World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (34 page)

“I’m sure you’re
busy now. Let’s catch up later when we’re both off guard duty,”
Tulin replies. He has adventured with Lucious when they both started
playing the game, and it’s been a while since they adventured
together.

“Of course!”
Lucious nods in response. He continues walking further into the tower
until he is standing in front of a huge hole that extends from the
dungeons up to the very top of the tower. A prerequisite to
membership in the Magic Guild is access to the spell “Levitate,”
precisely because this is the expected method of travel from one
floor of the tower to another. There are no stairs at all. The more
powerful a mage is, the higher he could levitate. Hence, the most
important areas of the tower reside in the upper lowers of the Magic
Guild. The Fire and Water Factions share the second floor, the Air
and Earth Factions share the third floor, and the Unaffiliated
Faction takes the fourth floor since it has the most members. Of
course, the effect of having the unaffiliated group on a higher floor
means that the unaffiliated mage would be subject to pitches from the
elemental factions to convert to a specialty.

“Hey Lucious! When
are you joining the Fire Faction?” a voice calls out as the spell
caster levitates to the second floor.

“Nah! He’s more of
a Water specialist?” another voice interjects.

Lucious smiles at the
two recruiters and offers a friendly wave as he continues to levitate
to a higher level.

Finally, he reaches the
Unaffiliated Faction and jumps onto the floor.

A young mage dressed in
white greets Lucious. “Welcome, good sir. Please sign next to your
name in the roll book,” he requests. Apprentices in the
unaffiliated faction are required to serve various duties under the
eyes of Fistaklius, the guild master.

Lucious smiles at the
apprentice, remembering the time when Lucious himself served for a
month as an apprentice. He walks up to the desk, where several books
are stacked neatly. He pulls out the book containing the letter “L,”
and proceeds to sign his name.

The attendant stamps
his magical ring, worn on his left pinky finger, to confirm the
signature. A date and time automatically appear next to the seal.
“You may enter, Member Lucious.” The guild master had implemented
a system to keep track of members entering and leaving the premises.
Failure to sign in and out could result in the suspension of the
member from the guild, and repeated violations will result in
expulsion.

Lucious nods and walks
down the hallway. The hallway is curved and forms a complete circle
around the floor. There are doors providing entry to various offices.
He nods in polite greetings to mages in the hallway. Finally, he
reaches a door marked simply, “Enchantments,” and enters the
room.

A wizened looking face
pops over a stack of books on a bench. Seeing Lucious, the old man
walks over to greet the newcomer. “Well met, Lucious,” the
shopkeeper says.

“Well met, Vergil,”
Lucious replies. He opens his Bag of Holding, and pulls out a small
glass vial of fine dust. “This belonged to a lich,” he says
nonchalantly.

“Where did you get
it?” the shopkeeper asks as he takes the vial. He invokes the
enchantment in a ring on his finger to cast an Identify spell to
confirm the content. A small white aura surrounds the vial for a
moment and the identification of the content appears on the player’s
screen: “Dust of Lich.” He nods to confirm the vial’s content
to Lucious.

The younger player
remains silent. He had accompanied an adventuring party as a personal
favor to Heimdall, the guild master of the Fighter’s Guild, and he
remembered to scoop up the remains of the lich once the difficult
fight had ended. However, there’s no need to inform Vergil of his
personal contacts with another guild. After all, Lucious does not
want to make a habit of accompanying groups other than The Strangers,
and be bombarded with requests from players to accompany them.

“Fine,” Vergil
grins. He knows the younger player is very tight lipped about his
adventures, and it is one of the great mysteries surround the
infamous Lucious the Elementalist of The Strangers. The player’s
apparent ties to the game developer have given rise to conspiracy
theories such as the notion that Lucious is an employee game tester,
or he has administrative access to the game server to adjust his
player account to buff his avatar’s magical abilities beyond those
of a normal player of World of Eternia. Of course, Vergil thinks
these rumors are groundless, and that Lucious is simply a guy who had
spent a lot of time in the game, if his frequent visit to Vergil’s
shop is any indication. “So how much do you want for it?” he
asks.

Lucious shakes his
head. “I’d rather barter for your services.”

Vergil smiles at the
response. He is among the greatest Enchanters in the game, and he
often receives requests to create special magic items. The lion
guardians standing outside the entrance are among his most notable
creations. Alas, his services are only available to members of the
Unaffiliated Faction by decree of the guild master, and consequently
there is a black market to pass his goods to the elemental factions,
at a premium of course. “What do you want me to make?” the
enchanter asks in eager anticipation. Lucious has an interesting
perspective on magic and how it interacts with the world of Eternia,
and his insights have provided guidance in the creation of new and
popular magic items that sell quickly.

“I need something
that would allow Divine Spells to be cast in another dimension,”
the mage replies. Seeing the eyebrows rising, he continues, “I
recently journeyed with my party to a new realm where the Gods of
Eternia have no power, and therefore spells from the divine sphere
cannot be cast in that realm.”

Vergil strokes his long
white beard as he considers the problem. “It is an interesting
challenge, and I could understand why you would want a magic item to
bypass this serious limitation. I could see two magic theories to get
around it. We could have a device that stores divine energy to power
divine spells, or the spells themselves could be stored directly into
the device. The device would have a set charge based on the amount of
mana stored within the device. That’s the easiest solution, but a
rather limited one. The other method is to create an artificial
conduit to deliver the divine energy to this realm. The device would
serve as a permanent beacon, in other words. But this is much harder
to establish, and the beacon would need to be protected at all times
in the foreign realm to prevent the device from destruction by
hostile forces. Are the inhabitants of this realm hostile?” he
asks.

