Somnia Online: Fragments - Chapter Twenty-Three (Patreon)

The Guardian

Murmur hoped against hope against hope that the mobs only respawned with prior knowledge of their deaths and how their opponents fought them. If it passed into the collective consciousness while other mobs were already spawned, they were so going to be screwed with this next statue. 

She took a deep breath as Rashlyn, still in her larger form, ran forward so her taunt was in range. The statue paused briefly as it moved passed Murmur, but chose to go after the player actively taunting it instead. Murmur heaved a sigh of relief, letting out the pent up breath she hadn't realized she was holding. 

But then, the bandits hadn't realized their tactics, and only the outer dwarves had shown any inclination of evading their attacks when they were fighting outside Hightower the first time. Perhaps they did have to die first and then respawn for the experience to filter down into the collective data of the zone. In which case, they had however long these mobs took to respawn on their side.

She pitied the people who'd come here after them. Because they were going to have a whole mess to deal with. But that sort of thinking only meant Riasli was going to beat them, and Murmur begged to differ. She wasn't about to let that bitch get the better of them.

At least her debuffs seemed to stick. Without another statue to control, Murmur felt like she wasn't contributing enough to this fight. Her Enfeeblement, Nullify, and Weakness spells just didn't feel like they did much. And this whole stone immunity thing wasn't easy either.

She could see the frustration outlined on a lot of their faces. On Dansyn's, Havoc's, Merlin, and Exbo's. Sinister seemed the most out of sorts, which wasn't strange considering pulling blood from a stone was nigh impossible. 

Jinna drove his stakes into crevices in the ground, enhancing their effectiveness with a pinch of acid on the tip. She wasn't sure why the metal stakes didn't melt, but she wasn't going to question it yet. Perhaps there was only a brief window of time to do this. She'd have to ask the rogue about his traps, not the least because she had an insane person after her and thought it might help if she knew what else he had in his arsenal.

As this one came crashing to the ground, Murmur felt tension flow out of her. Even if there were more of these to come, at least they'd managed to figure out a pretty decent way to kill them quickly. 

"Nice job." She said, walking to join the rest of the group. She'd chosen to stay back where she'd been originally so as to keep out of the way, and to not need someone to shelter her from the debris. She turned the dwarf, her curiosity piqued. "That's certainly a lot faster than the first one. How were you able to do that?"

"I have to work up to be able to make those hooks. They're an ability I have through my specialization. I took traps. I figured it would help out. But I have to push through and work up points in order to create them. Five at a time. Hence I can't do it immediately. The rope, that I took from the guild stores, but I figured that'd be ok." His grin was huge, and Murmur felt a swell of fondness for the rogue. 

"Remind me to ask you what all you can do, so I know just incase Jirald decided to follow the same path." She meant the statement half jokingly, but a dark shadow passed over Jinna's face and he scowled.

"That's not funny. Also probably not an issue, since Jirald has veered toward the darker rogue skills from the start." He paused, and stepped closer to Murmur, lowering his voice as he spoke. "I have an eye out for him on every forum I can think of. There are decent rogues out there, and friends I've had in other games. I'm hoping to figure out what direction he's taken before he can try his hand at any underhanded tricks against you."

Murmur blinked at her friend, a myriad of thoughts running through her head, but most of all was the feeling of gratitude. That her friend would look out for her like this, would track the one person literally capable of murdering her by accident... well she guessed that was just what friends did. "Thanks, Jinna."

"Spill it. What are you two keeping secret from us?" Beastial drawled the words out, a twinkle in his eye.

Murmur rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms. "We're planning your demise, that's all."

"Oh, that's it? I thought you did that on a daily basis." He quipped back as if on cue.

"That's it!" Sinister shouted, and everyone turned to her, their mouths agape. Her face held a rare glimpse of seriousness, and she put her hands on her hips. "Stop telling Beastial about our plans to destroy him. Seriously people, do I have to do all the work."

At the end, unable to keep her facial expression under control anymore, Sinister broke down into laughter. 

"Idiot." Beastial muttered, but he was smiling. 

