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by R J Triveri

  The only animal he was aware of being wild was his mother’s cat. “Makes sense, I guess.”

  Ioh flashed him a smile as she kept walking at his side. “It’s one of the benefits of being in a self-replicating world. There’s no need to wait on things like gestation and maturation for our Wild Ones. All it takes is to just talk to the area’s keeper and schedule a time, get a hunting license for one of the restricted areas, or control an area and boom! Resources until your inventories are exhausted.”

  “I did read about that!” Athos said excitedly. If anyone had been keeping track of his knowledge, it would be one of the first things in this world that had been as the guides explained. “It’s the creature in charge of the domain and is considered the ruler.”

  “Give the boy a reward, he finally gets something.” As the red crept up his avatar again, a little green crept up hers. “Sorry, didn’t mean to poke fun, Athos.”

  “No, it’s okay.” The stupidity Athos felt really wasn’t okay to him, but he didn’t want to scare off the one person that hadn’t yelled, screamed, or demanded anything from him. Not to mention she didn’t have to be as kind as she was to him. “I just didn’t realize how outdated the guides were now.”

  “I wish I could give you that information, but you’re the first Earther I’ve met in a long time. Well, the first that hasn’t tried something while my back was turned.”

  “Why would I try something?”

  The leaves in her hair seemed to twitch in time with her ears as memories collected. “Let’s just say that not everyone has your best interests at heart, Athos.”

  “Not the worst advice I’ve ever gotten.” Right up there with don’t piss off someone that has a knife. That was not one of my best moments.

  Conversation wasn’t the worst way to spend an afternoon either in his eyes. Their trip didn’t last much longer as the tree line broke, and the pair reached a large clearing complete with an assortment of leaf piles, a large wooden stage at one end, and barrels overfilled with collections of fruit and other plants. The sky was a bright blue as a few wisps of cloud drifted across the sky, but they did little to block the light from the midday sun. All around were creatures like Ioh, much to Athos’s dismay, gathering, building, and watching.

  “Care for another piece of advice?” She asked as Athos’s face turned down to the ground.

  “Do I have to take it?”

  She smiled. “Remember that there’s a difference between looking and lusting, Athos. If someone talks to you, look them in the eyes.” He smiled giving her a slight nod as she began walking again. “And don’t embarrass me.”

  The Grove

  Athos didn’t take to the idea of being around so many Inciperians, so quickly, but as he had his first bites of what looked like a powder blue apple that tasted like blueberries, drank cup after cup of what passed digitally as cold water, and rested in a leaf bed Ioh offered him, it became easier to look past things. Sleep took him rather quickly as his head hit the hay, quite literally. The dryads of the forest preferred the stern, partially dried grass for pillows.

  It seemed only a moment later when a familiar noise dinged in his head. His eyes shot open as he looked around for something before remembering where he was. What he was.

  Good morning, Athos!

  Looking to the corner of his vision, a familiar looking armored feline had popped back into existence. The cute nature of the creature was enough to make Athos smile just a bit, “Good morning, Puss.”

  Without responding to the name, the AI continued with its mission. Well Athos, you have had 100% of your data integrity restored. You have no mew messages. No mew mail either. I hope you slept well.

  “I just closed my eyes for a second, though.”

  A short catnap really. You only slept for about twelve hours. More than enough time to restore your integrity.

  “Twelve hours!”

  No hostiles registered and no events disturbed your sleep, so your sleep cycle left you undisturbed. Now remember, if you need assistance, just visit me in the help menu! Just press my icon!

  And with that, his little feline face and armor vanished once more. Was that going to happen every time he slept? He didn’t feel any different. Well, maybe a little more aware and less stressed, but that could be for a lot of reasons.

  Three days, if he counted the hours he was out for, had passed quickly. Three days ago, he was clinging to life with machines, and now he was living in one.

  “Good morning, Athos.”

  Three days ago, if someone had told him he would already be used to seeing a topless woman with the body of a deer, he would have called that person a liar.

