The Savant Lands_The Lost Class Read online

  The Forgotten Class

  By: Lucas Dunn

  The Forgotten Class

  Copyright © 2017 by Lucas Dunn

  All Rights Reserved

  Prologue

  Vivid Corporations was in a frenzy. Jack could tell the moment he walked into his nine to five job as a computer programmer that it was going to be one of those days where he would be working late to keep up with his team leads insane requests. He went through his normal routine of getting his coffee and booting up his computer when his friend and co-worker Andrew came to him looking flustered. What is it this time, I asked wondering if our team was to be put on support rotation this week. “What do you mean, have you not heard?” Andrew said. “Apparently not” I retorted. “Care to tell me why the office is in such an urgent state” I said sarcastically thinking it was going to be some over exaggerated bullcrap.

  “Our CEO was found dead in his office capsule”. It took me a couple seconds to realize what he said before I could respond. “What? How?”. I knew that the capsules given to rich were said to be top of the line. Unlike the normal mass of people who bought capsules for “Virtual reality” gaming. It was said that the more expensive capsules were used by the one percent to conduct virtual meetings and could even affect the mind to compress time on a 2:1 ratio, meaning if two hours passed in the capsule then only one hour would have passed in the real world.

  “The investigative team doesn’t know why, apparently his assistant went in to organize his itinerary and his capsule was smoking. They are calling it a freak accident with no foul play suspected”. Chad looked at me with a slightly concerned look for a couple seconds and then spoke. “The game released a minute after his death according to the capsule’s vitals data”

  “The Savant Lands was released!” I said in a slightly raised voice. “How did it even happen?” The Savant Lands wasn’t supposed to be released for another month after a few fixes were supposed to made with the main two AI’s that had apparently gone a little buggy.

  “No one knows” Andrew said in a tone dripping with conspiracy. “There are no logs in our servers that show any evidence of someone making it public. The press is going crazy thinking this is some big publicity stunt”.

  I sat down in my office chair “ughhhhh. Well I guess I was right about it being one of those days.” Chad just looked at me with a cheesy smile and an eyebrow raised.

  Chapter 1

  I was just walking into my tiny apartment when I got a text. Knowing it had to be Jake, because he was the only one that texted me, I could infer it was probably him seeing if I could game with him tonight because that’s all he did. I’d joked with him before that his life has come down to three processes; food, work and a virtual reality(VR) gaming capsule. He quickly retorted that mine wasn’t too different consisting of only; food, work and fantasy books. It was true so I didn’t really push him past that because I knew he could give as good as he got.

  After sitting down on my couch I pulled out my phone to look at his message. “Vivid Corporations. The Savant Lands. Download it and we can meet in game”. Hmm, well I was right about him wanting to play a game but I wasn’t sure about what the game was. I knew Vivid Corporations released a game a couple days ago that got a lot of publicity and Jake had been talking about this game for a while saying how cool it was supposed to be. “AI, show me results from the web on Vivid Corporations: The Savant Lands”. I watched as my apartments artificial intelligence bot filtered out results on my hologram tv. The words “Become Your True Self” were shown on the screen along with a picture of a muscled king in polished silver armor riding a stunningly white armored unicorn. The king held a sword above his head while a massive army stood at attention in the background holding flags with unicorn heads perfectly etched on white canvas. Some soldiers held impossibly big weapons while others held fireballs twice as big as my head and much more. There were dozens of other races with armies that were all converging on a single figure in the middle of the field dressed in matte black armor with lightning spreading from his hands and a dark grey cloud above his head.

  I stared at all of this slightly stunned because of how real it looked. After studying the picture, I looked down to read the description the company had written. “Pursue who you truly are in The Savant Lands. Become the mightiest king, become a wealthy merchant, or even a powerful mage. Play for the light or darkness, good or bad, because who’s to say the light is always pure and the dark is always malevolent. This world has what you need to become who you truly are, be warned as it is not an easy path. Filled with villains, vengeful gods, and creatures that will test your sanity. Are you prepared for your journey? Features: First ever open world gaming, Advanced artificial intelligence, Unique experience for every player, First ever 100% immersion!

