Dark omega shadow puppet.., p.1
Dark Omega: Shadow Puppets, page 1
Eric Vanderburg
Dark Omega:
Shadow Puppets
The Gravimancer Chronicles, Book 2
Copyright © 2022 by Eric Vanderburg and Summer Sage Books.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, email the publisher, subject line “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the following email address: coordinator@summersagebooks.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
To my son, Jacob. Thank you for taking this creative journey with me. I loved seeing your reaction to these adventures as they unfolded. I will always cherish your smiles and laughter.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1 – We Built This City
Chapter 2 – Striking Out
Chapter 3 - Emancipation
Chapter 4 - Consolidation
Chapter 5 – Say Hello to my Little Friend
Chapter 6 – Lopsided Duel
Chapter 7 – A Dog is a Fairy’s Best Friend
Chapter 8 – Celebratory Mood
Chapter 9 – The Pitch
Chapter 10 – The Tree Told Me To
Chapter 11 – The Ant Whisperer
Chapter 12 – Fresh Air
Chapter 13 – Go Big or Go Gnome
Chapter 14 – All You Can Eat
Chapter 15 – Bunker Surprise
Chapter 16 – Something Old, Something New
Chapter 17 – Divide and Conquer
Chapter 18 – This Old Airship
Chapter 19 – Catching An Inbound Flight
Chapter 19 – Churning Out Turbines
Patch Management
Chapter 20 – Into the Fey
Chapter 21 – A Date With a Spider
Chapter 22 – Gluttinous Negotiations
Chapter 23 – Capital Improvements
Chapter 24 – I Run This Joint
Chapter 25 – Everything You Know is Wrong!
Chapter 26 - Dedication
Chapter 27 – Spider Realty
Chapter 28 – Companion or Indentured Servant
Chapter 29 – Water Attraction
Chapter 30 – Immortal Clash
Chapter 31 – Wherefore Art Thou
Chapter 32 – Aww, Heck
Chapter 34 – Captured Attention
Chapter 35 – Counter Offer
Chapter 36 – A Show of Force
Chapter 37 - Evangelism
Prologue
“What have you learned?”
A man in a white lab coat looked over his notes as he carefully considered his reply. The boss wanted facts and only statements backed by evidence. He paused and then spoke evenly into the computer. “Nothing conclusive yet. I took brain scans and sent those over to medical for review. They reported no issues. Same with toxicology. I then had an AI review the subject’s entire history in the game. There were some traumatic encounters, but all within tolerances.”
“Dig deeper. I want identifiable markers so the AI can screen individuals for signs of PSTD and tailor the experience so this doesn’t happen again.”
“Understood.”
“Where is the subject?”
“He’s doped up in his room. He won’t be harming anyone. He is monitored and guarded 24/7.”
“Keep me updated.”
“Of course.” The call terminated.
Ganesh poured more coffee. It may be late afternoon in New York, but it was past midnight in India. Another late night.
Chapter 1 – Update
Wayne stretched his cramping muscles. So much time spent in Dark Omega resulted in him getting little exercise. Still, he didn’t feel out of shape. His last trip medbed checkup said he was in perfect health, but his nanite count kept increasing.
Everyone had nanites. You couldn’t interact with the world without them. His, however, had been increasing ever since he started playing Dark Omega, the biggest virtual reality game on the market. No gear was required to play the game. It interfaced directly with his nanites, providing sensory input directly to the brain and interpreting his responses.
He wasn’t the only one noticing the increased nanite count. Others had reported it, but Insurgency Studios, the makers of the game, stated that it was normal and required for such deep emersion. They said there was nothing to worry about and cited numerous medical studies to back their claims up.
He mentally brought up his dashboard, reviewing his calendar details. Five minutes until his meeting, the first of his monthly chats with Insurgency Studios. It was part of the package deal he signed with them, granting him a stipend for these check-ins and use of his image and videos in marketing materials.
Craig Harris, Senior Director of Development and Design, Wayne said aloud, reviewing the information of his company contact. He wolfed down a protein shake and four granola bars, then entered the metaverse.
Wayne’s avatar sported deck shoes, jeans, and a red t-shirt displaying a 20-sided die and the caption, “I roll 20’s.” He made a mental note to change it. The outfit was great for role playing, but out of place for meetings.
He stood in his virtual space, a small room full of bean bag chairs. Game posters decorated the walls. Wayne didn’t spend much time here, so decorating was a low priority. He glanced at the room with a shrug, before contacting Craig, who picked up on the second ring.
