"Come on, no bees," said Alex as she touched the cool black surface and let the faez flood into her mind.
The world went black for longer than Alex thought it should, and she worried that being level zero had trapped her in a nebulous place between the game and the real world, but then she appeared in the high grass beneath the blood lemon tree.
The droopy awkward-limbed tree had three fruits. Sunlight drifted through the canopy, illuminating motes hanging in the air. A breeze rustled the multihued leaves, bringing with it the smells of life, while a blade of grass tickled her nose until she knocked it away.
Despite the struggle and pain she'd experienced in Gamemakers Online, she felt a real connection to the world inside the game.
"Now for the moment of truth," said Alex, bringing up her character sheet.
If her skills had atrophied with her deleveling, then she wasn't sure she had a chance at redemption, but if they'd stayed the same, she had a chance, however small.
Character: Alexandria Duke
Level: 0
Strength: 1
Intelligence: 1 (6)
Cunning: 1 (23)
Agility: 1 (2)
Endurance: 1 (3)
Charisma: 1
Class: (Arcane Mastermind)
Subclass: Undecided
Health: 10/10
Faez: 16/16
Armor Class: 0
Fatigue: 0%
E*xp: 0 / 1
Skills:
Analyze: 35
One-handed Slashing: 1
Fire Spells: 2
Devious Device: 8
Sense Direction: 33
One-handed Whip: 11
Water Spells: 9
Cooking: 13
Stealth: 8
Climbing: 8
Air Spells: 32
Unique Skills:
Cunning Strategist: 6
Mastermind: 3
Spells:
Dewdrop Orb: 7
Minor Creation: 8
Transference: 24
Cloud Taunt: 38
Misdirection: 9
Wind Gust: 18
Heal Minions: 13
"Interesting," she said, noting that her skills had stayed the same despite the deleveling. That weird error had showed up again, but it disappeared after a second glance. Her stats had a secondary number, showing what she'd been before she lost the level. Alex pulled up a spell to see if those had changed too.
Cloud Taunt – Tier 4
Faez: 25 ׀ Duration: 1 minute
Dmg: 3-6 (Repeat Shock Damage every 15 seconds)
Effect: Enrages the creature to attack you.
"That proves the level as well as the skill level affects the damage. Not that that's worth a hill of beans," said Alex. "If I didn't have to reach level twenty in a month, this wouldn't be so bad."
She checked her gear next, finding the armor completely destroyed, but her weapons and Handysack intact. It was a setback, but not entirely unexpected. Mostly, she'd worried that her whip had been destroyed, but that was for aesthetic reasons rather than in-game strategy. At level zero, she wasn't going to be winning any one-on-one battles.
Before she reached her camp, a darting movement from above sent her into a defensive stance. The aerial nature suggested a return of the bees, but when she spied two brown shapes zipping towards her with fluttering wing movements, she cried out with joy.
The two fuzzy minions threw themselves in her arms, nuzzling against her shoulder, making clacking noises that she interpreted as happiness.
"Inky! Pinky!"
The former bloats looked more bat-like than ever.
"Where's Clyde?"
Alex received a mental image of the terrorbees descending on a camp in the Warsong Plain where they'd gone to hide. They'd killed Clyde before the terrorbees had been slaughtered in turn by the denizens of the camp.
"Oh, thank Merlin," said Alex. "I really hoped I wasn't going to have to deal with them."
Inky and Pinky sent double black cherry in agreement.
Before she could even wonder, a tiny squeak announced Axo's arrival. The brown shrew sat on the log, cleaning its paws.
"Hey Axo, sorry I've been gone so long. I hope you've managed without me," she said.
Before Alex could say anything else, the shrew bounded away, returning moments later with a pair of worms hanging out of its mouth. Axo dropped them at her feet and looked up at her with sad eyes.
A sense of orange-lime came from her minions, which she interpreted as laughter.
"That's very nice of you, Axo, but I'm full," she said.
The shrew grabbed the worms and disappeared back into the grasses. Alex hoped she hadn't hurt the little critter's feelings.
"Okay, let's take stock of our supplies. We have two adorable minions, a kick-ass whip, a bunch of spells I don't have the faez to use, a cooking pot, too many chimeric stones that I don't know what to do with, an Acceleration Bar, and my big brain."
Alex let out a little maniacal laugh. Whenever she took on an impossible challenge, there was an excitement that buoyed her above the inevitable despair. Solving a problem that no one else had before was like getting to be an explorer of a new land or the inventor of a new technology.
The strange thing was that the more impossible, the more her mind expanded to match the challenge. Simple problems generated simple answers, but when the issue grew so large that the mind couldn't quite comprehend, it created a joyful tension.
For the next day, Alex wandered around the eastern part of the Warped Forest, searching for inspiration in the landscape and her character sheet. How could she gain a ton of experience quickly without using a single spell? The tactics she'd used before were impossible without a pool of faez large enough, and given that she only had five hit points, she could die from running into a bramble bush.
