Chương 3: A Druid Begins

The giant man was certainly not happy about being laughed at. He snarled, stamped his feet, and let out a long string of curses drowned out by the applause and teasing of all assembled. But there wasn't anything he could do about it, unless he was ready to start a real fight there in the barroom. And it seemed his bluff had been sufficiently called.

Humiliated, he sheathed his sword and walked out while the raucous laughter of the crowd faded, the fiddler returned to his song, and everyone's attention returned to drinking and storytelling.

"Well done," said the barkeep.

"I've been waiting for someone to stand up to Brock for weeks now." Elias turned to see that the man was offering him a fresh drink.

"Another one on the house to replace the one you … spilled."

"Oh … thank you." A few strangers patted Elias on the back as they passed through. He took a long sip of the beer and began to feel pretty decent, especially for a dead man.

"Can I ask you a few questions, barkeep? I'm feeling terribly confused about things," he tried. But the man had already gotten busy again. Now that the fire knights were gone, people seemed to be ordering drinks more freely. As if there had been pent up demand.

"Like what?" said the barkeep, pouring draught and cracking a smile over his shoulder that made Elias think he was being teased a bit.

"Like, well, everything. Was that giant getting in my face just now supposed the big trial, or what? What am I supposed to be doing here? What is a druid? And how am I supposed to do any alchemy if I don't even have—""There is a board in the middle of the square where you can get yourself going. A good place to start, that."

"A board?" But the crowd had grown thirsty. They pushed past Elias and now had him separated from the helpful man behind the bar. Elias was sad he hadn't even gotten his name. At least he knew the name of his new bully. Brock. Something told Elias he hadn't seen the last of this Brock fellow, whatever the case might be. He finished his drink, feeling a warm and light sensation begin to radiate out from his stomach. It was strange how all of the sensations he now felt were just as strong as they had always been.

The colors were just as vivid. He even felt the chill of the night air as he walked out of the tavern and into the street. So much for the dead being insensate.

"A board … a board. Well, I certainly don't see a hardware store anywhere around here. Maybe he meant a message board? But I don't see any signs of electricity, much less an Internet cafe." After a bit of a wander, Elias came to what seemed to be the nexus of the place. In the center of the town he'd stumbled upon a little square park. It was overgrown, as if whoever was responsible for it had been severely lax in their duties.

There were massive trees, behemoths of the forest growing wider and taller than any he'd ever seen before. Monsters of bark and leaf and branch. From these trees, thick vines dangled from the canopy to the soil. Many of these vines had flowers spiraling out from their muscular forms. Big, bright flowers of color patterns that wouldn't be out of place on a 1960s music festival poster. Elias found himself trying to pick out the specific species from among them, whispering Latin names to himself.

He crept closer, going in for a better look, when a rather disturbing thought occurred to him. He had been thinking about sniffing one of the vines, and had only just stopped himself.

"Jeeze," he mumbled, "maybe that giant back in the bar really did have my number." The park also had mushrooms in great abundance, with shapes so fanciful that they ached to be studied. He was sure they must be some kind of special, after-life variety that didn't exist in the jungle he'd been in just that morning. But as he crouched among them, walking low and examining their many shapes, his head bumped into something hard enough to hurt.

"Crap!" he shouted, rubbing the spot. It was sure to leave a bruise.

"Good job, you made it!" said a voice that was unfortunately already becoming familiar. He looked up to see the large, sentient mushroom. The spore was leaned up against a big wooden board. The board was about the size of the projector screen your algebra teacher used to try and teach you to solve for X.

"You know, they say the scenery in this park is to die for. But I don't need to tell you that, do I?" the mushroom said, and then bounced a little bit with hidden, fungal laughter.

"Right," Elias said, "I'm not following." The mushroom's laugh was cut short and he crossed his arms as if Elias had just wounded him.

"Look, I'll just tell you this now. And I hope you won't go and get offended. But you need to relax a little bit, bud. Like … you know, how your Hawaiians would say: hang loose, man."

