by Tom Gallier
"It's radiating powerful magic," Asha said. "I can actually feel it on my skin. And that's a first."
"Yeah, me, too," Rand said. "Can't say I like it."
Killum stepped into the chamber, while the others hung back. What he thought of as the altar was a four foot tall column of black, red-streaked marble. There was a faintly glowing human handprint on the top.
"Touch it," Tiana said. "See if it's anything."
"It's obviously something," Killum said. "It feels evil. It feels like it's trying to push me away."
"Let me," Asha said, slipping past him. "It's magical, so my area of expertise."
Killum almost reminded her that he was a battle-MAGE. But it didn't feel right, so he was willing for her to figure out what the altar was all about. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.
"See if it has any treasure or magic objects to give up."
"Okay. Step back," she whispered. "Here goes nothing."
Killum watched Asha slowly place her splayed hand upon the handprint. She gasped and looked up as a blood red pool appeared upon the wall behind the altar. The sense of being repulsed lessened, so he was encouraged. Then she cocked her head, slanted a curious look back at them, and then spoke softly.
"I agree."
And Asha was sucked into the red pool. They all gawked at it a long moment.
"Well, that was…. Unexpected," Killum said at length.
Fergus pushed him forward. "Check it out. Find out what happened to Asha."
"It might happen to me!"
"Just don't agree to anything."
Maybe that was her mistake. Was it a mistake? Only one way to find out. So Killum inched up to the black altar and gently placed his hand on the handprint. Coolness flowed into his hand and up to his elbow. It wasn't unpleasant. And then the altar spoke to him in a booming voice, at the same time the words appeared before him.
"Do you wish to proceed into the Hidden Realms? Yes or No?"
Was that what Asha agreed to? Was she in the Hidden Realms, whatever that was? He didn't recall reading anything about Hidden Realms in the manual.
"Okay, it's just asking if I want to proceed into something called the Hidden Realms."
"What is that?" Tiana asked. "I read everything about this game, and there wasn't anything about any other realms, hidden or otherwise."
The others started arguing about it. Killum turned his attention back to the blood red pool on the wall. He wasn't sure, but it almost looked like he could see idyllic forests and meadows. Maybe the game was divided into multiple realms, and going there would give him access to an even better VR world to explore.
"Um," Killum said, hesitating only a second. "Yes."
And the lights went out.
Chapter 5
"Oh!"
Asha sat up, wild-eyed, and looked around.
"Was I kicked out of the game?"
She was sitting atop a perfectly flat stone slab, about the size of a twin bed. She was in the middle of a small meadow surrounded by the largest, oldest trees she'd ever seen. And none of it looked to be computer generated.
"I hear birds and insects, and the wind in the treetops," Asha muttered, looking left and right, and all around. Then she looked down at herself. "I'm almost naked!"
Rolling off the stone slab, she stood barefooted in ankle deep grass and checked out her body. Okay, it wasn't her real body, although it looked and felt like a RL body. The olive-skinned beauty now had skin so white it made milk look dark. Her body was slim without any curves, and she had no breasts to speak of. And her hair was just as white as her body.
"Okay, I'm actually freaking out here," she said. All she wore was a simple light gray tunic that barely reached her upper thighs. She felt the wind going up it, and her eyes went wide. "I have sex parts!"
And no underwear.
Her previous VRMMORPG body didn't have any genitalia or orifices below the waist. The sexiest thing it had were nipples. Now she had it all, but with the body of an albino boy. Well, except the sexy parts.
When in doubt, she always checked her stats. Just wondering about how to call up her Heads Up Display activated it. She concentrated on the Status tab.
Current status:
Name: Not Selected
Race: Not Selected
Class: Not Selected
Level: 10 (0% to next level)
Alignment: Neutral
Health: 100/100
Strength: 10/10
Endurance: 10/10
Agility: 10
Mana: N/A
Skills: N/A
Possessions: (Click to View/Hide)
Player Kills: 0
Deaths: 0
Asha stared open-mouthed. "I lost everything! I've been reset to default."
Panic consumed her for a second. She took a deep, steadying breath and counted to ten. Then she counted backwards from ten. Her heart was still pounding, but it wasn't the end of the world. New game meant a new character. And there was still the chance her High Elf Sorceress could be pulled up.
She returned to the HUD and studied it a moment. In the upper left hand corner of it was an amazingly accurate picture of her real life face. The faint blue bar stretching out to the left had tabs she could check. All in all, it was a pretty pathetic HUD, offering her very little. At least it had a map option.
Asha concentrated on the character icon, and a translucent screen appeared before her eyes. None of her three alternate characters were listed. Her jaw dropped and for a second all she wanted to do was scream in anger or cry.
"I'm going to call customer service and chew someone out for this," she said. Then she noticed the blue ? flashing in the lower right corner, so concentrated on that. Instead of a new pop-up, a small avatar appeared before her. "Hello, are you customer service?"
