Metamorphosis Online Complete Series Boxed Set; A Gamelit Fantasy RGP Novel: You Need A Bigger Sword, The New Queen Rises, Reign With Axe & Shield

by Natalie Grey

  “No, it’s good,” Gracie replied. She took the last bite and chewed. “Thee, it’th—thec.” She swallowed. “Sorry. Um, what I mean to say is, this whole time, I hated being this pawn in someone else’s game, you know? Like, how dare he make a plan that dragged bystanders in, and how dare he be lurking around and trying to watch me? But what if he never intended anyone else to get caught up in it? That’s better.”

  “Is it?” Jay looked doubtful. “I mean, you’re still caught up in it.”

  “Yeah, but there’s no malice to it.” Gracie shrugged. “That does make it different to me.”

  “Huh. Okay.” Jay shook his head. “Sorry I didn’t tell you, then.”

  “No, I get why you didn’t. But, yeah, that doesn’t worry me.” Gracie shrugged and tapped her teeth together as she thought. “Huh. Well, I’m glad I told you, though, because it sounds like he didn’t tell you he was doing that.”

  “No,” Jay said slowly. “He didn’t. And that’s odd.”

  “It’s kind of a weird-ass thing to do,” Gracie pointed out. “Maybe he thought you’d tell him it was stalker-y?”

  “It is stalker-y. Malice or not, it’s fucking weird, and I don’t like that he found out where you live.”

  Gracie shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, me either, honestly. I don’t think it’s one of those situations that will get super weird, but…yeah. Look, I need to get more food.”

  “Didn’t I just watch you eat most of a box of pasta?”

  “Maybe.” She gave a shrug. “I’m trying to be ‘healthy and budget-conscious.’” She wiggled her fingers with each word. “But I haven’t figured out how to fill myself up with home-cooked food yet.” She shrugged. “I’m off to raid the kitchen, but I’ll sign on soon.”

  “Okay.” Jay waved and waited for her to cut the call.

  Gracie wandered over to the window and opened the curtains, squinting against the sunlight. There were trucks moving around at the site for the new buildings. She’d gotten so used to the sounds of construction that she barely heard them anymore.

  She opened the sliding door to the porch and leaned against the doorframe, bracing one foot on her other leg.

  Life was chaotic. She’d always known that. It was part of what drew her to statistics—the idea of being able to make the best decision possible and know that it would likely come out right in the long run. As much as she had struggled for independence from her parents and teachers, Gracie had accepted the whims of chance with equanimity.

  Until now.

  Now it felt like she had made one small choice, a choice that should have been next to insignificant, and she’d touched off an avalanche. Beginning that quest had set off a firestorm and made her a leader when that wasn’t what she’d been looking for, and now she had a guild to manage, people working against her, and she was caught in the middle of a fight that had started long ago.

  She’d always known that some things you did had far-reaching consequences, but this was ridiculous.

  She sighed, tracing one of the trucks with her eyes as it trundled across the site. This sucked. It sucked, and it was taking everything she had not to run back to her parents. They’d take her in. She knew they would, that was the worst part. She’d start dating a guy they approved of and get a job in an investment firm or something.

  It was always there, that pressure. Her childhood had made her acutely aware that there was a model for an ideal child and Gracie didn’t fit it. Part of her, she reflected, still believed that it was only a matter of time until she caved and went running home.

  “Why not now?” she asked herself. There was nothing holding her here, was there? No boyfriend, no job, no property.

  But that was the way her parents would see it, she realized, because those were the only things that mattered to them.

  What she had was a good friend to live with, a guild full of people who helped each other, and a job she genuinely liked. Gracie had spent her whole life just rejecting what her parents wanted instead of picking her own path. Now she was making her own choices, and she didn’t have a roadmap for it.

  “It’s just going to be scary as hell,” she said out loud. “But it’s time to stop wondering if you’ll run home. You were never going to do that.”

  With a small smile, she shut the door and went over to put on her VR suit. She was halfway through when she pulled her phone out and typed a message to her mother.

  Hey, I won’t be able to make it to Katie’s engagement party. Let me know where I can send a gift and a card.

