A/N: DISCLAIMER: Do not attempt at home. The following events are experienced by a fictional character and should remain in fiction. These processes may not represent the best handling processes of these materials, nor should they be used as a guide of any sort. DO NOT ATTEMPT AT HOME.
Sptz. Sptz.
Vivian jolted awake. He looked around. Roses bobbled away, vines intermingling with yew trees. Thick fog ate at the bushes until they faded away entirely into bleak gray. Where am I? What’s happening?
He frowned and rubbed his forehead, then threw his hand out. “Garden… Awareness!”
Green light lit up the path ahead, and routes lit up in his mind. If I go that way, I’ll reach the exit, or over there, that leads back to where I left Noah…
Wait. That’s not the point. How’d I get out here? And… He looked down at the spray bottle in his hand. Where’d this come from?
“I didn’t die, if I still have Garden-whateveral Awareness, so…” Vivian bit his lip. He glanced around him, searching for some kind of hint or clue. Nothing stood out to him. This patch of the garden remained the same as the rest of it, with luminous roses dancing amid the densely-packed yews and mossy cobbles underfoot.
“Come to think of it, how are roses or yews living in this cold, dark, damp environment? All this fog all the time… it’s super damp here! Just look at all the moss growing on the cobbles. I mean, yews do well in sun or shade, but their roots should be kept dry, or else they’ll start rotting. And roses, they don’t like this dampness either, plus they don’t exactly like being planted right on top of another plant like this. Not to mention the hours of sunlight they need…” Vivian brushed a phosphorescent rose gently, and the oversized blossom trembled delicately.
“Is it because they’re magic roses, maybe…?” he guessed, uncertain.
A few red, almost olive-shaped yew berries hung from the branches of a nearby hedge, their round brown seeds visible from the outside of the semihollow fruit. Vivian carefully picked them, gathering the berries in his pocket. Yews are extremely poisonous, after all… except for the flesh of the berry. Picking a fresh one, he gave it a look, then frowned and shrugged. He peeled off the flesh and gave it a nibble.
“Ugh. Underripe strawberry,” he muttered, shaking his head. Not worth it.
Wait, how did I know that? Gardener class knowledge? It’s useful, so I won’t fight it, but how creepy. He wrinkled his nose.
I wonder… He reached out and grabbed a rose. The entire vine swayed toward him, taking the yew with it. Vivian reached for his clippers, only to find nothing. Dammit. Left them behind.
Oh well. He dug his thumbnail into the vine and sawed, freeing the rose from the vine. Not the healthiest for the plant, but I need to know.
The rose fell into his hands. The luminescent flower spread wide, its phosphorescent petals wafting a light fragrance toward Vivian.
Ghost roses. If I have enough of these, I can craft a simple SP potion, and if I take—
System, I know it’s you, Vivian said, rolling his eyes.
As if clearing its throat, the message restarted.
Ghost Roses. An ingredient in low-grade SP potions. A skilled Potion Brewer can create a unique potion using these. Only the Gardener can pick them properly. Anyone else will likely summon the Lost Ones when picking these roses.
“Huh. Interesting.” Vivian knelt and gathered a few more off the ground, stuffing the set into his pockets. The fallen roses glowed weakly in comparison to the newly cut one.
Fallen Ghost Roses. Good choice, adventurer! Compared to the fresh Ghost Roses, their efficacy is weaker, but picking them up will not summon the Lost Ones.
“Alright, cool it with the adventurer bullshit. You’ve been useless this whole time, let’s not start pretending you care about me now,” Vivian muttered. Although it did seem to react to me earlier, it’s really just a set of preprogrammed messages, as far as anyone can tell. I don’t know why or how it was pretending to be my thoughts, but… then again, it might be on my end. I was adapting the information the System gave me into my thoughts subconsciously, but stopped doing it once I realized… maybe?
