Emerilia Box Set, page 3
part #1 of Emerilia Series
He wandered into the basement. Another glass wall looked out over the sea. With a press of a button, massive curtains closed over the window pane. Zane turned and wandered down concrete steps to his basement.
People wondered what Austin Zane did when he was home. Was he talking to that supermodel on his arm at some gala, or doing business? Did he really sleep? What did he eat? Drink?
“Little do they know.” Doors opened to show a black reclining chair with a black helmet. Around the room were gaming posters and a closet of models of his favorite characters.
“Sorry, ole buddy—gonna go with the upgrade.” He tapped the computer in the corner of the room affectionately.
He sat in the chair in the middle of the room. He didn’t have anything to do for the next three days. The Japanese delegation would be all over the United States while he was in-game. Suzy could send him messages about anything major. He wasn’t scared; his people knew what they were doing. He’d been waiting for the newest VR system to come out for months. As soon as he heard about it, he’d had Suzy get him some days off.
It had been tested out in Japan first. Their servers had grown overnight; people ranted and raved about it. Professional gamers sold their old gear to pay for the new system.
So far there was just one game for the system, the only game that Zane wanted to play: Emerilia, made by Jukal Enterprises.
Zane made sure that all the cords were in the right places. He treated the chair with the same care as he’d treated the rockets he’d sent off to mine asteroids.
He finished another beer as a robot came in with food. Zane ate and drank everything. He wanted to spend as much time in-game as possible. He wiped his hands on the towel provided, sat back in the seat and pulled the helmet on his head.
Chapter 2: Start
The real world fell away as he came into a white circular room. He moved around.
“Well, this is awesome.” He touched his hands, touched his face. “Look at me, Mom—walking and talking, a regular circus act.” He laughed at his own joke as a prompt came up.
System Message
Would you like to begin your game?
Y/N
Zane thought of Yes and the prompt disappeared.
Damn, they were just talking about that feature a few months ago—nice!
The white world faded to black. He heard birds chirp in the distance and felt a faint warm breeze on his skin. It smelled like damp wood, food, fire, and hay.
He looked around. He was lying on a metal altar, looking up at a mural of six colored circles that touched one another: black, gold, white, blue, green, and red. They were formed into a connecting ring above him.
“Get off the spawn point, dude. My buddy’s trying to revive and you’re in the way!” someone said.
Zane looked around and saw an annoyed-looking Elf. He stood; he was a few feet shorter than usual. He waddled a bit, trying to get used to his new legs.
A bright light filled the room. Zane looked up. The mural of six circles flared, creating a rainbow of colors that connected with the metal altar. Seconds later, the light disappeared and a human opened his eyes.
“Hey, Phil, ’bout time you got here!” The Elf moved to the man.
“Couldn’t get the day off work, unlike some people.” Phil accepted the Elf’s hand and got off the altar.
Zane looked at the altar. A faint screen appeared in his view.
Name: Altar of Rebirth
Imbued with the powers of Dark, Light, Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Once a soul is linked to an Altar or reaches its domain, they will revive at that location if they die. When a user dies, their reincarnation will revive with all their saved experiences.
Quality: A
Durability: Immortal. Some have tried to destroy an Altar of Rebirth. It is said that they are still being revived and killed millennia later.
Zane whistled. “Don’t fuck with the Altars—got it.”
The circles symbolizing different Affinities came to life. A new rainbow cascaded down to the Altar.
New Active Skill: Analyze
You actually give a crap about what’s around you! Or you’re a pervert. Whatever.
Level: Mastered
Effect: You are now able to see people’s overall level, name, and race
New Passive Skill: Perception
You take time to look at your surroundings and analyze them. You notice details that others do not. At higher levels, people will think you can smell gold.
Level: Novice level 1
Effect: 5% chance to find hidden details.
Zane turned for the doors to the Altar. It was time to find out more about Emerilia! He got to the door before a new prompt appeared.
Name your character!
Emerilia is a dangerous place, but people need to know what to call you!
Name:
–
Random Generator:
David Grahslagg
Somehow, he knew Grahslagg meant Rock Breaker.
“Not terrible.” He shrugged and accepted the game name. He was here to mess around; he didn’t need people knowing he was Austin Zane.
A new stat screen appeared.
Character Sheet
Name:
David Grahslagg
Gender:
Male
Level:
1
Class:
-
Race:
Human/Dwarf
Alignment:
-
Unspent points: 0
Health:
1000
Regen:
0.04 /s
Mana:
100
Regen:
0.10 /s
Stamina:
120
Regen:
0.10 /s
Vitality:
11
Endurance:
9
Intelligence:
10
Willpower:
10
Strength:
11
Agility:
9
Explains why I’m short as shit. He dismissed the screen with a wave.
