“Just one animal, every other day?” Jace asked, perplexed. “And they only eat part of it?”
Thom and Greta nodded.
That didn’t seem like a pack of wolves. Maybe a lone wolf but he’d think a pack would kill more or at least finish the entire animal. And every other day seemed too consistent. Then again, game logic tried to mirror the real world, but sometimes they took artistic license. This could be one of those times.
“Do you think you can do something?” asked Greta.
Greta of Sinking Springs has offered your group the quest, “Wolves By Night”
Reward (per member): 5 gold, +5 faction with Residents of Sinking Springs, +50 faction with Thom, +50 faction with Greta.
Accept quest? (Yes or No)
Charlena accepted the quest a second before he had the chance. “We’ll do it!”
Thom and Greta both looked relieved and thanked them profusely before going back to their chores.
“Do you think it’s a wolf?” asked Charlena after they were out of earshot.
Jace shrugged. “I don’t know. Does seem like the behavior of a wolf or even a pack of wolves. Knowing the twists the devs love to throw into quests, it would surprise me if it were a wolf.”
“I don’t think so either,” she agreed. “Why only one animal a night?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “But I doubt this quest will be what we expect.”
She frowned. “And it only comes at night. How late will I have to stay up?”
“I don’t know. But generally, the quests and other things are designed around the prime play hours so I doubt it will be later than 10 p.m.”
She bit her lip. “That’s late for me. Plus, I have some homework I have to finish up for class. I should log out now and log back in around 9:30. How does that sound?”
Jace nodded. “That sounds good. In the meantime, I’ll see if any of the other farms have quests.”
“Great!” she told him and backed away. “See you in a few hours.”
With that, her character faded away as she logged out. Jace looked down at Luna, who was staring off at the lambs in the farmer’s pin. “I guess it’s just you and me for now.”
“Yes,” she said.
Jace had run back to town to eat a meal so he wouldn’t get the Hungry debuff. Despite her earlier meal of rat, Luna once again stole one of his fish fillets. Afterwards, he went to every farm and received as many quests as they would give him. Interestingly, he received an almost identical quest from a farmer to the west who had a similar issue with someone attacking his life stock - but on alternate nights. He spent the rest of the time going back and forth between the two farms, asking more questions. By time Charlena logged in, he had a lot to tell her.
“You’re right,” she said as he finished explaining the other similar quest and his theory. “Something between the south farm and the west farm is attacking both and it’s alternating farms.”
“And I checked with the other farms,” he told her. “Only those two are getting attacks.”
“It couldn’t be… like… a werewolf could it?” she asked. He heard both excitement and fear in her voice.
Jace shrugged. “If so, we’re way out of our league. They can only be killed by silver or blessed weapons.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Do you know everything about this game?”
Laughing nervously, he hoped he hadn’t given away too much. He didn’t know how he’d explain having a level 95 character only a month or so ago. “If only. I certainly don’t know what this thing is.”
Once again, he saw the gleam of excitement in her eye as she pulled her bow off her back. “Let’s go hunt it down!”
Jace could only smile and then he and Luna followed her into the woods.
They began a criss cross pattern between the two farms, both of them using their stealth skills to navigate through the dark forest. Luckily, elves had similar eyesight to cats in the dark and so neither of them needed a torch. In fact, now that he thought about, all of the premium races had enhanced sight. Perhaps that had been a complaint of the early users who had played humans.
“I’m lucky I chose you as my familiar,” he told Luna silently, thinking of the Cat-Vision.
“Yes,” came her smug reply.
They searched for almost an hour before Luna froze next to him. He held up his fist, signally Charlena to come to a halt. It was one of several gestures he’d used with other groups. He gave her a crash course before they’d started into the forest.
He watched Luna as she sniffed the air, first one direction, then another. Finally, her gaze locked slightly to the left. In his mind he heard Luna’s voice. “Wolfer.”
