"So save and find a place to sleep until daylight?" Evan asked. "We are going to have to get some rest before we tackle the desert."
"There is one other thing you might want to do before we go, though, Nika," Ash said. "We need to make Blake a member of the party."
"Hell no," Evan said. "As far as I'm concerned, he's on his own. Besides, we already know we can't trust the man. What if he hasn't been dumped here? What if he's just here to spy on us and report back to VirTech on our progress?"
They all looked at Blake who was shaking his head vehemently. "Believe me, I wish that were true." He grimaced. "But if it were, I sure as hell wouldn't have shown up wearing this." He motioned down to the big red ribbon and bow covering his nether regions. It was the only article of clothing he had.
"Welcome to my world, you pervert," Nika said with a nasty smile. "How does it feel to wear something you find humiliating? Oh wait, you don't have to answer that. I already know."
"Yeah, well," Blake said. "At least now you have that cool robe. I don't suppose you have an extra one?"
"Buy your own," Evan growled. "We sure as hell aren't going to spend our hard-earned gold on the likes of you."
"I do have to make you a member of the party though," Nika said. "You'll agree to join unless you want to spend the entire game barricaded in a single room. Preferably a jail cell if we can arrange it."
Blake brightened. "Of course, I'll join you."
Nika went through the motions to add him to the party, over Evan's very vocal objections. He'd get it in a minute, and she couldn't very well explain ahead of time.
As soon as Blake was a party member, she used her ultra-long password to disable his in-game camera for good and then booted him out of the team again. He was a party member for all of about sixty seconds.
"There," Nika said. "Now we don't have to worry about him having us on camera for the folks back home."
Now it was Evan who was happy and Blake who was scowling.
"Come on man," Evan said. "Get real. You think you could join us after everything you've done? No way."
By now, the sun had almost set and the party in the streets had quieted down considerably. While Nika had taken care of the camera threat, Ash had found someone to ask about shelter for the night.
Turns out, they were once again welcomed into the town mayor's house. Although this time they were given the cellar as lodging versus the attic. It was a nice gesture as it was the coolest space in the entire house. With this being the desert area, electricity wasn't a scarce thing at all. It was powered by solar energy and here there was more than enough to go around.
They asked about giving Blake a separate room, but the cellar was the only spare lodgings in the whole town it seemed. Besides, Nika didn't want him out of her sight for too long. If there was a hidden place now in the game where he could go and report back, she wanted to know where it was. That meant sticking to the asshole like glue.
They had grabbed food from the street vendors on the way to the mayor's and had eaten as they walked. Once in the cellar, they placed Blake as far away from Nika as they could. Evan went so far as to move his bedding over to in front of the door leading to the steps upstairs. No one was getting out of that cellar without his knowing it.
Within minutes they were all in bed and out for the night. Nika had thought she would have a hard time going to sleep, but the excitement and stress of the day proved her wrong. She was out as soon as her head hit the pillow.
***
The next morning did indeed come early. Nika was very grateful that they had taken that long nap the day before. Today wasn't a day to mess around. They needed to make some real game progress. To do that, they needed mounts. Horses or camels, it really didn't matter, but they needed them now. They would never make it across the desert and to the Outpost and beyond without them.
This area of the game was much like Forest in its setup. There was the starting town, Waterton, where they were presently, then the next town was about forty miles away. It was simply called the Outpost as that's basically what it was. A crossroads of sorts serving all those who happened to find themselves in the middle of the vast desert. It was located at the largest oasis in the entire area.
After the Outpost, the desert stretched on for another sixty miles to the other side, ending in a very hilly region.
Of course, it wasn't the hills that they were interested in. It was the caverns beneath them. Gaia liked being close to the very center of her creation, and that meant that they should find her deep within that cave system.
For today, though, their mission would be to get the mounts they needed and start their way toward level eleven. In order to beat Gaia, the team would need to be level twenty, and that meant killing a lot of monsters between here and the caverns. And these monsters wouldn't be anything like the ones they had already faced.
Desert monsters were very, very tough. Monsters here ranged from poisonous scorpions to human bandits. They were also much higher leveled and designed to offer a challenge to any player team. That’s why you wanted to be at least level ten before you went through the portal. Anything lower didn’t stand a chance here.
The cellar had a private bathroom complete with three shower stalls. Best of all, it also came with a locking door. Nika and her dad had known that some parties would be mixed genders, and they wanted to be prepared for it.
Nika woke the other girls first, and they let the men sleep while they got their showers in. By the time they came out, Evan was up and had roused the other two as well. Dean was cool with the early start, but Nika could tell Blake was none too happy. Good. That brought just a tiny bit of joy to her morning.
While the guys took their time in the bathroom, Nika and the girls went in search of breakfast. It didn't take long. Upstairs in the Mayor's dining room, the breakfast buffet was already laid out and waiting for them. They loaded down several plates and made their way back down the stairs.
