Lion's Quest: Dual Wield: A LitRPG Saga

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “We are going to add that next. How is the clothes log in working? Did you have your gear on when you logged in last time? I was in a meeting and didn’t see.”

  “That has been fixed for a while. Thanks. I’ll want to jump back after I eat. Wicum, Mirea, and Cornalic said they were going to sell the gold dining set and gems we found. I’m hoping that I can get another skill with the money.”

  “Leo, I am very happy that you are so addicted to my game, and it sounds like you are close to finding the first relic, but I need you to take care of yourself. Your mother’s first VRIU session is in an hour. I think you should be there, and then I think you should spend the remainder of the day resting. You can log back in tomorrow morning, and continue with your quest at that point.”

  “Mom’s session is today?” I thought back to the schedule that Zarra had given me. I was losing track of the days I was in real life and playing.

  “Yes. That was why I wanted you to hurry. I thought that you were going to keep playing, so I almost canceled it. I really think you should be there. She’ll be medicated when we help her into the VRUI, but it will help a lot to have you there. We did a dry run last night, and she cooperated, but we didn’t have the liquid in the vat.”

  “Yeah. I really want to be there,” I said. “Can I sit in the observation room?”

  “Sure, or you can sit next to the VRIU, but if you are in the observation room you can see the views in game. Whatever you want, but first you need to eat, and afterward you need to rest. I want you to take the day off from Ohlavar Quest. Agreed?”

  “Ha. I thought you wanted me to get these relics as quickly as possible.” I gave the beautiful woman a wink.

  “I do!” she laughed, “but you aren’t going to find any of them if you don’t take care of yourself. You professional gamer types only know max speed all the time. I imagined that Sal and your personal trainers made you take a lot of breaks?”

  “Yeah. They did,” I said as I thought about the mandatory vacations my manager would coordinate with Calic. “Sal never wanted me to get burnt out.”

  “There you go, and here we are,” the woman said as one of Arnacript’s employees opened the door to the cafeteria. The inside of the restaurant was surprisingly busy, but there was a clock on the wall that claimed it was 8:15 AM, and I guessed everyone was fueling up before their day.

  “We are going to eat in here,” Zarra said as she gestured to a nook on the wall a bit removed from the rest of the restaurant. “I usually want to eat in the central area, but your mother’s treatment is starting at nine, and I don’t want to get delayed any. Everyone loves you and will want your autograph.”

  “I understand,” I said as I slid into the booth opposite Zarra.

  Almost as soon as I sat, a trio of waitresses set plates of eggs, sausage, bacon, fruit, breakfast potatoes, smoked salmon, bagels, juice, water, and coffee on the table. Zarra and I thanked the women when they finished setting everything down, and then we dug into our food when they left.

  “I almost don’t feel hungry in the game,” I said before I ate some eggs.

  “Your body just gets into fasting mode and doesn’t want to eat. Happens when people really focus on something. I’m sure you’ve skipped plenty of meals playing Astafar Unlimited,” she said as she spread some cream cheese on a bagel.

  “Oh yeah. Especially when I first started playing. I was so excited to learn everything, and the progression was happening quickly.”

  “Do you have any feedback about your last session?”

  “Just the scent stuff. That undead dragon snake was awful, and the clock in the UI.”

  “Got it. Anything else?”

  “It seems as if the NPCs can’t identify items, and they are amazed that I can do it. Why is that?” I asked after I scarfed down a strip of crispy bacon. I was trying to eat slowly, but as soon as my mouth had tasted the food, it had reminded my stomach I hadn’t eaten in a while, and it was demanding to be filled.

  “When we were designing the game, we wanted players to feel more heroic than the NPCs. This was one of the features we came up with. I’m glad that you brought this up because I was thinking that we might take it out.”

  “Take it out?” I asked.

  “Yes. On the one hand, it is nice that players can identify and use magical items while in a dungeon, but I can see an advantage to making players have to work a bit more to figure out what items really are.”

  “What would be the advantage?” I asked.

