Prelude 1: It Finally Came
IndentMattimeo Tackett was ecstatic. It had been three days since he had completed his father's challenge and today his very own capsule would arriving. If he hadn't thought it beneath his dignity, he would have bouncing from room to room like a giddy child being allowed into the candy store. At five foot eleven and 210 pounds, the shopkeeper would most likely have been terrified of the madman.
IndentMattimeo had always been a bit odd but nothing really set him apart until he hit middle school. Then he had found his mother's old books, actual paper-bound books, on the shelf in the library. After reading through a few of the adventure stories, he had quickly been hooked and know what he wanted to be: a quest giver. From Merlin to Gandalf to Pug, he saw these being of great power who stayed behind the scenes making sure that the hero could do what was needed. Thus he decided, Mattimeo was going to be the one who put the sword in the stone.
IndentHe didn’t come to this decision instantly, over several years the idea fermented as he played many of the old school games that were available to those under sixteen. Law prevented children under sixteen from accessing Royal Rampage out of fear that the cognitive acceleration would adversely affect brain development. Many different companies stepped in to fill the VR access gap (and take the cash parents would spend to entertain them) this age group represented. Mattimeo had played these old revamps but quickly lost interest in them when talking to someone in the next room was considered a quest. To Mattimeo, a quest should be something that fell onto an epic scale, not the mundane.
IndentIn his own way, Mattimeo could be stubborn about things that held his interest. Not many things could hold his interest for long and so he flitted between activities. Never staying on one for long enough to get much experience in it, just long enough to know he didn't want keep doing it. He had played chess, but only until he knew the basic movements and was never very good. He had tried out for football, but never cared enough to play better than the reserves. He took swimming lessons, and decided knowing how to go from one end of the pool to the other without drowning was enough. But he never gave up on wanting to give quests, and this was quite the odd obsession to his father.
IndentAfter he turning sixteen, he had tried out Royal Rampage. It interested him at first, but with his dad unwilling to buy a capsule for his use he read forums to make his play time more efficient. He found it possible to give quests in Royal Rampage, just not create your own. Your could share the quests you got with others. Or, if you were of high enough rank in a government, you could give out city based quests. These positions had long been taken over and were not really what interested Mattimeo, just the closest he could find. Spending his pocket money in and out of capsule shops he never even reached level 50 in Royal Rampage before he finally lost interest.
IndentAt sixteen and a half Mattimeo had more or less given up on the game. Instead, he spent most of his time fiddling around with old video games or logging time with the Library of Congress AI. Since so much of school had been moving to VR to save on costs, he only had to leave the house once a week to physically go to school. The other four mandatory days of school were spent in the federal department of education's AI that created a replica of the same schoolroom that he physically attended with the same classmates. Not involved with Royal Rampage, his classmates and old friends slowly excluded him. Not due to any malice, they simply didn't have anything to talk to him about.
IndentThen came the announcement for Grand Planes, and he knew in his bones that he had been waiting for this. His dad even worked for Horizon in their power division, so asking his dad for one of the new capsules shouldn't have been an issue. His dad, however, had other plans.
IndentSeeing his son motivated for first time in a while, he decided to try and capitalize on it. So he made a deal with Mattimeo, "Okay my little mouse, I'll get you a new capsule, but first I have a challenge you must complete. You can call it a quest if you want," Matthias grinned a bit as he clearly knew of what his son obsessed over, "But if you don't complete it I won't get it for you."
IndentMattimeo exclaimed without even thinking about it, "Done, I'll finish your quest so fast you'll lose what little hair you have left."
Indent"Heh," Matthias snorted, "Don't be going back on your word now. For me to get this capsule for you, you have to fully fund four years of college with scholarships." At that, Mattimeo went a little pale. He hadn’t been a bad student, he read too much to be bad, he had just been unmotivated. Entering into his senior year of High School with a solid B- average, he found that not many big scholarships would go to such an average student. Instead, he would have to apply again and again to lots of small overlooked ones in the hopes that enough would add up to fund him.
