Beta Life, page 4
part #1 of Digital Sorcery Series
Having finished updating my character, I was starting to wonder what was next when text appeared in front of me.
Please step through the portal and you will be sent to a random starting location on the world of Alderoth.
A blue portal appeared about ten feet in front of me. I was a little disconcerted that I was supposed to step into what looked like a tear in space-time, and it would then spit me out in a random location. Surely, they wouldn't send me to an area that wasn't suitable for a level two character.
I walked forward, and after briefly hesitating, stepped into the portal.
Chapter Three: The Wilds of Irune
Stepping out of the portal was quicker than I expected. Stepping in and out was actually done in one single motion. Whenever I saw it on a show it seemed like it was a couple distinct steps but nope, it was all one fluid motion. This was a bit disorientating, because one second I was in a meadow looking at a large blue portal, and then suddenly I was in a very old forest with gigantic trees.
Once again I had to give props to the corporation, because this forest looked incredibly real. Reaching over I felt the bark on one of the trees, and it felt just like bark back in the real world. This was fantastic and wonderful. If the trees were this real, then what about everything else? I knew I couldn't wait to find out.
If there was one word I could think of to describe this forest, it was wild. The trees grew every which way and were as big as the trees I saw in the redwood forest when I took my family on a vacation there. Moss grew on everything, from the trees, to fallen branches and logs, to boulders, and other various rocks. With the trickle of sunlight, this gave everything in the forest a soft green glow.
I could hear the sound of running water but couldn't see it anywhere in my periphery. The undergrowth and trees were too thick to see very far, and for the first time, I noticed it didn't look like a path was anywhere to be seen.
Where had the game dropped me? The starting location was supposed to be randomized, but I figured that meant a randomized town or something. Where am I supposed to go, and how am I supposed to get out of this forest? After pondering for a few minutes, I decided the game was trying to be hands-off and let the player figure out what they were supposed to do and where they were supposed to go. This was now my life after all, and I would just have to figure it out on my own like I'd done in the real world.
Picking a direction, I started walking. Even though I had no idea where I was going, I figured walking somewhere was better than standing in the middle of nowhere. It was slow going. The undergrowth was thick and uneven. I would often have to climb over or duck under tree limbs. The branches would catch on my shirt or pants, and then I would have to pull or push them off.
After walking aimlessly for around ten minutes, I got an idea to try to head towards the sound of running water. Once I found it, I'd be able to follow the stream or river, hopefully, to some sort of civilization. I wasn't sure if this would work the way I intended, but it was the best idea I could think of. The biggest problem with this plan was that it was surprisingly difficult to pin down the exact direction it was coming from.
After another fifteen minutes of trekking through the forest without finding the source, I cursed under my breath. Why hadn't I placed a skill point in survival instead of persuasion? There wasn't a god damn person, or creature for that matter, around to persuade right now.
Turning to the tree on right I asked sarcastically, "I don't suppose I could persuade you to direct me to the nearest settlement with people in it?"
Silence was the only response it gave.
"Great, that's so incredibly helpful," I said sarcastically.
Sighing audibly, I turned and jumped back. I wasn't alone. A large gray wolf was standing about ten paces ahead and staring at me. It had its head cocked to the side as if it were asking, "who is this stupid human and doesn't he know trees can't talk?"
"Whoa, you startled me buddy. How did you sneak up on me so silently?" I asked.
The wolf didn't say anything but continued to stare.
"I don't suppose you know the way out of this forest or to a settlement with people?" I asked after a momentary silence.
The wolf crept a little closer but didn't respond. It had Grey Forest Wolf written above its head and next to this was Level: ??? with a red skull and crossbones. If I remembered correctly from the brief look at the manual, this meant it was at least five levels above my own.
Shit, if this thing attacks, I am screwed. There is no way I can fight off a wolf in this terrain that has that much of a level advantage over me. Slowly I began backing away but kept my eyes on the creature. I thought I remembered being told not to show any fear to animals, but I wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do with wolves or the wrong thing.
For a couple of minutes, we followed this pattern. I slowly backed away, and the wolf edged towards me until I backed into a tree. Briefly turning my head to look at the tree, I noticed that it had no low branches I could climb. Turning back towards the wolf, I noticed it lunging at me.
I rolled, or more precisely, flopped to the side just as it snapped its jaws into the tree where my neck had been a second before. Without thinking, I clawed my way up and ran. Fight or flight kicked in and I most definitely chose flight.
The wolf had its teeth stuck on the tree briefly which bought me a few seconds head start, but I knew it wasn't going to be enough. Running was slow as I trampled through the forest barely avoiding obstacles and tripping over the undergrowth. The wolf on the other hand almost glided, its body slithering between branches and jumping over boulders.
Isn't the beginning of these games supposed to be easy? Like hey, slay these ten boars or fetch ten chickens from farmer Bob and deliver them to farmer Dorothy? Nope, apparently not in this game!
I could feel breath on the back on my legs when I spotted a tree ahead of me and slightly to the right with low enough branches that I might just be able to climb it. I would have to jump to reach the first branch, but if I timed it just right, I should be able to make it.