  The phone started ringing a moment later, but she ignored the call. She logged in and smiled at the round of greetings.

  “Hey, all. Ready to fuck some people up?”

  Chapter Ten

  Alan was the weak link. Jamie figured that out within a few days. The guild’s main healer was a smart man, very competent, and very helpful, but he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

  After Kevin had mentioned a glitch, Callista must have put the word out that no one was supposed to talk about it. No matter how Jamie pried, he couldn’t get a single one of them to tell him about it, and he had long since run out of casual ways to bring it up.

  But Alan kept slipping up.

  Jamie let the references pass without comment when Callista was there. Sometimes he would interject a question about game mechanics. Sometimes he just wouldn’t say anything. He just couldn’t let on that he knew something was going on.

  He had to pick his time, he told himself. He was anxious; he wanted to be done with this so that his guild could go back to normal. He had to be patient, though.

  And then, a few days in, he had an idea.

  “Anyone up for cooking?” he asked in guild chat. He’d been keeping track of people’s interests, both in-game and in real life. Lakhesis painted Warhammer 40k figurines as a way to make money on the side, Chowder was a surprisingly good golfer, and Freon liked books on WWII military strategy. Callista and Ushanas were the guild’s lore readers, always ready to share what they were learning about the zones they explored and the enemies they fought, and Alan? Alan was into crafting. He’d made it an unofficial goal to level in every profession there was in the game, and Jamie had taken note of that.

  It was almost too easy. Everyone else made noncommittal noises, but Alan was intrigued.

  “I haven’t even started that one,” he said. “So, if you’re cool with me taking some time with the low levels…”

  “I haven’t started either.” Jamie kept his voice innocent. “I heard it was good for buffs, like in WoW?”

  “Yeah,” Alan said enthusiastically. “Let’s go get some supplies. I’ve got plenty of gold. Meet you in Kithara?”

  “I did some research, actually,” Jamie said. “In Yantes, there’s a vendor who has all the supplies, and there’s a bunch of fishing we could do.” There were auctioneers and vendors in Kithara, of course, but if they were in Yantes, just the two of them, it would be easier to get Alan speaking on a private channel.

  “Even better. I’ll meet you there.”

  No one else seemed to notice. “Anyone want to try out combos?” Anders asked. This guild was really obsessed with playing with buffs and debuffs, as far as Jamie could tell. Far from practicing rotations and timing, they seemed to be spending most of their time figuring out who should stand next to whom and which buffs should be activated at the same times.

  The more he saw, the more he was beginning to think their run had just been luck. That was going to be a hard sell to his bosses and to Thad, but if it was luck, it would be clear pretty soon—when Callista failed to repeat her success.

  Alan ported into Yantes a few minutes later and waved at Jamie. His character was a human, short and slender, with long, golden hair that swirled around her in a magical breeze. She reminded Jamie of his own main, the healer he played for Demon Syndicate.

  “Okay, I can go buy supplies,” Alan said. His voice came through sounding female.

  “I had an idea,” Jamie
said. Now that he was playing a part, everything seemed like an opportunity. “You wanted to fish, too, right? So if you do some fishing, we can get you spices for those recipes, and I’ll work on the non-fishing ones. That way, someone in the guild will be able to make all of the recipes, you know?”

  “That sounds good,” Alan said. “God, it’s going to be good having you around. No one else appreciates the crafting. Well, maybe Gracie—Callista, I mean.”

  “Oh?” Jamie tried to stay calm. Alan was slipping up, and he had to act like he wasn’t noticing or the other healer might get careful again. He shoved away a stab of guilt at the idea that Alan wanted to keep him around. As the guild’s main healer, Alan had much more of an incentive to want Jamie to go away.

  But he didn’t seem to operate that way. He’d been eager to show Jamie all of the spell rotations he used and tricks he knew, some of which had actually been useful. Alan didn’t seem to be worried that Jamie would take his spot. He was genuinely happy instead when Jamie nailed a combo or saved everyone’s butts on a bad pull.

  It both weirded Jamie out and made him feel guilty. This guild was strange.

  “You said you did Dungeons & Dragons, right?” Alan asked, using the private channel as he bought supplies from the vendor.

