And so Zack went.
He slid behind the computer and clicked on AetheriaVR. The screen went black, and then centered white text slowly faded in:
WARNING: This game is meant to be as realistic as possible. Your organism may need some time to adapt to this new level of sensory experience.
Tip of the Day: Did you know? The first movie ever, a black-and white footage of a steam train arrival, made 85% of its viewers manifest the symptoms of panic and extreme adrenalin rush?
WARNING: If the game experience becomes unpleasant to you, we recommend logging out of the game immediately, unless you are in Permadeath mode, which may be enabled or disabled within five seconds after any respawn.
SWITCH AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE TEAM OF DEVELOPERS CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR PERMANENT DELETION OF YOUR CHARACTERS!
“Surprise me,” Zack muttered, pulling on the gloves. Their smooth neon joints started to blink, and then to glow steady green, paired with the headgear. The mouse cursor was now following Zack’s right index finger. He clicked an imaginary mouse wagging his finger in the air, but it wasn’t necessary. Before his finger even twitched, the button was clicked.
PLEASE PUT ON YOUR TrueTac™ VR GLOVES AND PLACE THEM OVER YOUR TrueLife™ VR HEADGEAR AS SHOWN ON THE SCREEN.
A pair of 3D hands wearing plated knight gloves appeared on the screen before Zack. The hands wrapped themselves over a horned iron helmet, which did resemble the Robocop thing resting on the table, runes and glowing patterns on the VR glasses clearly showing where Zack should place his own fingers.
When Zack wrapped his VR gloves over the headgear, it clicked and attached itself to them seamlessly, picked up by electromagnets in the way he could easily put the VR glasses on his head. After the helmet was on, the palm magnets switched off, and the gloves disconnected.
Repeating the gestures he had performed a million times in his imagination, after watching this rig’s prototype on YouTube six months ago, Zack used his metallic index fingers to adjust the grip, then its headphones and mic volume. After the sound check, he extended the laser probe of the rig’s laser face scanner. Fiery text runes writhed in the swirling black fog of the virtual space around Zack’s head, replacing each other.
TrueFace™ Scan
CAUTION: Please look straight ahead of you and keep your face relaxed. Avoid blinking.
CLICK WHEN READY. A 3D scan will be made, and the vector data will be used to create a 3D model of your unique in-game avatar.
They said in Aetheria, you always looked like the real you, except cooler, especially if you were at the same time, for example, Elf or some froglike Swamplands creature, and your face was possibly not human at all. The invisible lasers kept scanning your face for different expressions, all of them reflected in real time on your character’s face. Funny quirks did happen, and were documented, but only if you misbehaved during your 3D face creation, which Zack did not intend to do. Even so, you could always retry. So many people just went for the worst, then showed it off as the game’s glitch. The developers of Aetheria were smart, Zack thought. They took pride in their product but at the same time allowed it to be slightly imperfect, as far as it generated billions of views of their game on YouTube and didn’t harm any of their players against their own will.
Inside the helmet, the lasers were visible and spectacular. A grid of red beams quickly took a virtual mold of his face. The glowing mold then became a constellation of keypoints, which broke into a bunch of multicolored fireflies and were absorbed by the swirling foggy maelstrom above, which was slowly becoming a sky. Then, after a pause, a white fountain broke out of the forming ground and shot up like a beam, lighting up a huge magical tornado above his head, which was of course the logo of the developers who weren’t just smart, but also knew how to present themselves.
Triumphant horns and pipes trumpeted in his ears majestically, followed by the epic track of violins and timpani drums. The next moment, red rune-shaped letters burned through the purple night sky, where the tornado swirled, becoming a galaxy of stars:
AETHERIA
A strange purple moon rose up to the sky as the maelstrom broke into ever-evolving clouds, followed by a smaller orange lollipop of the second moon. The night was quickly replaced by a red dawn, then turned into day, and the letters shone like gold in the blue Earthlike sky. The game world exploded and spread all the way around him with a burst of sunlight, like a newly born universe.
