《A Virtual Invasion》


 Prelude 1: Betrayal

    A city lay in ruins. In the center of what was once a bustling intersection existed a twenty-meter-tall glowing oblong shape, seemingly made of shimmering light. Despite the daylight, it seemed to cast a surreal electric blue shade over the nearby blown out buildings and wreckage. With a soft humming noise, a blurred silhouette flew down the street and lit upon the ground near the gently pulsating dimension distortion.


    "Salthuin is due soon," a feminine voice echoed through the blasted land. A woman stood there in silver armor that appeared as if it would be more at home in the fourteenth century. Only the subtle lack of joints and seams and the form-fitting style would place it as something not belonging to that era. Of course, in the backdrop of a modern city she was clearly even more out of place. "Be sure to mop up any survivors before he arrives."


    "What about the children?" A gruff voice sounded in her ear.


    "It is their misfortune to be at our invasion point," she replied coldly. "Once we have a base set up we can start sending the natives back for indoctrination and conversion. You know this. Why are you asking?"


    "Salthuin..."


    "The General has an unfortunate sympathy for children," she calmly berated her unseen companion. In the sky jet planes could be seen approaching from a distance. "You know that the protocols require this. You can best serve him by making sure he doesn''t have to issue this command personally."


    "As you wish." In the distance, explosions could be heard. The woman nodded in approval as fresh plumes of smoke and debris were ejected into the atmosphere.


    "We have visitors. It looks like the natives are slightly more advanced than we thought. It appears to be jet-propelled aircrafts. Eliminate them and clear the city''s perimeter. The nano forge will need a bit of peace to build us a new home."


    "Jets? Our information seems to be a bit off. They were supposed to be at the propeller stage." Light lanced up from a distant building, briefly connecting to the incoming aircraft. Immediately it was bisected, both pieces continuing forward in a graceful descending arc.


    "It doesn''t matter. They haven''t even gotten to their satellite. Our squad should be adequate to deal with anything short of a Class 3 civilization." She gave a snort of disdain.


    "Well, they haven''t gotten to their moon yet, let alone colonized the stellar system," the man''s voice paused. "They are using a narrow part of the electromagnetic spectrum. No real encryption. Even our onboard AI''s can read it."


    "Find out if they plan to send more fodder our way. If not, gather the team to meet the General. He''s already late."


    "Husk one through five have already downed all hostiles incoming." As she listened she moved to a large pile of boxes near the portal. Each one had a metallic grey shimmer. Extending her hand, she silently communicated with the nano forge''s stunted AI, setting up the final procedures needed to turn the city''s ruin into a military fortress. "Looks like the locals are retreating or the moment. They are gathering at a local military base. They should be occupied with trying to sort out what happened for a few hours. I will tag the location on the map. We can send an energy pulse to clear them once the base is established. Calling the team to rendezvous at the portal."


    Within minutes figures flew to the glowing disturbance. Ten of the figures wore armor similar to the first woman''s. The light scrape of metal on stone was the only sound they made. Moments later fifty larger forms flew through the streets to land with meaty thuds. These forms were humanoid; however, they were not remotely human. Each stood three meters tall. They did not wear armor, rather metal was laced through their flesh and lined the surface of their skin with conduits. Their surface of swollen flesh and fluidic metal was disturbing to those that were not inured to the presence of such soldiers. These were husks.


    Eleven figures in silver faced the portal and with movements displaying long practice they knelt to one knee in unison. The deformed husks formed a perimeter, perfectly circling the dimensional opening. They waited in silence.


    Ten minutes passed before the energy fluctuations surged and pulsed, causing the opening to expand another few meters. Moments later a figure stepped out. Unlike his silver clad companions, he simply wore a chest plate and smaller plates spotted his form, covering most of the vital points of his body. The plates were molded into a material that was black and smooth in texture. His face was slim and austere, his mouth a thin line.


    "Welcome Salthuin." The eleven people shouted in unison. The man''s face tightened further.


    Behind him, the portal suffered another pulse and a floating cart the size of a bus gradually came through. The eyes of the troupe widened slightly. This was new. In all their campaigns the nano forge was all the support equipment that was provided. It was all they needed.


    "I''m late," he announced grimly as his eyes swept the devastated landscape. "For the last time."Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "It matters not, my lord," the first woman replied proudly from her kneeling position. "I took the opportunity to finish clearing the area and preparing the forge. We can begin immediately."


    "Of course, you did, Sylvia," he nodded absently to himself. "You are very efficient. Worthy of your title."


    "When would you..." the woman''s eyes paused on the new equipment. At the top was positioned a squat hexagon with a dome on top. An iridescent liquid circulated inside, a vague outline of a brain could be seen. "Why is a Prime Calculator here?"


    "Where else would I be, my dear mother," a disembodied voice seemed to emanate from the very air.


    "Override all communication, Aluin," the general calmly stated. "Start the recorded scenario."


    A ghostly image overlay the surrounding. The image began superimposed on the surrounding and included the soldiers kneeling. Off in the distance massive arrow shaped ships began to descend, breaking through the cloud cover. As it moved forward and more of its length was exposed it became clear exactly how massive it was. Like the tip of an iceberg most of it remained hidden.


    "This... this is rebellion, Salthuin," stuttered the kneeling woman. Her previous assurance and grace were gone. Only shock and dismay were left. She stood abruptly. A ghostly image of her also stood, however, it faced to the image of the ship and gestured to the soldiers around her. Ethereal images of them stood and faced the phantom enemy. The real men still knelt, unsure of what was going on but knowing something of immense proportions was happening. "Think this through Salthuin! The Emperor cannot be betrayed. It''s unthinkable."


    "What''s unthinkable is that the Emperor has laid waste to countless worlds. Killed countless men, women, and children," he paused as his glance swept over the husks. "And transformed the rest. They took our child."


    "It was a sacrifice I was proud to make," protested the woman. Her phantom flew upward towards the translucent ship with all of the soldiers flying in a crescent formation around her. Beams of light shot from their hands only to break on an invisible barrier well away from the ship''s surface.


    "I wasn''t."


    "General, are you truly betraying the Emperor?" the man who had been relaying Sylvia''s orders called out in a shaking voice.


    "Can you truly betray someone who has betrayed you first," Salthuin muttered absently. "So be it. Yes. The Emperor must die if the human race is to live. He is a disease that must be cut out."


    "Strong words for a mere General. To think, we worshipped you," sneered the kneeling soldier. "Traitors must die!"


    "Gren, stop," called out Sylvia.


    The armored man ignored her and raced forward to attack the General. A flicker of motion and the scene changed. The man was frozen with his arms outstretched. He was staring at his chest where an arm pierced through up to an elbow. Then he stared uncomprehendingly at the face of his commander.


    "I''m sorry it''s come to this," Salthuin stated calmly as he pulled his arm back. The dead man slid to the ground, eyes staring sightlessly into the sky. "I''d ask you to join me but I know exactly how effective the conditioning is."


    "Poor fool," Sylvia said quietly staring at her dead subordinate. "The power of the Emperor has transformed the Generals into veritable gods." She looked into Salthuin''s eyes helplessly. "How could you do this to us?"


    "It''s for the greater good, mother," the bodiless voice reverberated once more. "Isn''t that what you told yourself?"


    "How did you even recover Alduin''s personality? It''s not supposed to be possible."


    "I... have been preparing for this for a very long time," he said haltingly, staring into the face of the woman. "Since our world was taken and we were converted, in fact."


    "How can you even think to resist the Emperor? He is our everything. Are you mad?"


    "Perhaps," he paused and then continued sadly. "You could join me. I have a plan. It¡¯s a good one. I am not sure how much of chance we would have, but I believe it''s better than anyone before."


    "Father, you know it''s pointless," the sourceless voice interjected.


    "You were the most brilliant general in his armies," Sylvia''s broken voice called out. "In all the dimensions no others were given so much. No others were able to give him as much. I hope you burn in Hell."


    "I''m sorry. No doubt I will."


    In the air, the ship was firing its own lance of illusory energies. Each one several meters wide. Upon touching armored apparitions flying up to meet it, they would shimmer and vanish like a soap bubble too long exposed to the air. As each one disappeared the corresponding kneeling knight convulsed and dies. Gradually only the phantom of Sylvia remained.


    "You''re using the Emperor''s kill switch to simulate an attack by the Rebels. You never even planned to spar me."


    "Alduin and I would have thought of a way to save you if you could have overcome your conditioning." Emotion choked his voice as he continued. "Goodbye. I''m sorry."


    In the sky, a final beam of light flickered out from the ship and speared through the final phantom. By the portal the woman fell limply to the earth, convulsed for a few seconds before laying deathly still.


    "So sorry," the man whispered to himself. A moment later he shook his head as he braced himself and faced the portal.


    "This is General Salthuin," he reported flatly. "Preliminary information was false. There is a major Rebel infestation here. They have set up a dimensional reverberation tower in the area. Retreat in impossible. I am initiating Pyric Protocols. This will leave this planet uninhabitable and the dimensional fabric unstable for at least thirty years. Long live the Emperor!"


    "Very good acting father," Alduin''s voice echoed. "I have finished sending the last of the recorded scenario. They should believe that the Rebels came and killed everyone. The biolock recordings will support this. Beginning dimensional reverberation feedback. We have at least thirty years to prepare."


    "Almost everything is according to plan," Salthuin said grimly as he looked out at the city, doing the best he could to avoid looking at the corpses scattered around him.


    "It couldn''t be helped," Alduin''s reminded him. "Moving the supplies took longer than expected. Although the additional loss of life is unfortunate, projections show that this improves the outcome of negotiations with the local governments."


    "Great. Let me know when they get close. I''ll... just sit here and wait." Salthuin, slowly walked over to the cubes of silvery metal that made up the nano forge components. Feeling very old, he sat down and waited. His only companions a brain and the dead around him.

 Chapter 1: Booting up

    Dave eagerly picked up the plain brown box on his porch and stepped back inside. His father was at work and his mother was working remotely from her makeshift office behind the locked doors the master bedroom.


    Stopping at the note board hanging from his parents'' door he took the pen and jotted down ''M&M came. Will be in beta." Then he ran into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of protein bars. Government recommended goodness guaranteed to be a healthy substitute for at least two meals. If only it tasted as good as it sounded.


    Grimacing, he chewed away at the grainy rectangle as he brought the box into his bedroom. Tearing open the package he finally witnessed the fruits of his last few allowances. Truth to be told, the kit was rather cheap. He also got additional discounts for being in the beta. M&M Games were always the cheapest. No one had figured out how they could be so inexpensive and be so incredibly good. Whatever the reason, he certainly wasn''t complaining.


    Reaching into the open box he gently picked up his reward for his recent sacrifices. A large helmet. Painted red and blue, with a single camera lens pointing out, yet no real visor. It wouldn''t be recommended for real driving. However, it was perfectly engineered for its purpose. Total immersion VR.


    While it was the most advanced version of its type, it wasn''t the first total immersion VR set. Heck, his mother was doing remote secretarial work from her bedroom with an older generation. His mother''s looked like one of the monster hair salon hair dryers. Half beachball and half science experiment, but they were fairly comparable.


    The difference was this was his own. He bought it and he was going to have the entire summer vacation to stay online and play the hottest new VR game. His parents complained a bit, however, studies had shown that these modern VR kits could not only entertain and educate but also keep your muscles in reasonable condition. It may not be as good as running twenty times around the track but you at least wouldn''t get any worse.


    Indulging himself in briefly hugging the helmet to his chest, he lay down on the bed, placed the helmet over his head and activated it. "Activate VR environment".


    "Activating VR headset," a warm female voice whispered in his ear. It would have been a sensual experience but the voice sounded creepily similar to his mother''s.


    "Running self-check."


    "Self-check complete. All internal systems at optimal levels."


    "Connecting to local network. Optimizing bandwidth. Detecting another VR simulation using the same resources with a higher priority. Caching resources on local server." That must have been mom doing her remote work.


    "Testing nerve and muscle feedback. You will feel a slight tingling. Failsafes are in place." As advises slight tingles ran down his body.


    "Muscle and nerve interface is configured and running at optimal efficiency. Sensory feedback is now running in independent mode. To ''return'' or ''disconnect'' imagine yourself removing your headset. Please take this time to test this."


    Dave quickly imagined himself removing the helmet and felt the world shake slightly. "Disconnection test confirmed. Restarting simulation. Would you like to view your library?"


    "I only have one VR program," snorted the young man. The computer didn''t respond. Finally, he sighed and said, "Yes."


    The darkness fragment and he found himself standing in a field of light. In front of him was a shelf. It looked rather bare, with a single book on it. He reached out and touched the book. It lifted from the shelf and then grew in size until it formed a glowing door in front of him. Burning words appeared above it ''Mazes and Monsters VMMO (beta)''. With a smile, he stepped forward.


    "Compiling phycological data. Please wait." Another gentle female voice sounded in his head.


    "Classifying biological features. Merging features into the simulation. Welcome to the Mazes & Monsters VMMO, the first of its kind. A truly immersive game simulation you can enjoy alone or with friends." Light faded to dark and then a primitive village formed around him. Thatch roofs, rough wooden houses and cobblestone paved roads surrounded him.


    "Welcome to the tutorial stage 1," the gentle voice whispered in his air. "Mazes & Monsters strives towards total immersion, however, we realize that new players may need a little help to get situated and understand the rules of the world. To facilitate this, the tutorial will be divided into several stages. Stage 1 will have a complete User Interface. Look around at the villagers. Note that when the simulation senses you want information about an NPC, limited information will be available."


    Dave looked at the woman sweeping the grounds next to him. The woman looked up at him suspiciously and slowly sidled away. Overlaid on her form was her name, title, HP, Mana and Psionic points. Hmm, Natasha, peasant, 24, 5, 0. A brief bio stated she and Dave were from the same village and they were acquaintances.


    "During stage two, the interface will highlight various physical features or in the case of using psionic senses or mage senses, will subtly enhance ques that would indicate to the player this same information."Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Suddenly Dave was hyperaware of the signs of strain from the woman as she swept and minor shivers in the muscles showed mild physical effort, a brief headache followed by translucent aura around the woman. Even though he didn''t understand what the colors meant he was aware for a moment that she was a typical human, no magic and no psionic talent. And she was very uncomfortable with his constant staring.


    "Stage three will have no interface unless the settings are overridden. The simulation assistant, me, will not be available unless the default settings are overridden."


    "But... why wouldn''t I want an interface?"


    "A visible interface will interfere with the complete immersion into the game. Once you are able to react to the ques given to you by the simulation you will be able to respond far quicker to events surrounding you. This will eventually be required in the later stages of the game unless the player intends to stay within the beginner zones."


    "Okay," David replied uncertainly. That seemed a bit hardcore considering this was supposed to be pure entertainment.


    "The system will do its best to estimate when the player has mastered the minimum skills. The override will also be available, however, there is no ''easy'' setting. Only beginner zones."


    "Fine." It didn''t appear there was a different option. It was a beta. maybe after it was over they could provide feedback.


    The woman cocked her head and looked into the sky. "What''s that?" She asked pointing into the horizon. Far off in the distance, a dot in the sky appeared. Moments later twenty more appeared. As they grew in size it was apparent that they were huge deformed humanoids. Almost bloated like days old corpses. Metal bracket and shiny parts were embedded in the flesh and they had crude swords whose blades were six inches wide and eight feet long. "Are those flying men?"


    "Lord help us! I think they are the dead arisen!" another villager added in growing panic. "Run! It''s the heralded end!" The villagers broke into panicked running and began screaming in terror.


    "Status." The world froze around Dave and an interface overlaid itself on the world in from of him.


    Name: Unknown.


    Class: Peasant level 1


    HP:15


    Mana: 30


    Psi: 50


    Intelligence: 20


    Constitution: 15


    Strength: 15


    Dexterity: 15


    Luck: 55


    Skills:


    Technology Level 0 (Int based)


    Clairvoyance level 1 (Luck based)


    Peasant Skill (No base)


    "What the <beep> is peasant skill? Huh? What the <beep> is the <beep> big idea with the beeps?"


    "Records indicate that you are not an adult. In order to comply with local regulations, profanity, as defined by your nation, will be blocked out. Once you reach an age considered an adult by your government there will be an option to remove the profanity filter."


    "Ah damn. Wait a minute. Why wasn''t that beeped?"


    "''Damn", ''Darn'', ''Heck'' are all examples of expletives not considered profanity by your local government."


    "Great. So what''s with the Peasant skill?"


    "This is the skill allowing you to sweep, clean, milk animals, herd animals and do all the miscellaneous life skills a peasant may have. Since there are no real combat potential to these skills the effectiveness will solely depend on your actions in game."


    "What if I want to train a horde of chickens to attack my enemies?" David asked. The helpful voice remained silent. "Okay, what about technology?"


    "As a high school student, you have been taught many modules dealing with technology. In this game, you will have the opportunity to learn many fictional science skills that you can use to create, use and interact with other technology. This game can even stimulate an illusionary sense of complete understanding, similar to the sensation in a dream, where you have complete mastery and understanding of a skill set."


    "Darn, it would have been cool to learn engineering skills in game. Now that we just learn through skill modules all high school is practical exercise after practical exercise."


    "Although this is not the simulations primary purpose, you can use resources here to simulate real-world scientific experiments, building and planning real-world engineering. It is simply that the fictional skills and technology created with such skills will be far more effective in combat."


    "Whoa. I can create anything and use it?"


    "If you can find the base components and put them together. Yes."


    "So if I build a nuclear bomb I can kill them?" Dave said, pointing to the still frozen deformed flyers.


    "If you were to find the components, assemble them correctly and were able to deploy it. Yes.


    "Awesome!"


    "However, you would likely die in the explosion and need to respawn."


    "So respawning is a thing?"


    "Yes."


    "So what is the respawn penalty?"


    "There is significant negative feedback upon death..."


    "Is that legal?"


    "Research indicates that it is legal within certain parameters."


    "Huh. That doesn''t sound right. What else?"


    "You lose all physical assets except for starting clothes."


    "We restart naked?"


    "Local national laws do not allow exposure. Clothes will be mandatory until you reach legal age. At that point, mutually consenting adults can choose to perceive each other without clothes. They will be shunted to their private residences and any adventure they are currently in will treat them as if they were killed."


    "That was more than I wanted to know. But interesting. What about ''Clairvoyance''? It sounds cool."


    "Clairvoyance is your first psychic skill. While everyone starts with the skill, the effectiveness is based off of your luck attribute."


    "What does it do?"


    "Depending on your abilities the system will send subtle stimulation that may warn of danger or predict events or even lead towards treasure or a beneficial outcome. Successful interpretations of this stimulus may increase the skill level and lead to more quests. Also, this is the top of a talent tree that has subskills related to more specific psionic senses."


    "That seems pretty powerful. How do I increase my stats?"


    "Training and leveling will increase statistics."


    "No assigned points?"


    "No."


    "So what about my name? Unknown? Really? Why didn''t you ask for my in-game name before we started?"


    "I will note your feedback. This game is in beta and we appreciate the opinions of all our players."


    Dave looked blankly at the enemies frozen above him. Did the system AI just blow him off? "Call me Nathaniel."


    "New name accepted. Would you like to continue the game?"


    "Can I freeze the game any time?"


    "If you are not adventuring with someone else and open a system screen the environment will pause on Tutorial stage 1. This option is not available in other tutorial stages unless specific psionic skills are cultivated by the player."


    "Okay. Close the window and let''s start this up again."

 Chapter 2: Derivative Works

    The flying creatures abruptly started moving again. Dave blinked and they seemed dangerously close. He turned to duck into the house behind him when it exploded in a flurry of wood and clay.


    "Ow! That hurts!" Dave complained as he dove behind a shattered wall as one of the creatures appeared in the remains of the house. It simply collapsed without hindering the creature in the least. "System, can we dial the pain feedback down that really hurt," he complained as he frantically ran away. Now he knew that things could hurt he really didn''t want to accidentally die before he lowered the pain sensation.


    "Setting unavailable. Feedback noted."


    "Damn it! That sucks! I... wait what was I saying?" The teenager muttered to himself as he ran through the streets. There was something that he was complaining about? Shaking his head in confusion he limped through the street, surrounded by other fleeing villagers. Occasionally a massive creature would dart by and cleave a villager in half, scattering blood and shattered remains around before it leaped away. Instead of any directed violence, it seemed random destruction. Based on a feeling of dread he jerked to one side.


    "Clairvoyance skill increased by +1." The system voice calmly stated as a creature''s sword swept through the space he had been. It missed him, however, another villager running next to him was bisected, showering him with gore. Screaming, he ran onward.


    "Over here! Quick!" a voice called out from the side. A robed man stood behind a house and gestured to him. Desperate to escape Dave ran to him. The system prompted him:


    Name: Kretor


    Title: Prophet


    HP: 45/65


    Mana: 20/100


    Psi: 100/200


    Kretor is the village Wiseman. He reads fortunes and grants advice. In the last few weeks he has been criticized for saying that he feels doom is approaching without giving any further guidance.


    "I felt something was going to happen, but I never imagined... never mind. We need to survive. Follow me. It feels slightly safer in this direction. You have the gift, possibly stronger than me. Perhaps together we can save a few lives."


    Behind him were a few of the younger villagers. Dave smirked to himself. The NPC was gathering the players. The fear and excitement in the eyes of the people surrounding Kretor were far different than the mad panic of the others. Also if he concentrated he could vaguely see their names floating about their heads.


    Kretor led them through a veritable maze of randomly attacking ''Husks'' to the edge of the village where the forest provided some protection. "This way. I feel our hope is over here. Dave frowned. He also had an odd sensation that he should be heading this way.


