Quest for Camlan
A LitRPG Adventure
A.T. Gilbert
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
But wait! There’s more!!
Reviews and News
Chapter 1
I run around the corner to the alley side of the building. Somewhere in this pile of discarded boxes I should be able to find the empty burlap bags the shopkeeper needs. Hopefully—wait, let me check my quest log—seven of them. The NPC was very clear on the time limit for this particular quest. I can’t return all the way back to the shop and find out I’m one short.
The top few boxes are all empty. Not surprising. But as soon as I pick up the fourth box, I feel a light weight. Pushing open the cardboard flaps, I find a snatch of fabric sitting in the corner. I grab it with one hand while tossing the box to the side with my other. The burlap shimmers in my hand and is stowed in my pack automatically.
My name is Asher Duncan — SirAsh3r in Toterra Online — and and all I ever want to do is play this game.
Keeping one eye on my timer is nerve-wracking but necessary. Only ninety seconds left to go and I have only found five of the seven bags I need. But I’ve gone through all the boxes in this alley. Where could the other two be?
I head back up the sidewalk to the shop, certain there must be more piles of boxes in the intervening steps. With only forty-five seconds left to find the empty bags, the in-game chat of Toterra Online virtually explodes. I never turn off my notifications, but I haven’t ever seen this volume of chat. Not only the forum but my private messages as well.
TESSA: OMG did you see?
CARRIE: You’re going for it right?
RYAN: DUUUUUDDDDEEEE
Something happened. Something huge. And I have no idea what.
Suddenly a brighter in-game message flashes in front of my eyes:
Quest Failed!
Damn it. All those messages and chat distracted me while the time ran down.
Quest Failed! Morris the Shopkeeper will not get his Empty Burlap Bags on time. You may return in 24 hours to offer him your services again.
Goddamnit. I let out a small groan. It’s not that this quest is particularly important to my leveling up in Toterra Online, but I really could use the reward. Once I get enough game currency I can buy entrance to one of the Toterra Realms, instead of using real world money. But it’s like twelve times the price.
I mean, really, why else would I be hanging around the basic Toterra City gamescape on a Friday night while all my friends go rustle cattle or battle zombies in other parts of the game? They may have been able to buy their way to better characters or better worlds, but I can’t. They keep offering to grind in Toterra City with me, but I’m not going to let them do that. Such a waste of time for them.
The game forum is still going way too fast for me to be able to read anything, but the handful of private messages I read all ask some version of ‘Have you seen the news?’
I hate that I can’t even attempt this quest again. I might as well log out.
I jog down the street to my ‘safe house,’ a large apartment building that I use as my spawning point. I’ll log out, take a break and figure out what news just broke the internet.
Once my game is saved and turned off, I feel silly just sitting on the couch with a Virtual Reality helmet on my head. Thank god I live alone so there is no one here to see me. I pull off the helmet, set it on the coffee table and stand up, stretching.
Wow, how long have I been playing? I roll my shoulders a couple times and twist at the waist to get my muscles moving and my blood pumping again. I am much more stiff than any 24-year-old should be.
I make my way to the small kitchen. The sun went down while I was playing so all the lights are still off. Deciding to save myself the trouble—and the electricity cost—I open the fridge and use the interior light to find my way to the cupboards I need.
One big bowl of Lucky Charms later, I am standing, leaning over the counter, stuffing my face and catching up on whatever news I missed while I was playing. That virtual reality helmet might not be the most high-end, but it certainly does the trick of shutting out the real world.
Lit only by the glow from my phone, my first check is to the group text thread my TO buddies and I maintain. I know how this all sounds—sad, twenty-something living alone, home playing video games on a Friday night. But trust me. It’s the best part of my life right now. I may only have access to Toterra City, but all the closest people in my life are virtual gamer friends and right now they are all going crazy over whatever was just announced.
RYAN: Of course I’m doing it. I’ve already started brewing coffee to stay up all night.
TESSA: Me too!
CARRIE: I just texted my mom to cancel our plans for tomorrow.
ASHER: Whoa. Guys, I can’t catch up with all 263 missed texts. What’s going on?
TESSA: toterraonline.com
CARRIE: Just watch that video and come right back here.
I click through the link to the game company’s main site. Everything else has been stripped away, but a big video takes up all the space above the fold. A small headline underneath reads ‘Live Press Conference; 6 p.m. ET today.’
The comments below are still surging. Dozens every second, despite the fact that the press conference is over. I scan through the current combination of excitement, angry entitlement and pleas for help.