Zack heard songbirds tweeting in the sky and pines creaking in the wind as they shot from under the ground and crowded around him, forming a circular clearing amongst the newly-born dense and mysterious woods. Grass was now growing everywhere, then flowers and mushrooms pushed their way from under the ground, and soon the air was filled with dancing dust, little moths and butterflies, and drifting strands of cobweb, not unpleasant - like real things were - but ethereal and graceful, a Hollywood kind of drifting cobwebs.
The world around Zack grew slowly more and more detailed, and soon the rays of the sun broke through the trees, giving the scene the final touch of detailed shadows.
Zack gawked around. The virtual space felt just incredible. He tried to move.
“Greetings, noble spirit,” he heard an ethereal voice which nearly startled him. The voice was female, fleshless, and omnipresent; almost angelic in quality. “Please tell me your name.”
“Zack,” said Zack, or barely muttered. The mic figured it out anyway, and in his ears, Zack heard his name audio-filtered, pronounced with a nice Medieval-sounding male baritone, so much unlike his own nerdy adolescent voice he hated so much.
“Tell me this, noble spirit,” the invisible angel lady said. “Who would you want to be in life?”
What? Zack thought. The multicolored fallen leaves underfoot swirled and formed a waist-high tornado, and a leather book on a pedestal quickly weaved itself out of the air and leaves in front of him. The tome opened, and he saw the runes written on pages in beautiful elegant ink.
Game Class and Faction determine your starter set of skills and items in the world of Aetheria.
Race: Human (Locked)
Touch here to shop for:
The Green Mob DLC
and
Elven Skyspire Cycle DLC
Summer Bundle: $99.99 (20% OFF!)
Class: >Paladin< Rogue – Barbarian - Thief – Bard - Alchemist - Mage
Zack only had to look at it once and the selection was done.
Besides being smart and cool, the developers of Aetheria were also greedy. They claimed to spend their earnings on VR research and new advanced tech gadgets, but everyone knew two thirds of that was spent on marketing. They wanted their game to be a slot machine. They wanted their players to earn some and get hooked up, then spend much more than they earned, day in and day out.
Class: Paladin - Rogue - Barbarian - Thief - Bard >Alchemist< Mage
Zack chose without thinking, then instantly regretted it. Not that he might have selected another class, not even remotely. It’s just he’d been waiting for this very moment for a couple years. And he passed through it in a fraction of a second, hardly even using free will, making this selection on instinct because of all the previous mental exercise.
The next thing he knew, he stood above a serene pool of water, reflection as pure as a mirror, cherry blossom floating here and there, more carried in by the wind.
He looked extremely cool. A tall guy, heroically handsome, dressed in a streaming burlap robe of intricate design, an Alchemist’s sign silver pendant on his neck; a glass retort and several small glass bulbs filled with something glowing yellow attached to his wide leather belt. A curious crescent-shaped dagger on the other side, in an ornate copper sheath. He even felt its weight when he thought of it. The journal hovering in front of him flicked to another page.
INVENTORY
Burlap Robes +1 (2 gold)
Copper Dagger +1 (5 gold)
Apprentice’s Pendant (1 gold)
Potion of Dizziness (3) (33 gold)
“To move around, pick the direction you want to go and think of going there,” the angelic voice continued. “Try thinking of jumping, crouching, lying on the ground, sitting, strafing, and any move or physical stunt you can imagine. I will carry you through the ether and bring you to the Altar of Resurrection in Direwoods as soon as you are ready, Zack the Alchemist.”
“Oh, cool,” Zack said. “A mind-reading machine. Kinda like a gyroboard. Handy.”
A big glowing ruby crystal materialized right above the book pedestal. It floated in the air, rotating slowly, reflecting the surrounding pines and water with its majestic sides. The omnipresent angelic voice said, “Please hold this Aetherium Shard in your hand, Zack the Alchemist. Feel its shape and remember it well.”
Zack carefully put out his hand and touched the crystal. Runes formed in the air next to it, engulfing the floating ruby thing, now glowing like a dragon’s eye.
