Valerie leaned back in her chair, nearly toppling backwards as the front legs of the chair began to rise, but saved herself just in time by leaning forward to counteract the imbalance. This rapid movement, however, nearly got her to vomit out the delicious contents of her stomach, wasting the most decadent 30 minutes of her life to nothing but a river of bile. The more time she spent awake was a step closer to spewing, so she began to make her way back to her room.
Though she felt bloated, she sure felt like a million bucks.
Thankfully, she waddled back to her private room safe and sound, immediately going to sleep in the FullDive Pod with no issue.
AVALON INDUSTRIES
We hope you enjoy your Dreamtime Session!
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Known bio-signature detected.
Assessing status: Healthy, Sated, Hydrated.
Synchronisation: 100%.
Access granted.
Welcome back, Citizen Valerie Martinez.
Would you like to continue from where you left off in—
—Yes, please, I wanna see what happens next before the trip’s over.
Excellent, Citizen Valerie Martinez.
Loading 'The Avalon Project: Ascension Bound'
We hope you have an amazing experience!
Dreamtime Session beginning!
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You have respawned in The White Lands!
Good luck, Traveler!
Valerie found herself in the middle of an ocean of uninterrupted rolling hills of pale snow in the midst of a powerful storm. Harsh, frigid winds threatened to push her over, only failing to do so because she was already chest-deep in a pocket of snow. Grey clouds blotted out the sky, preventing the presence of the sun, but even so, she doubted it would ever come close to warming her up with just how freezing the temperature was.
Balls of dense, blue ice plummeted to the earth with blinding speed, leaving deep holes within the blanket of snow before being refilled from the snowstorm above. Interestingly, the snow wasn’t endless, only refilling itself up to Valerie’s chest before refusing to accumulate further.
Interspersed between the vast swathes of pure snow were tiny firefly-like balls of light, flittering and weaving deftly between the raging snow and the deadly orbs of ice.
All around her were an innumerable number of wisp-like motes of light, all of varying shades of blue, swirling by, turning this way and that way, some of them coalescing into larger, but sluggish bundles of blue before separating and returning to their lonesome swirling motions.
Something about the wisps told Valerie to stay as far as she could. Unfortunately, before she could move away, a lone wisp flew straight for her, being absorbed by her cheek and dissipating, leaving behind fractals of ice on her skin. Her cheek immediately turned red, becoming cold to the touch and leaving her with the sensation of pins and needles on her face.
You take 6 Ice Damage!
Status Effect Applied: Slowed {Glacial Spirit}
Slow Movement Speed by 50% for 10 seconds.
Status Effect Applied: Mild Hypothermia
Seek warmth as soon as possible.
New Monstrum Codex Entry!
Glacial Spirit has now been unlocked in the Codex!
“Well, that’s just great,” Valerie remarked sarcastically, all the while her whole being shook rapidly from the sudden drop in her body’s core temperature. Her teeth chattered rapidly as the warmth from her body escaped her, the sub-zero temperature and the frigid winds sapping it away.
Status Effect Mild Hypothermia increased in severity, reaching the next stage!
Status Effect Applied: Moderate Hypothermia
Seek warmth immediately.
A wave of disorientation washed over Valerie the moment she received the notice box warning her of the moderate hypothermic conditions she was in. The landscape, which was vivid, distinct, and detailed just ten seconds ago, became a blurry mess of off-whites and sickly greys. Parts of her body failed to respond as she tried to walk herself through the bank of snow, her weight and the slowed status effect only worsening her situation as the snow began to sink with the movements, further trapping her as snow descended onto her back.
Trapped in a body that now refused to comply with her wishes, the reality of her soon-to-be-demise hit her smack dab in the face.
Valerie, in a state of virtual, yet encroaching, delirium and having completely lost control of her body, continued to try to push through the snow to reach one of the floating firefly-like things she saw earlier which she regarded as her only lifeline but failed to hear the oncoming Glacial Spirit that approached behind her in twirling spiral motions before settling to fly at neck-breaking pace directly to the back of her head. Valerie, clearly not even comprehending that anything was happening behind her, received a stinging sensation that spread outwards from the back of her head before numbing itself completely, her head thrown forward violently from the impact. Crystal-like fractals of ice formed on her frosted black hair, the warmth from her body ever-escaping, unwilling to remain and leave her to even the briefest moment of suffering.
