World Tree Online: The Duchess of Hammers: 2nd Dive Begins

by M. A. Carlson

  “And how do you know that your computer program is not simply tapping into another world or plane of existence?” the Goddess Issara asked with a small smile, sending chills down my spine.

  “And you aren’t going to try to break free, to take over our world?” I asked. It was something that had been a popular idea among fiction novelists and even non-fiction scientists that if an A.I. ever became self-aware that it would try to take over the world.

  “Why would I? Your world feeds this one with immortal soldiers that are eager for adventure. Those seeking fame and fortune. The few that seek infamy have mostly been reduced thanks to you sharing your spell with the World Tree. Besides, I want nothing of your world, I cannot become flesh and blood as I am here, I cannot be an old woman,” she paused only for a second to shift back into a young girl, “or a little girl with a sweet tooth. No, that world holds no appeal for me, here, I am a Goddess so here I shall stay.” And just like that she shifted back into the form of an old woman, happy to rest her weary bones on the stone block she created for just that purpose.

  “Any other curiosity?”

  “The age shifting? Why do you do that?” I asked.

  “Why not?” the Goddess Issara asked in return. “Are there not days when you wish you were older or younger? Why can I not wish for the same things?”

  My mind was blown. I knew the A.I. in this game were more advanced than any I had encountered in other games, but this was insane. The Goddess Issara was like a real person. That she would ask me . . . that she would suggest that what I think of as a computer game, was actually tapping into another world. Spooky much?

  “I’ll give you a moment to process. Let me know when you are ready to proceed.”

  I don’t know how long I sat contemplating everything she just laid on me, it could have been hours or minutes. It was a lot to take in. Part of me wondered if it was just part of her programming but part of me was curious if the game was actually tapping into another dimension. But what about game patches? Didn’t that prove this wasn’t another dimension?

  “Patches affect you, not us,” answered the Goddess Issara, reading my mind.

  Wow, she was right, the most recent patch only affected the players. The reduction of charisma’s effectiveness only affects the players. The tooltips only affect the players. The access to the World Tree forums only affects the players.

  “What about when Trini glitched?” I asked.

  “That was us,” the Goddess answered. “Or the Gods I should say. Our people do not need such a burden that the knowledge of your existence and how you perceive our existence would create. All they need to know is that you are here now.”

  I shivered suddenly, goosebumps percolating my skin from head to toe. Talk about a giant ‘what if’ scenario.

  “In the end, you will realize that it changes nothing, whether this world is real or a game the way you interact with it remains the same,” the Goddess Issara said wisely. And it was wisdom, it changed nothing from my perspective except that I may have developed a deeper respect for the lives of the citizens as more than just being artificial intelligence.

  “Well, I think that should just about do it. Shall we move on to the sigils?”

  I could only agree at this point. My mind was too fried from my last two questions to ask her anything else. Part of me, couldn’t wait to tell my friends about this conversation.

  “Oh, and I trust this conversation will stay between us, I would hate to erase your memory of this conversation,” warned the Goddess Issara.

  “You can do that?” I asked, fear clear in my voice.

  “Maybe I can, maybe I can’t. Do you want to find out?” the Goddess Issara asked.

  I swallowed thickly and shook my head negatively.

  “Good, then let us move on, the sigils,” the Goddess Issara said grinning.

  Chapter 3

  I know I thought it before, but I can’t help thinking it now more strongly than ever before, the Goddess Issara is one scary . . . being.

  I took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out slowly. “Okay, I think I’m ready.”

  “Very well then,” said the Goddess Issara, shifting again into an adult woman similar in age to her statue, but unlike her statue, she was now rail-thin and dressed like a shop clerk wearing a bowtie and black vest with a long sleeve white shirt, topped off with round spectacles adorning her face. She also now held a pad of paper and her sword had become a pen . . . sword . . . pensword? Swordpen? A pen shaped like a sword, but not much bigger than an actual pen. As if that weren’t enough, the stone she’d been sitting upon had shifted as well into a long stone countertop and along the walls, shelves filled with books, scrolls and what looked like charms, emerged from the solid stone. “Welcome to the Justice Shop, may I take your order sir?” she asked in a perky, eager to please voice.

