Alpha World Book One: Gamer for Life

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Escaping this place is our first business, then we shall try to find a town or city,” Alburet replied. “Oh, question, what does your loyalty mean exactly?”

  “An Infernal's loyalty is tied to how happy we are, the more loyal we are the faster we become happy while the inverse is also true, the less loyal we are the faster we lose happiness. The happier we are the more we do for our master, the less happy we are the more we rebel. Getting us killed or treating us badly lowers our happiness, treating us well increases our happiness.”

  Alburet chuckled inwardly, thinking back to games in the past that used similar systems. So sacrificing the imp to run away would be a drawback as it would lower the happiness of the imp. “So if I die, what happens to you?”

  “I return to my home plane until summoned again but I do not lose any happiness.”

  “What is your happiness currently at?”

  “Neutral. There are seven levels of happiness. Hated, Upset, Discontent, Neutral, Content, Respected, Revered.” Bob said, looking slightly bored.

  “I see this is going to take me some time to learn. Oh well, let's get going and you can help me learn as we go. I'm glad to have you by my side, Bob,” Alburet said as he stepped to the doors that should lead them out. A pop-up flashed in front of him and after glancing at it he paused to discontinue that pop-up through the menu.

  +1 Happiness for Bob

  He left alone the one that would tell him when the minion shifted to a different level of happiness but that was all. “Oh, almost forgot,” Alburet murmured, stopping to slap his hands together, “Retribution,” then pressed his hand to Bob's head. “Now you’re buffed, let's see what kind of trouble we can get into.” He repeated the process for himself and pulled the doors open.

  A misty courtyard with a weak sun greeted his eyes, with billows of cloud wafting slowly through the space before him. The only notable detail were the thirty foot walls just barely visible at times when a gap in the mist opened.

  “Obscuring mist,” Bob said, “to have such a large effect the caster would have to be very powerful.”

  Pursing his lips, Alburet shook his head. It wasn't like he had a choice if he really wanted his freedom. “Hopefully they aren't hanging about. Let's find the gate and get out.”

  Bob followed him down the few steps to the cobbled road that came to the front of the building. Following the road on the premise that it would lead to a way out seemed like a good idea. After a few hundred feet they came to a massive gate on their right. Studying it, Alburet noted that it looked like it led further into the complex.

  “I don't think we should go that way,” Alburet said, turning to follow the road again. Another few hundred feet brought them to a mammoth double door with a smaller single door set in it. “This might be it,” Alburet said, when a large figure lumbered out of the mist.

  Stepping back from the figure saved Alburet a lot of pain as a two-handed sword came through the space he had just been in. Alburet locked onto the figure, finding a level 6 Skeleton Gate Guard in rusty chain mail shirt attacking him with 500/500 health.

  Tossing the torch at the skeleton as it was no longer needed, Alburet took his staff in hand and swung at the guard. The blow connected with the chain and only turned up a single point of damage. “Bob, could use some help here,” Alburet said as he ducked the next swing from the guard.

  A small globe of fire splashed onto the guard’s unprotected legs, doing 21 damage. That caused the skeleton to turn toward Bob, who was already starting to cast another fire blast. As the skeleton turned, Alburet swung the staff into an overhead attack and brought it down firmly on the guard's skull. The critical to the unprotected head of the mob recorded 32 damage and made the mob turn back to Alburet.

  Unfortunately for Alburet, the attack had put him a little off balance so the skeleton's attack as it turned caught him in the side and threw him back a few feet. Gasping, Alburet winced at having a small truck hit him costing him 24 health as well as leaving a gash in his side that coincided with the debuff Bleeding, which caused 10% of the wound’s initial damage every six seconds for one minute.

  Another fire blast hit the skeleton in the legs, but the skeleton kept advancing on Alburet. Straightening back up, Alburet waited for the mob and was barely able to parry the next attack. The mob had way more strength than he did, which meant he could easily be overpowered. Dancing back to give himself some more room, Alburet saw another fire blast catch the creature again in the legs. This time the Guard turned towards Bob and started to advance on the imp, raising its sword as it went.

  Alburet stepped forward quickly, thrusting the staff like a spear into the back of the mob's head. He was again rewarded with a critical strike, taking another 32 health off the mob which made it pivot and bring the sword down in a vicious strike aimed at him. His attempted parry was useless against the strength of the mob. He took 48 points of damage and was knocked prone.

  The guard slammed its sword down at Alburet, who twisted away to avoid being hit in the head again. The attack connected with his side instead, gashing him again and adding a second bleed. Rolling to try and get some distance, he lost the staff in the process as he got to his feet. Alburet pulled out the dagger, wincing in pain as the two bleeding wounds ticked away. He didn't want to fight a two-handed sword with a dagger but unless he could get back to his staff it was a lost cause.

  Two more fire blasts hit the mob, making it turn again to Bob who looked slightly panicked. “I'm starting to run low on mana, master,” the imp squeaked.

  Putting the dagger away as he ran, Alburet grabbed the staff and went after the guard again, gauging how close this fight was going to be. The mob was at 330/500 while he was at 180/300 and losing a bit at a time due to the bleeds.

