“So humans fled Earth into space, came through the rift, crashed here two hundred years ago and established several colonies and outposts throughout the world, but you also said daemons and mages can pass through the rift, why were they never on Earth?”
“They were, always, secret, secret worlds, secrets, secrets, secrets,” Bendi stared to stutter. For a moment I was afraid I had said something wrong. Our conversation was teetering on the edge of the abyss. It made the game feel immersive. For a moment I felt like this was home, this was my world, that I had always been a part of this.
Bendi made a gesture with three fingers.With its left hand he raised one claw towards the sky. Its three fingers crossed and the other two on its right hand fully clenched. It moved them forming a circle and than fully stretched its other three fingers outwards like an explosion. It raised its hands and used one finger to form a circle before stretching its fingers out in a gesture that of kindness. It was language. The language of the familiars. A type of sign language. It was retelling the story it had just told me.
I’m not sure how I knew I just did. I asked anyway.
“There are others like you?” I asked.
“Many, the witch made some, mages, others, our souls bind.”
“How do I understand you, it seems to me that you speak perfect English.”
“Common, Eda, language, most everyone speaks, Bendi just learned, not very good, not bad, language common,” it said.
“Are you a boy or a girl?” I asked.
“Not sure what mean?” Bendi said.
“Nevermind,” I smiled wondering if Bendi was reading my mind. There was something innocent about the creature. I was wondering if maybe the witch was the same way. Most of the time when I thought of witches I thought of villains, the bad guys, some kind of boss I would have to fight or watch out for. This witch seemed different. She had sent Bendi to me. She was guiding me. She may be an NPC or she may be a player but unless there was something sinister she had planned she was my guardian in this world.
We approached a clearing as we neared the horizon. There was a cliff.
“This doesn’t look like the right way,” I said.
“Is right, is short. Must be careful, Luyten gone but still pain,” Bendi said sliding further back towards my side. It began crouching down lower to the ground. Bendi said it knew a shorter way… we were just outside Wildwood. I feel like I should have seen this place before but Eda was large. A game the size of a continent. The clearing was covered in small broken fences and ruins that were grown over. I could see goat and sheep like animals frolicking in the quiet pastures and passing around many of the overgrown structures. The trail we had been following stopped and an immense rance stood before us. It was fairy new and in great condition. A humble stable that could have housed several horses was overgrown in lush flowers. There was an abandoned pen that could have once housed chickens, rabbits and other small animals almost hidden in the corner. The farm had a homey feel even though it was abandoned. A combination of tranquil landscape and horrifying isolation. There was a house. Short and shaped like a U. It had two extensions linked by wooden sunscreen structures. I loved the design. It was minimalistic and modern. It had a second floor smaller than the first that looked like a rooftop garden.
“We need to check this out,” I said motioning for us to venture inside the abandoned home. Bendi followed behind me as I crept around the corner. I didn’t draw my rifle as I kept it slung around my side. I held ‘Vesta Anoron’ in my right hand. +5 Sneaking.
Inside the house we found an empty loft. A dinner table with scraps of old food. The food looked like it had been rotting for days. Cockroaches were the same here as they were in the real world. I had to hold my icy stump up against my face to block the smell. The first time my sense of smell didn’t feel dulled. I entered one of the bedrooms. A part of me expected to find some dead bodies. I think that would have been better. On the bed lay a red dress. The waist was narrow, slim fit, A cloth ribbon had been wrapped around it. A pair of platforms lay straight on the ground. Someone had been planning something nice.
“Whatever happened here happened fast, we should leave this place in peace,” I said standing up tall. I looked around the room for signs of some kind of struggle but there was nothing. Hanging on the wall near the backdoor was a shield. A powerful round shield made of ebony steel. It looked like the edges were reinforced with metal studs each hand decorated with inscribed runes. Its center was adorned with symmetrical paintwork and several purple gem stones. It was a shield never meant for war. I couldn’t even pull up any stats on it and that wasn’t just because I wasn’t a paladin.
I took a closer look. There was a crest drawn on the shield. A painting that depicted a regular sized shield with a symmetrical angular shaped top and a symmetrical squared bottom supported by a tiger on either side resting on a snowy landscape. A fairly small crown, or coronet, rests atop the shield, it's a crown of broad tines and two rows. The purple gems decorate the outer sides. On top of the coronet sat a frog-mouth helm, which itself supported the crest, a boat. The coronet and crest are decoratively bound by a roll of fabric, or torse, which carries the main colors used on the shield. The shield itself has 3 colors which are painted in a wavy pattern. 2 suns serve as the emblem, or charge, and a majestic ribbon, positioned just below the supporters, carries the motto, which read: "Strength, prosperity, perseverance.".
“The woman that lived here must have been an artist,” I smiled.
“Ellie would have enjoyed seeing this,” I said aloud. Bendi looked up at me.
“Ellie?” it asked.
“You aren’t reading my mind right now?” I said.
“I am, I don’t see, blurry, out of focus, not understanding,” Bendi said.
