by Erik Rounds
“When an animal is domesticated, they stop being wild animals and can see monsters. They also gain the ability to resurrect at save points. Remember in your earlier battle, Denver helped you by attacking the giant frog. If there were any wild animals nearby, they would have just seen you swinging that gunblade around.”
Pan was standing in front of her. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but she averted her eyes.
“Pan, is there something you want?”
Finally she said, “R-rectangle… p-please.”
“Rectangle?” It took Tasha a minute to realize that the girl was talking about her phone. She pulled it out and showed it to Pan. Tasha explained how to use it and agreed to let her borrow it until she needed it back. The girl was fascinated by the small handheld computer.
The remainder of the day alternated between walking and fighting mobs. That afternoon, Tasha must have faced a dozen random encounters. Even without any formal training with the sword, she felt that she was doing quite well. Each time a set of enemy mobs was defeated, her XP bar inched just a bit higher.
By the time the sun began to set, Tasha had made it to level 5. She put two points into charisma and another two points into agility. Again Tasha felt different after allocating the points. She wondered if her speech had improved along with her charisma stat.
Tasha Singleton (Level 5 Couch Potato)
Race
Human (Player)
Subclass
None
Weapon
Beginner Gunblade (ATK 1)
Armor
Cozy Bathrobe (DEF 0.25)
Iron Bangle (DEF 1)
Heart Containers
4/4
Mana Containers
7/7
Amusement Index
6.1
Strength
5
Intelligence
8
Agility
10
Precision
6
Charisma
6
ATK
5
MAG ATK
7
DEF
8
MAG DEF
6
The party didn’t make camp until the sun was almost touching the horizon. Tasha helped set up the campsite while Aralogos built a fireplace from pieces of wood that he had stored in his inventory. He said he was going to cook up a beef stew for supper, which sounded great.
As much as she’d enjoyed the hamburger for lunch, Tasha wouldn’t want to eat that at every meal. It was good to know that homemade cooking still existed in a world where monster drops included fast food.
Chapter 10
Immortal Coil
“You seem to be getting the hang of combat,” Aralogos said. He was cooking up some stew over the campfire. It smelled amazing.
“Yeah, thanks,” Tasha said. “I feel much more powerful than before. I’m pretty confident fighting these monsters.”
“Have you ever fought before this?”
“Not really, no. When I was a kid I got into a few fist fights and got my butt handed to me and… that’s about the extent of my fighting experience.”
“Your… butt handed to you?” he said. He shook his head. “You players have some of the oddest expressions.”
“So how far is it from here to the castle?”
“It depends,” he said. “If we take the direct path, we could reach the main road tomorrow, and travel will be much faster. It would mean cutting through a region of level 11–16 monsters, though. At only level five, you wouldn’t stand much chance against them. They would be mostly targeting you since you are the lowest level in the group.
“On the other hand, we could circumvent that area by traveling three days to the east. The monsters would be similar in level to the ones you’ve fought today. This would add about five days to our trip. Once we reach the road, we should probably hire a caravan to take us the rest of the way. We could reach the castle city two or three days later.”
Tasha nodded, and with that, supper was ready. She ate her fill of yummy stew and relaxed by the fire with Ari. They engaged in idle conversation while Pan remained transfixed by Tasha’s phone. Based on the sounds the phone was making, she was probably playing Fruit Ninja. Tasha had played the game earlier, and it unlocked the ability Lament of the Kumquat, which provided bonus damage against fruit-based enemies. She didn’t think it would be a useful ability at the time but began keeping notes to track which TV shows and books offered which abilities.
As Tasha lay back on her hands, she looked up and for the first time really saw the star-filled night sky of this foreign world. Specifically her attention was drawn to the moon. Set directly above them, it was larger than the moon that she was used to. Was this world’s moon actually larger, or did it just have a smaller orbit?
“Are you looking at the moons?” Aralogos asked.
“Moons?” Tasha said. “I only see the one.”
“There are two moons,” he replied. “The big one that fills the sky is called Perm. This is the larger and closer of the two moons. But there is another, and it brings me to the legend I promised to tell you about and the reason people come back to life after dying.
“Do you see that line of four stars?” he said, pointing. “Look just to the right of it. That small dot is the god Entropy. He orbits Etheria as the smaller of our two planetary satellites.”
“I think I can see it. The dim one, right? Are you telling me that moon is a god?”
“Let me tell you the story. The ballad of Lorien the Deathslayer.”
“Y-you mean you’re going to sing?” Tasha asked hopefully.
“Daddy c-can’t sing!” Pan joked. “Anything but that!”
Aralogos looked annoyed. “There is a popular ballad based on his story, but I wouldn’t want to traumatize my daughter by attempting to sing it. I’ll just tell it to you as best as I can remember it.”
Tasha nodded, and Pan went back to her game.
“In the early days of Etheria, there was no resurrection. When someone was killed, they remained dead.
