World of Eternia: The Prize

By Antony W.F. Chow

Greetings! You are just a click away from a grand adventure in the World of Eternia (“WoE”), the world’s FIRST Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game! To celebrate the first anniversary of the online launch of WoE, Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc. has invited a select group of four adventurers to attempt to lift the Curse of Castle Eternia. You can watch the LIVE, IN-GAME FEED of The Strangers as they take on various monsters and traps to reach the evil Regent of Castle Eternia and end his curse once and for all! What grand prize awaits them? To watch the video, please log into your WoE account, and launch the special application. Thank you for your continued interest and support! We hope to see you soon!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Antony W.F. Chow
• Release date: Mar 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311434425

Antony W.F. Chow

Calling himself a "literary chameleon," Antony W.F. Chow is an experimental writer who enjoys the intellectual challenge of writing in a wide variety of genres. His latest book is a platonic, Christian romance novel titled "My Date With Eric (A Sweet Romance Novel)." He is a longtime resident in the hometown of the New York Mets MLB team. He is best known for his online article on spotting counterfeit Japanese anime figures. He is also known as the author of Broken Hearted: A 9/11 Story, available for PC, Mac, and Linux. An unauthorized webcomic version is available on Google Play.

Book preview

World of Eternia: The Prize

by Antony W.F. Chow

Smashwords Edition. Copyright (c) 2014 by Antony W.F. Chow, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without prior written permission of the author. Book cover by Sid Ceaser, based on Dreamstime.com stock image ID 27969357, Chess Pieces – the White Knight, copyrighted (c) 2012 by Algol. Image used under Royalty Free license. Ebook formatting by Jesse Gordon.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events portrayed in this work are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1 – Chimera

Chapter 2 – Moat

Chapter 3 – Castle Eternia

Chapter 4 – Welcome party

Chapter 5 – Exploration

Chapter 6 – Into the abyss

Chapter 7 – Safe passage

Chapter 8 – Whack-a-mole

Chapter 9 – Speculation

Chapter 10 – Room of Eternia

Chapter 11 – Chessboard

Chapter 12 – Brawl

Chapter 13 – Naturalist

Chapter 14 – Cemetery

Chapter 15 – A gathering of Strangers

Chapter 16 – Regent

Chapter 17 – Prize

Chapter 18 – Decision

Epilogue

Afterword

About the Author

Prologue

TO: The Strangers

FROM: Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc.

DATE: April 1, 2016

Congratulations! Your party of four stout adventurers has been invited to participate in a special mission to mark the first anniversary of the online launch of the World of Eternia, the world's FIRST Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game!

For centuries, the Castle of Eternia has been off-limits to players and non-player characters alike, sealed by the Gods to prevent the Curse from spreading across the World of Eternia. Now, the Gods of Eternia have decided the time is ripe for brave adventurers to reclaim the Castle and lift the terrible Curse cast by the evil Regent! Will your party be the ones to accomplish this legendary feat? Or will another party be the ones to lift the Curse? Great honor, recognition, and prizes await you! To participate in this special mission, please click on the link below to confirm your party's acceptance of this special invitation and register for this mission. Remember, these invitations are extremely limited. Register today!

Thank you for playing World of Eternia, the world's FIRST Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game!

Chapter 1 – Chimera

Magic Missile! Five small, purple darts burst out from the battle mage’s outstretched fingertips, and streak toward the ferocious Chimera.

The monstrous beast feels the sting of the magic on its muscular hind leg, and roars in anger. Its three heads turn and briefly examine each of the four party members for the source of that foul magic, until their heads lock onto the spell caster. With a lion's head in the middle, a red dragon's head on the right, and a goat's head on the left, this mythical beast easily inspires fear among normal player characters. With its dragon's wings spread out for enhanced balance and movement, the beast tries to lunge its massive, lion body forward to crush the puny mage.

Oh no you don't! The chimera's forward momentum is abruptly stopped dead in its tracks when the beast feels something grabbing its serpentine-like tail in a tight grip. The chimera's heads roar again in anger when they turn and find the culprit: a massive-size human barbarian. The man is bare chest, choosing to flaunt his powerful physique, but wearing a Viking style helmet, tight shorts, and fine leather boots. The beast tries to whip its powerful tail back and fro, to dislodge the iron grip. Alas, the human's hands are too strong for this tactic to work.

Rooooaaarrrrr! The lion head voices its anger for a third time, and causes the tail to curl. The fearsome monster turns its body with indignation and swipes at the barbarian with a front paw, its claws seeking to rip the soft-bodied annoyance to shreds.

