World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (12 page)

Wesley replies.
"Whenever you're ready, man."

The minute ticks away
in silence, but the centipede still does not crawl out of the
remaining hole to attack the party.

After the minute
countdown, Lucious says, "Let's begin." Grinning to
himself, the battle mage directs the stone to rise from the ground
inside the tunnel, and poke the large insect's rear segments.

The giant centipede is
surprised by the sharp pain, and scurries out of the tunnel.
Skritter-skritter!
It
senses one of the small, soft shelled creatures standing outside the
tunnel's entrance, and opens its deadly mandibles wide, ready to snap
the prey in two!

Wesley sees the giant
insect rushing towards him, but bravely stands his ground. Raising
his long sword high in the air, he awaits the centipede to reach him.
Before the mandibles can snap shut around his waist, the cavalier
yells out, “Now!” He blocks the left mandible with his steel
shield, and slashes his sword down on the right mandible. His
powerful swing cuts through the mandible, causing a large piece to
drop on the floor.

At the same time, the
mage hears the signal. Switching back to magic screen view he directs
a dozen sharp, stony spikes to rise from the ground beneath the
monster and pierce its hard shell. The spikes lift the giant
centipede off the ground, leaving its frantically moving legs
dangling uselessly in the air.

As the brave knight
turns to cut off the left mandible, Conrad cries out,
“Lalalalalalala!” He jumps off the alcove and aims a powerful,
two-handed, overhead swing of his ivory club down onto the doomed
centipede's head. BBOOOOOOOOOMM!
He quickly hops off the creature's head, and lands on the
ground besides Wesley. A second later, the barbarian turns around
with his shield raised, ready to fend off another blow from the
monster.

The giant centipede
spasms its body once and abruptly stops moving, its elongated body
still impaled from underneath by the spikes.

The two melee fighters
look at each other, and exchange light fist bumps with their left
hands. “Victory!” the two say in unison.

The battle mage pulls
his head off the ground to confirm with his own eyes that the battle
is over. Leaning back, he rests on his elbows and turns his head with
a clockwise, circular motion to loosen the tightness in his neck. He
notices that the priestess' hand is still on his, and squeezes her
fingers softly.

“We did it,” Diana
says quietly as she squeezes him back while laying on the ground next
to him.

“Let's rest like this
for a bit to recharge our mana pools,” he suggests and smiles.

She smiles back,
rewarding him with a dazzling smile of triumph.

Weary and tired, the
valiant knight trudges his sore bones over to the spell casters.
Wesley sits down on the ground to the left of the entrance to the
cavern. He leans his aching back against the wall. “Let's take
five,” he says.

Flush with adrenaline
still pumping in his veins, the athletic man is bursting with energy
and ready to continue forward. But seeing the sorry state of his
teammates, Conrad decides to join them for a little rest and
relaxation. He strolls over to join his party, and leans his back
against the other wall next to the entrance. Tilting his head up,
Conrad stares at the ceiling and enjoys the brief respite from their
ongoing adventure in the World of Eternia. The time ticks away and
soon his wondrous nirvana is interrupted by loud snores! He cranks
his chin down and sees that the two spell casters have fallen asleep
next to one another on the ground. . . holding hands!

“They make an
interesting couple, don't they?” a low voice drifts over from the
left.

Conrad turns his head
and looks at the still awake Wesley. “Like oil and water,” he
replies in an equally low voice. “Interesting how we both took such
active roles in this last fight, and manage to keep our eyes open,”
he muses.

Wesley turns to his
right and looks at the professional athlete. “Not really. I'm an
old man, and I don't need as much sleep as these young kids,” he
answers. “You, on the other hand, are used to physical exertion at
a high level for an extended duration. How long did our fight with
the centipede last? Five minutes? Ten minutes?”

