Beta Life, page 7
part #1 of Digital Sorcery Series
"What happens if I refuse this task?" I asked, fairly certain I knew part of the answer already.
"You will be sent for respawn if you decline and declared an enemy of Ithielthiel," Daeron said flatly. "This, of course, means we will attack and kill you whenever we cross your path."
Not much of a choice then really. Getting sent for respawn would be annoying but being declared an enemy of a large group would make things really difficult this early into the game. I'll have to play this one carefully or this afterlife is going to get a lot more difficult.
"What do I get if I rescue this prince of yours?" I asked.
Daeron and Elaria looked at me and laughed before Daeron said, "Turin is not a prince, but the third son of a minor noble family. If he was our prince, we would have marched to war. Still, he is one of the people, and a noble to boot, so we cannot allow him to simply suffer at the hands of those black creatures. If you complete this task, you will become a minor friend of Ithielthiel and be allowed free passage through our lands whenever you wish. We will also pay you the sum of five hundred gold pieces. More than fair in my opinion."
"There are many things I don't know," I said. "How am I supposed to locate this city or elf?"
"Should you choose to accept this quest, everything you require will be given," Daeron said as I received the quest notification.
You have received a new quest: An Elf Lost in the Dark.
"Young Turin of House Parthanuun has been captured by the dark elf Viltria and taken to the underground city of Maleuhur. You have been asked to find him and return him to Dareon, head of the rangers of Ithielthiel."
Type: Rare
Reward: 5000 XP, 500 gold, 1000 Reputation points with Ithielthiel
Penalty for Decline: -5000 Reputation points with Ithielthiel and immediate attack by the elves of Ithielthiel
Penalty for Failure: -5000 Reputation points with Ithielthiel
Do you accept this quest?
Yes or No?
Wow, that distribution of reputation points was uneven as hell. Plus one thousand for completing but minus five thousand for failure or declining. I didn't really see much of an option in the choice, and besides this was a game after all, so I might as well play. I mentally clicked yes and accepted the quest.
"Excellent," Daeron said. "You have three days to prepare. I would suggest, for starters, that you learn Dark Elvish, so you can communicate when you are there. The choice is yours, however."
"How am I supposed to learn a language in three days?" I asked incredulously.
"If you apply yourself I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to," Daeron responded.
You have received the optional subquest: Learning the Language of the Dark
"You have been given 3 days to learn the language of Dark Elves. The great library of Ithielthiel is a good place to start."
Type: Common
Reward: 400 XP, 10% boost in the chance to succeed An Elf Lost in the Dark, Ability to speak Dark Elvish.
Penalty for Decline: None
Penalty for Failure: None
Do you accept this quest?
Yes or No?
This seemed like a tall task to ask of anyone. I've never heard of anyone learning a language in three days, but things in this game didn't exactly work like they did in real life, and if it was a quest, it was probably possible. I mentally clicked yes and accepted the quest.
"Hold up, this sounds like a quest that the Titties needs to be involved in," Eldertits said butting into the conversation.
"You wish to assist this human in his quest?" Daeron asked her.
"Yes, for the glory of Ithielthiel and all that," she said flourishing her hand.
"You should know that for you, it will be very dangerous," Daeron explained. "While they see humans with something like indifference or disdain, dark elves, and our kind have long been enemies and they will most likely view you with pure enmity and hatred. The odds of you being captured or sent for respawn are very high. Do you still wish to assist on this quest?"
"Fuck yes, ain't nothing gonna keep these Titties down!" Eldertits said excitedly.
"Very well, you are a free elf, and the choice is yours to make," Daeron responded to her.
I looked over at the elf, who seemed very pleased with herself. I wondered who the person beneath all the jokes and purposely offensive remarks actually was I resolved that before this quest was over, I was going to get to know the real Eldertits and try to find out why she acted the way she did.
"That is all from me for today. Elaria will show you to a place to stay for the next three days and will brief you on the finer details of the quest tomorrow," Daeron said dismissing us.
Elaria lead the two of us away from Daeron where we traveled down a couple of streets, up some stairs, and across a bridge to an establishment named the Oakspring.
It was built into the lower level of one of the great trees. Upon entering, there was a great room lined with tables and a hearth, a bar, and a kitchen area separated from the rest. Around the outside of the circular room wound a wooden staircase that slowly circled upwards until it disappeared into the floor above.
Elaria made her way over to the bar and spoke with an elven woman standing there in rapid Elvish. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but Eldertits seemed to be following along without a problem. After Elaria gestured at the two of us, the woman frowned, and her tone changed.
"Looks like you've got a real admirer," Eldertits said to me with a smile.
"By her tone, I'm guessing she has a no humans policy," I replied, annoyed at how much this kept popping up.
Were all elves really this racist?
