Otherlife Dreams: The Selfless Hero Trilogy Read online

  She stared at him hatefully but complied, her mouth open. Watching carefully, he waited till it filled halfway and stopped. Closing her mouth, she swished it around and then spit it into the grass. She must have been thirsty considering she swallowed the next two mouthfuls, rather than spit it out. Runner watched the water fade out of existence as its last charge was used. He fixed his attention on her again, the back of her head cradled in his left hand.

  This all makes very little sense. An NPC shouldn’t be experiencing fear of being assaulted, or have a need to clean out their mouth. Very advanced game it may be, but still a game. Nothing makes sense right now. Just how much did the patch change? Can I no longer rely on the few memories I have of video games in general?

  He wondered just how much might be different as he stared through the Thief’s face, seeing her not at all. So deep was his reflection, that it was as if the sound and area around him no longer existed.

  He came back to himself suddenly, his mind jolted back to reality when the Thief shifted her weight around. The Thief was breathing heavier yet had not attempted to move from his grasp. With an an abrupt smile he tilted his head to the side, his hand tightened in her hair. “Feeling chatty yet, Thief?”

  He waited for her to respond to his question, she looked to be at a loss. Visibly mastering herself, she gradually built a mask into a controlled expression of neutrality. Hesitating, she licked her lips before finally speaking in a clear, crisp, voice.

  “Yes, I’ll speak with you. I’m not sure what you want, though. I swear, if you do anything to me I’ll kill you in your sleep.”

  “How about we start with your name, rather than threats? I hope it isn’t Thief,” Runner said. Smiling he quirked a brow at her.

  The thin mask she had put up broke apart as her face contorted with anger. Jerking at his hand holding her hair, she tried to lash at him with her forehead with little success.

  “No, my name isn’t ‘Thief’ you bastard, so stop calling me that. I have a name, it’s Hannah. Hannah Anelie.”

  “Holy shit…you have a surname? That’s different for an NPC.”

  “Yes I have a surname, damn it. Why wouldn’t I? Wouldn’t it be more strange if I didn’t have one? What the fuck is an NPC?”

  “Right, Hannah Anelie it is.”

  Her expression changed to mild irritation at the sound of her name. Staring at him, her eyes unsteady, it was obvious she didn’t know what to do, or how to respond to his statement.

  “Why were you with those lovely men Hannah? They clearly meant the Peasant harm, as simple as she seems to be, and had already murdered her friend.”

  “I wasn’t with those pig fuckers. I was robbing everyone there. I’m a thief not a murderer. I may have killed people before, but never someone that would be missed. Not worth the attention.”

  “I think I get it,” he acknowledged. He moved his head back and forth a little as if he were juggling a thought. “Essentially, you were just capitalizing on them being distracted. You didn’t consider helping them?”

  “What would you have me do? They were stronger than me. Outnumbered me. I’m just a thief from the city, I’m not some ranger like you, traipsing around through the woods and fucking deer by moonlight. Pulling food out of the ground, all magical like, with nary a care.”

  Deer fucking aside, she had a point. It also made him realize he hadn’t looked at her outside of a cursory inspection. Fortunately he had spent the day trying to level Analyze. He’d even managed to work it to beginner level three. Rectifying that, he targeted her and used the ability.

  Scrolling down with a thought he parsed the information and it matched what she had already told him. Hannah Anelie, Thief, level eleven, basic gear, no weapons since he had disarmed her already. She had a series of status ailments, but he wasn’t able to see what each one individually signified.

  Pulling up the game console with a directed mental command, he shook his head to concentrate and focused in on it while selecting Hannah.

  /Target

  Target Acquired: Thief0084

  /Status

  Flag Status:

  Flag1Active=2

  Flag2Active=1

  Flag3Active=0

  Flag4Active=0

  Flag5Active=1

  Condition:

  Starving

  Afraid

  Bound

  Wounded

  Confused

  He closed the console window, and looked into Hannah’s face once more. He was pleasantly surprised with how much information he was able to acquire, and what he could infer from it, his mood had only gotten better.

  An immediate problem he had to handle was the Starving condition. While it would take an actual human being a considerable amount of time to starve to death, the game had simplified it. As the time without food increased, constitution would decrease until it reached zero. At which point you would die and respawn in the cemetery. This didn’t apply to NPCs of course as they wouldn’t respawn, they simply ceased to be, replaced by another NPC.

  Doesn’t apply to me either actually.

  He sucked in a startled breath as he checked her constitution. Five percent of her total constitution was all she had left. With that much gone, it was a wonder she hadn’t expired to any encounter she had. Could have been a wild rabbit and it would have ended poorly for her. He’d have to feed her if he wanted to keep her alive. The plan was to keep her alive long enough to turn her over to the town and no more. It was unlikely she would make it through the night otherwise, and Runner didn’t want to lose her as a resource. That, and he was hoping she maybe had a bounty on her.

  He clicked his tongue and opened his inventory, dragging out one of the bunches of wild strawberries. It was the most substantial thing he had foraged as of yet, and had five uses. He’d been looking forward to eating them, but it seemed fate had other plans for him. Alone, it might just get her back up to just hungry status.

