Book 1: Chapter 1: 'Same Old World'

###### Chapter 1, 'Same Old World', is the first Chapter of the Son of Eternia series. It introduces the reader to Declan 'Decadence' O'Connor, the main character of parts 1, 2 and 4 of the series. It acts as a pilot of sorts, and was the only chapter not to be editted by Yamato.

Holding a VR 2.0 headset with the Aetherian branding in his hands, Declan O’Connor waited impatiently for the charge to come back. He had logged out in the middle of a Dungeon, so every second was precious to him. He heard a knock on his bedroom door.

“You know, I used to work on that server.”

Declan turned around, surprised to see his father in his room.

“You did… what now?” He let out, finding it hard to believe.

“Well… a few years back, I helped with the updates for the Aetheria server…” Ethan replied.

“You know how hard I find that to believe, Dad? What’s next, you’re gonna tell me that you made yourself a part of the canon?”

Ethan crossed him arms and smiled, leaning on the doorway as he did.

“Right…” Uttered Declan with a slight undertone of sarcasm. “Then why have you never told me until now…”

“I’ve been busy with work, and I forgot all about it until I saw you playing…”

“Ethan O’Connor, fellow nerd/avowed pop culture geek and developer of the freakin Aetheria server.” Declan teased, with more enthusiasm than he intended.

“Well, when you put it like that…” Ethan shrugged. “Dinner will be ready in an hour, so wrap it up, m’kay?”

“Will do, Dad. Will do.” Declan gave a military salute as he said this.

Declan O’Connor, known to many as Decadence, was an avid pop-culture nerd, like his adoptive father, Ethan. Declan had never known his blood parents, but at least from what he let on, that didn’t matter to him. Ethan was not only a father, but a mentor and older brother figure. He had been there for Declan for 9 years now, and their life together seemed perfect.

As I’m sure you know by now, Declan was an avid fan and player of the Aetheria server, which I’m sure needs no introduction at this point. On the server, he was known as ‘Decadence,’ a nickname he coined after listening to a song on one of his father’s old Walkman tapes. As Decadence, he became a respected and relatively well-known player on the server. Not as well-known as that Kolbert fellow, nor that girl Ione, but known none the less. However, despite commanding respect from his fellow players, Declan had few acquaintances in the virtual world of fantasy. In fact, he had only one person who he could really call a close friend. But, she’s not relevant to his story quite yet.

“Alright, should be able to clear the rest of this dungeon in about half an hour…” Declan murmured, noncommittally.

The signature ‘ba-bip’ sound of a full charge that he had grown accustomed to let him know that it was time to enter the realm of escapism once more. To him, Aetheria was better than any illicit drug that you could find, and it was safe, legal, and not (medically proven to be) addictive. Plus, it was seemingly the love child of all the things he was invested in.

The dungeon that was Declan located in was known as the ‘Grave of the Fallen Star.’ It was built by the developer known as ‘Lazenbeam’ and was located in a valley in the North-West of the Continent of Ardenvell. This area was hardly visited by anyone, Player, or NPC alike, as the biomes here were harsh, desolate, and could scarcely grow even a single wheat crop, let alone a bountiful harvest. The monsters here were also much stronger than those found in the south, so there were hardly any settlements on this side that had not been abandoned. For this very reason, the players had dubbed this part of the continent as ‘The Frontiers.’ Despite all the negatives that came with it, however, many of the best dungeons were located here. Declan knew that this could be no coincidence; the developers of the server planned every update, every dungeon, and every biome to a T, and left no room for error.

As Declan slipped on the headset, he lay down comfortably in his bed. The VR 2.0 headset essentially put its users into a sleep, for it used neuroconnectors to realistically render the entire world around the user. If it weren’t for the fact that the world was made entirely of cubes, one could almost forget that this whole realm of existence was simply ones and zeroes, stored on a server in some industrial building in the heart of a major city, somewhere on Earth. The slumber that the set put the user in could be broken out of quite easily; depending on the settings of the user, it could take anything from a slight nudge to a full earthquake to break them out of it. Either that, or they could simply log off to disconnect the neuroconnectors safely (this method was the preferred one).

