Continue Online (Part 2, Made)

by Stephan Morse

  While PoserMan failed to pose, my chubby arms and legs managed to coordinate a recovery. Requiem was off in the distance quickly dodging between a horde mob of giant rats. They looked more like dogs next to him. To me, these monsters were closer to horses.

  Requiem was a violent jerk who sounded childish, but he was also pretty good with the two swords. He slashed into one monster and shaved off most of the health bar. I tried to lift the silly pitchfork, but my tail still had a hold on it.

  Poor [Coordination], [Focus], and my tail conspired to plant the pitchfork into the ground at an angle. It was just enough that one of the giant rat mutants, who had been dodging away from Requiem, slammed into the propped up item and impaled itself. The rodent turned and snapped at my face.

  I did what any sane person with a complete lack of [Focus] and mental filters that were disabled would do.

  “Bad doggy!” My chubby hand smacked the rat thing right in the face. It snarled and snapped. The desperate attempts at retaliation only drove its body further down the pitchfork’s spikes. I glared at the weapon and tried to figure out how it was so strong.

  The details read almost like my normal weapon. Damage was above average for the path. There was a [Regeneration] effect. It was [Bound] to me. I had no idea what that would mean in the long run. For now, it was pleasant to see Carver’s gift carrying over to this latest task.

  “Good! Kill another!” Requiem yelled an order at me. I didn’t have much brain power to argue with the Traveler right now. Another two of the mad rat dog things were hovering nearby. They seemed slightly leery after their buddy died to my accidental impaling.

  “You’ll never stop me, Requisite Ass!” The other person taunted. I was too busy yanking out my pitchfork to give him much attention. Requiem was leaping after him.

  “It’s Requiem, you tool!” Requiem corrected the other person. There was a loud series of clangs as they swung weapons at each other.

  This pitchfork shared many of the same characteristics of [Morrigu’s Gift]. I focused on shifting it to a long pole instead of the four-pronged tip that it had been.

  Weeks of practice with Shazam helped make the change smooth. My mental image wasn’t exactly complex either. The weapon’s top slowly pulled through gory rat bits to merge into a single spike.

  In addition to better control over [Morrigu’s Gift] I had also practiced a lot of situational awareness. For example, being single-minded in my focus on transforming the weapon meant two giant rat creatures had plenty of time to attack. My practice had failed me.

  Voices above! One slight rake of the claw was enough to shave off a quarter of my health! I scrambled to dodge another attack. As Hermes, I was used to using my legs. The natural reflex of kicking was useless with a [Red Imp]’s stubby legs. I wiggled them at the monster’s face anyway while both wings hummed wildly.

  “Stabbings! Letthestabbings happen!” I kind of lost it at that point. Being a [Red Imp] made me small and weak. Once my hands were on the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] weeks of practice kicked in. This character was weak but insanely fast compared to the Hermes avatar.

  I turned and fluttered. What would have been a smooth extension of the current pike form into a rat’s eye ended up skewering its gut instead. That was less effective, messier, but still damaging. I retracted the weapon and turned it flat in time to block the gnashing teeth of an another attacker.

  “Finally! You’re useful!” Requiem Ass, Mass, whatever, was keeping an eye on me even while fighting. It irked me incredibly to get his commentary on my combat skills. I had only been playing for a month in real time. That was four months in-game. I had a Masters in Business and Accounting, not a black belt in Stab-fu.

  I did manage to get back to the pitchfork form and sink the weapon deep into another rat’s flank. He turned and squealed at me. Giant teeth snapped in my face and spittle flew everywhere. I hurriedly extended the handle a bit and flew backward into a tree.

  The latest rat turned and went for my arm. I yanked out my weapon and made a beeline for Requiem Mass. Maybe, just maybe, he was looking away and wouldn’t block this rat.

  Almost as soon as the thought occurred to me I crashed into the ground and skidded. Burning crawled across my neck’s skin and something actually sizzled. Any grip I had on the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] faltered as hands tore at the object melting my flesh.