Alex stood on the cliff, looking across the chasm at the Warsong Plain, musing how she might get across for the quest experience. 5,000 XP would get her back to level 1 and a quarter of the way to level 2, but she knew that was not the right direction.
Incremental progress wasn't going to work. She needed mountains of XP in a short time. Even if she could regain the levels she'd lost, she still needed time to figure out how to take on the Warped Mother.
"Anyway," said Alex, wandering away from the edge, "I'd probably just fall to my death if I tried to climb down with these skills."
Fall to my death.
The words hung in her mind like a big banner.
"Fall to my death," she said as a shiver passed through her. "That's the answer."
She couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before. Alex rushed back to camp, where her minions were waiting, sitting in their nests.
"Somebody needs to make a shitload of ropes."
Chapter Thirty-Eight
It took two days to set up. Finding the right location took the longest, as Alex moved through the forest using her scouts to avoid the creatures that roamed through the northern part of the Warped Forest. She had to stick to the edge to avoid the warped animals, sometimes hanging over the cliff until they passed.
Building the contraption using her multitude of ropes took an afternoon, which meant the largest danger of death involved the tree climb without her Boots of Ascending. One slip, and she'd have to make her way back from her respawn point, a delay she couldn't afford.
When Alex finished setting up her trap, she wasted no time, climbing into the harness and sending her minions into the northern woods to pull. While she waited, Alex made last-second examinations of her contraption.
The rope harness hung around her hips and shoulders as if she were going ziplining. Connecting her harness were two sets of ropes that stretched from her in a "V" to the huge oak-like trees with violet and crimson leaves. She'd picked the trees because they had sturdy branches that stretched over the chasm.
Alex glanced behind her at the deep expanse beneath. Her heels were right against the cliff. Looking down at the meande
ring river, which had to be at least a half-mile below, gave her vertigo. The expanse sucked at her limbs but she focused on the forest ahead to counter the effect.
One at a time, Alex grabbed the two support ropes and leaned back, testing the sliding motion along the branches. As soon as they shifted, Alex lurched forward, returning her center of gravity back over solid ground.
Getting the ropes to slide along the branches had been challenging since the bark tended to grab the fiber, but she wrapped more ropes around the limbs to reduce the friction.
Inky came back first.
Her minion signaled her when she was in range.
"I hope this works."
The rumble of approaching warped animals filled her chest with fluttering anticipation. She felt like a tuning fork struck with every sense and detail coming into focus.
For a long minute, Alex watched the bright forest before her. The colorful undergrowth swayed with the anticipation of the coming stampede. The only warning she had was the faint vibration in the ground and her minion's psychic sense.
When Inky shot over the vermillion grasses, Alex gripped the ropes tight as if she were waiting for the rollercoaster to crest the first hill.
The grasses parted, revealing her first foes, broad-headed muscular beasts covered in brown spots, sporting maniacal smiles.
Grinning Cheetanoe, Warped Animal, Level 12
Ability: Leaping Bite
The creatures came lopping towards her faster than she anticipated. Alex kicked off hard, sending herself backwards over the cliff.
The rope harness slid back ten feet, then got stuck. Alex guessed the cheetanoes could leap that distance. She started rocking on the rope, yanking herself backwards with jerking motions.
"Come on," she said, focusing on the ropes.
The two sides wouldn't move together, so she had to pull one and then the other.
She managed to scoot another five feet backwards before the first cheetanoes leapt the gap. A single swipe from an outstretched claw would kill her.
Alex gripped the ropes hard, pulling herself up a few inches and tucking her legs beneath herself as the cheetanoe soared beneath her, plummeting to its death. Before the others could go over the edge, Alex hit them with Wind Gust, the only spell she had enough faez to cast. It wouldn't kill them but it would ensure that she received the experience for their deaths.
The gang of cheetanoes leapt one after another. The first ones were trying to reach her, but the rest of the herd merely following the others like lemmings.
Alex's arms trembled from the ache of holding herself up by the ropes when the first XP notices came through.
You have gained experience: 1,500 XP
You have reached level 1!
You have gained experience: 1,500 XP
You have gained experience: 1,500 XP
You have gained experience: 1,500 XP
You have gained experience: 1,500 XP
You have gained experience: 1,500 XP
By the time the last notice went past, she'd regained level 2, which gave her enough faez to cast Cloud Taunt once. Alex didn't have time to unhook her safety rope and pull herself back to land before Pinky announced she was returning.
With the undergrowth trampled into crimson mush, Alex spied the crazed stallionbears from a long way off. They had the body of a bear with the head of a stallion, eyes wild with entropic energy.
Alex hit them with Cloud Taunt from a distance, driving them into a frenzy, which took them over the cliff without a second thought. Their stubby legs failed to leap more than a foot. They poured over the cliff in a brown flood. As the XP filled her screen, she grinned as maniacally as the cheetanoes.
