48 - Beasts and Dwarves

Eden, Beastkin Nation of Otha, Capital City Highpond

Sara swallows.

"Your face is red. Is there something wrong, Sara?"

"N-no, I'm great."

"You look constipated."

Sara averts her eyes. "N-no, really…"

"Is that so?"

Avril crouches near her kneeling teammate, approaching their faces as Sara tries desperately to avoid their gazes from meeting.

"Because, if I didn't know any batter, I'd say you're about to laugh."

Sara chuckles, only to abruptly cut herself. "O-of course not… I'd n-never…"

"It isn't good to hold it in," Avril whispers sweetly, "If there's something you want to say about my appearance, now would be the time."

Sara closes her mouth shut, sucking in her lips for a moment, before speaking again, "I t-think you look lovely, Avril… Did you change something about your hair?"

Avril pats her head. "Good girl."

"Lady Avril?"

Avril shuts her eyes closed. "…Vrics, I thought I told you not to bother?"

"Wait, lady? Who is a lady?"

Sara glances in Avril's direction, blinks, then bursts out laughing.

"L-lady…! I c-can't believe you told him to c-call you…!"

"Shut the fuck up! It was a joke! I didn't expect him to keep doing it!"

Bending over herself, Sara hits the pool, splashing water over herself and Avril.

"The fuck are you doing?! My fur was just about to become dry you monkey!"

"I'm s-sorry! It's just… I c-can't… You s-said…! F-fur…! Please don't k-kill m-me…!"

Avril hisses. "I swear…! This is why you're the worst! Why couldn't I have been paired with a piece of rock instead?!"

Avril glances at Vrics in time to catch the old ratkin averting his gaze as the corner of his mouth trembles.

H-how fucking annoying…

"The fuck do you want?"

Vrics clears his throat, though his gaze remains averted. "I came to warn Miss Avril of your escort's arrival. They'll show you the way to our quest board, as you requested."

Avril follows Vrics line of sight toward a lone ratkin guard waiting at the staircase's bottom, near the pool's edge.

"…Thank you," Avril murmurs begrudgingly. "Should I look for you if I have more questions?"

Vrics nods, smiling kindly. "Or one of the guards, if I happen to not be available."

She has been acting like a brat for a while now. Why did it not become angry at her? Or at least annoyed? Does its programming not allow it to behave that way?

"T-thanks rat guy. You're cool enough, unlike my partner over here."

"Get up already. Need I remind you who begged us to take part in this farce?"

"Aye aye, captain," Sara murmurs, wobbling as she attempts to stand. "W-wow, this is hard."

"It's the tail, you'll get used to it. And don't call them by their animal names, it's offensive."

"Oh. Sorry about that rat g- I mean, honorable ratkin individual."

Vrics laughs. "Vrics will do, Miss. Is it okay for your friend to go by herself? She seemed rather flustered…"

"By herself… Ah! Avril, c'mon, I can barely walk! We're supposed to be working together over here!"

"You'd be able to walk by now if you arrived in time."

"That's… Okay, that's true, kind of, but it wasn't my fault this time, I swear! Oh, c'mon, I'll do whatever drill you ask me to!"

"Shut up! You're making a scene again!"

"But I wanted to talk with him! He seemed cool!"

Avril is about to retort when she happens to meet the awaiting guard's gaze, nearly missing a step.

W-what's up with him?

"You're Avril?" the ratkin guard asks, voice carefully devoid of emotion.

"…Yes, I'm Avril."

"And you?"

"I'm Sara?"

The guard nods. "Cause trouble and you'll regret it. You'll not be warned twice."

Staring into the ratkin's cold eyes, Avril feels a shiver down her spine.

"Follow me."

Sara and Avril exchange a glance.

"…Feels pretty different to have them looking at you in the eye, doesn't it?"

"…It's just an NPC, let's go."

Avril follows after the guard, closely shadowed by Sara, though they both struggle to climb the temple's stairs. Meanwhile, Avril summarizes most of what she learned from Vrics to Sara.

"…So, you think we should meet the king and ask for access to his library?"

"Maybe. Since we're looking for information on one of their Gods, visiting the church might also be a good idea… Though I forgot to ask if they had something of the sort."

"Good thinking… Wow! Nearly fell again…"

Sara laughs awkwardly as they reach the top of the temple's stairs and she nearly misses a step, seemingly unbothered by Avril's look of disgust.

