Chapter 027: New Mission

Fun fact. Trying to make two people closer to each other, for example by forcing them to sleep in the same bed and having them resurrect naked in the Gore Altar while embracing each other, can backfire. Seems like local gods weren‘t omnipotent. I could feel Deviation’s sleek fingers in this. She decided that she could make fun of us and went for it. That was the only reason I could think of for all that unneeded and tiring lewd things happening seemingly at random.

Simea went red for a short while. She was a night elf. But right after we clothed ourselves her face turned from aroused to tired and displeased.

After that happened we searched for the rest of our group.

***

We found them in the mess hall, obviously. Judging from the smell coming from the kitchen Kytar died, and was busy preparing dinner. Vaera and Lena sit in the corner, talking to each other. No Leria though, hmph.

They noticed us and waved towards us.

“Silver IV was too strong, I guess.” Lena said when we got closer. “Full partywipe, hmm?”

“Actually, we killed the Watcher.” I heard Simea clearing her throat. Meaningfully. “Ok, Simea killed him. By executing the most epic sneak kill in the history of sneak kills. Taking 24% of his hitpoints in two dagger stabs. Better now?” Simea nodded, with a smile on her face.

We joined them and sat beside the table.

“Really?! Then why are you here?” Vaera said, with a surprise on his face.

“Yeah, well, we didn‘t expect the pentagram the cultist painted to explode suddenly with eldritch magic.” I sighed. “It killed us both right in the middle of being happy that we survived and won.” I decided to not mention that Watcher seemed interested in tentacleraping or torturing me. Or torturing me through tentaclerape. Ugh.

“Tough luck.” Lena commented.

“Yeah. Where is Leria?” I asked. It was strange to not see her here.

“She went to check how her daughter is doing.” Lena commented. So her adoption of Vila was official now? Interesting. I wasn‘t going to protest, it was the best-case scenario. Vila had someone to take care of her... and someone she could grow attached to. It worked both ways though. “So, the mother of you and Leria was a thing like that? That’s a bit…”

“Don‘t try to make this world more lewd than it has to be.” I sighed. “They are shapeshifters and can assume human form, if they wish so.” Thankfully. It wouldn’t help me much, though, if Simea didn‘t finish him. While asexual in their daemonic version, he would still enjoy causing pain and despair.” So, what is for the dinner?” Let’s think and talk about something nice. For a change.

***

“You know what, I don‘t get it.” Simea voice interrupted my attempts at falling asleep brutally. I sighed. Mentally. What was it now?

“You don‘t get what?” Let’s get this over with as soon as possible so I can continue my attempts at falling asleep. That we spent most of the day partying hard didn‘t help. We tried to forget. It was a painful excursion. Or at least its ending was painful. Some of us combined this with trying to forget where we are forced to live, and it went bad.

Well, the two of us drank moderately, so unlike Lena and Vaera we didn‘t require being carried to our beds. So it could be worse, I suppose.

“Why aren‘t you trying to... uhm... you know what.” I took a few seconds to connect the dots.

“Leria spoke with you, didn‘t she?” The muffled ‘yes’ told me everything I needed to know. Leria, for God’s sake. Stop trying to hook me up with Simea, could you? I’m not looking for a girlfriend, ugh. “Just ignore her. She is too talkative sometimes. “

“No, I get it. But... I was kinda curious why you didn‘t try to, uhm... seduce me. Or something.” Seriously, hearing a night elf having problems with saying this was weird. Their average approach to such a trouble could be summed up by ‘Hey, wanna fuck?’.

“I’m horrible at seducing people.” I answered. “And I’m not interested in doing this.” And let’s hope she will leave it at that. “Besides, the word ‘seduce’ is too strong, ‘making a move on somebody’ would be much better.”

“Mhh.” She was silent for a while. I almost went asleep again, but… no such luck. “Are you gay?”

Eh. “Seriously, you are the second person to ask me that today. Is there something in my face that makes people think I’m gay? Ugh. No, I’m not. Also, before you ask - no, I don‘t have a girlfriend in real life. Nor a wife. And I’m not a priest. Nor a woman.” DFI games were free from weird shit like that happening, but judging from the even weirder shit they put in GoE… everything was possible. “Anything else?”

“Then why didn’t you make a move on me?” Really, Simea? Give me a break. “Am I not your type?”