Murmur laughed along with them all, but a sense of unease lingered in her mind. Were these statues being too easy now? Couldn't Riasli just have inserted the knowledge of how they'd killed the second one into the mind of the third, or did something prevent that? She wished she knew exactly what that enchanter had been up to, because it was causing her a world of consternation to act on assumption only. 

"Mur? You okay?" Havoc stepped to her side, concern echoing in his words. 

"Yeah, you know, just trying not to die while I figure out what the fuck that enchanter has done to this dungeon." She tried to insert levity into her words, but Havoc just raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm not sure what she's done to it. But I get the feeling it wasn't originally intended to be like this. It's dark and gloomy, and the guarding statues turn to golden dust, which is a total juxtaposition to the appearance we encounter." He laughed and then paused. "But I do know that if we stay standing here we're never going to get through the rest of the statues and to whatever that faintly red glowing light beyond this corridor stands for."

Murmur turned to look through the darkness of the passageway and the gods knew how many more statues they'd have to face. Sure enough, there, an indeterminable distance beyond them, was a faint red glow. At least they had something to head toward now. 

#

Murmur plopped onto the ground next to Sinister, who sat at the top of a huge staircase letting the dust from the last guard statue of the passage run through her fingers as she gazed out. The powdery substance left a soft golden glow to the blood mage's hands, giving her an ethereal presence in the darkness.

Beneath them, several stairways like out of an Escher painting away, was a lightly glowing red dome. More of a transparent color than anything else, like a film over something. 

"What do you think that is, Mur?" Sinister spoke softly, and Mur couldn't blame her. Healing had been difficult for the blood mage. Blood from a stone wasn't a cliche for nothing. Her friend sounded tired, and almost defeated. 

"I think that's something's ass we're going to kick." She leaned into her friend, nudging their shoulders together and felt Sinister relax ever so slightly. 

"You always have such confidence in us. In me." Her voice faded away, trailing as if it was a thought she'd never dared to voice out loud. This side of Sin was one that rarely popped up, and definitely less in the game world than in the real one.

"I always have confidence in you, more than myself. Sometimes you have all the confidence for the both of us." Murmur continued before Sin could interrupt. "We balance each other well. We've got this. Don't be so worried. It's a game, and we're supposed to be having fun. If I had to get stuck somewhere, I'd much rather be here with all of my friends than in some sort of weird limbo."

Sinister laughed, surprising herself if the look on her face was anything to go by. "Nice one, Mur. Thanks."

"Think we can pulverize whatever is down there?" Murmur asked, her tone serious again.

"No clue what it is, but when has that ever stopped us."

"You make a very valid point there, my dear." Murmur brushed off her armor, leaving a lingering gold sheen to herself. This wasn't going to help them sneak up on anything in the dark, but the powder had been unavoidable. "Let's make our way through this Escher painting, shall we?"

Sin took the proffered hand and laughed. "I thought you'd never ask."

Murmur glanced back to see both Beastial and Mellow piling the dust into containers and shoving it into their inventory. Perhaps there was crafting potential in these. She frowned. Neva was likely on Beastial's case about making sure he brought anything and everything that could relate to crafting back to her. At least that was one thing she didn't need to worry about.

"Ready to head out, you two?" Devlish asked, sheathing a vicious looking hammer. It had steel spiked both on the front and the back end of it. Nasty little weapon.

They set off down the stairs, and Murmur shuddered at the strange whimpering sounds that echoed through the area. They were soft, barely audible, and leant a haunting vibe to the entire cavern. She glanced around her to try and find the source of the sound, but nothing caught her eye. The slight blue-white tint her infravision gave her, made the zone hazier and less easy to focus on. She pushed on ahead, just behind both Jinna and Devlish who insisted on heading out in front of her. 

While she might not admit it, she was grateful for it. If they fell down a gap none of them could see, at least they'd simply respawn at the resurrection point. 

The dome grew bigger the closer they got to it, the red paler as they began to focus on smaller portions of the shield at once. She wasn't sure if it was meant to keep the mob inside it in, or to keep intruders out, but she could feel her own gaze widen as what was inside finally came into view. 

