by D. Rus
His dialogues with the Sun God... A pentagram covered in blood... a molten gold statue... some incomprehensible but spine-chilling rituals...
Struggling to focus on the here and now, my mind registered the priest's body sinking right on top of the altar. I barely managed to grab at his flimsy toga, stopping his fall in my fabric-ripping grip.
Dammit! I'd very nearly sacrificed the old idiot on his own altar, desecrating the temple and activating the Child of Chaos quest!
His body shuddered one last time, then collapsed in a heap of black sand that immediately turned into millions of tiny spiders. The shining under the Temple's dome grew dull, the magic mana flow disrupted by this barbaric elimination of its vital link.
I shook my head free of the last bits of borrowed memories, closing the system messages that flooded my interface,
The Goddess has looked with favor on your sacrifice.
New religious status confirmed: Junior Priest.
Your faction relationship with the Goddess has improved from Hateful Bastard to Funny Little Shit.
Special skill used: you have received 1% of the victim's XP.
Congratulations! You've reached level 162!
…
Congratulations! You've reached level 163!
Racial bonus: +1 to Intellect
Class bonus: +1 to Strength, +1 to Constitution
10 Characteristic points available! You now have 10 Characteristic points!
1 Talent point available! You now have 2 Talent points!
Congratulations! You've observed and learned an out of class skill: Gilding
May the world shine the color of noble gold in His name!
Status restrictions: Only Priest
In exchange for 1 Faith point, this skill will plaque 10 square ft. of any inanimate surface with a fine layer of gold leaf.
Aha. Now I could see why their temples glittered like Christmas trees. And why their warriors were parading around in precious armor!
Whack, time regained its momentum, ending the slow motion effect of the emotional surge. Dozens of temple guards sprang into action, sinking their swords into their victim.
I managed to duck successfully a few times, ricocheted a bullet off myself and even managed to parry a crossbow bolt. None of which saved the situation. Within the first second, my hits dropped 25%.
I hurried to activate a new 30-second immunity stretch and gestured to the wizzies... time to leg it! A random exit portal demanded a lot of open space so it didn't work within city limits. We had to use a classic one.
There were only two wizards left standing. The other two had been hit by the raging Basilisk. Never mind. One was plenty.
Somewhere out of focus, the interface counted down seconds — both to the jump and to the end of my immunity period. In the meantime, I was having a field day, frolicking about in the thick of the charging guards with a wide grin on my face. A jab! A blow! A lunge! And again! I just wished I had time to pick up the loot. Such high-level bodies were bound to have some yummy items on them. What a shame that my Holy Unmercenary skill only worked in battle with other players!
I had mere seconds left until the jump. Who else could I impale on my spear?
In front of me, a portal swelled open, sending colorful snowflakes flickering in the air. My brain failed to register the appearance of the Sparks of Divine Presence. I wielded my pink dagger on autopilot, slashing through the furious face turning to me — the face of the Sun God.
He was barely within my reach. It was also possible that my hand had quivered at the last moment. Why would I lie to you? Have you ever tried to punch a chief of police in the face? And he's only human, mind you. I — I did it to a god.
The tip of the dagger sliced through the divine cheek from ear to chin, leaving hanging a whole sheet of skin and muscle and exposing the Sun God's scary scowl.
The soul of the demon imprisoned in the staff cried out in disbelief and chomped greedily, choking on the drops of blood that dotted the pink blade.
The infuriated god bellowed. Croaking an unintelligible curse, he slashed with a fiery sword that had appeared in his hand out of nowhere.
It took the heated plasma a split second to smash through my immunity but that was all the time I needed. The portal popped, pulling me out of its deadly way. Saved by the bell.
The last thing I noticed was Badaboom grinning happily as he raised his hammer over a 500K GP bomb which he'd dumped right on top of the altar.
Teleport! A physically impossible echo of a gigantic Boom rushed overhead. My men shook their heads in awe. Me, I rubbed my cheek grazed by the plasma sword as I peered at a new system message,
Status alert! You've received new status: Arch Enemy to a God.
End of Book Four
From the author:
Dear reader! Thank you for your loyalty to the AlterWorld. I am glad that you’ve grown fond of Max’s story. Just like you, I want the rest of the books in the series to get published as soon as possible. But the publication process is being hampered by the expenses and the time-frames associated with translation.
