The Totem Attunement

Patience was running out of it. When she decided to try and tame this beautiful, long-feathered, pink avian of The Swamp, she expected it to be quick. She had been waiting on the bird now for fifteen minutes and didn't have much more time to waste. It had hopped closer and closer but was very timid and soon she would be forced to come back for it later, if at all. 

The bird hopped closer, now less than a foot from the pile of seed and herbs she'd poured on the rock. It was a specially mixed concoction that would first put the bird to sleep and then allow her to channel the spiritual connection between the two of them and cement the taming. She had used the last of her torparia, the herb that would lull the creature to sleep, so this was the only chance she'd have.

It finally closed the distance to the feed and started to peck at it, timid at first but then voracious. Once the majority of the feed was gone to be sure the spell would take; it was always hard to gauge with smaller creatures, on top of which the taming process wasn't exact anyway. It was, in her opinion, one of the more egregious failings of the game, one the developers had been promising to fix since launch five years prior. Two expansions down the road and it hadn't been so much as tweaked. In their defense, with no class built around the mechanic it wasn't very popular anyway. Even her guild mates had never bothered with it but Patience liked the little menagerie she had collected.

The bird was pecking sluggishly now, bright blue eyes half closed, fighting sleep as best it could. "Sleep tight, Peaches," she whispered. The taming spell required you to have a name chosen prior to channeling, and though she had been given plenty of time to mull it over she wasn't entirely satisfied with her choice. With the clock ticking, it would have to do.

Peaches' eyes closed and it hunkered down, then unceremoniously fell over off the rock and into the standing water, limp and unconscious. Patience crept forward through her hiding place in the tall grass, trying her best not to splash too much. Her boots were soaked through and felt three times their weight. She loathed having wet feet but it would all be worth it for the bird. It was a rarity, specific to The Swamp, which was most of the reason she had jumped on the opportunity when it first caught her eye. When she finished this quest line and finally attuned, it would be the first thing she'd show her guild mates. Right after they forked over her winnings.

She was about halfway to the bird when disaster struck in the form of a hungry alligator. It too had been eying the bird, as oblivious to Patience as she was to it, and was making its move from a much closer vantage point. With lightning speed and crushing strength, it snatched the bird and swallowed it in one bite. Satisfied, it receded back into the murky water from which it had sprung to wait for more prey.

Patience groaned in frustration. Flocks of nearby birds scattered and unseen amphibians hopped into the water with a smattering of wet plunks. Normally she would've kept more quiet but everything in this zone was too low level to attack her outright, even the alligators, so she let the frustration wash over her. "Waste of my time," she grumbled, trudging to the walkway made of old wooden planks. It ran the length of The Swamp, splintering off for access to different areas, and was in such disrepair that most of it sank into the water under any weight and large portions were missing entirely.

The swamp, to say the least, was not her favorite place in the game.

A request for voice chat, in the form of a little purple exclamation mark, pinged her Heads Up Display with a username underneath: The_Chloser. Patience accepted the invite and a narrow audio bar popped up in the lower right corner of her HUD.

"You make it to Spires yet?" The voice was filtered through something that made it sound as if it were coming from a walkie talkie; Chloe felt it contributed to her style.

"No, I just wasted fifteen minutes trying to tame a bird," Patience said. "I should be heading there soon, just need to grab the totem."

"You spent fifteen minutes trying to tame a bird?"

"I spent fifteen minutes wasting my time."

"At least you can be honest with yourself. I didn't realize 15,000 gold was such a pittance. I'll make sure to tell Sam and Kris you're Aunt Moneybags so they can hit you up next time they have repair bills."

Patience huffed and shoved some low hanging branches out of the way. The swamp was filled with overgrown willow trees. Long-dead logs and piles of branches dotted the water's surface throughout the zone. The hanging overgrowth made it difficult to see clearly more than a few dozen feet ahead. "Please don't, I don't need more sass from Sam."

"Imagine having to live with him," Chloe said. "Don't worry too much. I missed my target so I'm here for at least another 30 and Kris has to hike across two zones because he somehow lost his mount. Last I heard, Sam was making headway but still lagging behind after he went radio silent. Still won't respond to my pings."

"Maybe he's trying to focus?" Chloe mocked her in a nasally voice and Patience smiled. "You can't blame him. It's a lot of money."

"I can and will. He knows I like to keep tabs on everyone, he's just doing it to be a brat."

Patience laughed and ducked under another heavy branch. A building was peaking through the tangles far ahead but the foliage and distance made it had to tell much else.

"Totem time.”

"Roger, keep me updated," Chloe said, and the audio bar winked out.

