Gamelit Novel, 5 (Patreon)

CHAPTER 3

Character… Discovery

Nick had promised his mother he wouldn’t use the wireset until Monday morning, though the beta started at midnight. Ordinarily it would have been useless to try sneaking an attempt past her, too, because while his father would have slept through a hurricane, his mother could somehow hear him breathing too loudly through three walls. Her new habit of falling asleep on the couch made it do-able, though, so he donned the new hardware ten minutes before launch so he could familiarize himself with it. It was much lighter and less obtrusive than his gaming headset, though he wasn’t sanguine about the way the thin band that ran from temple to temple over his eyes was close enough that when he blinked his lashes sometimes swiped it. The idea that he was going to be staring at it and not seeing it was… weird. But if it meant an immersive experience…

Less than three minutes to go. Punching his favorite neck pillow into shape, Nick stretched out on his bed, made sure the wireset was adjusted, and started the login process. As promised, the wire vanished and Omen Galaxica’s logo flashed in front of him. And then he was on the Cloud Giants coast, where he’d logged himself off because it was one of his favorite zones.

The words floated in front of him, cool and bright. They reminded him of water; he could even taste it.

WELCOME, CANDIDATE. ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN YOUR EVOLUTION QUEST?

“Yes!”

YOUR FIRST MISSION AWAITS.

Call to Arms

In the distant fortress of EverVigil, King Domenec has seen the foe, and it is too strong for normal forces. He has called for the greatest powers of the Kingdom of Omen to gather at his muster, and to bring at least one ally or squire. Your many deeds have reached the ears of his ministers, resulting in this personally addressed missive.

The magics of the enemy have disrupted time and space. You will have to make your way on foot to EverVigil.

Objective: Escort your companion from their starting zone to EverVigil without dying.

Reward: Evolved class, abilities, and gear (Unknown)

Accept/Decline?

Nick might have accepted another quest faster than he did this one, but he wouldn’t bet money on it. Only… he had no idea where his mother’s starting zone was, and neither did the game, because she wouldn’t be logging in for several hours.

Worked for him. He dismissed the quest dialog and inhaled, and for the first time smelled the sea-and-conifer scent of the Cloud Giant coast. It was server night, so the stars were out, and so was the tide, and when he walked down the coast he could feel the wet sand sinking beneath his hooves. And the wind off the ocean ruffled his hair around his face and filled his ears and thatwas definitely the most amazing part. The Cervinaethi had the large, ovate ears of their animal inspiration, and somehow his hearing felt more acute. How did the wireset do that? Trick his nervous system into thinking he could hear the difference between the wind on the ocean on his left and the way the forest’s boughs muffled it on the right? He stared up into the sky and saw the enormous trees, shrouded in a nocturnal mist, and his heart jumped. It was as beautiful as he’d guessed it would be.

The beta had begun for him and forty other people who were no doubt playing because unlike his mom they were serious gamers. He guessed he should be more concerned that they were getting a headstart on him, especially since there would be World Firsts for each new class discovered. But what he’d wanted, more than anything, was to use this time to wander the places he loved and experience them as if he was really there. It wasn’t as if he could do anything quest-related until his mom woke up, anyway.

The Cloud Giant coast was adjacent to several of his favorite areas, which was why he’d chosen to wake up there. The cave with the rare mini-boss he’d grinded endlessly in his mid-twenties until it had dropped the rare sword was rife with crystals, not just in the walls but in the ponds as well, and he spent at least a half an hour kicking around it, touching the damp rock and avoiding the boss… except to admire its iridescent scales and the gems crusted on its back and sides. He was too high level to aggro it anymore, which was great because he’d killed it enough times.

Then there was a ruin under the water he’d found when he’d made his Cape of Waterbreathing, and the sensation of being underwater felt so real he stayed there longer than he’d planned. Even swimming felt like effort. How had they done it?

Back up on the beach, he walked south until he reached the Golden Cove. Fishing was still relaxing—more relaxing, because when the sun started coming up the colors stunned him. He let all the fish go because it was fun to touch them, feel the wiggling and flapping, and throw them back. Their splashes when they hit the water made his more sensitive ears twitch, which was a weird enough sensation that he tried doing it on purpose. How long did he stand there, wagging his ears like a crazy person? He grinned and headed up the dunes toward the road that would take him to the village of Endtimes. It was his plan to get an ale there, see if he could taste it, but he got so distracted by the rustling of the reeds by the path, and the feel of the stones and sand under his hooves, and by the shocking scent of one of the low-level herbs he spotted in a patch of grass, that he was getting nowhere fast. And he didn’t care.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR INTEREST IN AND LOVE OF EXPLORING HAS UNLOCKED THE FOLLOWING TRAIT: [Environmentalist].

The words were not only bright but loud, and he clutched an ear. “Do you have to do that?”

CHANGE SYSTEM DIALOGUE?

“Please,” he said. “Having that float in front of my eyes is distracting.”

USER PREFERENCE?

“Can you talk in the back of my head? Maybe?”

Like this? Came a whisper.

It was a little like telepathy, which was… kind of cool. It made him feel like the game mechanics were being observed by his subconscious, rather than enforced on him from outside. “Yes, that’s fine.”

[Environmentalist] – buffs perception and movement speed while enjoyment is high

Except… what kind of trait was that? Skill? Whatever? And how much did it buff perception? What constituted enjoyment? Nick trailed to a halt on the road, frowning. He brought up his character mock-up and gaped. “What happened to my stats?”

Stats are unchanged.

“Like heck they’re not,” Nick said. “Where did the numbers go?”

Specific numbers have been disabled for evolving characters for the duration of the beta, to better allow realtime game balancing.

He wanted to say, ‘Lame’, except he could see the point. Still, his character sheet looked stupid now. Strength was ‘moderate’? Agility was ‘high’? Constitution was ‘moderate to low’? Couldn’t the game could at least come up with interesting non-numbered ways to describe them?

Like what?

“Are you…” Of course it was reading his mind. Nick forced himself to start moving again. “Well, high, moderate, low, average… they’re kind of forgettable. Can’t you do something like ‘extreme’ or ‘unusual’ or ‘risky’ or… I don’t know. Something that sticks with you?”

Context would be required to utilize more unusual qualifiers.

“That’s why numbers make more sense.” He looked around. “But I can guess you don’t want people minmaxing things immediately, which… let’s be real, is exactly what they’d do the moment they saw numbers. I can bet the other people involved in this are already doing it. Or trying.”

A pause. Then: Correct.

Was he really talking to the AI? The actual AI? He swallowed and started trotting. “Can we name my trait something else, while we’re talking? Environmentalist is kind of loaded.”

Suggestion?

“How about ‘Home Anywhere You Go’? Or… ‘Eternal Tourist’? No, scratch that, that’s stupid.” What was the feeling he was experiencing while exploring?

Trait name changed: [ Environmentalist ] > [ Far Traveler ]

Wasn’t great, but much better than the first try. “I’ll take it,” he said. “Thanks.”