Beta Life, page 10
part #1 of Digital Sorcery Series
I handled this much better than I handled the brisk pace in the forest. For Eldertits, it was the opposite. She couldn't seem to move silently to save her life. Every step she took seemed to cause more noise than I would have thought possible on a grassy hill.
As we moved, I began to see packs of animals off in the distance, no doubt scavenging for food. I began mentally preparing myself for a fight, but Elaria took us well wide of them. She was currently in an avoiding conflict strategy, which I was only too happy to oblige.
When Elaria reached the next ridge, she held up her hand in a signal for us to stop and crouched down low to the hill crest looking at something I couldn't see. Eldertits and I slowly crept up to where she was positioned and lowered ourselves down onto the ground as well.
Looking out I could see what Elaria spotted. About fifty yards ahead was a giant ogre lumbering along. It had to be about ten feet tall with an enormous beer-bellied gut. In one of its huge hands, it carried a large club with spikes at the end. Aside from these spikes, it also had a mouth full of crooked, but wicked-looking, fangs that looked like they could do some serious damage.
"Oh, he's a pretty one," Eldertits whispered.
"A hill ogre," Elaria whispered, "It's best to just let him pass before we continue on. This foe is likely beyond all of us, even with our combined strength."
"Good thing there is only one," I whispered.
"Where there's one, there's usually more," Elaria replied, "so we'll need to be wary as we continue."
"I wonder how big its dick is under that loincloth," Eldertits stated as if it were a completely normal thing to wonder.
Both Elaria and I looked over at the elf with facial expressions that conveyed the message: seriously, that's what you're worried about right now?! Eldertits, who didn't look away from the ogre, failed to notice our shock and disgust.
"You're a disgrace to our species," Elaria finally said to the other elf forgetting to whisper.
"Oh, don't act like you aren't curious," Eldertits responded. "That thing is ten feet tall. It's probably got a foot and half to two feet underneath that loincloth."
"I was not curious," Elaria said raising her voice further, "because I don't wonder about stupid pointless things in dangerous situations."
"Admit it, you'd fuck an ogre if the chance presented itself," Eldertits said finally turning to look at the other woman.
Elaria opened her mouth as if to argue, but couldn't seem to decide what she wanted to say, so she shut it again with an irritated scowl. This just made Tits laugh, which in return caused Elaria's face to look even more enraged.
"You're so cute when you're irritated," Eldertits said with a smile.
"Yes, you're both very cute," a deep voice came from behind us. "We're particularly enjoying the view from back here."
Startled, the three of us rolled over and got to our feet. Elaria summoned her bow and had an arrow nocked before I could blink. In front of us was a group of ten well-armed warriors spanning a few different races. The man at the front, who I guessed had spoken, was human as well as a few others, but there were also orcs and goblins in this group.
"This looks like our lucky day boys," the man at the front spoke, "two elvish women will fetch a high price."
"Slavers," Elaria hissed aiming her bow at the man who was speaking.
"Oh, and this one looks like she has some fight in her," he said with a creepy smile at Elaria.
"This one," Elaria said, "will send you for respawn if you come any closer."
As if trying to test her, one of the goblins took a few greedy steps forward from our left. Elaria rotated, released, and had another arrow drawn before it even hit. The arrow she released sunk deeply into the goblin's forehead. His eyes went wide, and he collapsed and vanished leaving behind only a couple of gold coins on the ground where he had been.
"That," the human man said still smiling, "was not very nice."
The group summoned their weapons clearly ready for a fight. This was not looking good for the three of us. No matter how quick Elaria was, she couldn't take out nine people before they got to us. I looked over at Eldertits who summoned her axe and had an uncharacteristic look of grim determination on her face. This was going to be my first fight against humanoids, and it didn't look like it was going to go well.
"You know the drill men," the human said raising an axe into the air. "You can hurt them, but don't kill them."
He thrust the axe forward, and the other eight charged up the hill at us. Elaria began losing arrows as quickly as she could, and Eldertits charged forward towards a couple of them on our right side. I began summoning fireballs and throwing them as fast as I could at the approaching foes, but most of them seemed to shrug off my fireballs or completely ignore them.
It didn't take long for them to reach us. We only managed to down two of their number which didn't really balance the odds at all. Elaria killed a human with her arrows and Eldertits downed another with her axe, but there were still seven of them to our group of three.
Elaria switched her bow for a short sword, and I summoned my dagger doubting that it would do me much good. Eldertits was still fighting a short way down the hill with her axe but was about to be overrun.
A large orc with a mace charged me and swung. I held up my dagger to try and block, but the mace went right through, smashing my hand and causing the knife to fly from it and disappear into my inventory. Pain shot through my body from the end of my left arm, and several icons popped up next to my dropping health bar.
I gritted my teeth raising my right hand straight in front of his face and shot a fireball into it at almost point black range. The orc howled with pain and rage and was momentarily stunned. I took the opportunity and backed away, heading slightly down the opposite slope.
