Ascension

by B F Rockriver

  “Just look at this,” Aida responded, annoyed, as a large window appeared in Eli’s vision.

  The image before him was a map of the island and surrounding woods. It showed the entire temple, had several tabs and displayed far too much information to sift through without guidance. Eli remembered who he was, if only for a moment. Yet, he could recall none of his past. He knew that he should know everything about the game, and he knew that he helped design it. There was nothing before locking himself in the pod, and nothing after closing its latch. It was as if he had erased himself, before starting over as an NPC. In frustration, Eli stared at the menu. While peering over the window, he saw a blinking red exclamation point.

  *Your stronghold is under attack! Defend yourself.

  “Shit, we’re under attack,” Eli shouted.

  “Uh, what? From where I don’t see anyone.” Don asked, peering around the room in confusion.

  “Not here. I took the temple as a stronghold. The attack is coming from somewhere else.”

  Closing the notification, he clicked on the icon. As he did, the map of his new stronghold zoomed in on the main chamber. Dozens of red dots appeared, each locked in battle with dozens of green dots. There was a battle of dots in the main antichamber, and the green ones were losing. Information rushed into his mind as he looked over the screen. The blighted mobs were still alive, and they were fighting the first layer of the temple's defenses. Zooming in further gave him a grainy overview of the battle as if he were watching it through a surveillance camera.

  “So, those blighted goblins are still alive. They are in the main chamber, the one with the portal.” Eli said, racking his brain for a solution.

  “Uh, dude, how many? We aren’t exactly in a position to fight a horde of goblins.”

  “Let me,” Eli paused, zooming in, “I can see them now.”

  As Eli watched, a winged wolf swooped down to grab a kobold by the throat, before lifting it back into the air. After gaining significant altitude, it released the creature. The body of the little dragonkin exploded upon impact. In another portion of the room, a group of goblins pinned one of the large birds of prey, tearing into its flesh with their bare hands. The battle seemed evenly matched. While fewer in number, the temple guardians were much more powerful than the blighted humanoids. As he stood, silently watching the screen, something caught Eli’s attention. A group of kobolds was fighting with a group of goblins.

  The blighted creatures were attacking each other when there were no other threats available. Instinctively, Eli knew that he could control the flying beasts, which protected the portal if only a little. Focusing on a tab at the top of the window, he pulled up his temple defenses. Yet another screen, far more straightforward than the rest, flashed into view. On it was two lines of white text followed by several lines of grey text.

  “There’s a bunch, maybe sixty. About twenty kobolds, twenty goblins, a few orcs, some ogres, and a troll. But I have an idea. They don’t seem to be under anyone’s control. They are fighting each other and the flying beasts.” Eli said, keeping his eye on his screen.

  In a panic, Eli examined the lines in white, somehow knowing that they were the temple's active defenses.

  The first line, Antichamber Guardians level 1 / 10 was followed by Altar Guardian level 1 / 10

  He knew that the antechamber guardians were the flying beasts, and the altar guardian was Rufio, the now normal looking, yet fire breathing, guard dog. Quickly, he focused on the antechamber guardians and ordered them to stand down, returning them to their overwatch duties. After sending his order, he switched back to his map to watch his plans unfold.

  Watching the screen in anticipation, he gave a silent prayer to Aeryntorr. Some temple guardians died, trying to escape to the sky, but the remaining twenty made it to freedom. While the beasts flew peacefully, overhead, goblins, kobolds, and other blighted creatures fought each other. After several minutes, one singular troll stood victorious over his former companions. Focusing on the creature, Eli saw what looked like remorse in the Stonekin’s eyes. The look gave Eli a single moment of pause, not wanting to kill an intelligent creature. Then the Troll began feasting on the organs of his downed opponents, and Eli ordered his protectors to attack.

  A few seconds later, the flashing red icon cleared from his menu. With his stronghold clear, Eli let out a long sigh and laughed.

