Quest updated! Clear the instance of enemies and stabilize the crystal.
New Quest Alert! Become assimilated.
Yes, now you are mine. I welcome you.
A brief flash of red filled my vision and I found myself outside of the instance. The crystal was still there, but it was now a calm blue color. I turned away from it and saw Alicia lying on the ground, unconscious and heavily wounded. Shocked, I ran over to her and touched her arm.
Alicia is unconscious. Use special ability: Revive companion? (24 hour cooldown) [Y/N]
I selected “Y”, and she sat up with a groan. “Ugh, my head, what happened?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. I went into the instance and killed a bunch of crystalline creatures, then I got sent back out.” I replied.
Rubbing her temple, Alicia reached a hand out to me and I pulled her up off the ground. “I think I know why you’re wearing so much armor, I couldn’t fight all those things alone.” She looked outside the village and spotted the crystal. “At least it looks stable now.”
Looking around a bit more, I asked “Have you seen Nareth around?”
Alicia shook her head. “No, he said he was going to go take care of something in the Village on the Lake. He asked us to stay here and look after things in case anything strange happens again.”
“He’s probably going to confront Frank.” I said.
Alicia furrowed her brow, “Why would he do that?”
“He’s got a bit of evidence suggesting that Frank’s the one who killed his friends.” I replied. “I’m surprised he didn’t take us with him, but perhaps it’s better if he handles it himself.”
“Hey, I’ve got an idea!” Alicia said, changing the subject. “Why not check out the village here and draft some more buildings? Everyone here is an NPC so we can build it up a bit while Nareth is gone.” That didn’t sound like a bad idea, so I checked out the current layout. In its current state, it contained only simple huts for dwellings. I drafted cabins as upgrades, and tree stands around the outskirts of the village for scouts. The resident NPCs were nothing if not industrious, immediately acting on the drafts I’d made and beginning construction on what I felt were the basics for a successful village. Alicia saw my work and took me aside, “Why don’t you take a break? You had a tough fight and the builders have a lot of work to do. I took her suggestion to heart, finding one of the huts that wasn’t occupied and lay down for a nap.
After some time, I’m not certain how long, I woke up and stepped out of the hut to find that most of the construction had been completed. An enticing smell drew my attention towards one of the campfires, where Alicia was turning a spit and roasting an animal I hadn’t yet seen in the forest. I was feeling a little hungry, so I approached her. “Hey, what’s that you’re cooking, it smells good!”
Still turning the spit, Alicia turned towards me and smiled. “Some of the wood elves went out hunting and ran into a sounder of boars. Nobody was hurt, but we’re definitely eating well tonight!” I agreed, carving off a hunk of meat and enjoying the tender, slightly salty flesh.
Between bites, I asked. “Has Nareth returned yet?”
Alicia frowned. “Not yet, I hope he didn’t run into trouble with Frank.” That was rather worrying, and I was starting to think I should go after him. I suggested it to Alicia, and she seemed hesitant in answering. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Besides, it’s late and you might run into something dangerous.” Alicia’s answer made me feel a little uneasy. She always seemed adventurous, and her hesitance suggested that something was off, or she wasn’t telling me something.
I voiced my concerns. “You usually enjoy adventure, what’s stopping you?” Alicia looked startled by my concern, and for a moment it seemed like the world flickered. I dismissed it as my imagination.
Alicia’s smile brightened as she pointed past me into the forest. “Look, I’m pretty sure Nareth is coming back! Now there’s no reason to leave.” I turned the way she was pointing, and did indeed see Nareth walking back into the village. He saw us at the campfire and approached, carving off some meat himself.
“So, did you confront Frank?” I inquired as he sat and ate silently.
“No, I ran into a couple fights on the way there, and it started getting dark, so I turned back.” Nareth replied. I furrowed my brow, wondering why darkness would suddenly cause him to abandon his path. Very recently we’d made the trip from the Village on the Lake to the wood elves’ village during nighttime. We did get ambushed and captured by spiders, though, so perhaps that was what was holding him back.
