Awaken Online: Dominion

by Travis Bagwell

  As they reached the railing, the voice spoke up again. “We’re going to be giving a little re-enactment from our company’s immensely popular new game, Awaken Online. Some of you might recognize this next sequence.”

  The drones buzzed through the air, barely visible as they took up positions along the terrace. Then, without warning, a massive sapphire dragon began to materialize from thin air, its body knitting itself together from small tendrils of blue energy. Soon, its long serpentine neck curled and coiled through the air as gusts of icy wind shot from its nostrils and danced among the crowd on the terrace.

  “Oh wow,” Riley murmured. “They’re going to recreate the fight in the Sea’s Edge.”

  A demon soon appeared in the night sky, its body composed of intertwining layers of ivory bone and its thin arms ending in scythe-like claws. Dark energy rippled across its body as it flexed its arms and legs experimentally, mimicking the actions the creature had made in-game when Jason had first summoned it. He watched the monster sadly, knowing that Rex’s consciousness didn’t linger inside this version of the demon. It was just a pale imitation of what he had created in-game. Not that he suspected that the crowd would appreciate those nuances.

  As the two creatures began to share blows and tumble across the night sky to the gasps of the onlookers, Jason watched Riley. Traces of sadness and anger still lingered on her face as she watched the aerial display, evidence of their encounter with Alex. Without thinking, he took her hand. She pulled her gaze away from the battle to meet his, questioning. He was trying hard to think of something he could say that would convey his feelings – that would make her forget Alex.

  Yet no inspired statement came to him.

  Instead, he simply leaned down, placed his hand behind her head, and turned her toward him. He kissed her then, trying to put into action what he couldn’t find the words to say. As she pulled away, he thought he might have been successful. Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at him, the occasional flash of energy and ice reflected in their surface.

  They might have enemies. He might have a mountain of problems.

  But at least they had each other now.

  Chapter 35 - Ingenious

  When Jason logged into AO the next day, he had a grin on his face despite the gloomy trappings of the second challenge room. He felt happier than he had in a long time. He still faced problems in both the real world and the game; they hadn’t gone away just because he and Riley had resolved their issues. But they felt more manageable now, and he didn’t feel like he was suffocating under the mountain of shit that the universe always seemed to shovel his way.

  That was, until a blue notification flashed in his vision, demanding his attention and obscuring his view of the challenge room beneath the dark keep.

  System Notice

  Hello player! Welcome back to the world of Awaken Online. While our servers were temporarily offline, we made a few changes to the game world and character balance. A complete change log can be found by tapping here or by visiting our official forums.

  Since a large number of changes were made to the game world and to various classes and skills – only some of which may apply to your avatar or the zone you are currently located in – we have dynamically tailored the patch log to provide a summary of the changes that may affect you directly.

  The max level of your summoned creatures can no longer be higher than your current character level.

  The level of skeletons created using Custom Skeleton has now been adjusted to Willpower/15 at Beginner Level 1, and each level of Custom Skeleton decreases the divisor by .5 to a floor of 1. Your current skill level is Intermediate Level 7 and your current Willpower ratio is Willpower/7.0, meaning that the max level of your skeletons is now level 106 (down from level 181).

  Creatures summoned using Specialized Zombie retain the original creature’s level during life, but that can no longer be higher than your character level (down from the previous level cap of 387). We’re sure you never considered trying to revive a dead world boss… but we’re going to go ahead and cut off that issue right now.

  Creatures summoned using Custom Skeleton and Specialized Zombie now have a default mana reserve cost of 100 per creature. This reserve cost will increase or decrease relative to the size and power of the summoned creature. We have received a number of complaints about your… err, prolific summoning.

  Happy hunting!

  And thanks for playing Awaken Online!

  “Shit,” Jason murmured.

  He could only stare at the floating notification in shock. He had completely forgotten the patch notification he had seen just before Rex had trapped him and Riley in the challenge room – he had been a bit distracted at the time. Alfred had also clearly mentioned that changes to his class were incoming a few days ago, but the comment had gotten lost in the shuffle. Although, he certainly remembered now.

  Alfred had cut deep. The average level of his skeletons had dropped from level 181 to level 106, meaning that they had lost 75 levels worth of stat points. Now, even his zombies were limited to his own level. Although, realistically, he wasn’t certain how he could find or kill something over level 380. The summoned dragon in the Sea’s Edge had probably been the closest thing they had found, but there hadn’t been much left by the time Frank had gotten done with it. His barbarian friend apparently didn’t much care for hallucinogenic unicorns. What little had remained had disintegrated shortly afterward – whatever spell that had held the creature together dissipating.

  Although summoning an undead dragon would have been awesome, he thought wistfully.

