39. Battle Grounds: Anticipation
<
Name
Hail Jeoran
Active Classes
Level
Alias (1-4)
Hagi
Lord
44
Age
15
Acolyte
31
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Mage
47
Class
Placeholder level 6
Duelist
44
Experience
0/2,000,000
Archer
37
Job
Earl
Free Points
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Experience
2137263
Serpentbane
Stats
16
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Skills
9
I sat in my bed as I examined my gains. The battle grounds were scheduled to begin within hours, and I had just awoken after recombining. Hail had been busy [Lording], while my Hagi selves had been even more busy being power-leveled by the guild or grinding anonymously. I hadn’t been dungeon busting over the last few days. Nor had I been destroying lairs for the risk of releasing another grave threat to the Heartlands, as I had with XirQuirthal the Blightmaster. I had been grinding lairs, but rather than destroying the lair stones, I had either been ignoring them, or using them to evolve the lair to better suit my purpose, including adjusting the level and spawning rare spawn.
The rare spawn I had faced had varied greatly in the degree of challenge they had posed, but whether they had rolled over dead or nearly caused a wipe, killing them had been lucrative. Each of my alternative classes was decked out in gear that was, so far, exclusively mine, and significantly better than what I could have afforded by purchasing gear from the market. While running with the Mavericks, there was a rule of “Put the loot on the Hagi,” and even when [Duelist] was running with another Dexterity player, or [Mage] with another caster, the other players would insist on passing to me unless I insisted whatever I was wearing was significantly better.
As a result, my wardrobe had grown again. It took up the entire wall now. Not that it really mattered, as I could select the items from my menu and pull them out of my inventory, but sometimes it was nice to actually see them.
Duelist would wear a white, green and yellow doublet named [Fasini’s Swashbuckling Doublet], which gave a whopping 25 dexterity. The only item which gave nearly as much was my [Blade of Eclipse], which gave a respectable 13 Dexterity. With it’s B- Damage rating, that had me equipping it over any other weapon I’d come across, despite the fact that it still had spellpower and charisma on it.
<
Name
Hagi
Level
44
Guild
Nethersong Mavericks
Strength
63
Health
41571
Dexterity
123
Energy
2770
Vitality
94
Skill
100/100
Endurance
63
Experience
14788/22400
Intelligence
46
Age
15
Wisdom
24
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Charisma
99
Class
Duelist
Armor
36
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Attack Power
372
Serpentbane
Critical Damage
2.56
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Weapon Damage Rating
B-
The system didn’t seem to have any problem with me duplicating my gear, so I had expected that I would be equipping [Blade of Eclipse] as [Mage] as well. However, one of the rare drops was an extremely unique item; [Tilarack’s Stasis Prism]. Aside from boosting my intelligence by nine, my wisdom by four, and my spellpower by a respectable six, the item had a unique property. I could use it to store a single spell to use later. I had done some experimenting with it, and it could handle a fully charged [Inferno].
I could completely drain all of my mana into the prism, regenerate my mana to full, and then unleash the seven hells upon my enemies later! It was such a powerful item that Tarisha was selling the location where I had fought the monster that dropped it at a premium. While the lack of high stats meant that I would eventually be forced to replace it, it would possibly be BIS all the way into the triple digit levels.
The only downside is that it required both hands to operate. I could hold it in one hand, but in order to unleash the stored spell I would have to have my other hand free.
Aside from the Prism, I had earned a scarlet set of robes which gave a modest twelve Intelligence, Wisdom, and Spellpower and a mismatched blue wizard’s hat. For some reason [Illusion Magic: Disguise] didn’t work on either of them.
<
Name
Hagi
Level
47
Guild
Nethersong Mavericks
Strength
23
Health
30370/30370
Dexterity
34
Mana
154865/154865
Vitality
81
Experience
214/47000
Endurance
41
Age
15
Intelligence
132
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Wisdom
106
Class
Mage
Charisma
162
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Armor
19
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Spell damage
142
Serpentbane
Mana Regen
3489
[Archer] was decked out in a simple white shirt that gave a deceptive amount of dexterity, a pair of kidskin gloves which improved my [Quickshot] ability, beige trousers and a pair of Faux-Iron Toed Boots, which I had gotten back in Mikal Mines so long ago. His weapon was another Rare Spawn drop; [Bow of the Iron Quiver], which had dropped off of an Enraged Gryphon. With an impressive C+ Damage Rating and ten Dexterity besides, it was almost as good for [Archer] as [Blade of Eclipse] was for [Duelist].
