The Alchemist of Aetheria: A LitRPG Adventure

by Jared Mandani

  You encountered a Lesser Spider!

  Lesser Spider Lvl 2

  “EEEEEEWWWWWW,” Zack said. “EEEEEeeeewww, gentlemen, this experiment is in a very, very, VERY BAD TASTE.”

  Lesser Spider Lvl 2 was hit by Zack and lost 3 hit points, Zack thought or could swear he was thinking. Lesser Spider Lvl 2 was hit by Zack, lost 2 hit points, and was killed.

  He kicked the spider twice with his leather boot, and the creature was gone, just like that. It seemed to only have existed for jump scare purposes, like those nasty headcrabs or facehuggers; something that actually will NOT eat out your brain or live on your head and turn you into a zombie but merely chips off a couple of your hit points as it suddenly jumps in your face like a headless puppy, looking and sounding as unpleasant as it can manage.

  This spider was ten times more sudden and disgusting.

  “We don’t need this in videogames,” Zack muttered. But then some of the people he had met online would probably be excited by this wonderful gift of an encounter: the feel of sticky spider web on your face, kinda like running into a huge gum bubble, and then this… abomination pushing off your head to jump down on the ground, and it all felt so real. It felt like he was a Robinson Crusoe of sorts, a civilized person who suddenly found themselves amongst intrusive primal wilderness.

  Zack wanted to stay alive like never before. He wanted to stay alive forever, and live his life without being harassed by Wolves Playing Dead or plushy spiders raining down on top of his skull.

  Now he remembered. This was a fixed encounter point, and this encounter had just proven to be random. Last time it had spawned a corpse falling down. This time, a spider. This world wasn’t by itself really mad, right? The Wonderland where Alice went was mad. It had zero rules. This world, it had rules, and they were clearly defined from the start. Zack would thank his fate for small favors if it wasn’t for one more thing.

  It was other players who made this world mad by breaking these rules. Zack remembered himself and Roxxor slaughtering Elf girlies. What if one of them would be mortal and trapped inside the game, just like he was now? What if all three of them were? What if everyone was now trapped inside this game? If Zack was magically teleported to the virtual world, anyone could, and everything was possible from now on.

  Everything would be quite bad for him.

  Because the griefers, and the demons, and the wolves, everyone now could literally make his skin crawl with realism, and it was bad enough in a world dropping spiders or epic boss demons on your head like no big deal. Not to mention Permadeath.

  “WOOOOOO!” he heard right nearby.

  You encountered a Pack of Wolves!

  Wolf Lvl 2 Wolf Lvl 2

  Direwolf Lvl 3

  What the hell is a Direwolf? He only had time to think, and a heavily thumping mountain of muscle and teeth and claw and grey fur darted through the woods toward him.

  Runes didn’t appear in the air before him like magma, Zack realized. This time, it came like a flash of military thought, his senses telling him what just happened and what his enemies were, and their starting formation, and what they could do.

  Direwolf Lvl 3 reveals Shock Prey!

  Shock Prey. A dashing stunning attack of the pack leader, latching on its victim and draining its HP and Stamina, giving other Wolves time to prepare their mass attack.

  And then the huge slobbering jaws locked on Zack’s throat, AND IT HURT. The intensity of the pain, the realism of big fangs sinking into his windpipe, all of this hit him hard like a metal bear trap. Zack’s fingers were now wrapped around the slippery jaws, and their rows of teeth were razor-sharp.

  Zack was CRITICALLY hit by Direwolf Lvl 3 and lost 16 hit points

  Zack was hit by Direwolf Lvl 3 and lost 2 hit points

  Zack was hit by Direwolf Lvl 3 and lost 3 hit points

  “OMG I hate QTEs!” Zack shouted, fighting with the pair of the Direwolf’s jaws, which felt a bit like a dance with a pair of slippery steel clamps locked on your throat, not letting any breath in but letting you speak, wasting your air, and honestly pumping this arm-wrestling thing on an on, applying force and making Zack resist with all the strength he had. Then, finally, the lock and the stun were gone.

  He grabbed for the dagger and lashed forward, not waiting for other wolves to converge on his position. He stabbed the big grey predator like it was a training dummy, slashed it back and forth, then dashed after it and finished it as it tried to flee.

