Alterlife

by Matt Moss

  “This is the best part,” Cervial says, guiding us around a long right turn that leads inside the cave. It opens into another, larger great room, and I can’t believe my eyes.

  “The bank of the Black Knights,” Cervial says in grandeur. “All the loot from the raids is stored here.”

  I gaze in wonder at the massive piles of gold, gems, and artifacts that take up a majority of the massive space—the loot piles are twice the size of the first temple that I found Cervial in.

  And there are five of them.

  Weapons and armor are scattered about, some glowing, imbued by magic or special abilities. Potions, and every other type of ingredient an Alchemist could wish for, line wooden shelves on the walls of the cave. I’m standing in awe, thinking of how much this would be worth in the real world.

  “Speechless?” Cervial asks upon seeing my reaction.

  I nod, slowly.

  He walks among the treasure, holding a hand out towards the loot as he speaks. “That’s how most people are when they see the bank of the Black Knights. We have a reputation to uphold as the richest and most powerful guild in Alterlife, you know? What good would that reputation be if we had no proof to back it up? What good would it be if nobody believed it?” He picks up a chalice made of gold and examines it before tossing it back down among the pile. “Pick something. Anything you want. It’s yours.”

  My jaw nearly drops. “Really? Anything I want?”

  He inclines a nod and folds his hands. “It’s only fair, you being a new member of the Black Knights and all. You should count yourself fortunate to be among such great company.”

  I browse over the assortment of goods and think about what item would suit me best in the game. A powerful weapon is my first choice, but a good piece of armor might be more beneficial for a beginner like myself.

  No. A weapon.

  “That’s very generous of you, Cervial. Thank you,” I reply, scanning over a pile.

  Now, what type of weapon should I choose? A sword, presumably. Wait, what’s this?…

  My eyes lock onto a map that’s half covered by a small pile of gold. From my earlier days of gaming, I know treasure maps are a common theme, but they can be hard to find. And it’s even harder to actually find the treasure. I’ve yet to see one in Alterlife, but deep down in my gut, I know this is a treasure map. I step closer, narrowing my eyes to focus on the parchment. And an especially rare map at that because it has the image of Thal on the top left corner, similar to the statue in the temple but a much simpler interpretation. It’s nearly faded and scratched out, unable to spot to the untrained eye, but I can still make it out.

  Thal’s crest. Who knows what treasure this map may lead to? Could be my ticket to everything I’ve ever wanted. My ticket to freedom.

  I make a mental note of the map’s location among the piles but don’t choose it, afraid that if I do, it will alert Cervial of its rarity. Clearly it’s been overlooked and tossed among the rest by some guild member who didn’t know what it truly was.

  Lucky for me, I have a cloak of invisibility. And the Black Knights are dumb enough to stash their loot somewhere that doesn’t have a locked door. I just need to get the cloak repaired. I’m sure there’s someone in town who could fix it.

  “Having trouble in making a decision?” Cervial asks, stepping beside me.

  I snap out of my head and bend to pick up the nearest weapon.

  Cervial takes it for inspection. “War Hammer of Lightning. Nice choice. Come, I’ll show you the barracks.”

  “Thanks. Lead the way.” I place the weapon into my inventory, and look back at the map one more time before we leave.

  On the other side of the temple, there’s a path that leads to another large part of the cave filled with beds and crates. Natural light still finds its way in, but like every other part of the keep, there are torches on the walls to provide light at night. “This is the barracks,” Cervial says. “You don’t have to stay here, but it’s open to members of the guild to log out if they so choose.”

  No telling how long he’s going to keep playing tour guide. I need to break away from Cervial so I can get my cloak repaired and come back before I’m logged out. “I’ll keep that in mind. Hey, I’m eager to try this weapon out. Catch up with you later?”

