by Nikita Thorn
Getting to his feet, he found the four people watching him. There was only one way to know, and Seiki mapped out two short Slides across the ground. The first one was as to be expected, but the second one felt odd, as if it took no energy.
Seiki let out a surprised and delighted gasp. He waited again, glancing at the four outlaws who were now hiding smiles as they observed him testing out his first ability enhancement. As soon as his Slide recharged, Seiki let loose a full-length one. This one, too, was considered a last charge, and took almost no energy compared to what he was used to. He realized now that this enhancement also allowed him to extend the range of his Slide.
Seiki could no longer contain his laughter as he did it again, and then again, as soon as he could. This was simply just too good. Now all he needed was an extra charge on Slide, and he wondered if he could get that for his second enhancement—if such a scroll existed.
This was a ronin-specific scroll, and Renshiro could have used it, unless he already had something better. Seiki looked at the man, not quite sure whether he should feel grateful or not.
Renshiro simply chuckled. “Better keep some energy, kid.”
Seiki remembered now he was on Moderate Fatigue, and his energy seemed to be recharging twice as slow.
“Come with me,” said Renshiro, as he got to his feet. “I’m going to teach you how to survive the Wilderness.”
“Wait.” Seiki hesitated. Renshiro had made it sound completely natural, yet maybe this was how these people intended to manipulate him into travelling east with them.
Itsuki giggled. “What? Afraid your friends are going to miss you?” She was sitting cross-legged on the ground. In her hand was a piece of post paper, which she read aloud from. “Ippei, Level 11, fourteen minutes ago, are you done with Ichikeya yet? Kentaro needs someone here for an hour and I’ve gotta leave in fifteen.”
Seiki now noticed a dead pigeon beside her, pierced by a silver shuriken.
“Hey!” he said, dashing toward her. Itsuki launched a smoke bomb in front of him. And she giggled, as she tried to flee and Seiki threw himself on her, trapping her legs before she could run away. “Don’t read my mail!” he said, struggling to wring the post paper from her hands.
Itsuki was still laughing. “Who’s Foxy?” she asked.
Seiki yanked the message away from her.
Ippei [Level 11]: (14 minutes ago) Are you done with Ichikeya yet? Kentaro needs someone here for an hour and I’ve gotta leave in fifteen.
Ippei [Level 11]: (12 minutes ago) Never mind. Foxy’s here.
“Itsuki,” said Miya, warningly.
Another pigeon fluttered down just then. Itsuki reached into her sleeve for her shurikens, and Seiki scrambled to his feet to Upslash the bout of projectiles and protect the bird. It was close-ranged, and one of the shurikens grazed his side. Seiki winced as his health immediately dropped to half.
“Itsuki!” said Miya, sounding appalled, as she quickly topped him up with Heal.
Seiki shot the ninja girl a dark look, and Itsuki collapsed onto the ground laughing. He then sighed and turned to grab the message from the bird.
Mairin [Level 10]: (1 minute ago) Hey, wanna do this abandoned mansion thing? Your friend Yamura came around looking for a group so we’re going with him.
“Aren’t you going to reply?” asked Itsuki. “Can’t let you have your post paper back yet, since you might have a cavalry you can call in.” Her eyes brightened. “But I’ll write a message for you.”
“No,” said Seiki.
Another post pigeon came in. But this time, under Miya’s disapproving gaze, the ninja girl made no attempt to go for it.
Fuyu of Ichikeya [Level 15]: (47 seconds ago) Seiki-san, unequip the Wanderer’s Charm so I can find you, please.
Mairin [Level 10]: (45 seconds ago) We’ve convinced Kentaro to go with us. For some reason Sasu can’t find you... Glitch? If you get this and want to come, Yanagi Alley in ten minutes.
Seiki discarded the message into a puff of smoke before Itsuki could read it.
“Your friends are sure worried,” said Renshiro, sounding mildly amused at the number of messages arriving all at once.
“They’ve got nothing to do with this,” said Seiki. “I’m going to finish what I started, so please give me back that box. It’s not your key. It’s a piece of paper, and I’m going to deliver it to Kano Castle and finally be done with the whole thing so I can go home.”
