by R K Billiau
And just like that, it all made sense. The children lived in this world, but did they have the same system?
Kai nodded as if he, too, suddenly understood. “That is the real reason you want to protect this village. You do not know what happens to children if they die.”
The mayor nodded. “That’s it exactly. Since the kids started coming, we have done everything to protect them. They seem to follow most of the same game rules, although they don’t get injuries. When one of them had a building beam fall on their leg, they came out with lowered HP but not an injury, and we have seen things like that happen multiple times. That doesn’t mean we want to take any other chances with them, though. It is not a system we are willing to test.”
“But are they… normal?” Madison asked, “The kids, are they like… regular kids?”
“They remind me of my own kids and grandkids,” Graham said. “I don’t see any difference other than the fact that they grow faster.” Madison was silent after that, her eyes red and puffy.
“I never had kids,” the mayor said, “I was a professor, and always busy, I traveled and researched. It was my life and I loved it, but never had time for relationships or children. From what I can tell, however, these kids seem like perfectly normal children.”
“From a game standpoint though, they have some differences from us,” Graham said. “Piper, the oldest child in the village, has shared with us that they have a permanent buff called Childhood. It protects them from injuries, helps them learn new skills quickly, and it says it will protect them from death, but we have had no desire to put them in harm's way to find out.”
“I guess that’s understandable,” I said. “I mean, the system is usually right about things like that, but who knows what that could mean. Is it just a buff or an inability to die?”
“Right. There is so much to learn, but we must do so safely. Anyhow, we need to finish the quest now,” the mayor said. “Once we complete it, our village will be even more protected. The quest reward is huge, our village upgrades, and all of us can upgrade as well. We will finally get more classes unlocked and will be better able to take care of ourselves and our families.”
“We’ve seen those kinds of upgrades with our last tribe,” I said. “We never got to see how powerful they were, but I can understand wanting them.”
“So now we come to the next thing,” the mayor said. “I need to get to that Mana node, will you escort me there?”
“Yes,” Kai said immediately, “I agree that you must have the upgrade. The forest is filled with creatures now, and we could help you navigate it.”
Graham cleared his throat. “Therese, I wanted to talk to you about that.”
The mayor cocked an eyebrow and Graham moved over to her. He was close enough that they were touching, and he whispered whatever he had to say in her ear.
“I don’t like all these secrets,” Madison whispered next to me. “Feels like this place is full of them.”
“I think they’re just extra careful,” I said. “Can you blame them?”
“I mean, I guess... no,” she said. “But haven’t we proven ourselves?”
Graham moved away from the mayor and she turned back to us. “A slight change of plans. Graham would like to go to the node, but we cannot leave the village unprotected. No one here has any combat skills to speak of, so we are hoping a couple of you could stay behind, and one of you could travel with us to the node.”
Madison stood up. “Why the secrets? Haven't we proven we’re willing to help?”
Graham looked at Therese, who shrugged and he looked back at Madison. “You know, you really have. I have skills that help me know people better. I haven’t caught any lies and your character sheets match up with what you say. There haven’t been any red flags. It’s nothing more than me wanting to get out and gain levels, as well as see the node for myself. It’s so important and I feel like this is a task I can’t just hand off.”
“You can read character sheets, too?” I asked.
“I can. I can’t see everything you see in your HUD or anything like that, but I get the basics,” he said.
Therese spoke up. “Having other people in the village is brand new to us. It’s nothing against you, I assure you. In fact, asking you to stay behind is big for us, and the reason Graham felt the need to ask me in private. Plus, not everyone is very privy to having their sheets read without their knowledge.”
“I’ll stay,” Madison offered right off the bat. “I want to… to spend some time here with the families. I can teach them the System skill and maybe even Magic, although I don’t know if that is teachable.”
“Magic?” Graham asked.
I held up my hand and cast Mana Orb, then molded it into a shield. “Yep. Magic. When we entered the Mana node we were granted the Magic skill, and a spell. It’s a starter spell, but it looks like it can do defense and offense.” I canceled the shield, and cast the spell again, forming the orb into a spear.
“Amazing,” the mayor said, her eyes wide. “We really do have to get that node. Do you think just three of us can get there safely?”
“There are more creatures now, but the most dangerous, the globs, are slow. We should be able to avoid them, and I can defeat one on my own if I need to,” Kai said.
“I can stay too,” I said, not wanting to miss a chance to get more time with Madison. “I can help her teach. And Kai is the most skilled fighter between us.”
“You’re a teacher?” Graham asked, amused.
“Not a teacher,” I said, “but my skill, Audeo, lets anyone who is close to me get a skill to level ten as soon as they learn it.”
“Useful,” Graham said, nodding. “Are we all comfortable with this plan? Fact is, you three and that Carl guy are the only visitors we’ve had. But with all these… changes… that seem to be happening, we can’t be too careful. I would love to see this quest through, and I trust you both can handle things here.”
“I’m good,” I said, and Madison nodded.
The mayor paused for a moment, her eyes going blank. Then I got a system message.
