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Eternyte

Part 13: Error 404 Not Found

copyright comidacomida 2022

Whether the doctors had been too optimist with their original prognosis or it had changed since noticing Will's mental disconnect the young man was unable to say, but he was not released from medical care that night. The attendant informed him and his father that he would be kept under observation for one more night and, once another set of tests were completed in the morning, presuming nothing showing up, he would be released.

Will's father stayed until visiting hours were over, at which point he only put up minor objections to being shown out, making a promise "As soon as they call me I'll take time off work and be right down to pick you up, Will. I promise."

The young man was not particularly surprised when his father left after that without looking back. Will had known him long enough to know that his dad cared, but the older man's focus was always on whatever happened to be in front of him and, with Will being cared for at the hospital, what was 'in front of him' was work the next day.

The hospital staff kept him company on-and-off, more a matter of having a reasonable bedside manner than due to any real social interest. Will was okay with that, of course; he wasn't exactly the world's most extroverted twenty-something and he was just as content to offer them a nod and a 'hello' than to engage in any real conversation. Despite the constant company of the check-ins, documenting of vitals, and one 'farewell' due to a shift-change (followed by a 'hello'), Will did have a decent amount of time to reflect on what had happened... or, rather, his impression of it.

The reintroduction to his normal life felt in many ways what he expected "player brain drain" to feel like if he were a character in Eternyte. 'PBD' as it was sometimes called among players was the dynamic of logging back into game after being gone for 'too long'. A player would hop back into the game and find themselves who-knew-where doing who-knew-what; assuredly they had plans when they'd logged out but, with those plans long since forgotten, the player had to take stock of their situation, reintegrate themselves into the right mindset, and then plan their next course of action anew.

Although will practically lived in Eternyte, there had been more than one occasion when he'd invited someone he knew into a group only to have them decline and send a short personal message "Need a min. PBD.". Will was ashamed when he came to the conclusion that he was probably the only person alive who had PBD when it came to the real world, and it was never more evident than as he sat motionless in his hospital bed, staring across the room at the blank wall with the whiteboard where, in clean penmanship with an erasable marker was written "Your Nurse is Becky D."

Will didn't know Becky D, except that she was the staff member who took over for "Annie". Part of him wondered just how many nurses named Becky worked at Westside Hospital but, in the end, he just turned his brain off and let the time pass, the clock on the wall clicking endlessly as the minutes turned to hours, and the hours, ultimately, turned into sleep. Usually one to dream incessantly, Will was surprised when he awoke to the passages of time as if he had simply closed his eyes and when he opened them again it was morning. The entire sensation felt almost surreal.

True to their word, the hospital staff ran another battery of tests in the morning; thankfully none of them were invasive and most consisted of him having to sit very still while stuck into large electronic tubes. The entire experience was boring and, each time he went, the staff made him leave all of his belongings behind-- even the thumb drive he otherwise refused to put down. His morning nurse, a no-nonsense woman by the name of Becky H (the second Becky he counted) promised it would be safe and, despite how seemingly unapproachable she came across, she was true to her word; both times he came back she handed it to him personally, stating that she had protected it in his absence; her words sounded almost chiding and belittling, but they still somehow brought him comfort.

It wasn't until Will had ordered something for lunch to be brought to his room from the hospital's kitchen that a physician's assistant came in and let him know he was being discharged. Since he wasn't underage he wouldn't normally have to wait for his dad, but the PA did say it was the hospital's policy that someone who had sustained a head injury or loss of consciousness not be released from care until they had someone available to pick them up. According to hospital staff, his father had been notified and would be on the way from work. Will knew that it'd be a bit of a wait.

The wait, as it turned out, was just over an hour; fortunately that gave Will time to eat his lunch, get dressed and secure the thumb drive into the inner pocket of the jacket that had been brought in with the rest of his clothes when he was checked into the hospital. Will was just acknowledging the nurse who came in to check on him during Becky H's lunch (her name was Becky K-- the third Becky) when his dad showed up. Offering a patient smile tempered by obvious impatience, his dad motioned to the hall. "Sorry about the wait, Will... let's get going-- I know you probably wanna relax in your OWN bed after this, right?"

Will didn't blame his father for wanting to make it quick; taking time off work wasn't always that easy on a fixed income and his dad really didn't need the loss in pay. Grabbing the remaining meager belongings he wasn't wearing, Will followed the older man out. "Sure, Dad. Right behind ya."

