OhmN

by M J Conlon

  The other birds went silent, as a feeling of knowing happened, the song that had come from their friend was flat, possessing disharmony, nothing like the flowing melody it had cast a second ago. With the one bird down, Derick could feel silver strings begin to snake out of tunnel and through the wall, looking for the sounds that had suddenly gone silent. Derick not really thinking about what he should do, just acted. In one second he was doing two things, the first he was climbing up the wall to the tunnel that he had directed the birds to escape through, and the second was that he began mentally cutting every silver cord that came from the unknown entity.

  Derick guessed that it was some form of mind control, but was unable to fully grasp how it was a form of mind control. Instead Derick got into the tunnel and began low crawling on his stomach. Had he been a regular sized creature such an action would be near impossible, the number of crystals coming up and down would impale or pierce him at each movement, yet Derick was able to snake forward on his own.

  Derick knew he had owed the birds nothing, that they were just code in a virtual reality, but like it or not Derick knew that he had to accept this virtual reality as his own reality. That meant that when he felt something, something that made him feel human, he took it and clung to the thought desperately. Derick also couldn’t help but feel that this monster and the birds that it was leaching the life from was somehow a metaphor for his own existence in the game. The monster being the government that had bound the 99 million people who never had a chance at resurrection with tales of freedom and of making a fresh start on a new world that was uncrowded and free. It offered new legs to those who could not walk, it offered fresh bodies to the old and infirm, sold us all a web of lies and deceit. Derick finally got to the final portion of the tunnel where he was able to see the creature that had bound the birds to its mental whims. It was a being that seemed to have been created out of the fabric that nightmares are woven from. A being of intense shadows, fangs, mouths, eyes and tentacles all pulsed and writhed. One tentacle picked up the bird, and began moving it around in a jerking flight path that reminded Derick of a child playing with a toy. The sight made Derick’s blood boil.

  Derick kept cutting and swiping at the silver tentacles that seemed to have given up their pursuit of the birds and now seemed to focus solely on Derick. Derick never stopped crawling forward, never stopped moving forward, he could feel more liquid dripping down his nose.

  Rather than stopping, Derick licked up with his tongue lapping up the thick liquid and continued to move forward. Instinctively Derick knew that it was his two remaining flaws Cannot Smell, and Cannot Taste that made it so easy for him to deal with the fact that he was bleeding from his nose. Had his senses been in place he would likely be chocking on the smell of sulfur and copper that would likely be filling his nostrils and by extension mouth now. The Sulfur effect is a sign that the muscles are being worked too hard, that the blood that is pooling together is actually filling with chemicals that are destructive to the body as a whole and the cells they are comprised of. Derick thought these thoughts, and millions more, forcing his body to move quicker through the tunnel.

  Finally after what felt like an eternity, Derick felt his body first emerge then slide out from the tunnel. The sound of his body gliding across crystals instantly drew the attention of the fiend, thought fiend. Derick mentally called the beast as he fought to get up first to his knees, then to his feet. He looked for his staff, but then remembered he dropped it on the other side of the tunnel when he began desperately climbing through the tunnel, trying to save this last bird. A bird that now looked at him angrily, through possessed eyes. Derick made a mental note of the look of possession, no doubt thinking that he would more than likely come into contact with another possessed being during his time. That is assuming I survive this encounter.

  Derick felt the thought fiend send no fewer than 20 of its silver lasso sized projectiles toward Derick’s mind. The size and scope of the attack was too much for Derick, he already felt drained from freeing the birds and his constant fending off of the silver thought chains that had been sent earlier.

  Derick never one to back down from a fight, no matter how out classed he was, decided to forgo his defense this time and instead went on the offensive, sending out his own red tendrils of mental pain to the creature. Derick engaged his psychic assault, he filled the attack with as much mental energy and pain he could muster. At the same time he felt 20 strands of pain begin to impale themselves into his psyche, he felt his begin to grab, pull and slice at the thought fiend’s mind.

