Terramyr Online: The Undiscovered Country: A LitRPG Adventure Read online

  “And probably most of the monsters programmed by the guys on my team will respond that way,” Meredith conceded. “But a few of us strive to make something more out of the dust we started with.” She knelt on the ground next to Rhonda and scratched the pup under its chin. “The opportunity to create should warrant some true thoughtfulness and creativity, art and the breath of life.”

  Brian was stunned by the sincerity of her tone. This isn’t just her job, this world is her baby, he realized. Her testy demeanor suddenly made more sense to him. They’d been given access to her creations. Even though it was a game, when Meredith was around, they should probably give it a little more respect as a work of art.

  “This little man, for example,” Meredith took the pup from Rhonda’s arms, “can be kept as a pup indefinitely as a tag-along companion that bestows certain benefits according to a level system similar to your own, or it can be encouraged to mature to a full-grown adult that can provide an alternate set of perks. He will give you night vision while in contact with his fur for a certain distance when you are both exposed to moonlight. The strength of the effect is determined by his level. That perk stays active whether you elect to keep him as a pup or allow him to mature.” Meredith moved to the window and opened it, then threw open the shutters on the outside. She held the pup to the window and indicated with her head that Rhonda should touch his fur, which had begun to emit a pale light from the blue markings across his body.

  “Whoa!” Rhonda sounded impressed. “Things down in the street are as clear as day!”

  Each of the other party members took a turn, some in pairs, to experiment with the effects. Brian was starting to curse himself for dispatching the parents and the wolf from the first night. If they were so rare, why did he stumble into one of the only wolves his very first night? Idiot, it was probably the luck blossoms. They brought you a prime chance to experience a one in one hundred thousand opportunity!

  Seated on the floor again, Meredith continued her tutorial, “As a pup, he will give you an extra five luck points and a charisma boost that increases as you level him up. He has undeveloped poison barbs along his spine that are as soft as his fur in this stage,” Meredith flattened a section of fur against the grain to expose a one-inch green growth on his back that flexed back and forth as she manipulated it, “but you can extract them once a month to create one of the more lethal potions in the game.” She squeezed the base of the growth, which opened a tiny hole at its tip, and used the fingernails on her other hand to gently extract a glowing green spine the width of a blade of grass. She handed it to Rhonda, who placed it in her inventory.

  “If you choose to initiate the maturation phase—which will only take a night of rest, and is available after he reaches level ten—he will prove himself to be a capable killer. While the charisma boost will go away, he provides a deterrent effect on enemies that will increase with his level. Basically, it reduces the odds that a hostile entity will initiate an action against you.”

  “That’s awesome!” Chris was enthralled. They all were. Each was likely wondering whether there were any other companion animals to be found with half the potential perks.

  Meredith nodded appreciatively. “Let me just point out that this pup is now bonded to Rhonda. That means if any one of you initiate a hostile action against her, even accidentally, you will be recognized as an enemy, and your ability to initiate action in his presence will be inhibited.”

  “Is there any way to undo that?” Brian asked, surprised. Not that he was planning on attacking Rhonda, but it was known to happen that a quest companion could get caught in the crossfire during a battle.

  “Sure. You’ll owe Rhonda five hundred gold,” Meredith said with a hint of amusement.

  “You’re kidding,” Chris said incredulously.

  “Am I?” Meredith let the question hang awkwardly for a moment before continuing, “In the pup stage, there are only two ways he can level up. The first is by spending time within proximity of you. He will gain a level every thirty-six hours of real-time spent in the game. The other way is to feed him an elixir of moonlight. It isn’t an easy potion to brew—I believe your alchemy skill needs to be at level 40—and it’s awfully expensive to purchase. Plus, there are only two artisans who will sell it to you, and neither of them are located in Fezhik. One of them is a wandering trader, and your odds of seeing him on any given day in any given location are… not great. The other is a satyr in Panterra; another reason for you to get moving in that direction.” With that, Meredith stood up, the tutorial evidently over.

  With one final affectionate ruffle of the pup’s fur, Meredith started for the door.

  “Wait,” Rhonda said suddenly. “Does he have a name?”

  “You can name him whatever you want, there’s a place for it in his interface. I’ve only ever called him “Little Man.” Earn your bread, people. I’ve got incident reports to close!” With a dismissive wave, Meredith left the room.

  9

  Road to Bohotes

  As soon as the meeting ended, Chris bolted from the room. His half-orc character had some armor and a better axe, but still looked to be only a level two or three. Brian turned to watch Chris leave, inspecting the half-orc appearance and trying to guess what he was up to all day. After Chris disappeared around the corner, Brian’s eyes fell upon the food on the table after the meeting. It reminded him that he hadn’t had time for lunch today before the meeting with Meredith, and no stomach for it after.

  He could already hear his gran chastising him for not taking care of himself. He smiled to himself as he heard her voice in his mind, “An undernourished brain yields stunted fruit.” Her pearls of wisdom were legion. Another favorite of hers was, “Unfit thoughts lead to unfit choices, which lead to unhealthy bodies and spirits.” He still wasn’t completely sure what the second one meant, but he took the first as permission to bring a pizza and cheesecake with him every time he visited her. She would slap him playfully and remind him that the words were meant to inspire study, not carb packing.

