The last tab Tim looked at was all about ink. Several thousand tattoos streamed past his vision as he scrolled through them. He’d never gotten a tattoo in real life but had always wanted one. Here he could do it, and it wouldn’t hurt.
Eventually, he settled on a tribal lizard. It took a few moments to wrap the tribal tattoo around his bicep the way he wanted, but he finally got it. It looked like the lizard was resting its head on his shoulder, and its tail wrapped around his arm and trailed down the inside of his forearm.
Now he felt right at home. It was him, but a slightly more badass version. Tim looked over his choices and hit the Confirm button. His character spun in a circle and disappeared from the screen. In its place was a bar that said Character Name:
Tim thought about it for a moment. Should he stick with something simple like his own name, or go with something more ostentatious like “Detective Waffle?”
The truth was probably somewhere in the middle. He didn’t want to be one of those guys who took a fantasy name and butchered it just so they could have it. He’d seen enough Letsgolas and XLegolasX names to last a lifetime.
But did he want to just be Tim?
This was a new beginning. In The Etheric Coast, he could be anyone he wanted to be. All he had to do was type the name, and that was it. He gazed at the screen and thought about it. Naming your character was always the hardest part.
With the seconds ticking away, Tim felt like he was missing out on time in-game. Just how adventurous was he feeling? His hands started to shake as he tapped the keys. From now on, he would simply be known as…
Zero.
He hit Enter, and red warnings flashed on the screen.
Name taken.
What the fuck? Whatever. Someone had done him a favor. Who wanted to be called Zero for the next twenty years?
The more he thought about it, the more keeping his name the same made sense. It was easy to join a party if you wanted to group up and easy enough to say that people shouldn’t fuck it up. Maybe later he’d get a title or the option to put in a last name, and he could add a little flair then.
He typed in his name and hit Enter. No red buzzers, no flashing lights. Maybe it had worked? In what world was the name Zero taken, and there wasn’t a single person wanting to be called Tim? Maybe he simply made it into character creation before other people?
Screw it; he could ponder the intricacy of gamer tags later. For now, he’d be entering the game as Tim, aspiring healer and blacksmith’s apprentice. The 3D rendering he’d created started to spin, and everything faded to black.
Chapter Nine
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
Tim whirled and jumped to the side as the man sprayed like a fountain.
The player fell to his knees, heaving. He looked up blearily, with vomit staining his lips.
A woman in a white gown rushed forward, placed a cloth around the man’s neck, and led him away from the others.
A human male with ebony skin climbed onto a barrel. “Only one popper, huh?” He held a finger in the air and then put it in his mouth. “An auspicious sign if there ever was one.”
He looked out over the sea of new arrivals and smiled. “Now, let’s hurry this the fuck up. I’ve got beer to drink.”
The name Jeremy was crudely scratched into the barrel he was standing on. His huge muttonchops made him look like a fierce warrior. The look was somewhat softened by his gigantic grin and even bigger afro. “Take a few moments to get accustomed to your new bodies. In a few minutes, we’ll form a line and outfit you with clothes.”
Clothes! Tim looked down, expecting to find himself completely naked. He was still wearing the loincloth his avatar’d had in place during character creation. At least he didn’t look like a wayward extra from Westworld.
Plus, this wasn’t just an avatar. For all intents and purposes, this was his flesh-and-bone body.
Relief swept over Tim as he flexed and moved his limbs. They sure didn’t skimp on the reality factor. He took a few steps to test his balance and started scanning the crowd for Sierra.
A female dwarf sashayed over to a group of her friends. Tim watched her for a moment, wondering what Sierra had decided to play as. What if she was a dwarf? Or a man?
Tim laughed as he scanned the players milling about. Sierra didn’t seem like the kind of girl who would consider a sex change, but gamers had a long history of playing the opposite sex in games. He decided to save the panic attack for if and when he had to cross that bridge.
People all around him were grinning like kids at Christmas as they pinched and prodded their new bodies. A few people pinched their friends as well.
Tim got it. It was a surreal feeling to be distinctly you inside someone else, but that wasn’t the right way to look at it. For the next twenty-one years, this was going to be him.
He fucking loved it.
Could you get fat in a digital world? Was the food even good enough to get fat on? There were so many questions he wanted answered, but first he had to find Sierra. She’d be around here somewhere.
Tim’s eyes settled on a pointy-eared beauty in the crowd. Her black hair and green eyes were a combination he hadn’t seen on another player.
“Those pointy ears are kind of hot,” Tim mumbled as he started walking in that direction. The first few steps he took felt slightly awkward, but by the time he’d reached the half-elven girl of his dreams, he’d gotten things under control.
The half-elf he hoped was Sierra turned toward him for the first time and smiled. It was hard not to stare at her. A band of white cloth covered her breasts, and she was wearing the same simple loincloth he had on. Tim’s feet stopped moving, regardless of how much closer he wanted to get to her. The half-elf goddess was easily the most stunning woman he had ever seen.
