Awaken Online: Catharsis

by Travis Bagwell

  “Umm. No. Definitely not,” Jason responded in a nonplussed tone. “However, I would like to know the level of an opponent before I get myself in over my head.”

  “Oh.” Jerry seemed quite put out. “Well, that's much less interesting, but I suppose I could teach you the trick. Simply focus on a person and...” He paused for dramatic effect. “Either say or think the word inspect.”

  Jason just stared at him.

  “Really?” he asked evenly.

  Am I “really” that stupid is what I should be asking.

  “Hey, I didn't say it was complicated. Don't shoot the messenger!” Jerry cowered theatrically behind the bar. Grunt looked up in alarm and almost pulled his sword from behind his back. When he realized Jerry was just play-acting, he grunted in irritation and continued scanning the bar.

  Jason flinched under Grunt’s scrutiny and then turned back to Jerry. He decided to try using inspect. He carefully thought the word “inspect” and a blue information screen popped up beside Jerry in his vision.

  Jerry is level 456? Holy crap!

  Jason didn’t need to be worried about Grunt. He should be watching out for Jerry! The thief grandmaster was clearly on a different level and Jason started feeling a little nervous.

  Jerry was looking at him with a grin on his face. “I don't look like much at first glance huh? It's probably the hat!” He said this last part while flicking the edge of his floppy hat with a sorrowful look. As he saw the expression on Jason's face, he broke character and started laughing.

  “Well I expect you will also be wanting some training then?” Jerry asked.

  “That was also on my agenda for today,” Jason replied, still a little unnerved.

  Jerry gestured to a small door near the bar and Jason followed him through. Grunt trailed behind them and his enormous form barely squeezed down the narrow corridor.

  The door led to a flight of stairs that terminated in a typical bar cellar. Barrels and kegs lined the walls and the place reeked of beer. Jerry seemed to be inspecting a particular rack holding a set of kegs. His hands became a blur as he tapped out an intricate pattern on the wood of the rack. Once he finished, a section of the wall at the back of the cellar slid back, revealing a large hidden room.

  As they stepped through the doorway, Jason was dumbfounded for the second time. Jerry had a fully equipped training hall and shooting range under his inn! On one wall hung various types of knives, swords, daggers, bows, etc. On another side of the hall was a fully functioning archery range, with an intricate moving target system. Wooden pulleys and ropes were suspended from the ceiling over the targets.

  What the hell?

  Jerry seemed to be having a great time watching Jason's expression. “Welcome to my little training hall. If I recall correctly, you came here to learn to use daggers and throwing knives. Lucky you - those are my favorites!”

  Jerry leaned over and spoke directly to the cat, “But you, sir, will need to wait over to the side. We wouldn't want you getting stabbed by accident.”

  The cat seemed to look at Jerry scornfully, before slowly sauntering over to a corner of the training area to stand beside Grunt. Jason's brow furrowed. Had the cat understood Jerry? He shook his head.

  I must be reading too much into it.

  Jason didn't have much time to ponder this mystery because the next three hours were some of the most painful of his life. He knew that if the training had taken place in the real world, he would either be dead or in need of immediate hospitalization.

  The training had started with a set of calisthenics exercises that made Jason wish he was double jointed. They had then sparred with daggers, Jerry showing him various attacks. Note that they were using real daggers during his first training session. Thankfully, every time Jason started to bleed out, Jerry was there with a health potion and helpful encouragement (translation, more stabbing).

  Finally, they ended the session with an endless series of throwing exercises. Jason learned to throw while standing, while moving, while jumping, and while laying down. He didn't really understand that last one, but Jerry insisted it was important. By the end of the training session, Jason would have killed Jerry if he thought he had any chance of actually hitting the floppy-hatted bastard.

  Remarkably, Jason did seem to improve during the three-hour period. By the end of the training session, he was occasionally able to block one of Jerry's attacks and was coordinated enough to hit the targets regularly. He wasn't on Jerry's level by a long stretch, but he felt much more competent. Jason couldn't help but think that the AI was somehow assisting his actions, since he was certain he wouldn't have picked up this level of ability in only one training session in the real world.

  Once he caught his breath and his stamina refilled, Jason was able to survey the notifications of his skill and stat increases.

  He was impressed.

  New Passive Skill: Small Blades

  The weapons of choice for those that prefer subtlety over direct confrontation. Under Jerry’s special tutelage anything with a sharp point can be turned into a weapon. Stabbing people is an art, not a discipline!

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 3

  Effect: 7% increased damage and expertise with daggers and throwing knives.

  x2 Skill Rank Up: Dodge

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 3

  Effect: 2% increased speed when avoiding attacks.

  The training really paid off, although he couldn't imagine going through this torture on a regular basis. He unconsciously rubbed at the spots where Jerry had stabbed him. The healing potions had caused the skin to grow back quickly, but the psychological damage was still there. Even though Jason knew that the injuries weren’t real and the pain was limited to a dull ache, it was still disconcerting to be stabbed in the stomach repeatedly.