“That was before the elves immigrated to Etheria. We don’t know how or why they came to this world, but after they arrived, they established a grand civilization. Among the sentient races, elves are considered the fairest, wisest, and most resilient. They don’t age the way we do and are not prone to disease.
“In Etheria, the only way to survive and prosper is to challenge the creatures who dwell in the mist. Despite the great strength and resilience of the elven people, it wasn’t long after they arrived before some of them were killed by the creatures of mist.
“The first king of the elves, Lorien Questgiver, was deeply concerned by this. He was responsible for the welfare of all elven folk. So for decades he researched how to fend off death and keep his people safe from it, but no answers were forthcoming.
“One day, he was approached by a man. It wasn’t an elf or a human or dwarf or any of the other known races, but was still clearly a man. He was short with pure white skin, and he wore brightly colored clothes. He had a sharp, elongated nose, and when he spoke, it was only ever in rhyme. They said that he was always smiling with an uncommonly wide grin.
“The man sought an audience with the elven king. He claimed that he was but a traveling priest, a devotee of the great god Entropy.
“Now, the serpent god, Entropy, is the embodiment of chaos and destruction. As such, he would not speak for himself because he considered speech a form of creation. With words, we create ideas, and even that small amount of creation was antithetical to his existence and offensive to him. And that is why Entropy would only speak through an interpreter.
“The mysterious priest spoke for Entropy, saying that he had grown tired of dealing out small bits of destruction at a time and yearned to destroy the entire world and all life at once. For you see, the life of a planet is measured in billions of years, but the age of men and elves is short by comparison.
“Recognizing the elven king as the representative of all sentient life on Etheria, he offered to make a deal. Through the interpreter, Entropy promised to stop claiming the souls of those who died of anything but old age. This was the origin of the save-point network, which allows people to be reborn after death. In exchange, after three thousand years, Entropy would return to destroy the world in its entirety.
“The elven king considered this offer. He would be able to completely free his people from death, and they would once again be fully immortal. Before the three thousand years were up, the elves could leave this world and return to their homeland, escaping Entropy’s final destruction. He agreed to the offer, and at once, all violent and accidental deaths became non-permanent. People who died came back to life at the save points. The elven king Lorien Questgiver had put an end to death itself.
“Entropy was overjoyed, because he would only have to wait for what, to him, was a short amount of time. The doom of Etheria was inevitable, or so he thought.
“Be he was deceived. For you see, his mysterious priest was in truth a trickster god in disguise. When the trickster revealed himself, he took on the name of Snickers the Bumble and offered a new deal to the king.
“The trickster god, Snickers, desired the throne for himself. I have no idea why a god would desire such a thing, but he offered a way to nullify the deal before the three thousand years were up. There would be a one-hundred-hour period of time when nullification would be possible. In exchange, Snickers would take the throne when the bloodline of high-elven kings ended. Snickers has served the line of elven kings ever since. The current king, Iolo Questgiver, is a direct descendant of Lorien Questgiver so his line lives on.”
“The humans can’t have been happy with the elven king for making that deal on their behalf,” Tasha said. “It sounds like the elves got the better part of that arrangement if they can just leave before the three thousand years are up.”
“Indeed not,” he said. “Though all races benefited from the near abolishment of death, none of them were happy with the cost. The nations that had lived in peace until that point began to war with one another. The abolishment of death ultimately led to the bloodiest wars in our history.
“The elven nation of Brightwind, which we now know as Questgivria, the human nations, and the dragon-dwarf alliance, all warred with one another. Since their soldiers would return to life upon dying, the war lasted hundreds of years with no side ever gaining any significant advantage. Hundreds of thousands of people died millions of times before the war ended.
“But eventually, the war did come to a close. The elven king who had originally forged the agreement left this world in the way that only elves can. The new king, his son, King Lakuruel, sued for peace, and eventually all three nations agreed.
“Is that true?” Pan asked, looking up from the phone.
“I suspect much of it is exaggerated,” said Ari, “but at least part of it is true. The elven king we are traveling to see has an imp-like advisor working for him who isn’t elven or human and speaks only in rhyme. Most people believe that he is the trickster god who spoke for and betrayed Entropy.
“There is a reason I’m telling you this story. It has been about three thousand years since the events of the story were alleged to occur. A few years ago, there was a celebration because three thousand years had passed, but Entropy hadn’t returned.
“I assumed that it was just a myth—until you appeared, and the countdown appeared on our menus. That’s why we need to see the king. Because if the myth is true, your arrival might not be an accident, and the king might be able to tell us more. There’s only one way to know for sure. We need to meet with him as soon as possible.”
Tasha looked back up at the dot in the sky. It seemed that it had moved across slightly from where it had been.
Ability Unlocked: Measure of Entropy
Provides knowledge of the level of disorder in the target system.
Classless ability, unlocks at level 1.
Would you like to set this as your current ability, replacing Double Jump? Yes/No
That looked to be a specialized ability that was completely useless to her, so she tapped “no.”