Sierra almost seemed to float as she skipped across the cobblestones toward Tim. He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she danced from one stone to the next. She stopped in front of him and twirled around. Her long black hair and the white wrapping that did just enough to cover her privates swirled around Sierra like she was in a tornado.
Giggling, Sierra came to a stop. “Isn’t this awesome?” She pulled Tim into a hug. “I fucking love this game.”
Tim grinned, having just thought the same thing a few moments ago. They were really inside The Etheric Coast. How cool was this? Not a car or factory in sight. The air here had to smell fantastic, right? Tim exhaled, then took a deep breath.
Did medieval cities really smell this bad?
Sierra brushed Tim’s arm with her fingers. “It’s so real. You feel real.”
A shiver went down Tim's spine. “You, too.”
Her skin felt exactly like he had imagined it would. He’d been worried the game wouldn’t be as real as NPC Corp promised. As far as he could tell, he might as well have been back in his room with a girl who appreciated kinky cosplay.
“The people who developed The Etheric Coast really deserve a raise.” Tim spun in a slow circle, taking in the few buildings he could see through the archway of the courtyard they were in. It felt like stepping back in time instead of into a game.
A centaur galloped through the square, Tim watched it until it was out of sight. Things were certainly different here, but this was going to be the adventure of a lifetime.
Was it wrong to want to ride a centaur? It was probably taboo to even ask. It’d be like walking up to a person at the supermarket and asking if they could give you a piggyback ride while you did your shopping.
Considering a regular job seemed to border on sacrilege now that he was here. The Etheric Coast was exactly where Tim belonged. He was sure of it.
Tim grabbed Sierra’s hand. “Let’s do this thang.”
“I thought you’d never ask.” She tugged him forward until they were in line with the other players.
Jeremy climbed off his barrel and was now sorting the players. “Fighters to the right, mages to the left.” His bushy muttonchops moved as he
spoke. “Don’t dawdle, there’s beer to drink and whores to fuck.”
Whores to fuck?
“Don’t even think about it.” Sierra gave Tim the look all women got when they thought their men’s eyes were lingering a moment too long.
Jeremy brushed between them on his way to the front of the line. “They have male whores too.” He winked. “Equal opportunity and all that.”
It was Tim’s turn to give her the eye. He wagged his finger back and forth. “No hanky, no panky.”
“Whatever, grandpa.” Sierra laughed as she danced out of his grasp. “Male whores change everything.”
“Aren’t all men whores, sister?” A surly female dwarf pushed past them to get to the front of the line.
Tim and Sierra looked at each other and broke out laughing. Some people were just too much. The only sex he wanted to have in this game was with the woman in front of him, although now might not be the best time for it. Both of them had to get settled in the game, and there was plenty of time to make that leap when they were both ready for it.
Sierra pulled Tim out of the line. “Let me figure out how to send you a friend request so we can hook up tonight after we get settled.”
She was clearly a fighter of some kind, so they’d be on completely different paths until group content was available. Maybe Tim should have taken that into consideration when creating his character. “Sounds good to me.”
Tim wondered how you even pulled up the player interface as he watched Sierra staring blankly into the distance.
A screen appeared in front of him. How cool was that? Just thinking about the interface made it work. He thought about adjusting his combat options and notifications from the default settings, but it didn’t make sense to fiddle with his setup before fighting anything.
Friend request from ShadowLily received.
Tim accepted the request, wondering if maybe he should have upped his character-naming game just a bit. Dismissing the user interface, Tim started to think about how long it would be before they got back together in person. At least they could always hook up for a quick beer at night, and maybe slaughter something together after work.
Determined not to let any of his time in The Etheric Coast go to waste, Tim placed his hands on Sierra’s hips and leaned in for a kiss. Her lips were soft and tasted sweet. They indulged in each other for a moment before breaking apart.
Tim stared into Sierra’s sparkling green eyes. “Never made out with an elf before.”
“You still haven’t.” Sierra flashed him a flirty smile before bounding away. “I’m a half-elf.”
Tim watched her go, wondering how he had gotten so lucky.
Chapter Ten
“One robe, one scepter, one book.” Jeremy bellowed.
Marching up to a man in line, Jeremy grabbed a scepter from the pile and shoved it into the player’s hands. “They’re all the same. Keep it moving.”
Tim reached the barrels of robes and glanced at the different heights listed on them. He quickly found one marked for humans and picked the first robe in the six-foot barrel, then the first scepter he saw. Casting a side-eyed glance at Jeremy to make sure he wasn’t getting the man’s ire up, he picked up a spellbook and moved to the side.
Tim pulled up his user interface while the rest of his group was moving through the gear line. This was the perfect time to figure out how his inventory worked. The last thing he wanted to do was find a great item and have no idea how to equip it or store it.
Tim focused on the opaque screen hovering above him and started flicking through the tabs to find the right one. “It can’t be too hard. It’s just using the inventory.”
The inventory screen was hovering in front of him, but how did he add items to it?