Lucious nods once.

Vergil takes off his
small glasses and rubs his eyes. “Is the King planning an invasion
of this realm?”

“Possibly,” the
younger mage answers succinctly.

“In that case, I will
need to consult other mages and even the clergy on this matter,”
the enchanter replies. This is probably a precursor to the much
rumored, but still unannounced expansion to the game. If Vergil can
come up with a device to bypass the limitation on divine spells in
this new realm, then the device would be highly sought after by
parties seeking to enter the new realm. He could feel the sack of
gold in his hand already!

Lucious could see the
dollar signs in Vergil's eyes, as the shopkeeper enjoys the
opportunity to make gold pieces, almost to a fault. Lucious suspects
that Vergil chose to create a player run shop precisely for this
reason. “The King has not publicized his plans yet. And there is a
slight possibility that we won’t invade the realm. I’m just
planning for that possibility and you would have to emphasize this in
your discussions with your counterparts,” Luciuous cautions.

“Aye. Miracles and
politics go hand in hand. I think my counterparts understand this
quite well,” Vergil chuckles. “Worry not, my young friend. We
will keep this discussion private and off the public forums.”

"Yes, please keep
this private for now," the Stranger agrees.

"Let's get this
meeting started," the Chief Executive Officer of Virtuous Gaming
Co. says. Charles Winter is sitting at the head of the oval shaped
table, located in the company’s headquarters in a suburban area
near Seattle, Washington. "The time is now 9 AM," he
announces.

The secretary is
sitting to his left, and typing on her laptop computer at the
conference table as he speaks. Priscilla Lombardi uses shorthand to
record the meeting contemporaneously. She will submit a finalized
report to the CEO, who will then pass the minutes of the meeting to
other interested parties including shareholders and investors in this
private company.

The Chief Financial
Officer nods and starts his presentation. "As you know, the
mission of Virtuous Gaming is to provide entertainment content to the
leading platforms as well as social media. For the quarter which
ended in June, sales revenues have decreased by two percent compared
over the previous quarter, and by five percent when compared to the
same quarter in the previous year," explains Martin Pembrose
while making eye contact with attendees around the small conference
room.

Lewis Richard Whitney,
Chairman of the board, interrupts. "What's the reason for this
down trend in the company’s revenues? Are kids simply no longer
playing our games?" the blustery but elderly man asks with a
booming voice that reverberates around the room. He slams a fist on
the table for emphasis.
What are
these morons doing in this company?

Lisa Huffman, Vice
President of Product Development, speaks up. "Please allow me to
explain the reason, Mister Chairman,” she says politely. “Our
services are utilized by both the adult consumer and the non-adult
consumer. The breakdown is roughly half-half between the two client
bases. But to answer your question, there have been a decrease in
revenue from both segments. Our online trading card game product line
is tailored to the adolescent population, and the revenue stream
usually sees a dip during the second quarter because kids spend more
time on studying for exams and therefore have less free time
available to play games."

Seeing an encouraging
nod from the chairman, she continues. “On the other hand, our match
three puzzle games have wider appeal to the young working
professionals, who play these games during breaks at work or during
commute to and from work. However, they tend to spend less time on
our games during the evening hours.”

“So what’s the
reason for the downtrend in the match three product line?” the
chairman presses.

“The reason is a
little harder to pin down. During the holidays, for example, we tend
to see a decrease in use of this product line because our clients are
busy with family events during the holidays. Our customer surveys and
analysis of the playing times reflect that the games are usually
played in relation to work. During the after hours, we assume our
adult gamers engage in other activities such shopping, exercising,
watching television, etc. The decrease in product usage may actually
be related to the labor market, which has seen a rise in retail and
restaurant jobs. If people are losing their desk jobs and getting
blue collar work instead, that would naturally lead to a decrease in
the player base for our match three product line and therefore a
decrease in revenue,” Lisa explains.

“How do you plan to
reverse this unwelcome trend?” Lewis asks while looking around the
room to invite other attendees to speak up. “Anyone got
suggestions?”

The CEO accepts the
invitation. “I think there are a number of ways. We run tournament
events pitting players against one another, and usage spikes
significantly during these events. We continue to have new expansions
and features in development, and they help draw interest to our
entertainment services. Finally, the company may look into the
possibility of entering new markets over the long term,” Charles
says while looking directly into Lewis’ eyes.

The chairman nods in
satisfaction. Interim results are heavily subject to seasonality and
short term factors that are out of the management’s control. His
main objective in probing the company’s senior management is to see
how they respond in the short term while pushing for long term growth
of the young company. The most important thing is to guard against
complacency, and to prevent a defeatist mentality from taking hold
and permeate from the top down to the bottom of the organization.
Sometimes the best thing to do is stay active and try new solutions
even if the result is not successful as far as the bottom line is
concerned.

“Let’s move on to
the next item on today’s agenda,” Charles says.

"Okay that's the
last item on today's agenda. The time is now 10.45 AM. And this
concludes our meeting," the CEO says. He turns to his head and
nods at the secretary. He waits for her to finish up her typing and
shut down her computer. Once he sees that she has done so a minute
later, he turns back to address the room. "Now we begin Part B
of the meeting. May I remind the room that the conversation from this
point forward is confidential and strictly off the record. Those
found to violate confidentiality will be subject to severe
disciplinary action including termination. If you cannot comply you
may leave the room now."

Charles waits for a
minute to allow any person in the room to leave. None take up his
offer. “Very well, then. Let’s start the unofficial meeting.
What’s the situation with the ‘Digital Bandit?’ Have our
outside consultants made any progress in either capturing this hacker
or removing his ability to disrupt our services?” he asks.