by Jason Cheek
“Good day, newfar. My name is Miya Faelwen. I will be your combat instructor.” The black haired beauty introduced herself confidently.
It took me a half-second to close my gaping mouth as my eyes studied the elf intently. Her stern face regarded me in return as I took in the gray, fitted, leather pants and a long sleeved shirt that held an impressive rack and was thick enough to be decent protection from a sharp blade. A thin, short sword was strapped to the back of her waist at a 45-degree angle, a dagger on her side and a bow and quiver strapped across her back. She exuded capability and sexuality in one impressive package.
“Startum Ironwolf. A pleasure to meet you.” I said after a moment of hesitation. Stepping forward, I offered my hand as the elf woman met me half way giving me a firm wrist clasp.
Stepping back, Miya nodded towards my waist. “A short sword is a good choice for melee attacks, and I see you’ve chosen Frost Blast instead of a bow for ranged attacks.” She gave me a wry grin. “I can show you how to use both. Although the skill points won’t travel over into The World, the knowledge I impart to you will enable you to skill up quicker. You’re going to need all the help you can get with a Nightmare start.”
“I look forward to learning from you, Miya. Might I also ask for additional training with the bow, greatsword, and dagger?” Miya’s sky-blue eyes studied me thoughtfully. “While such training is not forbidden, it is not a requirement. Let us first see how you do with the current skill set you have chosen.”
“And if I do well in my training?”
“Then we will see, Startum.” Miya grinned at my persistence. Stepping back, she swept her arm in an arc as a semi-circle of five-foot tall humanoid targets appeared across the valley. The nearest targets started about ten feet out and five across. Equally spaced, the numbers of targets increased every row until they were twenty across at the top of the ridge. “Let us begin.”
The first thing Miya taught me was about my inventory. Unlike the convenient magic sack in most MMORPG games, my inventory consisted of everything inside my belt pouch which, by the way, wasn’t much. Picture a canvas bag about three times the size of a crown royal baggie, and you’ve got an idea of the “maximum slots” I had available. Inside the pouch was a small flask of water, a loaf of heavy travel bread and a rolled up scroll. The scroll happened to be my Frost Blast spell. Although Miya didn’t use magic, she said that the explanation would be simple enough once I learned the spell.
Surprisingly it was just that simple. As soon as I started reading the parchment, my game-body took over the process. Although I couldn’t have told you what had been on the paper, except for the title of the spell, five seconds later and I just knew the spell. Period. I fully understood everything about the spell’s specifics. The range, the shape of the blast and its effects on impact. The knowledge just filled my mind. At the same time, I noticed a new semi-transparent pop-up appear in my HUD. As soon as I focused on opening the window I received the following message:
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Frost Magic.
Frost Magic: Level 0 – 0% Increase in affinity for Frost Magic.
Congratulations! You have learned a new spell: Frost Blast.
Cast Time: 2 sec
Mana Expenditure: 30
The spell launches a blast of frost at the enemy. Damage is 200% of Spell Power. Slows target by 50% for 15 seconds. Range 60 yards.
Smiling to myself, I closed the window as I refocused on the process of using magic in the game. Thankfully casting the spell was even easier. Pulling in mana was like breathing in air but with your mind as you concentrated on forming the spell. Sounds a little complicated, right? Wrong, it was simple. To cast, you simply punched out with your fist calling out the spell’s name.
“Frost Blast.” Immediately, the nearest four-foot target iced over as a white streak slammed center mast. Two seconds later, I called out Frost Blast again and the second streak exploded the iced over target into frozen chunks. A part of my mind realized that it wasn’t necessary to call out the spell’s name with every cast, but for some reason it made me feel like a badass doing it this way.
“Kick ass!” I shouted going to town like Jackie Chan. Punching out with alternating fists, I blasted away the targets around me with quick double taps. Forty-six seconds later I was panting from exertion with my mana drained. Frozen chunks of ice scattered across the ground were all that was left of the closest three rows of targets. While my body wasn’t exhausted, emptying out my mana to zero made me feel light-headed, at least until enough mana had regenerated back enough to make the feeling go away.
