Rebirth: Crawler

New Skill:

Aegis of Agility

Creates a barrier capable of absorbing (Str + Agi) damage after being hit. Five minute cooldown.

Ayn sighed in relief. Finishing the third floor meant gaining her third combat level and a new skill. From now on, she would gain another ability or skill at every other level. The System was well-known for matching character gains with their actions and what they needed most. It had certainly done so for her.

Kayara glanced her way, a question forming on her lips that was cut off by a sudden, self-satisfied “Ha!” from Bren.

All four of them sat around the table they had claimed as theirs within the Crawler’s Guild, eagerly browsing their character screens to see what they’d gained. It seemed Bren was particularly pleased.

“Listen to this,” he said with a wave of his hand. “Melodic Magic. Plus fifty percent potency to all magic cast by singing or playing an instrument while casting. Plus eighty if both are done.”

Kayara groaned. “Seriously? I’m going to have to keep dealing with your constant wailing?”

“It’s hardly wailing, Twinkle Toes. I’m rather famous for my singing, and my instrument playing, I’ll have you know.”

“Where? Among your family?”

Bren’s face went red.

“I think it’s great,” Ayn cut in. “Considering how close the last fight was, I’ll take whatever bonuses we can get. Will you buy an instrument?”

“Well, thank you, Ayn. At least one of you appreciates the arts. I do, in fact, have an instrument already in mind. A fine, earlier suggestion from the party.”

“Oh?”

“Indeed. I’ll look for one right away, and grace you with a concert on the next floor.”

“I look forward to it.”

Ayn meant what she said, although she was having trouble remembering what instrument they had suggested. Regardless of what it was, after their return from the Dungeon, Bren had gone straight to the Crawler’s Guild to make a show of ripping the golden contract apart. For all of his complaints before the third floor, he’d seemed to take great joy in nulling the contract and proclaiming he’d stick with the party no matter what.

“What did you unlock, Kayara?” Ayn asked.

“Shift,” the ranger said. “It lets me teleport a short distance on activation.”

An image of Kayara pinwheeling away from mobs popped into Ayn’s head. “You almost do that anyway, so I guess it’s fitting.”

Kayara looked away. “Uh…yeah. What about you?”

Ayn explained her new skill, much to the excitement of the others.

“Thank goodness,” Bren said. “As many times as you get hit head-on, I was afraid you’d end up with permanent damage.”

Kayara glared at Bren. “That aside, it’s pretty cool you unlocked a shield that uses agility to power it. That way you can keep your build and tank better at the same time.”

“Exactly!” Ayn grinned. “I thought I’d be able to just be an agility tank and dodge most things, but it turns out I’m not nearly as good at that as you, Kayara.”

“Oh…I wouldn’t worry about that. Your playstyle might be unorthodox, but it’s saved our hides plenty already.” Kayara flashed Ayn a lopsided grin, then turned her attention to Sheyric. “What’s your new unlock?”

“Better heals.”

Sheyric tapped his character screen, reversing the display so the rest of them could see it.

New Ability:

Rapid Healer

As long as health remains above 50%, casting time of all healing and skills is reduced by 50%, and mana cost by 25%.

Everyone at the table congratulated him, but Ayn noticed Kayara’s gaze flicking back to her. The ranger had stayed twitchy after leaving the Dungeon. Considering the fact Miit had yet to reappear, Ayn figured it had something to do with the promised explanation Kayara had made. Her anxiety only made Ayn curiouser. Still, Kayara had made the promise to her alone. To demand she and Kayara get up and go in the middle of everyone leveling would be suspicious. As it stood, Kayara’s twitchiness was already getting odd looks from Bren, which only made the ranger twitchier.

“Uh…so on to the stats,” Ayn said. With a flick of her wrist, the new skill panel in front of her switched to the stat-up screen. “Since I’ve got Aegis of Agility, I’ll keep focusing on agility and strength.” She aimed the words at Bren, distracting him from the squirming Kayara.

He nodded sagely, the very picture of someone used to be consulted on other’s decisions. “Yes. That makes sense. I was going to urge you to put a bit more into health, but it seems The System has given you its blessing.”

Ayn acted as if his advice would have changed her mind, and allotted her points. Five to strength, five to agility, and the remaining two points to health.

Ayn

Swashbuckler Lv. 3

Health: 376 Mana: 10

Strength: 46 Essence: 4

Agility: 65 Focus: 4

Skills

Acrobatics Lv. 3

The skill to do jumps, flips, rolls, and balancing.

Sleight of Hand Lv. 1

The skill to obscure what you’re doing with your hands.

Aegis of Agility

Creates a barrier capable of absorbing (Str + Agi) damage after being hit. Five minute cooldown.

“There. Done,” Kayara said. She flicked her eyes toward Ayn in a not-so-subtle sign. “I’m heading out. Meet you all here in the morning.” With a flurry of motion that caught the eye of everyone in the guild, she got up and rushed out the door.

“Is she okay?” Bren asked.