  As if reading his mind, Jerry said, “We can't train like this every day, and, even if we could, it would do you no good. The skill and stat gain slows considerably after the first session. After one or two more bouts of training, you will need to practice in real combat to advance. Sparring with me will always help, but real combat will improve your skills much faster.”

  “That makes sense. I'm glad that I won't have to kill myself like this every day,” Jason replied.

  At least the diminishing returns keeps the game a bit balanced. Otherwise you could train endlessly and then add the stat increases from levels on top of that. A player like that would be a bit broken.

  Jason decided he wanted to review his current Character Status and list of skills. He actually hadn't checked his Character Status since he left Morgan, so he was curious about his affinities. He also still hadn't assigned his 10 stat point from the two levels he had gained in the graveyard. He was still reluctant to do so until he had a better sense of the skills that he would learn from Morgan.

  It was starting to look like he had rolled some sort of rogue class based on his skills and stats. However, Jason's heart was now set on using dark magic. These other skills were just a means to an end, and he expected that they would be useful in the future.

  Something was nagging at him about the fight the evening before. He remembered the massive damage he had caused to the grave robber when he had stabbed him in the neck. Specifically, the damage text had indicated that he had done “overkill” damage. When he did the math afterwards, the robber only had 200 health by his calculation.

  How much health did the typical level 100 player have? He wished he had known how to check the grave robber's level as a benchmark.

  Looking over at Jerry polishing the knives and setting them back on the racks, a thought occurred to him. “Hey, Jerry, how much health do you have?”

  Jerry looked at him with a lopsided grin. “You should offer to buy a thief some dinner before you start asking questions like that!”

  Jason just sighed.

  Unperturbed, Jerry laughed at his own joke and continued, “To answer your question, I have about 4,000 health at the moment. However, keep
in mind that my health is low because I’ve invested heavily in Dexterity and Strength to increase my attack damage and speed. I shouldn't be getting hit, so I don't need to worry about investing too much in Vitality.”

  Jason pondered this for a moment. “So how much health would a typical level 100 have?”

  “Well, the answer to that question is a bit more challenging. Each person gains 5 points to health, mana, and stamina each level. Each point of Vitality adds 10 health, so my guess is that most individuals at level 100 would have around 1,000 health.

  “That’s just a rough estimate since it would depend on whether they had invested heavily in Vitality. Most people don't put points in Vitality unless they want to stand on the front lines and soak up the damage. For example, Grunt has quite a bit of health.”

  So a level 100 player that hadn’t put any points in Vitality would have 595 base health. They would then have to put nearly 40 points in Vitality (or eight levels worth of points) to get to approximately 1,000 health. That actually seems realistic as an average.

  However, it’s a little strange that the NPCs understand how stats function in the game. On the other hand, I guess it makes sense that both travelers and NPCs use the same system. It would be hard to learn the game mechanics if the NPCs were oblivious.

  Jerry's explanation had some interesting implications.

  The previous evening, Jason had done enough damage in one well-placed blow to kill a level 100 player and his damage output (between his Strength and gear) was actually pretty weak. He wondered if he could achieve a higher damage multiplier if he invested more points in Strength. Or would it just be additive? His head started spinning at the possibilities.

  His excitement waned slightly when he considered that he wasn't going to be able to walk up and stab everyone in the neck. Most people would be able to see him coming or would be well-armored. He recalled Alex's full plate armor and realized he didn't really have any obvious weak points.

  I might get one good attack in before a group of players or NPCs pummel me to death. No wonder Jerry invested so heavily in Dexterity. He needs to be able to run away after he strikes!

  This reasoning process also made Jason more interested in Morgan’s magical teachings. The damage output of a rogue was potentially fantastic, but he would only get one shot before he had to flee for his life. He had tried that already, and it wasn’t much fun.

  Jason noted that it was now late afternoon in-game. He needed to start heading to the stables to scout out the area and identify Marian. Jason thanked Jerry for the training and started heading for the door.

  “Aren't you forgetting our deal?” Jerry asked from behind him.

  Jason turned with a quizzical expression on his face.

  “I need you to handle my package!”

  This line was made even worse by Jerry's delivery. He was standing with his legs crossed demurely, and he gazed at Jason coyly under his floppy hat.

  Jason stared at Jerry with a deadpan expression.

  “Ahh, you're no fun!” A package materialized in Jerry's hands. “Please take this to Rex. He'll be expecting it.”

  “Okay. I was heading in that direction anyway.” Jason grabbed the package from Jerry. “By the way, what's the connection between you and Rex?”

  Jerry cocked his head in thought. “Well that's a bit complicated. Rex actually used to be a formal member of the city guard, a corporal to be precise. Long story short, he quit in disgrace. They still let him train the travelers, but that's grunt work. Let’s just say I took an interest in him and he helps me out from time to time.”

  “For example, he brings me the occasional fresh meat to train,” he said with an evil grin.

  Grimacing, Jason bid Jerry goodbye and started making his way to the training grounds. He had some work to do.

  Chapter 11 - Inquisitive

  July 14, 2075: 445 days until the release of Awaken Online.

