The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame [Isekai - LitRPG]

The humans started arriving a few minutes after the message. The first few showed genuine concern for Brittsha, but as their numbers grew, l

The humans started arriving a few minutes after the message. The first few showed genuine concern for Brittsha, but as their numbers grew, less noticed her. This suited her fine.

She stood in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall as she observed the strange newcomers. They were similar in shape to a Lerian, but they were shorter and plainer. Their skin tones ranged from light tan or pink to dark brown, it seemed, though Brittsha only had a sampling of about five hundred humans from which to draw her conclusions. Their hair was the most distinctive feature from human to human. Some wore it short, others kept it long. The color varied wildly from solid black to vivid blue.

Brittsha's form was disappointingly basic; straight brown hair that fell just past her shoulders, light pinkish skin. The most interesting thing about her was her height, which seemed to be in the top ten percent, given the current sampling.

It was one of the downsides of being a shape-shifter: insecurities in every form. Corvi didn't choose their facial features any more than a human did. If they wanted a more specific morph, it took time and experience, two things that Brittsha didn't have.

The humans chatted excitedly in their language, which Britt understood thanks to her telepathy. She had been given a universal translation function as well, but having used it for a few minutes, she found the details lacking. It failed in any elements of nuance and didn't translate phrases well.

It was just one more thing that was half-assed by this 'Benefactor'.

She didn't trust him. He described her coming here like a mere accident, rather than a painful and traumatic experience that was shared by who knows how many Corvi. Being teleported via Essence was painful enough, but being squeezed through a crack in the boundary would probably rank as the most painful thing Brittsha would experience for the rest of her life.

To make matters worse, he had changed her name. Brittsha hated the new name, though she acknowledged that it better fit with the human names she was seeing around her.

[Brittney Brown — Level 1]

Brown…? Who had a color for a last name? It was ridiculous.

And what was with her Menu? She had taken three days to familiarize herself with the options in her Menu and she needn't have bothered. Half of her options were now missing; including the message function that was supposedly the most valued function of the System besides preventing Essence poisoning. It was like someone had completely gutted it, leaving only the most essential functions active.

She pulled up her Character Sheet, trying to make sense of her new profile.

Name: Brittney Brown

Level 1 (Exp: 0/50)

Class: Mage (Initial)

Race: Corvi (Morph: Human)

HP: 1400/1400

MP: 200/200

Stat Points

Str: 35

Dex: 50

End: 50

Vit: 140

Int: 140

Wis: 20

Luck: 30

[Free Points: 0]

Spells

Basic Heal — Proficiency: 0%

Fireball — Proficiency: 0%

[Spell Choices: 0]

Skills

none

[Skill Choices: 0]

Titles

The Lost — [+20 to all stats]

Quests

Hide [Ongoing quest] — Weekly Success Rate: 100%

Special Traits

Morph [Species Trait]

Telepathy [Species Trait]

Magic Senses [Species Trait]

Adaptable [Morph Trait — partial inheritance]

Friendly [Morph Trait — partial inheritance]

Student of Runes [Personal Trait]

Diplomat [Personal Trait]

Resistances

Essence — Level 29

Fire — Level 3

Cold — Level 3

…

She hadn't had time to gain levels before leaving for the mission, so at least she wasn't moving backwards. Her resistances were largely the same as she had before she was dragged to Ember, as were her stat points, besides, of course, the twenty point boost from her new title.

The Lost — You were dragged to Ember by accident with no way to return home. The Benefactor has bestowed this title upon you to apologize for the inconvenience. Please see the welcome message for more information.

+20 to all Stats

It was the least he could do after ruining Brittsha's life. An accident?! What utter bullshit!

She paused. Bullshit? The word itself was easy enough to understand, but it occurred to Brittsha that she shouldn't know what a bull was or what it looked like. It seemed she was starting to gather some concepts from the people around her. She could picture the animal, its long horns and muscular frame vivid in her minds eye.

She was temporarily distracted by her fascination. She knew, in theory, the effect that her telepathy had when she morphed into another creature. It allowed her to blend in by drawing in the memories and feelings of the race she morphed into, provided they were in close enough proximity. However, Brittsha had never tried morphing into an intelligent species before. She usually used it on Cani and small animals—often when she was trying to get out of chores as a child.

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Cani had instincts, wants and needs, but they didn't have memories in the same way humans did. They remembered the warmth of their handlers, the pain of an unfortunate encounter, but they didn't remember their surroundings in as much detail.

The humans were completely different. They remembered places in great detail, from the architecture to the people. They not only remembered songs from their culture, they had opinions about them as well. Brittsha learned the names of different singers that were popular and which countries they were from, as well as the diverse and wonderful food culture that made her mouth water just thinking about it.

