Author’s note: So the next chapter is here. Please enjoy the next part of Seri’s story. I wish I had more to say.
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Chapter 3
After deciding to leave the dead bird behind, because of both my pack being full and the fact that I didn’t at all care for the idea of lugging around a dirty and bloody bird carcass that was almost half my size, I returned to Lullaby. I emptied the pack in one of the spare storage rooms and then made the other two necessary trips to pick up the rest of the drone.
During both trips, my presence detection didn’t pick up even a hint of anything which surprised me. Were all those presences earlier just the wolves, and were they now keeping away from me? The scan result said the wolves were violent and territorial so why did they give me food and back off instead of attacking me? The only idea that I can come up with is that they sensed the difference in strength between us, but if so that’s amazingly perceptive for a beast in this game.
I had to admit, I was curious how edible the bird was but with months worth of food supplies I wasn’t really in a rush to test it. I didn’t want a repeat of what happened earlier in the day with being ill, now that that was apparently a game mechanic. I might need to be more careful about what I eat in the future.
Wait. Doesn’t this mean that I could get sick eating my sweets!? This is monstrous. How am I supposed to play a game where eating sweets could make me sick!? No, calm down Seri, you don’t know for sure yet whether this will happen or not. Maybe being sick just had to do with whatever happened during the drive failure and crash landing. Let’s stay optimistic and continue to enjoy the sweets.
Thinking about eating reminded me that I hadn’t eaten since that bowl of soup nearly six hours ago, so I headed to the ship’s canteen to prepare something. As I passed by the synthesizer room, I heard Lynn giggling which filled me with trepidation when I considered the kinds of outfits she might give me tomorrow. Well I don’t have any alternatives. I trusted her to prepare the outfit, so I’ll just have to live with whatever she gives me.
With the curiosity about the bird somewhat fresh on my mind, I ended up going with baked chicken for dinner. It was simple enough, even for me, to cook and I opened a can of corn and prepared some mashed potatoes to go with it. I wanted a drink, so I grabbed a bottle of wine and poured a glass.
Before I realized, I had finished my dinner and drank the entire bottle. I didn’t feel ill at all though, which seemed like a good sign. Not being able to enjoy my alcohol would have been almost as bad as not being able to enjoy my sweets.
Now that I’ve eaten, I supposed that I should get started working on repairing the sensors. A quick class swap and picking up my spare tool belt, since I didn’t want to intrude on Lynn in the synthesizer room to pick up those tools, I headed to the cockpit. Most of the sensor systems were in there along with the systems for controlling the ship, so it was the most likely place for the damage to be. Using my tools to open up the panels to get started, I sat them aside and then turned to get back to work just to be left in shock.
Nothing looked familiar. There were new cables I didn’t recognize, way too many small computing cores all interconnected, and weird looking circuit boards as well. I hurriedly opened some of the other panels around the cockpit and saw more of the same. I know that none these systems were like this before the update since I had performed routine maintenance. I can only conclude that the game update changed this but how am I supposed to fix this if none of it is like what I know?
I closed the other panels and then returned to the sensors. The only thing I could try was to look for anything that might be damaged but I couldn’t find anything obvious like that. What am I going to do now? I sat in a daze looking at the unknown sensor system. There has to be something I can do, I’m supposed to be a max level technician! Would there be information on the ship computer main core about how to repair this? Probably not. There might be schematics but those would only get me so far.
As I sat there with my mind running every which way in turmoil, I was unaware at first of my hands starting to move. Reaching into the panels and moving cables around, unattaching them from one socket plugging them into another, taking out the circuit boards adjusting pieces of them before returning them. Coming out of muddled state, I saw my hands come out of the space and I looked from them back to the system. It looked different again, but this time I had a confident feeling that it was fixed, but I had no idea how I knew that. I have no idea how I did anything that I just did. I continued to stare at my hands in incomprehension until Lynn’s appearance brought me back to reality.
