Carissa wasn’t clear on what Matthias meant about an intermediate level stage and truthfully, she didn’t care. He’d tried explaining to her about a breakdown of abilities and levels which could commonly be found inside dungeons but after a minute she’d found his waffling annoying enough to raise a hand and cut him off.
Taking her bone club out of her personal spatial storage bag had also helped as well, the look on her face must have shown her frustration and anger even if it was directed at him.
‘I don’t need to hear it. Moving, moving, moving is all you can think of. Completion and then what? We finish the dungeon and end up back in the Deep Temple surrounded by more player-candidates once more? We find ourselves dumped on a massive platform in the middle of an ocean in a Battle Royale where the few left alive or standing get chosen by Water-bag Filled Pus Gods? Or we fight the demigods under the deep waters? No. We need to clear the air a little and I’m not going to do it by fighting with a young man who was trained for a mission by his idolised goddess. First, we have a group of two. Regardless of your position or any promises made to you by any outside influences I need an assurance for this situation. I’m only going to ask this one single time Matthias; do you feel a need to wave your coral stick around and for me to break it off? If you want to fight to establish a pecking order then by all means we have ourselves an isolated, protected room free from enemies or danger.’ said Carissa.
Holding onto her bone club she felt a will coming from it, a small hunger which resounded with the substance that had begun to spread throughout her bloodstream. When she had been left alone inside her final home of Last Refuge back in her home planet of Terrus, Carrisa had enough time to examine herself both physically and mentally.
Money hadn’t been an issue and her isolated location meant that few questions would be asked with regards to any genetic engineering or integrating technological mounts with her own flesh.
She had flash cloned parts of her own body into basic forms, devoid of brain to understand exactly how her own genome had been altered by her parents even before she was born. Then she understood how to either improve or leave it alone through tailored viruses designed to change her physical traits.
Carissa knew her own body better than most people knew themselves as a result of literal self-examination of her blood, cells and cloned flesh. When the Ocean Gods and the Ocean Gateway System had forcefully dragged her into this world as one of their precious player-candidates for apotheosis they had limited her abilities and strengths, even going to far as to disable the mechanical implants planted deep within herself through self-surgery using cutting edge robotics and pre-set operational systems.
The grey blood of the scientist turned genetic mutation had entered her bloodstream as had the parts of the flesh of his torn-out neck which she had swallowed in her rage had begun to infect her body. The sensation was similar to when she had injected herself and drunk tailor-made bacteria and viruses designed to enable her transformation into a new type of human designed to inhabit the oceans of her home world.
This time though it was different, the virus was acting on subconscious will or a pre-meditated design which was attempting to adapt her body to a given situation. Carissa wasn’t an expect in bio-genetics but she had taught herself enough to recognise that its purpose was to change a human’s genetic architecture.
Several questions occupied her mind as Matthias stood watching her as his hand would slide towards his own spatial bag on his belt before he withdrew it. She had a little more time while he considered her question and statement. Either he would want to fight or not. He was clearly considering the information that he knew, the training he had been given and their current situation.
How can such a smart young man be so stupid?
Firstly, would it turn her into a genetic aberration which would attack Matthias and run rampant across her body trying to turn her into something which would survive an attack from him. The mutated scientist hadn’t been trying to attack her.
No. His name was Hua Pengfei. He had a family. He wanted to escape.
His body had been trying to restructure into something which was strong but something had gone wrong as he hadn’t fully transformed. Secondly, Carissa wasn’t clear on how this virus was going to interact with her latent genetic enhancements which had been mostly disabled and the careful balance of integrated technology within her own form.
Thirdly, Carissa now had a much clearer idea on the purpose of Defence Lab 56. All she had to do was compare the sample with the sealed syringe and the black binder which had been given as quest rewards. A bit of confirmation when they actually entered the main part of the Deep-Water Purification Facility and then she’d understand exactly how much danger they would actually be in.
This place wasn’t a scientific research station, not purely, and the horrors that it espoused made more sense to her. After noticing that Matthias would soon come to an answer, she quickly pulled on the initial message from the Ocean Gateway system and roughly ran through the exact wording in her mind’s eye.
