CD Chapter Thirty-four (Patreon)

The jungle was horrible. Absolutely everything, including the plants, wanted to kill them. By the end of the day, they were lost, filthy, exhausted, and injured. It seemed like as soon as one battle ended, they were instantly embroiled in another, and they never had time to recover, so Tess had used up several expensive potions, while Alpha had had to stop three times to get a vial of blood from Toggle.

Worst of all, there were jungle fairies. In fact, there were all kinds of fairies, but the jungle fairies were, as Tess put it, ‘a scourge upon the Earth’. They had wings, but seemed to prefer gliding to true flying, and they would drop from above like some horrible insect, stabbing their victim with sharpened sticks. They didn’t cooperate like the meadow fairies, but they still attacked in hordes, and their miniature weapons were sharp and painful.

When Alpha dropped to the dense jungle floor for the tenth time, her legs tangled in a vine that had been stretched just under the surface of the loam, she glared up at Myles while Tess smacked the attacking fairies out of the air with the flat of her axe. She could get several at once like this, and it was far more effective than trying to chop them one at a time.

“What is the point of this?” Alpha demanded, pushing aside the hand he reached down to help her up. “I’m frustrated, tired, and gross, and I just want to take a break, but if I log out while we’re in a dungeon, it’ll kick me back to that cemetery in Bloodhaven.”

Myles’ hand snapped out and he plucked a fairy from the air as easily as Amy had once grabbed a Vampire Finch. The little fairy thrashed wildly, trying to stab its captor’s hand, but seemed helpless against him. Myles held out his other hand, palm up, and a pile of little white cubes appeared on his palm. He dropped all but one, which he held out to the fairy. Instantly, it stilled, glowing white eyes fixed on the cube. It reached out its hands, now just as desperate to get the thing as it had been to fight just a moment before.

Myles clicked his tongue and held the fairy close to his face, though not close enough it could actually reach him. “If you agree to let my friend bite you, I’ll give you the sugar. She won’t kill you. Probably. Deal?”

The miniature blue humanoid nodded frantically, and Myles crumbled a corner of the sugar cube. Handing it to the fairy, he held the small creature out toward Alpha.

“They count as sapient. Barely, but barely is good enough. Sapient means they can grant permission, which means you can use them to level [Turn Ally]. As long as they’re friendly and say it’s all right, the system will accept them as a valid target, and since their Intelligence is in the teens, and their Wisdom is usually zero, you should succeed almost every time.”

Alpha gave the fairy a dubious look. “Almost? But the skill description says it has a low chance of success.”

Myles nodded, feeding another crumb to his tiny prisoner, who no longer seemed to mind being held captive. “True, but that mostly applies to the thrall and vampire levels. You can have a lot of servants, since that’s mainly just about making sure you always have blood available.”

Tess smacked another fairy, and it fell to the ground, screaming pitifully. “You mean,” the dwarf said darkly, “we could have been giving these guys sweets and playing tea party with them for hours, and you just now decided to tell us?”

Myles shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”

Alpha grabbed her friend before she could find out if a moderator’s avatar was vulnerable to fire. “Don’t let him get to you,” she muttered, then looked down, trying to find one of the sugar cubes Myles had dropped. The ground was absolutely swarming with jungle fairies, and they were all fighting each other over the sweet treats. As she watched, a particularly large fairy stabbed one of the others, taking its defeated opponent’s sugar without any visible sign of remorse.

“Uh, yeah. I’m going to need more sugar.” She looked up, and Myles handed her a bag. Glancing inside, she saw that it was full of the sparkling white cubes, and she took one out. Holding it toward the fairy he still held in his other hand, she tentatively said, “Can you give me your,” she glanced over the androgynous little figure, “arm? I guess? I’ll give you this.”

Instantly, the fairy held both arms out; one hand was palm up to receive the sugar, while the other wiggled around in obvious invitation. Leaning forward, Alpha set the little arm in her mouth and closed her eyes, desperately trying to pretend she was getting ready to sip from a juice box.

Just before she bit down, Myles said, “Oh! I almost forgot! They need some of your blood, too. Toggle got stuck with an arrow that already had your blood on it, so he was good, but you’ll need to bite your lip or something first.”

Alpha spat out the fairy’s arm, ignoring the creature’s furious motions toward the sugar. “Are you kidding me? You couldn’t mention that sooner?”

“Nope.” He grinned, and she barely resisted the urge to smack him again.

Instead, she pierced her own lip with a sharp fang, wincing at the pain, then leaned forward and bit the fairy’s arm as gently as she could. Thick banana-flavored syrup flowed into her mouth, and she swallowed. It only took two swallows before Myles tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hold up, buttercup. They don’t have much. This little guy is done.”

Alpha drew back. The fairy was limp in Myles’ hand, and she felt a rush of concern. She didn’t like the things, but she didn’t want to kill one after promising she wouldn’t. But Toggle had passed out, too, and he’d woken up, so maybe it was all right? She narrowed her eyes, examining the fairy.