I hit play.
The podium on the concrete steps in front of Toterra Online’s headquarters in Chicago is empty only for a moment before the President and CEO, Jeffrey Talbot, walks into frame. His full head of gray hair and gleaming white smile emphasize his slight tan, as though he was just flown in from a Malibu beach, rather than spending the last forty years behind a computer and becoming one of the foremost engineers of his generation. There are several audible clicks from the cameras; he clears his throat and begins. Welcoming the press, thanking his team for all their hard work and praising the thousands of fans that have helped build Toterra Online to its prominence in the MMORPG industry.
“Today I am so pleased to announce that Toterra Online will be releasing a brand new game expansion called Camlan Realm.”
He pauses and his grin widens. His corporate demeanor cracks and he is as giddy about his announcement as any other gamer would be.
He clears his throat again before continuing.
“But this release wi
ll not be open to the public. Not at first.”
A confused murmur rumbles among the reporters near the camera.
“Instead, to make this new expansion, we are holding the exclusive Camlan Challenge. Twelve Toterra Online players will be chosen at random to enter and play in the Camlan Realm for forty-eight hours.
“That’s two full days of exclusive access, if you are chosen. This means those lucky twelve will have a higher chance of getting quests, fame and legendary or epic items.
“All players will enter Camlan at level ten, as with our other realms, and the player who is able to level up the fastest over those two days will be rewarded spectacularly.”
Chapter 2
Talbot’s grin widens yet again. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a sixty-something year old man bouncing up and down from glee. Whatever that reward is, it must be pretty major.
“We at Toterra Online believe the Camlan Challenge will be a chance for twelve lucky players to change their lives. Just as our forefathers came to America for new opportunity, Camlan Challenge affords a lucky few to rise to the top based solely on their skill and hard work. Good luck to all of you.”
He steps aside for a petite woman, maybe late thirties or so, to take his place. Her tight bun and somber suit tell the viewer the fun has ended.
“Good afternoon. My name is Amanda de la Barca.” She eyes the camera under heavy lids. “I want to make clear a few standards and stipulations and then I’ll take questions.
“At 12:01 a.m. ET tonight, twelve platinum keys will be placed at random within Toterra City. It is essential to our challenge that every player has a chance to find one, so please remember the keys will not be found in any of the other realms. The keys will be available for forty-eight hours, or until all twelve keys are found, whichever comes first. If fewer than twelve keys are found within forty-eight hours there will be fewer than twelve players in the Challenge.”
I pause the video. I’ve got a few hours left until midnight. I’m supposed to work again tomorrow morning, but I can definitely stay up to look for a key.
I put my bowl in the sink and take my phone back to the couch to settle in. I can only imagine what kind of strategy Carrie has come up with to battle the randomness of the keys. If I know her at all, and I do, she’s already got a plan in place.
I pull up our group chat again as I get comfortable. I don’t even try to catch up to where they are in the conversation. They’ll be going over all the same thing until 11:59 p.m. tonight.
ASHER: So …
TESSA: RIGHT? Did you watch it?
ASHER: I saw enough. Midnight tonight? You guys gonna play all night?
RYAN: Hell yes. I’ve already warned my wife. Don’t bother me. Bio breaks and that’s it.
TESSA: Gross :)
RYAN: She’ll probably play at least some of the time too. Lucky this challenge fell on a weekend.
ASHER: Ugh. I have to work both days.
CARRIE: Aren’t you sick? *Cough* You’re definitely too sick to work.
ASHER: LOL I’m not sick enough to risk getting fired. My boss is an asshole.
TESSA: Dude that sucks. But you can work on just a little sleep, right?
ASHER: Yeah, probably. I’ll play as much as I can in between shifts and then be tortured the rest of the time.
As the four of us wait impatiently for 12:00 a.m., they fill me in on the many details I missed by not watching the whole video. It’s much more fun to hear it all from them, including their speculations and funny asides, than from the stupid head of Public Relations.
There are of course the basics and legalese we could have guessed—each player must sign an NDA and is allowing rights to their game footage to be used however Toterra Online deems necessary, et cetera, et cetera et cetera. The platinum keys are not transferrable, which makes perfect sense. The company wouldn’t want it to become a bidding war on some black market somewhere, where only the wealthiest players get access to the new Realm. That’s already basically how the game works. The twelve winning players will get exclusive access to Camlan Realm for forty-eight hours to level up as fast as they can before the new swarm of other players is let in. Two days doesn’t seem like very long to me, but Carrie points out that the company probably doesn’t want to be liable for players going without sleep or food for too long while they’re plugged in to the game.
