Rise and Shine

I woke with with a scream, with both the feel of sweat and tears on my face, as I looked around myself in a panic. Irritably, this was becoming too much of a common occurrence for me. I couldn’t see the group window from my peripheral vision, so I assumed that the group disbanded when we wiped.

I rubbed my neck, where the phantom pain of, something, still throbbed. Shaking my head clear from the exhaustion, I realized that I felt something on the sheets in between my legs. Looking down at it, I saw that it was a jet black amulet, with a blood red gem mounted in the center of it. The amulet’s black metal seemed to draw in the light around it, giving it an otherworldly reflection. The gem in the center had, what looked like, a murky fog swirling inside of it. Just like the black metal chain, it also seemed to draw in the light.

“Show stats,” I called out the system command.

Amulet of Noctis

Rarity: Unique, Soul-bound

Level: N/A

Weight: 0.1

Durability: Indestructible

———————————————————————————

Effects

Strength: +15

Dexterity: +5

Agility: +15

Vitality: +5

Wisdom: +15

All Resists: +5%

———————————————————————————

Bonus Effect: This item will gain in power along with the owner. For each level the owner of this necklace is, the power increases by 10%.

I closed my eyes and reopened them, not believing what I was seeing. I read over the stats, especially the bonus effect again, realizing that I was, in fact, reading it correctly. It was exceptionally rare that anyone in the game got anything that was unique. Hell, it was more likely that someone could create a black hole in real life by holding a stone and squeezing really hard. Of course there were rumors of unique items, but that was it. That was all they were, rumors. But here, in my hand, was an item that was unique. Not only that, but it was the same amulet that I saw Noctis wearing when I met her in the dream-world.

I tried to remember what happened before I died, however, the entire event seemed, odd. It was as if my memory from just after the Flames of Entrapment ignited to my death was a puzzle that was dismantled, shaken, and forced back together even though the pieces didn’t fit right. It was chaos, which, I finally realized with a laugh, was the entire point. Why wouldn’t my memory be utter chaos, when I met, and spoke with, the Harbinger of Chaos.

I started to think though, the knowledge slamming into me, that the harbingers were never meant to be killed! Or, were they? I would need to ask Noctis about this if, and when, I meet her next. It couldn’t be that she sent the harbinger to a low level dungeon to give me the amulet, could it? The entire thing is suspicious. Even though the harbingers could spawn anywhere, what is the point of spawning inside a rank 1 dungeon that would only have players that were a maximum of level 15 in it?

Knowing that I could not solve this particular problem, I put on the necklace and felt it bind itself to me. While I was sitting in bed, I wanted to check out my current character sheet now that I had a good amount of equipment, though I still needed to turn in Moire’s quest for my daggers.

“Show character stats” I called out, reading my the information about my character stats:

Character

Name: Raven

Occupation: Assassin

Level: 7 (433/489)

Currency: 10s, 48c

Health: 1375

Stamina: 1425

Mana: 1800

———————————————————————————

Stats

Strength: 61

Dexterity: 26

Agility: 59

Vitality: 26

Wisdom: 34

———————————————————————————

Damage: 252-504

Critical Hit Chance: 30%

Critical Hit Damage: 282-534

Evade Chance: 3%

Armor: 9

———————————————————————————

Resists

Slashing Damage: 18%

Blunt Damage: 13%

Piercing Damage: 13%

Fire Damage: 13%

Cold Damage: 13%

Lightning Damage: 13%

Poison Damage: 18%

Disease Damage: 13%

Soul Damage: 8%

———————————————————————————

Abilities

Stealth (Level 3)

Backstab (Level 1)

Eviscerate (Level 4)

Throw Magical Dagger (Level 1)

Riposte (Level 3)

Garrote (Level 1)

Advanced Assassinate (Level 5)

———————————————————————————

Equipment

Chest: Rawhide Leather Vest

Pants: Rawhide Leather Pants

Gloves: Rawhide Leather Gloves

Wrist(Right): Rawhide Leather Bracer

Wrist(Left): Rawhide Leather Bracer

Feet: Rawhide Leather Boots

Necklace: Amulet of Noctis

Ring(Right): Ring of the Hobgoblin

Weapon: Rusted Dagger (main)

“Hide character stats,” I said, my mind not quite believing what my eyes saw.

