2.3
“With her song, the First Princess proved that magically enchanted animals make far better servants, thus, all the original servants tasked with menial work around the castle were laid off for requiring a salary.” - Excerpt from ‘The First Princess’
Peps gently lifted one of the grotesquely large rats, cradling it like a house cat or very ugly baby. The other two rats stood upright next to him. Rat one, which Peps was holding, squeaked something.
And Peps began translating, “We were just minding our own business ya see...”
“You may take whatever you want,” Debon casually replied. The individual before him nodded, before proceeding to ransack the store.
Hmm, Debon had to slightly limit him, make some stuff disappear before he found it. Make sure everything he was taking was still within the beginners' budget.
As he was doing so, he received a message.
Hendrix: Yo
Debon raised an eyebrow, how odd. Why was Hendrix messaging him now?
Debon: Hello, is something the matter Hendrix?
Hendrix: Just curious about the kid youre guiding
‘You’re.’ He mentally corrected. It irked Debon that his colleagues would take such shortcuts, even in casual messaging. An unfortunate side effect of the… 'variety' their mother had bestowed upon them.
Debon casually glanced at his trainee, who was experimentally spinning a polearm. It made sense that Hendrix would want to know about him. The trainee Debon was in charge of was recruited by one of Hendrix’s own trainees. They were likely real-life friends if the chatter he caught was accurate.
Debon: He is doing as expected.
Hendrix: Mmm, I would like to try something… look at this
A notification popped up inside of Debon’s consciousness. He mentally reviewed it. A preset encounter with a goblin village, set inside this very mall. Given what Hendrix just asked, Debon could guess the intent of this preset, though…
Debon: A hundred goblins? Even with the lowered Constitution and learning limitation this is too much. The tutorial only requires the player to move around a bit so that the program can adjust the duplicate persona to better fit their bodies.
Hendrix: I’m just curious about how he will do. Come on, I’ll treat you to lunch at Mermaids Tail.
Hmm. Tempting, Mermaids Tail had one of the better selections of seafood in Indiri. And his trainee seemed most delighted about his experience here. Would a slightly difficult tutorial turn him off? Debon needed to confirm, he had to do this at least somewhat professionally compared to the others after all. Knowing Hendrix he probably just shoved it onto everyone he was in charge of.
“Excuse me,” Debon asked the trainee, “Would you consider yourself new or experienced to Virtual Reality or Combat?”
The boy raised an eyebrow, “Experienced, why?”
“I am just considering how I should adjust the difficulty setting of your tutorial,” Debon replied.
The boy set down the end of the polearm with a thud, “Hard,” he replied with a gleeful smile, “Give me the highest difficulty you can,”
“Very well,” Debon easily replied.
Even if the boy had agreed, Hendrix didn’t know that yet. Debon began the delicate process of extorting- negotiating a better deal from Hendrix. Dinner perhaps. The Tail’s night menu had some delectable meals made with the Starlit Trouts caught locally, and they literally didn’t taste the same unless eaten under a bright moon.
“And the cowards struck Peaches from behind! My brother, Dangerous Beans bravely held them off as I cradled my dying mate However he was one and they were many. He could not hold them off forever. He warned me to retreat, however, I could not leave it at that. Thus before Peaches’ final breath. I swore vengeance upon them!” Peps yelled, arms dramatically flinging around as he translated what Rat one, who I now knew was called Sardines, squeaked. Luckily, Peps put Sardines down before his oration, or else he would’ve thrown him off by now.
The other two rats, Hampork and Skip were dramatically recreating the events Sardines was describing. They did oddly well despite the fact that there were only two of them and they were doing a scene with at least half a dozen characters.
“Such vile scoundrels to strike one noble as yourself completely unprovoked!” Valhorn yelled, “I understand thee pain and I too shall swear death upon them! I swear upon my father! My father’s father! And his father...”
I turned away from the roleplaying maniac and looked at Boba, who was crying again. “Peaches died way too young! You guys never had the chance to view the sunset on an autumn beach, or share a string of cheese under a starlit night.”
Something weird was happening.
Sardines’ story was good, well-executed and even had a few twists despite sounding like a classic romantic tragedy. But it wasn’t good enough to elicit tears right?
I glanced at Valhorn, who was finding more and more obscure parts of his family to swear vengeance with. Boba who was still crying and Peps who was gently weeping golden tears as he finished his- their play. Hmm… those tears looked shiny. I wasn’t sure what Peps’ race did but Elderwood sounded pricey. It’ll have to wait, one thing at a time Decs.
The point is all three of them seemed enamoured with the rats’ tale. Too enamoured.