You take 14 Ice Damage {Critical Hit} + 6 Blunt Damage {Critical Hit}! [20 Total Damage]
Status Effect Moderate Hypothermia increased in severity, reaching the final stage!
Status Effect Applied: Severe Hypothermia
“You were right, old hoss; you were right.” – Excerpt from ‘To Build A Fire’, written by Jack London, 1908.
You have died from [Severe Hypothermia]!
Current Spawn Point Set: The White Lands [Wilderness], LVL 200 Area.
(1/3 Designated Spawn Points Remain)
Would you like to respawn?
RESPAWN/EXIT
Valerie Martinez, in the span of no more than roughly thirty seconds since respawning into the game proper, had lost her body’s ability to move around, her mind’s capacity to think coherently, and her short-lasted interest in the game.
This is a joke! She yelled ethereally into the void of blue space she was afloat in, her corporeal hands reaching to yank at her hair in frustration but instead phasing through her head. Ink splotches of white dotted the space she was in, similar enough to stars to warrant such a comparison but not close enough to be an exact one-to-one. Send me to that Vaelyn-place-tutorial-thingy!
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Sorry!
Spawn Points Vaelynwood [Village] & Vaelynwood [Wilderness] have not been designated!
Would you like to respawn in The White Lands [Wilderness], LVL 200 Area?
RESPAWN/EXIT
Goddamn it. Fine, yes, I’ll frickin’ respawn…
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Reggie awoke to where he was standing prior to exiting out of Ascension Bound to warn Aimee and Paulo of what Val was up to—standing in the middle of a stone road that descended into the deeper regions beneath the Kingdom of the Dwarves. His pickaxe rested on his shoulders, with his sheathed Adamantium Greatsword swinging by his side, the two items outside instead of inside his inventory.
He understood why people carried everything in their inventories; less baggage physically slowing them down; Player-Killers, or PKers for short, having no knowledge of what weapon their targets are capable of, narrowing their inclination to attack in the first place. All are practical and well and good, but for someone as strong and overpowered as Reggie, it wasn’t all that important.
But all that pondering didn’t matter right now. What mattered now was figuring out what the hell just happened.
Reggie, desperate to return to the real world, went to look at his Menu.
MENU
Avatar Info: Nethulas Armian, ‘The Lionness' Righthand’, LVL 362
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Characteristics
Abilities
Inventory
Friends List
Systems
Exit
Focusing on the Exit option, he was met with a terrifying implication.
Sorry!
His eyes met blue. A single word shone in white, encapsulating the amount of fucked the whole world was.
The arm that held his pickaxe dropped to his side, the pickaxe clanging on the stone below. “Oh fuck,” he began, “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, holy fuck.” He paced forwards and backwards on the narrow, stone path, his boots clanging and creating an echo with every step. It sounded more hollow than he remembered. Much louder too. “Holy fucking shit, they actually fucking did it. The forums were all fucking right.” Hyperventilating, Reggie quickly turned back to his menu to access the Messages that were located in the Systems option, hoping to ask his Guild Leader what to do.
Blue appeared once more, albeit with more words instead of just one.
Sorry!
The Direct Messaging System, Settings, and Pain Sensitivity Module are currently on maintenance.
All Direct Messages have been archived, but are currently inaccessible and no further Direct Messages can be made at this time.
All settings within Settings have been reset to their default, but are currently inaccessible and cannot be changed at this time.
The Pain Sensitivity Module has been reset to its default of 100%, but is currently inaccessible and cannot be changed at this time.
Maintenance ends in 00 Days, 00 Hours
Sorry for the inconvenience!
“And now I can’t even message anybody?!” Blinking rapidly in an attempt to wake himself up—but failing miserably—he then ventured back through the tunnels, making a break for it to get back to his Guildhouse at the centre of the Dwarven Kingdom.