Elaria, at this point, cut the woman off and spoke in a very firm voice, from which the woman shrank back. Finally, after some reluctance, they seemed to come to an agreement.
"You have both been given rooms on the upper floors. I promised that you would treat this establishment with respect and not steal anything. Don't make me a liar," Elaria said sternly staring at me.
"Please follow me," the woman said in the common tongue.
She led the three of us up the stairs to the fourth floor and showed us to two rather bare rooms which only had a bed, table, and a chair.
"These are not the most luxurious rooms, but they are free," Elaria said. "Please get some rest, and we will go over the details in the morning. I will see you then."
Elaria turned to leave, but before she could, Eldertits said, "You know, Elaria, you're welcome to join me in my room, and we can continue where we left off in the bathhouse."
The back of Elaria's ears went red all the way up to their tips, and after hesitating for a brief moment, she purposely strode away and left us in silence.
Chapter Five: Preparations
I awoke the next morning to Elaria at my door. She came to collect both Eldertits and me to go over the mission plan for rescuing Turin from the despicable dark elves. Her words, not mine.
We followed her down the circular staircase and out of the Oakspring. She led us down and through the city streets until we came to a huge building, not built into a tree, but made out of stone and marble. Large square marble pillars ran up the facade of the building until they separated towards the top and spread out like the branches of a tree. Intricately carved words were written above the arched entryway, in what I assumed was Elvish.
"This is the Great Library of Ithielthiel," Elaria said as she led us under the archway and into the library proper.
Great was an appropriate word for this place. From the inside, I could see that the Library was longer than it was wide. The middle of the first floor had desks and tables that could be used for studying but was otherwise largely empty. Near the walls, however, were rows upon rows of shelving holding books that ran from floor to ceiling. On the second, third, and fourth floors above, balconies ran around the entire building with the same large rows of shelving on each level.
One thing I didn't notice until well after I finished taking in the structure was that there was no checkout counter or any kind of system in place to keep people from stealing books.
"Elaria, how do you keep people from just stealing the books?" I asked figuring there was some kind of system that I just couldn't see.
She stopped and looked back at me before saying, "We have no need. Those of Ithielthiel would never steal from Ithielthiel."
"You never have any books go missing?" I asked surprised. "Surely not all elves are trustworthy."
"Those Elves that aren't trustworthy have been expelled from Ithielthiel," Elaria said before adding, "You are a guest here, and thus allowed to use our public resources like this library. Do not break this trust."
Turning, she continued along until we came to one of the tables towards the back of the library where she instructed us to sit down. Both Eldertits and I did as instructed and waited a couple minutes while Elaria fetched a map from elsewhere in the library.
"How much do you two know of the geography of the continent?" Elaria asked.
"Almost nothing," I responded.
"Less than nothing," Eldertits said.
Elaria sighed and said, "I figured that would be the case. This is a map of the continent of Pantigos. Don't ask me why it's called that, I don't know."
She pointed to the northern part of a forest on the southern part of the continent and said, "This is Ithielthiel, and the forest around it is Irune. The small country to the south that borders the sea is the human duchy of Altira which is itself a vassal state of the Empire of Varland that dominates the Western portion of our continent."
This really puts into perspective how big this world was.
"Most of the eastern half," Elaria continued, "is taken up by the Kingdom of Eld, the oldest established human civilization on our continent. Running diagonally down the center see this mountain range. It's called the Great Dividing Range for all of the obvious reasons. It not only divides our continent in half but separates it's two great powers. The area of land right below the bottom of these mountains and north of Irune is called the Deadlands for the number of people that have been killed fighting over it. Currently, the Deadlands is claimed by both Varland and Eld, but in reality, neither has a presence. In actuality, it is a desolate place roamed by marauders and various beasts that enjoy the easy feasting left in the wake of battle. The southernmost Mountain of the Great Dividing Range is called Svartor, and in its foothills is a cave we call the Black Gate. It leads to the home of our greatest enemy, the dark elves, and that is where we are going."
"So," Eldertits started, "we're just going for a nice little stroll through northern Irune, across these so-called Deadlands, up into the foothills of this mountain, and then into a cave?"
"Yes, and then once in the cave, you will have to find your own way through the tunnels until you reach the dark city of Maleuhur," Elaria responded. "Once you are there, you will locate and rescue Turin by any means necessary and bring him back to the Black Gate where we will all make our way back across the Deadlands and into Irune."
"Damn, this really isn't going to be an easy task at all," I said out loud.
"No, it will not be, I will guide you two to the Black Gate. From there, you are on your own," she said. "Your personal maps should have updated with the information we've just gone over."
I checked, and my map had in fact, updated with the new information; though, if I tried zooming in any further than the basic political boundaries, it once again became clouded. I guess I had to fill in the finer details in a different way.