Wolfer? He still didn’t know what Luna meant by that. Was that her way of saying wolf? Or was something wolf-like? Was it a werewolf? He really hoped not or they were going to die horribly.
Moving back to Charlena, he leaned in close so he was almost rubbing his lips against her ear. “It’s close,” he whispered. In the dark, he almost thought he saw her shiver.
“Lead the way,” Jace told Luna silently.
Luna began stalking forward without a word, her attention fixed ahead of her. Jace and Charlena followed after her as quietly as possible. Suddenly Jace received a rank in Stealth. He knew that meant he was close to an enemy.
The wolfer. It was close but he still didn’t see it no matter how hard he strained his eyes. He looked down at Luna, whose tail was swishing back and forth. Her head was still pointed in the same direction, ears rotating left and right.
Luna moved a few steps forward and they followed. That’s when he saw movement. It was just a quick movement from one of the trees. A head poking out for just a moment. Jace couldn’t be sure, but the brief glimpse he’d gotten was that of a canine head, like a wolf. And whatever it was was on two legs.
Signaling Charlena to the tree next to her, he ducked behind a tree to his left. Not for the first time, Jace wished he had the Far Speak spell so he could talk silently to her. Instead, he pointed to the tree where he’d seen the movement and then pointed to her. Then he gestured to himself and made a semi-circular motion, indicating he’d circle around. She nodded that she understood. He gave her a smile and then moved off to the left to circle around with Luna padding silently next to him.
Jace kept his eyes peeled on the spot where he’d last seen the wolfer, watching to see if it moved. Nothing moved as he slowly circled around to the side of it. He gained several more ranks in Stealth and saw that he’d gained rank 10, the highest rank he could achieve until he hit character level 11. He’d also gained a Stealth ability, but he couldn’t take the time to read it at the moment. He had to keep his attention on the wolfer.
Coming around a tree, Jace was finally able to see behind the tree where he'd seen the wolfer earlier. It was there, with it’s back to the tree. It definitely had a wolf’s head and seemed to have gray-white fur. It was either shorter than he’d originally though or it was crouching down.
That was the moment the thing decided to look in his direction. He locked eyes with the wolfer’s black orbs, dark as midnight and his blood went cold.
“Ahhh!” screamed the wolfer and it ran off to the right. “Stupid players!”
Jace blinked. Had the wolfer just referred to him as a player? That wasn’t possible. The monsters weren’t aware of players in that sense. It was like breaking the 4th wall. It wasn’t possible.
A bow twanged and then the wolfer fell over as Charlena’s arrow hit it. “Owwww! Not again! Freakin’ players!”
Shaking his head, he heard the elf moving towards the spot where the wolfer had fallen. She was probably looking to finish it off.
Jace broke cover and ran to the fallen wolfer who was whimpering. As he got closer, he spotted the elf with her bow drawn, about to fire another arrow.
“Hold on Charlena,” he yelled and saw her relax her grip on the arrow she had at ready and lower her bow. She gave him a confused look.
“Give me a second,” he told her as he came to halt a few feet from the “wolfer”. Only it wasn’t a wolfer at all, it was just a goblin. It was a goblin wearing a wolf head headdress and wolf pelts it had tied to its body. He chuckled. It was a goblin who had disguised itself like a wolf.
“What?” asked Charlena who still hadn’t moved.
“Come and look.”
“What’s wrong stupid player,” the goblin said sarcastically. “You can’t kill me without your elf bi-”
“Shut up,” he snapped at the goblin. “Or I will kill you.”
The goblin’s eyes went wide. “You… you understand me?”
Charlena moved over and looked down at the goblin. She scrunched up her nose. “Can they… do that? Disguise themselves?”
“This one can,” he told her. He had a bad feeling that he knew why this goblin knew they were players and why it could disguise itself.
“Were you… talking to it?” asked Charlena. “I heard you speaking in… what… goblin?”
Jace sighed. It looked like it was time to come clean with her. He really hoped she’d forgive him for not telling her the whole truth. But if what he suspected was true, he had no choice.