You have been been offered a quest! Protect the Village – You will protect the village and its citizens while the mayor is away. Reward – 25XP. Will you accept? YES/NO
I selected YES, happy to get XP for something I would have done anyway. “So, when will you go?”
“As soon as possible,” the mayor said. “You said the node is by the portal?”
“Yeah, the portal isn’t there anymore, but same place,” I said.
“It’s several hours there,” she continued, “and I want to get this accomplished quickly, especially with Carl running around out there. I want to claim the node as soon as we can.”
“I am ready now,” Kai said. “I know the way.”
The mayor paused for a moment and her clothes swapped out to more armor like attire, similar to mine, a spear appearing in her hand. Graham did the same, then nodded at Kai. “We’ve already let the village know what’s going on,” he turned to me and gave me a hard look. “I am trusting you here, if you break that trust, you will regret it for the rest of your time in this place.”
With that nice bit of affirmation, he strode out the door, the mayor and Kai following.
Chapter 36
The room was heavy with silence. I went and sat down by Madison, close, but not touching.
“You okay? I asked.
She looked up at me. I’d been here the whole time and knew she hadn’t been crying, but her eyes were puffy and her cheeks rosy like she had been.
“Yeah, I guess I… I think I was just really thrown off by all this,” she said, smiling but not meaning it.
“It’s a lot to take in. Just reminds me there is always so much to this world we don’t know… and don’t get to know sometimes,” I said. She sighed and rested her head on my shoulder.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see kids again. Despite it being the worst place for them to live, I was so happy to see them. But�
�” she paused, either not knowing how to proceed or not knowing if she wanted to. “…But even then, I didn’t think we could actually have them in the game. And now…” she trailed off.
I stayed silent. I didn’t understand her feeling so emotional over all of this. I mean, it was huge news, and crazy, but everything in this world was crazy. I put my arm around her and pulled her close, hoping it was comforting. She leaned into me and shook, tears pouring from her eyes. I wrapped my other arm around her, embracing her tightly, and let her cry.
After a few minutes, she sniffled and wiped her face. I touched her cheek, wiping her hair from her face. She looked up at me and smiled, this time a little more genuinely.
“Thanks for giving me time to deal with this,” she said. “I’m sure you probably think I’m nuts.”
“Not even a little!” I defended myself. “I mean… I don’t really understand what’s going on here, but obviously you have a lot of feelings about it and that’s okay.”
“You’re sweet,” she said, turning to face me full on. She inhaled deeply. “Right before my husband died, he and I were going to be parents. We had gone through all the testing, paid all the fees, and got all the licenses. I can’t even explain to you how excited we were. I’ve wanted kids so badly since I was a little girl.” Her smile melted into a frown. “But I lost the baby. Then my husband left for war and I lost him too. Then I was selected for this,” she gestured to the room, “and honestly, it was a relief. A new start. I knew there was no chance of ever having my own baby, so I was able to just put all that away, behind me. And now this… it just brings up a lot.”
I hugged her. “I’m so sorry, Madison,” I whispered.
“See?” she said, smiling through tears. “I’m a hot mess. Baggage with a capital B.”
“You sure are.” I smiled. “And you’re totally worth it.”
She grinned and stood, taking a huge, deep breath.
“What do you say we go explore the village?” She offered me her hand, which I took and stood up.
“Lets,” I said.
It was beautiful outside. It was pretty much always beautiful outside- the devs had been pretty kind on the weather. So far, at least. The village was small, really seeing it for the first time in the daylight. Everything was along the one straight dirt road. Standing in the city square, we could see the main front gate, all the way down to the back gate. It was midday, and everyone seemed to be inside. We started walking, not sure where to go.
“I wonder how long it took them to build that wall,” I said, pointing to the stone wall that surrounded the village.
“Everything seems like it would take forever!” Madison said. “It’s crazy to think about starting completely from scratch. You’d have to build the tools before you could build anything. But they said those blueprints they got made everything go faster.”
We passed the bar, with its frothy mug sign slightly swaying. I pointed to it and playfully bumped into Madison.
“Maybe when that Ryan guy gets back, we’ll have to start our date there,” I said.
“Sounds good to me,” she smiled and grabbed my hand.
We noticed Anya inside her oracle shop, and Madison walked past the sign with the purple eye and waved. The building was made of wood, like a log cabin, with cutouts for windows, but no glass. Anya threw her hands up and rushed outside.
“Oh hello! Out for a stroll, are we?” Anya said, in her loud, smooth voice. She reminded me of a large breed puppy. Not that she, herself, was overly large, but her personality was huge, and she bounded around with such joy. She hugged us both enthusiastically, then ushered us into her shop. The room was small, but three of us fit comfortably. In the middle of the room was a colorfully woven rug, with a very plain wooden bench to one side. A large shelf lined one wall, with a few dried plants on it. In the back corner on a crude wooden stand, about waist height, was what could only be described as a crystal ball. She must have caught me looking at it.
“Oh, that,” she laughed heartily. “I’m not some crazy witch with a crystal ball, if that’s what you’re thinking. I had a good chuckle when I got it. But it’s a tool for one of my skills, so I have to keep it close.”
