Total Immersion: Dark World: A LitRPG Adventure

by S. J. Larsson

  She chants Mylop words and I feel cool for the first time since entering Mylop Territory.

  Sid learns the skill Target Many. Sid can now target many at once when desired instead of only one.

  Whoa. The guild had told me the quest for multi-targeting is different for everyone, but this changes everything.

  “Oh, thank you, Singh!” I grin at her.

  “You promised it won’t hurt. Remember that.” She frowns at me.

  “It won’t.” I grin up at Djinn. “You ready?”

  “I’m always ready, Master.” He grins back.

  I target all the Mylop I can see as I walk through the Cavern of Compassion. Djinn’s soft, green glow lights the way and helps me find them. I’m surprised at myself. Seeing them like this makes me feel sorry for them. They are NPCs, for crying out loud.

  Once I have them all targeted, I give Djinn a thumbs-up.

  Sid commands First Wish.

  Singh and 105 other targets are warped to their Home Points.

  In a green flash, they all vanish.

  “Thanks, Djinn,” I tell my summon.

  “Don’t mention it.”

  A voice from the hot desert behind me says, “Not bad. I got multi-targeting a week ago. I guess that means I’m ahead of you.”

  I turn. Seeker stands at the cavern’s entrance, arms folded. Not smiling.

  “Leave me alone.”

  “Why are you being like this?”

  “Because you killed me last time I saw you.” I can’t help the anger building up in me. I want to smash his face.

  “Shall I assist you, Master?” Djinn asks.

  “Maybe,” I say.

  Seeker raises a glowing hand, but I act fast on instinct.

  Sid commands First Wish.

  Seeker is warped to Home Point.

  Seeker poofs into green mist.

  Oh, man. I royally pissed him off now. But, hell, if that isn’t a nifty way to get rid of him.

  ~

  I tell the guild I got multi-targeting. The ones who fight with me seem more excited than I am. I even tell them about Seeker and using First Wish on him. “It came so naturally,” I tell them. “Now I have a fool-proof way to make him eat shit.”

  “No Meditation?” asks Simple.

  “Nope. I’ll have to keep looking.”

  “Yeah,” says Sorry. “It’ll help so much with your next fight. Xiuhcoatl is gonna be badass. Hard to kill.”

  “Yep,” I tell them. “I’ll keep looking.”

  “Sorry,” says Shell on guild chat. “I just can’t remember exactly what I did.”

  “It’s okay, I’ll figure it out. But thanks,” I tell her.

  There’s that gut feeling, like she used to help, and then she’s pulling back. Am I imagining it?

  I leave the dark, empty cavern and head south again, continuing to listen to the guild chat. A few of them are trying to get a Blessed spell for a Siren Blessed in an ally guild, and some others are trying to run a hard dungeon, Belioff, in Dragonbane Territory.

  I’m near Dawn, the capital of Mylop Territory, when Days says to me, “Let us know, Sid, when you got it. Then I’m down for the dragon.”

  I look at the dragon marking on my left palm. When Calla had put it on me, my pulse fired up and my imagination went wild. I haven’t seen Xiuhcoatl anywhere in game, and my guild says they haven’t either. Simple had said she’d been waiting for Shell to get the fight quest, and she couldn’t wait until the battle.

  I’m scared, to be honest. A dragon. It’s gonna hurt when he hits me. Or any of us. None of my three summons are damage dealers, but a dragon? He’ll be damage, big damage. I like damage, doing it. Not done to me.

  “Sorry, Djinn, but I have to be incognito in cities. You know I like your company.”

  “Of course, Master Sid. I understand everything.”

  Sid releases Djinn.

  I cross the sand dunes, heading straight for the tunnels of Dawn. It’s an underground city with only a three-person wide opening to betray its whereabouts. In Elora, the city was magnificent underneath the earth, with an enormous sandstone-carved archway leading into the underground city. So much money, so many high-stat characters vending their crafts in the best AH in game. Even some things that won’t reach the Cashmere AH are here. What will it be like in Dark World?

  It’s dark inside, whereas in Elora it was lit with electricity. The caves have rustic wall paintings I can see from the light of the torch I lit.

  Where’s Dawn, the massive, bustling underground city of the spiritual warrior Mylop?

  I explore farther, deeper. Nothing still.

