The Alchemist of Aetheria: A LitRPG Adventure

by Jared Mandani

  “Tell me this,” Roxxor suggested, his blade dissolving, replaced by a mug of ale dripping foam on the wooden table. “Are you playing this game for role-play, for entertainment, or are you here to progress and get rich?”

  “Get rich,” Zack replied straight off.

  “Then forget about the quests,” Roxxor said. “You won’t ever earn anything doing quests; it’s all for these immersion lovers, not for people who ever make money in cybersports. This sport is a dirty game, really. Their Freemium economy works against you. To progress, to really make money here, you need to take down players of maximum level you can, whole parties of them, then harvest their loot and auction their cool items. Day in and day out. Wipe out a party, collect loot. The more their numbers versus your own, the bigger is the cut. That’s why I suggest we start alone, just the two of us. We kill both high level and low, right next to their respawn. But then, they respawn with lousy starter items. Not worth it.”

  “Then how?” Zack asked, sitting down to face him. This Roxxor kid had a point. Or even a get-rich-quick routine worked out. He could afford this armor and this blade after all. He played smart. The problem was, he could Backstab his new Alchemist ‘friend’ just as easy, of this Zack had no doubt.

  “We follow them to their stash,” Roxxor said, holding on to his ale without any seen purpose. “They all have this hidden stash around their spawn point. Developers only let premium Orks have private chests, and a premium Ork must own the Premium pass, and not many have them, and mostly they find all kinds of nooks and crannies to hide their extra stuff in and dress up on respawn. Just enough firepower and hit points to let them backtrack to their corpse and loot it before someone else does. This is why we strike fast. You will pretend being a lonely hermit crab.”

  “A crab?”

  “We call dumb players that, those not digging MMO culture, playing it like it’s single-player and everyone is an NPC. You take them along, you count on them – they set you up and leave you to fight alone, or ignore your needs in combat, and kill you with their stupidity. Crabs. Bottom-feeders. No style, no strategy, only constant grind and FedEx stuff.”

  Zack had to admit this was exactly the career he had considered.

  “Why dumb?” he asked.

  “Because this game is all about parties, all about synergy,” Roxxor said. “It plays differently in pairs, in threes, in fours. When you’re alone, it’s no different from some console RPG without any real soul to it.”

  “But what if someone,” Zack said, “an Alchemist, for instance, would become a cool lone assassin, a mysterious stranger who knows potions and could craft all kinds of cool stuff…”

  “So what’s then, you go around killing everyone and gaining rank?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “Well, great.” Roxxor regarded him over his mug of ale. “Then your name is up there on the board, and you have no clan. Before you know it, some clan puts bounty on your head, and the whole bunch of dogs hunts you down, each dreaming of a wagon of gold. To be what you want to be, man, you really need to enjoy being a pariah, someone even your own kind may try to kill, everywhere, anytime, right in the capital, in front of the elite guard.”

  “That’s NPCs?”

  “Very powerful NPCs. But experienced players are not afraid of elite guard. Guardsmen only hunt you until you die and respawn, and even if you don’t, you normally learn all their patrol routes before you go on and become a criminal. Many thieves live in the capital and hide day and night. Some of us love stealth that much. Anyway, trust me: you don’t want stardom in here. Not if you’re here to earn. Only if you’re a loser, like that wanted guy on the board.”

  “He looks very cool,” Zack admitted.

  “He looks dead,” Roxxor said. “He is a loner. A party will always take down a loner. Of four people, each one may invest in quadruple damage with proper tanking and buffs. Here’s a good party of two, very effective. Me a tank, you a buffer/debuffer. Well, at first you’ll mostly be my decoy, a lousy noob in wolf rags. Every Green Mobster will see you as easy prey, so they won’t run as you meet them by their secret stash, they will go straight for the duel.”

  “And then what?”

  “And this is when I step up and Backstab their own tank, then go for the highest damage dealer, smash their glass cannon, then deal with their poor Ranged bastards, then finish off the useless buffers and crafters, like Shamans or Alchemists, no offense.”

  “If I’m useless, then why me? How do you expect me to agree?” Zack asked, slightly offended.

  “Because it’s perfect for you! Now you’re just a working horse of their economy, one of a million working horses, with no good start, and my offer is exclusive. So what say you? Deal? Huh?”

