Ascend Online

by Luke Chmilenko

  “Fair play!” Aldwin shouted, a faint frown showing on his face. “Always control your weapon!”

  Seizing the distraction, I dashed past the two Militiamen, slapping the spear from Ioun’s hand as I passed, kicking it behind me.

  Wiser than the younger pair, Wallace and Caleb had taken the time to form up together, shoulder to shoulder, and attacked with coordinated thrusts, one high, the other low. I was forced to give ground under their relentless advance, unable to parry both spears simultaneously.

  As my feet found the edge of the practice field once again, I conjured a Flare in my hand whipping it at the ground in front of the more experienced Militiamen. The Flare burst with an unexpected snap, causing both of them to flinch. My sword swept out at Caleb’s outstretched spear, smashing into it with all the fury I could muster, causing it to fly from his hands and off the field.

  “You are disarmed!” The Bann’s shout halted Caleb’s instinctive reaction to chase his weapon. “Fight!”

  At that moment, Ioun chose to rejoin the bout.

  He charged in from my flank, leading with a powerful thrust, that was sure to pierce straight through me, blunt edge or not. At the same time, Wallace lunged, sending a weak thrust towards my ribs. Desperately I reached out, grabbing Wallace’s spear and tugged it, pulling it in line with Ioun’s charge. With my sword I chopped down at Ioun’s thrust, redirecting it downwards, causing it to bury itself into the ground so that it trapped Wallace’s spear.

  Before either man could react, I stomped on the two intercrossed spears, jamming my boot in place and preventing either Ioun or Wallace from pulling free their weapon. A quick glance showed Loren crouched in pain, clutching at the ribs on his side with Shelia already kneeling beside him. I hefted my blade, ready to threaten any advance by Caleb.

  “Hold!” Aldwin shouted, disgust evident in his voice. “That’s enough! It seems my Militia is more dangerous to one another, rather than to the enemy! Take a break! You lot need it!”

  I heaved as I stepped off the spears and fell to the ground, gasping for air. It’s finally over. I think I’m going to die again… here I thought I exercised hard in Real Life…

  “Lyrian! What the hell are you doing?!” Sir Fredric Aldwin’s voice rang out. “The rest break is for them! Not you! Get up!”

  I liked him better before I knew he was a Knight.

  Chapter 17

  The Webwood

  Nemesis

  The transition from sentience to sapience was one filled with fear and confusion.

  Bloody paws tracked through the Dark Forest, eyes and ears ever alert for threats. The Many-Legged-Ones ruled the Dark Forest. It was an interloper here, and knew danger could come from any direction. If not from the Many-Legged, then from the Two-Legged. It knew there was a chance the other Two-Legs could come searching soon, so it hurried deeper into the woods in search of safety.

  It had been compelled to find a specific Two-Leg, somehow knowing the Two-Leg would be in the Dark Forest. It was easy prey to stalk, stampeding through the Dark Forest with other Two-Legs, no regard for stealth. It waited patiently, watching as the Two-Legs hunted the Many-Legs, biding its time until it could strike without fear.

  Now the Two-Leg’s blood covered its maw, and the mysterious compulsion was sated, it was eager to leave the Dark Forest and return to the Ridge.

  Why?

  The alien thought caused it to freeze mid-stride, ears straining to hear where it came from. Had the Two-Legs followed it?

  What?

  It quickly dropped to all fours, heart racing as it pressed itself down into the ground. It didn’t hear anything, but it could hear something.

  How?

  Instinct warred with the birth of new thoughts that it had no reference for, sending it into a panic. With a yowl of fear, it took off, sprinting wildly through the woods as it tried to outrun its own mind.

  Where am I?

  ***

  Aldford

  The evening found me slumped over a table inside the Town Hall, holding my head, with my face hovering inches away from a steaming [Webwood Casserole] Ragna had prepared for me. I breathed deeply, taking in the ever-so-slight minty aroma, mixed with a hint of venom infused spider meat that had my mouth watering. For the last minute, I’d been carefully working up the focus to pick up my fork to begin the meal.

  My head felt like it was ready to explode.

  I sighed as I finally summoned enough energy to lean back in my bench, and grab my utensil. I scooped a portion of the dish and took a bite. Instantly, the venom set fire to my mouth as I methodically chewed the meal.

  It was the best meal I had ever tasted.

  I looked down at the meal in surprise, forgetting the pain in my head, for a moment wondering how I even managed to arrive at the hall. The Bann had been relentless in his sparring, only pausing long enough between duels for Shelia to cast a healing spell on the two of us. I scooped another bite into my mouth, savoring the flavor. Between his ax and the Militiamen’s spears, I had been pummeled for nearly nine hours straight.

  If I hadn’t frozen after that skill increase… I’d probably still be out there. I closed my eyes as my head still struggled to make sense of all the information that had been loaded into it today. Under the Bann’s punishing tutelage, I had reached level 10 in Swords, level 7 in Unarmed Combat, and level 7 in Evocation, once he allowed no-holds-barred dueling.

