Limitless Seas 2, Chapter 18 and 19.

Chapter 18 is a shorter transitional chapter, so I've included 19 as well. 

Chapter 18.

“Are we missing anyone?” Chairman Raines asked the technician as he joined the virtual conference. Trey looked down on his notes for a final time as the meeting got started. He didn’t have much to do as the gaming team went through their summary. From what he could glean, Limitless Lands was still a huge success, but there was concern about improving the experience and adding new content. Unlike older VRMMO’s, there wasn’t an endgame grind, as the AI tailored content to the desires and needs of the players.

The players were a diverse lot and had different expectations of the game. Some wanted a more traditional feel, with epic quests taken up by their small team of adventurers, while others craved solo play. Ongoing development was happening to craft an engaging experience for those that wanted to play something other than an adventurer battling monsters. Some wanted to take on the task of building a business or focusing on trade skills. Those players needed a way to grow their characters without relying on fighting monsters, and, so far, the AI had done a good job of keeping up with the requests for specialized classes.

Their AI, Clio, was limited to a certain extent and it took her time to develop new NPC classes and types. While she hadn’t come anywhere close to reaching her limits, any opportunity to relieve the burden on her processing power was something they wanted to explore. At some point in time, Clio would reach her limit, and having processes in place to alleviate the burden was something they were already planning for. The next item on the agenda interested him and was one that he felt a little guilty about at the same time.

“Good, now let’s hear about the new NPC avatar program. Lou, what’re the initial results?” Raines asked. Lou and Trey worked together on the medpod program, but now that their program was chugging along smoothly, Lou had been recruited to assist the team that was developing options to relieve the burden on the AI.

“It’s early, but initial data is positive. The time and processing load to develop and maintain these unique NPC’s is only a fraction of that needed for the AI to build one from scratch,” Lou told the group.

“How about a quick rundown of the program for those of us stuck in the accounting trenches,” one of the financial team, Leslie Moore, asked.

“Uh, sure,” Lou started, tapping the side of his chin as he gathered his thoughts. So, the quick and dirty explanation is that it takes a lot of time for Clio to develop a new NPC that can be fit into multiple character storylines. She has to build a backstory, stats, gear, level, and class, all while making sure the NPC integrates seamlessly into the overall gaming narrative. In order to help out, one of our playtesting teams suggested we use abandoned characters to fill the roles,” Lou said. Pulling something up on his datapad.

“Abandoned characters?” Leslie asked.

“Yeah, you see, as popular as the game is, some people quit for various reasons, or abandon one character in favor of playing another. Sometimes, these abandoned characters are a perfect fit to become an NPC for certain story options that other players are following. Some have already become well-known heroes or villains that have created zone-wide recognition. Clio can take the abandoned character, give it minor tweaks and send it off into the world to continue life as an NPC. We compensate the player who owned the character with some free game time, and they seem to enjoy watching the character they created stay active outside of their direct control,” Lou replied.

“I get it, but how many characters are we talking about?” Leslie asked.

“So far, not many, only a few dozen as we gather the data. The ones we selected all had interesting player experiences, that lent them to becoming good NPC’s. Here’s an example I pulled up. This is a character called Narbos the Grimm. He was the character of one of the early players that interacted with the medpod team patients. He was a bit of a notorious character and gave our patients a difficult time, but he ended up changing his ways in the end and helped them fight off an invasion. The player that controlled him, has moved on to graduate school and doesn’t have time to game much anymore, but he was excited to see his character live on as an NPC,” Lou said.

“So, what did you do with this new NPC?” One of the other participants, Trey thought he was from marketing, asked.

“It was up to Clio, and she shifted his class a bit, using the abandoned character’s past experiences to make it fit into another player’s storyline. He’s back interacting with a new medpod patient on one of the developmental test servers,” Lou replied.