  Direwolf Lvl 3 was hit by Zack and lost 5 hit points

  Direwolf Lvl 3 was hit by Zack and lost 7 hit points

  Direwolf Lvl 3 was CRITICALLY hit by Zack, lost 18 hit points, and was killed!

  The other two Wolves hit him next, hard and heavy like two cannonballs, virtually crushing Zack’s chest and shocking him once more, this time making him feel stunned like a living human, not a computer character. This was a real-life impact and he felt it with his entire body.

  Zack was hit by Wolf Lvl 2 and lost 4 hit points

  Zack was CRITICALLY hit by Wolf Lvl 2 and lost 8 hit points

  Wolf Lvl 2 was hit by Zack and lost 4 hit points

  Wolf Lvl 2 was hit by Zack and lost 6 hit points

  Wolf Lvl 2 was CRITICALLY hit by Zack and lost 11 hit points

  Wolf Lvl 2 was hit by Zack and lost 5 hit points

  Zack fought for his life, whirling like a tornado, slashing back and forth, dodging wolf bites and delivering a crit or two once in a while, straight in those wolves’ gaping mouths. Yet he wasn’t as good as he could have been, for now the game became repulsively, needlessly realistic, like it was a gamer’s Hell, a course of some exquisite tortures designed just for Zack.

  Could it be the Director AI was somehow fond of Marduk? Zack had no time to think now, as he whirled and slashed two wolves back and forth, not letting any of them play dead, and then, as both of them were dead, leaving them behind and falling back into the pines to catch a breath.

  Wolf Lvl 2 was hit by Zack and lost 5 hit points

  Wolf Lvl 2 was CRITICALLY hit by Zack, lost 12 hit points, and was killed!

  Wolf Lvl 2 was hit by Zack and lost 6 hit points

  Wolf Lvl 2 was hit by Zack and lost 4 hit points

  Wolf Lvl 2 was hit by Zack, lost 5 hit points, and was killed!

  Zack felt like a sack full of pain and blood, leaking all over. Every wound in him felt real, and as he watched the skies grow dark, the pain of the fang marks on his chest and shoulder intensified. They may be healed, 1 HP regenerated every ten game minutes or so, while he was not locked in PvE or PvP combat, but the pain was real, and disturbing, and cold and scalding-hot at once, sharp like a dagger.

  “Healing Salve,” Zack groaned and looked around.

  Craft Healing Salve

  Alchemy Lvl 1 Recipe

  Items Required:

  Liferoot X2

  Sourberries X3

  Not Enough Ingredients!

  Those berries and roots were supposed to grow all around here, as Zack remembered. He instantly heard his stomach growl and once more felt the unpleasant touch of exhausting killing thirst. So many problems at once, Zack thought. It’s like I’m playing The Sims or something. Even worse. Is an MMORPG even supposed to be like this?

  First berries he found, he ate, unable to resist the temptation. And still they were not enough to do much for Zack’s ever-growing hunger or thirst. He decided to leave these unpleasant feelings alone for now and concentrate on finding enough ingredients to craft a Healing Salve.

  “Come on,” Zack groaned, looking under foliage and pushing through briars to check less obvious places. Soon he found some healing roots. They also looked edible, and probably were, but he decided against it. The berries were indeed sour like medicine, and the roots must have tasted like a rubber tire from what he imagined.

  Items Harvested:

  Liferoot

  Liferoot

  Liferoot X2

  The berries must have
also been around, not far from the spot where he had found the roots, according to the old RPG tradition. Zack crossed the clearing and searched the other side, the one he didn’t yet check and – lo and behold! – found what he was looking for straight off. He even had enough of them to eat some more, but the sour taste still lingered in his mouth, and Zack preferred not to, and crafted a couple of Healing Salves instead.

  Items Harvested:

  Sourberries X3

  Sourberries

  Sourberries X2

  The Salve was really pleasant and aromatic as he spread it around the blood-soaked robes and his new skin. It removed the hurting, if not the wet slick feeling. Zack even felt its medical stench, like something truly magical, truly able to heal you and take away your pain, these claw and tooth marks on your face and chest quickly dissolving like a cruel joke, cruel but gone now.

  Soon the pain was gone completely, and his fight with Wolves now seemed like a thing of the past, same as the spider, a momentary unpleasantness and little else. It was a game after all. In a videogame, you recover very quickly. So Zack decided to harvest the fallen Wolves then, for their pelts to make a new Wolfskin Armor from.

