Chapter 1: Trouble on the farms.

Carter Hart opened the small package which was wrapped in blue wrapping paper sporting consoles and retro gaming devices which his mom and dad bought him for his 16th birthday. As he pulled the wrapping paper off it revealed a small glasses case. It was made out of carbon and he wiped his thumbs over the smooth surface as he held it in both of his hands. On the top cover of the case an inscription in red read The Shadow Domain. It was an older model but he didn’t care. He could finally play with all his friends as they all migrated from Personal Computers to GlassOS.

His dad, with his arm around his mother, smiled as they looked at how Rin was opening his present. “Now son, remember only two hours a day and 4 hours on weekends. I don’t want you getting addicted to this new gadget.” Unable to find his words, he jumped up from his bed and embraced his parents. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Was all he could get out. He jumped back onto his bed and opened the case. Inside was a pair of glasses with a tiny box below the right arm. On it, there were two buttons. A red and a blue one and behind it was a type-c USB port for charging. Underneath was a small hole where a miniature microphone was hidden inside. On the ends of the arms were two electronic sensors where they connected to the back of the head. This sent and received signals from the brain that controlled your avatar’s movements in-game.

GlassOS was very controversial when it was first released, being the first company to create a virtual world wherein you could play and control your avatar with your mind. Carter's parents looked on and saw his attention would be away from them and left, closing the door behind him. Carter was already sucked into this magical world not knowing it would change his life forever.

Carter sat back onto his bed and felt for the green button on the side of the glasses. Eventually he fiddled and found the correct one and pressed it. He felt a strange sensation at the back of his head as the reading on the screen popped up:

Welcome to the Shadow Domain. It seems this is your first time playing as we could not find a character connected to your DNA. Please select a race.

A list of Races appeared on screen turning on top of a disc. When he thought about moving to the next one, the wheel turned and showed the next race. He scrolled through the options, orc, elf, gnome, human, dwarf, goblin, minotaur, satyr and lizard folk. Looking through the options for a few seconds eventually he settled on an orc. A customization screen appeared where he could change size, color, hair type and facial features. Carter couldn’t help but be impressed by the personalizing options. At the bottom there was a button with the text, RL Feature. When he focused on it, it showed a floating text stating:

This feature is in beta. GlassOS will scan your facial features using its inbuilt camera and create your characters facial features with those of your person.

Intrigued, he selected the feature and heard a high pitched peep as it scanned his face and produced it on screen. He couldn’t help but smile at himself with gnomish features. A box came up, asking him if he’d like to save his character and continue to class selection. He selected yes and a new screen with a green background appeared with a long list of classes. Each with their own stats and abilities.

Class

Multi-Class Options

Starting Spells

Fighter

Champion, Samurai, Gladiator

Second Wind, Bleeding Slash

Ranger

Beastmaster, Hexhunter, Sniper

Double Shot, Focused Fire

Rogue

Assassin, Scout, Thief

Puncture, Read tracks

Warlock

Undead, Hexblade, Celestial

Summon level 1-5 creature, Force push

Wizard

Copycat, Elemental, Blade singer

Fire bolt, Confuse

Cleric

Light, Death, Deception

Heal wounds, Blinding light

Druid

Spore, Moon, Nature

Take form, Heal wounds.

He looked over the classes and studied their spells. Glancing at his phone as he was searching the internet for answers. He wanted to be an all out brawler but at the same time he wanted to be a powerful wizard. Eventually he settled on a blade singer and the screen swirled and faded to black. New text appeared on the screen:

Welcome to Baria, The Shadow Domain. We hope you will enjoy your time in this world we have created for you. You will start out slaying goblins and eventually conquering kingdoms. But remember it is all about the journey and the people you meet along the way.

The screen swirled again and faded, and a ship sailing towards a coastline appeared,

You have arrived in Breau, a naval city, on the southern coast of Sinari, the western continent. Please follow the yellow arrow in your minimap in the top right corner and speak to Miss Tiaren. She will guide you through the starting stages of the game.

In Beau everything is controlled by the players. Remember these are real people with real feelings. Address each other accordingly.

Please if you have any problems, do not hesitate to contact us or any Game Moderators through the in-game chat.

Your journey begins here.

Enter your In-game name here:

He thought Rin would be a good name and it appeared in the space. The screen faded again and Carter found himself on the ship. Swaying as the ship moved with the waves. He could feel the cold water mist his face and hear crewmen shouting at each other. From the coastline he could hear bells ringing and see men scampering about preparing a landing dock for the ship at one of the docking isles.

