Chapter 2

I awoke to the alarm my AI was projecting and silently stood. Taking a minute to stretch I made my way to the bathroom stall and did my business. It only took a couple of minutes to have some toast for breakfast and then I called up my AI interface and noted that the update had completed and gone active. I was surprised when a voice suddenly spoke and said, “Good morning Lightborne, I am your upgraded AI, do you wish to name me?”

I took a moment and thought then asked, “Well you be able to communicate with me in the AEO or only out of the game?”

“I will have the ability to communicate within the game but to achieve maximum benefit of all my available resources I will have to take the form of a symbiotic pet that will be aligned with you. This will give you several advantages within the game, my ability to process data will enable you to succeed at the auction house. My senses will enable you to be aware of being tracked or hunted and depending on the form you choose for me I will have access to healing or offensive spells that will scale as you level?”

With my thoughts racing I decided to see what could be done with this and asked, “So what would you recommend?”

The AI was silent then spoke, I suggest that you accept a ghost companion, this will enable me to remain invisible unless I manifest which will give us the element of surprise.”

I nodded, it made sense and would give me an advantage. We continued to discuss the game and what I had hoped to achieve. In the end, we agreed that the Rat had to die and developed a plan to implement it. I named my new AI companion Caspar and he took the form of a ghost snake, then we logged in.

Opening my eyes, I noted that I now had a small ring on my finger, it was in the shape of a python and as l looked at it the head shifted and he winked at me. Clearly, Caspar had made the transition to AEO. Are you ready I thought and was not surprised when I heard, yes Boss lets get this done, I want to see this world with my own eyes, going into scan mode, I will let you know if anyone starts tracking us?

Leaving the Inn, I made my way to the EVRAZ office and entered, there to no one’s surprise was the Rat. I waited till I could approach him and then once we were face to face I said, “Hey fleabag, I have seen you stalking after me in town here, so let me be clear I don’t roll that way, bestiality is not my thing so take a hike.” I turned and left before he could do more than growl and then waited about half a block down the street.

Soon Caspar informed me that the Rat had emerged and was now tracking us. He had picked up our scent ad soon had a visual. I looked back and made eye contact and then flipped him off. I could see the snarl on his face as I slowly walked away, it was a balancing act, he would not attack me in the city but once on the road, it was open hunting season. I was counting on his greed to dampen his desire to hurt me.

Once we left the city I began to jog down the road, but as soon as I went around the first bend I went cross country. The terrain was hilly with trees and small streams, it was late summer and the sun dappled the ground with a soft light as it passed through the trees. We continued to travel across the starting zone making sure that we did not get too far ahead of the Rat. Eventually, we left the groups of people who were gathered at every mining node and flower spot and began to approach the taller hills.

Caspar, I thought, how close is he? I want to make sure we don’t lose him now. Agreed, Caspar thought back, now would be the opportune time to attack him and then enter the valley.

By attacking a non-enemy player or NPC you would be flagged as both a criminal and a PVP participant. Basically, for one hour it gave anyone who could kill you the freedom to do so without punishment, and of course, loot your bag. By attacking the rat and then fleeing into the hidden valley I would be safe from other players and with the insult of my attack on him the Rat would be sure to follow me. At least that was my hope.

Standing right in front of the cleft I waited for the Rat to show up and when he did I was not surprised to hear him threaten me. I interrupted his threats by casting Holy Hammer twice on the Rat, it was interesting watching a glowing fiery hammer get flung from my hand and hit the Rat, each attack took him down about 10 percent. The attacks stunned him for a moment and I took the time to shout at him, “Keep following me and I will put you in a cage and keep you as a pet.” I then ducked around the edge and wiggled my way into the hidden valley ignoring the roar of threats that the rat was directing at me.

The plan was to kite the Rat all over the valley before ending up in front of the mine. We had timed everything carefully, I knew the Goblin chief a Rare NPC would emerge from the mine for about 5 minutes every day. My plan was to have the Rat attack me in sight of the Goblin chief and then let the NPC Chief aggro on the Rat. A rare level 7 elite versus a level 10 BeastMan. It would be interesting to see who would win, I would hopefully be able to finish off the loser.

