Chapter One

Chapter One

Chloe strode through the streets on the fifth day of her visit to Killink View with the same sense of optimism that had fueled her during her first few days there.

Killink View was a beautiful city, exactly how Chloe would picture the noble cities she’d seen in films. Although the city sported the usual problems that came with a large population (homelessness, thievery, domestic conflicts), on the surface, the city was a sunny place with a fantastic view of Angel Falls.

Chloe had discovered their name on the first full day there, caught up in a conversation with a group of clerics she had met at one of the city’s many shrines. It had been the first act of the KieraSlayers—to find a place they could all synchronize their respawn points, and they happened to find a shrine to KieraFreya on the third tier of the stone city.

“Why, because a fall from the top of the falls would help you meet the angels,” a balding cleric had said with no hint of irony.

“No one can survive the rocks at the bottom,” another explained.

Chloe remembered it well, peering over the foaming edge of the falls and seeing the razor-sharp teeth sticking out below. From the city, the rocks were masked in mist, but she had looked into that mouth, and hadn’t liked what she had seen.

A burst of giggles made Chloe jump backward. She smiled as she watched the group of kids run past her, happily caught in the throes of some careless game.

“Getting broody?” Gideon asked with a grin on his face. “I’m not sure how pregnancy works in

Obsidian

, but I could always ask Ben and Tag to search the forums and see what they come back with.”

Chloe smiled back. “I see how it is. You finally get the chance to dive head-first into a game, and you let other people do your dirty work.”

Gideon’s grin turned into a smile so wide it looked like it hurt. Ever since he had come back with the news that a company called Digital Supernova had offered to sponsor his foray into

Obsidian

, allowing him to fully immerse himself in the game without the need to log off—ever—his whole demeanor had changed.

He had seemed happier and more confident. His smile hardly ever left his face. Not only that, but he had stuck by Chloe’s side constantly, providing her company while Ben, Tag, and Talbot had had to log off and go and deal with real-world matters.

The change made Chloe infinitely happy. She hadn’t considered it before, but when she was back in her old life, she had always paid for drinks, splashing cash to finance the meaningless drunken evenings of her friends.

That had felt good at the time, but waking in the morning made Chloe feel shallow and empty.

But now, playing the secret financier of the acquisition of Gideon’s dream job and seeing the effect it had had on him?

That

was something that felt good.

“And I think I’ll pass on the pregnancy thing,” Chloe continued as a series of women poked their heads out of their windows in the morning sun and began to beat their rugs with sticks. Thick plumes of dust clouded out into the streets. “I didn’t want a rugrat in my old life, and I certainly don’t want one now.”

They kept walking down the street, keeping their eyes and ears peeled. For the last few days, they had been searching high and low in Killink View, looking for the missing piece of armor that Chloe’s digital map indicated was somewhere in the city.

The problem was that the map only provided a bird’s eye view, and therefore didn’t give a specific location in terms of height. The few of the pieces of KieraFreya, the Goddess of Retribution’s, armor that Chloe now wore, had been deep underground, one of them even residing in the stomach of a colossal sandworm that had dug its way beneath the desert.

And if that wasn’t a big enough problem to face, Chloe was now alert to the fact that another player was out there looking for the armor, too. Not only that, but the person she had seen in her vision a few nights ago had already acquired several pieces.

What would that mean for them both, given that Chloe had already discovered that the armor was irremovable? Even when Chloe died in-game and

Obsidian

stripped her of half her items, the armor never left. It was like a perfect cover-up to avoid the bug that had allowed it so that people could respawn almost completely naked (as Chloe had discovered early in her

Obsidian

career).

Not that that was a worry anymore, thanks to the reassurances from Mia that in the latest game patch, the issue had been fixed. Apparently, there had been an outcry from the viewers of Chloe’s live feed, the comment box filling with messages from, presumably, teenage boys as some hardcore nerds found the patch notes and thus ended the game of Bingo Boobs that had been played since the beginning.

A game Chloe was certainly not going to miss.

“Ah, here we are,” Gideon said, making a left on a street and finally finding what they were looking for. “Looks just like the brochure, right?”

Chloe cocked her head, taking in the beautiful architecture of the front gates of the Mages’ Academy. The pillars were ornately carved, with a wrought iron gate that towered well above human height. Standing outside were a number of men and women in long robes of varying colors, some of the men sporting impressive beards that reached their bellies.

Chloe performed a quick

Creature Identification

scan, having learned from the encounter with the dwarves in the Heartwood that the skill also worked to identify humanoids and online players as well as NPC creatures.

The scan revealed NPCs primarily, with a few blessed among them. That had been one of the biggest changes she had seen as they explored the city. When Chloe, Tag, Ben, and Gideon had visited the tree city of Nauriel, the majority of the community had been NPCs, but here there was an abundance of players.

It seemed that Killink View, as arguably one of the biggest cities in Obsidian, was a great spawning place for new players who wished to hone their skills and come to grips with the game. Because of this, there were plenty of places to grind particular skills and earn money and items, and—the whole reason Chloe and Gideon were at the Mages’ Academy—to meet masters who could fast-track your skills and boost you to brand new ranks.

Once you’d chosen your class, of course.

“Just think, now that I don’t have to log out anymore, I’ll be able to boost my skills so fast, it’ll be like the ultimate advantage!”

“Keep your voice down.” Chloe giggled. “You know that full immersion is meant to be low-key, right? If any of these guys get a whiff of the fact that you’ve been sponsored and given a pod, what do you think they’ll do?”

Gideon shrugged, looking around suspiciously.

