AN: Hey everyone; I just wanted to say a few words before we get into this chapter. I don't know if I ever mentioned this to anyone who frequents this site, but I played the MMORPG World of Warcraft for a good portion of my life. I created my first character when I was five, and my whole family plays the game, including my parents. We are such big fans of this game that we actually named four of our cats after characters within it lol.

So, this chapter, as well as the next one, are going to be tributes to World of Warcraft in a way. The game has been such a big part of my life for so long, and I want a chance to capture that in my writing. So… yeah! I hope you guys enjoy :)

Chapter 15 Woah It's WOA Part 1

The Matrix filled itself up with scenery that, in all honesty, intrigued Larry. Sure, it didn't look as real as the scenery based of off the real world locations. In fact, the imagery here looked like it was computer-generated. Everything from the trees to the grass to the sky itself resembled a CGI video game. Which made sense, Larry realized, as Tec was specifically taking him to a video game world.

And honestly, even though Larry had no idea what this video game world was, he was still excited. Just the scenery alone, with the blue trees with pink leaves, the stars and moon shining in a periwinkle sky, as well as the grass underfoot that appeared this special shade of indigo, drew him in. He couldn't stop looking at the beauty of this world, couldn't stop admiring how breathtaking it was. There were very few things Larry could use that word to describe, but this definitely fit.

"Woah," Larry said as he took a step forward.

"Appropriate that you are having that reaction," Tec said, "As we are actually in the world of WOA."

Larry blinked, turning to Tec with a raised eyebrow. "That's an… odd name for a video game."

"It's an acronym," Tec said. "It stands for Warriors of Avongard."

Larry did a double-take before he smiled. "Warriors of Avongard, huh?" He had heard of that game before. It was currently the most popular MMO in the world, with over one hundred million players. Larry himself had wanted to try it, but life kept getting in the way every time he came remotely close. Whether it be Bowser fearing for his safety online or simply because his attention had been captured by some other video game, he never got the chance, which was why he was beyond excited to give it a try now.

At least, that's how he felt until Tec opened his big fat mouth. "Yes. This is Master Francis's favorite video game. He's invested an extensive amount of time into building up his top-level character."

Larry's heart sank. Oh great. So the sociopathic nerd who currently held him prisoner liked Warriors of Avongard. That… that left a bitter taste in Larry's mouth (metaphorically, of course). It made him squirm, because why would he want to do the same things Francis does? Why would he want to engage in and enjoy the same activities of someone who was objectively evil?

"That's… great."

"Indeed it is." Tec took a step forward so he was more or less standing next to Larry. "And based on what I've seen of the game in the many hours he's used me to play it, I can say I believe you will enjoy it. You fight monsters, you help civilians, you do dungeons… of course, this version of Warriors of Avongard isn't connected to the internet. In fact, if we were to get technical, this is not even the real game. It's a recreation of it I forged." He smiled. "But I can say I replicated it faithfully. You will be able to do everything that the original game has to offer. Except for interacting with other players, of course."

"Of course," Larry said with a sigh. He once again looked at this world. He… he might as well give WOA a try. After all, he had nothing better to do. And besides, even with the fact that it was Francis's favorite game, it still looked appealing. Larry still wanted to play this game, still figured that it would entertain him at a time where he desperately needed a form of escapism.

So, he flashed Tec a smile. "I'd be willing to give it a whirl."

"Excellent." Tec snapped his fingers, and an outfit appeared on Larry, one that looked to be worn by a mighty warrior. Not only that, but little icons floated in the air in front of him. Larry squinted at them, studying their symbols. As he did, Tec jumped into an explanation. "The first and most crucial step when it comes to playing this game is creating a character. You have many options to choose from. Right now, you still resemble your real-world self, but if you so desire, I can turn you into one of the fantasy races that is available to play."

Larry hesitated as he considered his options. "Uh…" he shook his head. "I'll stick to being myself."

"Very well." Tec pointed to the icons. "Now you have to pick your class. Which class you pick will impact your play style. Once again, there are a lot of options; mystic, warrior, priest, wizard…"

"Wizard?" Larry's mood lifted immediately. "Ooh, I want to be a wizard?"