  He laughs at my ambition. “Ah, to be new again. I remember it well. Treasure these days, Ace, as they go by fast and the magic of this world will one day diminish.” He turns to me and squares up, his face stern. “Now, there’s just one more thing before you can leave. To join the Black Knights, you must take the mark.”

  Before I can protest, he pulls out a small metal sigil sparking with red magic, and presses it to the palm of my right hand.

  I growl against the process, but it doesn’t hurt. Just feels warm. When he removes the seal, I hold my arm up and look at the burned crest. “Now you can come and go as you please, brother,” Cervial says. “Welcome to your new family.”

  Right. I’ve only got one family, and it ain’t the Black Knights.

  I shake his hand. “Thanks again, Cervial. See you around.”

  I run down the stairs and, when approached by the guards at the bottom, show them the mark of the guild. They let me pass and I feel like a rockstar. I strut through the city of Condren, my chest out, head high, and spirits even higher.

  After a few rejections, a kind person replies to my inquiry and points me in the direction of the nearest Tailor.

  I burst through the front door. “I need a repair.”

  “What do you got?” an older man grumbles, sitting behind the bar, bearded and weathered. The place smells of leather and oil. A spinning wheel in the corner. I show him the cloak. “Three gold,” he says upon inspection. I pay the man and he goes to work. After a minute, he curses. “Where did you get this? I’ve never seen the like before.”

  “I found it. Why?”

  “I can’t repair it. This takes the skill of a Grandmaster Tailor.”

  “Where can I find one?”

  He holds a finger up and goes to the back. “Ursela! Come in here.”

  “What?” an elderly woman’s voice shouts back. “What did you say?”

  “I said come in here,” he shouts again in earnest.

  “Quit yelling at me, you old bastard,” she scolds, entering the room.

  He shakes the cloak in front of her face. “Damnit, woman. This man needs help and I’ve been calling for you.”

  She glares at him over the top of her thick glasses, and curses as she shoves him to the side. Her hands grasp the cloak, surveying the damage and the make up, and she begins working her skill.

  In a game where AI chooses your avatar, why would it make someone old? You’d think that it would make everyone young, or at least middle-aged. Odd. Or does the game base a character’s age on a player’s real life age? Do they desire to be old?

  Who would want to desire that?

  “Where did you get this?” she sharply asks.

  I lay my hands on the counter. “It was a gift. Can you repair it?”

  “It’s been repaired,” she states.

  “Wow. Thank you so much.” I place five coins on the table for payment.

  She shoves the gold and the cloak back. “I won’t take your money. As far as the world’s concerned, you’ve never been to my shop, and I’ve never seen you.” She storms out of the room and into the back of the shop, leaving the old man and myself gawking in her wake. He walks back to the bar and leans across the counter. “I’ve never seen her act that way before.”

  “Could she tell what this is?” I ask, holding the cloak up in one hand.

  He shakes his head. “Tailors can’t see what ability an enchanted item has, only that it’s enchanted. But the skill to repair said item depends on the quality of magic in the fabric. The more powerful the enchantment, the higher the skill needed, understand?” He thumbs towards the back. “My old lady back there, she’s one of only five Grandmasters in Alterlife.”

 
“Whoa. One in five? On this server, anyway,” I note.

  “What do you mean, on this server?” he asks in all seriousness.

  Does he not know about other servers?

  “Uh, nothing. Thanks again for your help.”

  He straightens up, folds his arms. “I would say come back, but I’m not going to.” The pitiful look in his eyes says it all.

  “Right. Thanks again.” I leave the shop and place the money I owe them in the mail slot out front before I go, plus an extra coin.

  After a quick stop at the bank, and seeing that my bank account is nearly empty, the inn is my next stop. There’s just enough coin left for a small room in the back near the stables. After purchasing the room, I go to check in and find that the smell out back reminds me of my uncle’s farm and the summer trips I took there as a kid.

