World of Eternia: The Complete Collection

By Antony W.F. Chow

World of Eternia: The Complete Collection includes The Prize (Book 1) and The Match (Book 2). In The Prize, a group of adventurers enter a special one year anniversary campaign in the virtual reality based MMORPG, World of Eternia. In this fantasy gaming world, the four players must rely on both their wits and teamwork in order to defeat the puzzles and challenges offered by the game developers, Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc. What great reward awaits The Strangers?

In The Match, The Strangers again find themselves as pawns, this time in a power struggle between EDE and a rival gaming company, Virtuous Gaming Co. The bitter rivalry between the two company chief executives came to a head when VG challenged EDE to a match, with the fate of both gaming companies hanging in the balance!

This litrpg genre book contains a combined 143,000 words, and offers a near future look at virtual reality based gaming in a MMORPG setting. The first book is strictly from the players' perspective, while the second book offers extensive behind-the-curtain look at issues and concerns of the game developers themselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Antony W.F. Chow
• Release date: Dec 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311044082

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

Foreword

The litrpg genre has exploded in popularity in recent years. Some credit goes to Sword Art Online, the popular 2009 Japanese light novel series turned manga series turned anime shows in which real life players became trapped inside a digital gaming world. However, older readers may recall 1982’s Tron film, which explored this theme some two dozen years earlier.

The World of Eternia series is closer, in spirit, to the earlier Tron movie, where actions taken by real life players inside the digital gaming world resulted in real life consequences. Thus, the reader is encouraged to keep an open mind, and to avoid comparing WoE series to the Western equivalent of SAO that have frequently popped up on digital and paperback shelves lately.

With kind regards,

Antony W.F. Chow

December 14, 2015

World of Eternia:

The Prize

By Antony W.F. Chow

World of Eternia: The Prize Index

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

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 him up. I can't fly all four of us across, he shakes his head, after checking his mana pool and quickly calculating how much mana is required to fly every member over the moat.

How about just one person at a time? Diana persists. She absolutely won’t swim through these treacherous water!

Nope, he declines, and holds up a hand to forestall her reply. The flight spell drains my mana pool on a per second basis. This is why we don't have aerial combat among player characters in this game. Theoretically, you could fly; but once you run out of mana, your character will drop from the sky. However, if you have a Druid class character, you could change shape into an avian creature and fly for as long as you want. Air mages, or spell casters specializing in air magic, are able to cast flight spells at half the cost. But they still have a limit on their flight time. I'm not an air mage, and I can't maintain the spell long enough to take the four of us over the water, the mage explains.

That's just great, Diana sulks as her hope of avoiding a swim in the foul water is deflated. Are we going to swim across, then? I can't imagine how much damage the contaminated water would do to our health points while we swim across. We could even get poison status from the water, she blanches at the prospect of ruining her clothes, especially her boots.

We could try cutting down some trees to build a bridge, Conrad suggests as he eyes the trees in the vicinity.

Wesley walks over to a tree and grabs hold of a branch in his right gauntlet. With a sharp twist, he snaps off the branch. Possible, if the trees aren't rotted to the core, Wesley notes while holding up the branch to show the empty space at the core of the wood to his party. I don't know if a makeshift bridge from these trees will hold up while we cross it.

What if we go across one person at a time? Conrad proposes.

Wesley looks at the barbarian with a doubtful expression on the knight’s face. I suppose it's possible that Diana could make it across, since she's the lightest person in our party, he says while eying her from head to toe. She's not wearing heavy armor either, he notes. But you and I may have to swim across. I don't know if I will make it with my suit of steel plate armor, he says while looking down at his attire. The knight is wearing a full suit of armor, missing the helmet which Wesley loathes to wear, a large shield that is flat at the top and curved at the bottom strapped to his left arm, and a long sword in a simple black scabbard at his waist.

Lucious walks over to stand in front of Wesley, and holds out his hand. Can I borrow that branch for a moment? he asks.

Sure. Be my guest, Wesley answers pleasantly but with surprise as he hands the long tree branch over to his companion. I wonder what he has in mind.

The rest of the group watches the mage walk to the edge of the foul water, bends down, and jabs the branch straight into the water. The end of the branch is a fraction of an inch above the water.

The water is not that deep, Lucious announces without looking back at the party. It looks to be around waist deep, he adds. We could walk through it.

I'm still not walking through the water, Diana replies with a frown. Gods of Eternia know what's swimming in it.

Lucious looks at Diana and rolls his eyes again. My dear, delicate priestess, I am calculating how much earth needs to be moved in order to create a bridge just above the foul water, he reveals with exasperation.

