Wail blinked. Once. Twice. He was back – no more visions. A sickly red still illuminated the chamber though, a message popping up in the middle of Wail’s vision.

Do you wish to change your class to Warlock?

Wail had to admit - he did not expect this. Well maybe a little bit.

Though he never heard of such a class, which could only mean - warlock might be an extremely rare one. Or Wail just wasn’t very knowledgeable on the ins and outs of Alternative Reality. Which was obviously ridiculous. Wail snorted at the very thought of it.

Alternative Reality had a certain class system with an unannounced number of them. Players could choose and easily unlock a number of common classes – on which you could read upon inside their web page. Non-accessible while in-game of course.

That’s the boring way though. You could also go search the world for rarer picks. Ones that needed to have certain criteria met to unlock. Sometimes it was a quest, sometimes even an item. Mostly a lot of grinding - be it for money, reputation or who knows what else.

Warlock. Wail got lucky. Finally, he could ditch this un-profitable fire-based magician’s class. Though Wail had to admit – burning living creatures alive had its moments. He made some good memories - but it was time to let go. After all - Wail had dreams of being rich to accomplish.

“Yes” – Was the only reasonable choice.

Congratulations! You have changed your class to Warlock.

*New spells unlocked.

*Class bonuses have changed.

*Unlocked hidden item properties.

*+100 Fame.

Quest added.

Legacy of the Forgotten

Description: Before humanity rose to power – another race ruled the land. A vast and prospering Kingdom – its glory all but forgotten over the passage of time. Find out more about this long-lost culture.

Restrictions: Warlock.

Difficulty: C

Reward: Unknown.

Penalty upon failure: Will revert to the previous class.

*May only fail upon dismissing the quest.

+20 Fame for starting a legendary quest.

A chain quest. Another surprise. It was even forced on poor Wail without his consent.

He glanced at the content - a waste of time by the looks of it. No set timer though, so Wail didn’t need to rush or anything. There were other, more important and preferably - financially secure prospects. Plus the unknown reward part made him feel cautious - wouldn’t be surprised if the game screwed him over regarding it.

Now for the fun part - Wail checked his new spells. Seems like he got more than one - and couldn’t wait to try them out on some innocent and oblivious passerby. Preferably adorable. That’s our frustrated Wail - venting on things others might otherwise like. A true rebel.

Fireball – Intermediate level 5 (86.2%)

The most basic fire-based spell. Conjures a fireball – can be managed in any way decided upon by the wielder. Can set on fire and cause damage over time. The over-time effect causes damage according to set circumstances.

Base fire damage – 164-251 damage.

Base over-time fire damage – 15 damage/sec.

Mana cost – 13 mana per use.

Casting time – 1.4 seconds.

*Damage increased by 15% due to wisdom.

*Mana cost reduced by 20% duo to Intellect.

*Casting time reduced by 20% due to intellect.

Seems like his original spell remained unchanged. With him through thick and thin - always beside when he needed a spark. A friend. Probably the best he ever had. By now Wail grew attached to this most basic of basic spells. So many good memories. Sure, there was a time when he only managed to set his own feet on fire. Or his robe. Not the best times, sure. All those spent funds on new gear. All that quarreling with customer service.

Still. Fireball gave more than it took away. Loads of fun, plenty of laughs. A number of uses even without its combat capabilities. This was definitely a good thing. Wail felt satisfied for a few moments. Then he returned to his usual grumpy self and moved on.

Soul Syphon– Beginner level 1 (0.00%)

Curses an area - dealing periodic damage to its victims. Channels the suffering of those afflicted by the curse - and turns it into health for the caster. Upon death, the victim’s soul is brought under the will of the caster. Reapplying the curse upon a target only refreshes its duration.

Damage over time –17.25 damage/sec

Damage-to-life: 25%

Area of effect - 10 meters.

Duration - 40 seconds.

Mana cost – 64 mana.

Casting time – 3.2 seconds.

Cooldown – 15 seconds.

