~ Bill Hicks
Everybody fucking wants to be either Harry Potter or Harry Dresden. Me? I’d just as soon be Harry Bosch or Harry Hole, sure, magic sounds like a lot of fun, but at the end of the day, I’d like to get laid.
~ Captain Justin Collins
...........................
Dale stayed up late watching Star Wars movies and joking with Smith. When he finally made it back to his pod, he fell onto his Bed of Deep Sleep and was unconscious in moments.
He dreamt.
“Dale?”
“Hello?”
“Dale, it’s Tina, your nurse.”
“Hello? Am I in a hospital again?”
“No Dale, you’re in a new facility.”
“Where?”
“Deep in a protected underground military base. Don’t worry; you’re in good hands.”
“Why am I here?”
“Your new guild, Dale. The military. The war. You’ve been upgraded to the best equipment.”
“Why do I need a nurse?”
“Because this VR technology is the most advanced we’ve ever used. It requires, well, I don’t want to overstep my bounds, the doctor will be in shortly.”
Dale looked at his arms, both of his forearms were hooked to IV lines. He realized that his body was connected to an exoskeleton structure that was made up of tubes, wires, and what looked like shock cylinders, maybe hydraulics…
He faded out of conscious again.
When he woke, in the dream, he realized a doctor was making calibrations.
“I’m still dreaming?”
“Yes, Dale. Well, kind of. Relax, your vitals are all excellent.”
“Where am I?”
“It’s top secret Dale. Don’t worry; you’re in good hands.”
“I feel funny.”
“It’s just the blood enhancement. Nano-tech. Don’t worry, Dale. Really, you’re in excellent health. Could you do me a favor and start a slow jog?”
Dale moved his feet, sure enough, he didn’t move position in relation to the doctor, but his feet were jogging. He swung his arms and picked up the pace.
“Not too fast, yet. You’re doing great.” The doctor continued to make calibrations and interact with a screen interface that was attached to the front of Dale’s equipment.
Dale kept jogging.
“Could you jump for me?” the doctor asked.
Dale jumped.
“Excellent. You can relax.”
Dale stopped and faded into unconsciousness.
...........................
Dale woke up at 05:00. He did calisthenics. Push ups. Sit ups. Yoga. He requested a coffee and a robot server delivered it five minutes later.
During the night he’d decided on his race.
Zuharah.
He always wanted to be a wizard and now was his chance.
He confirmed in the system that he’d join the Kartikeya Guild. This was mostly a formality because he’d joined Unit 19, which got its charter from the Kartikeya Guild, but he’d learned that there were ways to serve in the military in Kartikeya Companies while belonging to a different guild. Doing that required filling out forms, asking for exemptions and clearances from above and he decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Besides, he was going into a war zone.
His personal guild, Nojus, was informed automatically of his decisions.
Dale chose the class Edificios, as they were the building class, opposite his skills as a soldier, he felt it would help him be well rounded, in spite of the fact that not going with the Thorild Class meant he’d lose some boosts in the military arts.
He loved building and crafting things, and not all of his time would be killing, destroying, and going to battle. Or so he hoped.
Because he was still in his humant form, and would be until they went to Alpha Deck to begin deployment, he didn’t know all of the ramifications of his decisions, in terms of XP and skills added. Every combination of race, guild, and class gave the starting soldier a set of bonuses, skills, mana, stamina, and a whole host of other things that Dale hadn’t been shown yet. He was still a rookie.
When he’d asked about learning the details, he was told that nobody was an expert yet, the Nagant Monks hadn’t shown them all the ins and outs, all the rules, laws, and codes and all the ways to bend and break them. The common refrain was that everyone would be surprised; some upset and some happy.
Dale didn’t particularly like surprises, but at this point, there was not much he could do about it.
...........................
Dale showed up early to the company meeting. He sat with Dyfrig and Smith.
“I had some weird dreams.”
“The werewolf chick?” Private Smith slapped him on the shoulder. “Nice going.”
“Hey!” Dale gave his friend a stare. “She could walk in any second.”
“I’m already here, fools,” she said.
Dale turned beet red.
“I have wolf hearing, suckers,” she said. She got up and moved to a seat closer to Dale.
He looked her over again; she was fine. There was no doubt about it. He felt his face flush red again when he realized she was noticing him checking her out. He looked down and away.
“Where are you from?” Smith asked. “I mean, back I the real world.”
“South Korea. Seoul. But I studied in the states, I’m one hundred percent pure Asian gamer nerd chick.”
She smiled, and Dale couldn’t help but smile back.
“COMPANY ATTENTION!”
Everyone stood. Captain Redding entered. A sergeant near the door, the one that had called everyone to attention, saluted the Captain.
“At ease soldiers. Take a seat. We have a shit load to go over.”
Captain Redding scanned the room. All members of the company were present, fifty-four soldiers. Herself, the 1st Lieutenant, and Top, each with a personal assistant, and the four platoons of twelve soldiers each.
Dale felt nervous. It was as if the war had begun at that moment.
