Type Online - Pariah Online: Chapter 5
“Huh...” Maybe she was trying to mess with me, “Did you...” She had to be messing with me. My brain was blank. “But you started dinner, right?”
Someone behind me shoved me down, and the Com-Jewel projection fizzled out. Another person grabbed my free arm and started pulling me back up practically the moment I hit the ground. I saw a sword headed straight for my neck and heard Lingo shouting, “Reflect!” seconds before it made contact. A man in armour behind me, twice as big as Lingo or I were, lowered the sword as a slash of red ripped across his body. His HP bar dropped to a quarter, and he stumbled back, yelling. His face was covered in scars, and his sword was as big as I was. He had black eyes and looked like he could easily pick me up and rip me apart with his bare hands.
“Hand it over, if what she said was true I've gotta get a hold of my guild.” He growled at me. I trembled, staring back down at my hand, then up at him. As I started to reach out to give it to him Lingo grabbed my other arm and pulled me back away from him, and stepped in between us at a safe distance.
“Don't be so pathetic.” She snapped at me, before taking my hand containing the Com-Jewel and prying it open. Once it was back out again she dropped it back into my bag, released my arm and turned around. She addressed the man and the little mob of people that had gathered around us. “That goes for all of you. If you PK someone you'll still, for all we know, be two strikes off from becoming a Reviled.”
The man scoffed, and kicked up dirt at me onto my shoes, “Doesn't matter. You heard what that NPC said, right? What Diana said?” He looked down at me, still shaking, I looked into his eyes as he stared at me with a seemingly intentional coldness, “Things are too dangerous to spend all your energy protecting the weak.” He turned around without another word and marched back towards the tower. The people left over from watching my conversation with Diana dissipated soon after. I looked down, feeling breathe enter and exit my lungs. I hated this stupid game.
“I'm sorry,” I said, quietly.
“Don't be. He was annoying. You're a new player, but you helped me to the best of your ability.” Lingo started pushing buttons on her menu, sighing as she got to the map, rubbing the back of her neck. She looked bright red still from yelling at the guy, “I haven't been to this area, but it looks like there's a town nearby. Come on, before you get attacked again for that.”
I followed Lingo, watching the tower, still filled with people and monsters, behind us. Krel and Wolf might still be in there... My thoughts wandered to seeing their corpses in the piles on the tables, or at the base of the tower. I knew I was too cowardly to go look, and too weak to do anything if I somehow got back inside.
Diana can't wake me up... I tried to stop myself from thinking about it, at least until I could call her back. But my mind kept going back to what she said, over and over. What did she mean I'd die if she took my VR helmet off? All she had to do was press the release at the back.
At least Diana's alright. It was small solace but still made me feel a little better. With how much she played the game and talked about it I'd have been more surprised if anything could take her down, though. I turned my focus back to the path ahead of me, Lingo already far ahead. And Kitty. My tired mind quickly added to reassure itself further.
Things looked more sinister than the starting area and town near it. The other had been a big beautiful lush city surrounded by green fields and little troves of trees, one big tall forest surrounding it. This was almost the opposite. A withered looking field, darker as we walked away from where they had woken up, into a bleak forest with dense leaves and little sunlight to speak of, rain still pouring down on us. The path ahead seemed to stretch on for miles through nothing but dark. There were a couple people ahead of us, and occasionally a person or two would jog by. Lingo went at a steady but quick pace, though, once muttering to me, “They're idiots. If you run you'll deplete your stamina. There's no telling when we could get attacked.”
It didn't take extremely long for us to get to the tiny town she'd seen on the map. It was quiet, with a few NPCs and a few people milling about and looking around. Some people were trying to ask them what was going on, only to get confused responses. Lingo paused to listen in on it all in before entering, staying clear of the other players.
“It looks so old...” I whispered. Everything was cracked, and it looked like ash was falling from the sky. As the rain started to dissipate a little, the sun was a deep crimson, poking through the trees at the edge of the clearing of the village as it started to go over the horizon. I yawned, unconsciously, and it felt uncomfortably real, “Whoa!!”
“Quiet.” Lingo said, calmly, but glared quickly in my direction. I followed after her. “We should get something to eat. I actually feel hungry, and for now, I'm not going to question that. How much money do you have? Any?” I fumbled with my bag and fished out the coin purse. Lingo practically barked at me in a whisper, “Don't take it all out! Just check your menu!”
“Oh,” I said, dumbly. That made more sense. I opened my menu back up, not entirely sure how. The first thing that popped up was my level up screen. I looked past it in the corner, at the level screen, “Level thirty-nine?!”
“Would you stop shouting?!” Lingo yelled back at me. A few people turned to look at us, one began snickering. Her face was red, and she looked like she was about to drop to the ground in embarrassment. She covered her face with the palm of her hand, “This is the worst, I've never been able to feel like this in game before...” before she could crumple she righted herself and marched past me like I was no longer there.
“Are you alright? I'm really sorry, this is just all kind of new for me...” her face was still bright red, so I stopped pressing the issue. Apparently, we had walked into an inn, she continued straightforward and talked to the man at the counter, quickly.
