Pangea Online: The Complete Trilogy

by S. L. Rowland

  “I told Benjamin I didn’t think it was right how they treated those in The Boxes.”

  Her mouth drops open.

  “Are you serious? My god, Esil.” She stops in her tracks. “He’s the president of the company, you can’t just go around telling him what to do or saying whatever pops into your mind. That’s not how things work here.”

  I can’t believe she’s taking his side. “What do you want me to do? Sit down and be quiet? If not for me, nobody would know about miners. Buzz’s mom would be dead. Now, I’m finally in a position where I can maybe do some good and you want me to just do my job. How is that right?”

  “It’s not right, but that’s how it is. You can’t save them all, Esil. You just can’t. You’re one man. Help those that you can, but you can’t go around picking fights with people higher up than you.”

  Maybe she’s right. I am just one person. An outsider in a world I never grew up in. How can I hope to change anything when I don’t even know the rules these people play by? Maybe Benjamin will get them access to other parts of Pangea. That’s better than nothing.

  “Okay, I’m going to start by moving Buzz and his mom out of The Boxes. Grayson too if he isn’t stubborn.” Hopefully, I have enough power to at least do that.

  “I think that’s a good start. You can’t change the world overnight, but you can help your friends. And I’ll do anything I can to help too,” she says, taking my hand and giving it a kiss. When she looks up at me, tears well up and threaten to brim over. “I wish the world was a better place.”

  “Me too.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Two more full-immersion capsules have been constructed by the time I return to the lab the next day. They aren’t filled with the gel-like nanoreceptors yet, but I don’t imagine it will be long. The fact that they were constructed so fast must mean that the workers were up all night. Benjamin certainly isn’t wasting any time.

  “Good morning, Esil. Ready for an exciting day?” Benjamin asks me. For once, his tie is slightly askew and his eyes seem a little groggy. He’s normally so put together. I wonder if the project is taking its toll on him. Whatever secrets he’s keeping about the real reason behind full-immersion. I want to ask him what’s going on, but after my talk with Aleesia yesterday, I think it might be best for me to keep my comments to myself for the time being.

  I nod and go find Marty, who is waiting for me atop the immersion capsule. He attaches the sensors to the normal places around my chest and head, but this time, he has something new. He holds a giant needle attached to a thin tube that’s filled with a pinkish liquid.

  “What’s that?” I ask. That’s a big needle and I hope it isn’t going in my body.

  “It’s an IV. We’re testing something out today. The idea is to feed your body nutrients while you are logged in so that you don’t pass out when we pull you out like last time.”

  Marty takes my arm in his hand. I close my eyes and a sharp pain shoots up my arm. When I open them, I try to look anywhere other than the source of the pain. My eyes find Aleesia in the viewing deck. She gives me a thumbs-up and then disappears back to her work.

  My eyes open inside of the small cabin. Sunlight peeks in around the door frame and through the slats in the wall. My belongings are all placed neatly in the corner. My shield, sword, pack. Inside of my pack, I find my canteen, some vials of fairy dust, and a few pieces of sausage and bread.

  Carter and Kindra are both gone, not that I expected anything less. Benjamin told me himself that Carter was close to learning magic. I wonder if he has unlocked it in the time since then.

  I focus on the map that Priscilla drew for me and it pops up in my vision. I’m still a good ways off from the mountain, but I can now see two dots moving along it, one red and one green. The dots are close together and when I focus harder, the map zooms in on the location until I can see Kindra and Carter’s names hovering above the dots. Beside each name it says, ‘party member.’ Good to know we don’t disband just because I log out. Too bad we don’t have party chat. Considering the state of this world, I don’t think it is something that will be implemented unless there are other real-world players.

  After gathering my belongings, I step out into the world. The sun momentarily blinds me and I’m greeted with the fresh scent of wildflowers. Insects buzz all around. I’m taking in the beauty of the countryside when a large shadow looms across the field. At first, I think it is a cloud. That is, until I hear the flap of large wings. They swish like billowing sails caught in a storm.

