by L. R. Wolf
“That would be my herbalism skill. At my current skill level it highlights the herbs in the area.” As she spoke she moved to the next herb. Her eyes continued to scan the shadows as she watched for any more gnolls that might be trying to sneak up on her again.
Noel continued to watch the stream she had projected onto the wall, enjoying the beauty of the forest surrounding Elohwa. She hadn’t had the time to explore the new area after they had come through the portal. A small voice behind her broke her out of her trance.
“What are you watching mommy?” Noel’s daughter had woken from her nap and come out of her room holding a purple teddy bear. The little girl climbed onto Noel’s lap.
“Just watching a friend play a new game, honey.” Noel turned her attention to Elohwa, “My daughter’s up from her nap so I should go. I’ll be around later tonight.” She minimized the stream back to her HUD. She could still watch the stream in her HUD, but she wanted to get some things done and do some research before tonight.
“Until then.” Noel had already minimized the stream so she didn’t see the sadness that had come over Elohwa’s face at being alone in the world once more.
***
Aya spent the next few hours fielding messages from friends and guildmates, looking up information about Infinity, and watching Elohwa through her HUD, all the while playing with her two babies and trying to keep them out of trouble. A new notification flashed, this one from one of her guildmates. The face of a sultry looking elven woman wearing a crown made of vines and wearing ornate leather shoulders appeared. Her voice was light and airy as she spoke.
Hey Aya! I heard about your incredible find. Actually, I think everyone heard about it, lol. Anyhow, the guild is trying to pool their money together to get the guild in Infinity started. If you want to donate towards the guild creation fee just send it to Hara. She’ll take care of it when she gets all the funds for it and can get to a capital city. Look forward to seeing you and Voks in game! P.S. We’re all posting screenshots of our avatars in the BAD forums. We’d love to have a pic of you, your hubby and your companion! -Wist
Noel hadn’t even thought about taking any screenshots. She had been entirely too busy taking in the sights. She made a note to do just that later, but in the meantime. she decided to cut the stream and head outside where the kids were playing in the pool with Ray.
***
Later that evening, Noel was rocking her son Donald to sleep as Ray was putting their daughter Jean to bed. Tonight Don was fighting it, he just absolutely refused to fall asleep. Noel sighed to herself. She decided to check back in with Elohwa through her stream. She flicked her eyes to the stream and then projected it up onto the wall. She watched as Elohwa was sneaking up on what appeared to be a rather large camp of gnolls. A few scouts kept watch around the perimeter as two much bigger gnolls stood by a fire, roasting some local wildlife. Three more gnolls seemed to be having a discussion in their barking language near the opening of a tent. She couldn’t see inside the tent as she wasn’t positioned to be able to see into the interior of the tent. Noel decided it would be a bad idea to initiate a voice chat right now as she didn’t want to startle Elohwa and possibly get her killed, instead she sent a private message.
“Evening! I see you’re stalking some gnolls so I won’t open a voice chat even though I know you’re the only one who can hear it. I just don’t want to distract you with so many enemies around. Just wanted to let you know we’re putting the kids down and should be there in an hour or so, if you need help with the camp.” She continued to rock little Don as he finally began to quiet down and rub his tired eyes.
“That sounds fine. I can begin the journey back to Vespa. If by some chance I do not arrive by the time you do then I shall use my recall spell to return quicker, but this way I can pick up some more materials on the way back. These gnolls should give the two of you some decent skill experience.” She watched as Elohwa slipped away from the camp, pulling up her map and marking the location so she could bring them here later. She then turned back towards Vespa and began the journey back before her Dreamer arrived.
Noel heard a soft noise coming from Don, she looked down to find him sound asleep and snoring. She smiled down at her little man as she quietly rose to her feet. She flicked her eyes to close out of the stream since she was about to head to bed. Ray was just coming out of Jean’s room; he closed her door gently so as not to wake her. Noel pushed open Don’s door with her foot and silently made her way to his crib where she gently lowered him in. She turned to leave when Don cried out briefly. She froze, trying desperately not to even breathe for fear it would wake him up fully. After a few tense seconds he settled down and fell back asleep. Noel went full on stealth mode. She quickly but quietly made her way the agonizingly long five feet from his crib to the door. Once she had slipped through the door she closed it as softly as she possibly could. She would have made any rogue proud! She turned away from the door and proceeded to the bedroom and the promise of an exciting night in Infinity.
