Trapped in a Game Pt. 02

Author's note: This is chapter 2 in my 'Trapped In a Game" series. It's not a self-contained story so you'll be pretty much lost if you didn't read chapter 1.

Special shout out to all those who kept me going through a difficult time on this one.

You know who you are. :)

***

"Serra?" I asked.

She had such a distinctive look; that brilliant red hair that she wore in twin ponytails, and the way that they bounced playfully as she swayed with the wind under the early morning sun.

"In the flesh!" she quipped with a smile.

I looked around.

Where was Kelly, and what was Serra doing here?

"Still not getting it huh, big brother?"

The playfulness in her voice was starting to tick me off.

"Where is my sister?"

She threw her hands up in a show of exasperation:

"I give up! You're beyond help!"

She was still smiling coyly when I advanced on her: "This is your doing, isn't it? What did you do? What did you say to her?"

I grabbed her by the hem of her robes, but her smile did not falter in the least.

"Now now, at least take responsibility for your own mistakes- 'little sis' left on her own... or did 'big bro' do something stupid?" she added with a knowing wink.

I let her up, and she frowned:

"Aww... done playing big bad wolf already? I was just starting to enjoy that. Although... there'll be plenty of time for that kind of play..." she blew me a kiss, and I looked away miserably.

Kelly was gone...

What the hell did this mean?

I pulled up my character interface, and sure enough a message awaited me:

Dear Josh,
I know you're probably mad and kind of hating me right now, but please know that that was not my intention when I made up my mind to leave. I know you've been pretty miserable for some time now, and I know that somewhere along the way you stopped loving yourself... and I thought I could help you, I really did... I thought that maybe if I loved you enough you would be yourself again- the happy, easy going, fun loving big brother that I fell in love with all those years ago. Being around you made me the person that I am today, and being loved by you made me happier than I ever thought I could be. But when I almost lost you, I realized... that's not enough for me! I can't be happy until I see you genuinely smile again. I can't be happy until this sickness in your heart is no longer weighing you down, and tearing you apart. I want to see you live again Josh, not just for my sake or anyone or anything else, but for yourself... It hurt me to know that walking away from you would hurt you... especially knowing how vulnerable you are right now... but if there's a chance that you can find that something you've been missing... that something in yourself, to love, hope and live again. Then I'll take that risk. I know you must think I'm crazy for trusting you with this girl, and maybe- I probably am. But she's a top player, and she's given me her word that you'll be alright. Just please remember Josh... I love you. Please... don't give up like that again. Just... do your best and stay alive, so that when we get out of this we can really be together again.

Love-
Kelly.

I wiped away my tears as I re-read the message again and again.

Sender unknown- was the only response I got when I tried to access her name from the message, and a quick scan for her name came up blank.

She made certain that I would not be able to find her.

I momentarily thought about heading over to the starting town to see if she was around- but I knew she wouldn't be that careless.

When Kelly made her mind up to do something, she'd make sure to do it right.

"Gosh, the sentimentality is just so intense! It's almost breaking my heart!"

I rolled my eyes.

"Come on now- we're wasting time. I only stayed around this place because there's loot we can secure if I have my loyal 'plus one' little tempest to play with."

I glanced up at Serra.

Every fiber of my being wanted to walk away and have nothing to do with her.

But this is what Kelly wanted.

This is what she thinks I need.

I sighed, swallowing my pride as I responded:

"Fine- where do we start?"

Her eyes lit up at this.

"Really? I actually thought it would take longer to convince you. Hnn- you really trust that sister of yours, huh?"

She took a step back, and studied me a little seriously now.

"Well then, let's get going! First things first- new spells. I know you spent all of your points on that swap places spell... like seriously, a spellcaster class? Even if you swapped places with your sister when she was in trouble, you would have just died! Dumb ass!"

I rolled my eyes again.

This girl was clever but a massive pain in the behind.

"You know, I don't remember you talking this much yesterday."

"Uh-huh! I know, right! Look at me! I'm all, 'opening up' and being myself around you. Lucky you, right?" she gave me an enthusiastic nudge, before walking ahead.

