So Ajax quickly added one to his Might, then brought to mind his character panel and glanced over his stats.
Ajax Stoneheart
Race: Human
Class: Spiritual Warrior
Skill Focus: Warrior Paladin
Level: 3
Player Kills: 1
Might: 5 (1 Might increases AP by 5)
Dexterity: 1
Intellect: 2
Spirit: 3 (1 Spirit increases healing by 10% and improves mana regeneration by 2%)
Luck: 1
HP: 194 (BASE: 185 +9 BLS)
MP: 140 (BASE: 130 +10 from equipment)
AP: 120 (BASE: 115 +5 from weapon)
DEF: 60 (BASE: 20 +40 from equipment)
XP: 1000/2500
Then he glanced at his Talent Tree. At this low level, he had two options. The healing-focused Paladin tree or the melee-damage-focused Templar tree. First and foremost, he wanted to be a healer, so for now he would focus on his healing abilities, at least until level ten where he would hit the Tier-2 abilities and could branch out into damage.
He added his talent point to the Paladin tree. No added abilities were gained, but he would heal slightly more with his Lesser Heal and was one level away from getting Medium Heal and Shield of the Lost Sun, an ability that would reduce all incoming damage by 90% for one minute on himself or a companion.
Lillus must have leveled up too, as she had a wide grin on her face and had gone cross eyed as she no doubt studied her stats. “Yay,” she finally said, clapping her hands together like a little girl. “What did you spend your points on? I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”
Ajax snorted and turned to the field marshal as the man started speaking. The middle-aged officer held his plate helmet in one hand as he addressed the crowd. “I have come to this humble town in the name of Grand Imperator Ithilda. Our highness has need of her loyal subjects. She commands every player character and any NPC able to bear arms that are not tied to the local watch, present themselves for duty. We have need of you for the coming summer of war with Dern.” His eyes scanned the crowd. “Come forth and stand before me and I shall accept you into the Imperium’s service.”
Before he knew what he was doing, Ajax had raced to stand before the marshal. “I offer my services.” He bowed. “I am only level 3, but I will do what I can to aid our righteous cause.”
The marshal studied him. “Excellent. You have everything we require. You can serve.”
A quest notification appeared, and Ajax accepted it without reading it. No doubt, the rewards would be rich and the reputation gained immense!
The marshal turned back to the crowd. “Who else?”
Finally, Ajax had been given his chance to work with the army. Perhaps they would see how capable he was and allow him to enter early. All his training to get where he was right now might finally have paid off.
Lillus rushed up to Ajax. “I’m coming too.”
“What?” Ajax gasped under his breath. “You aren’t even from around here. They won’t accept you.”
The marshal glanced at her. “Welcome, my lady Demon Mage. We welcome your service.”
Umm... Ajax found that his mouth had fallen open, so he snapped it shut. Great, Ajax thought. Unless I abandon the marshal’s quest, I’m stuck with her. For some reason, part of him was happy about that. The other part... was terrified!
The marshal accepted several more players and NPCs into service, then motioned for the newly recruited conscripts to follow his column of horsemen as they turned to leave Hallsford.
Lillus skipped along beside Ajax, her bags and pouches of equipment and supplies bouncing up and down, her long dark hair covering her pointy ears. “This is exciting.”
“They should never have allowed you to join.” Ajax shook his head. “Our army doesn’t need Demon Mages.” That class was one that belonged to the Independent City-States, not the more civilized Imperium or its age-old enemy, the Republic of Dern.
Lillus put her arm through his. “You know what? I think the marshal likes me.”
CHAPTER 4
DESTINATION YANTAR
They headed east toward the fortress city of Yantar. Ajax and Lillus walked among two dozen other conscripts. Most of the player characters looked like Martial Warriors (the most popular class in the Imperium), a few other Spiritual Warriors (the least popular), one Elemental Mage (not the coward from back at that wretched village) and one Poacher with a lumbering black bear as a pet (it almost ate one of the NPC’s on the first night out of town). The NPC characters seemed to mostly be peasants, with rusted old swords, maces and in one case, a dented and scarred metal buckler.
The highest level among them was the Poacher, and he was only level 5.
Ajax shook his head. What good were a bunch of ragtag low-level characters like him and the rest of them? The conflict with the Republic of Dern had been simmering for as long as anyone could remember, and with each warring season after the last snows had fallen, thousands of players and NPCs had died on both sides. A handful of players, either the bravest or stupidest, had even lost all three of their lives and now (it was assumed) lived in the dark limbo of their own mind, waiting for the day of awakening when humanity would be torn from this world and placed back in the real.
If that day ever came...
His thoughts were broken as he overheard a group of players discussing a strange rumor. Supposedly, a group of NPCs had formed some sort of underground movement that had stolen weapons from the army. After getting the weapons, the group went north and disappeared into the Fallen Empire of Pendrax. Imperial intelligence was said to be hard at work trying to find them.
“Why would they bother?” One of the players asked. “They’re just NPCs.”
No one seemed to have an answer, so the conversation moved on.
