Vivid Stars Online

Exhausted, we only stayed up long enough to treat our wounds and ensure that our fire had enough fuel to last until morning. While I was pretty sure the area would be safe with the wolves and the lake Beast dead, we were so beat up that I didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

The next morning we slept in, myself in the real world and Linnea inside the game. By the time I logged in and dragged myself out of my tent, it was almost time for us to be picked up. I sent a confirmation message to Brian, including a scan showing the area was safe.

In the light of day, the events of earlier that morning felt unreal, impossible even. Yet I could see the collapsed bulk of the Lake Beast from here, only a few dozen feet from our camp. It presented an obvious source of proof that it really had all happened.

I was pulled from my thoughts as Linnea pulled herself from her tent and walked over to me. She glanced past me toward the sandbank, likely having the same thoughts as I was.

“Seems crazy, doesn’t it,“ I said with a chuckle. “We set out to kill the wolves at most and ended up with some kind of boss monster on our hands.”

She turned toward me, nodding her head as she did so. “Sure does,“ she responded, laughing along with me. “I thought we were dead for sure half a dozen times. What happened with that energy blast, anyway? Did you finally get those Psionic abilities?”

I shook my head a little sadly. “That would be a great story, wouldn’t it? My powers awakened in my time of greatest need. Sadly that isn’t how the game works. It was just the defensive benefits of my stats. My Psionic Abilities are still locked behind the quest path.”

I’d tried enough to be sure about that. There were no new skills nor was there any kind of odd energy still remaining in my body. Worse, I knew exactly what I needed to do to get them, I just had to follow the quest path.

Follow it straight into my worst nightmare that is, down into the caves. For now, however, I pushed those dark thoughts aside. I had a little longer, at least before I had to make a decision.

“Brian should be here in an hour,“ I said, turning to Linnea to distract me. “We have time to make breakfast before then. May as well use some of our remaining rations and have a little feast.”

She smiled in return, nodding her head. “I like that idea,“ she said as she moved over to her pack. “A bit of a celebration after surviving all that. I hit level five with the crazy amount of XP that Lake Beast gave as well, so there’s that to celebrate too.”

I congratulated her as we settled into cooking, enjoying the chance to rest before we began harvesting the wolves of their cores. While I would have loved to harvest the Lake Beast as well, my knife could barely scratch its hide. There was just no way that I would be able to carve far enough into its chest to get the core.

The trip back was uneventful, though Brian was shocked at the condition we were in. He insisted on dropping us at the hospital, calling ahead to get permission to use their landing pad.

I didn’t argue with him, it was probably best we got checked out after how injured we’d been. The doctors fussed over us for a couple of hours before giving us some stronger medicine and sending us on our way. It cost a thousand credits each, but I felt the expense was worth it.

We split up after that, Linnea going to report to the Mercenary Guild and me to the Explorers Guild. I thanked her for everything and offered to pay to fix her gun before she went.

Linnea had simply laughed and refused, saying that since she’d reached level five, it was time to update, anyway. I accepted her decision with grace and let her know I might do another expedition in a day or two if she was interested.

She nodded and said she’d think about it, depending on how things went with the Mercenary Guild. Apparently, they sometimes had missions they assigned to members, much like the Explorers Guild did.

Then she left, and I moved on to report the results of my mission. I only had to wait half an hour before Bradford would see me, and I used the time to at least change into fresh clothes.

When the time was up, I knocked on the door and moved in when I heard an “Enter”. Bradford was sitting behind his desk, as usual, barely looking like he’d moved since I left nearly two weeks ago.

“Still alive I see,“ he address me with a laugh as I entered. “That’s better than some recruits we’ve had in the past. Now, how did the mission go? Any progress?”

I nodded in response, ready to surprise him with the results. “Yep,“ I responded nonchalantly, “I found a place, I'll send you the info.”

Grinning, I sent the information packet I’d prepared on the ride back. It contained the full scans of both the lake and the Beasts we’d removed to secure it.

My grin only grew wider as I saw Bradford’s bushy eyebrows rise higher and higher as he read through the information on the screen in front of him. By the time he turned to face me, you could barely differentiate them from his hairline.

“This,“ he paused, lost for words. A few moments later, he continued, shaking his head. “This is a lot more than I expected from a rookie. You’ve more than earned your full guild membership.”

“However,“ he paused, looking a little uncomfortable. “Given the size of the payout you’ll be getting and the potential importance for the city, I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait for it to be confirmed by the government.”

He quickly continued, holding up a hand before I could interject. “Now, it’s not because we don’t trust you or anything like that. It’s just policy. I'll send the information to the Duchess and ask for it to be expedited myself.”

I paused, thinking for a few seconds before I responded. “How long do you expect it to take?” While the situation wasn’t ideal, I probably should have expected something like this. A fresh recruit shows up out of nowhere and then suddenly has massive success on his first mission?