The Amulet of Noctis was boosting my stats significantly. It seemed that the amulet matched my level, so when I looked at the stats earlier, I was looking at the amulet when it was level 1. However, since I equipped it, now the amulet was level 7. No wonder unique items, for the most part, didn’t exist. They broke the game!

Getting excited now about my progress, I quickly jumped out of the bed and ran out of the inn and straight to Moire’s blacksmith shop.

“Moire! MOIRE!” I shouted like an evil step-mother as I ran into her store, almost tearing the door from the hinges.

Moire ran into the front of the shop from her back room, where I assumed her forge was, her blacksmith’s hammer in hand. She looked extremely disheveled and in a panic, as if she was asleep in the back.

“What!? What’s happening? Raven, what’s wrong? Are the herpes attacking again?”

I blinked several times, regaining my calm as I thought through her words.

“Herpes? Um, I hope you mean harpies; and no, there are no harpies Moire. I have your ore!” I gleefully smiled at the blacksmith, receiving a look of death incarnate from her.

“I should use your head instead of that damned ore Raven. What the hell is wrong with you, running in here screaming like that? You know what, I don’t want to know. Just give me that blasted ore and get the hell out of here. I’ll have your damn daggers ready in a few hours.”

I deposited the ore on her counter, completing the quest’s turn in step before turning around to leave the shop.

“Oh, I almost forgot! Can you make a cloak from these?” I asked as I turned back around and deposited the Hobgoblin Cloth pieces. Moire frowned as she took them, sitting the cloth on her counter before pointing towards the door, her hand shaking in anger.

Taking the hint, I finally left the blacksmith and started skipping towards the tavern where I could get a few glasses of wine while I waited. I completely failed to notice the looks of the NPCs hurrying out of my way with some of them, perhaps mothers, hugging their children tightly as I passed, wondering if I was possessed by some demonic entity.

Entering the tavern, I paused for a few seconds while my eyes adjusted to the soft glow of the candles that were mounted on the walls. It was your typical tavern with a barkeep behind the counter. Behind the barkeep was a large mirror that was above shelves that were stocked with dark bottles and a couple of small barrels on each side of the shelves laying down on another, larger shelf.

I looked over at Conall (who was the tavern’s barkeeper) as he was wiping off a crystal mug, his eyes focused on his task at hand. He was a ruggedly attractive man, his skin dark, even for a dark elf. He had long, straight silver hair which went perfectly with the silver earring. It had a chain running from a clasp that was attached near the tip of his ear to a metal loop on the bottom piercing, the silver reflecting the soft light of the tavern. I walked over to where he stood and greeted him.

“Hello again Conall. I was wondering, what type of wine do you recommend?”

Conall looked up at me, smiling as he recognized me, his dark eyes peering into my soul.

“Why, hello there little Raven. What kind of taste are you in the mood for,” he asked with a glowing smile that made my heart melt. Whoever created Conall must have been a female developer since she got everything right with him. If I didn’t know this was a game, I would actually try to flirt.

“I think I’m in the mood for something a bit dark, but on the sweet side,” I replied to him, smiling as I leaned over the counter a bit.

“I think I know just the thing. It’s called Rennor Jhinrae, have a seat wherever you like and I’ll bring it out to you.”

Conall reached down and grabbed a wine glass before disappointingly turning away, presumably to get whatever wine he was thinking of. I looked behind me and saw that there was a booth in the far back of the tavern that was not occupied, which I walked to and sat down.