As Declan woke up the middle of the dungeon, he slipped into the familiar persona that he had gradually built for himself on the server. In the real world, he was just Declan O’Connor. Nothing special. But in Aetheria, he was Decadence! A player renowned for his dry humour, signature dark red 3-piece suit and excessive baccarat playing! He was nothing like that on Earth. Declan was shy, timid, and a bit of an outcast to be honest. But Decadence; Bold, outgoing… yet still no true friends in that realm.

He found the room that he had purged of mobs but hours ago to still be empty. This was unusual, he thought, as monsters are supposed to keep on spawning when a dungeon was ‘activated,’ even if a player was out of range. He tried to get up, but he placed his foot on something and slipped.

“Gah! Ow…” he let out in pain, with the sounds echoing off the dry-stone walls of the dungeon.

Declan looked down to see what it was that he had slipped on and noticed that it was a bronze-gold bracelet. To him, this was odd: Bracelets of any kind were not in the loot table for the Grave of the Fallen Star, so this had to be another player’s item. Had they been slain by some monster? Unlikely, as there should be other items floating about, as well as some XP on the floor. Perhaps they took it off in a hurry.

Declan picked up the bracelet in his hand, and immediately felt the warmth radiating off of it. After but a few seconds, it became unbearable for him to touch, and he dropped it to the floor once more. He had time to spare and decided to inspect the item before continuing his dungeon crawl. He made a familiar motion with his hands and utter a divination spell, and the item’s table came up before him. ‘The Aurum Bracelet of Avernum,’ +2 STR, +1 VIT. To Declan, these seemingly strange words were simply another language, and one that he was very fluent in. He recognised ‘Aurum’ as being the Latin word for gold, and Avernum being the same for bronze. The phrases next to the name indicated that that, when equipped, this item would increase the wielder’s Strength level by 2, and their Vitality level by 1. It still seemed strange that someone would drop this item in the middle of a dungeon, so Declan looked at the enchantments of this item.

‘Curse of Burning IV.’ That was the only enchantment of the bracelet that could be discerned. Curses like that could only be obtained either from enchanting table, or from…

“Forlorn Entities…” Declan muttered to himself.

Dark, robed creatures that resembled wizard mummies. Creatures like that were common in dungeons like this. Whoever dropped it must have been hit by a spell from one of them and dropped it. Declan again considered the possibilities from this, remembering that items disappeared after 5 minutes in the open, concluded that the person in the dungeon with him was only a couple minutes ahead of him. The chase was on.

Reaching into his inventory, Declan pulled out his signature weapons, Daybreak and Nighthunt, a katana and wakizashi pair that he forged himself but a month ago and set forth to catch up to whoever was in the dungeon with him. He moved with haste but caution; for he was not yet aware if his fellow dungeon crawler was friend or foe. Entering a grand hall near the mid-point of the dungeon, Declan looked around in awe. He had heard that Lazenbeam was one of the best builders on the entire server, but this… was something else! The walls almost extended up above the surface, the murals embedded onto them, something only admins were capable of doing, in them only adding to the feeling that this place had once been built with utmost care, almost to house something of immense importance. It was The Grave of the Fallen Star, after all…

“Hey,” a voice behind him proclaimed.

Declan turned around swiftly and found a girl slightly older than him standing right behind him. She had the pointed ears common of elves, yet her skin had an almost human-like quality to it, being abundant in freckles.  Hanging around her neck was a pendent that resembled a waning gibbous. Her hair was a deep shade of orange-gold that seemed as natural as the midday sun. She was most likely a player due to this, as Moon elves often have hair as dark as the night.

“Ahem.” The girl cleared her throat.

Instead of replying to her gesture, Declan simply took out the bracelet that he had found earlier. He held it up in front of her, covering his hand with his sleeve so that it didn’t burn.

“Found this earlier in the dungeon. Yours?” Declan stated.

“Yeah… but it’s been cursed, no point in wearing it now… How did you catch up to me? I didn’t see or hear anyone else enter after me…

“Entered the dungeon last night, but battery ran out.” Declan tapped his head with his 2 forefingers as he said this, a server-wide symbol of the VR 2.0 headset.