Brittsha spent over an hour with her eyes half lidded, sifting through the humans memories and admiring the odd world they came from. It didn't seem as unpleasant as the Benefactor's message had led her to believe. She pulled her Menu up, finding the reference to the Chosen within the message.

The Chosen are taken from worlds that are war-torn or destitute. They are offered a better life here on Ember. In return, they help the Administrator, and the current residents of Ember hold back the monster hordes while the System attempts to fix the dungeons. It works, albeit crudely.

Destitute…? That wasn't what she was seeing. Most of the people in the room came from large cities with tall glass lined buildings. They had machines that could fly through the air and small devices that allowed them to communicate over long distances…

It almost seemed like they had it better than Ember in most aspects of life. What had tempted them to leave Earth for this…?

Ember Online…

Brittsha's confusion deepened as she ran into the underlying thread of excitement surrounding the game. They seemed to think that this was some sort of beta test.

Were the humans stupid, or had the System tricked them into coming there?

Unfortunately, Brittsha's telepathy couldn't answer the question. She could see memories, general ideas and if they were strong enough, she could interpret emotions and intentions, but she couldn't read their minds directly. If she wanted anything specific, she would have to actually ask one of the participants, which she had no intention of doing.

She dug deeper, trying to sift through the overstimulating memories to figure out what was going on when she was distracted by a black spot in her perception.

Brittsha turned toward it, blocking out the rest of the crowd as she tried to learn more about the new arrival. Everyone there should be readable, provided they were human. Was this another Corvi? If so, why were they so late?

Even with her height, Brittsha couldn't see over the crowd enough to find the person in question, so she left her refuge of the wall to move through the crowd. It was an unpleasant experience. Every time her skin brushed with one of the humans' she was bombarded with a flash of memories—their world, their family, their jobs; there seemed to be no way to control what she saw. She pulled her arms into her sleeves, trying to avoid running into anyone else.

When she finally made it to the dressing rooms, she was confronted with the object of her curiosity. Brittsha's jaw dropped, and she ducked into the changing area, watching the girl from the shadows.

"Emma! Emma are you in here?" the Lerian shouted, rising to her feet.

Had the cracks drawn a Lerian in from the dungeons? No, according to the Benefactor, the dungeons weren't operational. Could Brittsha even take him at his word?

"My name is Emma," a woman said, watching the child with curiosity.

Brittsha checked their name tags.

[Emily Anderson — Level 1]

[Rayna — Level 1]

No last name? It certainly fit with the Lerian family system. Most commoners didn't bother with family names; some of the nobles didn't either. They simply mentioned their houses with every introduction.

The girl ran over to the human woman and wrapped her in an enthusiastic hug.

Emma stiffened. "Um… do I know you?"

The girl pulled away, looking hurt and confused by the woman's question. "It's me, Rayna."

Brittsha blinked. How could a Lerian know a human? They couldn't have interacted before this point. Was she mistaken? A seer perhaps? Brittsha had heard that seers were prone to getting confused.

"Is there a special race change system in this game?" Emma asked, her voice high with excitement. "Also, why are you so young?"

Race change? Was that even possible? Shape-shifting magic like the kind the Corvi used wasn't common among Lerians, but Brittsha supposed it was possible that the humans had similar magic.

Brittsha couldn't access Rayna's mind to search for answers, but she could sift through Emma's memories.

Rayna Gibbs… English teacher? She taught children, apparently. What was more interesting was she wasn't a child at all. She was an adult woman—a woman from Earth—who had somehow found her way into a Lerian body, and judging by her reactions, she wasn't happy about it.

"I look like someone used an Oreo as a color palette!" Rayna complained, shoving her hair into the air.

Brittsha covered her mouth to hide a snort. She wasn't wrong. Her hair and skin did resemble the colors of the small cookies. Brittsha could practically taste them thanks to Emma's memories and that of the other humans that were surreptitiously listening in on their conversation.

She wondered if it might be possible to visit Earth someday. The planet seemed to be quite interesting. At least, it was more interesting than Ashen. Even with her knowledge of the planet, her telepathy didn't remove the novelty of the images she was seeing, it merely enhanced her curiosity.

Brittsha leaned against the wall, less concerned about discovery now that she knew that Rayna wasn't truly a Lerian. Even if she had some sort of magic senses, she likely wouldn't know what to look for in order to sniff Brittsha out.

Emma was busy explaining the Character Sheet to Rayna, her excitement over her friend's presence outweighing any of the reasonable suspicion that she had pushed to the back of her mind.

Brittsha couldn't imagine being so carefree. This should have raised far more red flags in Emma's mind than it did, but she had apparently been trying to convince Rayna to join the 'game' for a long time, so the lack of caution was understandable, albeit reckless.

