“Not here,” he reminds her. “And yes, later.”
An incoming message from Lorem Ipsum sends a surge of excitement through Kodai. He reads it again, double-checking to make sure it says exactly what he thinks it says. “Finally,” he whispers. “Finally.”
“What is it?” Sarah asks.
“My humandroid bodyguard has arrived. She will be delivered tomorrow.”
Sarah looks at him nervously and Kodai can’t help but laugh. I will win in both worlds. With that thought, he finishes his whiskey and blinks his eyes closed once again to check on his avatar’s progress.
The end.
Note: Fantasy Online: Polynya will be released in December 2017. It will pick up where this story left off.
Fantasy Online Hyperborea is currently soaring up the charts. IF you enjoyed this book, please get your review in as soon as possible! Review it, and come back to the rest of the content. You rock, really, and thanks for taking part in the launch of this new series!
-Harmon Cooper
Ryuk Matsuzaki’s character sheet
(*as of the end of Book One)
Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 13 Ballistics Mage
HP: 378/378
ATK: 91
MATK: 120
DEF: 69
MDF: 42
LUCK: 10
---
Skill: Tonsil Shot
Level Three: 1 in 9 chance of connecting.
Damage: 28% if enemy is less than level 30; 15% if enemy is greater than level 30.
Odds of instakill: 11%
Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 9
----
Skill: A Simple Request
Level Three: 1 in 6.5 chance of a request being granted.
Caveat: Only works with a clear marble.
Requirements: LUCK > 6
---
Skill: Cherry Poppin’ Daddy
Level One: 1 in 11 chance of connecting. Enemy’s backside must be exposed. Higher levels increase damage and chance for an instakill.
Damage: 35% if enemy is less than level 30; 13% if enemy is greater than level 30.
Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 7
---
Skill: Extreme Focus
Level Two: Can detect approach of camouflaged/concealed/stealthed enemies and objects.
Mage bonus: Higher levels allow sleuthing and increased accuracy. Also increases magic detection range when used in tandem with Magic Eye.
Requirements: LUCK > 9
---
Skill: Inspire Others
Level One: By inspiring others, you induce them to follow your orders. Higher levels allow for manipulation of enemies and random strangers.
Requirements: LUCK > 5
---
Skill: Magic Eye
Level Five: A colored glow indicates that magical properties are present. Higher levels allow for more detail and access to the Wikipedia of arcane knowledge. A red outline signals that a hidden enemy is near. A yellow outline signals that an object is enchanted. A dark blue outline signals that necrotic magic is being used. A green outline signals that algomagic is being used. An orange outline indicates a hidden trap is present.
Requirements: Level 13 Mage, LUCK > 8.
---
Skill: Splash Back
Level One: Damage increases with higher levels.
Damage: 4% if enemy is less than level 30; 1% if enemy is greater than level 30.
Odds of instakill: 4%
Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 9
---
Skill: Gory Headshot
Level One: Odds of instakill increase with level.
Odds of Instakill: 52% if enemy is less than level 30; 32% if enemy is greater than level 30.
Caveat: Must be within five meters of opponent’s head.
LAUNCH MONTH SPECIAL OFFER
Learn more about Tritania in The Feedback Loop series!
June 2017 is launch month for Fantasy Online Hyperborea, and I need your honest reviews.
If you liked the series, please click here to review it right away.
Good. I’ll wait.
Once you’ve done so, email me your review and I will send you a FREE COPY of The Feedback Loop Box Set! That’s 900 pages for free! The Feedback Loop contains several of the characters you’ve read about in this story, including the legendary Quantum Hughes.
Here’s how to get the box set for free:
1) Review Fantasy Online Hyperborea
2) Email me [email protected]
3) Get your Box Set
You will also be entered into a launch month contest to receive a SIGNED copy of Fantasy Online! This is a copy of the second printing, and there are only three copies of this version available.
Thanks for your reviews!