I get distracted for a few minutes day dreaming about how incredible it would be to find a key. Not only will the winning players have the best chance at the best loot and fame points for those first forty-eight hours, but being able to level up ahead of everyone else means they’ll continue to have an advantage as long as they play the game. If I’m always a good twenty levels ahead of everyone else, how much better would game play be?
TESSA: Asher? You still there?
ASHER: Yeah, sorry. Just thinking. Have they said what kind of world the game is?
CARRIE: Not yet. Did you guys see the part where the challenge starts just thirty-six hours after the key deadline ends?
TESSA: Oh, yeah. That’s annoying.
ASHER: Shit, really? I can’t take time off work that quickly.
RYAN: LOL Maybe worry about that after you find a key
ASHER: Yeah, you’re right. How many Toterra players are there?
CARRIE: Only 5 million or so.
ASHER: Right. 12 divided by 5 million. No problem.
Thinking about those odds, I wonder if this so-called challenge is actually real at all. I mean, it could just be a giant marketing gimmick right? It would not surprise me at all if only the sons of board members or nieces of developers get “randomly” chosen.
ASHER: Okay, guys. Even though this is almost certainly a waste of time, we’re still going to try, right?
RYAN: Yes.
TESSA: Hell yes.
CARRIE: Come on, dude. What do you think?
ASHER: Okay, good. I mean … I have to work both days this weekend so there’s no hope for me LOL. But I expect you all to do me proud.
CARRIE: Aye, aye captain
RYAN: Coffee is started?
TESSA: Actually I’m gonna go try to take a quick nap before it starts.
RYAN: See ya
I try to copy Tessa. I have to work in the morning so I’m not going to sleep all that much anyway. I set an alarm on my phone, lay down on the couch and close my eyes. But my brain won’t rest. Behind my eyelids all I can see is myself finding a platinum key. Over and over again.
Chapter 3
Saturday morning is almost literally the worst time to have to work in a cubicle. The only exception is Sunday morning. And, yes, I’ll be here tomorrow too. Sometimes I really hate my life.
I sigh deeply and look over the cubicle wall at my supervisor Sandra. We work in a call center and she is taking a call from someone complaining about the fact that they were charged a late fee. Any second now I will almost certainly get a call from someone trying to shop on a Saturday morning and didn’t realize that their card is maxed out, or someone else who thinks now is the best time to change all their addresses on all their accounts.
All I want to do is be home playing Toterra Online like all the other sane people in the world. I stayed up all night playing, so I’m really dragging now. I’m on my sixth cup of coffee already. But it was totally worth it.
As soon as midnight hit, the game went crazy.
Luckily, we were all able to login before that time and I assume Toterra went to some kind of effort to extend servers or bandwidth or whatever they needed to do. All my extra money goes to make sure I have the fastest internet available and no lag. It was worth it last night more than ever. Just the space that all the millions of players take up made the game play almost unmanageable. All going after the same creatures, or collecting the same artifacts, or returning to the same quest givers.
Imagine that scenario … but to the four-thousandth degree. Give or take. The number of players all online at the same time, on my server, was just crazy. By 11:
50 p.m. I had to elbow players out of the way just to exit my safe house. By 11:59 p.m. I had already abandoned my plan of hitting up the largest buildings in Toterra City. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. Instead, I found myself just beating the bushes in one of the smaller neighborhood parks, with no real hope of finding a platinum key.
Time passes terribly quickly when you don’t want it to. It seemed like the Challenge had just started when we all got an in-game message that the first platinum key had been claimed by a player named MissAtlas. Thirty minutes later RShackleford found the second. That quick succession sent many of the other players into a state of frantic, unfocused searching.
It turns out they needn’t have worried. No other platinum keys were claimed over the following hours before I went to bed.
Since I arrived at work this morning, I’ve had the Toterra page on Reddit open constantly, watching for news of more keys being found.
The phone dings in my ear, announcing an incoming call.
“Thank you for calling. My name is Asher. How can I help you?”
“Yeah, my card was just declined and I have to buy diapers. Why won’t you let me buy diapers?”
I let out my breath slowly, so it doesn’t sound like such an exhausted sigh. I get at least one of these calls every other day and each one of them thinks they’re special. While I am trying to patiently explain to Miss Buys-a-lot how credit card limits work, the news feed refreshes with details of another key found.
Quest for Camlan: A LitRPG Adventure (Camlan Realm Book 1) Page 1