I mentally began reviewing the rats’ actions. Nothing obvious, they dogeza’d almost immediately upon contact and haven’t made an aggressive play yet. I don’t think they’ve cast a spell either unless there were spells that can be cast without chants. Which was entirely possible, though unlikely to exist at such a low level. Aura techniques? Also unlikely, from what I’ve gathered from Valhorn and Boba the techniques they were allowed to pick focused closer on buffing themselves or required touch. Of us, only Peps have touched a rat so far. Aura techniques were chantless, however, so it might’ve been cast without any of us knowing.
Some sort of buff? But what kind of skill let you do plays better- No. I can’t think like that. Assuming that every skill or spell was just number crunching would be incorrect. The goblin mage proved that utility spells existed with his tracking spell, though his spell seemed to have some sort of condition. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have carried the Sneezing Sporage with him. Only I could activate it from a distance after all. But back on track. If the rats did something then it was probably an Aura technique. Valhorn and Boba said they could use theirs without yelling out the skill name however they weren’t used to it yet. Rats that have been living in this world with this very system likely have.
Unlikely to be something that directly affected someone else too. Otherwise only Peps would’ve been affected since he’s the only one who went in contact with a rat. Probably some sort of self-buff, but what kind?
Buffing yourself… Buffing yourself…
What were the stats?
Body, mind, and soul. Body had strength, dexterity, constitution, all the physical stats.
Mind, had intelligence, wisdom, and… charisma.
The description for that stat was annoyingly vague. The ability to interact with other people? Literally, everyone can do that! If charisma was to blame then it was probably better described as the ability to make other people do things. In this case, making them cry over a meh play.
Why was I the only one unaffected then? Hmm… Valhorn and Boba were both physical fighters… No, Peps was a magic user as well, but he did handle a rat directly… Shit, I can’t easily check, there was still a not-zero chance I just have shit taste in theatre. Doing anything overly suspicious was a no go for now.
Hmm… Perhaps my mind stats? Probably not charisma, a six was apparently very low. Wisdom was more likely, since it was my highest stat, intelligence too since it seemed decently high.
“And upon my great great great grandfather’s nephew’s third cousin’s eighth pet-” I grabbed Valhorn, interrupting him methodically devaluing the worth of his entire family tree and extra. “What’s your int and wisdom stats?” I urgently whispered to him.
Slightly confused, he replied, “Eleven and nine,”
Hmm, no roleplaying, he really was out of it.
More gently, I grabbed Boba on the shoulder, “What’s your int and wisdom stats?” I quietly asked, keeping a careful eye on the rats. They don’t seem to have noticed me yet, instead just silently weeping and looking overall very pitiable.
Boba wiped away a tear, staring confused at me, “Umm, around the tens…”
Probably wisdom then. My INT was too close to theirs and Peps… I glanced at Peps who was helping the rats wipe away their tears. A lost cause. Even if he had as high a wisdom stat as I did, he seemed like a natural idiot. A nice, softhearted idiot but an idiot nonetheless.
Fuck. I wish Matt was here, he would’ve made this thing a whole lot simpler. Bloody, but simpler.
Though I have yet to confirm one important thing. Whether or not we are being attacked. My instincts and logic said yes. However, the rats haven’t done anything aggressive yet. Tell a sob story and ask us to fight some people. Honestly, just normal game NPC stuff, and if this was just a game then I would’ve thought the devs were just being cheeky with a random event. But Gaia wasn’t just a game wasn’t it?
Hendrix displayed an unerring amount of personality and life despite just being what I assumed was a tutorial bot, and though I haven’t seen Indiri yet, if Eve can make one fully breathing world, whose to say she can’t make two? Gaia wouldn’t even be that hard to make since she has Giles’ recreation to work off of. At the very least there was more to this story. I should see this to the end at least. Though…
“A truly tragic tale you have told us,” I said, channelling my inner roleplayer, two can play at this game, “and though justice is its own reward. I must ask…” I paused slightly, gotta seem hesitant, “If mayhaps there is compensation for us helping you?” If they’re trying to be quest giver NPCs then they might as well hand over all their valuables.
Peps looked at me oddly, then translated what I said. I looked closely at the rats as they heard what Peps squeaked. Hmm… No luck, they looked exactly like regular giant rats. No over the top cartoon facial features. I can’t read them.
The lead rat, Sardines, quickly squeaked something back, “He said that it would be difficult…” Peps translated, “Since they have many family members and often go hungry during hard seasons…”
It almost felt like Boba, or Valhorn was trying to glare daggers into my back. “Oh no no,” I replied, “I am not asking for extravagance, merely compensation to account for personal expenses undertaken in this quest. Such as damaged gear or injuries...”