    "Clairvoyance skill increased by +1." Cool.


    "You survived," a female voice sounded through the foliage. "More than I thought would." Stepping out of the cover of the trees stood a woman. She was bedecked with jewelry. Nothing fancy or expensive but her arms were covered in bands of gold or silver. Each one having an aura of some kind. It was almost like feeling something with a new sense.


    "Player has learned a new skill. Mana manipulation is now at level 0."


    Heridyne, Recuiter, HP:1000, Mana:5000, Psi: 1000. Dave saw flash over her head. Recruiter for who?


    "Although your village is likely doomed, you are fortunate that your province Governor has been in talks with the Rebellion."


    "Ah, damn," the girl next to him sighed in disappointment. Oddly enough even though she was speaking out loud, her mouth was shut.


    "Players may talk out of character (OOC) and only be heard by other players and not be heard by the NPC or have the NPC react to the dialogue," the system whispered in Dave''s ear. "In order to do so they must concentrate on sending messages to nearby players and have the intention not to be heard. The system can pick this up and filter the conversations appropriately. Conversation not tagged correctly may be heard and inappropriately reacted to by the NPCs. This may inadvertently lead to character death."


    "What do you mean?" Dave concentrated on sending the nearby players.


    "Player has learned a new skill. Telepathy is now at level 0."The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Dave blinked as the system message chimed in his ear. It sure was easy to learn skills. Looking at the girl he saw: Name: Marieta, Title: Villager, HP: 25/30, Mana: 0/0, Psi: 28/30.


    "I was hoping they would change the names of the factions. Empire and Rebellion are a bit... trite. It just seemed like they are ripping off Star Wars. Or being lazy."


    "Feedback noted," chimed the system.


    "Damn troll," said a boy. Unfortunately, he said it out loud and the NPC whipped her head around and with a sneer let loose with a blinding blue blast of light and knocking the boy off his feet and back twenty paces.


    "Mana manipulation +1."


    "Watch your tongue boy," barked Heridyne. "I will not suffer any impertinence. Our forces will arrive soon and cleanse your village of the husks. Hopefully, there will be survivors."


    The boy groaned from the ground, "Sorry miss." He silently continued for the group. "They need to ramp down the <beep> pain settings. And also the <beep> <beep><beep> profanity filter. The telepathy angle for OOC conversation is cool though."


    "While we wait, I will show you the basic skills the Rebellion will use to help your world to survive. Although the basic skills are the same for everyone, each of you will undoubtedly develop your own specialties and methods."


    "<Beep>," the boy cursed. This time it was silently. Dave looked at him closer. Name: Aragorn, Title: Villager, HP: 33/35,Mana: 0/0, Psi: 29/30. Dave chuckled at the name. Talk about derivative.


    "I was hoping they would be going with a traditional gaming system, like wizard, warriors, rogues, and cleric. This chaotic hodgepodge from M&M 6<sup>th</sup> edition is cludgy as <beep>.


    "Please stop cursing," groaned the girl. "You sound like a darn cartoon. Anyway, it''s not because of the class system we are playing this for. This is the first immersive VR game that exists. And its created by M&M Games."


    "So what," sneered Aragorn.


    "So even though the games from 5<sup>th</sup> version on are garbage, they have the best flipping programmer in the world working for them. I mean look at this! I can feel the wind on my face and... and... hey when did I get cut?"


    "I will now link up with your minds telepathically and teach you the basic skills of survival. Any more and you will need to train yourself," Heridyne continued as if the crowd of children weren¡¯t talking in front of her.


    A flash of light came from her forehead and broke into sparkles that floated into the players surrounding her.


    "Player has learned a new skill. Telekinesis is now at level 0."


    "Player has learned a new skill. Meditation is now at level 0."


    "Player has learned a new skill. Psionic Bolt is now at level 0."


    "Player has learned a new skill. Psionic Manifestation is now at level 0."


    "Player has learned a new skill. Imbue Object With Mana is now at level 0."


    "Player has learned a new skill. Imbue Object With Psionic Energy is now at level 0."


    "Player has learned a new skill. Bio Feedback is now at level 0."


    "Mana Manipulation +1."


    "Technology +1."


    "This is cool," Dave muttered to himself as he used his newly learned Psionic Bolt to chip away at a few trees nearby.


    "Psionic Bolt +1."


    A few hundred feet away screams were still coming from the village. Movement caught his eyes and he turned as he saw new NPCs flying towards the village. There were three of them. One flew on a gryphon, decked in shining armor and with large shield inlaid with a dragon in one hand and a glowing sword in the other.


    The second was a white bearded gentleman. Obviously, a mage, wrapped in a gray robe and holding a staff above his head. He was not using a mount and seemed to be flying under his own power. Like Heridyne his hands were laden with glowing rings of power.


    "Mana manipulation +1."


    The last was a woman. She flew on wings of incandescent energy. Her hands glowed with psionic energy. As they approached the perimeter arcs of energy flew out from the staff and the angelic woman, causing plumes of dust to billow up.


    "For the kingdom of Randow!" shouted the knight and dived down towards street level and out of sight.


    "Who is the Kingdom of Randow," asked one of the players gathered around the clearing.


    "We are, apparently," Marieta said dryly. "Maybe they should have spent a little more time on the backstory. Or at least telling the backstory to us." This elicited a chorus of agreements.


    "Feedback noted," the system chimed.


    "The knight is nice," Marieta offered as she watched the scene. "There are no classes but I can see if you got your ''Imbue Object With Mana'' up high enough you could make magic armor and the shield."


    "And the rings and staff," chimed in Aragorn. "Though I suppose ''Imbue Object With Psionic Energy'' could do it too..."


    "The wings may be ''Psionic Manifestation'', " Dave said. "And the sword."


    "The wings may just be a special effect," another boy contradicted, with a moment of concentration the name Baramon flashed over his head. "Telekinesis could do that as could the flying old Gandalf guy."


    "The system seems really flexible but there no flipping guidance," Aragorn said in confusion. "Do we just practice everything and the ones we have an affinity with we builds our skills around? Hey, do you think that knight has a magnet up his <beep>? I don''t see how he stays on without anything holding him in the saddle."


    "That''s how the single player game works," said Merieta, blatantly ignoring the saddle comment. "Same as the 6<sup>th</sup> edition. A hundred ways to be just like everyone else. Or at least that¡¯s what the critics say."


    "Well, we just saw three templates go by," Dave offered. "And Heridyne seems to be a specialist that uses imbued objects. So that¡¯s four. Just blasting stuff with the psionic blast is fun. It feels so real! I think the beta will be fun."


    "Now the battle is over," pontificated Heridyne. "Go back to your village and rebuild it. Doubtless, the forces left from the Empire when our army beat them back through their portal will have many stragglers to deal with."


    "What? She''s just going to drop that on us? Where''s the <beep> cut scene? There should be ten minutes just showing us that!" complained Aragorn.


    "That would have been cool to see," Dave said with a bit of disappointment.


    "Feedback noted."

 Prelude 2: Insufficient Means

    ¡°Why haven¡¯t they locked you up as war criminal,¡± asked the man in a uniform across from Salthuin. They sat in a rather spacious conference room. The chairs were comfortably apportioned however the table itself as well as the walls were merely functional. The phone was bulky and looked out of place next to a flat disk which sat in the center of the table.


    ¡°Although I would like to say that your superiors had the best interests of humanity at heart,¡± the warrior replied simply. ¡°I think it more likely it can be attributed to greed.¡±


    ¡°So instead they gave you the city you destroyed and we have to work with you?¡±


    ¡°If you want your race to survive, yes.¡±


    ¡°So what can you offer the United States?¡±


    ¡°Naturally we need to work on your technology base. Unless I manufacture it directly, you have no means to create anything I give you the plans for. Even your computers take up an entire room and can only do simple calculations. It hurts my brain to even contemplate it.¡±


    ¡°Nonsense, what good is a computer? We need weapons to deal with this Emperor of your.¡±


    Salthuin simply looked at him blankly. Intellectually he knew that it really wasn¡¯t this person¡¯s fault, but the ignorance was appalling. So short sighted but it was something he should have expected. Hopefully Alduin had taken this into account during his projections or they would not be able to meet the deadline. Their technology was so primitive that the Prime Calculator couldn''t even hack into it.


    ¡°Alduin is¡­ printing,¡± Salthuin began slowly, with an ill look on his face. ¡°Plans for factories to build the base technology industries. We chose to start with silicon-based semiconductors. If we plan it right we can move on to more advanced materials in twenty years. He is also printing manuals to train in the technology and science.¡±Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°If this Emperor is as terrifying as you say, we need weapons immediately!¡± The middle-aged man huffed excitedly.


    ¡°Anything you are capable of making would be useless against the Emperor¡¯s forces,¡± Salthuin countered mildly. ¡°Your¡­ President has agreed to follow our plan. Your technology will advance as quickly as we can encourage it. It has been projected that if we move too fast your economy may collapse.¡± It still may collapse, but at least it would be able to recover. ¡°We have some stores of bioenhancers. Since you won¡¯t be able to create these until approximately the time of the invasion, we will use these to enhance the baseline of your race.¡±


    ¡°You can give us super soldiers?¡± the man perked up, a look of delight on his face.


    ¡°Yes,¡± the rebel sighed in disappointment. ¡°I can give you super soldiers. Most of their enhancements will be dormant since it needs a specific technology to trigger and train the greater abilities.¡±


    ¡°What can I expect,¡± the liaison eagerly enquired.


    ¡°After the original incubation period¡­¡±


    ¡°What do you mean incubation?¡±


    ¡°It''s a retrovirus. Did you think you can use cybernetic technology at your level? You''re barely a Class 2 civilization. By the time you can use it, you won¡¯t need it.¡±


    ¡°What''s a retrovirus?¡±


    The General stared at his visitor. Alduin had assured him that the terminology was appropriate for the technology level. Apparently, this person simply wasn¡¯t knowledgeable on such things.


    ¡°It''s like a flu that gives superpowers.¡±


    ¡°That''s seems too good to be true,¡± the man replied dubiously.


    Salthuin silently reached out with two fingers. Pinching the table lightly between them he easily lifted it a half a meter off the ground.


    ¡°Since we have no means of triggering the advanced features all you can expect is an increase of five times a human''s strength, a bit more endurance and redundancy in the organs. Once in place, the basic functions can be triggered through some meditation exercises.¡±


    ¡°This will catapult our armed forces into the lead,¡± the man muttered gleefully to himself, forgetting for the moment his request for weapons. ¡°But¡­ what is meditation?¡±


    Salthuin tiredly hung his head.

 Chapter 3: Trainers and Trolls

    Back in the village the group examined the massive damage of the houses and cottages. Barely any survived intact. The villagers lucky enough to survive were putting bodies on carts while the few survivors that had family sat by their corpses and wailed disconsolately.


    "This seems a bit too realistic," Dave said as the group passed another villager. "I mean the graphics are awesome and I suppose I should be happy not to see body parts littering the area but... this is really a downer."


    "I know," Marieta said uncomfortably. "They need a gore setting. System. Stop acknowledging feedback. It''s annoying."


    Aragorn shrugged and smiled happily. "I think that¡¯s the one thing they got right! This is how tragedy should look!"


    The others looked at each other and nodded, "Definitely needs a filter."


    Kretor looked around them sadly as they made their way to the center. "Our home. We are not yet strong though," he paused as his piercing eyes swept over them. "The village needs us. Now that our abilities have unlocked we all need to pull together and fight the enemies of our land!"


    As he said this they reached the center of the village. Debris had been cleared away and the four NPCs from the Rebellion stood there in idle poses. Staring at them coolly with hands on hips.


    "They all have the same look," Aragorn said. "They look like fashion models."


    Immediately, the knight crossed his armed and his face took on a noble demean. Another idly began to flip a coin. The third began pacing in front of some kind of billboard with sheets of parchment on it. The billboard was titled ''Quests''. Only the fourth NPC, Heridyne remained in the same pose.


    "Whoa!" Aragorn said slightly shocked. "Instant updates. Maybe the M&M program is as good as you say."


    Walking over to the billboard he moaned. "Its mostly kill quests. Kill five mutated... buffalos? Aren''t they extinct?"


    "No, I hear they are farming them and distributing their meat to exotic food places," Marieta replied.


    "Well now we kill and eat them," Aragorn said with disdain. "Says the portal energy warped the local wildlife and a bunch of war beasts from the Empire scattered and started breeding. Right. Its been ten minutes since they invaded. I call <beep>. I mean bull."


    "There''s a dungeon adventure but it not available. The system says we need a combat skill at level 5 for group play or level 8 for single play to do it."


    "You can choose not to group?" Dave said in surprise as the system guided him how to send his clairvoyance into the billboard to perceive the quests."


    "First skill in the Clairvoyance tree unlocked. Remote Viewing, level 0.


    "Oh, cool." Dave spent a few seconds changing his point of view to above him and to his right.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Remote Viewing +1."


    "Neat, but I think it''s making me a bit tired." With a thought, Dave set the camera back to normal. He supposed the energy drain was a subtle way to get the player to use the first person interface, rather than ''cheating'' with a view that could see all around.


    "NPC trainers can help you learn skills at an accelerated pace, compared to self-practice," murmured the system voice. "Up to an unspecified maximum."


    "Um. Excuse me. Can anyone help me with the Psionic Bolt skill?" Dave asked. Marieta looked over in surprise.


    "They can do that?" she squeaked.


    "Yeah," acknowledged. "The system told me. You may not want to turn off the AI until you get an idea of what''s going on."


    "Grrr. Fine. It''s just...such a..."


    "Troll?" Aragorn interrupted. He had walked over to the obvious wizard and was talking to him. Oddly enough it was muted in such a way that Dave knew they were talking but he couldn''t make out the differences.


    "Remote Viewing +1."


    "I can," the angel woman spoke up as she stepped forward. Deridel, Trainer, HP:10000, Mana:500, Psi: 10000.


    "Clairvoyance +1."


    "Please stop the system update on just the skill leveling. Keep me notified of new skills," Dave directed silently.


    "Acknowledged," chimed the sweet voice of the system.


    "Follow me," she said shortly. Turning, she led the way around the back of a nearby intact house. There were rows of targets. Placing her hand on his back she growled in his ear, "Feel how I move the energy. Do the same."


    Under Deridel''s guidance his psionic blast rapidly gained strength until the targets started to get knocked off their stands. Baramon who was shooting next to him looked on in consternation.


    "How are you getting so good so fast?"


    "Must be Deridel. She''s giving me some kind of skill guidance."


    "Deridel? How can you have Deridel? She''s helping me?"


    "In order to avoid player resource conflicts an additional instance of certain NPCs will be spawned to interact with the players. Other players will not see any except the NPC spawned for them."


    "Won''t we run into them or through them?" Baramon asked skeptically.


    "We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical." Replied the system placidly.


    "Holy <beep>, that¡¯s scary!"


    "That¡¯s a partial quote from an old sci-fi show. It''s trolling you," Dave smirked. The programmer was a funny man.


    "Well, I am not amused. You must have sort of buff or bonus for high intelligence. We don''t even get to roll our own stats, they''re just assigned," he said dejectedly. "It''s still fun but I think I''ll put this in the beta report."


    "Deridel, can you show me how to fly?" Dave said as he turned his attention to the NPC again. All the simulated exercise had had him a bit tired but he still really wanted to fly.


    "There are several ways to fly. You can enchant an object to fly, use telekinesis to fly, use a manifestation skill to create an object to help you fly, such as wings or a pegasus," she flapped her wings to demonstrate.


    "We can create animals?"


    "Constructs," she corrected. "Wings are easier. You may wish to simply work on your telekinesis to start. Either I or Bolyn can help you train telekinesis or psionic constructs."


    "Well," he said with a yawn. "Looks like I only have enough energy for one at the moment. Let''s go with telekinesis."


    For what felt like an hour he stood with Deridel''s hand on his shoulder. In front of him danced the targets. They floated and swapped position with one another. Every once in a while Baramon would glare at him from the side.


    Dave ignored him. He couldn''t help that the system had assigned him better stats.


    When he felt he was about to collapse he attempted to use telekinesis to move himself. The world blurred around him for a moment and he found himself five feet forward. A radiate haze surrounded him and rapidly dissipated.


    "You have learned Telekinetic Movement skill from the ability tier Telekinesis, Level 0."


    "Oh damn, I''m tired. And hungry," is that real or just the system simulating it?


    "I''m logging off for a bit," he said. No one at the targeting area bothered looking. He visualized himself taking off the helmet and was back in his room.

 Chapter 4: Darkness, My Old Friend

    Pulling off his headset he surveyed himself, smiling as he resisted the urge to call up a status screen.


    He really was that hungry. "Stupid energy bars. Two meals my butt."


    Swinging his legs off the bed he noted there was no stiffness whatsoever. In fact, he felt relaxed and loose as if he had just had a massage. It was only eight. It had certainly felt a lot longer. Playing the game had messed with his sense of time.


    He shrugged. Most of what he had done was the intro and some practice exercises. If he had actually wasted a massive amount of time on pretend exercise he would have been really annoyed.


    "As he stepped into the kitchen he saw his mom cleaning up. She hadn''t put the main dish in the fridge yet.


    "Mom! Wait!" David called out theatrically. "Nooo! Leave the food out!"


    "Finally done?" she said. She was a young looking woman. Which simply means that she was young when the Pandemic swept the globe. Aging was really slow after that. If you were already old it didn''t help much but if you were young you suddenly had a lot more time than you thought. "Was it everything you thought it would be?"


    "I guess," Dave said as he loaded up his plate with spaghetti. "It had a kinda dumb system but the graphics are awesome. More real than reality!"


    "Right," his mother said skeptically. She used an older VR headset for her job. While it was pretty real, she would never call it better than reality. "So are you going to hole up there all summer? My boss says there are no long term effects but I don''t want you to ignore your friends."


    "No worries. They all ordered headsets. Once the beta is over we can group up."


    "Group up? Like a club?"


    Dave looked at his mom, his eagerness visibly deflating. "Yeah. Like a club."


    "Well, I suppose that¡¯s okay. But if I see you getting thinner or you forgetting to bathe I will throw that headset out so fast your head will spin, no matter how my boss loves them."


    "Hey there, don''t get crazy," Dave said, waving his hands. "I came out because I was hungry. See, this is me gorging on this delicious spaghetti," Dave paused a moment. "This is me wondering why it''s so cold."


    "This is your mother getting annoyed that you didn''t eat with your mother and father and let your food get cold."


    "Ah," Dave nodded firmly. "This is me shutting up now."


    After filling himself up on pasta he went back to the game and logged back in. He figured he could at least stay up until twelve without his parents bothering him.


    "System, set alarm for 12 AM."


    "Acknowledged."


    "Okay, back in the starting village," Dave muttered to himself. He had a ranged attack and a movement skill. He probably should get a defensive skill and a close range attack. Looking around he saw that Deridel had gone back to her default spot. Considering the people still on the range chances were they had their own invisible NPC looking over their shoulder.


    Walking around to the village center he walked up to the NPCs there. "Who can give me advice on defensive skills?"


    The knight raised his hand. Bolyn, Trainer, HP:10000, Mana:5000, Psi: 10000. "I would be pleased to aid our new recruits in fighting our terrible oppressors." Deridel looked at him sideways and shook her head. The mage studiously ignored him.


    "Great! What are my options?"


    "Starting out you could work on Telekinesis. Eventually you can form it into a shield. This may be the strongest and most versatile option. However, it costs energy, more than the other options, and therefore cannot be active at all times. You can eventually use it to create blockades and shield others."


    "Hmmm," Dave wasn''t sure he wanted to play with others yet. His friends weren''t online and buffing a bunch of strangers didn''t appeal to him. "Next option please."


    "Your next option is rather difficult. Clairvoyance has a basic danger sense. It will allow you to dodge and avoid danger as well as predict very short term effects. When it gets advanced past level 10 you will be very difficult to hit. However, when you are you will go down very quickly. I would recommend this a secondary defense. It works well in combination with movement abilities."


    Oh, a spider-man option. That would be cool but as the knight said he could work with it later. "Next please."


    "Bio feedback is a popular talent tree for defense. One of the early talents unlocked is block pain and regeneration. However, for raw defense it also has Fortify. This allows you to use psionic energy to strengthen your defenses. It is a passive skill and only draws psionic points when you take damage. It is approximately as strong as a telekinetic force field, however, you cannot use it on someone else."


    "Oh, that¡¯s nice! There''s nothing stopping me from learning TK forcefield later, right."


    "Nothing accept the time investment. I have found that the further along I am in my training the harder it is to find time for the basics."


    Dave looked at him in disbelief. The game had been active for about six hours. While it was humorous seeing the knight boasting about his experience he thought it was to be expected in an RPG game.


    "What else?"


    "Manifestation can create armor, however, it is best used with weapons, unless you have some way to mitigate the power draw. In functionality, it is very similar to telekinetic force fields. You can do this with psionic energy or mana, however, we can only train you in the psionic version. You will have to unlock the other skills yourself."


    "You can unlock elite skills?"


    "The first person to unlock a custom skill can name it," the system whispered in his ear. "After a slight delay, this skill will be available to all players."


    "Oh, neat." It would have been better to have a custom skill all his own, nevertheless, he supposed naming it would be a decent consolation prize. "What else?"


    "The Imbue skill, mana or psionic, can create enchanted or enhanced equipment. It doesn''t work so well with cloth," the knight said while gesturing to Dave''s rough spun peasant pants and shirt. "This is best used once you find better defensive gear."