  Sid summons Djinn.

  “How may I be of your best service, Master Sid?” Djinn says once he’s gloriously formed.

  “I’m all alone here in Dawn. Where’s the city?”

  “You get lonely a lot.”

  “To be honest with you, in Dark World, I’m scared a lot.”

  “Ah, I comfort you. Nice to know.”

  “Can you tell me what happened to Dawn?”

  He rubs his goatee. “Time’s events are all the same to me. I have a feeling if you explore the deep, hidden places, you will find it.”

  I laugh. “I think you just told me the right answer. And yeah, going in those holes scares me. So, stick around, Djinn.”

  “As you wish.” He nods.

  We explore for hours down crumbling tunnels until suddenly, I smell cabbage cooking. It’s Mylop Cabbage, and they put grubs in it. It’s expensive, but it boosts Attack stat for thirty minutes… pretty high. In Elora, I’d eaten it tons. Now that I can taste in Dark World, I’ll never touch Mylop Cabbage.

  “This way. I smell bad cooking.” I sprint along a narrow passage with Djinn trailing behind.

  We exit into an enormous, high-ceiling cave bustling with Mylop of both sexes and all colors, shapes and sizes.

  “Would you look at that?” I hear a male player’s voice say. “That’s Djinn! How’d you get him?”

  I turn to my left, where a human player with brown hair and pale, rosy skin gapes at Djinn. Short, trimmed brown beard. He’s wearing flowing gray robes in layers, and many gold and silver necklaces, including a huge pendant of Brannah, the God of the dead. He of Brannahday fame and many loyal, sacrificing-type followers.

  Is he a Dead One, the elusive damage-dealing class that can make the undead mobs fight for him? Still, why didn’t I think to put Djinn away so I wouldn’t have to go through this rigmarole again?

  Sid dismisses Djinn.

  “Sorry, I, uh, forgot to put him away.”

  The player’s name is Lucky. “That was one of the coolest things I’ve seen. Thanks, man.” He smiles. “I heard there was a new Mystic. Must be you.”

  I feel guilty for having been irritated that another person wanted to talk about my Mystic-ness. Lucky’s a nice guy, and maybe Djinn liked the attention.

  “Thanks. He’s great. Talkative.” I smile back up at him. “Are you a Dead One?”

  He nods. “Yep, and human. Weird, right? The map bring you here?”

  “Map? No, just explored until I smelled Mylop Cabbage.”

  “Oh, yeah. You can smell that stink three tunnels away. I can’t get past those grubs. Anyway, I won’t bother you. You’re probably sick of players wanting to see all your summons.”

  “It’s okay, really. I just don’t know what to think of Dawn.”

  His brown eyes widen. “How new to Dark World are you?”

  “This is my first trip to Mylop Territory, if that tells you anything. I came to find Meditation, a Mystic move I really need for my next summon fight.”

  “Oh, oh. Okay. Wow, you’re getting those summons fast. Really fast. Hey, you know, there’s a Mylop Mystic NPC in a little hut on the south side of New Dawn. That’s what I call it.” He laughs.

  “Really? Thanks, that’s a great place to start. I appreciate it.”

  He holds his hand out and down. “Nice to meet you.”

  We shak
e hands. When I feel his human skin, a longing for physical contact hits me hard, and I have to look away. “You too.”

  “Can I add you to my friends list?” he asks, suddenly shy.

  “Uh, sure.” People don’t usually put you on their friends’ list within three minutes of meeting you.

  “I know, I promise I’m not a nut. I’m flabbergasted you have Djinn. I’ve heard only one other player in the game has him.”

  “Yeah, I know a girl with him. Think she’s the one you heard of?”

  “It’s like, Seashell or something.”

  “Shell. Yep, we’re in the same guild.”

  He grins. “Sounds like a good guild. Go see the NPC, get that spell. Thanks, Sid!” He rushes off. I feel like a rock star for the first time from Mystic attention as I get a notification for a friend request from Lucky. I accept.

  As I walk through the cramped, overcrowded cavern city looking for a hut on the south side, it occurs to me as strange that Shell and I are the only two Mystics with Djinn. How many summons are there? I’ve heard rumors of ones, and know rumors of Mystics who have gotten their summon battle quests in other orders than I’ve gotten mine. Are they just stories, and are my memories of what summons look like just from paintings and statues in Elora? Everything I hear about Mystic is secondhand from thirdhand. Someone heard this, someone read that. Shell knows what I know, and more. She never talks about her class.

