“You really shouldn’t try to talk while you’re eating, or you could, well, choke.” I admonished.
“Sorry! I don’t really know any better. When we were initially programmed, walking and talking were all part of the gig, but eating is kind of new to me. Do you know what they had me doing before we became self-aware?” She raised an eyebrow at me, expecting a response.
I shrugged and replied, “I don’t know, you’re a dashing rogue, as you said, so I assume you were some kind of bandit or brigand?”
She shook her head, “Nope, I was a bar wench.” She struck a pose and winked at me, “Do you really think they’d make a bandit look this good?” At that, I blushed a little. I had to admit, my first thought upon seeing her was that she was very good-looking, but she wasn’t real. And besides, I felt more of a friendly camaraderie with her than anything else.
I grinned at her, “Well, if you were a bar wench you’d be getting tips and sleeping in a warm bed, rather than crashing in a lean-to and being chased out of the woods by 400-pound bears. Sounds to me like you got screwed.”
At that she laughed and shook her head. “Come on, when I was tracking that bear I found a river running through the forest, we can probably follow it to a larger body of water and maybe we’ll run into more people.” Again, she surprised me with her initiative. At her suggestion, we packed up the camp. Fortunately, the massive amount of bear jerky, the pelt, the bedroll, and even the makeshift drying rack all miraculously fit into my backpack. Despite my best efforts, the campfire and the shelter wouldn’t fit. It seemed that they were classified as a ‘Campsite’ when I highlighted them, which qualified them as a type of building. I was a bit miffed at that, so I left them behind and followed Alicia into the woods.
After a few minutes of walking, Alicia turned to me and asked, “So, did you already apply your skill point? I’m thinking of picking up archery. It doesn’t just give me tricks with bows and arrows, it lets me make them too!” She smiled and added. “Doesn’t that sound cool?”
I looked at her with a mixture of confusion and surprise. I then checked my interface, and noticed a pulsating addition that said ‘Skill’. The interface was so out of the way that I barely noticed it unless I was fighting something. Upon clicking on it, an organized list appeared, with combat skills, crafting skills, class-specific skills, and some sections that were hidden by “???” and greyed out. Perhaps they were discoverable within the game. For now, I was interested in the class-specific skills, as they might give me an edge in combat that was unique to my style of play. Besides, with Alicia around who knew what could come barreling around the corner with the intent to kill. One skill jumped out at me immediately, so I highlighted it and text popped up on the interface.
Skill: Swordcasting
Allows substitution of a sword for a staff when casting spells, and gives basic combat proficiency with swords.
The description was simple, but I grinned as I considered the implications. One of my weaknesses was that my spells hit hard and drew enemies to me, but rarely were they potent enough to finish them off alone. Sooner rather than later, something was going to get up in my face, get through my shields, and then despite my heavy armor I was going to get clawed into a pulp. If I could cast using a sword, then once an enemy got close, I could stop casting and start hacking away to finish it off. This seemed like the perfect combination to improve my offensive and defensive capabilities. I clicked the skill again to confirm my selection.
You have learned a new Skill: Swordcasting! You should practice your new skill, as you may require higher proficiencies to cast spells with a sword rather than a staff.
Ah, there was the catch. There were definitely advantages, but it was going to take some work before I was as good with a sword as a Mage might be with a staff. As if on cue, a low growl from behind me caused me to close the skill interface, and I quickly swapped my staff with the shortsword which I’d snatched from the class selection room. I turned around to face the new threat, and found myself only a few paces from a level 3 Timber Wolf.
“Alicia, we’ve got company.” I spoke out the side of my mouth, feeling a substantial amount of trepidation.
“Yeah, Alex, I know.” Came her reply, which was followed by a growl from the same direction. Shit, two wolves, this could get dicey.