  When I hit my last skill up in Swords at level 10, it was as if an ice pick stabbed itself through my forehead instantly forming a massive migraine as my brain attempted to assimilate the newest level of skill. It caused me to freeze mid-duel with Aldwin, who thankfully managed to pull a vicious blow directed at my head in time.

  Otherwise, I’d likely be sitting at this table with another round of Death Sickness and an even worse migraine.

  “Looks like you’ve surpassed your limit for the day,” was all the Knight said, looking at me with approval. “Go get some rest.”

  Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if the migraine was because I learned too many skills in a day, or because I had leveled a combat skill’s level past my class level.

  Possibly a combination of both? The Bann had essentially power leveled my skills through non-stop training over the course of a day. Maybe there’s a limit for taught skills?

  It would easily trivialize the game if higher level players could infinitely teach lower level players. At some point, after all, you just had to go into the wild and get first-hand experience.

  My fork scraped the bottom of the plate at the same moment the party walked in.

  “Lyrian!” Caius was the first to call out as the group rushed over. “Ah! What happened?!”

  “What did you do to your face?!” Halcyon gasped as he saw my new scars.

  “It’s been a long day…” I began as the others quickly grabbed seats at the table.

  “Lyrian…” Sierra’s eyes were fixated on my scars. “I’m sorry, I froze… I-”

  I shook my head waving her off. “It’s okay, Sierra. I threw you all into the fire today to see how you’d handle it. If anything, I should be the one apologizing!”

  “But, your face…”

  “Besides… dying isn’t so bad.” I shrugged, deciding to keep the odd vision to myself for now. “You just feel like crap for an hour, then it sort of… fades away.”

  “…I’m glad you’re okay… I didn’t know what to expect after we found you…”

  I smiled at Sierra and to the rest of the group. “So, what happened after I died? The fight go well? Did you see any more of those Webwood Aberrations?”

  The party shook their heads as they looked at Drace to speak. “It was touch and go with the horde Constantine pulled… the larger spiders were a pain to deal with and they nearly killed us. But we managed to pull through without seeing any more Aberrations.”

  Conversation paused as everyone relived their piece of the fight.

  “After the fight, we noticed you weren’t with u
s and when we realized we couldn’t sense you nearby, we looked around and found your body, covered in strange glowing… goop.” Drace motioned to Sierra, who pulled something from her inventory.

  “This was all I found in a loot sack near your body.” She handed me a blue glowing vial in her hand, eyes going to my scars once more. “What happened to you? It looked like something had… mauled you.”

  “Yeah…” I nodded as I began to explain my side of events, describing my brief fight with the Aberration and its spellcasting abilities, finishing off with the Nemesis’s attack. Despite it attacking Sierra, no one had seen the creature or come across another one during the day’s hunt.

  As I spoke, I looked down at the vial in my hand, a tag in my vision identifying it as [Strange Glowing Ichor] x5. I pocketed it for later investigation.

  “Your body just… dissolved a moment after we found it.” Sierra shrugged as she made an exploding motion with her hands. “A moment later, we sensed you again in the direction of Aldford.”

  “After that, it took us a bit of time to rest up. Then we decided to continue hunting like we agreed earlier. Much more carefully, though.” Drace glanced over at Constantine, as he continued to outline their day. “Long story short, we’re all level 9 now!”

  “That’s great!” I beamed at everyone, ecstatic that they were able to progress without me.

  “Lyr…” Drace looked at me intently. “Do you think that this… Nemesis… of yours will be a problem?”

  “I’m not sure…” I frowned as I considered the warrior’s question. “It caught me inches away from dying today, so I have no idea how strong it really was, and my death supposedly made it even stronger. Maybe?”

  “Hmm…” Drace exhaled as he collected his thoughts. “I think we should focus on getting our Base Classes as soon as possible then.”

  “Yeah, definitely.” Halcyon agreed.

  “I think it's a good idea too, but we also have another thing to consider,” I spoke quietly as I rubbed my temples, trying to banish the still present migraine. “Aldford itself.”

  “What about Aldford?” Sierra asked, but frowned as she saw me rubbing my head. “Wait, are you okay?”

  “Ugh, sort of.” I winced as the pain in my head flared. “I had a bit of a development with the Bann today…”

  I gave everyone the highlights of my day after resurrecting in Aldford, everything from the moment that the Bann revealed himself as a Knight of Eberia to the brutal training that he put the Militia and myself through.

  “…and now it feels like the morning after an entire bottle of Vodka.” I finished with a sigh, after explaining my theory on training limits.

  “Huh… a Knight,” Constantine mused. “Makes sense I suppose… they wouldn’t hand out land to just commoners.”

  “Not poor commoners at any rate,” Caius added. “Good to know about training limits, though.”

