The Copper Rose

by David Lingard

  I willed the message away after I’d finished reading it. I didn’t bother reading through the additional agreement as no matter what it said I would have agreed to it anyway, it was just kind of amazing to be able to ‘click here’ with my mind.

  The notification window faded away and I was greeted with darkness all around me for the second time. A new window faded into my field of vision.

  Character Selection

  In the world of Freedom Online, you play as a character of one of the following available races. This choice is not repeatable, and every time you log out of then into Freedom Online, your character will automatically be reloaded for you. There are NO options to change your character or race at any time.

  Human

  Humans are an industrious people who have the ability to both care for and destroy all-natural things. They are intelligent, dextrous and conscientious – however lack some of the natural affinities that other races may not. For example, humans are unable to withstand extreme heat or cold without protective clothing. They have no innate connection to nature or other races or creatures. They do however possess the ability to build wonderous buildings, monuments and civilizations. Humans are able to wield almost any weapon or tool, but seldom gain mastery in many.

  Elf

  The Elves are not unlike humans. They are creatures born in tune with all things natural and use that affinity to either fiercely protect the world around them or to wield as a weapon. There are many sub-classes of Elves, from those that live in the forest in seclusion and mystery to those that choose to reside alongside other races in the citadel. Elves are naturally adept archers and closely guard the secrets that they have learned with the bow.

  Gnome

  The Gnomes are seldom seen away from their homes in the hillsides and woodland clearings. They are unmatched in creating potions and use their racial knowledge of the sciences to overcome any obstacle that presents itself to them. They are not big or strong but their ability to manipulate their world through science can make them a powerful ally, or a terrifying foe.

  Dwarf

  The Dwarves have never been matched in their affinity for the earth. They mine and covet precious metals from the ground and typically live within their own mines. Physically strong and hardy, their smaller bodies can withstand harsh conditions and last for many days without food or water. Their ability to craft tools, weapons and solid stone structures cannot be paralleled in all of creation.

  Goblin

  The Goblins are small and quick but not the most physical of beings. What they lack in size and strength, they make up for in their resourcefulness, number and stupidity. They breed quickly and gather in blood-clans that can become powerful if left alone to grow and unchecked.

  Orc

  Orcs are much like the goblin’s larger brother. Bigger, smarter and stronger although they lack the speed that the little goblins possess. Orcs are much slower breeders, and therefore their clans are typically small. Orcs require a leader as they are unable to direct themselves in any meaningful way.

  Hobgoblin

  Hobgoblins are slightly bigger than their almost namesake – the goblins. They are more inclined to use their increased strength to use larger melee weapons. The hobgoblins and the goblins despise each other and will often wage full wars that result in many casualties on both sides.

  Fairy

  The fairies of Freedom Online are few and far between. Descended from a master race that has dwindled away over the years. They are small and command almost no physical presence. They make their homes in the trees and concentrate primarily on healing and life magic.

  Ogre

  Ogres are hulking beasts that raid in packs. They rarely make camps of their own but sometimes settle within the ruins of their fallen enemies’ camps or nearby an ally that they have sworn allegiance to.

  Salamander

  The salamander is a man-sized reptilian elemental that usually specialises in fire magic and stealth. Lonely beings, the salamanders are rarely seen in anything other than single units. As reptiles, salamanders can usually be found near large bodies of water.

  Siren

  Sirens are beautiful humanoid women that specialise in deception, stealth and trickery. When they weave their enticing magic, members of the opposite sex find it so difficult to resist that they can even be persuaded to take their own lives in the name of love.

  More…

  I briefly checked the ‘more’ section where there were at least twenty more races, each described in a similar level of detail. The system had collapsed them as they were evidently the lesser played races, like imps or mimmicks. No-one really ever played those races in the games I’d played before.

  It took me a minute to decide on a race to play. I knew it was a big decision, but it wasn’t something I hadn’t been expecting. I made the decision a long time ago that if human was a playable race – as it most likely would have been – I would pick that, as I was one - so probably had some insights into the role. I was shocked at the level of detail that presented itself as a subcategory of ‘human. There were all kinds of half-races that presented both positives and negatives to their mixtures. I thought back to everything I had ever read or heard about half breeds and decided to play it safe. Pure bred, one hundred percent human meat. That’s what I wanted. I selected the race and clicked the accept button to confirm my choice when presented with a confirmation challenge.

  I was ready to play.

  Chapter Two, Hatred

  H

  uman, male. That’s what I chose, and that would be that for the foreseeable future. An easy race, seeing as that’s what I was already I probably knew most of what could be expected of me already – it was like having a head start, no surprises and nothing new to learn – well that was my thought process anyway.

  I opened my new eyes – my physical eyes this time rather than the mental vision portion of the character select screens and was instantly awestruck with my surroundings. As my mind took stock of my new reality, my senses awoke with the sounds, sights and smells of nature. I was sat in a small clearing in a sort of woods. Trees towered above me in all directions, not so dense as to blot out the bright sunlight but enough to restrict my line of sight to just a few hundred yards.

