by David Gunter
Lawrence looked deep in concentration and then, realizing something critical, spoke up, “But, a creature like this doesn’t show up in any of the materials or databases, so how does it exist? In fact, the demon realm isn’t really something that is supposed to exist outside ancient lore and background stories, right? That is what the literature and project notes I’ve read so far indicate.”
Hellen, realizing the hidden question, paused only briefly to think of a half-truth to tell the youth but thought against it and, instead, decided to show him a little more trust.
“Well… the truth is a little bit more complicated than even I truly understand, but I’ll see if I can shed some light on some aspects of the game that, when combined, might explain things. The game aspect of this world is made up of twelve pillars, with the first basic six being soul, health, mana, stamina, chance, and intelligence, and these are followed by the much more complex six, which are magic, holy, nature, dark, light, and void. These pillars are applied to everything in the VR world, and often they are combined to get special effects, but their influence is so vast that sometimes entirely new and unforeseen things can happen. The only reason that this world can be thought of as a game is because of the effects of these pillars. Naturally, the AI in the game has been busy creating combinations of these to form everything that is seen in the VR world. Yet other modules of the AI have been busy making sense of these combinations, and as a result, the demon world was created with all its denizens. To say that boundaries have been crossed is an understatement, but at least for every entity that is created with one ability, another is created to defeat it. Nevertheless, discovering which good entities balance the bad ones has been left up to the players to figure out.”
Hellen continued, “Another thing that is now true about the VR world is that the natural boundaries, which were first established to keep creatures mostly separate and in their own kingdoms and domains, have been eroded and altered. It is this odd occurrence that is now making me wonder what the effects of these unnatural encounters would be on the VR world and the adventurers.”
“OK, OK, say no more. It definitely makes sense to perform these tests before they become bugs we have to fix.” Lawrence burst out before Hellen could go on explaining the gravity any further.
“Well, that’s a good way to think of it,” said Hellen, “Let’s set up the creature in the bear cave and see what happens to the bear when exposed to the creature’s effects.”
Lawrence, of course, knew what this meant for the bear, but it was a valid test and one that could deliver a lot of valuable data, so he proceeded. Hellen asked him to search for the creature’s name, which he typed in as ‘critterbane’ and, after spotting the creature on his readout nearest to the bear, he mapped out a path to get the ‘critterbane’ into the bear’s cave. After a few calculations and a quick five-minute simulation, he fired off the commands necessary, and the whole chain of events began.
❧
The bear lay in its cave. It was enjoying a lazy afternoon after a morning spent foraging and wandering through the forest. The bear didn’t really understand why it had gone so far out of its normal habits and marked all those trees so far into the human lands, but it had felt utterly incapable of resisting. The long trek had left it exhausted and a little annoyed, though it lacked the ability to understand why it was feeling annoyed, exactly. It felt that this was nothing that a nap in the cool dark cave couldn’t solve, however.
Unfortunately, its reverie was broken by a sudden thunder from deep underground. The thunder grew louder and louder and, before the bear could understand, rocks and debris were falling all around it. The ground underneath felt as if it was shifting ever so slightly while, all the while, the floor underneath shook.
Then it suddenly stopped, about as abrupt as it had started. The bear knew something was different now, but it didn’t know what it was. It looked ahead towards the entrance of the cave and sniffed at the air. There wasn’t anything different there, but as it continued to sniff the air, an odd smell grew towards the rear of the cave. And then, right at the back of the cave, the bear saw a hole that hadn’t been there before. The smell was coming from there.
The bear cautiously made its way to the opening and took one large sniff. The air, it found, was old and unmistakably rich in a particular smell—the smell of rotting flesh. There was too much death coming from this place, and it naturally made the bear step backward, involuntarily. It stepped backward so many times that its backside made its way fully out of the cave while it kept its front paws and head within its shade. It starred at the hole as if it was a powerful foe. Of course, it didn’t know this, but this turned out to be the very thing that saved it in the end. As it had its full attention on the hole, an adventurer was creeping up behind.
The adventurer was John Taney, who had finally managed to track the bear’s markings all the way to its lair. John lifted his spear and was about to thrust it deep into the bear’s back when he managed to step on a rock, which, in turn, made a clear and audible sound due to the metal footgear he was wearing.
“Oh, crumufin!” John said, through gritted teeth, as he acknowledged the complete loss of stealth he’d had.
The bear turned its large head around while still keeping one eye on the hole and, once seeing the adventurer with a spear clearly poised to attack, went back on its two hind legs and, twisting around, launched a swipe attack with its left paw. The awkward movement made it topple over its own hind legs and roll backward, which then caused it to topple over and roll down the hill, leading up to the entrance to its cave.
John looked on in amazement as he watched the huge bear rolling over and over down the mildly steep hill, and as he did so, he exposed his back to an enemy far worse and one he truly was ill-equipped to combat.
