Taylor and the Twisted Game Part 6

An: Sorry about the late post, the power went out for a day. 

'So much for having money,' Taylor thought as she used the last of her silver to pay for her hunter skills.

"Give me your money," a hunter wearing decent looking leather armor demanded as he pointed his gun at Taylor's face.

Taylor glared at the overly muscled human male that was trying to rob her. "I just spent everything I had buying skills."

"You're lying," the man replied. "Give me the money or I'll shoot you."

Taylor briefly considered just rushing past the guy and leaving the hunter training area but figured there was an outside chance that he had friends outside waiting for her. "Screw it, I have some junk you can sell, just let me summon my bank interface," she lied as she activated the teleport ability she got from her shorts, hoping he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the void elf ability and her teleport.

"Sure," the hunter replied, shocked that his threat had actually worked.

Taylor grinned as the counter reached ten seconds and she vanished, reappearing next to the colorfully dressed flight master in Westfall. "I'd like to register the flight point."

"Already taken care of," Thor replied with a smile.

"Thank you," Taylor replied as she glanced around the outpost that was surrounded in places by stone walls. She paused when she saw a pale skinned elf standing next to a woman in a purple dress that was carrying a staff. "I guess I'm not the first person here."

"Nope," Missy replied with a grin. "How did you unlock the flight path without getting here first?"

Taylor shook her head. "I didn't, I teleported so I could grab the flight point."

Missy raised an eyebrow. "You don't look like an ethereal hybrid."

"I'm not, I just have a symbiote," Taylor admitted as she walked over. "Stormwind is getting a bit crowded and nasty."

"Lovely," Missy muttered. "Sorry, I logged in to slaughter monsters and relax, not deal with a bunch of idiots that make some of the gangs look reasonable."

"Same," Taylor admitted as she looked at the girl's professional looking leather outfit that matched. "Are you a leatherworker?"

"Yeah," Missy agreed. "What do you need and what are you offering?"

"I'd love a decent quiver and some boots. I'm running low on coins but I can make socks and I have a phone that can call people in the real world," Taylor offered, wishing she hadn't spent her last silver on training.

"Deal," Missy replied. "If you let me borrow the phone for ten to fifteen minutes and make me a couple of pairs of socks and underwear, I'll make you a quiver and a decent pair of boots."

"Deal," Taylor agreed as she pulled the phone out of her inventory. "Have you seen any interesting beasts around?" she asked as she handed her the phone. "I need a combat pet."

"A couple of crows, a pack of dingos and some crabs near the coast. That's about it unless you consider vultures interesting?" Missy asked as she dialed her Mom's cell.

"Not particularly." Taylor shook her head. "I need to grab some arrows."

"I'm not going anywhere," Missy replied as she waited for her mother to answer the phone, figuring that would be a good test case before she called the PRT to let them know that she was stuck in a simulation.

Taylor walked over to the blond haired man working on a bow. "How much for arrows?"

William smiled at the blue skinned girl. "Rough arrows are 8 copper for 200 and sharp arrows are 52 copper for 200, the rough ones are made by my apprentices."

"I'll take the sharp arrows," Taylor replied as she handed over 52 copper coins.

"Excellent choice," William replied with a grin as he gave her the bundle of arrows. "I'm reasonably sure my current apprentice is blind."

"They have to start somewhere," Taylor replied as she dropped the large bundle of arrows in her inventory.

"Where did you get the phone?" Void asked as he walked over.

Taylor turned to look at the tall athletic looking man that was wearing an axe on his belt and cobbled together metal armor that didn't match then glanced at the female blood elf in leather armor that was walking out of the inn. "It was one of the options when I was making my character. Have you tried the dungeon yet?"

Void shook his head. "Not yet, we've been mining and letting Stalker grab the last bit of experience she needs to get into the dungeon."

Taylor raised her eyebrows. "Don't take this the wrong way but how are you planning on finishing the dungeon if your team is at the minimum level?"