When the quest text had referred to her destination as a Hermitage she hadn't expected much, especially since it was in The Swamp, but it still managed to undercut her low expectations. This place was barely a shack. It was made of dark, rotting wood that looked like it would snap with a stiff wind, standing on risers a couple of feet above water level. There were no proper windows, just one square hole in the wall that she could see. A half-destroyed, leaning brick chimney peaked above the angle of the roof from the opposite side. No smoke was a good sign. In the game, chimneys acted as visual shorthand: If a building was occupied its chimney would always billow smoke and if it was unoccupied it would always be still.

The door was made of the same wood as the rest of the shack and had no latch, swinging inward freely at the gentlest touch. Patience tiptoed over the threshold and was immediately thrust into dank, stinking darkness. She winced and put her wrist over her nose; there was definitely a pile of rotting carcasses in here somewhere. The stench of death clung to the air and convulsed her stomach. With a thought she opened the settings menu on her HUD and disabled the olfactory options on her VR suit. It was a nice feature to have for the sake of immersion but she didn't take the game that seriously. The development studio, CV Entertainment, spent a lot of time on perfecting their sensory feedback and some players, unlike Patience, were die hards; they'd refuse to turn any of the senses off, even during battle. It helped that damage taken was rendered more as a gentle shock than true pain.

Her eyes began to adjust and a room of shelves faded into view. They were lined with all sorts of items: Body parts suspended in liquid-filled jars; knickknacks in styles reminiscent of distant zones; even bleached skulls. At the far end of the room was the base of the chimney flanked by two rooms. A bulbous black cauldron sat inside on top of old ashes and bits of charred wood.

Patience took her time perusing the shelves, looking for anything good to loot. She wasn't expecting much given the state of things, so when she came across a jar filled to the brim with torparia she couldn't stifle a gleeful squeak. It was a rare herb; finding this much in one spot, especially for an herbalist like herself, was like winning a lottery. There was far more than she had space to carry so she refilled the sack she'd emptied trying to tame the bird and replaced the jar.

Like any good herbalist she had close to 20 pouches slung off her belt, each containing a different plant or mineral that could be used to craft all sorts of medicines, poisons, and oils. She had intended to store the majority in her vault before heading out here but had forgotten. She had been thanking herself for being so scatterbrained while mixing the taming feed but now she regretted it. Finding the cauldron empty and nothing else of note on the shelves, she entered the room to the left of the hearth.

This was the source of the stench. It was very small and one corner of the floor was completely removed. It apparently served as scrap disposal judging by the bones poking up through the still murk below. A butchering table stood nearby, laden with a what she assumed was the middle section of an alligator, partially butchered and almost certainly spoiled. Blood stains covered the table and the floor. She considered checking the carcass for hidden loot, it wouldn't be the first time CV had hidden good stuff in disgusting places, but decided against it. Instead she backtracked and went through the other mystery doorway. The clock was ticking and she doubted they'd hide a quest item in a carcass.

This room was a little more spacious that the butchery but not by much. Three corners were taken up by beds: short wooden frames covered with thin reed mats and even thinner linen blankets. The fourth corner had a single dresser with three drawers, the perfect place to hide a small trinket like the totem she was after. The top two drawers gave no joy, but the bottom was a winner, the palm-sized totem its only occupant. Dark gray and worn, it must have been chiseled judging by the ridges, but it was so old they were well on their way to being rubbed smooth. It looked to be some sort of coiled beast but the head had been snapped off so she had no way to identify the species. Eager to be on her way and ever-closer to the 15,000, she dropped the totem into a pocket of her sirwal and made to leave.

To her surprise she was no longer alone in the shack. Two women had entered while she was snooping. One was rail thin, bony and hunched with sparse, wiry hair. She was also missing an eye and three fingers on one hand. The other was much beefier with pale, mottled skin, and a large wart on her forehead. Instead of a left leg she had a wooden peg from the mid-thigh down. Both wore ill-fitting, moth-eaten rags and were presumably the inhabitants of this hovel. Peg-leg spoke with a voice like nails through a grinder.

"Did you find what you were searching for, deary?"

"I'm so sorry," Patience lied. "I thought this building was abandoned."

Bony snorted. "I tell them all the time we need to glamour this pit."

Peg-leg shushed her. "Here to make off with our trinkets, then?"

"No, not at all, I was just exploring the swamp and your home looked like an exciting place to visit." The women cackled and that confirmed Patience's suspicions: these were witches, one shy of a full coven.

"Exciting!" Bony wiped a tear from her eye with a crooked, long-nailed finger. "Oh dear, oh my that's exceptional." She looked to Peg-leg with wide eyes, repeated the words, and the two cackled again.

"No need to lie to us, pretty," Peg-leg said. "At least not so boldly. No one explores this far into the swamp; the gators are bigger than I am and even powerful magic can't keep all the mosquitoes away." Her face twisted into a menacing grin. "Besides, we don't much like liars."