*Damage increased by 15% due to Wisdom.

*Mana cost reduced by 20% due to Intellect.

*Casting time reduced by 20% due to Intellect.

Vengeful Reanimation - Beginner level 1 (0.00%)

Calls upon the souls of the tormented - possessing the nearby deceased, to bring about vengeance upon the world.

Maximum number of minions - 10

Minion strength - 40%

Minion health - 125%

Mana cost - 160 health.

Soul Cost - 1 soul per minion.

Mana cost per minion - 1.6 mana/sec.

Casting speed - 1.38 seconds.

*Summoned creatures are extremely aggressive and will attack foes on sight. Hard to control.

*Reanimation will last until mana supply is disturbed or the minions are destroyed.

*Minion strength depends on the bodies used.

*Minion strength increased by 15% due to wisdom.

*Cost reduced by 20% duo to Intellect.

*Casting time reduced by 20% due to intellect.

Two new spells - both completely fitting Wail’s taste. His craving for mass-murder will finally be within reach - without any outside help. What a psychopath. Of course, the summoning spell required souls as a regent to use. And he’ll need to do quite a bit of killing with Soul Syphon to get them. A slow start, sure. Since fireball won’t even be an option anymore. Vengeful Reanimation does not only need souls - but also bodies. If the body is completely destroyed - like burned to ash, as an example - he won’t be able to use it. Might prove to be quite a bother. Once he starts up though, there will be no stopping him. He’ll have minions to soak up hits for him which will serve as a means to stock up on bodies and souls. Heck, he’ll even use fireball if the need arises - right of the privileged.

Sustaining a number of those critters will be a problem though. A huge one. 1.6 mana per minion - that was insane! Basically, he could only sustain ten minions at once - without facing any serious mana problems. There was no way that many would satisfy Wail. No way in hell. What kind of evil army was composed of ten minions? He’d be the laughing stock of everyone. Again. Wail will be forced to stay low, level up the spell as much as possible, get more mana and reduce its cost per minion. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. His time will come. Eventually. Maybe. Hopefully.

Thinking everything through reminded Wail of something. He had two strange tomes in his satchel - tomes he couldn’t identify before. A few minutes were spent rummaging through his medium sized satchel - like a great pit of loot. Which it probably was, considering who we’re dealing with here.

A few deep breaths and he had both of the leather-bound books in-hand.

“Well, what do you know?” - Wail exhaled with a satisfied look on his face. Who else could be proud of Wail if not Wail himself, after all?

Life Tap

Sacrifice your own life-force for magical essence.

Swaps 20% health for 10% mana

Cooldown: 1 sec.

Soul Link

Shares the life-force between the caster and the selected minion. Connects the fates of both, sharing damage, healing and any other effects.

Damage transfer - 50%/50%

Healing and soul transfer - 75%/25%

Mana pool sharing - 50%/50%

*Must be active to have the intended effect.

Success! Two new spells! Wail never had so many in his short-virtual lifetime. He might just get confused which one to use in what situation - but let’s leave the worries for later. What interested Wail most was the first one - Life Tap. Oh yes, now his curse spell had a whole new purpose. A function. Or multi-function to be exact. Not only would it deal moderate damage and gather souls from those who fell prey to it - Soul Syphon will now serve as an additional mana supply. Since minions will serve as meat-shields, Wail will be able to Life Tap all of the excess health into mana. Which will mean that maintaining a larger number of minions for longer periods of time will no longer be a headache. Combining the two spells will serve as a formidable tool in Wails conquest of Alternative Reality! He couldn’t help but release an evil-mastermind type laugh into the open. Chuckling away his sanity. Once self-awareness struck like a hammer, Wail quickly looked around and made sure no one noticed. Surely, an embarrassing moment.

Soul Link on the other hand? That’s a total wild card. He’d need to test it out quite a bit to find its proper uses. Using it on meat-shields did seem like a waste. Sharing gathered souls didn’t fit well with Wail either. Heck, the spell itself was completely against his philosophy on life. Taking instead of giving. Unless you’re giving pain. He didn’t mind sharing some of that.