Would it kill her to be serious for once?

"This place is pretty cool, huh? Is that a bonsai?"

The temple's well-decorated surroundings, loomed over by what Avril assumes has to be the royal palace, is a breathtaking sight to behold, nonetheless made more impressive by the mountains in its background, as well as a seemingly omnipresent curtain of mist…

"…Yeah, it's pretty cool," Avril admits.

Sara throws a smile in her direction, which Avril chooses to ignore.

"You know I'd go dungeon diving if it was up to me," Sara says, "But you're probably thinking we should get used to our bodies first, right? That's why we're checking the quest board?"

"Since we're late, doing the same thing every brainless idiot already decided to won't get us anywhere."

Sara shrugs. "True enough."

Avril sighs. "Also, their king is the one who set up this dungeon as some sort of 'test'… There might be something more to it, or it might just be a huge waste of our time, if someone else manages to clear it while we're mid-run. We're better off doing our own thing, for now. With some luck, we might find the answers we're looking for without having to involve ourselves in the main quest for this area."

"…Main quest, huh…?" Sara murmurs, placing her hands behind her neck as she glances toward the sky, seemingly lost in thought.

The path they walk through is flanked by the occasional ratkin guard and punctuated by branching trails leading either toward the royal palace, or temple-like buildings in the distance.

Absently, Avril notices that, despite being made of metal, the guards' armor seems to have been designed with movement in mind, and not one of its owners carry in their eyes the boredom she'd have expected from people in their position.

Then again, these aren't people, are they? 

Although, in regardless of being programs or not, these guards seem the real deal. She should think twice before testing them like she did Vrics.

"Hey, how come all of you guys are ratkin?"

Avril takes a moment to realize Sara directed a question toward their guide, who glances over his shoulder a moment later, cold eyes settling over them for a brief second before turning away again.

"…We reproduce the fastest," he answers without looking, "No one else has the men or women to spare for the Guard anymore... No one except for us."

Sara whistles. "Sorry to hear."

Suddenly, the guard's tail snaps across the air, causing Sara to jump as it grabs a dagger from his belt and tosses it up.

As both Sara and Avril freeze, the guard stops and turns, calmly grabbing his dagger on its way down without as much as a glance in its direction before pointing it toward a large staircase leading down, flanked by several more guards.

"That way," he says, "Leads to Highpond. You'll find the quest board near the market… Really, it's impossible to miss it. Read the rules before you touch something."

Sheeting his dagger, the guard nods in their direction one last time before walking past on his way back, ignoring a wave of giggles from some of his comrades.

"Show off!" one of them screams.

"That was," Sara murmurs once he's moved past them, "...So fucking cool. You think he does that for everybody?"

Avril stares at the guard's back for a moment. Clearly, a ratkin's tail isn't just for show… Meaning she'll have to learn how to control hers in order to play optimally.

"Hey, Avril… I think you're gonna wanna take a look at this."

Avril glances in Sara's direction only to realize the girl ran ahead while she was distracted, and now stands at the path's edge, staring into what Avril assumes is the city below with wide eyes and a slacked jaw.

When did she even…?

Avril sighs, though she does walk up the slight hill to see what the commotion is about.

"What-"

Avril stops, a soft breeze brushing against her face as Highpond fully enters her view, extending below and far into the horizon…

Glancing toward Sara, Avril raises her eyebrow. "It's a city, Sara. We came from one of these, remember?"

Sara blinks, seemingly broken from her trance as she returns Avril's gaze incredulously. "It's a city, Avril! There must be thousands, if not dozens of thousands of AIs down there!"

"You mean the NPCs? Most of them are probably for show. They'll perform predictable routines and give us one-liners if we ever bother to interrupt them…" Avril narrows her eyes. "Please tell me you've played an RPG before?"

"I…" Sara averts her gaze, looking at the city once more as though only now realizing how crazy she sounds. "Of course I've played them… Still, don't you find it strange how real this all feels?"

By all the…

Avril sighs. "It feels real because our senses are being simulated by the stupid ships in our brains, remember? Honestly, I expected another decade or so until VR became this good… But it's Aston we're talking about. They must have plans for the game."

Sara lowers her gaze, frowning.

Nobody likes a smartass, Avril.

Assaulted by the memory once more, Avril clenches her teeth this time.

It has been more than a year… And she wasn't even being mean on purpose! The fuck is wrong with people?!

