Eilidh Abernathy rolled over and looked at 3:25 a.m. on her bedside clock. This was too early. She turned away and tried to fall back asleep. Her body shook, and her tired brain registered that she hadn’t woken naturally. She felt pressure on her arm. Her head rotated in the other direction, and she saw her brother’s face hovering over her.
“Wally,” he said in a whisper. “Something’s happened. You need to get up.”
Eilidh shook her head. “Thirty more minutes,” she groaned, her body speaking for her. However, her mind was waking up quickly. He had used her gaming nickname, so this must be important. She loved her Scottish Gaelic name but always had to correct Americans when they butchered the pronunciation. Eilidh was pronounced “Aylee.” When her brother, Brodie, wanted to tease her, he used one of the awful interpretations like “Elid” or “Eldhay.” But “Wally” combined her real name and the monicker she used in the Realm of Infamy, Sir Wallace Wilhelm. If he was using that name now, then the “something” that had happened wasn’t an issue at the hospital with their father or her school. Something important had happened in the realms, and she needed to get up.
Brodie gave her the time to figure this out, and eventually, she rolled back over, swung her legs off the side of the bed, and sat up. Their morning gaming session usually started at 4 a.m. They got a good three hours in before she had to get ready for school at eight. Then she came home, ate an early dinner, and they were plugged in for at least six more hours. Her body was at rest the whole time, but her mind was active, giving her the illusion of fatigue. Eilidh found she didn’t dream anymore. Her mind was so tired when her head hit the pillow each night that it shut off completely. She figured it was a good thing. With as much angst as the typical 14-year-old girl went through, a little peace and quiet was appreciated. If her mind had any unresolved frustration, it could take it out in the game.
She made a brief stop in the bathroom and then plodded into the kitchen of their tiny apartment to find a cup of heavily caffeinated tea waiting for her. Eilidh smiled. With as well as Brodie cared for her, she shouldn’t complain about a few early mornings. Though playing the game was stressful on her mind, at least her body got to rest. Brodie was awake physically and mentally for all their gaming sessions, and she never saw him crack.
She nursed the cup as she entered the study, not bothering to change out of her tank top and shorts. She knew some people had complex haptic suits or wore expensive medical devices to play the game. At 14, as long as she had an empty bladder, she was good to go. They rarely played longer than 12 hours and then only on the weekends.
Eilidh climbed into the chair and let her brother hook up the few pieces of monitoring equipment they used. “So, what is it?” she finally asked. “Did another crypt quest pop? Is the Blade of Fortune available yet? Or is there another zombie uprising we need to deal with?”
Brodie shook his head. “Jace called.”
Eilidh sat up straighter. “What does he need?”
“It’s not what he needs; it's what he’s offering.”
Eilidh frowned. “I told him we didn’t want any charity. We can do this ourselves.” It was stupid pride, and she knew it. The few thousand they were able to bring in each month was just enough to keep the lights on, the internet flowing, the freezer full of pizza, and their father somewhat sane in the hospital. Any more, and the government would start asking questions. However, their standard track was interrupted when Jace had killed Drescher. The arms dealer had been paying them 5,000 US dollars every other month for over half a year once she reached level 12. She let him kill her to get one million experience. It was a little better than prostitution, but not much. Selling your life was somehow better than selling your body, even if it was virtual. Now that door was closed, and they hadn’t found another buyer yet.
Eilidh was only at level 10, so they had time to find someone else, but Brodie was trying to convince her they should keep going this time. Getting to level 15+ would open up other quests and modules that might provide loot they could sell. Many players had made a living trading equipment and secrets, and the siblings definitely had the skill to do it. Plus, he hated watching her die every eight weeks. Drescher had searched for ways to make it entertaining, and even though it was virtual, it was real enough.
Brodie handed Eilidh a tablet with a list of non-player characters on it. “Jace just killed a few terrorists in their stronghold and took control of almost 10 NPCs. He’s going to release them in . . .” he glanced at his watch, “thirty minutes, and he’s giving us the heads up. As far as I can tell, there is no chatter online about this. If we want to go after one of these, we should have a significant head start.”
Eilidh nodded as she scrolled through the list of characters. It was bad timing for them, this early in the morning, but it was also good. It was nearing midnight in the States, the crack of dawn in Europe, and it was mid-day for most of Eastern Asia. It was also the middle of the week. Traffic in the game would be at its lowest. Eventually, someone would realize all these NPCs were available again, but it might take 30 minutes or even an hour. That was an eternity in the game.
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Eilidh also realized that she needed to make the decision. Brodie was a great operator. He kept her safe and was quick on the keyboard, searching the web and having all the information she needed at his fingertips, but she was the better player, and they both knew it. They hadn’t focused on getting NPCs in the past. They had a routine that brought her to level 12 safely and quickly. Quests that earned you NPCs were dangerous and often granted little experience.