She let her bone club rest down by her side, Carissa hadn’t taken it out for specific combat purposes of a threat. She needed to examine it and this place would suit her, she willed the weapon to calm down, to sleep or conserve energy and to her delight it responded immediately.
[Player-Candidate Designates:
Group: Carissa Acqua and Matthias Fischer
You’ve entered one of the worst excesses of technology and madness this planet has to offer.
Commonly known as Defence Lab 56 to the general public, the Deep-Water Purification Facility hides both hidden secrets and scientific horrors.
Funded through a combination of private investors, siphoned public and military funding experiments on the nature of the human form were done here deep under the ocean, far from oversight and transparency.
Survive through trial of combat by using your skills, experience and knowledge from your own worlds.
Your immediate mission is to survive until the destruction of the facility either through the hands of the player candidates or the actions of base personnel.
Additional rewards are offered for recovery or collection of any data relating to the facility and current news.
Main Quest Objective: Survive. Escape is not a valid option. Kill or be killed.
Secondary Quest Objective: Enable self-destruction of facility or deploy fail-safe option.
Tertiary Objective: Assist Ocean God Believers in their own trials.
Quest Rewards: Removal of Candidate Status and establishment of full Player Status.
Additional Rewards depend on performance on completion of level.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Individual Ocean Gods may grant bonus rewards for selected player-candidates only.
The Ocean Gods blessings be upon you all. Remember, the Drowned Gods reward the faithful and punish the heretics.]
Nothing changed. Apalku. What’s your plan for throwing me and Matthias here?
Carissa knew that directly interpreting from the words of mad Ocean Gods who had the bright idea to directly flood a planet weren’t her best option and she needed to understand her way. Besides, since arriving in this new reality all she had actually seen was an ocean, a floating structure made of driftwood, a device going underwater and then a temple where they drowned new player-candidates in an attempt at indoctrination and supplication to unknown deities.
The war could still be going on for all she knew, this wasn’t a dungeon or a construct but they had been teleported to a place where the Ocean Gods were still fighting to gain control and they used player-candidates as soldiers in a war they didn’t know they were fighting.
‘Matthias. Have you come to a conclusion yet? We’ve shared food and drink; told each other stories and I faced combat without your help. I suggest you have a good think about your response because I don’t believe in second chances.’ said Carissa.
When he didn’t respond immediately but she noticed his eyes drew down to the light grey coloured bone club she was holding Carissa casually threw it into a nearby work surface where the weapon landed with a heavy thud. It was funny how the weight of it had never bothered her much when she held it but it was another variable to be ignored to keep her thoughts clear.
‘There. I’m unarmed. Except for my teeth. Ah, I can’t exactly strip them out of my mouth and chances are they’d grow back in an hour or sooner. We’ve established I’m not much of a combatant. Here, and no this isn’t an offer for anything else. I’m trying to set ground rules, not seduce you. I’m not that desperate and never will be. I was married once you see. Been there and done all that.’ said Carissa.
She knew that was taking a risk but she shifted her spatial bag and stuck her hand inside resting her hands on an object she had been given by Mike in what felt like an age ago. The description of the small wooden item came into her mind’s eye and she focused her will on the grey suit which had covered most of her body.
[Player-Candidate Designate: Carissa.
Gift Received from Player: Mike
-Second-Life Statuette
-Will absorb significant physical/mental damage.
-Single Usage only.
-Self-Destruction Upon Usage.
-Item cannot be transferred or sold to other players.]
Using it was taking a gamble but Carissa needed to rediscover her own sources of power rather than be washed around like a lost fish on the oceans far out of its depth.
‘Matthias. Want to fight? Is that how Knights of Avalon do it? Sorry, you’re still a trainee, aren’t you? A novice at best. Hm. I want to show you something about sacrifice. You might find me attractive but I’d still like to show you.’ said Carissa as she willed the grey suit to begin peeling back from her skin.
Her control over her own personal items had evolved after she had been given temporary access on the role of a demi-goddess when the one Ocean God who clearly had an interest had granted it. The fact that he had been silent for such a long time without any messages or direct contact wasn’t a big surprise. For all she knew, all the Ocean Gods were able to track her movements and watch her as though through a lens at any time.