  “Ioh, is it really morning?”

  She nodded offering him a hand, “You slept longer than I thought you might, but seeing as it was your first recompile, I should have known better than to expect you to socialize once your body realized how damaged it was.”

  “I didn’t embarrass you by passing out, did I?”

  “Not at all. You did have a few lookers, but nothing to be concerned about. Most have never seen an Earther. They’re all quite younger than me.”

  She didn’t even look all that old. Athos may not have gotten the best looks when he was stuffing his face, but to him, they all looked the same. Well, all but Ioh. She was slightly taller and more ivy green in color. “How much younger?”

  Thinking for a moment, her hands started drawing numbers in the air as she worked through some numbers. “More than I care to admit.”

  “And how old are you?”

  A smile crept across her face, “Athos, you never ask a woman her age. Here, I could be five or five hundred, and my avatar wouldn’t change unless I allowed it. Age is only a number here. It doesn’t matter much outside of how experienced you could be.” Ioh knelled and put her weight into pulling up the sitting alchemist.

  “Ah.” A lot of words to avoid a question that didn’t seem to matter.

  As he got to his feet, he noticed how quiet things were around him. The other dryads were gone, and Ioh’s sharp deer were on the edge of the grove looking in, but that was fine by him. She must have given them the heads up that he wasn’t that comfortable with deer that were better armed than him yet.

  His looks must have told more than he thought as she spoke again, “The dryads have gone to their duties tending the forest. They won’t be back for quite a while, so please, try to relax.”

  He nodded and brought up his status screen again. Might as well practice things while he talked, but a realization quickly fell over him as he looked through the screen at Ioh. “This isn’t rude, is it?”

  “If you were born here, it would be,” she explained as she walked behind him. Her head soon rested on his shoulder watching his screen.

  “Isn’t looking over someone’s shoulder rude too?”

  “Yes,” but that didn’t stop her or change her position as a few vines of hair brushed against his ear.

  “Two negatives do make a positive,” he said absently and smiled looking at the different screens. His fingers first pressing his status menu to see what else might be going on within him. Thankfully, this screen didn’t speak to him and spoke in simple letters.

  Class: Alchemist - Open

  Rank: 1

  Integrity: 100%

  Buffs: None

  Debuffs: None

  Blessings: Embrace of the Dryad

  Traits: Child of the Forest

  Were those there yesterday? Not that he had checked, but they sounded rather important. Tapping the titles brought up a smaller text window.

  Embrace of the Dryad: Avatar has been blessed by the dryads. Hostile creatures will not attack unless provoked. Immunity to poison and nature-based debuffs.

  Child of the Forest: Avatar has been acknowledged as a friend of the forest. Wild Ones with a natural origin will be less likely to attack unless provoked. Wild Ones with a pyromantic, infernal, or unnatural origin are more likely to attack without provocation. Plan
ts have a chance to yield more usable resources. This perk will be lost if the avatar is overly aggressive to neutral and friendly sources. This perk is not affected by combating aggressive or dungeon Wild Ones.

  “Well, that was quick,” commented the dryad.

  “You know what these are?”

  He felt her head nod next to him as her hand reached over his other side to point out the first. “Blessings are given by magic users or when you are in a proximity to an avatar that has an aura of effect or area of influence. You’re friendly and in a dryad’s camp, so you are affected by our influence. It only lasts as long as you’re within our area of influence, give or take fifty yards.”

  “Like an AoE?”

  “An area of effect? That’s more suited for attacks, but, more or less, you are right, Athos.”

  “Okay, that makes sense, but how’d I get a trait?” Another forgotten piece of information, he was sure.

