Player 4

John spun around. One of the sets of armour that had adorned the room now stood between him and a large creature, blocking large fur-covered arms, which would have no doubt pummeled him, with an ornate wooden blade. John shuffled back a little to look at the creature better

From John’s position on the floor, the muscular creature looked huge above him. Short fur covered its body. Looking at its head, the word werebat came to John’s mind. Though it resembled a bat with its upturned nose, large ears and black beady eyes, it still had a human-like shape to it.

The armour's head turned towards John a little. “Hey, uhm, I’ll need you to do a couple things. First I’ll need your tagger, and secondly we could use a little more information, so I’ll need you to use Observe on it,” a feminine voice instructed.

John was stunned; if it wasn’t for this moving armour, he’d have gotten attacked without even knowing this thing was sneaking up on him. After he hadn’t moved, the voice barked, “John!”

Snapping out of it, John got up off his knees, pulled out the tagging gun and handed it over, and then cast Observe.

Name: La’uk

Family: Goblinoid | Branch: Wufk'n Bugbear
Size: 189cm | Weight: 116kg | Sex: M
Level: 14 | Points: 7

Creature Description:

Bugbears are sometimes also identified as Greater Barghest as they share a close evolutionary line with each other. However, Bugbears are usually larger and bipedal in contrast to their wolf-like cousins.
Though not animalistic like Barghest, Wufk’n Bugbears still lack higher thinking. They are smart enough to use found or pillaged tools but are unable to make anything more complicated than a club.
Wufk’n Bugbears are usually nocturnal, spending their days sleeping while using their large and sensitive ears in order to find prey or raid other creatures, usually other smarter goblinoids, though they have been known to attack human settlements too.

The armoured figure nodded seemingly able to read the page. “Okay, I got a plan. Gonna need you to use your dragon's breath, and I’ll take care of the rest,” she said, still holding the Bugbear back.

“Wait, who even are you? And how do you know about my abilities?” John asked, confused on multiple fronts.

“Doesn’t matter right this second, does it? Just do what I said and worry about questions later,” she ordered.

John rolled his neck and moved to the side, hoping to lessen how loud his Dragon’s Breath was to his mysterious saviour. He unleashed a ground-shaking roar, causing the Bugbear to fall onto its knees and hold its ears in pain.

With the bugbear distracted, the armoured figure rushed forward reaching out towards the creature’s ear. In a flash, the attacker was gone leaving only John and the mysterious fourth player.

“Thanks for that… but who are you?” John probed, crossing his arms and trying to seem more imposing.

The figure took a deep breath and turned around. John could now take a better look at the armour; it was mostly leather, with a metal helmet and a form-fitting chest plate. Unsurprisingly John’s eyes were drawn to the modest but still visible breasts defined in the metal.

Thoughts of arguments online about boob-plate almost caused him to chuckle. He realised he was staring and cleared his throat. “Well?” he asked.

“Uhm, Va-...” She paused. “Violet… I’m Violet.”

John nodded. “Alright, Violet, I’m John, though it seems like you already know that. Just introducing yourself doesn’t really answer my question though. What are you doing here? How did you get into my barrier?”

She shifted her weight from one leg to the other. “Well, uh… The, uhm, amulet you have. I’m attached to it.”

A lightbulb suddenly flashed above John’s head. “Wait, so it was you who saved me with the knight guys?”

Violet nodded, before clumsily sliding her sword into a sword loop on her hip.

“Alright, so what, you’re, like, my guardian angel?” John questioned, stepping forward.

There was a pause. “I… I guess so. As long as I can stay with you, I’ll do whatever you need me to.”

John was stunned as Violet rushed forward and threw her arms around his back, hugging him tightly as he stood awkwardly with his arms raised, not knowing what to do. The hug went from being awkward because it was sudden and by a strange girl, to being awkward because it was getting longer and longer. “So, uuhm,” John muttered.

Violet let go and stepped backwards. “Right, yeah, sorry… So we’re gonna wanna get going, right? Don’t want Ellie or Robin to beat you.”

She held out the tagging gun to John for him to take it, after which John and Violet had screens pop up in front of them. John’s was quite short and simple.

Violet was retroactively added to your party.

After waving it away, John looked over at Violet’s screen.

Quest Complete: Join the fun!

Reward: Your very own tagging gun, 35 points (to give you a fighting chance)

A white plastic gun appeared in front of Violet, dropping fast. As it fell she managed to hit it in the air before catching it. “Right, you were about to take a look at whatever that trap door went to, right?” she asked as she moved over next to the bed.

“Wait, that can’t be all though, right? Like, are you just a result of my powers? Did you exist before? And if you did, does that mean you’re essentially being **** to obey me or something?” John asked.

A soft **** groan emanated from the armoured figure. “I’ve existed for much longer than you’ve had your abilities, and as for being ****, no, I have my reasons for wanting to protect you, which we can talk about later on after the barrier has been completed. Now, are you joining me?”

The hatch opened up revealing a ladder that descended, and Violet climbed down. John followed and found a short tunnel that led to a door; Violet opened it and walked into another room, which seemed to be an office with a weapon rack and armour stand.

“Hey, wait. Listen, it’s a little jarring to have someone just suddenly appear like you did, can we talk for a minute?” John asked.