IndentHe finished his father's challenge, just barely, as he completed school. With more than fifteen hundred applications, almost twenty a day for the first half of the school year, he got back positive replies from just twenty-five with five more pending his final exams. He studied like mad, trying to bring his GPA up just that last little bit that years of negligence had lowered. On pins and needles just a week ago, he waited for his final grade to be posted. The last grade just high enough, his GPA boosted the final hundredth of a point he needed for the last scholarship and he sailed through by the skin of his teeth.
IndentHappy that his son had funded his own tuition, Matthias gladly bought him not just a capsule but a high quality one. With the basic version running at ten thousand dollars, Horizon's new capsule started in the same price range that Royal Rampage started at. But within two months better versions of the capsule became available, accommodating those with severe handicaps with the highest prices and greatest functionality. Or lesser high quality models, models that left the user with much more choices of operation than a basic set. At almost forty thousand dollars, this new capsule made an excellent graduation gift for his son.
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IndentWith capsule arriving only a day after finals, Mattimeo did some long awaited research on Grand Planes. He had been so afraid that he would fail his father's conditions that only the stock photo for the game had been looked up before he moved all his effort to his school work. He had a lot to catch up on before he jumped into the game and he wanted to be as ready for it as possible.
IndentReading through the wikipedia as quickly as he could, he went looking for anything he could find on quests. Quite a bit of information on individual missions, tasks, requests, and quests that different people had gotten could be found, but nothing about them being able to give quests. Searching the long list of skill, he did find a few that increased or altered quest rewards, but again nothing about giving quests. Undeterred and with little time left, he went over what some of the highlights had happened in the past year of play.
IndentWhen the game had been released a year ago, the chief executive officer of Horizon, Mike Roberts, had left out much of the information a gamer would have liked. With just the brief release he gave, nearly four hundred thousand copies of the new game had be bought. Three hours after release, he already had complaints about Grand Planes. When he had mentioned that players would be competing against the NPCs, people had not realized just how many they would be competing against. One game day in, most of the players had obtained their common class. And the rank that went with it showed a staggering number, 329,365,673,973. Just one class had three hundred billion people already in it, putting the total population of Grand Planes close to a full Trillion.
IndentThen the issue of races cropped up. It had been known that the only starting race available was human, so it had been thought that there would only be humans in the starting areas of the game. Not so, in the capital of one of the eastern countries it was pretty easy to see both elves and dwarfs. When asked about it, the only reply was that the elves and dwarfs would be the easiest playable races to unlock and that if you didn't want to be a human just wait a few weeks.
IndentHis prediction came true after just fifteen days. One player had been dedicated to becoming a merchant and for two and a half game months had persisted in stalking a well known NPC merchant. It had payed off in that he both got the class he wanted and with the class got access to the auction house. Here he found that not only had the NPCs had been selling rare stuff off in Plutus approved auctions for millennia, they also accepted real world money as a valid currency. Not only the dollar, but the yen, the won, the euro and many other real world currencies were accepted and used as just one more currency in the banking system. There was a great deal of scarcity in the real world currency but some had already filtered into the human capitals. Elsewhere in the game there were NPCs would buy things for cash, and this player had a pretty good idea that those things would be valuable.
IndentEven more important to the first merchant was an item he saw in the auction, a two way pass to Elfhome. Gathering funds from real life, he purchased the pass for three hundred dollars hoping that he would quickly recoup his losses with the bonus fame from being the first player to reach the land of the elves. And he hadn’t been wrong. Taking the advice of the NPC merchant he had stalked, the merchant took a cartload of jewelry to the building with the gate. He could only enter the building after he showed his access pass. Entering into this busy place with his hand drawn cart containing every last copper he had earned in game, he walked through what seemed to be Grand Central Station. The sight people going in and out of multiple gates overwhelmed him.
IndentWith his ticket presented, he walked up to a smaller gate covered in shifting vines and an energy wreathing within the gate moving like liquid silver. With just a moments hesitation he walked through, a second later walking out onto a large tree. More importantly to him was the box that appeared in front of him.
As the first freeman to reach Elfhome you have gained instant acknowledgment from all that hear your name.
IndentAnd the even more important notice that every player logged on or upon longin received.
Elfhome has been discovered, players may now start play as elves.
