by K. T. Hanna
Sure enough a long brown robe fluttered into view, thanks to the wind. A strange, orc-like goblin creature rounded the corner. Its skin was a dull olive green, and small tusks protruded from its mouth, and yet it wasn’t nearly as big as the orcs she’d seen in other games. As soon as she saw it, Murmur began to cast. Allure had three seconds on its casting bar, and right then, while they waited to see her new trick, three seconds felt like an age.
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Countdown: Five days before release
Laria stared at her screens, both the ones in front of her and those in her augmented vision. The headgear was allocating classes with such ease, she couldn’t help but be impressed. Or, as she should probably think of it, the AIs were allocating with the information they gathered from the headgear. She wondered just how it had done so with her own daughter. Had it really chosen the best class for her? Was she really going to benefit from the mind manipulation inherent in it?
Her call light flashed up for her to accept in the corner of her left eye. It was David, and while she really wanted to lean on his shoulder with all her weariness, right now she couldn’t be weak. There wasn’t time for her to feel sorry for herself; she had a job to do. And her husband, while amazing, couldn’t help alleviate the horrific amounts of guilt that were eating at her soul. She activated a message and sent it to him instead of answering.
Busy right now. Will talk to you later.
She watched the words as they floated through the internet all the way to him. Watched as it signaled that he’d read them. Sighed when he didn’t try to call again.
“How’s it going?” Shayla popped her head around the door.
Laria glanced up at her friend and frowned. Shayla’s eyes were duller than usual, with heavy bags under them, like she hadn’t slept in a few days. Her skin had lost its usual glow, and for a few moments Laria worried. “It’s going. It’s going pretty decently.”
Her friend leaned up against the inside of the door jam and raised an eyebrow. “Code for ‘Oh my god, please help me, the building is on fire?’”
Despite her current mood, Laria almost snorted with amusement. “Not quite, but close enough. It’s all good. There’s just a lot of data to sift through to make sure the game mechanics and protections we’ve put in place to stop potential overloads are working.”
Shayla frowned, walking over and leaning over Laria’s shoulder. “How do you mean?”
“Well, when Michael—” She couldn’t help the slight distaste at his name. After all, his tinkering had done so damn much. “—developed the system, there were elements he kept to himself. A lot of them. There are things I’m still trying to figure out about how the headsets relay information to the AIs and they in turn interpret it for the game world to function. But it’s how they access and store that information that I have difficulty with. Not necessarily their ability to run the game world.”
“But we monitor the AIs right?” Shayla pursed her lips and looked like she was running a heap of calculations through her own augmented vision from the way her eyes glazed over briefly. “I mean, we’re in charge of the AIs, and we just need to understand the way the headgear transmits the information?”
Laria nodded, even though that wasn’t all of it, but a slight simplification. “Mostly, yes.”
“Good.” Shayla nodded for emphasis. “James can help with that. Lord knows he’s not the best assistant.”
Laria paused, hearing the pained down in her friend’s voice. “Sorry about Ava.”
“Yeah. Me too.” Shayla shook herself a little, and flashed Laria a wan smile. “Let’s do what she’d have wanted and make this a kick ass launch, okay?”
“Yeah.” The extra effort she put into the answer made Laria’s fake smile ache. She watched Shayla leave the room, all of her thoughts rushing back to her at once. The game itself would function with or without their observation by the looks of it. She just hadn’t had the heart to say so.
Real World Day 2: Somnia Online
Murmur’s Allure spell hit the goblin like orc, or gorc as she’d chosen to call it, head on. It stopped casting and walked directly to her side. She glanced at her HUD to see blinking windows, flashing at her.
“Um, Mur?” Beast looked at everyone else before continuing. “What’s it doing?”
“I charmed it. It’s now my pet!” She beamed at everyone. “I wasn’t sure it would work though, and I’m trying to figure out the arsenal it came with. Seems it has Iceblast, and an Ice Spear. That should be fun.”