“I’m not sure.” Ayn pushed away from the table. Kayara had given her an opening about as subtle as banging pots and pans, but it was an opening. “I’ll go check on her.”

“Oh…right.”

Ayn could feel Bren’s eyes on her the entire way out. The rest of the Crawlers barely looked her way. Her causing friction and digging holes while trying to smooth it over was nothing new to them.

Despite leaving right after Kayara, the ranger was nowhere to be found. The sun had set some time ago. The moonlight bathed the town in silver and deep shadows. There were plenty of places to slip out of sight, but Kayara had made it clear she wanted Ayn to follow, so why would she hide?

Ayn had made a few laps of the paths around the guild and the empty market when Miit appeared in front of her, his dark purple wings fading to black in the darkness as he flapped them.

“Hey, Miit,” Ayn said.

She reached up to scratch under his chin. He purred in response, yet didn’t settle on her shoulders like usual. “Sorry about not coming home yet. I’m looking for Kayara.”

Miit mewled and flew a few feet away. Ayn followed, only to have him flap off again, toward home. Ayn sighed. She’d really wanted to talk with Kayara, and she’d thought it was important to Kayara as well. Maybe she’d changed her mind. Either way, Miit was right. It was late. She should go home.

The familiar led her as he’d done when Ayn was a child on the many nights when she’d run off to climb buildings, annoy farm animals, or whatever the local gang of Rebirths who were still too young for the action they craved wanted to do.

There had been three of them, not including Ayn. Although they were born into different families, they found more in common with each other. Big brother Neu, who loved to tip cows and scatter chickens in the dead of night, big sister Rav, who kept lookout and occasionally acquired “dropped items” while doing so, and little sister Tayla, who always implored them to not go too far in their mischief.

Neu and Rav had been long-time Rebirths, and, according to some of the other villagers, “their moral compass had started to break down” from living too many lifetimes. Ayn had seen them as idols. Carefree. Wild. Everything she wanted to be. Little Tayla had been like Ayn during her first character’s life, a new Rebirth born with closed data and no memories at all.

Together, the four of them had made an unofficial party and created havoc across Cristak until the night they should have listened to Tayla.

Voices cut through Ayn’s reminiscing. The house she shared with her mother stood not far off, the musk of chickens and the earthiness of dark soil filling the air. Outside, all was dark and quiet. Inside, candles blazed. Ayn’s mother walked past a window, asked a question Ayn didn’t quite understand, and was answered by another who sounded awfully familiar. Miit floated up to the door, meowed back at Ayn, then vanished.

Ayn stood dumbfounded for a minute. She’d expected to meet Kayara outside the Crawler’s Guild, maybe find a quiet corner or alley to talk in, or wherever Kayara had been staying. She certainly hadn’t expected the ranger to show up at her house. How did she even know where it was? Ayn closed the distance between her and the door, and pushed it open. However Kayara had got there, Ayn wanted to speak with the ranger all the more. Doing so would push the memories of Neu, Rav, and Tayla back down where they belonged.

The smell of roasted chicken hit first, a rare occurrence reserved for special guests, and the meat sat proudly in the middle of the kitchen table. A leg and part of the breast had been carved out and placed in front of Kayara, who sat ramrod straight in her chair. She’d removed the gaudy green cap, the rainbow streaks of her hair flowing like rows of flowers in the browns and tans of the kitchen.

“Welcome back, sweetie,” Ayn’s mother said with a grin. “Your friend’s been here a while, so I hope you don’t mind that I already put dinner on the table. It is late, though. What were you up to?”

“Um…” Ayn glanced at Kayara. “Looking for her, actually.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. If I’d known you were looking for her, I’d have sent Miit earlier.”

Kayara didn’t quite hide her grimace at the mention of the familiar.

Ayn’s mother waved a hand. “Don’t worry. I told him to keep an eye on the hens until you left. In fact, why don’t I go check on them as well. You two get comfortable, okay?”

With that, she placed a fresh cup of water in front of Kayara and swept out the door, patting Ayn on the shoulder as she went.

Ayn waited a minute after the door had closed before fixing Kayara with a piercing stare. “What did you tell her?”

“Just that I needed to talk to you.” Kayara shrugged. “Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

“Yeah.”

Ayn stared a second longer, then shook her head. “Okay. I guess, more importantly, how did you find my house?”

While the villagers had no qualms about pointing her out in a crowd, her mother still held some respect within Cristak. Then again, the ranger had put Bren in his place with information she’d gathered. She supposed if Kayara could gain info on the favored son of the Crafting Guild, getting some on an outcast and a fallen ex-Crawler wouldn’t be hard.

“I asked,” Kayara said.

“Right.” Ayn slid into the chair across from Kayara. “Should we eat, then talk?”

The ranger looked away. “No. I’m not hungry.” The words, like her posture, were stiff.

“You okay?”

Kayara’s expression darkened, her eyes snapping back to Ayn. “I came here to tell you why I had such a hard time on the last floor, so that’s what I’ll do.”