It rose up from the middle, bulbous in shape with large red orbs scattered at intervals over its flesh. As it moved in its rotund palace, the red blobs on its surface squelched and reformed like a bubble was keeping the liquid inside from spilling out. Upon closer inspection it did indeed have limbs, but they seemed to snap into place and complete the illusion that it was more ball-like than anything else. Although, it did appear to be lopsided, like some of the air had been let out of it. 

The only think Murmur knew, was that the soft whimpering sound didn't come from the thing, it came from underneath it. Whatever it was wailing in the darkness, was being hidden by the target in their way. All of the stairwells led to that platform, and where stairs weren't there was a fathomless darkness beneath that platform. What was in there she couldn't tell, and wasn't even sure that the whimpering was something that needed saving.

"That looks quite vile." Sinister scrunched up her nose in distaste.

"Bet you it hits like someone's thrown a brick wall at you, too." Devlish winced. "Is it made out of rock?"

"Just let me engage my long distance vision and I'll get back to you." Merlin rolled his eyes, while most of them snickered. Devlish shot him a glare.

"Sorry." Merlin held up his hands in mock defense, not sounding in the least bit sorry. "I'd assume it's some type of rock base. If not the same as the stone statues that guarded above, I'd think this is actually more like the rock that makes up mountains, and less the one that you carve statues from."

"So all we need is a hammer and chisel, eh?" Devlish hefted his hammer in his hand and grinned. "I might just have an answer for that."

"Where'd you get that?" Murmur asked, trying to pass the time they had left before a fight she knew nothing about that looked like it probably had a knock back. After all, what good was a platform with abyss like sides if you couldn't get knocked back into it?

"Last statue that fell had it." He shrugged and patted it as it dangled at his side. "It's pretty nice. Not sure why the statue wasn't using it. Probably took it off some unsuspecting traveler in times gone past." 

Sinister rolled her eyes. "Oh for fucks sake, Dev, the game's been out for two weeks."

It was good to see her friend get the fire back into her, and when she saw Dev swallow a laugh, she knew that'd been his aim. He stepped onto the final platform before reaching the massive boss. All stairways led to it. So to get anywhere they had to pass through that platform. 

A spark of orange power, just like the one that woke the statues above rippled outward from them, but not ahead, above in a diagonal line, until it stopped in a burning fire of letters above the dome.

The Guardian is the gatekeeper. Awake him at your peril. Make your choices wisely, for he hides the path you should not seek.

"Is that supposed to make us run?" Havoc asked in the quiet as they stood studying the fading words. 

"Probably." Devlish shrugged and hefted the hammer in his hands as a feral gleam entered his eyes. "Looks like it's time to face our peril."

#

The Guardian was a lot larger close up and the dome around it viscous, or at least it appeared to be. They stood on the step in front of it, nothing more than the gradual swaying movement evident in the boss mob ahead of them. It appeared to be asleep, or resting, or hibernating. Did they really want to wake it?

"What do you think the odds are of creeping past that thing?" Merlin asked, his tone forced with lightheartedness.

"About as good as this zone having been intended this way." Havoc remarked dryly. His pet cackled in response, and the sound echoed through the darkness.  

The monster inside rumbled as it moved, rolling in what appeared to be a type of induced slumber as it oriented itself toward where the noise was coming from. Murmur gulped, wary of this sleep. She didn't, for one minute, believe the Guardian was acting like it had been programmed to. 

"I'm ready to evac Mur if shit goes sideways." Merlin spoke the thought out loud that everyone was having, and a wave of relief passed through the whole group. He crossed his arms and winked at her, nudging her side with his elbow, something she couldn't recall him ever having done before. Merlin wasn't the most affectionate of people. He even side stepped Sinister's hugs, which was a difficult enough feat as it was. "I'll get ye out o there little darlin."

Murmur blinked and barked out a laugh, surprised at his horrible accent. "That was woeful, Merlin."

He just smiled at her and nodded his head. "Feeling a bit better?" 

His words were soft, and probably only audible to Sin, Devlish, and Rash who were standing immediately around them. "Yeah. Thanks."

Being bolstered by her friends was life saving, quite literally. She squared her shoulders and looked at the barrier, brows furrowing in a frown. "Got any ideas on how to get us through that thing?"

He shrugged. "I can probably fire an arrow through to hit the boss. Thinking that might make it come down pretty fast."

