Dawn of the Realms (The Realms of Mordred Book 1) Read online

  Dawn of the Realms

  Book 1 of the Realms of Mordred

  By Steele Mimbs

  Dawn of the Realms is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 2017 by Steele Mimbs

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  About the Author

  1

  I finally realized it wasn’t just a dream when the giant rat bit into my arm.

  I can’t recall feeling pain in a dream before. At least for me, I always seem to wake up in the moment before anything really bad happens - right before the monsters grabs me, or right before I hit the ground. This time, that wasn’t the case.

  The fangs bit through the leather armor with ease, and weren’t even slowed by my flesh. It only stopped when it hit the bone, scraping it as the creature squeezed its jaws. After a short eternity, the jaws loosened, and the creature pulled back. It jumped away, trying to avoid a counterattack that was never coming. All that pursued the creature was a spurt of blood from the fresh wound, and my screams.

  And then a moment later, at the top of my vision, a red message flickered. 17 damage

  I’m not really sure what it says about me, that I could dream I was playing a game for three nights before I realized anything was happening.

  Ok, I know exactly what it says and it’s not good. In my defense, I wasn’t always so absorbed in the games I played that they could bleed into my sleep and seem totally natural. I also wasn’t alone in my current obsession.

  Dawn of the Realms had been released six weeks ago, and the excitement was still at a fever pitch. With a simultaneous release across seven continents - the developers had sent a copy to some research team in Antarctica just so they could use that little tidbit - Dawn of the Realms was the biggest launch of all time. Within a week the subscriber count has reached over seventy million, and the number had grown by leaps and bounds ever since.

  Once you played it, it was easy to see why. It was a technological marvel. The graphics, the animation engine, the...

  Sorry, I guess I got a bit distracted there. I had just been bitten, right?

  So, a giant rat was trying to kill me. Guess I should explain how I got there.

  I’d spent the previous two nights dreaming I was in the game, except it was the game as it could only have existed in my dreams. I hadn’t gone out to fight, I hadn’t sought any quests. Instead I had spent the entire time simply marveling at the incredible sights, sounds, and smells that surrounded me. I was in Isperra, the hub city for the Shard I was on. In my dream, I wasn’t just playing a game, I was exploring Isperra as it might actually exist, like the models and textures in the game world had been based on this real, physical place that revealed the game as a pale imitation.

  The Isperra as it was then - the Isperra as I first knew it - was a cathedral city, a massive monument to the god of the forge Tsaiven. Stained glass windows, blood red bricks, and black steel as far as the eye could see, with intricate moving parks to break up the gothic-industrial landscape. Everywhere I went, I could hear the grinding of gears and the calls of the many birds that called it home, all while the smells of grease and and flowers fought for nasal control.

  I had quite happily spent those previous two nights just exploring its districts, including locations that were normally nothing more than flat textures representing the limits of the time and resources of the developers. In the dream, there were no doors that you couldn’t open, no buildings that were nothing more than empty models. In my dream, each and every door actually lead somewhere, with unique NPCs that were able to joke and talk and laugh with me. I performed these actions through the unique mechanic of just walking up to doors and opening them with my hands, and then opening my mouth and saying words they responded to.

  It was actually one of the NPCs that led to the giant rat.

  I had been wandering around an area that was otherwise out of bounds, a residential district near the eastern edge of the city. Normally a gate blocked it, but in my dream I had just pushed it open, and then shut it behind me. Once inside, I chose a door at random and walked in. No knocking, no other announcement, I’d just barged right on in.

  I’m pretty sure the family inside panicked for a few minutes, but I spent that time exploring the house. Once I came back into the living room, where the father was standing protectively in front of his wife and daughter, I just asked them how they were doing. Not because I particularly cared, but because I was just curious what they’d say. After ten minutes of increasingly relaxed conversation, the daughter shared with me a problem she’d been having.

  “I’ve been having troubles lately, collecting apples in the forest beyond the northern districts,” the young lady confided in me. She had introduced herself as Chara, and I spent the first half of the conversation staring at her. The way the cloth was draped across her body, the way her body moved naturally as a person would. Even, when I noticed, the way she blushed at my attention. I couldn’t help but to feel embarrassed that she’d noticed my gaze, even if she’d misinterpreted it. Which was stupid. Whether this was a dream or a game, either way she wasn’t real. Either my mind had thrown her together out of random data, or a developer at the game studio would have built her to hand out quests and dialogue. I had nothing to be embarrassed about.

  Still, I leaped towards what I saw as an exit to the awkwardness of the situation. “I could help.”

  I didn’t actually wait to hear what the problem was, and then she was already leaping up to hug me in gratitude. The pressure, the textures, everything told my body this was real. Which just made me more impressed at the work my mind was doing on this dream.

  I left their home, barely noting the father’s crossed arms and furrowed brow. Before I knew it, I was exiting the city through the northern gate, heading to the forest with only the vaguest idea of what the problem even was.