“Interesting stuff, but we need to keep the meeting moving,” Chairman Raines interjected. Trey was lost in his thoughts and kind of tuned everything else out after he was called on to give his department’s update. He was one of the first that Lou approached with the new program, wanting to add his father’s character to it. Trey declined to add his dad as an NPC, his loss was still too fresh and painful and he didn’t want his daughter, who was still an avid player, to see an NPC that looked and sounded like her grandpa. Lou had been disappointed with his decision, but was kind enough to not press further. Commander Raytak had been one of the tech’s favorite patients to watch play the game, and apparently, the AI had specifically requested to add his character to the program.

“Thinking about your dad? I’m sorry if asking about him brought up painful memories,” Lou said, noting Trey’s down mood as the meeting concluded and the two met for lunch.

“You have nothing to apologize for. Maybe in the future, it will be good, but for now, it’s too raw for me and I’m not sure how Lauren would react.

“Thanks, on a different topic, how is Mr. Larson doing?” Lou asked. Before being pulled away to work on the NPC project, Lou had worked on the deep immersion project with him, and Mr. Larson was one of their first patients.

“He’s doing well enough, but with the injuries he’s sustained, it’s slow going,” Trey said.

“What about his sister? Did she ever make the leap and decide to game with him?” Lou asked. Mr. Larson only had a single surviving relative, an estranged sister that was torn between seeing her brother in-game, or just saying goodbye. Both he and Lou had picked up that there was bad blood between the siblings, but it wasn’t Trey’s place to pry.

“She’s playing the last I checked, leveling up her character until Clio thinks it’s time for them to interact,” Trey answered.

“Clio did give her the coolest class, who doesn’t want to be a dragon. I bet you lunch that she roasts her brother the first time she sees him,” Lou offered. The monstrous classes were another thing being tested on the server Mr. Larson was on, and the marketing team all felt that it would be a big hit among the player base to play certain monster types.

“I’ll take that bet, from my own experience, seeing him in-game will, hopefully, mitigate some of the bad blood between them. It may be a little while, though, since she’s new to gaming and still struggling to get the hang of things,” Trey said.

“Yeah, but what a way to learn, flying around as a fire-breathing dragon,” Lou added.

“It’s not all fire breathing and glory, the class is turning out to be a difficult one to level and I think Clio should have started her out on something a bit easier,” Trey said.

“Nah, it’ll be easy mode once she gets high enough level,” Lou offered.

“My concern is that she’ll get frustrated and quit before she gets a chance to see her brother,” Trey said. He wished he could just spend one more day with his dad, even if it was inside the game, he hoped that Mr. Larson’s sister wouldn’t make any harsh decisions that could jeopardize what might be her last opportunity to connect with her brother.

Chapter 19.

“Hurry up!” Sally shouted to herself as the countdown timer for her breath weapon ticked down. It took a while, and she knew it wouldn’t refresh before the fight was decided. The group of would-be dragon slayers seemed to understand the powerful ability was no longer a threat, and they pressed their advantage. Another arrow ripped through her wing and slammed into her shoulder as Sally slashed her claws at the two men with axes attacking her from the front. That one guy, the one that looked like a discount ninja, wasn’t anywhere in sight, which meant he was going to probably stab her in the back again.

Her health dropped into the red zone as the ninja guy appeared. When she tried to turn and bite him, the pair to her front charged in with their axes, chopping away the last of her health. She had done better this time, taking out two of the attackers before they wore her down. The respawn timer began, and it would be another hour before she could try again. Sally didn’t know if she even wanted to, never having been a gamer, she wasn’t doing too well in leveling up her dragon character and until she did, meeting up with her brother in-game wasn’t going to happen.

The first level had been relatively easy, requiring her to fend off some rats from the nest she was hatched at, and then finding a temporary nest to serve as her home base. Getting to level two was more difficult, it started with rats again, this time dire rats that were larger, and fighting them required her to learn how to use abilities for the first time. Thankfully, she only had one ability to worry about at first, Dual Slash. When she activated it, both her front claws lashed out to shred anyone in front of her. It did a number on the dire rats, but it had a one-minute cooldown timer and her attempts at regular attacks weren’t exactly pro-gamer level.

