A New World (Gamer, Book 1) (16 page)

“
We need to finish
this.”

“
I think the monster is already
finishing it for us.”

Harry sighs.

“
What happened to your ‘let’s test
this purple pebble’ spirit? We started this and may as well finish
it.”

“
One last attack?”

“
We are going to die
anyway.”

“
Agreed. I guess we can only
really choose to die fighting.”

“
Now you’re getting
it.”

Josh pats Harry on the shoulder.

“
You’re tougher than you
look.”

“
Thanks.”

Josh brings his hands together and starts to
chant.

“
My health is done to 1%. This is
going to be my last attack. Be ready.”

Harry stares at the creature.

“
One last blast, eh? Punch me a
hole and I’ll finish this for us.”

Josh nods and then concentrates on the ball of
golden fire he is creating.

“
Ka-me-ha…”

Harry sets himself in preparation as Josh
mutters the words of his spell. He focuses on his weapon and tries
to create as big a flame as he possibly can.

If you can hear me, sword. I need
some help with this.

The whole weapon heats to the point where it
is near white with heat. The skin is melting from Harry’s hands
just touching it and he doesn’t have more than a few seconds left
before he has to drop it out of agony.

Josh cries out the last syllable of his attack
and a beam of yellowish light arcs towards the creature. It slams
into the creature's body and Josh cries out in effort as his body
is consumed in a yellowish light that sets his hair on
fire.

Good luck, Harry. It was fun,
Josh
whispers as he shatters in a bright sparkle of light.

"If there's anything inside of you. I need it
now," Harry says to his weapon.

The creature’s shell shatters as Josh’s attack
takes effect.

Last Dance Activated.

His sword suddenly glows bright yellow and
Harry realizes that it has heard his desire and answered. His
health sinks down to zero and with the last of his strength he
brings the sword around, slipping his foot forward and performing a
perfect slicing movement that would make a sword master green in
envy. The flame that follows it is so powerful that the creature
disappears within it in moments.

Four seconds pass as Harry stands there
watching the flame burning super white hot. When it finally clears
there is nothing left but dust of the monster and Harry sinks down
to the ground to enjoy the last few moments of his life as the
beast meets its doom.

He fades away as a wave of bluish light
created by the dust disappearing flows over him. The last word he
whispers in awe as he dies is “beautiful…”

*****

Two weeks have passed since Harry’s training
begun. During that time he has fought in more starting zones than
he cares to count, received a rather rare amulet that has come very
handy in his training, been experimented on several times by Josh
and so much more. It has been a journey and an eye opening one at
that. He has become quite a proficient swordsman and not too bad
player for someone who started out with no experience in RPGs at
all and even Josh has had to admit that he has really pulled it
together over the last two weeks.

"Hey Harry,” Josh says, popping out of
nowhere. “I have one final job for you.”

“
What do you want me to do?” Harry
asks, giving him a concerned look.”

“
Tonight I have something a little
different going on. I am assembling a group to test one of my more
recent improvements to the grinding stone and I want you to help
out."

“
That thing? I thought you gave up
with working on that?”

Josh shrugs.

“
I had an epitome.”

“
Which is?”

“
That one fight netted us 60 gold
each. I lost a little money to… um… a lady.”

“
I didn’t know you liked cat’s
ears.”

Josh gives him a pained look.

“
All she asked for was a few
items.”

“
Yeah?”

“
They were expensive.”

“
I see. So you spent all your
money and now you have decided to ‘test’ your latest product on
some unsuspecting players?”

“
Sort of. Only you and I know what
the item can really do. I’ve told them what they need to know, but
you really have to live the melee, like we did, to understand
it.”

Harry sighs and fingers his sword. He looks
over to Josh and wonders what the man is really up to with all of
his experiments. For all their time together, he hasn’t learned
what Josh is doing. Why help him? Why put in all the effort to help
a newbie? Surely, he could head out on his own?

“
I need to know
something.”

“
What?”

“
Why are you helping me like this?
You could be grinding gold.”

“
I could,” Josh says in amusement.
“But that wouldn’t be productive.”

“
How so?”

“
Because this game isn’t about
what the company can pay me for testing it. I make my money when I
get out.”

“
Is that some sort of code for
‘special bonus’”

“
Nope. I’m a game guide creator. I
make a dream guide for new players and sell it to people who want
to level up quickly.”

“
Sounds good. Can I get in on
that?”

Josh shakes his head and looks over the huge
desert where Harry and him are sitting.

“
It’s not so simple. My great
grandfather tested the first Sensory Input World – World of
Warkraft.”

“
So?”

“
It takes years of training to
find the best path. I’ve been doing this for most of my life. When
you were in school, I was playing games. I haven’t woken up for six
months.”

Harry looks Josh over. Sleep Tech isn’t good
for you over that sort of timeframe. Josh’s real body must be a
mess, even though he looks ok right now.

“
Fair enough. So where are we
fighting?”

"The area just next to this one is about our
level now. We are going to do it there,” Josh says. “I think you'll
find it's quite a lot harder than what we have faced so
far.”

"Okay. And when are we leaving?"

Josh points up to the sky.

"Around sundown. I’ll come get you when the
time comes."

