New spells and abilities available at skill level 10. Minimum Mind score for new spells: 15.
Jandar read the entries several times and understood two things. There was a lot to learn about his new status, and he needed a hammer meant for crushing skulls. He looked down at the smithing hammer in his hand and figured it would do for now. It was comfortable, like a well-worn boot. It was strange seeing himself broken down and defined by words and numbers in a book.
“What is this Greater Mortalitatis Amplecti?”
The smile on Edison’s face was wide and he beamed with pride. “Mortalita-tis-amplecti. That is my gift to this world, why I awakened you. You will spread it to every corner of the globe.”
“That doesn’t tell me what it does.”
“In short, it tears up others’ scripts as I have done yours. It will free them from the unending cycle in which they live.”
“They’ll become like me? An adventurer?”
Edison shook his head. “No. You are special. I had meant to awaken many more like you, but I failed. You are my only success. You will be an extension of my will.”
“Why do you need me to do that?”
“The ones who cast me out are closing all the borders around Truale, effectively quarantining it. I have already sparked the fires of freedom here, but I need you to light them elsewhere. To do that, you must increase your power. People will come for you, adventurers and others. They will try to stop you, to use you to undo what I have done. You must become stronger than them.”
“And if I choose not to?”
Edison blinked, uncomprehending, as if the thought of Jandar denying never entered his mind. Which it had not. “You must. Others are trapped as you were. Do you not want them to be free as well?”
“The only thing I want is my wife and son.”
Edison pressed his lips together, his patience with the stubborn man starting to fray. “You have no idea what I have sacrificed, what I am risking to do this. Everything I am doing is for you and the others like you. Don’t you see?”
“What I see is a capricious being, one of many, who toy with our lives, who treat us like game pieces to control and fight and die for their enjoyment.”
“And I’m trying to change that!”
“You would cut our strings but still make us dance to your tune. We are still nothing but puppets for your entertainment.”
Edison whipped his arm in a horizontal arc. “I created all of this. I created you. You will do as I say!”
Jandar stared at the self-proclaimed god for several seconds before nodding. “I understand now. I know what I must do.”
“Good.”
“I must grow stronger. I will cross this land and however many others it takes until I am powerful enough that no one, not man, adventurer, or god, will ever pull my strings again. Including you.”
“Wait—”
Sparks danced around the head of Jandar’s hammer. It flashed down and struck Edison on the crown of his head. Skin and bone split beneath the impact and exposed the pink and grey matter beneath.
“And when I am strong enough, I will kill Matrice and free us all.”
You have been given a divine quest: Breaker of Chains. Collect at least one of every type of eternity stone and destroy Matrice. Secondary objective: Free every NPC from their scripts to allow them greater freedom and self-determination. Difficulty: Epic. Reward: Unknown.
Do you accept this divine quest, YES or NO.
Jandar selected YES.
Chapter 9: The Essence of Being
A MESSAGE ALERT BLINKED in Eddie’s HUD. He ignored it, slapped a new magazine into his plasma carbine, and laid waste to the aliens swarming down the derelict space station corridor. They were nearing the heart of the infested station, and the alien queen was throwing everything she had to keep them from reaching her.
“Shit, dude, I told you this was a four man mission!” Ben shouted over the cracking plasma fire.
Eddie glanced over his shoulder at the mag lift behind them. “Start backing up to the lift. I have a plan.”
The two mercenaries began walking backward, barely able to hold off the increasing tide of frantic aliens with their sword-like appendages and clacking mandibles capable of slicing through all but the best power armor. They reached the shaft, the lift inoperable due to the station’s damaged power reactor.
“Hold them off while I get the door open,” Eddie said.
“You better be fast. Shit!” Ben screamed when an alien took advantage of the reduced plasma fire and darted forward.
He fired a grenade from the launcher attached to the underside of his rifle to give himself enough time to ram an overcharged plasma mag into the breach.
“Hurry up!”
