Scrambled Lives
Page 23
“So, people can still call me when I leave the lounge?” Jenner asked. “To arrange a match?”
Brigid nodded. “They’ll see a flashing yellow dot in the corner of your picture. Yellow indicates you’re active as a gladiator but unavailable for the moment, so they’ll either find a substitute with a green dot or arrange for you to return here for a match. But I wouldn’t bet on that happening again. A five-thousand-dollar bid is crazy! You won’t get two.”
Maybe he would. Maybe he wouldn’t. He thought about what the mermaid nurse had said. “I think I might.”
“He’s got balls!” Rosy bragged. “Huge ones!”
The armorer just laughed and shooed them away to help a gladiator choose a rental sword.
Rain was still hammering down when Jenner and Rosy made it outside, but it wasn’t enough to dampen his spirits. He took himself off on a personal side quest for pizza to celebrate.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Congrats! Five thousand dollars have been transferred from Prince Nicodemus’s outer-world bank account to your own outer-world bank account! Since you are a perma-added player, you may send a message to a proxy in the outer-world to dispense the funds as you see fit. Would you like to address and record that message now?
Jenner had been shoveling pizza into his mouth when the screen popped up. Swallowing hard, he said, “Yes, I would. Can I send a message to my mom?” What was her name? Oh God, the game doctor said it during Jenner’s appointment. “Ruvina? Ruvina Roggio?”
Ruvina Roggio’s contact information has been found. Say RECORD to start the message, and END when it is finished.
“Record.” He stared at a blank television screen hovering above his deep dish pepperoni pizza. “Hi. Uh, Mom? Sorry, this is pretty weird. I hope . . . I hope it’s okay to ask you for something. I don’t remember much about the world out there, but . . . Well, I won a gladiator match today, and five thousand dollars were just put in my bank account. I’m trying to earn enough money so you can buy me an ACT2 net. I need to upload faster. Can you see if you can buy a used one? That will be cheaper than one that’s brand new. If I die before I upload far enough, I’ll just be a shadow in the game forever.”
He paused.
It was like making a demand of a total stranger when all he remembered were a few fragments. “Thank you and . . . I love you, Mom. I hope you’re doing okay. I want you to know that I’m doing okay, too. I’m having fun, and I’ll try to earn more money. Talk to you later. End.”
Your message will be sent.
Five thousand dollars wasn’t going to pay for a net, but it was so much more than he had had when he woke up this morning. Fingers crossed that someone else was rich enough and dedicated enough to the game as Prince Nicodemus!
“Top 5 Merit Trophy winners?” Jenner asked.
The list popped up as he took a bite of his pizza.
Top 5 Merit Trophy Winners!
First Place: User453692: 5,287 trophies
Second Place: Zing Zing: 5,165 trophies
Third Place TIE: ScrambleThis and Prince Nicodemus: 5,010 trophies
Fourth Place: Doctor WhenWhereWhyHow: 4,894 trophies
Fifth Place: Quark’s Hammer: 4,852 trophies
Jenner didn’t look up his own name. He’d be surprised if he had more than a dozen merit trophies at this point. Checking around the restaurant for Rosy, who was finding it very funny to ride about on the servers’ trays and startle diners by speaking, he said, “Character upload percentage.”
Permanent Character Addition
You are being uploaded to the game. Check in at any time for an update.
Current Upload: 12.8%
How did anybody upload successfully at this pace? It was amazing there weren’t more soulless remnants of players wandering around Talvenor. But most people probably had a lot more time than Jenner. They weren’t literally on their deathbed when the process of uploading began.
Too bad the luck potion was limited in its influence. It couldn’t conjure a bid out of thin air.
It was still very active within the game, though; Jenner discovered this delicious and reasonably priced pizza restaurant straightaway upon leaving the ring, and his order came out of the kitchen before other tables that arrived before him. There was even a dropped penny on the floor in the waiting area, which was now tucked away in his purse.
He had to find a new inn for the night. With the luck potion flowing in his veins, he suspected that wouldn’t present a problem. It was a good thing, too: the storm was only growing worse through the windows. The drops were striking the pavement so hard that they rocketed back upwards several inches before settling. Thick streams of water ran along the gutters and flooded outwards into the road. If it was this bad here, then Road of Royals in the Rundown was totally impassable. Scrambled Lives didn’t do its storms in half-measures.
Emergency Alert (MANDATORY): Houses Calastor and Susvira have lost control of the Blue Mountain troll invasion. All wizards above Level 20 in Galadras and the surrounding cities, towns, villages, and forests are summoned immediately to the Peak for battle instructions. All other wizarding wars are suspended. Failure to report will result in one warning, followed by House expulsion, and then scrambling.
Emergency Alert (OPTIONAL): Shifters and elves above Level 25 in Galadras and the surrounding cities, towns, villages, and forests are summoned to the Plains of Araholle for battle instructions.
Emergency Alert (OPTIONAL): Dwarves, demons, human warriors, and others above Level 20 in Galadras and the surrounding cities, towns, villages, and forests are summoned to Sundown Castle for battle instructions and fortification readiness.