Tim put the scepter and the book inside his robe and tried to slide the items into one of the open squares in front of him. His bundled robe fell to the dirty cobbles.
“Motherfucker!”
There had to be a way to make this work. Maybe it was because he had tried to put three items into one inventory square? Tim picked up the spell book and tried to place it in the translucent square. The book landed on his robe again.
I’m starting to miss the days where I could just hit “I” on the keyboard and drag and drop stuff wherever I wanted.
Maybe he was making a mountain out of a molehill. Tim did that sometimes. It was easy to take the simplest of tasks and make it seem insurmountable. When he found himself making excuses not to get things done, it normally only took a moment of self-reflection to snap him out of it, or in this case, Jeremy chuckling behind his back.
I’m going to figure this shit out without any help from Chuckles.
Tim bent down to pick up his robe. He ran the thick, woven fabric through his hands. He could probably just put the robe on, but eventually, he would have more complicated gear. There was no way the game would require you to have a squire just to get dressed, so there had to be an easier way to do it.
Since he’d entered The Etheric Coast, everything had been pretty intuitive. Maybe all he had to do was think about where he wanted the item to go, and it would go there. What was the worst that could happen? His robe had already laid on the dirty cobbles. At least it wouldn’t look to everyone else like he was just repeatedly holding his items out at arm’s length and dropping them on the ground.
The robe disappeared.
Flicking his gaze to the right, Tim saw the item in his inventory. He quickly repeated the process with the spell book and scepter, then moved on to the next step. If all he had to do was think about an item he was touching to put it in his inventory, maybe it worked the same way to equip it?
Tim looked at the robe’s inventory slot and thought.
Equip robe.
Nothing happened. Maybe now that it was in his inventory, he could use the item in a more traditional way.
Tim wondered if he looked like an idiot to everyone else as he reached out into thin air, but he didn’t really care. When he touched the square containing the robe, a list of item stats appeared to the right of it.
Simple Brown Robe: This item is good for keeping the sun off your back and the guards from arresting you for being naked.
Armor +1, Durability 5/5
To the left of the item was a small box hovering in the air.
Equip item
Tim tapped the Yes button with his left hand and the robe appeared on his body.
“Eat it, bitches.” Tim pumped his fist.
A system prompt filled his vision.
Tutorial Schmutorial: You don’t need any help when it comes to figuring things out, even though using the game’s inventory tutorial would have saved you a fair amount of time. Luck +1
Shouldn’t the bonus be to intelligence? Or was the game insinuating he wasn’t smart enough to figure the system out and he’d just gotten lucky?
Tim grinned as he dismissed the pop-up. It kind of felt like his best friend Xander was here, trying to make sure his ego remained as small as possible. Before moving to the next item in his inventory, Tim took a minute to make sure his pop-ups were disabled during combat and minimized until selected at all other times.
He didn’t need the scepter right away, but he was interested in the spellbook. Hovering his hand over the item brought up information on the right-hand side of his HUD.
Novice Spells Volume 1: This book contains the spells flame burst, healing orb, and snare.
On the left-hand side of the screen was a familiar box.
Would you like to learn these spells now?
He was going to learn real fucking magic! Of course, he wanted to learn the spells right now.
Tim slammed his hand emphatically on the Yes button. Searing pain tore through his head, and he fell to his knees, gasping for air. Just as quickly as the sensation burned through his mind, it was over.
Learning new spells was going to suck donkey balls.
Surprisingly, when he stood back up, he felt perfec
tly fine, so learning new spells wouldn’t be so bad. He just couldn’t do it during combat unless he wanted to die. He also wasn’t exactly sure how to use his new skills. Did he have to equip them, or did he just have to try to use them?
Tim looked over the crowd until his eyes rested on the player who had thrown up on entering the game. Focusing on the man, he thought about casting healing orb.
Nothing happened.
Tim slapped his forehead. Of course, nothing happened! I don’t have my scepter equipped.
Tim equipped his scepter and tried again. This time he clutched the scepter in his left hand and held his right hand out in front of himself, palm open. The words of the spell rattled through his lips, and he felt the scepter acting as a focus for his power. A small orb of liquid formed hovering an inch above his extended palm.
He thought of his target, and the ball flew across the space and hit the man in the face.
The man fell on his ass, spluttering curses. One of his friends helped him to his feet, and the two of them started looking around for whoever had thrown the water.
“My bad,” Tim called as he waved. He put on his best apologetic smile. “Can you tell me if you feel any better?”
The man he’d healed shrugged off his friend’s helping hand and stormed over to Tim. “What do you mean?” he roared. “Of course, I don’t feel any better! You just threw fucking water in my face.”
Oh, shit, not again.
Tim felt his smile falter in the face of the man’s anger. “I can see how you might think that, but I assure you it was a healing spell.” He tried his most disarming smile to see if it would help. “So, do you feel any better?”
The man took a step back, rubbed his wet face, and started grinning. “I do feel better.” He patted Tim on the shoulder. “Little warning next time, yeah?”
Rise of the Grandmaster Page 8