Near nightfall of the first day out of Hallsford, Lillus said she was getting bored and summoned her succubus. Yana popped into existence, and instantly proceeded to trap Ajax with her whip and drag him over to her so she could grope him and embarrass him in every way she could. “Oh, I still like this one.” The demon’s forked tongue licked his cheek, leaving a trail of wet saliva. “Mmm, nice and tasty.”
Some of the player characters and NPCs slowed their march to watch. Yana let Ajax go and put on a good show for them, blowing kisses, showing off her highly sexualized body and at one point, kissing an NPC on the lips, then shoving him away contemptuously. “Bah, I like player lips better.” With a sultry bow to Ajax, she despawned, waiting for her mistress to summon her again.
“One more level and Yana will be around permanently,” Lillus said happily.
Ajax gritted his teeth. Something else to look forward to. Not.
The next day, as they walked along the narrow roads winding through the wooded hills and farmlands, Lillus prattled on about all and sundry. Ajax could barely follow her line of conversation at times, but he tried his best (not wanting her to grow bored and summon Yana again).
He didn’t like admitting it, but the Demon Mage was the closest thing he had to a friend in this incarnation of his life. Yet he knew so little about her.
“Tell me about yourself, Lillus. Who were you in real life?”
She grinned at him from behind her dark bangs that hung down in front of her eyes. “I was born a woman. Now I am a frozen popsicle like you. Oh, in the real world my hair is shorter than this, and I had pretty pink fake nails.”
“You really don’t open up much, do you? I’ve spent the last few hours telling you everything about myself, what little there is to tell. Why don’t you return the favor?”
Lillus brushed her hair back over her pointed ears. “Where would the fun be in that? I like being a woman of mystery. I’ve never told anyone about myself and I don’t mean to start doing so now. Besides, it’s not something I like to think about. I’m sure you understand.”
“I lost people too.” He lowered his face, remembering the fallen. His mother, father, broth
er... All of them gone.
A long moment of silence passed, her face, unusually somber. After a time, Lillus shook her head, and forced a grin. She patted him on the cheek, a gesture more befitting old friends than ones newly acquainted. “Enough doom and gloom. Why don’t you start acting like every other man I have graced with my delicious presence? Most are falling over themselves to either sleep with me or my succubus, or more likely, the both of us. You do find me beautiful, right?”
His face burned, mind reeling at the sudden change of topic. “Well... yes, of course. But there are more important things in life than pleasure. I have a duty to the Imperium to level high enough to join the army proper, not as a mere conscript like I am at present. Then I must help my people fight our enemies. More so now, with things heating up the way they are.”
The Demon Mage burst out laughing. “Duty. Oh, how simple you are. I am bound to duties set by those far greater than the Imperium or the Republic of Dern. But that doesn’t stop me from having some fun along the way.” She winked at him. “After all, what’s life without a little fun? You can be whoever you like in Visaria. Why be such a bore?”
Ajax frowned. “Who are these people who set you your duties? Who are greater than the rulers of the two most powerful nations on the continent of Dernmore?”
Lillus pulled an apple from one of her bags and began munching on it, and didn’t seem inclined to answer his question. He let it be, intending to broach it again later.
THEY ARRIVED AT THE fortress city of Yantar and were given a small tent to sleep in and began to set it up outside the city walls.
Quest Complete
Follow the marshal to Yantar.
Rewards: +150xp. Your reputation with the Sinjharian Imperium has increased by 100. Your reputation with the Imperial Army has increased by 150. Your reputation with the Republic of Dern has decreased by 1000.
Ajax hammered the last peg into the hard ground and gave a withering glare at the snow-crusted giant stone walls looming above him. The field marshal and the Imperial troops he commanded all got to sleep in one of the city’s barracks. Ajax and the other conscripts were not welcome in them.
Lillus plopped herself down near the tent and got a fire going using firewood provided by the city. When it was lit, she motioned Ajax over. “What do you prefer? Beef or pork?”
He grimaced and took out his vegetarian sausages. “Neither. I don’t eat meat.”
“For real?” She smirked. “I don’t think I have ever encountered someone who doesn’t eat meat. Not in Visaria anyway.”
“I am one of the few who maintained my eating habits from the real world in this one.”
Lillus studied him a long moment, but then her bangs fell into her eyes. The sight of her eyes glittering at him between the strands of her dark hair brought a pleasurable warmth to his loins. He quickly focused on removing food from his bags so as to avert his gaze, lest she see the lust in his eyes. Who knows what she’d do if she saw that.
He accidentally dropped the food bag, spilling his supplies to the ground. He bent down to pick them up when she pointed at something. “What is that? It looks like a broken pineapple.”
Ajax quickly shoved it back in the bag, along with the bread and bean curd, then tossed the sausages into her fry pan. “What do you carry it for?” she asked, watching him.
“You have your secrets, and I have mine.” He smiled when she frowned at him. “Now you know how it feels.”
Lillus set to work cooking her meat and his sausages. “I should summon Yana and have her discipline you for that.” She scanned the other people in the camp, both NPCs and players. “I bet they’d like to watch my demon whip your naked backside red roar!”
He quickly found an excuse to leave. “I’m going to resupply my water at the well.” Ajax left her to the cooking.
