Heralds- The Proving Grounds Page 2

  Her default was simply “Jen,” but getting that in a game was next to impossible. Short names were always the first to go. Her fall backs were things that extended the name so she could still use the short version. She didn’t see much of a reason to be super clever about it or put together something no one could pronounce.

  She tried Jen anyway… and got blipped. “This name is currently unavailable.” As expected.

  “Such creativity.” The sound of Jen’s office chair creaking accompanied Sam’s disappointed voice.

  Hmph. Jen ignored Sam as she pondered a few changes.

  She’d always liked the sound of Genevieve, despite it not really being related to Jeniffer in any way. Jenevieve looked silly… Jeneve. Hmm. Seemed kind of like a fantasy name.

  “That’s a bit better.” Sam’s voice echoed from the darkness.

  “Says ‘Samara.’ “

  “What’s wrong with Samara? Besides, it’s synonymous with death these days.”

  “Unless someone else grabs the name and uses it to become the top fisherman in the world.”

  “… Don’t even joke about that. And hurry up.”

  Jen laughed.

  She didn’t need a last name, she’d learned that in the beta, but most people had them. She didn’t fancy being the next Cher or Madonna.

  She tapped her chin as she stared at the empty surname box. None of her old ones would make sense for a paladin.

  “Lightheart.”

  Jen blinked a few times at the suggestion. “That’s surprisingly… girly for you.”

  “Pfft. It’s all… goody goody. It’s perfect.”

  “I know.” Jen typed it into the box. “Which is why I’m surprised you came up with it.”

  “Hey, I am an awesome namer of things. My surname is ‘Redblade,’ which totally wouldn’t work for a paladin.”

  A spinning wheel appeared for a moment on the interface as the game checked out the name. The names. Plural. Though as she recalled, the surname didn’t have to be unique.

  Character created.

  A warning popped up about height adjustment leading to nausea. She had already had a bout with that, so she knew better than to change it. She dismissed the warning.

  “Okay.” The office chair creaked before feet could be heard hitting the floor. “Stay in the newb area. I’ll be along shortly. We’ll murder things.”

  Jen rolled her eyes. “We shall dispense righteous justice upon the wicked, indeed.”

  “Ugh.”

  The sound of Sam grumbling was reason enough. Jen grinned.

  2

  Jen pulled the helmet off as Sam left. She double checked that the door was locked, it was, and grabbed a bottle of water. It was tricky to open with the gloves on but she managed.

  The helmet went on easier this time. Either the adjustment had helped, or she was just getting used to it.

  She hit the login button on her one and only character. The intro cinematic began. She had seen it before, and so opted to skip it.

  The back story was interesting, if a bit vague. That was by design, though. As she understood it, a world wide catastrophe had occurred a few generations back sending most of humanity into a handful of well defended cities where they held out as natural disasters and newly unleashed monsters destroyed most of what had been. Years later dwindling resources forced people to expand once more, making their way out into the world to retake and reshape it as they saw fit.

  The bit where no one was entirely sure what had happened sort of fit because the people who had entered the cities for safety had all died generations before, so only stories had remained, which were more and more unreliable with each generation that passed.

  It was also why nearly every city in the beta had started as some sort of ruins. They denoted building sites that provided for expansion. Of course, no one was required to build there, but it made sense. It meant everything you needed, at least to get started, was pretty close by.

  She found herself standing in the same glade as the character creation screen as light filtered through the leaves above to encircle her. The only noticeable additions were a wagon behind her and an NPC standing at a break in the trees where the road lead out into the open.

  There was a slight hiccup in the frame rate for a moment, but it returned to normal fast enough it was only a curiosity. Maybe something to do with the sheer number of players trying to get in.

  She was the only one in the glade at the moment. She glanced around and leaned in the real world to start her character walking. She paced around the clearing. Moving had taken some getting used to but it wasn’t hard to pick up again. Like riding a bike.

  She had wandered a few steps into the trees when another player appeared in the lit circle. Not all players would appear near her, there were actually a number of instances of the login area which all faded into the normal newbie yard up the road. It kept things neat and tidy instead of having eighty people piled on top of each other in one spot. It also meant the chances of Sam showing up here were incredibly low.

  The young man before her had long dark hair and was decked out in the barbarian starter gear. The name plate over his head read “Tobin Ironblood.”

  Huh. Not a bad name for a barbarian.

  He looked left, right, and took a single step before he vanished.

  Hmm. Maybe he didn’t like how his hair looked in the game. She had remade her first beta characters a few times. At this point she knew all the hairstyles like the back of her hand. There were really only about three acceptable ones. Another two were borderline. She had no idea why there were three different kinds of Mohawk. Really, who needs more than one? Just strange.

  She wandered up to the quest giver patiently waiting for her. A young man with blond hair and dressed in simple peasant garb. “Ah, you’re finally up. I’m afraid we haven’t quite arrived yet, miss. The wagon had a bit of trouble, you see. But just through the trees you’ll find a road. You should be able to make it to town on foot from here. Some of the others have already gone on ahead.”