  “It would create a secondary economy around identifying magical items. The more powerful an item is, the harder it is for these Mind sages to identify. If we let players do it easily through their UI, that service might fade away from the game world. If we don’t let players do it easily through the UI, they would have to choose to learn the abilities. There might be players that devote their whole career to learning how to classify magical items. It would be an interesting path for players to take, but it goes back to the entire theme of Ohlavar Quest. I want this game to be everything to everyone, and I want people to be able to find thousands of different tasks to amuse themselves with, but some thematic choices will swing the game in very different directions.” The woman’s lavender eyes glittered when she spoke, and she couldn’t hide the excitement in her voice. Zarra really loved talking about her game, and the passion she displayed made my heart hammer in my chest.

  “I get it. If you let players identify items through their UI, it will make dungeon exploration more fun, but the other choice will probably make city and economy building more fun,” I said with a nod.

  “Yes. So which is it going to be?”

  “Ha. I’m more of the adventuring type. I kind of like it the way it is now, and I like how the NPCs thought it was special. I should be able to find groups much easier if I can figure out what magical items are on the fly. Then again, that won’t be quite as unique if there are millions of people in the game world that can also do it.”

  “Exactly,” she said before she took a bite of her bagel.

  “Maybe just change the NPCs so that they can all do it?”

  “That is a possibility, but Ohlavar set up the world this way organically, and I’m worried that tweaking it might have unforeseen consequences.”

  “I don’t understand. It is just the AI, can’t you change it easily?” I asked after I’d chewed another piece of bacon. I’d eaten almost the entire plate in under a minute, and I almost reached for the last few pieces, but I wanted to save them in case Zarra wanted them.

  “Well yes, and no. We programmed Ohlavar, and then he programmed the world. Then he programmed the last five hundred-ish years. So I can make some small changes, but something like this could really screw things up, and I’d have to reset the game. It is something I want to avoid unless you tell me it is absolutely needed or the game won’t sell. I’m guessing you don’t feel that way about this topic?” she asked as she smiled at me.

  “Naw. I’ll think about it a bit more. I guess it would be a new ability to identify green items, then a new one to determine blue items, then purple, and—”

  “Yes. So if we didn’t put it as a feature of the UI, players would have to spend the money or time, and have the Mind attribute to learn it,” she confirmed.

  “Leo,” a woman’s voice called my name, and I turned around in the booth to see who it was. The voice had sounded as if it was really far away.

  It sounded like Allurie’s voice.

  “What’s wrong?” Zarra asked with concern.

  “I thought I heard someone call my name. It sounded like Allurie. So weird.” Goosebumps were crawling down my arms, and I reached for my hot cup of coffee with my right hand.

  “You’ve been playing for way too long. I’ll tell the programmers to hurry up on the clock overlay. We also need to set a reminder or something like Astafar Unlimited has, so you’ll know when you’ve been logged in too long.” The woman reached across the table and laid her fingers on top of my lef
t hand. Her skin felt wonderful and some of my surprise left my body. “We can wait till tomorrow morning for your mother. I think you should get some rest first.”

  “No. I’m okay. My dad is tomorrow isn’t he? I don’t want to hold his treatment up.” I looked around the restaurant again to see if a woman was waving to me. There were plenty of employees giving us sidelong glances, and I guessed that they all wanted to come say hi to me, but no one looked like they had shouted to get my attention.

  Zarra was probably right. I used to have vivid dreams when I first started playing Astafar Unlimited, so I guessed that part of my mind probably thought I was still in the game world. There had been a bunch of research about how VR games can change brain wave patterns. Hell, Zarra’s whole treatment of Alzheimer’s relied on her game healing the brain through Ohlavar Quest.

  I drank half of my cup of coffee, and finished another helping of eggs before I felt full. Zarra ate like a bird, and only had a few bites of eggs with her bagel. As soon as it looked like I’d finished my meal, she asked if I was ready to go to my mother’s treatment room. I said I was, and we left the restaurant for the hallways of the hospital wing of Arnacript.