“That was pretty easy!” I said, laughing out loud as I fell to my knees giving Miya a shit eating grin.
“You think that was easy?” Seeing my confused look, she gave me a sinister smile. “You have stopped twelve of the enemy before you, but-” pointing to the leftover targets, she continued. “What about the rest?“
As the words left her mouth, the remaining targets suddenly transformed into muscular, mutant green creatures armed with rusty short swords and shields. The five-foot-tall creatures were disgusting to look at. Dirty, matted furs covered their privates, and bone necklaces hung around their misshapen neck or were stuck through their noses and lips. There had to be at least forty of the foul creatures. Focusing on the swarming mobs, I saw names come into focus above their heads. Goblin Raiders (Level 3). As their beady little red eyes focus on me, they howled and charged.
What the fuck? These psychotic rejects from hell were freaking Goblins. One hurried look behind me confirmed that Miya was gone as I swore vehemently. My big mouth was getting me in trouble again. Jumping to my feet, I cast a double Frost Blast at the nearest Goblin. Instead of exploding like the targets, the Goblin’s Hit Point dropped a little more than half as I began cussing non-stop under my breath.
Two more hurried shots and the ugly creature exploded in frozen meaty chunks of black and green goo as I turned around and ran. Stopping just long enough to shoot a pair of blasts behind me, I leaped onto the top of the large rock I’d initially appeared on sliding to a stop. Whipping around, I began blasting another Goblin into frozen slush mentally cursing at the number of hits it took to take the fucker down.
That’s when the shit really hit the fan. As if reading my thoughts, the Goblin Raiders began swarming all around me hacking with their swords. I had just kicked one of the creature’s in its ugly mug and was casting a Frost Blast at another when a third ran its rusty blade deep into my gut.
The pain of the jagged metal blade passing through my bowels was excruciating, but even worse was the white explosion of ice that blasted me off the rock and numbed my mind when the spell I was casting was interrupted. Reeling from the intensity of the pain, something in the back of my mind clicked in comprehension.
Imagine slamming your finger with a hammer. Now reduce that intense, shocking pain by 25%. What do you have left? Still a shit load of hurt. Shaking the caustic thought away, I forced my mind into focus while rolling to my hands and knees in slow motion.
I watched in horror as the Goblin Raiders swarmed around and over the rock as I lurched to my feet only to be rammed through by a half dozen blades. My mind felt as if it had been pierced by a frozen icepick as the green avalanche smashed me to the ground biting, clawing and punching me in a savage fury. Through it all, I somehow noticed a small pop-up screen in the corner of my vision that was scrolling red text.
Goblin Raider stabs you for 12 points of damage.
Goblin Raider punches you for 8 points of damage.
Goblin Raider bites you for 4 points of damage.
You’ve been knocked down. Damage sustained 6 points of damage.
At first, the pain was overwhelming, and all that I wanted to do was curl up and die, but in the middle of the beat down, I realized it wasn’t like being beaten to death in real life. My health was plummeting, but I had only dropped 300 of my 825 Hit Points. As the slowness that had been clinging to my body and mind cleared away, I got
angry. I mean really angry. Like the skin peeling off your face kind of rage that makes you fight for your life against impossible odds. It rose up inside of me like a wave of raw fury. As the Goblin Raider atop of me tore his sword out of my gut to stab me again, I was ready for him as my foot lashed out in a savage kick to smash his knee cap and flinging him away from me.
A guttural scream of pure unadulterated hatred came from my bleeding lips as I began punching and kicking like a madman. A portion of my mind watched the combat log in surprise at the amount of physical damage displayed from my attacks.
You slash Goblin Raider for 30 points of damage.
You elbow Goblin Raider for 22 points of damage.
You punch Goblin Raider for 18 points of damage.
You kick Goblin Raider for 27 points of damage causing movement penalty.
