Training Begins

I slept in late the following morning. When I finally rolled out of bed, I noticed Ori sitting around looking bored.

“I can’t believe I’ve wasted the morning. I’m sorry Ori,” I said, shaking my head.

“Why? There’s no need to ask my pardon.”

“We’re already behind the others who left here yesterday. We’ll never win the competition if we think like that.”

“Oh, I suppose that’s right,” she said.

“First things first though,” I said, opening my inventory and sending my muffin rolling onto the floor.

“Here,” said the girl, bending down to pick it up. She brushed it off–not that there appeared to be any dust–and tearing off a morsel, she put it in my mouth. For the second time since we had joined up I could feel my face getting hot when she touched me. One benefit of green skin though is you can’t really turn red.

“Oh, Ori, you should eat the rest,” I said, when she had fed me about half of the muffin.

“You don’t mind?” she asked.

“Not at all. We’re companions now. We need to look out for each other.”

Ori smiled. It wasn’t really a “thank you”–more of a smile of admiration, and I confess it made me feel really good to have someone look at me like that–like they valued the person that I was.

“Come on,” I said, turning away. “We have work to do.”

Ori followed me outside. I could hear the troll now, stomping around in the courtyard, and it filled me with uneasiness. Out of curiosity I peaked through the gate to see him sauntering around aimlessly–his ponderous weight shaking the earth with every lazy step. Then my eyes drifted down to the spot just on the other side of the gate.

“To think, it was just there that you saved my life,” I muttered.

“What did you say?” asked Ori, stepping closer.

“I was just talking to myself,” I said. “I suppose the first thing we need to do is figure out your menu.”

“How do we do that?”

“I can try to report your bug. See if they can come up with a fix.”

“That’s a great idea!” said Ori.

“Gee, don’t look so surprised,” I said.

We sat down on the log, and I opened the Report a Bug feature, scrolling past the giant, blinking Survey. Typing without hands proved enormously tedious, but eventually I managed to send a short message.

“What now?” asked Ori.

“I’m afraid we have to wait.”

“In that case let’s do your survey,” said Ori.

“Fine,” I said. Inside there was a list with names, classes, and a small portrait of each person. I scrolled down, amazed by how many of them I didn’t recognize. Suddenly I saw a flash of green. My stomach dropped. There was the ugliest, stupidest looking goblin I had ever seen: with puke colored skin and a nose as long as my index finger. Beside it, Sebastian - Goblin Petard 0 votes.

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up. It’s not like looks really matter here.”

“I just–I don’t understand,” I muttered. “We’re in a fight for our lives and they make me a joke character? What did I do to deserve this? Why is my nose so, so long?”

“Is that not your normal face?” asked Ori.

“No! Look at it. That pointy jaw, that forehead, that saber of a nose. Nobody looks like that!”

“Strange. I didn't notice anybody else really changing features wise. How odd that only you were transformed.”

“There you are,” I said. “Orine - Priestess 0 votes.”

I kept scrolling. There were a few scattered votes but the main of them was concentrated in three people.

Lilian - Ice Elemental 67 votes

Leo - Thrower 29 votes

Hashi - Ghost 44 votes

I seethed.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure there will be lots of other ways to earn points,” said Ori.

“It’s not just that,” I said. “It’s the idea that people are praising him. That they trust, even admire him. He was probably able to join a really formidable party. It just isn’t fair.”

“Who are you going to vote for?” asked Ori.

“I don’t know. Leo, I guess.”

Ori nodded. “I think he’s a great choice. You could tell he really did everything he could to help everyone back there.”

I cast my vote.

“Well, I got him to thirty at least,” I said.

Just then I heard something behind me coming toward us through the grass and started up.

“Well, my dear, what seems to be the problem?” said Pasqual, addressing himself to Orine.

“I told you in the message. She can’t access the menu.”

Pasqual kept his eyes fixed on the girl and seemed to be pretending not to hear me.

“That’s right. I’m having trouble opening my menu. We think it might be because I can’t see the rings icon. I have what’s called tunnel vision where I don’t really see things in my periphery.”

“How interesting,” said Pasqual. “Well, the good news is this should be an easy fix. I’ll write a few lines and insert them in your code to allow you to open the menu another way. Any ideas?”

“How about a big P for Pasqual?” And she drew a P in the air.

