2.3

“With her song, the First Princess proved that magically enchanted animals make far better servants, thus, all the original servants tasked with menial work around the castle were laid off for requiring a salary.” - Excerpt from ‘The First Princess’

Peps gently lifted one of the grotesquely large rats, cradling it like a house cat or very ugly baby. The other two rats stood upright next to him. Rat one, which Peps was holding, squeaked something.

And Peps began translating, “We were just minding our own business ya see...”

“You may take whatever you want,” Debon casually replied. The individual before him nodded, before proceeding to ransack the store.

Hmm, Debon had to slightly limit him, make some stuff disappear before he found it. Make sure everything he was taking was still within the beginners' budget.

As he was doing so, he received a message.

Hendrix: Yo

Debon raised an eyebrow, how odd. Why was Hendrix messaging him now?

Debon: Hello, is something the matter Hendrix?

Hendrix: Just curious about the kid youre guiding

‘You’re.’ He mentally corrected. It irked Debon that his colleagues would take such shortcuts, even in casual messaging. An unfortunate side effect of the… 'variety' their mother had bestowed upon them.

Debon casually glanced at his trainee, who was experimentally spinning a polearm. It made sense that Hendrix would want to know about him. The trainee Debon was in charge of was recruited by one of Hendrix’s own trainees. They were likely real-life friends if the chatter he caught was accurate.

Debon: He is doing as expected.

Hendrix: Mmm, I would like to try something… look at this

A notification popped up inside of Debon’s consciousness. He mentally reviewed it. A preset encounter with a goblin village, set inside this very mall. Given what Hendrix just asked, Debon could guess the intent of this preset, though…

Debon: A hundred goblins? Even with the lowered Constitution and learning limitation this is too much. The tutorial only requires the player to move around a bit so that the program can adjust the duplicate persona to better fit their bodies.

Hendrix: I’m just curious about how he will do. Come on, I’ll treat you to lunch at Mermaids Tail.

Hmm. Tempting, Mermaids Tail had one of the better selections of seafood in Indiri. And his trainee seemed most delighted about his experience here. Would a slightly difficult tutorial turn him off? Debon needed to confirm, he had to do this at least somewhat professionally compared to the others after all. Knowing Hendrix he probably just shoved it onto everyone he was in charge of.

“Excuse me,” Debon asked the trainee, “Would you consider yourself new or experienced to Virtual Reality or Combat?”

The boy raised an eyebrow, “Experienced, why?”

“I am just considering how I should adjust the difficulty setting of your tutorial,” Debon replied.

The boy set down the end of the polearm with a thud, “Hard,” he replied with a gleeful smile, “Give me the highest difficulty you can,”

“Very well,” Debon easily replied.

Even if the boy had agreed, Hendrix didn’t know that yet. Debon began the delicate process of extorting- negotiating a better deal from Hendrix. Dinner perhaps. The Tail’s night menu had some delectable meals made with the Starlit Trouts caught locally, and they literally didn’t taste the same unless eaten under a bright moon.

“And the cowards struck Peaches from behind! My brother, Dangerous Beans bravely held them off as I cradled my dying mate However he was one and they were many. He could not hold them off forever. He warned me to retreat, however, I could not leave it at that. Thus before Peaches’ final breath. I swore vengeance upon them!” Peps yelled, arms dramatically flinging around as he translated what Rat one, who I now knew was called Sardines, squeaked. Luckily, Peps put Sardines down before his oration, or else he would’ve thrown him off by now.

The other two rats, Hampork and Skip were dramatically recreating the events Sardines was describing. They did oddly well despite the fact that there were only two of them and they were doing a scene with at least half a dozen characters.

“Such vile scoundrels to strike one noble as yourself completely unprovoked!” Valhorn yelled, “I understand thee pain and I too shall swear death upon them! I swear upon my father! My father’s father! And his father...”

I turned away from the roleplaying maniac and looked at Boba, who was crying again. “Peaches died way too young! You guys never had the chance to view the sunset on an autumn beach, or share a string of cheese under a starlit night.”

Something weird was happening.

Sardines’ story was good, well-executed and even had a few twists despite sounding like a classic romantic tragedy. But it wasn’t good enough to elicit tears right?