“Wait,” the goblin said to Charlena. “Can you understand me too?”
Charlena looked from the goblin to Jace. Her expression had become colder. “You understand it don’t you?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “But there’s a really good explanation.”
Her icy expression didn’t soften. “There’d better be. I don’t like being played.”
“What the heck is going on here?” demanded the goblin. “You guys aren’t going to kill me? Or are you?”
Jace looked down at the goblin and put away his daggers. “What’s your name?”
“My… uh… er… name?” stuttered the goblin. “It’s um… Naj-nok… or was it Nag-rok? Definitely an N- word…”
Jace held up his hand. “No, your human name.”
The goblin’s eyes went wide as saucers. It hesitated for a moment and then answered in a whispered, “Duglas Morgan.”
Chapter 17
“Hi Duglas,” Jace replied. “I’m Jace Burton.”
Jace knew now that Duglas had somehow been affected by the same bug that had afflicted him. Had it affected him the same way? Was he still hoping from monster to monster?
“Are you… are you a developer? Can you fix me?” asked the goblin pleadingly.
Jace was about to answer when Charlena cut in, her tone dangerous. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? And how it is that you can speak to cats and now… to goblins?!”
“He’s not a goblin,” Jace told her. “Well... I mean, technically he is right now. But he’s a player. His name is Duglas.”
Jace watched her face go from angry to shocked and then to disbelief. “Yeah, right.”
“I know this,” Jace told her. “Because I was a kobold before I became human.”
“What?!” both Duglas and Charlena said at the same time.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right off the bat, but it’s a little hard to believe - even for me,” he told her. “But I’ll tell you now if you’ll listen.”
Charlena’s eyes were hard but she nodded and Jace spent the next half hour recounting what had happened to him. To their credit, both Charlena and Duglas listened without interrupting as he related his story. But as soon as he stopped, they both began blurting out questions.
When they realized they’d spoken at the same time, they both glared at each other and then Duglas gestured to Charlena to go ahead.
“Okay,” she started. “If I believe you, then what you’re saying is… you’re dead. And when you were inserted into the game, you became a monster. But then you did some sort of programming thing and turned yourself into a human...oh…” Her mouth twisted into a sour expression. “And you really are, or were, a programmer for WorldCog. That about right?”
Both she and Duglas looked at him.
“Yes,” he said simply.
“HOW did you turn yourself human? And is it permanent? Do you stop jumping from body to body?” asked Duglas, who evidently thought it was his turn to speak.
“I can tell you exactly how a little later, but yes, so far I’ve died several times and have respawned as the same character,” Jace answered him.
He looked at Charlena who still had a troubled expression on her face. He opened his mouth to speak but she held up a hand. “Listen, this is a lot to process and I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if I believe it or if this is some elaborate scam… No, just listen… I’m going to logout and think about this. I may or may not be back tomorrow. Don’t look for me. If I want to talk to you again, I’ll look for you.”
Then, before Jace could respond, Charlena faded away.
“I think your girlfriend is upset with you,” Duglas said quietly. “I guess it’s my fault. Sorry.”
Jace shook his head, still staring at the place where Charlena had been. “She’s not my girlfriend. And no Duglas, it’s not your fault. It’s mine.” He turned towards the goblin. He wanted to change the subject. “I told you my story. What’s your story?”
“I… ah… used to be a day trader,” he told Jace. “I made some really good trades at the right time and made a lot of money. I made sure it was all supposed to come into the game with me when I died. It was supposed to be my “retirement” nest egg. I even had a little in-game inn I purchased. Instead, here I am in a monster body. No character and no money.”
Jace whistled. He knew players could buy in-game homes of all sorts, but an inn was right up there with a small mansion. It’d probably cost 10,000,000 gold, or about $1,000,000 in real money. Duglas must have had a lot of money. “What kind of character did you have?”
