《Geomancer》 Chapter 1- Introduction The day had finally come. After being pestered relentlessly by my father to check out an upcoming game endlessly for the past five years, it is finally here. My father has been a gamer since the day he was born in 1991. It was currently the year 2068, you¡¯d have thought by now he¡¯d have grown up, age extending drugs or no. I shook my head with a grin as I lay back onto my bed in my apartment room. My hands holding the back of my shaved head as I lay staring at the ceiling. A content smile forming on my face, happy I took off work for the next three days. This modest square room alone costing nearly two grand a month in rent has been my home for the past six years. Sporting my bed on which I currently lay placed at the side of the room furthest from the door, a few posters of movies I enjoyed taped to the walls. One of which was an old Breakfast Club poster my dad had sent me. When I asked him why I should put it on my wall he kept singing ¡®Don¡¯t you forget about me¡¯ until I relented. Brown blinds covered the two windows on both sides of the room, my work desk and computer were pressed against the eastern wall close to the door on the south side. Along the west wall was my mini fridge, recently stocked with energy drinks and various fruits and health bars for energy. The apartment complex in which I resided was nothing but square rooms stacked atop one another, seen one you¡¯ve seen them all. Bathrooms in the same place to save plumbing costs in pipes, windows on the east and west sides of the room to give nice view of the other apartment complexes built the exact same way. I always kept my blinds closed. Everything was built too economically these days, an obvious result of the second great depression that had taken the world back in 2021. When I asked about those times to my father for a class project he just grunted and said ¡°Yeah it was horrible, fuckin¡¯ emos everywhere.¡± Never could take my old man seriously unless it pertained to gaming. Of course I was a smartass just like dad back in the day and attempted to convince my class that the second great depression was the re-emergence of the emo style from the early 2000s. Needless to say I failed that report, had to attend a few after school detentions and went out with my dad that very night to celebrate. Mom just sat at the table rubbing her temples as she kept asking when we would grow up. I guess she counts it a miracle I matured unlike my dad. It was then that my phone started vibrating on the nightstand next to my bed. I reached over and picked it up, placing it next to my ear. ¡°Yello.¡± I looked at the time, nearly 8pm. Four hours to launch. ¡°Hey Mikey, you pick that game up yet?¡± It was my old man, his gruff voice sounding crystal clear over the phone as if he was right next to me. ¡°Yeah yeah, got it installing as we speak, should be done in a minute.¡± I responded, getting up from my bed and walking over to the headset that lay on my work desk. Technology increased at a rapid pace in these times. In 2035 the first full immersion virtual reality system came out. It was basically a giant pod that you would lay in, connected to all sorts of probes that would stick all over you and put you into a semi-coma as you entered the game world. Easily achieved really but the expense of the thing showed very few sales in the long run. Not to mention it¡¯s hard to find a place to put a freaking pod bigger than a human body somewhere. That first iteration was quickly abandoned in about eight years when a VR helmet came out, far more manageable than a pod and far cheaper. It saw major sales across the globe and is still supported to this day, though its time is running short as more developers move to the current generation headset VR system. Needing even less room than a helmet, the headset system is basically two headphones that go over your ears with plastic covering the probes jutting out from the headphones. Placed correctly on your head the headphones fit snugly over your ears and the plastic just out just to your temples. When activated the plastic shoots out two small probes that stick to your head and create a visual field and interface in front of you. The interface and field system shows all the programs you have installed in the headset, you just simply move your hand around and slide the programs left and right until you have the one you want then you press it. VR programs such as games require you to be seated or lying down before they can launch, this prevents accidents from occurring when put into what my dad calls a ¡°game state¡±. Me, I call it a coma. You install programs by placing a program chip into the side of the left headphone, from there it installs automatically. Each headset comes with memory storage of sixty terabytes with potential to add in an advanced storage chip which can triple it. I put my headset on to check the progress, the interface and field popped up in front of me showing 96% done on the install. Only about 20 gigs left to go then. ¡°Yeah it¡¯ll be done in about five minutes.¡± ¡°Shouldda got your ass in gear last week when you could have pre-purchased and preloaded the game.¡± ¡°Sorry I¡¯m not as hardcore as you old man.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that my boy.¡± He sounded genuinely sad. His acting lessons started to pay off, I couldn¡¯t tell if he was serious or not. ¡°Yeah, yeah me too.¡± ¡°Your mother would be disappointed too, god rest her soul.¡± Now I knew he was joking. ¡°You could have gone with her to the in-laws up in Canada you know.¡± ¡°Boy, it¡¯ll be a cold day in hell before I willingly go to your mother¡¯s parents.¡± I had to hold a clenched fist to my mouth to keep from busting a gut, never change dad. ¡°Did you at least read the game manual?¡± ¡°Yeah, any idea on where we should start?¡± I picked up the manual from the desk. The cover showed a battle between some people in various bits of armor fighting a giant monster. Very clich¨¦ if I say so myself. ¡°I¡¯m thinking we should go to the Gerheld Empire. Caldmor looks like they¡¯ve got too much power and could use a kick in the balls. Besides, most people these days are wimps who think republics and democracies are the best. Bah, everyone knows a corrupt dictatorship is the way to go with government.¡± ¡°You do know that Gerheld is a monarchy though right?¡± ¡°Same thing.¡± I shook my head, ¡°You going to play an Orc like usual?¡± I moved the phone away from my ear in a hurry after the question, which was followed by a deafening WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH. That¡¯s a yes. ¡°Alright then, thought up a name?¡± ¡°Think they¡¯ll let me use Sisterfister?¡± ¡°Not for long, no.¡± ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll think of something else. What about you boy? Got a name and race picked?¡± I had to think for a second and grinned, ¡°I think I¡¯ll play an elf.¡± ¡°Pansy!¡± came the immediate reply. ¡°Frolicker!¡± I could literally hear his teeth grinding. If there was one way to push my dad¡¯s buttons, it was to talk about Elves in a positive light. ¡°No true-blooded son of mine plays an elf!¡± ¡°Yeah you¡¯re right, I¡¯ll be boring a play a human I guess.¡± ¡°Better than an Elf.¡± ¡°As for a name...hmm. That¡¯s rough. Alasor? Medim? Shadow?¡± ¡°You could be xxDarkSoulBladexx. That always gets people angry.¡± ¡°You¡¯re liable to cut yourself on that edge old timer.¡± ¡°Bah, youngsters like you never appreciate the classics.¡± I snickered, ¡°I¡¯ll think of something, you¡¯ll probably be the only Orc in town anyways. See you in a bit old man.¡± ¡°Yeah, see you on the field of battle new blood.¡± I clicked off my phone and placed it back on the nightstand before sitting back on my bed with the manual in hand. I decided to give it another flick through before putting my headset back on to browse the internet until the game¡¯s release. Welcome to Reckoning Developed by Claymore Industries and boasting the latest in AI research and development, Reckoning promises to push the boundaries far beyond that of previous games. The world is controlled by a single AI responsible for generating quests for players, assigning loot tables to monsters as well as adapting the world based on player interaction. Borders will change, armies and countries will rise and fall based on the actions of you and your peers. ***Special Note from the Claymore staff*** Thank you for purchasing the product of our past seven years of hard work. We here at Claymore Industries hope to live up to and surpass your wildest expectations in the field of gaming. From a small team back in 2035 developing games from our homes into the major company we have become we owe all our success to you, our players. Please accept our most gracious and heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you. We¡¯ll see you in game! Now without further ado, onto the rest of the manual! Below the note was a signature from the ten founding members of the company. A nice touch if I were to say so, these guys really took pride in their work. A good sign. The World - Reckoning takes place on the world of Patelle, an earth-like world filled with creatures ranging from simple kobolds to mighty titans slumbering beneath the earth itself, waiting for their moment to arise. Magic is rare in the world of Patelle where one in a thousand children would be born with the ability to control mana, the spiritual energy required to use magic. Now as the fires of war threaten to erupt throughout the world beings from certain races known as ¡®The God Touched¡¯ have arrived. Immune to death and able to use magic, these new comers have the potential to bring peace to the land or never ending war. That would be us, the players. In game we¡¯ll be referred to as ¡®Touched Ones¡¯. I flipped the page to the lore section. A Brief History - Thousands of years ago the Elves were the most prominent and magically gifted race in the world. Nearly every Elf born in that time could control mana and in time they spanned the entirety of the single continent of Ithilianial. Considered the Golden Age by all of Elven kind, they built massive cities of crystal that dwarfed the very mountains. Their reign lasted centuries until the Titans awoke. Moroloch, Titan of Fire was the first to awake in the very center of the continent where legends tell that the very sky was aflame at his emergence. Mountains erupted and cities burned as he marched. Legends describe Moroloch as a giant of obsidian that caused thick ash to fall wherever he wandered. Wamaosh, Titan of Water awoke not long after in the seas surrounding Ithilianial, sending massive tidal waves crashing across the coasts. Countless towns and cities were washed away in an instant. Some of the remaining legends describe Wamaosh as a hydra of unprecedented size. Skidanos, Titan of Air brought storms never before seen in the world. Massive tornados ripped the land apart and cities crumbled as the storms crashed against them. One artists rendition of Skidanos picture it¡¯s form as a long serpent whose giant wings caused hurricanes at every flap. Krodalo, Titan of Earth has never been seen. But all know his touch, for he is the one who ripped the land apart, splitting the once whole continent into three. Perhaps the most dangerous of all the Titans for soon after he awoke, the rest disappeared. The legends say that they destroyed the world in a mere seven days, leaving it in its current state. Nearly all life was extinguished from the world of Patelle in that short amount of time. Centuries of work undone instantly. Many surviving Elves believed the Titan¡¯s emergence was punishment for their pride. Humbled, they moved into the forests of the world where they currently reside to this very day. Current day Patelle is split into three continents and many islands. Lidana - The North-Western Continent. Lidana is the smallest of the three continents though perhaps the most diverse. Mountains stretch along the northern sections of the continent while marshes and forests dot the landscape. The south-western peninsula of the continent however is pure desert called the Everwastes by locals. Fedimi - The Southern Continent. Fedimi is a horseshoe shaped continent with a massive water-filled crater in the center caused by what the Elven legends call a fallen god. A massive whirlpool rips through the center of the crater, destroying any ship folly enough to ride into the waters there. Plains and forests carpet most of the continent, with wetlands to the southwest and mountains to the southeast. Caldmor - The Northeastern Continent. Once called Matalia the lands of Caldmor is dominated by plains and forests with mountain ranges to the east and south. The name changed to Caldmor recent as the rise of the Caldmor Empire laid claim to nearly all the land in the continent. Countries of Continents: Lidana: The Gerheld Empire - Recently formed by conquering the neighboring lands, the Gerheld Empire lays claim to a large section of the continent. Located in the east the Gerheld Empire is currently at war with the Caldmor Empire, but outmatched by far. Driven by desperation they now set their sights on the lands to the west, hoping for a quick conquest so that they may fight Caldmor on more even terms. With forests to the west and mountains to the north Gerheld owns many resources to make it self-sufficient. Issim State - Located west of the Gerheld Empire, it is a state ruled by a single man, Issim. He leads his country with wisdom as he has held off the Gerheld Empire¡¯s incursions into his lands with brilliant strategy. Few can claim to have ever seen Issim, but the people honor his name by following his decrees to the letter. South of Issim is the Dohan Republic and to the west are the Final Peaks. Mountains range the northern part of Issim, leading them to be a land exporting mainly ores. Dohan Republic - Located south of Issim, the Dohan Republic is led by a council of nobles from the land. Together they have led Dohan into prosperity and have laid claim to much land. Threatened by the rise of the Gerheld Empire they now gear up for war. Dohan lands contain forests and wetlands but no mountains to mine. This leads them to have a desperate need for ores needed to make weapons with. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Telim Sovereignty - Located west of both Issim and Dohan, the Telim Sovereignty is a land that boasts the most territory owned on Lidana. With the Final Peaks located to the north they mine the once dwarf-owned mountains for precious metals. Though recently many mining towns have been found abandoned with no signs of what could have happened. Final Peaks ¨C Located to the north of Telim lays a vast mountain range where the Dwarves of Lidana once called home. However, their love for machinery and tinkering has led to their exodus of the mountains as their once docile creations suddenly went berserk, destroying a vast majority of their race on the continent. Everwastes ¨C South of Telim are the Everwastes, a peninsula where there is only sand and death. Caldmor: The Caldmor Empire ¨C A vast country spanning nearly the entire continent, the Caldmor Empire is ruled by emperor Tyda. A man that is whispered he is able to move mountains and shatter the earth at a whim. While not much is known about the Emperor he makes public appearances often and has gained the respect of his people via his successful conquests of nearly all the lands on the continent. The land itself is varied as mountains range from the center to the south of the country and a vast forest lies to the east. The Free Republic ¨C Located in the northeast of the continent, a republic in name only. It is currently ruled by a ruthless dictator who is willing to fight to the very end against the Caldmor Empire. Hills, mountains and forests cover the border between itself and the empire giving it a strategic advantage used often to hold back the empire¡¯s advance. Fedimi: Ticmet ¨C A land with no official governing body, ruled by clans of Orcs. Located on the eastern part of the horseshoe continent and split in half by the Mikrem Empire, the Orcs of Ticmet have come to an agreement to band together in a massive horde to defeat the invaders on the land once theirs. Their land contains mainly plains and forests with mountains in the northern section. The Mikrem Empire ¨C Located on the tip of the western part of the horseshoe continent and the middle of the tip of the east the Mikrem Empire wages war against the Orc clans of Ticmet. The Freehand Alliance ¨C An alliance of the five countries of Rilen, Elseym, Adari, Bistil, and Tekkis. Located to the south of Ticmet they have bonded together to fight the Orc clan¡¯s raiders of Ticmet to the north and the Dwarven invaders from the Ironhand Peaks to the south. Words of change are in the air and perhaps soon the alliance will form into a single country. The Ironhand Peaks ¨C Located south of Tekkis in the Freehand Alliance, the Ironhand Peaks are ruled by three Dwarven clans. The Granite Fists lead the military with strong tactics and discipline. The Gilded Mugs manage the country¡¯s economy and The Jade Tongs forge the dwarves¡¯ weapons of war. The Dehn Unity ¨C A land ruled by a democracy of different races, the Dehn unity seeks peace in a land of war. Being pacifistic has led the Mikrem Empire to the east to ignore them for the time being to focus on their conquest of Ticmet. However, voices on the Dehn Council have started talking about preparations for war. Though many fear their decision will take too much time and have started preparing in the shadows. Isthinmilia Woodlands ¨C South of the Dehn Unity is located these woods. Trees blanket the land in a massive forest unseen before in all the history of Patelle. Inside the forest lurk deadly monster and plants. Even deeper inside live vicious clans of Elves who are eager to emerge from their woods and take the world that was once theirs back. Bikkil Monarchy ¨C Southwest of the Isthinmilia Woodlands and west of the Misawi Wetlands lays the Bikkil Monarchy. A land in peace with no desire to expand the country has recently grown lax with no current threats since it unified into a single country. The Misawi Wetlands ¨C Home to the Misawi, the wetlands are a hostile environment to nearly all who live there. Where a single bite from an insect can leave a man dead in an hour the Misawi have enjoyed a long last peace for them to hunt in packs throughout the wetlands. However, to the east are whispers of an invading force of horsemen from the Endless Plains. Misawi tribal leaders have convened to assess the threat and decide if perhaps it is time to unify the tribes into a single force. The Endless Plains ¨C East of the Wetlands and west of the Ironhand Peaks lay the Endless Plains. Here the centaurs make their camps and cultivate the land for use as they expand westward to make room for further generations of their people. The Broken Isles ¨C South of the Endless Plains lay the broken Isles, nine islands of various sizes and shapes uninhabited by all but the Aqamari and other sea dwellers. An isolationist society originally, the Aqamari have kept to themselves for untold generations. Only recently have they left their underwater homes to travel the world in search of items of value. I enjoyed reading the pages of information on the game world, always nice to know a bit about the background of the game¡¯s story. Though, the website was far more in-depth compared to this small booklet. Playable Races ¨C The world of Patelle contains many races, a few of which you can select to play. Any character can start in any country of their choosing, though be sure to expect unusual reactions from NPCs if you play a race in a country that hasn¡¯t had much experience with your chosen race. Human ¨C Humans are now the most commonly found race in the world of Patelle. After the world was nearly destroyed by the Titans humanity rose from the ashes and spread like the fires of Moroloch himself. Adaptable to nearly any environment Humans of Patelle enjoy higher base resistances to all elemental attacks. Elf ¨C Humanoid in appearance with longer ears, sharper eyes and lightning fast reflexes are the Elves. The once rulers of the world are the second most common race after humans in the world of Patelle. Boasting an innate bonus to magic this race receives a bonus to Mana, Spell Damage and Healing. Dwarf ¨C Short, strong, sturdy, and imaginative. These words best describe the Dwarves as they are fearsome warriors and master craftsmen. Located mainly in the mountains, these folk use the resources they find to create strong machines for different purposes. From giant diggers to help expand their homes to golems to defend themselves, they certainly don¡¯t lack for imagination. Thanks to their natural strength and endurance, Dwarf characters enjoy a small bonus to strength and endurance. Misawi ¨C (Mis-ah-wee) A tribal people with tough scaly skin. Often referred to as Lizardmen, the Misawi closely resemble humans. Their hands only have three digits, two fingers and a thumb on each hand. Painted markings adorn their body which tell each Misawi¡¯s personal story from family to achievements. They have no hair on their body and their scales harden with age until they reach maturity. With strong scales a Misawi player character can look forward to having a higher physical damage resistance than the other races. Orc ¨C Big, strong, tough, violent. Originally from warrior clans Orcs dominate the battlefield with pure physical prowess. They stand about a foot taller than the average human with far greater muscle mass and skin tones ranging from a brown tan to a dark green. An Orc player is able to crush their foes quicker than normal thanks to their bonus to strength and damage. Goblin ¨C Short and smart, the brains of the Orc clans. They were the first race the Orc clans conquered. Or rather, the Goblins let themselves be conquered. They then used their new ¡°masters¡± to further their goals of expanding the land of Ticmet. It is these little green devils that the Mikren Empire and the Freehand Alliance truly fear, for they are the brains behind the Orc raids. Goblin players can enjoy a buff similar to that of Elves, increasing their Mana but instead of greater healing or damage they are able to have a lesser chance of a spell being interrupted by taking damage. Undead ¨C Originating from the Isle of Bones, an island just off the coast from northern Ticmet, these people are the risen remains those killed by the Titans. They harbor a deep hatred to the gods for abandoning them and the Titans for destroying them. Any playable race can be played as an undead as they have only one goal. Unify the world in undeath so if the Titans return the world will rise against them. The dead never need to eat, therefore an Undead player doesn¡¯t have to worry about satiety levels. Aqamari ¨C (Ack-ah-mar-e) Standing a foot shorter than the average human, the Aqamari originate from the Broken Isles to the south of the Endless Plains. Though they do not live on the islands, their cities reside under the water near them. Humanoid in shape, blue in skin tone these people use their webbed feet and hands to glide through the water. Gills on their necks and back provide air for them under water and fins adorn their heads. They pierce themselves with jewelry to show status among their peers. Players of the Aqamari never need to fear the depths of the seas as their swim speed is far faster than that of other races and they can breath underwater. Magic and Skill System: The world of Patelle has a uniquely crafted magic and skill system where players can learn base spells and skills such as a Fireball or an Ice Beam from tomes given as quest rewards, monster drops or found in ancient tombs. From there each skill has three talent tiers for you to place your talent points. So a base fireball will do some damage. A tier one fireball would do more damage. A tier two fireball would increase the damage further and add a small Damage Over Time effect (DoT) and the final tier would make it do Area of Effect (AoE) damage as well as hit the main target harder with both the damage and the DoT. But that¡¯s not all, we¡¯ve also designed and included a Skill Fusion system where you can take two or more spells and tailor them to your wants. A good example would be the skill Charge which charges an enemy combined with the Flame Wall spell and when you charge a foe a wall of flame will erupt in the space that you charged! Each spell added to the fusion however weakens the effects of all the final result so be sure to not add too many! This magic and skill system means that this game is not bound by classes like those found in other games like Warrior, Mage or Thief. Want to play a spell-slinger who wears heavy armor? Go right ahead, the freedom is yours. The magic and skill system is what I was looking forward to messing about in game the most. The ability to create your own spells using spells found in the game was highly appealing. After daydreaming about the possibilities for a minute or three, I quickly looked through the rest of the manual which gave a brief description on grouping, dungeons and guilds. Groups were limited to six players, dungeons were scattered about the game world and guilds, well. They were interesting. In previous games you could build a castle or fort wherever you wanted so long as you paid a tax/upkeep cost. In this game you still need to pay the upkeep, but you also need permission from the country you wish to build in, otherwise your keep would be considered bandit territory and would be attacked once found and reported by NPCs. With the land as vast as it was claimed to be, there would be many guilds creating bandit keeps for sure. But those built with the blessing of a country are automatically outfitted with NPCs to stand watch and guard the land, even while the players are out in the world. I¡¯ll bet my old man was planning on building many bandit fortresses. In fact I¡¯d place a thousand dollars his ultimate plan would be to take over the world himself. He thinks big my old man does, it¡¯s one of the reasons why he¡¯s loaded. I placed the now re-read manual on the night stand and walked over to my desk to put on my headset. When it was secured I opened the interface and checked the progress of the download. A robotic voice played in my ears, ¡°Download complete, do you wish to launch the program now?