The Warped Forest

by Thomas Carpenter

  Bloat has upgraded! Do you want it as a minion? [Y/N]

  Bloat has upgraded! Do you want it as a minion? [Y/N]

  "Whoa," she said, hitting yes right away.

  As soon as she did, a new message appeared.

  You have gained a unique skill point: +1 Mastermind

  Do you want to give Bloat a unique name? [Y/N]

  "Hells yes," said Alex, thinking about what names would be appropriate for the flying bloodsuckers. "There are four of you, so what kind of game has four named critters?"

  As soon as she thought about it, she had an answer. She quickly accepted the four messages and announced their names.

  "Welcome my minions, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde," she said.

  When she analyzed them, she got a different pop-up than before.

  Blinky, Minion, level 1

  Pinky, Minion, level 1

  Inky, Minion, level 1

  Clyde, Minion, level 1

  "Sweet," she said as she realized she felt a mental connection to the four minions. "That must be part of the mastermind skill."

  Quest Offered: Earn an ability for a minion (+2,000 XP) [Y/N]

  The bloats had been level 3 when she'd had to fight them, but now they were level 1, which suggested they could level up. Based on the timing of the quest pop-up, she assumed that if she leveled up them up enough they'd receive abilities, which would be useful during her hunts.

  Knowing instinctively that she wouldn't be in danger, Alex opened the cages. Her minions lifted into the air, slowly at first since they hadn't used their wings in weeks, but then they gained height.

  "This will be so much better than having to haul your cages everywhere," she said.

  It was strange having a connection to them, as if there were a string reaching from the base of her neck to the bloats. They also looked a little different, as if changing to a minion had made them a different creature. Their proboscises weren’t so lanky and grotesque. She wouldn't call them cute, but looking at them didn’t give her the shivers.

  Next, Alex brought up her character sheet. She knew exactly where she was going to put her new attribute points because she'd been thinking about it for weeks, especially when she hovered over the Cunning Strategist skill to find it was linked to her Cunning stat, not that it was a surprise given the matched names.

  Character: Alexandria Duke

  Level: 3

  Strength: 1

  Intelligence: 1

  Cunning: 3

  Agility: 1

  Endurance: 2

  Charisma: 1

  Class: Undecided

  Subclass: Undecided

  Health: 30/30

  Faez: 30/30

  Fatigue: 55%

  XP: 51,203 / 90,000

  Skills:

  Analyze: 5

  One-handed Slashing: 1

  Fire Spells: 3

  Devious Device: 4

  Sense Direction: 5

  One-handed Whip: 3

  Water Spells: 3

  Cooking: 5

  Stealth: 2

  Climbing: 2 (+5 Ascending Boots)

  Unique Skills:

  Cunning Strategist: 1

  Mastermind: 1

  Spells:

  Dewdrop Orb: 3

  Minor Creation: 3

  Like last level, she put two points in Cunning and one in Endurance. She was a little annoyed that her faez pool hadn't grown much, but she could deal with it as she hadn't been relying on her spells to win battles directly.

  The dreadful bearcat dropped meat but no hides. She really needed to upgrade her armor.

  "Let's head back, minions...actually, you fly back to camp. While I'm here, I should do some exploring," she said.

  The dreadful bearcat was the last creature she'd scouted. Any more kills would come from foes deeper in the Warped Forest. Leaving her travois and cages where they lay, Alex stowed her whip, preparing to move stealthily through the undergrowth.

  When she was scouting, Alex made sure not to move until she could confirm the way ahead was clear. She would climb a suitable tree for a proper vantage point, then after confirming no creatures were within sight, she would return to the ground.

  As she went deeper into the forest, the leaves grew brighter, as if their colors had been turned up. The lushness was almost overwhelming in its starkness.

  Back at the cliff, the leaves had faint blue edges, but nearing the center they radiated yellows and reds as if colors bled through them.

  The trees grew more angled, making climbing easier. But the strange lines made it difficult to see ahead, as the undergrowth was blocked by awkward tree limbs filled with technicolor leaves.

  Alex was climbing down from one such tree when she heard a strange buzzing behind her. She leapt from her perch, landing in a battle crouch with the Vicious Thorny Whip in her hand, ready to strike whatever was making the noise.

  She scanned all around, seeing nothing but trees and empty air, but she still heard the buzzing, though she couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.

  Then something dripped onto her shoulder. Alex craned her head back to see a creature with a long greenish-black scaled body, hooded head, translucent wings, and a glistening black stinger.

  Ghostly Cobrawasp, Warped Animal, Level 15

  Because a regular wasp wasn't asshole enough

  "Oh shit," she said, the moment before the stinger impaled her in the chest.

  You have taken 25 damage! You are affected with Agonizing Poison!

  You have taken 19 damage from Agonizing Poison!

  You have died!

  Chapter Fifteen

  After respawning at the rotting log, Alex retrieved her travois and cages before returning to her camp. The Ghostly Cobrawasp had dispatched her with one sting, and even though death had erased the poison from her system, she kept rubbing her chest where the stinger had gone in.

  She'd lost 500 experience when she died, which thankfully hadn't deleveled her. But it meant she'd have to re-earn that 500 experience.