I looked over and saw Elaria fall to her knees with the blade knocked from her hand. The human produced a thin wooden club and smacked her over the head with it causing her to fall face first into the ground.
Shit, shit, shit, shit! Elaria was down, and I could no longer see what Eldertits' situation was from my location. If a miracle didn't happen soon, we were all going to be captured. Why did this game even have slavery in it to begin with? I wondered while the orc recovered and moved towards me.
I shot a couple more fireballs at him, attempting to back away even further, but he closed the distance quickly. Raising the mace again, he slammed it into my chest, which in addition to breaking all of my ribs, sent me flying.
I rolled down the hill gasping for breath but not finding it. My whole chest felt like it had caved in, and I began to feel nauseous from the world spinning around me. If I could see straight, I would have checked my health bar just to see how low it had dropped, but with my vision spinning, I shut my eyes instead.
After a minute I hit something solid and stopped, blessedly. I opened my eyes and looked up. Standing right above me and staring down with the most horrific looking face I had ever seen, was the ogre we spotted before this whole ordeal began. It opened its mouth and let out a terrible roar, washing my face with the smell of rot and decay.
"Oh, fancy meeting you here," I said coughing up some blood while I lay on my back. "Don't mind me, I'll just be laying here."
It looked pissed, but I didn't care. I was so tired, and my whole body hurt. I just wanted to rest for a bit, and then I'll deal with it. I was only vaguely aware of the ogre raising its arm, and then, as if it were in slow motion, I saw it swing the giant club in its hand straight down into my face.
For a moment, all was pain, skull-splitting agony, and then my world shattered, and I screamed. Whether I screamed out loud or just in my head I don't know, but I screamed for an eternity as my world spun through a kaleidoscope full of pain and confusion.
Where was I? Who was I? What was I? I seemed to have no physical form. That was weird. I thought I had a body. Maybe not. Am I just a consciousness? Am I perhaps all of this? The ether, or maybe me, spun around in its vast emptiness.
There was a feeling tugging at the back of my mind that told me there should be more, but I couldn't quite place why. Maybe this was all there was, all there had ever been. Who was I to question the nothingness of the universe? Why would I think that there should be planets and stars?
Planets and stars! This thought struck me like a lightning bolt to my memory. There should be planets and stars, and I live on one of those planets, Earth. Well sort of, I thought, remembering that I had been digitized into a game, and in that game, the last thing I could remember was the ogre.
I had been killed. So this is what it felt like to die. It's even worse than I imagined. I had nearly lost my mind with it consumed by pain and confusion. Surely they could have made this a better process for us, I thought thinking about what Elaria and Eldertits probably felt.
Elaria and Eldertits! I've got to get back and help them. As I thought this the universe exploded into lights which began to move past me. At first, it moved slowly, but then it began to speed up until I could no longer keep my eyes open. I closed my eyes, and when I reopened them I was standing on a hill covered in grass and flowers with a mountain in the distance.
I was back in the Deadlands. Wow, I never want to go through that again. It's nice that you respawn, but I could seriously see myself losing my mind if I had to go through that too many times.
Several flashing notifications near the bottom of my vision caught my attention.
You have been killed by Hill Ogre.
0/0 Gold dropped.
Congratulations, Fireball has reached Level 2!
Range: 30 feet → 33 feet
Damage: 1 - 6 hit points and 10% chance to inflict burn → 2-7 hit points and 15% chase to inflict burn
MP Cost: 5 → 7
As this is the first spell you have leveled, you should know you can cast a spell at a lower level for the mana cost associated with that level. By default, all spells are cast at their current level.
Congratulations Elaria has defeated level 10 Human Warrior! As a party member, you have earned 127 XP.
Congratulations Eldertits has defeated level 11 Human Warrior! As a party member, you have earned 147 XP.
Congratulations Elaria has defeated level 5 Goblin Rogue! As a party member, you have earned 60 XP.
Well, that was a small bit of positivity in an otherwise lousy situation. I had to locate the other two quickly. Opening up my map, I checked for their two dots but neither one showed up. They must have moved away from the area that I uncovered.
Closing the map, I opened up the party page, and to my relief, all three of us were still in a party together. Both of them lost a considerable amount of health but were still alive. The strange thing was their status through, which read: online, inactive. I wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but then shrugged it off and messaged the party asking for their current location and letting them know I was sent for respawn.
I waited for a couple minutes but received no reply, and checking the party page, neither of their statuses changed. I thought more about online, inactive. Both would, of course, be online as neither Elaria, as an NPC, or Eldertits, as a digitized person, could leave this world, but what does inactive mean? Normally you'd get an inactive status in a game if you were away from keyboard, or AFK, but neither one was capable of doing that or being away from their controls since both were in their bodies. How does a body lose control? It loses consciousness. They're both unconscious!
I'm glad that I figured that out, or at least felt confident in my guess, but this opened up a whole new problem in that I wouldn't be able to communicate with them until one of them regained consciousness which meant I would have to try to find their location on my own.