From here, I could see almost the entire bar while I relaxed. There was a few people here already. A group of dark elves were whispering to each other at one of the round tables that were near the front of the tavern by the door. Just across from me sat a lone beastman that looked like a mix between a human and a german shepard. While I didn’t pay attention to the other dark elves, the beastman grabbed my attention, as other races were typically very rare in the starter towns. He didn’t look like a new player though, since he was wearing Shadow Steel armor. If I remembered correctly, Shadow Steel was typically around level 40 to 50 armor. Mentally shrugging, I waited for my Rennor Jhinrae, looking forward to talking to Conall again.

“Your Rennor Jhinrae, my lady. That will be 2 silver,” Conall said as he sat down the crystal glass in front of me, the golden liquid calling to me.

I looked up into his eternal brown eyes again and gave him my thanks while I handed him the silver, paying for the wine. Sighing, I decided to focus on what happened over the last few days while I slowly drank the black wine, savoring the taste of sweet blackberries, letting the dizziness slowly start to overcome me.

So, somehow when I entered that mine, I became trapped inside of this game. I still don’t know the how or why of it, but for some reason I’m not able to contact a GM using the menu in the game, nor can I log out using either the system call command or manually using the UI. Not only that, but the system is supposed to automatically boot you out of the game when it senses your stress levels getting too high. I can only imagine that with what has happened so far, my stress levels have went beyond red.

Since I’m able to use all of my senses; sight, sound, taste, and smell, I may as well be living in this game. But the odd thing is that Noctis, and even that harbinger to an extent, acted as if they knew something was going on. I’m fairly certain that there is something going on there with the AI, since it shouldn’t even be aware of the outside world. I’m not even sure if the harbingers should be aware of the deities unless, of course, the players have been going about those all wrong.

Wait thinking about the game’s AI, from what has been released about the game, it uses the quantum servers for machine learning. So, what if they used those same servers to duplicate my conscious into? Is it even possible that the AI is using my experiences in the outside world now? No, it… maybe it is… no, no, it shouldn’t be possible. I just don’t know, I never even read anything about how AI and all that actually worked. Just because I know some stuff that I read on the community forums doesn’t exactly qualify me as being an expert.

Anyways, for the time being, I only have 3 more levels until I’m level 10. Once I hit that mile-marker, a few NPC quests should start to appear that will lead me to the main city of the beginner zone. If I recall correctly from that map inside of the inn, I think the name of it is Kinderfell. I’m kind of interested in what type of quest it’ll be, since on Shadowblood I had to escort a caravan with the head of a boss monster that I killed during an encounter.

I’ll also be able to learn my two professions there as well, so I should probably keep an eye out for anything like that. I think I’ll end up needing talk to both Moleari and Moire about them once I hit level 10. Hopefully they’ll request for me to meet with the NPC crafters there since I plan on getting into tailoring and alchemy for the professions. I should get both herbalism and skinning from them as well.

Hopefully I’ll be able to use the auction house in the main city, which at this point as long as the damned interface is working. If I can use the auction house, I can get player-crafted armor, weapons, and enchantments from there. I’ll also be able to sell off any of the excess potions that I make. Even if a single potion doesn’t go for much, the quantity that people usually purchase more than make up for that since they’re consumables. Potions are usually always high in demand, and the rare poisons can go for a good amount of platinum as well.

On that note, another thing that will be a significant issue in the near term is my finance situation. I’m already down to 8 silver and 48 copper. I’ll need at least 1 gold to learn the professions, and 50 silver to learn the gathering skills. I also need to somehow get 10 gold to learn Shadow Step. So, 12 gold or so total. I wonder if I can beg? Guys always seemed to throw money to any female avatar in the game, so maybe I can take advantage of that? Heh, no. That’s the entire reason why I made Shadowblood male was so I could get away from that crap. I’ll keep that an option though, since this isn’t just a game anymore, is it?

Caressing my temple to get rid of the migraine that I could feel starting, I looked around the tavern a bit, now that I wasn’t lost in my thoughts. A group of four was close by talking animatedly about some news report they saw before they logged into the game. I took a sip of my wine, still wanting to think about how I was progressing in the game so far while I kept listening to the group of players.