Somehow I made it to my feet still with 200 Hit Points left as I slashed like a madman at the Goblin Raiders with my short sword. I had no idea when I’d manage to draw it, but as the mobs fell back from my ferocity, I broke out of their circle of death and started to run. Pulling out the swords still sticking through my chest, I checked my stats. My Mana was almost three-quarters full, but my Hit Points were down to a 150. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the Goblin Raiders were chasing after me in a ragged line as a wicked thought put a smile to my split lips.
While I might only be Level 0, the attribute increases I’d received from the P&M exam had made me on par with Level 11. This made me basically eight levels higher than the Goblin Raiders, which in an MMORPG style game was a huge power difference. My 77 strength made my punches and kicks deadly, nearly doubled the output of my crappy short sword’s damage.
If I’d had any points in my one-hand edge or unarmed combat skills, I might have killed some of the ugly bastards before I’d broken away. Checking my endurance, I could see it was only down 500 points and, although it was still slowly dropping, now that I wasn’t fighting under a pile of Goblins it wasn’t falling as fast as before. If I had to, I could probably keep running for another two or three hours at this rate.
Even though the pain and suddenness of the attack had thrown my game off, I was quickly getting it back. What looked like an impossible number of enemies was actually something quite doable. Gripping my sword, I turned back to face the pack of Goblins sending a flurry of Frost Blasts into the nearest green bastard. Instead of turning the Goblin Raider into icy mush, the Frost Blasts burst harmlessly on the little thug’s wooden shield.
I got two more shots off with the same effect before I was forced to flee again as I cursed Miya’s family tree. It took me twenty-four more shots and two near deaths experiences from being swarmed under by the nasty bastards, before figuring out how to deal with the freaking shields but by then my health was down to 70 Hit Points. The break had come by accident when my second blast hit my target low below his shield. As soon as the Goblin dropped his shield in slow motion, my third and fourth shots were speeding towards it ugly mug as my fifth went low once again.
You have killed a Goblin Raider.
You Frost Blast Goblin Raider for 50 points of damage.
You Frost Blast Goblin Raider for 50 points of damage.
You Crit Goblin Raider with Frost Blast for 75 points of damage.
You Crit Goblin Raider with Frost Blast for 75 points of damage.
You Frost Blast Goblin Raider for 50 points of damage.
“Take that, biatch!” I shrieked pumping my fist in the air as frozen Goblin slime splattered onto the ground before running away again. Reviewing the damage meter, I was surprised to see that the two headshots had crit for extra damage which was something to consider when even Level 3 mobs had 240 Hit Points.
Looking back at the howling green horde, I resignedly shook my head, ‘one down and only thirty-six more to go.’ As soon as I got twenty yards ahead, I turned and repeated the same attack, before taking off again as I circled the outer edge of the valley.
After that, it was basically rinse and repeat. A couple of times I had to spread out my Frost Blasts on the trailing train of Goblins to keep them from swarming me, but besides being a time-consuming process, the tactic worked like a charm. The main problem was regenerating mana. I’d run until I’d gained around a 230 mana and then I’d turn back and burn another mob down. I learned it was important to have a shot or two extra for any sprinters that got ahead of the pack. I slowly grew in confidence and started stopping for longer and longer barrages. Even blowing my load of mana at the end and taking out the remaining three Goblins with my sword. As soon as the last nasty green bastard fell, I collapsed onto the ground panting heavily.
I had no idea how long I’d been at the slaughter. My endurance was down to 15 points, and my body felt like I’d run a marathon while getting pummeled to death. Green and black chunks of frozen Goblin goodness were scattered around the bowl of the valley, and I was covered in half-frozen black and red blood. Thankfully the worst of my gaping wounds had started to heal up as soon as I was out of combat. Sitting on the ground exhausted, I was gulping down water and chunks of the bland travel bread when I noticed a semi-transparent pop-up screen blinking for my attention. As soon as I focused on the window, it popped up before my eyes.
You have reached One-hand edge skill Level 1.
You have reached Concentration I.
You have reached Frost Magic skill Level 3.