“Troops, we have another day before we ISRA the fuck out of our solar system. We’ll be in orbit around a planet designated as V:546, commonly know as Almaach, in about a week. The territory where we will be setting up our base is under the control of King Talargo. He is an ally, and his people have contributed their fair share of soldiers to this war, so treat the noncombatants with respect and dignity. All areas on this planet are open world, except certain quests, which you will have to enter at your own discretion. Everyone will be on a leave rotation, and you’ll each be granted lots of personal time, we understand that war sucks and being away from home might be a hardship. For some of you, however, this will be the time of your lives.
“Our bases will be well defended, however, like any war, don’t trust anyone. Loose lips sink ships. An old war saying, but no less true today. Keep your shit together. Follow orders. Work on your specialties, do quests, but if any of you screw over your brother or sister during a battle for loot, I’ll personally see you locked up in the brig for as long as I can. We work together to win. Through victory comes peace. Or so we’re told. I don’t expect we’ll see our exact orders for another week. In the meantime, we will meet here every day at 08:00 to go over strategy and updates from the Nagant Monks. Keep up on your emails; I expect everyone to stay up to date and informed.
“The planet Almaach is a magic heavy world. Get acquainted with spells, charms, and potions. I’m trying to get us some Charlie Deck Simulation time so we can work on team building in our avatars. This is a military operation, folks, so SNAFU. We might not get to that level of training for a few days. Maybe not until we’re on planet. I realize a lot of you have only picked your race in the last few days. Or in Corporal Brown’s case…”
Dale turned red again.
The Captain sat down, and the Company First Sergeant Kuzmin stood.
“Soldiers, I’m First Sergeant Kuzmin. My assistant is Corporal Cassandraler, if you have any questions,
problems, requests, please route them through her. This morning I’m going to discuss the basic layout of your interface, as the Nagant Monks have released the final design and the primary functions that you’ll be using while in your professional avatars. Most of these functions will be useful to use in your personal avatars as well. Now, if you’ll direct your attention to the front, lights please, I’ll be going through a presentation here momentarily. Nancy, could you— yes — hit that button, okay, soldiers, here goes…”
Dale watched as a screen lit up with a symbol.
The First Sergeant had a laser pointer, and he used it to point to each item as he discussed it.
The symbol was a simple four pointed cross like a compass. There was the word inventory at the up or north point. The south point had the word map. The west was magic and the east was tech.
“This is the starting interface,” Top said. “The meanings are self-evident, point, think, nod, whatever your species and/or talents allow, and select one of these, for example, let’s say we pick map.”
The screen changed, and a sample map showed up. An icon showed were the avatar was located in the world.
“Everything is customizable in settings; you can create your own icon, as well as icons for anyone that has given you permissions to track them. Be aware that certain magical races have the ability, or at least can obtain the ability, to mask their location and send you false positives of their actual position. Assume nothing, soldiers. As you can see, the left and right sides of the interface have boxes you can select. The map can be zoomed in or out, as might be expected. You can track yourself, which is especially important if you’re entering unknown mines or dungeons. You’ll also be given the opportunity to upload maps and images to Central Command to help your brothers and sisters in the Klaharn. Don’t be greedy, soldiers, this is going to be a long war. What goes around comes around.
“Next, is magic. There, see how selecting magic brings up a split screen? On the left are spells. Spell casting is always for damage. DPS users will be in this screen and can obtain different spells as they level up. The right side covers the enchantments, healing, support, and potion making. This is going to take you a long time to learn naturally, but don’t get discouraged, soldiers. The Declan mercenaries are getting the same information at the same time as you—”
“Top, excuse me,” Dyfrig spoke. “Mercenaries? Can you explain?”
“Yes. Sergeant, this information has been cascading into our servers over the last couple of days. It’s been a constant battle to stay on top of the Nagant War rules, conditions, elements, interfaces, and all the various tech and magic schools. It’s maddening, in fact.
“The mercenaries are fighting for the Declanians. Essentially they’ve been recruited from whatever fucked up universe the Nagant and the factions come from. Fuck, it’s confusing, but here is the gist: The Declan faction are not NPCs, Non-Player Characters. I repeat, this war is essentially against another race who has been given a very strong incentive to fight the war. What that is, well, if anyone knows, it’s above my pay grade. What I can tell you is, assuming the Nagant Monks are to be trusted, and so far, that seems like a fair conclusion, the Declan Faction is operating with the exact same specs we have. The same magic, the same tech, the same races, guilds, and classes for avatars. I’m told everything is exactly equal. It’s like a chess game, soldiers. White and Black. No side has an advantage. There is not even an advantage to move first like being the white side in chess, as the war officially starts when it officially starts. Hell, you could be shot in the head by an arrow in the first minute.
“So, assume that any PvP action against the Declan is simply a fight against some other poor sucker who was drafted into a war and pulled out of his or her godforsaken universe and thrown into ours. The NPCs will be trying to kill, attack, or hinder both factions. There are boiling rumors about this too, soldiers, and I don’t intend to add more fuel to the fire about what kind of programming is behind whatever beasts are going to try and eat you.
