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

  Jamie nodded. “It was in everyone’s interest,” he said. It was the sort of thing you were supposed to say, right? But no one seemed to think very well of it. Frank grimaced—although he could be grimacing at anything, Jamie supposed—and the two Dragon Soul founders did little more than nod.

  “After this is over, I’d be interested in your take on the different guild structures,” Dan said. “But that’s not important right now. What is important is that we need Callista to run Yesuan’s Haunt, and you need to go along. She has to wipe on that run. Just once; that’s all we need.”

  Jamie frowned. “What?” This didn’t seem like much to ask, in his opinion. How often did guilds wipe on dungeon runs, after all? It was obscenely common when learning new content.

  “We have reason to believe—” Dhruv began, but Dan cut in.

  “That’s all,” he said simply. Of the two, he was clearly the business partner. “As you’re thinking, this isn’t an unusual thing to have happen. We simply need to make sure that it will. We need you on the run, and we need you to see if you can finagle them into taking an unusual setup.”

  Jamie frowned.

  “As you’ve heard and seen,” Dan said patiently, “sometimes Callista’s team encounters unusual bosses. It would make sense to believe that the same would happen this time, so it shouldn’t be difficult to have her stack the team differently.”

  “What if I stack it the wrong way?” Jamie said impatiently.

  “You won’t. As far as we can tell, all she’ll encounter this time is the normal set of bosses.” Dan smiled tightly.

  Jamie considered this for a long moment. “She’s won in situations you thought she’d wipe in before,” he pointed out. “How can you be sure?”

  “We can’t be. That’s why we need you to go.” Dan’s voice sounded a little strained now. “We’re forcing through a patch later in the day that will make the fights more difficult. Just try to keep people alive until you get to the final boss, and then let them wipe.”

  Jamie nodded silently.

  “Do you have concerns?” It was Dhruv who spoke this time. He was looking intently at Jamie.

  “Not specifically,” Jamie said. He forced a smile. “We’re close to figuring this out, right? Then it will be over?”

  “Yes,” Dan confirmed. “You can go back to your team. We have no specific quarrel with any member of her team, so if there are people you’ve enjoyed playing with, I’m sure they could apply to be part of Demon Syndicate.”

  Thad’s face got almost purple at the thought. Jamie looked away hastily and nodded.

  “I’ll get that going,” he said. “You’ll want a heads-up when we go in, right?”

  “Sure,” Dan said. “As always, Jamie, thank you for your help.” His voice was dry. “We couldn’t have done this without all of you.”

  He ended the call, and Jamie looked at Thad.

  “It’s accepted to send moles into rival guilds, isn’t it?” Evan asked worriedly. Beside him, Frank didn’t seem to have noticed that the call had ended.

  “Yes,” Thad said impatiently. “They’re just giving us shit because we went over their heads to do it. They screwed us over, though, so they owe us. They can’t throw too big a tantrum.” He stood and nodded to Jamie. “The sooner you do this, the sooner it’s all over.”

  “Yeah,” Jamie said, standing up as well. “Could be back to normal life by tomorrow. I like that idea.” He headed off with a two-finger salute to Thad and a nod to Evan.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  It wasn’t just Alex who wasn’t home or online. Everyone, from Alan to Dathok, seemed to have something or other going on today. Even Jay was offline, exhausted from another late night of scouting at Night’s Edge. What secrets still remained in that zone, Gracie wasn’t sure, but she was now dreaming of the alleys and buildings, seeing their imprints behind her eyes.

  She’d planned the Yesuan’s Haunt run alone, and now, with no one around to talk to, she was making her way through a particularly gnarly section of the Ocru homeland. The Ocru and the Piskies, it turned out, had managed to stay intertwined within one another’s lore even after the races were scattered. The Piskies had a bunch of statues to the Ocru, whom they had believed were gods, and the Ocru seemed to think the Piskies were some sort of cross between a house spirit and the protective aegis of their ancestors.

