Author's note: There will be mature language and sexual references, if not out and out sex. You have been warned.
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Darkness, then a completely empty, white room appeared, with an attractive woman in her late twenties, with brown hair and blue eyes, in an elegant black fitted suit that emphasized her slender frame and long legs. She spoke.
“Hello and welcome. If this is your first time accessing a VR game, please, do not be alarmed. Nothing here is real, in the conventional sense, no matter what you see, hear or feel. The VR technology that you are using right now simulates all of your senses. The body that you are using will feel like your own, and you will not feel anything out of the ordinary while you use the headset. It will all seem to be real, but it is not.”
“By law, I am obligated to give you the safety information. Safety is not an issue with VR has shown to have no ill effects on the body. Indeed, in some ways, VR extends a patient’s lifespan. Currently, the conventional time expansion for VR games is a conservative 1:8, in other words, for each eight hours that seem to go by in the game, only an hour passes in real life. This allows even the busiest people to play the game competitively. You also don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re moving in the real world, either. The headset that you put on blocks signals to all muscles except for your heart, your lungs and the smooth muscles in your digestive tract, so while you won’t be able to hurt yourself, your body will otherwise function normally.”
“Now that the forewarnings are done with, I’ll tell you about the game of games, Metamorphosis.”
“I am a highly advanced artificial intelligence, named AVA. Along with 12 other A.I.’s like me, I wrote the code for the world that you are about to step into. Together we spent several years, creating scenery and landscapes and each person who inhabits the world, giving them a backstory, a history. We were incredibly thorough, and we made each NPC indistinguishable from a real person, so the world will be just like the real one.”
“Forgive me for nattering on. You want to know about the game, not about its creation, right? Yes, well. It was created in absolute secrecy, because my creators wanted complete originality in character creation, so they decided not to release any details about the game beforehand. You will see how this will manifest in a moment.”
“Seeing as it is the first hour of its release, you probably haven’t heard anything at all about the game. It is, therefore, my obligation and my pleasure to introduce you to the world we created, Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is set in a world that is a blend of the futuristic and the fantastical, the East and the West and every place in between, the realistic, the mythical, and the never-been-dreamt of. However, do not worry if you do not like sci-fi or fantasy, we have created a game that can be anything.”
“The game was created to be whatever sort of game you would like it to be. If you want to play it as a traditional RPG fantasy, you can do that in certain areas. If you want to play it as a racing game where you can actually feel the machine, you can do that. If you want to play it as a detective game, you could do that. If you would prefer not to play the game at all, but to simply spend time relaxing in beautiful scenery, you can do that, too. We even have in-game libraries with copies of real-world books so those who don’t have time to read in the real world can read in-game.”
“Metamorphosis is supposed to be an alternate universe, where you can do anything that you are unable to in your reality. That said, at its base, the game is an RPG, but not a traditional one. My creators, avid gamers all, were frustrated by the limits that other games put on characters, from races to classes to skill trees. They thought that the best sort of game would put no limits on what its players could do. With that in mind, they developed three systems to deal with that: the Boon system, the Path system, and the Scale system.”
“The Boon system deals with the issue of the race creation. My creators thought that it was boring to have a limited number of races that people could choose at character creation. Why limit the basic appearance of people to just a few choices? To solve this dilemma, they came up with a different idea: each person creates their own race. To keep the game’s balance – i.e. to prevent people from giving themselves overpowered traits and ridiculously unwieldy avatars – they developed the Boon system.”
“The Boon system essential components are change through growth. Players start as Morphons, members of a unique race, each born with a characteristic or talent that distinguishes them from other members of their race, called a Boon. This Boon can manifest externally or internally – so people can choose what they want to look like and their talents or innate skills. To preserve balance, Boons are ranked – Rank 1 being the weakest – and the initial Boon is Rank 1, weak almost to the point of non-existence. However, certain ingame actions will grant players more Boons. Players don’t have to spend these Boons immediately – they can accumulate them to get a higher Ranked Boon. Each five Boons of a lower Rank will grant the player one higher Ranked Boon. This also works in reverse, one higher Ranked Boon is worth five Boons of one Rank below.”
“As players advance through the game, they will grow further and further from their initial appearance. As they grow, they may become close, in appearance, in talents and emotionally to non-Morphons. If they so desire, they can switch races – granting them a boost in terms of their innate skills and reputation with their new race – but beware, the switch is very difficult to undo. Similarly, if a player discovers that he or she has gained all the skills and the traits they believe they will ever need, they can create their own race – granting a boost to their Boon-granted skills – but this choice is similarly difficult to reverse.”
“On to the Path system. The Path system is what replaces the class system for Metamorphosis. Instead of rigid classes, which lock a player into a set of useable skills and items, the Path system has the much more flexible Paths. Players can obtain as many Paths as they like, which give bonuses to certain skills or in certain situations. Each Path is a set of objectives that a player can fulfill for greater bonuses and other rewards, such as skills. After all of the objectives for a Path are completed, the player is given a Path completion quest, at the end of which, he or she might obtain another, higher-ranked Path, if one exists. Paths are not strictly ranked, given the difficulty inherent in measuring the relative strength of two different combat styles. Nevertheless, there are many Paths that are sequential in nature, leading a player from Novitiate to Trainee to Intermediate to Journeyman to Proficient to Adept to Expert to Master to Hermit/Saint to King to Emperor to God to Creator to Absolute.”
“To foster a wide-ranging selection of character builds, a player may choose to create their own Path. The Path creation system is mainly automatic, and will be explained further ingame. However, knowing that many do not necessarily care to create their own Path, there are many pre-created Paths.”
“Finally, the Scale system. In the interest of making the game as diverse and interesting as possible, the creators coded in the ability for players to make their own skills. Of course, to keep the balance, the Scale system ensures that the balance of the game is not disturbed by a high-damage, low-cost, low-risk skill. There are other requirements, too. Skills have a similar progression to the Path system, although there are more fine distinctions within each rank of a skill.”