They spent that night in the same tent and Ajax slept facing away from her, as close to the canvas side of it as he could. He didn’t want to risk giving into his male urges and doing something he’d regret. He’d removed his armor and slept in his undergarments and draped a woolen blanket over himself.
When he woke, he found her under his blanket and pressed up against his back, her warm breath blowing on the back of his neck. He shuffled free of the tent and glared at her from the entrance. She sat up and stretched. “Morning already?”
Ajax decided not to snap at her about pressing up against him during the night. He was in no mood for her games first thing in the morning. “I need to go into the city and work on my armor and buy some supplies. The marshal will not be coming to muster us until midday.”
Lillus quickly grabbed her things. “I’ll come with you. I need to buy some glass vials so I can make more potions.”
“You’re an alchemist?”
She emerged from the tent. “Yes, and I pick herbs too. Did you know that if you mix some Cloydid Weed with Toad Thistle, it makes a powerful psychedelic? You should try some one day. Yana taught me the recipe.”
They entered the imposing iron city gates and found themselves in a bustling cobbled street, its gutters filled with dirty icy slush. Shops, houses, taverns and places of industry were built all along the road. Some shops were owned by players, others by NPCs. They passed a busy tavern filled with patrons, even this early in the morning. Ajax glanced inside and saw the bartender was a player character but his serving girls were all NPCs.
It still amazed Ajax at times how complex the systems running Visaria truly were. The NPC characters all around him each had their own names, their own lives, agendas, professions, thoughts and feelings. They felt pain, they became afraid and they found true love, either with a player or with another NPC. In some ways, they were as much people as the refugees like him, who had fled the machines who had destroyed the real world and now made this digital world their own.
What would happen to all the NPCs when the computers keeping the human players’ physical bodies frozen in stasis woke them so they could return to the real world? Would they all instantly cease to be? Would the digital world of Visaria go on without humanity?
Did the NPCs know what was coming?
A loud roar high above plucked Ajax from his thoughts. He and Lillus stared up into the sky as six dragon riders circled high above the city in a triangular formation.
Imperial Dragon Riders. The elite of Grand Imperator Ithilda’s Imperial Guard. What were they doing here, so far from the seat of Imperial rule?
To be up there, flying with warriors such as them... Ajax sighed. I want nothing more in life than to be given the honor to serve with them.
He felt someone nudge his side and he lowered his gaze. “You should have seen the look on your face just now,” Lillus laughed. “You looked like a starstruck lover.”
“One day I want to fly up there with them and serve the Imperator.”
Lillus put an arm around his waist. “You will, trust me. You will.”
“How do you know?”
Her laughter died. “Well... I suppose because you are so uptight about your duty and honor and all that.” She seemed to be taken aback for what to say. “Anyway, where’s this craft district? I need to get those vials.”
Strange she would suddenly act like that. But then everything about her is strange, Ajax thought as he led her along.
Soon they arrived at a large square filled with all manner of equipment for use by players to hone their crafting skills. “I’m going over here.” Ajax pointed at an empty blacksmith’s stall. “I’ll meet you there in one hour.”
To his surprise, she grabbed his hand and kissed the back of it. “It’s a date.” With that, she hurried off toward the alchemy section of the square.
Shaking his head in bewilderment, Ajax went over and got to work repairing his armor, using two of the iron ingots in his inventory. The Steampunk’s musket rounds and the turret’s bolts had torn holes through his armor in places, and his shield was dented and also full of holes. He decided he’d look at buying a new shield with t
he coin he had received for killing the Steampunk, but do his best to patch up the rest of his armor.
By the time he had repaired the holes and hammered out the dents, his blacksmithing skill had leveled up, giving him access to a few more recipes once he found them or got paid for the training.
Professions
Blacksmithing
Level: 85/300 Intermediate
Mining
Level: 56/300 Novice
When he had the time, he would need to go down a mineshaft or head out into a mountain range and do some serious mining. Then he could use the metal ore to make new items to level his blacksmith skill by making some of the newly available recipe items. But it would be a long process. Few players outside of ones who roleplayed as merchants ever maxed out their professions. At some point, it became easier to earn coin through questing or serving in the military and buy what you needed rather than make it yourself.
But I am far from having enough coin to do that, Ajax thought as he strode toward a player blacksmith making armor. Better to level his skill high enough to access some of the Rune Crafting abilities that would allow him to augment his own armor and weapons, rather than pay a fortune for someone else to. When he joined the army, they would only give him low-level augmentations, saving the higher-level good stuff for the officers or elite troops.
The woman looked up at him as she stoked the flames of her furnace. “What can I do for you...” She paused as she no doubt looked at his player panel. “Ajax Stoneheart.”
He looked at hers.
Matilda Davenport
Class: Martial Warrior
Level: 2
Professions
Blacksmithing
Level: Journeyman 248/300
Mining
Level: Novice 81/300
Authorized seller of armor and weapons.
Guild
Hammersmiths of Esterlle
Nothing unexpected there. Matilda was a blacksmith of superb skill, but had yet to attain the rank of Grand Master. Few had, and the ones who did were quickly brought into the exclusive employ of the Imperator.
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