Patience didn't have high hopes of getting out of this without confrontation. Fighting wasn't her favorite thing, but she had her scimitar and shield for a reason. They were relics to her at this point, loot gained ages ago that other players at her level would have scrapped without a second thought, but they held sentimental value. The scimitar did, at least; it had saved her skin numerous times with its magical bonuses and effects. Her shield was much more simple but had a high durability rating which made it very reliable and kept her repair bills down.

Regardless, she preferred to avoid conflict where possible, and given she wasn't squaring off with a full coven she at least had a chance of talking her way out of this. "I apologize, you're right," Patience said. Peg-leg broke from the conversation and began to peruse the shelves, clunking loudly with every other step. "I did come looking for loot, but I promise I haven't taken anything."

Bony tapped the side of her empty eye socket. "I have the means to see without eyes, deary. You have one of my sister's items there in the pocket of those wonderful pants." Patience decided against correcting her.

"Some of our precious torparia has gone missing, sister," Peg-leg said, inspecting the jar before turning back around. "Do you know why we keep so much on hand?"

"I would imagine powerful witches like yourselves could find any number of uses for it in potions or tinctures or even as a spice."

"As a spice?" Bony asked, eyes wide with genuine surprise. She looked to her sister, "Why did we never think of that?"

Peg-leg ignored her. "Without it my sisters and I could not catch a single wink of sleep. Part and parcel with the profession, I'm afraid. Wakefulness is an unfortunate side effect of the many components we handle for our spells."

"I do love to dream," Bony said wistfully.

Patience needed to get out of here. She was wasting precious seconds jabbering with these two. "You've got me on the totem but I didn't touch the torparia. I do really need this though, and I'd rather we not escalate things."

That horrible smile cracked open Peg-leg's face again and she took a few clunky steps toward her. "Oh, deary, you should know better than to threaten a witch."

"Much less two," Bony said.

"Did you not just say we were, 'Powerful Witches'?" Peg-leg stopped a few steps short and stared with a hungry glint in her eyes. "Thieves don't get to leave," Peg-leg said. "Least not in one piece." Then the sisters came at her, arms up and teeth gnashing, hungry for their pound of flesh.

In a fluid movement Patience side-stepped, ducked, and twirled past the witches. Before either sister could turn Patience was already pushing through the door. She made it one step over the threshold and was slapped down by a hand as big as her head. The hit was so powerful it lifted her off her feet and sent her sprawling in the mud. The shock from the VR suit made her cheek throb and she quickly turned her pain settings off as well. She rolled onto her back to see what had hit her.

Regal was the first word that came to her mind. Her attacker was a towering, beautiful woman in red, standing with both hands clasped in front of her and impeccable posture. She wore a flowing gown that was terrifically out of place in the swamp; she looked like she would be more at home in a ballroom or at court, presiding over the petty squabbles of peasants and nobility alike. Though the hem dragged along the ground it seemed to repel all muck, grime, and water, leaving it as dry and spotless as the day it was sewn. Her wavy black hair, hanging far past her shoulders, framed a face both pore-less and unblemished, accented with a large and slightly crooked nose.

"My sisters, may I ask what you have brought to our doorstep this afternoon?" Regal said as the other two came out of the hut.

"We didn't bring her here, she brought herself," Peg-leg said.

Bony pointed a finger at Patience for emphasis. "A thief!"

Regal leaned forward, peering at Patience more closely. "Is that true? Are you a thief?"

It was then that the severity of the situation collapsed on Patience. This was obviously the missing sister witch, completing the coven's triad. Her scimitar and shield would be little help against a full coven, not if she was by herself; with their combined power they could rattle off a few words and squish her into the swamp like a swatted mosquito. She would lose everything but her sirwal and bandeau; even her boots would go, thanks to the minor speed bonus they gave her. She could return and try to reclaim it all but she would still have to defeat the coven.

"Have my dear sisters already cut out your tongue?" Regal asked, bemused.

"We were just about to sit down to a meal," Peg-leg said with hungry eyes.

"Quiet, now. Let our visitor speak." Peg-leg crossed her arms and furrowed her brow but remained silent.

"Your sisters are right, I did take something that wasn't mine," Patience said, hoping they would take pity on her if she came clean.

"You didn't take something," Peg-leg said in frustration, "you stole it!"

Regal straightened up and turned to loom over her sister. Patience was still a little dizzy from the slap but she could have sworn the swamp dimmed. "I will not tell you to be silent again." Bony stifled a chuckle and Peg-leg's face turned red. She nodded and glared at Bony, shoving her with an elbow.

Regal turned back to Patience. "What is it you have taken?"

