Thursday, November 28th 2052, 14:21 OWO Server Time

Chill mountain air blew against my face, a welcome sensation after a day of hiking and sweating. Strictly speaking, I didn’t need a bath, as body odor wasn’t a concern in OVR World Online, that didn’t mean a tub of hot water to ease my aching muscles didn’t sound mighty nice after the last several days. A hurried march through the mountains had not been anywhere on my list of wants or needs after surviving the trials of the First Player’s Tomb.

I reflexively reached down to my waist and wrapped my fingers around the grip of the artifact we’d recovered in the tomb, The First Player’s Sword or just the Sword with an intentional capital “S” as I’d been thinking about it all day. The smooth brown leather grip of the longsword felt warm and comfortable in my hand. The magical blade thrummed with restrained power that sent goosebumps from my wrist to my shoulder. It took a conscious effort to release my grip and try to ignore the Sword’s presence at my hip.

“Alright, from what I remember the border of the Orientation Zone is just around that bend,” Macha pointed up the narrow mountain path that we had been following all morning and into the afternoon.

Macha, Level 5 Monk of the Stalking Tiger Way, High Elf

Titles: Champion of the First Player’s Tomb

Conditions: Alert, Channelled Ki

Of the six of us remaining, five players plus Archer, my dire wolf animal companion, Macha was the only one who had ever gotten this far in the game and left Rowling Valley, Gygax’s Orientation Zone for new players. “I seem to remember a little wide spot in the trail where we can scope things out.”

“We’ll be sitting ducks if there are any PKers waiting to pick us off,” Bolton observed, dour as usual. “Especially after that global announcement that Zee has the Sword.”

Bolton Glittertooth, Level 5 Sorcerer, Dragonkin

Titles: Champion of the First Player’s Tomb

Conditions: Mana Cycle, Contingency Spell

“That’s why we came this way,” Elias patiently reminded him, not for the first time. I glanced at the handle over his head as the cleric continued to sooth Bolton’s grumps.

Brother Elias Stonetree, Level 5 Cleric of Mishakal, Half-Elf

Titles: Champion of the First Player’s Tomb

Conditions: Alert, Mana Cycle, Enduring Faith

“...It’s not the most popular route out of the OZ. Much less likely anyone sees us with the Swor-”

“-Stop!” I exclaimed and our party came to a halt on the path. “We can’t do anything about the announcement, but we need to watch what we say. Talking about The Sword will get us all killed faster than anything!” I paused for effect, and locked gazes with each one of my companions in turn with the fiercest glare I could muster. “From now on we’ll just call it...” my eyes wandered around in my head, thinking, measuring, calculating, “...the MacGuffin!”

I mentally schooled myself to even start thinking of the Sword that way, as the MacGuffin.

“That’s stupid. We can’t -” Bolton began.

“-Zee’s right,” Macha interjected. “We gotta watch our mouths, and calling it the MacGuffin is as good as anything.”

Elias nodded his agreement, and Bolton didn’t object any further, Archer my dire wolf companion standing beside me, let out a huff of support, not that he’d be calling the Swor...err..the MacGuffin anything since he couldn’t talk. Our other companion, Bryn, was still nowhere to be seen as she’d been slipping in and out of the near invisibility provided by her Stealth skill all day.

“Let’s get moving,” I said and waved at the path ahead of us.

We’d been hiking since just after dawn, first traversing the floor of Rowling Valley, then up into the towering snow-capped Salvatore Mountains that ringed the valley in a nearly perfect circle. No need to explain geographic symmetry when the terrain had been designed by programmers not volcanoes and plate tectonics.

The easy exit from the valley was to the south. That’s where most players left the Orientation Zone. We’d debated going that way over breakfast. While it would have been a considerably easier trek, and the southern road led straight to the city of Corvin, there would have also been a lot more eyes on us as we made our exit from the OZ. Outside Rowling Valley, Player-vs-Player combat, PvP, was quite common. In fact Player Killers, PKers, often lurked along the border just for the fun of killing vulnerable newbies fresh out of the OZ. That and the EXP from killing another player was substantially higher than killing an equivalent level of monster.

Suffice to say, going out via the southern path wasn’t the safest route even for your typical noobs, it was just the most direct. We were not your typical noobs. After the announcement that I’d recovered the MacGuffin, and the new titles attached to our handles that had come along with that achievement, and our fairly low levels, we’d look like pretty tempting targets. Even players not otherwise inclined to turn PKer might come after us just for the promise of a pay-day. So, instead of braving the southern exit, we’d opted for one of the less-traveled routes that took us east through this narrow mountain pass.