  In his short time with Ioh, he’d learned when her voice was silent, she was trying to put together the details she wanted to explain. “Traits... Well, they’re more telling about a person. Traits emerge for avatars based on their actions, the actions of those around them, and events you are a part of. They can be almost anything and can affect combat, abilities, and talents, and even cause appearance changes. The more you interact with the world around you, the more likely a trait is to emerge. I’m guessing you’ve been on the road so long, gathering so many natural materials, and only engaging in combat when you’ve had to. If you couple that with my influence…”

  “And I’m seen as a flower child.”

  “Child of the Forest,” she corrected.

  “Is it bad?”

  “Not really, according to what it does. Pretty good for one of your kind actually.”

  Things were looking up. At least he wouldn’t be eaten alive while he was here. “What’s the difference between a natural and an unnatural Wild One?”

  “The name isn’t enough?” He felt her weight leave his shoulder as she walked in front of him. “Well, imagine I was a Wild One.” That really wasn’t very hard considering how different she was compared to others he had met already. “Where do I come from?”

  “The forest?”

  “Which is a part of nature. So, I would be a natural Wild One. Anything that isn’t natural is unnatural.”

  Again, it made sense to him as he finally made eye contact without feeling a familiar embarrassment grow. “I guess I should thank you.”

  “You don’t need to thank me, Athos,” her voice radiated her smile as she settled across from him in another leafy bed, “Do you know why it’s bad form to look at someone’s status screen?” Athos had an idea, but his shoulders shrugged at a loss for word. Better to have an answer than a half-baked idea. “Traits can give away a lot of information about what someone has done. For someone like you, keep that in mind.”

  “Because I’m an Earther?”

  Her head shook, “No, because you’re new. It means you are weak and unskilled, and that’s a liability for you. If you combine that with those outdated books and being so far into the frontier lands, it becomes truly dangerous.” She yawned as she lowered herself onto her side. “If you go back the way you came, and continue for another half day, you’ll reach Oenus.”

  “I hope so.” Though he didn’t want to admit it, his short time among the dryads was the first thing he had enjoyed about his time in Incipere. “If they’re half as welcoming as you have been, I think I might finally start feeling at home.”

  “I hope that you find their reception warm and the water cold, Athos.” Her voice trailed off as she yawned. “I have had a late night, so I wish you a safe trip and that your kindness is returned thrice.”

  Thinking for a moment for a proper response, he smiled and switched his screens to his inventory. With a press of the screen, his Cholorethium materialized into his grip. The dark green mixture was thick and sloshed slowly as he got up and handed it to Ioh. “I don’t have much else, but I hope you can find a use for this. It’s supposed to be a fertilizer.”

  As she took it, the vial vanished into data once more. “You don’t have to give us anything, but I think we will make good use of it. Alchemists don’t often give up their brews so easily.”

  “I’m new,” came the response as he let himself smile widely for possibly the first time since his arrival, “and I don’t want to feel ungrateful. Chalk it up to me being inexperienced.”

  Another yawn escaped as she settled in. “Take care, Athos.”

  “I will.”

  With those words, Ioh had slipped into her sleep cycle, and Athos was left to his own devices again. Looking towards where the pair had arrived, the sharp deer were nowhere to be found. Thankfully, that was one less issue to deal with in his mind. Touching the green marble on his gauntlet, he scrolled through the new window until mint appeared and withdrew half of his inventory’s worth of it. Leaving a nice pile of it next to the edge of the grove, he began his trek back to the edge of the forest and, he hoped, to find a place to call home.

  Road Trip

  It wasn’t the most eventful trip back through the forest as Athos’s blessing stuck. He realized that at any given time, he must not have been more than a stone’s throw from another dryad. It didn’t surprise him if he remembered their numbers right, but the fact he couldn’t see anyone was a bit concerning. To add to that growing unease, there was always more being added to his plate that he had to be aware of. Thoughts of alchemical reagents, traits, blessings, debuffs, Wild Ones, rank, motives... all of it just seemed to compound into a massive, seven-headed beast that made his head spin, but then that was life now. If he didn’t get used to it, there wouldn’t be a chance to recover later.

