Homeland: Ingame 2

by Kieron Uchee

  I sat down on the steps still smelling her scent and feeling a crackling in my nerves. It would seem that I had found my patron in the Pantheon of Gods. I just had not expected her to be smoking hot and wildly attractive. I was not complaining, it was just unexpected.

  Standing up I realized that I felt full of energy and with a flick of my fingers I transformed, much to my surprise I did not feel hungry or tired at all. I still had more energy than I knew what to do with. With a jump, I lifted off and climbed quickly through the mists finally turning towards the island and gliding across the sea. It would seem I could now fully fly.

  Once I reached the Island I circled the mountain twice and finally landed beside the small lake. Transforming back to Elf as I walked towards the cabin I wondered at the fact it seemed to take no energy at all anymore.

  Knocking at the door I cried out, “Torn calling, may I come in.” As the door opened I saw both Sebastian and Komhether standing in the room looking at me with surprised expressions. I nodded and smiled at them and then did a double take as they both got down on their knees and prostrated themselves before me.

  “What the hell, get up guys what do you think you are doing?” I asked in amazement. Reaching out I grabbed them both by the upper arms and pulled lifting them far easier than I should have been able to.

  I looked at them and asked, “What, what is it, why are you two acting so strange? Tell me, guys, because I have to tell you this is starting to worry me, I need to know that you two are alright.” As I looked at them Komhether shared a look with Sebastian and then smiled at me.

  Taking a breath he began to speak, “We are giving you the honor that all higher beings get Tor, for it is plain that you have somehow Ascended to become a demigod and both Angels and Demons will be able to see that by looking at you, your soul has changed and you are far more than you were.”

  I nodded and asked, “Is there anything else that I should know, can anyone else see the changes, is there any way I can disguise my nature and what the Hell can a demigod do that I could not?”

  Sebastian answered, “A demigod is more than a mortal but not fully a God, he has attributes from both, but his Godlike nature is much stronger than his mortal nature. As for what you can do to hide it, nothing can be done, Angels, demons, priests, monks, and a few others touched by the Gods will be able to see what you really are. As for what can you do now as opposed to when you were merely a mortal half dragon. That is unclear, the power of the Gods manifests itself in many ways, it will develop with time.”

  Sebastian continued, “Without someone to help guide you it will be doubtful that you will ever reach your full potential. But you being you anything is possible. You can disguise yourself to the general population by not performing any miracles or acts that only an Ascended being could do. My advice is to just be yourself and if someone recognizes you as a demigod command them to not speak of it. Your words will have authority.”

  “Now if you would tell please, how the Hell did you become a demigod?” Sebastian's voice rose an octave as he spoke.

  “Sit back, guys and light a smoke this might take a while,” I said. Then I began to tell what had happened, first telling of how time had stopped, then making my way through the House, then placing the Big Book of Discord in the Little Shits lap. Seeing the fight of the demigods and wandering over to examine what I had seen. Waking up and feeling different, learning who the leader of the Thieves Guild is, and meeting the King. I talked of how I was being sent out as the Kings spy and lastly of meeting Nyx and receiving her blessing. I also mentioned that my transformation ability seemingly had no cost to it now.

  When all was said we sat in silence for a minute then I turned to Komhether and asked, “In this realm are there any demigods and if so what powers do they have?”

  Komhether looked to the fireplace and nodded then turning to me he began, “There were few demigods in this realm, the Gods here are a jealous and fickle lot. Sure they have slept with mortals, but if the woman became with child the God would have her killed. Like I said before, the Gods here are dicks.”

  Damn, that was harsh, I knew that the Gods here had been dickheads but to have an innocent woman and unborn baby killed. I was suddenly glad I had imprisoned the lot of them for eternity, I hope that they rot in that stone ball I had placed them in. Glancing at Komhether I gathered he felt the same. The Gods had not been nice to him.

  “Do you have any knowledge that might help me, Komhether? Anything would be good, I hate the thought of my life changing and I have no control or knowledge of how it will work out. For me, that might be a recipe for disaster.” As I spoke I realized once again the truth in my words. I needed an edge, anything that would give me an advantage.

  Komhether nodded, “On your journey to the Dwarven Kingdom, you will pass through several towns and villages, any that have Seers are worth stopping at and visiting. The Seers speak in riddles but they can be useful. Other than that I am sorry my Prince I have nothing.”

  I smiled at the two of them, my friends ingame. They meant a lot to me and I hoped that they would be safe during my absence. I looked around at the cabin they were building for me, it was a home, but not mine. It was the home these two deserved.

  “Guys while I am gone I want you to keep on living here and working on the cabin, make this a home and make it secure. If war is coming I want to not have my home destroyed and my friends hurt.”

  Suddenly overcome with emotion I grabbed both of them and gave them a hug, then without thinking I said, “Be blessed with peace and happiness. May this home be a place of health, safety, and comfort.”

  Suddenly a window opened up in my interface and I read.