“Menu. Room, two beds.” She said quickly, stern. But in practically a whisper. Was she trying to not let people overhear her after before? The NPC rubbed the back of his head, he didn't seem to grasp it entirely.
“Could we get a room with two beds, and your menu please?” he looked over at me and nodded, taking out two large brown cards depicting different foods, and directing us upstairs.
“You can pay in the morning, just tell the mote what you want when you're ready.” I looked over at Lingo to see she was refusing to make eye contact and stared off directly at the wall.
“Uh- Thank you.” I took the cards he was offering, and started walking up the stairs. A few other players were milling about in the tavern area with the innkeeper. It looked pretty nice, a warm fire was going. Some woman trying to strum a lute next to a bored looking bard NPC that was trying to redirect her to the right chords.
Our room was nice, small but it had two soft looking beds, and a little bubble of magic hanging near the window giving off a warm glow of heat. I jumped towards the bed closest to it and started warming my hands. “Nice! That fire downstairs looked great, this is perfect.” I heard a thump from the other side of the room and saw Lingo laying face down on her bed, still dressed and fully equipped. “What's wrong? Is it like a status effect or some...” she rolled so her back was to me I started to speak, “Oh... Okay.”
Everything being so new and unknown must have been stressing her out. I took off my bag and dumped it out onto my bed, and threw one of the menu cards over to her as she started to burrow under her blankets. It landed on top of her with a soft thump, and it was hard to tell if she had ever heard or felt it. I looked over the one I still held. It was sparse. I noted what I wanted. I didn't eat meat in the real world, and while it seemed silly, I wasn't sure I was ready to try it in game yet. I generally didn't really like the taste. I got a lot of acne and gained weight when I ate things like milk, butter or eggs and hadn't had those in years, but nothing was stopping me now.
“I think I'm gonna get the vegetable stew, some potato bread, and some honey butter. And some water or something. What do you want?” Lingo poked her head out as the little fire thing shot past me, and passed through the door. I barely stopped myself from yelling again.
She didn't say anything but grabbed the card off the bed, and tentatively sat up. I sat down and started examining the stuff in my cupcake bag. My Com-Jewel wasn't buzzing anymore at all, but I picked it up and squeezed it. The window opened, but no one was there. It was just a black screen. I put it aside and reached for something else. My hand felt one of the little packages the black blobs had dropped while Diana, Roni, and the huge knight lady were fighting them. I untied the little string, and let them hemp around it fall into a little square, tilting the box top off. Inside was what looked like a little opal or some other gem with shapes scratched into the inside. I held it up and tried to inspect it closer.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Who gave you all of that, anyway?” Lingo asked, quietly. I looked over at her. She peeked out of her blankets like some kind of scared animal coming out after something loud happened. Wide-eyed and not completely trusting there wouldn’t be another jarring noise.
“My sister and her friend gave me most of it. But these fell off black things attacking the city. You didn't see them but there were these big shadow things freaking out everywhere once we got inside.” I handed it over to her, and she delicately took it out of my hand. She turned it over and over, studying it. “Do you know what it is?” I asked, unwrapping another and finding a green gem inside. I heard her getting up, and looked back over. She picked up her staff from where it was on the ground and stood up.
“It's a Catalyst. It lets you cast a strong spell, or use a strong skill. Just once for some classes, per Catalyst. Certain ones work for certain Types and SubTypes. You just hold it in your hand,” she pointed at me, “target the person, and say-” she stopped herself, tossing it back onto my bed, and striking a casting pose, “Benedictus!” she sat back down and dropped her staff, “It heals everyone on your side for full health in the general target area and buffs them. You can target yourself too, of course, your healing gets super-powered after that. You have to decide which is the best for the type of battle you're engaged in. They're really hard to find, though, and worth a lot. I don't play with others much so never even seen one used, I've just heard stories.” I picked it up and turned it over in my hand before holding it out for her again.
“You should have it. I can't use it anyway.” Lingo began to reach out to take it and paused. She slowly picked it back up but keeping it held out to me.
“You don't know how rare it is.” her eyes shifted away from me.
“It won't do me any good, I'm not a healer.” I closed her hand around it.
“You aren’t?” she narrowed her eyes, but quickly shook her head, “It doesn’t matter. Thank you.” She stared at her in her hands for a second, then pulled out a little pouch from her bag, and started attaching something to it. “What's your name, anyway? I don't think I ever asked.”
“Oh- Uh,” I didn't know how to respond to either of what she said. I coughed, “I'm Varn. But in real life-” the little mote slammed opened the door of the room carrying a tray of food, and threw it in front of me, almost spilling the cup of water that I made a mad grab for and succeeded in steadying, “Thanks.” I said as it floated back over to the windowsill.
“I don't mean to be so quick with you earlier, Varn.” she studied the menu again and motioned the mote over. It glided quickly and steadily towards her, “Honestly, I thought you'd get tired of me and wander off by now. Garlic bread, cheese, bacon, ale.” she furrowed her eyebrows at the card as the mote faded through the solid door again. “There's not a lot of fruit here. And most vegetables they have are root ones. I've never been here before but it seems pretty barren in comparison to most places. I wonder what the nearest city is like.”