  “Deal,” Zack said. It wasn’t that he trusted Roxxor – in fact, he wanted to be alone exactly because it was a computer game. So what if it was an MMORPG? Let the other people keep their distance, let them become the fun encounters locked in fights here and there, this was cool. What he didn’t want is lose the escapist pleasure. He didn’t want to chat with people. He wanted to play. He didn’t want collaboration. He wanted solitary exploration. No arguing over loot. No fighting over combat mistakes. No people, no problems.

  “We could try, I guess,” he said. “I have to admit I never did this before, not in any other game. Maybe I’ll try and then be on my way if I don’t like it.”

  “Ah, don’t be a crab,” Roxxor said. “Let’s go make some synergy happen. You got me? We follow them to the stash. Then you approach. What’s up, guys. I think I’m lost. Please don’t kill me. Then boom. Ownage. Tank, dead. Dealer, dead. You’ve got those Potions of Dizziness on you?”

  “Just one.”

  “Will do for the first raid. We’ll buy some more for you then. Healing Salve?”

  “I could craft some.”

  “Alright. There’s a lot of Sourberries in the swamp. Just bring the roots along. Oh wait. I’ve got a few. Here, take some. While you’re not my decoy, you’ll be my mule and my healer. Works for you?”

  Items Received from Roxxor: Liferoot X25 (75 gold)

  Tip of the Day: To trade with another player, think of the name and the word “barter”.

  “Okay,” Zack said, already feeling a bit rich and established, even though he wasn’t too excited about the mule part.

  Chapter 4: Backstab

  By the time they reached a fast travel gate, Zack felt more than prepared. Loaded up on Healing Salve, Potions of Dizziness, and Antidote, he watched Roxxor’s scaly back when a pair of mobs had to be dealt with, and harvested the land, then crafted, while Roxxor rested, his HP regen bumped up by a couple of Salves supplied by Zack. They didn’t encounter any player parties so far, and monster drop was lousy except for crafting ingredients; so as soon as Zack maxed out his potion belt, which didn’t count as his inventory, Roxxor led them to the travel portal.

  “I’ve got a Town Portal scroll,” he confessed. “But wait! Let’s grab an exit portal of some passing losers. Every astral hole has two uses, see. They will come here and it will be open to the place they came from, which could very much be near their altar, where they respawn and roll up. So we enter instead of them, and the portal closes, so they cannot follow us. Easy. Always use this loophole, you’ll get around fast and free.”

  “Thanks,” Zack said. Roxxor’s experience was as priceless as his double-binding exploits. Zack was himself a great exploiter and even a bit of a griefer at heart, so he instantly saw a lot of ways to screw with someone using Roxxor’s dirty tricks.

  They hid in the bushes and waited for a while, Zack absorbing Roxxor’s wisdom whispered quietly, until a player party appeared under the silent marble arch marking the travel portal spawning area.

  WHOOSH! All of a sudden, the marble shone with dazzling blue light, its runes and carvings blowing up in sunburst. A purplish corona appeared all around the portal, and the reality inside of it curved, then imploded, sen
ding a wave of light through the surroundings, and a blue spinning vortex opened, dry grasses of Swamplands waving on the other side. A party of three Elven rangers, all of them girls, exited the portal and stopped, trading comments and items before moving on.

  “Hey, AngeLou,” one of them said, a purple-haired pixie wearing a diadem, a composite bow behind her back. “I say we drop the stuff in Hawks, then jump back before someone nicks our portal, then hunt some more greenskins.”

  “Yeah,” AngeLou replied, a braided redheaded pixie with a crossbow. “Except I say one stays here and guards this thing so I could go shopping.”

  “No way,” said the third girl, a pixie with a blonde premium-looking mohawk and a cool-looking longbow, its string a purple laser, an enchanted thing. “I mean great, AngeLou and Cindy go shop and talk, while their leader Arwen must stay and kill some birds for feathers and watch their stupid portal.”

  “Cindy can watch,” AngeLou said.

  “You watch,” the red-headed Cindy replied. “I dropped my fave char for this bow, and this chick is too low a level. Even if I watch, anyone will just take me out, and I’m sorry but I won’t risk everything, especially this Composite Bow of Valor I did this for, because I know you agree it will make no sense…”

  “FINE,” AngeLou and Arwen said together, but then realized they still disagreed with each other, so their shopping debate persisted.

