《Video Game Plotline Tester (The Dark Herbalist, Book 1) by Michael Atamanov》 Prologue "HAVE YOU EVER PLAYED Boundless Realm before?" The interview started off with the question I was most dreading. In the job posting, there had been a rather unambiguous requirement that I must have: "Never played the game before." I suspect that, if I had answered "yes," the interview would have ended as quickly as it had begun. "And have you played any other popular online games, uh... Timur?" The middle-aged HR employee interviewing me, clearly tired at the end of a long work day, finally took the pains to glance at my resume and read my name from the screen. "Yes, of course. I''ve been a gamer for about six years now. I used to play Kingdoms of Sword and Magic fairly actively." "Gamer..." The computer term, it seemed, was not to his taste. The man furrowed his brow in dismay. "And how did you do in our competitor''s game? What were you able to achieve, Timur?" Should I tell the truth? Or would it be dumb to expose such a fact about myself to this total stranger? I decided to risk it: "For the last five years, it has been my only source of income. I didn''t earn a luxury yacht or a villa on a tropical island or anything, of course, but it was more than enough to feed myself and pay my way through college." "Why do you say, ''of course'' there was no yacht?" I was surprised to note that the man began laughing. "The top players from Boundless Realm are doing quite well enough for a simple ocean-going vessel. But as far as I know, in KSM, withdrawing game money was against the rules. Would you care to tell me more about that, Timur?" I guess I chose wrong. I shouldn''t have said anything. Was that the end? Would I be sent on my way? But the man didn''t insist on an answer. Instead, he asked a different question entirely: "Then why did you leave KSM? Though, I guess we can skip past that question. The answer is obvious. The number of active players fell as players started coming over to the more realistic and entertaining Boundless Realm. The money must have simply dried up." I just nodded in silence, as I really didn''t have anything to add. The times when our clan could gather five or even seven thousand gamers for PVP raids into enemy territory or to take down superbosses were long gone. Yesterday, we had barely been able to scrape together fifteen players for an assault on an enemy castle, and three of them were noobs who''d only been in the game for a week. And yet we... took the castle! The only defender from the enemy clan who remained actually seemed glad to be rid of the burden, wishing us happy gaming, and trying to unload his account on us, as he was preparing to leave for Boundless Realm. That was when I decided once and for all that the time had come to ditch that sinking ship before the competition put it on the bottom of the sea. It was a huge shame to see all the money I''d put into the game go down the drain, though. At one point, I''d had to sell the apartment left to me after the death of my parents to pay for my sister''s medical treatments. A large part of the money left over from that I had invested in virtual property near one of Kingdom''s capital cities. At that time, there were more daily active users in Kingdoms of Sword and Magic every day, so the purchase had seemed a sound investment. Who could have foreseen that, literally two weeks after that risky acquisition, the theretofore unknown company Boundless Realm would launch their own game servers? And could anyone have foreseen that said company would become the largest and richest corporation on Earth within three years, pulling hundreds of millions of gamers from all over the globe into their devastatingly realistic world? Now, the value of my virtual property in Kingdoms had fallen so severely that it couldn''t even justify the time I had put into building it. The HR employee spent a few minutes reading my resume more closely, then raised his eyes to me and said with a smile: "A level-three-hundred-ten Human Paladin, a level-two-hundred-seventy Drow Bowman, a level-one-hundred-ninety Half-Elf Mage... Not bad, not bad at all. So Timur, have you been made aware that in Boundless Realm, a player can only have one character, and changing or deleting it is not possible? It''s the only way to make sure our players truly mesh and sympathize with their characters as we would like. It allows them to perceive the game world as true reality." I just nodded in silence. How could I not have known...? That was the thing that had most confused me since I first saw an advertisement for Boundless Realm game tester positions online. The problem was that I had already tried to play Boundless Realm. But that was over three years ago. At that time, it was still just an open beta, and it had seemed a bit "undercooked" for my tastes. There weren''t any training scenarios, guides or in-game hints yet. The rendering of the place I had landed seemed merely schematic. There were no "glorious beckoning horizons," or "enchantingly real sunsets," as modern billboards now proclaimed. At that time, Boundless Realm had nothing of the sort. And also, I had only played for seven minutes. I made myself a level-one Barbarian, took a two-handed ax, left the noob area and right next to the village came face-to-face with a group of Vampire Bats that were level seventy or so. They took me down in one second. The game told me I''d have to wait a whole hour to come back at the respawn point, so I just cursed at the imbalance and deleted the half-baked game from my computer. But now, I was hoping very much that my unsuccessful past experience would not be influencing my ability to work as a "Video Game Plotline Tester," as the official job notice called the position I was now interviewing for. "What can I say, Timur? You really do have a lot of video-game experience, no health issues, and you seem like a fairly well adjusted person. I don''t see any real obstacles to your employment with our corporation." The man smiled at me again, extended a computer tablet with an interview survey, and told me to find a seat in the small room next door where the testing and later introductory meeting was supposed to take place. I went into the room, got out my cell phone and, pretending to take a selfie on the backdrop of a cool advertising sign with a blue water dragon, sent a message: "I passed the interview." Almost instantly, my phone started vibrating nearly imperceptibly. It was the reply: "No hurry, but tell me what they offered you. I''ll wade through the forums and try to figure some stuff out." Then I found a chair, and on the screen of the tablet given to me by a corporation employee, started making ticks in the boxes, answering the many questions about my health, family life, criminal history and bad habits. The second half of the survey turned out to be of a totally different type, clearly aimed at determining the game character best suited to my personality. Next to me, there were other job seekers mashing away at their tablets. They were primarily men and women just as young as me, though there were also older people, and even some elderly. Fairly quickly, I built an impression of my future work environment. Students who had been expelled for truancy or failing grades, office workers subjected to downsizing, down-on-their-luck stock brokers, hopeless gaming addicts, retirees despairing at the lack of normal employment available... To generalize, the people sitting around me were losers, who hadn''t managed to find themselves a place in the real world ¨C that was precisely how I would characterize my fellow job seekers. I didn''t consider myself a loser, though I could agree that I fit into the group very organically. I was already twenty-two years old, but I didn''t have a job, a girlfriend, money, or even a place of my own. So it wasn''t really clear what separated me from them. I had a good head on my shoulders. I''d graduated from college with a degree in Research Chemistry. I was capable of holding a conversation. Nature had blessed me with a pleasant appearance and I was a fairly capable athlete as well. I found it easy to get along with women, but for some reason all my girlfriends had left me for other guys. And when they found out I had to take care of my disabled sister, who couldn''t walk, they couldn¡¯t get away fast enough. That was a shame, but I would never have agreed to trade in my younger sister for some painted doll. My sister Valeria was eleven when the flying car our father was driving had crashed at full speed into a thief trying to escape the police. On impact, and after the resulting fall of the totaled vehicle from thirty meters in the air, my mother and father had died, and my younger sister lost both legs and got a large number of fractures and other injuries. And though the police had declared my father innocent in the crash, that didn''t make it any easier ¨C I had to sell the apartment they left me in their will to pay for Val¡¯s treatment and other expenses. It was in a good neighborhood, as well. For my sister''s sake, I gave up not only my parents, but also friends, psychologists and the rest of the world. It was hardest of all right after the accident. The tormented Valeria couldn''t see a reason to exist. Many times, she asked me to give her the strongest sleeping pills I could find so she could sleep forever. I tried my best to convince my sister not to commit suicide, and day after day found her new reason''s to live. The first thing we discovered that brought her any joy was going on walks. We lived near a large park, and it was nice there. But after that, we were forced to move from the center of the megalopolis due to lack of funds, and took up residence in the outskirts of town. After that, the walks stopped on Val¡¯s own request. It was unbearably painful for my sister to hear the jokes and laughter of the neighborhood kids, who would laugh and throw stones at the crippled girl. Her new way of venting, allowing her to forget for a time about her own physical handicap, became the virtual worlds of computer games. But that way of passing time didn''t really bring us much money, in fact it was more the other way around. The situation became especially dismal in the last months, when the game world she''d chosen a few years earlier, Kingdoms of Sword and Magic, began to show obvious signs of giving out... I shook my head, chasing away the sad thoughts, and returned to the survey. After breezing through the questions, I stopped at the very last point: "Desired method of payment." There were two options: fixed monthly income or the ability to withdraw game currency and exchange it for real money. In Boundless Realm, as in the majority of MMO''s, it was normally only allowed to give money to the company. You could put real money into the game, but not the other way around. An exception was made only for employees of the corporation, to whom that rule didn''t apply. The virtual currency they withdrew from the game was how they got paid for their work. As for me, that possibility was the very reason I was now striving to find work at the Boundless Realm corporation. I mean, it was clear that none of the pitiable losers gathered in this room could hope for good income from a real company. That said, with a legal method of turning game money into real money... There was no telling what could happen. My character could