The other party members perk up their ears at the phrase, to create a bridge.

You can do that? Conrad looks at the mage in befuddlement. He has seen the battle mage cast fireballs and lightning bolts often, but nothing earth related. Heck, he doubts Lucious knows any earth based spells that could help them get across the moat.

Earth magic has a spell called 'Move Earth,' Lucious replies with a nod and a grin; he knows exactly what Conrad is thinking. It is true that the battle mage has not used any fancy earth spells lately. But this reflects the lack of opportunity, rather than the battle mage’s inability to do so. Time to correct this misconception, he thinks. I am not an Earth mage, but occasionally I find it useful to change the terrain in an environment. I was trying to calculate the length of a bridge that I could create with the Move Earth spell, he explains. I should add a disclaimer just in case I can’t make the bridge connect to the land on the other side of the moat, Lucious reminds himself. I am that confident that I have enough mana to create a bridge that will cross most of the moat. We might have to jump across the end of the bridge, though, to get back on land, he warns.

So what's the hold up? the barbarian asks with an askew eyebrow. He hates how the mage likes to exaggerate the difficulty of accomplishing this. If Lucious can’t pull this off, he wouldn’t have bothered to mention it in the first place.

With one notable exception, the party members wear no armor, and therefore would have no problem jumping across, the battle mage replies while staring at the cavalier's heavy steel plate armor.

Wesley finds himself under intense scrutiny from the rest of the party. I could take off my armor before I jump across, he suggests.

But that would take forever, Diana groans. And we are in a race to finish this mission first, remember? she reminds him. We already wasted too much time just standing here gawking at the moat, she complains.

I could toss you across, Conrad suggest while flexing his humongous biceps. Gotta show off my build to my adoring fans, he thinks while taking a furtive glance at the overhead cameras capturing in-game video.

What about damage from impact? the cavalier replies while visualizing the toss in his mind.

I'll patch you right back up. Now stop being a baby! Diana flicks her fingers in the air to dismiss his complaint. I am not swimming across, she determines. If I have to waste some healing prayers on Wesley to avoid the water, I’ll do it!

Wesley looks at the barbarian and the mage, and sees that they both agree with her. Seeing no room to argue the matter, the former soldier finally waves the white flag. Fine, he exhales loudly in surrender.

Very good, oh fearless leader, the mage jumps in before Wesley changes his mind and backs out. Now please be quiet. I need to concentrate while I cast this complex spell, Lucious replies. He kneels on the ground, and places his palms flat on the ground. He leans forward until his head touches the ground as well. He closes his player character's eyes to increase his concentration, and starts chanting the arcane language of the powerful spell: heth-voke-putu-masu-move-heth-voke-putu-masu-taal!

After a lengthy passage of time stretching pass several minutes, the foul water starts stirring as the earth begins to shift under the mage's command. Lucious switches his player's normal view to magical screen view, and directs the reshaping of the environment. At the top of the screen is the mana pool remaining to accomplish the task. With his virtual reality gloves, the player carefully draws a bridge an inch above the surface of the water, and makes it two feet wide. Lucious extends the bridge straight across the moat, but to his dismay the bridge ends a good three feet before reaching land again. Looking at the upper right corner of the screen, he sees that the mana pool for this task will draw the pool down to zero. Seeing no alternative, the player sighs as he clicks the Enter icon to confirm the spell.

Finally Lucious re-enters the regular player screen view again and opens his character's eyes. The mage stands up and walks over to examine his magically created bridge. As he had directed, the bridge is two feet wide, and rises just an inch above the water. The bridge extends straight across the moat, and it ends just before reaching solid ground on the other side, leaving a two foot gap to jump across.

Nice work, Wesley congratulates the mage with a pat on the back. He was skeptical that the bridge would work or hold up a player character’s weight. But seeing Lucious actually stand on the bridge alleviates his concern.

Indeed, Conrad agrees. The gap looks small enough for even our valorous knight to jump across. Too bad I won't get a chance to toss him over, he frowns at the missed opportunity as he flexes his right bicep for the in-game camera.

Lucious' knees buckle from the enormous mana drain of the spell as his mana is now reduced to zero, and abruptly falls down to one knee. Being a virtual reality game, WoE tries to mimic the effects of dizziness by shining beams of light directly into the player’s eyes via his visor equipment and induce player discomfort. Not used to draining his mana pool in one shot like this, Lucious is caught off guard by the game’s biofeedback loop. The screen turns blurry and switches the axis back and forth like a kaleidoscope, making it impossible for the player to see the in-game world clearly. He has no choice but to take a knee until his avatar’s vision returns to normal.

