[F02-SP] <<Let There Be Light>> - Salvation from a child

[Freyd 0]

This couldn't be the right place.  There was nothing here except a bunch of crude stone buildings and obviously not-stone furniture.  Freyd checked his user interface again. 

"Nope, Taran Village is right." he said aloud.  The place was guarded, but hardly seemed worth the effort.  "The next quest on the list starts here, Persi."   His familiar was darting between thatched rooftops, trying to remain discreet.  She hated when he spoke out at her like that.  It made everyone else around wonder who he was talking to, and invariably made them wary, which made her work more difficult.  She simply rolled her eyes and moved to a better hiding spot.

Several thin columns of white smoke rose up from the nearby structures.  It was nearly mid-day and the rare players that still wandered through these parts would be coming by for lunch soon.  That, and the NPCs were programmed into their routines anyway, and would go about their daily tasks regardless of whether there was anyone to serve.  With no obvious source for the quest he sought at hand, Freyd took to perusing goods in the local market, evaluating prices and making a few notes for himself, in case there were any useful margins that could be exploited.  It didn't look promising.

"HELP!  HELP ME!  MY DAUGHTER!!!"

A portly middle-aged woman dressed as a local farmer came huffing and puffing into the square, hoarse from shouting and short for breath from her exertion.  Freyd spotted the quest arrow above her head immediately.

"Ah!  There we go.  See, I told you Persi." He could feel her brilliant blue eyes glaring at him from nearby shadows.

Spoiler

Name: Freyd
Level: 24
HP: 480/480
EN: 48/48

Stats:
Damage: 10
Mitigation: 14
Accuracy: 2
SAVVY:1
HLY:2
BLD:12
KEEN:1

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Forgiven Disobedience (T1-2HSS, ACC 1, HOLY 1, BLD 1)
Armor: Enduring Guile (T1-LA, MIT 1, SAV 1)
Misc: Justicar's Vambraces (T1-Trinket, ACC 1, KEEN 1)

Skills:
2H Straight Sword [Rank 5]
Light Armor [Rank 1]

Extra Skills:
Disguise
Familiar Mastery: Fighter 2

Mods:

Battle Ready Inventory:
Starter Healing Potion (50 hp)*3
Teleport Crystals*2
Fish snack (+1 ACC)*1
Divinity's Wait (T1 Mit 3)*1
Liquor of Light (T1 DMG 3)*1

Housing Buffs:
Rested: -1 energy cost for the first two expenditures of each combat
Clean: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 20% (rounded down)
Hard Working: +2 EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
Filling: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot.
Item Stash: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
Relaxed: Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
Col Stash: +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests
Multipurpose: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll

Guild Hall Buffs:

Scents of the Wild:

Wedding Ring:

 

[Freyd 0]

"My daughter," she repeated.  "She was playing in the forest with her friends.  The ground  gave way beneath them!  She's been swallowed by  earth spirits!"

"A bit over-dramatic, no?"  Freyd thought.  "Ugh... we probably just have to pull her out."

"Don't worry," he said, patronizingly patting her head with his right hand while his left accepted the quest.  His eyes were already scanning local vendors' stalls for potentially useful items.  A few quick purchases ensure that they had an ample supply of rope, pitons, a grappling hook and even an improving stretcher, in case he needed it.  "How very convenient," he added, thanking the local merchants as he tossed each of them in turn some token amounts of col.

"Come," he told the girl's distraught mother.  "Show me where she fell in."

"I'll add it to your map," she replied, tears literally squirting out two feet from her eyes as she spoke.  It must have been a glitch in the program, but the sight was irrepressibly amusing.

"Of course you will."  Freyd rolled his eyes at her predictable response.  "Why would you possibly want to be there when I recover your daughter for you?"  He rolled his eyes and summoned the local map display.  It wasn't far to go.  

[Freyd 0]

The sinkhole was about ten feet long and half as wide, located in a thickly wooded area.  A heavy tree canopy limited the ground cover, which helped with access but also hindered visibility.  Freyd secured his rope to one of the larger trunks, cautiously approaching the opening.  Thick and dense root systems stabilized the edges.  It was remarkable that a hole could have developed here at all, given all of the intertwined roots.  Freyd looked up the child's name in the supplemental details of the quest description: Edwyna.   A bit antiquated and odd, but so be it.  Calling down into the pit earned him nothing but feint echoes.  He'd have to go down himself.  What he wouldn't have given for a flashlight, or the foresight to bring a glow stone.  It wouldn't have been practical anyway.  He couldn't hold a weapon at the same time.

There was no other choice.  Down he went.

