Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

  “They'll be back soon at the temple,” Tiana replied. “I'm guessing those were some of the ones that we're still in the single digit levels. If they got experience from this, they'll probably have pulled a level or two though. I think the Orcs are targeted at your level so they're well over the level of those adventurers.”

  “Yeah, I just hate the idea that they had to go through that. I wasn't expecting a shaman, I should've been, but with all the missile Orcs that group had I didn't think they'd have anything else.”

  “Eddie, it isn't your responsibility or your fault here. You didn't ask for this wave thing, and they volunteered for it. Just listen, you hear the rest of them out there? They sound like they had a blast. Consider it practice for becoming a king and having armies fight for you.”

  Eddie blanched. He'd liked the thought of being a king, but he'd never considered armies or people, NPC or player, dying for him. He didn't like that idea very much, but there wasn't a lot he could do about it now without abandoning the quest lines he'd been working so hard on.

  He sighed heavily. His vision went blank and the message 'Wave 5' flashed across it.

  “Fine, can we get out of the tower now though?”

  ~ ~ ~

  When he went out he got the adventurers attention and spoke for a moment.

  “There's probably going to be another wave of Orcs, more than this, at four thirty or so in the morning. If anyone's interested, you're welcome to join in again. Thanks for doing this,” Eddie said.

  He got a short cheer, but even more questions.

  “How do you know this?” someone asked.

  “Because someone's screwing with me,” Eddie said. “I keep getting messages that say 'wave' and an increasing number. Then that number of hours later I get attacked.”

  There was a bunch of laughter out in the crowd as a familiar voice spoke up.

  “Damn it, I knew I should've followed you around before. You don't go adventuring, adventures go you-ing.”

  Eddie groaned.

  “You're welcome to figure out whatever's doing it and take it off of me. I'd be happier that way,” Eddie said. “For now, I need to fix this wall before the next attack.”

  Eddie was surprised when he had a couple of volunteers to help him bring enough wood over to fix the fort. He wasn't about to turn down the help though.

  “Yeah, we normally adventure at night, so having another one tonight is awesome for us,” one of the volunteers replied when asked if he'd be there. “It's nice not having to go out there for our experience, although we did get a little less loot on the split here, still...”

  Eddie repaired the wall as quickly as he could, then went to nap some more. He woke up a half hour before he expected the next raid, but he was very groggy from splitting his sleep up. By the time the attack began he still wasn't totally awake. As a result, he didn't remember many details, except for the fact that there were about forty Orcs total this time. Ten crossbow Orcs, another shaman, and the rest all melee fighters.

  The fort took even more damage, the north wall being breached in three places this time. Fortunately Charles' group and another higher level group were there for this attack and the Orcs never made it to the base of Eddie's tower, despite breaching the wall in three places.

  The other detail he remembered was that his notification light started flashing right after he helped drop the shaman. He was tired enough that he simply dismissed it, hoping he'd remember to check whatever it was after he got some more sleep.

  As the last of the Orcs died, the familiar obscuring of his vision took place, followed by the message spelling out 'Wave 6'.

  He practically collapsed in the room midway up the tower and didn't wake until well after dawn. Once he was up, it took him until after breakfast to remember about his notifications. He pulled them up then.

  Success:

  You have obtained enough experience to advance to Level 15

  Do you wish to advance?

  (Y/N)

  Yes, he thought.

  You have advanced to Level 15.

  You have 3 stat points to distribute.

  You may choose a skill.

  You have received one stat point in: Intelligence.

  Your Health has increased.

  Your Mana has increased.

  Your Stamina has increased.

  You have gained access to: Nature Magic – Tier 5 spells (insufficient Wisdom to receive new spell at this time)

  Having already planned out his advancement, he instantly thought.

  Add one point to heartiness, one point to agility, and one point to wisdom.

  Your wisdom is now sufficient to receive a Tier 5 Nature Spell.

  Eddie glanced at the time and sighed. Only a few more hours until the next attack, which would happen just before eleven o'clock if it continued to follow the same schedule.

  He checked his email and found that Aaron had finally replied, asking him to clarify what he meant by waves. Eddie shot off a quick, to the point, email describing the waves and Orcs. Then he started moving, trotting up towards the castle site to see if the stone walls up there would provide a level of defense better than those of the wood fort which had been battered over and over.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Nine

  Aaron tossed the box with the remaining doughnuts on the table next to his workstation. Taking a deep drink of the coffee he'd gotten with them, he settled in and booted up his systems.

  “Hey, doughnuts. Mind if I grab one?” Tom called from across the room.

  “Nah, go right ahead,” Aaron replied. “Hey Tom, remember when you talked about running the intervention program to get the data on our guys dying in game?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “You didn't do that, did you?”

  “What? You know I wouldn't do something like that without running it by you first. Why do you ask?”

  “Because from Eddie's description in the emails he's been sending me since yesterday afternoon, it sounds like someone has.”