Patience pulled the totem from her pocket and loosed the sack of torparia from her belt. "This trinket and a bit of sleeping herb. If you'll allow it I would return both and be on my way." Patience had written off the 15,000 gold at this point. Once her guild mates had attuned they would all come back here, lay waste to the coven, then finish her own attunement quest.

Regal tutted and placed one hand gracefully on her chin. "That seems an unfair trade, doesn't it? You invaded our home and took our things and we are to simply let you return what you've taken and go free? No, as in all things there must be repercussions. Balance." Regal's eyes drifted down to the hilt of Patience's blade. "What is it you have there?"

Patience turned, moving the weapon out of Regal's sight. "A simple blade for cutting through the swamp, nothing of note. I'm sorry, I travel light so I don't have much to trade. Perhaps you could use some curatives? I'm a healer by trade so I try to stay stocked on the necessities, plus a few rarer specimens." She made a big show of the many sacks around her belt but Regal remained uninterested.

"No one has use for a liar, dear. Let me see the blade." Regal beckoned with one finger and before Patience could stop herself she was handing over her scimitar, compelled by the witch's magic.

Regal's tested its balance, gave it a few swings, sliced the edge along one finger. Blood oozed for a moment then went right back in, the cut healing over with no trace in an instant. Satisfied, she rested it on her palms and raised it to her nose, taking a deep, long breath. "The aura...sisters, do you smell it too?" Peg-leg and bony eagerly agreed and Regal rolled her eyes. "There is barely room here from one liar, let us not make it three. Come up out of the mud." She beckoned again and Patience was lifted into a standing position by unseen hands. "Ancient power imbues this weapon. The steel reeks of the forgotten fires from which it was forged and the blood it has spilled, more than could be spilled in one lifetime. You will keep what you have taken from us and we will keep this blade. That is a fair trade."

Patience went to protest but Peg-leg beat her to it. "What she took belongs to me! She needs to give it back and if she will not then we must take it back!"

Regal swung her hand backward with astonishing speed, catching her sister in the cheek and sending her to the ground. "You had your warning," she said and returned her attention to Patience. "Leave this place and never return or you will face the full wrath of this coven. I don't expect a frail creature like yourself would fair well."

"Please, let me offer you..." Patience was drawing a blank on anything she could possibly offer the witches that would entice them more than the scimitar, so she went with a desperate measure. "...my shield!" She unslung the metal, mud-covered disk from her back and wiped it clean as best she could. It was a simple, circular shield with little adornment save for the emblem of her monastic order on the center. "It has protected me through many encounters and it means a great deal to me," she lied.

Regal smirked and tilted her head. "This sword is quite powerful. What contrast does your shield boast?"

"Well like I said, it's very good at protecting." Patience had never been great at talking her way out of things. She preferred solving puzzles at her own pace with less pressure. "It also has a special coating to prevent corrosion." This was technically true, and the coating was high quality, but it wasn't magical in any way. It was just an oil she had to reapply every few days, which of course she did not have with her. Regal only stared at her.

"My dear, our trade has been made. I don't need to hold that shield to know it is adventurer trash. In truth, given the quality of this weapon, I'm surprised at its plainness." Regal beckoned her sisters to come with her and the three made for the door. "We do not want your shield. We will have this blade, you will be on your way, and I will not be repeating myself." Before Patience could offer any further protest the witches had disappeared into their home, leaving her alone in her despondence, covered in the smelly filth of The Swamp.

After walking for a short time Patience found a flat rock beneath a willow to sit and rest on. She resented herself for carrying so little but moreso for never bothering to upgrade her shield. If she had just spent a little money she could be on her way toward 15,000 gold right now, but instead she'd spent it all on potions instead of just making them herself. Her laziness had stolen her only protection. She pinged Chloe looking for some sympathy.

"Looking for your cash, moneybags?" Chloe asked.

"I lost my scimitar."

"What? Did someone gank you?"

"No, it was witches."

Chloe was silent for a long beat. "Okay?"

"There was a whole coven."

"And you didn't ask for help because...?"

"You're all busy trying to win the bet," Patience whined.

"It's a bet, not a blood oath, Pat." Chloe sighed. "Sorry you lost it. I've got some blades in my vault, you can have your pick."

"Plasma swords don't mesh with my aesthetic." Because the game was so detailed players tended to craft their appearance with great care, and CV catered to it. Most items had dozens of variants you could find to match your style: horror, fantasy, steampunk, anything you wanted as long as it was reasonably well known.

“My sci-fi stuff is all stealth and firearms so don't worry about your 'aesthetic', picky bitch. I have plenty of fantasy swords."

"But they won't be my scimitar."

Chloe sighed over the sound of shuffling papers. "Keep moping like that and I'll keep all my garbage to myself. I have a map of The Swamp with me, I can get you to a Fountain."

Patience perked up. "I don't have anything to mark the positioning sigil, though."