Suddenly another avatar spawned next to him and the newly spawned looked at her hands and feet. Also new to the world. She was a human with long blonde flowing hair, even sexy if I may say so myself. She looked around and over her shoulder at me. “Hi,” appeared in text over her head. “Are you new?” Carter responded “Yes, I got my GlassOS today! I am so excited!” Her character smiled and she looked away towards the coast line which was now getting closer. There was a giant castle built on the side of a mountain and a city out in front of it running down a slope towards the coastline where it ended in a large dock.

The sails were being pulled up and a deep voice could be heard shouting orders over everyone else. The ship pulled in between the two wooden isles and ropes were thrown from the deck to ships mates on the ground who tied it to hooks on the isles. A large wooden board was pulled out from under the and pushed over the edge to create a pathway to the isle.

New location discovered: Beau

As Carter walked off and looked around him, he saw quite a few new players that had spawned were deboarding alongside him. They all walked and he stepped in a road which ran next to the docks. Merchants were yelling, mounts were walking everywhere and even livestock was running around in the street. It was chaotic. He suddenly remembered he needed to look for a yellow arrow in his minimap, and immediately it popped up on his Head-up display(HUD). He followed the road until he walked into a tavern where an arrow was bouncing on an NPC(Non-Player Character). Not sure how to interact with the NPC he walked up to it and said. “Hi.”

The character turned and faced him and smiled:

“Hi, welcome to Beau. We have been waiting for your arrival. Our city is under a lot of pressure from the neighboring provinces and need your help. But first we need to get you kitted out and trained.”

She motioned to a table next to her where a bronze sword and a wooden shield was lying.

Item

Stats

Blunt Bronze Short sword.

+2 melee attack bonus.

Wooden shield.

+2% to block chance. +2 defense to melee/ranged attacks.

Carter picked up the sword and shield and tested the balance of the sword by giving it a swing. “Whoa, it feels so realistic.” He said to himself. He could feel the old leather around the hilt in his hand without being able to differentiate between real life and ingame. He tied its sheath to his belt and mounted his shield on his back. He thought, “Well, now I am ready for war!” He heard her laugh.

“Not so fast, young soldier. First you need to learn to use that weapon. As you will see in your HUD your skills are listed. As you can see you are currently unskilled and will need to train in your journey to be able to be a Grandmaster.”

Skill

Description

Current level/Max

Combat

Your ability to use combat weapons. Melee/ranged/Magic.

1/150

Defense

Your ability to block attacks and equip stronger armors. This skill is trained alongside your other skills and will increase passively.

1/150

Herblore

Your ability to see and find herbs and ingredients which can be used in potions.

1/150

Animal handling

Your ability to calm or use animals to your advantage. IE Calm a horse to ride it. Or upset a herd of buffalo to charge a camp of goblins.

1/150

Brewing

Your ability to make potions.

1/150

Fishing

Your ability to catch different kinds of fish.

1/150

Hunting

Your ability to hunt different kinds of animals and monstrosities.

1/150

Cooking

Your ability to cook your catch.

1/150

Sailing

Your ability to sail larger and faster ships while being able to predict the weather.

1/150

Trade

Your ability to haggle prices when trading with NPCs

1/150

Lockpicking

Your ability to pick locks

1/150

Looting

Your ability to acquire higher tier loot from a kill.

1/150

Hero Level

Your level as seen by other players indicating your total power.

(Combat style levels + 50) x 0.16

= 8.16

“Clicking on each skill will open a panel which will show what items you can use or what monster you can hunt. Speaking about hunting. Let’s get you started. Pick a job on the job board which a player has posted and complete it. Once completed the reward will be paid out to your character or split amongst your party.”

He walked over to a giant board and it opened up a screen with thousands of listings of what he assumed was all jobs. They contained a few sections. Details/Requirements/Rewards. Carter scanned the board for a few seconds and found one who’s requirement was level one. It read:

“We’ve had live stock on our farms killed by a pack of wolves. Please will you investigate and rid the countryside of them for us. The last time they were seen was on the edge of In return for your troubles you will receive 150xp and 100 gold. Do you accept it?”

A window popped up with accept and reject options. Carter accepted the quest and headed back out into the busy street. Text appeared on the screen showing him the way to the farms and he followed it. While walking a new box opened up showing his equipped stats. He had +2 attack bonuses to slash and stab and +2 to melee and ranged defense bonuses with 2% chance to block an attack completely.

