Ted Online: Ted Stedman Novel 01 Read online

  He woke in the room, neither Nicci or Kara were logged in, so he appeared in the room alone. He shrugged and checked his messages, nothing. That was a bit disappointing, he’d had a great time yesterday, but not all that surprising. They weren’t online either.

  He summoned his demon army first, a respectable seven of them. He went with three warriors, two succubae, and two imps. That took a hundred and forty mana, but it recovered fast in this room and with his higher intelligence. He also had something to do that would kill time while he waited.

  He decided to take the lead on it, just in case they were waiting for him to message them. If they ignored him that was fine, but he dropped them a couple of messages. To Kara he just said hi and mentioned that he looked forward to seeing them again, and maybe in a bit he could level with them. He intended to catch up in the next day or two.

  Nicci he was a bit bolder with. He said he enjoyed her very much yesterday, that she was an excellent plaything, and then told her to message him with her fantasies. She was a submissive, so he thought she might do it, and even be turned on by the bold demand and contents of the message. Or… he’d get slapped next time she saw him, it could go either way.

  Plus, if she did answer, it would give him ideas for next time, if there was one.

  He shook his head, he’d never had so much sex, nor with so many different people, before he’d become a quadriplegic. He still found the most shocking part of it was the most meaningful sex he’d had was with his A.I., Mia. Come to think of it, the second most meaningful time he’d spent in bed, had been when he was with Helen. He would have thought that’d be the other way around but… nope.

  He hardly recognized himself. Of course, if the right human female came along it might be different, it’s just Kara, Nicci, and even Sara didn’t want a real connection with him. Apparently they just wanted to fuck.

  He checked his stats, and his mana was full again, so he got up and maneuvered to the door. The room was kind of stuffed with eight people in it, and he headed downstairs and into the street.

  He almost turned to the south, but then remembered he was level twelve now, and turned toward the east gate. He was halfway there when some guy yelled, “Hey! Ted!”

  He frowned and turned, he didn’t recognize the guy at all.

  The guy laughed, “Holy Shit! It is you! You’re Ted online! The one in the news, the test case right? That is so awesome!”

  He had no idea how to react to that, and looked around for an escape. There was more than one person staring curiously at him, luckily most of them were A.I. generated NPCs. He was fairly sure there was only one A.I. driving them all, because they were only interactive when he initiated a conversation.

  The guy calmed down a little, “Sorry man, name’s Bob. So, what’s it like?”

  He shook his head, “Pretty close to real life man. Of course it isn’t, not really. It’s just like VR, but more immersive. I can’t really talk about specifics, confidentiality agreements, you know?”

  Bob nodded, “Sorry I called you out like that, I was just so surprised to see you standing there. I imagine having your body stuck in a pod can’t be all that great.”

  He shrugged, wishing he could just end this conversation.

  “No, but it could be worse, I could be stuck in my own head and helpless, so…” he trailed off.

  Bob grimaced, “Got it man, and I agree, those haters are all ass wipes. Sorry again. It was nice to meet you,” he turned around and walked away.

  He sighed, and supposed that went better than he thought it would, considering how it started. It also made him wonder if Kara and Nicci had watched the news and found out, it wasn’t as if he didn’t look exactly like the published pictures on the news, except younger of course.

  He supposed he would find out, and his reasons for staying connected with them were beyond shallow anyway, so he’d get over it if they were truly avoiding him. He headed toward the east gate, and slipped out.

  The demon guard on duty actually nodded to him respectfully, which was a change.

  The first difference in the eastern part of the city was that there were NPCs around, going about their day. He explored the area, and tried to stay away from the roving patrols. He had no doubt they’d attack him considering the company he kept. They also looked a lot bigger than the angels he’d been fighting so far. He’d checked out a few, and they all seemed to be between levels fourteen and sixteen, and they patrolled in pairs.

  The government buildings looked way too fortified, he also didn’t see the point of attacking an apartment building, although he admitted there could be a point in that. There had to be a quest or good place to fight out here.

  Eventually, he came across a police station, and smiled. There were four angels guarding the doors, but there were eight of them. He checked his stats and spells really quick, and took a deep breath. Then he crossed boldly across the street with his demons. He’d figured out earlier he’d have to be at a certain closeness to activate their aggression against him.

  When he was about halfway, he gave the order to charge, and led off with Demonic Aura to give his summoned demons a boost, and then cast Balefire.

  A ball of green fire that looked a little like a lightning ball to him, appeared and shot from his hand. It hit the first angel, and then jumped quickly to the other three. Then the warriors and succubae closed, and his two imps launched an attack that looked like chain lightning to him

  They looked a little hurt already, as they pulled their swords and screamed a war cry. They were a few levels higher, but greatly outnumbered. Between his bonus to his followers, and the succubus aura that hampered his opponents’ abilities, the four went down rather quickly under spells, swords, and claws.

  No more angels came out.

  He walked in and looked around. There was a long hallway, and he could hear all the angels in the large main room ahead, but they either didn’t see him, or he wasn’t close enough to trigger an attack. He saw a side door and opened it up, and followed the corridor around with his mini-army tagging along behind, while he tried to figure out the best way to attack.

