“You seem to misunderstand the nature of our arrangement. I am the master, and you are the servant. How many times must I remind you of this?” Requiem asked. He slammed the cleaned sword down into the ground rapidly. It was much closer to my face than the first one.
I smiled happily. Death was a release of character, and there was nothing frightening about that to me. Most physical pain was very transitory in the world of Continue Online. However dying might mean this precious item would be left behind. There was another option that might help me secure the loot.
“Tell me what you have?” Requiem demanded an answer again. I ignored him and clenched my teeth as pain shot through me.
“Nnngh.” Noise escaped me. I closed both eyes and focused on my body shifting from one spot to another. The thought relayed over and over showing me under Requiem at one moment, then elsewhere another.
[Blink] triggered and the world spun. I found myself standing up with one foot squishing into something’s leftovers. Looking around caused brief vertigo. My [Blink] had placed me on top of the broken ceiling’s remains with the dead eyeball chunks beneath me.
“What? Where did…” Requiem sounded confused from somewhere behind me.
I stared at the object in my hand and promptly used [Identification]. The results made me grind my teeth in annoyance. Still, the percentage bar increase had been my primary goal. Once things settled with Requiem then I could look at the rank increase and hope it was worth revealing my secret ability.
Turning it into a bound item like the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] was impossible. There was only one way to prevent Requiem from taking it. I swallowed the [Seer’s Tear] quickly. The object hurt going down. My health dropped a few more percentage but the synchronization bar went up. It was a win all around for me.
Requiem was yelling from behind me. I hadn’t heard his words over the sensation of my insides trying to digest a marble-like object. My face slowly straightened out as I turned to face my contractor.
“What? Whatdo youwant jeez?” I said while tapping my foot.
“What was that?” He asked. Requiem was ignoring the dead bodies around us for once and looking directly at me.
“Stupid. Itwas dumb butnow, it’s mine.” That was all the answer regarding the [Seer’s Tear] I would provide Requiem. This loot truly was useless on its own and Requiem would never let me get the other half.
“Not that, you obnoxious little imp. How did you get over there?” He said.
“Also nonya,” I said happily.
“I order you to tell me during the next ten seconds exactly what you used.” Requiem had weeks in-game herding my [Red Imp] around. The teen could actually nail down an order fairly well when he tried.
“I blinked.” My sharp teeth cut at each other. The ARC relayed irritated feelings into action. I missed the days of Carver’s delayed reactions to all my internal thoughts.
“Blinked?” Requiem paused and tilted his head. “How long have you been able to do that?”
“Since before you were born,” I answered truthfully. Part of me was giddy that the Voices let me get away with such clear abuse of the system.
I saw him pause again.
“Fine. Whatever it is, that’s your one loot. Everything else is mine.” Requiem growled and grabbed both swords out of the ground. He didn’t even bother cleaning them off a second time. Both vanished into his player inventory.
The next hour was spent cleaning up after dead bodies and inspecting everything nearby. Requiem seemed to have a beginner mining skill and set about digging through rubble for nearby veins and loot. I was bored enough to log out and take a break.
Once outside the ARC, I shook from the adrenaline rush. Fifteen minutes of real life had passed and it wasn’t enough to calm my physical body down completely. I paced around the house and grabbed at my hair.
The one trump card I had was ruined. [Blink] was no longer a hidden skill to save for later. Knowing Requiem, he was planning ways to abuse my [Red Imp] character even more. Could he do anything special with the [Blink] skill? I had no good ideas at this point. There was a noise in the background that was distracting me.
“Someone answer the damn phone!” I shouted. Maybe the irritation flooding me was caused by hunger. Not one sweet piece of food had passed my lips in the weeks of Continue Online. It was normally grab and go food or lunch bars. Soreness from the EXR-Sevens stacked on top to make everything unbearable.