I was glad to know she wasn’t a witch, but was curious about its properties.
“What does it do,” I asked?
“Well come over here and I’ll show you.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me, which caught me a little off guard. I looked at Madison with wide eyes, and she smiled hugely, ushering me away with her hand. Anya and I stood at the crystal ball, holding hands, staring into the clear sphere. She held my hand up higher and put her other hand on the ball. She stared into it deeply, her expression unchanging. Try as I might, I couldn’t see anything in it, except my bobble-head reflection.
“Oh my,” Anya said, breaking the silence. “It looks like a cathedral, it’s very dark… with a large stained-glass window… and a man who is not a man…” She was obviously seeing the Adjudicator. In the top right corner of my HUD, a green arrow appeared, pointing up. I mentally selected it and read:
Audeo +10
Duration 24 hours
“Hey! I got a buff!” I said excitedly. Anya smiled. “That should last about a day,” she said. I hope you find it useful.”
“Ooh, can I have a turn?” Madison asked, coming over. Anya dropped my hand and grabbed hers.
“Let us look,” Anya said, repeating the same motion with Madison. “There are many children… they are circled around you… it looks like you are… reading to them?” Madison smiled, then shouted, “I got buffed, too! To my teaching skill!” She flung her arms around Anya. “Thank you! What a fun and useful skill!”
“Oh you are welcome, honey,” Anya said. “I do this for many of us every day, it’s really helped get things moving faster. Now why don’t I take you around the village?”
Anya walked between us, talking with her hands waving around like crazy in front of her. She had a story for everything, and they were long and animated. The mayor had been right; this lady could talk your ear off. I couldn’t tell if Madison was truly into it or just being polite, but she smiled and laughed at appropriate times, and did lots of head nods and ‘mmhmms.’
“Oh look!” Anya said, even louder than normal, and I jerked my head up to see what she was shouting about, noticing we were in front of the building with the compass and ruler on the sign. “Matteo is in his shop working! He is so smart, you won’t believe the things he’s able to do with pen and paper.”
We followed behind her into the shop, which was identical to hers in size and shape. Inside, there was a wall lined with shelves covered in rolls upon rolls of paper, and a single large, standing height desk, with a very average sized man with dark hair and pointy features standing behind it, diligently making marks on an oversized sheet of paper.
“Hello, Matteo,” Anya all but sang. “I’m walking our guests around and we saw you in here. Have you met Hudson and Madison yet?” The man looked up from his work and eyed us. “I saw them at breakfast this morning. Though I don’t think we officially met.” He went back to his work. It felt awkward, like he really didn’t care for us being there.
“Be a dear and come introduce yourself, then!” Anya said. He sighed and set his pencil down and came out from behind his desk.
“Sorry, I get really caught up in the work when I’m drawing out blueprints. I get bonuses for working in certain chunks of time so it can be hard to pull away.” He reached his hand out. “I’m Matteo, obviously.”
I took his hand and shook it. “I’m Hudson. And this,” I touched Madison’s arm, “is Madison. It’s nice to meet you. Pretty cool stuff you’ve got going on here.”
“Come look,” he said, and went back to his desk. He picked up his pencil again, making marks and drawing lines so quickly and with great precision that I wondered how much was natural talent and how much was game given skill.
“I’m working on a silo, here, to store more grain so we can process
more and have it last longer,” he said without looking up from his work.
“That’s impressive,” I said, mesmerized by how quickly his hand was moving. Madison came and peeked over my shoulder.
“Wow, that really is something,” she said.
“Blueprints have been a game changer,” Matteo said, still focused on his project. “My starter pack came with a sample blueprint for a basic longhouse. Once we collected the resources, it went smoothly and we built it in no time. Then we tried building individual houses- but we didn’t have a blueprint. We failed miserably. A bunch of wasted resources, time, and energy with nothing to show for it. Fortunately, my starter pack came with an infinite roll of blueprint paper and the tools I needed to draw them- and I got to work. I’m much more efficient now, especially since I’ve leveled my skill. We vote for what we need most next, and I get to work on it. Then I pass it off to the mayor, the resources are collected, and it gets built.”
“That is fascinating!” I said, truly enjoying learning how it all worked. I really looked forward to being involved with building and upgrading communities.
“It’s quite an effective system,” he said. “It doesn’t work for everything, though. I tried to make one for the wall, but it was too big of a project for my skill level. Which is why, as you might have noticed, the wall looks like it was made by children.”
“Seems to work okay, though,” I said.
“I guess,” he huffed.
He seemed to want to focus on his work, so I thanked him and we headed out. As soon as we were back outside, high-pitched voices and laughter floated through the air. Madison perked to attention and I smiled, watching her as she noticed the children playing in the fountain in the village square.
“Can we go see the kids?” Madison asked and Anya smiled.
“I don’t know how I feel about this whole children in a game world business,” Anya said, taking on a serious tone I hadn’t heard from her yet. “But I will say, nothing puts a smile on your face like watching the little youngins.”