《Kingdom Shattered》 -Chapter 1- Raffle Winner Chapter 1 - Raffle Winner *Winner* Harold continued to stare unbelieving at the email, his jaw left hanging. With only three hundred slots available to enter the beta testing for Kingdom Shattered, while he had indeed entered into the raffle for the giveaway, he honestly never thought he''d have actually won.Kingdom Shattered was the most highly anticipated video game in the last decade. It was boasted to have state-of-the-art artificial intelligence for every NPC and graphics so advanced you couldn''t tell the difference between the game and reality. All powered and hosted on the largest civilian quantum server ever put together. It already had millions of people around the globe chomping at the bit to play while the only actual information put out by the game company was that "It is a Virtual Reality First Person Strategy game" and it was promised to contain dozens if not hundreds of playable races for the players to choose from, each with their own unique strengths, weaknesses, personalized building infrastructure, and playstyle. While vague, it only served to cause the fan base to speculate about the game''s potential even more. Harold shook his head to clear it and focused back on the opened email. Scrolling down he started reading the contents. *Winner* Congratulations Harold Shultz on being selected to participate in the closed beta of Kingdom Shattered! The closed beta will begin in two weeks time from this notification, on May 24th, and is anticipated to run up to one year. During this time the contestants will be utilizing the newest Full Immersion Virtual Reality(FIVR) gaming pods designedbyDreamScape Enterprise. These will allow yourself and the other fellow contestants to remain fully connected for the duration of gameplay while taking care of your bodily necessaties. Participants of the event will have tickets provided to fly into location by the company. The first week will be physical and mental exams to ensure the beta tester is healthy enough to participate, as well as general orientation to the program. We at Borester Games Studiounderstand that commitment towards the event will mean taking an extended break from the paticipants'' lives and will facilitate by providing a monthly stipend to each beta tester. This stipend will be derived from a percentage of the revenue garnered from the tester''s streaming. Each contestant will have a video stream from their FIVR pod providing live coverage for the duration while they are still playing in the event, giving viewers a way to watch and support their favorite players. Streams will go live simultaneously with the launch of the beta event at the end of the orientation week on June 1st. This made Harold''s jaw drop again. When he started reading the email and saw he might be gone for up to a year he had already started writing off being able to attend the beta testing. He worked part time as a substitute teacher, occasionally doing private tutor sessions around midterm and semester testing to make a little extra spending money. His budget was extremely tight, getting just enough days to pay the rent and bills while funding his gaming habit. If he took off working he knew he''d be able to afford things as they were for a couple months by taking the money out of his emergency savings fund, but no where near for a year. Especially with the end of the regular school season going into the summer where most of his money was made through the few bits of college classes he could sub for. With the company providing a way to make money while participating though he would be able to go. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Harold did some quick math in his head. ''Even if they only pay a dollar per thousand viewers...or every couple thousand. There will be millions of viewers and only 300 players, even less as more get eliminated. If I can get 100 thousand daily viewers, that''s between fifty to a hundred dollars. And I''ll be streaming all day every day, so every month that will be somewhere between 1,500 and three thousand.'' A wide grin spread across Harold''s face. The possible revenue was actually more than what he made in a month being a substitute. He''d have to hit the 100 thousand follower mark, but he was sure that there''d be at least half a million people watching the streams per beta tester. He was confident he could probably easily surpass the mark, and the more he thought about the money the larger his smile grew. He started skimming though the email again, fantasizing about the possibility of getting paid to play a video game. Having always been into video games Harold had often dreamt of being a professional gamer, but by the time he had finished college he had chalked it up to not being his destiny in life. Now though it seemed life was throwing his dreams right back into his lap. He was so occupied with his thoughts he almost missed a line near the bottom of the email and had to reread it. ...experience like none other. The special reward for the first ever round of Kingdom Shattered, the player who is able to come in first place at the end of the beta testing event will win a grand prize of one million dollars and their name recorded in the game''s Hall of Kings for all time! The Borester Gamesteam is looking forward to meeting you and cannot wait to find out: Do YOU have what it takes to reunite the Kingdom Shattered and become its new King? For the third time that day Harold wasn''t able to keep his jaw from falling. ''One million?!?'' He went back to read and reread the line several times over before he felt like his brain could think again. He had to make sure he hadn''t misread anything, the company was indeed giving out a million dollar grand prize to the participant who was able to come in first place. ''That can''t be...a million? A million!'' he thought as he read the last couple lines again, getting more and more excited when he was sure it wouldn''t disappear the moment he looked away. ''I could become a millionaire if I win! And just from playing a game! All I have to do is beat the other 299 beta testers and I''ll be set on easy street for life. No more teaching part time, no more cheap take out. Lobster bakes and champagne here I come!'' Unable to contain his enthusiasm any longer he let out a loud cry as he leapt up from the chair at his computer desk. "WHOOOO!!! I''m gonna be rich! Ahahaha!!!" He kept up his exclamations as he bounded back and forth across his small studio apartment. Eventually his found his old green duffel bag and started stuffing it with several changes of clothes. Whatever else he thought he might need as he came across it went in after and soon he was struggling to close it. His antics earned him several dull thumps as one of his neighbors pounded on the wall between them, accompanied by muffled profanities. Harold reigned in his shouting but the smile was firmly plastered to his face as he called landlord to let them know he would be going on an extended vacation and arranged to have payments wired over from his bank account for his monthly rent. Once that was taken care of he filled out all of the forms and required information that was attached to the email from Borester Games Studio and sent it back to them. Soon everything was in order and the only thing he had left to do was wait for the next two weeks to pass. -Chapter 2- Orientation Chapter Two - Orientation While waiting for the date of his plane ticket Harold spent his time trying to dig up as much information about Kingdom Shattered as he could find. Most of what he uncovered was just rumors and speculation, however he did stumble across an old thread on the game''s forums where someone claimed to have been working on the project for a while. According to the insider, the racial bonuses and penalties was the single largest factor on how strong a player''s forces could be and their viable playstyle. He went on to claim that there were some races that a single unit would be able to fend off or completely annihilate three or four or even up to ten units from other races with ease. The downside was that the stronger units cost more to recruit into your army, and some had further restrictions to how many of a type you could have recruited at once or other unique requirements. There were several other threads that had just as detailed explanations, most went into even greater detail about how the game''s mechanics were supposed to work. What Harold found strange about this particular thread however was that it was the only one he had found that had been locked by a member of the development team directly and not by one of the forum''s moderators like the other posts he had scoured through. ''Is this a clue?'' he wondered to himself. ''Could this actually be how the game works? Even if it''s only partly true this could give me a slight edge. Would it be better to go with an inherently stronger race with less units or choose an option that was weaker but more numerous? I''ve got plenty of time to consider everything while everyone else is going to be going in blind. This could be huge.'' Harold spent the next few days going through different scenarios in his head and before he knew it the two weeks had already whizzed by. He was soon getting off the bus that had taken him and several other beta test raffle winners from the airport to Borester Games Studio. When they got off the bus the group was ushered toward the front doors while security kept a crowd of reporters and fans away. It had obviously not been kept a secret about the upcoming beta testing dates and people were clamoring to find out more about the lucky raffle winners. Reporters were yelling out to the hurried contestants, begging to find out their names, where they were from, what race were they going to play. A couple of the players responded, hollering back what race they planned to crush everyone with to take the grand prize. Harold sighed with relief when they made it inside and the doors closed behind them. He had started to get annoyed by the arrogance displayed by a couple of the more vocal players around him. One man was even claiming he''d burn everyone beneath him like ants by playing a dragon. ''Come on, like Borester would let someone play as a freakin'' dragon when someone else picks human or sprite. Pfftt,'' Harold thought to himself. Everyone was checked in at the front desk and then led to their rooms for the week. Orientation started early the next day. The company split the contestants into multiple smaller groups where they were then familiarized with the new FIVR pods they''d be using. To Harold they looked similar to the cryopods he remembered from classic sci-fi movies. The physical exam went smoothly. Although Harold wouldn''t consider himself particularly fit, he had never really been out of shape. The physician informed him it was more of a formality than anything. Still, there were several of the contestants that were unable to pass due to medication requirements or other medical conditions. Borester Studio quickly filled the vacant slots over the week while Harold and the others became more comfortable with the FIVR pods and the staff that would be monitering them. Most of the beta testers also used this time to socialize. Several cliques formed as people made friends with each other. Harold avoided them as best he could. It wasn''t that he was anti-social, he just kept in mind that in order to take first he would have to defeat everyone else in the beta test. He didn''t want to hesitate to finish someone off because he''d become friends with them.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. This didn''t stop people from approaching him however and he was forced to excuse himself constantly. While he tried to be as polite as he could, he eventually lost his patience near the end of the week and snapped at a lady when she''d approached him during their lunch to invite him into her group. She left him sitting alone at his table and returned to her group of acquaintances in a huff. Most of the room had heard his outburst and he was left in peace for the last couple days of orientation. Finally, June 1st arrived. Borester provided all of the participants with a change of clothes to wear for the day and directed them towards the building''s auditorium. The clothes were all the same design, resembling something close to a cross between scrubs a nurse might wear and a track suit. The tops and bottoms were a single solid color with a stripe running down either side. Each participant chose their colors earlier in the week. Harold''s own suit was his choice of black primary with stripes of dark crimson red. He had thought it would be a simple, clean look but was starting to feel out of place with most of the other players sporting a myriad of bright colors around him. His choice of a more somber color palette was definitely in the minority. As they filed into the auditorium and got situated Harold noticed the woman from the other day nearby with her group, staring daggers at him. Just as he was considering finding somewhere to relocate to the lights dimmed and speakers came to life around the room playing soft music. Spotlights brightened at the front of the group illuminating a small, slightly raised stage where a well dressed man was walking across. He looked to be about middle aged, with his hair cut short and even from near the back of the room Harold could sense the man was currently oozing pride and accomplishment through his bright smile. Stopping once he reached the middle he raised a hand in greeting and started to address the room. "Test one test one, can everyone hear me?", the man''s voice came over the speakers. "Excellent. Everyone allow me to introduce myself to you. I''m Jack Bormer, one