  No kidding, machine! And the giant rat monster I had been fighting was drawing closer. Two more hits from one of those and I would fall apart.

  “Ahhh! Ihateit, I hate it!” Why did this punishment hurt more than the beatings from Requiem? Why did it hurt more than the teeth, claws and bites? It was like the ARC had kept everything peaceful until it needed to send home a punch.

  Death was an easy way out. This was just a game and it would plop me back in the Hermes character safe and happy. No. That would actually be bad. I had to kill Requiem somehow, not die sniveling about a lot of pain burning my flesh. Or I could log out.

  The pain stopped and left my character gasping and crawling around on the ground. Out of habit, I reached for my weapon.

  “You and your little demon mongrel will not stop me from completing this quest!” PoserMan yelled.

  “I’ll kill you, Freakinstain!” Requiem Mass turned and threw something towards the rat attacking me. His projectile dug into the creature’s side and sent it tumbling. It collapsed a few feet away, heaving, and staring at me with hatred.

  “It’s Frankenstein!” The man with his funny neck piece and long coattails said. PoserMan would have been a better name.

  Darkness swept through the entire area. My vision flickered as things went from normal colors lit by a fire to a strange alternate vision. Everything seemed to be shades of black and white. I saw Requiem Mass cover his face and scowl. He swung around blindly with the sword that had smoke trails.

  Frankenstein turned and fled into the distance. His body seemed to be composed of multiple squiggling pieces that fluttered in one mass. Similar to how Jean, the Voice, and her clothing appeared.

  The lights came back to and Requiem was cursing at the empty space where he had been fighting. Next to me the giant rat breathed its last and fell limp.

  “Worthless!” Requiem stomped over to me and kicked the rat in its head. “You were meant to stop him from doing that!”

  “What, what, whatare you. What?” My head shook back and forth in confusion. What the heck was Requisite Ass on about now?

  “I summoned you so that you could see in the dark, and help me kill that fucker,” Requiem said through grinding teeth. Hadn’t Requiem asked what use I would be? Clearly the young man already had a plan in mind.

  “You’re theidiot, you didn’t tell methat!” I shouted rapidly.

  “I did! And you didn’t listen! But don’t worry, we’ll work on your listening skills right now.” He said.

  “No thanks, opting out, didn’t signthe line” I tried to backup, My tail was going wild. Fighting back had proven a bit impossible due to the pain that burned on my neck every time I tried to disobey.

  “Hold still,” Requiem said.

  I tried to back up anyway and the ARC feedback sent me to my knees. He reached down and smacked my small [Red Imp] form in the face. Then he punched me. My health bar dropped in chunks again.

  The beatings continued. My synchronization jumped up. I focused on watching it climb and tried not to think about what was happening to this character’s insides. It felt like having two headaches, banging my foot against a counter, and whacking my knee on a table all at the same time.

  I gasped and groaned. Somewhere in there, one middle finger was raised up to his face. My chubby little arms were normally red, but there were lots of purple and other bruises forming. One eye had nearly swelled shut and my toes weren’t responding right.

  “Why won’t pain break you?” He threw me off to one side and I rolled along the remains of damaged trees. Weak chuckles made it out between gasps for air. This round was in my favor
. Mental fortitude had won out against attempted abuse.

  The ARC’s muted feedback had almost rigged it against Requiem. If this had been real life things would have gone the other direction. Poor Requiem. None of the AIs in Continue were that simple.

  “You foolish, foolish, mortal.” I slowed down the words and scowled at Requiem. My mind scrambled to put together something suitably demonic. “You know nothing of Hell. Physical pain is the least of life’s traumas.”

  I could feel my thinned lips pull back in an unintentional snarl. The [Red Imp] body was expressive compared to normal me. None of that bothered me right now. I was angry at the Traveler and he was clearly full of his own rage.

  The Traveler drew his mouth tight and waved an arm. Everything faded away as summoned status slowly released. Maybe now I could see what was going on with my Hermes character.

