Modern Age Online

Kaleb ignored the banging hammers and the smell of his new forge. Instead, he focused on the pain in the ass pickaxe that had haunted him since he got it. The runes on the thing’s shaft and pick glowed red and shifted under his watchful eye. But they wouldn’t coalesce into any kind of sense. They were just nonsense words mixed with some flecks of magic. He rubbed his eyes in aggravation as he stretched his neck and back.

Behind him, Marie and Terrance were directing several Hunters and Brute clan members around his workshop. The clans had sent many of their young warriors back up with Kaleb’s group. They were to provide security and transfer weapons back and forth to Under-Town. Kaleb didn’t mind the help, but the withering looks the lizards sent his way were annoying. Especially as the big aliens loudly trounced their way through his Workshop.

Roy and Daivor were across the shop, at the second work table, putting together something. Kaleb hadn’t asked what the pair were working on and they had both surprisingly kept mum about it. Daivor had started out helping Kaleb decipher the pick’s runes. But the little Gnome was as unfamiliar with them as Kaleb was. Jar-lock’s library had been no help either. The mage said that books on Demonology were highly restricted and carefully monitored. Which Kaleb found increasingly maddening. Apparently, if he wanted access to the Wizard College’s library, he had to enroll in the damn school or be escorted onto the campus by a Wizard..

Unfortunately, Vivienne wasn’t logged in yet. So instead Kaleb tried to figure the runes out himself. Once the animal-loving wizard was in the game, he planned to beg her to get him in. But until then, he was stuck in his expanded workshop, listening to the Brute clan and the Hunters argue over weaponry. He was a few seconds from kicking everyone out when he heard Jar-lock’s voice echo through his open door. But the tumult of his workshop drowned the mage out.

“EVERYONE SHUT UP!” Kaleb yelled as he responded to Jar. “What?!”

“I said Viv is going to log in soon!” Jar-lock yelled back.

Kaleb smiled and grabbed the pickaxe. Along the way, he gave nods to Roy and Daivor, telling them they were in charge. A few tried to knock into his shoulder as he moved past, but he ignored them. For now, they were a minor nuisance. But he knew eventually they would need to have words. Especially if his workshop was going to turn out weapons for them.

Kaleb slid to a stop outside the area marked as Jar-lock’s library. Waist-high shelves and desks littered the space. Each piled high with whatever books, tomes, or scrolls Jar-lock and Vivienne could gather. They had a pretty decent, if odd, collection of spells. Everything ranging from attack and defense spells to scrolls about pixie feeding habits. Kaleb had dove through the library with gusto, trying to find anything on demonology. But he came up empty-handed.

He spotted Jar-lock inside the marked-off area, returning to his seat. “When?”

Jar-lock snorted. “I don’t know, dude. Just give her a minute. You remember Pod procedures, right? I know you haven’t logged out in a while. But you have to remember how long the diagnostic check is.”

Kaleb spun the pickaxe in his hands. “Yeah, I get that. But I want to get to the college campus as soon as possible.”

“You know they might not even let you in, right?”

“I just want to check out their demonology section. What’s the big issue?”

Jar-lock sat in his big maroon armchair and gave Kaleb a deadpan look. “What’s the issue with meddling with literal demonic forces?”

Kaleb shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, there are gateways to other planes, right? So no one has opened a portal to Demon-Land or something?”

“It’s been done twice.” Jar-lock intoned sagely. “Both times, things did not go well. Surprisingly, things went equally bad when they opened a gate to a supposed Heaven.”

“Do what now?” Kaleb jolted in surprise.

“Yeah. It’s a long story, but apparently, after the demonic portal was open, people started looking for the opposite door. Which led to a whole heap of trouble.”

Jar-lock had picked up a book and was idly turning its pages. Kaleb could see the mage’s eyebrows quirk ever so slightly. He sighed.

“You will not explain until I ask, right?”