“Simea... seriously, why are you doing this?” I almost shake my head disapprovingly. Before I remembered that it was pitch black, and we laid back to back. Which made all attempts at nonverbal communication stupid. “Am I expected to make a move on you because we spend a lot of time together and we... did you know what?”

“Well... no, but… I’m just curious.” Or, worst-case scenario, Deviation‘s unnecessary meddling influenced her, and she started develop feelings on me. Ugh. The only way to make sure would be to test it, but I was too terrified that it would work. And it would be hard to back out.

“You are my type. Both in body and in personality.” Well, I had no pre-defined preferences in terms of stuff like hair colour, and as a night elf she had a rather hot body by definition. Nicely shaped while average. I liked them average. I was neither a fan of flat woman nor those much too... gifted in that part. So what I said was true. “I’m just not interested.”

“Did… did you friendzone me?”

I almost chuckled. “Yeah, let’s call it that way. Go to sleep already.” And don‘t dig deeper. Please.

A moment of silence, finally interrupted by her voice. “I think you aren‘t honest with me there.” She was suddenly much more serious. “Maybe outside from the part about your preferences. Well, suit yourself. I’ll still watch you closer. You got me curious.”

…Shit. I played myself. She was much more in control than I thought. I underestimated her intelligence, didn’t I? Rather than a girl in love she was… A much more levelheaded girl in love that preferred to probe the ground before doing anything? Someone else? Ugh. Other people and their three-dimensional characters.

If she digs for real... uh. Wonderful. Just freaking wonderful.

***

I woke up in the early morning. Terrible sleep. Simea stole the quilt again. She was also absent… weird. Did she sneak out with Silence or Suppress Presence? Suspicious. Highly suspicious.

Well, I was hungry. Too hungry to read a book. And I seemed to have run out of the cheap wine I had stored beside my nightstand. No use remaining here. I changed my clothes and departed to the mess hall, hoping to resupply and eat something. I was hungry for food - not a criminal investigation..

The Hold was fast asleep. Too early for people to be awake. We tried to remain consistent with the time on the outside, no reason to deregulate our biological clocks.

I was about to enter the mess hall when I heard the voice. Was that… Leria?

“…Well, that proves my point. Avhar is hiding something.” What?! They are talking about me? Normally I’m against intentional eavesdropping, but she was talking about me, right?

“Sorry for doubting you, but you are probably right.” Simea?! Et tu, Brute? “I still can‘t believe it. I mean, he is... kinda our leader, right?”

“…And you fell for him. But that doesn‘t mean anything.” She... did? Not entirely unexpected. Quite the opposite. Even me, with my... average common sense and experience in love matters could guess that.

So Leria had some deeper meaning in this whole affair… Color me impressed, I thought she was too simple-minded for this to have an additional depth like that. Huh.

“How did you even suspect him?” Yes, Simea, I’m curious about it as well.

“From what Avhar said, his Sense Evil detects evil. Mostly daemons and creatures like that. Mine is much more sensitive. I can sniff sins on people when I spent enough time with people. “So, she had secrets. I should have expected something like that. Why should I receive the same buff as a Chosen One? My khardic powers seemed to be a ricochet, a side effect to being closely related (both in blood and in life, since we seemed to have spent most of it together), even if it was most likely intentional on Overtyrant‘s side. Gods do not make such mistakes, and neither do hyperadvanced AIs.”

“And he has committed some?”

“Yes.” A short silence. “Don‘t give me that look. Listen, if I had any doubt he could be a threat, I would kill him. And destroy the Altar.” Now that‘s a dangerous field we are entering. “It is nothing drastic, but he is hiding something. Intentionally. I’m well aware that he sometimes avoids telling us things he believes might be... traumatic or scary.” She is?! Wow. I didn‘t know. “But this isn’t it. He also smells of both dishonesty and selfishness, which means he is hiding something for his own good. Or is lying about something. If he planned to betray us, I’d knew. But he still is the weakest link among us. According to my senses even Vaera seems to have more enthusiasm for our mission than him.”

“And you persuaded me to... uhm... do what I did for... what reason exactly?” Uff. You had me worried you were much more experienced in this than I thought. But that‘s once again the wonderfully repressed and in a way chaste Simea that I knew and liked.

