Beta Life, page 9
part #1 of Digital Sorcery Series
"Oh, Hadir definitely wasn't complaining. He practically came. Did you see that erection?" Eldertits responded laughing.
The gods could practically see that erection I thought trying to keep my face neutral or Elaria might turn her ire on me. Tits may be the craziest person I had ever met, but life was always entertaining with her around, that's for sure.
"You, just, ahhhhhh!" Elaria screamed. "I'll see you both at dawn in two days!" She added before stomping away leaving a laughing Tits and a silently laughing me.
"I'm calling it now," I said with a smile, "she's going to kill you before this is all over."
"Nah, Elaria is just jealous that I wasn't on her lap back there," Tits responded.
"Uh huh," I said. "Well I'm heading back to the library. I've got a quest to complete."
Chapter Six: Departure
Over the next day and a half, I finished reading the book and completed my subquest. Once I finished the book, it was like I suddenly knew Dark Elvish and knew it fluently. A notification appeared telling me this as well, but I knew it even without even seeing this.
You have completed reading "Common to Dark Elvish, Learning the Language of the Deep"
Congratulations you have learned the language Dark Elvish!
Congratulations You have advanced 1 skill level in the skill Linguistics! At your current skill level of 4, you have learned 2 out of 3 possible basic languages. To learn an additional language, it will take 27 hours of study.
Congratulations You have completed the quest Learning the Language of the Dark! You have earned 400 XP and have a 10% greater chance of succeeding in the quest An Elf Lost in the Dark.
Congratulations you have reached level 6!
HP: 49 → 56
MP: 68 → 78
You have 3 unallocated stat points.
You have 3 unallocated skill points.
In addition, yesterday, Elaria swung by and took me to a healer who had blessedly removed my overexertion status effect. Apparently, it would have been a liability if I still had it once we journeyed out into the Deadlands. I couldn't complain, moving at full speed again was amazing, and I'll never take it for granted again.
It took a significant amount of time to complete but finishing the subquest had been worth it as I had gained a level and knew a whole new language. It was the only thing I did to prepare but being able to speak the language of Maleuhur would probably be invaluable.
Elaria messaged Tits and me earlier in the morning and told us to meet her at the north gate. I had never been to the north gate, but she included a map on her message so I didn't have a problem finding it.
When I arrived, to my surprise, both Elaria and Tits were waiting for me. They didn't look like they were talking, so Elaria was probably still mad but at least she hadn't murdered the other elf yet.
"Ryland, here, I have some provisions for you," Elaria called as I approached.
"Thanks, what provisions?" I asked.
"I've got you ten simple rations in case we need to eat quickly without catching or cooking our food, a waterskin, ten torches for when you've entered the black gate, and fifty feet of hempen rope because, well, rope is always useful," Elaria said handing over the items.
Simple Rations
Quantity: 10
"It's not going to taste good, but these ready-to-eat meals will satiate your hunger for 12 hours."
Basic Waterskin
Quantity: 4 pints
"Yeah, it will hold water or any other liquid in it."
Torches
Quantity: 10
"Let them light your way. Burns for 1 hour providing bright light in a 20-foot radius and dimmer light an additional 20 feet further out."
Hempen Rope
Quantity: 50 feet
"Basic Rope. Can be used in a variety of ways. Climbing, check. Tying people up, check. Pulling large objects, check. Use your imagination, it's rope."
"Wow, thanks Elaria," I said putting the items into my inventory.
"I figured you wouldn't be prepared properly," Elaria replied flatly.
Well, that's insulting, I thought as I said out loud, "Well, I did take the time to learn Dark Elvish, so I think I've spent a lot of time on preparations."
"Yes, that's all well and good, but when you make a journey like this one, you've got to take some basic survival items with you," Elaria retorted. "What I've given to you only really scratches the surface."
Tits chimed in, "She's right, Ryland. It's something you're better learning now from a friend than if you were SOL out in the wilderness somewhere."
I sighed, resigned to my small humiliation. They were both right, of course, but there was just so much I didn't know about this world. Let me tell you, it's very frustrating being an old man who suddenly has to learn the way the world works again.
"Join my party and stay in it for the duration of this quest," Elaria instructed us as she sent out a party invite.
You have been invited to join Elaria's Party. Do you accept?
Yes or No?
I accepted the invite and saw both Elaria and Eldertits in the party as well. This was going to be an interesting journey. A ranger, a barbarian, and a sorcerer walk into the woods. There was probably a joke in there somewhere, but it wasn't coming to me.
"Alright, we've dallied enough. Let's get moving as we still have several hours of walking before we even leave our domain," Elaria said before walking out under the gate.
Tits and I followed her out, and for the next several hours, the journey was relatively simple, if not easy. There were no roads leading to or from Ithielthiel. The elves must not have believed in them or thought that they somehow infringed on what was natural outside of the city.
