It was still relatively early in the morning when I finally woke up. Which was surprising, since it was technically morning when I went to bed. I guess it was due to the restfulness from the gaming pod, but I felt fine even though I hadn’t gotten anywhere near a healthy amount of sleep in the past several days.
Since I didn’t want to waste any more time than necessary, I had a simple bowl of cereal to eat while browsing through information about the game, which had become a bit of a habit by now. As expected, my previous post about having to hide my race had sparked a good bit of speculation about what I was. Several people believed I was some sort of doppelganger or other monster, which I suppose was technically right. Then again, in SWO most playable races can also appear as enemies, so we’re all sort of monsters. It’s just that some of us are more monstrous than others.
I did find some images that were a bit alarming. The post was just titled “Cryptids?”, and in it were several blurry screenshots or a large flying being seen from a distance. According to the post, the pictures were taken on the road between Al Omand and Eridell, the same road we had been travelling on last week in the game. The figure shown was clearly humanoid, but no details could be made out from the distance. What concerned me was that the figure was very, VERY familiar. It was almost certainly me. It seems someone saw my scouting trips while we were travelling, and took pictures thinking I was some sort of monster. Now a few players were planning to hunt down the “mysterious flying creature”, while others wanted to catch and tame it. While I was a bit worried about being hunted, I was also quite proud to become the games bigfoot. I couldn’t wait to tell the others I was now becoming an urban legend. I’m sure Joseph will be pleased.
Another interesting bit of news I found was that the forums were made accessible in game. Several subforums were set up for the various regions, allowing players to share information and news with their local area. In game, players could only access the subforum for their current region, and would automatically be switched to a new subforum if they changed regions. While offline we could browse all of the regions freely, though. Presently they were filled mostly with people looking for party members and the occasional informational post notifying others about interesting things in an area. Most also had a catalog of the currently discovered dungeons in that region.
After finishing up my breakfast and any chores I needed to do, I finally signed back into the game. A quick glance at my party information told me Amber and the twins were all already online somewhere, so I went to find them.
I found the girls gathered outside of town. Celeste had apparently wanted to go try out the new attachment for her spear to get used to the difference in weight before she actually needed it, so she was now beating a scorpion with her blunted spear. Amber was sitting nearby finishing up making her crossbow bolts for the trip, and Aurora was keeping an eye on Celeste to make sure she didn’t die. Or she was sleeping, it was hard to tell exactly which it was. Celeste wasn’t joking that she’s not good with mornings.
I raised my hand as I approached. “Morning everyone.”
“Oh, hey.” Amber said, glancing up from her work. “Good timing, I was just finishing up here.”
I turned and watched Celeste beating on the scorpion for a while. The shell of the scorpion she was fighting with was covered in cracks and was crumbling in places. There were even bits coming off.
“Hmm, looks like your cap works. She’s pretty thoroughly crushing that shell.”
“It’s alright. I would have liked to give it a wider head for more impact, but that would throw off the balance of the spear too much. As it is now she’s able to put a good bit of force on a small area though, so it should be fine. She can also hit things with the side if she needs to. The biggest downside though is that I have to be the one that puts it on or takes it off. It requires my tinkering skill to do it without damaging either the spear or the attachment.”
As we were talking, Celeste finished off her scorpion and came trotting over to us. “Hey Lilith.”
“Good morning. How is it?” I asked, indicating the spear.
“It’s works well. It took some time to get used to the difference from usual, but I should be good to go now.”
She glanced at Aurora, who was still sitting on the ground staring at where she had been fighting, then reached down and began shaking her shoulder. “Hey, wake up. Lilith’s here.”
“...Mmm? Gu’mor’in...” Aurora slowly turned her head toward me.
“Come one, at least stand up so you don’t fall asleep again.”
Celeste helped her to her feet. Aurora stood unsteadily, but managed to keep her balance. Her eyes were now open, but were still mostly unfocused.
Celeste just shook her head at her friend’s state, then shrugged. “Well then, what do we do now?”
“Well, we’re mostly just killing some time until Horvath and Simona get here. I don’t think there’s really much we need, but you all should probably stock up on food if you haven’t. We don’t really know how long this will take. The ruins are about a day away, so 2 travel days, plus however long we’re down there.”
Celeste nodded. “I think we’re good there. Aurora’s been stocking on ingredients for cooking. But she’s not in any state to be buying food or answering questions right now, unfortunately.” She motioned to the teetering priestess. “By the way Lilith, it’s been awhile since you fed last. How’s your satiety?”
