Taylor and the Twisted Game Part 7

Taylor nearly shot Void in the ass when she suddenly found herself looking at Amy standing in front of the pond in the garden holding a wiggling purple tentacle. It was like she'd used her Eyes of the Beast ability on another pet, giving her two extra windows in her mind instead of one. "What the hell!"

"Skitter?" Amy asked, recognizing her new friend's voice and face even if her ears were fox-like to match Admin's.

"Yeah…" Taylor trailed off when she twisted her head and she saw Admin's face from a couple of inches away. "Admin?"

[Sorry, Amelia wanted me to test my other symbiote], Admin explained. [Are you still in the dungeon?]

"No worries and yeah, I'm still in the dungeon. It's like I have an extra Eyes of the Beast running," Taylor explained.

[Check her biology!] Shaper urged.

Amy raised her hand to check Taylor's health and forced herself to stop when she realized what she'd been about to do. "How distracting is it?"

"It's not," Taylor replied as she went back to shooting the various prisoners to work on her archery skill and help Void kill the prisoner that Noelle hadn't grabbed. "It apparently comes with multitasking."

[Good, I wasn't trying to cause trouble], Admin assured Taylor.

"Permission to check your health?" Amy asked, curious how the symbiote worked.

"I don't have a problem, Admin?" Taylor asked as she turned her head so she could see Admin's face.

Admin gave Amy a thumbs up.

Amy reached out and touched Admin's arm, checking her biology. "Interesting, Admin is the dominant head but you should be getting some sensory feedback, assuming my power isn't on the fritz."

[Hey! You try decoding magical bullshit], Shaper complained as she poked at the changes in Administer's DNA, trying to make sense of the changes. [Can you get my host to use a symbiote, please?]

[Why?] Admin asked Shaper.

[The symbiote shouldn't work and yet it does, I want to compare the biology of multiple hosts before and after so I can figure out how it works], Shaper explained.

"I can feel you touching her arm but I can't move her hands or anything," Taylor admitted after trying to move Admin's hands or shift her stance and failing to get a response.

"Can you cast spells?" Amy asked as she finished examining Admin's altered genetics, wondering if some of the changes were what allowed them to use magic. 'This is far too complicated for a simulation, pocket dimension? Maybe Myrddin isn't quite as crazy as everyone thinks?'

Taylor grinned when she realized she had a collection of mental switches for her second head's spells or abilities that weren't the same as her collection of spells and hunter abilities or her parrot's small collection of abilities. "Maybe but they're not the same which makes sense considering it was supposed to give her another class."

"Can you use your transmogrification ability?" Amy asked.

Taylor took a couple of seconds to compare her mental switches. "Probably not, I can't use my bird's abilities but I'll run some more tests when I'm not in the middle of a dungeon."

"Sorry," Amy offered.

"It's fine, we're just dealing with the stuff that Noelle doesn't catch," Taylor assured her. "I just don't want to mess with something I'm reasonably sure requires my body. Did your extra profession work?"

Admin focused for a second and opened her crafting menu. [Yes, I can make daggers.]

"Nice. I'm going to have to try mine," Taylor mused.

"Can you save it for when you get back?" Amy asked hopefully. "I want to make a copy before you change the original into something less twitchy."

[Yes! Mad science will be done!] Shaper squealed enthusiastically, happy that her host was finally getting onboard.

[Tell me if you figure out anything interesting], Admin told Shaper then went back to working on opening the various lockboxes and sorting the loot.

Taylor did her best to ignore the mental image of walking around in a weird asymmetrical biological suit that popped into her head. "Let me guess, you want to compare the symbiotes?" she asked as she had her parrot steal the shiv out of one of the prisoner's hands.

"I'm curious how they work," Amy admitted. "If I can figure out how everything works, I might be able to custom build symbiotes or improve what we have. Being able to give the doctors a symbiote that wraps around someone's wrist and lets them deal 100% of their health over six seconds would drastically reduce my workload."

"I'll see what I can come up with…" Taylor trailed off as the prisoner she'd just stolen a weapon from hit Noelle in the face, creating a naked and slightly mutated prisoner next to Noelle that immediately tossed himself at the rest of the prisoners. "Is that why you told us to avoid touching you?" she asked Noelle.