    "Okay. Seems pretty clear. Unless you wanted to try to start a wizard or cleric you should go with the Bio Feedback."


    "An excellent choice," the knight began before interrupted by the robed figure.


    "Everything you are working on now is simple basic skills. You can always train your ''mage and cleric'' skills later. You will find that some skills you develop will not work well in combination with others. However, Bio Feedback is a decent general skill. Most people have this in addition to other abilities."If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The knight looked over in irritation, then glanced back at Dave. "It is true your journeys are just beginning. Let me teach you the ways of this talent." Placing his hand on Dave''s forehead he felt a transfer of energy and method of moving energy from one location of the body to others.


    "You have learned a new skill in the Bio-Feedback tree, Pain Suppression, Level 0."


    "You have learned a new skill in the Bio-Feedback tree, Regeneration, Level 1."


    "You have learned a new skill in the Bio-Feedback tree, Fortify, Level 2."


    "It starts out at level 1 and 2?" Dave asked. Neither the system or the knight replied. He shrugged. Sixth edition M&M was known to be arbitrarily whimsical. "System, I think you need to include some training montage. The skills are cool but that just felt rather... eh." Dave said while waving his hand lethargically.


    "Feedback noted."


    "Okay, now I need a short range attack, any suggestions?"


    "I am not sure I understand, your psionic bolt can be used at short range and long range," the knight responded hesitantly. "I think you mean you need a trained response for dealing with an attacker at close range."


    "I could have sworn that¡¯s what I just said," Dave responded. Now he was confused.


    "How about we give you a basic hand to hand course."


    "Wait a minute, you can teach me kung fu?" Dave said with a smile blooming on his face.


    "It¡¯s a rather complete set of skills, boxing, wresting and martial arts to deal with the three ranges of hand to hand. Some of the moves would be from traditional skills."


    "Wow, kung fu," Dave said, completely ignoring the knight''s explanation and breaking the game''s immersion. "I don''t care if you have a lousy class system if you can make me a kung fu master. Maybe we can make this a Wuxia type game."


    Once again the knight put his hand to the player''s forehead. This time in addition to the sensation of knowledge and energy being transferred he was struck with images, almost hallucinations, of him and the knight training in hand to hand techniques for days on end.


    "You have learned a new talent, Combat, level 2"


    "You have learned a new skill in the Combat tree, Hand to Hand, Level 2."


    When it finally stopped Dave fell to his knees and dry heaved. "Oh my god! That was horrible! It was like being in a dojo while on a roller coaster! I changed my mind! No more montages. Just gimme the damn skills."


    "Feedback noted."


    Staggering to his feet Dave was grateful there was no vomit taste in his mouth. That would have been too realistic for comfort. "Where can I train the new skills?"


    "Combat golems are behind the other building," the knight gestured to his right.


    "Right. See you, like never again," Dave said as he staggered off.


    Sure enough, around the corner of the second intact building was a cobblestone courtyard divided in several sections. Several players were already wresting, kicking and generally using mixed martial arts on the human-sized stone golems. Going to one of the sections with a golem and no player he approached one of the stone forms.


    "Would you like to spar?" A voice similar to grinding rock was emitted from the golem.


    "Sure," Dave said as he gave a patented Bruce Lee come hither gesture. A moment later he was diving out of the way as the golem did a standing leap kick towards him.


    Once he got used to letting the system guide him he was able to attack and defend in a reasonable manner. After what seemed a few hours of fun mayhem he was starting to feel exhausted.


    "System, why am I so tired. There''s no stamina stat, right," he asked as he back away from the golem and gestured for a break.


    "There is no stamina statistic, however, you are using several bio feedback techniques at once. Each of these requires psionic points when activated."


    "I hadn''t realized," Dave said as he brought up his stat screen. "You never mentioned it."


    "Player Nathaniel has requested to not be alerted when he has skill ups."


    "Nathaniel? Oh, right that''s me. I did say that. Let''s take a look at the stat screen." The status screen came up. This time it had much more information.


    Name: Nathaniel., Class: Recruit level 1, HP:40, Mana: 30. Psi: 50, Intelligence: 20, Constitution: 40, Strength: 30, Dexterity: 32, Luck: 55


    Skills:


    Technology Level 1 (Int based)


    Clairvoyance level 3 (Luck based)


    -Remote Viewing, level 2


    Peasant Skill (No base)


    Mana Manipulation Level 2


    Telepathy Level 5


    Telekinesis Level 10


    -Telekinetic Movement Level 3


    Meditation Level 0


    Psionic Bolt Level 10


    Psionic Manifestation Level 0


    Imbue Object With Mana level 0


    Imbue Object With Psionic Energy level 0


    Bio Feedback Level 2


    -Pain Suppression, Level 0


    -Fortify Level 2


    -Regeneration Level 1


    Combat Level 6


    -Hand to Hand Level 8


    "Huh, that''s a big change. And a title alteration," Dave said to himself. He assumes that was his overall character level. "System, what time is it?"


    "It is eleven o''clock."


    "Why does time seem to go by so fast? I feel like I''ve been training for hours," he asked rhetorically, mostly in wonder since he had experienced this while training his psionic blast.


    "Modern nerve stimulation and simulation can allow the brain to operate at accelerated speeds for a short amount of time. Likewise, it is simple to give the player the sensation that large amounts of time has passed. Much like a low-level version of a montage."


    "Okay, but keep the montaging to the lower level versions. I guess this was pretty fun but since I have another hour before I have to log off. I think I''ll look at the quests."


    Going back to the front of the building he looked at the quests again. There were a couple of kill quests. He accepted them. Usually, you did those on the way to other quests. Oh, the dungeon quests unlocked. His skills were above eight, so that may be fun.


    There was a new one since earlier called "Knight Errant". Apparently, even though the Empire had been temporarily driven back they had some mostly abandoned supply depots that were generally unguarded except for a stray Husk or two. A noble from the Rebellion diplomatic team had been captured and they needed someone to bring back the supplies and rescue the noble. Since the husks were too stupid to do anything except guard there was a danger of this noble starving to death.


    That sounded like fun. Since the notice showed as available hopefully the husks wouldn''t curb stomp him. He still had a slight shiver as he recalled being chased through the village streets by the festering creatures.


    "System, do I have a map?"


    "Yes. This is the method to activate the map." There was a sensation of how to move energy within his brain.


    "That¡¯s not a command, that¡¯s Remote Viewing," Dave said in exasperation. "You really are riding heavily on this whole psionic theme." The system did not respond.


    "All right let''s see if I can do this in an hour," he said, psyching himself up as he began to run out of the village, following the map. As often as he could he boosted himself with Telekinetic movement. After a few minutes he reached a large grassland with unusually large buffalo roaming the plains.


    "Ah. Mutant buffalos," Dave nodded to himself. For the first one he tried to sneak up to one of the isolated ones before firing off a psionic blast."


    "You have acquired the talent Stealth, Level 0"


    "You have acquired the talent under Telepathy, Cloak Presence, Level 0."


    "Good grief. Really?" he muttered as the system whispered it messages. The mutant buffalo must have had excellent hearing because it immediately turned its head towards Dave and charged. With a yelp, he used his TK movement to slide out of the way and hit the buffalos rear with a psionic blast. It jerked convulsively and fell over dead.


    "That was easier than I thought," Dave said as he stood up. A moment later he heard approaching thunder. With some trepidation he looked towards the plains and saw an entire herd of mutant buffalos stampeding his way.


    "Oh my lord," he exclaimed as he analyzed his options. He could run, but there wasn''t much cover and the animals were very fast. He could try to hide but he didn''t even know how his new stealth worked. Oh well.


    "Cowabunga!" he cried as he ran towards the mutant herd bearing down on him. He shot a few of the leading animals, then slipped in between the newly created gap letting whispers of his clairvoyance guide him.


    One of the animals looked like it didn''t see him so he leaped up using a burst of TK movement and landed on its back. Getting a grip on his mount he used a free arm to start shooting the mutants from his elevated position.


    "This is a hell of a lot of fun," Dave smiled as the herd swept past him. They were more caught up in running than targeting him now that he was not on the ground. He fired a few more times, dropping the last few for his quest.


    Then he pointed and willed a psionic blast but nothing happened. Boy, he sure was tired. He was thinking this as his mount started to buck. After only a few seconds he was kicked off and again surrounded by stampeding murderous mutants.


    For some reason his clairvoyance wasn''t giving him any hints and he couldn''t get his movement to trigger. Then the first mutant stepped on him. That hurt a huge amount. Where''d his pain suppression go? Then he got knocked to the ground again and it felt like ten other mutant beasts ran over him.


    Then there was blackness and pain. A soul-searing unendurable pain. It twisted his soul and seemed to go on forever. Then he woke up.

 Prelude 3: Modification

    He seethed silently. With effort, his rage subsided. He hadn¡¯t explained any of the specific circumstances so why would they know?


    ¡°Well?¡± the grey haired man asked again. ¡°What can you do for us? We have tried to examine the bodies and we haven¡¯t found anything useful. The metallic armor is impervious to all measurement devices and seems to be downright indestructible. The deceased look to be human but even now, after all this time, show no sign of decay. We can only do a superficial investigation due to the suits. We can¡¯t even open the faceplates. The only thing that has shown progress is examining the er... Husks.¡±


    ¡°The suits are merely shells. Except for their durability, their only other feature is as psionic amplifiers. It was the people inside the suits that made them formidable.¡±


    ¡°Can you give us the designs for the suits?¡±


    ¡°I have repeatedly told you, they are useless to you. By the time you can make them, you won¡¯t need them. Even if you put one of your soldiers in them they would be turned into jelly the first time something hit them. The majority of the defensive capabilities came from the soldiers themselves.¡±


    ¡°Were these creatures created in a lab?¡±


    Salthuin looked balefully at the man before him. ¡°These creatures were merely men like you or I. They had been upgraded through standard biological modification.¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    ¡°Wait, that''s the thing you want to do to our soldiers?¡±


    ¡°Yes. You wanted super soldiers, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Will our soldiers be able to do the same things? They say one of them waved his hand and destroyed a jet.¡±


    ¡°Eventually. The modification will be the mostly the same, however, you won¡¯t be able to activate the advanced features until your technology advances.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you activate it for us.¡±


    ¡°That was the deal. You learn how to do it yourselves. I just show you how.¡±


    ¡°What about the husks?¡±


    They were failures. They died during conversion. The bodies were recycled into low-grade footsoldiers.¡±


    ¡°Are they actually alive?¡±


    ¡°Technically. However, I think you mean to ask if they are sentient. No. Each one has a psionic link with an evolved human.¡±


    ¡°How strong are they?¡± the man asked with a rather subdued horror.


    ¡°Not very, however, the soldier can channel a portion of their own energy into the husk. The real question is, how strong is the soldier?¡±


    ¡°The husks are the only thing we can do any analysis at all. The scientists are saying they are not only dead but they haven¡¯t been alive for years. They are slowly decaying¡­ at least when they are removed from the freezers.¡±


    ¡°Naturally, after all, they failed mid-conversion, otherwise even in death bacteria wouldn¡¯t be able to get a hold. In the Empire, unless the head is completely destroyed they can be resuscitated.¡±


    ¡°They aren¡¯t really dead?¡±


    ¡°No. They are dead.¡± The Empire installed kill switches. Those it wanted dead would be thoroughly dead. Maybe the unknown arts the Rebellion held could reverse the process, but as far as science was concerned they were gone.

 Chapter 5: A Greifers Got To Greif

    "What the hell was that!" screamed Dave as he frantically stood up. "I''m reporting this shit! That kind of pain feedback must be illegal! If it''s not, then by damned I''ll make sure it is!"


    "Player Nathaniel has died and been placed in the closest graveyard resurrection point."


    "No I mean the... er... you know the other thing?" Dave floundered for a moment. There was something a moment ago that seemed really important but he couldn''t quite remember what it was. "Oh well, it''ll come to me. How did I die? I was on top of everything. Literally. The next thing I know I can''t do squat."


    "Player Nathaniel ran out of psionic point and had no significant abilities in the mana trees. It is suggested that you monitor your resources better and make plans for times you do not have points to activate your abilities."


    "Oh. Right. I guess that makes sense. The hand to hand skills didn''t cost anything. Couldn''t I have used that plus my dex to get out of the way?"


    "In theory, however, the system doesn''t make a roll and move your body. The player must either have a plan or train his reflexes to guide his hand to hand skills."


    "While that makes sense how is being guided by my clairvoyance into moving into the correct direction different than having the system use my hand to hand skills that Bolyn trained into me to move to a safe position?"


    "One is a special skill you pay energy for. As long as you listen to its guidance and react to it, it will direct you in your actions for a point cost. The other gives you basic knowledge and flexibility as a passive base. The system will not direct you to move. You must, either using training or your own reflexes."


    "Arbitrarily whimsical," Dave spat out. He was extremely displeased by this. Kicking the dirt in disgust he activated his map. "Can you put up a meter for my psionic points?"


    "Yes. This option is only available during the tutorial stage 1." A red percentage appeared at the corner of his vision. At present, it was at 10%.


    "Seriously. I died and you don''t bring me back at 100%?"


    "Correct."


    "How can I get my points back faster?"


    "Meditation is the skill used to get back mana points and psionic points back at an accelerated pace. If your Meditation skill is under ten then you can only sit to meditate. The system will demonstrate the proper mindset."


    "You want us to meditate," Dave asked slowly. "In real time. To get our points back? What kind of stupid system is that? The last MMO that had that was Everquest where the caster had the stupid book cover their screen when they rested. No one liked it then and no one likes it now!"


    "Feedback noted. Once the Meditation skill reaches ten, the player can use this recovery skill while active and in motion, although it will only have half the effectiveness."


    "I hate grinding. Oh well, I guess I found the grinding part... though the other skill training was kinda grindy too. At least it was fun grinding though."


    "One way that a player can log in with full points is to sleep with the sensory helmet on," the system whispered to him. "As long as the player logs off while meditating and sleeps with the helmet on the game will consider the meditation skill active even if the game is not on. We have this noted in our published bug report."


    "We have to sleep with the helmet on?"


    "M&M Games apologizes for the inconvenience but wishes to point out that you are not being forced to use this unfortunate bug workaround."


    "Its either this or wait around doing nothing in game. Without my psionic blast, all I have the option to do is punch a husk. Even with the increased stats I don''t think that¡¯s going to cut it. Fine. Meditation on. Logging out."


    Opening his eyes to the darkness of the helmet he called out, "Camera on. Set alarm for 7 AM. Cancel 12 AM alarm."


    Immediately he could see his room. It was actually light corrected so he could see in the dark. That was a nice feature, though it made him feel like he was a loser, playing a game in his room with the lights off. Because, he was.


    Sighing he scrabbled around his chin. The features list said there was a button that retracted the mouth covering... and there it was. Changing to his night clothes he noted the camera view was a lot like the remote viewing in the game. For a new game, they sure stole a lot of features. Trudging out of the room he made his way to the kitchen.


    "Son, I think you''re getting a little too involved in the game," a voice came from the living room. Looking over he saw his father sitting in his comfy chair reading a tablet.


    "Yeah, there''s a bug in the game. It only registers your presence and lets your character recover resource points with the helmet on."


    There was a camera clicking noise and his tablet flashed. "Nice. You look cool son! Very motorcyclist meets pajama man." His father gave him a thumbs up in approval.


    "Yeah, laugh it up, dad," Dave snorted. Parents. "You know you get hooked on my games a few months after I finish them. You better hope they fix the bug or I''ll be the one with the pictures."


    "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants," his father nodded gravely, lowering his head to the tablets. "Now go report those bugs like the elite beta pajama man bug smasher you are!"


    "You¡¯re a riot," Dave muttered with a half smirk as he helped himself to more food. If he didn''t know it was impossible he would have thought he was coming down with something, he seemed to be really hungry today.


    He was woken from a pleasant slumber at seven in the morning. The camera was still transmitting so he avoided the normal confusion a person would have waking up with a helmet on. Stretching his neck to check for pain, he was surprised that he felt pretty good. Better than usual.


    He made his way to the kitchen again to eat. Fortunately both his parents were occupied and he avoided further snark. Piling his plate extra high with leftovers he was determined not to be interrupted in mere hours with food issues. However, just in case he grabbed a box of meal replacements. This psychosomatic cold or whatever he had was going to make him into a fat slob.


    Finishing up and performing his morning ablutions he laid down and logged into the game again. The lights dimmed and when they came back on he was in the middle of the cemetery again. It creeped him out. Like a horror film where you knew the monster was about to pounce.


    Dave moved out of the graveyard as soon as he could, looking uneasily over his shoulder. Turning back he saw the plains around him. It didn''t look that different than where he was. With a slight mental effort, he called up his map. He frowned as his psionic points dipped to 99% then smiled as it went back to 100%.


    "Status." Looking at his meditation skill he was surprised it was already at level 20. Supposedly, that meant that he could meditate while moving and doing things. Concentrating for a moment he vaguely confirmed that it was cycling in the background. "If it''s going to be on all the time and it was just the first night you needed to leave the helmet on, why did you even bother... never mind. It''ll be worth it to get pictures of dad in the helmet. I''m not reporting anything."


    The map showed the supply depot a few minutes away. He practiced his stealth skill as he approached. The tired feeling showed he was getting skill ups but the psi pool percentage remained above 95% so he kept it up. Gradually the movements from cover to cover and moving silently began to feel more natural and the percentage ticked up to 97%. Apparently being better at a skill made it more efficient too.


    He was a few hundred feet out by the time he saw the silhouette of a husk. Only one though. Going through his options he thought about a long-range attack, frontal assault or attempted stealth. Feeling for the little sensation of clairvoyance he felt mildly more positive about the stealth option.


    Deciding on that course, he circled around the husk and crept up. At about ten feet away he paused. The neck was probably the weakest point.


    "You have gained a skill in the Clairvoyance skill tree, Find Weakness Level 0."


    Captain Obvious strikes again, Dave muttered to himself. Silently.


    Using his telekinetic movement he jerked forward, striking the husk on the side of the neck with a hammering fist strike. Hoping to get extra damage he also triggered his Psionic blast.


    "You have gained a skill in the Telekinetic skill tree, TK Strike Level 2."


    "You have gained a skill in the Psionic Bolt skill tree, Psionic Strike level 5."


    "By using multiple talents simultaneously you have multiplied their damage potential significantly," the system''s voice almost purred.


    The husk lit up as an explosion seemed to be centered on the neck of the creature where his fist was connected. When his vision cleared a headless corpse wavered for an instant, as if not realizing it was truly dead, then slumped to the ground with an audible thump.


    "Huh, I thought that would be harder," Dave stood up, frowning down at the bloated corpse. Glancing at his psi counter he hissed. 40%?!?!


    A sensation of danger came over him and he danced to the side, grimacing again as his counter went down 39%. Another husk flew down from the sky and landed, oversized sword first into the place he had just been in.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Okay, let''s see if I can meter this out. Passive physical skills first. Paying attention to his hand to hand training he moved around to the side of the creature. Using its physical movements as his ques he attempted to dodge the strikes only needing his Clairvoyance to be trigger twice as he kicked and punched the monster.


    "95% health," Dave spat in disgust. Even his greater physical stats hardly did any damage. He was sure how they were metered out but assuming that ten strength was the average man, his strength was thirty. Was that the strength of three men? And hand to hand had to be a multiplier. There is no way to take monsters down without a psi skill?


    His psi pool had been creeping up despite a few uses of Clairvoyance and was now at 60%. Nodding to himself he checked the enemy for any obvious weaknesses and targeted a bloodless chest wound.


    Activating his movement ability he combined it with TK Strike and Psionic strike, catapulting the creature over twenty feet away.


    The surprise strike on the first creature must have counted for a lot. The second husk stood up, ignoring the huge crater in its chest and tottered over. It had dropped its sword which made it easier to dodge. His psi pool was down to 20%. Ironically so was the creatures HP.


    As it approached him Dave peppered it with psionic bolts. When it finally reached him it was at 10% HP, and he was down to 15%. At that point, he went back to dodging and striking. Although he was struck a few glancing blows, without its massive weapon it didn''t hurt much and didn''t make his Fortify drain his psi points much.


    Ten minutes later his psi points had reached 40% and he felt confident enough to use his newly favorite physical combo again. In another flash of psionic energy it flew back fifteen feet. This time it did not get up.


    "So where''s the loot?" Dave said while glancing from the body to the area around him, nervously checking for more husks.


    "Although you are welcome to see if the creature swallowed a chest, you will find such disemboweling activities messy and unlikely to unearth loot," the system''s voice chimed in. "Enemies with obvious physical objects such as pants, pockets, pouches and of course, swords, may have loot."


    "Troll," Dave muttered to himself. "Am I going to have to frisk every corpse? That would be pretty creepy in a full immersion VR game..."


    "The player''s Remote Viewing should be sufficient for searching for loot if the player is unwilling to touch virtual corpses."


    "Thanks," Dave responded sourly. Concentrating he saw that he could indeed sense the corpse. It had some sort of cybernetics in it. But he didn''t understand what it did. The swords were obvious though. They were crudely forged, incredibly long and obviously used as more of a bludgeon than a blade.


    "Are the swords worth anything? Er... Appraise? No. Remote view? No. Sense aura?"


    "You have gained a skill in the Clairvoyance skill tree, See Aura level 0."


    "You have gained a skill in the Clairvoyance skill tree, Psychometry level 0."