"Look, I'm sorry. You're right in that this is impressive… The amount of power and data storage necessary for simulating this world isn't something I thought our country was currently capable of. Still, here we are. And we gotta focus up if we wanna make your boyfriend happy."

Sara gives Avril a sidelong glance. "This isn't about making Uren happy… And technically, he isn't my boyfriend yet."

"Yet, she says…" Avril shakes her head. "Please tell me you're at least fucking?"

Sara immediately steps back as though having been physically pushed. "F-fucking…?"

Avril rolls her eyes. "I didn't take you for a prude. Forget I asked." She points toward the city. "Like I said, focus up, monkey, and tell me what you see."

Perhaps as a way to diverge attention from her heated cheeks (this game really is impressive), Sara does so, narrowing her eyes toward Highpond as she follows Avril's pointed finger.

"I see a medieval city in a gigantic valley, cut by a river and… Protected by an impressive wall front wise. You think that's what, thirty, forty meters high?"

Sara whistles softly.

"Go on."

"I see a lot of movement… And a lot of ratkins. Some birdkin flying around… I suppose those towers must be their home. Oh, there's something that looks like a church, and that must be the market that ratkin mentioned… Shit, this is all so fucking cool, I'm having goosebumps…"

"Anything important?"

Sara narrows her eyes further. "Are those weird things supposed to be this world's horses? And wow, these beastkins really don't give a fuck, they just run everywhere on all fours like it's the most common thing in the world…"

Avril sighs. "The statues, Sara. They're everywhere. Our save points, remember?"

Smiling awkwardly, Sara scratches her head as she gives Avril a slightly annoyed look. "Of course I remember. But how was I supposed to know they're the very specific thing you were looking for?"

"Did you notice anything strange about them?"

"You mean the missing head? Or rather, the extra one? Yeah, I noticed."

"Vrics mentioned something about their king being one of the last kitsunes alive. It can't simply be a coincidence."

"I see what you're saying. This means we have another reason to meet their king… But I don't think we should worry too much about that. I bet it'll happen eventually."

"…You're probably not wrong. C'mon, enough sightseeing. We have a game to beat... And as of right now, about six hours of sleep left before school tomorrow."

***

Eden, Dwarf Kingdom of Gra, Capital City

It's hot…

Uren finds himself kneeling upon a small mound of black sand, staring toward his hands while closing and opening his fists.

"Uren?"

Uren glances up, meeting the eyes of a smiling dwarf.

"Charles?"

The smiling dwarf extends his hand, which Uren accepts. "I'd have recognized those braids anywhere."

Pulled onto a standing position, Uren inspects his surroundings while dusting himself.

This is… Some sort of large pit? Or arena? And beyond it… Some sort of giant cavern?

"You're late," Charles comments, crouching as he grabs a one-handed axe and throws it toward Uren, who catches it by reflex.

"Sorry."

Charles shrugs. "They're assholes, but they said they'd wait when I explained I had a friend coming."

Even as a dwarf, Charles' figure is imposing (at least from Uren's perspective as a fellow dwarf), figure which is made no less impressive by the shield attached to his arm, and the axe attached to his belt.

"These are all I could find. Most of them seem unusable."

Charles points toward the clutter of weapons spread throughout the edges of the sand arena.

"We're fighting? Already?"

Charles throws Uren a surprised glance. "I thought you read the doc?"

"I… skimmed through it. Sorry."

He's such an idiot…

Charles smiles. "I understand you had your head elsewhere. It's okay, I'll explain while we walk. You should also check your stats while you have the chance, I doubt they'll wait for much longer now that you're here."

Uren nods.

"Stats window."

User: Uren Hoxha Juric | Species: Dwarf | Level: 01 | XP: 0%

Strength: 90 (90) | Agility: 30 (30) | Sturdiness: 80 (80) | Stamina: 198/200

Skills: Dexterous Fingers 1/10, Indomitable Will 3/10, Fire Resistance 3/10, Expert Weapon Handling 1/10

Active Quests: Escaping the Pit

"Apparently, the dwarfs don't care much for us players. They think they're doing fine on their own," Charles explains while beckoning Uren to follow toward the leftmost wall, where he spots some sort of gate waiting for them.

"You mean they'll test us?"

"You catch on fast."

"This place must've looked like a blood bath on the first day."

Charles smiles at him. "It must've been fun. I kinda regret having missed it."

"Oi! It was about time! Me and the boys were tired of waiting!"

