Gamers

by Cambry Varner

  The kobold jerked and twisted on the spit, more blood dribbling through the neat hole in its chest. The metal had pierced its left lung and blood spurting up the throat kept it from rasping out a warning to its fellows. It died on Sally’s rapier before she pushed it off the blade. So far, the kobolds had not noticed their fallen leader, and if Darcy or Mina saw, they were smart enough not to stop fighting.

  Before she had time to hesitate or reflect on what had just happened, Sally went into action. Striding forward and lunging, she thrust the rapier through the back of a kobold who was furiously jabbing a spear at Darcy’s shield. The enemy soldier managed to let out a bloody croak that made the others finally take notice of her. Their confusion was enough to give Darcy and Mina the advantage. The great ax swung, slinging black blood, and the mace rose and fell. Sally pulled back the rapier and claimed another kobold life before the battle was over: all the lizard people lay dead at their feet.

  The three of them panted together and Sally tried not to look at the twisted bodies. They weren’t human, but they had worn clothes and used weapons, which were several grades above being animals. Mina turned away and began vomiting, which set Sally’s stomach on edge. Had this body eaten anything? She didn’t think so and that, believe it or not, made her hungry.

  Darcy’s face was pale and covered in sweat. She drew a short breath to collect herself and said, “There’s a treasure chest over there. We might as well see what’s inside.”

  For the first time, Sally noticed the wooden chest sitting on a raised stone. It looked like a generic treasure chest from any RPG, with a wooden frame and metal keyhole.

  “Is that what they were protecting?” Mina gasped. She was blinking at the chest with teary eyes. “Oh God, we killed them so we can rob them.”

  Darcy shot Mina a stern look. “No, kobolds are evil creatures. Trust me; whatever they have, they took from someone they killed and they were going to kill and eat us if we didn’t kill them first.”

  Her words didn’t ease the brunt of seeing the dead creatures on the ground. Sally turned away from the sight but paused to ask, “Is the chest trapped or locked?”

  “Neither,” Darcy sounded relieved to be moving onto another subject. “There’s not much in there. Mina, how’s your health? Do you need a heal spell?”

  Sally approached the chest and raised the lid. She was almost expecting a ceremonious chime to play as the lid rose. No music played, nor did the interior of the chest glow, but inside was a pouch of coins, a health potion, and a dagger. Sally picked up the blade and held it in her left hand. It felt natural, and she liked the weight of it, sensing that it would serve her well, which was odd as she was right-handed.

  On a hunch, she summoned her character screen and checked the section where her combat skills were listed, and first was Two-Weapon Fighting. Did that mean what she thought it meant? Drawing her rapier with her right hand, she held it in a pose with the dagger raised near her head in the left. Now this felt better than before, this was what was missing earlier. She regretted not having the dagger for the earlier battles. In holding the two blades, Sally experienced an unusual sense of power, as if she could strike at will and never receive any blows in retaliation.

  A sigh of relief from a freshly healed Mina broke her concentration on her character sheet. Upon collecting herself, Sally sheathed the rapier and tucked the dagger into her belt, claiming it for herself, and gathered the coin pouch and potion. After giving the chest’s interior another glance to make sure she hadn’t missed anything, she handed the items to Darcy, who looked at them.

  “Yep, just like usual,” Darcy said with a satisfied nod. “Five gold pieces, a potion, and a dagger. Let me hold onto the money; Sally, you keep the dagger; and Mina, you can have this health potion.”

  The Barbarian grimaced as if she couldn’t stand to look at the offered potion. “I’m not going to need it if we’re going home, right?”

  Darcy chewed her lower lip. “Yeah, maybe, we’ll see what happens when we leave the dungeon. There’s a door over there that should lead out.”

  Without a word, the three of them went to the door, which opened freely, and walked through a long tunnel until they saw the ring of light at the end. Though the sight of natural light was a pleasant sight after being so long in the dark, dread filled their stomachs as they stepped out into the open air of the forest. The afternoon sun greeted them with slanted rays of light beaming through the canopy.

