Chapter 0011

Madalinos was a woman of her words. Five minutes to the dot she stopped the stupid baby teasing. She looked around, spotted a rock and sat down with Leviene on her lap. “Okay mi amigdalinos, are you relaxed now?” she asked in all seriousness.

Since Leviene didn’t want another whack that might kill her this time, she answered her honestly. “I’m more frustrated than relax. The outrageous display of affection didn’t help to calm me down.”

“Better.”

“You mention controlling my tail?” Leviene prompted her.

“Look into yourself,” she paused, trying to find the right words, “Bring up your” pause “character screen and I’ll show you.”

Leviene brought up her character screen. Madalinos pointed to the tail section of the character. Stupid appendage has a separate characteristic for it. Wait, that wasn’t there before. She’d remember if there was a tail section in the character screen. The short Perrian Let is anything if not through.

Leviene wonder if Madalinos added the section to the character screen a moment ago. She wouldn’t be surprise if she did.

“Here. The tail of a Perrion Let can be used like an extra hand, but in order to do so, tail strength, agility, precision and dexterity must be improved first. In the process of strengthening the muscle, control is gained. Until then the tail will act on instinct depending on your mood.”

“How do you know all this?” Leviene asked, unwilling to trust the weird stranger.

Despite Leviene’s wariness of strangers, she has good luck in meeting random people. Most of the people the young woman approach, generally for directions, are nice and honest people.

Such luck or the ability to judge the intentions of others isn’t Leviene’s forte. The Calbots point blank ask if the Deveraux were monitoring the easily distractible child. The Deveraux denied assigning a surveillance team for the Calbots. Sylphie did later assign a bodyguard team to Leviene after the incident in France when Leviene was 8.

Madalinos brought out her tail to show Leviene. “See, the tip of the tail act like fingers. And like a hand, it can be trained to grab or throw things like this.” Quicker than a snake, Madalinos used her tail to snatch something from somewhere and threw it at the tree. The experience player didn’t see any of the movement at all. The tail was there, then Leviene heard a thump and the tail was back where it was.

Madalinos set Leviene down near the tree for inspection. The experienced player tried to pull the small blade from the tree, but it was in deep. “Training tail strength determines how deep the blade will sink into the tree or the type of weapon used. The tail is not limited to dirks or dagger, nor can it only be used to throw things. Look over here Lara.” Leviene turned around. Madalinos held a broadsword with the tip of her tail. She used her tail to swing the sword like an expert. Where did she get that sword? Leviene didn’t notice her carrying a sword anywhere on her body.

“Tail agility determines maneuverability,” she continued the lecture as she swings the sword in a series of complicated arcs, “mostly the side to side or up and down motion.  Dexterity determines what the tips can do.” She then twirled the sword like a baton, threw it in the air and caught it back.

Leviene inspected Madalinos for sheath or a place where she pulled the broadsword from. Having seen none, the curious player asked, “Where did you get the sword from? And the dagger?”

Madalinos smiled at the innocent childish curiosity Leviene displayed. Madalinos grabbed her tail by the tips, lift it up and showed Leviene the sword sheath on underside of her tail. Once the angelic Perrian Let had a good look, Madalinos bend down, grabbed the hem of her dress, pulled it up and showed the curious player the thigh sheath for the dirk she threw.

Oooh, secret weapon hidden on the body. Most of the time a character's weapons are on displayed for all to see. It’s part of the attraction of any MMORPG game, cool looking gear and weapons.

This is the first time Leviene have ever seen the hidden weapon aspect of the game. Suddenly the curious player was lifted up to face Madalinos. Nooo, Leviene protested silently in her mind, I still want to see those hidden places. She wouldn’t dare say it out loud. She is still at 1% life.

“Madalinos, let me down! I still want to see those sheaths.” Leviene said belligerently.

Brain calling survival instinct, where are you?

“Here.” Boom headshot.

Player is dead.

Survival instinct, “It’s all the mouth fault. Brain, you are closer to it, do something. Not going to show up until you cage the idiot.”

“Lara,” Madalinos laughingly chide, “it’s you who wrapped your tail around my arm.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Well so she did. Leviene stared at Madalinos, expectantly.

“You don’t expect me to hand you all the answers do you?”

“About the tail yes!”

A sweet voiced, warmed with humor and laced with a parent’s indulgences answered, “It will act on instinct until you start your training.”

“What kind of training?” The experienced player wanted to know. Aside from wanting to make the useless piece of flesh useful, Leviene wanted to know how to increase in game stat points.

As an end game player (players who can repeatedly kill high level bosses for their drops), Leviene has an avid interest in increasing the attack power and survivability of her characters. The need to have the best gear in game for their class stems partially the ego of a gamer to show off their characters, the need for the guild to have good geared players when they attempt new contents and to kill of the bastard who dare steal the mob/herbs/mines/drops from her.

