by Max Jager
"I can come with you to set up a peace treaty, although we do not have a leader." Mendelen answered.
"And I do not mind meeting the scientist." Zanath offered. "I am, no offense guys, probably much more knowledgeable in human technology than any of them combined."
"No offense taken" Mendelen laughed. "You are as close to a scientist as we have right now"
"Good." Alicia replied. "After the peace treaty, I will return your belongings to you and direct you to the inn. I will arrange for them to give you a room for four days, but if you plan to stay any longer then that you will have to pay for the rooms yourselves. The other two can do whatever you want. I presume, since you come from civilization, that you understand basic laws of civilization correct?" She asked.
"No stealing, no hurting or killing people, be respectful to others in general. Those laws?" Mendelen asked.
"Yeah pretty much." Alicia answered. "Just be civilized, I do not want to have to kick you out so soon. The two who are assisting me, come." She then turned and left the building, with Mendelen and Zanath following along behind her.
Cora turned to Kaden and Estellese, "So what will you two be doing?"
"I would like to know about magic." Estellese asked. "How does it work? How do you use it? I had a fireball spell book I had been reading, but I could not quite get it to work."
Cora smiled a little. "It is simple, magic is all about energy. You have energy inside of your body, in order to use magic you take that energy out of your body, convert it into a magical element, and then make the element do what you want. This, of course, uses up your body's energy. Using powerful spells or many spells is exhausting. It's worse if you use magic in combat, because you are also running, dodging, hitting things and all that, those things all use up your energy too, add magic into the mix and you can run out of energy fast if you're not careful."
Estellese nodded a little. "There is no mana, or special energy used for magic?"
"No there is not, it uses your body's natural energy, same energy your body uses to make itself function and do things. Anyone can use magic. However, if you can not read learning it will be nearly impossible. You can learn magic through pure trial and error, but it is so difficult almost nobody can, excluding the fairies who invented magic but it is hard even for them. The normal way to learn is from a book, which are written by the fairies, that or from a teacher. Beyond that, there is two ways to learn magic. Spells and elemental control. Your fireball book is an example of a spell, if you learn that you will be able to throw fireballs. That is it. With full elemental control over fire, you could throw a fireball, you could control it making it chase your target down, you could make it explode, you could make it turn into a little fire man and have it dance around the battlefield." She explained
"Why would you want a spell if full control can do all that?" Estellese asked
"Spells take less energy to use, are easier and quicker to learn, and you can learn multiple element spells. Mastering a full element takes a very long time, while mastering a spell could take just a couple days. Also when you master an element, it makes learning other elements harder, because the ways the elements work all conflict with each other. It is like learning to write right handed, then trying to do it left handed. Then trying to do it with your foot. It is not impossible, but each element gets drastically harder to learn and takes longer and longer. Where as spells, they do not conflict, you can learn spells of many elements and be fine. Spells tend to be more useful for those who are not only mages, people who mix magic and melee or range. Whereas elemental control tends to be better for people who use only magic. But, that is just a preference." She said.
"Now there is 13 known elements of magic, 17 if you include sub-elements since some elements like Aether or Mental are so big they are divided into sub-elements. These elements cover everything from fire and water, to ice and metal, to empathy and psychic which are two of the three mental sub-elements. These elements also all have 3 categories. Normal magic which encompasses about 95% of all spells, it is the magic I explained to you before, it uses your energy. Then there is will magic, spells that are so small and simple that they don't really require any energy to use. Like making a tiny spark of flames. It is useful for things like starting a campfire and stuff. Then there is blood magic, blood magic spells are the strongest spells possible but the use of blood magic is taboo and is frowned upon."
"Why is that?" Kaden asked.
"Every spell you cast needs energy. Blood magic can be any element, but the spells are so incredibly powerful that they require more than just energy. It requires your blood. Every single time you use a blood magic spell it will wound you, the wound will be equivalent to the spell's power. But these are not normal wounds, no amount of potions or healing spells can ever heal a wound caused by blood magic. These wounds will, eventually, heal on their own but if you use blood magic more than like, one spell every few months, you are basically causing yourself a slow and painful death. Blood magic wounds can range from stab wounds similar to being stabbed with a small knife, to loss of limbs, to instant death."
"Why would anyone want to use blood magic if it injured themselves this badly?" Estellese asked
"Because blood magic is so powerful it can't even compare to normal magic. With normal fire magic a master of the element could make an explosion big enough to level a house. It would probably knock them out from the massive amount of energy it would take, but normal magic can do that. Now imagine how powerful a spell would need to be to use up so much energy it disintegrated the arm you casted it with. Or not just an arm but your entire body. These spells are beyond powerful, but the cost for using them is steep. Blood magic is not unheard of, it is just rare. I personally have one blood magic spell I save for an emergency. Not a high tier one, but even the lowest tier blood magic spells are dangerously powerful."
