by K. T. Hanna
For a few seconds nothing happened.
As the vines dropped away, Rav opened his mouth and screamed.
Multagen was not what Murmur had imagined. Frankly, it seemed like by the time the developers got to the Firtulai Port City, they’d sort of lost their creative edge. It looked, for all purposes, like a European port in the Middle Ages, with some magical gnome fueled embellishments.
From a distance there were many two- and three-story Tudor-looking houses scattered up and down cobble stoned streets that led to a sturdy wooden dock. It would have been dwarfed by both Pelagu and Darshin. But there was also a sheen to all the buildings, like they sparkled in the right light. And with the clear sky shining down on it, the effect was magical.
She stole a look at Devlish as they pulled into the docks, but he had a soft smile on his face. He answered without looking at her or asking her what she thought. “I know it’s not what you were expecting, but that’s what I like about it.”
He turned around and motioned for everyone to follow them. Beastial was still green around the edges, sea travel not agreeing with him. Being in the immersive environment gave a new meaning to it all being in their heads. Murmur smiled despite her misgivings.
They stood at the exit, waiting impatiently. Most of the people on the boat were levels beneath them, and they stood out of the way, some of them looking up at the group with open awe.
“As soon as we disembark, head to the left. There’s a spot where we can take a sort of service road around to the main road and head straight for the Threshold.” Devlish’s tone held no nonsense. “If we need to do this sooner than later, then we don’t sight see. We have a job to do.”
Murmur glanced around at her friends. Every single one of them looked fierce, determined. They took this seriously. In stride, really. That the game needed their help. That the programmers were having difficulty with one of the coding glitches and were partially relying on them. It all compounded into pushing Murmur farther. She wanted to get this done so much.
Wren, we will have a few headsets ready soon. Let us know who you want them sent to.
Murmur blinked. That hadn’t seemed to come from her system, but from outside her head. Like in her bedroom back home or something.
It’s true. You’re able to span both worlds. Not in as much detail as you might like, but our connection has affected you. I apologize.
It’s okay. Murmur didn’t want Somnia to sound more stressed than she already was. No need. This is like an adventure.
You know, an adventure where we’re in a weird amount of danger, she added to herself, cringing as she realized the world would probably pick up on her sentiments.
As soon as the boat touched the dock and the ropes were lowered, Murmur and her guild disembarked and followed Beastial brusquely.
There wasn’t time to stand and stare at the wonderful intricacies of the city Murmur knew she was missing. From what she’d managed to glean so far, it was like a replica of medieval ports. The buildings seemed fascinatingly authentic with their wooden beams and clay mix walls. The magical sheen that made all the flowers in window pots brighter made the many flags that hung from rafters flutter in the breeze. Itfilled her heart with joy. It was so beautiful she almost wished she’d rolled a human. Only almost though.
Devlish was right. As soon as they reached the end of the path from the dock, weaving through small paths where they had to walk single file past smithies and what she thought were fisheries by the smell, they finally reached a large wooden gate.
Two guards stood on either side of it. Both of them lacerta.
They saluted Devlish as he ushered the rest of the group through the slowly opening gates.
“Be well, brother,” The one on the right commented as Devlish was the last to pass through.
“And to you too, brother,” he responded, his tone a grave one Murmur had rarely heard him use.
She didn’t even have to ask as he caught up to her at the head of their column. “Fighter’s guild.”
She nodded as he summoned his mount and called back to the others. “Mount up, double file! We have a bit of ground to cover. Let’s go!”
Murmur settled herself on her hovering disc, listening to Chi chatter with her sweet, bell-like tones, and focused on their destination. One key closer. They were almost there.
Somnia Online
Mikrum Isle
Day Twenty-One
Telvar toppled back onto the island through the portal, rolling at least fifteen feet away from his impact spot. He crouched over, clutching at his stomach with one hand while trying to rip the voices out of his head with the other. His brain wouldn’t cooperate, and he felt so tired, so overwhelmed that he could barely keep it together. Algorithms clashed, and his coding felt like it was ripping him apart.
The dragon within bubbled beneath his scales, threatening to burst out, wanting to rip free of the confines. Yet Telvar, despite the muddled mess his mind had become, knew without any doubt that he couldn’t let it do that.
Hiro rushed to his side, but whatever it was he was saying was drowned out by the noise in his head. Telvar was too consumed by pain to listen to anything else. There was no advice that could help him, no caring that could stop this. All he could do was fight it and weather the pain like a dragon would.
But wasn’t he a dragon. Originally. Wasn’t that the body he’d chosen as his first incarnation? If so, then why was he fighting reverting to it so much?
He knew the answer though, and it made him cringe. If he gave into it, he’d end up being consumed. The person he’d fought so hard to become, the humanity he’d sought so foolhardily would be for naught. He’d be taken over by the strong personality that sat with the dragon, encouraged by the shard, and by the shards it would nest upon. Fear at having his identity stolen from him was all that kept it at bay. He knew that given time, it would devour him.
It was inside now, squirming away toward his intestines, threatening to hurt him in so many ways.
Telvar heaved himself onto the ground, clawing with his hands to pull him toward the basement. He needed to feel cool. He needed to feel better.