  Mina moaned, dropping her ax. It fell on the grass while she covered her face with both hands. “We’re still here.”

  Chapter 3

  Spring Bell Village

  After a short trek from the cave, they found a small clearing to rest. Mina sulked with her ax by her side while Darcy was thinking hard with her arms crossed. Unable to sit still, Sally was standing and staring morosely at the trees surrounding them. Again and again, the questions swarmed their brains: Why were they there? How did they get there? And how did they get back home?

  Darcy was the first one to break the silence, “We can’t stay here.”

  “No shit,” Mina snapped. “I want to go home.”

  “No, I meant we can’t stay out here in the forest. Sally and I have never been camping.”

  “Neither have I!” Mina wailed. “I hate the outdoors! It’s going to take forever to get a fire going with wood still wet from last night’s rain!”

  Staring at her, Darcy asked, “How do you know it rained here last night?”

  Mina moaned, exasperated, “Because the grass is really green and the soil is still soft and cold.”

  “But if you hate the outdoors so much,” Sally ventured, “then how do you know about the grass and soil?”

  Mina stared dumbfounded with a blank gaze. “I…I don’t know. I don’t recall watching it on the Discovery channel.”

  “It’s because of your survival skill,” Darcy explained. “Barbarians are automatically trained in survival because they live in nomadic tribes. Check your survival skill; what bonus do you have?”

  After a moment of consulting her character screen, Mina said, “Plus three.”

  “See?” Darcy said waving her hand. “That’s enough to make you an outdoorswoman. You should know how to find edible berries and roots, and even hunt. I think hunting rabbits has a difficulty of seven, so you’ve a good chance of success.”

  Mina looked disgusted. “Gross.”

  “Then we’ll have to go to the village,” Darcy sighed.

  “What village?” Sally said.

  “Spring Bell Village,” Darcy said, rising to her feet in a clink of armor. The sound made Sally look up alarmed at first, she was still unused to the fact her half-sister was wearing metal. “It’s the first village players visit after finishing the Lair of Tears. We can spend the night at the inn.”

  Sally nodded in agreement. Since completing the dungeon didn’t send them home as they had hoped, then the next best thing was to find a place to stay while they recovered and figured out what to do next. “Do you know the way?”

  “I think so. It’s disorienting as I’m used to seeing everything as animated computer graphics on a monitor, but I remember you have to take a right when you leave the cave.” Darcy pointed in a direction that didn’t seem to lead anywhere but to more trees as far as Sally could see.

  Mina took a quick look at the sun. “That’s west…God, how do I know that?”

  “It’s weird, isn’t it?” Sally said, remembering the alien familiarity she had with the rapier and thieves’ tools. “It’s like the knowledge just comes to you when you need it.”

  “It’s the same way with spells,” Darcy supplemented. “It’s really eerie. Like remembering a dream you had last week.”

  They continue talking as they followed Darcy. Now and again, she’d stop to get her bearings. They were undoubtedly deep within a forest as there were no ranger signs, paths, or even litter to mark that humans had been here. No airplanes flew overhead nor was there the distant so
und of traffic or machinery. It was both peaceful and creepy at the same time.

  “And everything is based on how many points we put in our skills? How does that work?” Mina asked as she stepped over a log that both Darcy and Sally had some difficulty climbing over.

  “The online version is based on the tabletop game,” Darcy explained, launching into GM lecture mode. “But it’s basically the same system. Behind the scenes the game rolls a twenty-sided dice and you add your skill points to the result. The higher the number, the more likely you are to succeed at a task. Like fighting or picking a lock.”

  So there was a giant dice out there deciding their fate? As funny as that sounded, the idea unnerved Sally. She couldn’t help looking up to see if there were a giant die spinning above their heads.

  “What happens if you fail?” Mina asked with a bit of worry in her voice.