“Hey, Wayne, or would you prefer Carn?” Craig said holding his hand out.
Carn was Wayne’s name in Dark Omega. He’d been using the alias ever since grade school. It was short for carnivore. Immature trolls like to razz him, saying it was short for carnation. He didn’t care. He liked the name. He’d been using it for so long, he couldn’t see choosing any other.
“Wayne is fine outside of the game. It’s nice to meet you, Craig,” Wayne said, shaking the extended hand.
“Come join me in my space,” Craig said, sending Wayne an invite.
Wayne accepted and was transported to an office with four eggshell chairs, shag carpeting, and a wall full of miniatures. He recognized some of them from Dark Omega.
“Have a seat and tell me about your experience in game?”
“What do you want to know?” Wayne asked, hesitantly, spying a fairy model that looked suspiciously like Carn.
“Walk me through some of the highlights. I’ve read the system report, but I like hearing it first-hand.”
Wayne leaned back in his chair, folding his hands in thought. “Alright. Where to begin… My character creation was goofed up due to a prank my friends played on me. Instead of starting as a Minotaur with my friends, my creation screen timed out and everything was randomized. I ended up in Nortvale, surrounded by goblins who were exterminating the local fairy population. Of course, I started as a fairy.”
“That must’ve been quite a surprise. How did you handle it?”
Wayne sighed. “Not well, actually. I was in shock at first, but events propelled me onward. The mental companion provided to me helped explain things, but it was still confusing. I called him Sparky.”
“I escaped a goblin attack shortly after arriving. Then I ran into a fairy named Orvin, but he was killed by goblins. From him, I received a home tree seed. This seed creates the tree that fairies are born from. With that was a quest to plant it. I knew I couldn’t plant it where I was or the goblins would destroy it. It needed to be protected.”
“I received two other big quests; one to remove cleanse the forest of corruption and another to defeat the shadow avatar, an emissary of a powerful cosmic force. I’m still working on the first one, but we did manage to take down the avatar.”
“We?”
“Oh, yeah. I ran into a few other players and we formed a team. There’s Gilvester, a hobgoblin tank, Lina, an elven ice sorceress or cryomancer, and Sevelle, an elven scout and assassin.”
“I see. How did you meet up with them?”
“I ran into Gilvester in a gnoll warren. We almost killed each other when we first met, before we found out we both were players. Lina and Sevelle transported to the island to help me, but then got captured by the goblins. Gilvester and I rescued them before their souls were harvested in an evil ritual.”
Craig held his hand up. “Hold on. Back up and tell me about your encounters in more detail.”
It took almost an hour to go through the details. Wayne talked about his alliance with a colony of huge red ants, his flying ant mount, Orca, Marissa, the fungus dryad, and the Gnostic Gnomes, a sheltered group of intellectuals and creative thinkers who fled to Nortvale to protect their knowledge and seek out new discoveries in peace.
Craig asked many clarifying questions and made many queries regarding his emotional state during different events that Wayne answered honestly.
As their time wound up, Carn finished his tale. “After planting the home tree, it fed on the mana lake and grew huge. Its roots now touch on the ley lines that carry magical ether and intersect across the planet. I became its keeper. I then took the throne in Grovehaven, establishing The Fey Consortium country and guild. Five goblin cities immediately declared war on me.”
“So, what’s next?”
“Grow the city and guild. Defend against whatever force the goblins send. I don’t know. There’s a lot to figure out.”
Craig stood. “Keep up the good work, Wayne. I love seeing these storylines unfold and I’m eager to see what you do next.”
“Thanks, Craig. So, is that all for our interview?”
“Yes. Fairly painless, right?”
“Yeah. It was nice talking with you.”
“Great. I’ll see you next month.”
“Next month then.”
Chapter 2 – We Built This City
I linked the messaging system to my tether. Do you want to give it a try?
Sure. Go ahead and log out, and I’ll send you a message.
Wayne logged out and watched his dashboard. Sure enough, a message came through.
[This is Sparky. Did you get the message?]
Wayne used his interface to compose a reply.
[Yes. I got it.]
Wayne logged back in.
I want to see if we can get real-time voice chat going. I’ll see if I can connect us via voice later tonight. It would be really convenient to talk both in and outside of the game like we do in-game.
That would be great. I hope you can find something.
It shouldn’t be that hard. There are all kinds of tools and plugins for the tether that I should be able to download. Is it time for the meeting?
You still have time, but feel free to log back in. It’s boring sitting alone in a conference room.