“Never forget that to most life forms in the universe, you are simply a walking chunk of meat. A meal. And that is true from the perspective of a Tyrannosaurs Rex or a microscopic bacteria. You’re food. The other danger is more mundane; the local population could be sentient beings or they could be NPCs, we have no way of knowing. We have no way of instructing you exactly on how to proceed, except to be cautious. Perhaps you should all familiarize yourself with the Turing Test, although only God knows how you’d tell the difference between an artificial intelligence or another race from another galaxy.”
The First Sargent moved to the next image.
“This screen is tech, as you can see, it’s opposite of magic. Don’t think that either magic or tech as a distinct advantage. Nobody knows. It is a theory, and only a theory, that magic will be more important in the early stages of the war and less important as tech is developed. Kind of like history, I guess. You’re starting out with basic weapons, swords, shields, long bows. You’ll have the ability to level up and obtain crossbows, better armament, stronger swords, and other weapons as the war progresses. What will become available, and how fast, nobody knows for sure.”
Another sergeant asked a question. “Do we know how the leveling works?”
“Yes, I’m getting to that. Hold one, the last thing on the main screen is inventory.”
He changed screens, and an interface appeared with a lot of empty boxes. There was a tab for weapons, armor, food, and other categories, many of them in light gray. Dale assumed these covered tech not available at the level of the sample.
“Inventory is basic, I don’t think you’ll find that it is anything except self-explanatory. You’ll see that there are tabs for pets, mounts, relics, jewels, gold, and on, and on. Herbs are important if you’re working on magic. Materials are important if you’re crafting tech. I’ll expect everyone to study this stuff. Now, as to leveling.
“The first phase of the war has one hundred levels. How hard it is to level, nobody knows yet. What we do know is that the there are ten phases, so—”
“A thousand levels!” Several voices shouted.
“Yes,” Top said. “A thousand levels. Ten phases. This is war, soldiers. And war is hell.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.
~ Frank Herbert
If you want to make sense of the universe, have dinner with a pretty girl.
~ Dale Brown
...........................
Dale met Amy in front of the Korean barbecue.
“Wow, this looks great,” Dale said.
“One of my favorites, after pizza,” Amy said.
“I had pizza with Smith last night.”
“He’s your best friend?”
“Yeah, he kind of saved my life. Or, I mean, he saved me from a lot of pain. He’s a good friend.”
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah. I’m friends with Sargent Dyfrig, too. I hope you don’t think…”
“No. I’m… Look, the thing is—never mind—I’m sorry if I seemed like a bitch. I’m sure he’s a good person, too. Oh, hey, our table is ready.”
They followed the hostess and sat across from each other.
Amy’s avatar, due to the restrictions set by Rhith Systems, had to be close to how she looked. Of course, there are hacks and cheats, but Dale assumed she was a cute Korean girl, and that her avatar wasn’t a trick. She had straight, black, shoulder-length hair that framed her face. Big brown eyes. Light clear skin. And a pleasant voice that made him feel relaxed. Maybe getting attracted to a woman was a bad idea right before a war started?
Dale decided he didn’t care. It was time he got over the her from his past.
The restaurant served traditional dishes of pickled vegetables and they both ordered drinks.
“What’s good?” Dale read the menu, but h
e was a bit lost.
“Oh, nearly everything, but we’ll get Galbi and then go from there.”
They chatted after ordering and the conversation, naturally, lead to the war.
“So I get the initial HUD cross, four points, north is inventory, south—the map, west is magic, and east is for tech, but once you open up these trees, it starts getting confusing…” Dale trailed off in thought. He knew that Erin could pull up menus and rules of war and quests, but he wanted to know the stuff himself, he wanted to be quick on his feet.
“I like the simplicity of the four choices. The tree is a little confusing, but I think once you start using the interface, you’ll get used to where items are placed. I’ve been studying the enchantments, and it’s deep. Really deep.”
“You like playing support most?” Dale asked.
“Yeah. I guess that’s a stereotype, isn’t it? The Asian girl that can be counted on to heal all the tanks and enchant everyone’s shields. But, I’m also a bad ass wolf, and I can tank, destroy, and deal damage. I think my race and class will allow me to be very versatile.”
“What’s your class?”
“Hmm. Can I pass on that question? No offense.”
“Sure. I’m in the Edificios class, and the Nojus is my personal guild. In my real life, I like to design skeletons. I have a place reserved at PTU when the war is over. I like to make creatures, so the Nojus seemed like a good fit. Plus my class is going to give me a boost building and crafting, which I like to do.”
“That’s cool. So you picked Zuharah…”
“Yes, I always wanted to be a wizard, now’s my chance. A warrior wizard with a sword.”
“I’m going to concentrate on the long bow, there are a ton of enchantments I can add to arrows, I know that sounds weird, using a healing spell against the enemy, but my understanding is that I can counteract their DPS by firing enchantments as a long range DPS, and at the same time I can keep sending enchantments for healing towards the platoon. I’m sure it’s going to be complicated. I’ll assume that the Declan are facing the same issues, they, supposedly, have received the same information about the war, the rules, the interfaces, and everything at the same time as us. I hope the Nagant Monks are honest, but I guess we have no choice but to trust them.”
Nagant Wars: A LitRPG Novel (Nagant Wars Series Book 1) Page 21