  I figure the inn will provide a safe place to logout for the night because I really don’t want to spawn back at the fountain in Eden. Even more, I don’t want to see Gamemaster Deakins. And with my plan of stealing from from the guild’s bank, I really don’t want to log out in the barracks. By my calculations, I have about an hour left to get into the Black Knight’s bank, steal the map, and be back here before the server kicks me off.

  Plenty of time.

  Prepared to make my move, I steal a look at the guards on the steps before ducking back into an alley and donning my cloak. I stroll past them with ease and, once again, wait for someone to open the door to the guild’s keep. I could have shown them my mark, then used the cloak inside, but I didn’t want to leave any trace of me being there. Better safe than sorry.

  Nearly thirty minutes go by. I begin to panic.

  I check my inventory and see the cloak is still at seventy percent durability, but I’m afraid of being logged out.

  Did I miscalculate my login time? Even five minutes off my estimation would be critical.

  The door opens, and I nearly run into a woman as I rush in. She stops and looks back at the doorway, frowns, then continues about her way. I take a deep breath, then swiftly dart along the eastern wall of the great hall, behind the shops.

  It still feels odd, knowing that nobody can see me. Nobody knows I’m there. I’m invisible.

  I take a left at the temple and dash down the long hall, thankful that it’s empty and Cervial is nowhere to be seen. At the cave entrance to the vault, the guards still stand post, but they’re rolling stones in the corner and betting coin.

  Strange thing for NPCs to do.

  They never see me as I slip by.

  The bank of the Black Knights is a grand sight to see, even after laying eyes on it the first time. The temptation to load my pack full tugs hard at my desire, but I’m only here for one thing. Nobody will miss one little thing. I go to uncover the map, displacing the gold around it, scattering it about the floor by my feet.

  A voice hisses from somewhere inside the cave. “Thief. Show yourself.”

  Startled, I nearly fall on my behind, my hand keeping me from doing so. I keep perfectly still so not to startle anything around me.

  A man dressed in similar clothing to Deana walks from behind a pile of loot and into the middle of the room.

  A Ranger? Damn.

  “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. Show yourself.” He pulls a dagger from his sheath and holds the blade close to his side, slowly stepping towards me; his eyes peeled and searching the cave.

  I hold my breath as he passes by me, only a few steps away, and try my best not to move, not to make any sound. He stops and sniffs the air. His head turns to the side and he looks down, then closes his eyes.

  My heart’s pounding inside my chest so loud that I think he might hear it. I let out a long, slow breath as he keeps moving towards the front of the cave.

  “Show yourself. Thief.”

  As his back is turned, I take the map and put it in my inventory. Slowly, I stand and take a step. A piece of gold shifts near my foot, sliding from the pile and onto the floor. He snaps around and looks directly at me. For a moment, I think he can see me.

  Shit.

  His eyes go to the pile of gold near my feet, where the map once was. His attention snaps back towards the mouth of the cave as a guard yells, cursing one of the others for cheating. I take the distraction as a blessing and move behind another pile of loot. The cloak’s at forty percent, and I don’t really know how much time I have left.

  I have to get out of here, now.

  I move along the backside of the pile of gold and peak around to see the Ranger.

  He’s gone.

  No time to wait. I make my break for the exit. Nearly there, I freeze, hearing his voice behind me once again.

  “I know you’re here, thief.” He bends down and sniffs the floor of the cave at the exact place my hand stopped my fall. His head turns, eyes closed as he takes in a scent. They snap open and lock onto me. “There you are. I see you.”

  Impossible. How can he see me? I’m invisible!

  Fear grips me and I run out of the bank as fast as I can, not caring about who might hear my footsteps as I gallop down the hall.

  Don’t look back.

  By a twist of good fortune, a group of people are leaving the guild just as I approach the door and I tag along with them. At the bottom of the steps, near the fountain, I look back to see if I’m being followed. I breathe a sigh of relief when the door slams shut, and whoever it was that saw me in the vault is no longer on my tail. I run as fast as I can back to my room at the inn.