  “While I admit to believing what you’ve said, you’re still a thief with a potty mouth. I have no intention of untying you. If I do decide to untie you, it certainly won’t be in the woods at night,” he declared. With mercy forcing his hand, he regretfully continued. “I’m willing to sit you upright, and feed you, rather than have you starve to death over night. I promise to be gentle, if you can promise to not bite me, or anything stupid like that. Otherwise, we go back to you starving. You start your career as a worm buffet while I go along my merry way. Well?”

  Rather than reply Hannah nodded once, and watched him with hooded eyes.

  With anger burning his mind but mercy guiding his heart, he levered her upright into a sitting position, and fed her. In the end it took both sets of strawberries.

  They arrived at a small town early the next morning. Runner drew everyone up short when the buildings came into view, far in the distance. Inspecting it, he found it was a simple thing, houses and shops built close together. Meandering streets that had been placed as the population grew, ran throughout like twisting paths. It seemed like any other village that one might see in a fantasy setting.

  “Would that be our destination?” he inquired of his quiet companion. She had said precious little this entire trip. When he tried to converse with her, even about the simplest of subjects, her responses never varied from single word responses, or silence.

  “Yes.”

  “Mm, you don’t say. I do hope the reason you’ve been so quiet, is you’re contemplating a speech for the town about our little adventure. Or maybe all the delightful things you’ll tell me when we arrive, like the town’s history. Maybe even give me a tour, introduce me to the mayor, or your family.”

  “No.”

  “Ahhh, fantastic. Lead on fair farm maiden, she of the reticent articulation, master of the spoken word!”

  Said fair farm maiden only nodded her head in response, and set off with her horse walking along side her.

  Runner started walking again with an unsatisfied groan, Hannah falling in beside h
im. They had left the gag off today, though her wrists were still bound. Runner had tied a lead into the bindings, and then looped that into his belt. It wasn’t the brightest idea, but he figured he could handle an unarmed thief, even if she decided to yank on the cord.

  “Hah, real winner with the ladies there, shit head. Really wooed her right out of her skirt,” Hanna chirped from his side. She had recovered quite a bit over night. Once he had finished feeding her, he used Cure to get her health back up to full. She still had the bound status, but that was unavoidable, since he had to keep her tied.

  “Yes. It does seem that way. Either way, I don’t imagine I’ll get much from her other than meeting other people I can speak with. Hopefully they’re a bit more verbose. We shall see.” He shrugged, the conversation leaving him. Runner was left with the impression that he was missing something. After a moments thought, and looking up at his mini-map, he realized what it was. There had been no notification he had left one zone and entered another.

  Making a nonplussed noise, Runner was disheartened to see that he had minimized the notification window. It was separate from the social pane and held notifications that held a higher value than skill leveling or experience gains.

  In his carelessness he had triggered the default setting for the notifications to remain minimized until it was restored to its proper place. That also meant he had not received any notifications, which would include discovering new areas. Thinking back he realized he had actually turned it off the day before yesterday in his titanic battle of the ages with Yeller.

  Letting out a frustrated breath, he brought the notification window back to the front

  Congratulations! Server first: Discover an ability

  You’ve earned 100 fame

  Congratulations! Server first: Defeated an enemy five levels higher

  You’ve earned 50 fame

  You’ve earned the title Unyielding

  Congratulations! Server first: Defeated an enemy ten levels higher

  You’ve earned 100 fame

  You’ve earned the title Indomitable

  Congratulations! Server first: Level 5

  You’ve earned 500 fame

  Congratulations! Server first: Have over 500 Fame

  You’ve earned 100 fame

  Congratulations! Server first: Level 10

  You’ve earned 500 fame

  Congratulations! Server first: Level 15

  You’ve earned 500 fame

  Congratulations! Server first: Level 20

  You’ve earned 500 fame

  Congratulations! Server first: Have 10 unspent attribute points

  You’ve earned 100 fame

  Congratulations! Server first: Have 20 unspent attribute points

  You’ve earned 100 fame

  Congratu-

  Runner stopped in his tracks. Reading through the messages one by one, he could only shake his head in disbelief. He didn’t care to read through all fifty-four notifications and what each one meant, so he started mashing the Accept key as fast as possible.

  It turned out he had earned a number of server firsts, achievements, titles, and created abilities.

  There were five abilities he had created: Enchant Weapon, Enchant Armor, Intimidate, Persuade, and Seduce. Of those Seduce was disconcerting. Maybe he had been pushing the Peasant girl a bit harder than he realized, and Hannah wasn’t just teasing him.

  Everything else boiled down to the fact he had earned over five-thousand points of fame, twenty levels worth of experience, and now had twenty pending level ups. That would put him at level twenty-one exactly.

  Chapter 3 - Memories -

  08:17pm Sovereign Earth time

  09/03/43

  Drumming his fingers along the windowsill, Runner stared out into the slate colored afternoon sky. Clouds hung heavy from horizon to horizon, drenching any and all foolish enough to be outside. Rain suited him just fine right now to be perfectly honest. Mentally laboring over how to proceed with his level ups he found himself at a loss.

