Chapter 3

Benjamin Campbell had a lot on his plate. He was, after all, the master of how other worlds interacted with his. His choices are changing the way The game interacts with spirits, as spirits are what anchors the players to the game. It was no surprise, then, that Benjamin would eventually encounter one of his own, a fellow spirit like him. [Can we even speak to each other? Like, hi, fellow spirit in training... ] It was flying towards him and it showed no emotions. [Well crap. Can we even show emotions? This is Benjamin Campbell gamer, not my ... look-alike spirit.]

It stopped right in front of him and projected a bunch of smiley faces which surrounded him. [Oh gosh. Is the person controlling this thing some anime girl who’s happy all the fucking time?} The spirit, annoyed at the comment, instantly turned those glowing smiley faces into angry frowns. Benjamin, unsure how to communicate with a spirit, sent a smiley face back in return. The new spirit instantly turned the smiley faces into even brighter smiles than before, and instantly flew away. [Uhhhg! What kinda encounter was that? Hello Goodbye? Fuckin’ trolls. Go back to your own world.]

Unperturbed by what was supposed to be one of his friend’s trolling, Benjamin zoomed across the map to find anything else he didn’t know about what was Supposedly his creation. The game kept telling him that “he created this world” and that “he can customize it,” but. [It just doesn’t feel that way to me. I just pressed a few buttons, and a computer algorithm created it.] Suddenly, he was descending to the ground fast. Benjamin couldn’t control his fall, but he wasn’t falling fast enough to where he could hurt himself. [My fucking controls stopped working. Is my rig dying? I’m sure glad I didn’t pay for this... ]

He landed gracefully on his feet to discover that he was in control of the citizen he controlled in the bar. [This is different though. There was some resistance before ... Spirits are corporeal. The game is making us control our own people to carry out tasks as though we were ... Them?]

I looked at the creature standing in front of me with bemusement. Astrodrakes are rare. Its jaw was on the floor. By that, I mean it was ready to eat someone. The blood of almost every race besides that of Mist Goblins powers its healing ability. So as long as it can cut me open and make me bleed profusely, it can heal up from the battle it had been in recently and lost. It has been said that even most fruits and vegetables growing on the trees out here in these forests will also help their healing. The major wounds need the blood. The Astrodrake sent a warning to me. It hobbled back a few steps, hovered off the ground and went back to the same spot, repeating this exact action. When I didn’t fight or flight and just kept standing there because I couldn’t move, the Astrodrake tried to simultaneously breathed fire on me and pounced on top of me, knocking me to the ground. With speed that I didn’t even know I had, I backed up from the small Drake, interested in keeping my hide. I wasn’t interested in whatever my spirit or this thing was from letting it get the best of me. In a way, I’m protecting this entity right now because corporeal beings can’t fight in physical form.

Before the Drake had a chance to react, the entity who was controlling me made the stupid and deadly mistake to make me walk up and punch it squarely in the nose. Enraged, the Drake threw a claw at my chest and it stuck. The drake grabbed me in the back with its other claw and dug deep. It could keep me like this all day. I tried to resist, to pull back from its death grip on me. Another Drake, apparently satisfied that one of his kin was assisting him in an effort to obtain more food, landed beside his kin, and ruthlessly tiered into me with its claws. The first drake held me steady while the other took the ingredients they would need, my blood. They would then kill me, cut me open to finish the job and have leftovers to pick on.

[Damn it. They’ve gotten to him! I can’t do anything about this!] Benjamin watched in discussed as two Astrodrakes tor his only means of physical interaction from him. He had no choice but to watch the gruesome exchange. His game controls were completely dead. Once the Astrodrakes had successfully killed him by shredding him apart that apparently wasn’t good enough to auto-relinquish control. Benjamin watched helplessly as they furiously sliced the corpse opened for any possible leftover materials they could use. They apparently found a lot within the rotting corpse. To finish the job, the dominant astrodrake sliced the man’s head off, forever severing ties Benjamin had with the former civilian. The last thing Benjamin saw of the encounter was the alpha Astrodrake sheathing a hidden Axe. Benjamin was once again in spirit form. He’ll have to find another companion servant. Maybe this time, he won’t pick such a helpless civilian.

Candice, not wanting to observe this undead playmate scene any longer quickly left the shop and by extension, the village. [I’ll find something else to do. What about that Forest starting location? Something was there.]

Candice turned south, heading back to her starting location. Unfortunately for her, this game didn’t have markings on a map. She would have to remember landmarks of the area. [The grove. I remember that grove. It was ... green. Lush green.] She flew her spirit through a large portion of wilderness. She saw things coming back in this direction than she did when exploring the other way. A huge sign captured her attention that was sticking to a tree. It had no nails or any other signs that it was done with any normal handiwork, so Candice figured it must be magic. What kind of magic, she didn’t know. One thing she did know was that necromancy exists. [I probably should’ve taken control of that poor man. That undead girl was a human once. Now she’s undead. She avoids all emotion.]

Candice was quickly approaching the starting grove. [It’s different now! Are their people here? Beings?] Her answer wasn’t long in coming. Flying over the Grove now, she tried to land. When she had been about two feet off the ground, she found that the game would not let her proceed further. She did not know why this was the case, so she decided to control one of the beings from below. She decided to name this particular being C1. She didn’t know what to call them, since she didn’t know whether they had a particular name. She transitioned into the control nicely.

Climbing trees had not been a problem for me. My small feet grabbed onto the tree; claws extended to provide Druidic magic to the tree. The spell I am working into the tree with a duration of about 60 hours worldtime. Suddenly, I began to climb down the tree without thinking. I will notwill it; I did not think it. Yet, there I was, about to fall into the tended grounds below. That is exactly what happened. My uncontrolled self fell into our nicely tended home on the surface below, where one of my fellow primates helped me to my feet. I stood at around 2-feet tall. I couldn’t move. I felt at odds with the mind. I hoisted my claws up and down in an attempt to get myself out of this situation. It resulted in my other friends digging around for food to simply turn toward me, and when I wasn’t doing anything, turn away in mock dismay. Suddenly, I felt a wave of renewed energy come over me as whoever was controlling me didn’t have much use for me. I don’t blame them.

Once again, I was a statue. I was a vessel to be used to do this thing’s bidding, whoever they were. This creature had a decidedly Dynatorturer look to it. I couldn’t discern gender at this moment, but I assume female. Most Dynatorturers who were in charge it seemed like this one was, usually were female? I had my hand outstretched in greeting. It looks horribly awkward. She did not take my hand in a claw and started talking. I finally put my hand down to my side. Now, I look normal in that regard, but there’s still the matter of me being a complete statue in the middle of this tower clearing.

“I see you are trying to force your uncivilized way into the Zorpia Conclave. This is a most sacred conclave, of which only battlemages or Runeforgers may enter.”

[Awesome! It just so happens that this guy is a battlemage. I don’t think I’ll be able to save his life. Pity, because I’m going to try a pretty sick combo.] I brought both hands up, palms outward. That was a playbook fighting stance move for an all-out charge, but it was also a move for a standard magic attack. A trick that the agile Dynatorturers, this one in particular being a high mage, can dodge with skill, and speed. My controller tried three fire spells, and the combo would’ve been accurate provided This fool knew this creature’s weaknesses, which they obviously missed. As expected, the three fireballs bounced off the Dynatorturer, leaving me wide open for an attack. She flung a large fireball at me first. It hurt, but it was a nick compared to what the Dynatorturers could do. My controller made me step in front of her even as she was preparing another fireball. [Fireball and lightning? Fuck does this guy even have the right shit to take this bitch on?]