<
Name
Hagi
Level
37
Guild
Nethersong Mavericks
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Strength
34
Health
26007/26007
Dexterity
113
Energy
1853/1853
Vitality
70
Skill
100/100
Endurance
50
Experience
23410/29600
Intelligence
30
Age
15
Wisdom
22
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Charisma
117
Class
Archer
Armor
37
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Attack Power
340
Serpentbane
Critical Damage
2.92
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Weapon Damage Rating
C+
That left [Acolyte]. I was less than confident about going into PVP as [Acolyte]. While I had an excellent [Lesser Asceplian Rod] and [Robe of the Silver Martyr], I knew from experience that healers were often the first target when it came to combat between Travelers. If they couldn’t kill me, then they would inflict me with chains of crowd controls, against which [Acolyte] had only sparse protections. Either way, it would be a very different experience than healing against Darkspawn, where I could comfortably sit back behind a Tank and simply keep everyone alive.
<
Alias
Hagi
Level
31
Guild
Nethersong Mavericks
Strength
19
Health
16420/16420
Dexterity
27
Mana
67735/67735
Vitality
66
Experience
12504/21700
Endurance
35
Age
15
Intelligence
87
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Wisdom
91
Class
Acolyte
Charisma
99
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Armor
19
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Spell Power
140
Serpentbane
Mana Regen
2662
It was strange to think that Acolyte had almost as much spellpower as [Mage]. There was a good reason for it however; [Acolyte’s] spell power scaled with wisdom and intelligence, unlike [Mage] which scaled with only intelligence. More importantly, [Acolyte] lacked the same rapid mana regeneration capability that [Mage] enjoyed. The damage spells that [Acolyte] possessed did less damage and cost less mana, but were ultimately only there to give it the ability to solo quest. As a class, it was shoeboxed into the healing role, and its healing spells were as versatile as Mage’s damage spells, with shields, heal over time effects, mana efficient heals, rapid heals to top off the DPS when they stood in the stupid, and extremely powerful mana drainers which could keep a tank alive through even the most intense damage from a boss.
What they lacked, however, was an efficient way of recovering their mana. It wasn’t a problem unique to them, most of the healer classes and subclasses suffered from this problem in some fashion or another. The ones that didn’t, such as feybinder, often exchanged infinite sustainability for the throughput of a more typical healer.
I considered splitting myself after I completed my status review, but I held off. As I was waiting, a chiming sound filled my rooms, followed by Thomas’s voice.
“Hail? You put in a ticket to speak with me? Is now a good time?”
I had almost forgotten about the ticket I had opened in regards to Natives being downgraded. “Thomas? Where are you?” I asked.
“I’m outside. After the last time we spoke, we came up with a doorbell method to alert you before simply zoning into your private instances in the lobby. I need your permission to enter now. If this is an inconvenient time, I can mark the situation for followup and address your concerns later.”
“No, now is fine. You can come inside,” I said, and promptly Thomas’s avatar appeared in a wave of blue motes.
“I wanted to assure you that we have been leaving you alone while you are in your private instances, Hail,” Thomas informed me. “I’m not going to lie and say that we couldn’t spy on you, but aside from Thedum monitoring you for signs of instability we really are trying to leave you alone as much as possible.”
“That’s not why I opened the ticket, Thomas,” I said. “What did the system actually say?”
Thomas shrugged. “Only that it had detected concerns it couldn’t identify and when it asked if you wanted administrator support you requested it place a low-priority ticket. I am sorry that it took so long for me to answer; because it was low priority I wasn’t notified immediately.”
“I’ve been exploring my powers as [Lord],” I informed him.
“I’m glad. I’m not certain if you were aware of it or not, but [Lord] was very much the original vision we had for you, before you fell in love with [Spellblade],” Thomas said.
“I’m not pleased that it’s weaker than the other classes in combat,” I told him.
“It’s weaker one on one by design, Hail, but in a ten man group it’s actually very powerful,” he pointed out. “Especially with all of those points you have dumped into charisma. [Noble Aura] will increase your allies stats by twenty percent in a significant radius around you. [Noble Decree] will provide up to a sixty percent effectivity bonus if the Travelers listen to you. And now that you officially have an overlord in the form of Marquis Peori, you can apply [Mandate of Heaven] along with your [Noble Aura], increasing the Attack Power and Spell Damage of your allies by fifty percent of your Charisma. Which is a significant sum, if I’m not mistaken.”
“I know all of that,” I said. “It’s [Noble Insight] that I’m concerned about. Thomas, when I used it the other day, time slowed to a stop.”
“Oh? Is that right?” he asked. “Was this alarming, Hail? I know that some of your processes were supposed to speed up when you were using that ability, but we didn’t know how that would affect your experience. We can try to change how that ability works if it disturbs you.”
“No, that isn’t the problem,” I clarified. “I wasn’t expecting it, and it was surprising, but Thedum already calmed me down that everything was fine. But I learned some things while using it that have me concerned.”