  I know this all sounds bad when I lay it out like this, but I was still convinced I was dreaming. I wasn’t thinking clearly or critically about anything I experienced. Then I happened to wander into the midst of a group of giant rats in an orchard. Then I had been bitten and experienced the sharpest and most severe pain of my life.

  The sudden excruciating pain did quite a lot to clear away the miasma of sleep, and it was like I’d downed a couple gallons of coffee all at once.

  In an instant, I went from amiably strolling through a landscape, carefree and happy, to hyperventilating and nauseous. The sights and sounds around me were thrown into sharp relief, and everything was immediate and overwhelming. A breeze was blowing through the orchard, and I would have shivered from the cool autumn air if I wasn’t already shaking in fear. The reds and yellows and oranges of the leaves overhead were dizzying in their variety, as my panicked eyes drank in their hues. They contrasted nicely with the filthy blac
k fur of the rats, whose stench of disease combined with the sweet smell of ripe apples nearly made me puke.

  Suddenly the world was full of too much sensation, and everything began to spin around me as my vision dimmed.

  If it hadn't been for the threat of imminent pain from the rats in front of me, I probably would have proceeded to have a panic attack and pass out. Instead I grasped for my short sword and drew it, the blade’s tip tracing complex patterns in the air as it shook in my hands. I was too upset to really do anything else other than just thrust it forward. I expected to miss wildly, maybe even dropping the weapon. What actually happened, to my further surprise, was that I performed a steady strike with the blade, firmly pushing it into the rat’s spine. There was only a moment’s resistance, when the tip met the flesh, before I had skewered the rat. It squealed in pain, its own volume neatly eclipsing my own, and then fell over.

  Critical strike! 119 damage! Giant Rat slain, +6 XP!

  The text was only visible for a few moments before it faded away, even as the other two giant rats charged. With my blade out, and my heart pounding, a few more quick swings saw the problem put away.

  Afterwards I stood there heaving, chest rising as I drew in sharp breaths, trying to regain my composure. I hadn’t quite managed to do so before there was a slight ding, and fresh text entered my vision.

  Quest complete: Clearing of the Jarul Woods! +50 XP!

  Congratulations! You have reached level 4!

  I stumbled, wildly turning, looking for further threats. The sharp stench of the slain rats made me gag all over again, and my arm was still throbbing. In that instant, all I wanted was to be out. Then once more my arm moved, with only the barest of impulse from my mind. It reached out like it was the most natural thing in the world, and performed a sliding gesture in the open air. A glowing menu burst into existence, sparks corralling themselves into lines and words and symbols. At the bottom the word Logout seemed to draw my hand forward, and just as quickly I had pressed the confirmation.

  There was no in between, no delay. One moment I was pressing that confirmation, and the next I blinked the sleep from my eyes, heart still racing. I lay there for several minutes, getting my breathing back under control, and fighting the urge to scream. Eventually, when I no longer felt like I would simply drop it with all the shaking, I reached over and picked up my phone.

  The time was 4:27 AM, about three hours before my alarm was set to go off.

  I didn’t go back to sleep that night.

  2

  I was born Laurence Simmons, and it’s still sometimes strange to me exactly how strange it is to consider that. I’ve been known as Greir of the Silver Throne so long now that sometimes I forget it wasn’t always my name, that I was once someone else. Of course, in those days my username was still just Greir. My allegiance to the Silver Throne was still some time to come. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I do that a lot.

  I was Laurence Simmons, sophomore at the local community college, where I was studying Computer Science. A logical enough decision, one I more or less just found myself sliding into after an unremarkable high school career. If you’d asked any of my friends about me, they’d have had little enough to say. I just didn’t seem to make an impression. Average height, average build, plain brown hair and brown eyes. I joked around with them, and they were glad enough to have me around I think, but I wasn’t central to the group. I had simply found myself spending time with them, just like I found myself studying in the community college, just like I’d found every other thing in my life. They just kinda happened.

  Ok, that’s not completely true. There was a few more steps in that story, but we’ll get to that later.

  It’s weird. Thinking back on it now, to the very beginning... Thinking about everything that was to come, and everything I’ve experienced. There’s plenty of bad there. I’ve been through hard times, the same as so many others in the Realms, and I’ve seen so many things I’d have been happier not even knowing about. And, for that matter, things aren’t over yet, not by a long shot.

  Still.

  For all that, I can’t regret it.

  The Realms, whatever they are, have been something amazing to me. I know for every wonderful and beautiful thing they’ve brought me, they’ve provided equal terror and horror, not just to me. I know, personally, the terrors that can be found within them. Still though, I can’t regret them, even now. The coming of the Realms was the moment I began to change and become the man I am today. I no longer just flowed through life, accepting the path of least resistance. I no longer just accepted the empty fate before me. I began to make decisions, to take charge of my destiny.

