proceeded to the next victim when a sudden rain of arrows began bombarding the red army. Luckily the archers aimed beyond the frontline, turning only the soldiers farther in the back into porcupines. The sounds of the unceasing arrow hail, the clashing weapons and screams only furthered my battle trance. Gradually my fight lead me towards stronger foes. A cluster of black elite knights, easily recognizable due to their fancy armor, attracted my clouded mind¡äs attention. Despite myself I grinned. The boost wasn¡ät yet strong enough for me to take them on. I was just about to turn to my next prey when I spotted a familiar duo of bishounen elf and beastman. This time they were in no certain death situation though they did seem distressed. Maybe I would have had remarked something about it had I been of clear mind. Oh well~ Enemy after enemy died with my help as my speed increased another notch. It was getting harder for the enemies to spot me as I slithered through the frontline in my red camouflage. I sped here or there not even taking the time to do the grisly work of finishing the job at times. It¡äs enough if they are unable to continue fighting right? No need to mindlessly murder. How ironic that I stuck to this principle despite the intoxication of the battle. All of a sudden I felt ready to engage the elites in combat, or at least one of them. However when I reached the place they had crowded before I only saw charred corpses. Clearly a mages handiwork. The culprit was still standing in the center of the deathzone. "Blue?!" He turned towards me. Dressed in obviously stolen black armor, Bluesky was the one who had murdered all those elite knights? He gave me a complicated look as I approached. My battle trance was quickly fading as my mind returned from standby. I stumbled over the crispy people while picking up a valuable here and there. When I got close enough to be clearly heard above the battle music without the need to shout I asked. "Yo demon, when the hell did you learn magic~?" "How dare you speak so casually to mmmmhmphm" A random red haired woman of a race I wasn¡ät familiar with began to scold me. She had ram-like horns so she was most likely some sort of beastman. She wore green traveling gear, making it obvious that she was the female lead to the soap I was trying not to get caught up in. Her outburst was interrupted by Sky. "Hey Smurfy, so you survived, che" I swear I could hear him click his tongue. The grin on his face mirrored my own as I came to a halt in front of him. "Rather than that, I¡äm surprised you didn¡ät chicken out on this little brawl~" "And let you get all the glory? In your dreams." "What glory? I can only see a barbecue." "Smurfy, oh Smurfy, why can¡ät you admit that I got more than you?" "Cause you didn¡ät~? I got at least 15 of them if I exclude Team kills." "See. I got at least 20. Just count them" He pointed towards the scorched remains around us. "What a hassle, no way. You couldn¡ät have killed them without magic anyway so the lady or her lover must have roasted them." He gave me an incredulous look, which was soon replaced by realization. "You win this one." he grumbled. "Well if you¡äll excuse me now, I will just go and..." Blue gave me an extremely suspicious look that made me stop. "Please don¡ät drag me into a drama quest! They are annoying!" With those words I made a dramatic exit, oh the irony. Or I would like to have made it, had a certain demon not pulled me back by the cloak. "We are in this quest together and I don¡ät want to go back to that room either so behave yourself for the duration of the quest, mermaid." He whispered into my ear. Shivers ran down my spine as I thought about the room. "Alright I¡äm in." I said in a tone of voice that would have made any undead jealous. "By the way, have you ever heard of toothpaste? I hear it stops your mouth from stinking like something died in there. No seriously, try it." With that he left my personal space and I breathed out in relief. BlueSky then shared the quest with me which wanted us to , as expected, ¡äblablabla forbidden love blablabla rescue the female and male lead¡ä. While we were talking the enemy didn¡ät idle either. They were rapidly closing in on us. "Actually there were those guys on the Darkness¡ä side who wanted to help you. Some elven mage hmmm what was his name? Mist? Milan? Mi-something and his bear friend." I said towards the male lead. "Midas and Eisul are on our side?" I could see his eyes sparkle. Interesting reaction for a Sprout. Sprout is a plant-like race. Unlike treants or most other plants they can move quite fast and take on a humanoid shape for convenience. This one had dark green leaves and purple bark. Strange combo. "They are searching for you. Somewhere over there." I pointed to the direction I last saw them in. My voice was still monotone and unenthusiastic. "Let¡äs pick up the pace." The girl said with a look around us. There were no more elite knights close-by but too many enemy soldiers could easily overwhelm us if they attacked at once. ______________________________________________________ This chapter is dedicated to a potatoe who had an actor shout at me. I still think it doesn¡ät fit the flow of the story till now but oh well~ 5. Zap... Zap...Zap? What is this? Is it a fata morgana? No it¡äs a chapter! Wait what? Eh???? Where did that come from? Let me enlighten you dear readers~ It seems like WriTE struck and made lazy old me write a new chapter... semi new. I already had half of it lying around somewhere hehe Anyways, enjoy! I made plans to actually continue this fiction and I hope that will work out. As always, if you find a mistake please tell me about it! _____________________________________ "Maybe we should get you guys changed first." I said with a look at the lovebirds. Their green traveling gear stuck out like a sore thumb in this sea of red and black. It was hard to miss them. No wonder they had a hard time outrunning their enemies. "Do we really have time for that, though?" BlueSky said with a grim expression. "We are surrounded. It doesn¡ät matter whether they stick out at this point." He picked a fallen soldier¡äs sword up and readied himself to parry an incoming attack. "Hmmm I guess that¡äs true. Can one of you cast some more magic or are you out of mana?" I entrusted my back to the three and faced an incoming enemy. It was an old man with fierce gaze. He swung a stupidly big broadsword at me. I almost gracefully sidestepped. Maybe it looked more like a desperate dodge to the others so I played the bumbling fool for a bit. "I have no mana left, sorry. Normally I could just bomb us out of here." The girl replied a bit vexed. She was busy beating up a soldier with a wooden staff. "And what can your boyfriend do?" I asked. "I¡äm a healer, I have enough juice for five heals left." the sprout replied. He stood at the center of our formation. After deciding that this wasn¡ät the right time to comment I let it go. I tried to analyze the situation. There just had to be a way out of this. But I couldn¡ät come up with a proper plan. "Blue, how are you holding up?"I asked as I couldn¡ät spare the time to look. This old soldier was a veteran. I should have gotten suspicious when I saw an old man swinging a giant sword like it was nothing. I guess I underestimated him. But even a veteran would let his guard down in the face of somebody who seemed to have no idea how to use a dagger in the first place. I ended the charade with a precise strike to his neck. He dropped dead just to be replaced by two more soldiers. "Not even breaking a sweat yet." he sounded cheerful. "Well if it¡äs so easy why don¡ät you make a path towards Midas?" "Got it." I swear I could hear him smirking. Screams and shouts could be heard behind me as what felt like a heat wave passed over me. "Quick, before they recover." the girl shouted, alerting even more enemies of our location. I glanced behind me to see more burnt people, well maybe to a smaller degree than before. With a feint I confused my enemy, who was expecting me to turn around and run after my comrades. A precise kick to his knee brought his chest into the path of my dagger. The dagger couldn¡ät penetrate his armor however, and was repelled. Without hesitation I dove to the side and watched as another soldier¡äs sword that was aimed at my exposed back, dug into my former opponents shoulder. The enemy began cursing