become rich in the game, for example. A that would immediately solve my financial problems in real life as well. As such, my sister and I had a perfect understanding that, for every person that got lucky, there were thousands of people who made the wrong choice and would just be pouring their blood sweat and tears into the corporation for what would almost certainly amount to less than the minimum salary. But we had made our choice, and it was a conscious, shared decision. I was nudged by a middle aged chubby woman sitting next to me. She looked like a typical accountant. The woman got to a question about "charisma," and asked all the people sitting near her in a loud whisper what that word even meant. I couldn''t make out what the guy sitting opposite her said. He was clearly trying his best to make a serious facial expression though, and the woman grew a dark shade of red and began entering text on the tablet with the speed of a printer, covering what she wrote with her left hand. I shook my head. No, these kind of people were definitely no competition. So I decisively marked the option "withdraw game currency." Alright, decision made. There was no going back now. All the same, I tried to cast off the creeping sensation of dread coming from my empty bank account. And it wasn¡¯t just that I had no money. I also had a past-due loan with penalties slowly accumulating on top of it. If I couldn''t pay off at least part of that loan in the next few weeks, the bank might block my card. Beyond that, my sister and I hadn''t paid rent for three months. Our landlady was already threatening to evict us. It would be very, very hard to get by without a stable salary. But I still decided to take the risk, just as I had when buying in-game property in Kingdoms of Sword and Magic. But this time, I wasn''t just betting a two-bedroom apartment in a prestigious neighborhood of a huge city, but everything my sister and I had left. * * * "ALRIGHT, EVERYBODY. Welcome!" An elegantly dressed swarthy man with dark curly hair walked out onto the small stage. "My name is Alexandro Lavrius. I am director of special projects for the Boundless Realm corporation. And you all have been selected to work on the front lines of just such a project as videogame plotline testers. What''s wrong with the microphone?" And in fact, the microphone was giving off a horrible screeching sound, making my ears ring. The director''s young assistant, looking afraid, scurried nimbly out onto the stage, and adjusted the microphone attached to Alexandro''s collar. The director cast a very unhappy gaze at his subordinate, promising the girl a chewing out, and continued: "Alright, now that''s out of the way. So then, first a short introduction. The virtual Boundless Realm you will come to occupy is in fact quite large in scale. It¡¯s not actually boundless, though, as you might think from the name, but still it is quite substantial in size. It is already larger than the actual earth, so you can travel around and discover new interesting locations in a practically limitless way. Right now, there are around two hundred forty million players in Boundless Realm, and that number continues to grow by two to three million every month. You''d think our corporation would be proud of that, and simply sit back on their laurels, raking in the cash. But our management is constantly dreaming up newer and more grandiose plans, and the development of the game is still in full swing. All that said, the planning department saw certain risks in the medium-term future and our directors agreed with the threat assessment. We see two main problems. The first is that, despite the abundance of different races in Boundless Realm, and their unique characteristics, seventy-eight percent of players choose to play as Humans. That is a clear imbalance. And if you consider that another seventeen percent play as different types of Elves and Half-Elves, while three percent are Dwarves, then we see straight to the root of the problem. Those who chose one of the other selectable races, and there are over one hundred of them, account for just two percent of players. The reasons for this disparity are many. Not least of all is that potential new players have practically no positive interesting examples of gamers using the less popular races. And this is at the fact that the game forums are full of the most detailed guides on Human Paladins, Wood-Elf Bowmen, Drow Mages and Half-Elf Assassins. There''s nothing surprising in the fact that new players are afraid to take an untested path and choose exactly the races and classes, for whom the path is completely mapped-out and has been studied in the greatest detail. As a result, yet another Human Paladin, Elf Bowman or Drow Necromancer will enter the game, and the world is already overflowing with them. Our users are justifiably losing their sense of uniqueness and their interest in the game, because every day they meet several exact copies of their character. The second problem is choosing a place to live. Before the gamers, there stretches out a truly Boundless Realm, which can be expanded even further whenever necessary. All the same, the currently existing map is hardly being used: ninety percent of players live in just a few huge megalopolises or near them. The reasons for such overcrowding are also many, but above all, they are economic. Resources are available in the cities, money circulates in the cities, and there are banks where the players can keep their resources safe in the cities. That is why, despite the high property values and expensive resources there, players still come in droves to live in the cities. Millions of beautiful locations, created by talented designers and teeming with unique missions and local inhabitants are sitting around unused. And what is more, we are becoming aware of a growing dismay among players, who feel that ''there''s nothing new to figure out and it''s getting boring.''Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Why am I telling you all this? As many have probably already realized, none of you will be allowed to choose either Human or Elf characters, and none of you will be becoming yet another Knight or Bowman. What¡¯s more, you will spawn in the game in far-off wildernesses, and getting to inhabited locations from there will be very, very problematic. Also, such a move would be looked on with strong disapproval by our company. You will all have an alternative start to the game. It will make encountering dangers and difficulties a near certainty, and that is no accident. Our test groups have shown that successfully overcoming trying situations is the very anchor that holds our players in the game world. With time, we hope to make such locations the normal starting locations for all newbies, so one of your missions will be checking if it is possible to survive and level up your character in these fairly challenging conditions. Your group is one of many chosen in the previous weeks to attempt new atypical solutions and combinations, taking bumps and bruises along the way. But at that, you will make interesting guides that describe eloquently the virtues of playing unusual races, classes and professions. I warn you now: few of you will pass the trial period and be hired on permanently, as our corporation only needs the truly creative personalities and unique stories that cause a keen response among existing and potential players. But, even if you don''t pass the trial period, this will be an invaluable experience for all of you in this field, and also an excellent opportunity to immerse all your senses in Boundless Realm through the most modern technologies. Now, you will be given your assigned character cards, which the system automatically chose for you based on today¡¯s test results. After that, you will have time to ask questions to my assistants. Then, you will have to go to the HR department before the end of the business day and fill out work contracts, and you will be able to start work in-game beginning tomorrow." "Can we start playing today?" The question came from a chubby boy, whose pale face was abundantly smattered with the pimples of adolescence. Alexandro Lavrius, looked over us at the clock on the wall, then quietly asked something to his young assistant, after which he answered: "You can only start working after you¡¯ve signed a contract. Also, don''t forget that it is currently around four in the afternoon in Boundless Realm, and it gets dark at nine. You''re going to be going to the HR department, shown to your desk and given instructions on working the virtual-reality capsule. You''ll then have to create a character, start the training missions and get out into the main world... You won''t have very much time to find a safe place to spend the night. Night in Boundless Realm, outside the cities and other safe locations is a very, very harsh and dangerous time. It is highly likely that you would be eaten by monsters. If that were to happen, you would lose some of the experience you gained and a whole hour for respawn. But, if you want to risk it and start work today, I don''t see why not. If you are able to survive the first night, it will be a useful experience for you and will have a positive effect on your further career as a tester." * * * A GOBLIN HERBALIST??? With incomprehension I looked at the card handed to me. I even took out my smartphone to look up information about Goblins in Boundless Realm. The first link rewarded me with the following text, taken from a forum on the game: "Goblins are vile little bastards who play mean tricks, steal vegetables from gardens, and attack lone travelers. Fortunately, Goblins are very weak, so even a total noob can handle them. Sometimes, you find entire Goblin villages. They are decent sources of experience, and an easy way for beginner characters to level themselves up. It isn''t clear why, but the developers made this NPC race available to players. I would personally find it hard to imagine someone dumb enough to choose this green abomination, especially considering the very restrictive penalties to Intelligence and Strength this race has, which make it practically impossible for a Goblin character to be a decent Mage or Warrior. Purely theoretically, I could imagine a Goblin player as a bowman or a crossbowman due to their bonuses to Agility and Perception, but I''ve never met someone disturbed enough to try, as the various types of Elves have even stronger bonuses to the same. Oh yeah, these green freaks also have a significant penalty to relation with humans, so Goblins won''t be able to go to normal game locations by default." Given that any beginning player would see such a text, if they were considering playing as a Goblin, how were the developers of Boundless Realm actually surprised that no one wanted to play this race?! The person who wrote the text was called Overgrown Woodsman, a level two hundred four Human Druid, according to his forum account. For curiosity''s sake, I read through the next seven links from the search engine as well, but everywhere I looked, I found the same unappealing information. I sent my sister a message about the character I''d been stuck with, and continued looking intensely into guides on Goblins and Herbalism. I was distracted from the reading by a strange sound nearby. I raised my head. The director was long gone, and now the very same old accountant lady