About halfway to the edge of the elven domain, tired of seeing Elaria glower at me as I struggled to keep up, I decided to invest a couple more skill points into survival and placed two of my precious stat points into dexterity. This brought my total survival level to three and my dexterity to twelve.
I worried that it might not have been the right decision in the long run, but my pace immediately quickened, and I was able to navigate around the undergrowth much easier than I had before. While I still wasn't quite keeping up with the other two, I wasn't slowing them down as much anymore.
Once we reached the edge of the elven domain, which Elaria apparently knew by instinct or some other unknown method because there was no distinctive visual sign that separated the domain from the rest of Irune, she halted us and told us to stay close to her and follow her directions carefully. Having been out in the wilds of Irune once before, I knew how dangerous a place that this forest could be and was certain that I would be safer with Elaria than without her. She was a ranger after all.
While Elaria and I remained vigilant as we went, Tits chatted away and seemed to remain in a state of casual aloofness. Elaria's attitude towards her, already poor since the display at House Parthanuun, was getting worse by the moment. There's no way those Titties are going to live out the day.
A couple of hours later, Elaria tried to stop us, and I stopped, but Eldertits, who was singing something about the Fuhrer and being the master race, kept shambling forward oblivious to her surroundings. Elaria yelled after her repeatedly, but the barbarian showed no signs of stopping.
A gray wolf, like the one that chased me down before, zipped out from seemingly nowhere and latched on to her thigh. Blood trickled down her leg causing her singing to cease, but to my surprise, she didn't scream out or appear very fazed at all.
Instead, she adopted the voice all people use when they talk to babies and said, "Oh wook at the wittle puppy!"
With this said, she reached down and petted the wolf on the head. It growled deeply in response and tried to twist her leg with its head but failed, because Eldertits didn't move.
"That's not going to work wittle buddy," she said patting its head harder before moving her hand to the back of its neck and squeezing hard.
This caused an immediate reaction from the wolf. It let go of her thigh and began thrashing back and forth snapping at her arm, which it couldn't quite reach with its mouth. Eldertits must have had some kind of strength stat, because she lifted it up off ground and held its face level with her face without even faltering.
"Look at me," she said in a firm, commanding voice while she stared into the wolf's eyes. "Good boy. Keep looking at me, that's it."
The two of them engaged in a staring contest that seemed to go on for minutes before the wolf broke eye contact with a shake of its head and began trying to free itself from her grasp again, albeit, with much less enthusiasm than before.
Moving my gaze away from them, I noticed five more wolves about two paces away standing and just watching this whole thing go down.
"Elaria," I hissed keeping my eyes on them, "there are five more just over there."
"Shhh," she responded, "let's just watch."
The wolves didn't move, but instead were just staring at Eldertits and the wolf she was holding. I followed their gaze back to those two, and now Eldertits had placed the wolf on the ground with its legs pointed away from her. She was still holding it by the neck, and using her other hand she pushed down on its midsection while saying something to it that I couldn't hear.
After a few minutes of this, the wolf went limp, and she let go of its neck. It rolled onto its back and exposed its belly to her. Reaching down, Eldertits began to rub its belly in an affectionate way which the wolf clearly seemed to enjoy.
"That's a good boy," Eldertits said to it, "but now you must go, because we must continue on our journey."
Standing up, she jerked her head towards the other five wolves, which until this point, I didn't think she had noticed. The wolf looked up at her, almost sadly, and then turned and trotted back to its pack before leading them away and out of my line of sight.
The three of us stood in silence for a moment after this until Elaira said, "There are few rangers who could have dominated that wolf the way you just did."
"I used to have dogs, and these wolves really aren't that different," Eldertits said with a shrug. "I have a soft spot for dogs and I guess wolves and would hate to have to kill one."
This woman really was a mystery I thought, watching her summon a bandage from her inventory and wrap it around her bleeding leg. On the surface, she acted like a troll and made a joke out of everything and everyone, but if you watched her for a bit, a deeper more compassionate side would appear.
"I have underestimated you," Elaria said walking forward and placing her hand briefly on Tits' shoulder before advancing and adding, "We should continue, we still have a couple hours until dark."
Eldertits looked slightly taken aback, but then a grin spread across her face, and she turned to follow after the other elf. Elaria still might not like Tits, but she had a new-found respect for the barbarian now.
A small notification at the bottom of my vision caught my attention, and I opened it.
You have earned 30 XP from Eldertits' domination of Gray Forest Wolf. All experience earned whilst in a party is shared equally among the members of a party.
That was interesting. I didn't know you could gain XP by doing things like dominating animals. I figured the only way to gain experience in this game was to fight things and complete quests, but I guess there were other ways of gaining XP. What else could give experience I wondered but then quickly set that aside as I saw Tits and Elaria getting further ahead of me. That was something best figured out another time, I thought taking off after them.
Several hours later, we were sitting near a campfire that we built in a small forest clearing.
