“Oh my God,” Ash said, spitting out the bite of roast beef she had taken. “What the hell is that?”
Nika had started with the potato which wasn’t half bad, if a tad bit more buttery than she normally liked. “Is it bad?”
Ash nodded furiously. “I can’t eat it. It’s too… well, try it for yourself. But start small, I warn you.”
Nika took her advice and gathered a small sliver of the beef and stuck it in her mouth. She didn’t even have to chew before all of her tastes buds starting screaming. She spit it out.
“Wow. I think maybe Dad and I didn’t take into consideration that the sensations were going straight into the brain. No way could people have eaten this in the past.” She paused. “Could they?”
“Maybe we’ve just grown accustomed to dull, bland flavors in the past few decades.” Ash pointed to the plate. “But I’ll take dull and bland over that any day.”
She had sounded disappointed. Nika knew that Ash didn’t have a lot of money in the real world, and she had most likely been looking forward to the variety of food she would get while in the game.
“Well, the potato isn’t bad, if you like butter well enough.”
Ash took a bite, a much smaller one than before and her face split into a wide grin. “Now that’s more like it!”
They were silent for the next few minutes as they devoured their potatoes and rolls, which turned out to be tasty enough to almost make up for the beef.
“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Ash asked.
“Not really, though time should be the same as the real world. It’s getting dark outside though, so I’d say maybe nine-thirty or ten?
Ash yawned and stretched. “Good, then I won’t be a total lazy bum if I go to bed then?”
“Actually, that was my plan, too. It turns out there isn’t a communication station available until we reach Riser’s Creek. I’d really like to get an early start tomorrow so we could try to make it there in one day.”
The girl nodded. “I second that.” She shivered. “Maybe when are stronger, and I have more spells, camping might sound fun. But right now? I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Yeah, it wouldn’t be fun to spend all day getting three-quarters of the way to the next town only to die, be sent back to the save point here and have to start all over.”
“Not my idea of fun, at all.” Ash paused. “But is Dean on board with that?” She looked around as though he might have snuck in while they were eating. “Where is he anyway?”
“Out enjoying what night life this place has to offer, of course. I’m beginning to wish we had used another selection process for the beta testers, although at least I got one good one out of it.”
“Thanks. I wish we could have gotten someone more into the game than he is too, but maybe once he gets some cool equipment and skills he’ll turn around.”
“Here’s hoping.”
Ash yawned again and stood up. “Well, it’s bathroom and bed for me. Unless you think we should make a quick night run?”
“That’s something we’ll probably start once we get a few more levels under our belts. Get some rest, that’s where I’m headed too.” Then she thought. “Actually, I think I might try to find Dean first. I should at least give him a head’s up on the early morning thing.”
The girl shrugged. “If you want to.” Then she shuffled off to the bathroom.
Nika hesitated but finally decided that it was only fair to warn Dean. Now if only she could find him.
Chapter Six: Stuck
Nika finally found Dean, sulking in the tavern and nursing a tall glass of beer. His companion was nowhere to be seen.
“Lose your girlfriend?” She asked. Pretty sure she knew the scoop on things.
“Damn bitch wanted fifty gold,” he said, taking a large gulp. Then he stopped and looked at her. “Hey, is there a way to transfer real world funds into gold here?”
“There will be for later run throughs, but not for the beta test. We want to see how players fare without the extra help money could bring.”
“No exceptions? Even if I only used the gold for afterhours entertainment and not game play?”
Nika barked a laughed. “It’s all game play, Dummy.”
He looked sad again, taking another swig of his beer. “Yeah, I guess it is. Not at all what I had in mind though.”
“Sorry about that. Of course, if you had played the online game more you would have understood what you were signing up for a bit better.”
“Yeah, believe me, I’m regretting that every single minute.”
Good, Nika thought. We are too.
“Anyway, I hunted you down to let you know that we are starting out tomorrow morning for the next town. We need to leave early if we are going to make it without having to camp in between.”
“About that,” Dean started. “I don’t plan to go anywhere. I’m thinking I’ll just hang out here and drink beer and talk with the locals for a day or two and then just log out and go home.”
“There’s only one problem with that,” Nika said. “For some reason, we aren’t being allowed to log out from here. At first, I was told I had to level up to exit, but even now I can’t do it.”
He stared at her in horror. “You mean I’m stuck here?”
She nodded. “That’s right. Remember that paper you signed? It stated that we would stay within the virtual world for three weeks or until we won the game. So either you man up and help us win this thing, or you can sit here with no gold for the whole time. Food is free, at least in this town, but liquor isn’t.”
Dean bolted up, upsetting his chair in the process. “That can’t be right. I wouldn’t sign that!”
“Actually, we had both of you sign the papers immediately upon being announced as the lottery winners. Otherwise, one of the alternates would be here right now instead of you.”
His eyes cast around in desperation. “We’ll see about that. Where is the communication station? I want to email my attorney.”
A slow smile spread over Nika’s face. “Then I guess you’ll be coming with us after all because I’ve been told the nearest station is in Riser’s Creek.”