Ayn sat back and frowned, her prior excitement at the prospect of speaking with Kayara blooming into confused anxiety. She wasn’t sure this was something she wanted to hear, seeing how clearly it bothered Kayara. But she’d agreed, so she wasn’t about to back down now. “I’m listening.”

Kayara nodded and bowed her head. She stayed that way, hands clasped as if in prayer, until Ayn’s legs started to itch.

“Kay—”

“My data should have been closed,” Kayara blurted out. “I lived just long enough in the physical world, that horrid life, to dredge up enough to pay for a slot here so I could erase it all. Start over. Start clean.”

Ayn’s mouth went dry. When a new Rebirth was placed on a server, specific memories of their original life could be erased. Sometimes Rebirths chose closed data on a whim, but most of the time Rebirths or admins chose it to clear traumatic events from what would become an immortal digital being. All memories of trauma, and any connected memories, were erased, while leaving common knowledge and better experiences intact. Yet Kayara spoke as if there were no better experiences to have saved.

“But something went wrong, or maybe they…maybe they found out what I was doing and messed it up on purpose.”

“They who?” Ayn’s question came out small and weak, already shrinking back from the answer.

“My parents.” Kayara spit the word out. “They never wanted me, only wanted the money the government sent for popping me out.”

What did they do? Ayn had intended to say. The words died on her lips.

Kayara took a shuddering breath and answered, anyway. “They liked the money they got for supplemental farming, too. They wheedled land out of the government, got chickens, pigs, cows, goats, sheep, all of it. Even some cats and dogs. Decided they liked the animals a lot more than me.”

A memory of a dog-like familiar chasing her and Tayla through Cristak’s streets flashed through Ayn’s mind. She tamped it down before it could reach its bloody conclusion.

“The bastards always made sure I looked nice for inspections, but in-between…. After they got the farm, they figured it’d be fun to have the animals punish me instead of them. At first, it didn’t work, of course. Why would any of those animals attack a person when people feed them? But if something’s hurt bad enough, often enough, it’ll start lashing out at whatever’s closest.”

“You don’t have to keep going,” Ayn said. Kayara’s voice had become increasing tremulous and had cracked around the edges.

“No, I do. They made the animals do what they did to me, and it was that which finally got me taken away from it all. Yet still…all I see in those creatures, whether familiar, or mob, is pain I can’t escape from.”

“Have you talked to the admins about your data?”

The question seemed stupid. There was no way Kayara had lived for her whole digital life without considering that, yet Ayn needed to know why the admins hadn’t helped.

“I tried,” Kayara said. “Lucky me, the admins started going dark right after I Rebirthed. There were only a few left I could send a message to, and none ever responded. I eventually gave up.”

“Maybe I could try. I got a response from one before. It’s been years, but…”

Kayara’s head shot up, eyes widening. A few stray tears had leaked, leaving a glistening trail down her face. “No!”

Ayn froze at the vehemence and fear in Kayara’s voice.

“I mean…that was a long time ago, now. I need to come to grips with this, not keep looking for ways to run away from it, you know?”

Ayn didn’t. While it was true the admin presence had been dwindling rapidly, and getting their help pretty much required a miracle, admin contact booths still stood in the private rooms of every Crawler’s Guild. Trying to contact them only took the effort, and Kayara’s problem was exactly the kind of thing they fixed. Then again, it was hardly her problem to take care of.

“Okay, if that’s what you want,” Ayn said.

Kayara let out a breath as her head drooped back down. “Thanks, and I’m sorry about all the trouble I caused on the last floor.”

“No problem. I can certainly see why. It’s like the place was tailor made to cause you grief.”

“Right? Those floors are supposed to be random, but I swear there was intention behind that one. Probably just unlucky, though. It would hardly be the first time.”

Ayn cocked her head, unsure of whether Kayara was referring to her original life, or her Rebirth one. She didn’t plan to pry either way.

“Regardless,” Kayara said. “I want to get more comfortable around animals, or at least not lock up when I see one.” She paused, as if weighing her words. “Maybe we could start with Miit?”

Ayn smiled. That was the first time she’d heard Kayara call him by name. “Sure. He’s quite friendly, and I know he’d like to be around us more.”

“Yeah. I figured he stuck by you pretty close before I showed up and scared him off. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. You’ve got a good reason.”

Kayara crossed her arms and stared at Ayn from across the table, an unreadable expression on her face.

“What?” Ayn asked.

“I knew you were a unique one.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Kayara rubbed her eyes and stood up. “Anyway, it’s getting late. I’ll…I’ll see you in the morning at the guild, yeah?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” Kayara stared at the plate full of chicken in front of her for a second, then touched the edge. The entire plate vanished. “Tell your mom I’ll return the plate later. No need to waste good food just because I’m not hungry right now.”

“I will.”

Kayara wrung her hands, looking as if she had more to say, then shook her head and walked out, leaving Ayn to wonder how much darkness hid behind her rainbow-colored facade.