Just a Sip Will Do [END OF VOL. 1]

The woman standing in front of Daffodil and Asterion had not stopped pointing at them since they’d entered the room, and it was really starting to unnerve Daffodil. She was staring at Asterion like she’d seen a ghost and—perhaps the strangest part of all—the level floating above her head indicated that she was clearly a player.

“You’re Asterion, aren’t you?” the woman asked, finally lowering her hand. She walked closer to them and Daffodil instinctively started to back up. Then he realized that he wasn’t shouting out either of his catchphrases. What was going on?

“Uhh what?” was all Asterion was able to respond with. “How do you know who I am?”

The woman scoffed. “Everyone knows who you are.” After a moment, she added, “Well not anymore. Why is that?”

Asterion opened his mouth but before he could spill any important secrets, Daffodil jumped in and said, “Who are you? You shouldn’t be able to recognize him.”

“I’m Chamomile,” the woman said and extended her hand to shake. Daffodil was hesitant but Asterion eagerly shook her hand like he recognized the name.

“She’s the second highest ranking player in WanderQuest,” he explained. It was clear he was about to add, Well first now, but he held back.

“That still doesn’t explain how she knows who you are,” Daffodil said. Ymara had been very clear when he said every player’s memory had been wiped. It didn’t make sense for one person to still remember, especially someone with so much influence.

“I’m not sure how it happened,” Chamomile said. “Ten minutes ago, I’d completely forgotten who you were. It’s like you’d completely disappeared from the entire world. Then I took a sip from the well, my mouse electrocuted me, and suddenly I remembered everything I’d known about you.”

Daffodil and Asterion shared a look and at the same time said, “Ymara.”

“He must’ve thought we needed some additional help,” Daffodil continued.

“But she’s still a player,” Asterion countered. “She’s still in the real world.”

“Maybe Ymara wants us to have someone on the outside? She still has access to the internet, which could probably come in handy,” Daffodil said.

Chamomile cleared her throat. “Hey, uh, what’re you talking about? Who’s this Ymara guy?”

Asterion gave Daffodil another look, one he translated to Should we tell her? Daffodil was reluctant to tell anyone about their situation; after all, it only took one person blabbing about their plan to tip off the Demon Lord, and Chamomile was now the most famous WanderQuest player. But if Ymara was behind this, he had to trust Chamomile enough to allow her memories to come back. If she could keep Asterion’s existence a secret, she should be able to keep their battle plans under wraps as well. Daffodil nodded his head.

“So this might sound crazy,” Asterion prefaced.

Chamomile snorted. “I just found out every WanderQuest player simultaneously forgot the best player in the game, and a fictional well in a video game gave me real life knowledge. I think I can handle whatever you’re about to tell me.”

Asterion nodded like that made sense and forged on. “So the Demon Lord in WanderQuest is actually a real demon. His goal is to break free from the video game and take over the real world and as WanderQuest continues to gain popularity, he gets stronger and stronger. Ymara is the god of WanderQuest. He brought me into the game as his champion to defeat the Demon Lord, but in doing so erased me from the minds of all players. If people realized I was suddenly an NPC, there would be a lot of confusion and my quest might be delayed.”

Chamomile hummed an acknowledgement as Asterion finished. She let the information settle for a minute or two before saying, “I guess that makes sense. But why are you an NPC?”

“The Demon Lord changed the game code so that no player could ever defeat him,” Asterion explained. “I’m sure you’ve heard stories about players dying before they even reached the castle. But the Demon Lord doesn’t have control over NPCs, so he can’t stop me from getting to him and he won’t kill me instantly.”

“And you said Ymara helped me remember you because I can help you on your quest?”

Asterion said, “We won’t force you to help us, but I’m sure you’d be a great help to us.”

Daffodil didn’t know this woman at all and didn’t particularly like her joining their quest, but if Asterion trusted her skills this much, he supposed he should concede and let her tag along. “Yeah we’d really appreciate it,” he added, trying to show his support.

Chamomile thought it over for much less time than Daffodil thought she should have before saying, “Alright then, I’ll help! But I’m warning you now, I might disappear for a week or two at a time once my work starts to pile up again.”

That was fine with Daffodil. They both shook her hand again to seal the deal.

“But that just leaves one question,” Chamomile said, pointing at Daffodil. “Who are you?”

“I’m his—”

“Friend,” Asterion interrupted. “We’ve been friends for a long time and Daffodil happened to get brought into the game too. It wasn’t related to my quest, but he’s decided to help out too. He’s been invaluable.”

While it felt good to be described as “invaluable”, Daffodil couldn’t help but feel a little stung at Asterion’s insistence that they were just friends. Asterion sent him an apologetic look that roughly conveyed, We’ll talk later, so Daffodil dropped it for now.

“Cool,” Chamomile said with a shrug of her shoulders. If her eyes lingered on his Botanist tag for a little longer than necessary, no one said anything. “So what’s your current plan of attack?”

Asterion looked to Daffodil, deferring to him as it was his plan. “We’re looking for the Four Sages,” Daffodil said. “They’re shrines scattered throughout WanderQuest and once they’re completed they give you an incredible award. We’re not sure exactly what they’ll give, but it should be a useful aid against the Demon Lord. We have the locations to the shrines written down but they’re illegible so we’re hoping the Well of Knowledge will allow us to read it.”

Chamomile said, “I’ve never heard of the Four Sages before.”

“That’s the point. Something this well hidden has to be good,” Daffodil replied. Then he turned to Asterion and with a much kinder smile said, “Shall we?”

The two walked to the well. Daffodil quickly hoisted up the bucket, summoned a cup, and dipped it in the water. He took a decent sized sip, unsure of how much he needed to drink for it to work, and passed the cup to Asterion who did the same. There was no strange feeling taking root, so Daffodil could only hope it had worked.

They moved away from the well and closer to one of the light sources before Daffodil took the Four Sages book out of his inventory. Chamomile snuck over to them and curiously peeked over Daffodil’s shoulder. Before he opened the book, he turned to her and said, “You can’t share this information with anyone, okay? If anyone finds out about the shrines, they could take the reward before we get there. And if the Demon Lord finds out about our plan, we’ll lose the element of surprise and he’ll kill us on the spot. You don’t know Asterion exists, you’ve never heard of the shrines, and the Demon Lord is just a fictional bad guy made up for an MMO. No talking to any players in the game about this, no posting it on any forums, and no mentioning it to anyone in real life. Understood?”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” Chamomile said as she put her hands up in a placating gesture. “I won’t breathe a word of it.”

Satisfied, Daffodil cracked open the book and flipped to the page that held the shrines’ locations. Before their eyes the squiggles started to take shape, slowly forming real comprehensible words.

Daffodil and Asterion’s eyes met and they shared a smile. Their plan had worked!

“Which one should we solve first?” Daffodil asked, letting Asterion take the lead.

Asterion hummed as he scanned the page. “That one,” he said, pointing at the third stanza. “I have a good feeling about that one.”