Maxwell

My vision was getting blurry from all the forms in front of me. I had been at this for over eight hours. The tax forms for my accounting class just didn’t want to reconcile with the totals that I had gotten from a classmate. After another few minutes of calculations that ended up being wrong, I tossed the forms to the side of the desk.

“That settles it. I’m transferring to a different department next semester,” I mumbled to myself.

“Giving up already?” Joshua asked from his own desk.

“I’m missing something critical, and from what I’ve heard about taxes, you need to be good about finding those missing links,” I retorted, tapping the forms.

“Fair enough. What do you plan to transfer to then?”

“I don’t know… English, maybe,” I replied, dropping my head onto the table.

“RIP. Take a break and try again tomorrow,” Joshua said, as the magazine he was reading fell on his face and leaning back onto his chair. In a feat that I had never understood since I had first saw it, he was snoring in seconds.

I glanced back to the forms before pressing the button for my dive console. I had bought a game in preparation for the end of the semester. It had recently gotten an update where they moved the world forward almost five hundred years. With the technology involved, they could replicate the passage of time reasonably well.

Leaning back in my chair, I told it to calibrate and get the game ready. A counter for almost ten minutes popped up. I pulled up some of my feeds to see what was going on around the world. Everything looked fake. Random articles from here and there about celebrities and politicians. I even found one that stated a UFO had appeared over the capital of the European Federation.

Shaking my head at how some people will do anything for clicks, I closed the feeds, thankful that the game was ready. I tapped on it, and the world faded to black before a black male body formed in front of me. With a few thoughts, the body changed how I wanted it. I stuck with about how my real body was. Slim and tall with blond hair while keeping a sharp jawline. I did change my race to Dark Elf. I’d always enjoyed their aesthetic.

I made a few changes here and there. The number of customizations was mind-blowing. If I could imagine it, there was an option to mess with it. I kept it simple. A few tattoos on my cheeks and arms. From what I’d learned, they were a sort of tribal logos. The different tribes would look at me more favorably with them. I thought it would be better to have more than one.

Designing my character done, I confirmed the details. The system asked for a name after that. I entered Maxwell, my usual game name. There were even times that I used it more than my own name. The world shifted again, and a white room appeared in front of me. I spent the next hour going through the basics of combat and movement. It was all standard. Other than the magic, combat was realistic, with vitals being the primary target.

[Tutorial Completed. Select your class.]

A list that went on forever popped up in front of me. This game had everything, being procedurally generated on the spot for each player, from what I'd read. Two people might have the same class, but the abilities contained within could be very different. I spent the next hour going through the list, trying to decide what I wanted to do. I planned to spend the next three months here after all. Or at least until the following semester.

I finally decided on the Lord class. It sounded fantastic and appeared to have a lot of growth potential. There was also the fact that it had access to magic. Always a bonus. Confirming my choice, the white room vanished, sucked into a pinpoint spot directly in front of me. The next thing I knew, I was blasted through the air and landed roughly.

An elderly dark elf grabbed my arm and hefted me to my feet. “My Liege! We must keep moving!”

I did as I was told and moved. I glanced around to try and get a grasp of the situation. I was surrounded by a band of heavily wounded dark elves. The group was fairly diverse, with it being about even male and female. A few on the outer reaches of the group were armed with slender, curved blades.

“What’s going on?” I asked the elder, who still had my arm in a vice-like grip. “My head is a little fuzzy from my fall,” I added since realism was essential to the game.

“The loathsome goblins found our village.” I raised an eyebrow at the fact we were fleeing from goblins. Though, now that I thought about it. Goblins might be stronger in this world. Better not judge them by the quality of other games.

We continued to run with a horrendous scratching sound echoing from behind us. Even with whatever dark vision or sight I had, I couldn’t see anything when I glanced behind us. I risked everything to pull up my status to see if I had something that I could use.

--

Name: Maxwell Orfen

Level: 1

Race: Dark Elf

Class: Lord

Total Mana: 10/10

Abilities:

Dark Sight

Elemental Magic – Dark, Earth, Fire

Basic Sneak

Founding

--

That was bare! I couldn’t believe that was all the information I got from my status. Compared to some of the other games that I’ve played over the years, it was little more than a post-it note worth of remarks. My surprise and shock nearly caused me to stumble, but I managed to correct my posture before falling completely.

Waving away the screen, I thought about the tutorial. It had given a basic rundown on how to use magic in the game. With access to Earth Elemental Magic, I might be able to collapse the tunnel to keep our pursuers at bay. Just buying some time to rest would help a lot of the people in the group.