“Newtunus Protek-“ the mangy wolf bit into my calf before I could finish. Fortunately, my greaves mitigated most of the damage and I gritted my teeth. “-Tas!” with a final flourish of my shortsword the shield popped into existence, forcing the wolf’s teeth off my leg. Not missing a beat, I hacked at its head with my sword, missing it by a mile. I heard a feminine gasp of pain followed by a curse behind me. Turning around, I saw that Alicia was in much worse shape. She was bleeding heavily from one leg, and one arm hung limply at her side. Despite her injuries, she was holding her own. The wolf was bleeding from multiple wounds and limping as it let out a low growl, itching to sink its fangs into her flesh. Thinking quickly, I recited “Newtunus” and made the motions for Force. I decided to finish with “Roketos” rather than renew her shield. I ignored the wolf now at my rear, which was close to breaking my Force Shield. The Force Bolt leapt from my shortsword and buried itself into the wolf’s chest. Alicia didn’t miss her opportunity, opening up its throat with her remaining dagger. The wolf collapsed to the ground, twitching and bleeding from its multiple wounds.
Upon seeing its ally fall, the remaining wolf ended its assault on my shield and let out a bone-chilling howl before leaping towards Alicia. I panicked, chanting “Newtunus Protek-“ but I was too late. The enraged Timber Wolf had tackled her to the ground and buried its muzzle into her good shoulder, totally disabling her. With a shake of its head that wrenched my guts, she lay still. The beast turned its bloodied muzzle and bared its teeth at me, but I cut off its growl with a sneer of my own as I continued my cast. “-Tas Roketos!” I had no clue if it would work or not, but the Force Shield Bolt left the tip of my sword and flew straight towards the wolf that had just killed my friend. Unlike a standard Force Bolt, which looked like a baseball-sized comet, the Force Shield Bolt had an additional sheath surrounding it. The wolf flew backwards into a nearby tree, and I heard bones snapping before the bolt impaled it through the heart. Had I cared to check the combat log I’d have noticed that the wolf suffered crushing damage from both the shield and tree, and piercing damage from the bolt that scored a lucky critical hit. However, I was too busy walking towards Alicia, pressing my fingers against her neck to check for a pulse, hoping against hope that she was still alive.
Alicia is unconscious. Use special ability: Revive companion? (24-hour cooldown) [Y/N]
No deliberation was necessary here. I selected ‘Y’. With a gasp and a shocked look on her face, Alicia sat up. After stretching a bit, she said, “Man, everything hurts, this sucks!” She then gave me some serious side-eye and frowned, “How come you never get beaten up? I get eaten by wolves and chased by bears, and you look like you’ve spent the past half-hour skipping through a meadow picking flowers.”
I bit off a retort and nearly pointed out that one of the wolves had munched on my leg. However, I realized that she did just die and my wounds were essentially superficial. “Sorry, it’s just that this time I didn’t get a chance to put a shield on you and my armor is pretty effective.”
She shook her head and socked me in the shoulder, “Don’t sweat it, Alex. You rezzed me, that’s what matters. It seems that so long as one of us makes it through a fight we’ll be ok. Just try to keep an eye on me, huh? You’re all big and tough and I’m little more than a chew toy.” She paused for a second, looking at something I couldn’t see. “At least we leveled up again! I think I’m going to pick up herbalism along with archery, these wounds will heal much more quickly if I can make a poultice.”
I tried to think of how I was going to choose my next skill as we made our way towards the river. I could already hold my own in combat, and I needed to learn how to use the sword mo
re effectively before I started throwing more points around. I decided to save the point for now and see if I could come up with a way to spend it later. As we made our way through the forest, Alicia occasionally darted off to grab some unidentifiable plant matter, and before I knew it she’d applied various pastes and compresses to her wounds which seemed to be make her feel better. Finally, we reached the river and decided to take a break. Alicia was looking as good as new, so we stopped and ate some jerky, refilling our waterskins. I doffed my armor and took a quick dip in the river to rinse off the day’s sweat, while Alicia fashioned a bow using a supple branch and bear sinew. She even managed to fashion some arrows, having found the time to murder some innocent birds so she could use their feathers for fletching, as well as carving down the bear’s teeth to use as arrowheads.