Josh pats him on the shoulder and disappears
through his black portal. Harry reaches down to his side and
strokes his sword. Whatever is going to happen tonight he knows he
is going to need everything he has to survive. That has been his
story for the last month and a bit and he suspects that it will be
pretty much the same for the remainder of his time here
too.

Stretching his back and flexing his arms, he
gets up and begins performing practice cuts again. There is no time
like the present to keep on training. He is going to need
everything he has tonight and more. That is what his mind is
whispering to him.

*****

The party turns out to be several odd looking
magical types and Axel, who has gone through a rather shocking
change in style: Going from her customary green to gold plated
armor that leaves little to the imagination.

Harry smiles when he sees his very first
friend in a game and she gives him a pose and a wink as he steps
through the portal after Josh.

It's not long before he is being introduced to
everybody. There are four mages, one healer, and something called a
warlock, which Harry suspects is just another fancy type of
mage.

After a few minutes of small talk, Josh comes
around in front of the group and clears his throat.

"Tonight we are going to test the
deluxe
version
of my grinding stone,” he says. “The loot rules are as
follows: Anyone who gets anything decent has to share. We will roll
the dice on each rare level or above item we have in our inventory
at the end and whoever gets the highest roll wins. Is that
acceptable?"

A small box appears in front of Harry with the
terms of the agreement written out. He very casually zooms in and
checks every single corner of the pane at max zoom before pushing
accept.

Everybody takes there time like Harry,
probably doing the very same thing before signing off. When it’s
all over a piece of paper appears in Harry’s inventory detailing
the deal, which he also scrutinizes carefully.

“
Everybody get ready. We will be
starting in two minutes exactly.”

The mages begin changing out items and Harry
watches in amusement as people with rather normal looking clothing
become multicolored clowns. The warlock even puts some sort of hat
on that seems to have flamingo feathers.

He looks down at his own gear. All he has is
his tattered leathers and the helm he earned. The amulet is tucked
away in his shirt and he carries his sword in his hand, which has
become so normal that it is almost like part of the limb. He has no
scabbard and doesn’t need one. He is always ready.

The healer, who is a small blond woman named
Erica (who oddly enough has
Super Healz For The Lolz,
SH4TLz
for short
,
as her in-game name) hands Harry a small red
vial. She takes one out for herself and downs it in one gulp. Harry
follows suit and coughs loudly. The liquid is thick and cherry
flavored. It has a harsh sugar undertone and burns the tongue
slightly. It is the least pleasant thing he has drunk in this game
so far.

“
Newbie?” she asks with a raised
eyebrow.

“
Yeah. 1 month, 15
days.”

She gives him a kindly smile and pats him on
the back.

“
Do you feel any different? Check
you stats.”

Harry looks them over and finds them quite
significantly increased (all except intelligence, which has –
rather worryingly – gone down). He immediately feels a lot stronger
and looks at her in surprise.

"What is this?"

The woman gives him an amused look, but smiles
kindly again and explains. Apparently, this is
a potion
and
it can boost your stats temporarily. Harry checks his chart again
and notes that he is around three levels stronger than he should
be, which is added to again by his already very high stats for his
level.

“
Thank you, Erica. This is really
useful.”

She smiles and looks back to Josh, who is
walking out into the small field that they are in. The area is
surrounded by woods and Harry is unsure of where they are. He looks
to Axel, but she is staring at Josh as he places the
stone.

Everybody looks nervous and Harry can
understand why. The last time he had to use a grinding stone, he
barely survived. This time could be just the same. He knows that
only he and Josh have had experience with this. That means that
they won't be aware of what is coming beyond whatever explanations
Josh gave when recruiting them. It's a tough situation for them and
not one that Harry is envious of.

"Prepare yourself. They'll be coming
soon!"

Josh jogs back to the group and sets himself
in front. He signals to Harry to come up front beside
him.

Keep an eye on the healer. These guys
aren’t the elite in this game, and if she dies here then we will
all die,
he whispers.

Ok,
Harry whispers back.
Are these
people going to be alright?

Josh looks straight ahead and
shrugs.

We are all chained to the stone
now. The deluxe addition forces the respawn time to zero. The
chains won’t let them leave.

That sounds dangerous.

It is. However, it has a timer now.
3 hours is all we have to survive for.

Harry looks to the woods. He can hear crashing
coming from them as the mobs approach. He has enough gold to get
through a few hours of respawns, but it’s still a very dangerous
proposition.

The woods explode with hundreds and hundreds
of humanlike wolf creatures. Harry has never seen anything like
them before, but they are big and look very, very
strong.

“
Werewolves,” the warlock hisses
in concern.

"I thought you said this was going to be
easy?" Harry asks Josh.

"I never said that it would be easy, although
I admit this is not what I expected.”

Josh looks worried. Harry looks at the wolves
coming their way. They look strong. This could be worse than he
thought.

Axel is the first to unleash the hurt. An
arrow whizzes past Harry with such incredible speed that he can't
even follow it (even with his increased sensory awareness that has
come from hours and hours of defending against similar types of
attacks). She fires five arrows in the time that it takes for Josh
to cast one spell. Harry looks back with an impressed look on his
face as his friend empties half a quiver in less than five seconds,
which is less time than it takes for the other magic users to cast
their very first spells.