On the other hand, Brittsha needed to be careful around Emma. She was bubbly and distractable, but she knew her way around the System—at least, the version of the System she was used to, which Brittsha was noticing didn't quite match up with its current state—and she had risen to the top of the rankings through sheer brutality.

Seriously, who in their right mind waded into a group of monsters with nothing but healing spells and a battle ax?

The question opened Brittsha's mind to several new images, and she was distracted from her observations of the formidable woman. She turned to gawk at the people around her as their own exploits flooded her mind.

A Mage Knight who channeled his spells into a pot to make popcorn…

A Runic Spellcaster who used her spells to transport ink to her quill so she wouldn't have to keep dipping it in the pot…

A Fire Mage that put all of their points into Dexterity so they could jump over the monsters, bombing them from above…

They were insane. All of the people in the lobby had treated the preview like nothing more than a pastime. They spent hours finding silly ways to do things, days grinding the most ridiculous of skills…

"It's not deep dive!" Rayna said, dragging Brittsha out of her thoughts. "This is all real. You all disappeared from the warehouse and that swindler…" She paused, seeming to struggle with how to finish the sentence. "…turned me into this."

Kennith—a man who had apparently focused on transformation magic so he could sneak into guilds and steal their items—rolled his eyes. "Quit trolling. The game just used the chip to tap into the dream centers of our brain."

A reasonable explanation with their limited knowledge of the System, Brittsha acknowledged.

"Rayna didn't have a chip," Emma said, her voice growing worried.

"Exactly!" Rayna said, waving her hands around like a madwoman. Brittsha was beginning to wonder if her brains hadn't been scrambled on the way to Ember.

The nervous tension in the room nearly doubled, and Brittsha had to dampen her telepathy just to keep herself from being swept along with the humans' panic. This wasn't good.

"Come on, guys. It's not funny." Kennith sounded unsure, his brows knitting together in an almost desperate frown.

"Emma, they can't show any blood in Ember Online, right?" Rayna asked.

"Yeah," Emma confirmed. "They were worried that people would confuse in game injuries with real world injuries. That's why there's no pain simulation either."

"Then here goes nothing."

Brittsha didn't need telepathy to see where this was going. "Wait!" she shouted, but her voice was lost amidst gasps and shouts of alarm as Rayna bit her own arm.

Brittsha cursed. Lerian teeth were one of their most dangerous weapons and children often harmed themselves and others while playing, but Rayna was an adult. She should know better than to go around biting things!

The woman nearly took a chunk out of her arm with the stunt, the flesh mangled by her overpowered bite. Brittsha would have run to help her, but Rayna raised her hand over her head, a defiant look on her face.

"See?" she said as blood trickled down her arm, gaining speed by the second.

She needed to heal it. Lerians were prone to bleeding, especially before the first plateau. She was draining her HP just to prove a point?!

"So, they changed the regulations a bit," Kennith said stubbornly, his voice rising in pitch. "That doesn't prove anything."

Brittsha gawked at him. Were humans all this stubborn? What insanity had Brittsha been thrown into?!

Rayna stomped away, but she'd only gone a few paces before she swayed, leaning against the wall for support.

She's going to pass out!

Brittsha moved to help Rayna, but Emma got there first, casting a healing spell on Rayna's arm.

Brittsha recoiled instinctively as a cloud of Essence gathered around the woman's palm. Humans could use Essence? How? The System MP was supposed to be made up of their natural energy. Had the System changed when it started bringing in outsiders?

Brittsha's thoughts raced as Emma pleaded with Rayna to heal her own wounds. The Benefactor had said that the System had changed along with Ember, but he hadn't been specific as to how it had changed. Could this be one of the differences? How could they even do that? It would take enormous energy to store and execute magical spells on behalf of a magicless user.

Wait… did this mean Brittsha could use Essence?

Spurred on by the ludicrous thought, Brittsha retreated to one of the changing rooms, closing and locking the door behind her. She sat down on the small bench, staring at her hands. Excitement and fear mingled in her chest. She hadn't been able to use magic since landing in Ember—there was no Miasma in the air to use—but this would change everything. She wouldn't be defenseless. She would be able to grow and protect herself.

It couldn't hurt to try…

Brittsha cast Basic Heal.

She cried out as fire burned through her magical pathways. She cut the spell off immediately, but her palms still burned with the magic, pain making her eyes water.

Brittsha gritted her teeth, drawing in deep breaths through her nose as she closed her eyes against the pain.

No System spells, then… that could be a problem. The Benefactor had been pulling Corvi in for nearly six months! Were any of them even alive? How could they defend themselves while surrounded by Essence?

There was a commotion in the main lobby. Brittsha grabbed the doorknob, wincing at the pain in her hand.

Before she could even turn the knob, she froze, suddenly unable to move. What the hell?!

A System prompt appeared in her vision.

You have been paralyzed.