The ride home was silent for the most part. Although neither spoke and Will's dad didn't bother to turn on the radio, the stillness was disrupted by the older man tapping out an impatient beat on the steering wheel; the beat got faster when they got stuck behind a slow utility truck. Only once they were back to their neighborhood, two blocks from the house did his dad speak up. "I'm really glad the doctors said you were okay, Will... I don't know what I'da done if--"

Will quickly interjected. "I'm alright, Dad... just tired."

As they pulled into the driveway, his his dad pressed the brake. Turning to regard him without turning off the engine or even putting the vehicle in park, the older man said "You are everything to me, Will. I know it may not always seem like it, what with my work shifts and all, but I can't even imagine what would have happened if..."

Once again Will came to his father's defense, forestalling any further awkward attempts at emotional outpouring. "It's okay, Dad. I get it. I'm glad I'm okay too."

Will often thought what it would be like if his father was emotionally healthy-- or even emotionally available for that matter. He often observed other students at school getting hugs from their parents; he settled for a pat on the shoulder as his dad motioned to the car door, popping the vehicle into reverse with his foot still on the brake. "Well... okay then. I'll be back home as soon as I can... gotta finish this shift."

"Sure dad."

Will was just about to close the car door but his dad called out to him "Gimme a call if there's a problem. I can always call your uncle if you think you--"

Will did not want his uncle to 'babysit' him. "It's alright, Dad. I'm fine. They wouldn't have released me if there was a problem."

Giving into the reassurance of his son and the pressure of lost work hours, his dad relented. "Okay then. I'll be back later. Love ya, Will."

His father was not usually one to use the four-letter L word, and, distracted, Will responded by rote, but with the wrong name. "Love you too, Durmel."

Stiffening up immediately when realizing his mistake, Will was ready to have to defend himself to his dad, but the window was already rolled up. His dad mouthed through the window "See. You. Tonight."

The acrid punch of charred wood hit Will's nose the moment he approached the house; it had rained during the thunderstorm and, combined with the strong ozone scent in the air made the bouquet almost reminiscent of a camp site, but the young man waved the thought away as he entered the house. A quick trip down the hall to his room revealed just how much damage the lightning strike had done: a tarp was set across his window and there was significant damage to the area immediately surrounding it. Oddly enough, however, the computer appeared to be completely unaffected.

Realizing that there was a good chance rain might get in beneath the tarp, Will's first order of business was to get his computer away from the opening in the wall. The Becker house was not a big one, and so there were only so many places Will could set up his gaming desk, which means he had to relocate to the living room. From there, he meticulously set up his station so that it mimicked what he'd had in his bedroom. From there, he did a quick check of all of the equipment and verified that his surge protector was still working; it wasn't, but that was easily fixed with a replacement. Holding his breath, Will flipped the switch on his computer... and it booted up.

Silently thanking whatever metaphysical powers watched over gamers that he still had a computer, Will sat staring at his desktop for all of five seconds trying to figure out what to do first, followed by messing around with system settings, checking drivers and various other bits of busy work just so he could convince himself that he wasn't obsessed. Once he passed a 'reasonable amount of time' he then considered his next step. It really wasn't much of a contest: he booted up Eternyte.

Each of Eternyte's expansions had a different loading screen and, as the game opened he wondered in that split second if he would see the vast field with a rune stone monolith of the original game but, in an anticlimactic letdown, he saw the rune stone surrounded by an overgrown jungle that identified his current version being the most recent expansion, 'Dark Tidings'. Even as he felt his heart sink in his chest, Will was willing to overlook the obvious 'return to real life' if it meant he could regain a sense of normalcy. Clicking the login button, Will hoped to push all of his cares away by enveloping himself in the comforting numbness of his favorite computer game.

All of that hope came to an end when the server failed to connect. He stared at the error, which announced that he was using the wrong version and needed to update. Staring at the error message for nearly a minute, Will clicked cancel, and then tried again; he got the same message. The concern began to grow as Will began scanning the server status (they were all active) and the game schedule (no maintenance planned). Ultimately he decided to try something more technical and tried to ping the servers with his client; the response back was "Error 404 Not Found".

The only other time Will had been unable to enter Eternyte was when his game install became corrupted and he had been able to fix it by reinstalling the game. Practically crying, Will went through the process of uninstalling then reinstalling the game. Back when it happened the first time he had to reinstall the vanilla version followed by the first three expansions; it had taken the better part of a day. Fortunately, Eternyte had undergone some efficiency patches and so he was able to install the newest version in one go directly off their servers and so it only took him about an hour.

