《Continue Online》Book 2 - Made; Session Thirty Five - Dodging the Issue

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“Go left!” Requiem yelled. I went to my left, which ended up being straight ahead. One of the little undead mole creatures popped up and I flew by stabbing at it.

Requiem tested [Detached Vitreous] with a fireball. Liquid flame splashed off but didn’t do much damage. At least the giant eye with its gross dirt didn’t regenerate.

“These things!” I dodged around clumps of dirt being fired at us. A giant eyeball was enough on its own. Adding in the undead mole things and their dirt throwing was unfair.

“Stay near them.” Requiem spun with his blade and slashed at the eyeball's feelers. “We’ll use the boss.”

“Okay!” That was not easy to do at all. Flying was still weird in many ways. Requiem’s idea of friendly fire was good, though. Being a [Red Imp] meant I would survive the fireballs but these undead moles would probably get lit up.

An unexpected burst of blue ice swirling into being. It leapt from the eyeball's backside towards me.

“What?! Ice!” I yelled and scrambled to get out of the way. “It’s notjustfire!”

“Really? I didn’t notice.” The Traveler's hair stood up as he yelled out a battle cry. Requiem charged for the eyeball creature. He was certainly doing more damage than I but the [Detached Vitreous] didn’t care.

I watched the squiggles on the eyeball's back twist together. They convulsed and knotted then straightened at once to point in my direction. Green light swam up from the eyeball's depths and shot down the root like veins towards me.

“It’s back! Theycome from there!” I said while jabbing with my pitchfork.

“I know.” His words were still fairly clear despite the madness about us. The undead moles and their stupid ‘eeeeees’ were killing my ears. “I’m watching them.”

“So aimthe firemaking ones overhere!” I shouted while somersaulting over another blast of the blues.

“I’ve got to do everything around here,” Requiem grumbled while swinging the ash trailing blade, creating a cloud on one side of [Detached Vitreous]. He dodged the other way and the giant eyeball tracked him. Another series of veins was facing in my direction. They did their twisty knotting thing and a ball of flame swirled into being.

“Fire! Fireisgood.” I tried to hug one of the dirt crawled undead moles. Part of me was annoyed that Requiem’s constant use of me as a grappling imp was paying off.

“Eeeehhhg..” The mole's annoying squeal of noise died off as it was burned to a crisp.

“Fourmore!” I shouted happily. No, there were seven more. The undead moles kept popping up around us. Each new one made the same stupid noise.

“You handle them. I’ll keep the eye facing this way.” Requiem was far too calm during combat.

“Okay!” I was not. It was either me as a [Red Imp] or me as an easily excited player, but everything was racing. My heartbeat pounded loudly, the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] stabbed into anything that moved, and undead moles were aggravating.

Two crackling roots shot out of the ground and reached for the cavern's ceiling. A bolt of green hit one nearby and slapped into my side

Poisoned!

You are losing 1% health every five seconds until cured.

“Ahfuckme reallywhat. Thisis nonsense!” I shouted while looking around. There was a timer on the poison, but it was minutes away.

Wings over my shoulder kept distracting any attempt at situational awareness. I jabbed one end of the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] into a root wall and pushed off. The added momentum sent me headlong into a ball of flame to regenerate health.

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Requiem hacked at the eyeball as it spun around to take in our battle scene. The Traveler took a moment to slash at the roots in the back. “Got the poison ones.”

“Leave thefiremaking ones!” I desperately shouted while dodging around few clumps of dirt. This was a mad situation and being a [Red Imp] did not provide enough health.

“I actually know how to play, thanks,” Requiem said while swinging at the giant eye. His attacks were on point, but the giant thing had too much health.

“Stupidhead doesn’t know eyeballs come intwos.” I muttered. Two eyeballs might be enough to do Requiem in. I did a quick calculation of all the flying objects and our little extra undead attackers. That black hole move would probably still kill everything.

“Don’t jinx us.” He said while waving another trail of ash.

I glanced up anyway. There was nothing visible but the few seconds available between projectiles was not enough to get a solid look. Hopefully, any other giant ugly eyeball was hanging around elsewhere. I still hadn’t figured out exactly how boss spawns in dungeons worked. This was only my second one.

