— CHAPTER EIGHTEEN —

The Winding Road Ahead

  (Percival)

 The following morning, Fritz and Brynn went into town to get someone to watch Brynn's mom while she was out, leaving me and Lowe at the shop. I leaned against one of the counters, watching him dart around Brynn's workshop, getting reagents and using the crafting stations to mix up a crate full of miscellaneous potions. I appreciated the attentiveness to preparations, but he was going overboard. We did not need 20 jars of anti-itch cream. I would have been surprised if we'd needed two.

 Fritz, Brynn, and the local priest then returned. She showed the older man upstairs, explaining how to care for her mother. She'd already made three days worth of the sedative. That was it's maximum shelf life, and that meant our timer was already ticking.

 Fritz joined me and asked, "Hey, you think this quest was balanced for taking real-world time off of the game? Or did they expect us to be playing three days non-stop?"

 "I don't know, but if people keep failing the quest, it can't be that easy."

 "Hey," he slapped me on the shoulder, "it's never met us before!" He gave me a cheesy smirk.

 "Sure."

 Meanwhile, Lowe was stuffing his potions into every pocket he had. "Uh, my inventory's full - could you take some of these?"

 "Sure thing." Fritz started picking up what was left on the counter and reading the labels. "Man, they've sure got a lot of different types of debuff cleanser. What's wrong with a simple 'removes all diseases' potion?"

 "Panacea is only available at high levels." Lowe said.

 "Not to mention the side effects." I added. "I remember there was a blog post on balancing where they said they wanted to give potions negative effects to make them a tactical decision over a straight advantage. There should be a couple varieties for any purpose with different side effects. 'Pick your poison'."

 "Oh, neat." Fritz took the syrup of ipecac out of one of his belt pouches and looked at the description. "Does this thing have a side effect?"

 "Have you tried it yet?" I asked.

 He shook his head. "Nah, last night was a beer night - we were watching the faerie lights. Don't worry; you didn't miss it!"

 Brynn came back downstairs and picked up her backpack at the foot of the stairs. Putting it on, she said, "Alright, that's everything! I'm ready when you are!"

 "Then let's hit the road!" Fritz put the last of the potions away.

 We stepped outside and went down the path to town, where Fritz had the wagon parked and his horse hitched. Fritz took the drivers seat while the rest of us climbed in the back.

 Putting on a bit of a pout, Lowe said, "I'll admit you're better equipped than most of the schlumps that come through here. This is a nice wagon."

 "Darn tootin'!" Fritz exclaimed. "Only the best for us! Hi ho Caesar's Palace, away!"

 "Stop trying to make that a thing." I told him.

 "Bah, let me have my fun!" He urged the horse forward, and we started down the road out of Hope with a rhythmic clip-clop of hooves.

 As we rode toward the main route that would take us to the rest of the King's Woods, Brynn got a map out of her backpack and laid it out across the middle of the wagon's bed. It was handmade with many things - including cities and roads - not explicitly marked. Using what was there, however, I was able to match it to my world map, placing it as a stretch of the forest extending from the Deep King's Woods down into another zone to the southeast - the Celestial Forest. That would be the third zone of the region, intended for levels 20 - 25.

 "Ok, so here-" Brynn pointed to a spot in the far southeast, right up against the coast. "The Star Marsh is here."

 I found it on my own map and scrolled around its surroundings. "That's pretty remote - there are no villages anywhere near it."

 "That's part of the problem." Brynn nodded. "And it's the only place comet's tooth will grow."

 "Well, we can take major roads most of the way. Easily doable in three days. Based on how long it took us to get from Townsville to Hope, I'd guess it shouldn't take us more than a day to get there." Moving my map off to the side for a moment, I then leaned forward. "Now what are these other landmarks you have marked?" I pointed at her map. In addition to the major cities, roads, rivers, and mountains, there were a number of other things marked on her map that didn't correspond to anything on mine.

 "Those? Oh, those are the locations of rare herbs I've found at one time or another."

