Summary
It’s the year 2047. The base game of the groundbreaking VRMMORPG Sable Online has been made free to play. One of the new players is James Marlow, who is traveling across the game’s hyper realistic landscapes in a party with his 3 friends: the calm and collected Grey, the upbeat Amelia and the perpetually whiny Patrick.
However, the game has more to it than meets the eye, and James’ friends will need more than high levels if they want to survive the oncoming madness.
EPISODE 1
The time was 7 PM, just the right time for James to duck out of reality.
The smash-hit VR MMO, Sable Online, has finally been made free to play up to level 40. It had been out for nearly 3 years and had two major expansions in that time. At that point, the developers decided to give people access to the base game for free, with the only price being the Kabletech Scavenger Headset needed to play it. He and his friends had managed to buy one before the parts became scarce due to the war in Velcorp State, which made the prices skyrocket. They’d all agreed that 3 days after the game went free to play, they would all log on together and play as a party.
James slid the headset on, laid back and felt his body melt away into the bed, floating in the endless abyss. This incredibly relaxing state was probably enough reason to buy the headset anyway, but soon he felt a new digital body manifesting itself around him. He felt his feet touch the floor and a world radiated out of it, an endless blue floor with water up to his ankles and a clear sky. He looked up to see the logo in the sky.
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Kable Interactive's
Sable Online
NecroAbyss
Version 3.4.7
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NecroAbyss was the most recent expansion, and had been released just a month before the game had gone free to play: Kable Interactive was reminding you of what you didn’t own even on the title screen. He looked up to see his own username, Cieth, floating above his head. Words appeared next to James, where he assumed the inventory would be for the rest of the game.
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Join Requests Incoming
Skibabylon
GlassAngel
Trident743
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James clicked the button to accept all of them and his three friends appeared in the World next to him. Skibabylon was actually named Grey in real life, their avatar an androgynous person in a long trenchcoat that sort of morphed into a dress as it reached their legs. GlassAngel’s real name was Amelia, a lithe woman with red hair tied in a ponytail. Finally, Trident743 was Patrick, a dark-skinned man with white hair, dressed in an immaculate tailcoat. Of course, these weren’t what they actually looked like, simply their ideal forms manifested by the system.
“I can’t believe you roped me into this,” Patrick remarked. He usually only cared for retro games, and up until now the most recent console he owned was a Nintendo Switch from 30 years ago. “You're lucky my sister had a headset going spare.”
“I wouldn’t trust your sister as far as I would throw her,” Grey responded, their mouth partially hidden by the trenchcoat “You sure that thing’s not catching fire?”
“Eh, 50/50. I knew modern gaming would be the death of me.”
“I would like to play the game, please,” Amelia snapped back.
“I concur,” Grey said, looking up at the giant title screen. “I’m very interested in what this game has to offer. Almost got it at launch, but I heard it was buggy.”
“As all new games are,” Patrick remarked. Amelia realised she was in a game, meaning Patrick’s physical body couldn’t be harmed, and thus slapped him across the face.
“Chill already!” Grey told them. They were usually the mediator of the group’s stronger personalities. James raised his hand.
“Start.”
Four columns rose out of the ground, a hero standing upon each of them. The first had a large shield and heavy armour, the second was wielding a sword bigger than they were with one hand, the third had someone in long robes with buff symbols surrounding them, and the fourth showed a man in a wizard hat with fire spiralling around them. Descriptions floated in the air for each of them.
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Select Your Class
Guardian: A class focused around defending your allies with your heavy shield.
Trait: Shield.
Main Skills: Draw Rage, Crash Blade, Protect.
Saber: A class focused around relentless aggression.
Trait: Perfect Strike.
Main Skills: Rapid Slash, Piercing Blow, Rising Slash
Cleric: A class focused around supporting their allies with healing and buffs.
Trait: Heal Beam
Main Skills: Area Heal, Return Pain, Strength
Sage: A complex class focused around mixing magical spells and debuffs.
Trait: Mana.
Main Skills: Firebolt, Dancing Daggers, Shatter.
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“A tank, two attackers, and a healer,” Grey commented “They sure are original.”
“Where’s Gunslinger?” Amelia asked, “I wanted to shoot things!”
The game responded with text in the air, this time accompanied by a woman’s voice.
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Gunslinger available to those who purchase Destroka Resurrection expansion, only $50.
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“Bullshit,” Amelia muttered under her breath.
