Aokigahara Forest 4 - Way too Wise Read online

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  Aokigahara Forest (Book 4) - Way too Wise

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  Way too Wise

  Takeshi lay back in the encompassing luxury of his computer chair. He took a deep draught of ice cold cola and felt the refreshing bite of it in his throat as he bit into another slice of pizza. This was going to be a long night. His party had completed the first level: The Haunted Forest and even obtained the Goddesses’ blessing. But the next level: a murky dungeon beneath the Aokigahara Forest, populated with hellish monsters, was going to be hard. As their rickety lift platform descended into the darkness, he swung his viewpoint, and his companions on the quest filled his computer screen. Tejo, a mage, whose avatar was a small brown bear, stood beside him on the platform, illuminating the darkness of the pit with a silver wand. Standing beside the little bear, was the lovely Trisha: a human archer, with fair skin, pale green eyes, and her bright gold hair tied up in two bunches. The forth party member was Pandora: an elf archer with yellow eyes, long black hair and grey-green skin. She had only just joined their party. Both archers had skimpy armor but Pandora’s, which was little more than lingerie, was the most distractingly indecent. Pandora seemed to be deliberately annoying Trisha, who hadn’t been at all keen on her joining the party, by flirting shamelessly with Tejo and himself. It was only a game, but he knew Trisha in real: she even looked unnervingly like her game character, and he certainly didn’t want to hurt her, even though Pandora was infuriatingly good at flirting and it was often difficult not to respond. The party had worked well together in the forest with just himself, Trisha and the bear, but how Pandora would fit in was beginning to worry him. There was also a nagging doubt in his mind about what the Goddess had said, when Trisha had asked her if you died in real when you died in the Aokigahara Forest.

  “No you will not die,” the Goddess had said, in a lovely voice that had resonated in Takeshi’s soul, “but you will not be able to leave this dark forest and wander forever in its shade.” It was just the sort of over dramatic, incredulous crap that you hear so often on the net, but he couldn’t get it out of his mind. He would be so glad when they cleared the dungeon. Then they would be able to talk to Tejo’s online friends in the Heavenly City and gain some insight of what was happening to Trisha and him in real. The rickety platform came to rest and the little party stepped from the platform. The platform immediately ascended into the darkness, leaving a Samurai knight, two scantily clad archers and a little brown bear with a magic wand, standing all alone on a broad sandy plain. Four bright green health bars; one for each party member, showed at the top left of Takeshi’s computer monitor.

  “Well, there goes our only escape route,” said Tejo the bear. “Now which way?”

  “Due west,” said Pandora. “There’s a boat by the river.”

  “How do you know?” asked Trisha. The little bear’s wand only illuminated a circle of white sand and all the rest was blackness.

  “I’m a dark elf: I can see in the dark,” said Pandora. “I can see through armor too,” she added with a smirk.

  “Yeah right,” said Trisha.

  “OK, due west it is,” the little bear sighed.

  Takeshi looked at his compass as his game character; a Samurai knight, plodded off westwards in its heavy armor. High above him, stars glimmered in the black sky of the vast dungeon. He looked skywards and recognized the Plough star constellation and Orion’s Belt, but there was no bright moon to illumine the way.

  “Mind the light sand. Whoops, too late!” said Pandora. The Samurai had stepped on a lighter colored patch of sand and an array of sharp spikes shot up through it. His health bar started to plummet downwards on his display, as blood began spurting from the wounds on his foot, and a red mist obscured his vision. The bear performed a complicated movement with his wand and the Samurai’s bleeding wounds were healed. The little bear then performed a different spell and a shimmering column bathed the Samurai in light and his health bar soared to up to a full hundred percent.

  “Sorry ‘bout that guys; not a good start. Wasn’t expecting that.” said Takeshi.

  “You could have told him earlier,” said Trisha.

