Quest ‘The Trials of the Lykos’ updated!
Objective updated: Undergo the Trial of Love to restore the power of the Eastern Lykos pack!
We now stood on the stage, the bleacher-like seats filled with what I assumed was the whole of the Eastern pack, maybe forty Lykos all told. I was starting to assume that my guide was more than a simple guardsman as the others seemed to hold him in some form of deference, especially as he cleared his throat. That quieted the crowd immediately, their collective gaze focusing on the two of us on stage. I too glanced toward him as he began to speak, his voice raising enough to echo through the entire courtyard.
“My pack, heed your Alpha as I speak of what we hold dear, one of the three bonds that hold all people together, the bond between lovers. Ours is the bond that forms the foundation for all others, the bond that is the nucleus of all families, all clans, all tribes, and all nations. It is for that bond that we urged our fellow packs to go out into Elementalis, to bring them the ancient wisdom we kept safe during the Sundering, yet that chance has now been taken out of our hands. Our sacred trust has been breached and things may never truly return to the way they were.”
With that, he pointed to me. “Now, though, we have a chance to see some part of our heritage redeemed. Once, our three packs stood together, emulating the deep bonds we observed in the wolves of our world and perhaps, if this Craggar and his chosen can conquer our most holy rituals, enough of the power of love can be restored, to let us begin to heal the broken trust and restore the Vale of the Three Wolves to its former glory.”
I wouldn’t have been surprised if the Alpha had then added a ‘no pressure’ to his grand speech. I was spared that layer of cheese, fortunately. All the same, I was starting to feel a spark of what he was saying, the passion in every word.
“I will not fail. More importantly, we will not fail. Whatever trials you and your Western cousins have for us, we will complete them and begin to restore the Rings of Promise.” I was really pumped and really getting into the moment. “From there, with the two packs running together and we Promised at the lead, we can defeat the Darkness and save the Northern tribe!”
A resounding round of applause mixed with wolf-like howls erupted from the stands. In response, I raised my banner high, my confidence on the rise. While the idea that people would actually put their faith in me wasn't new (heck, I had spent the last two weeks learning that very lesson), I would be lying if I said that hearing an entire crowd of people reiterate that fact didn’t feel amazing.
While I soaked in the cheers of the crowd, the Alpha stepped to one side and gestured off the side of the stage. A female Aurum came up the side steps, leading an ancient Sea Wolf up onto the stage. Much like their fellow Water Kingdom native, the Sea Horse, Sea Wolves were lupine creatures that had fish-like qualities. Over most of their form, fish-like scales replaced the fur save for their heads, ruffs, and tufts at the elbows of their four legs. Webbing between their unnaturally long toes turned the paws into powerful swimming tools and the faint line of closed gills hiding in the fur of the necks told of their amphibious nature. I could tell the age of the Wolf by its thinness, its halting gait, and the silver fur shot through the blue-green pelt, especially around its muzzle.
If this was some trial by combat, the level 8 Ancient Sea Wolf was something even my low-DPS self could take out easily, but it showed with the green outline of a friendly MOB. Besides, the idea of killing it seemed … strangely cruel in this situation.
“The wolves of Elementalis defend their own,” the Alpha announced. “To protect the pack is a representation of the bonds we cherish. Even our eldest must be protected for they are the history of our pack. To do so is a noble gesture, especially in the eyes of our Western fellows.”
He spread his arms wide as the Aurum led the aging Sea Wolf to the back of the stage and then departed. “So, it is the trial of the chosen to defend Kelpfang, our eldest wolf, from the Darkness conjured from the depths of the mind. Fears, insecurities, all the things that would stand in the way of the bond to be formed.” The ancient creature sat on its haunches, panting from even that short walk, but there was still quite a bit of life left in the shining black eyes covered by nictitating membranes. “If this life can be preserved, then there is hope for us all.”
