I fired several shards of energy at the mech and watched as it fell back. I took that moment to scan it.
Doomcollar 5000 Health. ? Mana. ? Stamina.
Abilites: Jinx of the Moon, Hex of Storms, Curse of Passion, The Demon Curse, The Forge Curse, The Silence Cure
And than I got a good look at Molto.
Name: Molto
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Level: 53
Class: Paladin
HP: 700
Mana: 200
Stamina: 500
Agility: 10
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 8
Charisma: 8
Luck: 5
Abilities: None
Skills: Augmentation, Frenzy, Dragon’s Bane, Dread, Curse of Growth
Inventory: M44 Rifle, Dragon’s Fang (great sword), 7-1 Echo (pistol)
Reputation: Neutral
Alignment: The Five, Arcadia, The Hub
Languages: Common (English)
It was bearing down on Bendi and I when out Jace jumped up over the top of one of the walls and fired a rifle at Molto’s mech. The weapon he fired was a rare rifle, a weapon originally designed as a secret technology project. Its official name was the 2-ULX, but it went by ‘Lightning’. A beam of light hit Molto’s mech sending it backwards towards the ground. Jace had betrayed the five to save us. He waved as soldiers surrounded him and we flew off into the distance towards the Deadlands and the goblin kingdom. Bendi used one of his three claws to turn on a map on the jets HUD. He marked the spot of the dungeon where we were most likely to find Ethan and Ariane and the two of us flew into the night sky.
Chapter 13.1
Ellie
The Real World
Day 14
Ellie sat with a cup of coffee held tight in her right hand. It was 3 am and she couldn’t sleep again. She was back at the research center STEM. In the main office, the director was overlooking genetic mapping of the human baize pair sequences of DNA. A computer terminal showed several strands that controlled intelligence, athletic ability, healing, and immunity. All genes the director had told Ellie could be manipulated, a type of augmentation. There was just one thing they needed, subjects. The director had toyed once with the idea of snatching children, elderly, but no one took those ideas serious. They probably should have.
Ellie stared at Adam. His body. His real body. His mind had been plugged inside a prototype BUI that covered most of his face.
“This is going to change the world, you understand that, when we find a way to pull Adam out,” the director stopped. She had come down to check on Ellie. It was with her permission that they had gained access to Adam. Ellie had to sign hundreds of confidentiality documents and had basically taken a job at STEM. Nothing more than an observer though she was assigned to take care of Adam’s physical body. Most of the time this involved cleaning and shoving liquid down through a feeding tube. Also none of the scientists or staff had any trouble sharing information with her. It had been fourteen days since the bombing on the bridge.
Ellie knew the moment Adam was late. She knew something was wrong and when she got a call from the hospital it became the worst moment of her life.
Day 1
“This is the first day of private trials for Darkness Beyond, no, god I hate that name, lets just call it… Glimmer, ok, ok,” the woman was a bit reserved. She looked at Adam as he lay in a coma on life support. She was wearing glasses which she adjusted constantly.
“Thats the game we have been playing,” Ellie said.
“Yes and no, you see the game is based on…” she paused, “lets just say it can help Adam here. To be clear, these trials are not a part of the alpha nor are they like any other so called game you or he might have played, this trial is being conducted at the request of Protoss Studios, I believe Adam did work for them as a game tester. They’re source code comes from STEM and well… Adam is unique in that his synchronization rate is nearly 100% based on information gathered from the alpha,” she stopped, “I’m sorry can you sign these,” she pulled out a large folder filled with dozens of documents. All top secret, confidential. Ellie agrees.
“As Adams domestic partner you have been given power of attorney, authority by the state as to what happens to him, we also have a job offering for both of you,” she began, “we are testing, the artificial interface is still in its early stages but we believe that we can create a virtual world based on data we have collected and this is the part that will be important to you. Adam can live in this world and grow,” she finished, “we have a transport ready, it will take both of you to our labs and we will make life better for him… and you. We have the best doctors, the best staff, we’ll be able to monitor him every step of the way,” she smiled.
Ellie agreed. She signed.
They were at STEM within the hour.
“Plug and play, we just interface with the cerebral cortex and there,” the woman with the glasses smiled. She layed a visor down over Adam’s head. It looked like something out of a comic book, a near solid black helmet and visor with a dozen wires running back towards a wall. Adam was still on life support. They were monitoring more than his heart rate though.
“All systems functional, he should be waking up any second now,”
“What is it going to be like for him?”
“Like playing Darkness Beyond, only more real, eventually he won’t be able to tell the difference between that world and this one. There are some complications though. He will feel pain like it is real. We’ve managed to give him the ability to respawn but we have no idea how many times it will work. Each time he dies in the game his body here will want to die and we’ll have to resuscitate. If he doesn’t do his best to survive… well.. You remember that game, it could be pretty violent,” the doctor said.
“WHY THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO PUT HIM IN THERE!” Ellie shouted.