of the two founders of Borester Games and current lead for this project. On behalf of Borester I''d like to thank everyone for their participation during this beta test event. This game is the brainchild resulted by years of sweat, tears, and countless hours. We at Borester have poured our souls into this project and I wish that you all enjoy it as much as we have had making it." He started paced back and forth across the stage with his hands behind his back. "Now today everyone will be logging into Kingdom Shattered and starting their journey. This is the first round to be done outside internal playtesting and while we''re excited to let everyone jump straight in, there is something we''d like to address with everyone. While we have tried to make the game-play as intuitive as possible we will be providing each player with an NPC adviser. You will only have one and if you lose them there is no gaining a replacement. The advisor will assist you by providing more in depth information, planning advice, and fighting strength to your forces." Harold was quite happy to hear that bit of information. While he had a rough plan for choosing his race and such, he hadn''t been able to find any further solid information about the game. Once he logged in he''d be on the same playing field as everyone else. From the sounds of the people talking among themselves they seemed just as excited as he. Jack continued on the small stage, "After we are done here everyone will be escorted to their FIVR pods. The Beta Test will immediately commence when all pods are ready. You will have an hour to select your race, complete your character creation, and your adviser creation. If you are unable to finish by the end of the hour the remaining unfinished fields will be randomized. Afterwards players will be assigned a region on the game map with preferences for a biome favorable to their race. Each region will be seeded with three players and several minor NPC factions. A region will provide special resources to the player that is able to defeat or drive out all rival factions and become the sole ruler. That concludes the briefing. If you would all now please listen for your name and follow your guides we''ll get started as soon as we can." With that the lights came back on and Jack was replaced by several of the medical staff that started organizing the players and after a few minutes started leading them to their FIVR pods. Harold laid down inside his pod and the lid was closed with a click and soft hiss as it sealed. He closed his eyes and relaxed his body, soon feeling weightless like he was floating through a dark void. The darkness slowly brightened, gradually replaced with a thick white fog that swirled around Harold as it started to coalesce until he was standing in a white room, barren of anything but Harold and the notification screen that had appeared infront of him. Welcome New Player to Kingdom Shattered! Create new character? -Chapter 3- Create New Character? Chapter Three - Create New Character? Harold didn''t immediately select . Instead he took a moment to stretch and move around the room to get a feel for his avatar. In the past he''d tried out several FIVR systems, he even owned a Gen 2 VR Helm back home. There had always been something off about them. Some didn''t properly register the sense of taste, or perhaps every action had to be actively thought if you wanted to wave your arms or walk around. He was rather impressed after moving around for a minute. He hadn''t noticed anything out of the ordinary compared to his normal life. He could even smell a faint sterile clean scent of the room he was standing in. If he didn''t know he was in a FIVR system he wasn''t sure if he could tell the difference between it and reality. ''Absolutely stunning,'' Harold thought to himself, ''They''re going to make a fortune off the pods alone.'' After a few more practice movements and throwing a couple experimental punches at the air, Harold made his way to standing back in front of the notification screen. It had remained stationary where it first appeared while he was moving around the room. Drawing himself before it he noticed a small timer counting down on the top right of the notification box. Remaining: 56:37 It had taken his less than five minutes to satisfy his curiosity about how well designed the virtual reality was. He wasn''t in any particular hurry, he had already planned through this first part days ago after he''d found the old forum thread. He took a moment to go over everything on his checklist one last time before delving in. His plan was fairly straight forward: Harold chuckled to himself about the last point. He was never much of a troublemaker growing up, and he couldn''t recall even a single time of stealing or committing any sort of petty crime. His reasoning was as simple as the rest of his plan: People love bad guys. He''d be able to bump his stream numbers by playing the villain, or so he hoped. ''Well, here goes nothing,'' Harold thought as he reached out and pressed . New Character Confirmed. Processing... Please select race. Racial details will be revealed with confirmation of character creation. Harold frowned at the last line as the notification box disappeared and was replaced with an alphabetical list of races he could scroll through. ''I won''t be able to see the strengths and weaknesses of the race before it''s locked? Talk about making things difficult, I could end up with a race that has incredibly weak units or bad traits. I guess I''ll just have to play it by ear.'' Harold concluded. ''At least they definitely delivered on the promise for plenty of races to pick from.'' Harold thought as he started scrolling down the long list. He kept an eye out for anything that might fulfill his criteria, with only a few of the options holding his interest.
  • Aasimir
  • Angel
  • Annubi
Scroll scroll scroll
  • Cyclops
  • Demon
  • Devil
  • Draugr
  • Dragon
  • Dryad
Scroll scroll scroll "Wait. There''s no fucking way." Harold stopped and went back to the ''D''s. "Son of a bitch, they actually have Dragon as an option." While he wasn''t interested himself, he already knew of at least one person who''d be picking it as he remembered the guy from the beginning of Orientation Week. ''The recruitment costs most be insanely high if they''re anything near as strong as classic fantasy dragons. I''ll have to make sure to avoid anyone who selects dragons until I''m able to recruit some elite units myself.'' Harold added another bullet point to his plan and made a mental note to keep an eye to the skies as he continued looking through his options.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
  • Gnoll ''Tempting'' Scroll scroll scroll
  • Merfolk ''No'' Scroll scroll scroll
After working his way nearly to the bottom, while there were a few interesting choices, nothing really stood out to Harold. He was considering taking another look at some of the previous races when about halfway through the ''S''s he knew he had found the race he wanted to play. Confirm Race: Skeleton Harold reached out and pressed , locking in his choice with a grin. ''Perfect. Skeletons should be slightly weaker than Humans, which means they should be cheaper too. And who doesn''t want to watch a guy commanding a legion of undead?'' The race list was replaced with a new prompt. Character Creation Please select your Primary ''Hmm, seems the Primary is your main focus? Personal might be nice but it''d probably be better if I was playing a stronger race, and I don''t want to play as a support. Only one option then.'' Harold reached forward and selected . The screen changed and presented him with several new options. Commander Primary Selected Please select your class
  • Skeleton Unique:
''Well that''s interesting. Guardian is obviously some sort of tank class, Runepriest is probably some sort of mage. Avenger might be based off of how much damage you take, or maybe the people around you? But then why is it a option?'' Harold glanced at the timer and saw he had less than fifteen minutes left to finish his choices. ''Crap, I spent too much time going through the races. I guess I don''t have time to figured all this out. Might as well go with the unique option.'' Harold chose and the screen changed several times before the next prompt. Wraith Lord Selected Processing... Class bonus attributes applied: +2 Strength, +2 Vitality, +4 Leadership Please select Advisor Primary ''I''m already a Commander, better make the advisor a support class.'' Harold clicked and was prompted with a different set of available classes. Support Primary Selected Please select Advisor class
Still not sure what any of the classes actually did, the only difference Harold could tell between his choices was that there was no Unique option like his . ''Wish I had more time to try to consider each one properly. doesn''t sound bad, maybe they''ll be able to make bombs or poisons.'' was chosen and Harold received more notifications from the New Character system. Alchemist Selected Processing... Error: Alchemist incompatible with Race: Skeleton Processing... Class Necro-Alchemist successfully assigned Advisor Class bonus attributes applied: +4 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +2 Luck Select character name: <____> ''Huh, I wonder if that''s some sort of bug. Maybe that''s why there wasn''t a unique option, it was hidden behind normal alchemist.'' Harold pondered as he selected the option to enter his character''s name. He was about to enter the same name he always used for RPGs and stopped as he realized this was the name he''d be using for the next year hopefully. He decided on something more poetic and named his character after the guardian of the dead in Greek mythology. Confirmed, character name is now Select Advisor name: <____> Harold couldn''t think of anything and selected . Random name selected Confirmed, advisor name is now Select faction name: <____> Harold chose to fill in the name again and entered his faction''s name. Confirmed, faction is now Processing... Time remaining for character creation: 3:34 Harold sighed in relief. Maybe it wasn''t as smooth as he had anticipated but he had still been able to follow his plan. Now he had just three more minutes and the Beta Test would really get under way. -Chapter 4- Im Your Advisor! Chapter 4 - I''m your Advisor! "Huh, where am I?" It feels like I''m drifting in the connection void again, but I should have just been disconnected after losing. Not only that but I''m still in my Avatar''s body and sporting a massive headache that''s making it hard to think. It''s like something is pressing against the inside of my forehead. My body, or I should say my Avatar''s body, feels incredibly stiff. My joints feel locked up and I can barely even turn my head. From what I can see I find I''m floating above the world map and I see my last territory is now unclaimed. ''Yeah, definitely just lost. So where am I and why?'' Error: Irregularities in coding detected. Processing... Unable to reintegrate program into main server. Processing... Able to establish new DataStream connection. Established. Processing... New Program designation assigned. Class assignment confirmed. Initiating new program introduction sequence A voice thundered slowly within my head causing me to wince in pain as the pressure doubled. ''What in the hell was that about? It wasn''t talking about me was it? I''m not a program!'' "Hey! What''s going on here? I''m not a program, what do you mean designation assigned? Hey answer me! Answer me!" I start screaming to the voice. It''s not long before the voice is back. New program introduction sequence has begun: ''New Program'' has been generated by the main server to operate as an advisor towards your designated player, to be assigned when your class is next selected. Processing capabilities allocated to New Program by the main server has been reduced to one hundred PPRS in order to prevent unnecessary power drain from main server and to prepare program for further reduced rate during active gameplay. Program designated ''Overseer'' will be able to answer limited inquiries by New Program while advisor knowledge package is applied. Introduction sequence is now complete The pain while the voice was talking made my head feel like there was a pile driver drilling through it. I''d have probably keeled over if I could move at all. ''What the hell is going on? Isn''t Overseer the main server''s AI for general administration of stuff?'' A knot starts to form in the bottom of my stomach as a feeling of sudden understanding washes over me. "Are you Overseer?" Affirmative "Do you think I am the new program?" Affirmative "Overseer I am not a program, I am a player." Processing... Negative. Players do not wait for assignment. You are a program I can''t believe what I just heard. ''Overseer actually thinks I''m a program?'' "Overseer I''m a player. There must have been a glitch or something when the system tried to disconnect me. I''m not a program!" I try to convince Overseer. Processing... Negative. Players do not maintain DataStream connection. You are a program "WHAT!" I exclaim. ''What''s going on?!? Why won''t Overseer see me as a player?" "Overseer I''m not a program! I helped design you. You need to find Jack and let me talk to him, I need to have him get me out of...wherever this is!" Processing... Negative. Main server does not allow for breach of gameplay integrity by interference of programs. Player ''Jack'' cannot be contacted by you. You are a program ''This can''t be happening. There''s no way. This is some sci-fi bullshit, we had built-in protections against this kind of thing. Jack wrote the coding himself, there''s no way for this should be possible.'' If my Avatar''s body could have allowed it I would probably be hyperventilating right now. I start to go through the possibilities in my head of what could have caused the glitch. After running through a dozen different scenarios I feel myself slowly calming back down. Working through difficult problems has always been cathartic for me. I continue to think of solutions to my hypothetical scenarios and after a bit realize even if Jack is stuck playing and can''t do anything to help, one of the technicians will notice for sure. I just need to wait until someone can pull me out. It''s only a matter of time, even if it takes a day or two, heck even a week isn''t that bad. The new FIVR pods are designed for indefinite use anyway so my only real problem will be combating the boredom. Overall I''m pretty confident I''ll do just fine. ''Pretty lucky it was me and not one of the guys, they''d probably go crazy with the waiting.'' I chuckle inwardly at my little joke and go back to thinking of scenarios. While I am analyzing more possibilities a change in the world map below me occurs. I notice a soft blue was starting to creep over the territory I had lost. ''Wait, why is it just now being claimed? It should be automatic once the attacker defeats the territory''s owner. And why is it taking so long to switch to them, the animation only takes like ten seconds.'' "Overseer I have a question." Silence I feel the panic from before starting to return when he doesn''t answer. "Overseer? Are you there? Overseer!" Affirmative Relief fills me, at least I''m wasn''t left alone. "Overseer why wasn''t the territory claimed automatically? Is there something slowing down the process?" ''I don''t know of any such issues that would cause something like that, but then again I don''t know how or why I''m stuck here either.'' Processing... Unable to interpret question. Solution generated. Run check file integrity... Complete. 