"The Sentinel class combines a high HP pool and extreme defensive stats with moderate damage at the cost of mobility. Players leaning into the role of Tank should be weary of letting themselves be surrounded in a fight. Or do, that puts your enemies right where you want them..."— Annwyn Online Player's Guide.
Location unknown. Date unknown.
“Alright, Jack, you win! I’ll never drink again!”
Isaac moaned as the early morning sunlight blasted white-hot death through his windows, bypassing his closed eyelids and directly into his hungover eyeballs. He forced an arm over his face in a pitiful effort to shield himself from the sun’s fury.
If he were being honest, Isaac didn’t even remember drinking much last night. Certainly not enough to warrant the intense suffering he was going through right now. Must have been a real good night, Isaac thought with a smile that quickly turned into a grimace as his head throbbed anew.
It took another minute of silent suffering before the grogginess faded and the gears began to turn inside Isaac’s head. Questions floated into his mind like “why had I just heard a rattling sound when I moved my arms?” and “why is my blanket so hard and… chain-like?” or even “why does everything smell so forest-y?” but perhaps the most pressing question was “why the absolute hell does it feel like someone just finished wailing on my face?”
Deciding he wanted an answer to the first two questions first, Isaac mustered up the willpower to open his eyes.
The first thing Isaac noticed were the pair of midnight blue armored gauntlets on his hands. More striking, his entire body was covered in matching sheets of armor plating and chainmail that rattled and clinked softly as he moved his body to examine them. When he tilted his arms, he could just make out silver inscriptions written on the different plates in an alien language. Each piece of armor also held a barely perceptible crimson red iridescence.
I know this armor, Isaac thought. Why was he wearing the armor of his most played character in Annwyn Online, a level one hundred Sentinel-Dragon Warrior named Saiph?
A lucid dream. Definitely a lucid dream. Brought on by last night’s gaming session, no doubt. But that couldn’t be right. Now that Isaac was fully awake, he was certain that only seconds or, at most, minutes had passed by since he had pressed the login button.
And then he was here. Wherever here is…
Isaac stood and took in his surroundings. Behind him, the rock he had been using as a pillow had become the resting place of a fallen tree. Mosses and mushrooms had begun the process of reclaiming the once mighty oak back into the dirt it had sprouted from.
Something about that tree scratched at the back of Isaac’s mind. He knew that tree, but couldn’t quite figure out from where.
The scene itself was jarring enough. He was wearing his character’s armor, but it wasn’t wrapped behind the filter of Annwyn Online’s vibrant colors and thick, exaggerated outlines. No, everything looked… real.
Well, not everything, Isaac mused as he stared at a black and red mushroom that stood out against the earthy greens and browns surrounding it. While the coloring might have been interesting on its own, it was the faint glowing green light the toadstool emitted that had really caught Isaac’s attention. Though dim, the light was sharp and distinct, as though it were saying “over here, look at me!”
Isaac plucked the cap and played with it in his hands. Spongy, yet firm, like any real mushroom he had ever held before. Isaac fumbled with and dropped the mushroom when he tossed it to his left hand. That was when he noticed the partial paralysis he’d spent the last two years with was gone.
It was bittersweet seeing his fingers move in ways he’d never thought he’d see them move again and that only solidified in his mind that this was all some sort of dream.
Still, being able to move his fingers freely again was a welcome experience. Isaac flipped the mushroom between his fingers, then took in its earthy scent.
Big mistake.
Isaac recoiled and gagged. The mushroom had a pungent, acrid stench that burned the inside of his nose and made tears flow from his eyes. It was a horrible mixture like rotting meat and bleach. Isaac yanked the mushroom from his nose and nearly jumped back as a text box appeared in front of his eyes.
Item: Death Crowne
Type: Alchemy Ingredient
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: A mushroom native to the wilds of the Territories of Rielle. Harmful if eaten.
Herb Lore: The nature of this mushroom’s toxins allow it to act as a powerful sedative. The spores from this fungus can be extracted to create an extremely potent paralysis potion if given to a master alchemist.
The screen’s design was almost exactly like Annwyn Online’s interface; a semi-transparent box with a light blue tint, outlined in a silver border. It was smooth and wafer thin, almost like a pane of stained glass.