  I look up and see the most fearsome creature I have ever come in contact with. It hovers in the air, the size of a house, its blue wings thrashing and sending the wildflowers rolling in tumultuous waves. Metallic scales cover the creature’s neck and back. Spikes run along its spine from tail to head, where two long horns curl around its skull like a ram. Hundreds of sharp teeth hide a serpent’s tongue and bright yellow eyes take in the world, but there is no fear, no hesitation.

  Cerulean Dragon. A fearsome predator of valleys and meadows, the Cerulean Dragon is one of the few dragons that dwell in nests instead of caves and make their homes high in the mountains.

  It’s a mother-loving Dragon!

  A family of deer bolt across the field, sensing the apex predator, but it is too late. The dragon tucks its wings and dives. Once in range, it lets out a monstrous flame that torches the deer and the flora around them. An unending stream of red and orange ignites everything in its path, and the deer fall to the ground in agony. The smell of cooked venison and burnt vegetation drifts in my direction and I find myself salivating.

  The dragon lands with a thud and sinks its teeth into its freshly cooked meal. Not eager to stay for dinner, I sneak around the cabin and take off towards the mountains.

  As I’m running for my life, a prompt flashes across my vision.

  System alert: Greetings, Adventurer! The world has changed since you’ve been gone. Magic has returned to the world and magical fountains have spread across the land. Only the brave, virtuous, or cunning can unlock their potential, but beware, with great magic comes great consequences. As the arcane returns to prominence once again, so have the creatures of myth and legend. Will you fight for good or evil? For love or power? Every choice you make will lead you down a path to greatness or ruin…

  What does that mean? No time to decipher it now. I don’t stop running until I can no longer see the dragon in the distance. My lungs ache and a stitch forms in my side, forcing me to stop and take a breather.

  Increased Stamina.

  Ah, the benefits of not being eaten alive.

  I wish there was a way for me to contact Carter and Kindra, but it looks like we are stuck doing things the old-fashioned way for now. I find their point on the map and plot my route in their direction. Traveling alone, I might be able to make it to the base of the mountain by nightfall if I’m lucky.

  Every time I catch my breath, I take off running for as long as I can and each time, I am rewarded with increased stamina. I still don’t know what it equates to, but it feels like I am able to run a little bit farther each time.

  I continue this for what feels like an hour when I notice there is a new icon in the top right corner of my vision. It looks like a cutout of my body, with each part segmented. The entire thing is green at the moment, which I assume means I’m in good health. As I run farther, the legs on the icon begin to turn yellow. Once I have rested, they turn green once again.

  It must be a notification system for letting me know what’s been injured and my stamina, not that I couldn’t tell by the realistic pain and burning in my muscles. There has to be more to it than that, so I focus on the icon and a translucent window pops across my vision.

  Finally, a stat page! I can still see everything that is happening in the world behind it, so that if trouble goes down, I’ll be able to spot it.

  Name: Esil Allen

  Title: None

  Race: Human

  Gender: Male
r />   Class: N/A

  Alignment: Neutral Good

  Health: 200/200 hp

  Health Regen: 10hp/min

  Base Damage: 15

  Armor: 0

  Stamina: 87/100 (+15)

  Stamina Regen: 20/min

  Max Capacity: 150 pounds

  Current Capacity: 20 pounds

  Dodge Chance: 16%

  Hit Chance: 75%

  Mana: 0

  Mana Regen: 0/min

  Magical Affinity: N/A

  Skills: Analyze

  It looks like I’m a normal human. The stats are more complex than the ones I’m used to in Pangea, but they are basically the same. It’s all there—Strength, Intellect, Vitality—just in a different way. More comprehensive. Perhaps it’s easier to make them more detailed when this world isn’t having to play nice with a hundred others that might not have the same rules. That’s one thing that has always impressed me about Pangea Online, the balance between gameworlds regardless of a player’s stats. The programming they must have on the backend to make that flow so well is beyond me.