I grabbed part of the door frame to my room and tried leaning into various stretches. They were nearly useless inside the ARC. Real life muscle stiffness couldn’t be resolved by sleeping in a bed all day. Especially not one that put my physical body through endless muscle spasm cycles to simulate cardio and light weight lifting.
The ringing kept going. “Someone get the phone!”
It took me a moment to realize that I was alone in my house. There was no one to answer the phone but a computer or me. I sighed and felt foolish. Part of me had been so dazed by being in the ARC with my old house, and the prospect of Xin that it felt like old times. Back when I had a job with a staff of coworkers.
“Grant here,” I answered my own phone with an irritated voice command.
“Mister Legate.” Vice President Riley’s face popped onto my screen. I blinked a few times. Her face was still plain though her hair looked a bit shorter. There was a ring around the woman’s eyes that felt more disheveled than the last time we conversed.
“Miz Riley,” I said carefully. Part of my mind was in [Red Imp] mode. Rushing words together or avoiding real answers would not go over well.
“Mister Legate, I wanted to talk to you personally about this, but there’s not enough time.” She avoided sighing, but her eyes seemed to yawn from exhaustion. “I had a report run on your ARC software and found that you’ve never confirmed having a Touchstone.”
“A what?” My mind ran through all the ARC software I had been through over the years. Slowly a vague memory sprung up. Touchstones were safety measures for the hyper realistic mind bender games.
“A Touchstone. Based on your latest reports regarding the Voices I believe you will find yourself in need of one soon.” Miz Riley said. Her gaze drifted away from the screen and focused on something else. A hand waved off to one side shooing someone.
“Alright. I’ll do that.” I said.
“Good. That’s excellent. All of our Beta testers were advised to create them, and they come as a standard warning on horror games.” This time a sigh did escape her. She seemed to be waving someone off again but wasn’t getting the desired response.
“If you’re ever in doubt about our communications please come see me in person.” She said.
“Okay.” I was afraid to put too much thought into that. She had implied before that technology might not be trustworthy. Given the realism of the Voices, I was on the fence myself. Not that self-doubt was stopping me from logging in each night.
“Very well. Keep filing your reports, I am reading them. Farewell, Mister Legate.” Vice President Riley said. A strand of hair that had been pinned back fell forward across her face making the woman look even more disheveled.
“Bye.” The word didn’t even make it out of my mouth before our call disconnected.
I fired up the ARC display and took a look at Continue Online’s preview window. Requiem was fighting something with my [Red Imp] form freely using [Blink] to get around. Clearly the secret was out so even my autopilot didn’t care. They were moving a lot faster through the dungeon.
Maybe now using the skill would get easier. Even my autopilot’s reduced skill growth helped. The ability took a large portion of mana with each cast. It also required a huge amount of [Focus]. No wonder most people preferred saying the spells out loud, even if they sounded like poems from a teenager’s diary.
No. I would stick with my voiceless spell for however long the [Red Imp] character existed. Requiem Mass could chain cast fireballs without using any words, so I should be able to [Blink] a
round effortlessly after enough practice. The only trick was thinking about it hard enough that the ARC adapted correctly.
A few hours passed outside the box while my Touchstone was created. There were fairly simple rules with what they were and how to use one. Most people put something small, written with words near the ARC. Some games enjoyed having mind benders in them and would create lifelike simulations of places people knew. Touchstones helped separate fiction and reality.
After mine was in place I logged back into the [Red Imp] body. Requiem seemed unaware of the changeover between AI and human. We traveled through a few more of the tunnel’s twists and turns. There were other little monsters but nothing that Requiem couldn’t handle on his own. I floated behind wondering if my choice had been the right one. We were only halfway way through this dungeon according to him.
Supposedly there was a bigger boss creature down below. There was also this stupid item’s description about another half. I had wasted my loot choice on an object that needed both parts to work. It was aggravating but somehow expected.
“Howmuch further?” I asked.