  “It depends on what you’re trying to do. If it’s to know something, you draw a blank and don’t know anything. If you’re trying to attack, you miss. If you try to climb a tree, you fall.” Darcy said pausing for a moment to study a tall tree. “Damn, this tree is taller in real life than I would’ve thought. Anyway, that’s why it’s important when you level up to put your extra points in skills you will use often. Sally, being a Rogue, will put hers into Sneak and Critical Attack. I’m a Cleric, so I put mine in Healing and various spellcasting skills. Same with our starting allocations.”

  Then Darcy’s eyes narrowed at Mina. “Unlike someone we know, who went default and therefore got all her skill points assigned for her by the game.”

  “I was in a hurry,” Mina said, drawing back defensively. “And I didn’t understand what anything meant, so I chose an already made character.”

  Astounded, Darcy’s eyes bugged. “Did you click your way through character creation and take the first default character?”

  Thinking back to when she was browsing the character generation menu, Sally recalled that the classes had been listed in alphabetical order beginning with the Barbarian class at the top. And the race was automatically human unless changed to a different one. And now she realized that Mina had the same appearance as the default female barbarian avatar: black hair tied back from the face; strong cheeks and forehead; and a muscular but feminine build.

  Darcy must have noticed the same thing. “You clicked on the first character at the top of the screen. You didn’t even take the time to read what each class could do. That’s why you don’t know anything about Rage.”

  “Oh, alright!” Mina snapped, kicking a stick hard enough to send it flying into a bush, scaring away whatever woodland critters were hiding there. “I was in a hurry because I need to learn how to play by tomorrow. I didn’t know I was going to get trapped in the game! If I did, then rolling stats or going default would be a moot point, because I’d never have bought the damn game in the first place.”

  Sally couldn’t see any sense in arguing with that as she had to agree. If she had known the same, she never would have bothered with Shadow’s Deep in the first place. Perhaps Darcy realized it too as she gave Mina a hard look, but said nothing and resumed leading them out of the forest.

  ***

  The village had an appearance that matched how Sally imagined a medieval village would look. Small wooden cottages stood in lackadaisical rows and the people went about their chores, while little children played and older ones helped their parents; several geese strutted across a yard. Some people stopped to stare as the three adventurers walked between the houses; one mother called her children and hauled them inside by the arms despite their protests. Two old men, smoking pipes over what looked like a game of checkers, paused their game to watch as they passed.

  Being stared at was awkward enough in real life and it was even more so in this strange world. Sally wished Darcy would stop gawking back at everything. For the third time, she nearly bumped into Darcy’s back, her sister having stopped to gape at a house. “Hey, keep walking.”

  “Oh my God,” Darcy whispered in utter amazement. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been through here. Look, over there is the baker’s house. He sent me on so many fetch quests, and all I got was a stupid piece of cake that only healed ten health points.”

  “Then either go say ‘hi’ or keep walking,” Sally groused, averting her eyes from a man leading a mule who was staring at them in open astonishment.

  “I bet that cake would taste delicious now,” Darcy said in wonderment.

  Sally prodded her along with a poke in the shoulder which Darcy didn’t feel for the heavy armor. So she tapped her on the hooded head instead. “Go!”

  “Sister Korra!” called a voice so close it startled the three of them.

  Sally swung around to see a woman approaching them, carrying a bundle of cloth between two weathered hands. She was plump, with a rounded bosom and swaying, broad hips that made the hem of her dress sweep the path with each step. Tagging along behind her was a sullen little boy wearing dirty clothes with smudges on his face as if he had just taken a tumble on a dirt pile. He regarded them with bright blue eyes that seemed to glow against the soiled face.

  “I’ve been calling since you passed my house!” The woman said, breathing heavily, beads of sweat rolling down ruddy cheeks. “I made this to thank you for finding my boy. I don’t know what I would have done if he became some kobold’s dinner.”