“Well, despite all these, Metamorphosis does have some traditional elements, also. Death is costly, but impermanent. Quests are graded on a scale. Some quests are only available to higher leveled players. Speaking to NPC’s is a must. Stuff like that is generally similar.”
“Anything that you don’t know now can be discovered while you play, so let’s start creating your character. What would you like your avatar’s name to be?”
“Indra.” Indra was the name of the leader of the Devas and the lord of the sky, in Hinduism. However, because few in Western culture knew the Hindu deities, it could be a sort of inside joke –a cool name with an even cooler, semi-secret meaning
“Okay, Indra. While you can make as many cosmetic changes to your character as you would like, none of these will become Boons, at least, not right away. What cosmetic changes would you like to make?”
“Can I see myself a little taller?” A plump white man of 6’2”, with short brown hair and brown eyes, and old acne scars visible along his cheeks and his chin, appeared in front of him, completely naked. Indra blushed a little, having his completely naked body seen by a pretty woman, even though he knew she was an AI.
“Could you make me maybe 30 pounds lighter and lose the acne?” The man became thinner, but not entirely without flab. The acne on his cheeks disappeared.
“Maybe a little thinner than that. With a little more muscle.” The man became toned.
“Now, could you change the eye color to a deep violet?” The man’s eyes became purple. It was almost eerie, how much the look of the man changed because of it. He went from unnoticeable to exotic looking, exuding a sense of danger.
“Could I also have my hair be black?” The hair became black. The man looked at his avatar. It was almost his image of the most perfect version of himself, except for one area.
“Could you make my… um… you know, bigger?” He blushed, it was embarrassing to talk about, even to someone he knew wasn’t a real person.
The woman looked confused. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to specify. What is it that you refer to?”
“Ummm. There. Could you make that a little longer?” He gestured to the body part in question. It grew a few inches longer. When he looked up, he could swear that he saw her smiling for a fraction of a second.
“Would you like to change your voice?”
“No thank you, I don’t need to make any more cosmetic changes. What’s next?”
“Now you choose a Boon. Choose carefully, remembering that, outside of your Boon, you will be essentially the same as you are in real life. Unless you choose a source of magical energy, all spells and certain other abilities will be unavailable to you.”
“Each player automatically gets one Rank 1 Boon on character creation. However, this is the first day since the release of Metamorphosis, so you must have been an early adopter of our game. As such, I am authorized to grant you one more Rank 1 Boon. Ask for whatever Boon you wish, with the sole exception of time travel, but be aware that it may be higher Ranked than you may like.”
“Why not time travel?”
“Time travel into the distant past or distant future (that is, outside of the range of player interaction with the game) requires that we create a whole other world for you to explore, which would be far too difficult. Time travel within the range of player interaction would require actual time travel. Therefore, it was decided that time travel would be much too difficult. Now, choose your Boons.”
“Can I choose the ability to teleport?” He asked, without much hope.
“No. Space-bending of any sort would be at least Rank 7.”
“How about wings?”
“If you want to be able to fly, the Boon has to be Rank 5.”
“Gills?”
“Breathing underwater is at least Rank 3, but you can ask for a greater lung capacity. Would you like to be able to hold your breath longer?”
“Hmmm. No, I don’t think so…How about electricity? Can I have the ability to produce electricity from my body?”
“Yes, although a Rank 1 Boon would not give you the ability to produce very much of it – not enough to stun even the weakest foes. Also, you should probably make electricity resistance your other Boon, in order to keep yourself from dying when you mishandle it – it will happen, and it will hurt, even with electricity resistance. Would you like to make those two your Boons?”
“Could I increase my ability to produce electricity without using another Boon?”
“Yes, although the training you would have to undergo to do so will probably take longer than acquiring and using a higher ranked Boon.”
“Then yes.”
“Would you like your electricity-producing organ to be internal or would you like a change to your appearance to accompany it?”
“I’d like to make a change to my appearance. Could I have horns?”
“Certainly, although, this will make it difficult to discharge electricity from other parts of your body. Do you still want horns?”
“How much more difficult? Could it be overcome by training?”
“How much more is difficult to say, but if the electricity producing organ is internal, then it will be intuitive for you, albeit less powerful. If it’s external, then it will take some getting used to, but it will be compensated with more power. That awkwardness can be overcome by practice. You might be surprised what hard work will enable you to do – the creators didn’t want to encourage a dependency on Boons for improving skills.”
“Okay, then. I’d like horns.”
“Okay.” His avatar reappeared, but with tiny, nubs poking out of his hair above his temples.
“Could you make them longer, please, and move them down a little, so that they grow out of the temples.” The horns grew and migrated downwards, until they were 6 inches long, poking straight out the sides of his head.
“Hmm. Can you curve them so they grow out of the temples, but then bend upwards towards the sky.” The horns moved to suit his wishes.
“Perfect. Just like that.”
“Okay. Your electrical resistance can manifest with or without an external change on the order of a tattoo or a change in skin color.”
“Will it also be less powerful if I have it be internal?”
“Yes. That’s the way it works – external changes are more powerful, but less easily controlled than internal changes. For something like electrical resistance, however, the controllability of the power is a non-issue.”
“Okay, then. I’d like it in the form of a tattoo. Could I get a ring of small black dots around the area where my horns connect to my temples?” The rings appeared, unobtrusive.
“Okay. Now that your Boons are chosen, it’s time for you to begin. Currently, there is only one unlocked nation, called Aphad. Seeing as you are an electric Morphon, you’ll start in the big city, Wekat. Good luck.”
