Awaken Online (Book 3.5): Apathy

by Bagwell, Travis

  “What is…?” Eliza trailed off as she watched other players and NPCs walk through the barrier with no issue. They didn’t even seem to notice it was there.

  “It’s a Water Fall Wall,” the Hippie replied proudly, stumbling slightly as he said the words. “Try to say that three times fast!” Fluffy snorted softly beside him – whether in amusement or pain, Eliza wasn’t sure.

  “Why can’t they see this?” Eliza asked the Hippie, gesturing at the other players. A few of them glanced at her with a confused expression but kept walking.

  He shrugged. “I’m a god. Travelers and other residents of this world can’t see me unless I choose to let them. I could have sworn I mentioned that...”

  “Fine, whatever. I’m just going to go through,” she replied, her frustration mounting. She wouldn’t be forced into playing the capricious god’s games.

  Eliza plowed forward, approaching the wall of water. As she neared it, the torrent strengthened until it was pounding against the stone and dirt of the roadway. She tried to reach out an arm to touch the wall, but the water intensified further, and she was pushed back. Apparently, the wall was intended to prevent only her from entering the city.

  She glanced back at the Hippie. “This isn’t fair,” she muttered. She noticed a few players and NPCs eyeing her askance as they walked through the water wall.

  “Life’s not fair,” the god said with another shrug. “May as well accept it.”

  Then a smile crossed his face. “Now about my quest…”

  Chapter 6 - Impossible

  Eliza trudged down the road, muttering to herself under her breath. She wasn’t certain who would design a game where the gods could pigeonhole a player into following one path. She had considered simply returning to Alma’s house. However, the Hippie had promised he would let her re-enter the city if she completed his task. In the long run, she needed access to the city to buy supplies and run errands, so she had decided to play along.

  For now.

  At least, the god had been “kind” enough to mark the quest location on her map. Apparently, she was supposed to head a few miles west of Falcon’s Hook. As she walked, the tree cover began to thicken, only the occasional beam of sunlight managing to penetrate the blanket of leaves that hung overhead.

  The number of players and NPCs had begun to thin out. A few hours ago, one player had stopped her, eyeing her equipment skeptically. He had warned her that the creatures in the deeper parts of the forest were much more difficult. She had grumbled something incoherent about black sheep and homeless gods and, ignoring his warnings, she had kept walking.

  It wasn’t like she would fare well against even the lower-level creatures in-game. She hadn’t been in combat at all, even after a week spent inside of AO. Eliza had the two offensive spells the Hippie had given her when she received her class change, but she hadn’t had much need to use them in the garden.

  Eliza glanced at her in-game clock. She would need to log out soon to fix dinner for her parents. However, her map indicated that she was getting close to the quest location. She might as well see what she was up against first. As she rounded a bend in the road, she saw a massive bridge ahead of her.

  Nearing the bridge, Eliza realized that the structure overhung a gorge. The chasm dropped nearly a hundred feet, and a river ran along the ravine far below. Likely, the water had cut a path through the stone over time on its way to the coast to the east. She pushed at her glasses as she observed the gorge. She could see a narrow trail that wound its way down the ledge to her right, but she wasn’t anxious to attempt the path.

  The bridge was a considerable structure, spanning a few dozen yards. It appeared to have been built of a mixture of rough-hewn rock and wood. Massive columns of stone lanced down from the bottom of the bridge, embedding themselves in the gorge far below. At first glance, Eliza wasn’t certain that the bridge had been built by mundane means. The stones almost appeared to blend together – possibly indicating that magic had been used to construct it.

  She pulled up her map to see if she was getting close to her destination. She discovered that the quest marker illuminated the whole area nearby – which wasn’t exactly helpful. Not that she was surprised, of course. With a sigh, she decided to continue past the bridge.

  When she was nearly halfway across, she felt the entire structure shake. Eliza froze. She could hear the sound of pounding coming from the side of the bridge, each thump causing the structure to shudder dangerously. The reverberations were becoming louder, as though something was climbing the bridge.

  Edging away from the noise, her back soon pressed against the railing on the far side of the structure. She wasn’t sure whether to run or not, her eyes darting to either end of the gorge. Should she head back the way she came?

  The decision was made for her a moment later as a grotesque head appeared over the lip of the railing on the other side of the bridge, swiftly followed by the creature’s enormous body. The monster had four arms and two legs and was covered in a rough leathery hide. Its skin almost appeared to be made of stone the way the creature’s limbs were cobbled together at hard angles.

  The monster’s glowing green eyes drifted across the bridge before settling on Eliza’s cowering form. A growl rumbled in its chest. “Another traveler…” it said, its voice hoarse. It formed the words awkwardly as though unaccustomed to speaking.

  It didn’t seem that the creature planned to attack her immediately and so Eliza tried to tamp down on her fear. She knew this wasn’t real, but that didn’t change the fact that she was being confronted by an eight-foot-tall monster. She decided to use her Identification skill.

