“That is for cert—” A pair of loud nervous whinnies interrupted Léandre as a cart, pulled by two large draft horses, rumbled into view, a familiar looking shape pulling on the reins to stop the moment he saw us.
Keeping pace beside the cart on foot, were the two largest Thunder Lizards, Helix and Abaddon, their eyes eagerly scanning the nearby area for threats. Perched on top of the cart, I saw a terrified, white-haired man being practically crushed into his seat as both Myr, and Zethus covered him from either side. A coal-black dwarf held the reins, grinning maniacally while waving towards us with a free hand.
“Thorne!” Sierra called out in concern, all of us instantly on high alert with the sudden arrival of the cart. “What’s going on? What are you doing to that man? Where are Freya and Theia?”
“We’re protecting him!” Thorne called back to us. “Freya and Theia are sorting out all the new Adventurers. When we found out what was in this cart, we had to get him to safety.”
“Is the cart full of bullion?” Constantine snorted while shaking his head. “What the hell does he have in there?”
Before Thorne could reply, the middle-aged man pushed himself free from both Zethus and Myr towards us. “Please, I’m just an Alchemist! I don’t even know what’s happening! They took one look at my cart, then practically commandeered it! I have done nothing wrong!”
“Thorne, you kidnapped an Alchemist?” Halcyon asked, his voice suddenly filling with worry. “Hang on… that cart isn’t packed with naphtha or some other crazy shit that could explode at the drop of a hat, is it?”
“No!” The Alchemist called out. “Nothing like that! I just have a pair of alembics an—”
The older man’s words suddenly cut off as Myr covered his mouth with a hand, growling at him loud enough for us to hear, “Sssh, don’t sshout that to the world! Are you insssane?!”
“I couldn’t let word get out,” Thorne replied. “If everyone knew what he had, we’d probably have a riot on our hands within an hour.”
“You still haven’t told us what he has, Thorne!” Halcyon started to back away from the cart nervously.
“Nothing that can explode,” the dwarf answered quickly, holding up his hands placatingly while carefully looking around for other people. Seeing no one else nearby, he then waved us in close to the cart and began speaking very softly. “There’s enough equipment, alembics, boiling pots and anything else you could possibly need in here to set up a fully functioning Alchemy Laboratory.”
“That’s what I told him!” The man exclaimed, having been freed from Myr’s grasp. “Then he abducted me!”
“That’s… it?” Caius asked, his voice filled with disbelief. “It’s not illegal to run an Alchemy Lab.”
“I don’t care about the Alchemy Lab,” Thorne replied. “What I care about, is that all that equipment can be used to set up a brewery and a distillery.”
There was a pause as we all absorbed that, each of us looking at Thorne blankly before the implications set in.
“Gods… if the other Adventurers find out…” Drace shook his head.
“It would be chaos,” Léandre agreed.
“Find out what?” The older man demanded. “I don’t understand, why would that matter?”
“With your equipment, you are the first person in this town capable of producing spirits or any other kind of alcohol,” Caius whispered.
“What?” The man’s eyes went wide. “You mean this town is dry?”
“Dry as a three-dollar wh- hey!” Halcyon yelped as Caius swatted him on the arm. “What was that for?”
“Ugh, you know exactly what it was for!” Caius rolled his eyes sarcastically at the mage before looking back at the Alchemist. “Aldford hasn’t seen a drop of alcohol since it was founded.”
“Then you truly have saved me.” The man ran a hand through his hair while sighing loudly. “My name is Marlin Carey, I journeyed here with the intention of setting up my own laboratory, though it seems I may find my talents better suited to opening a distillery instead…”
“Do you really think that this will be a problem?” Constantine asked, a confused expression still on his face after we had formally introduced ourselves to the Alchemist. “I mean, sure, I could appreciate a stiff drink after a day like today, but I don’t get why this is such big deal.”
“You really need to start paying more attention to Tradeskills, Constantine,” Caius scolded gently. “Aside from the fact people would want to drink it, alcohol, in general, is a key ingredient for all higher quality recipes for both Cooking and Alchemy.”
“Leathercrafting too,” I added, remembering one of the newer recipes that I had learned. “I need strong alcohols to tan thicker types of hide, and that’s only what I’ve discovered so far…”
“Almost all potions have an alcohol base too,” Marlin added, having visibly relaxed now that he understood Thorne’s motivations for getting him clear of the other Adventurers.
“Shit, I didn’t realize that.” Constantine accepted the rebuke with a nod, pausing for a moment to think, “…the demand is going to be incredible… are you looking for investors?”
“I-Investors? M-me?” Marlin stammered, completely caught by surprise by the offer. “I j-just got here and…”
“Oh, that’s a good idea!” Sierra agreed enthusiastically.
“I’m happy to offer up my time to help,” Caius said to Marlin. “I have some experience as an Alchemist already.”
“Me too!” Zethus spoke up from the Alchemist’s side. “I would love to be a part of thiss!”
“Count me in as well,” Thorne added with a wave of his hand.