"Where can I learn magic?" Estellese asked.
"We sell magic books in the store. However you can also find entry level spell books in the library for free. Just don't expect to find anything too special in the library, anything beyond simple fireballs and such would be sold in stores." Cora replied. "I can show you the library and the store. However I suspect you will have no money until you get your things back."
"That would be very much appreciated." Estellese replied.
"Alright then! Follow me." Cora chirped before leading the way out into the village. As they followed Cora out into the village Kaden lagged behind a little and looked around at the people living there. He observed them, while Estellese remained close to Cora and just followed. It looked like any other small crowded city in the real world, just with different buildings and clothing on the people in it. Elves rushed off to their jobs, children ran around playing games, some children got yelled at for not being in school, neighbors and friends were chatting in the yards and Kaden caught snippets of the conversations. They were real conversations. After a little Kaden tugged on Estellese's arm and pulled her back a little so she also lagged behind with him.
"What is it?" Estellese quietly asked.
"These elves." Kaden whispered. "This is just a game right? They are all AI aren't they? Why do they all seem so… Alive. So self-aware. I do not understand, making an AI or an NPC… interactive… It shouldn't be possible. They seem just as self-aware and alive as you and I, it is impossible for an artificial intelligence to be THAT realistic. Sure, the game technology is beyond anything we knew of in our world, but it is not that far fetched the current technology comes close so it is reasonably possible to make a virtual reality game. But making AI that are equally as alive and self aware as we are? That is pure sci-fi and impossible."
"What are you trying to say Kaden?" Estellese questioned unsurely.
"Is this really a game?" Kaden asked. "The same question we had from the start."
"Of course it is, we entered game pods to get here. It has to be." Estellese answered.
"No. We didn't." Kaden stated.
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nbsp; "What the hell? Of course we did." Estellese replied a little louder, but still at a whisper.
"The elf lady said your hair was dyed Estellese. Don't you understand what that means?" Kaden asked.
"No." Estellese replied, expecting him to explain it.
"That means, when we entered those pods and we felt ourselves passing out. I assume you all felt the same thing I did at least." Kaden started and Estellese nodded to agree with him before he continued. "When the pods made us pass out, it did not send us into the game. Your hair got dyed after you entered the pod, otherwise you would have already known it was dyed. Which means, after we passed out in the pods, someone must have taken us out. Which is when you and Zanath had your hair dyed by whoever did this, THEN we got sent into this world. The pods didn't do it."
Estellese looked shocked, her eyes widened for a moment and she looked around, then turned back to Kaden. "Alright, who are you and what did you do with Kaden. You're actually making sense for once. Well, that or I'm going insane."
"This is too serious of a matter for me to screw around." Kaden stated.
"Hey wait." Estellese interrupted. "The interface. When we first logged in we got the game manual, and it told us how to open the interface. We never really used it since we didn't have a need to send each other messages when we were all always together, but it did work! We can open it. Plus we can use magic, and there is monsters here. These things can't be real."
"If we were sent to another world, or another dimension, monsters and magic could very well be real. The interface, I will admit, is not possible for that to exist if the world is real. But at the same time, it would not be possible for the elves to be this alive and self aware if the world was fake." Kaden stated. "Since we got here, we have been trying to find a way out of this game, and we've been constantly asking ourselves how this could possibly be a game when we feel pain, when it is so unfair, when it isn't game-like at all. I think we need to stop." He said.
"What do you mean?" Estellese questioned.
"Stop thinking of this world as a game. I can't tell if this world is real or not. If I am going to be wrong I would rather believe this world is real and be proven wrong, then believe it is fake and be proven wrong. If it is real, we could actually be killing real people, or, rather, creatures that resemble people. But still they seem self-aware enough to be considered people. This village seems safe, I think we should stay here and figure out where we really are. Take some time to adjust to the world, get our feet more firmly on the ground. Gear up, learn about the world, and if we choose to venture out again do it when we are prepared and ready for what is out there." Kaden whispered.
"For once, I agree with you. I must be insane. However, we shouldn't decide this without the group. Let's wait until we are all together. For the time being, we need to treat them like real people and not AI. I've already been doing that, but we seriously need to drop that viewpoint we had before." Estellese replied.
"Agreed" Kaden said.
After dropping Zanath off with the scientists and Lillith, Alicia lead Mendelen to the biggest house in the village. Her own home, where the royalty lived. There were two bodyguards waiting outside of the building, protecting it from intruders. As Alicia passed them she stopped "You two, please come with me. I will be arranging peace negotiations with the human and need you two to keep the peace should things go bad."
