“Can you watch him for me? I, I’m not sure what will happen to him down there.” I asked.
Shazam nodded then shrugged. Her hand lifted and pointed downward a few times. It was hard to see the gesture over these last few messages that had piled up.
“Yeah. I’ll clear these on the way. Maybe there’s something useful.” I held little hope that anything neat had happened.
Her answering thumb up was the only encouragement I got on the way down the hill.
I muttered about each silly message. There were bonuses to [Brawn] and [Coordination] among other things. Something in here mentioned a new skill being created called [Rage]. It was an apt response to my anger, but something about it felt decidedly high school drama.
That message went away as I neared the end of my pile. The last three made me stop in my descent and stare at the screen.
What in the name of all the Voices was this about? Was this their clever way of rewarding me for trying to play the [Red Imp]? My tube heated up and another message popped in from the Voices. Momentarily the issue of Xin was set aside. I pulled out the message and read what it had to say.
“Goodness,” I muttered. As with any message from the Voices, I actually got a projection of them talking. Vlad’s was an image of him from the shoulders up. His arms were bound up high. Not to mention his words boomed and his pectorals flexed despite being strung up.
Jean wore those smoky clothes and waved her index finger at the other face. There was a bead of sweat on her forehead from who knows what. I felt kind of embarrassed just reading the message.
She could have Spite, or whatever the [Red Imp] was. As long as we stayed well away from each other it would be okay. Honestly, meeting my other character might be beyond weird. Or it might be kind of comical. Hermes versus Spite!
I shook off the momentary amusement and looked at the newest boxes that popped up.
My jaw dropped. For a moment all thoughts of Xin and delivering the messages fell sideways out of my mind. The [Red Imp] hadn’t possessed much at all, but this was it. There was a faint sound as the game plopped items into my inventory.
I had no clue how to utilize two weapons for much of anything. Maybe Shazam could offer me pointers. For now, the second weapon now titled [Morrigu’s Echo], stayed in virtual hammer space.
The two [Seer’s Tear]s were pulled out and looked at. These were certainly worth looking into. Having them might help me get this delivery quest done. If nothing else having [Blink] would make life amazingly easy. Though now I couldn’t fly so that would be dangerous as well.
Their puzzle was simple. Bringing them together produced a slight glow. Pulling them apart dimmed both halves. I tried not to think about the fact that these objects had been inside a [Red Imp]‘s digestive tract along with all the other terrible food Requiem fed me.
Both the [Seer’s Tear]s and their combined form melted in my hand. A warm tingle rippled through my body and arm. Vision blurred for a moment then something displayed.
I read the latest pop-up box in my wall of text. The window started out saying something simple like the message box had with [Howard’s Phylactery] it shifted to something else. In my mind, this was another clue of the Voices interfering or my status of being an [NPC Conspiracy] owner. It might also have to do with the old [Legacy Wish] that had come down from William Carver.
The variant aspect made no sense, but it sounded like the game was giving me a miniature map interface somehow. I tried to focus on activating it to see if using it now would be worthwhile.
Everything swam. It was like the teleportation to my former [Red Imp] body only part of my eyesight seemed to peel away. There were almost two images coming in. One was the battlefield below where two armies were moving about. The other was, I don’t know, something with dots.
Both were trying to line up somehow in my mind and it disoriented me. Goodness. Activating [Sight of Mercari] gave me a headache. A battle zone couldn’t be the best place for practicing that. [Blink] at least had tons of uses.
For a moment, I wondered if the [Seer’s Tear] combination would have provided Requiem the same ability. It seemed more likely that the Voices were warping the original result somehow to match up with my [Messenger of the Voices] title. Part of me did not enjoy being a special little snowflake in this world because it was way out of scope.
I stared at the people below and tried to figure out how to best get through. One shoulder rolled, then the other. I stretched my legs a bit more and got ready to run. In real life, I was a slightly overweight middle aged man who looked more comfortable on a couch.
In Continue Online, I had spent tons of time traveling around and being tutored by Shazam. It was time to put all those skill ups to good use and see what happened.
I started running.
The ARC feedback was incredible as always. I felt the sensation of rushing through the air. It was more intense and natural than being in the [Red Imp] body. I had missed being me in this game and not someone else.
Below me, people shouted orders and pieces of armies clashed. Most people were standard foot soldiers. They were each outfitted a little differently, but there were clear colors and insignias themed throughout.
There was a pack of four wolves busy chasing down stragglers with low health bars. Two giants at least sixty feet high were striding through the army swinging clubs that might have been freshly uprooted. Casters much like TinkerHell tossed spell after spell into any groups that started bunching up. Lights clouded the plain below in greens, reds, blues, and whites.
One of the healers, at least I assumed they healed based on the pure looking nimbus around her, crumbled from a sneak attack. There was a vaguely familiar looking person stabbing twin daggers into the person’s back.
I tried to take it all in while moving briskly. There had to be a path of least resistance. If I skirted the side, the biggest risk would be one of the wandering giants. No, maybe they could be used as a vantage point.
