Forest (Gaia's Rebirth Book 1)

by Caiden Walker

  “Hey, you earned it. Now if Dean will just stop primping, they can get him hooked up and we can get started.”

  “Yeah, I was beginning to wonder if it was just me that time had slowed down for,” Ash responded.

  Nika gave her another grin and then turned her attention to the group at the panel. Ash felt a lot better when Blake smiled back at her and gave her a thumbs up.

  Looks like Dean was the only holdup. She didn’t think she could fall asleep with all the excitement buzzing through the air, but that’s exactly what she did. The sheer boredom of waiting must have finally gotten to her.

  The hand on her shoulder woke her up to see Tina above her. “Everything okay?”

  “Oh yeah,” Ash said. “Is Dean finally ready to go?”

  “You all are. They are ready to start the countdown if you are.”

  She took a deep breath. “I’ve never been so ready for anything in my life.”

  Chapter Three: So Many Choices

  Three, two, one. And the world went white around her. Nika glanced over but found herself alone. That was as planned. Each of them had to formally choose their race and class and get outfitted for the game itself.

  She found herself squinting in the glare from the stark blindingly white surroundings. They needed to tone that down a bit. Players didn’t need to go into the game with a headache. She made a mental note to purchase a diary as soon as possible so that she could keep notes on changes to be made.

  She glanced down at herself. It looked like she was wearing a long white nightshirt and nothing else. Fine, as long as the assets were covered and away from prying eyes she was fine.

  Nika stepped up to the control panel which activated the system.

  “Hello, Nika Nolan. Have you chosen your preferred race?”

  “Human.”

  “Very well.” There was a slight hum and a long reflective surface appeared before her. Her reflection didn’t differ much from her normal self.

  “Do you wish to make changes to your body’s configurations?”

  That was an added bonus for game players that wanted to look better in-game than they did out of it. Not a concern of hers though. It didn’t affect the game play one bit.

  “No.”

  “Very well.” A slight pause. “Have you chosen your preferred class?”

  Here Nika hesitated ever so slightly before stating, “Amazon.” In their virtual world that was the female fighter class.

  Now her image rippled, and she stared in horror at what looked back at her. “No!”

  “You do not wish the Amazon class?”

  “Control, is there another wardrobe choice for Amazon?” Damn it, she had helped design the wardrobe for all the character classes and she sure as hell had given the Amazon more clothes.

  “I’m sorry, Nika Nolan, but level one Amazons start out with this attire. Additional wardrobe items will be available upon leveling up. You may buy them at the market, or take them from fallen enemies. As long as the item is rated for use by an Amazon of your current rank, you may equip it at that time.”

  Nika gave a huge swallow. This had to be Blake. It just had to be. He had seemed smug this morning, but she had no idea he was capable of doing something like this. Not when he knew how she felt about showing so much skin in public. Hell, she couldn’t even bring herself to wear the negligee he had bought for her—and there was more fabric in that than her current Amazonian outfit.

  At least there was no video feed of the staging area. So no harm done. Let him have his little joke. Not that she wouldn’t make him pay for it later.

  “Control, can I exit the game for a moment, please?”

  “Sorry, Nika Nolan. Exiting the game is not allowed until you have reached level two.”

  “What?” That was new. Obviously, Blake hadn’t stopped with the change of wardrobes. Just what else had he changed without telling her?

  “Exiting the game is not allowed until you have reached level two.”

  Nika’s brain was rushing through her options. Blake’s joke just got a lot more serious. People would see her in this getup as soon as she left this area, and that wasn’t acceptable at all. She was going to kill him.

  “Control, can you show me the wardrobe for the Priestess class?” That could work, as she would be both fighter and healer.

  The surface rippled and her heart sank. It was a slight variation of the same outfit. No additional material added at all.

  “Control, show me the wardrobe for the Mage class.”

  “I’m sorry, Nika Nolan, but that class is taken by another in your party. It has been decided that each member must be a unique class for balance in the game.”

  That son of a bitch!

  As hard as she thought, there just wasn’t a way out of it. She couldn’t get out of the game until she reached level two, which she couldn’t do until she joined the party and entered the game. That, of course, would make her visible not just to her party in-game, but to all those watching the beta test on the plasma screens as well. And the game had only four classes, two of which were taken and two which had wardrobe options from hell.

  For the first time, she started questioning her marriage. A loving husband wouldn’t do this.

  “Nika Nolan, your party members are waiting. Have you chosen a class?”

  She took a deep breath and spat out “Amazon.”

  Her image rippled back to the original outfit. Her assets were barely contained in a very brief leather bikini-type top and, of all things, a freaking thong bikini bottom.

  She wouldn’t just kill Blake. She’d tear him limb from limb. Getting to level two wouldn’t take that long. And then he would pay dearly for putting her through this. It shouldn’t delay the test too long to put this back the way it should be. A half hour with a terminal and she’d have it right again.

  Until then, she closed her eyes, dreading what came next.

  “Nika Nolan, are you ready to join your party?”

  What she was ready to do was cry, but she said yes all the same.

