Level Up

The lean-looking elf dressed in white robes seemed hopelessly out of place. He was completely surrounded by what looked like a clan of half-orc beasts . They were waving their weapons – spear, bow, axe, sword and all. He only had a leather vest to protect him and a staff in his hand. They pounced on him like hungry wolves on a helpless lamb. But he seemed unphased. He just swished his hands and cast some magical spell within his mouth and flames leapt out of thin air and fried all his adversaries to crispy skeletons .

“Man! I got just 75 XP for wiping out the whole herd.” Said the elf “It is getting harder to level up by the day. I still need 1514270 XP for level 60.”

“Jarvis Mahters ……how many times do I have to tell you to get up and get ready? We are leaving”

The elf disappeared into the sky into a beam of blue light.
Jarvis got off his computer “Where to..? I can’t leave!”
“You are glued to that game 24 hours a day “
Behind him, his computer screen blinked “ World of Mythica - the #1 Massively Multiplayer Online game.” You are currently logged out.
Username – JV
Password - ****
And the elf stood there watching Jarvis.
Click here to login again.

“But Mom! I don’t wanna go ”
“Get up NOW “
“At least tell me when we are coming back “
“Sunday by 3`0clock”
“But Mom I have the Quest for Mythril on Saturday …..”
“Don’t you But Mom me”
“But Mom “
“That is THE most important thing in the Game. That’s my life. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Not for the world but you ARE going to miss it for the trip …..Your mother and I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time now and we are not going to have it messed up because of some brainless game…..Now Move” It was his dad Mr. Anton Mahters.
“Ahhhhhh!!! HELP ME ” Jarvis fell down crunching his stomach. He seemed to be in torturing pain.
His mom panicked at the sight of their son twitching on the floor. His dad Just bent over and whispered in his ear “That Old trick isn’t going to work on me; you can stop faking now”
He knew he was caught so he pleaded “At least give me five more Minutes with the game…that’s all I ask for….5 more minutes “
“OK! But I want you back in the car immediately after that”

The elf reappeared - again in a spiraling column of blue light. He looked around for other monsters to slay. He searched all over the place but finding none, he settled down crestfallen under a shady tree.
“I fight SO hard to get 5 more minutes and there is not a single monster to kill. Life is SO unfair. Why me….? I hate going on trips….they know it…But they still make me!
Oh! I hate parents….Life is so Mean. I wish I didn’t have to go!!”
He then noticed a small brick well, behind the tree. There was a little sign near the well. In a most hard-to-read way was written
“Aqua Pharie’s wishing well!Drop a coin and Then Make a wish!”
And at the bottom in still smaller letters was written “Be Careful what you wish for”
He had never seen it here before. ” what do I have to loose?” He thought, and searched his vest for a coin. He found just one and dropped it in.
“I want to return to mythica before the quest “
There was something odd about the well, he never heard the coin fall into the water. He bent over and looked inside the well but he couldn’t see the bottom. Must be a deep well he thought .Then he heard somebody say “ thank you “ so faintly that he thought it was the leaves shaking in the wind.
Then the elf disappeared into the spiral of light and then everything went black. His 5 minutes were over. Jarvis` mother and father dragged him all the way from his computer to the car. He put up quite a fight. He was a warrior till the end. But ultimately he had to surrender, they had him overpowered. Then they started for the trip. He was so mad that he didn’t even bother to ask where they were going or why. It didn’t matter he thought. It’ll probably be some sick relative or somebody’s birthday or some thing. Was it more important than his mythica…? Obviously not. He had been working really hard to get his elf to level 59, one more level and he could become an Elf- champion. Do they know how difficult it is to do that? Only 2 people throughout mythica have gotten so far. But they couldn’t possibly understand. They don’t even try. It is always their problems, their choices, their priorities. He had a bad history of being an eccentric in the family; he never really fit in the family. Now, that there was nothing more he could do, he started to stare at the cars go by. After about an hour and half, he got tired of watching the cars. It got dark and then he fell asleep. In the middle of his sleep He felt the car come to an abrupt halt. There was something wrong with the car, he heard his father shout about something that sounded like a carburetor or radiator. Then while checking the engine, his father bent over and his cell phone slipped out of his pocket, fell down and broke.” One bad thing after the other” muttered Mr. Anton. He wasn’t a very techno-friendly person so he checked the debris and concluded that his phone was no more useful. Now they were abandoned. His father walked a little down the road, but found just some emptier road. So he returned and declared “We are now officially stranded in the middle of no where, with nothing to do but sleep and hope that tomorrow we see some other car and get help.”

Jarvis looked around, the whole place seemed deserted. He had a superior grin on his face. Even though he couldn’t get himself to say it to them; his face said it all” Told You not to come, But you never listen to me .If we hadn’t come, we would have been cheerfully eating dinner at home and more importantly I would have been playing mythica”, he knew they were sorry for coming on the trip. Both his parents turned around at him and said “Guess you are the happiest person in the world right now…aren’t you?” Then after about an hour, they all fell asleep .


Jarvis heard someone call him, just like near the well, it was very faint. He woke up; the voice seemed to be coming from outside the car. He followed the voice a little down the road and then a there was a small town. But he was sure, his dad had come this far to check but found nothing. He decided to have a look around before going back and calling his parents. There were bright lights at the centre of the town. Must be some big event he thought. He went close and found to his delight that it was Gaming contest. A big sign board read “The official venue for “the world of Mythica - battling contest” “. And the First prize was one fully paid overhaul for any ford car manufactured on or after 1999. Their car was a Ford. Now He might show them that Mythica wasn’t such a Mindless game after all. He may possibly get their car ready by tomorrow and leave for his home IF he won. Entry was free, so Jarvis went right in.

