Recruiting The Hunter

Ember was on the move. He had explained to his friends everything that he could up until this point. He told them about Moze and his plan as well as the two other players who had caught his attention that he was on the lookout for. He informed them that he lacked access to the global chat, but fortunately, Thordon and Clarissa still had it. Though their names had slipped Ember’s mind, his friends did their best to search based off of their class and whatever other features Ember could recall, asking around for the whereabouts of an axolti Ranger with a sun lion and a poppet golem sorcerer. Should either manage to locate them, they were instructed to wait in the Central Plaza. Though still confused as ever, Thordon and Clarissa did as Ember asked and the three had split up around town in hopes of finding their targets.

Ember meanwhile was doing his usual, popping his head into buildings and looking through windows. He took quick scans of alleyways and just trawled the crowds for any signs of those other Chosen. He was keeping an eye out for that little mint green dog plush and her blue ribbon. He also had his eyes out for that vibrant yellow and telltale shine of the Ranger’s pet. On his way, he did manage to strike a few false positives. Plenty of short poppet golems, but none with the same design, and many other Hunters also had the Sun Lion for their pet, but even if they were Axolti, they didn’t have the same skin color. Still, he was positive they had to be in town. It’s probably where he would have been if not for the goals he merely happened upon that drove him to seek the others out.

Eventually he found himself in the plaza as he and the others made it a point to make regular sweeps through, just in case anyone had been found and they couldn’t reach each other otherwise. Sadly, there was nobody in the square itself. To the right however, through the wide open doors of a nearby workshop called Hunter’s Bough, just a short ways down the street from the town square, Ember caught sight of Clarissa. The shop appeared to be some sort of crafter’s retreat as everyone in there seemed to be in various stages of bow craft. Clarissa meanwhile had her hands on no such thing as she investigated one of the crafters with intent. Ember couldn’t help but stroll in and walk up beside her.

“Yo! Any luck?” Ember asked.

Clarissa looked down to him before turning her back head and pointing where she was facing.

“Look. Axolti with a sun lion. You said they were a Hunter right? Made sense that they might be in a place like this.” Clarissa commented.

Ember looked ahead. On one hand, his face was now flushed from embarrassment after not having considered looking for something so obvious, but on the other hand, there she was. A familiar pink axolti with a vibrant sun lion pet. There was of course only one way to make sure. Ember focused on the character, willing their name to appear, which it quickly did. Manifesting above their head in the blue player colors was the name Lian Subaki. Almost positive that the name was also the same, he still took the extra step to make sure. Bringing up her character information, he immediately looked for it and confirmed that she bore the mark of the Chosen. With that, there was no doubt that he had finally found the second of the three mark bearers he had been seeking.

“Hold up here Clarissa. I’m gonna go talk to her.” Ember said before strutting forward.

“Oh umm, one more thing first Ember. I messaged your parents. I had no idea what to say other than that you were fine and I would meet up with them at your house to try to explain things to them. I’ll probably need to be heading off once I figure out what exactly I’m going to tell them.” Clarissa explained.

“Oh, thank god. You’re a lifesaver Clarissa.” Ember said, breathing a sigh of relief as he made his way over to Lian.

Lian sat there, in the process of stringing a bow before its upper limb slipped from her hand as she attempted to bend it down to fasten the string to it.

“Ah! Damnit.” She grumbled as the bow flopped onto the table.

“Hey, Lian, right?” Ember asked.

The girl stopped what she was doing as the sun lion approached Ember and sniffed him. At his size, the creature was about the same height as him. It looked up to Ember and to the imp’s surprise, it mewed. The sound caught the attention of its owner who smiled before looking at Ember.

“Heh, he likes you I guess. Yea, I’m Lian. What’s up?” She asked.

Ember looked around. There were plenty of other players nearby, but they seemed quite focused on whatever process was involved with crafting these weapons.

“Name’s Ember. Good to meetchya. I actually noticed you yesterday while you were sitting out by the town square.” Ember mentioned.

Lian suddenly looked sullen, Ember feeling a pang of guilt as he recalled how down she looked at the time. In fact, she seemed to be making the same kind of expression then as she was now.

“O-oh, yea, I see… Well, whaddya want? I’m trying to figure out how this crafting stuff works.” She replied, her tone now darker and more serious.

“Oh, umm… sorry. Well, if it makes you feel any better umm, I think I have a good idea of why you were feeling that way.” Ember implied.

The girl seemed to perk up a bit, her gills fanning out slightly bright blue eyes growing with a hint of surprise.

“Y-you do? How so?” She asked cautiously.

“I’ll give it to you straight. You’re stuck here in this world, aren’t ya? Just like me. You have a strange ailment in your codex called Chosen, right there in the Permanent Effects section. Not only that, but not long after you got pulled in here, some freak in a mask appeared out of nowhere and told you that you were stuck here. He told ya that others were too, and that you needed to do the mayor’s quest and defeat the boss of Fort Constance in order to get more answers. This all sound right to you?” Ember asked.

Lian looked back down to the bow on the table, a smirk appearing on her face before she turned her head back to Ember.

“Sounds a bit too accurate to be a guess. I take it I’m not the only one who experienced all that then?” Lian inquired.

“Nope. It was the same kind of thing for me. Saw the masked guy twice, once on the boat, then once after I was taken to this world. It ain't just us either. I ended up finding that streamer Moze and he gave me the same account. A little bit different, but the important parts were the same. Only difference though is that I think I’m the only one who spotted that freaking mark before all this happened. Didn’t have a clue what it meant of course until it was too late… Still, yours was the first one that I noticed.” Ember explained.