  “How could they? That's in the Legacy code section and access is heavily restricted to that, isn't it?”

  “Yeah, it is. Soon as my system finishes booting up I'm going to verify that the Intervention code is running. If it is, I'll see what I can do about it.”

  “Um, Aaron? Maybe you shouldn't. We did want them to die at least once, right? This would do it, given enough time.”

  “Tom, you really need to spend some time in that game. Enough to really get a feel for it. It's more real than you'd expect and while losing a life in a video game is nothing, I'm guessing that this would feel a lot more serious than that.”

  “Yeah, but if we still need them to do that?”

  Aaron's reply to that was probably sharper than he'd intended, but his system was just about ready and his fingers were itching to start typing.

  “Tom, Eddie's my friend now. I'm not going to let someone screw him like this. I'm going to find out who did it and why, then I'm going to do something about it.”

  Aaron didn't see it, but Tom flinched back, his fingers digging into the doughnut he'd grabbed, the custard filling squirting out and splashing on his hand.

  “Okay then,” Tom said, stretching the words out. “I'll just get back to work.”

  Aaron wasn't paying attention any longer. His fingers raced across the keyboard.

  Yes, the intervention process is running, targeted on Eddie, he thought.

  He type in a few more commands.

  Damn, I can't just stop it. I can't alter the code either, I don't have the permissions. I can view it though.

  He scanned through the code for the Intervention procedure. The command used to start it had left the top level wave open, which meant infinite until the target was terminated. But the code had options to stop the waves at any multiple of five. He checked the time quickly then did some mental calculation.

  Crap, Eddie's already gone through wave five so I can't try to stop it there. I wonder, though.
If I use the command myself with Eddie as the target, will it reset the parameters? It might double it up and have it running in sync with two different counters. It might also just have the process running once, but reset the waves to the first one. But, and I can check the code and make an educated guess, it might just replace the infinite parameter with level ten if I input the command with that as the top wave.

  After a few moments though, Aaron shot off an email to Eddie, describing the issue and telling him that he could decide what they did, but that Aaron wanted more data first.

  Hey, I know someone who can trace that code even faster than I can, Aaron thought.

  He opened the chat program he used to talk with Freyja in the game when he was out here.

  Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:

  Freyja, I need your help.

  Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:

  Aaron, what's the problem?

  Aaron quickly described the problem and asked her to trace the code and determine what the result would be if they re-entered the intervention command. He also asked if she could find out who entered the command in the first place.

  Her answer was only moments in coming.

  Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:

  Aaron, right now it would reset, but if you want I can tweak some other code so it will simply change the parameter. I'm sorry, but I don't have access to the actual Legacy code repository, so I can't change it so you could input the next wave for when it should stop. As for who did this? It was Loki.

  Aaron couldn't believe what he was reading. How and why would an AI do this to a player in the game?

  Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:

  Loki? Why would he do that?

  Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:

  Yes, AI-L to be more specific. As to why? He's learned a great deal about the god which he represents, including that said god always coveted that which the other gods had. He is, as far as I can tell, offended that I have a solid base of worshipers and that they have been growing in number. If I were to guess, I would say that he blames Eddie and Tiana for that, but Tiana is my high priestess, so he will not do anything to her, the results would be... unpleasant for him. Eddie, on the other hand, is only a worshiper and as far as Loki can tell, not a very devout one. Therefore he is attempting to get to me through Eddie and his relation to Tiana, if I had to guess.

  Aaron sat there staring at the screen for a moment.

  We have internecine strife between two AIs in the game and one of them is attempting to strike at the other through a player? Oh, shit!

  ~ ~ ~

  The walls were going well, better than Eddie had hoped even. They'd completed a second wall up to ten feet and almost had the third one done as well. The carpenters had been by and installed the wall walk on the second wall, and the materials for the third one were in a tidy stack. He considered hopping in to help for an hour or two, but it looked like the masons had things under control.

  As he was heading back to the inn, he realized that they must've taken the day off from the houses in order to be working on the walls and decided to ask Jern about that.

  Jern, along with the rest of the party, were waiting at a table in the inn. Eddie was fretting, his mood dark, but the rest of the group seemed to be having a good time, laughing and smiling as they ate. He was torn about whether to join them or not when he got another email from Aaron.

  He wants ME to decide what he should do? Eddie thought. Although he did say he'd have more information about it soon, so I'll just wait for that, but if he can't find anything else out what do I want to do? I think have him try it. Restarting the cycle would give us a little extra time to get the last of the castle walls done, adding a few more Orcs on each wave, or lower level waves added in to the existing ones would just speed up the inevitable, but if it worked then I'd at least have a concrete idea of when this crap would be over.

  Eddie tried to put a grin on his face before walking over to the table. He really didn't want to dampen their spirits. It took him a few moments to get it there, but he did it by realizing that Aaron had replied and was aware of the problem, which meant that one way or another the stupid waves should be over soon.

  As he sat the rest of the table looked at him.

