Chapter 4: Rabbits, Ruin & Roxi

For the first time since I logged in, I was alone. 

One of the orphanage’s matrons had caught Paph following me on the way out of town and  dragged him kicking and screaming, off to do his chores. Even with the pull of the quest tracking guiding me, I had been walking through the woods for some time and had time to think.

It was kinda amazing how quick I had taken to my character and given her life. I mean it wasn’t my first time rping in an MMO, nor was it my first time playing a girl, but for some reason I had taken to it like a fish to water and it was feeling like I wasn’t acting at all.

This MMO is unbelievable! It seems the npcs are realistic enough to bring out my inner actor, without all the awkward slip ups that seemed to be part and parcel when rping with people. That and full immersion made getting into character easy peesy. I looked like a cute girl, moved like a cute girl and I sounded like a cute girl.

I was a cute girl, well at least in here and it wasn’t hard to react and roleplay the rest. It was fun!

But enough about rp, I was excited to actually play the game. I’d have to wait a bit before trying the crafting systems, but the combat sounded fun. All I needed to do was find some Greater Lagomorphs, whatever that means. Probably some sort of monster.

Shafts of light reached towards me, as up ahead the trees began to thin out and reveal my first glimpses of grassy fields beyond. There was something about those light shafts and how they made the leafs almost glow where they hit or the smattering of flowers near the ground that grew within the forest’s periphery where the light fell.

The woods hadn’t felt that dark but stepping out of them, the light felt blinding as I waited for my eyes to adjust. I found myself in a vast meadow with forest on two sides and a river snaking between grassy hills in the distance. Wildflowers and close cropped grass made up the meadow and in the direction of the river, large round grey, brown, black and white shapes ambled about.

I was still too far away to pull up statuses, but I couldn’t see anything else in the field and the tracker was pulling me in their direction. I guess I had found my Lagomorphs, the question was would they were aggressive or if would be able to fight them one by one.

I would have given my left testicle to have some cover, so I could sneak up on them. 

Since I didn’t have any cover, I was slowly approaching them crouched down, tail out and ready to begin blasting out arcane bolts, throwing flashes in their faces and dropping decoys if I needed to make a tactical run for my digital life.

Even if the game had respawns and I had nothing to lose yet, dying would mean having to make the long slog back here.

I was now close enough to make out the dense fur covering my round targets and close enough to finally identify them with the UI. [Greater Lagomorph] and a level between 1 and 3 hovered above each of the grazing furred furred orbs.

A windswept leaf from the woods crunched underfoot and one of the Lagomorphs looked up with a docile expression on its whiskered face, as it munched on a mouthful of grass and its two tall ears flicked.

They wanted me to kill giant bunnies?

Like I know killing passive woodland critters is often a part of the mmorpg starting experience, but they were so real and cute and…

No. I have to do this. They were serving dandelion soup back at the orphanage, the bounty was asking for the carcasses, probably to supplement the hungry village NPC’s meagre meals. An image of my friendly orphan sibling Paph came to mind. Yes, I know the villagers are NPCs, but so are the bunnies. 

It's a quest, I just have to grit my teeth, finish it and collect my reward and experience. Then once I was stronger, more experienced and with better gear, I could go after stronger and more aggressive enemies like monsters and bandits.

Picking out one of the giant bunnies, I targeted it and prepared to cast Arcane bolt. Oblivious of the threat to its life, the Lagomorph hopped closer and sniffed my leg before leaning against me as it went down for another mouthful of grass. It was warm and soft…

“Stop making this so hard on me!” I yelled, startling the rabbit.

A field full of adorable bunny faces were now watching me, their tiny noses snuffling and long ears flopping. Ok I can do this, just the five for the quest and go. No more. I can do this! It’s just a video game. They are just NPCs.

Whiskers tickled my ankles.

Mr bunny had used my internal conflict as a chance to spring a surprise attack. Having once again decided that I wasn’t a threat the large rabbit lent its full weight against me, sending me spawling onto the grass. 

A confused rabbit sniffed and nuzzled my face and then lay against me. Why did the game want me to kill these gentle fluffballs?

My face was wet and I could hear a girl crying. My throat burned and I felt like I was being stabbed with every gasping, heaving cry. I was crying? Over this?  

