MMA: Chapter #7 (Patreon)

Staring up at the ceiling of his room, Alph found it impossible to stop laughing. Some of it was the nervousness that comes from suddenly exploding into a thousand pieces, but mostly it was pure, unadulterated joy. Once he finally got himself under control he climbed down from his bed and began pacing around his room, his mind filled with a thousand thoughts. It wasn’t until the fourth ring of his smartwatch that he realized he was getting a call and stopped in front of his desk, staring at the flashing number.

Brought back to reality, he let out a sigh and sat down, his finger hovering over the accept button for a moment. There was part of him that wanted to ignore it and go try to log back in to Nova Terra, but he knew that the helmet wouldn’t work for another twenty four hours. Apparently, blowing himself up in the login screen came with steeper than normal death penalties. For the next twenty-four hours he had to live in the real world again. Setting a mental alarm for himself, he accepted the call, wincing slightly as a middle aged woman appeared on the virtual screen his desk projected.

“Hello Alphonso, thanks for taking my call.”

“Hello, Mrs. Gregory.”

“I’m calling today because I heard that you were let go again,” Mrs. Gregory said, absently playing with one of the golden earrings dangling by her neck. “I wanted to call and follow up with that, and hear how you are feeling about it.”

“I’m fine.”

His response earned him a well practiced, if slightly patronizing smile.

“Alphonso, this is the fourth job you have lost since you graduated. All for the same reason. Is there something that we need to talk about?”

“No,” Alph said, shaking his head.

In the silence that followed his one word answer, Mrs. Gregory’s smile slipped slightly and she let out a small sigh. Despite her clear frustration, she quickly recovered her smile and tried to continue the conversation like everything was fine.

“The Bureau of Orphan Affairs has a lot of resources that are available for you, Alphonso. We have job training, career counseling, and even internships. I also noticed that you’ve skipped the last four social group gatherings. Have you been feeling down or antisocial recently?”

“Mrs. Gregory, I don’t need training,” Alph said, some of his own frustration leaking through. “I’m already overqualified for all the jobs I can apply for. I like my field of work, but right now, I want to take a break. As for the social group, the people in it are nice, but I’m not interested in the activities so it is a waste of time for me to go. Thank you for your concern, but what I want is to be left alone.”

The middle-aged woman stared at Alph through the call as he spoke, her smile stiff. When he fell silent, she gave him a businesslike nod.

“Fine. Alphonso, I’ve been your State Advocate for what, ten years now?”

“Twelve.”

“That’s right. Twelve years. And never once during that time have you shown any interest in social interactions. I’ll remove that recommendation from your profile. Regarding your job, what would you like me to put down?”

Hesitating slightly, Alph’s mind flashed to Nova Terra and the stalls he had seen along the side of the flower street in Thilvena. He had been mulling over an idea for a bit and Mrs. Gregory’s question seemed to solidify the idea in his head. Gathering his thoughts, he spoke with growing confidence.

“I… I’m going to pursue a new venture.”

“A new venture?” Mrs. Gregory’s forehead wrinkled. “You mean you’re starting a business.”

“Potentially. I’m still in the exploratory stages,” Alph said, his eyes starting to light up with excitement. “But I have a really good feeling about it. It leverages my existing education to open up a new product space.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” his advocate quipped, “but I’ll write down what you’ve said. This is the first time I’ve seen you excited about something like this. How are your savings? Would you like me to help you apply for a grant? There are some business related grants that are issued by the B.O.A. for situations like this.”

“Um, I have some savings, and I got a really good severance package from my last job. But I guess applying wouldn’t hurt.”

“Excellent. I’ll process the paperwork. We’ll say that you are applying for the grant for research purposes, to determine if the opportunity is viable. That way you won’t need to submit a business plan. I’ll send this over for you to sign. There are other grants you can apply for if the business is viable, but those take a bit more time and effort so let’s start here. How long do you think your research will take? One year? Two years? You know what, let's just say two years. And check the box for potentially transformative. That just tells them that your research has the potential to change the world for the better.”

“It does?”

“Of course it does, Alph,” Mrs. Gregory said, matter-of-factly.

“But you don’t even know what I am thinking of doing.”

“Do I need to? I’m sure that whatever you do will be transformative,” she said, smiling mechanically as she continued to fill out the paperwork. “Someone will be transformed by it, if only you. But as far as I’m concerned, that fits their criteria.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Don’t sweat the details, Alphonso. If they come back with any questions, I’ll deal with it. Oh, I’ll ask my husband to call one of his friends in the enterprise division, otherwise this might take a few months to be reviewed. The normal timeline on an application like this is four months, which seems like too long, so let's see what we can do to speed it up.”

After a few more minutes, Mrs. Gregory finished up and sent the documents over for Alph to review and sign, leaving him feeling like he was in the middle of a whirlwind. That feeling only intensified as, two hours after they got off the call, he got a confirmation message, letting him know that his application had been approved. Attached was a short message from Mrs. Gregory with a bewildered congratulations. She mentioned that she had asked her husband to make a few calls on his behalf, but it was clear that she was just as lost as he was as to how it had been approved so quickly.

The only catch was that in order to get the final approval, he was required to attend a meeting to describe what sort of business he was going to be researching. As much as Alph hated meeting new people, the terms for the grant were simply two good to pass up. Two million UC, paid out over a period of two years in exchange for a thirty percent stake in the company once it started. In fact, the offer was so good that Alph felt there was something fishy about it. Checking his schedule, he saw that he had two weeks until the meeting, which would give him enough time to put together a solid plan for his new business venture.