My grip on my shield tensed. Now, this sounded like the perfect challenge for me to tackle. It would be like a hyped-up version of the tank role tutorial quest available in the newbie yard. Keep the bad stuff off the wolf, make sure nothing interrupts the Alpha from healing me (he had to be a Mystic), and hold on until the battle was over. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
As I moved instinctively to the side of Kelpfang, I planted my banner, summoning up an Elemental Bastion preemptively. With its fifteen-minute duration, there was no reason not to. The red shell of the protective ward lit up around me, the Alpha, and the Sea Wolf.
“Okay, I’m ready, Alpha.” For added bravado, I banged the edge of the Solar Guardian’s Shell with my banner pole, letting out a strange, hollow clang from the alien metal. “Let’s start this trial!”
The Alpha arched an eyebrow imperceptibly. “This is not your trial, Shale. I said that this was for the chosen … your chosen.”
Before I could even think of how to respond to that, he raised his hands to the sun and a white, spectral glow formed in his open palms, the same color as the spiritual energy that tethered you to a Life Crystal. It was the misty translucent force of a ghost and as it burst outward, I felt it ripple through me, shivering up my spine and down my right arm, before settling with bone-chilling frigidity on the Ring of Promise.
As if I had just hit zero Health Points, my, well, Shale’s animating spirit was torn out of its stony home. The stage, the Alpha, Kelpfang, and the rest of the Lykos faded into mists and a terrible force pulled me up and away from it all, up above the forest canopy to where I felt I could momentarily see the entire extent of the multicolored valley.
Before I could be comfortable with my new plight or truly take in that beautiful view, that same force yanked with equal ferocity to what I was pretty sure was the west. Rocketing with terrible speed, I could barely make out my surroundings, all of it a misty blue rush above and a rainbow kaleidoscope below.
That didn’t keep me from noticing the momentary streak of color and light that matched my own ghostly form passing me, going the opposite way on my left.
Within another split-second, my trajectory arced downward and before I knew where I was, my spirit slammed into another body. My entire UI scrambled, spun, and reconstituted itself into one similar but significantly rearranged. None of the ability icons along the bottom of the screen looked familiar, the group UI had been redone into a diamond arranged around the center (though at least the names and numbers were familiar), and everything else was in different places.
Obviously, I was also somewhere else, a place similar to the Lykos forum I had been at, yet distinctly different. Admittedly, I couldn’t see much, that pale, silvery ghost mist was still here. The only thing I was sure of was that I wasn’t controlling my own avatar anymore … because in my now slender white hands were a familiar gem-topped staff and a glowing orb of water in a rocky bowl.
Both I and the Alpha had been right in our own ways. Shale would indeed be defending Kelpfang … but I wasn’t going to be in control of him. That was up to Kayla now. As for me, well, I was going to have to learn how to play an entirely different avatar with completely different tactics and do it fast.
Really fast.
Because things were already rushing out of the spectral fog.
Quote 11
With the potentially invasive nature of NSAF gear, all units are required to be constructed with the full suite of medical and therapeutic functions as per hospital-grade units. Likewise, all deep dive networks and applications are required to maintain enough therapy-enable artificial intelligence nodes to service a full ten percent of the expected community at all times.
Fro
m the Safe and Private Policy Act 2218
11
Do not panic! While you are experiencing a biodynamic irregularity, this is part of your current quest! To prevent excessive discomfort, your NSAF gear is entering low feedback mode. While you will have full neural input functionality and command functions, the input will be monitored to avoid biological distress or confusion. As soon as this segment of your quest is complete, neural input/output will be normalized and you will re-enter full immersion mode!
That simply added to my problems. With my initial shock at being stuck in Kayla’s shoes (literally), my brain threw a thousand questions and concerns. What the heck kind of quest was this? And was this even legal? This was inches away from being considered brainjacking and the usual boilerplate instructions in this situation would be to immediately jack out. However, my time working with the prototype NSAF gear informed me that a sudden disconnect in the middle of a brainjack would do as much damage as riding the ‘jack’ to its end. Even with this purposeful rerouting of the neural input/output, a sudden log out could be just as dangerous.