  “We must hit them,” Roxxor whispered in Zack’s ear.

  “These? But I mean they’re little girls.”

  “So what are you now, a gentleman? They only look like little girls. Maybe they’re old men. Maybe one of them is your math teacher. It’s a game. Nothing is real. Come on.”

  “They’re also Elves,” Zack said. “Aren’t we supposed to be allies?”

  “Come on,” Roxxor said, rolling his eyes. “Everyone knows this alliance was caused by balance issues. In the next patch, these cute Elves get bumped up some, or maybe Orks get nerfed, and then goodbye the beautiful union. I say we kill them now, and do it our way. Mine and yours. Not how the developers intended, so what. Who cares?”

  “Okay,” Zack said. “But we do it my way then. I want to be honest with them.”

  After they agreed on the strategy, with Elven girls still trading loot and arguing about shopping not far away, Roxxor left to flank them, giving the trio a wide berth to avoid being noticed.

  A little blue bird perched on a rock right next to Zack, whistling a tune and nibbling on its fingers, an NPC bird totally oblivious of his presence.

  In a flash, Zack had a whole new idea.

  “I’m sorry, bird,” he said, and pulverized the small unaware creature in one critical hit of his Steel Dagger. “I need those more than you do.”

  Item Harvested:

  Feathers X3 (1 gold)

  “Now craft me a poison dart,” Zack said.

  Items Lost:

  Iron Needle

  Poison

  Feather (X3)

  Then he walked outside his hiding place, crossed the meadow and stopped right in front of the three arguing Elves. The girls noticed him and quickly spread in an arc, their arrows nocked and pointed at him.

  “Who are you and what the hell do you want?” Arwen asked, her blonde premium mohawk bristling like porcupine needles.

  “I’m a new player,” Zack said. “And what I want is to kill you all and sell your loot.”

  The girls regarded him in silence.

  “Well, look at that,” Cindy the ginger Elf said. “Such a brave noob we have here. Shame if something were to happen to him.”

  “What a sad case of suicide,” AngeLou said. “You want to duel us then?”

  “Yes,” Zack said.

  Duel Accepted!

  Zack (Human Alchemist Lvl 2)

  VS

  AngeLou (Elven Ranger Lvl 15)

  Oh no, he thought. Zack only said yes because this was his intention, not to enable the duel with this crossbow-wielding chick.

  WHAMM! An invisible gong boomed and echoed all around them, and there was now a blood-red marker above AngeLou’s purple hair.

  “Hey, I also wanna join,” Cindy said, her Composite Bow of Valor gone from her back to materialize in her hands.

  WHAMM!

  Duel Accepted!

  Zack (Human Alchemist Lvl 2)

  VS

  Cindy2007 (Elven Ranger Lvl 7)

  “Wait, this could be a setup,” Arwen the party leader said. “Tell me, kid, how do you even expect to walk away from this? Your dagger is ridiculous. Your potions, well, whatever effect they have, there’s zero damage. You’re level two for crying out loud. A single bolt of Angelou’s will instakill you. Cindy’s bow is so fast you cannot hope to dodge it much. And mine, I won’t even tell you about. You see it’s cool, huh? Well?”

  The blonde party leader was waiting, the enchanted longbow still behind her back, its string a ruby laser beam. It was cool, indeed. But Zack intended to win.

  “Well, you see,” he said, trying to sound at ease. “I’m a noob, yes, but I’m not new to MMOs. I can see what you are. A party of three Elven Rangers. It makes no sense, three Ranged, no Melee, no one to absorb damage. My character is Melee. At close range, it takes yours out by definition, high level or not, that’s the rock-paper-scissors thing.”

  “Okay, let me disagree,” Arwen said, but Zack interrupted her.

  “What else?” he said. “Three girls roleplaying Legolas. No understanding of game mechanics. Expensive premium items.”

  He pointed at Cindy.

  “This one has a year next to her nickname, and this is of course the year she was born in, and the two of you are probably also just little kids. This is exactly what makes me think I could just go on and kill you all. Then sell your loot. You can run if you want, and I won’t chase you. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m not really into killing little kids and taking away their premium candy.”