Lightborne, relax, we have this simply kite the Rat for about 15 minutes and then approach the mine. With Caspar’s reassuring thought encouraging me I turned around and sent another Holy Hammer at the Rat as he emerged into the hidden valley. The next 15 minutes passed quickly with the Rat yelling out threats at me and firing off a couple of Swarms as we went back and forth in the Valley.

The Goblin Chief has left the mine, Caspar informed me as we stopped just short of the outcropping the hid him from my view. At the same time, the Rat finally revealed himself and seeing me he charged. I waited for him to close with 10 feet and noted he released a Swarm. Turning I went to the rock outcropping and immediately aggroed the Goblin chief. I managed to dodge the first blow when the Swarm of mini rats closed in and began to attack.

The Goblin chief reacted to the aggro and began to make short work of the mini rats, just as the Rat came into view and sent another Swarm out to attack me. I had backed up behind the big Goblin and the Swarm went straight at him to get at me. Seeing this the Chief triggered an attack and charged the Rat. The Swarm turned from me and began to attack the chief from the back, this enabled auto criticals to land and I watched as both the Chief and the Rats life bars begin to plummet.

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To my surprise, the Rat suddenly attacked with another spell, called Ratattack, and I watched as the Chief went down to 30 Percent life. Casting Holy Hammer, I hit the Chief with it and then attacked the Rat with my club. The Rat had so much aggro with the Goblin that the Chief ignored my attack. I continued to attack the Rat with my club as both the Chief and the Rat fought hand to claw. In the end, the Chief went down, with the Rat having 20 percent life left.

I noted that a copper ore deposit had spawned directly behind the rat just as my club broke. Staring at me the Rat laughed and said, “I am going to kill you slowly, and then take this lovely valley and then bury your bones. I watched as he flipped over and began to push himself up using the copper deposit to regain his footing.

Caspar suddenly thought at me, attack him using your mining pick. Just mine the ore ignore him. And then suddenly Caspar appeared as a ghost Python and bit the Rat on his back. I noted the poison debuff appear on the Rat as I swung my pick at the ore. The long blade of the pick entered the Rats back and then hit the ore with at least 5 inches of the pick going through the Rat and sticking into the rock and earth.

Back away now, Caspar thought and I slowly backed away from the pinned Rat. The Rat screamed out in pain and frustration as he frantically tried to pull the pick out. Unfortunately for him, the only way to remove a mining pick is to slam the handle forward which pops out a chunk of ore. He simply did not have the strength or power to remove himself and could not even face me to try to attack.

How did you know that would work? I thought at Caspar as I watched the Rats life bar hit zero and saw the Rat die.

It was a chance, Caspar admitted, but based on how mining works, you did not attack the Rat you just tried to mine some ore, he just happened to be in the way. With the real-world physics that the game uses I thought it would have a good chance of pining the Rat. Now if you had attacked the Rat it would have seen that as an attack and the pick would not have penetrated the ore. I nodded it had been a risk but it had worked out in the end.

I slowly approached the Rat and waved my hand over the body looting everything. I stared at what I had received, 2 green rings that gave plus 1 for agility and intelligence. Nothing special but still much better nothing. The rat had also had his personal bag, opening it I sat down in surprise, it was a bottomless bag extremely rare and it held ore lots of ore. I pulled up the amount of ore it held and whistled, the Rat had been stealing from us noobs for a long time. The bag held over 232000 pieces of ore mostly copper but with some tin and iron also.

With that amount of ore, you can pay off your debt to EVRAZ corp and start really playing the game. Caspar’s voice sounded distant, I could not believe what I had found. How the hell could an NPC steal that much ore from us noob players, without the game developers being aware of it? I was suddenly standing with my fists shaking, it was bad enough that we were tricked into virtual slavery but then to discover that we were being robbed out of any chance to actually get out of debt, it was overwhelming.

