Dual Wielding: Lv 1
Fishing: Lv 1
Herb Identification: Lv 1
Sneak: Lv 3
Swimming: Lv 1
Reckless: Lv 3
Available Points: 32
“You… You healed me?” Chloe said softly.
The shaman shook his head. “Do not forget, child. I was the one who injured you in the first place. Do not so easily forget the wrongdoings of those who have brought suffering upon you.”
Told you, KieraFreya thought.
Shut up.
“But why the big charade? Why put me through these hurdles just to allow me to sit down with you?”
“You said it yourself, child. You search for that which is beyond the realm of difficult. To determine how badly you wanted what you seek, is it not wise to test a person’s mettle?”
Chloe supposed he had a point. This strange man with powers unlike any she had seen so far in Obsidian must have to protect himself in order to survive out in the woods and deflect requests from those who were weak-willed.
“Now, about your request,” the shaman said, shaking Chloe from her thoughts. Her head felt light and cloudy. “First, you must understand that all requests come with a price. Payment must be received before you can accomplish your task.”
Chloe looked up and saw that the shaman was no longer in front of her, but was now sitting upside-down on the ceiling. The smoke also moving in the opposite direction to what gravity should have allowed. It dropped from ceiling to floor, tickling her nose. Chloe sneezed and suddenly found herself falling on her head. She twisted at the last minute, managing to crash onto her side.
“Well, that was unnecessary,” she wheezed. “What did you do that for?”
The shaman chuckled, revealing a crooked set of rotten teeth. He took another draft of his hookah and exhaled the smoke into Chloe’s face. “Tell me, child. What price are you willing to pay for your destiny?”
Chloe was surprised to see that there was already a crowd gathered as she parted the sheet covering the door and made her way into the chief’s hut.
Faces beamed at her. Faces she recognized from her last week at the village. Faces of the men, women, and children she had grown familiar with and would consider friends. The atmosphere was lively. Warm. The fire in the center was even larger, and the warmth of the hut almost made Chloe reconsider her decision.
“Ah, our guest of honor is here!” Mantari said, rising to his feet and sweeping his arms wide. “Let us welcome Sister Chloe to our midst!”
Chloe worked her way to the front of the room, noting that Gideon, Ben, and Tag were sitting toward the front, toasting their hands at the fire. As it was their last night in the village, Chloe imagined that they were taking advantage of the luxury of warmth before heading off on their adventures.
Chloe took a knee in front of Mukkah, Mantari taking his place at her side.
Mukkah looked exceptionally blobbersome at that moment. Her girth spilled over the sides of her chair, and her loincloth cut tightly into her sides. Her breasts spilled down her stomach, finding a place to rest on her knees, and her eyes were sunken pits in her face.
Mantari addressed the crowd. As he spoke, Cijay interpreted his words for those in the group who were unable to speak the modern tongue. “Sister Chloe has been extended an invitation to join our gracious ranks in the village of Oakston. A fine specimen of woman, she has grabbed a place in each of our hearts this week, and it is with honor that we welcome her to become one with our tribe. Though Chloe has yet to specialize, she brings a fountain of gifts to the Oakston people, and we look forward to seeing how she might fare in our mighty ranks.”
“Sure, she fits in, but did you forget about the person that Cleveland’s local paper termed ‘The Voice of our Generation?’ I guess there’s no place for a new singer here,” Tag grumbled, swaying a little as he hiccupped into his cup.
“Your graciousness,” Chloe said, speaking directly to the blob of a woman. “It is with deep appreciation and thanks that I received the honor of an invitation to become one of your own. Only a week ago, I was lost and alone in the forest, with no one to call a friend, and now…” she indicated the crowd, “now I have been blessed with companionship beyond my wildest dreams.”
There was a round of applause. Mantari beamed at Chloe. Mukkah simply stared. She might as well have been made of stone. Wobbly stone.
Behind Mukkah’s chair, Chloe was sure she could glimpse the shaman’s gleaming eyes hovering in the shadows.
