She looked exactly like Valerie but it was now much easier to tell her apart from the original. She was much less stiff and formal with her long curly black hair hanging loose around her shoulders and a wide eyed innocent look on her face that would never fit the much more stoic woman.. She was wearing a simple white tunic, tight brown breeches and ill fitting boots. She smiled as if asking for my appraisal of her new look. I only offered a small smile and nodded as I asked, “How do you feel?”
She considered the question and her brow furrowed as she pursed her lips, “This is the first time I’ve drawn all of the mist into myself and taken a persistent form.”
After a few long moments of silence she looked at me with concern, “I don’t know who I am.”
Seemed as if not a small share of those who had dwelled in the fortress had found their way into this new entity. With a comforting pat on the shoulder I led her toward the stairs, “We’re going to help you figure that out.”
The three of us together started to search the empty chamber for anything useful prompting an announcement for a change to the quest:
“Quest Evolving
The Resistance!
XP Gained: 800
XP Reward: 500
You have solved the threat to the Braithe Border Fort and are now able to move on. Keep an eye on your new addition, she’s a maneater.”
Valerie fussed over Mystal as I searched the room, snapping up anything that registered as a crafting reagent and stowing it into my bag. There was one item of interest inside the old desk next to the now collapsed cot. When I retrieved the little crystalline loop, Lydia announced it’s statistics:
“Ring of Eternal Bonding
A nearly opaque onyx crystal band with the symbol of a sunburst repeated around its circumference. A common type of ring for marriage bonds, although this one is of more elaborate construction.
Type: Ring
Slot: Ring
Requirement: Level 14
Rarity: Uncommon
Tier: F
Charm +10, Spirit +5
Speak a vow into the ring and choose a target within 30 meters. That target gains a +10 to Vitality and Strength for one minute. If you somehow break your vow before the end of the current day you will be cursed with a -10 to Spirit and Reason for one hour. Can only be used once per day.”
Sliding it onto my finger and raising it to my lips I whispered, “I vow to never betray Valerie de Lafontaine,” and glanced at the warrior woman. She was pulling out the ties on a leather breastplate and looked up sharply, glaring at me with narrowed eyes.
Flashing her a cheeky grin, I gestured at the stairs with my thumb and ignored her glare, “Gonna give the keep a once over and see if there is anything we can use.”
She called out after me with clear suspicion in her husky voice, “Could you restrain yourself from robbing the entire fortress blind?”
Raising a thumb over my shoulder, I called back, “You got it!”
As I descended the stairs I opened my notifications to an entire host of skill increases and level ups from twelve to fourteen.
Both the Lockpick and Persuade skills reached the Trained tier. Lockpick did not have a specialty like my combat skills but added a new ability to ease lockpicking attempts:
You lockpick 100% faster. You may choose to foul a lock in the process of lockpicking it so it may not be locked again.
Persuade gained a new ability:
Let’s Talk About This
If an enemy can be reasoned with you can end combat with a hurried plea, but it won’t last long.
Rather than remove one of my current passive skills I ignored the new lockpick bonus and it vanished as an option. With no statistics to add I closed the window and continued down into the now mistless keep. The torches lit by the Mistguards were still guttering along and I found my way easily working my way through room after room in search of anything worthwhile to sell or crafting supplies should I find a way to make my own equipment.
There were uncomfortable reminders of all the lost denizens of the keep. Letters to family and loved ones back home. A hand carved cameo of a smiling young man that was obviously dear to the owner. A cherished black bottle full of some kind of alcohol that was dusty and unopened stowed in a soldier’s footlocker. I tried to tell myself that these men and women were NPCs and that Mystal was just an animal and a child that was desperate for food.
It was getting harder and harder to call these characters ‘Just NPCs’ however.
Lydia startled me out of my thoughts as she spoke up in my ear, “Sweetheart? Miss Sakurai sent you a message. She indicated that she and her friend are arriving at your location.”
“Thanks, Lyd.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Closing the footlocker I had been searching I hurried out of the fortress toward the main gate that Valerie and I had entered a little over an hour before. Strolling up to the open gate I peered out and saw a pair of figures strolling up the road in the faint starlight. I called out to them with an air of faux authority, “Who goes there? How dare you approach my fortress at this hour?”
An annoyed male voice answered, “Shut up dude! What did you do? Did you kill the whole fort?”
“I’ll tell you the whole story…”
Sakurai added, sounding very reserved and contrite, “I am sorry that we abandoned you in the tutorial Florin.”
With a wave of my hand I dismissed the apology, “Don’t worry about it. I told you to. I’m just glad to meet some reasonably trustworthy people.”
The two emerged from the mist looking very different than the last time I’d seen them. Nomura’s tattered robe had been replaced by a nice black and red model with a heavy hood. He was also carrying a white wooden staff with a glass bird perched atop it. It seemed likely he got the robe from a cultist. His female zombie avatar now had a mouth full of jagged black teeth with a black snake-like tongue that occasionally appeared within them.
Sakurai was a mountain of blackened plate armor with a wicked oversized scythe strapped to her back. Her helmet was just flat black steel with simple thin eye slits. As she approached she raised the visor to reveal that her skeleton’s skull had turned moss green and its eyes were lit with a sickly yellow light.
When Nomura caught sight of me he groused, “Holy shit, how did you find the hot race?”
Coughing, I gave the man a flat look, “Comes naturally brother. My natural charisma just transmits digitally super well.”
