Chapter 26: Being A Gamer Is All About Having Fun


"There you go, beautiful. You're a good one, aren't you?" I cooed.

The Halla grunted softly.

"Yes, that's it! She's calming down"

I continued making soothing sounds long enough for Elora to approach and examine the animal.

"Ah, I see. It is her life-mate who is sick, not her. He was bitten during the attack, and she fears greatly for him. I did not realize another Halla was injured. This will allow me to prevent the sickness from spreading to the entire herd. Ma serannas… thank you. You've done my clan a great boon this day"

I smiled at Elora, accepting her gratitude, and with the job done, bid her goodbye.

If I haven't said this before, I'm saying it now. Survival is the best.

It hadn't been long since we arrived at the Dalish camp. We'd been greeted but the one in charge and then quickly decided what to do next, which was to go investigate the threat that prevented them from aiding us first thing tomorrow morning. Because we are efficient as hell.

After resupplying at the merchant, we'd all gone our separate ways. Got some new gloves, boots and armor for Kallian and Zevran, giving them both a Dalish fashionista sort of flair. It was only fair we invested in them, considering I'd gotten new clothes at the Tower and, somewhere during the time I was grieving, Alistair had gotten a new Veridium Heavy Plate Armor and Morrigan a pair of Cinderfel Gauntlets.

Anyway, I assumed the others would stumble upon a quest or two, and figured I'd do my part with Elora's Halla. I recalled one needed the skill Survival or else Coercion to help her out in the game. I had both, so I gave it a shot.

Afterwards, I found myself an out-of-the-way spot to sit, and observed the camp around me. Elves of all shapes and sizes bustled around, working and socializing. It was really cool, seeing this completely new -to me- culture. Sure, you kinda learned how Dalish elves lived in the game, but seeing it was a completely different experience.

And this group in particular seemed so… free. They'd been so welcoming; downright warm to Kallian. To everyone in our group, really.

That's what worried me the most.

I was 99% sure the Dalish weren't this open to the Wardens in the game. Actually, they hadn't been when we arrived earlier today. The gatekeeper had been suitably suspicious. But that changed as soon as we met Lanaya, the clan's First. She heard we were Gray Wardens and immediately extended her cordial greetings. She explained the situation after Kallian requested their aid against the darkspawn and offered for us to stay in heartfelt thanks when she agreed to think about it, after which, the rest of the clan followed her lead.

Obviously, the alarms in my head went off. Because I was 100% sure we were supposed to meet the Keeper of this clan, which I distinctly remembered because he looked like a failed Solas. Also, because the whole mess with the werewolves was his responsibility in the first place.

The difference was jarring.

Ah, not between the Keeper and Solas, but between the game and reality.

Why wasn't the Keeper here? Why was Lanaya so accommodating?

We were told the Keeper had gone to investigate on his own, to try and find a cure to lycanthropy in a brave attempt to save his clan. But he should know how to save it, given his involvement with the curse in the first place. Maybe he went to bargain with the Lady of the Forest? Was our timing the cause? And maybe without the Keeper to keep things balanced, Lanaya's own personal opinion carried more weight. Even in the game she was the easier to deal with of the two.

I frowned, thinking hard about what that might mean until my head hurt. Hah. Was I thinking too much about this? There was also the thing about when Zevran was supposed to appear, which was different to what I remembered, so this could be like that.

After a few minutes of drawing blanks, I gave up. If I hadn't come up with anything by now, I probably wouldn't until I had some other piece to this puzzle. Bah, I was a little paranoid by nature. Then again, if this was the real deal and I brushed it off by calling myself paranoid…

I rolled my eyes. See? I did it again. Enough. I'd keep an eye out and be content with that.

Now then, moving on to more exiting news…

Hehe. You wanna know? You do, right?

Hehehehe.

That's right folks, this mage is now level 10! Woot!

The last time I leveled up had been back in Redcliffe. At that time, I was in no position to properly enjoy it, so now I basked in my success. I finally hit the double digits! To top it off, I was very close to where you got the Arcane Warrior specialization, and as of level 7, I was ready and raring to get one.

But for now, I did the thing.

You know, the thing I've been wanting to do for a while now.

I opened my spell screen and reverently chose my spell.

Which one? Well, of course it was Glyph of Repulsion!

Finally, the best crowd control spell in the game was mine.

I giggled to myself, feeling downright giddy.

"What are you doing?"

I looked up, startled. Alistair looked down at me with an amused smile.

I opened my mouth to explain, then stopped. Thought about it. Opened my mouth again.

"I don't know what to say"

He gave me a weird look, then sat down beside me. I moved over to give him room.

"You were giggling to yourself" he pointed out.

"Um… yeah, okay. I can see how that would seem weird"

"What– oh!" He leaned closer to my ear "Is that normal in your world?"

Eek "Nope. I mean, not particularly. I mean, what is normal, really?"

By Al's looks, I was doing nothing to help keep my reputation as a sane person.

Okay, take two.

"Remember the abilities I have that I told you guys about?"