  Professor Rojas finished taking a list of suggested activities from Rhonda based on her, apparently, extensive exploration of Fezhik before also heading out the door. Rhonda was right to be a little concerned about his ability to navigate and find quests to pick up, let alone complete them successfully. Brian doubted whether the professor had gained more than a level or two, and whatever he had gained was likely purely a result of the party sharing XP for the main campaign quests.

  [So, it’s weird that Barry’s not here, right? Is he still pouting?—Kolvurin]

  Mike’s message ripped Brian from his thoughts. He shrugged. [No idea. More likely he’s probably out there leveling up so he can take another swing at me. Now that he knows he lost the element of surprise, he’s probably desperate to get an edge over me.]

  “So, are we going to stand here all day?” Rhonda asked.

  Brian turned to see she and Augustin were still in the room waiting.

  “We built a house, so now we need to go and earn glory, right?” Augustin asked.

  “Reputation and honor,” Mike corrected. “Reputation within the Greencaps, and honor for completing our own house quests.”

  “The mighty House Bob,” Brian put in, hands on hips and chin stuck out with mock pride.

  Mike gave him a pity laugh, but the others stayed quiet. Brian could feel them rolling their real eyes at him.

  “By the way, we didn’t get a chance to talk to Chris about it,” Rhonda commented as she stowed her wolf pup back in her satchel, handing him a bit of meat from the table to gnaw on.

  “It’s all right, I told him about it this morning when we were setting up for work. I think that’s where he ran off to. He said he thinks he can log his request to join at the house.”

  “It’s true, he can, but he’ll need to put five hundred gold into the coffer for his request to come to us,” Mike clarified.

  “What are you going to name Little Man?” Brian asked, pointing to Rhon
da’s satchel.

  “Honestly, I think I’m going to stick with ‘Little Man,’” Rhonda shrugged. “It’s kinda cute, and the only thing I’ve ever heard Meredith say that sounded like she has real feelings,” she laughed and shook her head.

  “Right? I was thinking the same thing!” Brian agreed.

  “What do you propose we work on first tonight? I have side quests I am interested to complete, but perhaps we should begin as a team?” Augustin suggested.

  “Well, we can go and find that one officer guy, or maybe Middair is down by the docks,” Mike said.

  Brian grimaced. The docks! I was supposed to find Freya’s ring. He wasn’t about to bring that up now, not in front of Rhonda.

  “Sounds like a plan. We need to work the main campaign for Meredith, and it has the biggest experience rewards, right?” Rhonda said.

  “Some of the biggest,” Mike said. “There are probably several side questlines that offer really good rewards too, but since we can’t share those with our campaign party, we may as well work together on the Greencap assignments.”

  “I agree,” Augustin said. “I think I saw that officer at the docks earlier today. Probably still there.”

  “Let’s go!” Mike said.

  Brian fell in after the other three and walked outside.

  The group meandered through the city for the short walk until they reached the eastern gate and found the officer standing outside the gatehouse. He turned to regard them and gave a slight nod of his head, the two feathers in his green beret waving in the wind.

  Brian and the group approached, and Mike engaged the officer.

  [QUEST COMPLETED: FIRST THINGS FIRST]

  [Greencap reputation +50]

  “Thank you for speaking with the Scholar of Anorit. He can be a bit eccentric at times, but his help here is invaluable to the Greencaps.” Captain Falx stopped and grinned. “His money doesn’t hurt either.” His smile faded and then he took out a folded parchment and opened it. “There is trouble on the road to Bohotes!” he said. “Can you help?”

  “We can help, what’s wrong with the road to Bohotes?”

  “Bandits!” Falx said as he waved the parchment. “We have reports that bandits are overtaking the road, and when it isn’t bandits then there are beasts coming northward. The monsters haven’t come this far north for years now, but something is stirring them up. We need your help!”

  “We should get all the information we can from him,” Rhonda suggested.

  Brian muted his mic and sighed audibly. As the conversation wore on, Brian snuck away to search the beach for Freya’s ring. He knew he wasn’t likely to find it in a short amount of time, but he activated the quest anyway. A large circular outline appeared in the sand north of the docks. Brian sprinted to it, only to have the circle disappear and leave him to his own devices, which was to be expected. The game designers would want to give enough help so as not to totally frustrate players, but not so much as to remove all challenge.

  He started walking in a very tight pattern. Two steps north, then turning ninety degrees and walking westward until he reached where he thought the circle’s outer edge would be. Then two steps north, turn about to face east, and walk straight to the other side. He repeated this method several times, his eyes glued to the light sand beneath his boots. The search pattern was what he used whenever he lost something small in the real world, like a screw or a miniature metal dowel.

  Unfortunately, he wasn’t having any luck in searching for the ring. In fact, he didn’t find anything. He went back to the center of the area where the circle had appeared on the ground and spun in all directions slowly, scanning for anything he might have missed.

  After his second turn, he saw Freya coming toward him.

  “You came to look for my ring,” she said, her eyes staring at him inquisitively.

  “I said I would,” Brian replied.

