Just a few steps down the path, and I noticed something which had been conspicuously missing up to this point. There was background music here. It was distant and ethereal, like music playing in the far distance. It seemed to be coming from further up the path. Providing a cue to lead me to the next objective? I’d seen that trick a few times in adventure games, but it was really strange that the entire rest of the game had no soundtrack.

A little ways down the footpath, and the colors started to wash out. The forest around went from cheery to gloomy in the space of a dozen paces. Then there was a burst of flame, followed by the burning beam of Incinerate. Not now, but a few seconds from now. Ambush?

I tensed, looking in the direction I would soon fire, and found a black splotch diving down toward me from the trees. I sparked a little plume of flame with my passive power, the signal I had worked out to let myself know about attacks ahead of time, then I thrust my clawed hand out in front of me.

[Incinerate!]

A torrent of glorious flames poured out, turning my attacker into nothing but ash. Damn, I really love this power set.

I scanned the trees, sensing another series of activations of my power in the near future, much nearer than the last. I saw, perched in the trees, were a bunch of cartoonishly evil crows. They had glowing red eyes and everything. As one, they launched into the air.

For a tense minute, my world was consumed by flame and an unholy storm of noise, but the result was never in doubt. I was a giant dinosaur person with precognition, and they were birds.

I looked around the torched clearing. Despite the clear damage from all the flame I had thrown around, the color and cheer seemed to creep back into the woods around. I checked for any corpses, as I was feeling a bit peckish and could go for some roasted bird, but found none. There were no bodies, no bones, just scattered black feathers. I quickly brought up my status.

Summary

Pyromancer, Level 8 - 23%

Bound: Earth-Human-MidCheckpoint-11

Logout estimate:

Status

Skills

Equip

Friends

Marks

Logout

Had I gained the experience already? Weird. I hadn’t been paying attention to the music either… but I felt like it changed when the woods got all gloomy. Now it was some indistinct upbeat orchestral number.

On a hunch, I crouched down, and started creeping through the brush next to the path. The music smoothly shifted to a piano piece that sounded like it was straight out of some ancient movie or cartoon when the on screen character was sneaking. It was so ridiculous that I barked out a laugh, at which point the music immediately went back to the upbeat forest theme.

The dynamic music wasn’t really anything special, but that precognitive fire sense was a marvel. The last game I worked on, the one they pulled me off to put me on this project, had wanted a fancy replacement for the traditional minimap. Instead, they wanted the player to have an intuitive sense, like spatial awareness, of where important features nearby were. After a year of tinkering, just before I was pulled off the project, they actually had something functional.

My new fire sense? It had aspects of a spatial awareness, but somehow extending it forward in time, in a way that was perfectly, intuitively comprehensible. For the aliens to be able to pull something like that out for a niche upgrade to a random class’s powers? And to be so confident that they can apply it to humans, an unfamiliar species? I felt very, very small as I worked my way through that sequence of realizations. The gulf of tech was shocking.

I looked back at the thing still following me. I didn’t really know what it was, but Will had apparently made a deal with it for information.

“What all do you know about this place, the tools used to build it, the people involved, that sort of thing?”

“That is a large amount of information. Valuable to others who are trapped here. What will you offer me in exchange?”

Why did it even want to trade with us? Actually…

“Why do you want to trade for things?” I asked.

It halted, then began to tip over. I reached out and caught the body before it hit the ground, lowering it the rest of the way slowly.

“You really need to figure the brain stuff out,” I said, “Humans have innate balance.”

After a few more seconds of stillness and silence, it spoke again.

“I do not know. I have been changed.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what that might mean. Possibly exploitable, though.

“Giving a summary of what you know would be a good way to make people more interested in making a trade.”

It stood, leveraging the human body in ways that no living thing would, and began to speak.

“I know much of the workings of the machines cast into the realm of the spiritual. I have examined them in great detail for the nearly one hundred years of my confinement. I have some knowledge about the communication between some of these machines, and the central archive of this prison.”