  Nothing really stands out about my stats except for the fact that I have no magical affinity at the moment. Seeing as how my Stamina has a bonus, it must have been buffed from all of my running. It’s good to know I can increase my stats if I grind hard enough and that it’s not all based on levels.

  I’m glad the AI has finally decided to give me a stat table. It’ll be a lot easier to see how I stack up against opponents going forward. I focus on my items and sure enough, their stats have changed as well.

  Item. Bronze short sword. +3 damage. 1.5 lbs

  Item. Steel targe shield. +5 armor. 9 lbs

  Food. Sausage. Recovers 20 hp and Stamina over 60 seconds.

  Food. Bread. Recovers 20 hp and Stamina over 60 seconds.

  Item. Fairy Dust. Effect: Lulls opponents to sleep.

  “Shit!” I yell as a searing pain courses through my upper body. A set of blue scaly claws dig into my shoulder and lift me off the ground. It takes everything in me to keep hold of my items and not toss them away. The flap of sail-like wings jostles me as we rise higher into the air. I was so caught up in the stat page and the new item descriptions that I didn’t notice a dragon the size of a small house sneaking up on me from behind.

  The dragon fumes as we ascend, long rolls of steam pouring from its nostrils. The thought of stabbing the creature in the leg with my sword until it releases me crosses my mind, but the sad reality is that we are too high in the air. A fall from this height would certainly kill me. I try to ignore the pain and focus on the gravity of my situation and not the gravity that will certainly kill me if the dragon decides I’m not worth the trouble.

  It’s hard to focus when four-inch claws are burying themselves in your skin, but I do my best. The animals in the fields far below look like tiny insects and the trees appear as bulbous shrubs. We’re so high up that it all looks like a model. The cool air mixed with sweat on my forehead sends chills down my body. Far off to the east, I can see what looks like a city, and straight ahead are the mountains. It’d be nice if the dragon would drop me at the base and take my HP it has already drained as the fare.

  The pain fades the farther we fly and eventually, my HP returns to full. The dragon’s talons are still gripping me with the strength of a hundred men, but it does little to disrupt my focus. I watch the map as my dot creeps closer to Kindra and Carter. I’m now close enough that if I can manage to free myself, I’ll likely be able to catch up with them.

  It seems the dragon has different plans.

  We reach the mountains and the dragon soars even higher. It’s wings flap thunderously and we rise above the clouds into the stratosphere. The air grows frosty the higher we climb until I can see the snow-capped summit above us. We begin circling the peak and the dragon lets out a roar. This high up, there is only a muted silence aside from the dragon’s roar.

  It roars again. Long and monstrous, its boom clamors and echoes through the wilderness.

  Then, a reply.

  Small, diminutive squawks answer the mother’s call, and I realize I’m about to be dinner.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The mother dragon descends toward the mountain and her nest comes into view. A brown dot in an otherwise winter wasteland. Two baby dragons, each about the same size as me, snap their teeth and waddle around, using their wings for extra support as we approach. Their mouths hang agape, waiting for their next meal. It’s not their first time doing this. Drool runs down their jaws, hungry for sustenance. They are a much lighter blue than their mother, their scales are not made of the same impenetrable substance yet, but their bodies still radiate the fiery heat that dragons possess. The entire mountaintop is covered in snow except for the nest. Snow melts around it, running down and turning to ice, forming a dangerously slick ledge beneath the nest.

  The bright, innocent eyes of newborns look up at us. They are hungry, and their ravenous teeth want nothing more than to rip me to shreds.

  How in the hell am I going to get out of this?

  I search my surroundings for anything I can use to my advantage. A broken tree limb peeks out of the snow overhead. What a shame I don’t have Grappler with me. Aside from that, the mountain is a blanket of white. I have my sword strapped to my waist, my pack, and my shield.

  I’m still contemplating my options when the tension releases from my shoulders and I plummet toward the baby dragons. Puffs of smoke pour out of their snouts as they attempt to blow flames. Sparks flutter from the nostril of one. Please, don’t burn me alive!

