The forced loss of consciousness from the machine induced coma was a surprisingly gentle experience, like a sudden surge of exhaustion coming into being. The first few times this happened admittedly terrified me, though I would be loath to admit it to anyone. The thought of my computer glitching or my headset breaking while in a consciousness transfer was one of my worst nightmares.
Even with safeguards installed, it still terrified me.
Like waking from a light nap I was suddenly aware. Aware of the gently clicking heels of what looked to be an elf in a skintight leather suit, the massive greatsword sheathed across her back making her tall stature more intimidating. Before I commented on her odd appearance I took a quick look around. The transfer seemed to have moved me to a small squat room, barely ten feet in length and with nothing but a small in front of me. It took me a moment to realize I was sitting down. So was the elf.
“Good day, Mr. Caldwell. How are you feeling? Did the transfer run smooth?” It took me a second to get over the massive surge of irritation that came from the elf speaking. You’re playing an Elf in a state of the art virtual reality game, and you can’t even take the time to roleplay a bit? This is why I hate normies. Can never put any soul into anything.
And her british sounded awful, too.
“Yeah I’m good. I been here a couple of times, and I’ve got a pretty decent rig keeping me running. No Vausea here.” I smile while subtly rolling my shoulders and going through a little self check with my body. Even coupling my previous experience with VR games and my familiarity with my headset, my mind still had an odd feeling of disconnect while inside my VR body. Sort of like the feeling of a lucid dream, except in third person.
Oh well, nothing a little combat won’t fix.
“Great to hear! Now then, I’m going to assume you won’t need the new players introduction and instead take you to the experienced players course. Would you like to start [The Road to Hel]?”
I squinted my eyes at her odd tone of speech. Was it an AI behind those virtual blue eyes, or just GM who viewed this as a casual setup? After a moment I realized I didn’t care.
“Yeah. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”
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“THIS IS NOT HOW THIS GAME IS SUPPOSED TO START!!” Ducking under the obsidian greatsword that swung almost merrily towards my head, I rapidly back-pedaled as three lances thrust towards the spot I had been before, two of which pierced through my chest and sent me hurtling away. I rolled a solid twenty feet before I managed to ground myself to a stop, rapidly trying and failing to orient myself to this new situation. Four knights, bedecked in heavy armour from head to toe, were rapidly closing the distance to my location, slaughtering what looked to be Daemons as they made their way towards me.
Personality test, Race determination, and then war practice! Every first waver on flex confirmed this was the starting path the game took you through. Yet not even a second after I’d started the actual game I was hurtling towards a massive battleground, four armies of disproportionate sides duking it out like some sort of wartime king of the hill game. Immediately I noticed the connection. Each faction held two alliance races within it. The Wran, Gunnir, and The Pryde of Man were the only factions the first wavers had been able to unlock. They said that the personality test best determined how you’d fit in with the available races, but judging from my current situation I’d take that as a bit of a lie.
If my knowledge was still correct, the Wran faction should hold the Djinn and the Daemons, The Pryde of Man the Humans and the Beastmen, and the Gunnir the Gazers and the AElven. Hopefully I could still rely on that. Apparently a faction's numerical strength relied on the amount of players that were joined with them, but their individual strength was actually increased if the opposite happened. One player amounted to about 1,000 NPC’s of their select race, making players in the eventual fourth and fifth wave incredibly important, since each ticket wave allowed more and more players to join in.
“Oy! Catch!!” I turned my head to see a large caucasion man throw a golden tipped spear directly at my chest. I barely managed to scrabble out of the way before it slammed into the earth, dirt and blood splashing across my face. I grabbed it without a shred of hesitation then grimaced. It was most definitely meant for a man much shorter than myself. I was a solid 6’6 in the real world, yet this spear looked like it was meant for a man barely reaching five feet. Holding it in my hands made the weapon seem like an awkwardly shaped longsword.
Not to mention, I really sucked with spears.
I didn’t have a chance to complain though, as the large knight who’d greeted me first upon arrival swung his greatsword again, angling it as a downwards chop towards my legs. I took three steps back then lunged, aiming the tip of the spear towards the smell gap in his visor. AS expected I missed entirely, scraping the spear across the tip of his bucket shaped helmet instead. I began to back pedal again, desperately trying to stop myself from being surrounded as the lancers who’d fallen behind caught up.
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“LEEEEERRROOOOOOY JEEEEENNNNKIIIINS!!” The same man who’d thrown me the spear suddenly barreled past me, tackling the knight and throwing him directly to the earth. He immediately began to pummel the man’s helmeted face, each blow denting the helmet further and further until it could dent no more.
I could only gape like an idiot.
How had he done that with his bare fists? Moreover, how was he moving so fast? The tutorial war is supposed to have everyone start at the same level!
“Oy mate! Your Invulnerable! Nothing here can do damage to you, so go batshit wild! And don't forget to use your Conviction!” With that he sped off again, charging towards another melee where another poor sap like me was probably in the middle of.
