Gaston dropped his spear on my foot. It fell with a solid thud. My earlier confidence in the Voices being on my side was shattered. They were equal opportunity jerks. I hopped around clutching my toes. These [Travelers Boots] that I had been equipped with sucked.
“You alright?” The newest person asked. “How did you break his nose anyway?”
“Gravity and a rock.” I wiggled my toes and stood on the tender tootsies. The previously extorting and now bleeding guard seemed to be all facial hair. This new person was as smooth as could be with a light tan.
“That worked? Hah! I wonder why none of the others tried it.” He said.
“Others?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. Other suckers like you who die in the area. Smells like the Ooze slimed you, though. Yeah?” He had a bit of a lisp.
I nodded. The other man smiled and rubbed his bald head with a hand.
“Come on, you’re not flagged so we can get you to the bounty board. After that, you’re free to go about your day.” He motioned me over to the ladder and started climbing up without waiting. I went up after him and kept talking.
“Is this normal?” I asked.
“Out here? Sure. Come on.” We reached the top and he helped me over the last leg. My body still wasn’t in very good shape despite the increases to my [Brawn]. Everything wobbled and my fingers felt lax. “And Gaston, you can stay down there and deal with the next resser.”
“Screu yoo, Urgot!” My temporary tormentor yelled.
“Hey! You should start a casino!” I shouted down to the grumbling guard. Gaston was still holding his nose. He flipped me off with a free hand before picking up the spear again. The shout had left me huffing for air and wondering what was wrong. Eventually I remembered [The Ooze] had left a number of debilitating status icons.
Neat.
I managed to recover and keep marching forward. At the top of the wall, there was a pleasant ramp back down to the ground level. We used that to reach a well-beaten path that traveled between sloppy wooden housing and strung up tents. This place could use a nice casino. Las Vegas had probably started with a similar frontier style area. Hopefully Gaston would oblige me by making one. It would earn me gold in the long run. The idea of getting anything from the man after his attitude made me smile. I almost started doing a jig right there.
“Alright, the board’s over this way. You don’t have a bounty do you?” The other guy asked. His name was actually Urgot according to an [Identification] check. It felt all wrong. Bald men and that name didn’t fit.
“I’ve only been playing for a few weeks,” I said.
“Wow, you’re out of your depth way out here.” He gave a chuckle. There was something about his smile that set me on edge though.
“I blame my quest.” I mostly blamed the Voices. And being kind of a push over. Some other person might have stood up and said ‘Nope, I’m going to be awesome without you’. Shadow maybe. He seemed like the sort to tell someone when to pack it.
“Oh, yeah. The game will send you all over if you let them. The trick is to push back just a little with the NPCs.” The man waved an arm. His armor had small bits of metal lining it that caught the light. “But hey, welcome to Camp Grey Skull.”
“Thanks.” I was still confused on the pleasantness of this treatment after the attempt at extortion. These were players, though. Personalities varied among all groups of people. “That’s a funny name.”
We passed through a few small buildings and into an area with two high walls and a counter. On our side, with the two walls, was a series of mug shots outlining all kinds of people. There were bounty totals along with warnings and danger levels. If I concentrated enough a small pop-up box would display.
I chuckled. Players putting bounties on each other over stolen drop items was outright childish. Sam Hill didn’t look young, though. Oh well. Personally, I wouldn’t get into that sort of gameplay anytime soon. The other side of the counter seemed to go into a storage room of some sort. There were racks filled with provisions and other items.
“Okay. Let’s see. Board says…” Urgot was looking around on the wall next to him. My commentary caught up with him eventually. “Oh yeah. Camp Grey Skull, gets me every time. We make new recruits to the guild climb halfway up the mountain and give their best He-Man impression.”
“Seriously?” I asked. Urgot wasn’t looking in my direction. He kept checking the pictures and mumbling under his breath.
“Oh yeah. It’s a hoot every time.” He said to me after another pause. Urgot gave a short smile and this time I managed to identify what was disturbing me.