She had found a new respect for gamers, which was something she didn’t think she would ever admit out loud. How they could do this all day and not pull their hair out in frustration was beyond her. Once she had established her nest, a new quest appeared, driving her to search out an exit from the cave system she was trapped in. The spot where she had initially hatched was open to the outside, but it was now marked as a dangerous area, full of treasure hunters that were way beyond her low-level dragonling.

A useable exit was near the area she had just fought in, she could even feel a cool breeze as she neared it, but each time she explored further, a group of what the AI identified as dragon hunters showed up and killed her. They were between levels three and five, higher than her level two dragonling, and they mopped the floor with her. While looking for another exit, she kept running into rats, which eventually let her level up to three which unlocked a fire-breathing attack. That was fun, she was happy to say. Who didn’t want to breathe fire out at someone at some point in their life? It did a lot of damage and would usually take out bunches of rats, but the dragon hunters were ready for it, dodging the attack and causing her to miss more than she hit. With a long cooldown timer, the Fire Breath attack was only able to be used once in the fight.

Exit the Limitless Lands? Y/N.

Sally completed the logout procedure and exited the gaming pod that was shoehorned into her hotel room. It was late, but she wasn’t tired. Somehow, being inside the game was a restful experience for her body even if her mind was on edge from getting beaten on by dragon hunters. With time to kill, she left the hotel and plugged the hospital into the car’s auto-drive navigator. Letting the car drive itself, she sat back and thought about how strange her life had become in the last few weeks. The call from the hospital telling her that her brother had been in an accident was a shock and forced her to confront the feelings she had for her only sibling. They hadn’t been on speaking terms for decades, and she had hated him for the way he treated her late husband.

The hate and anger were still there, but there was something else. She felt a bit sorry for her brother. He had lived a lonely life, one filled with a constant drive to build his business larger, and one that had left him with very few true friends to mourn his loss if he did pass away. She wanted to see him not as a comatose victim inside a life support pod, no, she wanted to see him one more time to, well, that was the problem, she didn’t know what she would do once she saw him. Would she be able to forgive him? Would he even admit remorse for his action? Sally didn’t know, but she was driven to find out, unfortunately, the only way she would meet and talk with him was in that stupid game, which was far more challenging than she had thought it would be.

Hospitals were depressing and visiting the wing of the VA hospital that held the critical patients in their medpods was even worse. About the only bright spot was the people caring for her brother. The doctors and nurses were upbeat and friendly whenever she visited and didn’t hesitate to tell her the truth about her brother’s condition. His condition wasn’t good, he had extensive brain damage from the accident and without the medpod’s AI helping him and guiding his care, Craig Larson wouldn’t last more than a few minutes. She sat next to her brother’s medpod, looking at the husk of a man inside. Her thoughts were interrupted by the door to the room opening.

“Oh, hey, good to see you again. Going for a late visit with your brother? I mean, you can come here to visit anytime you want, the medpod patients don’t have any restrictions on visiting hours or anything,” the young volunteer asked. This particular intern, Lauren, always seemed to bring a smile to Sally’s face with her exuberant manner.

“I wasn’t tired yet, so I thought I’d spend some time here. Isn’t it a bit late for you to be here?” Sally asked. Lauren was young, and while she didn’t know her exact age, it was way too late for someone like her to be working, even as a volunteer.

“Yeah, I’m usually only here an hour or two after school, but my dad was here working late on something so they said I could help while I wait for him to bring me home. Did you ever decide on whether you wanted to play in the game world to see your brother? I know it’s rude to ask, but I was just curious and stuff,” Lauren said.

“Yes, I did decide to play, not that it's going too well at the moment,” Sally confided.

“What’s going on?” Lauren asked. Sally had to be careful, she was under a non-disclosure agreement about the new class she was testing out.

“Well, my character is stuck, a group of people keep killing me when I try to finish a quest,” Sally said.

“If you’re in a starting area, can’t you just group up? Sometimes you need a party to complete a difficult quest,” Lauren offered.

“No, the class I play is one I have to play on my own and I’m stuck at level three,” Sally said.

“Well, it is a starting area, so there should be some way to get out, maybe you’re trying to leave before you’ve leveled up enough, just grind some mobs and get up to level five, which is usually when people finish their starter zones,” Lauren told her.

