by Mason Roth
"I'm afraid not Madame. You're the only new face I've seen in quite a while!" Piper gritted her teeth. She should have known that would have been too easy, but she had still hoped.
"Well," She sighed, "What can you offer me?'"
"50 GP." Cornelius replied, lighting a cigar he produced from his pocket. His tone was much shrewder now. "And depending on the condition of my leg, I might be persuaded to throw in an item from my shop.
"Oh?" Piper raised an eyebrow. "What kind of shop?"
"I deal in potions. In fact, I own the potions shop in almost every major village. Find my leg, make sure it comes back to me in good condition, and I'll make it worth your while."
It seemed a little shady, but Piper had no other leads to go on. She bent down to grasp Cornelius's hand again. “You have a deal. Where was your leg taken?"
"In the field behind me." Cornelius replied. "I'm sure your pistols will make the doffles no trouble at all. Best of luck to you." Piper felt a chill run down her spine as Cornelius echoed what seemed to be Candace's favorite phrase. Was it possible that the NPCs were aware of the study? It seemed highly unlikely, but still, Piper resolved to be on her toes as she set foot on her first quest.
Chapter 4
Finding the little bastards proved to be more difficult than he expected. Despite the doffles being one of the first things she saw upon entering Rookstorm, the field the gnome mentioned was curiously devoid of anything but grass - no trees and animals, not even an insect. And definitely no people. She kicked at the ground and surveyed her surroundings. The crooked steam pipes of Smekt lay behind her and at the edge of the field, a dark forest seemed to sprout out of the ground as she moved closer. Birds do tend to nest in trees, she thought. Even fictional birds with ugly wings should follow the same logic.
Steeling her resolve, she set foot into the frankly intimidating forest. If the town of Smekt contrasted the empty field, the forest was like another planet. Dark, jungled and nothing like where she came, she felt a deep sense of unease. I knew this was a beta test, but could they have made the areas flow a little better? She kicked a stubborn vine off of her foot, but it hissed at her in protest. "Fuck!" She shrieked as the snake slithered away. Her expletive echoed through the forest and she felt every unseen creature briefly turn their eyes on her. She closed her eyes and put her hand over her mouth to mask her breathing. Perfectly still, she told herself. She stood like that for several seconds before venturing deeper into the forest, tiptoeing as she went.
She could have sworn she felt the sun on her face as light peeked through the treetops. Despite the distinctly ominous vibe the forest gave off, it was really quite beautiful. The gnarled trees had a whimsical character and the sunlight made the floating spores look like glitter. She inhaled deeply, quietly taking in the scenery. Was that sap she smelled? Was that even possible? She shook the question from her mind. Now wasn't the time to question the game. It was time to hunt doffles.
Too busy marveling at the scenery, she nearly stepped on a particularly crunchy looking branch. She silently cursed herself. Get it together, Piper. She wondered if the game had any sort of stealth mechanic. If she consciously sneaked through the forest and took down the unsuspecting doffles, could she use this as an opportunity to level up her stats? Once again, as if reading her thoughts, the UI appeared in front of her face.
Traits:
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 13
Intelligence: 13
Vitality: 10.
Level: 0
What the hell? Level zero? And she didn't even have fifty stat points. This demo nerfed the hell out of me. She squinted at her stats again. One of her highest traits was dexterity. As a gunslinger, she supposed she needed that to wield her ranged weapons and hit marks from a distance. But, surely, it could also be used for stealth. There was only one way to find out. Instead of tiptoeing through the forest like a scared little girl, she instead tried to imitate a classic video game rogue. She peaked around corners and moved silently from tree to tree. The more she did this, the more that she truly grasped the concept of stealth. She checked the UI again, giddy with excitement as she realized she could pull it up at will just by thinking about it.
Dexterity: 13
Not a single point!? She let herself get angry despite the fact that she had been working on the stat for five minutes or less. She was frustrated. Candace had intentionally not told them a time limit so she had no idea when time would be called. Yet, she decided to waste her time on this stupid doffle quest. What good would it yield her? A couple of in-game potions? She needed cold hard cash, and she needed it today.
Just as she turned on her heel and to stomp out of the forest, she almost kicked over an ugly brown bird with dark leathery wings. Finally. A doffle. Piper backed away slowly from the creature as it pecked dully at the ground. It was slightly cross-eyed and missing whatever it was trying to pick out of the soil. It was a wonder such a stupid bird made off with Cornelius's leg. Speaking of which, the leg was nowhere to be seen. Piper backed away from the doffle slowly, not wanting to alert it to her presence as she scanned the area. The flock couldn't be too far off. She raised her heads to the heavens and the treetops seemed to collectively blink at her.
The leaves shifted, but there weren't leaves at all in any of the surrounding trees. The sleek yet chubby bodies of the doffles had a greenish cast in the light and they filled every tree in the small clearing she had wandered into. She held her breath again. They saw her but didn't seem to care. Yet she had to find the leg before the flock fled, or worse, attacked. There was no way she could take down every doffle even if she did dual-wield her pistols. There had to be a nest, but where? She saw the ugly birds, but no ugly nest.