Suddenly I could hear Caspar and I nodded, I am okay let’s go loot the Goblin chief. I had almost lost control and that scared me, that was no way to play the game. Caspar, I thought, If I lose control like that again do what you have to snap me back.

I will boss, no worries I will bite you, in fact, I am going to bite you now.

Wait, what why are you biting me now, I thought as I felt my neck suddenly pierced. What the hell.

It is for your own good, by biting you on a regular basis you will develop an immunity for poison attacks. A brief moment of discomfort now will reap a large benefit for you later in the game. Caspar thoughts made sense but I could feel a hint of amusement from him at the thought biting me every day.

I shrugged and walked over to the chief, waving my hand I looted him and stared at what I had received.

* Black iron key

* 2 leather and steel vambraces, Underhill King set, blue item, no level cap BOE

* Scroll

I stared at what I had and then equipped the vambrace. They immediately scaled to fit my arms and I stared at them in wonder, the stats were amazing.

Plus 10 to defensive and plus 10 to offensive, the defensive was easy to understand but the offensive less so. As I thought about this I was suddenly away that by thinking about elbowing an enemy a blade shot out of the vambrace near the elbow, it was about 8 inches long. Straightening my arm, the blade retracted, it happened so fast that the eyes could not focus on it.

What do you think I asked Caspar, this is frikken overkill, I have never heard of this kind of armor?

Caspar replied It is a named blue set, incredibly rare and literally worth your life the fact that it is bind on equip means that you can’t sell it but if someone were to kill you they could loot it.

Damn it, my frustration began to grow, How the hell can I have this great gear but not be able to use it, wearing it would be a death sentence, this damn game is supposed to be fun for players not impossible. My question was rhetorical but suddenly Caspar spoke up.

I think I have a solution, by writing a gear equip macro, I can swap out your good gear for plain gear more level appropriate for you, I can also change your average gear for your good gear when appropriate.

A macro, when were macros added to the game? I asked. Caspar replied, They have always been in the game, but contract players are not informed about them.

Just another way to keep the noobs working for the corporations forever, no chance of giving them any kind of a break.

Most players have not bothered to use macros to help their gaming experience, an ability to code is needed, and the average person does not have that skill set. Caspar’s thoughts had a certain smugness to them, clearly, the AI upgrade had included some personality tweaks.

So, what do you think we should do, I thought as I sat down and stared at the empty valley, a gentle breeze warm on my skin. The abandoned farms still had wild wheat growing in the fields and off in the distance a fish jumped on the clear surface of a pond. It was very peaceful and relaxing, after the morning I felt like having a nap.

Caspar interrupted my thoughts by stating, First we have to finish this dungeon. Then we have to pay off your debt to EVRAZ then we must sell the location of this mine to the highest bidder, one of the established guilds will pay a great deal for this place.

Dungeon, wait this is a dungeon, I thought it was just a mine. Caspar replied, No it is a dungeon mine, a normal mine would not have a rare Elite in it. Also, the fact that we have killed the Boss mob already should make doing the dungeon that much easier.

The only problem is I don’t really have any weapons, aside from the Vambraces and they are only effective if someone is attacking me from the rear. Without weapons, I can’t do much I thought.

Caspar acknowledged my thoughts but then replied, The average level of the mobs is going to be 3 to 4, my calculations indicate that you can do enough white damage with punching and kicking to be able to clear the dungeon if you use your Paladin spells.

White damage, what is that? I asked in surprise.

Damage is categorized into two types, white or purely physical damage and red or what can be called spell damage, if you punch someone that is white damage, if you use your Holy Hammer that is red damage.

I nodded, it was the cards I had been dealt. Standing I made my way to the locked gate and using the key I opened the gated and entered the tunnel. There was a brief moment of disorientation and suddenly I was at the beginning of the dungeon. You ready? I thought at Caspar as I glanced down the tunnel. Seeing his acknowledgment, I stepped forward.