The air in Peacock’s lungs left in a whoosh. The blur collided with his side, knocking him off his feet. Claws dug into his shoulder, white-hot pain radiating down his arm as a rounded dragon’s maw lunged for his neck. Viseral.
Yelling erupted around them. His adrenaline spiked higher as he twisted out of range of the dagger-like teeth and onto his feet. Viseral’s claws caught and tore. More pain erupted from his shoulder. His attacker snarled and swiped, but this time, he was ready.
Peacock pivoted, pulling his body away from the onslaught and his hindquarters into Viseral’s center mass. Viseral stumbled. Peacock lashed out and struck Viseral across the jaw, his claws sinking in with ease. Viseral howled and swung his tail around.
Peacock saw it coming but couldn’t dodge. It hit him right in the back of the head. Stars exploded in his vision.
HEALTH BELOW FIFTY PERCENT
The loud voice coupled with the blow to the head stunned him so much, it took Peacock a couple of seconds to realize he wasn’t under attack anymore.
The jumbled yelling turned into one booming voice. “We will not tolerate griefing in this cave, Viseral! As much as it would disgust us to do so, another uncalled-for attack on anyone here will cause your expulsion!” Oncian’s words rebounded off the cave walls, almost drowning out Viseral’s squealed curses.
Viseral dangled from Oncian’s hand by his tail. “Put me down, damn you! It’s just a newb. No wonder everyone thinks you two are so weak, if you’re not willing to take such easy xp!”
“You okay?” Arianrhod peered at his still throbbing shoulder.
Peacock trembled. Was he okay? No, of course he wasn’t! He’d just died, been locked out of his life, and lucky him, was reborn next to a griefer. Peacock glanced at the still struggling Viseral. No. He would not give Viseral the satisfaction of knowing he’d shaken him. That’s what griefers thrived on, and he wasn’t about to back down or show weakness.
“I’m fine,” he said through clenched teeth.
Cavua and Oncian left with the still screeching Viseral hanging like a mouse caught by a cat.
Arianrhod sighed and shook her head. “Some Rebirths are serious jerks, but I hope you don’t think we’re all like that.”
Peacock frowned. He knew from experience, or at least what little experience was allowed past Aisha’s lock, MMO players’ personalities ran the gamut. The freedom and relatively consequence free worlds brought out the best, and worst, in people. Real life interrupted most games, forcing those same people to temper their desires until their next login. On the other hand, Rebirths were effectively immortal, and permanently in-game. An ultimate life-after-death playground. Too bad not everyone’s idea of fun was fun for everyone.
Arianrhod narrowed her eyes at Peacock’s silence. “Okay. I guess actions speak louder than words, so why don’t I show you a silver lining in Viseral’s ambush?”
“Silver lining?”
“Yep. Bring your character screen back up, and don’t worry. I’ll keep a lookout this time.”
Peacock glanced over his shoulder, his eyes resting on a cozy-looking crack between two rocks at the back of the nest against the glowing cave wall. He backed up into it, pain accompanying his every step. Seems like they could have dulled the pain sensations. I mean, we’re already dead. Not like we have to worry about disassociation from reality.
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He felt much safer with his hindquarters shielded. Not that he didn’t trust Arianrhod, he just trusted Viseral even less. Arianrhod, to her credit, said nothing as Peacock opened his character sheet.
Most of the info displayed was identical to the last time he looked, except for two things.
LEVEL: 0 XP: 8 (100)
HEALTH: 26
“Hmm.”
“Neat, isn’t it?” Arianrhod said. “As a Rebirth, it doesn’t matter if you’re successful at something. You get experience just for trying. Kind of like your old life, right?”
Peacock closed his screen, quickly surveying the area for any tiger-striped threats. “Sure, I guess so.”
Arianrhod slapped the back of her hand against her forehead. “Closed data. Gotta remember that. Sorry. Anyway, I think Viseral and our new parents are going to be awhile, so why don’t I show you some other ways to get xp. We might even unlock some stuff.”
Peacock perked up. “We can unlock stuff?”
“Of course! Game would be pretty boring if we were stuck with just a character sheet and timers, don’t you think?”
“Right.” Duh. He’d forgotten about the grayed-out tabs in the UI. Unlocking things was the best part of games, and the idea sent a thrill up his spine.
“First things to unlock are the extra tabs, but there’s lots of other stuff that will unlock when you need them.”
“So, how do you figure out how to unlock them?”
Arianrhod laughed, high-pitched and breathy. “By trying things, of course. Even with all the time in the world, there’s enough to keep Rebirths busy for a long time, and more gets added as we go.”
Peacock nodded. “Good thing for Immortech, huh?”
Arianrhod looked at him in surprise, then shrugged. “Not part of your memory loss? That’s good. Less explanation.”
As annoying as the holes in his memory was, Peacock was extremely glad not everything from his life was off-limits. Things would have been much more confusing if he didn’t even remember the company, and the tech, that made the self-maintaining Rebirth servers possible. He wasn’t sure how the tech worked, but knew the oldest servers from Immortech were pushing one hundred years old, and were still in pristine condition.
Arianrhod bounced on her toes. “Before we go, we should do something about your health. See that glowing lichen all over the walls? It’s Medelia Lichen. Alchemists distill it and mix it with some other stuff to make health potions. It’s a lot more potent that way, but eating it works, too, especially when you don’t have a lot of health to worry about.”
Peacock looked at the wall behind them. There were plenty of glowing, fuzzy patches, and it was all emanating a rather green smell. Like nutrition blocks. A sharp jab in his skull de-railed the thought, but not before getting the phantom taste of dirt, iron and grass. He groaned.
“Oh, it smells worse than it tastes! I probably should have told you that. I forget how bad medicine tasted in my old life sometimes. No worries, though. Healthy things taste decent here.”
Peacock snorted. “I feel like I’ve heard that from someone else before. They were lying.”
“Well, I’m telling the truth. Go on, or do you want to make it easy for Viseral to take you out? Death isn’t permanent, but it hurts plenty. Plus, you’ll get different family… oh.”
As soon as Arianrhod mentioned Viseral, Peacock was at the wall, running a rather long tongue across the glowing fuzz. The lichen stuck to his tongue easily, coating its rough-feeling surface in a surprisingly pleasant taste. It was mildly sweet, with chocolate undertones. He swallowed. Immediately, warmth spread throughout his body. The pain faded, then vanished.
HEALTH AT FULL
The flavor in Peacock’s mouth lingered as he considered the bare rock strip where he’d licked. One more won’t hurt.
“Well, come on!” Arianrhod said. “We need to get you caught up on how dragons work!”
Peacock looked at her and snorted. “And stronger. I need to be stronger to beat Viseral.”
Arianrhod frowned and thumped her tail on the ground. “Uh… yeah. Stronger is good, too.”
“Great. What’s first?”
She led Peacock away from the nest and deeper into the cave. At least, he figured they were going deeper. It was hard to tell, especially with no point of reference. The maze-like structures of the tunnels and overall sameness of their surroundings would have made navigating difficult either way.
Arianrhod explained and showed other ways of gaining xp as she went. As hatchlings, they were limited to the rather dull activities of walking, running, digging, climbing and play-fighting. She put extra emphasis on the word play and added a stern look to go with it.
After an indeterminate, but long-feeling, amount of time digging and walking, Peacock had almost gained a level. His boredom meter, however, was full. When Viseral attacked again, it came almost as a relief.