like an old sailor. He retreated with his wounded comrade, giving me some space which I promptly used to make myself scarce. I tried to slip into the crowd as I had done before, which proved to be difficult due to the fact that I was still dressed in the red cloak and surrounded by a battalion of black soldiers. In order for my camouflage to work I needed at least some red soldiers around. My enemies opposition didn¡ät slow me down by much as I was small and fast enough to slip through their ranks. It was a dangerous venture, though. Swords would slice the air in an attempt to shorten my lifespan. I had to constantly monitor all the enemies around me while searching for the best route and still keeping track of BlueSky and the lovebirds. The others had met heavy resistance and proceeded at a slower pace than before. Blood ran down the healer¡äs arm as he sacrificed it in favor of keeping his head. It momentarily hung at his side before being engulfed in green light. There was no time to check whether the arm was fully repaired as the next attacker tried to end the healer¡äs life. This one was quickly dispatched by BlueSky¡äs fireball. Without further worrying about my group I tried to spot Midas and his guard among the enemies. There was no sign of them. I employed my usual tactics of throwing sand, kicking knees and diving behind meat shields. I did what I could to survive the onslaught but this situation was way worse than when I fought in my battle trance. I could still activate it now but I was incapable of thinking and using it at once. That¡äs the reason why it was easier to play here while I didn¡ät have a group to worry about. When I finally caught up with the group we had only covered about half the distance to the place I had last seen Midas in. The situation grew increasingly desperate as we worked hand in hand to keep our heads attached to our shoulders. Suddenly the crowd before us parted as a dwarven woman made her way towards us. Her eyes were cold as a glacier, but only if the glacier was located in outer space and it¡äs warmest tip reached absolute zero. She wore the black uniform of the darkness faction with the kind of pride only na?ve recruits or fanatics could display. One look and I could tell that she was the latter and would fight us to the death. With her approach the onslaught of enemies subsided. The soldiers backed off and warily kept a distance from the dwarf. ¡°Traitorous disgrace, you shall die!¡± she shouted as those subzero eyes were firmly locked on Nathan. ¡°Get ready! She is my lieu-, she was my lieutenant. Be careful¡± Nathan hissed. A bloodthirsty grin overtook my face. I charged at her and barely evaded a chop of her battle mace. She had already expected that much and stepped in for another attack but a wooden staff hit her arm so the mace harmlessly passed by. I took the opportunity to slash at her with my dagger but it uselessly scratched across her armor. A fireball chose this exact moment to hit the dwarf from behind. She stumbled forward but there seemed to be little actual damage done by this attack. Maybe she had an enchanted armor. Actually that was very likely now that I thought about it. My foe took a moment to glance around her and decided to go after the weakest link, Nathan. Obviously the healer had to die first, when was this not the case? Nathan however was battle hardened and prepared to defend himself with a magical shield. It would cost him some precious mana though. The dwarfen lady rushed at him and her mace crashed mercilessly into his mana shield. I immediately followed her and went for her exposed back yet she expected it and instead of beating the mana shield to mush swung her mace at me. This time there was nobody to intercept her attack and I was easily knocked back, my health plummeting. This lady could pack quite the punch. Felicity took my place and attacked with her staff. The greater reach came in handy here but as a mage she simply didn¡ät have the necessary strength and finesse with her staff. I struggled to catch my breath, unsure how to proceed. My attacks were obviously useless against the madwoman and I wasn¡ät particularly keen on turning into mashed mermaid. At this moment BlueSky who had been quietly chanting for a while finished his spell. Spheres of fire materialized in a circle around him and started to condense from melon sized fireballs to pin sized lava shards. He then shot the shards with perfect accuracy at the gaps in the dwarf¡äs armor. For the first time in this battle she let out any indication that we could indeed beat her. ¡°Good job!¡± I shouted and then decided that our healer needed someone to play meatshield for him. Nathan¡äs shield was taking a real beating and would soon give out after all. With my fastest speed I dashed around the woman and parried her mace with my dagger. Nathan understood my intention and stepped behind me, quickly filling my health up by a good margin while he was at it. My arms hurt but I grit my teeth and endured it. I only had to hold on until Blue roasted this woman to the point of no return. Hit after hit I was forced to parry as my clumsy dodges would have exposed Nathan behind me. He was busy healing me and¡­ what¡äs her name? Well, the mage girl gathered mana to join Blue¡äs barrage. The soldiers around us were growing restless, as was the dwarfen woman. She seemed to be considering a target switch but whenever she looked like she was about to charge at the others I showed an opening to draw an attack out of her. The frail balance was, however, crumbling. When she finally turned around while ignoring my exposed side I went all in. An inarticulate shout was heard as my dagger slid into the gap between her helmet visor and the lower part of the helmet. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. She collapsed as I freed my weapon and instantly turned around, prepared to face the rest of the army. They seemed dumbfounded as the small and weak looking bumbling fool , killed their superior in this instant of distraction. My group might have been shocked as well but their survival instincts must have told them to think about it at a later time. The soldiers soon regained their wits and attacked once more. ¡°Haaa~ where are they?¡± I sighed while looking around me with tired eyes. There was no point in hiding my skill with the dagger so I didn¡ät bother and simply cut down anything that dared to stand before me. ¡°Maybe they are already dead¡­¡± Nathan said in an even more tired voice. ¡°Hey, aren¡ät they your friends? How can you just kill them off like this?¡± I asked impishly. ¡°I never killed them off! How could you say that?¡± He looked quite shocked as he said that. ¡°Well you called them dead~¡± ¡°I¡äm just being realistic! But I would never harm them!¡± ¡°And I¡äll-¡° ¡°Stop fooling around Murphy.¡± Blue joined in to ruin my tease. ¡°Oh Blue, I would never ever play around in a life or death situation like this~ How could you think so low of me?¡± ¡°But you are, like, right now!¡± He dryly replied. ¡°Oh come on, I¡äm just making some small talk!¡± ¡°Yes¡­ small talk¡­ surrounded by an army out for our blood.¡± ¡°I don¡ät see your point?¡± ¡°The point is¡­ you know what? I should be chanting.¡± And thus he did and I was once more left without anyone to annoy. That¡äs when a glorious idea struck me like lightning. First I needed to do something else though. ¡°Hey what are they called again?¡± I asked in between two kills. ¡°Midas and Eisul, why do you ask?¡± Nathan answered. ¡°Oh just curious~¡± I smirked then shouted ¡°HEYYYY MIDAS AND EISUL WHERE ARE YOU??? NATHAN IS HERE!!!¡± The others stared at me like deer in the headlight. ¡°Are you an idiot? If they weren¡ät exposed yet they sure are now!¡± Blue said and I just smiled at him innocently. Seconds later a boom heralded the arrival of Nathan¡äs friends. I started laughing in relieve as Midas blasted through rows upon rows of enemies. He looked like hell and so did Eisul but their faces almost glowed with happiness as they closed in and spotted my group. The last stretch was crossed in a jiffy as our groups finally joined up. ¡°Nathan, we finally found you! I already thought you were dead!¡± Midas said with tears in his eyes. ¡°Nathan.