Lance found himself inside a dome of light, "Did the system break?"
"Nope, this is the loading construct. If you are respawning, you do it here as well. Fifteen seconds to game entry, the threat level is seven."
"Okay, I'm going to guess this is out of one hundred, right," Lance asked.
"It's out of ten."
"You mean I'm spawning into danger?"
"Yup, not normal, but spawn points are somewhat random." Cletus offered. "Ten seconds."
Lance looked over and found himself dressed in a leather shirt, pants, and simple leather shoes. He did not see anything else, no backpack, no weapons. "I'm going to need weapons!"
"Think about equipping your daggers," Cletus instructed.
He did, and two iron daggers, each foot long, appeared in his hands. He thought about sheathing them on his hips, and as fast as he thought it, they were there. "Nice."
"Five seconds."
"Any advice here?" Lance asked.
"I would crouch down. Entering the game... now."
As Lance squatted, he found himself behind a rock at the back of a canyon. The walls were three times as tall as he was. The area where he stood was narrow, two yards wide at the most, but it spread out to be two times that as it moved downhill. Twenty yards ahead, it bent to the left. The rock he hid behind was a yard across and about the same height.
The walls were shiny black, obsidian, or something similar, and the floor was littered with chips of the same stone. Lance reached down and grabbed a piece and almost cut himself on the small chip he picked up. This was not obsidian but an entire canyon of flint.
He glanced over to the sulking pink ballerina sitting on his shoulder.
Cletus crossed his or her dainty arms and glared at him. Seriously, you had to pick this. Is this what you want me to look like while you fight goblins?
Lance realized Cletus was communicating mentally, so he responded the same way, thinking thoughts at his assistant. Come on, dude. I asked you what other options existed, and your only reply was that your current form was your natural state. So, I popped off with the first thing that came to mind.
Why would you imagine a ballerina a few moments before diving into an immersive fantasy system? Cletus responded with a huff.
It had been a shock to Lance as well. The only thing he could think of was Julie, his fianc é e, who had studied ballet for many years. Being homeschooled, they both got to choose their physical education class. Julie chose dance, and he chose Jujitsu. Earning his black belt had been one of the highlights of his young life. Homeschooling has its advantages.
The thought about Julie pushed him back into the feelings of abandonment for a moment but his environment demanded his attention. Looking at Cletus again, he realized the last thing he wanted was for him to be a ballerina. There was still too much pain in that direction. Have you seen the movie Guardians of the Galaxy?
Cletus's eyes went out of focus for a couple of seconds. Yeah, just watched it. Funny.
You watched it?
That's what AIs do; we consume media to learn how to be more like real people. However, I'm not sure that helped.
Lance shook his head. Groot or Rocket. Unless you want to be a ballerina forever, pick one of them for your shape.
Can I make some changes?
Sure, but no horns or devil tails, okay?
Cletus disappeared in a puff of smoke, and when it cleared, a small raccoon stood in the air near Lance's shoulder, dressed in black leather with knife handles sticking out of sheaths on both hips. How's that? Cletus' voice even sounded like Bradley Cooper's.
Perfect , Lance realized he was still not moving his mouth when talking to Cletus. This was a good thing, considering he crouched behind a rock in a canyon, and the threat level was seven out of ten.
Lance thought about equipping his daggers, and he was holding them again. He remembered something he had read about the game and thought heads-up display .
An expansive interface was superimposed over his vision. In the top right corner, green and red bars glowed with an internal fire, emerald, and ruby with light dancing behind them. Below were his basic stats.
#
Name: Lance Lindskoog
Class: Thief
Race: Human
Level: 1
#
Primary Stat: Value + Item Bonuses
Strength: 11
Constitution:11 + 2
Dexterity: 15
Wisdom:10
Intelligence: 10
Willpower: 10
#
Secondary Stat: Value + Item Bonuses
Health: 18
Stamina: 53
Power: 0
#
Weapons : Daggers
Skills : Dual Wield, Sneak, Ambush, Martial Arts
Abilities : Set Traps
#
Hey Cletus.
What's up?
I'm looking over my HUD. I have a stat called willpower. What's that?
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Cletus smiled at him. Fast learner. In this system, we simulate pain, but you can set the intensity you experience to be however strong or light you like. Sometimes, players fight in such a way that one person or the other will give in. We use the pain each of them would be experiencing without the in-game dampening and use their willpower as a divisor to decide who would win the battle--that sort of thing.
Oh, I get it. It's like a toughness scale.
Pretty much , Cletus replied.
I have more dexterity, strength, and constitution than the other stats. What is up with that?
You have the standard load-out for Thief. You specialize in dexterity, of course, but you also have a little more strength and constitution than the average starting mage or healer.
Can I move one of the points of strength over to willpower? His stats changed to reflect his wishes.
Yup, each time you gain a level, you receive five points to distribute however you like. You can shift those around any way you want until your next level up when you need to lock them in.
Lance thought about that for a moment. Do you mean I could push up my dexterity to cross a tightrope and then shift all those points into intelligence to figure something out?
Yes, Cletus thought at him, It can be dramatic at the early levels but will affect you less as you move up. The developers wanted you to be able to play around with stats and learn about them firsthand. At level one, you receive seven points, so enjoy.