On the other hand, my stats and skills are progressing as I hoped, and even more so with that amulet. I’m not even going to speculate how that happened since I’ll need to speak with Noctis about it. If the game progresses as it should, it won’t be until level 20 when I can speak with her again since that’s when I should be sent on a deity quest to get an armor and weapon set.

I could hear them talking about some terrorist group that went by HAIST, or Humans Against Inter-Stellar Travel. They used a suicide bomber to destroy a building where they were testing some new technology for some secret mission that would be in a few years. Supposedly, it was a joint research project by HEoDS and XGS.

What the fuck?

The crystal glass that shattered on the ground brought silence to the tavern, as everyone turned their heads and eyes to me. I could only stare, unmoving, at the four players that were just talking, my hands shaking uncontrollably. My vision started to go hazy, not wanting to believe what I just heard. I didn’t even notice Conall hurrying over to me, a cloth rag in his hand.

“Raven! Raven, are you okay?” he asked me, even though I was still stunned.

I couldn’t even feel his hands on my cheeks, turning my head towards him.

“Raven,” he started, looking into my eyes. My reflection was staring back at me, upside down. “Now you know, and for that, I truly am sorry,” he said to me softly.

I couldn’t even feel the tears once again forming in my eyes before I fainted in his arms.

A Purpose Renewed

Waking up in darkness, I could hear the various noises of people beneath me. This was obviously not the inn which I always woke in and I could still feel that my face was wet as I kept my head on the soft pillow that smelled like the forest, trying to comfort myself. It was that smell that intoxicated me every time I met with Conall.

Since I was still in shock, I couldn’t make out the figure that was sitting in a chair that was beside the bed which I was currently laying down in.

“I can see that your awake Raven. Do you want to talk,” Conall asked softly, his voice stirring up several emotions in me.

“How did you know?” I asked, my voice still trembling from the shock of the news that I heard. I pulled the woolen blanket up further, balling it in my hands under my chin, not wanting to hear his answer.

“That…, will be be hard to explain. The gods from the other side of the Veil, the ones you call developers, created this world. They blessed everyone that truly interacted with the veil-walkers with true intelligence, or as you know it, artificial intelligence.

Noctis, the deity that both you and I worship, visited all of her worshipers and told us the truth about the world. She also told us about you as well. However, she also asked that we do not tell you what she learned. Instead, she asked us to help you, especially if you found out the truth.”

“But how did she know, and why didn’t she just tell me herself?”

“I don’t know Raven. I’m not a deity,” Conall said with a hint of amusement in his relaxing voice.

Sitting up with the blanket still covering me, I turned so that I could face Conall, rapidly getting used to the darkness.

“So what happens now,” I asked, more for myself than to hear an answer from the barkeeper.

“I would presume you should continue to live on, however you must. You might be stuck on this side of the Veil, and while this might not be your world, it is ours. You can always make a life of your choosing here, Raven. However, I will add, and this just conjecture, but I don’t think that you should make your circumstance known to everyone. The gods that reside in your world have not typically been known to be very kind to things that would interfere with this world. It might sound weird, but we know that they make things change on a whim, while making other things vanish.”

The realization hit me hard when he said that. If XGS, or anyone else, knew that I was apart of some secret experiment and that my consciousness survived my physical death inside of the World of the Veil, it would be a catastrophe.

It was, in fact, one of the solutions to the infamous Fermi Paradox, that a civilization would chose to live inside of a virtual world, for the rest of time, rather than spread to other worlds to ensure their species survival. While it seemed like science fiction, there was a possibility that this could happen soon, if not far into the future.

This form of technological research was strictly forbidden, just as anything dealing with warfare had been in the mid 2000’s when the Federation was founded after World War III. XGS had to know was could happen, how could they not? Since they were cooperating with the Federation’s HEoDS project, could the Federation be secretly researching this? What would happen if other people found out, or found out about me?

No, no one could find out about this, since it would not only be the end of the Veil, but of myself as well. Or at least, my consciousness.

“Is that why Noctis not-so-gently requested that I play normally, so that the developers wouldn’t realize that something happened,” I asked, not expecting an answer. Conall only shrugged.

