Raven- The Beginning

by David Wadsworth

  A voice, which could be described as both being angelic and demonic, grating but smooth, seemingly melding the two natures which formed chaos, started speaking, it’s words broken.

  “Mmm… what have… we here… none before… worshiper of chaos… this child… Noctis desired… yes… rise child.”

  By now, my thoughts were wild, not knowing what the hell was going to happen. Normally, I was always so calm, so why now? Was it because of what is going on? Now that I am literally living inside this game, was the presence of the harbinger doing something to me? My thoughts were… chaotic. However, I rose, barely realizing it told, no, demanded of me, my head still bowed before this great being.

  Still holding it’s scythe with his left arm behind him, he reached out to me with his other arm, his clawed hand in a fist. With no words, there was a flash of black smoke made of magic that appeared between his fingers.

  “Gift… Noctis… yours…” the harbinger said after I rose.

  I reached out and placed my hand beneath his, ready to accept his gift as I felt something metal fall into it. A chain fell from the side of my hand. This gift was a necklace of some sort and I grasped onto it, placing my arms behind me, almost mimicking the pose that the harbinger had when it appeared. I looked up at him with both terror and admiration in my eyes.

  “Thank you Harbinger,” I said as I looked into his eyes that were stapled shut.

  The harbinger sighed as if he was content, having one last word for me before he left.

  “Die,” he told me, the world growing black once again.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  A Purpose Renewed

  I woke with with a scream, with both the feel of sweat and tears on my face, as I looked around myself in a panic. Irritably, this was becoming too much of a common occurrence for me. I couldn’t see the group window from my peripheral vision, so I assumed that the group disbanded when we wiped.

  I rubbed my neck, where the phantom pain of, something, still throbbed. Shaking my head clear from the exhaustion, I realized that I felt something on the sheets in between my legs. Looking down at it, I saw that it was a jet black amulet, with a blood red gem mounted in the center of it. The amulet’s black metal seemed to draw in the light around it, giving it an otherworldly reflection. The gem in the center had, what looked like, a murky fog swirling inside of it. Just like the black metal chain, it also seemed to draw in the light.

  Looking at the stats for the amulet, it was a unique item which means that it was soul bound. It had +15 to strength, agility, and wisdom. It also grants the wearer +5 dexterity, vitality, and resists. Not only that, but for each level the wearer was, it increased it’s stats by 10% per level.

  I closed my eyes and reopened them, not believing what I was seeing. I read over the stats, especially the bonus effect again, realizing that I was, in fact, reading it correctly. It was exceptionally rare that anyone in the game got anything that was unique. Hell, it was more likely that someone could create a black hole in real life by holding a stone and squeezing really hard. Of course there were rumors of unique items, but that was it. That was all they were, rumors. But here, in my hand, was an item that was unique. Not only that, but it was the same amulet that I saw Noctis wearing when I met her in the dream-world.

  I tried to remember what happened before I died, however, the entire event seemed, odd. It was as if my memory from just after the Flames of Entrapment ignited to my death was a puzzle that was dismantled, shaken, and forced back together even though the pieces didn’t fit right. It was chaos, which, I finally realized with a laugh, was the entire point. Why wouldn’t my memory be utter chaos, when I met, and spoke with, the Harbinger of Chaos.

  I started to think though, the knowledge slamming into me, that the harbingers were never meant to be killed! Or, were they? I would need to ask Noctis about this if, and when, I meet her next. It couldn’t be that she sent the harbinger to a low level dungeon to give me the amulet, could it? The entire thing is suspicious. Even though the harbingers could spawn anywhere, what is the point of spawning inside a rank 1 dungeon that would only have players that were a maximum of level 15 in it?

  Knowing that I could not solve this particular problem, I put on the necklace and felt it bind itself to me. While I was sitting in bed, I wanted to check out my current character sheet now that I had a good amount of equipment, though I still needed to turn in Moire’s quest for my daggers.

  “Show character stats” I called out, reading my the information about my character stats:

  Character

  Name: Raven

  Occupation: Assassin

  Level: 7 (433/489)

  Currency: 10s, 48c

  Health: 1375

  Stamina: 1425

  Mana: 1800

  ———————————————————————————

  Stats

  Strength: 61

  Dexterity: 26

  Agility: 59

  Vitality: 26

  Wisdom: 34

  ———————————————————————————

  Damage: 252-504

  Critical Hit Chance: 30%

  Critical Hit Damage: 282-534

  Evade Chance: 3%

  Armor: 9

  ———————————————————————————

  Resists

  Slashing Damage: 18%

  Blunt Damage: 13%

  Piercing Damage: 13%

  Fire Damage: 13%

  Cold Damage: 13%

  Lightning Damage: 13%

  Poison Damage: 18%

  Disease Damage: 13%

  Soul Damage: 8%

  ———————————————————————————

  Abilities

  Stealth (Level 3)

  Backstab (Level 1)

  Eviscerate (Level 4)

  Throw Magical Dagger (Level 1)

  Riposte (Level 3)

  Garrote (Level 1)

  Advanced Assassinate (Level 5)

  ———————————————————————————

  Equipment

  Chest: Rawhide Leather Vest

  Pants: Rawhide Leather Pants

  Gloves: Rawhide Leather Gloves

  Wrist(Right): Rawhide Leather Bracer

  Wrist(Left): Rawhide Leather Bracer

  Feet: Rawhide Leather Boots

  Necklace: Amulet of Noctis

  Ring(Right): Ring of the Hobgoblin

  Weapon: Rusted Dagger (main)

  “Hide character stats,” I said, my mind not quite believing what my eyes saw.