"Also pretty dangerously." Devlish frowned. 

"Since when are you ever cautious?" Merlin laughed and leaned forward to poke at the barrier, and his expression changed to a thoughtful one. "You know, I'm betting Mellow has something in their arsenal that'll make this disappear, or at least open a hole in it."

"You know what?" Sin piped up, her pale eyes glowing brightly. "What if we don't melt the whole thing, but just a doorway, wouldn't that make it safer than, you know, falling into the abyss?"

"Mellow!" Merlin was waving at the witch who sat on the stairs about half way up to the next platform. "Come here!"

He turned back to the lead group and frowned. "That might work, but I'm not sure that's how the dome works."

"True, but it's worth a shot." Sinister smiled, the smugness flowing over from her voice, and she continued right on as Mellow joined them. "Do you have anything that could make a doorway in this viscous stuff for us?"

Mellow raised an eyebrow, and moved forward a hand outstretched to feel the strange substance. They frowned and pulled back their hand, glaring at the tips of their fingers. Small tendrils of smoke rose from their fingertips. "I might be able to, but it has corrosive components, it might just leak closed again. You could try cutting it too, but I'm not sure it won't do damage to steel."

"Worth a shot, right?" Beastial's voice made Murmur jump. She hadn't noticed him approaching and it made her realize she'd been lax about her nets ever since she realized there was no way for her to penetrate whatever it was that Riasli had done to the statues. 

She spread out her nets again while the others discussed how best to break through the barrier. There, below them was the source of the whimpering. She frowned, trying to get a read on the sound and jumbled thoughts. But all she got was pure fear laced with sorrow, and every now and again a tiny fragment of anger that seemed to be squashed as soon as it emerged. Whether it was by the sadness all around them, or Riasli's magic, Murmur didn't know, but she did know she had to do something about it.

"We need to get through and around this boss. I don't think it's the final one in this dungeon, but there are people underneath us we have to get to. And there's no other way than to get past this." She couldn't think about it seeming too obvious a trap. Riasli wasn't nice in any way, so why would she not have hidden the beings below from her. The only answer was that it was deliberate.

"You know that's a trap, right?" Merlin drawled the words out, an eyebrow raised as he looked at her. 

She'd thought she was the mind reader, and shot a glare at her friend. "I know, but it's a trap we're probably going to have to do anyway if we don't want to inadvertently help the evil character in the game. We're not Jirald, you know." The last might have been a bit harsh, but she didn't care. There were a lot of what ifs in the catacombs below them.

"Besides, maybe we'll get something really cool at the end of this dungeon." Sinister's grin took on a mischievous tone as she tried to lighten the mood. 

"Enough debating. Can we just get this fight started so we don't all fall asleep on the stairs." Veranol had joined them at the edge of the dome as well, and the top couple of steps were becoming crowded. 

"Fine." Mellow rummaged in their inventory and muttered several words Murmur couldn't understand under their breath before pulling out a vial with a sludge-like brown liquid in it. "But don't say I didn't warn you. Everyone get ready to rush in, because I don't think this dome will fall before the Guardian does."

Mellow slammed the bottle into the shield but it didn't smash through. Instead, the viscous liquid held it in place, and slowly but surely dissolved the glass around it, which caused the liquid to run down through the insides of the thing, burning where it touched until a hole wide enough for two of them to pass if the taller species ducked down a bit. 

But they hadn't been joking. After the first three pairs passed through, the rest had to go single file, and Dansyn got brushed with the left side of the doorway as it closed while he was stepping through it. Smoke began to rise from his hand, and Veranol cast a heal on him as well as a cure, just to make sure.

While they moved through the door, Murmur kept her eyes focused on the Guardian. It moved sluggishly in its sleep, as if sensing a disturbance in its shielding. It made her wonder if the dome was meant to keep it in or keep it safe. Suddenly, up closer, it no longer looked as scary as it had. Perhaps it too was taken over by Riasli and given nefarious purposes instead of its original make up.

And then it rumbled, more than usual, rolled from side to side for a few brief seconds, its red blotches squelching with a sickening sound. A miasma-like red cloud rose up from where the blood boils emitted their sounds, and a stench began to crawl out over the platform as it slowly unfolded what at first had seemed like a rotund, tiny limbed body.

