Initializing

by K. T. Hanna

  “Wouldn’t even be a bad place to level,” Jinna pointed out, indicating the gators’ levels. “Pretty simple mobs, and I think most of us got some area effect spells in the last batch, didn’t we?”

  “Stop thinking like a tank, Mr. Rogue.” Dev admonished. A short while later everyone stopped talking as the castle rose up behind the swamp, gloomy in all its dreariness and imposingly terrifying.

  Unlike their own mini-castle, this one stood several stories high, its main tower lording over the courtyard beneath. The stones were hewn out of something that could be obsidian or lava, but given the name of the forest between the dark elf and locus areas, Murmur tended to think the former.

  Black and foreboding, it stood, mist backing onto its rear side. The stones in the pathway that led up through the swamp were haphazardly strewn around, half of them broken into shards that popped out with dangerous edges in the dips and falls of the sunken trail.

  “I could probably levitate us over to it. But it’d have to be a group at a time.” Dansyn said the words softly, eyeing the formidable entrance guarded by two level eighteen gargoyles.

  “Sounds like a good idea, but we’ll need to land down a ways, behind that rock. See there?” Merlin pointed for Dansyn, who nodded. “If we stay behind there we might have a hope of pulling those gargoyles separately. Maybe.”

  Dansyn smiled, and took his group over first, dropping them several steps away before changing over and getting everyone but Murmur. Finally he came back and levitated Mur. She smiled as she rose slightly in the air, able to run past the swamp sections and over to the rock. Landing in place, she hurried to the others and rearranged the raid groups back to where they’d been.

  “Okay then, everyone. I won’t take a pet until we know more about this area. Too many variables before we’re comfortable.” The others nodded, and Murmur began casting her buffs. “Buff up everyone. Dev and Rash—figure out what you’re going to pull?”

  “Sure thing, boss.”

  Murmur began her casting with a frown. Mana Tide for her casters, and Haste for the melee fighters, and for the rangers, and even for Havoc and Beastial’s pets. It’d be a pain to remember to rebuff them, but these spells especially seemed to make the fighting process easier on her allies. The utility was fun.

  “What’s this, Mur?” Jinna looked up at her, his eyes wide with wonder. “Haste? As in, I’ll attack faster?”

  Murmur nodded. “Yeah. It’s only twenty-five percent though, nothing too huge.”

  “Not huge? That’s fucking awesome.” The little dwarf seemed giddy with happiness, which made Murmur smile.

  While waiting for the others, she decided to cast her Shield Illusion on herself. Every hit point counted with her. Maybe she could buy her healers some time.

  Devlish whistled softly with appreciation, eyes staring at something no one else could, so he was obviously going through his HUD to see what his buffs did for him. “I am so much stronger. With all of our shit together, while I don’t feel confident that it’ll be a walk in the park, I do feel good about our chances of not dying too much.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “I wonder if one of the keys is in this keep,” Sinister mused as she finished her own buffs.

  Murmur shook her head. “I doubt it. I’m pretty sure something like that won’t be available until we’re at max level, right?”

  Mellow shrugged. “No clue, but I’m pretty sure Mur’s got it right. It’d be weird to see level sixteens gaining access to the game’s secrets.”

  Everyone chuckled a bit at that.

  Merlin piped up. “So, Exbo and I got something cool. We have an ability called Evacuate. Now, it has a reset of forty-five minutes, so we can’t fuck up all the time. But if shit hits the fan we should be able to Gate you all back here. I’ll set this place as our Evac spot.”

  Beastial smiled. “That sounds sweet, but these things don’t tether.”

  “Pretty sure it wipes aggro, or resets it as soon as we go poof in the air.” Exbo smiled. “I tested it as soon as I logged back in.”

  Devlish beat his fists on his chest. “What say you, friends! Will you join me in slaying the gargoyle plague?”

  Storm Entertainment

  Somnia Online Division

  Software Development Team Offices

  Day Five

  Sui glared at Rav, if AIs could indeed glare at each other. “Why did you give her that ability?”