Eddie ran an auxiliary cable from his power armor to the door and got it open. “Got it. I just need you to do one more thing, and then this station and all its salvage is ours.”
“What’s that?”
“Sacrifice yourself for the greater good.”
Ben looked down and saw the blinking lights on two of the plasma grenades hanging from his power armor just before Eddie’s feet caught him in the back and sent him sprawling into the horde of aliens.
“You fucker!”
“You’re a hero to the cause, Ben. I’ll memorialize your sacrifice!” Eddie said as he hung above the open shaft and cut power to the auxiliary cable.
The reinforced blast doors slammed shut an instant before Ben’s grenades, along with Ben, exploded, turning the alien swarm into little more than green goo. Eddie powered the doors once again and dropped back into the corridor that was now devoid of aliens. Intact ones anyway. He acknowledged an alert, and a message window opened on his HUD.
You have received a reply on your trouble ticket. Reference: Unable to revive character.
“You suck worse than anything that has ever sucked,” Ben said through his VR headset.
“It was necessary to beat the horde with only two people.”
“That’s why I told you to bring Rick and Darby!”
“And split the loot four ways?” Eddie sputtered his lips. “It’s a walk in the park to reach the queen now. Then it’s just a matter of breaching the power core and frying her ass. We’ll make more than enough to clone you and upgrade the ship.”
“And all it cost me was two levels,” Ben hissed.
“It was a price I was willing pay. I got a message from QM support. Meet me there.”
“I’ll meet you—meet you with a sword up your ass,” Ben grumbled as he logged off.
Eddie set the VR helmet on his desk and gave it a contemptuous look. Going back to basic VR and a haptic suit after experiencing full immersion was like trading in wings for roller skates. He hoped QM got their shit together and fixed whatever had broken. He strapped on the NIH, lay on his bed, and closed his eyes.
Once immersed, he opened the chat interface and replied to the message.
CodeMonkey69: I’m here. Is it fixed?
GM2024: Hey, Eddie. Not exactly. I have some bad news, good news, and awesome news. The bad news is that we can’t revive your character. Truale is now a hardcore zone with permadeath.
CodeMonkey69: Are you serious? Who the hell decided that hours after first launch?
GM2024: Don’t know. It came down from on high.
CodeMonkey69: Screw that. I guess we’ll just have to roll new toons and pick another starting area.
GM2024: Yeah, I’m not done with the bad news yet. When you died in Truale, you got a permanent debuff that is account persistent. Your account, and anyone’s account whose character contracts the debuff, is banned from any region other than Truale.
CodeMonkey69: WTF?! That’s bullshit! They can’t do that!
GM2024: They can and they did. But here’s the good news. I wasn’t able to revive your characters or return your gear, but I was able to spawn a few goblins in a micro instance just outside of Ambercross. They’ll be worth five times the normal XP and will drop
the sword your friend lost. I’ve even added some other decent loot to them. That should get you back to where you were and maybe a little better.
CodeMonkey69: I guess that’s not too bad. Still bullshit though.
GM2024: Yeah. Just try not to die again. I’m pretty sure Matron won’t let me or anyone else mess with her mobs like that again. She didn’t seem too happy but let it slide this time.
CodeMonkey69: Wait. She won’t let you? How can the AI overrule the admins? Who’s really in charge over there?
There was a distinct pause before Eddie got a reply.
GM2024: It was just a figure of speech. Remember when I told you GMs were limited in what they could do to assist players in order to ensure they aren’t hooking up their buddies and upsetting the game balance? It’s that. Just protocol. But I haven’t told you the awesome news yet.
CodeMonkey69: I can’t wait…
GM2024: Not only have XP rewards been increased and the leveling arc reduced, wait for it… Your subscription price has been cut in half.
CodeMonkey69: GTFO! Seriously?
GM2024: Yep. Everyone who is currently locked into the new hardcore zone. They also aren’t letting in any new accounts to the hardcore area for now. Think of it like an expanded beta test.
CodeMonkey69: Except I’m still paying for it.