The critterbane emerged silently from the hole to find an odd creature standing on two legs and facing away from it and just barely within the comfort of the shade it required. The smell of life emanating from the two-legged creature was too much for the long-time starved critterbane, and it immediately launched itself into a full forward attack.
John heard something scurrying behind him and turned his attention away from the rolling bear and only just got a glimpse of the grotesque and maniacal-looking creature, resembling a semi-dissected cat, launching itself into the air and directly at his face.
The creature landed on John’s face and used its tiny but strong arms and legs to hold on to his face while it proceeded to tear at nose and cheeks, devouring its prey’s features rapidly.
John tried in vain to pull the fierce little animal away from his face, which was being disfigured quickly, but the creature, despite its size, was just too strong.
John screamed in utter torment and took a clumsy step backward and into the light as he pulled and tore with both hands, attempting to rip the creature away from his face. And then the creature squealed in pain and let go just as John slipped on a rock and went rolling backward down the hill, but with much less grace than the bear moments before.
The creature had stopped its feasting and had leaped back into the darkness of the cave when it had felt the unfamiliar burn caused by the sunlight. It then watched, pacing back and forth like a wild animal in a cage as it watched in the safety of the dark, watching its meal go farther and farther away.
“Reeeeeee Reee Reeeeeeee” was the only sound it made.
John managed to roll to a stop and, holding his bloody and torn face upward, looked feverishly back up towards the hill at the cave entrance. He heard the creature’s screams of desire but could barely make out its prowling form. In the darkness of the cave, the only thing he could clearly see was the bright reflective eyes that seemed to follow his every movement. Then he remembered the bear and, with some effort, glanced around to see if the bear had stopped its downward roll nearby.
Thankfully, it hadn’t. It was further down the hill, looking
up towards the cave, and him, much like the terrifying creature in the cave, was looking down. However, the look the bear gave was more of fear and slight curiosity, while the creature in the cave looked down with clear and ravenous hunger.
Until then, John had been operating under pure adrenaline, and because of this, his stamina had been severely depleted. He tried to stand but suddenly dropped to one knee and nearly passed out on the spot. Of course, he had spent a great deal of time working on his stamina on the way here, and therefore managed to remain conscious and on one knee. Nevertheless, the pain in his face was something fierce. He felt his face was beginning to burn with a kind of chemical burning sensation. It also felt that, even though the creature was no longer eating his face, his face was still slowly dissolving. He realized with dread that the creature’s attack was not over. There was a lingering effect.
John willed his status screen to appear.
Character Sheet
Name: John TaneyLevel: 1
HP: 3/15 Stamina: 1.5/15
MP: 15Soul: 15/15
Race: Human
Alignment: Light Aligned
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Status: Demonic Digestion
The digestive juices of a demonic creature are, currently dissolving you.
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Status: Eaten Alive
You are being eaten alive. This has two effects. 1st you are determined to live and receive an adrenaline buff which manages to keep your stamina above 10% for the next five minutes.
2nd you are being eaten so your, actual and maximum stamina are dropping quickly and will continue to drop until you succumb or lose the ‘Eaten Alive’ status.
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Debuff: Incoherent Thoughts
You are being eaten alive? This makes you think crazy and incoherent thoughts. You must run… no you must fight… no you must hide. You don’t know what to do. Maybe you’ll roll around on the floor till you feel ok again. Maybe you should let the vicious creature in the cave just eat you so the pain will stop. No, these thoughts are not yours and you refuse them.
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Debuff: Zombie Blood
You are slowly becoming an undead Zombie. If ‘Zombie Blood’ is not treated you will die and your race will become ‘Human Zombie’
John saw the poor state of his HP and Stamina and realized that his strange thoughts were due to these effects as well. Suddenly the ‘Incoherent Thoughts’ debuff disappeared. He had managed to will his thoughts into control. And saw that he had received a permanent buff called ‘militant mind.’ Next to the permanent buff, the following words appeared:
‘You are not entirely untrained. Your years of military training have allowed you to discover a ‘militant mind’ that others do not have. You simply refuse to despair, and you will not be eaten alive. Why? Because you simply refuse it.’ - System Notice
John saw almost all the debuffs disappear but then sadly saw a single debuff remain. As he read the debuff, he realized that he simply had to find a cure or things would become worse. He didn’t really know what becoming a ‘Human Zombie’ would mean but based on pop culture and movies, he determined that it was pretty bad.
He pushed these thoughts aside, as his ‘militant mind’ buff allowed him to do, and stood up. The creature in the cave was something terrible and dangerous. It’s true that it was small and confined to the cave, but, as he reasoned through the events, he realized another truth. The creature was only held captive by the light of the sun. What, praytell, would happen when nightfall came? The creature, undoubtedly, would wreak havoc throughout the region. More importantly, what would happen to him at night? Would the Zombie Blood overtake him in the absence of sunlight?
“If the sunlight can subdue this creature, then certainly the power of the light must be able to subdue its effects.” He said this aloud to give himself calm.
