by Tom Harem
Warrior Fantasy Online
By
Tom Harem
Warrior Fantasy Online book 1 © 2019 by Tom Harem. All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table Of Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter I
The ads for the Warrior Fantasy Online game kept appearing whenever I searched for new virtual reality games. After the last one I finished I had yet to feel that adrenaline rush required when joining a new game. Truth be told, the synopsis didn't appeal to me. A game where one must join a group in order to invade and conquer NPC's castles. Apparently, there were hundreds of them and different levels to overcome. Well, not like I had never played anything worse. I put the VR glasses and, as soon as I clicked on the game link, I was taken to a registration page. I entered my email and created an account with the name NoFunWarrior. After that, it was time to create my avatar. For someone as slender as me, averse to gyms, it was nice to be able to choose to have a muscular body without having to sweat for it. Even though I could choose the body I wanted, the avatar had to have my face. I upload a photo a friend had taken me a few days ago and it worked just fine. As I clicked on a devil's icon that was in the lower right corner, I sensed my body being transported into a new world. My bones weakened, my legs trembled, and even my head tumbled. Everything around me was still a tad hazy and it took a few minutes for things to gather color and shapes to be more than white lines in all the black that surrounded me. First came the crystalline lake whose silvery lines reflected the sun high up there, part of it hidden behind the arid mountain range. The meadow I walked on stretched across miles in every direction except to the right side. The sky was clear and there was no sign that it could rain. Until now my experience had been excellent. I began by walking around, jumping, jabbing the air, touching my body, and whatever else came to my mind. The mechanics of the game seemed better than the miserable last games I had download off the internet. Even the graphics outperformed the dubious quality of the rest by a wide margin. I knew that some of them had been updated but I had lost the drive to play them. A pop-up warning popped up out of nowhere.
"The nearest town is 70 steps to the right. There you can find the bar, where you can meet other players and get a team, gun and item sellers and a place where your avatar can rest and recover his HP. To see your status just say status and the table will appear in front of you."
Nothing new until then. I was used to voice commands. They had become more regular with the growth of virtual reality and, to be honest, they even came in handy. Gone were the times when we had to write or go down the list of possibilities of what we could say. A gentle breeze whistled all the way from the endless horizon. In the lower left corner, I had the number of online players, 103 402, and on the right, I had a green bar (referring to my HP) and below it said level 1. Below that bar, there was also one blue that referred to my magic points even though I had none.
"Status" I said.
After a few seconds, only half the table had shown up. Damn it. I was lagging. My net was going worse by the day. I mean, I used the net that ran all over my building. My neighbor had a terrible habit of downloading movies when he knew I was going to play. The company where I used to work had fired everyone after they were sold to a bigger one, so I could devote 100% of my time to the game. The table had already loaded.
Status
Level: 1
Name: NoFunWarrior
Weapon: None
HP: 60/60
Magic: 6
Attack: 20
Defense: 20
Special attack: None
Experience points to the next level; 0/100
Even though I had some Magic Points, I still didn't have any magic attacks. I didn't even have a weapon. And anything was better than having nothing in an open world where even one of the players could attack me.
I looked to the right. The green meadow ended after a few meters and gave way to a wide tar bridge flanked by rocks stacked on each other. The sky was bright clear. As soon as the bottom of my shoe left the green and stepped on the gray of the floor another popup appeared.
"Do you want to do the tutorial? Yes or no?"
Chapter II
As usual, I chose the yes. The quicker I got through the tutorial, the quicker I'd get into town without looking like a total noob. A man the size of my legs appeared before me, dragging his beard across the floor and scratching the whirlpools of hair that were the closest he had to any hair. He walked up to me and stared up and down before speaking.
"New to the game, right?" He asked. His voice was like an echo that stretched across the place. It seemed to come from behind as well as from the sides.
"Yeah? Aren't you supposed to know that already?" I asked.
"The AI of this game works differently. The NPC's have their own personality and it can change over time. I, for one, like sarcasm." The man said, "Let's get down to business. What gun do you want?"
"What are the options? How am I supposed to know what I want if I don't know the possibilities?"
"Well said, boy. You must have played other games like this one before. This is exhausting, you know?" He said and leaned against the rocks, "You have a bow, a sword, a staff and a spear. When you get to level 5 you can learn subcategories of each class and get new specialized weapons."
"What about magic?"
"Any class can learn magic. Every class and subclass have its own powers. The more you develop the more likely it is that you can get new special attacks and use them with mastery. Any more questions or have you decided?"
"I'll take the sword. Then we'll see”, I said to him, 'how do we fight in this?"