“Glad you were here, otherwise I would have had to have dealt with the previous room again.” Declan noticed that the girl wasn’t looking at him, but instead seemed to be gazing behind him. Suddenly, with the grace of a well-trained combatant, the girl lunged towards him. Instinctively, Declan dodged this attack with a simple dash manoeuvre, leaping to his left. He began to draw his swords, but stopped as soon as he saw what was behind him.

“Damn Forlorn Entities. That’s the third I’ve had to deal with this past hour.” mumbled the girl, with an undertone of annoyance in her voice.

“Well, besides that, thanks for that… name’s Dec…adence by the way” Declan said to the girl.

“No problem, ‘Decadence.’ A fellow user of aliases, I see. Can’t say I blame you. Name’s Kathnisha.” The girl offered her arm out for a shake, and Declan returned the offer.

“I recognise that name… a merging of the neo-modern elven words for ‘light’ and ‘sun,’ right?”

“Wow, you’re… actually the first person to notice that.” Kathnisha replied.

“Well, seeing as we’re both here, might as well clear the rest of the dungeon together. Sound like a plan?” Declan offered his hand for a shake.

Kathnisha took his hand and shook it firmly. “Looks like we have a deal, Decadence. Just know that if you even think of double-crossing me….” A ball of fire appeared in the palm of her other hand.

“Yeah, don’t worry. Player’s honour. Pinkie promise. Cross my heart. All that.” Declan said with a slight undertone of sarcasm.

The pair made off for the next room in the dungeon, for they had only cleared half of it so far. It soon became apparent that the dungeon had been specifically designed so that it would be completed with much more ease if two players entered as a party. This was a design choice that was implemented into most of the dungeons in Aetheria, and thus ‘never go solo’ had become the mantra of many dungeon crawlers. However, Declan never really found this mantra to be true for him: For over a year now, he had cleared every dungeon as an avowed solo. Granted, it took much longer to do so, and it was always much more dangerous, but what else could he do? Hire some amateur hiding in the capital to tag along and hopefully not die for a couple of emeralds? Or join one of the many clans or guilds that inhabited the continent? Both ideas were equally repulsive to him, not for the fact that he wanted to go solo, but for the fear that someone would betray him again and he’d have to start all over. Again. Declan had long had trust issues.

As they both entered the next room, it soon became apparent that there was no going back. The door closed and locked behind them, and they would have to either complete the dungeon or die to get out.

“Ah, drat.” Kathnisha let out a sigh. “Guess I should have expected something like this. Common feature of many of the northern dungeons.

Declan nodded in agreement. “I guess this means the dungeon boss shouldn’t be too far from here then. Need an S III?” Declan offered a dark red potion.

“Actually, yeah I do, thanks.” Kathnisha grabbed the potion from him and stuffed it in her inventory. “I came here for a quest I received from the capital. Big payout. Rushed over here so quickly that I didn’t even have time to check the dungeon on the ‘wiki. Any idea what the boss is?”

Declan paused for a minute. “Well, yes, I do actually. Guarding the Fallen Star is a special type of Basilisk, named Gandrgandr enchanted I believe. While the damage it deals isn’t that high, its poison effects and Stoneskin affinity make it a nightmare to kill. Lore-wise, it’s another creation of the Eyeless One”

Kathnisha paused a second to smirk. “Looks like you did your research, eh?” She lightly punched him in the arm as she said this.

“Well, when you don’t expect anyone to be joining your dungeon crawl, you gotta be prepared. And that’s why…” Declan stopped talking for a minute, and nonchalantly thrust his sword behind him, killing another Forlorn Entity that had been trailing him.

“You gotta know you’re in for before you start.”

The duo made more small talk; where they lived in the real world, what their interests were, how they found the server, etc. Kath was a 15-year-old from Orlando, Florida, and was currently in high school. Like Declan, she had no idea what she wanted to do in the future. She found the server last year through a friend and had been trying to ‘climb to 99’ ever since. From this, Declan assumed that she was a so-called ‘power gamer,’ doing whatever was necessary to level up quickly. He was always wary of people like that.