“Grinding? Do you mean killing the rats that are all over the place?” Sally asked.

“Yeah, exactly, just keep killing them off until you hit five. Maybe explore a bit more, but avoid wherever it was you kept getting killed,” Lauren said before being pinged by her dad to let her know it was time to leave.

“Thanks for the advice, I’ll give it a try,” Sally said as Lauren left.

“Cool, if you level up, let me know. Once you get higher level, maybe we can adventure together,” Lauren offered as she left.

“Sounds fun,” Sally replied. The kid sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Maybe she was going about things the wrong way? She spent some time with her brother, but after an hour she was ready to leave and take another crack at leveling her dragon.

Her death timer had reset by the time Sally was back inside the gaming pod. Logging in, she found herself back at her nest. It wasn’t much of a nest, just a small ring of stones in a side cavern, but she supposed the game needed a place for her to return to when her dragon was killed. Following Lauren’s advice, she turned in the opposite direction when she met the passage that led to the exit. It led her deeper into the mountain, but at least it was away from those dragon hunters. She had never been good with directions, but in the game, she had no trouble remembering the complicated network of tunnels she had found herself in. Choosing one she hadn’t finished exploring, Sally soon began to run into more dire rats. At level three, the rats weren’t very difficult, and she easily bested the few that came across her path.

As she passed deeper into the cavern, the encounters became more frequent, and she made good progress toward level four. A loud screeching was heard further up the tunnel and Sally halted her approach as a system prompt appeared. The prompts still startled her when they appeared, but she had finally quit jumping every time one flashed in front of her. Maybe there was a way to make them less annoying? She’d have to fiddle with the game controls another time, now, she had a new quest.

Quest available, Stop the Vermin. Without your mother to clear them out, the dire rats inside the tunnels have been multiplying. Find and eliminate the rat queen to stop the overpopulation of vermin in the area.

Rewards: 1 starting item and 10 silver.

Do you accept the quest? Y/N.

Sally hit yes. She hated rats and if eliminating this queen helped keep their numbers down, she was all for it. Hopefully, the experience she gained from the quest would make up for no longer having as many rats to hunt down. The chance at a magic item was also a big plus, she hadn’t received anything as a reward yet in the game, and from what little she had heard about these types of games, players loved the interesting rewards they could find.

She crept down the tunnel, trying to be stealthy. While she wasn’t able to hide in plain sight like that ninja guy that kept killing her, she felt she did a pretty good job at it. Sally’s in-game body was only the size of a large dog, and other than the sound of her claws clicking on the stone floor of the tunnel, she didn’t make a sound. Her eyes functioned perfectly in the dark, but she could sense the faint light source in front of her, coming from where the path she was on ended at a small chamber.

A quick peek inside revealed a grotesque scene. A bloated rat that was the size of a cow lay on a pile of refuse and bones, screeching at several other rats that scurried to obey her commands. The system confirmed that this was the queen rat as Sally identified the various opponents in the room. This was going to be a tough fight, but at least it wasn’t a full party of adventurers that were all at a higher level than she was.

Rat Queen, level 4.

Dire Rat, level 2 (2).

Rat Spawn, level 0 (10).

She had fought the dire rats before, and they weren’t too bad, just charging forward to bite at her. The spawn were new, but being level zero, they couldn’t be all that challenging. The real problem would be the rat queen, Sally had no idea that it was or how it fought. Checking that both her Dual Slash and Breath Weapon abilities were ready to go, Sally made her move. The rats spotted her as soon as she entered the chamber, all but the queen swarming toward her while chittering their battle cries.

Sally didn’t have to be a gamer to see the opportunity in front of her, the little level zero rats, which were just oversized normal rats, clumped together as they attacked. The two dire rats were right on the heels of their smaller kin, lining up perfectly for her breath attack to hit the whole mob. She had wanted to save her breath weapon for the queen, but this was likely the best shot she’d have at this.