  “We need to work together on this one,” said the little bear. “There’s a lot of nasty mobs in here. Remember, if one of us dies here, we all die. I’ll try my best to keep you all alive, but could the archers please hold off attacking till Takeshi pull’s the mob’s with hate, then we stand a lot more chance of survival. I can’t heal archers: you only have light armor and I’d soon run out of manna when I heal you, and you don’t have the hate skill like Takeshi, or his massive health and defence, so the mobs will soon transfer their attentions to me, if I keep healing you, and we all will die.”

  “I knew that already,” said Pandora.

  “Sorry, but you’d be surprised how many archers seem to forget it,” said the bear. “Any questions anyone?”

  “I have,” said Trisha. “I can’t get used to using these fiddly WASD keys for moving my character about. Is there any other way of doing it?

  “Yes there is,” said Tejo, though it will feel a bit too real and you might not like it. Here, I’ll set you up,” and he leant over Trisha’s console. “Right, start by sitting upright in your chair.”

  “OK,” said Trisha, and sat bolt upright in her computer chair. Tejo leant over and entered a key sequence on her keyboard.

  “OK shift your weight forward to move forward, lean back to back up and twist your body to turn round,” the little bear said.

  Trisha tried it, “Brilliant! Much better!”

  “Now lean sideways to slide sideways.” The bright archer shifted her body weight and her character skidded sideways, ploughing up a shower of sand.

  “OK, but mind the light sand,” said the bear. “Now, if you want to look around, just turn your head.” As Trisha turned her head her, computer monitor moved so it was always in the direction she was looking, but what she saw on the screen panned across the sandy landscape. She looked up into the blackness and saw myriads of glimmering stars.

  “Wow! It’s just like being here,” said the bright archer.

  “Yeah and it will give you a distinct edge in a duel,” said Tejo. Takeshi did you get all that?”

  “Most of it, Can I give it a go too?” Tejo leant over Takeshi’s work station, and hit a keyboard sequence.

  “Sorry Pandora; I’d do the same for you if you were sitting next to me,” said Tejo.

  Pandora shrugged, “Its OK: I’ll survive,” she laughed. “I take it you guys know each other in real.”

  “That’s right,” said Takeshi and leant forward in his chair. The Samurai set off again, carefully avoiding the light patches of sand.

  The glimmering circle of light slowly progressed through the thick blackness, and the party continued on its way, until further progress was blocked by a dark, swirling river. A small boat was tied up there to a wooden landing.

  “Told you,” said Pandora.

  “Looks like we can only get two in the boat,” said the little bear, stepping out onto the landing.

  The bright archer turned to the little bear, “So what’s the plan then, Tejo?”

  “I’ll ferry you across one at a time,” said Tejo, jumping into the boat.

  “Who will you take first?” asked Trisha.

  “The one who can stay alive if I leave them on the island.”

  “I guess that must be me,” said Takeshi,” and he sat in the prow of the boat. Tejo took the oars and the boat set off in the dark swirling current.

  “What’s this river called?” asked Takeshi.

  “Hit Alt M on your keypad,” said Tejo. Takeshi hit Alt M. A ma
p showed on his monitor, with a bright blue dot on it, indicating his position.

  “Aaah! it’s called the river Styx,” Takeshi said, “and the island ahead of us is Bat Island. There’s a door in the rocks in the center of the island that’s marked as the Heavenly City. Surely it can’t be that simple: all we have to do is walk through those trees, across the little bridge and go through that green door.” He stepped from the boat onto the island.

  “Wait!” said the little bear. “It won’t be easy or simple: this is a level eighty dungeon. Whatever happens, stay exactly where you are, but kill everything that attacks you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He rowed back towards their party, leaving Takeshi alone in the darkness.

  Back at the boat landing, Pandora leapt into the boat before it had docked. “I guess it doesn’t matter which one goes first,” she said.

  “I guess not,” said Trisha.

  “Won’t be long, Trisha,” said Tejo, and rowed off into the blackness with Pandora, leaving Trisha all alone in the dark. True to his word, Tejo returned and the little party soon regrouped on the shore of the island.

  “So if this is called Bat Island, where are all the bats then?” asked Takeshi, as the little party came to the edge of the forest.