  “Fine, I see your point.” Arwen equipped her laser longbow. “Now show us some noob magic. Duel?”

  “Yeah,” Zack said. “I mean, guys, I may be a noob, but you’re so obviously a bunch of crabs.”

  WHAMM! An omnipresent gong sounded again, and a marker appeared over Arwen’s blonde mohawk.

  Duel Accepted!

  Zack (Human Alchemist Lvl 2)

  VS

  Arwen (Elven Battlemage Lvl 18)

  A Battlemage, Zack thought. That’s bad news. A readied Potion of Dizziness filled his left hand.

  They stood across each other, locked in a stalemate, waiting for one of the four to attack.

  “Go on,” Arwen said. “Toss it. I’m resistant to magic.”

  “Okay,” Zack said, and dropped it underneath his own feet instead, then dashing aside for cover.

  WHOOSH! The potion exploded, stunning two other Elves. And then, all hell broke loose.

  Zack was CRITICALLY hit by Arwen and lost 23 hit points

  Her red laser bolt of an arrow hit him hard, not because Zack was slow but because it could pass through rocks and tree trunks he hoped to use as cover. This was more bad news. Zack could hardly take another hit, and arrows were whistling past them now in droves and barrages, some of them Arwen’s laser-red, some of them fast little things launched in salvos of threes by Cindy’s composite bow, probably not hitting as hard as Arwen’s laser bolts or Angelou’s crossbow, but peppering a large area at once.

  “Oh no wait wait wait, there’s someone behind you!” AngeLou’s voice shrieked from the direction of her crossbow bolt that lodged itself in a tree so deep its leaves rained down on Zack.

  WHAMM!

  Duel Accepted!

  Roxxor (Human Rogue Lvl 21)

  VS

  Arwen (Elven Battlemage Lvl 18)

  Arwen summons Beanstalk Lvl 14

  Arwen was CRITICALLY hit by Roxxor, lost 115 hit points, and was killed!

  Roxxor reveals Backstab!

  “Oh no no no he
killed Arwen, watch out he’s coming for us!” AngeLou shrieked, frantically trying to reload her slow-but-powerful crossbow. A glass cannon, Zack thought. A kind of weapon that hits hard but dies easy. According to Roxxor’s plan, she was the one to die next. Zack thought how far he was in his assumption the Elven girls were poor strategists. Arwen was their leader, and she went down so easy. With her piercing arrows gone, the battlefield felt much safer. He stepped out into the clearing and instantly spotted Cindy, hiding behind a fallen trunk and trying to score a hit on the unseen attacker.

  “Good luck with that,” he said, tossing a Potion of Dizziness at her.

  WHOOSH! Right after it exploded, Zack dashed and hit the purple-headed Elf, but the attack felt puny and useless – the level gap was apparent, rock-paper-scissors or not.

  Cindy2007 was hit by Zack and lost 4 hit points

  WHAMM!

  Duel Accepted!

  Roxxor (Human Rogue Lvl 21)

  VS

  AngeLou (Elven Ranger Lvl 15)

  AngeLou was CRITICALLY hit by Roxxor and lost 56 hit points

  Roxxor reveals Backstab!

  “Oh you bastard!” AngeLou shouted. Her crossbow twanged once again, but the bolt must have went astray, for Roxxor sustained no damage. Zack heard a clang of metal, a shriek, another clang, and then a thump marking the Elven Ranger’s untimely demise.

  AngeLou was CRITICALLY hit by Roxxor, lost 17 hit points, and was killed!

  “Angie,” he heard Cindy’s gasp from inside of the cloud of dizzying smoke, her composite bow spraying arrows in random directions. “Angie, what happened? Where did he go? Come here, you creep! Come on! Try and get me!”

  Before she could finish, before the smoke from Zack’s potion even cleared, a massive thorny shadow appeared behind her, towering above the little Elf like some kind of hellish nemesis. Roxxor backstabbed her, applying the unspoken duel offer at the same time, the offer she agreed to by thinking of counter-attacking him.

  Duel Accepted!

  Roxxor (Human Rogue Lvl 21)

  VS

  Cindy2007 (Elven Ranger Lvl 7)