Infinence

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Uhm, thanks for the correction. And if it's obvious, don't say what's obvious. You'll spoiler those who have yet to figure it out themselves. >.> (Although I highly doubt there's anyone reading this who hasn't)

P.S: I just finished playing CoD4!

[Denunciator]

This post occurs at the part where he jumps for joy. At any rate, you write this stuff well, seems like you have an understanding of girls and their emotions/reactions beyond the common guy. I'd like to learn how from you :P

At any rate, keep it up, I hope you get on with the plot soon.

[xdgr]

At any rate, you write this stuff well, seems like you have an understanding of girls and their emotions/reactions beyond the common guy. I'd like to learn how from you :P

Anime is a wonderful thing, yes indeed.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

I guess that's because I have a tendency to overthink things and put my own thoughts in other people's shoes to try and predict what they'll do based on earlier behavior. Don't know whether it's good or not... >.>

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 6

"Traya...?" the black-hooded warrior asked.

"Scotty...?" my answer mirrored his. There was no need to reply anyway. I already knew the answer, but again, part of my mind just couldn't accept it. He had probably suspected it when I told him about my character...... Before I could say anything else, I felt myself losing balance from the surprise. Half a second later, I was immersed in sea water, gasping for my breath. Just as I went under, I felt a strong, gauntleted hand grab my own hand, pulling me up.

I lay on the docks, gasping for air as Scotty bent over beside me. He was obviously worried; his character's eyes showed it all. "Don't scare me... like that... next... time..." I panted. He merely nodded and extended his hand. I looked at it for a second or so, then grasped it tightly, allowing him to pull me up. Once up, I coughed out the last bit of sea water and focused my full attention on him. I took the time to take in his character's features; with the cloak not covering part of his body, I could finally see part of him.

He wore heavy armour under the cloak, unsurprising for a warrior; especially one with a giant sword for a weapon. Heavy armour could take far more damage, which was important for him as he left quite a few openings for attacks when he swung his sword. His character shared the brown hair of his real body in exactly the same style; I was surprised I hadn't noticed it the first time I met his in-game character.

"Thanks for saving me back then by the way," I smiled at him. "Wouldn't have if I knew you were in Outlaw status. But actually, saving you was the better option," he grinned. Typical of him; he put his friends and family above all else. Pondering that thought, I turned to look at the water; my reflection showed on the surface. Why was I blushing? Scotty seemed to be expressionless, his eyes fixed on something. I followed his gaze... to my character's body. My blush grew more intense as I realized that. He seemed to catch it, and quickly recomposed himself. "Am I... unsuitable for you?" I quietly asked, careful not to let anyone else overhear it. "Erm...... no... but..." he stammered in an equally low tone. I knew what he meant.

"Why did you choose to wear... armour like that?" he blurted out. "I'll tell you sometime in the future," I merely winked at him. Armour was rated in 4 stats; defense, magic defense, mobility and the Exotic rating from 1-10. The Exotic rating was the most influential of all 4; a higher rating would improve magic defense and mobility, where the opposite applied for a lower rating. It also affected how armour looked. My light armour set was rated 9, meaning it was quite revealing, but had much higher magic defense and mobility. Defense affected the damage dealt by normal weapons, whereas high magic defense would decrease damage taken from magical attacks. Mobility increased movement speed and agility.

How the Exotic rating affected armour looks depended on the type of armour. Light armour only had a range of 5-10, it got progressively revealing as the rating increased. Medium armour had the full range; lower ratings would have thicker armour pads and higher ratings could get less revealing than light armour while not sharing the mobility light armour had. Heavy armour had a range of 1-5, with the armour mass decreasing as the rating got higher. Most people preferred a rating of 5; it was easiest to find and offered the best overall stats. I chose to go higher because my character was calibrated for speed, and would easily dodge most physical attacks. It wasn't only for that reason that I went for a higher Exotic rating though.

Characters would grow over time; with children characters eventally becoming teenagers, and then adults. Character growth depended on the level of the character and the chosen starting age. In this case, I had started at the age of 14, my real age at the time. Playing for 2 years, my character had grown to what it was now. Exotic rating of worn equipment also played a part in the process by influencing body shape and abilities. Lower ratings resulted in more muscular and slower characters, whereas higher ratings could make for more attractive and faster characters. With my character having worn equipment of high Exotic rating since creation, it came as little surprise it had a body like this.

Growth would 'freeze' at the adult stage, allowing characters to keep playing as adults. Old characters were possible, but their bodies would never grow or shrink, and they could not be combat classes. Because of that, nobody made old characters. Essentially, all characters stopped aging at the adult phase and became 'immortal' in Infinence. It was a pretty good idea too. Scotty's character seemed to be the same age as mine.

"The sunset's beautiful, isn't it?" Scotty asked suddenly, breaking me out of my memories. I turned my head to look at the horizon. "Yeah..." I heaved a sigh of pleasure. The orange rays of Infinence's sun now filling the cool evening air seemed to calm me down for some reason. It also reminded me of those romance Japanese anime. Those usually had a couple watching the sunset together. Glancing down at the water's surface, I found that I was blushing yet again. "Hey, Traya......"

"Yup?"
"Would you... never mind."
"Why cut off the sentence?"
"Never mind that..."
"C'mon, tell me! What did you want to ask?"
"Never mind!"
"Awww......"

I returned to staring at the sunset before realizing my heart was beating faster than normal. Dismissing the thought, I got up and walked off the dock onto the main harbour platform. Scotty followed, moving to walk beside me. "Going where?" he asked. "Looking for a job. I flunked my last one, as you should know," I replied, referring to my secret mission. "Well, I still have one to do. Some monster population control mission in the Vria Plains. Tusk Cats have been overpopulating the place. Guess I probably won't be seeing your character tomorrow," he sighed.

"Maybe not see, but we can still chat," I reached into my pouch and lifted out a flip cellphone. Cellphones acted as the primary form of communication between players in Infinence, much like the real world. Every character started out with one and could add other players into a call list just by pointing the phone at the player in question and stating a nickname. The outward appearances of phones were completely customizable, with all calls being free.

