Forming the Company (Alpha World Book 2) Read online

  “Yes, if that’s okay. I was also meaning to ask what am I allowed to tell people in game about me and my situation? That goes for players and the non-players as well. What are you guys calling the NPCs internally, by the way?”

  “Those are some very good questions Seamus. Would you like to review the patch notes first or chat? Both have information you might want to focus on.” Victoria leaned forward, gently fanning herself with the patch notes while wearing a small smile.

  “The patch notes can wait a few moments, then,” Seamus replied. “I’ve been putting people off who’re asking about me. I would like to be able to answer them.”

  The papers she held vanished as she sat back, “Well then, to answer your last question first, internally we have been calling them NPCs. But if one of the workers goes in game we call them people, as all players are two-souled. As for what you can tell others, we don’t want your name or story out in public, at least not yet, so please don’t divulge that. As for how you are able to keep playing for such long periods, you can tell them you’re testing a new system that should be making the news soon. The government has given us the go ahead for a small trial run of month-long immersion systems, so we will be going public with that in the next week or so.”

  “I wouldn’t think many people will be able to manage a whole month off at a go,” Seamus mused, as he considered who had that kind of time.

  “We already have hundreds of people who will be invited to the initial test run. They have previously expressed an interested in longer periods of immersion. You’ve already grouped with one of them on multiple occasions,” Vicky let her smile grow.

  “Karen or Fluffball then would be my guess,” Seamus replied quickly as he considered the two women. “Fluffball would be my final answer.”

  “Very well done, Seamus. The person who is Fluffball was indeed the one I was speaking of. She has done some work for us in the past as a free agent. It is well known that she can easily take a month off to do something she loves to do, such as play games.”

  “What kind of artwork has she done for Mindblown?”

  “She designed a few of our more interesting set pieces that you won’t encounter until much later in the game. Her take on the Dark Lord’s castle, for instance, was head and shoulders above what we got from anyone else. The one other thing that was implemented in Alpha World was a quaint little café in Stormguard.” Victoria watched his eyes narrow for a moment before she continued. “Yes, that café was indeed her work. Did you like it?”

  A bemused chuckle escaped Seamus, “It was fun, actually. It also seemed to do a fairly okay business with the people of the city.”

  “It does well enough to get by. We do expect it to get more attention once other two-souled find it. The person behind Fluffball is such an interesting person that I look forward to how she handles a full month in game.”

  “I hope it helps her break out of her mold a little. She seems like she wants to be more extroverted, but keeps failing to take the next few steps.”

  “That is true, but do not most people have things in the past they would rather not deal with?” Victoria’s eyes seemed to bore into him as she asked the question.

  A small shiver ran through Seamus at her words, “Human nature, isn’t it?”

  Her voice was filled with sadness, “Yes it is, sadly. I have even seen people create entire false memories to avoid a horrible truth that they didn’t want to deal with.”

  “Well, I hope Fluff is able to move forward. One of the NPC’s offered to help her, too, I think,” Seamus said.

  Victoria could sense Seamus wanting to get away from the subject of memories, so she changed the topic. “How have you found the long-term immersion? Has it altered your view of what reality is in any way?”

  “If I am going to be there for years it seems like a good idea to build up goodwill with people I will interact with repeatedly. As such, I’ve been thinking of it as an alternate reality with a game like setting more than just as a game. Most people don’t care what the NPCs think in a game, but the NPCs in Alpha World with the AIs behind them seem way more real than previous games, which makes it easier to treat them accordingly.”

  “Is that why you spent time training the guards?”

  A small chuckle escaped his lips, “Nostalgia mostly was the cause there, but yes, also because I wanted to have goodwill with the guards. Doubly so since Summoners don’t seem to be well liked.”

  “Every world has history behind it. A question about your new minion. How did that come about?” Victoria asked, leaning forward to rest her head on-top of her interlaced fingers.

  “That is an interesting question, and I’d like to know myself. I was going to ask you pretty much the same thing.”

  “Do you object to it?”

  “Hardly. Stacia is a good girl and we do seem to click.”

  “You have no issue having a relationship with an NPC?” Victoria’s eyes focused intently on him as she asked her question.

  Frowning, Seamus paused to really consider her question. “No, I don’t actually. All in all, it’s probably for the best, even. A player would eventually want to meet up and that is impossible, obviously. That isn’t an issue with Stacia. The only issue is when things like this happen and I need to step away from Alpha World for some reason. She hasn’t really tried to pry into my past and frankly I don’t think she cares about it at all. So, all in all it seems like the best possible solution I could ever get.”