  The Amulet of Noctis was boosting my stats significantly. It seemed that the amulet matched my level, so when I looked at the stats earlier, I was looking at the amulet when it was level 1. However, since I equipped it, now the amulet was level 7. No wonder unique items, for the most part, didn’t exist. They broke the game!

  Getting excited now about my progress, I quickly jumped out of the bed and ran out of the inn and straight to Moire’s blacksmith shop.

  “Moire! MOIRE!” I shouted like an evil step-mother as I ran into her store, almost tearing the door from the hinges.

  Moire ran into the front of the shop from her back room, where I assumed her forge was, her blacksmith’s hammer in hand. She looked extremely disheveled and in a panic, as if she was asleep in the back.

  “What!? What’s happening? Raven, what’s wrong? Are the herpes attacking again?”

  I blinked several times, regaining my calm as I thought through her words.

  “Herpes? Um, I hope you mean harpies; and no, there are no harpies Moire. I have your ore!” I gleefully smiled at the blacksmith, receiving a look of death incarnate from her.

  “I should use your head instead of that damned ore Raven. What the hell is wrong with you, running in here screaming like that? You know what, I don’t want to know. Just give me that blasted ore and
get the hell out of here. I’ll have your damn daggers ready in a few hours.”

  I deposited the ore on her counter, completing the quest’s turn in step before turning around to leave the shop.

  “Oh, I almost forgot! Can you make a cloak from these?” I asked as I turned back around and deposited the Hobgoblin Cloth pieces. Moire frowned as she took them, sitting the cloth on her counter before pointing towards the door, her hand shaking in anger.

  Taking the hint, I finally left the blacksmith and started skipping towards the tavern where I could get a few glasses of wine while I waited. I completely failed to notice the looks of the NPCs hurrying out of my way with some of them, perhaps mothers, hugging their children tightly as I passed, wondering if I was possessed by some demonic entity.

  Entering the tavern, I paused for a few seconds while my eyes adjusted to the soft glow of the candles that were mounted on the walls. It was your typical tavern with a barkeep behind the counter. Behind the barkeep was a large mirror that was above shelves that were stocked with dark bottles and a couple of small barrels on each side of the shelves laying down on another, larger shelf.

  I looked over at Conall (who was the tavern’s barkeeper) as he was wiping off a crystal mug, his eyes focused on his task at hand. He was a ruggedly attractive man, his skin dark, even for a dark elf. He had long, straight silver hair which went perfectly with the silver earring. It had a chain running from a clasp that was attached near the tip of his ear to a metal loop on the bottom piercing, the silver reflecting the soft light of the tavern. I walked over to where he stood and greeted him.

  “Hello again Conall. I was wondering, what type of wine do you recommend?”

  Conall looked up at me, smiling as he recognized me, his dark eyes peering into my soul.

  “Why, hello there little Raven. What kind of taste are you in the mood for,” he asked with a glowing smile that made my heart melt. Whoever created Conall must have been a female developer since she got everything right with him. If I didn’t know this was a game, I would actually try to flirt.

  “I think I’m in the mood for something a bit dark, but on the sweet side,” I replied to him, smiling as I leaned over the counter a bit.

  “I think I know just the thing. It’s called Rennor Jhinrae, have a seat wherever you like and I’ll bring it out to you.”

  Conall reached down and grabbed a wine glass before disappointingly turning away, presumably to get whatever wine he was thinking of. I looked behind me and saw that there was a booth in the far back of the tavern that was not occupied, which I walked to and sat down.

  From here, I could see almost the entire bar while I relaxed. There was a few people here already. A group of dark elves were whispering to each other at one of the round tables that were near the front of the tavern by the door. Just across from me sat a lone beastman that looked like a mix between a human and a german shepard. While I didn’t pay attention to the other dark elves, the beastman grabbed my attention, as other races were typically very rare in the starter towns. He didn’t look like a new player though, since he was wearing Shadow Steel armor. If I remembered correctly, Shadow Steel was typically around level 40 to 50 armor. Mentally shrugging, I waited for my Rennor Jhinrae, looking forward to talking to Conall again.

  “Your Rennor Jhinrae, my lady. That will be 2 silver,” Conall said as he sat down the crystal glass in front of me, the golden liquid calling to me.