"What would it take for you to stop?" I muttered, but she didn't even take notice, as she continued to chatter away.

She led me eventually to the woodcutter who I'd spoken to when I played the tutorial part of the game on my first day.

"Was this your tutorial guide?"

"Uh-huh... You're not going to make me play the tutorial again, are you?"

"Hah. No. What do you think I'm here to teach you from the basics go up? That would take forever. I just need you to be able to kill stuff. Here- you can learn basic skills and spells for your class from your tutorial guide."

"Okay... I thought you were gonna pay for me to learn the good stuff."

"Yeah- but I don't wanna throw in a ton of gold and have you die on our first quest. Besides- what we need for our first hunt are some basic spells. Here-"

She handed me some coins, and I choked back a gasp.

"Ten thousand? Really?"

"Yeah- you'll need to buy some basic stuff. Relax, we'll make plenty more."

This girl needs a new understanding of what basic means!

It was more gold than our entire group had collectively!

"You'll need to learn; slice through wood/stone, earth tremor, and animal friendship."

I watched her uncertainly.

Were those skills really going to help in killing stuff? Or was I supposed to be her resident squirrel befriending lumberjack?

"Okay- do I need to unlearn any or-?"

"Nah- not until we need your advanced class skills. These will do for now. Also, what's your strength/dexterity stats?"

I gave her the necessary info and she hurried off, but not before stopping to add:

"Oh, and learn minor illusion too!"

She came back not too long later with a rapier and a leather shirt.

"That the standard stuff for a spellcaster class?" I asked, a little sarcastically.

"No- but you have no offensive spells. So you'll need some way to contribute to combat. Here," she tossed me the rapier, and I almost cut myself trying to catch it by the hilt. "Just stick 'em with the pointy end. Easy, right?"

"So where are we headed first?"

At this she cracked a wry smile:

"I dunno- so many fun things to do, I just can't decide! Although... there just happens to be a certain lich nearby that might be worth going after."

The lich?

And just the two of us?

She's crazy! I thought.

My mind immediately went back to thinking of ways to find Kelly.

"Hmn. That look on your face is so pathetic. I see why 'little sis' left now."

Don't let her get to you, I thought, as I stalked off to the edge of town.

"Tell you what- if you wanna give up so badly, I'll give you a chance. There's a little something that you need to master before we can go after the lich- and I'm not willing to waste more than a day on that. You fail, and I'll call little sis for you myself and let her know she can come pick up her no good useless failure of a brother- that is, if she even wants you still after you fail her like that."

I glared at Serra a bit.

Kelly would never truly abandon me, I knew that.

But- she did have one teeny tiny little point, which struck a chord in my heart:

I wanted Kelly to look up to me again.

I wanted to make her proud.

I didn't want to fail after one day before going back to her as a miserable failure.

Sure, a huge part of me was worried about her being in trouble without me there to protect her, but the truth was that she'd shown herself to be more than capable of handling herself.

I had become the weak link- the thing holding her back.

Kelly already had my love, but now it was time I gave her my trust.

"Fine," I spat, "what do I have to master?"

"Oh-? I think I like that look, big brother," she responded, her tone as teasing as ever.

Serra led me past the clearing outside of town, to where the woods began.

We walked to the edge of the clearing where there stood a great, tall majestic oak, which towered over the cluster of trees in the little grove.

"Kill this," she muttered, pointing at the tree, and I studied her, a bit confused.

"What?"

"And no- I don't mean use your new lumberjack skills to hack it down. Kill this oak, treating it as if it were an enemy."

I studied the tree for a moment.

Sure I'd just learned the 'slice through wood/stone' spell, but that was a near to useless skill in combat.

Come to think of it, none of the spells she'd asked me to learn had combat purposes, did they?

I drew my rapier then studied the tree a little.

There was no way I was going to hack that tree down with this little glorified toothpick...

What else did I have? A hand axe?

It was for chopping wood, but if Serra didn't want me using a wood chopping skill, I doubt she wanted me to use a means like that.

I sighed.

"Oh great and wise Serra- please show me the way to the light."