Once the game was installed, Will rebooted his machine and, once the system was back up and running the young man held his breath, loaded up Eternyte, and plugged in his login info... then hit the button to connect. Several seconds of an attempt to connect would have created a sense of theatrical expectation, but the game wouldn't even give him that; it immediately failed to connect yet again... but it gave a different error message, indicating that the server was not the correct version of the game for the character.

Beginning to lose hope, wondering if the beta test had completely destroyed his game, Will stuffed his hands dejectedly into his jacket pockets; his left hand brushed across a thumb drive- THE thumb drive. Not exactly sure what to think about it, Will came to the conclusion that his game couldn't get any MORE destroyed, and so he plugged it into the computer. He didn't know if he would have to access it and, if so, if it had some kind of password protection, but that all turned out to be irrelevant since it auto-loaded a file, pulling up a screen that looked like any other Eternyte patch screen.

Will stared at the notification, identifying the same update that had caused all the chaos in his life in the first place. he realized that he should have had some reservations. Some part of him tried to encourage him to think it through and consider what he was doing. There was a possibility that he was crazy and the entire act was pointless, but, he realized, if there was even the slightest chance that what had happened wasn't in his mind, he had to take the chance-- he NEEDED to take it. Moving the mouse, Will confirmed.

* * * * *

There was something eerily familiar to the blackness that engulfed him-- unlike the first time, however, the fear and uncertainty was tempered with expectation... and hope. Rather than a splitting headache, Will instead was left with a strange, buzzing sensation all around him and a ringing in his ears... if such physical things existed with he couldn't even identify having a body.

It was eerie how quickly he'd become familiar with lacking any specific presence; he likened it to existing without existing. There was no pain and no adverse sensations, but also no positive ones. He'd experienced having a limb fall asleep plenty of times followed by the 'pins and needles' feeling, but even that was completely absent-- he simply 'was' without 'being', and, since it wasn't the first time for him, he was able to admit that it felt peaceful.

Unlike the panic that had struck him when he'd originally experienced the 'emptiness', Will instead took the opportunity to try and sense something-- anything... but there was nothing to identify, and so he turned his thoughts inward. He'd been scared in the beginning because he couldn't move; the thought was almost comical to him the second time since he realized he had no body. He remembered feeling his heart beating powerfully in his chest out of panic the first time, and, in that moment, that realization made him pause; if he didn't have a form how could his heart have been beating in a chest that didn't exist?

Almost as if in response to his thoughts on the matter, he could actively feel his heart beating once again. Will tried to recall what happened last time-- what had made all of the blackness fall away? He remembered awakening with his feet being dangerously close to a campfire, but what had happened before then? Suddenly he remembered: he had called out. Using a voice which should not have existed in a body-less situation, Will nevertheless spoke. "Hello?"

The single word echoed around him, and through him, if such a thing were possible without a body. With each reverberation of the two syllables, Will felt as though it were reaffirming his existence... as if the sound itself helped form him-- coalescing into a physical form that, seconds before had not been present. Relying on a leap of faith, Will called out again a second time, but with purpose. "Vynek? Vynek Tzram?"

The Divine name bounced around him as surely as his initial hail, once again unanswered. Unlike his first call, the name did not increase his sense of self, rather, it seemed to bring a certain clarity of the emptiness around him into focus. Will did not hang in a hollow void; he was surrounded by a thick mist which continued to coalesce, carrying with it an ever-so-faint rumbling roar, as if of water cascading down from a great height.

A feeling deep within him wouldn't let Will give up on his purposeful train of thought, focused on the divine entity who had sent him a piece of in-game mail in the world which he should never have been in without looking through his computer at it. "What is this all about? What do you want from me?"

A response finally came, so quiet as to almost be lost amidst the echo of his own voice. He was almost not even sure it was there, and yet, somehow, it was still clear enough that he could make it out. Soft-but-masculine, the speaker said simply "Hello, Will Etherborn. Welcome back to Mytholm."

Was that Vynek Tzram? It was the same voice, and the exact same greeting that was given to him the first time he'd made the body-less transition and awakened in Mytholm. Was it setting the stage for his reawakening? Was he about to 'respawn'? Will honestly didn't know the answer but, a moment later, he finally felt something of significance: cold. The sense of coldness was complete and permeated every sense of his being. Will knew in an instant if he had a body it would be shivering; a split second later he did-- and it did.

The sudden sensation of uncomfortable, uneven firmness against his back caused him to jump up with a start. "GYAH!"