¡± Eisul just nodded, a broad smile on his lips. ¡°Guys, I¡äm so sorry I dragged you into this-blablablablabla¡° That¡äs when I started ignoring this oh so touching drama scene of reunion. I needed a moment to compose myself or rather to suppress the urge to barf, then went about killing some more soldiers while my group was busy chatting away. This place was a pretty good hunting ground with easy kills and exp basically charging at me. The soldiers were growing extremely wary of me though and tried to bully me by attacking in groups, not that it helped as I was far too slippery to get caught in their maneuvers. In this manner I waited until the drama scene was over and done with, and then started listening to a more interesting conversation. ¡°¡­even so, we are still stuck in the middle of an army.¡± Was how Nathan aptly put it. ¡°Not necessarily! There is a spell I have been studying for a long time¡­ with some luck I might be able to pull it off today.¡± Midas said, determination written on his face. Nathan exchanged a look with Midas then glanced at Eisul who slightly nodded. He seemed to see something in their facial expressions as he simply said ¡°I¡äll leave it to you¡±. Midas started chanting immediately. I was growing curious of this spell Midas wanted to use and edged closer to him. After a short while Midas¡ä chant ended¡­ in a failure. I chided myself for hoping for a different result. There was no spell that could just zap you away from the danger- Zap I looked around in confusion. ¡°Wait a second¡­ where did the army go?¡± ¡°Hmmm I have no idea.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°The hell?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Oh my precious exp¡­ this great power leveling spot. Ahhhh!¡± I lamented. ¡°What¡­ just, why? I executed it perfectly, though?¡± ¡°Midas¡­ what was that spell of yours meant to do again?¡± I asked as I surveyed the empty field before my eyes. ¡°It was meant to teleport us to my laboratory¡­Oh no¡­¡± His eyes widened. At this moment I couldn¡ät bottle the laughter up anymore. ¡°Hahahahaha, you sent an entire army... wait no, hahahaha, two entire armies into you laboratory? Hahahahahah~¡± ¡°My poor lab¡­¡± Midas sank to his knees with a wry smile on his face, partly due to the relief of being out of danger and mostly because he might have been imagining the crammed state of his laboratory. ¡°We¡äre alive?¡± Nathan¡äs girlfriend asked in disbelief. She had a dazed look on her face then slowly turned towards Nathan to execute another one of those detestable drama scenes. But I didn¡ät care as I was far too busy laughing about Midas. ¡°How does that even work? I mean, teleporting so many people should have cost an immense amount of mana right?¡± BlueSky asked. ¡°Good question¡­ I¡äll need to research this phenomenon all over again. Let¡äs just be glad that it DID work, even if it goes against everything I know about magic.¡± ¡°This is so weird, hahaha¡± I rubbed the tears that had entered my eyes because of all the laughter away. ¡°Well, I think the quest should be completed with this¡­¡± I murmured. ¡°No, actually even if we sent the enemies away and saved Nathan and Felicity for now there will be more pursuers in the future.¡± BlueSky said with a grim face. ¡°Oh, hmm you might be right. So how do we end this?¡± ¡°Maybe¡­ maybe we can take them with us? That¡äs what the text said right? Something along the lines of ¡®save the fools they will be your tools¡¯?¡± ¡°Tools? For what purpose? What could we do if we have these people on our side¡­ THE ROOM!¡± I said in excitement. ¡°Huh?¡± Blue didn¡ät seem to get it. I grinned evilly. ¡°Wanna know?¡± ¡°As if I¡äd ask you! I¡äll figure it out on my own!¡± He said and I felt as if he knew me too well for such a short term acquaintance. ¡°Sure, have fun~ I¡äll be taking a nap then.¡± My smirk grew even more as I took a seat in the ground, using a corpse as a pillow. ¡°Why are you always so complicated?¡± He sighed resigned to his fate. ¡°Maybe you¡äre too simple?¡± ¡°Maybe you¡äre too short?¡± ¡°Maybe you¡äre too repetitive~¡± ¡°You¡äre one to talk.¡± ¡°Says the person who keeps falling for the same tricks.¡± ¡°Well, maybe I was just fooling around?¡± ¡°It¡äs a game. That¡äs all I ever do!¡± ¡°A game, eh?¡± BlueSky mumbled some more but I didn¡ät quite catch that. He looked at the others who were all resting or enacting drama scenes with sorrowful eyes. ¡°What did you say?¡± ¡°Nevermind.¡± Thus I closed my eyes to take a nap. ¡°Hey Murphy, wake up and tell me already.¡± A familiar demon called out to me but I was drowsy so I ignored him. ¡°Hmpf, you dare ignore me?¡±I could basically hear the mirth but even before my fight or flight instincts could warn me I was bombarded with snow. The cold stuff shoed any lingering desire for sleep away and replaced it with killing intent. ¡°BLUE!¡± I was too shocked to even chase him as he ran away while giggling like a little prankster. In a rush to get rid of the snow before it melted on my skin and had the chance to drench me I shook myself like a wet dog. It worked quite well, though the others got some laughs out of it. By the way, my group was sitting around a campfire while happily chatting, as if they weren¡ät still on a corpse littered battlefield. Blue was still hiding himself so I approached the others and took a seat by the fire. ¡°Hey there.¡± I greeted them and got some curious looks. ¡°Hello, Murphy right? I never got the chance to thank you for your help.¡± Felicity said. ¡°Oh, you¡äre welcome. I simply didn¡ät have anything better to do.¡± I shrugged and grinned. The others exchanged incredulous glances, as I would expect after such an airheaded statement. ¡°So what are you guys going to do from now on?¡± I asked. ¡°BlueSky said you had a way to take us to a safe place so we were hoping you could help us.¡± Nathan said. ¡°A safe place¡­ I have a hunch, that¡äs right. You shouldn¡ät just blindly rely on me though. What do you have that you can offer in exchange for my help?¡± A difficult expression crossed Felicity¡äs face as she said ¡°We can¡ät pay you. I¡äm sorry. All we own are the clothes we¡äre wearing.¡± ¡°And some nice clothes they are~¡± Her eyes widened and she was about to protest. ¡°Just kidding, keep the rags. Sheesh, stop acting as if I was a bandit or something.¡± ¡°Helping you will be a favor. So let¡äs trade a favor for a favor, alright? I think there is something I will need your help with in the future.¡± ¡°That depends on the favor.¡± She said. ¡°What could be greater than a life debt? Darling, I don¡ät think we can make demands right now.¡± Nathan interjected. ¡°Now we¡äre talking. I still don¡ät know what the favor will be but I doubt it¡äll be anything impossible or dangerous.¡± Felicity nodded at that. Nathan just looked at me with a warm smile. Was this really supposed to be the ex-leader of the Darkness faction? Shouldn¡ät he be a bit more on the dark side? Maybe if I ask him for cookies he¡äll reveal himself. ¡°Do you have cookies?¡± ¡°¡­No.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± 6. Sweet Revenge What...Whaaaaaat?! Another chapter? EHHHHH? Yes, ummm.... I wrote it hehe~ But it¡äs nothing like I wanted it to be. I guess I still haven¡ät reclaimed the style I had post ML break. Something about it is off. That¡äs also the reason why it took me so long to finish. I kept asking myself what was wrong yet couldn¡ät put my finger on it. Please tell me about the mistakes you may find. Happy reading! ____________________________________________ Just when I was about to tell them about the likely possibility I had recognized, BlueSky just so ¡°happened¡± to stroll back towards the camp. Was he lying in wait until now just so he could catch me in a moment of distraction? While I wrecked my brain he casually took a seat next to Midas and nodded at everyone. I glanced at the others and carefully watched their reactions to Blue¡­ why were they so overjoyed? When I joined the group at the fire they just sorta acknowledged it. Just now however they immediately smiled at him, greeted him, asked him whether he was hungry or cold! Well it was cold for anyone but me with my insulating mermaid skin but that¡äs beside the point. It almost seemed like they¡­ cared about him. Unable to understand the weird situation in front of my eyes I couldn¡ät be bothered to ask what was going on. Their reaction could have been the result of Blue¡äs participation in their way too frequent drama scenes. For some reason I wasn¡ät in the mood for pranks anymore and didn¡ät even glance at Blue afterwards. I simply scuttled closer to the fire and gazed into the ambers. ¡°Murphy?