“We should stick to our typical roles,” James stated, “I play tank, Amelia plays DPS, Grey plays support, and Patrick…play whatever you want I guess.”
Patrick looked between the four holographic classes “Give me Sage. I don’t mind a challenge.”
Patrick held out his hand and a pointed wizard’s hat appeared in his hand, which he quickly slid onto his head. A leatherbound book appeared at his hips as his tailcoat was covered in dirt and grime, presumably from his travels. Amelia reached out her hand and a sword the size of her fell out of the sky. She gripped her hand around it as she lifted it over her shoulder, light armour plates forming around her left arm. Grey spun around as their trenchcoat became ornate robes, with a hood that they pulled over their head and a wooden staff appeared in their hand. For James, armour plates flew down from the sky and attached themselves to him, and he drew a shortsword from his hip and a massive shield from his back.
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Classes Chosen
Cieth-Guardian
GlassAngel-Saber
Skibabylon-Cleric
Trident743-Sage
HELP US.
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As the computer read out the last words, they all looked up at the sky to see it was in a bright red font in comparison to the fancy fantasy font of the rest of the dialogue. The words vanished just as quickly as they appeared.
“I’m...not imagining that, right?” James asked.
“Probably just flavour text,” Patrick shrugged. “I always appreciated games that mess with the player a bit.”
“Gotta say, we all look badass,” Amelia commented, swinging her massive sword around with effortless grace. “Can’t wait to play with this thing.”
James looked out across the water as the others messed around with their new powers. A young elf woman in a long green dress smiled back at him, before raising a finger to her lips, telling him to be quiet, before vanishing in a flash of static. A massive stone door rose out of the floor, before opening up and revealing a blinding light. The others turned around and walked over to James.
“Well, that looks like the way in,” Amelia smirked. “Shall we do this?”
“Hell yes!” Grey replied. The other three ran through the door while James walked forward slowly, drinking in anticipation. As he reached the door, he turned back to see another sentence of blood-red words appear in the air.
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OUR WORLD BLEEDS
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“I really hope this is flavour text,” He muttered. He spread his arms wide and fell backwards through the door, and into the new world of Sable Online.
EPISODE 2
James smacked his head on a large rock as he fell out of the doorway, which slammed shut behind him, with his three friends looking down at him. He moaned in annoyance as he rose to his feet.
“What did you think was going to happen?” Amelia asked.
“I don’t know, I thought we’d start falling through the sky or fall onto a field of grass or something, and I’d come out of this looking super cool. Didn’t think we’d be...wherever this is.”
James looked around to see they were in a long tunnel of some kind. The air was boiling hot, especially under his massive armour, and it would have been completely dark if it wasn’t for the fiery light. Grey walked over to one of the glowing rocks and examined it.
“Magma,” They said, “We must be in a volcano or something.”
“Everyone get behind me,” James said, moving forward. “I’m the tank here, I can protect you guys.”
“Like hell you will,” Amelia said, casually strolling past him with her massive sword over her shoulder “Anything comes our way, I’ll smash it to pieces.”
“Acceptable. Let’s get moving.”
The tunnel was surprisingly short, leading into a small circular room. Patrick raised an eyebrow.
“Well, this doesn’t look like a room that would contain an enem-“
As he said the words, a giant spider fell from the ceiling, landing a centimetre away from Amelia. The entire party drew their weapons. Patrick sighed.
“Wow, I’m so surprised.”
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Brutal Arachnid
Level 1
200/200 HP
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“Let’s see what it’s like to hit things in this game,” Amelia smirked. She ran forward and slashed her sword upward, soaring into the air high above the spider.
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Saber Skill
Rising Slash
A slash that ascends into the heavens.
Deals 2*STR Damage. Height gained based on DEX.
20 second cooldown
Brutal Arachnid
170/200 HP
Now targeting GlassAngel
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Amelia smiled as she spun around, her feet planted on the cavern’s ceiling, before flying back towards the monster at high speed, slashing it across the head.
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Brutal Arachnid
155/200 HP
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“So that’s the difference between a skill and a standard attack?” Patrick wondered. “Skills activated when you perform specific movements, and everything else, no matter how fancy, is weak in comparison.”
“Yes, and if you bothered to play any VR games, you’d know that,” Grey replied, watching as Amelia cartwheeled back and landed in front of them, her massive sword slung over her shoulder.
“I like this thing,” She said. “Got a good weight and power to it,” She turned to the rest of the party “Any of you guys want to help? This game is built around parties after all.”