who had earlier asked about charisma was arguing with his assistant. "What seems to be the matter with the character the system assigned to you?" The employee asked in a calm, even boring voice. "What seems to be the matter?! The fact that I''m a Dryad Dancer! I saw on the game forums that Dryads don''t wear clothes! Absolutely horrible! I was looking for normal work in an office, even if maybe the schedule would be a bit wonky, but I never wanted to work as a stripper!" The director''s assistant, after the incident with the microphone, was already on edge, so she didn''t even try to hide her annoyance now: "The system determined that this character would be optimal for you. But if the choice offered isn''t to your liking, I have to tell you that you did not pass the trial period and will be first to leave the group..." I noticed a mocking grin pass over the face of the boy who had earlier told her about the meaning of charisma. The system''s strange choice had probably been the result of his intentionally bad hint. The assistant outstretched her hand demandingly, preparing to take the character card from the lady''s hand, but just then a young woman''s voice rang out from the back rows: "Wait! Could I trade characters with her?" A pretty girl with a good figure and hair in a long dark chestnut braid down to her belt stood from her place and started off toward the stage. "I have also already looked at the introductory information on Dryads. They really do not have equipment slots other than for rings and bracelets, but all that is compensated by other racial bonuses. Also, the Dancer class makes a good combination with the strong sides of Dryads ¨C attractiveness, charm, huge bonuses to reaction of any member of the opposite sex." The director''s assistant agreed: "That''s exactly right. It''s a good part to play, and an easy character to gain experience with. Also, the path of a Dryad Dancer is very unusual. There isn''t a single normal guide on it, and successful leveling up of such a character practically guarantees that you would pass the trial period." The accountant cringed and muttered in dismay: "Let''s just see what kind of filth they tried to push on you... It could hardly be worse than a naked dancer." She took the thick card from the girl''s hand and read. "Oh! Yes! Yes! Gremlin Banker! This is the role I''ve been dreaming of my whole life!" The middle aged woman practically kissed the pretty girl that traded cards with her and agreed to become a Dryad Dancer. After that, exclamations could be heard from all sides of the room: "Would someone want to trade for a Troll Cannibal?" "I''ll trade a Hobgoblin Trickster for any other class!" "Does anyone want an Orc Astrologer? I''ll trade for any melee character!" Not waiting for the end of the freak show, I stood up and headed for the HR department. A Goblin Herbalist was actually pretty cool. I was totally OK with my character. * * * THOUGH I TRIED not to show my emotions, I was under a strong impression from the splendor and magnificence of the corporation. The Boundless Realm company had a huge skyscraper, which seemed to have many underground floors as well. Some the elevator passed didn¡¯t even have buttons on the panel. But through the transparent glass doors, I could see well-equipped armed guards wearing body armor and gas masks. As the kindly technician by the name of Artyom leading me said, these underground floors were off limits to us mere mortals. They contained the holiest of holies: the game world''s servers, which were harder to gain access to than a bank vault full of gold. These technical floors were crammed with an endless number of security systems and filled with poison gas to make sure any malefactors wouldn''t even think of trying to get inside. After that, without stopping, we walked through the underground garages, filled with luxury vehicles and planes. The elevator doors opened on the testing department''s floor, and I gazed upon IT: a huge room that stretched out to infinity with a great many high raised walkways lined with rows of externally identical small cubicles. Artyom and I walked down one of the long trestles and stopped before a semi-transparent door. I stared blankly at the writing on it: "4-16A." "Fourth floor, side A, cubicle sixteen. This is where you''ll be working. Go in, get your bearings and take off your jacket." My guide did not go inside, but pointed me to a chair and a hanger on the wall. "Every cubicle has a pullout desk and a built in refrigerator, so you will be able to store food here and have snacks before work. Up here, there is a set of restrooms every fifty cubicles, and at either end of the walkway, there are also shower rooms. But you should know that there are only two showers per row of three hundred, so don''t count on them being free, especially in the evening near the end of a shift. Alright then, best wishes to you. And have a great day gaming!" Artyom said the last sentence to a beautiful, and I would even say chic lady with luxurious red hair and a proud look who walked past my cubicle. She was wearing a long emerald green dress and high-heeled shoes, a hat with a wide brim, and gemstone rings, which gleamed up at me from her fingers. The beauty didn''t stop to look at Artyom. It seemed she didn''t even notice me. She walked another fifteen meters, then stopped before a standard door the same as mine. She beeped in with her electronic key, and the mystery girl ducked into her cubicle. "Who was that?" I asked the stick-straight technician at half voice. Artyom shuddered and returned to the real world. "Who? How am I supposed to know? She works here. She comes around in the evening, and only leaves in the morning. She must play some kind of night character. Clearly, she is a good player and makes good money. Once, I saw her parking in the underground garage. She drives a luxury sports car so nice I''d never be able to afford it if I saved up for the rest of my life. But I have no idea what character she actually plays. We cannot see your game avatars, we just help you set up the technology. Generally, though, elite gamers get their own offices on the upper floors of the building, but she must find it more comfortable to come down here from the underground garage. Alright, I''m getting off track. Get undressed, I''ll size you for a sensor suit and helmet." The door had just closed behind Artyom when I got out my phone and told my sister that I was ready. "Call up the console on the screen and tell me the number of your virtual reality capsule and game session. I''ll try to link in." I typed a technical command into the keyboard and took a picture on my phone camera of the information she requested. "Wait five minutes. Let''s start at the same time." I put on the suit, which was bristling with electrodes and lay down in the virtual reality capsule. Looking at the timer shown on the small monitor, I waited five minutes, then closed the lid of the virtual reality capsule, cutting myself off from the real world. The screen before my eyes lit up... * * * Damage taken: 2757 hitpoints (Cursed Bat bite) You have died * * * WHAT THE HELL?! The message jumped in immediately. The image had hardly even loaded yet. The message slowly faded, then I found myself in darkness again. A minute went by, then another, and maybe a few more. Nothing happened. So that was it? There was no game interface, nor any other menu windows, just pitch black all around. Something must have gone wrong. Bats! That was right! They were the last thing I saw during my short game as a Barbarian. That meant I would now be dragged from my capsule and fired for lying in the first interview question. The world suddenly lit back up, and the character creation window came onscreen. Yikes, I made it by the skin of my teeth. So, what was I seeing? A level-one Goblin Herbalist. I couldn''t change race or class. Character name: Amra. Here I was again overcome by a cold sweat. When I made the Barbarian, my first move had been to try to give him the name "Conan," in honor of the famous television barbarian, but the name was taken. Then I checked the name of another famous hero Amra, and it was free. Insofar as I had been able to familiarize myself with the changes in game rules that had taken place over the past three years, the name of any character in the game now had to be made of two words: "Tony Blackheart," "Ahmed Slinking_Filth," "Ellie Very_Pretty." Things like that. But I still had the old kind of name, and what was more, it was only four letters long... A noob with a name like that? I guess I wouldn''t be "totally giving myself away," as a corporation employee. I wasn''t opposed in principle, either. It was nice to be a bit unique. Now the time had come to deal with the appearance and stats. A green face was staring at me. It was defined by huge eyes and ears of magnificent dimension. The system suggested I play around with the settings, turning this standard model of a Goblin into something more personalized and matching to my taste, but I didn''t actually do that yet. As the hint told me, I would be able to change my character''s appearance for free all the way up to the end of level ten, so I didn''t have to rush too much with this issue. Now, another thing was much more important to me: the director Alexandro Lavrius had said that there wasn''t much time left until nightfall, so I didn''t want to waste a single minute on any nonsense. Above all else, I had to figure out the bonuses and penalties for the Goblin race. Unfortunately, Overgrown Woodsman hadn''t been lying about the penalties: 50% penalty to Intelligence increase rate 50% penalty to Strength increase rate -20 penalty to relations with the following races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Dragons 20% penalty to experience gain The penalties were a very hard pill to swallow. I was especially unhappy with the penalty to experience gain. The negative characteristics of the Goblin race were hardly compensated by the bonuses, either: 30% bonus to Agility increase rate 30% bonus to Perception increase rate +20 bonus to relations with the following races: Goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, Ogres, Giants +30 bonus to reaction of forest and swamp creatures 30% bonus to movement speed in forest and swamp tiles Finally, I reached the main stats of my big-eared Goblin. Every character in Boundless Realm, whether an NPC or a real player, had only six main statistics: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Constitution, Perception and Charisma. All in all, it was very standard and easy to understand. Strength governed the damage you could do with hand-held weapons and the maximum weight you could carry. Agility was important for ranged weapons and dodging. Intelligence allowed you to understand the properties of objects, and also determined the amount of mana and strength of spells for all kinds of magical characters. Constitution influenced the number of hitpoints and endurance points a character had. Perception defined the vision, smell and hearing of the character, as well as the chance to discover hidden objects. And finally, Charisma: a stat that determined how those around your character would relate to it. There were several ways to raise the base stats: distribute the stat points received with every level, raise stats by leveling up primary skills, or raise them with magic objects.