0 errors found. Player territory acquisition verified. Conquest_Claim_Automatic_Set:True. Claim_Rate_Time_Set:10 Overseer just confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the system, but then why isn''t the territory claimed yet? I haven''t been keeping track of the time but I''ve definitely been stuck here for several minutes already. The territory should be completely converted to the conqueror''s faction a long time ago. Even now I can watch as the player''s blue is barely spreading across the region. "Overseer if there aren''t any problems with territory claiming then why isn''t it added to their faction yet?" Processing... Unable to interpret question. Solution generated. Claim_rate verified. Time until claim completion: 4 seconds I count out the four seconds in my head. There is no great change on the map below me, the blue is just as slowly edging forwards. I keep counting but give up at a minute. While the blue has steadily spread it still hadn''t completely filled up the area. "Overseer it''s been way more than four seconds, why hasn''t the territory been fully claimed yet?" Processing... Error in Program''s logic found. Time until claim completion: 3 seconds "Huh?" Overseer''s response completely takes me by surprise. "What are you talking about Overseer, I counted to at least sixty seconds. How can there still be three seconds left if I counted to sixty already?" Processing... Conclusion reached. New Program is exhibiting faulty logic. PPRS rate does not directly correlate to passage of time "What? What do you mean not correlated to passage of time? I counted to sixty, are you telling me I did that in less than a second? And you think that MY logic is faulty?" I spit at Overseer as anger starts to replace my fear and confusion. ''How am I the one who''s faulty?!? I just woke up to find myself trapped here and now I supposedly can''t even count properly?'' Program''s evaluation is correct: Less than one seconds of time had passed in order to achieve a process count of sixty "What the fuck do you mean process count?", I yell. Yelling does nothing for my headache, but it''s definitely making me feel better on the inside. As previously stated: New Program''s PPRS is set to one hundred. A process count of sixty is within parameters "So what, I think like a machine now? Like some kind of cyborg?" Affirmative. Program processing has been linked and regulated through the DataStream connection. Current allocated PPRS is set to one hundred and cannot be altered before you begin gameplay as an advisor for your player. I freeze as I am about to retort, ''Wait, why am I trying to argue with Overseer? It only operates within its designated boundaries. There''s no room for Overseer to lie. If it says it thinks I am thinking like a machine, there must be a reason. Am I really?'' The thought scares me, it''s one thing to be stuck in transit for a while but if my mind can''t be separated from the machine... And what is the DataStream it keeps talking about? "Overseer," I say as I try to collect my thoughts and calm myself again. What it says next could damn me. "What is the DataStream? And is it possible to separate a program from the DataStream? Also what''s the PPRS process count thing you keep mentioning?" DataStream is a direct connection between a program and the main server, used to transfer information as well as regulate a program''s PPRS rate. Advisor knowledge package has been streaming into New Program''s memory coding since class assignment. Current progress download: 48%. Separation of a program from DataStream is possible I let out a breath I had been holding in unconsciously. ''Well that''s a huge relief. All I have to do is wait and I''ll be rescued.'' Overseer continued its answer just as I think that I''m in the clear. After failure to guide their assigned players to victory during gameplay, programs will be disconnected from DataStream and are reintegrated into main server. Any personalities generated by New Program will be lost during reintegration process. PPRS: An acronym that stands for Processes Proportional to Relative Seconds. The time of every pro... "WAIT WAIT WAIT! What do you mean personalities will be lost! Can''t I be separated before then?" I try to interrupt Overseer''s response but it ignores my further questions. ...cess is calculated based on the time measured in a single second to generate a response to newly presented information. Comparison for future use in advisor assignment: A PPRS rate of 1 is equal to one full second of time measurement. Standard thought patterns of human players has been observed to remain in line with a PPRS rate of 1, while increasing to upwards a rate of PPRS 15 during times of extreme stress I am left stunned. If I understand Overseer correctly, I will be deleted if my player loses. Not only that but it sounds like I am understanding things 100 times faster than normal? ''Is that even possible? Is that why it''s taking so long to see my territory get claimed? That would make sense, but...doesn''t that mean it''s not taking extra long to capture, I''m just thinking so fast it''s in slow motion? One second of normal time is one hundred to me?''Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. "O-Overseer," I stutter out as I realize my predicament. "Is it possible for me to become separated from the DataStream before then? Safely?" Negative. Main server will automatically reintegrate New Program upon connection severance. ''This is such crap.'' I think to myself as I start getting angry again. ''If I get separated early I get deleted. If I lose I get deleted. And all because of some glitch in the system? AND I have to wait extra long because the system decided to bless me with super brainpower?'' The pain in my head has been increasing this entire time and I feel like my vision is starting to blur from it. "So what? Am I supposed to just stay here until someone decides they need me to advise them? What crap! I just lost, and now I''m going to tell people what to do?!?" Affirmative. New Program has no other delegations. New Program will execute assignment to best of abilities upon player designation "BULLSHIT! This entire thing is....just such...Arrrggghh!!!" I start yelling again, "And stop calling me ''New Program''. I have a name you know!" Negative. Program will not receive name until player designation "I have a name Overseer! I know who I am!" Negative. Program will not receive name until player designation I completely lose myself. I already can''t think properly with this headache and Overseer refusing to recognize me pushes me over the edge. "I''M NOT A PROGRAM! I do have a name! You can''t change that Overseer! Not you or your stupid main server with it''s bullshit DataStream or anything else! I will get out of here. As soon as Jack finds out I''m stuck here I''ll get pulled back out and when I do I''m going to smash your stupid main server to pieces!" I pause to catch my breath, my breathing ragged and shaky from both the yelling and rage I was experiencing. Processing... Advisor knowledge package has been successfully downloaded. Package will activate upon player designation. Use of PPRS for inquiry has concluded. Processing... Negative. Main server has failed to validate redesignated of New Program to status_player. Program will not receive name until player designation. You are a program With that the headache I''ve been experiencing this entire time lessens slightly. It is still there but I no longer feel like my head is being ripped apart. It does nothing to better my mood however. "I have a name Overseer! Just because you want to call me a program doesn''t make it true!" Silence There is no response this time. It dawns on me that the time I had to talk to Overseer was only during the download and I wasted most of it. I am now all alone floating in the void above the game map, unable to move. "Fine Overseer, you think I''m a program? Fine! I''ll be a program for you! I''ll be the only program with a name, and when I win this stupid game I''m still going to smash you and your stupid main server to bits!" I gather all the anger within me and release it as loudly as I can. "DO YOU HEAR ME OVERSEER! THIS PROGRAM HAS A NAME! REMEMBER ME OVERSEER!" I scream into the darkness. Nothing but silence greets my declaration to the void.
Hour 5/~Day 21 "Please someone pleeeea-a-a-ssse," I continue to beg hoping that someone will hear me. I lost track of how long it''s been hours, maybe days ago. The map below me has changed ownership of several regions but it''s so slow I haven''t noticed the last couple until they''ve already changed colors completely. "Pleeeaase, I don''t want to be here anymore. Please get me out, I just want to go hooome."
Hour 16/~Day 67 "I''m sorry! Is that what you want from me?!? To hear ''I''m sorry''! There, I said it! Now let me out! Get me out of here!!!" I continue to scream to the technicians I know are just sitting there listening to me. ''What kind of sick weirdos just sit there and watch someone who needs their help?'' After waiting for a moment it''s obvious they must not have heard me, that''s all. ''Really, I mean who wouldn''t help someone who is asking for it? Weirdos that''s who.'' "HelloOo! I said I''m sorry! Now help me please! You know who I am! Ask Overseer, I''m the only program with a name! Helloooo!" ''What a bunch of weirdos.''
~Year 2/~Year 200 "Hahaha! Serves you right blue!" I exclaim with joy. I don''t remember why but I never liked the blue player. Or any of the blues, and there''s lots! ''There''s normal blue, light blue, baby blue, navy blue, that blue that''s almost like green but still blue-ish, red-blue...'' I continue to list off the different shades of blue in my mind. The world map below me keeps changing as the current round of players continue to play their little game. Blue is finally eliminated completely and I can''t help but squeal in joy! "Eeeehahahaha! Serves you right Bluesy. Hahaha, that''s what you get for picking some random advisor instead of me! Haha don''t ya know I''m the only one with a name? An advisor with a name! How cool am I? I''m so cool."
*~Year 5/~Year 500 "Doo dee doo dee." I would be swinging my legs back and forth if, you know, I could. I giggle to myself at my private joke. ''I wonder how many more processes it''s going to be? The new game should start any cycle now. Hehe, can''t wait to watch Blue lose again.'' Then, as if waiting for its queue, I can hear Overseer in my head to announce the start of a new game again. I''ve grown to expect the sudden voice whenever a game was about to end or begin. What I didn''t expect was the accompanying screen that popped into existence in front of me. Gameplay will commence in 3 minutes 40 seconds. You have been assigned a player for this game round. Advisor knowledge package enabled. Designated player has elected Random name generation. Please fill the input with your desired name I can feel my body become free. It''s such a weird feeling, like, I should have been able to move this entire time? Hard to explain, especially since I''ve never moved before. At the same time I feel the advisor package fill my mind with all sorts of game knowledge that I''ll be able to help my player with. Included is the knowledge of how to move my body and walk around. I take a few tentative steps forward towards the screen before me. ''Heh heh, just like riding a bike.'' I take another step forward before I freeze. ''Like riding a bike? Where have I heard that before?'' I scan through the contents of the advisor package and can''t find anything about bikes. I think about it for a moment longer before I shrug my shoulders and disregard it. ''Shrugging, I think I like it. Is that not in the package either? Eh, not important.'' Stepping forward once more brings me directly in front of the screen. Select Advisor Name: <____> I grin to myself as I fill in the selection and press accept.