Of course, they would be at least a little suspicious of that. It would actually be pretty stupid to just pay out without verifying it. I was sure there would be some way of faking the scans with the right technology and skills, after all.

“A week or two,“ he said in an apologetic tone. “I imagine Duchess Milena will send a military patrol to the location you’ve indicated. They’ll check the place out to confirm the Beasts are dead and the fish levels are as good as you’ve reported.”

That wasn’t quite as bad as I’d feared. Two weeks wouldn’t put me in the danger zone finance wise so I could wait it out. It would even give me time to do my Path of the Psion quest if I could bring myself to even consider it.

“OK,“ I replied with a nod. “That’s fair, I can wait two weeks.” If anything, I saw it as a good sign that my eventual reward would be significant. If it covered all my expenses so far, then it would be ideal.

“Excellent,“ Bradford responded, looking relieved that I hadn’t pushed the matter. “I'll send you a message when I hear more. Once it's all confirmed I'll approve the payment and your full membership. After that, you will be free to take on more missions for the guild.”

“About that,“ I responded, taking the opportunity to ask something I was curious about. “Where are all the full guild members? I don’t think I’ve seen a single person in here other than you and the receptionist. Also, the guild map is barely expanding and I know a VTOL pilot who hasn’t had work in a while.”

While I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that Brian’s lack of work was linked, I thought it probably was. He seemed very familiar with ferrying expeditions about, I felt like the explorer’s guild would normally be one of his biggest clients.

“They're all down south,“ he said, sinking back into his chair with a sigh. “I’m sure you’ve heard that our problems all started with a drought. Yes?” He raised an eyebrow at me questioningly.

When I nodded in response, he continued. “This year is the fourth in a row that it's been going on. Four years since the farms down south have had enough water to produce their normal levels of food. It got so bad that the King himself left the capitol to investigate.”

I simply shrugged at hearing that, not seeing the significance. Though I did like that, the king actually went out to help, it said good things about the monarchy on Altheias.

“Right, you're from the core worlds,“ Bradford shook his head, apparently having already forgotten my supposed origins. “He doesn’t get out much anymore, not since his hundredth birthday a few years ago.”

“Anyway,“ he continued. “When he got down there, he apparently noticed a Psionic energy field covering the entire region, one so subtle none of the lessor Psions had noticed. While he couldn’t detect the source, he could tell that it was interfering with the weather.”

Now that’s interesting, I thought, suppressing a grin given the seriousness of the discussion. If Psi energy is capable of that level of effect, then I may have picked the right class after all.

“So there’s what, some kind of ancient Psionic Device influencing the weather? Or is it a person? I responded to Bradford with a barrage of questions. This conversation had suddenly become far more interesting.

“A device, presumably,“ he responded with a frown. “We find them fairly regularly, though usually not anything that powerful. The problem,“ he sighed deeply, “is that the Arkathians shielded all their ruins against Psionic Senses.”

“Right,“ I nodded, seeing how it all came together. “So that means you need to search for them the old-fashioned way.” Given what I’d seen and experienced so far, that meant people on foot with scanners looking for anything odd.

“Correct,“ Bradford smiled at me, looking rather surprised at how I’d put it together. “While the entire region’s been searched before, we always miss some things. Particularly from back when the initial exploration was done, we had far worse equipment then.”

“So that’s where all the explorers are? Down in the south searching the region again?” I asked, finally getting to my original question.

Bradford nodded in response. “Yes, ninety percent of my branch members were re-assigned. Despite the difficulties our region is having, the higher-ups decided that fixing the drought was a higher priority.”

“I can’t even blame them,“ he finished, sinking back into his chair. “If we get good weather for next year, then we can finally start digging ourselves out of the hole we’re in.”

That explains why they were so quick to sign me on, I mused as Bradford trailed off. Also, why did he see me himself? Most of his staff probably went down south with the other explorers.

In a way, it was good for me, giving me a perfect opportunity to take on bigger missions for the guild. On the other hand, it meant that there weren’t many others working on relieving the plight of the city and the greater region.

I really hoped that the lake would help with that; the last thing I needed was the city I’d chosen to collapse into anarchy. With nothing more to say, I thanked Bradford and moved out to get a room.

There wasn’t really anything else for me to do in the game today. Instead, I’d take a day In the real world. It was time to take a long, hard look at my future.

It felt like my dream was almost within reach, yet light years away at the same time. The only thing standing in my way was myself and my claustrophobia. Hopefully, with some time out of the game, I could figure out a way forward.

I was only sure of one thing. If I couldn’t get access to my Psionic Abilities soon, then the game’s difficulty would scale beyond what I could deal with. The fight against the lake Beast had proven that.