Name Amra
Race Goblin
Class Herbalist
Experience 0 of 100
Character level 1
Hitpoints 15/15
Endurance points 15/15
Statistics
Strength (S) 2
Agility (A) 2
Intelligence (I) 2
Constitution (C) 2
Perception (P) 2
Charisma (Ch) 2
Unused points 3
Primary skills (2 of 4 chosen)
Herbalism (P A) 1
Trading (Ch I) 1
Secondary skills (0 of 4 chosen)
The developers had assigned my character two primary skills by default: Herbalism and Trading. And though I didn''t have any questions on the first one (it was, of course, hard to imagine an Herbalist who didn''t have a good understanding of herbs), Trading was somewhat confusing. I wasn''t able to delete Trading from my skills. Based on that, the developers had the idea that I was supposed to be some kind of little Goblin trouncing through the forest collecting bunches of herbs and selling them to local traders. So I needed the Trading skill to make sure sneaky profiteers didn''t leave me with my pants down, given how stupid my character was; his Intelligence was about as high as a stool¡¯s. I was also a bit confused by the letters in parenthesis next to the skill names, but I quickly realized that they were the statistics the character gradually built up by using that skill. Three free stat points, how very little! Having played around a bit with the parameters, and read their descriptions, I discovered that hitpoints and endurance points only depended on the character''s Constitution. Alright, I''d put one of the free points into that. The number of hitpoints grew to 21, while endurance grew to 20. Then Agility. Based on the guide from Overgrown Woodsman, and also the Goblin race bonuses, it was Agility precisely that would become the main determinant of my big-eared character''s success. I''d put two points there, bringing it up to four. That seemed to be all. Although... At the very last moment, when I already was preparing to start the game, I decided I couldn''t bear the very low Intelligence of my Goblin. In the description of the stat, it was directly stated that Intelligence lower than three meant I couldn''t even speak plainly or understand normal speech. So then, my Goblin couldn¡¯t even talk normally with other players or NPC''s and would not understand his missions or hints. I lowered Charisma to the minimum (he already wasn''t a beauty, but he became a downright monstrosity) and moved that point over to Intelligence. Now I really was done. Time to go! Orcish Galley Fear. Cold. Pain. Hunger. My beaten body ached and tingled. Through the pain and fatigue, I could also make out some loud noises. What I tried to do was just ignore them and lose myself further in a calming dream, but the sounds kept growing louder and louder. I could hear weapons clanging, cries of rage and the screams of the dying. My nostrils caught the smell of freshly spilled blood. I strained to peel back my eyelids and discovered myself in some kind of dark room on a floor covered in a layer of rotten straw. I tried to move and discovered that my left wrist was firmly secured in a heavy metal cuff, which was attached to a chain that led to a brace hammered into the wall. So I was a captive? At the edge of my vision, I saw a tall Orc dressed in leather armor run by with a crooked saber. Then, literally a couple seconds later, I saw his bloodied body fall to the ground. The Orc''s killer, who turned out to be a huge armored Human, walked up to the body on the floor and prudently finished the Orc off, driving a short spear into his chest. "Seems to be the last of them!" He shouted out to someone far behind and was answered in a creaky voice: "Great! Free the prisoners and bring them out to our ship! That Orcish galley will soon break on the riverside cliffs!" Now I was going to be freed! I wasn''t even able to feel happy before the huge soldier turned toward me, took a close look, then made a disgusted face and drove his spear through my chest! * * * DARKNESS CAME over again. I was lying there fully dumbfounded and could not believe what was happening. That man had killed me, or at least, seriously wounded me, even though he was clearly supposed to save me! Why? An internal voice laughed and hinted mockingly that it couldn''t be any other way. The Goblin race already had a -20 penalty to human reaction, and I had totally removed my Charisma. So now, that was how every Human, Elf or Dwarf I met would treat me. The pain returned and I opened my eyes. I saw the world in dark and red tones. As before, I was lying on old putrid hay, but now that hay was also soaked in a thick dark blood. My blood. +1 HP from Regeneration The spear wound to my stomach had almost totally healed, but my health level was flashing alarmingly at 3 of 21. And it should be said that I didn''t even know Goblins could regenerate health. Why did none of the guides say anything about that? Maybe regeneration was recently put in to make the race more playable? In any case... the wound to my stomach was causing severe pain! Whether I wanted to or not, I was forced to admit that dying was extremely unpleasant, even in a computer game. I¡¯m not sure what I would have thought up next, or what I would have done, because a Rat suddenly scurried under the wooden bars of my cell. Rat, level 1. The little creature was following its nose inquisitively, bewitched by the intoxicating aroma of blood. I moved slightly, pulling my right leg a bit in. The Rat instantly turned toward me, but didn''t run away. Instead, it started looking at me. And what was more, he clearly had an ever-growing interest in my culinary properties. Probably, in a healthy condition, my Goblin would have an easy time dealing with such a creature, but with just three pitiful hitpoints... It was gonna bite me to death! Clearly, the creature also came to that conclusion and headed in my direction. What happened next, neither I nor the Rat were expecting: Damage dealt: 10 (Vampire Bite) Health restored: +5 HP Experience received: 8 Exp Object received: Rat meat (food) Achievement unlocked: Taste Tester (1/1000) Racial ability unlocked: Taste for Blood (+1% of damage done for every unique being killed with Vampire Bite) Parameter Unlocked: Sating the Thirst (current status 10/15) I sat for a few long seconds, taking in the vile flavor of Rat blood and digesting what happened in all senses of the word. So, I was a Vampire? I opened my character window to check, and it left me with no doubt on the matter: Race: Goblin Vampire It should be said that the second part of my race could be hidden simply by placing a check in a special field reading "do not show other players." I read the description of the Vampire race, and thanked the heavens and the developers of the game for the ability to not reveal myself: -50 penalty to reaction of all living races upon discovery Penalty: Legal target for murder by players and NPC''s of living races upon discovery Penalty: Cannot hide your true nature when in the state Thirst for Blood Penalty: Instant death when hit by sunlight. That was quite the pickle... From this moment on, my biggest mission of all would be keeping that secret. There were good plusses, though, too. At level one, for example, a Vampire could get +1 HP regeneration per minute and an additional attack (to the right or left hand): Vampire Bite, cost: 10 EP (endurance points) Damage done: (1-6)*Strength of Character, 50% of damage dealt goes to Healing When attacking a sleeping, unconscious, or paralyzed target, special attack has 100% chance of success. Vampire''s choice of: (Instant death/6-hour deep sleep/Infect with Vampirism) I read the description of the attack again. There was no limit on the level of the creature killed? That meant I could now kill even a level-one-hundred monster with one bite, if I could get lucky enough to find it sleeping? What a great source of experience for leveling the character! And I could do the same to players... Stop! I rebuffed myself. I only had to use that ability against a player once and it was over. My secret would be revealed. I would become a victim of the hunt, and time after time I would be killed just because the rules allowed it. Every death would bring physical pain and loss of experience. So then, I had to keep the secret of my vampirism safe. "Who''s making noise over there?" As if bringing my fears to life, I heard a voice beyond the bars. Then I jumped up in surprise and quickly wiped off my lips with the back of my hand. The last thing I needed was for this stranger to see blood on my face. "Rat to beat. To attack. Hard you beat," I answered. What the hell?! That wasn¡¯t what I¡¯d actually said, but the only thing that would come out of my character¡¯s mouth were these awkward broken phrases. All the same, even three Intelligence points was not enough, and it was scary to imagine how my character would be talking if the number had been lower. "Rat? Yes, I saw it. It looked at me for a long time, but it ran on. Have you figured out how to get your arm out of the chain yet? I''m not strong enough." Mission received: Escape from the slave-trader''s galley Mission class: Required, training Reward: 80 Exp, access to main game world "Chain I no know. To pain. Spear stabbing. Man." From behind the wall, I heard the strange, gurgling laughter of the other voice. "I can only imagine what your Charisma must be like if they wanted to kill you instead of save you. But it''s strange that they didn''t kill you. All the soldiers are level twenty-five; they should be able to send you to respawn in one hit. The soldiers simply didn''t notice me. As soon as the massacre started in the hold, I used my Stealth skill and even managed to get it to level two before they left. Though I rushed to hide. Maybe they would have freed me along with the other prisoners. Or sent me for respawn, and I would come back over at the respawn point, but out of the chain." I froze in fear. The respawn point this creature was talking about couldn''t be seen from where I was. But what if the only