Two weeks in the real world was almost four months in Nova Terra, and Alph planned on spending nearly every single second of that time in the game. Since he still had most of the day left before he could log back in, he took the chance to do some shopping. Nutrient dense bars, shakes, and pastes were ordered to make sure that he could eat as efficiently as possible, along with a home exercise set so he could continue exercising. After a bit of thought, he also ordered a new bed that was designed for bed-bound individuals as his bed made his body sore after lying on it for more than a few hours in-game.

Once he felt like everything he needed was on its way, he spent the rest of his time going through the textbooks he still had on biology and horticulture. One of the positive side effects of being able to concentrate well was that time passed quickly, and before he knew it the time had come for him to log in. Lying down in the new bed that had been delivered a few hours before, Alph slipped the helmet on his head and turned it on, appearing in his laboratory a moment later. A relieved sigh slipped out of his mouth as he saw that his explosion had not damaged anything.

“Welcome back, traveler,” Myst said, appearing next to him with a small flash. “Due to your unfortunate demise, I have been forced to adjust some of the settings in this space. This includes extending the normal death penalty for Nova Terra into this space. That means that every death will reduce your proficiencies and keep you out of the game for an additional twenty-four hours. However, you will also continue to be barred from even this area for twenty-four hours if you die here. That penalty will incrementally increase with each successive death, so please refrain from committing suicide in the future.”

“But what if I want to test my mixtures?” Alph asked, frowning.

“Then I suggest you find another way to do so if you don’t want to suffer the consequences,” Myst replied, shrugging. “Or pay the consequences associated with dying.”

Vanishing in a sparkle of light, Myst left Alph behind to try and puzzle out how the changes would affect him. The most important point was that most of the rules that were in effect in Angoril were also in effect here. That meant that he would no longer automatically heal from whatever status effects he inflicted on himself, and it would be harder to avoid death if he consumed his creations without any preparation. There would be no more reckless self testing anymore. Realizing that he had lost an incredibly powerful advantage, Alph was a bit sad, but the more he thought about it, the more clearly he understood why the change had been made.

After taking a moment to reset his inventory, Alph logged in, appearing in the temple in Thilvena. It had been a whole week since he had last been in the game, and though everything looked about the same, he could feel a subtle difference in the air. There were more players walking the streets, dressed in armor and loaded down with weapons of various sorts. Most of them wore badges carrying various symbols, marking them as members of some sort of group. Trailing after one of the groups as he walked toward the city hall to turn in his quest, Alph listened in as they talked.

“Any word on where it was last?”

“No, but I still think we should avoid it.”

“Are you serious? This is an opportunity to improve the team’s name.”

“Hard to do that if we’re all dead,” a leather clad elf with a bow on her back said. “That’s a dire wolf world boss we’re talking about.”

“I just don’t get how something like that appeared so close to the city,” her warrior companion added. “With how close it is, I’m surprised the guards haven’t gone out to deal with it.”

“You should be thankful,” said a burly, shirtless man with a large axe strapped to his back. “If they had, we wouldn’t have this opportunity. I’m telling you this is the chance of a lifetime. Sure, maybe the three of us can’t handle it on our own, but we can team up with a few of the other mercenary teams and take it down.”

As Alph turned to go to the city hall, the players hurried away, heading toward the city’s front gate. Though he couldn’t hear their conversation anymore, Alph had gotten the gist of it. The teams of players walking around were mostly mercenary groups that took on commissions, and there was a new world boss roaming around in the forest outside the city that they had been called in to deal with. Alph had not interacted with other players so far, and if he was honest, he didn’t have much of a desire to change that. He was more than happy to let them play their game while he played his. Climbing the stairs to the city hall, he was soon standing in front of one of the secretaries, handing in his quest.

*ding*

Welcome to Thilvena

Welcome, traveler! You have completed your first quest after arriving on the island of Rasyn by gathering the following from the field outside the city:

Requirements:
Thistle Bloom (5/5)
Fenlip Flowers (5/5)
Golden Tulips (5/5)
Twin Wolfpear (1/1)

Reward:
Herb Gathering Skill
Herbalist’s Compendium

Herb Gathering Skill

You have unlocked Herb Gathering as a skill. As you grow in proficiency with this skill, you will be better able to harvest plants without harming them, increasing the amount of useful material that you gather.

Herbalist’s Compendium

Written by Golfis Nordem, a local alchemist, this book contains a detailed record of the local flora on the island of Rasyn. Studying this book will naturally increase the proficiency of many plant related skills.

“These plants look wonderful,” the secretary said, carefully checking over the plants that Alph had handed her. “Are you interested in the followup quest?”

“There is a follow up? Sure, I’d be interested.”

Rummaging around in her desk, the secretary pulled out a piece of high quality paper and wrote a short note on it. Waving it to let it dry, she folded it up carefully and sealed it with wax, stamping the city’s seal into it before offering it to Alph.

“Here you go.”

*ding*

The Reclusive Alchemist

Having proven that you know your way around plants, the city hall is providing a recommendation to a reclusive local alchemist. Bring the provided letter to Master Alchemist Nordem to learn what it takes to walk the path of an alchemist.

Reward:
Various

“This letter will provide an introduction to one of the local alchemists. I think that Master Nordem would appreciate your talents and he is always looking for new students who can walk his path of alchemy,, so I’ll let you know how to find his home. It's out in the forest, but I think you won’t have too many problems finding it,” the secretary said, handing Alph a sealed letter.

After getting directions from the secretary, Alph realized that the map function included in his interface had been adjusted to show the way to the master alchemist’s house, causing him to let out a hidden sigh of relief. He had been worried that he was going to have to wander around for the next few days trying to find it. With his new introduction letter in hand and armed with his new map, Alph thanked the secretary and left the city hall, ready to begin his next adventure.