Isaac reached his hand out and pushed the screen away from him. He pulled back quickly and the screen rebounded to its original position. He smacked the corner of the screen and it spun in place and he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. He grabbed the screen, stopping it from its little dance and the text changed.
You can add this item to your Inventory by placing it in your Bag of Holding.
Isaac pulled the small pouch from its clip at the small of his back. When he opened it, he saw nothing but an empty blackness leading to a bottomless hole. He dropped the mushroom inside and no sooner had it crossed the threshold of the bag, it disappeared.
Hesitantly, Isaac reached into his bag of holding and felt around for the mushroom, but he didn’t feel anything. No matter what angle he turned his hand, there was nothing but emptiness. So how was he supposed to get things back out of the bag?
No sooner had the thought entered his mind, Isaac noticed three dots in the top right corner of his vision. Had those always been there? He wasn’t sure, but they followed his gaze as he looked around, always floating just along the edge of his field of view. He focused on them and they were replaced with the full heads up display he knew from Annwyn Online. He looked at his stat bars and smiled.
Class: Sentinel, level 100
Subclass: Dragon Warrior, level 100
Health Points: 8,233/37,500 (+38 per minute)
Mana Points: 3,198/9,167 (+13 per minute)
Stamina Points: 34,503/34,503
Experience Points: 0/125,000
This dream let him keep his insanely high level stats! He figured he did because he was wearing his armor, but in the types of books he’d read where the protagonist had gone world-hopping, they generally had to start at the beginning.
Weirdly enough, his three resource bars were slightly different than they had been in-game. The first quarter of each bar was slightly more vibrant than the last three-quarters; red for health, blue for mana, and green for stamina.
Curiosity on what that meant only held him for a moment before he went through the menus. The standard options were still there, organized in a wheel: Announcements, Settings, Inventory, Skills and Abilities, Social, Quest Log, and Help.
He took a quick peek at his friends list and saw that everyone showed offline. The dream versions of his friends apparently didn’t want to join him on this adventure.
Remembering the mushroom, Isaac mentally clicked on the Inventory tab. The mushroom sat in its own grid under the Alchemy Supplies tab next to a small red flower. When Isaac put his hand over the mushroom to grab at it, another prompt jumped to the front of his vision so hard, he stumbled backward and landed on his butt.
To remove an item from your Inventory, open your Bag of Holding and think of the item you wish to remove. You can also access your inventory any time by thinking of its contents.
The gamer in Isaac really hated the idea of being coddled by a tutorial, especially at his level. He was more of a “figure it out yourself, fail, and look up videos” kind of guy.
Still, he stood back up and did as the tutorial told him and willed the mushroom to appear in his bag. It welled up from the sea of black and hovered just below the bag’s opening. Isaac plucked it, then placed it back into his bag.
Isaac focused again, only this time, the bag became considerably heavier. It was nothing his over three hundred points in Strength couldn’t handle, but the sudden weight gain still surprised him.
A black leather-wrapped handle rose out of the bag and the bag’s opening stretched impossibly wide as Isaac pulled the weapon from it.
Mil’s Judgement; a hammer he had quested for years ago. It matched the black, blue, and gold of his armor and there was a soft blue aura around the weapon. The hairs stood on the back of Isaac’s neck as a tingling sensation passed through his body. He set the hammer on the ground and a small discharge of electricity flowed from the weapon and into the earth.
Isaac smiled a grin that didn’t quite reach both ears. If only he’d had this bag during all of the times he’d had to carry groceries from his car. No longer would he have to try and balance over two thousand bags on each arm to avoid a second trip.
Something else had caught Isaac’s eye while he had been thumbing through his inventory screens and he reopened the menu.
Item: Token of the Vanguard, Saiph
Type: Event Item
Charges: 1/1 remaining
Rarity: Soul Forged
Description: Greetings, Saiph! This item was forged from a piece of your soul as a thank you for being one of the Vanguard. Upon breaking this token, you will receive 100 skill points to distribute and each new class level you attain will award you one extra skill point.
Note: This item is Soulbound (Perfect) to you and cannot be given away, lost, or stolen.
Isaac pulled the small token from his bag. It felt like it was made of quartz or some other fine-cut gemstone polished into a disc. There were grooves etched into it that made patterns that Isaac was fairly certain were runes very similar to the inscriptions on his armor. Was this item the gift the patch notes had mentioned?