"Unfortunately, my power creates insane and loyal duplicates of anything living that I touch," Noelle complained as she continued killing the mobs rushing into the hallway.

"Like symbiotes?" Taylor asked Noelle, fairly sure the answer was yes but trying to get confirmation.

Void shifted uncomfortably as he thought about some of the symbiotes he'd heard of in the alpha release that did less than pleasant things to their hosts.

Noelle finished killing the last mob in the room then turned to look at Taylor. "Did you miss the part where my clones are insane?"

"We're not crazy boss, we're just more fun," the cloned prisoner said with a smirk.

"Symbiotes aren't particularly intelligent and I can transmogrify them into normal gear," Taylor pointed out.

"Worst case, we torch them or leave them in the dungeon," Missy said as she worked on looting the dead.

"Did you have any luck with alchemy?" Taylor asked Amy as she pulled the tentacle symbiote out of her inventory and held it out so Noelle could copy it.

"Point," Noelle admitted after realizing that Warp had a point.

Amy glanced towards the garden then focused on Taylor's head. "Less than I'd like but more than I was expecting. We're going to have to run around and do some harvesting if we want to get anywhere in a reasonable timeframe and I'm going to need more vials."

Noelle shifted uncomfortably as she imagined the thing wiggling inside of her. 'Get a grip, you don't have to use it,' she told herself as she reached out and poked it, creating a copy that dropped to the ground and started wiggling around like a demented snake or severed tentacle in a hentai.

Sophia took a step back from the tentacle on the ground, ready to phase if it lunged at her.

"I'll pick some up when I'm done with the dungeon," Taylor replied as she reached down and grabbed the tentacle. "It feels a bit like a wet squishy toy," she told the group in the dungeon.

"Or a sex toy?" Sophia asked with amusement, ready to dodge on the off chance that Skitter tossed it at her.

"Thanks," Amy replied as she reached out and poked Admin's arm to take another look at her biology.

Taylor ignored the other girl's question and stuck the new symbiote in her inventory so she could see its description. "Mutated symbiote…" she trailed off as she read the rest of the description about it causing damage because of ridges and excessive wiggling. "Let's see if we can fix that," she mused as she opened her transmogrification menu, tossed the mutated symbiote into the box and hit the button, changing it into a simple silver buttplug.

"Any luck?" Noelle asked.

Taylor grinned when she checked the silver buttplug's description. "Transmogrifying it seems to have fixed the issues, does anyone want one?"

"What's it do?" Missy asked, wondering if it was worth the annoyance and embarrassment of using a buttplug.

Taylor turned to look at Missy. "It gives you an extra profession and class as well as a second head."

"Which ones or do you get to pick?" Missy asked, already thinking about some interesting combinations.

"It's set, rider and engineering," Taylor admitted.

"I'm not sure it's worth it," Void said, sort of relieved that he already had engineering and a decent tanking class.

Sophia snorted. "You could build an entire guild around that symbiote, sign me up."

"Same," Missy added, looking forward to playing with engineering now and then.

Noelle reached out and poked the symbiote Taylor was holding, creating another copy then flipped the mental switch on her power and continued creating symbiotes for half a minute before flipping the mental switch and turning her power off. "Huh," she muttered when she realized that the duplication part of her power had three settings.

"What's up?" Taylor asked as she tossed another symbiote from the pile of wiggling tentacles into her transmogrification menu and hit the button.

Noelle pulled her finger away from the symbiote then touched it again, her face twisting into an almost Joker worthy smile when she realized that she'd actually managed to turn her duplication power off. "Apparently, I needed to read the user manual or getting sent to the game fixed my powers, it was stuck in the self defense mode for lack of a better term."

Missy pulled her attention off the pile of symbiotes and looked at Noelle. "Does that mean you can touch people without making twisted copies?"

"Yes!" Noelle squealed as she tossed her hands up and did a silly victory dance, not caring in the slightest that it made her look like a lunatic.

"Cool." Taylor tossed her symbiote back into her inventory then got back to work processing the rest, figuring she'd keep half a dozen mutated symbiotes for Amelia to look at.