  The white walls, floor, and ceiling around her disappeared, and she found herself standing between Dean and Ash in their full costumes in a small wood paneled room. And she meant full costumes. Apparently, she was the only one Blake had decided to humiliate.

  She heard Dean give a low whistle and saw Ash hurriedly look away, blushing.

  “Okay,” Nika said, “I need to make it clear here and now that this outfit is not my doing. Obviously, my husband thought it would be fun to play with the code for my character classes’ wardrobe. The original outfit was much less revealing I assure you.”

  Ash spared her another quick glance, keeping her gaze at eye level. A courtesy Dean wasn’t giving her.

  “The control wouldn’t let you change?” Ash asked, her voice sounding horrified.

  “No, and it wouldn’t let me back out of the staging area, either. Apparently, Blake has been playing with more than just the wardrobe items. Hopefully, we’ve seen the end of the changes he’s made. But I will warn you that once we reach level two, I’ll be pausing my character and dealing with this issue. It shouldn’t take long.”

  Dean grinned at her. “I don’t see what the issue is,” he said. “You look great!”

  Nika glared at him. “Yes, well, let’s just say being in this outfit is not helping me be at my best.”

  “I can understand that,” Ash said, glancing down at her own wardrobe. “I have a vest over a blouse. Could I give you that to wear until we reach level two?”

  Nika scrunched up her nose. “You don’t know how badly I want to say yes, but if it isn’t an item equipable by the Amazon class, I can’t wear it. Control did say I could add to my wardrobe by buying items at the market or earning them in-game. But I have to be the right level to equip them and they have to be rated for my class.”

  “That bites,” Ash said.

  “Not from where I’m standing it doesn’t,” Dean said, the grin still splitting his face.
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  Ash looked thoughtful. “Are there any game penalties for hurting a party member?”

  Nika laughed. “Not that I’m aware of, but I’ll ask you not to for now. We all need to be at our best to be able to level up quickly.”

  “Okay, so if I’m not going to have to do battle with Ash here,” Dean said, “could I ask where exactly we are? I don’t remember this from the game.”

  Ash glanced around intently. “Your kid brother probably would. It’s the starting room in Travis Town. We’re in the Mayor’s library, right?”

  Nika nodded. “Yes, this room allows new players to get their bearing a bit before starting the game for real. Once we go out that door,” she pointed to the lone door in the far wall, “there is no turning back.”

  “So what are we waiting for?” Dean asked, pushing the door open. “Let’s get going.”

  Nika looked over to Ash who gave her a small smile and a shrug. “I’d like to look around a bit first. I noticed that although we got wardrobes, they didn’t seem to equip us with any weapons. Unless that was just me?”

  “Nope, no weapons yet,” Nika smiled, glancing through the doorway that Dean had just passed through. When he heard the word weapons he tried to turn back, but an NPC was blocking the doorway.

  It only took a couple of minutes to find the small treasure box and sure enough, hidden inside was a single level one weapon for each player class. Ash reached in and took out the small wand.

  “Here is hoping it packs more power than it looks like it does,” she said, grimacing.

  “Probably not,” Nika said. “But don’t worry, they’ll get better as the game progresses. It should be enough for our initial quests.” She took out a bow, probably meant for the ranger as he had chosen the elf race, and laid it to one side. “I’ll put that in my inventory for now and give it to Dean before we engage our first enemy. He can stew a little until then.”

  “Sounds good to me. He needs to realize we are a party for a reason and learn not to charge ahead without knowing everyone is ready.” She was quiet for a second. “That could prove problematic once we’re in the forest.”

  “Getting rebooted back to the save point a few times should teach him how to behave pretty quickly,” Nika said, looking at the two remaining items in the box. One was a short, badly nicked sword, and the other was a hand-held blade.

  That second item puzzled her. She didn’t remember it from the program and it wasn’t a weapon she could easily put a name to. Picking it up, it immediately equipped to her. Wrapping her fingers around the weapon’s handle put them between the handle and the curved blade. Odd choice, but it felt right. She would obviously have to be close up to use it. Not a distance weapon for sure.

  Nika frowned. “I would have liked a little time to show you how the menus and status bars work, but I guess we can take care of that after the game intro.” She motioned toward the open doorway. “Shall we?”

  And they stepped through together.

  Chapter Four: Tutorial

  In the next room was a throng of people rushing about in a flurry. It took a moment to find Dean, deep in conversation with a man of medium height. Pushing their way through the excited crowd, they made their way to him.

  “So these forests began appearing and taking over the town and area. My home is modeled after an ancient log cabin style and Gaia must have seen it as a piece of nature with all the wood and allowed it to remain. The other buildings in town have been obliterated.” The man motioned to the crowd. “As you can see, people have been flocking to my home in droves, but there isn’t room for everyone.”

  “Have you started building shelters for the others?” Nika asked, joining them.

  “Of course,” the man said, obviously the town’s mayor. “We have two crude structures up already for people to use during the night and bad weather. And we are working on more as we speak, but the problem is that the forests are spreading. As far as we can tell the trees gain on our world at a rate of about twenty miles a day in every direction. Soon, the world as we know it will be no more.”