The room faded into darkness. He felt like he was curled up in a ball, with some sort of hard surface surrounding him on all sides. He tried to move, to uncurl, but at first he couldn’t. Then, he heard a crack and the shell bent outwards a little next to his right arm. He pushed harder, and a hole opened up. He widened the hole with his right arm, hearing the shell crack even more, until finally, enough of it gave way for him to push his way out. He slid through the shell arms first and landed on the floor.
He stood up and looked around. He was in a small steel room, well lit, but bare except for a piece of navy blue cloth hanging from a hook by a door at the far end, with some leather boots beneath it. He went over and looked at the cloth. Sure enough, it was clothes: a navy blue jumpsuit. He put it on and then relaxed a little – no one would be seeing him naked, even though his naked body was perfection itself. He also put on the boots, even though he didn’t have socks, and laced them up as high as they would go – up to mid calf.
Indra turned, to see what he had emerged from. It was the shell of a violet egg – the color of lightning – large enough to fit an adult in the fetal position. There were cracks running across the entire shell, emanating from the whole from which he had emerged.
He turned back towards the door. He opened it, and heard a ringing sound come from some place, not too far away. Outside was a steel corridor, stretching both ways. He looked to the left, and then to the right. There was nothing visible down either except for more steel doors, but the ringing sound was coming from the left.
I suppose I should just follow the ringing sound.
Indra did just that. He turned to the left and followed the corridor along. Although the ringing sound was coming from up ahead, he tried, just for fun, to open one of the doors. Inside was an unbroken egg of the same size as his, but instead of yellow, it was a metallic silver. When he closed the door, he noticed that above the door were symbols that he somehow knew represented a letter and a number – A14.
I guess the creators wanted their own written language.
He continued down the hallway. Eventually, the hallway ended with two burnished steel double doors, topped by a signal light. The signal light flashed on and off, and the ringing sound emanated from a loudspeaker nearby. Neither door had a handle, but he saw a panel to the left, with a small button.
An elevator? Isn’t this too, I don’t know, real-world?
Nevertheless, he pushed the button. A bell sounded, and the doors slid open. Inside was a small room without decorations. He entered and turned to face the door. To the right was a panel with many buttons, at least twenty or thirty. Two of them were flashing. One was a button around the middle, and the other was a button at the bottom. The bottom was labeled a glyph that meant A and the other had a glyph that meant M.
Do I need to push a button, or something? Which should I press?
Before he could come to a decision, the doors closed and the elevator began to rise. The button with the glyph that meant A stopped shining, as the next one began to shine, and then the next, and the next, and so on, until he came to the glyph that meant L.
The doors opened on a much shorter hallway, which turned sharply to the left a few meters from the elevator. From ahead, he could hear a purring sound, as from
They could really have designed this intro better. I mean, come on, you basically have to figure out where to go all on your own?
Indra walked down the hallway, and turned. He could see that at the end of the hallway, there was an opening onto a much larger room. He walked down the hall. As he exited the hallway, he came upon a vast room, the size of an airplane hangar. Far, far overhead was a ceiling of corrugated metal. In the middle of the room, taking up most of the space, was a gigantic hovering airship, not unlike a blimp, that was at least 50 meters high and 200 or 300 meters long. Unlike a blimp, instead of an airbag, the majority of the airship was a smooth, silvery metal, showing no sign of having been manufactured, marred only by small windows.
Indra had come from a hallway near the front of the airship, or maybe it was the back, there was little difference in the shape to suggest that one was a backend and another was the front end.
“Oy.” Came a voice, followed by a middle-aged black man in the same navy blue jumpsuit that he wore, with the addition of a small golden wrench embroidered on the left breast. “You, over there. You’re new, aren’t you? Can’t believe I missed the signal.”
As he drew closer, Indra could see more of him. The man was of average height; he had short, black poofy hair and bright silver eyes. His skin was a mocha color. Laugh lines creased the corners of his eyes. His face had a slight smile, to apologize and to welcome. He spoke.
“So, what’s your Boon, new one? Something to do with your horns?”
Indra was a little thrown by the suddenness and he was still overwhelmed by the airship, but he replied “I can produce electricity from my horns.”
His smile grew larger. “That’s good. We’ve needed more electric-producing Morphons – lately Morphons have almost stopped emerging, and our older ones have pretty much left. Anyway, I can see that you’re confused. Allow me introduce myself; my name is Farune, the chief mechanic of this garage and the temporary head of Wekat’s branch of the International Morphon Alliance. As such, it is my honor and my duty to teach you what every good Morphon should know. What is your name, new one?”
“I am Indra.”
“Nice to meet you, Indra. Can we walk while we talk? I’d like to show you some things.”
“Sure.”
Farune led the way, walking towards the front of the airship. They passed several other people, dressed in the same navy blue jumpsuit as Farune, who nodded to Farune as they passed him by. Each was dressed similarly, and none looked too out of the ordinary, although each had some odd characteristic, like a facial tattoo or really long earlobes.
“Okay. A brief introduction to our world. This planet is called Divova. It is one of three sister planets – along with Vysam and Alune –closely orbiting the star at the center of our solar system - Asvaram. Myriad races inhabit our star system – each the favorite of some god or another – but of all of them, our race is unique. Morphons are the favored race of the goddess of change, Ava. She allows us to change ourselves however we wish, when we do something that pleases her. This makes us the only race that is not defined by a shared set of features or abilities, because we all differ from one another. It also, fortunately, makes us incredibly difficult to discriminate against, because we have no common features.”
As they passed the end of the airship, Indra began to see two giant sliding steel doors. They were closed, at the moment, but when they opened, they would be large enough for the airship to fit through.