Havoc blinked. “Wait, so you can just charm a mob—”
“Or a player,” she interjected.
He continued. “Or a player, and you gain access to their abilities?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t last forever, and I have to have high charisma, which I do. I can always recast the spell though, so there’s that.”
“That is so fucking cool!” Dev’s eyes practically glowed. “We have a group with what, nine now? Including pets, I mean. Let’s go kick some ass.”
Allure had to be one of the most fun spells Murmur had encountered so far. Not only did the gorc, as she was calling the creature, listen to her commands and stick to her side, but if she extended her Thought Sensing abilities subtly enough, she could tell if it was starting to rail against her command. Using her Projection ability to soothe the mob brought it back down to a level that allowed her to easily maintain control.
Basically, as long as she paid attention, there was no way her pet would get loose unless she wanted it to. The level of mind control she could exude struck her as somewhat excessive, but at the same time intriguing as hell. Could she technically keep another player locked under her control indefinitely? As a player she had no doubt that would piss her off. But as the one casting the spell, what a power trip!
Beastial had been right. The island in Himmel Lake was definitely much larger than it first appeared. The crumbling castle stood before them, some stones having tumbled to the ground in heaps. They lay cracked and scattered, flattening the grass beneath them. Murmur looked up toward the top of the towers, wondering how much force one of those stones would have if it hit someone on the head from so high up.
While they couldn’t see any lookouts or other gorcs, they could hear their chatter. Clicks and clacks interspersed with guttural growls, all of which formed strange and alien words to their ears. The grounds around the castle had been relatively easy to clear, but getting inside the ruins would be far more precarious.
“I’m going to have to try and pull some to us the way I did with Mur’s pet.” Merlin’s eyes never left the staircase the small opening at the top. “It might be nice to have more intelligent opponents, but damn, it makes pulling them difficult.”
“You going up the stairs?” Havoc pulled back a little, his laughing skeleton following in his wake.
“No, I should be able to angle a shot from back there. Should being the operative word.” Gone was Merlin’s joker mask. He was all business, his eyes narrowed and thoughtful as they figured out their next step as a group. Once they’d worked themselves into a good groove, he’d revert to the fun-loving guy he usually was, but right now things depended on him. Murmur was glad her friends were who they were. After all, she could even tell if they were tense now.
The more she practiced with her sensor net, the more attuned she became to those close to her. She doubted they’d even notice if she gave them a confidence boost, or made them feel better. Would it be so wrong to motivate people by projecting if they needed some cheering up? Wasn’t that a good thing?
Moral debates were better left for times when they weren’t about to fight a gajillion gorcs, but it was a fascinating concept.
Devlish backed up, sword at the ready, shield hoisted. “Come what may.”
Merlin didn’t even crack a smile though the rest of the group laughed softly. “Incoming!”
Miraculously, as he veered around the corner, staying just in
sight of the steps, only three gorcs ran down, glancing and sniffing with their snouts as they moved. One caught sight of Merlin, and spoke to the other two, and they fanned out, weapons raised. One seemed to be dual wielding clubs, and the other two had daggers. Fantastic, rogues.
“Rogue one and two, Mez incoming.” Murmur cast her spell with ease. It felt like they were quicker to cast now than they’d been before, probably because she was getting used to everything. She directed her pet to attack their first target, at the same time she added her own upgraded DoT, followed by slowing and weakening the gorc. Its health was dropping fast, and she simply refreshed her Mez on the left one, while Devlish began taunting the other. They’d flowed back into grouping with such ease, each of them relying on the others’ strengths and supporting their weaknesses. Their synchronicity made Murmur happy.
“They’re group elites. Not raid elites, but like level thirteens through to fifteens. Why are they going down so fast?” Sin voiced the thoughts going through Murmur’s head.
Beast grunted. “Probably because we’ve upgraded all our spells, a bunch of us got new weapons from that mayor, and we have an additional pet with freaking ice shards.”