  The four bloat minions were waiting for her back at the camp. She turned the cages into nests for them, removing their doors, flipping them on their back, and lining them with leftover fur scraps until they looked like chicken roosts.

  Despite their new linkage to her, Alex left them at the above camp. She really didn't like the idea of sleeping in the same place as the bloats. But they didn't seem to mind and greeted her by hovering into the air when she came up the next evening.

  "I don't have anything you can feed on today, so you can hunt across the chasm," she told them.

  Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde immediately set off across the expanse, bobbing in a line towards the Plains of Warsong.

  Alex waited until the deep night before returning to the forest to scout. She moved slower this time, scanning the sky above her in case the Ghostly Cobrawasp returned. She managed to find two potential targets that evening—a hogappillar and a stonegoat.

  Freed from hauling cages, Alex dispatched them both the next night as she was more mobile. But on the following night when she returned to scout, the Ghostly Cobrawasp caught her and killed her with one massive critical hit.

  This pattern went on for the next two weeks. She killed fourteen new warped animals, but died to the cobrawasp three more times. The only saving grace was that she was only losing 500 XP each time, rather than an escalating number.

  That night, rather than hunt, she hid in the trees to ambush it, but it never showed. The only sign she ever got that it was near was a buzzing noise moments before it struck.

  Since she no longer had to spend so much time weaving grass ropes and mending minor gear, Alex experimented with her spells, trying to find new effects. Since she sucked at fire spells, primarily producing sparks no matter how many times she tried, Alex switched to air, hoping she could produce wind strong enough to affect the cobrawasp.

  The early experiments produced more substantial effects than her lame fire sparks, including one attemp
t that created a gust of gray cloud that crackled with static electricity, but unfortunately no new spells. She gained five skill points in air magic during that time, which was enough to convince her to keep going. It was possible that the game had hidden skill affinities that allowed certain skills to progress faster. Or she just sucked at fire.

  Alex also spent time investigating the chimeric stones. She had a stack of eighteen, mostly from the smaller critters since she hadn't figured out how to get the larger corpses into the Dented Cooking Pot to boil them down.

  The stones seemed to have different markings and swirls each time she looked at them, but that could have been her memory too. Alex tried cooking the stones with other items in her pot, hoping they might combine or create a beneficial effect, but the stones just sat at the bottom while the rest of the ingredients interacted.

  She did figure out a number of recipes by throwing random items that she picked up in the forest into the cooking pot. It was how she'd created the Spicy Iguana Steak, by combining the meat with a plant that looked like sage called indigo in her pot.

  After a while she started throwing anything and everything into it, hoping for a new recipe. Most ended up as char in the bottom of the pot, but thankfully, the game didn't require her to scrub out the mess. She only had to tip it over, and whatever it was, it fell out.

  "A dented cooking pot you may be, but you're a freaking miracle in my eyes," she told the pot more than once after ejecting a particularly disgusting failed combination.

  On a particularly clear night—it never stormed in the Warped Forest—Alex was throwing random items into the pot: a stonegoat hoof, indigo, blue leaf bark, a sparrow feather, and a Dewdrop Orb. Normally such varied mixes ended in the black mess, but when she let a little faez flow into the pot, it crackled with energy, a brewer's mist forming on top before dissipating into a chunky bar that looked similar to granola if it'd been made with handicrafts.

  Item: Acceleration Bar

  Use: Increases Effects

  You know you want to...

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Cooking

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Devious Devices

  You have gained a new recipe: Acceleration Bar

  Alex held it in her cupped hands as if it were made of gold. If she understood it correctly, it was a powerful one-use item. It seemed strange that she got two skill points off the same creation until she realized the container in which it'd been cooked seemed different.

  The dented pot had lost its signature impact, and its dull gray exterior had turned glistening black. It looked like if a black Porsche had been turned into a cooking utensil.

  Item: Exquisite Cooking Pot

  Dmg: 2-5 ׀ 25/25 Durability

  Yet you'll still only cook ramen

  She wasn't sure how, but she'd transformed the dented pot into an exquisite one. Maybe items could level up? Or maybe because it was her starting item, it had hidden properties that she had to unlock.

  Alex put the Acceleration Bar into her Handysack for later. An effect like that would need to be used at a special moment to maximize its effect.

  The next day she went in search of new creatures to hunt. She let her minions feed on the Plains while she crept through the undergrowth.

  Alex took special care to climb into the upper canopy frequently to survey the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cobrawasp from a distance. She also moved with what she hoped was special care.

  But her precautions proved fruitless when the cobrawasp caught her as she shimmied down the tree and dropped into the dirt with her climbing rope in her hand.

  A faint buzzing announced its presence. Without waiting to get a visual on it, Alex dove to the right, rolling beneath the black stinger as it slammed into the trunk.

  It hit so hard the tip sunk into the soft wood. The cobrawasp struggled to remove it while Alex pulled out her Vicious Thorny Whip.

  You miss a Ghostly Cobrawasp!

  You hit a Ghostly Cobrawasp for 3 damage!

  You miss a Ghostly Cobrawasp!

