Initializing (Somnia Online Book 1)

by K. T. Hanna

  Murmur shoved the thing into her inventory, worried at first that it was too large, but it went in without a problem. “Seriously, the immersion is only broken by how much shit I have in my bags.”

  Sin laughed. “You’re a hoarder, Mur.”

  “Probably.” She shrugged the comment off. “I’m not that bad.”

  This time they let Dev move forward and open the door first while the others prepped themselves some distance behind him, ready to go. However, as he opened the door, nothing came barging through, and he sighed heavily. “We should be as quiet as possible. If you need something, send it through guild or group chat.”

  “The man makes sense,” muttered Merlin, activating Sneak and heading past their tank to scout the area. A minute later he returned, his eyes round like saucers. “You don’t even understand. This is freaking huge.”

  Murmur frowned. “But the island is relatively small. How does it have so much underneath it?”

  Merlin shrugged. “No clue, but it does go down quite a ways, and I’m pretty sure there’s water seeping through into the tunnels, at least at the bottom. It opens out to this amazing set of ledges and paths. From what I could see there are more gorcs or mobs of some kind down there, but I have no idea what’s at the bottom of it. The bad thing is I’m pretty sure the Brute was the gatekeeper, and the other mobs in there are probably raid trash. They sure as hell shine like it.”

  Rashlyn, what are you guys doing?

  Rashlyn: About to hit thirteen before you all. Why?

  Wanna come raid?

  Veranol: Where are you?

  Devlish: Himmel Lake, on the island, you’ll need to come down into the ruins. Don’t mind the smell...

  Dansyn: Found a hidden dungeon or something?

  Sinister: Or something is more accurate, but it’ll do.

  There was a slight pause.

  Rashlyn: You owe us one. We’ll Gate to Ululate to sell some shit and be on our way. Give us about 30 minutes to get there.

  Havoc began walking back to the exit. “Let’s go make sure there are no respawns.”

  The rest of the group followed him, cautiously stepping over the goop on the ground. The Brute’s corpse was slowly dissolving, unlike all the other bosses or named they’d killed, it didn’t simply disappear.

  Murmur frowned as she entered the outside again. None of the mobs near the dungeon had respawned, so they headed out quietly to survey the rest of the area. “They weren’t that difficult. Aren’t mobs supposed to respawn in conjunction with how powerful they are in-game? Like the harder to kill, the longer it takes them to reappear?”

  “That’s what the write up said.” Havoc spoke softly, surveying their surroundings.

  It’d been hours, which made the absence of simple elite mobs somewhat troubling.

  “Hey.” Sin’s voice was tinged with panic. “You guys. Try to Gate.”

  Mur obliged. At worst she’d have to travel back with Rash.

  Your spell wanes and will not transport you from this location until the event is complete.

  Storm Entertainment

  Somnia Online Division

  Launch Day

  Shayla tried not to let the concern show on her face as the clock counted down to launch. The AIs worked seamlessly together, their interaction the product of years of testing. They interlocked and swapped through their own algorithms so well, it was difficult to tell where one finished and another began. This was the best way to have a broad variance to Somnia’s people and cultures. Just like human beings, the artificial intelligence units that ran the entire game world were different from each other. It enabled diverse character interaction that followed a loose guideline and literally evolved the world the more people interacted with it—constantly adjusting and recalibrating, creating a totally unique gaming experience for those who were eager enough to explore all the options.

  And yet she couldn’t shake the guilt that plagued her, because somehow Ava’s death was still linked to Storm’s pride and joy. Even if not directly.

  “Shayla?” Laria’s voice sounded over their connection.

  “Sorry, what were you saying?”

  She could hear her friend sigh on the other end. “Go get some rest. You haven’t slept in days. I have everything set up so I can monitor this from here.”

  “And it helps you keep an eye on your daughter, right?” Shayla smiled for what felt like the first time in days. “Sure. I’ll go for a bit of a sleep in a few hours, once I’m sure everything is running smoothly.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the conversation, before Laria sighed again. “That’s the best I’m going to get, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” Shayla disconnected, frowning as she watched the clock tick down to midnight.

