Read gOD OF aURA :: cHAPTER 2: sTARTER aREA

“Tenderfoot Slough,” says the NPC quest giver, a pretty young woman of about twenty-five with a baby on her hip. “To the northwest of Bluebell Village—” that’s the name of the starter village I spawned in, “—there’s a witch, Baba Yaya…”

I sweat nervously beneath my leather jerkin, heart hammering wildly in my chest with this simple encounter with an NPC. She’s not even a real person, but I’m so bad at communicating, it’s all I can do just to follow the script, and read the suggested dialog aloud. Of course, Tetra Chronicles NPCs are smart enough to communicate organically with players, but there’s no way I could ever speak normally with anything that looks remotely human, especially an attractive female.

“She comes into the village at night, gets into our houses, the little one’s bedrooms. It doesn’t matter if the doors and windows are locked, she finds a way. Usually she just torments the children with scary dreams, but occasionally she’ll take a fancy to one of them, spirit them away…and eat them.”

“These past few nights,” she goes on, “my children have been complaining of nightmares…I’m so afraid one of them will be next. I stay with them in their room every night, prepared to fend off Baba Yaya, but around midnight, a strange weariness overtakes me, and I can’t seem to keep my eyes open…”

The quest is pretty standard, more a tutorial, an introduction to the game, than anything. Find the witch at the heart of Tenderfoot Slough, kill her, come back and accept the reward. She’ll be the boss of the starter area, a low level monster with perhaps a spell or two. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t bat an eye at accepting this quest. But somehow, the thought of facing an evil crone in a creepy swamp with nothing but standard novice equipment is a bit…

“Please, Traveler, you seem like someone who could handle himself in a fight. I beg you, save the children of Bluebell Village. Save my babies!”

[Would you like to accept quest: Kill Baba Yaya?

Reward: Unknown]

[Suggested dialog: I’d be happy to help you, Ma’am -or- I’m not the person for this job]

It’s true I can always walk away. But what’s the point in that? I came back into this game with a new character to get stronger. It’s time I face my fears. Beginning with the horrors of dialog!

“I-I-I—”

The lady blinks at me with big blue eyes. On her hip, the baby blinks in tandem and sucks its chubby fingers, just staring at me.

“I-I-I’d be heppy to halp. M-m-m-m—”

[Heart rate accelerating. 139 BPM. Automatic system shutdown if heart rate reaches 150 BPM.]

“M-ma’am!” I manage to finish the dialog, and I start to push past her, running for my life. But in my haste I bump into her, and she loses her balance. She falls in the street, and her baby starts to cry.

Guilt squeezes me. I run back and try to help her up, but she’s angry with me now, and the baby is glaring accusingly, pointing it’s finger and yelling what are certainly baby profanities. Now a crowd is gathering, everyone whispering and frowning in disapproval, assuming I have attacked this woman and her baby.

What the heck? They’re just NPCs! Don’t look at me like that!

[Heart rate accelerating. 153 BPM. System shutting down.]

The game powers off abruptly. I wake with a start in the capsule, short of breath, drenched in sweat. A dull violet light fills this close space, filtered air wafts through the ventilation chamber. T.I.N.A.’s voice sounds in my ear.

“You are exhibiting symptoms of a heart attack. Would you like to put in a call to emergency services?”

“No! It’s…just anxiety.”

“Understood. Would you like to try a relaxation simulation?”

“Yes.”

“Initializing contact. Alpha waves registered. Contact stabilized. Launching relaxation protocol.”

I close my eyes and my reclined position in this claustrophobic capsule is traded for a seat on a wooden bench before a slow moving river. The sky is blue with fluffy clouds, the weather, perfect. A breeze rustles the long limbs of a willow tree, and beyond the river, a field dotted with a rainbow of wildflowers sways back and forth like soothing ocean waves.

The scene is customizable. I can change the time of day, the weather, the season, the entire location if I like. But this is fine. I’m not picky.

“Would you like to try a guided meditation?”

“No, thanks,” I say, slumping into the bench.

Is it too much for me after all? I wonder, focusing on my breathing as I gaze out across the water. I was so determined to play the game, but at this rate, I really might have a heart attack.

Ordinarily, after an episode of this kind, I’d have to rest in bed for a day or two. But technically my body is resting. And since I’m just lying here anyway…

I don’t want to give up. I might be a terrible gamer, but I live for games. Besides that, I’m still a man, with a man’s pride. Now that I’ve decided on my goal of conquering Tetra Chronicles, I have to keep playing, and prove to myself I’m more than just a whale. I’ll never be number one on the server the way I was in past games, but if I could just follow the main quest line, and see the story of the game through to its conclusion—even if it takes me ten years—I would be satisfied.

Reassured, and calmed by the relaxing scene before me, slowly, I feel my heart rate settle.

“Tina?” I say a few minutes later.

“What do you require?”

“In the future, when my heart rate reaches one fifty, rather than wake me in the capsule, can you load this scene for me?”

“Saving your preference.”