“However…” Chloe continued, bringing a hush back over the crowd. She swallowed hard, unsure of what would happen next. “It is with great regret that I choose not to take up this honor, but rather choose to continue to pursue my own adventures, discovering more of what this great realm has to offer.”
A great many mumbles rippled across the tribespeople. Cijay hesitated before translating her words, meeting Chloe’s eyes and only continuing after she offered a curt nod.
Mantari stepped toward Chloe, that same smile on his face that lit up the room. “Chloe, Chloe! Are you quite sure you’re making the right decision? Think of what we’re offering you here.”
He spun Chloe around and directed her gaze to a table at the far side of the room that she had missed upon entering. The table had a selection of items neatly displayed and centered around a gleaming silver sword. There was a leather cuirass, leather trousers, a dark set of leather greaves, and more. Beside the table sat a woman with a tattoo needle and a pot of dark powder.
“As a warrior of our tribe, you will receive the finest garments to protect you during your efforts. You will be appointed to the rank directly below me and keep our people safe. Not only that,” here Mantari turned as if he may have been speaking out of turn, “you’ll receive full roaming privileges. You may leave the boundaries for short periods of time, and return each night when the sun is at its lowest. You’ll be one of us, now and forever.”
Chloe tore her eyes away from the offering. “I thank you a thousand times over, Mantari. Mukkah. My answer is still no.”
Tag rose unsteadily to his feet. “I’ll take her place!”
Ben pulled Tag back down and rolled his eyes. “Not so fast, little one. You’re on our team.” A ripple of laughter emanated from around them.
Mantari’s face stiffened. “Very well. If that is your final choice, you must understand it.” His voice grew deep. Chloe noted the hurt in his eyes, as if he were speaking to a naughty child. The same look her mother and father gave Chloe when they sat at the end of her bed after a late Friday night out.
“That is your decision?” Mantari asked, confirming once more.
There were a few whispers in the crowd of “No” before Chloe nodded. “That is my decision.”
Chloe ignored the rapidly blinking notification, having expected it to flash instantly—the announcement of the failure of her quest to join the village. She decided to save that little nugget of information for later.
“Very well.” Mantari signaled several of his men. “Then it is time for our guests to make haste and leave.”
The tribesmen appeared around Chloe, but her gaze remained fixed on Mantari. She heard Tag protest as more men came to accompany them in their departure. Ben and Gideon did their best to quiet him down.
“Thank you,” Chloe said. “For everything.”
As she moved to leave, Chloe heard the oddest noises behind her, like a giant grub or earthworm crawling through gravel. There was a strange coughing choke, and as Chloe turned, she saw that the great blob that was Mukkah had begun to move.
Mukkah struggled with her limbs, her minuscule tongue poking out of her mouth with each hacking cough. Between choking sounds she uttered half-words, pointing to Chloe with pudgy fingers.
“What is it?” Mantari asked, kneeling by her side and taking her hand affectionately in his. He snapped his fingers, and a tribeswoman appeared with a cup of water.
Mukkah swallowed the contents in one go, li
quid dribbling down her chin and into the folds of her body. She began to settle down, her breathing returning to normal. She leaned closer to Mantari and whispered in his ear.
Mantari’s eyes widened. “Chief Mukkah, you can’t be serious?”
Another hacking cough sent sprays of saliva across Mantari’s cheek. He wiped them away with one hand and listened once more. His eyes met Chloe’s, and for a long time, he was still.
“Chief Mukkah would like to thank you for your service,” Mantari said, not quite believing his own words as he rose back to his feet. “As a shining example of the blessed, and as an adventurer who has taken the sword to the final death and come back again without showing a sign of anger or a desire for vengeance, we of the Oakston tribe bless you with these items of the warrior as a token to remember us by and aid you on your travels.”
Chloe’s eyes lit up, her composure gone in a second. “You have got to be kidding me?”
“Nope,” Mantari said, finally smiling at Chloe. “It is the greatest honor the tribe has ever bestowed. No other warrior outside our tribe has taken the armor and weapons and braved the world.”