way to freedom for characters with such disarming appearances as mine was through death and subsequent rebirth? Come on, that was nonsense! There must have been other normal ways of getting out. I looked at the short rusty, half-meter long chain holding my arm. At first, I just tried to break the chain. Your character doesn''t have enough Strength to complete this action Strength required to break chain: 7 Alright, I clearly didn¡¯t have enough Strength. But what about breaking the shackle at my wrist? Your character doesn''t have enough Agility to complete this action Agility required to break chain: 7 . Another fail. I looked closely at my left hand. I had a thin wrist. My palm was also thin, but I had a big thumb jutting out to the side stopping me from slipping out of the manacles. But what if... The idea of gnawing off my own thumb seemed utterly barbaric, but I didn''t chase it off right away. I did have Regeneration, and the thumb would soon grow back. What way out of this situation could possibly be more fitting of a true Goblin? I tore my teeth into my own flesh. The pain was overwhelming and my hitpoints started falling fast. I even had to quickly eat the Rat meat to restore some health. But my idea worked! I pulled my bloodied hand from the rusty shackle. Freedom! The blood immediately stopped, leaving me just two hitpoints of my full twenty-one. But what did that matter? Regeneration would gradually restore my life to max. Just then, though, a debuff popped up... Your left hand is injured For the next two days, you will not be able to use any weapon in your left hand, nor swim or climb cliffs and trees All other actions done with the left hand will be subject to a penalty of 30% I didn''t get any experience for taking off the chain. Either the developers didn¡¯t like my method, or the mission simply hadn''t been fully completed. "What was that sound?" My acquaintance asked from behind the wall. "Me chain off. Now go you." I finally got up and looked into the neighboring cell. What a freak was sitting there, too! It was an exhausted, blue-colored half-human/half-fish with huge puffy eyes lying on the dirty floor inhaling air greedily. Trong Diver Naiad Level One Diver "You look pretty freaky, Amra!" The fish''s reaction to my appearance was the same as the man''s. We both laughed, then he answered the question I had yet to ask: "When making the character, I had no idea what to name myself. I figured the second word should show my profession. So now, I''m Mr. Diver, the Diver. But it''s nothing. I''d rather you tell me how you got that chain off." I did my best to explain in layman''s terms my method and the two-day debuff I''d gotten as a result. The fish shook his head. "Cripes... No, that''s not for me. I need to be able to dive and swim underwater. But with my left hand broken, I won''t be able to do that. It''s easier for me to simply die and be reborn in an hour, totally free and without any debuffs from a crippled body. How about this: I''ll try a bit longer to think up a way to get free, but if nothing sensible comes to mind, you can send me to respawn. I need the hour away anyway. I''ve got mail to answer and a bunch of little issues to take care of. You can go off somewhere and eat or just take a walk, then we can keep playing together. It seems to me that it''s way too hard to get out of this alone. Sound good?" At first, his suggestion made me squirm. Trong Diver was talking so calmly about his own death. It was as if he wasn''t at all worried about the pain it would cause. But afterwards, I realized that he was just a regular player without a virtual reality capsule. He was sitting at home in front of his monitor or wearing a virtual-reality helmet on his head and trying to get out of the boring training location and into the huge game world as quickly as possible, no matter what it took. That explained a lot, as any player with full ability to feel through his character would clearly have preferred other ways of getting free. "Good. Agreement. I wander and looking there," I stopped the shackled Naiad and walked further into the dark room. The time had come to figure out how to control the game. First of all, I called up the location map, made it semitransparent and placed it in the upper right corner. It should also be said that the map told me I was in the hold of a slavers'' galley. Trong Diver, behind me, was shown on the map as a yellow triangle, while before me in the darkness, there were three red markers lying in wait. I looked at the information on the marker colors, and found out that red (as I would have guessed) indicated a hostile enemy. Yellow meant NPC''s and players whose opinion of you was unknown. I went carefully and slowly forward. It smelled of recently spilled blood, but the bodies of the prostrated soldiers hadn''t disappeared, as happened after a certain amount of time in most games. I felt something with my leg, and a glass container rolled down the floor. Empty vial. Used to store alchemical elixirs. I picked up the vessel. Maybe I''d need it. I stopped my gaze on it, trying to figure out how the container should be sealed. A few seconds later, a message popped up: Would you like to choose Alchemy (I A) as a primary skill? I was slightly taken aback. It was that easy to pick up a skill? No teachers and missions, no insanely expensive scrolls? Alchemy... It could, of course, be very useful to me. I would be finding a lot of herbs and roots in my profession, and this way I didn¡¯t have to sell them raw for little money. I would be able to prepare the plants into valuable elixirs, which would probably be more expensive than normal herbs. I chose the option "Yes." You have taken Alchemy as a primary skill Skill level: 1 Primary skills chosen (3 of 4) Only then, after a long delay, did I realize what I had just done. I had filled one of the two remaining skill slots with a totally random skill, which also leveled up Intelligence, a stat that the Goblin race had a 50% penalty to training speed for! Nothing to sneeze at. What a muttonhead I was!!! Instead of Alchemy, I should have chosen a skill that leveled up Agility and Perception, the Goblin''s strong points. If I increased the level of such a skill to, let''s say level one hundred, I would get 130 Agility points (100*1.3) plus 65 Perception points (50*1.3). In the end, it would have added up to an improvement of stat points by a whole 195! But with Alchemy at level one hundred, considering the 50% penalty to Intelligence leveling, I would get just 50 points (100*0.5) of Intelligence and 65 points (50*1.3) Agility points, adding up to a total of 115 statistic points for my character instead of the 195 I could have counted on if I''d been thinking with my head... Feeling ashamed, I practically smashed the ill-fated vial on the wall, but still I tried to keep calm and took it with me. I don''t know for sure where the game thought I could put objects ¨C I was wearing nothing but a dirty loincloth ¨C but I was still able to store things in my inventory. In any case, there were just eight slots in my inventory. It was very little. I wanted to find a bag to store my things in. A few steps later, I found another such container, then another four. In that place, based on the abundance of drying blood and deep gouges in the wooden table, there had been a raging battle, and enemies had applied alchemical substances for strengthening and healing. The six identical containers, fortunately, took up just one slot of the eight available in my inventory. There was less and less distance between the red dots on the map and me. I couldn''t see the enemies yet, but I walked a bit more carefully. And literally instantaneously, another message popped up: Would you like to choose Stealth (A C) as a primary skill? I didn''t rush the decision this time. On the one hand, using Stealth would level up Agility, which was useful. But on the other, I¡¯d be filling up all four available primary skill slots before I¡¯d even started to play... What if I needed something else entirely to develop the character? And also... I shouldn''t forget that I was a Vampire. Being able to conceal my main character skills from others was not something the game mechanics allowed for. When meeting characters, you had to be able to figure out who it was in front of you, right? That would only raise the logical question of why a peaceable Goblin Herbalist had the Stealth skill. With some measure of pity, I refused to make Stealth one of my primary skills, but I did make it a secondary. Though secondary skills didn''t increase stat points, the very ability to move in hiding could be quite useful for a nocturnal Vampire, and also secondary skills were not shown to other players. You have taken Stealth as a secondary skill Skill level: 1 It was no challenge to enter stealth mode. But it did make my character walk significantly slower. I wasn¡¯t in a hurry, though, so I kept walking in stealth mode. As I was already looking at my stats, I didn''t miss the moment when the empty Stealth-skill bar suddenly began to gradually fill up. Look at that bar go! Someone might see me if I started moving carelessly. With redoubled caution, I went on into the darkness of the ship''s hold. Rat, level 1 I noticed it while still invisible. Stealth Skill increased to level 2! Feeling happy, I looked at the message and carelessly tripped over a little step I hadn''t noticed, laying myself out on the floor. At that very moment, the Rat noticed me. In huge leaps, the aggressive animal threw itself on the attack, but I didn''t even have any weapons! Damage taken: 4 (Rat bite) Health level: 6/21 Two more bites and I was done for! I then punched the Rat twice. Once with my left fist and once with my right. No damage! I missed. Damage taken: 4 (Rat bite) Health level: 2/21 No longer hoping for my weak punches to do anything, I made a determined attempt to bite the enemy. Damage dealt: 8 (Vampire Bite) Health restored: +4 HP Health level: 6/21 Ha! Hot diggedy! What was some little Rat against a terrifying creature of the night! The next bite came from the Rat, cutting another 4 HP from my bar, but then it was my turn... Not enough endurance points to use the Vampire Bite skill. What a bad time to run out of endurance! I''ll be eaten right away! In despair, I began striking at the Rat with my fists once again. Damage dealt: 2 (Punch) Experience received: 8 Exp Object received: Rat meat (food) I dismissed the importune suggestion that I choose Manual Combat (S C) as a primary skill. Instead, I sat down on the damp straw-covered floor in exhaustion. My hitpoint bar was flashing alarmingly at 2/21 HP, while my endurance was at just 1/20. Hrmph... I had to honestly admit, at least to myself, that my big-eared Goblin had escaped from the encounter with the Rat only by a miracle. I shouldn''t keep asking for trouble, that was for sure. So, before coming across any more Rats, I had to get ready, at least by restoring my health and endurance, ideally also finding some kind of weapon.