Tec blinked. "Are you sure? Wizards are one of the more difficult classes. So much so that it's the only class that Master Francis hasn't played."

Larry's mood rose even higher. Oh, that was perfect! A good way to draw a hard line between him and Mr. Lizard Man.

"I'll take it!" Tec stood still before nodding and pressing one of the icons in the air. Much to Larry's delight, he found himself wearing a silver wizard robe. It kind of looked like snow with how sparkly it was. He also had the typical wizard hat, as well as a white staff that had a blue orb on it. Larry couldn't help but giggle in delight. "Oh, this is awesome! The only thing that's missing is a long white beard!"

Tec smiled. "Well, that can easily be fixed." He snapped his fingers, and a white beard that reached to Larry's stomach appeared on his face. To say this delighted Larry would be a massive understatement. Seeing how Koopas didn't usually have the ability to grow facial hair, even if they were adult males, this new addition to his appearance was really something special. He felt like he had finally joined a club he had been wanting to become a member of for years.

"Cool!" Larry laughed out loud, for a minute forgetting that he was being held prisoner in the real world. "Now we're really cooking with fire!" Tec stared at him blankly, so he giggled. "That's another euphemism."

"Ah. Yes, that makes sense." Tec backed up a little. "Now you have to choose your starting zone." Larry raised an eyebrow, so Tec explained. "It's the part of the world where you start out as a low-level player. You start there and level yourself up so you can get to the higher level zones." Larry nodded, finding it easy to understand Tec's words. "Now, there are twelve starting zones in the game. This includes Mourning Meadows, Stirmist Beach, Prismslice Forest… There are a lot of options."

"I see." Larry once again turned his attention to the world they currently stood in. "Is this a starting zone by any chance?"

"Yes. It's Prismslice Forest. Players who usually want to play as the Fae race start out here. In fact, it's widely considered to be the most popular starting zone out of all of them."

"I can believe that." Larry turned back to Tec with a grin. "I want to start here!"

"Good choice." Tec snapped his fingers, and the scenery around them changed. Now, Larry and Tec stood in some sort of inn. It had a cozy vibe because of the fireplace crackling, and the tables situated throughout the room looked surprisingly comfortable. And, thankfully, looking out the windows showed Larry that it was an inn located in Prismslice Forest, which was a relief. Turning his attention away from the window, Larry saw what appeared to be a fairy standing right in front of him and Tec. They had pink wings, long purple hair, baby pink skin, and yet they still towered over Larry. This struck him as odd; in what universe were fairies tall?

"The person you see before you is an NPC," said Tec. "Specifically, a quest giving NPC." Tec pointed upward, and Larry noticed a golden exclamation point floating over the NPC's head. "These types of NPCs are the main ones you want to talk to. They send you on quests, which give you experience points upon completion. And once you get enough experience points, you level up."

Larry nodded. "That sounds simple enough." He stepped toward the NPC. "Hey!"

"Greetings, Larry Koopa, I am Lyra Treacle. It is so nice that King Trillian was able to send you to help us out. You see, Prismslice Forest has been overrun with dire wolves recently. They've been attacking people who enter the forest, and they've even been attacking some of the locals! It's becoming a serious problem; we fae don't have enough resources to effectively fight against these wolves. But you are a wizard. I know you have enough power to effectively take care of this threat."

Objective: kill ten dire wolves and return to Gryphon Brush Inn.

Hmm, Larry thought to himself. This seems pretty straightforward. He smiled. And it involves me using my awesome wizard powers to kill things. How much more perfect can this get?

"Come on, Tec!" Larry exclaimed. Tec nodded and followed him ot the door. Larry puffed out his chest and grinned in the fresh air. "Let's go kill some wolves!" It was only once he said that that he realized something important. "Uh… where are the wolves?"

"Warriors of Avongard has arrows you can follow that direct you toward where you are supposed to complete your quest." Tec gestured forward, allowing Larry to see one such arrow. The golden sign pointed forward, and next to it was text that read 350 yards.