  Bob ran from the guard, dodging as best he could and hoping that Alburet would regain the skeleton’s attention. Alburet dug out the health potion and downed it, blinking as his health was restored and the bleed debuffs went away. 230/300 was much better than the previous total and made his pain subside a great deal.

  Just as the guard swung at Bob Alburet was able to strike the blade, making it go high. “Run for it until it attacks me again,” Alburet said, stepping back and preparing to attack the mob again.

  Bob darted past Alburet in a funny half skip kind of run. The mob ignored Alburet, going after the imp again and as it turned its back on Alburet he slammed the staff right into the unprotected knee of the skeleton. 32 damage and a debuff appeared on the skeleton, Crippled. It began to turn back to Alburet who backed away from it, noticing it was limping on the damaged leg as it followed him.

  “Bob, hit it in the head if you can, otherwise go for the legs,” Alburet cried out as he dodged the first attack from the skeleton.

  “I can only cast another couple of spells, master,” Bob said as he launched another fire blast at the guard, this time hitting it in the head and taking off 42 life.

  “Okay, do what you can,” Alburet said as he tried to parry again, but missed and took the sword to the ribs again which flung him back and into the double doors. “Fuck,” Alburet hissed, knowing he had just run out of room to maneuver.

  The next fire blast came in, clipping the skeleton's head and causing it to turn back to Bob as another forty two health came off of it. Breathing a partial sigh of relief, Alburet followed the skeleton but held his attack. 214/500 was what the mob had left while Alburet was sitting at 108/300.

  “Last one,” Bob called out, using its last bit of mana to take another 42 health off the guard.

  “Dodge as best you can, it will take me a moment to pull it off you,” Alburet called out, hoping he could get two or three attacks in before it turned on him again. “Too bad Retribution wore off before we reached the gate,” he wheezed to himself as he pulled the staff back to hit the mob.

  The staff connected with the other knee this time, again doing 32 damage and adding a second counter to the cripple debuff. Its speed was now halved as it limped after
Bob. Smiling at the fact they might pull this off after all, Alburet brought the staff around into the first knee again just as the mob was getting close enough to attack the imp, who had paused to wheeze for breath.

  That attack was enough to pull aggro back to Alburet, who realized it as the skeleton spun with the sword whistling in an arc as it did. The blow hit him again in the ribs and launched him twenty feet back and causing him to bleed again. Gasping, Alburet climbed to his feet shakily hoping he could land three more attacks before this thing killed him.

  The guard limped toward him, its sword cocked back ready to attack when it got into range. Alburet watched it, judging the probable attack and hoped he was right. As it took the last two steps to get into range, Alburet darted forward going into a shoulder roll on the sword side of the skeleton. He hoped the skeleton wouldn't be able to bring the sword straight down as easily as it could have across.

  The tumble worked as the skeleton didn't swing, but turned around to reacquire him. Alburet came to his feet and swung the staff, again catching the skeleton in the knees. Alburet hadn't expected the skeleton to turn as quickly as it did with the debuffs though, and found himself flying back again from a kick that did another 5 damage to him. He landed in a lump next to Bob.

  “Not very good at this are you?” Bob asked.

  “I didn't run out of mana,” Alburet wheezed, getting back to his feet. “Two more hits should do it but that might also land me back at my starting point.”

  Bob chuckled, “You can do it.” He stepped back quickly behind Alburet as the skeleton came into range again.

  Alburet cursed softly and slammed the staff like a spear into the thing’s skull just before the sword slammed into his ribs, flinging him away again and adding another stack of that damnable bleed. Gasping in pain, Alburet tried to climb to his feet to meet the guard as it trudged towards him.

  “You done?” Bob asked with a hint of laughter to its voice. “You’re still alive, come on, be a man.”

  Hissing in pain, Alburet got to his feet and glared at the imp, “Next time you can tank.”

  Bob shook a finger at him, “Not a good plan. If I tank I can't do this.” With that it launched another fire blast at the skeleton's head, killing it.

  Alburet slumped back to the ground and flipped the imp off. “Fucker, how long did you hold that?”

  Bob skipped over to Alburet, “I got the mana for another blast right when you landed in your last heap. I do recover mana during combat, just not fast enough to be an endless supply of damage.”

  Alburet breathed out in relief as the pain faded away when the last bleed fell off leaving him at 5/300 and he started to regain health. Once he was healed up he stood, “Well, we won. I never would have stood a chance without you. So, even with the snark, thank you.”

  Bob dipped a shallow bow with a laugh, “We aim to serve.”

  “Let's loot him and see if we can get the gate open.” Alburet crossed to the mob and looted the corpse. The rusty damaged chain mail shirt gave 14 armor, but it was red to him when examined which meant he couldn't equip it. He set it aside and checked the sword, a Pitted Rusty Great Sword which did 25 damage and was also red to him. The only other thing on the mob was a key for the small door in the gate.