Activating her breath weapon was exciting for her every time. She would feel a tingle in the back of her throat before unleashing a roar that was followed by a five-foot-long column of flame. The fire rolled into the charging rats, crisping the spawn and leaving one of the dire rats smoldering on the ground. A level-up notification pinged, she had hit level four but didn’t have time to deal with it just yet as the other dire rat, only partially injured from the breath attack, charged in.

Sally dodged and swiped at the dire rat as it closed in. She wasn’t very good at dodging, but the rat had lost one eye to the flames and was slow to react. Her claw hit home, leaving bloody furrows down the side of the rat and shaving off most of its remaining health. With a squeal of pain, the rat countered with a quick bit that Sally couldn’t’ avoid. The damage was minimal, and her follow-up bite finished off her foe. While her bite attack was more powerful than her claws, she didn’t like the feeling of biting into someone, it was just a game, but it still grossed her out. A quick check on the other dire rat showed that it had expired from the burns she had inflicted upon it. Only the bloated queen remained, and the beast was already waddling its way toward Sally.

Normally, not very nimble, Sally felt like an acrobat compared to the bloated queen, easily dodging her attacks, while clawing and biting when she had an opening. Misjudging a dodge, Sally felt the queens’ sharp teeth dig into her hind leg. Her health dropped to 10% and a mobility debuff appeared. With nothing left to lose, Sally unleashed Dual Slash, both claws moved at lightning-fast speed, intercepting the next, and likely fatal, bite from the queen. Digging deep, into the rat queen’s face, her claws blinded the monster, leaving it lashing out blindly as it tried to find her. Sally waited for an opening and renewed her attack, her claws and bite taking down the final opponent.

Congratulations, you have defeated the Rat Queen and her minions. Experience has been awarded, search the debris in this chamber for your reward.

She had done it! Exhilaration filled Sally at her victory. Not nearly as dangerous as the dragon hunters, the rat queen, and her brood were the most difficult challenge that Sally had faced and emerged victorious. It had been close, but she had won, and to the victor go the spoils. The filthy refuse pile that the rat queen had wallowed around in wasn’t something she wanted to search through, but the game helped her by highlighting where her quest rewards could be found. First, she uncovered a large red dragon scale, that triggered a system prompt when she touched it.

You have found a part of your heritage, an ancient dragon scale from a long-deceased ancestor has been absorbed, improving the armor rating of your scales. Honor your ancestors to increase your power.

Sally could feel a tingle as the scale dissolved in her hand. The light red scales on her body darkened a shade and didn’t need the prompt to tell her they were now stronger; she could feel it. Digging further, she uncovered ten gleaming silver pieces under the skull of some unfortunate human. As she touched the coins, they disappeared, and in a moment of panic, Sally worried that she had done something wrong. The system came to her rescue once more, informing her of what had happened.

You have discovered your first treasure. If there’s one thing a dragon loves, it's their treasure. From this humble start, a great fortune may one day be amassed. As your hoard grows, it will unlock abilities and powers, as well as enable you to hire others to do your bidding. Be wary of offering up part of your fortune, however, many will covet it and seek to eliminate you to possess it for themselves. From now on, all gathered treasures will automatically be sent to your nest where your hoard will be located.

Current hoard ranking: Miniscule. A minuscule hoard does not confer bonuses. You may move your nest and your hoard no more than once per week and the size of your wealth determines the length of time you must wait before the ability to relocate is unlocked again. At each increase in hoard ranking, additional experience will be awarded.

Congratulations, you have reached level 5, unlock your character sheet to review your new options.

Note: Now that you have reached level five, you must leave the starting zone to gain any further experience. Once out of the starting zone, experience will accrue at the normal rate and not at the accelerated rates granted for newly created characters.

She had done it, reached level five, and had new powers and abilities to unlock, even better, she had grown! Sally’s body went from the size of a dog to that of a horse. Her teeth and claws were much more formidable, and now her breath weapon would unleash a cone of fire ten feet in length. Once she was done selecting her new skills and abilities from leveling, Sally was going to pay another visit to those dragon hunters, and she didn’t think they were going to like this new, more powerful version of herself.