"If you just carried flares like me you wouldn't have this problem. Find something."

She frantically patted her pockets, knowing she had nothing. For a fleeting moment she considered outlining the shape with poured herbs but it wouldn't work; the marking substance had to be cohesive or the heat would break the shape before the spell could cast. She kicked at the water in frustration and her foot stuck in the mud. A realization struck her and she made a face. "Ugh, gross."

"What?" Chloe asked.

"Hold on." After a few tries Patience was able to yank her boot free. She bent down and scooped up a large handful of swamp goop. Using her free hand she marked the swooping sigil on the rock. "Incoming." She placed her hand on top of the design and rattled off a few mystic words. The wind picked up around her and the sigil began to glow like a hot coil of iron. With a flash it dried instantly, blowing away with the final gusts of wind. Patience frowned, fearing the worst. "Did you get that?"

"Do you have a compass?"

"You know damn well I don't have a compass, Chloe."

"Oh I'm sorry I forgot you don't carry basic survival equipment. You need to go straight east. Clock's ticking. Run."

Patience had a means of telling direction, it just wasn't high-tech like everything Chloe used. She glanced up, straining to see the sun through the thick canopy. It was more a guess than anything, but she went with her gut and bolted. "Hope this is east," she mumbled to herself.

"Look at the damn sun!"

"I did," Patience shouted, "there's trees!" She barreled through the swamp, running blind and shouldering through low hanging branches as best she could. The water grew more shallow as she progressed, eventually turning into slippery mud and then mostly dry land. She could see a clearing up ahead peaking through the leaves and in her moment of elation she tripped over a fallen log. She turned the trip into a roll, popping back up and bursting through the edge of the clearing.

The Fountain sat in the center of the clearing, glimmering white in the unobstructed sun. A dome of dark blue water cascaded out from the verticalspout, shrouding its workings in a shimmer curtain. The water fell into its low-walled reservoir with a much gentler sound than one would expect given the apparent volume of water falling. Fountains were a means for players to travel quickly between zones; as a player leveled they tended to use these less and less, relying instead on teleportation items or mounts. Patience had no mount of her own; she spent so much time around her guild mates she could always depend on riding shotgun in one of theirs. She'd even grabbed a ride with Kris to the edge of The Swamp. She hadn't needed to use a Fountain in ages and the sight of one now, in her moment of need, filled her with renewed vigor.

It was a bad idea to rush through a Fountain's curtain but she didn't have time to slow down. She cleared her mind and focused on her final quest destination: The Spires. She vaulted the edge of the reservoir, took a couple of splashing high-steps before losing her footing, and dove through the Fountain's deep blue curtain.

She was transported in an instant. The air was suddenly chill and thin, filled with a cacophony of chirps and roars and the sound of rushing rivers. She loved The Spires, it felt like home to her. It was expansive, dominated by hundreds of towering rock spires of varying size, each shaped different from the last; some impossibly narrow at the bottom and wide at the top, others thinner than the a person but climbing miles into the sky, and still others thicker than some small towns. There were some powerful beasts as well, but the scenery was beautiful and as long as you avoided the lairs of those creatures you could find a good deal of calm. Not to mention it was home to a huge variety of flora, some of which found their homes along the river beds, others clinging high above to the sides of the spires themselves. Getting to them was almost a game in and of itself.

Patience regretted her decision to not slow down as soon as she came out the other side of the Fountain. Her arc of descent took her straight toward the edge of the reservoir. It was upon her before she could get her hands up for protection but rather than slamming into the side she came down on top of its narrow ledge. She cried out as she bounced off the ledge and then twice more on the ground before rolling to a stop.

"That sounded like it hurt," Chloe said. Patience spit out a mouthful of dirt and vegetation and laid in silence for a moment. Using a Fountain didn't inherently soak you; the reservoir would get you wet but the curtain was only a visual that had no real effect. She was of course still damp from the witch sending her into the swamp muck earlier, and her splashing steps before diving into the Fountain hadn't made her any drier. The chilly air grabbed hold of her quick and made her shiver. As she lay on the ground she quickly turned off the rest of her sensory options. No sense letting them distract further at this point if she wanted to win that money.

"Because it did." She stood and swatted at the clumps of grass and pebbles stuck to her.

"Lucky for you I've got a map for The Spires as well. Remember where you're heading?"

"Quest marker was dead center of the zone."

"You're close. Straight west, you can't miss it. No need to thank me, just beat Sam," Chloe said, then closed the voice link. Patience would thank her later, but right now she needed to move.

Her destination was hard to miss: the base of the rock tower was about 500 meters thick, the largest in the entire zone. A gaping archway was carved out of it at ground level, flanked by two giant statues covered with moss and lichen. They watched, silent and unmoving, as Patience slowed to a walk, gasping for breath and wasting no time disappearing into the sucking blackness within.