 "Are you low on any?" I asked.

 "Uh- we-! Wait just a minute!" Lowe sputtered. "We're on a deadline here; let's not get distracted!"

 "Well..." Brynn started. "If you don't mind, I could always use more."

 "Brynn!" Lowe's voice cracked. "Your mother's sick; we have to focus on saving her!"

 "Of course I want to cure her, but there's more to the world than that! Each one of these herbs has the ability to save a life, and we can't know when they will be needed! When an emergency strikes, there may not be the time to go and get them - it could even be your life they save! Plus, they said the trip will be quick; we have some time to spare!"

 "One thing at a time! If you really want those herbs, let's cure your mother first, then go back out!"

 Brynn folded her hands in her lap and closed her eyes. "It's up to them. If they want to make the detours, that's their decision."

 Fritz turned back to say, "You heard the woman, Percy, plot us the optimal path!"

 I slid my map back in front of myself. "With pleasure."

  -Fritz-

 Our first detour led us south off the main road toward an escarpment that rode along a large part of the border of the zone. And we could hear what we were looking for long before it appeared:

 The roar of cascading water grew louder as the cliff appeared over the tree tops and we entered its shadow. Nestled in a nook-like recess, a colossal waterfall tumbled over the precipice, its frothy white torrents plunging a hundred yards to the rapids below. The water caught the sunlight as it fell, throwing a shimmering, prismatic mist into the air. Pine trees and thick underbrush clung to the sides of the cliff face around it, while the lower shore where we pulled up was lined in mossy rocks.

 "Peekin's cave lichen -" Brynn explained, "- it has powerful regenerative properties, but animals eat it to get high, so only the stuff in hard-to-reach places survives predation."

 "I can't blame 'em." I nodded. "So... where is it?"

 Brynn pointed to a dark section of the rock face, about halfway up and just to the side of the waterfall's path. "See that fold in the rock? There's a cave behind it that the lichen grows in. It's the perfect little hidey hole to keep it safe!"

 Scratching my head, I then asked, "How do we get up there?"

 "I don't know..." Brynn said.

 Before anyone could chime in, Lowe jumped out of the wagon. "I'll climb it!"

 He started toward the sheer cliff, but Percy said, "That's well above the fatal fall distance."

 "Well someone's gotta do it!" he kept marching.

 Brynn said, "The lichen is a delicate, symbiotic ecosystem. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, you'll more than likely ruin it."

 Looking at Brynn, I said, "So you're the only one that can harvest it."

 "Figures it's not as simple as swinging by each of the bonus locations." Percy looked up in thought. "We can't spend more than a couple hours at each of these if we want to hit all seven."

 "Then let's get puzzling." I said.

 Staring up at the waterfall, Percy said, "Shame we don't have a rope - we could tie it around Brynn, find a way up to the top, then lower her down to it."

 As it was, the best we could do was look around for a path to the cave. Brynn was already picking her way along the riverbank, eyes fixed upward, and Lowe trailed after her like a puppy. Percy and I spread out behind them.

 It was Percy that found it. "I think I've got it!" He was already 20 feet off the ground, standing on a narrow ledge against the cliff face. "There's a ladder of handholds up from the ground!"

 Brynn looked for the handholds he mentioned. Trying to grab some rocks to climb, she asked, "Here?"

 "Yeah, it's a straight rise up to the ledge."

 Lowe ran over and gave her a boost. She scrambled up the cliff, finding each handhold and pulling herself higher. Percy reached down to help haul her up the last few feet to stand on the ledge beside him.

 "Oh, wow." Brynn said breathlessly, pressing her back against the cliff. "This looked a lot safer from the ground." The ledge was barely wide enough for her to put one foot down. She sidled along carefully, following Percy's lead.

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 The kid was smaller and more agile, carefully walking along the ledge as it followed the curve of the cliff, passing right underneath the roaring waterfall. The ledge wasn't continuous, and Percy hopped over small gaps in the rock. He locked arms with Brynn and helped pull her across as she struggled to find her footing on the slick stone.

