The Warped Forest

by Thomas Carpenter

  Rather than running around the base of the sloped tree again, Alex darted towards the A-frame structured support logs that she'd lashed into place.

  The cobrawasp flew after her, but seemly cautious of a trap, made a wide angle of attack.

  This brief respite gave her enough time to pull out her jagged bone knife and saw one of the supporting ropes. She had it halfway cut before the cobrawasp reached her.

  There was no way she was going to evade it while cutting the ropes, so she sent in her minions to harass the cobrawasp. The three bloats circled the much larger insect like gnats, flying in to force a reaction before slipping out of the way.

  Alex managed to cut enough ropes that a good nudge would knock the supporting logs away.

  Grabbing a net from her Handysack, Alex waited until the cobrawasp flew low so she could throw it. The awkward toss caught the flying creature, but the net wasn't weighted, nor large enough to hold it.

  Once again, the Ghostly Cobrawasp proved its namesake and turned incorporeal. Like a cloak slipping off its shoulders, the net fell through the flying creature to land unceremoniously in the leaves.

  While the cobrawasp shed the net, Alex wrapped her whip around the supporting log. As soon as the Ghostly Cobrawasp reappeared, Alex yanked her whip, pulling the supporting log out of place.

  With all the jostling, the angled log had become unbalanced, and it immediately shifted, breaking from its cradle. The Ghostly Cobrawasp, which could not move during its transformation, shifted back to solid in time for the massive log to fall on top of it.

  The fallen log hits the Ghostly Cobrawasp for 398 damage!

  To her dismay, the log didn't kill the cobrawasp. Trapped beneath its bulk, it flexed its wings. The cobra head strained to lift so it could spit at her, but the angle was all wrong. Then it appeared the cobrawasp looked like it was preparing to turn incorporeal again.

  "Inky, quick!"

  As her minion reached her, Alex cast Transference on the Ghostly Cobrawasp. Faint lines and nodes appeared between them, with eleven nodes on her enemy and seven on Inky.

  As the first edges of the cobrawasp turned misty gray, Alex's stomach twisted. If she didn't solve the problem quickly, she was doomed. Her faez bar was empty, her fatigue was almost full, and she had no more ideas.

  In a rush, Alex reached out, thinking to solve the problem on the fly, but pulled her hand back when she realized her initial understanding was wrong.

  Ignoring that her enemy was almost fully incorporeal and preparing to shift though the log to kill her, Alex pictured the various possibilities of the solution much as she did when she solved a Rubik Cube. Taking notes both in and out of game had allowed her to make subconscious connections she hadn't realized before.

  As the Ghostly Cobrawasp lifted into the air, Alex zipped her fingers along the faint lines and nodes, connecting them until the pattern lit up like a Christmas parade.

  You have killed a Ghostly Cobrawasp!

  You have gained experience: 2,000 XP

  Quest Completed: Get revenge on the Ghostly Cobrawasp

  You have gained experience: 10,000 XP

  Special Achievement Reached: You have gotten revenge on a creature that's killed you more than ten times!

  You have gained bonus experience: 50,000 XP

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Transference

  You have gained a unique skill point: +1 Cunning Strategist

  Inky has gained the Ghosting skill!

  You have reached level 6!

  Alex collapsed onto the forest floor. Her minions hovered around her as the last rays of daylight slipped away.

  Exhausted and trembling from the adrenaline from the battle, she looted the body so they could return to camp.

  You have received: Large Chimeric Stone

  Her minions bounced excitedly as if they understood the significance of the battle as much as she did. If she could have had a bottle of champagne, she would have popped the cork and dumped it over her head like sports ball teams did when they won the championship.

  "Come on," said Alex, gathering her gear for the hike back. "Let's celebrate back in camp with a nice hunk of charred sloth meat."

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Alex had every intention of leveling up before she went to bed, but the aftereffects of the battle and then a march back to camp made keeping her eyes open impossible. She woke late the next day, her minions already in their nests, plump from hunting.