Yours in sanity,
Harmon Cooper June 1st 2017
Tritania Basics
Reader,
Within Tritania, there are three floating continents. The starter continent is called Hyperborea, which is the setting for this book. To travel to the next floating continent, Polynya, a player must reach level 15. To travel to the third and final continent, Ultima Thule, a player must reach level 35.
The second book in this series will be called Fantasy Online: Polynya, and it will be released in December 2017. The third will be called Fantasy Online: Ultima Thule. The fourth? We’ll see ;-)
I promised myself I wouldn’t write anything in the back of the book this time, but the amount of effort I’ve put into this work, both in world and language creation and tying it to my other works, demands a few words. Here are the words it demanded.
Some words often used in my series
Algospell – A spell which affects the algorithm of the game. This is also referred to as algomagic.
Algoweapon – A weapon that can affect the algorithm of the online world. This is also referred to as a mutant hack.
Commoner – A name used by NPCs to describe human players.
Dead City – A zompoc Proxima World that FeeTwix has spent time in.
D-NAS – Digital Neuronal Autoconstruct System. The term for an avatar’s DNA.
ImmiNPC – An NPC from a different Proxima World.
NPC – Non Player Character. Something randomly generated by the Proxima World’s AI.
NVA Seed – The Neuronal Visualization Algorithmic Seed is a worlds main AI.
NV Visor – Neuronal Visualization Visor. The apparatus used to dive to a Proxima World.
PC – A player character, a “real person” playing in the game.
Resetter – A veteran player character who decides to start over with a new avatar.
RPC – A reborn player character. This is an NPC that has had all the life details of an actual player character loaded into them. It is an exact replica.
Steam – A Proxima World first introduced in the second Feedback Loop book. FeeTwix has dove to this world, which is where he got his weapon, the slice bang.
Relation to other series
I wanted to keep this section short, but there are things you should know which will aid you in your understanding of how Fantasy Online: Hyperborea fits into the timeline of my sci-fi series. For ease of enjoyment, here’s a basic timeline:
Year 2058 -- The Feedback Loop series
Year 2075 -- The Fantasy Online series
Year 2083 -- The Life is a Beautiful Thing series
Many characters from the Feedback Loop series are in Fantasy Online. This includes Jim the hostelier (known as Jim the doorman in the Loop series), Croc, Cid the Bartender, and Dirty Dave. Characters mentioned who haven’t appeared include the Knights of Non Compos Mentis aka Sophia, Quantum Hughes, Doc, and Chrono (Chrono’s School of Advanced Weaponry), as well as the Chef, the Saucier, and Mirror the dragon, who are very briefly mentioned. Thuleans are also a feature of the Feedback Loop books three through five, and the tournament that Zaena speaks of (in which Quantum Hughes used his guns to kill Queen Renata), took place in
the fourth book of The Feedback Loop series.
More regarding the experiment Hajime speaks about, in which an NPC takes the body of a humandroid, can be found in the sixth Feedback Loop book, entitled Cyber Noir Redux. Sophia, also mentioned heavily in Fantasy Online, makes her first appearance in the Feedback Loop Book Four, Reapers and Repercussions. To find out more about these characters and the origins of Fantasy Online, start The Feedback Loop series with the three-book box set here.
Characters from my hallucinatory cyberpunk series, Life is a Beautiful Thing, also appear in Fantasy Online. These include Walt the cyborg (briefly mentioned) and Lorem Ipsum, the account executive at MercSecure. The real kicker? For those brave enough to dig deep into the wild, hallucinatory series that is Life is a Beautiful Thing, you will encounter older versions of Ryuk and Hajime (after all, it takes place eight years after Fantasy Online), who are featured in the second and third book of that series. You’ve been warned.
Tritania
Tritania consists of three floating continents, Hyperborea, Polynya, and Ultima Thule, all of which float over the Endless Sea. The continents were named after early names used to define the area we now call The North Pole. Most of the cities in Tritania are named after Inuit words for snow. For example, ‘Jatla’ is the word for snow between your toes, and it is also the word for ‘filthy’ in Thulean. ‘Sotla’ is the word for snow sparkling in the sunshine. And so on.