IndentThe merchant became joyous. The new fame should enable him to easily earn a large profit on his goods. Unfortunately, the first guard he went up to trying to find a shopping district had no understanding of his words. The only elves that spoke human were traders who frequently passed through the gate or those who studied languages. Trying to sell his goods through these elves lost him all the bonus money his fame would have gained him.
IndentPlayers who joined as Elves discovered that as Elves they had no problems understanding Elvish. The AI that governed language translation had made all human language understandable to humans, but made other languages skill based to acquire. As people who logged in literally one room away from each other could no longer understand each other, lots of players began attempting to pick up language skills whenever they could.
IndentThe players who wanted to change their race faced a different kind of difficulty. You could not simply delete your current avatar and start over. Instead you needed to convert your avatar into an NPC, an act that could be accomplished through an in game item that could be bought for either gold or cash. At this time, no one knew of a way to change race while still keeping your avatar.
IndentA few days after Elfhome opened, Ardran the dwarf homeland opened to avatar creation. The first player to enter Ardran was a beginner blacksmith who had a class based quest to seek help from a dwarf master blacksmith. From the way the three races treated each other it could be seen that they had a pretty good relationship, if kept at a bit of a distance.
IndentAround two weeks later, or four in game months, the first person entered into the hall of fame. Minutes later, he posted in the hall of fame video postings. As the first, his video of how he got to the central planes was viewed massively. Even a year later this video still ranked in the top ten. People had acquired the skill to reach the central planes more than two weeks ago, but no one had successfully used it.
IndentCalled 'Ascension by Tribulation' the skill created an area around the user in which others trying to buff or heal would rebound instead and entering would increase the difficulty. Leaving the area would cancel the skill, while staying inside the area would create a trial that would last at most an hour. If you failed the trial, it killed you and you lost five levels rather than the normal one. Coupled with the skill proficiency loss, those who had rushed to level one hundred ran face first into a brick wall. Mattimeo had watched the old video repeatedly as it highly interested him.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
IndentFilmed mostly from a second persons perspective, the player, named Serrel, began by stating that this would be his second attempt and that from the new information he had obtained, hopefully his last. Hardened leather armor studded with metal points covered his torso. A small shield on his left arm and a hefty spear in his right hand identified him as a warrior class player. Walking a few steps away he cried out loudly,"Ascension by Tribulation!"
IndentFor the next ten minutes, the previously clear blue day darkened as clouds converged overhead. After fifteen minutes an odd green hued inverted four sided pyramid formed directly overhead. Pointing down at Serrel, thunder rumbled and sparks could be seen rolling away from the pyramid slowly then returning at a greater speed. Upon reaching the pyramid, the sparks converged on the tip charging with a crackling sound and with sudden speed leapt at the warrior.
IndentThe lightning, although moving quickly, did not moving with lightning speed, simply very fast. Shield raised over his head and crouching slightly at the knees, Serrel took the bolt without much trouble. Quickly taking out a health potion, he downed it while still watching the clouds. One side of the tribulation cloud had gone a little fuzzy and became visibly fluffier than the other three sides. As the sparks once again surged away from the cloud, as fast and plentiful as they had returned the last time, Serrel took his stance once more.
IndentHolding his shield over his head as an increased number of sparks returned, he could be seen to active a skill from the slight glow visible in the now shadowed area. With a loud rumbling as the sparks returned to the tribulation cloud, a larger bolt of lightning fell upon Serrel. The bolt, falling more quickly than the time before, left a short afterglow in the recorder's video indicating a blinding effect along with the lightning. When it cleared, Serrel was still visible but he could be seen discarding the broken bits of his shield, taking another health potion, and pulling a larger shield than before from the ground.
IndentAs sparks flew from the tribulation clouds, the sky darkened still further deepening the shadows where Serrel stood. This time he had taken a different stance, with his spear pulled back ready to launch he waited on the returning lightning. With the returning sparks, he once again glowed a faint blue color. Just as the returning sparks found the tribulation cloud a quick motion from Serrel lofted his spear at the point of the cloud and ducked behind his full sized shield. The lightning fell, larger than before, and disintegrated the iron spear. But after the spear, it not quite as powerful a bolt and Serrel appear to be able to more easily shrug off the damage. Even the glare diminished from before.