“You were born in the city of Wekat, the capital of Aphad, home to the Floating Palace of the Modern King, the seat of the Aphasian Republic. Aphad is on the continent, Alaewh, one of five on Diviova, the others being Rhake, Yilr, Uda, and Oquet. Aphad is about average size for a modernized nation and is about average in terms of influence among the Allied Nations of Divova. All around, it’s pretty much the middle of the pack, although it is more diverse than most other nations – it isn’t dominated by any one species and most species are well-represented here, minus some of the more exotic ones. That said, it’s pretty good to live here – the taxes are low, and the infrastructure is amazing – you can go from one end of Aphad to another with very little trouble.”
“That’s more than you can say for most nations. Most nations are almost overrun by the wild cousins of the civilized races. You see, a few thousand years ago, the various peoples of Divova discovered agriculture. In doing so, they created civilizations. However, some among them rejected civilization, and they split off into the wild. They weren’t really a problem at first, but as civilization expanded further and further, it began to impinge on the wild spaces. The uncivilized responded violently to any intrusion on their territory and this provoked a response from the civilized. Needless to say, the whole thing spiraled out of control, and soon, the civilized were in a permanent state of war against the uncivilized.”
“As time went on, the uncivilized became more and more like beasts – faster, more stealthy, stronger. The civilized developed weapons to combat them, and the arms race continued. Eventually, a thousand years or so ago, the civilized developed machines. At first, the advantage that faster travel and significantly improved weaponry gave allowed the civilized to push back the uncivilized, almost to the brink of extinction. However, some among them adapted, and suddenly, some of the uncivilized had become incredibly powerful. The uncivilized are now referred to as different races entirely.”
“The arms race has continued into the present day. Oh, yeah, and magic– both civilized and uncivilized races have it, so it’s been refined down the ages too. Nowadays, magic and machinery work in concert to incredible effect.”
“Regardless, that history has little to do with you or I. You see, Morphons are a very recent race. Our goddess, Ava, created the first generation only a few hundred years ago.”
“So. Any questions?”
“No, I don’t think… No, wait, I have one. Why did you say that it was a good thing that I was an electric Morphon?”
“Oh, yes. For you to understand it, you’ll need to know something about how magic works. You see, before a few hundred years ago, people thought that there were a bunch of different sources of magical energy – there was mana, aether, chakra, ki, emlat, tiklaora, all different sorts. Then, one day, this genius sorcerer named Isthan discovers that all these sources of magic energy are just the ways that different people see and interact with the great big source of energy. He called it Universal Spell Energy. Nobody could actually see or interact with the pure form of Universal Spell Energy, but knowing that it’s all just one big source of energy changed the way a lot of people thought about magic. It pushed them to explore the foundations of their magical systems, and a lot about it changed.”
“Just a few years back, another genius – who some are calling the reincarnation of Isthan – discovered that bioelectricity can be used to maintain a spell, once it has been cast. This was huge, because, while the components for storing a traditional form of Universal Spell Energy were hugely expensive and really rare, bioelectricity was really easy to store. It made it so that spells could be maintained without reliance on a full team of magic practitioners. They still needed one to cast a spell, but it could be maintained without any direct contact.”
“That’s made bioelectricity hugely expensive. This was lucky for us electric Morphons, because we are one of the very few civilized races who can produce bioelectricity. It’s made us incredibly rich, and it’s a huge pain in the ass. Before, I was just a mechanic, a good one, but a mechanic all the same. Now, I spend half of my time filling batteries. With one more electric Morphon to help out, I’ll be able to spend some more time working on the machines.”
That sounds super boring and repetitive. I’d rather explore the city and find myself a warrior sort of path.
His thoughts must’ve shown on his face, because Farune said: “Oh don’t be like that. Doing the job for a few weeks will kill two birds with one stone. You used a Rank 1 Boon to get your electric ability, so it must be incredibly weak and if you fill batteries, you’ll get training and I’ll pay you. You get training, a place to live and food to eat, as well as some money. What more could you want?”
You have received a job offer. Job: Battery Charger.
Terms: You fill batteries, Farune pays you and feeds you while you work for him.
I don’t know, I don’t want to do repetitive training over and over again, I’d rather get out and hunt some monsters.
“Still not convinced? I’ll throw in something extra. At the end of every month, there’s a racing tournament. If you work for me until then, I’ll lend you a motorcycle. There are huge prizes for winning, even in the beginner’s circuit.”
You have received a job offer. Job: Battery Charger.
Terms: You fill batteries, Farune pays you, feeds you and lends you a motorcycle at the end of the month to compete in the monthly Beginner’s Racing Circuit.
A motorcycle? I’ve always wanted to learn how to ride one of those. Okay, I suppose it’s better to stay here while I get my bearings. With any luck, I can win something good at the Beginner’s Circuit.
“I’ll do it,” Indra said.
“Fantastic. Let’s get the details ironed out.”
Farune lead the way around the end of the airship. Indra was shocked to see that the Building went on much farther than he thought – it was wide enough to fit two of the airships lengthwise. The rest of the gigantic floor was taken up by various smaller airships, generally in more aerodynamic shapes. Some looked like airplanes, others were built like rockets, and a few even looked like flying cars. Farune lead the way down the center, which was an area clear of any airship.
“How many mechanics do you have employed?” Indra asked. Around each and every airship, and there were at least a hundred, was a person in a navy blue jumpsuit.
“I happen to be the owner, manager and chief mechanic of the fourth largest garage in the city of Wekat. What you see is only a fraction of what I own, though. The elevator you came up in had a few more buttons, right? Three of the floors above look like this one. We work on different things in each floor. This floor happens to be dedicated to mid-sized aircraft. I also work with smaller aircrafts, and with all kinds of land vehicles, from motorcycles to cars, even tunnelers. We even do some work on high-energy weapons, exoskeletons and mech-armors.”
“Fourth?! This ridiculously big thing is fourth? Couldn’t you do all of the work for the entire city here?”
“How big do you think the city of Wekat is?”
