by Sam Ferguson
THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
©2021 SAM FERGUSON
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Contents
1. Shipwrecked
2. Fezhik
3. Luck at the Market
4. Friends
5. The Scholar of Anorit
6. Dungeon Diving
7. Horse Thieves and Traitors
8. Machi and Little Man
9. Road to Bohotes
10. Accelerated Expansion
11. First Blood
12. Pierced to the Heart
13. Clues
14. Quest Giver
15. Respawn
16. Urchin Rose
17. Pan’s Gambit
18. Ivory Spine
19. Fee Fi Fo Fum
20. War Drums
21. Seeds of Hope
22. Endgame
23. Save and Exit
Epilogue
Thank you for reading The Undiscovered Country.
For my children, and the fun I have had watching them dive into games nearly as much as I have.
1
Shipwrecked
Brian felt the punch land on his cheek. The quick sting dissipated almost immediately, leaving him angry, but not hurt. Around him, the crowd jeered and threw down last minute bets. The ship’s crew and passengers reveled in the chance to forget about the fact they were all on a wooden tomb floating toward an island filled with more monstrosities than the rest of the world had ever known.
Brian redoubled his efforts, circling to the right just as his opponent threw a jab. Brian didn’t take the bait—instead, he lashed out with a quick right jab of his own, then side-stepped to the left as his opponent’s right fist came in fast and heavy. He grabbed the extended arm, pinning it to his chest as he rained down hard with two fast and furious blows to the tall man’s right cheekbone. The skin split on the second punch and blood spurted from the wound.
The crowd roared.
Brian smirked as he saw his opponent’s hit points (HP) drop to half. His stamina took a major blow as well. The opponent, a non-player character (NPC), was listed simply as “Sea dog” in the white tag floating above him. Sea dog roared and lashed out with a flurry of attacks. Brian dodged two but was unable to escape the third. A heavy blow to his ribs didn’t take a lot of Brian’s HP, but it did reduce his stamina by a third.
“Not acceptable,” Brian said. He took two steps back to the edge of the small makeshift ring, which was formed by benches arranged in a square in the lower deck of the ship. “Twenty gold says I win,” Brian shouted. May as well make a bit of extra coin off of this as well.
[-20 GP] flashed over the top left of Brian’s HUD. A few of the men in the crowd laughed and spat at him, but he paid them no mind. He let the Sea dog come in and land two more rib shots. His stamina dropped again.
“Odds are now ten to one in favor of the champion!” shouted the ringmaster, a surly old sailor with a massive gut and leathery skin.
Brian smiled wide. That’s just what I wanted to hear. He moved in quick, ducking under a massive punch from the Sea dog and coming up hard with an uppercut to the solar plexus. Sea dog’s stamina dropped to nearly zero. Launching a left hook, he took down Sea dog’s HP by about a third as the large man stumbled backward several feet.
Brian didn’t let up, shuffling left to allow for an easy pair of right jabs, and then he feinted with his left just to get Sea dog to raise his defenses. The man fell for it, throwing his thick arms up to cover his face. Brian fired a right, then a left to the man’s ribs. The stamina bar emptied completely. Brian ended the fight with two left jabs to the jaw, followed by a heavy right cross that sent Sea dog to the deck face-first.
The cheers grew louder. A few people booed him, but Brian didn’t care.
[Hand to hand skill +1]
[+200 GP]
[Common Achievement badge earned. Eye of the Tiger]
Brian chuckled, took his winnings, and moved to an upper deck. His friends were waiting for him in the mess deck. The first thing he noticed was a strange-looking elf jumping up onto tables. The green tag read “Kolvurin.”
“Mike, is that you?” Brian asked.
“Yup. Still waiting for a few of the others to log in.” He jumped onto another table, knocking over a couple of glasses of ale and sending NPCs scattering away from the table.
“What’s the big idea?!” A woman shouted.
“Do that again and I’ll gut you like a fish!” a male NPC threatened.
Mike didn’t listen. He kept jumping up and down over and over.
“Mike, what the crap are you doing?” Brian asked.
“Building my acrobatics skill. It’s one of the easiest ways to level up. Find a mundane skill, max it out, and build those levels.”
“Seems tedious,” Brian replied.
Mike laughed. “It’s no different from your boxing match downstairs.”
“It’s quite different,” Brian replied. “First of all, fighting is fun. You’re just hopping around like a jumping spider on crack.”
Mike stopped jumping and stood up in front of Brian. “It will pay off later on, I assure you.” Mike stepped closer and then frowned. “Still thinking of a name?” Mike asked.