    Visions of blood and death filled his head and he saw the husks slaughter defenseless humanoids. "Ah! Ugh. Turn on the violence filter! That was disgusting!"


    "Feedback noted."


    "Your programmer sucks," Dave said sourly as he dropped the swords. Bringing up his map he walked towards the supply depot. This close he could see it was several gazebos with crates under them. There was only a single structure with actual walls and a door. He assumed his captured noble was in it.


    Leisurely exploring the crates he opened them one by one. Most of them seemed to be technology of some sort. Some were bottles of grey slime, while others at first appears to be blocks of metal until you examined it closely. This it was obvious it was incredibly fine circuitry. Dave grunted in disgust. Useless garbage made to look fancy.


    One crate looked a bit different. It had unidentified writing on the side that he couldn''t make heads or tails of. Inside he smiled a bit. A clear translucent globe. Glowing of course. He wondered if t was a quest item.


    "You have encountered a psionic database. Would you like to absorb it?"


    Dave thought for a moment. It still might be a quest item but it looked like a skill book of some kind. "Yes."


    Moments later images and information flooded his head.


    "You have gained a skill in the Technology skill tree, Empire Technology Level 5."


    "Skill book, that''s... neat," he said as his jaw went slack. He eyes strayed to the pile of crates he had just ransacked. Suddenly he understood exactly what those blocks did and how they fit together. The system had told him that it incorporated a system of dream logic, where an imaginary technology system would make sense. He hadn''t thought much of it at the time.


    "Oh my god. This is the ultimate faux engineer game." Running back to the other crated he started sifting through the contents. "You could make a flying platform with these crates, a few bombs with those, and robots? No not enough modules for that. You''d end up with non-combat... oh. Robot pets, of course. But if I had about five times as many I could get a combat version and in the meantime, it can be a pet that follows me around. Or a mount!"


    Brainstorming, he started to stack the modules together. Running from crate to crate. "Darn! This is taking too long. Let''s see. Um, Remote Viewing and Telekinesis."


    Concentrating and trying to combine the two skills he felt exhaustion creep over his.


    "You have gained a skill in the Clairvoyance skill tree, Telemechanics Level 2."


    "Sweet!" Dave yelled tiredly as the blocks floated in the air. Somehow he knew roughly what each did and how they fit together. Rotating and swirling they rapidly clicked together with sparks and bottles of grey goo flowed over the surface. Within moments a winged unicorn stood proudly before him its vacant gaze staring at him.


    "Awesome! Okay, screw game balance!" Dave pumped his fist in the air in victory. "I love this game. Second day and I have a flying mount! Screw you Warcraft!"


    "Is anyone out there? Help!" The voice of a frightened young girl echoed from the closed shack. "Please?"


    "Oh. The quest," Dave said in a surprised voice. "Right here your noble... whatever you are..." Staggering over to the shack he only then realized how tired his new skills had made him. A glance showed him his reserves were back down to 8%.


    The shack had a seamless lock on it. Frowning Dave activated his new Telemechanic skill and interfaced with the door. A simple command later and the lock melted away.


    "You have completed the quest ''Knight Errant''. You have reached level 2. You have earned the Vanity title ''Knight''."


    "Oh thank you, brave knight!" A young woman sprang from the small building. She wore a long gown and a veil as well as a scarf over her head.


    "That looks like Arabian nights style," Dave said. He craned his head to look behind the girl and noted that the room was empty except for a chair. "System, I want to point out the lady probably would have died in an empty room like that. If you wanted realism you should include some high technology heat and air exchangers. Likely controlled by an AI and a decent power source."


    "Feedback noted."


    Dave looked in the room in disappointment. He had been hoping to loot some more tech modules. So far the entire game was fun but dream tech totally rocked!


    "Um, you could retroactively patch that and I wouldn''t have to make a note as a beta player," Dave prompted.


    "Feedback noted."


    "Damn." He turned back to the girl. "Sorry did you say something?"


    "I was just thanking you and asking if you could provide some sort of method of reaching home. My family would be ever so grateful and we would reward you well."


    Dave''s face fell. Ah, so he wasn''t meant to keep the mount. "I could let you borrow my mount but... could you return it to me later?" He looked sadly at the majestic noncombat mount that he had gleefully created and had owned for almost five minutes. "I really love that mount..."


    "On my word as a princess," Dave perked up. "I will get your beloved mount back. Or something of equivalent worth." Dave''s face fell.


    Watching the princess fly off into the sky on his first creation was one of the most bittersweet moments in his entire young life. As momentous as it was, he shrugged off the shock in a few minutes.


    "It''s just a game," he tried to cheer himself. There would be other fun stuff out there. "System show me the portal on the map. A projection of the land was visible. It was actually very close.


    Looking over, he could barely make out lightning triggering in a regular pattern off in the distance. Occasionally dots would weave around and spark.


    Willing his Remote Viewing to focus on it the area was massively magnified. Suddenly he could make out a swirling blue field of light, surrounded by a dome made of lightning. Flying around outside of this field were groups of knights, each flying on their own winged horse and tossing lances of energy at some flying humanoids.


    They weren''t husks. In fact, they looked beautiful. Streamlined silver armor, archaic yet seamless. They appeared like an artist''s hybrid between a knight and a space traveler. These must be the Imperial troops that had been caught on this side of the barrier when the Rebellion cut off the portal access.


    "System, are there players on the Imperial faction?"


    "All players are in the Rebellion faction," chimed the female voice of the system. "PvP play may be implemented in future patches."


    ''That would be neat. I assume that area over there is for higher levels?"


    "It is not recommended for the player Nathaniel to intervene in that scale of combat in this phase of his development."


    "So. No."


    Facing back to the village he drifted along. At level two he had slightly more reserve energy and since meditation regained a percentage of energy he was able to use his movement abilities more often. He estimated in a few levels he would be able to leave it on and simply speed across the land.


    He finished another kill quest for mutated wolves before he saw another mutated buffalo. It was alone. Staring at it in thought Dave shrugged. He may as well try.


    Stealthing up to it, he sidled along until he was within touching distance. With an assisted leap he was on the creatures back. Unlike before, this monster was not caught up in a herd frenzy and immediately reacted to the intruder on its back. Bucking and leaping it attempted to get the hated human off its back.


    With his enhanced strength Dave only had to use his telekinesis a few times to help him keep his balance. Still, he was feeling a little queasy after ten minutes. Fortunately, after fifteen, the system must have decided that it had given up. With minimal nudging with his legs, he could now make it go where he wanted to.


    "Whoot! I have a mount again! All I need is to figure out how to get you to manifest wings and we''re back in business," he half-joked to his new companion. Curious he looked at his inventory. Sure enough ''Tamed Buffalo" was listed as a mount.


    A short time later he saw the village coming into view. He passed a few fellow players and they looked at him with shock and envy. He nodded casually back. Life was good. Peasant taming skills for the win.


    "Well, golly gee, a mutated buffalo," a teenager drawled at him. Looking over he saw a player looking at him with a smirk and holding out his hand. Drexor, Title: Recruit, HP: 60, Mana: 0, Psi: 50. "It just so happens that I need to kill one of those. Thanks for bringing one."


    A psionic blast flashed out at the mutated beast under Dave and he found himself having to leap away from the dying creature as a hole was blasted through it.


    "What the hell!" Dave shouted in rage. That was the second mount he lost in an hour. "Why the hell did you do that? That was mine!"


    "I didn''t see your name on it," smirked Drexor. He started to strut away. "Thanks for the kill."


    Dave clenched his teeth in anger. Of all the damn things. Griefers ruined the game for everyone. Eventually, even for themselves. He had been hoping not to have to deal with this in a new game. He should have known better.


    "Recruit Drexor," a trumpeting voice came from the sky. Looking up the surrounding players saw and angel type NPC. Obviously it wasn''t Deridel, however, it seemed to be built on a similar template. "You are charged with slaying a knight''s property. You will have to come with us."


    The sound of rushing air signaled the arrival of two more angel type NPCs.


    "What the <beep>?" The recruit blustered nervously. "There are no rules about killing mutant buffalos!"


    "Attacking a player, their property or harmful behavior is against the terms of service. You may log out or come with us to serve your sentence."


    "What kind of <beep> <beep> game is this? Only a <beep> with <beep> <beep> game would have such a <beep><beep> rule! I am going to complain!"


    "Feedback noted," a disembodied voice chimed.


    "Do you plan to log out permanently, resist or come peacefully?"


    "I... I... <beep>fine. Let''s go." Reluctantly allowing himself to be dragged away by the troop of four NPCs the player turned a corner and disappeared.


    "That¡¯s awesome!" shouted one player who had witnessed the events.


    "Can they do that?" Another player asked. "I mean sure it''s cool but no other games stop griefers like that..."


    "Just for that alone this game rocks," complimented a player. "Hey did you guys see the dude that came in on the buffalo? That means you can tame animals!"


    "Well, sure but they''ll get one-shotted unless you can tame a dragon."


    "Do they even have dragons in this game?"


    "Of course they do. I saw them in the preview video."


    Dave had already left by this point. He had just lost his second mount. Even though the perpetrator was arrested and was probably sitting, bored out of his mind, staring at a wall somewhere, it still rankled. So he was generally in a foul mood as he made his way back to the quest board.

 Chapter 6: First Group

    Browsing halfheartedly through the quest board he noted that there was a new one.  ''Meet the Royals'' had the goal of going to the city of Merildale and introduce himself to the king.  It was greyed out.  Apparently, it required level 5.  Well, he could go on a dungeon run.  His skills, both offensive and defensive, were over the soloing minimum of 8.  Most were over ten.


    "Hey Nat," a voice cheerily asked next to him. Dave continued pondering his course of actions. "Nat!  Nathaniel!  The level two knight standing in front of the quest board.  Yes, you!"


    Dave finally realized he was being addressed.  Turning he saw that Marieta was next to him shouting in his ear.  "Oh.  Sorry," he replied in embarrassment.  "I''m not used to the name.  Only the system calls me that.  But even it just usually says ''player''."


    "Yeah, I get it," she said good-naturedly.  "I used to get a mod that made my chat text multicolor and honk when I got a ''Tell'', otherwise no one could ever get me to reply until hours later."


    "That would be freakin terrible," groused Aragorn from next to her.  "I can imagine ''Tell Hell'' with horns and whistles."


    "Well, I guess I never had that many people talking to me at once.  Not like I was a guild officer.  Who wants to do that <beep> in a game.  Oh sorry.  I mean that¡¯s work."


    "And they are mostly jerks," Dave interjected.


    "Well they have to be," Aragorn said defensively.  "Nice officers don''t get squat done in a raid.  And they can''t deal with troublemakers."


    "That¡¯s not always true," Marieta protested.  "I was in a nice guild and our officers were the sweetest people."


    "Right.  And it was probably ten people, all friends and you didn''t raid anything that needed more discipline than a few casual players," Aragorn snorted.


    "Maybe," admitted Marieta reluctantly.


    "I get it," Dave said.  "My last guild was casual.  If the expansion hadn''t allowed flexible raid sizes and multiple difficulties, we wouldn''t have been able to much outside the Raid Finder.  And you know what train wrecks those were."


    The others nodded in agreement. "I can''t wait until the raids start," Aragorn said eagerly.  "That''s where the heart of MMOs are.  Twenty people against a fifty-foot tall monster!"


    "Good luck with that," Marieta replied. "There aren''t even guilds yet.  The raids will be cool with a telepathic link."


    "It''s going to be rough to get decent raid groups together without tools like a DPS meter.  How the <beep>, er, heck am I going to figure out how to optimize my moves without the numbers?"


    "Bah, DPS meters ruin the game," the girl replied in disdain.  "You just get jerks that know the combos best but are a pain to play with.  This game actually has real roleplaying.  There''s more than just fighting."


    Dave stared at her.  He hadn''t noticed anything except the fighting.  "You mean the crafting system?  That''s really cool!"


    "No, I mean the lore.  I have been talking to the NPCs and each one has a back story and personality."


    Dave and Aragorn looked at her uncomprehendingly.  "So?  Did they give quests or something?"


    "Some did," the girls said, blushing.  "I saved a child from a giant rat in the basement and got a ''Knight'' vanity title!"


    "What the <beep>?"  Aragorn said scornfully.  "I had to take a husk down with five other players to get a Knight title!"


    Dave looked at them uncomprehendingly.  It seemed the Knight title was a bit more common than he thought.  Then he did a doubletake.  "Did you say you took down a husk with six players?"


    "Yeah, they are really rough," Aragorn said proudly.  "I can totally see how just a few almost destroyed the village."


    "Was it an elite version," Dave asked hesitantly.


    "I don''t think so.  I haven''t seen elites yet.  Maybe in the dungeons we''ll see them."


    "M&M sixth edition doesn''t balance the monsters.  It requires the GM to send monsters of the appropriate power level to fight the players or the players to know enough to avoid instant kill fights," recited Marieta.  "I am not sure if this means that the fights scale with the players or we are just supposed to avoid monsters we can''t take out."


    Dave nodded to himself.  That explained why six players had it so rough.  Soloing in the game was looking like a pretty good option.  He wasn''t sure if he wanted to be tied to a group to play the game.  It was good to know he wouldn''t have to call out and whine in OOC chat for a group.


    "That reminds me," Dave said.  "Is there a Group Finder?"


    "Not yet," Marieta responded.  "The system said it was under consideration.  That¡¯s actually why we were trying to get your attention."


    "Want to go to the dungeon?"  broke in Aragorn.


    "Well I don''t know," Dave began.  He wasn''t really into PUGs.  He really only wanted to play with his real-life friends.  Otherwise, he was fine with soloing.Stolen novel; please report.


    "We noticed you had the Knight title," Aragorn interrupted.  "Did you know that if you group with others with the Knight title it increases your drop rate?"


    "There''s drops?  The system told me there weren''t any drops!"


    "Yeah it told us that too," Marietta said disdainfully.  "Then it told us that the creatures have what they have.  They don''t get anything more on their death."


    "So the system was just being nitpicky on what drops were," Aragorn said triumphantly.


    "That¡¯s a typical AI," Dave nodded.  "Wow, if there were a thieves class they would rule the world with the Pickpocket skill.  It still might be possible.  I think the system allows you to make your own skills.  I got Stealth and Mask Presence just from trying."


    "That¡¯s neat!  Can..." Marieta started.


    "Getting off topic," cut in Aragorn imperiously.  "Dungeon?"


    "Sure," Dave gave in.  They seemed nice.  It could be fun.  "Do we need more?"


    "What kind of template are you working on?" asked Aragorn.


    "I kind of ended up monkish.  At least in a world without monks," Dave confessed.  "I have good hand to hand, body defenses, danger sense and kickass power punch.  I was still able to blast them from a distance though, so only sorta-ish a monk."


    "Okay, we have a melee tank or striker.  The roles are so darn vague its hard to figure out yet," Aragorn said with frustration.


    "I figured out how to use TK to bind and slow," Marieta said shyly.  "Just like Nat said I tried doing something and the system came up with a skill for it.  I also got something called Biomanipulation.  It¡¯s both a debuffing skill and a healing skill!"


    "Nice," Dave said in appreciation.  He wasn''t the only one finding decent options in the game.  "So your our healer and crowd control."


    "I just went with the mage template," Aragorn said.  "TK force field, TK barrier, Psi-Blast and wait for it... Pyrokinesis!"


    "I didn''t even know that was an option," Dave responded in surprise.  "Cool so fire mage.  Monk, Healer, Fire Mage.  For a nontraditional game it''s getting to sound pretty traditional."


    "You can take the players out of Warcraft but you can''t take the Warcraft out of the players," Marieta added wryly.  The others smiled.


    "Okay, let''s go," Dave paused a moment.  A moment of concentration and they could feel a mental connection between the three of them.  With it, they could communicate and had some instinctive knowledge of each other''s hit points and resource points.  "You know where the dungeon is?"


    "Most of the starting quests are vaguely in the direction of the portal.  This was an abandoned, um... nano forge.  Whatever that is.  Seems like some sort of automated base or factory.  The goal is to get to the controls and program the forge to self-destruct.  Aragorn wasn''t that greyed out before?"


    "It must be because we hit a player limit," Aragorn responded.  "Maybe it needed three players?"


    "I think it requires the Empire Technology skill," Dave volunteered.  "I got it during my Knight quest.  It allows for some amazingly fun crafting if you get the materials.  I can''t wait to see if I can get Rebellion technology crafting!"


    "Lucky!  I love crafting," squealed Marieta excitedly.  Dave could tell she was looking at her map as she led them out of the city.  "Do you think the game will allow you to learn both?  Other games cap you at just a few."


    "The game seemed to pride itself on flexibility," Dave answered.  "So probably.  The Rebellion seemed to be a magic-based coalition so maybe it''s like steampunk."


    "I think it''s like Deridel''s stuff, amulets, and jewelry that stored spells," Aragorn volunteered his opinion.


    "It must be more than that," Marieta said.  "Probably a whole enchanting system to add spells and functions to objects."


    "That doesn''t sound like a tech tree," Dave said.  "That sounds like the Imbue Object talent trees.  I bet its steampunk with enchantments."


    "I can''t wait to find out," Marieta said.  "I was all about the crafting in the last game.  I got rich!  In game at least.  Too bad that game is never going VMMO."


    "Anybody know anything about the economy?  I haven''t seen gold, credits or anything that looks like currency," Dave asked.


    "We live in a kingdom so they can''t possibly live on barter.  When that means anything to players... who knows.  Maybe they''ll connect the currency to the real world.  Imagine being rich in the real world too Marieta."


    "I hope not," the girl sniffed disdainfully.  "Gold farming ruins games.  And the entire ''Pay to Win'' direction the MMOs have been going is disastrous."


    "It does suck a bit," Dave said.  "On the other hand, people were buying gold to get around days of grinding the same <beep> over and over.  I hate grinding."


    Marieta nodded.  They had traveled out of the city and towards the portal''s direction.  Moving in a group was definitely slower than moving on his own.  Dave started to scout ahead a bit and then head back.  He also practiced his stealth at the same time.  Fortunately, with the telepathic link, they were still in contact.


    "Ugh, grinding," agreed the girl.


    "Eh, I liked the dailies," countered Aragorn.  "It kept me busy in between the raids."


    "Dailies and raids," muttered Dave disdainfully.  "Two forms of grinding.  When Everquest first came out you could barely communicate with the NPCs, let alone get quests without looking things up on the Worldnet.  It pretty much was research where a drop was and camp that mob''s spawn point until it dropped.  I remember camping a giant''s spawn point for literally three days and nights for a pair of boots that increased my speed by 10%!"


    "Ah the good old day," Aragorn said while grinning.


    "The nutso days," Dave said in disagreement.  "I must have been brain damaged to consider camping a spawn point fun."


    "Eh, it was the evolution of MMOs," Aragorn casually waved his argument away.  "Grindings a lot more fun these days.  Repeatable quests and fishing for the win."


    "No... just no," Dave moaned.  "Thankfully, I haven''t seen anything like that here.  Although the travel isn''t too fun.  Oh, wait a husk."


    Dave spied a husk wandering the plains, huge sword over its shoulder.  Since he was already stealthed, he simply approached it from the rear and hit it with his biggest combo in its weak spot.  Just like the first one it went rocketing backward from the impact and lay still.


    "Just lay low until we get there," Aragorn stated with urgency.  "It will be tough but I think we can take it."


    "Heh heh," Dave chuckled in embarrassment.  "Um, I already took it out."


    "What?" Aragorn squealed over the link.  "No way!  It took six of us thirty minutes to take one down earlier today."


    "I think it scales," Dave said with a shrug.  His two companions came in sight a moment later.


    "Still... holy cow!  Is that an impression of your foot?"


    "Yeah, I think a kick is a bit more powerful than a punch.  Though its harder to get multiple skills to trigger at once."


    "Wait, you got more than one skill to trigger at once?" Marieta asked.


    "Yeah I think they stack," Dave said hesitantly.  "I am not sure if it''s linear or not.  No DPS meter, you know."


    "Oh, no wonder," Aragorn nodded in wonder.  "I guess we did it the hard way.  I''ll have to see what ranged skill I can get to stack."


    "Do you think crowd control skills stack?  They don''t really in most other games," the girl asked.  "No loot?"


    "Try it," Dave suggested.  "The game seems to reward experimentation.  It even said that if you invent a skill not already in the system you can name it.  All the husk had was its lousy sword."


    "Maybe it can be melted down," joked Aragorn.  "I think that may be the entrance."


    Dave looked where Aragorn was pointing and saw a small door-less entryway, barely visible in the distance.  A touch of Remote Viewing and he could see that inside was a stairwell that lead downward.


    "Let''s go see what a dungeon in this game looks like."

 Prelude 4: Refined Psionic Energy

    "I don''t understand this world network you want to build with the new computers," the liaison complained. "It seems like a huge waste of resources. No one except the government even has computers."


    "As production increases, ideally everyone will have one. Think of it as a library people can access on the network."


    "But why?"


    "We have no time to train everyone. We need to set up incentives for people to train themselves."


    "It would be better if only the government have access to this."


    "We won''t do that."


    "But..."


    "I have been given the final power of decision. I am going to have to use it here."


    "I don''t understand why they would allow that."


    Salthuin knew why. He had made it clear that if they didn''t, he would take his knowledge and go to their rival country. Presently there was a cold war going on and they didn''t like this at all. There wasn''t a thing that any armed force could do to him if he decided to leave. His entire team could bring this world to its knees within a week. As a General his power dwarfed his entire team. Although each of the Emperor''s soldiers had a kill switch, it hadn''t really been needed.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    "What''s this mystic mumbo jumbo you want to put on the database?" The soldier was still upset about being overruled. "I can understand the science and technology but this is just nonsense."