I didn't to hide the sarcasm in my voice one bit, but she beamed happily at me nonetheless.

"Flattery! How did you know?" she made a show of swooning over to me, wrapping her hands about my shoulders to my chagrin.

"Good big brother- at least I didn't have to watch you stand here hacking at it like some moron. Rapiers cost gold too, you know?"

"So what- am I still killing the tree, or-?"

"Yup, you are. But first there are a few things about this game that I need to make sure you understand. The first is this- stand here."

She led me over to a tree trunk, then after a second, a green glow appeared in her hand and I stifled a yelp a brilliant light shot out at me, knocking me off balance.

*Thud!

I landed on my back, and hard.

Jesus, did I actually just take damage?

"Good little moron," she quipped playfully, as she stood over me happily.

Sigh... this was a safe zone. I could have just taken the hit, huh.

"So, what have we learned?"

"Don't damage yourself falling over like an idiot for no reason?"

"Well... I was actually counting on you doing that. But I'm glad you noticed- you took damage, right?"

"Yeah... fall damage, I guess?"

"Uh-huh- but what did it feel like?"

"Like if I hurt my back."

"Right! So..." without warning, she pulled a hammer out from somewhere behind her back, and swung it at me.

I rolled out of the way, then winced, as a pain shot up my back- but she didn't give me a chance to breathe.

She was on me with lightning speed and intensity; the first swing I got my rapier in the way, but clumsily stepping back, the second one crashed into me, and hard!

"Ugh," my vision was blurred, and I tried to fight away the stars.

Serra stood over me, with a gloating smile.

"So- did that feel like combat in any other game you've ever played?"

I rubbed my head gingerly.

Sure, I didn't take any damage, but that hurt.

A lot!

"No- it didn't. It almost felt like a-"

"-real fight? Ha! You think I can swing a hammer and move like that in real life? No. The game just enhances your physical abilities to the point that you can do the things that would come naturally with your attributes."

Even as Serra had that arrogant smirk on her face, I couldn't help but be impressed with her.

To her, this was just another game engine, and she had gone to work on mastering it without stopping to hesitate for even a moment.

"So how do I kill the tree?" I muttered, genuinely curious.

"With slice through wood/stone! Duh!"

I studied her stupidly, and she grinned.

"Not using it on the tree of course, that's still off limits- but I said you had to treat that tree as the enemy. I didn't say anything about... that one, or that one. Or that one!" she added, as she pointed cheerfully at the trees surrounding the oak.

You really think you're clever, don't you?

"Well? Get to work big brother! Lesson one: a falling tree does more damage than one idiot with a rapier!"

I walked over to the tree adjacent to the one I was supposed to kill, and Serra watched with exaggerated anticipation as I concentrated on the spell, then with a swing of my hand, sliced through the trunk.

"What a perfect idiot!" she clapped her hands playfully, as the tree I had slashed fell several feet from the oak I was supposed to 'slay.'

Is it just me, or is she enjoying this way too much?

"Your aim is terrible! Now if only there was some sort of skill- a tempest skill, if you must, that could improve your aim."

"Mark prey? I can't mark a tree..."

"Huh? You can't hurt someone in a safe zone either..." she nodded suggestively, and I got what she was saying.

"You're saying I can use spells in ways outside of what the rules state."

"There are no rules- it's called 'spell description' for a reason. How you use it is up to you."

I stared at the tree and tried to activate mark, but still- nothing happened.

"It's not working," I muttered, sure that she was probably going to smack me and call me an idiot for falling for her bluff.

"Well that's because you're doing it wrong! Mark is a concentration spell- concentration spells are activated and maintained through thought. So just think about how it might be done. I've seen players mark caravans, weapons and armor."

I pondered it a little, then tried again, this time imagining that the tree was some sort of monster coming to life in front of me.

A mark momentarily shimmered about it, before fading.

Holy shit.

"Was that it just now?"

She walked over and put a hand on my shoulder, and I gave her a little uncomfortable glance.

"Come on, don't be like that. Use synergy. I wanna see."

I did as she asked, then again, tried to visualize the tree coming to life in front of me, and the red outline flickered momentarily again before taking shape.

