It took several minutes before they came upon a small cave that looked too small for Mika to fit into, but she paused and motioned him to follow her, then squeezed inside. Jace hurried over to the cave entrance. Ducking, he looked inside. The cave opened into a large round chamber that was tall enough for the yeti to stand up. Hoping he was doing the right thing, Jace slipped inside with Luna and Charlena following him.
As soon as Jace and Charlena were inside, Mika slipped around him and pushed a large rock over the entrance. She turned around and must have noticed Jace tightening his grip on his weapons. She waved her hands. “To make sure trolls do not smell us. They cannot fit in, but if they come, it is a long wait until they grow bored and leave.”
Jace relaxed some, but only some. There was no way he could have defeated her before and in the enclosed area of the cave, it became much more unlikely.
Mika looked at Charlena. “Can you understand me too?”
“She can’t hear you,” Jace told the yeti. “She is logged off in auto-follow mode. But to answer your question, no, she can’t understand you. If she were here, I would translate.”
“Oh,” Mika replied, looking at Charlena. “She is not… there?”
“No,” Jace shook his head. “She was sleeping while I got us to Skystead.”
“There is no Skystead,” the yeti blurted out. “It was wiped out last night.”
“I know. We were nearby. The dragon destroyed it. It even destroyed the graveyard so we can’t bind my respawn point.”
Mika was silent for a long moment before speaking again. “You said you were a monster, like me. That you hopped from monster to monster.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me,” she whispered. “Are we in hell?”
Jace shook his head. “No, there’s a problem with the game. The game thinks we are monsters. But there is a way to make yourself human.”
“I can be human again?” she asked quietly. The yeti had squatted down and wrapped its arms around its knees in a very human gesture.
“Yes,” he told her. “If you do what I tell you, you will respawn as a human.”
“I thought I was in hell,” she told him quietly. “I thought… I had been a wicked person, and this was my punishment.”
He heard her weeping then and his heart went out to her. He walked over to where Mika was, bent down, and put an arm around the yeti’s broad shoulders. Someone watching would probably think it looked comical, but he didn’t care. The yeti turned and buried its enormous head into his shoulder and sobbed.
Jace wasn’t sure how long she cried into his arm, but finally she lifted her head. “Tell me, how do I become human?”
Taking his time, Jace explained the process and how to use the code. She listened intently and nodded as he spoke. When he was done, he asked her if she had any questions.
“So, I must die again,” she said. “And at the prompt, I type in the code and I will become human?”
“Yes,” he said. “Your body will morph and then you will respawn at some random starting town.”
“Then what?” She asked.
“Then you play the game,” he told her. “Until I can make WorldCog aware of the issue and we all get put back where we should be. Have you played the game before?”
The yeti bobbed its head. “I played for a while as a cat-kin.”
“Good,” he said. “You’ll start with nothing, but it can be done. If you get to Whitecliff, you can group with us.”
“Whitecliff?” she repeated.
“It’s the capital of the human land of Aldor,” he told her. “Just get there and we’ll help you anyway we can. Just get to the first pub inside the main entrance. When we reach Whitecliff, we will go there every night. Hopefully, we’ll see you there.”
She bowed her head. “You are very kind. I will try to meet you in Whitecliff.” The yeti raised its head to look at him. ““You will… kill me?”
“I can,” he told her. “Or you could jump off a cliff.”
“You will get experience if you kill me,” she said.
“I will,” he told her.
“Then you should kill me,” she said adamantly. “I can offer you nothing for your help. The least I can do is give you the experience for killing me.”
Jace wasn’t sure what to say, so he nodded. Then he remembered Charlena. “Do you mind if we wait until Charlena logs in so she can get the experience too?”
“I don’t mind,” the yeti replied. “I have been a monster this long, I can wait a few more hours or even a few more days.”
“It should only be a few hours,” he told her. “She said she would login this morning.”
“That is fine,” Mika replied. “While we wait, tell me more about you.”
Jace didn’t enjoy talking about himself, but he related his story. He told her about his job at WorldCog. He told her about the code and then waking up in the game as a monster. She listened intently to his story about how he’d met Charlena and how she thought he may not be dead.
“So, you may still be alive,” the yeti said brightly.
“It’s possible,” Jace told her. “But I don’t want to get my hopes up until there’s proof.”
The yeti smiled, which was a truly horrifying sight. “I hope you are alive. You are a kind person. You should be alive.”
Jace blushed and smiled. “Thank you but you seem like a good person too.” Then a thought occurred to him. “If it’s not too painful, what happened to you? How did you die?”
Mika looked down at her feet. “I inherited my grandmother’s estate since I am the only living member of our family. I flew down to Tokyo and signed the papers. The last thing I remember was getting a brain backup in the airport before the flight home. Something must have happened to the plane. When I woke up, I was in a monster. Soon after, I was killed by players and then went into another monster. That is how it has been. Go into monster, then get killed. Yeti is the first time I have not been killed in a long time.”
“Wait,” he interjected. “You’re from Japan? Like, you actually live in Japan and not in America?”
