“Only an hour?” Mika asked.
Jace raised an eyebrow at her and her cheeks reddened again, but she didn’t look away. “That’s what they decided on, but you can renew it when you start a new...uh...session.”
“What about the declining,” she pressed, and he saw the hurt expression she was trying to hide.
“Bear with me for just a minute longer.” Jace smiled again, feeling a bit frustrated himself - and he understood what was going on. “By default, you auto-decline any sexual content. This prevents people from trying to do things like cop a feel or slap a player’s butt and constantly creating pop-ups asking for permission.”
“Oh.” Mika let out a frustrated breath. “Where do we change it?”
It was Jace’s turn to let out a frustrated sigh. “We can’t.”
“What?!” Mika’s tone turned angry.
“We can’t change it,” he repeated, taking her hand. “I’m sorry. It’s like the sensory input setting. It just isn’t there for us. Even though we both wish it were.”
That seemed to placate her slightly then a look of confusion crossed her face and her brow furrowed. “Why is kissing allowed?”
“I think you can turn that off too, but it’s on by default,” he told her. Then he winked and added, “thank God!”
She giggled at that and bobbed her head. “Yes, thank God.”
They resumed their kissing, but it seemed to be confined to the face area. If Jace or Mika ventured to the neck or lower, they received the prompt and quickly had to abandon any further attempts for fear of expulsion warning.
Jace wasn’t completely sure what would happen to them if they were “expelled” from the game. Theoretically, those people who had been inserted couldn’t be permanently expelled. Instead, from what he understood, they were moved to a special “pocket dimension” by themselves. Basically, they went to solitary confinement.
Since disciplinary actions were never made public, it was hard to know how an inserted person’s expulsion worked but Jace was sure he didn’t want to find out. If his real life self was right, they might be some sort of beta entity, so they could experience something entirely different.
But those thoughts were soon gone as he focused on Mika. Before he knew it, the door was thrown open and Diana came striding in. When she saw the two of them in the middle of a makeout session, she stopped her tracks. She chuckled. “It’s about time.”
The older woman looked them up and down. “Honestly, I’m surprised you’re both still wearing clothes.”
They both blushed and Mika leaned away from him and pouted. “We can’t! The game won’t let us!”
Diana frowned. “What do you mean, the game won’t let you?”
“The game is set to auto decline any intimate contact,” Mika shot back. Then she smiled. “Except kissing.”
“Auto decline?” Diana looked confused.
Jace started to reply but suddenly remembered that back to when he and Charlena had first met up with Diana and Mika in Whitecliff. When they talked about making some money, Diana had wanted to go out and “use her new body” instead of doing quests. But if she were in the same boat as them, with auto decline stuck on, how had she done that?
“What a minute,” he said. “Didn’t you already have intimate encounters back in Whitecliff?”
Mika looked from Diana to Jace and back to Diana. “That’s right! How did you get it to work?!”
Diana’s face went white and she walked over to the table and slumped into a chair. She buried her head in her hands for almost a minute before sitting up. “I lied. I wanted to be like one of my heroines in my book. I wanted to be confident in my sexuality and be a bold, independent woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to ask for it.” She sighed deeply. “But I’m not. I couldn’t go through with it. I’m not even Diana Stewart, daring romance writer. In my heart, I’m still just plain old Anika Holden.”
Jace was stunned by her admission and her use of her real name, Anita, instead of her pen name, Diana. He’d always seen her as a strong, independent woman. He would never have guessed it was just an act.
Mika’s face fell. “You didn’t get it to work?”
“I’m sorry, dear one,” Diana said, a pained expression on her face. “I didn’t even try. I just couldn’t muster up the courage.”
Mika got up and walked over and gave the woman a hug. Watching, Jace thought it was curious that they allowed hugs, but he guessed if he tried grabbing Mika’s butt while they hugged, it would trigger an intimate contact alert. Too bad.
“It’s okay,” Mika said.
The two girls embraced for several minutes before Mika let go and walked back over to Jace. She reached over and took his hand in hers. Jace could see that Diana’s eyes were puffy and she wiped them with the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” Diana told them, her voice chagrined. “But I’m not really brave. I’m the same scared writer I’ve always been, hiding behind the characters from my books.”
Jace gave her a reassuring smile. “You are brave. Look what you’ve been thrown into. Any sane person would be going nuts.” He thought back to Big Cheese and how the player trapped in a goblin had gone insane. “Trust me. I’ve met some of them. And I freed others too. You and Mika are only ones who made it to Whitecliff. That takes some courage. You could have just stayed in whatever starter town you spawned in.”
“Jace is right! You are brave!” Mika declared with a grin.
“You’re kind,” Diana replied with what Jace thought was a forced smile. “But I can’t even summon my familiar. I’m not brave.”
“Not liking pain isn’t the same as not being brave,” Jace retorted.
“I don’t like pain,” Mika agreed. “But I am brave!”
Diana chuckled and nodded her head. “Yes, dear, you are.” She straightened up. “Okay, I’m done feeling sorry for myself. At least for now. Besides, I come bearing gifts.”