Barnabas (servant) - Jungle Fairy. Air/Tree. Level 35.

Blood Pack: 0 units.

“He has a name now!” she said, startled.

Myles nodded. “They all do, but just like most other NPCs, you don’t know it until they tell you or you find out some other way.”

She frowned. “But why didn’t I level up?”

The AI arched a brow. “Did you think it would be that easy? You’re going to have to bite a lot of fairies to get to level twenty, and there’ll be diminishing returns on repeating the same action, just like with any other skill. You’ll have to keep switching to different types of fairy when the current one stops working.”

She groaned. This was going to be a lot of work.

Myles shrugged apologetically. “None of the previous vampires even got it to level seven, since they mainly focused on humans. We’re going to be here for a while.”

Tess cleared her throat, reminding them she was there. “How long is a while, exactly?” she asked. “Because my eight hours are almost up, and yours should be, too. We can’t just log out, because not only is this place a death trap, we’d be sent back to our respawn points. Not a big deal, but I don’t know about you guys.”

Alpha grimaced. She’d tried to set her respawn point to the Vargo Dead Tent on their way by, but she’d gotten a message telling her she had to use a cemetery or other burial ground.

Tess went on. “I have one Tent, but I don’t even know if it’ll work in a dungeon. Or if the system would still kick us out.” She eyed Myles, ut continued. “I vote we get back to the entry room, leave, and rest in the tunnel. We can use the Tent there tonight, and then set shifts from then on. Though,” she glanced at Toggle and grimaced, “can Natives even use Tents?”

Alpha reached out and took her new servant from Myles. “And what happens to this guy if I leave? Does the connection break? Does he just vanish, since we left the instance?” She hesitated, well aware that what she was about to say was ridiculous, but unable to stop it, “I still owe him a sugar cube.”

Myles smiled at her with a kind of warmth that would have made her heart flutter if it had been on Amythyst’s face, and still made heat rise in her cheeks. “And you can’t stand owing anything to anybody, even a digital construct.” He turned back to Tess, who was eyeing the two of them sharply. “Yeah, Tents will work. If you use one in a dungeon, you can even log out without incurring the flee penalty. A few players have figured it out, but they don’t spread it around, because it’s the best way to beat some of the longer dungeons, and they don’t want more competition. And don’t worry, I have plenty, so we can rest whenever we need to, so you can save yours, Tess.”

He held out his hand and a miniature A-frame tent appeared on his palm. With an unnecessary flourish, he blew on it, and it expanded into a full-size canvas tent, which plopped onto the ground in front of them, auto-magically shoving all of the fairies out of the way except for Barnabas, who still snoozed in Alpha’s hand. Toggle, who had been standing between Alpha and Tess, squeaked and hid behind Alpha’s legs, but seemed otherwise unaffected.

Tess and Alpha gaped. “That’s not how that works,” Tess stuttered. “You can’t use a tent when there are enemies within twenty yards. We should have had to clear all the fairies out first. If that’s even possible.”

Myles shrugged, buffing his fingernails on his sleeve. “I have my ways.”

The dwarf shook her head, still mumbling to herself, but leaned over and pushed aside the tent flap. “I’m not even going to ask. I have five minutes before I start taking debuffs for being logged on too long. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” She turned around and poked her head back out, pointing at Alpha. “You message me before you log on.”

Alpha nodded. “Thanks, Tess,” she said, softly.

Tess smiled. “That’s what friends are for.” She withdrew into the tent, and a moment later Alpha got a notice that she’d logged out.

Alpha turned to Myles. “Just how much are you cheating right now?” she asked, indicating the tent with a tilt of her head.

He shrugged. “Not that much. You really can use Tents inside dungeons, though as Tess noted, clearing out the required twenty yard space is next to impossible. But the rules technically say you only have to clear out enemies, and the fairies weren’t actually attacking us any more, so they don’t even count. Toggle and Barnabas are allies now, so while they can’t go inside, they can take advantage of the safety zone around the tent just like our mounts could.”

Alpha shook her head. “Rules lawyer,” she muttered.

He grinned. “Takes one to know one.” Sobering, he continued, “But… are we good now? I can come back to the house?”

She sighed. “Were you really gone?”

Myles nodded. “As much as I could. I only left the automatic systems running. I tried to give you space, and I still can, if you need it.” He looked sad but resigned. “I understand if you just want to treat me as your employer, nothing more.”

“No!” Alpha stopped forward, grasping his sleeve with her fingertips. She couldn’t quite bring herself to take his hand, the way she had Amythyst’s, but she tried to convey her sincerity nonetheless. “If you want to be… friends, then so do I. Come back. Please?”

His smile could light up a room, and there was none of the charming rogue about it, just pure pleasure. “Okay. Good. I’ll, um, meet you there, then. In a minute.”

She smiled back, enjoying seeing his confidence crack. It was cute. Way too cute. “Yeah. In a minute.”