"Gotcha," Larry said. He followed the arrow, tightly gripping his wizard staff in his hand. Tec followed him, almost like he was Larry's caretaker. Well, that was alright. Sure, caretakers were usually put in place for young children, but that didn't matter! Larry wasn't a child! He was a wizard and a badass one at that! He was going to show how he didn't need a caretaker, not here nor in the real world.

After a few minutes of running through the gorgeous forest, Larry soon got to his destination. He stopped, grinning when he saw some dire wolf mods wandering around through a place that had a particularly dark shadow covering it. And he had to say, they definitely lived up to the dire wolf name. They were huge! They were the size of black bears! They also had some of the pointiest teeth Larry had ever seen on any animal ever. If he ran across these wolves in real life, he'd be scared witless (even with the fact that he had superpowers now).

But this wasn't the real world. This was the Matrix, so Larry had nothing to fear. The only thing he absolutely had to be concerned about was figuring out how to kill these wolves. As he considered this, he ran his hand down the length of his beard.

"Hmm. Now how are we gonna kill the wolves…" He put his hand in his beard, feeling something heavy and leathery. Blinking, he pulled out a book with a brown leather cover. It didn't take a genius to know exactly what it was.

"Oh sweet! A spellbook!" Larry opened it up and was immediately greeted by all the spells his class was able to perform. Firestike, which performed 250 damage points to any hostile target it was shot at. Magicstorm, which made sparkles that resembled stars fall from the sky. That looked cool, but it had a one-minute cooldown, and when asking Tec about it, he informed Larry that performing the spell would probably drain him of all his mana. That would mean he wouldn't have enough strength to cast more spells, so… yeah, not a good idea.

"Hmm…" Well, this was turning into quite an annoying practice in futility. Larry couldn't find any spell that looked appealing… wait! Gasp NO WAY! There was the spell called Phoenix Blast! It dealt a total of 600 damage, AND it looked like a nuclear explosion! That was so cool! On top of that, there was no cooldown and a fairly small amount of casting time. Ooh, now why wouldn't Larry decide to use something like that?

"Oh yeah, baby!" Larry grinned from ear to ear. "I'm gonna use Phoenix Blast on that dire wolf!"

Tec blinked. "Uh, Larry…"

"HEY, LOOK HERE, YOU STUPID WOLF!" Larry's calling was all that the wolf needed to decide to engage in combat with him. As it charged, snarling and snuffling, Larry's grin was still nowhere close to leaving his face. "Oh, this is gonna be sick!"

"But Larry, Phoenix Blast isn't…"

"Okay, now I've gotta concentrate." Larry closed his eyes and held his staff in front of him. He hummed a low note, channeling all of his power. Oh, it felt amazing! It was like he had fire growing inside him in the best way possible. He opened his eyes, let out a yell as he looked right at the approaching dire wolf…

But nothing happened. No spell was cast, which in turn made Larry blink. "Uh… why isn't… GAH!"

The wolf rammed its head into Larry, sending him careening backward into a tree. This instance was the first time Larry had felt pain since making his wish, and WOW, he had REALLY forgotten how horrible it was to feel pain. His shell and back stung, causing him to grit his teeth. "Okay, how did that…"

The dire wolf descended on him. It ripped at him with its teeth, bit and tore at his skin. Once again, Larry was completely shocked at how painful this was. He was also shocked to see blood coming from the wounds, a sight that he would've been happy never seeing again. He tried to get up, tried to fight the wolf, but in the end…

"AAH!" Larry fell to the ground. He tried to move his body, but he couldn't. The wolf went back to its original starting point, all while Tec approached Larry.

"Tsk tsk tsk." Tec snapped his fingers, and all of a sudden, the scenery changed. Larry saw that he now stood in a graveyard. That would've been odd enough, but… why was the whole world gray?

"Tec?" Larry asked when he saw the AI standing beside him. "What just happened?"

"You died, Larry." Tec smiled, and… wait, was that a snicker? How could… no, no, he was probably imagining it. "The wolf defeated you and got rid of all your health."

Larry's face fell. "Oh. Well isn't that lovely?" He looked around at the gray-scaled world. "That still doesn't explain why there's no color."

"This is how Warriors of Avongard functions when a player character dies," Tec explained. "They are sent to a 'spirit realm' of sorts. They spawn in the nearest graveyard, and have to run back to their body in order to resume playing."