“Are these all bounties?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. The first half of the alphabet is over here, second half over there.” He waved an arm at the wall I had been reading. I tried to ignore his slight slur of the longer words.
“Neat,” I said. A player accessible bounty system was really interesting. I poked through a few more while reading the notes.
“Let’s see, nope, nothing on here for a Hermes. I have a Hernando, and a HiddenBlade and a HarlotKing, what the…” He shook his head and barely lifted his cheek as his lips curled. Clearly the man had noticed my noticing. “No Hermes. Grats. You’re as free as anyone.”
Whew.
“Maybe you can help with my quest.” I kept checking to make sure, but the man clearly had sharpened teeth. They were almost shark-like. Once it was confirmed I hastily pretended to study the wall of faces nearby.
“Fire away. I’m on duty for another twenty minutes before real life kicks in.” He was consciously covering it up now. It must have embarrassed Urgot because he kept tucking in a lip.
“Do you know a Shazam?” I asked.
“Uhhh…”
“Maybe. Wait.” He poked a finger at the air. Urgot was a player so he must be checking his user interface. “Hold on.”
“No rush.” I put on my customer service voice. Dealing with pleasant people always made things much easier. This one just happened to have strange teeth. Given my niece’s red tinted skin this was nearly invisible.
“Hey, Alucard! What’s Miss Thing’s actual name?” Urgot shouted over a counter top.
There was a small, thin man in the back polishing a piece of armor. His skills were probably slightly better than mine. I would have to ask Hal Pal for tips once back in the real world.
“Our guild master?” The thin man answered. His voice seemed to bounce around the storage room. Alucard, wasn’t that from a television show during my childhood? James was right. People picked all sorts of names.
“Yeah. I can’t tell past all the stupid titles.” Urgot reached over the counter top and plucked something that looked like a pink banana. “You know she has a million of them. Whenever I try to analyze I want to take a nap.”
“Her name is Shazam.” Alucard stared at Urgot and put out a hand. The hairless man with pointy teeth sighed and forked over a few coppers.
“Really?” Urgot turned back to me. One hand was busy banging the pink banana against a wall making the small shack shake. “Why are you looking for our guild master?”
“Uhhh…” It was almost easier to show the two men instead of explaining it. I pulled out the [Bound] letter and held it up for them to use [Inspection] on. Alucard was behind the counter looking for a stool to stand on.
“Well?”
“I’ve got a letter for her,” I said. Shazam was a weird name for a female guild leader. Then again my name was Hermes, what right did I have to judge?
“No shit? There’s mail in this game? Hey, Alucard! There’s mail in this game! And a player is delivering it!”
“No shit?” Alucard didn’t seem impressed at all. His short frame was lined with annoyance at the other man.
“This guy totally has a bound scroll for Miss Thing!”
“You mean Shazam,” Alucard said.
“So, where is she?” I asked.
“Oh. You’ll have to walk up the mountain for that. The path is over there,
can’t miss it. In fact I think there’s a new scrub headed up there now.” Urgot pointed down the way. There was a fairly beaten path that went from the pit we had been at all the way towards a steep mountain path. It seemed to shoot straight up the cliff side and vanished in clouds.
“Huh?” I questioned. “That’s convenient.”
“Nah. There’s always one scrub on the path, takes em a while to build up their resists. That’s part of the point, plus it’s funny.” Urgot waved a hand towards the path. “It is pretty funny. They scream ‘I have the power’ and it just echoes. Everyone gets a laugh,” He said.
“Even the people in the jail cells.” Alucard nodded. He was straightening up the counter top.
“Even them. Speaking off, did you see the latest catch?” The bald man said. Both of them shared a glance before looking at me. Urgot motioned with his head to one side.
“Oh, man did I…” They grew hushed as Alucard hopped over the counter and walked off with Urgot. The last thing I heard was commentary about the perfection that was some other player’s backside.