“Almost there,” Requiem muttered. The eyeball turned to stare at me while shooting streams of ice and fire at Requiem. “Just a few more.”

“More until what?” I asked. This time it wasn’t an attempt at confounding the Traveler. I was honestly perplexed.

“Shut up. Fly upwards! As high as you can!” Requiem shouted.

“Why?”

“Not now, you stupid imp! Just follow orders!” Now Requiem was worked up. Seeing him agitated made me smile.

“Eeeeee!” The moles kept screaming their constant noises. Part of me longed for the days of video games on a computer screen. Something where their annoying sounds could be turned off.

I started flying up towards the ceiling. Requiem bravely, or foolishly, stayed where he was swinging at the [Detached Vitreous]. Most of the small mole things were dead and another two roots had popped up in the cavern. The young player was using the obstacles to hide behind which caused them to take damage. I could see health bars as I turned to look down below.

That also made me realize exactly how high up I had flown. I gulped for a moment and the world spun with vertigo. Below me, the giant eyeball grew closer. The veins on its back wiggled and spurted blood. Requiem could be seen smiling. He seemed to be lobbing small blades into the creature's back.

One giant tear crossed the eyeball's front. It seemed to be swaying in the air as it climbed up towards my much smaller frame. I turned back towards the ceiling and put more distance between us.

“To your left!” Requiem shouted up at me. The eyeball turned abruptly midair and gazed at the Traveler. Fireballs spun out of the creature's back in my direction which I happily caught. Free health was always nice.

The Traveler below threw up another wall of ash and vanished. [Detached Vitreous] swiveled back around to me. My tail was twisted back and forth with nearly the same ferocity as the giant eyeball's veins.

“Comeonstupid stupidno brain!” I shouted. Requiem’s order had steered me close to the ceiling's surface a few hundred feet above the floor.

The eyeball hesitated as the ceiling grew closer. It seemed to be blinded by the giant gash that Requiem must have inflicted. I kept up my stream of insults to give the monster something to focus on.

From below a long stream of fireballs came up. The heat of them was far beyond Requiem’s normal intensity. Portions of the monster's health bar chipped away, but it still had too much. Smoke billowed out from behind the eyeball and filled the cavern's roof.

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Part of me really wondered exactly how the thing was flying to begin with. At least I had wings. They clearly didn’t care one whit for the laws of physics.

“Drop it!” Requiem shouted his sword tip was being used to point at something nearby. “Drop it quickly!”

I turned and tried find what he was talking about. My vision wasn’t hampered by the smoke at all, which was strange to me. There was a small box floating off to one side talking about [Red Imp]s and [DarkVision] alterations due to living in volcano filled plains. I didn’t have time to read much.

“Okay!” I bumped my head into the ceiling and did a quick lap around the giant stalagmite that Requiem had pointed to. There was a clear crack in one side.

I focused for a moment and shifted the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] into spear form and hoped it wouldn’t be damaged forever. My tiny arms and wings fluttered and yanked the weapon back and forth trying to dislodge the spike.

“Over here, you big fugly rotting eyeball!” Requiem shouted. I glanced down to see that most of the ash and smoke had cleared. The Traveler was trying to get [Detached Vitreous] to turn away from me.

I wiggled the weapon even harder and gasped in happiness when the cracking started. A few more yanks on the weapon's hilt succeeded in releasing the giant stalactite from the ceiling. Part of me felt absolutely giddy as the giant eyeball spun around. The [Detached Vitreous] looked at me, then to the falling spike, and back to me. If there had been eyelids or a face the expression would have been shock.

Instead, there was a squish of noise as the spike entered one side and the orb popped. Bits of entrails flew everywhere. The [Detached Vitreous] seemed to be struggling to stay afloat despite clearly being dead. The effect was a body that lowered to the ground slowly.

There was one item amid the chaos of gooey eyeball guts that caught my attention. Time seemed to compress and with every fraction of a second the synchronization meter jumped up. Messages of [Greed], [Greed], [Greed] flashed wildly. I took it as a sign from the Voices and dove for the loot.