After only a few steps the hallway made a sharp left turn and started a gentle decline. The space was broad and pitch black. Patience trailed her hand along the right wall, noting the hallway's gentle curve to the right. She wished there was more light so she could move faster but after the fountain she would rather not be blindsided by anything else, even with the sensory options off. Just because she couldn't feel pain didn't mean she couldn't hurt her character; joints and limbs became more difficult to move the more damage they took.

The hallway went on longer than she expected and just as the concern for time passing was getting to her, she saw a faint glow ahead. She started to jog and bumped into the opposite wall. The hallway had narrowed a great deal, so much so that were she in a party they would have to move in single-file.

She was spared having to squeeze through any tight spaces, finding herself in a vast cavern. Light filtered down from the tip of the spire high above in a single column, illuminating a waist-high pedestal in the center of the room. The majority of the floor was flat rock, excepting a few dozen feet around the rim which was much more irregular and covered in patches of bright green moss. It was on this slippery moss she almost had a second accident while rushing to the pedestal, catching herself only just and avoiding a fall.

The pedestal was simple and unadorned, free of even the simplest carvings. It really did look as if someone found a tall rock and placed a wide, concave rock on top of it. In its center was a hole the exact size and shape of the totem's base and she wasted no time slotting it in. To her dismay nothing happened and her mind started to race. Had she missed a step? Maybe this was the wrong totem? She hadn't taken her time in the hut; there were hundreds of tiny objects on those shelves and she easily could have missed her actual goal, but that didn't sit right. The one she had grabbed matched the description in the quest text perfectly.

A deep rumble brought her out of her worry and she breathed a sigh of relief, "There we go." The rumble persisted and she looked around for the source. She saw nothing; the walls were bare and mostly smooth, the entrance hadn't been covered, and the pedestal was still. Then she noticed the moss-covered ring around the edge of the room moving.

Rotating was a better word. It began to pick up speed and a screech like shearing metal tore the air, so loud it made Patience wince. As the moss-covered portion of the floor spun around her a section started to rise, bending upwards like it was being pushed from beneath by some massive piston, and her final trial came into view.

The massive Rock Worm, no longer a flat ring around the room, reared up from its slumber. The beast had no head, just a gaping maw on one end filled with rows and rows of teeth as big as her hand, spinning around its mouth like a horrible grinder. It slithered up the wall at an angle, climbing higher and higher. She would have to defeat this massive Worm with nothing but her wits and a useless, non-magical shield.

"Oh, fuck you," she said in frustration.

This thing was the size of an endgame boss. She was expecting to fight something like this with her guild mates at the end of the expansion content she would get access to after she finished this quest. The implications were exciting but she couldn't stop herself from fuming at the circumstances. The worm let out another screech, shaking the room. She kept her eyes on it while it climbed and sent a voice ping to Chloe.

"That was fast," Chloe said.

"I have to fight a huge fucking worm."

Chloe sounded just as crestfallen as Patience felt. "Without a weapon," she said.

"There wasn't even a warning! I just waltzed in here. They named the quest, 'The Totem Attunement'. How was I supposed to expect to fistfight a giant worm?"

Chloe's response was muffled beneath another screech. The worm had stopped climbing and somehow clung to the wall far above, its mouth bent toward her. The whole body convulsed and two globs of green sludge hurled out of its throat right toward her. She had enough time to draw her shield and tuck behind it before they slammed into it like a pair of war hammers. She held against the first hit but the second knocked her back onto her butt.

"Hello?" Chloe said. She could only hear Patience's voice, not the environment she was in, so she had no idea the fight had begun. Patience looked around, surprised she was still standing. In the game green goo was usually acid. The air was filled with the sound of sizzling as the globs spattered all around her ate into the rock, confirming her suspicions, so how was she still alive?

Then she noticed her shield, still lashed to her arm and completely undamaged. "The oil," she whispered.

"What oil? What are you talking about?"

"Can't talk. Worm," Patience said and closed the voice link. She would apologize later.

Patience was one of many players that had been crying for more puzzle solving while the expansion was being developed, and they had been met halfway. This was definitely puzzle solving, but on the game developer's terms. She wanted to move boxes around and flip switches in a precise order, not brawl a leviathan.

The monster jerked and leaped toward her, arcing through the air with deadly precision. She dove and rolled out of the way before it slammed into ground, shaking the platform. It rolled away from her then started slithering back up the wall. Patience got to her feet and started moving around the platform, strafing back and forth just to keep it on its toes. It took its time climbing back up to its perch which gave her at least a few moments to think.

