World of Eternia: The Complete Collection

World
of Eternia:
The Complete Collection

by Antony W.F. Chow

Copyright © 2015 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 designed
by Sid Ceaser, based on Dreamstime.com stock image ID 33320430,
“Medieval Knight,” copyrighted © 2015 by Philcold. 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.

• Foreword
  
• World of Eternia:The Prize
  
  • 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
    
• World of Eternia:The Match
  
  • Chapter 1 – Expansion
    
  • Chapter 2 – A Retired Life
    
  • Chapter 3 – Workaholic
    
  • Chapter 4 – Long Distance Relationship
    
  • Chapter 5 – Sister
    
  • Chapter 6 – Players Versus Players
    
  • Chapter 7 – Old Friends
    
  • Chapter 8 – Doubt
    
  • Chapter 9 – Reservation
    
  • Chapter 10 – Discovered
    
  • Chapter 11 – Into the Unknown
    
  • Chapter 12 – Debriefing
    
  • Chapter 13 – Report
    
  • Chapter 14 – Contact
    
  • Chapter 15 – Death’s Door
    
  • Chapter 16 – Guardians
    
  • Chapter 17 – Magic Guild
    
  • Chapter 18 – Casual Gaming
    
  • Chapter 19 – Off the Record
    
  • Chapter 20 – Divine Lodestone
    
  • Chapter 21 – Organization
    
  • Chapter 22 – Into the Region
    
  • Chapter 23 – Samples
    
  • Chapter 24 – Discord
    
  • Chapter 25 – Sacrifice
    
  • Chapter 26 – Urgency
    
  • Chapter 27 – Fight or Flight
    
  • Chapter 28 – Incoming
    
  • Chapter 29 – Demon Lord
    
  • Chapter 30 – Somber Return
    
  • Chapter 31 – Next Phase
    
  • Chapter 32 – Rejection
    
  • Chapter 33 – Gauntlet
    
  • Chapter 34 – Recrimination
    
  • Chapter 35 – Formulating a Response
    
  • Chapter 36 – Interlude
    
  • Chapter 37 – Anxiety
    
  • Chapter 38 – First Cooperative Meeting
    
  • Chapter 39 – Findings
    
  • Chapter 40 – Backup Plan
    
  • Chapter 41 – Anticipation
    
  • Chapter 42 – Generous Offer
    
  • Chapter 43 – Nuts and Bolts
    
  • Chapter 44 – Player Input
    
  • Chapter 45 – Pushback
    
  • Chapter 46 – Players Council
    
  • Chapter 47 – Counterattack
    
  • Chapter 48 – Battle Plans
    
  • Chapter 49 – Recruitment
    
  • Chapter 50 – Vendetta
    
  • Chapter 51 – Brief Update
    
  • Chapter 52 – Legal Agreement
    
  • Chapter 53 – Final Arrangements
    
  • Chapter 54 – Start
    
  • Chapter 55 – Opening Round
    
  • Chapter 56 – Anticipation
    
  • Chapter 57 – Avoidance
    
  • Chapter 58 – Backstab
    
  • Chapter 59 – Test
    
  • Chapter 60 – Sighting
    
  • Chapter 61 – Two Hour Mark
    
  • Chapter 62 – All Hands On Deck
    
  • Chapter 63 – Showdown at the Gate
    
  • Chapter 64 – Wrestling for the Sky
    
  • Chapter 65 – Restless
    
  • Chapter 66 – Duel
    
  • Chapter 67 – Next Obstacle
    
  • Chapter 68 – Wild Cards
    
  • Chapter 69 – Truce
    
  • Chapter 70 – Beautiful Chaos
    
  • Chapter 71 – Final Shots
    
  • Chapter 72 – Family Feud
    
  • Chapter 73 – Tricky Opponent
    
  • Chapter 74 – Expiration
    
  • Chapter 75 – Winners
    
  • Chapter 76 – Suspicion
    
  • Chapter 77 – Mediation
    
  • Chapter 78 – Ultimatum
    
  • Chapter 79 – Changes
    
  • Epilogue
    
• About the Author
  

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

by Antony W.F. Chow

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!

“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.