I glanced at Valhorn, who was finding more and more obscure parts of his family to swear vengeance with. Boba who was still crying and Peps who was gently weeping golden tears as he finished his- their play. Hmm… those tears looked shiny. I wasn’t sure what Peps’ race did but Elderwood sounded pricey. It’ll have to wait, one thing at a time Decs.

The point is all three of them seemed enamoured with the rats’ tale. Too enamoured.

I mentally began reviewing the rats’ actions. Nothing obvious, they dogeza’d almost immediately upon contact and haven’t made an aggressive play yet. I don’t think they’ve cast a spell either unless there were spells that can be cast without chants. Which was entirely possible, though unlikely to exist at such a low level. Aura techniques? Also unlikely, from what I’ve gathered from Valhorn and Boba the techniques they were allowed to pick focused closer on buffing themselves or required touch. Of us, only Peps have touched a rat so far. Aura techniques were chantless, however, so it might’ve been cast without any of us knowing.

Some sort of buff? But what kind of skill let you do plays better- No. I can’t think like that. Assuming that every skill or spell was just number crunching would be incorrect. The goblin mage proved that utility spells existed with his tracking spell, though his spell seemed to have some sort of condition. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have carried the Sneezing Sporage with him. Only I could activate it from a distance after all. But back on track. If the rats did something then it was probably an Aura technique. Valhorn and Boba said they could use theirs without yelling out the skill name however they weren’t used to it yet. Rats that have been living in this world with this very system likely have.

Unlikely to be something that directly affected someone else too. Otherwise only Peps would’ve been affected since he’s the only one who went in contact with a rat. Probably some sort of self-buff, but what kind?

Buffing yourself… Buffing yourself…

What were the stats?

Body, mind, and soul. Body had strength, dexterity, constitution, all the physical stats.

Mind, had intelligence, wisdom, and… charisma.

The description for that stat was annoyingly vague. The ability to interact with other people? Literally, everyone can do that! If charisma was to blame then it was probably better described as the ability to make other people do things. In this case, making them cry over a meh play.

Why was I the only one unaffected then? Hmm… Valhorn and Boba were both physical fighters… No, Peps was a magic user as well, but he did handle a rat directly… Shit, I can’t easily check, there was still a not-zero chance I just have shit taste in theatre. Doing anything overly suspicious was a no go for now.

Hmm… Perhaps my mind stats? Probably not charisma, a six was apparently very low. Wisdom was more likely, since it was my highest stat, intelligence too since it seemed decently high.

“And upon my great great great grandfather’s nephew’s third cousin’s eighth pet-” I grabbed Valhorn, interrupting him methodically devaluing the worth of his entire family tree and extra. “What’s your int and wisdom stats?” I urgently whispered to him.

Slightly confused, he replied, “Eleven and nine,”

Hmm, no roleplaying, he really was out of it.

More gently, I grabbed Boba on the shoulder, “What’s your int and wisdom stats?” I quietly asked, keeping a careful eye on the rats. They don’t seem to have noticed me yet, instead just silently weeping and looking overall very pitiable.

Boba wiped away a tear, staring confused at me, “Umm, around the tens…”

Probably wisdom then. My INT was too close to theirs and Peps… I glanced at Peps who was helping the rats wipe away their tears. A lost cause. Even if he had as high a wisdom stat as I did, he seemed like a natural idiot. A nice, softhearted idiot but an idiot nonetheless.

Fuck. I wish Matt was here, he would’ve made this thing a whole lot simpler. Bloody, but simpler.

Though I have yet to confirm one important thing. Whether or not we are being attacked. My instincts and logic said yes. However, the rats haven’t done anything aggressive yet. Tell a sob story and ask us to fight some people. Honestly, just normal game NPC stuff, and if this was just a game then I would’ve thought the devs were just being cheeky with a random event. But Gaia wasn’t just a game wasn’t it?