"I want a refund," Sophia muttered as she went back to looting the mobs so she could skin them, wishing she had a more impressive power.

0o0o0

"You're not going!" Carol snapped at her daughter, wishing Vicky would be reasonable, at least until they had more information.

Vicky opened her mouth to tell her mother off then closed it when her cell rang. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and answered the call after checking the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Hey Vicky, we found Amy," Dean stated before she could ask a bunch of questions.

"By that he means I found him," Amy cut in, hoping that Carol wouldn't start ranting with Dean on the line.

"They found her. Where are you!" Vicky demanded as she switched the call to speakerphone when her father walked into the room from the kitchen where he'd been grabbing a snack and trying to avoid the argument she'd been having with her mother.

"They found her?" Carol asked, wanting confirmation that Amy was safe.

"Technically we're still in the simulation but we're safe in a mansion and we're working on building up our gear so we can get home," Dean explained quickly so no one would interrupt.

"Mansion? Does it come with scantily clad servants?" Vicky asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yes," Amy replied with amusement, nearly laughing at the betrayed look Dean gave her. "Don't worry, they're covered in oil and are all sorts of eye candy but they're not really Dean's type at all so you've got nothing to worry about."

'Liar,' Dean thought, relieved that she hadn't told them the truth.

"Joking aside, it's a nice place and has protections which keep people from causing trouble which means we've got a safe place to stay and a lot of resources to work with," Amy explained.

"How did you end up staying in a mansion?" Mark asked before he heard something he'd have to object to.

"The girl with the phone got lucky and started with a mansion. I promised to help her out in exchange for staying in her mansion for a bit," Amy explained.

"Help her with what?" Carol asked, hoping someone wasn't trying to take advantage of Amy.

"Fishing," Amy admitted.

"Fishing?" Mark asked in surprise.

"The mansion comes with various resource nodes, Skitter can take advantage of most of them but she doesn't have fishing or herbalism which means the pond and the garden were basically wasted potential," Amy explained.

"Skitter? Is she a villain?" Carol asked warily.

"She's not a cape, I checked. It's just a character name," Amy assured her. "Of course, that doesn't mean much wherever we're stuck considering all of the players could be considered grab bags. Thankfully she's a decent person."

"Anything we need to know if we decide to log in?" Mark asked, causing his wife to stare at him.

"There's a perk that removes the racial drawbacks, you're going to want to take it," Dean explained. "Other than that, it's basically up to you."

"Racial drawbacks?" Carol asked.

"It's a twisted world," Dean replied.

"I'd skip paying for a hearthstone because you can pick them up in the simulation," Amy suggested, trying to keep Carol from asking for more details that would result in her being grounded for a significant length of time. "If you can take the reroll option, you probably should. Beyond that, boosting the lone wolf ability might be useful."

Vicky glanced at Carol, knowing her mother wasn't going to like her next question. "Do you need help?"

"We have Armsmaster and Dragon," Amy replied.

"Are you sure?" Vicky asked, wishing she'd just put the helmet on when she'd found it.

"Considering the insanely high number of rapists and lunatics running around the capital and the number of abilities people are tossing around that could double tap your shield I'd rather have you in the Bay making sure the city doesn't explode while I'm gone. If Dad or Eric wants to log in I won't object but I'd rather not put the rest of you at risk."

"You can't expect me to just sit here!" Vicky snapped, causing her cell phone case to crack slightly before she got herself under control.

"Yes we can!" Carol snapped.

Mark put his hand on Vicky's shoulder. "She's right, you're not going in there until things get a lot worse or until things get better and we have a way to pull you out."

"I can take care of myself," Vicky argued.

"Give us a couple of days," Dean cut in before things could spiral completely out of control. "We're currently safe or at least safe enough, give the Protectorate a chance to figure out a solution and us to make better gear and for things to stabilize."

"Fine," Vicky grumbled. "What are the different classes like?"

Amy launched into a brief description of the various classes, figuring she might as well steer her sister in the right direction in case she decided to ignore their warnings and jump into the game anyways.

0o0o0

"Fuzzy attack!" Riley called out as she pointed at the grey skinned humanoid creature standing too close to the silver node that she wanted to mine, causing her pet wolf to charge the trogg.