Chapter 9: Adventures in Infinity
∆∆∆
Noel opened her eyes when she caught the scent of trees. She found herself kneeling in the spot that she had been in the previous night, right where she had auto logged when her body was about to wake in the real world. With a smile, she rose to her feet and looked around; above her, the elven starting area of Vespa was sprawled about through trees overhead. Her fear of heights caused an involuntary shudder to pass through her when she caught sight of a few of the many different races of Infinity moving across the platforms and bridges as if they were on solid ground. She turned her eyes away from the village as she looked back to the tree where Voksil had logged out. At the side of her vision she saw she was already in a party with Elohwa since she was Aya’s Companion. After a few minutes his avatar appeared and opened his eyes. He noticed Aya and gave her a big smile as he rose to his feet.
Aya looked around for Elohwa, she hadn’t seen Elohwa on her initial scan of the area, but because they were in the same party she could see the blue icon indicating her Companion’s position. She turned her head towards the marker just as Elohwa appeared from the shadows. Voksil joined the party a second later, his status appearing just to the left of Aya’s vision and under Elohwa’s name.
Elohwa approached Aya and offered a small brown cloth bag. Aya raised an eyebrow as she took it, she was surprised at the weight of the bag. Curious, she opened the bag and looked inside. There, in each inventory square were neat stacks of herbs, ore, pelts, meat and some various other loot. She gasped as she noticed there was also some coins in the bag amounting to 22 gold, 83 silver, 59 copper. “This is everything I gathered today. I also managed to find a camp of gnolls that should give you two some rather good skill experience and loot. Shall we?” Elohwa motioned to the east.
“Wait, don’t you want any of this?!” Aya looked to Elohwa in shock, she knew that Companions didn’t take loot cuts, but it had to have been quite a bit of work to have gathered all of this in just half a day.
“No, it all belongs to you, my Dreamer.” Elohwa turned away, her eyes scanning for any nearby herbs.
Aya’s inner pack rat was absolutely hysterical with delight. She blinked, conflicted, her emotions going from absolute joy and excitement to dismal guilt at feeling like a loot hog. To have things to craft or sell, something that would bring in money, brought her joy and excitement. However, not sharing them with her Companion, the one who had actually done the hard work, brought her feelings of shame and guilt. Elohwa stared at the Dreamer, various emotions playing out across the woman’s face, but she wasn’t sure why.
Aya finally made up her mind, she pulled out half of the herbs, ores, and pelts and only ten gold as well as a ring and bracelet, both with +1 dexterity on them since she planned to use a bow, the rest she handed back to her Companion. It was Elohwa’s turn to look shocked.
“What is this for? Is something wrong with the rest? I can find more…” Elohwa’s voice t
railed off. She really wasn’t sure what to say or do, she had never expected a Dreamer to voluntarily divide loot with a Companion.
“No no, it’s all fine, I just...I can’t possibly take all of that. You were the one doing all of the work. Besides, you can use it to craft your own stuff right?” Aya had been looking through various articles all day. Now that the game had actually launched and a Companion had been found, information from the beta tests was now allowed to be released regarding some aspects of the companion. Besides being able to be sent out to gather various things, Companions, unlike mercenaries who could only gather when the Dreamer was offline, could actually advance themselves. They could, in essence, do everything a Dreamer was capable of doing from crafting items to gaining skill experience while the Dreamer was away and training up their skills how they wanted if they were left to their own devices.
Voksil, who was standing just to the side raised an eyebrow as he feigned surprise. “You’re giving up loot? You? What have you done with my wife??” He smirked, as Aya leveled a glare his way.