"Brute force and parahuman powers," Noelle replied as she walked over. "Are you interested in trading the use of your phone for a bit in exchange for a quick run through the dungeon?"

"Can you keep us safe?" Taylor asked, glancing between Void and Noelle.

"Probably, I should be able to pull everything and rip it apart in seconds." Noelle gestured at Void. "Void is a death knight hybrid which means he should be able to hold anything that slips past me."

Void shifted uncomfortably as he thought about his crappy gear. "At least long enough for the rest of the group to burn it down."

"That's all I'm asking," Noelle assured him then focused on Taylor. "We could do the run with four people but you're allowed to take five people into the dungeon and you're a hunter, that means you can send your pet to harass the mobs to keep them in place."

"Which means less work for Void, right?" Taylor asked, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt about exploring a dungeon with a group of strangers.

"Basically," Noelle agreed. "We don't need the help but it would make everything easier and you'd get experience and loot out of it."

"I still need to capture a pet," Taylor admitted.

Noelle glanced over at where Missy was talking on the phone in a whisper or at least softly enough that she couldn't hear it. "That's why we have healers."

"Worst case, we walk into the dungeon and I get splattered trying to keep everyone alive, that should give you enough time to run," Void pointed out.

Taylor glanced at Missy. "Your friend has the phone for another fifteen to twenty, that should give me enough time to find a pet then we'll see how far we can get."

Noelle smiled. "Cool, let's find you a decent pet."

"Let me summon by alt first, my friend asked me to pick up some supplies in Stormwind," Taylor replied as she started summoning Admin.

"How did you get that?" Void asked, wishing he could switch between his characters.

"It came with the account," Taylor admitted.

"Lucky..." Void trailed off when a gorgeous blue haired fox girl appeared next to Taylor. "Nice!"

Admin glanced around when she found herself in a new location. [Where are we?]

"Sentinel Hill," Taylor replied, missing the look Void was giving Admin. "I'm going to be exploring a dungeon with Void's group, can you take the supplies back to Amy?"

Admin glanced between Void, Noelle and Missy then focused on Taylor. [Of course.]

"Thanks, I should be back in a couple of hours," Taylor assured Admin as she started handing her the supplies she'd purchased.

[What do you do for your host?] Admin asked Noelle's shard as she worked on sticking the supplies into her bag and inventory.

[Rage, death! Twist and consume!] Noelle's shard replied.

Admin blinked then promptly sent a self repair command and information packet. [Repair]

Void pulled his attention from Admin's fluffy tail. "Is she mute?"

Admin looked at Void and shrugged. [You just can't hear me.]

Taylor shrugged. "I can hear her just fine."

"It's probably just a game thing," Noelle pointed out.

"I've got to go Mom, I love you," Missy told her mother loud enough for the rest of the group to hear her clearly then ended the call before her mother could launch into a rant about how this was obviously her father's fault for getting her the game.

"Sorry," Void offered, wishing he'd kept his mouth shut. 'Damn it Greg, don't fuck this up.'

"It's a fair question," Taylor admitted as she watched a purple elf in professionally crafted leather armor walk over with a large knee high crab following her like a puppy. "Nice armor."

"Thanks," Sophia replied with a grin, rather proud of her enchanted gear.

Noelle gestured at Sophia then towards Taylor and Admin. "Stalker, this is Skitter and Admin, Skitter will be coming with us for the run."

Sophia glanced between the blue skinned girl and the pale skinned fox girl with blue hair, wondering how they'd ended up with unique species. "Class and profession?"

"I'm an Eldritch Beastmaster, it's basically a hunter and mage combination. I grabbed tailoring, enchanting and archeology for my professions," Taylor explained.

"Nice," Sophia admitted when she noticed that Skitter was ten levels higher than her. "What about Admin?" she asked, looking at the quiet fox girl.

[You tell them, I'll grab the flight point.] Admin said as she headed for the flight master, in case she had to leave in a hurry.

"Sure," Taylor replied as she focused on Sophia. "She's a Warlock of Shadows, a rogue and warlock mix that lets her move around quietly, pick locks and blast things. She grabbed jewelcrafting, construction and inscription for skills."