The whole time, Nika was trying to plan out the day. The biggest knot to untangle was, as expected, just what the hell to do with Blake. She really wished she could figure out a way to ditch him. Short of trying to convince the local law enforcement NPCs that he needed to be jailed, she was coming up empty.
"Okay, spill it," Ash said. "You've been stewing about something all morning. Is there something we should be worried about?"
Nika shook her head with a little laugh. "No more than the usual," she said. "I was trying to figure out a way to ditch Blake, but no matter what I come up with, I still see him just following us wherever we go."
"And you want rid of him?" Ash asked.
"In the worst possible way." Nika paused. "To be honest, I just don't see how I can concentrate on the game play with him here. He's stirring up too many feelings that I don't have time to deal with right now."
"Well, if you want rid of him, it shouldn't be all that hard," Louella said, chiming into the conversation. The others just looked at her. She gave a tiny shrug. "I mean if we get far enough out into the desert and we have mounts, you can just kill him again, can't you?"
Nika stared at her. Why on earth hadn't she thought of that? "That's actually a great plan," Nika said, then she grimaced. "But it does mean we'll probably be stuck with him at least today, tonight and part of tomorrow."
"True, but the knowledge of what you're going to do to him should help you a little, shouldn't it? Stranding him back at the save point with no way to follow us seems like a very fitting thing to do. I'm sure the irony will be lost on him, though," Ash said.
Nika smiled at her. "You know, it does help at that."
"As for today, I've been thinking that maybe we should split up into two parties, anyway. That way we could do double the quests in the same amount of time," Ash said. "And hopefully, with the quest rewards and the extra loot that drops from battles, we'll be able to earn enough gold for mounts."
“Evan, you’re the expert,” Nika said. “Is there any downside to splitting up fo
r quests?”
He thought for a minute, then shook his head. “None that I can think of. The quests’ payout doesn’t change depending on how many are in the party. So if a party of three can do half of them, and the other party can do the other half, we’ll still end up with the exact same rewards.” He paused. “Minus the experience points of course.”
Louella held up here hand. Nika smiled and nodded at her.
“Could each party do each quest? To get double the rewards?” the pixie asked.
Evan grimaced. “Sorry. That’s a great idea, but the programmers were one step ahead of you on it. Every group that enters the game together is linked into a single play through of the story line. That means a quest will only appear once in the game for that team, regardless of how they spilt themselves.”
Nika nodded. “Actually, that was Dad, not the programmers. Remember that he planned on Gaia making money for the company. He didn’t want to give out rewards too freely when he could instead have players purchasing gold with real money.”
“So dividing and conquering it is then, right?” Ash asked.
"Don’t see why not. Then we can spend another night here and head out into the desert tomorrow at first light," Nika said. “Sounds good to me.”
"Me too," Louella said. "With the added bonus that you don’t have to be in the party with Blake. You won't have to look at him again until bedtime."
Nika laughed. "Yeah, that's the part of the plan I like the most."
They knocked to be sure the guys were decent before going in and laying out the plates of food on the small table provided. They were already dressed and ready for them, but every set of male eyes lit up when they saw the food.
"I'll give you this," Blake said. "Whoever programmed the food for this place did a heck of a good job. You should totally give them a raise."
Nika gave him a glare. "If we make it out of here and I still have a company, I'll be sure to do that."
He ducked his head and started shoveling food into his mouth as fast as he could. At least that meant he was silent. Much easier to ignore his presence that way.
The girls outlined Ash's plan for the day and the guys were all on board immediately. Well, almost all of them.
"Can we please go to the market and get me a real outfit?" Blake pleaded. "Please? At least one of those robe thingies?"
"You can come with me and Dean, if that's okay with you Dean?" Ash asked. After his nod, she continued. "Robes aren't that much so I'll buy you one, and you can pay me back with the gold you get from the fights."
Blake swallowed. "Fights? But, I don't have a weapon. I'm not even sure I have a player class."
"If you're in the game, you have a class," Nika said. "Though to look at you I sure don't know what it could be. Probably another made up class like you and VirTech are so good at."
"When we get to the market, they should be able to tell what class you are and let us know what clothes they have that you can equip," Ash said.
She was being way nicer than Nika would have expected. She hoped the girl wasn't falling for his charm. Not that he had really shown any since they found him in the game. In fact, he'd been unusually quiet. Nika grunted to herself. Of course, that might have something to do with that fact that for the first couple of hours, she'd cut off his head every time he opened his mouth.
There was just nothing he could say that she wanted to hear. Not right now.
Ash's small group left first and headed to the market. From there, they would explore the town from the mayor's house and to the east. They were giving themselves an hour to explore and gather the available quests, and then they were going to meet back here.