Scotty pulled out a sliding phone and pointed it at me while I pointed mine at him. "Scotty," I said out loud. "Traya," he mirrored it. "Contact registered," our phones beeped at the same time. I smiled and pocketed mine. It was possible to talk through it even without bringing it out. I just had to think about receiving the call and the game would simply connect the call directly to my head. This solved issues with people receiving calls in the middle of fights or dungeons.

"I'll call you when I get lonely," Scotty offered as he broke into a run towards Sarena's main gate. I simply waved at him as he disappeared from view, and then moved towards the inn just beside the town square. A few heads turned as I pushed open the wooden doors and entered, but most of them just grunted and went back to whatever they were doing. "Lucky you, escaping Outlaw status," I heard a robe-clad character mutter. "I did what I had to do, and besides, that came from an accident."

"I got your mission pay here," the innkeeper, an old lady, waved me over. I was surprised; the mission was supposed to have failed...... She handed me an envelope containing a bank cheque for 4 million gold, together with a note. It simply read, 'Honour increase nullified due to killing of town chief." It didn't matter, I only wanted the gold anyway. After stowing the cheque in my pouch and throwing away the note, I proceeded towards the mission board.

Sharp Eyes didn't detect any Secret Missions this time, so I just looked for the one that captivated me the most. Today, it was an Exploration Mission. These missions were rare, as most areas on maps were already explored. This one would have me exploring an uncharted region in the very center of the continent. Exploration Missions were quite rewarding if the person doing them found ancient ruins or something similar, as they usually contained rare items which the first one to explore the areas would usually run off with. The risk was high, because the monsters in those unexplored regions were completely unknown to the rest of the game world. Unexplored regions always had monsters unique to those regions only. Not only that, the map was disabled in those regions. It would only become usable again after reaching the center of the unexplored region. Out of all the navigational instruments, only the compass was usable.

"Taken," I grinned, ripping the notice clear off the board and stuffing it in my pouch. Quest notices automatically went into the Mission Book for easier reference. I would need to stock up for this mission; I didn't know what to expect on the trip. It was an estimated 7-day journey to the center of a dense tropical rainforest, according to the notice. A lot of things could happen in 7 days; including getting poisoned or dying. Just in case, I stocked up on Antidotes.

The real journey would have to wait; it was nightfall already. I wasn't too keen on trekking through a forest with almost no visibility at all, especially when it was unexplored territory where I didn't know what to expect. To end the day, I simply had Reena fly me to the forest's edge for a look. The place was all... foggy. It wasn't going to be easy going through; I only hoped that the compass worked like it should the next day. "Good night," Reena nodded to me as she flew up into the air and disappeared into the darkness of night. I only closed my eyes and prepared to log off.

[Denunciator]

Exotic simply doesn't sum it up xD Hope to see more soon!

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 7

The next morning, I munched down my breakfast and simply watched as my parents left the house for work, and then climbed back up the stairs to my room and put on my V-band; I couldn't wait to start the exploration mission. The thought-scan seemed to take ages to finish, but it was just my excitement.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The login finished without a hitch as it usually did, leaving me standing in front of the still-foggy rainforest. In the glare of the morning sun, the fog looked a little less dense than yesterday. I just hoped it really was. Even with Sharp Eyes, my character couldn't see very well in foggy conditions. It meant that monsters would be able to jump me with ease if I wasn't careful...... Not exactly a situation I wanted to be in, especially on an Exploration Mission like this. Dying sent the character back to the edge of the unexplored region, with the mission classified as 'Failed'. Failed missions couldn't be taken again, and had to be done by someone else. I wasn't about to let someone else steal my treasure, if any.

When I took my first step into the forest, I was greeted by a cool rush of air that seemed to tempt me to explore deeper in. It actually meant that my map was disabled from then on, so I started moving more carefully. A few minutes of walking left me in a fogless clearing; the fog had apparently been just a hollow shell. It wasn't even foggy deeper in; what a relief that was. Still, I kept my eyes open. The canopy blocked most of the sunlight from shining in, but there was still enough to let me see by, fortunately.

Only a few steps into the clearing, I could hear a strange cry unlike anything I'd ever heard before. It seemed to be coming from a black silhouette hovering overhead. When I tried to get a better look at it, it dived down to ground level and flew right at me. "Wargh!" I rolled into a prone position, narrowly dodging the vulture's outstretched claws. It gave another one of those cries and came back for another pass, during which I drew my bow and shot it in the head when it got to eye level.

"Strike one for Traya," I smiled, walking over to the dead body. It was definitely a vulture, judging by the head shape. When I touched it, the body disappeared, leaving behind a black-coloured crystal. Seemed pretty rare, so I put it in my pouch and went on walking, more alert now. Only a few steps later, I was greeted by a growl from an animal I never met in the real world before. I quickly drew my bow again and nocked an arrow to the string.

Just half a second later, the striped form of a tiger leapt out of the woods and ran towards me. I barely had time to fire before it leapt on me, but by then, it was already dead. My arrow hit it in the cranium. "Heavy..." I heaved the corpse aside and sat up, panting from the surprise attack. Once I regained my breath, I turned to look at the beast I had just killed. It was definitely a tiger, but it was larger than I had expected it to be... Something in the air, perhaps? I was lucky my shot hit, otherwise I'd probably be dead by now; this one exhibited claws sharp enough to rip through my skin.

I went on north, following my compass. The air was just... filled with those 'screaming' vultures; there was one every few meters or so I walked. I managed to avoid confronting most of them by crawling through the undergrowth, but I had to keep listening to their stupid scream the entire time. Still, I wasn't about to waste valuable arrows that could be needed further in. One spotted me later; I shot it in the head while it swept towards me. This one left behind another black crystal, which I stowed in my pouch.

The rest of the morning was spent moving northwards, and by noon I had lost count of the number of screaming vultures I had sneaked past. The tigers weren't so easily fooled, so I had to kill every one I came across. I managed to find a safe place in a small burrow held up by a tree's roots to log off for lunch; I came back an hour later to continue the trek. More vultures, more tigers. I just kept coming across the same creatures the entire time......

About 3 hours later, I found what seemed to be a ruined stone path leading off to the left from my destination. Debating whether or not to follow the path, I eventually decided to ignore it. "The compass never lies," I muttered to myself, moving on. The path still looked suspicious though; I wondered if it led to a temple or something. Still, it wasn't my destination. It led off to the west instead of the north after all.

