Chapter 2 Farming Mars and Entering Tarsas

I had just woken up if what I did was sleep, which was another question to put away for later, I automatically checked my readings and sensors. All was well, and I was nearing the location of my home base. The supplies that were attached to my tank body were still secured and everything seemed to be happening according to plan. I noted that Plantman was no longer listening to the music I sent him. I opened up a channel to the orbital station and waited until someone could speak with me.

“Orbital communication desk 2 speaking how may we be of assistance to you Argyle 1?” It was a human voice but that did not mean it was a living person. Look at me I sounded the same when I spoke.

“Hi, Comm2 I have a couple of questions I am hoping you can answer.”

“Go ahead Argyle 1, I am all ears, but I may not have the answers you are looking for.”

“Not a problem I will just keep asking others then, the first question I have is what is wrong with Plantman, I radioed me and demanded that as soon as I log in to Tarsas I turn over all my gold to him. Is he a bully or mentally ill? I mean he came off as quite unbalanced.” There was silence for a moment before comm2 radioed me back and when she spoke I could hear the sadness in her tone of voice.

“Argyle 1 just so you know Plantman has been down there on the surface for over ten years. he does his job and does it will. At some point, he suffered a mental incident which has led to his refusing to leave Mars. He still logs into Tarsas and plays and the fact is he has done quite well for himself. Unfortunately, his tendency towards threatening new workers and players is just something we put up with. It is pretty darn hard to fire him as we are up here and he is down there. The hardware and software protocols do not allow us to do an involuntary memory dump and upload to the station on legal citizens. However, we have initiated a standard protocol that will give you a one time bonus of 100 gold when you log into Tarsas for having to put up with his radio communications. Now moving on what are your other questions?”

I thought for a moment and then asked, “Why do I need to have an 8 hour rest period, this sleep time?”

Comm 2 replied, “The sleep time was incorporated into all digital time frames as it was discovered that without it people would developmental and emotional issues, some of which were very severe. By incorporating it into your life it promotes mental well being. While playing Tarsas you can refuse the sleep cycle or initiate it when you prefer but there are penalties if you don’t get enough sleep. Anything else I can help you with Argyle 1?”

I responded with, “Yes I have one more question, why did Tempest bring me back to life, the work I am doing on Mars can easily be done by an AI or a drone. In my time nothing was free and I can tell that is still true today. What’s the score and please be honest with me?”

Once again there was silence and then in a quiet voice comm2 said, “I don’t know, that is way above my pay grade so I can’t tell you. I will say this, you are not the only one brought back but the others are all now permanent residents in Tarsas. Perhaps you could ask one of them. Comm 2 out.”

The sudden disconnection gave me time to think, there were others but they were all living a VR life in the game now. It just did not make sense to me and it worried me that someone was taking an interest in me and I did not know why.

My GPS soon beeped and I knew we had arrived at the site. I drove around in a 360-degree circle and mapped out the surroundings, I was in a small valley, shaped like a bowl with a back end that butted up against a cliff face on the small hill. The front of the valley was a passageway between several small hills. It was a peaceful site the temp in the valley was a balmy -5 celsius. The shelter from the wind helped.

I began the construction by using my robotic arm to place the building parcel on the ground. I activated the parcel and watched as it inflated and then sprayed the walls with a hardener. Within 30 minutes the structure was stable, I went along the outer edges and drilled in the pegs to keep the structure flat on the surface. Once that was done I entered the building and removed the energy shield module. It attached next to the entrance and immediately powered up. There was a flicker and suddenly the doorway was sealed from the outside.

It was the same technology that spaceships and orbitals platforms used only scaled down and running on a ten-year nuclear battery. On the opposite was went the heating unit and soon the interior of the structure was at 20 celsius. I removed the last box and activated it which caused a smaller structure to appear, It was like a cube with a power unit on one side and a feeder tray on the other. It was an industrial capable 4d printer capable of building almost anything. All I had to do was dump in some sand rocks and ore as well as more refined materials that would be literally drop shipped to me. I had several blueprints of the machines I needed to make so I could begin my seeding of plants.

I radioed in that I was ready to receive my first shipment and was told that it was incoming. One hour later it arrived about a kilometer up the valley. I left the warmth of the basecamp and gathered the supplies. Several hours later I had the machine making me a set of twenty self-tapping water drills and the cage for the plants. In the meanwhile I settled down to sleep as the machine was working, I was ahead of schedule and I planned to use my time to do some research when I awoke. My sleep period began and ended with no noticeable change except I now had my first set of 20 water drills.

Being instantly awake and alert had its advantages I thought as I began to research Tempest. I tracked the records back as far as I could but it all seemed up front. I could find nothing that even hinted at nefarious actions taking by the company, instead, the company seemed to be actually interested in helping people and doing good for the common man. It made cringe, no one was that good especially a corporation.

I resolved to keep searching but decided to start on my second batch of water wells. By working hard I found in an incredibly short time, my first week passed, I had actually enjoyed it aside from Plantman occasionally harassing me. But now it was time to enter Tarsas.