With that, the older woman brought out a platter of waffles from her inventory, a plate of fish and chips and another plate with two raw fish fillets. Luna’s head shot up as her nose sniffed the air. Diana also produces several mugs of mead. They all gathered at the table, except for Luna whose plate they sat on the floor, and dug into their food.
“I love waffles!” Mika announced, as she finished wolfing down her plate. “Waffles are the best! Especially with the maple syrup!”
“You know,” Jace said. “They actually hired the best cooks to create versions of the food and then digitize the sensations of eating it. That’s why the food in the game tastes so good.”
“Whoever made these waffles is a great chef,” Mika said.
Diana looked at him dubiously. “Really? Some of the food we’ve had was good, but it tasted like it was from a greasy spoon.”
“A what?” Jace asked.
“Uh,” Diana thought. “A cheap diner.”
“Oh,” Jace nodded. “They digitized all sorts of cuisine and they matched it with in-game establishments. We’ve been mostly going to taverns, so the food there is basically like bar food or diner food. There are inns where they serve the equivalent of world class cuisine. And of course, you pay for it too.”
“Just like in real life,” Mika said.
“Yes,” Jace replied. “But it would be cool to try. Many famous chiefs contributed some of their best creations to the game. Well, by contributed, I mean, they were paid handsomely for them.”
“Of course,” Mika nodded.
“I don’t suppose there’s a burger place,” Diana said wistfully. “I’d die for a good burger.”
“Yeah, me too,” Jace replied sadly. “But unfortunately not. They keep it mostly period, though some of the more exotic races have some more modern cuisine.”
“Maybe once I get my fortune back,” Diana mused, “we can go visit some of those higher class places.”
“That would be nice,” Mika agreed.
They finished up their food and
spent the rest of the night talking about what the girls would do once WorldCog restored their money. Jace sat back and listened, interested at what they had in mind.
While he listened, he kept wondering what would happen to him. Would he get deleted? He thought he would be happy that part of him was living on, the real part of him. Yet, he realized he was still scared of being deleted. Of ceasing to exist. Of dying.
Thoughts of dying brought up memories of his family and their death. The memories caused his mood to quickly sour. But the girls seemed to be enjoying their conversation, so he forced a smile and pretended to be enjoying things. He didn’t need to bring them down. He let them enjoy their fun.
That was especially true when shouting from outside interrupted them and they all ran on deck to see what the excitement was about.
“Storm horizon!” a sailor yelled down from the crow’s nest. “It’s a big one captain!”
Colette looked over to him. “Looks like we won’t be leaving anytime soon! You can weather it in the ship or weather it on shore.”
Knowing the dangers he and the girls faced each time they stepped onto the shore, the decision was easy. “Aye, we’ll stay aboard.”
Chapter 35
They weathered the storm in the harbor that night. Because of the strange moving docks, the gnomes were able to manipulate them to form a sort of artificial reef between the ocean and the inner docks. Because of this, the ship was spared from the worst of the waves. Once the storm broke, Colette took them out of the harbor and back onto the open sea.
Since he didn’t know what treasure waited at each location, Jace picked the nearest one. The treasure marker was along the coast, north of the gnomish capital. When he gave Colette the coordinates, she whistled.
“That will take us a day and a half into raider territory,” the first mate told him. “We won’t get there and back without a scuffle.”
“Raider?” Diana asked.
“Raiders are this world’s equivalent of Vikings, only much more prolific,” Jace explained. “They inhabit the northern reaches and raid the towns and vessels of all three factions. In that way, they were both neutral and hostile towards everyone.”
“Oh, aye!” Colette confirmed. “They are hostile to everyone, even themselves. They’re divided into tribes, or clans, and they raid each other too.”
“And we’re going into their territory?” Diana questioned. “Willingly? Weren’t Vikings the master of the oceans in their time?”
Jace shrugged. “Perhaps. But I doubt they are any more difficult than the ninjen. They have to be around level 20 or 30, the same as them. If they were higher, they’d probably wipe out the smaller towns.”
He looked at Colette. “Can we take a longship? How many raiders would that be?”
Colette looked thoughtful before answering. “I might be saying no, except I saw you with the ninjen. The ninjen be tougher than any raider I have ever come across. If we can take on the ninjen, we can take on a longship. But, there will be casualties.”
“Is there anything we can do to push the odds in our favor?” Jace asked. “Longships are lower in the water, right? What about dumping oil on them and lighting it?”
“Aye,” the Colette nodded. “You could do that - if you don’t care about the loot. No one will be getting loot from a burning ship.”
“That makes sense,” Jace conceded. They’d have to defeat all of the raiders on the ship and then they’d be able to loot the ship of any valuables. Too bad.
Diana looked between Jace and Colette. “You two actually want to go up against a ship full of Vikings?”
“He’s the Captain,” Colette responded to Diana’s look. “Where he says to go, I go. Captain, I take it we are planning to raid the raiders?”
He hadn’t told Colette or the crew about the treasure. While normally he wouldn’t mind sharing some with the crew, at the moment they needed every bit to buy a scroll of imprisonment. He hadn’t given them any reason for their northern excursion, nor did he have to as the captain. But they would expect some plunder.