He closed the box and by now he was at the southern castle gates. Men could be seen walking atop the walls and archway that was built over the gate with a large iron pot for oil in the middle. The gate opened magically as he walked out into the forest and closed behind him. It was quiet. Carter could hear birds singing and the twigs crunching underfoot as he walked on the beaten path. “Okay, I need to find the farms and then the wolf pack. This game is amazing.” He shrieked with excitement. A voice behind him said, “First time? I can tell, your noobness is showing through.” He spun around with surprise and saw the blonde girl from the ship behind him. “I… I didn’t notice you were behind me.” He said, feeling very embarrassed. “It’s okay, I was probably the same with my first character.” She looked at him and what looked like scanning him. “Come I will do this quest with you.” Carter didn’t know how she did it. He nodded, happy to be accompanied by her and followed her.

The duo made their way through the forest until it opened up into a seeping plateau. Farms laid scattered across it with mountains on the edge.

New area discovered: Beau Farmlands.

“That’s beautiful!” Carter exclaimed. “Hush!” She said with a stern look. “Do you want to tell all the bandits that we are here?”

“Bandits?” Carter said. “You mean we could be followed or ambushed?” He bristled with excitement.

“Yes. Always remember, everywhere is PvP (Player vs Player). In cities guards will spawn within 3 seconds of being attacked and attack the first attacker. But out here. If you are not walking with a guard it is every man for himself.” He tried to contain his eagerness to get in on the action. “Okay, I understand. By the way, what is your name? Mine is Rin.” She turned around and faced him. “Alora.” She said with a smile.

Walking through the farmlands Alora explained that most were owned by the richest players who then hired the other players to work them. “This is called a player-run economy,” she explained. “You can find work there as well if you want but it is pretty mind numbing work. It is much more profitable to complete dungeons and take part in the PvP activities. But for those you need much higher skills. What I do is just do quests up to where I can comfortably start grinding the lower leveled dungeons.”

“Ah this should be the farm,” she said. They turned down a dwindling road passing pastures with cattle and what looked like a cross between a boar and a sheep. “What are those?!” He asked, again too loud and far too excited. She looked at him again, he just whimpered a “Sorry,” and she said, “They are Shoars. A boar-like creature with a very strong charge attack. You don’t want to be the victim of a charge with tusks like that at a low level.” He nodded and made a mental note. They arrived at the door and knocked on it. Alora said under her breath, “Let’s hope he’s online. But usually they are if the quest is on the board.”

After a few moments the door glides open and they are greeted by a giant orc. “Greetings players. My owner is not at home but he said I must give you this.” His giant dark green hand held an envelope. Carter took it and opened it which opened a prompt.

Quest received: Trouble on the farm.

0/3 Wolves slain.

“Well I guess we know what we’ve got to do.” He said and waved goodbye to the orc who returned a blank stare. “Oh right. NPC. Anyways, where do we start looking?” Alora opened her map and her avatar was looking at a large screen in front of her which was see-through and just floating in front of her. “We can start the search on the outskirts to the south of the farmlands. There is a forest not two miles from there. They will be striking from the forest if it were up to me.” Carter nodded his appreciation of her advice and knowledge.

They walked towards the end of the farmlands and soon Alora found tracks leading out of the corn fields. “Over here! Heading straight to the forest. Just as I thought.” She said with a sly smile on her face. “Come, let’s follow the trail and see where it leads.”

It led them through the thickets and undergrowth of the forest and they struggled to make good progress. But eventually they pushed through and came to a cave inside the mountain. The cave was covered in branches and with the loose soil in front of it they were able to tell there were movements in and out of the cave. “Hmmm, usually they don’t make you go into caves for low leveled jobs but maybe this is different. By the way, I never asked your class? I am a Ranger. Hoping to subclass into a Hex-Hunter once I get to a high enough level.” she asked cheerfully. As he was peering into the cave over her shoulder, he said, “I am a wizard. I thought Blade Singer looked pretty cool so I thought I would give it a try.”

She nodded her approval, “High damage output with melee but still have the variety of a wizard’s spells to fight from a distance if need be. Good choice.” She started walking into the cave, wielding her bow and notching an arrow. “Here light a torch and hold it up for me.” He did as he was told and unsheathed his sword. They cautiously walked deeper into the now pitch black cave, he could only see as far as the light of the torch, of which the light glistened off the moisture on the cave's walls.