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I sat for ten minutes, just breathing. In that time, my endurance rose to ten points, while my health, due to Regeneration and the meat I ate, came back all the way. For that reason, I risked going onward, and almost immediately discovered a knife lying forgotten on the ground. Rusty kitchen knife Damage done: (1-4)*Strength It was clearly better than punching with my bare fists at (1-2)*Strength! I had barely picked up the knife when the system suggested I choose Dagger (S A) as a primary skill. I snorted unhappily. Stop trying to get me to do things without thinking them through! If Agility were the primary stat in that skill, I may have even considered it, but Strength with its 50% penalty... No thank you. Alchemy, with its penalized Intelligence stat was quite enough for me! I also didn''t want to choose Dagger as a secondary skill. It was much easier to take down Rats with the kitchen knife. I would take a 4 HP bite, answer with a knife strike for 6 HP, then finish the beast off with a Vampire Bite. My endurance was again sagging down in the single digits, so I had to wait. And though there was another Rat in front of me, and I had even already seen it, the time had come to return to Trong Diver. The fish-man was sitting in the same pose as before, fettered to the wall with metal shackles. A few times I called Trong by name, but it took him several minutes to come to and answer: "Sorry, I was afk. As soon as you finish your business, send me to respawn as we agreed. I''ll run out to the store and buy dinner. Just make sure to wait an hour for me, alright? We can make it further together!" I raised the dagger above the Naiad and drove it into the fish-man''s chest. And though the strike roll was not bad, doing 8 HP of damage, Trong''s life bar only drooped down by a quarter. Son of a gun! His life points were one and a half times higher than my big-eared Goblin''s! I had to hit him again and again. After my fourth stab, Trong''s life indicator was flashing in the critical zone... I stopped and asked the fish-man if I should finish him off or not. No answer followed. The player had clearly already walked away from the monitor. So I made up my mind! I had read about this in the forums. I had come across some information saying that, for the professions Assassin or Thief, it was desirable to have the Veil skill to remove or modify the game logs in order to hide criminal actions from your victims, reduce the amount of time the Criminal tag would last, and with time erase the marker altogether. And that was just what I needed! I tried to edit the last game message about the knife strike. Would you like to choose Veil (I A) as a primary skill? No, taking Veil as a primary skill was not the right move. There was no reason for a peaceable Goblin Herbalist to advertise his dark inclinations. But as a secondary skill, the ability was useful and then some! You have taken Veil as a secondary skill Skill level: 1 Effect time: 1 minute, uses 5 EP I clicked the Veil icon. Now I had a whole minute to do this all in secret: Damage dealt: 6 (Vampire Bite) Health restored: +3 HP Experience received: 80 Exp Level two! Achievement unlocked: Taste tester (2/1000) Achievement unlocked: Player killer (1) Racial ability unlocked: Night vision (lasts 12 hours, costs 15 EP) Racial ability improved: Taste for Blood (+2% of damage done for every unique being killed with Vampire Bite) Attention! Your character is marked as a Criminal! For the next eight hours, you will be a legal target for attack! Trong Diver''s silhouette started flashing and became semitransparent. No, I hadn''t acted thoughtlessly. This time, I really had done everything in a calculated fashion. I had found a target to level up my very useful ability Taste for Blood, and Naiads were a very rare race. When else would I get the chance to add one to the list of unique species I''d bitten? But I wasn''t the only one who could see the game logs. What would Trong Diver''s reaction be when he discovered the messages about his death and read in the logs that a Vampire had killed him? I had to do something to keep my secret. So what could I do with the log? I was able to open the message Trong Diver would see in fifty seconds for editing: Damage taken: 6 HP from the player Amra (Vampire Bite) You have died I didn''t delete it entirely, though I could have. Instead, I edited it, changing out Vampire Bite for Rusty Knife Stab. Much better! Veil Skill increased to level 2! Not bad, not bad at all! Life was turning around! Now I just had to distribute the stat points I got when leveling up, and get back to new adventures! By the way... For some reason, two of the five points were automatically spent. My Strength had grown to three, while Constitution had grown to four. Strange... Digging around in the race guides, I figured out that it was a peculiarity of Vampires: like it or not, Strength and Constitution would grow every level. I''d have to make peace with that. There was nothing to be done. I just had three stat points left. I decided I should put two straight into Charisma. I didn''t like dying from the first person I saw just because of my ugly face! And my last stat point, after long consideration I placed in Intelligence. It was time to become smarter than a stool! * * * THE LAST RAT didn''t cause me any troubles, dying after just two stabs; evidence of my character''s increased Strength. After picking up a piece of Rat meat, I headed further into the visible end of the dark hold where there was a stairwell to an upper deck. Just after getting on the first step, the map updated, now showing not the hold, but the oarsman deck. On this level, there was a stench. It smelled of filth, dirty bodies and rotting blood, all mixed into such a cocktail that I was practically knocked off my feet. My Goblin had to cover his nose with his crippled left hand. Alright, message received. Boundless Realm was praised for its hyperrealism, but what was the point of making such an unpleasant location? And also, if I thought about it, how had the designers even managed to convey the horrible smells of this wretched place? Even the slight breeze wasn''t carrying away the stench that wound its way through the deck. Slightly coming to, I took a look around. Everything around me bore witness to a recent slaughter: drying blood on the floor, oarsmen''s benches broken and splintered by blade strikes, pieces of chain, and tatters of dirty clothes. There were no corpses. They had already managed to disappear in the game world. Then, on the map, beyond the markers for a few far-off Rats, I saw a yellow triangle. A player?! I stole up closer, and was able to see him, or more accurately her: Valerianna Quickfoot Forest Nymph Level 2 Beast Master My sister! I recognized her right away. The disabled Valeria had always used the same name for her main character, no matter the game. I didn''t come up any closer. My sister and I had agreed that we wouldn''t advertise our relationship, or prior acquaintance. So I crawled forward, watching with satisfaction as the Stealth skill level bar crawled upward. And meanwhile, the graceful Nymph with her long blue-green hair was busy exterminating Rats. She was doing it in a fairly unique way, too: trying to stay far from the vermin, she would use a spell to take one under her control and set it against the others. I read the information on Valerianna''s primary skills: Level 2 Animal Control Level 1 Water Magic Suddenly, the girl froze and turned sharply. "Who are you?" There was no hint of having been startled in her voice, more like curiosity or even warning. I really had given away my presence somehow, and was discovered. It would have been dumb to keep hiding, so I stepped forward. "You''re a criminal! Stay away!" The frightened Nymph placed her palms together and put them in front of herself, and when she split them apart, a blue little flame shone up from a spell she must have cast. "I no bad-hurt for you!" I hurried to assure her, mentally cursing my tongue-tiedness. "I just to start game. Chain to take off hand. Then other fish-player say to help. To kill. He be reborn without chain. No other way. He no can did take chain off." The Nymph, a well-built, very thin girl in a short green cape, couldn''t hold back a smile. "You''re funny, Goblin. But you clearly don''t have a great mind. Are you saying there weren¡¯t enough Strength, Agility, Intelligence, or Perception points between the two of you to add up to seven? You could have helped one another!" I froze surprised and embarrassed, as the idea to have both of us try to pull Trong Diver''s chain from the wall had truly not come to mind. It couldn¡¯t be that the Goblin''s chuckleheadedness had rubbed off on me, right? It was all so elementary! And by the way, Valerianna thought for a couple seconds and said with worry in her voice: "I think I figured