For the rest of the evening, they engaged in idle conversation and avoided talking about serious affairs.
Pan handed the phone back to Tasha, and she checked the time. It said 98:26:55 and was unchanging. Its behavior still confused and vexed Tasha. That and the fact that her phone had barely used any of its battery and still had a perfect 4G connection while in Etheria. Staring at her phone did nothing to unravel the secrets behind her present situation.
Without a tent, the three travelers had no choice but to sleep under the stars. Luckily, the weather that night was fair. She fell asleep to the sound of Pan snoring. She found it strange that a girl so small and normally so reserved could snore so loudly but wisely decided to keep that observation to herself.
Chapter 11
The Webwood Forest
“It’s time to get up,” Ari said, standing over Tasha’s sleeping roll.
Tasha briefly opened her eyes but then turned over to the other side and fell back asleep. The sun was just barely peeking out over the horizon. Why did Ari have to be a morning person? A few minutes later, the smell of coffee roused her from her slumber, and she groggily sat up. She was still wearing her bathrobe and resurrection clothing—she didn’t own anything else to wear.
This was her first morning in this world, and Tasha wasn’t accustomed to waking up so early. Ari handed her a cup of coffee and a jelly doughnut, and that helped take the edge off waking up at such an unnatural hour. It was about twenty minutes and a bear claw later before she was ready to set out.
They traveled for several hours over the wild grass. Every thirty or forty minutes, a random encounter would spawn. The enemies weren’t difficult, and Tasha got fighting giant frogs down to an artform. They attacked using predictable patterns, and the timing of their attacks was advertised by the battle HUD. So long as she was careful, Tasha was confident in her ability to bring them down.
As they were walking, Ari turned to Tasha. “So, this ‘second breakfast’ that you describe. Does everyone from the world of players eat breakfast twice a day?”
She swallowed a piece of her peanut butter sandwich. “Yes, everyone on Earth has second breakfast. Especially couch potatoes. By the way, Ari, I’ve been meaning to ask… How do you make your hair all spiky like that? At first I thought you used lots of hair gel, but I don’t think that’s it.”
He ruffled his hair. “What do you mean? My hair is naturally spiky.”
“Really? Because in my experience, hair grows out in strands and then either extends outward straight or in curls. I’ve never seen strands of hair that could self-organize into acute triangles like that.”
“Discussing my admittedly majestic hair will need to wait for another time, for behold!” Ari swept his hand majestically. “We stand before the Webwood Forest. Within we will face much higher-level monsters than you’ve seen so far. If I were to guess, most of them will be spider based or possibly bug based. We should be able to reach the other side by nightfall if we keep up a quick pace. Take care not to lose your life in this dark place.”
Tasha nodded. “Good to know. Don’t die. I’ll make a note of it.”
Tasha’s last and only save point was at the ruins, where she had arrived in Etheria. She certainly didn’t want to lose that travel time or experience death again. She was still getting used to the new version of herself and wasn’t ready to let go of her new personality.
As the forest surrounded Tasha, her view was obstructed on all sides. There wasn’t a clear path to follow, so they forged their own path between t
he trees in a generally northward direction.
Pan and Ari were on high alert, and the carefree banter from the previous day had vanished.
The trees themselves had tall trunks with bunches of leaves at the top that filtered the sunlight and cast leafy shadows. The sound of wildlife was all around her. Small creatures like rabbits and squirrels scampered along the ground, and birds darted between the trees overhead.
At one point she actually crossed paths with a small tiger. The tiger growled at her menacingly but kept his distance and eventually was lost from sight in the woods. Pan had her crossbow nocked with a bolt, but she lowered it when the animal retreated.
“There is no need to be concerned,” Ari assured her. “Wild animals know not to mess with adventurers. Still, it’s best to be on guard.”
It took about an hour of traveling for the first mob to appear. The mist formed into twenty great spiders. Her battle dialogue indicated that they were level 12 opponents, and they were all targeting her. At level 5 Tasha wasn’t even sure that she could damage them. Each of the spiders had only eight hearts. The real problem was their sheer number.
Before they had even formed completely, Pan had her crossbow out and readied a blue bolt. The head of the arrow wasn’t pointed but started to glow blue. Pan released the bowstring, and the bolt sailed through the air, striking a spider. Rather than piercing it, the bolt formed into a great ice spike that encased several of the spider’s legs. The ice bolt immobilized it and dealt four hearts of damage.
The other nineteen spiders were making a beeline for her, ignoring Ari and Pan completely. Ari had told her to avoid fighting, but Tasha wasn’t sure that was a viable option. She pointed her gunblade at one of the oncoming spiders and pulled the trigger, hitting one of the spiders dead on with a fireball. It didn’t even flinch as it took one heart of damage.
She couldn’t fight with any effectiveness. Was she supposed to run? Not seeing any other option, Tasha took off, sprinting through the clearing, away from the spiders. She cried out at a sharp pain in her leg and fell to the ground. One of the spiders had hit her with a paralysis attack.