Ddddoooommmm! The blow strikes hard steel, as a heavily armored knight suddenly appears from behind the barbarian, with a massive steel shield to block the chimera's deadly strike.

Keep firing, Lucious! the cavalier yells at the mage.

The battle mage, clad in a fine silk golden robe lined with arcane symbols and draped over by a deep purple-colored cloak, raises his staff. The weapon is an elongated rod of steel some six foot long, with the top end encrusting a fist-sized sphere that is now glowing purple. Lucious the mage closes his eyes as he concentrates on the arcane wording of his spell: sclu-move-wazi-roll-yiji. Suddenly he opens his eyes, his irises flashing with dancing sparks of purple light. The mage thrusts the staff's orb at the chimera's direction and yells, DISINTEGRATE!

Upon hearing the command word of the spell, the barbarian suddenly releases the monstrous chimera's tail. With urgency he quickly hops a few steps back, lest he be engulfed by the deadly spell as well.

The cavalier senses the movement beside him, and slowly slides back to stand shoulder to shoulder with his muscle-bound comrade named Conrad. The cavalier's massive shield is still held out before him, in case the spell fails to overcome the chimera's high resistance to magic.

A purple stream of light shoots out of the sphere, and connects with the chimera. The purple light quickly engulfs the doomed monster, as the spell slowly eats away at the monster's flesh. A loud hhhsssssssss sound permeates the air as the chimera thrashes uselessly against its impending doom. In mere seconds, nothing is left of the creature, not even bones.

Lucky! a light, plucky but distinctly feminine voice blurts out rudely. The owner of the voice, a lady dressed in the humble, cotton white robes of a priestess, walks out from behind the massive tree where she was hiding. Her emerald eyes are flashing with excitement at the outcome of the just ended battle, and her full red lips are threatening to break into a smile. Her lengthy, platinum blonde hair sways on her back, tied in a bundle with a simple black ribbon, as the lady sashays toward the weary but victorious battle mage. Her steps are light despite the calf length black leather boots with two inch heels that the priestess is wearing.

It was a calculated risk, Diana, the mage replies as Lucious eyes the priestess coolly with his dark brown eyes, shrouded deep inside the hood of his purple cloak. He is annoyed that she is giving him lip despite the fact that she took no part in the battle. The party of four adventurers had previously agreed, despite the mage’s private misgivings, to keep the healer in reserve, in case any fallen member needs to be resurrected during this difficult battle; to their knowledge no player party in this game has ever encountered a chimera and survived. Besides, if Diana did get involved in the fight with the chimera, she could have gotten in the way of his deadly disintegrate spell. There was a chance to end this fight quickly, before the chimera spews out dragon fire and engulf us all. So I gave it a shot, Lucious shrugs.

But the odds of success against such a high level mob were like a one in three. What if your gambit failed? Diana asks, as she absently twirls her thick, luscious hair above her forehead with an index finger.

Then we would have continued with the hold-and-fire strategy against the chimera, the heavily armored cavalier replies, while examining the surface of his shield for damage. Since this particular chimera had a red dragon's head, it would have been immune to fireballs. But water-based spells would have done extra damage to the beast, he notes as he runs his gauntlet-covered hand over his thinning, shortly cropped blond hair favored by military personnel.

Frankly, I am surprised that I was able to hold onto its tail and prevent the chimera from taking flight in the air, Wesley, Conrad tells the armored man. I'm glad that I took your advice to keep boosting my player strength attribute as I'm leveling up my barbarian class, he remarks as he bumps his fist lightly with the cavalier as part of their ritual celebration after a major encounter.

That makes the two of us, Wesley smiles broadly at the big man, who stands a good three inches taller than Wesley’s six foot height. Our strategy against the chimera hinged on your ability to out muscle the beast, and keep it grounded. Otherwise, it could have taken an hour to bring the beast down with Magic Missiles whenever Lucious runs out of water-based offensive spells. Diana's slingshot would not have reached the chimera in the air; even if the stones reach it, they won't penetrate the monster's thick hide. You and I are melee fighters; we may as well be waving sticks at it and wait for our turn to be roasted alive by the dragon's fire breath, the strategist outlined the possible outcome if their hold-and-fire strategy had failed.

I could have tried a Meteor Shower spell on it, Lucious thinks aloud, refusing to concede across the board on the tactics that could have taken out the just vanquished beast. Even a high level monster like a chimera would have been pounded into the ground.