  Derick could feel the the silver strings all fighting to gain purchase and losing. Yet, Derick didn’t have a chance to celebrate, as his own attack wasn’t doing much better. If Derick had to guess, he would assume that he was saved from the attack due to his mental immunity, but would have to ask HAIL after the battle.

  A twinge of regret coursed through Derick, as he realized he would likely never see HAIL again that his account had been flagged, again. The anger at the situation, the fact that he lost his only companion, the fact that an entitled rich kid could cry foul and still get his way in this fair start virtual reality. Derick felt his body begin to rise, as he felt his limbs begin to stretch and buckle under pain. It’s only a slight weakness of the body, the mind and soul will conquer all. Derick thought, forcing the pain his body was now feeling to leave his mind so he could focus on survival. This was his mantra through rehab, his mantra through the night when he was pinned to the wall by a vehicle and left for dead for hours. In a second Derick went from solely using psychic assault to peel away the layers of the thought fiend’s mind, to adding the effects of pyrokinesis to burn away the tentacles that were now grabbing and ripping his body apart.

  Derick felt the pressure on his body ease, then cease entirely. It took a moment to realize but the two channeled powers were destroying the thought fiend from the inside and outside at the same time. In the second that Derick knew he was going to win the fight, fear gripped his heart as he saw the defenseless bird in the path of the flames that had gone down the tentacles that once held Derick, go to the massive pulsing body of the Thought Fiend and then spread back out down all remaining tentacles. Not thinking about it, Derick mentally grabbed the bird with psychic-telekinesis, yanking the bird free of the beast’s tentacles. The bird shot out, flying towards Derick’s hands. Once safe in Derick’s arms, Derick gently bent over, setting the bird down safely.

  Yet the sudden movement of his head caused him to lose balance. In a second he was falling forward, until a sea of white took over his thoughts and blanketed him for his final sleep. In the back of his mind Derick knew he had to move, that he wasn’t sure if the thought fiend was truly dead, if he was out of danger.

  Derick also knew that if he died here, he would not even be able to respawn as dying here would permanently delete or alter his code. Knowing this, he fought to stay conscious a little longer. His last view before the white light completely overtook him was of a small bird bending over him and licking the blood off of his upper lip. Death by the same bird I just tried to save, Derick thought before a smile took over his face. How ironic.

  Chapter 14

  Derick awoke to what had to be the sound of angels, a musical chorus that sang of hope, rebirth. I must be in Heaven, then Derick wondered how? Derick made no misgivings he knew where he was going, or at least where he was supposed to go and he fully knew why. Yet, Derick couldn’t help but feel energy flooding into him, he felt his mind, body, and soul? Filling with energy. As more of his mental faculties returned, he could feel the sounds of five different angels all converging into one harmony. It took a minute for Derick to realize that he was lying face down and that a thick liquid had crusted to his face.

  Derick forced his way onto his back and then felt a few of the voices go silent as he felt gentle fingers massaging away the crusted blood from his face. Derick lay there, letting the tender delicate fingers massage their way across his face and lips, unti
l he finally felt good enough to crack open his eyes. Instantly could see the glowing and pulsing of bright feathers glowing all around him.

  Finally after what felt like hours, but had to have been closer to a minute or two Derick awoke. He could still see a faint flame burning at the core of the thought fiend a sign that derick’s flame was likely more effective than the psychic assault derick had fully committed to before he was almost ripped apart limb from limb. Mental note, attack mental creatures with fire. Derick thought to himself, as he looked at the chorus of birds that all encircled Derick. Derick just looked at the birds, then saw the last one, the one that Derick had pulled to himself before it was caught in flames. He could see now why it wasn’t able to join its friends, as it had a deep gash along its right wing. Derick seeing that the birds had likely brought him back from the brink of death with their singing, decided to do the same for the birds and used his own psychic healing on the bird. Then seeing that each of the birds had its own internal injuries went about healing the internal damage that each of the birds had taken, no doubt during the course of their forced servitude to the thought fiend. It was about this time that Derick wondered why didn’t the birds heal themselves. Is it that their songs are only regenerative, and thus unable to ‘heal’? Or is it that they never had a chance to heal as the Thought Fiend likely forbade any healing?