I buried my face in the bunny’s soft fur, wetting it with my tears and hugged it for comfort. I hadn’t cried in years, not since my parents were killed in the clashes at the Peace march. I’d always felt that I had this sort of bubble around my emotions, keeping all but the strongest from affecting me. It felt safe and comfortable.

I was wailing into a giant rabbit’s flank and I had no idea why.

“Are you... alright?” a warm throaty feminine voice awkwardly asked from beside me.

"Eek!” I jolted in surprise. I could feel my embarrassment rising, I’d been so caught up crying I hadn’t heard her approach me. “Umm I'm—" I begun, before a series of sobs heaved their way up and interrupted me.

Standing over me was a towering and I mean towering, at least seven feet tall athletic woman. Her short shaggy hair was raven black and her eyes, a piercing blue, emphasized by thick black eyeshadow and mascara.  A black sleeveless tunic showed off corded, muscular arms, while loose black pants hid legs long enough to…

Ok, so that’s a lot of black and what wasn’t black really stood out like her blue eyes, a silver glyph made of a bisected rhombus hanging from her neck and flawless pale skill that seemed to shine in the sunlight.

"It’s ok.” she laughed, bringing me back to reality. “Take your time and tell me what's got you crying," there was something about her tone that in spite of her earlier laugh, a caring seriousness that let me know she wouldn’t laugh if I opened up to her.

And just like when the cliched floodgates of a dam are opened, it all flooded out.  "I… I don't know why I'm crying! It's my first quest and… And they want me to kill at least five of these bunnies, but they are so gentle and cute. But… But, but the villagers are hungry! I need to level! I don't know what to do? I'm such a mess!" I confessed.

During my confession I had looked down at the rabbit next me, hiding my face from any potential signs of ridicule on the amazon’s face. Anxiety had me hiding, but anxiety, the thought of not knowing what she thought, made me glance up. Instead of a smirk or a look of ridicule or derision, I found her wearing a thoughtful expression, haloed by the sun behind her.

Her expression changed as if the tiny gears had come to a stop and an answer had been found. "I can understand, the game is a real step up in realism from other games. It's alright to struggle to kill something cute," she admitted with a flicker of a small smile.

"Really?" she didn’t think it was weird?

“Well not that weird, it’s understandable at least. I mean have you watched any streams? There’s a player out there who inbibes potentially lethal plants and fungi to see what they’ll do, sometimes dying in the process and that's not the strangest thing I’ve heard of,” she said with a grimace, “I’m Roxadice Umbrial, you can call me Roxi. What about you?”

I’m J— Aisling! Aisling Mistmirror…” I trailed off embarrassed at my slip up.

"Ok, so. How about we group up and do something else? I have a bandit killing quest I can share. The bandits will all be around level five, but not only am I level six already, I can protect you, teach you anything you need to know and you'll also get extra exp due to the level difference," Roxi offered, flicking a party invite my way.

"Ahh…" words didn't follow. She wanted to group with me? What if I slipped up?

I was hit with a sudden awareness of the dryness in my mouth, dry swallowing non-existent saliva. My heart was thundering in my ears, she couldn't hear it right?  

Her heavy hand landed on my head, sending my triangular ears either side of her hand, flickering faster than my heartbeat. The sound of my heartbeat was joined by an unidentifiable low rumble.

"Hey that tickles!” she giggled, her apple red lips breaking into another smile. “So are you in?”

In? In what? What does that mean? It’s kinda hard to think with her hand resting on my head

“Well? Do you want to team up? I can protec— Are you purring?” she looked down to the hand she had forgotten about resting on my head and yanked it up, “Shit sorry!”

Wait its gone— wait what!? I was purring? I could feel my cheeks grow hot as blushed from ear tips to tail. The Rabbit shifted grumpily as I again hid my face in its side. 

Taking a peek, I saw that her face was as red as mine.

“Please... Let's… Just forget that happened... “ I whispered, accepting the party invite.

You have joined Roxadice Umbrial’s party.

 

* * *

The Lagomorph meadow had been pretty out of the way considering how far it was from any roads, so we had a bit of a walk to get to the bandit’s camp for our quest. Once over our awkward start we found ourselves talking quite a bit during our trek. It turned out she had started in the same village a couple days ago, spawning into the local church of Ruin.