“And what are you going to do with that Moderate Fatigue?” Renshiro asked.
That caused Seiki to stop short. The man was right; he had no clue.
“Okay, let’s agree to a truce for now,” said Renshiro. “You keep your weapons, but you promise not to fight and not to run till midnight, and I’m going to teach you how to survive in the Wilderness.” He looked at the ninja girl. “And Itsuki’s going to behave.”
The ninja girl shrugged.
“Itsuki,” said Miya.
“Fine,” said the ninja girl, rolling her eyes. “You people are no fun.”
Renshiro turned to Seiki. “All right, kid?”
Seiki studied them for a moment. They seemed sincere, and he really thought he should know about this Fatigue business before he proceeded. He nodded. “Okay.”
Miya heaved a tiny sigh as she looked at Renshiro. “You gonna be all right?”
Renshiro laughed. “Yeah, don’t worry.”
“I’m off, then,” Miya said. “It-chan, stop making people’s lives difficult for a while, okay?” With that, she slowly faded out. Seiki wondered if she had come in specifically just to help them complete the way shrine so he could apply his ability enhancement.
“Come on,” said Renshiro, as he walked further into the forest away from the East Road.
Itsuki groaned and got to her feet. Satoru also got up, and cast a wistful look at the temporary shrine. How long had it taken him to build it? And for how long was it going to be there? Weirdly enough, Seiki felt a sense of obligation, even when he knew he should not. Soon, he was following them deeper into the Wilderness.
The forest grew denser and damper, and Seiki secretly swapped the anti-Locate Wanderer’s Charm for the new bamboo strip Renshiro had given him from the Mountain Chimi. Now, Mairin would be able to tell where he was if she tried looking again, and somehow he liked that thought. He ignored what Fuyu wanted, but perhaps she had her way of getting the box back. If anything, he was very sure everyone at Ichikeya had Pickpocketing, and maybe she would send the Level 20 ninja Junbei to try stealing it if she could locate him.
“What happened to the Onikuma?” asked Itsuki. She had her dagger out, and was swinging it around to cut the vines and branches along the way, perhaps entertaining herself with the sound it was making. “Aren’t we doing that?”
Renshiro was glancing up the sky, perhaps to gauge the direction they were taking. “Gotta teach the kid how to handle the Wilderness first, or he would die on the road,” said the ronin.
“I’m not going with you,” Seiki clarified again.
“Guess what?” said Itsuki. “You are, kiddo. Ren-san has his ways.”
“No, I’m not,” said Seiki. “And stop calling me that. I’m sure I’m older than you.”
Itsuki pointed at him. “Wanna bet? I’m turning sixty-seven next Wednesday. You?”
Seiki sighed and stopped talking to her.
Satoru chuckled, perhaps relieved that the ninja girl had someone else to annoy for now.
They very soon reached a strip of clearing by a small pond, closed in on all sides with tall pine trees. A lone willow stood by the water, hanging its green branches down above the still water surface. There was almost no wind, and the sky was now overcast. The Wilderness seemed lazy and quiet.
Satoru and Itsuki went around gathering firewood, which Seiki could see were small branches and twigs scattered on top of the low grass that looked very much like the ones he had had to pick up on his very first Level 2
quest for Manji.
“They despawn for an hour when it rains,” said Renshiro. “So, if you’re a cautious traveler, you usually store a bunch in your bag, if you have room for it.”
After they had built up a big enough pile in the middle of the clearing, which a quick inspect showed would burn for 12 minutes, Renshiro had Seiki light it on fire. The magical tinderbox was easy to use, and the welcoming warmth caressed his skin as the flame sparked to life.
You are now within range of a fire. Stay within range for another 9 minutes to lessen the effect of Fatigue.
“Fire only gives you a temporary boost,” explained Renshiro. “The Wilderness is all about fighting Fatigue.”
