The Laptop - Ch.34 - Strange New World (Patreon)

My vision was completely obscured with the strange swirling light as we passed through the gateway, but that only lasted a split second. Then the three of us were standing in a picturesque little meadow in the woods.

The air was warm and fresh, and full of natural forest scents like wood and plants. There was soft green grass underfoot, trees all around, and a beautiful blue cloudless sky over our heads. Warm yellow sunlight filtered down through the trees off to our left, and generally it felt like a beautiful summer day.

"Oh wow," Gwen mumbled quietly as she looked around wide-eyed.

Chelsea's ears twitched and swivelled this way and that while her tail flicked back and forth behind her. Then she frowned, "Are we sure this is another world? These trees all look normal. I'm seeing pines, some cedar, even a couple birch and some maples."

My best friend pointed out, "A few seconds ago we were in Lisa's bedroom in the basement of your house, and it was still dark out. Now we're in the woods somewhere bright and sunny."

I slowly turned around to check behind us. Partially to make sure the gateway was closed, and also to ensure there wasn't anything dangerous getting ready to pounce back there. I was just in time to see a faint flicker in the air as the portal faded away, but my attention was mostly focused on something a lot more impressive.

"This definitely isn't Earth," I half-whispered to my partners. "At least, not our Earth."

They both turned to look, and their gaze angled upwards to follow my own. As soon as they saw it Gwen stifled a little gasp, while Chelsea's ears folded back and her tail puffed out.

The moon was visible in the sky above and behind us, and in some ways it looked similar to the one we knew from home. Except this one had to be at least three times bigger, it hung huge in the sky overhead. And even more shocking, it was clearly split in two. There was an obvious gap between the two halves, with countless smaller pieces spread out in either direction.

"Ok yeah," the catgirl gulped as she stared wide-eyed into the sky. "We're definitely a long way from home."

Gwen added softly, "What the hell could have done that? How do you split an entire moon in half?"

I slowly shook my head, "No idea. But this is Daearen. We're on another world."

"Do you figure we'll be safe in this meadow for a while?" I added as I looked around. "Now that we're here we should probably try and get ourselves organized. I'll fill you both in on the rest of the details, and maybe we can decide on a plan of action?"

My companions looked at each other, then Chelsea looked at me again. "How should we know if it's safe here? We're on an alien planet, in an unknown forest. Are there dangerous predators here? Dangerous aliens? Do we have to worry about trolls or orcs or sabre-toothed mega tigers or something?"

"All good questions," I replied with a grimace. Then I looked down at the laptop in my hands and added, "I'll need to spend a few minutes checking out the realm info on here. I don't think Annie would have sent us someplace hazardous though. So maybe we'll be ok here for a while?"

"Oh heck!" Gwen suddenly exclaimed with a wide smile. She looked to the small black fox carving at the end of her staff and asked, "Vix? Would you mind scouting the area for us? If you find anything dangerous don't engage, just keep out of sight and gather intel ok? Come back and tell me what you've found."

My eyes widened as a faint glow seemed to shimmer over the top of the staff. Instead being an ebony carving, Vix suddenly looked like she was made of pure shadows. She moved like a tiny real fox though, as she uncurled herself from around Gwen's staff. Then after making an adorable little "Kon!" sound she leapt down to the ground and darted away out of sight into the woods.

Chelsea's tail flicked back and forth while her ears perked up and she smiled, "Holy shit. Magic is real here. You're an actual mage!"

"I am," Gwyneth agreed with a wide grin and a proud happy look on her face.

I nodded slowly, then dumped all the bags on the ground along with my backpack. I settled crosslegged on the grass and used my backpack as a little desk for my laptop as I asked, "Gwen? You and Vix are the only ones with any combat abilities right now. Can you stand watch for a bit? I need to figure some stuff out."

"Of course," she nodded happily. "I'm Gwyneth the Grey, this is what I'm here for!"

I couldn't help grinning, "Thanks Gwyneth the Grey! You're my hero!"