I had to take a break 2 hours later for dinner, and I got back to continue. Strangely, the area didn't seem like it led to ruins or anything. Maybe there weren't any? I went on for several hours until it was almost nightfall, but when I pushed aside the last tree branch blocking my way... "A goddamn mountain," I swore, pulling out my compass. The needle pointed right at the towering stone peak. Magnetic interference...... the mission just got a lot more harder. I needed to retrace my steps back to the stone path from earlier and see where it led, otherwise I wouldn't be going anywhere. A cave at the foot of the mountain provided a safe spot to log off for the night; I'd resume the trip tomorrow.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I decided to head south, then west the next day in an attempt to find the stone path again, but still I couldn't find it. All I found were many more screaming vultures and a few more tigers. As with yesterday, I sneaked past the vultures and shot the tigers before they leapt on me. The day went on until I logged off for the night in the middle of the forest. I had to do it in a tree, since there weren't any caves around.

The day after that, I resumed the journey northwards. At least, I hoped it was the real north. I still hadn't come across the stupid path. By evening, it still wasn't in sight and I was getting extremely frustrated. I could go back to Sarena, but I was completely lost, and return stones were unusable on Exploration Missions. The only option was to keep on going until I either died or found the center of the region. If there were no ruins, the center would usually be a significant object such as a massive tree towering above all the rest.

As I brushed a branch aside, I looked up to see that what little I could see of the sky was getting darker. It wouldn't be long before I was forced to log off. A sound beside me caused me to turn in that direction through pure instinct, but still, I barely had time to react before... something resembling a green mouth closed around my body and lifted me up bodily. When I managed to get a good look at it...... "Giant venus flytrap... Of all things to supersize, why a carnivorous plant...?" I groaned in exasperation. The trap held me in tightly, preventing escape.

When I tried to wriggle my way out, the trap closed tighter; I could feel some form of acid inside eating away at my armour. It wasn't a good situation to be in; once my armour's integrity completely depleted from the acid, I would start taking real HP damage at intervals. Luckily, the trap didn't catch my head and arms inside. I pulled an arrow out from the exposed top of my quiver and nocked it to my bow's string, aiming at the flytrap's main stalk while it rocked around.

One shot severed the trap from the stalk, cutting off its supply of nutrients and water from the soil and letting the trap fall to the ground. When it hit the ground, the impact knocked the trap open. I didn't waste any time rolling out, which I managed to do as it closed again. Now, the trap couldn't move anymore, and it couldn't catch me again. "Yuck," I shook my body, throwing the slimy acid off. It seemed to have taken quite a toll on my armour; I could see holes all around the tubetop, and it was looser than usual. A bad sign. Quick checks on my character scroll showed the armour integrity at 200/1000; a drop of 750 since I last checked. At most, the armour would last a few more days before it became unusable and had to be repaired, at which point my character would just appear in underwear, much more vulnerable.

I was stunned when I exited the forest again. This time... it was another mountain range. Mountain ranges on both sides of the place... great. I logged out in a cave and went to sleep extremely irritated. I had wasted 3 days wandering around in the forest, following false compass directions and now, I only had a few more days until my armour's integrity points completely depleted and left me vulnerable...... Not to mention there were those screaming vultures always flying overhead and tigers on the ground. If I ever got out of the place, there was no way I was going to come back again.

I didn't follow the compass for the rest of the trip, instead relying on my own instincts and senses. Still, it was no different than when I was misled by the mountain ranges' magnetic interference on my compass. The pattern of sneaking past screaming vultures and shooting tigers in the head repeated itself for 10 more days, with the addition of more giant Venus Flytraps. They were easy to disable; I just shot out their stalks from a safe range where they couldn't clamp their traps around me. Only these ones had purple traps and long purple vines. One nearly managed to pull me in with a vine before I severed it with a knife I kept in my quiver and sliced its stalk apart. By the tenth day, I was irritated and annoyed well past my limit.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Sorry about the short chapter, but there really wasn't much to write about trips. >.>

Chapter 8

"This sucks......" I collapsed onto the ground, my character seemingly overcome with fatigue. It seemed that I had been in the stupid rainforest for years, yet I knew I had only been in it for 2 weeks, totally lost and confounded. I wished I could read constellations...... Infinence's constellations were exactly the same as the ones visible from the real Earth to simplify navigation. There was a handbook for reading constellations in every sailing characters' personal inventory; my character, being a hunter, didn't have it. If I did, it would've been easier going through the place.

My armour was full of holes now; though I had managed to avoid the rest of the giant Venus Flytraps and their acid, it degraded from natural reasons. The acid seemed to have shrunk it over time somehow; it was a lot tighter and I could actually touch quite a portion of my character's underbust under the tubetop. There wasn't a penalty for undersized equipment, fortunately. I had to force myself to get up and walk to continue, but the cry of another screaming vulture sent me back into a prone position.

Though I didn't really feel fatigued in real life, my character did. Very long trips without rest would often send characters into a tired state, where they took more damage from attacks and their overall performance suffered. My character was at the point of near-collapse, so I needed to find some way to rejuvenate her. Hot spas worked pretty well, and so did just relaxing on a plain chair. Anything a human could relax in would rejuvenate characters. Several minutes of crawling through the undergrowth later, I came across a lake with a waterfall cascading down upon it.

The water was surprisingly hot. I couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief and pleasure as I stepped into it. Didn't really seem like I was the only visitor though; a tiger was just walking in from the nearby woods. I quietly submerged below the waters, but it still kept moving towards me. When I was about to draw my bow, it lowered its head and moved to lap up the water, completely ignoring me. The move surprised me; weren't the tigers here all hostile...?

I surfaced, my bow drawn in case it tried to attack me. On the contrary, it didn't. It only looked at me, and then turned to walk off back into the woods. Something wasn't right...... was it the vultures? It seemed that the hostile tigers were all close to the screaming vultures for some strange reason. Were the cries driving them mad? Whatever the cause was, I didn't want to meet any more. I moved out of the water just as my entire armour set slid down my body and onto the ground. In the case of my boots and gloves, they simply fell apart.