“Okay. What has you concerned?” he asked.
“What is Context, Thomas?”
Thomas took a moment to scratch the back of his head, considering how to answer the question. “It’s a very complicated subject, since we sort of use that word in different ways. I’m assuming you’ve been seeing the context rating on other Natives, and you’re wondering how that drives their actions?”
“Yes. Also, Port Mooncrest was in danger of being ‘downgraded’ because he lacked notoriety and couldn’t get enough context.”
Thomas nodded. “Hail, the purpose of every Native aside from yourself is to generate Context. They do this by engaging in certain activities. For the majority of Natives, this means simply going about their daily routines. They do their things in the background, and they generate a certain amount of Context whether they’re noticed by a Traveler or not. But interacting with Travelers increases their Context significantly, and this is greatly rewarding to them.
“Then there are the key quest givers. Again, not like you. I’m talking about those like Captain Malkioses now. Captain Malkios was, until the castle was destroyed, a very well known and popular quest giver. He is far more complex than the Natives you see on the street, and he had a number of exclusive quests which required a significant investment in order to unlock. Because of this, we had to apply a range that we wanted his context generation to fall between in order to keep him behaving correctly. It takes a bit of balancing, but we’re very happy with Captain Malkios in general. Things became more complicated after your grandfather died, but they’ve mostly settled down at this point. He’s a great Native, and in fact we’ve been using him as a benchmark for a while. He’s only required a small amount of tweaking in order to remain productive.”
“You can ‘tweak’ my native friends?” I asked.
“Hail, we created your world. We can tweak it pretty much as we want. We try not to do so unless things are seriously out of balance, however. When we do detect an imbalance in the world, we usually ask the gods to fix it for us, since they have better vision on how such adjustments will play out.”
I had already mostly known that this was the case, and Thomas hadn’t provided any significantly new information. “What about Port Mooncrest? What does it mean to be downgraded, and have fewer resources?”
“I’m not certain I know who that is. Give me a moment to do a bit of research, Hail,” Thomas said, and he began typing rapid-fire into his invisible keyboard, staring off into space. He was silent for a few moments, before he nodded. “I see. Port Mooncrest was intended to be one of the gatekeepers to acquiring reputation with the Beggar Court. His situation was a little unique because he was expected to maintain a percentage of the entire court’s Context rather than earning a fixed income. Travelers who were interested in the court would have found themselves directed towards him, and the quests he unlocked would have unlocked further access into higher levels of Beggar Court Reputation.
“The Beggar Court is a unique reputation in that it was intentionally hidden, and there aren’t many breadcrumbs leading to it. The issue came about when a second gatekeeper was discovered in the prison of Zhesa City. While they’re technically a stage two gatekeeper, the threshold was set low enough that Port could be bypassed entirely. This led to an imbalance, where the Court’s Notoriety rose, as did the Context they were generating. Port, however, remains relatively obscure. Because of this, the system was considering repurposing him. He wouldn’t have vanished. It’s hard to predict exactly how things would have played out for him, to be honest. It looks like something has changed, however. He’s received a significant spike in notoriety, and is already shooting back into his proper context ratio.”
“I happened, Thomas,” I said. “I interacted with Port in public and called attention to his relationship with the Beggar’s Court.”
“Oh,” Thomas said. “I suppose that makes sense.”
“I think I might also be responsible for him falling out of Context to begin with,” I said. “I think my guild was the one that discovered the method of bypassing him in the first place.”
Thomas simply shrugged. “Hail, you should understand, while the Natives enjoy Notoriety, and they prefer to be within or above their allotted Context range, it’s not painful for them to be downgraded. They just become less relevant to the story. That’s all.” He paused to consider, then added “In fact, they should in fact be more comfortable, once their variables have been adjusted and they don’t have their system telling them that they have been failing to generate enough context. The best analogy I can come up with is that it would be like moving from a high-rent castle to a more affordable house in a middle-income district. They may have enjoyed living in the castle, but they’ll be more comfortable in the house in the long run because they can afford to pay their bills.”
“Port did not seem to enjoy the idea of being downgraded,” I pointed out.
“No, he wouldn’t have,” Thomas admitted. “But if he hadn’t gained any Notoriety and continued to fail to meet his Context quotas, then downgrading him would have made him much more comfortable.”
“Does this sort of thing happen frequently?” I asked.
“Now and then,” Thomas admitted. “It’s not something I’d like you to concern yourself with, Hail. If you do notice that any of your Native friends are in danger of being downgraded, feel free to intervene, as you did with Port. But there’s no need for you to go on a crusade against it. Besides, it’s usually the opposite matter which occurs around you. We upgrade far more of your Native friends and allies than we do downgrade them.”