    "The primary opposition to the Emperor is the Confederation of Mages. Although the Empire doesn''t have that much expertise in regards to magic, we have fought enough to have captured some basic knowledge. I am hoping that with a population of several billion there will be some exceptional people that can take our basic knowledge and develop it. Whether this is the case or not we will include it in the final simulations."


    "What is this crap you''re trying to sell me about magic? Everyone knows magic doesn''t exist!"


    "No unaltered human can use magic," I corrected. "I had to go into the restricted science sections to alter the retrovirus to add this potential to the human genome." If he hadn''t already been planning to rebel he would have doubtlessly been under placed arrest despite his status.


    "But magic isn''t real."


    Salthuin gestured at the table, it abruptly rose into the air, circled the room before gently settling down. The liaison stared at the table as if it had been possessed.


    "Was that magic?"


    "No, that was merely a bit of telekinesis. My knowledge of the art is minimal. They are very loosely related. Although not completely true, you can consider magic as refined psionic energy."


    "I need to think about this. Do whatever you want with that network thing. Can''t see it working but whatever." Obviously, in a daze, the man left the room.


    "Refined psionic energy," a skeptical voice boomed out in the air.


    "I didn''t want to explain it," Salthuin said shortly. "It¡¯s not their fault but it is pretty frustrating. I suppose it will be easier to work with them once they have the foundation needed."


    "Yes. In twenty years."


    The rebel General didn''t reply. All that could be heard was the grinding of nigh-indestructible teeth.

 Chapter 7: Three Phases

    As they got closer, they found a dungeon looked pretty darn big. The building entry looked small from a distance, however as they approached it was apparent that it was the size of a three car garage.


    "An army could go down this way," Marieta said, suitably impressed, as she looked down the stairs.


    "Why not," asked Aragorn. "They''re not paying for land. It''s all virtual."


    "Seems kind of plain," Dave said as he peered at the walls. "It looks like everything is chrome. Did they run out of budget for texture art?"


    "Hold on, its not all metal, "Marieta hesitantly looked close at the wall. "I think I saw the wall swirl. Like it was liquid."


    "Yeah, you''re right. It''s like liquid chrome," Dave said with unease. "They said this was a nano-forge. Like nanites?"


    "Okay, that is all kinds of disturbing. There''s all kind of horror films about nanites despite the experts saying how safe they are," the girl replied.


    "The government never comments either way," Aragorn said. "Looks like this may be a horror dungeon. Anyone have a light?"


    Dave looked at him dumbly. "Dude you have pyrokinesis. Are you serious?" Marieta giggled.


    "Ah. Right. I just didn''t want to pay for the energy," he stuttered defensively.


    "Put it up but keep it small. Constant use of your skills is how they grow," Dave suggested. "It also gets cheaper to use. It won''t be long before Meditate''s passive effects keep your psi pool topped off."


    "Meditate?" Aragorn looked at Dave in confusion. Marieta was trying not to look ignorant, but the blank gaze gave her away.


    "How have you been getting your points back," Dave asked confused. "How can you even play if you run out after a few fights? I died almost instantly the first time I ran out."


    "I have been practicing in the target fields and with the golems," Marieta said with slight embarrassment. "I think they minimize the drain while practicing."


    "Grouping. I was playing with five other people and we kept swapping point position," Aragorn replied. "I just thought that was how the game was supposed to be played."


    "Well, it''s not," confirmed Dave. "Ask the system about the meditate skill."


    "Why can''t you tell us," asked the girl, slightly insulted.


    "It¡¯s a critical skill," Dave said with a grimace. "But it has some stupid points. Talk to the system and I''ll clarify what it leaves out."


    They stood there in silence and the two communed with the system''s AI.


    "What the heck," exclaimed Aragorn. "We have to sleep with these things? Man, I just logged out and crashed."


    "Yep, a known bug," smirked Dave.


    "I can''t do that," Marieta said worriedly. "Not only will it kill my hair but I''ll be in so much pain the next day."


    "My parents will think I''m an addict and they won''t let me on anymore," Aragorn said sadly.


    "You''re lucky," Dave snorted. "My dad took my picture with it around the house when I went to the kitchen for a snack. Don''t worry about getting a neck ache. It''s actually really comfortable. I didn''t even get hot."


    "You can eat with the headsets?" Aragorn looked at him, momentarily distracted.


    "Yeah, the chin and mouthpiece retract," Dave explained. "You also have an external camera."


    "That¡¯s cool," Aragorn perked up. "Maybe that¡¯s why they cost so much. Still, don''t know what I''m going to tell my parents."


    "Lock the door and keep the external camera on," Marieta said. Apparently, she had nerved herself to the inevitable destruction to her hair. "It''s inductively charged so it''s not like it''s going to run out of power."


    "Anyway, it doesn''t say so, but one night is enough to boost you over ten points of Meditate. At that point you just leave it on and it gets you back your psi points. Mana too but I don''t use that much yet."


    "So its just one night?" Marieta asked.


    "Well, I plan to use all of my points before I go to bed. Skill practice, if nothing else. If I leave it on overnight I can log in and start right away," Dave explained his plan. "It''s not uncomfortable at all."


    "We''ll see. I think I can sneak it in for one night at least," Aragorn said with a scowl. "But if I never come back on its because my parents banned me."


    "Anyway, let''s go down to the horrorfest," Dave said with forced cheer. "Hopefully we don''t die too horribly."


    Aragorn unconsciously shivered as some unremembered sensations played in his hindbrain. Marieta just nodded.


    As they descended the stairs they started to twist and spiral. It also got dark enough that Aragorn had to increase the size of his floating flame. After traveled over a thousand feet they heard the sound of metal on metal and grunts of pain.


    Moments later the stairs ended and they entered a large chamber. It was so large an entire parking garage could fit in it. About fifty feet in were three players attacking a husk. Two player corpses were on the ground and almost as soon as they registered the fight another was thrown back, broken and bleeding from the massive sword.


    "Hey I know that guy," Aragorn said, squinting to force the system to identify the players. "He kept kill stealing our buffalos when I went out on the group quests."


    "Should we help," Marieta asked worriedly. "I think they''re going to die. They almost haven''t done any damage to that husk."


    "I wouldn''t want to kill steal from another player," Aragorn said righteously. Dave looked at him sideways but didn''t say anything. "If they ask for help, I would, of course, be willing to help out."


    At that instant another player was killed, leaving only one person to fight the husk. Aragorn cupped his mouth and called out, "Need any help bud?"


    A gagging cough exploded out of the player as he desperately staggered to his feet and made a break towards the stairs. Aragorn cupped his ear towards him. "Can''t hear anything. I think he''s good."


    Just as the player got within twenty feet of them the husk caught up to him and swung at him from behind. The man was ejected into the air and landed at their feet.


    "See? I think he''s fine." The player pushed himself onto his side and extended his arm to shakily flip Aragorn the bird. Then he collapsed.


    "Your so bad," Marieta said shaking her head. She put her arms out and tendrils of psionic energy leaped from her to entangle and wrap the husk. "Okay, he''s Slowed and Bound. The Bind won''t last long."


    Aragorn and Dave began to pepper the husk with fire and psi blasts. As Dave expected they didn''t really do much damage. He needed to find another ranged skill to enhance his psi-blast.


    It broke the Bind when it was down to 90% health and slowly stalked towards them. Dave stopped his bombardment and using his movement skill, leaped towards it, again combining his Psi Blast, Find Weakness and Kinetic Strike. The creature was lifted into the air and blasted back almost twenty feet.


    "Holy <beep>," shouted Aragorn. "What the <beep> was that?"


    "How''d you do that," an equally bewildered Marieta asked.


    "Combined three skills," Dave told them telepathically as he propelled himself over to the husk. It wasn''t dead, it was instead struggling up. "Four if you include the basic Hand to Hand leap kick. It''s super effective."


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Closing in on it, he began to look for damaged parts and pepper it with punches and kicks. Concentrating he tried to force his blows faster and faster.


    "You have learned a new skill under Bio Feedback, Lightning Reflexes Level 0."


    "Got another one," Dave muttered with satisfaction as he danced around the husk. More tendrils of psionic energy wrapped around it to slow and bind it once more. Dave took the opportunity to lay into it with another combo.


    Its chest almost looked like it imploded under Dave''s blow. All motive force left it as it fell to its knees and then its face.


    "Damn, it didn''t even hit you," Aragorn looked at him with surprise. "I need to figure out how to do that."


    "Well, you already have Psi Blast, since everyone has that. Try combining that with Pyrokinesis," Dave offered.


    "I need another offensive too," Marieta said as she nibbled her lip in thought.


    "Well your already combining two crowd control skills. That¡¯s darn effective. But I know you want a damage skill to combine. Can you turn that TK energy into spikes?"


    "I''ll try on the next one."


    "By the way, I don''t think encounters scale. This was as tough as the others I fought despite being three of us."


    "But the other was so tough," Aragorn said despondently.


    "Sorry," Dave said with a shrug. "You were just fighting it wrong."


    "So, you just stack skills?"


    "As many as you can afford, which won''t be that many until you get your meditation up. I can work three or four and it takes about 40-50%, then I just dodge and physically hit it until I get my points back."


    "If meditate can allow getting psionic points back during a fight I''ll have to risk wearing the helmet," Aragorn said, determination shining in his eyes.


    "My hero," Marieta said sarcastically, however eagerness shown in her eyes too.


    "Oh look," Dave pointed excitedly. "Empire tech modules." He pointed to the stack of shining squares of various sizes sitting against the wall.


    "You can make stuff with them," Aragorn asked skeptically. He couldn''t make head or tails of the various cubes. Marieta ran over and tried to put them together but had no luck either.


    "You need a skill globe," Dave offered. "It''s basically a skill book with a non-book graphic. Let me show you what you can do with them."


    Holding out his hands theatrically he activated his TK and Telemechanics. As before the cubes rose up and spun in the air as they gradually clicked together. Then as his Telemechanics gathered information on the technology around him he lost his smile.


    "Oh <beep> me!"


    "This entire base in the nano forge," Dave began, next to him the modules continued to assemble, forming another winged beast. Dave decided to go with a gryphon this time since he was still feeling bitter about the horse. "It¡¯s a defensive base, a fort, a factory and if a... um... something doesn''t translate. If a commander class Imperial of some kind takes direct control it can become an unstoppable mobile engine of destruction."


    "So why is it sitting here with just husks?" Aragorn asked flatly.


    "I don''t know..."


    "Oh my god, you can make flying mounts in this game?" Marieta squealed wildly. "Do you know how many months I had to grind to get..."


    "So can you force it to self-destruct?" Aragorn interrupted the out of control girl as she peered into the mouth and ears of the gryphon and played with its wings. "Since that is the goal of this dungeon quest."


    "Not from here," acknowledged Dave, absently watching in bemusement as the girl repeatedly stroked the gryphon''s hair. "That level of commands can only be given in the command chamber. There''s supposed to be an additional limitation so that every Tom, Dick, and Player with Telemechanics can''t just take over an Imperial Base at will but the self-destruct code parameters are missing those."


    "Very convenient plot device," Aragorn said.


    "More like a plot hole," Dave muttered to himself. "Let''s head down. I can access top-level commands like maps, sensors, and locks. There''s about twenty more husks patrolling this forge."


    "Twenty?" Marieta said nervously, looking up from the gryphon.


    "It shouldn''t be a problem. We should at most see two at once. Since I can see them on the map we can wait until the other groups separate," Dave said nonchalantly.


    "Do you think they have skill globes here?" the girl asked eagerly.


    "Probably in another stash of tech modules or at the control chamber," Dave guessed.


    "Let''s go then," Aragorn said shortly. "I''m going to try to combine Psi-Blast and Pyrokinesis on the next mob."


    "I''ll try the spike things," Marieta said distractedly, glancing over at the mount.


    "Okay, I''ll keep the next one busy and corralled while you test stuff out."


    "You okay with that?" Aragorn asked hesitantly.


    "No problem, Before I got Meditation up I whittled them down the slow way for almost a half hour. It''s fun doing kung fu too.


    The next husk was at the far end of the massive room, just before a corridor. As he said Dave charged in, only doing a two-hit combo to get its attention and kept its attention on him. The few glancing blows he let hit him just skilled up his Fortify.


    "You have learned a new skill under the talent Telepathy, Force Focus Level 0"


    "Just got a taunt skill," Dave whooped.


    "Welcome to the world of tanking," Aragorn sarcastically congratulated. "Okay, let''s try this!"


    Dramatically pointing at the husk, a glowing blue ball of flame burst forth and cannoned into the husk. Dave actually had his Clairvoyance trigger to enable him to dodge.


    "Hey watch out," he called out as he watched the husk gets knocked back ten feet and catch fire. "Oh, a DOT!"


    "Okay, get ready Nat," Marieta called out. As the husk stumbled to its feet tentacles of energy shot out, encircled the creature and then, forming spiked points, stabbed inward. The spikes went all the way through and anchored themselves into the ground. The impaled husk jerked and struggles to free itself but for thirty seconds only succeeded in tearing the wounds open more.


    "Nice," Dave complemented from the said. Since it was trapped there was no need for him to do anything.


    "I need to figure a third skill to add in," Aragorn said as he estimated his damage versus the girls. As crowd control her damage should have been less, however, it was more. "I hope they change their mind on DPS meters."


    "Not going to happen," Dave replied. "Did you hear the three levels of the tutorial?"


    "Yeah, stage one is shock and denial, stage two is Anger and Bargaining and finally stage three is Depression and Testing."


    Marieta laughed as he twisted the seven stages of grief into losing the game interface. "You forgot the last stage, Acceptance."


    "That''s because... there IS no Acceptance," Aragorn shouted as he let loose on the husk with another blue fireball. This one had sparks and lightning coursing through it. When it reached the creature it flew back, landing in a pile while burning and twitching from electrical arcs.


    "Nice," Dave complemented. "Electrokinesis?"


    "Electrokinesis," Aragorn nodded, huffing in exhaustion. "I need to rest."


    "Me too," chimed in Marieta.


    Dave groaned. "You guys have got to get Meditation up."

 Chapter 8: Guilds

    "So," started Aragorn as they rested. "You guys seem cool. Wanna form a Guild?" The three sat around a tiny bonfire curtesy of Aragorn''s creation. Dave was bored, staring into it while waiting for the others so he was spending the time constantly reconfiguring the gryphon.


    He had gotten it to form an incomplete cannon on its head, incomplete laser eyes and an incomplete ion cannon pointing out its butt. Because he could.


    "Stop, doing that," complained Marieta feeling aggravated. "You''re ruining the majesty and mystique of having a gryphon for a flying mount. And... what the <beep> is that thing?"


    "Ion cannon," Dave said, chuckling as he had the modules realign back to the base gryphon form. "Doesn''t work though. It needs either specialized power modules or me to be higher level to supply the power through our psychic link."


    "Hello? Guild?" Aragorn prompted. "Wait, so you have a psychic link to the gryphon?"


    "Eh, it''s just some modules and some nano sludge in the shape of a gryphon. I could form it into a floating barge but the gryphon looked cooler. Its AI is so dumb that according to the flavor text the system is giving me, it actually uses the unused sections of the psychic''s brain to think with."


    There was a moment of silence and then the trio broke out into chuckles. "That is the stupidest backstory on fake tech I have ever heard. Who the hell would use it if it used the person''s brain to think?"


    The others laughed in agreement. "I still want to learn it even if the tech rationales are silly," Marieta snorted delicately.


    "Okay, back to my question. Guild."


    "It there even a guild mechanic yet?" Dave asked.


    "I checked with the system. There is," Aragorn confirmed. "It requires that the guild leader and officers are Knights."


    "I thought that was a vanity title," Marieta asked in confusion. The others looked at her, remembering how she had said she had gained hers.


    "Yeah, it doesn''t seem particularly fair," Dave added. "On the other hand probably everyone is going to have it before long."


    "Well, you are both knights so it shouldn''t matter," Aragorn shrugged dismissively.


    "I don''t know," Marieta said. "I prefer small guilds. The larger guilds have a new drama every day."


    "I don''t mind the size thing but I generally go into a guild with my friends. They had to work this summer and didn''t get into the beta. I''ll probably join whatever guild they do."


    "We can invite them in once they can get in," Aragorn replied. "You seem pretty cool. Assuming your friends aren''t total jerks it should be fine. You''ll be an officer anyway. Invite them yourself."


    "Hmm," Dave nodded thoughtfully. Except for a slight, but completely reasonable streak of vengeance Aragorn seemed okay. Marieta seemed nice too. "Okay, I''m in."


    "Marieta?" Aragorn prompted.


    "I like small guilds," Marieta pointed out.


    "We''re starting small," Aragorn countered. "I don''t want to invite everyone in sight either. The system says the maximum guild numbers at this time is a hundred."


    "That''s pretty small," Dave said. "I like it since I don¡¯t like grouping with a bunch of strangers, but compared to all the other MMOs out there it''s small."


    "The system spouted some garbage about a hundred being the maximum number an unamplified guild leader support."


    "Sounds like they''ll patch it later. After the beta," Dave grunted.


    "Okay," Marieta hesitantly accepted. "But any guild drama and I am out."


    "We''ll be careful who we invite," acknowledged Aragorn. "For the beta, we just need enough to try all the content."


    "If you would like to form a Guild please form a psionic link with the others in your guild. Your AI designated ''Gryphon'' can act as the housekeeping interface."


    "Oh cool," said Dave. "The system says that the AI in the gryphon can be used for the basic interface."


    "Like invites, chatting, grouping, role calls and list the guild members," Aragorn asked with a frown. "Didn''t you say the AI is actually part of your brain? That makes even less sense now."


    "Yeah," Dave said absently. His link was showing him how to assemble the interface to make it look similar to what he had used in the past. "This is weird. They made me design it from scratch using my technology skill from the Imperial tech tree."


    "Was it hard?"


    "Well, no," Dave replied to Marieta. "It''s just kind of silly it didn''t have a default setting. When you get the Imperial tech skill you''ll see how they do the dream logic thing. It''s actually really fun. It makes you feel like you are a genius engineer controlling the super science construct. It''s all fake but it feels so real."


    "Oh, I can''t wait," shouted Marieta excitedly. "I am almost topped up. Let''s go find those skill books!"


    "Globe''s," corrected Dave.


    "I''m almost topped up. Let''s see if I can access that interface first," Aragorn said. "Okay, seems decent. You made it? It looks like WoW''s."


    "Yes, well," coughed Dave in embarrassment. He had literally whipped it up in ten seconds, of course it wasn''t going to be original. "I can change it if you want..."


    "No, it''s fine. Probably better than what the system would come up with. It seems very anti interface. Okay. Let''s go."


    The battles got shorter and shorter. The others were combining skills and those skills were getting higher leveled and less costly. They moved through the massive glistening caverns and down two more stairs with ease. The twenty husks left were taken out in pairs and only forced the group to stop and rest twice more.


    "Okay one more cavern and then the command room."


    "How many more husks?"


    "Nano forge says none," Dave replied. "But it''s fishy. It won''t give me data on the actual room and the room we are going into shows as empty but it won''t let me access anything. Not even the lights."


    "Wait. You could have turned on the damn lights?" Aragorn asked in irritation. He had been floating a ball of fire in front of them to allow them to see.


    Dave coughed in embarrassment. "Yes. I just realized it when I noticed I couldn''t do anything to any setting in the next room."


    "Grrr. Fine." Aragorn growled in annoyance and Marieta snickered. "There''s obviously an encounter of some kind. Considering the Imperial tech angle it''s probably a robot."You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    "Could be. Maybe there''s an AI module or something in there. Should I turn my gryphon into a giant robot and fight it mano a mano?"


    Aragorn actually considered it a moment. "Will changing how it looks actually allow it to do anything?"


    "No," Dave said with a smile. "But battling robots would be pretty cool."


    "Right up until it one shots you," Marieta gave them a dose of cold reality.


    "Okay, let''s call that plan Z," Aragorn replied. "Alright tank, jump in and see if a giant robot tries to kill us."


    Nodding, Dave glided into the room. As soon as he entered it, his Clairvoyance activated and told him to move to the left. He did so and a section of the floor he was moving through a moment ago bulged upward like a boiling silver blister. Bursting, it formed a rotating double bladed rotor and started to speed after him.


    "Ack! Trap room!" Dave said as he started to dodge frantically. He did not want to end up drained from Clairvoyance overuse so he paid close attention to the spinning blades and dodged ''manually'' as it approached. Then within a blink another blister formed and he was dodging two.


    "I think this is just going to get worse," he sent to the others. "We may need to dodge them and get to the central room. Try to destroy one."


    Jerkily moving across the floor he was now dodging five blades. The others stood at the entrance to the cavernous room and started to bombard the first blade. Sections were burned away, only to reform from the floor.


    "Looks like its not destructible," Aragorn said.


    "Okay, I''ll head towards the central control room. Hopefully, it doesn''t lock me in alone with whatever is there," Dave told them. A classic dungeon would have the boss room lockdown after the boss was engaged.


    "Once you get close we''ll run up," Aragorn said. Dave snorted. Neither of them had a movement power. There was no way they would catch up.


    Narrowly dodging the blades he made his way across the room to the central door. Behind him, he was vaguely aware of the other two starting their sprint and new blades being generated from the ground.


    On reaching the door, he threw it open and darted inside. He had to use his Remote viewing to perceive the area since the floating torch had been left far behind. Dave noted a figure in a throne-like chair before a flash of light lit up the room and some force threw him out the door the way he came. His Clairvoyance did not activate, implying there was no way to avoid the attack.