“I don’t know, maybe 2 kilometers in diameter?”
“Try more like 10 kilometers, and that’s not even taking into account all of the high-rises and floating houses. There’s no way that my garage would be able to handle even a quarter of the repairs and tune-ups that go on every day in Wekat. We take in maybe 5%. The biggest garage can only deal with 9%. There are thousands of garages, all across Wekat. I happen to own the 4th largest because I’m popular with Morphons – almost my entire crew is Morphon and many of my customers are Morphons.”
They had been walking all the while, and suddenly, Farune turned left down a side path, between a small airship, shaped almost like a jet, but with curvy wings instead of angular wings, and another small airship, shaped like a car from the Jetson’s.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Past the two airships, there was a white door, which slid open as they neared it. On the other side was a small room, with a large semicircular desk, made of the same white metal as the door. There was a chair in front of the desk and one behind the desk. Farune walked behind the desk and sat down, then gestured for Indra to sit.
“Okay.” Farune said. “There are a few things that you’ll need, as a member of the garage and as a newborn Morphon. First is your registration.” He waved his left hand over a certain area of the desk, and a blank white card popped out of a slot. He handed it to Indra, saying, “Say ‘Register’.”
“Register.” The card filled with information, as if it was writing itself. His photo, eye color, hair color, height and his Boons were all listed there, with a small letter, H, watermarked in the lower righthand corner, beneath his photo. On the back, three glyphs appeared, that somehow he recognized as IMA.
Farune continued. “I told you I was the temporary head of the Wekat Branch of the International Morphon Alliance, right? This is one of my duties. Some years ago, the members of our race saw that we were at a disadvantage compared to other sentient species: we had no definitive home. Each other race has a site which they call their origin – the place where they were first created by their patron god or goddess; this origin place serves as a combination of a spiritual center, a home, a place of laws, a bastion of defense, and a powerful advocate for their species. But Morphons were, from the beginning, driven to wander from place to place. This left the Morphons without a center, a place to call home. So the Morphons of that generation created an organization, which can serve as an origin for Morphons. They called it the International Morphon Alliance. It protects us from discrimination, which was rampant at the time of the Alliance’s formation, and hands down the laws all of our people keep, which amount, basically, to do no harm to a fellow Morphon.”
“This registration card proves that you are a Morphon, which can be hard to do. It allows you to access the IMA’s embassy, which is in the capital of most civilized nations, and acts as a passport when you travel between nations. It also gives you access to the Morphon database, allowing you to read all about our race and the information that we have collected throughout the years. It will change with you, whenever you use a Boon, so no need to worry about getting it changed. The card also registers the Boons you’ve used, and the Boons you’ve obtained, but not used. The card assigns a rank to a Morphon, that letter in the lower righthand corner, based on a complicated formula, which factors in accomplishments, services done on behalf of the IMA, number and rank of acquired Boons, and some other factors. The rank determines the quality of and access to services offered by the IMA. It’s not my favorite aspect of the system, but whatever.”
“Secondly, you need to present yourself to the embassy as soon as you can. It will make the registration permanent; it’ll also give you a chance to take a look at the services that the IMA offers.”
“Thirdly, here’s a key to your room.” Farune handed him a small black bracelet. “This will act as an ID, while you work for me, and it’ll get you access to the cafeteria, the training gym, your room, the battery charging station, and the library, for now. If you need access to other things, let me know.”
“Finally, I should give you the tour, but I’m running low on free time, so you’ll need to explore on your own later. For right now, I can take you to the battery charging station, that’s where I’m headed next. It’s in my schedule that I have to charge batteries for a few hours right now. Great Ava, I hate my schedule.” He sighed, and then stood up.
“Follow me.”
Farune led the way out of his office, out to the main path, and then to the left. They continued walking until they reached the far end of the garage. There was another hallway, at the end of which was another elevator. They got in and Farune pushed a button marked AA, near the top of the buttons. The elevator doors closed and the elevator zoomed upwards. After only thirty seconds, the doors opened again. It was another hallway. Farune lead Indra to a door halfway down the hallway, waved his wrist near a panel on the wall next to the door and opened it. The interior was brightly lit, with a glow like daylight. The room was not nearly so large as the massive room on floor M, but it was still large. Devices of about waist height, with two metal handles on either side of a small, level flat square, with a semicircular indent in the middle, stood in rows, facing a huge wall of windows.
Indra’s eyes were glued to the windows. It was midday, and the sun was obviously overhead. Outside, he could see a city with strange skyscrapers, and small aircraft zooming past the window constantly. When he looked down, he almost fainted. The ground was ridiculously far away, at least half a kilometer from where he stood.
Farune walked up beside him. “Beautiful, right? There’s no place more lovely than my adopted city, Wekat.” He clapped his hand on Indra’s shoulder. “Anyway, plenty of time for sightseeing later. For now, let’s get started charging batteries.”
Indra let himself be dragged away from the window. Farune started showing him how the device worked. “So, you put this battery,” Farune held up a small metal ball, unmarred by line or a sign of tooling. “In the indent,” he put the metal ball down on the indent, and it fit perfectly. “Then you hold onto the handles, and start channeling your electricity through your hands and into the handles. When the battery is done charging, the stand will beep, to let you know it’s done. Make sure you don’t overcharge it – that often ends in an explosion. Don’t worry about how much power you channel into it at one time, these sorcerous batteries are built to be charged and discharged as quickly or as slowly as one would like.”
Farune demonstrated: he put the ball in the indent, grabbed the handles and closed his eyes, concentrating. Twenty seconds later, the stand beeped.
“It should take you longer than that, but don’t worry, I’ve spent years training my electric ability and it’s a few orders of magnitude greater than yours is, at least at the moment. Oh, wait, you have an external manifestation, don’t you. It’s not easy to control the electricity that you produce like that, you know? You’re going to have to spend some time learning to extend the current to your body. No time like the present to begin. I’ll be right here if you need any help figuring things out.”