  Their servers housed enough virtual space for hundreds of millions of players. The AIs they’d tirelessly tested worked in perfect synchronicity, and as people began logging into the game, the data Storm Entertainment sorely needed began to trickle through to their storage facility. The analysts wouldn’t be in until eight the next morning. She didn’t envy them the backlog of scans. Extrapolating all the mental waves and adjusting the equipment ever so slightly, they could be ready for the military training criteria testing in as little as two years. She only wished she knew exactly what that entailed.

  Visions of the game played across the walls, vibrant colors and figures flickering from one player to the next as people all over the world finally logged in after creating their characters. The AIs interacted smoothly, so much in fact that many of the players shot messages to each other questioning if they were truly NPCs or other players.

  After an hour Shayla finally let out a sigh of relief. It seemed things were moving along well. She couldn’t wait to see the response to the player-initiated quests. It was an integral part of their software development program. The synchronicity the headgear had, with their AIs, allowed for actions that were independent of rigid programming.

  Real World Day 2: Somnia Online

  “Uh.” Havoc seemed to be trying to activate Gate over and over again.

  “Wait, is this some kind of joke?” Beastial crossed his arms and glared at them.

  Murmur sighed. “It would seem we’ve activated some sort of event, and until it’s complete, if I’m understanding this correctly, we’re not allowed off this island.”

  “Well, shit. Guess we aren’t sleeping for a while.” Devlish laughed ruefully. “That’s what we get for pushing it just until the next level.”

  Hey, before you get here. Once you’re on this island, IF it’ll let you on, you’ll be stuck here until we finish whatever this event is.

  Rashlyn: An event?

  Veranol: Oh we are so there. We’re jogging now.

  Murmur smiled, knowing her friends were probably as excited as she was. Oddly enough, she didn’t feel tired at all, but like she’d been resting all along. Maybe she was just waiting for this. As an after-thought, she sent another message.

  Hey Mom, we just triggered an event so we have to see it through. Probably won’t be able to log off for a while.

  There was a lengthy pause. Her mom was probably busy doing something overseer like.

  Laria: That’s okay baby girl, thank you for letting me know.

  Murmur was in a good enough mood she didn’t even roll her eyes at the baby girl comment.

  The others had already headed off in their directions, but Sin remained behind, biting her lip.

  “You okay?” Murmur asked, concerned about Sin since the pus and globule incident.

  For a moment Sinister stared at her blankly, like she’d only just realized her friend was there. “Sorry Mur. I’m okay, just wasn’t expecting it to unfold this way.”

  “It?”

  “The game today. I was supposed to try and have dinner with my family, but I’ve totally lost track of time and days. Let’s just say they’re not quite as understanding as your mom.” Sin smiled a brave smile that was totally see-through
.

  Mur gave her a big quick hug, and Sin leaned into it. “You’ve always been my best friend, and you always will be. I do get that you can’t always spend your time with me. So next time just let me know, and I’ll try to veer us into something less time consuming.”

  Sinister laughed, even though her eyes were still sort of sad. “Yeah. I know. I just miss you, miss living so close to you. On the other hand, your mom is like my second mom, so I always feel at home at your place anyway.”

  “Right?” Murmur laughed just as she heard a shout coming from the shoreline. Walking toward it, she saw Rashlyn waving wildly with a huge grin on her face as she ran toward them.

  “Hey!” Rash did a double take when she arrived. “Oh wow, what took you guys to the cleaners?”

  Glancing down, Murmur realized her nice robe was a tad stained, and still somewhat damp. “Not the cleaners precisely. We did manage to kill it. However. It had an after effect.”

  “Like a boil.” Sin made an explosive action with her hands. “All over us.”

  Rash shuddered and hopped from one foot to the other, hugging herself. “Well, show us the way then.”

  The others weren’t far behind them, so Murmur led the way, still cautious just in case skeletons jumped back out at them. Even though she was pretty sure there’d be no respawns until whatever this event was for resolved itself, skeletons were undead and for all she knew there might be a different criteria for them as their strength increased.