That left Evan and Louella with Nika. They were to canvass the town to the west of their current location for any quests and things of interest there. Ash's plan was a good one. By splitting up, they could get things done faster. At least in town, where it was safe.
It should work in the desert, too, as the monsters' levels were based on the party's strength. A party of three should only face monsters close to their own combat level. Besides, Ash and Dean had turned out to make a pretty decent team. As Blake was still a level one, he shouldn't be worth much toward a monster's calculation. So it just might work out there too.
As Nika and Evan started toward the door to follow Ash’s group, Louella tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned, she saw the girl looking a little uncertain.
“Would you mind terribly if I stayed here while you two gathered the quests?” Louella asked. She hefted the laptop terminal out of her backpack. “I’d really love to send a message back home. I haven’t had a chance for the last couple of days and my folks may be getting worried.”
Nika shrugged. Their current task could be done as easily with two as with three. “I don’t see a problem with that,” she said. “Would you be ready to go in an hour once we get back?”
Louella smiled and nodded. “I will be, I promise. If for some reason I’m still on the computer just touch my neck to get my attention, okay?”
“Deal. See you then.” Nika and Evan started up the stairs.
It didn't take long to gather the quests on their side of town. After talking with every available towns person, they had only discovered two. One gave a flat one hundred gold for the return of a pet pig that had wandered off into the desert.
If this wasn't a game, Nika fully realized that the pig would have long since been turned into pork and bacon. But since it was a game, and a quest to boot, she had no doubt that they would find him still very much on the hoof. If pigs had hooves anyway. She wasn't sure. The animals weren't that common in the present day world. And they most certainly weren't considered pets any longer. Had that really ever been a thing?
The other quest was the one that most interested her. In exchange for clearing out a band of particularly nasty laughing hyenas, the quest giver was willing to reward them a horse. He even let them get a decent look at the animal running loose in the pasture. The horse was obviously a stallion and seemed healthy enough. Best of all, Nika could tell he was fast. That was all that really mattered.
As luck would have it, the stables were on their side of town, so they stopped in. Horses were still three hundred gold, even here, and yes, it just so happened that they had two horses currently for sale.
With the quest horse, that would bring them up to three mounts. They would have to double up, but it was doable. Especially since Evan would most likely choose to run, as he was faster than a horse, and Blake wasn't set to be with them all that long.
It would work.
When they got back to the mayor's house, Nika burst out laughing when she saw Blake. The man blushed and turned away.
All of their robes were white and full length, much as a desert nomad's robe would be. His was not. In fact, his robe was a bright pink with white lace trim and only reached his knees. For all the world it appeared to be a woman's bathrobe.
Nika didn't know who in the real world had designed his wardrobe but she owed them one. Then she realized they were the ones who had them trapped in the game and changed her mind. She'd still take the garment win, but she owed them nothing for it.
CHAPTER TWO: Louella’s Real Life
Louella had a huge secret. She felt bad about not telling at least Nika the truth about who she was and, more importantly, what she was. But she didn't think she could face it if the team knew the truth about her.
Then they would all be giving her that look. That same horrible pitying look that she had gotten from absolutely everyone in the outside world for her whole entire life. She was truly enjoying the freedom she had here within the game, and she loved being treated just like everyone else. Well, once Nika and the others had gotten past the fact that she had hacked her way into the beta test, that is.
Louella had proved herself to be an asset to the party, and Nika seemed to respect that. And her. If they knew the truth that could all change in a heartbeat. Not only would the looks start, they'd all s
tart treating her differently too. It'd be like walking on eggshells.
No, thank you. So guilty feeling or no, she was keeping her secret for as long as she possibly could. The only problem was that if something happened to her, Nika and the others would have no idea of why or how. That did bother her. More than a little.
She liked her new friends. They were really the first people who treated her with not just kindness but respect and friendship. And here she was endangering their mission in a small part with her dishonesty.
There was simply no clear answer.
Louella opened her terminal and signed on. As always, she felt a brief flash of relief when the system engaged. She believed as long as she kept the laptop out of the code and in a physical backpack that the outside world couldn't stop her from using it, but she also worried that they would find a way to take it from her, anyway.
She hadn't lied to Nika. She had stayed behind to contact her family. It had been a battle in itself getting them to agree to let her do this. If she didn't follow up on her end of the bargain and send them regular messages, they would be more than upset. After all, her time was very limited now.
In the outside world, she was dying. Well, to be totally honest with herself, she had never been truly alive until she entered the game. The horrible disease that she had been born with had seen to that.
Out there, her world involved constant pain and staying in bed. The bed was necessary because she simply didn't have the strength to walk or even sit up for long periods of time. The only parts of her body that actually worked as they were supposed to were her mind and her fingers. And she was very grateful for both of them, because by using only those two things, well, eleven if you counted the fingers individually, she had access to the world without ever stepping foot onto the floor.
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