Somnia Online - K.T. Hanna (best black authors .txt) 📗

this raid was put together. But the girl was Risk’s daughter, and with that came knowledge of the man. If it came down to it, wouldn’t it help for someone to have influence over Risk that didn’t involve her subconsciously emotionally manipulating the man?

“Well, it sounds exactly like Jirald and how he reacts to Fable and I,” Murmur added softly. “Of course, that’s neither here nor there, since your father isn’t Jirald…”

Except Karn looked like everything had come together at once, like Murmur had set off fireworks. “No. You’re exactly right, and I’ll figure out what he’s done if it’s the last thing I do.”

Mur had a flash of thought that struck her as dangerous. “Karn.”

The assassin stopped as she was about to rejoin her group. “Yes?”

“Be careful. Jirald…not even he’s being his usual self. It’s like the person I knew times eight. Tread carefully. Let me know if I can help.” Murmur said it softly, hoping against hope that no one could hear her. And when Karn nodded once definitively, the relief that rushed through her took Murmur by surprise.

 

Somnia Online

Ululate - Hidden Corner

Day Twenty-Nine

James tested out several of the skills he managed to maintain from the massive list he’d previously had available to him. Self-only cast armoring, shielding that protected him from the minds of the undead. As well as a natural affinity which allowed him a higher resistance to most dark-based magic. Something the system hadn’t completely released for the players in the game world yet.

He liked having any edge he could muster. Despite his account being a dev one, and him being logged in and thus difficult to boot out because of that, he was acutely aware that his time in the world wasn’t unlimited. Every second was borrowed.

Sadly, he had been unable to boost his developer skin up to the maximum level, which would have made his journey so much easier. Especially considering he couldn’t seem to retrieve the teleporting specialties that he’d really been counting on. Something in the system wouldn’t let him get past the level forty he’d entered with. Luckily, he’d already been geared up from ages ago when he’d last logged in. While nothing on a par with the equipment the raiding guilds were receiving, it was still decent and served its purpose. For now, at least.

His staff was the one thing he was happy the system hadn’t managed to take from this character. When first observed, it looked more like a baton, but he could shake it out and have it extend into a fairly formidable-looking double-edged staff. The intricacies of the knot work all along it glowed with a golden phosphorescence. Its power hummed inside his mind as it connected to his headgear, activating the special abilities it still had access to.

It even hummed its little tune to him, lulling him to look deeper, to go deeper. After all, Somnia could take his mind off everything, couldn’t it? But he shook his head. This wasn’t the time to revert to his former habit of gaming. His career depended on it. He’d promised so much, and the cards were all falling down around him. Taking a breath, he pushed himself upright and pulled up the map as he gripped the staff tight, asserting his will and making sure it stayed in place.

Now, without his developer teleportation abilities, he had to figure out another way to get across the world and to where Fable and the other guilds were making their mark. The map gave him the only possibility open to him.

Being short the ability to teleport also meant he had to set out back through the town he’d logged out in for some reason all those moons ago. Why he’d been in Ululate, he couldn’t even remember. As he rounded the corner of the building he’d been sitting behind, he stopped, staring at the fountain. The people around him, mostly players but some NPCs too, just went about their normal business. They didn’t appear to notice anything out of place at all. James frowned and approached cautiously. The luna in the statue in the middle of the fountain had moved. He was sure of it, and he could feel the tremors lightly shaking under his feet.

Like the fabric of the world and the fountains knew something was coming.

He chuckled at the grandiose thoughts coming into his mind. Or maybe it was supposed to be a moving water feature. How was he to know? It was also of no concern and had nothing to do with what he needed to accomplish. He pushed on, completely determined to reach his destination sooner than later. All he had to do was locate them and wait for them to exit their current dungeon. Surely, he could corner Wren then…if he could remember her name in the game.

He smiled to himself. Her name might not stand out to his memory, but her guild was Fable. He knew that because her guild was always called Fable. He’d done enough research once he realized that something was off kilter about Laria’s behavior. Pulling up his interface, he searched for the guild, only to find that the high levels were currently located on the continent of Cenedril which meant he had even further to travel than he’d hoped. Why-oh-why hadn’t he been logged out over there?

Admittedly, he had been depending on still having his developer abilities. His character hadn’t been well-known, so all dev characters had to have been set up in the parameters he found himself caught in.

At least he had gold on him, and it was easy enough to get himself a mount and head out that way. There were more ways than instantaneous teleportation to get to Pelagu. He didn’t have the time if he wanted to solve this problem before he had to report to his boss. And probably before the system tracked his exploits.

Buying a wolf, which admittedly wasn’t the elven mount, got him a few strange looks. He didn’t care,