  “Shadowrun, actually,” Jamie said. “Why?”

  “Callista does a bunch of that stuff,” Alan said. “I haven’t done D&D in years, or any of that stuff, but you should definitely talk to her about it.”

  “Uh-huh.” Talking directly to Callista was about the last thing he wanted to do right now. “How’d you start playing Metamorphosis?” People liked talking about themselves. If he could just get Alan rambling away, he’d be golden.

  “My brother and I had been playing WoW for a few years,” Alan explained. “We started back when…well, not important. Our parents haven’t been great lately.”

  “I’m sorry.” Jamie’s parents were mostly just bemused about his job, but a few people in Demon Syndicate had mentioned that their families were outright hostile about the whole thing. “People get weird about video games.”

  “It wasn’t that, so much as…long story. Basically, we’re both huge disappointments.” Alan’s voice was forcedly cheerful. “So that’s Kevin. Fys, I mean.”

  “Oh. Cool.” Jamie hadn’t known that. It was kind of difficult to picture the tiny pink-haired Piskie summoner and the golden-haired human woman as brothers, but Metamorphosis was good for playing mind tricks on people. “Sorry your parents are being jerks,” he added.

  “Eh, you know how it is.” Alan still sounded sad, but he was clearly trying to avoid talking about it. “What about you? You said you’d been playing WoW and stuff.”

  “Yeah, WoW and a bunch of first-person shooters.” Jamie shrugged. “All the standard stuff. Did some HotS, some LoL, some Destiny. Never really got into any of it. Did raiding for a while in WoW, but that’s kind of trailed off, you know?”

  “Any FFXIV?” Alan appeared again with a fishing rod strapped to his character’s back. It was a good thing they had magical inventory, Jamie thought, or the tiny healer would be weighted down with bags and bags of flour, spices, and eggs. He opened a trading window as soon as he was close enough and started transferring the different ingredients. “I got us a cooking brazier, too.”

  “Awesome, thanks.” Jamie took the trade and resisted the urge to transfer money back. This character was broke, but his main definitely wasn’t, and he felt guilty taking Alan’s gold.

  He needed to stop feeling guilty ASAP. This man wasn’t his friend.

  “And no,” he added. “I played FFXI, and that just wasn’t a good one. Before they made some changes, I mean.”

  “I thought XIV was the one they changed.”

  “No. I mean, they totally rebooted that one. XI they just…smoothed down some of the rough edges. But I was gone by then. I heard XIV was good, but I’d heard about Metamorphosis and wanted to give that a shot.”

  “Sure.” Alan cast his line into the nearby lake. “This is a bit different, actually holding your hands out like you have a fishing line. I’m guessing the days of hours-long fishing marathons are done. My arms are gonna be tired.”

  Jamie laughed. He brought up his crafting menu and checked the quests he’d gotten. Five flatbreads was his first quest, and he looked at the icons curiously. Unlike in other MMORPGs, you actually took an active role in crafting. Jamie hadn’t been one of the crafters in Demon Syndicate, where everyone split up responsibilities so that no time was wasted.

  He had to admit, he was enjoying playing around with the game a little bit.

  Smiling, he made the stirring motion to mix the dough, then the kneading motion a few times, and then he placed the dough over the brazier. The cooking surface was magical, a griddle he could only half-see, and it apparently cooked each flatbread perfectly. A few moments later, his inventory icon flared and the flatbread disappeared.

  This was kind of fun.

  Jamie kept working, mixing the flatbreads and running back to turn in various quests. Yantes was billed as a town that appreciated fine foods, and he and Alan began sharing the funnier quest texts they got, from catering crises to snooty bakers.

  “Oh, fuck you,” Jamie exclaimed, laughing.

  “What?” Alan asked. Jamie could just see him on the bridge from here. There was a splash of water from the lake, and Alan’s character leaned back, trying to hook a fish that was desperately trying to get away. “No, no, no, no, no! Stay on the line you piece of crap! Nooooo, why? Anyway, what happened with you?”

  “Oh, just the same fucking baker who’s always getting uppity. ‘Well, these croissants are passable.’ Shut up, dude. You’re the one who keeps needing me to cook extra for your business.” Jamie arrived back at the brazier and shook his fist. “I should take over that business.”