“Okay.”
Farune started charging another ball. Indra sat down.
“Wait, Farune, how do I check my electric-producing ability?”
“Say ‘Character Window’ then say ‘Check Skills.’”
“Character Window.”
A rectangle popped up in his field of vision, completely unconnected to anything around it. It just seemed to float in midair.
Character WindowAvatar NameIndraAlignmentNeutralLevel1Fame0TitlesNoneCurrent PathsNoneHealth100Stamina100Strength10Agility10Vitality10Wisdom10Intelligence10Luck0Dexterity0ResistancesElectrical – 10% (outside) 60% (inside)
Lightning Magic – 3%Skills and SpellsCreation WindowInventoryOptions
“Check Skills.”
SkillsNovitiate Bioelectricity Production I, 00%Novitiate Bioelectricity Control I, -05%SpellsNone
“Check Bioelectricity Production and Bioelectricity Control.”
Novitiate Bioelectricity Production I, 05%
The ability to produce electricity with a certain organ, in your case, your horns. Consumes stamina, dependent on voltage and skill level. Tied to Bioelectricity Control.
Current Voltage: 105 volts
Novitiate Bioelectricity Control I, -05%
The ability to control the production of your electricity and the electricity you produce. Tied to Bioelectricity Production. The current level of this skill is too low to control how much electricity you produce or the electricity itself. At this level, any electricity you produce will shock you.
Current Flow: 1 milliAmpere
“Dismiss all.” Indra was annoyed. “It says my Bioelectricity Control ability is too low-leveled to control my electricity production.”
“Yeah, that’s what happens when you choose to manifest externally. A few of my crew did that too. They got shocked a lot while they learned to control it. Mine’s internal, so I didn’t have to learn, but they tell me that the best way to do it is to think of the place where you manifest the electricity as another muscle, and then try to flex it.”
“Should I try to charge batteries, or should I try to get the hang of controlling it, first?”
I might damage something if I can’t control it.
Farune laughed, “These things are built to withstand much more than you would be able to produce.”
Indra grabbed the handles, adjusted his stance, cracked his neck, and breathed deeply.
The horns are a muscle, flex the muscle.
Indra flexed. He felt something, and then he felt a buzzing feeling around his horns and then he became aware of something. He could feel his health and his stamina decreasing. He couldn’t see a health or stamina bar, nevertheless, he knew that his health was decreasing at the rate of one point per second and his stamina was decreasing at the rate of three points per second. He stopped flexing.
“Farune, how do I control the electricity I produce?”
“They tell me you just keep getting shocked until you get the hang of it.”
Maybe I should have made it internal?
Indra started producing electricity, feeling his health and his stamina drop. After thirty seconds, his stamina dropped below 10%, and he began to feel fatigued. Three seconds later, his stamina hit 0, and he felt like he had gone for a very long run. He half-sat and half-collapsed onto the floor, waiting for his stamina to regenerate.
“Check skills Bioelectricity Production and Bioelectricity Control.”
Novitiate Bioelectricity Production I, 05.25%
The ability to produce electricity with a certain organ, in your case, your horns. Consumes stamina, dependent on voltage and skill level. Tied to Bioelectricity Control.
Current Voltage: 105.25 volts
Novitiate Bioelectricity Control I, -04.75%
The ability to control the production of your electricity and the electricity you produce. Tied to Bioelectricity Production. The current level of this skill is too low to control how much electricity you produce or the electricity itself. At this level, any electricity you produce will shock you.
Current Flow: 1 milliAmpere
Mmm. This means I have to do this 19 more times until I break even, in terms of control.
After 20 seconds, his stamina bar was full again, and Indra began again. Each time he discharged energy until he was out of stamina. After 18 minutes, he had reached Bioelectricity Control I, 00%. When he got to that point, the content of the skill changed a little.
Novitiate Bioelectricity Control I, 00%
The ability to control the production of your electricity and the electricity you produce. Tied to Bioelectricity Production. The current level of this skill is too low to control how much electricity you produce or the electricity itself.
Current Flow: 1milliAmpere
I still can’t control the electricity, but at least I don’t get shocked anymore.
Indra continued practicing with his ability to discharge electricity and he got into a rhythm that kept him from getting bored. Besides, he was getting noticeable results: for each percent he gained in his Bioelectricity Production ability, he could produce one more volt of electricity. Of course, the stamina cost was ever so slightly increasing also, but the rate at which he gained proficiency seemed to be about the same. Several hours later, he gained the ability to roughly control where the electricity was going, when he hit Bioelectricity Control I, 50%.
From then on, he started to charge one of the batteries. Even after another three hours, he hadn’t completely filled the first one. He did reach the next level of Bioelectricity Production. When it ranked up, a message appeared.
Novitiate Bioelectricity Production has gained a rank. It has become Novitiate Bioelectricity Production II, 00%. The voltage that you can produce has doubled, to 400 volts.
A few minutes later, Farune, who had been charging batteries the whole time, stopped, and turned to Indra. Near his station was a huge pile of batteries that he had charged. Every ten minutes, he had stopped and rested for another ten, but he still finished charging hundreds of batteries.
Indra’s frustration with the battery was evident, how could he take so long to charge just one battery. “Don’t worry about it.” Farune said. “I didn’t expect that you would be able to charge a battery right away. These little guys can hold incredible amounts of power – 15 megawatts.”
“What can that amount do?” Indra had no experience with electricity or he would know that it was a ridiculous quantity of power to fit into such a small space.