“Mistress, good work! The sensors are now running perfectly again. You should probably get some sleep, you were hard at work here for a few hours, you know. I didn’t want to interrupt you when you were so focused.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had been working for hours? It felt like only ten or so minutes had passed since I came to the bridge. “Mistress, did you hear me? Do you need me to get my android to carry you to bed?”
Concentrating my thoughts back on my current situation, “Ahh, no Lynn I’m alright. I’m just exhausted after everything that happened today, so I started to drift off a bit. I’ll head to bed now. Did you finish my outfit?” I asked with a feeling of dread.
“Yep! It came out just like Mistress asked for too. I even made some extras to go with it so please look forward to it tomorrow Mistress!” Lynn’s exuberance was almost tangible which only fueled my feeling of dread further. “Mistress, I’m going to bring in the maintenance droids so have a good night.” She bowed before disappearing.
Sleeping sounded wonderful right now, so I made my way to my bedroom and got ready for bed. A slight feeling of pressure led me to more trauma in the bathroom but I eventually got into bed and pulled up the covers. Cuddling one of my fluffy pillows, I let myself drift off into sleep.
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As I slept, for the first time while in game, I dreamed. The dreams were hazy but eventually started to focus on certain scenes. Scenes where I failed at cooking over and over. Scenes where a woman in a uniform that seemed recognizable but I couldn’t recall where from showed me the basics and taught me. A Scene about my first time having cake and other sweets and getting sick because I ate too much. A Scene where I was praised for succeeding at making a cake of my own. Scenes where I was treated to alcohol and taught about wines. They all mixed together before the dreams moved on.
Now I was experiencing scenes where I was practicing starship repair. Scenes where I studied all night long even to my detriment the next day. Scenes where I messed up and destroyed what I was working on and got scolded. Scenes where I overhauled every inch of Lullaby so I knew how everything went together. Scenes where I replaced the old sensor system with a much more powerful one.
Once again they all swirled in my mind as I continued dreaming.
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Rousing the next day, I felt like I had experienced something important, but didn’t know what that might have been. The wisps of my dreams eluded me as I tried to recall them. I was momentarily surprised when I realized I was trying to remember dreams in game. That brought me to full consciousness and I sat up confused.
Dreaming in a VR game should not be possible. Your mind might be resting in the game but your brain can not enter REM state. Studies that had been done on players had even shown that trying to get all your rest in a VR world would lead to the same problems as if you were forgoing sleep. Of course it was refreshing in game in the short term as if you had a brief comfortable nap, but you’d quickly fall apart if you never logged out to get some real sleep.
Impossible or not, I’m sure I was dreaming. Or was I? Honestly now that I’m more awake I’m not sure if I was or not. I can’t remember any dreams, and the last thing I clearly remember is falling asleep last night. So, did I dream or not?
Why is everything that happened since the update so perplexing!? I felt so frustrated and annoyed. I wanted to scream and vent all these feelings at something! Anything!
I took a deep breath, and then another and tried to calm myself down. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was still quite early, so I decided that taking a nice hot bath and relaxing might be good for me. I slipped off my pajamas and went to fill the tub. After the tub was ready, I got in and just let myself think about nothing other than the pleasantly hot water.
Of course, Lynn interrupted me eventually. “Mistress, you’ve been in there for forty minutes. I prepared some breakfast for you as well.”
Sighing, I got out of the bath, hopped in the shower and let it take care of actually preparing me for the day. After finishing, I walked out of the bathroom and didn’t see Lynn around, so I guessed my breakfast must be in the canteen. There was no reason to put on other clothes when I knew Lynn would be giving me an outfit later so I settled on just a robe and headed out.