That was the way I went. There wasn’t much time to dawdle and every second passing felt like one more where I was failing Xin. Plus there was something about letting loose that just felt really neat. Flashbacks of some of the new players running wild on a beach in [Haven’s Valley] flickered through my mind.
“Hey!” A castle defender shouted. Both the castle and this guy’s clothes were the same color.
“He’s alone, get him!” The second person shouted.
They moved to intercept me. I didn’t even waste time and applied [Blink] liberally to get by. One cast drained nearly five percent of my mana bar. The small fact that so little energy was used pleased me. Not only had skill ups made it easier, but Hermes as a character had way more mana than the [Red Imp].
“How?!” One of the defenders shouted from behind me. I kept running and looked up towards my next destination.
I leapt and used [Blink] again. There was a two-second delay where I hung in the air before another [Blink] could be used. My third usage ended up stair-stepping through the air onto the giant’s shoulder. The lumpish brute was the best position to try and look over the field around me.
The giant was too dim to notice my weight on its shoulder. I grabbed one ear with absolutely no concern for my safety and tried to eyeball how many [Blink] usages would be needed to get across the remainder of the field.
This must be what Dusk felt like all the time. I laughed and almost felt bad for leaving the sleeping [Messenger’s Pet] behind. My ride’s shoulder bobbed a bit as the giant swung lazily. Below us men in armor were shouting. In the midst of my hanging on a small box popped up. This time, it wasn’t some skill increase or event’s happening while I was on autopilot.
That was clearly my niece sending a message through. Focusing on responding was hard. Luckily, Continue Online had a default message keyboard that could be activated. I did an awkward one hand typing.
My typing wasn’t neat at all. I was busy trying to use the giant creature’s burly head as a shield whi
le riding. The brute slowly meandered in the direction of my quest marker so sitting up here felt safer. Once I got past the smell of unwashed stringy hair and rotten fish breath.
Another series of messages came from my niece. An arrow nearly caught me in the head while I tried to read.
The giant made a violent swing to one side. I hung on to a large swath of hair while trying not to spit out strands that invaded my mouth. My response was badly typed out.
“Damn,” I muttered.
My bucket list did not include teleporting up to the top of a giant and bringing it down. At least this huge thing, with hunched shoulders and a jutting jaw, only vaguely looked human. If putting this creature down would help Beth then so be it. Killing monsters felt far less nerve-wracking than other players.
[Morrigu’s Gift] shifted into a large spear from my weeks as Spite. Being a [Red Imp] and flying around made me far less terrified of gravity’s call. Falling could be negated by using [Blink] correctly.
I put that practice to use and swung out to the spinal column clearly visible on a hunched neck. My tug on the giant’s hair finally got this creature’s attention. We waved around while I braced myself for a rude separation of spinal nerves.
“Oooouhhh.” It said. A “Huurk” followed the first noise as I jabbed [Morrigu’s Gift] in between disks on the neck.
My niece said this guy was on the other team. My niece had just been captured in this stupid war. It may be a video game, nothing in here lasted out there. Yet I was too immersed, too invested. To me, this place was rapidly becoming a second home.
And Beth was in danger. I shook my head and tried to remember that it would be okay. My niece had a life outside the world, where my fiancée didn’t. Failing Xin’s quest recently got me all sorts of conflicted regarding Continue Online’s realism.
The giant fell to its knees and managed to take out a few more soldiers. A [Callibur] caught in the collapse let out a strangled snicker. Moments later it started shaking violently. Crushing the almost horse creature made me feel a little guilt. More so than the Traveler’s passing did. Maybe the giant could have been tilted to fall a different way.
“What happened?!” Someone nearby demanded. A face peered out of crudely made armor.
“Someone killed it! Quick, clear the left!” Another defender ordered those around her.
I moved through indistinct shouting and kept moving onward. The inertia of falling had been mostly canceled out by a last minute jump and [Blink]. Over the course of a few days with the [Red Imp] and flying, doing a few smooth moves like this felt natural.
It took a few more minutes to navigate the field. Most obstacles were easy to overcome with my [Blink] move. The cool down reusing it was only a few seconds. That was more than enough to dodge around the landscape. This ability was clearly broken and I’m sure Jean and Vlad had a hand in bypassing the Voice of Balance on this one.
“Who is that? He’s not wearing colors!” There were defenders bunched together roaming the fields to pick off stragglers.
“Factionless?”
“Might be a ruse, get him!” A third person said.
“Too late.” One of them sounded sad that they couldn’t stab me. I left them far behind by quick use of a [Blink] to get passed them.
Army members on both sides were left behind. I ran when able, thankful that [Light Body] had gone up so much. Speed wise my skills were behind Beth’s, but she may have been using spells or other bonuses. My niece also had at least a year of game time on my two months. Even with the advantages given to me by the Voices overcoming sheer playtime was difficult.
“Stop him!” Someone shouted. [Blink] confused a lot of people. I didn’t even have to draw [Morrigu’s Gift] out. In fact running at high speed with an oversized two-hander would have been awkward.
The castle itself looked broken and burned. There were people inside fighting and weapons clanged constantly. Most of the combat seemed a step down from Requiem’s normal skills. Maybe all these people were new players or not very good.
