//------------------------------// // Adventurer // Story: Afterlife Prime // by Dreamshadow //------------------------------// I exploded off of the ground towards him with a feral roar. Putting all of my newfound speed into a charge. He casually took his blade, still arcing with lightning and slapped me aside like I was made of rags. I hit a nearby tree with a variety of cracking sounds. And from how it felt only one of them came from the tree. My wings hurt, my ribs hurt, and if I was thinking that this was a game I would have been astonished that this much pain had been programmed in. But right now I wasn’t thinking of it as a game, I was thinking of my new friend being hurt. I poured a Ki point into regeneration and had the eerie experience of feeling my wings begin to reknit. The jerk looked at me casually and shook his head, “I’m disappointed bro- here I was expecting you to love and tolerate the shit out of me.” His blade began to glow with light just as my wings felt whole again. As I took off his casual swing severed the tree where an indent marked my recent position. “Oh-ho, pretty spry for a first level character. You some kinda veteran toying with a play character? Is that why you and your little girlfriend are too proud to get mounted like real little ponies?” He looked up at my position above him, and taking his massive blade in one hand, raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. A chain series of explosions erupted upwards, creating an ascending wall of pain. I felt one clip me. If I were higher level, that amount of damage would only be a deterant, but as I am... If I got hit head on I was dead. He casually aimed his sword up at me, glowing explosions from his previous spell still erupting around me. “BANG” he said as lightning shot straight from his sword. I dodged the main bolt again, but getting clipped was enough to drop me from my flight. I crashed to the ground, then poured the rest of my Ki into regeneration. This is rediculous! He scowled, “Well fine, if I can’t ice you I guess I’ll just...” I saw him turn around, to where Lily had fallen. This time I didn’t charge right in. Instead I picked up the biggest rock I could find, then, with my body repairing itself rapidly rose as high into the air as I could, while I hugged it to my body with my hooves. It was easily the size of my head. It should leave a nice one in his. I flew out of his sword reach over his head and dropped it, he tried to swat it aside with his sword, but it landed on his wrist with a satisfying cracking noise. I flew over him and quickly dropped between him and-- A scorched tree with nopony lying next to it. Turning around I saw that he was good and angry now. “A ROCK, I GET HIT BY SOME AMATEUR PONY WITH A ROCK!” He ignored whatever damage his wrist had taken and took his sword overhead in both hands, then slammed it into the ground. Which promptly exploded upwards around him, uprooting trees and throwing me backwards while pelting me with a random assortment of rocks and pieces of tree. I felt my new ribs break for the second time in the last couple of minutes. Okay, so it doesn’t hurt as much as real broken ribs, but still OW. At least Lily had managed to get to safety. The ground glowed blue beneath me and I fell straight down THROUGH the earth. Okay, getting away from the ego case... good, but seriously weird. I landed with a thump on a stone surface, nothing but earth above me. To my right a man in a purple and green pinstripe suit with a matching pinstripe top hat lounged lazily against the wall, only visable by the light of a blue glowing necklace shaped like a drill. He was smoking a pipe. “Yo” he said, “I heard you needed a rescue” I noticed that his eyes were yellow where they should be white, and had blood red irises. His teeth were sharp. “Um, thanks I guess.” I reached into my satchel, still miraculously on my side and tried to pull out the mead I had bought earlier. Injured and using hooves it was a difficult task. “It is good to see that some players have a sense of benevolence.” I said this in a sincere tone, but honestly expected him to want a favor. “Oh less a sense of benevolence, and more a sense of fun! It is no fun losing your first character to an overbearing player killer. I can think of far BETTER ways to get your first character killed!” I finally managed to get my hooves around the mead bottle and took a deep drink. The sweet flavor washed the taste of stress and adrenaline out on my mouth, I found I enjoyed it quite a bit. I offered him a swig, which he gladly took, leaning over to retrieve the bottle from my hooves. He passed me a glowing blue bottle in return. I looked up at him questioningly. “Healing potion” He stated. I gladly took it. The feeling of muscles and bones squirming back into place quickly following. It is a little unsettling how quickly I’m getting used to that feeling. “So let me guess, You saved my life, and in return you want me to go deliver a message or fetch an item and the process of doing so will get me involved in a world of intrigue and politics that leads to countless more quests and culminates with the downfall of a great enemy of yours and depending on your style either you or I becoming famous.” “You catch on quick!” He