"I'm a master artisan or at least I will be once I finish leveling my leatherworking and enchanting skills," Sophia replied smugly then looked at Noelle. "How much time do we have before the run?"

"Ten to fifteen minutes, why?" Noelle asked.

"Because I need socks and Admin could use a couple of levels," Sophia replied with a smirk, fairly sure a bit of help would go a long way to making a favorable impression and they had a nice collection of skills and classes.

"Good idea," Noelle agreed. "I should have a couple of extra crates of copper ore once we're done with the run that I'd be willing to trade for some jewelry."

"Sure," Taylor replied, figuring the group could wait another twenty minutes for their supplies if it meant getting Admin a couple of levels.

0o0o0

Emily glanced up from staring at her fishing float as Dennis climbed out of the water. "Anything useful?"

"Less than I'd like, more than I was expecting," Dennis replied as he wrung the bottom part of his shirt out. "I grabbed a couple of pearls that should be useful for crafting and a bunch of stranglekelp which should make the alchemists happy. It's one of the ingredients in potions of water breathing which lets you breathe underwater for thirty minutes."

"That's slightly less useful considering the shorts Skitter and Amy created but we can probably sell them, right?" Emily asked, knowing they needed the gold for skills and training if they wanted any chance of escaping without outside help.

"Probably," Dennis admitted. "Even when it was just a VR game, the potions sold decently well because of quests and underwater resources."

"Good." Emily looked at her float when she felt a tug on her fishing rod then quickly pulled another locked metal chest out of the water. She set the chest with the rest of the locked containers she'd pulled out of the pond then tossed her hook back into the water.

"What do you think the chances of getting rescued are?" Dennis asked.

"Slim to none," Emily admitted after a few seconds of thought. "Dragon let me borrow her phone so I could call Renick, none of the various thinkers the PRT has access to can give them a location or a way to extract us."

"How widespread is the problem?" Dennis asked, wondering how many people they'd be competing with.

"It seems to be limited to various English speaking countries for the moment." Emily pulled a fish out of the water and stuck it in her inventory.

"So much for it being a local problem," Dennis grumbled. "Did the local gangs lose anyone?"

"Uber and Leet are most likely in the game, they left a message on the boards about streaming their first adventure of the new release," Emily replied as she stood up and set her fishing pole against the chair after a couple of seconds, still not used to having a 'body' that didn't hurt. "Something spooked the Merchants and caused them to scatter which might be related to the game or maybe someone finally got tired of them."

"It wouldn't surprise me either way," Dennis replied as Admin walked around the corner of the keep. "We should probably talk to the tinkers about how their specialties mesh with engineering."

"It's on the list," Emily admitted.

Dennis smiled at Admin as she walked over in a new suit of leather armor. "How is my favorite fox girl doing?"

Admin gave Dennis a thumbs up then handed him a piece of parchment with a smile.

Dennis glanced over the supply list written down in careful and rather neat handwriting. "Let me guess, you have the supplies?"

[Yes] Admin replied absently as she started handing him the stacks of parchment that Taylor had purchased for inscription and enchanting.

"Thank you," Dennis replied as he worked on sticking everything in his inventory that she handed him. "This should help."

"Can I talk you into opening the rest of the boxes when you're done handing out supplies?" Emily asked.

Admin gave her a thumbs up, happy to help since it meant her lockpicking skill would increase and they'd have more resources to figure out their skills.

"Thank you," Emily replied as she walked over so she could see the list. "That's a lot of supplies, what did she trade for the stacks of ore?" she asked after glancing over the list of supplies that Skitter had purchased.

Admin reached down and wrote a message in the sand, 'Dungeon run and socks.'

"Makes sense," Dennis agreed. "You can get decent gear in dungeons and a lot of experience in a short amount of time compared to running around the wilds looking for monsters."

Admin sat down on one of the crates and got started picking the locks, figuring she could start crafting when she was done.