“Call it a hunch. I wanted to see his reaction.” Really? Now that’s playing with a maiden’s heart. Shame on you. “I’m almost sure I hit the nail, but... I guess it would be too easy for him to yield right now.” She hit the nail. Ugh. This was being awkward. Dangerous, even. I might have to resort to methods I would probably regret. “So, we will follow the plan.”

“Right, right. I remember.”

Since they talked about random things later on, I retreated to my bedroom. I might starve, but... I wasn‘t going to alert them to the possibility of being overheard by me. Let‘s sleep for a while.

***

The day started again one or two hours later. The lack of clocks in the Hold made things much more troublesome. This time the mess hall was much more crowded, with all people living in the Hold taking part. Vila was almost invisible, while the rest... well, things were loud, to the dismay of Vaera and Lena that were plagued with a bad case of a hangover.

Normally players weren‘t forced to suffer from it, making drinking various alcohols a much less painful thing, but it was one more thing ruined by Hyperrealism Addon. I wasn‘t going to be angry about that since I always drink with moderation. I was curious if you could get addicted to it and to drugs (there were a lot more of them in this world) though.

Ytar made himself useful and helped Kytar with making the meals for all of us. Nice. In the evenings I instructed him on magic. He had a talent, one that was wasted in the slums. The biggest idiocy of Dragonspine Mountains is that its inhabitants let such people go to waste, only to let themselves feel better as ‘proper citizens’, rather than useless trash living in the slums.

The breakfast was about to end when it happened. We were busy discussing the place we should visit during our next excursion into anomalies when I got a message.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Yo. How are you doing?

Hmm? It’s weird. Why is he writing?

Avhar Khan [P]: Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: ???

Avhar Khan [P] : Eh, nevermind. I have a certain terrifying secret that my teammates seem hellbent on discovering. Because of that, I keep being afraid that they will suddenly succeed.

Avhar Khan [P]: Also, I keep running into powerful creatures and quests that make me repeatedly die in a horrible way. Ok, I’ve also grown in power much faster than I did in World’s Requirem, but I’m still pissed off.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: … What level do you have now? -_-’

Avhar Khan [P]: 14.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Excuse me what the fuck. The strongest player in Ambryxis is level 12 o_o Dafuq are you people doing.

Avhar Khan [P]: Don’t ask me. Seriously, it’s fucking weird. Weirdest. Weirdestest. We just killed a Watcher. Silver IV. Random fucking encounter in the area where Iron V are the strongest creatures around.

Avhar Khan [P]: We all died doing it.

Yes, well, we didn’t precisely die in the process. We killed the thing. Two of us survived. That there was a magical pentagram linked to its lifespan didn’t change that.

I expected the people in Ambryxis to have higher levels. We had too many breaks in our expeditions… but it seemed it wasn’t a case. No wonder, really. DFI never published information about how their leveling worked. There were many theories. Sometimes seemingly random people jumped up in an insane speed. Trying to blend with the world seemed like a good idea in GoE.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Silver IV?! SILVER IV?! O_O My team (six people) got rekt trying to take down Silver I. Wow. Seriously fucking wow.

Avhar Khan [P]: Also - consider adding it to the wikipedia. We. Ran. Into. Lesser Aberrant.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Isn’t that impossible? -_-’

Avhar Khan [P]: I thought the same. Until we opened a door in the dungeon and suddenly a thing I fail to describe waltzed into the room xD I exorcised it by using knowledge from WR but not before it mindraped everyone in the room.

Avhar Khan [P]: In, like, ten fucking seconds.

Avhar Khan [P]: I’m seriously considering this game is fucking real. I can seriously picture Robinson making a deal with the devil (or Cthulhu or anyfuckingthing else) to pull all his players into a real world xD

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: … I wouldn’t go that far. But yeah, this is getting weirder and weirder.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Did you hear the most crazy news btw? It almost equals meeting an Aberrant.

Oh fucking no. This is going to get weird.

I could see Leria giving me a questioning look from the other side of the table. She could see I was using Nexus and probably got curious. I shook my head and return to the chat.

Avhar Khan [P]: Alright, tell me. I was away from Ambryxis for a while so I probably failed to hear it.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: There is a player in the city. Young female. I don’t remember the name now. She is a real sub (and slut to boot) so she is probably gonna get enslaved sooner or later. For now she is a member of Blades.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: You could seriously have her for a price of a cheap ale. Even I’m disgusted. -_-’ I wouldn’t touch her with a ten meter long pole, but there are people in the town with less… uhm, I won’t say morals, let’s stay with ‘taste’.

