by Shawn Wyatt
2% HP remained.
I slipped a bullet into each gun and fired. Both belched clouds of smoke. My arms jerked from the recoil. I sat down hard, staggered by the recoil. The wolf tripped forward over its front legs and fell to the ground. Finally.
I took a deep breath and whooped. A light flashed around my body as "Level 10" appeared in the air overhead. "Two levels!" I would have to allocate those stat points when we made it to town.
Evey dropped from the trees and stalked toward me, her face filled with fury. She didn't speak until she reached where I sat and brought an open palm across my face. "What were you thinking?" she asked. "You could have been killed. Actually killed. We have no healing. No recovery options yet. That was stupid."
I laughed. "I knew you would and Boris would keep me safe," I said. I focused on her and saw the "Level 7" that floated beside her name. "And the experience gain was worth it." Evey looked away and didn't answer, and then I noticed the tears that brimmed in her eyes.
She had been afraid. Actually afraid. The realization hit me hard. I hadn't thought about that--the thrill of the game had gotten to me, despite the situation we found ourselves in. Had I died, the wolf would have moved on to her, and Evey may not have been able to escape.
I shook my head. "I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't think."
"Clearly."
Boris approached from behind and bumped Evey with his head. The set of her mouth twitched upward, just for a moment.
"Now let's go. That's enough excitement for today."
I nodded. "I agree. I'm tired now. But I've realized something."
"What?"
I took a breath. The reality of the situation had set in. My shoulders and back ached from the Dire Wolf's claws. It hurt to breathe. I had taken a dangerous amount of damage in the fight, but despite that--despite the risk of death--I had realized an important fact. "I want to beat this game. I want to get stronger. And I want to escape."
Evey met my gaze and, after a long moment, nodded in agreement.
The town had been father away than we thought. We walked another hour before the grey-green walls of the outer walls towered above the three of us. At our approach, a message prompt appeared.
Congratulations! You've discovered the capital city of Grenay.
The first ten feet of the walls were stone and mortar, covered in moss and lichens. Wooden fortifications rose another ten feet above those, stacked and layered over one another like a log cabin. The tops of the walls had been sharpened to wicked points.
We approached Grenay from the side and had to circumvent the perimeter of the city before we reached the forward gates. A hard-packed road led in and out of the city, populated with heavy traffic. Colossal deer, eighteen hands high, pulled wagons laden with entire trees. Smaller caravans carried fruit and berries harvested from the forest. The guards patrolled the outskirts of the city on elk whose racks would be the envy of any hunter.
Two of these guards stopped us at the gate. "Ho, travelers. Where are you coming from?"
Evey and I glanced at each other. "From the grasslands to the southeast," I said. "We made our way through the forest."
The guard looked us up and down, the noted the tears in my tunic. I would have to check the durability later. "Not without incident, it seems. Wolves?"
I nodded.
The guard pulled on the antlers of his mount and the creature stepped to the side. "Welcome to Grenay. You'll find food and rest inside. There are many more of your kind inside."
"Our kind?"
"Adventurers," the guard said. "They've trickled into the city in droves since yesterday."
"Thank you." I stepped into the gates of the city. A faint aura shimmered in the air under the gate. It brushed over my skin like a soft breeze. A prompt appeared in translucent letters at the bottom of my vision.
You have entered a sanctuary. Time spent inside a sanctuary will lend double experience gain for a limited time. Guards will respond to conflict between players and will fight by your side if a hostile player engages you.
Great. I hadn't even considered the possibility of player killers.
"That was strange," Evey said.
"What do you mean?"
"The guard. I know this is a game, and he made it clear the game recognized a difference between adventurers and the people of the city, but he didn't seem like an NPC. If he had not acted like he did, I would have thought he was a real player."
The interaction had been so realistic that I hadn't registered it at the time. "It's just realistic programming," I said. "It's just a game. It's based on realism, so it makes sense the NPCs would act like actual humans."
The reality of that fact hung heavy in the city. Scores of players clustered around buildings and inside shelters. Just inside the gates, a girl wept while her friends consoled her, but they too stared at nothing.
A player tussled with the guards nearby. The heavily-armed men disarmed and restrained him as he shouted at an innkeeper. "I don't care that your rooms are full. Just give me a place to sleep. Kick someone else out!" The player's face flushed red and spittle flew from his lips. "I'll get you. You're just a worthless NPC!"
The guards drug the man away as his screams turned more and more incoherent.
"This is horrible," Evey said. "Look at all of them."
The farther into the city we walked, the worse the situation grew. Guards stood at every building and took stations beside every vendor. The NPCs eyed the players with suspicion, but most of the players didn't notice. Most never looked up from their feet.
"Yeah. No one knows how to react or what to do," I said.
"They can't just stay in the city," Evey said. "Game or not, there's an economy here. They'll run out of gold and won't be able to buy food or a room. And it already seems like there aren't enough rooms in the city."
