I stumbled through the dense, damp underbrush, not much caring where I was going or that I sounded like a drunk elephant charging through the swamp. The bulbous ball that was Boopzy guided me in my brain-dead state, latching on shadowed objects with his tentacles and yanking me in the direction he wanted me to go. I trusted him; trust born from necessity more than past experience. I’m sure Boopzy didn’t take offense though.
By the time Boopzy wrapped six of his tentacles around my legs and sent me face-first into the mud some of my brain cells awakened. Through the gaps in the bush in front of me I could see another beam of sunlight illuminating a different plant with an identical Lightning Bug on it. The image made my brows drop as the gears in my head ground to a noisy and uncomfortable halt. The beam was at the exact angle it had been earlier. If I didn’t know better I would have thought I’d somehow traveled through time and reappeared in that original location. The sun had been making its descent toward the horizon earlier. It’s why the previous clearing had been cast in cooling shadows. Maybe the giant ball of burning gas was as drunk as I’d appeared to be in my struggle to get here.
I shook my head, trying to clear the cloud of confusion, and focused instead on the bug. The sun and its mischief didn’t matter. The fact that I had almost died from the last bug didn’t matter. Only capturing this little asshole mattered. There had to be a way to collect them without being zapped.
The notification bell in the topmost field of my vision drew my attention. I focused on it and, now that written words had formed themselves into legible scratchings, I scanned the new item description notification.
New Item Received: Lightning Bug Shell Piece x 2
Description: A crafting ingredient collected from the torn husk of a Lightning Bug. Infused with the power the bug held in life. Side note – show a shell piece to a Seamstress Crafter and watch them grow weak in the knees.
Sweet. I guess. Did I know a Seamstress Crafter?
Shaking the thought from my brain I closed out of the notification window and returned to staring at the brilliantly blue bug taunting me in the pretty beam of sunlight that should not be there. Out of curiosity, and with a lot more caution than the first time, I turned and waltzed back into the swamp away from the creature. It didn’t take long for my questing outstretched fingers to reach the invisible wall. Yep. Aside from the different plants all around me, this was just like the last time.
I glanced at my resources, pulling a face when I realized my health was taking an ungodly long time to replenish. No doubt because my use of the amulet had also drained my small magicka pool and now the two were warring over which would fill back up first. At least my Fatigue bar was still full.
I returned to the outskirts of the miniature clearing and took out my notebook, hastily scratching out a few warnings and details around the picture of the bug. My writing was messy, a side-effect of my still shaking hands, but thankfully legible.
Warning! The bug will kill you with a single ass blast.
Adding notes like that probably didn’t serve much of a purpose. I doubt that I would ever forget that searing jolt. I would never allow someone to search through my notebooks either. Not even Nora. Maybe when I died someone would loot them from my body and find them semi-entertaining.
A slimy suckered tentacle slapped across my face, bringing me back to the present and the infuriating bug. I huffed and squatted in the mud, watching as it crawled in little circles on the leaf, never doing more than flickering its wings at regular intervals.
“You dragged me into this Boopzy,” I murmured to the swollen Tentarat now clinging to my boot. “What’s your plan?”
Scree!
“Very helpful.”
Determined not to die I opened my bum bag and drew out one of the three paralysis potions I had. None of them were of high quality but the bugs were tiny. Surely I wouldn’t need much. I eyed my crossbow and the bolt I had loaded. It was poisoned but switching it was easy enough. The problem reared its ugly head when I pictured a skewered Lightning Bug. Would it be dead? Would it live long enough to jolt me? Was its aim even that good? I could rely on my Evasion skill to dodge the blast from a distance.
Too many questions and not enough answers. It felt like a lot of bullshit to sift through for a simple enough, and possibly unimportant, side quest.
I groaned and rubbed my aching eyes. I was too old to play these games without sleep. I would have settled for a jug of coffee or some sort of wakey-wakey pills but they were simply not an option.
If there were a lightbulb floating above my head it would have lit. I dove back into my bum bag and pulled out a potion I’d severely underutilized; Greater Potion of Invigorate. I had fifteen of them and hadn’t touched a single one. Damn it, I was an idiot sometimes.
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I popped the stopper and downed the foul-tasting potion in two hearty gulps before shivering and shoving the empty flask back in my bum bag.
The effects were instant. All the aches, the itchy eyes, and the weakness that came with exhaustion were washed away. I felt ten years younger. The fog that crowded my brain disappeared, setting me and whatever intelligence I possessed free. The sigh escaped my lips as my back straightened and I eyed the bug with renewed vigor.
It continued to wander the same circular pattern as the one I had accidentally torn apart. The beam of light had yet to move so much as an inch. The clown must have something to do with this. I glanced over my shoulder half expecting to see the bastard doing some ridiculous dance while he laughed at my failures. Thankfully, he wasn’t there.