PICK UP: Aetherium Shard (2899 gold)
“Ah, the premium currency,” Zack said. “You will take it away of course. You just want to hook me up by letting me hold onto it for a while.”
“Look out for these sacred shards of Aetherium throughout your adventures,” the angelic voice said. “Please hold this Aetherium Shard in your hand, Zack the Alchemist. Feel its shape and remember it well.”
Zack wrapped his fingers around the crystal. The pressure on his palms shifted wonderfully as he touched it, creating an almost perfect illusion of holding this big glowing ruby in his hand, its stubborn mass locked inside his fingers, even the glassy feeling under their tips. These VR gloves are incredible, he thought. Full tactile presence, just like their ads said.
“To select another item, think of its name. The inventory hints will appear each time you think about an inventory, a bag, a container, or a list of items you carry.”
>Copper Dagger<
DMG: 1-2 Durability 100%
Zack only had to think of it, and his fingers were suddenly filled with the pleasant cold weight of his crescent-shaped starter weapon. This time, he could move it around and hold it the way he wanted to. He thought of hiding it, and the next moment, his hand was empty again; the sensation like the dagger had slowly turned into sand and trickled out.
“Alright, so I picked up this premium shard thingy,” Zack said. “So what’s next?”
The tome pedestal melted away. A shrine materialized in front of him, an impossibly beautiful angel lady of mossy green marble. In her hands, the lady held a big golden platter.
“Use your newly-obtained Aetherium Shard on my shrine, oh Zack the Alchemist, and I shall bring you into this world. Each time you want to create a new character, you will need twice as many Aetherium Shards to continue.”
“I knew it!” Zack said. “They let me keep this crystal for just so long. Greedy devs.”
Instead of disposing of the supervaluable stone straight off, Zack jumped around for a while. He tried strafing, crouching, crawling, and even did a backflip once, though it made him dizzy.
!!Vestibular Settings Auto-Adjust… Done!!
Skill Improved: Acrobatics +1
Achievement Unlocked: Basic Navigation
You earned 1 XP for using your Acrobatics skill
“Oh, quick progression, I like it,” Zack said. “Alright, I think I’m ready to part with the stone. Not like I have a choice in this so-called open world of yours, right?”
He tried to walk away first, just in case, wading through the pond towards the nearest opening between the towering pine trees, his hands carefully probing the air in front of him, as Zack expected to bump into an invisible wall. It wasn’t there. Instead, the water he waded through began slowing him down more and more, as if it magically congealed and became toffee, and then rubber, forcing him back, turning him around no matter how hard Zack pushed forward.
“Just as I thought,” he muttered.
Zack approached the shrine, imagined this Aetherium Shard thingy in his right hand, where it instantly appeared, and dropped it onto the platter. It started glowing red, then brighter purple, then white, and the absolute whiteness engulfed him.
As it faded, Zack found himself high in the mountains, amongst a pine forest again. However, now he was standing next to a big stone altar with a tall fountain of white light and glimmer playing above it.
“Greetings, oh Chosen Hero,” he heard an old creaking voice behind.
Zack turned around in a flash, his copper dagger at the ready.
It was a robed wise-looking old man, his face all detailed leathery wrinkles, his eyebrows cartoonish but very much real.
“An NPC”, Zack said.
“My name is Dante, and I was sent here to greet you, oh Chosen Hero! Zack the Alchemist,” the old man said and kneeled before him, his burlap cape flapping and billowing in the wind around his grey mane of hair.
Chapter 2: The Sage
“Oh Chosen Hero,” Zack mocked the old man. “Come on. I’m sure you say the same thing to every noob. How much chosen heroes are there by now, a million?”
The old man examined him slowly, most likely just playing random idle animations while its heuristic algorithms dissected Zack’s mumblings into keywords, and the keywords into groups that made sense, looking for the truest meaning of what he said in order to feed him the best scripted answer.
“You were sent to us by the Goddess herself, my dear Alchemist,” the robed sage said finally, straightening up. “Dark tides have swallowed a half of our lands. The Green Mob advances from the Swamplands, and in Pandemonia the old demons are awake and stirring, thirsting for our blood.”
