Occultist

by Oliver Mayes

  What was more, he needed the human bonus trait, Adaptable, for the 15% increased experience gain. The other three races would be great for making a character shine at higher levels, but Damien needed to develop a character quickly above all else. ‘Adaptable’ was a better choice for the problem at hand. Reluctantly, he thumbed toward the human silhouette and then nodded to confirm his decision. His excitement was getting the better of him: he’d almost lost himself in the game before it had even started, but at least he’d made the right choice.

  ‘Please select your starting zone.’

  A map of Arcadia appeared on the floor underneath his feet. All around it spanned hundreds of miles of varied terrain, from dense vibrant forests to lifeless volcanic wastelands. The capital cities of the playable races were each placed on the corners of the map, far away from each other. Damien immediately walked toward the starting area he’d previously played while on the private test server, directly outside the human capital city: Camelot. He knew the area well, and he’d also be able to join his old faction; The Empire.

  The Empire was the vanilla faction for Camelot. You could sign up with them almost immediately after logging in. They provided basic training to get the first couple of levels under your belt, a full set of novice gear to match your chosen class and an endless, steady stream of quests. Almost everyone signed up with them for the early perks, even if they planned on joining a different faction later on. It would be much less troublesome than choosing a different starting zone and trying to deal with NPC’s – Non-Player Characters – who looked down on humans. It was an easy choice.

  As Damien stopped over Camelot on the map, a blue circle expanded under his feet until it was large enough to encompass him completely.

  ‘Starting area selected: Camelot. Are you ready to enter the game?’

  Damien folded his arms and set his feet a little further apart, bracing himself for what came next. He nodded. The walls of the white room suddenly expanded away into the distance at incredible speed. The map under his feet stretched to become life-size as the modest white room warped by degrees into the world he would be playing in.

  The cities and environs furthest away from Camelot were the first to leave his range of vision, both traveling and expanding at an even rate. Then they dipped over the horizon that formed as the map started to curve.

  The only thing that remained static relative to Damien was the blue circle he stood in. He was fairly sure he wouldn’t come to harm by stepping outside it, but he hadn’t felt like trying it the first time he played and he certainly didn’t feel like trying it now.

  Even Camelot itself was moving away, albeit more slowly than everything else. The starting zone was about a kilometer outside of the city limits, which meant its doppelgänger depicted on the map had a kilometer to go before the loading sequence was complete.

  ‘Further settings are available by saying ‘Menu’. It is highly recommended you review your settings, read the in-game manual and familiarize yourself with the game before leaving the safe zone. Once again, welcome to Saga Online.’

  The map finally stopped expanding. Damien found himself standing on a 1:1 ratio representation of Arcadia, in the middle of a military encampment consisting of a top-down view of tents and training pits. The loading animation was almost complete. There was only one way the map could become more accurate now.

  Arcadia rose out of the floor. The first features to appear were mountain peaks in the distance. They were soon joined by the tallest spires of Camelot’s castle. The rest of the world followed not far behind. Tiny shrubs became towering trees, puddles plummeted to unfathomable depths and entire cities were born out of the dirt. Well, at least that’s how it was supposed to look. Damien knew he was just being inserted into the game world, that this was simply a demonstration of what Saga Online was capable of.

  His surroundings were some of the last features to be filled in. As it came to an end, Damien was enveloped by a tent that rose directly out of the blue circle and penned him in, folding itself closed above him and concealing the world that had only just taken form. He felt fur under his feet and looked down before sighing. The tracksuit had been replaced while he was distracted by the loading animation. Again. Damien had thought he’d catch it the second time round, but the switch was too subtle and the distraction too effective. In any case, he was now the proud owner of a set of soiled rags, less comfortable but more in keeping with his new environment.

  A moment later, Damien could hear voices and footsteps. He blinked against the light as he stepped outside, his bare feet tickled by the blades of grass that poked in between his toes. A gust of wind brushed his cheek and rustled the branches of a nearby tree, signaling that the physics engine was running smoothly.

  The encampment had become populated with knights, rangers, priests and all manner of classes. Another player stepped out of a tent alongside his own, his jaw ever so slightly agape as he took in his surroundings.

  Damien smiled. He was back.

  4

  All In

  “Menu.”

  The world took on a blue haze as the in-game menu hovered before Damien, a series of rectangular boxes stacked on top of each other. Pausing the game simply wasn’t possible with other players occupying the same virtual space, so the various characters in the encampment were still moving around in the background. A pair of rangers having a heated debate walked straight into his line of sight before harmlessly passing through the menu.

  Despite the loading screen’s suggestion, Damien wasn’t too interested in re-reading the in-game manual. It was designed for people who had never played any role-playing games before and gave instructions about such things as how to gain experience and level up.

  Right at the top of the menu, highlighted in shining silver, was the ‘Stats’ bar. He focused on it and nodded.

  Account Name: Damien Arkwright

  Character: ????