out what happened between you. It is a standard PvP con. You killed a player on his request, and now have the status Criminal for the next hour. That player knew that he could easily deal with you. But there would have been no point to kill you at the very beginning of the game. You wouldn''t lose anything from dying, while the enemy would get just a hundred experience points. That was why he gave you the chance to level up on Rats and training missions, get a few levels, then he''d kill you. I''m sure he asked you to wait for him, so you could go on together. Or am I wrong?" I nodded, confirming my sister''s theory. "So you see. His character must have been specialized for PvP. He probably has a tendency for some kind of combat stat, for example Strength, and is preparing to use a close-combat weapon. And I''m sure he also has Constitution leveled up, so he''ll have a large number of hitpoints. With you at level three, he will get three hundred experience points for killing you, not just one hundred. That makes quite a big difference at the beginning of the game, and is more than enough to get him up to level four in one go. Also, some races and classes get extra experience for killing players or special bonuses and missions, so your acquaintance is sure to kill you to get out into the main world already fairly prepared and without the eight-hour Criminal marker." I realized Valeria had taken off her virtual reality helmet, opened the Boundless Realm forum on the second monitor, and was reading from there. That meant that Trong Diver''s suggestion that I kill him was in fact a trap. He was letting his prey get a little exercise so it would taste better later. He must have been planning to kill me after he came back. "If it''s not a secret, what race was he?" asked the Nymph, sending another Rat into the far off herd of vermin. "Naiad, Diver," I answered, and my sister froze in contemplation. While she stood motionless, the Rat under her control kept fighting against its former buddies. Unexpectedly, the body of the frozen Nymph lit up in different colors. That must have been a skill leveling up. I looked at her visible stats. That was right! Valeria''s Animal Control skill had gone up to level 3. By that time, my sister had come back to actively playing the game. "Just so you know, Naiad Divers are their version of Human Soldiers or Dwarven Berserkers. They get an extra ten life points for every Constitution point, and double endurance points when doing any combo attack as well as an additional bonus to Strength." "I running away?" I clarified, but the Nymph shook her head "no," and asked how long it would be for the Naiad to respawn. I looked at the time shown and answered that it would be forty minutes. "Don''t run, Goblin. If he really does attack, I''ll help you. I don''t like tricksters and con-artists. But I''ll only get involved if he attacks you first. For now, I''ll raise my water magic skill to level two, then my Intelligence will go up from primary skill bonuses to seventeen." What she said didn''t get through to me right away. Valerianna was already at level two, and had already leveled up her Intelligence to seventeen. But how?! I myself didn''t have any stats above four, where I had Agility, Intelligence and Constitution. The Nymph explained with gusto: "My race has a bonus to Charisma and Intelligence leveling. So I skewed it toward Intelligence above all else. Both of my predefined primary skills leveled Intelligence first as well. I just took the shackles from my own wrists, as I immediately figured out how the latch lock worked and simply swung it open." After these words, the Nymph called a Rat under her control over, and I noticed that the animal had become slightly larger, having leveled up on its own compatriots to two. After that, Valerianna, ordering her pet to sit at attention, released an icy blue arrow into a far-off, barely visible hostile Rat, killing it in one strike. She had the same success with two neighboring Rats. Again the Nymph lit up in various colors. Her Water Magic skill had raised to level two. "Cool! Another fifty or so experience points, and I''ll be level three!" The Nymph laughed happily. "Amra, I need to take a break for a bit and restore my mana. After that, I can cast up to nine ice arrows, each one doing an average of forty HP damage. No matter how much your Naiad friend leveled up Constitution, he won''t be able to survive that. But it is important that you not let him get near me. I have only eleven HP, so he''d be able to kill me with just spit. By the way, why are you not leveling up? There are a few more Rats left. Take them for yourself. I nodded obediently and walked out in front. And it should be said my thoughts were fairly far from the Rats. I was only thinking about the attack I was now expecting from Trong Diver. Valerianna promised to intervene if the Naiad attacked. But in any case, I had to survive one or two blows from the fish-man. And if his character really was specialized for PvP with all modifiers for dealing damage, then... I wonder how much damage he could do with one strike? It probably was no less than the Nymph with her magic, and my sister had said something about forty hitpoints per ice arrow. If I took forty HP as a reference point, how would I survive the attack, given that I had just twenty-seven myself?! Could I hope to dodge? It seemed that was the very way out I needed. When the nearest level 1 Rat threw itself at me, I didn''t hit it right away, instead jumping back and to the side. Would you like to choose Dodge (A P) as a primary skill? The skill leveled up Agility and Perception, my strongest stats! That was the one for me! I agreed right away. You have taken Dodge as a primary skill Skill level: 1 Primary skills chosen (4 of 4) You may choose a fifth primary skill at level 10 Having already taken care of the Rat (it managed to bite me once, the pest, but it meant nothing. Regeneration heals all wounds, after all.), I noticed that my Dodge skill had increased my Agility to five and slightly increased my Perception. At that, of the four primary skills, only Dodge had been activated. The others were marked with an inactive gray and clearly had yet to influence my main stats. Was that because I hadn''t used them yet? Perhaps that was exactly the reason. I took an empty vial from my inventory and filled it with the blood of the dead Rat. Rat Blood (alchemy ingredient) The Alchemy skill lit up. My Intelligence and Agility immediately went up just barely. So that was how it worked! To activate a primary skill and have it start influencing your stats, you just needed to use it once! What else did I have that wasn''t "turned on" yet? Herbalism and Trading. I''d have to wait a bit to use Herbalism. We were on a galley. No flowers would be growing here. But Trading couldn''t have been easier. I went back to my sister and tried to sell her the container of Rat blood. Valerianna began squirming in disgust, and the Nymph, of course, refused. But I didn''t actually have to sell the object. After noticing with a satisfied look that Trading had already been activated as well, raising my Charisma by a whole point and slightly bringing up my Intelligence with it, I poured the blood out on the floor, as I didn''t actually have a cork for it. I spent ten minutes evading the last vermin, as I wanted to raise my Dodge skill to level three quickly. Covered in bites and impossibly happy with myself, I returned to my sister. "Hey dumbo, have you got far to go until level three?" The Nymph inquired with a bored look as she sat on the oarsman''s bench looking at her well-kept nails. "Three hundred forty experience is. Five hundred want," I reported. My sister frowned in dismay and seemingly grew upset: "Raise your Intelligence to at least five. It''s hard to talk with you. But that''s for later. For now, listen carefully, big-ears. We''ve just got to get up to the upper deck of the galley. I found a description of the location in the guides. There is an angry sea up there. The waves might crash through the broken ship. If you don''t have enough Agility, you''ll be washed overboard, then you''ll lose experience and have to wait an hour at the respawn point. Or can you swim, Amra?" "No can. Agility is enough." "Are you sure? Alright then. I have an underwater breathing spell, so I''ll just sink to the bottom. Your Naiad friend is a sea creature, so he won''t drown in any case. But you will have to lower the boat with a crane, despite the waves and weather, then you''ll have to oar your way in to the shore. That is a side quest, so you''ll get a hundred extra experience points. That means, when you reach the shore, that quest will be fulfilled as well as the main training mission, which gives you another one hundred experience points. So, as soon as you set foot on shore, you''ll reach level three. But once you get there, don¡¯t just kick your feet up. Either run as fast as you can from the shore, or prepare for combat. Your friend will definitely be attacking you, so stay on your guard. Got it? Then let''s go up. You should lower the boat without my help so all the experience will go to you. Otherwise you won''t reach level three, and you''ll be weak. The Naiad would be sure to kill you, then." * * * MY SISTER REALLY was a clever girl. Once above board, the only thing that kept me from going over the side was her warning. Because of it, I took hold of a taut rope as soon as I got up there, which helped me stay on the boat when a jet of water blasted me off my feet. The Orcish galley smashed into the cliff and got wedged between the rocks. Huge waves rolled over the deck, taking with them all kinds of trash, barrels, broken oars and furniture. The dingy, which had survived all this chaos only by a miracle, I spotted on the aft of the broken ship. To get to it, I had to run across the slippery, inclined deck, which had foamy breaks of water rolling over it constantly. "I''ll be waiting for