"Look at him," I said. A player stood in an alleyway with his sword drawn. "His hands are trembling so hard he can barely hold on to his blade. People are too afraid to leave the city, much less kill monsters and earn gold."
"This is a problem," Evey said. "If everyone stays like this, no one will ever make it out. And who knows what kind of events will happen that require fighting?"
"Yeah. What about you? What will you do?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you going to keep fighting, or do you want to stay in the city? We started with enough gold to stay in an inn comfortably for a month," I said. "And I can give you mine if you want it."
"You don't your gold?"
I shrugged. "I don't plan to stay in the city. I'm going to fight my way out of this, and then I'm personally going to deliver a bullet to that necromancer's skull." Boris huffed behind us. "I think the bear agrees."
"You can't do it alone," Evey said. "You'll need backup, especially if you pull any stunts like you did earlier today. I'm sticking with you."
"Then lunch is on me." I pushed open the door to the inn and held it for her. Evey walked in with Boris close behind. The entrance of a large brown bear drew gasps from most of the patrons. He growled when his hindquarters stuck in the door, but pushed himself through and flopped on the floor beside Evey.
My sides ached by the time I finished laughing. The innkeeper said nothing to either of us, though she threw concerned looks at the bear that now nibbled on an entire chicken.
Evey and I had both ordered ale and stew. Our meal had brought two pleasant surprises. The first was that food and drink cost little in comparison to the amount of starting gold we had.
Perla Online's economy followed the same basic guidelines as most games. Coin denominations broke down into bronze, nickel, and gold. 100 bronze coins made 1 nickel coin, and 100 nickel coins made 1 gold coin. Easy enough to keep track of. A meal cost 10 bronze coins, and a flagon of ale cost another 5. A night in the inn cost 25 bronze coins.
The second surprise was the taste. Food and drink tasted identical to the real world. Better, actually, since all we had eaten until this point wer
e handfuls of blueberries.
Evey ate with a pleasant smile plastered on her face and ignored the stares of the townsfolk and the way they danced around Boris. He gave passerby a curious glance, but the chicken owned his attention.
We lounged in the inn for several hours, stomachs full and bodies tired. Boris fell asleep and began to snore. With nothing more to do, I decided to distribute the stat points I had gained until this point.
I brought up my character page.
Level 10.
30 stat points.
One subclass choice.
I focused on the subclass choice. I could pick one of two subclass options: Duelist or Sharpshooter. The two subclasses favored opposite play styles.
Duelist
The Duelist is a close-range gunslinger, preferring dual pistols or a single high-powered Blunderbuss over weapons with more distance. Capable of firing Caster shots imbued with a variety of magic, Duelists move around the battlefield with a grace that belies their deadly nature.
Sharpshooter
If anyone can rival the assassination abilities of a Dervish Dancer, it is a Marauder Sharpshooter. These gunmen take aim from extreme distances and let fly a bullet that spells certain death for its target. Should the target survive, by the time it reaches the position the bullet was fired from the Sharpshooter will be long gone and ready to take another shot.
Duelist, hands-down. The camp-and-shoot play style didn't suit me, and Duelist seemed more fun anyway. The dual-pistol style had worked for me so far. Even the Quick Draw passive had been useful against that Dire Wolf. With the right build, a Marauder Duelist could output huge amounts of DPS.
Next I needed to allocate stat points. Each level up gave me +1 to all stats except LUCK, but I had 30 left to distribute where I wanted. My stats at this point were:
16 STR
160 lb. Carry Capacity
16 DEX
+16% Accuracy
16 CON
160 HP
16 INT
160 Mana
11 WIS
26.5% Mana Regen
2 LUCK
Unknown
As a Duelist, my main stat would be Dexterity, but I needed enough Constitution to survive any upcoming battles. I also needed to be wary of my total mana pool and its regen rate. I needed enough to let me cast spells, but not a huge pool.
My resource management included my number of bullets. Marauders infused Caster Shells with their mana to activate them, so any battle would be a dance between ammunition and mana supply.
Carry capacity hadn't come into play yet. Given how the game had changed so far, it might not have an influence. Strength would matter more to melee players. I would leave that at 16 for now.
Dexterity affected damage and the game's Aim Assist system, so it got 14 points right off the bat. I put 9 into Constitution to bring myself to a total of 250 HP. Then 4 into Intellect and 2 into Wisdom to improve mana regeneration. The last point I put into Luck.
I had no idea what the skill did, but it never hurt to be lucky. When I had finished, I reviewed the stats one last time.
16 STR
160 lb. Carry Capacity
30 DEX
+30% Accuracy
25 CON
250 HP
20 INT
200 Mana
13 WIS
29.5% Mana Regen
3 LUCK
Unknown
I could live with that. I accepted the changes and reviewed the two new skills I gained when I chose my subclass.
Freezing Shot
The Marauder fires a Caster Shell imbued with ice magic.
Lightning Shot
The Marauder fires a Caster Shell imbued with lightning magic.