“Nnnooo…” someone near me groaned. I turned to see what seemed to be a servant severely wounded. Most were dead or dying and I had no skill for healing.
“Oh goodness.” I sighed while reaching over to the fallen servant. Life extinguished from him moments after I checked the wound. He had tried to reach out to another woman who lay across the hall. She was already gone. I passed my hand over the deceased man’s eyes to close them.
Travelers, other people from my world were easier to feel passive about. Keeping it between players meant none of the people of this world got hurt.
This game was too real. Involving the locals was dirty. What if this had been Mylia Jacobs or any of the children from the orphanage? None of them knew me, but I had spent a month together with all sorts of people native to Continue Online. To me, they were more real than most people outside.
It was official. War was stupid. I hadn’t liked conflict in my world, here nothing became muted by distance. All around me were signs of struggle and lives being lost. Digital people, but they still showed emotion.
Why had I looked forward to it? Had Beth’s excitement over this conflict been so contagious that I looked forward to fighting other people? Never again could I support anything that involved locals of Continue Online.
Symbols flashed on my screen, representing the two messages yet to be delivered. They burned with fire signaling a need to get moving. I stood up from the two bodies and kept striding forward.
A few corners later the shouts of people became clear. I came in from up above and ended up on the second floor overlooking a grand room. Heavy fabric curtains hung from ceiling rails then were pulled to the sides in bundles. My feet slowly slid across the floor in an effort to remain silent.
This time, there was a box telling me the stealth attempts were successful. At least I hadn’t alerted an entire camp while falling backward down a ramp twice.
“It’s over! I’ve won at last!” A female yelled excitedly. She sounded high pitched enough to have sucked in a balloon of helium.
“You fool, we’re sisters!” Another one yelled back. Her tone was near tears. I peeked around the corner and ran a quick [Identification] on both of them.
“No! You’re nothing of the sort. Father’s bastard spawn that should never have been born.” The gloating one with a high pitched voice was Cathryn and I guess the leader of the attacking team.
That meant the one in tears on the ground was Katelyn. I made a face trying to commit their names to memory. My lips curled into a frown.
“Why aren’t you killing her!” Cathryn demanded to know.
Someone mumbled back, but they weren’t loud enough for me to hear. Both of them had a few remaining guards. All of them were players from my prompt scan. With them in the way trying to deliver my messages would be awkward.
Twitchy. That was a good word to describe them. If the Travelers in here were like those outside then I would be fighting. I could rush in, shove the letters into both hands with liberal use of [Blink], but there was no guarantee that it would count. Plus the other Travelers might kill me, then one of the princesses, and I would fail this too.
Not this time. Delivering letters meant making sure they didn’t kill each other. I could watch over both groups until they attacked, after that it would turn into a mess.
“I’ll kill you, Katelyn!” Cathryn shouted. I heard a foot stomp down onto the ground. Everyone was violent in this world.
“Why must you do this?” Katelyn answered. Both rows of players seemed nervous.
There might be even more people hiding about watching this high school drama unfold. [Sight of Mercari] should allow me to see dots. Maybe I could find out if anyone else was hiding below.
I triggered the skill again. This time, my mind wasn’t completely caught off guard. My little blue bar signaling how much energy was available to me dropped rapidly.
The dots that appeared across my vision blurred in and out. T
hey weren’t just in front of me. There were pinpoints behind me as well. I could sort of see them without turning around. I shook my head to let the skill go and tried to regain normal perceptions.
Seeing behind me without turning around was a downright weird sensation. I could try for a few more seconds and still have enough to [Blink] around. I managed to hold onto the ability long enough to see names with the dots.
Well, one name that couldn’t be a coincidence. A young man was very badly sneaking up on me.
“Hello, Awesome,” I said.
“Awesome’s my…” The person started to respond automatically.
“Father. Yes, keep it down.” I waved at him. We were lucky the two princesses below were too busy shouting at each other. Even the players had joined in the name calling. Neither side seemed willing to make a move.
“Who are you? Are you with one of the factions?” He said.
“Not exactly,” I muttered while trying to figure out what to do. No, wait. Awesome Jr. being here meant the others might be nearby. There had been four of them together during my Carver period.
Awesome Jr. had been using potions and stuff with some sort of [Mana Sense] ability. SweetPea cast healing spells and spent most of her time huddling in the background. They were sort of dating.
Shadow had immediately wanted to be an assassin. His playstyle would have been far sneakier than Requiem’s. He should be less flashy than Edward from the [Grand World Crossroads (Lerter Region)].
“Is Shadow here?” I asked after the cow mooing teen. Shadow the Fifty-Second.
“Who?” Awesome Jr. asked.
“Please tell me he’s not sneaking up on me trying to be an assassin still.” I kept my voice low and looked over my shoulder. The princesses were yelling, but one of the Traveler’s kept glancing up here.
“Uhhh…”
“Do you make mana potions yet? I could use some.” I waved his volume down. Awesome Jr. seemed to be incapable of remembering how to keep his volume down.
Continue Online (Part 2, Made) Page 37