So this thing seemed to know a lot about crafting or enchanting or artifice or whatever this game wanted to call it. Oddly limited for some huge magical spirit monster. Was this actually a rogue element, or was this just another event meant to break us out of the monotony of the early game office levels, and possibly teach some basic crafting?

“Do you know anything about magic? Like our powers,” I called forth a point of flame for demonstration purposes, “or other things going on here?”

“No. Beings express their nature. Humans cannot do such things. I am entropy, and my grip on what is is shaped by this. Your nature is to be small and mortal, and express your nature as such. The nearest thing to what you describe is how humans leave when they sleep.”

“Humans leave?” I asked. I had spotted a little clearing a bit further up the path, so I stopped. There was what looked like a cauldron in the middle of the clearing, and I didn’t want to confront any witches while I was in the middle of such a frustratingly dense conversation.

“Yes. You leave when you sleep, and return to our home when you wake.”

“Our home? You mean to imply that you and I come from the same place?”

“Yes. Our home. A large, spiritually hardened zone, an island of stability suffused with the essence of pure physicality. I and my cousins live at the edges, eating away at the matter and energy. You and the rest of the humans live in the center, on Earth, doing human things.”

I was wasting my time. This thing’s inclusion here felt like some kind of demented AR game from the twenty-tens. It was an isekai written by aliens that could actually abduct and drop us into another world. It was a cross between way too real, and utterly insane. Thankfully, it seemed content to keep quiet if I didn’t address it.

I pulled up my skill list, to verify that everything was in order before the next encounter.

Skills

Incinerate

Produce a focused beam of fire.

Power+ (x3) - -

Flashfire

Produce a pulse of fire centered on yourself.

- - -

Stoke Flame

Intensify nearby fire sources.

Elemental Union

Range+ (x2) -

Flame Claws

Flaming constructs extend your claws.

Reactive - -

Flame Oracle

- - -

Seeing my stats helped a bit to calm the existential angst that talking to the dumb entropy spirit brought out. I was practically salivating at what sorts of augments I might get for my passive. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to pick between that and the friendly fire and fire resist modification I had seen for Flashfire. I still wanted that, if my build allowed it. Flame claws had been a disappointment so far, more useful for practicing control of my passive than as a usable move, but it had still been the best of the choices offered. The reactive augment had seemed cool at the time too. I focused on it to see if I could pull up descriptions of augments after they were selected.

Flame Claws, Reactive

If activated using this augment, flaming blades will defend you at close range.

Yeah. Seemed cool, but not too useful. For swarms I had Flashfire, for anything else I could just Incinerate them. Maybe it’d be useful later on, against things much faster than I was.

Seeing everything in order, I walked forward into the clearing. There was a big iron cauldron set over a pile of wood. The area was eerily quiet. No distant chirping of birds or rustling of leaves, and even the background music had fallen silent. The color was slowly draining from the trees. I could see that there was a wooden hut a little bit further down the path.

Then there was fire. In a few seconds, the fire under the cauldron would ignite. The fire felt… wrong. Sickly. I took a few steps back, just in case.

A wave of blue flames washed up and out from the wood under the cauldron. Once the flame cleared, there was a witch sitting behind it. An actual witch: grey-green skin, dressed in black rags, even the pointed hat. There was something uncanny about her, though. She was a simulacrum of a person, an obvious construct. She reminded me a lot more of characters in other VR games, very much unlike the NPCs we ran into in that little town.

Witch in the Woods

[Well, what have we here?] she drawled, her amusement coming across the translation interface.

“Just passing through?” I tried. She cackled.

[Come now, young man. Help an old woman with her heavy load!]

She stepped to the side, revealing a dense bale of herbs on the ground behind her, bound by some sort of twine. Eh, what could go wrong? I stepped forward and picked up the leafy brick. It was nothing for me in this body, but I expected a human, even a young and strong one, would probably struggle a bit. She motioned to the cauldron, which was now filled with simmering water.