“Love it! I’ll get to work on this right away. It should be live in a couple hours. Toodloo!” He started walking away.

“Wait! I have some questions!” I said.

Pasqual stopped but did not turn around.

“Why did you give me this terrible class? I can't even use my hands. And why didn’t you say anything when Hashi lied about the gatehouse? He could have gotten people killed!”

“Orine, if you would, please tell your companion that I have been forbidden by the Doctor to discuss his class or related circumstances with him. You might also remind him that in the real world people lie, and the hand of God does not come out of the sky to smite them on the spot.” So saying he vanished.

“‘How about a big P for Pasqual?’” I said mockingly.

“Hey I was nervous, okay?” stammered Orine.

“More like a Big P for Poo Poo Head.”

“That was a pretty strange interaction. Do you know the Doctor or something?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I know of Doctor Prentice–everybody does, but I’m positive we’ve never met.”

“So, what’s next? What’s our plan?”

“Well, as soon as you get access to your menu we’ll look at your skills. Hopefully you have a starting attack move. Then we’ll find a low level wolf or whatever and see how it goes. I don’t think we should try to get through the forest too soon, anyhow. Though I don’t love how close we are to that troll, I worry that the monsters out there may only get stronger, and we seem to be safe here for the time being.”

“You mean I’m going to have to fight wolves?” said Ori, a shiver running down her spine.

“I’m afraid you don’t have much choice. Normally as a priest you would have other people in your party who could fight and your job would be to heal them up and keep them healthy, but I can’t help you there, since my only move is BOOM!--ya know?”

“I was hoping I could like heal you up after you blow up?” said Ori.

“You can’t heal someone that’s dead. That’s a pretty basic tenant of these sorts of games,” I said, shaking my head. “My attack is about double my HP. That seems pretty clearly to suggest I won’t survive using it. Goes with the name too–petard doesn’t really suggest life expectancy. They could have gone with grenadier, for example, but instead they chose petard–I mean that’s almost as bad as goblin kamikaze.”

“Well, while we’re sitting here, we might as well get to know one another a little better. Tell me about yourself, Bastian.”

“Hmm, I’m eighteen, just graduated. Thought I would go to college but didn’t get accepted anywhere I wanted to go so I just kinda hang around the house. Got in a big fight with my dad, sold my car and bought a motorcycle. Now that I say that out loud I think my Dad probably tried to kill me.”

“Don't joke about that!”

“Sorry, it’s a habit. We only fight because he loves me. I know that. Parents always think they know best. How about you?”

“I’m nineteen. Actually I guess I’m twenty now, since my birthday’s probably passed… I live with my fiancé. We have a flower and plant shop downtown. I love my life.” Ori shook her head and wiped a tear from her eye.

“You’ll get back there,” I said. “I’m gonna do everything in my power to see that happens.”

“I don’t think I could live with that kind of guilt. Knowing so many people died so that I could live on.” She started to sob.

“You can’t look at it that way. All of us are dead, remember. This is nothing but a second chance. A lottery ticket. There’s no guilt attached to it.”

“That’s probably a better way of looking at it,” she said, sniffling.

“Come on, let’s hunt around. Maybe there’s another easter egg around here somewhere we can find.”

“An Easter egg? But, it isn’t near Easter, is it?”

“No, an easter egg is like a secret thing game developers hide in games.”

“Like a chest?”

“Sure, but usually it would be more special than that and harder to find.”

“And you think there’s one around here?” asked Ori.

“No idea, but we ought to do something with this time that we have. I’m sure everyone else is hard at work, exploring or training. We have to do everything we can not to fall further behind.”

I have to admit it sounded good in principle, but all of our hunting around that morning didn’t turn up anything of note.

“Oh, I heard something,” said Ori, at last, as we were lying in the grass. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” I muttered, groggily.

“Like a ping sort of sound.”

“Maybe you got a message from your BFF, big P.”

“Maybe it’s to say that I should be able to access the menu now. If that’s the case then all I should have to do is–” She drew a P in the air and up popped her menu. “Yes!” she cried. “I did it! I opened the menu!”

“I can’t believe that’s a big milestone for us…”

“About? What am I looking for?”

“Go to the skill tree and see what abilities you have.”

“Skill tree, right. It looks like I have one ability, Heal.”

“No attack at all?”

“No, oh here is an attack. It says ‘level 3 required.’”

“That’s not great.”