¡± The yes button was grayed out as I was standing. It wouldn¡¯t change unless I was sitting or lying down. I had no intention of launching the program this early anyway, the server wouldn¡¯t open for another three and a half hours. I pressed no as I walked to my bed to lie down and browse the net. Just as my head hit the pillow my phone began to ring. I picked it up, ¡°Yello.¡± ¡°We have an early launch! Code red! I repeat, we have an early launch! Start the game now!¡± It was dad. He hung up just as he finished shouting. Ah well, guess I¡¯d boot up the game after all. I selected Reckoning from the list of programs and hit yes to launch. The world around me went dark as my mind shifted into virtual reality. ------ Free talk zone Thank you for reading this first chapter in this work of fiction, I hope you''ve enjoyed this brief taste into the world I have built for your enjoyment, I''ll have plenty more for you in the coming days so sit back, relax and let me take you on a fun journey! Also feel free to leave a comment or two, I like those. Also I know I haven''t described the main characters yet, you''ll get it next chapter when they create their characters. After all, they''ll be spending quite some time in the game as opposed to the real world. Added note: Oh yeah, I figured out how to export the map I made in this program so for those interested heres my terrible map! http://i.imgur.com/CsIH3L8.png Chapter 2- The second chapter. In an instant the darkness was replaced with bright light. That was one thing I hated about diving into VR games, the darkness lasted just long enough for your mind¡¯s eyes to adjust to the darkness then bam, let there be light. Immediately instinct kicked in and the light dimmed, responding to my mind¡¯s command to lessen the light. That was the best part of VR; your mind worked faster than anything and would take care of things such as brightness in an instant. It was just that initial burst of light that would make your mind recoil. The word ¡®loading¡¯ appeared in the middle of my vision with a rapidly increasing number off to the side. When 100% showed on screen everything went black once more. Then began the music, the game¡¯s introduction cinematic was about to begin. Various instruments chimed in creating a mystical atmosphere as the darkness parted to show a single continent on a world of blue seas. That continent was Ithilianial, the Elven blessed land of life. Like a bird, my vision flew through the clouds to the lands below, showing forests, lakes, rivers, mountains and above all, cities of crystal. Massive spires reaching into the very skies as thousands of Elves walked beneath them. The music was calm and cheery, reflecting the easygoing pace of local life. Then the gongs began, clashing harshly against flutes and violins. The sky darkened and people looked about with fear. Children cried as mothers and fathers bent over to hush them. Ash fell from the sky and quickly coated the land like black snow. In the distance a massive figure could be seen lumbering towards the city. Infernos as large as tidal waves were left in the beast¡¯s wake. As the camera closed the distance on the Titanic figure you could see lava flowing out of cracks in the giant¡¯s stone body. It fixed its gaze upon the crystal city in the distance, held out an arm and closed its hand into a fist. Small meteors fell from the sky, colliding into the city and creating innumerable explosions that shook the very earth and sent the crystal spires hurtling towards the ground. The camera then shifted to a creature emerging from the ocean just off the coast of the continent. One giant serpent-like head followed by eleven more screeched high into the air. Waves surged at the beast¡¯s emergence, crashing onto the shores and washing away entire coastal cities in an instant. Giant beams of water shot from the beasts¡¯ mouths as they roared once more into the sky. Once more the camera shifted, showing a winged serpent flying high over the land. Every flap of the beast¡¯s wings would make the storms that followed in its wake intensify. As they were now, rocks broke from the very earth and were sent hurtling in every direction as lightning split the very ground. Multiple tornados could be seen in the distance that formed into one massive super twister, the size of which dwarfed entire mountain ranges. The destruction lasted for only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Slowly the camera panned out until you could see the entire world. Massive storms from the wind serpent crowded the sky, the ocean washed over the land, and the fires spread unmitigated. Then all at once the whole planet shook. The land splintered and broke apart until it settled into the current day formation of three continents. The storms dissipated, the waters receded and the fires were extinguished. But the land had changed. The camera panned back to get a closer view of one continent, but there was nothing to see. The world looked to have been wiped clean. No signs of life or remains of the once proud cities. Then the camera moved to a single forest, inside which a hundred Elves stared fearfully at the world outside. A single elf stepped forth from the forest in which they had hid and turned to the group. The screen faded once more to black, but the man¡¯s voice carried into my ears. ¡°They will return.¡± And then in large golden letters formed in the darkness, Reckoning. One by one the letters faded as the darkness receded showing a marble pedestal standing alone in a grass field. The sky a deep blue, dotted with clouds in the distance. Along the horizon I could spy the snow-capped peaks of mountains. I mentally selected the pedestal and a screen popped up asking if I wished to create a character. ¡®Yes¡¯ I confirmed in my mind. The interface changed; on the left side of my vision was the selection of playable races, from the typical Human to the gilled Aqamari. When I selected a race a preview of the race showed up atop the pedestal and their descriptions were in a box below the pedestal. I already knew what I wanted however and selected a Human. Atop the pedestal stood a slightly buff human male standing at six feet tall with long blonde hair and blue eyes wearing clothes akin to robes and sandals. I never was the most adventurous person after all, most comfortable in my own skin. So that¡¯s what I did, I chose male and made him about five feet and nine inches. As for a hairstyle I chose a shaved head akin to a military haircut and gave myself brown eyes. I then changed my hair color from the base blonde to a dark brown. I gave my character a quick once-over before deciding to lessen the muscle mass. I don¡¯t like being too bulky in games and there would be enough people running around with a close resemblance to Conan the Barbarian. I then began putting on the finishing touch, creating a tattoo that began as a small circle at the back of the hand just before the knuckle and sent straight lines up my arm, shoulder, neck and face that ended at my right eye. Nothing fancy, just simple straight lines colored an earthy brown, like lines of power that led from my brain to my hand. It helped set the image of the kind of character I wanted to play, a Geomancer, a magician capable of controlling the very earth itself. Though with my own unique twist to the concept of course. I looked my character over with a critical eye, feeling that there was something missing. After a few moments I mentally bonked myself on the head, I needed a beard. Otherwise I¡¯d never hear the end of being called ¡°baby-faced¡± by my father. I selected a short full beard that included sideburns. Perfect. I mentally pressed the accept button and my vision shifted to show me a map of the world. ¡°Please choose your starting continent and country.¡± A melodious voice spoke in my ears. I quickly selected the continent of Lidana and then selected the Gerheld Empire as my starting country. After selecting the country my characters ragged clothing changed into a nice set of brown pants, a tan work shirt with the golden symbol of a hawk over the right breast and well-worn leather boots. Apparently the main colors of Gerheld were brown and gold. That suited me just fine. ¡°Please enter your character¡¯s name.¡± Oh boy, the biggest obstacle in gaming history, the name. My dad has always agreed with me that this is the hardest part when it comes to gaming. Challenges can always be overcome, but a name is forever. Like everyone else, I wanted something that stuck and was recognizable. I thought about Rocky at first. I make no claims on being the best at naming. Just as I finished typing out Rocky a scene flashed in my mind. My dad stood in a town shouting ¡®Adrian!¡¯ over and over and over. That name was out. I thought about using Geomancer, but it just didn¡¯t feel right. Who names themselves what they are? I then shortened it to Geo and began to think. It was short and sweet, a good nickname. I liked it, more than I would have thought actually. I hit enter and breathed a sigh of relief when it was accepted. Now I just had one worry left, what the hell kind of name did my dad choose? If I knew him well it was both subtle and offensive. I was taken right back to the original screen with the pedestal, only now the character I created stood upon it. Below the pedestal was the name and level, Geo ¨C Level 1, just another fresh-faced adventurer ready to seek fame and fortune. I selected my character and chose yes when the popup asked if I wanted to enter the game world. The screen quickly went black before showing the world of Patelle in the distance. Then, like a shooting star, I surged towards it. I¡¯m not normally an adrenaline junkie, but when I broke through the atmosphere and plummeted towards the Gerheld Empire, the wind ripping through my hair and buffeting my body I whooped and hollered as loud as I could. The ground rushed to meet me. As I plummeted I could make out mountain ranges, forests and the occasional river and lake. After free-falling for almost two minutes I was almost at the Gerheld starting city of Orhu. I began to make out buildings, streets and then people below. I cringed and braced myself for impact as I plummeted every nearer to the ground. But before I splattered on the street my speed slowed rapidly until I hovered above the cobbled stones and then dropped to my feet. What. An. Entrance. All around the street I currently stood were buildings of stone and wood, with multitudes of people staring, pointing and whispering. As well they should, I had just made a god-like entrance. I focused on a few of them. They all had unique names such as Alec Fardeneli and Jessiah Makelo. ¡®Must be NPCs.¡¯ I thought to myself but their reactions seemed so¡­human compared to previous games I¡¯ve played. Must have been that latest tech in AI research and development Claymore gushed about in interviews and touched upon in the manual. Heavy footsteps from behind forced me to turn my attention away from the people in front of me. But what I saw made me put my palm on my face. There before me stood at a staggering seven feet tall, skin as black as night with muscles that threatened to tear through his starting clothes. Fangs jutting from his slightly extended lower jaw. An Orc. Not just any Orc. ¡°Hey pipsqueak.¡± Dad. In retrospect, perhaps the NPCs weren¡¯t standing around bewildered by my appearance, but that of this¡­monster. I looked at his name tag and wanted to face-palm harder. ¡°Musclewizard¡­really?¡± My father then, in an instant, grinned and flexed. As he flexed a fireball flew from his large chest and hit an NPC in the street who then screamed at the top of their lungs before collapsing. Nearby NPCs rushed to help up their fallen friend and scurried away. Seconds later my father was tackled to the ground by guards wearing chainmail armor and leather caps. Unable to contain his excitement he burst out laughing. The three guards were having trouble attempting to hold him down. I heard the clinking of chainmail in the distance. A pair of guards were running towards the scene. Now I had to diffuse the situation before it escalated. Knowing my dad, he wanted to escalate it as far as he could. ¡°You¡¯ll never take me alive, coppers!¡± On second thought, maybe I should just watch. From a safe distance. I started to walk to the side of the street away from my father. ¡°Wait, son where are you going? Avenge meeeeee!¡± He yelled as I kept walking away. I glanced back in time to see another two guards leap on top of him to help secure him. But with a roar he broke free and sprinted off down the street, knocking over as many people as he could that were too slow to get out of the way. ¡°After that beast!¡± A guard yelled and the five took off in hot pursuit, their armor clinking as they chased the wild beast I call a father. Good luck men, you¡¯ll need it. Hearing the rushing of wind I looked into the sky to see more and more people plummeting to the ground. I guess we were no longer alone. All at once, Elves, Humans, a few Aqamari and Misawi and a handful of Undead landed in the street not far from where I stood. ¡°Woohoo!¡± ¡°Amazing!¡± ¡°What an entrance!¡± ¡°Can I delete my character and go again?¡± Everyone was filled with such energy after their drops from the heavens. Even I harbored the urge to do another sky-dive. Maybe I am an adrenaline junkie after all and I just never knew it. I mentally shrugged to myself and walked down the street west, towards where my father ran off to. All the while more and more players dropped from the sky. As I walked I decided to check my status and tinker with my interface a bit to rearrange my quickslot spells, bag bar, chatbox, minimap, and my own status. Name: Geo Level: 1 Experience: 0/500 Health: 200 Mana: 100 Energy: 100 Strength: 10 Agility: 10 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 10 I looked for my resistances but couldn¡¯t find them, until I checked the box on the interface that said ¡®Show Advanced Stats¡¯. 5% resistances across the board, not bad. I closed my in-depth status box and started to rearrange my interface. I changed the bag bar to be vertical instead of horizontal and moved it off to the right most part of my forward-facing vision. The quickslot spell bar was turned from one bar of twelve buttons into two bars of ten each. I shrunk them to about 60% original size and put in the bottom middle of my vision. The chatbox went into the lower left part with the minimap above it. As for my status, I placed my status bars just above the quickslot bars aligned to the left, whereas my target¡¯s status would be displayed aligned to the right above them. The status bars were different from usual games, having five different bars for health, energy, mana, hunger and thirst. Health was red, energy yellow, mana blue, hunger orange and thirst cyan. It felt good having a clean, efficient interface to work with, and while it may feel distracting at first, I¡¯d eventually grow used to it. Now with that done it was time to check my skill book to see what I had to work with. Fireball ¨C Cost: 10 mana. Cast Time: 2 seconds. Deals 20 fire damage to your target. (Rank 0/3) Quick Strike- Cost: 10 energy. Cooldown 5 seconds. Instantly strikes your target with your current weapon for 110% weapon damage. (Rank 0/3) So you only started with two skills? Guess there isn¡¯t much to work with off the bat. My dreams of being a master of earth and stone will have to be put on hold until I can find some element-appropriate abilities, shame. As I walked down the westward street I caught movement in my eye in a nearby alley. Yes that shadow was definitely waving at me. I walked over to it. ¡°Coppers ain¡¯t got me yet. Buncha rookies didn¡¯t want to check the slums but their captain forced them into a quick search. I had to hide in a rickety old house owned by some half blind old woman who enjoyed the company. She seems your type; want me to hook you two up?¡± Damnit dad. ¡°Nah I¡¯ve got other plans when it comes to women.¡± I responded, giving off the impression that I had things in the works. I could see the gears turning in his virtual head. ¡°Getting after that secretary at your workplace eh? Atta boy.¡± He beamed with pride. I smiled in return; let him think what he will. At least he did me a favor, now I knew that the south-western section of the city was the ¡°affordable housing¡± section of the city. Together we began to trek back towards the town center where we landed. ¡°So what¡¯s the plan old man? Go outside, collect bear asses and hand them in for cash or what?¡± I inquired, wondering what the old man planned on doing. ¡°Hmm, think I¡¯ll join the Gerheld military.¡± I nearly stopped in my tracks. That¡¯s what I had planned to do. ¡°I was thinking the same thing. Join the military, raise the country¡¯s reputation with ourselves then when we finally have a castle it¡¯ll be guarded by guards we can trust.¡± ¡°Not to mention make a guild along the way, inviting loads of players and sorting through them little by little to see whose got the potential to do some serious damage. Before long we should be a driving force behind Gerheld¡¯s military campaign.¡± ¡°Then once this continent is conquered we focus our attention on another continent and repeat the process until the world is ours.¡± ¡°Then we kill the emperor and take over.¡± That¡¯s my dad, thinking big like always. ¡°Can we even take over?¡± I asked, moving out of the way of a group of Misawi running to get out of the city. ¡°Why not, guilds can lay claim to land, potentially forming their own countries you know. Didn¡¯t you read the website?¡± ¡°Only a little.¡± ¡°Damn, and I was just starting to be proud of you boy for thinking like me. You¡¯ve still got a ways to go until you¡¯ve reached the level of master like yours truly.¡± ¡°I am NOT playing that old Battletoads game dad.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll never get anywhere in life with that attitude.¡± He scoffed. I snorted, ¡°Whatever, lets scout out this city since we¡¯ll be here awhile. We¡¯ll need to know what shops, inns and temples are here and where they are before we should move on to military work.¡± ¡°Well there¡¯s nothing but dirt and busted homes in the south-west, those slums are almost as bad as New Jersey.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at that. ¡°Decided on a profession yet boy?¡± ¡°Alchemy, you?¡± ¡°Leatherworker.¡± I raised an eyebrow at him, ¡°Not tailoring for better casting gear?¡± ¡°Who said anything about casting?¡± ¡°Um, your name? Musclewizards flex to cast spells after all.¡± ¡°Yeah but the only spell I know how to cast is my fist.¡± ¡°Ah so you¡¯ll be a Monk style class then.¡± ¡°Right my boy. And you¡¯ll be a Geomancer based on your name then.¡± ¡°With a twist, yeah. Instead of some backseat caster I¡¯m thinking of a heavily armored tank mage.¡± ¡°I¡¯m interested to see how it turns out.¡± ¡°Yeah, if it doesn¡¯t work out though there¡¯s always respec potions.¡± Shops lined the northern section of the road. I spied many stores with signs that displayed they were alchemists, jewelers or blacksmiths. It wasn¡¯t long before I found a stone building with a book designed on a sign hanging above the doorway. ¡°Let¡¯s head in here, it could be a library of sorts or someplace we can buy spell books to learn more spells.¡± ¡°Good eye.¡± Together we entered the store, a bell ringing as we opened the door. ¡°Welcome Touched Ones to this humble store of one Mafarino Diheno, book collector extraordinaire! May I perhaps interest you in a book containing the history of our fair world from legend to fact? Or perhaps a book outlining the history of the Gerheld Empire from its humble beginnings to the current day Empire? I have many books for all kinds of customers!¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I looked at the energetic man standing behind the counter who waved his hands emphatically as he spoke. He wore a brown robe with gold trimming and a wide-brimmed, tan colored hate with a white feather stuck into the left side. His long white beard swayed with his motions. His face covered in wrinkles but his green eyes shone sharply with determination. ¡°Do you have any tomes that teach magic spells?¡± I spoke hastily, wary of what my dad may say to the man. The man in turn threw up his hands, ¡°Good heavens no! The only vendors of magic tomes belong to the empire itself! Only members of the military or government can purchase them from a private vendor of such items.¡± ¡°Ah, we¡¯ll be leaving then, farewell.¡± Together my father and I turned to leave, just as we reached the door the man whispered and shouted, ¡°Wait, wait!¡± We turned to look at the man who seemed to fidget as his eyes darted to the windows looking outside. Finding the coast clear he waved us over. As we neared he laid out a set of tomes on the counter. ¡°Normally I wouldn¡¯t show these to just anybody. But I know that you are no friends of the law.¡± He nodded towards my father. My head began to hurt. My father¡¯s attack on a citizen was enough for this man to show us his illegal goods? I¡¯m going to need to take a painkiller or two once I log off just to deal with this. ¡°Yeah, fuck the police.¡± My dad responded. The man gave my father a questioning look before shaking his head. ¡°I have here five tomes of spells and skills. You¡¯re free to inspect them but they¡¯re each worth fifty silver if you wish to purchase them.¡± I quickly picked up one tome after another to study their contents. Tome of Summon Elemental ¨C Cost: 200 Mana. Cast Time: 3 seconds. Summons an elemental of wind, water, earth or fire to protect the caster for 30 seconds. (Rank 0/3) Cooldown: 2 minutes. Tome of Rapid Strikes ¨C Cost: 50 energy You push yourself to the limit, increasing attack speed by 30% for 10 seconds. (Rank 0/3) Cooldown: 2 minutes. Tome of Barrier ¨C Cost: 150 Mana Cast Time: Instant You create a barrier in front of you, blocking all magic and ranged attacks for 10 seconds. (Rank 0/3) Cooldown: 5 minutes. Tome of Precision ¨C Cost: 50 Energy You perfect your inner focus for a short time, increasing critical strike chance by 15% for 10 seconds. (Rank 0/3) Cooldown: 2 minutes. Tome of Reflect - Cost: 25 Energy You use your weapon or shield to reflect the next spell cast against you. (Rank 0/3) Cooldown: 45 seconds. An interesting set of skills, but what really caught my eye was the Barrier and Summon Elemental tomes. Shame I didn¡¯t have any money with me, I¡¯d have bought them instantly. Oh well, perhaps some other time. ¡°Thanks for letting us window shop, but we¡¯re new here and haven¡¯t got a single coin to either of our names.¡± ¡°Speak for yourself boy.¡± My father said, reaching into his bag and pulling out five gold coins and slammed them onto the counter. ¡°I¡¯ll take them all.¡± ¡°I¡­how?¡± Was all I could muster. My dad turned to me with a toothy grin. ¡°Well that half blind old woman wasn¡¯t using them so I decided to help myself. She said something along the lines of, ¡®take a few coins for yourself sonny. Old Lady Binti won¡¯t be needin¡¯ all of them.¡¯ Such a nice lady, you really should hook up with her.¡± ¡°That¡¯s more than a few coins¡­¡± I mumbled, watching my dad purchase all five tomes with ease. ¡°Th-thank you for your patronage!¡± The man exclaimed with glee, possibly overjoyed to finally dump his illegal goods and wipe his hands clean. My dad pocketed the tomes and exited the store. ¡°Let us know if you ¡®acquire¡¯ some new tomes.¡± I nodded to the man who nodded back. ¡°Indeed! You¡¯ll be the first to know, young master!¡± He waved me off as I exited the building to join with my father. Once more back out in the street my father turned to me, ¡°Which tomes you want boy?¡± ¡°Barrier and Summon Elemental please.¡± ¡°Here you go, pay me back when you can.¡± He tossed me the two tomes which I caught. I quickly opened the tome of Summon Elemental. Energy flew from the book¡¯s pages, rapidly flipping from one page to the next, filling me with knowledge. The effect only lasted a few seconds, and when it was over I had the ability to summon an elemental of a random element. ¡°Thanks old man.¡± I responded, doing the same to the barrier skill. Both skills were currently out of my league to cast, but just having them was a fine boon. Just as I finished learning the second spell and my father used his tomes a group of three guards rushed towards us. My father walked into the shadows to the side of the bookstore, blending in completely. The guards ran by without so much as looking at us. ¡°Why do you think they were in such a hurry?