said with a toothy grin. He pointed to my flank with a very unsettlingly pointy finger, “I assume by your emblem that you have done this many a time. I am quite pleased to be in the presence of a truly experienced adventurer.” Why do I suddenly get the feeling Shazad ‘sensing’ my love of adventure consisted of him looking at my ass. This mark is going to be trouble. “Well, I am gaming, so no reason not to get involved in some schemes while I’m at it!” I agreed cheerfully. Of course I was thinking that any player who made an avatar like THAT was likely to be letting me take a fall somewhere along his plans. But two could play that game. “But first I would like to know how you knew I was in trouble. And what kind of task you want me for” “Oh your friend Azure told me, she is ever so kind isn’t she? As to your task I want you to get me something very, very valuable. It is called a Genesis Orb. They spawn here and there every now and then. But the game keeps them very, very well guarded. The next one will be spawning in this zone.” “And what does this Genesis Orb do, how much help will I have getting it, where is Azure Lily, and why do you need me?” I asked. Knowing better than to involve myself with magical items blindly. “Hmm, all the smart questions, first to last. It creates new game areas of the users design, I will drop hints and lifelines but not travel with you, Azure Lily is just outside, and I need you because both the game and players judge threats by their level, not their skill. Your skill is high, you are smart, but unlike me you won’t be seen as a threat. At least not if you avoid people like him in the future, and refrain from talking about high level things like the genesis orb.” I brought up his character sheet with a mental command. Level 30 Eldritch Alchemist, he must have been playing for a while. Level 30 was the highest level in the game, and given that levels were granted by the game system for notable accomplishments, not just grinding, he must be formidable indeed. “Besides which, given the genesis of my intel, and the lead I have on this, I have a feeling somepony like you will enjoy this job.” “What do you mean, did a brony tell you about the orb?” “Nope, a PONY did. I presume you have heard of Pinkie Pie?” Okay THIS is interesting. “Pinkie Pie... as in the pony from the show?” “Well, as far as I can tell yes. Some players made an in game replica of Ponyville, and she showed up one day and began to act as if she had always lived there. If she is a player, then she has some way of hiding her character sheet, meaning that she would have to be an admin, if she is she is certainly an odd one. Most people there seem to think she is an NPC, they do exist. Apparently someone in Admin likes ponies.” Everything he said made sense, and if I had an opportunity to meet Pinkie, or even just a really well made NPC of her, and visit a life size duplicate of Ponyville! “Okay I’m in, but Lily doesn’t need to come if she doesn’t want to.” He smirked as if I had said something rather silly, then gestured to a wall, where an opening appeared. We walked through the newly formed tunnel, myself in the lead with only his odd necklace for lighting. “So what were you doing talking to Pinkie anyway?” I asked looking over my shoulder at him. “Long story.” He answered simply. “If I do get the orb, are you going to be the one to use it?” “Yes, but you will be most welcome to a nice portion of the land I design with it.” He is getting the best out of this deal... but in a way so are we, I wouldn’t be very good at area designing anyway. And this sounds like a fun quest. As we walked through the dark tunnel I found my wings twitching. Some of those pegasi instincts I apparently had didn’t like being underground. Better get used to it body, we are adventurers now. The tunnel was coming to an end. I opened my mouth to ask where I could find Ponyville only to find that the mysterious man had disappeared as suddenly as he had shown up. Typical. I turned back toward the tunnel entrance only to find myself being furiously hugged by Lily. “You’re alive! I was so worried. What happened, you are perfectly fine! You saved my life!” She said all of this in about 5 seconds while crying on my wing. I awkwardly hugged her back. “The red eyed dude saved me.” She blinked. “The one who told me you had asked him to help me then asked me to quest for him.” “I actually just dimension hopped away then ran through the woods yelling that a madman was trying to murder my only friend. I guess someone must have heard me.” She scratched her head with her forehoof. Her only friend. The tunnel closed behind us as we made our way into the forest. “Anyway, I learned some interesting things. Did you know that this world has a Ponyville?” Her eyes lit up with excitement “It DOES, does this mean I can meet Twilight Sparkle?” “I don’t actually know... but we CAN meet Pinkie” She looked a little less excited about this. “Hey for all I know everypony is there; the guy only mentioned Pinkie though.” “What kind of guy was this anyway?” She asked. “He must be nice to save you and tell you about Ponyville; is he a big Pinkie fan? Did he shoot the swordjerk with a party cannon?” “Well actually he was a bit of a creep.” “FRACTAL, you