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about a piece of his own soul being used to make it, but without seeing anything else better to do with the disc, Isaac crushed the token in his gauntleted hands. It crumbled to dust and a bright purple light momentarily blinded him before disappearing.
And that was it.
Isaac didn’t feel any different. He opened his menus and flipped to his stats page.
Class: Sentinel, level 100
Subclass: Dragon Warrior, level 100
Strength: 336 (280)
Constitution: 300 (250)
Endurance: 225 (160)
Willpower: 100
Dexterity: 80
Agility: 90
Stat Points remaining: 100
The token had worked! Isaac laughed deviously as he thought of how he wanted to spend the extra stat points. He didn’t know where to begin.
Actually, that was a lie. The moment Sonnet had announced the level cap increase, Isaac had been theorycrafting his build to determine where the ten points he’d eventually get at level 101 would go. Now that he had an extra 100 points to play with, Isaac knew exactly where he’d dump them.
Strength: 375 (300)
Constitution: 350 (300)
Dexterity: 100
Agility: 100
Every one hundred points in a stat granted an additional 10% boost to that stat’s effects. Dexterity and Agility were the only ones Isaac hadn’t gotten to one hundred and he was close enough to the third bonuses for Strength and Constitution that they were easy choices.
Isaac decided he would start leveling Willpower over his next couple of levels. The extra mana and spell strength might make the difference between a kill or a death in a raid.
Isaac acknowledged the warning that his stat point distribution was permanent and went back to playing around in the menus. He went through the settings tab and went through the display options. All of the standard settings were there: field of view, brightness and contrast, and even a basic color blind filter selection. But there was one toggle that stood out to him.
POV: First Person
Curiosity getting the better of him, Isaac toggled it.
POV: Third Person
A circle appeared in Isaac’s vision that proceeded to spin for several seconds before flashing back out of existence. Suddenly he felt as though he’d been pricked by millions of needles all over his body. Blackness crept at the edges of Isaac’s vision that grew and swallowed everything he could see until only a pinprick of light was left. And even that disappeared.
Isaac let out a panicked yelp as his vision returned, but he was now looking at the back of his head from several feet above and behind himself.
He watched himself swat at the screens until he managed to toggle the POV back to first person. His vision returned to normal, but that didn’t stop him from vomiting.
The world continued to spin for a few more seconds and the headache at the back of Isaac’s head flared and he gritted his teeth in pain.
That was definitely enough of this dream. He needed to wake himself up.
Isaac looked at his gauntlet-covered fist. You always woke up just before you felt the pain, right?
“I really, really hope this doesn’t hurt,” Isaac mumbled as he readied himself.
With as much strength as he could muster, he punched himself in the face.
***
Isaac wasn’t sure how long he lay on the ground dazed, but the metallic taste of blood mixed with vomit and the slightly loose tooth told him he hadn’t woken himself up.
Why hadn’t punching himself worked? Everything Isaac knew about lucid dreaming said shocking himself awake was all it took.
A laugh from behind him made Isaac jump.
“How’d that knuckle sandwich taste?” The voice asked with a snicker. “Can I get a swing in?”
Isaac spun around and saw a man of about four feet tall with pewter grey skin and a head of moppy white hair. He wore dark purple robes that parted at the chest in a deep V that revealed violet armor like sheets of fish scales laid atop each other. Around his waist was a dark brown belt with an old, leather-bound book strapped to it as well as various vials and bags. A black and violet cloak flowed and danced in a nonexistent wind as though it had a mind of its own. A text box flashed above the man’s head, nearly at Isaac’s eye level.
Name: [N]ix
Race: Runic Elf, Male
Class: Summoner, Level 100
Subclass: Blacksmith, level 92
Health Points: 7,876/13,500
Mana Points: 9,231/52,500
Stamina Points: 22,002/22,002
Even if Isaac didn’t recognize Sam’s character, he would have known the arrogant smile his friend was giving him anywhere.
“Sam! You shrunk! You used to be as big as me. What happened?”
“Bigger, actually. And don’t worry,” Nix tugged lightly at his belt buckle. “I still am.”