As her minions returned to the forest to collect more foes, Alex untied the safety rope from the support and used it to pull herself back to land. There were some adjustments she could make to improve the setup, but there wasn't going to be time. She needed levels and needed them fast.
Alex pulled out the Acceleration Bar from her Handysack. It looked like a chocolate bar.
Item: Acceleration Bar
Use: Increases Effects
Better late than never...
She hadn't fully decided if she were going to eat it until she felt the rumble of approaching warped animals. When she tucked it past her lips, the slightly bitter chocolate exploded with flavors. An icy warmth went down her spine as her body quivered. It felt like she'd chugged a half dozen energy drinks at once. A prompt appeared in her vision.
What do you wish to increase?
Alex pulled up her character sheet, hovering her finger over the experience bar. When she selected it, she was offered another prompt.
Are you sure [Y/N]?
"More than I've ever been," said Alex as she swiped the YES.
The experience bar gained a golden glow as horned shapes passed the bottleneck of trees ahead.
Alex gripped the ropes as the warped animals thundered towards her, a grin rising to her lips.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
A week later, Alex woke to a rough tongue persistently licking her hair above her temple. The roughness reminded her of a cat, which was odd because she didn't own a cat in Gamemakers Online.
One eye peered awake, finding a furry brown Inky perched on the tigersloth furs near her head, patiently giving her a bath. Alex opened the other eye to realize that Pinky had curled up in the crook of her arm, her head resting against her stomach, peering into her once-sleeping face with adoration.
"Thank you, Inky," said Alex, groaning as she struggled to a sitting position, disturbing the other minion, who stretched her mouth and wings wide.
"For the record, this absolutely does not count as cuddling," said Alex.
The two minions lifted into the air, slipping past the fur covers on the front of the cave.
It took Alex a few minutes to get going. Her neck and shoulders ached from hanging in the harness. She dug her fingers into the muscles around her neck and shoulder, massaging away the knots that had formed.
"Whatever zone I visit next, there is going to be a bed and an inn and people to talk to," said Alex.
After climbing the ladder to the camp by the cliff, Alex checked her character sheet again to make sure she hadn't imagined hitting level 16.
Character: Alexandria Duke
Level: 16
Strength: 1
Intelligence: 10
Cunning: 32
Agility: 2
Endurance: 5
Charisma: 1
Class: Arcane Mastermind
Subclass: Undecided
Health: 240/240
Faez: 233/233
Armor Class: 0
Fatigue: 2%
XP: 1,680,477 / 1,800,000
The rest of her skills had barely changed since she'd been using the cliff to farm for experience, but she didn't have time to max her skills with the end of the semester approaching. A fact that was made painfully clear as she noticed a system message counting down above her character sheet.
Gamemakers Online Lockout
Alexandria Duke – Levels 16/20
6 Days : 16 Hours : 57 Minutes : 33 Seconds
Alex had thought she had a few more weeks, but she'd been assuming that the end of the semester happened at the end of May, but clearly that wasn't the case.
"Four levels, or maybe three and a half. I can do this," said Alex. "Right, girls?"
The two minions, who were sitting in their nests licking their fur clean, looked up at her with wide adoring eyes. They'd leveled up to 7 during the cliff farming and looked mostly like bats. The proboscis had retracted, but Alex suspected they could still use them to feed.
"What would I have done without you?" said Alex.
After checking her gear, she began the hike to the western side of the zone where the Mother's Spire was located. Alex had cleared the mobs north and south of the spire. The only thing that remained was the area directly around the final boss and the Warped Mother.
&
nbsp; It was a good thing that she'd had the Acceleration Bar that first day to get her to level 7 before it wore off. The herds of warped animals had been thicker near the cliff, which had allowed her minions to chain pull for hours.
The downside of her tactic was that she didn't get to loot a single body. She imagined there was quite a pile at the base of the cliff, both in the northern and southern pull locations. They would disappear before she had a chance to climb down.
The hike across the zone took a few hours. The closer she got the heavier her feet grew. When the white spire poked above the psychedelic trees as she came down the hills into the hollow nestled against the sheer mountains, Alex blew out a cleansing breath in anticipation of the upcoming challenge. She had no doubt that it was going to be brutal, but realized her sense of scale at the difficulty was off exponentially when the area around the spire came into view.
A massive, milky-pale stone rose from the earth like a stalagmite, towering over the colorful tree line by a hundred feet. The area around the spire was barren of trees, a wide semicircular space filled instead with a menagerie of warped animals.
Alex didn't even know how to process what she was seeing at first. It looked like Noah's ark had spilled onto the plain, the impact mixing up the many creatures into their chimeric states. It was a kaleidoscopic zoo of dangerous proportions.
Quest Completed: Investigate the Heart of the Warped Forest
You have gained experience: 25,000 XP
Quest Offered: Enter the Spire of Creation and kill the Warped Mother (+250,000 XP) [Y/N]
Alex whistled at the size of the reward for killing the final boss. It was over a single level on its own, not including the experience for the Warped Mother herself.
The Warped Forest Page 21