That's when Asha realized she had her English accent back. A tiny smile tugged at her lips for a second, before her anger returned.
The avatar reminded her of a cartoon character. He was a black ball, with big eyes and no mouth. A purple, crooked wizard's hat was cocked to the right, with silver and gold star and crescent moon decorations. His hands were fat, white-gloved cartoonesque things. And that's all there was of him. When she concentrated on the avatar, she saw:
Admin.
Nothing else.
"Hi, Asha Balasubramanian! Welcome to the Hidden Realms. How may I be of service?"
The Admin avatar started darting back and forth in the air, bouncing up and down in excitement. It reminded her of a little boy in a candy store. His voice was male, and youthful, but sounded like an adult. She envisioned a computer geek working in a cubicle eager to help.
"You can start by explaining what just happened, where I am, and where the hell are the three characters I so painstakingly created and built up?"
He flew up too close, and one disembodied hand reached out a fat finger to pull her tunic out to peek down inside, but she slapped it away. He streaked back about ten feet and grinned. Okay, he didn't have a mouth, but she could tell by his eyes he was amused.
"Ah. First of all, you are in the Goblin Run River Valley, on the frontier of the Kingdom of Kumar. Specifically, this is your Spawn Site. This is where you'll respawn each time you die, unless you designate a new respawn site."
He paused to stare at her legs. She tugged down on her hemline, which stretched the thin fabric across her tiny breasts, drawing his attention to them.
Hands curling into fists. "Yes, yes, I actually figured that much out myself. And keep your eyes to yourself."
He wagged his brows at her, making her face heat up. I'm being sexually harassed by a cartoon character.
"Actually, I'd like to speak with a female, or a less juvenile male," she said. "A manager would be perfect."
"Hey, you got some attitude. That'll help in this world," he said. "Now, as for your previous characters… That should've all been explained to you when you requested the move to this realm. They're gone! Forever. Sorry, but that is one o
f the consequences for leveling up to the Hidden Realms. You are only allowed one character, and once chosen it cannot be changed. So, yeah, you start from scratch. Sorry!"
"May I speak with a manager?"
"No," he said. "Do you want to create your character now? I suggest, harem girl."
"I demand to speak to a manager!"
"No," he said. "Since you're not ready to create your character, I'll continue with your orientation." Her status page popped up again, and the Admin flew in front of it. He started pointing to different options. "You can change reporting around, what your pop-ups look like, when they pop up, etc, etc, etc…"
"Why won't you let me speak to a manager?"
"You belong to me," he said. "Players in the Hidden Realms aren't authorized to speak with managers. You have to deal with the Representatives assigned you."
She glared daggers at the little bastard. The Admin waited patiently, barely moving as he floated just feet in front of her. After a long moment, he snapped his fingers and the HUD changed to the Character Screen. "Shall we make you the best player you can be now?"
Asha closed her eyes and calmed herself down. She vowed to call the company's corporate offices tomorrow and tear into them, but who did you complain to about customer service? The Hidden Realms had the most brilliantly realistic graphics she'd ever seen, so she wanted to play in this world. But the rudeness of her Rep was beyond belief.
"Fine. I'm guessing you can autofill my choices from the previous realm?" He shook his head. "Why must you make it so hard? I have spent a lot of time and money playing this stupid game. Will I be able to log into either the Hidden Realms, or previous version of Realm of Battle, and play which version I want?"
"No. You're here permanently."
Sighing, she shook her head. Maybe I can create a new account with a different credit card number or something. But first, I'll test run the game, and then e-mail the others and report what I've found.
Asha turned her full attention to the Character Sheet. The Admin touched NAME and an empty box appeared.
"Asha." Her name appeared in the box, and then prompted her to confirm. "Yes, I confirm."
Then Admin touched RACE. A box appeared with all the races available, in alphabetical order. She found she could reach out and swipe up and down, scrolling through the options.
"High Elf," she said. Another box appeared to the right with more options. "Desert Tribes." She was prompted to confirm, which she did. So Admin brought up CLASS. She didn't hesitate, "Sorceress."
After confirming that selection, Asha felt warmth flow through her body. Her skin turned the perfect shade of brown, and just a bit lighter than her RL skin. She checked her ears, and they were pointed. She smiled at the Admin, who was looking her over approvingly.
"Time to work on that body," Admin said. A new screen appeared, showing Asha a mirror image of herself. She was a little shocked by how rail thin she looked, but otherwise it looked like her in RL. "Select a body type, and then just tap the +/- over each area of the body to adjust the various parts of your anatomy to your liking."
Asha chose "Medium Build" and then started tapping on the + next to her breasts, watching them grow to about what she had in RL. They might be a bit large, but she liked the attention they gave her. Then she adjusted her hips to be sweetly rounded, and it allowed her to switch to a profile view, to work on her buttocks a little more. Then she lengthened and thickened her long black hair to waist length.