Emily finished looking over the list then walked back over and sat down in the fishing chair and got back to work, figuring she might as well do something productive while she waited for Armsmaster to finish crafting. "What's the first dungeon like?"

"Deadmines? It's basically an 'abandoned' mine a bunch of thieves and pirates have taken over complete with a large pirate ship in a cave at the end. It should be a piece of cake with a brute to run you through it," Dennis explained then pulled out a mortar and pestle and started grinding herbs as he covered everything he could remember that was remotely relevant.

0o0o0

"Fear my wrath!" the parrot said as she swooped down and clawed at the bandit Taylor was shooting at.

Sophia glanced between Taylor and the parrot then went back to shooting the bandit that Void was trying to kill. "How the hell are you controlling your pet and attacking at the same time?"

"Eyes of the Beast," the parrot replied as Taylor swapped over to tossing frostbolts at the group of sorceresses that had attacked them from behind.

Missy cast another rejuvenation spell on Void that should keep his health up then started spamming moonfire spells on the sorceresses. 'This would make dealing with the gangs so much easier.'

"It's not supposed to work like that," Sophia complained as she swapped to shooting the sorceresses now that Void was free to grab them. "Attack my target," she ordered her crab, annoyed that she couldn't just mentally direct it like Skitter seemed to be able to.

Void used his death grip ability to pull one of the sorceresses towards him as she was casting a spell at Skitter. "Sorry, not sorry," he said cheerfully as he worked on killing his target, wishing that he had his new powers in the real world.

Taylor dodged out of the way of a blast of fire as she mentally directed her parrot to steal the woman's staff.

Sophia sprinted over to the third sorceress and used her slice and dice ability to get in several shots with her dagger, quickly dropping the sorceress to the ground. "We've got this."

Taylor jumped back and sent a barrage of arcane missiles at her target, dropping her then did the same to Void's target. "That went better than I was expecting."

"Incoming!" Noelle shouted as she charged around the corner with a horde of mobs following her. "Blizzard!"

Taylor raised her hands and hit the group of pirates with shards of ice, slowing them down and causing some of them to slip and fall as they lost their footing.

Noelle spun around and started hacking the bandits apart now that she was close enough for the rest of the group to get the experience. "Blast them!"

"Working on it!" Taylor replied as she continued channeling her spell.

Missy twisted space to keep the bandits from slipping past Noelle or shooting the rest of the group, rather happy with their progress despite their somewhat rocky start. "Teamwork for the win."

"Sure, let's go with that," Sophia replied sarcastically as she watched Noelle grip the horde of pirates apart. 'Nothing like taking a high level brute to a knife fight. At least I'll have plenty of gear for Emma when she gets her ass in here.'

Taylor dropped her blizzard when the last pirate dropped. "That went better than I was expecting, how many are left?"

"Just the boss," Noelle replied with a grin, happy that they'd managed to clear the dungeon in a reasonable time without anyone taking a significant amount of damage. "Let's loot and skin everyone then we'll kill the boss and reset things."

"I'm sort of glad that I didn't grab leatherworking," Taylor admitted, wishing the designers hadn't made things quite as realistic when it came to skinning things.

"Or cooking?" Sophia asked with amusement as she started looting the bodies so she could skin them.

"Or that," Taylor replied, fairly sure Stalker had a couple of screws loose even if she was an excellent shot.

Void grinned when he looked at his character sheet and realized he'd leveled a couple of times. "At least we're getting decent experience."

"Everyone is close to the right level and we're moving quickly," Noelle pointed out as she checked her experience bar. "Actually, we should be high enough to get into the Stockades with another run or two, it's easy and fast and gives decent loot if you're up for it?"

"I'm game," Void agreed as he continued looting. "We can always fly back."

Missy glanced at Sophia. "I'll need to visit the class trainer before we hit Stormwind but yeah, I wouldn't mind getting better loot."

"I'm game," Taylor agreed, not seeing a reason to turn down 'free' experience when she had a brute that was willing to help and a reasonably competent team.

0o0o0