Here. Soft, delicate hands touch the mage's face, and a wave of energy washes over him, as one hundred points of mana are added back into his mana pool instantly. The biofeedback loop abruptly dissipates, and Lucious can see the in-game world clearly again. He opens his avatar’s eyes, and sees Diana kneeling before him, her hands still on his face. Thanks, he smiles.

The priestess blushes and looks down. As a healer, she went through the dizzy spells often when she started out in this game, and emptied her mana pool on healing spells for the party. Unlike Lucious, though, Diana’s tolerance for the biofeedback loop is apparently a lot higher, and the effects are as annoying as mosquito bites to her. However, she has read about different tolerances for mana drains in the public forum boards, and as a spell caster she alone understood how much mana the Move Earth spell would require. Thus, she had her Mana Link prayer ready in case the mage needed a little bit of a pick me up. She quickly gets up, and pats the dirt off her legs. Diana looks at him again, and holds out her hand.

Lucious accepts her hand, and gets back to his feet.

I'm sorry to break up this precious moment, but we need to hurry across the bridge, Wesley reminds the two gently.

Right. I will take the lead. Diana follows me. You're third. And Conrad takes the rear, Lucious replies. The mage looks at the cavalier silently, daring Wesley to argue against the mage's proposed party order across the bridge. The idea is to have the unarmored spell casters get across the bridge quickly, and then see if the knight could make it across.

Fine with me, the cavalier nods in agreement, as he quickly understands what Lucious wants to accomplish. Normally he would take the lead; however, in this case if he somehow falls off the bridge, Conrad can fish him out. Furthermore, the spell casters would be safely across first. The battle mage takes the lead across the bridge in case something comes out of the water and blocks the bridge.

With a slight nod, the mage enters the bridge. Lucious holds out his staff and taps it on the solid bridge lightly every other step he takes. The mage ignores the people behind him, focusing solely on the path in front of him. While maintaining his head straight ahead, his eyes move from side to side, keeping an alert eye on the murky water next to the bridge and checking for unnatural movement in the water.

As the battle mage reaches the middle of the bridge, he hears a flik sound coming from the right. Lucious turns his head and sees a disturbance in the murky water, but he is unable to make out the cause of the break in the calm water. Guys, stay alert. Whatever is in the water knows we are here. Go across the bridge as fast as you can, he says aloud while returning his eyes to the clear path straight ahead.

Roger that, Wesley replies.

'Kay, Diana says, with some anxiety creeping into her light voice.

Time for some boom-boom, Conrad says menacingly as he slaps his ivory club against his open, left palm. Lucious has been hogging all the lime light with his fancy spells. It is time for the big boys to shine!

Ignoring the remarks, Lucious starts jogging across the bridge. Thankfully, nothing jumps out of the water to challenge him. So far so good, he thinks as he glances at his mana pool on the upper right corner of his player screen. With the amount donated by the priestess along with his fast mana regeneration due to his exemplary intelligence player attribute, the battle mage’s mana pool is already half full. He has enough points to cast both offensive and defensive spells now.

At the end of the magical bridge, Lucious jumps over the three foot wide gap between the bridge and the ground. He lands safely on solid ground with a pupf. He quickly turns around, gripping his staff tightly with both hands, anxious to see the progress of his comrades across the bridge.

Diana is just a half dozen steps behind him, almost reaching the end of the bridge.

Swirrrr. Suddenly a small fish with rows of sharp teeth jump out of the water, and latch its jaws onto her robe.

The priestess draws the steel mace from her belt loop, and smashes the fish on the head. Whack!

Stunned by the blow, the fish loosens its jaws and drops onto the bridge. Pit-pit-pit. Lying on one side, the fish flips its tail, and struggles to leave the ground and get back into the water.

Lucious stares at the fish for a moment, and suddenly identifies the animal. PIRANHA! he shouts at his party. Get off the bridge as fast as you can!

Heeding his warning, Diana quickly hops off the bridge.

The two melee fighters look at each other, and start to run across the bridge. Since the barbarian is unarmored and therefore much less encumbered, Conrad quickly widens his lead over the knight. Realizing the growing gap between himself and the knight, and reluctant to abandon his leader to save his own hide, the barbarian starts to slow down his pace.

No! Keep going! Wesley shouts at Conrad, understanding why the barbarian is slowing down on the bridge. I’m wearing armor, you’re not! I’ll be safe! the knight points out. As if to prove his point, a pair of piranhas jumps out of the water and try to bite his legs. Bing! Bong! He feels the impacts on his legs, and sees the piranhas lying on the bridge. Their jaws are unable to penetrate through the cavalier's thick, steel plate armor.