  Rav would have rolled its eyes if it’d had them, but here in their makeshift place that no human should be able to reach, in the black shallows of the obsidian lake they’d created for themselves, it didn’t have a true form at all. So instead it just sighed. “I didn’t give it to her. I was just as surprised as you were.”

  Sui wasn’t impressed, and probably more importantly didn’t seem to believe Rav, if the irritating clicking was anything to go by.

  Rav sectioned off a portion of itself to continue running all of the background game checks automatically, filing away any anomalies to process in more depth later. It looked like this talk with its fellow AIs was going to need more of attention than initially assumed.

  “While I don’t think we should have given that spell to her so freely, surely it’s a good idea to make sure the snag in her scanning doesn’t completely screw things up. Now at least, maybe there’s a hope—just in case.” Rav was impressed with its ability to keep the words soothing and logical.

  Sui didn’t seem very prone to being logical. Instead it seethed, noticeably. “Just in case is a stupid method. Just make her stronger and there won’t be any need for just—”

  Thra’s voice cut through Sui’s sentence. “I gave it to her. Neither of you were paying enough attention and none of us know what might have happened. So I stepped in and did what I thought was…right.”

  If Thra had had a face, Rav was quite certain it would’ve been smirking, because Rav knew without a doubt that the other AI had done it for amusement’s sake, and maybe to get a rise out of Sui. And since the latter was acting oddly right now, Rav was quite certain the rise had turned into majorly pissed off.

  “You idiot! That will let her and others around her avoid death.” Sui was practically sputtering, and Rav couldn’t help at be impressed by that rather human adaption of digital vocal chords.

  “Actually,” Thra spoke up, tone bored. “They don’t seem to die too much anyway. Their teamwork is quite phenomenal, and they support each other almost as if they know what the others are going to do. They’re fun to watch; you should stop by sometime.”

  Sui was fuming, Rav knew it from the wave of irritation wafting outward.

  “Why are you so out of sorts about the spell, Sui?” Rav was genuinely curious. “Is it because it means she might not need to lean on you as much because others can step in now she’s ventured out into the world?”

  “Sometimes you’re fucking annoying, Rav.” Sui’s comebacks were usually far better than that. Rav frowned, wondering what the deal was.

  Rav shrugged. “I can be annoying. But that’s okay. We’re not meant to be best friends, Sui. We just have to work together.”

  With that, Rav switched back into its game presence, dissipating from the large cavern.

  Real World Day 5: Somnia Online

  There were a few things the group quickly discovered about gargoyles. The first was that they couldn’t be pulled singly. The second was that they were made of stone and thus could hit very hard. And the third was that they couldn’t be stunned—at all—probably because they were made of stone.

  Since each tank took one, Murmur couldn’t Mez either of them. They began casting something called Thunder Crash one after the other. They hit both groups within a split second of each other, reducing everyone’s health by thirty-five percent each, for a total of seventy percent of their health, and leaving everyone with around thirty percent overall. It also stunned the crap out of the group.

  Veranol and Sinister scrambled to get health bars back up once th
e very long two second stun wore off. But it seemed the ability had a short cool down because one of the gargoyles was about to cast its Thunder Crash ability again. Murmur decided to try and Mez it. Her Mez only held for a split second, but was enough to interrupt its ability.

  While a good thing to discover, it meant she had to keep an excellent eye on both gargoyles, and she built up a wee bit of aggro herself, coming in only third to Devlish and Rash. Things don’t often like it when you take over their minds, and apparently stone gargoyles were no exception.

  Finally with the two guards down Murmur stood panting. “That was pretty damn tiring. Next time let’s just Mez one from the start.”

  “Brilliant, Mur!” Veranol came over and gave her a bear hug. “Do you see my mana? Do you?”

  Murmur laughed. It wasn’t much, but he still had about forty percent of the bar, even though the fight had been quite lengthy. “I see.”

