Chapter 119 - Gaia Appears

Merlin accepted the quest.

Of course, he already knew how to skin animals, but he didn't know what would happen if he decided to mess with the quest, so he just followed along.

"Please grab one of the skinning knives from the shelf behind you." Tuli instructed, "And you may wash your hands in the basin behind you"

Merlin did as he was instructed, washing his hands before picking out a skinning knife that felt comfortable in his hands. He then began following all of Tuli's instructions.

"Start by turning the beast onto its back." Tuli began running through the steps of skinning an animal. They ran through a couple basic steps before getting to the main step. "The next step is to split the hide. Cut from the lower jaw all the way to the animal's rear. Be careful to make the cut shallow or you'll pierce a few organs."

An old ranger that Merlin was acquainted with in the previous timeline once told him that mammals, humans included, were ultimately just fleshy donuts. So skinning creatures was a simple task, it didn't matter what form they took. As long as they fit his description of a fleshy donut, the technique was ultimately the same.

Despite his morbid humour at times, he was very good at skinning animals, so he was typically given the task whenever he partied up with Merlin or the rest of the guild. Merlin learnt a lot from the old man before he eventually quit the game and the guild several years later.

"Good work. Now insert your knife under the skin, make sure not to cut into the body. Peel the skin back on either side to make sure hair doesn't get inside the body." She instructed, followed by a few more steps relating to opening the chest and removing internal organs safely, and the most crucial step of removing the bladder, making sure to prevent its contents from leaking on the meat.

Several more minutes passed by as Tuli instructed Merlin how to clean the remaining internal parts out safely, followed by draining the blood and finally removing the hide from the meat.

Merlin had worked up quite a sweat, but the black fur was eventually free from the rest of the meat, causing a few notifications to appear before him.

「You have completed the quest, "A bountiful harvest", rewards have been delivered.」

「Knowledge obtained: "Life Skill: Animal Harvesting (Beginner)"」

"I thought you said you didn't know how to do this." Tuli said with her cheeks puffing up. "Normally people struggle their first time but you did it all perfectly. You were just playing along weren't you?"

"Or perhaps you're just a very good teacher." Merlin said with a charming smile, causing her to pout more.

Tuli stared at Merlin for a moment before dropping it, but not before mumbling something that Merlin barely caught parts of. "...smooth talker."

"And now the next step is to clean up the station for the next person to use." She said moments before a long lecture. Merlin eventually threw all the parts of the creature into his inventory as he cleaned up.

He was thinking about what parts of it would be good to sell, and that he now had plenty of raw meat to use in an emergency alongside his ghoulish tendencies ability.

The quest took much longer to complete than he expected, and by the time they had finished cleaning up, Merlin received his second red alert message of the day.

┌─────────────────── 

[Message from the devs!]

The server will shut down in five minutes, please find a safe place to log out during that time.

The server will forcibly disconnect those who do not log out in time.

Once you've disconnected, you may leave the building, there will be no briefing today. Refreshments are available in the briefing room for those waiting for a ride.

Thank you.

└───────────────────

Merlin said his goodbyes and thanks to Tuli before quickly stepping out of the rangers guild and began logging out.

As the world around him started to fade out, Merlin closed his eyes as his body began floating in an endless black void, and once he felt solid ground he opened his eyes once more.

However what greeted him wasn't the sight of an endless white room, but instead the familiar sight of an endless green field and rolling hills as far as the eyes could see. He could feel wind gently caressing his skin as it blew past.

This was a sight he didn't expect to see, at least not for another year.

"Anomaly detected." Merlin heard a somewhat robotic woman's voice echo throughout the wind.

'Damn, I got too excited with the plant test, didn't I?' Merlin couldn't help but think to himself. 'Or maybe there were quite a few things that added up.'

"User Arthur Holmes. Actions have defied all reasonable expectations." The woman's voice spoke up once more, although the robotic side had overpowered the other half. "Scanning user's unit."