¡± My father asked with amusement. ¡°Shall we find out?¡± I suggested knowing full well it was something my father did. ¡°You go ahead boy, I¡¯ll see if I can find where we can join the military. Probably up at that castle.¡± He pointed to the north, towards a castle that stood atop a small hill within the city¡¯s walls. ¡°Sounds good, stay out of trouble old man.¡± ¡°Me? Trouble? Never.¡± He spoke indignantly before marching off towards the direction of the city¡¯s hilltop castle. I myself followed the guards who rushed by eastward to the central plaza. There the three guards were caught between saluting a man in full chainmail with wore a golden sash across his chest. He gazed stone-faced in the plaza at the men catching their breath from their run. ¡°Care to run that by me one more time boys?¡± He spoke in a commanding tone. ¡°Yes¡­sir¡­¡± One guard spoke, taking a deep breath before continuing, ¡°We chased the Touched One into the slums, but he had given us the slip. However when we combed through the area we found a single house with a broken down front door. ¡°The man took another gasp of air before continuing. ¡°Upon inspection of the home we discovered an old woman lying on the ground. We found that she had suffered severe trauma brought about by repeated strikes to the head as there were multiple black and blue bruises all around her head. We summoned a healer to help the woman recover. When she was able to respond to our questions all she could mention was that she saw ¡®eyes and teeth¡¯. We assume it was our original assailant.¡± Dad. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. I groaned, running the events by in my head. In less than an hour he had attacked a citizen, escaped the local guards, broken into a house, beaten an old woman to unconsciousness and robbed her. It was horrible¡­but why wasn¡¯t I surprised? ¡°Alright men, take a description to the barracks, we¡¯ll post wanted signs throughout the city to capture this criminal on the loose. Dismissed!¡± The captain finished with a salute and was rewarded with three salutes in response and a ¡°Sir!¡± in unison. The three guards then rushed off towards the castle. The captain noticed me staring and rubbing my head. ¡°May I help you citizen?¡± Upon closer inspection of me his mouth opened before he caught himself. ¡°Pardon my insolence Touched One, I didn¡¯t recognize you at first.¡± He bowed, ¡°How may I help you?¡± His voiced was filled with respect, a good man this captain. I liked him, so I returned his bow which made him audibly gasp. Calm down dude, where I come from respect is returned with respect. Most of the time at least. ¡°I was just wondering if there was a way to join the Gerheld Empire officially, perhaps as a member of its army or such.¡± He looked as if he couldn¡¯t believe his own ears. ¡°Y-yes Touched One! If you head up to the castle and ask for an audience with General Ledric he will send you to officer training right away!¡± He saluted once more then motioned me closer to whisper something to me. I leaned in, giving him my ear, ¡°Between you and me¡­most of these Touched don¡¯t seem to be interested in our fair country. You¡¯re the first to have asked about joining us. In the coming days we¡¯ll need the help of every hand available.¡± He regretful look crossed his face as he scanned the crowd of players. Indeed, most of the other players seemed to be running off into the fields to fight whatever they found there to level up. Others simply walked around, engaging themselves in exploring the big city. I nodded in response, ¡°That¡¯s why I asked, my father and I wish to be of service to the Gerheld Empire.¡± ¡°It pleases me greatly to hear these words.¡± He bowed once more, ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll rise through the ranks easily, the Touched are on a whole different level than us mortal men and women. If I may speak freely¡­¡± I nodded, ¡°I fear they may end up destroying this world as the Titans did ages ago. There has been a recent report of a Touched Orc in our fair city causing chaos that only reinforces my belief.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll bring him to justice sir¡­¡± ¡°Dehaven, Captain Moross Dehaven.¡± He gave me another bow, ¡°I¡¯d appreciate it greatly if you were to help apprehend this Orc. I¡¯m sure you would be rewarded by the constable himself as well.¡± Quest Revealed: Apprehend the player Musclewizard. Reward: 10 gold coins, 500 experience and 200 reputation with the city of Orhu. I happily accepted the quest, after all if I was the one who was wanted my father would have no qualms with capturing and turning me in for a reward. Though he¡¯d probably bust me out of the slammer soon after. Family sticks together through thick and thin. I gave Captain Dehaven a quick salute before turning towards the castle to meet this General Ledric. That was when the chaos started. Barreling full bore from the main northern street that led directly towards the hilltop castle was a creature as black as night heading straight towards the main plaza. As the being closed the distance to the plaza I could see sunlight reflecting off of metal that clung to his body. I squint my eyes to help me see that it was my father with two guards holding onto his arms in an attempt to bring him down. What he was yelling was currently inaudible. Captain Dehaven drew his sword as he noticed the commotion, but I held out a hand to stop him. ¡°Wait a minute; let¡¯s see what this is about.¡± He reluctantly sheathed his sword and stood in a watchful position. His hand near his blade just in case. As my father closed the distance the words he was yelling became clearer. ¡°We can¡¯t log out! If you die in the game you die in real life! We can¡¯t log out! If you die in the game you die in real life!¡± Not stopping even as another group of three guards blocked his path. He plowed right through them with the force of a freight train, sending them flying as he took off towards the fields. ¡°What the hell was he yelling about?¡± The captain asked me with a questioning stare. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­¡± I trailed off as I inspected my interface, looking for the log out button. It was there in the bottom left, but it was greyed out. I wasn¡¯t able to interact with it. ¡°Shit.¡± I spoke aloud, unable to stop myself. ¡°What?¡± The captain asked quickly turning his head to me away from watching my father. ¡°¡­Nothing.¡± I responded, watching the chatbox fill with increasingly frantic posts exclaiming about how we couldn¡¯t log out and that if we die in the game we¡¯ll die in real life. The logout thing was true enough, but as for dying in real life¡­that had to be my dad messing with everyone, right? Just as I finished that thought lightning erupted from the sky and struck the plaza not far from where I currently stood. Everyone turned to stare at a giant man in dark robes standing where the lightning had struck. His name appeared as ¡®GM Gokanis¡¯ in all gold letters. ¡°My my, so they finally discovered they can¡¯t log out.¡± He spoke bemused. With a wave of his hand the entire plaza became crowded. Very crowded. More players than I had originally seen were packed within the plaza. The crowd murmured at once wondering what was going on. Some mentioned that they had come from other cities and didn¡¯t recognize this one. Apparently this was all the players that had signed on. In the crowd I could hear my father repeatedly yelling ¡°We can¡¯t log out, if you die in the game you die in real life!¡± The GM pointed to where my father pushed through the crowd, unwilling to let the guards that currently clinging to him take him down. Immediately his voice was muted just as more guards jumped onto him, finally bringing down the beast of Orhu. ¡°We don¡¯t need that kind of hysteria.¡± The GM chuckled, shaking his head and smiling. ¡°Greetings everyone,¡± his voice carried easily through the crowd of thousands, silencing the murmurs. ¡°My name is Game Master Gokanis, by now a few of you have found that you cannot log out of Reckoning. This in itself isn¡¯t a problem as the login servers are down. See, we were doing a prelaunch test about an hour ago which opened the login servers for a few minutes. And you all are very impatient people.¡± He beamed, waving his hand. You have received the title: The Impatient Laughter rolled like a wave through the crowd, one voice yelled out above the others. ¡°I just wanted to play the game!¡± ¡°And play you will LampLord, don¡¯t you worry. With the login servers down nobody can get in or out of Reckoning, but this isn¡¯t a problem. If any of you really need to get out of the game just say so and I¡¯ll forcibly boot you from the game, allowing you to go back to normal until the game launches in¡­¡± He glanced at his wrist like he was checking a watch. ¡°Two hours and fifteen minutes. Ah, a word before any of you clamor to get out. We¡¯ll be doing a world reset in about thirty minutes. When that happens all of you will be booted from the game and be forced to wait until the original launch time. Your accounts will keep the impatient title though, a reward for being such fans.¡± Cheers erupted from the crowd. I merely grinned, I liked this company. The GM waved his hand once more, light erupted from the crowd. Alerts popped all over my screen. You have reached level 100! You have received the Tyrant King¡¯s set! You have received Ageless Regalia set! You have received Night¡¯s Bane set! Along with many, many others such as receiving max level weapons, potions and every spell in the game. Looking at my skill book there were 20 spells per page and over 10,000 pages. It was mind-boggling. Everyone was shouting in a frenzy, giddy with their new powers. ¡°Now I don¡¯t think any of you will want to be forcibly logged out for this, so let¡¯s have some fun shall we?¡± Bright light once more enveloped us. When it faded we were all in a strange place where the ground was charred black and ash fell from the sky. In the distance was a massive giant. ¡°You have five minutes to prepare to fight Moroloch, Titan of Fire! Hurry up!¡± Shouts erupted from the crowd as everyone threw on armor and weapons at random and attempted to throw skills onto their bars. I was no different throwing on a set called Shazem¡¯s Focus, a set that increased my spell power by a crazy amount. I then placed as many offensive spells as I could on my bars and equipped a staff as the giant drew ever-nearer. All around me players decked themselves out in top end armor and roared into the air as the Titan closed the distance. Before long I could make out the obsidian stones that his body was made of. Lava flowed out of cracks, trailing fire as he lumbered towards our rag-tag army. With a shout, players wielding melee weapons charged towards the giant who could dwarf the very mountains. Arrows launched in an arc to intercept the Titan. Spells from Ice beams and Water Bolts to Meteors falling from the sky and pillars of earth erupting from the ground collided with Moroloch. The Titan roared with fury as his health dropped by .2%. With a sweep of his arm, lava erupted from the earth, burning the melee that rushed ahead. A few seconds later the melee line was dead. Us ranged lasted a few seconds more until a wave of Meteors fell from the sky directly in our midst. I was greeted with a popup on a faded grey screen. You have died. Respawn at bind point? I hit yes, and found myself back in Orhu with everyone else. The GM tsk¡¯d his mouth with a grin, ¡°Looks like you mighty adventurers aren¡¯t so mighty after all!¡± We all yelled at him for another go at the Titan. ¡°Very well!¡± Once more we were enveloped in light and teleported. Three minutes later we were right back in Orhu yelling to go again, laughing all the while. We had done better this time, splitting into smaller groups to attack from multiple angles. The GM laughed and complied. This cycle of death repeated over and over until our time was up and the game was reset, kicking us back into our bodies in the real world. Lying in my bed I blinked a few times to get my bearings. What a rush! What fun! I wanted to go again. I needed to go again. I looked at my clock, an hour and forty minutes to go. My phone rang, obviously my dad. I picked up. We yelled together. ¡°That was fucking awesome!¡± ---- Free talk zone. Whew this was a fun chapter to write, enjoy! As always, comments appreciated. They help me feel warm and fuzzy. Chapter 3- The Rumblers I checked the clock on my headset as I flipped from one application to the other just to watch them spin in a circle to kill time. Five minutes until Reckoning¡¯s official launch. I shifted in my bed anxiously, when was the last time I had been so antsy for a videogame? I couldn¡¯t remember. I had only recently got back into gaming after I had grown out of it for a few years when I turned 14. I¡¯m pretty sure my dad cried the night I said I didn¡¯t want to play them anymore. Jump forward a few years and here I am at 24, slowly getting back into the gaming scene. I stopped the spinning applications on the game that had fished me back into my old hobby. Legend of Xidamt, an open world RPG. It featured true sandbox gameplay with a storyline that culminated in an invasion from an empire from across the sea. Out of all the times I had played I had only won twice. Both times using scorched earth tactics, leaving nothing for the empire to take and use against us. When pushed against the wall, we humans can truly become demons. I flicked the app, once more going back to spinning them in a circle. Three minutes remained to launch, my father was probably already waiting for the server to unlock, fully comatose. We had spent the last hour on the phone, outlining our master plan. We had it down to three phases. Phase 1- Gerheld. This phase would be us embedding ourselves within the Gerheld Empire. By joining its military we would become key figures of their forces. While there were sure to be other players doing the same, not only for Gerheld but other factions as well, we just had to become the most prominent. This meant questing to further the Empire¡¯s goals. This meant clearing monster dens and dungeons, recruitment from frontier towns, eliminating bandits and so on. Just the two of us however could only do so much, so once we joined Gerheld we would begin phase 2 as well. Phase 2- The Guild. Forming a guild would cost money. Quick research showed that you would need fifty gold to start a guild. Not a small bit of change when you started out with nothing more than simple clothes and a dagger. Once we pooled enough money together we would immediately create one and start recruitment. When I suggested we start blindly recruiting everyone we saw my dad yelled at me. ¡°We¡¯d be compromised by rival guilds faster than you could snap your fingers. We¡¯ll do slow, precision recruitment my boy, grabbing those who show the same interests as us. We want unity and quality, not chaos and quantity.¡± In the end I agreed with his reasoning, we¡¯d have to be careful of other players. What made me double-take however was when he mentioned that we should begin by recruiting NPCs into the guild. He explained that since the AI in use was advanced enough to be considered semi-human, NPCs could join guilds to manage guild shops, houses and castles. As well as accompany players to fight and level up themselves. Madness. The only thing they couldn¡¯t do was speak in guild chat as they didn¡¯t have that function. So if you wanted to speak to them you had to meet them in person. Finally, we come to Phase 3- Offensive. This phase would be simple once we had enough power. We would invade other countries and expand the Empire¡¯s territory. This phase would last until we had conquered the continent of Lidana. We would decide on hitting either the Dohan Republic or the Issim State first later on. With the plan firmly in mind I selected the Reckoning app with two minutes till launch time. I hit open and felt the probes connect to my temples before my vision went black. Hello darkness my old friend. The Reckoning cinematic started to play once more but I mentally cancelled it, jumping straight to the character selection screen. There stood my greyed-out character in his starting gear of brown pants, tan shirt with a golden hawk over the right breast, well-worn leather shoes. In his right hand he clutched a small dagger. Starting gear would be quickly replaced, it always is. I just hoped to get some decent spells sooner rather than later. I watched the clock in the upper right of the screen intensely. Any second now¡­now! My character had regained his color, allowing me to enter the game. A pop-up asked if I wished to enter the world of Reckoning. I mentally slammed the ¡®Yes¡¯ button. Once more I was greeted by darkness before I plummeted towards the world of Patelle. ¡°Oh hell yes!¡± I yelled, flying through the air. Surging through the atmosphere I did all sorts of flips and spins, enjoying the free fall once more. Today I learned I¡¯m an adrenaline junkie. A minute later I touched down in the familiar plaza of Orhu, Gerheld¡¯s starting city. More and more players touched down around me, each with The Impatient title displayed. I smiled; not having to do character creation again would save us a few minutes from the horde that was sure to follow. ¡°Boy, over here!¡± I heard my father¡¯s voice yell above the whoops and hollers of other players. The giant black Orc that was my father stood off to the north of the plaza near the familiar face of Captain Dehaven. A popup jumped into my vision. -Musclewizard invites you to a group- I mentally accepted. My father now showed on my minimap as a small blue dot. I jogged over to him and the captain, giving a quick salute to the military man who bowed his head in return. ¡°Greetings Touched Ones, my name is Captain Dehaven of the Gerheld Empire. If you have any questions please direct them to me. I shall do my utmost to answer them.¡± He spoke respectfully. ¡°Actually Captain, we would like to help you first.¡± My father cut in, ¡°We have discovered an illegal magical tome trader. We would like to help you bring him to justice.¡± Captain Dehaven gave my father a searching stare before nodding. ¡°Very well, you two shall accompany me. Markos, Recht! Come here!¡± He shouted to two guards watching over the plaza. The pair rushed over and saluted, giving a hearty ¡°Sir!¡± ¡°These two say they have uncovered an unsanctioned tome trader, they will accompany us to bring this man to justice.¡± He turned to us and nodded, ¡°Lead the way Touched Ones.¡± Quest Revealed: Illegal Trader (Orhu) An illegal Tome Trader is operating in Orhu. Bring him to justice. Reward: 1000 experience, +Orhu Reputation. ¡°Right, follow us.¡± My dad commanded, walking off towards the west. What was he doing? I accepted the quest and walked next to him, followed closely by the three guards. We left the plaza which was rapidly becoming more and more crowded with players. I leaned in close and whispered to my father, ¡°Dad what are we-¡° ¡°Remember that book trader? There was a world reset so now everything is back to square one. This means he still has the Tomes. This will help us get in good with Gerheld.¡± Oh right, Mafarino the bookseller. I completely forgot about him. Leave it to my father to remember every little detail. A bit later we entered the bookstore to a tongue-tied Mafarino who insisted he had no illegal tomes for sale. I stood off to the side next to the old bookkeep as my father walked around the counter and ripped a small cabinet door off its hinges. He placed the five spell tomes on the counter with a raised brow. Mafarino tried to run of course, but my outstretched leg caught one of his, sending him falling into the arms of a waiting guard who in turn restrained him. Captain Dehaven ordered the two guards to bring him to the barracks¡¯ holding cell until the constable could make time for a trial. He then approached the counter and stared at the magical tomes. ¡°I wish I had the money to reward you two with, but I have none with me at the moment. These tomes also must be used as evidence in the man¡¯s trial. But it feels wrong letting you go without a reward. Please, take a single tome, each of you.¡± He motioned towards the counter and stood off to the side. Quest Completed! Illegal Trader (Orhu) Rewards: 1,000 Experience. +Orhu Reputation. 1 Magical Tome. A bright light flashed from both my father and I. Level 2 achieved! +5 unassigned stat points. +1 talent point. I picked up the tome of Summon Elemental while my father grabbed the Rapid Strikes one. We both used the tomes and learned our respective abilities. Captain Dehaven then collected the remaining tomes and turned to us. ¡°Thank you for helping the empire. We could use good people such as you.¡± He reached into a pocket and held out two pins in the shape of a bronze hawk. ¡°These pins are given to citizens who have proven themselves worthy of notice.¡± He explained, ¡°Show these to General Ledric at the castle in town and you¡¯ll be further rewarded for your efforts. As well as offered a position in the Gerheld Empire. You don¡¯t have to accept of course¡­but¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry Captain; we planned on joining the Empire officially anyway.¡± I accepted a pin and bowed my head, ¡°This service was to prove our loyalty to Gerheld.¡± My father accepted the other pin, looking as if he would break it in his massive hands. ¡°I thank you again Touched Ones. Know that you will always be welcomed in the city of Orhu. If you will, please leave so that I may lock the shop so thieves do not help themselves.¡± We both agreed and stepped outside, followed soon by the Captain who closed and locked the door behind him before pocketing the key. ¡°I do not mean to second-guess Emperor Soddik,¡± he whispered, ¡°but other countries do not restrict the trade of magic tomes. Only sanctioned Empire mages can purchase them from sanctioned vendors. I can¡¯t help but wonder why he would decide such a thing.¡± ¡°I can see why quite easily actually.¡± I began as Captain Dehaven and my father turned to me. ¡°It¡¯s simple, if you restrict the tome trade to your military you lessen the chance of a rival kingdom obtaining powerful spells, as well as lessening the power of potential rebels.¡± ¡°That¡¯s my boy!¡± my father yelled and rubbed a fist on my head. ¡°I see, perhaps you are right Touched One.¡± He seemed relieved, ¡°I shall trust in your wisdom. Now I must return to my duties and bring these tomes to the barracks to be used as evidence. Know that you will always have a friend in Moross Dehaven.¡± He bowed deeply before heading towards the plaza. ¡°So far so good,¡± my father spoke as we moved onto a side street that would lead us to the castle. ¡°Better than good actually. Got a level and a half, a free skill and some reputation to boot. We may even have a potential NPC guild member in Dehaven.¡± I nodded my agreement and opened my character status. Name: Geo Level: 2 Experience: 500/1000 Health: 200 Mana: 100 Energy: 100 Strength: 10 Agility: 10 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 10 Unassigned Points: 5 I dumped all 5 points into Intelligence, raising my mana to 150 and increasing my spell power a small amount. I would do the same next level so that I could begin summoning elementals. Speaking of which I had a talent point to spend! I opened my skill book and stared at my abilities. Unspent Talent Points: 1 Abilities: Fireball ¨C Cost: 10 Mana Cast Time: 2 seconds. Deals 30 fire damage to your target. (Rank 0/3) Quick Strike ¨C Cost: 10 Energy Cooldown: 5 seconds. Instantly strikes your target with current weapon for 110% weapon damage. (Rank 0/3) Summon Elemental ¨C Cost: 200 Mana Cast Time: 3 Seconds. Summons a random elemental of wind water earth or fire to protect the caster for 30 seconds. (Rank 0/3) Cooldown: 2 minutes. I began to experiment with the talent point, seeing what changed on each ability when placed in it without accepting placing it permanently. Fireball would increase the damage to 33, a 10% increase. Quick Strike went to 120% weapon damage and a 6 second cooldown. Summon Elemental increased the elemental¡¯s duration from 30 seconds to 60 seconds however. It was a no-brainer; Summon Elemental received the talent point. Unfortunately I didn¡¯t notice that the mana cost increased as well, from 200 to 250. Now I had to wait until level 4 to be able to cast it. I mentally groaned at my frustration. But level 4 should come fast enough. I looked towards my father who walked with a relaxed gait, contrary to the deep concentration that appeared on his face. ¡°What you thinking about old man?¡± I asked, drawing his attention. ¡°Just messing with the skill fusion system. I just combined Quick Strike and Fireball with Quick Strike as the base ability to make Fire Strike. Same power as Quick Strike except it deals fire damage instead of physical. It also costs mana now instead of energy. Looks like I¡¯ll be putting some points in intellect after all¡­I¡¯ve only got 5 points in it.¡± I laughed, ¡°A Musclewizard through and through!