  Inky, Minion, Level 3

  Pinky, Minion, Level 3

  Clyde, Minion, Level 3

  "Nice," she said when she realized the kill had leveled her minions too. She focused on Inky to examine his new ability.

  Inky, Minion, Level 3

  Ability: Ghosting (Turn incorporeal, which creates partial invisibility and allows passing through solid objects for 10 seconds)

  It wasn't the best ability for a minion, but it was better than nothing, and more importantly, the transfer had killed the Ghostly Cobrawasp.

  Character: Alexandria Duke

  Level: 6

  Strength: 1

  Intelligence: 3

  Cunning: 8

  Agility: 2

  Endurance: 3

  Charisma: 1

  Class: Arcane Mastermind

  Subclass: Undecided

  Health: 74/74

  Faez: 73/73

  Armor Class: 15

  Fatigue: 8%

  XP: 255,111 / 270,000

  Skills:

  Analyze: 11

  One-handed Slashing: 1

  Fire Spells: 2

  Devious Device: 6

  Sense Direction: 9

  One-handed Whip: 7

  Water Spells: 6

  Cooking: 9

  Stealth: 5

  Climbing: 4 (+5 Ascending Boots)

  Air Spells: 7

  Unique Skills:

  Cunning Strategist: 2

  Mastermind: 2

  Spells:

  Dewdrop Orb: 6

  Minor Creation: 4

  Transference: 11

  Cloud Taunt: 5

  Misdirection: 1

  Knowing how the skill increases affected her abilities and spells changed her opinion on where she needed to place them. There was no doubt that the Cunning stat needed to be a main focus, but she had to decide how much, and if any, to place in the other stats.

  Alex immediately ruled out Strength and Charisma since they didn't offer anything to her class. The next one she eliminated was Agility. While the stat governed her Stealth and One-handed Whip, those weren't the skills that were making her effective.

  Endurance was appealing because of Devious Device and Minor Creation, both of which had contributed considerably to her effectiveness. The argument against Endurance was that it was meant for the Devious Artificer class, which meant those abilities would probably get less effective as she leveled up.

  One key factor in opportunist gameplay was to look for areas to maximize a certain ability or spell. While the term "Min-Maxer" was derogatory in certain circles, suggesting that those players saw the game as nothing but a mathematical problem, it was an aspect that appealed to Alex.

  She had never been the biggest, strongest, or quickest when it came to games. Through years of practice, she could hold her own with twitch-based skills, but she would never compete at the high levels like Lily.

  Her skill was to break down the games into patterns to be exploited through mathematics and logic. It was like finding a magic key in the data, or a pot of gold in a trash bin. Nothing excited Alex more than figuring out how to take a complex system and reduce it down to an exploitable formula.

  It was why she'd learned how to solve the Rubik Cube, but had no desire to compete. Once she understood the mental algorithms required to put it back to order, and could demonstrate it satisfactorily, she'd lost interest in it.

  Which was why Gamemakers Online was simultaneously the most frustrating game she'd ever played, and the most exciting. />
  But so far, she felt like she'd barely scratched the surface of her class. Lily was already level 11, probably by leveraging her world-beating twitch skills in a class that utilized them best.

  While Alex desperately needed a larger faez pool to be more effective, she wasn't convinced that’s what was holding her back. What she needed were skills she could exploit, abilities she could use to maximum effect. The only way she was going to do that was to reach the higher tiers, which meant her Cunning stat had to be as high as possible.

  Alex felt strangely calm when she put all three increases in Cunning. Normally when making difficult decisions like this, doubt was a constant companion, but she felt her logic was sound enough that she didn't worry.

  The decision meant that her Transference spell, Cloud Taunt spell, and Air spells could reach 17, though they were far from that max level. It was going to be a priority to increase them so she could focus on catching up. It'd taken her half the year to reach level 6. If she stayed at her current pace, she'd only reach 12 by the end of the school year, leaving her short and unable to continue in Gamemakers Online.

