~ CHAPTER 7 ~

THE MAGIC OF PASSION AND CREATIVITY, PART 1

Have you ever been so overwhelmed, even by good things, that you just felt like crying? How about crying so hard it turned into laughter? Or laughing so hard it turned into tears? I honestly wasn’t sure which one this was, but something about that moment, sitting there in the muck propped up on my elbow with not-peach juice running down my chin, felt like the most unimaginably hilarious thing in the whole world. The Keeper’s pointless kindness had hit me in a part of my heart I hadn’t even known I had, and all those experiences added up and came together and burst out of my chest like a dam had been broken.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realised I'd always been just a tiny bit anxious. What if the game was boring? What if all my hard work, my nagging and begging and promising, had all added up to a waste of effort? What if this, like everything else I’d tried, had turned into the same weird inexplicable dick measuring contest the rules of which I would never understand and in which I would always inevitably fall short? Well, come to think of it, that particular arena wasn’t going to be an issue now, was it? It had been a silly thing to worry about, I thought: of course my story was amazing, because it was mine and mine alone, and… well I actually had no idea where it was going next.

It hadn’t even been three hours yet in game since I’d logged in, and already I’d been practically bombarded with crazy new experiences I didn’t know how to handle. Some of them had been amazing, most of them had been confusing, but without exception, all of them had been intense. In fact, one of those intense new experiences had just happened in my mouth.

You know… for future reference, when even the tooltip tells you that what you are holding is a citrus fruit, it might be worth considering that it could actually be a citrus fruit. What do citrus fruit have in common? Actually I wasn’t sure about that, but… lets just say that my enjoyment increased after it occurred to me that my Sunfruit could be peeled.

At that point it was too late to heed the warning of extreme stickiness.

To be fair, it looked less like an orange than it did a kiwi, with its long soft fur and slightly mushy consistency, and its colour was this radiant soft white that just invited you to take a bite. I guess somewhere in my mind I’d just thought ‘little white kiwi’. Lesson learned: pay attention to the tooltip. It actually did taste like a peach. Inside.

Eventually my laugh-crying subsided, and as I lay there basically drinking my lunch, I closed my eyes to just enjoy the feeling of springy peat under my body while I contemplated my problem. Which problem you ask? There was only one: how I was going to go about finding these charred logs and getting to them, preferably without getting too much wetter, through these stupidly tall reeds. What else?

Well, there was also how I was going to avoid getting bitten by all those nasty looking insects buzzing about. It made sense for the atmosphere and realism and all that, but did the developers really have to go that far? I guessed it was probably to create a market for bug repellants or something, so alchemists could have a little something extra to make, but getting all itchy this early in my play wasn’t really my idea of fun.

Also, there was the minor issue that I didn’t actually know what a [Runemaster] actually did. Right now my fighting style was that of a martial artist, but would that change once I got my Rune inscription? I was fine with that - more than fine - but it left me a little uncertain where I stood. If a piece of gear dropped or I got a new Skill, how would I know if it was any good for me? Was it even worth trying to practice my martial arts Skills, or would I throw them all out as soon as I got back to the Keeper’s sanctuary?

Also… why was I worrying about all that when I could just get up and do something about it? In all honesty, they were all kinda moot questions: I’d find out soon enough, and there was nothing I could do about them anyway. After a while, my Mana and Stamina had regenerated enough that I could set out again, and I rolled to my feet. Then, attempting to brush my hands off against my dress, I stepped through the reeds.

The reeds where I had been were taller than I was, but in the end I wasn’t surprised when, after creeping through them for a couple of minutes, they parted to reveal an entirely new scene stretching out before me. The bog was a labyrinth of slightly slimy looking waterways winding in between low reed-covered banks, and it looked basically impossible to tell what was actual solid land and what was floating bog mat. I’d have to be careful with my footing, but at least I could see.

Now that I could more or less see across the whole expanse, I could easily pick out the logs I was looking for. Some of them were lying on the ground nestled between the reeds, while others were sticking up as if they’d never quite gotten the memo that they were no longer alive. There were also some that were sticking out of the water or submerged just under the surface with only their branches giving away their presence. The Keeper had been right about the fungi being easy to identify though, as I could clearly make the large mushrooms out even across the bog.

Surprisingly, not all of the logs had mushrooms on them, and only a couple that I could see had more than one. That being said, there was clearly no shortage of either logs or fungi. The area looked like it must have been almost as densely wooded as the rest of the jungle at some point, even if most of the original vegetation was long gone. There were several logs within a short distance from where I was, so I headed over to the nearest one to start my mission.

Some of the mushrooms were much closer to purplish than yellowish, and they all had this ghastly oozy texture that made me want to hold my stomach. I understood we were going to transmute the resin and presumably get rid of any toxins that were in it in the process, but the idea of using these ‘Yvinauch’s Caress’ still didn’t sit well with me. Still, after a bit of squeamishness I finally steeled myself to touch one, and set to work carefully tilting it away from its log to scrape the resin underneath.

Not wanting to touch it any more than I had to, and with the Keeper’s warning to be careful echoing in my mind, my first attempt was a disastrously lengthy process. By the end, I had all of a centimetre filled in the bottom of my jar to show for it. I had a mission to do, though, so I pressed forward.

The next mushroom was jutting from the side of a log that had fallen over on the top of a small rise nearby, and I quickly set to work. Unfortunately, this time the angle I had to work at forced me onto my belly and brought my nose far too close to offensive pustule for me to even pretend it was ok. I was now convinced this was some sort of test of character.