Logically, that made sense, but it was still pretty cool to watch.
“Will you get to dual wield?” She turned and asked Dev.
“Yeah. Level fifteen. I think I’ll be a dual wielding tank.” He grinned as the last one fell and Merlin brought in another group right on their heels.
Getting into a routine where they didn’t stop took a while, but Murmur made the most of it, learning how to use her pet to its utmost, how to soothe it at the right time and keep it content. Having a pet Allured was probably the best way to practice her psychic skills without damaging real people’s brains.
Thought Projection has increased to (25)
She smiled, satisfied with her work. Finally it seemed she’d got a hang of her skills. But she was eager to find out what else she could do. Tier two was well within grasp. Now all she had to do was figure out how to stop accidentally using the damned thing.
“Mur?” Sin stood close to her, her brow furrowed in concern. “Are you okay?”
“Of course!” Murmur looked around and realized her group had moved to a better spot. They were finally able to access a spot on the lower level of the ruin, great for line of sight pulls. She hurried to catch up, Sin close behind.
“You’re worrying me. You seem to be getting lost in thought a lot.” Sinister had always been able to make Murmur feel like a kid when she got into her mom mode. It didn’t happen often, but despite being a ruthless gamer, Harlow was very sweet to people she knew.
“I’m perfectly fine, just contemplating my new skills and how best to utilize them and where I should focus on next.” Mur grinned at her friend and impulsively hugged her. It wasn’t something she did often—she wasn’t a hugging sort of person—but Sin was like the twin she’d never had.
Sinister grinned, a faint tinge of color touching her cheeks. “Silly Mur. Maybe we should take some girl time out once we’ve leveled some more. I miss just chatting with you.”
Mur laughed and wove her Mez intricately without a second thought before releasing it, while directing her pet and Mezing the second mob she needed to. “Yes, let’s! I feel like we haven’t spent real time together in ages.”
A shadow passed over Sinister’s eyes, reflecting deep sadness for a split second before her friend smiled. “Yeah. Let’s.”
Murmur watched Sin move away so she could maintain better contact with the mob and her healing target. Harlow had always been deft at hiding things. Like that time she’d broken Mur’s favorite headset and it had taken her days to come forward and own up. But it appeared Harlow didn’t have the same control over Sinister’s features, which was both enlightening and worrying. Mur slotted it to the back of her mind along with the growing list of other things for future Murmur to take care of.
“Oh my gods, this is the most boring ass thing ever! Why don’t we just become crafters and not care about levels?” Beastial groaned as they killed their gazillionth gorc.
“Because you like getting the most powerful weapons, and killing really complex shit before everyone else.” Havoc reminded him in a stern tone. “Also because once you hit that max, you sort of slack off until you have to fight. Plus. Crafters level from crafting, just really slowly.”
“He has a point.” Merlin was trying to up his one-handed sword skills and kept ducking into the thick of the fight.
“Merlin, stop that!” Sin was about to hit that stage where she just wasn’t going to heal Merlin anymore, and Murmur had to fight from laughing out loud.
The gorc went down, and Devlish wiped his sword off on its tunic, distaste twisting his face. “So have we cleared the area?”
Merlin shook his head. “I thought we had, but as I ran back from finding that last batch, I noticed a sunken area with steps leading down. Could be a dungeon.”
Sin paused and raised an eyebrow. “Do we want to go into a dungeon with these things?”
“I doubt it’s a raid dungeon. While decent experience these haven’t exactly been hard to kill.” Havoc leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.
“Or we’re just that good.” Beastial winked, and Sinister groaned.
“May as well give it a go. If all else fails I can probably stun them and we can book it?” Murmur smiled, slamming her shields over her own mind before ripping them down and building them up again. It was a fascinating process.
“You okay, Mur?” It was Dev’s turn to ask the question.
Murmur stood back and studied everyone. They were acting strangely. Especially since that stupid almost blacking out thing in the caves. “What’s with this being ‘are you okay, Mur’ day?”