Both of those could be tremendously useful. Elemental magic carried secondary effects, too. Freezing magic slowed targets while lightning magic had a chance to disarm them. It would have made kiting that Dire Wolf much easier.
When I looked back to Evey, she had the same glazed expression on her face. "Stat points?" I asked.
She nodded. Her eyes remained distant. "Yeah. Two more levels and Boris will become much stronger."
The bear raised his head and turned to her at the mention of his name, and she reached out a hand to scratch him.
"Not that you aren't already, big guy."
Before I could respond, the door to the inn slammed against the wall and an NPC staggered in. He locked eyes with me and strode toward our table. "Adventurers, please help. None of the others will listen to me."
"What's wrong?" I asked. The man carried a haggard look on his face despite his fine clothing.
"We have had no contact with the settlements closest to Grenay, but no men can be spared to investigate. Please, take a caravan and go find what, if anything, has happened. I can reward you handsomely."
I grinned. Our first quest.
CHAPTER SIX: THE FIRST QUEST
The hubbub in the inn rose in volume as the man spoke to us. Those who ate at tables nearby leaned in to hear what he had to say. Many people shared his concern about these settlements. "What do you mean when you say no one can be spared to investigate?"
"Recently, the forest creatures have begun to behave strangely. Each day they try to enter the city. The guard is too busy repelling the creatures to send men to investigate."
"Is it normal for these towns to lose contact?"
The man shook his head. "They are just over a day's ride from here and usually send couriers every other day. There are three villages clustered together. If you go, I will be forever in your debt."
"We don't have transportation," Evey said. "We'll go, but unless we have a horse, it will take time. Is there someone in town that can take us?"
"I'll pay your way there," the man said. "I have business in these towns...and family. Please."
"I'll do it," I said. I looked at Evey, who nodded. "Then it's settled. We'll leave tomorrow at first light."
The man nodded, slowly. "Thank you," he said. "But is there a way I could convince you to leave today? I realize you are weary, but I will provide a wide wagon for you to rest in along the way. And I'll provide you with items that will be useful to you when you return."
I paused for a moment. My back no longer ached from the wolf's claws, but my shoulders felt tense and I struggled to keep my eyes open. It would be better to rest and wait until morning, but the silent plea in the man's eyes convinced me. "Okay," I said. "But that wagon better be comfortable."
A system prompt appeared.
Quest Received! "No Contact"
Hammond asks that you investigate the cluster of villages near Grenay. He grows concerned for his family.
Rewards:
Reputation Increase
One Equipment Choice
Relief flooded the man's face. "Thank you. Thank you so much. My name is Hammond. Please, come with me." He stepped forward and placed a gold piece on the table. "That will cover your meals. Time is of the essence."
The man rushed out the door. I followed him. Evey did too, but not without an annoyed glance in my direction. Hammond led us through the city to the gates we had entered from. A large, covered wagon waited there with a single driver. The driver tipped his hat to us and turned back to tending the animals, a pair of the same elk-like creatures we saw earlier.
"This wagon should be sufficient," Hammond said. "There are blankets inside for you to rest on during the journey, and enough free space that your companion should fit with ease." He gestured to Boris with this last statement.
"Thank you," I said. "We arrived in Grenay this morning, so we haven't had much chance to rest." I climbed into the wagon and sat down on one of the benches with a groan of satisfaction. A plush blanket covered the seat, and I could have fallen asleep immediately.
Evey stepped into the wagon, and a few moments later the entire vehicle tilted as Boris clambered into the back. The elk-creatures barked and neighed, but remained still in their harness.
"This
is comfortable." Evey ran her hands over the blanket on the bench opposite me. "It's not cotton."
"No. Much softer. Is it possible to create new fabrics in virtual reality? Something softer than exists in reality?"
"Maybe. Speaking of virtual reality, what made you agree to help Hammond? The quest could have waited until tomorrow. We could have rested."
I scratched the back of my head. "What you said earlier about the guard. When Hammond made eye contact with me, I could see worry in his eyes. I don't know. He feels like a real person, even if I know he's nothing more than ones and zeroes in this world. I couldn't say no."
"Your soft heart is going to get you killed." Despite her comment, Evey smiled. "I was going to accept whether you did or not, too. "
"Glad we're on the same page."
The driver stuck his head in the front of the wagon. "You folks ready back there? We're about to set off."
I nodded.
Hammond stood next to the driver. "Thank you again, both of you. I wish you the best of luck. Please hurry back with news."
The driver jerked the reins and the creatures trotted forward. The wagon lurched underneath. In a moment, the world grew quieter as we passed under Grenay's barrier. I felt the tingle on my skin as it faded.
Clouds drifted against an azure backdrop. Birdsong floated through the air. The wagon driver hummed a tuneless melody as the vehicle rocked back and forth like a ship on the ocean.
The gentle motion acted as a lullaby, and before I knew it, I was asleep.
The driver nudged me awake several hours later. "We've stopped to water the animals," he said. "Got a few more hours of daylight before we need to make camp for the night."