It was all Murmur could do not to gag as she pushed her hand in front of her mouth to avoid inhaling any of the disgusting stench. Like blood, rotten fruit, and feces mixed together in a blender and left out in the sun. She watched, fighting the urge to open her mouth and gape in disbelief as the guardian unfolded itself and rose to its full height, towering about twenty feet above their tallest. Not quite as tall as the statues in the entrance had been, but a hell of a lot taller than anything she'd been expecting after seeing the ball of a boss it had been.

Its limbs unfurled from their curled up positions, and it stretched them out wide, all four of its arms. It's limbs were made out of gleaming charcoal colored rock, also beset by the pustules that plagued what turned out to be its back. It opened its great mouth set in the head that sort of blended in with the rest of its rock body and only seemed like a nub on the top of the full rock body. 

The roar that reverberated through the entire cavern shook the platform so badly everyone stumbled to at least one knee. Murmur looked up at the monster, because it was the best word she could think of, and pushed down the panic welling in her. She wasn't used to having to consider what to do in order to not die. After all, she usually avoided games with permadeath for that reason. Sure, most games had some form of penalty for dying be it monetary in that repairs to armor cost a lot of money, or else experience gain like this one. 

But what was the point in dying permanently in a game if you were trying to avoid reality by going there in the first place. So that just made it easier, right? She wasn't going to die.

The Guardian hunkered down, like a gorilla with four arms, made out of rock. It was poised to attack, the miasma around it thickening, even though its pustules weren't being pressed, which could only mean it was an attack or ability and had nothing to do with the way it had been moving originally. Murmur was willing to bet it was toxic too.

"Watch for cures," she called out, glad that they'd buffed themselves with every protection in their arsenal. Veranol and Sinister nodded, as Devlish pulled out his shield and spiked hammer, Mellow threw an enlarging potion on him ballooning him up to the monsters hunched size. Every little bit was going to help.

Murmur knew better than to heave a sigh of relief, because the Guardian chose that moment to launch its attack. 

#

Somnia Online
Exodus Base
Other Continent 
Fifteen Days Post Launch

Jirald looked around at the base, cringing at the structure. He wasn't the best at architectural design, but the stone castle ramparts didn't sit well with him. He'd not have chosen this type of building, but it was Ishwa's baby, so the rogue didn't have a lot of say in it. Still, it was nice to have another binding point that didn't detract from the one he had back in Verendus. Because he needed to have a point of travel to somewhere close to her, just in case the opportunity arose.

"Why so somber?" Masha sidled up to the rogue, one of those smug grins on his face. 

Jirald scowled. "Stop gloating over hitting thirty. I lost one and a half levels thanks to that bitch."

"And then you continued to sulk for way too long when you could already have been playing catch up. Stop blaming everything on other people." It was the closest Masha had come to scolding him. 

Jirald barely resisted the urge to tell him that he wasn't blaming everyone else, and then he realized it sounded extra childish. He'd been fighting for some respect from the others in his guild since his unfortunate outbursts early in the game launch. Instead, he took a deep breath and nodded. "I think I can blame some of that on her. But she probably wouldn't have done that if I hadn't trained her."

"You think?" Masha rasied an eyebrow, his words heavy with sarcasm.

"Shut it, Cleric." Jirald wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Anyway, you're close enough to thirty. You're twenty-eight. We're going to Richnai Fortress whether you like it or not. If we've calculated correctly our group should actually be able to approach our first keyed dungeon. We're close to Fable. Almost on a par. They only have one key that we know of, and with the way the game acts, I'm quite certain we'd know if they had more than that." Masha's tone was matter of fact. He wasn't bragging, just stating things he'd come to the conclusion of in a logical way.

Jirald envied his ability to put his emotions aside. Not that the rogue was overly emotional, he just had trouble dealing with irritation and anger, especially when he felt it was deserved. He sighed. At least his hidden skills were leveling nicely. Before they entered the dungeon, he'd have his next level of those, and make sure he got his level thirty ability scrolls just in case. Just the prospect of finally being within grasp of the lead fable group was an amazing feeling. Granted, he hadn't slept in about thirty-six hours because of that, and they were about to head out and have a four hour nap so they could grind the dungeon, and he couldn't help be excited about it.

