Watcher's Test

by Sean Oswald

  At first, he didn’t know why the chest was divided into two different sides with an interior wall separating each set of gear, but then an idea dawned on him. Perhaps one side was magical gear and the other was mundane. Choosing Divination Magic had not been a choice he wanted to make, but it appeared as if it was going to pay off. Dave started to visibly tremble in excitement as he realized he now had a reason to cast his first magic spell.

  Noticing his shaking, Emily asked, “Are you okay,” worried that something inside the chest had affected him.

  With just a slight delay due to excitement, Dave responded, “No, I’m fine. I’m just excited. I’m about to cast my first magic spell. Do you know how epic this is?”

  Emily just shook her head and quietly said, “You are such a child,” but Dave wasn’t gonna allow her disdain to ruin his excitement. Instead, he focused upon the Identify spell that he had learned in the loading zone. As he focused his will, he found that he knew how to cast it. He had an understanding of how to focus the mana within himself as well as the words of power which needed to be spoken. Even the hand gestures were clear in his mind. After taking a second to marvel at how flawlessly this information seemed to have been transferred into his mind, Dave spoke three quick words of power and made the accompanying gesture. He felt a rush as the mana was channeled through him and noticed as the faintest yellowish gold glow appeared around his hand and then around the amulet which was the target of his spell. Then his mind was flooded with new information.

  Amethyst Ward’s Talisman: neck slot.

  Quality: excellent

  Active Effect: Cocoon - creates an amber cocoon around the wearer any time an attack would cause 25% total health damage. Cocoon absorbs 300 HP. Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 12 hours.

  Passive Effect: Aura of Armor- +5 to base armor

  Wow, an excellent quality item for his first find seemed great, but then again Dave realized that he didn’t really know anything about the availability of gear or the various levels and types that existed. Still, as he told his family about what the amulet did, he knew this was just perfect for Sara. It wouldn’t be a guarantee, but it would definitely provide her with more protection and that would put his mind at ease. Emily immediately agreed with his assessment that this should go to the youngest and most vulnerable of their children. Neither Mira nor Jackson complained, but of course, they were disappointed. Who wouldn’t want to be gifted the first magical item that they came across?

  Continuing his experiment, Dave next focused his Identify spell onto the longsword on the other side of the chest. The information gathered was nowhere near as interesting, but it seemed to confirm his basic assumption, that one side of the chest was for magical items and one for mundane.

  Steel Long Sword: Quality-Standard.

  Base Dmg: 10. Attack Speed: 6. Weight: 3.0.

  Dave knew that eventually he could test each item, but even these two castings had cost him almost a third of his mana. By his math, his mana only regenerated 2.5 points per minute, so it would take over fifteen minutes to regain the mana that he had just expended. This aspect of the spell did not seem so cool. In most games he had played, identifying objects was a basic function with no cost. Well, sometimes there might be a cost for identifying magical properties, but for mundane gear, it was just a move, the mouse and click function. Obviously, Eloria followed more after the model of some older games where identifying was done by scroll or another limited resource. Dave really didn’t want to allow his mana to fall below the 70 mana that would be required to cast Sure Strike twice. He knew that there was a one minute cooldown, but that was still his only offensive spell and with its boost to attack rating—critical chance and critical damage—it should hopefully be quite impressive. More than anything, he knew he needed to be careful not to take the kind of risks he would in a game. This was his new life, and more than that, Emily and the kids were depending on him.

  Since he could only cast Identify one more time before waiting for his mana to build back up, he decided to target the mace. With three quick words and the rush of mana ending up in a soft glow around the mace, he revealed its specifications.

  Chain Flange Mace

  Quality: High.

  Base Dmg: 8. Attack Speed: 5. Weight: 2.0.

  Active Effect: Chain mode - can be activated at will by the wielder. The head of mace extends on a chain, turning the weapon into a morning star. Base Dmg: +3. Attack Speed: 6. Range: +4 feet.

  Passive Effect: +20% attack, +4 magical damage.

  At first, Dave wasn’t sure who this weapon should go to, but when Jackson chimed in, “That’s like my baseball bat, can I have that?” Suddenly, it made sense. Which prompted another question, one which he didn’t really have the bandwidth to consider at this time; just who was this Watcher?

  After Dave explained to Emily about his need to wait a few minutes before casting Identify again, they both dug into the non-magical side of the gear. Dave started by pulling out the armor to see how to put it on while Emily took out the backpacks and set them side by side before starting to look through each in order. Sara eagerly jumped in trying to help her mom while Mira stood back watching. Dave was surprised by how easy it was to put the armor on. He assumed that was because of the character point he put into Heavy Armor. He seemed to intuitively know how to fit each piece whether it be the arm guards, the breastplate, or the greaves. The armor consisted of little rectangular plates of steel attached to an under armor of leather. Besides the essential armor for his torso, arms, and legs, it also included soft leather gloves with a singular steel plate on the back of the hand. Dave wondered if this was more to protect the back of the hand or if it could be used as a weapon when striking an opponent. Finally, he put on the helm which was also a rigid leather-banded helm with steel plates over it. The real question now was how long could he wear this armor. It was not light and seemed to slow him, but not as badly as he had feared, which he again credited to the point put into Heavy Armor.

