Master of None Read online

  Special Thanks:

  My Wife

  For putting up with how much time writing this ate up.

  Anthony

  For being the story’s biggest fan from the beginning

  My followers on Royal Road

  For the feedback and encouragement you all gave free of charge

  All Trades

  Book 1

  Master of None

  By Shane Walker

  Table of Contents

  Prologue-The Cost of War

  1-Initial Public Offering

  2-Stock Options

  3-New Hire Training

  4-Day Trading

  5-Entry Level Position

  6-Hostile Takeover

  7-On the Job Training

  8-Cryptomining

  9-Stockholder’s Meeting

  10-Emergency Meeting

  11-Bankruptcy

  12-Supply

  13-Upper Management

  14-Demand

  15-Training Seminar

  16-Human Resources

  17-Big Box Store

  18-Capital Gains

  19-Contractors

  20-Customer Engagement

  21-Help Wanted

  22-Diversification

  23-Employees of the Month

  24-Padding the Resume

  25-Long-Range Plan

  26-The Firm

  27-Junior Partner

  28-Boss Appreciation Day

  29-Past Performance

  30-Tools of the Trade

  31-Company Meeting

  32-Lean Production

  33-Outside the Box Thinking

  34-Sub-Contracting

  35-Underground Movement

  36-Who Does Your Taxes?

  38-Women in the Workplace

  39-Close of Business

  Epilogue-Giving Back to the Community

  Prologue-The Cost of War

  King Lyras had been staring at the table before him for hours while his advisers and several of his generals waited quietly and patiently for him to address them. The massive table in the middle of his castle’s war room was a solid piece of steelwood. Legends say it was carved from the club of the Titan that the first king of Ald killed in single combat to secure this location as the center of his new kingdom.

  At this moment, however, Lyras wouldn’t have cared if it was made from his mother-in-law’s reforged chamber pot. All that mattered was what was on the table: maps showing a military spread too thin, names of fallen soldiers whose families were still owed the gold he swore to pay, treasury reports documenting the kingdom’s income from taxes and other sources, various expense reports covering things from guard salaries to equipment costs for the new recruits being sent to the front lines as quickly as possible.

  Likely too quickly and with too little training for boys who’ve never held a weapon before, much less seen any real combat. Lyras thought to himself gravely. His advisers had strongly suggested that he not follow through with his plan to give the families of fallen soldiers a year’s salary as a lump sum in the event of their death, but he would have none of it. The enemy was the embodiment of evil-cruel, uncaring, and incredibly ugly from what he’d heard from those who had come from the front lines to report.

  There I go thinking about my mother-in-law again. Lyras probably would have chuckled to himself if not for the grim reality of their situation…

  Whether out of hubris when considering the strength of the Aldan army or an idealistic, bordering on naive, sense of obligation to the families of his soldiers, he refused to listen to reason and made a royal proclamation with regards to the payments, binding him to comply under threat of inescapable death per the magics that made him king. At the onset of war, Ald was able to attack a few locations to concentrate their forces, which allowed them to minimize casualties.

  The enemy countered by sending additional troops to other locations-spreading the Aldan military thin and inflicting a devastating number of casualties in the first few battles. The effect this had on the treasury was immediate, with gold being depleted at an alarming rate. Ald was fighting a losing battle that it soon would be unable to afford.

  Lyras knew that the nothing short of a miracle could save his people and, by extension, the rest of the world from the terror that threatened to end everything. Unfortunately, the gods had been silent for centuries. They refused to intervene with mortal matters or grant any blessings or favors until the day The Adventurers showed up. Lyras feared that if the prophecy was true (and accurate by claiming the Adventurers truly had near limitless potential) that they would arrive only to find a barren wasteland devoid of anything that could be referred to as good or pure. Even knowing they would never hear him, Ald began a silent prayer to the gods of old asking for a miracle to save the kingdom.

  A commotion in the hallway outside pulled Lyras from his attempts to reach the divine beings. “YOUR MAJESTY” the royal messenger screamed as he burst into the room before freezing at the sight of the glares he now received from the powerful men and women arrayed before him. Lyras recognized the messenger immediately and demanded to hear what he had to say before an overzealous general could yell some nonsense about propriety and respect and all the other absolute horseshit that got in the way of a king being able to talk to anyone or seemingly accomplish anything during his day.

  “Your majesty,” the messenger began, still trying to catch his breath after what was likely his incredibly long run to the spot where he now stood.

  “They’re here.”

  1-Initial Public Offering

  Seconds after selecting Login, I found myself floating in a void. Well, floating would be the wrong word. So would standing, I guess. I was just hanging out in void.

  “Hello, sir, and welcome to The Realms.” came a disembodied voice from somewhere within the void. Honestly, it felt like everywhere in the void. It assaulted every inch of what passed for my body in the game.