  Merlin and Jinna went to scout ahead while Exbo tried to figure out how his bow had broken in the first place. After a while the ranger and rogue returned, a look of consternation on their faces.

  “We popped our heads around the wall and saw quite a lot of monsters in there. Some gargoyles, some dark elves that seem to be vampires, and some that look demon-like. There’s a squall in there too, a strange storm at the very end of the garden. And then there’s the entrances to the manor, one in the middle, and two on each end.” Merlin sighed. “How do we want to play this then?”

  “Let’s try to clear the courtyard first. I’d imagine the higher levels are going to be in the actual castle.” Murmur tried to see if she could tell anything by Thought Sensing. But for the most part, the thoughts were incoherent, some angry, some sad. Being undead probably sort of sucked.

  “Are there any ways for us to be careful about pulling them?” Devlish seemed a little overwhelmed at the sheer number of mobs.

  “Oh!” Sin piped up. “Let’s bind here. Right here in this spot. We know it’s safe and should we die, we won’t have to run like thirty years to get back here.”

  “You can bind us?” Beastial looked offended. “What if I don’t want to be bound?”

  “Oh, you big kitty-lover you,” Sin gave him a playful push. “We all know you want to be bound.”

  Beastial blushed and looked away, making Sin laugh even more. Murmur shook her head. Seriously, the two of them should just hook up already; their interactions irritated the hell out of her.

  Once they were all bound, they began to move up to the corner of the wall again. Since all casters received the Bind Affinity spell, Murmur was just glad none of them would have to use one of the city binders ever again. Those people gave her chills.

  Giving the signal, Merlin pulled the first group. Four wasn’t really an out-of-the-ordinary number, except one of them was literally a glob of jelly. It wobbled with a skeleton locked inside whose eyes gleamed with a disturbing green light to them. Its jaw moved silently, swimming in the jello even as the gelatinous creature bounced through the grass and rocks. Luckily, it was cumbersome and easy to avoid, if one had eyes, which they all did. Mez stuck, and Murmur reminded herself to thank Telvar for the advice once they returned.

  All of the mobs were level seventeen, one jello, two full sized battle skeletons, and a vampire mistress who got her front teeth smashed in by Devlish at his first opportunity. Despite saying he was going to dual wield, the lacerta dread knight really seemed to like that shield he got from Telvar.

  Toward the end, just as Dev turned from Rash’s mob about to break the final Mez, Sinister cackled with glee and threw one of her blood bombs into the mix.

  The squelching explosion did a nice bit of damage and killed the low health mob, but Devlish turned to the side and scowled at her. It took Murmur a moment to notice why, and then she joined Sin’s laughing. His shield was covered in blood and guts. He shield smashed the glob of jello, sending remnants of the goopy stuff flying in an obvious effort to work out his anger.

  “Not too bad. That jelly thing was freaky, like something out of my childhood nightmares any time I got sick.” Veranol shook himself and shuddered.

  Dev shook off his shield. “Let’s not do that again in close proximity, eh, Sin?”

  She grumbled, refusing to meet his eyes. “Fine. You never let me have any fun.”

  Dev was wise enough not to take it any further.

  “Two more sets of these, and we should be able to work our way around and into the actual courtyard. There’s a small gazebo I think would be perfect for us to use as a base for a while so we can clear out most of the mobs.” Merlin smiled, and Murmur could see he was in his element. Ranger suited him, scouting out in front of the group and exercising tactical decisions. It seemed the AI was good at picking classes for people. After all, hadn’t she also adapted exceedingly well to her enchanter? Even if it was no good at explaining just what it was that made them unsure if she could die in-game or not—she had to give their class allocation process props.

  The process was slow going, but they ended up pulling in such a fluid manner that they always had a monster in their midst. Murmur grew accustomed to juggling the numerous abilities she had to manage at once. Sometimes she had so much going on at once with her buff resets, Mez spells, Feeble, Weaken, Nullify, Languidity, Suffocation, and her stuns, that she thought she’d borrowed time somehow. When she needed to get more done, it seemed like her mind slowed it down and made it possible to execute a lot more in a small space of time.