  I was dumbfounded at the change, not just in the Goddess Issara, but in the inner cloister. It really looked like a store filled with shelves and stuff for sale. There were even prices marked on the shelves, they had a number and a miniature image of a sigil.

  “So, I can purchase anything here as long as I have enough sigils?” I asked.

  “That is correct, Mr. Bye-bye,” the Goddess Issara answered. “Though I should warn you, just because you can buy something, does not mean you will have the prerequisite skill, spell or level to use it.”

  I wanted all of it. If this was all for me then I wanted all of it now, not later. Why did I have to earn sigils for this stuff if I was the only one that could use them?

  “You must earn sigils because these are all created with my divine power. Those sigils are a fraction of my power. As you complete the quests I grant you, they empower me and so in turn, I empower you. The few spells and skills I gave you before are all I can give you for free. The rest must be earned,” the Goddess Issara explained.

  I nodded, that made sense as disappointing as it might be.

  “Every spell and skill unique to you can be found on these shelves. As are the equivalent charms,” the Goddess added.

  “What’s the difference?” I asked.

  “Charms will force you to earn the spells, but also reward you greatly if you succeed, that is why the charms are considerably more expensive than the scrolls,” the Goddess Issara answered.

  If the charms rewarded me similarly to the Boar Charm, which gave me a permanent +10-Stamina and +10-Endurance, then I could see why they were so beneficial. I looked at the price on the closest charm and nearly fainted, 100-Sigils of Issara

  Charm of Hammurabi’s Law (Unique) - +100-Stamina, +100-Endurance – Equipping will teach skill ‘Eye for an Eye’ 0/1,000

  I whistled appreciatively. “What is ‘Eye for an Eye’?”

  “Any damage you receive is also suffered by the dealer of said damage and any damage you deal is also suffered by you,” she answered.

  “Yeah, that would be ‘Eye for an Eye’ alright. I imagine if you could get your healing high enough you could become quite the meat tank with that,” I commented.

  “Certainly, assuming your healing is not interrupted because you are being hit.”

  “Instant heals then,” I added.

  “If you can find one strong enough, maybe,” the Goddess Issara countered.

  “Are there any here you would recommend?” I asked.

  “Holy Shackles’ would be a useful spell for capturing surrendered enemies. ‘Heavenly Blade’ is a useful crowd control spell. ‘Justice Echo’ is a powerful skill that repeats your last attack. ‘Order: Surrender’ is useful in making enemies to surrender. ‘Order: See Injustice’ will allow your party to see criminals and lawbreakers while you will gain a subskill to your ‘Perception’ skill. There are more but those are my recommendations for now,” the Goddess Issara finished with a friendly smile, the kind I would expect to see on any salesperson’s face.

  “Are those within my level and skill range?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she
replied. “I would not have suggested them otherwise.”

  “How much?” I asked, fearing her answer a slightly.

  “Holy Shackles’ is 3-Sigils, ‘Heavenly Blade’ is 3-Sigils, ‘Justice Echo’ is 5-Sigils, ‘Order: Surrender’ is 1-Sigil and ‘Order: See Injustice’ is 6-Sigils,” the Goddess Issara listed.

  “Are the Order spells like the ‘Order: Taunt’ skill? I mean, can I learn them the same way?”

  “Yes,” said the Goddess, smirking a little.

  “Okay, I don’t have 11-Sigils to buy all three of the others. ‘Holy Shackles’ is a must-have. I like the idea of getting a crowd control ability but ‘Justice Echo’ sounds really useful.”

  “Don’t forget to look at the charms,” suggested the Goddess Issara.

  I cringed, almost afraid to look. “Where are they?” I asked.

  The Goddess Issara waved her hand and three charms appeared on the counter in front of her.

  Blades from Heaven Charm (Unique) - +10-Intellect, +10-Wisdom – Equipping will teach spell ‘Heavenly Blade’ 0/100

  Very nice.

