Maddened by the overwhelming pain, the massive reptilian raises his war axe high in the air, and chops down on the human adventurer with all his might!
The barbarian raises his shield to block the blow. CRACK! Conrad looks up in surprise as he sees a crack in the underside of the shield where the axe blade has broken through the shield and embedded itself. Ignoring the sting in his left hand as the blow sucks another 20% of his health, the stunned man is seething with rage. Conrad yells at the monster, “YOU BROKE MY SHIELD!” He turns berserk and launches a series of vicious blows on the reptilian's skull! Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The monster tries to pull his weapon out of the shield with both hands, but the axe is firmly stuck in the shield. In the meantime, the reptilian is unable to defend itself from the vicious, hard blows to his head. Under this barrage of hits caving in its massive skull, the former barkeeper rapidly loses his strength to stand, and slowly slides down to the ground. With his dying breath, the monster tugs on his prized axe one last time, and finally collapses on the floor before the crazed barbarian.
Unaware that his adversary has fallen, Conrad continues to pound on the lifeless body with his ivory club, until his stamina bar is fully exhausted and the biofeedback loop sends a wave of blinding lights into the player's eyes. Dropping the now useless club, the victorious fighter sits cross legged on the ground besides the dead body. He stares as the body slowly dissipates back into bits of code, leaving behind the double-edged war axe still embedded in his now ruined tower shield.
On the stone wall in front of him, the outline of a door starts to form as a trace of red light appears at the top and works its way clockwise. Ignoring the forming portal in the wall, the exhausted warrior stares at his broken tower shield, with the war axe still embedded within the shield. Conrad slowly removes the broken shield from his forearm. With his hands holding the edge of the shield on both sides, he grunts as he uses his extraordinary strength to turn and snap the shield in two! With the two separate pieces of the great shield still bound together by the straps, the barbarian reverently places his former equipment on the ground. Taking the now free double-edged war axe, he turns it upside down and sets the blade side of the axe on the ground. Leaning on the axe, Conrad slowly rises to his feet.
A blinding flash of red light envelops the room, forcing the warrior to turn his face aside. When the light is finally gone. a shimmering red portal appears on the stone wall, beckoning him to enter.
Conrad stares at the portal, his mind swirling over the price that he had just paid to make this magical portal appear – his reflective tower shield, and more importantly his loss of temper. Keenly aware of the fact that his actions in this nondescript dining room is streamed to a live audience around the world, he wonders how his peers will react to the way he had just gone berserk on his enemy. Will I be cast out of The Strangers? Will they not dare look at me in the eye again, for fear of angering me? He sighs. Things were a lot simpler when he was just a Class A minor league player with middling talents for baseball. It's time to stop dawdling, and face the music, he thinks to himself.
The barbarian walks over to retrieve his ivory club from the ground, and places the weapon back in its customary spot on his belt. Holding his precious spoil of war with both hands, Conrad boldly walks through the red portal.
Chapter 13 – Naturalist
Lucious stares at the golden door before him on the East wall. It has been a LONG time since he went solo, probably the first few weeks of the game when he stuck around the starter areas of the game. As a mage, he has tremendous power compared to the other player classes. Indeed, magicians are in tune with the digital coding that makes up this virtual world of Eternia, with the ability to bend the digital ones and zeroes to their will via the magic screen view. However, the price of this power is vulnerability, including a smaller health bar and the inability to cast spells while wearing armor. Additionally, the mage’s repertoire of spells specifically excludes the Divine Sphere, the province of the Clergy. Thus, Lucious cannot magically heal himself, and he carries a stash of healing potions inside his Bag of Holding. Given these disadvantages, mages don't normally go solo unless they are reckless and seeking a quick death. Nonetheless, the dungeon designers decided to split the party, and Lucious must rise to the occasion. Standing taller, he calmly walks through the doorway.