"Now I really can't afford to get attacked," I groaned in exasperation as I stowed the set in my pouch. All my character was wearing was just a pink bra and panties; meaning the armour's integrity had completely depleted. A bad situation to be in, considering that I was in a place like this. The bra seemed to be undersized though; I could still feel my underbust.

Moving for the lake's edge, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a stone drain. Silently walking towards it, I noted that it led off into the forest in a perfectly straight line. A stone waterway? "Finally....." I was much too relieved to think about anything else. Keeping my bow at the ready, I advanced through the forest, following the waterway. The hot water from the lake was still flowing through it; I could feel the hot steam heating up my legs.

Hours later, I came across a relic of the past; part of a ruined stone arch. All that left standing of it were two pillars on either side of pieces of stone rubble that seemed to have been the arch itself. There was now a stone path passing alongside the waterway; I changed my course to walk on it. It felt quite cold to my bare feet now, but I ignored it. After 2 weeks...... I only hoped it was worth the 2-week journey that had been wraught with enough problems already.

The real jackpot came a few minutes later as I passed through an intact arch. An entire ruined city of stone, built right in the middle of the rainforest. I cheered and dashed right into the place to look around. The architecture was... impressive. Even when ruined, the stone carvings gave the city a beautiful appearance and was still very pleasing to the eye. Still, something in the air wasn't quite right. There was a vague sense of something... bad in the air.

It intensified when I turned to the right, suggesting that the source was in that direction. I readied my bow for anything I could possibly be facing, but there weren't any traces suggesting that monsters were near, so I relaxed slightly and walked with more confidence in my step. "What do we have here......" I knelt down on the ground to examine what appeared to be a staff. It radiated a strange aura that I had never seen before.

The artifact's rod was made out of some strange black metal, ending on both sides in an orb that was totally black. One orb was cracked, so it was probably the source behind the bad sense in the air. When I touched it, it glowed for a moment, then everything went black.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The darkness cleared after a short while though; it seemed to have been only a cloud of it. When I looked downwards, the artifact was... gone. "Huh?" I took a quick look around. Something jingled on me as I did, compelling me to look down at myself. I got a big surprise.

I was now wearing a... set of armour that didn't really look like armour at all. In fact, it was underwear made out of what appeared to be ornate shadowtitanium... The top was an undersized bra with the two parts held together by a ring and the back by strings alone. Like my earlier set, it had a slot for a house crest on the right breast, but it was smaller. The bra itself offered a generous view of my character's cleavage from the top, also with the nipples' shape showing clearly through the material; they were dangerously close to the edge. When I checked my hips, I found... what looked like a G-string. In the front, it formed a V-shape going over my thigh and coming together at the back in a T-shape that went right between my butt. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was of Exotic rating 10.

But why was it shadowtitanium? A thought suddenly came to me, leading me to check my pouch. My older shadowtitanium set was missing... it had probably changed into this one. But why... and how? I sat down to think about it, but it was then that the wind blew several strands of black hair onto my shoulder. I pulled my hair to the front to check. It used to be silver, but now it had turned... black. Rather, it looked much darker than even black.

I also felt... stronger than before. Why, I wasn't sure. When I stood up, the world still appeared to look the same, but... where there were shadows, it was as if I could see a darker version of whatever was inside. I tried to move closer to inspect and started walking, but the next thing I knew, I was disappearing into a world of darkness and reemerging in the very spot I wanted to go to. A voice in my head seemed to say, "Shadowleap."

Shadow...? Was this black magic? No, users of black magic couldn't use teleporting spells. But.. how could I have used one...? I wasn't even a mage! Could it have been... the staff? It would explain everything though...... There really was no reason to argue. Infinence had legends about shadow magic; that it was the support variant of black magic. If I could use shadow magic now... it would be a really big advantage.

I tried focusing on another shadow nearby and then took a step forward. As expected, I was there almost instantly. "Shadowleap, huh..." I smiled. This was going to be fun. I experimented with it a bit more, Shadowleaping onto the roofs of the ruins. When I got bored with it, I pulled out my character scroll. "Magical Affinity: Shadow" was now shown under my character stats. Touching the 'Shadow' word brought up an ethereal list of spells available to me. To my surprise, there were quite a lot.

Every single spell in my arsenal now had something to do with shadows, like Shadowmeld. It let me become almost invisible when I used it in the shadows. Shadow Bind fired an arrow at another being's shadow to stop them from moving. There were a lot more in there; I made sure to finish reading the entire list before closing it and moving on with the exploration.

I headed for the largest building in the middle of the ruins; it seemed to be a massive hall of sorts. The doors were too heavy for me to push open by myself, so I was forced to look around for some other entry method. There was one right in front of the place; a massive boulder on a slope lodged in place by some rubble. I wondered how it had gotten there, but that wasn't really important. Focusing on the shadow the boulder cast over the rubble, I Shadowleaped there.

A bomb was enough to blow the rubble away and send the boulder tumbling down the slope. It smashed right into the big stone doors barring access to the hall. Surprisingly, the doors held, but were knocked slightly ajar from the impact. It was enough, at least for me. Although the gap wasn't big enough to crawl through, I simply focused on a shadow I could see inside the hall. A second later, I was standing in a big hall.

It seemed to be the only place untouched by whatever had ruined the city. Tall, ornate stone pillars arranged parallel to an old red carpet held the roof up. The walls were adorned with old paintings and sculptures of unknown origin, but they were definitely not alien. The red carpet in the middle of the hall led up to what looked like a stone throne on a raised platform on the opposite side of the building. A race ruled by a king or queen or something similar, most probably.

The paintings were too old, and had rotted away with the ages; what had been on them was completely indiscernible. Too bad, because I could've learned something from them. I walked up the carpet, admiring the hall's beautiful architecture as I did. Not watching where I was going left me open to accidents though, such as... tripping. I fell over when my foot hit something lying n the ground.

Although it was kinda musty already, the carpet felt kind of soft. I quickly got up and examined the thing I had tripped over. It was an ornate bow, still strung. "What's this doing here..." I lifted it up to check it. Almost instantly, I felt a rush of power. This bow was definitely no ordinary longbow. It was made out of some kind of gold-coloured composite with leather for a grip; composites weren't really practical in the old ages of Infinence. I spent a few seconds examining it, until I noticed that the area around the grip was turning black. Influence from my new magic perhaps.