¡± he grumbled in response. So an Orc¡¯s starting stats were different than a human¡¯s? Interesting. Though I guess I should have expected that. We still had a ways to walk to reach the hilltop castle, so I myself decided to muck about in the skill fusion system. Using Fireball as a base, combined with Quick Strike it would make Fireblast, a spell that instantly dealt fire damage to your target on a five second cooldown. Combined with Summon Elemental it would create Elemental Bolt, a 2 second cast that would deal damage from a random element. I then moved to Quick Strike as the base. Combined with Fireball was as my father said, Fire Strike. But combined with Summon Elemental it became Elemental Strike, same as Quick Strike but dealt damage from a random element. An idea for an elemental warrior formed in my head, this system could certainly achieve that easily. Finally I tried using Summon Elemental as the base. Combined with Fireball it became Summon Fire Elemental. I gasped. It would always summon a fire elemental to be used in battle but it also lowered the mana cost to 150. My talent point would be refunded if I combined these two spells, so I immediately, and happily, accepted. You have forgotten Fireball. You have forgotten Summon Elemental. You have been refunded a talent point. You have learned Summon Fire Elemental. Summon Fire Elemental ¨C Cost: 150 Mana Cast Time: 3 Seconds. Summons a fire elemental to protect the caster for 30 seconds. (Rank 0/3) Cooldown: 2 minutes. I quickly closed the alerts, now my only skills were Quick Strike and this Fire Elemental. I threw my new ability onto my quick slot bar and stopped walking. My father turned questioningly at me. I stood there with my hands out, flames soon surged from the cobbled street, condensing into a being of pure orange flame. Ghost-like in its appearance, it had two large arms and hands with three digits. Deep red eyes stared back towards me. Both players and NPCs stared and gasped audibly at the display. ¡°Whoa.¡± ¡°Dude!¡± ¡°How did you do that?!¡± ¡°Please give me money, I¡¯m new.¡± My dad turned towards the person who asked for money, ¡°We¡¯re all new jackass now piss off.¡± Laughter followed as the player ran off. More people came to admire the elemental for a few seconds before it wore off a few seconds later. I was bombarded with question which I answered to the best of my ability before excusing myself and heading towards the castle. ¡°You need to be more subtle.¡± My father said to me, ¡°We want to go unnoticed for as long as possible so that people don¡¯t target us on purpose. Once the guild gets going then we¡¯ll make a scene.¡± ¡°Right, sorry.¡± I apologized. ¡°Bah don¡¯t worry; I¡¯m eager to try out this Flame Strike ability myself!¡± After a few minutes more of walking we stood outside the entrance to the city¡¯s castle. Four guards stood at attention at the entrance, spears held in a rest position. I felt their eyes follow us every step as we entered. Inside the entrance was a grand hallway which grew into the throne room further inside. Candles lined the sides of the hallway illuminating the sculptures, paintings, and the suits of armor that stood watch, never moving. We stepped along a faded gold rug led the way into the throne room. Inside the large room guards stood watch along the walls as rich looking nobles conversed among one another. In the center of the room was a cushioned marble throne, on which a young man sat. I guessed he couldn¡¯t have been more than twenty eight. He wore regal brown robes trimmed with golden thread, clearly the constable of Orhu. To the constable¡¯s right stood a scarred man wearing full plate armor that shone silver. A golden hawk painted expertly on the breastplate. ¡°Hey eyeballs,¡± My father said to a nearby guard. ¡°That tin can in the center wouldn¡¯t happen to be General Ledric would it?¡± Unfortunately my father forgot to lower his voice. The room filled with murmurs turned silent in an instant as everyone noticed the giant Orc next to me. The silence was broken with laughter coming from the center of the room. On his marble throne the constable clutched his chest in laughter. ¡°The¡­the Orc has your number Ledric! Hah!¡± he took a deep breath in a poor attempt to stifle the chuckles he uttered occasionally. ¡°Step forward Touched Ones, these halls are always open to the public.¡± Ledric crossed his arms but betrayed a grin on his face as he stared at my father. ¡°Been awhile since I met someone with the iron to call me a tin can, I hope you can back up those words Orc.¡± ¡°Back them up and pay them in full.¡± My father responded with a grin, showing off his muscles. ¡°Watch out for him,¡± I began. ¡°He¡¯s a bane to old women everywhere.¡± The constable slapped his chair with delight, barely containing his laughter. Even Ledric¡¯s grin grew. Polite laughter from the nobles peppered the room. ¡°So what may we do for you sirs¡­?¡± The constable began. ¡°Geo.¡± ¡°Musclewizard.¡± Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°¡­sirs Geo and Musclewizard.¡± He spoke as if tasting the names. ¡°Strange names, but who am I to judge the gods¡¯ chosen ones? Ah, where are my manners? I am Constable Golt. So how may we help you two?¡± ¡°First Captain Dehaven mentioned a reward.¡± I showed them the bronze hawk, ¡°We helped catch an illegal tome vendor.¡± Ledric nodded, ¡°We could find something for each of you to use. Anything else?¡± I nodded, ¡°Second we wish to formally join the Gerheld Empire as members of its military.¡± Constable Golt clapped, ¡°Excellent, excellent indeed. The empire should be proud to have such fine men join her. What say you Ledric, shall we accept this man and Orc into our ranks?¡± Ledric nodded, ¡°Indeed, I¡¯d be happy to have them under my command. However Golt aren¡¯t you forgetting something?¡± ¡°Bah, ceremonies are a pain. But very well, if two would please kneel before the throne we can begin.¡± Together my father and I knelt facing the throne. ¡°Sirs Geo and Musclewizard, do you swear with all your heart to uphold the honor of the Gerheld Empire? To serve her justly and shelter her with your very lives?¡± ¡°I swear so!¡± I exclaimed ¡°What he said.¡± My father said. Damnit dad, way to ruin the mood. ¡°Then by the power vested in me by Emperor Soddik in the Grand Citadel, I Constable Golt pronounce you honorary members of the Gerheld Empire. Stand and accept your symbols of authority as Junior Squad Leaders in the Gerheld Guard.¡± You have officially joined the Gerheld Empire! Reputation with the Gerheld Empire has reached friendly! As we stood Ledric handed us a larger version of the bronze hawks we received from Captain Dehaven. ¡°Wear these with pride Touched Ones, they will show everyone your allegiance to our glorious country.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± I bowed my head, accepting the hawk. My father nodded as he accepted his. ¡°Now since you two are unproven we must set forth a trial for you to complete to show you are capable of leading the men and women of the empire. If you would accompany me I will lead you to the barracks which is filled with fresh recruits. You will then be assigned three men each and given a task to complete. Should you complete the task you will be rewarded and given an additional two men. Your very own squads to lead.¡± ¡°Now we¡¯re cooking! What are we waiting for, times wasting!¡± My father exclaimed, eager to be off. ¡°Very well then, let us be off! I¡¯ll be back shortly Golt.¡± Ledric saluted before turning towards the castle exit and marching ahead. My father and I fell into step behind him. The guards nodded respectfully as we walked by. A sign of our increased reputation. ¡°Now that you¡¯re officially members of the empire, we can up that original reward Dehaven promised you.¡± Ledric grinned, ¡°After all, nothing says we can¡¯t equip our own troops eh?¡± My father and I grinned as well. Gear! After a short walk we turned east to a massive stone building surrounded by a metal fence. In the grounds surrounding the building were targets and dummies being used for practice as well as sand pits for training between members. Currently a small crowd was gathered around a sand pit cheering. Must have been a match going on. ¡°Welcome to the Orhu barracks.¡± Ledric spoke as we entered the building. ¡°This is the main hall, off to the sides are the living quarters where our people sleep. Straight ahead is the mess hall where you can grab a bite to eat. It ain¡¯t the most pleasant gruel but it fills the stomach. If you continue straight through the mess you¡¯ll enter the kitchen. Gods help you if you do; you¡¯re liable to be forced into pot scrubbing duty for interrupting work. Side doors lead outside to the training grounds.¡± We took a quick look at the living quarters, bunk beds stood side by side with a handful of people sitting in the center playing cards. ¡°Better not be gambling!¡± Ledric shouted which caused the group to shrink back. ¡°N-no sir!¡± ¡°Very well then, continue on.¡± The men saluted and went back to their game, grins all around. ¡°Fuckin¡¯ liars.¡± My dad snorted. ¡°We don¡¯t need to know that.¡± Ledric said, ¡°No real harm in it so long as I don¡¯t see it.¡± ¡°Keeps the men happy and high in morale.¡± I noted. ¡°Exactly. Here¡¯s the mess.¡± Ledric responded, opening the doorway to the mess hall. Tables filled the room with a few soldiers scattered about the room in groups. Laughter and banging echoed through the hall. ¡°Hey Ledric, whose the new bloods?¡± An Elf shouted from a nearby table with four others sitting with him. ¡°Pair of Touched Ones, freshly joined. Wanted to get the feel and lay of the place before being assigned a squad.¡± Ledric responded, closing the distance. ¡°The big one¡¯s Musclewizard, little guy over here is Geo.¡± Hey you¡¯re only a few inches taller than me dude, shove off. ¡°Touched Ones joining the fray eh? Battles are gonna start heating up then. Either of you cast spells?¡± A human woman asked. ¡°Both of us do. Though my dad here likes to punch things more than throw balls of fire. I myself can summon a Fire Elemental.¡± ¡°Orcy will get along great with Tin-tooth here. He likes to hit things as well. How about it Ledric, how about signing us up with the Orc?¡± The original Elf ask. ¡°I¡¯m considering it. Think you could get along with the 81st squad, Musclewizard?¡± ¡°If I can¡¯t I¡¯ll break them.¡± My dad responded, cracking his knuckles. Laughter filled the table. ¡°I like him Ledric, we¡¯ll keep him.¡± ¡°Fine, fine. I¡¯ll assign you to the 81st Musclewizard.¡± ¡°Kay, but do we really have to call ourselves the 81st squad?¡± My dad questioned. ¡°Got a better name for us do ya Orc?¡± The Elf asked. ¡°Yep.¡± My dad grinned widely. ¡°Da Big Boyz.¡± All five squad members pounded the table roaring with laughter and chanting ¡°We Da Big Boyz!¡± causing my dad to nod approvingly. Apparently everyone was an Orc at heart in the military. Ledric smiled knowingly, ¡°Sit here and get to know your squad Musclewizard, you¡¯ll be working together after all. I¡¯ll be back with some equipment and your assignment. But first I gotta find Geo here a squad.¡± ¡°Take your time; I gotta break my Boyz in a little.¡± Dad grinned, taking a seat next to the Elf who had called to us at first. Ledric motioned for me to follow, so I waved and followed the general. Raucous laughter followed a loud bang behind us as we neared one of the side exits. I turned to see one of dad¡¯s squad members rubbing his wrist as another grabbed my dad¡¯s hand. Arm wrestling. I learned long ago to never challenge my dad to those. ¡°They¡¯re a good squad, they¡¯ll watch out for your old man.¡± Ledric said as he exited the building. ¡°Yeah but who¡¯s watching out for them?¡± I joked as I followed into the courtyard. Arrows zipped through the air, smacking into targets that stood a good distance away. Swords, maces and axes clunked against wooden dummies set up for practice. A large group of soldiers in full armor ran around a track further behind the barracks in the distance. It was certainly a sight to behold, soldiers training. ¡°Good facilities breed good men.¡± Ledric stated as he noticed my staring at the sights. ¡°I was already planning on making the 81st your dad¡¯s squad, seems like they¡¯ve already accepted him. As for you I¡¯m sort of hesitant.¡± ¡°Whys that?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°Well I do have a squad for you, good soldiers each. Thing is¡­they¡¯re a bit of a problem in a group. Not that they¡¯re at each other¡¯s throats mind you, they just aren¡¯t used to working together.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Ledric nodded ¡°I was planning on taking them out myself and whipping them into shape. Wouldn¡¯t be too hard to do. As I said, they¡¯re good soldiers. I just haven¡¯t had the time lately.¡± His eyes stared off into the distance. ¡°I¡¯ve got a bad feeling about the days to come. I only hope that more of you Touched Ones join us.¡± ¡°I¡¯m certain they will. They¡¯re just¡­caught up in the moment is all.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t we all?¡± He smiled, ¡°Another thing about the squad I mentioned. There are only three members. I haven¡¯t found any others yet that would fit them well enough to assign more. If you want I can introduce you to them.¡± ¡°Alright, lead the way.¡± Ledric strode towards the ranged targets, approaching a woman clad in leather armor who shot arrow after arrow into the center of the furthest target. Her black hair made into a single braid that ran down to her shoulders. ¡°This here is Amariah. Soldiers call her Ice.¡± Ledric whispered to me. ¡°She showed up here one day years ago dirty and covered in soot. The general at the time had no idea what to do with a little girl standing at his doorstep. But at the urging of a few female soldiers he brought her in and they got her cleaned up. Never said a word to anybody for as long as I can recall. When asked where she was from she pointed on a map at a distant frontier town under our protection. When we sent a patrol to return her home they found nothing but charred ruins and corpses picked clean by vultures. From that day on she¡¯s been a member of our little family. As you can see, she¡¯s obsessed with the bow. Has been ever since she was old enough to hold one. An amazing shot but she doesn¡¯t speak which makes her hard to understand.¡± I could tell she had noticed us by a quick look from her left eye before returning to her target and letting loose once more. Direct hit. ¡°Hey Ice.¡± Ledric said out loud, ¡°Meet your new squad leader.¡± She quickly looked over before turning back to her target. I could certainly see how she got the nickname Ice; her stare would make a demon freeze. ¡°She¡¯s not one to say hello either.¡± Ledric shrugged. I had an idea. ¡°Get someone to get me an apple or a pear or something. We¡¯re gonna play William Tell.¡± ¡°William who?¡± Ledric asked before sending a nearby soldier off to the mess to grab a fruit. ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡± I hope. Seconds later the soldier returned with a green apple. Ledric motioned towards me and the soldier tossed it. I caught it easily and walked over to Ice. She glanced at me before turning back to her target. I put a hand on her bow which earned me a glare. I hope she didn¡¯t hit me on purpose for that. ¡°Hit this apple off my head.¡± Was all I said, letting her see the target before I walked off towards the archery target she had been shooting at. I could feel her gaze on my back every step of the way. When I reached the target I turned around, facing her and put the apple on my head. It¡¯s a strange feeling when you know your life is in someone else¡¯s hands. Sort of like watching a movie with no pause or rewind, though it did help knowing that if I was killed I would just respawn. Was there that many people standing around there before? It seems I had drawn a crowd. In the distance I watched her raise her bow and aim. I forced my eyes to stay open, no blinking or closing. A loud ¡®Thwunk!¡¯ sounded from afar, followed by the slight whistling of an arrow flying through the sky. I watched its arc, nervous to high hell and back. When staring at death, seconds turn into minutes. Why was I doing this? I could have gotten a different squad. One full of normal people. Well, as normal as you get in the military. But I didn¡¯t truly want normal. My family was anything but normal after all. I heard the arrow split the apple on my head and hit the ground behind me. Don¡¯t sigh in relief Geo; show them that you expected this to happen. I turned and grabbed the arrow off the ground, cleaned off the dirt and walked back towards the crowd that was now cheering. I held the arrow outwards to her as I approached. Her eyes drilled into my own. I didn¡¯t think that serious look on her face ever left. The crowd quickly silenced. I gave a warm smile and she took her arrow back. I then held out a hand, ¡°I¡¯m Geo, I¡¯ll be your new squad leader.¡± Much to everyone¡¯s surprise she gave my hand a firm shake. Respect. Ledric shook his head, ¡°You got some iron stones yourself.¡± ¡°Thanks, comes from my mother.¡± Laughter rolled like a wave through the soldiers. Ice turned back to her target, her lip slightly upturned. Unnoticed by all but Ledric and I. ¡°Forget squad leader, I should name you captain for that stunt alone.¡± ¡°Squad leader is fine. For now at least.¡± Ledric laughed, ¡°For now he says, you pull results like that and you¡¯ll be named commander before the years over. Care to meet your other two squad mates?¡± ¡°Bring em on.¡± ¡°Gamble, Oak, get your rears in gear!¡± Ledric shouted. Shortly after a clean-shaven dwarf exited the crowd followed by a green and black scaled creature with a reptilian head and yellow eyes. A Misawi. ¡°Och, why ye gotta call when I¡¯m collectin¡¯ my winnings from a hearty wager er two Ledric?¡± The dwarf spoke grudgingly, ¡°Ain¡¯t like we¡¯re on assignment.¡± ¡°Can it Gamble, this here¡¯s Geo. He¡¯s your new squad leader.¡± Ledric spoke motioning towards me. ¡°Geo this is Kelon Stonebrow, aka Gamble. The Misawi over here is known simply as Oak.¡± ¡°Och so yer the boy with the stones-o-gold.¡± Gamble held up a muscular arm. ¡°Won me a fair tip on that apple deal boy. We¡¯ll get along real well if¡¯n you keep that up.¡± He grinned allowing me to spy a golden tooth. I shook his hand. ¡°I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll beat the odds together once or twice Gamble.¡± ¡°Where ya been hidin¡¯ this one Ledric? Words-o-gold this one. Words-o-gold indeed.¡± Gamble¡¯s smile only widened as I felt a coin fall into my hand. I gave him a questioning look which earned me a wink. He let go of my hand slowly, giving me enough time to close my hand around the coin. I pocketed it, no need to look a gift horse in the mouth after all. I looked towards the reptilian humanoid called Oak and bowed my head. He searched me up and down before nodding as well, ¡°Greetings Touched One. I am humbled to have a Touched as a pack leader.¡± ¡°Honored to have you among the squad, Oak. If you don¡¯t mind my asking, Misawi aren¡¯t at all common here and¡­¡± Oak raised a three-fingered hand. ¡°Is no secret. When I was but an egg I was brought to this land. I hatched shortly after making landfall I was told. I was raised among a group of fellow Misawi who taught me our ways as I grew. I learned to hunt from my pack leader and was found to be quite skilled at it. It is how I made a living until a few weeks ago when I decided to hunt for the larger family. Now I am here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure your skills will come in handy Oak. We¡¯ll be doing plenty of hunting together.¡± Oak then put a fist over his heart and bowed deeply. ¡°May we hunt together forever pack leader.¡± ¡°Well you seem to have gained their attention Geo.¡± Ledric nodded, ¡°This here¡¯s the 102nd squad. Care to give it a personal name like your father did?¡± I rubbed my chin in thought. It didn¡¯t help that all three of my squad mates were now staring at me. ¡°How about ¡®The Rumblers?¡¯¡± I never claimed at being good at names. You now command The Rumblers! Members: Name: Amariah ¡°Ice¡± Level: 1 Experience: 0/500 Health: 160 Energy: 120 Strength: 11 Agility: 14 Endurance: 8 Intelligence: 7 Skills: Eagle Eye- Increases the maximum range of ranged weapons such as bows by 5 meters. Name: Kelon Stonebrow ¡°Gamble¡± Level: 1 Experience: 0/500 Health: 220 Energy: 85 Strength: 9 Agility: 7 Endurance: 11 Intelligence: 13 Skills: Lucky- Gains an additional 5% chance to land a critical strike. Name: ¡°Oak¡± Level: 1 Experience: 0/500 Health: 200 Energy: 110 Strength: 10 Agility: 12 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 8 Skills: Poisoned Strikes- has a chance on every hit to poison the target dealing an additional 10% damage over 5 seconds. A new interface popped in front of my face displaying the members of my squad from their stats to their equipment. ¡°Oh boy.¡± ------------------- Free talk zone. Whew, another chapter done this weekend, I''m on fire. The plan from now on is to do one chapter during the work week and one on the weekend. Though I may be lazy sometimes. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this newest chapter! Edit- just remembered that only a few people in this world can use mana so I removed the squad''s mana bar. Oops. Chapter 4- Assignment It all felt so overwhelming. Now not only did I have to worry about my own gear and levels but it seemed I had to worry about those in my squad. So instead of having to gear one character I practically had to gear four. Six when Ledric could find two others to bring the squad up to full strength. Though the squad was plenty strong as it was. We had Ice the archer extraordinaire, able to hit a target as small as an apple at a hundred paces without breaking a sweat. Gamble, true to his name was able to crit more often. His stats were different than what I¡¯d expect from a dwarf. He seemed more of a caster type than a melee. Oak however looked to be suited to melee. ¡°You three should head to the mess or stick around here for a bit, I¡¯ll be back with your assignments and some gear for our new squad leaders.¡± Ledric spoke as he walked off towards a flight of stairs that led to the second floor of the barracks. We decided to stick around. Well it wasn¡¯t exactly a group consensus. Gamble tried organizing a betting ring on Ice shooting more apples off of people¡¯s heads but had to give up after nobody taking the bets. Oak had deigned to rest among a group of trees nearby. Said he felt closer to home when he was among the trees. Ice continued her target practice and I chose to muck about in the squad¡¯s equipment screen. Amariah ¡°Ice¡± Equipment Head: Bronze Cap (not equipped) ¨C Armor: +2% Neck: None Shoulders: None Chest: Leather Chest ¨C Armor: +10% Hands: Leather Gloves ¨C Armor: +2% Belt: Leather Belt ¨C Armor: +2% Legs: Leather Leggings ¨C Armor: +8% Feet: Strong Leather Boots ¨C Armor: +3% Ring 1: None Ring 2: None Weapon: Basic Longbow ¨C Damage: 15-25 Armor Penetration: 3% Shield: None Armor: 27% Physical damage reduction. Resistance: 5% Fire 5% Water 5% Earth 5% Air 5% Poison Kelon Stonebrow ¡°Gamble¡± Equipment Head: Bronze Cap ¨C Armor: +2% Neck: None Shoulders: None Chest: Bronze Chainmail ¨C Armor: +15% Hands: Leather Gloves ¨C Armor: +2% Belt: Leather Belt ¨C Armor: +2% Legs: Leather Leggings ¨C Armor: +8% Feet: Strong Leather Boots ¨C Armor: +3% Ring 1: None Ring 2: None Weapon: Iron Mace ¨C Damage: 15-30 Armor Penetration: 10% Shield: Bronze Buckler ¨C Armor: +5% Armor: 37% Physical damage reduction. Resistance: 2% Fire 2% Water 2% Earth 2% Air 2% Poison ¡°Oak¡± Equipment Head: Bronze Cap ¨C Armor: +2% Neck: None Shoulders: None Chest: Leather Chest ¨C Armor: +10% Hands: Leather Gloves ¨C Armor: +2% Belt: Leather Belt ¨C Armor: +2% Legs: Leather Leggings ¨C Armor: +8% Feet: Strong Leather Boots ¨C Armor: +3% Ring 1: None Ring 2: None Weapon: Bronze Spear ¨C Damage: 10-15 Armor Penetration: 3% Shield: Bronze Buckler ¨C Armor: +5% Armor: 32% Physical damage reduction. Resistance: 2% Fire 2% Water 2% Earth 2% Air 10% Poison So this is what a recruit¡¯s equipment looked like eh? That would have to be improved in a hurry if I wanted my squad to live long lives. But first I would need to see to my own equipment. As I was now, what I wore was no better than rags. Still, I decided to humor myself and check my own equipment. Geo Equipment Head: None Neck: None Shoulders: None Chest: Cloth Chest ¨C Armor: +2% Hands: None Belt: None Legs: Cloth Pants ¨C Armor: +2% Feet: Well-Worn Leather Boots ¨C Armor: +1% Ring 1: None Ring 2: None Weapon: Iron Dagger ¨C Damage: 10-15 Armor Penetration: 5% Shield: None Armor: 5% Physical damage reduction. Resistance: 5% Fire 5% Water 5% Earth 5% Air 5% Poison Well at least my dagger was comparable damage-wise to Oak¡¯s spear, though it had a fraction of the reach. I attempted to console myself by humming ¡®The Sun Will Come Out¡¯. It didn¡¯t work too well. At least I could summon a Flame Elemental; that had to count for something. My mood improved considerably when I spied Ledric exiting the barracks¡¯ second floor, arms full of gear. I did my best to conceal my eagerness as I approached him. ¡°Need help?¡± ¡°Yeah take this stuff.¡± He responded, dumping a load of gear into my arms. You have obtained the following equipment: Bronze Cap, Leather Chest, Leather Gloves, Leather Belt, Leather Leggings, Strong Leather Boots, Iron Short Sword, Iron Buckler. ¡°Thanks General.¡± I spoke while equipping my new set of gear. The sword¡¯s damage upped my own from 10-15 to 15-20 with a longer reach than the dagger. The shield increased my armor by +8% bringing my total to 35% physical damage reduction. A huge difference from the measly 5% that I had before. Praise the Emperor. ¡°Get out here pops, Ledric is bringing gear.¡± I sent the message through party chat. ¡°Gear!