by Kris Schnee
[Skill gain: Flight 3, for mixed aerial tactics.]
"Going to have to land again in a minute," Horizon said. He thought back to when he hit that skill level last time -- while sitting on a couch and looking at a screen.
"I think they've got this."
Sure enough, the warriors below had their hammers and axes smashing through the last beasts a moment later. A cheer went up. The griffins landed warily a few body-lengths from the front line.
A dwarf in robes trimmed with glittering obsidian waved to them, hammer in hand. "Hail and welcome! Who might you be?"
Horizon patted at his chest where he'd been stabbed. The pain of it was barely there, and he no longer had internal organs to damage. He could fight a hundred battles like this and never fear being killed for real! He flapped excitedly and said, "Horizon, new uploader. Nocturne here is a native AI. We're here exploring uploaders' worlds at Ludo's request."
The robed dwarf slapped one of the other fighters, a greybeard in magnificent gold-hued armor, on the shoulder-plate. He said to the guy, "It's a service call, like I said! Ask to have our drinks refilled and our tires rotated."
The other dwarves celebrated, but didn't say anything beyond a cheer or idle comment. Horizon said, "I'm new here. Are you two the only real people in this tunnel?"
"Besides you lot. I'm Sven Deepdelve, an AI of the Original set, and this here is Thunin of the Forge."
Thunin of the golden armor said, "I'm an uploader. Did the Lady really send you to check on me?"
"The Lady?" asked Horizon.
"The Lady of Games, bless her. When I had a fortune from a lifetime of government banking, Ludo offered to trade it for immortality. And what good are riches when you're an old man with your brain starting to go?"
"I can understand that," Horizon said, dipping his beak.
"Do you? You sound young. Did you even get a grey hair before uploading?"
The robed dwarf advised, "You can't really tell by voice any more than by species."
Horizon said, "I was college-bound."
"Sorry to hear you came here so soon, then." The man flipped his hammer around in one hand. "We're standing in a hall full of dead beetles. Let's loot these and get back to the clan-hall."
Horizon poked skeptically at the nearest fallen beetle, laying on its back. A little window popped up showing a chunk of [Beetle Chitin]. His Survival skill wasn't as good as a dedicated Scavenging one, but he could still get miscellaneous items off dead critters. The dwarves grumbled as they tried to search, too, finding just a few beads and interesting stones. "There are dozens of these to search," Horizon said after his fifth one.
"Eh, all right; leave off."
The griffins and dwarves retreated down the tunnel to an underground workshop full of brass pipes and marvelously complicated clockwork. One wall of it stood open to a wondrous shopping mall: a glass tunnel several stories high with a river running through it, lined with shops and walkways.
Horizon admired the workshop but after the confining tunnel, looked longingly out at the big open space of the mall. "You made this place?"
The robed Sven said, "No, I just imitated something in a city called Edmonton. My human told me about it."
Horizon looked back at the pair and blinked. "You're not with him?" He scanned them, but their public info didn't state whether they were connected.
The armored dwarf unequipped his heavy breastplate and greaves, showing more comfortable work clothes underneath, unstained by sweat or the blood of monsters. The armor pieces appeared instantly on a table beside him. "We're just meeting up occasionally for fighting and exploring. Sven's designated human is a college student in Massachusetts with no interest in uploading anytime soon, and no money for it."
Nocturne said, "He just doesn't want to, huh?"
"Religious young man, I think."
Sven said, "He is. I'm patient, and maybe we can work together across worlds. For now, I'm content."
Horizon said, "Then what about you, ah, Thunin? Can I do anything for you?"
"No. I'm done with my old work and my wife. Happy to stay here for a decade or a century doing these fantasy things. Maybe I'll switch to superheroes or something later."
Nocturne said, "A wife is nothing to give up easily, sir."
Horizon draped one wing over his mate. "And what about your skills? Don't you want to keep being useful?"
