Chapter 104

Ashagi, Eden - Day 37, Wednesday

Jay woke up slowly in the dark room. A weight was pressing down on his chest and as he woke up a bit more he realized it was M'redith's sleeping head, her breathing steady and quiet.

Jay lay like that for a few minutes. He enjoyed the quiet stillness and not having to run to or from anywhere or anything. He nuzzled M'redith's head gently and she murmured in her sleep. She only had a few more minutes anyhow if Jay's guess was correct. Her alarm should be sounding off any moment now.

He waited until the alarm sounded and her eyes had opened.

“Morning.” he said.

“Uggg.” M'redith groaned. “I don't want to get up.”

Jay laughed. “Just remember, today we finally return the book. After that we can go back to K'tharkle.”

M'redith yawned before rubbing at her neck without picking her head up off of Jay's chest. “Don't forget the days and days of travel to get there. I'm in no hurry to leave our beds and spend a few nights sleeping in the dirt. Or sleeping in the trees. Goddess the trees. That was even worse.” She sighed and sat up before rubbing at her face with her hands and getting out of bed.

“No peeking,” she said, having woken up just enough to regain her sense of humor.

Jay obediently turned but jokingly acted as if he was about to turn around.

“Jay!” she said half amused and half serious.

Jay smiled and shrugged before finally letting her get dressed in her armor. When it was Jay's turn she peeked shamelessly.

“No fair! I just threatened to peek, I didn't actually look!” Jay said with a grin.

“Well. Whose fault is that?” she said with a crooked smile before grabbing her sword. “C'mon. Time to move, don't want to get stuck here all day.”

She kicked the door and peeked out of it before she smiled and opened the door wide. She stepped in to the hallway and very quietly said good morning to the others who were already in the hallway waiting.

“Thank Goddess you're here. We've been waiting forever!” Aiden said a bit hotly.

Jay turned to him and apologized. Aiden seemed a bit bothered by something that morning but the hallway was not the best place to figure out what that might be.

“Ok, let's get ready to move!” M'redith said in a quiet confident voice that brooked no argument.

She led them on a route that had become almost second nature to her by that point. She led the group unerringly towards the cafeteria. Finally the group saw the double doors of the cafeteria in the distance.

Behind them they heard a baying sound like a shrieking bloodhound. The sound approached them rapidly and the group picked up their running speed without being told. Everyone could hear the fast approaching shrieking, the pitch rising and falling with its rapid gait making it sound almost like a siren.

M'redith burst through the doors and everyone behind her did as well. Glenda whipped around and closed the doors. Or at least she tried to.

The monster and reached them just in time and had one fat moist tendril shoved between the two doors and managed to prevent them from closing.

The tendril waved in the air menacingly and Norri beat at it mercilessly with her staff. The tendril absolutely felt pain from the strikes and waved in the air in a desperate attempt to avoid her strikes. It tried everything except for the one thing that would have worked – retreat.

Instead the monster tried to push further in to the room and let out another high pitched baying shriek that made everyone who heard it wince in pain as their hearing temporarily cut out from the overwhelmingly loud noise.

M'redith turned and was about to rush back to attack it when the tendril shot through the air and attempted to make a piercing attack, low, towards her legs.

Just before the tendril made contact Glenda reached out with one hand and grabbed the tendril. She held it in one hand in a death grip and her fingers were turning white from the strength of her grasp. Her fingers had dug in to the monster's flesh and it was weeping a greenish blood where Glenda's fingers had pierced its skin. With a violent heave Glenda turned and flung the tendril to the side and threw off its aim completely.

Instead of striking at M'redith's legs the tendril was flung about violently in the air as Glenda throttled it to death with one hand. The monster was now screaming and gurgling as it tried in vain to drag the injured tendril out of the room but Glenda wasn't done. She yanked the tendril even further in to the room and with her other hand delivered a brutal overhand strike with her sword.

