With a hazy head Jim started to regain his bearings. He sat up sharply as the memory of the green Orc pulling the Javelin from his solar plexus crashed into his mind. He hurriedly felt for the hole but felt only a sticky tear in his overalls. The taste of blood still lingering in his mouth.
He expected to be back on the ISS, where he woke up after dying earlier but was instead greeted by a cloaked figure sat by his side.
“Oh laddy, that was a show for the ages!” King Lachlan said as he patted Jim’s shoulder.
“You’re… the King? What happened?” Jim said, still dizzy from coming back to consciousness.
“I used a special potion on yah to heal up that wound, you were inches from meeting The Maker, but I saved yah!”
“The Maker?”
“Aye, the big guy in the sky and who decides where you go after you die?”
“Oh, yeah that guy, I’m used to people calling him God” Jim said as he rubbed the scarred spot on his chest.
“Aye he’s a god alright, a right nasty piece of work too”
“Can’t argue with you on that, your highness.”
As Jim looked around he recognised that he was still in the hall, however it was now back to its pre-battle cleanliness.
The King patted his legs in a quick rhythm and stood from the bench opposite Jim.
“Well you can guess tha’ ya’ didn’t win. But ya’ got close. Did far better than I expected. Honestly I thought ya’d be a goner within a minute.” The King said as he started to pace back and forth next to Jim.
“Grab a drink and follow me.” He started to walk away from the table Jim was laying down on and towards a throne at the head of the room.
Jim swung his legs round and stood up slowly, using the table as a crutch whilst he found his balance. Coming round from dying was not a nice feeling at all and with a grim thought Jim hoped would get better with practice. He picked up a goblet and with a quick sniff decided that beer was not the drink he wanted at that moment. He slid the goblet back onto the table and slowly followed the King up the aisle towards the marble throne.
With a few steps Jim felt a prick of pain stabbing into his thigh, he looked down and saw a dagger tucked into his trousers at the waist, it was the dagger he grabbed from the weapons rack. He readjusted it and continued to follow the King.
Ding!
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
54 Notifications
Please review your notifications
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ding of the notification bell stung Jim’s brain and he dismissed the message with a swipe of his hand.
The King, after several moments of slowly walking, broke his stride and turned to face Jim.
“We need to talk about your quest rewards” The King said, swiftly turning again to continue towards his throne.
“Sorry? I thought I would have needed to have won the rumble to complete the quest?” Jim said tentatively.
“Nonsense, the quest never said anything about winnin’ any battles. That was a little addition from me, so I could see what you were made of! A test if ya’ would. To see what sort of Class your natural instincts are inclined towards, to reveal your path.”
“Oh, and how did I do?”
With a flap of his cape the King sat atop the throne and began to brush a hand through his white beard.
“You… surprised me, t’ say the least. Show me your skills boy and I’ll make my choice of your best suited Class”
“Show you my what?”
Confused, the King conjured a thick black book etched in purple cornices from the air and threw it towards Jim. The thick book slammed into his arms and a message appeared with a Ding!
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item gained
Game guide
Use: A guide to teach you the basics of the world. From your character information, ability information, augment information, enhancement information, quests logs, item stats, building stats, reputation stats, guild information, war correspondents and settings.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Jim read the details of the item's use, he looked back to the King in a deeper confusion.
“Ermm, thank you, your highness. How exactly do I share my skills with you?”
“Read the book, and tell me em’! He’s definitely not getting a Class that relies on Widsom is he boys?.” The King laughed in a chuckle as the suits of armour joined in the round of audible embarrassment directed at Jim.
He opened the book, it was huge, dusty and heavy. As he turned the first page another Ding! rang through his head.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Invoke augment (Hololens) with knowledge from item: Game Guide
Yes/No?
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Sure?” Said Jim.
As soon as the command was given, the book began to feel lighter. The edges of the thick black cover began to give way, turning into glistening dust. The dust gathered and moved up Jim’s arms, over his shoulders and rising to his head. The dust twisted into cones of swirling power and fed into his temples. White lines in the shape of his Hololens burned brightly around Jim's face and head.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Ahh I knew ya had a storage space! Some kind of hidden head piece?” The King declared, watching the process closely.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Guide successfully integrated, new database available for access.
To access, use command “Open game guide”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Open game guide please Lens” Jim thought to himself as he nodded to the King.
Jim’s view was taken over by a purple coloured visual heads up display of the book, nicely translated into the same user interface as the Hololens. A simple computer screen type of interface which he instinctively used his hands, just like on the ISS, to navigate around the new console of information in front of him. He flicked through the pages and tables of information, finding the tab that said “Skills”.
He used a finger to press the tab, and a table appeared.
“Erm ok, so it says Strength: Novice 4, Dexterity: Novice 3, Constitution: Novice 9, Intelligence: Student 1, Wisdom: Novice 3, Charisma: Novice 2”
Jim waited for a response from the King, wondering if he needed to share more information from his Character sheet.
“OK, you shouldn’t have any augments or abilities yet so those will do just nicely” The King again began to stroke his beard.
“Strong intelligence, didn’t see that coming. Maybe a cleric or study type. Good constitution, that could see you doing well in a medical field, or a front line support career. You’re still a wee noobie though, a long way to go.”
The King continued his contemplation, twisting his beard and tapping his finger rhythmically on the thrones arms.
“Considering your actions in my little trial I think I have the perfect class for you. That was quite impressive all things considered, you really surprised me with the level of skill you showed on several occasions.”
Jim was proud of his quick maths as he agreed with the King's comments on his skill, he’d not needed to do maths under pressure for a while, since his last space walk. It felt comforting to know that all his hard work in his previous life might lead him down a similar path here.
“You Jim Ralfson, will be…”
The fanfare began.
