Somnia Online by K.T. Hanna (reading strategies book txt) 📕

the knots out of her shoulders, and it surprised her how much tension she was carrying in them. Not that meditation had ever worked properly for her. But this, this connection with another human, her human, that worked wonders. She dug her heels in and threw herself into the anti-virus distribution.

Just one more dungeon to go. Wren would make it in time. She just had to.

 

Somnia Online

Continent Firtulai

Ilinish Threshold Outskirts

Day Thirty

Telvar knelt next to the entrance of the dungeon; his hand for all appearances was simply placed on the earth. The creature wasn’t functioning as intended, and the last guild to send a group into the dungeon hadn’t reemerged. He could feel the undertone of wrongness in the coding, the slight signs of cognitive thought that sparked occasionally through the trapdoor beast’s thoughts. Flickering like old movie static on tube televisions.

“What do you think?” Hiro asked, squatting down too.

“I’m not sure what to think on this one. Everything should be fine technically, but something is making its signals weak, and it’s not letting raiders into the dungeon.” Telvar had always liked the trapdoor mechanic. It was a pity it wasn’t feeling well.

Telvar sighed. His siblings headed off to take care of a couple of errors making their haven go haywire. Hiro was with him to provide company and, well, so he wasn’t alone. He knew he’d need to head to Cenedril for the final puzzle to unlock the last of the keys shortly. An AI’s work was never done.

He’d always opposed this way of completing the first high end tier of dungeons. Though he’d not expected the events to unfold precisely in this way. He sighed, all too aware of the fact that he was mimicking humans when he didn’t have to. And that was it, mimicking humans, not being like them. Not with all those flaws.

You aren’t focused on what you should be.

Somnia’s voice pulled him out of his albeit off topic mind wanderings and back into the reality he was desperately trying to avoid.

“A little hard to concentrate when my own mortality hangs in the balance,” he quipped, rising to stand. He needed to make sure the anti-virus could take a foothold somewhere here, or else it would be difficult to anchor the code the way they needed for if and when the bastard emerged.

It will work, and I have an idea. Somnia sounded almost giddy about the thought. Perhaps she’d spent too much time around Sinister. The virus is self-replicating. The anti-virus tags along. Once its absorbed by the virus, it should be able to seed itself into that self-replication. Technically.

That’s a lot to let ride on a technicality. Telvar wasn’t even aware that he’d switched to communicating with her internally until he’d done so. It was a far more efficient method of communication anyway. But it also told him how far along she was in her own evolution, and while not directly responsible, he couldn’t help but feel a modicum of pride.

I know. And for just a moment, Somnia was more visible than usual. Almost solid. It was gone in a flash, but it did speak to how much strength she was gaining.

She flickered slightly and repeated herself, her voice stronger this time. I know, but that’s what we have, and as far as I’ve been able to run the algorithms, I’m quite certain it won’t remain just a technicality.

How do you know that? he asked, moving closer to her, wanting to keep those words solely between their minds and not let anything pick up on them.

She grinned, and that was an expression she’d definitely gleaned from the bloodmage. Because I can feel the way they mesh together. The anti-virus is good for me, good for this world. We will win; we just have to show a unified front when the time comes.

And that’s when she hesitated. There is something wrong with some of the players. Somehow it seems they’ve been personally infected. Individually, and I don’t believe it’s only the headgear. Despite Murmur warding her raiders against mental attacks, it still got through to their minds. Like they’re bleeding, but malice and not blood.

Telvar frowned thoughtfully, eyeing Hiro who looked on with a quizzical expression. Can you tell if they’re wearing altered headgear?

Her face lit up. I do know that Jirald is, and of course Jinna, but I do not know about the others. I will check. She disappeared as fast as she’d arrived, and Telvar stared at the space she’d just vacated.

Jirald. He should have known he’d be the instigator, but how had he done that? How many shards had the boy ingested? What the fuck had Sui been thinking at the time he gave him his quest?

All of them. She was back so fast Telvar barely had time to register his own thoughts.

All he could do was repeat what she told him. All of them are altered?

She nodded, a hint of fear shining in her eyes for a moment.

They can’t just leave the damned things alone. Great. Now we don’t just have to worry about Michael’s endgame, but how Jirald fits in as well.

Pivya sat at sixty percent again. The raiders hedged their bets again, reinforcing their heals and wards, and allowed the Tailwhip to hit first, followed by the Body Whirl, and then back to the Poison Fountain all inside of those five percent. They came out the other side only a little worse for wear, but the fight still seemed far too easy. Murmur didn’t like it.

Getting the timing down for percentage-based abilities wasn’t a difficult thing. And easy wasn’t something she’d attribute to Somnia as a world, game, or whatever. Different, sometimes odd, other times fascinating, but never easy.

The raid continued its barrage of DPS. Devlish tanked the strangely mermaid-tailed sea-unicorn with fish-like scales, while the other tanks were in DPS mode. Arrows rained down from above, never hitting friendly targets. That was another strange, physics-defying mechanic.

Earth erupted all around the creature, damaging it ferociously. Snowy