  Trisha caught a slight movement, high above her, with her keen archer’s eyes. “Do you see the leaves on the trees ahead of us?” she said.

  “Yes, obviously,” said Pandora.

  “Well two of them just flapped.”

  “So?”

  “So they aren’t leaves; they are bats!”

  The little bear looked up at the thousands of black wings high above them. “Stop!” he squeaked. “There’s no way we can cope with that many.”

  Far ahead of them, Trisha caught a movement under the little bridge. “What’s that under the bridge?” she asked.

  “Let me look,” said Tejo. “Cave Trolls! Massive health points! They are almost impossible to kill.”

  “So basically, we are fucked: there’s no way we’ll ever get to that door alive,” said Pandora.

  “In a manner of speaking,” said the little bear.

  “I wonder if bats get on with Cave Trolls?” asked Trisha.

  “I’m sure they’re all the best of friends,” said Pandora.

  “Wait a minute. What are you getting at Trisha?” asked Takeshi.

  “If we can get the bats and Trolls to fight, we might stand half a chance,” said Trisha.

  “And how are we supposed to do that? They are both mobs. This is so fucking blonde.” said Pandora.

  “Hang on, this isn’t half as daft as it sounds,” said Tejo. Trolls are not known for their intelligence. A cave troll’s main attack is Stomp. Stomp is an AOE skill that stuns everything around the Troll and does massive damage to everything: even the Troll. Trolls are incredibly slow, so they use it to get close to fast targets.

  “So if we can get them to stomp near the bats, they might start fighting…” said Trisha.

  “You are way too wise for a hunter, Trisha,” said the little bear. “OK let’s do it. I need a volunteer, someone who can run fastest. Trisha? Pandora?”

  “Why can’t you do it? You seem to know more about it than any of us,” said Pandora,

  “I would, but the bats can fly faster than I can run: I’d be dead before I got to the Trolls.”

  “I’ll do it,” said Trisha.

  “Great!” said the bear. What you need to do is run through the trees and round up a few tree-full’s of bats and take them over to the Trolls. If you lean forward fast in your chair you’ll sprint for a short period. I’ll try to keep you alive if you take damage from the Trolls. But please don’t hit anything though: the Mobs need to hate each other, not you. Got it?”

  “Got it,” said Trisha. She turned to the party and smiled, “If I should die, promise to come visit me in the forest.”

  “We promise,” said Takeshi and Tejo and Trisha set off at an easy lope beside the river to the edge of the trees. As she ran under the first tree, a dense black cloud of shrieking bats flapped down from the stark bare branches and followed her, leaving the tree utterly bare. When she broke from the forest, at the seventh tree, several thousand black bats flapped after her. She ran a circle till the bats were all in a tight ball, close behind her, then sprinted away from them, towards the Trolls. Tejo cast a toughen armor spell on her, then a slow heal spell, as she got to the first Troll. It emitted an earth shattering roar and Stomped a huge bare foot onto the ground. Trisha and all the flapping bats stood frozen: stunned by the Stomp. Trisha’s health was perilously close to zero as the troll began to batter at her with its club. Its first blow released her from the stun and she sprinted back towards her party, bathing in Tejo’s healing-light spell as she ran. As the Troll lumbered slowly towards Tejo, the stun spell wore off the bats and they started to peck at the Troll. Its cries were piteous as it swung vainly at them with its club. But the bats were too quick for it; darting in and pecking, then flapping out of reach of the Troll’s club. The Troll’s health bar began to fade towards zero as, blinded by a red mist, it swung about it vainly with the club. Every time the Troll raised its foot to stomp, the pecking horde attached itself again, interrupting the attack. The other two trolls joined in to help but were soon having as little success as the first, as thousands of black bats started to bite at them as well, and they began to bleed to death too.

  Trisha looked up at her display: Pandora had left the party and the other two health bars had fallen to near zero. Surely the bats were all fighting the trolls. She quickly ran back towards her party. Pandora was nowhere to be seen. Takeshi lay lifeless on the ground and the little bear stood in a toxic green cloud trying vainly to heal himself from a poison arrow. But his spells kept getting interrupted by a withering rain of arrows. At last he fell to the ground.