  The trees began to recede as he came closer to the edge step by step until he saw the road in all its trodden, dusty glory. The sun was already well overhead as he stumbled from the forest and into the light. Warmth radiated into every fiber of his being as his feet kicked up dust. The scent of the road and other less than pleasant things collected in his nose. The pressure of his feet on the new surface almost surprised him as much as the way that his eyes had to squint uncomfortably in the bright light. It made him forget for a moment everything that had happened to him. Unfortunately, it was just distracting enough for him to ignore the sounds of well-oiled wheels and the scratching scampers speeding towards him.

  “Look out!” What he had failed to notice was a large wagon approaching. A pair of sandy colored, crystal-encrusted lizards harnessed to a dark wood cart came to a stop just before his stupefied form as he threw his hands up in front of himself for an obvious attempt at protection. “What the Hell are you doing in the middle of the road, kid!”

  After a moment to check himself, Athos looked up to see something he hadn’t in what felt like an eternity: a real person. Well, it looked like a person. No weird eyes or hair, no strange accent or a voice calling him an Earther. Topped with a straw hat and wrapped up in a pair of overalls and a short-sleeved shirt, his clothing was even plain. “Sorry, I just lost myself a bit.”

  “Lost yourself? What are you, seven?” The gruffness of his voice was only rivaled by the gruffness of his untamed beard as he dismounted from his wagon. He took only a single look over Athos’s attire before he continued. “First time I’ve seen one of your kind traveling alone. Did your party get in trouble?”

  “Party?” Athos shook his head as he brushed imagined dust from his coat and readjusted his satchel. “No, I’m just trying to reach town. No one knew Tenebrae had fallen when I arrived.”

  “Arrived?” It took him a moment for the word to process the word and its deeper meaning. “A newbie all the way out here in the frontier and in Tenebrae no less? I’m surprised you escaped that Hellhole.”

  “I did have some help.”

  “Auxi and Martin?” Athos nodded. “They’re good people. That pair stuck around to the bitter end after their device screwed up. They’ve been there ever since.
Lost a lot of good men when they tried to take it back a few months ago,” he sighed and offered his hand to the young alchemist. “I’m Walter, Rank 10 Supplier for the locals.”

  He took the offered hand and shook it. “Athos Aramis, Rank 1 Alchemist.”

  “By God, you are new, aren’t you?” The way Athos’s hand weakened and his face fell must have been telling enough as Walter stroked his massive beard. “God, you must have heard that more than enough times by now from that flush. I’m just surprised is all.”

  A sigh escaped from Athos as he answered. “You’re not the only one, Walter.” Seeing the cart, a thought occurred to him. “Are you going to the city?”

  Walter motioned to his cart and the lizard chomping at the bit. “If you’re talking about Oenus, we’re heading that way.”

  “Have you got room for one more up there?”

  Athos got the distinct feeling that Walter loved to stroke that beard as he thought. “I’ll tell you what, Athos. If you tell me your story, I’ll give you a ride.”

  “There isn’t much to tell.”

  Walter smiled. He had a silver tooth in that alabaster smile and mischief in his eyes. “I’ll be the judge of that and call me Walt. Everyone else does. By the way, is that your real name or the one you took coming here?”

  Another question he had heard more than enough times in his life. “My mom really liked The Three Musketeers.”

  “Fair enough, so do we have a deal?”

  “What have I got to lose?”

  “A day’s walk and a few hours without company?” Walt grinned making his beard rise against the sides of his face.

  Athos smiled. “Sounds like a good deal to me.”

  “Most people say that,” he commented getting back to his cart and climbing back into the driver’s seat. “But I’ll warn you, pull anything funny and you’ll be fertilizing my next crop.” Patting the bench next to him, he motioned for Athos to climb up. The man was the size of a mountain, or at least a hill, no matter which way you looked at him. Tall or wide, Walt was not the smallest of men, so Athos figured the threat wasn’t an empty one, not that he had anything to worry about. At least there was still plenty of space next to him.