“Level 51 Werebear paladin,” he said. “You?”
“Level 95 vampyre assassin.”
“Wow,” Duglas said with some surprise. “You were hardcore.”
Jace smiled and then changed to a slightly touchier subject. “Do you know how you died?”
“Surfing I assume,” he replied nonchalantly. “I had a backup right before we hit the Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore. I don’t remember anything after that, so I assume I took a bad wipeout and here I am. You?”
“I don’t know,” Jace told him honestly. “I had my normal backup after work and the next thing I know I’m a monster. I lost a month too.”
“No, you didn’t,” the goblin told him.
“What?! No, I did, I…”
Duglas shook his head. “I’m pretty sure you’re not conscious while we’re between bodies.”
That rocked Jace. He’d guessed he went back into the AI queue, but he’d never thought he would be unconscious. He wondered how Duglas had figured it out. “How do you know?”
“Little things,” Duglas told him. “I’d die during the day and then respawn in a monster at night or it would be raining, and I’d respawn, and it wouldn’t be raining. The real tell was the moon cycles. Once I guessed I was losing time, I started keeping track of them. Then I started realizing how much time I was missing.”
Jace was impressed. He hadn’t even guessed he’d been losing time until he’d talked to Charlena. But he had only jumped bodies a few times. Which begged the question. “How long have you been in here?”
A pained expression came over his face. “At least a year, maybe two. I really have no idea how much time I missed before I started keeping track of the lunar cycles.”
“I’m sorry,” Jace told him. “That’s a long time to be jumping between bodies.”
“You get used to it,” he said stoically. “I eventually figured out that I could stay in the same body longer if I left the area, I’d spawned in. Eventually players would find me and kill me if I stayed close. But if I left and went out to the middle of nowhere, sometimes I could stay alive for a month or two before a player found me or a more powerful monster killed me.”
“I can tell you how I
changed into a human,” he told Duglas. “But it’s not perfect. There are issues.”
Duglas laughed mirthlessly. “Worse issues than becoming a new monster every time you die and being killed by players over and over?”
“Point taken. I just want you to know it won’t be easy starting off.”
“Thank you, but I’ll manage.”
Jace explained the process and went over it twice. As he finished, Duglas began nodding. “I always wondered what that return code was for! I must have typed hundreds of combinations of letters and numbers. Nothing ever seemed to do anything.”
“Just type it in exactly like I told you and it will work,” he said. “Or at least, that’s what worked for me. I can’t guarantee it will do the same for you.”
Duglas nodded. “Trust me, I won’t blame you if it doesn’t work. Even if I go back to jumping from monster to monster, it will be good knowing I’m not the only one.”
“I guess all that’s left is for you to kill me,” Duglas said.
“Now?” Jace asked.
“I’ve been in this hell for at least a year,” he told Jace. “If there’s even a chance I can break this cycle, I want to do it.”
Nodding slowly, Jace pulled out his daggers. “If need help or want to find us, we’re on our way to the capital.”
“The capital? Capital of what?” he asked, confused.
“Aldor, it’s the human kingdom. The capital is Whitecliff. We can meet you there,” Jace told him.
Duglas. “Okay, I’ll try to remember that. Anywhere specific?”
Jace wanted to kick himself. Whitecliff was the capital. It was a large city by medieval fantasy standards and they might never cross paths. “Good point. Let’s say, the first pub inside the main gate. When we make it to the capital, we’ll go there every night for dinner. Look for us there.”
“First pub,” Duglas grinned. “I can get behind that.” He sobered and looked down at the knives in Jace’s hands. “I guess we might as well get this over with.”
“Turn around so I can get a critical hit and it will be faster.”
“I’ve been burned, shot with arrows, frozen, beheaded, ripped apart, clawed, bitten in half and just about anything else you can think of. Whatever you need to do, just do it,” he told Jace but turned around.
Veil Online - Book 1 (a LitRPG MMORPG Adventure Series) Page 11
