by K. T. Hanna
The set increased her mana regen, her overall MA, her intelligence and mana pool, not to mention her charisma and hit points. All together the set added an extra two hundred mana and hit points to her pool.
When factoring in the set bonuses, it seemed oddly overpowered. Not that she minded, but she could already hear what people like Jirald were going to say.
“Holy shit, Murmur.” Sinister looked like her eyes were going to jump out of her face. She seemed completely and utterly enamored with the circlet that Murmur held in her hands. “That is gorgeous. They all match! So freaking cool!”
A sound, somewhat like an alarm, echoed through Murmur’s head, interrupting her moment with Sinister. The flickering of a notification in the corner of her vision grabbed her attention. Thinking it open, she watched in surprise as a message popped up.
Congratulations, your Mental Affinity level has increased to level Five. Your base MA has increased to 250.
Due to constant use, you have upgraded your innate kinetic Forcefield Barrier. With a single thought, you can coat your body with fortified Forcefield Armor.
Forcefield Armor
Use: this is a protective ability, allowing the Psionicist to coat themselves in a protective kinetic layer of armor. This enables the caster to up their defense effectively and consistently.
Duration: Kinetic Forcefield Armor will last as long as the caster wills it to, or if under heavy attack, as long as the MA pool allows it to last.
Warning: this ability can remain indefinitely unless the caster takes copious amounts of damage. Should the Psionicist come under attack, and the Kinetic Forcefield Armor be required to absorb levels of damage, it will begin to drain the MA pool and only last as long as the remaining MA points allow it to. The armor will pull five MA per second as long as it is under attack. This amount can be reduced the more this ability is used, allowing mastery of Kinetic Forcefield Armor.
Murmur ran over the information in her head. She’d forgotten that her MA abilities were going to level once she had hit the cap. It had been so long since she received new MA abilities that weren’t of her own design that she didn’t know what to expect now she had finally reached fifty. Even though she’d already sort of used something like this Forcefield Barrier.
“Murmur?”
The enchanter blinked and looked over at Sinister and felt a bit guilty at the concern mirrored in her best friend’s eyes. “Sorry, had a pop up. It seems I have a new skill.”
Sinister laughed, and it was a merry sound. For a second, Murmur imagined not being in the dank depths of the dungeon going through her new abilities and new gear, but instead to just be like they had been when they were children. The sheer joy Harlow always found in life reflected through to her bloodmage and to every character that she’d ever played.
“Love you, Sin.” Murmur leaned her head on Sinister’s shoulder and wished for a moment that she could just fall asleep that way. Sinister’s arm snaked around Murmur’s waist and hugged her close. They sat there like that for just a moment.
“While I would like nothing more than to sit here like this with you, we have work to do. Including…” Sinister’s eyes gleamed with a bit of greed at the pile of scrolls sitting in her chest. “I mean, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to have some awesome spells in here, but I’m not fifty yet, so let me live vicariously.”
Murmur smiled and sat up straight reaching into her own chest to pull out the pile of scrolls in there. But before she could open any of them, a raid wide message popped up in dripping golden letters for everyone to see.
Congratulations on defeating the first of three essential dungeons that contribute toward the end game content. You have been bound by this dungeon and must complete the remaining two in order to gain the final keys.
All raid members currently in this zone may not leave. A portal will be opened to the next zone located on Firtulai. You may not visit any town, city, or harbor. You may retain access to your personal chats, your guild chats, and your guild and personal vaults.
This is nonnegotiable. Should any of the members require respite, you may log out for up to four real world hours at a time. Should your log out exceed the time limit, you will not be permitted to enter Somnia again until all three dungeons have been cleared.
You may only swap out members of the raid party should someone exceed their log out time.
Good luck, and may the will of Somnia be with you.
Somnia Online
Continent Tarishna: Back Room of the Ululate Tavern.
Assassin Headquarters
Early Day Twenty-Seven
Riasli had stood in this room for the last few hours, her eyes an array of flashing lights as her coding suffused the system, fighting against the anti-virus algorithms. Sidius allowed himself a small victory smile. It seemed she was losing, or he hoped she was.
He knew she would know the moment he tried to leave, so he chose to bide his time, and instead, he hunkered down, stood his ground, and fed his own information into the algorithms that were fighting her with such gusto. He’d slowly been reinforcing them, giving them the knowledge of the properties that some of the getashi had.
It was slow going, because it had to be. If he approached it any other way, it’d be discovered too easily and stopped in its tracks. He was playing a dangerous game, far more volatile than trying to be human like his siblings. No, he was trying to save Somnia as a whole and the humans attached to it in the process. He hadn’t been able to get Emilarth to ingest one of the getashi, but she had always been strong, and he wasn’t as worried about her. Luckily, forcing one into Telvar had worked. His brother had trusted him and made it so much easier than it could have been.
Even now, Telvar’s systems were compensating for it, becoming stronger, making Somnia stronger by proxy.
