Chapter Thirty Three – Bugbear

“Yikes!” I screamed.

Amy had used the word the other cycle when North Cross had started speaking about how much she made in her singing career. The moment I’d heard the word I’d giggled relentlessly and now I couldn’t stop saying it.

All of them were back in the real world now. All of my friends, busy with whatever that other place had to offer. That was okay though. It gave me time to do more searching for Bugbear.

I’d recently discovered the “Sound” option in my files tab after becoming curious during North Cross’s impromptu concert. By using it I could make sure my invisible interface would notify me – loudly – when one of my friends logged in!

That wasn’t all though. I could also play with a thing called ambient music! I’d turned it on and the entire world felt… weird. Vibrant. Like everything I did was the start of a great exciting adventure.

I loved it.

Almost immediately, leaving the ambient music off had become something less. Soundless nothing. It was kind of scary just how muted everything had been before. Now I had a new, different soundtrack to every area I entered and even a new one for each encounter!

The jungle was normally a calm low melody that pushed forward relentlessly. I got the feeling that adventure was just around the corner. I didn’t care for it but it still beat the silence I’d been searching in before.

A quick detour to Dungeon Home had revealed its music was just a low rhythmic set of drums that suited the dank darkness of the place.

Variak was wistful. A flute in the background that made me think of pie, cherry delight, and friends.

Battle was a rush. It was an active theme that got my blood pumping and my heart beating and it was wonderful. The sound bar was all the way up and I beamed as I weaved between two massive sets of teeth, either of which would’ve spelled my doom.

“Yikes!” I said again, laughing as I dodged one raptor and reached out my tendril to lay a shock on the other.

It squealed and yelped before slumping to the ground, paralyzed.

I continued on, just one raptor still in pursuit. It followed relentlessly. It was faster than me, but the same as the last time I’d come searching, I had the advantage of the sky. I dodged snapping jaws, amused as my kin curled itself into a knot chasing my swift spiral up one of the large twisted trees that made the Jungle so hard to cross on foot.

When my shocker’s cooldown wore off, I returned to the beast and shocked it the same as its sibling, but I was a tad too slow to dodge a sudden tailwhip. It smacked me, hard with its tail and I flew across the jungle floor.

-89 hp!

I screamed more at the expectation of pain than the actual damage itself. I was always surprised at out how much less painful taking damage was since becoming a player.

Annoyed at myself, I slipped up into the sky. If the raptor didn’t see me for long enough it would return to its normal route.

I’d combed the jungle from top to bottom it seemed though my map still said there was more than thirty percent of the jungle that I had yet to explore.

My tread counter was steadily increasing and curiously, my sky counter was as well. It only did so when I flew above the trees though, and nothing was up there. It seemed flying where no one had ever flown counted towards exploring unexplored territory.

‘If I flew up high enough,’ I wondered, would I discover a whole new zone? Could I get more into the great-open than the sky itself?’

My world wasn’t the real world. It wasn’t even fully made yet, according to Francis and Tyrone. Pro-see-dur-ally generated. The world came into being as people explored it. I’d come to accept that it wasn’t real, but it was amazing in its own ways. If I could somehow just… make it more.

I sighed, sliding back down into the trees on the edge of the unexplored section on my map. The music returned to the normal calm adventurous tone of the jungle, combat forgotten.

“Bugbear!” I shouted, hoping that I’d accurately cleared the area of raptors, at least for a little while. Learning their cycles had been difficult, as there were a lot of them, but I’d found that grabbing two or three and leading them away only to paralyze them for a few seconds bought me several minutes to explore areas that would otherwise be swarmed with them.

The same as all my kin, they never deviated from their cycles so exploring the entire jungle without hurting one of them or being chomped into jelly goo was just a matter of effort and patience.

“The hell?” came a sudden voice. It was distant, barely audible over the loud music. I opened the options and turned the ambient music down a little bit so I could hear better.

“Those aren’t normally in the jungle,” a male voice said, sounding confused.

I heard a sudden yip. The type of noise I would recognize anywhere. My heart began to race.

