Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 015 - Part 2

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Little One

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TheirWorld

Ollia Rhye was a Mahar who worked as an aerospace engineer in real life. In game, she played a basic mage-class called “The Enchanter”. After becoming a Master level Blacksmith, she had meant to create a set of blades for her wings that were imbued with magic, but instead, upon their completion, they were drawn into her character in a flash of light, and instead she gain four new skills which gave her wings magical enchantments that proved far more powerful than the item she would have created. The Enchanter became a hugely popular class after those events, but no one since had been able to recreate the event - publically, at least. Many people suggested that it was like anything else in the game; you needed just the right circumstance to initiate the creation of the skills. Others said that it was just a sort of ploy to get people more involved in the game and to appeal to those who like the possibility of such a customization.

Nevertheless, as long as there was the possibility, people rejoiced, and continued to try. The game was still new.

She would have to play with combat eventually, she knew, so she decided to give it a go. She set her alarm to go off in an hour, and started sorting through things. None of the abilities that she had seemed to be attack abilities.

> <<[Fox Form]>> > > > > > > > <<[Spirit Armor]>> > > > > > > > <<[Veil Phase]>> > > > > > >

As level one skills, they weren’t very powerful, but at least they seemed to have their uses. Going from the description of [Fox Form], it was a fleeing ability more than anything else. It wasn’t a common ability, going by what she read, and there was very little information about it. Those who did have the ability used it was a replacement for the basic fleeing skill [Dash] - which was a basic skill you received upon entering the main game - or they used it for scouting. It was decided that it was a cute gimmick of a skill, but otherwise mostly pointless to level. With all that said, Guin decided that at the very least, she would try to level it as high as she could during the tutorial, and if it proved to be worthless in the end, then so be it.

[Spirit Armor] was much more of a boon in her mind. I was certainly weak at the start, but references showed that it scaled well as the skill gained levels. It was known to have at least two advanced rank forms, which players got to choose as they ranked up and found trainers.

As for [Veil Phase], it was an interesting ability that had potential, but since most of the game took place in the Mortal Realm, it ended up as just another gimmick ability. It did seem to prove useful when traveling alone; it was a great way to avoid PKers, which was one of the main attractions for Guin to chose it. Some people had attempted to use it in combat, but the 1 minute cooldown made it more of an “oh-shit” button than a practical skill. There was a suggestion on the forums that there were players with a skill that mimicked the effect on just a one second cooldown. In particular, there was a recorded video of a flashy looking woman dressed in red and gold feathers with an unknown class blinking in and out of combat, but no one came forward confirming such a thing.

This game is just full of interesting puzzles to play with, Guin thought with a grin. Being able to play the way you wanted and potentially get unique benefits from it - it was a dream. She had no desires or intentions for the game, and as such, the world was a simple playground - and she had every intention of playing. The world would be her toy.

After standing up and brushing her butt off, Guin first activated her [Spirit Armor] ability via the menu. A hard to describe feeling filled her as a light haze rose off her skin, as if she was evaporating. The light mist covered her only for a moment, then seemed to be absorbed by her body once again. Guin tilted her head and checked her status bar.

In normal combat, the status bar was always on screen unless you turned the setting off. As a default, it floated just within eye vision, with a transparency that was meant to keep the bar from impeding the players vision. As one became more skilled with the system, players could control the transparency at will. Outside of combat, it was invisible until accessed through the menu. Going through the plethora of settings, she set her out-of-combat status screen to be like a tattoo on the inside of her left arm. This would be pointless when she got more gear that covered her arms, but for now it worked well.

With it, she was able to clearly see that [Spirit Armor] was active, even if there seemed to be no visible effect. In fact, she didn’t feel an effect, either.

Next, she cast [Veil Phase]. There seemed to be no visible effect to her body in her eyes, but she knew from videos that her body would have appeared to have phased out of sight to those who didn’t possess [Veil Sight]. The world around her thought showed considerable changes, and her eyes widened. The Veil was based upon the Valkyrian homeworld of Yidar combined with the chaotic planet Sofkhe, homeworld of the Jijak, and a few other very colorful planets, while the mortal realm was based on a combination of Earth-like planets, including Earth itself and Phaestral, the homeworld of the Tivarys. The brown and green forest that had reminded her of home was no more, instead, exchanged for trees with teal leaves and white bark. The moss was varying shades of red, and the grass was a deep blue-green color. The sky as dusk fell was a deep, reddish purple, and the small lake glittered gold.