“A captive audience is one that is actively taking part.”

Kaleb raised the pickaxe like he was going to throw it. But he shook his head and silently went back to waiting. While the idea of an in-game Heaven was fascinating, it wasn’t nearly as juicy as solving his Rune problem.

The clanging of a metal door opening drew Kaleb around in time to see Vivienne walking out of the basement. She held a hand to her mouth as she yawned loudly while scanning the air hangar. Her eyes glazed past Kaleb and into their open-air library to where Jar-lock was sitting. She smiled happily and wandered over.

“Evening Vivienne, can I have a moment?” Kaleb quickly asked. Behind him, he heard Jar-lock leave his chair.

Vivienne gave him a kind smile. “Yes, Professor. I’ll take you. Jar already explained. But I have to warn you, if you take your new toy, the wizards are going to throw a fit.”

Kaleb glanced down at the pickaxe in his hands. Its dark metal and red runes seemed to call to him. He wanted to leave it, but he’d be able to reference the runes better if he took it. As Kaleb wrestled with the decision, Jar-lock and Vivienne embraced quickly.

Groaning at his competing thoughts, Kaleb finally said. “I’ll take it. I want to study it on site and if I can find an expert, that’s even better.”

“Okay,” Vivienne answered. “But be prepared. Some Wizards are down-right mercenary about this stuff.”

“I’ll be fine. You coming Jar-lock?”

“Yeah, I love sticking it to those scholarly types. They’re like a bunch of stuffy college professors that can fling fireballs.” The big mage grinned.

The three of them informed everyone else they were leaving, hopped into an available car, and took off. The drive into the city was a short one, but once they were in downtown, the streets grew packed. Villains and Supers were out and doing their thing. NPC and Player Villains were robbing people and stores while Supers were trying to stop them. Kaleb was more surprised that the city seemed to still be operating smoothly.

The big super fights crashed into the streets and into buildings. But the NPC population just sort of moved around it. It was like they were so used to the mayhem that it no longer affected them. Instead, they instinctively got out of the way. If they couldn’t, then they quickly sheltered in place and called their loved ones or bosses.

“Man, people can get used to anything, huh?” Kaleb wondered as Jar-lock drove.

“They aren’t people, remember? Just highly sophisticated programs designed to act like people.”

Vivienne snorted from the passenger seat. “You keep saying that, Jar. But you’ve seen and spoken to Roy. That boy is a stereotypical teenager through and through. As real as any other person in here.”

“He is highly advanced. I grant you. But there are little things here and there that give it away.”

“Well, keep them to yourself. One of the worst things a person can do is point out someone else’s personality ticks.” Kaleb groaned.

Vivienne spun in her seat. “But that’s the thing! The AI knows enough to give the people in here personality ticks! Isn’t it amazing?”

“SOME of them have ticks.” Jar-lock butted in. “Have you spoken to a standard NPC on the street? There’s a few seconds where the AI is generating the NPC’s backstory from scratch. In that time you can see the standard, glassy-eyed, monosyllabic NPC. It’s creepy.”

“You just want to peek behind the curtain and see the game’s guts.” Vivienne waved him off. “I am more than happy to believe in the world's fiction. Especially when it is so realistic.”

“The lie is beautiful, but I just think we have to remember it’s a lie.”

Vivienne stuck her tongue out at Jar-lock and looked away from him. Kaleb ignored their byplay as he fingered the runes on the pickaxe. A part of him was worried that the thing was playing with his mind. But he would know such interference, right? If not him, then one of his magical friends. Kaleb comforted himself with the thought that if he was afraid of being mind-controlled, he probably wasn’t being mind-controlled. A complicit subject was better than a tense and worried one, right?

He was about to voice his concerns to Jar-lock and Viv when they turned into a large parking lot. The grey asphalt lot seemed to stretch on forever in front of a large, almost shimmering, brick building. People of all sorts of species and colors walked across the lot to and from the big campus. Kaleb slowly realized that even with the aliens he had seen, he still had only glimpsed a fraction of the game’s total menagerie.