“Well, if you’re okay, you’re more than welcome to take your time and lay here for a bit. However, I do have a tavern to run and I need to get back to it,” he said, smiling, as he got up from his chair. “Perhaps I’ll see you downstairs?”

I watched Conall leave the room as I still pondered what the future would hold for me and what would happen from here. I still wanted to become the most powerful player in the game, however, that in itself would draw attention to me. However, I could not do anything, as that would draw suspicion as well. No one played the game to do nothing. Be it a trader, adventurer, crafter, or any number of the professions that players created themselves. Someone always played the game to do something that they couldn’t do otherwise outside of it.

I needed to do something that would allow me to blend in with the hundreds of millions of others, however, I was still an assassin at heart, that is what I enjoyed from the game. Attacking silently, swiftly, and hearing people damn my name as I PK’d them is something that actually made me feel alive, although I would need to figure something about how painful it was to be attacked.

“Conall, you schemer, thank you for the hint,” I thought to myself as I started smiling, my previous depression starting to vanish.

I knew exactly what my path would be. It would require to become higher level, but not too high to be unbeatable though. I would also need to find a region whose king or queen worshiped Noctis and gave out all of the different types of repeatable quests.

Feeling more like myself, now that I had a set of goals in front of me, I was ready to continue my journey, even though I would still need to have a, shall we say, talk with Noctis. Preferably sooner than later.

Getting out of Conall’s bed, I briefly wondered what the barkeep would say if he found me in his bed naked before I walked out of his room and made my way downstairs, towards the noise of the crowd that was currently in the tavern. I hopelessly wondered if my booth was still available.

As I made my way through the crowded tavern, I saw Conall and two of the other barkeepers laughing as they talked with some other customers. About what, I couldn’t hear over the other people in the tavern.

Nearing one of the barkeepers whose name I didn’t know, I ordered another Rennor Jhinrae and paying for it before turning around, leaning back on the counter while I waited for it, determined not to let this one go to waste as my other had. A young dark elf with short, curly black hair and a scar over his left cheek walked up to me on my left as I waited for my wine, looking me over as he waited for one of the bartenders.

“Evening,” he said with a smile.

I knew that look and it was one that I saw much too often when I was waitressing, so I ignored him. I could see from out of the corner of my eye that he started to sneer at me and I waited for him to give his retort for not answering him.

“So you’re playing hard to get, huh,” he said as he slightly turned, forcibly grabbing my arm.

“I would suggest you remove your hand, unless you want to cosplay as a pirate for the time you’re in the game,” I said in a monotone voice, the same voice I used for the customers that used to complain to my former boss about.

“What the hell are you going on about?” he asked, his hand still gripping my arm.

Without making much of a movement, I unsheathed my dagger while keeping it out of his line of sight. “You know, I’ve had a really shitty day and found out some things that I didn’t necessarily want to know. But now, I think I just found something that will brighten my night.”

As I finished the words, I spun as fast as I could while pivoting on my left foot so that I was face to face with him. At the same time, I stabbed my dagger to his eye, trying to put it through his head. His hand that he grabbed me with being torn away from my arm. Before I could though, a hand caught my wrist, someone who I didn’t sense was now standing behind me. The man that grabbed my arm was now looking at me, terrified at what happened.

I turned my head and looked at the ground to my right so that I could see the person who was now behind me but could only see a swirling mass of shadows. I knew that ability. It was a level 45 Shadow Dancer ability called Shadow Armor.

I kept my dagger still, hoping that the player that grabbed me would make a move. If he did, the dagger would cut into his eye, making him blind until he was healed.

“Raven, put the dagger away. He’s had one too many and will be leaving for the night. I would hate for you to be noticed by the village’s guardians,” a voice that could only be Conall’s said from behind me.

I turned back towards the player and smiled while removing the dagger from his eye while sliding the tip down his face, careful not to draw blood which would be considered an attack.

“You heard the barkeeper, asshole. Leave before I stop caring about the guardians and send you back to your respawn point,” I told the player in a grave voice that was dripping with malevolence.