Splash! The water on both sides of the bridge stir violently as piranhas start jumping out of the water, this time in much greater numbers.

Yahg! Conrad blurts out in pain as a piranha latches its sharp teeth onto his bare right thigh. The barbarian slams his ivory club onto the piranha, and it falls lifelessly onto the floor.

Run! Lucious yells again. I can’t blow these piranhas away with a fireball if the two of them are still on the bridge, he thinks with frustration. What mass effect offensive spell can I cast? Think, mage, think!

The barbarian decides to heed the mage's advice, and makes a quick dash for the end of the bridge. Yecqk! he blurts out in pain as more piranhas latch onto his body. The biofeedback loop delivers small jolts of electricity into the player’s hands through his virtual reality gloves. Grinding his teeth, Conrad ignores the pain and the fish, and concentrates on making it across the bridge. The piranhas continue biting him, causing him to bleed out his health points rapidly: 10%, 12%, 14%. . .

Finally, Conrad stops at the end of the bridge. With a big exhale of his lungs, the barbarian jumps across the gap above the piranha water, and lands on both feet. Thud! Another piranha tries to nip at his heel during the jump, but misses.

Diana pounces on the barbarian right away, smashing her mace at the piranhas still latched onto Conrad's body.

Conrad takes out his club, and the two of them forcibly remove all the attached piranhas in short order. As the piranhas release him, drips of blood begin to run down his legs.

Diana attaches her mace back on her belt loop. She places a hand on the wounded warrior’s chest, and starts a low level Heal Simple Wounds prayer: Oh Merciful Gods of Eternia, Please grant my request to Heal this mighty warrior, To continue his valorous deeds in your names. Amen.

In the meantime, Lucious keeps his eyes on the bridge, and sees that the piranhas have formed a living wall of teeth blocking Wesley's path on the bridge. An idea begins to form in his mind. Raising his voice, Lucious asks without looking at the pair standing with him, Approximately how much damage does each piranha take?

Diana looks back at the mage with a slight frown. One or two hits from my mace, she replies, worrying over what the unpredictable mage has in store.

One hit from my club, Conrad adds.

Satisfied with their answers, Lucious raises his staff in the air and starts casting a spell: lite-augh-lite-ghal-lite-tuuu-lite-jolt. Switching over to magic screen view, the player directs the Chain Lightning bolt to target the wall of piranhas blocking the bridge. Dark clouds begin to form over the bridge, and thunder rumble within the fast growing dark clouds.

Conrad suddenly realizes what the Lucious is planning to do. Wait! Wesley is still on the bridge! he yells out, and starts to move towards the mage. Before he can reach Lucious and shake the mage violently to interrupt the spell, Lucious clicks the Enter icon and finishes casting the spell.

Crackle! A bolt of lightning crashes from the sky in a brilliant flash of light, and hits the wall of piranhas. BBBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM! The thunder bolt dances across the bridge, jumping from one living creature to the next and hitting every creature on the bridge. Ccchhhheeeee! The bolt jumps off the bridge and electrifies the surrounding water.

Augh! Wesley yells out in pain as the character is seared by the powerful lightning bolt, and the pain feedback loop hits the player's hands via his virtual reality gloves. The cavalier drops down to his hands and knees on the bridge, vaguely aware of the charred fish surrounding him on the bridge.

Conrad sees his fallen leader, and twirls on the mage with unbridled rage. The barbarian grabs Lucious by his collar and pulls the battle mage off the ground. Are you crazy! Conrad yells into the mage's face. If Wesley's character dies from this spell, I’m going to teach this treacherous yellow bastard a lesson!

Lucious stares back into Conrad's eyes defiantly, not at all surprised by the big man’s anger. The old man is like Conrad’s daddy or something, the battle mage smirks and begins to explain his action on the bridge. Wesley was surrounded on the narrow bridge. There was no way for him to move across while the school of piranhas was still alive. I used a relatively low damage inflicting spell to clear out these critters, he calmly explains.

What about Wesley, huh? Is he just collateral damage to you? the barbarian spits out. You don’t purposely hit your teammates in the crossfire!

The mage shakes his head, and wipes away the spittle on his face with his sleeve. The Chain Lightning spell won't inflict enough damage to kill him. Give the old man more credit than that, he smirks.

Diana puts her hand on top of Conrad's. Just let him go and help Wesley get off the bridge, she suggests softly.

The barbarian turns his menacing, ogre-like eyes, and stares at her.

The priestess stares back, refusing to yield even an inch.