He moved closer to Chloe, placing his hands warmly on her shoulders. “May you be a representative of the Oakston tribe out there in the wild. Bring honor to our name.”
Chloe fought back the tears that brimmed in her eyes.
Mantari leaned closer and whispered, “And don’t tell anyone where our village is, please.” He winked.
Chloe scanned the crowd, who were now on their feet, applauding. Tears were shed. Cries were shouted. Hugs were given. Chloe made her way to the back of the room and touched each individual item, not even bothering to read their statistics but beaming as each item faded and disappeared into her inventory.
The tribe crowded her, squeezed her, and said their goodbyes as the sentries waited patiently to accompany them to the village’s borders.
Chloe couldn’t stop smiling, never having felt more welcome in her life anywhere than she did here. She had a moment where she wondered if she had made the right decision, then she found Gideon’s eyes through the crowd.
She nodded at him.
Gideon added his own applause and nodded back.
Chapter Twenty
The forest was dark, the village of Oakston now long behind them. Chloe walked on, determination in her strides. The faded ghosts of her final goodbyes with the team behind her.
That had been the hardest part—saying goodbye to the team she had quickly become fond of. It was a whole different ball game saying goodbye to the NPCs than it was to players who existed in the real world.
While the NPC goodbyes had pulled on her emotions, her goodbyes with Gideon, Ben, and Tag damn near tore her heart out.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us, Chloe?” Tag giddily hiccupped as he raised a skin of what he’d brought from the village to his mouth. “Adventure and treasure await.”
“We could use talents like yours,” Ben added. “The more of us, the merrier.”
Chloe smiled but once again refused, explaining that she needed to follow her own path. She had her own agenda and quests to fulfill, so she had to ride this train solo, even if that meant taking on the dangerous wilds alone.
She hugged each of them in turn, delivering smooches to their cheeks. When she got to Gideon, she pulled him aside from the others, stirring their curiosity as they wolf-whistled and chuckled.
“You take care of them, okay?” Chloe said sternly.
Gideon rolled his eyes, a weak smile on his face. “Come on. You know they’ll be looking after me, right? I can’t do this mage stuff. I’m a warrior.”
“Then you should learn.” Chloe reached into her bag and pulled out a dog-eared tome as thick as her wrist. She handed it to Gideon.
“What’s this?”
“A gift from the shaman. Combat magic from ages past. I had a quick look through it, but I thought this might be right up your alley.”
“From the shaman?” Gideon asked, awe in his voice. “Is it...safe?”
Chloe shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I guess we’ll both find out soon enough just how trustworthy the old monster is, won’t we?”
Gideon smiled, pocketed the book, and hugged Chloe. They held each other for a long moment, relishing the warmth of their bodies. KieraFreya, hovering near Gideon’s ear, whispered, “If you tell a single soul about me, I’ll find you, and I’ll cut you.”
They pulled apart, fear striking Gideon as Chloe reprimanded the bracers. “Ignore her. She can’t do anything I won’t let her do.”
“We’ll see about that—” KieraFreya’s voice cut off, now buried in Chloe’s armpits.
They laughed, looking warily at Ben and Tag to check they hadn’t seen or heard anything they shouldn’t. Ben was too busy spinning a very drunk Tag around to notice anything.
“Keep in touch,” Gideon said at last.
“And you.”
Gideon gestured toward Chloe. “No, seriously. Keep in touch. Pull up the notification.”
Chloe focused on the notifications and saw a message appear.
Gideon Fleetwood would like you to be his friend.
You’ve made quite the impression. Add this character to your list of people who’ll cry at your funeral.
Accept: Y/N
“Now you just need to modify the friend settings and allow communications from me, and we can message any time we want.” Gideon beamed.
“That’s… Gideon this is amazing.”
“Well, it’s not that amazing,” he said modestly. “Nearly every game has this function. And don’t go thinking it’s like a phone call, because it’s not. Just open your notifications, and you might see messages from me from time to time.”