  Realizing the birds would likely never be able to give an answer to such a question, Derick just nodded to the birds, before getting to his feet and walked over to the thought fiend’s corpse.

  Derick looked at the being for a second then took out a few of his daggers and began stabbing them into the beast just to be sure it was dead and not just pretending.

  Then Derick tried to loot the creature, but nothing happened, either it had nothing to loot, or is something wrong with me, with my in game character? Derick thought, then tried something different, he mentally Willed the creature items and its remaining power to flow into him.

  In a second he felt the addition of items and a form of energy that Derick had never experienced before, but one that felt amazing. No sooner had the energy of the beast flooded into Derick, than the birds began to scatter.

  Derick almost felt guilty about scaring the birds, but the feeling he was now feeling from the thought fiend was just too amazing. Given time to sift through the different energies, Derick could feel one that was packaged in a different way than the others. This one set seemed to be patterned in the form of a giant knot, Derick remembering his history assignments as a kid and from his master’s works looked at the intricate mental knot and mentally began forcing the knot apart by ripping the threads with his mind. Once the outer portions opened enough, he could feel a hard dense core, as if he was peeling the way the outer layer of a fruit and exposing the inner seed of the plant. Derick not wanting to stop, kept pulling and tearing at the knot, until a mental pebble was finally exposed, once visible to his mind’s eye, Derick touched the stone and was instantly flooded with the initial training of an ancient artificier.

  Derick could tell that the young pupil that he was experiencing the memory echoes from was an elf, though anything more than just being one of many elves in a classroom devoted to the art of being an artificier was impossible. Derick could feel the lessons flooding into him. He could feel the three new skills of being an Artificier filling him.

  Analyze object: The teacher began, his words distant and swirling around the young elf student. This is the act of seeing an object, noting each base element that the item can be broken down into. This can be used to help break down a door, or figure out how an enemy made a weapon that cannot be stopped. For in order to stop something you must first know what it is you are trying to stop.

  Disassemble object: The teacher’s voice continued rolling in Derick’s mind. This is the skill used to break apart the items that you have Analyzed. This is how an artificier can take an earlier work and improve upon it, and also how an Artificier can get the necessary crafting components needed to create truly fantastic items. This is also a way a disgruntled artificier can destroy an item they previously gave to a supposed friend. The teacher’s words spoke of a personal warning, and an unspoken incident that occurred in their own past.

  Reshape object: The teacher’s voice continued, knowing that each student had fully comprehended the first two lessons. It is not an artificier’s job to create from scratch, ours is the art of taking an item and improving it to its most capable form. Or at least helping it to achieve it’s most capable form. We do not enchant, but we can improve upon an enchantment. We do not craft, but we can improve the functionality of an item. We do not forge, but we can make items more durable. In the end, only three things limit an artificier: Creativity, Items needed to upgrade, and time. With the word ‘time’ the mental thoughts lessened as he was now back to the realm that held the thought fiend’s corpse. Derick looked around, to see that the five birds that had flown off a second ago were now back, or was it longer than a second? How long did it take to transfer the knowledges found in these ‘memory echoes’? Derick thought the last words, remembering how they came to him before he fully unraveled the first knot. Also he remembered the knot and wondered if the new mental challenge was a sign of his being on a new Profession quest, or did my mind just evolve to a point where it no longer felt like it had to battle to retrieve the memories.