“Which Goddess?” Zack asked. “The lady angel statue?”
The sage examined him for a while, and then responded, “You were chosen by the Goddess of Destiny herself, to bring us salvation. This is what ancient scrolls foretell. Behold! There is a statue of you above the altar. You can approach it to make the final adjustments to your avatar and game settings. If you are to die on your adventures, oh Chosen Hero, gods will bring you back to life again right by this altar. You will lose any unspent experience points and your possessions, but you will keep the gold you earned. Remember: you can convert it into your world’s currency anytime. Just think about the words ‘currency exchange’, then think again to confirm, and you will be headed to the game shop to view the hottest conversion deals!”
“Man I miss the times when you NPC guys stayed in character.” Zack sighed. “So! Tell me, Dante, how do I earn gold in this forsaken hellhole overran by Orks and demons? I need to pay for my college, you know. Wanna talk about it?”
This time, the response was almost immediate.
“Go down this rocky path, oh Chosen Hero,” The old sage outstretched his wrinkled hand and pointed at a gap between a couple crooked and ominously-looking rock cliffs half-covered in misty haze. “Halfway down, you will enter Hawkspoint, a small Empire outpost in this land of rock and snow.”
Location Marker Added: Hawkspoint (15 leagues)
Hawkspoint is a small mountain village at the northern border of the Empire of Man. The place is surrounded with dark woods, the home to many secrets and dangerous animals. Hawkspoint was started as a small mining colony, and three deep abandoned mines, along with countless smaller caves, are scattered in the mountains around the village.
“You may ask for work in the tavern. I heard there’s also a merchant that buys any sorts of items you find.”
“Any sorts?” Zack snorted. “I wish we had this kind of merchants for real. I could sell my collection of bugs in jars, oh yes, and my old bicycle pump.”
“Anything at all could be sold, lest it was stolen. These items can be traded in or purchased on Aetheria Player Auction page, but the village merchant will report thievery and call the guards. Another way to sell stolen items is by joining the Thieves’ Guild in our capital city.”
; “So you actually teach little kids to steal,” Zack said, not feeling actually offended. “How nice. The capital city, you said?”
Location Marker Added: Sanctuary (50 leagues)
Sanctuary is the ancient capital of the Empire of Man. It’s shaped like a crescent around the Moonlight Bay, and serves both as the major seaport and the seat of the Empire. Fighters’ Guild, Thieves’ Guild, and Mages’ Guild can be found here.
“Fifty leagues.” Zack whistled. “That must be a lot of walking, if the distances are nearly as big as they sound.”
“There is a fast-travel gate in the village of Hawskpoint, where you can open a fast travel portal to the capital. You can find Town Portal scrolls during your travels or purchase them from our Shop. To open the in-game Shop, think ‘purchase boosters’ once.”
“Oh great,” Zack said, not really surprised. “A paywall. Either buy these scrolls from you, or spend a lifetime walking.”
Amongst gamers, there was a special kind who only played free-to-play stuff. Zack actually knew a few of them, and these guys were always proud of the fact they never spent a single dime playing. They managed to do without, fighting the system by using small and cumbersome exploits or simply with the help of an endless grind multiplied by heavy stat calculations upfront, all sorts of math to help them move up the difficult ladder of game progress. He had watched their streams and mostly was terrified of their play style. Their machine-gun calculations done on the fly made Zack’s head hurt. They reminded him of the recent algebra exam, the most difficult one on his way to chemistry, something he recalled now like a nightmare. Zack had always hated math and always used a calculator unless they wanted to make him suffer. He hated playing to win, and paying to win, he couldn’t really afford. This made him a free-to-player of the worst kind.
The old sage must have read some trigger keyword in his sad line of thoughts, because he smiled and said, “Homo homini lupus est.”
“Oh, come on,” Zack said. “Don’t tell me this is, like, the official language of this Empire of Man. I mean, isn’t this a rip-off of this other game, what’s its name… I mean, Latin. Seriously?”
The Alchemist of Aetheria: A LitRPG Adventure Page 2