Every magic spell had a corresponding magic circle that you had to form with your mana. It was sort of like knowing the words to a chant. The tutorial had given you access to all the basic elemental spells to help you make a choice if you choose a spell caster class. Earth had to have been the simplest of the elements, with the initial spell only being a few lines.

Clenching my fist, I pointed back along our path as I imagined the magic circle forming over my palm. You could do a few things with this spell, but the main purpose was to pull and throw stone at an enemy. Aiming for the ceiling, I pulled the stone down as we ran, causing a long crack to form.

The next few seconds were crazy as the ceiling finally collapsed after about a dozen meters. The group kept moving just to stay out of the range of the debris falling into the tunnel. Dust, pebbles, and small stones ricocheted down the tunnel for several long moments before everything started to settle.

We pulled to a stop with a few of the members collapsing to their hands and knees, breathing heavily. It had been about ten minutes since I started playing, but they must have been running far longer than that. My body was also feeling a bit more fatigued than it should for the amount of time that I had run. I leaned against the wall myself.

“My liege! I am extremely pleased to see that your magic has returned to you,” the old elf remarked, his voice muffled slightly. I looked over toward him and found he was lying face down on the tunnel floor. The fleeing must have been hardest for him with his age.

“Me too,” I said with a groan. There was no pain, but I still felt drained, like someone told me to run a forty-kilometer marathon and then skipped to the end. I stood up straight, deciding to try and project some leader vibes. “Where are we running to?”

“We were trying to reach another dark elf village, not that they would have taken us in,” he mumbled the second part under his breath, “but we were forced to take a few tunnels at random. Even with the years on me, I have no idea where we are.”

“No problem,” I paused as I didn’t know his name. Thankfully, it was displayed over his head. “Levada.”

Everyone rested for a good ten minutes or so before we started moving again. An hour in, I wasn’t the only one that noticed that the ground was sloping upward. When we reached a bright entrance that let out into a sunset-lit forest, I wasn’t sure how to feel. I was a dark elf, after all. While I knew they weren’t quite the scum of the world like in most games, it was still dangerous on the surface for us.

“We should rest here, my liege. The tunnel is blocked. The goblins will not soon give up their prey. It would be suicide to head back down.”

I nodded in agreement. Surface or Abyss, it really didn’t matter to me. I moved over to a boulder to take a seat myself while the rest of the group started pulling out gear to make camp. I hoped that this place would be safe enough to log off in about an hour or two. It had already been late in the day. I would cross that bridge when I came to it.

For now, though, I was enjoying the world. It was almost better than the real world. Everything looked amazing. The tunnels had been dull, but the forest was vivid and colorful. Animal and monster calls were going up from every direction. Even being an indoors sort of person, I could appreciate the majesty of nature in front of me.

While watching the scenery, I played with my status screen. Everything was fairly straightforward. The only thing I had no idea about was Founding. There was no description to go from. I went ahead and tried to use it and immediately regretted it. A field of energy flashed out around me, expanding to encompass part of the hillside and forest. It was about fifty-fifty.

[Congratulations! You’ve Founded a Dark Elf Village. As a Lord, your power comes from your people. Work hard to expand your village into an Empire. Current Population: 25]

“Shit!” I exclaimed, annoyed. I had no idea the lay of the land around here. I would be working blind! I opened the menu to log off for a few minutes. I wanted to see how some of the systems worked before getting started. Just before I clicked on the butter, there was a cascade of screens in front of me.

: Error: Unable to reconcile data to local network.

: Attempting to Update: Local… Failed. Attempting to Update: Zone… Failed. Attempting to Update: Node… Failed. Attempting to Update: Region… Failed. Attempting to Update: World… Success:

Needle-like stabbing pain washed over every part of my body. I dropped to the ground, rolling like ants were biting me all over. Panic started to set in. Pain simulation was banned ten years ago in 2042 due to many deaths from people overdoing it. Could something have happened to break the game?! Why now!?

It all finally faded after about two minutes. The elder and a few of the others were standing over me, worried. “My liege?”

“Sorry. I’m not sure what happened. I just felt pain all over,” I replied, sitting up with his help.

“As long as you’re well. We can’t afford to lose you.”

I grasped his shoulder with a smile. “Thank you.” The incident over, everyone moved back to their tents. Levada led me to one set up for me. I thanked him again and made my way inside. I dropped onto the leather sleeping bag just as the panic I’d been holding back set in. I opened the menu faster than I had ever done anything and quickly slammed on the log-out button. Nothing happened.

“Mother f…”