  Level: 1

  Health: 100/100

  Stamina: 100/100

  Mana: 100/100

  Stats:

  Strength 10 - Agility 10 - Intelligence 10

  Constitution 10 - Endurance 10 - Wisdom 10

  Experience: 0/500

  Ouch. That was hard to look at. He knew the numbers would all be back to base level, but there was a final insult he hadn’t seen coming: his character wasn’t even named yet. At least that was something he could fix. Damien dismissed the menu and headed for the conscription stand. It wasn’t far.

  At the end of the row of tents he came out in front of a jousting arena flanked by a long line of tables, each with a non-player character representative. They were all arguing about which class was best, each of them adamant that their own class was the pinnacle of achievement.

  “There’s no question, mages are by far the most powerful of all our forces. Without us, you’d all be left stumbling around in the dark.”

  “Stumbling around in the dark, you say? Gee, that’s funny, I thought it was us rangers who scouted out unknown terrain! That way, you wizened old geezers don’t have to get your manicured hands dirty!”

  “You think you know anything about getting your hands dirty? You’re just half-baked assassins. If you weren’t such cowards, you’d throw your bow and arrows away and focus entirely on your knife-fighting skills, like we do.”

  “Such unbecoming malevolence. Mayhap if you had a shred of dignity, you’d be more inclined to preserve life rather than destroy it. That is why priests are superior.”

  “Oh yeah? And who do you lot cower behind whenever something dangerous shows up? Us! That’s who! Fat lot of good you are when you all go down in one or two hits! No warriors, no war! It’s as simple as that!”

  Damien tracked the sound of the last voice until he found a grumpy-looking veteran with a beard, an eyepatch and a bad attitude. Damien tried to get his attention, which proved difficult since a paladin the next table over had just slated warriors for being “all brawn and no brains.”


  “Excuse me, I’d like to sign up for warrior training.”

  The grizzled warrior’s remaining eye lingered on the paladin a few moments longer before he grumbled and turned to find the rag-clad boy in front of him. A victorious smirk crept up one side of his battle-worn face and he greeted Damien with a voice that was perfectly calculated to be heard by the entire street.

  “Look what we have here! Another clever soul who knows exactly how great warriors are. That makes two hundred and eighty-six just this morning!” He leered over at the paladin’s table, his elbow propped on one knee as he stroked his beard in mock rumination. “How are you doing so far, you sanctimonious holier-than-thou numpty?”

  “If you were any more evil, I would Smite you myself.”

  The warrior laughed uproariously. Despite his rush to get on with things, Damien couldn’t help but be impressed. The interactions between AI characters were incredible. If he hadn’t heard a variation on this conversation during his first play-through, he’d have been hard pushed to tell the difference between the recruiters and actual human beings.

  The warrior settled and roughly pushed a parchment and quill over the tabletop toward him.

  “Just tell us your name, young one, and I’ll register you for training at the fighting pits.”

  Damien picked up the quill. The parchment became overlaid with a keyboard in the same blue hue as the menu screen. Above the blank space on the parchment floated the words ‘Please select your character’s name’. He tapped ‘Scorpius’ into it and the letters filled the space, immediately followed by a red cross and small red writing that stated - ‘Name unavailable’.

  Damien’s eyes widened. Why had he not seen this coming? Because the beta server had prepared him poorly for sharing Arcadia with the rest of the world, that’s why. Oh well, he could still run with a substitute. ‘Scorpius56’. ‘Name unavailable’. ‘Scorpius16’. ‘Name unavailable’. ‘XscorpiusX’. ‘Name unavailable’.

  With each failed attempt, Damien read between the lines of the warrior’s exchange with the paladin a little more clearly. A large number of players who’d seen his fight with Toutatis had rushed to claim his character’s name. Faltering, Damien had just found out that ‘DamienxScorpius’ was also unavailable when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

  “You gonna be long, mate?”

  Damien turned around to apologize and got the shock of his life. There was a clone of himself looking him right in the eye. Behind that one stood two more doppelgängers, each looking more irritated than the one in front of him. Damien dropped the quill, accidentally canceling his registration process. He looked back to the inactive parchment and then at the impatient fanboy who hadn’t even recognized the very person he was imitating.

  “N-no, that’s okay, you go ahead.”

  “Thanks, buddy.”

  Damien stepped out of the way, his mind still reeling as the doppelgänger confidently strode in to take his place. He picked up the quill and deftly tapped the parchment several times. The warrior registrar looked up and nodded at him.

  “Welcome to the warrior caste, Scorepious Six Hundred and Sixty-Six. You’ll find the fighting pits just down the path, on the right.”

  Scorepious666 did a little fist pump before turning to leave, only to find Damien gawping at him.

  “Hey, that’s a pretty good likeness,” Scorepious666 declared. “You put a hyper-realistic slant on it, that’s neat. You don’t look much like the real thing but it’s definitely original! What face editor are you using?”

  When Damien replied with nothing but a long drawn-out moan, Scorepious666 gave him a perturbed look and hurried away down the path, leaving Damien to his own private hell.

  This was a complete disaster. His plan was unraveling in front of him. He moved to one side and opened his menu, searching frantically for the connections tab. He had to see if Kevin could help him.

  Unless he could secure his character’s real name, he’d have to try and stand out in a sea of human warriors who would all be racing him to level up. Worse still, they’d all have a version of his name that was closer to the real thing than he could get for himself!