  I looked up into his eternal brown eyes again and gave him my thanks while I handed him the silver, paying for the wine. Sighing, I decided to focus on what happened over the last few days while I slowly drank the black wine, savoring the taste of sweet blackberries, letting the dizziness slowly start to overcome me.

  So, somehow when I entered that mine, I became trapped inside of this game. I still don’t know the how or why of it, but for some reason I’m not able to contact a GM using the menu in the game, nor can I log out using either the system call command or manually using the UI. Not only that, but the system is supposed to automatically boot you out of the game when it senses your stress levels getting too high. I can only imagine that with what has happened so far, my stress levels have went beyond red.

  Since I’m able to use all of my senses; sight, sound, taste, and smell, I may as well be living in this game. But the odd thing is that Noctis, and even that harbinger to an extent, acted as if they knew something was going on. I’m fairly certain that there is something going on there with the AI, since it shouldn’t even be aware of the outside world. I’m not even sure if the harbingers should be aware of the deities unless, of course, the players have been going about those all wrong.

  Wait thinking about the game’s AI, from what has been released about the game, it uses the quantum servers for machine learning. So, what if they used those same servers to duplicate my conscious into? Is it even possible that the AI is using my experiences in the outside world now? No, it… maybe it is… no, no, it shouldn’t be possible. I just don’t know, I never even read anything about how AI and all that actually worked. Just because I know some stuff that I read on the community forums doesn’t exactly qualify me as being an expert.

  Anyways, for the time being, I only have 3 more levels until I’m level 10. Once I hit that mile-marker, a few NPC quests should start to appear that will lead me to the main city of the beginner zone. If I recall correctly from that map inside of the inn, I think the name of it is Kinderfell. I’m kind of interested in what type of quest it’ll be, since on Shadowblood I had to escort a caravan with the head of a boss monster that I killed during an encounter.

  I’ll also be able to learn my two professions there as well, so I should probably keep an eye out for anything like that. I think I’ll end up needing talk to both Moleari and Moire about them once I hit level 10. Hopefully they’ll request for me to meet with the NPC crafters there since I plan on getting into tailoring and alchemy for the professions. I should get both herbalism and skinning from them as well.

  Hopefully I’ll be able to use the auction house in the main city, which at this point as long as the damned interface is working. If I can use the auction house, I can get player-crafted armor, weapons, and enchantments from there. I’ll also be able to sell off any of the excess potions that I make. Even if a single potion doesn’t go for much, the quantity that people usually purchase more than make up for that since they’re consumables. Potions are usually always high in demand, and the rare poisons can go for a good amount of platinum as well.

  On that note, another thing that will be a significant issue in the near term is my finance situation. I’m already down to 8 silver and 48 copper. I’ll need at least 1 gold to learn the professions, and 50 silver to learn the gathering skills. I also need to somehow get 10 gold to learn Shadow Step. So, 12 gold or so total. I wonder if I can beg? Guys always seemed to throw money to any female avatar in the game, so maybe I can take advantage of that? Heh, no. That’s the entire reason why I made Shadowblood male was so I could get away from that crap. I’ll keep that an option though, since this isn’t just a game anymore, is it?

  Caressing my temple to get rid of the migraine that I could feel starting, I looked around the tavern a bit, now that I wasn’t lost in my thoughts. A group of four was close by talking animatedly about some news report they saw before they logged into the game. I took a sip of my wine, still wanting to think about how I was progressing in the game so far while I kept listening to the group of players.

  On the other hand, my stats and skills are progressing as I hoped, and even more so with that amulet. I’m not even going to speculate how that happened since I’ll need to speak with Noctis about it. If the game progresses as it should, it won’t be until level 20 when I can speak with her again since that’s when I should be sent on a deity quest to get an armor and weapon set.

  I could hear them talking about some terrorist group that went by HAIST, or Humans Against Inter-Stellar Travel. They used a suicide bomber to destroy a building wh
ere they were testing some new technology for some secret mission that would be in a few years. Supposedly, it was a joint research project by HEoDS and XGS.

  What the fuck?

  The crystal glass that shattered on the ground brought silence to the tavern, as everyone turned their heads and eyes to me. I could only stare, unmoving, at the four players that were just talking, my hands shaking uncontrollably. My vision started to go hazy, not wanting to believe what I just heard. I didn’t even notice Conall hurrying over to me, a cloth rag in his hand.

  “Raven! Raven, are you okay?” he asked me, even though I was still stunned.

  I couldn’t even feel his hands on my cheeks, turning my head towards him.

  “Raven,” he started, looking into my eyes. My reflection was staring back at me, upside down. “Now you know, and for that, I truly am sorry,” he said to me softly.

  I couldn’t even feel the tears once again forming in my eyes before I fainted in his arms.

  Waking up in darkness, I could hear the various noises of people beneath me. This was obviously not the inn which I always woke in and I could still feel that my face was wet as I kept my head on the soft pillow that smelled like the forest, trying to comfort myself. It was that smell that intoxicated me every time I met with Conall.