What he saw once he made it outside could only be described as pandemonium.
High-levelled players of all races and Classes ran to get out of the city. Some flew over everything, dodging the streams of lava that came from above and ignoring the sprawling underground kingdom to make a beeline for the cave entrance that led directly outside of the volcano.
Some players were in the midst of PKing NPCs and other players alike, most likely hoping to get some loot from those weaker than them now that all hell broke loose.
If your PK targets could no longer force-quit out of the game from sustaining an injury that they made to themselves at 100% pain sensitivity, then what was stopping you from finally getting your grubby hands on their loot?
Dwarven Guard NPCs and some players all tried their best to defend the Dwarven Kingdom’s citizens, rallying together in their standard formations, but with their number so few from all the Guards that were already killed off by the PKers, they could barely make a dent in the PKers' number. Although to counteract their inefficacy at killing off the PKers, they did make for useful deterrents as they slowly wore away at the PKers' health and forced them to retreat which saved countless NPC lives.
Just as things seemed dire, Reggie heard the most beautiful thing.
"FUCKING DIE, YOU MISERABLE WORMS!"
An angel clad in pristine yellow and red armour, with an emblazoned visage of a lion on its front, that weighed more than 100 kilograms per section of armour descended from the sky, the stonework beneath where she landed cracking and fragmenting. As she landed, she one-shotted a measly Thief-classed male goblin—who was harassing a lone elderly dwarf stuck in the crossfire—with an icicle that pierced through his skull, his body keeling over unceremoniously.
An outpouring of blood leaked out from where the icicle attack pierced his head, the blood taking a darker tinge to it from the ash it absorbed before seeping into the porous dwarven roads, falling down into the lake reservoir of lava that the Kingdom was built over. The dead thief's body then twinkled into starlight, disappearing into nothingness as if a grisly event had not even occurred there.
The angel, who was also Reggie's Guild Leader and significant other, Liana, and whose avatar was named 'Faeryn', quickly invited him to a party that he accepted instantaneously.
"What. Just. Happened, Reggie?" Liana asked, her amber eyes staring into his. He could only open his mouth and close it, himself lost for words. "I was asleep and practising for my GRSTs, and then BAM! Woke back up in here.” A stray arrow whizzed by them a few metres away, her focus following its trajectory for a moment before returning to face him. “Did the same thing happen to you?"
"Ye-yeah, same thing," Reggie said, still struggling to come to terms with everything. He suddenly remembered why he had wanted to contact her in the first place, grabbing her hands in his. "Can you message Wenndolyn? I can't contact anybody, but I'm not sure if it only affects me."
"I've already tried! None of my damn System stuff worked! Same with my Exit button, stupid fucking maintenance!” She scowled, her brows furrowing as a red aura began to emanate from her. “Oh, Avalon is going to hear from my mother if anything happens to our Wenny."
Reggie's mind nearly blanked. Did she not understand that Avalon was keeping them in here forever? Maybe she’s just coping, Reggie thought. No matter the reason, it was 100% not the time to confront her about it. They needed to find Wenndolyn, fast.
“Quick,” he led Liana by the hand, running past a troop of roughly fifty guards trying to calm down a stampede of NPC civilians and a few Merchant players with their wagons and carts holding children instead of merchandise, all of them trying to barge their way into the Dwarven Matriarch’s castle, and headed towards their Guildhouse’s storage facilities. “We gotta find Wenndolyn.”
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Aimee scrambled through the orphanage halls, grabbing as many of the younger children as she could in her tiny arms. A sudden burst of strength that came from nowhere allowed her to hold four infants in her arms, despite her tiny figure only being able to carry one usually. The other orphanage caregivers did the same, hurrying the older ones out of their rooms while carrying the younger children in their arms as well. Walking past a window as she descended down the stairs, Aimee could see gouts of blindingly white pillars of flame shooting high into the sky repeatedly, whistling through the air like flares.
The town alarm.