Marlin gaped at all of us, as we stared at him waiting for a reply, his mouth working soundlessly while trying to find any words at all. “I-I, oh, didn’t expect to have such enthusiasm for my arrival. I-I would certainly be interested in, oh…we would h-have to discuss terms…”
“Perhaps this conversation would be better suited to a more relaxed environment at a later time, yes?” Léandre came to the Alchemist’s rescue, seeing that the older man was clearly overwhelmed with everyone standing around him. “I must get to work if we are to see the shelter constructed by nightfall. In the meantime, we can store the Alchemy equipment within the Crafting Hall and keep it out of sight.”
“T-That would be wonderful,” Marlin nodded eagerly, seizing the lifeline Léandre had cast. “This is just so much to absorb at the moment, a-and after the attack this morning…”
“We completely understand, Marlin,” I told the Alchemist. “There is quite a lot to consider; just keep us in mind, and we can talk more about it later.”
“Thank you; yes, of course.” The man continued to nod as Thorne gathered the reins, ready to move the cart closer to the Crafting Hall.
“Okay, Lyr,” Constantine said to me as the cart slowly began to move away, “we really need to get our shit moving for the meeting.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I sighed in acknowledgment, turning to look at Léandre while opening a menu in my vision. “I’m queuing a bunch of bronze and leather refinement in my offline task list, but I’m also permitting you to assign crafting tasks to me while I’m gone. We’re all going to be gone tonight for a full rest cycle to reset our timers.”
“Good, I was going to ask that you did so,” the architect replied inclining his head as he accepted the prompt I had sent him. “Go to your meeting and do not waste time worrying, we should have everything well in hand until you return.”
“Awesome. Thanks, Léandre.” I bid the cat-man farewell before I turned towards the rest of the group and gave them a quick wave. “See you all tonight. Send Constantine or me a message if anything comes up that you really need us for.”
“No worries, Lyr,” Sierra replied with a smile. “We’ll be fine! Just make sure you have good news waiting for us tonight!”
“Heh, fingers crossed!” I gave one final wave to the group as I called up a menu I had only seen a handful of times in t
he last month.
Are you sure you want to log off?
YES / NO
I mentally selected ‘YES’ and felt my perception begin to change as the world slowly faded to black.
Loading, please wait…
Chapter 4
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
CTI Player Housing Complex – Ninth Floor – Apartment Suite
“Grrr, stupid thing…” I cursed under my breath as I fought to properly adjust my now too-large dress shirt. “If it wasn’t enough that my in-game body is all different… so is my fucking real one.”
“Hey, Marc,” I heard Peter’s voice call from the hallway, a second before he poked his head into the bathroom. “You ready to go yet?”
“Yeah, one sec.” I glanced quickly at Peter then back towards the mirror, my mind forcing me to do a double take as my friend’s appearance registered in my head.
Turning to look back, it took a moment for my mind to accept that I was looking at someone I had regularly seen nearly every day for the last month, his physical appearance not matching up to what I normally had pictured in my head.
Standing at nearly six feet tall, with a wild mop of dark-brown hair, I was expecting to see Peter’s slightly pudgy face looking back at me, but instead, I saw a lean, unfamiliar face staring back at me. Glancing down, I saw that his shirt hung even looser than mine did and that his pants were struggling to stay hanging around his hips, even with his belt cinched to the tightest notch.
“The Virtual Reality Diet is damned effective, isn’t it?” Peter said softly, noticing my prolonged stare.
“Yeah… that it is,” I replied slowly. “How much have you lost?”
“So far?” Peter shrugged, something I could barely see through his loose shirt, “about twenty pounds. You?”
“Almost ten.”
The ‘Virtual Reality Diet’ was a term that the media had coined to describe the rather considerable weight loss that all Long-Term Play Players underwent after playing Ascend Online for a prolonged period.
Rather than being an intended outcome by CTI, the weight loss was actually a side effect of the constant anti-atrophy treatments that were performed on the comatose players to stave off muscular and cardiovascular degeneration, a nanite-based treatment program originally designed for coma patients, astronauts, and others confined to immobility for long periods of time.
In order to prevent atrophy, the patient’s cardiovascular system was intermittently stimulated to that of a moderate workout, while muscles were forced through tiny, but constant, contractions to ensure that they didn’t deteriorate. This whole process also managed the patient’s metabolism, preventing the body from consuming valuable muscle mass for energy, instead focusing on stored fat cells and the intravenous solutions fed to the body.
The positive side effect of this process, aside from no muscular deterioration, was that prolonged treatment actually tended to improve the patient’s overall physical conditioning and health, though many players were finding it extremely jarring to get used to the changes that their body underwent when they logged themselves out of the game.
It won’t be long until you can tell that someone is a Long-Term Player just by looking at them, I thought.
Giving up on adjusting my shirt with a sigh, I moved to leave the bathroom, Peter leading the way as we grabbed our winter jackets and left the suite. A few minutes later we had descended in the elevator and checked out of the secure section of the building.
The lobby was nothing like Launch Day - the two of us only spotting a handful of people loitering in the hall, the eager expressions on their faces hinting that they had finally made it to the end of the incredibly long wait list and were set to join the world of Ascend Online.