The glare softened slightly and turned away. Was that my perception? It was described as a sixth sense…
“We cannot compensate for weapons or gears lost,” Peps said, already translating, “However our brethren knows many ways around this land, and knows of hidden treasure left by travellers before thee.”
“That will do,” I replied as I gave them a bright smile. Peps seemed to recoil a bit but quickly gathered his bearings as he translated.
“Now perhaps thou can describe to us what manner of foe plagues you,” Valhorn butted in.
I glanced gratefully at him. Talking to rats was starting to get weird.
Skip pointed in front of us and squeaked, “They’re over there,” Peps quietly translated.
Hmm… in front of us was a neat park if I remembered correctly. Though now it seemed pretty overgrown. Valhorn did a few gestures with his hand, which I roughly translated to: ‘follow me quietly,’ if movies were accurate. Silently bending down, I let the tall grass cover us.
Valhorn took point, I followed behind him. Boba had already disappeared somewhere and Peps had been told to stay out of sight due to his low combat capability.
From what we gathered from the rats, our opponents were humanoid and worked in a party. Three melee fighters and one healer. Valhorn was pretty serious about battle tactics, so we planned ahead. Leverage Boba’s superior range as we kept them busy close up. The first to die had to be the healer obviously. Valhorn and I will try to do a sneak attack to get him however more likely we would just keep the melees busy as Boba assassinated the healer-
Valhorn raised a hand, the universal gesture for stopping. We were close enough to hear the sounds of a fire crackling. A camp? Hopefully, we can catch them off guard.
“........”
More slowly, we crept in closer, beginning to catch muted snippets of conversation.
“............”
“.......not…… level…..”
I paused, Valhorn stopping just a bit in front of me as he stopped sensing movement from me.
“......grind……”
Oh.
Oh.
I laughed. I laughed loudly. How was I so stupid!? The rats were common mobs! We’re avenging dead mobs! We were fighting other players!
A horrific noise rang across the clearing… Lung shuddered at the sound, it was as if an asthmatic whale had just taken its final breaths, before violently and spontaneously combusting.
“What the fuck was that!?” one of his party members yelled, shakily standing up and drawing his blade. His name escaped Lung at the current moment, though it was unlikely to be worth remembering.
Steadily, Lung too stood up and faced towards the location where the noise had come from. The noise wasn’t human but sounded far too.... unsettling to be a natural animal. “Who is there?” he calmly, but loudly asked.
“Ah sorry bout that!” A cheery voice yelled back. His eyes focused on a patch of grass that seemed to be glowing softly. “We’re players so don’t shoot us or something by the way.”
Behind him, a sigh of relief came from one of his party, “Holy shit man you scared-”
“Show yourself,” Lung interrupted.
The grass rustled, and a glowing figure rose. Some kind of humanoid mushroom, with a face carved out like a jack o’ lantern on its stalk. A soft, light bluish glow emanated from it. “Sorry about that, just remembered my race has a weird natural laugh,”
A player then.
“Damn, you look creepy as hell,” someone from behind him said, almost approvingly. ‘Darkblade’ Lung remembered. Likely because the name seemed to combine the worst parts of edge and genericness.
The mushroom seemed to grin, “I’d like to think it’s creepy and cool,” it replied as it took a step forward.
“Stay,” Lung commanded.
The mushroom paused, then seemed to shrug helplessly, “Why are you so paranoid dude?”
“Why were you sneaking around?” He simply rebutted.
“I heard that there was a wild boss around this area, so I’m trying to hide from it,” it replied in a casual, matter of fact tone.
“Where did you hear this?”
“I met a few players who respawned after fighting it, apparently it’s really strong so I want to avoid it.”
“Then why come here at all?”
The mushroom's face seemed to turn blank for a moment, before it sighed, “Ah fuck it, I’m bad at this improv thing anyways,” and with that, it threw something.
Lung’s reaction was instant, his body already tensed, swayed to the right. The thrown object narrowly missed his head.
Before it exploded.
Some sort of yellow dust filled the air around his head, and an unbearable itching sensation erupted on his nose.
“ARRRGH-CHOOOO!”
The sneeze forced Lung’s eyes closed, however, due to a quirk of his race having transparent eyelids, he briefly caught a glimpse of the mushroom reeling back, as if belching-
“Harden Hide!” Lung yelled out before the glob of purple struck him. The thing landed on his chest, burning through cloth before barely getting stopped by his reinforced skin.