I was just beginning to slip my original bow into my pouch when I heard a growl behind me.

When I turned around, I found out that it was a black sabretooth tiger. And it didn't look very friendly. "Whoa!" I managed to Shadowleap to the opposite side of the room before it managed to bury its claws in my skin. Nocking an arrow to my new bow, I made a few accuracy checks before letting it fly. It stuck itself in the tiger's shadow. The next thing it knew, it couldn't even move at all and was growling in annoyance. I strode over to it and looked it in the eyes. It seemed to be frightened by something; probably me. "Sneaking up on people is rude," I smiled, getting up and leaving. Shooting a defenseless foe wasn't really something I liked to do.

Shadowleaping back out of the place, I looked around for any more places of interest. One seemed to be just beside the hall; a similarly intact stone building that had no windows. I strolled over to it and pushed the door open. The place... was an ancient armoury... I could see spears, bows, swords, almost everything that had something to do with ancient warfare arranged neatly on racks. The armour was on a separate side of the room, but I wasn't interested in them. None of the bows here were the same as the one I was holding now though. It would be a nice place to set up a weapons and armour shop, but I would get a portion of the cash from whatever was sold here anyway; I had discovered the ruins after all.

The armour here was made out of some kind of metal I had never seen before, and was obviously only for women. A culture of warrior women...? With a Queen? Of course... Amazonians. Their armour placed an emphasis on both armour strength and mobility; for all of the sets, if worn, would expose the entirety of the legs and arms and waist. The covered areas had extremely thick armour; I wondered if there were any women in Infinence who could carry a weight like that. It seemed that most of the armour pieces were forged for women with big busts; were all Amazonians like that?

I wandered out of the armoury and into the city square, or what appeared to be one, right in front of the hall. Taking a seat on a piece of rubble, I took a little more time to admire myself before placing two fingers in my mouth and blowing softly. Moments later, Reena descended onto the ground in front of me. "You took 2 weeks to find the place?" she frowned. "Magnetic interference from the stupid mountain ranges, messed up my compass," I retorted. "That's understandable. Back to Sarena then?" she took a look around.

"Unless you wanna have a look around the Amazonian culture," I offered. "Amazonians... I heard they tamed birds too," she mumbled, going to walk around. It surprised me. "Yes, there's a nesting tower for birds," she came back later. It seemed like she was interested in it. "Might as well see the sights," I shrugged and got on her. She flapped her wings and ascended on a current of air, takin me to an elevated tower just nearby.

She landed inside the tower's top floor, where there was a really big window for birds to land through, according to her. Getting off Reena, we started looking around together. The floor was stuffed with hay, making it an ideal nesting area for birds. A staircase led downwards in a side of the circular room, while there was a door beside it, slightly ajar. I walked over to the door and pushed it open; luckily it wasn't too heavy.

"Oooh, hawk armour," Reena walked excitedly over to a rack in a corner of the room. The place seemed like an armoury for birds... Did the Amazonians ride hawks into combat? "Want some? We're free to take anything we want before the real pioneers come in and set up shops," I smiled. She quickly began pulling down a gold-lined black helmet and touched it; it rematerialized on her head, a perfect fit. "How do I look?" she laughed. I had to admit, she looked good with it.

When she finished with the whole set, Reena really looked like a warhawk. She had armour around her body, none touching her wings or tail so that she could flap them like normal. There was a saddle on her back for a rider. The gold lining made her look quite... cool too. It looked like the armour itself was pretty light and was only designed for protection against arrows and magic spells. "I'd say we're done here, let's go back," I nodded at Reena. She was examining a scroll on the ground. "Traya, this scroll can speed up bird mounts permanently!" she squawked.

I really had no choice but to use it on her; she could get pretty persistent and stubborn if she wanted to. On the outside, it seemed like nothing happened to her, but I knew it was magic. We exited the tower through the nesting area, where I got on Reena. It would take several hours to fly back to Sarena... normally. She was twice as fast as she normally was this time, with me actually having to grip her reins tightly, fight the windblast and make sure I didn't slip out of the saddle to stay on.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 9

When we finally arrived back at the Sarena main gate, my long black hair was in a total mess and I felt a little dizzy. Reena, on the other hand, was thrilled at her new speed record. "Must be like Christmas for you," I mumbled, grabbing onto a rock to steady myself. "Of course!" she laughed, taking to the sky to spread her wings. A second later, she was gone. I barely managed to catch a glimpse of her speeding off to the north. "Must be nice... being a hawk."

I ran a hand through my hair, stroking it - it felt unkept and unruly from the wind resistance I had experienced during the flight. It wouldn't be easy keeping it nice and sleek from now on; Reena always liked to fly at the highest speed she could. Apparently she liked to feel the wind brushing against her feathery body. She was as wild as a tiger; nearly like me in all aspects. Mounts that matched their owners' personality were extremely hard to come by. For now, I simply smoothed out my hair as best as I could before getting up and walking towards Sarena's gate.

The town was - as usual - bustling with people going about their daily business for which I really didn't have much concern for. The first place I went was the inn, to finish the mission and collect the reward. I had just decided to go there when I felt my phone buzzing in my pouch, playing one of the Japanese songs I liked best as a ringtone; it was easy to set a custom one. I just had to play the song next to the V-band to set it as a custom ringtone for the ingame cellphones. Connect.

"How's it going?" the familiar male voice echoed through my head, loud and clear like it was in real life.

"Just finished the quest, I'm in Sarena now," I replied, taking a seat on an unoccupied bench nearby.

"Didn't hear from you for 2 weeks - I thought you got your butt handed to you."

"I don't get killed that easily, and besides, I got lost. Stupid magnetic interference." I pouted.

I heard a cheery laugh in my head.

"Well, something good did come out of it anyway......" I added.

"I see. Where are you by the way?"

"Market district, on one of the benches. Why?"

"I'm in the crowd, and I don't see you."

At that very moment, I caught sight of a figure wearing a black cloak with a giant sword on his back in the crowd. Smirking, I went back to the phone. "See the bench on your right?"

The figure turned in my direction. "Yeah. All I see is a black-haired hunter-looking girl."