She was reluctant to take her eyes off of the doffles, but she has a sneaking suspicion that the nest might be behind her. She back away slowly and began to turn, still looking behind her. The doffles seemed more interested now, and she felt like she was getting warmer. They seemed nervous now. The nest had to be close. She was so focused on the multitude of doffles that she hadn't paid attention to what was directly behind her and she and the back of the head crashed into a tree. The mild pain in the back of her skull was compounded by the doffle's shrieks. She spun around and looked into the sky.
Directly above her, at the very top of the tree was another doffle. But this one stood apart from the rest. It was flapping its massive bat-like wings against its bulbous body. It sat squarely in a large, twiney nest that encircled the top of the tree. The queen had to be at least three times the size of the rest of the flock and resembled a beach ball with a beak and wings more than it did a bird, on her. Piper tried to run, but the queen gave an almighty squawk and the doffles in the trees descended on her. There was nowhere to go as the hideous birds blocked both her vision and her path.
To Piper's surprise, the doffles didn't attack. She closed her eyes when they flooded her vision, but she had not suffered a single bite or claw mark. They merely obscured her vision and made retreat impossible. She opened her eyes against the rush of wind caused by the flapping of black wings and she looked around for any sign that the queen was among them - anything that would give her an advantage. Her eyes strained against the onslaught of green, brown, and black before she finally saw it: The faint glimmer of gold. Between the swarm, she caught a glimpse of the leg. Trapped between thick, meaty claws, Cornelius's little leg looked like it could snap like a twig at any moment. If only she could see the head, she could take it out in one fell swoop. She had to get rid of some of these lesser doffles first. They were literally everywhere, so aim was unimportant.
Although she had never wielded a gun in her life, some sort of instinct kicked in as she pulled her pistols from their holsters and twirled them in her hands. Despite the realistic feeling of it all, this was still a video game. It's not like any real harm could come from reckless shots. With that in mind, she fired into the mass of ugly bat-bird hybrids She fired a second shot and then another
, alternating her guns as she went. She wondered how many rounds she could fire before reloading, but didn't want to find out before she felled the queen.
As she fired, the birds scattered, but she still failed to hit a single one. She thought that if she could at least cause enough gaps in their herd, she could get a shot at the queen, but as soon as a hole opened up in their formation, it was immediately closed again. I'm sure if I kill just one, they'll be shaken enough to give me an opening.
Despite the cacophony of flapping wings around her, she steadied her mind and let silence fall around her. Through the mess, she was able to single out one bird flapping slowly in front of her. In fact, everything around her seemed to slow, including her own movements. She raised her pistol and fired. She watched the bullet strike the doffle as if it was in slow motion before the shrieks of the others brought her back to reality. Losing one of their own, their movements became wider and more erratic. The lumbering queen had flown down from atop her perch and was producing the loudest shrieks of all as if lamenting a fallen child. Piper didn't miss a beat in preparing her now clear shot.
She fired both of her pistols simultaneously at the queen and the bullets landed squarely in her chest. As she came tumbling to the earth, the other doffles wailed in despair before fleeing the scene. Where they went, Piper couldn't see. But they didn't matter. The queen was dead, with Cornelius's leg still in its clutches. She moved closer to the queen, thanking her lucky stars that the leg was still intact. It was very likely that it could have been destroyed in the fall, and piper winced to at her carelessness. Had it been damaged, the deal would be off.
She pried the large talons from the intricate leg. Just as Cornelius described, the thin spindly leg was golden and filled with pipes and clockwork. The little shoe on the metal foot matched Cornelius's with the gold buckle and the perfect shine. She picked it up gingerly as to not damage it further. While it appeared fine after the fall, there was no way of telling if it had internal damage.
As she secured the leg in the rucksack she was carrying, a voice behind her yelled "Hey what the fuck?!" She wheeled around to find a man standing in front of her with his brows furrowed in anger. It was the man from before, the man with the dark eyebrows - the one that stared at her from across the small room. This was great! They had both just won themselves an easy grand. So why was he so angry? She pulled her rucksack to her chest and clutched it defensively.
"Out of all the people that would steal the old coot's leg, the last person I expected was a player character,” he said, arms folded. “What kind of sicko are you?"
"Woah, Woah, I don't know what you're talking about. The gnome wanted his leg back and I found it for him. No one stole it unless you count her.” She gestured at the dead queen doffle. She was a sight to behold, with her eyes rolled back in her head and her tongue flopping out of her beak.
."That..." he hesitated on what to call it, "thing, stole his leg?"
“That's what I was told.”
“He told me some gunslinging rogue ripped it from his body and ran into the forest,” He said, cocking an eyebrow as he eyed her holster.
She opened her mouth to defend herself before it dawned on her. "Son of a bitch. He's playing us. If we fight it out, and kill each other, he doesn't have to pay anyone. I bet this isn't even his leg. He probably stole it to sell for scraps.”