  “You never really had a deep relationship before, do you think you will be able to handle one in Alpha World?”

  Brow furrowing Seamus puzzled over Victoria’s interest in this topic. “I don’t see why not. For me it was always more a matter of finding a woman who could understand me and accept what my life was. For Stacia, most of those old problems don’t even exist. I am no longer bound to not date a felon, I don’t have a job I care about and…” He broke off as his mind went back to the image of Kaylee laying in the hospital bed broken and crying. “I no longer have someone to care for on the weekends,” the last came out rough and his hands shook.

  Victoria watched him closely for a moment before she nodded, “I understand. Do you think you will be happy with Stacia by your side?”

  Seamus looked around the room avoiding Victoria’s eyes as he wiped away a few tears that had slipped out. “I think so. I was completely taken by surprise with the whole succubus thing, but I think we’ve worked that out.”

  “She truly seems to care for you.”

  “I wish we knew why, though,” Seamus replied. “She doesn’t even know what pulled her to me originally. I was starting to think it was a hidden quest or something.”

  Victoria shook her head vigorously, “No. I assure you it wasn’t even considered. In fact it took the devs completely by surprise. That is the reason why this patch is a full day instead of the few hours we thought it was going to be originally. The dev team has to figure out exactly how it happened so they can make sure it doesn’t happen again. Would you care to see the patch notes now?”

  “Please,” Seamus replied, taking the papers she handed to him. Seamus started to read the patch notes, wondering what else they were going to be tinkering with.

  Patch Notes for Alpha World version 1.01:

  The Portal Guild has undergone massive changes. The long wait times to get a portal have been greatly reduced. Set up an account with the Portal Guild to reduce waiting time even more.

  God's Grace now lasts twelve hours, until you log out or until you initiate combat with another player. God’s Grace renders a player immune to PvP and assassin attacks while active.

  Players will no longer respawn during boss encounters. Players killed during boss encounters may be resurrected during the fight by other players who have appropriate abilities, and will revive normally once the encounter is ended.

  NPCs can now be hired for a variety of jobs, including bodyguard, maid and many more.

  NPCs can now join an
adventuring party. Doing so will entitle them to an equal share of the rewards unless the NPC is a mercenary who has a contract in place.

  Creatures killed by guards no longer award loot or experience to players.

  Guilds may now be created at the town hall with a minimum of three people. The cost is one hundred gold. The town hall also has rooms available to rent for guild functions, such as meetings.

  Guild halls are currently being developed, along with player housing. Stay tuned for more information about these exciting developments.

  Guild chat requires a Guildstone, available when a person creates or joins a guild. The guild chat log will be visible for a rotating 24 hour period. As with friend lists and messages, no indicators of a player’s availability or on/off-line status will be available.

  The Immersion setting has been split, pain is now its own separate bar. Pain has a minimum setting of 10%, so players will be aware of taking damage. The maximum setting for pain is now 50%. Environmental immersion retains the full range, 0-100%.

  Classes with the ability to resurrect a fallen ally can now mark players in their group to extend the respawn timer to five minutes, in order to allow a group to be fully resurrected at their current location.

  All stats will now include bonuses from loot shown in parentheses to help players know just how big a boost their gear is giving them. EX; Strength 35 (15).

  New class sets are now available. These new sets can be acquired by multiple players at the same time, unlike the original class sets. Original class sets that no player owned any piece of have been removed from the game. Those sets that players had begun collecting will remain available in game.

  All major guard factions now have a higher level of combat training and will no longer give reputation gains to those who spar with them.

  Rare and Boss monsters can no longer be physically prevented from using abilities. Stuns and interrupts may be effective against some abilities.

  NPCs can no longer become minions to those classes that get minions.

  Summoner minions no longer have loyalty, happiness, or reputation. All minions will continue to have distinct personalities that will dictate how they interact with you. Summoners will have the option to reset their abilities the first time they log in after the patch. Summoners will also receive the option to change current minions to new ones, one time, the first time each type of minion is summoned.

  Necromancer abilities are now clarified to better reflect which undead they can have multiple copies of for each ability choice. Necromancers will have the option to reset their abilities the first time they log in after the patch.

  Lunari Berserkers will now have the option to select claws as a weapon if they chose dual wield previously. Players choosing claws will have the ability to drain the enchantments from a one-handed weapon and apply the enchantment permanently to their claws. Visit a trainer to change or remove enchantments from claws.

  Trapsmith ability Trap Sense now is 50% less effective passively and 25% more effective when used actively.

  Elementalists can now opt to choose a second mastery of elements, so long as it is not the opposing element of their first mastery.