Brian shook his head. “No, I have one.”
Mike chuckled. “I’m looking at your gamer tag right now. It says ‘Bob.’ You can’t use a name like that.”
Brian shrugged. “I mean, it doesn’t really matter what the name is right? Besides, Bob is totally fine.”
“But...” Mike started to reply, but someone else called to them.
“Mike, Brian, over here,” Professor Rojas’ voice called out.
Brian and Mike joined the group. It was weird to see them all like this. The only avatars Brian was certain he knew were Mike’s and Barry’s. Mike and Brian had played a few of the older Terramyr Online games in undergrad, and Kolvurin had always been Mike’s go-to character name. More than that, Kolvurin always looked the same too. Mike said it was because there weren’t any other o
ptions that fit his background as a half-Chinese half-Italian kid. A Svetli-Tai, a race of tall elves with an athletic build and slightly golden skin, was the closest thing that made Mike feel like he was represented correctly.
Barry, on the other hand, was easy to spot because in the game he was every bit the pretentious putz he was in life. Only one idiot would bother concocting a name like “Xylxxian” for their avatar.
“Hi Barry,” Brian said.
Barry turned and smiled. Only when the character fully turned around did Brian realize the problem. Barry’s character was exactly the same as his. They were both Terramites, a plentiful enough human race found on Terramyr known for their broad abilities. Both of them also wore a simple black cape topped with a hood that had a pair of red crossed daggers embroidered over the heart and again on the hood itself.
“I see we’re both going for the assassin slash warrior motif,” Brian said.
Barry scoffed. His grating, nasal voice cut through only all too well over the game’s comms system. “Oh no, no, no. I am not creating a multi-class character. I am strictly an assassin. I intend to fully master the assassin skill tree. I’ll be unstoppable. Better watch out, or I might even stab you in the back for the right price.”
No one laughed at the joke. Brian and the rest of them had all heard too many similar comments in real life from him to give this one much thought.
“Besides, what kind of a name is Bob? You aren’t really getting into the spirit of things here.”
“All right, that’s enough for now. Let me take roll and make sure our systems are all up and running properly.” Professor Rojas said. Brian turned to get a good look at his professor’s avatar. Rich black skin with wide shoulders and thick muscles told Brian that Professor Rojas was playing as a Konnon, a race renowned for their nearly unmatched prowess in battle among the south eastern continents of Terramyr. The green tag above him read “Aikur.”
“Nice name, Prof,” Mike put in.
“I have read a Terramyr book or two in my day,” Rojas said with a grin.
[See, even the prof gets the name importance—Xylxxian]
Brian bit his tongue upon seeing Barry’s direct message. It wasn’t worth arguing with him. The few times Mike or Brian had handily beaten Barry with words, the oaf had been too stubborn to see it as a loss.
“I am very excited to see that this appears to be working for each of us,” Rojas continued. “Brian, your tag is Bob, Barry you are... however you pronounce that.”
“Just call him X,” Brian commented a second before Barry could try and interject his made-up pronunciation and whatever backstory he had concocted for it.
“X it is,” Rojas said.
Brian smiled, imagining that Barry was now frowning and cursing with his mic muted. One point for me, Barry.
“Rhonda?” Rojas called out.
“Here sir,” Rhonda said as her avatar raised a hand. Rhonda was a Korr’Tai, another race of elf with less innate magical ability than a Svetli’Tai, but with a closer affinity for animals and the natural races that were rumored to inhabit the continent they were headed for, Prirodha. It was a likely choice for her. She had also taken some time with the avatar editor to darken the skin, style the hair, and select facial features that made her avatar a very near replica for her real self. Brian could hardly take his eyes off her.
“Alchemist?” Mike asked.
Rhonda nodded. “I like looking for plants and bugs,” she said. The green tag above her avatar showed her in-game name was Sylendra. Brian thought her name suited her well. Elegant and sophisticated.
“Ugh,” Barry said. “Don’t you spend enough time looking for plants? The whole point to a fantasy game is to play something you couldn’t ever be in real life. You don’t even look different!”
“Ah!” Brian cut in. “I wondered why your character had a higher charm rating than the rest of us.”
The others broke out into laughter.
“That’s it! It is so on!” Barry said. “I will show you, Brian... or should I say Bob.”
Score another point for me, Barry. Brian smiled and let Rojas reestablish order.
“Chris?”
“Here,” Chris said. He stepped forward, his face covered by a heavy cowl. Brian couldn’t see what he was. Then again, that wasn’t wholly necessary. They just had to see each other’s gamer tags. Chris was using the name Zaglug.