"You mean like the thing where you make your stuff appear out of thin air?"

"Yup. See, when someone from my world goes through Thedas story, they have a few things they can do to take control of it, to an extent"

Alistair nodded "Still cant wrap my head about it. But yes, you told me this before"

"Well the way to do it is through a… er, a screen? That doesn't make sense to you, huh? Um, like an unfolded piece of velum paper in the space in front of you. One you can only see but not touch"

Alistair scratched the back of his head "Alright"

I laughed "You sure?"

He raised an eyebrow at me "I'll admit I've never heard anything like this before, but at least I'm trying to understand, aren't I?"

"Sorry, you're right. Well the thing is I can see that same screen right now. No idea why, before you ask, but those abilities I mentioned are based on the game"

He frowned, and I could almost see smoke coming out of his ears. You can do it, buddy.

"Game?" he finally said.

Nope, didn't screw up this time. I let it slip on purpose. It had gone well with Kallian, so I thought it might go well with Al too. He was probably the most easy-going member of the group. More so than Zevran, who was easy-going in a whole different sense.

So I explained the concept of a role-playing game the same way I'd explained it to Kallian.

"So you've really lived through all of this already" he said after a while.

"In a way. You didn't believe me?"

"I did, but I think it just finally sunk in" he glanced at me "So you knew me as a game character"

I winced "…Yeah. I got to interact with you and everyone else too. But its not like I could talk to you about whatever I wanted. I had only so much conversations available and a few choice answers to pick from–"

"Wait" he said. And only in that moment did I realize how well he was taking this. Up until now, he'd been confused, but took everything in stride. And kept asking questions in an attempt to better understand. But in what came next, I saw some actual anger, and maybe a little bit of fear "Have we had conversations like I was a character in your game? You– have you given me… calculated answers? Things you learned from your game?"

I blinked "I– no. Ah well, except that comment about your mother being a bitch back on our first time in Redcliffe. I stole that line from the game. But! It was too good to pass… I mean, other than that I may have given you calculated answers in the sense that I thought about what effect my words were going to have. But its not like I was being fake with you guys. Just, manipulative in a way that benefits us all, you know?"

He gaped at me, both eyebrows raised "Manipulative in a good way?"

"Yeah, like when I snapped at you for assuming I wanted to hurt you. I knew you were a good one and wanted to get that hostility out of the way sooner to see if we could get along. And see? It benefits us both… and, um, its not like I chose for you… just presented the possibility of you being unfair and then letting you do what you thought best–"

I was interrupted from my ramblings when Alistair threw his head back in a bark of a laugh.

Okay. So he was laughing. It sounded mirthful enough. That was good, right?

"Uh… Al?"

"You admit to manipulating me, and then claim its for my own benefit" he said, still chuckling "And with no shame at all"

Wait, so he wasn't mad? And was he laughing at me?

"Of course, manipulating someone efficiently means that even if the other person finds out, they'll still want to do as you tell them too simply because they've come to realize its in their best interests"

"I suppose you think becoming friends with you is in my best interests"

I blushed "I– well–"

He burst out laughing again "No, if its like that, feel free to manipulate me anytime"

Okay he was definitely making fun of me.

Can't have that, now, can we?

I smiled slightly and looked up at him through my eyelashes once he calmed down enough "So its fine, hmm? Don't worry, I'll be sure you enjoy it next time I manipulate you"

He went beet red. Score for me. The innuendo was a bit heavier than my usual jokes but he brought it onto himself.

Sorry Al, I like teasing rather than being teased.

Something occurred to me as he was trying to regain his composure.

"Hey do you wanna help me with my stats?"

He blinked, still flushed, and looked at me suspiciously "Your what?"

I grinned "The game abilities we were talking about before. The system included numeric values to track your progress in terms of power, which you can mani– arrange in a way that best suits you. And I have that too. It's the whole reason I've somehow managed to keep up with you despite having no combat experience until a few months ago"

I proceeded to explain my stats and what each of them stood for. Alistair did an admirable job of keeping up with the information dump, asking questions here and there. I ended up drawing a chart of my stats with a stick on the ground. Once he grasped the concept, other explanations such as attribute, skill and spell points and level ups went smoothly.

"So you already invested a point to buy a glyph spell?" He asked excitedly.

"Correct" More or less.

"And you have no skill points this time, because you're on level 10, and you only get those every third level. But you get three attribute points with each one. Where will you put them?"

Well, Alistair Theirin had the soul of a gamer. How 'bout that.

We bounced ideas off each other. Honestly, it was super fun. It'd been a while since I did this for obvious reasons, but the gamer in me was delighted. While a full immersive RPG was any gamer's dream, it was difficult for me to separate my gaming system from my current reality. But I'll be damned if I didn't take the fun whenever I could.

In the end, I spent all six attribute point I'd been saving up, which made my stats look like this.