I got up and brushed a lock of my hair off my face to let him take in my features. "Still wondering where I am?"

"Holy cow......" he cut the call off and started walking towards me. I could see a look of astonishment on his character's face. Shifting one of my hands to my right thigh, I waited for him to get closer.

"Took a while," I remarked as he drew close enough for me to see his black cloak's folds and ripples; with Sharp Eyes of course. Normally, they were almost indistinguishable from the cloak. "You sure got me for a while. When did you dye your hair black anyway? And your armour-" I neatly silenced him by Shadowleaping into his shadow. He obviously sensed the teleportation. "Seems like you got some magic of your own now," he turned around to look at me. "Shadow magic, apparently," I smiled at him.

"So, any explanation for the magic?" he asked, taking a seat on the bench beside me. Really, I had no option but to tell my boyfriend everything. He was quite surprised, and it began to show more and more in his eyes as I went on. When I finally finished, he was staring at my new bow, which was now completely black. "It's still kinda strange," I heard him murmur, to which I asked, "What is?"

"Shadow magic. I've never heard of it before, and it does have some interesting capabilities. Even the normal Teleport skill can only be used to move to places inside a set radius - you can Shadowleap anywhere you can see a shadow," he replied. I nodded. He sure caught on the details pretty quickly; that was one reason I had feelings for him. It was never too hard for him to understand anything he was told, unlike some people I knew.

Edging closer to Scotty, I snuggled up against his arm. "You're warm," I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. He looked at me in surprise, and then replied, "Fire Salamander overpopulation quest." I opened my eyes and looked back at him. Hadn't he been doing those quests for a while? "Took a few fireballs. Didn't really hurt much though, I'm wearing laminated armour," he added, smiling cheerfully. "Laminated?" I inquired. "Dissipates heat across the surface of my armour. Handy against fire spells."

I only nodded and snuggled closer. It was nice to feel the warmth of another person I knew in real life, especially after such a tough journey. I found myself blushing as I thought that, and had to try and shake it off. What would people think if they saw us like this? Not that my armour made them think enough already... haha. "What do you think of my armour now anyway?" I asked, giving the hulking warrior beside me a big surprise.

"Your... armour...?" he blinked. I got up and did a small turn to let him take in the sight. When I was done, his face was quite red. "Erm......" he stammered. I chuckled lightly and returned to the seat beside him. "It's ok if you don't want to comment," I leaned over, giving him a clearer view of my exposed topside. His face turned an even deeper shade of red and he had to look away. Even though I didn't know what was going through his head, I knew what he was thinking about. I was pretty much done teasing him anyway.

"Wanna head over to the inn? I haven't finished the quest yet," I suggested, breaking him out of his temporary stupor. Obviously relieved to have a different subject to talk about, he nodded and got up. I followed, matching his steps as we moved towards the inn at the town center together. His stride was a lot more confident than when I had last seen him. I wondered how much stronger he had gotten in the 2 weeks I hadn't seen him.

I sensed heads turning as we pushed the inn doors open and walked in. Most of them seemed to be on me; it came as little surprise. My character's choice of clothing was rather skimpy, and when coupled with her assets, made me an attention magnet in the world of Infinence. Those heads stayed on me as I collected my mission pay of 1 million from the innkeeper and headed off to the mission board to check out the available missions.

There wasn't really anything tempting this time, so I stood back and let Scotty take a look at the board. He stared at it for quite a while, during which I turned back to look around the inn. There were quite a number of guys staring at my behind. Didn't really matter to me though. They just turned away when I looked at them, but I knew they'd return to staring at me after I got back to the mission board.

"Filter, pair missions only," I heard Scotty mumble. The mission board instantly changed to show only missions that could have partners joining in. He went on checking for a while, and then he ripped off a notice. "Item retrieval mission in Feralis Valley. Some trader dropped a marriage proposal ring in the place by accident and doesn't have the money to buy another. Reward's an Honour increase and a little cash."

I didn't have any objections; Scotty was my boyfriend after all. "I think we can head off now," I declared, watching him stuff the notice into his pouch. He nodded and grabbed my hand, leading me towards the inn's exit as the innkeeper waved goodbye. "Any need to resupply?" he asked me. I shook my head - I still had enough supplies for a few more days. There was no need to resupply until then, and Feralis Valley wasn't exactly as big as the rainforest I had explored. It was a quarter as big, to be exact.

"The trader dropped the ring while on his way over a path on a ledge that leads to Pearl Town from here," Scotty traced a line on his map from Sarena to Pearl. It passed through a rocky ledge of sorts on the edge of Feralis Valley, which was just on the way. Pretty bad place to drop it. "We'll just have to search along that side then," I pointed at the side of the valley with the ledge. "Yeah, it should be pretty easy. Still, Feralis Valley's only been explored from the air before. We don't know what's inside."

"I know. There's still a chance of the guy dropping the ring on the ledge, so why don't we go check it out first? If the ring's not on the ledge, then we go down," I said. It WAS possible; the ledge was actually marked in Feralis Valley's territory. Scotty nodded and got up from the bench, stowing his map inside his pouch. "It'll be a few hours' walk to the place-" he barely managed to finish before I cut him off, "It'll take a few minutes on Reena." He stared at me for a few seconds. "My hawk," I added, smiling.

Once outside Sarena, I placed two fingers in my mouth and blew the usual whistle. Almost instantly, Reena was circling in the air above us. She slowly descended to ground level and started eyeing Scotty. "An armoured... hawk?" he blinked in surprise. "Armoured since today," I bragged, climbing onto Reena's saddle. Scotty seemed to be rooted to the spot. "Come on, she has room for two," I waved at him, nudging Reena closer by manipulating her reins to make my orders clear.

He walked over - seemingly reluctantly - and climbed onto the saddle behind me. I nodded as Reena took off. "Hold on to me, she flies really fast," I chuckled lightly. He didn't bother, only sat still as my hawk started flapping her wings. A few seconds later, she had hit her maximum speed and Scotty's arms were around my waist, clutching me tightly - almost painfully.

"Dang. That is FAST!" Scotty yelped when we finally landed near the ledge. I patted Reena faithfully and watched as she ascended into the air and disappeared off into the distance. "You do need to watch your hair though. It kept blowing into my face," he grumbled, reminding me of my messy hair. "Whoops," I ran my hands through it, trying to smoothen it out for the second time that day. Once I was done, I looked down into Feralis Valley. It was just a valley with a forest in it; I wondered where they had gotten the name.