He stepped out into the city. To his right, there was a bustling market; a castle was beyond it. To his left was a main street that led out to the roads.
Dave looked around. A small smile formed on his face as he just walked around the people. No one was pestering him, reporters weren’t taking pictures: he was just another one of the many.
He walked around the market, taking it in. He watched a group of Players wander through the market, running around from place to place and hitting NPCs as they moved in their rush.
Dave sighed and continued to walk around, smiling and greeting others.
New Passive Skill: Blend
Others might run around like chickens with their head cut off. You blend in with your surroundings.
Level: Novice level 1
Effect: 5% chance to increase sneak in populated areas.
He’d never heard of a skill like Blend, but he remembered the videos he’d seen on the game. There were two types of skills: The presets that came in the form of commands that a Player could use to do certain actions. Then there were the evolving skills; they weren’t made based on some linear tree like older games.
He opened up his interface discreetly as he found somewhere to lean against a wall. He went onto Emerilia’s forums. Already a skill tree was growing; there was a crazy amount of information.
People had been doing all kinds of actions and they had found new skills. Some debated whether they had actually created them as the AI had reacted to their input. Others wondered how many different skills there could be. No one had an answer for that. More turned up every few minutes.
It seemed that Jukal Enterprises hadn’t been lying when they said that everyone’s experiences would be different. Everyone was getting different skills, and skills were not just ranked by someone using their abilities. Someone who shot a bow in real life and then showed that they could do it in-game would level the skill faster than someone who was just shooting mobs with a bow with preset commands.
The game was as fluid and rigid as people wanted it to be.
Dave went past the major skill trees like two-handed melee, sneak, armor proficiency, or archery—getting to the crafting. There was little to nothing on it. Sure, people had found out about smithing and such, though otherwise they’d gone off for search of quests, baddies, and EXP.
Dave would have done that as a younger man, but now, gaming was a catharsis. He just wanted some time to make something again.
There’s plenty time to do quests and grinding later. You can’t resist all those massive raids, or the feeling of defeating a boss no one has defeated before! He grinned and waved the interface away.
He wandered the marketplace. He got to a woman who was selling farming equipment and other utensils.
“Hi. How much for the small toolkit, pickaxe, saw, axe, hammer, simple blade, and a few dozen of the nails?” Dave asked.
“Fifty coppers,” she replied.
Something made him take another look at her.
Dave had been in enough deals to know when someone was trying to pull one over on him. He sighed, taking on a pained expression.
“All I can do is thirty.” He opened his menu with a thought but did not focus on it as he looked at his starting ten gold.
A hundred coppers made one silver. Ten silver coins were worth a gold coin.
“Forty.” She crossed her arms.
“Thirty-five,” Dave said.
She looked him over before a smile cracked her face and she held out a hand. “Done.”
“Good to do business with you.” He smiled as she grabbed the various tools.
New Passive Skill: Trading
Who knew? Those meetings weren’t for nothing. Whether you’re selling asteroids or buying a trowel, it’s always better to get it cheaper. At higher levels, you could sell air to a cloud.
Level: Novice level 1
Effect: Prices reduced 2%, profits increased 2%
Dave snorted at the status. “Wish it was that easy in real life. Snarky little AI commentator, I wonder how they found out about who I am.”
He dismissed his wandering thoughts, looking to his next notification.
Passive Skill: Perception
Level: Novice level 2
Effect: 7% chance to find hidden details.
Dave wiped his brow and dismissed the screens. The prompts were cocky and messing with him, but he found them entertaining. Better than the droll reports and boredom he dealt with every day.
Interesting, two skills can be associated with one another. Wonder if they could stack.
“I’ve been thinking of looking for a place to call my own, interested in building. Know anyone doing anything like that?” Dave asked.
“Sure, plenty people are trying to start new settlements. Say that there’s going to be more travelers running around.” She looked at the other Players, shaking her head at how they ran around as fast as possible and toppling people in their wake.
“Understandable,” Dave said.
“If you’re going far, might be an idea to go talk to Siven. She makes clothes and boots. Also has some of those dimensional bags if you’ve got the gold for it.” The woman trader looked apprehensive.
“Where is she?” Dave asked.
“Up the main street two blocks, take a right. Siven the Seamstress. Tell her Brenna sent you.”
Quest: Shopping Spree
In Emerilia, you need somewhere to keep all of that loot. Get a bag of holding and maybe some new kicks to get started.
Meet with Siven
Rewards: EXP
Do you accept?
Y/N
Dave accepted and took the goods wrapped in cloth around the axe. He thought of the coppers and reached into his coin pouch; he pulled them out and handed them to Brenna. He gave her an extra copper with a smile. “Thanks for the help, Brenna.”