  Another man stepped up to the small group. “And that’s not the worst of it,” he said. “We’ve received word that in the southwest, desert areas are gaining ground as well. There is talk of entire cities being taken over by nothing but sand. Buried in the stuff to be blunt.”

  “Someone has to stop Gaia,” the Mayor said. “And quickly. But for right this instant, the problem is taking care of the people.”

  The second man nodded. “I’m the doctor here and my clinic was one of the many buildings destroyed. Where it stood is now a giant tree. All my supplies were scattered. I need them desperately to care for the sick and wounded.”

  “Are you sure your supplies weren’t just destroyed?” Ash asked.

  The man nodded again. “Yes, at least some of them survived. I have found a few, but need more. They seem to have been scattered through the forest, but they should be fairly close to this area. Please, can you help find them?”

  Dean stretched up to his full height, which Ash suddenly realized was a good four inches taller than his previous five foot ten, and stuck out his chest. “Of course we can,” he said. “We’ll round those supplies up and bring them back here to you.”

  “Thank you,” the Doctor said. “I’ll give you each a packet of medicine for your help. It will help you in times of need.”

  A voice in Ash’s ear said gently. “Your party member has just accepted a quest. Do you wish to join?”

  She glanced over at Nika and saw her nod her head. Ash copied the move, and the voice said. “Good luck with your quest.”

  The three of them made their way outside to find even more people dashing to and fro through what streets remained in the town. Mostly there were trees. Everywhere. Small thin trees, thick tall trees, trees that stood alone, and trees that burst through the roofs of glass and plastic buildings.

  Taking the lead, Nika led them to what appeared to be the town’s limits, or at least where there seemed to be fewer people milling about.

  “Okay,” Nika said, “So we’ve accepted our first quest, but before we go into that forest, we need to make sure everyone is up to speed on how your game system works.”

  Ash heard her, but it took every ounce of willpower she had to pay attention. My God, we are standing in the middle of trees. Honest to God trees, she thought. And looking down, a slow smile swept over her face. There was grass. She brushed against the green with her boot covered foot and the long waves of green moved out of the way and then bounced back to their original position.

  “Ash, are you with us?”

  She ducked her head and looked up to Nika, who was smiling at her. “I’m sorry, I guess I’m just on overload,” she said, motioning around her. “This is amazing, and so very real. I thought the online game was great, but this...”

  Nika looked around her as if seeing their surroundings for the very first time. “It is quite beautiful, isn’t it?” She took a deep breath and smiled. “And I can’t smell a thing, can you?”

  Ash and Dean both took deep breaths too and shook their heads.

  “Not a thing, but man that air is enough to make you giddy, isn’t it?” Dean said.

  Ash giggled. “I don’t know how you all managed to put fresh air into this world, but if you could do it in the real-world, you’d make a fortune.”

  “But a little beyond our powers, I’m afraid. And believe me, the air here is just the beginning. I think you are going to like the forest.” Nika paused. “Well, most of it anyway.”

  Sounded ominous, Ash thought. But, well, there were new creatures out there, so that would be expected.

  “Okay, so Ash and I at least know that if any party member accepts a quest, the other members are asked if they want to join. To join the quest, you simply nod your head.”

  Dean’s face lost a little color. “You mean by accepting the quest, I might have had to go it alone?”

  Nika nodded. “That’s exactly what I
mean. It’s good to remember that we are a party, not simply individual players. You might want to discuss it with us before accepting things in the future.”

  He swallowed. “I’ll do that.”

  “You’ve probably noticed that each of us is wearing two wristbands. Their colors match the online game’s status bars.” She held up her left hand. “Red is your inventory. Right now, we are weak and limited as to what we can carry. Each item we pick up has a weight assigned to it. Once we reach maximum weight, we will not be able to continue without deleting something from our pack. The good news is that Quest Items do not count toward the weight we carry.”

  “Got it,” Ash said, looking down at her own red band.

  Nika held up her right hand next. “The blue and green band is our stats system.” This band was wider and divided in two colors which encircled their wrists. “The colors indicate our current health and mana stats. Or at least the percentage of them. Right now, we are all at full health and mana, little though that may be. As we lose hit points, the green circle will start turning black, and as we use our mana, the blue circle will begin turning white.”

  “How will we know if someone needs our help?” Ash asked. “We might not be able to see their bands.”

  “You’re right, you probably couldn’t,” Nika said. “So whenever battle is initiated, the bands will project a lined image of the stats over the player’s head. That way we can tell at a glance how the rest of the party is doing.”

  “Alrighty then,” Dean said brightly. “Let’s go level up.” Then his face fell as he glanced at Ash’s wand and Nika’s hand blade hanging from their belts. “I don’t suppose there was anything to fit a Ranger in that room?”

  Nika gave him a wry smile as she pulled out the simple short bow and handed it to him. “Next time, you might want to check out where you are before storming into the next great adventure.”

  He hung his hand as he took the bow. “I will, and thanks for covering for me.” He turned the bow over in his hands and frowned. “What about arrows?”

  Nika grinned and handed him a small pack of arrows. “I was wondering if you’d notice. Looks like the starter pack is only a dozen, so use them wisely.”