  ‘Huh, so no character edits then?’ I thought to myself as my virtual reality became my actual reality.

  I looked at my legs outstretched before me, my feet were wrapped in tan cloth and the same light fabric was also draped around my embarrassing parts, which instinctively I knew were all present and accounted for. As a guy you get to know these things. Regardless of my awareness though, I couldn’t help sneak a peek down there to affirm my suspicions. I’d been right of course.

  Standing up carefully, I completely absorbed all of my surroundings – it was truly a wonder that this was a virtual world when I could have absolutely sworn that the grass beneath my feet had grown warm from my prolonged contact.

  There was nothing of particular note in my immediate vicinity, so I took the opportunity to start exploring this new reality and a few minutes of walking in a straight line led me out of the light woods and onto a wide open grass field of lush green. On the far side of the field was a large city surrounded by a high stone wall. I could already hear the sounds of battle from my clearing. Steel upon steel and stone, the shouts and screams of men and women alike in the throws of combat echoed across the open field. If I squinted I could see movement just outside the stone walls – someone was sieging the city.

  Without hesitation, I started to walk, jog and then run towards the battle. Running towards danger wasn’t something I’d really made a habit of in the past, quite the opposite in fact but I was acutely aware that I was in a virtual world and really, nothing could hurt me. Besides this was a game, if I wanted to sit watching tv in safety I could’ve stayed at home. It took me a good five minutes to cross the distance that had been deceptively shorter than it turned out to be, but to my placation, on route I realise
d that I could make out some of the forms that were engaged in the battle before the city.

  The people besieging the city walls were all humans. Both men and women of varying sizes and dress they swung their swords, shields, axes and clubs wildly in their attempts to press the enemy back and gain access to the city. I could see their enemy too. Most of them were smaller and green, I identified them as goblins right away – it wasn’t really that hard. It looked like most of those carried short knives and as I watched, they bounced around much faster than the human attackers were. In fact, there were very few occasions when a human weapon struck a little goblin as it made itself difficult to hit. On the rare occasion that contact was made, the goblin who bore the strike would fly through the air and fall to the ground in an unmoving heap. Clearly the little green creatures were no match for the larger humans’ physical prowess.

  I could see some ogres too. They had a kind of greyish skin and a lumbering stance. They carried huge, heavy weapons and were much slower than both the humans and the goblins who were participating in the battle.

  As I watched, blue sparks shot from a female nearer the back of the fighting and struck one of the ogres square in the chest. It stumbled for a moment before shaking its head in order to clear it. Once it had shaken off the attack, it locked its eyes on the woman and charged directly for her with little thought for man and beast in its line of charge.

  There was no way I could intervene, no matter how much I would have liked to. I hadn’t quite reached the rear ranks of men yet and besides, I had no weapons or armour anyway. As I watched in fear for her life, the woman raised her hands high above her head and a dark cloud formed all around the ogre’s upper body. It stopped, obviously unable to see where it was going and the woman ran from her previous location and joined another small group of fighting, leaving three warriors to deal with the flapping ogre, which promptly smashed two of the warriors and three nearby goblins.

  ‘Holy shit’ I thought to myself. ‘She was doing magic. Real magic!’

  As I approached the fighting, a man in full leather armour locked eyes with me and a smirk drew across his face. He took a few steps towards me before throwing me his long, shining sword and shouted “You’re a new one, eh?”

  I caught the sword by the hilt and was surprised at just how heavy it was. It was an effort to keep my arm from falling to the side, but I got used to it as I slid my hand up the hilt and enrolled my left hand for moral support. How had he managed to throw it with such ease anyway?

  “Thanks” I replied to the man “What are we doing?” I asked.

  “Why, fighting bad guys of course!” The man replied to my question with a huge grin and a quick raise of both of his eyebrows. “How long have you been here?” he added thoughtfully.

  “About five minutes,” I said, “So I might not be much use.” I knew what a noob was and I knew that I definitely was one of them.

  His smile seemed to broaden at that.

  “Nonsense! Get yourself right to the front and you’ll soon pick it all up.”

  I thought about his words and started to move with a little caution. As I edged forward through the battle I could tell that the concentration of forces was swaying from human to monster, and when I felt I was sufficiently deep within the fray, I decided to try my luck in a little combat.

  I peered at the allies and enemy alike all around me before picking my target. A tiny goblin holding two short knives was fighting a man with a single hand axe just to my right. It had its back to me so I thought it would be an easy target as the duelling pair seemed to be in some kind of stalemate – the goblin too fast for the single man and the man too strong for the goblin to effectively damage. I took a step forward and thrust my sword straight through the goblin’s back until I felt the resistance subside and it had penetrated all the way through to the hilt.

  The goblin slid off my blade and fell to the ground in a puddle of black blood. I’d done it, I’d killed it.