HP: 136 MP: 229

Attributes (-)

Strength 12

Dexterity 10

Willpower 22

Magic 30

Cunning 18

Constitution 15

Alistair and I agreed on upping Magic and Willpower. So I ended up spending three points in the former and two in the in the second one. But then he thought I should also put the remaining one in Constitution. I was tempted, as more health points meant better chance at survival. But in the end I went with Willpower again. I was part of a team, after all, and it was his job, not mine, to be the meat shield. Better to keep my mana running and keep firing spells. When I told him that, Al looked suitably indignant, but I think he was secretly happy at being relied on. Might be wishful thinking though.

Besides, if my plan to become a neigh invulnerable Arcane Warrior worked out, keeping up my sustainables was a more important job than having high Hp.

By the by, my spell collection was also looking pretty dandy.

Spells (-)

Arcane

.

Primal

Flame Blast. Flaming Weapons

Rock Armor

Creation

Heal

Spell Wisp. Grease

Glyph of Paralysis. Glyph of Warding. Glyph of Repulsion

Spirit

Walking Bomb

Mind Blast. Force Shield

Entropy

.

"I have a thought. I was a character in your game, right? With stats and everything. What if you could see mine too? Can't you just… take out your velum and take a peak? I wont mind, wouldn't be the first time someone judged my skills. And hey, maybe this time it'll be fair"

"Fair? Why? What happened?"

"Oh, you know. The Chantry evaluates you from time to time, to see if you're making the cut as a proper Templar-in-training. I always did well on the physical trials, mind you. It was the Chantry teachings themselves that proofed a challenge"

"Ah well, I'm sure anyone would have a hard time learning something when they don't even believe in it"

"Oh no. I meant a challenge for them" he laughed "They would always dread it when it was my turn to take the test. I would always butcher up the the Chant in some way. I remember this one time, I was very young, you need to understand, and I was chanting a verse in front of the Revered Mother -that's the one in charge of the particular Chantry I was sent to. She along with other sisters and brothers were testing a bunch of us to see how far we'd come in memorizing it. So my turn came and I was reciting it how I remembered it when I heard a snicker from someone behind the Mother. Turns out, I'd been saying 'impotent' instead of 'omnipotent' and I'd been too focused to notice the Mother giving me the death glare"

I snorted a laugh, thinking of a young Al calling the God of this world impotent.

"Anyway, she about lost it when one of the brothers laughed at 'And the Maker, impotent beyond all reckoning, would only come to those who serve him until dawn'"

I lost it then, too. Oh my God, Alistair.

After we'd calmed down, I went back to his previous question.

"I don't think I can. I've tired calling the command to activate it but either I simply don't have that function or I've got the command… wrong"

I frowned in thought.

Hang on. What if…

But no. I'd thought and said the word party plenty of times before, and nothing like character change or party change did the trick either.

Still, Al looked so exited I couldn't help but give it another shot.

"Fine. Um… Party Selection. Character Selection. Gather Your Party." Uh…"Switch Characters. Change Characters. Change Party. Change–"

Suddenly, a small medal like thing with four circles appeared before me, forming a diamond. The lower one and the two from both sides were black. The one on top had a picture of me.

I gaped.

Well, I'll be. It worked.

"Did it work?" Alistair asked hopefully.

"I… I think so. Hang on"

Feeling awkward, I focused on the left circle "Alistair"

"Yes"

His face appeared in the circle.

I pressed my lips together, looking at him wide eyed, then split them in a toothy grin. Did I do that? Did he say 'yes' because I selected him? If I removed him from the party, would he yell Blast and damnation!

Man, I reaaally wanted him to.

He didn't when I tried it though. Too bad.

After that, I added him again. I could see his character record.

Oh my GOSH! I could see his stats! How COOL was that?!

When I told him, he all but fangirled with me about it.

I guess that goes to show there were plenty of things yet to learn about my gaming system.

The thought brought a smile to my face.

"What's going on here?" Kallian asked as she approached alongside Zevran.

I'd seen them both walking around camp, Kallian talking to him animatedly while pointing to nearly everything around them. Zevran seemed content to indulge her, but her enthusiasm was obviously contagious, cause after a while, when they came within sight again, he was the one excitedly talking to Kallian. Guess being the only elves in the group made this experience somewhat special for them… or more like, to Kallian, whose good vibes likely affected the cool-headed assassin after a time.

By the way, the rest of our companions were all over the place. I could see Wynne and Morrigan discussing some book sold by the camp merchant -would have to ask later. If it was a magic book I wanted in on it-. And a while ago, I'd seen Leliana giggle at a stone-faced Sten who I think -I think- had been scratching Scout's tummy.

What I wouldn't give to hear that girl call him softie.

Pfft.

But back to the present, Alistair and I grinned at each other at Kallian's questioning gaze.

"You have got to see this"

And so, we spent the couple of hours left of sunlight playing with the system. The foreboding feeling from before all but forgotten in the presence of fun.

Tomorrow we woke up at dawn.


Hope you liked the chapter! I planned to move on a bit with the quest itself but got caught up in the dialogue, so sorry to those who wanted to get on with it. Next chapter, though. For sure.

Thanks for reading!