Hendrix displayed an unerring amount of personality and life despite just being what I assumed was a tutorial bot, and though I haven’t seen Indiri yet, if Eve can make one fully breathing world, whose to say she can’t make two? Gaia wouldn’t even be that hard to make since she has Giles’ recreation to work off of. At the very least there was more to this story. I should see this to the end at least. Though…

“A truly tragic tale you have told us,” I said, channelling my inner roleplayer, two can play at this game, “and though justice is its own reward. I must ask…” I paused slightly, gotta seem hesitant, “If mayhaps there is compensation for us helping you?” If they’re trying to be quest giver NPCs then they might as well hand over all their valuables.

Peps looked at me oddly, then translated what I said. I looked closely at the rats as they heard what Peps squeaked. Hmm… No luck, they looked exactly like regular giant rats. No over the top cartoon facial features. I can’t read them.

The lead rat, Sardines, quickly squeaked something back, “He said that it would be difficult…” Peps translated, “Since they have many family members and often go hungry during hard seasons…”

It almost felt like Boba, or Valhorn was trying to glare daggers into my back. “Oh no no,” I replied, “I am not asking for extravagance, merely compensation to account for personal expenses undertaken in this quest. Such as damaged gear or injuries...”

The glare softened slightly and turned away. Was that my perception? It was described as a sixth sense…

“We cannot compensate for weapons or gears lost,” Peps said, already translating, “However our brethren knows many ways around this land, and knows of hidden treasure left by travellers before thee.”

“That will do,” I replied as I gave them a bright smile. Peps seemed to recoil a bit but quickly gathered his bearings as he translated.

“Now perhaps thou can describe to us what manner of foe plagues you,” Valhorn butted in.

I glanced gratefully at him. Talking to rats was starting to get weird.

Skip pointed in front of us and squeaked, “They’re over there,” Peps quietly translated.

Hmm… in front of us was a neat park if I remembered correctly. Though now it seemed pretty overgrown. Valhorn did a few gestures with his hand, which I roughly translated to: ‘follow me quietly,’ if movies were accurate. Silently bending down, I let the tall grass cover us.

Valhorn took point, I followed behind him. Boba had already disappeared somewhere and Peps had been told to stay out of sight due to his low combat capability.

From what we gathered from the rats, our opponents were humanoid and worked in a party. Three melee fighters and one healer. Valhorn was pretty serious about battle tactics, so we planned ahead. Leverage Boba’s superior range as we kept them busy close up. The first to die had to be the healer obviously. Valhorn and I will try to do a sneak attack to get him however more likely we would just keep the melees busy as Boba assassinated the healer-

Valhorn raised a hand, the universal gesture for stopping. We were close enough to hear the sounds of a fire crackling. A camp? Hopefully, we can catch them off guard.

“........”

More slowly, we crept in closer, beginning to catch muted snippets of conversation.

“............”

“.......not…… level…..”

I paused, Valhorn stopping just a bit in front of me as he stopped sensing movement from me.

“......grind……”

Oh.

Oh.

I laughed. I laughed loudly. How was I so stupid!? The rats were common mobs! We’re avenging dead mobs! We were fighting other players!

Name: Dustin

Classes: Fungalmancer Level 2

Body

Strength: 8

Agility: 7

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 18

Stamina: 10

Vitality: 12

Mind

Intelligence: 13 (Enough to know that tomato is a fruit)

Wisdom: 17 (Enough to know that tomato doesn't belong in a fruit salad)

Charisma: 6 (Not enough to sell a tomato based fruit salad)

Soul

Will: 10

Aura: 10

Perception: 10

Racials:

Superior Darkvision, Fungal Body, Sun Sickness, Mana Dependency, Pacifying Spores, Innate Magic

Class Skills:

Fungalmancer: Grow Sporage

Spells:

T0: Balm Spores, Spore Lights, Sneezing Spores, Acid Spit

T1: Mushroom Meal, Poison Spores

Available Spell Slots:

T2: 1

Equipment:

Leather Armour (Damaged) - One HP Potion - One MP Potion - Basic Wooden Staff - Two Basic Daggers - Herbalism Kit

Backpack - Tinder Box - Mess Kit - 50 days worth of rations

8 Gold Coins

Quests:

Murder the Murderhobos! (Active)

0/4 Murderhobos killed

Impact Points: 4