Angling myself so my approach made me perpendicular to the branch, I leapt as high as I could when I was only a couple feet away. Reaching up, I snagged the branch with my hands and began to pull myself up.
Pulling myself up was not as easy as I imagined it would be. My arms strained trying to lift the weight of my body, and I only got about a third of the way up when I felt a bite tear into my right ankle. Looking down, I saw that the wolf latched on to the bottom of my leg.
It was all I could do to keep myself from falling with the added weight weighing me down. Falling was not an option because if I fell, it was all over. Right about now, I wished I put more points into strength, but that was not something I could change at the moment. The pain in my ankle was intense, and I could see that blood was freely running out of my leg and down its snout.
Using my other leg, I tried to kick the wolf in the head. It didn't really work. The wolf growled every time it was kicked, but I just couldn't generate enough force to cause it to let go. Shaking, my bitten leg only caused the wolf to bite down harder causing spasms of pain to shoot up my leg.
If only I had a hand free, I thought, I could cast a fireball on this prick. Thinking for another moment about it, I thought it was the dumbest idea I had yet. But, necessity being the mother of invention and all, it was the only idea I had, so I was going to try it.
Releasing the branch with my left hand, I summoned a fireball and shot it at the wolf. The fireball flew through the air, went right past the wolf's head, and sizzled out on the ground five feet away. God damn it! I heaved and swung myself causing the wolf to tighten its grip. Another spasm of pain rocketed through my body as I reached out and grabbed the branch again.
"One more time," I said to myself breathing heavily. "I've only got one more of these in me, and if this fails, I'm screwed."
Breathing out one last time, I let go of the branch again and summoned another fireball. This time, I waited for my body to stop swinging before shooting the fireball at the wolf's head. For a split second, I held my breath while it sailed through the air.
The fist-sized inferno struck the wolf on the top of its nose and caused an audible yelp from the animal. This reaction caused its jaws to loosen, and it slipped off and fell to the ground.
Sighing from the relief of having the pressure and weight gone from my leg, I almost fell down, forgetting I was only holding on with one hand. I recovered, swung my body, grabbed the branch with my left hand, and using the last of my strength, barely managed to pull myself up.
I planned on climbing higher but just didn't have the strength. Besides, the wolf couldn't get me here, though it wasn't for a lack of trying. After a couple of tries, it ended up sitting on the ground and stared up at me. Maneuvering myself, I rested my back against the trunk of the tree and smiled down at the wolf.
"Thought you had me there didn't you?" I said to it exhausted.
In the upper right corner of my vision, I noticed my health meter dropped by eight, no nine points. It was still going down! Why? I looked again and noticed the little blood drop icon next to it. That damned bleeding status effect from the tutorial. Finally looking at my leg I noticed that it was still bleeding pretty badly, and a decent chunk of flesh had been ripped out.
"I hope you liked that because that's the only bit of me I plan on letting you eat," I said to the wolf, which had adopted a blank stare.
At this point I opened up my menu, accessed my mailbox, and wrote a very angry message to the corporation asking them why the hell they had dropped me in the middle of a forest with high level creatures around me. The message I received back made my already pale face even paler.
All messages to and from this recipient have been blocked.
What the hell? I tried sending a message to the hello world support group instead, thinking it could just pass along my message to the regular support and help me out. Instead I got back the exact same message. This was not a good, and something must have gone wrong. Right now though, I had to focus on my immediate problems, which were the wolf and my bleeding.
Knowing I had to stop the bleeding or I would fall out of the tree and end up getting eaten, I opened my inventory to take a look at what I had to work with. It wasn't a lot. Some raw boar meat, thirty gold, a linen shirt, pants, and boots. Hang on, raw boar meat. How could I have been so stupid? I could have probably fed that to the wolf to keep it from attacking, but in the moment, had totally forgotten about it.
Enough, what's done is done, and stopping the bleeding has to be the priority. Glancing at my health bar I noticed it had fallen another couple of points, and on top of this, there was another icon next to the bleeding status effect icon that looked like a silhouette with back pain. Whatever, I'll deal with that later.
Leaning forward I pulled off my shirt and summoned the dagger and began to cut the fabric into strips that resembled bandages. They didn't end up being a perfect match, but they were pretty close. Bandages were basically just cloth meant to put pressure on a wound and soak up blood to staunch bleeding, and these would do for that.
Wrapping the strips around the wounded part of my leg just tightly enough that it felt snug, but not so tightly that it felt like I was cutting off all circulation, I tied the ends into a knot. After a moment, the bleeding icon vanished. My lower leg still hurt and the HP didn't recover, but at least I had stopped the bleeding.
Having finished that, I leaned back and rested my back against the trunk of the tree. The bark was rough, and it scratched. Once again, I marveled at how realistic they made this world. Looking down at the wolf, who was still staring at me, I thought maybe it was a little too realistic.
Opening up my equipment inventory I toggled the option to display armor. Instantly I was wearing robes and a hood. I had to admit, while this probably wasn't the use they intended this feature for when they designed the game, it was coming in handy right now. It was basically like having a spare set of clothes.
