Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (52 page)

“
I’ve
been working with an alchemist. Basic potions. Most of them explode.”
Awesome Jr. responded absently. He was still reading through the
quest notes.

“
So
ranged damage? You got any magic yet?” Shadow was asking the
questions. Thank goodness they were sorting out the group mechanics
and stuff. My understanding of the game had grown in leaps and bounds
over these last three weeks. All of it was so focused on William
Carver's day to day life that I missed how a player might do things.

“
No.
It’s too hard.”

“
Right?
They expect you to sense something that isn’t really there.
Even the ARC isn’t that good.” Shadow suddenly lost some
of the gravelly tone to his voice in annoyance.

“
I
wanted to play one of those cat races. The tails look pretty.”
SweetPea said.

“
Can
you imagine trying to make it move? The thing has to be automatically
controlled or something.” Awesome Jr. was completely into it
now with the younger two. Even HotPants seemed to be listening. All
of them were geeks I swear.

“
Ha!”
HotPants wasn’t laughing, she was swinging the staff even
harder and building up a sweat. “You’re all idiots.”

SweetPea
had said nothing but frowned.

“
Why
now, ma’am?”

“
Ma’am?
Jesus, you little son of a bitch.” She frowned and put away the
staff. Awesome Jr. had committed an awesome social crime.

“
Oh.
Yeah, you’re right, HotPants.” SweetPea said.

“
That’s
so weird to call someone HotPants.”

“
Like
Shadow's any better?”

“
Shadow
the fifty-second,” I muttered shaking my head. Honestly part of
me wondered why there weren’t way more than that. With this
many people playing Continue Online, in one world, doubling up on
names was a given.

“
Whatever.”
Shadow didn’t hear my response and crossed his arms.

“
We
should ask Mister Carver.” SweetPea looked excited.

“
What?”
Somehow the two of them had come to a conclusion while I was
completely oblivious. Social interactions in video games were far
beyond my childhood. All the ARC software I had used were single
player or movie renditions. This was strange.

Voices.
When I got to play this game on my own I might completely avoid other
people. Except Beth, I would try to involve myself in whatever crazy
event she had planned.

“
Mister
Carver, sir. Can you help us find skills that would make it through
this dungeon?”

Actually
that was a good idea. I took my time now, weighing out my own needs
to complete the quest against Carver's personality. This group of
players probably could use all the assistance available to survive.

“
Fine.
But there’s a time limit on my offer.”

“
He
didn’t mention a time limit before.”

“
That’s
bull crap.” HotPants said. Both hands stood on her hips and she
tried to glare down at my hunched body. I looked back up with one eye
and grumbled while chewing at the inside of my lip.

“
It’s
reality. Maybe you Travelers have eternity to goof around, but I
don’t.” Joy! That one line had earned me a full
percentage point, bringing me up to seventy-seven. There was now a
real cushion between me and failure, plus it affirmed that this was
the right track for completion.

Being
proactive was miles better than sitting around doing nothing.
Finally, after weeks in-game of barely shuffling along, I was making
progress. I had to force myself to put everything in perspective.
These last few weeks had focused on learning his history and
personality. There was mild worth to it all, but an adventure was
something completely different. Plus I was giving whoever had
originally played William Carver a show. How many days were left on
the Carver Countdown? Four? If we started now, how many nights could
I spare, today, probably, tomorrow night then?

"Fine.
I'll show you where anything is." What could I do if they abused
this? Pull strings with Wyl? Would he kick players out of town for
failing to come through? "You have until midnight tomorrow to
get yourself sorted. After that, the deal's off."

"Mister
Carver, Sir." SweetPea sounded hesitant, but at least she spoke
up. "What if we don't make it back by Midnight?"

"I
go without you." Screw them. If these players didn't want to
help an old man finish his dungeon, I would do it myself. I didn't
really have time to waste.

"That
doesn't seem like a good idea Mister Carver sir."

"No.
Fool computer wants to get killed. He's an old man, how is he going
to kill anything?"

"You
idiots, William Carver is a Legendary NPC. Don't you see the golden
border?" Shadow said. I blinked, then scowled. Being checked out
for my status felt dirty.

"Bah.
Midnight, tomorrow."

"Is
that midnight tonight, or midnight tomorrow night." Awesome Jr.
asked with a stupefied look on his face. I wanted to beat him over
the noggin with my cane, but he would have to bend over quite a ways
for my shoulder to get up high enough.