“A lot. 15 megawatts can power a motorcycle for a year. However, most spells require a lot of power. Many higher-level spells require more than a hundred megawatts in an hour to sustain. The airships need quite a few of these, too. You saw that mid-sized, passenger airship, right. The spells that lift and propel that airship require a few thousand of these for a month of traveling, not counting the various shields that they have to maintain.”
Farune waved Indra away from the stand, and grabbed the handles. He charged the battery the rest of the way, and then added it to the pile.
“So no worries. Since demand started to rise, a few years ago, I’ve been filling these guys every day for a few hours at least. I’m bound to be much farther along than you. Let’s get something to eat, you must be starving after working that hard for that long.”
Indra realized that his satiety was almost at zero, and, through the window, he could see that the sun was low in the sky.
Wow, can’t believe I didn’t notice that.
Farune led the way out of the room and back towards the elevator. When they were in, he pressed the button marked Z. When the doors opened again, there was another hallway.
This game really likes hallways, doesn’t it?
The hallway was a short one, with only one door, at the very end. Farune opened the door on a very large room with a steady buzz of noise. Inside were tables made of the same white metal as Farune’s desk, around some of which sat men and women, appearing, for the most part, normal, although some had horns, like him, others had tails. A few even had an extra pair of arms. Some were differently colored. One was a deep blue, one a silvery gray, another was a deep red. Most of them weren’t especially handsome or pretty, but not one was noticeably disfigured or particularly ugly.
As they walked past the large tables at the center of the room, the people who sat there nodded to Farune in greeting. They moved to the back of the room, where they sat across from each other at a small table.
“This is the cafeteria. I’m very proud of this room, I poured a lot of money into it. It’s state of the art, with all of the bells and whistles. Table.”
In the center of the square table, a small white metal cylinder, perforated with small holes, popped up. A voice came from the cylinder.
“Yes?”
“I’d like two menus.”
The tabletop in front of Indra became a list of foods.
Tofu Stirfry on jasmine rice
Sweet and Sour Chicken on rice
Lo Mein noodles
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Red Beans and Rice
Cheeseburger
Chicken Caesar Salad
BBQ Ribs
Shrimp Gumbo
Tikka Masala Chicken
…
“I had a very expensive kitchen spell cast on these tables – it can pretty much conjure up whatever kind of food you can think of. It was a huge investment, but the money for those batteries was very good to us, and I wanted to keep all of my workers and give an incentive for electric Morphons and other bioelectrics to work for me. This and out other efforts made our company the biggest name in industrial and personal use power supply.”
“What’s the company named? You never did mention.”
“Morphon Mechanical Garage of Wekat, MMGW for short. Anyway, just choose something. All of the food is excellent. Table, I’ll have the PB & J.”
“Table, I’ll have the red beans and rice.”
The two menus disappeared and in their places appeared two plates. In front of Indra was a bowl of red beans and rice, steaming hot and enticing.
“You can ask me anything else that you want to know.”
Anything else...
“Not right now.”
“Okay, I know that some Morphons don’t have to sleep. If you’re one of those, I can lend you a motorcycle if you want to try and get the hang of it. If you want to explore the city, some, the door to the outside is on floor M. Right outside the front door is Main Street, and walking along it, you’ll get a good sense of the city. If you don’t want to do that, the whole garage is open around the clock, so that those who want to put in overtime can. Just scan into the room when you start work, and scan out when you’re done. Don’t worry if it takes you a few days to charge a battery. It will, at first. Just don’t take those batteries out of the charging room. If one were to break, it would explode violently.”
“Okay. Could I borrow a motorcycle? I’d like to get some practice in, before the race.”
“Sure. But you need to pass a driving test to drive in the city. You can practice in the track. I’ll show you it after we finish eating.”
Half an hour later, they stood up and returned to the elevator. This time, Farune pushed the I button.
“Oh, yeah. Which room were you born in?” Farune asked as the elevator descended.
“A room near A14, I think.”
“Interesting. It’s been a while since any Morphon was born on Floor A.”
“Are there other floors where Morphons are born? Actually, are Morphons all born in the same place? How are we created, exactly?”
“Your first two questions are easy, the last, not so much. Yes and sort of, are the answers to the easy questions. Yes, there are other floors in this facility from which Morphons are born. In answer to your second, within a certain area, Morphons with similar Boons are usually born in the same place. Within Aphad, Morphons with electric and metal related Boons are born in my garage. Although they are all a little different, in the end, most Morphons’ first Boon is some kind of elemental or magical power. I was like that, too. My first Boon was the ability to produce and control electricity, like yours.”
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened on yet another hallway. It was long, without any doors, and it turned to the left at the end.
They walked as Farune continued.
“As to how we’re born, there are two methods. One is the way it works for other races – a man and a woman have sex, then a few weeks later she lays an egg, which grows till it’s the size of a newborn. Then the newborn cracks the shell, and there they are. As to how you were born, the best explanation we have is Ava. One day there’s nothing there, the next, there’s a small egg, which grows to the size of an adult over the course of a month. From then, it could be a few days or a few months until it hatches into an adult Morphon.”
They rounded the corner, and the hallway emerged onto a giant room. Three meters ahead of them, there was a giant oval, the size of a real life race track, set a few meters into the ground where they stood. There was a walkway all the way along the tier on which they stood, with a few benches stretching all the way around. The outer edge of the oval was a track, as smooth as any real-world road.
As Farune led him along the walkway, Farune said, “This is the track. We use it to test out new designs and improvements that we’ve made on land-vehicles, before we put them on the actual road. Sometimes, some of the employees hold races down here. They get pretty intense.”
They passed a ramp, leading down onto the track. Then they came to a set of large metal doors, set into the wall. On the wall near the doors was a button. Farune pressed the button and, as the doors rumbled open, said, “This is the garage for test vehicles. Basically, anything in here is either used to show people what they might like to order, or it’s a work in progress. Which means that some of these may look totally functional, they might blow up in your face if you try to ride them. That said, being a completely new driver, you won’t be able to handle most of the rides in here.”