  “Maybe you should,” Alan said, laughing. “Maybe that’s the end of the quest.”

  “I would love that.” Jamie took out the ingredients for his next pastry. “I cannot get this freaking motion right. What even is a kougin aman? That’s not a real thing, right?”

  “Oh, no, those are real. They’re delicious, too. All kinda looped at the edges?” Alan caught his latest fish and turned around to watch Jamie. “Okay, so, like this.” His character gestured. “You aren’t pulling out at the corners, you’re pinching at the center, two ways, and then it puffs out in four corners.”

  “Oh.” Jamie tried again. This time, he didn’t lose his ingredients. “Thanks, I was about to give up and ask if we could trade skills.”

  Alan laughed. “My arms are killing me, so I wouldn’t object.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how the melee fighters do it. Callista and Anders are always just panting like crazy by the end of the big fights. You should have seen the time—”

  Jamie hesitated, but he sensed that this was a time when he should push a little. Ignoring a squirm of guilt, he said, “Is this the glitch thing? I know I’m not supposed to know about it, but—”

  “Nah, it’s…” Alan sighed. “I mean, it’s not really a secret, it’s just this weird thing that tends to happen with Gracie. Gah, sorry, Callista. You know who I mean.”

  “Yeah.” He also knew that he didn’t want to think of her as Gracie. Finding out about Alan’s and Kevin’s parents had made all of this a bit more real than he could handle. He didn’t want to be thinking about them like they were friends.

  “It’s just…well, sometimes, dungeons don’t quite act the normal way where she’s concerned,” Alan said carefully.

  “Like…you said ‘glitching?’”

  Alan wavered.

  “You don’t have to tell me, man,” Jamie said. The surprising part was, he meant it. He didn’t want to get Alan in trouble. He didn’t want any of this anymore.

  And that genuine reluctance was probably why Alan broke. “It’s fine. I’m sure it’s fine. I mean, we’re just trying not to make a big thing of it, okay?”

  “Sur
e, yeah.” Actually, you know what? Don’t tell me. The words were on the tip of his tongue. He wanted to log out. He wanted to just go back to Demon Syndicate and say he hadn’t seen anything.

  But he stayed silent. He let Alan dig his own grave and spill the information he wasn’t supposed to tell.

  “You know that temple overlooking Kithara?” Alan asked. “The old, ruined one with the ice demon in charge of everything?”

  “Yeah,” Jamie said cautiously. He’d given up paying attention to his kougin aman and gave a sudden yelp as they burst into flames. “Crap. Sorry. Uh…” Use this. Go away. Get more supplies. “You were saying?” Dammit.

  “We didn’t fight the ice demon,” Alan explained. “We went there, and we got through all the beginning mobs, right? And then there was this totally random other boss.”

  “What? That’s crazy. So, like, a boss from another dungeon or something?”

  “Noooo?” Alan said cautiously. “We looked, and we couldn’t find any reference to this guy anywhere. Like, he’s not a part of the game or something. I mean, he is, clearly. But he wasn’t the boss we were supposed to fight there, and there’s no mention on the forums that anyone else has run into him.”

  “That’s fucking weird.” Jamie shook his head. It was odd, and it was clearly an aberration, but he couldn’t see how it related to the rest of the issues. “Wait, you said it tended to happen?”

  “Yeah, it’s happened twice more since then,” Alan said. “In the lava pit- smuggler area thing, and then in the underground altar-to-the-gods dungeon. Both times we got totally different dungeons, and after the third one, she was in the Top 10.”

  Jamie stopped dead. “Oh!”

  The silence went on for too long. He shouldn’t have pretended to be interested in that. “Isn’t the Top 10 for people in big guilds?” he asked, scrambling to recover.

  He could feel Alan’s relief. “Theoretically, yeah? I don’t know. It’s been weird. She filed a report with the GMs and all. I guess I don’t know what happened with it.”

  “Huh.” Jamie moved the conversation onward, his mind racing. Alan clearly didn’t want to talk about this anymore, and Jamie had to keep thinking.