¡± Blue asked, seemingly puzzled by the lack of deserved retribution. ¡°Oh¡­ right, so long reasons short you guys need to hold hands while Midas casts that teleportation again.¡± I explained dutifully. The others exchanged looks of confusion for a moment before facing me again. ¡°Yes¡­ reasons. What were those reasons again?¡± Felicity asked. ¡°Oh, nothing big. It¡äs written in the laws of the universe, that¡äs why.¡± Which was partially true but not really the reason why I came up with this conclusion. ¡°Laws of the universe?¡± ¡°Yes the laws of the universe! Stop making me repeat myself.¡± ¡°Wait a second¡­ you¡äre not kidding?¡± Midas asked slowly and I gave him an annoyed look. ¡°Why don¡ät you just read them yourselves and find out if I¡äm bullshitting?¡± With that I called up the quest window and turned it on display with a couple practiced movements. Their eyes widened for a second when the window appeared but quickly calmed down afterwards. It wasn¡ät their first time interacting with strays, it would seem. The quest text simply hinted at the fact that they should teleport themselves to safety. Where exactly this teleportation would take them wasn¡ät clear but I figured they would return to the desert maze and the doorless room. The thought of that made me shiver. As expected the others quickly connected the dots and prepared themselves for departure, not that there was much to prepare. They simply braced themselves and stood up. Midas was quick to douse the fire. ¡°Hey! What¡äre you doing?¡± I asked exasperated as he ended my marshmallow dreams all too quickly. ¡°Preparing to leave obviously!¡± Midas said calmly. ¡°What gave you the idea that I would tag along?¡± I shook my head. The thought of that room was simply too frightening. I wouldn¡ät go there even if there was a treasure! ¡°You¡äre staying here then?¡± Steven asked. ¡°Yep~¡± ¡°Why would you want that?¡± ¡°Cause I want to.¡± ¡°Sure but it¡äs going to get dangerous. Do you really think you can survive the reinforcements?¡± ¡°Even if I don¡ät there is nothing wrong with dying once in a while.¡± ¡°What kind of idiocy is this? Just tag along!¡± Felicity demanded. ¡°No.¡± ¡°You saved us. Without you we wouldn¡ät have found Midas and Eisul. We can¡ät just leave you to die here.¡± ¡°Yes you can and you shouldn¡ät kill me off just like that. I¡äm quite resilient~¡± ¡°Resilient? Faced with an entire army you can be as resilient as you want. They will wear you down and murder you or worse. They might just think that you know where we are and try to torture the info out of you!¡± ¡°Let them try. I¡äm a stray. There is nothing for me to fear.¡± ¡°Trust me¡­ there will always be things that can hurt even strays.¡± Felicity said in a voice that sounded as if she actually knew of such a thing. I hesitated for a moment but in the end if things really got to that point I could simply log out right? There was no need to risk returning to that room. ¡°Guys, leave him alone. He has¡­ issues.¡± Blue said. The others looked at me in worry yet surprisingly listened to BlueSky. I was once more flabbergasted by the care, no it might have been respect, that they showed towards the demon. I could have argued for hours and they might not have backed off, yet a single sentence from Blue was enough to resolve the issue. ¡°Murphy, I know our time together was short, but it was fun. Good luck in the future, we¡äll probably be enemies the next time we meet.¡± I only now remembered the fact that I had messed up his faction and that BlueSky planned to reroll as a member of the fire faction. A part of me was indeed sad about that. How strange, we only just met after all. ¡°You might be right about that. Don¡ät you dare appear as a SparkelFly or I might turn you into a tree~.¡± ¡°You wouldn¡ät dare.¡± ¡°Try it.¡± ¡°No way. Hahah, you really need to work on that naming sense of yours you know.¡± ¡°My naming sense is elegant and practical. That¡äs more than most people can say about themselves. Besides, BlueSky isn¡ät that creative either.¡± He smiled at me for a moment, there was mischief in his eyes but I simply related it to some thought he might have had. ¡°Take care Smurfy.¡± ¡°See ya on the battlefield~¡± They then gathered around Midas, spoke a couple farewells towards me and then simply teleported away while holding hands¡­. As if! In the last moment, practically while Midas was still speaking some magic words, Eisul took a quick step towards me and grabbed me by the hair! ¡°Ahhh¡­¡± I rubbed my scalp and closed my eyes. The flash of white had hit me completely unprepared. ¡°GODDAMIT!¡± And plenty of worse language followed as I took in my surroundings. Eisul was still keeping a tight hold on my hair and I finally understood what actually just happened. The others high fived. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Eisul¡­you can let me go now¡­¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Hahaha¡­ smurfy, did you actually think I¡äd leave you behind just like that? You still owe me for the faction thing.¡± BlueSky¡äs voice resounded. ¡°And I even participated in this sappy drama scene for this buffoon! Just let me barf for a second¡­¡± I murmured. I fixed him with a gaze that contained panic and fury then spent my time searching the walls for an exit. ¡°EISUL! LET GO OF MY HAIR!¡± Finally the brute unhanded me. I flopped down on the ground and hugged my legs. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The others watched me for a moment, then took it as a prank and turned to inspect the room in detail. BlueSky was the only one who approached me. ¡°Are you ok?¡± BlueSky bent down to me and asked me seriously. ¡°Do I look ok?¡± ¡°I guess you don¡ät¡­ Just relax while we solve this puzzle and find the exit. You could just log out for a while¡­¡± I shook my head then brushed Blue off with a glare. This revenge of his was simply too much. I had to get out of here. These walls would drive me insane if I didn¡ät. If the dungeon wouldn¡ät let me leave through the normal route, suicide would get me out of here. There was nothing to fear from an ingame death, except maybe some lost exp. But there was no need to go that far just yet. I sprinted towards the wall then immediately read the next text, not even caring about the rewards for the ¡°save the lovebirds¡± quest. However when I reached the supposed text the wall began to vibrate for no apparent reason. I stepped back, nightmares of encroaching walls on my mind and readied myself to logout in the blink of an eye. The wall however didn¡ät behave as I had expected. Instead of approaching me it shifted, then suddenly a crack opened and a ray of light fell through the gap. As understanding dawned on me the crack slowly turned into a pathway. The walls were made up of the same obsidian as before and the ceiling let blue rays of light shine through what looked like sand. ¡°Aha! I solved the mystery!¡± I proudly patted my own shoulder then confidently strode forward. The others exchanged awkward gazes. ¡°There was no mystery, was there?¡± I heard Steven whisper. ¡°Just where did you pick that weirdo up, F-¡­ I mean, BlueSky?¡± Felicity asked. He only laughed at that and followed me into my escape route, the others directly behind him. While traversing the corridor I heard the familiar sound of the sand¡äs voice. It was trying to make me turn back. Said something about the monster it warned me about before. ¡°Oh sand. You have no idea what going back means~ There is no way in hell I¡äm ever returning to that place.¡± It crunched some more in disagreement. It was another one of those annoying attempts at rationalizing my fears away. As if I didn¡ät know that the walls wouldn¡ät crush me even if I didn¡ät try to find an exit. That¡äs the thing about fear. ¡°Just be quiet if you have nothing else to say, ok? I¡äm in a good mood right now and there is no need to ruin that.¡± ¡°Just who is he talking to?¡± Steven asked in a conspiratorial voice. ¡°Well¡­ last time he talked to the snow. I guess he really is a nutcase.