One-hand edge: Level 1 – 1% Increase in knowledge of one-hand edge combat-related abilities.
You have learned a new ability One-hand edge.
Concentration I – (Passive) 10% Decrease in the chance of having a spell or ranged attack disrupted when taking damage.
You have learned a new skill Concentration.
You have reached unarmed combat Level 1.
Unarmed Combat: Level 1 – 1% Increase in hand-to-hand fighting ability.
You have learned a new ability unarmed combat.
Wow, so that was how abilities and skills worked. The skill-ups were nice and should help my overall damage against these higher level mobs. Too bad the skill-ups wouldn’t count for when the game went live. Still, not bad. I was just wondering why the system wasn’t giving me equitable experience for the kills when I heard a slow clapping begin behind me as a familiar musical voice spoke up.
“Not entirely pathetic.”
Turning around to face Miya, I bit my tongue to hold in the first three comments that came to mind. “Thanks for the warning. I really appreciated that head’s up.” Seeing her innocent smile, I muttered angrily. “Crappy ass trick. You could have at least warned me ahead of time.”
“But Startum, I didn’t want your training to be boring,” Miya said with an amused grin as she walked up to me. “Neither did I want to give you the wrong impression as to what to expect.” Sweeping her arm out over the battlefield, she continued.
“These low-level Goblin Raider will be the least of your concern once the game starts. They are little better than savage animals without skills or tactics.” Ignoring my grumbling, she looked into my eyes. “What, could you have done better?”
Rolling my eyes, I thought over my first combat experience in the game. “I guess I could have used my short sword more and I probably relied too much on my magic.” Seeing her ‘go on’ look I came up with one more failure. “It took me too long to find a strategy that worked against the little bastards’ shields.”
“Not bad.” Miya nodded. “You will probably never face such an easy attack like this again-“
“I know, this was bullshit.” My voiced petered away. “Easy what-,“ that’s as far as I got when Miya’s face hardened in disapproval. “Again!” Imperiously she swept her arm behind her back and disappeared.
“Sadistic bitch!” I swore under my breath. As I jumped to my feet, the slope of the valley in front of me sprouted forty more of the dirty green bastards. The first five blasts I threw were automatic, but as the first Goblin Raider exploded into icy slush three black arrows buried them
selves in my chest. The unexpectedness of the shooting pain knocked me back on my ass, which saved me from the next flight of arrows that followed the first three as I repeatedly swore about Miya’s upbringing.
“I’ll show these stinking little fuckers where they can shove their arrows,” I muttered to myself while staying hunched over as the sword-wielding Goblins rushed me in a green wave of nastiness. There only seemed to be twenty of them. I sent four more Frost Blasts shooting in low freezing the edges of the charging Goblins, leaving the middle flowing towards me.
Timing my next Frost Blast carefully, I pegged the green bastard in the legs as he was a step away from me. As the burst of ice shot through his body, I yanked his shield towards me and chopped through the thin little green arm. Before the screeching Goblin could recover, a flurry of hacking chops removed its disgusting fat head from its little green body. As I kicked the headless corpse into the rest of my attackers, another three arrows thumped into my chest causing me to shriek in pain.
Swearing loudly, I slid the shield over my forearm and ducked low once again. Thankfully the arrows only did a measly twenty points of damage, which meant my Hit Points were still above 700. Another four Frost Blast slowed down the middle of the charging Goblins as I hammered at the next two green fuckers using my newly acquired shield.
As the Goblins fell back, I surged forward hacking them to death with my short sword. I was forced to fall back a moment later to stop from being surrounded. I carried out a fighting retreat, doing my best to keep the remaining sword-wielding Goblins between the twenty archers and me. The few arrows that made it through mostly chunked harmlessly into my wooden shield as I finished off the remainder Goblin Raiders with overpowered attacks and then turned to the archers.
What followed was a lesson in pain for all of us. A good portion of it spent repeatedly ducking behind my shield and slowly picking the archers off one at a time. By the time I finished, I’d been shot another thirty times and froze myself from spell backlash twice.