 On the shore below, Lowe scurried back and forth, eyes glued to the pair.

 "Let the kid work; he's got it under control." I told him.

 "But what if they fall?" Lowe asked, voice pitched high.

 "We can't control that. And unless you can walk on water, we can't catch them." I jerked my head back toward the wagon. "Come on."

 I led Lowe back to where we'd parked by the tree line. We sat on the rim, watching as Brynn and Percy disappeared behind the curtain of white water. Lowe bounced his leg nervously, waiting for them to appear on the other side.

 "Relax, man." I said. "Even in the worst case scenario, she'll respawn."

 "But what if it's not... 'her'? What if she doesn't have the same memories? What if she doesn't remember anything we've done? She can never remember anything that happened when she comes back from a failed quest."

 "Does she usually recognize you when she comes back?"

 "I don't know... Partially - she knows my name. But... every time, it feels like something's missing. There's little things, like jokes she doesn't remember."

 "It could be the limits of what NPCs are allowed to retain."

 "It's not that. There are plenty of small things that she remembers - like what I made for dinner last week. But then... one time when she came back she couldn't remember how we met."

 That's when Percy appeared on the far side of the waterfall, walking along the ledge without a problem. Brynn struggled after him, holding onto the wall as best she could.

 Percy stopped, pointing ahead and saying something I couldn't hear. Brynn edged forward tentatively. With a small hop, Percy leapt across a gap to a slightly wider section of ledge. Brynn hesitated, eyeing the distance nervously. Percy turned, extending a hand toward Brynn.

 She took his arm and tried to take the jump as a large step, but her foot slipped. She scrabbled at the stone, teetering just a moment before falling. Lowe let out a choked squeal.

 Percy, however, adjusted his feet and yanked Brynn toward him. They spun around each other, Brynn getting flung onto the ledge and plastering herself flat against the cliff while Percy took the fall. He splashed into the seething white water at the base of the falls.

 "Get a health potion!" I hopped off the wagon and jogged toward the water.

 A dozen yards downstream, I spotted his black robe and red hair dragging himself onto the far bank.

 "You good, Perce?" I called.

 "Just some bruises!" Percy stood, and wringed out his sleeves. "Brynn! There's another set of handholds to your right! Keep climbing!"

 "Alright!" Still hugging the wall, she shifted to the side and felt around for the grips.

 Percy, meanwhile, walked downstream and hopped across a series of rocks sticking up above the frothing rapids, returning to our side.

 "Need a boost back up?" I asked.

 He shook his head. "Part of the ledge behind the water got splashed. It's too slick to use again." His gaze roved assessingly over the cliff face. Reaching into his belt, he withdrew a pair of knives. "Let's try this one - there!"

 He took off jogging toward the treeline, where dangling brush and moss created a net of foliage clinging to the rock. I followed, lacing my fingers together. Percy stepped into my hands and I heaved upward, launching him high enough to sink his blades into the tangle of vegetation. Using the knives like climbing picks, he scrambled quickly up the side.

 On the other side of the waterfall, Brynn was struggling on her own. One of her hands slipped, and she dangled precariously off one arm, her eyes wide with fear.

 Lowe yelped and ran up and down the shore of the river, looking for a place to cross. "Wait there, Brynn!"

 She managed to get her feet, then other hand back onto the cliff, steadying her position.

 Lowe ran over to the set of rocks Percy had used to cross and steeled himself to jump them, but I grabbed him by the shoulder. "It's way too high for you to get up there, man. Just trust her." I led him back toward the wagon.

 Trying to steer the conversation away from the cliff, I asked, "So how'd you two, uh... meet anyway?"

 "I almost died out in the forest by Hope. I thought I could farm some high-level mobs to boost my level, but then I stumbled into a venomous beaver." He laughed and shook his head. "I thought it was just the one, but it called a bunch of friends - a whole herd of them came running out of the bushes and jumped all over me. I got away, but the poison was going to finish me. And then... she found me. She was out gathering some herbs in the forest and stumbled on me as I was watching my health tick down. Gave me an antidote. She saved me. It's cheesy, I know, but... everyone likes a little cheese, right?"