“Good, that’s for the best,” I smiled. Ellie was the one thing keeping me sane. I had to survive this place, whatever it showed me, whatever happened.
“You never asked my name,” I said looking at Bendi.
“Names not worthy,” Bendi said.
“I’m Adam,” I smirked.
Two hours later we reached Sanctuary. There was no Nanook. No Julie. I made my way inside crouching and keeping my rifle ready. I prayed that we would find her but I was terrified at the same time. What would I say, what would I do? How would I react if she attacked me? I had never been great around kids especially strange ones that had gone through such traumatizing events. A part of me didn’t want to find her. A part of me prayed that she was gone. Free. Maybe she was back in the real world and she could get the help she needed. Whoever put us here in the first place. They owed her. They owed her big. I didn’t want to think that way. I couldn’t. I was nearly in tears when I found the stasis pod I had started from.
“There is no one else here,” I said. I banged my left arm against the glass shattering it and breaking the icy limb I had created. I could feel the itching, the burning again where my arm and hand should have been. Bendi hid from me. I felt even worst.
“I’m sorry, I just… I really thought she might be here,”
“I know,” Bendi said.
Bendi came out from hiding as I hit my knees.
It put his arm on my shoulder and I wept.
An hour passed. I searched the rest of Sanctuary hoping I could find something. As we neared the starship’s exit I heard a roar. It was the Nanook. It had returned. I held Bendi’s rifle up in front of me. I had repaired my arm. It had several more sharp edges around it. +5 Attack. It was the middle of the day now and the Nanook stood in front of the sun. It was taller than I remembered. Maybe I wasn’t the only one that had leveled up. Could NPCs level up? If I survived this assault I would have to ask Bendi who was already hiding in the bushes. Quick shit.
“Not today, not now, not ever again,” I said starting down my rifle.
10 Pacify. +10 Animal Friend +10 Endurance
The Nanook didn’t attack me though. It dropped from its standing posi
tion to all four and slowly moved away. I could see it more clearly now. The rot and decay that had covered half of its body had begun to disappear. The bear like creature was returning to normal. Where it stood lay the Devil’s Sabre and the other gear I had lost.
When the Nanook disappeared over the horizon back into the forest towards the fire shrine I lowered my guard. Bendi picked up the bandages, food, and water for me along with all the gears and scrap I had collected. Together we set the Devil’s Sabre upright in the ground like a standing cross. I had Bendi give me half of the supplies. I didn’t need them. He was my healer and already I had learned how to craft better medicine anyway. I laid the supplies down next to the cross in a satchel. I used the gears to spell out ‘Julie Luyten, brave and loved’.
She deserved better.
Chapter 10
“Please excuse me, traveler. I'm in need of your assistance.”
“Hello?” I said as a stranger wearing light leather armor approached me. It was a young boy no older than 15 maybe 16.
“I think I'm lost. No, I know I'm lost. Nothing looks familiar here and I mean at all. Oh I should've never left our camp. I know our camp is near a lake and we came into the forest from the North, but I have no idea where North is, I have no idea where anything is. Hero, please, you've got to help me, help me find my way back to camp, I don't want to be in this forest anymore, I want to go home,” he said.
“Where is home?” I asked. I was a little concerned he had called me hero but than again he was young and figured if I was a scavenger, raider, or daemon he would be dead without getting a word in. He took his chances talking to me. Kid had guts.
“Arcadia, I’m a part of Deep Infantry, I’m a healer, I was collecting herbs when I heard a daemon in the woods and ran.”
“Whats your name?” I asked wondering if this was some kind of trap.
“Ethan, if you help me out I don’t have much but I can get you some scrip when we get back to my camp or Arcadia,” he said.
“Ok, Ethan, I’m actually on my way to Arcadia myself to meet the witch and my friend here,” I pointed towards Bendi who was poking out from behind a tree, “knows the way.”
“The witch, she is the one that sent us out here, the daemons were attacking the outskirts of the city along with the farms for days but just this last day they seemed to disappear,” he said.
“You can thank me for that later,” I smiled, “I’ll help you.”
I studied Ethan for a moment and checked his stats. I got a ping that stated that he had joined my party. 3/3 Myself, Bendi, and both Ethan.
Name: Ethan
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Level: 5
Class: Healer / Mage (Apprentice)
HP: 100
Mana: 100
Stamina: 100
Agility: 6
Endurance: 5
Intelligence: 7
Charisma: 7
Luck: 10
Abilities: Natural Herbalist
Skills: Herbalist
Inventory: Herbs, Small Sword, Small Pistol, Grimoire
Reputation: Liked
Alignment: The Witch, Arcadia, The Hub, Deep Infanty
Languages: Common (English)
“Hold on I forgot to ask Bendi if this was alright,” I said.
“Bendi happy to help Ethan, Ethan good, know witch, know help us,” Bendi said standing next to us now in the woods.
“Long time no see,” said Ethan.
“Long time… grow,” said Bendi.
“I haven’t seen Bendi in years, the last time I saw him I was maybe ten, I was sick and my parents brought me to the witch for medicine, she saved my life and ever since I have been studying herbs and healing,” Ethan said.