"Yeah, sorry. I'm just a little confused by all of this."

"But you aren't confused, really. See, you made it here, didn't you? There were all sorts of things out there in the jungle stalking you, ready to make a meal out of you. There was that guard at the village gate who might have run you through if you'd said the wrong thing. And then, there was that chap in the tavern. What did he have up his ass, anyway?"

"You tell me. Aren't you supposed to be my tour guide or something? The mushroom knocked on the board.

"You don't need a tour. You made it to the quest hub, all on your lonesome. A hero's heart, if ever I've seen one. Although, to be honest, official questing is a little bit premature for you, scrub." Elias looked closely at the big board for the first time to discover that there were lines of text etched on it. # Quest (Rec level 5) Subdue five affirmation imps. # If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Quest (Rec level 10) Earn a thousand echo coins through your crafting class. # Quest (Rec level 25) Defeat the rampaging blightmaw # Quest (Rec level??) Save the town of Cinderleaf from the darkness that is threatening it. # Quest: (???) Complete your trial successfully. # The text faintly glowed blue and reminded Elias of the type of risky link you would find in an unsolicited email. Even so, he couldn't quite help himself.

While the mushroom nodded, Elias reached out and pressed the lowest level quest with two fingers. It blinked, changing colors a few times, until the disembodied voice spoke to him once again. # You r reputation is too low to accept quests. Return once you've raised your reputation, scrub. # The mushroom was making some kind of clucking sound with his tongue, not unlike a disappointed father watching his teenager fail their driving test by running over a cone."

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls," said the mushroom, articulating the lines with an overwrought British accent.

"You ever get to read Shakespeare while you were back home? Othello. My favorite. I'll have you know, the Bard is not only famous on your plane of existence. Those plays were heroic, let me tell you."

"Actually, I was a STEM major. So, not too much Shakespeare."

"That's too bad."

"Anyway, I get the point. I need reputation. Well, my little tiff back in the bar raised my reputation a smidge. But I guess I just have to do more, right?"

"That's the spirit," said the Mushroom, slapping him on the back.

"Well, I've got to run. There was this guy who dove into a sinking Volkswagen to save his dog, and well … it is a real shame. I suppose he'll be here soon."

"You know, you're not doing much guidance here." The mushroom rubbed his chin.

"I mean, can't we just be friends? It wouldn't really be a trial with me telling you everything, now would it? That would be like that time you took your dad to get a seeing test for his driver's licence and whispered the letters to him where the nurse couldn't hear."

"You saw that? What are you … some kind of … portabella Santa Claus? Did you see me when I was sleeping, too? Know when I was awake, and all that?"

"Hey, I know you still have your hackles up from the scene back there in the bar, so I'll forgive you. I just stopped in to say hi and tell you … you're doing so well, kid." It sounded kind of like the way your kindergarten teacher might say it. Elias could only blankly stare.

"I mean, you figured out how to open your character info. You figured out your class. You're on a roll. You'll figure out the rest too, kid. And remember what we said-remember to hang loose." The mushroom's fleshly fingers did a little shaka hand shake, and he faded away. The jungle mist absorbed his form and Elias was again alone in the park. All Elias could do was sigh.

He spent a few more minutes reading the board before opening his hand again, if only to review this seemingly important info without the threat of a giant flaming sword hanging over him and ruining his concentration. # Elias Thorne Level 3 Alchemist Level 1 Druid HP: 72/75 Mana: 50/50 Equipment: Worn Satchel, Engraved Pestle Inventory: None Druid Class Skills: Regeneration I. Alchemist Class Skills: Foraging I. Plant Identification I. Potion Brewing I.

Reputation: Worm # Both the voice and the text flashed through his mind. He stood there reading and rereading it, trying to figure out exactly what was the most critical part of all this jibberish. First, if he concentrated, he found that he could reach into a mental satchel and inspect the engraved pestle mentioned. It floated in front of him, stone bowl and grinder rotating in the misty air.