“Yes, I live - lived - near Aomori in the north,” she said. “But I had flown down to Tokyo.”
He heard what she said, but it didn’t make sense. She shouldn’t even be on Aldor, the continent for American players. She should be in Meiguo, the in-game continent for Asian players. Whatever bug had caused them to be thrust into monster bodies was obviously also screwed up her default continent. One more thing to add to the list of items to report to the Help Desk.
“I see you made a new friend,” came Charlena’s voice.
Jace stood up quickly. He wasn’t sure, but he felt a little weird being so close to Mika with Charlena around. He smiled. “Charlena, this is Mika. Mika, Charlena.”
The two girls exchanged greetings and Charlena looked at him. “Did you tell her how to become human?”
“Yes,” he replied. “We were just waiting for you so you would get the experience too.”
Charlena brightened. “Thank you!”
“It is the least I can do,” Mika said, standing up. “You two are very kind to help me.”
“We’re glad to help,” Charlena told her.
There was a long awkward silence. They all stood there looking at each other until Mika finally spoke up. “It is time. I am ready.”
Jace had her repeat back the code to him and then, after remembering just in time, asked her to move the rock blocking the door. She did and then walked outside. “You may kill me now. I will see you in Whitecliff, if I am able. First pub inside the main gate.”
They killed her then, as quickly so she wouldn’t feel as much pain. Mika did not cry out at all but stood there through all of their attacks until finally, she fell and he received a system message letting him know he'd received experience.
They watched her body, waiting for it to morph into a human. It seemed to take much longer than the others, and Jace was afraid she’d forgotten the cod
e when the yeti’s corpse began twitching and popping. The body shrank. As it did, the fur fell out, and the features morphed into those of an attractive Japanese girl clad in a loincloth and a tattered bra.
Jace smiled. It had worked. Mika was human again.
Chapter 44
Charlena looked over at Jace. “It worked, right?”
Jace nodded. “I really hope so. I assume if I see their body transform like mine did, that it worked. If not…” He trailed off, realizing he may have just sentenced her to more monster body jumping.
“We’ll think positive,” Charlena chimed in cheerfully. Then her eyes narrowed. “I can’t leave you alone at all can I? I’m gone for a few hours and you’re finding some other girl to snuggle up with in a dark cave.”
Jace grinned. “It was the big, fur-covered body. Oh, and the maw of razor sharp teeth. Gets me every time.”
They shared a quick laugh and then Charlena looked around. “I take it we didn’t make it to Skystead.”
Jace let out a breath. “We did. It’s gone.”
Charlena gave him a confused look. “Gone?”
“Remember the swamp dragon?” Jace continued. “It flew past us and destroyed the entire village. It even destroyed the graveyard!”
Charlena’s blank look which told him she didn’t understand the significance of the graveyard being destroyed.
“The graveyards are where players respawn,” he explained. “If it’s destroyed, the town’s spawn point is destroyed. It’s like the town doesn’t exist anymore.”
She gawked at him. “Are you serious? So, it’s gone… forever?”
“I don’t know about forever,” Jace shrugged. “But for the immediate future it is. I don’t remember this happening before. There are very few things capable of destroying a graveyard. A dragon is one of those things.”
“So now what?”
Jace sighed. “There’s really only one choice. We go to the next closest town.” Charlena opened her mouth but Jace forestalled her next question. “And no, I don’t know what that is or where it is.”
Charlena shut her mouth, her brow creased.
“But I have an idea,” Jace told her. “You have access to the internet. You will find some player made maps posted online. If you can look one up that has Skystead and the surrounding area…”
“I can find out where we need to go!” she exclaimed brightly. “I’ll do that right now. I’ll be right back!”
Jace stopped talking as her avatar went glassy eyed. “And now I’m by myself, talking to myself…”
Walking over to the cave entrance, he looked out. He didn’t see any monsters around and the sky were thankfully clear of any dragons. He turned to Luna, who had come to brush up against his leg.
“Do you smell anything dangerous?” he asked.
Her little head bobbed up and down as she sniffed the air. Her ears were rotating left and right and he knew she was listening too for sounds he couldn’t hear. “No.”
Bending down to stroke her fur, he thought about their next move. They’d been lucky so far. They hadn’t run into anything they hadn’t been able to handle, even if just barely. He wasn’t sure what was between here and the next city. If they ran into anything much higher level, they could easily be killed. Then they’d end up naked back in Sinking Springs.
He had been staring out at the snow-covered landscape for several minutes before he heard Charlena stir behind him.
“I got it,” she said, but her tone was not as chipper as it had been. “Airedale. Airedale is the next closest city to the west.” She hesitated, biting her lip and Jace knew what was coming next. “The FAQs say it’s for characters level 10+, 20+ recommended.”
Jace nodded glumly. He had expected this, but actually hearing it made his heart sink. They had little hope against a level 10+ monster and no hope against a level 20+ monster. In VEIL, every 10 levels, the monster strength jumped up significantly. Besides additional health, they did almost 50% more damage. They’d barely managed to kill the mountain troll. And that was just one troll.