  Session Thirty One – What is Love…

  I watched the pretty swirl of lights pass by and came to in a confusing situation. My Hermes character was currently strapped to the back of a horse thing. The first thing I noticed was a bobbing landscape filled with tiny pop-up boxes. A dozen of them stacked on one side and cited failed skill checks.

  “Horsemanship?” I muttered out loud. Somehow my character was learning [Horsemanship] slowly. A system message happily informed me that any skills gained by my autopilot would be vastly reduced compared to normal play.

  Two of the strange mounts were present. They were like the ones from [Haven Valley]. William Carver’s character had been so nearsighted that most details slipped by. It was way easier to see what they looked like now that my vision wasn’t screwed up.

  The creature’s ears were a bit too long and floppy. Their legs were thicker. I was riding the love child of a Clydesdale and an elongated rabbit. Plus they snickered instead of making nice normal horse whinnies.

  One was under me and plodding along. The second was being ridden by a woman in heavy looking plate armor. For a moment, I thought that Elane, or SheHulk, had come back to haunt me. This woman was much taller and almost seemed a giant on the back of her horse rabbit thing.

  “What are these?” In all my weeks as William Carver, I hadn’t paid much attention to the wildlife beyond [Coo-Coo Rill]s. A box displayed as the [Identification] skill kicked in. Great. They really were Horse Rabbits.

  Something tiny yanked on my ear. A familiar clack of jaw muscles snapping shut at the end pointed to one culprit. The [Caliburr] under me let out another weird snicker and we kept moving along.

  “Hey, how’s it going?” I said to Dusk while raising a hand to pet him. The small [Messenger’s Pet] perked up. “Have you been helping Shazam babysit me?”

  Dusk nodded happily.

  “I kind of expected you to turn up while I was over there with Requiem,” I told my little friend.

  He shook his head and a sad face with eye drops appeared in the thought bubble. That was amazingly handy at confirming how Dusk was feeling. Part of me wondered if Requiem Mass had one for my [Red Imp] body. Hopefully, that thought bubble showed him being stabbed over and over.

  “Aw, it’s okay if you can’t come. Someone has to keep my autopilot in line.” I said, to which the [Messenger’s Pet] nodded. “Where are we going anyway?”

  The [Messenger’s Pet] shrugged. I looked forward at Shazam. She had a hand on the lead for my [Caliburr] and was riding her own slowly. Shazam’s other hand was poking at the air nearby. The woman’s expressionless gaze hadn’t faltered once in my presence.

  “Hi, Shazam. I’m back.” I said.

  She gave me a single thumbs up and went back to fiddling with something in front of her. I assumed it was a player interface of some sort. Shazam was one of the first people I had noticed using the interface like that. Most Travelers just went blank for a moment when focusing on system menus.

  “Where are we going?” I asked again.

  Shazam turned to look at me. She pointed to my side a few times. I looked down and saw the scroll case.

  “Oh. Messenger stuff.” I said.

  She gave me a thumbs up again and turned around.

  “That reminds me, I spoke to your Voice,” I said. Shazam’s Voice had been a slightly heavyset Voice who wore a lab coat. “Irene, right? She seemed…” Nice was not the right word. “Clinical.”

  Shazam gave me another thumbs up which made me frown. A simple acknowledgment was not the reaction I expected when talking about someone’s personal Voice. At least, that wouldn’t be my reaction. Was she really so passive to everything? If anyone else ran up to me and said ‘I know you have an Ultimate Edition’ my freak out meter would skyrocket. Even Beth didn’t know.

  “How much further?” I asked.

  She shrugged. Dusk had a thought bubble that showed a tiny version of himself and a small collection of buildings super far away.

  “Oh? Are we going to a city?” I asked him. Shazam turned and gave me a backward glance. Her head bobbed in affirmation. She looked a lot different in the plate garb compared to our snowy mountain top furs.

  “And you’re going with me?” I waited, but she had stopped answering my questions. A minute passed before I realized she had gone into autopilot mode. There was a clear symbol next to her head that depicted a tiny bed.