  “Pandora!” said Tejo, and died.

  “I’m surprised you don’t remember me,” said Pandora in Trisha’s headset.

  “Should I?”

  “You damn well should. We tried to put you down in the forest, until your love-struck friend Takeshi interfered and then you shot me. Because of you I shall wander this place for all eternity. But soon you will all join us. Once you die, your whole party is screwed: who will revive you then, you smart-arsed bitch? Way too wise for a huntress? We shall see.”

  “We shall see,” said Trisha, straining into the blackness to see Pandora’s name tag. All Tejo and Takeshi could do was lie on the ground and wait. At last she caught a glimpse of Pandora’s blood red person-killer name-tag, behind some rocks. Pandora had better armor, and her poison-arrow skills were legendary, so a sparring match could only have one outcome. The only advantage Trisha had was speed: the blessing of the Goddess had given her that, but only for another fourteen minutes. Pandora stepped from the rock and, released a poison arrow. Trisha skidded sideways avoiding Pandora’s red targeting circle, and sprinted away into the forest. As Trisha broke from the forest again Pandora released a dense shower of arrows at her. Pandora did not see the dense cloud of black bats that followed Trisha until it was all too late. As the shower of arrows arrows pattered into the dense cloud of bats, they all transferred their hate from Trisha and flapped on towards Pandora. Trisha skidded out of the circle of pattering arrows, using a quick-heal potion to restore her health, before turning to attack. Pandora did not see Trisha’s slow release of single stun arrow. It was obscured by the thick, black cloud of bats that swarmed towards Pandora. Trisha’s stun arrow impacted Pandora with a loud clang and all she could do was stand there in impotent rage until the dense cloud of bats started biting into her flesh.

  As Pandora fell to the ground, Trisha said, “Mind the bats. Whoops, too late!”

  “There are more of us,” said Pandora, “I might not be able to stop you, but they will,” and her body shimmered and faded from sight.

  “Well done Trisha!” said the little Bear,” as she stood beside him and applied a Goddess Resurrection Potion to his i
nert body. Tejo’s body rose from the ground and hovered in the air for a few seconds. Then there was a blinding flash and the little bear stood beside Trisha, in the land of the living again. The bear then used his own Goddess Resurrection potion on Takeshi.

  “I’m not risking using my Resurrect skill,” said the bear. “It might not work here.”

  “Thank you, said Takeshi,” I don’t fancy living here permanently,” and the three stood together once more.

  “It’s OK, said the bear, “I think we cleared the dungeon of the mobs now.”

  “And Pandoras,” said Trisha.

  As they set off again, crossing the little Japanese bridge where the Trolls had been, Trisha’s keen eyes spotted an object that one of the Trolls had dropped, as it died. She splashed into the stream and retrieved it.

  “It’s a key. I wonder what it might fit,” said Trisha as the party stood before the green door.

  “Target the door and click Alt O,” said the bear. She complied, the green door creaked open, and they steeped inside to find a bare wooden floored room with a red button on one wall. She moved towards the button.

  “Wait!” said the bear, as the door closed behind them.

  “Now what?” said Trisha.

  “I think it’s a puzzle and we might only get one chance,” said the bear.

  “So what do we do now?” asked Takeshi.

  “What do you notice about the floor?” said the bear.

  “It’s bare?” said Trisha. “Wait, there’s a faint square in the center of the room.”

  “So what do you think we should we do?”

  “You two stand on the square and I’ll press the button. Perhaps it’s a lift,” said Trisha. The two other adventurers moved to the center of the room and stood on the square.

  Takeshi felt a vague unease, “What if the lift only works once,” he said.

  “Then I’ll be left here in the darkness forever,” said Trisha.

  “Let me do it,” said Takeshi.

  “No need. Stay where you are,” said Trisha and, joining her friends on the square, she released a single arrow. As the arrow impacted the button, the small square accelerated skywards.