Hmm, now that she mentions it, I haven’t fed Since before Amber got here. I took a quick look at my bar. “Oh, you’re right. I’m getting a little low. We’re still safe from me forcibly transforming, but I should probably eat soon.”
“Ooh, I want to see how you do this.” Amber said, getting excited.
“That’s fine, but I don’t think it’ll be that interesting. Either way, let’s head to an inn for now.”
After Amber packed up her things, we all headed back into town and rented a room at the inn again. Once safely in the room, I turned to Celeste.
“I hope you’re okay with feeding me. I want to show Amber what goes on, and I kinda feel like it would be a crime to feed from Aurora while she’s in that state.”
She just shrugged. “Makes sense. I don’t mind as much when you use the mind control. It’s just without it that is kind of embarrassing.”
I quickly put Celeste under mind control and took her hands to feed. While that was going on, I talked with Amber.
“What does that mean? Why is it embarrassing without the mind control?”
“Ah, that. It turns out if they aren’t mind controlled, there are certain side effects. You know how traditional succubi feed, right? Well they took out the actual act involved, but left the… let’s call it pleasant feeling…”
“Oh, I see. That could be embarrassing.”
“Yeah, that’s why when I can’t use the mind control, you and Simona are going to be exempt from feeding duty. It just seems like it would be wrong with either of you.”
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Amber smirked. “Hmm, so it’s alright with the twins though?”
Though she was still waking up, Aurora appeared to be at least conscious of what we were talking about and began to blush.
“Well, more like it necessary. Simona’s with Horvath, and I don’t want to deal with any drama that could bring. You’re my sister, which just makes it seem wrong. That leaves me with the twins. I can’t say they don’t mind, but at least they’re willing to go along with it.”
“I wonder...” Amber turned to the embarrassed Aurora. “Oh, feeling more awake now?”
Aurora nodded, her face bright red. She was having trouble looking at me again.
“That’s good. Anyway, enough of that. Why did you stay transformed while you did it? I wanted to see your real form!”
“Don’t worry, you’ll see it soon. There’s no reason to change back just to feed.”
While we talked, my satiety filled up and I released Celeste’s hands. Unlike with Aurora, the mind control lasts a long time on her because her willpower stat is much lower. While we were waiting, Simona and Horvath signed back in and they joined us in the inn room.
“‘Morning. What’s wrong with her?” Simona indicated Celeste, who was sitting in a chair staring blankly.
“Oh, she’ll be back soon. I hypnotized her so I could feed, and it hasn’t worn off yet.”
“Aw, I was hoping to see how that works.”
“I’m sure you’ll have a chance. It’s not like I’ll stop needing food, after all.”
Amber looked at Aurora, who was by now fully awake. “Speaking of which, we should eat too. That way we can get going as soon as Celeste’s ready.”
“... I’ll make something simple.” Aurora said, and started getting various ingredients out of her inventory. Judging by how many ingredients she pulled out, her definition of “simple” was very different from mine.
Once again I was coerced into eating even though I don’t need to, and after Celeste recovered we all had a quick meal before heading out. As we ate, Amber pulled out the map she had bought of this area, and I showed the others the general area where I found the ruins before. It was a ways off the main road, so it couldn’t be seen, and about a day's walk from the city.
Once we were on the road a ways from town, I went ahead and released my disguise. As the shadows that gather around me dissipated, I began stretching out my wings re-acclimating myself to having the extra limbs. As I did so I noticed Amber’s eyes were sparkling.
“Ooh, so that’s what you actually look like. And that effect is cool, too. I’m kinda jealous.”
“Well, I suppose if you could find a rare race with a similar transformation ability, you might get it too. But odds of that are pretty slim.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll get that lucky. Still, it’s really cool. Too bad you can’t do it in town. It would be great for showing off.”
“Unfortunately that’s a good way to get myself killed pretty quickly. Anyway, I’m off to create some more cryptid sightings. I’ll be back in a little bit.” I began to flap my wings and lift into the sky.
Amber shouted up after me. “Wait, Cryptids? What are you talking about?”
“Check the forums!” I yelled, then took off into the sky to look around.
Once high enough to get a good view, I turned my attention first to the road ahead of us. In the distance there were a few groups, probably of players, heading toward us. They were probably on their way to Al Omand in hopes of seeing the nomads before they leave in a couple days.