‘What the fuck does he mean ‘use your Conviction’? And invulnerability? Does that mean I can’t be damaged?? It would explain why I don’t see a health bar.’ I struck out with my spear as I tried to grasp what he’d said. If that was the case…
The knight who I’d aimed at took the blow to his shoulder, stabbing his lance towards my stomach in the same action. I had to admit, I was pretty impressed. That was a rather cool move to do, and not something I thought I’d see only minutes into the game. The lance pierced through my stomach, but instead of any damage notification appearing I was simply sent tumbling again, thrown from my feet by the force of the blow.
‘Well shit. Suicide tactics it is then.’ When I’d managed to get to my feet I threw caution to the wind and simply charged the knight, surprising him long enough for me to tackle him like caucasian man. I executed the same tactic as him but with my spear, jabbing down with the blade to pierce through his vizor.
I was met with a slew of notifications.
* Welcome to Gaia! You are currently in the training server! Here you can practice battle as much as you want, with the combat level of the AI’s correlating to the medium average of the player’s skill levels!
Current Average Combat Rating: 3
Ground yourself to Black Sheep’s newest Virtual Reality game through combat, learning the basic motions of the game with absolutely no penalty!
Based on your performance and attitude in the training server, upon exit you will be given a race that directly compares to who you are as a person!
Any Conviction gains acquired during the training server will immediately be reverted upon exit.
To activate your Conviction, simply focus into creation that which you view as strength. The harder you focus, the more real your view becomes. Be warned though! Reality will always revert itself, and the act of Conviction will become harder and harder to maintain! (This does not apply in the training server)
To leave the tutorial, simply say ‘Exit Server’.
Have fun and enjoy! *
The knights around me had paused when the notification appeared, simply ignoring me as I stood still in the middle of the battleground. It wasn’t like I could actually move, as the notification appearing had simply locked my body. It wasn’t until I’d reached the end of my reading did I regain my ability to move. I took a moment to gather my thoughts.
Conviction? What a weird thing to have in a game. Not mentioning the fact I didn’t understand what exactly the game meant by having it, it was most definitely an odd thing to think about. Your view of reality gave you strength? And the strength of your view gave you... more strength? What do I even view as strength?
I didn’t have much time to parse my thoughts together as I was suddenly blown from my feet, a massive impact across my back catapulting my through the air and towards another section of the battlefield.
It was admittedly terrifying.
Even knowing I was invulnerable to damage suddenly being blown into the air like that caused a small scream to escape my lips. I could only tuck and curl as I began to fall, trusting in the games so far non existent pain sense to stay away. I smashed into the ground moments later, ragdolling across the floor and bowling into what I assumed was another group of people.
‘I should be in a fucking fire fighter comercial with how much I’ve rolled around.’ Grumbling lightly I began to lash out with my spear striking the back of a small orange skinned creature and causing him to stumble. The leather jerkin he wore stopped my blade from piercing through him, but the force of my blow did manage to get his attention. Which, in turn, caused his head to be smashed a second later.
I’m still claiming that as my kill.
The creature that killed him looked like the mix between an ugly crocodile and an even uglier bodybuilder, a reptilian head and fangs blending down seamlessly into an olympic level weight lifter body. I couldn’t stop to admire the ugly look of the creature as it began to charge at me, stomping on the body of the orange creature and raising its flail in a war cry. I met its charge with a cry of my own, leaping like tarzan and stabbing my spear towards its face. I didn’t expect the blade to sink straight through the creatures face, blasting through its snout and out the back of its neck. I fell to the ground with a thud and was immediately smacked from the side, sending my tumbling to the side without my weapon.
‘That’s fine. I wanted the flail anyways.’ The creature who attacked was, surprisingly, another player. He looked a bit apologetic as he looked me up and down.
“Sorry bout that ol bit there. Just been running thru dis old trainin server on auto pilot. You avent appened to ave seen a large burly caucasian man would ya? Acting like a right ol idiot and going around killing things?” I pointed in the general direction of where I’d last seen the man and the player gave a slight nod and another apology before taking off running, slicing through men with one of the same large greatswords I’d seen the knights wielding. He did it with the same ease I’d seen Caucasian Man take down the knight, not even stopping to slow as he cleaved groups of bodies apart. How the fuck was he doing that? I didn’t wait to see the results of his rampage though, instead opting to rush towards the flail and shield that were on the ground.
An almost overwhelming sense of calmness overtook me when both objects were secured in my hands. I’d played the role of Tank in the last three VR games I’d purchased, the thrill of fighting in the limelight and the weight of responsibility as a key player always being extremely attractive to me. I’d always had quick reflexes and pretty good perception of third level spacing, so the role had always felt natural to me.
Plus, nothing streams better than someone up close and personal in a boss fight.
I swung the flail in my hands lightly, getting a feel for the rather demonic weapon that I was currently holding. To my surprise it wasn’t actually a flail. It was more of a mace that somebody had jury rigged to act as a flail, a small button on the side causing the previously rotating length of chain to whip back towards the hilt. Another click and the chain was released. I didn’t bother wondering behind the obvious physic breaks of this weapon, instead putting it to good use as I swung it above my head and began to strike at anything in sight.
Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.