The Land: Founding (Chaos Seeds Book 1)

 

The Land:
Founding

 

By

Dr. Aleron
Kong

 

 

 

I am who I am only because of the love
and time that many people have dedicated to me, and so I dedicate this book to
you. First and foremost, I dedicate this book to my mother, Stephanie Hisako Kong.
You have taught me much, and more than anything else you have taught me to be
strong. I love you.

The Dark
Court

The Prince sneered at the back of the
throne room. The sycophants and greedy court leeches pleaded their cases to the
Dark Queen. Every day, every year, every millennia was exactly the same.
Hearing their complaints of needing more power, or their false pride in
capturing a few more souls, the Prince tried to summon anger, disdain, or
hatred, but all he felt was boredom.

In any other reality, these would be
gods, demon lords, or spirit kings. In this exiled pocket of space and time
however, they were pathetic! The members of the Dark Court fought each other
for the meager scraps of power the Queen doled out, like cubs at her teat!
Though he also lived at her mercy, the Prince would not do so for much longer.
Today, he began the plan. Today, he brought the first Earthling to The Land.
Today, he was one step closer to escaping this eternal prison! The Universe had
long ago exiled all the members of the Dark and Light Court to this small shard
of reality. The lock to their prison was the world simply called “The Land.”
Despite having vast powers, no being had been able to escape the pocket
dimension.

Coming back from his musings, the
Prince nodded to the Grand Vizier, who slowly nodded back. The Vizier appeared
to have a hunched stature, but his true form was unknowable. He had never been
seen out of his dark robes, and the garment completely covered his body. The
Vizier was his closest ally, and one of the few Exiles that was older than the
Prince. He was not a friend, however. There were no friends in the Dark Court.

Nonetheless, the Vizier had convinced
the Prince that all previous attempts to escape had been too small in scope.
Why even try to escape the perfect prison? If instead, they could destroy the
lock, the pocket dimension that held them prisoner would open, and they would
all be free. Most importantly, HE would be free. The conclusion was simple. The
Land had to be destroyed. The question was, how to do it? That was when the
Vizier had told him about Earth.

The Earth was a world almost
completely devoid of magic. They had no gods to tell them what they should and
should not do. It had created a population who committed atrocities on par with
the most heinous of the Dark Court’s residents. What truly made Earth unique
however, was that every human was born with a small seed of Chaos in their
souls.

For millennia, the Prince had watched
the savages of Earth. He saw their civilizations rise and fall. If there was
one constant, it was that when enough of the Earth humans were in one place,
destruction inevitably followed. The Chaos inside of them made such a
conclusion inevitable. The Earthlings had already come close to destroying
their own planet several times! If enough humans could be brought to the Land,
all of those seeds of Chaos just might destroy it! He would be free!

That just left the problem of how to
get enough of them there to accomplish his plan. Though the Prince was
powerful, he could not just force them to go. Each and every being in the
Universe had free will. The Earthlings had to
choose
to go to the Land.
It was true that the Prince had collected a few souls here and there. There
were always mortals foolish enough to trade their immortal spark for material
wealth or power. It was not enough though! He needed millions of Chaos Seeds in
the Land, causing havoc and destruction. How could he convince so many? No
answer presented itself. So he watched and waited.

Ultimately, the people of Earth found
a magic of their own, called science. Their faith in science replaced older
faiths which had warned of beings like the Prince. Their belief in science had
even caused them to lose faith in the existence of the soul! He could not help
but chuckle as paradoxically the amount of souls he captured increased. Who
wouldn’t accept wealth and power in exchange for something they didn’t even
think existed?

As more and more of the humans predictably
sought to escape their mundane and banal existence, they found that release in
many ways. Substances to cloud their minds, war, suicide, and other amusements.
It took only a few centuries after their discovery of electrical power however,
for them to develop games to distract from their pointless lives. Soon after,
came the creation of virtual realities. These digital worlds gave millions of
humans the escape they craved with their whole hearts, and unknowingly with
their whole souls.

That was the key, the Vizier
explained to him one day. Why try and convince these humans to trade their
souls, when they were already begging for a new life? Why not give them what
they were already asking for? It didn’t take much work for the Prince to have
one of his agents create a virtual world modeled after The Land. With his
guidance, it quickly became the most popular and pervasive game on Earth.
Millions played every day! They became the orc shaman that was powerful in a
way that the tax account playing him in “real life” never was, or the sexy elf
maiden who finally found that attention she craved, but no longer received as
an aging housewife.

And as for the pesky matter of free
will, each and EVERY player agreed to come to the Land willingly. They signed
their digital names to the contract when they started playing the game. After
all, the Prince thought with a small smile, who had time to read all that fine
print?

PROLOGUE

EARTH, North America, 2037

 “I swear to God Silk! If you
get caught on the way in just because you’re trying to steal some cheap loot,
I’m going to nail your nuts to a stump and kick you backwards!”

 “Calm down Crush! Jesus! Where
the hell do you get this stuff?!” Silk put down the gold candlestick he had
picked up, hearing the sound of chuckles over the group chat. “I’m on it.”