A Bulky looking guy at the front desk was registering all the contestants. There was a long queue. When it was Jarvis’ turn, the Guy asked him for the usual details like name, age etc. etc. then asked for the Car Number plate and registration number.
Now, Jarvis was clueless, he had no idea what those were.
The guy noticed his dilemma “Just place your finger here”
There was a small slot shaped like a finger on the table next to a big monitor.
Jarvis did, he felt a small tug on his finger, and then his Parents Photos popped up in the Screen. Then a picture of their car also came up. It read
“Licensed to Anton and Hailey Mahters.”
“Ford Taurus – Registration number – 11703120032”
“You can go now”, he felt his finger being let go.
Things were weird so far, but now they were getting creepy, everything seemed to be happening the way he wanted it to. It all looked as if it was meant to be. The car breaking down, the phone crashing, him finding the town and finally the Contest and even the prize. It was all too much for his tiny mind. He simply went in and sat down in front of a system that had his name written. The Tournament was a “Last Man Standing” meaning that anybody could battle anybody and the last person alive was the winner. Jarvis a.k.a. “JV” inside cyberspace, cruised through a couple of his lesser skilled opponents. He squashed a goblin, a Minotaur and a couple of undead zombies. He almost felt pity for his opponents, but they were no match for him. After about half an hour of frantic gaming action , he was up against his last opponent. It was a stout dwarf . He was clad in Bone armor and had a heavy and mean looking beryl axe. He even had a small pony tail which had a spiked orb at the end for maximum damage. But, JV had seen better players and decided not to estimate his opponent on his looks. The dwarf went first, and launched the “Spin of death”. It was a deadly maneuver, where the player spun very very fast that it looked like a tornado of cutting edges. But JV dodged it with ease. He had much better agility. But then out of the blue, the spiked sphere came at him. He hadn’t planned for that. It hit him right in the chest and the elf fell to the ground. He thought he heard his rib fracture. In an instant, the dwarf was on top of him, ready to finish the battle with his blade. But JV threw what seemed like a blue ball of feathers into the air. The dwarf looked up. It was an Aviaza, a species of Elven Eagle . JV knew he was down for the rest of the battle; he couldn’t use any of his skills that demanded physical ability. So he decided to go for the aerial strategy. He knew dwarfs are not too heroic about birds. Then his Aviaza just swooped down and assaulted the dwarf. Just, when the dwarf was distracted, JV cast his Pyro Fenix spell. The dwarf never knew what hit him. JV had won with some immense help from his Aviaza. His screen was screaming “The Mythica champion!”
Then he attended a little ceremony where they had a small podium and Jarvis stood at the top; full of triumph. To his left was a thin red haired boy who had played the dwarf. He was apparently very depressed. Jarvis had a little talk with the boy and told him to cheer up. Then it struck him - He had totally forgotten about the prize. So he went to the front desk and asked the Bulky guy about it.
“Where exactly is your car?”
“Just down the road “
“It’s too late tonight; we’ll send you a couple of people to look at it the first thing in the morning. By the way… Isn’t it past your bedtime...?”
Oh! The parents, he had totally stopped thinking about about them as well. He must get back to them and tell them about all this.So he started running back to the car. He was near the car and suddenly felt very drowsy. He barely opened the door, fell on the seat and collapsed.

Early the next morning, Jarvis heard his father speaking to some people. He woke up and saw a couple of Repair guys . One was Fat and looked like the man at the front desk, while the other was a thin red haired teen resembling JV’s final opponent. They had finished fixing the car. He also heard them say “The road ahead is a dead end. So you can’t go any further. You better turn back “.
On hearing this, Jarvis could no longer keep quiet, He starts arguing
“No! There is a small town there; they even had a Mythica challenge yesterday. I won that contest and this patch up is free. You were at the front desk “he said pointing at the fat guy “and you were my final opponent” pointing at the red haired kid.
But his mom interrupted” Jarvis dear, it must have been a figment of your imagination …there is no town here and these gentleman came here because a police car had spotted us yesterday night and called them up.”
But Jarvis wouldn’t listen , he got off the car ran down the road , but to his surprise all he found was a dead end like the overhaul guys told him. He felt really terrible, was it all a dream? Couldn’t have been, seemed so real. Marching back to their car he saw the service truck leaving.
His dad declared “He doesn’t seem to feel right, may be we should take him back home and give him some rest” His mom agreed and they decided to go home.

Jarvis was overjoyed; he could now make it back in time for the quest. They arrive just in the nick of time, he runs up to his room turns the game on, but all he sees is

“Sorry for the Inconvenience but the game has been permanently shut down due to numerous complaints over the last two days about the wishing well.

- The Management Of Mythica”


Even before he could finish reading the whole message, a lady in Heavenly attire pops up on screen “I am the Aqua Pharie , the half orcs had imprisoned me in the well under a curse and I needed 1000 coins to free myself. You gave me the 1000 th coin, Thank you once again brave elf!”

His PC shuts down on its own. Then he hears, what sounded like a coin fall into water.