The two friends held each other’s gaze for a brief moment before breaking into laughter. There was no way Isaac was dreaming, his mind just couldn’t recreate Sam’s unique brand of sarcastic arrogance.
Going serious for a moment, Isaac asked Nix, “What the hell did we get ourselves into?”
“I have no idea. I hit the login button and the next thing I know, we’re here. You were playing make believe as a log on that rock when I woke up so I went off to explore a bit. I came back and saw you going to town on your face.” Nix took his book from his belt and thumbed through a few pages. A second later, a life wisp shimmered into existence and took turns sending healing pulses into the both of them. “Did you know this is exactly where we fought Reynardine last week?”
The wiggly tooth felt tight and secure, but the ache at the back of Isaac’s head still throbbed in an attempt to demand his attention. Isaac ignored it. “Well, not exactly. The graphics are way better.”
“VR tech isn’t even a tenth this good.” Nix held his book up. “Real fucking leather. There’s nothing out there that can simulate this detail. I think somehow we’re actually in Annwyn Online”
“Or we’re having a shared psychosis,” Isaac said with a dry laugh.
“Or that…”
“Say, is your friends list working?” Isaac thumbed through his for a second, confirming Nix still showed as offline.
“Nope. Contact Us section doesn’t work either. Or the logout button.” Nix made a gesture like he was tilting his screen towards Isaac.
Isaac brushed his friend’s hand away; they couldn’t see each other’s menus. “Well, the fact that we’re talking to each other right now just means that part of the game didn’t transfer over. Ashley and Andrew should have logged in at the same time as us. They could be here, too.”
Nix nodded in agreement. “But if everyone woke up where they last played, then we’re spread all over the continent.”
“I think we should go to Araedi.” Isaac thought back to their conversation just before logging in. Even if Nix hadn’t been here with him, Isaac still might have gone to the Ruins of Araedi. It was the starting city for most players and if they weren’t alone, that’s likely where everyone would be going to get answers.
Isaac opened his bag of holding and mentally focused on his Caer Fragment; a dark violet crystal about the size and shape of a tennis ball. The stone gave off a soft, reddish glow that pulsed in the rhythm of a slow heartbeat.
Isaac held the small crystal for a moment, unsure of how it worked now. In the game, equipping the item automatically pulled up a menu with a list of the places he could travel to.
After a pause, he raised it to the sky and shouted, “Return to Caer Siddi?” The command came out more as a question than a statement, which might have been why nothing happened.
With more certainty, Isaac shouted, “Return to Caer Siddi!”
Again, nothing.
Isaac was about to give up when he noticed the quick cast bar at the bottom of his vision. The ten-by-two grid of his most commonly used spells and abilities had been replaced by the commands for his Caer Fragment. All of them were greyed out and focusing on them brought up a prompt.
Warning: Your Caer Fragment is not attuned to your soul. Until you attune it, you will be unable to use its functions. You must travel through a Guardian City’s Caer Fragment or die in order to attune your Caer Fragment to your soul.
Know this: If you die before attuning yourself to a city’s Caer Fragment, a city will be randomly chosen for you to respawn in.
Isaac turned to Nix. “Hey Sam, is your Caer Fragment saying it's not attuned to you, either?”
Nix’s forehead wrinkled as he studied his own Caer Fragment before answering in the affirmative. “By the wording on the message, hopefully it means respawning still works.”
“I’m not sure I want to test that hypothesis.” Isaac sighed.
It was going to be a pain in the ass to reattune himself to every Guardian City and Guild Castle he had ever visited. It had taken him real life years to get from the east to west coast. New players had it easy as old players on the forums were more than willing to take newbies on “tuna runs” across the continent. How long would it take before more industrious players got around to doing that now? There would likely be good money in it in the short term.
But for now, they wouldn’t be fast traveling to Araedi. Isaac reached into his bag of holding and took out his map. It offered a view of the entirety of Navorinelle. The entire map had a dull color scheme to it, indicating the information it held was out of date. When he zoomed in, the area directly surrounding both he and Nix was more vibrant. Curiously enough, the map still listed the major cities Isaac had visited as well as the many points of interest he had added to it in his ten years of gameplay.