I smiled, “it will be good to have another healer in our party.”
“I’m more than a healer, I know some martial arts too, I may not be able to take down a daemon or a troll but I can hunt and defend myself, I’v been studying Jothe martial arts since I was 10 and I earned my black belt last season,” he said.
“Jothe, how did you earn another class?” I asked.
“What do you mean? Why can’t we be two things at once?” he said responding to my question with a question of his own. A second class. It made some sense I guess, why limit players - or perhaps players were the only ones limited and NPCs could be more than one thing. Ethan was already teaching me new things. He continued to explain the three types of martial arts taught on Eda. Two of them were offensive while Jothe, the one he studied was defensive.
The three martial arts of Eda are as follows:
Lantirmai is a offensive martial art that focuses on demolishing your opponent through a series of incredibly swift attacks. The primary focus lies on both sidesteps and foot sweeps and it often relies on the agility and strength, or lack thereof, of your opponent. The biggest strength of Lantirmai is its brutality. It's fierce and contains moves illegal in most other arts. By exploiting the sense of balance of your challenger your opponent is likely to exhaust themselves, allowing you to capitalize on your biggest strengths. On the other hand the biggest weakness of Lantirmai is that it often requires the opponent to make the first move. If you're facing an opponent that doesn't you'll have to rely on a different bag of tricks.
Guthwou is a mostly offensive martial art that focuses on beating your opponent through quick and swift strikes and utilizing different centers of gravity. The primary focus lies on both quick movements and throws and it often relies on the endurance and reflexes of the attacker. The biggest strength of Guthwou is an incredible close range power and agility. By capitalizing the shifts in the centers of gravity of both fighters your opponent tends to tire out pretty quickly, which is a huge advantage in and of itself.
On the other hand the biggest weakness of Guthwou is that this is a purely one on one style. When facing multiple opponents your weaknesses may suddenly become very apparent to your opponent.
Jothe is a defensive martial art that focuses on exhausting your opponent with a minimum expenditure of your own energy. The primary focus lies on both open hand techniques and deflection and it often relies on the speed and strength of yourself. The biggest strength of Jothe is being able to keep distance between you and your opponent, but all while still being able to strike. By profiting from the blocks of both fighters your opponent often lacks the knowledge to respond well enough, giving you the opportunity to gain the upper hand. On the other hand the biggest weakness of Jothe is a common feeling of being in control even when you might not be. When you're overconfident you could quickly end up overpowered.
All three were interesting. If I had time I would have to study them more and maybe pick up a few new skills. Guthwou interested me the most.
We had been hiking for several hours and were beginning to near the end of Wildwood and enter the area of Arcadia. Inside the forest we saw many different creatures as we spoke. Some were strange flying birds, others looked like ant-eaters, raccoons, colorful non-venomous snakes and some kind of squid like creature that clung to the side of trees. As we came to the end of our journey Ethan began to slow down.
“Excuse me, I have another favor. The undead have disappeared but hear me out. The outer farms have still been coming under attack by vicious trolls. Once we reach the outskirts it would help Arcadia a lot if we can clear them out. Well… if you can clear them out. Most of them are pretty strong. You don’t have to kill them just let them know they can’t keep destroying our farms,” Ethan said.
A new quest appeared.
‘Trollhunter’
Objective:
Stop the Trolls on the outskirts of Arcadia by either killing them or pacifying them.
“I accept,” I stated aloud. Bendi and Ethan both looked at me funny. I laughed thinking how strange it was that I could see these words and look at things no one else could. They must have thought I was a little crazy. B
etter be careful who I did it around, I wouldn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea. Bendi lead us to the outskirts of Arcadia, “The farms that are under attack are going to be our first priority, after that we’ll get Ethan home and speak to the witch,” I ordered motioning with my one good hand that we move forward.
As we made our way through the woods Ethan told me about Arcadia. It was a small village surrounded by a great wall with less than 100 people (NPCs) and a handful of shops. Most of the people that lived in Arcadia actually lived outside the main village in the outskirts as farmhands. They traded with the hub using ships that sailed across the great ocean as a means of fast travel. That was my answer. I could pay my way onto one of their ships and ferry myself to the hub to find my answers. I could be home in less than 48 hours if I played my cards right.
Chapter 11
Something blunt hit me in the back of my head. I was knocked out. When I awoke Bendi, Ethan, myself were tied up in the back of a large hovering vehicle.
“How do you like the ride scavenger, think you can walk in take what’s ours,” said a voice coming from in front of us. The wind blew in front of my face, dust stinging at my eyes. I tried to move my one arm and realized I was tied up. The icy spike I had been using for my left arm was gone along with all my weapons and my satchel. My legs were wrapped in rope too. I pulled as hard as I could hoping I could break free. Strength - Fail. I even tried to use my Cryomancer powers to freeze the ropes but nothing happened. Skills - Fail.
Glimmer, A Throne of Souls (Convergence Book 1) Page 7