Once they became available, a thousand people might simultaneously try to pass the module. And it didn’t matter if you were the best player; online walkthroughs allowed everyone to play like an expert. You still had to have the right character to pass the quest, and the dice rolls required a bit of luck, but the odds that you would win the race to the end of the module were slim, and it was far more likely you would waste 3-4 hours trying. When someone else passed a Single Instance Module you were in, you were kicked out and lost all the items, gold, and experience you had collected. So, it was truly a waste of time.
No, Sir Wallace Wilhelm was explicitly designed to handle certain types of quests. The paladin wasn’t well-rounded, and trying to compete in a random module for an NPC wouldn’t work. Still, Eilidh analyzed the list to see if any of these could be gotten if they had a jumpstart. Then she saw it.
“Tristan Hamley,” she said. “A spellsword.”
Brodie was sitting at the computer, typed the name in, and had an image of the character rotating on his screen within seconds. He could read the description but asked his sister anyway. “What is a spellsword again?”
Eilidh put down the tablet and finished her tea before responding. “It is a character that can only choose Intelligence, Strength, or Dexterity as their key abilities. They get the unique feat of Spell Strike, which allows them to cast spells through their weapons. They don’t need to worry about spell Difficulty. If they hit you, you’ve failed the saving throw. It allows lower-level players to land crippling spells on mages or priests who usually have high Magic Defense. I avoid fighting them at all costs.”
Brodie nodded, knowing that as a paladin, Wallace’s main boon was Magic Defense.
“Everyone else can cast a spell through a weapon, but the weapon's strength limits them as to how much mana they can channel, and they still need to worry about a saving throw. Spellswords aren’t limited. Also, they can use criticals in combat to increase the damage of the spell instead of the physical damage. So they can hit you with a dagger and do 100 points of fire damage.”
“Sounds amazing,” Brodie said. “He should be a great compliment to your skills.”
Eilidh shook her head. “No. Tristan is built all wrong. A good spellsword should be focused on Dexterity, using light, fast weapons and attacking from the shadows. That guarantees the best chance of hitting your opponent. You sacrifice damage, but you don’t need your weapon to do damage. Tristan has a higher Strength score than Dexterity. He uses a scimitar and shield. He isn’t terrible, but it isn’t a great build.”
Brodie looked confused. “Then why do you want him?”
Eilidh shook her head. “I don’t. I want his brother, Thursa Hamley.”
Brodie reached over to the discarded tablet and scrolled through it. “I don’t see him on here.” He returned to his computer and, after a short search, had the name up but very little information. “A druid shapeshifter who changes into a bear,” he read, but that was all the information he could find.
“Right,” Eilidh said. “In order to pass the quest, you need to kill Thursa. It isn't easy to do, even with Tristan’s help. Most people think you have a choice on which brother you can recruit, but no one has successfully gotten the druid yet. Every time the module becomes available, at least one person races through it the easy way to get Tristan, and anyone trying an alternative strategy is thwarted.”
Brodie smiled. “So, you play one module with Jace and think you can hack the game too?”
She smiled back. “I have inside information. In one of my talks with Sylvester, he shared something about this quest I don’t think anyone else knows.”
Brodie wrinkled his nose. “I hate that slime ball.”
“You’re going to hate this strategy even more,” she said.
After several minutes of explanation, Brodie sat back and whistled. “Wow, that is dark, sis. Even for you.”
She nodded. “They don’t call it the Realm of Infamy for nothing. Still, I think it is our best bet. But we are going to need some help. My Solid Spirit feat will be key, but I need someone to render the guardian Flat-Footed a few times to kill it.”
“A mage?” Brodie asked, already typing and looking through their list of contacts.
Eilidh shook her head. “No, the guardian will have too much Magic Defense for that. It must be someone who can render an opponent Flat-Footed through combat, like a rogue or a monk.”
“There is Vithium,” Brodie offered.
Eilidh cocked her head. Vithium was the new owner of the Gilded Swan. She knew almost nothing about his combat ability, but monks had so many good options in their builds that much of the class was shrouded in mystery, yet to be explored. It took a while before they were powerful, so most people stuck with the traditional classes. But if he could hold on to the Gilded Swan, even if it had only been a week, he must know what he was doing.
“Has he gotten back to us about Tami?” she asked.
Brodie shook his head. “You can ask him yourself if you want to invite him.”
After a moment, she nodded. “Sure, give him a call and tell him to meet us at Mizzeray as soon as he can.” Eilidh had only spoken to Vithium once before, after Jace had broken the Gilded Swan module. Portsmith was now a PVP environment, so before getting to level 10, she hadn’t been able to enter, but they had met elsewhere, and she had asked what happened to Tami, the mermaid who had worked with Esther.
According to the monk, all the former lieutenants had left, and he had an entirely new group of escorts. He would keep his ears open, and others were also asking about the original women, so he would let her know if he found anything. Now that Wallace was at level 10, she could investigate herself, but that could wait. According to reports, many of the buildings in Portsmith were Non-PVP, including the Gilded Swan, but the streets were still unsafe, and it was a risk she didn’t need to take.
After Brodie had sent a message to Vithium, he returned to his sister and finished hooking her up to the VR system. After a few moments, he gave her his traditional shoulder squeeze to let her know he had her back and flipped the switch to send her into another world.