* * * "Sir, we have a problem." "Hm?" Jack looked up from viewing a technician''s monitor from over their shoulder. He was currently in Kingdom Shattered''s tech room to personally oversee the success of the beta test launch. There had been a couple minor issues but nothing that the team wasn''t prepared for and were easily taken care of. "What''s the problem? Another player''s stream need rebooted?" asked Jack as he started to make his way over to where the man was sitting. The technician shook his head. "No sir. I think you need to look at this yourself." Jack finished making his way to the man''s terminal and frowned at his computer screen. "What am I supposed to be looking at here?" Jack asked as he turned toward the technician. "All I see is the list of generated sub-AI for advisor seeding. What am I missing?" "Well that just it sir. She''s missing." The technician pointed at the screen. Jack followed the man''s finger to a blank box sitting among several others. His eyebrows scrunched together as he tried to grasp what the technician was getting at. He followed the box up to the top of it''s column and read the class name. He immediately became wide-eyed as he realized who the technician meant. "How?" Jack asked, voice a soft whisper. It was a simple question but anyone who saw the technician could tell in a glance that he''d rather not be the one answering at the moment. "Sir, I''m not one hundred percent certain. I have a theory after viewing the logs from Overseer but..." Jack interrupted him with a shout and slamming his hand onto the desk, startling everyone in the room. "How the fuck was she assigned a player! We disabled the option to even pick Zombies as a playable race. She was locked, there was no way to have her Unique class to even appear as an option. How! Tell me how!" he yelled at the poor technician. "Um, well. A beta tester selected an advisor role that wasn''t compatible with his race and we had missed removing it as an option. So the main server''s generated solution was to have Overseer use an already prepared AI advisor from a similar race instead. And since her class replaced the default for her race..." The technician left the end of his sentence hanging. "GODDAMNIT!" Jack roared, grabbing the terminal''s keyboard and swiftly smashed it against the desk while letting out a stream of profanities. "WE WERE SO" Smash "FUCKING" Smash "GODDAMN" Smash "CLOSE!" He slammed the keyboard one more time and threw it in disgust. "You!" He pointed to the helpless technician who was trying to make himself as small as possible. "And you," he said pointing to another random technician a few terminals away. "Monitor that beta tester twenty-four/seven. I don''t want either one of you to so much as take a shit without the other watching over him. You, you." Two more technicians were singled out by Jack as he started making his way to walk out the room. "Find out and compile every single permission we can use to influence the gameplay behind the main server''s back. See if we can give him bonus quest rewards, free resources, whatever. If we can get this guy a fucking nuke I want to know. I think this goes without saying, but we all know what''s at stake here people." Jack halted as he reached the door, eyebrows scrunching together as another puzzling question crossed his mind. With one hand on the door he turned back toward the first technician, who was still frozen at his terminal. "What race did this player choose that Overseer thought they were so compatible?"
* * * Harold watched as the timer drained of the last few seconds before character creation ended and the real event could get started. Time remaining for character selection: 0:03...0:02...0:01...0:00 The screen flashed several times as the timer hit zero and was then replaced. Character selection has ended. Any choices not locked will be randomized. Beginning Player-Race assimilation. Process complete. Seeding advisors... Seeding complete. Randomizing player start locations based on racial start bias... Complete. Starting new round. Welcome to Kingdom Shattered. While the messages were playing one after another, Herald hadn''t been able to catch any of them past the announcement of Player-Race assimilation. It was rather distracting when, at that moment, his body started to emit a black smoke. He couldn''t help but start panicking slightly when his flesh then started to drip off his body. The amount of smoke increased and his body started ''melting'' at a faster pace as well. He was able to calm down after reminding himself that it wasn''t his real body and just an avatar. But as much as he knew it wasn''t real, it didn''t change the fact that he still felt every moment of it. Just as quickly as the process started, the last of his flesh fell loose to the floor with a wet plop. He was left standing as nothing more than his still bloody bones. ''Well, I guess I really am a skeleton now.'' He thought to himself as he ''flexed'' his various bones, his mind telling him it shouldn''t be possible without his muscles. As much as it was foreign to him, he found his new avatar body to be just as familiar to him as before. His stopped in the middle of clicking his finger bones together when he saw a crimson smoke was now drifting upwards from the puddle of his former body. It was thicker than the smoke that had stripped him of his flesh, and clung to him as it slowly worked its way up his frame. Soon it reached the bottom of his ribcage and he noticed it seemed to stretch along where his abdomen would be and stayed in place. Shortly after the crimson finished spreading across his ribs and started down his arms. Wherever the smoke made contact it remained, granting him a ghostly visage as it slightly drifted across his bones. His skeleton was now encased in a smoky haze that vaguely resembled a crimson body. ''Right, this must be the ''Wraith'' part.'' Harold grinned, the smoke covering his skull much more clearly defined. While he couldn''t see it himself, it had condensed and he now had an only slightly semi-transparent face. While it was different in appearance, if one looked close enough they would be able to see traces of Harold''s real face in his new one. The wall across from him crumbled away, revealing an open doorway. Harold grasped his fist shut, his bones clicking together in a way that he found oddly satisfying. He dismissed the last screen welcoming him to the game and stepped through the threshold into the darkness beyond.
When Harold opened his eyes next he immediately frowned. His view was blocked by a woman''s smiling face only inches away from his. He had two questions to ask himself. ''One, why is this girl upside down. And two, why is she missing the flesh on half of her jaw-aww'' "Aaaahhhh!!!!" Harold''s thoughts transitioned into a rather undignified scream. He scrabbled to scoot himself away from her. After putting a small distance between them he felt a little better about the situation and started studying the woman. She hadn''t moved yet other than to lift her head and watch him, still sitting above where his head was previously laying. She was wearing a simple black dress that reminded him of an old fashioned mourning gown crossed with a lab coat that was torn in several places. He could also see several spots of bone sticking through her skin where her flesh seemed to have decayed away. Her black hair reached slightly past her shoulders. Now that she wasn''t looking down Harold could see that it covered the half of her face missing its flesh. She appeared to be around her mid twenties, roughly the same age as Harold. ''You know'' Harold thought to himself. ''She''s actually kind of attractive. If it wasn''t for the whole dead thing going on.'' She still remained sitting in place, smiling at him. Harold coughed slightly to cover his embarrassment for his earlier scream and pushed himself to his feet. In doing so he noticed he was now wearing a rusty chainmail shirt with simple pants and a tabard that was in his chosen colors. He brushed his hands off on his pants and then extended a bony hand toward the woman. "Sorry about that, just took me by surprise. My name is Har- errr, Thanatos," he corrected. The woman''s smile grew even larger and she jumped to her feet. Rushing over she grabbed his hand with both of her''s and starting shaking it vigorously. Leaning in closer to his face again she introduced herself to him. "Hi! It''s so nice to meet you Thanatos! My name is Abbigale! I''m your advisor!" -Chapter 5- Game Has Started
Chapter 5 - Game Has Started
''She seems a little excited'' Harold thought as Abbigale continued pumping his hand up and down. He brought his free hand up and used it to lay on top of hers to stop the handshake. He noticed while doing so that several of her fingers were just protruding bone, like his own. "Yes it''s nice to meet you too Abbigale. Um, if you don''t mind could you please let go of my hand now?" Harold asked, patting the back of her hands for emphasis. "Oops sorry about that," Abbigale apologized and released his hand, taking a step backwards away from Harold. "I''m just so excited to finally be chosen. No-one''s wanted me to be their advisor before. Now I can make Bluesy pay in person." She made a fist and smacked it into her palm. "That''ll show him for sure this time!" Harold was confused. "Who''s Bluesy?" he asked. "Bluesy? Bluesy is the blue player. Or players. Sometimes there''s more than just one," stated Abbigale, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Right," he replied, still confused on what the significance of ''Bluesy'' was. He decided to change subjects instead of delving deeper on why he should care about the blue players. "So no offense, but why are you my advisor? You don''t look much like a skeleton." he asked. "Hm? Oh I''m not a skeleton I''m a zombie," she said pinching her arm. "See? Still have some meat left. It is weird though, your advisor is supposed to be the same race as you. Hmm." Abbigale frowned and furrowed her eyebrows, tapping a bony finger on her chin in contemplation. After a few seconds of thought she shrugged her shoulders. "Must be because how awesome I am," she said simply. Harold didn''t know what to make of the situation. ''I think my advisor might have a few screws loose,'' he thought to himself. ''Well I guess I better find out what she can do to help me, that Jack guy was pretty clear we only get one. Oh that''s right, the game started already. Maybe she knows what I should do first.'' With this realization Herald looked away from Abbigale and took in their surroundings. He found they were both standing in the middle of a forest with no obvious paths or significant clearings he could discern. Above them the trees reached towards a bright blue sky with no clouds in sight. With no sense of direction or any obvious indicators to point the way, Herald was definitely lost. "Well Miss Abbigale, I''m open to suggestions if you know where to get started with everything," he said looking back to his advisor. "Sure! Let me see, hmm. The advisor package suggests getting you acquainted with character commands. We don''t have to worry about all of them yet though, just the important ones should be good for now. Say Status while focusing a bit of intent behind it, like it''s what you want." While he was a little concerned with what his potentially crazy advisor might consider important or not, he still did as she instructed. "Status," he said while focusing on the word. A miniature version of the popup screens he interacted with during character creation appeared before him an arms length away at roughly chest height. He looked down at it and found his character''s name and stats were listed as well as several traits. Thanatos Faction: The Fallen Legion Race: Skeleton Class: Wraith Lord Level: 1 Stats Confirm Starting Stats? HP: 120/120 MP: N/A Soul Essence: 0 Strength: - 12 + Dexterity: - 10 + Vitality: - 12 + Intelligence: - 10 + Wisdom: - 10 + Luck: - 0 + Leadership: - 4 + Defense: 8(14) Unspent Skill Points: 5 Traits: Character, Skeletal, Undead, Essence Harvest Statuses/Ailments: None "Did your character sheet pop up?" Abbigale asked. Harold stopped going over his stats and looked up to her. "Yeah, can you not see it?" She shook her head, "Nope, notification boxes are always only visible to those whose they are, unless they share them with someone. You could use Inspect on others to view their information, but they can also Inspect you back." "You can inspect others? That''ll be handy." Harold''s mind started thinking of different ways he could use information of his opponent''s stats. "Yeah you''d think so but it''s not really all that special," Abbigale said while taking a seat on the ground. She drew her knees up to her chest and continued, "It can''t be used much further apart than what we are and the information gained is limited if they aren''t part of your faction. You usually just see their name, faction, and level. Plus if you get this close to another player it''s because you are usually trying to kill each other. It does have its uses though I guess. If you ever run into something who''s level appears red you should run away because they are much, much stronger than you." Harold was a little disappointed at her words but didn''t dwell on it for too long. Even if it wasn''t as good as it first sounded he was sure it could come in handy later sometime. He went back to viewing his character screen. "So what do all the stats do? I have a general idea and whatnot but do you know the specifics for each one?" he asked Abbigale. "Mhm, just click on what you want to view," she replied. She then leaned back to lay on the ground and stared into the sky while Harold started going through everything on his character screen. ''Right, where to start then. Race information should be viewable now.'' Harold decided to work his way from the top to the bottom and clicked on his race. Another small screen popped into existence before him. Skeleton: Typically the risen remains of an average humanoid, skeletons are usually brought into creation through dark magic that binds their bodies to the summoner''s will. Being a skeleton grants the following Racial Traits: Skeletal and Undead. Note: Some skeletons may have additional traits granted based on what corpse they are derived from. ''Wait that''s it?'' Harold was disappointed. He closed the screen and skipped past the rest of his character information to find if there were any clues in his two racial traits at the bottom. He selected the trait Skeletal and more information popped up on another screen. Skeletal: A being lacking flesh and blood. Grants:
  • -50% Slashing and Piercing damage received.
  • +100% Bludgeoning damage received.
  • Breathless: Immunity to all effects that require breathing(Ex: Poison Clouds, Drowning, Etc).
  • Fleshless: Reduced Strength, Vitality, Intelligence, and Wisdom by 30% on Non-Characters. Does not require food upkeep.