  Although she cast out her sensing net, she was still skeptical about being able to read the brain waves of something that no longer had a functioning brain. Her worries were for nothing though, and they ended up in the torture room again, standing in front of the open door to the cavern below.

  Exbo leaned through the doorway with a frown at the darkness beyond it. “Going to be hard to see in there.”

  “Should have been an elf, idiot.” Merlin threw at him.

  Murmur cast an as yet unfamiliar spell. “There, better?”

  Exbo blinked. “What the—what’s that?”

  “Infravision. Should help you see better in the dark.” She shrugged. “Anyone else need it?”

  After Jinna, Mellow, and Veranol had been taken care of, Merlin and Jinna began to stealth down the path.

  “Why don’t you ever go with them?” Rashlyn asked, facing Exbo.

  “I’m a clunky human who hasn’t been stealthing much. Been focusing more on my bow techniques.” He sniffed resentfully.

  “Bet if I check the logs, he out damages you anyway.” She jeered at him. But Exbo wasn’t biting, and Rashlyn frowned. “You’re just no fun.”

  Jinna and Merlin dropped their stealth; neither of them appeared to be in a good mood.

  With a deep breath, Merlin sighed. “Okay. We have three groups at varying stages down the first ramp before we come to a slight clearing with a very fortuitously placed outcrop of rock. The only way we can pull these without alerting the others is with a silence, while the group closest to them is walking away and about to turn back around. It’ll require timing and precision, and no fizzles or resists.”

  “Sure, I’ll get right on that.” Murmur rolled her eyes. “I can’t use Mind Bolt too much. You saw what it did last time, so logically, I should be our last choice.”

  Mellow raised their hand. “I have a curse of silence. It only lasts four seconds, though.”

  “Should be enough to let them run to us.” Merlin smiled. “Okay, it’ll be three groups of three and they’re all fifteen, so let’s see what we can do.”

  “Finally.” Devlish rolled his axe wielding shoulder, loosening it up. “I thought you’d never shut up.”

  Murmur’s pet gorc had died somewhere during the Brute fight, taking a whole gut full of acid and bile. Not that it was a huge loss since she could snag another. Mezing the two mobs and waiting while the others decimated the first, she studied them critically. Maybe the ranger would be best. He’d been the one they silenced, and maybe she could pull with range sometimes.

  She cast Allure on him while Mez was still active and it started walking toward her.

  “Look out, Mur!” Dansyn called out.

  “Hmm?” She looked up at him with a blank expression, as she’d been studying the skills she’d gained, and saw his shocked face as the new pet came to stand beside her. Soothing it with her mind, she smiled at the bard. “Don’t worry, he’s going to help us fight.”

  Sinister snorted. “You should see your face, Dan. Priceless. Someone capture that image.”

  He turned on her, his eyes narrowed in irritation. “I didn’t know she could do that. My first reaction if a Mez breaks is ‘oh, shit,’ not ‘oh, it might be her pet.’”

  “He makes a valid point.” Havoc said. “Hey other group, Murmur keeps getting new skills she uses and surprises us with before telling us about them. It’s getting really annoying, but you’ll get used to it.”

  Murmur poked her tongue out at him. Havoc was always like that. He was either so quiet you barely noticed he was there, reserved and seemingly sweet. Or else he was one of the most subtly sarcastic people she’d ever met. She turned her attention back to the ranger’s abilities and had him line up a few steps from Exbo. He had several bow shots, and a couple of melee attacks. If all else failed, he should prove versatile.

  With the first group down it allowed them to inch forward. Carefully pulling the next three with a curse looked more difficult than Murmur would have thought. “If we can’t leave until this is finished, I wonder where we resurrect if we die?”

  Beastial turned to her. “You just had to mention that, didn’t you?”

  “Of course. We need to be more careful than ever, because what if when we die we get sent back to Ululate?” She continued on oblivious to Beastial’s spluttering. “I mean, we could pretty much say goodbye to everything on our bodies then.”

