World of Eternia:
The Complete Collection
by Antony W.F. Chow
Copyright © 2015 by Antony W.F. Chow, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without prior written permission of the author. Book cover designed by Sid Ceaser, based on Dreamstime.com stock image ID 33320430, “Medieval Knight,” copyrighted © 2015 by Philcold. Image used under Royalty Free license. Ebook formatting by Jesse Gordon.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events portrayed in this work are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Table of Contents
Foreword
World of Eternia:The Prize Prologue
Chapter 1 – Chimera
Chapter 2 – Moat
Chapter 3 – Castle Eternia
Chapter 4 – Welcome Party
Chapter 5 – Exploration
Chapter 6 – Into the Abyss
Chapter 7 – Safe Passage
Chapter 8 – Whack-a-Mole
Chapter 9 – Speculation
Chapter 10 – Room of Eternia
Chapter 11 – Chessboard
Chapter 12 – Brawl
Chapter 13 – Naturalist
Chapter 14 – Cemetery
Chapter 15 – A Gathering of Strangers
Chapter 16 – Regent
Chapter 17 – Prize
Chapter 18 – Decision
Epilogue
World of Eternia:The Match Chapter 1 – Expansion
Chapter 2 – A Retired Life
Chapter 3 – Workaholic
Chapter 4 – Long Distance Relationship
Chapter 5 – Sister
Chapter 6 – Players Versus Players
Chapter 7 – Old Friends
Chapter 8 – Doubt
Chapter 9 – Reservation
Chapter 10 – Discovered
Chapter 11 – Into the Unknown
Chapter 12 – Debriefing
Chapter 13 – Report
Chapter 14 – Contact
Chapter 15 – Death’s Door
Chapter 16 – Guardians
Chapter 17 – Magic Guild
Chapter 18 – Casual Gaming
Chapter 19 – Off the Record
Chapter 20 – Divine Lodestone
Chapter 21 – Organization
Chapter 22 – Into the Region
Chapter 23 – Samples
Chapter 24 – Discord
Chapter 25 – Sacrifice
Chapter 26 – Urgency
Chapter 27 – Fight or Flight
Chapter 28 – Incoming
Chapter 29 – Demon Lord
Chapter 30 – Somber Return
Chapter 31 – Next Phase
Chapter 32 – Rejection
Chapter 33 – Gauntlet
Chapter 34 – Recrimination
Chapter 35 – Formulating a Response
Chapter 36 – Interlude
Chapter 37 – Anxiety
Chapter 38 – First Cooperative Meeting
Chapter 39 – Findings
Chapter 40 – Backup Plan
Chapter 41 – Anticipation
Chapter 42 – Generous Offer
Chapter 43 – Nuts and Bolts
Chapter 44 – Player Input
Chapter 45 – Pushback
Chapter 46 – Players Council
Chapter 47 – Counterattack
Chapter 48 – Battle Plans
Chapter 49 – Recruitment
Chapter 50 – Vendetta
Chapter 51 – Brief Update
Chapter 52 – Legal Agreement
Chapter 53 – Final Arrangements
Chapter 54 – Start
Chapter 55 – Opening Round
Chapter 56 – Anticipation
Chapter 57 – Avoidance
Chapter 58 – Backstab
Chapter 59 – Test
Chapter 60 – Sighting
Chapter 61 – Two Hour Mark
Chapter 62 – All Hands On Deck
Chapter 63 – Showdown at the Gate
Chapter 64 – Wrestling for the Sky
Chapter 65 – Restless
Chapter 66 – Duel
Chapter 67 – Next Obstacle
Chapter 68 – Wild Cards
Chapter 69 – Truce
Chapter 70 – Beautiful Chaos
Chapter 71 – Final Shots
Chapter 72 – Family Feud
Chapter 73 – Tricky Opponent
Chapter 74 – Expiration
Chapter 75 – Winners
Chapter 76 – Suspicion
Chapter 77 – Mediation
Chapter 78 – Ultimatum
Chapter 79 – Changes
Epilogue
About the Author
Foreword
The litrpg genre has exploded in popularity in recent years. Some credit goes to “Sword Art Online,” the popular 2009 Japanese light novel series turned manga series turned anime shows in which real life players became trapped inside a digital gaming world. However, older readers may recall 1982’s “Tron” film, which explored this theme some two dozen years earlier.
The World of Eternia series is closer, in spirit, to the earlier Tron movie, where actions taken by real life players inside the digital gaming world resulted in real life consequences. Thus, the reader is encouraged to keep an open mind, and to avoid comparing WoE series to the Western equivalent of SAO that have frequently popped up on digital and paperback shelves lately.
With kind regards,
Antony W.F. Chow
December 14, 2015
World of Eternia:
The Prize
by Antony W.F. Chow
Prologue
TO: The Strangers
FROM: Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc.
DATE: April 1, 2016
Congratulations! Your party of four stout adventurers has been invited to participate in a special mission to mark the first anniversary of the online launch of the World of Eternia, the world's FIRST Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game!