  The Blessing of Tor

  This home is now sacred ground and all who find themselves here will receive a permanent plus one hundred bonus to their health and have their inner peace restored.

  Damn that is a heck of a buff I thought as both Sebastian and Komhether congratulated me on my first act as a demigod.

  Chapter 20 Ascendant

  I sat back on the beach thinking of what had happened, somehow I had created a permanent buff for anyone who managed to make it to my home. The problem was that players were not supposed to create a buff, at least not one like I had created. It opened the way to cheating in the game and the developers had made sure that it was not something a player should be able to do.

  Yet somehow I had done it, and it troubled me on several levels, first I did not want to attract attention to myself and having this kind of power would attract attention. Second, it went against the game programming; the fact was that by creating that kind of buff I was rewriting game programming and that should have been impossible.

  The third thing that bothered me was being an Ascendant, that kind of power was too much for a player to have, I knew that I did not really want to become a God. My goals were simple, to get back to my wife and just enjoy the game. If it was a game anymore, I was now having doubts. Thinking about it, the traveling to other realms, it might have been part of the original game coding, but I now doubted that.

  If it was part of the coding, then why had I retained a bit of power and ability back when I was in the real world. The fact that Sebastian had been sent to earth to retrieve art and artifacts during WW2 should have been impossible. It all might have been part of the storyline but after reading the Feds security scientist’s notes I did not think so.

  The other thing that was bothering me was that after looking at my stats and character sheets again I noticed that the Ascendant level one skill tree was now active but still blank. I suspected that Nyx has done more than kiss me, she had somehow turned on the Ascendant skill tree which now was enabling me to access powers that I had no clue I had. What a mess.

  As my thoughts drifted I began to think of what I had to do, it was clear that while I was in this realm I would have to complete the Thief training and this spying quest for the King. I also had some other loose ends to tie up, reaching into my ba
g I dragged out the book I had received from the Siren.

  The art of singing and carrying a tune.

  Or how to not have tomatoes thrown at you.

  Opening the book, I could see the pages were written in the language of the Sirens. As I slowly looked at the pages I could feel the magic leaving the book and imprinting itself upon me. After several minutes, I realized the book was done and a window had opened itself on my interface. As I read the message I smiled,

  Congratulations, you have received the gift of the Sirens

  Your singing and musical ability is now greater than any bard

  You now have the ability to sing any song that you have heard and the magic

  to have music accompany your singing

  You have gained the ability to cast Sonic Shard this is a high-frequency attack

  that bypasses armor to do soft tissue damage.

  You have gained the ability to cast Sonic Blast an area of effect attack that

  causes a dazed and confused debuff on all enemies within its range for one

  minute, all damage done during this time is multiplied times two.

  I sat back, these abilities were almost a class by itself, I quickly opened up my stats notes and added the new info to the list.

  Gear

  shark tooth /knife

  two blue maces level three

  the big book of discord

  4 rings of epic quality

  Race

  Elf

  Newly Ascended as a minor power

  Level seven stats

  Strength = 2410

  Agility = 2410

  Mana = 2445

  Health = 2460

  Speed = 2410

  + Racial ability limited time double speed

  Buffs

  Gaiatoci’s Buff of Life and Mana

  Ama’s Buff of the Succubae

  Companions

  Battle Crab Krusty

  Angelic Messenger Komhether

  Minor Demon Sebastian

  Abilities

  Ability Persuasion

  Ability Pickpocketing

  Ability Singing

  Ability dual wield spells

  Lock picking, the basics 100 percent completed

  Lock picking advanced 60 percent remaining

  Lock picking master 0 percent completed

  Spells

  Basic DPS attack

  Basic magical attack

  Basic healing spell

  Ice Bolt

  Lightning

  Dragon Fire

  Airless Breathing

  Metamorphic Transformation

  Sonic Shard

  Sonic Blast

  Manaflow

  Class

  Hidden class, the Thief

  Nanobot Integration

  Defensive capability, self-healing, self-warming

  Offensive capability, electrical discharge from hands

  Strength increase four times normal human with diminishing returns upon leveling

  PIM

  Stealth detection enabled

  Upgraded map functions

  Ability to make calls to the Real World

  Ability to access GNet from within the game

  Ability to leave and enter the game

  Avatar integration into gaming matrix

  You are not recognized as a player and the gaming AI has no control over you

  It all seemed to be normal until I checked the interface character and stat list and noticed a submenu titled, Ascendant class. As I read the description I groaned out loud.

  An Ascendant, a mortal who has become one with the Gods and has joined the pantheon of Gods as a demigod. New powers are becoming available to you and through hard work and dedication to your training your abilities as a demigod will be activated. Be aware that not all higher powers will look with favor upon your ascendency. Other demigods may challenge you in the hopes of taking your power.

  For your safety, it is recommended that you align yourself with one of the major powers, Odin, Zeus and Shiva are the current leaders in the pantheon. As a demigod, you will have access to your own place of power which is a safe zone. It is recommended that you use your place of power to identify your place in the pantheon and to continue to train.