  Robert stood alone facing the camera. “Clare is ill. I have taken over for her today,” he said without any ceremony.

  “The noteworthy point of today's brief centers around the new infamy and alignment systems in-game. We had originally designed AO not to include these two systems since we felt that it distracted players from playing the game in a way that felt natural.”

  “We didn't want players to focus too much on choosing the ‘right’ answer to a quest or interactions. We wanted them to act spontaneously.”

  Robert grinned ruefully. “Apparently, Alfred disagreed, since he has now added both features to the game. One oddity is that these systems seem to affect only a small percentage of the player population.”

  He motioned to the screens behind him. “Of the one hundred participants in the private trial, only four have an evil alignment and most of the participants have zero infamy. Keep in mind, this is not a large enough sample group to be representative of the future player base. At this point, we do not have an accurate baseline to evaluate what it means to be an ‘evil’ player in the game.”

  Robert had a thoughtful look on his face. “My hypothesis is that most players want to be heroes. Everyone likes a tale where the protagonist defeats evil and saves the girl. I know this isn't a novel concept, but there it is. This helps to explain the disparity in alignment and infamy among the participants.”

  He paused for a moment and seemed to be pondering something. “I guess my question is what does it actually mean to be ‘good’ or ‘evil’? How would Alfred differentiate between the two? Would a mass murderer be evil? What if he was killing seriously bad people? Or perhaps someone who is ‘evil’ might be based on public opinion. Like an evil poll!” Robert paced back and forth in front of the camera and gestured animatedly as he spoke. His face was serious and his eyes stared off into the distance.

  “I don't mean to go on a philosophical rant here, but the concept intrigues me. I don't understand how the system would evaluate someone who made the choice to kill one innocent person to save several others. Extending this reasoning, would a player that destroyed a city to save a country be ‘evil’ or ‘good’ under the system Alfred designed?”

  “Alternatively, are there simply a hard-coded set of ‘moral rules’ that Alfred has somehow developed that determine whether someone is ‘evil?’ If there is, then how did he come up with those rules?”

  “These questions seem difficult, if not impossible, to answer in the real world. I'm left wondering how Alfred intends to make these determinations in-game.”

  Robert rubbed his chin for a moment, his eyes gazing steadily off into space. Then he turned back to the camera.

  “Putting all of that aside, I guess the real question is why does Alfred think that the infamy and alignment systems are important?”

  * * *

  Jason soon arrived at the training grounds and looked around for Rex. On the long walk to the training grounds, Jason had been thinking of a way to get even with the guard for sending him into the lion's den. He had come up with a couple of ideas that he was quite proud of. Unfortunately, he didn't see Rex in his usual spot next to the barrels of wooden weapons.

  A hand suddenly landed on Jason’s shoulder. He turned to find Rex grinning at him. “Look at you in your fancy armor. I see you've come a long way since we last spoke.”

  Jason feigned surprise. “Oh, these little things? I took these off the bodies! Thank you so much for sending me to south-side! I hadn't realized until yesterday how much I enjoy the thrill of the kill. Blood tastes almost... sweet. Don't you think?”

  He drew his dagger and ran his tongue slowly across the edge of the blade, his eyes partially closed in rapture. “You can still taste it a bit.”

  Rex's face was filled with horror and he took an inadvertent step backward, tripping on a pile of wooden weapons the players had left lying on the ground. The former guard fell backwards, landing hard on his ass. He madly scrambled to stand back up.

  Jason promptly erupted into laughter at the scene. It was hilarious to see the rugged wa
rrior so disarmed. He couldn't stop for several minutes and a few of the players in the training ground looked at him like he was insane. After he recovered, Jason gave Rex the short version of what had happened after Jason had left him.

  Rex took the jab in stride and rubbed his backside. “I s'pose I deserved that.” He grinned at Jason. “Now I wish I could have seen you running from those thieves. You're lucky you didn't end up with a dagger up your ass.”

  “By the way, who is this little guy following you?” Rex leaned down and pet the cat. The feline thrummed in pleasure.

  Jason really didn't know how to respond. “I'm not certain. I ran into him last night and he has been following me around ever since. I don't know whether he has a name or not.”

  Rex scowled at Jason. “Then name him! You shouldn't leave a pet unnamed!”

  Who knew Rex was a secret pet lover, Jason thought wryly.

  Jason looked at the cat and it met his gaze levelly.

  “A name huh? How about Felix?” The cat seemed to glare at him in irritation.

  “Okay, not Felix then,” Jason said, putting up his hands defensively to ward off the cat’s scowl.

  He tried again. “Maybe Shadow?” The cat turned as though to leave.

  Suddenly a name clicked for Jason. “Wait. What do you think of Onyx?”

  The cat turned back and looked at Jason. It almost seemed... grateful? Was it possible for a cat to look grateful?

  Rex clapped his hands. “I like it! Onyx it is!”

  “Well, I'm glad you’re happy,” Jason said with a grin.

  Jason suddenly remembered why he was looking for Rex. “By the way, Jerry asked me to bring you this package.” Jason handed off the package and Rex quickly stowed it in his satchel.