¡± Is how Midas explained my actions. I ignored the conversation and simply walked a bit faster. The tunnel turned out to be fairly short and soon gave way to a breathtaking scenery. There was water, a lot of water. It ran down the dome shaped ceiling of a gigantic cavern, seemingly defying gravity itself. The cavern was big enough to house a midsized city and in fact that¡äs exactly what it did. There was no city wall so the moment the city came in sight I immediately recognized artfully built houses. They were pretty but also very uniformly made. As I looked around some more I was reminded of those modern settlements that only consist of the exact same type of house. In a way it was ghastly, in another beautiful. The town lacked personality, that I was sure of. The cavern was illuminated by lamps and a few torches on the outskirt of the city. The sparkling reflection of these lights on the water wall and ceiling lead to a mesmerizing impression, despite the buildings¡ä monotony. ¡°What¡äs a city doing down here?¡± Midas questioned. ¡°This city¡­ doesn¡ät do anything~¡± I answered and got a glare in return. ¡°He¡äs right¡­ it looks completely deserted, but who set up the torches?¡±Steven said. The streets really were empty and we hadn¡ät seen any sign of life as of yet. ¡°Who would build such a dreary place?¡± Felicity asked. ¡°What¡äs dreary about it? It¡äs gorgeous!¡± I asked while gazing at the water walls. ¡°Well, it may be pretty but it feels absolutely lifeless. As if nobody ever lived here¡­ as if it¡äs not even the remains of an ancient civilization but just a collection of houses, built for no reason whatsoever¡­¡± I took a closer look at the city and thought about her words. I took my time investigating the city and entered it without much thought. The others had already gone ahead while I was deep in thought but I didn¡ät rush to catch up with them. This was finally an adventure I liked. No drama, no enclosed spaces, no moving walls. Instead there was a ghost town to explore and surely countless treasures to find. As I strolled around I caught sight of a fountain with the statue of a mermaid that rode some sort of donkey thing and pulled its ears. I grinned at that. But art has and will always elude me so I dropped the thought. More important than what the statue depicted was the fact that its craftsmanship was extremely good. The mermaid was so lifelike she looked like she was about to flap that fishtail of hers while the donkey on the other hand was frozen in a rodeo like motion. I made a screenshot and continued my merry exploration tour. By now I had lost sight of the others which was pretty bad in this maze of alike looking houses. How was I supposed to join up with the fools after this? Or so I thought and then remembered the fact that I was lost in a desert not even a day ago¡­ ¡­ I looked around myself, trying to remember which direction I entered this tiny fountain plaza from. ¡°Not again~¡± I sighed, sat down on the fountain and put my hand into the surprisingly warm water. I pulled my hand back out and shook it, drops of water landed all over the place as I ran towards the closest building. I was only ten or so paces away from the door when I heard a *pow* like sound of something heavy falling into shallow water. I froze midstep, doing my best not to run. The sound had come from the fountain. I turned my head, anticipation and nervousness on my face, and spotted the perpetrator. *Bang* The perpetrator rammed me and ran away as I landed on the street. It was the donkey that had committed this hit and run. Fuming I jumped to my feet and angrily searched for the donkey. 7.Leave the rooftop stunts to the pros Is this weird author sick or something? So many chapters? Huh? How very uncharacteristic. Well, the effect of people that constantly talk about writing this or that or something else is what I would call this strange sickness~ Anyways enjoy this chapter and tell me about any mistakes that you may find. ________________________________________________________ I turned my head in fury, still searching for the damned donkey when I spotted the beast turn a corner and disappear into the foreign streets of the mazelike city. Immediately I exploded into action and rushed after the foul creature. There was no way I could just let it get away with trampling me! I ran swiftly and precisely followed the sound of its hooves on the stone street or occasional glimpses I caught of it when it wasn¡ät quick enough to reach the next corner. In this way I was led deeper and deeper into the city which I didn¡¯t even notice due to the fact that I had lost orientation a long time ago. There was actually no need to chase down a mere animal to take my revenge but somehow I felt like the donkey had run me over on purpose. It was strange but my gut feeling is more often right than not in these matters so I trusted it without question. More than once did I feel like the beast was leading me in circles and once I even spotted Blue and the others down the street but I was too out of breath to call out to them. They on the other hand must have been somewhat perplexed to see a donkey storm by just to find me hot on its heels. I just hoped they wouldn¡ät follow along and kill my prey with magic. It was just getting fun and I¡äd hate to lose the game just like that. I ran for what felt like a long time. The donkey was inexhaustible, something I couldn¡ät boast about. Soon the gap that I had worked hard to close was widening again and the times I saw the ass before it slipped around the next corner reduced as well. Merely the sound of its hooves guided me until even those faded away. I ran on, unconcerned with the failure. If I couldn¡ät follow the donkey I could still randomly encounter it! Yet my stamina or lack thereof ended any delusions with a start as I was forced to a stop by the blinking energy bar at the periphery of my sight. My mind was busily making stories up to cover for this blunder but none of them was good enough to satisfy my standards. At the end of the rope I just chose a random bench by the side of the road to take a break. My rations were still sufficient for now so I quickly dug in and savored a sandwich with bacon and grilled cheese. Sadly there was no donkey salami... In this way I just lounged about my bench, taking in the same scene of monotony as before. Boring artistic houses, boring stone paved roads, boring lamps. It was a scene of beauty and precision but it really did feel lifeless and after spending as much time as I did in this place where everything looked the same I could only think of it as boring. After replenishing my energy I got up from my bench and contemplated what to do while randomly walking about. Thoughts about rails entered my head. Plan in mind I immediately acted. "I like trains." I said, ready to dodge any incoming train. But the expected outcome was not achieved. Where were the trains? "Internet! Did you trick me?!??! Nooooooo!" I cried out loud enough to make an echo. "Murphy, is that you?" an oh so familiar voice echoed from afar. "No, of course not. How did you get the idea? I¡äm just a disembodied voice!" I shouted back. "You damn kid, I looked away for ten seconds and you actually got lost!" "I¡äm not lost, in fact. I think you¡äre the one that got lost!" "Get your ass over here then!" "The ass got away though..." "That¡äs not what I meant and you know it. Can we stop shouting? My voice is getting hoarse." "There is no horse here either." I could only imagine the sigh that must have escaped him right this second and evilly grinned. I began to slowly walk away from Blue¡äs voice. Time to play some hide and seek. "Are you walking our way?" "No~" "Why not?" "You don¡ät have any cookies. Do I need more reasons than that?" A brief period of silence followed and I used it to enter the next alley. The one to shout next wasn¡ät Blue however. "Murphy, just why are you doing this? I told you we have no cookies! Do you have to rub it in our faces like this?" Unexpectedly Steven was the one to respond. "You have been keeping secrets! I¡äm not an idiot you know~" I shouted and was referring to the cookie topic. My voice was still as hoarse as it always was and didn¡ät waver in the slightest. It¡äs funny how a racial disadvantage can turn into an advantage in a situation like this. Silence followed my statement and I wondered whether they were discussing something. Why were they so keen on regrouping anyways? Was there danger around? They surely wouldn¡¯t have a shouting conversation with me if that were the case. This made no sense but perhaps they just liked shouting until their voices sounded like that of a chain smoker or like mine. As