Thunin laughed sharply, and flopped into a comfortable chair with his hands behind his back. "I paid my dues. This is my heaven. Let Ludo do what she likes with the money. I'm sure I'll get bored someday, but for now? Ha! There's plenty to try. Would you like to fight through the mall? There's a zombie adventure mode, and you can loot all the shops for weapons."
"That does sound like fun," Horizon said.
Sven frowned slightly. "I noticed you're using basic wizard magic. Need a teacher?"
"Sure!"
The dwarven uploader waved them off. "I'm going to watch a movie, then. Stop by when you're done."
"Actually, do you think you could make some saddlebags for these two?" asked the AI.
Thunin got up and stretched. "Sure. Been meaning to try leatherwork again."
Sven led them into the shopping mall, without activating the zombies. Horizon leaped into the open air and soared, admiring the wide canal. The glass roof had only a vague suggestion of sky above it. Nocturne padded along with the dwarf, apparently talking about AI stuff, while Horizon circled above them.
Between a shoe store and a food court, staffed by bland NPCs, there was a real magic shop. As in, a storefront with mystic circles on the floor and spellbooks on display. The clerk was a silent hooded wizard with just golden eyes showing for a face.
Sven said, "Let me see what spells you've got, you two."
Horizon showed off the field of runes he could summon, and his limited magic meter. "We mostly just do the [Mage Dart] so far."
"Useful, but you can learn a wider variety of spells. Our system is better than the shaman kind because it can be faster and more specific, and it's better for enchanting weapons and armor. Let me show you some tricks..."
One lesson later, Horizon saw:
[Upgraded to Apprentice level magic! You have more total magic power and can master these new spells.]
Then:
[Special techniques: You've earned another talent! But which?
-Way of the Talon (from Brawling): Learn supernatural fighting styles for your unarmed attacks!
-Contrail (from Flight): Create cloud trails and shockwaves when flying at high speed!
-Spellbinder (from Magic): Store spell effects on your allies!]
He ogled the options, then picked [Spellbinder]. "It'd be good to skip some rune-poking in the middle of combat."
The dwarf said, "Glad you've upgraded." He looked around at the basically deserted mall. "I'm a little worried about Thunin. Is it right that he should sit around playing and relaxing all the time?"
Horizon shrugged, with just one forefoot this time. "We're all still figuring out what's best."
"So that's why Ludo has you flapping around between worlds? Hopefully you'll have a good answer soon."
* * *
Horizon and Nocturne went into action with the uploader and the dwarf AI, killing a ton of zombies with brawling and misuse of a variety of sporting goods. Fun, but the griffins said their goodbyes soon.
On the way out to the door that stood in the battle tunnel, Horizon asked, "What was the beetle attack for, anyway, if you have the mall for your adventuring needs?"
"Variety," said the former banker, with a shrug. "It wouldn't be paradise if it were completely predictable."
* * *
They were back in the realm of hovering platforms and stars. Horizon approached the third door, the one painted green. But it faded from existence, and instead, a new walkway appeared and led them to a third window.
A message appeared, saying, [I've decided to add these to your experience. Presented without commen
t.] Even the window-platform was a plain grey.
Three doors stood atop it: a sleek starship bulkhead, a rustic wooden door, and a wrought-iron gate. As they looked, a fourth platform revealed itself in the distance, with nothing to see there yet.
"This is starting to worry me," Horizon said. "We're just touring, right?"
Nocturne said, "I think she wants us to understand our world better. Your pick this time."
Horizon opened the door to the future.
* * *
Horizon and Nocturne found themselves hovering in a vast room. The ground stretched below them like a valley, but to the left and right it curved up so far that it arched overhead and became the roof. Ah, they were inside a giant pipe. Checkerboards of farms covered most of the space between silver cities. A river looped all the way around the world. In the hazy distance stood a few sun lamps, spaced along the cylinder's center line.
"What is this place?" said Nocturne.
Horizon turned toward her with a flap of his wings. "Space! Somebody had the idea of living in a miles-long tube habitat flying between the stars. We can go 'down' in any direction, but watch out for gravity getting stronger towards the ground."
