Some canned goods for the microwave, pizzas, a few apples for appearances and enough cookies and chocolate to last me another week went into the shopping cart. The staff at the counter was professional as usual and did not even give a second glance to the healthy compilation that allows for a healthy single lifestyle. I really appreciate the anonymity a large city provides. It does become lonely, but most social contact was hardly worth the effort. It´s not that I am bad with people, I can actually do really well with most of my acquaintances, but the usual small talk can get so incredibly dull. After trying the more regular human lifestyle of meeting with friends and being in some kind of relationship or other I settled into a more recluse way of single life. Every now and then I would meet those few friends I actually enjoyed talking with, and the rest of the time was spent by myself.
My name is Christopher Reyes. I am rather tall with 1.90 m and just turned 33 this year. I did not celebrate my birthday, nor did I miss it.
My job would be considered a scientist. As a kid it had always been my dream to explore the very frontier of knowledge, and had decided to study chemistry. So why was all I did create some knew numbers on some sheets of paper no one cared for? Science never should be just cataloging reality, but the whole field of research seemed to consist of nothing but that.
All this left me with enough money to afford anything I could want for and enough free time to bore a groundhog to death. Luckily the gaming industry steadily advanced and had created many time consuming games. I had chosen to play 'Ascension' the last five odd years. Back then it had been a fantasy MMO with a huge world that allowed you to pursue your favorite roles.
The character I had created then was my elven sorceress Shalyne. I had chosen her race and sex because elves had better affinity with magic and also because a female elf tends to be easier on the eyes than some dwarf.
Three years ago Ascension had been upgraded to also incorporate virtual reality. It could still be played without the capsules, but after a short time of transition most players had gotten their hands on at least one of the cheaper capsule versions. Of course I had bought the best available one right away.
There were a few changes to the game afterwards. Newly created characters would be based on a full body scan and only be slightly adapted to fit the chosen race or at least some anonymity. The greatest change would be the height change to a dwarf, but nobody chose those anyway. Legacy characters were given the option to change to a form that resembled you more closely. Many chose to adjust their characters, because being the wrong sex can be a bit disturbing. That may also have been the main reason why new characters were not given the option. For a while the company considered enforcing the change, but the backlash was really heavy and they adjusted the policy to only make the change an option. By now it was only a minor part of the population, who still were using the original models.
I had considered changing Shalyne, but after a long enough time your character grows on you. I tried it out and had to admit that the change was not that great. The sensory input you received from your body was rather minor. The biggest difference VR offered was the direct control of the character and perception of sight through virtual eyes. A good headset had already given a close approximation of direction even before. Over time there were some improvements to the sense of touch, but because I was experiencing the changes step by step no single change was too stark. Even now the greatest difference was the difference in height. Shalyne still stood tall at 1.80 m but 10 cm make a huge difference. I was very wary of low doors.
Spending a lot of time switching between two different sets of length caused me to adapt to it really quick after a while. I do not even want to know how much brain capacity was just trained and wasted just on this.
Once I had arrived at home I put my purchases into some corner and grabbed my training gear to head off to my martial arts training. Aside from work, this was the one place I was glad I could still control my body really well after a few minutes out of the capsule.
The practice we did could not really be considered a certain style. Our Sensei had learned a few different arts himself and just taught us whatever he felt like at the time. What he considered most important was practicality and a healthy understanding of ones own body. Today he just took joy in running us up and down the dojo doing the very basic techniques, followed by a bit of sparring.
After the training I headed home, cooked myself a pizza and surfed through some of the new discoveries in the game. After the switch to VR, Ascension had become even more of a sandbox game. The direct access of the brain to the computer allowed you to directly control mana, a resource that did not even exist in real life. Although it was possible to cast a spell by simply invoking it, the real fun was in manipulating mana. Using direct control it was possible to specify every aspect of a spell from strength, velocity to composition or form. Admittedly it required quite a bit of concentration and even skill to control the changes and not let the mind drift and unwillingly effect some changes.