  "Time for training," said Alex out loud, even though she'd sent mental commands to her minions to rise into the air. After the first few months of the game, Alex had started talking to herself, which had felt weird at first, but after a while she knew that if she didn't use her voice, she'd go a little crazy.

  Or, she thought, maybe it’s the talking making me crazy?

  The three bloats—looking more like wide-eyed furry brown bats than grotesque floating bloodsuckers—hovered above the camp eagerly. It wasn't just their motion that suggested their feelings—Alex caught a hint of emotion through their psychic link.

  Before, the connection had been tenuous. She could send out requests, and instinctively knew when they were in range, but not really know how. Now it was more tangible, like knowing the sun was in the sky by the warmth on her back. It was almost like a string connected them.

  "You might be wondering why I brought you here," she said with her hands on her hips. "I need to practice my Cloud Taunt, and you three are the most convenient targets. Unfortunately, I don't know if it'll kill you, so I'm going to have to limit my attacks to you, Pinky."

  To her surprise, a surge of resoluteness came through the link from Pinky, and strangely enough it tasted like black cherry.

  "Okay then, good to have you on board," said Alex. "Now, I'm going to hit you with Cloud Taunt, burning through my mana as fast as I can and while you're invulnerable. Then when you and I are both refreshed, we'll do it again."

  More black cherry came through the link.

  "Great," said Alex, cracking her knuckles before getting started.

  It felt a little weird firing at her own minion, but the spell allowed her to target Pinky. A tendril of gray cloud snaked towards the furry brown minion, crackling with electricity.

  You have hit Pinky with Cloud Taunt for 0 damage!

  Pinky has gained Reactionary Armor!

  Pinky is invulnerable!

  Alex cast the spell two more times, receiving the invulnerable message each time until her faez pool was nearly empty.

  You have gained a skill point: +1 Cloud Taunt

  "Now we're talking," said Alex, rubbing her hands together. "You okay, Pinky?"

  More black cherry.

  Refilling her faez pool took a few minutes, but when it was full, she checked with Pinky to confirm her ability was back. The flavor came back straight cherry, which felt like a "yes" to Alex.

  Before she began again, Alex told Inky and Clyde, "You don't have to hang out here. You're free to go."

  As if watching Pinky get blasted with Cloud Taunt was too much for them, the two minions darted across the chasm towards the Plains. Alex felt a little guilty until Pinky sent black cherry again.

  "That's my girl," she said. "Now that the boys are gone, let's do some real work."

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  For three days, Alex scouted the deepness at the western edge of the Warped Forest. It became less necessary to use her climbing ropes, as the trees grew at awkward angles making them easier to climb. The trees sprouted multihued leaves seemingly at random. When she squinted from a distance she was reminded of colorful fractals.

  The smells were richer and fruitier, too. A group of reedy plants reminded her of mangos when she passed them, while the saprolings she bumped into exhaled strawberry scents into the air. Life seemed to be bursting from every cell as if it couldn't wait to become something new.

  She'd worked out a system with her minions, sending them ahead to look for danger, then once it was relatively clear, she would find a sturdy tree and make her way to the top.

  The dangers changed along with the trees as the solo mobs increased to herds and groups. While she watched from above, multitudes of warped animals passed beneath. This development was both a boon and a curse, especially because the creatures were at a minimum of level 9.

  It'd been hard enough to take on a single level 13 or 14, but a group of ten or twenty level 9s seemed ridiculous. But the large groupings offered an opportunity for earning spikes of experience. A popular speed leveling strategy in many online games was to find a group of characters that could do area of effect, or AoE, damage. Together, assuming they could survive, they could deal mass amounts of damage across a large group, farming experience in short bursts.