The cost of translating one book ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. The translation itself takes up to 4 months.
There are currently 7 books in the series that are already written, plus additional stories. I am also working on a new LitRPG series about outer space.
In response to the readers’ demands, I am opening a crowdfunding company to raise capital for translating the rest of the books.
Link to campaign: http://igg.me/at/rus
If we raise enough money, I will hire a second translator to speed up the process and get the books out twice as fast! The new volumes will be released every one and a half or two months! If we only raise a portion of the funds, this will in any case help shorten the waiting time between the book releases. After paying for the translation of one book, it is quite difficult for me to find another spare $7,000 in order to instantly get the next book translated. I am forced to save… which is long and painful…
There are no risks involved; the books are ALREADY written. The only issue is translating them. Every dollar counts; it will be put to good use! A single dollar shortens the waiting time by 10 hours!
Everyone who decides to help out will receive a few wonderful volumes from the AlterWorld series as a thank-you gift: The Sense Of Duty, which recounts the story of the Doc and the hospice, and also The Three Bears And The Zombie Legion, the story of how the Inferno powers came to Earth.
Those who give $10+ will have their names printed in the Acknowledgement Section.
Those who give $30+ will receive the first book in the series with my autograph!
Those who give $60+will additionally receive 3 autographed volumes!
If you can’t afford to donate, it’s no big deal; I am still endlessly grateful to all of you for falling in love with the world I have created! Besides, there are other ways to make major contributions; you could recommend the series to your friends, write a review, or share a link to the books on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks again for your support!
Yours truly,
Dmitriy Rus
MMORPG Glossary[ii]
AFK
Away from keyboard
Aggro
As a verb, it refers to a hostile mob that has noticed a player and is actively trying to attack that player. As a noun, it refers to the amount of “hostility” the player has generated on the mob. In typical combat strategy, the fighter tries to take as much aggro as possible away from weaker players such as healers and mages.
Alt
Short for "alternate". It refers to the alternate character a player has from their main character. This is not a stable category as sometimes alts can outlevel mains and sometimes mains become moth-balled.
Alt Tab
The act of using the ALT+TAB keys to jump from application to application
Bind
In certain MMOs, characters are teleported back to a safe
spot when they die. This spot is predetermined by the user. The act of determining the safe spot requires an explicit action by the user. That action is known as a bind. The spot is typically referred to as a bind spot.
Bind on equip
This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after they have been equipped. In other words, the item can be traded as long as no one equips it.
Bind on pickup
This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after it has been picked up from a monster. In other words, the item cannot be traded once a player picks it up. BoP items commonly cause looting conflicts and disputes during game-play.
Bokken sword
A wooden training sword
Buff
Temporary boost to character attribute or combat ability
Camp(ing)
The act of waiting in an area to hunt a specific mob or a specific spawn
Caster
A mage or a wizard
Char/Toon
A player or their character.
Class
Professional archetypes. In D&D games, these would be warrior, healer, rogue and mage. The most typical class types are: close-range damage, ranged damage, healing, crowd control, support.
Cleric
Typical healing class in D&D style games
Combo
A combination of hits, especially causing severe damage like paralyzing or bleeding
Corpse
In certain MMOs, a corpse appears where the player died. Sometimes all the player’s items and money are left on the corpse and the player is teleported back to their bind spot. Corpses typically will decay after a certain time proportional the character’s level.
Corpse Run
The act of retrieving your corpse after you have died. This is typically a dangerous thing because people tend to die in dangerous places rather than safe places.
Crafting
A general category of skills that allows players to manufacture objects from raw resources
Crit
"To crit" refers to landing a critical hit either with melee or spells. Effective damage is usually increased from a base of 150% to upwards of 250% with extra talents/skills/buffs.
Crowd Control
Refers to a set of spells / abilities that temporarily paralyze or stun other mobs or players. Crowd control is an important group support ability when fighting multiple mobs.
DD
Direct Damage. Used to refer to a class of spells and abilities that allow players to damage enemies from a distance. The firebolt is the archetypal DD.
DD/DPS
A character whose primary role in a group setting is to deal damage to the opponents.