I dropped the bale into the water, where it vanished without a trace. The water turned a deep shade of green.

[What a helpful young man you are! Why, I’ll even offer you a special deal, since I’m in such a good mood!]

I gave the witch a dubious look, then stole a glance at Will’s body, stark and still at the edge of the clearing. Yeah, no cartoon witch’s ‘deal with the devil’ is going to hold a candle to the literal alien AI that was following me around for whatever reason.

“What sort of deal?” I asked. Might as well move the script forward.

[Simple, really. I’ll grant you any one wish, your heart’s desire, and in exchange you’ll stay here and serve me.]

She held out a perfect, shiny apple. Her hands had been empty before. What an obvious trap, though I did wonder what happened if you accepted the deal.

“No, I don’t think I’m interested in being your minion. Thanks though.”

No reason not to be minimally polite. If anywhere in this game had secret routes or paths, I felt like it would be on this floor. It was the most game-y of any of the levels I’d seen yet.

Sadly, it wasn’t to be. She was about to attack, I could feel in my future sense. Well… I was about to attack. I assumed there would be a good reason. I tensed, ready to respond to whatever she was about to do.

The witch threw the apple into the cauldron and cackled.

[Incinerate!]

A column of burning fury struck her, but I could see that she wasn’t injured. She had a dense cloak of storm clouds moving about her body now, and they had intercepted my attack. Fucking invulnerable phases for bosses. The green liquid boiled away and turned to gas, billowing out and obscuring the area. I tried to rush her position, but I found that I was covering less and less ground. By the time I could see her again, she towered over me.

[Flashfire]

A wave of flame burned away the green fog in the immediate area, and I could see most of the clearing. The cauldron was also enormous. The bitch shrank me! Unacceptable! This is what I get for letting the obvious bad guy do their little cutscene in peace.

[Incinerate]

I set the woods around the clearing ablaze, sweeping my beam across the brush at the base of the trees. I turned to focus my fire on the witch, only to find her gone without a trace. I was about to rush out of the clearing toward the hut when my precognitive senses lit up again.

I released a quick burst of flames all around me, a passive version of Flashfire, as I dove forward into a roll. A massive black form swept through the space I had occupied a moment before.

Crows again. More dangerous now that we were about the same size, but the intensity of my magic was in no way diminished by my size. I swept my roaring stream of flames through them, carving the crows into pieces.

Or, I would have, if not for the cartoon death rules which were obviously in effect. Each crow that took serious damage vanished and left behind only a pile of feathers. I assumed that I was getting their XP right away, which was a nice change from having to wait around for bodies to decide not to exist anymore. It was a little bit of a shame that I wouldn’t get to indulge in my newly awakened passion for eating small animals, which this body seemed to really enjoy, but the trade for convenience wasn’t terrible.

Having worked my way through several dozen birds, the rest of them seemed to get the hint. The upper reaches of the trees leading toward the hut were packed with more crows, eyeing me menacingly.

Nope, not again. I’m not walking myself into an obvious trap a second time in the same level. I looked around to find the fires I had set mostly burning themselves out rather than spread, so I didn’t bother to light up the trees ahead. Instead, I use a quick burst of passive Incinerate to set a branch on fire, near the top of one of the trees further ahead.

[Stoke Flame]

I invoked my skill, connected to the newly lit fire, and stepped into one of the nearby fires that hadn’t yet burned itself out.

I appeared next to my target, up in the branches, and focused on the temporarily docile birds.

[Incinerate]

They all swarmed the moment I attacked, but they had doomed themselves when they gave me the chance to strike first. My beam swept away dozens of them before they could even take flight, and it was only the work of seconds to cut down half of those who survived my alpha strike.

I used my claws to cling to the bark of the tree, as I dodged claws and beaks, taking out the remaining birds individually. I focused on avoiding blows, as I wasn’t about to trust my scales to stand up to talons which were bigger than mine at the moment.