  A translucent notification faded into the top of my field of view.

  You hit a small goblin for 3 damage

  You have killed a small goblin

  You have gained 5xp

  “Awesome. I mean really fucking good.”

  The man who had been previously locked in combat met my gaze as I looked from the goblin towards him. I’d kind of expected him to call out some words of thanks, but he simply scowled at me, turned and engaged another goblin.

  ‘Well fuck you very much too’, I thought sarcastically.

  The next battle wasn’t going to be so easy as when the goblin fell to the ground, three others turned to face me. It seemed I’d unwittingly pulled their aggro to myself. I planted my back foot on the ground to steady myself and raised my sword with both hands to brace for their attack. It was very strange, although they could’ve easily overpowered me as a group, all three of them darted and zig-zagged before me, not wanting to come too close without an assurance of an unanswered hit. In an internal experiment, I took a step forward and watched as they all bounded backwards to keep their distance.

  ‘Hmm…I wonder…’ I suddenly leapt forward and two of the goblins successfully mimicked my movement. The third tripped over himself and fell to the ground with a squeal. It was all too obvious that these weren’t warriors, they were simply little goblins that had been coerced into the fighting. This was going to be easier than I’d imagined.

  I turned away from them to find a more apt opponent, not wanting to be the guy that killed helpless little goblins, but that turned out to be a mistake. One of the little bastards stuck me from behind with his knife. It penetrated the back of my shoulder, sending a burning sensation right into my neck.

  A small goblin hits you for 8 damage (Critical) (Stealth)

  “Argh! You little shit!” I exclaimed loudly as I reached for the knife, still embedded in my back. Anger awash on my face I stared at the goblin who looked up at me with utter fear in his wide black eyes. He still held one knife but his other hand was empty and spattered with red blood. My red blood.

  I raised my sword above my head with both hands ready to strike, but as I made my movements I couldn’t help but watch him shrink into himself in a cower. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have it in me.

  “Run,” I commanded in the most serious voice I could muster. “And don’t come back.”

  The little goblin didn’t need to be told twice. He didn’t even hesitate as he turned and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, dropping his knife and gathering up his two friends as he went.

  The scowling man had watched all of the scenes that’d preceded and meeting my gaze, he shook his head slowly in disapproval. I shrugged my shoulders in response and raised a flat hand parallel to the ground at my waist as if to say, ‘did you see how small he was?’

  I chose to ignore scowler and his disapproval as there were far more important things to worry about right now. I engaged in another back and forth with a slightly bigger goblin this time, I felt as though it’d probably be wrong to simply kill the little ones who were obviously unable to defend themselves properly. With that in mind, I found the closest goblin that was carrying a spear and looked decidedly more assured of himself than the others had been.

  This goblin was about four feet tall and had a menacing look in his eye as he took control of the distance between us. It was now my turn to step out of range as he advanced towards me, my own movements unable to persuade him to back away.

  ‘Well, you aren’t going to be as lucky as your little friends’, I thought as I parried his spear thrusts with ease. Although he had a spear which was definitely an upgrade in both reach and damage to the knives, as spears went it was pretty short. In fact, it was about the same length as my sword which gave me my distinct advantage back – where his weapon was only pointed at the end, mine was sharp all the way along.

  I waited until he overplayed his hand somewhat and lunged toward me before I hit his spear as hard as I could with my sword. I’d wanted to bre
ak it but to my amazement, it remained intact although damaged. The force of my blow, however, caused the surprised creature to spin on the spot, completing a full three-sixty just in time to watch as my backhand sweep cut his head clean away from his body.

  You hit a small goblin for 5 damage (Critical)

  You have killed a small goblin

  You have gained 5xp

  ‘Hmm…’ It looked as though my attack had caused a similar amount of damage as the last time with a slight addition for what must have been the ‘critical’ modifier. The goblin I’d felled had once again shown up as ‘a small goblin’, but I didn’t really know what to expect on that front. ‘Perhaps, a slightly bigger goblin with a spear?’ My inner sarcastic suggested, but I dismissed it with a smile.

  Although my presence didn’t seem to be adding too much to the battle, it seemed as though in general it was going quite well, goblin bodies littered the battlefield but only a few of the men had fallen. I could also see a few ogre bodies lying motionless on the ground with either horrific wounds or complete body parts missing.

  I was snapped back to reality by a roar that erupted before me and the emergence of a huge, black ogre at least a head taller than anything else in the battle. It’s bottom teeth curled into sharp points above its top lip like a boar, and once its vision landed upon me it lowered its head and charged.

  I barely had any time to make my move, but as it had taken the time to announce its presence I’d been given an extra second or so to gather myself. I dived as hard as I could to my right, dropping my sword in the motion and landed flat on my face. I didn’t care, when I looked back I saw that my dodge had been successful and the ogre was looking about itself animatedly, not able to figure out where I’d disappeared to.