Stratus Online: Awakening Summary
Only read if you don't plan on reading book 1 or want to freshen up before reading chapters from the second book which will be uploaded here. for the best reading experience, please purchase the full professionally edited book on Amazon (link above).
Edwin Morris is a 19-year-old living on his own in Dallas. He, along with the rest of his friends have been playing Sakarn online, a premium VRMMO almost their entire lives. All while trying to take his game to the next level and earn a living following his passion, Edwin's job at Burger Planet is getting worse than ever, and he's finally pushed over the edge and quits.
The same day, a man named Kenneth Struhl approaches him and offers the opportunity to test a new game called Stratus Online with the potential for a great job after a year-long testing competition in Dallas consisting of professional gamers, streamers, and other influential people. Edwin and his friends John, Gaz, and Kirsten test the game, fall in love and sign up for the competition.
With no information going into the game, the team builds their characters and jump into the world in what seems like a remote location. Soon after, they discover a small village where a traveling goblin merchant mage named Clarence is having trouble with the locals. The group helps Clarence and befriends him. The group soon discovers something is wrong with the village and some sort of beast has been terrorizing the livestock and demanding blood offerings in exchange for peace. Content on taking the only quest that seems to be available in the area, the group soon discovers they were in way over their heads when the giant construct they find in the woods begins killing the NPCs in one hit. Clarence appears after suspecting something was off and helps Edwin and his friends fight and defeat the giant construct.
The construct was guarding what appeared to be some kind of ancient tower or crypt, and the group finds a set of magical, heavy armor that they're unable to identify. Kirsten, the mage of the group, is able to discern the name 'Ectos' from the armor, and Clarence reveals that it is the name of one of the seven gods of Stratus who hasn't been seen on the continent of Thrael in hundreds of years. Clarence is also able to determine that the construct they fought was a Titanspawn: a creation of dark, Titanic magic of the Titans which are the sworn enemies of the Gods.
After their play session for the day, the CEO of Stratus Labs tells all the players in Edwin's branch of the competition that Jason, one of the other competitors, defected to the Titan-aligned faction after killing all of his former teammates. After speaking with one of Jason's former teammates, Edwin becomes worries that Jason is after them and the new armor they found.
Clarence tasks Edwin and his friends to help him return the armor of Ectos to one of the God's shrines which is about 100 miles away. Monica, the developer assigned to Edwin's group has been dropping cryptic hints that something is wrong at Stratus Labs and with Jason. With information about Jason from Monica, Edwin becomes increasingly paranoid and wants to look for a way to keep Jason from tracking them in-game. Clarence suggests they visit Boom-Boom, a friend of his in the Westguard Township that can create anti-enchantments to block the tracking ability. When the group is in the town, Jason appears with two massive Titanspawns and decimates the city. Edwin and his friends narrowly escape the city in Clarence's wagon.
When logging out of the game, Monica informs them that there has been a security breach and that armed men are coming up the building to infiltrate Stratus Labs. All of the competitors and staff from Stratus Labs are moved to a safe room to wait it out. While in the safe room, Jason approaches and holds Edwin at knife-point where no one can see what he is doing. Edwin reveals that his group is on the way to the shrine of Ectos. Jason stabs Edwin and leaves him bleeding on the floor. When Edwin's friends manage to bring the CEO and armed guards into the smaller room isolated from everything else, there is no blood, and no stab wound from Jason's knife even though all of Edwin's friends saw what happened.
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Edwin confronts Monica about it, but she remains cryptic and doesn't give information. Having no choice but to continue and try to return the armor to Ectos, Edwin decides to wear the armor and practice with it because he knows Jason is coming for them. Clarence is under the impression that if Edwin wears the armor, he will die as it isn't meant for mortals.
Edwin learns some of the powers associated with the armor but falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he sees his friends are under attack by a party of bandits that were camping on a nearby hilltop out of sight. Edwin helps his friends defeat the bandits and their leader. Right when the fight is ending, Jason appears on a nearby hill with both of his massive Titanspawns.
Edwin is somehow pulled into a separate instance of the game where Jason reveals he, Edwin, and everyone else in the competition are AI clones of themselves, and once they know the truth, they can't leave the game. It explains how Jason was able to stab Edwin in what seemed to be the real-world and get away with it. Edwin tries to leave but finds he can't log out. As soon as he returns to the game world with his friends, game time is paused for him and he receives a letter from Stratus Labs about his situation. If he plays and beats the game in a year he can return to the real world and re-merge with his actual self. His friends don't know the truth, and he decides to get through the fight with Jason without telling them.
The fight with Jason is long and hard, and Edwin and all his friends almost die. Jason Kills Clarence before he is killed himself. Death for players like Jason isn't permanent, and Edwin knows he will be back seeking revenge. Taking Clarence and the armor of Ectos to the shrine, Ectos appears and thanks the group. They are rewarded for the core crystal the armor contained, and Edwin is given a token to learn a legendary class and gets to keep the armor, though it isn't as powerful as before. Before Ectos can leave, Kirsten stops him and demands he brings Clarence back to life.
Ectos explains that in order to do so, Kirsten would have to become Godsworn to him, completing a favor of his choosing when he calls on her. Failure to complete the favor within the allotted time will result in permanent death. Edwin tried to warn her that they are AI clones and that permanent death could actually be permanent now but is stopped by the Storyweaver AI, the entity pulling the strings. Kirsten accepts without knowing the truth and becomes Godsworn to Ectos in exchange for Clarence's life.
Ectos tasks Edwin and his friends with traveling to Brigstone to talk with the priests in the temples of the Gods of Stratus. Ectos wants Edwin and his friends to recover core crystals, the powerful sources of energy from the Otherworld Realms where the Gods and Titans live. The Gods and Titans have been at war for hundreds of years, but the people of Stratus still think the Gods are in the middle of their own civil war amongst one another. Ectos explains that the core crystals can help swing the war in the favor of the Gods and can help them prevent the Titans from breaching and destroying the Otherworld Realms and the planet of Stratus itself.
Soon after, Edwin's friends learn the horrible truth about their existence within Stratus Online and commit to beating the game to reclaim their lives. Monica sends Edwin a player message, and it seems as though she is also an AI clone like Edwin and the rest of their friends and not only in the real-world (or what they believed was real). Monica asks for their help since she only has seven more months to beat the game and gives a location where they can meet up. It's the same city Ectos was sending them to advance in their end-game objectives to aid the Gods of Stratus.
Edwin accepts his legendary class and becomes a Warpguard and book one ends with the group heading to Brigstone to meet with Monica and find the Temple of Ectos for more information on how and where to recover Core Crystals to aid the Gods. The true gravity of their situation hasn't quite hit home yet, but they're all set on beating the game and recovering their real lives for the time being.
Stratus Online: Godsworn
Chapters of book two, Stratus Online: Godsworn are coming to RRL soon and will be updated directly in this book so stay tuned!