Edited June 28, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Freyd 0]

It was moist, dark and kinda stinky in the caverns below.  Peat and mildew created a pungent aroma that could not be ignored.  Freyd boots made a gross squelching sound as they sank half an inch into the muddy floor.  A few rays of light penetrated through the opening above, but they only sufficed to illuminate his immediate surroundings.  There was an extensive cavern network down here, by the looks of things; one that he was ill-equipped to explore.  

"Edwyna!"  he called out again.  His voice echoed twice in the distance, but there was no other response.

"Persi, can you help me out here?"  His familiar casually hopped to the ground, sniffing as she went.  Her immediate focus was an area directly below the opening where a larger imprint in the mud seemed consistent with the impact of a small person.  "Good eye, Persi!"

Something whimpered from the nearby darkness.  "Edwyna, is that you?  Your mother sent me, child."

[Freyd 0]

Something large screeched and fluttered passed above Freyd, momentarily blocking out the light.  A girl's cry rose to match it, coming from the other side of the cavern. 

She didn't respond to avoid rousing whatever else was down here with her.  Freyd, you idiot!  Forgiven Disobedience was in his hands a moment later, spinning in high circular arcs to ensure that he didn't accidentally hit the girl.  Whatever was in here with them was keeping itself tight to the ceiling.  Persi pounced into the air, catching something like a cat swatting a bird out of the air mid-flight.  Freyd managed to strike at a second object at the same time.  Two large masses squealed and crashed to the ground, both dead.  

Pulling one into the light, using his sword, Freyd recognized ut,   

"Giant bats"  he said, more for the sake of the child than himself.

"Come on out, Edwyna.  I got them.  It's safe now."

Spoiler

Freyd | HP:480/480 | EN:37/48  (-11) | DMG:10 | MIT:14 | ACC:2 | SAVVY:1 | HLY:2 | BLD:12 | KEEN:1 -> rested

Giant Bat #1: HP 0/50 (-110 -12 bleed) | DMG: 20

Giant Bat #2: : HP 0/50 (-80) | DMG: 20

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Freyd 0]

She appeared to be little more than seven or eight years of age, wearing a simple cotton dress with a trio of embroidered daisies on the front.  The poor girl was covered in partly dried mud from head to toe.  Long blond hair was matted and caked all over he face, her braid having mostly fallen out.  She was shivering, out of cold or fright, or possibly both.  Freyd could only just barely see her at the edge of one of the beams of light.

"Edwyna?" he called, gently.  "Is that you?"

The girl's bright blue eyes were wide and panicky, darting at the sound of every drip of water, or slipping stone dislodged during the recent battle.

"It's okay.  You're safe now."  Freyd knelt down to make himself seem less intimidating.  All adults are imposing to children, but one wielding a giant white sword was likely to have made a bit of an impression.

[Freyd 0]

Putting the sword away, he slowly reached out a hand towards her, palm up.   Persi scampered over his shoulder and along his arm, coming to rest in his open palm.  Her brilliant blue eyes reflected what little light there was in the cavern as she craned her neck out to inspect Edwyna, who scrambled back against the cave wall in alarm.

"It's alight.  This is Persistence.  I call her Persi."  Freyd stroked the back of the mongoose's head with his free hand, making it clear that she was not a threat.

"Persi was the one who told me the bats were here.  She even got rid of one of them for you."  As soon as he said this, the two bat bodies burst quietly into puffs of lights, illuminating the surrounding cave.  There was nothing else here except the three of them.  Persi watched the sparkles, distracted by them for a moment, then turned her curiosity back to Edwyna, cocking her head as if asking for the girl's reaction.

[Freyd 0]

Edwyna giggled, then yelped in pain.  Her arm was likely broken.  

"Don't worry, kiddo.  We'll get you out of here and then do something about that arm.  Keep an eye on Perso for a minute, will you, while I come up with a plan?  She has a tendency to wander off." 

The girl nodded, then added in a timid whisper: "I like her!  She has pretty eyes."

"I know!  I like her eyes too.  They were the first thing that I noticed about her.  They're a little funny in the middle, aren't they?  Not quite like yours and mine, but still neat!"

Freyd was busy modifying the cot he'd bought in town to create a sling that could be used to cradle her arm, and a harness for her to sit in.  It would be the easiest way to haul her up and out of this place. 

"Can you stay here for a minute and protect her when I climb up?  We're going to use this to get you back topside, but I need to be up there to pull.  Okay?"

 

[Freyd 0]

Fear immediately returned to poor Edwyna's face.

"Here,"   Freyd said, summoning his old starter cloak from storage and wrapping it around her.  "This will keep you warm and safe.  We'll put it on as soon as we get this sling over your arm, just like that!"  He managed to set everything in place without having to move her much.  Edwyna winced and bit on her lip, but otherwise suppressed any other reaction.  