She giggled as she turned to look around the meadow again. It was vaguely round, and about ten meters across. The woods were fairly dense, and it almost felt like this forest had never seen any human activity before.

"So what's the plan?" Chels asked as she sat down on the ground next to me.

I glanced at her then focused on the little pink laptop again, "I need to learn more about this new world. And I guess I need to review our inventory situation? Annie said we could get more supplies with the laptop."

"You're the only one of us who has any real experience camping," I added quietly, "Neither Gwen or I are outdoorsy types. Even if you didn't like sports stuff, you did a lot of it."

The cute catgirl nodded, "I didn't hate stuff like hiking, and camping wasn't so bad either. So that's my job? You want me to take charge of that kind of thing?"

I gave her a hopeful look, "Yeah. If you don't mind?"

"Of course Lisa," she smiled. "So Gwen's our magical security, I'm the camp leader. What's your role going to be? Logistics? Strategy?"

Gwen was obviously listening to the conversation even as she kept an eye on the trees, since she spoke up just then.

"If this is a 'swords and sorcery' type world then one mage and two non-combatants does not make for a well balanced party," the elf mage pointed out.

She continued, "Obviously it'll depend on what kind of dangers we encounter, and being level twenty might mean I'm pretty powerful? But I'm still just one elf, there's only so much I can do at once."

"Good point," I said as a frown settled on my expression. Then I looked to the catgirl again and asked, "You were pretty good at judo and stuff like that Chels. Do you still know how to fight?"

Chelsea's ears folded back and her tail tucked down low as she shrugged, "I still remember, but my body was very different back then. And I really don't want to go back to that shape ever again."

"Don't worry," I assured her, "I'd never ask you to do that. We can do other things though, like use the laptop to increase your speed and strength. Plus you've got claws, right? And fangs. You could be a nasty little catgirl brawler."

Our mage chimed in with another suggestion, "You know Lisa if the laptop made me a mage it can probably give fighting classes to you and Chelsea. And if it can conjure up my staff it can probably equip you both as well."

My eyes widened as I stared at her for a second, then my expression shifted to a wide smile. "That is an excellent idea Gwen! Thank you!"

"Now the question is, which classes should we pick?" I added as I looked to Chelsea again.

Her tail flicked back and forth as she grimaced, "This is your area of expertise Lisa. I probably know as much about fantasy stories as you do about camping."

Gwen smiled, "Don't worry Chels. Lisa and I can walk you through it and help figure out what sort of class would work best for you."

"Just don't forget this isn't a game and we're not role-playing," I reminded them both. "Daearen is its own place. It's as real to the people here as Earth-742 is to us."

Chels nodded, "We get it. And since you made me the 'camp leader' here's what I think we should do. One, do the character stuff so you and I are both able to look after ourselves. That way it's not all on Gwen. Two, inventory. Take stock of what we have, use the laptop to get what we need. Three, location. Figure out where we are, and if we want to stay here. Or if not, where do we want to go and how do we get there."

"Sounds good to me," I agreed. "So let's get started."

We ended up spending the next half hour or so discussing and debating character classes. Gwen and I explained some of the basic archetypes to Chelsea, including their pros and cons and what sorts of things they could and couldn't do. It turned out she didn't like the idea of being a straight-up brawler, and even the standard 'fighter' class didn't really fit her strengths and weaknesses.

In the end she decided to lean a little further into the catgirl thing, especially the stealthy side of it. She still wanted to be able to fight, but she also wanted to take advantage of her small size, speed, dexterity, and claws. All that came together in what was more or less a rogue.

When I went to add that to her character sheet I discovered the 'recents' list was empty, but all three of us showed up on the 'search' list so that wasn't a problem. I figured that sort of thing got reset when we changed realms. It also explained why all the recents were empty when I first got the laptop, if Annie had brought it over from some other realm when she gave it to Frank.