“Boopzy, if that bastard fires at me, promise me you’ll catch it all, okay?” I begged the Tentarat.
Screee!
Better than nothing. Instead of sneaking, I waltzed into the clearing. My entire body tensed up as I waited for the inadvertible lightning strike. The bug turned to face me, wiggled its antennae in my direction, and returned to its circular pacing. I let out the breath I was holding in an almost painful whoosh before gingerly stepping closer still and wrapping a hand around the thick stem of the leaf. I Blinked, drew my sword, and slashed the thick stem. In a moment my sword was back where it belonged and I was walking from the clearing. The bug continued its circling, unfazed by my actions.
Quest Updated: Lightning Bug Harvest
Description: The guild is running low on Lightning Bugs. These zappy little creatures are useful for our craft. Collect twenty of the glowing creatures to bolster our supply. 1/20 Collected.
I waited impatiently for the glowing golden word to vanish before tramping off into the swamp, letting Boopzy dictate the way. One down, only nineteen more to go.
----------------------------------------
I smashed my fist on the invisible wall and waved the enormous bouquet of bug-ridden leaves I held in my other hand. The clown danced around on the opposite side of the wall, teasing me. The potion of invigorate had long since worn off. I was highly considering taking another but for now, the energy of pure fury was enough to sustain me.
“I have them all you jerk, let me out already!”
The clown waggled his tongue and turned around to thrust his bulbous ass in my direction. I slammed my fist against the wall once more before turning around in disgust. Boopzy, still swollen with the magic of the first lightning bug chittered and rolled at my feet, his irritation matching my own.
My eyes flicked back to the clearing I’d just left with my final Lightning Bug. It looked just like all the others. The slashed stem of the leaf I’d stolen sat in the center, the beam of sunlight at the same angle lighting it along with the mote of dust twirling within it. The reason the sun refused to move was still a mystery to me. It had shifted when I’d mutilated the first lightning bug, casting me in glorious and refreshing shadows. So why now had it returned to that position and stayed there during the hours it must have taken me to tramp through the swamp following Boopzy’s haphazard directions? I shouldn’t care about the mystery given I’d done what I needed to do. The Quest Updated notifications were enough to tell me that. And yet, my brain always returned to the light.
“Boopzy, hold these for me,” I said, shoving the enormous cluster of leaves at the Tentarat.
The Tentarat took the bundle holding it as far from his body as his tentacles would allow. If the damn clown was going to stop me from completing the quest then I would find out what this frozen daylight crap meant.
Rushing back toward the clearing I eyed the trees around me, angling for the tallest one, before scaling it like a monkey. I breached the topmost branches and squinted through the midmorning sunlight until my eyes adjusted.
The final Lightning Bug had brought me right to the very edge of the swamp. Not ten meters away the swamp turned back into a brown sunburnt outback that stretched to the horizon. Not too far from the very edge of the swamp were a pair of players making their way toward the damp circular patch that didn’t belong. They were too far for my Blindsense to pick up their aura but I didn’t need it to know they were friends; not when a large black and neon blue horse waltzed behind them.
I say waltzed but really they were frozen in place. I couldn’t tell from this distance what had made them stop but as the minutes ticked by they didn’t so much as move an inch. I frowned, eyeing the sun up in the sky. There was no way for me to tell if it was frozen as Nora and Gabby were but if hunting the Lightning Bugs had taught me anything it was safe to assume that it was. Why then could Boopzy and I move around freely? Even the clown didn’t seem to have trouble flouncing about which was infuriating. If he was stuck in place I might actually be able to punch him. My lip jerked upward at the thought.
Carefully, I turned in place, sweeping my eyes over the entirety of the swamp. The wind ruffled the trees and my hair along with it but aside from that, nothing was really moving. That didn’t mean much though, not many swamp land creatures spent much time above the canopy.
“What the hell is going on?” I said to myself.
“Looks like you’ve stumbled upon a glitch, Sweetheart.”
I yelped and jerked about a little too fast. My foot slipped off the damp branch and suddenly my gut was in my throat. The ground rushed up to meet me as my sharp breath caught in my chest.
Instinct saved me. Right before I hit the ground I Blinked and the world slowed down. I rolled in the air, straining every muscle as I snatched at a trumpet vine and wrapped myself around it. The strong green rope was slick but my desire to live was strong. My feet hit the ground hard and I toppled, laying into the thick mud as I stared at the canopy high overhead desperately trying to catch my breath. My health remained where it was, unaffected by the drop thanks to the vine.
A pair of brilliant blue eyes appeared above me. With a hand gloved in supple black armor, the man swept back the long locks of his hair and flashed me his too-bright smile. “My, my, my, you’re as graceful as ever, Jackroller.”
“Piss off.”