For centuries, the Castle of Eternia has been off-limits to players and non-player characters alike, sealed by the Gods to prevent the Curse from spreading across the World of Eternia. Now, the Gods of Eternia have decided the time is ripe for brave adventurers to reclaim the Castle and lift the terrible Curse cast by the evil Regent! Will your party be the ones to accomplish this legendary feat? Or will another party be the ones to lift the Curse? Great honor, recognition, and prizes await you! To participate in this special mission, please click on the link below to confirm your party's acceptance of this special invitation and register for this mission. Remember, these invitations are extremely limited. Register today!
Thank you for playing World of Eternia, the world's FIRST Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game!
Chapter 1 – Chimera
“Magic Missile!” Five small, purple darts burst out from the battle mage’s outstretched fingertips, and streak toward the ferocious Chimera.
The monstrous beast feels the sting of the magic on its muscular hind leg, and roars in anger. Its three heads turn and briefly examine each of the four party members for the source of that foul magic, until their heads lock onto the spell caster. With a lion's head in the middle, a red dragon's head on the right, and a goat's head on the left, this mythical beast easily inspires fear among normal player characters. With its dragon's wings spread out for enhanced balance and movement, the beast tries to lunge its massive, lion body forward to crush the puny mage.
“Oh no you don
't!” The chimera's forward momentum is abruptly stopped dead in its tracks when the beast feels something grabbing its serpentine-like tail in a tight grip. The chimera's heads roar again in anger when they turn and find the culprit: a massive-size human barbarian. The man is bare chest, choosing to flaunt his powerful physique, but wearing a Viking style helmet, tight shorts, and fine leather boots. The beast tries to whip its powerful tail back and fro, to dislodge the iron grip. Alas, the human's hands are too strong for this tactic to work.
“Rooooaaarrrrr!” The lion head voices its anger for a third time, and causes the tail to curl. The fearsome monster turns its body with indignation and swipes at the barbarian with a front paw, its claws seeking to rip the soft-bodied annoyance to shreds.
Ddddoooommmm! The blow strikes hard steel, as a heavily armored knight suddenly appears from behind the barbarian, with a massive steel shield to block the chimera's deadly strike.
“Keep firing, Lucious!” the cavalier yells at the mage.
The battle mage, clad in a fine silk golden robe lined with arcane symbols and draped over by a deep purple-colored cloak, raises his staff. The weapon is an elongated rod of steel some six foot long, with the top end encrusting a fist-sized sphere that is now glowing purple. Lucious the mage closes his eyes as he concentrates on the arcane wording of his spell: “sclu-move-wazi-roll-yiji.” Suddenly he opens his eyes, his irises flashing with dancing sparks of purple light. The mage thrusts the staff's orb at the chimera's direction and yells, “DISINTEGRATE!”
Upon hearing the command word of the spell, the barbarian suddenly releases the monstrous chimera's tail. With urgency he quickly hops a few steps back, lest he be engulfed by the deadly spell as well.
The cavalier senses the movement beside him, and slowly slides back to stand shoulder to shoulder with his muscle-bound comrade named “Conrad.” The cavalier's massive shield is still held out before him, in case the spell fails to overcome the chimera's high resistance to magic.
A purple stream of light shoots out of the sphere, and connects with the chimera. The purple light quickly engulfs the doomed monster, as the spell slowly eats away at the monster's flesh. A loud “hhhsssssssss” sound permeates the air as the chimera thrashes uselessly against its impending doom. In mere seconds, nothing is left of the creature, not even bones.
“Lucky!” a light, plucky but distinctly feminine voice blurts out rudely. The owner of the voice, a lady dressed in the humble, cotton white robes of a priestess, walks out from behind the massive tree where she was hiding. Her emerald eyes are flashing with excitement at the outcome of the just ended battle, and her full red lips are threatening to break into a smile. Her lengthy, platinum blonde hair sways on her back, tied in a bundle with a simple black ribbon, as the lady sashays toward the weary but victorious battle mage. Her steps are light despite the calf length black leather boots with two inch heels that the priestess is wearing.
“It was a calculated risk, Diana,” the mage replies as Lucious eyes the priestess coolly with his dark brown eyes, shrouded deep inside the hood of his purple cloak. He is annoyed that she is giving him lip despite the fact that she took no part in the battle. The party of four adventurers had previously agreed, despite the mage’s private misgivings, to keep the healer in reserve, in case any fallen member needs to be resurrected during this difficult battle; to their knowledge no player party in this game has ever encountered a chimera and survived. Besides, if Diana did get involved in the fight with the chimera, she could have gotten in the way of his deadly disintegrate spell. “There was a chance to end this fight quickly, before the chimera spews out dragon fire and engulf us all. So I gave it a shot,” Lucious shrugs.
“But the odds of success against such a high level mob were like a one in three. What if your gambit failed?” Diana asks, as she absently twirls her thick, luscious hair above her forehead with an index finger.
“Then we would have continued with the hold-and-fire strategy against the chimera,” the heavily armored cavalier replies, while examining the surface of his shield for damage. “Since this particular chimera had a red dragon's head, it would have been immune to fireballs. But water-based spells would have done extra damage to the beast,” he notes as he runs his gauntlet-covered hand over his thinning, shortly cropped blond hair favored by military personnel.