She did a quick inventory: a shield; her clothes; about 20 different pouches of herbs. Not a great list. Most of the herbs were completely inert by themselves and it wasn't as if she had the time to sit down and properly mix them. In her mind she saw herself throwing her shield like Captain America and almost laughed. She had terrible aim, plus it wouldn't return to her like the Captain's. She was more likely to toss it over the edge into the newly-revealed abyss than get another chance, and then she'd be without her only defense against the beast's acid spit.

An alarm sounded in her ear and she felt something grab at her foot. She had been so focused on her thoughts she'd wandered into one of the puddles of acid and taken damage. Nothing serious, but the sole of her boot was eaten clean through.

Patience jumped away and the worm saw its chance. Its horrible, rippling body convulsed and two more blobs of acid spewed toward her. She brought the shield up again but was too slow. She blocked the first blob, save for a small bit that shot past the edge of the shield and clipped her shoulder. The second blob impacted just as she was turning to look at her shoulder and splattered harmlessly away, but the force knocked her once again to the ground.

She gritted her teeth in anger. Even that small amount of acid had eaten into her skin, leaving an irregular, bleeding burn. With pain off it felt like a heavy hand was giving her shoulder and unrelenting squeeze.

The worm screeched down at her, relishing its small victory, and she glared back, returning to her feet. Patience flung a few remnants of goop stuck to the shield away and stared the worm down, resolving herself to her only option.

She would have to tame it.

Patience had no idea if she had the quantities to make it work. The larger a creature was, the great the quantity of herbs you needed, and the worm would be far and away the largest beast she had ever tried to tame. At that moment the biggest pet she had was a blue pig named Petunia, won in a duel against another player long ago. It came up to her knee and smelled like its namesake.

The worm wiggled a little on the wall, telegraphing its intent, and threw itself at her again. Patience smoothly stepped out of the way and let it ram face first into the rock. This time it took a little longer to gather its wits before moving, which was good news. It took damage whenever that attack missed. The beast had no health bar she could see, so she had no idea how much damage it was taking, but every little bit would help.

She used the lull in the fight to double-check her stock of taming herbs. She had about half a pouch each of the spell ingredients, and of course a full pouch of torparia. Even with that much she wasn't sure she could put the beast to sleep. Not to mention she'd have to get her hands on it for a solid ten seconds to channel the spell.

She untied the first ingredient from her belt and brought her shield up just as the worm settled into its perch. Just as she expected, the worm spat two clumps of goo at her which bounced harmlessly off her shield. The splattering was starting to cover an decent amount of the platform so she needed to wrap this up soon, lest she roll into a puddle of acid rather than just stepping in it.

The worm threw itself at her again but this time she didn't move. It rushed toward her and she hurled the pouch down its throat at the last second, diving away to safety and narrowly avoiding being ripped to shreds by its grinder-mouth. The worm slammed into the rock and groaned in a tone much lower than its normal screech. It spent awhile rolling around in pain but Patience didn't dare approach. She had learned its attack pattern now and didn't want to add a variable that might change things up. Still, it was hard to resist the urge to banter.

"How'd the appetizer taste?" The worm groaned again in reply, then slithered back up the wall.

Patience loosed the next ingredient bag from her belt and brought her shield up, bracing for the double impact that came shortly after. She flung the dregs off her shield and looked up just in time to see another pair of blobs screaming toward her. She cursed and dove out of the way, accidentally putting one leg in a puddle of acid as she rolled.

This one was more serious. It had burned down to the muscle, which was twitching like crazy. The thigh, knee, and ankle were undamaged so she could still move the leg but it felt like her calf was clamped in a vice. The worm let out another victory screech to taunt her. "Laugh it up," she shouted, standing back up. "Main course is on deck. Come get it."

The worm rushed toward her again and she repeated her method: wait, throw, dodge. The second pouch soared into the worm's mouth and it plowed into the platform, shaking the cavern and letting out another pained groan as it writhed in pain.

"Hey! Over here!" The worm rolled its head to screech at her and she used the opportunity to huck the last spell ingredient into its mouth, leaving only the torparia. Before she could loose the final pouch the worm was climbing the wall again.

Feeling confident, Patience pinged Chloe again. The response took longer than usual and by the time she answered the worm was preparing to spit at Patience again.

"I can't believe you hung up on me," Chloe said.

"I'm taming the worm!"

"Is that a euphemism?" Patience hid behind her shield and weathered the double volley of acid. She peeked out to make sure it wasn't firing another salvo.

"The Moss Worm I'm fighting, I'm going to tame it. It's primed, I just need to channel the spell."

"How did you get it to eat plants in the middle of a fight?"

"Sec." She dove out of the way and the worm crashed into the rock, howling. Patience wasted no time and rushed over, tossing the last bag into the beast's massive mouth and darting away in case it started to thrash. "With my impeccable aim and precise timing," she gloated.

"But you can't aim, that's why you're a monk. All melee."