“Won't you feel sick after eating that?” I asked, trying not to be rude. She attached another wire to the little stone I had given her, and shrugged.
“It never has before. I eat all kinds of junk food in game usually.” She paused as she finished her project clutching it lightly, and tilting her head, “You might be right, though. Things seem different now...” she carefully laid the stone down and pulled out a cord, tying it to the top of the wired holding frame. There was a pause like maybe we both wanted to talk about what could be happening. But we both let the heaviness sit in the air and ignored it. She picked up her work and tied it around her neck. It shined beautifully, “This might be good for an emergency. I'll make one for you later too if you’d like.”
“Thanks,” I said, picking up all the stuff I had dumped out of my bag, and shoving it back in. I put it on the side of the bed where she had laid her staff and took my shorter lower levelled one off my back to lay it next to it. I opened my menu and picked up a knife with my honey butter and bread. I spread it over the dense bread evenly and took a bite as I finally examined my level up menus. It tasted okay. I guess I didn't really miss the taste after all.
“Yeah, your full poison resistance one is cute but I don't think it'll really help...” I looked down and noticed my slime necklace again. I didn't really wanna take it off, even if I could wear one with world-shattering power. “You should stop levelling healing too and shields if you are, it's not going to help much. Max your fire, level up whatever else looks good. But not healing, it'll be useless.”
I hit the level up area of the fireball until it was full, then hit Nature, Stone, Storm, Shadow, Light in environmental. Next up was ice, and despite what Lingo had said, I put another point into healing. Just in case.
“I don't know what's wrong with me...” Lingo whispered. The door slammed open again, the mote carrying her food, but she didn't even react, “I get really… How do I put it. Flustered in real life. Nervous. But never here. Here I never feel that way.” she cast her eyes down towards the floor, “Never felt, I suppose.”
As the quiet between us returned. I tried to figure out the right thing to say, but nothing came to me. I felt my skin crawl the longer it continued, edging me towards saying something that'd probably be stupid and unhelpful. Thankfully, something loud from outside caused us both to jump. A woman screaming.
“Just let me in, it's almost dark!” I got up and stepped over my gear to walk over to the window. Outside there was a druid woman with dark black veiny leafs darting across her body. A man with a pitchfork rushed up to her and swung, and she unsheathed her sword and struck him clear in half at the waist. I winced. He slumped over, but four more people ran over. Lingo had walked over to stand beside me.
“If you kill three player characters NPCs stop letting you into towns. There are a few exceptions, though. This is the smallest town on the map... She must have come here hoping she could sneak in or something.” the druid woman retreated into the forest, heaving a rock back into the little mob of people. Three of the NPCs went back towards the little town, but one stayed and watched the edge. She held a cooking knife and stayed stock still staring past the trees, “The druid's probably afraid of the nighttime spawns being more dangerous and killing her. Serves her right.” Lingo retreated from the windowsill, and I heard her flop back down on her bed. The NPC woman didn't move for a long while, and I stood there as well, curious. She didn't move. She didn't even blink. I eventually moved away from the window and stopped watching.
I moved back to sit down and started eating my soup. It was okay. Mostly undercooked cabbage and carrots. I dipped the bread in and ate that instead. It was passable. Picking up the glowing card I had set aside before, I turned it over a few times, realizing it was a closed envelope. It didn't look like the rest of the potions and weird junk Diana and Krel had gifted me, “Did you get one of these?”
Lingo was chewing on a piece of bacon, but stopped to dig through her bag. She pulled one out too, “Apparently.”
I opened mine and flipped it upright,
[Congratulations on clearing the first trial.
Number of Participants of THE TOWER: 965, 958
Number of Victors of THE TOWER: 729, 487
Next Trial
The Fortress of the Kingdom of Ash
Players must find access to the Kingdom of Ash and their lands. If the gate remains closed beyond the time limit number of participants will be largely be decreased until conditions are met.
Time remaining 2 hrs 14 min
Good luck, Varnish]
“That's so many people... God, they must have pulled us from servers all over the world.” Lingo inhaled sharply near the end of her sentence. Her face was pale. I felt a drop in my stomach as I looked a the two gigantic numbers on my card. It didn't seem possible. People outside the game must have been absolutely losing their minds. The fourteen minutes on the card ticked down to thirteen, making me jump before I realized it wasn't a physical card, just an in-game item. Lingo stood up again and set her card on the table beside her. “Let's not think about it. Or anything if we can manage. We should sleep while we can.”
“Oh. Alright, sure. Good idea.” Lingo opened her menu while looking at the fireball, and it dimmed to practically nothing. I returned to my bed and laid down, shoving all my items back into my pack. It was weird, feeling tired in a video game. I couldn't really place the feeling. I did my best not to think about everything, like Lingo suggested. The counter, Diana, Kitty, our parents. Wolf, Krel, all those people in the tower, and how they could be one of the many people already gone. Apostate even. He had really done me a real solid. I just hoped they were all okay.