shouldn’t talk about people who save you that way, I’m sure he was just enthusiastic!” I decided to forgo explaining myself and just shrugged. “Anyway, I’m about to start questing for powerful magical items. It’s gonna be pretty risky, wanna come?” “Well as long as I don’t get in the way; I mean you are totally awesome, and you are going to Ponyville. As long as I’m welcome to I’ll travel with you.” She likes me. “I’m not that awesome, all I’ve done today is get beat up and invoke favors with yellow eyed people.” I said, trying to look modest. She put a hoof on my shoulder, “You are DEFINITELY awesome! You stood up for me! Only awesome people and heroes stand up for strangers like that!” Well what do you know, I got called a hero by a real person. Right out of the gates too. Typically my D&D characters got a lot more praise than I did. I guess if you thought of Fractal as a character, that was still true. “Well if we are ever going to get to Ponyville, we should leave the forest first.” She nodded and we began to walk. The woods were pleasant, if unusual. I wasn’t an expert on trees, but I still felt that the bark and leaves of these were as often alien as not. The kind of thing you wouldn’t notice in most games, but in a fully immersive one, there is enough detail to stand out. I had the nagging feeling that I was forgetting something. We had been wandering peacefully enough. But we are adventurers now, it almost feels like time for a random encounter. I felt something odd under my foot. Right- Goblins, When I was flying overhead I saw some... I just stepped on a trap didn’t I? Lily jumped back and yelped as the shoddy net lifted me off the ground towards the tree branch above, pressing my wings tightly to my sides. Yep. I heard a series of unpleasant high pitched voices begin yelling in triumph around us and a dozen goblins jumped out of nearby areas. Oh my, they are much harder to see from the ground. This worlds goblins were about two feet tall, with an earspan almost that large. Their oversized ears attached to wide flat heads. Ordinarily their appearance would have been amusing.Like little footballs with arms! As it was the main feature I was noticing was their sharp teeth. Those and the dull looking rock spears. Dull=pain. I struggled with my bonds. Making the branch above me creak. Okay I can work with this... but not fast enough. The goblins were just approaching stabbing range, which is to say directly below me. They were holding their spears near the ends. One jumped its own height twice over and poked at me. My struggles, combined with luck made the dull thing simply scratch across my side. But I wasn’t any closer to escape. Until a familiar blue form landed on the branch above me and the whole thing cracked. The goblins tried to scurry back, but me and Lily landed right on three of them. I immediately began scrambling to get out of the net and on my hooves. Five spears poked out at Lily, only for her to disappear and appear behind the crowd of goblins. This impressed them quite a bit as about half of them notices and began chattering excitedly in their high pitched tongue. The two who decided to keep paying attention to me in all the excitement took this opportunity to stab me on their own. I ducked one spear as the other sank into my shoulder. The second one I broke off with my other hoof, pouring a recovered point of Ki into regeneration. Unfortunately, as I just learned, regeneration repairs flesh, but it doesn’t push objects out of it. The pain was an enormous shock to me, my regeneration hadn’t made things better, it had made things worse. At least from my perspective. From the goblin’s perspective the strange winged pony that they had just stabbed had broken their spear then healed the wound from it in seconds. The goblins jibbered in terror and ran, ponies who healed instantly or disappeared when attacked were not valid prey. Wow, goblins can run away really quickly can’t they Part of my mind thought. The other part thought: THERE IS A JAGGED PIECE OF ROCK IN MY SHOULDER; GETITOUT! I took a discarded spearhead from the ground and immediately began trying to cut at my shoulder where the spearhead was stuck. This is way too real, why is this so real! I liked to think of myself as a rather tough person, not easily shocked. But my own blood was seriously freaking me out here. It was everywhere, and made a shocking contrast on my fur. It’s like Christmas! a small part of me exclaimed. I felt a hoof on my shoulder. “Stay still!” Lily told me. I obeyed. “You are making a mess of it, if you keep cutting like that you’ll pass out before you get the spearhead out.” She pulled the waterskin from my satchel, poured it over the wound, then handed it to me to drink. Luckily it had a strap that allowed for easy use with one hoof, seeing as my other was out of commission. Regeneration is a bogus ability. Lily expertly cut a small slit into my flesh, then grabbed hold of the spear with her telekinesis. “Okay, this is going to hurt, but I’ve seen you take worse, so grit yo...” She interrupted herself by pulling the whole spearhead out at once. “AAAHHHHHHHHH!” I yelled, “What the h...”