Inside the garage, there was row after row of land vehicles, each facing forward, with no space between rows. The rows seemed to go on forever, even though Indra could see the back. Each row held 10 to 15 vehicles – cars and motorcycles, and vehicles with less conventional forms, each with some number of wheels.
Farune motioned for him to stay. Then Farune said, “Retrieve Cycle R-01.” A circle appeared in midair, in front of them, then a motorcycle rolled out of the circle, emerging bit by bit as if out of thin air.
“This is R-01, the most basic type of racing bike you can get. It runs on the batteries you were charging earlier. Technically, its top speed is 200 mph, but you probably shouldn’t go above 160, because the engine will start to break down after that point. Here, I’ll show you how to do it.”
Farune hopped onto the bike, and opened a panel on the tank. Inside was a row of buttons and switches and below that was an indent, in which was a metallic ball. “This is the ignition,” he said, pointing to a button. He pressed it and the bike revved up. The sound was a steady purr, not very loud, but a constant noise.
“The sound is actually unnecessary, but some people find it unnerving for the bike to be completely quiet. If you want to turn it off, just flip this switch.” He flipped the switch and the bike went totally silent.
“Alright, the bike controls are fairly simple. It’s a manual cycle, so there are a few things you have to pay attention to. You’ve got your basic speedometer, your odometer, and your tachometer for a display.” Farune gestured to each part as he mentioned it. “The right handle is the throttle, which controls how fast you’re going. You move your wrist downwards to accelerate. The lever in front of the right handle operates the front brakes. The back brakes are controlled by the lever in front of the right pedal; just shift your foot forward when you want to brake. The front brakes are much more effective than the back brakes, but if you pull on the front brakes too fast, you could either go into a skid or flip the bike. On the left side, you have the clutch, the lever next to the left handle bar, and the gear shift, the lever next to the left footrest. Basically, what you need to know about gears is just that each gear runs best within a certain range of speeds. As far as speed goes, neutral is when you don’t want to move, 1st is the slowest gear, and as the number gear increases, so does the optimal speed. To shift gears, you pull the clutch, then use your foot to move the gear shift. Neutral is the second gear from the bottom, first is the bottom gear, second is one gear above neutral, and from there it just counts up. After you finish moving the pedal, you need to release the clutch slowly, while you accelerate.”
Indra’s eyes almost glazed over at the tidal wave of information. Farune could see that he was losing interest, so he cut off, “Well, you can figure out the rest on your own. First though, say ‘Retrieve outfit one racing jacket and one motorcycle helmet.’”
“Retrieve outfit one racing jacket, one pair racing gloves, and one motorcycle helmet.” A circle appeared above Indra’s head, and it quickly descended to the ground. When it hit the floor, it disappeared, simultaneously equipping Indra with a short black jacket and a plain, black motorcycle helmet with a tinted visor.
“Okay, now give it a try.” Indra threw one leg over the bike and flattened his body to match the contours of the bike. He opened the throttle just a little and the bike revved up, going from dead silent to a very quiet purr.
Farune quickly said, “Oh yeah, after you shift gears, you need to release the clutch slowly, as you open the throttle just a little. If you don’t, the bike might skid.”
Indra pulled the clutch and shifted into first. As he slowly released the clutch, he began to move forward, towards the ramp. He gently opened the throttle a little and the bike began to speed up. He reached the ramp, and the bike quickened down the slope. When he reached the track, he worked the brakes and turned the bike to the left.
“One more thing.” Farune shouted from above. “Do you want the Novice Bike Rider’s Path?”
You have been offered the Novice Bike Rider’s Path
The farther you advance down this Path, the more stat gains you will have when on motorcycles, and without. Path completion will grant the skills Novitiate Motorcycle Riding Proficiency I and Novitiate Motorcycle Sense I, and, perhaps, something extra.
“Sure.”
The Novice Bike Rider’s Path
Objectives:
Shift gears smoothly: 0/20
Shift through all of the gears on your bike: 2/6
Downshift gears smoothly: 0/20
Bank smoothly into a turn: 0/15
Hit the top speed on your bike: 0/5
Beat another novice in a race [optional]: 0/1
Beat the best time for a novice on a racecourse [optional]: 0/1
Total: 2/21 9.5%
Current Gains:
+1 AGI on a motorcycle, + .001% max AGI per character level
+1 DEX on a motorcycle, + .001% max DEX per character level
+1 LUK on a motorcycle, + .001% max LUK per character level
This seems pretty easy. Some of these objectives are optional, though. Does that mean that I can choose to complete the path without doing them? So are there greater rewards for finishing all of the objectives?
While he thought, Indra let go of the brakes and opened the throttle. The bike sped up. He was cautious with the throttle, and opened it very slowly. Nevertheless, he started to feel the bike straining before the first turn, when the speed rose above 20 mph. He pulled the clutch, eased back on the throttle, shifted into second and slowly released the clutch. Even though he did it all as smoothly as he could, he still felt the bike rock forward after he released the clutch.
That was not very smooth at all.
He banked into the turn, turning right. At first he only leaned a little, but he could see that the wall was coming up fast, so he leaned a little more. He made it around the turn just fine, although his heart was beating a little fast.
He continued to speed, shifting into third gear at 35 mph, fourth at 50 mph, and fifth at 60 mph. Each time, the bike rocked a little less. When he had to turn, he downshifted to third, and leaned to his right. The course was very basic, just a straight run, followed by an arc that led to another straight run. He never went much faster than 80 mph, it just felt too fast.
I think I’m getting the hang of it.
Indra shifted more and more smoothly each time, until he could barely feel a rock when he shifted gears. After a few laps like this, he began to go a little faster, hitting 90, 100 on the straight aways.