“Besides, isn’t it baked into your contract to promote secrecy?”

“I suppose. I’m just so

excited

!”

They walked into the academy, the gates swinging open as if pulled by invisible doormen. Inside was a wide-open courtyard filled with ornaments, fountains, and greenery.

“How did you manage it, anyway?” Chloe asked. “Convincing your mother?”

Gideon waved a hand. “Oh, that took no convincing at all. I told her I’d put the checks in her name to manage, and that I expected her to transfer a certain percentage of the cash to my account.”

“But I thought you were going to buy a house?”

“Oh, I am,” Gideon said. “But what would be the point of paying a mortgage for a house when I’ll be spending the next few years in a pod?” He tapped his brain. “Smart, right? I get to save cash

and

play the game. My mom is happy because she gets a boost,

and

, best of all, it pisses my brother off because, short of unplugging my pod while I’m inside, he can’t do anything about it!”

Chloe grinned. “It all seems to have worked out well for you, then?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

“Welcome, friends!”

Chloe and Gideon paused, having reached the end of the courtyard and passed through a set of large wooden doors. An old mage with a night-blue cloak sweeping his ankles held his arms wide in greeting.

“Hello?” Chloe said uncertainly.

“Welcome to the Mages’ Academy,” he told them. “The one place on earth where magic and reality come together in the great study of the ancient etheric. I can tell that you two are newcomers to our humble community, so please, won’t you allow me the honor of your names and classes?”

At that last bit, he looked Chloe up and down, his nose turning up at her strange attire. She had to admit she looked a mix-mash of fashion, her breastplate, bracers, greaves, and mask a stark contrast to the underclothing she had been given way back in Nauriel.

“My name is Gideon Fleetwood, and I am a…”

“Hold on,” the mage said, focusing intently on Gideon.

“Gideon Fleetwood...yes, yes. A mage...good, that’s very good. Level 10, too? A baby to the Mages’ ranks. Well, that’s not a problem. We’ll see what we can do with you.”

Gideon flushed.

“And you,” he said, focusing now on Chloe. He spent considerably more time training his eyes on Chloe’s body, to the point where she almost told him to keep his eyes up top. Eventually, he chewed his mouth as if getting rid of a bad taste. “Very well. A half-mage, right, Chloe?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chloe said.

Remember the description of your class choice?

KieraFreya said.

Battle mages are seen as lesser than their pure-choice counterparts.

The mage stuck his chin in the air. “Being one level ahead of your friend will gain you no advantage here, level 11. Know that the journey to magedom is one of study, grit, and determination. You will be tested to your limits, thrown against the walls and your brain torn into pieces if it is indeed the power to harness the etheric you wish to possess.”

“Well, to be honest, we were kind of hoping to just meet one of your masters and learn from them. Y’know, the quick way.” Chloe fluttered her eyelashes.

The mage scoffed. “That is not the way of the academy. We are an institution of old. A millennium of knowledge is preserved in our library. Thousands of years of discovery and power are channeled within our masters. The etheric is a tough mistress to handle correctly, and only those willing to study can truly master it.”

The mage waved them inside the building. “A series of tests have been devised to determine your ability level and determine your rank from within. If you wish the masters to teach, you must first prove that you are willing to learn.”

Gideon gazed in awe, clearly stunned by the mage’s words.

“Yeah, so, how do we go about getting in?”

The mage snapped back, his demeanor relaxing rather quickly. “Oh, easy. Just show me a spell.”

Gideon and Chloe looked at each other and grinned. She nodded for Gideon to go first, and, true to her guess, a second later, his hands pulsed with blue electricity.

The mage nodded curtly, impressed. “Not bad for a level 10.” He turned to Chloe. “And you?”

Chloe, still slightly annoyed by the mage’s look of distaste, chose to use this moment to show her true abilities. In one hand she formed a purple fireball as large as she could manage, while at the same time harnessing her power in the other hand to create an ice shard the size of a sabretooth’s fang.

The ice met the heat of the fireball, dripping water onto Chloe’s feet as she channeled her power and kept the ice shard in place.

She raised her eyebrows at the mage, whose face was impassive.

Deciding to improvise, Chloe then brought her hands together, and the fireball engulfed the ice shard. The two magics combined in a strange pulse of purple before the ball began to shrink, the ice shard growing in size, now showing purple flames in its center.

Chloe stared at the spell in wonder, unable to understand how fire could be in the middle of ice.

“Impressive…” the mage mused, stroking his beard.

That is, until the ice shard began to suddenly shake. Chloe tried to reduce the magic, but the shard remained in place, shaking faster and faster until a white light burst from the center and a gush of water exploded on them all.

The water soaked her hair and dripped into her mask. Gideon’s robes were soaked.

The mage wiped a hand down his face, removing the shimmering water from his eyes. “But much to learn,” he said, returning to his icy demeanor. He turned and disappeared into the building. Chloe and Gideon waited uncertainly until he returned with a towel and another mage. This one was at least two feet taller and twice as wide, and his robes were a deep blood-red.

“Sillick, these two wish to learn the ways of the academy.”

Sillick grunted as he examined them.

Gideon looked at Chloe for help. They had only wanted to see if they could find a master and fast-track their skills. They hadn’t intended to spend the entire day in the damn place.

“Uh, actually, could we just have a moment to—”

“Come,” Sillick said without emotion, turning and disappearing inside.

Chloe and Gideon shrugged, eyes lingering on the door mage as they passed. As they followed Sillick, they heard him mutter. “So many newbies. Where the hell are they all coming from?”