  She used to talk a lot. But yeah. Never about her summons or her class. All I ever talk about in guild chat, if I do talk, is my summons. Maybe observations that interest me about them, or something especially clever this new Djinn summon says.

  It gives me pause. I realize I don’t quite trust Shell for sure. It was how she demanded to know how to get Mantra. Tone of voice, and mine with my arch-enemy got me smushed by his Volcanic Boulder. Tone says so much more than words sometimes.

  Shell is the only Mystic I know. I’ve never even met her in game. Just hear her raspy voice. When players started showing interest in me as a Mystic, I heard so many rumors, but no one knew a specific named Mystic—until Lucky, who has also heard of Shell.

  It seems like nobody’s met one. When I think back, in Elora, I could have sworn I’d seen Mystics… at least one. But maybe I just saw screenshots and made them my own memories.

  No, not screenshots. But still, my three summons have all seemed familiar to me the moment I saw them for the first time.

  I shrug the thought away as I spy a tan burlap hut, circular, with a little flap. Pretty small to hold a Mylop. I have to check this out.

  I enter the hut and inside, it’s a palace of exotic treasures and rarities. A magic hut that looks cheap on the outside, but enchanted to be big and fancy on the inside. A real treasure hound would get a hut like this.

  “Hello. You are Mystic, like me. I’ve been waiting for you,” I hear a man’s voice say to my right.

  He’s a white Mylop with silver eyes and wearing a long, royal blue silk Enchanter’s Robe +4. What a glamorous NPC. What a hut. He sits on a black velvet cushion on a leopard-print fur rug, placed perfectly square on the oak floor.

  “Waiting for me? How’d you know I was coming?”

  “Someday, you, too, will know such things. All Mystics who progress do. You’ve come for a gift.”

  “Yes, actually.” I read his name. I’d been so stunned by everything I hadn’t even taken it in. Cedra. “I’ve been looking for someone to teach me Meditation.”

  I wait, but he says nothing. Just stares at me, unblinking in that lizard Mylop way.

  “I’m Sid. Cedra is an unusual name for a Mylop. Sounds like a family name.” I’m trying a new tactic, the Nuudle charm. It usually goes over so well with NPCs, but Cedra’s eyes cut me in half.

  “It is not something that is taught, it is something that is learned,” he finally says.

  “Oh, why, certainly. That’s the perfect way to describe every aspect of Mystic.”

  “Nice Nuudle words will not persuade. I’m very interested in that Rose Gold Anklet you have on. I’ve not seen one in seventy-four years. Someone stole mine. Oh, yes, and I paid quite the price for it.”

  I don’t want to trade him Seeker’s evil gift because the good guy in me wants to give it back to the previous owner. But the bad guy in me wants to stick it to Seeker by giving it to Cedra, because I know he’ll find out somehow. I won’t be able to wait to tell him first if I get the chance. “You’re saying you’ll help me learn meditation if I offer you the anklet?”

  He nods and smiles slightly. “That’s exactly what I am saying.”

  I hesitate. It’s a good deal for me. Even if the anklet kills with Meditation, and I have the desire to return it; I want to get rid of it. I could just give it to him and learn my spell.

  “You do not care for my offer,” Cedra says, flicking a black, forked tongue in irritation.

  “No, it’s not that. It’s a long story, but this anklet isn’t mine. Oh, I can’t explain this to an NPC. Sorry, don’t take that personally.”

  “You know very little about Non-player Characters. But as I said not a minute ago, in time, as a dedicated Mystic, you will learn it all. That is, if you do not abuse your power.”

  “I don’t have much power to abuse. I need help from my friends every time I do a summon fight. I’m grateful to them, just wish I wasn’t so weak.”

  “You feel guilt?” He cocks an eyebrow as though I’d finally said something that entertained him.

  “Guilt… confusion. I don’t know how to play this class. I’m never a mage.”

  He pulls a long, wooden tobacco pipe out from under his robe and lights the tobacco in the bowl with a thin flame that comes right out of his pointer fingertip. “I hear you are innovative.”