“No worries.” The coppers disappeared as she smiled. “If you want more information on new settlements and interesting areas, talk to Darryl at the bookstore. He’s got a collection of maps from the traveling guild. He’s up the main street four blocks, seven blocks to the right, near the rich sector,” Brenna said.
“Thanks!” Dave said, resting the axe and his items on his shoulder.
Pickaxe
Good for breaking rocks
Quality: D
Damage: 3 (piercing)
Durability: 140/140
Saw
Good for cutting down felled timber into smaller sections
Quality: D
Damage: 1 (Slash)
Durability: 70/70
Dave dismissed the other side of his screen listing the new items.
Axe
Hammer
Simple Blade
Iron Nails
He took off at a light jog, making sure to not hit people as he ran. He dodged through traffic here and there, humming a tune as people went about their lives.
New Passive Skill: Dodge
Whether you’re dodging through people, or out of the way of a blade, your body reacts before you have time to think about it.
Level: Novice level 1
Effect: 5% chance to evade objects.
He looked around Emerilia. It was beautiful. The rendition was amazing. It was another reason Dave was interested in moving to Japan: no mandatory kick-off times. Though you did have to wear a health monitor. Tons of people, who were dying or fed up with the world, went to Japan.
Three days in-game was only a day out of game. Dave didn’t know how they did it but somehow they’d compressed time inside the game.
Why have just a year left before you die, when you could have three?
Dave found Siven’s Seamstress and walked into the store. There were various clothes in racks. They seemed obscure and silly, though there were some sheaths in cabinets. Dave looked at them closely.
Sheath of Sharpness
Add +1 to overall damage when blade is pulled from sheath. Lasts for five strikes, fits short sword.
Sheath of Durability
As the sun rises, so will the durability of your blade. +1 to blade’s durability when paired. For blades quality of B or lower; will not add durability if blade is at full durability.
If he got a really high-level blade and sheath, then the sheath could repair it between fights. That could be really useful.
Dave looked over the sheaths and information about them on the forums. Similar sheaths could be made out of multiple materials, the higher quality the materials the longer it would last and the stronger the enchantments would be.
Something to think about in the future.
“Find anything you like?” A smiling, plump gnome walked over.
“Hi, Brenna sent me. Said that you might have something to carry this lot easier.” Dave shook his cloth satchel.
“That we can do. Where you headed to?” Siven went behind the counter Dave was looking at.
“Not sure yet. Looking for a new place to settle down. Get away from the beaten path, maybe help build something.” Dave shrugged.
Siven looked at Dave’s feet and winced. “Might I suggest that you get some new boots? Those won’t stay together all that well.” She stared at them.
“What have you got?” Dave asked. He’d felt the road beneath his feet as he walked. If they’ve added blisters, that is too much realism! He had a sneaking suspicion they had.
Siven pulled out four sets of shoes. None of them had any special stats but Dave tried them out, going with the most padded one that he could tie tight.
“A good choice.” Siven smiled.
Simple Boots
Comfortable shoes for long walks.
She pulled out a bag of holding. It would reduce anything in it, to forty percent of its original weight.
“I’ve been sending any of the travelers on quests all morning to do my errands. Makes life much easier!” She laughed.
Dave smiled, ready for the prompt.
“Lucky for us that we’re just normal people and not those bunch of idiots.” She smiled.
“Yeah.” Dave smiled back.
“It’ll be one silver and ninety-six coppers,” Siven said.
“All of it?” Dave asked.
“Yup,” Siven said.
That was way better than he’d been hoping for a bag of holding. He could do a jig!
“Thanks!”
A new prompt asked him if he accepted the sale.
He did, the weight of money in his pocket becoming lighter.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” she smiled, looking to another customer that had entered her shop.
Dave took the boots and put them on. They were much more comfortable than his old ones. He put his satchel into the open mouth of the bag of holding and put it on his back.
Bag of holding
Reduces materials inside to 40% of original weight. Ability to Auto-sort.
Do you want to Soul Bind with this item? (Once soul bound no one can steal this from you even if you are dead)
Y/N
Sauweeeet! Yes, yes, yes, yes!
“Could you give me directions to Darryl, who owns the bookstore?” Dave asked.
“Sure. Go up Edoa Road, to Ferick and go right. He’s on the left side of the street, with a book for a sign,” she said.
Quest: Shopping Spree
In Emerilia, it’s good to know where you’re going and where you’ve been. Go to Darryl’s Bookstore to get a map.
Reward: 1,500 XP
“Thanks.” Dave headed out the door and for Darryl’s. The weight of his pack was negligible. With it, he could get some more things for his travels.
Most people had to go do something for the creator in order to get their bags.
Maybe I’ll need food? Might as well check it out.
He jogged on for Darryl’s. He looked around as he went. He felt drawn towards some stores; he took a closer look at them and made a mental note to check them out as he saw tools he might need later.