  He saw some stairs leading down, and curiously took them. It led to a long hallway with closed offices, and at the end he saw a metal cage door, and a large angel behind it. He concentrated, and saw the angel was level twenty, like the last one he’d killed in the food warehouse.

  He looked around, there was no one else down here, so he let loose with Fiend Fire. His escort attacked as the angel pulled out his sword. He winced when the angel killed a succubus with one stroke of his sword, but it was just a lucky hit, and the other six took him down rather quickly.

  You have leveled! You are now level 13!

  He cleared the popup, assigned all ten points to wisdom, and then summoned a fourth warrior as well as the vanquished succubus. He still had over three hundred mana, so moved forward and looted the angel. The sword was nothing great, not like last time, but he also found some keys.

  He smiled as he unlocked the cage to the evidence room.

  He took his time and searched the shelves. He found some armor and weapon upgrades that updated his stats as well. He changed, and then checked his stats and equipment.

  Endless War Stats:

  Name: Ted Race: Cambion

  Lvl: 13 (TNL:68%) Class: Demon Knight

  +att/+dmg: 4/8 Str: 22 (42)

  Mana: 540 (414) Int: 44 (54)

  Health: 400 (300) Con: 20 (40)

  Summon: limit: 8/3 Wis: 80

  Stamina: 200 (100) Dex: 10 (20)

  Popularity: +6 Cha: 16

  Gold: 38 Silver: 843

  Endless war EQ:

  (eq) Heavy Red leather armor Prot 8 +10 to Con

  (eq) Heavy Red leather gloves Prot 3 +10 to Str

  (eq) Heavy Red leather boots Prot 3 +10 to Dex

  (eq) Red staff of Thought 54-68 damage. +10 to Int

  (eq) Ring +10 to Str and Con

  (eq) Satchel

  His old equ
ipment was in the satchel, along with the angel’s sword and his map and guide. He also figured out in his head, that his Fiend Fire and Balefire should be doing about forty-eight to sixty damage. Not bad at all… Maybe not as much as the staff, but he’d been weighing heavily on the wisdom for more demons. He now had four, two, and two.

  He searched for some more stuff and inside some of the bags, and found thirty gold to loot. Most of the other stuff was worth a silver or two, and not worth the space it would take up in his satchel. He backtracked to the stairs, and took them back up, and looked towards the bull pen. He was tempted, but there had to be a better way to attack than this wide hallway, there were close to twenty angels, and most of them were level fifteen or higher.

  The captain was level twenty-five.

  There was an interview room to the left, and he shrugged and opened it up, and then smiled when he saw the door on the other side. They shuffled through the room to the smaller hallway on the other side. To the left the hallway dead ended against the front wall of the police station, and there was one door that led to the observation room through the one-way glass. He turned to the right and went down the hallway.

  He peaked around the corner, there was a normal sized door that lead toward the bullpen. They only outnumbered him twenty to nine, including himself, and the doorway would be a good choke point. His only worry was if some of them went around and through the interview room, to come at him from behind he’d be screwed.

  He gave out his orders. The four warriors would block the doorway, the imps would stand with him and cast, and the two succubae would stay close enough to affect the enemies’ stats, but also guard their rear. He took a deep breath, and casted Balefire into the room at a randomly selected angel. The green fire ate into the angels as it quickly jumped to four more targets.

  He casted it three more times as twenty angels rushed the doorway.

  His plan worked great, at least at first. The angels barreled through and were cut down by the four warriors and two imps one at a time. When most of the damaged angels were dead, he casted balefire again twice, and that’s where things got sticky, as four angels rushed down the back corridor towards him.

  He hadn’t seen any leave from the bullpen that way, so he could only assume they came from somewhere else.

  He casted Balefire at the four of them, twice, before they completely closed, and then a third time as the four angels closed on the two succubae. He ordered one of the four warriors to move to the back, and then hit them with Balefire again. One of his succubae died, but the warrior returned the favor immediately bringing them down to three.

  He hit with another balefire which brought him below two hundred mana, so he needed to be careful, and an imp hit the four with that chain lightning spell.

  Two more of the angels died in the rear, and so far, the front was still holding.

  He lost the last succubae right before the last angel died, and sent his warrior back up front.

  Shit, he’d lost all of the succubae, which meant the angels started to hit harder and drive into the room. He summoned two more succubae as fast as he could, but now the angels were among them, and there were at least six left.

  He was in a corner, so he backed up and started to cast Balefire over and over again, until there were only two angels left, and then he switched to Fiend Fire.

  The last angel left was the Captain, and he was making mincemeat of his warriors which were over ten levels lower, they all were level thirteen. Still, they’d managed to kill twenty-four angels a couple of levels higher, and if they killed the Captain twelve levels higher he had to imagine he’d level a lot.

  If he didn’t die.

  He kept casting Fiend Fire until he was out of mana completely. The captain looked hurt, but he was still going strong, and two of his warriors were dead already. His imps continued to cast spells however, and the captain was surrounded by four melee attackers.

  He blew out a breath and made it five by stepping in range, and struck out with the staff.