  Alex struck the creature in successive fashion, but despite it being held in place, her weapon did nothing. She quickly realized that normally she fought the denizens of the Warped Forest after they'd been drained by her minions. The loss of blood must have made those creatures more susceptible to her low-level attacks.

  But she knew running wasn't going to work either, and she hated giving up an opportunity while the cobrawasp was stuck in the tree.

  With a flash of an idea, Alex pulled a hemp rope from her Handysack. She made a loop and threw it around the head of the flying snake. The cobrawasp hissed as the rope nestled around its slender neck.

  Alex ran the long end of the rope around the tree and was preparing to make a second loop when the cobrawasp managed to free its stinger from the tree trunk. Before she could throw a second loop, it turned its head at her and spit venom right into her face.

  You have been hit by Ghostly Cobrawasp venom!

  You are affected by rotting venom!

  You take 24 damage from the rotting venom!

  You take 23 damage from the rotting venom!

  You have died!

  Chapter Sixteen

  "Dammit," said Alex, punching into her open palm at the deteriorated log. A blue butterfly had taken roost on the good end of the wood, which made her exclamation less cathartic than usual. Her frustration deepened when she happened to analyze her cloth shirt.

  Item: Cloth Shirt [DESTROYED]

  As she was examining the cloth shirt, it faded from her chest, leaving her in nothing but a sports bra. She wasn't completely bummed until she checked the coiled weapon on her hip.

  Item: Vicious Thorny Whip [DESTROYED]

  "No!" she said, grasping at it as it disappeared from view.

  Quest Offered: Create a magical weapon (+5,000 XP) [Y/N]

  Quest Offered: Create a magical piece of armor (+5,000 XP) [Y/N]

  Alex sunk to her knees. The rotting venom had killed her and destroyed two pieces of gear. The cloth shirt was only to keep her from running around half-naked, so she really didn't care since she hadn't seen anyone else during her months in game, but the whip was her only real weapon. Even the quest pop-ups didn't lessen her losses.

  "I'm going to kill that stupid cobrawasp," said Alex.

  Quest Offered: Get revenge on the Ghostly Cobrawasp (+10,000 XP) [Y/N]

  "By Merlin's hairy butthole, I will," said Alex, swiping to accept the quest, before heading to the bramble patch to make a new weapon. When she got to it, her stomach twisted into one big, giant knot.

  The bramble patch was gone. She could see signs of where the Brutal Rhinoboar had scarred the ground, but a leafy vine had taken over the area. Only dead brown stalks remained of the bramble patch, as if it'd been too damaged to survive, allowing the interloper's intrusion.

  The whole trip back to the campsite Alex racked her brain for weapon ideas. Without the thorny brambles she had no way to make a viable one. Sure, she could use a big stick as a club, but mindless bashing wasn't going to help her defeat the higher-level monsters.

  It wasn't like she had access to metal, or even a stone knife. Her only sharp object had gone over the edge of the cliff into a river.

  All at once, she had the overwhelming desire to talk to her mom. She'd been in the Warped Forest for what felt like three months, but she had no idea how long it'd been. Last time she'd been out, the first day of playing the game, she'd tried to call her mom, but no one had been home.

  She'd been so busy, she'd forgotten that she'd promised to call her. It didn't help that she received an experience penalty every time she logged out.

  But penalty be damned. She needed time away from the Warped Forest and the Ghostly Cobrawasp that was absolutely kicking her ass.

  Alex cringed when she hit yes, accepting the penalty.

  When she appeared next to the obsidian cube, she caught a glimpse of a girl with red hair right before she disappeared. The sensatio
n of watching someone lying on the cushions one moment, and not the next, left Alex with whiplash.

  "Damn," she said. "It would have been nice to talk to someone."

  Especially a person who would understand the level of frustration she was feeling. Alex had expected a tactically difficult game, but she hadn't thought it'd be so immersive. It made the failures all the more difficult to deal with. In a regular game, you only had to reload and try again, and usually the penalties weren't so severe. Gamemakers Online felt like constantly taking two steps forward and one step back.

  She felt like a stranger creeping back into the house. The first crackles of thunder had her ducking for cover until she realized what they were.

  A storm pounded the city. Alex found a window and pressed herself to the glass, catching glimpses of the broken buildings surrounding Gamemakers Hall when the lightning snaked across the sky.

  She loved storms, but in the city of sorcery they seemed different, as if they were amped by the presence of magic. She'd read that somewhere but thought it'd been a rumor. The ferocity of the lightning suggested otherwise.

  It took her a half hour to find her room again, but once there, she headed back out because she wasn't tired and she'd logged out of the game to talk to her mom. But since it was dark, she didn't know what time it was, or even what month.

  Alex made her way to the kitchen to find a clock that read 3:28.

  "Great," she said with a sigh. It'd be hours until her mom was awake.

  She looked around for a marked calendar, but not finding one, opened the refrigerator instead. Only a mishmash of foods, clearly the leftovers from other students' grocery trips, remained, but Alex was an expert at making do. She boiled water for ramen, chopped up the vegetables that hadn't gone bad yet and threw them into the pot, then squirted too much sriracha and soy sauce into the mixture afterwards.