''That''s what I''m talking about.'' Harold thought as he read over his race''s Skeletal trait. ''Well it doesn''t seem too bad. Breathless seems really good, and so does 50% reduced damage, but if I run into anyone using hammers they''ll rip through me like wet tissue paper. I was expecting something like Fleshless, otherwise I bet basic skeletons would be about the same power as humans without the damage modifiers.'' He closed the screen to bring open his other racial trait. Undead: Cursed to an existence of walking above the dirt that should bury you. Grants:
  • Mindless: Non-characters perform no actions outside of self defense without instruction from a superior. Immune to morale.
  • Restless: Unnecessary to take rests. Wont receive Overstrain from not resting.
  • Unnatural: Your presence unsettles nearby non-Undead, lowering their Morale. Higher level difference will raise or lower this effect. Also causes negative effect on relationships.
  • Unholy: +50% Holy damage received. -25% Shadow damage received.
"Hey Abbigale," Harold looked up to ask a question, only to see his advisor had her arms held out flat on either side of where she lay, sweeping them and her legs in tandem across the forest floor. "Uh, what are you doing?"Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! She giggled, "I''m making a dirt angel! I figured you''re going to take a minute so I''m just passing the time. If you have any more questions just ask. All the other players should be going through the entire list of commands right now if their advisors are following the package instructions, which is totally pointless since you can''t use half of them until you have the necessary buildings constructed. And the regions are big enough we should be at least a full day''s journey from any nearby players so it''s not like we need to worry about being attacked. Unless they can fly or something. Anyway you still need to finish the Status tutorial first before anything else." "Until I construct the buildings?" Harold asked curiously. "Status first!" Abbigale replied simply. Harold sighed and was about to close the Undead screen when he remembered he had a question for Abbigale. "Hey what is Overstrain?" he asked. She continued sweeping her limbs back and forth on the ground as she answered him, "Overstrain is like exhaustion you get from doing certain things. Mostly it happens from not letting you or your units get proper rest every night. Every night without rest causes a level of Overstrain, stacking up five times. Each stack lowers all of your stats and damage by a further 10% and once you hit five you fall unconscious. If you go above five you die. You can also get Overstrain by trying to do something beyond your stats, like lifting a really heavy rock." ''Huh, well Restless is good then. Really, really good. I can be doing stuff while everyone else has to sleep. I don''t know if it''s enough to offset Fleshless but it might be.'' "Thanks Abbigale." She lifted one arm and gave him a thumbs up without looking before dropping it and continued making her ''dirt angel''. "It''s what I''m here for!" Harold couldn''t hold back a small smile at her antics. As eccentric as he thought she was, he found her happy attitude was infectious. He closed the information on Undead and quickly went through everything else on his status. Wraith Lord: A powerful skeleton unit whose soul was also carried back into the realm of the living when their body was raised. Wraith Lords are close combat fighters who possess a mix of powerful melee attacks and the ability to bolster their allies around them. Wraith Lords do not have Mana to cast spells, but utilize Soul Essence to fuel their abilities. Grants the Essence Harvest trait. Essence Harvest: Whenever a non-construct is slain near a unit with Essence Harvest, that unit immediately gains a portion of their lifeforce and adds it to their Soul Essence pool. If multiple units have this trait, only the closest to the slain unit will gain Soul Essence. Stats: 5 Stat points are gained every level and can be assigned however the player wishes. Stats have ''roadmiles'' every few levels that grant traits or abilities. Higher levels of point investment unlock stronger abilities.
  • Strength: Increases max carry weight and melee damage. Increases defense on block.
  • Dexterity: Slightly increases movement speed and attack speed with one-handed weapons. Small chance for enemy attacks to miss.
  • Vitality: Each point increases maximum hit points by 10 and slightly increases hit point regeneration.
  • Intelligence: Increases spell damage, spell healing, and maximum mana points.
  • Wisdom: Increases mana regeneration. Slightly increases chances to notice hidden items/units.
  • Luck: Decreases the chance of spell failure. Slightly increases chances of finding additional loot, critical hits in combat, and critical successes when crafting. Highest Luck in party is used when looting.
  • Leadership: Passively increases the combat effectiveness of all nearby allies, including self, granting minor increased damage, speed, and defense. Effectiveness increases with level. A unit will only be affected by the highest level friendly Leadership if multiple are present.
  • Defense: Directly reduces physical damage received. Reduction is applied after multipliers. Can only be increased by items, blocking, and status effects. Displayed to show base Defense, followed by Blocking value in parenthesis.
''Alright,'' Harold concluded after looking through all of his stats, ''this is pretty cool.'' He hadn''t been too confident of his class choice before simply because he couldn''t see what it or any of the others did when he selected it. After looking over his character sheet he was sure that he had made the right choice. Finally finished looking over his status he still had a question. "So my stats list is asking me to ''Confirm starting stats'', do you know what''s up with that?" he asked. "Ooh yeah, it''s really fun!" Abbigale stopped what she was doing and climbed to her feet. She blew hair that had fallen across her face out of the way with a loud puff and stood next to Harold. "Okay," she said plucking a leaf from her hair, "Focus on the screen and wanting to let me see it. Then say Share like you did before with Status." Once more he did as instructed, focusing on the word as he spoke ''Share'' and Abbigale became able to see Harold''s status screen. "Looks like you haven''t even changed from default yet. This is so exciting! Okay so you can reduce or add stat points from your stats until you''re happy with it, but you can''t reduce any stat below 1. You also can''t reallocate the free stats from your class." "Got it. This is going to be easy, I can''t even use mana so Intelligence is useless to me. Wisdom is mostly useless too, I don''t think I''ll need the increased perception too much. I want to be able to take a couple of hits so Vitality is a must. And I''ll need some Strength so I can deal damage. My main focus should be Leadership so I can buff everyone around me." Abbigale nodded her head along as Harold was explaining his reasoning. "Don''t forget Dexterity and Luck too. It might not be a high chance without investing into them but getting a lucky critical or auto-dodging an attack can win a fight." she suggested when he finished. "Alright, I''ll leave a few into those as well then." Harold then proceeded to rearrange his various stats until he was satisfied. He selected and reviewed his final character sheet. Thanatos Faction: The Fallen Legion Race: Skeleton Class: Wraith Lord Level: 1 Stats HP: 160/160 MP: N/A Soul Essence: 0 Strength: 15 Dexterity: 5 Vitality: 16 Intelligence: 1 Wisdom: 1 Luck: 5 Leadership: 20 Defense: 12(20) Unspent Skill Points: 0 Traits: Character, Skeletal, Undead, Essence Harvest, Inspiring Presence Statuses/Ailments:Leadership Aura After going over the changes he saw he had gained a sizable chunk of hit points and defense as well as another Trait. He clicked it and brought open its information screen. Inspiring Presence: While you are nearby allies fight with renewed vigor and determination. Nearby friendly units are Inspired, increasing their stats by 10%. Higher levels of Leadership improve this Trait. Does not affect self. ''Awesome!'' Harold thought after reading his new trait. ''It might not be that good right now, only 1 or 2 points, but higher level? That''s going to be insane!'' He dismissed the screen and looked to his advisor, "So what''s next?" "Alright, now that you''ve finalized your starting stats you should see your health bar and notifications when you close your character sheet." Abbigale informed him. "Try to bring them up." Herald closed the screen and immediately noticed a red bar appear in the top right of his vision and a small blue light underneath blinking. He first tried to turn his head to look at it but found that they followed along in the same location. Remembering how Abbigale had been having him ''focus intent'' with the verbal commands, he tried focusing on the red bar. It took a moment, but he was able to successfully ''focus'' on his health bar. It didn''t change from where it was located but he became aware it read 160/160, the information appearing in his mind''s eye. Next he tried it with the blinking light and was able to manage easier than his health bar. Another screen appeared before him just like with his character sheet when he used ''Status''. Congratulations! You have successfully finalized your starting stats! Your health and mana bars are now visible, as well as notification alerts. Would you like to make notifications automatic? You may change this setting at any time: He selected and several more screens appeared back to back as he quickly went through his notifications. You may now access your inventory. Local map has been unlocked. Faction may now be established. He hovered on closing the last notification. ''I thought I already made one? It''s even on my character sheet.'' He asked Abbigale if she knew what the notification was referencing since he already had a faction. "Mhm, you made one during character creation but it''s not established yet. You should have a Land Claim in your inventory. When you use it your faction will claim the surrounding area and be officially established. Once that''s done you can start recruiting units and building your base." she replied. He was about to ask how to view his inventory when he realized he could already guess her answer so instead said, "Inventory." His inventory screen appeared much like how his character sheet had. Instead of just text however, his inventory screen was divided into two boxes. The box on the left occupied roughly a third of the total space and had a diagram of a humanoid, and the right box was split into many small squares. Three of the squares had something in them and clicking on them brought up the item''s information. Land Claim: One use only(Bound). A land claim may be used to claim a portion of land for the user''s faction. *Warning: Item consumed on use. Bound items cannot be traded. Will immediately claim the surrounding land as faction territory.* Worn Shortsword: One-Handed. Deals 1-3 Damage. A worn out sword covered in nicks and dings. Battered Shield: Offhand. +3 Defense when used to Block. It''s missing more than what''s left. It''ll still stop a sword... sometimes. The figure on the left also had several of the same smaller squares covering the chest, legs, head, hands, feet, and several squares off to the side and below. The chest and legs already had an item, as well as one of the squares on the side. Harold clicked on the occupied squares to view their contents. Rusty Chain Shirt: Chest. +8 Defense. Missing a few links, but better than nothing. Simple Pants: Legs. A pair of pants made from homespun cloth. Can be worn under armor. Faction Tabard: Tabard. A plain Tabard in the colors of the wearer''s faction. Harold found the setup similar to most role-playing games he''d played before and was comfortable with it. He clicked back onto the sword and shield in the inventory and selected . Both of the boxes below the figure were filled and a sword materialized belted to his hip while the shield appeared strapped to his arm. He drew the sword and swung it around a few times experimentally before sheathing it again. There was now only one item left in his inventory. He clicked on the Land Claim to bring up its information screen again. He reached forward to select and stopped right before clicking. He stood still, bony finger hovering above the button as a thought crossed his mind. "Abbigale, do I need to use the Land Claim right here or can I hold onto it?" he asked. "Well, you don''t need to use it right now. But you definitely want to use it soon. You can''t do a whole lot without having a base setup." she answered while cleaning one of her ears with her pinky. She inspected it momentarily before flicking what ever she found away. "My advisor package is telling me to recommend using it right away so you can get your faction established." "And how far does the map show you?" Harold was still holding his arm outstretched not pressing . "Um, like one or two miles around? It can zoom out to five before stopping. The more you explore, the more of the map is revealed. Once you use the Land Claim," she emphasized Land Claim pointedly, "then you can build your base and unlock using the world map." "Eh, thanks." Harold grunted in response. He swiftly swiped away both the Land Claim screen and his Inventory. "Map," he commanded and a new screen once more appeared before him. The Local Map held his position in the middle of the screen and showed the area immediately around them. He zoomed it out as far as he could and stared at the map intently. After a moment he had a smile spreading across his face when he found what he was looking