Lung stomped a foot down and pushed off it. Dashing towards the mushroom with explosive speed.
“Poison Sp-” Lung grabbed the mushroom in the neck, interrupting the spell, and swiftly punched it in the face. The blow felt odd, elastic almost-
The mushroom grabbed the arm lifting itself up, “Fucking hate monks,” it muttered as one of its fingertips burst.
A heaviness seemed to set in, his body seemed to slow. Lung grit his teeth, stomping his foot down, he twisted his body, throwing the enemy to the side.
Through heavy eyelids, he saw the mushroom fly far, colliding with a tree. ‘A mistake’ Lung realised too late. He just created more range between them.
Lung staggered forward, “Ability Boost,” he muttered, feeling the heaviness alleviate somewhat. He needed to close in again, where the fuck was his healer?
“I, THE GREAT VALHORN HAVE CLAIMED FIRST BLOOD!” Lung heard a voice yell out from the camp. He swiftly turned, seeing some sort of midget pulling out a sword from the already dissipating corpse of his healer.
“What the hell, Peps…” He heard the mushroom mutter, turning again, he saw a cat with an afro sitting on the fallen mushroom. Light emanating from its paws.
Lung quickly evaluated his options, behind him Darkblade and his other party member were exchanging blows with the gnome, forcing it on the defensive. The mushroom was unoccupied, probably a mage class. If allowed like that it’ll leverage its superior range. Not only that, the cat seemed to be their healer.
Making his decision, Lung dashed towards the mushroom and cat, hands stretched out just in time to grab the mushroom as it stood back up. He tried to grab the cat as well, but it dashed off.
Instead, he began punching the mushroom in the stomach, fists leaving indents in the soft white flesh. It gasped, letting out a breath as it was winded. Lung prepared for the finishing blow when a scream of pain came from behind him.
He turned again, seeing one of his party members with something sticking out of their leg-
The mushroom grabbed his shoulder, “Poison Spores,”
Green dust exploded from the hand, enveloping Lung’s head. Lung staggered back as a stinging pain overtook his orifices.
“Cure wounds,” he heard something say. Half blindly, Lung jumped forward and grabbed the small white thing healing his enemy, before lobbing it as far away as possible.
The mushroom’s reaction came a second later, in the form of a sharp pain striking Lung in the abdomen. “Throwing a cat? Dick move dude.”
Lung growled at him, the noise coming out more like a hiss. Reaching out, he grabbed the staff with both hands, his opponent reacting a second too late, he lifted up the surprisingly light creature, before violently swinging staff and wielder towards a tree.
Halfway through the swing, he felt the staff lighten.
“Poison-”
Lung let go of the staff, rapidly turning towards the fallen mushroom, fist already in motion.
“-Spores,”
Green dust once again enveloped Lung, however, his fist was already in motion. The pain barely slowed him as he landed a direct hit on his opponent's face.
The squishy mushroom hit the ground, grunting in pain as it did so. Lung tried to follow up with a kick, but instead, he screamed in pain as the spores settled on him. A stinging sensation enveloped his entire body.
“HARDEN HIDE!” Lung yelled, reapplying his defensive skill.
Two rough hands grabbed his shoulders, Lung blearily saw the mushroom’s face staring directly back at him. “Acid Spit,” The shot landed on his face, burning his eyes and nostrils.
Lung screamed in pain again as he was shoved back.
“That skill doesn’t protect your orifices does it?” The bastard shroom commented.
Lung rolled over, getting on all fours. Then lunged at-
An arrow struck Lung on the back, altering his course and allowing the myconid to easily dodge him.
Lung fell flat-faced onto the ground. “For my brethren!” he heard as a blade went through his abdomen.
“For the rats, yay,” the mushroom added unenthusiastically, staff striking Lung’s snout. "Poison Spores,"
‘What rats...’ Lung asked as his mind faded to black.
You have died.
Ouch.
That lizard dude was tough for a guy wearing no armour. Probably had a high constitution like me. He tanked like five poison spores and shook off my CC spells like nothing.
Fast, strong and durable, not only that, did he have transparent eyelids or something? Frick, if it wasn’t a one versus three I might’ve lost. Speaking of which… “You alright Peps?” I yelled in the general direction where he was thrown.
A long, stick-like arm poked out of a bush with a thumbs up, “Fine!”
I glanced to the side where Valhorn was wiping off some blood off his blade. The fight was pretty much won the moment their healer died. Even if the lizard dude had me outclassed in close combat, Peps’ healing and my own constitution allowed me to hold him off until Boba and Valhorn finished the other two.
