Sorcerer's Quest Page 2
It was different than her game experiences up until then. Most players she grouped with left as soon as they realized her low alignment and never grouped with her again. The few guilds she had joined either kicked her out within days or demanded she sign a contract if she stayed. She had even tried a few of the all girl guilds, hoping for a better reception, but the results were the same if not worse. Most girls viewed her as being too much of a tryhard who still couldn’t pull her own weight. Dave however, kept questing with her and they became unlikely friends. He introduced her to some of his friends, and even got her a invitation to the guild they were line members in. He became the kind of friend she knew would always be there to help her.
Today he had a funny grin as he looked at her.
“Jane, what happened to your face?” he asked, almost laughing.
Jane reached up a hand to her face. She had forgotten about it. Dave was always blunt with her. To him and the rest of the gang, she was just one of the guys. She was thankful for it, but from time to time they would say some harsh things without thinking. She would rather that though than being alone, and she knew he didn’t mean any harm by it.
She shook it off. Appearance sculpting was limited by points that players slowly accrued over time. A player felt their character’s body in Arantor like it was their own, and when the game first started there had been problems with players changing their character’s body too much in a short time. It could be too much for a mind to handle.
“I was trying to adjust a few features,” she said with a shrug as she touched her nose. She tried to give a laugh, but knew it fell flat. Her nose was currently large enough to look funny on any face. “I ran out of points mid-try. I was hoping it might help things.”
Dave nodded. “I don’t think I have any more appearance points to give you,” he said with a frown. “I reached my trade limit for the month. Maybe Gavin or Brett have some.”
Jane shook her head. “Gavin gave me a few last week, and I think Brett used all he has for now. Don’t worry about it. I’m at my trade limit, too. I’ll just have to wait.”
“It’s not too bad,” Dave said, backtracking. He wasn’t convincing at all, though, and they both knew it, but it was still nice to hear him try. She didn’t really care how awkward she looked. It had been a chance to improve her alignment and she would do something like it again in a heartbeat if she thought it might help. “Let’s go wait for the other two,” continued Dave after a moment. “I could use a drink after work.”
The two turned back to the town and headed to the tavern. She noticed a few of the other players give her a funny look their way back. She shrugged it off. She most likely had been the recipient of the same looks on her walk out of town, she just hadn’t been paying attention. This was just one more failed attempt to try to change her Alignment. She had tried every kind of appearance she could think of: short and tall, muscular and thin, blonde, brunette and redhead. Now she was trying smaller changes, but each adjustment took appearance points, and appearance points took time to accumulate.
In the tavern, the two sat down and ordered a beer. As the serving girl arrived, Jane noticed it was the same one from earlier. Jane wondered if the girl was a player or an NPC. An NPC wouldn’t think twice about Jane’s appearance, but the girl looked too pretty for an NPC. In these types of service jobs it was considered rude to ask. Most places couldn’t pay a player enough to make it worth their while, so the ones who decided to work there did it for fun. They enjoyed the atmosphere of where they worked, and asking questions like that was considered ruining the experience. Jane kept her mouth shut. If the serving girl was a player, then she was doing a good job overlooking Jane’s bad nose job.
Dave and Jane only had to wait a few minutes before Gavin and Brett logged in. They came to the tavern and soon all four were sitting down, ready to discuss what to do tonight.
Brett was the flashier of the two. He played an elemental naturalist, bringing healing power and damage through the forces of nature. He had unsurprisingly changed his appearance this week—he always liked to mix things up—but instead of a fiasco like Jane, he always had a new look that the girls would swoon for. Today he had short blond spiky hair and a lean, stylish face, but that was bound to change in a few more days. His appearance leaned slightly elvish, with ears slightly pointed at the top and a tall, thin physique, but it wasn’t nearly as extensive as many players who went for that look. He looked more like a human with slightly odd, but well done features, than an elf. His armor had as much metal as plants in it, and his shoulder plates looked like they were grown as much as made. Jane had to admit that overall it was a good look for him. He could also flash a smile that melted many a girl’s heart. Fortunately Jane didn’t have to worry about that. She knew him too well to fall for any of his tricks.
Gavin seemed to fade to the background in comparison. He liked that though. He played a stealthy rogue, good at getting into secret places and doing damage from the shadows. He was still good looking in his own way, but he had a traditional look that he hardly ever changed: slightly shorter than average with the dark hair and light skin of someone who would normally be in the shadows. He wore a dark cloak, which had a hood large enough to hide his face if he pulled it up. His leather armor was well cared for and focused on stealth and quick movement.
Both also had the black and green livery in the shape of a dragon on their chest armor. The four of them were part of the same guild Dragon’s End. They had joined it together last year, after their old guild had fallen apart.
“So any improvement in Alignment, Jane?” Brett asked, after they had sat down. He had a grin on his face, but then again he always had some sort of smile or another. He was looking right at her nose. She could tell he was trying not to, but he apparently couldn’t help it.