Summoning Mastery - Beginner level 1 (0.00%)

Strengthens summoned creatures and the control over them.

Health increased by - 10%

Damage increased by - 10%

Control increased by - 5%

Spell Mastery - Beginner level 1 (0.00%)

Increases the overall damage of spells. Reduces cost.

Damage increased by 10%

Mana cost reduces by 5%

Soul Mastery - Beginner level 1 (0.00%)

Determined by the number of souls gathered by the caster. Provides various effects and bonuses.

Current effects:

*Increased damage to creatures below the 15% health threshold by 10%

*increases the damage to creatures under the effect of Soul Syphon by 5%

*The effects have an accumulative effect.

Seems like fire mastery got completely replaced by spell mastery, with extremely similar bonuses. So basically - the spell range expanded. Which means that Wail might get spells with different attributes. That was great news indeed - as it will help fight enemies with strong resistances. Unless they have magic resistance. If so? No much he could do about it. Next? Oh yes, two more. Summoning mastery seemed the most promising to Wail - leveling it up would end up enhancing his summoned minions, making them even more useful. Not only that - but having a mastery on summoning meant, that he wouldn’t be limited to just Vengeful Reanimation. Which was also fantastic. He just couldn’t wait and find out what other goodies Alternative Reality had prepared. Maybe he’ll get to summon delicious food to prey upon in the future. Having in mind how crazy the game itself was - not much would surprise him by now.

Soul Mastery. Another wild card. By the look of it - Wail’s future would evolve around gathering and using souls. Obviously, that seemed like a total headache and a complete bother, but not much could be done regarding it. Wail could only find out by testing it out first hand. If push comes to shove, Wail will have to try searching for info on the internet.

Wail shook his head at the very thought of it. That would be the same as asking for someone’s help. Wail never depends on others. Sure he might extort others, but never depend or request. Definitely not his style. Since Wail was a truly honest and straightforward individual - owing someone was a hard burden to bear. He might be an extremely mean person in many cases. Slightly insane, paranoid and egotistical. Greedy self-serving and…

Well, Wail was a lot of things. But he was still fair. He paid back his debts. Always. Usually in the form of revenge and retribution. Positive results weren’t very common. Examples of him doing so could basically be counted on just one hand. Quite possible the mentality was a by-product of his inner-psyche attempting to artificially inflate his self-worth. Who knows what will happen when the bubble pops?

Alternatively, one could theorize that too much loneliness leaves one with plenty of time to self-analyze. Which quickly turns into a self-torturing activity - judging and molding oneself into someone you could stand. Someone you could look in the mirror at. Someone who could have friends. Thus, this could be one of the after affects - an extreme sense of fairness.

Going by all that, Wail couldn’t really be judged for all he does or will do - he was fair. His life was full of hardships, thus he was paying the world back. Give and give back.

Without a doubt - life inside Alternative Realty just kept on getting increasingly interesting. A small danger bell started to ring inside Wail’s head. A little more and he might forget about outside life completely. Which wouldn’t turn out too well. What were the people creating this game thinking? Were they some group of evil-masterminds bent on creating the ultimate addicting environment? To suck every single person inside of it, forcing them to wither away in reality? Life was one big conspiracy and Wail couldn’t rest with the idea of someone being more evil than he was.

He was easy to distract though.

Now that the spells were all done with - Wail was ready for desert. Sweet sweet items.

Demons’ Bind

Description: Once a crazed blacksmith forged this dagger from unknown materials. Some said he was possessed, some said people used to disappear around his home. None could prove any of it. When someone ballsy enough to gather an angry mob finally appeared - the blacksmith was already gone. All that was left was this dagger. It is said to bind its victim’s soul to the bearers will.

Damage: 25-33

Requirements: Level 75, 20 Strength, 60 Intelligence.

Restriction: Warlock

*+20 to wisdom and +20 to Intelligence.

*+20 Fame

*-75 Reputation upon equipping.