Peps came out from the bushes, wiping off leaves that may or may not have been from his afro bush thing. “Are you guys alright as well?”
“I’m fine,” I answered.
Valhorn grunted, “Could use some recovery.” he said, gesturing to a bleeding arm.
Peps nodded and cast Cure Wounds on him.
“Did they drop any stuff?”
Valhorn shook his head, “No, tis seems that their equipment went with them, including their baggage at the camp.”
I heard some bushes rustling, Boba. She came in looking slightly pale.
“Are thou fine?” Valhorn asked her, voice concerned.
Boba wordlessly nodded.
Huh.
I turned to Peps, “Didn’t you say you couldn’t cast spells as an animal?”
“Uh, yeah,” he nervously chuckled, “I remembered that my trainer said the main reason my animal forms can’t cast spells is because the animal I am is incapable of casting spells, however, I remembered I formed a bond with this cat that could cast spells and I didn’t want to sit back so… sorry about that.”
Did he feel bad about coming in? I slapped him on the back, having to stand on my toes(?) due to the absurd difference in height, “Would’ve died if you didn’t jump in,” in a more mumbled tone I added, “Don’t want to test the respawn system first hand either.”
Peps chuckled.
I clapped my hands, “Well for a PUG group we did pretty well,” Valhorn and Boba turned to me, “Oh yeah sorry,” in a more theatrical tone I said, “For comrades brought by chance our execution of vengeance was well done.”
Valhorn nodded, apparently satisfied. Boba managed a smile and Peps ruffled his afro.
“Well, let’s get our loot then.”
“Here it is,” Peps translated as Sardines led us down a dark alley- well it was night so everywhere was dark.
I glanced around, not much here other than piles of what seemed to be plastic trash, “Mostly trash it seems,” I muttered as I poked through the piles with my staff.
Sardines shook his head, before jumping into the pile, pulling out a crystal and a roll of ancient-looking paper.
“What’s this?” Valhorn asked. The rat squeaked out a reply, which Peps promptly translated, “A map of the surrounding area, and a spell left by a previous Traveler.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Pass?” I asked, gesturing to the crystal. Sardines stood up, passing the crystal to me. I gingerly took it. It looked like the way shard Hendrix had, the only difference was that there are these weird green glowing lines on it and… it felt weird. Like it was calling me. ‘Bark Skin’ it was whispering.
Valhorn took the map, “Hmm… seems accurate,” he muttered as he examined it.
I shook my head and passed the crystal to Peps, who curiously looked over it. Peps squeaked something to the rat. “He says Travelers use crystals like these to gain new spells,” Peps translated the rat's reply.
Something like a skill book then. “Any idea what’s in this one?” Boba asked from the side.
“Bark Skin,” “Apparently a spell called Bark Skin,” Peps and I replied at the same time.
I raised an eyebrow, “You feel the same calling feeling too?” I asked.
Peps nodded, “It’s odd, I didn’t feel it until I touched it, what about you two?” he asked as he passed the crystal to Boba, who shook her head, “Nada. Nothing.” she said as she passed it to Valhorn.
Valhorn passed the map to me, I glanced over it, mentally comparing it to a map I saw in the real world.
“I do not feel a call, likely because I do not have the mind for it,”
So class-based then, only Peps and I were mages- or magic users at the very least.
“How should we split this?” I asked.
Valhorn shrugged, “Neither Boba or I have the learning to obtain spells.” he said as he passed the crystal back to me.
I translated that to, they had no spell slots. “You want it Peps?” I asked, “I already have like six spells so I don’t really need it.”
Peps shook his head, “I’m fine,”
“Well, I owe you one then,” I replied, “How do I use it though…” I glanced questioningly at the rat, who just shook its head. “Oh well, I’ll figure it out later,” I muttered, placing the crystal in my bag.
“The map?”
“We have long traversed this realm’s parallel, so we know the routes,” Valhorn answered for himself and I’m assuming Boba, “However, I must draw your attention to this,” he pointed to a blank spot on the map. That was… the nearby Asian market? “Any idea why this spot is blank?” I asked.
The rat squeaked something. “He said that there’s a great monster there, so many Travelers avoided that area,” Peps translated.
“Sounds like a wild boss,” I muttered.
Wait, did that rat just…
I put down the map, “Did you just understand me?”
The rat’s eyes went wide, an oddly human expression on a rat, before it jumped into the piles of trash.
I stared at the empty spot where the rat was.
“After it!” Valhorn yelled, breaking me out of my trance.
He was already kicking away the trash. However, this alleyway was a dead end there was no way for the rat to-
“There’s a hole!” He exclaimed.
A literal mousehole.