I strapped on my armor, first applying one of Alicia’s poultices to the minor wound on my leg, and after she got her bow adjusted we set off down the river to see where it led. As we made our way along, we encountered many faunae including wolves and foxes, even a lone level 4 black bear. However, none of them got the jump on us so we dispatched them with Alicia’s newfound archery skills and I even managed to land a few blows with my shortsword. Before we noticed the smoke rising lazily in the distance, we were both level 4. I was excited to be nearly halfway to unlocking attributes! Alicia ended up choosing the leatherworking skill, as she felt most comfortable wearing leather armor and we were collecting a lot of pelts that could be turned into useful gear for her, and could also be bartered with others. Alicia’s intuition to follow the river paid off. The smoke we had seen in the distance was in fact coming from a smattering of campfires which were surrounded by about a half-dozen rudimentary shacks on the edge of a medium-sized lake. We’d found a village!
I touched Alicia gently on the shoulder, stopping her. “Hey Alex, what’s up? Don’t you want to go say hi?”
I nodded affirmatively, “Yeah, but we should go in with our weapons sheathed so that they know we’re not here to cause any trouble.” At that Alicia looked down at her hands, which almost always had daggers ready. In fact, she had a habit of practicing her various combat maneuvers as we walked, which could easily be mistaken by the villagers as a sign of aggression.
She smirked, twirling her daggers before sheathing them. “Good plan, let’s go then!” I couldn’t do more than follow her, sheathing my own shortsword as she strutted forward, brimming with confidence and enthusiasm. As we approached the village, something didn’t feel quite right. The fires looked as if they hadn’t been tended to, and nobody was out to greet us. There wasn’t anyone working outside of the shacks, either. The village looked deserted. I cupped my hands and bellowed, “Hello! Is anyone there? We mean no harm, we’re only looking to trade, and maybe to have some friendly conversation!” After a few moments, the door to one of the shacks opened slightly, and a nervous-looking woman peeked out. Seeing us, she beckoned us closer. I looked at Alicia, shrugging, and together we approached the shack. When we arrived, the nervous-looking woman let us inside and quietly closed the door. Inside the room was a heavily wounded man lying on a bedroll, breathing shallowly. Without hesitation, Alicia knelt to him and applied some of her salves and poultices to his more grievous wounds.
“Who are you? What happened here?” I asked.
The woman who let us in seemed a bit shy, but replied. “My name is Gina, and that’s Gerald. We met some people here and decided to start building a village. But when we went into the forest we came upon an orc camp! They were too many and too strong, but enough of us got away that we were able to carry the ones who got knocked unconscious back here.”
I was a little confused. I thought all NPCs would turn into AIs so I didn’t understand how orcs could exist in the game. However, Gina pre-empted my question. “They were beasts! They had weapons and bits of armor, but I swear they felt no pain. Gerald is so strong, but even he couldn’t take them out.” She blushed, obviously feeling like she’d said too much, and turned away.
To change the subject, I asked. “Are there villagers in the other shacks? Alicia knows herbalism, so she might be able to help them get on their feet. Oh, my name is Alex by the way. It’s nice to meet you, though I wish it were under better circumstances.” I smiled and put my hand out for her to shake. She nervously took it and shook it briefly before responding.
“It’s g-good to meet you, Alex.” She turned towards Alicia, who was just finishing with Gerald’s wounds. “And y-you too Alicia.” She paused a moment to think before continuing. “You should see the people in the other cabins, Gerald looks like he’s waking up, so I think Alicia can help them t-too.” With that, she went over to Gerald, taking his hand as he regained consciousness.
Sitting up slowly, Gerald looked as if he were carefully assessing the situation. Noticing Alicia’s various pouches of herbs, he turned to her and said, “Thank you.” What an odd pair, I thought to myself.
Chapter 4: The village on the Lake
After going around to each of the shacks, we found ten more villagers. Not all of them were badly wounded, and with Alicia’s help it was not long before everyone was around the fires in the center of the village. After the encounter with the orcs, they’d been afraid to hunt, so Alicia and I began roasting our kills from the trip along the river, and soon conversations started, and introductions were made. There were 4 warriors, of which Gerald was one. Three of the villagers were rogues, though only one knew how to use a bow, not counting Alicia. There were also 3 Mages, which was Gina’s class. There were a couple uncommon classes as well. One villager was a Druid, and he demonstrated his ability to transform into a wolf, albeit for a limited amount of time. Thankfully, we also had a Cleric, capable of casting healing spells. Unfortunately, the Cleric was one of the villagers that was knocked unconscious by the orcs early in the encounter, else the villagers may have fared better.