“Calm down, you signed remember, its the only game with the right kind of source code, the only way we can keep him from going brain dead, you don’t want Adam to be a vegetable right, this is kinda an in-between. He’s in limbo, eventually we’ll find a way to pull him out but in the meantime we have to make sure that he’s taken care of,” the woman snarled.
“Can’t you control the NPCs in the game? Make them nice or harmless,” Ellie asked.
“Its in the source code, we have no control over the game environment, we can help open up some shortcuts but thats really all we can do.”
“Rerouting memory allocation,” she said.
“What does that mean?” Ellie asked.
“We are backing everything up, if something goes wrong we want to be able to find out why, Adam is our only link in there. The game world is evolving, its constantly in flux, like a living world. We are also going to be accessing parts of Adam’s brain that were not previously available. To him its going to be like he’s using magic.”
————
Day 4
Ellie sat next to Adam’s side reading a book. It was based in the world of ‘Moon Fire’, their favorite game. It had been the last thing Adam had read before his accident. She had quit her job earlier that day. She hadn’t shown up to work since offered her new position as a caretaker for Adam so it didn’t matter much to her. The company, Protoss and STEM were paying her double anyway not that she didn’t love what she did. She was happy she didn’t have to spend two hours cleaning cages anymore but watching over Adam was strange and scary. Ellie was afraid almost every moment wondering if he might go into cardiac arrest again or that something would go wrong with the program. The doctor said the data they were collecting was beyond amazing and that Adam was doing great.
They showed her the code and had one of the developers explain it to her. It made Adam look like a D&D character.
All she really wanted was to see. See for herself what the world he was living inside now was like. What dangers
he faced, what he ate, what he was wearing. She worried he wasn’t taking care of himself. How many times had she had to remind him to brush his teeth, to shave, to eat.
The book was called ‘Promised Dawn’ and told the story of a stranger that claims an elderly man in host to an alien being, one who is still benign right now but could take over the human brain when it grows to full maturity. Fortunately there’s a way to get rid of it and potentially unlock the key to get rid of all the aliens. Believing both the situation and the stranger, the elderly man agrees to the operation. It reminded her how she had agreed to Adam’s situation. The summary of the book went on… what if this stranger speaks only in lies, what if the situation is worse than it appears. How could the elderly man know the truth about what was happening if anything was happening at all?
Adam had said it was a good book, part psychological thriller and part science fiction horror. The actual game was set 200 years after the novel and focused on the actual war between the aliens that had infected the man and humanity. In a way she knew it wouldn’t have a happy ending, so did Adam. Sometimes it was the journey that mattered most, not the beginning, not the end, just the journey.
Chapter 14
We crashed hard into the ground. We rolled three times before stopping. We were in the middle of the Deadlands in some kind of desert. I must have fallen asleep while driving. Luck was on my side since I had been wearing a seatbelt with Bendi tucked close beside me. Both of us emerged from the crash unscathed.
I could feel the circuits on my arm wearing thin. The metal bits were already decaying. “I wish I could just tear this damn thing off,” I said. It moved like my arm but it was slower and most important it didn’t feel like my arm at all. I felt like I was holding something… like the cybernetic arm was covering my limb. It was a constant feeling as if something had attached itself to me and I couldn’t get it off. I felt like the metal arm was eating me piece by piece and I began to wonder if I had somehow been tricked. Bendi gave me something for the pain and I worried I would need a tetanus shot.
What was once a shirt was now torn, dirt stained shadow of its former self, only barely able to hang from my shudders like a discarded old towel. Both sides were torn and worn out leaving much of my body exposed to the elements. The jacket was still in fairly good condition considering how it was when I received it. A few tears and stains but at least it was some protection from the sun. The pants had seen better days. The left side was torn up and nothing more than a bunch of shreds. At least I had shoes to protect my feet. A little grimy and ripped on one side. In the jet I found a scarf. It probably belonged to Jace. I wrapped it around my neck and face just below my nose. It was torn slightly and stained but otherwise in decent shape. I covered my head with it as well. Scavenging the jet I found a small sword. A charged knife with a damage of 10 and weight of 2.
I felt like someone had erased my game and I was starting from scratch. All that hard work twice now I’ve been screwed over. From level 90 to 1 and now again at level 10 all my gear. I still had my magic. Bendi gave me a nod and the two of us crept forward. We were near the dungeon when we crashed and we could make the rest of the trek on foot.
No food, no water. We were guided by our natural instincts to survive. I held onto the pendant around my neck. The only thing that hadn’t been taken from me. We wandered through the desert for hours until we found ourselves staring at an oasis. It wasn’t a normal oasis. In fact it was a graveyard. Bleak morass marks ran across the entrance to the dungeon. Beyond the graveyard we stood in a scanty grimy room inside a ruined structure that looked like it had been an office building. Bendi found two torches for us covered in small bones, rubble and dirt. We used an oil that was seeping down off the walls as a fuel. I scrapped the charged blade against stones until finally a spark sprouted and brought our two flames to life. Further ahead we found a single path. Its twisted trail lead passed countless rooms until we soon entered a timeworn area. There were several braziers scattered around and somehow they were lit on fire. Burning and burning again. As we continued forward deeper into the dungeons secrets we passed several different rooms and countless passages, each with their own twists, turns, and destination.