“Mine! Dibs dibsdibs.” I shouted and quickly flew with all my speed to the falling body. A few weak fireballs and icy blasts splattered towards the ground, but none impeded me. Both chubby arms shot out and grabbed for the item. I got something in my hands and a message box popped up.

Significant [Greed] demonstrated rare loot received!

Synchronization 74%

Whatever it was fit into one palm. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] had somehow transformed into a tiny pitchfork and was being held by my tail. I quickly slapped both hands over my chest and held on while tumbling. The shift in weight from gravity taking over sent me falling even faster. Both wings were frantically beating while I, the remains of [Detached Vitreous], and a giant portion of the ceiling landed with thuds.

I was cackling happily. That one item grab had sent my completion percentage up by four percent. Being [Greedy] had paid off. At least it seemed to pay off until Requiem approached.

“What’s that?” He stabbed down one of his swords right next to my tiny body. I flinched and tried to roll away. A heavy foot stomped onto my tail and prevented escape. “I asked you a question, Imp.”

“It’s mine!” I shouted. “Not yours giantstupiddummy.”

“Everything you own is mine unless I say otherwise.” Requiem cleaned off his other sword slowly. There was a gleam in his eyes that made my teeth chatter.

By rolling a little, it was obvious that everything down here was dead. Roots that had shot into the air now looked wilted or charred. Tiny undead moles were in shambles all over the floor. Pools of green, blue, and red could clearly be seen dotting the landscape.

“Oh, it’s safe. I’ve made sure it’s just you and me in this room.” Requiem said while leaning over me. The smile on his face was utterly false.

I nodded and tried to focus on jerking the tail away from him. The game made it twist and turn, but there was no escape. He looked especially cruel when it was apparent that half the dead monster's guts were still hanging all over his body. The second foot near my face must have landed in some mole's head.

“So what did you get?” Requiem said.

“Noneya, twerp,” I muttered. He quickly slapped me across the face and I saw my percentage bar go up a bit more. Messages of both [Defiance] and [Self-Serving] popped up.

“Try again. The truth this time.” He seemed almost bored with this whole process of beating me. It clearly never got him results.

“I don’t want to tell you,” I answered. That was a completely true statement.

Another slap in the face rewarded me with pain.

“You seem to misunderstand the nature of our arrangement. I am the master, and you are the servant. How many times must I remind you of this?” Requiem asked. He slammed the cleaned sword down into the ground rapidly. It was much closer to my face than the first one.

I smiled happily. Death was a release of character, and there was nothing frightening about that to me. Most physical pain was very transitory in the world of Continue Online. However dying might mean this precious item would be left behind. There was another option that might help me secure the loot.

“Tell me what you have?” Requiem demanded an answer again. I ignored him and clenched my teeth as pain shot through me.

Resistance is Futile.

Total Damage: 33%

“Nnngh.” Noise escaped me. I closed both eyes and focused on my body shifting from one spot to another. The thought relayed over and over showing me under Requiem at one moment, then elsewhere another.

[Blink] triggered and the world spun. I found myself standing up with one foot squishing into something's leftovers. Looking around caused a brief vertigo. My [Blink] had placed me on top of the broken ceiling's remains with the dead eyeball chunks beneath me.

“What? Where did…” Requiem sounded confused from somewhere behind me.

I stared at the object in my hand and quickly used [Identification]. The results made me grind my teeth in annoyance. Still, the percentage bar increase had been my primary goal. Once things settled with Requiem then I could look at the rank increase and hope it was worth revealing my secret ability.

Skill Used: [Identification] Results: Seer’s Tear Category: Precious Details:

Not much information is available about this object right now. It’s said to reveal secrets beyond what normal people can see. Without the other half no one will ever know.

Note!

This item is part of a set. Without both, no effects will reveal themselves.

Turning it into a bound item like the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] was impossible. There was only one way to prevent Requiem from taking it. I swallowed the [Seer’s Tear] quickly. The object hurt going down. My health dropped a few more percentage but the synchronization bar went up. It was a win all around for me.

Requiem was yelling from behind me. I hadn’t heard his words over the sensation of my insides trying to digest a marble-like object. My face slowly straightened out as I turned to face my contractor.