“Sweet!” Chloe fist-pumped the air. “What about the others? Should I get their information too?”
They looked back at the pair. Ben was doubled over in fits of laughter while Tag hurled his guts all over the floor.
Gideon raised an eyebrow. “Maybe just get their information and forget about their messages.”
Chloe nodded her agreement.
Now Chloe made her way through the dark woods, guided by a small glowing orb of light. The wisp had been a gift from the shaman, a guiding beacon to direct her to her next destination. But as she made her way onward, narrowly avoiding falling into yet another bog, she began to doubt the wisp’s intentions.
“Yo, dude? Can you give me a little warning please?” Chloe said, her foot hovering over what she now saw as a menacing black pool. The whole area teemed with them, with only thin grass paths between the water to safely navigate.
The wisp floated patiently and waited. Chloe felt a slight note of doubt creep into her mind, wondering if she had done the right thing by trusting the shaman and the vision he had cast in Chloe’s head.
“You know that this could all be a trap, right?” KieraFreya piped up. “For all you know, this wisp is going to take us miles off track to a respawn point surrounded by a thousand immeasurable dangers. You’ll die repeatedly—and painfully—until you get sick of the realm altogether and eventually leave.”
Chloe paused and tapped her chin. “Well, I guess I’ll have to endure being a fragment of myself surrounded by immeasurable dangers until a strong-willed, empowered female eventually finds me a thousand years later, and I use her as a host to accomplish my tasks. Sound familiar?”
KieraFreya sighed. “Mmhmm.”
“You know I’m doing this all for you, right?” Chloe hopped over a small puddle, her foot almost losing purchase on the landing. She managed to regain her balance. “The woods, the bear, the village, the shaman, this freakin’… Would you do the honors?”
“Shithole?”
“Exactly! It’s all for you and your mission. So maybe think about that the next time you’re thinking of spewing venom.”
KieraFreya pondered her words. “You’re a liar.”
“I’m a...excuse me?” The wisp began to vee
r right. In its faint light, Chloe could make out the shadows of creeping vines dangling loosely off great weeping willows.
“You heard me. You say that you’re doing all of this for me, but you’re not, are you? By completing this quest, you’re doing something that has never been done before. You’ll be gaining a shit ton of experience, and there are bound to be extra rewards involved. You think what you’re doing is selfless? Well, honey, it’s the most selfish act I’ve ever seen.”
Chloe stopped in her tracks, her foot splashing mud. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah!”
In a fit of desperate rage, Chloe worked her fingers beneath the edge of the bracers. She tugged and pulled, spittle flying from her lips, but there wasn’t even the slightest bit of give. Her anger working through her, she gave up pulling and instead bashed the metal of her wrists together, the clanging sound carrying far off into the night.
The whole time KieraFreya simply laughed, fueling Chloe’s anger all the more.
“Simple human. Just because my mind is trapped in here doesn’t mean I can feel pain. All you’re doing is hurting yourself.”
Chloe stopped and lowered her wrists. She pulled up her Activity Log and saw that KieraFreya was right. Her stamina bar had taken a big hit in her fit of rage.
“I’m sorry,” Chloe said, catching her breath. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“You should be,” KieraFreya teased.
Chloe threw her hands in the air. “You’re impossible, you know that?”
“Once again, you’re wrong. Nothing in this realm is impossible.” KieraFreya guided Chloe’s hand, pointing her to the water ahead. “Take those, for instance.”
Chloe’s face fell. In the darkness, she could see the silhouettes of creatures gliding through the water. She squinted at them, using Creature Identification on the shapes.
Bogland Crocodile (Level 7)
151HP
Bogland Crocodile (Level 6)
136HP
Mutant Bogland Crocodile (Level 9)
213HP
Chloe was pleasantly surprised by the additional information. She opened up her menu and saw several updates that lifted her spirit.
Collecting The Goddess (Chronicles Of KieraFreya Book 1) Page 14