"We'll do a little training." He said and snapped his fingers, "But it's like any other game."
Behind him a hairy spider emerged, with two eyes in the center of the face and four thin legs with an iron tip. It didn't move. The black eyes like rosin stared at me.
"Now what?" I asked. I didn't have the weapon yet, let alone knew how to fight. But if he was being honest and it was like any other game, I would be amazing at it. It was one of the few things I was good at.
"A sword, isn't it?" The man asked.
As soon as I nodded, the man snapped his fingers again and a sword burst through a crack in the atmosphere. It was gray, sharp on both sides, and I realized it was lighter than it looked as soon as I held it. I swung and twisted my wrist to get used to the presence of the weapon in my hand and took a step forward.
"I'm ready." I told him, "We can start."
"There's not much to learn. The green bar next to the monsters is their HP. The blue bar is the magic bar and below is their level and the experience points you will gain by killing them."
I looked at the spider. It was a level one and I'd gain 20 experience points after killing her. It had no magic. The man walked off the bridge and snapped his fingers for the third time. The spider unleashed a chilling scream, one of those who make a body shudder and rumble through the ears. I still had the tip of the sword on the ground when the spider ran to me, the metal digging into the bridge rock along the way. She threw herself at me, and I, holding the sword with both hands, lifted it at a 45-degree angle and sliced it in half. The spider didn't break in two. It just fell apart into a hundred black pieces that vanished over time. A clicked sound exploded all around me and a green color filled part of my experience points bar.
"I see you've had some experience with fighting,” The midget said, "You can call me Lenny from now on."
"Are you going to show up again?"
"Probably not,"
"The last game I played didn't even have a tutorial." I told him and laughed, "Now what? May I continue?"
"Yeah. Move on. But be careful. There are some monsters along the way. Good luck." Lenny said and began to fade away, blending with the air's transparency, until it finally disappeared.
The graphics of the game looked increasingly better. As soon as I reached the other side of the bridge, a scent of wet grass rolled around me, allowing me to inhale it as I walked. I ended up deciding not to go straight to town. I hoped to gain some experience and level up before I could get there and look for a team. From afar, I noticed several groups of level 1 spiders walking through an arid sloping terrain and to their left, already in a verdant area, level 1 squirrels, that were leaping as their teeth scraped on their curly brown coat. The two places were separated by a black and white sidewalk. There's no way I was going to the spider site. Harsh ground, and I only had sandals? I wasn't that brave (or stupid).
I headed for the squirrels. They didn't even notice me. They wandered in groups of three, moving around the light green spot that extended for miles. I already had my sword by my hip when I heard someone screaming in the distance. It was a sharp-voiced girl and she was crying out for help. I followed the sound until I spotted a grouping of squirrels in front of a girl who had long blue hair and was lying on the floor, with her wrists and ankles already bruised and covered in blood. If before they looked harmless, now with red eyes and small sharp clawed paws they looked the opposite.
"Help me." She screamed as soon as she saw me. It was a level two player and her bow was broken. Some of the squirrels were jumping on the arrows that were scattered all over the ground.
Chapter III
Damn it. There were 6 of them and they seemed thirsty for one more victim, but I couldn't leave her there alone. Her life bar was already dark orange and after a game over it was necessary to wait 24 hours to retry once more. I ran up to her and, swinging my sword, slicing off two of the squirrels' heads. They rolled through the green, staining it with red. The other four squirrels looked at me. The notification of the experience points obtained was displayed in the upper right corner. I was almost at level 2. The other four squirrels left the girl alone and hastily rushed up on me. My heart was beating faster as I retreated to make some space. It was hard to hit such small monsters with a sword like that. One of the squirrels anticipated the others. He jumped on my leg and his teeth scraped off the skin of my ankle as I strayed. Blood began to descend and spread under my foot. A viscous mixture that glued my foot to the sandal every time I put it on the ground. The pain I endured in the game was transmitted in tiny spasms all over my body in real life. I lifted the weapon's handle above my head before I dropped it on the squirrel. A single blow has enough; thunderous and merciless. Another 20 experience points earned. Just one more and I'd level up.