“What? Whatdo youwant jeez?” I said while tapping my foot.

“What was that?” He asked. Requiem was ignoring the dead bodies around us for once and looking directly at me.

“Stupid. Itwas dumb butnow, it’s mine.” That was all the answer regarding the [Seer’s Tear] I would provide Requiem. This loot truly was useless on its own and Requiem would never let me get the other half.

“Not that, you obnoxious little imp. How did you get over there?” He said.

“Also nonya,” I said happily.

“I order you to tell me during the next ten seconds exactly what you used.” Requiem had weeks in-game herding my [Red Imp] around. The teen could actually nail down an order fairly well when he tried.

“I blinked.” My sharp teeth cut at each other. The ARC quickly relayed irritated feelings into action. I missed the days of Carver’s delayed reactions to all my internal thoughts.

“Blinked?” Requiem paused and tilted his head. “How long have you been able to do that?”

“Since before you were born,” I answered truthfully. Part of me was giddy that the Voices let me get away with such clear abuse of the system.

I saw him pause again.

“Fine. Whatever it is, that’s your one loot. Everything else is mine.” Requiem growled and grabbed both swords out of the ground. He didn’t even bother cleaning them off a second time. Both vanished into his player inventory.

The next hour was spent cleaning up after dead bodies and inspecting everything nearby. Requiem seemed to have some sort of beginner mining skill and set about digging through rubble for nearby veins and loot. I was bored enough to log out and take a break.

Once outside the ARC I shook from the adrenaline rush. Fifteen minutes of real life had passed and it wasn’t enough to calm my physical body down completely. I paced around the house and grabbed at my hair.

The one trump card I had was ruined. [Blink] was no longer a secret hidden thing to save for later. Knowing Requiem he was planning on how to abuse my [Red Imp] character even more. Could he do anything special with the [Blink] skill? I had no good ideas at this point. There was a noise in the background that was distracting me.

“Someone answer the damn phone!” I shouted. Maybe the irritation flooding me was caused by hunger. Not one sweet piece of food had passed my lips in the weeks of Continue Online. It was normally grab and go food or lunch bars. Soreness from the EXR-Sevens stacked on top to make everything unbearable.

I grabbed part of the door frame to my room and tried leaning into various stretches. They were nearly useless inside the ARC. Real life muscle stiffness couldn’t be resolved by sleeping in a bed all day. Especially not one that put my physical body through endless muscle spasm cycles to simulate cardio and light weight lifting.

The ringing kept going. “Someone get the phone!”

It took me a moment to realize that I was alone in my house. There was no one to answer the phone but a computer or me. I sighed and felt foolish. Part of me had been so dazed by being in the ARC with my old house, and the prospect of Xin that it felt like old times. Back when I had a job with a staff of coworkers.

“Grant here,” I answered my own phone with an irritated voice command.

“Mister Legate.” Vice President Riley’s face popped onto my screen. I blinked a few times. Her face was still plain though her hair looked a bit shorter. There was a ring around the woman’s eyes that felt more disheveled than the last time we conversed.

“Miz Riley,” I said carefully. Part of my mind was still in [Red Imp] mode. Rushing words together or avoiding real answers would not go over well.

“Mister Legate, I wanted to talk to you personally about this, but there’s not enough time.” She avoided sighing, but her eyes seemed to yawn from exhaustion. “I had a report run on your ARC software and found that you’ve never confirmed having a Touchstone.”

“A what?” My mind ran through all the ARC software I had been through over the years. Slowly a vague memory sprung up. Touchstones were safety measures for the hyper realistic mind bender games.

“A Touchstone. Based on your latest reports regarding the Voices I believe you will find yourself in need of one soon.” Miz Riley said. Her gaze drifted away from the screen and focused on something else. A hand waved off to one side shooing someone.

“Alright. I’ll do that.” I said.

“Good. That’s excellent. All of our Beta testers were advised to create them, and they come as standard warnings on horror games.” This time a sigh did escape her. She seemed to be waving someone off again but wasn’t getting the desired response.

“If you’re ever in doubt about our communications please come see me in person.” She said.