I moved closer to the ledge. It seemed reasonably wide, enough for a truck to drive on. "Let's go," I said to Scotty. He nodded and grabbed my hand, maneuvering us onto the ledge. "Don't let go," I heard him mutter under his breath. Well, someone was worried. I chuckled lightly and went on ahead, "Not my fault if you're scared of falling, this place is quite wide."

"I'm not scared of falling, I'm scared YOU'LL fall," he placed particular emphasis on the 2nd last word. "Like I will," I snorted, letting go and dashing on ahead. I had just rounded a corner when I noticed a strange shimmer in the air over the valley. It seemed to be some kind of barrier around the place... I was just about to bend over and try to get a better look at the place when I heard the sound of thundering footsteps behind me. When I turned around, I saw Scotty running towards me, his eyes opened wide in horror.

The very next instant, he crashed into me and sent the both of us reeling over the ledge into the valley below. "Sorry!" he practically screamed mid-fall. "I just hope we live through this!" I had to yell over the sound of the wind screaming past us for him to hear. The only thing I felt before passing out was some kind of curious sensation, but I couldn't really explain how it felt like.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 10

"My head......" I groaned, reaching a hand up to rub my head.

Except it didn't feel like my hand at all.

I quickly opened my eyes and turned my head to look. All I could see was a black wing resting on top of my head. "Wha...?" I took a few steps back before realizing that every part of my body felt... different. My feet were bird-like, and my mouth felt like a beak. Something was really wrong. I tried to move my right hand. The wing on my right did what I wanted my right hand to do; brush the ground. It felt like earth, all right.

I glanced around hurriedly; my vision seemed to have become monocular, I could see only see to my sides. What had I become anyway? It only took a few seconds to guess - I had turned into a black hawk. But how? "Scotty?" I looked around, trying to get used to my new vision. Something stirred to my left, causing me to instinctively look in that direction.

Right there, lying on the ground, was a big lion.

I blanched at the sight and nearly screamed. Luckily, I caught myself before I did, possibly averting the fate of ending up in a lion's stomach. Normally I wouldn't get scared this easily; it was only because of the earlier surprise from turning into a hawk. Wait. Did lions eat hawks? I had never seen it happen, but it was possible, although the lion doing it would probably end up coughing all the feathers out...... When I thought that, the lion got up.

"Eeeek!" I flapped my arms - wings to be exact - in an attempt to get away, but the next thing I knew, there was a sharp pain in my left wing that stopped me from taking to the skies. "Stupid broken wing," I swore in pain, looking up as the lion started looking around. "Traya?" I heard Scotty's voice... but where was it coming from? The lion...? "Scotty?" I walked closer to check it out. The lion turned towards me. "A hawk?" it blinked in surprise. "Like you're not a lion," I retorted, confident that it was Scotty. He started checking himself out.

"Cool."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It was really weird... why had we turned into animals? Did the barrier I saw in the air have something to do with it? There was a very high possibility of that...... but it didn't matter now. Since we were in the valley, might as well look around for the dropped ring. Scotty suggested that we hug the valley wall and try to find it, but I really was in no condition to help. With my left wing broken, I couldn't fly, and I walked very slowly - as expected for a hawk. Not to mention I was an exceptionally big one. Luckily for me, Scotty was also big enough a lion to carry me on his back, although he didn't really like it. The reason?

"Ouch!" he growled. The tone was almost like he was going to do a lion's roar.

"Sorry!" I tried to shift my bird feet further apart. My claws were digging into his back.

He muttered something too low for me to hear and went on, slower this time. Probably didn't want to move around too fast that I ended up bouncing around and digging my claws into his back again by accident. As we moved along, I could hear animal cries and in some cases, see them. The locals only shirked back when they saw Scotty though; it was convenient, avoiding combat like this. He didn't even have to roar or anything.

"Are you dead, Miss Hawk?" I heard an unfamiliar voice ask. Looking around, I noticed a small squirrel on the ground. It seemed to be a child. "No, I'm not dead, and this lion is not going to eat me, ok?" I sighed. The squirrel stared on for a few moments before another squirrel - a larger one - came down from a nearby tree and pulled the little one back up. "The locals are lucky you're a friendly lion," I mumbled. Scotty only grunted - although it sounded more like a hastily cut-off laugh - and went on.

I remembered seeing something that stated that animals could talk to each other. If that was the case, it would help us here - if Scotty didn't scare them off first. Or maybe me, since hawks were predators too. And I was a giant one. "Scotty, I think we could ask the locals about the ring?" I asked. "Some of them would probably go after it themselves and make things harder," he sighed, keeping his eyes on the ground. "Just ask animals that are friendly by nature, like squirrels... you know, nice ones. Definitely no snakes."

"Snakes would probably slither away from you before you even get close enough to ask. Hawks DO eat snakes sometimes."

"Good point."

The both of us started laughing together at that point, and Scotty started to pick up the pace, but he was still being careful not to jolt me around. As for me, I was trying to keep my legs as far apart as possible. We had only progressed a few meters before a new voice came in, "Well, well, what do we have here? A hawk with a lion?" I didn't like the tone of that voice, and obviously, Scotty didn't either. His hair was standing on end and he was baring his teeth forwards.

I turned my head to one side to see. There was a line of 3 black panthers in front of us, staring us down. They were smaller than either of us, but they had the advantage in numbers, and they were obviously hunting in a pack. "Very interesting......" the lead panther started to circle us. Scotty didn't say anything; I knew he was thinking. If he dropped me on the ground, I'd probably get torn to pieces while he dealt with the panthers. On the other hand, if he didn't drop me, he'd have a harder time fighting.

A bad situation.

All 3 panthers were circling us now, probably picking their targets. I didn't have much time. "Your girlfriend seems rather juicy......" one of the panthers remarked. "You'd have trouble digesting my feathers," I reminded him. If animals could talk to each other...... "REENA!!!" I screeched, nearly stunning the crap out of the panthers. Scotty himself was also slightly jarred by the cry, but regained his composure quickly. The very moment the panthers got back on their feet, they pounced.