It wasn’t too long before the pair made it to a long hallway, with murals engraved on the sides. This was the last area before the dungeon boss. The room was pitch-black, so Declan grabbed out a torch from his inventory.

“We’ve got time before we need to enter. You do what you need to do, and I’ll try to figure out what these murals mean.” Declan started with the first mural on the left wall and began muttering what the murals meant.

“The fallen star… will give oneself power… that can only be used… at the midnight hour… let it be known… that if one even makes a mark… the entirety of the continent… will forever be in the… dark…

Kath…”

Kathnisha was simply looking at the door that led to the boss room, with her Ruby Shortedge in hand.

“The fallen star can grant oneself more than just power, Dec. From what I’ve heard, it can give almost godlike powers.” The tone of her voice had changed from being light-hearted to one of almost black heartedness.

“I assume that’s why you were here then. Not some quest from the capital.” Declan drew his blades once more, and slowly got into a fighting stance.

“Well, you’re only half wrong…” Kathnisha let out a dark chuckle. “Boss Wizards, major clan, sure you’ve heard of them, were looking for someone either brave enough or stupid enough to get a fragment of The Fallen Star.”

“Kath, if even a fragment of that star is taken, the whole continent will fall into an eternal darkness…”

“Well, Dec, that’s a price that a few of us are more than willing to take…”

Kathnisha attacked first, lunging at Declan with a head strike. Using his wakizashi, Declan blocked this attack and used his katana to make a cut towards her now unprotected torso. However, Kathnisha dropped her blade and parried this move, now holding in a seeming backwards manner. Declan recognised manoeuvre from the countless combat videos that he’d seen over the years: This prevents your opponent from being able to stab you with your own weapon. As a natural response, Declan dashed backwards.

“Is the doom of the entire continent really worth a couple thousand emeralds?” he yelled in anger.

“It’s not just about the money, sweetheart.” Kathnisha said in a condescending tone. “Power, respect, people bowing before your very name... You could have it all too…”

“If you just got out of my way…”

Declan prepared to attack once more. “Don’t sweetheart me, ya power-mad psychopath!”

He clapped his two blades together, creating an energy shockwave directed at Kathnisha. The power from this would be enough to stun her for at least a second, and that was all he needed.

“Oh, no you don’t…” Kathnisha yelled. She brought her shortedge in front of her, and dashed **over** the shockwave, landing 6 feet in front of Declan.

“You really thought some cheap trick like that could startle me? Declan sighed in anger. He raised Daybreak up to meet Kathnisha’s chin. “More so, you think I’d let one of the Boss Wizards lay their hands on the Fallen Star? Man, you are delusional, Kath.”

This statement seemed to anger Kathnisha more, as she leaped in to attack again. But now, there was fire in her swings, she seemed to be motivated by something. The two traded blows, but scarcely managed to hit one another. In terms of combat, the two were equals.

“You really should just give up, Dec. The Boss Wizards places a tracking gem in this-here sword…” Kathnisha gave her shortedge a twirl as she said this. “And when they see that I’ve been in the same room for the past 10 minutes, they’ll send their best to assist me. And even if they find me dead, they’ll just restock me. And they’ll kill you.”

“Maybe, but at least I’ll be a dead hero.” Declan shrugged as he mentioned this. “But do you really think they’ll come for some new recruit like you?”

The two had traded blows for more than half an hour, and still neither would let up. Equally determined to reach the Fallen Star before the other, their form seemed perfect. Kathnisha had attack more defensively and had created some distance between her and Declan.

“By the way, thanks for the SIII you gave me earlier.” She held up a darkish red bottle. “Enough child’s play. Let’s dance, darling.”

As she turned to take a sip, Declan saw an opportunity. Taking out his bow and last arrow, he aimed at her, taking advantage of her brief moment of neglect. The arrow flew from the string and headed straight for the girl.

CRACK.

The sound of shattering glass rang throughout the room, as the remnants of what was once an SIII Potion seeped into the floor. Both Kathnisha and Declan looked equally as shocked.