Carissa willed the swimming suit that she had been wearing back into the spatial bag without focusing on the item description, given that it was a mundane item it went back in silently.
As the grey suit peeled back from her skin, from her face and then her hands, arms and legs Carissa saw that Matthias had changed his expression. More confusion than interest marred his face.
‘You think you’re the only one who underwent trials to become stronger?’ asked Carissa as the suit finally removed itself entirely from her skin and compressed itself into a flat piece lying on the floor of the room.
She stood entirely naked in front of him carefully examining his face as she rested a bare hand against her abdominal scars which ran from her pelvic region up to her breasts in a cross.
‘I was...changed. Diminished when I arrived here. You see these injuries? I suffered them, inflicted them through surgery and treatment to grow stronger. You were taken as a boy and trained to fight and survive. I was changed without my permission by my parents before I was even born. Given that you don’t want to fight and there’s no alternative waiting for you we’re going to do a few things my way from now on. The first will be you disclosing to me exactly what skills, fighting experience and items you have stored away inside your...what do you call it? Your bag of holding? I’ll do the same and then we can discuss rewards given by the Ocean Gateway System and exactly how to get out of this room.’ said Carissa as she watched the young man with platinum hair nod his head slowly as he put his own coral sword back inside his spatial bag with a swift movement.
Despite his eyes flashing briefly down at the deep sutures which were on Carissa’s body he never let his gaze linger but kept his gaze focused on her eyes. His face was slightly flushed but Carissa wasn’t sure if he was reacting to the site of her still-healing sutures or her nudity. Not that it mattered either way.
Pointing a finger at her grey suit as it lay on the floor in a flattened square piece, the material stretched outwards and onto her skin unfolding and covering her body, this time leaving her arms and legs bare.
‘Thank you’ said Carissa as she flourished him a bright smile. Her reddish-hair which had been covered for so long by the suit was let out this time. As she ran her fingers through it, she didn’t notice the greyish tinge on the tips of the skin.
‘Carissa. I... apologise. The Lady gave me a sacred quest to win and become a demi-god before returning to my own reality. I now understand that she has a close relationship with one of the Ocean Gods. His name is Oannes. He has been tasked to assist me during my quest but he is limited with his actions. I believe the two of us partnering up into a group was due to his direct influence through Mike. I believe that he was the one who possessed me in order to talk to you. I was trained from the age of seven years old for a decade before I was granted the choice to come to this place. You will lead our group and I will follow, I accept that. I am ashamed for my earlier actions. It does not befit a true Knight of Avalon to protect.’ said Carissa.
Shaking her head Carissa kept the smile on her face. She gestured to the research room and its various contents and empty shelves.
‘This place will help us a little bit. But thank you Matthias’ as she stepped forward and wrapped both arms around him in a hug. The young man stiffened but lightly returned the hug before he gently pulled Carissa’s arms off him and stepped back.
‘I…I don’t understand Carissa. I will follow you as the leader of our group, my word is my action but why do you need to thank me?’ queried Matthias with a puzzled expression on his face.
‘You never asked me if it hurts. I appreciate that. Our group needs a suitable name to progress, I think. Ocean Gateway System, we’re establishing the name of our group for player-candidate Matthias Fischer and Carissa Aqua. The name will be Thalassophobia.’
In the air between them watery text began to flow as a confirmation message was received.
[Player-Candidates:
-Group Name changed from Carissa Acqua and Matthias Fischer to Thalassophobia
-Group Designation Confirmed.
May the Blessing of the Ocean Gods be on your path. Swim or sink.]
‘And now we need a little light conversation and I’ll pass on some orders for you. To begin with start telling me about your abilities, skills, training and contents of your storage.’ said Carissa.
Reaching inside her own spatial bag she pulled out the small wooden statue gifted from Mike and threw it over Matthias as he snatched it out of the air with a hand.
‘Feel free to examine it. I’ll give you permission, it’s a good start for our new group.’ said Carissa.