The only logical choice was to see this through and sort out the craziness later. It wasn’t like the game was giving me time to figure things out anyway.
The shadowy figures rushed forward with frightening speed as a much larger creature loomed behind them, their silhouettes in the spectral mists giving them a presence much greater than their size, the fear that exuded amplified by the elements of the unknown and the strange situation I was having to deal with.
Fortunately, in low feedback mode, the bizarre and awkward physical sensations that came from being in someone else’s body were minimized on my end. Unfortunately, that same connection made Kayla’s avatar lag behind my intentions by a few microseconds. Though my reaction and control times would be cut down, I could at least function.
I quickly scanned Kayla’s hotbar of equipped Gem spells and abilities. I didn’t have time to take in the full tooltip entries on each, but I had seen most of them in action often enough to understand what I was looking at.
Dimension Door (a fast cast, short range teleport), Ice Spears (good old single target Water nuke), Celestial Comet (big Light/Water AoE bang), Holy Rain (single target Light/Water attack), Flame Column (Fire blast to take advantage of elemental weaknesses), Ice Wall (a physical construct for defense or delaying enemies), Ice Shield (damage absorption shield), Soothing Cascade (Water-based healing), Storm of Shards (Water AoE that didn't suck down as much EP as the Comet), I recognized them all. There were a few wildcards: Grasping Earth (AoE crowd control, I remembered), Crystal Tomb (a hard stun, I was pretty sure), and Healing Rain (probably an area-of-effect heal). Yeah, I had taken the time to try to know my companions’ abilities, what of it?
If success led to getting our brains cross wired with our avatars, I did not want to see what failure would bring. I could do this. I had to do this.
Low feedback mode didn't impair my mental inputs so thankfully I didn’t have to rely on gesture commands. With a mental nudge, Kayla raised her staff, summoning a Thorn-laded Ice Shield. An icy sheen covered her pale skin and blue robes, sharp icicles pointing out defensively in every direction.
You cast ‘Ice Shield’! You gain a 472 point Damage Shield, +25% Water resistance, and the Boon ‘Thorns: Water’ for 24 seconds or until the shield is destroyed.
As the spell went off, the first of the figures pierced the gloom. and it was nothing like I imagined. I expected some horrific monster or a deadly spectral figure, but not the ever-changing, pulsating, and vaguely humanoid glob of darkness. As it slurped forward, it seemed to react to something, not so much taking a single form as having faces take definitive shape across the surface of the thing. They were all that of a shadow-shrouded man, plain looking aside from being made of semi-solid darkness. Heck, they didn’t even look like any of the elementalkin, looking like a human from the real world. Even with the encroaching gloom and pitch-black color, I felt like there was a distinct resemblance between those faces and Kayla. The one thing that was sure was the yellow outline around him in the UI, denoting a neutral NPC.
Above the strange figure, the name ‘Shade of Dominance’ was plain, with no indication of level or threat grade.
I took a few careful steps back. At the bottom of this sunk-in forum, I only had so much room to work with, and now it felt way more like a gladiator’s pit from ancient Rome than a place for public discussion. The Shade continued to advance in slurping steps, leaving a gooey trail of black corruption behind it, its dozens of faces focusing in on me with shining, jet-black glares.
“Really, Kayla,” it chastised, dozens of voices mingled together and unrecognizable amidst the sucking burble of its gelatinous lungs, “this is how you spend your time, playing wasteful virtual reality games and pursuing unknown boys in horrid situations? You have graduate studies to complete, the examination to study for, internships to start, oh so much to do.”
Utter confusion was the effect on me. The only thought I had was that this was something that the game’s AI systems were pulling from Kayla’s brain while trying to keep the identity of the actual real person this shade represented safe. What was the point of showing me this, though?
“What in the world is going on here?” I thought aloud as I took another step back, caught by surprise as Kayla’s voice said the actual words.