Now he just looked scared.
“Look, it’s only ten miles or so, and we have health and mana potions now. That will help us keep our strength up. And if the worst happens and one of us loses all of our health points, we’ll just regenerate right back here in town at the save point.” Given that she remembered to have them all save before leaving in the morning.
His breathing evened out a little. “Health potions like what the doc gave us?”
She nodded. “And some extras I bought with my gold. Please tell me you saved enough to buy yourself some and at least one more pack of arrows.”
He gulped and she could see him going through the motions of checking his inventory. She did the same. Three gold left to his name. Damn, he was a fast spender.
“Look, a pack of arrows costs one gold. I’d suggest buying one pack and a couple of health potions. Right now you don’t really use mana for anything, so you can skip those.”
Dean nodded. “Where do I get them?”
She took a deep breath and motioned for him to follow her. At least he was with the game plan now.
When they got back to their room above the Mayor’s house, Dean fell into his bed fully dressed. Ash was sound asleep, or at least wasn’t acknowledging that they were back.
What the hell, she thought, and threw herself on the remaining bed. It wasn’t like she’d been given pajamas. For a reason too. If she had been, she’d be wearing them twenty-four hours a day.
***
The next morning Nika was awakened by the sounds of thundering horse hooves right outside the house. Jumping up, Nika ran to throw the small attic window wide to catch the news.
Ash joined her there, and they both watched as a hot and sweaty rider jumped off his horse and ran inside.
“Wait, I remember this from the game,”
she said. “But isn’t this supposed to happen in the town after Riser’s Creek? I can’t remember the name.”
“Let’s make sure that’s what this is. The game has been changing on me in odd ways, so this may be another change.”
Glancing over they saw Dean still sound asleep, one arm thrown over his eyes to keep even the faint traces of the last of the moonlight out. Ash started toward him, but Nika stopped her.
“We can bring him up to speed later.” Ash nodded and followed Nika down the steep stairs.
“Orcs have been sighted just the other side of Riser’s Creek,” the messenger was saying, huffing with his exertion and speed in getting there. “Actual honest to God orcs. I always thought they were just myths.”
“They probably were until Gaia woke up,” the Mayor said. Then he spotted them coming from the stairway. “Perfect timing, ladies. It seems we may have need of your skill sets again.”
Nika nodded to him and then turned to the horseman. “How many orcs were sighted and how far out from town? Have they attacked anyone yet?”
“Yet?” the man screeched. “You mean they are hostile?”
She gave herself a mental kick. “I’m sorry, they may not be. It’s just better to play safe than sorry. So I take it the answer to that is no?”
“So far, yes, I mean no they’ve been keeping to the forest outside of town. A group of travelers saw them camping about five miles or so on the other side of the town’s limit.”
“And how many?” Nika prompted.
The man stopped to think. “I think the group’s leader said he saw three of them, looked like maybe they were a family or something. One was larger, one slightly smaller, and then one that appeared to be a child.”
“Three. That’s not so bad,” Nika said turning back to Ash.
The girl was chewing her lip thinking. “You did say they are on the other side of Riser’s Creek from here, right? None have been seen on this side?”
He shook his head, “Not so far.”
The Mayor turned to Nika. “So would your party be willing to check them out and see if they pose a problem?”
She nodded. “We would be happy to. In fact, we were leaving for Riser’s Creek today, anyway.”
He smiled and shook Nika’s hand. “If you can check in on the orcs and handle them if they do prove hostile, I’ll see to it that you are rewarded for your efforts.” He motioned to her hand-blade. “A sword for you and upgraded weapons for your party members?”
She grinned at him. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Mayor.” Then she turned to Ash. “Okay, let’s go wake up sleeping beauty. But let’s not mention the orcs just yet.”
“I’d say okay, but he may already know. I just got asked if I wanted to join your quest. I did by the way.”
Shit, Nika had forgotten that little detail. Hopefully, he had slept through it. Though there might be a reminder message a little later in the game. As long as it let them get out of town first, she was fine with that.
They made their way back to the attic room to collect Dean. Nika was happy to see Dean still snoring away. The system's message must not have been enough to wake him.
While Ash went downstairs to make plates for them loaded with breakfast foods, Nika got the honor of waking Dean. It was one of the most pleasurable things she had gotten to do thus far in the game. Of course, Dean might not have found it to be so pleasurable. Most people, at least, don’t like having water thrown on their face.
He came up sputtering and thrashing about. “What the hell?” he yelled. “What did you do that for?”
“Ash is downstairs getting our breakfast. You need to get up and get ready if we’re going to get the early start we need.”
“You know, a simple shoulder shake would have done the trick. There is no need to get nasty about it.”
“True, but where is the fun in that?”
Dean went into the restroom grumbling and slammed the door.
“Looks like that went well,” Ash said, entering the room from the stairs. Her arms were loaded with three plates filled with bacon, eggs, toast, and fruit. She laid the plates on the small table and turned to Nika. “Kind of sorry I missed it.”
“That’s okay,” Nika said, “I’m sure there will be a repeat performance in the near future.”
