Stasis Shock
Brett P. S.
Copyright © 2015 Brett P. S.
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Logging On
Chapter 2 – Summer Faire
Chapter 3 – Search Results
Chapter 4 – Two Worlds
Chapter 5 – Stasis Shock
Chapter 1
Logging On
Ethan Cook. Age 23. Stasis Gamer, level 64. Ethan ran across a dense forest basin, and his shoes drove scars into the mud and leaves while he made his way to the meetup. Time inside his world worked differently than on the outside, often jumping and falling with each hour, though overall, ten hours inside was roughly equivalent to thirty minutes outside. Ethan spent days at a time in that sense, traveling through his personal world, and he loved it even more when his friends accompanied him, which they sometimes did for hours.
His legs plowed through the mud at peak human speed, and Ethan kept exhaustion toggled off in his settings. Sometimes he enjoyed a little more realism, but he had a lot of ground to cover today, and it would only get in his way. Ethan sped out past the last few trees, planting his feet onto a cobblestone road that ran along the forest edge. The sky, his only real means of keeping time, showed about mid-day, so he played for about three hours by now … give or take thirty minutes.
He glanced down the road and saw some humanoids approaching. They could be allies, but Ethan prepped his spells in case. His fingers charged to maximum burn, ready to release his epic fire blast, tier three. He worked hard getting that one to rank up.
“Hey, Ethan!” one of them shouted.
Ethan dropped his guard and snuffed out the flames on his hands. It was Merrick and a couple of his friends who came to join him in the escapades. Merrick ran up in a flash and shook Ethan’s hand. His two friends were new gamers, or at least new to stasis. Ethan bought a license to construct a level scanner in game, and neither of them rated higher than level five.
“Some place you got here,” Merrick said.
“You haven’t seen the dungeons yet,” Ethan said. “The graphics in those are even more awesome.”
Merrick was a longtime friend of Ethan’s and a fellow stasis junkie. Ethan dragged him into the gaming experience, and Merrick never looked back. Merrick boasted a level 60 character account, though his preferences differed somewhat from Ethan’s style of world. Merrick liked superheroes, so his world consisted of tight, form fitting costumes and capes. Ethan visited his friend’s world a number of times, saving the city from goons and costumed super villains.
The challenge level satisfied him, though he sought a more classical experience in the form of a traditional fantasy world. This road connected both the elven kingdom and the goblins to the south. On the way south, Ethan planned to show his friend a special dungeon he found while exploring the cave system.
“Come on, this way!” Ethan said, running ahead.
He looked back once or twice to make sure the three of them followed. Ethan needed to watch them carefully. Not only were they unfamiliar with the layout, but there were some things Merrick couldn’t do in a fantasy world that he found more comfortable in a super hero setting. Flying was definitely not on the menu, but neither were most of the punches.
Merrick carried a short sword by his waist with the masterwork designation, though otherwise an ordinary short sword. With his current character, Merrick was level 21, so the diversity made normal adventuring tricky. Ethan brought up his interface and set the level cap to ten. That way, he could enjoy the experience and the monsters wouldn’t one shot his allies.
A few more miles down the road, Ethan stopped at a cavern entrance, a hole burrowed deep beneath the earth he found a few days back. Real world time, not game time. He took a moment to check his inventory and took out a few torches from his bag, handing one to Merrick and each of his guests.
“It’s going to be dark,” Ethan said. “Watch out for spiders and goblin dregs.”
Merrick grabbed the torch with one hand and drew his weapon with the other. He swung the blade around a few times to get a feel for the weight and kept at it until he seemed satisfied. Merrick lowered his weapon and peered into the cave.
“You set fatigue off?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Merrick said. “But don’t you have warps?”
“Not until level 65.”
“That’s weird. I get those at 50.”
Smug jerk. Why did he need a warp item when he could fly? Super hero worlds grew obscenely more popular in recent years, partly because of the physics, but also because they got access to more mods and expansions at lower levels. That’s okay though, because Ethan was skilled enough with his sword to beat down a foe twice his level, and that wasn’t something easily done in a super hero world.
He shot a few sparks of flame from his fingertips to light their torches and proceeded to lead the party through the cavernous depths. Ethan kept his eyes alert for signs of movement. Hidden traps and creatures lurked everywhere, especially within the shadows, or so he believed.
A few dozen meters inside, Ethan’s ears perked up at the sound of something scurrying. He stopped and held up his hand, motioning for silence while he listened more closely. Upon inspection, he noted more than the sound of one tiny animal scuttling about. The noises bounced around and echoed through the depths of the cave, so Ethan grabbed his torch and threw it forward.
“That’s … a lot of ‘em,” Merrick said, his eyes wide open.
“Weapons ready!” Ethan shouted. “They’re coming!”
A slew of spiders swarmed on top of them, crawling on both the walls beside and above. Their legs scurried like prickly thorns, and their fangs dripped a green liquid. One bite from them would slow an ordinary warrior down, and then Ethan remembered his level cap. Darn it! He owned a host of support skills, and he forgot to re-equip them! Merrick and his friends probably weren’t much better off, considering.
Ethan charged his hands with coursing red flames and fired a second tier firestorm to thin their numbers before the little things gained too much ground. He drew his sword and began hacking away with the others. His blade cleaved head from thorax on the little bodies, but the spiders grew too numerous and a swarm crawled past them, blocking the exit. Ethan knew one alternative.
“Don’t let them bite me,” he said. “It’ll interrupt my casting.”
They said a person couldn’t solo as a mage in his world, but he proved them wrong. A level 64 character, and it was because he put a tremendous amount of points into this one spell. The cool-down was 24 hours in stasis, but the fires seared demons. Merrick and his friends formed a triangle around Ethan and continued hacking away at the spiders until their swords grew dull from the wear and the steel became drenched in green ooze.
Ethan extended his arms and let loose an eruption of flame that blasted deep inside the cave system and roasted any living thing within 100 meters of there they stood. He dusted the ashes from clothes and gave a nod to Merrick, apparently impressed with his powers. Few super heroes compared to that level of ability.
“Impressive,” Merrick said.
Merrick poked a crisp spider with his short sword, and the creature disintegrated into a pile of ash. He gestured for Ethan to lead on, but his hand stopped for a moment, and he held up a finger, signaling Ethan to wait a moment.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan said.
> “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t realize it was time for lunch already.”
“Come on. Food can wait,” Ethan said. “Besides, I bet there’s a spider queen!”
“Next time, for sure,” Merrick said, patting him on the shoulder.
Merrick logged off, and the other two followed soon after, disappearing from Ethan’s world. It was too bad, really, but real life brought obligations. That was the problem with him. He juggled college, stasis and nothing else. Ethan heaved a sigh, brought up his interface, and pressed the button to log off as well.
Ethan watched his world vanish as the material sucked into the dark black of his closed eyes. He came to, sitting at his desk with the neural interface hooked up to his forehead. After a few seconds, he could move his limbs and his torso, though some of the finer motor functions came after a couple more minutes. Stasis was the revolutionary way to have fun in a world where people didn’t have super powers or magic. It was awesome, and it felt real … until he logged off. Afterwards, it felt like waking up from a dream.