  During the ten or so minutes it took for Dave to put on the armor, Emily and Sara made good headway into the various backpacks. They discovered two bundles of rations in each pack, blankets, rope, flint, canvas tent equipment, and a small set of tools including a hammer, saw, hand ax, and small shovel. Then, after grinning at the funny image of Dave stretching and trying to learn how to be comfortable moving in the armor, both mother and daughter looked at each other and giggled.

  Hearing that noise, Dave turned to where Emily and Sara were trying to stifle their laughing and said, “What...? Is something wrong? Do I look stupid in this?”

  Emily was able to regain control of herself much faster than eight-year-old Sara and responded with a quick, “Nothing’s wrong honey.”

  “Well, then what are you two giggle boxes going on about over there?” came back in an accusatory tone.

  Sara chimed in, “Daddy, you look so silly in that.” Which didn’t really help at all.

  Emily knew she needed to get this under control before Dave was hurt by all of this. For all of his manly, rough exterior, she knew that her husband’s heart was soft and that he was especially self-conscious of what she and the kids thought about him. It just took some work to get past his logical mind at times. “Honey, it’s just that none of us are used to seeing you in anything like that, but don’t worry. I’m certainly not used to wearing anything like this.” As she spoke, she ran her hands through the air, motioning toward the form-fitting leathers that she was wearing.

  Dave grinned at that, all self-consciousness lost as his eyes admired Emily’s figure and the way the leathers covered everything but still showed off her form. “Yeah, but if I’d known how good you looked in leather, I would have bought you some back home.”

  Now it was Emily’s turn to turn red, or at least the equivalent of red-faced with her dusky moon elf skin. She mouthed back a silent, “Not in front of the children,” but of course that was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

  Just
as Dave with a silly grin plastered to his face started to respond, Mira cut in with a tone dripping in a level of sarcasm that only a teen can muster, “Oh yeah, guys, you are both the height of fashion now. I’m sure we don’t have anything to worry about here in this completely new world. You can both just be models.”

  Both parents shook their heads, but rather than barking back at Mira, they understood that she, and the entire family for that matter, was under a huge amount of stress right now. All joking between Dave and Emily aside, they knew this was a bad situation. This led to them asking Mira to take Sara and start looking at what sort of food was in the ration bundles while they grabbed the pouch of coins and went a few feet away, ostensibly to count the coins, but in reality, to talk more about the situation they found themselves in. Mira was initially going to fire off another sarcastic remark, but apparently even a teenager can sometimes understand the seriousness of a situation.

  “Dave, I’m scared. I have no idea why this is happening to us or how we are supposed to manage,” said Emily once they were far enough away from the kids for their quiet conversation to be private. Dave positioned himself so that while talking to Emily, he could still see the kids. Jackson was practicing swing his new mace and the girls were going through the ration packs. Seeing the very real worry on his wife’s face and the undisguisable fear in her voice made Dave want to do nothing more than protect her. He tried to assure her that they would somehow manage to come through this. He told her that they were Nelsons and that they could handle anything if they stuck together, but seeing that his words were not having any effect, he stepped closer and wrapped her in an embrace.

  As he held her, Emily began to cry on his shoulder. At first, her tears were quiet and barely noticeable, but then he began to feel her shudder as the waves of emotion rushed through her. This was like when her father had died. There was nothing he could do or say to make it right. In fact, it wasn’t about making it right. It couldn’t be right, not when you suffer a loss like that. He had learned back then that the best thing he could do for his wife was to just be there for her, to be present in all of the turmoil. He didn’t need to try to fix her or fix it or minimize her feelings. He needed to be a safe place for her, a sounding board for her emotions, and a rock in her storm. When he had finally stopped trying to get her to let go of her grief and had accepted her with her grief and all, it had led to an entirely new level of intimacy between them. For more than a year, they had been close and had recaptured some of the original spark, better able to share of themselves with each other.

  That had been four years ago, and somehow they had fallen away from that intimacy. Standing there, holding his crying wife, Dave couldn’t for the life of him understand how they had ever lost that closeness. It had been so life-affirming, but they had. There was no doubt about it. They had grown apart again, as though they could only be close in the aftermath of a tragedy. As they grew apart, Emily had thrown herself into the church and charity work. Dave wasn’t opposed to any of that, he had grown up in the church and while not as connected to it as Emily, whose father had been a pastor, he still considered himself to be a religious man. Yet he had been drawn more and more into his online gaming and work and there had been that growing gap between them.