Next, I opened up the icon showing a silhouette with back problems that popped up next to the bleeding effect. Knowing it was probably bad news, I figured it was better to deal with it now that I had resolved my first problem.
Status: Overexertion
"You have pushed your body past its physical limits and overexerted it. While strengthening your physical body is good, if you overdo it, it will cause damage."
Duration: 6 days, 23 hours, & 56 minutes
Effect: your effective strength and dexterity will be halved for the duration of this status effect, and you will find physical activity harder to do.
If you would like to see more about how you received this status effect, please open and review your log.
Well, that's just fantastic. My strength and dexterity were halved, and they weren't even that good to begin with. There was no information on how to "cure" this condition, just a ridiculously long duration listed. And what was this about my log? As soon as I thought it, the log popped up.
Welcome to your log. It shows all events that happen involving your character. You can scroll up or down by looking at the top or bottom of the page and thinking that you wish to scroll. By default, your log starts with the last event that happened to your character, and you will have to scroll up to reach older events. You can also look up events by opening your log and thinking of a specific date and time. For more information about a specific event, think about that log entry and it will go into further detail.
4.16.78 15:33 - Grey Forest Wolf spots Ryland, succeeds a stealth check and draws within 10 feet of Ryland
4.16.78 15:33 - Ryland spots Grey Forest Wolf. Perception gain of 5% towards skill level 1. 5/100.
4.16.78 15:33 - Grey Forest Wolf attacks Ryland. Ryland succeeds in his evasion attempt.
4.16.78 15:34 - Ryland succeeds acrobatics check against tree root. Acrobatics gained 5% towards skill level 1. 5/100.
4.16.78 15:34 - Ryland succeeds acrobatics check against boulder. Acrobatics gained 5% towards skill level 1. 10/100.
4.16.78 15:34 - Ryland succeeds acrobatics check attempting to jump and grab tree branch. Acrobatics gained 5% towards skill level 1. 15/100.
4.16.78 15:34 - Ryland attempts to climb tree, while making climb check, he is interrupted by Grey Forest Wolf attack of Bite for 6 points worth of damage to Ryland's HP. HP 22/28. Status Effect: Bleed inflicted against Ryland. Grey Forest Wolf succeeds strength check against Ryland and holds onto his leg.
4.16.78 15:35 - Ryland succeeds strength check against tree branch. Status Effect: Bleed deals 1 damage to Ryland. HP 21/28.
4.16.78 15:35 - Ryland fails strength check against Grey Forest Wolf. Status Effect: Bleed deals 1 damage to Ryland. HP 20/28.
4.16.78 15:35 - Ryland succeeds climb check against tree branch. Climb gained 5% towards skill level 1. 5/100. Ryland shoots Fireball at Grey Forest Wolf and misses. 5 MP expended. MP 33/38. Ryland succeeds in strength check against tree branch. Ryland gained the status effect: overexertion by continuing to push his body past its limits. This status effect will go into effect once Ryland has ceased strenuous physical activity for a period of 1 minute. Continuing to exert yourself physically will increase the duration of this status effect. Current status effect duration: 3 days.
Wow, it was like reading a creepy text version of the past few minutes of my life. It skipped all the finer details but gave basically a play-by-play of what happened. Still, I could see where this would be useful. Actually, this would have been extremely useful to have in every relationship I've ever had.
The gains towards the skills were interesting. If this was right, just in the regular course of doing things, I could gain experience towards various skills. Though, on second thought, I hoped running from a wolf didn't become a regular thing.
It looked like the status effect started with a duration of three days and happened the first time I tried to shoot the wolf with a fireball. So I must have increased the duration by continuing to exert myself. Opening the log back up I confirmed this. In fact, I increased the duration twice: once during the second time I shot at the wolf and once when I climbed the tree branch. On the plus side, I increased acrobatics and climb both by five percent. Totally worth it!
Looking down at my furry attacker, I scowled. The wolf looked so god damned pleased with itself. Well, screw you, buddy! I shot a couple fireballs at it in my frustration. The first one missed but the second one hit the wolf's chest causing it to growl up at me. It's health bar decreased slightly, but not enough to make a real difference.
Maybe I could drive it off with these though, that had to be worth a shot. I fired two more in rapid succession, and both of them hit my four-legged friend. Once again, its health bar decreased, but only barely, and instead of driving it off, the creature looked even more determined to wait me out.
I was about to fire another when suddenly, the wolf yelped below which almost caused me to fall out of the tree. Steadying myself, I looked down to see that the wolf had a stick, no an arrow, sticking out of one side of its neck. Someone shot the wolf. I might not die immediately into this game after all!
The wolf regained its composure just in time for a second arrow to strike it. This one caused the wolf to collapse to the ground; though, I could still see it breathing short shallow breaths. I'd have felt bad for the creature if it hadn't just tried to rip me apart and eat me.
Seemingly from out of nowhere, a tall blonde woman streaked over to the wolf, and in one swift motion, plunged a knife into the soft underbelly of its neck and into its head. The wolf ceased moving, and a moment later, it had vanished. I guess that while they wanted the game to be realistic they didn't want it to be morbid. Nobody wanted to see a bunch of carcasses all over the place.