When the last one had been reduced to feathers, I leaned back against the bark of the tree. The combat music was still playing. I looked around, but I didn’t see any more crows. What? I looked down, and it all made sense.

There, pacing near the trunk of the tree I was in, was a wolf. Enormous, probably pretty big by wolf standards even if I hadn’t been shrunk. Black fur, glowing red eyes, all the standard monster signifiers. It was also totally silent. That would have been a bitch and a half to fight if the crows were still dive bombing me.

[Incinerate!]

I poured out my magical fire, and found the effects to be disappointing. The wolf was easily able to dodge out of the way, snarling up at me. I guess I was going to have to do this by hand. I scanned the woods again, just to make sure that this was a lone wolf mini-boss, and not something much worse.

[Stoke Flame]

Seeing nothing to indicate that this was a monumentally stupid idea, I stepped back through the small fire I had started in this tree, and found myself back on the ground. The wolf closed the distance in a few short bounds, but I was already diving out of the way.

It’s jaws snapped at me, but it missed by inches. Not the worst possible margin of error.

[Flame Claws]

I activated it in reactive form, feeling the fire settle just under my skin. The skill saw immediate use as I had to leap backwards to avoid a swipe of its paw. Blades of flame lashed out from where I had been, scoring deep marks into the wolf’s leg, and charring the fur. I could feel the fire diminished, but not yet spent. Seemed like I’d get three slashes from one activation.

The wolf seemed cautious now, circling my position. That was probably a mistake.

[Incinerate]

I tried to track its movement, but it was too quick. I could only catch it with broad, sweeping strokes, but those hardly did more than light small sections of its fur on fire, which burnt out in moments. It incorporated rolls into its movement, extinguishing any lingering flame. I edged myself closer to the flames still burning at the outskirts of the clearing.

I wasn’t sure if it was attacking or retreating in phases, or if it realized that I was more dangerous at range, but it rushed me once more. This time I was ready.

[Stoke Flames]

As soon as the wolf made contact with me, I pulled us both through the fire, and back up the tree. We fell, crashing through branches on the way down. I did my best to hold on, clawing my way up its flank. I plunged my claws into its neck.

[Flame Claws]

Fire burst from the tips of my claws, burning their way into the wolf’s neck. It went limp just as we crashed to the ground.

Will had mentioned that pulling someone else through my teleport would coat them in a thin layer of essence that made them resist my fire magic. Thankfully, he had been precise as always. With my claws past that thin coating already, it was fair game.

I lay on the ground panting for a minute or so. I felt the remaining fire beneath my skin gradually fade away. I guess I couldn’t cast that and just leave it indefinitely. Oh well.

I sat up, and set off toward the hut. It was a much longer trip, now that I was tiny, but this body was in much better condition than my real one, so it wouldn’t be too bad. I might be cutting it close for time though.

Summary

Pyromancer, Level 8 - 51%

Bound: Earth-Human-MidCheckpoint-11

Logout estimate:

Status

Skills

Equip

Friends

Marks

Logout

Not bad XP. Where was my logout timer though? What a weird bug, and the first interface bug I had seen. I guess I’d just keep going, and the game’d kick me out when it was time.

Down the path I went. Will’s avatar followed, the spirit inside seemingly seeing nothing wrong or odd about my new stature. The colors remained washed out, the music low and threatening, but no further threats emerged.

I reached the hut, a shoddy wooden building with a rough plank for a door. I was able to pull it open just a crack, which was enough for me to slip inside. Inside was just about what I had expected. The floor was packed dirt, with a small bed off to one side, strange herbs hung up everywhere. There was a wooden table, and some sort of light source on it. I scaled it, and found something quite interesting at the top.

There, on a white ceramic dish, was an orb made of sky blue gel.

[Witch’s Antidote, 1 dose]

Well that wasn’t how the game usually handled item messages. I guess this is probably specific to this level. We’d have to come here again to test this, once Will’s and my login timers were up.