Uren glances up as they approach the pit's wall, spotting a group of armored dwarfs, about seven or eight, smiling down at them from beneath their helmets.

"We're ready!" Charles shouts back, "Give us what you've got!"

"Ha! They say they're ready, boys!"

The dwarfs laugh, some of them even going as far as to clatter their weapons against their shields, while their leader leans over the pit's edge and smiles at them.

"Listen up, chosen ones, your lot has failed to impress us thus far. I don't give a crap if Inas himself shat the lot of you onto our lap, if you can't climb out of there on your own, then you're staying… Like her."

The dwarf points his finger toward the pit's middle, where a disturbance in the sand soon grows to resemble something human-like in shape, gaining consistency and texture until a female dwarf takes form in its place, big, brown eyes blinking with confusion, followed by panic.

"S-shit! A weapon…!"

The newcomer hurriedly scrambles to her feet, running toward the pit's edge as the dwarves up top continue to laugh loudly.

"Send the level three in boys! Let's watch them bleed!"

As the gate in front of them begins its slow, loud ascent, Uren clenches his axe in anticipation, noticing absently how natural it feels in his grip, despite the fact he has never fought with an axe before.

An effect of dexterous fingers and expert weapon handling? How is a program affecting the way he's able to move his body?

"I'll do my best to draw aggro!" Charles shouts, smiling even as he readies his weapon and shield toward the now exposed wall of darkness in front of them, "You try and look for a way to kill it!"

"Got it!"

Forget it, no time to question reality now. 

It doesn't take long for the creature to emerge, though it does so almost shyly, long spider-like legs touching the pit's black sand tentatively.

"Here it comes!"

At first, Uren isn't sure his vision is still working as intended... A human-sized porous rock with spider legs sprouting out of its roles is the best description he manages, even as the creature stumbles into the arena and toward Charles' attempts at taunting it by hitting his own shield repeatedly.

"Come at me you piece of rock!"

Realizing how much the other boy seems to be enjoying himself, Uren contains a smile.

Enough, he must concentrate… Lest Charles' antics are simply in vain.

As he slowly circles around the spider-rock creature, Uren shakes his head in an attempt at clearing his thoughts.

Should he charge in…?

The legs are the obvious target, considering the lack of any other targets, but… Does it even have a back? Or a field of vision?

"W-watch out!"

Abruptly, the strange spider accelerates its movements, closing in on Charles much faster than Uren thought possible, then raising several legs toward its wide-eyed prey before thrusting them forward as Charles rolls out of the way, stops to defend, then rolls again, all the while retreating desperately.

"We have to help him!"

Uren spares a glance toward his left, spotting the girl from earlier as she stops beside him, a short sword and a broken shield now clenched in her grip.

"…I'll take the left side," Uren says, thinking fast.

She nods, flashing him a smile, before screaming as she runs toward the creature's right side, sword raised.

Though Uren follows, he does much more carefully.

As expected, the creature easily moves its leg out of the sword's way, even as the female dwarf swings at it several times, toward several different legs... To her credit, she does manage to dodge the spider's thrusts as well, giving Charles some much-needed breathing room.

Clearly, dwarven bodies weren't designed with speed in mind. Damn short legs…

Uren releases a sigh as he attempts to stalk the fight by jogging, but finds himself gradually falling behind. Still, by observing Charles and their new ally, he does conclude several things.

First, the spider doesn't have a field of vision to be exploited, since it seems perfectly capable of attacking in multiple directions at once, without any delays… Meaning it probably relies on vibrations to move and attack, or something of the sort.

Second, it doesn't seem capable of standing without having at least three legs touching the ground at all times, which means they'll be able to stop its movements by reducing the number of legs to less than three.

Third…

Uren smiles.

"Charles, hit your shield again! Make it as loud as possible!"

"You're asking for a lot man! But I'll do what I can!"

Charles rolls away from a leg thrust, then, as he rises, begins to hit his axe against his own shield wildly.

"Hey, rock brain! You like this?! Come and get it!"

As Uren expected, the creature goes into a frenzy almost immediately, though he doesn't wait to see the result of said frenzy before bolting in its direction as fast as his dwarf legs are able to.

However, instead of swinging his axe wildly as he might otherwise have, Uren watches the spider's fast-moving legs carefully as he approaches them, ignoring the ones already on the ground and focusing on the ones about to go down, before…

The spider's leg descends right as Uren reaches it, axe already in motion.