“An hour, maybe two tops. We’ll have to rest up here.” Requiem took items out of his player inventory and started setting up a small camp.
“Whatever. We have to clear this place tonight and move on to the main castle. If everything goes right I’ll have all the tools needed to kill Freakinstain and get his half of the key.” The Traveler kept pulling out items, quaffing potions that made his face twist, putting on better armor.
“Key?” A squeak escaped me. I watched him discard one set of boots for another.
“Yes. The very one needed for this quest you’re so insistent upon.” Requiem sounded upbeat about finishing the quest. I know it made me happy to think about this strange adventure being over.
“Iam. Thenwe canbe done withthisplace.” I said happily.
Beth, my niece, had said that quests sometimes had layers. That occasionally another way through could be found. According to the Voices’ original description, this method should work. The Voices had clearly stated their only reason for wanting Requiem dead, in-game, was because he hadn’t completed the mission yet.
“Eat up,” Requiem said. He gestured to a pile of burned food. It looked worse than the cupcake had. This young man knew nothing of cooking.
“Fine.” I tried not to think about the taste. His food did provide a small buff to my mana regeneration. Working with him might be far better than working against him. Especially if this objective could be completed without needing murder.
We sat in camp while Requiem did a whole slew of preparations. He put oils on both the swords and checked the armor over. His body moved around through a series of stretches to temporarily increase his [Limberness]. The Traveler even ate his own food. That last one made my face turn to temporary disgust.
I, of course, was left to my own [Red Imp] devices. For the most part, it consisted of shifting my weapon around into other forms and trying to better use [Blink]. In the time it took Requiem to finish his farting around I managed to make another thirty-something attempts and got [Blink] to Rank two.
When I wasn’t low on mana from [Blink] attempts my mind focused on the new skills. [Awareness Heightening] seemed to use the ARC’s compression system to provide me a different perception of time. Using it once felt like every event where the Voices had spoken rapidly over my head, only not as intense. [Awareness Heightening] was closer to when I had watched the [Detached Vitreous] fall with loot.
[Pointier Points] was tied to my tail and teeth. They were even sharper so the first thing I did was accidentally stab my own leg. That caused Requiem to pause in his preparations for a bout of laughter. It made me frown while giving the twisting tail a glare. The silly thing had a mind of its own most days.
“Time to go.” Requiem stood up and everything from our little camp was back in his inventory. The younger man carried around far too many items for my liking.
“Okay. Letsgokill thiswhateverthing.” I said rather happily. We were finally making progress.
“Just down here,” Requiem said.
We stepped into a much larger cavern. There was a giant torch illuminating the room. My [Dark Vision] flipped off.
“Perfect. We can avoid the boss.” He said while looking around at the new room. This was smaller than the [Detached Vitreous]‘s cavern. The back wall with a torch seemed flat and three stories tall.
“How thewhat?” I asked.
“You stand over there, and I’ll stand over here.” Requiem pointed on the ground. There were two circles, one red, one green. I was fairly sure [Red Imp]s hated green but that was the one he ordered me to stand in.
Plus I was kind of working with the young man now. Even after weeks of trying to kill him. If we got along and completed everything then there would be no need for further unpleasantness.
“Okay. Overhere.” I flew across the distance. Between our two standing markers was something that looked like a coffin. This body was absurdly short and couldn’t get a good view.
“Alright, now stay there and don’t move until I tell you to.” He ordered. Now I was stuck in place regardless of my cooperation or not. Some orders were easier to loophole than others.
We both stood in our spots and the room started to rumble. I looked up, worried that another eyeball might float down at any moment and cast ugly icy bolts in my direction. No such thing happened.
The torch lighting up this giant cavern dimmed slowly and the top portion of the coffin slid off to one side.
“Excellent.” Requiem dashed over and looked inside. Soon he was laughing, not a friendly happy laugh, not a good joke laugh, but the kind of amusement that went with triumph over one’s enemies and possible world domination.
