Origin ARS 4 (20 page)

“Dammit man, I believe! I believe.” cried the captain while he covered his ears. It was like they had walked into a warzone and had survived an artillery barrage.

Scott put out the flames with another freeze spell then turned back to the captain. “So, suitably impressed?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure what I’m going to tell the colonel, but this is definitely impressive.” said the captain.

A moment of silence ensued afterward. Neither man knew what to say, if anything.

One of them had to try and decide just what he was willing to do for his home country, despite the fact that he had things that he considered to be of greater importance. America would be fine without him. ARS and its people might not survive if he was not able to finish things in their favor.

The other man had to try and comprehend the sheer impossibility of the blue-haired sorcerer standing nearby. How does one explain that sort of thing to his superiors?

The silence was broken by the sound of a cell phone ring tone. Scott pulled the phone from his pocket and glanced at the number that flashed on-screen. “Who’s this?” He did not recognize the number.

“You actually get reception out here? I can barely get one bar most of the time.” said the captain.

That tidbit of information piqued Scott’s interest so he opted to answer his phone. “Hello, you’ve reached the offices of the sexiest man on Earth. How may I direct your call?”

A familiar laugh erupted through the phone and Scott smiled. “Hey, Aria.”

“You goofball! How did you know it was me?” she asked with another laugh.

“Why would I need to know it was you to tell the truth?” asked Scott lightly.

She giggled sweetly, but her mirth was interrupted by a sudden loud noise reminiscent of a car crash. Scott exclaimed, “Hey, you alright?”

“Hmm? Oh, sure. Someone just got into an accident though. Some people should really learn to drive better.” she said, before the sound of squealing tires erupted in the air.

“Right… Some people should do that.” said Scott slowly. He could only hope the poor bastards had insurance and did not get hurt.

“Anyway, how is the meeting going? Was he suitably impressed?” asked Aria.

Scott turned to the captain. “Are you suitably impressed?”

“Uh, yeah.” replied the man.

“He’s suitably impressed.” said Scott.

“Good! Put me on speaker. I just talked to my father.” she said.

Scott dutifully complied, and Aria’s beautiful voice came through loud and clear. “Greetings captain.”

“Hello…” said the captain hesitantly. He was not certain what was going on here, and had not been certain for quite some time.

“Hi! My name is Aria, I’m currently capable of offering your government a special deal, but I’ll need to speak with someone who can authorize acceptance of it.” she said.

“What sort of deal?” asked Captain Johnson.

“Scott mentioned a desire to have more support on his quest to save the people of ARS. My father agrees that it should be permissible with a few caveats.”

“Are you saying that you would bring more people over there?”

“Not too many, and there are restrictions. Honestly, we don’t have to do this at all. Scott could literally leave your world altogether. Barring that he could leave for a time and train until he was so strong that even your nuclear weapons would not cause him any problems.” said Aria in a friendly manner.

“I could survive a nuclear explosion?” asked Scott with an intrigued expression.

“Not at the moment, but with the right passives, and a high enough level you’d pretty much be an infinitely respawning walking nuclear war. Anyone from ARS could do that.” said Aria. 

Captain Johnson grunted loudly. That did not sound pleasant. “That’s- We can’t have that here. No one would survive it.” He did not even try to argue against the possibility. It was stated so casually, and he had seen so much today, that he honestly did not want to risk offending this Aria person.

“Yes, my father knows that and he finds the possibility to be improper. There would be obvious restrictions.”

“Such as?” asked Scott. He was curious about that.

“Well, the general deal is that a few soldiers can be taken over but any who are going to return here cannot go beyond a certain level. Any others will have to stay there on ARS permanently.”

“What do you mean, a certain level?” asked the captain.

“There is a trial period for my people who want to create a character on ARS. It allows them to reach level ten among other things. Some of your people could use that function. Those who are allowed to leave the trial period would be hand-selected by Scott as a team. If they accepted the continuing mission, they would have to stay on ARS permanently as their power would not be stripped if they returned to Earth.”

Captain Johnson certainly saw the merits of that deal. Though, finding people who wanted to permanently move to a new world would be more difficult. “Why would you even offer this?”

“I love the world that my family created, and those who live upon it. If Scott thinks a few more soldiers willing to fight to protect it will help, I’m all for it.” said Aria.

“I’ll make a few phone calls.” said the captain.

Scott grinned at the man. That would be an interesting series of conversations to say the least. “It’ll take a while before any of this could be set up anyway. We have a few things to do on ARS before we can entertain new recruits.”

“Right, you did say something about a… server change?” asked the captain, uncertain of the proper context.

“Yes, it would be pointless to bring any of the noobs to the casual server since we won’t be there long.” said Scott.

“Though, it might not be a bad idea to let them do so as part of the trial period.” said Aria.

“What do you mean?” asked Scott.

“Well, the casual server is easier to adjust to, it’s why I brought you there first. If the noobs go there first, and you spend a little time with them maybe call it basic training. They can reach level ten quickly and the ones who meet your standards can be transferred to the classic server if they so choose. That’s the point where they can’t go home again.” said Aria.

“How strong is someone at level ten?” asked the captain.

“Depends on the class, and the amount of ability points they spend on their stats if they are on the casual server. Stats will be locked at forty points, though. So if maxed out, they could be say ten times stronger than an average man. They would still be well within the capacity to be killed by normal Earth weapons.” said Aria.