Elohwa ignored Voksil’s comment and just stared at her Dreamer, unwilling to believe that someone would actually give up more than half the loot she had obtained for them. After her own internal conflict she took the bag back and attached it to her belt. “Thank you, Aya. Shall we go gnoll hunting?” Elohwa turned back to the East. Aya and Voksil following her through the thick brush of the forest. As they walked, Aya withdrew her bow, a quiver of arrows appearing at her hip. She went over the spells she had learned in her mind so that she’d be able to cast them when the time came. She slid the ring onto her finger and placed the bracer on her right wrist, suddenly feeling more graceful. She suddenly started laughing aloud as she thought how great it would be to have items like this in the real world as she was somewhat less than graceful. Voksil and Elohwa both turned questioningly as she chuckled. With a shake of her head, they both shrugged and continued on. As they moved through the woods, Elohwa would occasionally kneel down to pick any herbs she came across. Aya could hear animals scurrying away from them as they moved. It took almost an hour to get to the gnoll camp. As they got closer, Elohwa held her hand up to stop them and then put a finger to her lips. With a thought Aya turned her attention to the chat box. If nothing else they could communicate via typed chat. Elohwa wrapped her cloak around her tighter and then slipped into the shadows seeming to completely disappear from view. All Aya or Voksil could see of her was the blue indicator on the map showing where group mates were.
Party chat-Elohwa “Going to try and pull the scouts back to you. INCOMING!”
Aya watched as the blue mark seemed to fly back towards them. Voksil raised his shield in front of him and unsheathed his long sword while Aya notched an arrow to the string of her longbow. They could hear the guttural barking of the gnolls who were chasing after Elohwa. Seconds later she burst out of the underbrush. She turned quickly raising both of her short swords in a defensive position, Aya raised her bow and pulled the string back to her cheek just as the first gnoll scout barreled out of the underbrush.
Gnoll Scout-This Gnoll is small and wears a brown armband denoting his position of Scout within his clan.
Skill Level 10
The scout skidded to a stop in the dirt as it realized Elohwa wasn’t the easy prey he thought she would be. Aya let loose with her arrow. The string of the bow scraped along the inside of her arm causing her to cry out as the arrow flew wide of the target.
“MOTHER FUUuuu.” Aya dropped the bow and held her throbbing arm to her chest gritting her teeth in pain. Voksil rushed forward slamming his shield up into the gnoll’s chin as the gnoll howled a warning to his companion who was a few steps behind him, his sword flashing forward piercing the scout’s arm. Elohwa charged towards the second scout who had just appeared out of the brush. She brought both blades across from left to right catching the second scout across the chest, leaving bloody gashes in their wake. Aya kept her left arm held to her chest while she brought her right hand up in a gesture.
“Fireball!” A ball about the size of a softball and made completely of fire appeared in her hand. She sighted in on the first gnoll and pushed her hand forward towards it. The fireball shot from her outstretched hand slamming into the gnoll’s chest. His health dropped twenty percent. Elohwa continued to dance around the second gnoll keeping him distracted while Voksil kept the first off balance by constantly attacking it with his sword and bashing it with his shield. With another brief gesture and word Aya summoned entangling vines around both gnolls allowing Voksil and Elohwa to retreat for a few seconds to catch their breath.
“Fireball!” Another gesture and a new fireball appeared in Aya’s hand which she again threw at the first gnoll. The gnoll yelped in pain as this one slammed directly into his face landing a critical hit and causing his fur to burn. The smell of burnt fur and flesh filled the air. The gnoll dropped to the ground rolling in the dirt, trying to put out the fire that was raging across his body from the critical hit. Voksil brought his sword down across the gnoll’s neck, ending his misery.
Aya honed in on the gnoll bound by her vines. She raised a hand and yelled, “METEOR!” Everyone looked up as clouds formed just over the head of the gnoll. His eyes growing wider as the ground began to quake under him. Once the clouds above him parted it revealed a small pebble, barely larger than the size of a pea. The miniature meteor plinked off the gnoll’s snout before it landed on the ground. All eyes were looking at the small rock in shock, no one had expected that, everyone believed the mighty effects of the rest of the spell would have heralded something a bit bigger. The gnoll managed to shake himself free of the shock and leveled a glare at Aya. He raised his spear and shook it threateningly as he continued to struggle against the vines holding him. With a furious howl, he broke free of the bonds of Aya’s spell and leapt towards her, anger and rage clouding his features.