From out in the still-roiling mists, a deep, wuffing laugh, the sound of a happy dog or maybe a wolf, echoed in my ears. It would normally be a comforting sound but there was a sinister tone to it.
“Simple, my young friend, the truth is what is going on here. Hear with your own ears the things that have been hidden and know who it is you wish to bind your soul with.”
System update! FILTER.AI is engaging NSAF therapy analysis mode. Your emotional state is now under evaluation. Please react to the incoming stimuli as naturally as possible. Do not be alarmed; this is for your benefit as a patient.
Bane ‘Confusion’ applied! Your Attack and Casting Speed are decreased by 10%.
Bane ‘Doubt’ applied! All your damage and healing effects are reduced by 10%.
Barely able to process what I was hearing with the system message flashing before my eyes, I was only starting to realize what was going on. The Filter AI was using the NSAF’s built-in therapy program to draw out and analyze elements from Kayla’s mind and memories. The Shade was acting too familiar, sounded too real, saying things that rang true, and that face … I would swear it could have been Kayla’s father. Maybe it was her father.
As for the Banes, in therapy mode, something I had a hand in the birth of for Pete’s sake, the game AI could read every nerve firing, every hormonal shift, every subconscious physical response to what it was laying out in front of me. The names matched my exact feelings at that moment and it turned those emotions into a tangible game element. Still, why was it doing this? This wasn’t a fight, well, not yet anyway.
While I was trying to order my thoughts, the Shade kept up his barrage of insinuations. “I have done everything I could to ensure you will have a perfect life, to not be a burden on society, and yet you threaten your future with such dalliances and distractions. Is this the way you show you care?”
I wanted to say something in Kayla’s defense but what could I say? I didn’t know enough to counter the Shade’s accusations. There was a very real chance what it was saying was the truth … and just as much of a chance that this was verbal abuse plain and simple. Not every father was as kindly as mine had been, after all.
As I mentally reeled in confusion, the second shadow-shrouded figure emerged, already beginning its own lecture. This one was a more distinct form, not disturbing so much as being imposing, taller than Kayla by a good half-foot with broad shoulders and a scarily fit build. Obviously female, I judged by the hard angles of her features and the lines of her armor that this was someone from Elementalis. While her voice was much kinder, there was an aloofness, a harshness in her intimidating bearin
g that put me off a little. Like the Shade, the Craggar woman was outlined in neutral yellow and proclaimed to be the Shade of Guilt.
“Good questions,” Guilt agreed with the other Shade, “but my concern is why you, always so responsible in the past, would turn away from us, shirk your duties, just to devote all your energy to someone who can never join our sisterhood? Beyond that, why didn’t you do everything you could to help us become the first instead of helping two strangers do so?”
Again, what could I say to that? Unlike the other Shade that I couldn’t answer because of ignorance, I couldn’t argue with Guilt because I was sure she was right. Kayla had put our little crew over her own guild. Instead of keeping her suspicions about the Crystalfire quest within the Sisters of Artemis and working entirely with them, she worked with Burndall and me. Heck, she basically swiped Crysta from them as well. Add to that the Ring quest going on now, where she was isolating herself from the rest of her in-game life as much as I was.
To complete the chorus of negativity, the huge wolfish shape chimed in with the rest, “And you were so certain that this was the perfect partner for you. Someone as shut-in as you, it’s perfectly logical to put someone with such obvious physical charms on a pedestal but isn’t it obvious that your chosen is so very far from perfect?”
The frustrating thing was that Mr. Bad Wolf wasn’t exactly wrong.
Bane ‘Frustration’ applied! Your Dodge and Block Rates are reduced by 10%.
Every doubt and worry about this potential relationship had been about my own part in it, my own inadequacies, and problems. I had always thought that Kayla would be about perfect. Smart, beautiful, kind, and a lover of the game, it was the best combination I could ever hope for. It was also stupid of me to think she was utterly perfect.
The Vale of Three Wolves: A LitRPG Adventure (Elements of Wrath Online Book 2) Page 12