    Speeding backwards uncontrollably through the air from the force, he blew past the others still making their way to the door. He was fortunate enough to avoid the blades as he reached the cavern entrance and then skidded along the floor almost a hundred more feet into the corridor.


    Standing up with a slight wobble he realized that the blow he endured had removed half his HP and half his psionic points despite his Fortify ability.


    "Coming back in," he called out over their link.


    "Hurry up," Marieta called back. "There''s a man in a silver throne coming out of the room. It''s hard to see him with just Aragorn''s light."


    "A trio of village whelps come to storm our Imperial bastion," a voice reverberated over the air. "The Rebellion may have temporarily saved your miserable existence but it''s only temporary. Consider today the day I call in the marker."


    Once more in sight of the central room, Dave saw that silver throne had moved out of it and was now in the cavern. Zigzagging past the spinning blades he moved forward to meet him.


    A flash of light and Marieta went flying out through the entrance of the cavern. She had no defensive ability and only some healing ability. Dave wasn''t sure she was going to be able to get up.


    No, as he went closer he realized that the throne was made up of silvery material from the nano forge. However, it wasn''t a weapon. Tubes of silver wrapped the man sitting on the throne. They supported him and in several cases penetrated his skin, pulsing as they delivered life preserving material. The throne wasn''t a weapon. It was life support.


    The man that sat on the throne may once have looked impressive. He wore a seamless silver suit of armor. It looked vaguely medieval, almost as if he was a knight, however, its lack of seams or opening gave the lie to this. However, cracks covered the surface and an entire leg and arm were simply gone.


    "One week. That¡¯s all I needed," the man''s voice filled the room again. Now that he knew that he was hurt he could hear the strain in the voice. "I could have healed from this if you had given me a week. Still, a few village bumkins won''t be able to touch me. Even the Rebellion only drove me away."


    Aragorn was moving around invisible TK barriers he generated. The only way they could be seen was by how the spinning blades were careening off of them. A flash of light and a beam flashed out from the Imperial''s outstretched arm. A distortion of light showed how the attack blew through a barrier. It was weakened enough only to knock down Aragorn. This still left him scrambling to avoid the blades.


    "Use the spinning blades as cover for his attacks. Try to target those tubes going into him. I''ll distract him with a head-on attack." Dave looked to the side and saw his HPs and Psi points were both at 75%.


    Moving close to the spinning blade, Dave waited until the Imperial aimed at him and dodged behind a blade. As he had expected the attack was deflected away. He immediately projected himself toward the man.


    The man was obviously targeting Aragorn when he saw Dave speed over. Switching targets he tried to shoot Dave again. Clairvoyance guided him to a path that barely allowed him to avoid the attack. While he was still attempting to retarget him he used his TK movement to leap forward to kick him in the throat where a prominent support tube was entering his body.


    A roar of pain echoed through the chamber, followed by a grunt as Aragorn''s fiery attacks struck another tube. When the Imperial pointed at Dave again he was panicking about how to avoid the attack when he realized he could move behind the throne itself. Diving behind the massive seat, he was only able to relax for an instant before noted there were tubes jutting out.


    A flash of light in the tubes caused his Clairvoyance to trigger again. This time he attempted to aim his dodge up and over the throne. He was in mid-air as he crossed to the front of the throne above the Imperial.


    In the few seconds Dave had been out of sight Aragorn had not faired well. He had obviously taken a hit from either the blades or the imperials psi lance. Dave triggered his TK movement straight downward. Striking the enemies head and forcing it downward until his chin was embedded in his chest.


    "Pathetic worms! How dare you resist the might of the Empire. Your world will Burn!"


    Bending down and grasping hold of the man''s head, he used it to lever himself until he flipped down until he was straddling the arm of the throne and using both hands to wresting the arm than the Imperial had been aiming his lance with until it pointed straight up.


    "Why do you think that¡¯s going to work," Aragorn asked as he again struggled past the blades and continued to strike the tubes. "We can fire out abilities out of any place we want. Why should he be different."


    "My Imperial Science skill is telling me that he is wearing badly damaged standard Imperial armor," Dave informed him raggedly as he was struggling to balance on the thrones and keep control of the arm. "It''s hard, extremely durable... and acts as a massive psionic amplifier. If he wants that lance to hit us for all its doing now he has to use that arm. Otherwise, it will just sting a bit."


    At this point, translucent tentacles of psionic energy enveloped both the Imperial and the throne. Moments later they solidified and hardened points lashed down to impale the wounded man. The tentacles that lashed towards the armor were deflected. However, the armor was breached by the sheer loss of two limbs and tubes from the throne entered the armor in many locations. Through these opening the psionics limbs lanced forward.


    Screams of agony came from the Imperial gradually weakening. Finally, the tense form relaxed into death.


    "About time you came back," Aragorn shouted, still dodging the blades. "I thought you were having a nap back there."


    Marieta, stood at the entrance to the cavern. From there she could attack and the blades were not chasing her down. She looked bruised and haggard.


    "Did you know that the game has a stun condition when you take a single blow that almost kills you?"


    "No," Aragorn replied in surprise.


    "Neither did I," Marieta spat out. "Now shut up while we figure how to turn off the blades."


    "I got it," said Dave from his position, almost straddling the corpse. "Now that this guy isn''t controlling the area I can get in and turn off the defenses."


    Moments later the blades liquified and sank into the floor. "Great, let''s set the self-destruct and head back."


    "Hold on," Dave said with surprise in his voice. "The system is giving me the option to turn this into our base."


    Really?" Marieta asked. "This is a nano forge, right? I''ll bet this is the perfect spot to craft."


    "It is," Dave said agreeably. "The AI is pretty dumb but it actually has one. Looks like it enhances all Imperial skills and... oh, looked like there a couple of skill globes in the central room. Go get them!"


    "So we can make this our guild hall? But we''d have to give up the quest to destroy it," Aragorn pointed out.


    "It''s not like we have a quest log," Marieta called out from inside the central room. Light flashed as a globe activated. "That silly quest board is more of a suggestion board. Oh my god, this is amazing. I feel like I know everything!"


    Lights all over the nano forge lit up, allowing them to actually see the area without the floating fireball or Remote Viewing.


    "Dream logic altered states for the win," Dave said with an ironic smile. "I am okay keeping it. If we have enough people with Imperial Tech I think we can change the interior and actually have defenses."


    "Oh, it would be nice to have a base that didn''t look so... silvery," Marieta said as she came out of the room.


    "Oh, defenses," Aragorn said as he wandered into the room to learn the skill. "That implies invasions! That will be fun. We get to defend the base. I would guess the Imperials will want it back," Dave saw a flash from the room as the skill globe was used. "Oh my. It''s full of stars."

 Prelude 5: Pandemic

    "Half a billion dead." The middle-aged man looked haggard as he stated it in a dead voice.


    "A tragic loss of life," Salthuin said sympathetically.


    "How dare you say that!" shouted the liaison. "It was your damn pandemic! They are calling it the modern black plague. The worst pandemic since 1918."


    "I looked at the numbers," the rebel countered gravely. "Considering that every single human on the planet was affected, the lethality was far lower. If we had been able to stagger the application more to avoid the hospitals being overloaded the death toll would have been lower than the common cold.¡±


    "But the entire world!"


    "You will have your super soldiers. The entire human race has had its genome upgraded. Although the advanced features can''t be activated yet, there will be no birth defects, genetic diseases. Non-engineered bacteria and viruses will have no effect on the new humans."This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "You bastard!" the man screamed in rage. "Five hundred million died!"


    "Compared to what the Emperor will do if he reaches this world, five hundred million dead is merciful. Entire worlds have been put to the sword by his command." The General frowned to himself. His forces had burned several worlds himself at the command of the Emperor.


    "I''ll make sure you pay for this," raged the distraught man as he backed out of the room.


    "Do what you have to do."


    Salthuin stared silently at the door for several minutes.


    "Do you want me to silence him?" Alduin''s voice reverberated through the space.


    "No. He wasn''t a bad man. Just not very intelligent. I doubt the leaders will let him live. They are fully invested in our endeavor. They cannot let a loose cannon make trouble for them."


    "If we can''t count on man''s altruism we can at least count on man''s fear and greed."


    "Yes," he paused once more in thought. "Alduin, next time tell me the consequences. This was my responsibility, not yours."


    "As you wish."

 Chapter 9: Fear the Nurf Bat

    Stepping into the control room, Dave saw several walls with displays. Each of the cavernous rooms they had passed through was on display as well as the entrance.


    "Can we do anything about the walls," Marieta asked. "And the floors and... well frankly the entire base is just like being trapped inside a funhouse of mirrors. Just less fun."


    "You guys have the Imperial tech skill now, can''t you see the customization options?" Dave asked in confusion.


    Marieta and Aragorn looked at each other and shook their heads. "I kinda know how the tech goes together and I see what I can do generally but its missing an interface."


    "You didn''t get Telemechanics?" Dave asked. "It''s kind of like a holistic knowledge of the technology. Way better than an interface." Again they shook their heads. "Try using Clairvoyance to interface with the base... oh and maybe add telekinesis or telepathy!"


    A look of concentration came over their faces. Again they shook their heads. "Okay, I have no idea why you don''t have it. Too bad because it''s awesome," he crossed his chest as he thought about the issue. "Okay, I made the raid control pane and you can use the telepathic link to see it. Give me a moment and I''ll make an interface with the base for you to use."


    "A few moments," Aragorn questioned.


    "Eh, its dream logic programming that comes with Telemechanics," Dave said with a shrug. "No doubt the AI is doing the heavy lifting but it feels real. Maybe we can get it unlocked for you later."


    "Oh, I see it now," Marieta exclaimed. "And you built in a toolkit to modify it? Classy!"


    "The last thing I want is all the guild members hounding me for features. It may be a little slower than Telemechanics but it should do the same thing."


    "Can we turn this into a tower or a castle," Aragorn interrupted. "I agree the chrome look sucks. The science fiction look is so bad it looks like a D rated 1960''s."


    "There''s an elevation option and you can choose and external facade," Marieta muttered. "I don''t see anything like that though."


    "Geez, ten seconds and you broke my interface," Dave mocked himself. "Okay, I didn''t expect that. But now I am looking for it, you can do that. Let me add more features. From there you can customize. Okay, try it now."


    "Oh nice, you can change it into a castle," Aragorn confirmed. "The base shrinks though. It uses up resources. If we get rare earth and... radioactive material? If we get those things we can expand it again and even have cannons."


    "Looks like the default defenses are golems..."


    "Robots," Aragorn corrected. "Or androids. Imperial tech doesn''t do magic. But we can make it look like a golem."


    "I wish they would go full fantasy setting or fantasy with tech skill like Engineering in WoW," Marieta replied.


    "Whatever," Dave shrugged. "The tech looks stupid but once you get Telemechanics you won''t care."


    "It sounds really nice," Marieta signed. "Do you think the forums have anything yet? Maybe someone figured out how to unlock it."


    "I think we are on the bleeding edge right here," Aragorn opined. "We write the forums and how to guides. Welcome to the beta."


    "Okay, how does this look like a first draft," Dave asked as he put the model up on the screens. A medieval castle rotated in the view, complete with stone texturing, stables and a smithy.


    "Really? A smithy?" Aragorn asked in derision. "As far as I can tell the game doesn''t even have that skill."


    "Fine, call them laboratories with a forge to keep you warm in the winter," Dave snorted. "You wanted an old style castle. This is it."


    "I love it!" Marieta squealed.


    "I got your golems up and planned out too," Dave continued. "As Aragorn mentioned, if you make any changes it burns mass and the fort gets smaller."


    "Go for it. Anything is better than endless chrome."


    Around them, the walls shimmered and gained a wooden texture. Carpet bubbled up from the ground and covered the simulated stonework now visible. Globes gradually replaced the screens, giving the illusion they were staring into wall-sized crystal balls. A vague sensation of movement filled them as they rose from a deep underground location to a tower within a castle. Outside the door to the control room, the ceiling melted away to show a sunny outdoor view.


    "Nice!" Aragorn said as he looked outside. "Add a planning table in here with a globe in the center."


    "Hey, did our guild have a name?" Dave asked as he finished the final touches on the table inside and the golems patrolling outside.


    "Masters of Disaster!" Aragorn stated.


    "No way!" Marieta denied.


    "Whack a Gnome."


    "Ominous Latin Name."


    "Two Orcs One Cup."


    "Kittens With Lazer Guns Pew Pew Mew Mew."


    "The Fire Heals You."


    "Girls Gone WoW."


    "My Caps Locks On."


    "Jesus'' Was Soulstoned."


    "Buds Til Disband."


    "Guild Name Here."


    "I Ebayed."


    By this time they were laughing hysterically as each suggestion got more ridiculous.


    "The Legion."


    "We might get sued for that one," Dave chuckled.


    "There is No Spoon," Marieta suggested.


    "Oh I like that one," Aragorn started. "But how about ''No Spoon''."


    "Or ''Spoon''," Dave offered.


    "Sounds like it''s from ''The Tick," Aragorn pointed out.


    Dave frowned. That was the point. "Then let''s go with ''No Spoon''."


    "Okay, ''No Spoon''." Marieta agreed as the laughter died down.


    "Guild ''Unknown'' has changed their name to ''No Spoon''. If you wish you can make your guild''s information available online and allow submissions for membership. Presently three out of a hundred members," the pleasant voice of the system chimed in.


    Heavy footsteps approached the room from outside. A moment later a stone golem''s form was at the door. "Masters. There is a messenger from the King of Merildale at the gate."


    "The golems can act like a majordomo," Aragorn asked in surprise as he watched the golem leave.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    "That was in the description you apparently didn''t read," Dave replied. "I''m more surprised that a messenger arrived minutes after we formed a guild and designed a headquarters. You know what this means?"


    "Context triggered quests," Aragorn nodded smiling. "Finally something that is actually better than the old MMOs."


    "That''s debatable," Dave offered. "The others have them too. They just aren''t used much. No, the question is was this generated by the AI or part of the main plot."


    "Either way it''s better than I''ve seen so far," Marieta said with disdain. "I talked to almost all the NPCs in town and they may as well have had a stamp behind their ear saying ''No Relevant Information.''"


    "Well, let''s go see our first guest," Aragorn said as he strutted outside. The three couldn''t help gawk a little as they looked at a fairly authentic, if modestly sized, castle around them. They were in a corner tower and had to climb down some winding stairs to reach to the courtyard by the gate. Dave got a little impatient and jumped off halfway down while triggering his Telekinesis.


    "You have learned a skill under the Telekinesis talent, Levitate Level 0."


    As he floated down, he looked up and called out. "By the way, you guys need to get some movement skills. It took forever for you to get to the boss."


    "Yeah, and it turned out I should have stayed by the entrance and attacked from a distance," retorted Marieta. Dave didn''t have a response to that.


    Aragorn, however, nodded and paused in concentration. He vanished in a flash of light and reappeared ten feet above the ground but in front of the gate. He fell the remaining distance and then lost his balance, ending up on his butt. He still had a smile on his face though.


    "Alright, Teleportation," he cheered as he struggled to his feet. "For a tech game, it makes a decent mage."


    A minute later they were all in front of the gate and a golem sentry pulled the chain to open the portcullis. The man on a horse that had been silently waiting outside pranced in. "Message from King Minox to the guild ''No Spoon''. We are pleased to announce that the members of ''No Spoon'' are the first to step up and become defenders of the realm of Meliferent..."


    "What''s Meliferent," Dave asked telepathically.


    "Apparently it¡¯s the kingdom we live in," Aragorn replied hesitantly. "Its news to me too. You know I don''t think this game is any worse than the others in getting you familiar with the back story but it¡¯s a lot more jarring with full immersion."


    "You people are all the same," snorted Marieta. "You don''t talk to NPCs, don''t look at your quest logs and skip the cut scenes and then complain the game has no depth."


    "Did I miss something," Dave said in embarrassment. "Because I didn''t see a quest log or cut scenes..."


    "That¡¯s not the point," exclaimed the girl angrily. Aragorn and Dave looked at each other and subtly shrugged.


    "...and King Minox, therefore, invites all members of the ''No Spoon'' to meet the King and plan for the kingdom''s defense. At that time you will be formally granted the titles of ''Knights''.


    "I thought we were already Knights," Dave commented. "My status sheet clearly says Knight Level 2."


    "By completing the first goal in the beta you have met all prerequisites for ''In Defense of my Home''. Experience has been awarded," the system''s voice purred in his ear.


    "Player Nathaniel has reached Level 3," the system chimed in again.


    "Oh I just got Level 2," Aragorn reported gleefully.


    "Me too," Marieta smiled. "And I got a new questline ''In Defense of my Home." The others nodded in agreement. The departure of the NPC messenger was mostly ignored. "I wish this game had a quest log. Admittedly it only seemed to have a couple of quests at a time but..."


    "So there is no quest log," Aragorn asked with a smirk.


    "Ah, shut up," the girl waved a hand in his face. "It may just be a pet peeve of mine when players whine and complain about how shallow a game is and completely ignore the lore."


    "Anyway, where is the king," asked Aragorn. "And how are we going to get there."


    "I have another quest to go to Merildale to see the princess. She stole my horse. I think the capital is there. Probably the king too."


    "Stole your horse." Asked Aragorn flatly. "That sounds like an interesting story."


    "No," Dave replied sullenly. "It''s really not. I think I have the direction of the capital on my map, even if the city is out of my range."


    "You don''t think they''re going to make us walk in real time," Marieta asked with dawning horror. "I did not start to play a game just to walk all day to another city."


    "If it''s very realistic it could be days of travel," goaded Aragorn. "Dusty roads, sore feet, and hunger. Total immersion. Heck, with the time warping they have it could be hours and just feel like days."


    "It will be just like traveling in the early days of Everquest," Dave added, getting into teasing Marieta. "Days of sneaking around high-level mobs, trains from one zone to another. No quests, just endless travel!"


    Marieta glared at the two of them defiantly. "Let me use your gryphon. You two can walk."


    "Okay, fine," Dave gave in. "You can use the gryphon. I''ll just make me another pet." Pointing to a wall he curled his finger. A moment later the wall turned silver and pooled into a ball then dropped down and rolled towards Dave.


    He held out his and the ball sent a thread of liquid up to touch his hand and then transferred its mass into his palm. Almost instantly it changed into a tiny dragon. Once its features solidified it hopped and fluttered in a lively manner to Dave''s shoulder.


    "What the <beep>," Aragorn said flatly. Marieta nodded blankly in agreement.


    "It''s basically a portable tool pack made of nanites that I''ve made look like a pet dragon. Since you''re going to riding my big reservoir of nanites I''ll need a backup. I think this is all I can control at a time," Dave said faintly, trying to sense the limits of his links.


    "That Telemechanics is total <beep>," the girl scolded him. Dave smiled complacently and nodded in agreement. "How come it''s so lively? I thought you said it had no AI?"


    "Almost none. Just enough to run the rather comprehensive behavioral directives. It won''t pass any Turing tests but it should be like a standard non-combat pet."


    "And you set all that up in a few seconds," Aragorn said dryly.


    "I know," Dave said amiably. "Telemechanics is total BS. It¡¯s the best thing in the game so far."


    "They''re going to nerf it," Aragorn said confidently.


    "Totally," Marieta agreed. "First patch it''s gone."


    Dave''s smile slowly faded. Chances are they were right. It was just way too cool and fun. There''s no way the programmers would leave it in as soon as everyone started to complain how overpowered it was.


    "But... but its mostly for non-combat crafting," Dave defended his beloved ability. "Its all vanity stuff until the system drops more advanced tech modules or the nano forge can make some."


    "Wait, the nano forge can make more of these modules and make combat modules?" Aragorn asked in surprise.


    "Yeah, I told you that it''s stuck at its present level until you feed it resources but after that, it can start making cannons and <beep>," Dave said.


    "I remember the cannons part but you can make modules for other people?"


    "I put it in the interface, so you can too."


    "So eventually we can mass produce mounts with cannons?"


    Dave nodded with a frown but didn''t say anything more. Obviously, they hadn''t looked into the interface he made or they would realize that was just the tip of the iceberg. The system was obviously making the tech tree a big part of the plot and economy.


    "Anyway, let''s not talk about nerfing things or Marieta may have to walk," Dave said.


    "Hey!"


    "But seriously, you need to practice your movement skills. I was okay traveling at a crawl with you here but if we need to go somewhere far... like Merildale, you need to speed up."


    "I''ll have the gryphon," pouted Marieta. Dave gave her the evil eye. Technically he would have the gryphon since it wouldn''t work without his presence. "Fine, I''ll stay up a couple of hours extra tonight and work on a movement skill. Any suggestions?"


    "The game is pretty flexible, Aragorn was able to teleport just by trying. What would fit in your concept?"


    "Well, I have tendrils and spikes," Marieta said thoughtfully.


    "Your stuff kinda resembles the classical ectoplasm," Aragorn muttered. "Try the angel wings."


    "Flying is an advanced skill though," Marieta objected.


    "Yeah but you have to start somewhere," Dave said. "My TK movement can''t do flying but I plan to turn it into it later when I get more powerful. Until then it gets me huge spikes of speed. Your wings will probably be a lot like that."


    "I suppose so..."


    "Oh, and you can see if you can use those wings to block like a TK force bubble," Aragorn interjected. "I saw how you almost got taken out in one hit by the boss."


    "Hmmph, so did Nat," Marieta replied grumpily. "Fine, give me a few minutes to practice."