We were still too far away from where the ruins were, so I couldn’t see them yet. I didn’t want to get too far from the party, so I didn’t go off to find them again yet. I’ll have time later to track them down.
I enjoyed the feeling of freely flying around for a while before heading back to the ground to rejoin the rest of the group and report.
Horvath was the first to notice me coming down. “Oh, welcome back. See anything interesting?”
I touched down and transformed back into my disguise. “Nothing really, we’ve got some players coming toward us on the road, but aside from them there’s nothing else out there. I couldn’t see the ruins yet, but I’ll check again later.”
Amber, who had apparently been reading the forum post, was giggling. “You’ve got to let me get some really blurry pictures of you. We can have so much fun with this. You’re already a legend!”
“Maybe later. We need to make sure no one can tell where the pictures are taken so we don’t accidentally give people hints. Right now the only information about my whereabouts is that I’m seen along this road.”
“Good point. There’s already a group of players out searching for “the beast” after all.”
Oh, that was new.
“Seriously? There were some people talking about looking before, but they weren’t actually doing it yet when I read that post.”
“Yep, there’s several full parties scouring the road and land around it searching for you. They’re still near Eridell so you should be fine for now, but you’re now being hunted.”
Horvath just shook his head. “Well, it’s not like this is the first time we’ve had to evade people searching for you. At least this time no one knows who it is. They’re just looking for a strange flying monster. Still, you might want to avoid your little flights as much as possible.”
“Na, I might make them more often, just to mess with the hunters. Oh, even better idea, let’s see about joining the search parties later. That could be pretty fun too.”
As we continued to walk and chat randomly, we passed a few of the groups of players heading the other way. As expected, they were all heading to Al Omand and were interested in the Nomad’s market and caravan. According to them, the road ahead of us was just as clear as it had been on our trip to town. The only danger was the occasional scorpion, which we were already used to dealing with by this point.
As night began to fall, the others began pulling out lanterns or, in Aurora’s case, cast a light spell. Amber pulled out a small headband with a small light on the front with a crank, and began winding it up as she grumbled.
“Typical gnomish technology. It’s usually pretty effective, but it always needs some extra effort to work. Well, it’s usually pretty fun, even if it’s extremely inefficient.”
Once she finished winding it, she released the crank and the light illuminated as she put on the headband.
“I couldn’t afford them, but there are actually night vision goggles, too. Still need to be wound up for some reason, but I still want to get a pair one day.”
I looked at her. “So I guess gnomes can’t see in the dark, then?”
“Nope, dwarves can, but not gnomes in this game. But in the gnomish city basic lights like this are pretty cheap, since we go down into the dwarven city pretty often. It’s really just one big city, actually. We have our city on the surface, while the dwarven city is underneath it. So there’s a lot of interaction between the two groups. It’s kinda funny to see the extremely different style though, since they’re literally one city on top of the other.”
Now that it was darker, I decided it would be safe enough to stay undisguised for now. Besides we should be getting closer to the ruins, so I needed to start looking for them again.
Simona looked at me a moment. “Hey, shouldn’t you have two different outfits?”
I looked down at my clothes. “What do you mean?”
“Well, the clothes you’re wearing stay the same when you transform, right? So if someone sees you like this, then you put on your disguise, won’t they still recognize you because the outfit’s the same?”
I… hadn’t actually considered that at all. Now I wish I hadn’t sold my old robe when I bought this dress.
“That’s a good point. For now I can’t do anything about it since I only have the one outfit, but I should probably look into finding a cheap set of clothes for wearing while disguised.”
“Right. I can’t make them yet, but eventually I’ll try to make two different outfits with the same stats for you. That way it doesn’t matter which form you’re in, your clothes will have the same bonuses.”
“Well in the meantime, I’ll just have to be careful not to get seen too closely. Since I rarely am undisguised that shouldn’t be too difficult.”
We continued to walk through the night, with me periodically taking flights to look around. Since it was dark I was less concerned with being seen, and I really didn’t want to miss the ruins and pass them by accident.
It was about midnight when I finally spotted them. I dropped down to the ground to tell the others.
“Found them. We should probably leave the road and start heading through the plains now. I’ll guide you from above.”
Horvath nodded. “Right, let’s go then. Watch out, there may be enemies or other dangers once we leave the road.”
With that, the others began pressing through the sparse grasslands toward the ruins. I flew just high enough so I could keep them in view, but low enough that the others could still see me even in the dark. Like that, we reached the ruins at about an hour later.