Time in Tritania is relatively easy to follow.
The morning and evening hours share the same times; the only thing that changes is the addition of the world ‘morning’. Here are the hours:
1- Hour of the Dragon
2- Hour of the Griffin
3- Hour of the Rabbit
4- Hour of the Water
5- Hour of the Tiger
6- Hour of the Air
7- Hour of the Mana
8- Hour of the Faun
9- Hour of the Pig
10- Hour of the Fire
11- Hour of the Llama
12- Hour of the Wood
So four o’clock in the morning would be, Hour of the Morning Water. Four o’clock in the afternoon would be, Hour of the Water.
As you learned in the book, Thuleans hail from Ultima Thule, the northernmost continent, and they speak a unique language. The language is based on several of the languages I’ve studied, notably Japanese and Mongolian. The text style is actually Mongolian script that my wife has phoneticized. An example would be the famous Thulean poem displayed at the beginning of this book, which we examine in detail a few paragraphs down. As the text mentions, there is also some written on Ryuk’s marble gun.
I have worked on the Thulean language since 2014 and the language has real structure. To keep things simple, it follows a subject verb object pattern like English. Like Japanese, future and present tenses are the same. It should also be noted that the language is guttural rather than tonal, and its colloquial usage filled with fricatives, like Mongolian. About the only thing I haven’t finalized with the language aside from a boatload of nouns, verbs, and adjectives are perfect tenses and using conditional phrases.
Below, we will look at the famous Tritanian poem that Zaena recites followed by one of the insults she hurls at Hiccup. This poem is also available in the front of this book.
In English: “Continents, three, float over the Endless Sea, Hyperborea, Polynya, and Ultima Thule.”
In Thulean: “Takha bae bitakh novlaa rakh Aya Bortaetae, Huborakha, Polonkhya, Hutamae Dulekh.”
A direct translation: “Three (takha) continent (bae bitakh) float (novlaa) over (rakh) Endless Sea (Aya Bortaetae), Hyperborea (Huborakha), Polynya (Polonkhya), Ultima Thule (Hutame Dulekh).”
In the above translation, you’ll notice that articles aren’t used. Like Japanese and many other languages, Thulean doesn’t use articles (such as ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’). It doesn’t use conjunctions either. You’ll also notice that there isn’t pluralization of the word ‘continent’, something also related to the structure of the Japanese language. Another piece of the Japanese language structure that I use for Thulean is the elimination of pronouns.
Let’s break down quick trade of jabs between Hiccup and Zaena featured in Chapter 12.
Zaena hisses Chain duchitekcha at Hiccup.
In English, this would translate to “I am your future murderer.”
If you translate it directly, she says “Your (chain) death-giving person (duchitekcha).” The verb
‘to be’ implied.
The future assumption of this sentence is due to the fact that like Japanese, future and present tense are used simultaneously, and one would take from the context that the proposed death would come soon. Also, since we’re discussing the phrase, the verb “to die” in Thulean is duchaka and the word for ‘to give’ is tekronakh. The suffix for person is ‘cha’. So duch-i-tek-cha combines stems from both the verbs and adds cha to make it a person. It also adds the letter ‘i’ to separate the two stems, as the two verbs have combined to describe a noun.
Another version of the usage of the word death is evident in the prologue of the book. The mountain troll yells ‘Doka duchaka!’ which in English translates to ‘Prepare to die!’ This is another way verbs can work together in the Thulean language. When not describing a noun (as in the ‘cha’ example above), to use two verbs together, the stem of the first verb is added to the second verb.
So, dokava is the verb for ‘to prepare’ and duchaka is the verb for ‘to die’. Thus, doka duchaka, means ‘prepare to die’.
I hope that explanation didn’t bore you to tears.