¡± He yelled in my mind, causing me to clench my teeth. ¡°Musclewizard will be out soon to get his gear.¡± I explained to Ledric as I massaged my temples. ¡°Alright, good. I hate carrying this junk. Anyway I¡¯ve got both of your assignments. You¡¯ll be heading northwest out of the city towards a set of hills not far away. A den of Gnolls has shown up around there and they¡¯ve been terrorizing a nearby set of farmsteads. Stealing livestock and such. They haven¡¯t attacked any people yet, but that could change soon. I want you to wipe them out.¡± I saluted, ¡°It will be done.¡± -Quest Accepted- A Den of Gnolls. Gnolls have been sighted in the hills nearby. Eliminate them to secure the nearby farmsteads. Den Destroyed 0/1 Rewards: 1,000exp, +Gerheld Reputation. Finally, some action. ¡°Be sure to bring your squad Geo, they¡¯ll need combat experience as well. This will be their first taste of battle. Bring them back alive.¡± -Bonus Reward- An additional 200exp will be given per squad member returned alive. Interesting, quests could have bonus rewards? Awesome! ¡°Don¡¯t worry General, they¡¯re in good hands.¡± He nodded in response and turned to head into the mess hall only to see my dad burst out of the doorway. ¡°Gimmie da goodies!¡± He shouted, bounding towards Ledric. ¡°Got a mission to do pops, smell ya later!¡± I shouted to him and received a wave of the arm in response. ¡°Have fun pipsqueak!¡± he called back as he equipped some all-too-tight looking gear. I jogged around to my squad and gathered them all up. ¡°We got a job to do everyone. Ledric wants us to wipe out a den of Gnolls to the north west. Shouldn¡¯t be too hard, but we¡¯ll practice along the way.¡± Oak nodded, ¡°We could hunt some wolves, pack leader. They prowl the areas around the town in groups of two or more.¡± ¡°Och, those wolves have nice fur that goes on the market for a nice handful of coppers apiece.¡± Gamble spoke, rubbing his hands greedily. ¡°Alright Gamble, but no grabbing their furs until the area is clear, got it?¡± ¡°Aye.¡± ¡°Alright then, any input Ice?¡± I looked to the girl. She shrugged in response. ¡°Let¡¯s move out then.¡± As we walked through the town I stared at the other players running about vendoring loot they obtained from killing beasts outside. Many looked to still be in their starting rags. ¡°I feel like we cheated getting equipment this nice this early.¡± I communicated mentally to my father. ¡°Many players will play this game like a normal MMO my boy. We are among the few who realize this isn¡¯t a game of players but a game of nations. A guild allied to a country will have a far easier time than one who strikes out on their own.¡± ¡°Seems like we¡¯re the first to join Gerheld then.¡± ¡°More will come once word gets out that this is the way to go. I¡¯ve got my eye in more than a few private forums. Many of them organized to the point of being threats to our plan. Our saving grace is that a great many of them went to the Caldmor Empire, thinking that the Free Republic would be a quick conquest.¡± ¡°And it won¡¯t?¡± I asked as my group walked out of the western gate of Orhu. ¡°Oh it will, no doubt about it. It¡¯ll just take a handful of weeks. Once that continent is unified however is when the collapse will begin. It¡¯ll be slow at first, until more and more guilds aim to take their own slice of territory. No worries boy, just sit back and enjoy the drama sure to unfold!¡± He laughed. ¡°I never took you to be the spymaster type dad.¡± ¡°Oh? Too much of a blustering oaf to notice happenings going on? I¡¯ve done my share of cloak and dagger, boy. Now if you¡¯ll excuse your dear old man, I¡¯ve got some bear asses to collect.¡± All around the city of Orhu were grasslands eye could see. Farms dotted the landscape growing all manner of crops. Players swarmed the fields, slaughtering boars and wolves as they appeared. ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll get much practice here¡­¡± I trailed off as I witnessed a wolf be consumed by a large amount of fireballs. ¡°We should move to our objective, pack leader. Game will come as we travel.¡± ¡°All those beautiful furs¡­¡± Gamble groaned sadly, watching players not even grab their loot as they ran towards the next target in their field of vision. ¡°Don¡¯t worry packbrother Gamble, our hunt has yet to begin.¡± Oak patted Gambles shoulder. ¡°Yeah, in a few days you¡¯ll be able to collect all the wolf furs you want. Those Touched Ones will have moved on to bigger targets.¡± I explained. Gamble lightly kicked the dirt, ¡°Aye. Aye.¡± We began our trek heading to the northwest. Nearby players eyed us as we marched, a few even came up to ask us where we got our gear. To which Gamble demanded a few coppers for the tip. Even fewer accepted the deal and ran back into the city to join the army. As we drew further away from the city the crowd of players lessened until they were an odd sight among the vast landscape. ¡°Wolves, packleader.¡± Oak point his spear off to the right. A group of three sniffed the ground a ways away. ¡°Good eye Oak.¡± ¡°Not eye, smell first.¡± He responded simply. His tongue flicked into the air in a quick motion. ¡°Eye second.¡± ¡°Oh¡­right.¡± I didn¡¯t know how to respond but noticed his smirk, you sly lizard. I targeted a wolf to gauge their health. Each had around 150hp, not too rough for us then. ¡°Right then, This¡¯ll be good practice for us. But there¡¯s no need for us to not be organized about it. Ice, when I give the signal,¡± I made a chopping motion with my hand, ¡°hit them with arrows. Gamble and I will hold their attention as they come near. Oak you assist Gamble with his targets, hit them from the sides. Ice you can cover me. Everyone follow?¡± Nods all around. ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s bag us some pelts and experience.¡± Ice immediately drew her bow with an arrow nocked, ready to fly. I chopped the air. Ice released, sending the arrow shot into the air with the precision of a master. Seconds later one of the three wolves had an arrow sticking out of its side. Direct hit. Snarling, the wolves turned towards us and began to charge. Ice fired arrow after arrow letting loose as quickly as she could load her bow. Each arrow sailed to their marks, hitting the wolf she had originally targeted. Her concentrated efforts took it down just as Gamble and I moved to intercept the other two. Gained 25(100)exp! Note: Your experience gained is reduced per squad member. So my experience was shared with my squad members? Good to know. I closed the alert in a hurry as the other two wolves were almost at us. ¡°C¡¯mere ye mutt!¡± I heard Gamble yell followed by a yelp. I slammed my shield into the wolf that leapt at me. A whine escaped its mouth as it hit the ground. I rushed in and stabbed the beast with my sword, dealing a bit of damage. As I pulled back the wolf leapt to its feet snarling, its eyes frenzied. ¡°Quick Strike!¡± In an instant my sword struck its mark slashing my target. An arrow plunged into the beast¡¯s side a moment later. The wolf growled menacingly and leapt forward. A surge of pain ran up my left arm like a knife as the beast bit deeply before releasing and jumping back. I swung my sword in retaliation but the wolf dodged nimbly. Once more it dove for me only to receive an arrow once more in the side. Ice was on top of her game. Distracted by the arrow now in its side the wolf collided into me and fell down weakened. I stabbed it once more. It ceased moving, finally beaten. I turned to Ice and gave a thumbs-up before turning my attention to Gamble and Oak. Gamble bashed his wolf as Oak stabbed it with his spear. They finished soon after we had. Our group had earned three wolf pelts and 75exp. For our first fight together things went pretty well. ¡°What do you think Rumblers? Shall we stick around and kill a few more wolf packs?¡± Everyone nodded, so that was how we decided to spend the next hour. Gamble was assigned to collecting the drops to later sell, Oak would pick our targets and Ice would pull for us. Money obtained on a quest would be spent on improving our squad¡¯s gear, increasing our effectiveness. In our hour of practice the Rumblers had advanced to level two and myself to level three. I decided to put my new status points into strength to help with my melee damage. Rumblers Status Name: Geo Level: 3 Experience: 400/2000 Health: 200 Mana: 150 Energy: 100 Strength: 15 Agility: 10 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 15 Name: Amariah ¡°Ice¡± Level: 2 Experience: 400/1000 Health: 180 Energy: 120 Strength: 12 Agility: 15 Endurance: 9 Intelligence: 7 Skills: Eagle Eye- Increases the maximum range of ranged weapons such as bows by 5 meters. Name: Kelon Stonebrow ¡°Gamble¡± Level: 2 Experience: 400/1000 Health: 240 Energy: 85 Strength: 11 Agility: 9 Endurance: 12 Intelligence: 13 Skills: Lucky- Gains an extra 5% chance to land a critical strike. Name: ¡°Oak¡± Level: 2 Experience: 400/1000 Health: 220 Energy: 110 Strength: 11 Agility: 12 Endurance: 11 Intelligence: 9 Skills: Poisoned Strikes- has a chance on every hit to poison the target dealing an additional 10% damage over 5 seconds. I closed the status window. It looked like NPCs only gained 3 stat points per level that were automatically distributed. I sighed, a part of me wanted to do the stat allocations myself. As I thought about their stats a new worry entered my mind; what if the NPCs were capped at a lower level? They¡¯d never be able to put up a fight against a max level player if that were so. Being 200 stat points behind at level 100 would be gimped enough as is. I shook my head, a later worry for a later day. We had gained a nice amount of pelts through our hunt. Gamble mentioned that we¡¯d be able to get around ten copper per pelt. With our current stock of 36 pelts we had three silver and sixty copper in our pockets. Not a bad start to our funds, I felt better about our ability to collect cash than our combat ability though. Not that my companions were terrible. In fact it was the opposite, they were great. I was the crutch. I absolutely sucked at sword fighting. My swings felt awkward and weak, my stabs left me overextended. It was bad. I had taken more hits than any of my companions. Not surprising to me though, as I had never held a sword before in my life. Simple wolves were one thing, but I worried about the future when we fought more competent opponents. Or hell, even the thought of fighting other players gave me chills, and not the good kind. I couldn¡¯t afford a single mistake. It could cost my companions their lives. I needed training and fast. I steeled myself, we had a job to do and I wanted it to be done quickly so that we could return to the barracks. I sheathed my sword and motioned for my squad to follow. It was time for us to take on some Gnolls. Hopefully they proved no more difficult than a few wolves. The scent of wild flowers wafted through the air as we trudged towards the mountains. I didn¡¯t know much about flowers so I couldn¡¯t say what they were. But they smelled nice. The smell and breeze wasn¡¯t our only companion on our trip, Gamble had the generosity to grace us with a song as we marched; though it was sadly cut short when Ice gave him one of her glares. The woman doesn¡¯t like songs about ale and wenches buddy, don¡¯t give me that look. ¡°Hey Oak, what can you tell me about Gnolls?¡± I asked our knowledgeable huntsman¡­huntslizard? ¡°Tribal dogfolk. Worship many spirits and make sacrifices to them to gain their blessings. Hunt in packs no bigger than our own but tribes grow to many times the size. Tribes led by Matriarch.¡± He stared off to the distance, his tongue flicking in and out of his mouth rapidly. ¡°Big tribes hunt menfolk. These said to only hunt cattle yes?¡± I nodded, ¡°Should be no more than thirty.¡± So we were looking at a decent amount on our hands. ¡°Any strengths and weaknesses?¡± ¡°Strong smell, like wolves. Jaws too, can bite through metal. Simple though, easy to predict.¡± ¡°Alright thanks Oak.¡± ¡°My honor, packleader.¡± He saluted. We approached the base of one of the hills. As far as I could tell they spanned for miles. ¡°Weapons drawn guys, let¡¯s not be caught unprepared.¡± I drew my sword. I heard the readying of weapons behind me as I began to climb the moderately inclined hill. The top would offer a good vantage point. Not just for our eyes, but also Oak¡¯s ¡°nose¡±. The hike proved uneventful, aside from the cursing uttered by Gamble about Dwarves and hills. Upon reaching the crest of the hill we could see for miles around. From our vantage point they hills looked to make a crescent moon shape with us on the lower tip and one of the larger hills. We didn¡¯t even need Oak¡¯s nose. Doglike creatures stood guard in front of a burrow dug into the side of a nearby hill. I signaled everyone to get down, standing atop the hill made us easy to spot in the bright afternoon sun. I sheathed my sword and knelt, shading my eyes with a hand on my forehead. ¡°Looks like two groups of two are guarding the entrance to the burrow. No sight on further targets, might be in the burrow.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s go get ¡¯em!¡± Gamble exclaimed in a whisper, tightening his grip on the shaft of his mace. I hesitated a moment, attempting to glance into the burrow but I couldn¡¯t at our current angle. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go get them.¡± I agreed. I rose from my kneeling position and began my descent towards the burrow three hills away. The footsteps of my companions clomped along behind me. Going down a hill is always easier compared to going up. Especially when you¡¯re used to walking on flat ground and your foot hits a rock or a root that sends you tumbling. One moment I was descending at a decent pace, the next the ground rose to meet me and the world started spinning until I hit the bottom. Gamble¡¯s guffaws accompanied me the whole way down. Upon gracefully hitting the flat ground I pushed myself up, wiping away what dirt and grass I had accumulated in my spiraling descent. I looked like a homeless man down on his luck in leather armor. Not my proudest moment by far. Gamble didn¡¯t even attempt to stifle his boisterous laugh. Bastard. Oak stood silent and respectful and Ice looked as she normally did, disinterested and distant. But there was that twinkle in both their eyes. We Touched Ones aren¡¯t infallible, sorry guys. ¡°What took you guys so long?¡± I asked sarcastically. ¡°We¡¯re supposed to be Rumblers Geo, not Rollers.¡± Gamble spoke between bits of laughter. ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll change the name, let¡¯s roll.¡± I stated as I drew my sword before turning to walk towards the burrow. Our descent had not gone unnoticed however. How could it with the boisterous laugh of a dwarf bounding for miles around? Three of the four Gnolls we had scouted advanced towards us. Gnoll Raiders with 200hp apiece. They wore scrappy armor that looked to be made of copper and wielded spears of the same material. They held their spears at the ready as they barked amongst one another, charging at our position all the while. Behind them another set of Gnolls emerged from the burrow and headed towards our direction. That spelled trouble for us. ¡°Change of plans guys, rush these three and get ready for enemy support. I¡¯ll take the middle one, Gamble the right and Oak the left. Ice rain down death!¡± I shouted as we upped our pace to meet their charge. Learning from my failures at fighting wolves, I decided to try a different style of fighting. Arrow after arrow flew overhead, puncturing the Gnolls at random. As we closed the distance the Gnolls thrust out their spears to impale us. I battered away the attack aimed at me with my shield and slashed with my sword. Direct hit! Hitting a target that came up to your chest in height was far easier than bending awkwardly to hit at one that only stood up to your knees. But I had to dispatch my target quickly to prepare for the next wave of Gnolls. ¡°Quick slash!¡± I yelled, slashing my Gnoll once more. After the skill landed the Gnoll recovered, his spear poised to strike. He thrust once more, aiming for my chest. I dodged enough for the spear to graze my side; that was when I tackled the beast. The Gnoll struggled under my weight, snapping at the hand that held him down. A sharp pain assured me of his success, but I retaliated by raising my sword and stabbing down. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Yelps surrounded me as my companions fought their targets. Meanwhile I ripped my sword upward with a sickening schick before stabbing downward once more. There was no honorable sword fight. No fancy technique that left you breathless. Just pure, honest brutality; and before long the Gnoll ceased its struggle. Gained 38(150)exp! I jumped off my deceased target in time to see five Gnolls approaching where we fought. ¡®Shit.¡¯ Was my only reaction as I glanced to my squad. Oak had nearly finished his target as it was moving weakly. Gambles was almost to that point, Ice had switched her focus to his, launching arrow after arrow into the beast. If things kept as they were their reinforcements would hit us just as Gamble¡¯s target bit the dust. I needed to play for time. I stood in the path of the five Gnolls, hands sparking. A second later the sparks erupted into flames. ¡°Fire Elemental!¡± I yelled as flames burst from the ground, coalescing into a single being of pure flame. Name: Fire Elemental Level: 3 Health: 240 Mana: 150 Energy: 100 Strength: 5 Agility: 5 Endurance: 12 Intelligence: 15 Abilities: Fireball- Launches a ball of flame at the target dealing 30 fire damage. 20 Mana Cast Time: 2 seconds. Fireblast- Instantly attacks the target with a burst of flame dealing 45 fire damage. 50 Mana. Cooldown: 5 seconds. Searing Strike- Instantly hits the target with a fist of flame dealing 50 fire damage. 50 Energy. Cooldown: 5 seconds. I closed the windows that popped up, ¡°Attack!¡± I shouted. The elemental obeyed as it began conjuring a ball of flame before tossing it at the approaching Gnolls. The Fireball exploded as it hit the target in the center of the group, splashing the nearby Gnolls with flames. The main target¡¯s health dropped by 30 but the ones hit by the AoE took 10 damage. Right after the elemental cast the second Fireball it immediately cast Fireblast, searing the main target for 67 damage, a critical strike! An arrow flew overhead and struck a Gnoll a good sign. I turned to see Ice had switched targets to the approaching Gnolls and began to pepper them with arrows. For a second I regretted fusing Fireball, another ranged attacker would help here greatly. But this Fire Elemental was just too cool, worth the tradeoff. I just hoped that my squad would be able to survive this encounter. I spied another three Gnolls emerging from the burrow. How many more would there be? Another Fireball flew through the air, engulfing its mark in flames. Followed by an arrow that caused the Gnoll to fall to the ground dead. Another exp alert followed its defeat. But there were four more to go in this group. Luckily the AoE damage from the Fireballs had weakened them a decent amount. The Gnolls split into two groups of two. ¡°Gamble, Oak, Ice, handle the right group! I¡¯ve got the left!¡± I shouted as I charged to the two to the side, seeking to distract them. Another Fireball sailed off into the right group accompanied by a Fireblast, weakening them further. I switched my summons¡¯ target to the weakest of the two right Gnolls and commanded it to engage in melee. The Elemental dissipated a second after reaching its target, but not before landing a Searing Strike and killing the weak Gnoll. Good, that mean my squad could take down the remaining one quickly while I distracted the other two. I laughed silently, that¡¯s what I became; a certified distraction. I charged towards the two Gnolls who readied their spears for a thrust. When their attacks came I knocked one away with a sweep of my shield, but the other sunk into my side. Hp -39! Jeez these suckers could hit hard. I was insanely grateful for the armor I had, a full hit would be 60 points of damage! ¡°Quick Slash!¡± my blade struck and I blocked a retaliating spear thrust. I charged and stabbed before jumping back and moving to the left and right randomly. My goal to bide time working as the Gnolls eyed me warily. One barked and the two spread out slowly, keeping me in the center of their vision. I rapidly turned my head, watching both as I backed away in an attempt to keep both in my line of sight. Another bark, I turned to the right Gnoll who uttered the sound and was hit in the left with a spear thrust. Clever bastards. I swung my sword at the now retreating Gnoll only to take another thrust in the right side. I couldn¡¯t fight like this. I was already almost dead with 45 hp remaining. Another hit or two and I was a goner. Another yelp sounded and I jumped reactively backwards only to see an arrow stuck in the Gnoll who made the noise. ¡°Yer dead doggies!¡± A loud yell sounded as Gamble collided with the Gnoll on my right, pummeling it with his mace. ¡°Shaaaaaa!¡± Oak yelled, thrusting his spear and connecting. The Gnoll turned to its new targets and was hit with another barrage of attacks before falling to the ground defeated. Now it was four on one. The remaining Gnoll didn¡¯t last much longer. I slumped to the ground when it was finished. ¡°How ya feelin¡¯ Captain?¡± Gamble inquired, tossing me a vial containing a red liquid inside. ¡°Need a little pick-me-up? Costs about ten silver a bottle. Pay me back when we get back to the barracks aye?¡± ¡°You got that off the ground near one of our kills.¡± Oak mentioned, a twinkle in his eyes. ¡°He didn¡¯t know that!¡± Gamble yelled. I laughed and downed the drink. Tasted like bitter cherries, but my health rose back to 200. Not a bad trade. ¡°Thanks Gamble, we make it through this and I¡¯ll give you the silver.¡± He brightened visibly, ¡°Ya mean it? I mean¡­ya don¡¯t gotta. Yer the squad leader after all¡­¡± I shook my head; my word is as good as gold. Or silver in this case. The three Gnolls closed the distance towards us but had already received a helping of arrows courtesy of Ice. I rose to my feet and dusted myself off to prepare for our new guests. ¡°Ice your marksmanship is a thing of beauty.¡± I said truly grateful that we had an amazing archer with us. She made no reaction outside of releasing another arrow at the approaching Gnolls. Cold as Ice that one. I looked towards the burrow once more and spied two Gnolls running our way, far behind our nearest group of three. ¡°Shaman.¡± Oak pointed his spear at the furthest one. ¡°Bad?¡± ¡°Bad.¡± I had to ask. ¡°Right, let¡¯s take this group down quickly then. Ice¡¯s center target looks almost dead so when it drops we¡¯ll charge. Oak and Gamble to the right I¡¯ll take the left with Ice.¡± Ice¡¯s target dropped to the ground unmoving. I raised my sword and yelled, charging once more into battle. Two arrows struck the target before I was in range of its spear. The Gnoll struck out in a frenzy but I battered the spear away easily. I was getting more used to combat. With a grunt, I thrust my sword into the beast¡¯s shoulder. It dropped its spear with a yelp and I ripped my sword free. ¡°Quick Slash!¡± Once my ability finished its blow I moved to the side, allowing Ice to launch an arrow directly into the target. Soon we¡¯d be like a well-oiled killing machine, spitting out bodies faster than we could pull them. I smiled, slashed the Gnoll twice more and watched it fall to the ground defeated. Just in time for me to hear a loud CRACK and be taken in the chest by a bolt of lightning. The sky entered my vision as I was knocked into the air. A second later the ground greeted me with a thump. I decided right then and there that ¡®fucking fuck¡¯ was a perfectly acceptable way to say ¡®ouch¡¯. I rolled over, pushed myself to my knees and then stood up. I stared directly at the Gnoll Shaman. Small arcs of electricity shot from its fingertips. Another spell. ¡°Watch out!¡± I yelled a moment too late as Gamble took the bolt straight to the chest, knocking him back. I charged towards the Shaman but was intercepted by the Gnoll it had arrived with. It snarled and stabbed at me with its spear but I battered it away. I retaliated with a stab and Quick Slash combo I had grown used to. Gamble recovered quickly and charged the shaman, leaving Oak to deal with a severely weakened Gnoll. The shaman¡¯s hands began to glow with a warm-looking light. The distraction allowed my target to stab me in the arm with its spear. ¡°Bastard!¡± I yelled as I lashed out in anger. I looked back at Oak¡¯s Gnoll on a hunch. My gut was right; the shaman had healed the gnoll back to full health. ¡°Gamble! Get back here and take my target, I¡¯ll handle the shaman!¡± I yelled as loud as I could. The Dwarf stopped in his tracks a few meters from the shaman before running the rest of the way and engaging it. ¡°Damnit Gamble!¡± But it was no use. ¡°Ice, hit Oak¡¯s target with everything you¡¯ve got!