The last reason frustrates her. She doesn’t know why, but she’s quite horrible when fighting other players.

“The movements I showed you earlier. Start actively lifting, tossing and catching a small rock, then increase the weight. And position training. Use your hand to physically arrange your tail into a position and hold it there for a certain amount of time. Then increase the amount of time it stays in that position. Over time your tail will start doing what you want instead of what your instinct tells it.”

“And the weapons?” Leviene asked excitedly.

“When you have enough stat points in your tail, the weapon slot will open.”

“Oooooh okay I just have to allot enough stat points to my tail instead of my general character to get the weapon slot to show up, okay I got it.”

“No.”

“No? What do you mean no?”

“I mean you can’t allot points like you do your primary stats. Tail stat points are like your secondary stats in that they must be earned.”

“What secondary stats?” Now the short Perrian Let is pumping her for information. She knows it, Leviene know it, but she pretends not to.

“Endurance, precision, dexterity, magic resistance, focus and wisdom are secondary stats. They can’t be allotted with your characteristic points when you level. You have to earn it through trials, practice and repetition.” She threw Leviene a sharp look. “Young lady, I highly suggest you don’t skimp on the secondary stat. You can’t dump all your characteristic points all into one stat without leveling the secondary stat. It doesn’t work like that.” Seeing Leviene’s confused look, she further explained, “If you have the strength to bend a blade with your bare hands, do you think you can grip a fork to eat dinner with?”

Leviene wanted to say yes just to be contrary, but she wanted the information more so she nodded. Being contrary at this time does more harm than good. However, the Perrian Let began to wonder about the mysterious woman.

It is a simple question of why wait?

Anyone is an idiot if they haven’t figured out the woman lost her daughter. Madalinos thinks Leviene is her daughter. It is obvious Madalinos is a little insane, yet she has the mental capacity to manipulate the world and bring thousands if not millions of human here.

Leviene never question why she was mistaken as the daughter of so and so or the child of blah blah. It happen so often back on Earth. She got use to random people trying to claim her as their long lost relative. Especially in France. There are many people who claim they are related to her.

Madalinos has been lonely for a long time. She is very powerful in Arashia. In the real world, she is a power house to be reckoned with. She has the power, ability, determination and the not so sane mentality to attempt anything, so why did she wait all this time?

Madalinos cocked her head at the Perrian Let who she considered her daughter, spreading a riot of colors as the light hit her crystalline hair. “The secondary stats were created to mimic reality and to prevent a character from taking advantage of game mechanic and dumping all their characteristic points into one attribute.”

“So there’s a way to cheat?”

“Not cheat. Try it with alts and you’ll understand. Secondary stats limit and enhances primary stats. At higher levels, it won’t be the primary stats you want.”

Madalinos abruptly stiffened her shoulders. She turned her head towards the spires at the northern part of the city, listening to something only she can hear. Rainbow light swirled as she turned towards Leviene with a forced smile. “Before I go mi amigdalinos a word, if there’s a limit on something, break it.”

The radiant beauty flared her crystalline wings, refracting light, shining a kaleidoscope of colors everywhere. Within a moment she was gone. A speck in the distance.

The experience player admired her speed as she winged her way towards the residential towers. Damn was she fast.

At Leviene’s current ability, she will never be able to catch up to her.

Like a scene in those sappy story Leviene detest, three feathers floated towards her. Leviene knew it was deliberate gift posing as an accident, but she was not one to look a gift in the mouth. She grabbed the feathers and stuffed it into her inventory.

Only when she was sure the loot was safely hidden did she inspect it.

[Tear of the Empress] - Legendary Item

[Feather of the Empress] - Legendary Item

Woot woot! One tear and three feathers, all legendary items. She hit the jackpot! Leviene did not know what it might be used for but she knows it can be sold for money. The elated player knew it is better not to tell anyone about her loot. She might be hunted down and rob.

Selling the items is out of the question. No one has the money to buy it. She won’t get it’s true worth. Those bastards might buy it and resell it. Leviene will definitely lose out then.

[Madalinos whisper to Leviene]: Send regular updates or I’ll be mad.

Her private message startled the enraptured player. Despite the information she gave, Leviene am reluctant to meet her again. Anyone who can kill Leviene with one hit is not someone she want to mess with. Proof, the not so strong spank reducing her life to 1%. But. Sigh, always the but, the smart Perrian Let don’t want to anger her either. She might forget she like her and go psycho on Leviene in one of her raging fits. She would make a good ally and a good source of information. However, handling a strange woman is dangerous.

[Leviene whisper to Madalinos]: Okay.

Now to the most important question of the day. Where is she and how does she get out of here? Okay, two questions, but who's counting?