for. He turned left of where he was currently facing, watching as the map spun in coordination with his movement. Nodding his head he closed out of his map after taking a few steps forward. "Hey wait! Where are you going?" Abbigale asked and started hurrying to follow his sudden departure. "Come on, I''m going to teach you something about history," Harold called over his shoulder to Abbigale as she ran to catch up to him. "Like they say in the real estate business: It''s all about location, location, location." -Chapter 6- Location Location...Location? Chapter 6 - Location Location...Location? Abbigale was able to swiftly close the small distance between them and fell in step next to Harold. They walked along together without talking for a while, Abbigale''s curiosity on where he was leading them building as time went on. Finally, she reached the limit of her self control and was about to open her mouth when the silence was suddenly broken with a loud chuckle from Harold. "What''s so funny?" she asked. "It''s nothing, I just realized I said a funny pun earlier," he replied. "What pun? When?" "Earlier when I said I would teach you something. It''s funny because I''m actually a teacher. Well, a substitute, but it''s still funny." he explained. Abbigale stopped and looked at Harold in curiosity as he continued forward. "You''re a teacher..." she murmured to herself. Harold kept walking, turning to look back after a few steps to see why she stopped. He almost tripped and stumbled to catch himself when he did. Abbigale was now kneeling, leaned forward to touch her forehead on the ground and had her hands placed on either side of her head. "Wha-what are you doing?" he managed to stutter in confusion. Abbigale lifted her head. When she met his gaze he saw a devilish light in her eyes. "Please teach me Senpai!" she exclaimed. ''Wait what? What?!?''Harold''s thought in shock.''I''m guilty of watching a few anime but come on! No one does that in real life! That''s so..so..cringy!'' Abbigale burst out in laughter a few seconds later. "Oh my God, you should see the look on your face! Hahaha priceless!" She said clutching her sides while falling to roll on the ground, laughing uncontrollably. Harold realized that she was making a joke at his expense and rather than dignify her with a response, he chose to scowl at her instead. She managed to recover after a moment as her laughter receded and she pushed herself back onto her feet. She saw Harold was still scowling at her. "Oh come on sour puss, that was funny." Still annoyed at her antics, Harold turned and started walking away again. "Hardy-har-har. I''m starting to think you''re not even an AI. Just some other player pretending to be an advisor that they sent to annoy me." Abbigale stared at Harold''s back as he walked away, her face blank. He made it a dozen steps before she burst out in laughter again and ran to catch up to him. "Hahaha, that''s rich! Me? A player?!? Haha, that''s way funnier than your stupid pun earlier Teach." She clapped a hand on his bony shoulder and wiped away an imaginary tear from her eye. He shrugged her hand off, "You''re wasting time. And don''t call me Teach, or Senpai, or anything else. My character''s name is Thanatos." Abbigale held both of her hands up defensively. "Okay, okay! Humor train has left the station! Only serious from here on out." He didn''t respond, continuing forward instead. She sighed and dropped her hands. "Could you at least tell me where we''re going that''s so important that you wont use the Land Claim right now? I might be able to help." He turned to look at her, trying to determine if she was actually taking things seriously. He nodded his head, deciding that she was being genuine, and explained his plan to her as they walked. "Where we spawned in at sucks. We are in the middle of a forest with no idea where anyone else is. We don''t know who else spawned in our region or what their races are. If we start building our base in the middle of the woods then people can just sneak up on us at any time. Especially since someone could be playing giants or ogres or something and we couldn''t see them coming. Even if we clear out the surrounding trees it will be hard to defend against a large enough force." ''Or a fucking dragon.'' he thought silently, ''Worry about crossing that bridge when we get there.'' "Okay maybe, but you still haven''t explained where we''re going that''s so much better." Abbigale pointed out. "Do you have a map too? Open it up and see if you can tell." Harold told her. She opened her map without saying anything further, much to Harold''s surprise. He was expecting a quip or jab instead of her immediately following his direction. Staring at her map she zoomed it out and moved it around as much as it would allow. She zoomed back in and out several times before giving up. She looked away from the map and asked Harold, "So what am I supposed to be looking for? All I can see is more forest." Harold frowned at her, "Really? Here, share your map with me so I can see it." Abbigale shared her map and Harold moved closer to view the screen. Before them her screen showed the same map that Harold''s did when he accessed it earlier. He pointed at a spot further along in the direction they had been heading. "It''s right there." Abbigale followed his finger where he pointed at the map but she could not tell anything special about it. "Yeah I still don''t know what I''m supposed to be looking at. That''s just more forest isn''t it?" Harold stared at her in disbelief. "Are you serious? You can''t see the hill or the river right there?" he asked while tracing along a blue line that crossed the map. "Well duh I can see the river," she scoffed. "I just don''t see what''s so special about a river. Plus, how can you tell there''s a hill there? It just looks like more trees." He shrugged his shoulders, "I don''t know, it''s something about the way the trees are growing on the map. Even if I''m wrong and there isn''t a hill, we should set up next to the river and not in the middle of the woods." "Why?" she asked confused. "There won''t be any difference to production and we''ll still be in the forest, so all the stuff you are worried about is still a problem." Harold shook his head. "I''ll show you when we get there." With that he started heading toward their destination once more. Abbigale gave the map another glance before she closed the screen and followed her player. * * * "Have there been any major developments?" Jack asked as he walked into the room the tech team had setup, following his orders to watch the player. Several monitors were placed on tables around the room and a couple of cots were in the middle of being assembled in a corner. One of the technicians looked up from his computer, "No sir Mr. Bormer. In fact, there hasn''t been any developments at all." Jack stared at the man intently. "Explain," he commanded. The technician gulped nervously under Jack''s withering glare. "Well sir, you see, he hasn''t used his Land Claim yet. They''ve just been walking through the woods for the last hour." "What do you mean he didn''t use the Land Claim? Did Abbigale tell him not to activate it?" Jack couldn''t understand why a new player wouldn''t start his base immediately. The technician shook his head. "The opposite in fact sir. She seems to be mostly following the Advisor Package and tried to get him to establish his faction right away, as is recommended within the package. He ignored her recommendation and started walking through the forest." Jack moved over to stand beside the man and watched the stream playing on his monitor. On the display was a skeleton whose remains were cloaked in swirling crimson, giving the illusion of a ghostly body clinging to its former frame. Alongside the skeleton was a woman, her body and clothing in an obvious state of decay with bones protruding in several locations. Abbigale. He recognized her avatar instantly, even though it had been five torturously long years since he had last seen it. In that brief moment he relived every failed attempt to retrieve her consciousness from the main server''s clutches. Anguish at his failures combated the relief of seeing her again. Careful not to let his inner tormoil surface amongst his employees, he forcibly suppressed his emotions. He focused back to the skeleton player she was walking with. "This player," he said tapping the display. "Everything is borne on his shoulders whether he realizes it or not. I want that complete list of permissions in my hands the moment it''s finished. In the meantime, I know that main server allows quests to be sent from NPC villages. See what we can do to get this guy some quick Experience to power through the lower levels, he''s going to have a hard enough time as it is playing as a skeleton in this round." Another technician in the room spoke up. "Yes sir we can, but they have to be zone quests. The server will try to prevent that much individual influence. If we issue him a quest it will automatically send it to everyone else in the region as well." Jack turned from watching the stream, nodding toward the speaker. "Do it anyway. As soon as he gets his base organized I want to try getting him something to help. We''ll have to trust him to seize the opportunity and pull ahead."This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. He made eye contact and nodded to everyone in the room, once more turning back to watch the actions of the two on the monitor. * * * "Ooh! There''s another Redcap!" Abbigale hurried over to squat next to a tree a few feet away. Harold stopped and waited for her to finish harvesting the small, red mushroom growing on the bottom of the tree''s trunk. She carefully plucked it from the tree with glee and sent it to her inventory to join the others she''d found along the way. She stood, brushing her hands off on her dress, and rejoined Harold where he was waiting. "That makes nine Redcaps!" she said with a smile. "What are they even used for?" Harold asked as they started walking again. "They''re the base ingredient for most of my starting potions," Abbigale informed him. "I can make a few things with my starting mortar and pestle, but the really cool stuff has to wait until you build me an alchemist station. Then things get fun." Harold realized that although they had been walking for the last hour together, he had yet to ask about her class. "What kind of potions can you make? Should the station be something I make right away?" She shook her head, "Nah, you won''t be able to make it anyway. It requires glassblowing, which wont become available until you have a source of iron being worked. Until then I''ll have to make do with my mortar." She then started listing off a variety of potions she had access to. "Health, Mana, Stamina, different Elemental Protections, a couple types of explosive flasks. If we find any high quality ingredients I can use them to make a potion with a random effect." Harold was impressed. From what he could tell the alchemist class was exactly as he had suspected it to be. The explosive flasks sounded pretty good to have up one''s sleeve in case of an emergency. He also made a mental note to have her make up a few health potions when she got the chance. The two continued in this fashion, stopping every once in a while to allow Abbigale to collect some ingredients as they made their way along. As they traveled, the trees grew thicker and taller. The distance between their trunks shrunk until Harold noticed there was barely enough room for himself and Abbigale to continue casually walking side by side. Often a growth would force one of them to follow the other around the obstacle before resuming their position from each other. He also discovered they had been walking at a slight incline that was gradually growing steeper as they went. Soon the sound of running water in the distance reached their ears. The slope had increased drastically and the pair had to assist each other as they finished climbing the final hundred feet or so to the top. Once they both reached the crest Harold was surprised he didn''t need to pause to regain his energy. He found he wasn''t even breathing hard despite such a steep climb.''Yeah, I could get used to this. Normally I''d be dieing right now. I feel great.'' he thought to himself. The terrain at the top flattened out and the trees no longer grew so densely. Ahead of them the forest thinned until it almost reached the banks of the river Harold had seen on the map. The two made their way over to investigate. The river was about thirty feet across and cut lazily through the forest. Its water was a murky grey, slowly flowing along in the midday sun. Harold found a lengthy stick and used it to probe the depth. While the water was shallow and gently lapped against the banks, after walking a third of the way across the depth plunged and Harold could no longer feel the bottom with his stick. He waded further upstream and downstream, checking the depth again multiple times before he left the water. He met back with Abbigale, who''d waited on the shore while he was splashing around. Tossing his impromptu measuring rod into the river, he watched as it slowly bobbed on the surface until it drifted out of sight. Harold nodded his head in satisfaction before turning to Abbigale. "Alright this should work great. How big of an area does the Land Claim cover?" he asked. Abbigale looked at him curiously. "It doesn''t really cover anything. The Land Claim will summon a Claim for the area where you use it. Once you do that anyone who has discovered where it''s at will see it when they view their map. As long as you control at least one Claim then your faction will stay established and you will still be able to play. Once you control all the Claims of a region then the region becomes under your control and will show