"I must go work on my own preparations now. I suggest you do the same. We leave at dawn three days from now," Elaria stated getting up and then added, "I will find you both in the next couple of days, so we can go visit House Parthanuun."
She walked away leaving Eldertits and myself just sitting there staring at each other.
"Well, I also have some other things I need to do," Eldertits said getting up. "I'll see you around."
Now that it was just me, I figured I'd better get started on some preparations of my own, but the only thing that came to mind was the subquest of learning to speak Dark Elvish. The problem I had was that I had no idea where to begin looking for the book I required.
I began wandering around the first floor of the library trying to figure out how exactly this library was organized, but all of the signs were in Elvish, and there wasn't exactly a Dewey Decimal System. After a few minutes of this, an elf dressed in a simple green robe came up to me and asked if he could assist me. I explained to him that I was looking to learn Dark Elvish, and he pointed me to the northeast corner of the second floor, which he said was the languages section.
I found the languages section on the second floor pretty easily, but it took me a good fifteen minutes to locate the book I was looking for, because most of the books were in Elvish. I finally located a book in the common tongue called Common to Dark Elvish, Learning the Language of the Deep.
I cracked the book open and was immediately met by a notification.
This book allows you to learn the language: Dark Elvish.
To use this book, you must level up your linguistics skill which is currently at 0. At level 1, you will be able to learn an additional language.
It's a good thing I stopped allocating skill and stat points right when I got them; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to complete this subquest.
Opening up my menu, I went to basic character information and then to the skills section. I located linguists and added a skill point to it.
You are attempting to add a skill point to Linguistics. Linguistics is the ability to work with different languages, both in spoken and written forms. The more skill points you have in Linguistics, the more languages you can learn and the faster you can learn them assuming a normal intelligence stat. A higher intelligence stat can improve this as well, while a lower intelligence stat will have the inverse effect.
At your current intelligence of 13 with 1 skill point in Linguistics, you will be able to learn 1 additional basic language, and it will take you 40 hours of studying to learn it. Do you wish to place a skill point in Linguistics?
Yes or No?
I selected yes and went to my stats section and added three stat points to intelligence, bringing that total score to sixteen. I had to get that time to learn down. Even if I had forty hours, which I really didn't have, I didn't really want to spend that long reading a book.
Having done this, I went back to my Linguistics skill and looked at it. I could still only learn one more language but the time to learn it had dropped to thirty-five hours. Better, but not great. I dumped two more skill points into Linguistics.
At your current intelligence of 16 with 3 skill points in Linguistics, you will be able to learn 2 additional basic languages and it will take you 30 hours of study to do it. Do you wish to place 2 additional skill points into Linguistics?
Yes or No?
I selected yes happily at having shaved ten hours' worth of study time off in just a matter of minutes. Stats and skills were really something I had to make sure I used wisely. I still left one of each unallocated for insurance, just in case something came up.
Finished, I closed the menu and carried the book down from the second floor to a table on the first floor and sat down. I opened the book again and was greeted by the same notification, but this time without the added need for the skill Linguistics.
This book allows you to learn the language: Dark Elvish.
You currently have 1 of 3 basic language slots filled. Do you wish to learn the language Dark Elvish?
Yes or No?
Selecting Yes caused a timer to appear on the top right-hand corner of every page of the book that showed thirty hours remaining. I closed the book and reopened it, the timer was still there, and it hadn't changed. Deciding that it seemed like a pretty foolproof system, I began to read.
"Hey"
"Hey!"
"Hey, Ryland!"
I looked up from the book and saw Eldertits standing there staring down at me. It felt almost like no time at all had passed since I had last seen her.
"Hey Elder, what can I help you with?" I asked.
"Have you eaten dinner yet?" She asked me.
"Dinner? Wouldn't it be more like lunchtime?" I responded perplexed.
"It's nine p.m. We should talk, things work differently in this world," Eldertits said.
"What? That can't be right, I only just started read..." I started before trailing off as I glanced on the timer at the top of the page.
The timer read seventeen hours and thirty-five minutes remaining. Holy shit, I'd been reading for almost thirteen hours straight. How did that happen? I don't even remember anything I've read.
"Reading is different here, follow me, and we'll talk about it over dinner," Eldertits said before adding, "leave the book, it will return to the shelf on its own."
I did as I was told and followed Eldertits out of the library and into a tavern that wasn't very far away. She sat me down at an empty table before ordering two tall beers and two bowls of mutton stew from the bar.
"I have a hunch already, but what is your story, Ryland?" Eldertits asked staring at me after she sat down across from me.
"What do you mean? Like my character's backstory?" I asked looking back at her quizzically.
"No, your story. Tell me about yourself outside of the game world," She responded.
"Well, technically I don't have a life outside of the game world anymore," I told her. "I'm one of the beta testers for the new eternal life digitization program. So far I'd have to say it seems to be working pretty well; though, this world definitely has some quirks."