“I want to scout it out,” Jace told the first mate, knowing she’d relay his reasoning to the crew. “We might be able to find a few of their bases and see if it’s profitable.”
Colette nodded. “I would hope it is, after how much raiding they do. But we don’t have the manpower to go after one of their clan bases.”
Jace thought about it briefly. “You’re right. The key would be to hit one of the ships AFTER they raid someone but before they get back to their base. Then they’d be loaded with loot and none of the blame would be on us.”
The first mate grinned broadly. “And that means we get to keep making port in the major cities.”
“Exactly.” Jace smiled. “Who knows, there might even be a reward for destroying raider ships in some of the coastal towns.”
“We can skirt the coastline and look for outbound longships,” Colette suggested. She looked thoughtful. “Might add a half day to the journey but we might get lucky. And the crew are itching for some plunder.”
“I agree,” Jace said. “Set course and take us up along the coast. Set someone in the crow’s nest as a lookout. If I remember correctly, longships have no crow’s nest, so that might give us an edge on spotting them before they spot us.”
“You are correct, captain,” the first mate looked pleased. “I will do as you order.”
“We’ll be in my quarters,” he told her. “Have someone inform me the minute we spot something. Remember, we’re privateers now. No alliance ships. Just raiders.”
Colette smirked and gave him a wink. “Right. Privateers.”
He and the girls retreated into the captain’s quarters as his first mate began barking orders to the crew.
“I know we want treasure,” Diana started as soon as they were in the captain’s quarters. “But are we really going to look for trouble on the open seas?”
“We killed the ninjen,” Mika pointed out.
“Yes and it was terrifying!” Diana retorted. “The storm, the things in the ocean. I know I put on a brave front, but that whole episode was terrifying.”
“Diana,” Jace said, trying to make his voice as soothing as possible. “You did great then and you’ll do great if we’re in another fight. And don’t forget, we’re higher level now. You heard Colette. The raiders aren’t as tough as the ninjen. We won’t have a problem. Trust me.”
“Trust you,” sighed the older woman. “I do trust you Jace. That’s the only reason I’m on this crazy adventure. You seem like you know what you’re doing in this game and I’m trusting you to see us through this. I just don’t understand why we are throwing ourselves into danger that we don’t need to.”
Jace and Mika exchanged knowing looks. Unlike Diana, they’d both played the game before. They knew that the game was all about putting yourself in danger and coming out ahead. Or if you didn’t, you went somewhere else, gained levels and then came back. That was the nature of VEIL Online.
But that wasn’t Diana’s reality. She had been in her nineties when she died. Likely the most activity and adventure she’d had in the last twenty years was a game of golf. He tried to see it from her perspective. Maybe he did seem a bit rash but he’d always just leaped in first and figured out how to swim as he went along.
Of course, now the stakes were higher. They were going up against Damian, not some game-controlled monster. Just like they had come up with a plan to neutralize Damian, he likely had plans to do the same - or likely, much worse - to them. And he had infinitely more resources than they had.
Diana was still standing there with her arms crossed over her large chest. He gave her the most genuine smile he could. “I promise that if it looks like they are too much for us, I’ll tell Colette to turn the ship around. I won’t throw us into needless danger. Is that good enough?”
“I just don’t know why you want to do it in the first place?” she asked. “Can’t we just get the treasure, imprison Damian and get
on with our lives?”
“I wish it were that easy,” he said. “But I don’t know how many of these treasure sites we’ll need to visit to get enough gold for the scroll. And we don’t know what will be there waiting for us. If we can gain a few levels on the way and get a little more loot, that will help us in the long run.”
“Jace is right,” Mika agreed. “We must be ready to face Damian. The more levels we earn the more prepared we will be!”
Diana looked between the pair of them and then threw her hands up. “Fine! Fine! Let’s go kill some Vikings!”
She stomped over to the bed and collapsed on it, waking Luna from a nap. The cat glared at the woman with one sleepy eye and then closed it and resumed her nap.
Jace walked over and sat down next to her. “I know you said you had never played before. Maybe things would be easier if I gave you a crash course in the game. I know you’ve learned a lot but between Mika and I, maybe we can give you some tidbits that will make you more confident.”
Diana looked at him and exhaled sharply. “I guess that wouldn’t hurt.” She looked sheepish. “I actually do have some questions about the way some things work.”
Mika furrowed her brow. “Why didn’t you ask us?”
Diana rolled her eyes and sat up. “Pride, I guess. I figured out enough to get by, especially when we were fighting simple things. I wanted to…”
“... appear to be a strong, confident woman like the characters in your book,” Jace finished and flashed her a grin.
The older woman slapped him playfully. “Respect your elders young man!”
“We are a team,” Mika said. “A family. We will stick together and beat Damian and get our lives back!”
Something in his brain bristled at being called a family, after what had happened to his own family. He forced himself to push it to the back of his mind and smiled. “She’s right. We’re all in this together. And if we stick together, we’ll make it.”
“Ah.” Diana smiled wistfully. “The optimism of youth. How I miss it. Fine, give me that crash course and let’s see if an old dog can learn new tricks.”
Veil Online - Book 3: An Epic LitRPG Adventure Page 22