SLAM! Resisting the urge to turn around when the door is slammed shut behind his back, the battle mage stands his ground and allows his eyes to adjust to the dark. “Boy, it sure is dark here,” he comments aloud as he taps his staff lightly on the ground. He is about to command his staff orb to glow when he remembers that he is solo now. I can't create a light and announce my presence to whatever is in this tunnel, he realizes. Boy, I‘m getting too soft, the spell caster admonishes himself. Instead, he decides to cast a Cat's Eye spell to allow his eyes to see in the dark. Holding his staff tightly with both hands, the battle mage closes his eyes and chants the arcane words of the spell: “oqty-bkip-mkxg-lsjv.”
The spell caster slowly opens his eyes, and peers at his surroundings from under the hood of his purple cloak. The world is now visible to him, albeit in shades of gray. He cannot distinguish by color at all. It is as if the world is in a perpetual state of twilight, or at least reverting back to the old days of black and white television. Nonetheless, Lucious sees that the passageway is empty, and that is the most important part anyway. He starts to take small, light steps forward, making a conscious effort to make as little sound as possible. He visualizes Conrad lumbering his big, athletic body lightly along the ground, and Lucious tries to imitate the barbarian’s movements.
After ten minutes or so of quietly walking through the winding passageway, Lucious finally stumbles upon an opening out of the dark passageway. He silently ends his Cat's Eye spell, allowing his vision to return to normal once more. As he leaves the now dark tunnel, he blinks his eyes several times, unable to believe his eyes. Before him is a lush, vibrant forest full of green color, with no trace of man. Lucious turns around, and sees that the tunnel has disappeared, trapping him inside this forest.
The spell caster slowly turns his head, taking in the surroundings, and wondering what enemies will appear to test his mettle. Given his current environment, the monsters are most likely nature-based. He wait is short, as the forest begins to stir and the giant trees begin to pull their roots out of the ground. The animated trees cause leaves to fall on the ground, and birds to chirp in alarm as they take flight and circle the sky above. Soon, half dozen trees, with branches for arms and humanoid in shape, begin to approach him.
“I guess these tree elementals are my welcoming committee,” Lucious notes. “How disappointing,” he adds as he begins to chant the arcane words of a Fire Storm spell: “dkmn-urwk-otyh-vfil-cmwe-myqd-kazd-wgji.” He grasps his magical staff tightly as he feels his mana reserve drained to power the fiery storm slowly appearing above the humanoid trees. Switching over to magic screen view on his virtual reality visor, the player drops a line above the animated trees, to designate the location for the clouds to appear. The player flips the camera angle from left to right and from top to bottom to ensure that Lucious has covered all the tree elementals that has appeared before the player. Satisfied with his designation, Lucious clicks “Enter” to allow the spell to take effect in-game. He returns to normal player view, and watch his spell being executed. Droplets of fire rain down from the fiery clouds and hungrily devour the wood, quickly turning the six tree elementals to ash.
As if angered by the deaths of these elementals, the very earth itself starts to rumble and shake uncontrollably!
Lucious is not surprised by this, as he realizes that the dungeon designers are not going to make this mission easy for him. Too bad the designers didn’t give me a chance to recover some mana first, he thinks with disappointment. It is quite possible that their goal is to make me use up my mana pool, and see how I would handle the remaining mobs without the full use of my spell book, he anticipates
.
The spell caster touches the encrusted purple colored stone of the earring on his left ear, and whispers a command word, “Levitate.” He slowly rises off the ground until he is exactly five feet above the moving earth. In a show of confidence, he starts spinning his staff behind his back like a Shaolin monk, and then twirls the staff around his waist. Finally, he grabs the staff with both hands and holds it out in front of him, ready to cast another deadly spell.
Suddenly, a large shadow flies over his head! Lucious looks up, and sees that the shadow belongs to a large boulder that had been tossed into the air. The stone, easily bigger than the player character, lands on the ground a few yards behind him. Splat!
Another boulder appears high in the sky, and Lucious quickly moves forward toward the trees, which are blocking the view of whatever is throwing those boulders at him.
While Lucious is moving among the trees, a boulder strikes a tree directly in front of him, causing branches to break off, and covering the adventurer's cloak with tree leaves. There goes my plan to use the trees to hide, he thinks with annoyance. Whatever is throwing those boulders at me must have good eyesight to find me within these trees.
Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way, the mage thinks to himself as he stops moving and an idea pops into his head. What will the stone thrower do when he CAN’T see me? Closing his eyes, the spell caster chants the arcane words to unleash the Invisibility spell: “iiko-bako-wglm-qydm.” I have to move quickly since the spell drains one mana per second, he reminds himself. The mage touches his stone earring to levitate again, to avoid making noise by walking on the ground. He carefully avoids the branches, and soon the forest is behind him.
Standing a good twenty feet in front of him is a thirty foot tall giant with one eye in the middle of his forehead – a Cyclops! The Cyclops is staring intently at the trees, trying to locate the human who had just disappeared. A giant boulder is being palmed in the monster's right hand like a basketball. The monster tosses it lightly in the air and it lands squarely back in his palm. Suddenly, the Cyclops throws the boulder into the forest in frustration, not caring where it goes but hoping to spook his prey into revealing his location.
Lucious is lurking behind a big oak tree near the edge of the forest, crouching down next to some shrubs on the ground. Having dropped his invisibility spell and relieving himself of the point of mana per second drain, the spell caster is patiently waiting for his mana pool to fill up completely while studying the tactics of the Cyclops. It is the first time that Lucious has encountered a Cyclops, and he wonders if the mob has any sort of vulnerability, aside from the one eye.
The spell caster looks at the spot where the Cyclops is standing, and sees that the ground is mostly dirt and sand, rather than hard, solid rocks. This is the perfect location for a quicksand, he realizes with excitement. Before the Cyclops decides to move out of that spot, Lucious hurriedly casts the Quicksand spell. Putting both palms on the ground and closing his eyes, he recites the arcane words to unleash the spell: “mogh-klvw-pijk-saji-zqeg-lewg-voxw.”
Switching over to his magical sight, the mage focuses on the ground beneath the giant, and seeks a nearby source of underground water to create the quicksand. Using his virtual reality gloves, the player taps into the stream and directs the flow of water upward, to saturate the sand under the giant, and liquefy the sediment in a twenty foot diameter around the Cyclops. If Lucious makes the area too small, the Cyclops could easily leave the quicksand and reach solid ground. I think a twenty foot diameter is wide enough area to keep the giant inside the quicksand, he thinks confidently.
As the water continues to saturate the ground underneath the Cyclops, the sediment starts to lose the strength to support the giant's massive weight. The ground begins to shift under the Cyclops' feet, causing him to sink into the ground.
The Cyclops immediately realizes the danger, and tries to move away from the dangerous spot and search for solid ground. With each step he takes, the giant sinks further into the rapidly developing quicksand. The monster continues to move forward, heading towards the forest. Soon the Cyclops has sunk almost entirely into the quicksand, and he is still too far away from even the nearest branch in the forest to pull himself out. His chin barely above the unsteady ground, the monster finally stops moving in order to avoid sinking even deeper into the pit.
Lucious sees that his enemy has been fully immobilized, and finally releases the quicksand spell. The player makes a quick check of his mana bar, and sees that he has blown 60% of his mana pool on the quicksand spell. The exhausted spell caster sits on the ground, still at the end of the forest, and waits to see if the Cyclops has any companions nearby.
After ten minutes of waiting, the spell caster finally gets off the floor. He pats on his robes to shake loose the leaves clinging onto his golden robe. He flubs his purple cloak to knock off the leaves as well. Activating his left earring, he slowly levitates toward the trapped Cyclops.
The Cyclops stares at the adventurer with his single giant eye, unblinking and unflinching as the puny human hovers closer to his head. The giant has realized that resistance is futile, and awaits his final, ignoble death of the hands of this tiny, puny creature.
Hovering five feet away, Lucious stares back the cyclops. “It appears that killing you is a criteria to move to the next stage of this campaign. I have already defeated you, but allowed you to live. Still, nothing has changed in this area, no portal, no appearance of a new monster, nothing,” he shrugs. “So it is clear what I have to do now,” he continues. “No hard feelings, okay?”