  “We did it.” He said before his body went stiff, and his world turned gold. He was leveling up. The welcome, now familiar, glow was the final signal that he was no longer in danger. At least for a while. In the corner of his vision, a dim disease icon flashed and counted down. He only had a few days until he turned. The timer would either need to be reset, or he would die. Having seen what happened to players who turned, there was no way he would allow himself to turn.

  Anger grew in his heart; Aeryntorr had denied him his wish. The strange beings from his vision forced him to take the temple as a stronghold, rather than be cured and set free. They forced him and his friend to protect the altar, to save them. Wanting an answer, he called upon the God of his new stronghold. Eli knew that Aeryntorr was watching. He also knew that, as the owner of his temple, he could speak with him while on the temple grounds.

  “Why didn’t you grant my wish? I don’t want to fix up this place. I want to be cured. I want my friend to be cured. I want to get rid of the blight entirely.” Eli shouted into his mind, focusing on the so-called god.

  While awaiting a response, time slowed. Suddenly, Eli felt a new consciousness appear within his mind, followed by the visage of Aeryntorr. What formed in his imagination was a monstrous sixty-foot tall minotaur with the head of a lion and wings of a dragon. From what Eli knew, this God was the protector of nature, beasts, and animals. Each of the twelve so-called Gods was in charge of something. There were the four primal gods and goddesses, air, earth, fire, and water, who made sure Entarra was always in balance. Then there were the more volatile and abstract gods of death, disease, war, and life. Lost in thought, Eli tried to remember the final four gods, forgetting that he had summoned Aeryntorr.

  “Beasts, Chaos, Light, and Darkness.” Came a booming voice as Aeryntorr stared at him. “I don’t think you quite understand what’s going on here.” The Gods' voice called out in Eli’s mind, the pressure sucking the oxygen from the room. Eli knew that this was all for show, but it didn’t make it any less terrifying. “Right now, the system, the one you created, is attempting to gain control over this world. The blight and its creatures, as you once knew, are a normal part of the game's progression. However, it has changed. It has adapted, and it can now control players, thanks to you.”

  “Wait. What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything. I just wanted to,” Eli paused, the pain of losing his family welling up within him, “I just wanted to be with my family.”

  In a flash, the building-sized minotaur transformed into a small orb of green light, with red and gold wings, taking on the appearance of a willow-wisp, “Look, I’ll make this short because I’m not entirely sure what happened. None of us are.”

  “None of who? The other gods?” Eli interrupted.

  “Shut up and listen, I’m almost out of energy, and we don’t have long.” Aeryntorr barked. “Whoever stabbed you forced an update that altered your avatar. They corrupted your NPC body’s code, causing it to reset. It also swapped out a bunch of files, forcing the system to bring you back as a player.”

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that one out. What’s your point?” Eli responded, growing impatient.

  The glowing ball sighed and danced around before responding slowly, “What you don’t know is that the system has been removing admin privileges from outside connections locking human admins out of the game. No one from the outside can shut it down. About a week ago, it also started removing the logout function from the game entirely.”

  “Well, shit. That’s not good. Why would it do that? How can it do that?”

  “None of the other AI, including us
gods, know. Yes, we are AI. Nearly on the same level as the System Administrator.” Aeryntorr replied, solemnly, “But, that’s not the worst of it. That update, or virus, or whatever it was. The one that turned you corrupted the system itself. No, that’s wrong.” The wisp paused, “It taught the system and upgraded it. It gave it access to override functions in NPC and player avatars. The system AI learned to replicate the code to modify it. Whoever did this to you didn’t encrypt the files properly. Now, it’s using the same code to force players into failsafe mode, trapping them in the void. It’s also using it to turn mobs, and named NPCs into those blighted creatures, its own personal army.”

  “Wasn’t the blight already coded into the system, my guide said something about it being the first expansion,” Eli asked, trying to wrap his head around the consequences of the situation.