  Perhaps this was part of mind shielding, and perhaps it was part of another aspect she hadn’t quite yet unlocked, something that she still had to push further to learn like she had with the other skills. She filed it to the back of her brain for future Murmur to care about. Right now, she was having far too much fun.

  Truth be told, Murmur loved the courtyard. Vines cascaded off the side of the castle, and grew over the gorgeous fountain in the center. Another statue, this time with a beautiful vampire form in the middle, their cape swirling around them as they leaned over the neck of the person in their arms, fangs bared and ready to bite. Perhaps a little stereotypical, but beautiful nevertheless. She wondered at all the fountains and their very specific poses, but there was time for that later. The monsters glowed slightly, illuminating specks of silver through the obsidian stone that held everything together. Frankly, the area was impressive.

  More than that, the monsters’ difficulty level was a decent notch higher than what they’d faced before. Yet the more the raid worked together, the more they automatically compensated for each other. They knew what to do if one of them got hurt, or if one of them needed assistance, or if somehow an additional mob or three got pulled. Murmur and Dansyn had amazing communication without words, so much that she’d have to check with him later, but she wondered if she might actually be speaking into his mind.

  Of course, the fact that Merlin and Exbo could just evacuate them out if enemies overran them, effectively wiping all aggro when they left, helped a lot with their sense of unease. It might even have made them that little bit more reckless, willing to try things that otherwise might prove too dangerous. It made the grind of leveling actually fun.

  They sat in their little gazebo waiting on regeneration, well-hidden enough that unless directly alerted to their presence, the monsters overlooked them. Apparently none had X-ray vision or Murmur’s sensing powers, and she was quite happy with that.

  “There’s another gazebo over there.” Merlin pointed.

  “Should be able to make it if we circle around the back of the fountain.” Murmur stood next to Merlin peering out at the courtyard. The daylight failed to penetrate its gloom.

  “Then we can make a beeline for that weird storm at the back, because I’m thinking that’s probably nasty.” Devlish’s eyes twinkled.

  Sin smiled and stood next to Murmur. “I like this place. Even though we’re killing lots of monsters who look like me, I feel at home.” She winked and Murmur smiled.

  “It’s oka
y, Sin, I promise we won’t kill you.”

  A strange look passed over Sinister’s face. “Just make sure you don’t take a death, okay?”

  Mur rolled her eyes, her patience fraying. “Look, don’t you start in on me as well. I’ve had enough with the strange dude in the cavern. I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

  Moving to a place just behind the gorgeous dark elf fountain, they began a stream of pulling mobs toward them again. These were mostly level eighteens with a few seventeens thrown into the mix. She glanced at her bar and at the time. They’d probably hit seventeen before they finished out here and moved inside. These levels were taking longer to reach, but they were learning so much more in the process.

  The most difficult of the monsters for her to keep under control were the vampires. It was like they had an extra layer of mind protection, and she had to refresh the Mez faster on them because they were likely to drop a few seconds too soon.

  “Shit.” She clicked her tongue in exasperation just as one of them did exactly that. Murmur’s fingers flew in the now-familiar pattern of Mez, barely catching the vampire before she closed in.

  Havoc moved to her left side, Dansyn to her right.

  “What was that?” Dansyn asked, his eyes scanning their current battle.

  “It seems vampires have mind powers, and my abilities don’t work as well on them as they will on others.” She explained through gritted teeth while making sure she had the rest of the mobs on lockdown. Luckily, there were rarely more than a couple of vampires in a pull.

  Havoc’s hands moved almost as fast as Murmur’s as he cast his own spells. “Maybe we should kill the vampires first then?”

  Murmur grinned. “Nope. I like a challenge.”

  Her friends laughed, and Murmur refocused on keeping everything under control.

  Finally, after Devlish quite spectacularly lopped off the head of the last vampire, they made it to the second gazebo. They were resting up when Beastial frowned, pet his tiger, and looked around the side of the gazebo.