"We've made good time considering our disability," Elaria said to us with a not insignificant look at me and added, "We should reach the edge of the forest and enter the Deadlands tomorrow."
"I've had dogs most of my life, but I would have never been able to do what you did," I said ignoring the jab and looking over at Eldertits.
"It really isn't a big deal," she said, "Anyone can do it if they just learn how a dog, or in this case a wolf, thinks."
"Yeah I suppose so," I said, though I didn't really believe it.
Ever since I entered Everlast Online, I felt like I was a bit out of place and that I didn't really know anything. Eldertits, who like me, had come from the real world seemed to understand this world and always knew a great deal more than I did. Then there were the NPCs, like Elaria, who seemed to know everything about this world.
"Anyway, I'm going to bed. I'm tired," Eldertits said standing up and pulling out a full size, completely set up, tent from her inventory.
The tent settled on the ground in front of her and stayed there. Tits pushed aside the flap and disappeared inside of it. Great, that's one more thing that I didn't think of. I didn't bring any camping or sleeping gear. Guess I'll be roughing it out under the stars on this journey. I picked up a small stick next to me and chucked it into the fire.
"Is something bothering you human?" Elaria asked.
"I don't even know how to explain it to you," I responded looking over at the elf who was sitting calming on the other side of the fire.
"Try me," she said.
"Well," I started, "I'm just feeling like I know next to nothing about this world. I know I may not look it, but I'm an old man. I'm used to feeling like I understand the way things work and I don't feel like that here."
"You're an old man?" she asked with a cynical look on her face.
God, how to explain this to someone who has no idea that what they think of as the world is just a computer game spread out across servers all over a different world, and that they themselves are just a digital creation probably made up of tiny bits of code?
I couldn't settle on a good way to explain concepts like server, digital, and computer game so I decided I'd better take a different route and one that she was more likely to understand.
"I'm from a different world, a world where people can actually die," I responded after a long silence. "I know people don't die here, but in my world, they can and do. I was a very old man on the verge of death who wasn't ready to die, so I reached out to some magicians and they sent me through a portal to your world, and it restored my youth and life, but I can never return. Essentially when you found me in the forest, I was sort of like a newborn baby."
I was expecting her to dismiss me as crazy or call my story preposterous but instead, she simply said, "Well that makes sense."
"It does?" I asked incredulously.
"Yeah it does," She responded before adding, "even for a human, you seem to know next to nothing."
"That's precisely my problem," I said irritably. "It's all numbers, stats, skills, different races, and monsters. I thought things would be easier when I got to this world, but while some things are more convenient, things are not easier, and everything feels like fumbling around in the dark looking for a light. Everything seems to come so naturally to you and Tits, and I just don't know if I'm up for relearning the world at this point in my life."
Elaria stared at me for a minute, clearly deep in thought, before saying, "You weren't ready to die and are still alive, yes? Understanding of a place comes with experience, of which you have none, in this world. While our gods have taken away death from this world, it wasn't always this way. There is an old human saying from the time before Kuolema, goddess of death, was banished that I think applies. Those that don't adapt, die. You must adapt to your new world, Ryland. Now quit being a bitch and just be grateful that you were found by me and not the blacks."
I looked at her and thought about what she had said. Outside of some not-so-subtle racism, she made a good point. I had been given a second chance at a life I wasn't ready to end, and even though I was in an unfamiliar world, it was still better than death. In accepting that, I also accepted that I would have to learn the ways of this world, even if that learning was slow and painful.
"Thanks, Elaria. I needed to hear that," I said.
"Now let's get some sleep," she said pulling a bedroll out of her inventory and laying down.
I looked around for the softest looking patch of bare ground I could find and laid down with one of my arms under my head. It wasn't going to be comfortable, but at least I had the fire near.
"Here," Elaria said from above me, "I should have figured you didn't come prepared, and I have an extra one."
I looked up, and she was holding a bedroll towards me in one hand. I took it and spread it out on the ground.
"Thanks again, Elaria," I said and then added with a smile, "You're really a caring person underneath that tough girl attitude. Don't worry, though. I'll keep your secret. I wouldn't want your reputation to suffer on my account."
Chapter Seven: Into the Deadlands
The forest of Irune abruptly ended at the rolling hills of the Deadlands. The Deadlands weren't actually dead from what I could see. They had living grass and flowers that covered the ground. In the distance, I could see a large snow-capped mountain with several more behind it.
"The Deadlands, and in the distance, Svartor," Elaria said, though I already guessed both of those things.
Svartor and the cave called the Black Gate in its foothills were our destination, but between us and that cave were miles and miles of hilly, uneven terrain apparently crawling with the worst sort of people and creatures.
"This is a dangerous land, stay close," Elaria said, and then looking directly at Eldertits added, "and stay quiet."
Even though we were free of the forest, because of the hills and attempting to cross undetected, she took us at a much slower pace. At every crest, she would slow down and slowly ease over it to see if the coast was clear before moving on.