"Ooh- you learn quickly. Not half bad," Serra muttered appreciatively.

The genuine tone with which she said it actually hurt.

I knew that low expectations could be a relief, but I forgot how insulting it could be.

"Now comes the hard part. Keep your mark on that tree, and..."

She raised a hand, and fired a beam of light at a nearby rabbit, and it tore through the little thing mercilessly.

I winced a little, raising my eyebrow at Serra questioningly.

"Do you think that's what she'll look like?" she whispered wickedly, and I shifted my shoulders under her touch uncomfortably.

"What who will look like?"

"Your little sister- when the monsters tear her apart in some dungeon."

"What the fuck?"

She tightened her hold on my shoulder and wrapped the other arm around me as I tried to turn on her.

"Don't worry- she'll never blame you. It wasn't like you'd be able to protect her if you were there anyway... or maybe she might- as she draws her last breath... maybe she might curse you for abandoning her to die like a helpless little rabbit, all alone in some cold dark cave."

"Cut that shit out- I'm not kidding!"

She cackled as I tried in vain to grab her, but she disengaged from me and bounded away with ease.

"Too easy big brother! By the way- just where did your tree go? Hmnnn?"

I was fighting the strong urge to lash out at Serra- but the feelings died immediately with the realization that she was right. The mark I'd placed on the tree was in fact gone.

"What happened?"

"You're super easy to distract is what. Any mention of little sis and you're up in arms. Your concentration broke, and the mark disappeared. So what do you think is going to happen if you're dodging ice spikes and casting slice while concentrating on the mark?"

"I see."

"Yup. This is your actual test. You have until evening to master your concentration. You won't hit the tree with other trees unless it's marked, and you won't be able to mark it and keep the mark up if you lose concentration every time you cast slice. So how about it? Think you've got what it takes? Or am I gonna have to call little sis to come get her loser big brother?" She was smiling happily as she spoke.

This girl sure likes games, I thought.

"Now I could stand here and play with you all day, but I do have some things to take care of. So I'm going to send a little playmate along to keep you company. When I get back, I expect that tree to be 'dead'. 'Kay?"

With that, she gave a curtsey then headed off, and I immediately began working on the concentration spell.

But it was easier said than done.

Every time I concentrated on casting slice through wood, the concentration on mark faded just before I could work out how to the right angle and positioning for slice.

I had sliced through two more trees when a familiar face came wandering along.

"Hey! It's you again!" the little girl called cheerily, before running up to me and giving me a hug.

"Lina? You remember me?"

"Of course I do! Papa said he hoped you made it alright, and it made me worry."

She spoke so genuinely and the emotion she displayed felt so real, I found myself wondering if she really was an AI controlled neutral character.

"Oh- right! The funny lady said to help you with these!"

She walked over to one of the fallen trees, and a green light appeared over both her hands, as she began chanting something inaudibly, and to my surprise the tree which I'd felled began to repair itself, and in just a few moments, was standing tall and looking as good as new.

She's a druid, I thought to myself in amazement.

Even NPCs have jobs around here, don't they?

I found myself wondering what other little tasks our AI compatriots were out and about performing as Lina went from tree to tree, repairing them.

When she was done, she stepped back to the tree trunk closer to the clearing, and I took it as the signal to get back at my tree slaying exercise.

I figured I'd start getting the hang of it sooner or later, but by the time my stomach let out a low growl letting me know that it was time for lunch, I had hacked no fewer than forty trees to the ground without so much as scratching the big oak.

As Lina got to work repairing the damage I'd done, I took a seat on the old stump and got out my lunch.

These were the skewers that Kelly had prepared, I thought, and a melancholic pang twanged at my heart as I wondered where she was now.

"Are you okay, mister?" Lina asked thoughtfully, and I marveled again at her design.

It was such a curious thing. Lina was one of the first NPCs I'd met in this game, but unlike the others she really stood out.

I'd so far met her dad, a couple guild masters and shopkeepers, but none seemed to convey the eerie lifelike nature that she embodied.

As I ate, I decided to test the limits of her apparent intelligence.