  Usually the flaw was mitigating the damage from a large group of enemies. Exploiting the landscape was one such strategy, but there were fewer opportunities in Gamemakers Online than in traditional pixel-based games. Alex had no doubt that if she tried to stay in a tree while firing air spells at a herd of malicious battlegoats, they'd knock it over and trample her into dirt.

  The other—and more pressing—issue was that she lacked an appropriate AoE spell. But she wasn't about to let that minor detail stop her.

  When she found a spring-fed pond near the bottom of a hill surrounded by tortured trees and covered by brilliant lily pads exploding with a riot of color, a strategy suggested itself. Alex almost felt bad that she was going to use it as her killing ground. She spent the next day preparing the site, using the endless ropes that were available to her to create a funnel that led to the pond.

  Before she attempted her first AoE kill, Alex changed her binding point—the place where she would resurrect if she died—to a location closer to the middle of the forest. She'd hunted the eastern side to extinction, which made it a safe passage.

  Then she selected a herd of Ruthless Capybulls for culling first, mostly because they were slow moving and had no ranged attack that she could determine.

  Standing on the far side of the pond, Alex sent Pinky after the herd. Pinky had been instructed to attack the largest capybull. Her minion's Reactionary Armor would keep her safe during the surprise attack until she could lead them back to the pond.

  Alex chewed on her lower lip waiting for Pinky's return while insects buzzed across the surface of the pond. A bright blue fly with crimson wings landed on her arm. She was so enamored of the color combination she forgot to swat it away until it bit her.

  Rubbing her arm, Alex inhaled, collecting the fresh scents of the spring-fed pond. It was hard to believe it was a mirage inside a game. After nearly six months in Gamemakers Online, Alex was more than convinced the place was real. What she didn't understand was how the "game" aspects of the place, like the stats and level information, connected to the action.

  Nothing she'd ever played before simulated real life with such detail. Even the strange concoctions she mixed in the Exquisite Cooking Pot—besides providing her with enough sustenance to sustain her—tasted as flavorful as real food.

  When Pinky didn't return in the timeframe she expected, Alex brought up the spell she'd been leveling up for the past week.

  Cloud Taunt – Tier 2

  Faez: 15 ׀ Duration: 1 minute

  Dmg: 21-45 (Repeat Shock Damage every 20 seconds)

  Effect: Enrages t
he creature to attack you.

  The upgraded version of the spell had justified her decision to level up Cloud Taunt. The damage had only increased a slight amount, but the second tier of the spell gave it three pulses of shock damage, which was critical to her plan.

  Her nervous review of the spell ended when she saw Pinky's oversized bat-like form dart into the clearing, furiously beating her dark brown wings. The grinding crunch of small trees being trampled under hoof came rolling behind her minion as the herd surged into view.

  The bowlegged capybulls crashed into the pond, sending a spray of bug-infested water into the air as they strained to reach Pinky. The capybulls' stiff brown fur became matted and dirty as they trudged through the shallow pond, their short horns catching lily pads and moss.

  Ruthless Capybull, Warped Animal, Level 9

  Ability: Toothy Bite

  Alex waited until the herd of eleven capybulls were completely in the pond before casting Cloud Taunt. The second-tier version shot jagged smoke lines towards the lead creature, a crackling cage of electricity penetrating the gray mist.

  You hit the Ruthless Capybull with Cloud Taunt for 19 damage!

  Alex flailed at the wall of text that appeared in her vision, almost forgetting to start counting in her head. The spell had hit every capybull in the pond. After the fight she'd try to find a setting that would reduce the information flow.

  A host of grunts from the capybulls filled the air as if it were a stockyard. They pushed their broad chests through the water, moving faster than she'd anticipated. The lead capybull was only fifteen feet away, stocky frame rising from the water, when her mental count hit twenty.

  You hit the Ruthless Capybull with Misdirection!

  The Ruthless Capybull takes 21 shock damage from Cloud Taunt!