  He approached the first Lvl 2 Wolf’s corpse…

  Wolf Lvl 2 Reveals Play Dead!

  The wolf jumped up and attached itself firmly to Zack’s left hand raised in protest. The grip of its teeth was yet again quite realistic and painful and sharp, like a flash of while needles shot through his hand in short succession, Zack’s arteries pulsating, his health diminishing before his virtual inner eye.

  “QTEs are not FAIR!” Zack exclaimed. “I HAVE to lose some hit points, every time, just because I let these things jump me! But I SUFFER DAMAGE, oh I hate how it hurts, I suffer for REAL, okay? Just STOP, wolf!”

  The wolf’s growling and spasmodic lock on Zack’s arm was gone. He finally was allowed to use his weapon, and so he did, putting the sharp and pleasantly heavy Copper Dagger through the annoying Wolf’s skull…

  And he accidentally stabbed himself in the arm. The pain was immense, and Zack could hardly act after he inflicted the blow. His dagger clattered, falling on the ground.

  Zack CRITICALLY missed and hit Zack instead of Wolf Lvl 2! A thought flashed through Zack’s mind, loud and clear. Critical Miss! You dropped your weapon.

  Zack picked up his dagger, the ground swaying before him. He wanted to advance slowly on the remaining dead Wolf of the second level, with this nasty habit of jumping him…

  Wolf Lvl 2 reveals Play Dead!

  And the second confounded thing was also on him, biting into Zack’s throat again, knocking precious hit points off him and draining his Stamina at the same time, in a hateful uninterruptible Quick Time Event lockdown which he was supposed to fight through and feel good about. Zack didn’t feel good about anything anymore, which was for sure. He felt drenched in rainwater and in sweat and in blood and worse things like wolf gore and wolf drool and wolf teeth marks.

  He killed this last animal like it was some ultimate foe, his health nearly depleted. Zack was very close to game over now. He was in Hell, and it was only a starter area of Hell, not even the First Circle, more like Purgatory or something. A junior high Hell. Much and much worse things were up ahead. Lesser and bigger dangers were all around him.

  Zack crawled to the first big rocky meadow intended to be a global map view of sorts, a place from where he was for the first time impressed with the massive level-of-detail effects unfolding the entire continent of Aetheria before him.

  Now he was nearly carried away by the image. For Aetheria had moved on, and many things were changing rapidly all around. He saw burning metal-spike walls of evil demonic barricades surrounding Hawkspoint. The village was partly burning, and as he watched, a demonic fireball sizzled through the sky and crashed on the tavern, spawning a big fat-looking demonic thing next to it.

  “Dante was right,” Zack muttered, looking for Sourberries in quickly coalescing dusk. “Even this starter village is under siege. No land is safe now.”

  Zack was able to bring Wolf corpses to the bonfire in the middle of this rocky terrace, because he thought he could somehow cook them and eat them after grabbing their pelts. Zack’s imagination painted the smell and the feeling of grease of some actual cooked meat sliding down his throat, and who cares it was supposed to be a Wolf meat? It was all computer-generated anyway, and if it tasted nearly like some real cooked meat, like his mother’s cooking, something greasy and with garlic… Zack would have given everything only to taste something like that again.

  The skinned Wolves still resembled over-ripen mangoes on the inside, and yet, as Zack tried to dismantle them, they popped and dissolved, not yielding any meat at all. All Zack was able to harvest from Wolves was a familiar Ball of Twine, some Needles, and a bloodied bag of golden coins, cold and heavy between his fingers.

  And so he wrapped himself into his new Wolfskin Armor, the thing freshly crafted out of these pelts, and needles, and a Ball of Twine. At least now Zack felt pleasantly dry and warm. He still hadn’t eaten, if you don’t count weird-tasting Sourberries as a food, as bitter as they were sour, not a very pleasant experience either. He still wanted to drink, and the thirst only worsened. Zack would be completely miserable if not for this source of pleasant heat seeping through his entire body, the smell of burning wood soothing his nerves, this new armor and another Healing Salve he crafted keeping him cozy and making his troubles slowly fade away.