I smirked at him. “So, you’re afraid of spiders now? You can admit it, I’m not keen on them myself.”
Nareth looked me in the eyes a moment before replying, “Yeah, that was a bad experience, and not one I want to repeat.”
“Well, they’ve got to be coming from somewhere, maybe the three of us can go out and try to find their source?” I suggested.
“No!” Alicia and Nareth insisted simultaneously.
“It’s too dangerous, we should stay here where it’s safe.” Alicia cautioned.
“It’s best if you stay, you can help me more with the village here. Isn’t that what you want?” Suggested Nareth. Something didn’t feel right, and as reasonable as their suggestions were, I suddenly wanted nothing more than to get out of the village.
“I’m going to go, are you coming or not?” I insisted.
Nareth and Alicia looked at each other, and Alicia spoke. “It can wait until morning at least, right?”
I shook my head, “I slept earlier in the day, and something feels wrong, I’m going to leave. Now.”
Alicia’s smile and hopeful look faded, and were replaced by something cold and unfeeling. “It would have been better for both of us had you stayed of your own volition, but I suppose there’s no other choice.” She drew her daggers with a wicked grin and attacked. Startled, I barely had time to unlimber my shield and deflect one of her strikes. Nareth stared vacantly at us.
“What do you think you’re doing? Aren’t we supposed to be friends?” I asked as we circled each other.
Alicia feinted, causing me to try and deflect a phantom blow while she jabbed her other dagger into my shoulder. “I would prefer you stayed here tonight, that’s all. If I need to render you unconscious to do that, I will. Friendship doesn’t play into it.” It seemed Alicia had found time to go insane after she’d left the instance, but she had a point. I could knock her out and revive her tomorrow when the cooldown expired, and maybe then she’d come to her senses. Resolved, I drew my shortsword and chanted “Vik Newtun Protek,” shielding myself with force, and not giving her a chance to interrupt me. Alicia stared daggers at me, thrusting at me with much less metaphorical daggers, slowly draining my force shield. Determined to knock her out, I trusted in my shield, and shouted “Newtunus Protektas Roketos!”, hoping it would be strong enough to knock her down. The bolt of force hit her like a hammer, sending her flying a bit further than I wanted and landing her in the flames of a nearby campfire. Concerned, I ran towards her, unsure if the fire would cause permanent damage.
Alicia stood up from the fire, and I suddenly didn’t feel too concerned about her safety. The parts of her that had burned revealed her true, crystalline nature beneath. I wasn’t fighting Alicia, but rather a level 10 Crystalline Avatar. She walked towards me, looking completely unharmed.
“Yes, that’s right, you can’t hurt me here, but I can certainly hurt you.” The avatar extended its hand and a bolt of red lighting wound itself around me, binding me. It casually sauntered up to me, delivering a kick to my stomach that sent me to the ground and left no doubt in my mind that it was telling the truth.
Coughing, I tried to sit up. “Thanks for that. Being all tied up like this I couldn’t kick myself, I’m glad you were willing to help me out.” I should have noticed the signs earlier; Alicia wasn’t acting like herself, taking a nap didn’t log me out, and meat should have dropped as an item to cook
, rather than a corpse to roast on a spit. “Why didn’t you want me to leave, anyways, what is this place?”
The avatar shook its head. “No, that’s not how this works. If you want answers, give in. Become a part of me and everything will become clear.” With this suggestion, a prompt appeared.
Become assimilated? (Y/N)
How could that even be an option, I asked myself. What kind of an effect would being assimilated have? Ultimately, it didn’t matter. I didn’t want to be assimilated so I selected “N”. Or rather, I tried to. I felt my gaze shifting towards the “Y”, and I knew I was somehow being forced to choose that option. The avatar had stopped moving and seemed to be concentrating intently on me. Alarmed, I exerted more willpower and tried to select “N” again. The avatar began to crack, and looked scared. “No, you can’t resist! I don’t understand, stop this!” Emboldened by my partial success, I felt a rush of strength and exerted the full force of my willpower on deciding not to become assimilated by this creature. I selected “N”, the avatar shattered, and along with that so did its illusion.
