Firm: Opal’s Story

I want to take the shadows that are standing around to go help Sapphire at Sue’s place. This body is married to her, so even though I haven’t been to Sue’s before I can just follow the arrow. Onyx gives me a big hug from behind, so I ask her “How do we tell the people that it’s safe to come out of the dungeon, I want to hurry and help Sapphire?” She squeezes me tighter and says “Since we’re in a hurry just refund the dungeon and they’ll all pop out right? You might lose half the Credits you put into it, but does that really matter right now?” I didn’t think about that, so I walk past the elves that have come back out already to help fight, and touch the dungeon’s stairs.

The dungeon entrance disappears and all around people appear. Many of them are still injured and there are even a few zombies, which are quickly taken care of. I guess they got bit before going into the dungeon. After we do a quick count, Sara tells me that probably 8 people died after the dungeon was set up, and 2 elves are now vampires like Ruby. They both have Firm, but each had some part of them ripped off and then their vulnerable insides were bit before being tossed down the stairs. Daria says “Most people died when the zombies first broke in, since almost everyone was sleeping. We’re going to have to rebuild the gate and many of the buildings, but you should go help Aunt Sue, come back after to tell us what happened to Jeff okay.”

I can see she has tears in her eyes, but Onyx speaks up saying “I’m just going to slow you down Opal-mom, I’ll stay here and tell them what happened with Jeff. So hurry up and go save wife-sis.” I nod, since she should be able to buy structures if they’re needed. I then order my shadows to follow me and run towards the arrow for Sapphire.

-POV Daria-

So Jeff died being bit by a zombie while bringing Snow to meet grandma. The story is a bit strange since he told us he’d be staying in Dragon Roost for a week. Sara and I had assumed he’d be trying to use the opportunity to cheat the relationship, like we’d caught him doing a few times already. Our cousins and sisters always told us about his advances and so we just gave them permission to have sex with him. We felt it was an odd desire to have, but he was our boyfriend, so we’d pretend not to notice since he liked it.

I cried when I was in the dungeon by myself. Sure Sara and I were going to break up with him once he got back, since we weren’t interested anymore, but he was still our good friend Jeff. I hope someone else is able to find and kill his zombie, since I don’t think Sara or I could do it. I give aunt Onyx a hug and tell her “Thank you for telling us, I know it’s hard to stay behind to help.” Sara adds “Jeff will be missed by a lot of people in Liberation, but a lot of friends and family died tonight. Can you help me get these human babies into a building somewhere, they might get sick out here in the cold.” I go to help by picking up a baby, but Sara swats my hand and says “Not you Dar, you aren’t allowed to hold babies without Firm anymore remember? Go into the Slob dungeon and grab us a new gate with someone.”

I only dropped the one baby, and she acts like I’ve dropped every baby. I sigh and grab Darius, my brother, before heading to the dungeon. He tells me “Grandma saved me earlier from that acid zombie, she’s so cool. Oh and I’m a vampire now apparently.” I shrug since I don’t know what a vampire is and ask “Are you still fine then? What’s different?” He pats me on the back as we walk and says “I got these neat fangs now and I remember Stephanie telling me she used to read erotic novels about vampires, so I think it might put me ahead of the other guys.” I just shake my head and ask to see his fangs, which he quickly shows me, and they are pretty cool.

We get to the dungeon, and quickly start making our way to the 10^th floor, not bothering to kill the monsters along the way, since we just need the boss door. When we get there I blast the boss a couple times with some lightning, and we start taking the door off its hinges. It doesn’t take us long, since mom taught me how to do it when she first took me into the dungeon. Apparently she had learned it from grandma, who’s the one that got the last gate for Liberation. I don’t know if we would have died too if Sara hadn’t been up feeding the babies and heard the banging on the gate. I remember the previous gate was just weak wood.

I go and check the chest, no reason to waste it. There’s only a shaking rock inside that says

(Vibrating Stone)

I quickly pocket it, since I don’t want Darius to tease me about it. He probably wouldn’t know why I want it though. I’ll make sure to share it with Sara later, since I’m sure she could use it too. I think about how Jeff hadn’t had sex with either of us in a while, and get a bit sad again. Well, we can use the stone until we find a new boyfriend at least.

We each carry a door and exit the dungeon. “Do you think grandma would let me have sex with her? She has a really sexy body.” I giggle a bit and say “Probably, make sure to ask Steph before you ask grandma though.” He responds with “Of course, I know she wouldn’t mind but I’m hoping she’ll take our relationship more seriously in the future, so I have to keep her informed.” I shake my head and tell him “I told you before, I don’t think Aunt Steph is looking for a serious relationship. You and the other guys are trying to get something that’s not there.” She told me that herself after all, but I can’t do anything about my delusional brother.