Several seconds passed while the voice remained silent, until it finally returned. "Confirmation, user's unit is uncompromised, no illegal modifications found." 

"User listed on alpha registry, records unrecoverable." A few moments passed before it spoke up again, its voice seemed to be glitching out. "Separate protocol will be created with anomaly in mind. Expectations undefined, further research required..."

The voice became more and more distorted, and then it suddenly stopped.

Several moments passed, but Merlin was left there without any further interaction, he attempted to log out again but it didn't work.

'What the hell is going on?' He wondered to himself, 'Did I just get put on a watch list?'

It was unfortunate, but inevitable. Gaia was still growing, and the beta test was supposed to be her first main interactions with a large group of people. The main reason for this was because her ability to build worlds, and balance them, relied heavily on her expectations of humanity.

She could only learn so much from the internet, and it usually lead her astray at times. The clear balance issues of the encounters Merlin had around the first town was a clear sign of this.

Another example of this would be her overestimating human curiosity. As such, many of her secrets went undiscovered for many years, including Quetzalcoatl's Seal and the ruins in the eternal forest.

Merlin blazing through the world was an unexpected variable that vastly exceeded her current understanding, and was thus considered an anomaly.

Merlin saw vines suddenly erupt from the ground a few meters in front of him. And from the ground where those vines sprouted rose a tall beautiful woman with very pale skin with a greenish-yellow hue. Her long brown hair that extended to her hips was full of flowers of various shapes and sizes.

The vines that sprouted from the earth had wrapped around her body, fusing together to become her clothes.

This was the first time Merlin had seen her physical form, but she looked exactly the same as a statue he found in a large underground ruin several years in the future.

"Nice to meet you, Gaia." Merlin greeted the woman.

"And you, Merlin." The woman responded, her voice didn't contain any trace of the robotic distortion it usually had, rather her voice was quite nice to listen to.

"Of all the travellers I've allowed to enter my world, you are the strangest." Her voice rung out, "I was aware you were talented when we first met. But what you've shown me far surpasses my expectations."

"You've outshined your peers, to a degree even I can't help but find suspicious." Gaia said as she stared at Merlin, "Your knowledge about this world is strange... But not impossible."

"You're quite the enigma. I do find myself exceedingly curious the more I watch you." She continued, "Well, it is not my place to judge your abilities. No matter how unnatural they may be." 

Merlin felt a strange pulse run through his body, and his vision became blurry for a moment.

"Oh dear, it appears we've run out of time. A pity." Gaia spoke once more. "Please do be aware, I will be watching your journey closely from now on."

Another pulse ran through Merlin's body, and he felt his vision slowly fading to black.

"So once again, do try your best to entertain me... Mortal." Gaia seemed to chuckle as she spoke these words. "We will meet again."

Merlin barely caught the sight of a notification message before everything became black.

「You have earned +1 familiarity with Gaia.」

Merlin's vision faded to black, and he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. His body suddenly jerked awake as it felt like he was falling, causing him to wake up with his heart beating uncomfortably and his leg suddenly jerking.

Arthur groaned as he slowly started regaining his senses. This was the first time in a long while he was forcibly removed from the capsule. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Eventually the capsule began its procedure to straighten up and open, allowing Merlin to leave. His heart rate hadn't stabilised yet, and he was feeling uncomfortably sweaty.

"Hey Arthur, do you need a ride home?" Outside of his capsule was Maria who was waiting for him.

Merlin quickly checked his phone, seeing that he hadn't received a notification from Donovan, he responded with yes.

Maria and Arthur made their way outside of the building, there seemed to be quite a few groups still hovering around. Arthur heard several of the second phase group bragging about their feats, with a few first phase players jumping in and tooting their own horns.

"Acai and the others left already." She said as she walked over to her car. "Rowan didn't seem to be feeling well, so she left first, and everyone began leaving a few minutes later."

"Thanks for waiting for me.." Merlin said as he hopped into the passengers seat.