Rise of the Grandmaster

by Bradford Bates

  This was the part of the experience he wasn’t looking forward to. Getting naked in front of strangers wasn’t really his thing, but you couldn’t climb into the POD with your clothes on. With a shrug of acceptance, Tim slipped out of his robe and strode brazenly toward the technicians. This was the new, bolder him, after all.

  A few moments into the process, it had become clear the lab technicians weren’t interested in looking at him. They attached electrodes to different parts of his body once he was inside the POD and fitted him with a waste disposal unit and an IV.

  Two new people entered the room, and the techs left. The woman approached the POD while the man stayed by the door. She leaned in and started checking the various connections. “Hi, I’m Doctor Rudinski. The guy standing behind me is here to make sure I don’t touch you in any inappropriate places.”

  Tim looked down at his lower half, which was covered by the waste disposal unit. “Good luck with that.”

  Doctor Rudinski laughed. “Everything seems to be in order. I’m going to give you a light sedative. When you wake up in the game, you might be slightly disoriented.”

  Tim already felt disoriented. “See you on the flip side.”

  Oh, man, was he on a roll today!

  Shaking her head, the doctor pushed down on the plunger. She watched Tim for a moment, then checked his vitals on the screen before turning to the man behind her. “This kid’s going to handle the serum like a champ.”

  Tim tried to ask what that meant, but his tongue felt like it weighed a million pounds. Speaking was out of the question. He tried to lift his arm to get the doctor’s attention, but it didn’t move. His vision blurred as the doctor patted his arm to reassure him. Why was he even worried? This was the best day of his life, at least until tomorrow.

  Tomorrow, he would wake up inside The Etheric Coast.

  Chapter Eight

  Disoriented was the right word for it.

  Tim’s surroundings didn’t help matters much. The floor was solid white, and in the distance, he could make out blotches of white like walls on the horizon. The rest of the space was solid black, making the floor seem to stretch to infinity in all directions.

  Tim stood and took a deep breath. Was this some kind of loading screen? It reminded him of something console games did while they brought up the game in the background. Sometimes you could even run and practice attacks while you waited.

  If he was in the game already, it was fucking awesome. He didn’t feel any different than he had in the real world. Everything moved and bent the same.

  Tim wondered why he even needed to breathe. Was there really air?

  There was only one real question on his mind. He looked around to make sure no one else had popped into his loading screen, then pulled out the waistband of his jeans and looked down.

  “Oh, thank God.”

  Everything was still the same down there. His jeans snapped back into place, and Tim started scanning the horizon, looking for any hint on what to do next. He wasn’t comfortable with waiting around for things to happen to him. Tim liked to be the one pulling the strings.

  The blank canvas surrounding him hadn’t changed. Was he supposed to do something, or just wait? Tim tried to remember what he’d read in the paperwork, but he’d just glossed over most of it. What was with game companies and the thirty-page terms of service agreements? Who had time for that shit?

  He just wanted to start playing.

  Shaking his head, Tim wondered how long the game would take to load. He was sure it’d only been a minute or so, but those minutes turned into hours when you factored in the anticipation. He remembered how long it had felt between each birthday when he was a kid. After he’d gotten older, those special days had started to creep up on him.

  While he’d always been a planner, he’d never been patient. Tim’s whole life seemed to be a battle between the perfect plan and the need to get shit done. Maybe he could prompt the game to load faster?

  Looking out into the void, Tim shouted, “Character Creation.”

  Nothing happened.

  He tried again. “Load The Etheric Coast!”

  The scenery remained the same. Tim looked around again, wondering if there was something else he needed to do. Shrugging, he picked a direction at random and started walking.

  The ground felt real beneath his feet, but it was disconcerting to look out upon vast nothingness. He imagined this was how people had felt when they’d caravanned across the great open deserts of the past.

  Slowly, an image began to form in the distance. Tim started to run toward it. Soon enough, he could make out what was in his path.

  A door.

  He reached the door out of breath and full of anticipation. The door was gray, with large, bright gold lettering at eye level. The weird thing was the door seemed to be floating six inches above the ground. Tim shook off his surprise and paused to read the words. The Etheric Coast

  This was fucking it! He was about to enter the game. Tim walked around the floating door. It didn’t matter how the physics of the door and its sign worked inside the game, the rules of reality clearly didn’t apply.

  He exhaled. “Time to see how far down the rabbit hole really goes.”

  All he wanted to do was get into the game and figure out how to make money. Once he had a handle on the game systems and a plan to make enough gold to send home, he’d branch out into more adventurous activities. Tim didn’t hesitate. He grasped the handle and opened the door. Inside was his room back on campus.

  Tim did a double-take. “What the fuck?”

  All of his furniture was present. Even his Mythica poster was on the wall. What was going on? He looked behind him. The vast whiteness of the other room was still there. Shrugging, Tim stepped through the door and into his room.

  There had to be a reason the game took him to his dorm. Maybe it was just a way to ease his transition into the world? The disorientation he’d felt was already fading. If he didn’t clearly remember climbing into the POD, he would have sworn it was just another day on campus.