  “Here is her treatment room. She is actually sharing with your father, we have a dual suite next door so they can stay together,” Zarra said as she gestured to a plain door in the hallway.

  I opened the door and stepped into a space that looked almost exactly like my own VRIU room. I half expected to see Ky, Jennifer, and Trina in the room, but there were three women that I’d never met attending to the different workstations. In place of Ky, a woman with black pixie cut hair was stirring the VRIU. A long haired brunette was sitting in the observation room, and a tall blonde woman sat occupied by a digi-pad near the side entrance to the room.

  “Team, I’ve brought Mr. Lennox here to observe his mother’s first treatment.” The women hadn’t looked away from their work when the door to the lab opened, but when Zarra spoke the trio jumped to attention.

  “Hello, Mr. Lennox, I’m Dr. Lori Pinntay,” the tall blonde woman said as she pushed out her hand. “I’ve been overseeing your mother’s treatment here.”

  “Nice to meet you. I recall seeing your name with some of the paperwork Zarra gave me,” I said as I shook her hand.

  “Great. I apologize for not speaking with you sooner. Our schedules haven’t quite freed up for a proper meeting.” The woman had a bit of a British accent, and I recalled that her resume said she had a Phd. in Clinical Neurosciences from Cambridge. I was actually a bit surprised by how old she was. Her resume had been extremely long, very impressive, and I had expected a woman in her fifties or sixties. Dr. Pinntay seemed only a few years older than me.

  “That’s no problem. I’m here now, and I am excited to see how this will work.”

  “I’m afraid it won’t be that exciting,” the woman laughed. “These first sessions are very short, and we spend a lot of time going over the game world interface. Which I hear you’ve already mastered?” The woman raised an eyebrow as she looked at Zarra.

  “He is the champ.” Zarra smiled at Dr. Pinntay, and then pointed at the woman stirring the black VRIU liquid. “This is Daisy Camilo, she’s one of our most senior VRIU techs.”

  “Nice to meet you, Champ. I was a little upset they assigned Ky to be your tech instead of me, but I’m happy that I get to help your mom out.” The woman set her paddle down, and then walked around the unit to shake my hands.

  “Thanks for taking care of her,” I smiled at the short haired woman as I shook her hand. I wondered if Zarra had an “only hire pretty women” policy, since every person of the opposite sex I’d seen at Arnacript had been very attractive.

  “Hi, Leo, I’m Dr. Angela Drottar. I’m a software engineer and a geriatric psychiatrist,” the pretty brunette woman greeted me as she stepped out from behind the glass. I shook her hand and confirmed my earlier belief about Zarra only hiring pretty women. I’d read the woman’s resume a few days ago before I went to sleep, and she’d had an even more impressive list of letters after her name, and universities, than her co-worker Dr. Pinntay.

  “Thanks for taking care of my mom,” I said as I shook the pretty woman’s hand.

  “We don’t just intend to take care of her, our goal is to heal her back to full,” Dr. Pinntay said. “I’m having a nurse give her the medication. She should be ready for treatment in a few minutes.”

  “Would you like to join us in the observation room? Or would you rather be out here when Lori and Daisy help her get into the VRIU?” Zarra asked.

  “Ahhh. I think the observation room is fine. I’d prefer not to see my mother naked,” I chuckled a bit, and the other four women echoed my laugh.

  “Right this way then, Champ,” Dr. Drottar said as she gestured to the space behind the glass.

  I followed the pretty brunette into the alcove, and sat between her and Zarra. In front of us was a surprisingly large array of screens, keyboards, and complicated looking buttons. All of the screens were blank except for two. One showed a view of a grove of trees similar to the place I logged in near Cutno, the other showed a complicated matrix of data tables and numbers. It looked to be some sort of control interface, but I had no idea what it could have been used for.

  “I’m ready,” Daisy said as she made a final calibration on the side of the VRIU.

  “I’ll be right back with Mary,” the tall blonde doctor said before she went through the door on the side of the room.