Lance moved all seven into dexterity. He was lighter on his feet and quicker of hand. Moving them into constitution made him more solid, increasing his flesh's density. Strength made him more robust. When he pushed everything into intelligence, he did not notice any difference. So, intelligence feels the same.
If you were standing in front of a puzzle, you might be getting visual hints on how to solve it right now, Cletus said.
Lance shifted all seven into Wisdom, and the world appeared in sharper detail. Whoa, wisdom is interesting.
All of the stats have two primary uses. Strength makes you stronger and increases the damage of some weapons. Dexterity is similar. Constitution increases your base hit points and allows you to heal faster. Willpower increases your stamina and enables you to win battles of will. Wisdom increases the mana of a Healer as well as perception. Intelligence increases the mana of a Mage and assists with puzzles and the like.
Lance was amazed at how detailed his vision was. He glanced around and then looked at himself. As he examined his shoes, Lance perceived a faint grey outline on the ground. He popped one of his daggers into his hand, dug below the flint, and felt the tip chunk into something wooden. He cleared away enough of the chips to find a small wooden box. Digging it out using the dagger took a moment, but soon Lance had it in his hands. It appeared to be a solid piece of wood but cube-shaped. He moved all his points back into intelligence and saw a barely noticeable arrow on one of the faces. He took his thumb and pushed in that direction. A click, and the side he was pushing on popped open like a lid. Inside was an iron ring. He picked it up, and a notification showed in his HUD.
Lance peered at the item and thought, equip, and it was on the pointer finger of his right hand. He cleared the notification, moved a point into willpower and constitution, and five into dexterity. The stats on his HUD satisfied him.
"Nice," he said out loud and cringed. He had been communicating with Cletus in his mind. Speaking out loud in this environment was a mistake.
Lance heard shuffling in the flint down the canyon. Whatever was making that noise was coming closer. He peeked around the rock. A green creature was heading his way. A nameplate hovered over the creature's head, identifying it as a
This was it; he had been dreaming about getting into an immersive game fight, and here he was. His hands clammy, his heart pounding, but he was excited!
Lanced peered around the side of the rock. The goblin moved slowly up the canyon, its boots crunching through the sharp bits of flint. Four feet tall, its skin was a bumpy green. Its gnarled right hand gripped a short sword not much larger than one of Lance's daggers. While approaching, it swung its ugly head left and right, using its bulbous eyes to search for him. As it neared the rock Lance hid behind, it sniffed, and a grin revealed a mouth full of cracked and yellowed teeth.
"Come out, foolish human." It hissed.
Lance was supposed to kill this thing, and he had already decided that since this was a game and the goblin was not a person in any sense of the word, it would be okay to take it out. But now that it came down to it, he found himself a little freaked out; this all was so real. His hair stood on his arms, and he struggled to breathe quietly.
He brushed aside the notification with a simple thought.
The little green creature began moving to the left side of the rock, which was a little taller than the right side, so Lance climbed onto the rock. The goblin leaped forward, stabbing his sword near where Lance had been. It had not yet seen him when he dropped on top of the little green man and wrapped his arm around its neck and his feet around its waist.
"Get 'em," Cletus yelled.
One of the most vital traits of a jujitsuka was the ability to grapple with an opponent. This had been Lance's specialty, and he was relieved those skills still worked here. Lance summoned a dagger into his right hand and drew it across his opponent's neck. He felt the knife cut through the goblin's skin, and black blood spilled over his hands.
< You have gained the ambush skill>
Lance found the correct place in his HUD and turned off skill and ability level updates, as he didn't want to be distracted during a fight. He patted down the creature and discovered three copper coins and the short sword he had been carrying. When he grabbed the coins, they disappeared and went into his inventory. Lance sheathed his weapons, picked up the goblin's sword, and examined it.
It was not something he would ever use, but 'beggars can't be choosers, ' he thought. He thought inventory, and his HUD shifted to show a grid of 20 slots. The first slot showed a water drop with a small 10 next to it, the second a biscuit with the same count. He imagined the weapon in the bottom right, and it disappeared from his hand and appeared in icon form where he wanted it.
He minimized his HUD and examined the goblin again. It was dressed in rags, but his eyes settled on the green humanoid's boots. They were made from dark leather and appeared to be sturdy. He pulled them off the goblin, and they increased in size as he did. Intrigued, Lance sat down, took off his shoes, and tried to slip the boots on his feet. As he hoped, they grew in size until they were a perfect fit.
"Hey Cletus"
"Yup"
"How does this work? Do all items grow like this?"
"No," Cletus responded, "Only ones with magical properties."
Lance looked harder at the footwear.
"Sturdy Boots" hovered over his new footwear.
"I'm not seeing any magical properties."
Cletus nodded, "You need a high enough combined wisdom and intelligence, like you had with the ring, or you can bring the items to a blacksmith, mage, or priest who may be able to identify the item for you."
Wearing unidentified gear was always dangerous, so Lance removed the boots.
Cletus looked smug as he pulled out his tome and flipped through it. "Most likely, those are cursed in some way."
Lance groaned. Five minutes in, and he was already making mistakes.