“Come on, Brett.” Gavin said, giving Brett a nudge. He shook his head. “Just keep your mouth shut.”
Jane rolled her eyes. So much for the guys having sense. Gavin did sometimes, but Brett often spoke whatever came to his mind. The fact that he had even tried to be circumspect about her appearance meant Dave had whispered them about it, and probably told them not to bring it up. Of course Brett would accidentally bring up the issue without mentioning it directly.
“Sorry, dude,” said Brett to her. He still wore a smile, but she knew his apology was sincere.
“It’s okay,” she said, shrugging. “No improvement, but thanks for asking. What do we want to do tonight?”
The conversation moved on, thankfully, and no one mentioned her awkward appearance again. The Game’s depth meant there were a myriad of things they could do. They were high enough in game levels that they had plenty of options, and there were always things to do to improve their characters. They discussed their choices.
“The new patch is coming out tomorrow,” said Dave. “I was farming some gemstones yesterday and a rare item dropped. It gave me a pre-quest for the patch. I don’t have to start it today, but it has some items I can use to upgrade my war hammer. There’s some bonus experience for anyone who’s along for at least three parts of the quest line, and some crafting items I can share with you guys.”
“I’m always down for bonus crafting items,” said Brett.
“Yeah. That’s not bad,” said Gavin. “I might get some use out of that. I’m trying to upgrade my daggers another level. There’s a lot of items I need, and a few I need to gather myself. I could use some help clearing out some dungeons for it.”
r /> “Speaking of dungeons, I was wondering if anyone else was up for healing for a bit,” said Brett, rubbing his neck. “I’m ready for a change. I’ve already gathered a few of the items to change my specializations around. I need a few more from dungeons before I can do it without prestiging.”
Arantor was designed so that a player’s decisions mattered, but also that they weren’t stuck with them forever. At any time a player could prestige: a reset of their character to level one with a clean slate and a chance to try a new class with new progression choices. Players often chose to do it because they would also be awarded with bonuses based on what they did with their character before they prestiged. These bonuses would let them get new spells or specializations, or generally just increase the overall power of their character as they leveled back up again. Sometimes prestige was overkill though. Brett didn’t want to start over, he just wanted to switch some of his choices around, and he wasn’t high enough level to have gained enough bonuses to be worth a prestige. Changing specializations without a prestige was possible, but it took collecting the right items to do so.
“I’m the only other one who could heal right now, and to do that we’d need to get another tank,” Dave pointed out. “I wouldn’t mind switching it up for a bit, though, if we get one.”
“Naw, we can wait,” said Brett, with a small grimace. “I’d rather not go with some unknown tank while you try to remember how paladins are supposed to heal.”
No one suggested Jane tanking. She was probably the only one who even had the thought cross her mind, and she wasn’t going to put it out there. She had tried tanking for the gang when they had prestiged together a few months ago, and it had gone horribly. Even at low level she barely had enough health to survive more than one or two creatures pounding on her.
“Anything you want to do tonight, Jane?” asked Dave, looking at her.
She shook her head, coming out of her thoughts and back to the conversation.
“No, nothing I can think of,” she said, shaking her head. “I mean I have a few quests, but nothing worthy of the whole gang. Let’s just run something tonight together.”
They all nodded, and started looking for a dungeon to run. Eventually they found one everyone could agree on.
“We could do Castle Sarthine,” suggested Gavin. “There’s an item for my daggers that drops from the last boss, and one of Dave’s pre-quest items is there.”
“I like that,” said Dave. “Two birds with one stone. We should do it.”
Castle Sarthine was a basic dungeon, and not too far from the eastern city of Rendar. They could be there in less than a half hour.
“We’ll need one more,” said Gavin. “It’s a five man instance. Anyone have another damage dealer friend online?”
Most dungeons their level were designed around five players working together. Four could pull it off, but it usually took longer. And more players than five could join, but the rewards weren’t as good and generally not worth it. Special dungeons were designed for even more, but those were rare or for higher level players. In the end Dave found one on his friend’s list that was willing to come.
“Lazorhawkk,” Gavin said, nodding with approval. “He’ll be fine. We need a ranged dps anyway.”
Jane frowned. “Ugh, do we need to bring him?” she asked. “He’s always annoying.”
“He’s not too bad,” said Brett. “He’s good dps.”
“Yeah, and he’s got a better character name than ‘Faceplannt,’” said Gavin with a grin.
“Hey, Faceplannt is an excellent name,” said Brett, frowning at Gavin.
Jane rolled her eyes, but smiled. When among each other, her friends called each other by their real names, but in Numinos players could have a game handle different from their real name. The names could be changed, but even so records were kept of past names for a few years to prevent a player from doing notorious acts and then hiding by changing their handle. Only designated friends could see a player’s real name. In Arantor Dave was Korrond Wrin, Gavin was Unburdened Darknight, and Brett was Faceplannt Theeman.
