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

of the machine, it couldn’t do that. Jirald needed to temper his imagination.

“Everyone move out,” Devlish called as the raid began to disperse from loot division. Murmur didn’t feel up to ordering anyone about. The tiredness ate at her, and the whole swimming in water thing was starting to make her limbs tired. In the game limbs. She didn’t even want to contemplate it.

Raiding, like this anyway, had lost some of its luster. Just because she liked completing things first didn’t mean she wanted to race past the best parts.

She squeezed Sinister’s hand, wishing there was a way for them both to just disappear together. But there wasn’t with this connection in her brain. There really just wasn’t at all.

“You know, I’m proud of you,” Sinister mumbled as she leaned against Murmur and gave her a side hug while they swam.

It was far more difficult a feat to accomplish than one might think, and Murmur would have been impressed if she hadn’t been so busy feeling so very sorry for herself. “What for? Wallowing in my own self despair to the point where I really just want to go home and sleep?”

Sinister shrugged. “Sure, I’m proud of that too, but really I was prouder of the fact that you’re not letting your mood affect everyone around you. A while ago, before they talked to you, you were leaking every emotion to everyone and not realizing it. Your sadness, your irritation, your anger and frustration. Seriously, it was like a roller coaster ride from hell. I know I certainly didn’t enjoy it.”

“Oh.” Murmur’s mood plummeted even more. She hadn’t realized that at all. Getting control over the emotions she leaked out to everyone was the best decision she’d made all game.

“Hey. Snap out of it, Mur. That’s not why I told you. I’m telling you because you’ve grown since then and aren’t doing it anymore, and you’re not doing it half deliberately anymore, either. So take the fucking compliment.” Sinister play punched her in the arm and grinned up.

“Fine. I’ll take the damned compliment then. Be like that and see if I care.” Murmur almost wanted to stick her tongue out, but that would have been a little too juvenile. Even though Sinister made her feel somewhat better, Murmur was still having a bit of difficulty getting over the hump.

They swam silently, stopping here and there where trash mobs jumped out at the raid. Rather stupid, really. If it were up to Murmur and she was a mob and saw a huge raid coming their way? She’d flee like there was no tomorrow. What idiot actually pathed right into a group of thirty leveled up raiders?

“Hey, Sin?” she asked tentatively as they spied a huge swarm of incoming shrimp humans again.

“Yeah?”

“Just promise me you won’t listen to what anyone else says about me, please?” Murmur wasn’t sure, but she thought there might have been a tremor in her voice.

Sinister eyed her and laughed. “You should know well enough by now that I know all your dirty secrets, Wren Summers.”

Just that sentence, those words, and it was all Murmur needed to get her head out of her ass and concentrate on their goal again. It shouldn’t be like that, but Sinister always had a way about her, maybe it was just how she was for Murmur, but the enchanter would take that.

She waded into battle with the rest of them, determined to get to the end of the bloody zone and be done with it. The swarm of prawn humans was larger than last time, and all at once. Twelve of them in one go. Looked like another stun fest. Stunning underwater fest.

Murmur shook her head at the logic of it and began to cast her AoE rotation. Flux, Shift, all of them, over and over on repeat. It was probably the most repetitive thing her class could do, and yet it came with this feeling of power and danger. One resist too many? And she was a hairsbreadth from dying. One mistimed rotation, and she could wipe the whole raid.

The way the rangers’ rain of arrows peppered through the raid, skillfully avoiding allies and piercing the prawn people instead, made her smile. Blizzards of ice shot through the water, surrounding them, freezing them in place momentarily. Being able to attack trash mobs with so much force gave at least a temporary feeling of invincibility.

Pity it didn’t always work that way on a boss. Spells cast by the mages and Havoc were a joy to watch, as was Leeroy’s cleaving scythe. All in all, it was a beautifully executed massacre, and for just a few moments Murmur felt pretty good about it. Until she saw the massive cave ahead of them.

The cave rose out of the floor of the lake, sandy ramps leading up into it. Rocks formed further up, breaching the water top in an almost rounded roof. They could hear the roars from where they stood gathering the loot from their latest trash encounter. Even the water around them trembled with the sound.

“Guess we’ve found the next boss, then?” Beastial muttered as Shir-Khan laid his ears back.

Murmur nodded. They’d at least found the place where they’d need to fight the next boss anyway. The entire raid managed to grow quieter at once. Moving as stealthily as thirty people could through water, they approached the destination.

Murmur paused, taking in the sight. “Let’s not all go in at once. Send in Karn and Snowy.” She deliberately left those she felt she couldn’t trust out of it. And Jinna scowled her way for her troubles.

“What the hell is his problem with you this raid?” Devlish whispered to her. “Did we miss it? Did we forget his birthday or something?”

Murmur shrugged somewhat uneasily. “I’m not entirely sure. I just know he’s not really being himself right now. Maybe he’s too sleep deprived.” Really, she was trying to be generous in her thinking.

She watched as both Karn and Snowy moved into the mouth