  Reading all of this I could feel my heartbeat quicken. This is exactly what I had been waiting for. The reason I had read so many books on this topic. This is exactly the escape I needed from my regular boring grey life of work. Sure, I had played games like this in VR, but they were always a predictable NPC’s that had a predetermined dialogue and events that couldn’t be changed by the player. The immersion in the past was rated at 80% but for this game to claim 100% immersion was insane! This was my chance to live in a world that I had imagined and read about for practically my whole life. I had a huge repertoire of knowledge about these kinds of fantasy worlds and this was going to be a game that played to who I really was.

  Chapter 2

  I opened the lid to my capsule which was shaped like a metal cylinder with a soft mat in the middle. I laid down and attached the vital monitors. After pulling the electrolytic stimulus helmet over my head I heard the lid of the capsule shut and the latch lock with a click. A blackness filled my vision and emptiness filled my senses until I told the AI of my intention. Suddenly, the picture from the net filled my vision with a box asking “Begin your journey into The Savant Lands?” As soon as I said “Yes” blackness filled my senses again. I waited, nothing. After about a minute I noticed a bright white light floating towards me getting bigger and bigger until it stopped in front of me, its size was that of a basketball. As I stared at it, it emanated a soft feminine voice. “Welcome to The Savant Lands Lucian, do you wish to begin your character and location selection?”. As I said “Yes”, I wondered what location Jake started in. I thought about stopping really quick to ask him but realized that I didn’t really want to decide my gameplay on him. A character customization screen came up with the categories Name, Race, Aesthetics, and Location. Starting with name I decided to keep it the same, Lucian, and luckily enough it hadn’t been taken yet. Probably due to the fact the game was just released. When race came up I had quite a few options. Human, Elf, Dwarven, Merfolk and Ogre were the main races, but there were many sub races such as goblin, Reptilian, Kobold, and plenty more. Each race had a dark version, such as Dwarves had Dark Dwarves which were inherently dark. I decided to stick with the main races for now and decide which I liked the most or had the biggest advantages.

  Human: Five points to distribute per level. All stats start at three. Able to learn all classes of magic. Humans don’t start with proficiency. Starts with neutral disposition from most races. Most cities and biggest populace in game.

  Elf: Five points to distribute per level. Starts off with dexterity and stamina at five instead of one. Affinity in nature magic. Archers get 5% proficiency bonus. Starts off with hatred disposition from Ogres but neutral for most others.

  Dwarven: Five points to distribute each level. Starts off with Strength and Vitality at five instead of one. Affinity in earth magic. Blacksmiths get 5% proficiency bonus. Starts off with neutral disposition from most races.


  Merfolk: Five Points to distribute per level. Starts off with dexterity ten instead of one. Affinity in water magic. Merchants get 5% trade Proficiency. Starts off with neutral disposition from most races.

  Ogre: Five points to distribute per level. Starts off with strength ten instead of one. Warriors get 5% proficiency bonus. Starts off with hatred disposition from Elves and dislike from most other races.

  After reading through the Classes I had a decision to make. The bonuses each of the classes gave was something to seriously consider because the higher level I got, the harder it’d be to level up certain attributes. On the other hand, Humans who might not have any proficiencies starting off, it didn’t say that they can’t get them. After thinking it over I ended up rationalizing that a Human would be the best choice for me. I knew I wanted to play a character that was capable of magic and the other races would most likely come with a deficiency in their opposite element. I also wanted to be able to customize my character from the beginning and starting off as an elf or dwarf would give me useless stat points that I most likely wouldn’t use as a caster. Looking over the races one more time I initiated my choice.

  After confirming my race, my reflection popped up in front of me. I looked like the exact same 5’11 me with Dark black hair and green eyes, except my body had lost a couple pounds and it looked like I had a little muscle definition. I played with the interface and tried to increase my muscle tone just a bit but I couldn’t change anything about me except for my color of hair, eyes, and height. A little disappointed I decided to keep my original look and moved on to Location.

