Hero Page 5

  He searched and found a vine hanging from a tree. A few quick pulls and he was able to tear the vine away from the tree. During the attempt, thorns on the vine scratched his arms and hands. He felt pain, realistic pain, pain that he was sure was equal to what he would feel in real life if he pulled a thorny vine with his bare hands. The words “pain response baseline” came unbidden to his mind, and he remembered the horrible procedure he had undergone in the lab. The purpose of that suddenly became clear, and the idea sobered him. Apparently, he was going to suffer the real pain of any injuries he suffered, up to and including death, judging by the respawn stone in the glade with him. He resolved to treat this like he would a real-life challenge, which undoubtedly was the point.

  He pulled the thorns from the vine and tied it around his waist. After he knotted it in place, he said “Inventory” again and the window obligingly popped up, now showing the words “Inventory – 0/2 items.”

  Pleased, Earl realized that he could now tuck items into his makeshift belt. He tried it. He picked up a stick, dragged it into the window showing his spaces and the stick disappeared from his hand. It appeared at his side, tucked into the vine belt. “Okay,” Earl thought, “on the right track.”

  He discarded the stick, noticing how it disappeared from his inventory box, and started walking. He needed a real weapon.

  As he walked, he noticed that he saw very little wildlife. His loud passage through the underbrush was the cause, no doubt, as he was unable to make a stealthy path due to the leaves, sticks, and undergrowth that announced his passage like a marching band of cracks, rustling, and movement. No doubt he was announcing his presence to the entire forest, and this made him nervous as he didn’t want to meet any predatory animals unequipped.

  He wandered for about a mile, before he heard the sound of running water. Realizing that he was actually thirsty, he realized that he was actually beginning to get tired. Indeed, a feeling of lethargy was slowly causing him to slow down from his initial pace as he had set off from the glade. Glancing up, he saw the sun was getting higher in the sky, and he could feel the temperature increasing. Still marveling at the realism, he wondered how long it would take before he no longer took special notice of these small, yet incredibly important affects that contributed to the realism of this world.

  The brush opened up under the canopy of trees and he saw a small brook babbling over some rocks. The flow was slow, yet steady, and he looked upstream to see a slight rise in the ground. The banks of the brook were bare, and the stream was 2-3 feet lower than ground level as it ran through the channel. Looking at it, there was little way to reach the water except simply jumping down the bank into the water.

  Trying to be careful, he slid down the bank and into the water. His right ankle hit a stone that was just under the surface, and slipped sideways, twisting his ankle. Immediate pain radiated up his leg, and he cursed himself for not being more careful. He was still in “game” mode unconsciously, not realizing that anything and everything could and would hurt him here. His legs sank about 2 feet into the stream, and he felt the chill on his feet and lower legs. The water was cold, probably snow or glacial melt, and he remembered his research into Olympus Online from before. The topography was loosely based on Ancient Greece, and Ancient Greece was chock full of mountains, hills, and valleys. Earl wondered where he was in that land.

  He scooped up some water to drink, hesitating and fearful of bacteria or organisms, until he realized that while this world was very realistic, he doubted that the developers would want people getting sick from drinking stream water. He could be wrong, but doubted it. That type of thing just wasn’t fun gameplay, and would not be popular.

  He took a small sip, then drank more deeply. The water was refreshingly cold, and energized him immediately. A small display window popped up, stating “+2 stamina” before vanishing after a few seconds. Earl realized the lethargy he had been feeling was in fact, because he was using his Stamina stat without realizing it. He remembered the description: “All actions consume stamina.” Apparently even walking did so.

  Earl sat down on the edge of the stream and redoubled his efforts to see his stats. He needed to know his levels so he could keep track. After a few minutes, the magic words “Display Current Stats” worked and a small set of bars appeared in his vision at the upper left. The standard bar type display showed 3 bars, a Red, Yellow, and Orange bar graph. The Red bar was full, and displayed “HP 10/10”. The yellow bar was half full, and displayed “Stam 5/10”. The Orange bar was empty, and displayed “Rage 0/10”.

  These made immediate sense to Earl. The HP was obviously his health pool, at a measly 10 points. “Stam” in yellow was his stamina, and he had evidently gotten it down to 3 points before drinking the stream water, which gave him 2 points back to 5. As he watched, it ticked up to 6. Ok, so his stamina recovered naturally when he was resting or not moving. The last bar, Rage, he didn’t really get until he remembered the special resource of his Barbarian class. He wasn’t sure how to build that one but figured he’d find out.

  Earl sat there for as long as it took to recover all of his stamina, which by counting seconds was approximately +1 stamina per minute. He would have to see how long it took to use it up, before having to sit down to recover it.

  After his stamina bar was full, Earl moved downstream, careful to stay within 100 feet or so of the water. He didn’t want to get too far away from it until he had some way to store water, as he didn’t know how long he could go without it, if he needed it at all. Damn those people at the Olympus labs! They could have given him a primer or something!