He explained that Fatigue came in four degrees: slight, moderate, severe and absolute. Energy recharged exponentially slower and slower as you went deeper into Fatigue, and not at all once you reached the last degree. There were four hours of Slight Fatigue before you dropped to Moderate, three of Moderate before you dropped to Severe, and two of the latter before you reached Absolute Fatigue—making it more unforgiving the longer you ignored it.
Sitting by a fire temporarily lessened the severity of Fatigue by one degree for 90 minutes but, to completely get rid of the Fatigue effect, it was necessary to eat. One serving of most food items under Level 10 cured Fatigue one degree at a time, and once you got back to no Fatigue, you had four hours before Slight Fatigue set in again.
“I thought it was six hours of no Fatigue?” asked Seiki.
“Being in a city gives you an extra two hours,” said Renshiro. “So, yes, six hours if you come out of Shinshioka or Fuoka.”
“But only if you’re in the city for at least an hour,” Itsuki chimed in. “So you can’t just run in and out of the city gate.”
Seiki was glad he had agreed to this deal, as he would have never been able to figure it out on his own.
The ronin continued, “To save food, the best way is actually to let yourself drop to Slight Fatigue, then build a fire to boost you back to normal. Once your hour and a half runs out, build another one, which gives you another hour and a half. Then eat right before you drop down to Moderate Fatigue, and that pretty much gives you eight hours of normal energy, as long as you keep your fires up, before you have to eat again.”
Seiki thought about it. “I see. And that’s because food… it’s difficult to get?” Seiki asked. In Shinshioka, food stalls were everywhere, but since Fatigue was not a problem, eating was more of a vanity activity more than anything.
“More time-consuming than difficult.” Renshiro tossed him an old scroll. “Read,” said the ronin.
Grilled Fish with Red Thistles [Level 1 Recipe]. Gut and clean any small fish and stuff with red thistle petals. Grill over a simple fire for 5 minutes. Required ingredients: Small Fish [x1], Red Thistles [x3].
Congratulations! You have memorized the Grilled Fish with Red Thistles Recipe. Try it out to learn how to cook it.
The scroll slowly faded right off Seiki’s hands. Now when he thought about it, he found that he could recall the exact words from the recipe in his head, and somehow Red Thistles sounded very familiar.
“And you happen to be carrying this scroll around?” asked Seiki, a bit skeptically.
“Pretty much everything in the Wilderness that talks drops this recipe,” Itsuki said. “I think they’re afraid people wouldn’t pick up Cooking. The evil tiger spirit thing dropped it last night.”
“Oh, right, you’ll need this, too,” said Renshiro, tossing Seiki a small battered book that seemed to have changed hands so many times that the edges were all worn and almost flaked off as Seiki flipped through it.
The old book was marked Basic Medicinal Herbs and in it were two illustrations: one of Red Thistles, which looked like a spherical flower, and one of Bittergrass, which, to be honest, looked just like any other grass.
Congratulations! You have learned how to identify Red Thistles and Bittergrass.
The rest of the pages were filled with text explaining the locations in which these herbs could be found, as well as folk tales about how they were first discovered and which past emperors had them growing in their gardens, which sounded like something only the Social Guild would be interested in.
“Doesn’t give you the Medicine trade skill,” said Renshiro. “But you can pick some basic herbs now for cooking and things like healing salves, for when you don’t have healers around.” He then pointed to a patch of grass near the edge of the pond. As Seiki concentrated, he could see that a few blades were now labeled Bittergrass.
The ronin then nodded toward the water. “And now, we fish,” said Renshiro.
Seiki chuckled. “A crash course in Wilderness survival.”
They moved over to the waterside and Renshiro produced a bamboo fishing rod from his pocket, which had a hook at the end and to which the man attached a nondescript Basic Fishing Bait, before handing it to Seiki. “You’ll eventually have to get yourself one.”
“It’s surprising you get a fish at all with that kind of equipment,” commented Satoru from the fireside. The ryoushi had started working on a new net, which now lay on top of his lap.
Following Renshiro’s instructions, Seiki cast the hook into the pond and waited. The small white fish circled around the bait but made no attempt to bite.
“Takes a while,” said Renshiro. “You get the Fishing skill after you get your first fish, and that could take anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour.”