Cassie grinned as she sent a chest sized boulder crashing down on a pair of troggs near a tin node. "This almost feels like cheating."

"That's because it is." Arthur tossed a fireball at the trogg that Fuzzy was mauling, putting it out of its misery. "If you don't actually use your skills, you won't improve."

"Good boy." Riley cast mend pet on her wolf, happy that she could heal her pet.

"I'll worry about learning all of the tricks after I grab better armor and level up my crafting skills so I can make better jewelry, I'm a squishy shadow mage," Cassie replied as her pet pixie flew over and grabbed the loot from the troggs.

"Point," Arthur admitted as Riley started mining the silver node. "Any suggestions on where to find decent gear that doesn't involve hitting a capital or a dungeon?" he asked as Cassie walked over to the tin node she'd cleared and started mining it.

"Sort of, Ironforge should be less crowded than Stormwind and they share auction houses which means we just need gold," she explained as she finished harvesting the node, the strangely muted noise of her pick striking stone making some of the words hard to hear.

"Do you think we have enough?" Arthur asked, not sure how much three suits of decent armor would cost though they already had a couple pieces that had dropped off the monsters they'd been killing.

"I'm not sure," Cassie admitted. "We'd either get some great deals or they'd try to screw us over. I'd rather fly to Deadwind Pass and take advantage of our powers to wreck monsters that are higher level for the increased experience and gold before we bother breaking the bank on armor that we're just going to replace."

"What type of flying monsters do they have?" Arthur asked as they walked over to Cassie's flying carpet.

"Basically nasty vultures, nothing you can't shoot down," Cassie assured him. "Besides, hitting level 40 should let us open portals which makes getting around a lot easier."

"Lead the way," Arthur replied, looking forward to picking up more spells.

0o0o0

Taylor blinked past a group of idiots blocking the road with a grin then quickly ducked into the leatherworking shop before they figured out where she'd gone. 'This is getting ridiculous,' she thought as she walked over to the brown haired man standing behind the counter.

"How can I help you today?" Simon asked, trying not to stare at the two headed blue skinned girl that had walked into his shop.

"I'd like to replace one of my skills with leatherworking," Taylor replied as she mentally opened her skill window, hoping she wasn't making a mistake.

"Which one?" Simon asked.

"Engineering," Taylor replied.

Simon nodded. "That's easy enough but you'll lose all of your progress in engineering, are you sure?"

"Yes," Taylor replied, hoping for the best but expecting the worst, mostly because her luck had been shit ever since her mother died. She stared at the spot on her list where 'Engineering (Bonus)' had been replaced by Leatherworking. 'No mention of it being a bonus skill,' she mused as she checked the buttplug. 'Nothing about engineering or giving me an extra skill, I think I broke it. At least it was just a twisted copy.'

Simon gestured towards his assistant. "My assistant can sell you a skinning knife and leatherworking kit."

"Thanks." Taylor closed the skill menu then walked over to the assistant and paid for the small wooden box and knife he handed her. "Do you have any thread?"

"Of course," the assistant replied with a grin. "We have just about everything you need for sale other than leather."

Taylor glanced at the stacks of leather she could see behind the counter. "What about those?"

"Sorry, they're all spoken for by various businesses," the assistant replied.

"Right," Taylor muttered as a couple of dwarves wearing rune covered leather gear and holding gem studded muskets strutted into the shop like they owned the place.

"You're going to have to pay a toll," one of the dwarves said, looking at Taylor.

"Ninja vanish!" Taylor shouted, then blinked through the wall into the alley and started running with a smile on her face, far too happy about her new profession to let the Trade Federation flunkies ruin her mode.

[Ninja vanish? Didn't you just use Blink?] Admin asked as she kept watch for trouble.

"Sure, but mages can also turn invisible, I might as well confuse the issue," Taylor replied in a whisper as she ran towards the bridge that connected things between Old Town and the Dwarven District. She scowled when she turned the corner and realized she'd ended up in a dead end alley with a group of five npc thugs.

"You've taken a wrong turn, miss. Perhaps we can show you the way for a fee," one of the thugs offered with a smirk as he stared at her chest.