“I have to find some help in the nearby city. Someone has to know how I can find a healer or priest with a light affinity.” He didn’t know exactly why this made sense, but it just did.
“Light beats Dark,” he reasoned aloud.
There was just one problem. The bear was only keeping its distance at the bottom of the hill because of the creature in the cave above.
As soon as John made to move towards the city, the bear seemed to circle around, directly blocking his way. The bear wanted a fight, and it was only keeping its distance because of the vicious creature in the cave. There really was no avoiding it. He could head back up the hill and face the creature in the cave, or he could face the bear at the bottom of the hill. John made the only decision that wouldn’t mean his certain death and walked down the hill.
The bear saw his approach and let out a loud roar. John watched the bear as it roared and realized that the bear made the exaggerated effort, more for the creature that had taken over its cave than for the meager threat he posed. So he slowed his approach and cautiously got closer and closer to the large beast.
Suddenly, the bear wriggled its nose in disgust and sneezed. Then it seemed to move away from him as he attempted to come closer. John stopped and looked at the bear with more than a little surprise. Did he disgust the bear? It certainly looked to be disgust on the bear’s expression. As he restarted his approach towards the beast, the bear seemed to be reevaluating its stance and seemed to decide that John’s presence was bad for its health and, with a little spin, turned and retreated in the opposite direction, all the while looking back to see if John was giving chase.
John, of course, did not give chase but instead let the bear get to a safe distance. Then it dawned on him why the bear might have behaved this way.
“Oh boy! I think the bear can smell the Zombie Blood in me. I suppose that would make for a poor choice of food, and it simply can’t risk getting near me. This is bad!” he said aloud. John turned and slowly walked in the direction of the city he could see at a distance. The city called “Bay City.”
❧
Lawrence and Hellen observed with shock and just a little dread as the infected soldier made the distance to the city disappear with every step, steadily increasing the threat to its massively thriving population. Nothing had gone to plan.
❧
It was dusk when John walked into Bay City and made his way to the nearest guard. Things weren’t looking good for him, and he found that he no longer walked with the military stride he had had for most of his adult life. Instead, his walk was more than a little crooked, and his head seemed to jerk every once in a while involuntarily. Ya, he was turning a little zombie-like, and it made the guards take an involuntary step back as he approached.
John ignored the guards’ reaction and attempted to ask for directions.
“Temple…priest…light healer. Need heeeelllp”, he managed to say.
The guard closest regarded him for a moment and then decided to communicate with him. “Ya buddy, you definitely don’t look so good. Did you catch some kind of disease out in the jungles?”
“Please… no time … need healzzz”, was all that John managed to say and then, without warning, fell on his face.
The first guard looked at the other guard and back down at John. “Private, I think you need to go quickly to get a healer from the…” The sergeant changed his mind mid-sentence as he took another look at John’s poorly disfigured face and tried not to gag. “Go to the barracks and bring back some volunteers. We need to take this guy to the priests of the lighthouse right away.” The other guard quickly saluted and took off running in the direction of the barracks.
The sergeant looked at John and, seeing his armor said, “What mission did they send you on, comrade of the light? They give us impossible tasks and then lay us to rest while we’re still in our youth.” The sergeant simply looked in pity at John’s collapsed body and shook his hea
d. “We’ll save you if we can, my friend.”
❧
John’s dreams were very strange. He’d been in this place before. He was wearing a robe or tunic. His hands were skeletal, and several of his fingers had rings with odd-looking gems or runes on them, and each glowed with many different colors. He didn’t seem to have any control of his actions, but he seemed to be looking through eyes that felt like his own, though somehow different.
“You’re back,” a voice said. “John, it is me. I mean, you. I don’t know how much time we have, but you have to know the truth. The gods of this world are not what you think. This place is not what you think. It’s not a game. Whatever you do, don’t treat it like a game. There are real stakes here that change everything. When you get to the temple of light, you have to ask about the blue wolf. He’s the key to everything. Don’t waste time with the temple mission; you have to free the….”.
The voice abruptly ended and, though it sounded rough and different, he knew that he had been talking to himself. ‘Is it me from the future?’ he wondered. Things were so strange in these dreams. Then he suddenly realized that he was flying on the back of some kind of scaled creature. With a shock, he saw that it had to be a dragon.
Then an older rougher voice started speaking to him. “Hi John, is that you? It’s been a long time, man. I needed to tell you something the last time, but we were cut short. Hmmm.. What was it? You needed to free somebody. Oh yes, I remember now. Hellen, I was going to say, Hellen. Hahaha, ‘cough cough,’ well, isn’t that just a bunch of rubbish. Na, you don’t need to do anything about that little lady. If there is anyone you need to free, it would be a being that goes by the name of ‘Narrator.’ He’s the key to your success, trust me. Save the ‘Narrator,’ save the world. Isn’t that how it goes? Hahaha….”