“Bullshit.”
Sakurai studied me for a long moment and finally asked, “Is this race a result of your encounter in the tutorial?”
Grimacing at the memory of Theodora I nodded, “I have a lot to explain and I should probably get on with it before you two run into my traveling companions…”
With that I explained what had happened since leaving the tutorial dungeon. My encounter with KKG and his cronies. The beginning of the quest that led to me meeting Valerie and eventually coming to the border fort. I left out my personal problems with Theodora’s hacker and gave them a brief run down on my character’s progression.
As we neared the tower Nomura asked, “A dancer huh?”
Smiling confidently I said, “Look It was the most effective…”
Sakurai cut me off with a smile in her voice, “Do not let Nomura ridicule you Florin, he dances quite well and does so frequently.”
When I raised an eyebrow at the ghoul sorcerer Nomura he scoffed, “I’m an idol, it’s expected.”
My eyes widened and he continued with reluctance, “I am somewhat well known…”
Sakurai tried to forestall a laugh but failed and Nomura glared at her as he said, “Let’s just say that my follower base was quite large.”
Holding up my hands I chuckled, “Same, to be honest. I wasn’t a dancer, but I sure wore a mask for the masses everyday… until I screwed it all up.”
A silence fell over the three of us as we made our way up the stairs, Nomura and I side by side and the massive wall of metal that was Sakurai following just after.
Our silence was broken by Valerie’s voice, “Florin?”
To keep the swordswoman from charging down the stairs I answered quickly, “It’s me. I’ve brought a couple of friends with me. Don’t freak out.”
We entered the tower room to find a surly looking Valerie with her arms crossed over her broad mail covered chest and a smiling Mystal next to her waving to me and the new arrivals. While I was on my looting mission it appeared that Valerie had outfitted Mystal in a full suit of tight brown leather armor and given her a longsword of her own.
Entering, I stepped aside and offered a sarcastic bow as I gestured to the new arrivals, “Nomura and Sakurai, this is Valerie and Mystal.”
When I looked at Nomura his avatar just smirked and shook its head. Offering him a slight scowl I muttered, “What?”
“Oh, we’ll talk about it.”
Sakurai moved forward and offered a deep proper bow to Valerie and Mystal, “Florin-san has told us of your noble status Valerie-sama, we are honored to meet you.”
The noblewoman seemed to relax some and offered a nod in response to the giant skeleton woman.
Sakurai bowed to Mystal in turn and said, “Mystal, we have not met or grown to know a creature such as yourself and we are honored to do so.”
I searched into my menus for the evolving quest and sent Nomura and Sakurai an invite, which they accepted. I sent them the quest and each of them turned and nodded.
Clapping my hands together I smiled, “Alright, we are all on board with getting Valerie to Braithe and getting this revolution going!”
Mystal cheered happily and Valerie’s eyes rolled.
Setting off toward the stairs, I suggested, “Unless we need anything else here I only have a few more hours before I have to rest.”
Sakurai added, “Nomura and I just started so we should be able to guide the Lady while you rest Florin-san.”
Turning to look over my shoulder I asked Valerie, “How long will it take for us to reach the city?”
She considered the question for several long moments and finally said, “Two days if we move quickly. Three is more likely.”
As we descended, Sakurai and Valerie, and to some degree Mystal fell into conversation with each other. Nomura caught up with me at the front and his lady ghoul avatar gave me a pointed look with a huge grin.
Sensing his mirth was at my expense I asked, “What?”
He shrugged, “I see you’re building a harem already.”
“Dude, shut up.”
“In all my years of reading manga I am pretty sure that I have never read a story where the MC duplicates his waifu to double down on the best girl.”
I gave him a withering look, “First off, NPCs. They are NPCs. Second, Valerie is mean as hell…”
Nomura jumped in with, “Tsundere.”
Ignoring him, I continued, “And Mystal is like a young monster thing.”
Nomura gave me a flat look and shook his avatar’s head, “I may have not read a manga where a guy dupes his waifu but you know what I have read?”
Sighing and shaking my head I asked, “What?”
“Manga where both of those types of girls you mentioned are waifus.”
My response took a more serious tone, “Look, the NPC thing is serious. I’m just not into that. Also, I’ve got my own problems to deal with outside of games and the last way I want to deal with them is becoming a ‘VR Enthusiast’.”
Nomura shrugged, his strange ghoul avatar’s lips pursed around its horrifying black teeth as he said, “If I was not devoted to Sakurai I might give it a try. This world is more real than any I ever played in.”
I caught snippets of the conversation behind me and was slightly horrified as Sakurai asked, “What do people taste like?”
Mystal answered in such a chipper fashion that I worried I might hear Valerie gag, “So good! They have different tastes too depending on if they are man or woman or young or old…”
Grimacing, I tried to forget that I’d heard that. Our eventual camping situation was suddenly at the forefront of my thoughts with the strange monstrous Valerie clone added to our retinue.
Somehow discussing all that had stirred up memories of Sydney again and I tried my best to keep them at bay.
The thought struck me, “Would it hurt to call her and let her know I was ok?”
Yes… yes of course it would. The best thing for Syd was for me to never talk to her again. Imagine the online bullshit that would come down on her and the company if they were seen with Malcolm ‘Killer’ Voss again?
As we ascended the mountain path toward the barricaded city of Braithe I put thoughts of Sydney and my old life aside.