  As both of the rusty items were only worth a handful of copper he considered leaving them, then smirked. He pulled all the femurs out of his bag and tried to put the blade into the bag. It disappeared just like the bag that belonged to Mary Poppins. Laughing, he put the chain mail inside as well. These at least those were worth coin, unlike the femurs.

  “Okay, we got us a key. Let's see what happens,” Alburet said as he walked towards the gate with Bob trailing along behind him.

  As he inserted the key and turned the lock he was frozen in place. A look at his bar told him he had a new debuff, Paralyzed. A dark laugh rang out behind him, “So, one of the intakes survived my spell even after all these years. How interesting. Where did you think you were going, exactly?”

  An invisible force pulled Alburet around so he could see a person clad in dark robes with silver filigree standing a few feet away from him. Finding himself able to speak Alburet replied, “To civilization, I had hoped. I don't know who you are or what’s going on, but at this point I was just hoping to get out.”

  The only part of the man Alburet could see was the pale chin and dark goatee as the mage spoke on. “So freedom is your only goal then?”

  “Pretty much was the only one I had since I woke up,” Alburet replied, wondering why the dev team would put this kind of event in here.

  “I am willing to let you go and will even send you to a city if you can give me anything of value to make up for all the damage you’ve caused me,” The man smirked, clearly figuring Alburet had nothing of value.

  “I would kind of need to be able to move,” Alburet said, at which point the debuff vanished. “Thanks,” Alburet muttered and pulled two items he had that might be worth anything, the books, out of his bag. “Either of these catch your eye?”

  The man paused, cocking his head to the side, a smile forming on his lips. “I've been looking for that tome for some time now. To think it was held in the intake wing. Yes, I will take the slim tome in your right hand, just toss it to me please.”

  Alburet gently underhanded the book spine first to the dark clothed man. “Glad to do business with you. So, about me leaving?”

  The man flipped the book open and began to laugh the crazed laugh of the truly demented and Alburet suddenly had a bad feeling about what he had done. “Enjoy the world while you can, it will be ending sooner than you think.” The man snapped his fingers and a wave of blackness enveloped Alburet.

  In the darkness multiple notifications popped up before his eyes. Alburet read through them, shaking his head, the last one made him sigh. “Fucking devs, going to pin whatever happens on me, I just know it.”

  Quest Completed: Escape the Forgotten Prison.

  Receive: Two Thousand XP.

  Quest Completed: Find a person who wants the eldritch book.

  Receive: Twenty Thousand XP.

  Congratulations on completing your tutorial. You are now being transferred to the regular starting city for humans.

  You have achieved multiple levels would you like to adjust your stats before you appear?

  Alburet declined, he wanted to find a trainer before he added more numbers to himself. He felt a trainer would be able to give him a better understanding of how he should build himself. He shook his head over the fact he had just jumped from level three to level six.

  The darkness vanished and he found himself standing before a massive stone wall. Fifty feet away were gates standing wide open, large enough for four wagons abreast, with four guards standing watch. As he took in the sight one of the guards turned to him, drawing his sword.

  “Summoner, you are not allowed to have your minions present while in the city,” The guard said firmly, standing his ground and holding the sword ready.

  “Bob, I think you should go for a bit.” Alburet said, eyeing the level 80 guard.

  Nodding, Bob vanished in a puff of smoke. As the imp vanished the guard sheathed his sword, “Remember not to summon them inside the walls or you will end up in the stockades.”

  Alburet nodded once and stepped over to the guard cautiously, “A question if I may, sir. Where can I find others of my kind?”

  The guard sneered, “Filth like you is in the gutter. Move along before I arrest you for causing a disturbance.”

  Blinking, Alburet walked into the city marveling at the degree of animosity the guard had shown just because he was a Summoner. The standard capital city stretched out all around him. Buildings of white stone stood gleaming in the sunlight with cobblestone streets and street signs at each corner.

  “Maybe someone else can direct me to where Summoners hang out,” Alburet said softly as he walked down the main road.

  Alburet

  Human Summoner

  Lev
el 6

  Strength: 5

  Agility: 5

  Constitution: 15

  Intelligence: 15

  Wisdom: 15

  Charisma: 20

  15 points to distribute

  Health: 450

  Mana: 450

  Spells:

  Demon Skin (Rank 2)

  Demonic Retribution

  Summon Least Imp

  Fire Blast

  Abilities:

  None

  1 Ability to train; see your trainer

  Stormguard

  As he walked down the street he noted the lack of names, status bars or anything similar over the heads of those moving around on the street. He focused on a small child to get targeting info, William McDonald level 1, 60/60 health. There was nothing to indicate whether the child was a player or NPC though, which he found a little odd. Stopping next to a wall, Alburet leaned against it and watched the street for a bit. Among the people walking he could see people running as well, chuckling he realized these were probably players because no one walked in games. He focused on one of the runners, ArticBreath level 3, 200/200 health. Alburet laughed, knowing that had to be a player. No NPC in any game he’d ever heard of would have a name like that. He targeted a few more people and came to understand how to easily tell the difference. NPC’s had surnames while players only had a first name or two names smashed together with no space between them.