The spell caster points the orb of his magical staff at one of the large boulders nearby. He picks out the biggest one among a stack of a dozen or so. He mentally activates the Telekinesis spell effect within his staff. With his magical sight, Lucious sees a purple tendril of power wrap around his chosen boulder, and he slowly pulls the chosen boulder towards his position in front of the Cyclops.
The Cyclops cannot turn his head, and sees the boulder that is slowly creeping towards him. He does not utter a single sound as the large boulder is bashed repeatedly against the back of his head. Finally, the giant loses consciousness, and his face leans forward into the quicksand, slowly suffocating to death.
Blood slowly pour out of cuts and gashes from the Cyclops' head, and seeps into the quicksand. The ground slowly turns pink and red as more fresh blood is absorbed into the pit.
Rumble! The earth starts to tremble as the dying giant's body is pulled entirely into the ground, below the surface. The yellowy sediments start turning crimson as the body is crushed by the earth. Suddenly, a giant earth elemental explodes from the ground!
Lucious subconsciously backs away in horror as the Cyclops' body is half dangling from the powerful elemental's mouth. The mage keeps tilting his head up in astonishment at the size of this creature. It is easily one hundred feet tall, he notes with alarm.
The giant earth creature opens its maw, revealing rows of razor sharp stones, and devours the Cyclops in one gulp. Without warning, the elemental lashes out with its left arm, and tries to grab the adventurer!
Lucious wills his body to levitate towards the left, and the granite like hand slam onto the ground beside him. He wills his body to move further left, to put some distance between himself and the monster.
The earth elemental races across the surface of the ground, and begins to shorten the distance between itself and the human. It takes a swipe again with its right hand and tries to grab the mage.
Lucious ducks, and avoids the granite hand again.
Abruptly, the elemental dives into the ground as if it is a pool of water.
The mage looks around and can't find any trace of his pursuer. Should I cast a flight spell instead, he ponders. Suddenly the ground erupts from underneath him, and engulfs Lucious from all sides! The mage alertly drops the levitation spell effect, and mentally commands his staff to create a telekinetic bubble around him.
Lucious holds out his left land, and
feels the bubble separating him apart from the earth. I have to get out before my air supply runs out, he realizes. He feels his impromptu cocoon being dragged downward into the earth.
Suddenly, a voice speaks out from inside the elemental. “Lucious, my child. Do you know who I am?” the female voice asks, with a tinge of amusement.
The mage blinks his eyes, wondering just who could communicate with him right now through an earth elemental. He immediately realizes that this ability is beyond the providence of any normal player, and quickly narrows his list of possible candidates. He speaks out his top choice. “Greetings, Earth Mother.” She is a greater god of Eternia, controlling the element of earth within this virtual world.
“How delightful you are, my child!” the Earth Mother replies, delighted at the immediate recognition of Her identity.
“How may I serve you, Earth Mother?” Lucious asks humbly. He realizes that she wants something from him, and decides to cut right to the chase. Those folks at EDE are really sick puppies! How the heck am I supposed to fight a greater god of Eternia – by myself?
“And sharp too,” the voice notes teasingly. “Very well, my child. I shall answer you directly. I want you,” she answers bluntly.
“You want me?” he asks in puzzlement. “I'm afraid I don't understand.” He shakes his head.
“Hohoho,” the Earth Mother chuckles. “I have need of you. As you know, the World of Eternia is divided into the four elements of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. As a game within the game, each elemental faction undergoes missions and quests that expand its control over this virtual world at the expense of another faction. And you, my child, are among the most powerful un-pledged mages remaining in this world. I wish for you to join with me, and devote yourself to the Earth,” she explains.
Oh great! A solicitation to join the cause at the least convenient moment, the player thinks wryly. “I am flattered that you think so highly of me, and decided to recruit me personally to join the Earth clan,” he replies politely. “However, I strive for independence, both as a player in World of Eternia and in my personal life. I have equal respect for all four elements and I simply cannot favor one element over another. Thus, I see myself as a 'naturalist,' and have no desire to change my neutrality in this regard,” Lucious answers.
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