The other three were still around me. The girl dug her nails into the ground, crawling close to her bow. I bent my legs and moved both ways, hoping one of them would move first. The smell of fresh blood was stronger. The breeze curled the whirlpools on my forehead's hair and glued some loose threads to it. The three of them jumped on me and struck my chest with their heads before I could push them away. I fell to the ground and was forced to use the sword as a shield. I tried as hard as I could to push them, but they wouldn't pull away, the metal teeth clashing with the metal of the sword and the sparks splashing and burning the grass. My sword was already inches away from my face when an arrow landed beside me, cutting a few strands of my hair and chasing away two of the squirrels. With only one left, it wasn't hard to shove him away. He landed on the ground and I had enough time to get up and sink the tip of the sword right in the center of the squirrel's belly. A popping explosion blew around me. The experience bar returned to zero and the number 1 changed to 2. I earned five points to distribute among the various skills. I put two in the HP (+40), which had already gone down a bit, and the rest in the attack (+30). I'd never been much of a defensive player before and it wasn't worth investing in magic until I could use it.
When I got up, the girl was already standing next to me, thanking me repeatedly. She was limping but it didn’t seem to be in any kind of danger. Just the game showing off one of it’s realistic qualities.
"Thank you! You saved my life," she said and laughed, "weird saying that, right? I’m Emma, by the way,"
"Yes. But I understand you. 24 hours is still a considerable time to wait. Have you died many times?" I asked her. She was level two but didn't seem to have learned anything until then, “I’m James. It’s my pleasure,”
"A few. How about you? New to the game, right?"
"Yes, I started a few minutes ago."
"And you're already better than me..." She said, staring down.
"I've played dozens of games of this kind. It would be bad if I hadn't learned anything."
"So, you know about this game's news?" She said and walked over to me.
"What's new? What are you talking about?" Wiping the blood from my sword.
She laid her hands on my shoulders and kept her gaze on mine, "virtual reality can be exploited for much more than fighting or traveling the four corners of this world," she said and hooked her body to mine.
"Can we fuck in this game?" I asked, still incredulous, being as blunt as I could be.
Despite my long experience in virtual reality games, I had never ventured into those paths. Of course, I had already read about the vast possibilities in quasi-real environments, but not only did I not had anyone to test with, but my curiosity hadn't been that high. The other games had flaws and constant glitches. I didn't want to be in the middle of sex knowing that the servers could crash, and I'd be stuck with my dick in my hand and back in my room with the lights off.
She laughed again. This time I noticed that she had a beautiful smile; white teeth and a dimple on each cheek as she arched her thick lips.
"Yeah. I was curious to try it, but I wanted to make sure I choose the right person. But you, you saved my life. There's no better reward than that. We'll both be winners." She replied.
I placed my hands on her hip and leaned my head against hers, "What are we waiting for?"
"If you've already distributed the points you've earned by leveling up, the best thing to do is follow the path to the city. We're not far away."
As soon as she finished talking and her lips stuck to each other, I went ahead and kissed her. Her lips tasted like fresh mint and her breath was warm and scraped on the skin between my nose and upper lip.
I still asked her what she was doing there alone, but she didn't answer me. She only told me that it was a conversation we would have afterwards and that before that she needed to introduce me to someone. I ended up following her across the gray rock road until we got to town.
Chapter IV
Stones and rocks of different shades of black, perched on top of each other, made up the wall that surrounde
d the city. The gate, high, rusty, adorned with curved metal bars, was guarded by two level 5 players, both warriors, who had the sharp edge of the metal swords buried in the muddy ground. Next to them, a sign remarked that no one had died there for the past two days. It had quite of a medieval feeling.
"Is it normal for players to be eliminated within cities? In the games I've played before, they're usually neutral territory." I asked her.
"There are no rules in this game. We each do what we want. Of course, there are punishments for anyone who breaks the governor's rules."
"Governor?" I asked her.
The game was more than it appeared to be. It was like I was filling out a puzzle, one piece at a time,
"The only level 8 around here... He's the one who controls the city." She said and paused to take a deep breath," not that it was our choice. He and his group, like the guards, simply returned to the city after some time training in the west mountains and began to enforce rules. Anyone who does not obey is expelled or killed."
"That sounds like an authoritarian regime."
"It's one. But we're not strong enough to dethrone him."
"We? You and who else?" I asked her, as we entered the city.
"Let's focus on something a little more pleasurable now. What do you think?"
"Zero complaints from my part."
She grabbed my hand and yanked me through small wooden houses, a few brick houses with straw roofs and NPC'S countertops selling from weapons to shield and even some potions to recover HP or to increase attack for a short time.
Dozens of people strolled across the city center. A statue of a horseman was the central figure of the area, which also had stone benches, a circular arena, where only two warriors could fit, and a tall building on a secondary street that stood out from all the others due to the light brown wood that still glistened and mirrored the sun throughout the surrounding earthy ground.
The city reminded me of those centuries-old populations; majestic and yet melancholic.