 The rest of the party watched
safely from behind a grove of trees several hundred yards away, nearly
invisible in the dark. They would not have been able to see anything, but Jewel
had cast the spell Shared Vision to let the rest of them see through Silk’s
eyes.

 “I will not calm down!” said
Crush, “You’re messing with the big payday!”

 “He’s not wrong Silk,” said
Loki. “It has taken us forever to first find this castle, then fight through
the Wilds, and finally break through the defenses to allow you a small window
of time to get in! No one on the forums has even heard of the Castle of
Transition! The loot we could get from this place will probably be artifact!”

“Okay, okay fearless leader! I’m on
it.” As Silk spoke, he looked down and gave the four of them a great view of
him scratching his virtual balls.

“You’re a dick, Silk!” said Daliah.

A low chuckle came over the group
chat as Silk made his way down the stairs to the lower levels, “That’s not what
you said the other n-” The rest of the comment was lost to everyone as Daliah
sent a psychic pulse through the spell connection. It was the mental equivalent
of stubbing your toe in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom,
minor but insanely irritating.

“Enough Silk!” shouted Loki, “and cut
that crap out Daliah! I hate that!” The rest of the group was nodding and
glaring at Daliah, who had the good grace to look down and away.

Silk, for his part, stopped the
chatter and continued down the dark hallway he found himself in. There were no
torches or other light, and if not for his Sense of the Bat skill that Rogues
only found upon reaching the lofty level of 130, then he would have been
knocking into walls. Luckily their entire party was ranked in the top 100
groups in The Land, so none of them were noobs.

What was strange was the complete
lack of monsters and NPCs (non-player characters) in the castle. The lands
surrounding the castle were teeming with creatures and difficult terrain. It
had taken Jewel a solid day to burrow a hole in the shield covering the castle,
burning through countless replenish mana potions. It meant that the castle
shield had an ungodly amount of HPs (health points)! And the hole had barely
lasted a few seconds before shutting again. Silk had managed to squeeze
through, but no one else had been able to follow. It meant that if he got in
trouble he was totally hosed!

He had yet to encounter any
resistance though. The layout had no hidden traps he could detect, no maze like
corridors and no enemies! It was like it was inviting him in… hopefully
inviting him into the treasure room, Silk thought gleefully. He would love some
artifact level gear, like those Gloves of Dark Beckoning that Chinese kid had
posted he’d found in a secret labyrinth. Lucky a-hole!

As Silk made his way down a fifth
spiral staircase, green light came from the bottom, and the entire party held
their breath in anticipation. Months of work were hopefully about to pay off.
He stepped into a round room, and they saw the source of the light. It was
coming from an arch of black crystal. In the arch was a rippling Dartmouth
green energy field. Looking at it was almost like staring straight down into a
deep and limitless ocean on a stormy day. In front of the arch was a short
column with the indentation of a hand print on top. In the rest of the room
there was… nothing else.

“Are you effing kidding me? Where is
the loot,” Crush shouted. The rest of the group kept quiet, but all were
sharing the same disappointment.

“Maybe
it’s
back up top,” Jewel said. “Down another corridor?”

“So what do I do here,” asked Silk,
“do I put my hand on it? Do a little dance maybe?”

“You could make a little love,” Loki said.

“Maybe get down tonight,” Crush
finished, light chuckles coming over the chat line.

“Uhhhh, I say touch it,” a voice
said.

“Was that you Daliah? I don’t know
why I keep expecting you to be smart just because you’re psychic! What should I
do Loki?”

“Uh… touch it,” he replied.

“Thanks oh fearless leader,” Silk
exclaimed. “You’re about as useful as a swiss cheese condom.”

He braced himself to touch the
pedestal. He was really hoping there wasn’t any pain. Even though the game
muted it down, even a minor burn or electrical shock could ruin your whole
morning. Still though, they hadn’t come all this way for nothing! Silk placed
his hand on the imprint.

“Are you the agent of your people?” a
deep voice boomed, seeming to come from all directions at once. At the same
time the only door leading out of the room clanged shut.

Immediately lowering his body and
drawing both daggers, Silk quickly looked around. There was no place for anyone
to be hiding. They could always be cloaked or veiled, but his True Sight had
maxed out forty levels ago, and no players or NPCs had been able to hide from
him for quite a while. Assuming it must have been a game prompt, he tried to
chat with his group, but no one answered his queries. Shrugging to himself he
answered.

“Uhhh, yeah.”

The voice spoke again. “Do you
embrace a life of adventure and danger, love and betrayal, power and wonder?”

“Yes.” The words came out stronger,
Silk’s greedy little heart imagining the top shelf loot they were about to get.

“Will you be among the first to move
forward, preparing the way for others?”

“Hell yeah,” Silk shouted, throwing
both fists in the air.

Silence greeted his shout. After a
few seconds, he realized that unless you are an
asian
time traveler who had saved a cheerleader, you just couldn’t pull this stance
off. Before he could lower his arms though, he heard another voice. It was
quite different from the previous deep bass, and it said in a self-satisfied
tone, “Thrice heard and witnessed.”

The world flashed white and…

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