The tendril fell to the ground. Glenda had lopped it off of the monster's body with one strike. Glenda looked out through the crack in the double doors and made eye contact with the monster. It had too many eyes so Glenda just picked two and stared in to those. Glenda screamed in rage at the monster and it whimpered and fled.

Moments later the group could hear other monsters attacking the injured monster as it tried to flee. While they were all preoccupied Norri pushed Glenda aside and finally shut the doors. Aiden helped her place a crossbeam in to the door before everyone finally relaxed.

Glenda was still breathing heavy and was slowly coming down off of the adrenaline rush, not to mention the use of her overwhelming physical strength. The group waited until she had calmed down a bit and she turned and nodded at the rest of the group.

Jay looked over and smiled. “Glenda. You're one scary fighter.”

Glenda laughed. “Not fighter. Better. Librarian!”

The group chuckled before drinking their water and refilling their water bottles and canteens. They were alone in the cafeteria as usual. Although there were other people in Ashagi it seemed that it was difficult to find anyone else most of the time.

“So what's the plan for today?” Norri asked sweetly. She appeared to have gotten a good night's sleep. Next to her stood Aiden, who looked as if his sleep had been the opposite. He looked tired even though he had just woken up.

Glenda looked flush from her physical exertion but was smiling. M'redith seemed happy enough and Jay was having a great time, no complaints.

“Well, breakfast first,” Jay suggested which earned him a groan from Aiden. “Then we can head to the library and try to return this book. I didn't think it was going to be this complicated or take up this much time but I guess I should have known better.”

Everyone grabbed a chair and sat at the same table. Each of them took out their travel wafers and began eating except for Aiden, who was holding a travel ration that looked different from the others. It was pink.

“Aiden. What's that about?” Jay asked as he pointed at the strange wafer.

“That? THAT is my so called gift.” Aiden said in a disappointed voice.

“Oh that's right! You put in a travel wafer didn't you! In to the donation bowl or whatever that was.” Norri said with a sudden realization.

“I thought why should we be the only ones to suffer. Let the weird creature enjoy some of the travel wafer's appealing flavor. I thought it would be funny..” Aiden said, trailing off towards the end.

“Well?” Norri finally asked.

“Well what?” Aiden answered, he sounded upset and a little confused.

“Well, was it funny?” Norri asked with a frustrated look on her face.

“I don't think it's very funny but that creature might be having a laugh at my expense.” Aiden said with a sigh.

M'redith finally got involved. “So you got a wafer in return? What kind of wafer is that?”

Aiden shook his head. “Strawberry. Only whatever creature that was must not have ever eaten a strawberry before because the flavor isn't quite right. That isn't the worse part though.”

M'redith nodded at him to continue.

“I can't get rid of it! I don't want it! It doesn't taste awful. It tastes just bad enough that I don't want another bite yet every time I throw it out it appears back in my pocket!” Aiden whined.

“So you have an infinite travel wafer, strawberry flavored, that you can't lose or have taken from you?” Jay asked curiously.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Yes!” Aiden said. “I feel like I wasted my gift.” Aiden complained.

“I feel like you did too!” Norri agreed. Aiden whipped his head around to face her and Norri stammered out, “I'm sorry they didn't give you a better gift!”

Aiden realized how riled up he was getting and apologized to Norri before sighing and going quiet.

Everyone was quiet for a time and the group was surprised at who spoke up first.

Glenda had gotten up and walked over to Aiden and taken a seat next to him. She put one massive hand on his back and patted it gently. Aiden looked up at her and she smiled widely and nodded.

“You.” she said as she pointed one fat finger at his face. “Listen.”

Glenda thought for a moment before she spoke again. “Taste not matter. Good emergency wafer. Can't misplace. Never hungry. Can not be starved.”

Aiden looked at her as some of the sadness faded away. “You really think so?” he asked hopefully.

Glenda nodded sagely. “Valuable gift. Taste not everything.”

After that Glenda went quiet as Aiden thought over the few words she had given him.