  Mountain Troll – Level 76 (Boss)

  Health – Unknown

  Mana – Unknown

  Equipment – Unknown

  Resistances – Unknown

  Holy crap… she thought. Level 76? And it’s some kind of boss creature?

  Eliza had realized early on that the Identification skill she had picked up in the Hippie’s garden was extremely useful. First, it wasn’t limited to objects. Second, while she didn’t always learn all of the details about the object she identified, she seemed to gain more information than most players. It had come in handy when working in Alma’s garden, which she was sorely missing right now.

  “W-what do you want?” Eliza managed to stutter.

  “Toll,” the troll growled at her, lifting its arms with its four palms facing upward.

  Eliza’s eyes widened. “I don’t have any money,” she said. Which was true. She had never asked Alma for money, and she had immediately spent any coin the woman gave her on Alchemy tools and books.

  “Toll,” the troll demanded more forcefully, standing up straighter and taking a ponderous step forward.

  Desperate, Eliza dug into her bag in search of something to hand the troll. All she had were various plants and ingredients and a motley assortment of novice potions. Deciding she had nothing to lose, she grabbed one of her better healing potions and lifted it toward the troll.

  “Will this work?” she asked, her voice quavering.

  The troll plucked the small vial from her hand, lifting it up to his eye to examine its contents. “Not shiny,” it growled, turning his glowing green eyes back to Eliza. “No toll, then die.” The troll began to step toward the girl.

  Eliza backpedaled, uncertain what to do. Her mind wheeled in panic. As the troll began to approach, she turned and tried to run. Her feet slapped frantically against the stone bridge as she raced toward the edge of the gorge. She could feel the pounding behind her intensify. Then her legs toppled out from under her.

  She slammed into the bridge hard, the wind quickly evacuating her lungs. She tried to roll over, but a crushing weight descended upon her before she had a chance to react. Pain lanced through her body before the world abruptly went dark.

  A prompt appeared in Eliza’s vision.

  System Message

  You have died.

  Thanks for playing Awake
n Online!

  A moment later, Eliza was once again standing on the bridge. She was disoriented by the sudden change in perspective, and it took her a moment to get her bearings. As she looked around, she noticed that the world had taken on a washed-out appearance and blue motes of energy hung in the air around her.

  She saw her small form huddled against the railing of the bridge and she gasped. What was this? The troll again lumbered over the edge, its ugly visage leering at her evilly. The recent exchange played out again, this time with Eliza watching her panicked fearful reaction to the situation and her half-assed attempt to run away. She glanced away as she saw the troll smash her fragile body, her blood staining the stone of the bridge.

  “This is impossible,” she muttered. “How am I supposed to defeat a troll?”

  “Troll?” a familiar voice asked from beside her. She glanced over to see the Hippie leaning casually against the edge of the bridge, Fluffy lying peacefully at his feet. As the troll’s head reappeared over the ledge for the third time, the young man’s eyes widened.

  “Oh, I totally forgot about the troll,” he said.

  “You forgot?” Eliza asked with a deadpan expression.

  “Yep, completely slipped my mind,” the Hippie replied in a chagrined tone. “But I remember the story now. He stole the item of immense power.” He added this last part with a little flourish. “But it’s okay. I’m sure you can handle this just fine.”

  “How can I handle this? That creature is nearly four times my level, and it killed me in one hit. Besides, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be looking for to complete your dumb quest.”

  The Hippie looked offended and put his hands over Fluffy’s ears. “Shh. This quest was Fluffy’s idea. You’ll upset him.”

  Then the young man cocked his head and glanced at the troll as he demanded a toll from Eliza. “Although now that I think about it, the whole troll toll thing is a little cliché.” He glanced down at Fluffy before continuing in a whisper, “But we don’t need to tell him that.”

  Eliza closed her eyes and forced herself to take a deep breath.

  “As soon as I respawn, I’m going back to Alma’s house,” she finally said. “I don’t care if you’ve blocked my access to Falcon’s Hook. I can just spend more time in her garden.”

  “But what about the quest?” the Hippie exclaimed. “Remember? We need to recover the item of vital importance.”

  “I don’t care,” Eliza said. “I’m going back.”

  The Hippie looked sad. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that. I’ll just have to use more of my mojo to motivate you I suppose.”

  “What are you talking about…?” Eliza began, but then stopped as she watched the Hippie go through another odd series of arm waving. “Wait… don’t…”

  But it was already too late. The world abruptly went dark. When she came to, Eliza found that she had respawned and was standing at the entrance to the bridge. The Hippie and Fluffy were nowhere to be found.

  “Damn, stupid god,” Eliza muttered. She had no idea what spell he had cast this time, but she didn’t plan to stick around and find out. She promptly turned and started back down the road toward Falcon’s Hook.

  After a few minutes of walking, Eliza turned a bend in the road and stopped abruptly. A few yards ahead of her was the familiar stone bridge. She adjusted her glasses and pondered for a moment whether she had accidentally looped around somehow. Maybe she had taken a wrong turn.