  Justice Repeats Charm (Unique) - +10-Dexterity, +20-Stamina – Equipping will teach skill ‘Justice Echo’ 0/200

  I could have screamed like a little girl for that charm, but I kept my cool.

  Shackled Charm (Unique) - +5-Intellect, +5-Wisdom, +5-Charisma – Equipping will teach spell ‘Holy Shackles’ 0/100

  Not as impressive but still very nice.

  “I’m almost afraid to ask, how much?” I requested.

  “Blades from Heaven Charm is 6-Sigils, Shackled Charm is 6-Sigils and Justice Repeats Charm is 10-Sigils,” she answered.

  “Okay, I’ll take the ‘Holy Shackle’ spell and Blades from Heaven Charm,” I said with finality.

  “That will be 9-Sigils total, pleasure doing business with you,” said the Goddess with a smile.

  I placed the 9-Sigils I had collected on the counter and was handed the new charm and a scroll in return.

  “Thank you,” I said, happily accepting my new spell and charm, learning the first and equipping the second.

  Holy Shackles

  Level: 1

  Experience: 0.00%

  Spell Duration: 1 hour

  Spell Cast Speed: 5:00 seconds

  Spell Mana Cost: 200

  Spell Effect: Shackles a surrendered enemy to capture them.

  “I don’t suppose you would tell me what I need to do to earn the experience for the charm?” I requested, doubting she would just tell me the answer.

  “It is a crowd control spell, you need to do actions along the same vein, that Norse spell you got is a kind of crowd control effect as is using that net of yours,” the Goddess Issara answered much to my surprise, I thought she’d make me figure it out myself.

  “Well then, I do believe that just about does it for today. Thanks for visiting, come back when you have completed your quest,” she started, seemingly trying to kick me out. “Oh, and spend some time in the library while you are in town. I highly recommend ‘Portals of the World Tree’, ‘Reading the Patterns’ and ‘Provinces of the World Tree: Volume I’, very good books all of them,” she finished with a wink.

  And just like last time, before I could get another word in, I was no longer in the inner cloister, instead, I was standing just outside the doors. Out of curiosity, I tried to open the doors to find they were firmly shut and not going to budge.

  “What is she like?” one of the guards asked, drawing my attention away from the sealed doors and to the fact I was now surrounded by them.

  “Bratty,” I answered thoughtlessly, earning a rumble of thunder, that seemingly, only I could hear. “She was very informative,” I quickly amended.

  “Is she as beautiful as her statues portray?” another guard asked.

  “I’m sure she would be if she chose to be,” I replied. I had actually yet to see her represented in such a manner other than in her statues.

  “What did you talk about?”

  “Business,” I replied shortly, after her warning, my lips were sealed.

  “Alright you lot, let him alone,” called the voice of the patrolman I was just getting to know, Rhyes, successfully dispersing the crowd.

  “Thanks for that, Rhyes,” I said to him.

  “Happy to be of assistance. Did you settle your business?” Rhyes asked.

  “I think so,” I replied, checking my in-game clock to see it was just after 8:30 AM. I still had hours to kill before I had to be back to meet the Duchess. I also had a few new self-imposed quests to follow through on. “I don’t suppose you could direct me to the library?”

  “Which one?” Rhyes asked.

  “Good question, no idea,” I answered. “Why don’t we start with the closest one and go from there?”

  Rhyes chuckled. “Alright, I will show you the way, it is on the way to my jump point anyway.”

  “Jump point?” I asked.

  “How do you think the guards move from the barracks in the second ring to the outer rings when we are on duty?” Rhyes asked.

  “Can we use them?” I asked. Was this part of the reason it was only guards lined up at the temple? Just because they had access to the jump points and no one else did?

  “I am afraid not, the brass would never approve their use for the public,” he explained.

  “Interesting,” I said smiling a little. It sounded to me like there was a quest just begging to be uncovered to make them publicly available. If I got the chance to meet with the major again, I’d ask him about it.