These requirements seem too much for most people to handle, who can´t even keep the most basic control over their own thoughts. So only those who are willing to practice and put in enough effort are able to use this system. The others are happy with invoking the spells with a few key words and just turn off the direct control system.
It goes without saying, that I play Shalyne with the free mana manipulation system turned on. Aside from more flexible uses of combat magic it allows me to create new abilities. The more ingenious uses may create new spells, that when combined with a name can be taught to others to invoke. The game is evolving quickly, so even more options have become available over time.
Reading up on new possible uses I passed the time until I had eaten. Finally I could start into the weekend. I laid down in the capsule and dropped into the game.
I spawned at my house in the city of Lapan. I never took much time for decorating it, so it looks rather sparse. I opened my guild roster and selected one of the members. Using a bit of mana I sent a telepathic message to Falariel: “Hi Fal, I am available now, are you at your shop at the moment?”
“Hey Shalyne, was about time. I am waiting.”
So much for gratitude. We had agreed to meet this evening to finish crafting a few weapons that we could sell at abhorrent prices. Sighing I left my house and stepped onto the central square of the city. Turning around I picked a small alley and went on my way. I considered the bigger streets much too crowded. Business was always going very well on a Friday evening.
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After taking a few cuts through the city I arrived at our guild´s workshop. It didn't stand out, because we used it purely for crafting, and didn't advertise who it belonged to. I entered and made my way to the forge at the back. A beautiful blonde elf stood at a workbench with her back to the entrance. Something made me suspicious about the way she was fiddling about and I silently circled around until I stood almost to her side about five meters away. As I had thought she held onto one of her guns and only acted like she was working.
Using my mana I concentrated on giving her a solid touch on the shoulder. She spun around abruptly and shot a stream of water out of her gun at the empty space behind her. I focused once more, this time to create a bit of water, which I splashed right at her. I couldn't hold back from laughing after that. “You were a bit too obvious this time. Aside from the fact that you ALWAYS try to ambush me in one way or the other.”
She answered with an angry look: “I was sure I would sense you this time! Your aura suppression is really unfair. I couldn't even detect a flicker.”
“I keep telling you to look out for sound or sight instead of my aura, but you never listen.”
“Where is the fun in that? Anyway, will you finally tell me, why you always keep up that spell? There has to be some sensible reason.”
I always had suppress aura active.
“Perhaps it is, so that you can never detect me?”
“What about I give you two thirds of the profits this time?”
“Nope”
I could see she considered raising her offer some more, but in the end let it be.
Instead she got to business: “I have finished the parts, you can start enchanting when you like and I will assemble them when you are done. They are already in your room.”
“I will get to it, don't interrupt me.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know you have to concentrate. See you in a bit.”
I left the forge and went into the room with a picture of a crystal on the door. It was a room used by enchanters, but I had kind of taken possession of it and no one else dared to work in here. Our guild's workshop was large enough and had more than one room per craft, so that had not become an issue.
Once inside I locked the door and touched a crystal, that was put in a holder on the wall. “Invoke: Block Sound.” A light surge pushed out of the crystal until it enveloped the whole room. It was a spell that blocked outside noise and allowed me to concentrate fully on my work. Enchanting was the craft most susceptible to disruption, because it was fully dependent on the concentration of the practitioner.
In the center of the room stood a large table, on top of which the parts of several pistols where laid out. On the walls were several shelves with crystals and diverse items. I went to one of the shelves and took out several crystals that were lightly glowing. I took them to the table in the center and went to work.
Enchanting is the art of infusing mana into items. For that one has to be able to freely manipulate mana, and give it an intent. On a simple level an enchanter pulls out the energy of an item and either puts it into a crystal for storage or pushes it into another item. That way the type of the enchantment remains the same. Advanced enchants require the player to use mana and form an intent before enhancing the item. Armor hardening, resistances, or increased damage output on weapons are simple forms.
The pistols we created use a three part system. After drawing on the mana in the crystals I first enchanted a few triggers with the intent to draw mana from the user and put it into the “barrel”. It is not really a barrel because it is not hollow, it is only a metal shaft that points into the direction of the target. We just named it barrel for convenience. The barrels were enchanted to rapidly push the mana in a condensed form to the front and eject it. Right at the front of the barrel is the converter which gives the mana its final form, in this case a fireball. People love shooting fireballs. And the pistols didn't require an invocation.