All
that practice with a sword at Peg's only lasted a day at most. I had
no clue what skills I might bring to the table. Even if this was a
Beginner Dungeon I had to do something. Maps. Carver had maps and a
cane. Books and tables and a pantry of preserved foods. Clothes were
in dresser drawers. So far Continue hadn't given me any sign of a
personal inventory with any legendary items or other gear.

"Midnight
is midnight. You figure it out."

Awesome
Jr. stared off into space reading something. The only messages I saw
other people's interfaces were tied to quests and status updates. I
couldn't see their entire character sheet without using the
[Identification]
skill. Even that was vague when it came to a
lot of details. Luckily these players were newbies so they didn't
have methods to obscure my prying.

"You
talk. Figure out what you need from me to make this work. I said I'd
help you, and I meant it. But I don't want to sit around here all day
while you talk nonsense." I gave it my best cranky but fair
tone.

WWCD?
Motivate decisively. The more I dealt with being this man, the more
he felt like a grumpy project leader. What did his employees need,
what did he need as lead. Everything was an exchange towards a group
goal of improvement. His only soft spot seemed to be the children.

"I
don't need anything," Shadow said with his gruff voice.

"Don't
pass this up." SweetPea shook her head slowly. That knitted cap
had almost swallowed her up.

"I
want to learn to fight. That woman wouldn't let me try my skills
against anything real." HotPants was probably talking about Peg
hall.

"Fine."

“
You
can really get me someone to fight?”

“
Probably.
Let’s get you going while those others figure things out.”
The others kept talking as they followed behind me. HotPants was kind
enough to stop her constant stream of annoying angry babbling. Maybe
she was actually looking forward to this.

More
than once I had to completely ignore the player's offers of
assistance. They didn’t like how slowed Old Man Carver
meandered across town. We were headed for one of the guard posts near
the main entrance and that took too long. I had to redirect this
gaggle of idiots to their own needs more than once. At long last we
made it to the guard post. It was basically a small wooden shelter
that guards would use to hide from the sun or rest in public view.
This was one of several such posts around the city of
[Haven
Valley]
.

“
Wyl,
are you here?” Luckily this was also the favored haunt of the
guard captain Wyl. He tried to keep himself readily available near
the entrance in case anything odd happened.

“
Carver.
What are you doing away from your post?”

“
This
is your idea of help?” HotPants was twitching. Her hands were
one step away from pulling out the staff to start hitting things.

“
Wyl.
The lady here wants to fight something.”

“
She’s
a Traveler right?”

I
nodded.

“
And
you expect me to take her on patrol?” Wyl was quick on the
uptake. He also seemed a little dubious about the player's value.

I
nodded again.

“
I
don’t know.” The guard captain said.

“
I
can’t even exit this stupid town! Every time I try the stupid
computer blocks me!”

My
eyebrow went up while looking at Wyl. He had likely run into this
situation quite a few times, especially since he hung out near the
main door.

“
The
Voices restrict Traveler abilities simply because you need time to
understand our world. Plus there’s a matter of building up
skills to survive the world outside.”

“
I
can defend myself just fine!”

Wyl’s
eyes were tilted in concentration. Whatever programming guided the
captain was checking for abilities. Those would be compared to some
vague form of quest prerequisites. At least, that’s what I
assumed was happening. In reality, most people seemed to believe that
getting into a fight was stupid. Here inside the machine people's
looks and their abilities didn’t match up.

One
player had recently made it to a Rank Three on the Archer path. He
spent hours every day in front of a range operated by a training
hall. In theory, Rank Three was high for a newbie leaving town. Two
was the average for those starting the combat path. There was an
entire host of crafting ones, like Pie Master, that gauged things
differently. Likely he would move on to another town via an escort if
he needed to or make friends with a warrior in order to travel around
serving as support.

“
You
might survive a quick tour, but you’d be dead weight in any
serious assault,” Wyl said.

“
I
wouldn’t…”

“
You
would. You, beyond a doubt, would die over and over.” Wyl’s
tone didn’t increase in volume. It was flat and sure. “Strange
Traveler powers and blessings from the Voices aside, you would die on
anything serious. You’re lucky I’m considering taking you
to clear some wolves out of the Royal forest.”

I
watched a box pop up in front of HotPants. She looked confused and
upset at the same time.

“
This
will get me out of town? If I accept?”

“
I
have the authority to provide a temporary pass as long as you’re
escorted.”

“
Why
didn’t anyone tell me sooner?” HotPants growled.