  As a result, this zone was dotted with knee-high statues and absurdly tiny “houses” that had been constructed for the “spirits.”

  She really, really wanted Kevin to come out here so she could take screenshots of his character in the tiny houses. So far, he was claiming that it would be too big an assault on his dignity, an assertion Gracie did not believe in the slightest.

  Anyone that concerned about their dignity was not going to be playing a two-foot-tall character, almost half the height of which was a bright pink hairdo.

  She’d get him out here one of these days.

  In the meantime, she was going to kill some lizard people. They’d taken over these ruins since the Ocru began returning to Kithara, and the Ocru had asked passing adventurers for help.

  Gracie was only too happy to oblige.

  A hiss and a rattle let her know that one of the lizard people was nearby, and she spun and ducked in one fluid motion, barely avoiding a spear that went over her head. There was a stab of adrenaline in her stomach, the instinctive reaction that told her that someone was trying to stab her with a goddamned spear and she needed to get the hell out of the way.

  The lizard person hissed at her again, and Gracie launched out of her crouch without a pause. She smiled as she felt the power in her legs now. When she was in high school, everything had been focused on how thin she was or whether she was showing too much skin, or too little.

  Never in her life had she focused on how strong she was, and it felt amazing. She’d been playing around with the idea of trying to figure out how to lift weights so she could have strong arms to match her newly-strong legs, but she couldn’t imagine admitting to a personal trainer that her leg strength was from playing video games.

  She felt her phone buzz as she leveled a flurry of punches at the lizard’s midsection, and then followed them up with some knee strikes and kicks. By the end of the fight, she was panting, and she’d forgotten about the phone—until it buzzed again. Gracie hurriedly checked the number on the screen, frowning when she saw Kevin’s info.

  She seriously considered not answering it. He was probably just checking in on her after her call the other day, and she wasn’t in a much better place right now. Part of her was embarrassed about leaning on anyone, ever, and she felt guilty for calling Kevin that day, even though she knew he hadn’t minded.

  Still…

  She sighed, logged out hurriedly, and called him back.

  “Hey, what’s up?” She tried to keep her voice light.

  “Did you listen to my message?”

  “No, I was in the game.”

  “Ah.” Kevin sounded like he was frowning. “Um, I was supposed to pass a phone number on to you. Someone contacted Alan and told him to pass the number to me to pass to you. I just… I don’t know who it is, and neither does he.”

  Gracie dropped her helmet, resisting the urge to kick it across the room. The lizard people should be glad she wasn’t logged in anymore because she’d be tearing them a new one if she was. “Son of—that horse-buggered, spineless, petty-as-fuck, dickless—”

  “Uh…do you mind telling me who you’re talking about?” Kevin was laughing now. “I know I shouldn’t laugh. I do. You’re clearly angry, but I have to know who’s got you this upset.”

  “Harry,” Gracie said through gritted teeth. “The guy who came up with the idea for Metamorphosis Online. He was supposed to be the one with the shiny gold armor and the ranking, and now he’s trying to intimidate me into giving it all up so he can run the game as some sort of god-emperor.”

  “Oh, fuck that,” Kevin said promptly. “Gracie for god-emp
ress or no dice. Let me know how many votes you need.”

  That, at least, made her laugh. She headed over to the couch, still panting, and flopped down.

  “But I don’t know why it would be him,” Kevin said after a moment.

  Gracie frowned up at the ceiling. “Actually, that’s a good point. Why would he go through all that trouble? He knows where I live, so I’m sure he could get my number. Why…” She sighed. “Did you or Alan try calling it?”

  “Yes, but whoever it was, they didn’t pick up.” He was regretful. “I seriously thought about not telling you, but I thought you’d want to know.”

  Gracie nodded thoughtfully, then realized he couldn’t see that. “No, that was a good call, don’t worry. Okay. I’ll call and…see what happens, I guess. You’ll text it to me?”

  “I suppose.” Kevin sounded unsure now. “Gracie, are you sure this is safe? Is anyone home with you?”

