by Sam Ferguson
“Good luck,” Brian said. He doubted it would make it past the dinos alive. If the tusked boar thing couldn’t beat those two frilled creatures, there was no way a simple horse was making it through. He thought about killing the animal himself for the hide and meat, but that thought reminded him of a trip to the market in Budapest where he had tried horse sausage during an undergrad trip to see the Roman ruins in Hungary. The sausage was quite good, if you could get over the idea of eating a horse, that is. The taste was clean and smoky, though the meat was greasier than he’d expected.
His stomach growled again. Brian let the horse go. He needed to keep his mind off of food for now.
He entered the camp and saw orderly rows of canvas tents. Occasionally there were a couple of wooden buildings also. These would likely be the alchemical workshops, the officers’ quarters, and perhaps the mess hall. Now all he needed to do was find the commander. The most obvious choice was to go to the nearest wooden building.
“Nope, he’s not in the buildings,” Meredith said.
Brian looked up and saw her dark elf form sitting on an observation deck that had been built on the roof. She pointed to a group of three men standing near a tent.
“That’s his tent over there, he’s the one in the middle.”
Brian nodded and turned to go behind the row of tents.
“I should say though, he isn’t part of any official quest line that I’m aware of.”
Brian stopped and glanced back at her. “Wait, you’re telling me this now!?”
“I want to see what happens. This could be associated with other errors, or it could point me to the source of the glitches you’ve already reported. Either way, if you want the translations, then you’ll complete this mission for me so I can see what unfolds,” Meredith said.
Ugh. He walked by a pair of mages in long robes sporting swords at their sides with inquisitive expressions on their faces. Brian gave them a nod and continued along his way. Once he got out of their visual range, he went into sneak mode. He had lost some of his sneak bonus, but the master Morr’Tai armor made up for the difference and still gave him a net boost. He moved up to the tent the commander was standing in front of and pulled out his dagger. He was going to cut an entrance into the back, but he noticed that the icon for his sneak was still showing an open eye. He looked around and didn’t see anyone. Then he looked up and saw Meredith’s line of sight to him was unobscured.
“I wouldn’t do it that way,” she said.
“Oh, and how would you do it?” Brian asked.
“Hey, it isn’t my job to hand feed you everything.”
Brian shook his head. “I can’t sneak if you’re staring at me.”
“So don’t sneak. Or be better at it.”
If I didn’t need those translations... Brian wasn’t sure what he would actually do. He wasn’t really the type to cuss someone out, and he couldn’t hit her in real life since she was a woman... not that he was much of a fighter even if she hadn’t been. The last fight he had been in was in sixth grade, and he’d promptly lost to a kid half his size.
He slipped under the tent flap.
The eye shut and went dark, indicating his sneak was finally successful. The front flaps of the tent were open, allowing him a good view of the three men. They were each looking at some sort of book and pointing to it while speaking in a language he couldn’t understand. From the looks of their pointed ears and their golden hair, they were all Svetli’Tai. Taking the three of them on together was ill advised. Their dots were yellow, but an open confrontation would bring others, and that was something Brian needed to avoid.
An idea came to him as he looked past the trio and saw a campfire. Beyond the fire was another tent. Brian equipped an arrow and took aim at the tent, keeping the flight path low enough that he hoped he could light the arrow. He had seen it in other Terramyr Online games, he just had to get the trajectory right. He drew back on the bowstring, then released his fingers. The string snapped forward.
The sound itself made the eye open slightly, and the trio looked up. The commander put away the book they had been looking at and started to scan the area.
The arrow went through the flames then struck the tent. A second later, flames engulfed the tent. The eye opened wider. Brian put away the bow and pulled out the dagger as he crouched behind a desk inside the commander’s tent.
The two other elves ran toward the fire, but the commander entered his tent and summoned a ball of light in his hand. Brian kept a careful watch, his eyes trained to the ground under the desk to clue him into where the ball of light was. He would creep to the opposite side of the desk from that light, always keeping the object between him and the commander.
The commander gave a cursory search, then grunted and dispelled his light. The elf turned around and started to head toward the tent’s exit, but he only made it halfway before Brian caught him and slashed his throat. As with times before, he gently brought the body down. Instead of looting him right away, Brian grabbed the body and dragged it behind the desk.
He then looted the battlemage and smiled.
[+Ician Barriers of Magic]
[+1 hide hauberk]
[+1 hide trousers]
[+1 Brightblade robes]
[+1 Brightblade ring]
[+1,200 GP]
[+500 XP]
Despite being extremely curious about the book Ician Barriers of Magic, Brian didn’t look at the items in his inventory. He crept to the back of the tent and slipped out.
“On your left,” Meredith called out.
Brian turned to see a battlemage with his sword drawn, but fortunately with his back to Brian. Brian snuck up and stabbed the man in the back, then dropped him. He performed the quick command to take all loot instead of spending time interfacing with the NPC’s inventory.