“Thanks,” I reply automatically, and she responds.

“You’re welcome.”

“Right.” I sigh and I slap my knees with determination. “Well. Guess I’ll try that again. Tina, take me back to Tetra Chronicles.”

“Loading Tetra Chronicles…”

I spawn once more in Bluebell Village. No longer the towering dark knight that stands out from every direction, this time I’m just an average player in a leather jerkin, human, average height and weight, with long brown hair and a short cropped beard. This time I went with a Qui-Gon Jinn vibe, the simple, unassuming mystic master. I don’t stand out in any way, and that’s exactly the way I want it.

Once more I see the quest giver standing beside the road with the baby on her hip. They look at me without recognition, and I infer that NPCs’ memories of characters are reset after certain conditions are met. A relief.

Happy to put that embarrassing scene behind me, I leave the village and pull up the mini-map. On the right side of the screen is a list of the quests I took in town, four in total. Besides the Baba Yaya story, I have three generic fetch quests. The game automatically orders them according to difficulty, first recommending I complete the quest, Shroomlet Caps, No Cap!. I check the details.

[Collect ten shroomlet caps to make an antidote for a young boy’s sick dog who was poisoned after eating a shroomlet.

Reward: Unknown]

Ignoring the other quests for now, especially the Baba Yaya story, fighting mushroom monsters doesn’t sound too intimidating. I can imagine them being like the classic Super Mario mobs, or Shroomish from Pokémon. How hard can it be?

Would be a hell of a lot easier with decent equipment, is my inevitable thought, thinking wistfully I’d gladly fork over $1k for an ordinary tower shield without any magical enhancements at all. But that’s the wrong mindset, I remind myself. I’m not a whale anymore. In TC, I’m just a regular player, and I have to get through this starter area the same way all the other regular players do.

Poor leather armor, wooden sword and shield, this is the extent of my current gear. For now my goal is to upgrade this starter equipment, specifically my shield, which is needed for the Block skill I took in character selection.

[Block level 1: Uses the shield to block the next enemy attack.

Blocks 100% of the next physical attack, damage inflicted redirects to the shield’s durability.

Cooldown: 15 seconds]

[Shield durability: 200/200]

Since I don’t want to die to mobs and drop all my gear, I put the main focus of my character build on health and defense. My goal is to become an impenetrable fortress, a tank capable of withstanding any attack. To that end, I also took Shield Proficiency.

[Shield Proficiency level 1: Reduces damage done to shield.

-30% Damage to shield]

With decent armor and a high level shield, I’ll feel better equipped to venture farther into the game. At least in theory. I’m pretty anxious about it all, if I’m being honest. Facing higher and higher level monsters in this ultra-realistic virtual setting—will I really be able to do it?

Well. There’s only one way to find out.

Time to check out the starter area mobs.

Sword and shield in hand, I follow the blinking icon on the mini-map indicating the location of the highlighted quest, stalking determinedly into the field before the slough on high alert, keeping my eyes peeled for any movement. It’s unbelievably intense.

Is this how my hunter gatherer ancestors felt searching for their food? I wonder, eyes darting back and forth with purpose. What would they think if they could see me now? Would they be pleased with my form? Maybe if I brought my body lower to the ground, and held my shield like this…

“Shroomlet…” I call softly, half afraid to alert them. “Where are you?”

All I see is tall grass and yellow daisies waving like little flags in the wind. A fat bumblebee buzzes past my ear and lands on one of the daisies. I watch it suspiciously, shield half raised. Then, determining it’s not a threat, I press on.

“Shroooomlet…”

I hear something. My imagination? No! A little pattering of tiny feet. Not fast. But growing louder. Getting closer!

Adrenaline spikes, my heart thuds powerfully. I whip my head back and forth, squinting into the grass. Not here. Not there.

Behind me!

I whirl with sword and shield raised to see a beige colored knee-high mushroom monster only two feet from me.

Panic! All thoughts of my hunter gatherer ancestors fly from my mind as I scream like a girl and make a futile attempt to slap the hostile mob away from me with my wooden sword. My swing is too wild and the sword flies from my fingers and into the air. Panic again! I look up just as it falls squarely against my nose, and a gush of blood shoots out of my nostrils.

[-17 HP]

[-1 HP, poison]

It has a poison aura?!

The numbers elevate my panic. It doesn’t matter that they’re small, barely denting my health bar, I cannot comprehend the value of even a single one. I only know I’m taking damage!

Without a weapon, my nose gushing virtual blood, I do the only thing I can think of, and hold up my shield to defend as the shroomlet launches itself at me in a jumping attack.

“Use skill, Block!”

Doink!

The shroomlet bounces harmlessly off of my shield and rolls across the ground.

It worked!

But it’s far from beat.

[-1 HP, poison]

It’s still damaging me!

Little feet scramble beneath the shroomlet’s tiny body as it revs itself up for the next flying tackle.

“Block!”

[Skill on Cooldown]

Shit!

Panic, again. Distantly I’m aware of the system warning me about my heart rate.