Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
For the first time since I entered Peripeteia, I wake up happy. At best, I’ve felt hopeful, even eager to get going. But happy? No. Even in the real world, I can’t remember the last time I woke up in such bliss. Maybe I never have.
With only a full-sized bed for us all to sleep in, Cait, Guy, and I have to fit together like puzzle pieces to stay on the bed.
Fortunately, I’m squished in the center.
There were several times when Cait and Guy started slipping off.
Of course, that always wound up waking us up, and the sensation of our naked bodies pressed together would get us going again. I’m exhausted in the best possible way.
Cait and Guy slumber peacefully with their limbs draped over me.
I enjoy the steady rise and fall of their chests against my sides—Cait on my left and Guy on my right.
Cait is usually so perfectly groomed when not in battle, but right now, her hair is completely loose, with tendrils stuck to the sweat on her forehead.
Guy sighs dreamily in sleep, clearly having some lovely dream.
This is Heaven. It’s got to be.
However, daylight has no patience for the weary, and there are important things to do, things that could very well save us all.
After last night, I know how ticklish Cait is and how much she loves it.
So I dance fingers across the side of her waist, a spot I learned was one of her favorites.
She giggles in such a sweet, girlish way that it makes me forget what a Domme she turned out to be during our third go.
Her lashes flutter open, and her beautiful green eyes caress me.
“Good morning,” I whisper.
“Good morning,” she whispers back before giving me a long, soft kiss on the lips. She tastes like me.
Guy nuzzles against my breast and mumbles, “No, morning. Only sleep.” With his eyes still closed, he smiles. “And sex.”
“I’d be up for that if you both can give my arms back,” I tell him. “They lost sensation hours ago.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Cait says and sits up. She raises my now free hand to kiss my fingers better. “I’m sorry.”
“If that’s the price for sleeping next to you, I’ll gladly pay it,” I say.
Guy opens his eyes and yawns before sluggishly sitting up too. “Next time, we’ll demand a bigger bed.”
“We should get our own tent,” Cait suggests, giving him a big smile.
The idea of multiple nights like the one we just experienced has me ready to go for another round but then I remember how important today is. Bringing up my menu to see the time, I bolt upright. “Fuck!”
“What’s wrong?” Guy asks.
“It’s already eleven o’clock!”
Guy’s eyes widen. “Oh, shit!”
Cait jumps out of bed and scrambles for her clothes. Guy and I do the same. As soon as we have on our clothes and armor and grab our gear, we fly out the door. I’m the first to our friends’ door. Before I can knock on it, Miko opens it.
“We’re coming,” she says, beckoning Joshua forward. He grabs Sylvia by the bindings and takes her along with him. Then, I see Doug get up from the shadow of the far-left corner. I never knew an orc could look embarrassed, but the pink blush on his green cheeks is pretty pronounced. Oh, no…Did he…?
“By the way,” Miko says, directing her gaze to Guy. “Your silence spell doesn’t work when you’re concentrating on something else. Like teaching Cait how to make Lauren moan like that.”
Guy goes pale, and Cait ducks her face behind her hand. I squeeze my eyes shut like maybe when I open them again this whole horrible moment wouldn’t have happened. But when I do, I see Miko’s unamused face focused on me.
“Tonight, I’m getting a full night’s sleep,” she says. “Got it?”
I offer her an apologetic half-smile. “Sorry. We’ll be quieter.”
Miko leans close, a stern expression on her face. “You will be silent as the dead unless you want me and Joshua to get loud, too.”
My eyes dart over to Joshua, who is covering up his mouth. His chest is bubbling with a laugh he’s trying desperately to hold back.
“You and…?” I point at Joshua.
Miko shrugs. “A woman has needs.”
“If we want to eat, we should get something on the way,” Doug says, ending this terrible interaction. Thank fucking God.
Just as in Thebe, there are street vendors, but they’re pretty much on every street, not just near the temple.
So, we have plenty of time as we walk to eat our toasted almonds.
I hold my bag of them close to my chest so that my cloak can capture the heat and keep me cozy.
The others take after my example, so by the time we make it to the courtyard by the temple, we’re smiling at each other like sleepy kittens.
Just like everything else in Ismarus, the temple is bigger than any I’ve seen yet.
Even as spacious as the courtyard is, it’s completely dwarfed by the sky-brushing structure devoted to the gods.
I’m tempted to go there and talk to Aphrodite first, but there’s not enough time. Players are already congregating.
This morning, I turned off my title. Even if the players coming here are willing to give me a chance, there’s still a chance I’ll pass by some that want my blood. This gives me a chance to watch them without feeling watched in return.
They all twitch with anxiety, but their chatter is excited, even hopeful. Despite having difficulty getting past level two or three and making little headway in the main quest line, they’re here in Ismarus. And the Orpheus quest is still in their menus because I haven’t broken it yet.
“It’s time,” Miko says.
I walk to Doug’s side and whisper, “You go first, okay? You’ve got the info they really want.”
Doug responds with a solemn nod and makes his way to the podium.
“I’m glad to see so many of you here,” he shouts a bit too loudly, getting everyone’s attention right away.
“My name is Doug, I’m a Fist of Hephaestus, and quests haven’t worked for me for a really long time.