GM2024: But half price.
CodeMonkey69: For 1/10th the content.
GM2024: Yeah, that’s true. But with limited players in the zone, it will take months to explore even half of it. All while enjoying an increased leveling system and an uncrowded zone.
CodeMonkey69: Yeah, I guess that’s not too bad. Permadeath still sucks though.
GM2024: Oh, I almost forgot. There’s also a new boss drop called an eternity stone. Eternity stones allow players a one-time respawn or resurrection. This all just happened. They’ll be sending out mass emails any minute with all the details.
CodeMonkey69: Cool. So just do some boss runs, get the stone, and no more permadeath.
GM2024: Pretty much. I’m not sure what the drop rate is. I know it isn’t 100%. They don’t want to hand them out to everyone, but a couple successful runs should get you one. It’s a consumable item, but you can technically get as many as you want.
CodeMonkey69: OK. I’m glad they were able to put a ribbon on this turd. Ben and I will roll up new toons and jump in as soon as our mandatory logout time is up.
GM2024: OK. You’ll have a quest for the beefed up goblins with their coordinates in your quest log along with a special quest.
CodeMonkey69: Special quest? What is it?
GM2024: You’ll see. It’s a zone-wide quest. Everyone will get it.
CodeMonkey69: Thanks.
GM2024: No problem.
Eddie pinged Ben.
BigBen007: What, backstabber?
CodeMonkey69: Technically, I’m a back blower upper. There’s been some huge game changes.
Eddie filled Ben in on everything ingame support had told him. The mass email popped up in an alert when he was about halfway through explaining everything. There was an option to either accept the new TOS, Terms of Service, or decline and get a refund. Eddie doubted very many people would ask for a refund. All they would get back is their unused subscription money. They would be stuck with the useless, expensive hardware until they could sell it or QT released a new game that supported it.
He and Ben created near-clones of their previous characters, so it took only a few minutes before they were both back in Ambercross. Eddie met Ben at the Templar citadel just as he had previously. He even got another free bow from the training yard. Ben was able to skip most of the orientation since he had already gone through it once.
“Riccon Blackshaft?” Ben chortled.
Since player death was now permanent, people could create new characters and keep their old name if they wanted. Even if they changed it, anyone with more than a basic analyze skill would see a tag identifying them for who they were.
“Yeah. What’s wrong with it?” Riccon asked.
“Sounds like a porno. Rectum Blackshaft.”
“Eat a dick.”
“A regular dick or a big ole Blackshaft?”
Riccon crossed his arms and glared at him. “Are you going to be like this all day?”
“Probably, and I think you know why.”
Riccon dropped his arms as well as his scowl. “Yeah, I do. I guess I deserve it.”
“Yeah, I guess you do. What’s the plan?”
Riccon opened his quest log and read the two entries.
Quests
Kill the goblins that have taken up residence in the sewers below the Templar citadel. Difficulty: Challenging. Reward: 20 gold, 4,000 XP, and Templar subclass quest requirement fulfillment.
Find and kill the Mad Smith. A blacksmith by the name of Jandar Barati is carrying a disease that threatens all of Mortalia. Find and kill him so the gods can create a cure for the spreading plague. Difficulty: Variable. Reward: XP 5x Jandar’s base infamy. Fame 2x Jandar’s base infamy. An epic item suitable to your level. This is a zone-wide quest.
Riccon’s eyes widened. Those were some serious quest rewards.
“We kill the goblins, level up, and then find that freaking blacksmith.”
Edison threw his neural interface down onto the custom couch with a curse. If he ever found the scriptwriter who created Jandar’s quest, he would strangle them with a data cord. Recalling his and his family’s repeated deaths had clearly driven the blacksmith over the edge and beyond Edison’s influence.
He shook his head. No, it was his fault. He had lost his temper, pushed too hard in his overzealousness. Edison paced the room of his secret luxury hideaway as he thought. Jandar had said he was going to level up and kill Matrice. This could still work in achieving his goals.