You have earned the achievement: Monstrous Will! Resisting Crystalline influences through willpower alone is no easy feat. You are now immune to psionic attacks.
I was again standing in front of the crystal, still pulsing red but looking weakened. I wondered if I could stabilize the crystal and complete the original quest I’d been given. I moved closer, and though an arc of energy lashed out at me, it left me unharmed. In what seemed like desperation, multiple arcs attached themselves to me, but I simply walked up to the crystal, put my hands on it, and willed it to cease resisting. All the energy drained from it, and it now appeared as it had in the illusion, calm and blue. I was rewarded with several messages, but also a familiar voice in my head.
Quest completed! Clear the instance of enemies and stabilize the crystal.
Quest completed! Assimilate the Crystalline Entity.
You have received a free Skill: Psionic Lash! Extend your will into a devastating weapon against your foes. Practice the skill to unlock new abilities.
You have reached level 10!
Shit. What the hell happened to me?!
Chapter 9: Voices in my head
I had just completed a couple quests, learned a new ability, and leveled up. I didn’t think I had a reason to be upset about it.
Look at you, all happy to be stronger. That must be so great for you.
Yeah, it is great, so why am I so mad?
You’re not mad you dumbass. I am. I should be the one controlling this body, not you. It wasn’t supposed to end up like this.
I was starting to think that these weren’t my thoughts, so I addressed it as if it were a foreign entity.
Alex: Who are you, and what are you doing in my head?
Entity: You have got to be shitting me. I lost, got assimilated, and you didn’t even know what you were doing? Fuck my life.
Ah, that made a little more sense. The Crystalline Entity had tried to assimilate me into itself, but somehow that backfired and I ended up taking it into myself.
Entity: Yeah, so just let me back into my Crystal and we can go our separate ways. It must take a lot of willpower to keep up this psionic fortress, so just let it down for a second and I’ll be out of your hair.
Alex: Umm, I’m not doing anything. When I assimilated you I earned an achievement and I think I’m immune to psionic attacks now.
Entity:…
Entity: FUCK!
Alex: Can you not yell in my head, please?
Entity: Oh, I’m so sorry, person with a body who can move and act of their own free will. Your humble prisoner will try to keep it down. Oh, by the way, why didn’t you take the crystal yet?
Alex: I have lots of crystals, I got them from killing Crystalline animals in this instance.
Entity: *laughing* Not the little ones, you idiot. The big one. Just cut its connection to the server and put your hand on it.
Alex: What connection to the server, what are you talking about?
Entity: Oh, you can’t see it yet, here.
You have received a free Skill: Psionic Sight! Passively allows you to see psionic connections between players, objects, and the Server.
As soon as I received the skill, I saw a red tether attached to the crystal and stretching high into the sky. I used my new psionic lash ability and cut the tether, and put my hand on the crystal.
You have acquired Server Resources! Current allocation 0.001%
You have left the instance.
It would be more accurate to say that the instance left me, as a rapidly closing bubble converged on the point the large crystal used to occupy, winking out of existence.
Alex: Ok, I touched the crystal, and it says I have Server Resources now, but I don’t know what that means.
Entity: Oh. Oh wow, so that’s how that works? I thought you might be able to sell it or something but this is much, much better.
Alex: Why are you suddenly so helpful? You were pissed a while ago. Also, do you have a name?
Entity: Jimmy. And I’m being helpful because whether I like it or not, we share a body. My new life will be a lot more interesting if you don’t suck so much.
Alex: Ok, Jimmy. It’s, uh, nice to meet you. So, what exactly are Server Resources?