"Can you just celebrate with me, please? I'm about to have a giant Moss Worm!"

"Hooray!" Chloe's response was dripping with forced enthusiasm. The worm had stopped groaning and its movements were minimal. The best part about torparia was if it was going to work, you would know immediately. Satisfied that the worm was no longer a threat, Patience slung her shield onto her back and sauntered over.

"That didn't sound very genuine," she said. Chloe was silent again and Patience grabbed onto the worm, favoring the undamaged arm as she started to climb up. The creature was at least three times as tall as her so it took some effort. She could have just as easily leaned against it from the ground and channeled the spell that way but she was feeling triumphant and cocky.

"Sorry, busy. Be right back," Chloe said and closed the voice link.

Patience hoisted herself up atop her bested foe and grinned. "Worth it," she said, placing both hands on the worm. She closed her eyes and realized she hadn't picked out a name for it. The spell wouldn't work without one and she was pressed for time. One floated to the forefront of her thoughts and she smiled. "Peaches," she said, then closed her eyes and started to chant. The air tingled around her and green light glowed from beneath her hands.

The worm moved. Her eyes snapped open. The torparia was already wearing off; she had wasted too much time. Sensing her on its back the worm screeched and made for the wall at ludicrous speed, nearly jostling her off. She clung as tightly as she could to the patch of moss beneath her but the worm started to climb the wall and roll sideways. If she fell off now she would either disappear into abyss or splatter on the platform, wasting all her effort either way.

In desperation she unslung the shield from her back, held it high above her in both hands and rammed it into the worm, jamming it halfway into the beast. It screeched in pain and she started to slide, grabbing the protruding portion of the shield, feet dangling above certain death far below. "No!" She shouted, readjusting her grip as her fingers slipped.

The worm continued to climb, going higher than it had before. Patience was out of time and options; if she held out any longer this thing would probably turn upside down to shake her off. She couldn't risk taking one hand off the shield to channel the spell because she was barely hanging on with both. She didn't know if the spell would work through an intermediary like the shield but it was the only course of action she could take, so she closed her eyes and started chanting.

The air around her tingled again and the entire shield glowed green. The light grew and sprouted tendrils that snaked their way across the worm's body, wrapping around it from front to back. The worm felt something and let out another screech, wiggling along the wall, still trying to shake her off. Patience felt like an eternity had passed before a familiar warmth rushed down her arms and into the shield. The air went still and she opened her eyes. The worm whimpered and came to a shuddering stop, sticking to the wall in place. Patience's eyes went wide and her giggle turned into a laugh. "I did it!" she shouted.

Then the worm fell.

The descent was quick and its body rolled in midair, taking Patience with it. She became disoriented in the turmoil and gripped her shield as tightly as she could. The ground rushed up to meet them and she squeezed her eyes shut again, preparing for the familiar serenity of respawning after death. But it never came.

The worm landed with a mighty crash that fractured the rock platform and Patience had lived to hear it. She opened her eyes to see she was lying safely on top of the worm. They had landed smack in the middle of the platform and the light from the tip of the spire far above shone down upon her, plumes of dust swirling in the light.

The last echoes of the impact faded away and were replaced by a victorious fanfare. The four most beautiful, smoky blue words she had ever seen swam into view: Attunement Complete, Zone Unlocked.

Patience let out a scream of joy and threw her hands into the air, staring up into the light. Her mind was racing. She had tamed the worm! She had Attuned! She could access all of the new endgame content! But had she beaten the others? Chloe sounded busy when they last spoke, maybe she was about to complete her quest. Kris was a notorious slowpoke on quests so she doubted he'd beaten her but what about Sam?

She sat up and jerked her shield out of the worm. Its skin had changed from its previous rocky gray to a deep, healthy tan. She slid off the beast and it immediately started to vaporize from top to bottom, mixing with the swirling dust. After a few seconds it had disappeared entirely, leaving no trace besides the crushed pedestal it had landed on. Patience took a few seconds to breath and enjoy her victory. She would have to ask some other monks if they had to fight the worm without a weapon as well. She suspected not; nothing had prevented her from going to get a new one before coming to The Spires other than her own urgency. She would brag about this to everyone who would listen for months.

Regardless, she didn't want to proceed without her guild mates. She sat down and pulled a few pouches from her belt, pouring their contents into a pile on the ground. She wouldn't be able to make a proper poultice with only the herbs and no proper container, and she would have to do a rough grind with the edge of her shield, but she could heal most of the damage done to her before she left the cave. She choked down the concoction, thankful she didn't have to taste the dirt from the platform, and hopped up feeling rejuvenated.

She left the cavern with a jaunt in her step and sent a voice ping to her entire guild. "Pay up, losers," she said. "I've got a crazy story for you."