Avhar Khan [P]: Where is this going? I’m not interested as well.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Sec. Wait for it.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: You know that this fucking Hyperrealism Addon gave female players periods? They aren’t painful, just inconvenient and so on, but there are still there. -_-’

Avhar Khan [P]: … I didn’t know. Where is this going?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: That slut whored herself around in the game since the beginning.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: It’s already a month. Plus few days.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: She is the only female player in town who hasn’t got her period yet.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: It’s seriously possible she got pregnant.

HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT. Players could have children?! Either DFI seriously went batshit crazy more than I thought or this was a real world. Tertium non datum. Imagine the level of problems this was going to cause after we get freed from the game. What if someone has children (practically lifelike in behaviour) and gets attached to them to the point that he refuses to leave the game?

Well, maybe this wasn’t the problem in that particular case. The slut Vasyr mentioned probably wasn’t going to be a good mother, so… but it was bound to get troublesome later on.

Avhar Khan [P]: …

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Nice bomb, wasn’t it?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Of course, she has no fucking clue who might be the father.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Tough luck. And abortion is a major nope, since it’s a crime. One of few that locals actually can get angry about.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: You know, the permanent troubles with things trying to murderfuck everything in the world made demography a rather touchy subject ._.

Avhar Khan [P]: That’s… I guess it’s best to arm yourself in some contraception before you go enjoy the natives.

Avhar Khan [P]: OR you could just keep dick in the pants. Significantly lower chance of getting infected with some weird stuff.

Needless to say I preferred the latter option. The first option was weird and disgusting. Something I associated with weakness of character (and morals). But I wasn’t going to show him my approach too openly.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Enjoying the natives, of course! I almost forgot why I wrote to you in the first place.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: I finally got enough money to… invest :3 Sure, it was costly, but I got a slave for myself. Makes me meals, cleans things and is de-e-lightfully obedient in bed :3

Yeah, remind me why I hate you. A great idea, really. Especially when I almost began to have positive thoughts on you.

Avhar Khan [P]: So, what do you want us to do?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: ?

Avhar Khan [P]: Obviously you didn’t write just to boast about how great your first (you are probably thinking of getting more, aren’t you?) fucktoy is.

Avhar Khan [P]: We are about to make another expedition into anomaly, so you better tell now or stay silent for 2-3 days at the best.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Right, right. You see, when I was at the slave trader building I saw a slave.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: A player. Unfortunately I already spent my money on buying Haria so I couldn’t buy her.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: I could have people from the guild buy her, but she would be of great use to you (she seems to have an Enchanter job, and we already have an enchanter for ourselves).

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: You in?

Hmm. That was an interesting idea. Certainly an enchanter was going to be helpful along the way. There was also a thing about liberating her from slavery. On the other hand, it was a bit counterproductive way of combating slavery, since by buying a slave out of it you still made the slave trade flourish by supplying it with your money.

Avhar Khan [P]: How much?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: 300 ambries.

So little. This… wasn’t a good thing. Expensive slaves were protected from abuse by their value. Only a complete retard would ruin something he bought for a lot of money. Vasyr was a dickhead, but I was 100% sure he would not beat, cripple or murder this new ‘property’ of his. 95% of local slave owners were the same, more than half did nothing that the average person would consider abusive. They preferred rewarding them for hard work as a motivation rather than punishments. Besides, indulging in your desires was a great way to make your worker resent you and not give his work an earnest enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, the higher you get in society the more terrifying and powerful weirdos became. For an added fun, we would probably keep dealing with the worst dregs of society due to how our mission looked like.

Avhar Khan [P]: Then I’ll probably pick her up asap. Nothing good awaits a person worth 300 ambries in this place. Where can I find her?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Sure, the slave trader I found her in is...

***

“Alright people, we have a job.” I said loudly after Vasyr finished giving me exact details. “There is an interesting recruit in the city. One we will have to buy, but… that shouldn’t be too expensive.”

“One we have to buy?” Leria seemed unconvinced. “Saving people is a great idea, but if we buy them from the slavers, we are just going to give them money to finance more raids.”