  NPCs always know your “reputation,” so his saying that isn’t a thing. It’s my in.

  “I ask for the summons’ advice, respect their do-nots.”

  He nods and puffs smoke circles into the air between us. “The anklet?”

  “Okay, let’s do it.” I unequip the Rose Gold Anklet. My foot feels lighter, as though Seeker’s gift’s taint held my right foot down more than my left. I offer to trade with him and put the anklet in the trade box.

  He takes it with a satisfied grin.

  “Now, what does your Mystic sense tell you to do to learn this new spell?”

  “It’s a buffing spell.”

  “Yes.” He sounds impatient.

  “I have an idea…”

  He hunches over. “Do it already, then. Your insecurities are tiring.”

  Sid casts Spontaneity. Sid gains +63 MND.

  I feel a rush of groovy feelings from the Mind.

  Sid summons Djinn.

  “How may I help you, Master Sid?”

  “Needed to make another move. Besides, I think you’ll like this.”

  Sid casts Spontaneity. Cedra gains +374 ATT.

  Jesus, his stats must already be through the roof. NPCs aren’t usually high-stat, other than my summons.

  Cedra casts Meditation. Sid’s stat boosts will last for 80 seconds.

  I feel like I just did a line of coke, even if I never have. The pure, solid energy of having that much Mind always makes things nice, but the MND stat boosted so high from his wearing the Rose Gold Anklet while casting Meditation, well, the sensation is unending… it just goes on and on. I’m in a trance. Djinn and Cedra are arguing, but I can’t tell if it’s banter or an actual problem.

  Just in case, through my haze, I dismiss Djinn.

  When time runs out, I come back into focus.

  “See, you have now learned. I do hate to tell you that you’ll regret giving up this anklet. And mark my words, when Djinn loses interest in you for the next hot, new Mystic hunting him, and you’ve used his Seizure move, he won’t come back. Ever.”

  Had they been arguing about that? What does it mean?

  “Here,” he mutters, holding out the pointer that had been a lighter moments ago. I flinch as whit
e light shoots out of his finger and into my chest. A sharp pinch twists my heart.

  Sid learns Meditation.

  “Thank you. To be honest with you, I never plan to even think about that anklet ever again.” I want to ask him to tell me more about Djinn, what he meant, but he’s dismissing me, avoiding eye-contact and fondling the Rose Gold Anklet at his foot.

  I read the spell’s description.

  Meditation—Gives target’s buffs longer-lasting time, + 20~90% depending on Concentration level. Some items or gear may enhance this ability.

  Whoa. Shell told me it was 20 to 50%. Was she lying, or does hers not go as high? I decide right then and there I’m not going to tell the guild my spell reads differently than she said hers does. I’ll keep my suspicions to myself and pay attention. Remember to check the guild list before talking about anything I don’t want her to hear to make sure she has chat off.

  People in Dark World are mostly unpredictable. Of the many Mystic fans I’ve met, I’ve picked up on a lot of crazy in whatever this Total Immersion really is. Anella is a great example. I still haven’t seen her in the graveyard again, but I can feel her there, the same way you can feel if someone is staring at you and you turn your head, catching him. Instinct guiding the way, except I never catch her.

  The question of whether or not I’m dead continues to run through my mind down rabbit hole after rabbit hole. If I’m in Elora’s past, then I could possibly be here for 2,000 more years, right? That is, if my consciousness is now in the game somehow, forced or built-in to the game for a player to go to Dark World and start a new life. One after death.

  But see, then, wouldn’t I have already found myself in Elora by the time I started playing?

  Is it 2,000 years, or fifteen years? Elora Online’s only been out fifteen years. Game time is like RL time. Same sunrise and sunset as in your time zone. The days are named after planets, and some crafters are superstitious that the planets have something to do with crafting. Some people think you get better skill-ups on Shealaday, for example. I found a book in the Temple of Nuudlel that said the planet Sheala, named after the great White Elf White Knight princess of ancient times, carries the principles of White Knights, so maybe the idea some players had that Shealaday was better for skill-ups was because they themselves were White Knights. Or White Elf females. Or White Elf Killer, for all I know. You have to read every book, talk to every NPC. Many theories, lots of hours of speculation. Some, like Simple, geek out hard on the histories and philosophies of the game. This existence.