“So yeah I went the randomiser route and it seems my abilities and backstory are themed around the priesthood of Ruin, apparently I’m a priestess tasked with ensuring things die and stay dead so new things can be born, even if my abilities let me raise the undead. Mainly though my abilities revolve around darkness, curses and calling on Ruin’s power. You’ve read the game lore about the gods Ruin, her lover Creation and their foe, Chaos?”

“Uhhh… Yeah it’s really cool,” I replied absentmindedly. It was cool, but I think I was still off kilter from earlier. 

I was finding it hard to concentrate on what she was saying and my focus kept shifting to random stuff, like how her lips moved and glistened as she stalked forward, or the little expressions that fleetingly formed on her face. How her sharp pale blue eyes widened and shone when she her enthusiasm took over, how her head tilted ever so slightly upwards and she stared off into the distance as she recalled some interesting, or the small smirk when she talked about getting one over another player, npc or enemy.

“Its kinda rare apparently to see Aes Sifv that aren’t hiding using illusions, you’re a cait sifv right? There’s not many cat type Alrec walking about with blue fur. I don’t see any weapons, what’s your build?” Roxi asked leaning in so her face was at my height. 

My cheeks burned at the invasion of my personal space, too close!

Opening my UI, I hid behind one of the translucent windows and checked my ability list, “Umm so ranged magic, arcane and illusions… I’m building an illusion based caster based on a class from an old game I played. So far I have a ranged attack spell, a decoy spell, a blinding spell and barricade ability. I’m hoping to create more complicated spells as I level.” 

Roxi’s face phased through the UI as she leaned in even closer, an intrigued expression written across her face. “Blast, misdirect, hide and repeat? I can see what you mean, you’ve based this on a… mesmer? By more complicated, you mean stuff like decoys that do damage and abilities to hide you while you attack? Blend the roles?” She was so close, I could feel her breath on my cheek and my ears were twitching with every word. I nodded, trying to hide tongue tied I was getting. 

I wasn’t normally this socially awkward or anxious outside of the game, I sucked at small talk sure and hated talking about myself, but I was able to talk business and get by day to day.  It was probably the fact she was crowding me, her height was kinda intimidating and despite being a fellow caster, she looked like she could easily overpower me.

“Oh, that's really interesting. It’s not a perfect fit, but I guess my abilities are sort of similar to a necromancer from that series. It looks like my abilities are geared towards ranged damage spells, curses that deal damage or debuff my opponents and calling spirits and undead to fight for me,” she explained, her enthusiasm leaking out in her voice. 

Suddenly her hands shot out and grabbed my shoulders, “That’s it! I have a curse called Ruin’s gaze, it’s a fear plus lethargy ability that slows and weakens enemies! I can cast it on mobs, so you can learn to fight!”

Stumbling as something caught my foot, I lost my footing and began to fall forwards. Well I would have fallen, if not for the fact Roxi suddenly tightened her grip on my shoulders and pulled me into her chest. Instead of the ground, I found my face nestled in something warm and soft. Pinned there I couldn’t help but notice the scent that reminded me of honey along with the sweet smell of nightshade and chrysanthemums, it was strangely comforting and I might have enjoyed it, if my heart hadn’t been trying to escape my chest.

“Are you alright Aisling? You didn’t sprain your ankle, did you?” she asked, holding me upright as she stepped backwards to inspect me for injuries.

I think my heart is going to give out long before a mob kills me...

 

* * *

Going straight into fighting level 3-5 bandits at level 1 is generally a bad idea, even if you have a stronger player helping. It’s even worse if you have no combat experience in the game. Thankfully neither of us were ‘that player’.

Our meandering off track route through the forest, gave me plenty of opportunities to practise my abilities and learn how to use them efficiently. We’d started off with a few sickly wolves and moved onto harder targets like the giant ants and wasps. The wasps were especially unforgiving with their aerial high speed and the fact that if you failed to kill them quickly enough they would attract more wasps. Roxi had to step in when it snowballed on me. 

With four wasps doing their best to impale and poison me, I threw a Flash, followed by my Decoy and hid, leaving Roxi to unleash ruination on them. Can I just say, Awesome!