Silence fell over the restaurant as the staff and diners read the notifications. Then a ripple of laughter lifted from a party near the window, where eight men were packed shoulder-to-shoulder into a booth meant for six.
“It’s a wizard mess so let the wizards clean it up!” one man exclaimed jovially, and they clinked their mugs of ale together. “Optional for us.”
“Oh, hell, I’ll go after I eat,” said another man. “I’m in the mood for a fight.”
His companions scolded him. “Don’t be ridiculous!” “Let the wizards do it.” “It’ll be over before the trolls get within fifty miles of Sundown!”
Rosy leaped from a server’s tray onto Jenner’s table. The teacup had been covered in dirt from their loot theft challenge, but now it was clean and trickling droplets of water.
“You should have seen her face, Gramma!” the cup cried in good humor. “I closed my eyes and my mouth and pretended to be just another dirty dish in the line-up for the sink. The dishwasher dunked me in the hot water and scrubbed me out with her sponge, and then I came alive in her hand and said what’s shaking, sweet cheeks? She screamed and threw me halfway across the kitchen!”
Jenner had figured the screaming in the kitchen from a few minutes ago involved Rosy. “Good one. Did you hear about the notifications?”
The teacup blew a raspberry in derision. “This kind of stuff happens all the time! Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”
“Then I won’t.”
“The wizards are just hoping enough battle-hungry fools will show up to fight their troll war for them. I’m sure they tried to make it mandatory for everyone, but the Houses for other races stopped them. You let the trolls in, you worthless wand-fondlers, so you can boot them back out.”
Jenner checked out his map as he ate another slice of pizza. The Peak was a gigantic slab of rock jutting above the trees of the Ryathan Forest. The Plains of Araholle were southeast from the Peak, and Sundown Castle was a few fingertips north of Galadras.
Other diners had their maps out, too. The party in the booth was laughing about the huge wizard scrambling that would soon be taking place, partly due to fighting the trolls and partly due to wizards not showing up to battle at all.
“They’ll let themselves be scrambled that way?” Jenner whispered, putting away his map.
Reminded of the former wizard Phoenix, Jenner said, “Oh, no, not that.”
Rosy tipped over and rubbed itself on Jenner’s napkin like a dog. “Wizards love to bend the rules for their own benefit. They’ll drink magical sleeping draughts so they don’t have to answer the summons, or use the hideaway spell and pretend they never got the notification. The real-world players will log out for a couple of days and get back into their pods when the war is over. They were just so busy that they forgot to play!”
“Will that work?” Jenner inquired.
“Those who drink the sleeping draughts and play hideaway? No.” A terrified female face peered out of the kitchen. Rosy grinned as the girl saw him on the tabletop. Squeaking, she disappeared. “As for the players who log out, the game will punish them another way. Maybe they’ll lose spells or artifacts in their inventory and have to play certain quests all over again. Hard ones. Or incredibly long and tedious ones. Both suck. Better to turn up at the Peak, but that’s not how a wizard sees it.”
Lightning blanked out the windows. On its heels, thunder rumbled so hard that it interrupted the conversations in the restaurant. Finishing his meal, Jenner pulled up his hood and went out into the storm. Rain drummed down on his head.
He paid a silver at the inn across the street, which was called The Dancing Prince. A stupid name, but his room upstairs was head and shoulders above the one he spawned in. A comfortable, queen-sized bed; no cobwebs in the corners or holes in the curtain; and he had his own bathroom. A lantern upon a side-table held a bright, trembling glow of wizard light behind the clear panels.
After hanging up his cloak, he went downstairs to the common room. It was half-full with patrons. A pair of jugglers was performing upon the stage, each whipping six balls around in circles and occasionally tossing one to the other.
He sat at a table to watch, but the act was unable to distract him. He needed to get another bid and he needed it now! Maybe if he returned to the lounge . . .
“Well, hello there.”
He whirled around at the sultry greeting.
Seated at the very next table was Mereene.
“Oh, fuck,” Rosy grumbled. “That’s it. I’m out.”
The cup hopped away.
Jenner gaped as the stunning succubus rose from her chair to join him at his table. Although he hadn’t forgotten how she looked, like in any world that would be possible, her physical beauty knocked him for a loop all over again.
Smoothing out a fold in her dark red gown, which was so long it touched the floor, she clucked her tongue at him. “I’m disappointed in you, Jenner.”
He had disappointed her! What a dick he was. It broke his heart; he hated himself for ever being the cause of her sorrow. “I didn’t mean to. What did I do?”
She laughed, that entrancing, fairy chimes tinkle. “Why is it that I had to find you? I am much more accustomed to men seeking me out.”
“I was in the gladiator ring,” he said stupidly.
He had been in the gladiator ring.
He had won in the gladiator ring.
And he had three golds.
“I took down a Level 15 dragon today,” Jenner bragged.