Merlin shrugged. “You’ve just seemed a little out of it. Distracted, laughing to yourself.”
Murmur laughed before she could stop herself. “If talking to ourselves qualifies us for insanity, we’re all doomed.”
Taking a deep breath, she smiled, and made a mental note to revisit their behavior when she had more time. “I really appreciate everyone caring so much. I’m sorry for not being as grumpy a bitch as I usually am, but this last level of spells just sort of hit me hard. The things I can do, the places my mind can go—I never expected a game to have this sort of effect on me.”
“It is a pretty fucking amazing game.” Beastial asked.
“That it is.” She smiled, and realized her cheeks were aching a bit. Murmur hadn’t been this happy in so long, it felt a bit painful. “So quit worrying about me. I’m going to be fine.”
Which were words she never ever should have uttered, especially not when they were making their way down some rickety ass steps and into a literal dungeon beneath an abandoned, crumbling castle.
A mass of skeletons swarmed them as soon as they opened the door. Murmur reacted and cast Flux, her measly area stun, and only bought them four seconds. But it was four seconds enough to realize that these were simple trash mobs, not even as elite as the ones they’d been fighting initially.
“Not elite. Chop them down.” Dev grunted, shield bashing the head off one of them. It flew in an arc, shattering against the stone wall.
While they might have been easy mobs to kill, the sheer number of them made it more difficult than imagined. After several minutes of fighting they finally cut down the last one and Sinister stomped her feet in exasperation. “You know, that shit might feel easy to you, but healers have a hard time. We have to keep your rotten asses alive.”
Murmur couldn’t help but chuckle, after all, she’d said much the same thing for years while she played a healer, and no one had listened then either. “You realize no one cares, right? It’s your job as a healer to make sure we don’t die. Just like it’s Dev’s job to be a meat shield and take one for the team if necessary.”
Sinister glared at her. “Yeah, yeah. Take one for the team, I’ve done that already.”
�
��Actually, that was just shit bad luck and had nothing to do with us.” Murmur smiled, trying to take away the sting of her words, but Sinister’s gaze didn’t lessen. Mur sighed and continued. “Either way, thank you mighty healer for keeping our rotting carcasses alive.”
Sin blinked and laughed. “Typical. I can never stay angry at you, Mur.”
“And I totally abuse that fact.” They smiled at each other, stopping only when they realized the guys were flat out just staring in confusion. Murmur turned on them. “You could thank her for being good at what she does. Healers have the most thankless job there is. A tank keeps aggro, for which, mind you, he has like a bajillion skills, but a healer keeps you alive even through your stupidity and no one gives a shit.”
“Thanks, Sinister!” The whole group chorused, earning a death glare from both of Murmur and Sinister.
“But Mur, you never complained when you were healing us.” Dev turned to her reproachfully.
Murmur shrugged. “No, but I’m the vindictive sort, and I’ll freely admit I played how low can you go with all of you on numerous occasions.”
Beastial’s brow furrowed with confusion and then his eyes opened wide. “Hey! That’s so not cool.”
Murmur put her hands up in mock surrender. “I only ever lost someone twice, in like four years. That’s got to count for something, right?”
Sinister tried to cover her mouth with her hands but her laughter was unmistakable.
A half-eaten ribcage of a human being landed in front of them with a splotch that splattered blood and viscera all over the group.
Sinister stopped laughing.
The ground shook. Nothing like it had done in Ululate, but it still reverberated through to them. While difficult for Murmur to tear her eyes away from the partially devoured corpse, the shadow that fell the length of the hall and onto them made her look up.
Drool cascaded from wide gaps in enormous teeth as the Brute stepped into view. Its beefy arms held a spiked club, and each of those spikes had tendrils coming off it that Murmur didn’t want her brain to place. It opened its mouth and roared, emitting a foul stench and stunning them all where they stood.