 I nodded. "Cheese, crust, sauce, pineapple - you need it all to make a dynamite pizza."

 He sighed and continued, "I gave up trying to level after that. Now... after giving it some thought, I don't even know if I want to leave the game. I... came here to find something different - that's why I like fantasy stuff. That's why I logged in. It's funny - isn't that what most people are looking for in these things? Something to immerse themselves in? The escapism, the adventure, the break from the day-to-day? So why is everyone in such a rush to... 'progress'?

 "Circumstances change." I said. "You don't want to live everywhere you take a vacation. Day-to-day may be dull, but it's reliable - comfortable, and most people are going to fall back on that reliability."

 What I said made sense to me, but still, the question stuck with me. We weren't participating, but Percy and I had been following what had been going on in the Citadel through the newspaper. They'd started to call the group of guilds actively working on the story bosses the 'Vanguard'. I was rooting for them, hoping things would go smoothly and we could get through the story quickly... but why? I wasn't in any kind of rush to get back to anyone.

 A sudden shout from Percy jolted me out of my thoughts. "Hold right there!"

 I looked up to see he had climbed even higher than both Brynn and the cave and found a thin, wiry tree jutting out the side of the cliff. He shimmied his way out onto a far branch, his weight causing the whole tree to bow downward until it formed an upside-down 'U' shape, the tip dangling freely in front of the waterfall. There, he began to rock back and forth, building momentum to swing towards Brynn.

 "On my mark, I want you to jump and grab onto me!" Percy called out.

 "I- I can't do that!" Brynn squealed back.

 "Get it done!" Percy shouted. "The sooner it's over, the less time you'll have to be afraid! Ready? ... Now!"

 Brynn hesitated for a split second, then launched herself off the side of the cliff just as Percy swung towards her. She clutched onto him, letting out a hysterical scream as they swung straight into the thundering waterfall. Water exploded around them, and they vanished from sight.

 "Brynn!" Lowe yelped, leaping off the wagon and sprinting toward the river's edge, ready to fish them out. But they didn't resurface. The tree remained bent, its branch poking into the churning water like a giant fishing pole.

 Then, I spotted movement. Percy emerged, gripping the end of the branch and using it like a rope, his feet finding purchase against the cliff face. Brynn clung to the branch above him, hugging tightly onto the spindly tree. Carefully, Percy walked them sideways until he reached the mouth of the cave. Brynn hopped off onto the ledge. Without her weight, the tree started to snap back upright. Percy quickly threw himself into the cave after her, and the tree sprang back to its original position.

 Brynn looked like a drowned rat - soaked to the bone, clothes plastered to her skin, hair dripping into her eyes. She sagged against the cave entrance, gasping for breath.

 "Are you okay?" Lowe shouted up anxiously.

 "Yes!" Brynn called back, voice trembling with exhilaration and residual fear. "Yes, we're fine! And we made it!"

 After taking a moment to collect herself, she disappeared into the shadows of the cave. Her voice echoed out a few seconds later. "There's plenty of lichen up here, too!"

 A few minutes later, Brynn reappeared at the cave mouth, a bundle of lichen tucked under one arm. She very carefully did not look down, staying well back from the edge. Percy, in contrast, leaned out and looked straight at the ground.

 "Alright Perce," I called up, "what's your plan on getting down?"

 "... Put rope on our supplies list - we need to keep it in stock at all times."

---

 Later that evening, we were trundling down the road in the wagon. The sun was approaching the horizon, turning the trees red and purple in the twilight. In the back, Brynn's clothes were torn in several places and her hair was a mess, but she carefully moistened the lichen and folded it up, tucking it nice and safe in her backpack.

 "Look at yourself!" Lowe said. "We can't do this six more times for side stops!"

 "Aw, don't be such a worry wart." she waved him off. "I can handle a few cuts, and these reagents are worth it!"