The poor babies screamed, cried, and some even pissed in her arms. But Aimee couldn’t care less. She needed to get them all the fuck out of here, right the fuck this instant.
“FUCKING HURRY UP AND PUT THE KIDS TO SLEEP, PAULO!” she screamed as she finally made it to the bottom floor as she saw him, his ear to the wall, and banging against it with his hand.
The fucking junkie was lagging behind, looking for a hidden stash he must’ve stored inside the walls.
Fucking great.
Wenndolyn shadow-stepped into view, grabbing Paulo by the ear and throwing him in the direction of where a few of the younger babies were bawling their eyes out, the Hallucinogenist stumbling forward and landing hard on the wooden floorboards. “Do what you’ve been asked, Paulo,” Wenndolyn commanded. “Hush the children.”
Paulo turned back from where he was kneeling, his usual brown eyes now pure black, and picked himself back up, running back to the wall. Wenndolyn reached for him but failed to make any purchase as he ducked away from her reach. Before Wenndolyn could shadow-step once more, Paulo reached back and punched through the wall he was searching for earlier, his Hallucinogenic-Illusion magic flaring through his arms. Dark, viscous, green fluid chugged through his arcana-veins, empowering the magic he was casting.
A sudden eruption of magic coalesced outside of the orphanage. A barrier of some sort appeared just outside of the windows, shimmering in twinkling light.
No… Aimee corrected herself, her Sense Magic sensing something else entirely. Not a barrier. It’s a portal. Holy shit, when the fuck was that installed?
Wenndolyn blinked, realising this as well as she hurriedly turned to grab the bawling kids in her arms and shadow-stepped to the front door, blocking off the exit they were all planning on using.
Several of the other NPC caretakers yelled at her to get away, not sensing the portal frame that was soon going to save their asses.
And after a moment of yelling had passed, they were shunted through space and time, teleporting to wherever the portal frame led to.
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You have respawned in The White Lands!
Good luck, Traveler!
Valerie returned for round two, this time immediately pushing forward and making her way to the nearest firefly-thingy before the hypothermia began to set in or before any of the Glacial Spirits could get a piece. Luckily, the nearest firefly-thingy was only a metre away from her. Jumping forward once she thought she was near enough, Valerie cupped the firefly in her hands before landing face-first onto the snow and sinking down a few centimetres.
Inspect!
Identified: Sol’s Ember
Description: “Do not let yourself be taken by the embrace of Luna, my children. Remember, always, that I am just above these grey clouds, waiting for you.” – An excerpt from a folktale from the Ni’wuatu, The White Land’s native people, about Sol’s Everlasting Embers.
A unique firefly that can be found by any who braves the Wasteland of White.
Sol’s Embers can nullify the Status Effects [Mild Hypothermia], [Moderate Hypothermia], [Severe Hypothermia] upon consumption.
Sol’s Embers will dissipate upon leaving The White Lands’ region, or after an hour has passed since catching one.
Thankfully, it did seem like the fireflies were what was going to keep her alive here.
“One problem down,” Valerie stored the firefly in her inventory, the creature twinkling into blue light before vanishing from her cupped hands. She lifted herself to stand in the slowly refilling snow bank, suddenly hearing two Glacial Spirits weaving in and out between one another behind her. Turning around, the entities before her simply combined into one larger entity, their wisp-like trails turning into a flurry of snowflakes. “One more to go. Identify!” she yelled as she held her hands out in what could be interpreted as a defensive formation.
New Monstrum Codex Entry!
Greater Glacial Spirit has now been unlocked in the Codex!
Identified: Greater Glacial Spirit, LVL 1
Description: Two Glacial Spirits fused into one, this Greater Glacial Spirit packs a punch!
Glacial Spirits are the souls of those that had been lost to the unfeeling cold, eternally and unwillingly condemned to sapping the warmth from whatever passes by them.
Be careful of their manoeuvring! Though Glacial Spirits are naturally low-levelled entities, they are still quite agile and WILL outnumber you.
The cores they drop can be used for a variety of purposes, but they are most commonly used for Frost-related Enchantments.