“Thought some cheap trick like that was enough to startle me?” Kathnisha mocked.

“No, not really. Just enough to distract you until my ability cools down…”

Declan pulled up a mask that he had hidden under his shirt and threw down a smoke bomb. This ability would give him invisibility for a short while.

Kathnisha drew her Shortedge defensively once more, backing into a corner. This way, Declan could only attack her from a 90-degree area, instead of 360 degrees. She knew that his invisibility would wear off soon, and that he’d be left vulnerable for a second.

10… 9… 8…

She drew her crossbow and loaded it with a poison-tipped arrow. As soon as he revealed himself, she would fire.

7… 6… 5…

After all her training, she wasn’t going to let some honour-bound neophyte get in the way of her and her clan.

4… 3… 2…

Kathnisha heard a clicking sound coming from 6 feet in front of her.

1…

And there, on the other side of the hallway, stood Declan. Flintlock in hand, bullet in chamber. The two stood still, not moving. Both were low enough to die as soon as the other fired.

“Let me make myself quite plain. This is your last chance to walk away, Kath. I’m a merciful man, but only if you let me be.” Declan rounded the chamber as he said this. “Don’t try anything stupid.”

As the words exited his mouth, he unholstered his katana, Daybreak, and prepared for whatever came next.

“You really don’t get it, do you? Either I walk out of this alive, or you do. There’s no compromise, no in-between.” Kathnisha let out a sigh. “How the hell did I even end up like this?”

“Well, that’s a question only you can answer.” Declan muttered.

“Just end my suffering.”

“What?”

“I know what they’ll do to me once I give them the shard.” Kathnisha lowered her crossbow and held her hands up in surrender. “I’ll just say that you bested me.”

Declan said nothing and put his flintlock back in the holster in his shirt. As he walked over, he drew Nighthunt, his wakizashi.

“You do realise that you could just defect, right?” Declan said, with a hint of restraint in his voice.

“No, I couldn’t. They’d hunt me down. It’s the only way.”

Declan sighed once more and came closer to Kathnisha. His face showed an undertone of internal conflict.

“If I’m going to have to do this, at least let me do it with dignity…” Declan fell to his knees as he said this. “Kneel.”

Kathnisha obliged. “Sorry for all this, you know.”

Declan placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “No, I am, Kath. Sorry that it had to end like this.”

“Maybe our paths will cross once more, in the future.”

Declan didn’t respond to this directly, instead, just saying sorry under his breath. Twisting his blade in hand, he drove it into the abdominal region of Kathnisha, taking away the last of her health. He lay her on the ground, letting her go in peace.

“Let it be that our paths cross once more, in better circumstances…” Declan’s voice trailed off as he said this. Kathnisha’s body began to fade into glowing blue dust. Since she was a player, she would respawn at her last location, most likely some outpost of the Boss Wizards, some ten thousand blocks away from here.

After she had completely vanished, Declan pocketed his blade, leaned on a wall near the entrance to the boss room and slid down. He reached into his inventory and took a swig of water, trying to cleanse the taste of murder out of his mouth. This realm may not be a real one, but killing another still took a toll on his health. Declan truly valued all life in both the real world and this virtual realm, and only killed another person if he truly had to. Every time he did, he was affected by the ramifications of his actions. Often, he never saw the few he had killed again, so to him it was truly as if they were dead. The taking of another life in this world felt, nay was **real** to him. He was unsure if he had the willpower; the mental fortitude to continue. He was beginning to second-guess himself, and a cloud of doubt covered his vision. It was only when he remembered that he had to either clear the dungeon or die to get out that the fog clouding his judgement began to lift. He was safe where he was, and no more monsters would spawn in that area. He would simply log off and continue tomorrow night, after school. Maybe that could distract him for a while. He selected the options button, visible on his display, and pressed the log off button. Almost instantaneously, he was transported back to a world not built of ones and zeroes, but of matter.

“Sure took your time.” Declan saw his father standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame.

“Oh, uh… Am I late for dinner…? Declan asked with slight trepidation.