 "What can you make out of that stuff?" I asked.

 "It's used in a potion that speeds up wound regeneration - including limb regrowth!"

 "And you said animals eat the stuff to get high? Does it, uh, do that for humans?"

 "The potion retains some mild hallucinogenic effects, yes. It's mostly used in cases of amputation when the patient would be indisposed anyway."

 "Ooh, can I buy some of those when we get back to your shop? You know how dangerous it gets out here on the road."

 "Oh, you don't have to go that far - I'd be more than happy to give you some! It's the least I can do to thank you for going out of your way to help me!"

 Just then, a cluster of buildings peeked through the trees ahead.

 "Civilization ho!" I called out. "This is the last town on this side of the zone border, and I don't think we can cross before nightfall, so how do y'all feel about stopping here?"

 "We haven't made it very far." Lowe muttered. "We haven't even gotten to the Celestial Forest yet."

 Percy said, "As long as we reach the marsh by tomorrow, we should be fine getting back in time. We should leave early in the morning, to be safe."

 We drove into town, and I parked us in front of the tavern for the passengers to unload. Some of the NPCs of the town came over, apparently recognizing Brynn as an apothecary, and asked her about herbs and illnesses. She wandered off to help them, and Lowe trailed after her.

 I pulled the wagon around back and locked it, then headed into the tavern with Percy. It was about what I'd come to expect from the game's taverns - warm food, cozy air, crackling fire, and a crowd of players and NPCs alike. Nothing special and plenty of atmosphere.

 We got some stools at the bar, then I rented us four room keys and a beer. Percy went for a hot chocolate with cinnamon, whipped creme, sprinkles, and an edible cookie straw.

 With our drinks in hand, we sat there and looked out at the crowd. Everyone in the tavern was mingling peacefully - drinks, pub food, a couple games of dice. From how they were chatting and laughing together, you'd never tell which were people and which were programs. Out the window, in the town square, Brynn was surrounded by residents and adventurers, selling them potions, showing them how to prepare herbs, and playing with a little kid.

 "It's spooky how easy it is to forget you not talking to a person sometimes." I said.

 "The admin said it on the first day - they definitely have their moments." Percy said. "It's odd how much variation there is; most NPCs act like oblivious boards."

 "Yeah." I glanced back at the barkeep behind us, polishing a glass and staring blankly off into space.

 "Did you ever hear anything back from Titus?" Percy asked.

 "Didn't I tell you? The villagers wanted to go back and rebuild their houses, but he convinced them to stay a little longer. They bring it up every few days, and he's trying to see how long he can keep them out."

 "So the game appears to have a default state that it tends toward, but it will adjust according to player action. I wonder how far it will bend?"

 I took a deep drink of beer. Rich, dark, and frothy - a little weak, but it made up in flavor. No limits. Good beer, no disease, no permanent injuries or pain. We didn't know how aging would work, but it wasn't that bad a deal, living in the game.

 "Hey, Perce," I said, "how would you feel if we never managed to beat the game?"

 He bit off the end of his cookie straw. "That's not a possibility."

 "Why not?"

 "We were not put here to live out some fantasy life. That would be a waste of investment. There's real, definite purpose behind everything happening here."

 "What makes you say that?"

 "You remember the admin's speech in the arena? 'Your success has been forecast' - they expect us to beat the game. It's part of the intention."

 "Well, I'll just wait for the Vanguard to find out why they're putting us through it, then. Anyway, I'm gonna get groovy with this syrup of ipecac stuff. You want in?"

 "I'm not into the mind-altering stuff." He ate the last of his straw, chugged the rest of the hot chocolate, wiped the whipped creme mustache off with his finger and licked it, then took one of the room keys and headed for the stairs. "And remember we're leaving early - there are six more places to hit on the way to the marsh."

 "I know!" I waved him off and got the bottle of cough syrup out of my belt pouch. "Does this stuff have a dosage?" I mumbled, squinting at the label. "Guess we're doin' it live."