I zipped through the trees towards the sounds, heedless of any raptors I might alert in my rush.

“Part of a quest, you think?” asked an older female voice. They were getting louder as I grew closer. Prudently, I let my skin blend into the background, becoming invisible.

“Doesn’t seem to be. Maybe there’s a bugbear lair around here?”

I shook with near apoplectic excitement. Bugbear. Bugbear!?

I rounded a tree and found a small clearing with three adventurers in it, idly conversing. There, trapped in a mass of spell vines and struggling vainly to get free, was him.

Bugbear.

He was growling and roaring, waving his club around and desperately trying to free himself from the vines but the adventurers just continued talking, ignoring him.

“Just kill it. Might not be worth much but at least its easy, unlike all these stupid raptors. Did there have to be so many?”

“Maybe it's a sign that we’re close to Liqheist’s lair. Think she eats bugbears?” asked the female voice.

The three were an odd assortment as most adventuring groups seemed to be. The girl was an Orc, huge enough to make even Bugbear look small by comparison. She wielded a massive battleax that I was pretty sure weighed more than I did in my human form. Her voice sounded petite like my own though, making the contrast very strange to my ears. A warrior, for sure though.

“Could be, though the forums didn’t say anything about a Bugbear. We are in the right area though. I’m sure of that,” said a long-haired blond man whose uplifted hand was the source of the tangle of vines restraining Bugbear. A druid. Not as easy to take down as a cleric but they had some healing powers so if I had to fight, he’d be the priority.

The last man wore a thin blade at his side and wore a large feathered red cap, though I didn’t recognize his class at first glance. If memory served, I’d seen a few of his type in Dungeon Home as well. Spells that weren’t as powerful as Fire Tosser’s and weapon attacks that didn’t hit as hard as a warrior or rogue. An all rounder. Probably second priority. I could dodge the orc all day but the magic was dangerous.

‘Please… please just let him go!’ I thought desperately as I watched my friend struggle to free himself. He was doing a decent job of it but it would still take him far too long to extricate himself without help.

“Well, let’s kill the bear and get a move on! My kids get home in an hour!” said Feather Cap.

‘Damn,’ I thought.

I flew into the air before phasing back into my human form over the head of the Druid. I fell, becoming visible before the other two fighters could do anything and activated Backstab.

My knife materialized in my hand and sliced down straight into… a barrier?

A green transparent luminescence shattered upon my failed strike but I still toppled onto the druid, knocking him to the ground and disrupting his tangling vines.

Acting quickly while the group was still stunned I used my shocker and felt the Druid yelp.

-67 hp!

I stood quickly and delivered a sharp kick to the fallen Druid before backing up to where Bugbear was rapidly pulling free of the tangled vines.

-17 hp!

“Whoa!” shouted the orc as she readied her axe.

“Leave my friend alone!” I screamed defiantly.

The two unparalyzed characters looked at me, first in anger which quickly faded to confusion.

“Y-your… friend?” Asked the confused Orc, holding her axe half raised.

I beamed, joyously as I heard Bugbears yips and growls for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

“Y-yeah. I finally found him, and there’s no way I’m going to let you–!”

I screamed at a sudden sharp pain stabbing through my back and the next thing I knew I was face first on the ground.

-21 hp!

Damn… I was almost out of hit points! What had attacked me!? I was sure the only one behind me had been Bug…?

I rolled over to find the Druid had restrained Bugbear once again and was glaring at me as if I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life.

I didn’t even care though.

“B… Bugbear?” I asked, horrified.

“What the hell is going on?” the Druid asked, annoyed. “Who are you, lowbie?”

Bugbear was growling. Hissing and angry just like the others. He was lashing out, trying to get to the closest adventurer. Trying to get to me.

“Oh… Bugbear. I… I thought you’d beaten it. I thought…” I stood up, somberly. “Don’t you remember me?”

“Screw this,” the orc said, her voice suddenly much scarier than it had been before.

My eyes widened as she raised her axe.

“No! Wait, please, wai–!”

The axe fell.

“You have Died!”