"I don't see options for hair style."
The Admin shrugged. "You'll have to do that manually, with your pretty little hands, elf babe."
After giving him another dirty look, Asha didn't wait and tapped WARDROBE. Her options were limited, but all better than the skimpy tunic she was wearing. One option was a sexy purple two-piece outfit that Rand would call a "harem girl outfit," but was listed as Elven Sorceress Dress. The second option was a simple rough-spun brown tunic, to mid-thigh, and loose trousers. And the final option was heavy black robes that would make her look like a Dark Sorceress.
"These are my only options?"
"No, you can earn some shekels and buy more clothes," Admin said. "But these are the only FREE options you have. And the outfit you choose will be Bound to you. Pick one."
Asha gave him the side-eye, before turning her attention back to her options. "Fine. Option 1, but only because purple is my favorite color."
"If you say so, babe," Admin said, and the screen vanished.
The outfit replaced the tunic, and she tugged on the skimpy halter top to adjust it better, feeling a little self-conscious under the Admin's leering eyes. Her boobs and body were sexily displayed beyond anything she'd ever done before, and she was known to sex it up.
"Now what?" she asked.
"Start playing. Vanquish your enemies! Conquer dungeons and kingdoms! Enjoy your newfound immortality! Welcome to the Hidden Realms!"
"Um, okay. Can you tell me if any of my friends followed me through to the Hidden Realms?"
"Yes. I don't know or care how many were in your group, but some came through the same portal immediately after you," Admin said, starting to fade away. "I cannot tell you exactly where they are, because all Spawn Sites are secret, but they are in the same river valley. Bye-bye, babe. Looking good."
Asha almost went back to HELP, but decided she didn't want to speak to the little pervy geek again. Ever. So she pulled up her stats.
Current status:
Name: Asha
Race: High Elf (Desert Tribes)
Class: Sorceress (Novice)
Level: 10 (1% to next level)
Alignment: Neutral
Health: 100/100
Strength: 10/10
Endurance: 10/10
Agility: 10
Mana: 100
Skills: (Click to View/Hide)
Possessions: (Click to View/Hide)
Player Kills: 0
Deaths: 0
"That's actually not as bad as it could be," she said. "At least it wiped out all of my player kills."
The sorceress walked around the meadow, while braiding her hair. There wasn't anything to eat or drink, and she felt a little hungry and thirsty. In the previous realm players were required to eat and drink to maintain their health, so it was probably doubly important in her new realm since she actually felt hunger and thirst.
"I wonder how many realms there are in the Game? The little Admin thing said I entered the Hidden Realms. Plural," she said. The HUD offered nothing to answer that question, or help her in any way. Until she noticed the MAP function again. A map of the valley appeared before her eyes. "Now this is something I can use."
Her location was shown to be a hilltop close to the Goblin Run River. There were a number of villages, towns, and market towns on the map. Most were along the river. The closest town was Oxenbluff. She looked in that direction, seeing the purple haze of distant mountains.
"I guess I'm going to Oxenbluff, and just pray the others go there as well."
Chapter 6
"Son of a bitch!" Killum cried, sitting up on a stone slab. "Oh man, I hope I didn't just screw up."
He found himself atop a hill overlooking a river. Ancient oaks encircled and shaded him from the morning sun.
How do I know it's morning? he wondered. Killum pointed, naming the cardinal points, "North, east, south, and west. I must've gained the skill of Superhuman, level 1."
Killum rolled off the flat stone "bed" and discovered his brief attire. All he wore was a thin gray tunic that was barely long enough to hide his junk. He discovered he was barefoot in the most painful way, by stepping on a sharp stone. Lots of cursing was involved.
"That hurt. That really hurt," Killum said, and then paid a lot more attention to the crispness, the awesome realistic graphics. "This is the most amazing game ever!" He studied his hands, the leaves, and the grass. "This is indistinguishable from real life." After lifting his tunic to check out his virtual family jewels, "Oh hell, I'm huge. This is b
etter than real life."
The only issue was how startlingly white his current character had become, and how shockingly skinny. But the player carefully walked around the small clearing under the massive oaks to check out this new world. It was a pleasant morning, though a little on the cool side with the wind. Being on top of a hill wasn't helping.
I wonder where Asha is? Killum thought. Did anyone else follow us through?
"Time to fix my character," he muttered and concentrated on his HUD. The HUD popped up and he noticed his face in the upper left corner. He checked out the different icons on the task bar to the right of his face. "Status Table. Perfect."
Current status:
Name: Not Selected
Race: Not Selected
Class: Not Selected
Level: 10 (0% to next level)
Alignment: Neutral
Health: 100/100
Strength: 10/10