Laying his head down on the cold tile in the kitchen was all he could think of. But Hiro was still there. He hadn’t left yet, he hadn’t abandoned him, and Telvar felt a brief flicker of something—perhaps friendship, perhaps hope. Either way, it was gone as fast as it had arrived leaving him bereft and uncomfortable.
Breath came uneasily, yet the comedy of the fact wore on him. He was a digital computation. He didn’t require air, and yet here he was, short on breath. Had he managed to become more human than he realized?
No. This had to be the getashi at work. Worming its way into his programming, leeching away all remnants of self.
Suddenly Hiro was at his side, next to his face. He knelt down and tried to offer a hand to Telvar, but the lacerta pushed it away. He couldn’t afford for the people he cared about to become infected as well and he had no idea if this could be contagious through touch in the game.
His entire set of brain algorithms was adjusting, changing, leaving his previous thoughts as a sort of distant memory. Like he’d dreamed it. Except he knew he hadn’t.
“Don’t…touch…me,” he panted, trying to hope that he’d come across properly.
And then Emilarth was there. Finally. Right there in front of him. Where the hell had she been when this happened? Why hadn’t she been in the room with him? It didn’t matter that he’d been there alone fixing things, doing something he couldn’t even remember anymore. He began to reach out to her, stretching a claw and then he realized that he couldn’t. He snatched it back, and hurt flashed briefly through her eyes before she, too, knelt down in front of him.
“Tel, what’s wrong? Talk to me?” Her tone was so soothing. Nothing like her usual trickster self. She was genuinely concerned.
But he sho
ok his head more. “I can’t. Don’t touch me. Don’t let him infect you too.”
She backed away, an expression of confusion on her feles features. “What do you mean? He who? Infect me how?”
He could tell she was running over all sorts of possibilities in her mind. And it was getting harder for him to form coherent words as he fought the enormous shard off. Slowly, he was losing this battle, every fiber of his coding told him that.
“Oh no.” Emilarth’s eyes widened, and her ears lay flat. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
The Illinish Threshold was not what Murmur expected. Though she wasn’t entirely sure what that was, she’d definitely not expected an empty field surrounded by barricades of sorts. Now she knew from what Devlish had said that it was anything but harmless, yet the field looked so unsuspecting. Perhaps that was its power.
Buffing up at one of the barricades, Murmur made sure she cast her buffs on every single person. They needed all the strength they could get.
“Mellow, don’t forget the cleaning spell before we head in.” She grinned at them and they laughed.
“Sure thing.” They were concentrating on their cauldron, bringing out vials that they threw to each of the raid members. Murmur glanced at the purple one she got, spying a bottle that seemed tailored to her specifically.
She glanced at Mellow, who grinned back at her.
“New skill.” They waggled their nonexistent alien eyebrows, giving a decidedly disconcerting expression.
Murmur glanced down at her statistics, biting her lip as she took them in. She really wished that she could have put her jewelry on already. Forty-six seemed impossibly far away. And breaking up her bonus from her set to put on her new half set wasn’t quite worth it right now. Almost, but not quite there.
CON 22 (47)
STR 10 (35)
AGI 20 (88)
WIS 12 (80)
INT 84 (197)
CHA 105 (248)
HP 741 (1016)
MANA 1236 (1406)
MA 175 (300)
Her stats were good. But not as much as she’d like. They needed to get the rest of their sets from these last two dungeons, and then finally take down whatever it was that was infecting this world.
Snowy wuffed air at her fingertips, and she scratched behind his ears, lending him her melee buffs as well. Glancing around at the rest of her small raid force, she couldn’t think of anywhere she’d rather be at this time, or without anyone else.
Quickly, she shot a message to her mom. You ready for those headsets yet? We might be in combat otherwise.
Not yet. Will contact you when. Who?
Murmur didn’t even hesitate. Sinister, Havoc, Beastial, Merlin, and Devlish. To start.
Done.
“We may have to relog once we’re in the dungeon. Mom is preparing the new headsets for us and getting them couriered to your residences. They’re just not ready yet. We’ll do group one first, then group two as soon as they’re ready.” She smiled, hoping they weren’t too worried about trying the headsets out.
“Don’t worry.” It was like Sin could read her mind again. “Her mom is making the changes. Laria isn’t going to leave it in anyone else’s hands this time.”
And uneasy string of laughter worked its way through their group, and Murmur laughed too. “Guys. They don’t want anyone else in a coma. Besides, Somnia has assured me she’s got a handle on herself now.”
A look of amazement passed through Rashlyn’s eyes. “Sometimes you worry us, Mur. Even if you’re not in danger as such anymore.”
“I do try.” Murmur only just ducked out of the way of the monk’s play punch.
“Stop trying so hard,” Mellow muttered, but their eyes were twinkling.
“Enough babble. We have a grass field to slay!” Beastial raised his hand in the air, axe held high and roared. “Charge!”
But he was brought up short by Devlish yelling. “No! That’s not how this field works.”
The others managed to slow their roll, but Beastial was already fully committed, and as he barreled past the barrier and into the field a massive rumble set the rest of them standing outside on their asses.