At the canteen I found a plate of still warm pancakes, a glass of orange juice, and a note from Lynn telling me she was putting the finishing touches on my clothing and that she would have it prepared in my room shortly. I was still feeling apprehensive about what Lynn would present to me, but at least I knew that it should be functional. At least, I hoped so.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
As I was finishing, Lynn popped in. “Mistress, your outfit for your trip is ready. I took care of your packing, too. Oh, something else came up while you were in the bath. A large number of creatures that looked like wolves came to the ship and deposited a carcass before leaving.”
What are those wolves doing? “Was it a bird? They gave me one yesterday, though I’m still not sure why.”
Lynn shook her head, “No the animal carcass they left behind resembles a large moose.”
I was a bit puzzled over their actions. Yesterday they gave me a large penguin like bird and today a moose. The scan said they were territorial and they fought each other for dominance among their pack, yet instead of attacking me they give me what must pass to them as food. Are they offerings or something? I considered it before, but were they really perceptive enough to realize my strength, and now these are their attempts at ingratiating themselves to me so I don’t wipe them out? Or is there something else at work? I don’t have enough information about beasts of this world to be sure. I’ll try to ask the townspeople about it I guess.
“Alright, I’ll see if I can learn anything about these beasts at the town but they’re not a priority, so unless they try to actually attack the ship just ignore them. If they do attack the ship, then you have full permission to use the weapon systems to get rid of every last one of them. Oh, that reminds me, if anyone else stumbles upon the ship you should probably handle them in the same way. I don’t like the idea too much about killing possibly innocent locals but I don’t want the people here knowing about Lullaby’s existence if we can help it. At least for now anyway. We did make landing at basically the middle of the night, so if we’re lucky it might have went unnoticed by the locals. Well, that’s enough about that topic, you said my clothing was ready so I’ll head to my room now.” <((If you are reading this series on any website other than royalroad.com, then you are doing so without the permission of the author, Xacual. If you have paid money and bought the story on Amazon or some other store, please file a report and request a refund as it has been stolen and is being sold illegally.))>
“Orders acknowledged in case of the wolves Mistress. My android body is already waiting in your room so I’ll just switch.” Lynn pulled her usual vanishing act.
Psyching myself up to face the impending danger, I made my way back to my room. Upon entering I came face to face with Lynn holding up a very fancy and elegant gown. It looked like something a queen or at least a princess would wear. I couldn’t help but hold my head in my hands in exasperation. “Lynn, how is that an outfit that a traveler would wear!? Especially a traveler who is traveling alone on foot!”
Lynn had a shocked look on her face at my reaction. “What do you mean Mistress? Don’t royalty have to travel around on occasion?” After a few moments, she smiled and set the gown aside, before showing me a much different outfit. It was still obviously a girly outfit, which is what I had expected from Lynn, but this one had a much simpler feel.
With a long hooded cloak that was clasped around the neck falling almost all the way to my feet, it covered what looked like a leather dress. With a cleavage that was a bit revealing, it was held in place by a pair of belts, a larger one around the waist and a smaller one slightly above. The dress itself ended in a short skirt that wouldn’t cover more than half of my thighs from the looks of things. She had even added a small lace frill to the bottom of the skirt. Thankfully, Lynn had also prepared a pair of thigh high boots to go with it, with the sole being slightly higher on the back, giving it a short heel, and a more refined look.
“What about covering the marks on my arms and hands, Lynn?” I queried.
“There’s this long sleeved, dark blouse to wear under the dress and these gloves. I made the clothes similar in appearance to what I saw some of the young women wearing but of course I made it more charming, since Mistress can’t wear something too plain.” Then Lynn pointed to the side, where what looked like a shoulder bag and dagger sat. “Since Mistress was worried about how the subspace pack would stand out, I made a smaller version that looked similar to some bags I saw being carried. The dagger looks like just a simple iron dagger, but of course it’s much sharper and more durable than any blade these primitive humans could craft. I judged that as an individual traveling alone, it would look odd if Mistress was not carrying a weapon.”
I was impressed. I hadn’t expected all of that. “How did you manage to make such a small subspace bag though?”