I opened up my map again and began pouring over the area of the Deadlands that I filled in so far. From my guess, I respawned a couple miles away from where the ogre killed me. Deciding that my best chance to find them was to return to the location I last saw them, I set off.
It took me about twenty minutes to reach the location where we fought the band of marauders, but when I got there, there was no sign of them or Elaria and Eldertits. The ogre had also apparently moved on after killing me, which I was thankful for.
What I did find was plenty of trampled grass, bloodstains, and seven gold coins. I placed the coins into my inventory and guessed that they were dropped by the slain goblin or humans. Frustrated, I went to the top of the hill and looked as far as I could see in all directions. There was no sign of anyone in any direction. It didn't help that the rolling hills blocked off sight lines rather quickly.
I looked back down at the grass trying to make out footprints or something, but unfortunately, the grass was thick enough that the only differences I could see where it had been stamped down or where flowers had been walked on. Perhaps that was key, though. If I could follow where the grass was crushed underfoot, maybe that would lead me to them. Wish I had paid more attention in the Boy Scouts.
I began slowly, painfully slowly, following where it looked like the grass had been stamped down. It led down the backside of the hill we were on and cut west to northwest according to my map. It would have been nice to have some reassurance that I was going the right way, but there was no notification or anything that I was, in fact, moving in the right direction.
I wasn't even sure how long ago they had left since I had no idea how long it took me to respawn. I really should have checked that before I entered this game, but there was no going back, and there was no in-game wiki I could access to figure out the things I didn't know. If I had checked my time before I died, I could have figured it out, but at that moment, I was a little preoccupied. All I knew was that they had at least a twenty-minute head start, and it was likely higher.
After an hour of following the trail, the gentle grade of the hills started to become sharper and steeper, and more than once, I found myself narrowly avoiding falling off of a small cliff. A sprinkling of trees also appeared, and interestingly, unlike the trees of Irune, these trees' leaves were changing colors. Either it was fall in this world, if this world even had seasons, or these trees had a different color palette.
Off in the distance was a lake which seemed to have a haze settling over it. I quickly crossed my fingers that the group that took Elaria and Eldertits didn't cross it because if they had, I didn't know how I was going to follow them.
Suddenly a notification popped up near the bottom of my vision.
Congratulations you have reached level 1 in the subskill: Tracking!
Tracking is a sub-skill of Survival, and as a subskill it can never have a level higher than its main skill. Tracking allows you to find tracks and follow them. As you advance in this skill you will be able to find tracks easier, discover more types of tracks, and find older tracks.
Looking at the stomped grass, I noticed that it seemed just a hair easier to see now, and if I wasn't incorrect I could now see the slightest traces of footprints if I looked really hard. I smiled happily knowing that I seemed to be on the right track, or at least the game was telling me in pretty certain terms that I was tracking something at least.
This also taught me two new, not insignificant things about my new world. Firstly, that I could level skills up by simply going about my business and secondly that there were subskills of skills. Actually, now that I thought about it, I was probably only able to track to begin with because of my three levels in Survival. That was extremely fortunate, but I'll take what luck I get.
As I was about to continue following the trail, a notification drew my attention to the party icon. Either Elaria or Tits responded to my message!
Eldertits: That was one hell of a party last night. I must have drank so much I don't even remember drinking.
Ryland: Tits! Where are you? Is Elaria with you?
Eldertits: She's here but still looks to be out. As for where, it looks like we're in a cage and not in the good way.
Ryland: Not sure what the "good way" would be... Can you see the surroundings outside of the cage? I think I've been following the trail, but any details might help.
Eldertits: We're on the edge of some sort of encampment. Oh, and those lovely guys we met from earlier are here with some of their friends. Looks like there are several more cages with other prisoners. Oh, don't tell Elaria, but there's a black in one.
Ryland: What about the geography? Any details of the terrain?
Eldertits: Well, I can still see...what's that mountain called in the distance? Looks like we're on the shores of a large river or lake and there's obviously the rolling hills all around so I'm pretty sure we're still in the Deadlands.
Ryland: Great, I think I can see a lake in the distance, and since I've been following some tracks I'm going to assume it's the one you're at. Hold tight, and I'll contact you when I'm closer.
Eldertits: Okay, I'll put up the Titty signal for you. Save us, Ryland. You're our only hope ;)
You have received a new quest: Locked in a Cage.
"Elaria and Eldertits have been captured by slavers and are now bound for slavery without your help. Will you help them escape?"
Type: Uncommon
Reward: 650 XP, 5000 reputation points with both Elaria and Eldertits, 100 Paragon reputation points
Penalty for Decline: -5000 reputation points with both Elaria and Eldertits, -100 Paragon reputation
Penalty for Failure: None
Do you accept this quest?
Yes or No?
This was, perhaps, the most earth-shattering moment I've had yet since digitizing. Eldertits, another player, gave me a quest. I didn't even know how that was possible, but it somehow was. On top of that, what the hell were paragon reputation points? I decided to ignore this last question for now since it didn't seem as important. I accepted the quest before messaging Tits again.