  And the first decision I made was to try to ignore what had happened.

  Ok, yeah, I didn’t exactly change overnight.

  That night I lay in bed trying to convince myself it had just been a dream. I tossed and turned, trying to believe that if I just got comfy enough I’d be able to fall back asleep, and forget the entire thing had ever happened. I also rubbed my arm a good deal. The pain wasn’t there, where I had been bitten, but the memory of pain lingered. A few hours later, when I finally got out of bed, I would find there was a bruise, vivid purple, on my arm where the bite had happened. I was entirely unsuccessful in convincing myself I had bruised it from all the rubbing.

  I showered, brushed my teeth, did all the usual morning things. I got dressed, ate, and eventually grabbed my notebooks and headed to my car. My parents were still on their anniversary trip, so the house was quiet the whole time. I had briefly turned on the TV over breakfast, but the top news story was about Dawn of the Realms and I turned it off moments later.

  I honestly cannot tell you what my first class was about that day. It was a database class, so presumably something database-y, but I wouldn’t know the specifics. I spent the whole class trying and failing to concentrate, hoping to take my mind off things.

  I still had two more classes that day, one of which I was fairly certain was supposed to have a test. Since starting college, I’d never missed a class. I still wasn’t sure if Computer Science was really what I wanted to do with my life, but I had unexpectedly found I did enjoy it, and until I found something else, I’d been trying to take it seriously.

  Also, Ted was making his way to me. I knew I should speak to him, then grab an early lunch while waiting for my next class, and all in all act like the quasi-adult I actually was. Instead of, just for an example, fleeing the campus that moment, speeding across town at just this side of “get thrown into jail immediately if caught”, and jumping on my computer.

  I should have done that, but I did not. I did the other thing. One frantic car drive later, I was sitting in front of my computer at home, with the game open as fast as my computer could load it. A few mouse clicks later, and I was logged in. My character was there, staring vaguely ahead.

  His hair was a light brown, edging to blond, with pale blue eyes. He was tall and moderately athletic, and at the moment he was equipped with thick brown leather armor, trimmed in metal, along with a dark green tabard. I found my eyes drawn to his arm, staring at it. For a moment, I thought I saw a bloodstain, but upon further inspection I couldn’t see anything different about the arm at all.

  I shook my head, and a moment later I had the status screen for my character pulled up.

  Character Status:

  Name: Greir

  Level: 4 ( 3002 xp)CLS: SwordsmanSCLS: Invoker

  HP: 360MP: 143DEF: 6

  Strength: 12Agility: 8

  Fortitude: 10Intelligence: 7

  Aura: 9Charisma: 5

  Luck: 15

  Skills:

  Talents:

  You have 5 unspent stat points.

  You have 3 unspent skill points.

  You have 1 unspent talent point.

  At this point I had exactly two choices before me. I could try to lie to myself some more. I could tell myself I’d actually leveled up last night before I went to sleep, that hackers ha
d been playing my character, or that I had sleepwalked to my computer and played the game and only imagined I was in it as some sort of sleepwalking mumbo jumbo.

  Or, and see if you can follow my logic here, I could accept that something immensely cool was happening and hell yeah I’m somehow able to enter a video game in my sleep!

  I chose the latter.

  The next step was as obvious as it was difficult - try to get to sleep and see if I could enter the game again.

  Remember how hard it was as a kid to fall asleep on Christmas Eve? How hard it was to will yourself to sleep when you’re so completely excited?

  Yeah, turns out it’s just as hard as an adult. Well, adult-ish. Also? The fact I’d only been awake for like five hours probably had something to do with it as well. Inconvenient physical reality was stopping me from re-entering the strange magical land it seemed I could enter instead.

  Like some kind of repeat of what happened only a few hours before, I tossed. I turned. I tried taping a sheet over my window to block out the light. I tried to will myself sleepy, some bizarre mirror of many a late night session trying to ignore my growing tiredness. I briefly considered sleeping pills before deciding that could be a really bad idea, and besides, if I was actually crazy or something - a possibility that, once it occurred to me, was surprisingly hard to ignore - I probably shouldn’t be playing with pills.

  So I ended up just playing the game for twelve straight hours until I was exhausted enough I could finally pass out.

  Alright, I know that sounds a little bad. In my defense, I wasn’t really wasting those hours, but instead using them to establish things before I fell asleep.

  First, I tried to retrace my steps from the last dream. This was difficult, as despite my certainty that the dream was not a dream, it was still very dream-like within my recollection. The entire memory was hazy, vague, just - and I realize I’m stressing this point a bit - like a dream.

  Well, I spent easily two hours doing that, at least half of which was a waste. An hour finding where I had gotten the quest, and another hour convincing myself I had gotten the correct place the first time. The location seemed to match my memories of the district I had been exploring, with the only problem being that I couldn’t get to it at all now.