It still amazes me that a complex use of mana is possible. The enchantment on the converter for example is able use mana it comes into contact with, and assign it a form and an element. In Ascension there are seven “elements”. The five classic elements earth, water, fire, air and spirit and in addition light and dark. It was possible to use any of the five classic elements, but one had to choose between light and dark.
Once I was finished I tested to parts by running mana through them and observing the effect. I had to disenchant two pieces by pulling the energy and intent out and again enchanting it. The mana I had pulled out had to be cleansed of inherent characteristics to reform into pure mana. Cleansing mana is often more difficult than assigning it.
I took the parts, placed them into my inventory and cleaned up the crystals. Then I once again touched the crystal on the wall and said: “Clear”. The sound barrier retracted. I took a look at the crystal. It still seemed to hold enough mana reserves for another use so I left it in place and exited my working room.
Once again in the forge I just called out to Falariel: “I'm done now, do you want to test them right away?”
“One second, I am almost done here.”
I took out the items and placed them on a work bench. Then I leaned back and watched Falariel finish up a sword. She can get quite absorbed into her work. The second stretched into a quarter of an hour when she finally put down the completed weapon.
“Oh, I'm sorry, I completely forgot you were here.”
“I noticed.”
“Well, let me check out the pistols. The fantasy lovers are going to RESENT us.”
I myself usually enjoyed the medieval setting of the game, but was tolerant enough for any peculiar creations players brought into the game. There were however some die hard fantasy fans who refused anything that did not fit into the setting. We even got some orders from people who used the pistols just to make a point of annoying those.
Falariel assembled the pistols and we went to a reinforced room to try them out. Falariel and I split the pistols and took a few shot with each one until we were satisfied.
“This is best part in crafting!”
“Making sure everything works perfectly and taking pride in a job well done?”, I teased her.
“Destroying something and watching it burn!”
Sometimes I wondered where she got the patience for creation.
We finished going through the entire set. They all seemed to work fine, so we would have another great harvest soon. We both left the selling to the guilds merchants, because we considered taking care of business exhausting.
“Shalyne, are you going to the festival tomorrow?”
“I already have other plans. The festival will continue for a while, so maybe I will go out once this next week. I would prefer a raid though.”
“But tomorrow is the best part. Didn't you miss it last year, too?”
“Maybe next year. I am off now, see you around.”
“Night”
When I left I went through my plans for the next day. I considered my profession that of a magic researcher. So I always tried to find new ways to manipulate mana for useful spells. One thing a few like minded players had found out was that there was yet another way to expand possibilities. If a few rare conditions were fulfilled, it was possible to change the basic properties of your characters.
Mostly all this amounted to was an additional stat increase. This was already really amazing however, as the scaling with level was really weak in Ascension. A skilled mid level player could stand up to a less experienced high level player if the difference in gear was not too great. This made it possible for many low level characters to gang up on fewer high level ones. That in turn made traveling in groups for protection more advantageous.
Then there were the game breaking effects. One time a player had landed the finishing blow on a dragon by hiding, while a raid was fighting the dragon. At the very last moment he channeled all of his mana into a single devastating blow to steal the killing blow. The game seemed to have some strange kind of humor and along with usually impossible properties often came drawbacks. This player had received the always present title 'Opportunist'. He publicized the description under some pressure of the guild, which had hunted the dragon. 'Deals increased damage with powerful blows, but considers small attacks below his dignity.' From that point on his character was actually unable to use weak attacks and could only use his big cannons.
Most of these titles or changes are never made public. There is something special to having a unique ability. Reproducing the situation was sometimes possible, but some conditions were so rare, that some of these titles or abilities were only possessed by a single player. Those that had become common knowledge were often researched thoroughly and soon most of the hardcore players would collect the more useful titles.
I had one such title. Tomorrow I hoped to gain a second one.