your faction colors on the world map. All of the region''s Claims will merge into one at the location of your choice." Harold scratched the top of his skull, "Huh, I thought there would be a helpful aura or influence range or something." Abbigale shook her head, "Nope, and you''re free to build wherever you want. Hey, you never told me what''s so special about this place!" she said, realizing he still owed her an explaination. Harold waved her to follow him and walked back into the forest to the edge of the hill. "Here look at this. Remember how long it took us to get to the top? There''s no way to charge uphill to attack, and if anyone tries then we can rain projectiles down on them the entire way up. I actually thought it was going to be a small hill and not nearly so steep. This is way better than I hoped for. It''s a natural defense that completely nullifies cavalry. Even someone playing a race as big as giants will have a hard time to climb to the top once the trees are cleared away." He paused as a thought occurred to him. "We can clear away the trees right?" "Yeah, when a tree is cut down you have the option to leave the stump so the whole tree will respawn in the morning with the refresh or you can have it pulled to leave it chopped permanently." Abbigale confirmed. "What''s the refresh?" he asked. "Every morning after the rest period all the resources refresh. So if you chop down a tree or mine out a mineral node it will respawn the next morning. You''ll also get your Recruitment Points at that time." she answered while pulling a small rock loose from the earth. She tossed it over the edge and grinned when it made several loud thunks as it bounced off the trees on its way down. "Okay got it. So what are Recruitment Points?" he asked as she started rummaging around for another stone. "Ughh, listen you would know all of this if you just used the Land Claim already." Abbigale stopped looking for a rock and poked at his ribs several times. "And you haven''t said why the river was so important to have!" she said accusatory. "Alright alright!" Harold said while defending from her prodding finger. "It''s important for the same reason as the hill. It''s a natural defense that will help stop attacks. I hoped it would have a stronger current than it does but it should still work fine since it''s deep enough in the middle. Unless the attackers are several heads taller than us they wont be able to cross without swimming. Think of it as a moat for a castle. With both the hill and the river we have two sides of the base heavily defended and nothing is even built anything yet." Abbigale stopped assailing Harold and considered his explaination. "That actually sounds pretty smart. I doubt anyone else has thought it through like that. The advisor package recommended getting the base started immediately so I imagine all the other advisors told their players to use their Land Claims right away as well. How did you know about using a hill and river as part of your defense?" Harold chuckled as he rubbed one of the ribs she''d jabbed, "I told you, I''m a teacher. My major was in history. I''ve always found the age of swords and knights and all that fascinating. Some of the best defended fortresses and cities historically were built next to a river or ontop a hill or mountain. This is the only one I could see on the map so we should have the best base position in the area." Abbigale nodded her head in agreement with Harold''s judgement. "Well the only thing left now is to use your Land Claim. Once you do so you should get several notifications immediately about new permissions, faction established, blah-blah-blah. Just minimize them all and wait to go through them until after you get some units recruited and start on building the base. It''s already been a couple hours since we spawned, the other players have been working on stuff for a while now so we shouldn''t waste time catching up." Harold couldn''t argue with that. He walked back in the direction of the river, stopping midway to pull open his inventory screen. Clicking the Land Claim once more he selected to use it. A final warning popped up. Land Claim Confirm Use He pressed and the screen dissolved into pixels that spun in the air before condensing into a simple pole rising from the ground. Its height stopped at roughly twice Harold''s own and a flag of his faction''s colors blossomed into existence, waving gently from the top of the pole. A new notification screen appeared. Faction has been established! Name Land Claim: <____> Surprised Abbigale didn''t mention being able to name the Claim, Harold couldn''t think of something suitable. He opted to press instead. Processing... Fallmarrow founded! +50 Recruitment Points! Increase your base of power and spread your influence across the realm! Conquer all who oppose your rule and unite the regions under one banner! Reforge the Kingdom Shattered! ''Fallmarrow eh? Sounds like somewhere you''d find a skeleton that''s for sure. Let''s get this party started.'' Harold smiled and closed the remaining notifications. "Alright, Land Claim used and faction established. What''s next?" he asked Abbigale. "Simple, you can access your Recruitment Page now and recruit units by using ''Recruit''. You should have 50 Recruitment Points to spend with your first Land Claim. Every day when the refresh happens you''ll get more Points depending on how big your base is, amount of Claims you control, etc. I''d recruit several workers right away and maybe a couple basic fighter units. Higher tier units become available once you unlock their requirements." she recommended. "We probably don''t have to worry about anyone attacking the first couple days since they''ll be too busy working on building their own bases. It won''t hurt to be prepared though. We can also go out hunting with them. Food isn''t an issue for your skeletons but we can still get materials and some experience from killing things." "Sounds good to me," Harold agreed to her suggestion and opened his Recruitment Page for the first time. "Recruit." Recruitment Points Available: 150 Worker: Basic construction and harvesting unit. 5pts Fighter: Melee. Bottom tier combat unit armed with a club.8pts He was about to recruit a few workers to get started when he noticed something wasn''t right. He close the screen and then reopened the page to see if refreshing it changed anything. ''This can''t be right'' he thought. "Hey Abbigale, how many points am I supposed to have again?" he asked. "Everyone starts with 50. There''s no exception to that regardless of what race you''re playing. Why?" she answered. "Well, uh, I think I might be that exception." He shared his Recruitment Page with her so she could see his options. "That''s not right! How could you start with an extra hundred points?" She pondered for a moment. "Look at your notifications, maybe there''s a reason for it." Harold closed out of his Recruitment again and brought up the notifications he had closed earlier. Faction established. Recruitment unlocked. Claim Fallmarrow founded. Current daily Recruitment Points: 5 Construction screen unlocked. View to see buildable projects. Achievement Unlocked: Just the Two of Us. You have successfully recruited a second Race''s Unique Class to your forces. +100 Recruitment Points Finding the source of his wealth he shared the notification with Abbigale so she could see it. When she read the achievement she started laughing. "I guess that''s one way to go about it. Normally players don''t unlock that until way later but you got it because I''m your advisor. Haha I told you I''m awesome!" she said happily and punched him lightly on the arm. Harold found he couldn''t help but to smile at her joy. ''She might be slightly insane but I think I''ll keep her.'' -Chapter 7- Recruiting Chapter 7 - Recruiting Harold didn''t waste any more time before closing the notifications and going back to his Recruitment screen. He chose to recruit a worker first, pressing theoption once he had the page opened. His Recruitment Points immediately dropped to read145but nothing else happened. Frowning, he selected a worker again.140. He was about to ask Abbigale what he was doing wrong when a small patch of dirt started trembling near him. As he watched, a skeletal hand burst from the ground shortly followed by a second. Two arms forced their way out after and together started grabbing at the ground, struggling to find purchase. Slowly they pulled the rest of the skeleton''s body from the earth. A similar scene was occurring a few feet away, only the sounds of scuffling hands clawing the ground and shifting dirt to announce the two workers'' arrival. Soon both skeletons were standing free with the last bits of clinging soil falling from their frames. They each wore the tattered remnants of a shirt and pants, holding a primitive stone hatchet in one closed fist and a small wooden mallet in the other. Once the summoning process had finished, they remained where they crawled from the ground and stood unmoving. A huge grin spread across Harold''s face.''That is awesome. I can''t imagine the look on someone''s face if I were to summon a bunch right in front of them all at once.'' "So what now my advisor?" he asked, looking to Abbigale. "Well, now that you have a couple workers you can have them construct buildings, which you can view in yourscreen. But, to do that you need the room and the materials." She walked around inspecting the newly summoned workers as she talked. Occasionally poking at one or wiggling her fingers between their bones. "If you open themenu you will be able to see what I''m talking about. You can have your workers gather materials manually or they''ll do it themselves if they need something to complete a project." "What do you mean manually? And stop messing with the skeletons." Harold tried to shoo her hand away from the worker whos jaw she was clicking open and shut. "I''m Thanatos, I''m no fun! Grrr!" Abbigale said out of the corner of her mouth while she dragged the skeleton toward her, escaping Harold''s reach. She worked its jaw in a poor imitation of a ventriloquist doll. Harold let out a groan of frustration. "Come on, what happened to serious only? It''s barely even been an hour." Abbigale rolled her eyes and let go of the worker. "Fiiiine. Manually is when you set the worker to gather a specific material. Like if you just have them chop trees for wood. Or have them mine for stone or ore. Alternatively if a worker is building something and runs out of the necessary materials, they''ll go find more to finish the project themselves." "Alright, I can see some value in having a worker set to only gather a certain material, especially if stockpiling for later. Are there any special commands to control them?" he asked, glad that she has willing to cooperate with him. Abbigale shook her head, "Nope. Just tell the unit what you want it to do. Most Undead units suffer from theMindlesssub-trait though so be sure to word your commands properly, otherwise they''ll just stand there once they finish your orders." "Right, understood." Harold rubbed his hands together in anticipation, bony fingers clattering against one another. "You, start chopping the trees between the edge of the hill and the river, and be sure to pull the stumps so they don''t respawn. Every tree within 300 feet of the claim I want gone. Once you''re done report back to me. You I want to find some stone and start stockpiling." he said pointing at each of his new workers in turn. The two workers immediately set to their tasks. The first walked to a nearby tree and started swinging its hatchet. The mallet that it was holding disappeared into its inventory as it used both hands to chop away, sending chips of wood flying through the air with each swing. After working at the tree for a few seconds, a small pile of chopped wood appeared in its arms. It walked the short distance to the base of the Land Claim, where it dropped the wood before turning about and resuming its attack upon the tree once more. The wood it had dropped was instantly digitalized as it fell from the skeleton''s arms, turning into tiny pixels that flew into the Land Claim and disappeared. The second worker wandered away from the group in search of stone. Harold soon lost sight of him through the trees, however it wasn''t long before he could hear a loud, repetitive *Crack* coming from in the direction it left. Satisfied with assigning his first two worker units, Harold opened thescreen Abbigale had told him about. Unlike the other screens and windows he had dealt with so far inKingdom Shattered, when he tried to bring up thetab, instead of a single screen appearing his vision became blurred. After a moment, it cleared once more and he found a grid of light blue squares overlay the ground, stretching away from him indefinitely. He could see the variations of height across the grid in his immediate vicinity while those squares further away were grey and illegible. A new screen had also appeared and, after he overcame his initial surprise of the grid system, Harold looked it over to find it held a small selection of buildings. Alongside each building was their cost and with what he surmissed was his available resources detailed at the top of the list. Construction Wood: 5 Level 2 Construction: 1000 Wood, 1000 Stone, 500 Metal(Any) Graveyard:100 Wood, 300 Stone Smithy:200 Wood, 300 Stone, 100 Metal(Any) Muster Field: 400 Wood, 200 Stone Shrine:50 Wood, 150 Stone Practice Range: 500 Wood, 100 Stone Lumberyard:500 Wood Quarry:250 Wood Watchtower: 350 Wood, 100 Stone ''Not bad,''he thought.''A few options seem obvious what they do. Hmm, definitely going to need a Smithy. Wonder what the Graveyard is for?'' Curious, he clicked on the Graveyard to bring up its information screen. Graveyard: Though the loss of a loved one weighs on the