  “Excellent. Thank you, Jeeves.”

  The NPC stared at her silently.

  “Right, I mean… what town?”

  “The town of Fairharbor lies just up the road. It’s the busiest trading port this far north. You can surely find passage to any number of places you may wish to visit from there. And I’m certain you can also find some work, if you need coin.”

  “Neat.”

  The NPC was silent as she walked on by. She hadn’t really gotten far into the beta, but she’d never seen him again. The poor greeter that got left behind. Tragic.

  The path wasn’t terribly long, but it was certainly winding. An old trick for hiding when the computer was loading something.

  The trees stretched further apart as she went until the world beyond was visible. She could see players wandering along the road now. They stretched from the woods, standing beside her, all the way to the town gates in the distance.

  Jen glanced about a few times. She didn’t see Sam.

  Then again, Sam could be any one of them. She might be a him, rather than a her. That was doubtful, though. She coveted the reputation she had built in the beta. She’d likely look exactly the same, which hadn’t been too far off from how she actually looked.

  “Dead.”

  Jen rolled her eyes as Sam’s voice appeared behind her.

  “Yes, yes.” She turned.

  Samara Redblade looked more or less exactly as Jen had expected. A rogue in dark clothing who was already spinning a dagger idly around her fingers. She looked a lot like her real world counterpart, aside from being a bit taller and narrower at the hips. Unsurprising really. Those were things Sam disliked about her actual appearance.

  Her hair being dark was odd, though.

  Jen raised an eyebrow at her. “Black, huh?”

  Sam shrugged. “Black is good for rogues. Dark, sneaky. And maybe offsetting your crazy hair just a bit.”

  Jen had liked the look of the white hair, but its worth was only increasing as it seemed to be a point of irritation for Sam. Of all the people to talk about hair.

  Good times.

  “So.” Jen shaded her eyes as she turned back toward the town. “Where are we headed?”

  “Everything has been reset, so it’s kind of a wash. I assume people will head for the same sites they had populated in the beta, start building again.”

  “Hmm. Probably.”

  “That bit is a tad dull, though. I’m not exactly a lumberjack or a miner.”

  “Honest work? Perish the thought.”

  Sam narrowed her eyes at Jen. “We will travel, my dear Jeneve, to wondrous places… places where you will not be safe from my daggers. And I shall remember your words when we arrive.”

  “My my, kindly Samara, that almost sounded like a threat.”

  “Oh, not at all. I would never dream of it.”

  “Mhmm.”

  The screens within the helmet flickered again.

  “Ugh. Are you seeing this?” Jen tapped her fingers against the side of the helmet. “Is the server having a fit or what?”

  “Bit screwy, yeah.”

  A booming voice echoed across the sky.

  “Good day, fresh denizens of the Proving Grounds! Welcome to the early access period! You may have noticed the downtime last night that prevented us from getting the server up on time. We do apologize for that, but we were putting the last touches our spectacular pre-launch event!”

  Everyone in the clearing froze, their eyes searching the sky for the source… but there was nothing to be found.

  Samara tilted her head. “Huh.”

  “The event has already begun.” The voice continued. “The early access week will be like nothing that comes again
after, so enjoy it! Tell your friends! An empire will rise or fall before your eyes, and before your blades! There are some rules, of course.”

  Jen frowned at Samara. This was… unusual. The devs had never involved themselves in the beta much, at least not in heavy handed ways. They probably just played like everyone else.

  “You get one character for now, just to reduce clutter, and should that character die your account is locked out for the rest of the early access period. So be careful! Of course, if you don’t care for these rules there’s only one thing you need to do. Find and kill the barbarian warlord Tobin Ironblood.”

  Jen blinked. That was the guy that had appeared in her clearing for a moment. Was he a developer or something?

  “He seeks to conquer these lands for his own ends and you, good people, are all that stands in his way! End his reign and the restrictions on characters and death are ended as well. Oh, and one last thing. Open Player Versus Player combat has been engaged for the duration of the event. So watch yourselves. Begin!”

  That last bit sounded especially dire…

  But Sam was grinning ear to ear. “Open PVP. Oh. My. God.” The daggers twirled about in her hands.

  Well that was problematic.

  “Samara, my good friend and noble ally, let us join forces against this growing darkness.”

  Sam laughed. “Aww, I wouldn’t kill you, buddy. Wouldn’t be as fun if you were locked out of early access. Then you’d just sit in your room brooding.”

  That wasn’t true. She had other interests. Things to do. Important things. She could study up to get ahead on the summer semester, or binge TV shows, or read some of the books in her backlog.

  Granted… interactive things were more fun. And if the thought kept Sam from murdering her in cold blood, Jen was willing to play along.

  “Yup. Brooding. Lots of that. Me and Batman.”

  Sam laid a hand on Jen’s shoulder and moved her back into the woods a few steps. Jen followed as she was lead. Sam narrowed her eyes. “It’s going to get bad…”

  “Eh?” Jen squinted out into the open field from the trees they were hiding behind. “It looks the same. People heading to town.”

  “Yeah… no.” Sam shook her head. “What’s rule number one in life?”