“Can I help you?” Another voice said. The store was still being manned by someone. I shook my head and eyed the mountain. Shazam was up the path? Interestingly my quest marker for [Pass to Pass] also showed in that direction. A giant blue arrow bobbed over an area obscured by clouds.
“Good luck.” The other person behind the counter said. I smiled and started off.
Climbing a mountain was completely new to me. I had only ever looked up at them. My childhood contained a few plane rides over entire ranges. None of those reallife experiences looked quite like [Broken Mountain]. What had once been a giant mountain now seemed to be literally cleaved down the middle. There was a road maybe four people wide that went straight through. Clearly that was the pass in [Broken Mountain Pass]. Age had done a number on the landscape. Both mountains only shared a few points in common anymore.
Camp Grey Skull was parked on one side with the resurrection point. There was a handful of constructed buildings and a fortified wall that faced outward from the mountain’s path. This whole thing seemed to be a defensive point between this side of the mountain range and the other. [Broken Mountain Pass] must have been a choke point.
Neat. The political arena of Continue Online was still vague and unimportant to me. First was this quest for the Voices and their letter. Afterward, I would probably need to learn more landmarks to go with my retained knowledge from William Carver’s hut.
The path upwards was clearly marked. Everything was well worn for the first few hundred feet. My arms and legs felt heavy and tuckered out but finding purchase was easy enough. I managed to hike up a few hundred feet without much in the way of issues. It razor-backed upon itself a number of times. The marker for my [Pass to Pass] quest was fairly high up there.
Shortly after that things turned annoying. The temperature dropped and a small box came up telling me what was happening.
Great. I had those skills, but there was no easy way for me to tell if they were high enough. I would need something to stave off the cold air. None of the gifts provided by the Voices for my starting equipment were useful. The cloak that had once been new and undamaged was torn from where I used it as a fire blanket, plus my physical stats had taken a hit from [The Ooze].
“Hey, Dusk.” The [Messenger’s Pet] seemed fairly comfortable. I was tempted to grab him and try to steal fire or something.
The small creature chirped and had a frowning face above him.
“I’m glad you survived,” I said.
The face shifted a little and seemed less annoyed. These thought bubbles above his head were neat. Not realistic, but they helped me understand what was happening. I doubted there was any better way for the game to provide feedback regarding the [Messenger’s Pet]’s mental status.
“If we can get up the mountain, and meet Shazam, I think we’ll be one step closer to desserts.” Pie sounded heavenly. Thoughts of dessert kept me going for another twenty minutes of climbing. Dusk and I had a vague conversation. Every so often he would scamper off and get into a fight with something. I sat down twice to eat the last of my rations while he triumphed over nature’s mountain creatures.
The longer I climbed the mountain, the more it occurred to me how woefully unprepared I was. All I really had was a cane and a hat.
“Nnngh.” A groan let out. Of course, that had slipped my mind. One hand fumbled around in the frigid air and found it sitting on top of my head. This was my prize for gambling within Continue and had been one of my mysteries to look into upon returning. Another stack of [Chilled] made my teeth chatter. I grabbed the hat and brought it down for visual inspection.
What was this name all about? Wild Bill? Was that some clever allude to William Carver being called Wild Willy? I used [Identification] again and didn’t get anything new. Oh well. It was beyond me right now. That would be a problem for life outside the ARC.
The use effect was nice. Maybe there was an effect that would help me. I licked my lips and tried not to wonder what could possibly go wrong. This hat could be my salvation. Or at least it would be interesting to see what came of it. This game was all about distraction with a goal.
“Still, isn’t this a little too convenient?” I stared out across the landscape. No clever thunders or pulses of light answered. Thunder was more Selena’s gig. Heh. Wait until I found a statue of her as myself. Picking on the female Voice made me feel like I was bothering my sister in high school all over again.
“Dusk, you don’t happen to have a coin?” Wait. I did get a few coppers as a new player. It wasn’t anything impressive in terms of total, but it was enough to flip. Losing five percent of my money didn’t mean much to me this early in the game.