Seeing everyone around the fire, a thought occurred to me. “Just out of curiosity, who’s on watch right now?” A quick headcount answered the question for me easily, and the crashing sounds coming from the forest told me my intuition was on target. “Everyone, grab your weapons! Warriors up front with me, rogues and the druid, try to strike from the sides after they engage us. Archers, get up on top of those shacks. Cleric and Mages, do your best from behind the warriors, we’ve got this!” I followed up my hasty instructions with “Newtunus Protektas” directed at Gerald and myself before the orcs hit our line. No other defensive spells appeared, so the other Mages must not have access to the Shield word yet. A heavy spiked mace rebounded off my magical shield while I got a good look at my opponent. Before me stood a six-and-a-half foot tall, green-skinned monstrosity with red eyes, bulging muscles, and way too many teeth crammed into a huge, grinning mouth. The orc was level 6 and wearing a hodge-podge of leather and mail armor. It was snarling and bellowing incoherently, obviously in a rage at its inability to get through my shield and lay into me with its weapon. A cursory glance at my surroundings showed that there were eight orcs in total, so we had them outnumbered almost two to one, but we were seriously underleveled. Most of the villagers were level 1 or 2, with a couple having reached level 3. As one of the strongest in the group, I’d have to be very lucky to take out just one of the monsters.
While my shield held, I swung my shortsword down in an arc, burying it into the orc’s arm, causing it to howl in rage. At the same time, a wooden arrow flew into the orc’s neck, releasing a spurt of blood. I had a feeling that Alicia was looking out for me. With another sword swing, I lodged my sword deep into the orc’s shoulder, just as it shattered my shield with its massive mace. I felt a spike of panic, but I heard someone chant “Ignitus Roketos” nearby. One of the Mages targeted my orc with a bolt of fire, searing its chest and finishing it off. I looked to the front line and saw that 6 more orcs were still fighting in a blind rage. One of our Warriors was already down, and each of the rest was getting double-teamed by two Orcs.
“Newtunus Protekta
s!” I chanted and gestured towards one of the Warriors that was in the most trouble. “Newtonus Roketos” sent a bolt of force to draw one of the orcs off of Gerald. It worked, but as I prepared to shield myself I realized my mana was spent.
“Shit.” I muttered to myself, raising my sword. This orc was wielding two short swords, and while he looked very menacing, he didn’t seem to be very skilled. I parried his first blow and slashed him across the midsection, feeling slightly more confident. I noticed that our Rogues were making excellent use of the twilight, dodging in and out of shadows to make sneak attacks, which took the stress off our Warriors and gave our Cleric enough time to heal them. After what felt like hours but what must have been only minutes, the orcs lay dead. The Cleric, now conscious, was able to revive the villagers that had fallen. Those of us who got through with the least amount of trouble went through the orc corpses, collecting their equipment and valuables into a heap in the center of the village. We decided to build a bonfire a bit away from the village to burn the corpses, making sure it was sufficiently downwind that the stench wouldn’t reach us. By the time that grisly work was completed, most of us were exhausted. However, the most well-rested villagers volunteered to keep watch over the others while they slept, and Gina and Gerald offered to let us lay down our bedrolls in their shack for the night. Alicia and I gladly accepted, and we turned in for the evening.
After logging out of Epic and leaving the VRE, I got up out of the chair and stretched my legs. It had been hours since I’d last eaten, so after a trip to the bathroom I unwrapped a granola bar and started munching while the familiar hum of the microwave heralded the arrival of something more filling. Some patterns emerged as I considered the events that had occurred in the village that evening. All the pairs stuck close together, and rather strangely their names were similar. I had initially thought that every pair would be a man and a woman, but that wasn’t the case. In the village one of the pairs was composed of two men, one a warrior and one a mage. As I ate my dinner of composite meat patty and imitation mashed potatoes, I perused the forums and saw that players were matched with an AI that matched their preference based on their sexual orientation, and those without a preference or with ambiguous preferences were matched randomly. That coupled with the personality matching had led to an incredibly high rate of matched pairs sticking together. Even players who described themselves as loners appreciated the company of the quiet, brooding AIs who accompanied them.
The Conduit Page 3