Debuff
The opposite of a buff. An offensive spell cast on enemies that weakens an attribute or combat ability.
Donator
A player who invests real money into virtual gear
DoT
Damage over time. Refers to a class of spells that deals damage over a period of time. These spells typically do more damage than DD spells overall.
DpS
Damage per second. Used when figuring out weapon speed and damage.
Drow
A Dark Elf race
Druid
Hybrid class in D&D style games — part healer, part support, part fighter.
Enchanter
A mage specializing in buffs
Epic
An extremely rare item or quest. Has come to mean something exceptionally cool and hard to get.
Experience
A quantity gained when completing tasks/quests, killing mobs, or various other achievements in games. When enough experience is accrued, characters often “level up” and become more powerful.
Familiar
Same as pet
Farm(ing)
The act of accumulating currency or a specific item by repeatedly killing a mob or repeatedly performing a series of actions
Gnoll
An NPS (AI-controlled character) race of humanoid hyenas
Guilds
Semi-permanent player groups. In typical games, players must use a substantial amount of capital to start the guild.
Health
A base attribute of characters
LFG
“looking for group”
Lich
A race of the undead
Loot
Currency or items that are dropped by a mob when it is defeated
Mana
A commonly-used pool of magic potential (magical analog of health points)
MMORPG
Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
Mob
An AI controlled monster. 'Mob' originally comes from the MUD era, where it was short for 'mobile', to differentiate monsters that would patrol a set of rooms as opposed to monsters which would stay in one place until killed.
Mount
Any riding animal from a donkey to a dragon
Newbie
A new inexperienced player
Newblette
A new and inexperienced female player
Noob
The pejorative form of newbie or an unskilled arrogant player
NPC
Non-player character (ie. controlled by AI)
Nuke
Refers to casters, to cast the highest damage spell or spell combo to effectively pull or finish of a npc. Mages usually are the most effective class in highest burst damage.
Nuker
A caster who throws a lot of damage spells on a target.
Perma
Permanent, permanently
Pet
A creature that can be summoned to help and defend a player
PK
Player Killer — a derogatory term — as in a person who primarily plays to kill other players
PK counter
Shows the number of players already killed by a PK and allows to calculate the chances of his dropping an item if killed by another player
Port
Short for teleport. Used as a noun and a verb.
Powerlevel
Same as rush. When a higher level player tries to help a lower level player level faster. Most games have mechanisms that prevent power leveling.
Pull
A standard hunting strategy where a player lures a single or a group of mobs to the group so that the group can hunt from a safe area instead of hunting in areas where new mobs may spawn.
PvP
Player vs. Player combat
Quest
A set of tasks of a player to complete
Quest item
An item needed to complete a quest
Race
Typically fantastical creations, such as Elves, Trolls and the like.
Raid
A more substantial engagement involving a large organized group of players typically set in a dungeon and involving difficult mobs
Regen
Short for regeneration (of health, mana, or other replenishable attributes)
Resist
A parameter showing one's chances to resist a spell, whether partially or completely
Respawn
A character's resurrection after being killed
Rogue
A game class used for scouting and spying
Root
Can refer to a class of abilities as well as its effect. A root spell immobilizes a target. The target is then said to be rooted. Early versions of these abilities involved references to plants, hence "root".
Rush
Same as powerlevel
Server
Due to technical reasons, each server can only support a limited amount of players. Each MMORPG typically has several servers. Players cannot interact with players on other servers.
Slot
A storage unit, especially in a player's bag
Snare
An ability which slows down a character's movement speed, but they are still capabl
e of moving.
Solo
The act of playing alone, hunting mobs alone.
Soulbound
An item-control mechanic where an item cannot be traded. In other words, only one person can own the object and it cannot be traded. See also BoE and BoP.
Spawn
Resurrect
Stealth
A type of invisibility that lets stealth characters sneak up on others for large critical strikes or for scouting.
Stun
A typical form of crowd control ability that immobilizes an enemy
Tank
As a noun, refers to character classes that can take a lot of damage. As a verb, refers to the act of drawing aggro from mobs before other team members strike with their abilities.
TSB
Toxic Sperm Buildup
Uber
Slang form of super
Wonder Waffle
From German Wunderwaffe, a wonder weapon
WTB
“want to buy”
WTS