Shaman's Call 2- Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Chapter 1- Homesick?

I was ready to get back to Ghazban village. The very fact that such a thought entered my head was less a commentary on the village and more about how rude the human NPC’s could be. I wasn’t used to much social interaction but what I did get was with gaming buddies. Now, I was stuck in a world where I had to interact just to get the basics of life. There were no AI’s to place my food order before I even realized I was hungry or robots to deliver any goods to my apartment.

No. Now I was in the outside as heavy duty VR gamers often called it. To be fair, most of humanity were VR gamers now, so that wasn’t a testament to skill or anything. It was more about our options for distraction. The crazy thing was that since I had been killed and trapped in the game, the outside was now part of the inside.

I stared down at the human merchant who I was trying to buy some eggs from. Luckily the butcher had been more accommodating and getting bacon was easy enough. I wanted to try cooking with food I didn’t have to hunt for. Call it an experiment.

“For the final time, I don’t have any eggs,” the merchant said.

“What are you talking about. I can see some in the back right now.”

“Leave it to a brute to peek into the back of my store. Well, despite whatever you think you saw, I have no eggs. Or maybe I make this more clear. I have no eggs to sell to you.”

There it was. I should have been expecting that. At least half the merchants I spoke in Belchor had some type of problem with me. It had gotten a bit better after we left the capital, but now I was stuck in this little town halfway back to Ghazban. I had spent the evening resting and then waited for Elgar and the others to log back in.

After they were more than an hour late, I became impatient. I spent an hour trying to draw the black energy from the clawed hand into myself. Experience taught me I could only hand a little at a time. It made me feel sick to my stomach which given what ogres normally eat was saying quite a bit. At least I managed to raise my trans-dimensional body to (B-5) this morning. I’d say I felt a bit stronger, but there were no changes on my character sheet, so it was hard to say.

After that, I decided to go and try my luck at some cooking, but I needed ingredients. I didn’t want to leave the town since I assumed they were all just delayed. It was odd that all three of them were delayed at the same time, but so far I didn’t have any reason to distrust them. Gregor was still in the capital working on whatever he had to do for them to advance his quest with the church of Halstead. Then he promised that he would journey to Ghazban to check it out. Only tie would tell, I guessed.

Getting killed and my body incinerated after my mind was uploaded to become an HI or hybrid intelligence by Quantum Games didn’t do anything good for my level of trust, but I was working on it. In many ways my life here was better than anything I experienced in the real world, well except for the getting chewed on by monsters. That never stopped sucking.

The meaning of real was the question anyway. Both the AI and a weird creature which had claimed to be from another world said that perception was reality. If that was the case, then why wasn’t this world as real as Earth. It was the only life I had left anyway, so real or not, I needed to hang onto it.

I was pulled from my wandering thoughts when the merchant suddenly yelped in pain. I stepped back quickly. The last thing I needed was for some wandering guard to imagine that I had hurt the man. As I stepped back, I saw that the culprit was a little girl.

No, that wasn’t right. She wasn’t a little girl. She was little enough for sure, but her features were far more mature and her general shape was off a bit. She couldn’t have been more than three feet tall, so unless Legends of Selmia now sported a midget option then this was the first gnome I had met. And yes, I knew that midget wasn’t the correct term, but if a guy can’t be improper in his own head, then what was the world coming to. It was enough that I didn’t know how much of my thoughts the AI could read.

The merchant fell to the ground, clutching his shin and making more noise than a stuck pig. And I should know, I’d speared more than one wild boar in the past few months.

“Guards! Guards! I’m under attack.”

The gnome grinned at me then hopped over the fallen merchant. Well, not so much over him, as much as she hopped on top of him and then fell jumped past. She grabbed a tray of eggs, threw down a pair of silver coins and then ran. When I didn’t move, she looked back at me and said, “Are you coming?”

I certainly didn’t want to be there when the merchants arrived. I might be level thirty-six now and capable of defeating the guards, but that wouldn’t do anything to help my faction. So, I ran after her or rather I started too. She moved her little legs pretty fast, but it still wasn’t anything beyond a slow jog for me.

I heard a whistle from a guard and thought better of this situation. I leaned forward and grabbed up the gnome in my arms. She squealed in protest but didn’t fight. She had to know it was the smart move. Then is strode out and ran. My legs were still bowed but the extra points in Agility had really paid dividends as I was able to run faster than any non-rogue human I had seen so far. Long legs were good for something.

I ran till we were out of town. Suddenly, I felt a bony little elbow shoved into my side. “You can put me down now; I think we got away.”

She was definitely a feisty one. “Sorry, I just wanted to get far enough to be sure. But now maybe, you can tell me why you did that?”

“Did what? Helped you out?” The gnome asked while setting the tray of eggs on the ground.

“Yeah, I mean I guess you paid him, so it wasn’t really stealing but, you did kick him.”

“And jumped on him. Don’t forget about that. It was one of my favorite parts.”

I looked down at her. She truly was tiny compared to me, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit intimidated. “Maybe we got started off on the wrong foot. I’m Frank or Oogliefrank or just Oog, depending on who you ask. What’s your name.” Then I held out my fist for a fist bump. It was the customary greeting amongst ogres and I had no idea what gnomes did.