Alora quickly dropped to her knees, and Carter almost tripped over her because he was so enamored by the light bouncing off the walls. “Sh, there,” she pointed at a cavern at the end of the tunnel. There was light shining through sparkling off the ripples in a small pool in the middle of the cavern. Around the pool was straw and fur scrunched up together creating a bed where the wolves slept. As they were crouching he could make out five shapes moving around the pool. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I count five wolves, one seems to be larger and could be an Alpha wolf. They are stronger and have more hit points so we have to kill them first. Use your fire bolt on the bedding, it will deal some damage before they get to us and I will fire arrows. Then as they come closer use your sword to cut them down and I will join you. Ready?”

Carter nodded enthusiastically, “Finally, some action.”

As he thought about casting the fire bolt, he could feel his left hand heating up as a ball of fire started to form. He drew back his arm and powered it towards the bedding which shot up in a gulf of flames. The wolves cried in pain as the earth started to burn around them. Alora fired an arrow at the nearest wolf, hitting it directly in the head between the eyes. It sank to the ground in one motion. The other two yowled and charged. As they were coming closer to the duo the larger of the two leaped forward and tackled Carter off his feet. He wrapped his hands around the animal's neck, pushing the gnawing jaws away from his face. A whoosh went overhead and more cries echoed in the cave. “Use your sword!” He heard Alora shouting. The blade had been knocked from his hand and was out of reach. The wolf's foul breath filled his nostrils. “Eat some flames!” the young wizard shouted as he sent another ball of flames straight into the wolves chest. Heat waves burnt the adventurer's skin and he could feel the pressure lift off him as the spell pushed the wolf away. “Die!” He picked up his sword as he ran towards the wolf who had stood back up again and was leaping at Carter. Carter took a step back and thrusted his sword into the burnt chest as the wolf fell on top of him. It slowly disappeared into a cloud of smoke and the weight was lifted, leaving behind one wolf pelt, wolf meat and a pile of bones. A text appeared on screen.

Loot

Wolf Pelt x 3

Fur of a wolf. Used in crafting armors.

Normal Bones x 3

Bones. Just that. Bones.

Wolf Meat x 3

Meat used with the cooking skill, eaten to regain lost hit points.

You gained 360xp for killing 3 wolves. Congratulations! You have advanced to level 2 Combat.

You completed your quest: Trouble on the farm. You gain 100 gold shared between your party members and 150xp for quest completion.

“What happened?” he asked, shocked.

Alora laughed. “That’s how the drop system works. Pick up your loot and come on. Well done.”

He grabbed the meat, pelts and bones and stashed it in his bag, it evaporated and he could see on his screen it was in his inventory. “What do I do with the meat? I saw that I do have cooking skills.” She was busy looking on the map while he was looting his kills and murmured subconsciously. “Yes, just cook it on a fire or on a range.” He was about to open his mouth but she held up a finger. “Be quiet, I am just looking to see if we came the shortest way. Running around in this world is so much more difficult than having teleportation spells and mounts.” She scanned the map for a few more moments, closed it and beckoned to him. “Come this way.”

They ventured out of the cave the same way they went in. “You did good in there. I was impressed.” Carter nodded his thanks. “Well I have been gaming for many years so it wasn’t exactly my first fight. By the way, you mentioned earlier you usually use the job board route. Have you had a character before?” A look of sadness crossed her face, but was gone in a flash. “Yes. I had a Fighter Champion. Level 149. I was almost maxed out in all my skills, but I was playing a different game mode called Hardcore. You can only die once on such a character, then you lose all your gear and gold and have to start over. I was in a clan called The Crimson Regiment, but they… betrayed me.” The words struggled to escape her mouth. “We were fighting Hydra, a five headed dragon in search of its Hydra-scaled armor. Some of the strongest gear in the game. Unfortunately I got the drop that kill and they ambushed me on the way to town to replenish our potions and food.” She looked down at her feet. Feeling discouraged at the daunting fact that she has to spend so many hours rebuilding her character.

Carter was at a loss for words and didn’t know how to comfort her. He knew how many hours you had to put into an MMORPG to have a decent character. In some way he could understand what she felt. “I’m sorry that happened to you Alora. Sometimes you trust in game people more than IRL(in real life) friends and it can be devastating when they break that trust.” She glanced a thanks at him. “Well, sitting here and moping about ain’t going to bring it back now is it?” They got up and followed the route which she plotted on her map and shared with Carter. He could see exactly where she was aiming to go and followed her.