  My mother came out with Dr. Pinntay. She was wearing a white Arnacript robe, and the doctor helped her back to the alcove.

  “Why do I need to do this again?” she asked with confusion.

  “The first couple of times are always difficult for new patients,” Dr. Drottar explained as she turned down the speaker feedback from outside of the glass observation room. “Once they’ve been through half a dozen sessions, they get used to the procedure.”

  “How long does it take to get the memories back?”

  “Depends on the patient, and I hate to make promises. Your parent’s condition is stage five, but on bad days it can be a stage six. They still have bowel and bladder control, but the charts I’ve studied of their medical history show that they had a rather steep decline over the last ten years.”

  “Yeah. I’d noticed some stuff before I became Champion of Astafar Unlimited, but when I started seriously competing, and I wasn’t around all day, it really took a toll on them.” The glass around us suddenly turned opaque, and I realized that my mother was probably getting into the tank.

  “You’ve read our treatment plan?” the long haired brunette asked.

  “Ahhh. I have, but I must admit that while I’ve spent a lot of time devoted to finding a cure, most of what was in the plan didn’t make sense to me.”

  “We are very confident that their deterioration will stop with treatment.”

  “Yeah, I did get that from the paperwork,” I had read through the document Zarra sent me a few times, and while a good deal of it was medical speak I was unfamiliar with, they had made it clear that they thought deterioration would stop after the first few treatments.

  “We’ll have a better feel for treatment after a month of sessions.”

  “One a week?” I asked, even though I’d recalled the paperwork saying that.

  “Yes. Then we’ll move up to two a week for the second month.”

  The glass of our observation room suddenly became clear, and I could see Daisy crouching near the far side of the VRIU. The woman was touching some of the buttons and gave us the thumbs up sign.

  “We are good to log in,” Dr. Pinntay said as she stepped behind the glass. “Patient is prepped and eager to start.”

  “Eager to start?” I asked in surprise.

  “Well, she cooperated. Which is more than I can say for most of our patients.” The blonde doctor nodded to Dr. Drottar, and the other woman began to press some buttons on her computer terminal.

  “You have a pro
blem getting them in the VRIU?” I asked.

  “Don’t act surprised, Leo,” Zarra chuckled. “I can recall you complaining to me about getting in your first time. Now you jump in without even turning the privacy glass on.”

  “Damn, I can’t believe Ky got that assignment,” Daisy’s aggravated growl came over the speaker in our small room.

  “Uhh. Daisy, we can hear you,” Dr. Drottar said.

  “Ahhh shi—. I mean, uhhh. Everything is good on my end.” The woman’s face was bright red, and she raised her hand to scratch at her pixie length black hair. “Do you mind if I uhhh step out for a few moments?”

  “No, but be back in ten. Go check on Jamie’s tank,” the brown haired doctor said.

  “Jamie?” I asked as Daisy scurried out of the room.

  “She’s Dr. Pinntay’s and my assistant. Behavioral psychologist. She is logged into Ohlavar Quest, and will help your mother get used to moving around in the game. She’ll perform a few short exercises with her, and then we’ll be done for the session. It will be easy.”

  “Sorry for the delay, Mary. We’ll be logging into Ohlavar Quest in five, four, three, two, one,” the brown haired woman counted down as she pressed a few buttons on her keyboard.

  The screens in front us flickered to life, and there was a short loading screen with an Ohlavar Quest logo. It was in purple and orange, and the ‘Q’ of Quest was stylized to look like the planet with the orange ring around it that I could see on the horizon while playing the game.

  “Brain patterns are normal.” Dr. Pinntay was looking at a separate set of screens that showed my mother’s vital signs and a multi-lined graph that I guessed were readings from her brain, but I wasn’t really a doctor.

  “She’s in the game. Take a look Leo,” Zarra said, and I glanced back at the main display. It was from my mother’s point of view, and she was looking around the trees much in the same manner that I had when I first logged in.

  “Mrs. Lennox?” a voice asked, my mother turned around and saw a young woman with curly strawberry blonde hair.