Sounds of water running in the bathroom let the girls know that Dean was going to be awhile. “We may as well eat and then we can take our turn while he eats.”
Even after eating their fill, there was plenty of food remaining. Ash looked thoughtful. “Can we add the leftovers to our inventory?”
“I don’t see why not,” Nika said. “Actually, that’s a good idea. We can take a bacon sandwich on the road for our lunch. Hopefully, we’ll reach Riser’s Creek in time for dinner.”
Dean finally came out of the bathroom, grabbed his plate, and went to sit on his bed to eat. He would not meet their eyes. Hopefully, he would get over his bad mood soon, or today would be a long one.
Noting that Dean was going through his food pretty damn fast, Nika guessed he must have missed eating yesterday. Must have had better things on his mind. Too bad for him that the woman had cost more than he had.
While Ash took her turn in the bathroom, she went downstairs to get enough for a couple more sandwiches and came back up with an apple for each of them to add to the ones she’d gotten last night. Those were always good to have on hand.
Within a half hour, the party was ready to go. Even if one of them was a bit reluctant to do so. He’d get over or he wouldn’t, Nika thought. Either way was fine by her. Maybe next time he wouldn’t cheat to win a contest.
Before they went to the road leading toward the next town, Nika led them to a small fountain that sat next to the market. The circle of stones surrounding the small pool of water was only about three feet in diameter, making it easy to reach the large green stone atop the stand at its center.
“We need to save before we leave. That way if something happens, we won’t have to start back quite at scratch. At least we’ll still be level two.” Nika put action to her words and reached out and touched the stone. It glowed brightly at her touch.
Ash and Dean did the same.
“Good, now we can get started,” Nika said. “Anybody have any questions before we go?”
“Let’s just get going so we can get this over with,” Dean said.
“Do you have a map of the area?” Ash asked.
Nika shook her head. “Once we reach level five the area maps activate in our inventory. Until then, we have to feel our way. We should be able to just follow the road though. And since we are all in pretty good shape, ten miles shouldn’t take us all that long.”
Of course, there was the unspoken truth behind her words. Unless the monsters in the forest kept engaging them.
The good thing was that the road to Riser’s Creek was in the opposite direction from the spiders. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t face them in this direction as well, but they might not. The problem was they didn’t really know which creatures lay this way. The game was set to install random creatures at lower levels in this part of the game, to keep it new for the casual players that just wanted to vacation and maybe kill a few monsters for the in-game gold.
They should only be facing low-level monsters, but after seeing the tiger yesterday, it had Nika worried as to what other high-level monsters might be lurking. Shrugging to herself, she pushed the thought from her mind. They would deal with them as they came across them. If they should die today, there was always the tactic of leveling up a bit and trying again tomorrow.
They stopped at the crude sign someone had posted to replace the fancy destroyed old one that had surely stood there. It said simply ‘Riser’s Creek 10 miles’, but someone had scrawled under it ‘beware of monsters in the forest’. That little addition did nothing for Dean’s nerves, as he seemed to be about ready to jump from his own skin.
The way between the towns used to be a wonderful paved road. Now it wa
s a simple wooded trail just wide enough for three people to walk side by side. The forest would still be almost surrounding one as they walked, but at least the monsters would have to come out into the small clearing of the path in order to attack. Count your blessings here, Dean, she thought.
One last check of her inventory and Nika stepped onto the trail.
Her system’s voice immediately activated. “This is the last chance to exit the game without bringing balance to the world. Do you wish to continue?”
Chapter Seven: Forest Creatures
When Nika had stopped after a single step, at first Ash just thought she had forgotten something in town. When she started cussing up a blue streak, she realized that wasn’t the case.
Dean looked over at her. “What the hell is going on?”
Ash swallowed before she answered. She was beginning to get a really bad feeling about all this. The game was supposed to be her once in a lifetime chance to have a little fun in life, but things just weren’t shaping up that way. It was one surprise after another. Not the original program plan she signed up for. Still way better than her real life, of course, but she was starting to feel sorry for her two party members. Scratch that. She was starting to feel sorry for Nika.
When Nika’s cussing started to slow down a bit, Ash stepped up beside her. Instantly, her system message sounded. Ah, that was it. Someone out there had a decided interest in keeping Nika in the game.
The Amazon turned to the other two. “Okay, everybody, change of plans. They are only supposed to be used in cases of emergency, but at this point, I call an emergency. This isn’t supposed to happen.”
“So what next?” Ash asked.
“We go hunt some spiders,” Dean shuddered as he said it, “and earn enough gold to live peacefully in town until our three weeks are up?”
Nika just looked at him. “No. Just no. Something big is happening in my company to cause all of these changes, and I’m sorry but I have a vested interest in finding out just what the hell it is and stopping it before it’s too late.” She turned to Ash. “I installed three back doors into this game. I’d like to head out toward one, but it’s about,” she paused to do some calculations, then continued. “Fifteen miles from here off the path of the spiders. Are you with me?”
Gaia's Rebirth Box Set Page 6