[+1 hide hauberk]
[+1 hide trousers]
[+1 Brightblade robes]
[+100 XP]
“You have about five seconds before you’ll be caught by the patrols,” Meredith said calmly. “I suggest you sprint for the gates before you have to fight the whole camp.”
Brian didn’t question her. He ran while in sneak mode, and then once he was past the next tent exited sneak mode and sprinted as fast as he could. As he reached the last tent, Meredith sent him a DM.
[You’re beyond smart comms range. Wait there. Guards close—Treshana]
Brian halted and moved close to the tent, dropping into his sneak mode.
[Four more seconds. Guards patrolling the entrance—Treshana]
[Move clockwise around the tent, one guard approaching from the entrance—Treshana.]
Brian started to move the wrong way.
[CLOCKWISE!!—Treshana]
Ugh. He backed up and went clockwise around the tent so that he was almost out on the main path that cut through the middle of the camp.
[Stop there. Guards close on center path—Treshana]
[Two battlemages have found the second mage you killed. They’re splitting up now. Stay put.—Treshana.]
He waited a bit, glancing back over his shoulder.
[K. Guards gone. Go counterclockwise back around the tent and sprint out the entrance—Treshana]
Brian booked it, running back around the tent and out the entrance as fast as his avatar would move. He ran for the outer fence made from metal poles. Above him there was a crackling sound. He looked up to see the dome of energy dissolving, crumbling and cracking apart. By the time he passed the poles, the energy had utterly failed and the poles went dark, their crystals exploding and dropping shards to the ground.
He didn’t stick around to inspect the poles though. He darted up the hill and hid around the back side of a massive ponderosa pine tree for good measure.
[K. I finished quest. Send me the translation.]
[Not yet, still watching—Treshana]
[Meredith, I’m hungry. Come on, I have done as you asked and pushed myself for about twenty-four hours without so much
as a bathroom break. Send me the files so I have something other than the game to focus on while I eat my meal.]
[Oh all right, one sec—Treshana.]
Brian heard shouting from the camp. Leaning back around the tree, he saw several battlemages running out to form some sort of defensive perimeter.
Interesting. Maybe they expect there to be a second wave? Or maybe that’s just their normal protocol after an attack. Brian wasn’t sure what to make of it, but it was intriguing nonetheless.
[Packet sent. Go ahead and download the data file before you log off, then you can use the translations on your laptop outside the game—Treshana.]
[Hurry up and finish your meal though. Seriously, you don’t need to sleep for at least a week while connected to our revolutionary testing system. I need you back here ASAP. This quest has some interesting developments—Treshana]
[But next quest don’t expect me to spoon-feed you directions—Treshana]
Brian shook his head. “Such a pleasant person,” he whispered aloud.
A rumble shook the treetops in the distance. Numerous birds and large, bird-like creatures took to the sky on the other side of the valley. Brian squinted in the darkness to see what was happening. The outer ring of battlemages started shouting again and quickly reformed on the southern side of the camp. Trees fell over, crashing and cracking, echoing across the valley as something gargantuan sped through the forest toward the camp.
The line exploded, showering logs and branches across the southern valley. Something akin to a spinosaur rushed the first line of defense. Only, it wasn’t a spino. This thing had three crocodile-like heads, and its body was at least double the width of a spino’s. The sail atop its back radiated with some sort of purple energy, with little lightning-like bolts crackling as they shot out at some of the battlemages. The creature’s forelegs were larger around than the jathler’s hind legs had been and looked as if they would be able to tear a horse apart. The enormous theropod had a dual tail to counterbalance the bulk of those deadly forearms. Split roughly in the middle, two fully independent tails about fifty feet in length looked like they had the flexibility to whip around and do more than incidental damage. As if that wasn’t enough, both tails had a row of large spikes at the end.
Whatever this was, Brian now understood why camp Brightblade had needed an energy barrier.
The battlemages launched a volley of lightning bolts at the creature’s heads, but its sail blocked the magic spells by creating a purple energy dome around itself, much like the camp’s now broken green dome. The spells hit the purple dome and dissipated harmlessly.
The creature then roared. The purple dome dropped. The tails whipped upward like a scorpion’s. Several spikes launched from each tail. Half a dozen battlemages screamed as they were impaled. The heads then came down, chomping on several battlemages each. The defensive ring broke formation and the battlemages routed.
The creature gave chase, picking them off and eating some while shooting others with its spikes. It smashed two of the metal poles and then reared up to stand on its hind legs, towering over the camp and greedily watching the fleeing prey. It shuffled forward, fully capable of walking on its massive hind legs. It crushed the palisade and splatted NPCs with its tails, sending a few of them cartwheeling through the air while others were obliterated into the ground.
The creature then stopped, and all three heads caught sight of Meredith sitting on the tower.
[I hate you right now—Treshana.]
The monster lunged forward, one of the heads reached out and snapped its jaws around Meredith as it tore through the tower as if it had been made of toothpicks.