Jimmy: So, you know we’re playing a game, right? And that game is run from a centralized server. What you have allows you access to some of that computing power, which can be used to affect the world around you. I used it to create that instance where I attempted to trap you, but I wasn’t even using all the resources I had available. If you wanted, with this you could create a city on the spot. You really shouldn’t have been able to get your hands on it.
If I could use this to create a city, I could probably create a castle with a small town to supply it just as easily. While I was musing, Alicia walked over with a puzzled look on her face and poked me. “Hey, why are you staring off into space? And where did the bunnies go? I was getting some really good kicking practice in.”
“Oh, I finished the quest and took the crystal so the instance sort of imploded out of existence.” I replied casually. For now, I decided not to tell her about the voice in my head, as she’d probably just assume I was crazy.
Jimmy: Hey, she’s cute! And yeah, she did a number on my bunnies. You know, you can probably summon one using the crystal.
That didn’t seem to be a bad idea. A symbol that looked a lot like the crystal was pulsing on my interface, so I focused on it and it opened. There were two options for using the resources. I could either “expend” them to create something huge and complicated which would then persist in the world, or I could “channel” them to create a smaller, temporary effect. I looked at the options for channeling and found that I could create temporary instances, and as Jimmy suggested, one of the other options was to summon a Crystalline version of an enemy I’d already encountered. I selected that option and suddenly a Crystalline Rabbit burrowed up from underground. Strangely, I saw a tether between it and myself, and a fourth bar under health, endurance, and mana appeared, tinged yellow and called “Psi”. The Psi bar seemed to be slowly draining.
Alicia readied herself for a kick. “Oh, hey, there’s one left! I’m gonna punt it!”
Jimmy the Crystalline Rabbit tried to speak up, but it was too late, and he was sent sailing through the trees with an, “AHHHHH!!!” that slowly dissipated as he flew into the distance. A couple moments later, he hopped back. “Could you not do that?”
Alicia turned to me. “Why is the rabbit talking. Is this a joke because my name is close to Alice?” She turned her head upwards and shouted into the sky. “This is the lamest pun ever!”
I chuckled, trying to explain. “No, I wasn’t going to tell you about Jimmy but since he’s here in rabbit form, I accidentally assimilated him when I took the crystal. It lets me summon rabbits and other things I’ve encountered, and I guess he can take over their bodies.” Indeed, the rabbit was still te
thered to me, but it didn’t seem to be draining Psi anymore.
Jimmy spoke up. “I don’t want to be a rabbit. Can you summon the avatar that I appeared as before?”
I brought up the menu again and saw that I could indeed summon the avatar, and did so.
Jimmy’s rabbit body morphed into something in the shape of a man, and then changed again, growing a layer of false skin and clothes as a disguise until he looked like a well-muscled, bare-chested fighter in his 30’s. “Oh, that is so much better.” He said, cracking his knuckles.
I looked him over, asking “So, what exactly are you? Do you know how to fight?”
Jimmy adopted a stance that looked strangely familiar. “Yeah, I’m a monk, I fight bare-chested and bare-fisted. Oh man, it feels good to have a body.”
“Yeah, and it feels good to have my head to myself again.” I replied.
“Uhhh, what? Do you guys know each other or something?” asked Alicia. I told her the story of how I ended up getting sucked into an illusion, and that I’d overpowered Jimmy and somehow absorbed his mind.
Alicia looked at me skeptically. “That’s crazy. Are you sure you aren’t just crazy?”
I looked to Jimmy for backup. “No, he’s not crazy, that’s what happened. I would have done the same thing to him had he lost the fight with me.”
“Oh, by the way, has anyone seen Nareth?” I wondered aloud.
“He didn’t want to go into the instance, he said he felt something really off about it. He should be in the village.” Alicia replied. We headed into the village and found Nareth waiting for us.
“I see that the instance is gone.” He pointed out.
“Yeah, I cleared it and found a new companion. His name is Jimmy.” I gestured to Jimmy, who smiled at Nareth.
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