-POV End-

I come out of the forest and see some wooden walls surrounded by square shaped fields. I don’t see any zombies, and notice Sapphire walking out of the gate with Sue. I run up to them and Sapphire says “Hi mom, Sue’s place didn’t get attacked, but she wants help moving her family to Opal’s Home anyways.” I give Sue a hug since I haven’t seen her in a long time and she says “It’s good to have you back Opal, do you mind if me and my family set up a farm around your fort? If zombies are attacking in the numbers Sapphire said, then there’s no way I’d let my family die over some land.” That makes sense, family is more important than Land, so I tell her “You’re my friend and it will be nice to have you around. Since there aren’t any zombies here to fight, I’ll see if my shadows can help you move stuff.”

It turns out the shadows can’t carry things, or even push things. I know they always killed things by surrounding them and eating, I guess this is why. “We don’t need to move everything now Opal. We’ll come back for stuff tomorrow with helpers.” Sue says and we head off with her and her family to Opal’s Home, surrounded by shadows.

“I think Jessica should be able to defend her camps, but it’s better to be safe. Sue, do you remember how to get to Opal’s Home?” Sapphire asks and Sue answers “Yeah Saf, leave us a few of these creepy shadows and you two go help your sister.” My blue haired daughter gives Sue a hug and turns to me saying “Okay mom, lets hurry, can you leave shadows with Sue just in case?” I don’t know, but I order 20 of the shadows to stay with and protect Sue’s family. I then use my Sentry skill and say “I’ll know if this sentry gets into combat, but I hope you don’t end up needing it.” Sue and her daughters give us more hugs and then I follow Sapphire to Jessica’s place.

-POV Jessica-

I chop off the last zombie leader’s head with my sword, it’s blue glow illuminating my surroundings. We made a mistake thinking the zombies would only ever attack during the day. I had thought with their damaged eyes they couldn’t see in a dark environment. I also made a mistake in trying to maintain extra camps, perhaps if they had different options for structures it would have been a viable idea. They were all orc camps though, and so their options were all almost exactly the same. What we need is a few forts and camps, but much closer than the current ones.

Due to proper planning we were able to evacuate the other camps, but distance is a major issue if there are going to be more attacks like this. Opal’s Home and Ruby’s Rest are the obvious choices for a central location, perhaps we could place a camp between them, since they will be easier to defend with their large walls. I got news that mother and sisters made it out of the dungeon safe, and I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

I cancel the shield skill making up my sword, and walk back to my camp and through the barrier skill I used to cover it. The Special class I got from having all of my classes in the 5^th tier has been immensely useful. I can do so much more with my shields and barriers now, I remember when I first started picking barrier classes. I had to cover for my weakness of not having Firm like my siblings, and turned my shields and barriers into a way to protect not just myself, but my family as well.

Once I reach 6^th tier I feel confident that we’ll be able to take out the Plague Spawners, and maybe even the Plague Citadel. I know mom, and she’s probably leveling in a dungeon, getting ready to come help me. I haven’t seen Sapphire in a while, but knowing her, she’s probably gotten behind in her leveling, since she’s lazy. Now that they’ve all made it safely out of the dungeon, the area should be much easier to keep safe. I’ll just have to wait for them to catch up a bit.

“Jessica!” I hear from my side and turn to see mom running towards me with her arms wide. I put up a barrier around my skin just in case it’s some sort of zombie illusion, or in case it’s mom and she forgets I don’t have Firm. I open my arms for her and she stops right in front of me, softly wraping me in a hug. She’s very gentle and says “I missed you baby, are you okay? Zombies have been attacking all of the camps and I was worried about my squishy daughter.” I smile since this is definitely mom. Hugging her firmly back I say “I’m fine mom, I missed you so much, and I’m glad you were able to make it back.”

I see shadows spreading out around the camp and see my sister running towards us. The shadows are probably mom’s since I remember her shadowy tendrils from when we took Liberation. The warning skills I placed down also don’t see them as hostiles, so they must be from an ally. “Did you have any zombies attack here, Sapphire told me you’d be fine probably, but there are still a lot of zombies left attacking Ruby’s place.” Mom asks and I feel a kiss on my forehead, while my eyes start to water. I really missed mom’s hugs a lot. I tell them “We had an attack here, but it’s been cleared. I plan on setting up a camp between the two forts, since camps this far out are unsustainable with this level of attack. We’ll wait till the sun comes up and temporarily move to Opal’s Home while we build the new camp.”

I feel mom squeeze me more as she says “I’ll leave these shadows here to help just in case. There’s a zombie near Ruby’s Rest that gets rid of them too easily and the other places are already safe. They should disappear when the fight there is finished,” It’s a decent idea, but I shake my head and tell her “We don’t need the help here, I think we should prioritize helping the human camps, Safety in particular has strategic value, and is poorly defended. I’ll take you there, since my sisters and daughters will be enough to defend this place now.” If we can properly utilize the Necromancer class Cindy found, then it will make the defense of the area much easier, I just hope she’s still okay.

-POV End-