“I guess I wasn’t the only one you ended up spoon-feeding tonight, Meredith,” Brian laughed. Unable to fast travel back to House Bob, or any place for that matter while the monster was near, Brian waited until the beast had finished destroying Brightblade and then returned into the southern forest from which it had come. When he was able, Brian fast traveled to House Bob, updated his file, downloaded the translation packet, and logged out for some grub.
11
First Blood
Brian moved quickly to pack up his tools, locking each of the boxes as he went. Just in case. Just in case of what? He laughed and then emitted a small growl under his breath as a playful reprimand to himself. Even though he was inclined to find security measures unnecessary in such a remote location, considering it unlikely that someone would hike through a volcanically unstable rainforest just to steal his precious digging gear, he knew that proper procedures should be followed even in seemingly safe places.
Double-checking that his electronic equipment was properly secured before tossing a blanket over it, Brian grabbed a sweatshirt and slipped it on over his head, followed by a water-proof windbreaker. Even though it was still late summer here in Chile, the temperate rainforest never got warmer than about 65, and the temperature would drop if he needed to trek upslope at all. Under the forest canopy, when it wasn’t raining there was often condensation dripping from the branches.
He did a final check on his pack, ensuring a two-day set of rations, water, first-aid kit, and sleep roll were all accounted for. Most important were his computer with the photographs of the forty-eight stone carvings and Meredith’s computer-generated translations. All he wanted was to get to Barry, report to the professor, and then steal a few hours for himself cuddled up with his notebook and the translated text.
Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he turned to exit his ruka. The traditional Mapuche dwelling was a unique place to spend his summers, and he found himself missing some aspects of the simple lifestyle whenever he got back home. It was definitely nice to have reliable electricity and running water, but he was at a stage of life where roughing it still had some adventurous charm to it.
Just before leaving, he realized that since he would need to bunk overnight at Barry’s camp site in order to work on leveling up his character that night, he would need to bring his own set of equipment to plug in. He quickly grabbed an extension pack that could clip to the underside of his pack frame and slipped his VR headset into it.
Finally on his way and heading west, he glanced up toward the summit of Quetrupillan, almost as a force of habit. He had gotten used to holding the image of the view from the top in his mind each time he started the long walk to either Villarrica or Lanin. From the edge of the glacial caldera you could see the peak of each of the other two stratovolcanoes: the one quiet and snowcapped, the other simmering with dangerous potential as the occasional wisp of smoke streamed from it. He loved that view.
Whenever it was time to trek out to one of their other camps, he would imagine the distance between each volcanic summit and set a timer in his mind to cover the distance from site to site. It would take him the better part of the day to reach Barry’s campsite, threading around volcanic vents that had opened over the last two years, but it felt good to let his real, human limbs stretch and his muscles be active.
He knew he would feel tired by the time he arrived, especially after playing for days straight, inactive and barely moving except to stuff food down his throat and use the latrine, but this felt great. He felt invigorated by the humidity on his skin and noticed the definite difference to his mood as real sunlight fell on his eyes and something besides synthetic fresh air blew in his face. Right now he was thinking how great it would be to undertake the three-peak-trip across the summits of each of the local volcanos.
So far, Brian had never done the whole thing in one go. Martin, a Chilean native post-grad who had been working the site Brian’s first year had offered to take him on the Lanin to Villarrica traverse, raving about how the seven-day trip would be the greatest experience of his life. Brian had turned him down, fearing it would turn into some sort of nerd version of “haze the noob.” After getting to know Martin and finding him to be one of the most sincere, patient guys he’d ever met, Brian had regretted the choice, but the offer wasn’t repeated. He often wondered if the
time could be cut down by cutting a path right through the forest, trying to head straight as the crow flies across the base of Quetrupillan, but he worried about getting lost in the ancient forest without a trail.
As he walked, he noticed with mild surprise how the extended time in the ruka had reset his sensitivity to the smell of the damp earth and the monkey puzzle trees. It was something that always hit him coming back at the beginning of the archaeological season and gradually faded in his awareness as his time on site went by. This was his third year coming out here with the professor. The first year, he had been certain that he would never take any aspect of the experience for granted. He smiled wryly and shook his head. Barry seemed to have arrived the first day already taking everything for granted. No matter where Barry was, some other place had been more fantastic, some other experience more amazing.
The irony of his attitude had especially irked Brian when Barry had been assigned Martin’s old job after Martin had moved on to work with a team at Pachacamac in Peru. The assignment to catalogue the funeral caches discovered buried behind the walls in the Silva caves at Villarrica was an ideal one for any member of the research team, but especially for last year’s newest grad student on site. Uncovered by tectonic activity in the last decade, the series of caves and lava tubes on the southeast face of Villarrica had been one of the first clues that Professor Rojas’s quest to expand his work in the Auracania-Los Rios borderland was worth funding in earnest.