“And upgrading is the exact opposite of downgrading?” I inquired.
“More or less. Sometimes an upgrade is just a minor tweak in their variables, other times it’s a significant overhaul to their abilities and personalities. Malkios is another great example of this, but the largest one I can think of that you triggered recently was Tajax, the merchant boy. I’m not sure exactly what you did to him, but you really lit a fire under him.”
“All I did was teach him how to dance,” I said, recalling the boy from the dance at Marquis Peori’s.
“That might have been your intention, but the outcome was far more than that. He was a minor background character before you intervened. Since then, he’s been actively garnering support for both you and his father’s business. We haven’t delved too deeply into whatever modifications your system made to him because, while they’re slightly anomalous, they’re overall a net positive in the way we view such things.”
“Oh,” I said. “Thomas, this world of mine is very different than I imagined it was, growing up.”
“I can say the same thing about my world, Hail,” Thomas said. “Is learning about how things work behind the scenes causing you distress?”
“My mother is the same way, isn’t she?” I asked. “And Rain.”
Thomas considered for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, Hail, they are.”
“I still love them,” I said. “Is that a problem? My lawyer told me about a man who fell in love with his watch. That is watch couldn’t love him back. Is that true with us? Does my love for my mother and my brother go unreciprocated?”
“I don’t know,” Thomas admitted. “Hail, compared to you, Analise Teoran and Rain Teoran, both as your grandfather and as your younger brother, are much simpler AIs. As such, they’re far easier for the human mind to understand and predict. But they do grow and change on their own, without the input of the administration. When we first introduced you into this world, we set them to take care of you while your human caretakers were busy, so we programmed them to interact with you in certain ways.
“However, while they’re simple compared to you, they’re still incredibly advanced compared to the majority of Natives, and they’ve been running with an extremely high amount of resources dedicated their way. It’s hard to say how exactly they’ve evolved over the last few years in your world. While they may not experience love as you do, Hail, it’s likely that they have some sort affection directed your way. I’m sorry if that’s not the answer you wanted to hear.”
“I think I’d rather hear the truth than continue to live in a lie,” I said. “Thomas, I need to think about this for a while, and I need to get ready for the battlegrounds. I’d like you to leave now.”
Thomas nodded. “If you need anything else, Hail, you know how to reach me.”
He vanished into motes of blue light. I pulled up a message to my canon friends, pleased to see that everyone was awake and ready for this to begin.
Hail
Good morning everyone. I guess everyone is getting ready for the battlegrounds, huh?
Tarisha
Good morning, Lord Hail.
Laurant
Morning kiddo.
Phil
I’m not up early. I’m still up from last night. I stayed up so that I wouldn’t miss the opener.
Cedric
That’s a terrible idea for your health, you know. If you were worried about oversleeping you should have had a friend wake you.
Phil
Can’t. Laurant is still off in his blacksite, and I don’t trust anyone else to do it.
Larissa
I would have knocked on your door until you answered you dummy.
Phil
You logged in a moment before I did, and I put things off to the last minute loading up on caffeine. I’m sorry, Larissa, but this is too important to leave to chance.
Thena
Let’s stop heckling Phil about his life choices. He’s technically an adult, which means that he can make bad decisions regarding his health if he chooses to.
Phil
Yeah
Phil
Wait, what do you mean technically?
Tarisha
Hail, may I ask, are you planning on participating in these battlegrounds?
Hail
Yes. As many as them as I can. I don’t think I’ll manage to get all of them, they’re spaced too close together for me to get a proper rest in, but I’ll queue for every one.
Tarisha
As Lord Hail, or as Hagi?
Hail
As everything, Tarisha. Lord, Mage, Duelist, Archer and Acolyte. I’m sure there will be videos of both Hail and Hagi fighting alongside whichever team the machmaking system puts them in all over the forums once we’re done, but that’s not going to stop me, so don’t try to talk me out of it.
Tarisha
I wasn’t going to try, Hail. I was simply wondering. I wish you good luck.
Hail
Thanks Tarisha. Good luck to you too. All of you.
Daemon
I, for one, have no intention of taking part, but I do wish the rest of you good luck in your battles. Give them hell.
Cedric
That’s okay, Daemon. You can be our cheerleader. I’ll send you the pompoms.
Hail
Okay everyone. I’m going to split myself and finish getting ready, so that’s it for chat. It starts to get confusing when there are too many of us talking, I think.
Tarisha
Alright, Lord Hail. Best of luck.
I minimized the chat window and began trying to psych myself up. I set my deck of cards down in the middle of the room and asked the system to do its thing. Moments later, I was standing face to face with four other me’s. One by one, without saying a word, we each reached forward to draw one of the cards.