“Okay.” I was afraid to put too much thought into that. She had implied before that technology might not be trustworthy. Given the realism of the Voices, I was on the fence myself. Not that self-doubt was stopping me from logging in each night.

“Very well. Keep filing your reports, I am reading them. Farewell, Mister Legate.” Vice President Riley said. A strand of hair that had been pinned back fell forward across her face making the woman look even more disheveled.

“Bye.” The word didn’t even make it out of my mouth before our call disconnected.

I fired up the ARC display and took a look at Continue Online’s preview window. Requiem was fighting something with my [Red Imp] form freely using [Blink] to get around. Clearly the secret was out so even my autopilot didn’t care. They were moving a lot quicker through the dungeon.

Maybe now using the skill would get easier. Even my autopilot's reduced skill growth helped. The ability took a large portion of mana with each cast. To top it off required a huge amount of [Focus]. No wonder most people preferred saying the spells out loud, even if they sounded like poems from a teenager's diary.

No. I would stick with my voiceless spell for however long the [Red Imp] character existed. Requiem Mass could chain cast fireballs without using any words, so I should be able to [Blink] around effortlessly after enough practice. The only trick was thinking about it hard enough that the ARC adapted correctly.

A few hours passed outside the box while my Touchstone was created. There were fairly simple rules with what they were and how to use one. Most people put something small, written with words near the ARC. Some games enjoyed having mind benders in them and would create life like simulations of places people knew. Touchstones helped separate fiction and reality.

After mine was in place I logged back into the [Red Imp] body. Requiem seemed unaware of the changeover between AI and human. We traveled through a few more of the tunnel's twists and turns. There were other little monsters but nothing that Requiem couldn’t handle on his own. I floated behind wondering if my choice had been the right one. We were only halfway way through this dungeon according to him.

Supposedly there was a bigger boss creature down below. There was also this stupid item's description about another half. I had wasted my loot choice on a thing that needed both parts to work. It was aggravating but somehow expected.

“Howmuch further?” I asked.

“An hour, maybe two tops. We’ll have to rest up here.” Requiem took items out of his player inventory and started setting up a small camp.

“Whatever. We have to clear this place tonight and move on to the main castle. If everything goes right I’ll have all the tools need to kill Freakinstain and get his half of the key.” The Traveler kept pulling out items, quaffing potions that made his face twist, putting on better armor.

“Key?” A squeak escaped me. I watched him discard one set of boots for another.

“Yes. The very one needed for this quest you’re so insistent upon.” Requiem sounded upbeat about finishing the quest. I know it made me happy to think about this strange adventure being over.

“Iam. Thenwe canbe done withthisplace.” I said happily.

Beth, my niece, had said that quests sometimes had layers. That occasionally another way through could be found. According to the Voices' original description, this method should work. The Voices had clearly stated their only reason for wanting Requiem dead, in-game, was because he hadn’t completed the mission yet.

“Eat up,” Requiem said. He gestured to a pile of burned food. It looked worse than the cupcake had. This young man knew nothing of cooking.

“Fine.” I tried not to think about the taste. His food did provide a small buff to my mana regeneration. Working with him might be far better than working against him. Especially if this objective could be completed without needing murder.

We sat in camp while Requiem did a whole slew of preparations. He put oils on both the swords and checked the armor over. His body moved around through a series of stretches to temporarily increase his [Limberness]. The Traveler even ate his own food. That last one made my face turn to temporary disgust.

I, of course, was left to my own [Red Imp] devices. For the most part, it consisted of shifting my weapon around into other forms and trying to better use [Blink]. In the time it took Requiem to finish his farting around I managed to make another thirty-something attempts and got [Blink] to Rank 2.

Reward:

For reaching 75% Synchronization, you will gain further access to racial skills.

Unlocked!

Rank 3 synchronization – additional changes

[Awareness Heightening] skill granted

[Pointier Points] skill granted

When I wasn’t low on mana from [Blink] attempts my mind focused on the new skills. [Awareness Heightening] seemed to use the ARC’s compression system to provide me a different perception of time. Using it once felt like every event where the Voices had spoken rapidly over my head, only not as intense. [Awareness Heightening] was closer to when I had watched the [Detached Vitreous] fall with loot.