For a moment, it occurred to me that maybe I shouldn’t feel so comfortable with the Voices. I had spent a lot of time with them. It was hard to think of them as distant creatures that ruled Continue and the continent of [Arcadia] from a great distance. Of course, they had allowed me this neat [Messenger of the Voices] title. A title I would lose if things didn’t progress forward in time. Fourteen hours were left on my timer.
“Alright. A copper coin, sorry Ray. Here’s the proposal. Heads I keep walking up the hill. Tails I go back down and start over. How’s that for a starter?” I flipped the coin and almost lost it over the cliff’s edge. This was too small a platform for such a high arc. Luckily it landed in Ray’s old hat and came up tails.
Predictable.
“What the heck? Dusk? What is this nonsense? Oh, Voices. Now I have to deal, is that what I sound like? Jesus. I’m whining!” I crossed my arms and slowly started my descent. The deal was to walk back down the mountain after all.
“Seriously. This is crazy. Why on earth would they send me out to meet someone up on a mountain anyway? How cliché is this? I bet there will be some silly training montage where I have to haul rocks around.”
On the way back down I managed to pass a grumbling player. He seemed to also be suffering from an inability to hold back on what he was thinking. A single glare was his greeting.
“Hi. I hate this mountain. It’s cold up there. That’s nonsense. How long does it take to get to the top? Do you think it takes a long time?” I unleashed my stream of words at the other player. He shook his head and stomped past me still grumbling.
“Fine. I don’t like you either. Jerk. I’ve got to walk all the way back down…” And so it went for another hour. At least climbing down took less time than the first attempt at going up.
Once at the bottom, I held up the coin again.
“Heads I win, Tails you win! Do what you will.” Up the copper coin went into the air. It came down tails again.
“Are you kidding-” I had a series of hiccups right in the middle of my commentary.
“This is nonsense.” More of them ensued leaving my midsection groaning with pain. The combination of [The Ooze]’s left over debilitations with these two new ones was plain unfair.
�
��Last.” The latest hiccup almost made me screw up completely. “I need.” Hiccup. “I need cold resistance! Heads, me, tails, you!”
The coin went into the air for the third time. It landed in the hat with a plink. Thank the other Voices, all the other Voices besides Ray anyway. Heads, this time I won the coin toss.
“I don’t know why I even said I would walk down here. That was just stupid of me. What was I thinking?” I was upset too, but at least the system rewarded me with a box.
“It’s about time. Now I’ve got to walk all the way back up this stupid mountain.” This time, I was able to keep right on going. Complaints escaped me about nearly everything nearby. I got distracted talking about the state of my shoes, Carver’s cane, the setting sun, and anything else that was visible.
“Look at these footsteps. This must be from that other guy. He’s way faster than I am. I wonder how many times he’s failed to get up this mountain. I bet it was at least a few times. I know I wouldn’t…” My feet traveled the same path as the other player. He had to be at least an hour ahead if not more. After a few hundred feet, the mountain path was covered in snow.
Every five minutes I would get a message about the [Chilled] effect being resisted. The system was happily reminding me that without [Frost Immunity] I would be a meat popsicle somewhere along the path. This climb upwards trailed along the broken passageway between the once whole mountain. There was just enough visibility to look over and see where it fell off into the road below.
Dusk was having the time of his life. He hopped from one bit of snow to another. He seemed completely unaffected by the cold. Every so often he would run over and his tiny scales would tingle the side of my neck with a chill. The sensation quickly passed in light of my immunity.
“I have the power!” A lingering shout rang through the entire passageway.
“Okay, that is kind of funny. I wonder how much further it is until I get to that spot? It can’t be too far now. The quest marker is only an hour or so tops. What do you think, Dusk?” The words showed no signs of slowing. Covering my mouth didn’t work. I just mumbled from the side of my mouth.
Continue Online (Part 2, Made) Page 18