  “An adventurer who keeps his word...” Freya smiled and stepped closer to him. “A rare find indeed. Almost as rare as a luck blossom.”

  “Well, I have three of those,” Brian said with a smile.

  Freya moved closer to him so that their faces were only inches apart. He could smell her perfume, which took him by surprise. He didn’t remember her wearing perfume before, but then she hadn’t stood this close to him before either. “I actually never lost my ring,” she said. Her hands went to a delicate silver chain around her neck. Only the upper portions were visible at the sides of her neck, the rest of it tucked under her collar. She lifted the chain and revealed a small silver ring with a beautiful sapphire on it. “I just wanted to see if you would keep your word.”

  “I usually do,” Brian replied.

  Freya unclasped the necklace and held it out for him. “For luck,” she said.

  [+Freya’s ring]

  “It’s been in my family for years, it is a ring blessed by Nagé, the valkyrie goddess.”

  “Thank you,” Brian said.

  “Be careful out there,” Freya replied. “Be sure to come back and visit me.” She offered him a wink and smile, and then turned to walk back through the gate.

  [QUEST COMPLETED: A RING FOR FREYA]

  Brian watched her leave, wishing that he could somehow pull her out of the game as easily as Meredith uploaded finds from the dig sites into a VR setting. After a moment he realized how foolish he was and opened his inventory to check out the ring.

  [Freya’s ring equipped +5 luck; +1 defense; +1 attack]

  Very nice stats! Brian thought as he caught the message.

  “Nice chat with your girlfriend?” Mike asked.

  Only then did Brian notice Mike, Rhonda, and Augustin all approaching him.

  “You guys should branch out to more side quests,” Brian said. “I now have plus twenty to my luck. Plus, she’s a blade trainer,” he added.

  “Sure, sure, her sword is what you’re after,” Mike teased.

  Rhonda and Augustin laughed softly, then tried to turn away.

  Brian shrugged. “If we’re going to get far enough into the game to get Meredith working on our research, then we’ll need all the advantages we can get.”

  Mike laughed again and shook his head. “Well, while you were here flirting, we all got another quest.”

  Brian frowned. “I didn’t see the message pop up.”

  “Don’t worry,” Mike assured him while patting the air. “It will still count for you. You just didn’t get the initial announcement because you were too far away, but it will still split the main campaign quest experience.”

  “Cool, so what are we doing?”

  “We’re traveling to a city called Bohotes, vanquishing monsters and bandits along the way so the trade caravans between Fezhik and Bohotes can start running again without danger,” Mike summarized. “Worth a lot of XP, and I bet it has a good amount of gold coming as well.”

  “I have enough to buy us some horses,” Rhonda said.

  Brian pointed down to the satchel. “Will that little guy ride with you?”

  Rhonda shrugged. “I don’t see why not. He’s a tough little furball.”

  “You’ll probably want to track down those artisans that sell the moon elixir so you can grow him to the adult size,” Mike said.

  Rhonda shook her head. “Not for now—I like the idea of a charisma bonus. Can’t wait to see the prices I’ll get at shops now. Either way, I can make them myself if I can just find an ingredient list or come across one of the component ingredients. My level is high enough that my interface recommends effects and some potion names when I look at individual ingredient items in the menu. I already checked everything I have at the moment—which is at least one of everything I’ve found so far—and none of them list elixir of moonlight as a possible end potion. I’ve got a few ideas of who could point me in the right direction though.”

  “Elixir of moonlight,” Augustin repeated thoughtfully, and then started to laugh. “Isn’t there a word in America for a homemade alcohol? Isn’t it called moonlight
too? No, no… Moonshine! Yes?” he laughed even more heartily. “Does Meredith mean to say that you must administer moonshine to your pup to make him stronger?”

  Brian couldn’t hold back the laughter. Augustin’s delight at the connection he had made was equal to Brian’s surprise that it hadn’t occurred to him first. It was contagious as well, all four of them joining in the moment.

  “So, your increased ability to negotiate a sweet deal means we all give you the money and you buy our stuff for us, right?” Mike asked when the laughter died down.

  “For a fifty percent fee, sure,” Rhonda replied.

  “Whoa, little steep there.”

  Rhonda smiled slyly. “Not at all, it’s just I can make a lot more if I spend my time making potions and selling them myself. You have to make it worth my while,” she tapped his chest and then turned to head toward the stables.

  “I’ll just use my five-finger discount,” Mike called after her. She didn’t respond.

  “We should go, guys, Meredith needs us to focus, otherwise she won’t get back on our research project,” Augustin said.

  Brian nodded. He didn’t exactly mind working as a tester for a game. Even for free, it was better than most jobs he could think of. However, he didn’t like the idea of doing it at the expense of their research. He wondered how long Meredith would realistically withhold the translation from him. He tried to focus instead on the glorious sun, the sound of the waves, the prospect of knocking out another quest and eventually leveling up their house. Even though the immersive nature of the game world did a lot to help distract him, he couldn’t banish the lurking sense of anticipation that was flowing in him like an undercurrent waiting to drag him down. It was like waking up after a really good dream and inexplicably feeling like it was about to come true.