Glenda didn't speak often, so when she did, people tended to listen and at least consider her words.

Glenda looked over at Norri and nodded at her. It took a moment before Norri realized what Glenda meant and spoke up.

“I put in my tiny art kit.” Norri admitted sadly.

“But you loved that kit!” Aiden interjected sadly.

Norri nodded in agreement with a tinge of sadness in her voice. “I really did.”

“So what did you get?” Jay finally asked.

Norri grinned, “I got an N-Dimensional Art Kit!”

Jay shook his head, “What does that do?”

Norri took out a small wooden box that looked a lot like the tiny art kit she had gifted. She set it on the table and undid the clasp. The kit opened up at first just as the previous kit had. The top lid contained a block of paper that worked just like post-it-notes did. The base however had a drawer instead of a tray. When the drawer was pulled out it continued to pull out. The base was only four inches by four inches. The drawer however, once withdrawn from the case, was at least a foot and a half in length.

The drawer was full of tiny compartments, each of which contained art supplies grouped by type. Pencils, colored wax sticks, paint lozenges, erasers, brushes, tiny vials of rainbow colored inks, writing nibs, there were too many items to count, all quite small but not too small to be used.

The group was quite impressed with her gift and Aiden sighed sadly. He had really screwed up by trying to be funny by giving a travel wafer as his gift.

Norri spoke up, “It's bound to me and only works for me. I can't wait to use it once we get back to the Guild!”

Jay grinned, “I can't wait to see what you do with it, congratulations!” he said. Even Aiden congratulated her.

“Anyone else?” Jay asked.

Glenda raised her hand with a grin. She took out a hexagonal glass flask that had an integral lid. She didn't say anything else and Jay realized if anyone was going to describe the flask it probably wouldn't be Glenda.

Jay peered at the item for ten seconds and shared the results.

Hexadic Flask of Health – Very Rare

This flask is standard sized but is capable of holding the contents of six health potions. The flask is hexagonal in shape and so long as it has room another full health potion may be poured in to the flask. The total remaining doses left may be found by inspecting the flask. Only the bound owner may use the flask. This item has been automatically bound to Glenda.

The entire group congratulated Glenda who blushed a little under the focused attention of everyone. The item was amazing. During combat having a health potion handy could be the difference between life and death. Having SIX potions all squished in to a single easy to handle vial was a game-changer. Whoever used the vial would have a significant combat advantage over others.

Glenda grinned as the group discussed the ramifications of Glenda being able to heal herself six times without having to search her person for six different potions. Aiden especially liked the utility it provided as far as emergency healing went.

“So that is Aiden, Norri, and Glenda. Guess you're up next M'redith!” Jay said with a grin as he placed a hand on her back for a moment.

M'redith smiled shyly and said. “Ok.”

She reached in to her backpack and took out two photos in simple thin black picture frames. Both photos were of M'redith and Jay and had been taken in a photobooth weeks ago.

“You two look good together!” Norri said sweetly and with a kind smile as she looked at the photos. They were the same really, just two copies of a single photo. “What do they do?” Norri asked.

M'redith still looked a little shy and handed one to Jay before explaining. Jay took his with a thank you and turned it over in his hands a few times.

“The item is called a Paired Photograph of Murmurs. Here, Jay?” M'redith asked as she motioned towards him to inspect the item.

Jay peered intently for ten seconds and was rewarded. He shared it with his friends so they could read it too.

Paired Photograph of Murmurs – Very Rare

This photograph is paired with one other. When both are hung on a wall once per day while standing in front of the photos the bound users may speak with one another as if they were in the same room with no regard for distance. The voice appears to originate from the photo itself. This item must be bound before use. This item has been automatically bound to Jay.

When Jay inspected M'redith's copy of the photograph he received a similar message, the only difference being that it had automatically been bound to her.

“Well, that isn't helpful in combat but if you two ever separate for longer than five minutes it might come in handy,” Aiden said with a teasing grin.