Sharp… and precise. Right Jasper?

Uren feels the blow through his body as the axe cuts straight through the creature's hairy leg, causing it to stumble briefly as it moves in an attempt to compensate for its lost balance.

Not yet!

Uren swings toward anything to touch the ground in his vicinity, cutting through several more legs before the spider finally manages to regain its balance…

"You… You did it!"

"Uren!"

Warned by Charles' shout, Uren immediately rolls away, feeling something scraping against his body just as he does so.

"Hey! Over here, you overgrown pebble!"

"H-hey! Leave him alone!"

Thankfully, Charles resumes his shield bashing, soon joined by their unexpected ally in driving the creature completely mad.

C-close one…

Uren glances toward his avatar's leg, noticing a long streak of blood across it, before quickly returning his attention toward the fight.

One more time.

This time, Uren doesn't hesitate before charging in, though he abstains from going under the creature as he did previously, instead focusing on cutting a leg, then immediately backing off as Charles draws aggro once more.

And for a while, Uren thinks that will be it, until the spider's movements gradually change in rhythm and nature, regaining their edge.

Is it getting used to the noise?

"It's not working anymore!" Uren shouts after the third time the spider has dodged his blow, "I'll need you guys to hit too!"

"But I don't know how!" the girl shouts back.

"You need to wait for the right timing! Charles, you can do it! Think of it as For Glory!"

Uren figures he could charge in again but, if the creature has learned to watch out for it, he'll find himself in trouble...

"Timing! Got it!"

Charles charges in, laughing manically, as he swings toward the creature's nearest leg and misses completely.

Out of the corner of his eye, Uren notices the girl doing the same, and also missing.

Containing a curse, Uren sees no option other than to join them, even if it seems dangerous and ineffective.

"Make as much noise as possible with your shields! We're almost-"

Abruptly, the creature comes down, crashing onto the sand as its remaining legs twitch and thrust aimlessly.

"I-I did it! I hit one!"

Laughing incredulously, the girl throws her arms in the air before Uren has a chance to say something… Only to find herself pierced by a leg through the stomach in the next second.

"Fuck! Step back!"

Uren hurries to follow his own advice, and he's relieved to see that Charles does the same, though the taller dwarf immediately circles around to help their wide-eyed companion, swinging his axe at the leg, and then dragging the freed dwarf away.

Damn it…

Uren sighs, allowing his heartbeat to slow down for a moment as he watches the creature's wild thrusts before walking toward Charles' kneeling figure.

"I-I'm such an idiot…"

Charles raises his eyes as Uren approaches, shaking his head hopelessly. "She says her sturdiness is ticking down. Stanching the blood doesn't seem to help..."

Uren meets the girl's brown eyes as she smiles at him.

"It'll be fun, they said… Just give it a try… I won a cooking competition, you know? Not exactly cut for killing giant rock-spiders…"

Uren doesn't know what to say, though he forces himself to not avert his eyes from hers as she ignores the blood running down her chin in order to smile at him.

"Hey, at least I killed the damn thing this time… Don't worry, I'll log in again after my death penalty is over, so there's no reason to look so sad… When that happens… You know… C-can I… Play with you guys again…?"

Uren blinks as the dwarf's body turns to sand before his eyes, meeting Charles' surprised gaze with one of his own.

After a moment of silence, Charles scratches his head. "That was… Wow. Can you believe this is really just a game?"

Uren glances toward the still-moving spider. "…I'm kind of glad it is."

Charles chuckles. "My stamina is down to twenty… I don't think we'd have lasted much longer."

Uren nods. "You moved much better than I expected… No offense."

"I played some football back in the day… And I dropped it so I could play more games. Ironic, right?"

Uren offers the kneeling dwarf his free hand, which he accepts with a smile.

"Let's ask for her name next time."

Charles nods. "We'll-"

Suddenly, a loud noise companied by an explosion of sand attracts Uren's gaze, cutting Charles off as they both raise their weapons toward the commotion… Only to find a dwarf in black armor standing over the creature's rocky middle, one foot atop it and a black spear thrusted through its middle.

Did… Did he just…?

The dwarf smiles, twisting his spear as the cloud of sand created by his landing settles around them, and yellow liquid runs through the porous creature's body.

"Hate these things… Well done boys," the dwarf says, turning his gaze toward Uren as he pulls back his yellow-coated weapon and smiles at them. "And welcomed to Gra."