“No, but you are cutting it kinda close.” Ethan made a twirling motion with his hand. “Head over to the table, pot roast should be ready in 5!”

Declan got up off of his bed and walked slowly over towards the dining room. There was obviously something lacking in his step, as Ethan noticed that Declan didn’t look as upbeat as he usually did. He didn’t want to prod or interrogate his son, but Ethan also felt that sense of paternal obligation to know what was going on in his son’s life so that he could help him. He decided to wait until dinner to ask and went over to the kitchen to finish off the pot roast. Last thing Declan needed after what was obviously a rough day was a burnt dinner.

Meanwhile, at the dining room table, Declan sat down at his chair, and slumped down on his chair. He tried to remind himself that the events of the day technically didn’t happen, but he still felt the ramifications of them. He did not know why he was like this; why every action in that virtual realm felt **real** to him. Perhaps it was because he spent more waking hours there than he spent in the real world, so perhaps that world was more real to him than this. Declan put a hand of his forehead, sweeping his hair back in one swift motion, and exhaled in exhaustion. He began to mutter to himself about how one day, far in the future, he would have more significant things to worry about than killing some other player in a game. He stopped his muttering, however, when Ethan appeared in the doorway, dishes in hand.

“Hope you’re hungry, kiddo.”

Ethan wasn’t wrong in his assumption. Declan had always had a ravenous appetite, as if he had been afflicted with that hunger debuff permanently. Despite this, he was effectively built like a rake, and when shirtless, every bone in his ribcage was visible. He had been recently trying to work out to gain muscle mass, but it hadn’t been working out for him.

Ethan and Declan had both finished their dinner half an hour later, and Declan was about to finish clearing up when Ethan addressed the elephant in the room.

“Things haven’t been going too well in Aetheria, has it…” He asked with slight trepidation.

“Tell me about it...” Declan responded, unsure where the conversation was going.

“Well, I don’t want to… prod, but from what I can tell, you haven’t exactly looked the happiest… since logging off. I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on, Declan.”

“Well… I made enemies with one of the most influential clans on the server…” Declan replied.

“Heh. Like father, like son, I guess. But obviously there’s something else that’s bothering you, something other people would call smaller and more insignificant.” Ethan inquired.

“I had to kill someone again, Dad.” Declan interrupted.

Ethan had known for a long, long time that Declan hated taking the life of anything. He couldn’t even bring himself to kill the snails that ate his cabbages in the garden. Ethan was empathetic of this, and never judged or berated Declan for it.

“Declan… I’m sorry… you had to do that… I know how much…” Ethan stumbled over his words as he tried to form a coherent sentence.

“Dad, it’s… fine. I know that… it’s all virtual, none of it actually happened.” Declan mumbled

“But you still had to do those actions, no? Declan, I understand that, to you, that world is just as real as this one. So no, don’t dismiss your feelings. Don’t ignore them either…” Ethan replied.

Declan paused after hearing his father’s earnestness. He had long known that Ethan genuinely cared about him like he was not only his son, but his younger brother.

“Thanks, dad.” Declan said. He picked up his plate, walked over to the dishwasher and placed it in, and moved to the bedroom hallway without another word. Ethan knew that Declan probably wouldn’t be going to sleep right away, most likely listening to Nine Inch Nails or some other decades-old band on his old Walkman. He decided that it was probably best to leave him for now, and not to pry about what happened anymore, and just let Declan get some sleep. It was Monday tomorrow, and it looked like he needed a lot of sleep.

As Declan entered his room, he opened a drawer in his nightstand and pulled out his Walkman, inserted his Nine Inch Nails mixtape and simply fell back-first onto his bed. Reflecting over today, he knew that he would probably have dreams of what happened. He always did when things like this happened. His tiredness soon got the better of him however, so he took off his Walkman and closed his eyes, slipping into a deep, exhaustion-driven sleep. As expected, he dreamed of Kathnisha, the grave, and the fallen star. What would happen to all of them? Well, that was a question that only tomorrow could answer.

End of Chapter 1.

Declan O’Connor will return, in:

Chapter 2: ‘August, 2039’.