  “Um, Eddie? What's that look on your face?” Karl asked.

  “What, I'm grinning.”

  “The last time I saw a grin like that it was on one of the undead in the dungeon,” Karl replied.

  Eddie opened his mouth to snap a reply, then snapped it closed again instead.

  “Sorry, I can't imagine why it's like that. Maybe I haven't been sleeping well recently?”

  His sorry attempt at humor brought a smile to Karl's face.

  “Hah! That's the Eddie I know, lousy humor and all.”

  “Hey,” Eddie half-growled before Karl burst into laughter. It wasn't long before Eddie gave in and joined him. He knew he'd been in a bad mood and just wasn't good at covering that up. Now that it was out in the open he found it easier to let go of the mood that had been consuming him.

  So maybe I better make sure to stay around the others for a bit if I don't want to feel like that, he thought.

  “Jern, did you tell the masons to skip the houses and work on the walls today?” Eddie asked. “When I went up to check on them a few minutes back, they were at the castle site working, not the houses.”

  “No, but I did tell them that they could if they wanted to do that,” Jern replied. “Maybe, especially with the Orcs coming in, they think they'll be, or at least feel, more secure with that castle built?”

  Eddie shrugged.

  “I don't know, but they'll probably get to working on the fourth wall today even. I need to find Delgar and see if the portcullis parts are ready. If we get those walls up, along with the portcullis, the Orcs would need siege equipment to get through them.”

  Jern smiled.

  “That's the point lad, isn't it?”

  Eddie grinned, a lot more effortlessly than his last attempt.

  “That's the point indeed, Jern. I'm just looking forward to experiencing it.”

  “Well, we won't experience it with this attack, will we?”

  Eddie's mood plummeted again. He checked his clock and the math told him it was just under two hours until the next wave. His interface pinged with another incoming email, and when he checked, it was Aaron.

  'Do you trust Freyja enough to adjust the code for what's happening to you? If you do, I can't stop everything cold, but I can add in an end point for what's going on after Wave 10. Otherwise I don't know what will happen if we try it.

  Aaron.'

  'I trust her implicitly,' Eddie sent back.

  The reply to his message was back in seconds.

  'Done then, just make it to Wave 10 and you'll be clear.

  Aaron.'

  “Well, I just got a bit of mixed news,” Eddie said. “We're currently about to experience wave six, but if we make it to wave ten then the whole mess will stop. Aaron found a way out, he couldn't just stop the whole mess, but did manage to get an endpoint set for it. It sounds like, from what he said, there wasn't an endpoint previously.”

  “Well, there you go then,” Karl said. “Five more waves, including this next one, and you're good.”

  “I'm trying to figure the times for the attacks. I was barely awake for the one early this morning,” Eddie said. “Wave six should be at about ten fifty-seven, give us twenty minutes to clear that and wave seven should be at around six-fifteen or six-twenty tonight, then wave eight would be at just before three in the morning. Huh, that one's gonna suck. Nine will be just past noon tomorrow and ten at about ten-thirty tomorrow night. Is my math right? I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't sleep well. Breaking up my sleep into shorter segments really screws with me.”

  “That sounds right to me,” Karl said, “but math has never been a strong point for me. Anyone else?”
<
br />   “Well, there are the variables of how long it takes to clear the attacks,” Tiana said. “But it sounds like you increased the time for each one at least a little, so it should do as a rough estimate.”

  “Good, after this morning's attack I'm going to have an early lunch and go work on that castle wall. See if we can't get the whole mess done and be able to use it before the larger waves,” Eddie said.

  “I'll help with that lad,” Jern said.

  “I'll help too,” Tiana said.

  “Sorry, Allie and I don't have Masonry, but we'll come along to stand watch in case there's a problem with your time estimates, won't we Allie?” Karl said.

  Allie nodded.

  “I can help them stand watch, or I can work on finishing my current batch of beer. I bet I could have a pretty big barrel of it available for right after tonight's attack if you'd like to reward your defenders,” Dominic said.

  “Ooh, that's a good idea,” Tiana said. “I don't think anyone is upset at helping out so far, but over and over again at odd hours? A beer or two would probably alleviate any irritation that was building because of it.”

  “Done,” Eddie said. “Now I just need to pace or something until the next attack. It's gonna suck since it's coming in on the wooden fort again.”

  “Nope, now you need to help me set traps just inside the north wall,” Karl replied. “Me, Stalker, and a few other sneaky types that is. Then we keep the defenders behind those traps when the Orcs break in and there'll be a bunch fewer Orcs after they encounter our gifts.”

  “I can do that, what do you need me to do?” Eddie asked.

  “Well you know how you keep having me fetch and carry since I don't have the appropriate building skills?” Karl said, grinning widely.

  “Okay, I'll be your gopher,” Eddie said.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie spent the next hour plus hauling materials for the trap makers. The areas for the adventurers to not stand in were clearly marked from inside the fort, but where the attacking Orcs wouldn't be able to see the markings.