if... "It¡äs not like we wanted to hide it from you or anything!" Steven shouted. He sounded way closer than before. I quickly rushed away from his voice and made myself scarce. Just when I was about to turn the corner I heard steps in the very street I wanted to enter. Without hesitation I backtracked stealthy as a ninja. A very loud ninja. I entered a house for the first time in this city and looked around. It was bare. There was no furniture, no tapestry and nothing that hinted that anyone ever lived here. I mounted the stairs as quickly as I could, slightly dismayed by the lack of treasures and hiding places. The upper floor wasn¡ät any better but I could use the window facing the street as a vantage point. No time at all seemed to pass until my lurking efforts were rewarded. Felicity walked by the house I was hiding in, clearly trying to find me. She was alone. Did they split up? No wonder I encountered someone when I was walking away from Steven¡äs shouting voice. "Murphy? Helloooo?" Steven shouted from close by. Felicity walked by without noticing me and disappeared around the corner of the street without a hitch. I smirked at this victory then decided to climb to the roof of this house for the better vantage point. Sadly there was no stairway to the roof so I made my way out of the window. It was a dangerous task indeed as I had to jump from the windowsill and grab the edge of the roof in one go. For a moment I dangled there, while I was helplessly trying to pull myself up. Alas I was no man of strength so pulling myself up proved to be pretty impossible. So I hung there, a story above the floor, my arms straining in an effort not to drop to the floor like an idiot. It wasn¡ät that big of a drop, sure, but still enough to sprain an ankle or even break a leg if I messed up the landing. If experience had taught me anything then the fact that luck was seldom on my side. For a second I even thought of swinging myself back towards the window but then I¡äd have to let go of the roof and hope my aim was true. If it wasn¡ät I¡äd get to know that wall quite intimately if you know what I mean. I just kept dangling in indecision for a while. My arms were growing weaker though and I knew that I¡äd have to let go eventually. Just when I had resolved myself to take the fall a voice called out. "How¡äs it hanging Murphy?" It was Midas, that pretty boy. Even without seeing him from my current limited view I knew he was struggling not to laugh too much. "..." "What? Speechless for once? Not even a ''help me''?" "Go way." I hissed. Normal talking was already impossible in this exhausted state of mine. "I¡äll make it easy for you. If you get out of my sight I¡äll help you down there." If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it."Huh?" What did he mean by that? Midas sounded quite harsh. "You heard me. I want you to leave our group and just ... go away. " I let go of the roof and plopped to the floor before Midas could intervene. "Ahhh." I grit my teeth in pain. Falling simply wasn¡ät my specialty. This time around my right leg was injured. Whether it was broken or just sprained wasn¡ät clear just yet but it didn¡ät matter to me. I looked around and spotted Midas and his eternally silent archer friend Eisul only about twenty meters from me. "Ahh~ seems like there is no need." I smirked through the pain and slowly got up. "..." Somewhat stunned by this display of stubbornness he didn¡ät answer. "What¡äs your problem with me, mage?¡° "Suit yourself. I¡äm not dumb enough to fall for that trick of yours." "Trick?" I asked intrigued. "There you are!" BlueSky, Felicity and Steven chose this awkward moment to turn the corner. Midas just ''tsked'' and showed a friendlier expression than before. Eisul kept glaring at me for a moment but eventually settled on a more neutral look. With this thought settled I turned to the other group members. "Hey there heretics of the cookie cult." "...why is your leg bent in such an awkward angle?" "What are you saying, isn¡ät it always like this?" "Ahh, you¡äre right! I guess Steven won¡ät need to heal you then." "WAIT. Steven, please heal it... I¡äll even forgive you for keeping the cookies a secret!" I practically begged and a flash of surprise crossed everyone¡äs faces. Steven shrugged the surprise off and healed my injury. "Ahhhh, sweet relief!" "What do you mean by cookie secret?" Felicity asked. "Huh, don¡ät act so innocent. I know that Steven actually had cookies when I asked him about it before. You know what, keep them. Take them as a payment for this treatment. But I¡äd prefer it if you didn¡ät keep any candy related secrets from me in the future." They were eerily silent for a moment until Blue elbowed Steven. "Oh, umm yes. I¡äm sorry about that. I saved them for Felicity, you see." I nodded sagely as if I hadn¡ät just paid him for his healing with cookies that belonged to him in the first place and were most likely already eaten. "Anyways, did you find anything interesting while I was... occupied?" "You mean while you were chasing innocent animals and falling from roofs?" Midas asked dryly. I gave him a glare. "While I was avenging myself and tried to find five little kids that got themselves lost~" "Seriously, where did you pick this idiot up?" Felicity asked BlueSky somewhat uncharacteristically. He just laughed and left it at that. "He seems to have only two modi. Either he¡äs smug about something or he¡äs pouting!" She continued her rant. "Careful now woman! You wouldn¡ät want your Steven to accidentally drink a love potion and fall for a donkey, right?" "You wouldn¡ät dare and it wouldn¡ät work either." "Maybe he likes ass~" She looked at me blankly until she understood the innuendo. "... you .... you!!!!" No words to express herself with the frustrated ram horned woman could only blush. I lightly chuckled and turned back to Midas. ¡°Is there a reason why you guys wanted to regroup?¡± I said with an especially friendly smile towards him. ¡°Actually, yes. We wanted to see where you found a donkey in a place like this.¡± He answered and seemed almost humiliated by the fact that he had to ask me for help. ¡°Oh, that. Did you guys see that fountain with a statue of a donkey and mermaid?¡± They nodded as expected. ¡°I found a mechanism that brought the donkey to life. Don¡ät give me those looks. It¡äs true. I¡äm not kidding you.¡± The looks in their eyes told me everything I needed to know about my own credibility. ¡°Let¡äs just take a look, ok? Does anyone know the way towards the fountain?¡± I asked. ¡°In a structured city like this one would have to be an idiot not to know the way. Let¡äs go.¡± Felicity said and took the lead. I just smiled and tagged along. Revenge would follow in due time~ Felicity navigated what looked like a maze of houses to me as if she had lived here her entire life. She easily lead us towards the fountain and there it was. A simple round water pool without statue laid before us and just when I was about to rub that fact in her face I noticed that the mermaid statue had disappeared as well. ¡°Oh no¡­¡± ¡°Lalalal~¡± ¡°Damn. Why didn¡ät I see it coming?¡± ¡°Lalalala~¡± As the others around me fell into a trance my head stayed clear. ¡°Where are you, siren?¡± I called out to the mermaid that had most likely done as the donkey did before. ¡°A siren? Where?¡± Felicity asked cautiously. She shaking Steven to wake him up but he remained dazzled. Wait what? Why was Felicity not enchanted? I blinked slowly and stared at her suspiciously. ¡°Lalala~¡± The siren kept singing without interruption. It was clear that Felicity wasn¡ät the singer but that didn¡ät mean that she didn¡ät have anything to do with her. ¡°Say Feli, have you been to the beach lately?¡± I probed. ¡°What did you just call me?¡± Her eyes began burning with primal anger. ¡°I called you Felicity, as always.¡± She kept the glare up for a few more moments then returned her attention to more important matters as I sighed in relief. ¡°How can we free them? You said a siren is enchanting them, right? Aren¡ät mermaids and sirens the same? Is that why you¡äre not affected?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡äd be disastrous if mermaids enchanted themselves while they sing. We have an immunity to mermaid and siren songs. That doesn¡ät mean they are the same. Just similar. Comparing a mermaid to a siren is like comparing elves and beastmen: Kinda similar but one is more crude and tribal while the other is elegant and arrogant. By the way, how are you resisting. Are you by chance part mermaid?