¡± An arrow struck the Gnoll Oak was fighting in response. Good girl. Now I just had to deal with my target. My Gnoll snickered and barked at me, flashing its spear and teeth. I charged in while it taunted, catching it at an awkward moment. Dumb beast, never mock a target in battle with more than just words. You could get seriously screwed. Like an offensive lineman I plowed into the Gnoll and sent it to the ground with me on top. Like a berserker mad with blood rage I stabbed into the bewildered beast. The beast yelped, lightning popped in the background, a familiar voice yelled out and my downed target bit at me, but it was no use. It died quickly. Once finished I rushed over and stabbed the Gnoll attacking Oak in the back with a Quick Slash. The shaman¡¯s hands began to glow as it faced our direction, but Gamble shield-slammed it in the face, interrupting the cast. Our dwarf is a beast. Another set of stabs later our target fell. Ice sent a barrage the Shaman¡¯s way. It snarled as Oak and I charged to support Gamble who looked ready to bite the dust in a moment. Sparks began to jump from my hands ¡°Gamble, fall back!¡± I called, expecting him to stubbornly stay. He ran towards us just as the shaman began casting a lightning bolt. I threw my hand out towards the dwarf just as it erupted into flames. ¡°Fire Elemental!¡± Flames leapt from my hands, dissipating and coalesced just behind Gamble, directly in the path of the lightning bolt. Immediately the Fire Elemental was hit with a large shock, but immediately retaliated with a Fireball of his own and a Fireblast right after. The cries of the shaman were music to my ears as we closed the distance. ¡°Quick Slash!¡± With the crisis under control we made short work of the shaman. I personally interrupted any casts by pretending to be a lineman once more. Between Oak¡¯s spear, the Flame Elemental¡¯s Fireblasts and Searing Strikes as well as my own Quick Strikes we took the beast down from 524/700 hp to 0 quickly. We made it, with everyone alive. Gained 200(800)exp! And just like that, my squad leveled up once more. Rumblers Status Name: Geo Level: 3 Experience: 1056/2000 Health: 200 Mana: 150 Energy: 100 Strength: 15 Agility: 10 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 15 Name: Amariah ¡°Ice¡± Level: 3 Experience: 56/2000 Health: 200(+20) Energy: 120 Strength: 12 Agility: 16(+1) Endurance: 10(+1) Intelligence: 8(+1) Skills: Eagle Eye- Increases the maximum range of ranged weapons such as bows by 5 meters. Name: Kelon Stonebrow ¡°Gamble¡± Level: 3 Experience: 56/2000 Health: 260(+20) Energy: 85 Strength: 12(+1) Agility: 10(+1) Endurance: 13(+1) Intelligence: 13 Skills: Lucky- Gains an extra 5% chance to land a critical strike. Name: ¡°Oak¡± Level: 3 Experience: 56/2000 Health: 220 Energy: 110 Strength: 12(+1) Agility: 13(+1) Endurance: 11 Intelligence: 10(+1) Skills: Poisoned Strikes- has a chance on every hit to poison the target dealing an additional 10% damage over 5 seconds. A few feet behind Oak, Ice and myself lay Gamble on the ground, breathing deeply and laughing. ¡°Now that was a nice scrap! Whens the next one Captain?¡± I walked over to the dwarf and extended my hand. He grasped it and I pulled him to his feet. ¡°Same time tomorrow sound good?¡± He grinned, ¡°Aye, but first lets collect our winnings.¡± As a group we walked around the area we used as a battlefield and collected a bunch of weapons such as bronze spears and bronze armor that wouldn¡¯t fit any of us correctly. Vendor trash my dad would say. Spoils of victory was Gamble¡¯s description. I preferred his. With his appraising eye he said we looked to have about thirty silver just from all our winnings. But the biggest prize was a Tome dropped by the shaman herself. Tome of Lightning Bolt ¨C Cost: 20 Mana Cast Time: 2 seconds. Launches a bolt of lightning that deals 45 air damage to your target. (Rank 0/3) Though it didn¡¯t fit my character theme, I learned the spell anyway. An additional ranged attack among our group would help tremendously. After a bit of resting we had one last order of business to do, destroying the den. I marched into the burrow and ordered my squad to stay back, if I encountered trouble id be out screaming. The burrow was like a cave, a small initial passage led to a single room with another passage in the rear of that room. There was nothing of value in the first room, merely straw thrown about in clumps resembling beds. The second room however was much larger than the first and filled with strange totems and the stench of decay. Corpses of cattle were strewn about around the edges of the room with blood covering the floor like a carpet. In the center of the room stood a massive totem that looked to be a crudely carved dragon. Before the totem knelt a single Gnoll. ¡°Redclaw pray to spirit. Spirit respond to Redclaw. Say to bring offering, Redclaw obey.¡± Unlike the previous brownish tan Gnolls we fought earlier, this one¡¯s fur was a deep red, almost blood colored. On his back were two bronze swords. Armor that looked to be made of leather covered only his chest. But why was he speaking to me? ¡°Spirit pleased with Redclaw¡¯s offerings. Not of blood like Matriarch brought, but of weapons. Spirit pleased with weapons, say war comes to tribes soon. Tribes must prepare.¡± He turned and looked at me, his lips curled into a snarl. ¡°We not prepared enough.¡± I made no move to attack, he didn¡¯t seem very hostile. ¡°Redclaw weak compared to God-Touched. Seek no battle.¡± He took the pair of swords he wore on his back and stabbed them into the ground in front of him. ¡°And what is it that you seek Redclaw?¡± I decided to ask the obvious. ¡°Strength.¡± ¡°And why do you require strength?¡± ¡°To unite all clans for war.¡± ¡°War with who?¡± ¡°Titans. They come.¡± ¡°Why aren¡¯t you attacking me like the others of your kind?¡± ¡°They follow Matriarch ways. Old ways.¡± His ears drew back and he growled, ¡°Stupid old ways. Need change soon. Or all die. Spirit tell Redclaw to seek those who come. You are first.¡± The cave rumbled and Redclaw looked to the totem. ¡°Spirit think you best choice. Say other Touched not feel right.¡± He knelt before me, ¡°Will you have Redclaw?¡± ¡°You want to join me? Why?¡± ¡°Is will of the spirit.¡± He said simply as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I had to think for a moment. A Gnoll joining my squad would really make us stand out, exactly what my father wanted to avoid too much of. But it would bring us up in power, Gnolls were no slouches in combat. I wanted to see how strong this Redclaw could become. ¡°Very well Redclaw, welcome to the Rumblers.¡± Redclaw has joined the Rumblers! Name: Redclaw Level: 1 Experience: 0/500 Health: 240 Energy: 160 Strength: 12 Agility: 11 Endurance: 12 Intelligence: 5 Skills: Frenzy- User enters a rage, increasing attack speed by 30% and damage by 10% for 10 seconds. Redclaw picked his swords from the ground and sheathed them on his back. He turned back to the totem and picked a small carving of the dragon attached to a string that hung from the massive totem. He then wore the carving like a necklace and walked towards me. ¡°We go now. Spirit will seal cave when we exit.¡± Together we walked out of the cave that began to collapse behind us. ¡°Och, Captain what ya got there?¡± ¡°Everyone meet Redclaw, the newest member of the Rumblers. It was an hour and a half later when my squad and I walked through the city of Orhu towards the castle. Ice, Gamble and Oak broke off and headed to the barracks for some rest while I turned in the assignment to General Ledric accompanied by Redclaw. Many people, both player and nonplayer watched us as we walked through the city. General chat was going wild with reported sightings of a player with four companions. Ingame chats were always filled with crap so I rarely looked. Together we entered the castle and walked straight to Ledric and the constable. ¡°I see you¡¯ve acquired a new friend Geo.¡± Ledric stated, unsure of what to make of my new squad member. ¡°Is he tame?¡± ¡°Redclaw is no dog to be brought to heel.¡± He snarled ¡°He¡¯s been well behaved so far.¡± I pointedly stated. Redclaw calmed down in a hurry. ¡°My squad is worthy of him.¡± ¡°Indeed, he¡¯s got a fire in him. I take it your assignment was a success?¡± ¡°Indeed it was General.¡± The constable rose from his seat and spoke, ¡°Then congratulations are in order! Well done captain Geo!¡± ¡°Thank you sir.¡± I bowed Quest Completed! A Den of Gnolls. Reward: 1,600exp +Gerheld Empire reputation. You have leveled up! Current level: 4 Unspent Stat Points: 5 Unspent Talent Points: 2 The constable snapped his fingers and three guards stepped forward, each carrying a magic tome. ¡°For your deeds, as well as bringing your squad back alive and well we reward you with a choice of one of the following tomes. Take your time to choose Sir Geo.¡± I bowed once more, ¡°Thank you, your grace.¡± I then moved to inspect the tomes. Tome of Brutal Swing ¨C Cost: 70 Energy You instantly swing at your target, dealing 120% weapon damage and rending them for an additional 20% damage over 15 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds. Tome of the Iron Bulwark ¨C Cost: 50 Energy You focus on defending yourself with your armor, increasing armor rating by 20% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Tome of Stone Strike ¨C Cost: 50 Mana Cast Time: Instant You instantly rip a large rock from the earth and hurtle it towards your target dealing 60 physical damage. Cooldown: 8 seconds. I immediately chose Stone Strike and learned it on the spot. Finally able to use my first Geomancy spell. I could not wait to let this baby fly! ¡°The Captain seems eager Ledric.¡± ¡°Indeed he does, care to learn your next assignment Captain Geo?¡± I turned to the General and Constable and shook my head. ¡°Perhaps later, for now I must return to the barracks to recover. I shall return later to receive my new mission.¡± Ledric nodded, ¡°Then go and get some much needed rest, Captain. This next task will be far harder than your first. But I have faith you shall not fail Gerheld.¡± I bowed once more and left the castle with Redclaw. I then showed him the barracks and helped him get settled among the squad. As soon as I was free I grabbed a bunk and logged out of Reckoning. I awoke from my coma in my bed and looked at the time. 6:32am. Had I really been playing for just over six hours? Time really flies when you¡¯re having fun. I stretched and yawned. My body needed sleep and I would do so soon. But first I had to do a little research on sword fighting and stances. I got about two hours of research in before I collapsed onto the bed, unable to keep my eyes from shutting themselves. ---- Free talk zone Alright heres chapter 4, fresh and largely unedited. But im going to be busy for the next few days so I don''t think I''d get around to working on it until monday or so. So hopefully you all enjoy this unedited chapter that actually includes some fight scenes in it. Speaking of which holy jeebus did I find fight scenes hard to write. I spent hours just staring at the page just going HOW DO I DO THIS?! I eventually got through that but any advice would be wonderful. Once again, thank you for enjoying my work and I''ll see you next chapter! Also before I forget, an explanation of the armor system. Say a character has 30% armor and takes a 100 damage hit. They''ll only take 70 damage since 30% of that 100 was negated. Blocks with a shield negate it further, but at a flat damage reduction. So a small shield would block 20 damage where as a shield as big as a car door would block say 100 or more in addition to the extra armor % they add. As for magical damage, that is only affect by resistances. Thats all that I can think of at the moment, if you have questions ask away and ill respond as best as I can. Chapter 5- A new day. I awoke to a rumble on my nightstand next to my bed. Snarling like a bear freshly awoken from hibernation I checked the time, 12:31pm. Four hours. I grabbed my phone in anger, eager to see who had woken me from my beauty sleep. I¡¯m the kind of man that needs his eight hours after all, or else I¡¯m a monster. Four hours wasn¡¯t enough for me. I checked who was calling. It was dad. Of course. I accepted the call, ¡°What!? I was sleeping damnit!¡± I yelled at him, he should¡¯ve known better than to wake me up. ¡°Heyyy, wake up sleeping beauty.¡± His voice was slightly slurred from lack of sleep himself. Not to mention alcohol, he had probably had a few wine coolers too many. I had once mocked him for his choice of drink to which he responded: ¡®If I wanted the taste of someone pissing down my throat I¡¯d ask your mother.¡¯ Not the most pleasant mental image I¡¯m sure. ¡°We got levelin'' to do! I¡¯m up to level 8 and you¡¯ve been slacking!¡± ¡°Right, right. I¡¯ll be on in a few, just let me get some food in me.¡± I hung up and put the phone back on my nightstand. Stomach growling, I hopped out of bed wearing naught but my boxers and walked towards my mini-fridge. After I had wolfed down a few health bars and downing an energy drink I was ready. I donned my headset, jumped back onto the bed and logged into Reckoning. In an instant I found myself where I had logged out, lying in a barracks bunk. As soon as I arose from the bed and walked to the door I received a party invitation from dear old pops. I accepted, ¡°Hey.¡± I mumbled as I made my way towards the mess hall. My hunger and thirst bars were pretty low, so I decided to pick up some food and a drink to fix that problem. ¡°Quit slacking boy, back in your day you used to do midnight releases like a champ. Played hooky from school the next day just to play that much more. Where¡¯s your passion boy? Your drive?¡± ¡°Well excuse me for having to work.¡± I grumbled as I ate a bowl of what seemed to be oatmeal. It tasted pretty good actually so I wolfed it down and drank three mugs of water. ¡°Excused. Ya know I used to work like a dog myself back in the day.¡± He spoke thoughtfully. ¡°Oh how I miss those days¡­¡± ¡°No you don¡¯t.¡± I returned the bowl and mug to the kitchen crew and walked outside. The bright light caused me to raise my hand over my eyes to shade them. ¡°Damn right I don¡¯t, work sucks boy! Now get your ass in gear, I don¡¯t want to leave you too far in the dust.¡± ¡°Yep.¡± I said simply, my mind was still refusing to wake up. I quickly found my squad in the training yard; they seemed to be the only ones around. Strange, just yesterday this place was packed. I shrugged, too tired to care. I found Ice training with her bow. Gamble was sleeping beneath a tree next to a meditating Oak. Redclaw took after Ice¡¯s example and was busy unleashing a flurry of blows on a training dummy with his twin bronze blades. It was interesting to watch him smack the dummy about; dual wielding would almost certainly become very popular among players. I myself wasn¡¯t into it, but I could see the appeal. Especially as I saw Redclaw throw out strike after strike in rapid succession. I decided to pick a dummy next to him and drew my blade. I had to practice what I had studied last night or I¡¯d never be able to pull my weight in battle. Redclaw crossed his blades towards me when he noticed me approaching. A slight bow accompanied the motion so I nodded his way. Now first thing¡­I searched my addled brain to recall what I saw. First would be stance, stance was the most important aspect to any form of combat. Losing your footing in battle was a quick way to the graveyard after all. I took my stance, left foot sideways with my left leg and shield arm facing my target. Legs spread enough to give a firm and reactive stance, shield up ready to block and sword held ready to stab and slash at will. A few minor adjustments for comfort and I was ready. Stab! Slash! Thwack! Thwack! Kchunk! Oh yes, I could feel the difference. My strikes felt more powerful than they had last night. ¡°Lookin¡¯ good there Captain!¡± A boisterous voice called in my direction. Gamble had awoken it seemed. I kept on practicing my slashes and stabs. ¡°Oi, ye best stop Cap. Got yer cut of the coins we got yesterday. Unless I can keep em.¡± I stopped, ¡°Nah I¡¯ll take my cut. Thanks Gamble.¡± He handed over 7 silver and 50 copper. My share of the thirty silver in loot we collected from our battle with the Gnolls. I sheathed my sword, ¡°Tell everyone to meet at the west gate in an hour. We¡¯re gonna go for some live training today.¡± I turned to the Gnoll striking a target beside me, ¡°Got that Redclaw?¡± ¡°Yes Touched One, I obey.¡± He bowed once more and sheathed his blades on his back. I turned to leave. Practicing on a dummy was one thing, but I¡¯d get better at fighting by being in actual combat. The sound of footsteps behind me caused me to turn to see Redclaw follow in my wake. ¡°Something the matter Redclaw?¡± I questioned. ¡°Nothing Touched One. Spirit says to keep your company, so Redclaw follow.¡± ¡°Well, alright then¡­¡± I didn¡¯t know what to make of the strange Gnoll, but I liked him. He seemed to respect me so I¡¯d respect him in turn. It¡¯s the way things should work. Though I¡¯d like to know exactly who or what this spirit was that talked to him. If there even was a spirit talking to him. Upon leaving the barracks and walking towards the main plaza I had noticed more and more players wearing basic armor obtained from the barracks. A few had even started replacing the leathers with locally crafted chainmail from the blacksmith. But strangely only a few had squads with them. I spied a disheveled and familiar guard captain speaking to a large group of players in the plaza. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Touched Ones, but there just aren¡¯t enough men to¡­¡± The captain was quickly interrupted. ¡°That¡¯s a load!¡± ¡°There¡¯s already a bunch of players with squads of their own!¡± ¡°I want a squad too!¡± More and more voices chimed in yelling at Captain Dehaven. ¡°I apologize once more Touched Ones, but there simply aren¡¯t enough men to go around. We can provide you with equipment however.¡± ¡°Man whatever, fuck this place.¡± ¡°NPCs suck anyway.¡± ¡°Anyone wanna group up and form our own squad?¡± ¡°The internet community never changes.¡± A large black Orc spoke who stood next to me. ¡°Sup old man.¡± I looked at him; he still had all his basic equipment. ¡°Bout to sell some crap. Got about two gold saved up already, you?¡± ¡°Seven silver.¡± He made a straining sound. ¡°Farm more cash!¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. My squad is meeting up in an hour at the west gate. We¡¯ll farm all day today.¡± ¡°Good, good. Soon we¡¯ll have our-holy hell what is that thing!¡± My dad said pointing at the Gnoll who stood behind me. ¡°That would be Redclaw, a member of my squad. Redclaw say hi to my old man, Musclewizard.¡± Redclaw bowed, ¡°Greetings Touched One. May the spirits watch you.¡± ¡°Man why does my boy get the cool companion! My squad is boring compared to a Gnoll! I¡¯ll trade ya boy! You take my squad and I¡¯ll take yours!¡± ¡°No deal.¡± I walked into the plaza and laid a hand on Captain Dehaven¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Long time no see, Dehaven, how¡¯s it going?¡± ¡°Ah! Geo.¡± He saluted, ¡°Captain Geo I hear, congratulations. And greetings to your companion and Musclewizard as well.¡± Redclaw returned Dehaven¡¯s bow while my father gave a thumbs-up. ¡°Things are as they appear more Touched Ones show up every day yet we have not the manpower to support them with a unit. I¡¯ve sent those that asked to the barracks for equipment, but many ignore me by that point.¡± ¡°Yeah us Touched Ones can be a bit touched.¡± My father commented. ¡°Some more touched than normal if you catch my drift.¡± I ignored his obvious pointing towards me behind my back. Dehaven chuckled and shook his head, ¡°You two certainly know how to brighten up a day.¡± He rubbed his chin in thought. ¡°Say I got a job for you both if you¡¯re interested. We¡¯re short on recruits see, Orhu can only supply so many per year after all. So if you¡¯re interested could you two go out to the nearby towns and see if you can gather volunteers for the army?¡± -Quest Revealed- Local Recruitment. Captain Dehaven has requested you to go to nearby towns and recruit willing volunteers to join the Gerheld Empire¡¯s army. Volunteers Gathered: 0/- Rewards: 100 Exp per Volunteer, 1 silver per Volunteer, +Gerheld Reputation per 10 Volunteers, +Orhu Reputation per Volunteer. Well that was no choice, accepted. I¡¯d rather do this than the tough quest General Ledric hinted at earlier this morning. ¡°Any advice on where to start?¡± ¡°Well there are three nearby towns, all within a day¡¯s journey. Gabelten is to the south near the marshes. Talenwood is an elven settlement near the forest with the same name to the south east. And to the northeast is Bredicht¡¯s Crossing, a city far larger than Orhu. Each town should have its own garrison, but those are for city guards only.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll head to Gabelten and Talenwood. You can take Bredicht¡¯s Crossing pops; you¡¯re more of a large settlement type of guy anyway.¡± ¡°Kay, I¡¯ll head out immediately. Don¡¯t fall behind boy.¡± With a wave of the hand my dad walked off back towards the barracks. ¡°Before I head out, where can I find the Alchemist and Herbalist shops?¡± I questioned Dehaven who had just sent another player towards the barracks to be outfitted. ¡°Ah, head east out of the plaza. Both shops are right next to one another along the north side of the road. Can¡¯t miss them.¡± ¡°Thanks, good luck Dehaven.¡± ¡°And to you Geo.¡± With a wave I walked off towards the shops where I would train my chosen professions. I had thought of doing Blacksmithing and Mining, but Alchemy never lost its usefulness. Potions would always be in demand. After a short walk I found my objective. I entered the Herbalist first, obtained a Tome of Basic Knowledge (Herbalism) for a silver. This let me identify local herbs to use for basic potions. The Alchemist was a bit more expensive. A Tome of Basic Knowledge (Alchemy) for a silver and a whole bunch of tools for another 2 silver was a significant blow to my funds. Not that I¡¯m a penny-pincher, but I like to have funds to fall back on just in case. Still, it was nice being able to make a few potions. I currently had three recipes. Craft Basic Healing Potion: Requires: Sten Grass, Red Berry. When consumed heals the user for 50hp. Craft Basic Strength Potion: Requires: Stubborn Root, Sten Grass. Increases Strength by 4 for 30 seconds. Craft Basic Mana Potion: Requires: Mind Flowerx2 When consumed the user recovers 50 Mana. With my goal of learning Alchemy completed, I headed to the western gate to wait for my squad. Redclaw and I watched players run by as we leaned against the city wall. Many still had their starter clothes while the rest had obtained the standard leather armor. ¡°Many Touched.¡± Redclaw said simply. ¡°Yep.¡± I responded, opening my status screen and assigning the five points I obtained from completing the quest last night. Name: Geo Level: 4 Experience: 656/4000 Health: 200 Mana: 180 Energy: 100 Strength: 17(+2) Agility: 10 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 18(+3) Increasing my damage potential was my main concern for this level. Next one I decided to dump all 5 points into Endurance for an extra 100hp. Satisfied with stats I moved on to check my abilities and see what I could do with my 2 talent points. With 18 points in Intelligence, my Lightning Bolt hit for 54 and my Stone Strike for 72. Putting a talent in each would raise their damage by a bit but would also raise their mana cost as well. A point in Summon Fire Elemental would raise the Mana cost by 50, but increase the duration to 1 minute. I didn¡¯t have that kind of mana bar yet so that was out of the question. Quick Strike seemed a good choice. Going from 110% weapon damage to 120% while increasing the energy cost to 20 and the cooldown from 5 seconds to 6. Allocating a point there seemed the most beneficial for the least cost. One point down, one to go. I put the point in Stone Strike to see exactly what changed more closely. Its damage increased from 72 to 79, mana cost from 50 mana to 60, and the cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds. Honestly, I really didn¡¯t know what to put the point in. My sleep deprived mind just gave me the thumbs-up so I accepted obtaining a better Stone Strike. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Besides, I much preferred instant attacks to cast times anyway. Soon after my talent point dilemma Ice showed up. ¡°Sup Ice?¡± I asked politely. She shrugged in response before standing at attention next to me. Now all we had to do was wait for Oak and Gamble. ¡°Oi stop pushing ye big lizard!¡± Speak of the devil, here the pair came. An agitated Gamble being driven towards us. ¡°I couldda made a few more coins! We still got another twenty minutes!¡± Gamble argued with the large Misawi. ¡°Early to the hunt means more of a catch pack brother. Look, our pack waits for us.¡± Oak nodded towards us. ¡°Yo.¡± I said raising a hand. ¡°Captain.¡± Gamble spoke sullenly. ¡°Pack leader.¡± Oak nodded. ¡°Change of plans guys. Captain Dehaven has requested we obtain more recruits from nearby towns. We¡¯re to head south to Gabelten and then north east from there to Talenwood. Don¡¯t give me that look Gamble; we¡¯ll be fighting plenty along the way so loot won¡¯t be a problem.¡± ¡°Alright, even five-way split now?¡± ¡°Yep, Redclaw is one of the Rumblers now so he gets a cut of all future profits. Red, you don¡¯t know how we operate, but Gamble here collects loot to sell off then gives us each a cut that we can use to improve our own gear. You can save up for some new armor or swords or whatever.¡± ¡°Thank you Touched One.¡± I nodded, ¡°Let¡¯s go then. Any of you know where we can pick up some food and canteens to hold water? I doubt we¡¯ll be back at the barracks any time soon, so we¡¯ll need to be prepared.