"Pop" he read. That was the word that was etched into the bottom of the bowl. Deep, engraved letters that looked like they had been made by a talented chiseler. It conjured up a thousand memories. And at the same time, he couldn't seem to place a single one of them, nor hold a single one in his mind long enough to even attempt to recall its significance. Death seemed to have brought with it a kind of fog. A fog that somehow stopped him from casting his thoughts back into the past.

He put the tool away and looked at the other aspects of his character sheet.

"Regeneration, huh? Seems like that would have been much more useful back in the real world. You know, when I was dying in the jungle and all." If he indeed had the ability to regenerate, perhaps he could behave a bit more recklessly than he had before. Did this place have motorcycles? He already knew it had booze, and he absently wondered how this regeneration power might affect a bad hangover. His head hurt from the blow against the board and he'd noticed a few HP missing. What about that?

Apparently, that slight knock to the head had done three points of damage to him.

"How do I do this?" But the jungle gave no response. There was no button to press. If there was some sort of hand gesture, he surely didn't think he would be able to correctly guess it. In the end, Elias supposed there was only one thing to do, in light of how strange and obscure all of this was.

"Ok well … I suppose … I declare … REGENERATION!" he exclaimed, waving his hands in front of him. He felt kind of silly, not really expecting much to happen. So imagine Elias' surprise when his hands lit up with a lambent glow and bluish-white pearls of ether began to dance around his open palms. # You begin to regenerate, said the disembodied voice. # And indeed, the pain in his noggin slowly faded.

A few moments later and he felt as if he'd taken a giant dose of aspirin, a hot shower, and then laid on the couch with an ice pack for an hour. All of that, just with some words and the wave of a hand.

"Holy shit! I'm magic," he said, as the glow faded from his open palm. This sent his mind spinning. This was only his level one druid skill? What else could he do after a few more levels? And how on earth could he hurry up and gain those levels? The mushroom hadn't said much about that. Then, he looked over the Alchemist skills again. He supposed that this was the crafting class that the signboard had mentioned. He had to use it to make a bunch of echo coins, whatever those were.

This identification ability might be useful though. He narrowed his eyes at one of the unusual mushrooms in particular. It emitted a strange glow, not entirely like the moon on a cloudy night. Elias spent a moment concentrating squarely on its oblong form.

"Identify!" he shouted to no one in particular, getting down on his hands and knees. # You have identified Faintglow Spore # Description:?? (Level up Identification Skill) Rarity:?? Harvest Difficulty:?? Notable Recipes:?? Value:?? #"And I suppose I can use the forage skill to …" # You have gained one Faintglow Spore #"Nice. I suppose the only thing left is to figure out how to make a potion out of it. I don't suppose I can just… let's see here.

How do I make you into a—" # Potion brewing requires a Alchemy Bench, the voice intoned. It sounded almost judgey to Elias' ear. #"Alright, well I suppose at least I have a goal that I can understand. Some direction is nice. All I have to do first is find a alchemy bench. The rest of this quest stuff will have to wait." As he said it, he realized he still had no idea where to start. With a glance down the various stone paths that led away from this central nexus of the park, he felt overwhelmed.

But there was something else he felt as well. A tingling sense of adventure, a rush of possibility. The paths leading away went in all directions, and none of them seemed particularly promising. In fact, each path appeared nearly identical. There was too much gloom and darkness to see where they might lead, and there were no sign postings leading the way.

Perhaps the village was a bit more sprawling than he'd given it credit for on first inspection, though it certainly didn't seem like the civic fathers had given much thought to layout or urban planning. But as he was losing himself in thoughts of how to proceed, there was a very distinctive thunk sound just behind him. Then, a low growl that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"Live, laugh, love," a gravely voice whispered just behind him.

"Huh? Elias said. But as he turned, he felt the first swipe of a vicious set of claws tear into him.