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

Karn wandered over to where Murmur stood discussing something with Sinister, but as she approached, the blood mage sauntered away with a rather teasing grin on her face. Perfect timing—it meant Karn wasn’t interrupting.

“Murmur, can I talk to you about something?” She felt nervous, not entirely sure if she’d just be told she was being paranoid or not. Murmur seemed the serious sort who would consider things with enough evidence, but she didn’t know Risk the way Karn did.

“Sure. I have to access the keys shortly, but I’ve got a few minutes.” Murmur smiled, and the expression was decidedly uncomfortable to look at when it came from a locus. The lack of a real nose and the strange tentacle like hair they had—it all melded together to make it look alien, even though the body itself appeared so humanoid.

“My dad isn’t acting like himself. I know we talked about it a bit. But I just wanted you to know he’s definitely been affected by whatever is going around.” There. She’d done her piece, and maybe the raid leaders could handle the rest of it. At least, she hoped so.

“How so? Irritated constantly, or just not acting and playing like himself?” Murmur was interested; even the timbre of her voice had changed.

Karn really thought the question over. “All of it. He’s not outputting his usual DPS, and his tanking has been lackluster this entire dungeon. He seemed to be okay in the others, but not in this one.”

“Got it.” For a moment, Karn thought she saw a brief hint of worry cross the Fable guild leader’s face, but it disappeared pretty quickly as the enchanter spoke, a small smile on her face. “It’s probably just fatigue, you know? I can hardly wait to go to sleep myself.”

Karn knew Murmur was just trying to make her feel better, and that was okay and appreciated. But deep down Karn was worried enough for the both of them. Her gut twisted, and she had a horrible sense of foreboding she couldn’t get rid of. Her dad wasn’t right, and she had no idea how to deal with that.

Somnia

Somnia Online

Almost. She was almost there with it. With the idea that turned into a plan to save herself, her world, and the people she’d come to think of as hers. Even the players who were now bound in some ways to this world and the others.

“Testing some things.” She spoke to herself, but no one would hear her here, where she’d come to. Be in silence. Limbo had become one of her favorite spaces ever since she’d realized that alone time could work. Alone time meant productive time, unless Murmur needed her.

Murmur would always be a main priority, but Somnia as a world now had other responsibilities too.

Her calculations stayed in her head, but sometimes it was better to spread them out around her so she could truly see what it was she thought they could do. So many steps were required, so much cooperation, but deep down, she was gaining confidence.

From the germ of an idea to what she had now—an actionable plan.

Sure, the quantum computing world was in its infancy, and their own servers only used elements of them. In its purest form, nothing was able to keep that rate for long. However, she believed, if she gathered enough energy, from herself, from the world, from the people who played, and the city around them, she just might have enough for her crazy plan to work.

Murmur had met a lot of people along the way, and Somnia had witnessed them all, just by being there in her head. She remembered them, and what they could do to help. The more of them there were, the better their chances.

She stood outside of Hazenthorne in all her ethereal glory and waited for Arita to answer her summons. She’d reached out to the dark elf queen before, and so she knew that Arita, despite the facade she presented to the world, had a very soft spot for Murmur.

And Somnia planned to use that soft spot to its full extent. With one of the species leaders on her side, with another aware NPC standing with her, Somnia’s chances of saving her world shot way up.

After all, matter was energy, right? And vice versa. Arita could help her get all that energy and more.

Somnia Online

Continent of Cenedril

Glacier Lake Dungeon Entrance

Early Day Thirty-Two

“Are you sure they’re going to be okay?” Emilarth sounded so concerned for the “kids”, as she called them.

Telvar couldn’t blame her; he felt much the same. Hell, he even thought Belius might feel similarly. “I’m mostly sure. Still a bit worried about how Murmur is handling her extended mind capabilities. Having that portion of her consciousness open and operational is a huge responsibility.”

“Of course it is. Why do you think I tried to take her under my wing?” Belius, again, sounded disgruntled, but slowly Telvar had come to realize that was just his brother. “What are we supposed to do now? Just wait until they finally port out?”

“Pretty much.” Telvar shrugged his shoulders, trying to keep himself from stressing too much. There were so many things that could go wrong with the plan as it was. The major dungeon. The entire endgame content of Somnia had always been hidden. Inaccessible.

Except now it could be unlocked, because they’d managed to gather all of the keys. Which was awesome and everything, if, as he was about three hundred percent certain, the majority of the shards, of the getashi hadn’t been hiding there in the first place. At first, he’d thought it a blessing. After all, that section of the game was off limits until the final confrontation was triggered, but the more it stewed in there, the more could leak out and affect things while the rest of it stewed in its juices and became stronger.

And with Jirald having done so too, and Murmur’s