  After I added the latest information to my notes and then compared it to my old status I noted that my numbers were now several times higher than an average level seven. I had also added my pet, Krusty the Crab and my Companions to the character notes I was making as well as the buffs Gaiatoci and Ama had given me. I read the description of Gaiatoci’s buff and thought about the implications.

  Gaiatoci’s Buff

  You were buffed by the Earth mother in her dying moment and have received the ability to draw life and mana from each other as all life is mana and mana is life in all realms.

  As I sat on the beach listening to the waterfall I relaxed and it allowed my mind to think about where I was with my abilities and skills. At level seven I had an excess of abilities that were OP, but I was dealing with issues normal players did not deal with. This whole cross realm God thing was a big pain in the arse. I would have to somehow learn as much as I could and hope as I leveled the abilities/spells I had would continue to diametrically increase and help me to be a power player.

  Digging my fingers into the sand as I sat, I thought about mana and life, it was interesting that all the beings including the Gods seemed to have a finite amount of mana, with the exception being Gaiatoci. She had limitless amounts of mana and I suspected her buff had given me a doorway towards accessing both life and mana on an unprecedented scale. Life, it was everywhere and I could see the mana flowing throughout all living things if I looked through my Dragon vision.

  Deciding I had covered all the information I wanted to have, I updated the PIM with it. My mind was still thinking about life and mana and how the two are the same. The smallest form of life I knew of was the microbe, which exists from the deep biosphere to the atmosphere, and in fact, it exists in every other living organism. I could think of nothing else alive that was everywhere in all the world.

  Focusing my Dragon eyes on the mana I saw everywhere, I began to look at it closer and closer, clearly it was a part of all the living things I could see but now that I focused I could see that it went deeper and smaller into individual strands that went smaller and smaller separating into more strands.

  This had to be it, the source of both life and mana, I pulled back my vision and thought about it. These realms were an artificial creation but they were based on the real world. All magical beings could tap into this mana but were limited by the amount they could contain, even with my new mana pool at 2445 I knew that there was so much more available, the question was how to access it.

  Considering that this world was really a computer program and I had hacked into it I decided to try to do some off the cuff hacking within the game, I would call it a magic mana spell and see if the game would allow me to create my own spell. I had managed to do a permanent buff and this was really the same principle.

  Opening up my PIM I began to do some rough coding, and once it was done I gave the tiniest mana strands a value. Then I had them all join together within a 20-meter range and flow inwards from all around with me as the target. Finally, I created an access port within myself to receive and set up a one-way valve of sorts to allow me to control the flow. Finally, I named the spell Manaflow and added it to my interface and my stats.

  It really was a macro of sorts made to do several things one after another. Hoping it would work I activated the spell and observed myself for changes. I instantly could feel the power of the flow flooding me, and I turned down the valve. At five percent, I felt a steady top up and I realized that I had succeeded. It seemed to achieve a balance between the mana I was dispelling due to active buffs I had on and my own inner mana regen.

  It felt great, the mana was life and I noted in this the rawest form, it actually was also boosting my health. It was regene
rating at a small but constant level. Success comes with a price and I suddenly realized I was tired. Standing up I made my way to the cabin and crawled into bed, tomorrow I planned on trying out a couple of other macro spells to see how much I could do. But tonight, sleep called.

  Chapter 21 Paladin

  The morning had arrived; I awoke refreshed and renewed. After having a quick breakfast at the cabin, I said my goodbyes to Komhether and Sebastian. I was not expecting to return before I left the city, and it was with a sad smile that I left. I hoped the guys would do well in the upcoming conflict I believed was on its way. War was coming to the game, and I was not sure how it would impact NPC or players.

  I metamorphed and flew off towards the city, the fog was still thick on the ground and hid everything under a gray cover. Landing on the beach near the docks I called Krusty forth and watched as he rushed over to me and began to dance back and forth, I could feel his happiness at seeing me. Reaching down I scratched at the base of his eye stalks and was rewarded with what sounded almost like a cat’s purr.

  “Well my friend today is the start of a few busy days, and then we travel, seeing new sights and experiencing new things, I hope we are ready for this,” I spoke softly my voice fading into the mists. “You go play in the ocean, I will call you when I need you.”

  Giving the four-foot crab another scratch I stood and watched as he skittered into the ocean. Once he was gone from the view I turned and practicing my stealth technique I slowly made my way to the docks and from there to Mecha’s orphanage.

  Arriving through the mist I knocked and waited for a couple of minutes. My patience was rewarded by the door being opened by a young lad, who stared at me for a minute. He finally spoke, “Master Torn, if you would follow me Master Mecha is waiting for you.”

  Walking behind the young boy I was led deeper into the building finally stopping behind a door that led to a lower level. The boy I had followed had already turned around and was leaving, clearly, he had no interest in what was happening. Shrugging I opened the doorway and descended the stairs, going through a small passageway I entered a long room and observed Mecha and Kamasut standing near the far end.