  It was my avatar in FIVR: Full Immersion Virtual Reality. In hindsight, other companies and games were really half-assing the Full Immersion part of that. Goggles and surround sound do not full immersion make.

  Up till now, FIVR games just meant you could move your character with your body and see, hear, and sometimes even feel what your character felt. The last part required haptic feedback suits designed for it. Of course, this was just some light pressure or something when you got hit with a sword. The Realms were supposed to be the next level- sending and receiving signals wirelessly to connect directly to your brain through special headsets. Apparently this level turned out to be the “have a panic attack” level because that’s exactly what I was doing.

  The voice apparently sensed my freakout, because it suddenly made itself a body. Funnily enough, it was the body of an older Englishman in a very dignified suit. Well, as dignified as a suit can look floating in the vast nothingness we were presently in.

  Oh I hope I get to name him. There’s no way I can NOT call him Alfred, right? I thought to myself.

  “You do get to name me, sir. Alfred is perfectly suitable.” he said inside my head. That’s right, inside my head.

  AH! came the involuntary and entirely non-masculine response.

  “Oh, I’m terribly sorry for alarming you, sir.” came the response from Alfred, clearly apologetic. “I can hear surface level thoughts thanks to your connection to the system, so I felt it appropriate to respond. It is the ideal method of communicating with me.”

  And you are? I asked, only freaking out slightly less than before.

  “Your Guide, sir.” he responded, clarifying absolutely nothing at all.

  Great! How about you guide me somewhere other than this fucking place!

  “Right away, sir.” he replied in a far calmer mann
er than I’d addressed him in.

  Even as he spoke the void found shape and color at last. After a few moments of swirling and stretching, the visual nonsense settled into what I had to admit was a very cozy office. I was almost immediately put at ease as I took in the entire experience of the room.

  “Now, sir, we shall create your character and begin your adventures in The Realms?”

  The Realms, designed and created solely by one Dr. Gary Hyzen. Dr. Hyzen claimed he’d created a digital world players could live in with the help of specially designed VR helmets that created the aforementioned mental link that caused my previous panic attack. Like I said, putting the shit companies put out before this up against The Realms was like a kid’s shitty baking soda volcano compared to a cold fusion reactor. This game was beyond what we knew. Of course, assholes who made a career out of theorizing about shit they didn’t understand got on TV and got paid to say stupid shit like “Can we even call this a game anymore?” Dr. Hyzen was, without a doubt, a genius.

  Unfortunately, no game company in the world would agree to publish it. It was TOO immersive. During Alpha, more than 50% of players who died in dungeons logged out at respawn, refusing to log back in. Beta Testing showed slightly better numbers thanks to a gradual implementation of senses, but it was still too high for the bean counters.

  Apparently full immersion and experiencing a game as if it were real are both fantastic when you can feel the weight of the sword in your hand as you swing, hear the wind whipping by as you ride on a griffon, or feel the slow buildup of heat in your arms as you begin throwing fireballs.

  In fact, everyone thought that was cool as fuck until they were on the receiving end of it. Dr. Hyzen responded by saying that players should gladly experience such things as they were the price for partaking in such innovation and those that refused showed a weakness of character.

  In layman’s terms: Gamers should stop being such pansies and nut up so they could play this game. Dr. Hyzen was, without a doubt, an asshole.

  Thankfully for the good doctor’s bottom line, his expertise went beyond the computer knowledge required for the development of the organic AI systems, sensory immersion, and world generation that went into the creation of The Realms. He’d also used his breakthroughs in AI to develop the most efficient, secure, and widely used cryptocurrency the world had ever seen.

  You see, the currency was mined by, and in some ways from, the AI itself. This particular AI was generating strings of data that served as units of the currency, but each unit was imprinted with copies of a certain piece of dynamic code inherited from the parent AI. This code couldn’t be faked or duplicated because it could only be created by the AI.

  It was secure, absolutely uncrackable, and could be made traceable for legitimate business transactions or anonymous for more delicate purchases. Within a few years of introduction, it had become all but universal currency. Nearly every developed country on the planet had accepted it as a more stable alternative to a national currency. All stood to benefit as each lost the ability to manipulate currency values for their own gain, but also recognized that they were now protected from other countries doing the same.

  This infuriated Dr. Hyzen to no end considering the currency was a side project for him and his real love was always The Realm. Angry that the world had become enamored with what he considered the results of a “trivial algorithm” he decided to bury the code adding to the blockchain of the currency inside the game.

  Essentially, he connected the AI generating the currency into the game engine itself. The units of currency generated by the AI were tied directly to the in-game currency. Welcome to the New Gold Standard, am I right?