Lynn’s obvious satisfaction with the outfit faded a bit as she answered in an apologetic tone. “I broke down one of the subspace packs in order to make it. It also has the downside because the synthesizer couldn’t perfectly build a smaller version that the weight it can carry has been much diminished. Based on my tests, it can only carry approximately 600 kilograms rather than a ton as normal.”
I accepted her explanation. It’s not that large of a loss. We had two packs so losing one for a slightly inferior version wouldn’t cause any issues. In the long run, once the side of the ship is unburied, I’ll be able to use my hover car for transport too.
Lynn interrupted my thoughts, “By the way Mistress, I took the liberty of packing the bag already with a change of clothes identical to this one, some food just in case, a bedroll and tent also just in case, samples of the materials we require most, and a bag filled with a variety of gems that you could use to exchange for local currency. I also stored Whisperwind, Requiem, a few plasma grenades and two plasma knives. There’s still approximately 250 kg of space left unused as well.”
“Wow Lynn. You really outdid yourself. That means everything is prepared for my trip then. I suppose I should stop standing around in just my robe and get dressed.”
Lynn brightened up and moved closer, “Please let me help you with that Mistress. I can do your hair to hide your horns and implant too.”
I backed up a step, “It’s alright Lynn, I can handle it myself.”
Lynn began giggling as I heard my bedroom door slide shut behind me, “No no Mistress, I definitely insist!”
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An hour later, after much primping and pampering from Lynn, she declared me ready to face the world. All I felt was exhaustion from dealing with her exuberance. Sometimes I felt like I might have made a mistake when I encouraged her to help me with clothing and my appearance way back when, and this was definitely one of those times.
My shield set looked a bit out of place with how fancy it appeared but there was no way to change that so I’ll have to hope no one asks too many questions about them. I might get targeted by thieves, but that actually sounds like fun and a good way to blow off some steam.
I rode the lift out of the ship, and saw the moose carcass close to the ship. I sent a quick signal to Lynn and she appeared from my terminal. “Did you forget something Mistress?”
“Yeah, can you have one of the maintenance droids dispose of this carcass? If you want to take a sample of it for testing purposes go ahead.”
“Will do, Mistress.” She vanished, and I saw one of the maintenance droids cease their digging and move toward the carcass.
Alright, now it really is time to go. I had a distance of 200 or so kilometers to travel from Lullaby to that town but I wasn’t in too much of a rush. It wasn’t even midday yet by this world’s standards and I could clear that in under three hours if I really pushed myself. I figured I’ll take my time and aim to get there in about five hours, which would be local afternoon. I’ll stay in the town overnight and then make my way back to the ship tomorrow to log out.
As I neared the edge of the forest, I detected a large group of presences ahead of me that seemed quite familiar. Unlike last night the group was merely waiting and letting me to come to them. I could just avoid them but I had a bit of curiosity over what they were up to, so I stayed on my current route and met them.
They were all just sitting there. It was almost like dogs waiting for their master or something. I watched them for a few minutes, but they didn’t seem like they were going to do anything today so I shrugged and ran around them. As soon as I started moving away from them I noticed they all started following me. I turned around, and once again they were all sitting there watching me.
Again I started moving away from them and again they followed. I was getting a bit annoyed with this.
“Hey. Stop following me. Shoo!” I waved my hand at them but they just continued staring at me. I looked around and picked up a stick. “Here fetch!” I threw it over them and back the way I had come. A few turned their heads to watch the stick but none of them moved. Ahh, these damn beasts!
Leaving me no choice, I changed my subclass to Empath to use an ability that required the extra control and talents of that class. I reached out with psychic power and tapped into their minds to make myself vanish from their senses. Instantly they were all alert, no longer sitting and looking around. The effect would wear off in about half an hour so I needed to get moving.
Leaving the wolves to their own devices, I raced out of the forest and in the direction of the town.
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Outfit image I found google searching and used for reference for the clothing Lynn made her