¡± ¡°Yes, can¡ät you see the resemblance? My scales and the blue skin?¡± I looked at her with newfound respect. She didn¡ät seem so dull anymore! Of course she had neither scales nor was she blue for that matter. Her ram-like horns proudly curved at the side of her head and made it clear that she was most likely some sort of beastman. ¡°Let¡äs just ask the siren to stop for now. If she surrenders peacefully and calls the donkey over I¡äll let her go.¡± I grinned. ¡°Why would she? And shouldn¡ät we rather ask her how she ended up as a fountain statue?¡± ¡°Trivialities~ If I always asked after backstories I¡äd never get out of the drama scenes. She should ask her about the treasure though. ¡° ¡°Murphy, I don¡ät think there is a treasure here.¡± ¡°How come?¡± ¡°Have you looked inside the houses? They are empty. All of them. I doubt even a mermaid that might have been petrified for centuries and used as a fountain statue would know about a treasure in this place.¡± ¡°She¡äs a siren, not a mermaid.¡± ¡°That¡äs beside the point.¡± ¡°Schhhh¡± I held a finger to her lips and stopped her from talking. ¡°Do you hear that?¡± I looked around frantically. ¡°What is it?¡± She joined me and we soon stood back to back, the others were still dazzled. ¡°She stopped. Where is she?¡± ¡°Over here~¡± A sweet voice called out from inside one of the houses. I could only see a fishtail wave at us from a window. ¡°How did she get there?¡± ¡°Can she even live outside the water?¡± ¡°Of course she can. She¡äs basically like me without the legs.¡± We exchanged glances and proceeded towards the house. The rest of our party was left behind for now as they would only be easy targets for the siren if things got hairy. Besides, we didn¡ät even know whether she was as evil as the donkey, right? I couldn¡ät just attack a sweet little siren without provocation. I took the lead and entered the house¡­ or not. Just when I opened the door it was slammed back into my face. I stumbled backwards and grabbed my nose. ¡°How dare you enter a ladies house without knocking!!!¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I can definitely see the family resemblance.¡± Said Felicity and started laughing at my miserable expression. 8.Farewell for now Hey there dear readers. Oh you cool, awesome, great, smart and handsome readers of mine~ You wouldn¡ät be... annoyed with me because of this tiny, almost unnoticable delay, would you? No, you are my magnonimous readers after all hehehe... I reaaaaally wanted to write but something that starts with p and ends on rocrastination held me up hahah, umm, sorry? Or not. Well, I never gave an updating shedule for this exact reason. I think I¡äll stop talking now before you explode in fury~ Happy reading and please tell me about any mistakes you may find! _______________________________________ My head was hurting, some woman was laughing and the rest of my party was enchanted. Well, could it get worse? Yes, of course it could. I rubbed my aching head and steadied myself. I didn¡ät feel all that ready to approach the house of the siren again. Instead I waited until Felicity had her fill of humiliating me and simply shoved her towards the door. "If it¡äs so easy just go ahead. It¡äs your turn." And so she did as I asked her to and nonchalantly approached the door. She knocked and politely waited for an answer. The door opened within seconds to reveal a pretty siren with violet and black scales, long fishtail and long strawberry blonde hair. It couldn¡ät have looked more feminine had it been born an actual female. However, I knew for a fact that mermaids and sirens are gender neutral. This creature was a trap meant to lure fishermen astray. It was petite, adorable and everything a sailor who had been starved for women for months could wish for, had it not been for her sharp teeth that is. Felicity seemed momentarily stunned by the beauty in front of her eyes. "Hello?" The siren greeted her after Felicity didn¡ät manage to say anything for some time. "N- Nice to meet you, my name is Felicity. I wanted to ask you to stop the spell you put on my comrades over there." Eh? Wait, that was totally unnecessary. The spell would fade away after a couple minutes, depending on the siren¡äs might. Looks like I forgot to tell her. However, instead of correcting her misunderstanding I chose to wait and see. "Oh? Those guys intruded all on their own you know~ why would I help them now?" "You owe us one. My friend is the one who lifted your petrification." Now she pointed at me. "Really?" The siren¡äs eyes lighted up when she spotted me. She recognized my race just as easily as I recognized hers. "A mermaid out of water! How are you sister of the sea?" "It¡äs brother if you have to call me something. I also have a name you know? I¡äm Murphy." I said as I slowly approached them, wary of the door the siren still held onto with one hand. "Brother of the sea? That sounds weird! I¡äll just call you Murphy then. Now what did you actually want?" "As I said we want you to release-" Felicity started but I interrupted her. "Felicity, there is no need for that. The others will be waking up in a couple minutes anyways. What we came here for was a treasure, remember? Oh I soooo hope it¡äs a magical item that can turn people into frogs, oh no it should turn them into chickens! No maybe make them mistake right and left!" I mumbled some more into my nonexistent beard while the girls(?) exchanged the usual looks. "Why didn¡ät you tell me earlier that this enchantment isn¡ät permanent? I was worried sick about them!" "Oh, oops! Tehe~ I forgot." "Next time I have sweets I might also forget to tell you." "You¡äd keep them to yourself either way." "Now, that¡äs what you¡äd do!" "Oh, yeah? Prove it~" "You know that I¡äve been on the run for weeks now! Where would I get sweets?" "So you finally show your true self! It doesn¡ät matter now anyways. What were we talking about again?" "You wanted to rob me I think." said the Siren with a raised hand and cheery tone. "Oh, yes that too, but before that what¡äs your name, sister of the sea?" "I¡äm Coralle, nice to meet you all." She said with a devilishly sweet smile. Yet instead of being drawn in by her seductive air I couldn¡ät help chuckling about her name. "Aren¡ät we all a bit coralle?" Thoughts of a certain cartoon filled my mind as I stupidly grinned. "I don¡ät follow?" "Don¡ät mind him, he¡äs an idiot. Coralle, how did you end up as a fountain statue?" "You want to hear my story? Alright I will te-" "No, don¡ät bother, just tell us where the treasures are." I interjected. "Murphy! Shut up." "But she¡äs gonna start a drama scene, I know it! Let¡äs just get the treasure and freely explore this mysterious ghost city ~" "Drama scene? How rude, I wouldn¡ät just make a scene in front of a bunch of strangers for no reason at all! If you really don¡ät want to know how I ended up in this forsaken city I¡äll simply keep it to myself." Coralle the siren didn¡ät seem fazed at all as she brushed her voluminous her out of her face. "If he¡äs really bothered by this, he can leave. Please tell me how you ended up here." Felicity tried to get answers once more. "What¡äs your name again?" Coralle asked Felicity. "I¡äm Felicity, nice to meet you." "The pleasure is all mine." Coralle politely waved with her fishtail. "I will tell you how I got here then.¡± She gave me a pointed look, probably my cue to leave but I just waved her off and made myself comfortable on the floor. ¡°One day while I was happily swimming in the sea my latest prey still in my arms but already so out of breath that he didn¡ät bother struggling anymore, I was approached by a strange being. I still can¡ät put my finger on what exactly it was but it looked like a humanoid creature without face or hair. I was disgusted by it so I swam away. It¡äs not like I was afraid or anything! That would have been the end of my story if the fake human wasn¡ät an even faster swimmer than me.