I wish them luck wherever they end up. I nodded at a middle-aged woman that made eye contact as Peter and I walked by and stepped outside, feeling the freezing winter wind slice straight through us.
“Couple weeks until spring is here and there’s nothing but cold and snow in the forecast,” Peter grumbled at the unnaturally cold winter, even by Canadian standards, as he signaled a passing taxi.
A yellow sedan pulled itself out of the steady flow of traffic before us into an unused pickup lane, set directly outside of the CTI building. Moving to get out of the freezing cold, Peter and I practically leaped into the small car, breathing in relief when we found the inside to be pleasantly warm.
“Hello, thank you for choosing CityTaxi,” the driverless car greeted us in a smooth male’s voice the moment the doors closed. “Where am I taking you today?”
I quickly rattled off the address to our Stream Producer’s office, having taken the time to memorize it.
“Understood. Your estimated time of arrival is: seven minutes,” the car replied as it seamlessly rejoined traffic, the other cars automatically compensating to provide a gap. “Would you like to engage Quiet Mode, or shall I turn the radio on?”
“Quiet Mode,” I told the car as I belted myself in.
“It always amazes me that our parents had to… were allowed to physically drive their cars through the downtown core here,” Peter commented wistfully, watching the hundreds of driverless vehicles seamlessly moving through the streets, often with less than a foot of clearance between one another. “I can’t imagine how much time they must have wasted in traffic or spent dealing with accidents.”
“No kidding,” I agreed, shaking my head at the thought.
With all the technological advances over the last twenty years, it was hard to believe that Driverless Vehicles had been relegated to an almost footnote status in history, overshadowed by the advent of Nanotechnology. Commercially released in 2020, the technologies supporting Driverless Vehicles rapidly expanded over the intervening decade as the auto industry competed savagely amongst one another in order to bring the technology fully to market. By the time the early 30’s rolled around, practically every car on the road in a first world nation had some sort of automated driving technology.
The natural progression after that was to create the Automated Traffic Control System and fully remove the pesky and unreliable factor that was Human Input. This was then adopted by nearly every major metropolis when it was proved that the ATCS drastically cut down on traffic and fatal accidents. It was now a rarity to even hear of an accident in an ATCS controlled area, as opposed to the almost daily fatalities and accidents in the years that preceded it.
“Nothing but Ascend Online advertisements everywhere you look,” Peter commented, waving a hand towards a small truck beside us carrying a digital billboard, currently displaying the game’s logo on it.
Turning to look, the moment I made eye contact with the billboard, the display shifted, causing me to flinch as I found myself staring right into my own eyes, or at least those of my avatar’s scarred and withered face.
Shit! I winced at my own reaction. It was the first time I had ever had a good look at myself from outside the game. I think I understand why people look at me the way they do now…
Plastered right across the digital billboard was me in my Ætherwarped state, along with the rest of the party including Amaranth, each of us poised in a heroic pose as we all gazed into the distance. A caption scrolled across the billboard.
The Birth of Virtue
Episode 1 Starting Tonight @ 9pm – GameTV
“Ha!” Peter gasped, just as the billboard truck pulled away and turned down another street. “What are the odds of that!”
“We’re on GameTV?” I couldn’t help but smile in excitement, pushing away the embarrassment of being startled by my own appearance. “Maybe that’s what they wanted to talk to us about.”
“Maybe!” Peter nodded excitedly. “We’ve been out of the loop for over a week… and well until today, we really haven’t done anything really interesting. I don’t think that we’re going to get many more people watching us grind wolverines until we hit level thirteen.”
“Well… we have a hell of a lot more people i
n the town now. I’m sure something interesting will crop up,” I replied, hoping that I hadn’t just jinxed myself.
“Hopefully nothing as exciting as that whole bit with Graves,” Peter commented wistfully.
“Hopefully,” I echoed, completely agreeing with Peter’s sentiment. “I’m hoping we can get the Foundry up and functional soon. That iron we found back at the Tower is proving damn hard to smelt.”
“Man, I really need to play catch up with tradeskills…” Peter let out a deep sigh. “There’s just too much work to go around with all the construction we have on the go.”
“I hear you there,” I said sympathetically, remembering all the work we’d done over the last few weeks. “At least we’ve found more hands to help out today.”
“Yeah, all things considered, we were damn lucky.”
The rest of the ride went smoothly, Peter and I chatting to pass the time as we wound our way through the city, until the taxi once again pulled itself out of traffic. Its voice spoke softly, “We have arrived at your destination. Please ensure you have collected all your belongings before leaving the vehicle. Your account will be automatically charged: six dollars. Thank you for choosing CityTaxi and have a good day!”
“You ready for this?” I asked Peter, looking out into the cold and the big building looming before us.
“Of course.” Peter grinned at me while he pulled his jacket tight. “Let’s go see how much money we’ve made.”
W
Pushing through the frosted glass door the first thing I noticed was that the entire office was in chaos, construction workers were walking everywhere, along with the sound of countless power tools filling the air. Large areas of the office were sectioned into contained areas by thick walls of plastic to prevent dust from taking over the office.
A single dark-haired secretary sat at a large wooden desk centering the room, perking up the moment that she saw us walk in.
Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online Book 2) Page 4