I received the message from Tempest allowing me to enter the game at my convenience. Finishing what I was doing I shut down all production on the 4d printer and parked my tank body. Hitting accept I faded from consciousness and then woke up in a small room. A small glowing sphere was waiting for me and as soon as I was able to function, which was pretty much instantly I was presented with several options.

Race the type of being I would be playing.

Starting Zone where I would begin my journey in Tarsas

Class several options were available depending on which race I would choose.

It was not a hard choice, I decided to be a human, each race had a racial and they could be helpful. The humans racial was plus 1 to any skill. Some of the other racials were night vision, underwater breathing, and various cool other things. The only problem with them is that as you leveled up there was a good chance that you could get a gear item or a skill that would do what the racial would do. And two of the same things would not stack.

My next choice was the starting zone and while this, in theory, did not influence the class choice, certain classes had far more access to trainers than other classes in the central starting zones. I did not want to be around a lot of people and that ruled out the big cities, and many of the smaller ones. I had three choices I could go to the far north, the far south which was very similar to the far north or to the equator which was a hot zone. More people had traveled to the north than the south and very few had traveled to the equator. I did not do well in the heat in real life and if this game was as realistic as I had read than I did not want to start in a hot zone.

H choose a small mountain village in the southern zone. The blimps would arrive once a week if a player wished to head to one of the larger cities. They were a few quests available and some handy jobs to make a few gold, along with an Inn. It seemed perfect to me and I choose the town of Morro to be my starting destination. I finally was faced with the class choice. This required some thought as I planned to do most of my questing by myself or with a pet if I could get one.

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I looked at the choice I had initially selected and reviewed then, the Warlock he was powerful but squishy and while the pets were cool if they went down then so did the lock. The Mage, useful for crowd control and capable of doing extreme amounts of DPS but once out of the magic fuel called mana he was useless. The Warrior, powerful and deadly, but an agro magnet without any self-healing abilities. If overwhelmed he would die quickly. Then there was the Rogue, fast deadly and able to stealth. But very squishy if hit and again no self-healing. The last two were the Shaman and the Paladin class. Both had access to healing spells, the Shaman was a lightly armored nature caster who used elementals. Finally the Paladin, he is a heavily armored general class that could heal, DPS and tank. It was a competent class but the other classes could do healing, DPS, and tank better. But the point that the Pally shone brighter than all other classes was his survivability while playing solo. Paladins were just damned hard to kill. Sure they did not have a high burst DPS, but they could sustain DPS for extended periods of time when other classes would have to stop for healing or to regain mana.

The downfall of the Paladin class was they seemed to be light dependent and usually had to align themselves with a light God to master the higher level spells. I had no wish to align myself with anyone but the benefits of the class outweighed any faults, and I would cross any bridges as I came to them. Choosing to accept the Paladin class concluded my stay in the small room and suddenly I was falling from the sky in a kind of cutscene. I watched as Gods rose up and fell down, as kingdoms grew great and then fell apart and then finally I saw the village fast approaching as I descended. I touched down in a grove just outside of the city gates and was instantly wearing grey mail of low quality. I had a dagger on my left hip and carried a two-handed mace on my back.

Before I could move I was asked to pick a name, I hated this part of every game I had ever played. Sorry, that name is taken. It seemed that no matter what name I picked someone else had already chosen it. Struggling to think of something unique yet game appropriate as this was going to be my life forever I called out Belen and was surprised when I saw that it was accepted. Suddenly I phased into full flesh and just stood there. I could smell the pine in the air from the trees surrounding the town. The weight of the armor felt good on my shoulders and back, my legs felt strong. I was alive and had a body, not a tank shell. It felt good. With a huge smile on my face, I left the grove and walked up to the gates of the town where two guardsmen were leaning against the wall.

One of the guardsmen waved his hand at me and then asked, “Who be you and what be you doing here at Morro?” I looked at both of them, they were in their thirties and impossible to tell if they were an NPC or a player, it was amazing.

“I am Belen, a level one Paladin just starting out on my journey and have decided that Morro will be my home while I begin to grow.” Holy crap did I just say that out loud. I watched as the guards exchanged looks and smiles and then I knew I would not be attempting to roleplay my character. “Look, guys, I just want to get to the bank and the Inn and then find my trainer, could you help me with that?”

The first guard smiled and nodded then help up a map. “We give this to all the visitors, all the important things are marked on it. As you travel the map will continue to fill in. A welcome gift from Morro to you. Now for the important stuff, do not steal. No public drunkenness. Show respect and it will be shown back. Good luck now and say hello to Brother Philoe the Paladin trainer.”

With that, the meeting was over and I walked into the town. What could I say about the town, none of the buildings were over two stories high. It reminded me of a Bavarian mountain town with the steep roofs and the clean streets. It was built on three small hills with the largest hill having a small castle. The map showed me that my trainer was located close to the cathedral and the Inn was closer to the middle valley. Two small creeks flowed through the town which had several footbridges and a couple of larger ones for wagons to travel on.