The man with the dark eyebrows nodded slowly. "Right. It works out perfectly for him. He gets you to make the leg easy to find, gets me to kill you, and then he can come into the forest and collect his stolen leg with no problems.”
"That doesn't make any sense at all." Piper retaliated.
"What the hell? This was your explanation."
"No, I know that. It's just..." She squeezed the rucksack tighter. Something just wasn't sitting right. "It doesn't make sense for a prologue quest. For an AI to pit players against each other... It's unheard of. Especially so early in the game."
The man with the dark eyebrows rubbed his chin contemplatively. "Well," he began after some time. "There's only one way to figure this out. We have to confront Cornelius. Together. He'll see that he's outnumbered and likely stop playing us like fiddles." He extended his hand. "I'm Jeremy by the way." Piper hesitated before shaking it but finally gripped it with excessive firmness.
"Piper." She grunted in an attempt to show strength. But, it came off as a joke and Jeremy snorted in response. She couldn't argue with his logic. It made way more sense to confront Cornelius together. She just felt deeply uneasy. And she did not know if that was because of Jeremy or that this “game” could go terribly wrong at any second.
Chapter 5
On their journey back to Smekt, Piper learned that Jeremy was a fighter class and had different traits from her own. His stats were more focused on strength and vitality rather than intelligence and dexterity. Despite this, however, Jeremy seemed to be quick-witted. On their way out of the forest, he led her around snakes and traps that she had not even noticed on her first venture.
Despite the suspicions surrounding their introduction, Jeremy was kind and eager to work together. Yet, Piper could tell that he was still guarded. And why shouldn't he be? She was a stranger, they were playing for cash, and everything felt just slightly off.
"Piper, you still with me?" Jeremy interrupted her internal monologue with a quizzical look.
"Yeah," she answered, giving him a shy smile. She toyed with her ashen bangs. "I just can't shake the feeling that something isn't right here. I've never done a clinical trial before, but doesn't it all feel a bit strange?" She hoped she was just being silly and that he would reassure her. But he shook his head.
"No, something is definitely up. If I wasn't in so much damn student debt, I would have walked right out of that study.”
Piper felt a chill run down her spine at his response. So it wasn't just her. Something was definitely wrong. They crested the hill in the empty field and could see Smekt in the distance. She wondered what was going through Cornelius's head before she remembered that he did not have a mind of his own. The smoke rising from the chimneys looked peaceful and realistic. And she could hear the hum of activity from a hundred yards away. Once again, despite her intuition that something was wrong, she couldn't help but admire the artistic marvel of Rookstorm. A loud roar shook her from her stupor.
A massive beast soared overhead towards Smekt. It was like nothing that could exist in nature. The beast had three heads. One of a lion, one of an eagle, and one of a wolf. Its talons nearly took off her goggles as it neared the unsuspecting town. Piper ducked and covered her head. She wheeled around, still crouched, to check on Jeremy. He was on the ground face down.
"Jeremy!" She shook him violently. He lifted his head instantly.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he responded, harried. “I was just getting out of the way." Piper whipped her head away from him as she heard another deafening shriek from the beast, followed by terrified screams of the village below. The Chimera had positioned itself directly over Smket. The pair froze in horror as it decimated a large building upon landing, crushing it beneath its claws. Rubble flew everywhere, striking buildings and citizens indiscriminately. Piper could feel her heart beating in her ears. She knew that the damage of the town and people being hurt were fake, but she still felt an overwhelming need to intervene. Without a second's more hesitation, she sprinted towards the town.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Jeremy called after her. Still on the ground, he clutched the high grass and shouted on all fours. "There's no way you're leveled up enough to take down that thing!"
Logically, Piper knew he was right. The doffles were challenging enough, let alone a massive Chimera. She had the oddest sensation. While the danger wasn't real to her, it was real to Smekt. She felt invincible in the face of this life or death situation, and she let that fear and exhilaration carry her legs all the way to the village.
She heard panting behind her. She hesitated looking back, worried that another foul b
east was behind her, before it shouted at her.
"Wait up, will ya?" She turned to see Jeremy booking it after her with a painfully annoyed expression on his face. "I can't just stand back and watch you farm all that exp." He huffed exasperatedly, but Piper could tell his ego was bruised.
The pair skidded to a stop as they reached the cobblestones of Smekt. The chimera rampaged on about a hundred yards away, leaving, brick, stone, and twisted metal in its wake. Piper was sure she even saw blood. As she rounded the corner down the familiar main street of Smekt, she saw the shops she had seen before blown out and several on fire. Despite her short stay, Piper almost felt like Smekt was like her hometown - the first city she visited, the first interaction she had with the intricacies of Rookstorm, and now it was in flames thanks to this thing. Bile rose in her throat.
"I'm taking the shot." She announced. She didn't stop running as she unhooked her holster and raised her pistol.
"No, wait, you're only gonna piss it off--" Jeremy's protests were cut off as her bullet tore through the air, hitting the oversized target square in the left shoulder.