Somehow, though, I forced myself to push through. Squeeze, gently push, carefully slide my fingers along, don’t think about the squish. Have to breath, don’t think about the smell. It’s there, but choose not to pay attention. Scrape off against the jar. A Little more. Discomfort on my chest pressed against the ground, ignore that too. My hair feeling sticky. Beautiful, ethereal hair that was way too precious to be being treated this poorly. Focus. Resin.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Time passed. I wasn’t sure how much, but when I finally realised I’d scraped off the last, my whole body felt like I’d run a marathon… or what I thought running a marathon probably felt like, at least. I decided my next attempt absolutely had to be better, and I’d just have to grit my teeth and plug my nose.

As I wiggled back and started to stand back up, I realised a notification had popped into view at some point while I wasn’t paying attention.

Congratulations!

Your innate Focus statistic has increased by +1.

That was awesome! but also kinda depressing. Since the game had the philosophy of having no levels, gaining an increase in innate stats was a big deal, but considered extremely difficult. It meant I had done something extraordinary just by staring at a mushroom for… I wasn’t sure how long. In any case, Focus would most likely be a very important stat for me later on regardless of what my class wound up doing: in terms of combat it increased my ability to avoid knockback or interruptions while casting, and reduced the Stamina cost of using or replenishing Mana. It would also probably give me a marginal benefit for my next resin tapping attempt, thankfully, but it would be impossible to tell how much because I had no way of knowing what my innate Focus had been to begin with.

In any case, it was not an effort I had any desire to repeat. I dismissed the notification and looked around for my next victim, which was about twenty metres away huddled against the underside of an ex-tree that was leaning at about a forty-five degree angle over the nearby waterway.

This time I was determined to work more quickly, so I threw a little of my caution away and took a firm hold of the mushroom. It was still slow going, though, and my knees quickly started to get uncomfortable where they met the peat. Before, the peat had been springy and slightly damp, but here it was soggy and mushy, and my dress was starting to get soaked, causing it to cling around my legs with a clammy slurpy feeling that wasn’t a whole lot better than the fungi.

I tried to adjust my footing, but as I did so, I slipped. My hand that had been holding the mushroom jerked upward. I felt something cold splatter across my face, and with a sinking feeling in my stomach, realised what must have happened. I looked back at the Yvinauch’s Caress and confirmed my fear. It had partially torn away from the trunk, and where it was broken, a bright purple phosphorescent gel could be seen staring maniacally back at me. I didn’t need to check my status to know how badly I’d screwed up - I could already feel it taking effect.

[Poisoned: Yvinauch’s Kiss]

Grade 3 poison. Reduces Agility and Perception by -8, causes unsteadiness and minor hallucinations, and drains Stamina by -1.2 per minute. Caused by exposure to poisonous spores of the [Yvinauch’s Caress] fungus. Estimated duration remaining: 19 minutes.

On the bright side, at least it appeared the Keeper had been telling the truth about it not being deadly. I couldn’t see anything in the description about my Health being damaged. That being said, the Stamina drain was going to hurt. At this point I’d gone back up to about twenty five, so I probably wouldn’t fall into the really critical zone in twenty minutes after regeneration, but I was once again in a situation where fighting would be a really bad idea. On top of that… looking around, the whole scene seemed to swim as if I was slightly dizzy, and I could see wisps of purple floating about like thin low hanging clouds. I could taste my not-peach juice starting to come up.

Was this… fun?

I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t about to log out. This particular mushroom was out, so I’d just have to figure out how to manage with the next one. Looking around, I could make out the other mushrooms highlighted in my vision with a pulsating putrescent phosphorescence they’d thankfully been lacking earlier. At least they were still easy to see, even if everything else was slurring a little.

I stood up, carefully, and took a step. I was a little dizzy, but it looked like it would be fine. The next nearest mushroom was maybe fifteen metres away, and as I headed towards it, my vision started to level out again and my stomach settled. Stupid mistake, but it was all a learning process. I was definitely going to finish this quest and get back to the Keeper before supper. I was lying on my side, mostly submerged with my face planted firmly in the muck. Everything from my hips down was completely underwater, and the coolness flowed around me with a strangely new sensation. I thought my shoes were stuck in something.

Not this again.

A little clump of reeds and dirt bobbed to the surface a short distance away in my peripheral vision.

~ ~ 26/1/1/13:48 ~ ~

Status: [River]

Class: [Novice Mistborn Magical Martial Artist]

Location: [Lower Spelltouched Wilds - Evelyn’s Bog]

Health 38/38 ~ Mana 16/40 ~ Stamina 17/41

[Poisoned: Yvinauch’s Kiss (19 min)], [Drained (20%)], [Exhausted (17%)] Equipped Skills (5/8):

[Force Infused Palm]

[Myriad Fists]

[Imbued Defence]

[Unarmed Discipline (Passive)]

[Body Conditioning (Passive)] Statistics:

Defence +8

Resistance +4

Constitution +4 (-20%)

Willpower +4 (-20%)

Endurance +4 (-12%)

Strength (-17%)

Intensity (-17%) Equipped Items (2/8):

[New Arrival’s Simple Dress]

[New Arrival’s Simple Shoes]

[Falkruen Tick (Fat)]

Other Skills:

[Inscribe: Rune of the Creator Flame (0/1)] Other Items:

[Special Edition Founder’s Token]

[Novice Healing Potion]

[Novice Mana Potion]

[Small Glass Jar (12%)]

[Small Pouch]

[Vial of Silver Gemdust (10)]

[Small Iron Key]

[Sugary Biscuit]x2 Active Quests:

[Acquire Ancient Flame-Seared Ink]

[The Ancient Keeper of Runic Magic (Part 2)]