by Jason Cheek
Congratulations! You have successfully completed the quest, Find a way to heal Rayne Nessima injuries! You have gained +100 points in reputation with the House of Kayden. You have received 800 experience points. You have gained a new companion, Alanah Valadhiel.
“Thank you for saving Rayne’s life, Milord Ironwolf. I promise I’ll serve you well.” Alanah squeaked out in a rush of words, her tears running down the back of my neck as I read through the updated quest notification.
For a second I froze unsure of what to think about my reward. I guess I should have thought about that before accepting the quest in the first place but I’d just been focused on saving Rayne’s life. If I remembered correctly, the forums only had limited information on companions. Supposedly NPC companions were nearly impossible to get on your own. Players supposedly could be rewarded a companion by a high-level NPC, like a Baron or Duke, for services rendered, but from what all of the Alpha and Beta tester had posted, companions were nearly impossible to get. No one had ever reported getting one on their own through direct quests.
How the hell did I already end up with two companion quests? I shook my head in wonder as my thoughts raced. Having a swordswoman as a companion made sense, but what the hell was I going to do with an NPC child as a companion? Did the NPCs in the game even age? Ugh! More questions to research in the morning, I groused in silent frustration as I did my best to keep a smile firmly plastered on my face. Maybe the girl could help Mariona out with the cooking in-between keeping my room clean or something.
For a brief moment, I felt guilty for my less than enthused thoughts about the disfigured girl as I hung my head. What chance did she have to live if I didn’t take her under my wing? All that I could hope for was that these mini-quests were all related in some way to the successful completion of my nightmare start. Otherwise, all of this work was going to be for nothing.
Meeting Lady Chiara’s gaze, I couldn’t help but smile at the obvious message held in those ancient eyes. No doubt this was exactly what she meant when she’d said I needed to build up my reputation with the NPCs to become the leader of House of Kayden. Seeing Chiara’s almost imperceptible nod, I rolled my shoulders with a deep sigh. So far this whole nightmare start had been a crapload of work. Much different than any game I’d ever played before in my entire life. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a raspy voice in my lap.
“How am I still alive?” Rayne asked, looking around in confusion.
“Milord Ironwolf saved your life!” Alanah excitedly exclaimed before I could reply to the swordswoman’s question. I gently laid Rayne back down onto her blankets as Alanah began talking a mile a minute.
“Very impressive.” Lady Chiara said as I stood back up. “I’ll get Mariona moving on preparing food while you’re finishing up with the rest of the injured?”
Giving Chiara a nod, I got back to work. Thankfully, healing up the rest of the NPCs went relatively quick, since Rayne had been the worst of the wounded. By the time I was fixing up the last NPC, Lady Chiara was back with several helpers loaded down with food and drink as a yawn forced its way from my mouth. I dully looked around the small room as I finally noticed the red exclamation mark flashed in my HUD next to the time. The warning was to notify me that I’d been immersed in the game for too long without logging out and was supposed to signify that my real body was in distress, aka dehydrated, low blood sugar and other fun stuff like that. If I didn’t want to be a basket case in the morning, I needed to get moving.
Calling out to Lady Chiara that I’d catch her in the morning, I found a clear spot on the floor to lean back against the wall. Sitting back against the rough-cut logs, I felt a warm furry blanket sprawl out across my lap. Smiling down at Neysa, I ran my hand through her thick silvery hair as I closed my eyes and triggered the logout sequence.
Glossary
Add – When additional unplanned mobs unexpectedly join the fight.
Alt – Additional MMORPG characters, usually lower level, to that of the player’s main character.
AOE – Area of Effect damage attack that hits multiple mobs.
Bind – Where an MMORPG character reappears in the game after death.
Boss - A higher level mob with special attacks. Usually positioned at the end of a dungeon or level.
Buffs – Temporary boost to a character’s base stats.
Camping – When a player or group of players waits by a defeated foes corpse to kill them again and again.
CC – aka crowd control – The ability to temporarily remove a mob from combat.
Class –A specific skill set in MMORPGs with unique attacks and restrictions to armor and weapons.
Crit – Additional damage added to a weapon due to the specific spot attacked or due to attacking from stealth.
Damage Dealer – A character class or profession that solely focuses on damage output in an MMORPG.
Debuff – A negative effect applied to a character in an MMORPG.
DOT - Damage Over Time – An attack that causes a specific level of damage over a short or long period of time.
DPS – The amount of Damage Per Second for a specific weapon or spell.
Drops – Any usable loot that drops or is left on a corpse and is available to collect in an MMORPG.
Dungeon – Special location with unique loot and mobs to kill with a specific beginning and end.