“DO, DO, DOO… DO-DO-DO, DOOOOOOOO”
“A thief!” The king declared loudly.
Jim stood in silence, in shock. He started to shake his head with his hands raised and palms facing the King.
“No, no, no, I’m not a thief. I’m an engineer, did you not see how I dropped that statue on people? That was basic stuff compared to what I can do! Give me a bit of time, a workshop, some of that purple magic stuff and I’ll be able to create wonders.”
“Excuse me lad, you forget yourself” The King glared.
“Sorry, I’m not a thief your highness, I’m an engineer, a scientist.” Jim said exasperatedly.
The King pulled out a small notebook from inside of his cape and flicked through the pages.
“17 Common weapons, 19 Uncommon weapons, 8 Rare weapons and 1 Cup of endless mead. That’s the count I have on what you managed to steal during the battle. An extremely impressive feat! I’ve never seen a thief steal that much loot during an active battle in decades, especially their first battle. You’re a natural lad!”
With the clap of the King's hands a message appeared in Jim’s view.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class gained: Thief: Novice 1
You crawl in the night, plundering loot and treasures. You’re a gifted hoarder of shiny objects and a natural at sneaking up on your foes. The dark is a friend to you now and friends may be difficult to come by.
Class Bonus: Grubby little mitts -You have a +10% chance of successfully stealing objects that are magically protected.
To gain levels in this class, enhance your knowledge of thievery and steal everything you can!
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“No, no, no, no, no. I’ve never stolen anything in my life. You have to give me another class… your highness”
“Nope, all decisions are final” The King demanded as he closed the notebook with a small snap. “Now, time for some gear.”
With a snap of the King’s fingers an iron chest spiralled in purple dust and dropped to the floor next to Jim with a clang.
“Dig in, all yours!”
Jim hesitantly flicked the two clasped locks on the front of the chest and opened the lid. Inside were a full set of clothes, a belt, some gloves and a few other items too. Then the prompt appeared.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Experience: +500
Quest rewards: Basic class gear
Items
Padded Thief's garb: Common
Thief’s pocket pants: Uncommon
Thief’s hood: Common
Belt of thievery: Uncommon - Growth
Sneaky boots: Common
Rope: 30 feet
Lock picks x 20
Crowbar x 1
Deck of cards x 2
Blank scroll x 5
Quill x 1
Ink x 5
Iron coin: 100
Bronze coin: 50
Silver coin: 10
Item available to act as local storage, would you like to equip: Belt of thievery. If you choose not to equip this item all items will be sent to your dimensional storage bay.
Yes/No?
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Jim accepted the notification to equip the item, purple dust glided out of the chest, looped in a coil and swirled around his waist.
This was the first time Jim was prepared for some kind of magic to happen and his intrigue had him on edge, ready to inspect the elements of dust as they appeared around him.
He pushed his concentration to focus on the item appearing around his waist. The glimmers of purple dust were clumping in spinning vortexes, they seemed weightless but also guided by some sort of plan to form into the shape of a tool belt.
The process briefly reminded Jim of an experiment he did a few years ago on the ISS. It was all to do with magnets in vacuums, and how using electromagnetic charges you could guide and push individuals or groups of magnetic material to find each other. The concept was based around using magnets to ease module to module transfers of mass in space. Jim had the grand plan of inventing an autonomous program using magnets to dock and transfer items easily from ship to ship in space. He was a futurist, and always loved the idea of being the real worlds’ Zefram Cochrane. The magnet idea wasn’t at the humanity changing level of fictional warp travel, but it was a step in a good direction. He also got to shout “magnet’s bitch!” quite a few times too, Breaking Bad was in its prime at the time.
He snapped his attention back to the forming belt as he started to see the dust solidify into moving cogs. As the groups of dust found each other, they formed the gears and began to slot into place. Once a piece found its home, the light would briefly intensify, grow a layer of outer mass and then settle into a solid piece of the item.
“Magnets bitchhhh” Jim said quietly under his breath as the rest of the belt formed into place.
Ding! A brief pop up appeared in his view, disappearing quickly into smoke once Jim read it over.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ability: Mana-optic has increased to Novice level 4.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With a cough, the King drew Jim’s attention.
“If you’re all done, it’s time to get you on your way”
As the King rose from his throne the suits of Armour stood to attention, raising their weapons aloft in salute.
With a clap of the King’s hands a marble white doorway rose from the floor next to Jim. Where a door should have been, a golden shimmering liquid was present instead.
“Off ya’ go then, If I see you again it’ll more than likely be that you’ve been involved in some nasty business, and I’ll be chopping your head off. Genocide, plague, you know the like. Fingers crossed I won’t be seeing you in the future Jim Ralfson.”
“Genoci….” Jim was interrupted by a suit of armour picking him up from the rear, one hand on his belt, one around his collar.
With a grind of metal and a yelp from Jim, he was flung headfirst through the doorway before he could thank the King in the proper respect.
The liquid was cold and left Jim with a damp feeling right through to his underwear as he rolled down the roof of a building. The shattering of slate tiles hit the ground around his body as he slammed to the ground face down alongside them.
“What in the purple moon!” Jim could hear the voice of a woman approach him as he turned and groaned on the floor.
The woman placed a heavy boot onto Jim’s back, pinning him to the ground. A thick Welsh accent dominated the area as the voice put a club to the back of Jim’s head.
“Well I do hope you’re able t’ pay for tha’ damage, slate ain’t cheap ya know!”
Ding!
Jim peered upwards with a straining groan in his neck, the sunlight burnt his eyes for a brief second before the message appeared.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-50 reputation with Mae Browncoat
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Ouch” the word crept from his mouth with a breath as he dropped his forehead onto the sandy floor.