  Inside, I lock the door and remove the cloak.

  I laugh to myself. “What the hell was that? He saw me. How?”

  I take out the map and give it a good look before logging out for the night. “Hello, beautiful.”

  Tomorrow, a new life begins.

  6

  LUCK BE A LADY

  “…John.”

  “Huh, yeah?”

  “I asked you how work was going?”

  “Good. You know… same ol’, same ol’.”

  “You’ve just been off lately.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m fine.”

  “No. You’re acting different.”

  “Look, I’ve got a lot on me at work. The foreman’s been riding my ass, and the last thing I need is to get it from you when I come home, too. Hey, where are you going?”

  “I don’t have time for this right now. I have to take the kids to school and go to work. It’s Thursday—you do remember what day it is, right?”

  After she leaves, I look at my arm again.

  The guild mark’s not there, John. This isn’t the game.

  This is real life.

  Every time I log into VR, it’s a surreal feeling. The outside world melts away, stress and troubles with it, leaving me at one with the universe; in a zen-thinking sort of way.

  I love it here.

  The skies are blue and the road is clear as I make my way to the treasure. At least I think I’m going the right way. On the map, there’s a circular area that glows, but it’s rather large, probably ten miles in diameter if I’m estimating correctly. Way too impossible to pinpoint the actual location of the treasure. But I’ve been marking the map as I go, and my cartography skill is going up. Also, I can see that as my XP rises, the glowing circle shrinks.

  I just hope my skill rises enough before I get there. No way I’ve got time to search even a square mile.

  Along the road, players run about, either hunting or on a quest of some sort. For the most part, everyone keeps to themselves and doesn’t engage with another player.

  Just the way I like it.

  I stop as a man runs across the road in front of me, screaming for help. “Help me, please. Someone is trying to kill me,” he pleads, coming towards me. Behind him, I see a Barbarian class emerge from the trees with a double-axe in his hand. He locks onto us. “Please!” the man begs, grabbing my arm.

  I shake him off. “Get out of here, man. I can’t help you.”

  “Shit. Here he c
omes,” the man cries, turning in horror to find his pursuer. He runs along the road behind me, screaming for help.

  As the Barbarian draws closer, something about him looks strange. I step aside as he barrels down the road and, in his passing, catch a glimpse at what looks different about him. Not his cold, lifeless eyes—the eyes of a killer. And not his imbued axe that’s enveloped in flames. It’s the glowing, red marks—similar to a tattoo—that are scattered about his neck. I’ve never seen anything like that on anyone in Alterlife before. Perhaps the mark of a certain guild?

  I feel bad for not helping the desperate man, but if I had, there would have been two corpses lying on the road instead of one. I didn’t want to tell him that I’m too weak to help. That I couldn’t have helped, even if I wanted to. Because I can’t risk losing what I’ve got.

  It’s just like the real world. I’m always being held back. Limited in my abilities, unable to achieve my ambitions.

  I will change this.

  Taking out the map again, I continue my journey.

  Behind me, somewhere in a grove of trees, the man’s scream suddenly gets cut off and the world goes quiet again. Birds scatter above the treetops at the site of the kill. I begin running, hoping that the Barbarian doesn’t come after me next, hoping that there was a dispute between the two instead of just a bandit robbing a traveler on the road. Either way, I don’t want to find out.

  I run for the next thirty minutes through a field, stopping only briefly to check the map and make a waypoint, using a stamina potion to keep from fading. I left the main road a while back in case the Barbarian doubled back to look for me. Not far off the road mind you, but enough to make it hard to track me.

  A forest lies ahead which will provide cover from the open field that I’m currently on. Inside the woods, I sit down and rest to restore my stamina. The bar goes up, slowly. Had I been threatened on the road, I would have resorted to using the cloak. But I wouldn’t have wanted to. It’s durability is less than thirty percent, and finding another Grandmaster Tailor would prove to be difficult if there are only five in Alterlife.