  Shaman ability Spirit Speak will now allow them to speak with any spirit or shade they encounter. Be aware, not all of the restless dead are friendly or trustworthy.

  Druid ability Battle Revival is now on a 10 minute cooldown. This cooldown will apply to all druids in a party.

  Assassin damage has been reduced slightly to help rebalance their burst potential. However, their poison damage has been increased to keep them competitive.

  Priest ability Divine Heal can now be used while stunned or incapacitated.

  Defender ability Unbreakable can now be used while stunned or incapacitated.

  Defender and Paladin stun abilities have had their cooldowns reduced from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.

  Paladin ability Lay on Hands has had its cooldown increased to an hour.

  The Gods have suffered a major upheaval and many minor deities have perished in the turmoil. All Paladins and Priests will be prompted upon logging in to select a new deity to follow. All previous reputation with the old churches will be carried over to the new church.

  Due to the many changes in the game world taking place, the world will have advanced two weeks into the future when the game goes live again. Any time sensitive quests have been removed from your logs with no penalties for failing them. Players will have the option to reacquire most time sensitive quests from the original quest source.

  Seamus looked up from the papers as he finished reading, a sense of failure washing over him. He had promised Stacia he would be back shortly and to her it would seem like half a month. Victoria watched his face pale.

  “Is something the matter, Seamus?”

  “Stacia thinks I will be back tomorrow, I promised her I would hurry back. But these patch notes say it will be half a month to her.”

  “Ah, yes I see. Would you like to send her a message to let her know it is going to be longer then you anticipated?”

  Head tilting slightly, he looked at Victoria with a puzzled expression, “How would that even work?”

  A faint smile came to her lips as she replied, “I can get a letter to her. Would you like to do that?”

  “Yes, please, if it’s not an inconvenience.”

  Victoria pulled a sheet of paper from the desk she sat behind, along with a pen, “Once you’re done just hand it to me.”

  “Thanks, Vicky,” Seamus said, and began to write.

  Stacia,

  It seems the portal between worlds is going to be down for two weeks. There is nothing I can do to get back to you before that. I was able to get this letter to you, so you’d be aware that I will be unable to make it back to you before that. Please understand, as soon as I can I will be back there. I’m sorry that there is going to be an extended period of absence. It is not what I wanted. Please have faith in me when I say I will be back as quickly as I can.

  Your master,

  Alburet.

  He folded the paper then slid it across the desk to Vicky, who took it with a smile. She placed the folded sheet of paper on her hand, where it shimmered into a blue bird. The bird hopped a few times before meeting Vicky’s gaze. With a chirp, the bird took to the air before it also vanished.

  “There. It will be with her before a single day has passed for her. Does that help?”

  Seamus nodded, “It does. Thanks, Vicky. How much longer is it until the game goes back up?”

  “Still over twenty hours. Would you like to play a game or two to pass the time?”

  Chuckling, Seamus shook his head, “Only if you promise not to cheat.”

  Victoria laughed, “As you wish. How about a game or two of chess to start with?”

  “Might as well start out with me losing,” Seamus replied as a chess board appeared between them.

  Seamus just shook his head at how fast Victoria annihilated him in the first game, ten moves and it was over. The second game he mostly played randomly, only taking a few of her pieces here or there before he lost again, but at least this time the game lasted a few minutes. “I see I shall probably never beat you in chess, Vicky.”

  “Don’t feel bad, no one at Mindblown has either. Is there a game you would prefer to play?”

  “Poker again, if you don’t cheat like last time. Hmm, could you make up a handful of other people to play with as well?”

  Victoria smiled broadly and the room vanished, replaced by a western saloon. He sat at the table in appropriate attire while Victoria sat next to him in a beautiful floral dress. Around the table were six other men all dressed for the scene. The last person at the table was a professional dealer who was shuffling the cards.

  “The game is Texas Hold’em. Small blinds are a buck, big blinds are two,” the dealer said as he finished shuffling, “You, sir, are the big blind,” he nodded to Seamus.

  Seamus smiled and tossed in the two chips he nee
ded to. Once the small blind was added the dealer began the game. The next six hours were fun, as each of the other players all had different personalities. Eventually it came down to Victoria and Seamus left at the table with the chips roughly evenly split between them.

  “That was fun, Vicky. I think we should move on though.”

  Pouting, Victoria paused, “Are you sure, Seamus? We could do one more hand. Winner takes all.”

  Seamus chuckled, “You like to win don’t you, Vicky?”

  She just smiled as she pushed her stack of chips into the middle, “Maybe.”