  “Just what I needed while taking hits like this.” Devlish grunted, his shield arm working overtime to protect himself.

  Exbo laughed, and released a volley of arrows slightly prematurely. One of them, broke a Mez.

  Murmur re-Mez’d instantly and turned to tongue lash him, but the lone spell the mage managed to let loose hit its target, and all she saw was Exbo careening off the edge of the path.

  She rushed to the spot he’d been standing moments before and looked down, cringing a little. His health flashed on her screen and then flatlined. “Um... so, we should probably stay against the wall and not the ledge.”

  Where did you revive?

  Exbo: Be right there.

  Murmur raised an eyebrow, and the fight wasn’t even finished before Exbo ran through to catch up to them in all his loincloth glory. “Guess that answers my question.”

  “Own up, Mur, you pushed him off, didn’t you?” Rash crossed her arms, a twinkle in her eyes.

  “Guilty as charged.” Murmur winked. “But seriously. Can you even see his corpse Sin?”

  Sin was on her knees gripping the edge and peering over it. She shook her head. “If I could see it and it was in range, then I’d be able to resurrect him. Got that at twelve. But he’s not.”

  “Naked, bowless ranger. Not exactly formidable.” Merlin suddenly held a second bow in his hands. “Use this. It’s not as good as mine but it’s solid. I should have some spare leather armor too.”

  Jinna approached. “Nothing fancy, but at least you should survive a hit.” He handed over some boots and pants.

  “Thanks guys. I’ll be more careful next time. I got a little carried away.” Exbo seemed sheepish, embarrassed by his screw up.

  Murmur nodded. “It’s all good. Shit happens, right?”

  “I can tell you all, it’s a long ass way down. And I lost like twenty-five percent of my experience bar. Shoot me now.” Exbo groaned.

  Murmur sighed, and offered an evil grin. “No shooting, until you tell us if you saw anything on your death screen.”

  “Nothing much, just some random patrols around what
seemed like a guarded area I didn’t have the right angle to see properly.” Exbo hugged his chest. “Sorry.”

  “It’s all good.” Murmur knew he didn’t have much of a choice about which position he’d died in, but it would have been helpful if he had.

  “There’s so much trash in here.” Devlish sighed and moved the group down slightly to hide behind the outcrop of rock. “Although I do think I spy a rare mob. That one over there seems to have a name.”

  Everyone looked where he pointed, at Telvar Mikrum. He was a hulking massive lacerta, even bigger than Devlish. He stood about eight feet tall, his entire frame muscled as if he had access to a gym. His tail lashed around him, whipping like crazy, and his eyes gleamed blood red. He sniffed the air, his brown bronzed scales gleaming in the firelight from the sconces on the wall.

  “He doesn’t look pleasant,” muttered Havoc. “Any idea on class?”

  “He’s in leather, and I can’t see daggers, so he’s likely a monk.” Rash noted with a sigh. “Which means he can avoid almost everything you throw at him, but when he gets hit, he’ll get hit. And he’s not the best against magic. It should do good damage.”

  “So Rash,” Murmur said slowly. “If you were him, how would you fight us?”

  Rashlyn frowned. “As long as Devlish can keep aggro we should be fine. I’d be frustrated coming up against a full plate tank. That shit is hard to punch and hard to navigate around to get to the soft bits. But if his attention wanes, he’ll go for the healers first, and then the casters and rangers. So yeah, Dev, just keep that taunt live. Drain the hell out of his life too. Use whatever magic mojo you have that keeps the mobs off our enchanter.”

  “Sure thing. So I’ll, you know, tank?” Dev didn’t bother to keep the sarcasm from his tone. His lips spread in a thin line, and impatience practically rolled off him.

  Rash held her hands up in front of her. “Hey, she asked.”

  “I’ll grab the three guards it seems he has.” Murmur scanned the rest of the area. “We are going to be down here forever.”

  “No, just longer than we thought.” Sin smiled, even though her character appeared to be a little tired.