If you’d like to know more about the Thulean language, please visit this link, where you will find an Excel spreadsheet of all the words I’ve created for the language as well as some grammar instructions. It is a work in progress, and it is something I will continue to enhance both in Fantasy Online and The Feedback Loop series. If you are into SQL and feel like making a data-base for the language, message me as this is something I’d ultimately like to do. ([email protected])
I frequent two LitRPG Facebook groups. Please join them both, where you’ll be able to interact with LitRPG fans, authors, and narrators. These groups are so fun and their members are great.
Make sure to post something along the lines of “I’m here because of Harmon fickin’ Cooper!” when you join.
:-D
JOIN THEM BOTH! Click the two pics, or search “LitRPG Group” and “LitRPG Society” on Facebook.
Acknowledgements & More
To George C. Hopkins, my editor, thanks for making marble guns and all the other shit I come up with work. In the process of our working relationship, you’ve been attacked by a bull and had a septic tank overflow (not as a direct result of our association – GCH), yet you still have sent me back edits, whether it be Chrismahankuwanzivus or the night following another successful goose competition.
To my beta readers, Daniel Hernandez, Jay Taylor, and Kay Smilie, I couldn’t thank you more. Thanks for giving me your time, expertise, and mindspace. Kay has been beta-reading my books for two years now and I couldn’t thank her enough! Nor do I have a way to express my gratitude for all the great authors I’ve met over the last year and who have encouraged me and whose work has inspired the hell out of me. In no particular order, a XXL bucket of thank yous goes out to Blaise Corvin, Michael-Scott Earle (thanks for kicking my ass on this one – your suggestions truly shaped this story!), James Hunter, Aleric Elos, Sam Witt, Jeff Sproul, Alyssa Archer, Ramon Mejia, and Aleron Kong, all whom have shared their expertise and their time. To Richard M. Mulder and Dawn Chapman, thanks for featuring Fantasy Online in SciFan Magazine and a special thanks to Dawn for catching a glaring typo before The Feedback Loop print book went to press. A special big ATX thank you goes out to Travis Bagwell, who introduced me to most of the people listed above, and to Luke Chmilenko and Apollos Thorne, whom I speak to almost daily about writing, gaming, and promotion, thanks for all the enco
uragement. (To Luke … must … resist … PS4.)
Tom Shutt, a writer, an editor, and a gifted cover designer, went above and beyond to get the perfect cover for this book. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in May of 2017, which was a shocker for all in the community. I know you can’t read this, but thank you, Tom, for putting up with my constant badgering and cover-tweaking questions and thank you for never making me feel like I’ve asked a stupid question.
Others I’d like to thank include Jeff Hays, narrator extraordinaire who continues to bring my characters to life; Bobby Burjstrom, a damn funny guy who is desperately in need of professional help after an incident with a unicorn; Paul Campbell Jr., from ATQNE.com for working so hard for this genre; Pakisam, who provided early inspiration as I posted this book on RRL, encouraging me further and calling me out if my shit stank – this guy really made a difference in what you’ve just read; Liquid Frost, for always lotioning properly and being the first reader to review my books a few years back; my brother for reading my books on his smartphone and sending me screenshots of my mistakes a month after the book has been published (insert troll face here – haha); the readers (Blanche, Dale, Rebecca, Joel, Jay, others) who have stuck with me over the last couple of years. If you’ve emailed me, or spoken to me on Facebook, you know who you are and I thank you for it!
Finally to my wonderful wife, Sor, I couldn’t have done this without your continued support. Thanks for listening to me ramble on about a bawdy goblin for the last six months and thank you for working so diligently on the art for this book! I’m sorry for asking you to draw weapons and Japanese food over and over again.
Japan
I lived in Japan off and on over the course of a two-year period from 2014 until 2016. My Japanese language skills are far from good, but I am able to get around and I once was pretty good with Katakana. I started in on Hiragana, but work assignments kept me from ever taking the next step. Regarding Kanji, I only know the sign for ‘exit’. For this book, I’ve used mostly Katakana and some Romanji, which is the word used when Japanese words are phoneticized into the English alphabet.
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