Eventually we found what we assumed was the final room. A wide wooden door blocked our path. Ash and soot all over it untouched by time and the elements. I stepped forward to inspect it and slowly it began to open on its own… did something move just behind the door?
Inside the room there was an chest full of gemstones. I looked over each of them. I held a sunstone with an antique cushion cut the size of a lemon in my hand. These gems were in high demand in the alpha, a fairly rare gemstone that contained emotional properties which made them great offensive weapons. Another was a snowflake obsidian with a square cut the size of a grape in excellent condition. These gems were common with amplifying properties that made them useful to magic users. There were several dozen more common gems in the chest and I studied them closely. Someone had gathered these.
“Why are you touching my stuff?” said a woman’s voice.
“Get away from there,” she shouted.
A woman appeared in front of us wearing a dark purple cape that covered what looked like set of armor has a squared helm with a face guard shaped in the face of a boar. Attached to the top is a long, curved metal blade which curves forward and ends in a sharp point. The shoulders were squared, tall and fairly small in size. They're decorated with intricate gilded design patterns, possibly in the shape of a sigil. The upper arms were protected by pointed, half covering braces which sat quite well under the shoulder plates. The lower arms were covered by vambraces which have intricate gilded design patterns covering everything.
The breastplate was made from one large piece of leather with edges of fur, which sat perfectly just under the shoulder plates. I could see the woman had her breasts covered in a red fabric. The rest of the leather piece It covered almost everything from the neck down and ended at the groin, but the sides are only covered near the bottom. I could see her upper legs weren’t covered at all showing off her pale white skin.
The lower legs were protected by leather shin guards which have several rows of barb-like spikes on the outer sides. Thick pants made from leather and fur also kept her legs covered beneath this all. I couldn’t imagine how she stayed warm.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly setting the gems back inside the chest. I was in no condition for a fight right now and didn’t believe in fighting anyone that might have been human.
“Next time just ask,” she smiled moving closer pressing herself against me. I backed away.
“I’m here searching for my friend Ethan, he’s a fifteen year old mage,” before I could say another word she called for him.
“Ethan come out and play,” she said.
Ethan appeared from a corner, he had been cloaked.
“So good to see you again Adam,” he said smiling.
“So you are Adam, my my Ethan here has been telling me all about you, I’m glad you got away from Molto, that bastard,” she said.
“So you and Molto don’t get along, that’s a relief,” I smiled, “Ariane?”
“That’s me, the one and only, the tech mage, the world’s greatest inventor, amazonian of the five, and ace-mech pilot,” she gave me a thumbs up and winked.
“Uhh… think you can help me out,” I said.
“How may I be of service?” she asked.
“I’m trying to get to the hub, I would be so grateful…” she cut me off.
“Sorry, I have much to do here, see this dungeon, we are standing inside. This is just the first level. Its like a tower that goes down. A tunnel? Anyway, the deeper you go the better gear you find. It looks like it was dug about 2000 years ago but some of the items are brand new. Its full of treasures from all around the nine realms,” she smiled, “and I have to get to the bottom,” she finished.
Another damn quest. I waited for it to show but nothing
happened.
“What?” I said as I waited.
“Dungeon, many levels, we’re only on the top, I think it goes down at least 20 levels, maybe more, RARE gear, loot, weapons, gems, tech,” her mouth was practically watering.
“I told you it wouldn’t matter to him, all he wants to do is get to the hub so he can contact someone named Ellie,” Ethan said.
“Shame on you Ethan! Do you not see, Ellie must be his true love! The woman of his dreams, its so beautiful,” she stopped, “but I can’t help you, I have given up everything to come here,” she said her smile turning to a frown.
“Wait… if you help me, I’ll help you,” she smiled again. Ariane was a bit eccentric. She was younger than I thought. It was hard to believe she was a master mage and had been teaching Ethan. It was also hard to believe that was a member of the five.
“First we eat,” she said taking out a stash of meats from a large bag she pulled out from behind her. “Where were you hiding that?”
We sat and began to cook the meat in the dungeon. Ariane used a spell to create a fire. “Does that drain your life force?” I asked. “Not at all, only Argent magic does that,” she said looking towards Ethan, “you see Ethan here was a healer, but he is a natural when it comes to learning. He could pick up on anything but the only kind of magic he can use is life draining, I taught him a few small things here and there, nothing that would seriously endanger his life but it seems that when I left he continued reading some of the tomes I left behind and even discovered that grimoire in the wilds. If you are worried about his life force now don’t. I have spoken to him about it and we’ve found a few work arounds,” Ariane spoke with a smile on her face. It looked like the kind of smile someone that had been through hell would carry. She was hurting.
Glimmer, A Throne of Souls (Convergence Book 1) Page 11