All Belius had to do was follow the plan. He’d managed to chase Murmur away, which hadn’t been his initial intention, but he was bad at interacting with humans and most AIs—okay, most everything.
Somnia took him by surprise. He hadn’t expected that development, but he’d use it any way he could. It was too late to change the plan now anyway. Either they were going to succeed, or else every single one of them would wink out of existence. While he wasn’t certain what the backlash on human brains attached to the world would be if that occurred, he was quite certain it wouldn’t be good.
He’d seen the signs even if others hadn’t. He knew what he had to do, but he’d always had difficulty asking others to help him. And he’d approached Murmur in the wrong way to accomplish it. Frankly, he’d probably fucked up with Rav, too. But he wasn’t human, and people shouldn’t expect him to be good with them.
Sidius made sure to keep an eye on Riasli. This body he was in wasn’t his original and therefore didn’t have access to all of his abilities, which could pose a problem depending on what she was visiting him for. But she’d been standing still and in the same place for a few hours now. He hadn’t been able to move and so was limited to what he could do while waiting for her to act.
He was really getting sick of having to monitor the raids through Jirald. The man could be so stubborn; it made Murmur look like she was easy to manipulate.
Riasli cracked her neck, and a soft purr escaped her jaws. “That took longer than expected. Sorry about that.” She didn’t sound sorry, nor, by the narrowing of her eyes and the snide little smile that tugged at her cat-like lips, did she appear to be sorry.
Such empty words from such an empty vessel. Sometimes Belius felt like he was an old soul trapped in a machine. He didn’t bother answering her but waited, softly tapping Sidius’s foot and crossing his arms.
“Did I keep you waiting?” she purred out languidly.
Sidius shook his head. “Not at all. I had several checks and algorithms to run. All the balances must be maintained, after all.”
Her eyes
narrowed, and she took a few steps closer to. him. Which was all well and good, but when he thought about it, they were closer than it appeared, because they were code. Just a mass of algorithms and numbers, thrown together to make a whole. To move and become, to delete if necessary.
The only thing was, it wasn’t entirely true anymore. Belius had, at last, figured out a way into Michael’s lair.
He allowed the master assassin’s vessel to move deliberately as he eyed Riasli. “Of course, everything must be maintained so it’s more effective when brought down, wouldn’t you say?”
Riasli’s eyes widened and she smiled, malice in the expression. “I knew you wouldn’t disappoint.”
“What. The. Fuck. Was. That.” It was probably the only time in Murmur’s history of knowing him that Jirald was speaking for everyone.
While Jirald spoke into silence, it was like his words broke the dam. Everyone started talking at once in groups of two and three, some people shouting, others yelling for the Guild leaders. Most of them finally came to rest their gazes on Murmur.
Raising herself from the ground, Murmur noticed the subtle difference in the locus joints once again. It was such a random observation it almost made her laugh, but in the face of the current situation that would be a very poor show.
People were left muttering now; the noise died down from the crescendo it had reached. For that, she was glad. Clearing her throat, Murmur tried to look over everyone, to meet everyone’s eyes. She could feel their bewilderment, and from the guilds that weren’t her own, there was an underlying sense of suspicion as if Fable should’ve known this was a possible outcome.
“Well, to assuage some of your fears, I was hoping we could all grab a nap after this fight.” There were a few nervous giggles amongst the raiders, but it was enough encouragement for Murmur to continue. “From our history of completing the other dungeons, I would never have thought something like this could happen. It never has before. I am truly sorry. I know we’ve all been pushing hard since the game launched, and we’re all in need of some sleep.”
She glanced around and saw that Masha was nodding at her with encouragement, and Risk’s arms were folded, and he wore an expression of gruff irritation. She took that as an indifferent agreement. “On the bright side, at least once we hit fifty, Somnia is providing us with spells in the chest rewards. Yay for saving money and not being stuck without our upgrades while we continue through these next two dungeons.”
Murmur paused to orient her speech. “Make sure you’ve removed your level fifty upgrades from your chests and place them in your inventory. That way you’ll have them available no matter when you hit the cap.”
Ivinel, the Spiral bard, cleared her throat and spoke nervously. “I got my abilities, and actually an amazing lute upgrade. I know I’ll personally do my best to play as long as I need to, but I also know I would really appreciate the chance to nap and grab some food.”
There was a murmured chorus of agreement, and everybody looked back to the Fable guild leadership. This time Veranol stepped up, and Murmur couldn’t have been more grateful. The shaman had really stepped up ever since Murmur took his advice about allowing the others to help. Well, advice, lecture—it was a very fine line.
“If there is anyone here who cannot remain for what will probably be another day—full day, as in twenty-four earth hours—please raise your hand now so we can have you time out while we are prepping and therefore replace you sooner.” Veranol gazed around at the entire raid, and not one person raised their hand. He cracked a smile, which gave his viking visage a momentary jolly appearance. “Excellent. Then in twenty minutes after everybody has managed to go through their spells and their loot, we will set up a call chain.”