    Marieta and Aragorn spent the next few minutes practicing their movement skills in an attempt to level their skills enough to be useful for long-range travel. Within a few tries, Marieta was able to form rough wing shapes and was sailing around in short jerky hops.


    "Okay, while you guys practice, I''m going to go have lunch. See you soon."


    Logging off, he pulled the helmet off and sat up. Standing he slowly stretched out. He still found it amazing that he didn''t feel any kinks or pains from being stationary for hours. Even when he woke up in the morning he would have a few aches. This morning when he woke up he felt great.


    Humming to himself he walked into the kitchen. His dad was at work and his mom was closed up in her room, working in a VR environment. Before he got his helmet he wasn''t sure how that worked. Now that he had experienced total immersion he had to admit it seemed the way of the future.


    He opened the fridge and was pleasantly surprised to see a baked chicken all cooked and ready to be eaten. He had to admit this VR thing definitely built up an appetite. He was a little worried about gaining weight but he was starving. After several helpings of food his hunger had mostly subsided.


    Looking at the time he saw it had only been a few minutes so he went into the living room and turned on the television. His dad had been watching the news and he was too lazy to change the channels.


    Chin cradled in his hand he watched newscaster talk about trade wars, cold wars, and a few natural disasters. It was briefly mentioned that it was the anniversary of the Pandemic and they had a two-minute segment mentioning how half a billion people had died from the disease but the survivors were stronger and far more resistant to sickness. Then naturally they had the same old conspiracy theories stating it was likely a government weapon that had gotten out in the wild. Same old same old.


    Then they had some social scientist come on and say that technology was moving too fast and it was destroying society. Then an economist came on and mentioned that the rapidly developing ex-third world countries were starting to compete with and put pressure on the economy of the United States. A massive recession was predicted.


    Dave turned off the TV. The news hadn''t said anything new in years, simply rehashed old issues. It was one of the reasons he would rather be playing with his friends rather than listening to the latest people saying the world was going to end.


    His steps gathered speed as he headed back to the game. It may not be reality but most of the time watching the news was listening to a bunch of paranoid lunatics.

 Chapter 10: Dance Lessons

    "Miss me," asked Dave as he logged back in. Aragorn and Marieta were no longer zipping, hopping and blinking across the courtyard. They were sitting and meditating. "You''re all out of psionic points?"


    "Meditation is up high enough to keep on in the background," Aragorn said with his eyes still closed. "But it''s faster to sit down and we wanted to be ready when you came back in."


    ¡°Well, I am back and ready to go,¡± I said. ¡°But we should probably consider what to do with that.¡± I gestured to the withered corpse sitting on its throne. It was once just outside the control center, however, when the nano forge reorganized into a castle it somehow ended up in the courtyard.


    Marieta and Aragorn looked at each other and shrugged. ¡°Shall we roll on the loot?¡± He asked sarcastically. ¡°Oh wait, there is no loot.¡±


    ¡°It''s just as well, because we have no inventory either,¡± Marieta said. ¡°They were selling backpacks in the town but I didn¡¯t have any money. Since there is no loot it really hasn¡¯t mattered.¡±


    Dave looked at them in irritation. ¡°Did you look at the castle interface I made at all? There''s a resource reclamation option. It''s one of the reasons I made Toolkit over there,¡± he said, gesturing to the tiny dragon pet flying over his head.


    ¡°Wait, what,¡± Aragorn said absently as a slightly vacant look came over him. Obviously, he was paging through the UI Dave made for him.


    ¡°Oh, I see it,¡± Marieta exclaimed. ¡°Loot! Glorious loot!¡±


    ¡°About <beep> time,¡± Aragorn spat. ¡°What kind of game is it without loot?¡±


    ¡°Fortunately, you won¡¯t ever have to experience that,¡± Dave said sarcastically. ¡°The nano forge can absorb the junk we find and turn it into... stuff.¡±


    ¡°Like what?¡± Marieta asked.


    ¡°I am not absolutely sure,¡± Dave began hesitantly. ¡°Let''s absorb the dead guy and see what happens, okay?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Aragorn began dismissively. ¡°While you were gone we tried to take his armor. It seems to be formed around him and and nothing we could do could damage it.¡±


    ¡°Where it was already damaged we could poke him but¡­¡± Marieta trailed off.


    ¡°Yeah, the games too creepy,¡± Aragorn said looking ill. ¡°It''s like playing with dead people. If this game has skinning I think it''s going to be a dead skill. Too real.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have the forge absorb the boss and the throne and let''s see what options we get,¡± Dave said. The cobblestones under the throne liquified into a silvery liquid and quickly absorbed the boss¡¯s remains and life support ''throne''. The others had their eyes glued to the interface.


    ¡°Raw materials,¡± Dave said. ¡°Decent ones. Looks like we can expand the castle a little or make another couple of pets or one vehicle pet or... wait is that armor?¡±


    ¡°Just a piece of it,¡± Aragorn said.


    ¡°Bracer, gauntlet or a belt,¡± Dave said uncertainty. ¡°I think you can block with it.¡±


    ¡°It has armor,¡± Marieta chimed in. ¡°But it''s only on the part covered. Look at the other stat though. It has an amplification stat.¡±


    ¡°Oh finally we get something that does something,¡± Aragorn sighed.


    ¡°Oh stop it,¡± Marieta said brushing his whining away. ¡°Any other game and we¡¯d be killing rats to get a few coppers or torn linen boots.¡±


    ¡°That reminds me,¡± Dave asked. ¡°What did you get out of the rat killing quest.¡±


    ¡°Just the Knight title,¡± Marieta said. ¡°I know there¡¯s an economy with items to buy since I went into the shops, but I haven¡¯t actually seen any money. Still, it looks like crafting is pretty big in the game. I am all for that!¡±


    ¡°What do we want to make,¡± Aragorn broached.


    ¡°Well I have two pets already,¡± Dave said. ¡°I would want a gauntlet or bracer. I think I can block with it, so it goes with the monk concept.¡±


    ¡°And it makes your attacks a little bigger,¡± Aragorn pointed out. ¡°I bet there''s a set bonus if you get enough pieces.¡±


    ¡°I think the pets are a priority,¡± Marieta said.


    ¡°Girls,¡± Aragorn snorted, eliciting a glare from the girl in question.


    ¡°No, she has a point,¡± Dave interjected. ¡°You can¡¯t absorb drops, store them or turn them into useful equipment without a pet. They look cute but they are actually your toolkit.¡±


    ¡°They can make things like the forge?¡± Aragorn asked doubtfully.


    ¡°No, only basic modules,¡± Dave replied. ¡°But they store materials and I think they shrink and grow depending on what they absorb or use. But if you take them back to the nano forge they can feed it and then it can make the more advanced items.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t you just carry the drops to the forge yourself?¡±


    ¡°I killed two husks out on my first real mission and I had to leave the swords where they dropped or drag them behind me,¡± Dave said simply.


    ¡°Sounds like even a real man needs a cute little pet,¡± mocked Marieta. ¡°So let''s... hey, where did the husks we killed go? They had swords we left where they dropped. We could get more materials for crafting!¡±


    ¡°According to Dave¡¯s interface,¡± Aragorn replied. ¡°There are twenty or so dead bodies in the storage shed.


    ¡°Ew. I feel like we¡¯re playing in the chainsaw massacre version of MMOs,¡± Marieta said with an ill look on her face.


    ¡°Let me absorb those too¡±, Dave muttered. ¡°Looks like I can squeeze three pieces of armor and two starter pets. Oh, gauntlets and bracers come in pairs!¡±


    ¡°Makes sense. Can you make money too,¡± Aragorn asked with a smirk. ¡°Maybe that''s why it hasn¡¯t dropped, you have to mint your own.¡± That elicited a brief chuckle from the group... after a quick check showed that it wasn¡¯t an option.


    ¡°Alright you guys make your own pets,¡± Dave said as he worked on his gauntlets. "I think as you get more pieces your pets seal the parts onto to you. Like the boss¡¯s armor.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to feel about that,¡± Aragorn said dubiously after a moment''s thought.


    ¡°Claustrophobic,¡± Marieta said shortly. The boys nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go with a circlet,¡± Aragorn started. ¡°And a flying adder.¡±


    ¡°Very Flinx like,¡± Marieta said as she fiddled with the interface.


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°It was a series of books my father has. Main character has a flying telepathic snake that spits acid,¡± Marieta replied absently. ¡°Okay, sphinx for me. And shoulder guards. I think it may amplify the wings and ectoplasm more.¡±


    ¡°I am not sure it works like that,¡± Dave said. ¡°But you can tell us. Or rather you could if you had a DPS meter.¡± The others scowled at him for the reminder.


    As each finished a globule of silver bubbled up from the ground and quickly formed an item or pet.


    ¡°Oh, I have a telepathic link to the pet,¡± Marieta exclaimed in delight. ¡°Oh and Telemechanics level 0!¡±


    ¡°Ah, so that was what we were missing. You need a pet to interface with first,¡± Aragorn said with a smile. ¡°Oh, nice. I can see how crafting is going to be fun. Wow, I can modify the interface with a thought.¡± Dave frowned to himself. He had definitely gotten his skill before he had a pet.


    ¡°This game could have the best crafting mechanic ever!¡± Marieta nodded to herself confidently. ¡°Okay, we have everything we need. Let''s get going.¡±


    ¡°Let''s get going,¡± Aragorn agreed as he started porting out of the castle in short jumps. ¡°Wait, is this thing locked to us? I don¡¯t want to leave and find out someone else just waltzed in and claimed it.¡±


    ¡°It''s not locked but I see the option. Let''s link it to the guild interface so only members can come in and use it,¡± Marieta said, taking advantage of your new tech skill.


    ¡°Make sure it''s tiered so only officers can withdraw resources,¡± Aragorn reminded. The girl nodded as she made the changes.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    ¡°Let''s roll out,¡± Dave said as they finished up and the portcullis closed behind them. Golems stared out watchfully on the ramparts.


    In actually they did almost everything except roll. Aragorn blinked in and out of existence every fifty feet or so and the distance gradually got larger. Marieta did a sort of hopping glide with her wings while Dave did something very similar with his sliding jumps. Mostly he skated on the ground but occasionally he would practice leaping into the air, using a bit of Levitate to float back down.


    The map led them in the general direction. Dave also kept track of the time. The system was obviously doing something tricky with their sense of time because even though the real world time showed only thirty minutes it felt like two hours of travel. While it was longer than they really wanted to spend they all admitted that practicing their movement skills was a lot more fun in total immersion than it would be at a keyboard.


    ¡°Can we access the internet from in here,¡± Dave asked. Marieta replied before the system had a chance.


    ¡°You can get virtual screen projected,¡± Marieta began.


    ¡°It''s actually better than in real life,¡± Aragorn interrupted, earning a look from the girl. ¡°It''s like the old VR stuff without the screen door effect or pixilation.¡±


    ¡°You also don¡¯t have to have a keyboard,¡± Marieta took over. ¡°At least since we got the Telemechanics skill. If you don¡¯t have that you need a virtual keyboard which is clunkier.¡±


    ¡°Anything is clunkier than browsing the internet with your brain,¡± Aragorn said with a snort. Marieta didn¡¯t have anything to say to that since it was very true.


    ¡°So is there a forum for the beta,¡± asked Dave.


    ¡°Yeah, but it''s pretty empty,¡± offered Aragorn. ¡°Mostly complaints.¡±


    ¡°About what?¡±


    ¡°The same thing we were complaining about,¡± Marieta said wryly. ¡°No economy, no balance, no storage, and no loot.¡±


    ¡°You forgot that people wanted more of character selection,¡± Aragorn said.


    ¡°Like Elves, Dwarves, and Tauren,¡± Dave asked. ¡°That would be nice. I had assumed there were other starting villages that had those.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Marieta started in embarrassment. ¡°They wanted, er...¡±


    ¡°A bunch of guys wanted to dress up as female elves and do emotes and dances,¡± Aragorn interjected with a grin.


    ¡°What?¡± Dave asked blankly. ¡°It''s a total immersion VR. How would you even do emotes?¡±


    ¡°A bunch of guys want to dress up like women and you''re wondering about the emotes,¡± Marieta asked.


    ¡°Well I don¡¯t care about the dancing,¡± Dave said dismissively. ¡°I can understand the female character thing though. In a traditional MMO all you see is the toon¡¯s rear end all day. I¡¯d rather see a female derriere all day than some guy¡¯s butt.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but in total immersion you gotta wonder about guys that basically want to be girls,¡± Aragorn said, wiggling his brows.


    ¡°Eh, whatever,¡± Dave said dismissively. ¡°I don¡¯t care what they do on their own time.¡±


    ¡°What if this hot girl starts to flirt with you and it''s not really a girl?¡± Aragorn asked with a smirk as he continued popping in and out of existence along the road.


    ¡°Rule number one,¡± Dave returned with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t flirt with MMO players unless you know them in real life. Even then, don¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Why not,¡± Marieta asked.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know when they¡¯ll go on a bio break and their little brother will sit down and start typing things in. It happened in a raid. Some guy pulled a Leroy Jenkins. After the wipe he was like ¡®What happened man?¡¯.¡±


    ¡°How do you know he wasn¡¯t just griefing you?¡± Aragorn asked with a chuckle.


    ¡°He was a long term guildie,¡± Dave said. ¡°Nice guy, so we knew it was the truth. But I came up with rule number one afterword.¡±


    ¡°Well, fortunately you can¡¯t switch genders yet,¡± Aragorn said. ¡°You know it''s going to happen eventually.¡± He was silent for a minute, ¡°Good rule.¡±


    ¡°MMOs aren¡¯t dating sites,¡± Dave continued.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let some of my friends hear you say that,¡± Marieta said. ¡°Some of them set up marriages with other toons. It got pretty intense.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, this is where I escape reality,¡± Dave said. ¡°Not where I re-enact my most angsty and darkest parts.¡± Off in the distance, a slight shadow could be seen. ¡°I think that''s the city. Map says it''s a few miles away.¡±


    It was indeed the capital of Meliferent. As they approached they saw the entire city was encircled in a massive stone wall. Dave wasn¡¯t sure how effective it would be against flying husks but it did look impressive as they neared it.


    ¡°That is big,¡± Aragorn said as he looked up at the looming barrier. ¡°I know they don¡¯t actually have to construct virtual real estate but that is just bogusly huge.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think they made walls that large in real castles,¡± Marieta agreed. ¡°Looks neat though. Oh, look. Angel templates patrolling the wall.¡±


    Small squads of guards with vaporous wings flapping around them flew in formation just above the walls above them. As they shrank off in the distance a new patrol was visible in the opposite direction.


    ¡°That seems pretty secure,¡± Dave said.


    ¡°Eh, maybe,¡± Aragorn said doubtfully. ¡°That boss we fought was practically crippled and we barely took him out.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but it was patrols like them which crippled him,¡± Dave said in reply. ¡°Probably.¡±


    They entered in the open front gate without any questions. The guards on the ground were the typical knights and they simply glanced at them as they passed. As they passed the gate a tingle went over them and their newly created items heated up momentarily.


    ¡°What was that,¡± Marieta asked. ¡°I felt something.¡±


    ¡°Me too,¡± Aragorn said. ¡°A defensive barrier I guess. It definitely detected the Imperial tech.¡±


    ¡°They didn¡¯t stop us though,¡± Dave said. ¡°I wonder how they know we aren¡¯t spies from the Empire.¡±


    ¡°Because the AI said so,¡± Aragorn said with a shrug. ¡°There could be a plot behind it but since the system decided that the beta players didn¡¯t need any cutscenes or back history, who knows?¡±


    Dave didn¡¯t respond. It was a good point. After his last experience with the training montage, he was wary about asking for cutscenes, however, it would be nice to know some of the details.


    Inside the city was bustling with NPCs. A few players were visible but they seemed busy doing their own things and ignored the trio. Dave wondered if the entire city was this busy. Frankly, he also wondered if all of these digital people existed when there were no players around. If he and his friends went around the corner would they all suddenly vanish and snap back into existence when a player came into view? He shook his head. Such thoughts were a bit too deep for him while he was playing.


    The NPCs had set up shop along the main streets, probably all the way to the palace. Dave and the other looked at each other and then at the merchants in disdain. They didn¡¯t even have money. What was the point in having NPCs selling items?


    ¡°You think any of these guys have quests?¡± Marieta asked.


    ¡°No doubt,¡± Aragorn said gravely. ¡°They may even reward you with a mythical copper piece.¡±


    ¡°I am going to have to log soon to eat dinner,¡± Dave interjected. ¡°Can you wait on searching for random quests until then? I want to see what the king asked to see us for. Sounds like the main quest line.¡±


    Marieta gave him a mildly evil look but continued to walk towards the palace. When they reached the front of the palace they all stopped to gawk. It wasn''t the beauty and majesty of the building. However lovely it was they completely ignored it at the sight before them.


    "The programmer is a troll," Aragorn said, mouth agape. The others nodded in agreement.


    Set up in front of the majestic fountain was an NPC dance troupe busking the crowd for donations. An obvious female elf in gauzy veils swayed and leaped in an alluring swaying dance. Another elegant lady played the lute while a little girl rang the chimes. It was a simple yet attractive melody.


    "Is that a dwarf," Marieta asked. "Cause it looks like a dwarf."


    Swaying next to the elf beauty was another NPC. Short and squat, it wasn''t a small cute dwarf. It could be said to be a more traditional Tolkien dwarf. At five feet it was only slightly shorter than the average human, yet the muscles and width would put most body builders to shame.


    "Oh my god," Aragorn shouted in dismay. "I think it¡¯s a woman!"


    "Technically dwarven females have been depicted as having beards," Dave said slowly backing away. It wasn''t that the dwarf was unskilled. It could be said that she was as skilled as the female elf she danced next to. It was simply that there was something that their minds objected to seeing a hairy muscular female with a beard swaying opposite the delicate elf. It made them uncomfortable without actually knowing why. "Um, let''s go. Now."


    "Wait," Aragorn said, obvious suppressing chortles. "I need to take screenshots of this."


    "You can take screenshots," Dave stopped his retreat temporarily in surprise. "How does that even work?"


    "Dude, it''s just a game," Aragorn shrugged while framing his two hands in an obvious pose. The system supplied a very audible camera click. "That one is going on the forum next to the people petitioning for crossdressing tunes."


    "It''s not really crossdressing they are asking for," Marieta said as she abruptly turned from the dance troupe and marched energetically to the palace. "They want to BE the opposite sex, not dress like them. There is nothing stopping you from dressing however you like in the game."


    "Except not having any money to buy clothes," added Dave, who was thoroughly focused on following her.


    Aragorn caught up with them within a few seconds. "Did you see the sign next to them?"


    "I had my entire attention on not seeing as much as I could," Dave said resolutely.


    "The sign said ''Dance Lessons'' fifty coppers. Parties and events fifty silvers per hour," Aragorn continued.


    "Maybe the economy hasn''t been started yet," Marieta said. "It seems odd to have crafting but no economy. Do you think players are supposed to barter?"


    "If you want to look at it that way," Dave contributed. "Your pet can store almost infinite modules. There''s nothing to keep you from using them as currency."


    "Yes, but you can''t trade them for money," Aragorn said. An odd look came over Dave''s face and he froze.


    "Hold on a sec," Dave said as he started moving again in another direction. He jogged over to a kiosk selling some cooked meat on a stick.


    "Oh come on," Marieta said in exasperation. "You¡¯re the one that said you were in a hurry."


    "I know, I know," he waved his hand in vague apology. "I would like three of those. Do you have change for one of these?"


    As he said this the dragon landed in hand, squatted and excreted an Imperial tech module.


    "Ew! What the..."


    "How did you..."


    "Of course sir," the elderly NPC said as he accepted the module. "Here is fifty gold in change. You might get a better exchange in a bank but I would be happy to accept this."


    "Welcome to the economy of Meliferent," Dave turned around and triumphantly looked at his teammates.


    "Um, good job," Aragorn said with obvious conflicting emotions. "However I don''t ever want to shake your hands or eat with you. Ever again."


    "Seriously? It''s a construct made of imaginary nanites," Dave said in exasperation. "Grow a pair!"


    "No, I kinda agree," Marieta said with a scrunched up nose. "You can keep those."


    "What a bunch of babies. It would have been exactly the same if I had Toolbox spit it out."


    "Or you could have had it ooze out a glob of silver like a good little construct," Aragorn offered, glad to give his companion a hard time.


    Dave froze for a moment. "Okay, that didn''t occur to me, but my point stands."


    "While you think about your point, how about you wash your hands in fountain," Marieta instructed him.


    "Why not use the restroom?" Aragorn asked.


    "You may not have noticed," Marieta said. "Since this may be the first time you have ever talked to a non-trainer NPC, but bathrooms don''t exist in this game."


    "What? How is that possible... oh never mind," Aragorn started to protest until he realized how pointless a bathroom would be in a land that had no biological activity. "It just feels wrong. Like Nat and the poop thing."


    Dave had just come back from the fountain after rinsing his hands. "Okay, last time I enlighten you mooks to the underpinnings of the universe. Let''s go."


    "Aren''t you going to eat those," asked Marieta, pointing to the meat on the sticks.


    "No," Dave said reluctantly as he dropped them off at an NPC''s table. "Let''s go."


    The three headed into the palace, thoroughly ignoring the guards displaying their shining armor, the tall white spires and the sun refracting a rainbow through the fountain''s mist.