Lian looked to Ember, a faint smile on her face for reasons he didn’t quite understand.

“I see. So even Moze ended up here, huh? Can’t help but wonder how many others have gotten dragged in here too. Speaking of though, how exactly did you find out that I had the mark? Come to think of it, I think I actually recognize you from the plaza. Caught you staring at me for some reason. I’m guessing that was when you found out about it?” Lian asked.

Ember blushed, his tail twitching as he scrambled for an explanation that didn’t sound awkward.

“Umm, well, it wasn’t anything personal! I umm, I just seen you looking oddly down or, sad about something, and well, it kinda made you stand out, so I played around with the player scan thing I learned about. Seen your class and your pet and whatnot, then I looked at your stats. I didn’t know what I was gonna find in there, maybe something that could tell me why you were so upset. All I found though was that mark. It was orange at the time, which I’ve come to think means you were already in this world by then. But, yea, like I said, I had no idea what it meant at the time… I also thought it was kinda weird cause like, if you were so sad, then why would you have been stick’n around in this game looking like you were trying to make a scene out of it… I guess I know why now.” Ember explained, his ears drooping remorsefully.

Lian chuckled and shook her head. “Scanned me cause I was look’n weird out there huh? I never actually thought about how people could just scan you in this game. I get it that it’s all so you can check out player’s fits and whatnot, but thinking of it now, I really hope I don’t draw attention like that again.” She said with a blush coming over her face.

Ember looked away awkwardly.

“W-well umm, yea, sorry. Had I known you were a real person, I swear I wouldn’t have done it. I was just messing with the feature, I promise!” Ember said, sounding increasingly more frantic.

Lian chuckled once more. “It’s okay, I think I’ll forgive you this once. Still, sounds like you know all about this stuff… To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to do with myself. I’m stuck in this world, and have no idea how to get back, or if it’s even possible. Meanwhile, if I want to get to the fort, I’m going to need to be ready for a lot of fighting and… well, fighting monsters in a video game is one thing, but fighting them when you can feel the strain and fatigue of your own muscles, the pain of every hit you take. It’s… it’s much, much different.” Lian explained.

“Yea, I know how you feel. I went through it too. Unfortunately, that entailed being run over by a bear at least ten times the size of me and feeling like every bone in my body was broken. But yea, the difference of game versus reality struck me pretty hard too. Still, I’m not gonna let it stop me from trying to get to the bottom of things.” Ember mentioned, attempting to sound determined.

“Oh! No, I wasn’t trying to imply that I wasn’t going to do anything about it. I mean, I thought about it, and it’s tempting, but I can’t just sit around either, no matter what happens… In fact, that’s why I'm here. I wanted to see if I could learn a thing or two about the crafting in this world and maybe make myself some stronger gear. Besides, Koumei would probably be mad at me if I just hung around here sulking all day.” Lian said, looking down to her companion who responded by rubbing up against her leg.

“Ah, good. What’s involved in that anyway? Moze was telling me about survival and hunting skills and stuff, but he said there were more.” Ember inquired.

“Oh yea, there’s a bunch. Weaving, smithing, cooking, fletching, woodsmanship. There’s a lot. Right now, I’m just figuring out the fletching craft. I was kinda thrown off at first since even though I’m actually real in this world now, making things is still a lot like how it works while just playing. You see guidelines and the like just floating there, like your mind is mentally projecting them in front of you. After that, you just follow them with the proper tool. Still, It’s also, really, really easy to mess it up, so it definitely takes a lot of time and practice. Otherwise, yea, you make each individual part yourself and depending on how good a job you can manage it, it will affect its end result. Like I mentioned though, I’m still learning. I only just started today.” Lian explained.

Ember listened and nodded along, curious to see for himself what this process was like. Still imp on a mission that he was, he would need to consider this another time.

“I see. Learning that stuff could be really handy depending on how long we’re stuck here. Speaking of, you mentioned that you don’t really wanna sit around right? Well, neither do I or Moze. Thing is, we’re actually planning to tackle this problem head on as soon as possible. That was part of the reason I’ve been looking for you. If we all wanna get out of here, then we’re gonna need to party up and get to work. Whaddya think? You wanna team up with me, Moze, and a couple of my friends or are you gonna hang around until you feel like you can handle things yourself?” Ember asked.

Lian sat for a moment, looking to her half finished bow before picking it up and examining it.

“Yea, sure. I don’t see the harm in it. Probably better off as a group than by trying to handle things myself anyway.” Lian considered before stowing the unfinished bow into her bag.

Koumei then proceeded to hop up onto the work bench as Lian began packing away her tools, the lion looking her in the eyes with a grimace.

“Oh! Sorry, yea, myself and Koumei.” She reiterated, correcting herself.

Looking satisfied with the correction, Koumei proceeded to pick up a pair of pliers in his mouth and deposit them into Lian’s toolbox. Ember meanwhile, turned his attention back to Clarissa who appeared to have simply been observing them, yet looked remarkably confused. Ember then turned back to Lian.

“Haha, alright! Glad to hear it. I’m gonna go talk to my friend Clarissa real quick. We’re meeting up in the town square, so we’ll be waiting for ya there… Oh! And yea, here.” Ember said before initiating a friend request.