Only to have a giant rock drop on the lead panther's head, knocking him out. I smiled. Reena's usual way of attacking. Rock bombardment. The other two panthers were surprised by the attack and started looking around for the source. Scotty took the chance and leapt on one after dropping me on the ground. I got up, started flapping my wings, and flew towards the remaining one. Surprisingly, my left wing seemed to have healed.

"Ow, ow! Get off me!"

I started clawing the panther's face to shreds the moment I got in range. He didn't like it one bit and repeatedly tried to swat me out of the air, but I easily flew out of the way and went for the back of his head. With his eyes clawed blind, he couldn't see a thing. With a roar, the black panther dashed off into the forest, leaving me behind. I could see him bump into trees on his way. The panther Scotty was fighting was pretty much dead, I could see scratch marks all over it. "Good timing, Reena," I smiled, flying higher up to greet my armoured mount.

"Well, well, this is a nice twist," she laughed.

We let gravity pull us down to the ground and came to rest in front of Scotty. "Your boyfriend, am I right?" she asked. I nodded and took off again, hovering just over his head. "I'm fine now, we can go on," I told him. "Kinda obvious," he replied and continued walking on, this time without my heavy load on his back. Reena took one look at the panther she had dive-bombed and took off to follow me. "I'll keep an eye out for you," I heard her say.

"I appreciate it."

Reena smiled and took off for another rock while I continued to hover over Scotty at a steady speed. Flying was a nice experience, but doing it as a hawk... not really something I liked. I'd rather do it as a human. We were moving along the valley's side, with green trees on my left and a rocky wall on my right. If the item was here, we'd find it in no time. After all, the place wasn't so big. Unlike the forest around the Amazonian ruins - I shuddered at the thought.

Scotty came to a stop about an hour later. I floated down on the air currents, landing right beside him on the grassy earth. My hawk eyes instantly picked up what he'd spotted - a small box lying on the ground near the rocky slope. "I'd say we found it," he bounded over and carefully opened the box with his paws. Inside, resting on a velvet cushion, was an ornate heart-shaped diamond ring. "Jackpot," I smiled as Scotty closed the box and put it in his mane, arranging the hair to keep the box from falling out. "Too bad neither of us is a kangaroo," he joked. I shook my head. "Won't need one. We can give it to Reena and ask her to keep it until we... turn back. Assuming we do."

I paused to looked at the sky for a few moments. "I'm gonna miss dinner. Be right back," I closed my eyes and prepared to log off. Scotty did the same as I peeked.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It seemed that my school had called. Classes were resuming the next day, with extra classes on Saturdays to make up for lost time. My parents told me over dinner, which I ate in a hurry. I disliked extra classes. Not much I can do about it, I thought as I walked back up the stairs to my bedroom, putting on my V-band. Playing at night wasn't a problem now, because I could see what was in the shadows thanks to my shadow magic, and even if I couldn't use it right now, my hawk eyes had no problem with darkness.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"You're late," I heard Scotty say as I rematerialized in Infinence, still in Feralis Valley where I had logged off earlier. Only it was almost night. "School's starting tomorrow again...... back to the old routine," I sighed. He nodded meekly. "We'd better get going. I don't like walking around in the dark," he turned around so that the cliff was on his left side and started walking on. I could feel the familiar presence of Reena around, ready to bomb anything that tried to stop us.

There really wasn't much to be worried about; we got to the part where the valley sloped upwards to ground level without any hindrances. I stopped just before going back to ground level as I noticed the same strange shimmer in the air. "Reena," I called upwards. My hawk came down to the ground, leaving the big rock she had been holding on the ground. "Yup?" she asked as Scotty came to a halt.

"Did you feel anything on your way in?"

"Not much, just a strange feeling when I came in around there," she pointed up at the sky with her wing. I could see a shimmer there.

"I'd say it's a barrier," I nodded, moving on.

When I reached a point in the air with a shimmer, I stretched my right wing through it. To my surprise, it seemed to... meld into my original right hand and arm as it passed through the shimmer. "A barrier that turns people into animals..." I mused and passed through completely.

"Some weird barrier this is," I muttered, back in my human form. "Pity. You looked good as a hawk," Reena chuckled, walking over beside me. To my left, Scotty was just passing through the barrier. "I don't like being an animal," he grunted. Reena seemed to remember something, and quickly handed out the ring's box we had retrieved earlier. "I can't fly super-fast with it, otherwise I'll drop it," she shrugged as I stowed it in my pouch. Scotty wandered over. "Let's go back."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Only an hour later, we had finished with the quest and were lounging around Sarena's town square. Like earlier, I had to smoothen out my hair for the third time after Reena was done with the flight. Scotty seemed thrilled that she could fly that fast, and his hair seemed to be wind-resistant for some reason. At least he didn't have to do what I had to do. I really needed to find some way for my hair to stay silky smooth while flying like that...... I couldn't bear seeing it all messy and untidy.

Sitting on the bench, staring at the stars above with a boyfriend was probably every girl's wish. For me, it had just been granted, although it was in virtual reality instead of 'true' reality. Still, close enough since Infinence's graphics were almost real. And also close enough to create a romantic mood in the air around the two of us. Scotty had his hand on mine and my head on his shoulder. The picture looked like it was usually found in romance movies, which it actually was. I didn't know how many times I had seen it before, and I never expected myself to be doing it.

It didn't last long though, as I felt a yawn welling up from deep inside myself. I tried to stifle it, but it still came out. Scotty heard it and turned to look at me. "You need to go to sleep," he declared. I nodded sleepily; it looked like it was... almost 10 o'clock.

The realization of the fact felt like an electric shock.

School tomorrow... I couldn't afford to be late...... "Traya, I'll see you in school tomorrow," Scotty winked and closed his eyes. A second later, his character vanished into thin air, leaving me behind. "You jerk... logging off before I do..." I moaned sleepily as I closed my eyes and prepared to log off.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I lifted my V-band off my head and put it on my side table, and then laid back down on the bed. It felt more comfortable than usual... I wondered why. It never really got a chance to pass through my thoughts though, as I fell asleep thinking about what would happen the next day. What would the school be like after the 2-week rebuild? Would my class still be the same?