  He found the connections tab and jabbed his finger at it, breathing a sigh of relief when he found ‘Mobius46’ in his list of contacts. In his haste he clicked it before realizing the name was grayed out. Kevin was not currently online.

  He was trying to think of another way to reach out when he realized his eyes had scrolled past another name. A name that, by any measure, should not have belonged in his friends list. Damien stared at it, trying to figure out if he was reading it right. It simply read ‘Aetherius’.

  The shock was so great that his previous encounter was briefly erased from his mind.

  Why was Aetherius, the current leader of the Saga Online Streamer Competition, on his friends list? Curiosity overwhelmed him. He clicked the name and was invited via the in-game icons to call, message or invite Aetherius to a party. The message icon was highlighted. Aetherius had left him a message. Damien numbly clicked the icon and a message window popped up.

  ‘Hello Damien. Our mutual friend, Kevin, gave me your contact details and asked me to lend you a hand. Send me a message when you see this and I’ll give you a boost. It’ll be great for your ratings!’

  Of course! Aetherius was another of Kevin’s testers. After the rude shock of finding out his uniqueness had been stolen from him, this message was like mana from heaven.

  Kevin, Damien thought to himself, NOW you can consider your debt repaid.

  He brought his hands up to chest height and a keyboard appeared at his fingertips. He frantically started typing.

  ‘Aetherius! It’s awesome to meet you! I’d be very happy if you could boost me, thank you! Can you come and meet me?’

  He sat back and held his breath. Aetherius’s name was all in blue, so he was online. If Damien was given a boost through a dungeon with high-level enemies by the most famous Saga Online player, it would solve all his problems at once. He’d quickly rise to level 10, overtaking all the people who were imitating him.

  The hard cap on XP gain was one and a half levels. Even if you were being boosted, you could only ever rise by a maximum of one and a half levels per unique experience granting event. That was still a lot: If a level 1 player with 0/500 EXP was set up to achieve the killing blow against a high level dungeon boss, they would effortlessly rise to level 2 and get an additional 250/750 EXP towards level 3.

  If a different level 1 player challenged Toutatis in single combat, defeating him with nothing but a rusty spoon and a week of perfect dodging while they waited for him to succumb to tetanus, they would also rise to level 2 and receive an additional 250/750 EXP towards level 3. If they’d had a quest to kill Toutatis as well, they’d receive another 1125 EXP for handing it in, bringing them to level 3 and gaining a total of 625/1000 EXP towards level 4. Even with the quest EXP factored in, it wouldn’t really be worthy of the effort. This 1.5 level EXP cap was hard coded, so even the human ‘Adaptable’ trait would not raise it.

  After you hit level 10 the amount of experience required per level increased dramatically. Boosting would only be efficient up to that point, but even if the benefit was short lived it was well worth it. Getting to level 10 would ordinarily take at least a day. A sensibly planned, well administered boost could reduce that to less than an hour. More importantly, Damien would get a huge amount of exposure, not only on his own channel but on Aetherius’s channel as well. He could take any name he liked and it would hardly matter – everyone would know exactly who he was. His joy peaked when Aetherius replied.

  ‘Sure thing, I’ll be coming all the way back to the Tintagel zone for you. Just make sure you get to the dungeon I’ve marked on the map in half an hour. Don’t be late!’

  Damien clicked the link and his map opened. A black skull signifying a dungeon entrance appeared near the bottom left-hand corner of the zone’s map. Damien didn’t know which dungeon it might be, but he didn�
��t need to know anything about it to see that it was far away. Aetherius must have assumed Damien already completed basic training and was combat ready, but he hadn’t even managed that yet. Damien shook his head as his hands tentatively typed out a reply.

  ‘Haven’t completed basic training yet. Can you give me a little more time?’

  Anxious, he bit at his fingernails. It turned out that fingernail biting was not an activity that Saga Online endorsed: as his teeth clacked together, his health bar dropped by a single point.

  Damien stared at it incredulously. He had just crossed a minor gaming milestone in the most ridiculous way possible. The first enemy to have caused him damage in this play-through of Saga Online was himself. He considered the events that had put him there and found it unsettlingly appropriate.

  Aetherius replied and Damien was forced to shelve his lingering self-pity. He had a more immediate problem.

  ‘Sorry man, got guild business afterwards. If you can’t make it, we’ll have to do it later, and I don’t know when I’ll next have an opening. Don’t worry, you don’t need to do basic training. I’ll be there to look after you. See you in twenty-nine minutes!’

  Damien groaned. How was he supposed to travel across the zone with a level 1 character? If he was going to acquire some skills beforehand, he’d have to start by permanently branding himself with some terrible variation of his name.

  The possibility of ‘5k0rp1ou5’ briefly ran through Damien’s head, making his hair stand on end. Even if he found a name that wouldn’t take a non-player character half an hour to say out loud (‘Five-Kay-Zero-Erp-One-Uwe-Five’; Damien shuddered at the thought of it), he’d still have to finish basic training before they equipped him with skills and gear. It would already be too late by then.