It almost made him determined to simply focus on himself, but that little voice in the back of his mind reminded him how much he owed Murmur, how much she'd kept him from, not only in this game, but in others... and just how much he needed to prove he was better than her.

Not to mention that the dungeon they were about to enter probably had a heap of those getashi's in it. He could feel the greed rising within him. Sidius was going to reward him handsomely. And surely the man didn't know how many of the things were in the world, so he wasn't going to notice if one went missing.

"Jirald?" Masha stood in front of him, tapping a foot on the ground impatiently. "It's not like you to daydream, been awake too long?"

The rogue shook his head, and felt the grin that spread over his face. "Not at all, I could keep going all night."

The bravado wasn't lost on the cleric who shrugged. "If you fall asleep after we enter the dungeon, I'm not above replacing you. You're only just twenty-eight. It's a minimum, remember?"

Jirald scowled at his friend, and took another deep breath. Wouldn't do to alienate the people he needed. While he might know that in his head, sometimes he forgot it. "Yeah. I know, I know. I'm just going to train and get my skills and then I'll take a nap."

Masha nodded, even though his eyes didn't seem to believe what Jirald was saying, it looked like he was going to leave well enough alone for a while. The rogue sighed with relief as Masha sat down to log out. He still had a lot to do, not the least of which was to gate to Verendus and find his trainer again, but more importantly, he needed to track down Sidius.

Waving back at Ishwa who stood on the balcony outside of his office, Jirald headed through to his quarters that he shared with Masha. They'd been building bunk sections so that each member had their own room. Senior members and officers like Jirald and Masha got to share a room, others had between four and eight bunk beds, each with a locker box for storing their own goods should they want to. He had to admit it was a pretty cool idea Ishwa had. It gave each guild member something to call their own and something to strive for at the same time. Because recruits were kept in the one bunk house that barely had any space for their own personalization. 

He'd just pulled his knives from their sheaths to clean them, when a cold wind blew through the room. Turning around fast, he saw Sidius standing in front of Masha's bed, a cruel smile on his human face. "Well, well, well, young rogue. It seems you've leveled up again. But I still don't see any getashi's. Tell me, what have you been doing?"

"You lied." Jirald wasn't about to let an NPC in a game try and intimidate or threaten him. It was just a series of algorithms and calculations. He ignored the indignant look on the rogue master's face and continued. "Murmur doesn't have the same quest."

"Not precisely, but she does require the same items you do to complete one of her quests." Sidius' response was smooth, like he'd practiced it a lot, or maybe words did just roll of his tongue that well. "Which doesn't matter. You have your own quest, and should be completing it. Don't make me regret having given you the chance to learn skills that no one else has been getting in game."

Jirald gulped. No one else, huh? That was pretty damned awesome. "So all I have to do it beat her to these Shards, correct?"

Sidius nodded. "Each boss you encounter throughout the world has a chance to drop them, beating her to them is the best possible path."

"Sure it is." Jirald sat down on his bed and grinned up at Sidius. "Or I could just wait until she's got several and take them from her body once I kill her."

"Not an option." Sidius' expression didn't change, instead he seemed somewhat disdainful, bored maybe. 

"And why not? Why the fuck is everyone so protective of her?" Jirald stood so fast, the blood rushed to his head, but he was angry, and it pushed that anger.

"Dear boy, I'm not in the habit of waiting twenty-four hours for a corpse to decay so that I might retrieve a bounty off them. That's why player killing wasn't in the objectives of the quest I gave you. It's easier to kill the world mobs for the items than to kill an enchanter for the couple they might have and hope you can then kill those who would guard her corpse in the event you were successful, not to mention, you really think she wouldn't log in for another twenty-four in game hours?" The sneer in Sidius' voice managed to get through to the rogue.

Jirald stood staring at his class master, infuriated that he knew the man was right. "Okay then. Got it."

"Good." Sidius intoned in a way that said: finally. He stepped closer to Jirald, crowding his personal space. "Just remember, I don't like being let down."

And then the rogue master was gone.

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