Taylor grinned as she raised her hands and cast her blizzard spell on the group of 13th to 15th level thugs, causing them to try to charge through a storm of ice shards to reach her. She waited until they were almost to her then cast her frost nova spell to freeze them in place. She took a step back to make sure they couldn't slash her then repeatedly cast her arcane explosion ability until the thugs died. "That's a bit hard on my mana but it's fun."

[You just need better gear], Admin replied, looking forward to playing with her new abilities.

"I'm working on it," Taylor replied as she walked over and started looting the dead. 'Crappy swords I can probably melt down once I pick up blacksmithing, a couple of silver coins each and a bunch of cloth I can cut up for tailoring.'

She finished looting the thugs then blinked up to the roof of the building at the end of the alley and continued heading towards the dwarven district, finding running on the roof where she could see her target in the distance a lot easier than navigating the alleys.

[You could have skinned them], Admin pointed out.

Taylor made the jump to the next roof. "I know it's just a simulation but everything looks and feels real, I'd rather start with something that won't give me nightmares, even if it's a quick way to increase my skinning skill."

[Should I tell the rest of the group about your trick?] Admin asked.

"I'd rather wait until after I've talked to Amelia about it considering they'd need her help to make the symbiotes since I don't have enough," Taylor replied in a whisper as she reached the end of the roof. She scowled as she saw another group of dwarves blocking the bridge between the two sections of the city.

[Probably for the best considering the amount of resources you'd need if the entire group had all of their crafting skills unlocked], Admin admitted.

Taylor opened her inventory and swapped her damaged buttplug for one of the other symbiotes she'd converted into silver. "Any problems?" she asked in a whisper.

[No, why?] Admin asked.

"I swapped the plug for one that wasn't broken," Taylor replied in a whisper after turning away from the dwarves on the off chance one of them could read lips at that distance. She opened her crafting menu and checked her skills, happy to see that none of her skills had vanished and that her 'Engineering (Bonus)' skill was back. "Looks like we're good to go for acquiring the rest of the skills."

[Good, I'm looking forward to testing all of the professions.]

"Let's see what they want," Taylor whispered as she pulled a parrot feather out of her inventory. She cast her spell then jumped off the roof after checking her heads up display to make sure the spell had been cast successfully and the feather hadn't just vanished for the hell of it. She couldn't help the child-like smile on her face as she floated down to the ground. 'At least I don't need specific feathers to make it work.'

"Are you interested in joining the Trade Federation?" one of the dwarves asked as Taylor walked over.

"Not right now," Taylor replied with a shrug. "I'm more worried about leveling up and getting home."

"What's the point in going home?" one of the dwarves asked. "I'd rather become a god of crafting in a simulation than flip burgers in a world that's falling apart, at least we don't have to worry about endbringers and nothing can permanently kill us if we stay."

"You'll also never get to see your family again," Taylor pointed out.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," one of the other dwarves replied with amusement.

"Sorry," Taylor replied as she stepped to the side to try to get past the guy blocking her.

"If you're not part of the guild, you'll have to pay a toll to get to the crafting district," the dwarf replied smugly as he stepped to the side to continue blocking her.

"Stop being an asshole." Taylor blinked past the group of dwarves and ran towards the arch that led into the Dwarven District, trying to time it so that it took her fifteen seconds to get there so she could just blink past the next group of people blocking her way. "I should have enough time to grab jewelcrafting and blacksmithing before I have to get back to the dungeon for the next couple of runs with Void and the girls."

[Temporarily losing access to your phone is worth the help.]

"Yep," Taylor replied as she headed for the dark haired dwarf holding a hammer that looked like he could chew rocks.

Therum Deepforge looked up from his forge when the blue skinned two headed girl walked over. "If you're one of those Trade Federation idiots, get lost."

"Nope, I just want to trade out engineering for blacksmithing," Taylor replied.

"Tired of dealing with gnomes? I can't say I blame you. Let me show you how to swing a pickaxe and smelt ore," the dwarf replied gruffly as he headed over to the smelter.

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she followed him to the smelter, looking forward to seeing what she could make by combining her new skills.