Jane had chosen to just go by Jane. She would have used Smith as her last name just for irony, but that was taken, so she had settled on Jane Stormblade. No one but her close friends knew Jane was her real first name. At first she had told herself she did it because there were enough masks in The Game that she didn’t have to add one more, but the more she thought about it she realized it was a mask in its own right since no one would guess that it was her real name.
“Stop it you two, let’s get going,” said Dave, interrupting Gavin and Brett’s bantering.
They both flashed Dave a grin and got ready to head out.
Chapter Two
Jane and her friends made their way to Thundershield. From there they took the fast travel portal to Rendar. It wasn’t that expensive as they weren’t that far from each other in game and Rendar was a decently large city. From there they walked out to the dungeon. Lazorhawkk met them as they were leaving the town.
He was taller than average height in the game and lean and looked like an elf, even more so than Brett, complete with ears that came to a sharp point. Races were technically not a thing in Arantor, as everyone was supposedly human. But one could fudge their appearance enough that traits combinations like tall and slim represented elves, and short and stocky represented dwarves. There were others too—sets of traits adopted by certain groups of players that became a culture of their own. There were limitations on how far a player could make changes to their character, but they could be stretched.
With the full immersion of virtual reality, the Numinos designers had made the virtual body almost too well. It gave such realistic feedback to the mind that even shifting into Numinos or back to reality was a delicate process. There were limitations on how different a person’s character body could be from their real one. Too much difference could cause physiological or psychological problems. But those limitations were broad, and the enforced slow changes to character appearance helped players adjust. Characters ranged from gnome-sized to almost giant sized, the impossibly skinny to impossibly huge.
The numerous possibilities and their natural groupings by appearance could take up a volume in itself. Appearance did affect Alignment. Those players who wanted to improve in Arantor were all but forced into certain appearances, and as humans often did, those people found themselves identifying with others of similar appearances. But as what was good and bad for an individual’s Alignment could change over time, sometimes people had to choose between maintaining their character’s power and the look they had come to identify with. Often as one changed their appearance they found themselves further on the edge of the culture they had once been part of. The choice of moving on or accepting the price was difficult for many to make.
For Jane and her friends, it hadn’t been an issue. They mostly hung out with each other and didn’t have a look any of them were going for. Looking mostly human worked fine for their Alignment (everyone except Jane—but nothing else had worked for her either), and their guild was small and pretty laid back as far as appearance went.
“Thanks for coming, Hawkk,” Dave said, as they walked out to the dungeon. “We’re glad for a fifth.”
“No problem, Korrond,” said Lazorhawkk, flashing a wicked grin. He had his bow in hand and a quiver of arrows on his back. “I need the boss from there anyways, and no one else has wanted to run it all week. I heard they were changing the dungeon in the patch, so I guess people are hoping the new one is easier.”
“Well let’s run it one more time so we can tell everyone else how great it was before it got nerfed,” said Dave. “Besides, the patch notes just said it was going to get re-tuned. That could just as well mean it’s going to get harder.”
They walked together to their destination. The sun was falling so they stuck to the main roads. Creatures spawned more at night, and even more so where players didn’t normally kill them to keep them in check. The road they
took was traveled enough that their journey was uneventful. Soon, ahead of them on a small hill they could see it: the castle home of the House Sarthine. A low forties level dungeon full of monsters and bosses, with items and loot that could benefit the players. They had done it too many times to count. It was always a little different every run, but they knew how it worked by now.
The entire castle couldn’t be truly called a dungeon, although at the end of their adventure they would go to the underground part of the castle, a dungeon proper. The terms “dungeon” and “instance” were used by players to refer to any location a group could enter and usually not find any other players. In such an area, a group of players could enter and fight their own way through to get items and loot. Another group going in would be in their own “instance” of the area and not see the first group, having to do their own fighting to get their own loot. There were ways to attack other players in a dungeon, but they were difficult to pull off and usually only done to try to hinder someone strongly disliked. The effort was rarely worth it otherwise.
They were at the entrance of the dungeon, ready to go in, when Brett spoke up.
“Hey, look at that,” he said, nodding down the way behind them.
Coming up on the hill was another group made up entirely of females. Jane had to admit it was a rare sight, but she still rolled her eyes. No doubt Brett was going to want to chat with them before they went in.
Jane was part of the minority of girls who went out and adventured. Statistically more females preferred to stay in the towns and work there than go out and find danger, even if the danger was only simulated. It was a strange reflection of mankind’s history—and one Jane didn’t want to perpetuate. There were still plenty of girls who adventured, but it was rare to see more than two or so together unless it was a group from an all girl guild. Jane saw immediately that this was just that and also saw which guild it was. Their livery were all the same colors: Pink and teal. She didn’t need to be close enough to tell that the pink was in the shape of a heart with an arrow in it and the teal formed the background.