"Can you try to stand up for me?  It will make it easier to get this harness and seat around you."  She did as he asked, slipping slightly on the mucky ground and grabbing his sleeve with her good arm to steady herself.  Freyd smiled, reassuringly.  The entire scene reminded him of babysitting his neighbour's kids when he was younger.  It took her a moment to try moving again, but she did.  He helped her get into his improvised contraption, making sure that it wouldn't pull at her injured arm or risk unbalancing as he lifted her out.

[Freyd 0]

A nod to Persi was all it took for the blue shadow mongoose to come and sniff at Edwyna's feet.

"Just hold out your hand, yes, like that.  She needs to feel safe near you, so she won't try to run away."  Freyd gave Persi a quick wink.  The lithe little creatures made a good show of apprehension before setting in on Edwyna's lap, going so far to kneed herself a nice spot on her lap, just like Freyd's old house cat used to do.

"Okay, now I need you to stand just a little off to the side so that I can climb up to the top.  Once I'm there, I'll give the rope a shake and let you know that we're ready to go.  Persi will come up with you."

"Okay."  It was meek, but at least the kid was starting to feel comfortable enough to speak.  That was typically a huge milestone.

[Freyd 0]

Freyd shimmied up the rope quickly and quietly, thanking the stat-based mechanics of Aincrad.  He could never have managed it in the real world.  The surface was a good forty feet up.  Freyd watched the stability of the surrounding walls as he climbed, hoping that the root system was as strong as he had assumed.  In contrast to his usual fortunes, luck actually favoured him this time.  Maybe the kid had better karma?

It didn't take long for him to reach the surface, but he found the sudden increase in ambient light quite disorienting.  Blinking away the spots in his vision, he checked the surrounding area to ensure that it remained safe.  The rope was next.  All was as he had left it. 

"I'm going to pull you up now, Edwyna.  Hold on tight to Persi!"

"I got her!" came the tiny-sounding, high-pitched reply.

Bracing the rope around the tree's smooth trunk, he pulled slowly and steadily with his feet braced against one of the larger roots.

[Freyd 0]

At first, Freyd thought he was hearing things.  He was not.  Edwyna was singing to Persi as Freyd slowly lifted out of the cavern.  He saw her head poke up and out of the hole.   Quickly securing the rope to a nearby rock and triple-checking his knot, he edged close enough to the hole to grab her hand.  With a single-handed dead lift, he pulled her up and out of danger, setting her down gently in the grass.  Persi jumped down from her lap and started bouncing around happily at their success.  It took a few more minutes to disentangle Edwyna from the harness, but she was no worse for wear.

He tied his cloak up so that it wouldn't drape on the ground or trip her as she walked, and did his best to wipe away some of the muck and tears from her face.  Edwyna was chewing on her lower lip, as children often do when they're unsure of themselves.

 

[Freyd 0]

"Thank you, Mr.Freyd," she whimpered.  Then the emotions hit her all at once: fear that she might die alone, want for the safety of her home and family, and elation at her rescue.  It was too much for her.  The sobbing tears shook her so violently that Freyd actually worried she might injure herself further.  The poor kid's health bar was already yellow.

Kneeling down in front of her, Freyd struggled to console her.  This whole quest was really stretching the limits of his deliberately constrained physical boundaries.  Persi was standing on her hind legs nearby, flicking her eyes between him and the child.

Okay, okay... I get it.

Reaching forward, he gave her a gentle hug and did his socially awkward best to console her.  She grabbed him without warning and dug her face into his chest, her tiny body shuddering in relief.  He patted her back, then pulled her away just enough to see her face.  

"How about we get you back to your mom?"

Edited June 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Freyd 0]

Edwyna's eyes sparkled with slowly bubbling joy at the prospect of returning to her parents.  That somehow didn't stop her from drizzling a viscous mixture of tears and snot from his chest to her nose.  It stretched all over the place when she tried to wipe it away.  Freyd's couldn't help picture that super stretchy slime stuff they used to sell in the check out aisle at the local grocery store - product placement indeed!

"God, I hope that vanishes as soon as this quest is over," Freyd thought to himself.  Shifting himself to the proper side, he took her uninjured hand and started walking back to town.  There came a gentle tug.

"Can you carry me?"  He looked down at Edwyna.  She had the full 'Puss'n'Boots' big-eyes routine from that ogre movie on.  His head sank, realizing that this was already a lost cause.  He cradled her legs in his arm as he lifted her up and continued walking.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Freyd 0]

Their arrival in town was heralded by no less than a dozen of Edwyna's young friends, all of them clamoring for equal attention and praise for having been the first one to yell that they were back, or having done so the loudest, etc.  Freyd's head was starting to hurt.  Edwyna's mother came barreling out of her house, knocking aside everything in her path like a bowling ball would a convention of pins.  He practically tossed the kid at her, just to keep from receiving a bear hug or sword-art-worthy barrage of thank you kisses. 