M'redith laughed at the joke but did not disagree. She leaned on Jay's shoulder for a moment before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. They each carefully stowed away their photos in their backpacks before M'redith spoke up.

“No more stalling. What did you get?” M'redith demanded as she looked Jay in the eyes.

Jay grinned, “I didn't get an item.”

The group sounded upset, disappointed, and comforting all at once in reply.

“It's ok! It's fine!” Jay insisted as he held his hands up to calm them down. “I got something better than an item!”

That settled them down a bit. “Well what was it?” Aiden asked.

“Elixir of Knowledge. About statistics. Mine had a weird limitation on it though. I got long lost and advanced knowledge of statistics, what they mean, and how to train them.” Jay said excitedly. “The only problem is I'm not allowed to discuss it.”

“What the heck does that mean?” Aiden asked. “Says who?”

Jay shrugged, “Says the description when I chose it. It said the knowledge would be locked to me and may not be shared with others. It said the products of the knowledge was ok to share though.”

“Did it mention anything else? How it worked? How to trigger it? Anything?” M'redith asked. Everyone had gotten an item except for Jay. He had gotten information instead.

Jay tilted his head back slightly as he ran through the events in his mind. “Oh! I had a notification I didn't look at yet. Let's see..” he said as he brought up his notifications.

Congratulations! You have consumed an Elixir of Knowledge (stats) and now possess information on character statistics. Know that you will not be permitted to freely use that information – there are rules. Your knowledge shall trigger whenever you or a person in your presence increases their character level. At that time and only at that time you may inspect their statistics and will know what must be done and why.

During the period immediately after a level-up you may share with a person who has just leveled the specific steps they must take in order to properly use their statistics. You may only share the methods and not the underlying reasons.

After you have learned something about character stats you will retain that information, even once the period immediately after a level-up ends. You will still be constrained in what you may discuss. As time goes on and your knowledge grows the constraints on what you are permitted to discuss will become more permissive.

Jay read out the notification and felt a little disappointed. He had hoped he would suddenly just know how character statistics worked – and it seemed like that would happen. He would just have to wait until he leveled to learn what he needed to know. Then he would have to wait even longer before he could fully discuss what he knew.

Still, it was an incredible gift. No one seemed to know what stats were actually for or how to properly use them. People with a 2 in Strength did not seem much weaker than someone with a 10 in Strength. Jay had always found that rather odd and it appeared that there was a reason things were like that. Most people were leveling their statistics incorrectly it seemed.

Everything in Eden appeared to have a depth beyond what was immediately apparent. Jay had thought leveling was fairly easy and straightforward – gain experience points until you have enough to level up. Level up and spend your statistics point. Other than that Jay hadn't thought too much about leveling up – people were usually mainly focused on their new Class Choice every level. Statistics points weren't viewed as a valuable mechanic to most people.

That was about to change for Jay. Not just Jay either, but his group mates as well. The knowledge Jay had been provided had been described as “Long lost and advanced.” It would open up a whole new avenue of gaining strength – something that Jay did not possess very much of currently.

The group talked among themselves. They were excited to hopefully reach level 2 sometime soon. When they did Jay's knowledge would trigger and they would have a better idea of what would be required of them.

Everyone quieted down after they had their show and tell moment. It was still early morning and the group was still wishing they were back in bed.

Swallowing one last gulp of water M'redith capped her water bottle and put it in her backpack. She straightened up and went over to the door and took off the crossbeam. With a grunt she set the thick beam to the side and leaned it up against the wall.

“It's time. Library time. Everyone get ready, this time is for real. Stick with me. We'll stop for a brief moment once we arrive to check our routes and timings before we set off in to the library proper. That ok with everyone?” M'redith asked without turning around.

Everyone agreed and lined up behind her.

“Ok, then,” she said as she kicked the door and peeked outside. “Here we go.”

The group ran off in to the corridor and immediately heard screams off behind them. Something was chasing them already.