  As he was lost in this train of thought, he realized that above his own noise, he heard something else moving through the forest. He stopped: it continued, and he realized it was ahead of him. At that point he realized that he still hadn’t gotten any kind of a weapon. Cursing his lack of preparedness, he spotted a rock laying on the ground about 10 feet away. Figuring it was better than nothing, he moved towards it and was almost to it when he heard a squealing sound and looked up to see a boar charging him. It wasn’t very big in truth, about 200 lbs. or so, but from his sudden vantage point it looked like a bulldozer with sharp tusks coming at him. He screamed in panic and dove out of the way, but not fast enough.

  The boars tusk took him in the lower leg as he dived out of the way, and the pain flashed through him like a red wave. “Arrgh,” he screamed. The boar stopped its charge, turned around, and came at him again. Earl desperately looked around, saw the rock, and grabbed it with his right hand. Just then the boar slammed into him again, this time penetrating his stomach with the tusks and lifting. Earl could feel the tusks under his ribs, lifting his body up in an unimaginable ocean of pain. He felt like his chest was being ripped out of his body. Looking into the boar’s eyes, he saw furious black eyes with bloodshot whites staring at him. Finally remembering the rock he held in a death grip in his right hand, he began bashing the boar in the head, but it seemed to do nothing.

  He vaguely remembered reading something about how boars’ skulls were super thick, like bulletproof glass. He shifted his impact to the boar’s snout and heard it grunting in pain. It reflexively tried to dodge, but couldn’t because it was still stuck to Earl by its tusks. It’s efforts to pull back caused Earl even more pain, but he kept bashing with a frenzy of pain induced hysteria. Finally, finally Earl began to hear bones cracking in the boar’s face, and it fell to its knees, then its side as Earl continued to pound away.

  At some point it stopped moving and Earl saw a popup window {+50 XP} before he passed out. His vision faded to black as he realized that he had killed the boar and earned some experience points.

  Earl woke up, reflexively grabbing himself in the chest. There were no wounds and no pain. He did, however, see a popup box:

  Congratulations on your first Death!

  You have lost all accumulated XP for your current level – current Level – 1.

  XP to next level – 100

 
All accumulated skill points for current skill levels are reset to 0. Skill points lost – 0.

  You have lost all equipment other than your starter clothing!

  Equipment lost – rock, vine belt

  Death Penalty – Stamina and HP gain reduced by half to 1 point per 2 minutes. Duration – 1 hour.

  “I’m always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy until I realize it is my own.”

  Oho, more questions answered. So each death resets your experience on your current level to zero, you drop all equipment upon death, you lose your skill points for your current skill levels, and you get a reduction in regeneration for an hour after death. Pretty harsh compared to some games, but at least you don’t lose levels or stats permanently. That skill point loss would be pretty devastating to a skill heavy build, he thought. Craftsman would hate dying.

  The quote was kinda funny, and yet morbid at the same time.

  Earl sat near the respawn area until his HP and Stamina were full, which took 18 minutes due to him respawning with both at 1 point. He then took the time to find and wrench a thick branch off of a tree. Stripping the small branches, he hefted his staff. Just to try it, he said “Inspect” and it worked, with a popup window appearing:

  Rough Staff

  Durability – 20/20

  Damage – 5-7

  Description – A rough branch ripped from a tree by bare hands and roughly finished. Slightly better than a rock.

  Improvisation +1

  Earl laughed. So it seemed like the AI had a sense of humor, at least. The moment of levity shook off his funk at being killed and losing the XP from the boar. He took a few practice swings to feel the weight and balance of the staff. It didn’t swing very well, and Earl would have preferred more weight at the fore end, as it swung awkwardly. Part of the problem is that he didn’t really know how to use a staff: he had always used axes or swords. The +1 to Improvisation was a surprise as well, but he figured that it would come in handy, although he hoped that instead of making his own weapons, he would soon find a real one.

  He re-traced his steps until he was back at the spot where he had died. His body was gone, but his crude vine belt and rock were lying next to the dead boar. Another question answered – his equipment dropped when he died, but if he made it back to his body, he could retrieve it. He put the vine belt back on and turned to the boar. He touched it, the now familiar pop up window showing up again:

  “Loot?” – Yes/No

  He thought “Yes” and was about to say it when the window disappeared and the boar’s body shimmered and was reduced to a couple of items. Another window appeared:

  Items

  Boar steak – 2

  Boar tusk – 1

  Take all? Yes/No

  Earl thought ‘Yes” again and the two boar steaks appeared on his vine belt, hanging like he’d tied them. The Boar tusk fell to the ground. “Aha,” Earl thought, “I don’t have enough inventory space for 3 items.”

  He briefly wondered how he could interact with the game with his thoughts, vs voice, and remembered the brief pain at the back of his neck when he was in the pod. “Olympus must have figured out how to do limited brain interaction,” he thought. “But it can’t be complete because they need the pod to administer the physical effects.”