  Gracie started laughing. “What, do you think it’s something like The Ring, and a demon is going to climb out of my phone?”

  “No. I’m not crazy, but if people are showing up at your house…”

  “I’ll call you once I know who it is,” Gracie promised. “Look, I’ll text first, okay? Then I can keep you updated at the same time.”

  “Thanks. Be safe.” He ended the call.

  Gracie sighed as she waited for his text to come in, then sent a brief text to the new number, frowning.

  Who is this?

  The answer came back almost at once. Is this Callista?

  Yes. She was too angry to lie. Who the hell is this?

  It’s Caspian. There was a pause while the person texted, deleted what they were typing, then repeated the whole exercise. Finally, a brief message appeared.

  We need to talk.

  Gracie stared at the far wall, her heart pounding. She didn’t doubt that this was Caspian, but she hadn’t wanted this confrontation today. She hadn’t wanted to have this out.

  I’m not sure what we have to talk about, she texted back finally.

  Can I Skype you? Caspian asked. Face to face so you can see I’m being honest. I have to tell you something. There was a pause, and then he added, as if worried she wouldn’t agree, It’s about your quest. Dragon Soul wants you to fail it.

  Gracie frowned down at the screen. She dashed off a quick message to Kevin as she thought, and then she said, Fine. I’ll send you my screen name.

  A few minutes later, she was sitting cross-legged on the couch, scowling as Caspian started the call.

  To her surprise, when he answered, he was in his mid-twenties, and well put-together. He saw her skepticism.

  “All the competitive gaming teams have to work out like crazy,” he said. “We have very strict rules—curfews, almost no alcohol, and stuff like that. They tried cutting out caffeine once, but there was nearly a riot. Some of the guys are unbearable without it.”

  Gracie laughed despite herself. That was the thing about Caspian—even in the game, you wanted to like him. She wiped the smile off her face and stared him down. “You’re from Demon Syndicate.”

  Well, the cat was out of the bag now. She’d never been very good at lying and playing games within games.

  His eyebrows shot up. “You knew? Wait, how did you know? How long have you known?”

  At least he didn't deny it.

  “For a bit,” Gracie said tightly. She tried to bite back the words, but they came out anyway. “You know what, man? Fuck you for doing that. Alan spent a whole bunch of time teaching you. We all tried to help you. And all we were doing was minding our own business. We didn’t need that shit.”

  Caspian was quiet. He had looked around furtively as her voice rose, but now he shook his head.

  “You weren’t just minding your own business, though. You were going for the month-first. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have, but you knew other people wanted it. You knew you were competing. This is what happens.”

  “Nice way to absolve yourself,” Gracie spat back. “Someone was going to do it, so it might as well be you?”

  “No!” he exploded finally. “I didn’t want to! I wanted someone else to handle it. I just wanted you to leave my team the hell alone so things could go back to normal. I thought I was going to find out you had some crazy trick we could copy, and we’d steal it and be back on top. That was all! That was why I was there.”

  Gracie sat back, frowning.

  “And then…” Caspian sighed. “Look, I didn’t want to like you guys. You’re casuals, and you just waltzed in and took something we worked really hard for.”

  Now Gracie could see where he was going. She gave a small smile, though it was bitter. “So you didn’t want to sell us out,” she said, “and you want my forgiveness. Well, shove it up your ass.”

  “No.” Caspian shook his head. “For fuck’s sake, I’m trying to help you. They want you to fail this quest. They’re tweaking the game tonight so Yesuan’s Haunt will be a harder run. They think you’ll see only the normal bosses, and they want me to talk you into taking some weird group configuration with you. They literally said, ‘any weird configuration.’”

  Gracie frowned at him. “You’re not messing with me? You mean it?”

  “I mean it.” He shook his head. “I thought I was going to go along with it. I told myself that was why I was there. But…” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’ve had more fun playing the game with you guys than I ever did before. Honestly. It’s just fun with you. And Alan did try to help me. You know how rare that is? Everyone was so nice. It…well, it was different.”