  Shaking her head, she turned around and walked back down the trail. Another few minutes passed, and she again found herself in front of the bridge. One time was an accident, two times meant that a meddling, idiot god was involved. Eliza could feel her frustration mounting.

  “I’m not going to do your stupid quest,” she shouted, her voice echoing down through the chasm. “You can take your item and shove it up your…” Eliza was interrupted by a cough from behind her, and she whirled, finding a group of players looking at her with confused expressions. A skinny mage leaned over and whispered to his friend while eyeing her suspiciously.

  “It-it’s not what it looks like,” Eliza muttered, her eyes downcast.

  The players didn’t bother to answer, edging past her and starting across the bridge. She briefly considered warning them about the troll, but what was the point? They would probably just ignore her. Not that she could blame them. She probably wouldn’t take any advice from a crazy girl screaming at a bridge.

  Eliza headed to the side of the road and sat down on a log, pondering what she was going to do next. She liked playing AO. It was relaxing as long as the Hippie wasn’t meddling. But if she wanted to return to Alma’s garden, she was going to have to find a way to retrieve the item the troll stole.

  As the players’ screams rang through the crevasse beside her, she tapped her fingers to her lips in thought. She was going to need a plan.

  Chapter 7 - Infectious

  Eliza sat by a makeshift campfire she had built in a clearing a few yards away from the Troll Bridge. She had discovered during the last few in-game days that the troll wouldn’t attack her if she didn’t actually step onto the bridge itself. This seemed a bit strange, but Eliza assumed the creature must be intensely territorial.

  Despite its appearance, the troll was quite fast. There was enough traffic on the road that she was able to watch multiple groups pass the bridge each day. By her estimates, the troll had killed over half of them and had laid waste to whole groups of players by itself. Stealth didn’t seem like it would work and there was no reasoning with the idiotic creature. The only players that had survived were those smart enough to hand over their gold or abandon their friends, using them as decoys as they ran away.

  Eliza was currently grinding the seeds of a Caracas Leaf into a fine powder. Several small vials were scattered on the ground around her filled with various colored powders – the product of her work over the last few days.

  Alma had always focused on healing herbs and combinations in the potions she brewed. Most people only wanted to heal their wounds or ailments. However, just like in the real world, a large number of the in-game plants were quite poisonous, and, in some cases, certain parts of the plant had potential healing properties while others were fatal. As a result, Eliza had learned to identify a number of poisonous plants as part of studying under the older woman.

  She had spent the last few days preparing and experimenting. She had scoured the nearby woods for plant life, her Herbalism and Identification skills making it easier to pick out useful plants and fungi in the forest. She had then ground up the substances and boiled down those plants into a fine powder. Her goal was to make an extremely potent poison.

  Because she had decided she was going to try to kill the troll by surreptitious means. It was the only chance she had against him without any sort of fighting skills.

  “It has been days,” a voice moaned from the other side of the fire. “Are you done yet?”

  Eliza sighed and willed herself to be patient. If it wasn’t already challenging enough to invent an in-game poison, she had been forced to put up with the Hippie’s whining the entire time.

  “I thought gods were supposed to be aloof and answer prayers or something,” Eliza replied. “Don’t you have anything else you could be doing?”

  “Not really,” he replied, waving his hand lazily in the air. “I delegate all of that stuff.”

  Fluffy edged over to Eliza and sniffed at one of the powders. She slapped him gently on the snout, and he jumped back, glaring at her.

  “It will kill you,” she explained simply. “Or at least it would kill a normal sheep.” This earned her a soft snort, and the sheep moved back over to the Hippie.

  She eyed the finely-ground powder in the mortar and the other vials around her. She was finally ready to make her poison. She reached out and grabbed the pan that was resting over the fire and carefully poured some of the boiling water into one of her vials.

  Then she began adding the powders to the vial
one at a time. She didn’t really have an easy way to experiment with making the poison – or any way to test it – and she wasn’t certain what the troll might be resistant to. So, she was basically throwing the farm at him – or at least every poisonous plant in the nearby forest.

  As she finished pouring in the last powder, Eliza stoppered the bottle and then shook it gently. As the ingredients mixed, the vial began to glow a vibrant green, and she used her Identification ability on it.

  Unidentified Poison

  This concoction was created by a novice alchemist using crude instruments. While it certainly looks poisonous, its potency and effects are unknown.

  Quality: B

  Damage: Unknown

  Durability: 1/1

  Eliza stared at the vial in her hand in shock. She had never seen a “B” quality potion before and her novice potions were typically C-quality or lower. It was a little startling, although she supposed that it was worth it after spending days gathering and preparing ingredients.

  As she finished, Eliza received another set of notifications.

  x2 Level Up!

  You have (15) undistributed stat points.

  New Passive Skill: Poisons

  You have adapted your knowledge of Alchemy and Herbalism to craft your first poison. Masters of the craft can create lethal toxins that are nearly undetectable and kill within seconds. You aren’t quite there yet.

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 1

  Effect: 1% chance to add a second random poison effect.

  x2 Skill Rank Up: Herbalism