  She held out the bundle towards Darcy who took a startled step back; bewilderment etched on her face. The woman tilted her head in confusion, mingled with concern. “Sister Korra, are you alright? Don’t you remember me?”

  Slowly, recognition dawned in Darcy’s eyes followed by amazement. “Mrs. Farnell? You gave me a quest to find your little boy. I found him in a kobold cave about to be roasted alive.”

  The woman’s face brightened with a friendly smile. “Yes! And I’ll ever be in your debt for the kindness you’ve shown my family. I was baking when I saw you walking by the window, and I have brought you bread fresh from my oven and have my son here to thank you himself.”

  Darcy held up both hands to halt the gratitude. “Please, don’t. It’s alright.”

  Sally begged to differ. The baked bread smelled delicious, and her stomach was reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything since a pizza she had ordered for while the game installed. I want the bread, Darcy, she mentally sent.

  The woman handed the bundle to Darcy. “Please, take it. Cedric, thank the woman for saving your life.”

  The boy scowled at Darcy, as though more annoyed about an interrupted playtime with his friends than grateful. Sally guessed, however, that Darcy, who had very little to do with children and whose typical experience with kids involved her cussing them out during an online match, was just as unhappy with the situation as he was. Cedric grunted a word of gratitude and looked plaintively at his mother for release.

  “Go on, you wee scamp and mind you’re home in time to help your sisters with the chores.” The words were barely out of Mrs. Farnell’s mouth before her son took off like a convict freed from a chain gang. With the sigh of exasperation that all mothers express towards their impudent children, Mrs. Farnell continued, “Please, enjoy the bread and may Shantra look after you and your…friends.” She gave Sally and Mina an odd look before hurrying away.

  Darcy stared at the retreating woman in wonder. “She looks wider than her animated counterpart. Must be the art style.”

  Sally and her stomach were more interested in the bread. Steam rolled off the cloth covering the hot bread and unable to resist Sally plucked it from Darcy’s fingers and unwrapped it. The delicious smell of fresh baked bread wafted up into her face as the rich brown loaf greeted her. She tore off a pinch and popped it into her mouth and moaned in delight, “I’m orgasming in my mouth right now.”

  “Are you seriously going to eat that?” Mina’s lip curled in disgust.

  “Why? It’s good,” Sally said, popping another bite into her mouth.

  “You do realize that they h
ad no concept of sanitation back in medieval times?” Mina leaned away from the bread as if it was something pulled from a toilet. “They didn’t know anything about germs or bacteria. She might have coughed in her hands, changed her baby’s diapers, and picked her nose before kneading the dough without having once washed her hands.”

  Spitting the bread piece out as her stomach twisted, Sally handed the loaf back to Darcy wishing she had some mouthwash. The Cleric merely tucked the bread into her backpack, silently, without any reaction to Mina’s words and Sally recognized the signs of Darcy being in deep thought. She became like this while planning a campaign or figuring how much money she had blown over a weekend.

  Darcy began marching with an urgency she hadn’t demonstrated before, so suddenly both Sally and Mina had to jog to catch up. The Cleric’s armor rattled and creaked in protest at her fast movements while Sally and Mina moved silently in their leathers and hide armor. They must have looked quite the sight among the villagers who wore only basic peasant clothing, nor was anyone else wearing armor or carrying weapons.

  “It’s this way,” Darcy said, more to herself than to them, as she rounded a corner.

  The houses gave way to a clearing at the edge of the village that opened out to a broader road, well worn by wagon wheels and the feet of travellers. Along a bend in the road, an inn stood with a weather-beaten sign swinging from the eaves. On it were words almost faded and smoothed by wind and rain: Spring Bell Inn.

  It was a two-story building with several chimneys smoking from a thatched roof. Sally could see movement through the lit windows and could catch the scents of tobacco and food wafting from the building. Her stomach growled, reminding her she was still hungry and a bit of bread had done little to satisfy this. Even with Mina’s warning about the lack of food safety in this setting still haunting her, Sally could not quell her hunger.