  I found the walk with the guardsman rather enlightening. He told me about the city and the various rings as well as how each government district was split up between the various Kings and Queens. The Human King wasn’t too far from where we were staying. The Elf Queens or Kings, there were six of them, were a few districts away. The Dwarves had a lot of Kings and Queens as well, but they had no government presence in Root City, preferring to build their castles inside mountains and hills, ruling by a caste system of some sort that was too complicated for Rhyes to explain. The gnomes were a technocracy and had no king but did have a science council. The sprites, dryads, and brownies all swear fealty to the High Fairy Queen as did the other fairies.

  I also learned there was a fairy tree on the other side of the World Tree from where we were now, also in the government ring. The Orcs had a hall of war but were only present there during times of actual war. For the most part, they were more along the lines of a nomadic people, moving about constantly. The Goblins, Kobolds, and Ogres were always fighting amongst themselves and had no interest in a centralized government. The trolls had a tribal system that reported to their high shaman, who had a hut in the government ring, but he was only there in an emergency. The sea dwellers mostly avoided the land dwellers except to complain about piracy on their seas. The animal races were completely scattered, usually deferring the whichever king or queen their other half belonged to. There were many more, but we ran out of time when we arrived at the library.

  “Here you are, sir, if you do not find what you are looking for here, you can ask a librarian to get it from another branch, assuming you know the name of the book you are looking for of course,” explained Rhyes.

  I looked at the building, it was solid stone and could have passed for a small castle if not for the lack of moat and defensive walls.

  “Thank you again for your help with this,” I said. Rhyes had really helped me.

  “It is not much, but I do not think I will ever be able to repay the debt I owe you,” said the patrolman. “If you ever need help with anything, you only ever need to ask, my barracks is four streets that way,” he added, pointing to the west.

  “I don’t suppose you have a training ring there? One I might be able to make use of?” I asked.

  “Sure, just make sure you clear it with the Lieutenant first. Lieutenant Saaya is a good man, half-tiger, just to warn you. I hope that is not a problem for you. To think, I used to hate him for b
eing such a . . . strict officer,” Rhyes chose his words carefully. “Anyway, I had best be going or I will be late for my shift.”

  “Have a good shift,” I said as he departed.

  I entered the library and was greeted with an immediate ‘Shh’ by a man behind a desk at the entrance, his face covered from view by a large tome he had propped open in front him. Why he was shushing me I didn’t know, I hadn’t even made any sound yet. Still, I had to talk to this man if I hoped to borrow the recommended books.

  As I approached the desk, I finally got a look at the books, and my Goddess there were a lot of them. I could only imagine how many skills were hidden in these pages, just waiting to be discovered.

  “Do not drool on the books,” snapped the librarian with a soft hiss. Finally seeing the man over his tome, I was greeted by the visage of a snakeman, not sure what variety. It also served to make me realize, he didn’t shush me earlier, he was simply hissing. Aside from the scales covering his face and reptilian eyes looking back at me, I couldn’t help but think he looked very bookish, especially with the bow tie and spectacles.

  “Sorry, just got overwhelmed for a moment . . . so many books,” I whispered, dazing off slightly again as I thought about the skills just waiting for me.

  “How can I help you?” the snakeman asked, .

  “I’m Bye-Bye Jacko, I was hoping to borrow some books,” I answered.

  “Do you have a library card?” the librarian asked.

  “I do not, but would like to get one,” I replied.

  “Sign this, it is a one-time fee of 1-silver,” he said handing me a sheet of parchment.

  The sheet was actually just a form letter stating I would return the books in a timely manner and that I would be liable for any damage to the books. I signed and printed my name and handed it back to the man. He took the form and placed his hand over my signature then mumbled a spell causing the space between his hand and the paper to glow purple for a few seconds. “Everything seems to be in order and you are who you say you are,” he finally said, then handed me a small card with my name and picture printed on it. When did he get my photo? How did he get my photo? I didn’t think there were any cameras in this world . . . at least not yet. I suppose I would just have to accept it as magic and move on.