You would have taken our melee fighters out along with the beast, Diana snorts in reply. Remember, I have enough magical energy to cast only one resurrection, not two, during this mission, she reminds him while waving her index finger in a tut-tut manner. If you end up dying, I’m not sure I would bother to resurrect you during this mission, she teases him with a grin.

If you're so useless, remind me again why you're in our party? Lucious quips rudely.

Diana puts her hands on her hips. Because you boys need a genteel woman to curb your barbaric mannerism, she huffs with indignation.

Conrad looks away, politely pretending not to hear the comment. Although his player character is in the barbarian class, he knows that her remark is not directed at his choice of character class.

A genteel woman? the mage replies mockingly with eyes wide open. Lucious curls his fingers together in the shape of binoculars over his eyes. Where? He pretends to look about in search of one.

Conrad shakes his head at the mindless banter between the two spell casters. He walks over to a big, smooth stone, where he had left his massive, ivory club leaning upright on the ground. Made of a mammoth's tusk, the club is his most prized possession. He had left the weapon aside because he didn't want to risk his enchanted club getting damaged by dragon fire. A true brawler's weapon, the club doubles the damage inflicted on a humanoid-shape creature – regardless of size. In other words, as long as the enemy has two arms, two legs, one head, and stands upright, his club will inflict extra damage; also, that damage calculation factors in his penetration bonus for his massive strength attribute. One swing with his club is enough to take most mobs down. Quit squabbling, kids. The important thing is that we got pass the chimera in one piece, Conrad says as he takes a swing with his club like a baseball bat. His stance and swing is perfected by the tens of thousands of hours of practice in the batter's cage as a baseball player.

Wesley smiles wryly at Conrad. He is the glue that keeps this party together, the cavalier notes. What an interesting group they make: a retired soldier, a minor league professional baseball player, a young Wall Street trader, and a graduate school student. The online game server randomly tossed the group of four strangers together when they started playing World of Eternia (WoE) shortly after the game's release. In just one year, The Strangers have become one of the best teams in the game, known for their unorthodox approach to fighting monsters, and bending the rules of magic in rather creative and innovative ways.

True to her tendencies as a researcher, Diana frequently visits the player's forum boards, and even submitted several Wikipedia entries on the characteristics of the monsters they have defeated. Her postings online have kept The Strangers in the public eye time and time again, particularly their exploits as the team clears out zones and dungeons ahead of most other player groups. In addition, Diana has posted walkthroughs for certain difficult, high level missions, and she often receives unsolicited requests on the boards for walkthroughs. Her frequent interactions with the public at large have made her the de facto public spokesperson for the group.

No doubt their style of play and public visibility were among the reasons why the team was among a select few invited by the game developers, Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc. (EDE), to participate in an especially designed campaign to mark the first anniversary of the WoE's release online. However, participants were required to agree to a release, sent to their listed email addresses, allowing the company to capture and stream real-time in-game video and audio footage of player characters as they navigate through the special mission. The campaign will be open to the general public once the mission has been successfully completed by an invited team. The developers also hinted at a unique prize awaiting the first team to finish this campaign. Of course, EDE is celebrating the anniversary with other special in-game items and mini-quests, so that no one is left out of the anniversary celebration.

Do you think we're ahead of everyone else? asks Diana, the graduate student pursuing a master degree in psychology.

I don't see why not, with the way we have been blowing through the encounters so far, speculates Lucious, the sharp tongued, young Wall Street trader. His motto as a player is no resistance. He has been loading up on his player intelligence attribute to increase his odds of success in casting spells where magic resistance comes into play. His high intelligence also grants extra bonus in his mana pool. His favorite tactic is to cast the Polymorph spell to turn monsters into frogs, despite the spell's relatively low odds of success.

Let's keep moving, Wesley the ex-Marine says, and starts walking.

The rest of the party follows their de facto leader.

Chapter 2 – Moat

Welcome to Eternia Castle, Lucious says quietly as the party takes in the scenery before the team.

The castle lies in a desolated area, surrounded by rotted and dying trees. Fortunately, the virtual reality game has not advanced enough to affect a player's sense of smell, or else the party will be gagging on the nauseating stench of rot from the trees. The castle has long fallen into a state of disrepair, with major cracks running along the lengths of the massive stone walls. The castle is situated on top of a moat surrounded by murky, foul looking water. An occasional splash hints at the presence of something lurking inside the water.

How are we getting across? Diana asks while staring at the blackish water. She does not relish the idea of walking or swimming across, and ruin her white robes. You can fly us across, right Lucious? she suggests while batting her long eyelashes at the mage hopefully.

The battle mage rolls his eyes at her attempt to butter