  And then there was the mana reserve cost of his summoned creatures. His current Control Limit was 111 and he had a total of 13,675 mana. Assuming he only summoned normal-sized creatures up to his Control Limit, that meant his mana reserve cost would be 11,100, leaving him with a measly 2,575 mana. And that assumed that each minion only cost 100 mana. The prompt had indicated that this might not be the case. Either way, since his mana was now both his health and his means to cast spells, this would effectively cripple his ability to fight in melee, turning him into some sort of summoner-glass cannon. For example, he’d be able to channel Soul Slash for a grand total of five seconds before he killed himself.

  As he analyzed the changes, Jason came to a sudden realization regarding Alfred’s intent. The AI was essentially telling him he couldn’t both summon an army and be a melee powerhouse. He had to pick one depending on the situation. Or go take a more hybrid route by intentionally summoning fewer creatures at the cost of a corresponding amount of mana. The flip side was that this meant he hadn’t wasted the points in Willpower. The stat dramatically increased his now single resource pool and the level scaling on Custom Skeleton now made it even more useful than simply increasing his Control Limit. He could grudgingly admit that this was probably fair, but damn was it depressing.

  Alfred had hit him with the nerf hammer hard.

  Jason swiped away the notification, his gaze focusing on the oppressive darkness that filled the room as he tried to process the full consequences of these changes. They meant that his city and his troops were even more important now. He could still field a small army, but his minions would be much weaker unless he could find suitable corpses instead of using bones.

  He would also be even more vulnerable while summoning a large number of creatures – which meant Riley and Frank would need to keep him alive. Either that, or he would have to decide to engage in melee, in which case he would have to lean on his city’s regular forces and any players they could recruit to make up for the loss of numbers.

  His gaze shifted to the doorway leading back to the first challenge room and the training area beyond it. His teammates and the Kin had just become even more important – either to keep him alive or to back him up in a fight. Which meant that he needed to focus on improving his city if he was to get stronger.

  They still needed to stop Thorn, of course, which meant completing the challenges. But it would li
kely be a few hours until Riley logged in and they could attempt the second challenge room again. She had mentioned the night before that she needed to tackle a few things in the real world. In the meantime, he could focus on the city. The primary question was how best to spend his limited time and resources.

  Even if they managed to defeat the Order, Jason needed to fortify the Twilight Throne’s defenses and attract new players and citizens to compensate for his weaknesses going forward. And, to do that, they needed money. It all came back to money. This patch made his decision to conquer the outlying villages and invest in Eliza’s potion manufacturing operation even more critical. He abruptly decided that his first stop should be the mana well to check on its progress and then he needed to talk to Eliza about the idea that Angie had inadvertently given him. Maybe they could come up with a way to produce the health potions more quickly.

  Even as he decided on a plan of action, Jason started walking. He quickly found himself standing beside the mana well. Without further ado, he sunk his hand into the chill liquid resting in the bowl before him.

  Mana Well Console: Status

  Well Level: 5 (7% to level 6)

  Current Spirit Charges: 51/100

  Spirit Charge Income: +3 every two days (average).

  Mana Well Console: Notice

  Congratulations! Your city’s mana well has advanced to level 5. You have now unlocked the ability to access the mana well from any point within the Twilight Throne. A new menu option should be available on your system UI.

  New buildings and abilities are now available under “Build Options” and “Miracles.”

  Well, at least that’s some good news, Jason thought wryly as he reviewed the second notification.

  Being able to access the well without entering the keep would be convenient. He idly wondered if Pint was capable of leveling and upgrading his abilities. Although, Jason was reluctant to experiment since that would involve actually talking to the irritating creature. He shuddered at the thought. For now, he could probably make do with visiting the keep and shouting until the gray imp showed up.

  Jason’s gaze shifted back to the status screen. Frank had been busy, and the well had leveled three times since Jason had summoned his first Dark Spire in Fastu. However, the Spirit Charge generation had leveled off and become a little erratic. Jason assumed that this might be a result of the native undead killing the residents of the various villages before Frank and Vera arrived. Only kills made by his citizens seemed to increase the Spirit Charges, although the ambient income had gone up on average as the well improved in level. Perhaps it was becoming more efficient at gathering mana.

  Skimming down the list of menu options floating in front of him, Jason brought up the region map. This option had opened up after summoning the first Dark Spire. Immediately, a map was projected above the well, showing the Twilight Throne in its center and a spider web of villages that spread around the central city in a roughly circular pattern. A small spire icon hovered over each town, evidence that Jason had continued to summon a Dark Spire each time Frank and Vera conquered a town. He had even managed to build one of the towers in Peccavi, which made communication with William much easier. He didn’t have enough resources to upgrade every town’s defenses as he had done in Fastu, but he had been careful to upgrade the villages on their western border since they faced Alexion’s kingdom.

  He could still remember his encounter with Alex at the Cerillion Entertainment event. His nemesis seemed to have a disconcerting amount of information about the state of the Twilight Throne, and he couldn’t help but wonder if Alexion might be plotting something – or whether he might have spies planted inside the city.