  “Uh…” Jen blinked a few times as she pondered that. Philosophy was not her major. “Don’t panic?”

  “No.”

  “Don’t… talk about fight club?”

  Sam sighed. “People suck. That’s rule one. Given the opportunity and a lack of consequences, people will always opt to suck.”

  “Well that’s rather pessimistic.”

  A scream pierced the stillness of the woods.

  Sam just stared at Jen. The “I told you so,” didn’t need to be voiced.

  They were fighting out in the open now. Level one newbies turning on each other. Some ran, others tried to fight back.

  It was all too clear who had combat experience and who had never touched the game. They didn’t last long.

  Jen stared out at the growing carnage.

  Why would they do that? What was there to gain?

  Sam watched from beside her. If there was a look of confusion or disgust on Jen’s face, which was quite possible as both were struggling for her mind, Sam’s face wore nothing of the sort. She looked like a poker player watching others play a few hands. Trying to find their tells. Scoping out the competition.

  Her eyes darted around. She nodded a few times.

  Jen frowned as she looked away. “You think the town is safe?”

  “Maybe… at least, there will be NPC guards there. They’ll deal with anyone that ends up going red.”

  “Red?”

  “Red names.” She pointed straight up. “Mine is blue. So is yours. Means we’re clean in the eyes of the law. You go aggressive, strike first and kill the target, you go yellow. Means you’ve been warned and others can see it. You do it again, you go red. Red means NPCs wont talk to you. At all. And no player is going to let an unknown red get close. Doubles item durability loss. Also means you can drop equipped items when you die.”

  Jen shook her head. She’d never dealt with any of that in her beta time. The punishment was enough to keep most people honest, and the option was only available in places players controlled and set the rules. That generally meant most other players would avoid that area like it was plague ridden, so it was a losing proposition while building. You needed workers. An army of murderers don’t do a lot of carpentry.

  Everything the game was supposed to be had just been flipped on its head.

  And Sam couldn’t be happier. A smile had crept onto her face.

  “So much easier to get rolling.” She nodded a few times. “Used to be, I’d have to go somewhere PVP was enabled, get flagged, then head out before the timer dropped to hit difficult targets. Wasn’t easy, and I had to dodge people the whole way.”

  “You poor thing.”

  “I know, right? But this makes it so much better.”

  A strange sound tickled Jen’s ear a bit… her eyes shot wide open and she shoved Sam aside just before an arrow struck the tree they had been hiding behind.

  Jen drew her sword and lifted her shield.

  The archer wasn’t all that far, and already running towards them as he readied another shot.

  Sam glared at him as she spun her daggers. “Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be? Fine.”

  Jen hissed at her. “Stay close, I can protect you.”

  “I don’t need protecting.” Sam rolled away and disappeared into the underbrush.

  An arrow struck Jen’s shield. The sudden impact shook her arm, but she kept the shield high.

  Shields had a limited amount they could block before they broke. Unfortunately someone working on the game had done their homework and realized the medieval world considered them to be disposable. Most knights had several with them at tournaments and on campaign.

  Jen had exactly one. And it wasn’t all that great, really. It looked like it had seen better days, and those days had involved Romans. It was made up of ill-fitting bits of faded wood held together by rusted metal bars that were missing a few bolts.

  And now it had an arrow sticking out of it.

  It gave it character, really. Like a feather in a cap.

  She kept the shield high as the next arrow struck. She grumbled a bit to herself. She was a melee combatant, pure and simple. She had not wanted to be ranged again… and yet now this was happening.

  Typical.

  The bar showing the durability of the shield hadn’t gone down by much. Maybe ten percent from two hits. Still, that was only another eighteen arrows. Did he have that many? She didn’t really want to find out the hard way. Besides, there were other threats between her and the city gates now.

  She swung her sword hand to bring up the menu and opened the help screen.

  She needed information, and she needed it a few minutes ago.

  The front of the help screen defaulted to class information. The paladin used horizontal and vertical swings to inflict damage, as well as swinging the shield arm with the shield raised to bash. The final option was the healing gesture, which looked like one she could manage while still holding the sword… not swinging it, but not dropping it either.

  Well. Simple enough.

  But all of that still meant she had to get in close. If there was some ranged option involving a string of inputs, she wasn’t going to have it at level one.

  She kept her shield high as she approached. The archer had stopped and backed away a step as she started toward him.

  Jen scoffed. “Don’t run, you started this. I thought you wanted to fight?”

  A third arrow standing out of her shield was the only reply.

  Rude.

  She charged ahead while he readied another shot. There was probably a technical term for that. As soon as his bow was raised she had her shield up again, too.

  Yeah, it was a game. And yeah, it wasn’t like she was going to feel the arrow… but she was acutely aware that she only had a bit of armor and a lot of clothing that wouldn’t bother an arrow at all. And mathematically that meant her armor class, while good for this level, was probably pretty shitty in the overall.

  Better to not risk taking a hit. She could get a new shield, but from all indications she only had the one life to live.

  The attacker closed one eye as he aimed the shot.