  Here they were in the midst of another tragedy, arguably the greatest tragedy. They had lost their lives, their world, their very bodies, and yet somehow, they were alive and together. A renewed determination filled Dave, and he began to speak softly into Emily’s ear as her crying started to slow down. “This is a game world. It will follow certain rules, and I know those rules as well as anyone. I’m not saying we don’t have to be careful or even that we shouldn’t worry. In fact, we probably need to find a way to help the kids mourn the loss of our old lives, but…”

  Emily loved feeling Dave’s arms wrapped around her and allowed her walls down if only for a moment. It was good to not have to be strong, not be the wife, mother, nurse, housekeeper, launder, landscaper, chauffeur, fundraiser, tutor, chef, personal shopper, and all of the other hats that she had to wear in any given week. It was good for just a moment, to be vulnerable and to let her feelings out, to let someone take care of her rather than being the one who takes care of everyone else. As her tears came more and more freely, she relaxed little by little. Dave wasn’t pushing her away or telling her to get it together; he was seeing her. He was giving her the moment that she needed and acting as her shelter. Slowly over ten minutes, she cried out her feelings of hopelessness, fear, and confusion. This didn’t mean that she was okay with what was happening to them, but rather that she was gearing up to face it head-on. Dave must have recognized the transition in her mind because, at that moment, he chose to start speaking to her, encouraging words, no lies, just words that showed her he was gonna be here with her and that she could depend upon him. She started to nuzzle up closer to him, wanting to be told how everything was going to be okay, but then the moment was shattered…

  Across the broken field of tree stumps and much closer to the forbidding tree line, they heard a cry for help. Both Dave and Emily jerked their heads up at the exact same moment, hearing the voice of their son crying out for help. Neither had even noticed him walking toward the trees, as they had been so caught up in their shared moment. As they looked up, they saw Jackson’s back to them as he faced forward only a few feet from the edge of the tree line. He clearly was scared and looking at something in the tree line, although neither of them could see what that thing was.

  After that brief moment of hesitation as they adjusted to the situation, both of them sprang into action. Dave started to run toward Jackson while Emily reached into the chest and drew out the long dagger on the side that supposedly contained the magical items. Her eye had been drawn to it earlier, and part of her had assumed that had something to do with her racial bonus of +5 to short blades, whatever that meant. Right now, all she knew was that her baby was scared, and she was gonna kill whatever was doing it. Drawing the dagger out of the sheath with the fury of a protective mother bear, Emily also started to race toward Jackson, quickly glancing at Mira and saying, “Stay back and watch your sister.”

  Despite delaying to pick up the dagger, Emily found herself passing Dave within seconds. She was so light on her feet and running seemed effortless. She didn’t know if it was this new moon elf body or the adrenaline she knew had to be surging in her veins, but she had almost crossed the entire hundred feet in less than four seconds, and she could hear Dave’s armor shaking with a metallic ring behind her. When she was halfway there, she saw a creature emerging from the woods. Well, saw was wrong because she noticed an outline of its heat before it even broke the tree line, and then as it did burst into the light, she saw it even more clearly. It sorta looked like a big pig, but it was ugly and had long tusks protruding from its mouth. Even more importantly, it was charging directly at her baby boy. This sight pushed her forward even harder, but she knew it would reach her son before she could intervene.

  Dave ran forward as hard as he had ever run. He felt the encumbrance of the armor and knew it slowed him down, but he couldn’t be bothered by that at this moment. He didn’t yet see what the danger was to his son, but he could recognize genuine fear when he heard it in his son’s voice. There was no time to be weak, no time to complain about Heavy Armor, this is what a father did. By the time he had crossed half the distance, Emily streaked by him with the sort of grace one would expect from a ballerina but at a full-tilt run and making it look easy. In that same instant, he saw a locomotive of destruction break out of the brush, headed directly for Jackson. It was clearly a boar of some kind but not like any that he had ever seen in person. This boar was right out of a video game for sure. It stood about three feet high at the shoulder and was propelled forward on what seemed to be rather stubby legs, but its body looked like that of a tank. From the back of its head down along the top of its back, it had a thick red mane that stood up on end almost like a short mohawk, and not a red like a
ginger’s hair, but red like a fire engine. Its two lower tusks protruded at least six inches out of its mouth and had a slight curve to them.

  In the fractions of a second that it took Dave to recognize all this about the beast bearing down on his son, it closed the distance. Jackson, bravely or foolishly depending upon which of his parents you asked, stood his ground and swung the mace like a baseball bat, aiming it for the boar’s head but instead catching it on the shoulder. The impact was heavy, but his young arms simply didn’t pack the kind of force that would be necessary to derail this boar. An instant after the mace blow landed, the boar’s full weight was driven into Jackson along with a tusk that pierced deeply into his left leg. The force of his mace blow, while not stopping the boar’s charge, undoubtedly kept that same charge from snapping his leg like a toothpick. Jackson cried out, this time his voice reaching a higher octave as pain unlike any he had known in his young life surged through him, and his body was flung forward at a forty-five-degree angle for over five feet, causing him to land flat on his back.

  As Jackson’s back hit the ground, Emily surged past him, vision red with rage, and she did a roll on instinct, seeking to come up under the boar with her blade. The razor-sharp magical blade slid easily through the tough hide of the boar, but her aim had been a bit off and instead of coming up into its throat, it buried into the joint of its right shoulder. Emily saw a notice: Critical Hit, flash across the corner of her vision but didn’t know what that meant and didn’t give it a moment's thought. She immediately tried to pull the dagger back but the boar’s momentum and the placement of the blade in the shoulder joint tore it out of her hand.