  He sniffed, regretting it instantly. “It even smells the same.”

  Not that the smell was a good thing. Spinning in a slow circle, Tim enjoyed the nostalgia. There was a sense of stepping back into a moment from the past. Imagine how much money NPC Corp would make if they could replay the highlights from people’s lives?

  Tim wasn’t here to relive the past.

  “I’m here to enjoy the future.” He slowly looked around the room again, and a blinking light on his laptop caught his attention. Tim sat down at his desk and studied the screen. On the black background, there was a single line of text.

  C:Run The Etheric Coast

  Just below it, the word was highlighted.

  This was fantastic! Tim couldn’t remember the last time anyone had launched a program using an actual command prompt. Now everything was just a double-click away, and ease of use was the new king. This was so much cooler than he’d thought it was going to be.

  Tim took a deep breath and hit Enter.

  A little eight-bit knight ran across the screen, and music that would have been right at home in a classic Nintendo game played from the speakers. When the knight reached the center of the screen, he pulled a giant key from his back instead of a sword. A small keyhole appeared on the screen, and the knight hefted the key above his head and inserted it into the keyhole. Jumping, the little knight grabbed the edge of the key to try to turn it.

  The key wouldn’t budge.

  The little knight pulled himself on top of the key and started jumping up and down in frustration. The key jiggled, but it didn’t move. Nothing seemed to be working for the little guy. The knight fell to his knees, heaving for breath, and slowly lowered himself back to the ground.

  The knight rose from his crouch and dusted off his clothes. He looked directly at Tim, held out a hand, and made a turning gesture. When Tim didn’t move, the knight pointed at him and back at the key. The look on th
e knight’s face would have been priceless if it was someone else’s IQ he was questioning.

  Tim frowned at the screen of his laptop, wondering how he could help. It wasn’t like he could turn the key himself.

  Could he?

  Tim smiled as his hand sank into the display. He turned the key, and the screen expanded to fill the entire wall. He pushed his chair back and watched in wonder as a list of options and tabs appeared on the left-hand side of the screen. On the right-hand side was a 3D rendering of his body.

  Tim’s eyes went wide at the sight of his almost-naked body. “At least they gave me a loincloth.”

  Looking at the options, Tim realized he had made it to character creation. This was always one of his favorite parts of the game. The first thing he noticed was that his race was set to human. There were three other races available to select, and each of them had different starting stats.

  As a human, his base stats were set to twelve in every category, and he was given eight points to spend however he wanted. He could get any single stat to twenty, or he could increase multiple stats as he saw fit.

  What he found really interesting was that there were only five stats he could change. Each stat had a general overview listed, but Tim knew from other games that you never truly got to min/max your stats until later on. A few points might not make a big difference in the endgame, but it could give him a leg up on the competition now.

  Strength: Increases damage with melee weapons

  Tim noticed that if he hovered his hand over the stat, an additional tooltip came up. When he read it, he had the distinct impression that one of the developers was fucking with him.

  (Also helps you lift heavy stuff)

  Maybe they just forgot to edit those out on their last pass before launch. Tim found himself cracking up as he went down the list.

  Endurance: Increases health and stamina (you know, for when you have to run away really fast)

  Dexterity: Increases proficiency with ranged weapons and daggers (for when you’re not sure if you want to get stabby from a distance or up close)

  Wisdom: Primary stat for healing skills. (Lets you see the way things work before others. It doesn’t mean you have to be a pompous ass about it)

  Intelligence: Primary stat for magical DPS (Damage Per Second). (Yeah, it also makes it easier to learn other skills, but nobody likes a know-it-all.)

  Oh, yeah. Someone was going to get in trouble for this stunt, but it was probably worth it. He hadn’t laughed this hard in years. It was a long-standing tradition for developers to try to sneak in snarky little digs or homages to things they loved.

  One thing it did let him know was that all the stats were going to be important. What good was getting the best loot if you didn’t have the strength to haul it back to town? Of course, you had to worry about your main stats first, but there was always a synergy to be established.

  Below the main stat bar were four sub-stats for perception, vitality, revitalization, and luck. The bar was grayed out, indicating he couldn’t place additional points in those categories.

  There weren’t snarky tooltips for those, only standard definitions.

  Perception: You will see the truth of things when others cannot.

  Vitality: Increase health and health regeneration.

  Revitalization: Increases mana and mana regeneration.

  Luck: Increase the rarity of looted items. (Who doesn’t love better shinies?)

  Just when Tim thought the developers had let him down, they had slipped in a little fun. If things kept going like this, he was going to feel right at home in The Etheric Coast.

  There were only two basic options to choose from. Tim had to pick between being a fighter and a mage. It seemed pretty generic, but you always started out with limited abilities and then gained power exponentially until endgame.

  Endgame was where the real grind started.

  Before he could even think about stat points or race, Tim had to decide between the two. What race and stats he picked might be influenced by his choice, so how did he want to play the game: as a fighter or a mage?