“Frankly, I am surprised that I was able to hold onto its tail and prevent the chimera from taking flight in the air, Wesley,” Conrad tells the armored man. “I'm glad that I took your advice to keep boosting my player strength attribute as I'm leveling up my barbarian class,” he remarks as he bumps his fist lightly with the cavalier as part of their ritual celebration after a major encounter.
“That makes the two of us,” Wesley smiles broadly at the big man, who stands a good three inches taller than Wesley’s six foot height. “Our strategy against the chimera hinged on your ability to out muscle the beast, and keep it grounded. Otherwise, it could have taken an hour to bring the beast down with Magic Missiles whenever Lucious runs out of water-based offensive spells. Diana's slingshot would not have reached the chimera in the air; even if the stones reach it, they won't penetrate the monster's thick hide. You and I are melee fighters; we may as well be waving sticks at it and wait for our turn to be roasted alive by the dragon's fire breath,” the strategist outlined the possible outcome if their hold-and-fire strategy had failed.
“I could have tried a Meteor Shower spell on it,” Lucious thinks aloud, refusing to concede across the board on the tactics that could have taken out the just vanquished beast. “Even a high level monster like a chimera would have been pounded into the ground.”
“You would have taken our melee fighters out along with the beast,” Diana snorts in reply. “Remember, I have enough magical energy to cast only one resurrection, not two, during this mission,” she reminds him while waving her index finger in a tut-tut manner. “If you end up dying, I’m not sure I would bother to resurrect you during this mission,” she teases him with a grin.
“If you're so useless, remind me again why you're in our party?” Lucious quips rudely.
Diana puts her hands on her hips. “Because you boys need a genteel woman to curb your barbaric mannerism,” she huffs with indignation.
Conrad looks away, politely pretending not to hear the comment. Although his player character is in the barbarian class, he knows that her remark is not directed at his choice of character class.
“A genteel woman?” the mage replies mockingly with eyes wide open. Lucious curls his fingers together in the shape of binoculars over his eyes. “Where?” He pretends to look about in search of one.
Conrad shakes his head at the mindless banter between the two spell casters. He walks over to a big, smooth stone, where he had left his massive, ivory club leaning upright on the ground. Made of a mammoth's tusk, the club is his most prized possession. He had left the weapon aside because he didn't want to risk his enchanted club getting damaged by dragon fire. A true brawler's weapon, the club doubles the damage inflicted on a humanoid-shape creature – regardless of size. In other words, as long as the enemy has two arms, two legs, one head, and stands upright, his club will inflict extra damage; also, that damage calculation factors in his penetration bonus for his massive strength attribute. One swing with his club is enough to take most mobs down. “Quit squabbling, kids. The important thing is that we got pass the chimera in one piece,” Conrad says as he takes a swing with his club like a baseball bat. His stance and swing is perfected by the tens of thousands of hours of practice in the batter's cage as a baseball player.
Wesley smiles wryly at Conrad. He is the glue that keeps this party together, the cavalier notes. What an interesting group they make: a retired soldier, a minor league professional baseball player, a young Wall Street trader, and a graduate school student. The online game server randomly tossed the group of four strangers together when they started playing World of Eternia (“WoE”) shortly after the game's release. In just
one year, “The Strangers” have become one of the best teams in the game, known for their unorthodox approach to fighting monsters, and bending the rules of magic in rather creative and innovative ways.
True to her tendencies as a researcher, Diana frequently visits the player's forum boards, and even submitted several Wikipedia entries on the characteristics of the monsters they have defeated. Her postings online have kept The Strangers in the public eye time and time again, particularly their exploits as the team clears out zones and dungeons ahead of most other player groups. In addition, Diana has posted walkthroughs for certain difficult, high level missions, and she often receives unsolicited requests on the boards for walkthroughs. Her frequent interactions with the public at large have made her the de facto public spokesperson for the group.
No doubt their style of play and public visibility were among the reasons why the team was among a select few invited by the game developers, Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc. (“EDE”), to participate in an especially designed campaign to mark the first anniversary of the WoE's release online. However, participants were required to agree to a release, sent to their listed email addresses, allowing the company to capture and stream real-time in-game video and audio footage of player characters as they navigate through the special mission. The campaign will be open to the general public once the mission has been successfully completed by an invited team. The developers also hinted at a unique prize awaiting the first team to finish this campaign. Of course, EDE is celebrating the anniversary with other special in-game items and mini-quests, so that no one is left out of the anniversary celebration.
“Do you think we're ahead of everyone else?” asks Diana, the graduate student pursuing a master degree in psychology.
“I don't see why not, with the way we have been blowing through the encounters so far,” speculates Lucious, the sharp tongued, young Wall Street trader. His motto as a player is “no resistance.” He has been loading up on his player intelligence attribute to increase his odds of success in casting spells where magic resistance comes into play. His high intelligence also grants extra bonus in his mana pool. His favorite tactic is to cast the Polymorph spell to turn monsters into frogs, despite the spell's relatively low odds of success.
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