  Not for the first time, Derick missed his HAIL, and wondered if he would ever be able to see his HAIL in the game, either inhabiting an NPC, or maybe guiding another traveler? The last thought caused a moment of sadness to flutter across Derick’s face, a feeling that the birds must have picked up on almost instinctively as they all began singing a song of hope and perseverance. Their chorus reminded Derick of a song that he sang often to himself when he was younger, though for the life of him he could not remember what it was. He remembered the chorus: It will be okay. I will live this day. Then he remembered how the chorus would repeat for a bit, but could not remember what happened next. HAIL would probably know, and no doubt say how it was a remake of another song from the 1900s. Derick thought to himself as he found himself smiling at the birds. Derick bowed to the birds, did a mental and visual scan of the hidden room he was in and found no other exits other than the one he came in from. Derick seeing this, bowed to the birds.

  “Have a great day. Live today like it is your last.” Derick said, then realized he quoted another line from the song he was trying to recall. Live today like it is your last, for today will be your future’s past. Then it stopped once again. Derick still trying to remember the words to the song started crawling through the small tunnel again. As he crawled he remembered the words of a great 20th Century sage “Yippee Ki-yay” Derick thought to himself as he remembered the iconic scene from watching the old Die Hard movie with his grandfather, though he would never have told HAIL that he knew what the old machine was talking about.

  Chapter 15

  Derick found himself on the far side of the tunnel in less time than he thought it took to originally crawl through while going into combat. Once through Derick went over to his trusty walking staff, feeling its familiar grip comforting as he quickly dusted off the layer of dust that had begun to cling to his clothing and then he continued on down the hallway. He could hear the birds following him, which he guessed made sense as the cave seemed to have been empty of any other way out. Also Derick assumed that their following him made sense, as he had freed them and he was likely the only person who could legitimately find a way out of this cave system.

  Derick crept around the tunnels, approaching the bodies of the different spider like creatures that he had killed with his Psychic Assault, he could see how clear liquid poured down the faces of almost all of the creatures. Some had blood pouring from their eyes.

  One unfortunate spider had what could only be described as an explosion in their cerebellum that pulsed outwards, causing their millions of eyes to forcefully eject and splatter across the adjoining wall.

>   At least it is an accurate depiction of what happens when too much pressure from the inside of the skull needs to escape quickly, Derick thought to himself as he tried to loot the different spiders.

  Yet, the psychic spiders, much like the thought fiend could only be looted once Derick willed the creature’s energies into himself. Once the power and useable body parts of the spiders had been added to his inventory, Derick would go onto the next spider.

  Derick then tried modifying his approach to only gain the energy while leaving non-vital components out. It took some time but after a few trial runs, Derick was able to quickly absorb the energies of the dying corpses into his body, filling him with energy to continue on, without needing to be weighed down by useless spider body parts.

  As Derick made his way forward he heard a wet splashing sound coming from behind him. Derick turned to see the five birds all digging into the spiders that he had only drained the energy from. Derick shrugged to himself at the sight, knowing that carnivorous birds were not necessarily unheard of, but he never pictured they would be quite so small. Nor, did I know that a pack, no flock? Yes, a flock of wild carnivorous birds would be following me, after I saved them. The more Derick tried to think about his story in the game so far, the more he wondered how much of this had been planned by people and how much was being adapted by different AI algorithms due to his personal choices and actions.

  Derick felt himself wandering through the miasma of corridors and different pathways. He looked for any signs of life, then followed them towards others. In an underground dwelling where there is one life there is likely a pack. Derick followed the forms of life, then once he found a central cluster of minds, he attacked. Derick struck out with his psychic assault from a distance, grabbing a hold of the different creature’s minds from as far back as possible. Then after he felt his mental energies begin to drop and he could feel that he was losing focus he would stop, all to start up again once a new life force got too close to the mental killing field he had created, or if a roaming monster got too close to his hiding spot. Once an area was secure, Derick would go to the various corpses and drain their energies, only after he left a corpse and moved onto the next one would Derick hear the sound of his bird friends feasting. Eat up my friends. Derick thought towards the pack of birds. There will be plenty. Derick was somewhat surprised to see that the latest batch of monsters that he had killed were a form of vegetarian lizard creatures. Yet, they were odd even by the standards that Derick was used to for this dungeon, for the first part they had eight legs, like a spider would, but two of the top legs seemed to be for carrying organic material.