IndentThe tribulation cloud seethed for a moment, only one side of the pyramid was clearly defined with the other three looking almost wispy. As sparks seemed to circle the pyramidal cloud, the sky darkened still further until the area around Serrel became dark as night. Shooting away with a roar of sound, the sparks rolled out to the far distance of the sky. His shield matched with a newly equipped sword of clearly high quality, Serrel downed a last potion as the sparking sky returned.
IndentThe returning lightning caused the tribulation cloud to begin to glow. Shouting out his skill, but unable to hear it over the rumble of thunder, Serrel swung his sword at the cloud creating a sword wave with energy visible in the dark. Part way up to the cloud, a massive sinuous electric snake struck down through it. Upon impact with the energy wave it, nothing indicated that the skill had reduced the power of the bolt at all. Reaching Serrel, the bolt was larger than his body and completely engulfed him in it's blinding light. With a sound that deafened the viewer and a light so bright it left the viewing screen blind for several seconds, one could not tell what had happened.
IndentAs the blinding light faded, Serrel still stood. Drastic damage clearly evident on his shattered sword, the shield that partially disintegrated in places before the eyes, and his formerly pristine armor now little more than rags. A disbelieving look on a face that now sported frizzy hair, he yelled something that couldn't be heard over the ringing but was subtitled as 'I made it. I lived.' over and over again. A moment later he looked up and saw the sky crashing down upon him. The space created by the 'Ascension by Tribulation' was now covered in what looked like a flashing green and purple tornado. All the cloud cover that had been summoned by the skill was being sucked down into the area where Serrel stood creating a funnel.
IndentAll the clouds now gone, the sky returned to a blue afternoon. Not more than thirty minutes in total had passed. However, the area where Serrel had had his tribulation was scoured of grass, and he was no where to be seen. A few seconds later the video ended.
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IndentAt the ring of the doorbell, Mattimeo ran from his room but his father had beaten him to the door. With a kind greeting, Matthias directed the installation crew towards his son's room in the back. Since it would take about half an hour to set up, he only allowed his son to give the basics of where he wanted his capsule. Knowing that his son would likely disappear completely for the next few days, he grabbed Mattimeo by the shoulder and steered him towards the kitchen for lunch.
IndentAfter eating, Matthias extracted a vague promise from his son that he would join him for at least every other morning jog. Letting him go, content that he would at least see his son every other day, he left him charge back toward his room as the installers started to leave the house. Offering them a couple cans of soda pop that were gladly accepted, Matthias signed off on the paperwork. No longer caring about any of this with his present in sight, Mattimeo simply drooled over his capsule.
IndentWith his chest of drawers under the window straight in from the entrance, the inwardly swinging door covered half of his closet space. The bed shoved into the corner next to the drawers and the small VR desk with his old gear now shelved on the top shelf next to the door meant the capsule was almost completely hidden from the door. Crowded into the corner under a window and looking like a giant tilted egg, the black orb remained wedged into his room between his bed and the wall. Connected to both his tower and the special new plug in his wall, the capsule’s flashing on it's face exposed the words, ‘Profile updated. Ready to begin configuration.’
IndentQuickly closing the door, Mattimeo stripped down to his underwear and tossed his clothes at the drawers. Smacking into the handles they fell unnoticed to the freshly clean carpet. Taking the half step over to the capsule he tapped the front panel exposing it's innards to the world. Even after the panels slid to the side not much could be seen. Just a small padded chair reclining at a soft angle and lots and lots of dark sand. As he stepped onto the sand and swiftly took his seat he tapped a small button to close the hatch. Wiggling a bit as he attempted to get comfortable, he ignored his goosebumps as the sand began oozing over his legs and slowly slithered up his torso.
IndentAlmost completely covered in the micro-dust, only his face still exposed, a thin green light shined down out of the closed hatch and scanned his face from top to bottom. Small blue lettering appeared on the lid in front of his eyes displaying, 'New user recognized, say begin to start configuration or stop to exit capsule.' Preparing himself mentally for what he knew was coming Mattimeo said, "Begin!" Immediately he closed his eyes as the micro-dust closed over the rest of his face.