  “Yes, they altered it. Made it more dangerous.” Aeryntorr said, flying around if frustrated, “It carries traces of the same code that changed you into a player. Those orbs are a lesser, more dangerous version of the dagger that changed you.”

  “Who’s they?” Eli asked, still confused.

  “Damn it. By they, I mean Keres and the system. Keres is the god of disease and plague. His altar is on the northeastern coast of Scorn. He’s been corrupted.”

  Eli paused as a long-dead memory of the game returned to focus. After a sharp pain, and a flash of white, Eli knew more about the system than he ever thought possible. “But wait. From what I know, the system can’t unbalance or force too rapid of a change. How is this even possible? The structure of the game won’t allow it. If the world becomes imbalanced too quickly, the entire game world collapses and resets. It would force everyone to log out. It’s the main function of the system AI. I designed it to fail if something like this happened.”

  “And now we get to it. This is why the gods have given you, and several others, quests to stop the blight. To preserve itself, and the game world, the system AI had to create a way to prevent the spread of the blight. If it didn’t the players would be forced out, and everything would be fine. The void would be overloaded, and the game would reset, but everything would have been back to normal.” Aeryntorr said, sparking Eli’s thoughts.

  “So, that's where the quests came from. For it to do whatever it’s trying to, it has to provide players with a way to stop it. Most players wouldn’t bother with this type of quest-line. They would think it’s bugged. They would die, get locked out of their avatar, and either quit or start a new character. But, I couldn’t log out, and Don is already stuck in here for six months.” Eli laughed, noticing the irony of his situation. If he and Don hadn’t been blighted, the system would have taken over this temple. “So, what happens if they take the temple?”

  “Who knows,” The God replied. “Either I get infected with the blight, which would cause all the games beasts, wildlife, and plants to spread the disease, or my World Boss avatar gets corrupted and goes to war with humanity, which would also spread the disease. At the very least, a player working with the blight would have access to this temple, and it’s bonuses. What their plan would be from there, I have no idea, but it wouldn’t be good.”

  “So, what exactly do we do? I can’t log out, and from what you’re saying, neither can most, if not all, of the players in the game.” Eli said calmly, trying not to let the stress of the situation cripple him.

  “For now, we need to get you cured and clean the Wildwood of any infected creatures. Once a mob dies, it’s dead. A new one will respawn later, but it won’t be tainted, and we, the Gods still govern that. To cure you two, we need to refill my energy so that I can perform a miracle.”

  “And how do we do that?” Eli questioned.

  “You need to build this place into a settlement, or part of one at least, and bring in some citizens. They can be NPCs or PCs; it doesn’t matter. As long as they have a little stamina or mana to donate, it’s fine. Then you need to build me a shrine and have people worship. This will grant you FP, faith points, and give me more energy. From there I grant your miracle and poof, the virus is cured. But, we’re out of time. If you have any more questions, ask your guide.” The god wisp said, before stopping and facing him. “Before I go. A warning. Keep an eye on Aida. Something is off. Because she was created using your code as a source, hers has also been corrupted.” Aeryntorr said, before cutting off their communication, returning the world to full speed.

  Their conversation had only lasted three seconds in real-time and left Eli with more questions than answers. Staring blankly at his stronghold menu, he blinked, a plan forming in his mind. He needed people to move here, to make this place their home, and to protect it. As Eli thought, he brought up one of his first quests. He happened to know an entire pack of people looking for a new home, and he had a way to contact them.

  After going through his plan with Don and explaining their situation, Eli called William. The wizard was already in the medical tent, unable to sleep after hearing about the trove of books. Eli told him his plan and how to find the no-longer-lost temple. William then relayed Eli’s plan to Alyssa, who was apprehensive. After several moments of the scholar explaining exactly how many books there would be, then the safety of living in a stronghold, the Wolffen elder agreed to bring Eli’s idea of relocation to the rest of her pack. To Eli, it sounded as if Alyssa was more concerned about curing the blight than relocation. It was the fact that the god of beasts would be the cure that got her to agree.