The Bank was on top of the smallest hill, it was a large structure that was built to withstand attack. I glanced up at the recessed door as I entered the building. The door was at least 5 centimeters thick made of hardened iron. There were several guards, wondering around they all looked like warriors. Level 50 NPC that were heavily armed and tough looking. I made my way past them and came to the first available teller.

Introducing myself I was informed that I had over 250 gold in my account and that I could access it from any bank. Taking 50 gold I thanked the teller and then made my way out to the Inn. I rented a room for four weeks for one gold. It came with breakfast and supper, for lunch I was on my own but was told that the street vendors were pretty good. I entered the room and opened the window then stretched out on the bed. I was tired and wanted a nap, I set the alarm for 2 hours and was asleep instantly.

I awoke to feel refreshed and stood up to stroll to the window. It was overlooking a private residence where an older man was attempting to remove a large rock from his yard. If the cussing was any indication of failure he was doing not having much luck. Smiling I turned around and headed downstairs, it was time to meet the Paladin trainer.

It took about 15 minutes to walk over to the small hall that was next to the cathedral. I knocked on the door and waited. After a few seconds I heard an “Enter and make sure the door closes behind you.” opening and walking into the hall I made sure that the door swung shut. I watched in amazement as an older man swung a two-handed heavy mace with one hand as his other hand cast lightning at a target across the room. The man continued to move the mace back in forth in several patterns as he continually cast forth lightning, then a harsh and blinding white light and then shadows while still moving across the floor. Finally, the man stopped, the three targets were obliterated and the man had not even worked up a sweat.

“What can I do for you, young fellow.” The old man asked with a twinkle in his eye. “I can see that you are just starting off on the path of a Paladin, what do you think. Would you like to master the arts of mana induced physical combat?”

I nodded and then mentioned the gate guard saying hello. The old man smiled and said, “He was one of my most promising students but left to become a town guard, he got himself a little girlfriend and decided the life of adventure was not for him. But you I can tell are a born adventurer, one of those that travel from the other realm I would suspect. The Gods have blessed you, you cant be killed I have heard. And you want to be a Paladin. Good, very Good, are you willing to swear to the light Gods to serve them and follow their will?”

I looked at the old man and thought he deserves the truth so taking a deep breath I said, “Not a chance, I prefer to be my own man.”

The old man looked at me with steel in his eyes and said, “Are you sure of that lad, you won't get another chance with me to change your mind.”

I stared at the old boy and thought of what I had seen and how I wanted that power to be a part of me. But I would not back down, I would not bow the knee to beings that I did not know, not even for the promise of power. Shaking my head I said, “Listen up old man, no disrespect given here but no. If you can't or won't train me then I will find someone how can.” We stared at each other for a minute and then the old man smiled and said, “Will spoken young one, I can't stand those who are weak or who waffle if you don’t want to follow one of the Gods that is no skin off my rear. Call me Philoe and what be your name?”

Blinking I said, “I am called Belen, and am a level one Paladin and what I saw you do was amazing I have never seen such a thing.”

Phileo nodded and said, I am not surprised each trainer has his or her own way of training the acolytes, some do not offer all the spells or abilities until they decide the student is ready. I have my own way of training. But first, do you agree to be my student?”

Nodding I said, “It will be my privilege sir, but I want you to know I will occasionally be summoned back to my own realm and will be gone for about a week. I will be here for ten weeks before I have to go back. If that works for you I would gladly be your student.” With those words, a golden glow encompassed both of us and I received a message stating that I was a student of Paladin trainer Philoe.

Philoe looked at me and grinned and said, “I will make it simple, to begin with, you will have two abilities available and two spells, you can only choose one each, if you liked what you saw me doing then I suggest you choose the ability One hand is better than two, this will allow you to use a dual wield weapon with one hand, as you might guess this will free your other hand to start using spells. There are two spells available, Candlelight a minor healing spell and the spell Job 36:32 and please don’t ask me why it is called that, I heard it referred to a passage about a God casting lightning at a target but who knows. You may or not be aware of the fact that as a pally you will also have buffs which are spells that you can place on people to help them. To start with you have one buff and it is only for yourself, it is called Forbearance and it is a healing spell that restores your health everytime you are in combat. I would suggest you follow my advice if you want to maximize your potential. See you tomorrow and here is your book.”

With that, he turned away from me and went back to his training. I stood and watched him for a few moments then left making sure to close the door behind me. Making my way back to the Inn I soon arrived and grabbing a small table in the corner I waited as the server brought me a large bowl of goat stew served with two small loaves of dark bread and fresh butter. I also received a small pitcher of ale which went down nicely with the stew. After finishing the meal I opened the book Philoe had given me. On the front cover, my name was written and the first page had the heading for buffs, spells, and abilities. I tapped the spells the old man had suggested and watched as the went from black to green in the book. I also noted I now had a HUD that displayed three icons one for the buff and two for the spells although the lightning spell was greyed out which made sense as I would have to cast it for it to light up.

It was still early but I decided to turn in, I suspected I would have a lot to do tomorrow and I wanted to be at my best.