Unlike the first time Will awoke in Mytholm, he was not in a tent, and there weren't a half-dozen little Kobolds to leap back in surprise at his exclamation... only one. The singular Kobold recovered quickly, however, gripping the Bouncy Ball tightly in its talons as it looked his way with elation. "Master Etherborn! You're awake!"

Will recognized him immediately. "Pip?"

The brick-colored reptile swept into a deep bow. "Oh, the Master speaks again! Every time you speak my name you bring me such joy, Master Etherborn!"

Sitting up from his place on the ground, Will grunted, feeling the cold, hard rocks dig into his naked body; he did a double-take, realizing that he wasn't EXACTLY 'naked'. While it was true that Will had no equipment, he was strangely still garbed in a loin wrap, not unlike the 'paper doll' characters when a player unequipped everything. Pushing that thought to the side, he focused on Pip the Herald, who, despite his vivacious joy at being addressed, did not look like he was in the best condition.

The Kobold held one arm immobile and close to his body, favoring his leg on the same side of his body. More than that, Pip had several nasty gashes on his body and one of his horns was cracked. Even as he stood expectantly, the poor little lizard had to use his tail as a third leg to help steady himself. Despite his own wounds, Pip seemed more concerned about Will. When he spoke, his split lip bled further. "Why are you frowning, Master?"

Slowly standing, Will took quick stock of himself. Despite being without any gear, he did't really seem to be wounded and, as far as he could tell, he wasn't suffering from any major status effects. Letting out a sigh of relief (partial relief, since he didn't like the idea of having no gear or inventory), he faced his reptilian companion. Will wanted to unburden himself by explaining his countless concerns of having been beaten down by a PVPer, world hopping, and finding himself completely un-geared but, somewhere deep inside, he knew that William Etherborn would do no such thing.

Offering a patient smile, the young man instead stated "I am frowning, Pip, because one of my loyal followers is wounded."

Raising a hand, Will used his priest spell Lesser Heal. A soft white light suffused Pip. The Kobold, not a true NPC Companion would have nowhere near the health as someone like Proudmane or Minotaurus or Lok, yet the healing was moderate at best. The lack of power behind it surprised Wil until he realized the problem: despite feeling alright, the young man could tell that he was far from okay. "Rez sickness..."

Pip was focused on the fact that most of his wounds had closed and he could use him arm and leg freely; although his lip was still split and his horn was cracked, the Kobold rejoiced, cheering gleefully before pausing, looking back to the Human, apparently taking note that something had been said. "What, Master Etherborn?"

Players whose characters died under 10th level were able to resurrect immediately at a graveyard or temple with no penalty or debuff, but a higher level player not only lost a portion of their gear, but they also gained a negative modifier to attack power, spells and skills for ten minutes-- called 'resurrection sickness, or 'rez sickness' for short. If what Will was feeling happened to be that then he had indeed died. Had that been what sent him back to the real world? He didn't know.

Looking to Pip, Will realized that the Kobold was looking at him expectantly. After a second, the young man wondered if the Kobold might be able to answer some questions. "Pip... what happened after I told you to run?"

The Kobold blinked blankly, staring at him as if trying to figure out if it was a trick question. The little lizard must have come to the conclusion that it wasn't because his answer came shortly thereafter. "We ran."

Pip moved to brush Will off as the Human gazed around his surroundings. Standing beside a swiftly moving river, the young man tried to get his bearings; he didn't recognize his surroundings but he started to compare them to his encyplopedic knowledge of Mytholm. Even as he puzzled through the possible locations he regarded his Kobold follower. "If you ran, what are you doing with me now?"

The Kobold offered up a needle-toothed grin, the tip of his thin tail wagging. "We did run... the other Eternal threw his axes and I got hit... and played dead."

Will remembered that some Kobolds had that ability; when taking a death blow from certain Kobold mobs would fall over as if dead, only to hop up and make a surprise attack when the player attempted to loot them. It made sense that Bwung Czerocke would probably not have known that if he didn't spend much time adventuring, and he certainly didn't seem to be the kind of player to loot his kills. Nodding, Will decided to move Pip along and keep him on topic. "...and what about being here with me now?"

Pip casually tapped at one of the rocks on the riverbank with his largest toe claw. "He raided your Holding, Master Etherborn. I knew I couldn't fight him so while he was busy I got away and came looking for you."

The Kobold recoiled, almost as if expecting Will to be angry but, in that moment, the Human had to admit that he was glad for the company... any company. "You did right, Pip."