She was used to the colors to a certain degree; after all, the Enclave was also designed to look like Yidar, but in the very urban setting, it was hard to truly get that feeling of magic and mystery that made it feel… well, alien.

Tik-Tak looked at her with great curiosity, but said nothing. Instead, he sat on his haunches and scratched behind his ear.

Using the ability again to phase back into the Mortal Realm, Guin tried to consider the uses for this ability. She didn’t think for very long before she activated [Fox Form].

Knowing that shapeshifting classes existed was one thing. Figuring out how that was supposed to work after they had given out all those warnings about how altering your body could do mental damage was a whole different thing. Not that Guin cared enough to spend longer than a few seconds trying to figure it out. Rather, she was excited that the potential existed at all. She had saved the best for last in her opinion.

[Fox Form] had a one minute cooldown, but it lasted for 30 seconds. Compared to [Dash] which only lasted for ten seconds, [Fox Form] had a huge advantage. It may not have been useful for combat itself, but it still had a lot of potential. Just having a travel skill that could move that fast was worth it.

As her body morphed, the world around her got bigger as she grew smaller. It was an odd feeling, to grow a tail. Looking at Tik-Tak, she wondered if she looked anything like he did - his eyes went wide as he slowly started wagging his tail. He went from cautious to excited in a moment as he pranced around her.

“Yii, yiiii!” he cried out. “Guin, you’re a fox just like me and momma!”

Guin chuckled as she adjusted to her new form. Badly.

The first time she tried to walk forward, she face planted into the grass. Hmm, she thought. This was going to be more annoying than she had hoped. She stood up again. Her four stick thin legs were wobbly as she began walking. Tik-Tak was still very excited and obviously amused at how hopeless she seemed to be at being a fox. After it expired and was re-cast, Guin clumsily waddled over to the lake and looked at her reflection in the waters. Her ears perked up as she looked at her form. Looking at it helped her understand how she should move, allowing her to make adjustments more quickly. Tik-Tak was wagging his butt in the air. He began to paw at her, and lowering himself on to the ground playfully. Guin snorted, and began to walk around the lake. She wasn’t sure how many times she ended up casting it in her attempts to get used to the ability. She went for a lap. Two laps. For the third lap, she began to trot. On the fourth lap, she allowed herself a steady jog, and then broke out into a run for the fifth. Save for having to re-cast is every 30 seconds - it was fun!

She laughed with a “Yip!” and broke out from her usual course, running around the glade. Tik-Tak let out his own “Yip!” and took off after her as she ran. The two little foxes raced around till night fell. The skills that she had may not have been the most useful things ever, but if she spent her time taking advantage of the tutorial zone’s leveling benefits, they she was certain she could get them to a level where they would be useful.

Morphing out of her [Fox Form], Guin happily fell back onto the ground, breathless. Tik-tak hopped into her lap and licked at her face. Giggling, she laid back. The stars were starting to come out. Just why was this place so beautiful?

But as her alarm sounded, she sighed. All good things must come to an end.

“I have to go home, Tik-Tak,” Guin told him, rubbing his head. The little fox’s eyes seemed to be filled with sadness.

“You’ll come back, right?” he asked her.

“Of course!” she told him, placing a finger on his little nose. She giggled as it twitched.

Her [Spirit Armor] expired, so she recast it. Entering [Fox Form], she started toward the edge of the glade. She looked back at the lonely little fox as he sat on the edge of the water, his beady eyes glimmering in the dim light of the rising moon.

She paused. He wasn’t actually alone, right? After all, he had the Webspinner, and all the kind spirits of the forest. Guin looked at her paws, and then back up at him. He was still watching her. His head was lowered a bit, and his ears were leaning down a bit. Could she take him with her?

Sighing, she realized that it would be impossible for her to do so now. The quest itself was about hunters from the village. If they saw the little fox, she was too weak to protect him right now. Looking at him look so forlorn hurt her heart, but she had to do the best thing for him, not the best thing for her heart. Protect yourself, little fox, Guin thought, watching him. She would be back before long, and it seemed the spirits sought to protect him. It eased the burden she felt.

Bolting off toward the village, she pushed herself as hard as she could until the forest’s edge. It was much faster to travel by the foot of the fox. She morphed back into her human form and ran home on her own two, slow feet.