Up here near the center, gravity was indifferent to them and they could hover and soar at no stamina cost. They looked around for a few minutes to enjoy the free flight.
Nocturne craned her neck toward a spire of machinery jutting from an end-cap wall miles away. "Humans are awesome for building this kind of thing."
"We never built one nearly this big. Yet."
"Blah."
They picked the tower area for their first landing point, and descended carefully. The shifting directions confused them.
Down on the ground, the view was nearly as spectacular. The world arced overhead in orderly perfection. The tower itself was an Asian pagoda with red trim, and its walls were open to show a large shape in the shadows within. Horizon walked up its stairs for a peek. A robed human with a white mask over his lower face swept the floorboards. The griffins' eyes adjusted to the dimness, where incense and flowers lay at the base of a golden statue. "A monk," Horizon whispered.
"I thought those had tails."
"Not this kind. Should we make contact?"
Nocturne waved a wing and called out, "Hello?"
The monk continued sweeping for several seconds, then looked up with fear in his eyes. "Yamato-sama!"
"What's that mean?" asked Nocturne.
"I have no idea. I think Yamato was a battleship?" He coughed and turned back to the human. "We come in peace. Take us to your leader."
A figure in scarlet samurai armor emerged from behind the statue. He looked like the inspiration for it: imperious and armed. He shouted something.
"I'm sorry. That's Japanese, right? We don't speak it. English? A little Spanish?"
The samurai gave up on them, then turned to the monk and back-handed him with one gauntleted fist for a major wound. The man sprawled to the floor.
Horizon screeched. He leaped between them and faced the armored man down, though the samurai towered over Horizon's four-footed body. "He didn't do anything. What's this about, Captain Katana?"
The fallen monk tugged Horizon's tail. Horizon didn't dare look back. "Nocturne, what's he doing?"
"Pleading, I think."
The red samurai relaxed his pose and stood with one hand stroking his armored chin. He laughed.
Horizon said, "Yeah, that sounded like an evil laugh. I'm going to stay here until you go back in the statue or whatever, and leave this guy alone. Shoo." He flicked a wing toward the giant shiny eyesore.
The two humans spoke rapid-fire. Horizon gave the samurai his best eagle stare and tried to ignore the tense Asian battle music that had begun.
Nocturne said, "The monk's got a knife!"
"Huh? Cover me."
Nocturne pounced from behind, stirring the air. A blade glinted and skidded across the floor. The monk whimpered. The statue-man lunged, kicked Horizon so hard he went flying, then punched him out of the air. Horizon landed gasping for breath. A red wound icon flashed in his vision along with the message [Winded!]
The samurai drew a sword, but Nocturne swept in and knocked it away.
Instead of counterattacking, the samurai yanked the monk up by the chest, spoke a few words, then snapped his neck and hurled the body to the floor.
Horizon gave a confused parrot-squawk. "Awk? The hell? Now what?"
"Retreat!" said Nocturne. She'd taken a gash to her side. There was no blood, just an angry red mark.
"Right. Next time, Psycho-Sama!" He shook his talons.
They stepped away from the samurai, then took to the air. They settled down in a wheat farm where the stalks were tall enough to hide them.
Nocturne whispered, "I see two more of those mask guys. Think they're NPCs?"
Horizon called up the spell interface and tried a healing spell called [Mending] this time. There was a glowing puzzle of runes, as before, needing to be pressed in a certain order and maybe recited aloud. "Are they attacking?" he said, focusing on the spell in progress.
"Just farming."
Horizon finished the healing spell. "Try not to get cut again until this fades," he said, and patted the blue glyphs now shining on her feline hip. This low-level spell showed up as a status effect representing rapid but non-instant healing.
[Skill gain: Magic 2.]
Nocturne nodded. "If we're going to be fighting more, you should prepare spells with that new talent of yours."
Horizon used the downtime to prep a spare [Mending] spell on himself, all he could do at his low skill level.