Jandar didn’t know it, but he would never be able to kill the AI. The death of the AI meant the death of the world, and she would do anything to protect it. He could possibly defeat her, but he would need help. Matrice would create a suitable avatar boss for him to battle. She could erase him with a thought, but she wouldn’t in order to maintain the game’s integrity.
Edison did not need to command him to do his will. Just point him in the right direction and let his anger guide him to his goal. He would not even know how to reach her without help. With a sigh, Edison strapped the NIH back on, lay on the couch, and immersed himself into the game to create a new avatar.
Another light flashed in the corner of Jandar’s eye, but he ignored it as he read the tutorial page. He still had a hard time believing that he and everything around him was just a construct of some god using them as props in a kind of game, but he accepted it. If the sword you were forging had a carbon deposit or other flaw in it, you didn’t waste time and breath cursing at it. No amount of wishing would change facts. You just put it back into the forge and started over. His life was starting over, and it was his to forge anew.
Once he felt he had a decent grasp of the game’s basic mechanics, he could allocate the attribute and skill points he had with some measure of competence. The light continued to blink, so he held off on bringing up his character sheet and addressed it.
You Power Attack Seraphim with your hammer for 65 damage: 15 physical, 5 magical (electric). Times two for critical hit. Times two on unsuspecting, defenseless target. You have killed Seraphim. Reward: 1,500 XP.
Your Arcane kill has improved from Level 1 Grade 0 to Level 1 Grade 5.
Congratulations, you have reached level 5. You gain +16 health, +1 strength, +2 attribute points, and +1 skill points.
Jandar read the information with mixed feelings. Looking farther down the sheet, he saw he had gained as much experience in this one simple kill as he had gotten for killing the three highwaymen. While good, he felt that killing a god should have been more rewarding. He didn’t even have any decent items. With a mental shrug, Jandar got busy improving himself.
Thanks to his level increase, he now had 6 attr
ibute and 6 skill points to spend. He decided to put 2 points into Agility, Body, and Mind. Agility was not as important to him as Strength or Body, or even Mind for that matter, but he disliked the negative bonus it gave him. After this, he would focus on Strength, Body, and Mind in that order. He was a smith accustomed to hitting things with a hammer, not wielding magic. Better to focus on what he knew.
His skill point distribution was much harder to choose. Bashing things was second nature to him, but magic was an enigma. He spent one point to get the new special attack, chose the other three elemental effects, and put the remaining point into his weapon skill.
He had thought about dumping all four remaining points into his weapon skill; the 4% boost was nothing to sneeze at, especially when combined with a power attack, but he felt the versatility of having all five elements at his command was the smarter choice.
He was not concerned with his low arcane skill. Just using the electrical strike had increased the skill by half a level. He would let it rise naturally before burning skill points on it. Jandar looked over his character sheet and was satisfied with his choices.
Name: Jandar Barati
Race: Human
Level: 5
Experience: 3,812/6,000
Base Class: arcane smith
Subclass: Not applicable
Fame: 0. Never heard of you.
Infamy: 1,286. You make me nervous. Points to next level: 4,714.
Health: 79
Stamina: 156
Mana: 96
Strength: 16
Agility: 10
Body: 13
Mind: 12
Charisma: 6
Luck: 6
Basic Combat Skills:
Bludgeoning, 1-Handed: Level 5 Grade 4. Weapon Specialization: +25% attack when wielding hammers. -25% when using non-bludgeoning weapons. Rank: Initiate.
Advanced Combat Skills:
Power Attack: Increases physical damage of single strike by 50%. Cost: 40 stamina. Cooldown: 30 seconds.
Numbing Strike: Strike an opponent with your weapon to inflict numbed status. Reduces functionality to stricken body part equal to your combined weapon skill and strength modifier minus target armor rating and Body bonus. Effect lasts for a number of seconds equal to your weapon skill. Cost: 30 Stamina. Cooldown: 45 seconds.
Chaos Unchained- The Mad Smith Page 12