Reaching out, Will rested a hand on the lizard's head, causing the Kobold to let out a happy squeak; Pip, Will could tell, gained a rank of morale-- a trait normally reserved for followers that provided them a bonus to attack and defense. Once Will removed his hand from his between his companion's small horns Pip asked "What will we do now, Master Etherborn?"

It was a perfectly good question. Will couldn't remember the last time he'd gone anywhere in Mytholm without at least basic equipment and then that was usually only in towns and noncombat areas wearing 'vanity gear'-- items that had no real stat boosts and served only to "look cool". He had to admit that walking around with only a cloth wrapped around his hips was not exactly 'cool'. "First thing, I think I need to rest. Once this rez sickness is gone we can look into getting somewhere to regroup."

Pip cocked his head to the side, eyeing Will quizzically. "Are we going back to the Eternal Halls, Master?"

Although Will had never had any PvP events within his Holding he knew that he couldn't go back; any time a Holding was raided by another player it was unusable for twenty four hours. Wincing inwardly Will wondered just how long twenty four hours of real world time added up to in the world in which he found himself. Sighing, he realized one of the best ways to figure that out was to track how long it took for the rez sickness to go away... presuming that the passage of time for debuffs was the same as respawn time for Holdings. Groaning, the young man realized that there were far too many variables to track.

In the end, he answered Pip's question vaguely. "Not yet, Pip. We will eventually, but not now."

The Kobold looked up at him plaintively. "Do... you still want me to go back to Cragglecrawl, Master Etherborn?"

It felt strange to hear the name of Pip's home town in a calm tone, let alone without the spirited battle cry following it (he couldn't remember the last time he'd encountered a lone Kobold. Nevertheless, Will pressed on, gauging his answer carefully. Although he was far from helpless, the young man couldn't deny the benefit of a companion, even if the little Kobold were under-leveled. "You may, if you like... but I was about to ask if you would like to adventure with me for a time."

Pip let out a gleeful roar. It may have been reminiscent of a dragon if only Pip were fifty times larger but, to Will's ear, it sounded far more like a cat meowing; he managed not to crack up. With the Kobold having managed to make him smile despite his otherwise dour mood, Will inquired "I take it that's a 'yes'?"

The affirmative squeak from Pip the Herald confirmed what Will had realized was the case. With that certainty reaffirmed, the young man began to take stock of his surroundings. There were very few places in Mytholm Will didn't know and, while the world in which he found himself wasn't an EXACT match there were enough uncanny similarities that he knew, given a few moments to assess his location he could pinpoint where he was.

The area was just downstream of some mountains through which a fairly wide river flowed. The spot immediately around him was flat land which had a few sparse clumps of thin-trunk trees with light bark; a fair amount of golden, knee-high grass covered the ground throughout. Only one place he could think of filled that criteria and he confirmed it when he caught sight of the wall of tall, dark trees to the south. He stifled a groan when he realized just how far from his last location he was. "How did we get to the Golden Plans? We're practically next to the Southern Woods!"

Pip, eyes wide as he stared up at Will asked "Where is the Southern Woods?"

Kobolds were said to be very territorial and rarely ventured far from home so it only made sense that Pip the Herald wouldn't know much about Mytholm's geography. Will, focused on staring at the thick forest ahead, gauging the best way to enter it as he made a very straight-forward statement. "It's to the south."

Pip nodded thoughtfully at the assessment. "Ah..."

When Eternyte was first released the Southern Woods were the southernmost point of the game, and remained such until to the Moonbane expansion. In game lore, a powerful wizard had ensorcled the forest, causing anyone who ventured too far into it to become hopelessly lost. In game terms, the forest had a transition zone that resulted in the player loading in at an exit to the forest-- even if they'd been heading south they would exit the forest to the north, keeping them from going too far in. All that changed when the second expansion came out, revealing the rest of the continent which had been inaccessible to due to the maze-like forest to its north and coastal mountains on all other borders.

Will's reflection on the game was disrupted when a slender scaled talon slid into his palm. Looking up at him, Pip inquired "Are we going there, Master Etherborn?"

Ever since he had first found himself in the strange world, Will had wondered just how alike it was to Mytholm. There were decided similarities, but things were not exact-- not the least of which being the apparent mix-mash of expansions. If he was in the original version then he wouldn't be able to navigate the forst; if the world in which he found himself was post-Moonbane then there would be an enchanted pathway leading into it. Giving Pip's talon a gentle squeeze, Will made up his mind. "Yes, Pip... we are."