you on the shore!" My sister managed to shout before a wave pulled her down to the depths. The level 2 Rat my sister had been controlling swam past me. It had lost its link with its master, and was now aggressive to me again. But the Rat didn''t care about me at all. It was flailing its paws in desperation, trying to struggle against the raging elements. I then, after waiting for the wave to ebb, threw myself toward the boat up the inclined deck. Successful Agility check Experience received: 8 Exp Before the next breaker slammed into the broken ship, I managed to overcome the open space and latched into the side of the canvas-covered boat. Mission received: Use the dingy Mission class: Optional, training Reward: 80 Exp, Small bag The dingy was tied to a set of ropes that led up to a crane on the side of the boat. I had to turn a crank on the crane to lower the fragile vessel into the water. At that moment, I totally forgot that I was in a game, so realistic were the sensations I was feeling. The storm, the wind, the creak of the stretched out ropes, the foamy waves, the cold wind and the smell of seaweed all combined to form something very close to reality. My wounded left hand burned as if on fire in the salty water. I laboriously twirled the spinning mechanism with my one good hand. Finally, the boat made it into the water. "So then, there you are, Goblin!" The satisfied voice of Trong Diver rang out from behind my back. I turned. The Naiad, smiling a toothy grin, took a seat on the side wall of the galley. "This weather is just awesome for me! I love stormy seas. So then, you go on the boat, and I''ll swim in underwater. We''ll meet up on shore." After these words, the fish-man made an agile jump overboard. I then saw that the Naiad was holding a trident in his hands, but it wasn¡¯t clear where he¡¯d gotten it. He suddenly had a weapon. Bad news! I let go of the rope and took hold of the oar. Damn! I wasn''t able to row with my left hand. So I pulled the oar from the ring and grabbed it with both hands. This way was much easier. When rowing, I gradually lost Endurance Points, but I wasn''t too worried, as I had plenty of them left. Navigating around the sharp stones jutting up from the water, I pointed the boat at the lagoon. Beyond the reefs, which served as natural water breaks, the sea grew much calmer. A few minutes later, I had reached a sandy point, wedging out into the sea in a thin band. My sister was already waiting for me on the shore and waving from afar. I had just touched foot on the wet sand when my body began to light up: Mission completed: Use the dingy Experience received: 80 Exp Mission completed: Escape from the slave-trader''s galley Experience received: 80 Exp Level three! Racial ability unlocked: The Apathy of the Undead (lasts 3 hours, costs 20 EP) Alright, so where was the bag it promised me then? I looked under the rowing bench and found a canvas bag that could be carried over the shoulder. Small bag +10 inventory slots. Before Trong had come ashore, I set about assigning the new stat points. Strength and Constitution went up by default. From the three points that remained, I put another in Constitution, and two in Agility. I now had 39 hitpoints. I had barely finished with the stats when Trong Diver emerged from the salty sea water onto the sandy peninsula, cutting off my path to the shore. His body was also glowing in various colors. The Naiad had also hit level three. The fish-man shot me a malignant grin, demonstrating several rows of needle-like teeth, then suddenly rolled his bright red back flippers and screeched out in dismay, having discovered another player not far from me. "Hey! That''s my trophy," Trong Diver declared, pointing his trident at me. "I''ve been shepherding him along since the beginning of the game!" The Nymph didn''t answer the insidious Naiad in any way, but between her hands there appeared the bright blue flame of a spell being cast. "Alright, we can split it down the middle," suggested Trong Diver, and that was when my sister attacked. The ice arrow that tore itself from her fingers instantly overtook the distance between the two and broke into a hail of pieces on the Naiad''s scales, at which Trong Diver''s health fell by about a quarter. The spell to take forty hitpoints had only reduced the Naiad''s health by a third?! How many hitpoints did he have?! "Not expecting that, were you Nymph?" The fish-man laughed. "I have a natural resistance to Water Magic!" After these words, Trong Diver got a better grip on his trident and threw himself at my sister in order to stop her from casting another spell. I, without thinking it through, dashed off after him. The Naiad was almost half way to her when his path was blocked by a level 1 Crab crawling out of the sea onto the sandy shore. The Naiad slowed his pace and destroyed the unexpected obstacle with a flick of his trident. But even that second of delay was enough for me to catch up to him and work my knife into his back. Damage dealt: 9 (Rusty kitchen knife stab 11 ¨C armor 2) Trong Diver''s life bar went down, but not very much at all, just ten percent. Hrmph, I should have taken the Dagger skill. Perhaps then, I could have gotten a critical hit from the stab in the back. Now then, probably feeling more surprised at my impudence than really feeling injured by the attack, Trong turned toward me. "So that''s where you¡¯ve gone off to, Amra! There''s nowhere for you to run now!" Another ice arrow flew into the fish-man''s back, lowering the Naiad''s health to forty percent. His health bar changed color from green to yellow. Trong Diver winced in pain: "It''s nothing, I''ll survive another icicle attack, and then I''ll have two nice trophies, you and the Nymph! Sixty experience points from the two of you is enough to get me straight to level five!" At these words, the Naiad made a sharp lunge forward and stabbed my chest with his trident. I tried to dodge the attack, but I didn¡¯t manage. Son of a bitch! That hurt like hell!!! Damage taken: 34 (Trident strike) Health level: 5/39 The shooting pain caused me to miss the chance for a return strike. The Naiad jumped back and pulled away from me, making it impossible to hit him with the knife again. But, fortunately, my sister didn''t hesitate, and sent another magic icicle into my attacker''s back. Trong Diver''s health was flashing in the red, but the fish-man started smiling strangely: "Ha! I survived! Now, you''re dead and I''ll get the experience for level four from you, bringing my health all the way back up!" With these words, Trong jumped toward me and jabbed with his trident. In an incredible jump with simultaneous front flip, I craftily evaded the sharp points under his raised left hand. But doing so had made my Endurance Points fall severely. In that the enemy was very close, I made an abrupt strike at his fine-scaled throat, helped by the fact that the Naiad was no taller than me. Damage dealt: 16 (rusty kitchen knife stab 18 - armor 2) Experience received: 120 Exp Dodge Skill increased to level 4! Would you like to choose Acrobatics (A S) as a secondary skill? So that''s what that was! In my attempt to elude the certain death flying toward my chest, I had used not only Dodge, but also Acrobatics! What could I say? It was a skill that was useful to my survival. I should take it. In the distance, the Nymph lit up like a projector, having reached level four already. After figuring out the game parameters, I took a look around. The body of Trong Diver was lying in the shallows giving off a slight glow. I bent down over it and tried to pick up the trident lying on the sand, but my fingers went straight through the object. It must have been that the laws of the game world didn''t consider the weapon to have "dropped" and was thus still in his inventory. Too bad. Bowing over my vanquished enemy, I tried to look at him. I didn''t have to rummage through the body. The trophy window opened. My take was three silver coins, two empty vials and another with a cork, filled with a pale blue liquid. Insufficient Intelligence to identify object Alright, I''ll figure that out later or show it to my sister. I headed to Valerianna. The Forest Nymph was peeved: "All my pets die too fast, both Rats and Crabs. What kind of a Beastmaster am I with no beasts at my service?! And also, I now have a red Criminal marker over my head. I had to attack the Naiad preemptively, which means I committed a crime. Now, my character won''t leave the game world for eight hours, even if I leave the game. Also, have you looked at the map?" I shook my head "no," then looked at the game map on my sister''s advice. There was just a tiny lit-up circle of discovered area: the sea shore, the two of us, and a huge black mass representing undiscovered territory. I increased the scale, but no additional markers showed on the map. Our little circle just got smaller and smaller until it became a dot. The words on it didn''t add any information, either: Coordinates ?????????? Region ???????? "So you see," the Nymph agreed after seeing the look of dismayed confusion on my green face. "We''re like in the middle of nowhere, and the only known respawn point is on the broken galley, which I really don''t want to go back to. And, unfortunately, the weather today is cloudy and it''s quickly growing dark. Night will come before we can do anything. Soon, just being out here will be a threat to our lives. But there''s no reason to wait on the sea shore. We need to go somewhere. Maybe we''ll get lucky and find other respawn points. At least then it wouldn''t be so bad to die. We wouldn''t have to get out of that stinking galley again." I agreed with Valerianna that staying where we were was stupid, and went onward. The Forest Nymph followed after me. We started walking down the sandy beach and, just after we got close to the dark bushes, before our eyes flashed a message: Congratulations, you have passed the training mission! Welcome to Boundless Realm!