After a long moment of silence, Conrad's eyes finally soften, and he nods in agreement. Conrad lets go of the errant mage like a piece of filthy trash, and the barbarian jumps back onto the bridge. Half-running across the bridge, he makes his way to Wesley, who is still on his hands and knees. The barbarian takes out his ivory club and knocks the charred fish back into the water, clearing a path towards his fallen comrade.

That was a dangerous trick you just pulled, Diana comments frostily as she stands next to Lucious. She could understand the logic behind his spell, and the priestess has no doubt that Wesley would agree with it even. Still the mage needs to communicate his plans with the party, especially a sensitive guy like Conrad.

Lucious looks at Diana, and notes the lack of anger on her face. There was no other choice, he replies softly. Either we abandon Wesley on the bridge, or we clear out the piranhas blocking the path AND deal with whatever else is still in the water. I chose not to abandon him. And with one mid level offensive spell, I took out one hundred piranhas, both on the bridge and in the water. The lightning bolt electrified the moat, and killed off the rest of the piranhas that hadn't joined the party on the bridge. The experience points we just received brought us a lot closer to the next level. I firmly believe I made the right decision, he crosses his arms across his chest, waiting for her to argue otherwise.

Diana gives him a sour look, and decides to bite back a reply on her lips. She checks her player journal log, and confirms the hundred kills, giving each party member a hefty amount of experience points for this encounter.

Seeing no retort forthcoming, Lucious continues. If you ask me though, I think the game designers are sick puppies. How the heck are players supposed to hack-and-slash their way across the moat? This encounter with piranhas guarding the moat is impossible to advance without magic. If you try to swim through the water, the piranhas will detect your presence in the water and quickly surround you. If you use the rotted wood to make a bridge, the bridge won't last long enough for all party members to cross. Even if you use a spell like water walking, you still have to contend with the piranhas; once the spell caster is bitten, he will lose his focus and the spell will be dissipated. The mage rubs the day old whiskers on his chin. I guess you could try fishing the piranhas out, if you knew they were there in the first place. But it could take a few days to get them all out of the water. And that would put the party far behind the others teams competing to finish the campaign first. There are player teams that comprise entirely of non-magic users. Lucious can’t see them getting across the moat without, say, an engineer pumping all the water out of the moat and then sweeping all the landlocked fishes aside to clear a path.

Lucious, Wesley is not getting up. Let's go back on the bridge and see what's going on, Diana interrupts the mage's monologue. She has been watching the duo on the bridge, and seeing the knight still on his hands and knees is worrisome.

The mage smacks his forehead to bring himself back to the present; he has a bad tendency to day dream at the worst possible moments. Sorry. Let's go over there. He hops onto the bridge after the priestess, and starts making his way to the center of the bridge, where the knight is still down on all four. What's going on? he asks.

Conrad is kneeling in front of the fallen knight. He looks up at Lucious. The joints on his armor hardened a bit, and he's stuck in that position right now. He points at the blackened section of the right shoulder joint in the armor emphasis.

Gahahah, the mage guffaws, and quickly covers his mouth. The joints got burned by his lightning bolt and locked in place!

Wesley raises his head, and throws the battle mage a dirty look.

So what are YOU going to do about it? Diana asks while shooting daggers at Lucious' back. He put Wesley into this predicament; he will get the knight out of it. Or else.

Oh, let me see, the mage ponders aloud nonchalantly. Ol' tin man here just needs a lil' oil. Let me find some. He unties the tiny pouch from his belt, and sticks his left arm into the Bag of Holding. The enchanted bag had cost Lucious a ton of money to purchase from the Mage Guild, but it’s a godsend for mages and enchanters who rely on spell components to cast spells. The Bag of Holding allows the player to pull up a special screen on his visor, tap on the desired item, and pull the item quickly from the bag. The only problem with a Bag of Holding is that the user can only pull one type of item at a time, rather than multiple different items. After a moment the battle mage pulls out a lump of butter. Ta-dah! Anyone got a match? Lucious asks with a flourish. However, he sees that no one is impressed with his antics.

Conrad reaches inside his left leather boot, and pulls a small box of matches out of a hidden compartment inside his foot wear. Tchik! He expertly strikes a match and lights it.

Thanks, Lucious says as he takes the stick of match and puts it near the lump of butter to melt the butter. The heat from the open fire starts to soften the lump. Once the butter is melted, I will smear it over the joints of the armor. It'll take only a minute.

Why would you carry a lump of butter anyway? Diana asks.

It's a spell component for the entry level grease spell, the battle mage replies.

To make the floor slippery? the priestess inquires, trying to imagine what else a lump of butter would be go for.

Yup. Works great on staircases, especially when big, dumb monsters are chasing you up the stairs,