*Chance of angry mob appearing with the intent to burn you at the stake.

*Does an additional 25 Black magic damage.

*Reanimates the victim, binding his/her soul to the bearers will.

*Soulbound - will not drop upon death.

Robe of Bolerus

Description: Once worn by Belorus – a follower of the Old Way. Served the last Warlock as an apprentice. Used in choosing the next Warlock candidate.

Durability: 31/35

Defense: 15

Requirements: Level 75. 50 Fortitude, 50 Wisdom, 80 Intelligence.

Restrictions: Warlock.

*+600 health and +30 Intelligence.

*+15 Fame.

*While wearing – marked as a heretic by major religions.

*-100 Reputation upon equipping.

*Soulbound - will not drop upon death.

*Unknown.

He guessed it. Bonuses on the items he “borrowed” changed completely - and they were simply ridiculous. These were low level items. Rare? Sure. Still low level though. Considering that - the intellect bonus as an example - was sky-high. Not to mention the other bonuses and additional effects.

Of course - the loss of reputation was quite a downside - and would be for most players. Not for Wail though - reputation in general seemed quite useless to him. This was Wail - a person who went beyond the line of no return. To any other player losing so much reputation at this level would have been a devastating blow. No sane person could take the constant weird eye given by every non-player character - npc for short, around. Not only that, but bartering or simply conversing with them would prove almost impossible. Which would mean - no medical supplies, no gear and no money. Basically, one would be forced to join the underworld, be it bandits or some other outside of the law organizations.

That’s not all of course. You would also be marked as a heretic and shunned or even hunted by all major religions. Which is probably the worst inconvenience. Almost all of the healing classes belonged to some major religion - since the main healing classes were priests and clerics, with a few exceptions. Druids were one - but the majorly negative reputation will hinder interaction with them as well. They’ll most likely see you as some arsonist and a threat to nature - hunting you down all the same. Maybe feeding you to some wild animals for good measure. Imagination is the limit.

Last resort - combat medics. Military trained medics who are experts at first aid. Sure, they don’t use magic and their healing is the worst of all. But! They are usually surprisingly good fighters - excelling at almost anything. Except magic. They usually belong to military orders though, which was directly related with the government of course. End result? Hanged as a criminal.

In conclusion - you’d be doomed.

That just covers the npc part of the whole experience, of course. Players were a slightly different story - since they were not obligatory to follow the set rules of this world. But preferred to do so either way. Going against the law proved too much of a hassle and a risk to lose your own reputation, hinder overall progress. Following the rules though - gave great benefits and unexpected, or expected by now, quests. So even if one hopes to find a friend who’ll support you - disappointment is just around the corner. Quite a few stories drifted in the internet - speaking of broken companionships due to clashing interests.

A truly harsh life. Just what the doctor ordered - Wail could only smile. All of the above? Wail was used to it in real life. It’s not like he wasn’t kicked out of a church before - and he did promise to get them back for it.

Years of suffering helped him twist his inner world upside down - making life an easier place to get by in. Like a wild animal he adapted to the environment - expecting only the worse, and always being ready for it. Most of the time.

Someone gave him the weird eye? An impatient waitress gave him the angry look? Someone took the last slice of pie he so wanted - right from under his nose? Wail welcomed it all. It all served only to prove his existence in this sad play of a life. His solo show of a victim. That’s right - he was the victim, a reflection in the mirror. A reaction. A ripple on the surface. He was simply giving the world back, what he received - and there was plenty of giving back left. What a cry-baby.

Conditions have been met in Alternative Reality as well. Once he puts on the items - it would be Wail against the world. No allies, no friends. Odds stacked heavily against him. What could prove more fun? He could vent every single last drop of any pent-up frustration without hesitation - with a valid excuse as well. Conscience clear of any guilt. He stuffed the robe inside his satchel - time to grind down those remaining levels.

Wail was level 71 at the moment. Which meant he needed to level up 4 times before he could put on those items. Double experience bonus. No problem.