Students of all ages carried books and bags toward the horseshoe shaped building that stretched into the sky. Captivated, Kaleb missed Jar-lock, finding a parking space and exiting the car. Only when Vivienne shouted his name did Kaleb jolt to reality.

“Yeah, this place will do that to you. It has some kind of charm on the brickwork that exudes an aura of majesty.”

“The pompous asses just want people to be enthralled with them.” Jar-lock snorted.

Vivienne opened her mouth to say something, but seemed to think about it. Nodding and shrugging her shoulders, she interlocked her arm with Jar-lock’s and they headed to the building. Kaleb gripped the black pickaxe tightly and hurried after them. The parking lot was packed with every variant of vehicle Kaleb knew about and the people were crowding the spaces between.

But between Kaleb and Jar-lock’s bulky figures, they cut a path to the front gate. Kaleb was reminded of an amusement park as he spotted several rotating gates. Some had waist-high security turnstiles in front that students would scan their IDs on and enter. Other people were being questioned by large golems of stone and metal. But Vivienne was leading their small group toward a brick shack at the edge of the campus.

Through the glass window on the side of the building, Kaleb could see a portly guard in a blue uniform. The younger guard looked bored, but perked up as they approached. He straightened his uniform and set a scowl on his face. Vivienne practically skipped up to the window as she drug Jar-lock along.

“One student and two guests, please.”

“Guests, huh? You know our Magical Academy takes non-student guests very seriously, right? There are a lot of magical items behind these magical walls. We can’t have any unknowns waltzing the halls.”

Kaleb heard Jar-lock snort, but Vivienne slapped his broad shoulder and smiled at the guard. “We are aware, but these two were wondering about this wondrous institution. So I thought I’d show them around.”

The guard nodded. “Ahhh! Prospective students! In that case, Imma need to check them with the orb. You know that magical taint has been on the rise lately. So we can’t be too careful.”

Vivienne nodded along as the guard produced a fist-sized blue orb from below his desk. A small slot opened in the window and the guard waved at them.

“Please stick your hand through and touch the orb.”

“What does this do?” Jar-lock asked as he followed orders.

“It just checks your magical pathways for any signs of degradation or tampering. We’ve had a few magical sicknesses recently, y’know.”

“I didn’t know that,” Jar-lock said, placing his large hand on the small orb.

The ball glowed brighter for a few seconds before it returned to its standard hue. The guard nodded and wrote something down. Waving Jar-lock off, he turned to Kaleb and froze. Used to this sort of thing, Kaleb simply nodded and got ready to put his hand through the window’s opening. But the guard held up a hand and pointed down at the pickaxe.

“Will you be declaring what that is?”

Kaleb flexed the fingers on his metal arm. “Yeah, that’s a research project I want to look into while I am here. It’s a pickaxe I found while doing some freelance work.”

“It’ll need to be scanned.”

The guard waved his hand, and a tray slid out of the brick wall beside Vivienne. Kaleb nodded and sat the pickaxe down on the slim tray. That done, he stuck his hand through the window and onto the orb. The guard fussed about a bit with papers and things while the orb glowed blue for a few seconds and then stopped.

“Okay, you’re clear. But I should warn you, your magical talent is very weak. Almost like you haven’t been using it. This school only takes the best. So you might…”

BREE BREE BREE

A large red warning light appeared on the wall and all hell broke loose. Kaleb’s arm was caught in the window and the guard pulled a wand like an old gunslinger pulling a pistol. The wand glowed with an orange light as a spell was prepared. Vivienne and Jar-lock started shouting and Kaleb could see more wizards and mages running their way from the school.

Kaleb sighed and put his head against the glass window. Maybe he should’ve mentioned the demonic nature of the pickaxe?