“Do we really have to do this right now?” asked Itsuki. “Can’t we just go kill a deer and cook that instead?”
“No, because we’ve got a recipe for fish,” said Renshiro, pointing out the obvious.
The ninja girl groaned. “I’m sure he gets the idea and he can do it himself later.”
“Go get more firewood and make yourself useful,” Renshiro said. “We’re going to be here a while.”
“Sat-chan,” said Itsuki, lying down on the ground. “Go get firewood, please.”
“Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here?” said Satoru. On his lap was a large messy pile of long dark vines, which he seemed to carry on his person in massive quantities. He had been working diligently and, now, on the edge, appeared to be the first two rows of a new net.
The ryoushi saw Seiki looking and grimaced. “Yes, Net Traps can only be used once, like ryoushi arrows. Once you shoot it, it’s gone, and you have to weave it from scratch. And you can only carry one at a time.”
“I’ve never heard of that ability before,” said Seiki. He had seen speed-charged arrows, and even exploding ones, but not this.
“It’s a ryoushi Free Slot,” said Renshiro. “Very few people have it and you can’t get it anymore.”
“And the only good thing Sat-chan ever got from joining the Nobles,” said Itsuki, sitting up. “Well, not counting the Ice Blade.”
Satoru gave a start at that statement as if he had been stung by an insect. “Okay, let’s set the record straight,” said the ryoushi. “I didn’t steal that Ice Blade, all right? I killed Kouta because I was angry. Then Itsuki had to go ahead and loot him, and I pretty much had to run at that point, because I was the one who had invited her in.”
“I figured that since the Nobles had such a huge stockpile of these uniques, it wasn’t like they were going to miss it if one of the crappier ones went missing, you know.” Itsuki shrugged. “But turned out they were very angry and we spent the next month getting killed a billion times by everyone who thought we had the dagger. But then Ren-san had his friends in the Fuoka Army use it in public once, so everyone thinks it’s with them at the moment.”
Satoru sighed and went back to his net-weaving, which looked like a lot of detailed work.
“Why can’t you get the ability anymore?” asked Seiki.
“If you’re disarmed, it’s a permanent trap,” said Renshiro. “You can’t Slide out of it. You can’t Kitsune Dash out of it. Ryoushi can’t Escape it. O
bake can’t Fade through it. Ninjas can’t Shadow Strike away.”
“Oh,” said Seiki.
“You get caught in that thing, you’re there until someone cuts you out,” said Renshiro, his tone turning very grim. “But if there’s no one around. All people need to do is add a drop of mild poison, and maybe put up a healing incense in the corner of the room, and you’re considered to be in the middle of combat.”
Seiki looked at him, as his mind slowly grasped the implication.
“Yes,” said Renshiro. “So once you’re in that situation, there’s nothing you can do until the safety override kicks in. You dare log back in after that, you should be prepared to be there for another three or four hours.”
For some reason, Seiki had a feeling that the man was speaking from experience. “Why don’t they just remove it from the game?”
“I don’t know,” Renshiro said. “Customer retention? The idea of things you can’t get anymore that makes people feel special.”
“Like phone plans,” Itsuki chimed in.
“I’d rather have that auto-reloading crossbow ability,” muttered Satoru.
The ronin continued, “If people hadn’t complained, they would have left it in. You’d think they want to give people the ability to do nasty things.”
Renshiro chuckled as he noticed Seiki’s horrified expression. “You come out the East Gate, it’s not always fun and games, kid. Take this blood-lock for example.” The box was now in his hand.
Seiki just then remembered that the man had promised to teach him Wilderness survival skills, and made Itsuki promise not to read his mail. But he had said nothing about not forcing him to unlock the box as part of the truce.
“Why blood?” said Renshiro. “Why not, say, fingerprint?”
“Like, why not facial recognition, right?” Itsuki said.
The ronin ignored her. “Ever seen someone try to open a blood-locked clan chest in a siege? It’s a sacrificial altar. The game wants you to do these things. They might not say it explicitly, but they make it possible. It’s a world without consequences, and that brings out the worst in people.”