 Prelude 6: As Projected

    The room had an entire team of men. Seven men and one woman. She took the notes and made coffee. Computers were coming into vogue and there was a clunky looking box the secretary was typing on. A window had been installed in one of the walls to allow more natural lighting in.


    Outside most of the city was still in ruins, however, the building across the way had been turned in to a modest barracks and occasional traffic could be seen traveling the streets. No civilians were visible.


    "The high school curriculum has been increased a notch. They are now teaching what was college-level courses. As per your suggestion, the government is giving subsidies to companies supplying computer equipment." A young man stated crisply. He hadn''t been told who the civilian contractor was or why he wore such odd armor, however, he was clear on the chain of command.


    "Ken, what about that "hippie" movement you mentioned. Has it been taking advantage of the meditation and techniques I had placed on the world net?"


    "Sorry sir," he coughed awkwardly. "Apparently most of the people in this movement would rather be getting high or listening to that rock and roll stuff rather than learning how to use a computer. According to polling that population segment doesn''t even know what the world net is, let alone that there is information they would care about."


    Salthuin tapped his fingers on the desk in a quick staccato. "That is unexpected."


    The woman at the computer tentatively raised her hand. The men surrounding her looked at her in disapproval. "Mr. Alduin has dialed in. He says that it is as he calculated."


    "Thank Alduin for joining us," Salthuin said with an ironic smile. The Prime Calculator was ever present within the ruined city. It was only to avoid panicking the military that he never spoke up. Actually, having computers that were advanced enough to actually be connected to the world net allowed him to simulate a presence. As far as anyone knew, he was a contractor listening in through the phone¡¯s microphone.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    "He says we may have to wait until the next generation to be in schools for the information placed on the network to be disseminated."


    "Well, at least we are on schedule with science and technology. Geoffrey, how is biotech doing?"


    "Poorly, sir," a skinny youth in an ill-fitting uniform replied.


    "Why is that?" the rebel commander asked with a sigh. It was like herding cats.


    "Since the plague, there hasn''t been much need for doctors or medical technology. No diseases or infection, no cancer. Elderly live healthy until their heart stops. Its only violence and accidents they are treating." Ironic. Like being a victim of your own success. If the human race actually got off their collective ass and advanced the medical field, they would unlock the more advanced features of the bio-mod and aging would effectively halt completely.


    "Okay, time for another subsidy. We need to encourage people to enter this field. Even if I supply the plans we still need highly educated people to make and use them."


    "How are we going to pay for it?" Ken asked politely. "Our budget won''t cover this."


    "Sell the rights to some of the intellectual properties, they are almost going to lapse anyway."


    "Are you sure you want to invest in this. I''ve seen the programs you want to develop," an older man interjected. He was polite but skeptical. Bill Smith was the Presidents watchdog. It was his job to be skeptical so Salthuin tried not to take it personally. "Nerve and muscle stimulation doesn''t seem terribly useful compared to the expense involved. The machine-brain interface track seemed more promising. It has direct military applications."


    Salthuin looked into his eyes. He could almost read his mind. Robots and tanks controlled remotely by soldiers safely tucked away in their bunkers. It was a nice dream, however by the time technology advanced to that stage, tanks and robots would be antiquated.


    "Yes, it''s part of the long-term plan. We need both." Salthuin assured him.


    The woman timidly raised her hand. As expected the men in the room glared at her. "Alduin says..."


    "It¡¯s as he projected. I know."

 Chapter 11: Cameo

    "What a nice throne," Aragorn said blandly. They had made there way inside and then a pair of guards had stepped up and asked who they were. Then they had let them into the throne room.


    "It''s very shiny," Dave agreed. The throne was a solid piece of gold inlaid with gems. In real life, it would have broken any nation to create it. It was the kind of thing he should have expected in a game. The king himself was a bit of a disappointment.


    The king looked like he was in his seventies. A not particularly healthy seventy years. He wore luxurious red and purple silks and appeared almost crushed by a red and white fur mantle. Off to the side, a heavily armored man stood at attention. At his feet lay an odd-looking dog.


    "They seem to have gone overboard on the glitter," Marieta said while looking around.


    "Maybe he''s the nouveau riche," Aragorn offered.


    "More like the nouveau royal," Dave chimed in. The other nodded but were interrupted by the king''s introduction.


    "All hail the great king Minox, of our holy country of Meliferent!" The trumpets blared and the people in the court knelt.


    The players looked at each other. "Do any of you feel this odd urge to kneel," finally asked Dave.


    "The game system will prompt you if there is an action that your game character would be aware of, yet the player is not aware of. The player is welcome to ignore these prompts, however, it will negatively impact their NPC interaction unless they can supply an alternate roleplaying plotline," the gentle voice of the system chimed in their ear.


    "Ah, right," Dave acknowledged and immediately went down on one knee. "All hail our mighty king, Minos!"


    "Minox," hissed Marieta from beside him.


    "All hail our mighty king, Minox!" Dave hurriedly corrected. The other two followed his greeting.


    "Rise up my champions," the king''s thready voice came to them. It was hard to hear over the low mutters of the crowd. "You are the first of a new generation of champions who have stepped forward to defend your home. Yet we have more to ask of you. Beside me is rebel General Salthuin. He will continue your briefing." At this, the king broke out into a wheezing cough.


    Next to him stood a young man. The armor he wore was full plate mail with a high collar and shoulder plates. On his left arm he had a large tower shield. Oddly enough he held in his right hand a morning star, its spiked head swung casually over his shoulder. Rather than prepared to give them a consultation he looked more ready to go to war with them. Despite his stance and armor his expression was relaxed.


    "Welcome to our final defense," he nodded in greeting. "You have already learned the basics of how to defend your land. You will learn more as you go through the portal and..."


    "The portal to the Empire," Aragon asked in surprise. The dog stood up from its relaxed position at the man''s feet and growled at him. In this stance, it was more obvious that the dog was a construct. It looked more like a cyborg dog with a metallic body textured to appear like a Doberman and clear dome on its head where a tiny brain could be seen through the translucent surface.


    "Creepy dog," Dave said through the telepathic link. "But I think it''s just like our pets but with offensive modules installed."


    "Does the offensive module look like a brain," Aragorn asked rhetorically.


    "I recognize that man," interrupted Marieta. "It¡¯s the M&M president!"


    "They put the president in the game?" Dave asked in surprise.


    "Down Rex," said Salthuin mildly. The dog relaxed but only sat down on its hind legs. "Not the portal your thinking of. The Imperial army is not something you are ready to confront. Yet."


    "You have to be arrogant as all get out to put yourself in the game as a main character," Aragorn said in admiration. "Even Stan Lee only had cameos."


    "He looks familiar," Dave muttered to himself.


    "He''s the president of M&M," Marieta repeated. "It''s not just a game company. They have movies and books. All best sellers and blockbusters. Disney has been trying to acquire them for ages but they''re privately owned."


    "There are more portals than merely the one we have to Imperial controlled territory," General Salthuin continued, oblivious to their chatter. "King Minos and I have successfully met and allied with the Rebellion. We were able to temporarily halt their spearhead with their forces."


    "Do you think he really talked like that or did they make him sound cooler than he really is," Aragorn asked. "I mean I''m not too fond of my voice, if I had a choice I would definitely have it be a little deeper. System, I would like to suggest you allow us to modify non-combat characteristics."


    "Feedback noted," chimed the system.


    "Quiet guys," Dave hushed his team. "I''m trying to hear what he''s saying. It''s the only plot we''ve had since the game started." He coughed and then said aloud, "Excuse me General, but if you¡¯re the Rebel General why can''t you order more forces from the Rebellion."


    "Ah, I see your confusion," the general said with a thin smile. "I am not a General from the Rebellion forces. I am a rebel General from the Empire."


    The three looked at each other in confusion. "That¡¯s a stupid plot twist," Aragorn said. "Now I don''t even want to know the plot."


    "No, I think it could work," Marieta said tentatively. "A noble general, seeing the horrible slaughter caused by the Empire has an awakening and turns on the forces of destruction."


    "If he''s a freaking general already then by the time he ''sees the light'' he''s probably killed entire planets," Aragorn paused in confusion. "Or dimensions. Or whatever the Empire''s thing is."


    "Guys, I''m trying to hear this," Dave complained. "I thought you wanted more plot?"


    "I do," Marieta defended herself. "It¡¯s a bit out there but the acting not too terrible. I think they can pull it off."


    "The Rebellion is actually a confederation of kingdoms," General Salthuin stated. "All more advanced magically than we are, less technologically than the Empire."


    "Then why are all our skills technology-based," Dave asked hesitantly.


    "You call this psionic <beep> tech-based?" Aragorn complained. "I''ve seen better thought out talent trees from the new age store down the street."


    "Aragorn," complained Dave.


    "Okay, okay!"


    "That is me," the General stated. "Consider it a last gift from the Empire as we parted ways. I was able to impart this to you."


    "This makes no sense," Aragorn said. "Why are the Rebellion trainers teaching us psionics?"


    "Why are the Rebellion trainers teaching us psionics?" Dave asked tentatively aloud.


    "The people who have been training you are our kingdom''s forces, not the Rebellion''s. They only know the basics. It will be up to your generation to surpass them."


    "That a clunky explanation," Aragorn muttered. The others glared at him.


    "As I mentioned we are at an impasse," the general said grimly. "One that cannot be maintained indefinitely. The Rebellion forces cannot hold forever and they cannot reinforce us further... as things are."


    "Why can''t they?" Marieta asked.


    "They are a confederation," he repeated. "Each kingdom has limited resources. The closest one is under attack by a neighboring kingdom. The fighting is also riling up some pests that are eating their people. So long as this stands they can''t send us any more forces."


    "So you want us to go through the other portal and support the kingdom," Dave elaborated.


    "Quest hub!" Aragorn said triumphantly. "Another zone and a bunch of quests. This entire planet is the starting village. Let''s go!"Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    "What about our guild hall?" Marieta asked. Aragorn''s smile slowly turned into a grimace.


    "Yes, the portal is in the mountains, not far from this city. Go there and free up the other kingdom''s forces. Also, if you can learn their magic system you will advance all of our force''s abilities."


    "Cool, we can just go to the magician trainers and go to town," crowed Aragorn. "I will make this template the archmagi template no matter what the game system says!"


    "Sounds like they have an alternate crafting system," Marieta said thoughtfully. "It seems silly to have two full crafting systems."


    "WoW has over a half dozen," Dave said in spite of himself. "Two could be considered rather bare."


    Shaking his head in annoyance he continued aloud, "Yes, we accept this quest. We will go out and aid our allies." At this proclamation the dog excitedly stood up and starting barking.


    "Rex! Sit!" The general snapped. "Excellent! Here are your tokens for the gate. They will act as your keys, so don''t lose them."


    "Thank you," Dave said as they bowed and left. As they left the palace he turned towards his guildies. "Okay, I need to eat. You guys never had lunch are you sure you''re not hungry?"


    "I''ll log too," Marieta reluctantly replied.


    "Sure, may as well do it all together," was Aragorn''s brusque response.


    ¡°Sir Nathaniel! Wait,¡± a feminine voice called out as the trio left the palace. Turning around Dave saw a familiar female NPC waving to him.


    ¡°Who is she?¡± Marieta asked. ¡°Did you trigger another quest?¡±


    ¡°Some sneaky princess I rescued,¡± Dave silently answered through their link. At loud he said, ¡°Princess, um... whatever you name was. Good to see you again. You have my mount?¡±


    ¡°I wanted to thank you,¡± she continued, ignoring Dave''s question. ¡°Please accept this reward for rescuing me.¡± Dave didn¡¯t pay any attention to the small pouch.


    ¡°You have my mount?¡± he repeated. ¡°The one you flew away with?¡±


    ¡°Wait,¡± Aragorn interjected. ¡°Those wings actually work? Why the <beep> haven¡¯t we been flying all over the place? Do you know how long you have to farm for a flying mount in other games?¡±


    ¡°Six months of stupid dailies,¡± Marieta said sourly through the link. ¡°Each expansion. It''s like your license to fly expired and you have to get it back with a late fee.¡±


    ¡°My brave knight,¡± the princess blinked her eyes and looked hopefully at Dave. ¡°I have become terribly fond of that wondrous mount. Could you please allow me to keep it.¡±


    ¡°Tell her no!¡± Aragorn stridently shouted. ¡°We¡¯re going to magicville. Who knows where we¡¯ll get more modules!¡±


    ¡°He has a mount,¡± Marieta said, giving the princess a dirty look. ¡°See those insipid eyes and pouting mouth? She¡¯s conning you. Don¡¯t let your hormones tell you what to do.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you can log out and look at porn later,¡± Aragorn urged. ¡°This is serious!¡± Marieta switched her glare from the princess to her companion but said nothing.


    ¡°I am sorry princess,¡± Dave said half-heartedly. ¡°We are about to embark on a dangerous quest for your father...¡±


    ¡°Oh, that''s not my dad,¡± the Princess interjected. Dave and the others looked at her oddly. That was off the script. ¡°That¡¯s my grandfather. Still, I understand. I wouldn¡¯t want to leave you defenseless.¡±


    ¡°I am glad you understand. So my pegasus...¡±


    ¡°You had a pegasus,¡± Marieta said with longing. ¡°I used to have one of those. It cost me twenty-five dollars and didn¡¯t work with the next expansion but it was so pretty. It must be awesome with total immersion!¡±


    ¡°How about I trade this,¡± the princess pulled out three tiny silvery blocks. Dave stretched out his Telemechanic senses to encompass the small tech modules.


    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Aragorn groaned. ¡°It''s the three magic beans storyline. I so want to kick the designers <beep>.¡±


    ¡°Oh darn,¡± Marieta said dejectedly. ¡°So it''s probably either really good or they¡¯re going to flip the plot around and cheat you blind. I really wanted to see a real pegasus again.¡±


    ¡°Real?¡± Aragorn teased questioningly.


    ¡°This feels real,¡± Marieta insisted. ¡°It''s like being in a movie, except complete with touch.¡±


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll take them,¡± Dave reluctantly said. Reaching over he took the pouch and the three modules.


    ¡°Thank you ever so much,¡± the royal girl said fluttering her eyes. Then she skipped away happily.


    ¡°Why do I feel like you just got ripped off,¡± Aragorn said as he looked after the retreating girl.


    ¡°Well,¡± Dave said as he looked into the bag. ¡°The modules are psionic catalytic converters.¡±


    The other two scrunched up their faces in concentration as they examined their Imperial tech tree database.


    ¡°Oh, that is nice,¡± nodded Marieta as she slowly got over the loss of a pegasus she never actually had. ¡°If you put one in your armor piece it can increase your amplification value a lot. But you need a forge to upgrade it.¡±


    ¡°But if you put it in your pet,¡± Aragorn said with satisfaction. ¡°You can focus psionic energy through them and have an attack pet.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, not quite the same as a generator module,¡± Dave said as he fed the module to the tiny dragon. ¡°There you go, Toolkit.¡±


    ¡°Why not give it to your Gryphon,¡± Marieta asked.


    ¡°You have to be near or in contact to focus the energy through your pet. I¡¯d have to constantly ride him to fire him. Not the template I want to play,¡± Dave said as he tossed the other two modules to his companions.


    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t have anything to trade you with,¡± Marieta said reluctantly, moving to give the module back.


    ¡°Eh, we¡¯re guildies,¡± Dave said as he poured the pouch contents out on his palms. ¡°You can give me something later that you have extra.¡±


    Aragorn just nodded in thanks and fed his pet a module. A moment later Marieta did the same.


    Dave looked at the items in his palm. I tiny pile of gold coins and a dozen gems.


    ¡°Hmm, you can store mana in these,¡± Dave said as he had his dragon eat the gold and gems for later retrieval.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have anything that uses mana,¡± Aragorn said with a shake of his head. ¡°Yep, she was a scammer.¡±


    ¡°She gave us the modules,¡± Marieta half-heartedly defended her.


    ¡°Only after Nat brought up how she stole his pegasus,¡± Aragorn said with a snort. ¡°If he hadn¡¯t said anything she would have just walked off and as far as anyone knows the mount was included in the exchange of useless coins.¡±


    ¡°True,¡± Dave said. Marieta nodded in agreement after a second¡¯s thought. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m logging out for dinner. Do you mind giving me your contact information so we can coordinate in the mornings?¡±


    The other two shrugged and sent him their e-mail addresses.


    Taking off his helmet he grimaced as he noticed how hungry he was. Other than that, he felt great. That headset was the most comfortable VR headset ever!


    Still, he stretched lazily as he walked out of the room. His dad was back from work. Sitting in his recliner he had his feet up and was shaking his head as he watched the new. Seeing Dave come in he switched to a comedy channel.


    ¡°Tired of watching all bad news, all the time,¡± asked Dave.


    ¡°I suppose I should be grateful that they constantly repeat the same news over and over,¡± his father said. ¡°If they had enough bad news to not repeat themselves it just may be the end of the world.¡±


    ¡°Is mom out of her room?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s done for the day,¡± his father nodded. ¡°She¡¯s making dinner now.¡±


    ¡°She cooked last night, isn¡¯t it your turn?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s actually your turn,¡± his father said with a grin. ¡°But we¡¯re tired of peanut and butter sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. You¡¯re doing the dishes though.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Dave nodded. He smiled triumphantly inside. He had planned on making chili tonight so take that! He meandered into the kitchen to watch his mother make dinner.


    His mother was chopping vegetable for a salad when he entered. She glanced over as he came up and put too much force into the next cut. With a loud snap, the cutting board was sliced in half and the knife bent.


    ¡°Ah, darn,¡± his mother groaned. ¡°Another one. That''s the second this week.¡±


    ¡°I think the Pandemic gave you super strength,¡± Dave teased as his mother pushed the vegetable aside and collected the cutting board and knife for disposal.


    ¡°I think you play too many games,¡± she said with a smile.


    ¡°Dad, mom did it again,¡± Dave called out into the living room.


    ¡°Tell her it''s coming out of her paycheck,¡± he joked back.


    ¡°What are we having tonight,¡± Dave asked.


    ¡°Gulash and a slightly smaller salad than I had planned,¡± his mother replied. He looked over to the knife drawer. Sure enough, it was empty.


    ¡°Um, how are you going to cut the meat?¡±


    ¡°It''s already prepared,¡± she said with a sigh. ¡°I¡¯ll have your dad get another set on his way home tomorrow. I¡¯d go myself but the company is really busy this week.¡±


    ¡°Well now that I have experienced the total immersion thing, I can see how being an assistant would work.¡±


    ¡°I was surprised,¡± his mother admitted. ¡°There''s no wizards or monsters in my simulation but it feels no different than being there. Especially with the holographic projection into the room at work.¡±


    ¡°Before you started doing that, I didn¡¯t even know they were past the VR screen door,¡± Dave joked.


    ¡°I think it kind of caught everyone by surprise,¡± she admitted. ¡°I blinked and the future was here. It seems I need a new skill package every weekend. It''s a good thing my company invests so heavily in training. Some of the other secretaries and assistants had to change careers because of the competition from other countries.¡±


    ¡°At least you can train in a new career in a few weeks.¡±


    ¡°You think the news you hear now is bad? You should have heard the doomsayers back when we had almost thirty percent unemployment. We all thought they were right too.¡±


    Dave sat down at the counter stool and watched her stir the stew. ¡°I¡¯ve been looking at careers available once I graduate.¡±


    ¡°Well, that''s good but you do have another year,¡± his mother nodded in encouragement. ¡°With how fast things change you¡¯ll probably have to have a few weeks of skill modules no matter where you go.¡±


    ¡°I hear you could actually plan your career when you were growing up.¡±


    ¡°Well, a decade ago things were a lot slower than today, but the unemployment was higher. When they switched the school curriculum to all practical applications, all the parents flipped out,¡± she chuckled. ¡°In our day you would just be learning pre-calc and not even have an idea what nanotubes were let alone make them in the school lab.¡±


    ¡°There still seem to be a lot of stupid people out there,¡± Dave said as he thought about the news.


    ¡°You can fix ignorant but there¡¯s no curing stupid,¡± his mother said as she took the goulash to the table. ¡°Tell your father that dinners ready.¡±


    ¡°Dad, dinners ready!¡± Dave shouted through the door.


    ¡°Dave! I could have done that,¡± scolded his mother.


    ¡°Well, why didn¡¯t you?¡± teased Dave.


    Dinner was lively, as usual. His father told a few anecdotes on the silly things his workmates did that day. Dave¡¯s mom was silent about her work itself but commented about some political hot points she had run across at while at work.


    ¡°Can you believe they want to put trade sanctions up for countries competing with us for VR jobs?¡±


    ¡°Seems kinda too late,¡± his dad agreed with his mother. ¡°Still it''s your job at risk.¡±


    ¡°My company believes in employing locally,¡± she stated firmly. ¡°Of course, our overseas offices believe the same. Thank goodness for language modules. Otherwise, I might be like those idiots out there. Still, the society''s attitudes can take you by surprise.¡±


    ¡°Sexist?¡± his father put forth.


    ¡°Like you wouldn¡¯t believe,¡± she agreed. ¡°I¡¯d smack them a good one if the pain feedback wasn¡¯t turned off. I had to report the vice president of our India office last week. Fortunately, talking to our HR office seems to have given him an attitude adjustment. He hasn¡¯t said his... usual comments since.¡±


    ¡°Good thing they took care of it,¡± nodded Dave¡¯s father.


    ¡°Right. Or you would have flown over there and given him a good talking to,¡± teased his wife.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± he said dejectedly. ¡°Exactly that.¡±


    After dinner wound down Dave washed up the dishes and headed back towards his room.