IndentThe longest one second of his life later, he could see glowing words with his closed eyes, 'Configuration Initiated.' The capsule had now tapped into his spinal cord, redirecting most of his brains signals through a small non-invasive patch on the back of his neck. Monitored in minute detail by the micro-dust, the capsule now made certain of his essential functions such as breathing, heat regulation, and a beating heart. Linked into the local emergency network, any medical emergencies would be diagnosed and an ambulance called before he could even detect it himself. The micro-dust would ensure that his muscles did not become atrophied or that he would get bed sores over long periods of inaction.
IndentThe connection also provided the ability to access VR in a way that was nearly indistinguishable from reality. Or it would be, just as soon as the configuration of finished. Barraged by numerous questions, some odd and some expected, the VR world around Mattimeo began to form. ‘Think of the smell of purple. Think of the color fluffy. Think of the taste of salt. Think of the sound of rain. Think of the sound of sunlight.’ As the questions went on and on, the area around him began to take a familiar shape. After a long five minutes, the final test was to simply wait as the capsule tested his involuntary reaction to stimulus. A simulated rubber ball-hammer hitting his knee appeared so that he knew what was happening.
IndentAs soon as the final test concluded, a brief message flashed, 'Now connected to your homespace.' Looking around he saw the VR area that was stored on his tower with completely new eyes, literally. Now that he was actually immersed and not using a Glass, his homespace was clearly flat and poorly programed in many ways. With only a short thought about how he should redesign it sometime soon, he moved to his game corridor directly. Passing by his arcade room, eyes locked onto the new door at the end of the corridor, he raced for the metal door with Grand Planes etched into it. Entering in, he passed out of his own domain and into the game.
IndentStanding on a thin metallic plank, Mattimeo was surrounded by an immense star field. Awed by the view, he walked slowly to the other end of the platform to the waiting woman in white. Floating a distance behind stood an imposing castle made of green stone. Turning his attention entirely to the woman, she smiled at him and began.
Indent"Welcome to the Grand Planes. Before you can begin you need to set up your avatar. First, what name will your avatar be known as?"
IndentNot pausing for a second, Mattimeo answered, "Magnus."
IndentUnperturbed by the swiftness of his answer, the woman moved on. "There are currently four raced unlocked for you to choose from. Would you like to begin as Human, Elf, Dwarf, or Beastman?"
IndentMattimeo thought for a bit longer this time. Beastman had just been unlocked in the last month and the players that switched said that while their physical abilities were much greater it had become nearly impossible to gain skill levels in magic. Since it was the same, if not as extensively, for Dwarfs, Mattimeo's preferences were between Human and Elf. With the elfish bonus focusing on dexterity rather than magic, he answers, "Human."
Indent"Where would you like to begin your journey?"
IndentExpecting to not be given the option of changing his appearance at the start from his reading, it still disappointed him a bit. He had wanted to make himself look older and have a long white beard to look more wizardly. But until he could find an in game appearance changing item, he was stuck with his own look.
Indent"A small town with a library, please." It had also been indicated in his research that being vague on this step could be important. It had not been fully corroborated, but the rumor circulating was that the more random an answer you gave, the more likely you could get higher grade skills quickly.
IndentWith a slight bow, the woman said, "Thank you for joining us freeman. Please have a Grand time." Having heard the official phrase in several different places before he knew he would hear it again. It annoyed him a bit but seemed to be a working marketing strategy. So he just ignored it as best he could and hoped he would keep hearing it over and over.
IndentThe lady took a few steps back from as the star field began to rotate and enclose him. Closer and closer it whorled and as it began to grow brighter he closed his eyes. It became so bright that even with his eyes closed he could see the veins on the back of his eyelids until it suddenly went dark.
IndentHoping he to finally begin, he started to crack an eye open. Just as the light cleared and he began to relax and explore he heard a horrifyingly terrible sound.
Indent"SSSSHHHHHRRRRIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!" Clasping his hands over his ears, he tried to figure out who was skinning a cat alive so he could beat him over the head. Looking around in dismay he wished that it had been a wished that it was as simple as a cat being tormented.
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