Elohwa rolled to the side which placed her under the flying gnoll with her blades shooting up and impaling the gnoll. His forward momentum caused the blades to tear through his body killing him almost instantly, his body falling at Aya’s feet. Once the battle was over Aya suddenly felt light-headed at having used most of her mana on a handful of spells, she stumbled forward and was caught by Elohwa before she fell.
Elohwa shoved a blue vial into Aya’s hand, “Drink this, it will help with the mana exhaustion. Aya opened the vial and sniffed at it, the smell of peppermint wafting up her nostrils. She took a small swig of the blue concoction to taste it before suddenly downing the rest in a gulp.
“Mmm, that tastes just like candy canes!!” Aya’s mana bar started to rise as the mana potion quickly regenerated what she had lost. As her mana increased she began to feel much better. “Thanks. Not sure what happened there.”
“If you use too much mana too fast you become exhausted. Just like if you run too far, you will ache and become tired as your stamina falls.” She gently reached for Aya’s injured arm. “May I?” Aya gingerly held her arm up so that Elohwa could exam it. Aya had managed to scrape the top skin off her inner arm from just below her elbow to just before her wrist when she had attempted to use the bow. A nasty bruise was already starting to form. Elohwa then pulled out a red bottle from her bag. Popping the top off, she poured a bit of it on Aya’s arm before she handed the rest to Aya to consume. Aya had flinched when the liquid came in contact with the wound, but as she watched, the tiny bit of liquid spread across the entirety of the wound. The bruise was swiftly beginning to fade and new skin was starting to form where it had been scraped off. “Drink the rest of that to help the healing and get rid of the pain.”
Aya once again sniffed at it. This one smelled like cinnamon. In one gulp, she downed the vial of red liquid. “That one reminds me of cinnamon candy.” Memories of being younger and crunching on her favorite cinnamon candy flashed through her mind briefly. Elohwa chuckled at the faraway look in Aya’s eyes.
“Potions taste different to everyone depending on what they like
.” Elohwa explained, ”The tastes can even change if the imbiber wants something different. For me, the mana potions taste like shadow berries from back home, the health potions taste like cherries and the stamina potions taste like apple cider.”
“Now that’s a really nice feature!” Voksil approached the two women and looked at Aya’s quickly healing arm. “Ouch, that must have hurt.” He frowned a bit imagining the pain. He had felt every blow on his shield and the resistance of his blade on the flesh of the gnoll, but he hadn’t taken any damage from the blows.
“It sure as hell did!” Aya picked up the bow and slid it back into her bag, the quiver disappearing from her hip as the bow went into her inventory. “I think I’ll stick with magic for a bit until I have time to actually train with a bow, cause that definitely was not like using a bow in other games, definitely much more lifelike.” She shook her arm again at the memory of the pain that had shot through her arm. It felt so very real. She remembered when her mom had attempted archery when Aya was a child and how her mom had come home with a bruised arm very much like this. At least with the magic she only felt a bit more airy than usual when her mana dropped.
Elohwa moved away from the pair and knelt down by the body of the second gnoll to loot it, her eyes travelling to the pebble a few feet from the body. She approached the pebble and picked it up, holding it up to her eye as if closely examining it. “I thought it would be bigger…”
Voksil snickered, “That’s what she said,” at the same time that Aya responded with, “did she really just say that with a straight face?” They turned to one another laughing. Elohwa turned towards them still holding the mighty meteor pebble in her hand, her eyebrows raising questioningly as she didn’t seem to understand the joke the two shared. Voksil was laughing so hard there were tears streaming out of the corners of his eyes. Aya was doubled over and gasping for air. Elohwa shook her head still not understanding, but laughed at the two of them.