  Tim had always loved the wanton destruction you could deal wearing heavy armor while you were out doing the daily grind, but he hated tanking in dungeons and raids.

  DPS-ing was fun, especially when your name topped the charts. But was there any way to make additional money from it?

  If Tim entered the game as a mage, there was always the chance he could become a healer. He might even be able to sell buffs on the side. Good healers were always in demand for groups, and eventually he’d be running content on the side of his day job for extra income.

  Picking mage made the most sense for now.

  Tim hit the button for his class and realized he couldn’t select it without going in order. With the most important choice made, Tim backtracked to the first tab and looked over the different starting races.

  Human, elf, half-elf, and dwarf. It wasn’t the most robust list he’d ever seen, but this was day one. He was sure the list would grow.

  The dwarfs were clearly fighters, so Tim dismissed that right away. Half-elves received bonuses for dexterity and endurance, making that the next race to cross off the list.

  The elven race was intriguing. Elves received a boost to wisdom and intelligence. Both stats were raised to sixteen, but their strength and endurance were set to ten to counter it. Also, he would only receive four points to distribute.

  Did Tim want to be an elf? He could boost his wisdom straight to twenty, making his healing spells more effective. However, his strength and endurance would suffer. Lower strength and endurance might mean he couldn’t pick certain classes later on.

  Maybe it would be better to stay human?

  Tim looked over the races again before finally making a choice. He settled on the human and was slightly disappointed when the pointy ears disappeared from his character. Every choice was a risk at this point, but at least no one else knew any more about the game than he did.

  Tim agonized over it for a few more minutes before he finally pulled the trigger. He tapped the screen to add five points to Wisdom and three points to Intelligence. One last look over the choices he’d made and Tim was ready to get into the game and see how things worked.

  Strength 12

  Endurance 12

  Dexterity 12

  Intelligence 15

  Wisdom 17

  His perception, vitality, revitalization, and luck were all set at +1.

  On the next screen, he selected mage from the options, which brought up a submenu of specialties available at level ten. This was where the real customization started. As a level-ten mage, Tim could select options including Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Summoner, or Healer.

  At level twenty, each of the specialties offered a class-change quest. It looked as if there were further specializations available at level forty, but anything above level twenty was grayed out and hidden in the interface.

  Tim wondered what a mage would do as Melee DPS. Wearing robes would ensure one hit could wipe you out, but if you could add fire or ice to kicks and punches, it’d make you one hell of a brawler.

  Maybe he’d be able to try it one day, but for now, Tim was going to walk a much different path.

  Tim selected the healer tree and scanned the level-twenty choices.

  Cleric: A devoted follower of the Goddess of light. A cleric heals from the front of the battle, calling on the goddess to shield their allies from harm. Clerics wear heavy armor and carry a one or two-handed mace and a shield.

  Hydromancer: Devoted to the path of the all-healing power of water. Hydromancers excel in group healing and cleanses. Hydromancers wear robes and are often seen using a book or a talisman, along with a scepter.

  The healer in the video Tim had watched at graduation must have been a hydromancer. Having seen the spells in action, he knew just how powerful the class could be. It seemed like the class everyone might select after seeing the video.

  There was also
the possibility he could use hydromancy for other things, maybe in conjunction with his job at the forge.

  Battlesworn: The battlesworn believe hurting your enemy is the best way to help your allies. Debuffs can reduce the amount of damage enemies can inflict and increase the amount of damage targets can take, and can be cast in conjunction with curses. Curses damage the target over time. All curse damage caused by battlesworn is converted into healing.

  Shaman: Shamans call on the forces of nature and the spirits of their ancestors to heal their allies. They wear leather armor and tend to range around the center of the battlefield. Rumors are that grandmasters can even raise the dead.

  It seemed like there was a lot to think about before he reached level twenty. Until then, he’d just have to focus on learning the basics.

  This was going to be fucking awesome!

  Tim also felt better about not having to make such an important choice right away. Sometimes it wasn’t until you started playing a class that you realized you’d totally fucked up and had to start over. In a game like this, starting over would delay his plans to send money back home.

  Leveling this way, he gained a small sample of universal skills, and then he’d be able to make an informed decision about what step to take next. It was exactly the way he liked to do things. It paid to have a plan A and a plan B.

  Tim selected mage from the drop-down box and was moved to the character creation tab. On the right side of the screen, the 3D rendering of his character became available to interact with. He could spin it and zoom in to examine every angle.

  On the left side of the screen were sliders. He could make himself taller, skinner, and slightly more muscular. There was also the option to make himself shorter, fatter, and bald. He adjusted the bars to make himself look as awful as possible.

  What would Sierra think if she could see him now?

  Tim laughed as he hit the Reset to Default button. He played around with the dials for a few minutes to make himself slightly leaner and add definition to his muscles. After pushing his height up to six feet, Tim got into the detail work. A little more tinkering and his hair was slightly longer, and he had the perfect five o’clock shadow.