  He spent a few minutes trying out the limits of the thought control, and indeed when he thought the proper commands, his HUD would turn on and off. He finally found the command for his character sheet: ironically enough, it was “Character Status”:

  Name

  Jaxx

  Race

  Human

  Level

  1

  Strength

  1

  Intellect

  0

  Agility

  1

  Stamina

  1

  Constitution

  1

  Charisma

  1

  Rage Capacity

  10

  Skills

  None

  Earl took stock. He had a lot more information now and was better equipped. He glanced at the boar tusk on the ground and then looked at his staff. “I wonder….” He thought.

  Earl located and grabbed another vine, then cut it into small lengths using the sharp edge on the rock on the ground. He then tied the boar tusk to the end of the staff, using enough vine to make it (he hoped) sturdy enough for combat. “A spear is always better than a staff,” he thought.

  Sure enough, when he finished, the popup showed his success:

  Item created - +50 xp

  Raw Spear

  Durability – 20/20

  Damage – 7-10 (piercing)

  Description – A boar tusked tied to a stick with a vine. Hopefully will hold up long enough that you don’t get killed again.

  +1 to Improvisation

  Earl chuckled at the description. He was pleasantly surprised when he read that he gained XP from crafting the weapon, but he guessed that made sense for the Craftsman class. He wouldn’t turn it down, himself.

  Feeling a bit getter, Earl continued walking along the stream path. He figured that eventually, it would lead to people or the ocean.

  Not too long later, he heard a rustling again in the brush. Stopping immediately, he held his makeshift spear in a ready position, crouching. A familiar feeling rose – the pre-battle excitement he’d always felt in previous games. Part of his fascination with a Barbarian type character was the joy of combat. As this game was far more real, he actually FELT his heart beating faster, as the game made his brain release adrenaline into his blood. He crouched in anticipation, rising up on his toes like a sprinter at the block, waiting. He didn’t wait long, before another boar came out of the brush in front of him and stopped, obviously surprised. It grunted, and launched itself at Earl, squealing in rage. This one was a bit larger than the previous one, but not much.

  As it charged, Earl tensed, then dodged to the side, thrusting his tusk-tipped spear at the boar’s face. Luck or skill, who knows which, put the tip of the tusk into the boar’s right eye. A roar of rage came from the boar, as Earl barely hung onto the spear handle as the boar ripped its head back and forth. Blood mixed with a clear fluid leaked from the eye and the boar cried and snorted and ripped up the ground in front of it in frustration and pain.

  Earl had noticed that as he dodged, some pop-up windows started appearing, small ones that said things like “Dodge +1” and “2H Spear +1”. Almost by reflex, he said “Disable combat notifications” and they vanished. He would check on that later. Also, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed 2 things – his yellow stamina meter was falling, and his orange Rage meter was increasing.

  The boar whirled to its left and spotted Earl. “It’s blind on the right side,” Earl thought, and immediately began circling the boar towards its blind right side, spear held at the ready. The boar kept turning, keeping him in sight while getting ready to charge. Earl paused, and the boar leaped at him again. Earl again dodged to the left and then planted the butt of the spear into the ground, angling the point at the boar and bracing the spear with his body. The boar, turning blindly, did not see the spear and ran straight into it, the tip penetrating between its ribs, and the momentum slid the spear into the boar’s chest. It stopped just a few inches away from Earl’s sweating face, jaws and tusks working to reach him. Madness in the boar’s eyes faded as a bloody froth of bubbles came out of the boar’s mouth. Slowly, it settled to its belly and the eyes faded to nothing. The boar’s breath sighed to a stop.

  “Jesus,” Earl thought. He was sweating, his heart pounding in his ears. His vision was, literally, red, and he noticed the bars on his HUD.

  HP – 10/12 (red)

  Stam – 4/11 (yellow)

  Rage – 2/11 (orange)

  Earl realized that the symptoms he was feeling – faster heartbeat, adrenaline, lust for battle, and the red vision were likely from the Rage status. As the feeling faded, he watched it go from 2 to 1, then 1 to zer
o as he felt normal again.

  He also didn’t miss the loss of stamina, either. 6 Stamina used in that small fight. “2 Points per action with the staff,” he figured, “and probably 1 for each dodge”. Pricey – he would have to watch getting involved in fights with more than one enemy for now. It seemed his rage, hp, and stamina capacity had gone up as well.

  He opened the next box and saw the results of the battle:

  XP +50

  Level Up! Congratulation, you have reached level 2!

  +2 to Strength, +2 to Constitution

  +1 to Rage Capacity

  +2 to Dodge

  +2 to 2H spears

  He opened up his status panel to check the results of the battle.

  Name

  Jaxx

  Race

  Human

  Level

  2

  XP to Next Level

  200

  Strength

  3