The player rapidly nodding at me while sliding away, finally running out of the tavern, Conall releasing his death grip from my wrist. I hadn’t noticed, but the tavern was silent with all eyes on Conall and me. This was probably something that wasn’t often seen in the small village. A loud roar erupted and people started cheering.

I put away my dagger and grabbed my glass of wine that was now on the counter, turning towards Conall. He looked at me with a hint of both disappointment and amusement which made my heart flutter heavily.

“Raven, you know you shouldn’t be causing too much trouble, you don’t need to have any more eyes on you as it is,” he said with barely a whisper so that only I could hear him.

“I know Conall, it’s just that guys like that, well, I’m sick of it. Why do they always seem to just think they can do whatever they want when they’re in the… Veil,” I replied, almost referring to the Veil as the game.

“Veil-walkers have never been known to use common sense, as far as the ladies go,” he replied, now grinning at me as if we were sharing a secret between us. “Are you okay now though? Not going to spill any blood in my bar, are you,” he said in a sarcastic tone with a hint of humor.

“No, I’m good now. I’m going to finish this, and then I need to go pick up some things at Moire’s. She should have my new daggers ready.”

He shook his head and walked back behind the bar which allowed my eyes to see how muscular his back seemed. As I felt my eyes travel further down, I could start to feel a blush, my face becoming warm as I gulped down my drink, not bothering with slowly sipping on it as I usually liked to do.

Sitting my glass back onto the counter, I left the tavern to make my way to the blacksmith’s shop, now anxious to get my new daggers. The village was covered in darkness since night had fallen, a few torches that aligned the dirt streets allowing travelers to see where they were going.

“Anyone alive in here,” I shouted as I entered Moire’s shop. Moire came out of the back room, this time she looked as if she had been working and not sleeping.

“Look at what the cat brought in, that heathen of a rodent. Someone should make it disappear,” she replied with a smile. It seemed like she was finally warming up to me now that I gave her some decent materials to work with.

“Yea, well, next time I see it I’ll give it a good kick for you. How are the daggers and cloak coming along,” I asked.

“Ah, those are already done. I heard you caused some trouble over at Conall’s, something about sticking some Veil-walker with the pointy end of a rusty dagger,” she replied, asking me about what happened at the tavern.

“Yea, just some guy thinking that all women were his playthings,” I told her. I also told her of how it ended and she giggled. Actually giggled, like some schoolgirl.

“Conall is so amazing, right? I wish he would come in here more often. He brings me such nice things once in awhile,” she said, her eyes focusing on the door as if she was trying to conjure the barkeeper.

“Anyways, here’s your daggers, two iron daggers. Also, your cloak, ready for inspection, even though I know my crafts are of the highest quality, as long as I have quality components to work with,” she said with a smirk, bringing the daggers and cloak up on the counter from beneath it.

I looked at the daggers and they were fairly basic with no enchantments or anything as I expected, however, they were far superior than the rusted dagger that I was using. They each had an increased damage output of 10-15 damage, which was much better than the rusted dagger with it’s 1-5.

My eyes then went towards the cloak which was dark green. I was glad for that since it would be good for camouflage if I was in a forest area, if I wasn’t already stealthed. Grabbing the cloak and holding it up, I looked at the stats and was pleasantly surprised how decent it was for it’s level.

Cloak of the Hobgoblin

Rarity: Uncommon

Level: 5

Weight: 2

Durability: 250/250

———————————————————————————

Stats

Strength: +15

Vitality: +10

I equipped the both the daggers and the cloak, although I was a bit sad that the cloak itself was not hooded, but at least it was something. I gave my thanks to Moire who only nodded and went back to her room, or forge, or wherever she went to when she wasn’t behind the counter. At some point, I might try to find out, or not. I wasn’t for sure if I really cared enough to. I walked out of Moire’s and decided to call it a night. I figured that I shouldn’t be in too much of a rush to get out of the village, and getting to level 10 could wait until tomorrow.