“Hoods up everyone.” Elias reminded us as he pulled the hood of his clerical robes up. Elias’s identifying player tag still floated over his head, but would mostly vanish once we left the OZ, so long as he had his hood up.

Outside of Rowling, a raised hood caused all but a player’s level to disappear from his tag. Raised hoods and other designated headgear were the only way to walk around with relative anonymity in the wider game world. Especially helpful if you were walking around with a massive target on your back, like I was.

“Can’t believe we’re actually here,” Bolton commented before he pulled his own hood up over his draconic, golden, scale-covered head.

Letting out a long nervous sigh, I pulled the hood of my ranger’s cloak up and tried to ignore the sudden racing of my simulated heart in my simulated chest. Archer, roughly the size of an adult lion, bumped his huge body against my hip in silent reassurance. I gave him an appreciative scratch behind one ear.

Getting out into the true gaming world of Gygax had been at the top of my To-Do List since close to the first day I’d been jacked in. However, that was before it had been announced to every player of OVR World Online that I’d recovered the MacGuffin. The moment I stepped foot outside of Rowling Valley, I’d be a target, and at only level 5, a pretty squishy one at that. Why bother winning such a prize on a quest where I lost my best friend in the game just to lose it to some PvP ass hat as soon as I get in the best part of the game? But then the MacGuffin was supposed to be much more than a powerful in-game artifact, it was also a key of some sort. A key to what exactly, I still wasn’t clear on.

“Nervous, lover?” Bryn whispered with obvious excitement as she dropped her Stealth skill right beside me.

“Fuck!” I just about jumped out of my leather armor as the curvaceous dark elf seemed to materialize out of thin air.

How high is her fucking Stealth skill? I wondered for the umpteenth time. Bryn already had the deep hood of her inky black cloak pulled up, though a thick lock of her silvery white hair had slipped free to glint in the afternoon sun. The jette-black skin of her face melted into the shadow cast by the hood, but her softly glowing red eyes gave just enough illumination for me to see her full lips spread in a mischievous smirk.

Dirzbryn Baenmtor, Level 5 Assassin, Dark Elf

Titles: [Concealed]

Conditions: [Concealed]

“Easy Sweety.” The dark elf lightly ran her doeskin-gloved hand down my forearm to the hand that had instinctively grabbed the hilt of the Sword.

“Don’t do that!” I snapped while forcing myself to relax my grip.

The rest of the party had spun to face us at my startled cry, but they quickly relaxed their guard when they saw it was just Bryn playing her games.

“Would you two get serious?” Macha sheathed her katana that I hadn’t even seen her draw.

“Relax!” Beneath her hood, Bryn rolled her glowing red eyes, then blew me a kiss. “Just having some fun.”

“I know this is just a game to you,” I growled, not returning her flirtations despite the involuntary excited flutter she gave my heart. “But the rest of us take our time here seriously. Stop dicking around!”

“Shame,” Bryn pouted with a put-upon sigh, then shrugged her slender shoulders. “At least that might be interesting.”

“I’m not even sure why you’re still here, to be honest,” Macha grumped. She had fashioned a mask from a strip of her orange robe-like gi and was in the process of tying it around her head. I realized it would conceal enough of her face to hide her player tag, while not obstructing her hearing or peripheral vision like our drawn hoods would. She’d withdrawn her offer to do the same for me when I’d made a quip about us looking like Ninja Turtles.

“The same reason I do anything,” Bryn scoffed at Macha’s open hostility. “To stave off boredom. You all are a lot of things, but boring isn’t one.”

I couldn’t help but wonder about Bryn myself. Could I trust her like I did the others? Afterall, she hadn’t been part of our party when we’d set out on our quest to conquer the Goblin Keep. In fact, she’d been on an opposing team at the beginning. She’d been contracted by a group of douchebag Mega-Corp employed players to round out their team. Bryn had been the only survivor of their party after we’d spoiled their attempt to take the keep ahead of us. She’d joined our party after we’d saved her from the quest’s boss monsters, but only because it was her only way to get out without losing her avatar. Then she’d been stuck with us when the quest to recover the Sword had activated. But that morning, she hadn’t said anything about quitting the party before we all set out on our hike to exit Rowling Valley. No one knew she was with us after all.

I caught wary glances from both Elias and Macha. Both had made their concerns about Bryn’s loyalty clear over the course of our hike. Elias privately, and Macha publicly. Bolton hadn’t bothered, his feelings on Bryn had been clear since she'd been party to the Aggro Kite incident that had dropped a brutal monster on our heads by the same competing party of Mega-Corp players. The incident had resulted in his sister, Illiya’s literal death when she experienced a rare system error called, Red Screening. The result of taking too much damage, all at once, without a perception filter to moderate the simulated pain. As an Inmate Player without the option of a perception filter, I wished Red Screening had been mentioned in the brochure. Bryn had claimed to have no knowledge of the Mega’s plans to try and wipe us out or the ability to stop them. While I thought I believed her, I couldn’t blame the others for being skeptical.