“You don’t think we can make it?” Charlena asked from behind him.
“I don’t know,” he told her. “The monsters will be much tougher than anything we’ve faced.”
“Maybe we can avoid them,” she suggested cheerfully. Jace couldn’t help but smile at her optimism. He just wished he could share it.
“Maybe,” he echoed.
She came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “If we die, we end up back in Sinking Springs, right?”
“Yes,” minus all of our gear.
“If that happens, we can do some quests and wait for the next caravan.”
“No. There won’t be any more caravans until the dragon is killed and I have a feeling that might be a long time. Players will not be ready for a dragon that doesn’t adhere to the normal game rules. It’s one of the most powerful monsters in the game and it will be completely unpredictable. And whoever it is, they’re smart. Smart enough to destroy the graveyards in the surrounding towns.”
“So, what do we do?” she asked, her normally cheerful voice muted.
Jace didn’t have much hope, but he knew he needed to stay strong and not dull her enthusiasm. He turned around and put a smile on his face. “We make our way to Airedale, of course!” He made his voice low and gave her a wink. “Real sneaky like.”
Charlena gave him one of her dazzling smiles. “This will be exciting. We’ll be like Frodo and Sam sneaking into Mordor.”
Jace did a double take. “Did you just make a Hobbit reference?”
She smirked. “Lord of the Rings… not The Hobbit!”
“It’s like I designed you on a computer,” he said and drew her in for a kiss. The kiss lasted for several minutes before they broke away, panting.
The kiss and the Lord of the Rings reference aside, Jace wished he shared her optimism. It would be very dangerous. One wrong encounter and they’d be dead. And if they died, it would be back to Sinking Springs for who knows how long. Who knew how long it would take raiders to kill the dragon?
“You okay?” Charlena asked him.
He forced a smile. “Oh yeah. Just remembering I need to find out where Airedale is.”
“Right!” she said and went to the middle of the cave floor. “I can draw you a map.”
She grabbed a stick, bent down and began sketching a crude map of the area. It took her several minutes, but when she had finished, Jace admitted he was impressed. The map had the location of the two cities with the roads, rivers and forests drawn out.
Jace whistled. “Nice map!”
“I AM an art major,” she grinned.
He went back to studying the map. It looked straightforward. They just followed the road until the first intersection, then turned southwest until the road eventually met a river and followed it west to Airedale.
“I guess we just follow the road,” she said.
“It looks like it,” he told her, trying to commit as much of the map to memory as possible. After studying it for several minutes, he thought he had learned what he needed.
“Time to go?” Charlena said enthusiastically.
“Time to go,” he agreed.
The two of them left the yeti cave and found their way back to the road. They made their way down as quickly as possible. They were still close to what used to be a 2nd tier village, so the creatures nearby should still be manageable.
They talked quietly about the journey and about the next week. Charlena still had homework to catch up on and she wanted to make some calls to the various hospitals in Philadelphia as Luna Burton to see if she could find out if Jace was at one of the hospitals so she wouldn’t have much time to play in the evenings.
Jace understood but he didn’t like it. The time passed more quickly and more enjoyably when she was with him. She was funny, witty and her enthusiasm was infectious. She just made his whole day better.
He thought about what would happen if he were alive.
Would she like the real him? Would he like the real her? They’d be the same people, at least they would have the same personality. Physically, they’d be different. The real him was a thin, geeky version of his current avatar. He had no idea what the real Charlena looked like, but obviously she wouldn’t have pointy ears. Would they be attracted to each other? Or would he end up in the friend zone in real life?
“A penny for your thoughts,” Charlena said suddenly and Jace realized he’d been quiet for too long.
“Just thinking about the best route,” he lied. He wasn’t about to lay bare his fears about their relationship in the real world.
She gave him a confused look. “I thought we were following the road.”
“Yes,” he replied. “But I was also remembering the rivers. There aren’t really many water monsters - at least, not in rivers. I was wondering if we could somehow build a raft and drift down the river.”
“A raft?” she asked. “Can we do that?”
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I’ve never really tried to build anything in the game. I didn’t even bother with the crafting skills.”
He checked his inventory. He still had rope and twine that he had bought to replace the stuff he’d lost when Big Cheese had killed him. If they could cut down some trees and lash them together, it should be theoretically possible to make a raft.
“And you’re sure there are no water monsters,” she asked.
“I’m not 100% sure,” he told her. “But the only things I ever encountered in fresh water was in lakes or very deep rivers.”
“What did you encounter?” she asked.
“Some river trolls who could breathe water and liked to pull us under, a giant hippo - which is much meaner than it sounds, and maybe some very large, predatory fish,” he said, remembering his few river encounters. “I’ve never ran into anything in shallow rivers.”
“So, it would be like white-water rafting?” she asked hopefully.
Jace chuckled. “Let’s hope not. I’m not sure what kind of raft we can build, but I’m sure it wouldn’t hold up to strong rapids. Not to mention the rocks and other obstacles that would smash us to bits.”
Veil Online - Book 1 (a LitRPG MMORPG Adventure Series) Page 29