. “Mom always says the anticipation makes the pain worse, so you should get things over quickly and unexpectedly.” Lily said. “Sorry.” I put a point into regeneration, quickly closing the wound. Note to self, never break something off inside myself EVER EVER again. “So this game doesn’t pull any stops for sensory feedback does it.” I said, a little mad that I would get hurt that badly by a system meant for entertaining escapism. “Actually when I was electrocuted earlier it wasn’t so bad.” Lily said, looking at me in surprise. “I don’t think the game is causing you the pain. I hear pain is odd like that, very easily modified by expectation. Perhaps you just created your avatar to be more sensitive than most players.” I thought about this. The number one thing I was thinking about experiencing when I made this character was the sensation of flight, a largely tactile sensation. So we get to feel more pain because we are more imaginative in tactile matters is basically what she is saying. Well damn. I sighed and stretched out a little bit. This night was way more stressful than I had thought it would be, way more real. But we are hooked. I looked at Azure Lily. She was looking at me expectantly. She wants us to lead. Too bad we don’t even have a map. Well everything ends up somewhere. I headed in the direction I remember the small town being in from my flyover. The rest of our walk together was blissfully uneventful. Every once in a while Azure would stop to scan a flower or animal we came across. It turned out that biological diversity wasn’t something this world slacked on either. Lily taught me more flower names than I had ever thought to know, and there were some that she didn’t even know. We also found some interesting wildlife. A blue chipmunk had started following us around at some point. I had hovered up to get a closer look at it just to see it jump right into the tree it was in, and not into a hole or anything of the sort. Straight through the bark. We made it to the town and were greeted with a wave from a man in a green suit and a bowler hat. “Welcome to our fine community, I am Edward Hutchins, the owner of the hotel in this here township. Any needs you might have we can see to!” “Actually, I was hoping to find Ponyville.” I stated. He kept up his cheerful demeanor, “Of course good sir, as should be expected of you, I can arrange transport in my hotel. As a new player this service will be given to you pro-bono!” Finally a turn of good luck! I walked into the hotel, A few patrons, most of whom were humans packing impressive weaponry of one kind or another I think I see Iron Man playing chess with He-man in the corner there. The owner led us over to a cute Catgirl sitting at the bar, she seemed to be the only unarmed person in the bar other than Hutchins. “Welcome! I’m Chen, and I’m here to take you to wherever in the zone you want to be! I notice you forgot to pick up your transport ticket in the Lobby zone! Here!” She said, passing a small card to me. On it were the words. -Nearest Discovered Settlement (Harwood), -Interzone Lobby, -Saved location (none). “Just touch the word you need and it’ll take you right to where you need to be. One for your friend as well!” Well this would have been useful. It was good to know that at least the NPC’s were friendly. “So I hear you are going to Ponyville! I’ve never been there, it will be good to visit a new location.” I nodded, “You ready Lily.” Lily looked back at me in excitement “Oh yeah!” She said. “Well it is getting late.” Chen said. “Are you okay waiting for tomorrow?” I noticed that I was a little tired. Lily looked a little disappointed, but nodded “I suppose getting some actual sleep would make me less of a basket case in class tomorrow.” That settled it. Hutchins informed us that rooms were free here. I made my way up the stairs, where there was only two doors. The one on the left was closed, the one on the right read 234. Lily opened it and walked through. The number became 235. Three seconds later she popped her head out of the door on the left, looked at me with confusion. “Good night Fractal, am... am I going to see you again tomorrow?” I thought over everything I had involved myself in here. Smiled and told her, “Count on it!” She closed her door, I walked through mine. Planted myself firmly on the bed, and ordered my body to log out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was back in the Blue Room. “Welcome back, you appear to have blood on you, I trust that means you enjoyed yourself?” The friendly voice of the greeter stated. “Well I enjoyed the less bloody parts more to be honest. But yeah, I made a friend and learned some cool stuff. The body is great too.” “Well then I have some good news for you! You have leveled up for surviving an encounter far beyond your level!” That really IS good news, I never expected to level up so soon, but after what I went through; fair enough. The leveling chart appeared. Well I’ve proven that I am good enough at dodging today, I need to play to that strength. And to be able to pick things up with my hooves. I smiled, and selected my abilities. Then I turned and walked through the blue door. Allowing my mind some peaceful oblivion. Second Level- Monk of the Inner Circle- abilities learned: Friction Grip, Sprint Title: Neophyte. Location : Harwood Hotel Party members: Azure Lily