She got the clue and because my arms were longer than a humans would be she was able to reach and bump my fist back. “I’m Violet. Well technically, I’m Violet Violence, but that name doesn’t sound nearly as cool as I thought it would when I picked it.”

That piece of information was the final clue I needed. The NPC interactions were extremely complex inside Legends of Selmia, but it now seemed far more likely that she was a player. I just played along though. I’d gotten used to do that with Elgar, Gregor, and the others. “Glad to meet you, Gregor.”

“I had no idea that ogres were as polite as you. I might have to rethink my choices. Not really down for the socially correct experience.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that other than to say, “Trust me, most ogres aren’t this respectable at all.” As though to drive the point home, I realized I was scratching my butt. I quickly pulled my hand back, but she’d clearly seen.

“That’s right. Let your freak flag fly. If it itches, scratch it. That’s what I say. Those wankers in Belchor are a stuck up bunch of bastards.”

“I’m not a fan, but I have to try and get along with them, at least for now.”

“What I was really hoping was that you could lead me to POP. I tried being nice. I tried showing some of my devices to the people in Belchor, but their engineers called it gnome foolishness. All they wanted was dwarven weapons. As if those fat, bearded, ale guzzlers could hold a candle to gnome ingenuity.”

POP was the Pro-Ogre Players. It was a faction which had been created as a result of one of my quests. Assuming Gregor joined, I would have four of the ten players I needed to complete step one of the quest. What I didn’t know what how she had heard about it. Robert and Tauri kept saying there were discussions all over the LoS boards regarding the ogre who cooked and hung out with players, but they hadn’t mentioned anything about POP.

 “I’m sorta the one who started POP but not sure how you heard about it.”

“Word is getting out my very large friend. Now, are you gonna let me join or not?”

I threw my hands up. “You don’t even know anything about me.”

“Well, I’m guessing you can cook. At least that is what the rumors say and that you like players. That is good enough for me. Besides, I’m here for fun. Fun means getting into trouble and this sounds like the shortest path there. Good things come in short packages after all.” Then she winked at me.

I know I wasn’t in my own body and maybe it’d been a while since I’d had a girlfriend in the real world, but did she just wink at me? I was so thrown off by it that I didn’t even remember to object to her usage of the word ‘players’.

“Okay, okay. I guess you can join. But don’t you want to see the village first?”

“Not really. Although, I would like to see if you scrap worth a spit.”

I quickly assessed her.

Violet Violence Race: Gnome

Level: 24th HP: 1240

Highest stat: Agility

She was more than ten levels below me but must have some impressive gear if her HP was that high without a massive Constitution. She had more HP than I had unbuffed which was saying a great deal.

“I’m not going to fight you.”

“Of course not. You aren’t one of those wankers from Belchor. I want to fight with you, not against you. So, invite me to your party and we can get going.”

“How do you even know I can do that?”

“Look, we can play this game and I get it if you want to. I truly do. I’m not one to out anyone, but it’s just the two of us here. We both know you are more than just an NPC.”

I adopted my best confused look. While I desperately wanted to be able to speak to someone as myself rather than my ogre persona, the rules were very clear. I was strictly forbidden from letting a player know that I had once been human. In fact, the AI had some means of preventing me from even mouthing the words. That left me at a loss for words. I couldn’t confirm what she said, but didn’t really feel like disputing it either.

She must have noticed the consternation on my face because she winked again. This time I got a party invite to join her party. I quickly accepted and then said, “Most of the monsters around here are under level twenty so there won’t be much challenge.”

“True but there’s also a dungeon nearby. It only mid 20’s so it should be safe for us.”

Instantly I was interested. I hadn’t been to a dungeon since my um… reincarnation into LoS. Dungeons were where all the best loot came from but back in closed beta, they had been fairly limited. Even if it was a few levels below me, it could easily be worth it for some magical loot. “How sure are you about its level ranking?”

“Absolutely, I’ve been there once before with my old party, but they all gave up. The kobolds inside can be right mean.” She laughed as she said it. The light glinted off of her violet irises and I wondered a bit about her mental state.

“But you think we can take it?”

“Never figured an ogre would be afraid of a bit of pain. I can’t assess you so you must be at least ten levels higher than me. That means we should be able to handle it and the loot will be much better because its location hasn’t become public knowledge yet.”

That drove the greed within me. A part of me wondered if it was player greed for loot or ogre greed. I guess it didn’t really matter. “Okay, but make sure you stay behind me.”

“I’ll be a dwarf’s lice infested beard if I stay back.”

“I’m not sure that I will be able to tank it and hold its attention if you attack too quickly.”

“I surely hope not. What kinda tank would I be if I couldn’t hold the agro. Supposedly you are some kinda shaman, so you just heal me and I’ll do the killing. It will be slow going, but only way for the two of us I think,” she said. Then added, “Unless you like it fast.”

Now, I knew she was doing it on purpose. She was still trying to get a rise out of me, some kinda reaction. Although what her goal was, I didn’t know. “I thought you were a rogue type. Agility is your highest stat.”

“Yeah, what of it. Trust me, I’m a tank like no other.”