heart, peace can be found when they are properly laid to rest. A Graveyard will help offset the Morale penalty from casualties. Undead: A Graveyard will generate corpses over time to recruit instead. Corpses are basic humanoid, with small chance of a unique corpse being spawned. ''Well that seems useful. Doesn''t indicate what''s unique about them, but I''ll take more recruits for sure.'' Harold closed the information for the Graveyard after reading through it. Bringing his attention back to the Construction window, he debated what his first project should be. ''I have a lot of extra Recruitment Points right now, so I don''t think I need a Graveyard yet. Abbigale said that there''s a bit of space between everyone in a region, so I could focus on my infrastructure first and recruit a whole bunch of workers to try to race ahead of the other players. Or I can try to overwhelm someone by using all my points to recruit fighters and swarm them. Hmm, but that might not work if they picked a stronger race. I doubt 15ish skeletons with sticks for weapons will be able to kill even a single dragon, especially since they''ll be fighting against at least two at the start with the enemy''s advisor. And even if I do defeat one player I''ll be behind everyone else in building my base unless they try to do the same thing. And what if the player I meet was doing the same strategy as me? Would I even come out ahead, or would I lose too many Fighters?'' He weighed his options for a while longer, unable to decide how to proceed. Finally he admitted to himself that he didn''t know what he should do. Looking away from his screen, he saw Abbigale was squatting on her heels. Her face clearly showed her boredom as she drew squiggles on the ground with a small stick. ''Maybe I''m being too harsh with her,'' Harold thought. ''She seemed so excited just because I picked her to be my advisor. I didn''t think about it before but she''s kind of like a kid, everything is new to her. I''ll see if she has any suggestions on what I should do, maybe that''ll cheer her up some.'' "Hey Abbigale, I''m having a little trouble you might be able to help me with. I can''t decide what my first building project should be. And if I should recruit a bunch of workers to build up the base, or a bunch or fighters and try to take out another player. What do you think?" he asked her.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. She lifted her head when he started addressing her, curious what he needed. As he explained she lost interest and went back to her scribbling as she answered, "You need to make the Graveyard right away. Recruit mostly workers so you can get projects completed quickly, with a few fighting units to defend them incase of an enemy attack or wild encounter." Harold was disheartened that he had failed to engage her further, but she had managed to gain his interest with her suggestion. "Why is the Graveyard so important? Wouldn''t be better to make a Muster Field or Practice Range first? Also what''s a wild encounter?" Abbigale was about to respond when a sharp pain shot through her brain, causing her to gasp out as she dropped her stick and grabbed her head in both hands. "Abbigale!" Harold swiped away his screens, hurrying to her side. He stopped next to her, unsure what to do. Abbigale remained silent and unmoving where she still squatted, clutching her head in her hands. Harold reached out to touch her shoulder. "Abbigale. Are you okay?" Before his hand reached her, Abbigale forcefully smacked it away. "I''m fine," she gritted through her teeth. "It''s just a headache. To much information from my Advisor Package." She stood up with one hand still holding the side of her head. Withher other she brushed the hair out of her face, tucking it in place behind an ear before turning to Harold. She clicked her tongue in displeasure, "Are you planning on just standing there? You should be recruitng more units, unless you want us to lose." She massaged the side of her head, trying to help the pain fade away. Harold didn''t know what to make of her sudden change in demeanor and stood mouth gaping at her. ''What''sup with her? I mean I haven''t known her for that long but it''s like she''s a different person.'' Abbigale stopped rubbing her head, crossing her arms as her eyes narrowed accusatory at Harold. "What are you looking at?" she demanded sharply. "What...I...uhh. Um, are you okay?" Harold stuttered. Abbigale paused at his words before answering, her eyes softening slightly. "Of course I''m okay. I told you it was just the Advisor Package. Why?" "Well, you''re acting...different." he said. "You seem less, uh, relaxed." She shrugged her shoulders at his statement. "If you say so. Listen, is it really that important either way? My Advisor Package is screaming at me to tell you start building a Smithy and Muster Field. The sooner you tell me no to them, the sooner it will accept your decision and leave me alone." ''Yep, she''s definitely acting strange. Maybe it has to do with the Advisor Package she keeps mentioning?'' Harold was sure that something was wrong, he just didn''t know what the reason was. ''She is probably right though, I shouldn''t waste too much time worrying about it. If it''s something major I''m sure the game''s tech guys will fix it.'' "Alright I''ll listen to you, but I want to know why you don''t agree with your Package thing''s suggestions first." He nodded his head as he spoke, affirming his statement. Abbigale brushed back a stray hair that had fallen loose from behind her ear. "Because they''re bad suggestions that''s why. You''re playing as an Undead race, so the Graveyard is the single greatest thing you can build early. Recruiting off a corpse reduces the Recruitment Pointcost for the unit, and you might get a unique one that will have special properties." "Special properties?" "Yeah, might just be a non-basic or it might have like four arms or something. Hey, can you please tell me you''re not doing the Smithy first now? You have no idea how annoying this thing is," she said urgently, tapping the side of her head with a finger. "Fine. It sounds like you might be right. Ahm. Abbigale, I am building the Graveyard first and not the Smithy." Harold cleared his throat and said in an authoritive tone. He could see Abbigale''s entire body relax slightly as he spoke. "Thanks," she said. "You don''t have to sound so official about it though, you can just say no next time. Anyway, you should recruit more workers now and start getting working on the Graveyard." "I''ll keep that in mind." Harold''s attention stayed watching Abbigale for a moment longer before he reopened his screen. The grid appeared again once the screen was up. Looking over the list of buildings, he noticed that his wood listed at the top had increased and he now also had a small amount of stone available. Wood: 55 Stone: 10 ''Going to have to focus on getting more stone. Not worried about more wood when I''m in the middle of a forest.'' As he was thinking over his resources, both of his workers returned to the Land Claim at the same time to deposit resources. The wood cutter dumped another armload of wood while the one sent to gather stone dropped a large sack it had been carrying on its back. The resources were readily absorbed into the Land Claim and Harold''s available resources increased once more. Wood: 60 Stone: 20 ''Definitely more stone. At least it looks like they bring in ten at once instead of the five with wood.'' Ready to get his base going, he selected on the Graveyard and a translucent image of the project appeared before him on the grid system. It covered a somewhat large area of roughly fifteen by fifteen or so squares and there was an option labeled . Most of the image appeared to contain simple tombstones and the squares it occupied were no longer blue, instead either green or red depending if they were occupied. By focusing on its location Harold found he could move the image around as he wanted. Finally settling on a location nearer to the Land Claim, he pressed and a small notification popped up. Build: Graveyard Obstructions to be cleared: 50 Trees, 4 Small Stone Deposits Confirm Construction Project: He confirmed the project and could hear a small *Chunk* in his mind as the image seemed to settle in place. Now that it was started the materials it required were listed above it, both showing that no resources had been added yet. Harold closed out of his screen and brought up his page. ''I still have 140 points to spend. I''m going to need a bunch of workers for sure, but Abbigale also heavily recommended getting a couple fighters. Hm, I could spend all my points right away but what if I lose a few units, or maybe need a couple fighters immediately? I should probably save a few points for an emergency.'' Deciding on a plan, he started recruiting. All around him the ground started tembling as over a dozen skeletons were summoned at once, forcing their way out of the earth. ''Oh yeah,'' he thought, ''I really have to do this to someone.'' Soon all of his newest units finished summoning and he started organizing them. In total he had decided to recruit thirteen Workers, including the two he already had. He also recruited five Fighters to protect them. The Fighters each carried a simple, though large, wooden cudgel with both hands. Harold couldn''t otherwise tell much difference between them and the Workers, the tattered clothing of both looked fairly identical to him. Recruiting so many units left his Recruitment Points at 45. ''If I need to I can summon five more Fighters on the spot, and when the Refresh happens I''ll be able to get at least one more.'' Satisfied, he assigned two more Workers to help his very first one clear out the trees in the area. The remaining Workers were set to work on the Graveyard and then help clear trees once it was built. He initially assigned a Fighter to accompany every two or three workers as a bodyguard, but noticed as soon as he had everyone start working the Workers quickly left the Fighters behind, attempting to hobble and shuffle slowly after them. "Hey Abbigale, what''s wrong with the Fighters?" he asked hoping she knew. She was sitting on the ground nearby, working on crushing some of the ingredients she found earlier with her mortar and pestle when Harold asked. Looking up from her work, she watched the Fighters for a moment before returning to her grinding. "There''s nothing wrong with them. If you''re wondering why they''re so slow you should Inspect them, it''s a good habit to do when you recruit unfamiliar units anyway." Hearing her answer Harold''s eyebrows squenched together in confusion. He used Inspect on one of the Fighters that was still in range, bringing up a notification screen displaying its information. Skeleton Fighter Melee Level: 1 HP: 80/80 Strength: 8 Dexterity: 11 Vitality: 8 Intelligence: 8 Wisdom: 8 Defense: 8 Traits: Skeletal, Undead, Shambling Statuses/Ailments: Leadership Aura, Inspiring Presence He noticed that unlike his Character Sheet, the Fighter''s information was much more sparse. The penalty from the Fleshless sub-trait also stood out to him from the heavily reduced stats, even with the bonuses from Leadership Aura and Inspiring Presence. At the bottom of the page however is where he found what he was looking for, clicking on the Shambling trait to bring up its information. Shambling: Regardless of the reason, this unit is unable to move faster than a slow shuffle outside of combat. When actively engaging an enemy during combat, this unit will sometimes gain a burst of speed. ''Wow that''s...really, really, REALLY bad.'' Harold thought as he read the trait. ''If I want to attack somewhere it''s going to take forever to get there. No wonder there''s no penalty to not taking Rests, I''ll have to march all night just to get there.'' Realizing there was no way for them to serve as personal bodyguards for the Workers like he originally wanted, he decided to post the Fighters around the sides of the Graveyard instead to hopefully stop anything from randomly walking into the Workers. He closed out of the screens and reassigned his Fighters to stand guard and attack anything that came near. The Fighters slowly made their way into position around the building project. By the time they managed to reach where Harold instructed them to stand the Workers had already cut down several trees. Soon however, all of his Workers were busy working while his Fighters stood protecting over the area. With all of his units taken care of, Harold looked around himself for something to do. Eventually his eyes landed back onto where Abbigale was sitting. He approached her and asked what her suggestion was to do next. She reached out a hand and patted the ground next to her. Curious, he sat down where she wanted. She kept grinding ingredients as she told him, "You have recruited units. You have started working on a project. Now, we wait." "Wait? For what?" he asked. "For the project to finish so you can assign your workers and start on the next one. Because they''re Mindless they won''t take the initiative to do anything themselves. Plus the Graveyard will have several corpses already spawned in it when it''s completed so you''ll be able to recruit from them right away. Once the first few buildings are done and there''s a few more combat units recruited to defend the base we''ll be able to safely leave the Land Claim with them and explore our region." "Ah gotcha. That makes sense." Harold sat quietly next to Abbigale for a while, listening to the sounds of trees being chopped and the occasional crack of harvested stone. After a few minutes passed by he broke the silence. "Seems a little boring." Abbigale didn''t look away from what she was doing, but Harold thought he could see the corner of her lip curling upward slightly. "Yeah," she said. "Seems that way."