The guards nodded and followed Alicia and Mendelen into the house. The four of them walked through a few long and elegant halls and ended up in a room that looked a lot like a boss's office in a workplace. Two chairs and a long table between them. Alicia sat on the far side of the room and Mendelen sat in the first chair, while the armored guards stood at either end of the table with their hands resting on their swords.
Mendelen looked around and noticed that the bags he and his friends originally had were on a shelf behind Alicia. She did say she was going to return their belongings after so he didn't think too much about it.
"So. You want peace with the elves, correct?" Alicia questioned.
She was quite good at making things feel extremely pressured Mendelen thought to himself, before nodding "Yes. We would like an alliance."
"No. Peace is given, an alliance is earned. If humans wish to join the alliance between the elves, fairies, and dwarves you must earn your place. It is not given for free. But we will offer peace, and a promise that if you some day earn it you will be welcome to join." Alicia stated.
"Understood. We would like peace then, and will someday earn the rights to join the alliance." Mendelen answered.
Alicia nodded. "Peace with the elves will not guarantee peace with our allies. You must take that up with them. We also reserve the right to revoke this peace treaty if you are deemed a threat to our society. Or our allies."
Mendelen was beginning to wonder if they had law school in this world, because she seemed like she had been to it. "Understood." He answered.
Alicia stood up and picked up a paper from the shelf, then slid it across the table to Mendelen. She did not sit down yet though. Mendelen took the paper and looked it over, it was a written declaration of peace between humans and elves, stating clearly that attacks on the elves or their allies will result in the treaty being revoked. It was short, plain, and simple. Neither side needed to agree to anything other than being friendly to each other and not killing each other. Mendelen signed the paper and passed it back to Alicia, who did not sit down to sign it.
"Good, all it needs is my signature to be finalized then. However, before I sign it I have my own questions to ask. I need to know if you really are good people." Alicia stated and gave him a stern look.
"I will answer any questions you need as best as I can. But I assure you we are good people." Mendelen answered.
"The religion of the elves is one of pacifism. You do not kill or even fight unless there is no other choice. While, our allies do not share this religious outlook and do kill, we accept this because at the very least they only kill in self-defense, or they kill creatures who are a true danger to the world. Such as demons, undead, and were-creatures. You killing the goblins could be seen as self defense. But what excuse do you have for the goblins that were not trying to hurt you? Or what about the other creatures?"
Mendelen took a deep breath. He knew he could not tell her this was a game and that it is normal to do that in games. "Survival." He answered. "We were thrust into this world with nothing. We had no choice but to struggle, fight, and do anything we could to get what we needed to survive long enough to figure out how to return to our own world. We came here on accident. It does not excuse our behavior, but we were scared and we didn't think. We know better now." It was not a lie, it was the truth. He just left out the game part.
Alicia nodded "Understandable, and a reasonable answer. I'll accept that." She said, then she walked back over to the shelf and reached into the bag that used to belong to Zanath. She pulled out a small book. "Last question." She said, before dropping the book on the table in front of Mendelen. "Explain this." She stated in a sharp, almost angry tone.
Mendelen was unsure of why she seemed so sharp and angry all of a sudden. He looked down at the book to see what it was. 'Well… Crap.' he thought. The book on the table in front of him was the game manual Zanath had taken.
"Lillith's report stated that you humans thought this world was fake, a game of some sort. This manual confirms that." Alicia stated sharply. Her tone was like an icy dagger, angry, sharp, cold, straight to the point. "We are not stupid human. Who do you think we are? Or rather, what do you think we are? This is not some game, it is not some fantasy made up world. You killed real living creatures out there. We are real, living creatures. If you can't see that, if you don't believe that, how can we trust you to not kill us later just because we are 'not real' in your eyes?"
- Next Chapter: The World of Immersion -
Chapter 13: The World of Immersion
~~ Chapter 13: The World of Immersion ~~
&n
bsp; "We are not stupid human. Who do you think we are? Or rather, what do you think we are? This is not some game, it is not some fantasy made up world. You killed real living creatures out there. We ARE real living creatures. If you can't see that, if you don't believe that, how can we trust you to not kill us later just because we are 'not real' in your eyes?" Alicia stared him straight in the eyes, her stare was sharp and icy, demanding an answer.
Mendelen paused for a moment to think, feeling her glare growing colder by the second. "Humans have these games in their own world. It is like a story book, only you control the main character yourself so it makes you feel like you are a part of the story. This new game came out, it said it would make it look like we really were in the game instead of just controlling a character through the pressing of a few buttons. Me and my friends entered this game, and that is where we found these manuals. In this world." He said cautiously. He reached out and held his hand palm down, then swiped it across the air imagining a keyboard under his hand. And just like the manual said a holographic keyboard and screen appeared in front of him.