In any case, if I trigger something a Player might, the System will have a fair chance of using that cheery ‘adventurer’ tone… especially if it’s an older feature. I remember when the Tower finally phased that out. I—
Vivian paused. He furrowed his brows. I…
I… what? What did I do about that?
Vivian rubbed his forehead. A vast emptiness stretched in his mind, a void that his imagination immediately tried to fill. A thousand hypothetical scenarios played out in his head, but none of them felt real. No, I’m trying too hard. This is the kind of psychological bullshit that gets people to plant false trauma memories into their own brains. Deep breaths, Vivi. New life, new me! The past is in the past, and let’s focus on recruiting this dumb little thief-slash-Mage so I can get to the Ruined Castle and figure out what that Kyung guy is all haughty about.
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Remember. Recruiting a level three Mage is easy. Recruiting a level ten Mage is hard! It’ll be worth it. It will be worth it. One day!
Vivian hung the spray bottle in his pocket and walked off, humming to himself. Absent-mindedly, he peeled the yew berries and discarded the flesh. Occasionally, he took a small bite of the yew berry flesh. It barely sated his hunger.
Better than nothing. But on the other hand, I’m not hungrier than I was last night. Do I not grow hungry when I’m acting as an NPC instead of acting on my own?
Yawning, Vivian marched on. Following his own instructions, he reached the clearing again in no time. “Noah! You awake?”
A groan was his only answer. Vivian looked at the little pile of blanket and robes and snorted. “Not a morning person?”
A louder groan.
That’s fine. I had my own plans, anyways.
He scanned the clearing. His rake and clippers laid abandoned on the floor, the rake randomly skewed as if he’d dropped it and walked away. Grabbing the two up, he drew them beside him and sat down nearby. Sinking his fingers into the cracks in the stone, he pried at the cobblestones until one came away in his hand. He used the loose cobble as a pestle and a set cobblestone in the path as the mortar, and ground the seeds to a paste one after another. Humming happily to himself, he rubbed the paste over the clippers and the rake’s tines. He collected the extra paste in his pocket. I’d offer some to Noah, but mages can’t use poison.
An alarm went off in his head. Vivian looked up. Someone’s entered the Garden.
“Noah! We know you’re in there! Come on out, you little thief!” a bass male voice shouted.
“Hurry! We know where you live,” a woman added.
“Your mother’s waiting for me. Should I come visit tonight?” another man shouted.
Across from Vivian, Noah sat bolt upright. He gripped his blanket tight. “How did they find me?”
“I mean, you hung out in the Starter Town and took the road here. Anyone and everyone saw you come this way. I’m surprised you’re surprised,” Vivian said flatly, peeling the flesh off another seed.
Noah stood. “I have to go.”
“Go where? To your death?” Vivian asked dryly.
Noah hesitated. “If I stay here, they’ll hunt me down. I—”
“Your quest is here, though. Kill ten Lost Ones, right? It’s a bullshit suicidal quest, but it’s here, in the Garden. If you run, won’t they just camp here until you come back?” Vivian asked.
Biting his lip, Noah stared off into the distance. Abruptly, he rounded on Vivian. “So what should I do?”
Vivian clenched his fist. “Kill them first.”
Noah blinked. He shook his head. “I’m not a murderer.”
Vivian hopped to his feet. “Then we’ve got to finish your quest and hoof it out of here before they find you.”
“But how? We haven’t even started the quest,” Noah said. “And didn’t you say it was super-high-level?”
“Less complaining, more moving,” Vivian said. He glanced over his shoulder at Noah. “Once we proc this quest, all the Lost Ones are going to go aggro. You know what that means?”
“It’s really hard for us?” Noah guessed. A second later, his eyes widened. “Wait. They’ll aggro Kors’ party, too!”
Vivian tapped his rake, sending it into his inventory. The spray bottle, too, he sent away. He lifted the clippers, feeling their heft, and grinned. “That’s right. They’ve walked into hell.”
Apologies to my fellow NPCs, but… well, Lost Ones are half monsters in the first place. There’s no point worrying too much about what happens to them.