To be honest, I wasn’t even sure why Bryn was sticking around or why I was trusting her to journey with us into dangerous unknown lands. Lands where she would have ample opportunity to fuck us over if it suited her. I told myself it was better that we all kept a collective eye on Bryn. She knew enough about me, like my real first name, to be dangerous if left to her own devices, especially if we gave her cause to be spiteful about our parting ways. However, a small part of me was worried I was just thinking with my dick given some of the history I had with Bryn. Macha had said as much when she’d pushed me on the matter. It was easily a decision I might not live to regret if I turned out to be wrong.

“Everyone ready?” I asked to stop my mind from racing, as well as to cut off any further bickering.

A round of affirmative nods followed, including Archer. The wolf’s uncanny human intelligence and awareness still caught me off guard occasionally, even though it had been sparked by my own mutant brain.

“Let’s get moving then.” I tried to put on a confident commanding tone, like Lemorak always had. I figured if I was half successful, then I’d done alright. “Game faces on. Everyone, be ready for trouble.”

With Macha leading the way we all fell-in behind. We hiked along the narrow mountain path, and when we rounded the next bend, as Macha had promised, we saw the boundary of the OZ. The border appeared as a subtle haze-like shimmering curtain in the air, following the run of the land in each direction as far as the eye could see, while reaching upwards to the heavens. A large plinth of granite stood before the hazey barrier, carved with letters stylized to look like ancient glyphs.

Rowling Valley Boundary, as I read the words a notification scrolled across the HUD at the bottom of my vision.

WARNING: You are about to depart the Rowling Valley Orientation Zone. Player-versus-Player combat is permitted beyond this point.

In the past, when I’d been exploring the valley with Lemorak and training up, before I’d reached Level 5, I’d received multiple warning notifications telling me to turn back anytime I’d gotten within a mile of this boundary. I’d never been this close before. There was still a little less than six hours left on the countdown timer running on my HUD. After reaching Level 5, we’d been given 24 hours to depart the Orientation Zone. This was the point of no return, after we stepped beyond the OZ’s barrier, the game wouldn’t let us back into the valley.

“Don’t see anyone lurking around,” Elias observed as he scanned the path and terrain beyond the hazy barrier.

“You wouldn’t if their Stealth was high enough,” I pointed out.

As if in support of my point, Bryn dropped out of Stealth right beside Elias, startling the portly cleric who jumped and cursed. Bryn giggled and melted back into the shadows waving at the cleric. She didn’t really go invisible, I just found it very difficult to focus on her, my eyes sliding right over her unnoticed unless I put some effort into it. In reality, there was no conceivable way Bryn should have had anywhere to hide herself out in the open like that. Whether due to specialized assassin talents, or just her Stealth skill being that much higher than the rest of our Perception skills, or some combination, the game allowed it.

“Or magic invisibility,” Bolton added, rolling his eyes at Bryn’s antics. “There are any number of spells or magic items that would allow a group of PKers to basically be hiding feet ahead of us.”

“That’s not disconcerting at all,” Elias muttered.

“Let’s not borrow trouble,” I snapped, breaking the tense silence that had followed. “We came this way in the hopes of flying under the radar. It was our best option this morning, and still is now.”

Archer whoofed his approval of my words and the rest of the party visibly straightened their shoulders and set their faces in determination.

“Here goes nothing.” Macha shrugged and stepped through the barrier drawing her katana as she did. She took up a defensive stance, katana raised in a high guard and legs bent like coiled springs.

When she wasn’t immediately struck dead by some lurking attacker, she waved the rest of us through. Elias and Bolton stepped through together. Bolton cupped a smoldering ball of fire in his clawed hands. Elias held his mace up in a two-handed grip and the weapon began to glow with the silver energy of one of his clerical spells. Then Bryn, shimmered briefly into view as she moved through the barrier. True to form, she front-flipped through the haze, her new wavy bladed dagger in one hand and rapier in the other.

I had my bow in hand, and an arrow on the string as I stepped up to follow, but hesitated for a beat, my mouth suddenly dry and shoulders rigid with tension. In my head, I could hear Samwise Gamgee saying to Mr. Frodo, “If I take one more step, I’ll be the furthest away from home I’ve ever been.” Somehow, over the last month and a few days, Rowling Valley had started to feel like home. When the hell had that happened?

Archer whined sympathetically beside me, and nudged my hip with his nose.

“Yeah yeah,” I muttered. “Alright, let’s go.”