¡± ¡°Worry not pack leader. I can cook when we require food. General store sells containers for water. I shall lead.¡± Oak said as he strode ahead of us. I shrugged and followed, I didn¡¯t know where the general store was after all. Thankfully it was easy to find, after a short walk I spied it along the street that head south out of the plaza. Canteens were 20 copper a piece, so I threw a silver down for two and received my 60 copper in change. Everyone else bought two as well, even Gamble; though he grumbled as he spent the money. We filled our canteens at a nearby well and proceeded to make our way south out of Orhu. More players ran around outside, killing off the local wolf population in a hurry. We paid them no mind as we kept our pace. There would be more packs of wolves further out after all. It wasn¡¯t long before we encountered a pack of four wolves on our journey. A quick warm-up was agreed upon and we unleashed hell. Me leading with a Lightning Bolt and Stone Strike on one target while Ice shot at another. Oak, Gamble and Redclaw formed a wedge in front of us with Gamble in the center, shield held at the ready. Only two of the four wolves hit our position and were quickly dispatched. It felt great being able to attack from range and not having to attack an enemy awkwardly with a weapon you barely knew how to use. We moved on to the next group after collecting our loot. At one point we had encountered a pack of five normal wolves led by a silver wolf named ¡®Ghost Fang¡¯. Positioned once more with Oak, Gamble and Redclaw in a wedge we began the fight. Lightning, stone and arrows flew through the air hitting their respective targets. At once the wolves turned to us and charged. Two fell before they hit our line. Gamble intercepted Ghost Fang while Ice and I helped Oak and Redclaw with their targets. Really we just had to help Oak; Redclaw took his down in a few strokes. What a beast. Ghost Fang proved to be slightly more durable than a normal wolf and could make it self incorporeal for a split second. It used that moment to dash through Gamble and made a quick strike from behind. A guaranteed unmitigated attack was nothing to scoff at. It fell shortly after however, dropping a fang marked as a bounty item and a ring. Gamble described the bounty item as something to turn in at a barracks for a reward of cash and possibly an item. I tucked the fang back into my bag; we¡¯d be able to turn it in at Gabelten. The ring however was interesting. Bronze Sapphire Ring. A simple bronze ring with an enchanted sapphire inlaid in it. Grants the wearer +2 to Intelligence. ¡°Anyone want this?¡± I questioned. I don¡¯t know what Intelligence did for companions; they didn¡¯t have a mana bar to improve after all. Heads shook, ¡°Och, gotta be worth at least 5 silver that ring.¡± I rolled my eyes at the greed Gamble and stuck the ring on my finger. Equipping the ring put me at a nice 200 mana. Enough to summon my Fire Elemental and throw a Stone Strike after a few seconds. I felt dangerous. As we continued our hunt I started picking nearby grass, berries, flowers and roots for alchemy. Oak questioned what I was doing so I explained by making a basic healing potion and handed it to him. He smiled, ¡°Shall I assist you pack leader?¡± I shrugged and explained what I needed. He nodded and began to hunt for alchemy supplies as well. An hour of gathering and battling later I had used up all of the vials I had bought on health potions. Everyone received a supply of 3 health potions each. I would have to buy many more vials when we finally made it to the city. Everyone agreed to not use their potions until it was vital. I felt a little better for our safety. The further south we travelled the more water we had found. At first it was the odd creek off the side of the road that led south. Then we passed over a bridge that rose over a large river. I had to say the water looked appealing in the heat, so we stopped for a break to rest and relax. Oak gathered some grass and wood for a fire to begin cooking some wolf he had butchered. The rest of us took a dip in the river. All except for Ice who watched us with a raised brow, she stayed away from the river. Thinking nothing of it I jumped in after a quick strip to my underwear. It was nice, cool and relaxing. For the first few minutes at least. Then the fish began to bite. ¡°Argh something bit me foot!¡± Gamble called out as he rushed to the shore. ¡°Huh?¡± was all I managed before feeling something bite my arm hard. ¡°Ah fuck!¡± I swam after him, full speed ahead. Redclaw howled before he dove under the water, resurfacing a moment later holding a large fish over his head. ¡°Redclaw know when bit to bite back harder!¡± So we dined on cooked wolf and fish and laughed about the whole ordeal. Redclaw fit right into our group, mocking my mad swim to the shore howling with laughter. Even Ice cracked half a smile. I was sure we¡¯d have to give her a new nickname soon. The Ice was melting. After our break we continued south into notably wetter territory. ¡°Say Oak; know anything about what we can expect heading south?¡± ¡°Spiders. Large ones, big as mountain lion. Spit poison and web, meat is especially tasty when prepared.¡± I nodded, but inside I shivered. Fuck spiders. Though there was one person I knew who hated spiders more than I. I had to grin as a plan formed in my mind. Wake me up after four hours will you? ¡°Also hear rumors of walking dead recently. Not sure if true however.¡± Oak finished. I remembered undead in the character creation screen. ¡°More than likely true, keep on your toes everyone.¡± They all nodded. We stuck to the road. I didn¡¯t want to find ourselves lost in this land that was becoming more and more marshy as we went. As we cautiously walked along the road a loud voice shouted in my head. ¡°Hey boy, look what I found!¡± My dad exclaimed with a voice of glee. ¡°Ow, dad. What¡¯s got you so excite¡­oh¡­¡± I stared at the screen shot he sent me. He had made it to Bredicht¡¯s Crossing apparently. The picture showed a peculiar building, with hearts painted on the side and scantily clad women standing out front. ¡°Is that a¡­.¡± ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean to¡­¡± ¡°Yep.¡± He updated the screenshot that now showed him entering the building. ¡°Dad no stop! No I don¡¯t want to see that shit!¡± His manic laughter filled my ears as he kept updating his screenshots. I left the group, stopping the rapid screenshots. But not before I had gotten an eye-full of goblin. ¡°I think I¡¯m going to be sick.¡± I said aloud. ¡°Eh? Whys that captain?¡± Gamble asked. ¡°I just saw what pure evil looked like.¡± A few dry heaves later and a smack on the back by Gamble and I was back on my feet. ¡°Change of plans guys. Let¡¯s find a group of spiders.¡± It was payback time. After a short deviance from the road we encountered a group of three spiders. Willow Widow HP: 250 They seemed like easy targets. Ice and I picked a target and unleashed hell. I took a screenshot before of course. Our attacks hit, causing the spiders to turn to us and spit out web and a green liquid at us. Their attacks fell short so they scurried closer, eight legs moving demonically. Eyes watching our every move. I shivered, perfect, more screenshots as they closed. One died as they closed the distance, the other two fared little better other than hitting Redclaw directly with a web which we had to peel off of him after it was over. They had dropped strong spider silks which were used for tailoring. They also dropped venom for alchemy but I had no free vials to collect any from. I wasn¡¯t too worried about that however, I had my screenshots. I invited my dear old man back into the party, which he accepted. ¡°Ah boy, it was great. Who knew goblins could be so-AHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK! I¡¯LL KILL YOU!¡± he had looked at the screenshots I sent. There¡¯s no sound quite like hearing a grown man scream like a six year old girl. I let out my own manic laugh. ¡°Ye okay Captain?¡± Gamble asked, ¡°Better than okay. I got revenge.¡± We made our way back to the road and continued south. Along the way we encountered two more packs of spiders that wandered onto the road, they proved no threat at all. An easy 50 experience per kill for each us. We¡¯d hunt these marshes dry once we made it to Gabelten. The marsh became more and more unnerving the further in we went. Birds stopped calling in the air. A light fog covered the land like a blanket. It barely obscured my sight but I¡¯d seen enough horror movies to know where this was going. If my expertise on horror was spot on, we were in zombie territory as soon as we entered the fog. Luckily not far into the fog was light and a very visible wooden wall. We walked towards the light with an urgency born of fear. I didn¡¯t like zombies much more than spiders after all. Four guards stood out front the gate that led into the town. ¡°Halt!¡± The guard in the lead commanded. ¡°State your name and purpose, failure to respond will result in immediate termination!¡± I heard the sound of bows being knocked. ¡°My name is Geo, squad captain of the Gerheld Empire! I came here to procure men and women willing to join the army back in Orhu.¡± The guards relaxed a bit. I felt better without the arrows pointed at us. ¡°Come forward.¡± The guard motioned, ¡°Ah! My apologies Touched One. I didn¡¯t mean any disrespect by threatening you. The walking dead you see¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry sir¡­¡± ¡°Hommil sir.¡± ¡°Sir Hommil,¡± I shook his hand which made him gasp. ¡°I¡¯ll be here for a while to see if any of the locals wish to join the empire.¡± ¡°You¡¯d find plenty eager sir, but you¡¯ll find that none wish to leave their homes in the marsh¡¯s current state.¡± ¡°Explain.¡± ¡°About two years ago a necromancer had taken residence in our marsh. We¡¯re not sure if that was the exact time, but that was when the dead started to rise. We found signs of the necromancer living in a ruined tower to the south shortly after. The number of risen dead has only increased with time. We fear that soon there may be enough to overrun the town.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t let that happen.¡± I said with confidence, ¡°We¡¯ll do whatever we can to secure this marsh.¡± The guard bowed deeply. ¡°You¡¯ll want to speak to Mayor Kashella. Her residence is the tower in the center of town, can¡¯t miss it.¡± He pointed his thumb backwards through the now opened gate. Wooden houses lined the main street. -Quest Revealed- The Marsh of Bones (1 of 5) Meet with Mayor Kashella. Reward: 500 experience, + Gabelten Reputation. ¡°Will do, thank you sir Hommil.¡± ¡°The pleasure is mine, Touched One.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s roll Rumblers.¡± I spoke, asserting my position as the leader and led the way into the town shrouded in fog. ----- Free talk zone. Here''s a new chapter I whipped up for you guys, pretty short imo, but its driving us forward. Next chapter should be a big one. Thanks for reading. Chapter 6- Tectonic The sound of footsteps echoed off the cobbled streets as we walked south towards Gabelten¡¯s town square. The town looked to be almost as big as Orhu, though it lacked a castle. Wooden homes lined the streets, accompanied by a few random shops and an inn or two. People travelled in groups on the street, keeping to themselves and staring at us with curiosity. A majority of the population seemed to be Misawi which wasn¡¯t surprising. The marshland suited them well. We came here to recruit people to join the empire¡¯s military, but it looks like we had a large obstacle in front of us. A five step quest! Whodda thunk it? Certainly not me. Looks like my dad drew the short end of the stick. This chain should help me level up quickly. Gamble grumbled uneasily but was hushed by a stern Oak. Redclaw looked ready to spring into action at any moment, eyeing the people wearily. ¡°At ease Redclaw. We¡¯re here to help them, not make them nervous of us.¡± I attempted to calm my companion¡¯s unease. Though I felt it as well. Hard not to when you¡¯re walking down a stereotypical zombie apocalypse setting. ¡°Yes, Touched One. Redclaw obeys.¡± He nodded and took a deep breath to calm himself. The town square was filled with NPCs trading their goods. I had yet to see another player around here. Perhaps I was the first to visit it? Not many people would choose to go to a marsh willingly. If I had to guess, I¡¯d bet the Misawi Wetlands were sorely lacking in player strength. They¡¯d be free territory for the country that took them over early. But that was another worry for another time. Now I had to talk to the mayor of this town and find out exactly what is going on. A large wooden building sat off to the side of the street leading to the south gate. A large bronze hawk stood above the entrance to the mansion. ¡°Let¡¯s not keep the mayor waiting, shall we?¡± Together we walked into the building. An overly skinny man sat a desk just past the entrance, ruffling through a bunch of papers and signing them after a quick glance. ¡°Hello, yes who is it?¡± The man looked up. ¡°Ah, a group of adventurers perhaps? Yes we could use those. But no, no. You bear the mark of the Gerheld Empire!¡± The man rose from his desk and darted over to us to get a closer look. ¡°Ah yes, good a patriot to our home! And a Touched One at that! My how the three gods watch over us in these dark times. Please, please, have a seat.¡± He motioned towards a set of couches that sat off to the side. ¡°Um, we¡¯re on urgent business so-¡° ¡°Yes, yes. Business is always urgent. Got to stay on top of things yes? You¡¯re here to see mayor Kashella? Very well, I shall go obtain her presently. Wait here and make yourselves comfortable.¡± The hyperactive man left us in a hurry. ¡°A mile a minute that man¡¯s mouth.¡± Gamble snickered, ¡°Barely let you get a word in Captain.¡± ¡°He must to enjoy his work here if he¡¯s that hyper. Then again we¡¯re probly the first new faces anyone has seen in an age. I¡¯m surprised a marsh town is even this large.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the herbs. Marshland is good for many various herbs for poisons and cures.¡± Oak said simply. ¡°We Misawi pride ourselves on mastery of potions, though I know not the art.¡± ¡°That so? Maybe I¡¯ll teach you a bit later one Oak. If you want to learn that is.¡± ¡°It would be an honor pack-leader.¡± He bowed his head in reverence. It wasn¡¯t long until the clacking of shoes and mumbling turned our attention to the two doorways that stood to the sides of the desk. The right door opened revealing a dark blue scaled woman wearing fine brown and gold robes. ¡°Greetings, I am mayor Kashella of the town of Gabelten. What may I do for you?¡± She looked us over once and grinned ear to ear. ¡°Hasthil? Is that you? It is!¡± She approached Oak who stood and bowed to Kashella. ¡°Greetings to you brood-sister. You have accomplished much I see.¡± She embraced him in a quick hug. I don¡¯t know if a Misawi could blush, it appeared they couldn¡¯t. But if they could I¡¯d bet a gold coin that our buddy Oak would be as red as a sunrise. ¡°Ah apologies, Hasthil, everyone.¡± She bowed to us. ¡°Things have been bleak these past months. I have sent word to the capital but the emperor has sent no assistance until now. Though to be honest I was hoping for a full company and not a squad. But any help is better than none.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll do all we can to help.¡± I spoke confidently, ¡°Just point us in the direction and we¡¯ll solve the problem.¡± ¡°Ah, you must be the leader. My pleasure Mr¡­¡± Her eyes widened as she looked closely at me. ¡°Ah! Forgive me, Touched One. I didn¡¯t see your mark at first glance.¡± She bowed in respect, to which I waved my hand. ¡°Its fine, the name¡¯s Geo, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Any friend of Oak¡¯s is a friend of mine.¡± ¡°Oak? Ah so Hasthil has a nickname does he?¡± A grin crept upon her face, ¡°It suits him well, please take care of ¡°Oak¡±; we have much to catch up on.¡± Her head shook sadly, ¡°But catching up can wait; right now we face a crisis. Before the undead shambled about in the marsh aimlessly, now they seem to be almost organized. We¡¯re assuming this change to be the local necromancer¡¯s meddling. Hunters have gone out for food only to never return. Our settlement can barely afford food from the north due to being unable to gather plants for potions to sell or trade.¡± ¡°So our main objective will be to see if this necromancer is responsible for this dilemma. And if they are to eliminate them?¡± ¡°That would be appreciated, yes. And if you kill any undead that would also be greatly appreciated. Any blow to their numbers would be a boon to our settlement.¡± Reward received: 500 experience, +Gabelten Reputation. -Quest Updated- The Marsh of Bones (2 of 5) Mayor Kashella has asked you to investigate the necromancer residing in the ruined tower to the south of town. Reward: 1,000 experience, +Gabelten Reputation. Bonus: Undead killed while on this quest give an additional 100 experience per kill. My eyes widened at that bonus. I don¡¯t know how much experience an undead gave. But flat out increasing each kill¡¯s experience gain by 20 per squad member was awesome. It was grinding time. ¡°We¡¯ll head out after we¡¯ve had a chance to prepare, could you direct us to a good inn?¡± ¡°Ah, yes. The ¡®Water Lily¡¯s Thorn¡¯ is the finest inn we have in town. They¡¯re located just off the southern road before the gate. Tell them to send your bill to me. I¡¯ll cover your expenses while you¡¯re here.¡± Oh this could not get better. ¡°I thank you for your generosity.¡± I stood and bowed, ¡°Let¡¯s get rolling Rumblers.¡± ¡°I shall join you shortly pack leader, I must speak with Kashella.¡± Oak replied, staying seated. ¡°Alright, take your time Oak. We¡¯ll be heading out in an hour.¡± I bowed my head and said a quick farewell to Kashella before turning to leave. ************* With a single eye Oak watched the group exit the building. His tongue flicked into the air a few times before turning to Kashella. Her face scrunched in anger, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to see you back here so soon Hasthil. And at another¡¯s command at that! Has the Thashanam tribe¡¯s leader fallen so far as to lick the boot of one who should be beneath him?¡± ¡°Ease, brood-sister.¡± Oak cooed in an attempt to calm Kashella. ¡°No Hasthil, I shall not ¡®ease¡¯. Too many moons have the dead walked our marshes. Too many have fallen these past months and not even a word of response from an emperor sworn to protect us! The dead are now at our doors and all we have received in support is a small squad!¡± Tears rolled down her face as Oak embraced her. ¡°We won¡¯t last another week if this keeps up.¡± ¡°We shall not fail you brood-sister.¡± Oak spoke confidently. ¡°How can you be so certain Hasthil? What brings you such faith?¡± ¡°Pack-leader Geo gives me faith. Thousands of Touched Ones have descended in Orhu. Yet only he and another immediately joined the empire. Before I could ask pack-leader for assistance we found our way south. To our home.¡± ********************* After entering the inn Kashella had recommended and getting my squad situated I logged off. First I hit up my apartment¡¯s bathroom as I really had to go. ¡°A man does his best thinking on the throne.¡± My dad once said to me, so as I sat I thought of the situation facing the town. First was the immediate threat, the undead. It sounded like they roamed in groups. The question was, how many per group? We¡¯d find that out firsthand after a quick scouting operation. Know your enemy and all that. Second was a problem facing the town; starvation. Kashella had mentioned that their hunters were unable to go out and gather food or else the undead would take them. Any wild animal found would have to be killed or captured and brought back to the town. Oak had said the spider meat was good so we could do a bit of spider hunting. Third were the town¡¯s defenses. When I had played Legend of Xidamt a town would have an early warning system such as a bell tower or a signal fire which would signal when the town was attacked. When I had glanced around the town I found no such thing. That would have to be rectified quickly so that a defense could be mounted in case of an attack. The town also looked to have very few defenders. That meant organizing a bigger militia than what they currently had. Fourth and finally was the necromancer in the marsh. He or she would have to be eliminated at the first sign of controlling the undead maliciously. If they are responsible for this mess then we¡¯ll kill them plain and simple. I snacked on a few granola bars and chugged down a soda before popping my headset back on. It was time to put the dead back in their graves, scorched earth style. I lay on my bed and opened Reckoning. My eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light in the deathly quiet inn. My squad had stayed sitting at the same table I had left them at when I logged out. They stood at attention as they noticed my return. Looked like Oak had rejoined us as well, good. ¡°At ease Rumblers, we¡¯ve got work to be about. First I need to pay a quick visit to Kashella. While I¡¯m there I need each of you to gather as many people in this town as possible in the town square for a meeting. Redclaw, Oak, and Gamble split up and do your best. Ice you¡¯re with me seeing as you¡¯re the silent type.¡± ¡°Aye Captain!¡± ¡°Yes pack-leader.¡± ¡°As you will, Touched One.¡± They quickly conferred among themselves before heading out of the inn. ¡°We shall assist you.¡± The few Misawi who sat around the inn chimed in before racing out with my squad. Objective one was well under way. Now I had to meet with the mayor again. ¡°Let¡¯s go Ice.¡± Together we headed out into the foggy streets. ¡°Kashella, we need to talk.¡± I spoke as the desk attendant led me into the mayor¡¯s room. A sparse room with scant decorations aside from the occasional charm and hunting trophy such as a bear¡¯s head mounted on the wall. ¡°Yes Touched One, my ears are yours.¡± Kashella responded, rising to greet me. ¡°Does your town have any form of early warning system in case the undead attack?¡± I cut straight to the issue, no use tip-toeing the issue. ¡°The undead have never attacked the settlement directly, Ashan¡¯dahlia be praised. No we have no such system.¡± ¡°We need to correct that then. Are there any bells, gongs or whistles in the city? Hell, anything loud will do just so long as it can be heard far enough away.¡± ¡°Well¡­we do have a few gongs but they are tribal heirlooms that haven¡¯t been used in many years¡­¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s time to wipe the dust off of them. We¡¯ll need the moments an early warning system can provide to mount an effective defense.¡± ¡°Are you certain it will be necessary? They have never struck the town¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s precisely why it¡¯s needed now more than ever Kashella. That necromancer has everything in the palm of their hand right now. You¡¯re choked off from hunting for food and can¡¯t make potions for trading. Right now they¡¯re biding their time and letting you die slowly.¡± I¡¯d used this very same strategy before, effective on large castles but very costly time-wise. Except this wasn¡¯t a castle with stockpiles of food, just a small town that lived day by day; far easier and faster to starve. ¡°The gongs shall be set up at the north and south entrances to the town Touched One. But I still do not think they will be necessary.¡± Kashella spoke, crossing her arms stubbornly. ¡°Normally it wouldn¡¯t be necessary if things kept as they have been. The undead would have been content with merely boxing you in, conserving their numbers. We''re about to throw a monkey wrench in their plans by adding me and my squad to the mix. What we¡¯re going to do is going to make them desperate, possibly enough to attack the settlement outright. Which brings me to my next point; the town barely has any guards. ¡° ¡°Of course, those guards we have are volunteers. But everyone would defend their homes were we attacked. Of that I am certain.¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s time to put your money where your mouth is. My men and a few volunteers are gathering people into the town square for a meeting. From there we¡¯ll announce a need for more volunteers to help defend the town. Does this town have a blacksmith that produces armor and weapons?¡± ¡°No blacksmiths. We¡¯ve never had the need for anything more than spears, bows, arrows and leathers.¡± ¡°Damn, an armored line would help.¡± Kashella gave me a puzzled look. ¡°Never mind, thinking out loud. Alright, I think I¡¯ve got a decent defensive plan in mind. I just hope everyone is as patriotic as you think.¡± I motioned towards the door, ¡°Shall we go to the town square?¡± Together, Ice, Kashella and I approached a once empty town square that was now bursting with commotion. Judging from the amount of people, it looked to be everyone in town had come for the meeting without knowing the details. Rumors were sure to be abound, probably about retreating to Orhu or Talenwood. That was plan B of course. When all else fails, retreat. But it wasn¡¯t time to retreat. This was a time to hold the line. ¡°Attention citizens of Gabelten!