  “Guess it’s just us,” I said to Dusk. He huffed and took flight off across the landscape. “Or just me.”

  I needed time to situate myself anyway. This was my first time on a real road outside of town and I wanted to relish the change of pace. The scenery felt like every documentary of old England to show on television. Rolling countryside, gray skies in the distance, trees, all of it was pleasantly normal.

  My prior adventures had amounted to sitting in a town, crawling through a cave fighting mud golems, and weeks on the top of a snowy mountain. It would be much neater if I could ride a giant flying creature over the lands.

  The [Caliburr] shuddered. Teeth rattled and everything about me shook as the beast huffed and sniffled. Bindings across my legs held in place amid messages of skill checks regarding [Horsemanship] and [Reaction]. I grabbed the saddle in front of me and prayed that this violent seizure fit wouldn’t send me flying. Eventually, it settled and we started forward again.

  I tilted my head to look at the giant creature moving along under me. One eye stared back for just a moment before its ear batted and I was dismissed. Shazam’s creature had done the same violent shaking process, but her character seemed completely undisturbed. Even her autopilot was cool and unflappable.

  “Oh.” There was another box about my skill going up simply for surviving the shuddering action from my [Caliburr]. That was probably the reason Shazam had us on these things. She had given me training in the mountains following the same pattern.

  Muteness had not prevented Shazam from succeeding at this game. Her skills as a teacher seemed focused on subjecting me to varied experiences. As a result, there were a lot of random skills on my character sheet.

  Nothing on it was super amazing or world nuking. The game seemed to think I did slightly more damage with my right hand, but I was a lefty. Closing my eyes allowed my sense of smell to increase slightly. The hatred of bugs I had started weeks ago was fully developed. All sorts of weird things like that.

  My player inventory was also a cluster of random items. Most of the things we picked up in the mountains were used right away as food or crafting supplies. Shazam had been in charge of nearly everything with regards to monster remains. I didn’t care about the loot. Why should I fight over a [Goo Pile] or [Furry Eyebrow]?

  “Alright. Hat, check.” [Wild Bill] was back on my head where it belonged. It gave enough shade to block out the worst of the sun’s glare. “Morrigu’s Gift, shoes, no cloak.”

  My gear was the basic Travelers Garb I had been plopped into the woods with. Maybe there was something neat at a store to pick up. That might be fun. Suddenly part of me wanted to go shopping just to see what was available.

  I wondered if it was possible to
send things in-game to other players. Maybe there was a souvenir in town that I could mail to Beth. Or better yet I could send one to Elane that said ‘Thanks for the memories’. The idea was quashed as it occurred to me. Being a jerk to her over our past wasn’t fair.

  Time passed slowly in-game. Nothing in my player inventory looked entertaining. I poked a finger and moved system windows around randomly. Something new appeared on my interface. What was this now? A box for quest items? Somehow that had escaped my notice earlier.

  I clicked one of them and pulled it out of inventory. What appeared in my hand was a scroll. The parchment was wrapped by a small piece of twine. Pulling on the string caused a system message to pop up.

  The words ‘see additional data file’ floated above the quest text. I pressed a finger towards the interface and a video came into being then started playing.

  “You have typed out the word Shazam as a character name. Why?” Irene was measuring something in a vial while Shazam stood there. It looked like they were both in the same character creation black zone that I had visited many times before.

  It was mildly interesting to see normal Shazam. She wore a sundress that hung loosely. There was a belt that seemed almost too straight. Shazam had no slouch, no turn of body, her entire form was rigid and faced a single direction. Dark skin still barely hid her freckles.

  There was a keyboard in front of her. Fingers tapped against the projection and finally a series of words appeared.

  The video imagery cut off. Clearly the word Shazam meant something in the real world. It wasn’t anything special right now so I put the research topic on my mental pile. These types of things were done while sitting in my Trillium van. For now, I would accept the quest and move onward.

  Next, figuring out these remaining scrolls. The one for this latest quest had crumbled to pieces. There were four more all with destinations and names attached. Were these players too?