  When I got to Location I saw three options. The Split Isles capital, The Mainland capital (The Shinning City), and a strange one that said “You must prove your worth”. Obviously interested in the mysterious third option I did what most my people would have done in my position and chose it.

  Chapter 3

  For the third time that day my senses were filled with darkness. As soon as it happened I realized that this wasn’t the normal void but I had ground underneath me and I could feel my body. Hoping I was in complete darkness and not blind, I cursed and started feeling around. After about five minutes I came to realize I was in a ten-foot by ten-foot room with completely smooth walls and no doors. Not knowing what I was supposed to do I decided to sit in the middle and wait. After a while a light appeared above my head and a black obsidian knife formed in my hand. I heard the happy gurgle of a baby and looked down at my feet noticing a newborn laying innocently in a blanket. As I was bending down to pick him up I dropped the knife and reached for him. Before I could touch him I felt a shiver up my spine and there was an undeniably insidious presence bearing down on me. It made me feel fear so deep I wanted to run on an instinctual level. My first thought was to grab the knife and protect the baby but I was paralyzed and couldn’t move. I felt a slimy wet presence creep its way through my mind and speak in a sinister voice. “Take the knife and kill the infant.” It purred in a hissing voice. “Do it and you will be given gifts, money, and weapons to start. Anything you could possibly want”. As soon I heard it speak I felt revulsion, and when I realized what it was saying I wanted to vomit. I know it is a game but all I could feel is disgusted by this sick test. I didn’t care what it wanted to do or what it’d give me. I decided the moment it spoke I would never do what it’d say. As I was about to tell the creature to screw off and kill me, the scene shifted. I was at the edge of a cliff with a 12-year-old girl hanging from the edge screaming and what appeared to be her mother also hanging from the cliff. Both of them locked eyes with me and pleaded for me to pull them up. I started to move when I heard a neutral toneless voice. “You can only choose one.” Thinking that the younger child had more life to live I rushed to the child and lifted her up as her mother screamed and pleaded with me to choose her. I looked over to see her falling and for just a second our eyes locked and I saw pure terror as she fell to her death. The scene changed once again to blackness. A distortion of my senses happened and I was looking at my whole life, but if felt like something was rifling through my mind picking and choosing moments before the scene shifted yet again.

  The only way I could explain this was like floating in the cosmos. There were stars and planets that slowly passed by. I started thinking about all that just happened and how screwed up it was when I heard a voice. It didn’t sound sinister nor did I feel overwhelming, it just felt like a middle aged man with wry smile talking. “Congratulations Lucian, you are the first from your world to be accepted. That is no small feat”. Wait, hold up a second, accepted to what I thought? Was that just some test? What happens if I don’t want to be accepted, and who the hell was this guy? Before I could ask my questions the voice responded, “You have been accepted to the third starting location known currently as The Black Fort. About what you just went through it was in fact a test. That test is designed to let only a select type of people in and you met the qualifications, but that is not what we here to talk about. I have only a few minutes to explain should you choose to accept. First of all, you can think of me as your patron, or in other words, I am here to help you but in every way plan on benefiting from you in the future. I have a quest for you that involves bringing back an old religion that was the grandest this world has ever seen.” He paused for a second giving me time to think as a million more questions rushed through my mind. I wasn’t really the pious type and how did I know this religion or whatever it was wasn’t some crazy devil worshipping cult that required sacrifices and other weird shit. I knew from the books I had read that in these types of situations whenever there was something being offered, then there was something that was three times worse being hidden. Speaking again before I asked the voice responded. “The religion you seek is no petty cult nor does it require any devout piousness. What you will be seeking to recover I cannot tell you, only lead you down its path. As for what I am offering, that I can speak of. I offer boons and advice, but you are right when you question what is hidden. Should you choose to accept this path and succeed you will never be allowed in The Shining city, you will also be hunted relentlessly by the servants of light and it will be a lonely path with few glimpses of the other cities and people until you become stronger and gain a sizeable force. Ultimately it is your choice to make. Will you accept?”

  Almost before he could finish the sentence I said “Yes” and was instantly transported.