¡± I called out to the crowd, murmurs ceased as all attention focused on me. ¡°I¡¯m not too good with speeches so I¡¯ll make this brief and straight to the point. The undead have you boxed into your town. As you are, you¡¯re fucked. Well and truly fucked.¡± Shouts rung through the crowd, I raised a hand expectantly. ¡°Do not worry, my squad and I are here to get you unfucked. Now I have learned from your mayor here that nearly every family in this town has an assortment of spears, bows and arrows. I¡¯ll need each and every one of you to return to your homes and obtain every weapon you can. We¡¯ll also need shields so if you have a spare stool or whatever that can be made into one, bring that. ¡°Our first step in this plan of ours is to fortify your town. Fortifying the town¡¯s gates, blockading the streets and so on. So we¡¯ll need anything you can spare, tables and large boxes or anything big and heavy. We¡¯ll get the details down as we find out what we have to work with. Now I know the undead haven¡¯t attacked your town in force yet and I¡¯m not sure why that is. But they will soon enough. I can almost guarantee it. Now please, do as I¡¯ve asked and I¡¯ll see your town survive into the future.¡± Not a very inspiring speech, but they did listen. I watched the crowd disperse in a hurry as men and women shouted for assistance for moving heavy furniture. ¡°Got a plan Captain?¡± Gamble questioned as he fell in beside me. ¡°Outline of one.¡± ¡°Playing it by ear, eh?¡± ¡°You got it.¡± Soon enough people began to bring spears, quivers of arrows and bows into the town square followed by small stools and tables. I ordered the weapons to be placed into one corner of the square while the small furniture to be repurposed into shields into another. Kashella had brought me a map of the town just as the big furniture was being lugged into the square. The settlement had two gates, a north and a south. Wooden walls made a large circle around the buildings contained within. One main street ran straight through the town with small side streets filtering off the main one. The side streets were almost always linked together so that was an advantage we could use. Funnel the enemy into the main street and strike from the sides. I had that same tactic used against me more than a few times, I was happy to finally be able to use it myself. First I sent Kashella ahead with the gongs to the north and south gates with orders for the guards to ¡®bang the hell out of them if they see any undead approaching¡¯. I then sent Gamble to grab some people to repurpose the little furniture into makeshift shields. Next I had Oak gather people familiar with hunting using bows. They were given bows and arrows to use in the event of an attack. As for the large furniture, Redclaw, Ice and I saw to its placement along the side streets. The barricades were built just high enough so that archers could shoot over them before retreating if the undead tried to break through. In the main street was a large blockade of couches, boxes and such. The southern blockades were assembled better than the northern ones, as I assumed the majority of the dead would come from deeper in the marsh. When all was said and done, the town of Gabelten with a population of just over five hundred now had a standing militia of 160 bowmen and 210 spearmen. The rest were children and elderly, unable to fight effectively. The majority of the bowmen were assigned into small squads that would run through the side streets and open fire into the funneled enemy in the main street. They would be accompanied by small groups of spearmen just in case the dead broke through a barrier or two. The rest of the bowmen would stand at the main barricades and rain down death from the front. I just hoped bows, arrows and spears would be enough to stop the walking dead. ¡°Come and get it boys and girls, drink up!¡± A portly human man yelled as he rolled barrels into the main square. I recognized the man as the innkeeper of the Water Lily¡¯s Thorn. Even he was doing his part to keep up morale it seemed, as crowds of happy faces surged towards the man. ¡°What would we do without ya Het?¡± Men called as they slapped the man good naturedly on the back as they took a filled mug and drank deep. ¡°Ah your home brewed ale hits the spot!¡± Wait, ale? I approached the portly man whose whole body shook as he laughed. ¡°Drink up fellas, more than enough to go around!¡± ¡°How many barrels of this stuff do you have?¡± I asked the man. He turned to me, rubbing his chin in thought. ¡°¡¯Bout fifteen or so barrels? Also got a few barrels of northern wine and some mead. Why ya askin¡¯?¡± I smiled. Perfect. ********************* Kashella could hardly believe her eyes as the townsmen and women moved about her town with purpose and passion she had never seen before. In a few hours they had turned this humble town into a makeshift fortress. It was unthinkable, preposterous! And yet, deep inside she knew that it was exactly what was needed. ¡°Now you see my faith in this Touched One.¡± A familiar voice spoke softly next to her. ¡°Yes¡­¡± was all she could manage as she watched holes being punctured into empty barrels and then plugged before they were filled with alcohol. What was this man up to? Just earlier Geo had asked her questions about the undead. Were they only zombies or were there skeletons and ghosts as well? No just zombies. He seemed relived at that answer. Do they hunt in groups? How many per group? Questions she had never thought to ask were answered by hunters who had dared to head out into the swamp for food. It seemed they hunted in groups of three to ten. ¡°Your captain is acting more like a general than a squad leader.¡± She noted, watching him order a group of people with bows to shoot at targets to gauge their accuracy. The dwarf he had brought with him was lecturing people who had spears and stool-seats or table parts for shields about forming a ¡®tried and true Dwarven shield wall¡¯. People she had never thought capable of such things were now looking like a true military. The only break to that illusion was their equipment. Old spears, tabletop shields and old leathers for armor among people who even had leathers. The rest wore their clothes. ¡°Pack-leader says we will leave soon. Find this necromancer, kill them. Hopes town won¡¯t come under attack then. Best prepare for the worst though.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t go Hasthil, stay and protect your tribe.¡± She pleaded. He smiled in response, ¡°Cannot stay, pack-leader needs me. Protect tribe in own way, perhaps save everyone this way. Have faith brood-sister.¡± He walked away, towards his squad leader. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°You have my faith. May the great hunters watch over you.¡± Kashella whispered. ************** Together my Rumblers and I exited the town through the south gate. The guards stood at attention as we passed, they had been informed of the plan long ago. First sight of approaching undead and they¡¯d beat the gongs signaling everyone to get ready. They¡¯d then retreat to the barrier and help the citizens defend the town. I gave them a quick salute before walking into the wooded marsh once more. I would have liked to leave one or two of my squad back in the town to direct things, but I just couldn¡¯t afford it. They were on their own should the worst happen. I just hoped our preparations were enough to keep them alive. Shame I didn¡¯t have any information about the amount of undead lurked in these marshes. It could be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand. I didn¡¯t want to think of there being any more than that. After slogging about in the marshland for a few minutes we encountered our first group of undead. Four shambled through the marsh, groaning unintelligibly. Looking closely at them I could see the distinction of on being human while the other three were Misawi. I checked their health after selecting one as a target, 325 hp per zombie, durable monsters. I signaled Ice to prepare to fire as I charged a lightning bolt. As the lightning shot from my hands Ice let loose an arrow. Zap! Thunk! Direct hits! The group of zombies groaned as they turned towards us and began shambling at an increased pace. Energy tickled my fingertips as I threw another ball of lightning at a zombie, quickly accompanied by a rock thrown through the air. With Ice¡¯s combined focus fire we quickly killed a zombie long before it could reach us. Gained 60(300) Exp! Damn that was a nice chunk of experience. 200 baseline experience plus an additional hundred per kill! Oh yes, it was farming time indeed. I fired off another two lightning bolts before drawing my sword and charging into the fray with Gamble, Oak and Redclaw. The zombies slowed as we closed and drew their arms back for a swing at us. I raised my shield just as an attack came my way. -24 Health. Damn, even blocking an attack couldn¡¯t stop all the damage. I struck out with my sword, stabbing the zombie in the neck as it moved in for a bite. A groan escaped its mouth as it pulled itself off of my sword and resumed the attack. I jumped back just in time to dodge one of its arms. Oak had chosen that moment to jab his spear into the living corpse repeatedly. It turned to him, ignoring me for the moment. Fatal mistake, with a lunge I stabbed my blade into the back of the zombie¡¯s head. As I ripped my blade free it fell to the ground with a gurgle but did not move, lifeless once more. Digging my heels into the wet marshland I pushed myself like a bullet to immediately help Gamble with his target. The zombie lunged towards Gamble in an attempt to bite him but was greeted with a shield to the face. ¡°Quick Slash!¡± immediately my blade slashed the side of the zombie. It groaned in frustration at my intervention and turned towards me with a swing of its arm. My arm rung with the impact of the swing that I blocked with my shield. As I moved to retaliate with a slash of my own the zombie fell to the ground, a fresh arrow embedded in its skull. Oak and Redclaw had managed to defeat the last arrow-studded zombie a few moments after Gamble and I killed our own. We had killed our first group of the walking dead. Gamble worked his sticky fingers, grabbing a few pieces of copper and a pair of leather gloves. One group down, countless more to go. ************** SkySaber covered his nose as he travelled along the road far south of Orhu. Behind him were three other players who had banded together to hunt groups of wolves away from the masses of solo players. After joining the Gerheld Empire for free gear they had decided to move on from the starting city to another as they were at level five each. The decision to head south was made quickly, as many other players began to head east towards the large city of Bredicht¡¯s Crossing. None had headed south towards the marsh. ¡®Who in their right mind would?¡¯ Sky thought to himself as he tempted another whiff of the air, only to curse silently at himself. ¡°Ugh, smells like rancid meat down here. And you can barely see through this fog, why¡¯d we have to choose this muck-hole to go to?¡± A buff, tanned elf asked. ¡°Easy Bremos, less players means less competition and more experience for us! Even if it does smell like gran-mum¡¯s place.¡± A purple toned Aqamari responded, her face scrunching with disgust at the smell. ¡°Wait, your gram¡¯s place smells like rancid meat?¡± A red haired dwarf who wore no armor besides his pants inquired with a raised brow as he scratched his overly large beard. ¡°Yeah¡­when she came to visit us for a week she left some stuff out. When we came back to stay with her for the weekend the whole house reeked.¡± ¡°Nasty!¡± The dwarf guffawed, ¡°Still, rather deal with that than when my young cousin came to visit a few years back with his family. Boy wasn¡¯t potty trained see, and he loved to finger paint.¡± The whole group chuckled at the dwarf¡¯s past misfortune. A loud groaning further in the fog knocked them from their reverie. ¡°The hell was that?¡± The Aqamari asked with a shaking voice. ¡°That, dear Opal would be the musings of a college graduate who majored in Liberal Arts and had just entered the job market.¡± ¡°Oh ha-ha, very funny Sky.¡± Bremos rolled his eyes, ¡°Sounded like some zombie from a cheap horror flick.¡± ¡°Marsh zombies? How clich¨¦.¡± The dwarf remarked as he brandished his bronze great axe. ¡°Hey Kraom, clich¨¦s are fine. They¡¯re tried and true methods of success. Like re-releasing a slightly upgraded phone every year.¡± Opal joked as she twirled her oak staff in her webbed hands. ¡°Chat to a minimum everyone; we don¡¯t know how strong they¡¯ll be so let¡¯s be cautious about this.¡± Sky said as he drew his sword from its sheath and checked his shield. Together they crept forward towards the direction the groan came from. Soon the sound of loud sloshing through the marsh was in front of them. Silhouettes were vaguely seen in the thickening fog. Sky could swear his eyes were playing tricks on him. What were a few silhouettes became a wall of shadow. The fog began to break in front of the group, revealing over twenty zombies shambling slowly south. ¡°Damn.¡± Bremos remarked, ¡°Think we can kill that many?¡± ¡°If we can pull a few at a time, sure, easy.¡± Sky spoke before nodding to the Aqamari, ¡°Do the honors Opal?¡± She grinned in response, ¡°Easy experience here we come!¡± A fireball flew from the head of her staff and blasted against a zombie in the back of the group. About five zombies turned to find who attacked them and rapidly shambled towards the group. ¡°Here we go! Come to papa!¡± Kraom yelled as he raised his axe to strike the first zombie to come his way. ****************************** My head pounded against my skull as I sat upon the mushy ground. I had forgotten how many groups of zombies we had killed since we left town. All I knew was that I was now level 5. Ice, Gamble and Oak were level 4 and Redclaw had just hit level 3. As I had planned, I dumped all 5 stat points into endurance. Name: Geo Level: 5 Experience: 1215/5000 Health: 300 (+100) Mana: 200 [20] Energy: 100 Strength: 17 Agility: 10 Endurance: 15 (+5) Intelligence: 20 [2] The circular brackets next to the stats signified how much they increased recently while the box brackets signified increase from gear. ¡®A nice clean system¡¯ I thought to myself as I stared at the stat screen. I was knocked from my stat-gazing by another set of groans to the left. Blech, we had been killing so many zombies that if I never saw another ever again it would be too soon. But we had a job to do, another dead set of zombies meant another set that wouldn¡¯t be attacking the town. So once more I rose, accompanied by my squad and rushed into battle by firing off another set of Lightning Bolts and a Stone Strike as soon as I could see the group of five zombies in the fog. Like a well-oiled machine we struck our targets without a need for me to call out targets. A few moments of slashing and bashing later and another group had been eliminated. It felt great finally getting into some combat after a few hours of preparations. As we slogged through the marsh ever southward a light shone in the distance, barely glowing through the thick fog. I looked at my group who noticed the light as well. Motioning towards the light only brought shrugs so onward we went. As we neared the light a large black shadow rose behind it in the fog. Large moss-covered stones littered the ground as we approached the light until the fog parted. Torches lit on the side of a tower covered in vegetation and cracks. The ruined tower, our destination. The sound of humming came from within the ruins of the building that in its prime was sure to dwarf any tree in the marsh. A large wooden door that had seen far better days stood in the single doorway. ¡°Stay back, if you hear sounds of a fight bust in swinging.¡± I whispered to my squad. They nodded in response, weapons drawn. ¡°Be safe pack-leader.¡± Oak whispered as I approached the rotted door. The sound of humming just beyond the door. I reached out with my hand slowly and pushed the handle. With a loud ¡®CREEEAAACCKKK¡¯ the door opened before the hinges that held it up snapped, sending the door colliding onto the stone below. Not a very stealthy entrance. The humming had immediately stopped. ¡°Ah¡­visitors¡­at long last¡­¡± A raspy voice spoke. I looked towards the voice. A dark-robed human with far too skinny looking arms sat before a lit fire. All around the floor were markings made in blood. ¡°Are you the necromancer causing the dead to rise?¡± ¡°Necromancer¡­no.¡± They started shaking and breathing heavily. ¡°Came¡­to stop¡­¡± The body collapsed to the ground. A small dagger clinked on the stone as it fell from their hand. I rushed over to their side to assist them. Scars dotted along their arms and hands, each looked to be cut evenly. Fresh blood dripped from their left hand. I looked into their hood. They had long silver hair and far too skinny female¡¯s face, almost skeletal. ¡°What the hell¡­¡± was all I managed to say. Her skin was so pale as if all the blood had been drained from their body. Judging from the amount of blood markings around, I probably wasn¡¯t far off the mark. A light cough brought me back from observing the surroundings. ¡°Drink this!¡± I yelled, pulling a health potion from my pack and pouring the contents into her mouth. Forcing the healing liquid down her throat caused the woman to cough a few times before some color returned her face. Her body shook as she began breathing rapidly for a few moments before beginning to calm down. She slowly opened her eyes; silver irises stared directly into my own. ¡°I¡¯m¡­alive...¡± ¡°Welcome back to the world of the living.¡± I gave her a thumbs-up. ¡°Praise the gods.¡± She spoke, barely more than a whisper. ¡°A Touched One¡­¡± ¡°Captain, we got problems!¡± Gamble shouted as he barged over the fallen door. His face changing from one of worry to one of surprise instantly. ¡°Oh, ¡®scuse me.¡± He turned away with a wink my way. I sighed and helped the weak woman sit upright. ¡°What is it Gamble?¡± ¡°The dead have started moving north.¡± ¡°Ah shit.¡± I said. The woman next to me fell to the ground. I turned sharply to see her reaching for her knife. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked, kicking the knife farther away from her grasping hand. ¡°No¡­must stop them!¡± she cried. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Magic in my veins¡­can make runes to stop them¡­¡± she sobbed onto the stones. ¡°Must save them from him.¡± ¡°From who?¡± ¡°Zechs, the lord of the dead.¡± I rolled the name around in my head wondering why it was so familiar. Then it hit me, Zechs was an undead dragon that ruled over all the dead in the world from his citadel on the Isle of Bone. ¡°What is Zechs doing with an army so far from the Isle of Bone?¡± ¡°He seeks¡­Tahlmiarah, a stone of the gods. Thinks the town has it¡­so wrong. So wrong.¡± She pointed towards an overturned clay cup in the corner of the ruined room we were in. A light blue glow escaped from underneath it. I walked to the cup and lifted it from the ground. The glow brightened to be almost blinding but did not escape the room. Within the glow was a pebble that looked as if it surged with power. ¡°Zechs craves¡­its power. Destroy it! Destroy it! Destroy it!¡± The woman rambled at me. ¡°I couldn¡¯t. Had to¡­contain its energy¡­keep town safe.¡± She motioned to the large runes that had been drawn on the walls in blood. ¡°You used your own blood to contain this stone and keep the undead from attacking the town?¡± ¡°Yes, no choice. Cannot let Zechs have his way¡­will end all life¡­¡± I picked up the stone, ¡°Not on my watch he won¡¯t.¡± You have received the Tahlmiarah! I inspected the small stone that I held in my hand. Item Name: Tahlmiarah Item Class: Artifact Description: A legendary stone of power, said to be a tear of a god. Effect: When used allows the user to create a unique ability or piece of equipment. I couldn¡¯t believe my eyes. Such an item in my hands would be worth¡­countless amounts of gold. Players and npcs would wage war over an item such as this. Hell, one already had. The woman looked at me with pleading eyes as she whispered ¡®Destroy it¡¯ over and over. Reward received: 1,000 experience, +Gabelten Reputation. -Quest Updated- The Marsh of Bones (3 of 5) The Witch of the Gabelten Marsh has asked you to destroy the Tahlmiarah so that none may use its power for evil. Reward: 10,000 experience. Bonus: Undead killed while on this quest give an additional 100 experience per kill. ¡°How would I destroy this stone?¡± I asked the tearful woman. ¡°Ruined temple¡­farther south. Smash on altar¡­¡± Oak walked into the room with Redclaw and Ice. ¡°The dead have all gone north pack-leader.¡± His eyes widened in surprise at the stone I held in my hands. ¡°Great spirit¡­¡± Redclaw gasped, even Ice looked shocked. Even if we were to act quickly to destroy the stone, we wouldn¡¯t be able to return to Gabelten before it was attacked by the undead. ¡°How many dead did you smell Oak?¡± I asked, ¡°Many, pack-leader. Too strong a smell to count.¡± He said solemnly. ¡°Zechs has raised the whole marsh now that my bindings are broken¡­Please, you must destroy the stone. Don¡¯t let their sacrifice be in vain.¡± Abandon the town that trusted me to protect them? Never. I had made my decision. I clenched my fist around the stone and found myself engulfed in blue light. Screens popped up around my vision, flooding my screen in an overwhelming torrent. Screens for ability types from summoning to weapon strikes, buffs and debuffs the whole shebang. With the amount of options available at my fingertips I could make meteors fall from the sky, or cover the land in ice in a large radius. Or create an item of unrivaled power. I held the power of a god in my hands. But there was a drawback to creating a spell; the mana cost would become astronomical. I could never reach those limits immediately. No matter what type of spell I chose the mana cost was through the roof. Though it was cool designing a spell that would rip the ground open and spew lava in a large area. A spell was out of the question, I needed to make an item. I changed the spell tabs into item ones. I had to act quickly wondering what item to make. A piece of armor would be nice but not what the moment called for. I slid the selection box to weapons. A sub selection box then appeared underneath with hundreds of weapon types. From two-handed swords to fist weapons, even tridents were listed. But none of those fit my taste. I selected Two-Handed Mace. From there another screen popped up next to my selection showing a preview of the item that would be created with the ability to customize the look. I grinned at all the options I could use to change the look of the object. I immediately got to work, molding it to my tastes. Time slipped away as I put the finishing touches on my new weapon. When I finished one final popup appeared. Please name the object you have crafted. I already had a name picked out for my new weapon. Tectonic. Taking a deep breath I hit accept once more. Within the blue that surrounded me, earth and fire rose. Slowly the rocks surrounded the flames, containing the flames within, forming a large two-handed mace. The blue light surged to white, blinding me. I could hear the woman yelling and Gamble cursing. Oaks prayers aloud to the gods were as clear as if he stood beside me. Redclaw¡¯s howl was accompanied by a dragon¡¯s roar. No sound was uttered from Ice, but I could feel her fear. I could feel it from all of them, who wouldn¡¯t be afraid of the person who had just claimed a god¡¯s power? Inside the light I could feel energy condensing in front of me. Minutes passed until the light subsided leaving me standing in front of a group of silent onlookers. A hammer of stone and flame held in my hands. -Quest Failed- The Marsh of Bones (3 of 5) The Witch of the Gabelten Marsh has asked you to destroy the Tahlmiarah so that none may use its power for evil. Reward: 10,000 experience. Bonus: Undead killed while on this quest give an additional 100 experience per kill. I didn¡¯t give a damn about that. I held a weapon that would never be replaced. Item Name: Tectonic Type: Two-Handed Mace Quality: Artifact Damage: 250 Armor Penetration: 30% Effect: Every attack deals 20% additional Fire damage. I shouldered the hammer of rock and flame with a barely-contained grin plastered on my face. I held a true Geomancer¡¯s weapon. None said a word as they stared at me. The hammer felt heavy, but I knew I could swing it forever if I had to. I¡¯d get to put that knowledge to use shortly, Gabelten would need our assistance. We needed to leave now, but I refused to leave the weakened woman behind alone. ¡°Oak.¡± I spoke, almost not recognizing my own voice. Had I always sounded so confident? ¡°Yes Sasthalamissan?¡± ¡°What¡­never mind. I need you to stay her and watch over this woman. Get her something to eat. Poor gal looks as if she hasn¡¯t had a bite in months.¡± Oak bowed. ¡°As you command.¡± He sat next to the woman and opened his pack to bring out supplies. ¡°Everyone else, follow me.¡± I moved towards the collapsed door to head out into the fog of the marsh. ¡°Where are you going?¡± the woman whispered in fear. I kept walking towards the marsh when I answered her. ¡°We¡¯ve got a town to save.¡± ***** Free talk zone So yeah, this chapter and the next chapter Im going to write were originally going to be one chapter buuuuuuuuut that''d be too big for one chapter imo. So the next chapter will focus on the battle of Gabelten. Enjoy!