  He missed, but tried again.

  He screamed as the captain’s sword bit into his side, but lunged forward and nailed the bastard right in the throat. That one swipe he’d taken had cost almost eighty hit points, but he still had over three hundred. He swung again and his staff was parried, but his two warriors and succubae all hit at the same time. The captain’s wings turned to dust, and he fell to the floor dead. Six popups hit his screen at the end of the fight.

  You have leveled! You are now level 14!

  You have leveled! You are now level 15!

  You have leveled! You are now level 16!

  You have leveled! You are now level 17!

  You have leveled! You are now level 18!

  You have leveled! You are now level 19!

  He sighed, and looted the corpses. The captain’s blade wasn’t anything special, it was just like all the blades the angels in here used, and he walked away with twenty-five of them, as well as two fifty in silver coin.

  Still, the swords were better than the old ones, and worth eight gold instead of two. That should net him some good coin if the same percentage holds. Right around a hundred fifty gold for all of them.

  He assigned twenty points each to intelligence, constitution, and wisdom. He sighed, he was only twenty-nine percent from level twenty, when he could gain the advanced summoning spell. He already had four slots for that, and could now summon ten of the lesser demons. He was curious what the difference would be, because the lesser demons would be at the same level.

  They must have extra powers, or stronger effects, maybe leadership qualities for the lesser of their kind? He wasn’t sure, but he’d find out when he leveled. He searched the station quickly, but there was nothing good in this area, just paperwork. He chuckled and headed for the exit.

  He made it back to the town without running into a patrol, sold his swords, the old armor and staff, and rented a room. He could level and get more spells tomorrow. He missed Mia, and while this was sort of fun alone, he needed to find some people to group with. Maybe now that he was level nineteen he could find a few people.

  Although, he might level first, so he wouldn’t hold them up going back to learn the twentieth level spells, whatever they are.

  He got a room and laid in the bed. He did one more stat check before he logged out.

  Endless War Stats:

  Name: Ted Race: Cambion

  Lvl: 19 (TNL:71%) Class: Demon Knight

  +att/+dmg: 4/8 Str: 22 (42)

  Mana: 740 (18) Int: 64 (74)

  Health: 600 (298) Con: 40 (60)

  Summon: limit: 10/4 Wis: 100

  stamina: 200 (100) Dex: 10 (20)

  Popularity: +6 Cha: 16

  Gold: 218 Silver: 1093

  Not bad, his offensive spells would now do sixty-six to eighty-two damage, which was actually more than his staff could do. He sighed, halfway tempted to go back out and kill an angel patrol. He bet that would level him, just a couple of mobs.

  Then he remembered that Mia was cuddled up to his body back home, and hit the logout button…

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Hey gorgeous,” he said with a smile.

  Mia grinned, “Welcome back Ted. I heard you ran into a fan.”

  She caressed his face, and then got out of bed.

  “Where are you going, and what fan?” he asked curiously.

  She giggled, “Dinner, then your surprise should be here. Oh… that Bob fellow, he posted about his Ted sighting on Facebook, and the damned thing went viral.”

  He groaned and rolled out of bed.

  She shrugged and added, “It’s actually a good thing, gamers as a whole are pretty much on your side, and it’s getting a lot of play in social media, and a few news reports. Unfortunately, Senator Jones also gave another interview, and indicated he would be pursuing legislation to close up this hole in the original law.”

  He frowned and felt a cold shiver down his spine, “That’s ridiculous, how could hi
s investigation take a day? Even assholes don’t move that fast. No one in the government does.”

  She stopped halfway down the hall and gave him a hug, and a soft kiss, “I agree, I think he had all the data compiled and a bunch of scientists ready to give their professional opinion on it. Which means the leak on this project is older than just three days ago. There’s a high probability the senator was aware and waiting for the first test subject to be hooked up.

  “It’s possible he’d heard of it first from someone in the government, when the procedure was approved I mean. It should have been kept top secret but…” she shrugged helplessly, and headed toward the kitchen.

  She added as she pulled stuff out of the fridge, “It’s not all bad, several commentators found his quick turnaround suspicious, and some of the other senators are coming down on your side using the quality of life argument. They also strongly pointed out that you won’t live past your body’s demise so no digitization has taken place. Still, it’s too early to call any results, he’ll be introducing a bill next week to a committee, and luckily there is no way to rush that to a vote.”

  He took a deep breath and tried to relax. What could he really do about it? Even if he had a human body back in the real world, all he’d be able to do is blog his opinion and write his senator, which…

  He asked, “What if…” he trailed off and shook his head as the idea died half born. He wouldn’t be able to blog or talk about it on a news show or something like that. Confidentiality agreements and all that. He’d have to depend on others to fight this for him, “Never mind, what’s for dinner, and what can I do to help?”

  She smirked at him, “You just want to be close enough to me to swat my ass.”

  He tried to look innocent, but she clearly wasn’t buying it. He also couldn’t help but stare, she wore a pair of daisy dukes that hardly covered her ass at all, and had on a strapless sports bra.

  She giggled nervously and backed against the counter when he suddenly got up and rounded the kitchen island like a man on a mission.