Masha laughed. “I haven’t taken part in a call chain for a very long time. This should be fun.”
“Fun for you, maybe.” Risk glared at his fellow guild leader. “If I wake my wife, I’ll be sleeping on the couch.”
The tension in the raid was gone. Whether intentional or not, Risk’s joke with the other guild leaders was the last thing needed to dissipate the unease.
Veranol continued. “We will need volunteers to take two-hour shifts. Two from each group must volunteer because one of us will need to be awake and online at all times. The first will sleep for two hours while the second stays online, and then wakes up the first and swaps. The first will be required to begin the call chain for your group when three and a half hours have passed. Everybody must have the notification systems on. If you do not wake up on time, both the system and we will have to boot you and replace you. No one gets an exception, because the system will not allow one.”
Murmur suppressed a shudder at Veranol’s words. He was right; at least that’s how she’d understood the message the system gave them.
He’s correct. You all are. I can’t do anything about how this has been set up. But I can assure you your plan for rest will work if executed correctly.
Murmur nodded, hoping Somnia understood it was directed at her.
Most of the raiders stood fidgeting slightly, none of them making eye contact. An air of apprehension spread around among them, as if they were nervous about the possibility that they might miss the raid of their lives. And yet there was still hesitance because it was unheard of for final dungeons to link themselves together and essentially allow no escape.
Masha clapped his hands together, and every person in the cavern turned their gaze on the cleric. “All right, then, each group needs to pick two people who vouch for being responsible enough to make sure the others wake up. The first person in each group to get their two-hour nap will essentially be raiding the next dungeon on that amount of sleep. So choose wisely, and know your limits.”
“And if no one in your group thinks they are capable of staying awake for an entire raid after only two hours sleep, then I guess you’re in the wrong raid.” Risk laughed at his own joke. It was the first time since they’d defeated the Usurper that Murmur saw him smile. The dread knight was difficult to read. He continued, his voice back to the gruff and serious tone. “Seriously though, if you don’t think that you can make it through the next raid without making sleep deprivation induced mistakes, tell us, and I’m sure we can swap some group members around for this.”
Murmur was relieved that others were able to take charge and give orders. Right now, her head was overwhelmed with sensations as the remaining infected Ciricians were cleansed and rejoined their actual leader.
Sinister grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly, maintaining the contact to lend comfort. Murmur wondered when it was that she had become so used to her sensing nets that she could simply tell what the people around her were feeling without actively engaging her abilities. Portions of the Psionicist class appeared to be getting more dangerous the more powerful she became. It was all so tempting to use without even thinking twice.
Merlin patted her on the back none too gently and stood at her side. “Hey there, Mur, gonna show us what sort of pretty spells you got in your chest?” His smile was kind and perhaps a little bit big brotherly. Murmur liked Merlin, and playing this game with him had only deepened their friendship.
“Well, if I can refrain from being interrupted again, I might actually get a chance to look at them myself.” She winked at him, squeezed Sinister’s hand, and headed back to her chest to sit down and rifle through her new abilities.
She activated the other notification screens that she hadn’t yet read. There were a few of them. Double checking that none of them were dire messages from her mother, father, or any of the AIs who ran the game, she turned to the first of her level notifications.
Congratulations, you have reached level fifty. Your Mental Acuity abilities have reached level five. Please be advised of the following:
Your sensory devices allowing you to sense thought, shield thought, and project thought have reached Master level. This mea
ns that these abilities will always be active unless you choose consciously to deactivate them.
Warning: be advised this will make all of those around you susceptible to any suggestion you place force behind. This ability can be abused, and in the process, may corrupt your mind. Please exercise caution when thinking, speaking, and during disagreements.
Note: due to the fact that these abilities are now automatic, their ability to regenerate your Mental Acuity points is increased. Your regeneration will be constant and fuel your ability to maintain more of your Mental Acuity abilities at a time.
Caution: be aware of how many abilities you are using at any given moment. While the points may allow you to juggle many of them, most of your MA abilities have very specific limitations for a reason. Pay mind to which ones you use, and be prepared for any backlash you incur.
Remember: you have already exhibited the inclination to mold your Mental Acuity abilities to serve your current purposes. Always pay heed to your own limitations. The sky might be the limit, but make sure your wings don’t lose their feathers...
Otherwise, enjoy the increase in your Mental Acuity abilities and be a responsible user.
Murmur blinked at the notification. She wasn’t entirely sure that she liked this turn of events. It didn’t appear to be a choice, but a compulsory change. There were so many potential drawbacks. It wasn’t even something she could accept or decline. Her MA skills had increased and improved, and there was no choice in the matter.
Her next notification was the true level fifty congratulations. She let out a pent-up sigh of relief glad to see that at least something seemed to be normal.
I didn’t realize you appreciated normal so much.
Murmur rolled her eyes before responding. Not necessarily. Some of these abilities seem to make themselves up on the spot, and I’m not entirely sure how to deal with that. Normal progression wouldn’t be a bad thing.