Yes, well, she had a point. I had to admit. I mean, even if you buy ALL slaves on the market, I doubt that slave traders would retire.

“Well, the target is an enchanter… and a Player, to boot. I know it might sound hypocritical, but despite treating you, natives as humans, I still feel certain… attachment to people of Earth. We shouldn’t leave her like that, plus it’s Vasyr’s idea and we have to keep our end of the bargain to keep our access to Crimson Blade’s wikia.”

It surprised me but I meant it. There was still an attachment. I knew thinking that enslaving Player was worse than enslaving natives was hypocritical, but… I guess it would take a while for my mind to accept all the changes. Unless people of Earth move their fucking asses and save us from this hellhole.

...which was something I would be much more chill about if I get to live in an Imperium. Ok, it was a bad idea to piss it off, but other than this, it was almost utopian when compared to Dragonspine Mountains.

“There is something you aren’t telling.” For a while I was scared she returned to the topic she discussed with Simea when I overheard them. Then I understood what she meant.

“300 ambries. That’s how much she is worth.” I said.

She stared at me for a short while before opening her mouth. “Ok, I’m in.”

“Ok, so… why is 300 ambries so bad?” Menara interjected. Oh, right, she knew nothing about the way slavery worked in Dragonspine Mountains. Vaera, Simea and Lena probably didn’t know much as well… oh right, I forgot, Lena saw her share after she came here. She knew much less than me though.

“Because it’s worth shit. I mean, it’s maybe… a week pay of a qualified craftsman?” I shrugged. “It’s nothing for adventurers. Magicians. Sorcerers. Managers and middle strata. Heck, even militia members could buy such a slave. There is a difference in treatment when your life is worth three hundred ambries and three thousand ambries. Or thirty thousand."

Normally a decent, hard working male was worth a lot more than female, even when he was ugly. For a simple reason - he could work and earn money. Buying slaves to serve as their concubines (with a kind of rivalry in their looks, sex skills and monetary worth) was a thing for the rich and influential. Or those that wanted to avoid getting weird sexually transmitted diseases.

It was a backward world in that matter, and females slaves (unless they knew aura or magic which equalled their chances at least as adventurers or craftswomen) were considered useful only for housework and sex. They couldn’t work as hard and using them for it was considered wasting their… ‘real potential’.

At least that was the answer I gave her. She already had her own share of trauma connected to slavery. Leria knew what it REALLY meant to be worth three hundred ambries. Kytar was worth one hundred more, and he was supposed to go work in the mines. Probably one with extreme mortality ratio where he was expected to live for a month or two. They didn’t send qualified miners to such places.

What awaited that player was a female version of mines. Saving her was a great idea. Besides, unless she was an extreme rape/degradation fetishist she would be VERY grateful for being saved, which would make convincing her to support us much easier, even if she wasn’t a crusader wannabe.

“Alright. I guess I’ll just take money and go there alone.” I said, ignoring the chatting in the background. “There is no need to make everyone go. It would be better for you to make a trip to the Descent. We can meet there, I’ll just send you a Nexus message when I’ll be close to entrance and you will come back for me.”

“No.” Simea interjected. “I’m going too.”

Really, Simea? “That’s a horrible idea. You, of all people, really shouldn’t…”

“I want to go.” Wait a second. Is… that part of their plan? If so, does it mean they are so close to… no, no way. They can’t be that good. I mean, Shadow was the one to give his Chosen Ones preternatural intuition, not Overtyrant. He made you abhor evil. Let’s not fall into paranoia.

“That is a terrible idea. Are you one hundred percent sure you are up to this?” I decided to make sure. So that she couldn’t blame me later.

“We are just going to buy a slave. Just how bad could it be?” Oh, Simea, you poor girl. How little you know. I could see in Leria’s eyes that she knew what I meant. Well, it’s time to lose your metaphorical virginity, Simea. You can’t stay in Dragonspine Mountains and fight it without understanding how the local heart of darkness looks like.

“Well, I guess only the two of us will go.” I said.” The rest of you should make a resource run into Descent. You get in, you locate a blast furnace, you stick close to it and get as much metals smelted and aether gathered as you can.” I clarified what I meant. Not all people here understood WR’s slang.

All of them nodded. Simea as well. I felt sorry for her already.