“Wait, does that mean we have no way of defeating enemies?” said Ori.

“That’s exactly what that means.”

“Then how am I going to get to level 3?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can I nurse injured woodland animals or something? I should be able to get experience somehow from healing, right?”

“Possibly, but do you see any wounded creatures around?”

Ori raised her eyebrows at me.

“Oh no, so what’s your plan: I go get roughed up by wolves and straggle back here for you to heal me?”

“Do you have a better plan?” asked Ori.

“No,” I said with a sigh. “That’s our best plan.”

“Come on then,” she said, and she started down into the forest.

I followed after her, amazed by how brazen she had become knowing I was to be the target of the wolf’s ire, when the idea of facing them herself had terrified her just a few hours earlier. The mountain was pretty steep and it was hard going, especially without my hands to aid me. Eventually I slipped and fell. Ori tried to heal me, but it didn’t work. Apparently small falls weren’t something that would reduce our hit points. We came at last to a small clearing, at the other end of which a wolf lay curled up in the grass.

“Aww it’s so cute!” said Ori. “Do we have to hurt it?”

“We can’t remember? It’s the one that’s going to be hurting me.”

“Oh yeah,” she said, perking up. She grabbed a pine cone and threw it at the wolf, which woke up, saw us, and started slinking forward, growling and bearing its teeth.

“I don’t like this,” I said. “No, I don’t like this at all.”

It didn’t feel exactly real, but it certainly didn’t feel like a game. It was like being attacked by an animatronic wolf. Bizarre and utterly terrifying. Against my instincts, I stood my ground and waited as the wolf came on.

“You better be ready to heal me,” I said.

“Ready,” said Ori.

Suddenly the wolf lunged at me. I felt its teeth sinking into my arm. I felt the initial shock and pain. I flung him off me, waiting for the full brunt of the damage to ring through my nerves, but my arm only throbbed. It was painful sure, but it was nowhere near what I had expected. A moment later I felt a warm wind around me as I was wrapped in a pale green light. I felt my energy restored, and the pain in my arm all but disappeared.

“Bastian! Are you alright?”

“I’m alright.”

“Shall we get out of here?”

“Is your heal on cooldown?”

“Cooldown? I don’t see a cooldown. I see mana.”

“Oh, she’s a mana based class,” I realized.

“Do you have enough for another heal?”

“I have more than half, so probably,” she answered.

“Then I’m going to let the wolf have another go at me.” 

As I threw off the wolf once more I felt the warm green light envelop me.

“All right, let’s get out of here,” I said. We beat a hasty retreat up the embankment. Luckily the wolf did not bother to follow us. Once we were back at the top of the hill we took stock of the situation.

“I got twenty experience!” said Ori.

“And you need what? A hundred to get to level two?”

“Yep!” she said, excitedly. “What about you? How much experience did you get?”

“I didn’t get any. Apparently being a wolf’s chew toy doesn’t count as experience.”

“Well, once I’m strong enough I’m sure we’ll find a way to get you experience.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Not to worry. We’re finally making progress and that’s something to celebrate.”

Just then my stomach growled.

“I’m getting hungry too,” Ori said with a chuckle.

“Don’t you have your muffin still?”

“Oh, that’s right!” she said.

We sat in the grass and shared the muffin. For the first time it really felt like we were making some headway, which had us both in high spirits. Ori told me about growing up outside the city, about the country club where she learned to ride horses, play tennis, and swim. How they would dine on the patio, and she would run around in the garden as a young girl. How she had met Rod, her fiancé, at thirteen, and soon they had become inseparable. She seemed to have had a charmed life, but it was impossible to hold that against her–she sounded so conscious and grateful for every blessing. It seemed only natural to me that she should be rich and happy. Or maybe that didn’t have anything to do with it; maybe I just liked listening to her talk.

“But I’m sorry, I’ve been talking all this time about myself.”

“No, don’t be. I’m happy for you, and I’m sorry that you're here now with me. That must be some adjustment. An armless goblin can be no kind of substitute for your fiancé.”

Ori didn’t say anything. What could she say other than agree?

“Is your mana back yet?” I asked.

“Almost,” she said.

“Then let’s see if we can find that wolf again. This time I’m thinking we might try to drag it out a little. If we can get three heals before coming back up that will cut way down on our training time.”

“Right,” she said. “I’m ready.”