Once I had the catgirl's character sheet loaded I went ahead and set up her new class information like we'd discussed, and I set her at level twenty to match Gwen's mage class. Finally I tweaked some of Chelsea's physical stats, so despite her small soft curvy appearance she'd be surprisingly fast and strong, with great dexterity.

Then it was my turn, and even though I was familiar with all the different options it actually took me even longer to make a decision.

A big part of the problem was despite my added confidence and my SysAdmin bonuses, I had to admit that I was a bit of a coward at heart. And maybe because of all the abuse I'd experienced over the last half dozen years, I had a huge aversion to any sort of violence or fighting. I really couldn't imagine myself in face to face combat with anyone or anything. The idea of stabbing or cutting someone with a sword, or bashing them with an axe or hammer turned my stomach.

Gwen suggested a support class like a healer or cleric, but thanks to that 'safe mode' I'd set back on Sunday none of us would ever actually get hurt. And I wouldn't be comfortable calling on some 'higher power' as a cleric when I couldn't honestly say if the world itself was real, let alone any gods that might exist here. And I didn't want to pick a mage class, since Gwyneth already had that covered.

In the end I opted for something like a ranger, since I figured using a bow and arrows meant I could put some distance between myself and any potential foes. And like both my companions I went with level twenty, so all three of us would be evenly matched. My stamina stat was still enhanced from the other night, but I also tweaked a few other numbers to give me a bit of an advantage in my new role.

"I know I said this world wasn't a fantasy game setting," I commented as I reviewed my updated data, "But some of these class details are suspiciously familiar. Like my build sounds a lot like the 'beast tamer' sub-class. It even comes with an animal friend that's..."

My voice trailed off as my cheeks heated up, and both Gwen and Chels looked my way to see what was wrong.

"What's up Lisa?" the catgirl asked while her tail flicked back and forth. "Why are you blushing?"

I grimaced as I admitted, "The laptop's already got my 'animal friend' filled in. It's um, it's you Chelsea."

Her tail stopped moving and her ears flicked once or twice. Then she smirked and pointed at her collar, "Makes sense. I'm your pet kitty after all!"

I may have facepalmed, but I didn't bother trying to argue the point. She seemed happy about the fact, so I decided to just roll with it.

"Alright," I sighed. "I guess next up is inventory."

When I opened the inventory editor I found the 'recents' list there was also empty, but I already expected that. On the other hand I was a little surprised to get that 'mismatch' alert again when I selected my name off the search list. I went ahead and did the update though, and all my stuff went pixellated for a bit, including the clothes I was wearing. The only thing that didn't go through the update process was the laptop itself, same as when I first updated my inventory Friday night.

That thought left my mind reeling a little. Less than five days had passed since all this started. Back on Earth it was just barely Wednesday morning now. I hadn't even been a girl for a full week, I still wasn't completely used to my new body or all the freaky stuff this little pink laptop let me do. Now my companions and I were on a whole new world, gearing up to be actual adventurers.

Except instead of adventure, I found myself hoping maybe we could have some peace and quiet. What I really wanted was a fun camping vacation. Not a bunch of deadly fights with evil monsters and cutthroat villains while we hiked across a strange alien world to complete some crazy quest.

"Ooh!" Chelsea suddenly commented. "Cool new look, Lisa! Now do me!"

I blinked and looked down at myself, then my eyes widened as I took in my new outfit. The inventory update left me wearing a pair of dark brown silk leggings and a knee-length mottled brown leather skirt. A dark green soft leather jacket replaced my hoodie, and a lopsided green felt cap rested ontop of my long pink hair. Even my boots were different, although they'd changed the least. They were still leather ankle boots, but now they were earthy brown instead of black and they were secured with leather laces.

My backpack was different too, instead of modern nylon it was now dark brown canvas with leather straps and copper buckles. It was bigger too, more like a proper camping pack. Finally, a fantasy-world composite bow lay against the pack, along with a brown leather quiver loaded with arrows. A small knife and a longer dagger both hung in leather sheaths from a brown belt that rested just above my hips.

"Alright," I said to myself after a second or two. "I guess this fits."