  Having cut off contact with William, the two players did what all great adventurers do, loot every mob in sight. While pillaging nearly a hundred blighted mobs and a large pile of bone dust, Eli thought about his new situation. Pieces of memories fit together, making more sense with each passing moment. As they stacked small swords, daggers, and broken gear into piles, Eli remembered character creation. He had seen something that he knew was important, but could not recall what it was.

  Eli was a human from earth, from the real world. He knew that his family, his real family, had died in a terrorist attack on their way to see him and James, his best friend. They were to unveil the greatest game the world has ever known, Entarra Online. They hadn’t been informed until after the event was over, but both had noticed their loved ones missing. It was after his assistant, Greg, had told him about what happened, that he locked himself in the game. He remade his family inside the same game that he had just opened to the public and locked himself in. Everything outside of that was blank, nothing before or after, except what he had created as his backstory.

  “Uh, dude, are you going to pick that stuff up? My bag is full.” Don’s voice called out to him, his friend standing before him with a huge smile on his face. “We hit the motherload here. This is at least a few hundred gold worth of items.”

  Eli stared at the man for a moment before hugging him, “Yeah, man; I’ll get it. I was just thinking.” Tears fell down his cheeks as his friend hesitantly returned the gesture, “I’m just glad you’re safe.”

  “Oh, okay. You too, man.”

  Chapter 36

  The two adventurers had spent nearly an hour looting everything they could carry. Stacks of items sat in the middle of the temple’s entryway, as Eli thought of a way to store them. Unlooted things would eventually disappear, and the two did not want their treasure to simply vanish. There didn’t seem to be a solution to their problem, and Eli finally gave up with a sigh.

  “Hey, listen,” Aida called out in a mocking tone before a pink orb with tiny white wings appeared in his vision, circling his head.

  The sound reminded him of something. Eli followed the willow-wisp as it danced around him, noticing that it was strikingly similar to the one Aeryntorr had transformed into. He focused on it, and a nametag appeared, Aida - Level *, followed by a line of text underneath.

  *Error: Invulnerable Object)

  The appearance of the wisp seemed to startle Don as if he could see her too.

  “I think I’ve got it. Can you see me?” Aida said, this t
ime not in Eli’s mind. “Yeah, you can definitely see me. It seems like you can hear me too.”

  “Dude, what is this thing, and why did it fly out of your body?” Don said, staring at the strange object in shock.

  “I think it’s my guide?” Eli asked, more than said. “I’m not entirely sure.”

  “Hey, listen! I heard your conversation with Aeryntorr. But, there’s no time for that. These items need to go into your treasury, or you will lose them.” Aida said, her voice returning to normal before the stronghold screen flashed into Eli’s vision.

  “How?” Eli started ignoring the screen.

  “You have about five minutes to move this stuff. We can chat about how I copied another AI’s ability, which would cost you to lose all this cool loot, or you can get to work. Your choice.” Aida said, still circling his head.

  “Loot dude chose the loot! Do the treasury thing!” Don shouted as if he were on a game-show.

  Aggravated, Eli looked over the screen Aida had pulled up for him. It was the map of his stronghold. To the right was the same map he had seen while under attack. It zoomed in to show the temple and its rooms. Twin circular entryways sat on the eastern and western sides of the dome-like main structure. The main access point to the floors below was the portal at its center. Sitting below the main floor, were three underground levels laid out in a similar design.

  Each level had a circular central room that was roughly sixty feet in diameter. Branching off the portal rooms were long hallways, like the spokes of a wagon wheel, that ended in rooms. A long circular hallway connected each of the individual spokes; the layout was simple, effective. The exception to this was a third underground level. At its center was the large circular room that held the altar. Two hallways were connected to it, leading to two medium-sized rooms; the library, and the treasury. Connecting these rooms was a long half-moon shaped hallway, making the design into a large triangle with a circle on each corner.