princess Zena of Zendor

“Hi David” I say as we walk up to him. Jools sit down on a nearby rock, since I sit at the same place as last time. As we quietly watch the scenery, the occasional fish jumps out of the water, snatching a flying insect. I take out another sandwich for Jools, and a fruit for me. The fruit has a hard skin, so I make a knife from mana, the same way I did when testing yesterday, and cut it into manageable pieces. It’s sweet, but different to any fruit I have tasted before, almost like there is a new type of flavor that George never had. Looking more closely at the fruit, I can see miniscule quantities of mana swirling around in it. Maybe I can taste mana? Seeing that there is a literal god sitting next to me, I figure I might as well ask.

“Hey David. Can I taste mana?”

“Yes. It’s the primary reason elves are so fond of fruits. Elves are not the only ones that like fruit with mana better, but you are the only ones that literally taste the mana.”

His answer drives home the fact that I’m not human, not that I really mind. But the fact that we taste mana implies that living things should taste better. Seeing a grimace forming on my face, David preempts my concern “Mana tastes different depending on how the being uses it. Plants that yield mana rich fruit do it with the purpose of making the fruit tastier. Elves just happens to be more perceptive in that regard. Living beings with mana generally tastes worse the more mana they have, though only elves taste that, unless the creature uses the mana for the purpose of tasting worse. Be very careful with eating colorful caterpillars by the way. Cooking generally removes the mana, unless special precaution is taken, which is why mana rich materials are hard to utilize.”

“You sure that you are not the god of knowledge?” I say in jest.

“That was part of the lore when it was a game. Our longest playing player hasn't read the lore?” he replies back, in mock hurt.

“Even I knew that.” Jools chimes in, driving in the nail further.

I simply disengage from the conversation, continuing to eat the tasty fruit. David and Jools continues their back and forth for a while, starting with mocking my lack of knowledge, then quickly moving on to a mix between how it’s been going so far in this world and reminiscing of the time before it became real.

Once I’m finished with my fruit, they are still enjoying their conversation, so I get up and walk to the edge of the water. Seeing as I have no drinks in my inventory, no, potions don’t count, and the inventory is now a spell, I figure that I can try to put some water into it without a container. I focus on only taking a bit and it shows up as ‘unclean water’ along with a specified amount. Taking out some in my hand, I become wet. I dump it all out again with a splash, causing the others to become quiet.

“Don’t mind me, just figuring something out.” I say, preempting their questions. Making a mana barrier and forming it into a moderately sized bowl and dunking it into the water. Lifting it back out turns out to need more mana, so I leave it just above the water. Because I intend to collect drinking water, I cast cleanse on the bowl before storing it in the inventory. To my surprise, the bowl disappears alongside the water and it shows up as ‘clean water in mana bowl’. Does this mean that I can store mana in my inventory? Creating another knife and storing it away, takes as much mana as creating two knives. Taking it back out takes more mana than creating a new one. So I guess I can’t exploit the inventory to store infinite mana. 

Taking the water bowl out again, holding it in my hands, I see the bowl slowly erode from the edges, spilling some of the water. Channeling mana into it stops the erosion. Seeing as I want to store the water and not the bowl, I try again with some more focus and it now shows up as ‘clean water’. Taking out a small amount again, this time in the bowl, works. Lifting the bowl up and drinking from it, has me realizing how thirsty I have been. After drinking until my thirst is quenched, I start the process of cleaning and storing enough water to keep us going for a while. Letting the bowl shatter and evaporate, I return to my friends. It seems that they have foregone their conversation in favor of watching me. I give them a questioning look and David starts chucking. 

“What were you doing?” asks Jools.

“Securing our drinking water. Going all day yesterday without drinking was not all that pleasant, though not enough to complain about.” I answer. I demonstrate by creating a small bowl, also known as a glass, and take out enough water to fill it before handing it to Jools. 

“I see we have a magic genius among us.” David says.

“This is the very basics isn’t it? You don’t need to patronize me.” I say, genuinely feeling miffed.

“That’s only kinda true. You aren’t using any spells, but having mana hold any other shape than a rough sphere is really difficult. Like, only a couple people can contain free flowing mana in that complicated of a shape.” He states, making it clear that he was serious, before continuing “You mostly used free flowing mana in the form of mana bullets when playing, right? Then it makes a lot of sense that you are good at using it now.”

“I used a lot of spells, but yes, mana bullet was my primary means of attack.”

Jools chooses this point of time to hand me back my glass. With a small amount of showmanship, I wave my hand and the glass shatters in his hands, with the pieces evaporating. He just stares at it before withdrawing his hand and saying “I was hoping for more, but I’m not going to force you if you don’t want to”. Realizing my mistake, I create a new glass and hand it to him.

Seeing as there is a lull in conversation, I take the chance to ask David about the unknown quest marker and he answers “It is pointing to an enemy that is weak enough that you won’t have too much trouble beating it, but at the same time not so weak as to be trivial. As a bonus, you absolutely won’t feel bad about killing it.”

“So you are responsible for it? Also what is it, if I may ask”

“Yes, I am responsible for the quest marker. It is a small abomination that’s currently dragging itself towards Draumr.”

As the word ‘abomination’ exits his mouth, a shiver goes down my spine, and looking at Jools, it’s the same for him. Abominations are one of the primary end game enemies. Abominations were actually really cool in the game, but as the name implies, they are quite monstrous. They were something one of the devs really wanted to exist, with the primary goal of all of them being unique eldritch monstrosities. The basic idea is that you take a sphere and tack on random bodyparts until you can fit no more, then fill in the space inbetween with pulsating flesh. Each bodypart then get ability or a spell associated with it, though thematically limited such that hands don’t get the kick ability. There is a set of bodyparts specifically designed for them, but they also pull from other random enemies such as wolves and bandits. At one point, there even was a bug that cause them to pull from non enemy models such as houses. I even encountered one with a door, though I’ve seen some with smoking chimneys, wheels and roofs on the forums. They can be true juggernauts with the ability to both use stamina and mana. To defeat one you have to destroy all its bodyparts, and since each bodypart is associated with one or two attack, the battle becomes easier over time, though you usually have less resources when they do. Because they have a procedural body, they needed procedural animations, though they never became all that good, causing them to move in unnatural ways, even for the limbs that they have. Personally I think it added to the feel, but not everyone agreed.

“Wait, it’s heading towards Draumr?” I ask, almost in a panic.

“Yup. It’s not big enough to really be a threat to a city that size, but it might cause some casualties. It is a really great chance for you to test your new bodies, and you might even save some lives while doing it.”

The way he says it, leaves me and Jools speechless as we look at each other. David takes that a cue to ask us

“So, do you accept this divine quest?”