“What isit?” I shouted while trying to at least fly up.
“Good. This is exactly what I needed.” Requiem nodded and pulled something out of the coffin. Bones snapped under their own weight leaving behind a dull looking necklace with an eye on it. The Traveler lifted his new piece of equipment then slid it over his head.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Your replacement. With this necklace, I no longer need you.” Requiem turned so I could see the necklace easier. It glinted briefly and seemed to suck in more light. The torch up above still burned but its flame had tilted in his direction.
“Okay? But Ithought we werekilling that Freakinstain guy?” I said while ruffling my eyebrows together. A quick glance around revealed that there was only one real exit out of here. Why then, had Requiem done all the preparation ahead of time?
“You think I would ever work with you? You were only there to serve as a tool, and you clearly didn’t intend to do even that.” Requiem Mass smiled.
“We havea contract based on completing yourmission.” I tried to sound firm. My face felt cold and skin clammy. This was not how things were intended to go at all. He was screwing me over, and the Voices had me locked into this character until the quest was completed or Requiem released my [Red Imp] summons.
“Oh no. You, you’re still my familiar, and because of that, you can sit down here until I dismiss you.” He said. Requiem walked over to me and poked my chubby belly.
“When is that?” I said the words slowly.
“Eventually, once I kill Freakinstain, once I take this place for all it’s worth.” Requiem smiled at me. I thought about stabbing him with the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] but the system meted out more damage. That made the Traveler grin even wider. “And when there’s nothing left to milk from this place. Then I’ll release you.”
With that, Requiem left the room at high speeds. He had both swords out and seemed intent upon escaping.
The wall behind the empty coffin, where the torch sat with a dim remainder of light, groaned slowly. I turned and looked up while feeling abandoned, betrayed, and worried about the future of my quest to help Xin. Slowly the torchlight faded while the wall vibrated even more.
[Dark Vision] kicked in and the entire wall became visible.
It was a giant face missing one eye. The orb that remained was staring down at me. There certainly was a theme to this underground dungeon, and it stared me in the face.
“Requiem! I’llstab you!” I shouted. The wall groaned again while lips curled on either side to form a demented smile. My gaze traveled between the tunnel out and the wall looming over me.
Today had been going so well.
Session Thirty Six – Spite Unbound
One gross eye peered out of a muddy face to stare down at me. I remained inside the circle which glowed a light green. Standing here reminded me of the [Red Imp]‘s natural dislike for this color. It made perfect sense now. I was also learning to detest it.
Had the Voices seen far enough ahead to give me this warning? Maybe if I had stayed true to the character I could have protested my way out of standing on this side. There had to be something special about the side Requiem was on that let him escape without stirring the face’s ire.
“Let’s faceit.” I glanced around. “Neither of us expectedthis.”
The wall groaned again. Probably from my bad pun. No, wait, something else was clearly going on. I looked up and the face looked tired. The eyeball staring at me was heavy-lidded. It had been hard to tell because the eyelid was made of crumbling dirt.
“Rockabye baby?” I tried to hum but damage spiked through with a message regarding my order violation. “Aggghh.”
I tried to move away from the evil green circle beneath me, but another rod of pain crippled my character before it even got anywhere. The ARC feedback was muted so it only felt like slamming my head into a wall or bending a finger out of the socket. Neither one was worth risking repeatedly to break away from a boring situation.
So we sat there for ten minutes, just the wall and I. Well, the autopilot sat there while I dove off to the bathroom and downed a cup of coffee. The [Red Imp] was still unmoved a few minutes later which was good, I guess.
None of my normal tricks worked. I tried to cite cases where Requiem had told me to move in hopes that the computer would accept those as a counter order. Tapping my feet slowly to the beat of a lullaby didn’t put the creature to sleep. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] might be able to turn into a flute if I tried hard enough, but woodwinds were beyond my skills.
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