Dungeon Quest Online

Chapter 5: An AI is Born

Tristen Alexander - Experiment Test #1

20 years prior to launch

The day finally arrived for the big reveal! Tristen could barely contain his excitement while he waited for his friends to arrive. If all went as planned, the A.I. would become a permanent part of the team. He knew it updates and refinement were necessary and he planned to keep tweaking the A.I. to perfection.

A.I.... I need to come up with a better name for this thing. It sounded too impersonal for Tristen's liking. It also didn't flow with a fantasy-based game. He thought about all the A.I. names he'd seen in the past, but couldn't settle on one name. All the good names traced back to science fiction origins, and he needed something that straddled fantasy and science fiction. So far he had a short list:

• Jarvis

• Alfred

• Adam (first man thing and all that)

• Icarus

• Beta

• Cerebro

• Mother

He also thought about names of origin such as "Alpha" or "Genesis". Although an origin name sounded cool, he definitely hadn't built something original and decided against it.

I'll save origin names for when I create the first self-aware A.I., he thought.

Tristen glanced at his watch, only an hour remained before his friends arrived and he wanted to run through a few more tests. The actual reveal wouldn't happen until the game began and the A.I. narrated the scenario.

Before anyone showed up, he double-checked his character build. The group did well on their own, but often survived only through luck because they didn't have a true support class outside of Natalia's healer. With that in mind, Tristen created a hybrid support class that could buff, heal, and deal massive amounts of damage.

The hybrid class was a mix between a Mesmer and Illusionist. Mesmer's master mental manipulation and have the ability to control a being against their will. In contrast, Illusionist master the skill of physical manipulation, making others believe in something that does not exist. The combination created a powerful hybrid class that complimented both schools of magic. It allowed the caster to distract, confuse, enslave, and destroy opponents without using a single physical weapon.

His character for Dungeon Quest looked like this:

Mesmer/Illusionist

Armor - +13

Health - +5

The Mesmer is a master of mental manipulation, working from behind his allies to mitigate data, confuse his enemies, and control mobs. Although the Mesmer has one of the lowest armor and health ratings of any other character, their ability to boost the group and deflect damage or convert direct damage into heals, makes him an invaluable part of any group. Mesmer's can use a one-handed sword, staff, one-handed ax or scepter for attacks. While the Mesmer is part of the group, gain +1 to Armor as a boost to evade attacks. The secondary class Illusionist allows the Mesmer to bolster mental manipulation by reinforcing spells with Illusions.

Spell - Deflection

Damage - 0

Cooldown - One round of combat.

Effect 1: Used on an enemy redirects their next attack back at them. Effect 2: Casting on an ally deflects the next incoming attack back at the attacker. Note: Damage is equal to that of the attacker, and all conditions will apply.