Freya walked around the practice field twice. She didn’t have Heilong’s tracking ability, but she was fairly confident no mushrooms had escaped. But for good measure, she entered the meadow.
[Now Entering: Mushroom Meadow Practice Field]
A lesser fen mushroom hopped into sight. Less than a month ago, it took several hits for her to kill these level 3 demons, but now it only took a single punch.
She cleared out the entire practice field in just a few minutes.
Leaving the smokey field, she looked over her shoulder again. No mushrooms had respawned yet.
Freya picked up her shaman staff and continued her patrol. After taking care of her part of Nori Ferenc’s funeral arrangements yesterday, she was ready to return to the Kai Nai dungeon. But Infamous Biscuit told her to wait. Heilong and K13 had logged out by then.
Freya wished she could have seen K13 was okay for herself, but instead, all she got was this confusing conversation:
[Infamous Biscuit: K13 is fine! Houkyu met him outside the dungeon when he respawned]
[Infamous Biscuit: Actually something interesting happened. Houkyu gave him a piece of sonder!]
[Freya Evenkey: Why?]
[Infamous Biscuit: It’s complicated. Not really sure]
[Infamous Biscuit: We’re going to meet at Houkyu’s place tomorrow afternoon if you’re free]
At the time, Freya wasn’t sure if she would be available, but last night she sent him a message letting him know she would come. Based on the color of her message, it looked like he hadn’t read it yet.
It was still quite early in the morning, so Freya decided to patrol the forests around Safka before fast-traveling to Kai Nai. After learning powerful demons could wander freely outside a dungeon made Freya want to double-check around Safka.
As the shaman of the town, Freya often patrolled the town and the surrounding forest. But today, she extended her search radius. The Ruins of Old Kai Nai Dungeon was far from the modern-day city of Kai Nai, but given enough time, the high orcs that emerged from the dungeon could have reached civilians. She didn’t want that type of scenario to happen under her watch.
After several hours of walking, she finally completed her circuit. Freya walked home and just sat down when she got a DM.
[Infamous Biscuit: Alright cool. K13 is here and Heilong should be logging in soon]
Standing back up, Freya went through her game menu to fast-travel to Kai Nai.
…
“Are you really alright!?”
Freya held K13’s hands.
“I’m- I’m okay.”
“Still, it must have been terrible. I’m really sorry.”
She squeezed him into a hug. K13 froze for a moment but gingerly returned the gesture, “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I had an extra life.”
They broke apart. Her eyes slightly glistened.
“But the mental stress of dying, especially being stabbed like that…”
“He’ll be okay. He’s got a strong spirit,” Diviner Houkyu said, putting a hand on both of their shoulders.
Freya wiped her eyes and faced the diviner. Today he was wearing another orange tunic but embroidered with small white geometric shapes. His spirit bird Pekkae sat on his shoulder.
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“I heard you were there when K13 came back to life. This all must seem odd to you.”
Diviner Houkyu chuckled, “Well, it is strange, but I’m grateful you were able to take care of the orcs living in that cave.”
Freya gave a tight smile, then turned back to K13. She glanced at Infamous Biscuit in the background, then looked at the ground and said, “We didn’t give you a very nice week.”
In trying to recruit K13 to be their tank, they had agreed to a week-long trial. And now the week was almost up.
K13 waved his hands, “No, no. It has been good. If only I was a better tank-”
“What are you saying?” Infamous Biscuit interrupted. “We were in over our heads, and really I was the one who made a lot of mistakes. In that final battle, I shouldn’t have let my MP run out. If I had thought about it better...”
K13 opened his mouth to protest but then seemed uncertain what to say.
“We all made mistakes,” Freya said. “We just need to learn from them and grow. You’re a great tank, and I think we work well together. Wouldn’t you consider growing with us?”
She held her breath.
The berserker fiddled with his flannel shirt. Freya still wasn’t sure what happened in his past, or perhaps what was happening outside the game. But she didn’t think he deserved this isolation. Still, the choice was ultimately up to him.
“Well, if you’re okay with me...”
Freya wanted to jump up and down.
Ting! Ting!
Heilong peeked inside the shop, “Sorry I’m late. What’s going on?”
“K13 is really joining us!” Freya exclaimed.
“That’s great! We didn’t give you the best experience in the end, so I wasn’t sure…”
K13 flushed a bit.
“Well, anyway, welcome to the team! It’s difficult to find good tankers.”
Diviner Houkyu brought out tea for everyone and pulled up chairs so they could all sit in his small shop.
“It’s good you all came today because I have something to show you,” the diviner said. “But first, why did you all want to meet today? When we left the cave yesterday, you sounded very interested in something.”
He looked to Heilong as he spoke.
Heilong took a sip from her teacup, “Yes. K13 told me he got a piece of paper from you after he appeared outside the cave. Why did you give that to him?”
“Paper?” he asked, confused.
K13 brought a card out of his inventory. Freya gasped as she read the text box information.
[Awakening Achievement]
[Item Class: Piece of Sonder]
[Acknowledgement from a qi master that the basics of their craft have been mastered]
“Hm,” Diviner Houkyu squinted at the paper. “I remember giving that, but now that I think about it, I don’t know how I got that piece of paper. I gave it to K13 because I wanted to congratulate him on his awakening.”
“Why not do that earlier then?”
He rubbed his forehead, “I don’t know… I don’t think I had it then. No, how could I not have it…”
“It’s okay if you’re not sure,” Infamous Biscuit said, exchanging glances with everyone else.
“I also thought it was strange at the time, but then I forgot about it. I think I wanted to give it to K13 because I partially taught him. But I’ve never given pieces of paper to other students I’ve taught before…”
He tapped one of his small figurines on the windowsill, still deep in thought.
Beep!
[Group chat]
[Heilong: I get now why nobody in this game has learned Meridian Manipulation. This confirms it]
[Heilong: NPC shamans and diviners are supposed to teach it. You get a piece of sonder reward for learning it through them. But there’s a flaw in the game design! NPCs perceive all players as normal people, aka they don’t have strong meridian lines, so they never teach any players!]
Freya put the pieces together in her head. She raised her hands to start to type but decided to say it out loud instead–both ways of communication were going to be equally awkward– “Does that mean I shouldn’t have taught you guys? You lost out on a piece of sonder?”
Diviner Houkyu blinked at the sudden turn of conversation but said nothing.
Infamous Biscuit shrugged, “There are rumors that it’s the number of pieces that counts. There are lots of unique pieces of sonder, so maybe not everyone has to have the same ones to complete the game.”
“It’s probably fine,” Heilong said. “But you should avoid teaching others in the future. Maybe the game developers will come out with a patch for this problem.”
Infamous Biscuit looked doubtful, “But if they haven’t fixed it by now, I feel like it's unlikely. Actually, there’s hardly been any game patches or updates since the game came out.”
Heilong sighed in defeat. Freya wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but she ignored it and focused on the idea growing in her mind.
“There must be some way for other players to learn it,” Heilong muttered.
“We just have to spread the word,” Freya said.
“Plenty of players have tried to get shamen and diviners to teach them.”
She shook her head, “No, not with players. We have to spread the idea to the teachers.”
Turning to Diviner Houkyu, she asked, “How close are you to other diviners?”