[Pointier Points] was tied to my tail and teeth. They were even sharper so the first thing I did was accidentally stab my own leg. That caused Requiem to pause in his preparations for a bout of laughter. It made me frown while giving the twisting tail a glare. The silly thing had a mind of its own most days.

“Time to go.” Requiem stood up and everything from our little camp was back in his inventory. The younger man carried around far too many items for my liking.

“Okay. Letsgokill thiswhateverthing.” I said rather happily. We were finally making progress.

“Just down here,” Requiem said.

We stepped into a much larger cavern. There was a giant torch illuminating the room. My [Darkvision] flipped off.

“Perfect. We can avoid the boss." He said while looking around at the new room. This was smaller than the [Detached Vitreous]'s cavern. The back wall with a torch seems flat and three stories tall.

"How thewhat?" I asked.

"You stand over there, and I’ll stand over here.” Requiem pointed on the ground. There were two circles, one red, one green. I was fairly sure [Red Imp]s hated green but that was the one he ordered me to stand in.

Plus I was kind of working with the young man now. Even after weeks of trying to kill him. If we got along and completed everything then there would be no need for further unpleasantness.

“Okay. Overhere.” I flew across the distance. Between our two standing markers was something that looked like a coffin. This body was far too short and couldn’t get a good view.

“Alright, now stay there and don’t move until I tell you to.” He ordered. Now I was stuck in place regardless of my cooperation or not. Some orders were easier to loophole than others.

We both stood in our spots and the room started to rumble. I looked up, worried that another eyeball might float down at any moment and cast ugly icy bolts in my direction. No such thing happened.

The torch lighting up this giant cavern dimmed slowly and the top portion of the coffin slid off to one side.

“Excellent.” Requiem dashed over and looked inside. Soon he was laughing, not a friendly happy laugh, not a good joke laugh, but the kind of amusement that went with triumph over one's enemies and possible world domination.

“What isit?” I shouted while trying to at least fly up.

Shame on you for disobeying a simple order

Total Damage: 90%

“Good. This is exactly what I needed.” Requiem nodded and pulled something out of the coffin. Bones snapped under their own weight leaving behind a dull looking necklace with an eye on it. The Traveler lifted his new piece of equipment then slid it over his head.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Your replacement. With this necklace, I no longer need you.” Requiem turned so I could see the necklace easier. It glinted briefly and seemed to suck in more light. The torch up above still burned but its flame had tilted in his direction.

“Okay? But Ithought we werekilling that Freakinstain guy?” I said while ruffling my eyebrows together. A quick glance around revealed that there was only one real exit out of here. Why then, had Requiem done all the preparation ahead of time?

“You think I would ever work with you? You were only there to serve as a tool, and you clearly didn’t intend to do even that.” Requiem Mass smiled.

“We havea contract based on completing yourmission.” I tried to sound firm. My face felt cold and skin clammy. This was not how things were intended to go at all. He was screwing me over, and the Voices had me locked into this character until the quest was completed or Requiem released my [Red Imp] summons.

“Oh no. You, you’re still my familiar, and because of that you can sit down here until I dismiss you.” He said. Requiem walked over to me and poke my chubby belly.

“When is that?” I said the words slowly.

“Eventually, once I kill Freakinstain, once I take this place for all it’s worth.” Requiem smiled at me. I thought about stabbing him with the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] but the system meted out more damage. That made the Traveler grin even wider. “And when there’s nothing left to milk from this place. Then I’ll release you.”

With that, Requiem left the room at high speeds. He had both swords out and seemed intent upon escaping.

The wall behind the empty coffin, where the torch sat with a dim remainder of light, groaned slowly. I turned and looked up while feeling abandoned, betrayed, and worried about the future of my quest to help Xin. Slowly the torchlight faded while the wall vibrated even more.

[Darkvision] kicked in and the entire wall became visible.

It was a giant face missing one eye. The orb that remained was staring down at me. There certainly was a theme to this underground dungeon, and it stared me in the face.

“Requiem! I’llstab you!” I shouted. The wall groaned again while lips curled on either side to form a demented smile. My gaze traveled between the tunnel out and the wall looming over me.

Today had been going so well.

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