“Hmm? Sure,” Violet said as she moved over to the desk and sat down. “Oh, I found a secret!”

A window opened up in front of Violet.

Secret Entrance Discovered! Guard Captain’s Office.
Reward: Armour upgrade, +10 Points

She stood back up to try looking at her armour. “I don’t see anything different, do you?” Right as she asked, the armour began to shift form in a way that reminded him of his merchant attire.

The helmet was the first to change. It became slightly more head shaped but lacked a face, and four glowing eyes opened up on the front before plates formed, giving it a flat nose-like outline. The shape was quite fluid as opposed to what he’d expect from a helmet made of metal. Lastly, a maroon leather hood unfurled from the top of the helmet connecting to the base of the neckpiece.

Leather pauldrons appeared on her shoulders and the breastplate became more detailed, while smaller plates formed that made it noticeably easier to move around in. The leather on the arms changed colour to match the hood and the material seemed to become easier to move in. Strong-looking leather vambraces formed around her forearms and nimble black leather gloves appeared.

A leather plate appeared on her hip, overlapping the metal of the breastplate. It was held in place by three leather straps and seemed to have room for a sword to be sheathed in.

A short black chainmail skirt dropped down to roughly mid-thigh, and the leather trousers tightened and darkened until they were a similar colour to the chainmail. The leather became smoother and more nimble before vertical lines formed.

The boots began to shift next; first, the mouth of the boot moved further down until it reached the top of her ankle. A small heel formed and the toe became a silvery metal as an extra leather pad covered the top of the foot, secured with rivets. The leather on the mouth of the boot began to change once again, crawling up the inside half of each leg until it reached just below the knee and formed an eight-centimetre ring that held the leather in place.

At the top of the boot, a leather strap circled her upper calf and two thick leather pieces reached up to cover the knee, stopping maybe fifteen centimetres shy of the chainmail skirt’s hem and held in place by another leather strap.

Three more straps with buckles appeared from the boot around the calf, spaced a few centimetres apart each and holding a dagger in place.

The last thing to change was the sword she’d held. What was once a thin flowing wooden blade was now a thick hefty golden and silver blade with a large round metal piece with a hole in the centre which replaced the hilt. Several more holes formed in the golden fuller of the blade and then a light glow enveloped the metal.

“Oooh, this looks and feels super cool. It’s all flexible now, like I’m just wearing regular clothes,” Violet sang gleefully, jumping around and swinging her arms and the newly formed blade, before sheathing it into the hip strap.

John sighed exasperatedly. “Can we please stop for a minute? You seem like you’re just dodging every question or just giving me bare minimum answers!” John complained loudly.

Due to the helmet, John couldn’t see, but he could almost feel Violet's face dropping and her excitement vanishing. “I... uhm… sorry… I guess I got a little bit over excited… I guess you could say this is the first time I’ve had freedom in a long time and even though it’s been all I could think of for a long time… I’m feeling extremely anxious about talking again. It’s not the same being able to speak to someone who actually listens to you and can speak back…”

The room fell silent and John began to feel queasy as a torrent of guilt hit him for his outburst and the insensibility he’d shown.

Violet awkwardly cleared her throat. “Would it be okay if we continued with the barrier for now? Then we can talk later?” She turned and walked towards the only other thing in the fantasy-style office of note, a barricaded door with a key still in the keyhole.

John nodded and let out a deep breath of frustration. _’I’m getting sick of all of this; I’m tired of either not getting any answers or not asking any or the right questions… I should just use Observe on her… that would be kinda shitty of me though… No, I know I said I’d be more cautious about casting it on people in the Abyss but it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission and all that.”

John steeled himself and cast Observe on Violet.

Elvish Guard Armour

This armour consists of metal plates and leather pieces, it is not the typical armour for the guards and knights of the castle and is used solely for training.

This armour set belonged to the Royal Guard Captain, Dairon.

’Wait, what the fuck? Why isn’t it showing me information about her?’ John thought.

Aww, can’t use your magic tell me everything spell, woe is you.

Guess you’ll have to talk to her instead of taking the easy route. And don’t bother trying to look at the amulet for now, you’re not gonna see anything new until you find out more about your new friend Violet.

If it stops you from fussing about it, I’ll tell you she’s not lying and she’s got quite a high RP level with you.

John let out another annoyed huff, which caused Violet to turn her head to look in his direction. ’I guess that’s the best I’m going to get, better than nothing. And it’s at the very least comforting knowing that what she has told me was the truth… I’ll just be patient for now.’

She didn’t say anything and opened up the door, allowing the pair to look inside and find a room, filled with bunks, that was in such a mess the two would guess it had been ransacked.

“I have the feeling someone's been in here; my guess would be Robin. Maybe we should go back the way we came and clear out more of the palace. What do you think?” Violet asked.

“Yeah, I think you’re probably right. It definitely looks like there were goblins in here, and they aren’t here now, so if I was to guess, this place must be the building that separated the courtyard from the training area. We should probably clear out the upper floors and lower floors of the palace before thinking about encroaching on either Robin or Ellie’s areas,” John replied nodding.

The pair turned back and made their way up the ladder once more, all the while John internally questioned who Violet could be, but was confident that she wasn't hostile.

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