  No matter which way he went with his attribute points, he’d be lacking in every other way. While his enchanting would certainly help shore up some deficiencies, it would in no way balance him enough to be as strong as any other class. He would never fully measure up against any one else in their chosen forte.

  Once accepting that fact, Runner came to the conclusion that he was now faced with two choices. Dedicate himself to one class and be second best to every other person out there. Another option was to dedicate himself to every class, and spread himself wide. Wide and very thin.

  On top of everything else, he had made mistake of querying how many people were in graveyards. It had been an errant thought, that if people died, they’d reappear in the graveyard, right? If it was true that death brought true death, the graveyard would be populated.

  Finding the command to find everyone in a graveyard only took the barest of searches in the help section. Before he took the time to consider the consequences of the query, he had already gotten his answer. He had not been prepared for the number; though it provided confirmation of his worst fears.

  “In a situation where I need to level up the fastest, is it better to have a bigger toolbox, or just one really good tool?” Runner mused aloud. Stifling a yawn he rested his forehead on the cool glass of the window. Runner only had one goal. Level up fast, hard, and get everyone left out of this trap. Game or not, it was actually killing people. By the thousands. Three thousand fifty-seven to be exact.

  “I have no idea what you’re raving about now, but if it’s about a job that needs doing…I try to keep my toolbox as small as possible. Fit it with the best tools I can. Anything that serves a second purpose is perfect, and if I can find one that can do three things it’s even better,” Hannah supplied from the table. Rope creaked as she noisily shifted around in the chair, causing Runner to glance back at her.

  Bound from the waist down to a chair, she appeared content. Leaning back as she finished her meal she waited. The bowl burst into blue motes of light and faded to nothing. As the little lights disappeared she rested her arms lightly on the table.

  “That seriously doesn’t bother you? The way things just, poof, turn themselves into an electric fart and disappear?” Runner asked. He turned himself around completely to face her.

  She’d cleaned herself up since they’d arrived. Leather armor had been replaced with simple peasant garb.

  Runner had purchased it on the cheap from the innkeeper downstairs. Pricing had been only a few copper coins, on top of which he paid for two days lodging. A tub of water to bathe in was the last purchase to round out their stay; all told only cost two silver coins.

  Copper, Silver, Gold, and Platinum coins were the measure of wealth in Otherlife. Coinage was on a ten base system. One Platinum coin was worth ten Gold, which was worth one hundred Silver.

  That group of thieves had a number of silver coins between them that went to Runner’s war chest. Selling off all the duplicates in his inventory, then selling the raiders gear to boot, he made a tidy sum. He already had three gold to his name and a fistful of silvers. He couldn’t think of a way to confirm his financial standing, but he’d bet on being ahead of the curve.

  “Not in the least, I had no use for it. There was nothing left, either. This is how the universe works. What’s so hard to understand? The fact it bothers you makes you even more strange. You using magic to rewarm the water, now that’s a topic. Or when you used magic in that fight with the bandits. Care to explain, or are you still pretending they didn’t happen? I’m not blind you know. I may not be the most intelligent, or even the best spoken, but I’m not stupid,” Hannah inquired with a Cheshire's grin.

  Runner shook his head with a grunt and refused to comment. Casting Fireblast into the water hadn’t immediately worked, but after a few tries it eventually took hold. He’d decided to try because of the fact that so many of his previous experiments had been successful.

  “Let’s just say I know a
bit of magic and leave it at that. Back to what you were saying earlier though. It definitely has merit, though now I wonder if it’s even possible? I’d have to find an attribute that fit every class. I’ll probably need to find two actually, as I doubt Dexterity would cross into the realm of casters. Best place to look will be in the second promotion tier for end results,” Runner said.

  Calling a system window into existence, Runner opened the in game help file. After a moment he found the section dealing with the classes. It had tables, charts, and diagrams of the information he needed. Flipping straight to the section he focused on the second tier of promotions.

  Doing a cross comparison against each and every one would take time. It would be worth every second of the time spent if he found attributes that transcended base classes. Hannah was absolutely right; this called for a multi tool of the infest caliber. He could build himself into a jack of all trades, one that was proficient in each area. Rather than the bargain bin, must go, on sale, version.

  Time passed in this way. Rain smashed itself to bits on the window pane while Runner continued ever deeper into his analysis. Meanwhile Hannah kept her hands on the table as instructed. Runner noticed that over time her posture became more rigid, her fingers tips lightly tapping the wood of the table.

  She jumped when Runner suddenly sat up straight and laughed.

  “Ah ha! Dexterity, Intelligence, and a dash of Agility. It’s not perfect, but it’ll definitely hit a second promotion for every base class. Thank you Hanners, that was a wonderful thought. Now, let’s see,” Runner muttered, his voice fading out. He tilted his head down and peered into the character window.

  “You realize you’re insane, right? You told that idiotic peasant you weren’t, but I’m starting to wonder if you truly are. You’re not even listening anymore, are you? Jackass,” sighing, she put her head down on her forearms in resignation.