  Shaking his head, Jason tapped on the icon for Peccavi, William’s town to the north. A small chat console appeared, and he noticed that no messages were waiting for him. He had discovered that the Dark Spires – when upgraded – acted as a communication relay and allowed NPCs to leave messages for his later review. Now that he could access the well console throughout the city, he might be able to respond immediately if a crisis occurred.

  Jason sighed. He knew he was procrastinating.

  His eyes hovered over “Build Options” on the menu list. Now was the moment of truth. The notice had mentioned new structures, and he needed to determine if his tentative plan would work. Jason flipped back through the menus and pulled up the list of structures he could build, skimming down the list quickly. A small smile graced his lips as he saw the option he was looking for, and he tapped it.

  Mana Well Console: Build Options

  Structure: Custom Building

  Description: Now that the city’s mana well has advanced in power, you are capable of creating unique structures empowered by dark mana. These structures are limited by the nature of the mana used and by your available resources. For example, you will never be able to create a traditional laser turret. Sorry! Although, some sort of death ray might not be entirely out of the question…

  The cost of the custom structure will depend on its size and complexity. Some buildings may also incur a recurring Spirit Charge cost to maintain the structure and keep it operational – which will reduce your mana well’s daily Spirit Charge income. A screen detailing the full cost of the structure will be presented after you have finalized your design.

  Cost: Variable fixed and/or recurring.

  This was consistent with what Riley had described in Vaerwald. The mages had created custom utilities based around the nature of their underlying mana and those facilities incurred a daily mana charge. Riley had mentioned that the cost was exorbitant, and the mages had begun charging citizens a “mana toll” to use certain services, likely to supplement each well’s normal mana generation. Even with this system, it still seemed incredible to Jason that they had managed to keep an entire city afloat. Although, he also had no idea how the other affinities generated resources. He suspected they might have easier ways to obtain mana than by killing things.

  An excited smile crept across his face as he stared at the notification hovering in front of him. Either way, this meant that his idea for manufacturing the potions was “possible.” He could work with possible. The next step was to talk to Eliza.

  * * *

  Jason found Eliza sitting in her laboratory. Perched on a stool and hunched over a set of vials, her hands darted through the air as she carefully measured and poured various powders into the containers. As he entered the side cavern, he couldn’t help but notice once again how vacant it looked. Eliza’s entire setup barely filled a corner of the massive cavern.

  Perhaps he had found a way to fill the nearly empty space. He sure hoped so.

  “Hi, Eliza,” Jason greeted the mage.

  Eliza promptly jumped a foot into the air, landing awkwardly back on the stool before toppling to the ground with a grunt and the sound of breaking glass.

  “Shit. I’m sorry,” Jason blurted, rushing to help her up. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “I-it’s okay,” Eliza managed to mumble, her cheeks red as she regained her feet. He quickly helped her tidy up the floor and her workbench, removing the sharp shards of glass.

  “Are you here to check on the potions?” Eliza asked tentatively. “I’ve been working as fast as I can, but we still only have a few dozen.”

  “That’s okay,” Jason replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I actually think I might have an idea to help with that, but first I have a question. What you said the other day about automating the manufacturing process, is that really possible? Like if we were to automate every step involved in brewing the health potions, could you run the process by yourself?”

  Eliza looked at him quizzically, pushing at her glasses with a finger as she considered his question. “I mean, technically yes. That seems impossible, though. You would need to prepare the ingredients. Then they would need to be distilled and mixed with the appropriate catalyst and processed into separate vials. The ratio of the various ingredients also needs to b
e precise. If the amounts are off even slightly, this can weaken the potion or possibly even make it poisonous to ingest.”

  “I think I have an idea for how to handle that,” Jason said, trying to contain his nervous excitement. This was the moment of truth. He had spent hours that morning sitting in his virtual study and working on this idea – time he probably should have spent working on his actual schoolwork or Robert’s programming assignments.

  Jason tapped at his system UI and brought up his browser, projecting the screen so that it was visible to Eliza and rotating it so that she could see the display. A two-dimensional blueprint was now visible on-screen next to a floating three-dimensional model. He had been forced to find some creative uses for his new programming skills to acquire the original designs. Although, he hadn’t done anything too unethical.

  “I found some schematics for the machinery involved in factories that bottle things like soda and other goods,” Jason explained, hedging slightly on how he had actually obtained the initial designs. “Most bottling plants for canned drinks go through a process very similar to what we’re trying to do here. My thought is that we could use these designs as a starting point and then tailor them to accommodate anything specific we need for your healing potions.”

  Eliza frowned as she stared at the drawing, biting at her lip. She swiped at the air and pulled up another screen, this one showing a series of handwritten notes and designs – likely from her time spent studying under Alma. She shifted her screen so that it was hovering beside the blueprints, a series of displays now projected in front of the pair.