Faction – A group, species or country that your character automatically owes its allegiance to.
Garrosh – The current most difficult boss in World of Warcraft.
Griefer – When a player continuously attacks or steals from another player over and over again.
Guild – aka Clan – When a group of players form a persistent group that shares chats and resources.
Healer – A class or profession of player that can replace lost Hit Points during a battle.
HOT – Heal Over Time – When a spell continuously heals a player over a specific amount of time.
HP – Hit Points – The amount of heal a character has before dying in an MMORPG.
Instacast – When a spell can be instantaneously cast.
Instance – A dungeon that is only available to the group of players that entered and not shared between groups.
Kill Steal - When a player or group out-damages or kills another player’s or group’s targeted monster.
Kite – A method of staying ahead of a group of monsters to slowly kill them one at a time over a long period of time.
LEET – A hacker’s or experienced player’s terminology for being the best.
Loot – Items that drops from a monster upon death that can be used or sold in an MMORPG.
Lowbies – Lower level characters in an MMORPG.
Main – A characters high level character that they play extensively.
Mongo – Enforcer class buff that makes the avatar grow three times in size while increasing strength and HP.
Nano – Chaos Online’s version of mana.
Nerf – When a game’s developers decide a class or profession of characters are overpowered and takes steps to reduce their strengths.
Newbs – A term used to describe when a player is new to a game or genre.
Ninja/Ninja looter – When a player takes loot off of a boss without following the rules of distribution decided ahead of time by the group.
Pick-ups – Additional unknown players added to a group to make up a full team or raid.
PK – Player Killer – A player that focuses on killing other players.
Pops – When a mob respawns back into an area.
Power-Leveling – When a player or group of player focuses their play solely on leveling up their character as quickly as possible usually by using advance means or techniques.
Primary – A player’s primary character that they play with or a player’s main weapon.
Profession – A specific set of skills assigned to a character in an MMORPG with unique abilities.
PuG – Pick Up Group –
A group of random players that come together to complete a goal within an MMORPG.
PVE – Player vs. Environment – A type of game play that focuses a player fighting against the game.
PVP – Player vs. Player – A type of game play that focuses on a player fighting against other players.
Raid – A large group of players, usually 10 or more, that joins a group to complete a specific task within an MMORPG.
Real-Time Strategy – A resource / troop building game that features large scale battles.
Reroll – When a player deletes their character and starts a new character.
Respawn – When a player or a mob dies and reappears in the game.
RPGer – When a player assumes the role of their character within a game.
Skill Points – Additional attribute points usually given upon leveling that can be used to increase a characters base abilities of strength, intelligence, stamina, spirit, etc.
Spawn – When a monster or character appears in an MMORPG or location within the game.
Spawn Camping – When a player or group of player continuously kills a player whenever they spawn into the game or a location.
Stats – A character’s strength, spirit, stamina, intelligence, spirit, etc.
Tank – A player that focuses on absorbing damage and holding mobs.
Teleport – Moving from one location to another by use of a spell.
Train – When a player or group of players run from a mob or group of mobs that then kill everyone that they run past.
Whompa – A static teleport device that moves players from one city to another in Chaos Online.
Wipe – When a group is killed to the last player.
About the Author
Jason A. Cheek lives currently in Germany due to his current job assignment. He lives with his wife and daughter, along with their two dogs Melow and Monty. Originally from West Palm Beach, Florida.
Interested in martial arts, swords, archery, Dungeon & Dragons, SCA, reading Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Jason became a computer gamer after leaving the Army. Paying his own way through college while working as a waiter, he studied to become an Occupational Therapist assistant.
Teaching himself computers and networking on his own time. Jason changed career paths, becoming a Regional Systems Administrator several years later. During this time, he played many hours of first person shooters and strategy games at LAN parties around the United States or logged into Anarchy Online and World of Warcraft leading his guild in Raids.
Excelling in his career as an Information Technology Specialist, Jason became a Certified Systems Security Engineer, furthering his knowledge by learning new technology whenever possible. Interested in extreme sports and traveling, Jason found a job that allowed him to travel around the world. During this time he taught himself German and Polish.
Always interested in writing, Jason began his first novel called Flight, Book One of The Last Paladin Series, in 2013 and self-published the following year in 2014.
Other books by Jason Cheek
Please visit your favorite ebook retailer to discover other books by Jason Cheek.
The Last Paladin Series
Book One - Flight
Book Two - Destiny
Book Three - (In progress)
The World Series
Book One – First Login
Book Two – Mixing It Up
Book Three – You’re Going Down
Connect with Jason Cheek
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Visit my website and blog: http://www.thecheekyfellow.com/