His heart skipped a beat at the wink she threw him. “I took down a Level 141 elf today,” Mereene said. “But likely in a very different way.”
“So you must . . . uh . . . be tired after that.”
“Oh, no.” Soft, warm fingers closed over the back of his hand. His stomach dropped out at her touch in a way it hadn’t when falling off the dragon. “A succubus doesn’t tire of sex, Jenner. The more we have, the more we want to have, and the more powerful we become.”
“Powerful?” he repeated.
“We take in shadows of others’ abilities. I improved my skills with the bow today without ever firing a shot at a target, a gift from sex with that elf. Even though I’m no wizard, I have some basic spells and magical knowledge in my inventory, and I have this . . .” A small throwing star made of ice formed above the table. “A gift from an ice demon. Shadows of power only, you understand, but it is very thrilling to do what I want to do anyway, and walk away with an enhancement in my skills. I wonder what my gift would be from you.”
Recklessly, he said, “Why don’t we find out?”
Somehow the gold was exchanged and the stairs were climbed, and they were against the wall in his room with her tongue in his mouth and his hands slipping under her dress. Their clothes evanesced as they would in a dream and then Jenner was flat on his back in the bed, moaning as her head bobbed on his loins, combing his fingers through her silky hair, spurting in an embarrassingly short period of time . . .
But he stayed hard.
That was strange. Strange but amazing.
She skimmed up his body and dangled her swollen breasts in his face, Jenner worshipping them and letting out a hoarse cry as she sank onto his hardness. The succubus rode him wildly and he came again but still he was hard, his arousal not flagging but increasing tenfold. He rolled the succubus over and jackhammered into her, Mereene crying out in rapture and her tightness rippling intoxicatingly along his shaft, coaxing him to yet another completion . . . but there was no completion and they simply went on . . .
And on.
He had her, and she had him, and the world receded. There was nothing but this bed and this agonizing ecstasy, his climaxes growing stronger with each one until he thought he would be shattered by them. And then he was shattered afresh and still taking of her greedily, their bodies coated in sweat and the bedclothes in disarray, his hand striking down on an ass paddled to pinkness and his hips thrusting in . . .
He came one final time and was wholly obliterated by it.
When his eyes opened much later, he was collapsed face first in the rumpled sheets and she was smiling at him, her head propped up on her crooked elbow. And while he felt like he could hibernate like a bear over a long winter, she was bright-eyed and appeared ready to do it again.
Congrats! You have earned a merit trophy for Sex with a Succubus!
“Of course there’s a merit trophy for that,” he said sleepily.
She dropped a kiss to his cheek. “I should go.”
He must have dozed, because suddenly she had her dress on again, and her tousled hair was combed to sleekness. “Did it work?” he mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow. “Did you get something from me?”
“Watch.” She sat at his side and lightly pressed the point of his own dagger into her wrist. He squinted and watched as her skin dimpled in . . . and resisted. Her faint silver scales did not push the dagger out like his scales would, yet they didn’t let it in either.
“I checked my stats and I have grakel scales at Level 5,” she said.
His scales were 25. It truly was a shadow that she absorbed. “I’m sorry they’re not stronger.”
“Oh, no.” She set the dagger aside and gave him a kiss on the lips. “Thank you for my gift. It can be dangerous in this world for a succubus, and even more so when we are drawn to seek out danger. To have grakel scales, even weak ones, will be a boon for me.”
She kissed him once again, and he fell asleep to the sound of the closing door.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause.
Waking up, Jenner made a rather troll-like sound in response. “Mmmphhhh.”
“Room service!” a woman called through the door.
“Not now,” Jenner called back.
Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause.
“Room service!”
“Not now! Come back later!”
Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause.
“Room service!”
Jenner rolled out of the bed and stalked across the room in annoyance. Throwing open the door, he stood there stark naked to confront the pushy maid. “I said . . .”
Except there was no pushy maid in the hallway. Snickering, Rosy hopped between his legs into the room. “Like that? I practiced my falsetto all night. Room service! So, how was it? Did you get that out of your system? Can we go on with our lives now? What a waste of three gold coins. If I had a penis-”
“You’d have done exactly the same thing.” Hearing another door open in the hallway, Jenner closed his own door hastily.
Pillows were strewn on the floor. The blankets were sagging over the side of the bed and stains marked the sheets, all of which pleased him to see. He couldn’t vouch for any sexual experience in the outer-world, but what did it matter? He had gotten laid within an inch of his life last night in this world. He had gotten laid so hard that his junk was sore.
“Did you really spend the whole damn night talking in girl voices, Rosy?” he asked.
Jumping onto the bed, Rosy made a retching sound and swerved around the stains. “No, I spent most of it leaping from table to table in the common room to listen to people jaw about if they’re going to report to battle. It’s a great way to increase your combat skills if you survive, but Blue Mountain trolls are the largest, fiercest breed of trolls there is, so it’s very likely you’ll be scrambled instead.” The cup jumped onto the window sill to peer out. “Did you get any new bids?”
“No,” Jenner said, disappointed.
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