“The special abilities they have will depend on their class as well. Healing focused people, for instance, would be able to cure diseases, cleanse toxins, and instantly heal people of injuries. They would not be able to resurrect anyone at that level, however.” said Aria.

“Combat medics who can do all that would be a godsend.” said the captain.

Aria giggled warmly. “Obviously.”

The three laughed for a moment, and then continued the discussion. There was much to say and to learn. The possibilities were quite impressive and the captain was eager to discover the full extent of what might be doable.

Chapter 14: Twin Trouble

It was both strange and true simultaneously. Even in the face of world-shaking news that would allow for a complete shift in geo-political power, an entrenched government was often slow to act. Scott and Aria had offered the US government access to super human potential, but even with the insistence of the captain there was no sign of acceptance on the horizon. Scott had been scheduled for a meeting to determine possibilities in a few months. Of course, that had annoyed him to the extent that he had nearly called the whole thing off.

Scott sat on his couch, one arm slipped around Aria’s waist. Ero had finally reawakened and was currently watching television while propped up against a bowl of popcorn.

A sweet and idyllic scene no doubt, but things were far from ideal within Scott’s mind. He could not believe that his government was quite this idiotic. Their slow uptake had given him time to think and he had realized what he had been on the verge of doing. That might lead to a great loss for them in the long run.

“Fayth for your thoughts?” asked Aria gently.

Scott glanced at her then smiled. “Do you really want to know?”

“Yes.” she said simply.

“Well, now that the euphoria of showing off has worn off a little, I’ve realized just what I have been offering America. It seems a bit, much.” said Scott.

“How so? Level ten is much stronger than a normal human being, but they would be far from unstoppable.” said Aria.

Ero reached into the bowl and pulled out a piece of popcorn larger than her hand. She chewed on it while remaining totally engaged in the soap opera that she had chosen to watch. At any moment, the lead female protagonist in the story arc would tell the male protagonist that she was pregnant with his child! It would cause a great deal of drama, and such a thing was quite interesting to the tiny little naked girl.

“Well, it’s… I’m surprised that your father went along with it. Won’t that drastically upset the balance of power in the world?” asked Scott.

“Of course it will. Do you want to call it off? He only gave his permission because of our relationship after all.” said Aria.

“No, not really. But…” he began.

“But?”

Scott shook his head. “I love the idea of bringing a little more magic to Earth. But if it is totally controlled by governments, especially one government, it seems wrong. Even more, there are a lot of skills that would make things worse instead of better.”

Aria nodded. She could understand his reservations. “What would you like to do?”

He sighed softly then tilted his head back. “Is there a way to restrict what classes, races, and lore crystals they can access?”

“Absolutely. They can’t use lore crystals anyway since they would be on the tutorial. Class and race restriction would be easy as well.”

She reached down and clasped his hand. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that they would only be allowed to be human, that we open this up to every country on the planet, and only purely physical classes or healing oriented classes be allowed. Nothing that allows for extreme stealth either.” said Scott.

Aria nodded to him. “Doable. Want me to name the classes that actually fit that mold?”

“Yeah, could you?”

“Sure. How about we restrict things to only fighters, warriors, monks, healers, priests, and paladins? At higher levels some of those classes get powerful attacks, but none of them have anything world-shaking at level ten.”

“That sounds perfect. They would be able to bring defensive and healing magic into the world, but they would not have access to highly destructive elemental magic.” said Scott.

Aria laughed warmly. “Look at my boyfriend… He saw the potential for abuse and decided to nerf an entire world.”

Scott laughed as well. She had made a good point. It actually was like he had chosen to nerf a potential update because he suspected that it would lead to abuse.

“Oh no! Don’t cry!” exclaimed Ero as the pregnant female protagonist underwent a touching and emotional scene of self-discovery.

Scott and Aria glanced down at the fairy. She was really invested in the show for some reason.

Sappy romantic music began to play in the background and the daytime drama stopped playing. Ero sniffled softly then sighed.

“Aww, Ero. What’s wrong?” asked Scott.

The little fairy turned toward him, tiny twin trails of tears streaked down her face. “Scott, will you still love me when I’m pregnant with your child?”

Scott blinked slowly. She had really asked him that? “Ero…”

The tiny fairy placed a hand to her stomach then sighed dramatically. “Oh, what is to become of me… the cast-off woman?” She placed the back of her hand to her forehead, paused briefly for effect, and then sighed loudly once more.

Aria started to laugh at the tiny girl’s antics. It was obvious that she was just messing with Scott. Still, it was fun to see how seriously he had taken her. It was a fairy good question after all.

Ero made a hysterical outcry before falling to her knees. “Oh! My heart could not take it if you put me aside! If not for my sake, then for our unborn child!”

“Ero… is there something that you aren’t telling me?” he asked sincerely, but with a smile upon his face. He had been taken off-guard by her antics, but he knew she was only having a little fun with him now.

The fairy girl sniffled gently then nodded. “Yes…”

Scott leaned down toward her. “You can tell me anything, OK?”

Ero nodded mutely then looked up at him with tear-stained eyes. “Do you promise?”

He reached out a hand and she clutched his pinky. “I pinky promise.”

She tried to laugh, but the emotions were too strong. “Scott… I…”

“Yes?” he asked her, expecting her to say something cutesy.

She took a deep breath. “Um… I… I can feel a second light inside of me.”