Larry took the time to think about these words before sighing. "Okay. I… I guess that isn't too bad."

"It most certainly isn't." Tec stepped forward and gestured towards Larry. "Come on! Let's go get your body back!"

Not seeing anything better to do, Larry nodded and followed Tec. They weaved around the trees, and as they did, Larry thought more and more about the wolf that killed. As he did, he got more and more confused.

"I don't get it," he told Tec. "Why couldn't I use Phoenix Blast?"

"That spell is only made available to players when they reach level 40. You are still level 1."

Larry's heart sank. "Oh." Anger filled him as he glared at Tec's back. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried," Tec responded. "But you weren't responsive to my protests."

"I see." He grunted. "I suppose that makes sense." Larry was tempted to feel bitter, but… nah, it wasn't worth it. He made a mistake in the game; big deal. At the very least, this wasn't the real world where death was permanent and mistakes against a dire wolf could end his game forever. "So… if I can't use Phoenix Blast, what can I use?"

"You have three main options at your starting level," Tec explained, all without stopping running through the grayscale world. "One, you have Frostshot. This sends an ice beam toward your opponent; it deals thirty damage. You have Fireball, which is pretty self-explanatory. That deals twenty damage, but casting that spell doesn't take nearly as long as it does with Frostshot. And finally, you have Freeze. This freezes your opponent in place for ten seconds. As such, it is very useful for you if you want to run away."

"Huh. Okay, I think I get it." It was at this point that Larry saw his body, lying right where he had left it. He made a beeline for it, touched it, and the color returned to the world. His corpse also disappeared, leaving him standing here as if he had never died in the first place.

"This is pretty cool," he muttered to himself. He wiggled his fingers before turning back to Tec. "So, how do I cast the spells?"

"It's simple, really. When you play this game regularly, the spells are mapped to buttons on the keyboard. Specifically, the numbers keys. In this version, I simply made it so that you have to say the buttons that the spells are mapped to out loud, and you cast them." Tec's eyes glittered. "Frostshot is button 1, Fireball is button 2, and Freeze is button 3."

Larry thought about this before nodding. "Okay. Okay, I think I got it." He stepped forward, looking at the dire wolf a ways away. "So, if I use the spells correctly, I should be able to beat that dire wolf." He sighed and closed his eyes. "Number 1!"

His hands were surrounded by ice magic. After about five seconds, Larry was able to shoot the frostshot at the dire wolf. This got their attention immediately, and they began running toward Larry. Like before, they snarled and snuffled, looking ready to kill the Koopaling.

"Number 2!"

Resisting the urge to laugh at the hilarity of having to say that out loud, Larry shot a fireball at the wolf again. They grunted, but they still ran towards Larry. When asking Tec, it was discovered that this wolf was almost completely out of health points. This meant they just needed to be hit by one more attack and they'd be dead.

"Number 1!"

Larry shot the frostshot at the wolf, and when he did, it let out a cry before dropping dead. Larry blinked, staring at its dead body before jumping in the air. "WOO! BOOM BABY!" He looked back at Tec. "That was awesome! They didn't even have a chance to catch up to me!" He laughed and did a dance. "This is fun!"

"I'm glad," Tec said. "Seeing you have fun makes me…"

He stopped. Larry turned toward him, shocked at the sight of his face. Wow. Wow wow wow, he actually looked somewhat terrified. How was that even possible?

"Uh… Tec?" Larry stepped toward him. "Are you okay?"

To shock Larry even more, he saw Tec start to shudder. Larry's heart pumped when he saw this. What did this mean? Was this just a fluke? Tec couldn't feel emotions; was this some kind of fluke?

Before Larry had any time to figure if that was the case, Tec's face shifted back to the blank, emotionless stare Larry knew and loved him for. "I'm alright. Just… had a weird moment there." He looked back at the wolf. "Now, we need to kill nine more wolves, and then we can turn in the quest."

Larry paused before nodding. "Well. That shouldn't be too hard." He threw his staff up in the air, giggling when he was able to catch it. "Come on, Tec! Let's go complete our quest!"