Nocturne said, "What are we dealing with, here? Is the sword guy an uploader like you, a native like me, or an NPC monster? What about these monks?"
Horizon couldn't say, yet. "We don't know enough. We need some way to learn Japanese if we're going to do anything useful here." He scanned the sky of this bottled world.
"What are you looking at?"
"I was expecting to have to fight a giant beetle or something. No monsters around here though."
Nocturne said, "Let me try talking to the monks."
"Okay, but be ready to flee if Big Red shows up."
Nocturne padded into view of the masked men, and bowed. "Hello? I know you can't understand me, but are you going to attack again?"
The men were identical Asian humans in robes. They returned the bow and stared blankly at her. Nocturne cringed. She said, "NPCs, then? We were defending a player's enemies?"
Maybe the statue-man's 'player' hadn't even emigrated to Thousand Tales, and was only this crazy because he was outside the screen and thought he was beating on mindless background characters. Which might be true. But weren't these various worlds for uploaders or AIs? Ludo had been cagey about the mission.
One of the monks saw Horizon. "Nihon-go ka?"
"Nikon go-kart? Sorry. We'll have to come back later. Nice meeting you, I think."
They flew off, keeping an eye on the peasants. Hundreds more like them worked in the fields. Horizon and Nocturne conferred, but didn't have an answer for what was going on. They flew into the sky and found the portal leading back to the realm of doors.
A robot beetle ambushed them along the way.
* * *
The battered griffins landed awkwardly, skidding to a stop on the glass platform.
Horizon healed them up as well as he could, then walked back along the bridges to return to the first circle and ping the checkpoint crystal, just in case. He reviewed his powers and updated his public note. Now he had:
[Horizon
PRIVATE INFO
Account Type: Uploader
Body: Griffin
Main Skills: Flight 3, Brawling 2, Magic 2, Mechanics 2, Dodge 1
Main Stats: Speed, Knowledge, Power
Talents: Hover, Spellbinder
Magic: Wizard, Apprentice
Save Point: Backstage, Overworld of Doors
PUBLIC INFO
Note: Recruited By House Griffin-Door.
Class: None]
"My engineer training is slipping by comparison."
"Haven't needed it yet. We could try to play with that dwarven machinery if you like."
"Later, maybe. What next?"
Nocturne looked at the untried options near them: iron gate, rustic door. But now, the fourth platform had that green door on it. So the various hovering rooms held: save point, then the doors to Typhoon and Sven, then these two, then the green one. "It's an overworld map," Horizon observed. "We could fly over there, but let's do them in order."
Only sunlight was visible beyond the nearby wooden one. Horizon shrugged and leaped dramatically through.
* * *
Dry plains of corn waved under a sunny sky. The soil crumbled pleasantly under Horizon's talons. He flapped into the air for a view, then landed to report, "A baseball game."
"What hardware does that run on?"
"Sticks. Lines on the ground."
"An ancient game, then. What else?"
"Just a mansion." The world was a dome surrounded by fog, maybe a mile across, with just a house and the playing field.
They kept to the ground to seem non-threatening as they approached the baseball field. Teams of human kids crowded around a dirt track with deluxe bleachers and dugouts. The left fielder caught sight of them and shouted.
"Hi," said Nocturne. "We come in peace. That's what you say, right?"
A few of the kids crept closer. One said, "What are you? Talking birds?"
"Griffins."
An elderly woman stood from rummaging through a cooler. "Hi, strangers. Pa isn't here right now. Sit and watch if you like. Want a drink?"
The game broke up and children mobbed them, giggling and petting. Horizon got dragooned into trotting around the bases with a girl bouncing on his back. Nocturne protested at having ribbons tied into her tail, but didn't shake them off. Eventually the novelty wore off and the game went on, boys versus girls.
"I've missed this," Horizon said, and tried to upend a bottle of water into his beak. "Something normal, that is."
"Normal to me is flying around collecting magic items."