“Well, time seems to
have a different meaning inside this virtual world,” the big man
interjects. It is true that the passage of time feels different in
WoE. Some missions are intense, but last only a good half hour in the
real world. Other campaigns have dragged on for hours without the
players realizing it. This special anniversary campaign started at
nine o'clock in the morning Pacific Time, and he wouldn't be
surprised if the real time is now noon. If Conrad ever meets the game
designers for WoE, he would ask them to add a plug-in feature on the
player's screen with real, local time. There have been stories on the
public forum boards about players who have lost track of time playing
games, and ended up collapsing with seizures from the excessive
gaming. Conrad has no intention of becoming one of those players.

“True enough,” the
older man agrees grudgingly. “Our minds are so immersed into this
rich, digital environment that we lose our sense of real physical
self. Quite frankly, this was one of my concerns before joining WoE.”

“Agreed,” Conrad
replies. “When our minds are constantly being bombarded with
stimuli, keeping track of time takes a back seat. But there is still
a part of our mind that keeps the score. To be honest, I personally
find this game to be no different than my baseball games. The rules
and objectives may be different. However, I keep myself engaged in
what's going on in the game -- from the hits to the types of pitches
being thrown to the way umpires are calling balls and strikes. The
level of mental immersion is surprisingly similar between this
virtual reality game and my normal day job,” he smiles wryly. "It's
a miracle that I haven't quit playing the game already. There's no
real down time between the two," he shrugs. Turning serious, the
barbarian asks, “How do you like this mission so far?”

The leader pauses for a
moment to gather his thoughts, and answers. “At first, I was not
impressed, to be frank. When we received the personal invites in our
game account inboxes, WoE didn't give much of a description for this
mission. It was just something along the lines of taking a small
party of four into Castle Eternia, and defeat the evil Regent to lift
his curse over the Castle. It was pretty humdrum stuff to me,” he
shrugs. "Nothing really stood out from the description, aside
from the personal invitation aspect. I thought we will be doing beta
testing on a new server or something," Wesley continues.

“And now?” Conrad
presses him.

The knight smiles. “The
campaign became a lot more interesting. The game developers made this
campaign challenging. First by limiting party size to only four
members. That way, you can't have a hundred members storm the
castle.”

“And sacrifice a few
newbie players along the way,” the barbarian adds his two cents.

“Indeed,” Wesley
nods in agreement. “I would not be surprised if WoE had set high
character level requirements for this mission precisely to keep out
new players. If anything, this campaign is more of a reward to the
faithful fans of the game who spend countless hours playing the game.
The four of us certainly logged as much hours as any other group out
there,” he notes. “Additionally, the campaign is more geared
toward the thinking man, rather than a straight forward
hack-and-slash gamer. Look at the situation with the moat, for
example. How many piranhas can a player defeat before the rest of the
school kills him off? Twenty? Thirty? It is highly improbable to kill
all one hundred creatures by sword alone. No, this special
anniversary campaign reveals a lot about the gaming philosophy of the
developers behind World of Eternia, and apparently we approach the
game in a similar manner,” he concludes. He turns the conversation
to another topic that's been on his mind a lot during this campaign.
“What do you think the prize is for beating this campaign?”
Wesley asks.

The big man smiles at
his leader's sudden change in topic of conversation. “Personally,
I'm hoping for a big amount of experience points at the end of the
mission,” Conrad answers.

The cavalier shakes his
head. “Nah, I don't think that would be considered a 'special
prize.' If we want more experience, we could easily blow through or
repeat a few more high level dungeons. There would be nothing
'special' about getting extra experience points for finishing a
difficult mission. Personally, I am expecting either unique items or
special player status like badges added to our avatar's identity
tags,” he speculates. "There is a social aspect to World of
Eternia, and player accounts with these unique, non-transferable
badges will probably increase in value on the black market, as EDE
specifically prohibits the sale of player accounts."

“I wouldn't mind
getting a nice, big ax,” Conrad counters. “Don't get me wrong. I
like my ivory club a lot; I've had a wonderful time in WoE with my
trusty club. But the idea of using something with a sharp edge to
cause a little bit of bloodshed appeals to me too, you know what I
mean,” he grins.