  Chapter 4

  I thought to myself that I probably sounded hasty, but I quickly retracted the thought. Everything the voice described was the start of an epic journey. I have read way too many books to realize when you are given a task by some random voice in the cosmos then you take it. Even if it meant being pursued by people I had no clue about. Hell even if it was going to be a lonely journey, I could care less because that’s pretty much how my whole life had been so far. I quickly took stock of my situation by scanning my environment. I was in what appeared to be the dining room of a house that was in total disrepair. The wooden floors were rotting along with the wall and there was the slight smell of mold. I walked around the house noting there were only three rooms. A kitchen that led to the dining room which in led to a quaint bedroom which was also in total disrepair. Noting that I wasn’t in danger exactly but also not 100% sure what to do, I decided to try and see my stat window that came with most games. I thought of settings and a small menu popped up in front of me. “Stats”, “Log off”, “Call”, “Friends”, “Map”, and “View”. Mentally choosing stats my stat screen popped up showing some surprises.

  Name

  Lucian

  Race

  Human/???

  Class

  None

  Level

  1(Percent towards next level: 0%)

  Fame

  0 (No one cares)

  Disposition from Races

  Neutral(From most)/ Hatred from followers of light

  Health

  60

  Mana

  90


  Intelligence (1 point = 30 towards mana)

  3

  Constitution (1 point = 20 towards health)

  3

  Wisdom (1 point = +1 mana per second)

  3

  Strength

  3

  Stamina

  3

  Dexterity

  3

  Luck

  3

  Abilities

  Dark Sight: See with 100% proficiency in darkness. (Non-Passive)

  Dark Shroud: Unable to be heard or detected by the followers of light by divine or mundane magic. (Passive)

  Skills

  None

  Quests

  Search and restore lost religion.

  Spells

  None

  The base stats came as no surprise, but my Dark Shroud ability and the question marks next to my race were. I guess my “Patron” had decided to give me some boons early on. I could definitely see these as being useful. I switched to view and saw the option to turn off my player tag that appeared above my head to other players and NPC’s. There were multiple options for the view but I ended up turning it all off not wanting others to know anything that could be used against me. After reviewing my stats, I closed the window and decided to take a look outside. As I walked out the door a message popped up on my screen.

  Congratulations! You have discovered fort ???? or currently known as The Black Fort (+100 fame). Optional quest: Find original name of fort (Reward +50 fame).

  Interested I accepted the quest while slightly happy I was already gaining points in at least one area. Taking a look at my surroundings I could definitely tell I was in a town… a deserted and broken down town. This was going to be a problem. All the buildings around me were in a state of disrepair like mine and all I had on were beige cloth rags that barely resembled clothes. I started to feel a sense of panic but quickly settled it with my next thoughts. I knew what I was doing. I felt like some part of me wanted to be here in this situation ready for any challenge that presented itself. I needed to get started if I was going to survive for more than a day. There was a small castle not too far away to the east situated against a small range of steep mountains. Looking north there was another Mountain range in the distance with snow white tips. I was definitely close to the north of the continent. Without seeing anything else that stood out I decided to head toward the fort’s castle. It was turning midday so I put a slight jog into my step hoping to make it there in at least 15 minutes. but after only 10 minutes of jogging a yellow bar in the corner of my vision started to flash a dangerous red. It felt as if I was about to pass out so I switched back into a walk for 5 minutes and continued this, watching what I assumed my stamina bar was. When I reached this point I realized I would have to raise my stamina as soon as I could if I wanted to get around the territory. Also It appeared as if it would take me twice as long as I originally thought to get around. When I finally reached the draw bridge to the fort I realized it was in perfect shape. No signs of age marred the wood and it looked pristine almost as if the wood had just been oiled along with the chain links holding it up. The Fort was built against clearly un-scalable mountains. I turned around looking at the town spread evenly out below the Fort and realized why I ran out of stamina so much. I was going up an incline the entire way. I looked out past the town seeing the mountains to the north again along with a wide open plain in front of the town and Dense woods to the south. Noting my position in case I got hold of a map, I stepped on the bridge and into the courtyard.