  Not knowing what else to do, I take my shield and place my feet between the arm handles, blocking my view of the creatures just as a trickle of flame erupts from one of them. The flame bounces off the shield, saving my body, but my feet grow hot. I crash into the baby dragon’s head and ricochet off the nest, landing hard on the blanket of ice beneath. The ice sends me sliding uncontrollably down the mountainside.

  The entire family roars in anger, the mother in frustration and the babies in hunger and disappointment. I’m just happy I didn’t get eaten. Yet.

  The mother comes after me, her eyes burning brighter than before. She is determined to catch me and take me back to her hungry offspring. A flame erupts and carves through the snow and ice like warm butter as she chases me. An wintry avalanche follows me and suddenly, the dragon isn’t the only thing I’m trying to survive.

  Snow plows into my back like a cold pillow, launching me faster and farther ahead just as the dragon unleashes another bout of flame. Her fire melts a canyon in the avalanche and changes my course.

  Holding onto the shield for dear life, I have no control over steering and am left to the mercy of luck and nature. I cross beneath the layer of clouds and begin to see where the snowline ends. A moment later, the dragon breaks through the clouds and is on me again. The snow thins, and I can feel debris underneath as it scrapes against the bottom of the shield. A large rock ramps me into the air and I land with a crash. The impact tosses me from the shield and I tumble down the mountainside. My body aches as I nose-dive into the mushy snow and dirt. I come to a halt face-down in a frigid puddle. This is it. I’m about to be dragon food.

  I brace for a painful death, but it never comes. Instead, I hear a roar several yards away and watch as the dragon scorches a mountain goat and carries it off. It must have seemed like less of a hassle to feed the kids goat tonight.

  Thoroughly exhausted, I roll over and stare at the cloud canopy overhead. My muscles ache. My bones ache. I’m wet and covered in dirt and mud. I’m pretty sure there is a gash running down the side of my shoulder because it burns like the bowels of hell any time I move it. The dragon could come back for me right now and I doubt I would have any fight in me. My pack hangs limp from my uninjured shoulder. I fiddle with it until I find a piece of sausage.

  I take a bite and let the salty goodness wash over me. Instantly, I begin to feel a little better as my HP recovers. After eating the sau
sage and some bread, I’m finally feeling back to myself.

  “Hey! What the hell are you doing here?” I recognize Kindra’s voice coming up the mountain.

  A moment later, she and Carter stand over my cold, wet body. The orange glow is almost gone from Carter’s eyes and his pupils are once again visible.

  “Yeah, what gives?” asks Carter. “We heard a commotion up the trail and come to find you laying on your ass.” Florian sits on his shoulder, his leafy arms crossed like an expectant mother waiting for her child’s explanation.

  “I, uh…was attacked by a dragon.”

  “What!?” they say simultaneously.

  I sit up and recount my story of the dragon and my adventure down the mountain.

  “We waited for you for half the day before leaving,” says Kindra. She crosses her arms and stares blankly into my eyes.

  “There were complications with my return that I couldn’t overcome. How was your journey here?” I ask.

  “It’s been crazy since you left. As if you couldn’t tell by the dragon, but more and more magical creatures keep appearing. We had to fight off a couple of lizardfolk and Carter used up nearly all of his magic. Then we ran into a group on the road who had a run-in with goblins. Who knows what else might be out there? I don’t know what to make of it all.”

  Everything is changing so fast.

  “What about magic? Have you found magic yet?” I ask Carter.

  He shakes his head, but Kindra answers, “We were actually almost to the place where I learned mine when we heard you and the dragon, so I guess we’re pretty lucky you didn’t become dragon food.”

  Carter helps me to my feet and I follow them down the mountain. It turns out that my abrupt halt landed me right in the middle of a path that leads up into the snowcaps of the mountain. Though I don’t know why anyone would want to hike through snow and ice.

  Beneath the layer of clouds and snow, vegetation returns to the mountainside. Knobby trees curl around the mountain’s edge and tiny bushes cling to soil and rock for dear life. Kindra stops in front of a voluminous pine tree and arches her eyebrows.