  “I wonder why he doesn’t have more retainers, though…” Halcyon commented. “Don’t Knights usually have big familial houses that support them?”

  “Maybe he earned his title during The War?” Sierra replied. “Have to start from somewhere.”

  “Could be…”

  “I can’t imagine how hard it’ll be to hit the limit as time goes on,” Drace said, moving away from the topic of the Bann’s Knighthood. “Skills are easy enough to level right now… it’s bound to slow down the higher they get.”

  “That’s true…” I nodded in agreement.

  “So what did you mean about Aldford?” Sierra asked.

  “We need to decide if we’re going to put roots down here in Aldford, or find somewhere else to go.” I began taking a deep breath. “And if we do stay… it’ll mean work.”

  “You want to leave?” The table groaned as Drace leaned to rest his massive bulk on it. “There isn’t anywhere else to go, short of going back to Eberia, or an aimless trek through the wild. What’s on your mind?”

  “The coming Adventurers,” I said with a sigh. “I hadn’t really given it much thought until today, well… just now actually, after training with the Militia.”

  “You’re afraid they’re going to try and take the village when they get here.” Following my train of thought, Constantine had reached the same conclusion.

  “This village is somewhat defensible, thanks to the river surrounding it,” I continued with a nod at him. “But we have what? A total of twenty NPCs here, with maybe nine capable of combat? That’d be a tempting target for any group. Not to mention the stone gate is a wreck, allowing anyone to just wander over that tiny bridge, and the northern part of the village is completely open.”

  “So what do you want to do?” Sierra asked while everyone else looked at me.

  “I was actually going to ask you all the same thing.” I made eye contact with everyone, one at a time. “If we stay, I have a plan of what I’d like to do, but we’re going to have to work hard to start building up the village defenses and prepare for when other Adventurers start coming. Not to mention we still have raiding goblins in the area, a missing expedition to find, unknown ruins and a forest full of spiders to deal with.”

  “I know we all jumped at the chance to play together… but I’m not going to pull you all down a road that you all don’t want to get into.”

  Everyone looked at me incredulously for a moment, before they burst out laughing.

  “Lyrian! We scaled half of a mountain and clawed our way through the wild to get here!” Drace scolded me. “If we didn’t want to get involved in any of that, we’d of told you before we left Eberia!”

  “Yeah, shit! Do you even hear what you’re saying?” Constantine added. “Here we have the chance to get in on the development of the only settlement in the area, plus you seem to have a lock on four different story arcs! Like hell, we’d give that up just because it’s going to be hard!”

  “I think you have our answer, Lyr,” Sierra said followed by nods from Halcyon and Caius. “We’re with you in whatever you have planned.”

  “I’m happy to hear that!” I couldn’t help but smile at their words and the trust they put in me. “There’s a hell of a lot I want to do too, and I’m going to be leaning on you all pretty hard.”

  Despite the promise of hard work, everyone looked visibly excited.

  Sierra spoke eagerly. “So, what’s the plan?”

  Chapter 18

  Thursday, February 7th, 2047 - 6:06 am

  Aldford

  Good Morning Adventurers!

  Due to numerous complaints, we would like to remind all players that Ascend Online is designed to be social and dynamic experience! If you find yourself on a difficult story arc and can’t accomplish it by yourself, try partnering up or forming a group!

  Happy Hunting!

  -CTI Development Team

  The next morning we woke up with the speed of a lightning bolt, barely able to contain our excitement for the day to come. By the time the sun began to peak over the distant horizon, we had eaten and were standing on the practice field with weapons in hand.

  The first step of my plan was to admit to the party that I was wrong with my approach yesterday. As soon as they arrived, I had fallen back into the traditional MMORPG approach – go forth and kill. While a reasonably effective tactic in itself, there was a massive difference between sitting at a keyboard and playing a game as opposed to actually living a game.

  Just as there was a difference between fighting together and fighting together.

  It had taken a lot of thought and a full night’s sleep for the revelation to properly crystallize, but when I awoke in the morning, I understood the subtle message the Bann was trying to tell me when he pitted me against the militia yesterday.

  This is not a world where you can stand alone.

  I thought back to our battle in the Webwood. Sure, we fought competently, but we fought also independently – concerned only for our tiny sliver of the overall battle.

  Today, I wanted to start working on how to fi
ght as a team. I knew it wasn’t going to be something that happened overnight, no matter how hard we trained. It would be a slow and subtle process, one re-enforced with constant training every single day.

  However, with the way our first training session was going so far, all I hoped for at the moment was that the six us of would reach a point where we weren’t an active danger to one another.

  “Ah, mah nose!” I winced, completely bent over as I reflexively clenched my shattered septum, eyes watering. “Nat door falt Draae!”

  Being the three frontline melee fighters, Drace, Constantine and I had been working together on how to form an efficient battle line, one that wouldn’t interfere with any of our individual styles but also allow us to support and protect one another.