"Yes, it's fin... no, I don't... please, it's oka..."  He couldn't get a word in edgewise.  

Men shook his hands.  Women praised his kind heart.  A plague of kids suddenly erupted around him, coming out of nowhere, each of them wanting to be told some exciting tale about what had happened.  Freyd just felt embarrassed.  He really hadn't done all that much.  By the standards of almost every quest he'd completed to date, this one had practically been the easiest.

[Freyd 0]

Six hours, eight toasts, seventeen free drinks, and an excess of violations of his personal space later, he was finally alone.  The extent of the celebrations seemed completely disproportionate to the deed, and he'd kept insisting that none of it was necessary.  

"They must really be desperate for visitors on this floor is this the what they do for completing such a simple quest," he said to Persi.  She was stretched out on her back on the bed in their complimentary room at the town's finest inn, enjoying a well-deserved belly rub.  

Several of the NPCs had gratefully cleaned his clothing, removing the dirt and snot stains.  That reward he had no qualms about accepting.  He lay down on the bed, Persi's purring changing tone to indicate her displeasure at the disruption to her own reward.  Freyd kept going over the vivid imagery and emotion in Edwyna's face.  It was unlike anything he had ever encountered during his time in Aincrad.  Someone had done a really good job on the details in this one. 

Moments later, he was asleep.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Freyd 0]

Things had thankfully returned to normal by the next morning.  All of the NPCs were back at their regular routines.  It was as if yesterday's ridiculous excess had been completely forgotten.  Freyd was fine with that - ecstatic, actually.  He was never comfortable as the centre of attention, and false or undeserved praise only made it worse.  Considering himself worthy of anything had also historically proven to be a challenge.

Freyd - no, Takeshi's childhood had been a real mess: scially distant and awkward, bullying, his parents had even put him on a suicide watch once.  Then there was the incident with one of the kids that always picked on him.  The trigger was so innocuous that it made him seem all the more guilty and unstable.  He'd hurt the other kid so bad that it was unlikely he'd ever walk again.  Local youth offender laws protected him from the worst of the potential consequences.  His family moved to Japan two months later.  He knew why.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Freyd 0]

Edwyna's rescue had brought all those memories and emotions flooding back.  Part of him was glad that he was able to help this time.  That he - or at least Freyd - could do the right thing, when pressed.  That other him, the one with hate and rage that manifested itself outwardly, felt intrinsically linked to whatever connection he had with Cardinal.  Real or imagined, it had plagued him since his arrival.  This was the first time he felt like he might actually be able to control his own destiny.  If he could prove to himself that he could do it here - that Freyd could do it - maybe Takeshi could learn to do it too.

"This was an especially deep cup of coffee," he joked to Persi as she lapped at a saucer of milk he'd ordered for her as a special treat.  For the first time in... no.  For the first time, he felt like he might actually be okay, and it took this death trap to make that happen.  He raised his cup to the ceiling in a toast.

"Congrats, Kayaba.  You're a total shit, and we're going to kick your ass someday.  But you might also have done some good in the process."

[Freyd 0]

They wrapped up the last of their business in Taran village within the hour and were on their way towards the edge of town when a group of children ran screaming past him.  Behind him, a minute later, the familiar cry of a mother's torment echoed.

"HELP!  HELP ME!  MY DAUGHTER!!!"

Someone else had taken on the same quest.  Freyd smiled a private smile.  Players needed to be reminded of the importance of doing good.  It was too easy to get lost in the grind and mathematical optimization of the system.  Cardinal won when they did so.  Somewhere, someone had taken the time to program a bit of moral decency into the simplest of quests, to remind everyone that they needed to stay human.

"Good design," he thought, then set off along the road.  He and Persi could ponder the significance on this one their way back to floor thirteen - or maybe just him.  Persi was purring comfortably, coiled around his back.  They both left feeling good.

 

[Freyd 0]

A week later, Freyd was back in his deliberately pathetic excuse for a shop in a monastery at the periphery of Angel's Point.  A young messenger, no more than twelve came running up to his table and dropped off a package.  He was gone as quickly as he'd arrived.  It took Freyd almost an hour of careful poking and prodding before he finally dared open it.  To be fair, the last time this had happened had nearly resulted in his death.  It was a simple, brown roll of burlap tied with coarse twine.  He sliced open the string and unwrapped it with an overabundance of caution.  Persi was hiding behind the remnants of a nearby masonry wall, demonstrating terrible moral support.

Unfurled, the burlap wrap contained a square of cotton fabric with three daisies embroidered on the front, just like the ones on Edwyna's dress.  

Smiling at the thoughtfulness, Freyd couldn't contain his tears.