¡± She blushed at this point and looked down as if she was embarrassed that a creature without fin could best her in the sacred art of swimming. ¡°The thing¡­ it easily caught up to me and grabbed my fishtail like some barbarian. So I tried to sing but the thing wasn¡ät affected at all! I struggled and bit it! But the moment I tasted its blood I fell unconscious. When I woke up again I was here but the city was different back then. There were many more like me here. Everybody was kidnapped by one of those ugly fake humans. We discovered caves around the city that lead to a maze like structure with weird black walls and runes on them but nobody could find the way out of there at all. The maps we drew were different every day so we soon found out that the maze was changing its layout all the time. Obviously I wasn¡ät all that useful in the caves so I tried to concentrate on finding out the secret behind this city. We searched for a hint of who brought us here and who built the city, though. There were no treasures to be found by the way-¡° ¡°Did the others have similar stories like you?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, they were all captured in a similar way by the strange monster. There were all kinds of races by the way, but only one of each kind. We soon found out why¡­¡± She grew silent for a while and neither I nor Felicity had the heart to interrupt her pondering. Her facial expression told tales of sadness on its own. ¡°There was no food you see¡­¡± ¡°Oh, no¡­¡± I whispered, already figuring out the end of this tale. She gave me a grim nod. ¡°On the third day, we found a stone tablet in the central square of the city. There was a message written down in countless languages and scriptures so absolutely everyone could understand it. ¡°Kill or get killed, Eat or get eaten, In this deathmatch there can only be one victor.¡± I¡äm not the most mobile person on land as you might know so I immediately grabbed the Donkey that was also transported to this place. The others had treated it as their last resort, the only food around, but in that moment of confusion I swung myself on its back and ran off with it. I knew that I had to get away from the group. I just expected the fighting to erupt then and there and I sure as hell wasn¡ät wrong. The ogre made short work of the slower people, the Tigerman then killed the ogre and hunted down the fleeing people. It was a massacre as the mighty picked of the weak opponents. Once I got around the corner I could only hear their cries¡­¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. She shook her head helplessly. I raised my eyebrow at her acting. She was a siren. She ate people so murder had to be second nature to her. Was she lamenting the fact that she didn¡ät get to eat those corpses? It was more likely that she wanted us to let our guard down. ¡°Later, later on¡­ I was hungry and exhausted, but what I needed the most was water so I went to this fountain to rest. Little did I know that the basilisk had the same thing in mind. Well, the rest is history. I was petrified together with the donkey. I don¡ät know what happened to the others though they must be dead if nothing major happened. What would I know. Maybe the last one is still alive somewhere¡­¡± After listening to this unusual tale I felt the need to search for this last survivor. It might be the same creature the sand had warned me about. ¡°Thank you, for finding me I mean.¡± Said Coralle in a very sincere tone of voice. ¡°Thanks for crushing my nose.¡± ¡°Umm, that wasn¡ät on purpose¡­?¡± ¡°Like hell it wasn¡ät on purpose. Girl, you smashed it. Felicity is it still crooked?¡± ¡°It looks better this way, haha¡± ¡°It looks better when bloated and purple? Your taste is peculiar but¡­I already knew that anyways.¡± I said with a glance at the Sprout she had eloped with. I mean, purple bark? Really? Well, there¡äs a fetish for everything. ¡°Does it still hurt?¡± Coralle asked. ¡°Of course not. Why would it hurt?¡± ¡°¡äCause it¡äs destroyed? Do you by chance enjoy pain?¡± Felicity answered. ¡°Haha, sure, just who the heck likes pain? I don¡ät feel it anymore that¡äs all there is to it.¡± ¡°Hmm strays really are unfair.¡± Felicity sighed. ¡°Coralle, do you have an idea why we could have been brought here?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Nothing at all?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°A guess?¡± ¡°Stop asking already, if I knew how to get out or to get a treasure for that matter I would tell you!¡± ¡°But you¡äre our only hint-¡° ¡°The donkey!¡± Felicity exclaimed. I quickly looked around hoping to see the ungrateful bastard that had run me over after I painstakingly freed it from its petrification but to my dismay there was no donkey in sight. ¡°Felicity, that¡äs not funny. Tsk, getting my hopes up for no reason~¡± She had a thoughtful look on the other hand and didn¡ät seem to be listening. Coralle on the other hand yawned and stretched leisurely as if she didn¡ät care at all. ¡°By the way Coralle, why didn¡ät you enchant Felicity as well?¡± ¡°Enchant her? You know that siren songs don¡ät work on females right? Didn¡ät you notice that before?¡± ¡°Oh, right there was that rule¡­ hehe. I didn¡ät know because my family has always been living on land and singing in places where females can hear you is taboo in the first place.¡± ¡°I will never understand how your people could leave the sea in the first place.¡± She shook her at this folly. ¡°I don¡ät know either. It sure as hell wasn¡ät my decision.¡± ¡°True, oh your comrades are waking up.¡± I looked towards the rest of the group and watched in glee as Midas lost his balance and fell on his ass. I thought as I watched Eisul tumble on top of Midas and squash the petite boy. ¡°Hahaha.¡± I started laughing silently but then even Stephen joined the heap with a pathetic ¡°Uwaaaa¡± sound. BlueSky managed to fall to the side of the Midas-Eisul-Stephen sandwich to my dismay. ¡°Hey you look like you¡äre having so much fun! Let me join you~¡± And thus I ran full throttle towards my panicking teammates, jumped into the air and landed with the sound of wails accompanying my graceful landing. ¡°Ugh¡± was Eisul¡äs only comment to this matter. ¡°My back!!!¡± shouted Stephen into my ear. ¡°Can¡ät breathe¡­¡± came a silent whisper from the lowest level of our tower. ¡°Get off!¡± ¡°But I¡äm just getting comfortable here~¡± ¡°Murphy I swear I will teleport you into the closest volcano if you don¡ät get off now!¡± ¡°You know what? I think I¡äll take the risk. That spell of yours is pretty unreliable after all. Maybe you¡äll target yourself instead of me~¡± ¡°That¡äs enough.¡± With those words I was lifted off my comfortable pillow by BlueSky. He immediately tossed me to the side with weakened strength due to the periodic chuckles that got through his serious fa?ade. The others quickly untangled themselves. They were pretty confused by the situation. Apparently they didn¡ät remember anything that happened while they were enchanted. ¡°Felicity!¡± Stephen ran to his beloved and another drama scene erupted. I used the opportunity to sneak back to Coralle and try to persuade her to sing again and stop this drama madness but I was yet again interrupted by the ultimate PVE and the laws of the universe, namely, my game capsule that forced me to log out. 10 ¡°Ahh not again! I don¡ät wanna stop now!¡± 9 ¡°What¡äs the matter Murphy?¡± 8 ¡°My time is up. I¡äve been playing until the limit 7 and the capsule is throwing me out.¡± 6 ¡°So you¡äre leaving. When will you come back?¡± 5 I cringed at that. When indeed? The game would progress even without me there. Would I even find them in the game if I didn¡ät give them a concrete time now? 4 Let¡äs just do this. 3 ¡°Hey BlueSky, let¡äs be friends ok?¡± 2 He looked at me in surprise, as did the others. 1 ¡°What do you me-¡° YOU HAVE REACHED THE TIME LIMIT. IN ORDER TO ENSURE YOUR HEALTH YOU WILL BE FORCEFULLY LOGGED OUT. I closed my eyes as the familiar view of my group became murky and blurred away in a storm of pixels. I slowly counted until 7 to open them again and spotted the ceiling of my room above me. I took a minute to calm down. Unthinking, unmoving, I just waited. Once I was sure I could face reality I got up. The room was bare, painfully so. It looked nothing like a teenagers room would normally look like. There were no posters, no scattered clothes, no unfinished homework on my desk. It was tidy, eerily so. My face was frozen tranquil, my thoughts were liveless calm. It was time to return to reality for a while. Oh, how I dreaded it already. For a moment I wondered what I would find when I returned. When I became Murphy once more. Would I even find them again? Well, it was fun either way.