“Augustin?” Rojas called out.
“Present,” Augustin said in his mild Chilean accent. Augustin was the only one of them not from Hobarth University back in Maine. Augustin attended the Universidad de Chile and was a member of the Colegio de Arqueólogas y Arqueólogos de Chile. Brian had worked with Augustin last year, but he hadn’t gotten to know him all that well since they had been working separate sites and had only gotten together in person at team meetings every couple of months when everyone had to hike in to Site 3. It would be nice to get to collaborate on ideas at more frequent meetings with the use of this software. That is if you could call meeting over a video game each night to discuss findings at separate dig sites in remote Chilean forests as “in person.” Augustin’s character was also a Konnon, carrying a great big war hammer. His character name was Demetrius.
That left only one person. Meredith.
A Tomni’Tai, an elf with dark gray skin and an affinity for fire magic, stepped into the group revealing her gamer tag as Treshana.
“Excellent, looks like we are all here successfully. Now, keep in mind, this version of Terramyr Online is not rolled out publicly yet. So, please keep any game-related insights to yourselves so you don’t violate your non-disclosure agreements,” Professor Rojas said.
“If you encounter any bugs or glitches, note them down and give me a report,” Meredith cut in, taking the floor from Professor Rojas. “Of course, we’ll be interested in overall gameplay impressions and reports, but this is the fifth Terramyr Online expansion. We know what we’re doing, and I am not looking to humor a bunch of grad kids looking to muck with the formula. Bug hunting is what will be most valuable to my company.”
“Rhonda’s good at hunting bugs,” Mike cut in.
A couple of them chuckled at his ill-fated attempt to diffuse the tension, but the silence was reinstated quite quickly as Meredith’s avatar turned toward Mike. She stared at him as if her real eyes were boring a hole through his VR set and straight into his brain. Then, just when it looked like her avatar might launch an assault with some sort of fire spell, Meredith said in absolute deadpan, “Those aren’t the kind of bugs I care about.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Mike said sheepishly.
Before meeting Meredith, Brian would have thought it impossible to know anyone more annoying or narcissistic than Barry.
Meredith took that game to a whole new level though. Even Barry felt uneasy around her.
“As you’re all aware,” Rojas cut in, “Meredith is not here simply for the game. I hope you all appreciate the enormity of what my friend Stavros has provided to us. The same imaging systems that his company designed to create this world,” he gestured about them, sweeping his eyes over their surroundings and avatars, “will be revolutionary to our archaeological work.
“In exchange for our unique insights as alpha testers, Meredith will be actively working with each of you to virtually map our dig sites, scan artifacts and carvings, and analyze data we collect. Everything from carbon-dating results to insect and plant species identification will be sifted through the programs Meredith has designed to help create a full picture of the lives of these ancient people.
“I’m especially eager to get Meredith’s insights on the stonework we recently uncovered. As though her talents as a programmer weren’t enough, she cut her teeth as a cryptolinguist and has worked as a contractor for the government to test and develop new codes. She’s designed a computer algorithm to analyze scans of the carvings we have found to predict the likelihood of a language at work. Furthermore, she’ll be using her drone to map out th
e entire area. The resulting renderings will allow us to preserve what we find here for posterity.”
Rojas paused and looked around the group. He smiled and then gestured with his hands out to the side. It was uncanny how realistic these avatars could be, capturing the very mannerisms each person would be using if they were huddled around a meeting table at this very moment. “We have limited time here. The Chilean government is predicting dangerous levels of volcanic activity which could strike in the next eight weeks, so we have to finish everything in three. No excuses. Use the game to unwind, and we’ll meet inside it each night for a team meeting, but don’t spend all day on the system.” Rojas turned to the hooded form at the back of the group. “Chris, I mean you, buddy. Remember, if you don’t perform on this trip, you flunk out.”
Barry whistled through his teeth.
Brian could never tell if Barry was using such moments to suck up to Rojas, or if perhaps he just thought so highly of himself that he felt compelled to add his seal of disapproval.
Probably the second.
“I hear you, prof.”
“That said, our contract guarantees me a minimum of two daily hours of gameplay from each of you,” Meredith cut in. “I don’t care how tired you are after a day of digging in the caves or brushing off insects. Get the two hours in and be sure to log your start and end times. I will be checking them and making sure you aren’t simply logging in and staying static. In order to be of value, you need to progress through the game so we can check for bugs. Your professor assures me that your... unique set of talents will result in a more believable and enjoyable gaming world at the end of it all.” She sounded unconvinced, maybe even annoyed. Brian got the sense she was holding back some choice modifiers.