“Just a little?”
Wesley retorts with a snort. “If you get your hands on a magical
ax, I would expect you to turn into a crazy, reckless berserker, and
decapitate every humanoid that you come across,” he laughs.

Conrad tilts his head,
as the mental image of being a crazy berserker forms in his mind.
“Yeah, that would be quite a different approach to the game than my
controlled, reactive style of play right now. In that case, I would
have to switch places with you and take the lead,” he notes.

“Is that your
preference?” Wesley asks him directly. The ex-Marine suspects that
sometimes Conrad feels bored staying at the back of the party,
especially since the action usually takes place at the front of the
line rather than the back.

The barbarian pauses
for a moment to think about the question. “Well, it would certainly
provide additional opportunity for me to be in the limelight and get
more mob kills. However, I think for my barbarian character the cons
would far outweigh the pros. Take, for example, our excursion through
the miles long passageway. I would have triggered every damn trap
placed by the dungeon designers. And Diana would have blown her one
Resurrection prayer on me by now. No, I don't think a
running-of-the-bulls style of play would work, at least not for this
particular campaign,” he explains.

“Fair enough,” the
old man replies. “I know that the stakes are high in this mission,
and being the first player party to complete this campaign is the
priority right now. But I still want everyone to have fun. That's why
I asked,” he explains.

“Oh, I'm having
plenty of fun,” Conrad replies with a grin. "If not, I
wouldn't continue showing up for these campaigns, you know?"

“Good to know,”
Wesley nods. He pulls himself off the ground. “Our five minutes are
up, and we need to get moving.”

“I'll wake up our
lovebirds,” the barbarian answers with a mischievous grin.

“Where's the
exterminator when you need him?” Diana complains as she crawls
closely behind the mage inside the tunnel.

“You rang?” Lucious
replies.

The priestess smacks
him lightly on his rear.

The cavalier sweeps the
rubbish in front of him to the side with his shield, to clear a path
inside the lower middle tunnel. The giant centipede's body is still
inside the tunnel. But impaled on the magically raised spikes, the
carcass dangles four feet in the air, allowing just enough space for
the adventurers to crawl underneath. Thankfully, the virtual reality
gaming experience does not extend to the sense of smell, or else the
adventurers would smell the foul rotting odor of this dead body.

Since the carcass is
blocking the tunnel, the mage cannot use his staff to illuminate the
tunnel. Hence, the need to keep the summoned Will-o'-the-wisp in this
mortal realm. The small flickering light bobbles in the air in front
of the knight, following to the letter its master's command to stay
two feet ahead of the party.

“Are you sure this
tunnel leads somewhere?” Conrad asks from the rear of the party. He
hates being in this tunnel because there is no room for him to
maneuver and turn around if he is attacked from behind.
I
would not put it pass the sadistic dungeon designers to have baby
centipedes crawling out of a hidden nest somewhere in the tunnel to
accost our party, just for kicks.
He shudders
involuntarily at the thought.

“Absolutely,
positively one hundred percent sure,” the mage replies. “When I
cast my Move Earth spell to close off the other five tunnels, my
magical sight sensed a hidden tunnel beyond the intersection of these
six tunnels. That is the only exit that I found,” he says
confidently.

“Well, the game
designers are certainly making us jump through a lot of hoops,” the
big man rumbles. He is might tempted to make a wise crack about the
rear in front of his face, but Diana could easily retaliate by
kicking her leg out and digging her heel into his face.
I
am NOT going to tempt fate
, he decides.

“Ah, you mean you
don't want video capture of your lovely behind for the world to see?”
the young man teases him.

“Ha! I'll have you
know that chicks dig my ass!” the barbarian boasts. “If the two
of us were to stand naked onstage and ask a female audience to vote
for whose ass they prefer, I'm going to win in a land slide!”

Diana laughs at the
image of this contest in her mind. “Come on, guys! Let's keep this
conversation strictly 'PG.' Remember, we have in-game audio capture
and live streaming as well,” she reminds them. "We don't want
to be disqualified, not after the trials that we have passed
successfully."