The spider lifted its leg and took a swipe at Amelia, who was so busy talking she didn’t see it coming. Luckily, James stood in the way and raised his shield. The attack struck, and although both of them were thrown back, the damage was reduced.
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Guardian Trait
Shield
Leap forward to defend your friends.
Take half damage for another party member.
10 second cooldown
Cieth
175/200 HP
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Patrick smirked, “You’re open!”
He swung his hand like he was throwing a ball and a bolt of fire flew out of his hand, striking the monster dead in the face.
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Sage Skill
Firebolt
Strike the enemy with deadly flames
Deals 3*STR Damage. Uses 20 Mana.
10 second cooldown
Brutal Arachnid
125/200 HP
Sage Trait
Mana
Draw power from the magic enveloping Sable.
The Sage’s abilities expend Mana. Maximum mana determined by 10*SPL. 5 mana is gained per auto attack. Fully refilled upon visit to an inn.
Trident743
80/100 Mana remaining
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“Keep it up!” Grey shouted. They held up their hand and a stream of gold light twisted through the air before striking James in the back, enveloping him in light.
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Cleric Trait
Heal Beam:
Convert the will of Sable into rejuvenating light.
A sustained beam of healing, drawn from a Healing Pool. Maximum HP in Healing Pool determined by 20*SPL. Heals at a rate of 2 HP per second. Fully refilled upon visit to an inn.
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Amelia and James jumped to their feet as James’ HP kept rising.
“Leave some for us!” Amelia shouted, running past the Cleric and the Guardian. The spider reeled back from the firebolt to the face, and Amelia swiped at the creature. James rushed forward as well, swiping up and striking the monster in tandem. As they did so, an energy bolt flew out of Patrick’s hand and put a hole in its leg.
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Brutal Arachnid
100/200
Trident743
85/100 Mana
Cieth
200/200 HP
Skibabylon
Healing Pool
175/200 HP
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After James swung upwards, he followed up by smashing the sword onto the ground, creating a shockwave that radiated outwards
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Guardian Skill
Crash Blade
A powerful shockwave loud enough to divert enemy focus.
AoE attack that deals damage equal to 3*STR gains a boost in aggro equal to ½ SPL.
20 second cooldown
Brutal Arachnid
85/200
Now targeting Cieth
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“Wait, only 15 damage?” James complained “You guys do that just by hitting them! And I have a twenty second cooldown on that?”
“And I want a massive healthpool, but we can’t have it all,” Grey replied. They raised their hand, and red light streamed from the spider to their hand.
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Cleric Skill
Draw Pain:
You can bestow people with lifeforce, and you can take it too.
Deal damage equal to 2*STR, and restore your Healing Pool by 2*SPL.
20 second cooldown.
Brutal Arachnid
75/200
Skibabylon
Healing Pool
195/200 HP
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The spider staggered around, reeling from constant attacks. Patrick growled as he hurled another fireball “I want this tutorial to be over already.”
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Trident743
Firebolt
Trident743
65/100 Mana remaining
Brutal Arachnid
45/200
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Amelia smirked, “I fully agree, I want something that fights back already. Then James and Grey will have it out in some actual effort. Let’s do this!”
She rushed towards the spider and slashed up into the air once more. As she did so she cartwheeled in mid-air and fell down, striking the spider in the back with her blade
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GlassAngel
Rising Slash
CHAIN
Saber Skill
Piercing Blow
Stab right through the enemy’s defences and pierce their very soul
Deal 3*STR damage, ignoring DEF or the effects of Shield
30 second cooldown.
Brutal Arachnid
0/200 HP
Encounter complete!
All party members gained 75XP
All party members gained 300 Gold
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Amelia climbed off the corpse of the monster. “What do you guys think of this game so far?”
Patrick was randomly waving his hand in the air, wondering if another spell would come out. “They definitely got throwing magic right. Those fireballs really do have impact.”
“I don’t think me and James learnt a whole lot from that fight,” Grey admitted “Tutorial or not, I would have preferred it to…y’know…fight back.”
“Guys, be quiet,” James said, putting his fingers to his lips. The party went silent and they listened, and quickly they could hear what James could: clicking. They all looked up to see a small horde of spiders clambering down the walls, their eyes glancing between their fallen brother and the invaders that had killed them. Rocks fell from the wall as they clambered downwards, and a large chunk of the cavern wall collapsed, revealing a tunnel onwards.
“I’m sure they’re going to start fighting back soon enough,” James shouted. “Run!”
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