The antidote was probably about the size of a small chicken’s egg. Which, in my present form, made it about as big as my head. I picked it up, its surface cool on my skin. There was a faint ripple of golden light just under the surface, like the sun reflecting off the surface of gentle waves.

I shrugged, and took a bite. The gel was cool in my mouth, with the consistency of watery jello, and tasted like nothing at all. I swallowed, and waited for it to take effect. And waited. I looked down at the mostly intact orb.

[Witch’s Antidote, 1 dose]

Damn it. One dose. The whole thing was one dose. I took another bite. It was inoffensive, but it didn’t magically dissolve into nothing as I ate. Another bite. I could feel the liquid sloshing about, reminding me of days long past. Nights I had spent drinking and, to try to avoid the hangover, drank way too much water, nearly making myself sick that way. I was only halfway through the antidote, and I could already tell that it would be a challenge to keep all of it down. What a sadistic game.

It was a close thing, but I managed to hold down the gel for long enough. As soon as I started to notice the world get smaller, I dashed back down from the table and out the door. The gel inside me seemed to shrink with the rest of the world, so my suffering was almost immediately alleviated. Soon, I was towering over the small hut, as things were meant to be.

I reached out and wrenched the door from the frame, and tossed it aside. Nothing else stood out as obviously valuable here, but you never knew about random herbs and mushrooms, so I’d take them anyway. I checked my gear.

Equipment

Cursed Trapezohedron - 100% charged

Conceptual Material Pouch - 33/112 EssenceMass units

Artificer’s True Storage Ring - 7/10 Significant Objects, 0/50 EssenceMass units

I smiled. Will probably hadn’t even noticed that I wasn’t carrying my duffle bag purse anymore. It was now safely tucked away in my pouch. He probably totally forgot about those loot boxes the moment he dumped them on me. He ended up with both of the things that came from the glass loot boxes, so this was only fair. I’d share with Lindsey of course, once she was in her right mind.

I summoned the ring’s interface, a grid of boxes in two rows of five, and started pushing bundles of herbs at the three empty slots. Each time, the herbs fell through, and didn’t appear in the space. Objects the game deemed ‘Significant’ were really heavy on EssenceMass, whatever that was, so I tested them first by trying to put them in the ring. If they fell through the main boxes, I knew it was ok to dump them into the pouch. When the hut was bare of potion ingredient stereotypes, none of which had ended up being Significant, I dumped them all out of my ring, and stuffed them into the pouch I had hung on my makeshift belt (which had started its life as the shoulder strap for my duffle bag). The lot totaled nine EssenceMass units, so I wasn’t in danger of running out of space.

It made me wonder how Will’s power worked. It was, indeed, remarkably handy to have an inventory available. I wondered where Will’s limits might be, if that was the core concept of his power. My new ring and pouch probably couldn’t compare, if this game was at all balanced. It would be a kick in the teeth if he really only held the advantage before people could gear up properly, but considering how he’d been wielding his power lately, I didn’t think he’d get left behind so easily. Maybe I’d have to watch and see if there was anything I could learn and apply to my ring? Could I take minions with it? Ah well, stuff to test later.

I stepped out of the hut, and turned to the second path, the one leading out of the woods and toward the distant town. Before I could continue my journey to show that witch who’s in charge, a message came up that I wasn’t expecting.

William Bekker, Conservator of Hidden Worlds has logged on.

What? The last time I remembered seeing on my logout was something like an hour and some. How had Will gotten his login cooldown so low?

I turned to Will’s avatar.

“Will?”

“I am not Will. I am The Abstract Painter. You may refer to me as Painter. I have been given control of this body by the human Will. Have you forgotten?”

Well, at least Will had been right. Seems like you could trade your body away to dark spirits and then just make new ones. Still was probably going to go horribly wrong when the spirit went on a rampage while wearing Will’s face, but we had avoided the immediate worst cases.

I glanced up the path, but ultimately turned away and went back the way I came. Will and I - and I guess the Painter too if it was still following us - could finish up this level together.