But that doesn’t matter because I’m level six. ”
I gasp. I’m not even level six, and every single quest has worked for me so far.
“The further I got from the main quest line path, the more chances for gaining XP I found,” Doug says.
“There are monsters all throughout the woods and mountains. There are even other towns with NPCs who have side quests. Because we’re all in a rush to find the offerings our gods want, we don’t take the time to explore.
This is a sandbox game, guys! We’re supposed to wander!
Jumping straight to the big quests means you’ll probably be underpowered, anyway. ”
I glance at Alexander, who’s watching Doug speak.
As always, he has his brooding romanceable NPC look thing going on, but he’s also nodding.
Nodding. Why would there be any programming for him to agree silently with a player who isn’t even in his party?
No, he’s having his own thoughts on the matter, and they align with Doug’s. He’s broken like all the other NPCs.
Alexander is also right. What Doug says makes sense.
It overlaps with Alexander’s own insistence that we not jump straight to the Khione quest. I barely got to level five when I got here because I was in such a rush to press ahead.
But how many days are left until seeing Mom again isn’t a possibility?
“Anyway, there’s more to this,” Doug says and beckons me to join him on the platform. “Hear what my friend here has to say.”
Suddenly, I wonder if everyone who has arrived would love to see me dead. All the players carry their weapons on them wherever they go. It would only take one well-aimed arrow to take me down right now. This is too important to wimp out on, though. Swallowing down my nerves, I get up to the podium.
“My name is Lauren,” I tell them. “But you probably know me better as the Cleric of Aphrodite.”
A wave of grumbling in the crowd tells me they know full well who I am. Most of them were probably those who attacked me when we were all in line to get in.
“I didn’t mean to break any quests,” I say. “I just saw another way to handle a situation and then…Well, it changed the outcome of that quest. After that, no matter what I did, the quests started breaking because the NPCs are becoming aware.”
I look across a sea of stony faces. I’m not telling them anything new. In fact, I’m reminding them of how much I’ve fucked things up for them. What I’m about to say will probably piss them off more.
I clear my throat and continue, “I’m sorry that it’s made things so difficult for all of you. You’re all just trying to figure out how to appease your gods. I assume most of you are like me and want to get home to the people you love. My mom is dying, and all I want to do is…”
I duck my head and pinch the bridge of my nose. I don’t have time to cry over this. After a few sniffs and a deep breath, I decide I’m ready to get back to it.
“I’m sorry that this is making things so difficult for all of you,” I say. “But I’m not sorry that I’m breaking the NPCs.”
Gasps ripple across the crowd. Some mouths are open in shock, others bare teeth in rage.
“If you’ve talked to an NPC, maybe you see what I do,” I tell them.
“They’re people like us. I believe they’ve been able to feel things all this time, but it’s like the game put them in this dream state where they have to do and say the same things over and over.
They have to deal with any kind of abuse a player might throw at them.
They respawn after grizzly deaths, and after we ‘save’ them, they’re back in the same horrifying situation the moment we leave. ”
Some of the audience is nodding, but far too many still look upset.
“In Sardis,” I continue, “I saw an opportunity to broker peace between Arachne’s children and the villagers. The spiders only spun that web because they wanted to reclaim their home. They weren’t bad people, just scary looking. They never wanted to harm anyone.
“I thought I’d found an alternate way to complete the quest. I didn’t realize I’d broken it until I walked through the village and saw the shell shock on the NPCs’ faces.
Children cried, and people searched for their missing loved ones.
That’s how real people respond to trauma.
And if I hadn’t broken the quest, they’d have to experience that nightmare all over again. ”
“So what?” a man calls from the crowd. “They can figure things out after we leave!”
“You think we’re all going to leave any time soon?” I ask him. “Seriously? My beta player friends have been here for months and haven’t found their offerings yet. My goddess told me no one has. But I’m getting off track.”
I take a deep breath, hoping that they’ll take the olive branch I’m about to offer.
“I haven’t even touched the Orpheus quest yet,” I say. “If you all join my party, we can do it together. Even if you’re low-level, there are so many of us, we should be able to knock it out easily. That will get you on track with the main quest line, and you’ll probably get some good XP out of it.”
There are dozens of players in the courtyard. Most of them are gawking at me. I see a couple shake their heads and walk away. A few approach the podium.
“Do you think it will work?” a young woman asks. She’s small and shy, not the kind of person you think would get this far, but her title says she’s a Blade of Hades. Even if she’s low-level, she’s probably a complete badass.
“I do,” I answer. “Even when I complete the quest in an alternate way, it’s always marked as complete, and all of my party members get XP for it. Though, they’re in their thirties now, so it takes a lot more than beginner quests to help them level up.”
“Even if it doesn’t work,” Doug says. “I’m willing to help any players that want to earn XP like I do.”
“I-I want to join your party,” the young woman says.
“Me, too,” says a burly man. He’s a cleric like me but for Hera.
Several other players come forward, offering to join our party. There are some folks in the middle of the courtyard watching all this go down, weighing their options. After a while, though, they straggle over. In the end, we wind up with a party of twenty-two.
“I think we’re more than prepared to help Orpheus get away from some scorned women,” I say, almost laughing.
It’s going to be nice to have a straightforward mission for a change.