  When he announced that he’d spent his considerable wealth on self-publishing this game and that the creation of new units of currency were intrinsically a part of it, the global market nearly crashed. That’s right -he nearly brought the world into another Great Depression so people would play his fucking game. Dr. Hyzen was, without a doubt, the biggest asshole on Earth.

  While he could have likely single-handedly ended world hunger (or at least put a considerable dent in it) he decided to use it to make people play his fucking video game? Although, realizing that the game presented an opportunity for me to provide for myself and my family quickly quelled the righteous indignation swelling inside me.

  My family had never been wealthy. In fact we were always hovering right above poor. The desperation caused by never having quite enough money to get by comfortably, combined with my impulsive nature and flexible moral fiber, eventually led me to doing some work on the side that was, well, less than legal.

  Oh, and of course I got caught. Well, technically I wasn’t caught so much as confessed. Plea deals are devilishly enticing. It didn’t matter. There’s no background check during character creation (I hope). And it wasn’t like I was devoting myself to philanthropic endeavors.

  Without the opportunity to attend college and a criminal record that guaranteed I would never be able to get a decent paying job on my own. The Realm offered a way to change all of that, once I borrowed a significant amount of money from a loan shark I knew from my more unsavory days.

  Oops.

  “First things first, sir.” he began. “You must decide on a race for your character. As you can see from the list before you, all ‘classic’ races are represented, as well as a few less traditional ones.”

  Sure enough, Humans, Elves of all kinds, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, and Orcs were all there, as well as a few I didn’t see as often, like Cat-people, Lizard people, and some type of Fairy. Further down were all manner of half breed creatures mixing and matching the various races in as many ways as made sense (No lizard/cat people, for better or worse).

  Gnome was tempting, but I didn’t know if I wanted to be stuck as one long term. I don’t think I could go from six-foot plus in real life to, well, that. All the other races showed some sort of bonuses to vision, resistances, skills, and things of that nature.

  What benefit do Humans get? I asked, wondering how humans would keep up with some of these bonuses.

  “Yes, sir. Humans receive a third Major Trait during character creation, whereas other races receive only two.” came Alfred’s response.

  What exactly are traits, then? I asked. Traits could be different things in different games, so I wanted to make sure I knew what they were here.

  “Traits are special characteristics that permanently boost your character in some way. They can affect stats, skills, and even core mechanics of how characters function.” he explained. “They are broken up into Major, Medium, and Minor, based on the magnitude of the change, with Major providing the largest changes.”

  Oh I definitely like the sound of that. Human it is. I emphatically confirmed.

  “Very good, sir. Now let us select your class from one of the base classes available.” Alfred continued. “Please keep in mind that these are only your base class, but there are multiple specializations called Jobs that will become available as you play. Whereas your class is a general guideline for growth and abilities, Jobs are concentrations in specific fighting styles, crafts, schools of magic, et cetera.”

  With that, the four classes appeared in a list before me.

  Fighter-+3 STR/+2VIT/+1 END Weapon and Defensive skills do not count towards maximum skill levels

  Mage-+3 INT/+2 WILL/+1 AGI Increased mana growth and regeneration and increased learn speed for spells

  Priest-+3 WILL/+2 INT/+1 VIT Access to special spells and specializations via their selected patron deity

  Rogue-+3 AGI/+2 INT/+1 END Learn and improve skills at an increased rate

  Alfred, what exactly do the stats mean in this game? I asked. Sometimes, I wished there was some sort of standard regarding game stats.

  “Allow me to show you, sir.” he replied as a screen appeared in my vision displaying Stats and definitions.

  Strength- Affects max. lift weight, carry weight, and damage for STR-based weapons
/>   Agility-Affects movement, speed, dodge, parry, and damage for AGI-based weapons

  Vitality- Affects Hit Points and resistance to certain types of damage

  Intellect-Affects Mana Points, Spell Damage, Maximum Total Skill Levels, and Maximum Total Spell Levels

  Willpower-Affects Mana Point regeneration, resistance to certain magics, and increases effectiveness of Priest spells

  Endurance-Affects Stamina Points and regeneration of Stamina and Health

  Well, the Rogue has me sold with the skill learning speed, honestly. If the crafting is as profitable here as it is in other games, more skill levels equals more money. Mage would be cool, but they’re always weak at lower levels and I need to start making money ASAP.

  Rogue it is, Alfred.

  “Very well, sir. In addition to the listed attribute growth,” he went on to explain, “you will also receive five bonus attribute points per level as a human. You receive your first five at level two. Non-Humans have less freedom in these stats as two to three are pre-determined.

  “Our next step is is selecting your Traits.” he continued. “As I mentioned earlier, these are permanent changes to your character. You will receive an additional trait of your choosing during this section.”