Logging in was my only escape. I didn’t have the chance to feel lonely when I was fighting monsters and leveling up. Plus, speaking with people online was so much easier than in real life. I could be anyone I wanted to online.
I first found out about Etheria Online during one of my sleepless nights. The house was still. My mother and father had been fast asleep for hours. The only thing keeping me company was the hum of the refrigerator and a commercial for an adult chat line on the television. I remember thinking the women in that commercial looked like they were from the 90’s, but all the same I was intrigued. What else is a teenage boy to do?
After the outdated phone escorts finished dancing in their hazy white background, I went to the fridge to get something to eat.
Then I heard the sound, the regal trumpets blaring from the living room.
I went back to the television and saw these images of knights and sorcerers cutting down trolls and dark lords. I was in utter awe.
I don’t remember going to get my debit card and buying the game. But I do remember that it was pretty pricey at eighty-nine dollars. And yeah, the twenty-five dollar rush delivery fee really hurt my bank account.
When the CD arrived, I turned on my LAN connection and downloaded the software. The big stylized yellow letters appeared on my monitor Etheria Online, and then I was in heaven.
The sky was impossibly blue while the sun burned above lush plant life that reached and coiled through every structure. Once I logged in and saw how grand Etheria was I was hooked.
I customized my character to be tall and very slim, toned and with long pointy elf ears. I named him Melchior. I had heard the name in a story and thought it had the wizard’s ring to it.
My avatar was of the scholar class. Like everyone else, I started out pretty weak; my spells could barely kill imps in the beginning. Most people who play a magical based character party up with stronger players in the beginning, but I wanted to get stronger on my own without needing help for once.
At first, I only used a blade and a flame spell on my enemies. After clocking countless hours of game time, I advanced to an apprentice caster. That’s when things got good for me.
My mother complained to me about the time I spent gaming. She would say, “Your brain is dying every hour you spend on these games!”
But I didn’t care. I understood where she was coming from, in that mom sort of way, but she didn’t understand what my reality was like.
I went to school each day knowing that it would be another hellish bore. I suppose things could’ve been worse for me. I wasn’t unpopular enough to be picked on, but I felt forgotten among a sea of faces. My life was a steady medium. I didn’t feel useful or important to anyone. I often though, if I disappeared one day, only my mom and a few kids I was friendly with in the neighborhood would even notice.
My routine became centered around Melchior and advancing his abilities. I would come home from school, grab a burrito, then off to Melchior’s world.
I had found the best spawning areas and used my new class as Spell Sword to my advantage. The Kryntek wolfs were hard to beat because they fought in large packs, but my magic enchanted long sword and I dispatched them easily!
I became so skilled that a prominent guild asked me to join.
The Raging Crafters were mostly magic users who specialized in battle support buffs and healing. It was fairly unheard of for a guild of healers to form since they mostly had weak attacks, but their defensive spells and regeneration gave them a unique advantage over enemies.
The guild leader, DarkLily, asked if I would join them. She said they needed more active battling characters for certain missions. I played it cool and acted disinterested at first. Inside, though, I was so happy that I was noticed! The feeling was completely unfamiliar.
I accepted DarkLily’s invitation and became her and the guild’s right hand man in no time. Before I knew it, people from the guild were always talking to me online, asking about Melchior and his stats, and wanting to go on missions with me.
It was amazing!
I knew they weren’t interested in the real me, but that didn’t upset me at all. Melchior was sointeresting and I was simply not. I mean, I revolved my whole life around him already: it was actually flattering that people appreciated something I had put so much work into.
Eventually, I took it upon myself to train the newer members of the guild. I would take them on runs to dangerous areas, helping them level up faster.
On a run to the Yradele Plains, I was with a newbie named Core Beams. We ran into a red giant troll. The troll was a special character that spawned randomly. He was also an enemy that didn’t give the option to run away. It was either fight or die.
Core Beams was ready to panic, but I helped him thought it. I had him hang back and prepare a triple barrier spell while I enchanted my blade before the assault. He calmed down and focused then.
The troll grunted. His yellow eyes flashed to blood red as he caught sight of us.
I fired an ice spell to slow him down. I ran in close enough to strike, but my hit only caused minimal damage.
Core Beams panicked and fired a weak magic shot at the troll who then began attacking him. Core Beams’ barriers broke instantly!
As the troll was about to attack, I used a rare item called The Champion’s Word and gained a powerful lightning spell for a limited time.
The spell hit the troll dead on! His life gauge flashed from green to red instantly. That’s when I struck again with my ensorcelled blade to finish the job.
After we divvied our items from the win, Core Beams sent me a private message that our guild couldn’t see.
He asked me, “Do you think I’m special?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer him. I’d never been asked that kind of question before.
I had Melchior make a thinking face so Core Beams knew I was ignoring him.
Then I thought about it long and hard. How had Core Beams, this newbie I hardly knew, decided I could make that decision for him? I realized that whatever the reason, my opinion mattered to him.
Finally I answered, “Yes, I do.”
Core Beams made a smiley emoticon and didn’t press further.
When we arrived back at the guild hall, we upgraded his equipment and celebrated his level up–which came with a new healing spell!
Core Beams sent me another message before I logged out.
“Thank you for helping me.”
I put in the action command for Melchior to give a thumbs up and then logged out. I slept for a long time after that fight with the troll.
When I logged back in the next morning, I tried to send a message to Core Beams. But his character had been deleted. I don’t mean deleted just from the guild, but also from the gamer registry.
I played the game every day for another year before the servers closed down. During that time, I never heard from Core Beams again.
I never knew if Core Beams was actually a boy or even a school age kid, since online games let you become anyone you’ve ever dreamed. Still, sometimes, I daydream that Core Beams logged out and went to school the next day. He aced his test and kicked a bully in the balls and won a million dollars, so he didn’t need Etheria anymore.
When I created Melchior, he was everything I wanted to be: strong, confident, good looking.
But more than that, he mattered in this world which meant I mattered, too.