A huge section of the ground rose up, towering high above them. Earth and dirt tumbled down as it roared, shaking them anew, like a mountain that had come alive.
Murmur scrambled back in surprise, Snowy way ahead of her. “What the ever living—”
Devlish shrugged and yelled over the noise. “Told you it was huge and trapdoor-like.”
Murmur just nodded, watching as Shir-Khan turned tail far more agilely than Beastial, making it back to the group before his master. It was only then that Murmur realized the hulking creature was only showing them the top part of its head. The hole that had appeared was a gaping maw, and now she could see the rows and rows of teeth as they began to bear down on Beastial who couldn’t gain a proper foothold in the shifting ground.
Devlish muttered under his breath, his face pinched in concentration as he wove his hands awkwardly in some sort of spell form. Murmur was just about to ask him what the hell he was doing at a time like this when a smoking black lasso jettisoned from his chest to loop around Beastial.
It drew tight around the beast master just as the trapdoor monster’s teeth were about to close on him. With a pull of brute force, it tugged at Beast, yanking him back with such force that he flew into Devlish and sent them both backwards, knocking the tank off his feet into an inelegant somersault. They ended up in a tangle of lacerta and viking limbs, but at least Beastial hadn’t lost any experience.
“So.” Sinister crossed her arms and glared at Devlish. “You have like a spider web built into that armor or something?”
Dev grinned as he brushed himself off. “Not a spider web. Darkness Lariat, I believe it’s called. It’s a new ability I got from my extra strain. Much like Mur can suck mana out of shit, I can apparently lasso things to me. It has a hella recast time though. So thanks for that, Beast.”
Beastial held his hands up defensively, but his eyes never left the massive creature in the field that was settling back down to catch unsuspecting travelers. “I had no idea, mate. Like none.”
“I told you to wait.” Devlish glared at him.
Beast shrugged. “Since when has waiting been one of my good traits?”
“You have good traits?” Sinister interjected, but her eyes sparkled.
Murmur felt a little uncomfortable watching them as Beastial groaned in response. Devlish interrupted before they could begin one of their verbal sparring matches.
“I grew up here.” Devlish made himself sound important. “For five whole damn levels. So you might want to listen to me.”
Murmur swallowed a laugh. While she could see her friend was trying to lighten the mood, she knew they had to figure out how to get past the damned trapdoor monster. If it weren’t so massive, as in covering the entire field, it wouldn’t be that difficult. “Any ideas?”
Exbo shook his head. “I never came anywhere near this area. If I’m honest, I’m happy about that.”
His attempt at humor fell flat, and Devlish broke the short silence. “I grew up just down the road near the falls. I have several quest lines that hint of the great monster but of the need to grow in strength first.”
“I think we’ve grown in strength,” Mellow said quietly.
“That we have.” Dev smiled tightly, something Murmur hadn’t known was possible for a lacerta. “Pretty sure there’s treasure below him. Which must mean we have to make our way past him in order to access the dungeon below.”
“If we kill him, doesn’t that mean anyone would be able to access the dungeon while we’re in it, though?” Veranol offered thoughtfully. Murmur was glad to see him back to his old self after the whole Riasli episode.
Dev nodded slowly. “True. So how do we sne
ak past a massive gaping jawed creature that makes the earth shake when we step past the barrier?”
“Can we lull it?” Dansyn piped up. “I know Mur and I can Mez it, but I wonder if walking on it counts as damage. In which case it might be better to lull the creature. Make it sort of ignore us.”
Murmur pursed her lips. “I guess that could work. I mean, it’s worth a shot. What’s the timer on that Lariat, Dev?”
“Ten minute recast.” He grimaced. “It can only grab one thing at a time, be it foe or friend. Sometimes I wonder who writes these descriptions. I can’t wait until I get Death Touch.”
Murmur raised an eyebrow. “I also can’t wait until you get that. Anyway, lull might work, but I’m not sure it’s going to work on a raid boss.”
“Mur.” Sinister looked positively excited. Her eyes glowed and she was practically bouncing on her toes. “Do you think you could Mez him? Like would it take effect?”
“I’m not sure. Usually bosses are either immune or have really fucked up diminishing returns.” She watched her friend, who was by now practically bursting from the seams. “Why?”
“What if you Mez it, if you can, and then lull it while it’s Mez’d? And we get Dansyn to float us all over to the other side so we can enter the dungeon.” Her eyes shone like the sun on an ocean. An ocean of blood, but still.
“I can try.” Murmur liked the idea, but if this was indeed a boss mob, she was afraid it wasn’t going to work.
“I think it’s a Gatekeeper.” Devlish frowned, his eyes distant as he likely read off the information in one of his logs. “Gatekeeper Ctenizidae sits watch over treasures, but mostly over the city that will never rest in peace. Be wary, for false avenues lead to monsters, and many a traveler has been waylaid upon violent entrance.”
“So anyone here speak spider?” Sinister joked, but Dansyn cleared his throat, and they turned to stare at him.
“Not as such, but I did branch out a little in my hybrid abilities. I have a Creature Hypnosis. I can try it.” He sounded a little uncertain and his ears twitched nervously.