  “This is a crazy world, mom,” Zack said, looking into the fire. “Except it’s much worse than Wonderland, rules or no rules. Here, spiders drop on your head because some godlike artificial intelligence wants to keep you alert and scared if possible. And wolves carry a bloodied bag of gold in their stomach. This world is really too much. You don’t want to find yourself trapped in here.”

  The magical dome above Pandemonia was gone. Zack only realized this now, as something blew up in the middle of this evil purple crag-encased land, and a salvo of evil fireballs darted off into night skies in quick succession. Those fireballs fell like fireworks that exploded here and there amongst the trees and rolling hills, the sky raining demons and demon spawn, everywhere, no land in Aetheria free from the invasion.

  Zack couldn’t truly believe he was the one who had hit this major trigger, launching the huge demonic event. Yet such things happened, for instance his school friend Scooter once had bought a bottle of Coke and did win the one and only prize, which was merely a mug, and there was more than one of them, but it was the only such mug in the entire school, and he did win it, by hitting a true jackpot. Sometimes luck smiled upon you, in the worst moments possible, and chose you to press the big red button and become famous for it – or not. And then you were very sorry you were famous. Because, Zack thought, as this Roxxor guy truly said once, for this you must enjoy being a pariah, someone every bounty hunter on the way will try to bring down, and this was the last thing in the world Zack wanted, to be hunted for opening the Shrine of Marduk.

  VROOM! He heard the late thunder of this volcanic explosion.

  “A volcano, really?” Zack whispered, watching more demonic embers shooting in wide parabolas up and down across the purple night skies. “I knew there would be a volcano.”

  An underground tremor of a faraway earthquake was the only response Zack heard. He remembered wolves again and shuddered. The pain and the foul breath of the snarling Direwolf still haunted him. He remembered blood soaking through his Lvl 1 starter burlap tunic, wet by default, begging to be replaced by this armor which felt comfortable and much safer. And yet it had this barely-recognizable canine smell. All these feelings, so much of them, and so little time to deal with them all. The level of immersion, incredible. Maybe there was something to this game after all. He suppressed a mad laugh, weak and lonely, like a bark of these wolves.

  “By the way, they were a level-dependent spawn, a very cheap trick only a lazy game designer would play on you,” Zack sai
d through his teeth. “This game is just SO unfair in places. I’d ragequit it many times by now, I swear. Or discomfort-quit it, more like. I just swear it.”

  “WOOOOOOOO!” a nearby howl sounded, almost mocking Zack, loud and daring as ever.

  Like those wolves understand they are the same trio of Wolves I just killed, respawned, he thought. It was so stupid of him. Of course this bonfire was placed here, next to their spawn point, for a reason: the omnipresent designers wanted Zack to be paranoid, forever and ever keeping his eyes peeled, always aware of his surroundings. This was romantic in a way but it was more hell given his condition. As if some cruel and inventive gods were punishing him and watching him carefully – or maybe not even watching, letting their cold triggers and procedural generators handle the trick.

  I hate you, Zack thought. Whoever thought of a way to trap me here inside, I hate you.

  The three wolves converged on him. The Direwolf threw itself at Zack, direct like an arrow, persistent as something immortal, born again, in here, in Zack’s personal hell, coming again and again to torment him forever, like he was some chained Ancient Greek titan.

  Direwolf reveals Shock Prey!

  But then the huge wolf borrowed from Game of Thrones was suddenly gone, swooped aside by an arrow that met the creature halfway towards Zack and brought it down, dead like a doll in an instant.

  Direwolf Lvl 3 was CRITICALLY hit by AliceX and lost 65 hit points. Direwolf Lvl. 1 was killed.

  Wolf Lvl 2 was hit by -=Conan=- and lost 38 hit points. Wolf Lvl 2 was killed.

  As an Elven-looking arrow, all peacock feathers and mithril, whistled through the darkness and brought down the last resurrected wolf, two figures stepped out of the woods: an Elven Ranger girl and a huge Barbarian, both wearing starter items and looking rather humble but already somewhat combat-prepared, unlike him. Zack recognized the Barbarian at once.

  Good thing it was a PvE-only area, and PvP required his consent.

  A strong hand suddenly grasped his shoulder, and Zack felt something cold and sharp pressing between his shoulder blades, unpleasantly hard, like a scalpel ready to cut him down no matter what. Zack tried to fight frantically, and yet PvP was off, and all he could manage was wiggle in a standard dance of a basic communication macro: he was scared, he was in pain.