Besides… they’ll respawn. The same as me.
“Yesterday, when you were walking the garden, did you run into any Lost Ones?” Vivian asked conversationally, setting out.
Noah nodded. “Yeah.”
“Right. Lead the way.”
Noah glanced at Vivian, then stepped ahead. Vivian watched him go. In the back of his mind, he quietly tracked the other party as they wove through the hedge maze. They’re nowhere near us yet. Good.
We have three major advantages. One, this is my home turf. I can sense the other party and track them. Two, we get to pick when to pull the trigger on the Lost Ones, not them. Three… this isn’t knowledge from me, but from the Gardener me, but… I’m an NPC here. I know how this quest is meant to be undertaken. The trick I taught Noah to get back to the clearing is the same trick you use to escape the aggro’d Lost Ones.
As soon as you kill one, the rest close in on you. It’s easy to get cornered and overwhelmed. But if you use the trick—the series of turns that always leads to the safe clearing—you can escape them before they close in on you. Yeah, it’s not possible to dodge them all that way, but it means you won’t get backed into a corner, either. Plus, by using the clearing trick to teleport away, you can keep the Lady of the Lost off your back.
Vivian sighed. But we also have three major disadvantages. One, Noah and I are both weak. I’m an NPC class, level seven. He’s a Player class, but only level four. Two, there’s only two of us. If he or I get injured, it’s pretty much game over. Healing potions are too expensive for me just yet, and there’s no way a level four Player who had to steal gear has any. Likewise, if we run out of SP—especially with Noah as a Mage—that’s it. With enough Ghost Roses, I could craft an SP potion, sure, but when that other party showed up, we ran out of time for that. Three…
Uh, no. I guess it’s just the two. Still, those two are disadvantage enough! We have to play it safe, and safe means slow. Slow means more time for those bozos at the gate to catch up to us.
Well… regardless of what Noah wants, fighting that party is just about inevitable.
Everything about this is a gamble, but… what the hell. What’s life without a bit of risk? Especially now that I’m semi-immortal.
Vivian tossed his clippers, catching them by one handle, spinning them around to slam them shut, then tossing them again. “You remember that trick from yesterday?”
“Huh? Oh, to get back to the clearing?”
Vivian nodded. “If you ever get cornered, do that immediately, whether I’m with you or not. If we ever get separated, we’ll regroup there.”
Stiffly, Noah nodded.
“I’ll fight on your side, but ultimately, I’m an NPC. You have to deal the killing blow to activate the quest,” Vivian said. I’m not sure about this, but better safe than sorry. If we find out later that it’s not true, that’s a nice bonus for us. Plus, it’ll level Noah up faster than me taking the kill.
Noah nodded again. He ran his hands over his tome, feeling the leather cover.
Vivian tilted his head. “You’re a generalist, but you only have one tome. One tome means one spell, right?”
“I can switch it to any spell I know, but it takes time,” Noah said.
“How long?” Vivian asked.
“A minute,” Noah said.
Vivian hummed. In battle, that’s an eternity. Using the clearing trick, we might get a chance or two, but… better to start off on the right foot. “Set it to your lowest SP-cost spell that isn’t fire. We’ll be at this a while.”
“Already done,” Noah said. He tightened his grip on his tome.
A Lost One drifted around the corner. He lifted ashen arms toward them, unruly hair curling wildly around his head, his eyes sad and empty. Glowing the same phosphorus green as the roses, he drifted at them, dangling toes tickled by the grass infesting the cobblestones.
Noah stumbled back. He sucked in a breath.
Closing his eyes, Vivian checked in on the other party. They’re separate, and two of them are close to Lost Ones. Good enough for me.
Vivian opened his eyes and raised his clippers. “This one will be an easy kill. But it’ll be the last easy one. Prepare yourself. Today’s going to be a long day.”
“Yes,” Noah said. He clenched his tome. His brows furrowed in determination.
Vivian darted forth. His clippers gleamed as he thrust them toward the Lost One.