Two days had passed since the fight with the avatar and Carn was frustrated at how slow things were moving. He logged back in and opened his status. He might as well review his open quests and city options while he waited.
Quest: Cleanse the forest
An evil force is corrupting the forest. Its creatures are growing in strength and turning feral. Stop whatever the goblins are doing before the land becomes inhospitable for the fairies.
Difficulty: Extremely Hard
Success Condition: Remove the corruption from the forest.
Fail Condition: Corruption consumes the entire island. Corruption is currently at 85%.
Reward: 5 character levels
He had received this quest not long after starting the game. The task seemed daunting then and it still was. However, the reward was also amazing. As he continued to level up, those five character levels increased in value, for each new level was harder to obtain. Carn moved on to the next quest.
Chain Quest: Building an Empire (1)
You have established the Fey Consortium, but there is much that goes into building a nation and empire.
Difficulty: Moderate
Success Condition: Raise the population of your city to 500 people.
Fail Condition: None
Reward: +2 levels to the administration skill, +200 fame
This was a chain quest, meaning that it was part of a series of quests. He looked at the city options. Grovehaven was classified as a large city (downgraded to settlement). He focused on the downgraded status and saw a message, “This large city has been downgraded to a settlement because it no longer meets the following large city requirements: Administration building level 8, population 500,000, fully functional buildings 20,000, city administration skill level 100. A table below this showed the criteria for each settlement level, and it was astounding.
Settlement Level
Name
Administration Building Level
Population
Buildings
Administration Skill Level
1
Settlement
1
5
2
0
2
Hamlet
2
250
50
5
3
Village
3
500
150
10
4
Commonwealth
4
1,000
300
20
5
Town
5
5,500
1,000
30
6
Small City
6
50,000
3,000
50
7
Medium City
7
100,000
10,000
75
8
Large City
8
500,000
20,000
100
9
Metropolis
9
1,000,000
50,000
200
Quest: Restore the City
Omnicia, now Grovehaven, was formerly a large city, but it has been downgraded to a settlement. Repair the buildings and attract residents to your city to raise it back to its former level. You will receive an award for each level you progress and the final reward when you reach large city status.
Difficulty: Hard
Success Condition: Raise the level of Grovehaven to Large City.
Fail Condition: Grovehaven is destroyed or taken over by another faction.
Rewards: Character level will increase by the settlement level each time it increases. The city will receive resources depending on the city level achieved. The resources include 250n tons of sand, wood, and stone, 100n tons of sand and iron, 50n random mana crystals, 10n silver bars and 5n gold bars, where n is the city level.
He pulled up a map of the city and saw a host of structures spread out through the valley. They were all in various shades of red or orange. The red buildings were not functional, and the orange buildings were partially functional, offering between 10-50% of their bonus or resource. The palace was orange. He opened the palace on the map and saw it was operating at 30%. He focused on a wrench icon and saw the repair costs.
Palace Repair Costs
Stone
100 tons
Lumber
2,500 planks
Iron
2,000 ingots
Sand
100 tons
Glass
400 panes
Mana crystal – Small
100
Mana crystal – Medium
125
Mana crystal - Large
50
That seemed like a lot, but this was a very large building. He noticed in the menu that the palace had several upgrades listed. Diplomacy wing, intelligence wing, military wing, finance wing, agriculture wing, treasury, and justice wing. There was only one wing missing, and that was an adventurer wing.
Carn moved back to the city map and found a place where he could toggle on repair costs for the buildings. Icons and numbers appeared over each of the buildings. Stone was represented by a small block of grey, iron by a black bar, gold by a gold rectangle, silver by a silver rectangle, wood by a brown rectangle, and glass by a semi-transparent square.
The total repair costs were astounding.
Stone
420,680 tons
Lumber
7,549,220 planks
Brick
4,327,200 bricks
Iron
2,047,900 ingots
Glass
112,250 panes
Mana crystal – Small
2,076
Mana crystal - Medium
1,433
Mana crystal - Large
840
It was going to take an army to gather that many supplies and process them into workable pieces. If this was what it took to repair a city that already looked to be in fairly good shape, he wondered what it took to build a new one.
Carn toggled over to the building screen and scrolled through a list of buildings that he could construct. There were so many useful buildings, but they had to start at the beginning.
Carn next looked at overall production and consumption. There were only about one hundred citizens so far, so food consumption was minimal. However, Carn would need to have operating farms or send people out to hunt and gather. Given the current corruption, hunting and gathering were out, so their population would be limited to those they could support from city resources only. That included fishing in the river, orchards, and farming.