Parts of the map going dull were common when the game received updates, it meant the places he had explored prior might have changed. The fact that the entire map had gone dull left Isaac wondering how just much had changed. Were they even still in the same time period the game had taken place in? Or were they in the last protected green space in a futuristic world surrounded by megacities and technology?
Isaac pushed those questions aside. The forest looked exactly as it had down to the placement of the fallen trees. He had to be within a few months of the game’s timeline at most.
Zooming slightly out of his position on the map, it showed he was still within the Territories of Rielle, the major human colony that made up the southern portion of Navorinelle. That put them near Orleana, the third largest Guardian city in Annwyn Online.
“Orleana’s the closest city,” Isaac said, then flashed Nix a conspiratorial smile. “Looks like we’ll get to try our spells and abilities on the local monsters along the way.”
“Good thing goblins in this area cap out at level thirty. I want to see what my summons can do.” Nix took out a green whistle from his bag. “But you’re also out of your mind if you think I’m walking all the way to Orleana. You got any mounts?”
Isaac wrinkled his nose. He actually did have an expansive list of summonable mounts acquired from a decade of playtime, but they were locked away in his guild’s vault. Several thousands of miles away.
Death used to mean a chance at losing not just a bit of experience, but any items and money one kept on themselves. It wasn’t hard to get the items back, just very tedious. When Isaac had “retired” from the game, he stopped carrying anything of value for that reason.
He did have his crystal dragon summon, a spell from his Dragon Warrior subclass which he had used to get from Orleana to Reynardine’s den, but it had still taken them two in-game days of travel. And that had been on a two hour day-night cycle. They didn’t exactly have the time to wait out the spell’s long cooldown.
“No, I don’t have any. Without knowing just how much has changed, I’d rather save my crystal dragon summon if we need extra firepower or to make a quick escape.”
A broad smile formed on Nix’s face. “It’s a good thing your friend’s a Summoner, huh?”
Nix opened his book of summons and spoke several words of power. The green focusing crystal on his staff began to glow white as mana surged into it. After another second, a ball of white light fired from the staff into the air and dissipated with a clap of thunder.
The two men looked at each other in silence while they waited for something to happen. Isaac gave it five seconds before he broke into laughter.
“Nice spell! I’m sure we could use it to light our…” Isaac’s words trailed off and his laughter ceased as air filled with the thundering booms of heavy footsteps approaching them.
A massive stallion, far larger than any horse Isaac had ever seen on earth, galloped through the trees and stopped in front of Nix. It had a steel grey coat and snow white mane and tail. The horse stood tall in a way that commanded respect. Reading the name plate above its head, Isaac knew why.
Liath Macha: The King of Horses
Nix’s smarmy smirk would have burned through Isaac if his armor didn’t have enchantments that gave him a massive resistance to all types of elemental damage. That smirk turned into a massive, shit-eating grin as he held the reins out for Isaac to take.
Without giving his friend the satisfaction of a response, Isaac took the reins and heaved himself onto the horse’s back. The horse shifted once or twice, but barely even seemed to notice the extra six or seven hundred pounds on its back.
Isaac had gone horseback riding a handful of times when he was younger, but the ease at which he intuitively knew how to command the beast with his own body movement was completely new. That likely had something to do with Isaac having maxed out the riding skills on Saiph years ago.
Thinking about that left Isaac wondering. He had never physically gone on countless raids, slain innumerable monsters, or ridden varieties of mounts over the course of a decade. Saiph had done all that, yet Isaac’s mind now seemed to house a new area where the combat and martial skills Saiph had learned took up residence, waiting patiently for him to use them. He wasn’t simply Isaac anymore, he realized, he was just as much Saiph.
The piercing shriek of Nix’s whistle pulled Isaac out of his musings. The shrill call reverberated through the forest and a long, slender reptile ran from the opposite direction Liath had come. Nix’s mount, a wind drake named Ridley, bent down and Nix hoisted himself onto its saddle.
“We only have two hours with your horse. Let’s make the most of it.”
Isaac nodded. Just before they set off, a thought crept into his head. Something Nix had said when Isaac had tried waking himself up with his fist.
“Say, did your face and head hurt like hell when you woke up, too?”
“I, uh, no…” Nix stammered, suddenly finding Ridley’s reins very interesting. “You were out for several minutes when we got here. I might have tried to wake you up with a smack or several to the face.”