  Gracie considered this, then she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Send me what you can,” she said. “Over text, however you can. Tell me their plans.”

  “And…” Caspian looked uncertain.

  “And I’ll think hard about whether I want to trust you,” Gracie said bluntly, reaching out to finish the call.

  Her phone buzzed again and she glanced at it, doing a double take.

  That quest was never meant to be yours, and you will not win. I created this world. Do you truly think you can beat me?

  Gracie blinked for a moment. The message wasn’t signed, but it hardly needed a signature. There was only one person who would be arrogant enough to send it—not to mention so arrogant that he wouldn’t realize he was giving Gracie the final push she needed to claim this place in the world of Metamorphosis.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  When Alex arrived home, Gracie was standing on the balcony, contemplatively eating Oreos two at a time.

  Three at a time had turned out to be too messy.

  “Hey,” Alex said from the doorway.

  “Hey.” Gracie looked over her shoulder with a smile. “Heading out to dinner with Sydney?” She might feel lonely now that Alex was out and about so much, but when she saw how happy he was, she couldn’t help but be glad. She’d seen the hint of sadness and loneliness in him—it was part of why she’d given Sydney his number—but she hadn’t realized just how happy Alex was now that he had a crush.

  It was good to see.

  To her surprise, though, he grinned and held up a bag of takeout from her favorite Vietnamese restaurant. “Nope. We’ve spent most of the past week together, and we agreed it was time to remind our friends that we still love them.”

  “Awww.” Gracie clasped her hands over her heart dramatically to cover the fact that she felt a bit misty-eyed at this revelation. “Well, aren’t you guys sweet?”

  “We thought so,” Alex said smugly.

  “Already using ‘we,’ are you? You’re going to be a disgustingly cute couple, I can just tell.” Gracie followed him into the kitchen, grinning.

  Alex grabbed plates and silverware without saying anything, but there was a smile playing around his mouth, and when he put the plates on the table, he said quietly, “I hope so.”

  “Awwww!” Grace clutched at her heart again. “Look at that face! You’re smitten! I am dying of cute. Holy cr
ap, man.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Alex dumped some noodles onto his plate, trying unsuccessfully to glare at her. “Don’t make a big deal of it.”

  “Oh, I am totally gonna make a big deal of it. You’re so happy!” Gracie spooned some noodles onto her own plate. “For the first time in the history of ever for anyone, dipping their toe back into dating isn’t a drama-filled clusterfuck. You won the jackpot, you know.”

  “I think so.” Alex ate a bite of chicken. “Now I just have to get a job where I’m not beholden to self-important assholes.”

  “If you find out what kind of job that is, you tell me.” Gracie stabbed her fork in his direction. “We could make good money selling that secret.”

  “Hmmm.” Alex contemplated this. “All right, so how have you been?”

  “What? I don’t get to know all the lovey-dovey details?” Gracie got up and went to get them glasses of water.

  “Not even a little bit,” Alex called after her.

  “Just my luck that you’d be all gentlemanly about this,” she grumbled as she filled her glass. “I can’t even disapprove without being a jerk. Bah. Well, fine.” She came back and plunked the two glasses down. “I don’t have any good news on my end, though. Shit hit the fan and it’s a real bummer, so…”

  Alex put his fork down. “Wait, what?”

  “I, uh…” Gracie bit her lip. She was now very aware of just how much she hadn’t told Alex. “Things went a little crazy.”

  She briefed Alex on the events of the past couple of weeks, watching as his eyes widened and his brows rose incredulously. By the time she was done, his jaw was hanging open, and he’d had a bite of chicken held up to it for the past two minutes. He dumped it off his fork and stared at her.

  “So, uh…” He looked away for a moment, tapping the fork on his plate. “Uh…hmm. Holy shit.”

  “Yeah.” Gracie started shoveling food into her mouth. She’d been talking for a while, and she had therefore been neglecting the amazing food Alex had brought home. It turned out that almost an entire package of Oreos was not a filling snack.